350AD – 1200AD
From 350AD the game went into serious rebuild mode. Mansa was thrown a life-line as Shaka tried to revive the bloated Zulu economy.
Mansa was to use this second life to spam several cities in some less than ideal spots adjacent to our borders.
With Kumbi Salah’s Marble Quarry on line, World Wonders built included; The Great Library, The Mausoleum of Maussollos, and The Parthenon, while National Wonders chalked up included The National Epic and The Heroic Epic. Berlin went for a couple of Stone-based Wonders too; the Maoi Statues were constructed relatively early in the piece, while a late-game charge at The Pyramids meant that Representation was available and switched into by 1190AD.
Tech-wise the Zulus were still dragging behind most, with the AI up Construction, Theology, and Machinery at 1000AD, while by 1200AD Music, Compass, Optics, Drama, Guilds, and Horseback Riding were some of the tech’s that Shaka was behind. Ethiopia appeared every chance to beat the Zulus to Liberalism. Taoism was nonetheless picked up though a Great Scientist Philosophy lightbulb.
The period also saw some ‘filling in’ of some ‘holes’ within the empire, including a couple of commerce-focussed cities – the floodplains just to the north-west of Ulundi, and the Bananas-Gems-Rice spot in the jungle to Ulundi’s south-west. A large Barbarian city to the south west was also added.
King Shaka took a run at Schwedagon Paya with the hope of an early switch to Free Religion, but Zara was to beat us to it. Up to 1000AD the military had hardly been improved on since peace has been agreed with Mali, the Zulus switched out of Confucianism to No State religion with some concern over being an unwilling target of some religious-based tension. Between 1000AD and 1200AD some effort to improve the defensive capabilities of the military had taken place, with border cities now containing a mix of Medieval rather than Classical Age units.
The world at 1000AD;
1200AD – 1500AD
The focus on Liberalism paid off, and Printing Press was taken as the freebie in 1330AD. A switch was made to Free Religion as the Zulus chased Rifling at the cost of an array of missed Medieval and Renaissance techs.
There was a calm before the storm, as the Zulu nation held peace with all while the western end of the Pangaea seemed to endlessly skirmish with each other.
Techwise, there was finally an improved sense of parity with the AI. Still missing tech’s such as Economics and Nationalism, King Shaka was up Gunpowder, Printing Press, and Liberalism on most.
A small Zulu village on the south coast (Deer-Silk-Silver) protected by a single Impi was regrettably razed by a roaming Barbarian Axe. Mansa was quick to grab the now vacant site.
1500AD – 1650AD
Finally some action! In 1540AD Rifling was secured, that prompted the massing of Riflemen and ultimately Mansa’s demise. From 1600AD to 1650AD the Malinese Empire was hit, and Mansa Musa reduced to a size 1 city in an icy expanse.
In hindsight one blunder of sorts was made in that initially the Zulus intended to chase Assembly Line for Infantry immediately after Rifling, and had spent some effort in discovering some prerequisites such as Nationalism and Constitution, before a considerable adjustment in instead going after Steel for Cannons. One bit of payback nonetheless was that Shaka enjoyed a Mausoleum of Maussollos fuelled back-to-back Golden Age from the Taj Mahal followed by a Great Prophet triggered one.
Steel was discovered in 1640AD, and the focus was back on Assembly Line. As at 1650AD, the Zulu army boasted 71 Rifles and had commenced on Cannon production. Zara Yaqob was the only leader to have Gunpowder, albeit he too had Rifling but down Chemistry.
1650AD – 1700AD
1650 saw our war declaration on Victoria, as a SoD of approximately 50 Riflemen and Maces had been amassed on the English border. Shaka did not bother with siege weapons as the conflict was essentially Rifles versus Longbows. Taking London was a boon, as it has The Hanging Gardens, Angkor Wat, and The Statue of Zeus as well as the religious-based Wonders of The Spiral Minaret and the University of Sankore. By 1700AD, Victoria was down to a couple of large coastal cities in the north of the landmass.
Mansa’s last city was taken in 1660AD in a Rifles vs. Crossbow exchange.
Napoleon had attacked Zara Yaqob, and for his foolishness, not only did he have to deal with a far superior force from Ethiopia, but Zara invited Shaka into the conflict in 1685AD. Napoleon was going to be next in line anyway, but the Zulus did not want French territory to fall into the hands of Ethiopia anyway, so Shaka agreed to the request.
Big stacks of Zulu Cannons and Rifles invaded France from the north, where Napoleon did as best as he could with Knights and Catapults, but there was never a serious resistance. With a powerhouse already churning out huge quantities of units, the Zulus had begun razing rather than keeping some of the cities that they were taking.
In the background, Willem van Oranje had bypassed military technology for more developmental pursuits.
1700AD – 1800AD
For all of his technological advancement down the Physics route, Willem had made no progress with Gunpowder, and with mushroom-like Dutch cities popping up in the area that Shaka was clearing, 1735AD saw a war declaration on the Dutch.
In the interim, 1745AD saw the end of the English Empire. At that point the Zulus had 91 Rifles, 41 Cannons, and seven turns to go to discovering Assembly Line. Zara Yaqob had a pretty decent SoD of his own; 15 units comprising Cavalry and Rifles milling outside of Orleans. Shaka at this point did not foresee the prospective flanking damage that Ethiopian Cavalry would inflict on his SoDs of Cannons, yet Zara did not foresee what would later happen to his empire.
The war machine continued to roll through France, while Shaka was also making progress into Dutch territory. Willem had finally backtracked to pick up Gunpowder, so it was; highly promoted Riflemen and Cannons versus poorly experienced Musketmen and Longbows.
Zara did take the city of Orleans from Napoleon, and was vying to take Chartres also. Shaka had growing concern for Zara’s own burgeoning empire, as while the Zulus has acquired Assembly Line in 1760AD (and rushed The Pentagon in Berlin with Great Engineers), Zara would also have the technology by the early 1800’s, prospectively making city capture considerably more difficult. Napoleon was ‘on the ropes’, sheltering two cities on an island that required the discovery of Astronomy in order to build Galleons. This gave Napoleon many years of extra life, but he would soon see his ‘own Waterloo’.
Rampant war weariness was seriously taking its toll on the Zulu nation, and a flip to more appropriate civics – most notably from Representation to Police State – was undertaken. Target technologies from this point were firstly Railroad – more so for the production and movement than for Machine Guns, and Fascism for Mount Rushmore as much as for the free Great General.
The western side at 1800AD;
1800AD – 1856AD
War declaration was made on Zara before he took Chartres and ended up with a stronger foothold on former French territory. By 1802 Napoleon’s final two cities were razed and Shaka declared war on Zara yaqob, enabling the Zulus to eliminate the Ethiopian SoD that was earlier destined for Chartres. Unfortunately, as Shaka endeavoured to take Orleans for himself, Zara sent a huge stack of Cavalry that eliminated 14 Cannons out of a Zulu SoD with flanking damage. The Cavalry were cleaned up by Rifles, and fortunately this had left Ethiopia with only a handful of Cavalry left. The Zulu invasion took out Ethiopia’s Horse Pasture, and Cavalry was to play little meaningful part for the rest of the game.
Despite a massive army of over 250 units Shaka was to make a few blunders in the final stages that would delay victory by at least 10 turns:
Firstly, an earlier exchange of maps or purchase of Zara’s world map would have revealed a number of Ethiopian cities on small islands off the mainland, and therefore plenty of preparations could be made in order to build a navy. Shaka was instead busy razing Dutch coastal cities that in hindsight would have made excellent ports for shipbuilding – something instead now entirely the responsibility of just one city - Zhou; a former Barbarian city. Earlier in the game, some Spies were sent into foreign territory to investigate however were often quickly ‘stumbled upon’ and eliminated. Regardless, the map knowledge was very poor, and this had a deleterious effect on the timing of the outcome.
Secondly, once they were gradually produced, Shaka’s capacity to protect his Galleons was abysmal, and some were ultimately sunk with risky rushes with the view to island drop offs. These sinkings each slowed the progress of the finish of the game considerably.
Nonetheless, the last Dutch city was located and fell in 1826AD, and the last Ethiopian island city in 1854AD giving a Conquest win in 1856AD.
Like others, with a bit more care and micromanagement and a few more bold moves sooner, one is left with the lingering feeling that an earlier finish would be more than achievable.
Hi there. I tried this game. This is the first time playing BTS. I did not like it. Things didn't go my way. It was unnatural. I never played a total warmonger or a role playing game where I have to emphesis military and conquest, instead of doing things that make sense like researching the proper techs. The restrictions that I had and the way the game evolved proved to be a struggle. I couldn't trade techs with the europeans, so I fell behind, and the africans didn't appreciate the help I gave them, they just traded techs among themselfs and left me out of the loop. 
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I can barely convince Shaka not to feed me to the crocordiles, pointing out that (a) the situation is going to improve soon and (b) we already had a war and took a prisoner. The screenshot also shows – i am researching Pottery, in preparation to cottage up the Flood plains around the planned City B. I found Nobamba at Turn 58.
. I avoid beeing fed to the crocodiles, by making the statue look exactly like Shaka 
I switch to tech HR within one turn.
" here.
- 'speed and size' worked OK for me.
; Pe Ell, snow666, 50_dollar_bag, and Refar, and it would be interesting to see how markiz2001's game would play out.
