Nobles' Club XCVII: Shaka Zulu

dalamb

dalamb

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The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Shaka of the Zulu, whom we last played in NC XVI. The Zulu start with Agriculture and Hunting.
Shaka.jpg
  • Traits: Shaka is Aggressive and Expansive. AGG means faster barracks (including the UU) and drydocks, and a free Combat I promotion for melee and gunpowder units. EXP means +2 :health:, allowing bigger cities sooner if you can find happiness resources. It also gives faster granaries, harbours, and workers.
  • The UB: The Ikhanda, a Barracks that gives -20% city maintenance, thus allowing somewhat larger empires sooner. It synergizes well with AGG, which makes it cheaper to build.
    Ikhanda.jpg

  • The UU: The Impi, a Spearman with 2 moves and Mobility. It isn't quite as good a city attacker as an axeman, but its faster movement across any terrain means your army can attack sooner.
    Impi.jpg
And the start:
start.jpg

Spoiler map details :
Pangaea, normal parameters.
Spoiler edits :
Extended the nearby river to water both the wheat and the corn. Made sure there is copper nearby and turned one flatland to a hill for slightly better production.
Finally, a cut and paste of our standard doctrine:
There are no hard and fast rules here: fun and learning are our primary goals, but we do suggest that you update your progress at various points in the game, using the Spoiler feature of the boards. You can post as often as you like; here's one suggestion:
  • 4000 BC (starting thoughts, no spoiler required for that discussion)
  • 1000 BC or so (how you decided to progress up the early tech/build paths, which AIs you have met, where you're thinking of putting cities, etc)
  • 500 AD or so (after establishing some cities and a possible plan of action)
  • 1200 AD or so (mid-game, Lib race, wars or peace, or whichever happened or didn't, met other
  • continent if applicable, etc)
  • 1600 AD (or when you have decided on a course of action and a specific victory condition)
  • End of game (Victory!!! or defeat, no shame in losing, especially if you tried a higher level. Learning is what we focus on, not fastest win or biggest empire)
This is just a guideline. If you're trying to improve your game, then posting more frequent updates, in as much detail as you can manage, is the best way to get suggestions from other players. If you come to what seems like a major decision and you want some advice, post an update, regardless of what game-year it is.

We also welcome players to ask for specific game advice, as we have a number or stronger players who lurk and help out with solid tips, and of course, we help each other. Replies to specific questions should also be in spoilers, with a simple "@" in front of the person the answer is directed towards.

Special Thanks go to Bleys and TMIT, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo1, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps in the early days of the series, and all of you for playing.
Click to expand...
The WB-saves are attached (zipped; they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC 97 Shaka Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.
Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :
In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Noble. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

For players on Monarch or above, you should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:
Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :

  1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
  2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
  3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
  4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
  5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
  6. Exit the worldbuilder.
  7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.
Spoiler huts and events :
Note: The standard saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with "Huts" in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.
 

Attachments

Shaka Zulu? On this map script!? Are you mad, man? WHAT OF THE OTHER LEADERS ON THE MAP WITH US!?

If you don't know from my previous adventures with him, I am a major Shaka fan and think he's an adorable cuddly bear who wants to kill you. I'm going to play this one right now!
 
Ugh, I absolutely hate Shaka. My experience playing him has been this:
Beeline BW, build ~ 10 impis, rush nearest neighbor, entire stack dies->Alt+F4.

Probably a good learning opportunity for me here, if I can discipline myself enough to post updates.
It seems like the traits and UB synergize fairly well with an opening mostly focused on expansion, whether peaceful or not, followed by necessary economic catchup around the time I'm usually working hard to get to liberalism. I get the sense that liberalism has been a bit overprioritized in the past, and it seems to make better sense to align a strategy with the traits etc of the leader I'm playing, and of course with the map itself (not that I really understand that last part.)

Initial thoughts: I know SIP gives an early production boost, but in situations where there is only 1 visible PH I tend to favor putting a mine on it instead. For a rush strategy, which I will use until information from the map pushes me in a different direction, I think it makes better sense to settle in place. I can always move the capitol later (but tend to forget about). Still, it's tempting to move the scout 1 SE to see what I might be giving up by settling 1W like I originally thought. My reason for settling there was I would get both food specials in the first city radius, work the plains hill with a mine, and still have access to the cows and FP. Now that I've typed all this out and thought about it, SIP seems better. I'll be able to chop more, at least initially, and I'll still have 2 green hills for mines after that.

Starting techs are ideal, we'll be able to build a worker and use him to farm the corn right away. In the meantime I'll tech BW in order to whip and chop. I wonder if using impis to choke while my axemen catch up is a good strategy to consider. They definitely seem well-suited to worker stealing. Anyone ever DoW two AIs super early and steal workers from both at the same time? Is that complete madness from Shaka starting to possess me in order to lead his people to victory?

Ugh, this is going to be painful. Well the good news is that we won't have to worry about an AI Shaka. Also, we should get a small initial diplo bonus with any other psycho warmongers.

Monarch, Huts/Events off, BUG/BAT mod.

BTW, I usually try to get aesthetics to trade for alpha, but in some games the AI doesn't go Alpha for a long time, or is stubborn, and it seems to backfire. Also I usually try and go for CS first, I'm wondering if both of those, like the lib b-line, have been over-favored by myself. CS before Currency definitely seems like a tradeoff I need to put more consideration into, esp if I'm expanding early, conducting lots of war, etc.

I also tend to neglect the bottom part of the tech tree, and I usually trade for Feudalism, Construction and esp. Engineering. Early Feudalism means earlier vassals = less time spent warring = faster econ recovery from war. Cats / trebs are mandatory if I want to break out of my cycle of forced peace from AI geting Feud until Cuirassers.

I guess what I'm asking is: is it possible to war almost continuously? I would like a dom. date much earlier than my normal 1850s with this one. How can I be the biggest bastard possible and still be competitive? Do I take a page out of AI Shaka's book and just produce 1000s of axes and cats when everyone else is working on rifling?

Please help me be the most intelligent bloodthirsty monster I possibly can, instead of the drunk guy at the bar that throws a haymaker at the bouncer and knocks himself out on the way down.

Thanks!
 
This is my favorite Nobles' Club map ever. Better than Napoleon even.

Monarch/Normal speed/Huts and Events Off/Shaka Being A Terrible Neighbor:

Spoiler :
The war-chief Joseph Stalin was lounging near the corn fields of Moscow, enjoying the opulence of his capital. The nearby stone begged to be quarried, and--knowing his Industrious nature--Stalin promised to put it to good use. A store of horses nearby could even allow the Russian warlord to bring war to his neighbors... if he so desired. For now, though, he was content to enjoy the splendor of his palace. Masonry was his, and--with any luck--he would be able to use the stone to construct the Pyramids.

Mere moments later, the peace was shattered by war whoops and ululations as the Impi Warriors crested the nearby hill, their sharpened spears thirsty for blood.

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_01.png


So yeah, Impi rush whooooooooo. Stalin didn't have time to hook up the nearby horses--not that it would've mattered. I had about eight slavering Impis and two cities with Ikhandas when I declared war.

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_02.png


This Settler and I had a little chase scene. Cue up Yakety Sax!

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_03.png


Gotcha!

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_04.png


Stalin didn't last very long. :trouble:

Wonders were going slowly and I had about as many cities as my economy could take for the moment. So for some reason I built this thing in Ulundi.

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_05.png


As you can see from the top of the screen, those mischievous Impis went off to kill Joseph Stalin and accidentally broke my economy in the process! Bad Impis!

It's okay; there's a Wonder for that.

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_06.png


With about ten cities (two of Stalin's, one barb city, seven of mine. ish. I don't remember offhand) and the Pyramids, Currency came quickly, and wealth-building powered things along while I joined the Hindu love-in (with only Buddhist Wang Kon as an outsider and on the other side of the Mayan/Persian borders), tech rate soared as I headed down the Aesthetics line. Got the Statue of Zeus (because of Ivory and to say SCREW YOU EVERYBODY ELSE), Mausoleum, and Great Library for superpowered golden ages, then spent a lot of the game in Pacifism (as SHAKA!?) for beefy GP powers.

Lib'd MT in 1000 AD. Nobody was close. Taj Mahal came in right after that for running two consecutive Golden Ages. All of my Hindu buddies loved me to peaces. I was their pacifist buddy Shaka! The light of the world! A paragon of the Hindu faith!

Suckers. :trouble:

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_07.png

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_08.png


Wang Dang Doodle got Seoul back after the war and suddenly found a whole lot of his people sacrificing goats to Kali! Gasp. He joined the Hindu... well, not really love-in anymore.

Pacal had peacevassalated to Hindu founder Pacal or else he'd have been my next target. He had four cities in his core and a barb town at the corner of Ottoman and Carthaginian lands. And Mehmed had the highest power rating in the game, so he felt best for a big climactic showdown.

Besides, somebody decided to start teching towards Rifling before he had Military Science in defiance of the AI's usual lack of logic.

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_09.png


So we took care of that. :trouble:

So at last it was time for the final showdown with the Ottomans, their Mayan vassals, and the AP powers Pacal brought to the table (which he couldn't leverage in the face of Team Shaka's vast numerical advantage).

Mehmed was ridiculously backward (he teched Code of Laws in the middle of this war. Code of Laws) despite having the largest country in the world. He also had the highest power rating despite lacking critical military tech. How'd he pull that off?

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_10.png


Boatloads of Knights!

St. Petersburg (my HE city) wasn't exactly strongly defended, either--a Rifle and some outdated troops that got turned into Rifles. With a strong, concerted push, he probably could've taken it, smashed the HE (along with the Ikhanda and the Stable), and forced me to work to put the city back together again. So what does he do?

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_11.png


Retreats back into Mayan territory. :lol:

This gave my roving Cavalry mega-army and their Impi medic--fresh off of some victories in the East and ready to put a hurtin' on the Mayan homeland to get them to break vassalage--time to catch up and destroy the stack without a single loss.

We rolled over Maya easily despite the fact that they got Grenadiers late in the war. Had Pacal gone toward Rifling, he might've had a shot, but, well, he didn't. So he didn't.

Still, Pacal--even with one city left, that barb town in the East--wouldn't break vassalage. I could've gotten my Cavalry down there, but it would've taken forever and a day, and Mehmed was starting to regroup.

Hey, Hannibal!

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_12.png


Thanks, buddy.

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_13.png

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_14.png


It gave me Domination instead of Conquest. Vassalificating meh man Mehmed put me over the top.

ShakaIsATerribleNeighbor_15.png


Boy, it sure does suck ending up on a map with Shaka, doesn't it? :trouble:


Thanks for the map, dalamb; if you can't tell, I had a blast with this one.
 
3280BC:Corn farm finished, 3 turns left on rice farm. Realized after my initial post that we start with hunting and not mining, so tech order went mining->BW(currently researching)->Wheel (to hook up copper ASAP if found.) Built worker->warrior and now putting turns into Ikhada and letting city grow a bit while BW finishes, then will chop 2nd worker and (probably) settler.

Did some exploring:
Spoiler :
Met Stalin and Hannibal. Stalin hates me slightly more (-2) than Hannibal (-1) initially. Scout went west until Russia's border was visible, got physically ill at the poor quality of land in that direction, and sought relief to the east. Decided on second city spot 5E, 1S of capitol. Jumbos and double wine are just fine, and the FPs and riverside grass are agreeable as well. Still haven't seen the borders of Carthage, but they can't be far.
 
kalidude: since you've seen him already...

Spoiler :
Have you considered Impi rushing Stalin? That's what I did. It's fun! And totally doable if you pour all of your early resources into it.
 
The Oz-Man:

Spoiler :
That seems like the best plan considering the proximity. I'm just putting my first impi into the queue. One thing I'm thinking is should I maybe just use axes for him instead? They have the higher base strength for the same cost, and he's so close. First settler is done. Kinda produced him by accident to keep the city from growing past the happy cap, I guess I'll have him claim that spot to the east. It gets my greedy little claws closer to Hannibal's land anyways. No reason to park the settler, right?


Can anyone point me to a good impi rushing guide?
 
2400BC: How many mistakes can you find in this paragraph? :wallbash:
Spoiler :
Since the settler was ready to go but I had only 1 warrior and 1 scout which were both occupied with exploration duties to the north, my first impi was relegated to escort duties for a couple turns, until the 2nd city was founded, then he quickly abandoned them. Don't worry, that warrior will be there in a few turns. Besides, Ulundi doesn't even have a defender yet. Might as well double down while I'm making mistakes, right? Right. So, I think I have two Impis now and we're stacking on our western border. Researching archery to counter annoying Monarch barbs and then need mysticism, that tech I love to skip, for border pops now that we have a 2nd city. After that I'd like to go writing and then perhaps math->currency. City 2 is building a worker first, which will be our 3rd worker overall. I'm contemplating sending those two idle impis to steal workers/choke and then produce a few axes for the Battle of Moscow. What I don't want to do is deal with a 2nd Russian city that I want to keep but will insta-raze if I cap it too soon, delaying my conquest. So yeah, off they go...
 
kalidude said:
Ugh, I absolutely hate Shaka. My experience playing him has been this:
Beeline BW, build ~ 10 impis, rush nearest neighbor, entire stack dies->Alt+F4.
Click to expand...

Impis are not so amazing for actually taking cities. Just get 1-3 of them out as fast as possible and they are an unstoppable choking/pillaging/workerstealing force, then take your time with the actual killing using tougher units.
 
kalidude said:
2400BC: How many mistakes can you find in this paragraph? :wallbash:
Click to expand...

I'll tackle this one and cover anything that's a map spoiler.

Besides, Ulundi doesn't even have a defender yet. Might as well double down while I'm making mistakes, right?
Click to expand...

Defenders aren't critically important in the early game before the barbs start showing up. You're probably fine without one unless you decide for an early war and somebody approaches your borders. Then it's pretty easy to whip one out.

Spoiler :
Researching archery to counter annoying Monarch barbs
Click to expand...

This, to me, is probably your biggest mistake.

Spoiler :
You've already researched BW, and you know you have copper. With two-move Mobility super-spears and axes, what are archers going to do that one of your other units can't besides being slightly cheaper? On this start, Archery is a low, low, low priority unless you decide to go for, say, a Horse Archer rush down the road.


Spoiler :
and then need mysticism, that tech I love to skip, for border pops now that we have a 2nd city.
Click to expand...

Another mistake, I think, depending on your path.

Spoiler :
You have enough food in Ulundi that you can build 2-3 satellite cities around it and feed off of the excess. You probably need this because of your second city; where exactly did you place it that it needs a border pop? Was the site in any danger?

If you want to rush a neighbor, then what you need before Mysticism is a tech that can help stabilize your economy--either Writing or Pottery or both. Mysticism can very well come while you're at war, but it's hardly a priority tech unless you create a situation where you make it one. From the sounds of things, that's what you did.


Spoiler :
After that I'd like to go writing and then perhaps math->currency. City 2 is building a worker first, which will be our 3rd worker overall.
Click to expand...

Spoiler :
That's good--having an excess of workers will help, especially with transforming Ulundi's gorgeous sylvan paradise into a slavering Zulu horde. Chop, chop, chop, whip, and don't worry about a third city for now. Moscow is your third city. ;)


So yeah, a couple of mistakes, I think, but it's not too late to recover, and you've got some good stuff going on as well. What turn are you on?

EDIT: Grashopa:

Grashopa said:
WHAT!? :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know, I know. :p Repeating Isabella's old mistakes. But remember that I had a significant foothold at that point and two secondary production cities that were up and running--not to mention the fact that Ulundi had a library up and running already. It took about 3-4 turns with a whip, and I wasn't in a position to afford more cities pre-'Mids. If nothing else, the failgold would've helped.
 
I had an Immortal game where I choked and killed off 3 AIs with immortals - I ended up chopping the pyramids in 4 or 5 cities before someone on the other continent finished it. 2000 gold!!!
 
Holy crap. Yeah, I should've done that. Ah well, with this version of Shaka it was probably less Stonehenge and more Head-on-a-Pikehenge.
 
1640BC:
Spoiler :

The second city is DoubleWineFant.

As predicted, the Russians founded a second city that was auto-razed. I took Moscow first with 4 CR1 impis, losing 2 in the process. While trying to get up basic infrastructure in Moscow and DoubleWineFant, I built another settler in order to found DoubleGoldRice next to Carthage. I also would like to grab the gem spot to the north but that's over ambitious. I don't even have IW yet and I don't want to switch my tech order just to get the gems. Better to conquer later what would hurt the economy today. I haven't produced any military units except a couple archers since taking out Stalin, hrmm...

6 turns left on writing, I have pottery but haven't put up any cottages yet. I put farms on the FPs near Ulundi to facilitate worker/settler pumping, reasoning that I can later switch them to cottages after a little while.

I guess my next settling site is the Sugar+Dye spot to the north. I'm putting all my EPs on Darius to facilitate tech stealing later, monster techer that he is.

There's a bunch of good land nearby, I feel like I could easily get to 12 or 15 cities without war and without economic considerations. I'm so used to having a tech lead but it seems like an early production lead could be more powerful given the land situation here. Every bone in my body wants me to stay competitive in tech the traditional way, but I'm really tempted to do the war monger thing and accept techs for peace while spamming more and more units. Speaking of which, Carthage is still at only 2 cities. I'm not sure. On the one hand, it's not that much further from my soon-to-be 4th city site. Worker stealing, now that's the ticket. I think I'll plan on that.
 
Grashopa said:
I had an Immortal game where I choked and killed off 3 AIs with immortals - I ended up chopping the pyramids in 4 or 5 cities before someone on the other continent finished it. 2000 gold!!!
Click to expand...

Wait, how were you able to have the 'mids in the queue of more than one city at a time?
 
kalidude said:
Wait, how were you able to have the 'mids in the queue of more than one city at a time?
Click to expand...

Start building it one city, then cancel the build by right-clicking it in the queue. Then you can start it again elsewhere. It's a good way to scum some gold out of the system before you get Currency and can build wealth, but you have to be paying pretty careful attention to pull it off.
 
Immortal epic 1000bc
Spoiler :


I'm fully expecting an ignominious defeat, the win with Hatty was my second immortal win in a lot of attempts but nothing ventured.
Anyway copper in BFC, forests, close neighbour and playing Shaka really can't be anything except a rush; I went with axes rather than impis, declared c 1700bc, captured 4 cities, razed 2, kept 2 including Moscow with great wall. Built a couple more cities and once again my economy has crashed though I think Ikhanda helps a bit, reducing 5gpt to 4gpt is useful and every bit of commerce is helpful at the moment.
 
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