King of the World #8: Shaka

Round 0: The Bottom of the World (4000 B.C.)
Round 1: A Rocky Start (4000 B.C. - 2450 B.C.)
Round 2: The Brushfire Wars (2450 B.C. - 1125 B.C.)
Round 3: Earth 31 Civs (1125 B.C. - 440 B.C.)
Round 4: A Kinder, Gentler Shaka (440 B.C. - 160 A.D.)
Round 5: The Battle of Timbuktu (160 A.D. - 550 A.D.)
Round 6: The War for Happiness (550 A.D. - 835 A.D.)
Round 7: The Race for Liberalism (835 A.D. - 1200 A.D.)
Round 8: The Transition (1200 A.D. - 1365 A.D.)
Round 9: The Art of Ulundi (1365 A.D. - 1550 A.D.)
Round 10: Victory! (1550 A.D. - 1762 A.D.)

In the King of the World series, we strive to showcase the various Civilization leaders within their real-world geographical contexts. In this eighth game, we depart from the series' earlier iterations and move on to the Earth 34 Civs map (The Celtic Ireland version), and we take on the bloodthirsty Shaka of the Zulu:



For reference purposes, Shaka's Unique Unit is the Impi, a two-move Spearman that starts with Mobility (which reduces terrain costs by 1). This results in an early window of fast, mobile skirmishers which would be perfect for pillaging, if not taking cities. Mobility is rather limited once the Spearmen are upgraded, though, unless a Great General is attached or we are willing to wait for Mechanized Infantry.

Shaka's Unique Building is the Ikhanda, a slightly more expensive (60 rather than 50) Barracks which acts as a mini-courthouse, reducing Maintenance costs by 20%. This makes it worth eventually building even in peaceful cities, and provides a juicy bonus to our military ones (and, as Shaka, most of our cities should be military cities).

Shaka is Aggressive (Melee and Gunpowder troops start with Combat I, and Drydocks and the precious Ikhanda get production bonuses) and Expansive (+2 Health, with bonuses for the production of Granaries and Harbors and a minor boost in Worker production). These are a great pair of traits for early, slavery-fueled aggression. In addition, oddly enough, the traits seem to have some synergy for an aquatic empire, given the boosts to Drydocks and Harbors. I dunno. Something to think about.

Enough talk about Shaka. Let's take a look at Zululand proper:



Y'know what? It's not great (especially when compared to, say, Paris or Kyoto), but it's not terrible. Two happiness resources are always nice to have and, though they are on Plains, at least they're on flatland, able to be worked with the help of the Cows and Crabs. This seems like the classic strong early capital that's doomed to lag behind a bit in the late game. Well, that just gives us that much more incentive to go out there and claim a better capital. Like, say, Memphis.

All right, overall strategy time. I'm actually thinking about going a little unorthodox, here. We just did the whole "see our enemies driven before us and hear the lamentations of their women" bit with Saladin. I'm willing to be shouted down here, but, if memory serves, we share the continent of Africa with Egypt, Mali, Ethiopia, and Carthage. Why not crush them in some spectacular early wars, then turtle up for a cultural victory? We haven't gone that route yet, and this way, we don't completely waste Shaka's early military advantages by being a total peacenik.

As I'd said, my holidays are going to be a little nutty, so I'm not going to post the first round proper until, say, January 4th or so. Until then, though, there's certainly a lot to talk about regarding short-, middle-, and long-term strategies and such.

Here is a link to the mod, in case anyone wants to follow along.

Settle in place. The fresh water bonus would be nice, but then you'd lose out on the gems.

At any rate, your core cities will be in South Africa, since there are grasslands there. As for Impis, their Mobility is underrated IMO. It gives them 2 movement through all terrains except forest/jungle hills. Build a few and rush the other Africans.

@ Neal

If you have already peeked at the WB map, can you post the map like you did in your Mansa game? It would make it easier to decide on the capital location and future city locations.

Neal -

Would you perform the "fixes" similar to last time ... Huyana mountain range ... Isabella's non-coastal start ... Mali's general suckiness?

Isabella is now on the coast so no worries there, although she's still unlikely to found more cities other than her capital.

Also, resource indicators?

Settle in place. Expansive health bonus obviates the need for fresh water, and gems + gold will power early research. Shaka is an incredible REXer, so I'd suggest claiming a bunch of good land first and then gearing up for war.

I like you idea for a cultural victory. The "lamentations of the women" bit starts to get old after a while. How is africa set for stone/marble?

huerfanista said:

Settle in place. Expansive health bonus obviates the need for fresh water, and gems + gold will power early research. Shaka is an incredible REXer, so I'd suggest claiming a bunch of good land first and then gearing up for war.

I like you idea for a cultural victory. The "lamentations of the women" bit starts to get old after a while. How is africa set for stone/marble?

Click to expand...

Stone and marble are both in Ramesses II's capital.

Well, this is a new map to me, at least regarding geopolitics, so while I have a rough idea of where the different Civs will pop up, I don't know how the various relationships and dynamics will work out. Therefore, I'd like to keep myself as "in the dark" as possible. This means that I'm not going to make any changes, or come up with a "full reveal" map. I'm playing this as much as a straightforward random map game as possible.

By the second game on the E34 map (If I end up sticking with it), I'll start showing full dotmaps and all that.

I already put this in the previous thread, but I'll repost in case it wasn't seen...

Perhaps an interesting way to go would be some manner of "religeous zealot", where your ultimate goal will be to expand your faith throught the world, through any means neccesary. Found a religion, scorn any religion that comes your way until then. It would be interesting to attempt with a non-spiritual tribe, but you have some early happiness resources to help you since you wouldn't adopt a religion that you didn't found. The upside is that you may not neccesarily have to use force in all cases, but it certainly opens up the probability of such. And you can always try and finish it with a culture victory Just throwing it out there. Gives you something challenging to shoot for.

I like the idea of the cultural victory. I'd say you should aim to get Sistine's Chapel and Sid's Sushi for sure. In addition, you need to set up a good Great Artist farm. Having both gems and gold in the start will be good for keeping the economy afloat during an early rush.

I dunno, the conquer everything style still seems fresh to me.

DMOC said:

Stone and marble are both in Ramesses II's capital.

Click to expand...

Gee, it's too bad Shaka doesn't have a good UU vs Egypt.
Muhuuhhaaaaaa

You might have to do something about Louis, though, if you're going cultural (unless there's a different frenchman on this map?).

Extra vote for settling in place. That looks like a plains hill you are starting on and the +1 hammer is a nice boost in the early game. I agree in the long term this will be an adequate city, but hopefully you will have some others by that time

As for Ramesses (dose he replace Hatty in this scenario?), there is a large distance between here and any known AI's which will put a crimp on any rush. Also we need to consider the terrain, if this map is the same as the standard 18 civ map then the local area is relatively poor, there is some nice land but it is covered with jungle. This reminds me of something, but I can't bring it to mind

This might be an interesting game, there is room for peaceful expansion but we are going to have problems with the AI, unlike the South America game.

Ramesses II replaces Hatshepsut, and DeGaulle replaces Louis XIV. France won't get a cultural victory, trust me. They'll be lucky to even get 3 cities actually. If the Celts were located in southern France, both civs wouldn't get a second city easily (although that's not the case here).

And a rush on Ramesses II should probably come after a rush on Zara Yaqob. Both leaders don't have the Protective or Aggressive traits, so that's good.

Playing a shadow game, thru 70AD - monarch,epic (not sure if shadows are invited or discouraged - let me know and I'll delete if necessary):

I'm not a big fan of a culture game, especially not with one of the best warmonger civs in the entire game.

That said it will be interesting how you handle the distance between your starting location and your vic.. I mean *neighbours*
Ikhadas might help a bit.
South Africa has a lot of usefull ressources (all 3 forge-happy ressources make MC a priority) but very crappy land.
There are only 2 regions with usefull land in Africa, the floodplains of the Nile and the riverside grassland burried under jungle in West/Central Africa.
Add the fact that Ramses will build nothing but wonders and Mansa hopefully a shrine, you have your mid-term priorities.

Glad to see some Shaka love.

Food is at an absolute premium on this map for the Zulu. You have exactly two food resources within easy reach, and your land is mostly plains and plains hills. Coupled with your generous mineral resources, I don't see Shaka hitting his happy cap, even on Emperor, for a long, long time.

Short-term, your minerals will be great for fueling research and expansion. Long-term, you better find some cottageable land. The Congo and Egypt are about the only places in Africa useful for that.

I would suggest researching Fishing, Mining, then Animal Husbandry. That will give your worker plenty to do for awhile and allow you to hook up your food. After that, I see no reason not to expand towards Ethiopia and pound Zara.

Lack of food also means that you may not want to switch to slavery for a LONG time. Any whipping will mean a long, painful journey back to the happy cap. Just harness that production for something useful.

Woot! Go Shaka.

I agree, I want to see the rest of africa.

I also tried starting an Emperor/Epic game and playing out about 100 turns. This is outlined in the Spoiler. As for an opening strategy, here is my 2 contribution:



Zululand starts with rich resources, but only one food resource, the crabs. Sub Saharan Africa also seems to be a little shy on food resources, so REXxing will not pay off as much.

Smart Early Expansion is good.

Get Ulundi functioning as a production center and then choose your city sites and then pump out those Impis and then choose your first victim.

Ulundi *needs* those crabs! Then you can grab that gold and other resources. Then you need to build a Granary in Ulundi because you are not going to have a rapidly expanding capital - A small food surplus goes much farther with a Granary. Fortunately, Shaka is Expansive and that Granary comes very cheap.

(added)
For research, I suggest Fishing-Mining-Bronze-Wheel-Pottery-Animal Husbandry and then Iron Working, Writing, and Sailing in whatever order you prefer. I think you can have all of that done by Turn 100. For production, I suggest starting a worker and building a Work Boat when Fishing is available, then finishing the worker and building a Ikhanda.