I played as the Boers in Scramble for Africa. That was more fun than the default game, in my opinion. I was met Portugal, England, Germany, and the Zulus within two turns. Everybody liked me, except for the Zulus, so when England asked me to declare war on the Zulus with her, I did. She conquered Ulundi and a southern Zulu city in about 3 turns while I conquered his last city up north.
Around turn 15, I got a DoF with Portugal and had a small trading empire with the Europeans. Then, turn 25, England and Germany denounced me saying they had enough of me. Two turns later, they both declared war. I was unprepared because I wasn't expecting it, but Portugal was still friendly with me so I still had a source of money from trade routes and happiness from luxuries.
After struggling for about 10 turns, the war turned around I got 3 Great Generals. I turned two into citadels to steal Germany's luxuries and coal. Then Germany made a white peace with me. I only had to deal with England.
I build up some Rifled Cannons and conquered Nobama from the English (who earlier conquered it from the Zulu. Around this time Portugal denounced me even though we still had a DoF and I meet France.
I send my Rifled Cannons and Foreign Volunteers down to the English capital, Cape Town. She had a ton of Rifled Cannons and Ship of the Lines bombarding my units. Within five turns, Cape Town falls with massive causalities on both sides. The very next turn she reconquered Cape Town with an Ironclad I didn't see earlier, but I reconquered it the next turn. Cape Town went down from size 14 to 1 in a matter of turns.
I tried to get peace, but England only wanted peace if I gave back Cape Town and Nobama. (Yeah, your losing the war and you want me to surrender.
) Just to see what would happen, I proposed a white peace and she accepted. (Whatever.)
I made a DoF with France a few turns later and got a new trading partner now that I had access to Cargo Ships. By the end of the scenario, I was making so much culture per turn that when I had ten turns left, my next policy would be in nine turns (even though I had no more policies I could adopt), so I had to switch my cities into production focus so they'd stop working the farms. (Boer farms give culture.)
I won the scenario with a score of about 3500. France was second place with about 3200 and England was second from last with a score of about 700. All in all, it was really fun and I recommend you all try non-Europeans in the scenario. The Boers, in my opinion, were way more fun than any European I played as in the scenario.
I would say that it's not 100% that any one person could win with the Zulu on Deity, but I have and can win with them.
