Scramble for Africa scenario

What's the best civ to start out with, trying to learn this scenario?

I played about a dozen turns as the Zulus and it was all war all the time, but I wasn't sure what my goal was.

And I tried about 50 turns as the Belgians and played it peacefully; exploring, settling a few cities, digging up artifacts, and buying CS's. Connect all the cities with the most inefficient and circuitous railroad possible. That seemed like a good strategy at first, but then Ethiopia started running away with it and I was falling behind them and Egypt. Also France managed to somehow keep their railroad just a little longer than mine.

I don't remember how many turns I played as Ethiopia, but it was boring so I must not have been doing it right.

How does Suez work? Is it a massive amount of points that are all-or-nothing, like the railroad? Or is it a few points per turn that accumulate over time?

You can easily win on Deity with Ethiopia, but yes it's boring. Ottomans are very hard on Deity, and so are Boers.

I started another game as Belgium (King level.) Turn 50 and I haven't declared war on anybody yet but I'm expanding a lot more aggressively than last time. Will DoW Ethiopia soon. I think the Boers died before I ever met them, and the Zulus are gone.

I just got a notice that France has the longest railroad at 18 hexes. My railroad is over 20 hexes (will be almost 30 in a couple more turns) the game must count them differently than I do I'm in very close 3rd place right now, and will have a comfortable lead when I get my railroad points back. At least until the French railroad passes me up again.

I still don't know how Suez works, but *if* I can capture it, that still 30 turns or so away. And I'm planning to have a railroad all the way up the east coast.

I *finally* have my own iron, coal, and horses, and I just annexed Zanzibar and Mogadishu. I'll ally but not marry the CS's right around Ethiopia right before I declare war. Not sure if any of my European buddies are where they can join in.

20-something turns left. Nobody is interested in declaring war on Ethiopia (I checked all other European civs and Egypt) I'm in the lead but Ethiopia is climbing fast. I paid Ethiopia a bunch of luxes and iron to declare war on one of Italy's allied CS's. (That did not get Italy's attention.) I waited one turn for him to move units around, then I declared war. I took one city almost immediately, but he had time to pull all his Mefal Sefari back to Addis Ababa. Those guys are tough! I focus on one and I might kill it with hits from 2 Gatling guns, a cavalry, rifled cannon, and a rifle. If it doesn't quite die, he heals 50 HP and kills one of my units. He should be running out of units pretty soon (I hope) I'm also building frigates and ironclads in Mogadishu to attack Egypt soon; they'll be joined shortly by a couple of privateers that are heading around the cape from the west coast. I have the south end of the Red Sea blocked-off to European ships.

The longest railroad is calculated by the striaght-line distance between the its farthest cities. So having a railroad that twists all over the place doesn't accomplish anything except waste a few GPT.

I may need to give Germany the open borders he's been asking for since the beginning of the game, even tho' I know he will steal my artifacts. There's only about 3 or 4 left inside my borders, and I might can guard them with workers or landsknechts. 90 points from stolen artifacts is not going to decide the game, but help eliminating Ethiopia might.

I bet this is really hard at deity level.

Don't bribe others to declare war on Ethiopia. The AI is very stupid on warfare and it will lose a lot of units, and that will greatly increase the points Ethiopia has (they get culture for killing units and that culture increases their score).

From what I recall, on higher difficulties it is necessary to completely kill Ethiopia on most games.

Don't give Germany anything. They can't declare war on you, so unless you want to have a trading partner you are not required to play nice.

Thanks. I thought Germany might help me kill Ethiopia. He would need my borders open in order to fight them.

I didn't know Ethiopia got culture from kills; he's getting a lot of culture from me then -- he's killing my units about twice as fast as I'm killing his (but he should run out first)

I've been playing very passive-aggressive with the other Europeans civs; declarations of friendship all around but blocking their units, herding settlers into barbarian camps, etc. And I've actually been friends with Morocco most of the game. (Italy denounced me for that.) I bought a very expensive water tile off the horn of Africa just to block Portuguese and English ships and settlers from entering the Red Sea -- I want Egypt for myself.

I finished it last night. I totally wiped out Ethiopia, and was working on Egypt when the time ran out. One more turn and I would have captured Suez. It's awfully cramped up there attacking from the south. I should have sent a few frigates around and hit it from the Mediterranean side too. (is that even possible? The Strait of Gibralter is probably blocked by one of the European cities) Either that, or declared war on them while I was still fighting Ethiopia.

Egypt's score was really high too. Apparently they are a contender just like Ethiopia if they don't get killed or crippled by Italy or Portugal.

When I killed Ethiopia, everybody denounced me. My happiness took a big hit because nobody would trade with me, even offering 2-for-1 luxes. I got by with happiness from throwing gold at mercantile CS's.

Playing as the Boers is interesting. I had to drop all the way back to Prince level to survive the first 30 turns. Several times England and Germany declared war on me on turn 0, with Zulus piling on 10 or 15 turns later.

The time I didn't even meet Germany until the mid-game, it worked pretty well. I bribed Zulus to attack Portugal. Then I denounced the Zulus for being warmongers. Killed them first, after they lost a bunch of units throwing themselves at Portugal, before DoW'ing England. That way, I was friends with Portugal (didn't last long, but it lasted long enough.) I think I should have razed one of the Zulu cities that had no luxuries but I didn't want to give up any territory. In no case am I doing any scouting until I get a few tiles improved and couple of cannons built. They just find me that fast.

Once I had captured Capetown and Port Elizabeth, should I have offered peace to England? I did, but that may have been a mistake; I was getting a lot of culture from killing Englishmen. I never did go to war with Portugal. If I had not taken the lead (and pulling farther ahead each turn) by turn 90, I would have declared war on them just to kill units. It would've been a bloodbath on both sides.

Is it even possible to win this thing as the Zulus? (although for historical immersion, maybe that's the point)

Just won a game as Portugal, and I have a question. (the game ended 2 turns before I would've had the answer) I had the longest railroad, from Ulundi up along the coast to a city I founded on the horn of Africa. I was trying to extend the line to Cairo, but Ethiopia had one coastal tile in the way. I know I could either capture that city or steal the land with a great general (if my GG could ever get there from Lisbon, but that's another issue) But I had open borders with Ethiopia; was that good enough?

Ottomans and Boers are definitely the hardest. The boers are totally luck dependent on higher difficulty levels with Ethopia.