Zulus: Worst civ in the game?

[civ54lyfe]

Zulus are one of those hilarious civs that "covet lands you currently own" regardless if you only have your capital and how far away they are on your continent. Russia is another civ that does this. always makes me chuckle when i check diplomacy on them.

but both of these civs can *sometimes* be great friends for most of the game for some reason unknown to me.

 

[reddishrecue]

I've won domination victories with Shaka but only on emperor difficulty or below. I haven't tried them out on Immortal or Deity.

 

[Callonia]

I've yet to have shaka be the problem, they always get kneecapped in diplomacy by me, or they have their impis shake their spears at my frigates in a fit of impotent rage due to an ocean and mountain range between both of our empires as my frigates bombard the impis and take shaka's cities.

I've yet to experience the full might of shaka so far in civ 5 can't wait until that day happens at last.

Although Shaka once almost had me, in one map where southern parts of my kingdom was all flatlands, perfect for impi charges. But that's where Shaka gave up, because I got him killed in diplomacy, his empire floundered completely. I was disappointed because I had landsknechts ready to give it a good shot. But the damage through the world congress was too much for him to handle.

 

[SemperFi2382]

Weird, my last two games Shaka was one of the first to die after being dog piled early on for whatever reason. Even stranger is that the Inca were the ones steamrolling everything.

 

[Astennu]

I just won an Immortal game as Korea.

Shaka started on another continent which contained himself, Monty, Napolean, Hiawatha and Attila. Shaka actually got smashed quite early and was out of the running from turn 200 or so.

I have yet to start next to him in a BNW game, however his military prowess has not been displayed at all so far.

 

[njmfff]

Man, I wish there was some way to remove the Zulu. Every single time they're in a game they completely dominate it. Every. Single. Time.

If they're far away from me, it's not too bad; they kill their neighbors but they run out of steam by the Industrial Age. But if they're close by, there is literally no way to defend yourself. The only viable strategy is to bribe them to attack somebody else, but that's both expensive and not always possible. But as for actually fighting them before the Industrial Age, it's literally impossible. 10-15 Impi (along with a smattering of CBs and warriors) will chew up any defensive force no matter what.

WTF. Why design an unstoppable civ? Grrr.

It's not impossible. Good city placement and well placed archers are all you need, alto, if Shaka is your neighbor, I would quickly go for Crossbows, just to be sure.

Knights are obviously useless against him, but they are good for chasing down his catapults. Kill catapults and your knights would probably die too due to Impis, but hey, if he loses turn to kill Knights, it's free turkey shoot for Crossbows.

Anyway, if Shaka is my neighbor, I would usually attack him first to cripple him before he gets Impi.

 

[xxblackdog]

I have just come to know Shaka for the first time this last game. Small Continents map (Prince) as Russia, he started RIGHT beside me. He took out Korea in the first 20 turns, then turned dozens of Impi on me. I managed to hold him off until I tech'd up to Riflemen (which was my only hope, Musketmen are useless against Impi, +25% defense against gunpowder units!!). 1000 years of war later, and I all but eliminated him. Even on Prince, Shaka was difficult.

 

[erhaminus]

It's not impossible. Good city placement and well placed archers are all you need, alto, if Shaka is your neighbor, I would quickly go for Crossbows, just to be sure.

Hard to do it even in that way.

Small map, pangea, immortal. Played the first time as Austria enjoying nice city states around.

Then welcome screen with Shaka has been shown. I said... uh... nevermind.

Omg that was real blitz.

My bad, I tried to befriend instead of turn on panic mode. In result, his the only one "friendly" impi has killed half of my army - 2 spearmen, 2 composites and still was ready to befriend in his own way on. When I finally killed somehow the rest of their melees, I saw next impis approaching. And that was a good moment to "Exit to desktop" option.

But yes, when befriend, the game is cool.

I think that a good option may be just to trade with Shaka to declare war someone else after meeting him. Against Bismarck for example.