FML 4-Shaka

Welcome to LSOE, where we explore the CustomEarth2 mapscript to show off what it can do. You may have noticed the special title this one gets. Guess what. We're playing Shaka, which is bad enough. But we're playing him on Giant Earth Map. If I never post again, assume this game made me do it :suicide:. Hence the title FML(F*** My Life).


The Chronicle of Shaka Zulu
Chapter 1: A Man of Class
Chapter 2: Teaching the Finer Points of Being a Gentlemen
Chapter 3: A Man of Culture
Chapter 4: A True Gentleman
Chapter 5: A Man of Science


We're playing as Shaka Zulu, expansive and aggressive. Expansive gives us +2 health per city, 25% production speed of a worker, and half speed granaries and harbor. With this craptastic terrain, we're going to be worshiping the granaries by the time this game is over. Aggressive gives us the Combat 1 promotion by default, and we can produce barracks and drydocks at double speed. Good news is, our UB is a Barracks!

The Ikhanda gives us -20% maintainence, allowing us to REX a little bit more than normal. Always a good thing IMO, and if we somehow crash and burn, this will give us emergency relief.

Now, on to our UU. The Impi is a Spearman that has mobility, meaning it has terrain immunity. It also start Combat 1, meaning it's effectively a 4.4 strength spearman with no movement penalties. Great settler escort!


And finally, the start:


Look at that.........this city will be mediocre till watermills Settle in place, and expand towards South Africa where there's a bit of grassland?

Now, about the settings:

Raging barbarians, Aggressive leaders, AND no Vassal States? The AI is going to rip itself to shreds or die trying! And since we're in Africa, I think we may be essentially F*ed. If you think barbarians are bad when you play Egypt on Earth 18, you haven't seen anything yet!

The save: I'm still playing on Monarch because the start will be rough as hell, I know, I know, I promised But I almost made this Always War which is why I forgot to switch up the difficulty anyway. Anyone voting to make this a true FML and have me up it to Emperor and Always War? Wish me luck!

Sorry about the Text but this is the closest thing to Zulu yellow. Just highlight it if you want to read the title.


The Chronicle of Shaka Zulu
Chapter 1: A Man of Class

In this tome we shall discuss the life of Shaka Zulu, the leader of Zululand, the only civilized Africans. More civilized than any EUROPEANS of course. Europe has no civilization, and the wells of civilization are in Japan, Australia, Central Asia, and Aztlan. Apart from these 4 locations, Zululand is the only other place where civilization was to be found.

The Zulu people had long been migrants. They had originally been from Somalia, where they traversed to the Kongo, from there to Mauritania, and from there to Mali. Finally, at long last, Shaka Zulu's forefather Daddi Zulu(according to Shaka) led the Zulu people to Zululand. There he founded the settlement of Ulundi and ruled for the rest of his lifetime.


Upon assuming the title of tribe leader, Shaka abolished the council of elders, kindly told the Afrikaaners to leave Ulundi, and established himself as Emperor of Zululand. But of course, he did this all in class. He made leopard skin underwear so fashionable that today men universally wear leopard skin underwear. He wore cuffs everywhere he went(leopard skin of course) and politely excused himself whenever he threw somebody out the window. That, my friends, is class!

The exiled Afrikaaners, meanwhile, had trekked Southwards to their promised land. Shaka decided to give chase and told his scouts to pillage whatever settlement they find. While raiding, they captured several Afrikaaner wisemen and some nets, and 'put two and two' together, when they left the wisemen to starve with only their boats and fishing nets, and caught them fishing when they thought they had gone. Shaka interrogated the wisemen after sipping some tea and offering them their choice of death, like a true gentlemen. Afrikaaner has not been heard of since. Eventually, Shaka did spare these men. They where allowed to remain alive as advisors at the mercy of Shaka.


Shaka's people had long hunted animals such as cows, sheeps, bison, ox, and deer. They had always hunted them for their meats and had never thought of harvesting them, like the Afrikaaners. Eventually the Afrikaaners that remained within Shaka's realm got sick of running around after food they had raised themselves, and offered Shaka to teach him how to raise animals. Shaka agreed, glad to have the sense to have kept these two men alive. A breakthrough was made when Shaka tripped on a dried cow hide and shot a rock straight up. More investigation and practice revealed that projectiles could be launched using wood and sinew.


Shaka, around 3000 BC, had begun to train men in basic skills. He had hopes of establishing a new settlement to find more plentiful areas for agriculture, something his people where masters of, but the land was poor for agriculture. Around 2800BC, Shaka fell into a sleep that would last several weeks. Why he fell into this semi-coma remains unknown but investigation reveals that he did so in a very fresh manner. His leopard skin collar was popped, he wore his customary cuffs, and seemed to give off a glance that said 'I'm a gentlemen, so don't eff with me. You know I'm gonna wake up and mess you up if you draw on my face!'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So much for green South Africa. I need advice on where to settle next. The terrain is incredibly rough.......

Gwall is one's friend here, and without passing go.

After that settle the few good cities there are and its time to go capturing better land. At least having good passive commerce and around will help out in terms of getting to early techs ASAP.

Can I ask for your Blue Marble settings? I really want that theme!

1N of Fish/1SW of Stone,
1SW of Gold
and
2E of Fish/1N of Gems?


Hey, at least with the Expansive trait and the Gem/Gold you'll be able to grow your cities a little extra

wow, I never thought i'd be able to look at all the surrounding land and say "there's just too many darn gems here!" where's my riverside grassland with plains cow for food?

TMIT: I was going to make this a challenge and NOT build the Great Wall in this game but yes, the commerce will be a lifesaver. That site with the freakish amount of gems could eventually be biology farmed+mined for some insane commerce.

CHEESE: The actual HUD? I edit it using this guide right here except I edit it in my actual settings instead of going into a mod. I just open up paint and find a color that looks nice, and copy the Red/Green/Blue values. Scroll down to the bullet called 'to modify the color', and follow those instructions. Now, for the actual terrain, I think I put darkest and high resolution(I think).

Yared: I agree with all 3 of those settling suggestions, but the most important thing is to FIND ME SOME COPPER@@@@@. That, or start on the GW asap. I'm thinking 1 South of the Sugar above Ulundi. Probably the only reasonable city ATM.......It has enough forest that I could reasonably chop out the GW/A worker and it DOES have plains sheep(holy crap, I've found me riverside corn!)

Bobbyboy: I agree with that on so many levels.......

I totally thought this thread was meant to be titled " my life Shaka", about our neighborhood psycho ruining someone's empire.

The game decided by itself that it wants to make it a challenge.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 2: Teaching the Finer Points of Being a Gentlemen

In the previous chapter, we covered the early life of Zululand and the man who built it, when it was only a ruddy hut with a pack of cavemen, save our super fly overlord Shaka. Shaka had awoken soon after his quasi-coma to the thought of a throne. He had previously used a wooden chair, just like all others. A man of class needed to have his own throne. He ordered the building of a throne of solid gold. It now sits in the Royal Quarters of Shaka today, and it is not open to the public. However, experts believe it to be made out of wood and plated in gold, for it appears much lighter than one would assume. Regardless, the throne was a beautiful piece of architecture. It was only beautiful because it was a carved wooden block that was plated in gold and studded with so many gems that it could blind any man. Shaka had set the standards high. However, the final addition to the throne was not yet complete. Around 2500 BC Shaka's advisers had discovered the wheel and had begun to build paths and carts. Shaka decided to complete the pimping out of his royal throne by adding solid gold wheels with fine jewelery for grills and spokes. The Royal Throne was manned by 2 fine Oxes that where personally trained by Shaka since day one. Reportedly, they consumed human flesh.


However, all was not good news. Shortly after completing the Golden Throne, Shaka received news that a great barrier had been built, preventing any barbarians from invading. Shaka reportedly snorted at the thought of wasting labor in such a way. No barbarian had yet to step a foot within Zululand as of that date. Shaka Zulu later admitted to his mistake in not prioritizing building such a monument.


Regardless, a barrier had not been on Shaka's mind, and previous plans continued as planned. The new settlement of uMgungundlovu was founded in 2400 BC. However, contrary to Shaka's hopes, the area had little water and farming was not possible.


Shaka quickly made religious breakthroughs, establishing a priestly class dedicated to animist tradition, celebrating the gods and their ancestors. However, remembering hymns, chants, and rituals proved to be tedious when other more important matters where at hand. Therefore, Shaka invented scripture, and with it, lining.


With scripture came numbers, and with numbers came natural laws that quickly proved themselves to the Zulu people. Shaka chartered 5 wisemen to continue making mathematical advancements in Ulundi and established the first school of study for mathematics in recorded history.


As animist HP(Head Priest), he had ordered the construction of a monument to the ancestors and the wild beings around him. Shaka extracted the few traces of marble he could find throughout Ulundi, and assembled the prophetic Oracle. Even today, in a greatly expanded Zululand, marble remains a rare resource. Soon after building the Oracle, a notable social dynamic began in which young respected elder, son respected father and mother, brother respected brother, and student respected teacher. It's attributed that around the time of completion of the Oracle, that the first traces of Confucianism where sown in Zululand.


More scientific strides followed past the years, with Zululand having the oldest recorded pots and swords to date. Shaka was a revolutionary man of the times in that he was the first to begin the harvesting of clay and the mining of iron. In a search for more resources to fuel the scientific boom of Zululand, Shaka settled a new city, the city of Nobamba.


A final settlement was founded to harvest the last grasslands of Southern Africa. Shaka founded Bulawayo, somewhat saddened at the terrain that surrounded him. It was said by fables that Mali, Somalia, and Kongo had been fertile regions. Why had his ancestors moved to such a place? Shaka, at this point, had resolved to go and see these lands for himself.


But despite the progress shown in Zulu society, records are missing of the barbarians. Barbarians at one point nearly razed uMgungdunlovu and constantly raided Zululand. It is said that Shaka, in his shame, destroy................
(These where the last words ever written by this unidentified man. His fate remains a mystery, his life estimated to be from around 700 BC, however, new historians would later assume the role of this man and chronicle the sagas of Zululand)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guess what Shaka had to do with the guy's fate?

Anyway, the situation has improved a bit, but I need more workers. I have currency and am starting on Civil Service. I'm basically gunning for as big a tech lead as possible atm, with specialists being an unlikely luxury. Hopefully, Uganda will have some more fertile lands? I'm a history buff, not a geography buff

I don't have the slightest clue why the last two pictures are like that, btw

Continue exploring on the east coast.

yared94 said:

Continue exploring on the east coast.

Click to expand...

I sent several archers, but stacked archers devoured them. Thankfully, I just got iron hooked up, meaning I'll get an axe in each city then send out the Impis.

You got it rough!

I just got my first few years of relief from barbs, infact. I've stationed troops on hills all over Southern Africa to spare me some pain.

Go invade the world shaka. You have to win by world domination.

Or, at least, Africa! You are the Classy Shaka, therefore it is your duty to civilize Africa.

Can you post a link to the mapscript you're using?

Here's the link, although it's also in my sig. Are you an Earthbound fan? Earthbound is my favorite Snes RPG of all time!

Yared: But of course Shaka shall civilize his brothers, no matter how much they refuse to use a knife, fork, and napkin!

EMT said:

CHEESE: The actual HUD? I edit it using this guide right here except I edit it in my actual settings instead of going into a mod. I just open up paint and find a color that looks nice, and copy the Red/Green/Blue values. Scroll down to the bullet called 'to modify the color', and follow those instructions. Now, for the actual terrain, I think I put darkest and high resolution(I think).

Click to expand...

Can you give me the R/G/B??? I'd love that colour.

Sure, it's GColor( 255, 194, 14, 150). I've played with my opacity a bit so you might want that/might not.