So I tried the African Scenario as the Zulu...

Did anyone else try it too? I played on Prince and... holy hell...

Okay you start with a capital two settlers a few workers and a tons of Impi.

That sounds nice but... you are surrounded by Portuguese and English cites and you are competing for land with the Boers.

Since I had that huge army I thought it was a nice idea to kill of the Boers as soon as possible, especially since their settler was just on reach. That seemed like a pretty easy mark.

Well it was probably the right decision to make but was it easy? Absolutely not.
While I did kill one of the two settlers the Boers units were a lot stronger than I thought.
Even attacking one with three Impi at once didn't kill them and (this is the worst part!) they used their promotion to fully heal the turn after!!!

So basically even Zerging was pointless because I just fed them with the necessary experience to heal.

So it took me a long time and a few casualties before I finally managed to kill all of the four initial melee units of the Boers.
But that was fine. I built a few Xbow and two trebuchet and those were instrumental in capturing Pretoria. So it wasn't so bad.

But here comes the problem, because meanwhile the French discovered wonders, expanded and created long railroads.

I tried to focus on boosting my culture at that point since that's the only way for the Zulu to win, but it was hard as hell. I tried to expand to get more points but it backfired big time.

By that time France had like 2000 points while I had 1000.

But here is the funniest part. Portugal and England attacked me both at the same time with absolutely huge armies!

It was simply a total massacre. My Impi would barely scratch their riflemen and they were larger in number. My cities with a measly 26ish strength lost 75% of their health with just a single shot from the English cannons.

I fought bravely, trying to last as long as I could trying to plead for peace but to no avail. There was simply no way to win even with full upgraded Impi they still couldn't last. I killed a few of them gaining culture in the process but it was still a ratio of 3 deaths per 1 kill.

Just how in the world are you supposed to win as the Zulu with such a huge disadvantage? It was Prince difficulty and it looked like a Deity game gone wrong.

This is how it happened in history, lmao. Sort of.

atknowles said:

This is how it happened in history, lmao. Sort of.

Click to expand...

Well yeah, minus the wiping the Boer off history part and minus the Portuguese ganging up against the Zulu too.

The only way to win is to distract the English with a different war. The AI can't fight a two front war. Your best bet would be ally with Ethiopia and maybe get Egypt or Morocco to war with either the English or the Portuguese. English may still war with you but they won't send an army to kill you if they are already at war some place else.

In order for this strategy to work you can't fight with the Boers. Use your two settlers to block them from settling further north. Then build 5 or 6 more settlers and settle all the empty space to the north. The terrain here is random so look for building your cities strategically near mountains and hills to make them more defensible. This will give you ten cities from which you can build your cultural victory.

It is actually pretty easy to win as Zulu.

Replay this save and reenact the battle of Isandlwana. It is on turn 93 and I filled every tile on the map with Impi. The English just declared war but they didn't realize what they were getting into. The French declared on me as well but they only sent a few troops.

Novu said:

It is actually pretty easy to win as Zulu.

Replay this save and reenact the battle of Isandlwana. It is on turn 93 and I filled every tile on the map with Impi. The English just declared war but they didn't realize what they were getting into. The French declared on me as well but they only sent a few troops.

Click to expand...

That is definitely not on the Deity difficulty level

God of Kings said:

That is definitely not on the Deity difficulty level

Click to expand...

The point is Killlbray posted that playing Zulu on Prince was difficult while I contend that it is not. It was a lot of fun. Going to have to try on King next time.

Actually I tried twice... as immortal, lost them all. I basically could resist until the end with imp spamming, but far from winning. But I bet I could win it with a lower difficulty lvl or slower time pace.

the strategy was basically (although it failed, but i think this may work with better chances ):

1: You MUST connect geographically your three cities. build scouts in the upper cities and build imp and trebuchet (3:1) in ur capital - ensure its productivity.
2: Assist militarily the boers, by putting some imp near pretoria hold the line when englishmen attack (they will resist one side of englishman for you, eventually germans). Don`t attack then cause you will face 3~4 enemies alone, and surrounded by them.
3: Conquer the east-side portuguese cities from the very beginning, its easy with your tons of imps and kind effective but weak trebuchet (3 +1backup trebuchet is enough).
4: catch english port elizabeth after defeating the portuguese on the east side.
------- do those thing before turn 40 --- otherwise they will spam ship of line on the coast.
5: occupy the inland, improve the luxury resources and trade the copies; and capture enemies` settlers (super enough for your manpower).
6: the general spamming rate is quick (1 each 15 turns basically), use them to bite west-side portuguese and hold Northern enemies.
--- this part is hard, cause all three enemies (including germans) start to spam infinitely rifled cannon and advanced naval units. I lost and recaptured front-line some times.---

and the time passed, and i was deep in my military vicious cycle to feed the front-line.. OMG, very hard game.

General loser`s tip:

gain gold by destroying enemies` trade line (you can build some ships for that, but they are futile resisting iron clads); then trade only for capital production, gain happiness by wonders and trade copies; don`t war african civs; don`t build any other military units than imps and trebuchets; don`t ally west-side polis; some luxuries` trades can some Europeans when you don`t want war them immediately.

PLZ winners give me some tips back! I need to win this.

btw I was placed third. french and an unmet players were topping lol.