I always like to delude myself when Shaka is in the game. I somehow convinced myself that Shaka was just an evil folktale told to scare children and is for all purpose, a paper tiger. I once played Morocco and there was the nice old gentleman Enrico Dandolo in the far West and the not as nice but still cool, Askia in the West too but closer to me. I forward settled to snag a nice position between two CS and near one of Askia Frontier cities. There was jungles,rivers and hills. Perfectly defensible right? I started a small skirmish with Askia that raged for a thousand years.
One day, Enrico sent me a message that a dark horde has assembled in the far west, made up of screaming men whose six-pacs shone like gleaming spears in the sun and whose real spears were equally awe-inspiring. I ignored the messenger as there was a war to fight with the city-burning heathen that is Askia. Venice soon ceased to be, enveloped by a fog of darkness and of chants, terrible war chants that echo deep and powerful from the West. One by one, they came, raining down spears on the cities of the Songhai and I thought i was ready to repel them when they come. My gatling guns stood proud and ready and my muskets top of the line. Surely, you do not bring a spear to a gun fight.
I was wrong...so wrong! I rage-quitted. Bloody Impis. At least i died to the most glorious war-theme in the game.