Foreign Intelligence - The Zulus

[Provolution]

The above paiting was painted by the First Foreign Minister of Japanatica, Provolution "The Comprehensive", a mythological diplomat that could sneak upon the enemy and depict them in very detailed oil paintings, before he decided to sneak back like a ninja.

The painting is called

"A millenium after the Japanatican people fail to vote for the settlement of the Ume Plateau and the Yotusubashi Mountains, and the political ramifications manifested with the advance of furious Zulu diamondminers on horseback, horseback that the Japanatican people in its vanity failed to get."


The Zulus

Profile
Leader: Shaka
Characteristics: Militaristic & Expansionists
Special Unit: Impi
Aggression Level:
Favorite Government: Despotism
Shunned Government: Republic
Culture Group: Mid Eastern
City Production Emphasis: Offensive land units
Default Color:
Alternate Color:


Zulu Cities

* Zimbabwe
* Ulundi
* Bapedi
* Hlobane
* Isandhlwana
* Intombe
* Mpondo
* Ngome
* Swazi
* Tugela
* Umtata
* Umfolozi
* Ibabanago
* Isipezi
* Amatikulu
* Zunguin

Great Leaders

* Mpande
* Zwelithini
* Dingane
* Cetshwayo



Background

ShakaThe Zulus are expansionist and militaristic. They start the game with Warrior Code and Pottery and build Impi instead of normal spearmen.

The Zulu are a tribe of Nguni-speaking people centered in what is now the Natal province of South Africa. They are a branch of the southern Bantu and have close ethnic, linguistic and cultural ties with the Swazi and Xhosa. Before they overwhelmed the neighboring tribes under their leader Shaka in the early 19th century to form an empire, the Zulu were only one of the many patrilineal Nguni clans in the Mtetwa empire. Traditionally grain farmers, the Zulu also kept large herds of cattle on the lightly wooded grasslands, replenishing their herds by raiding neighboring tribes. Boys in Shaka's militaristic society were initiated at adolescence in groups called age sets. Each age set constituted a unit of the Zulu army and was stationed away from home at royal barracks under direct control of the King. Formed into regiments (Impi), these men could marry and leave service only when the king gave permission to the age set as a whole.

On the death of the last Mtetwa emperor in 1817, Shaka (1816-28) established his clan's dominance over their neighbors and, using a well-disciplined and efficient fighting force, conquered most of the Natal region. During the reign of Shaka's successor, Dingane, Boer settlers, who formed an alliance with Dingane's brother and deposed him in 1840, penetrated the Zulu empire. The empires survived, but under King Mpande (1840-72) portions of Zulu territory were occupied by the Boers and by the British, who moved into Natal in 1838 and annexed it in 1843. War broke out in 1878 when Mpande's successor, Cetshwayo, refused to disband his Impi and to place himself under British control. Despite stiff resistance, the British defeated the poorly armed Zulu in July 1879, occupied the remainder of their country, and divided Zululand into 13 small kingdoms. Zululand was made a British crown colony in 1887 under the Native Law of Natal, and bloody Zulu rebellions were put down in 1888 and 1906. By British edict in 1894, two-thirds of the Zulu's remaining land was confiscated, and they were confined to native reserves. The incorporation of Zululand into Natal in 1897 ended its separate existence. Under the apartheid system, a Bantu Homeland (later called a "black state") named KwaZulu was established for the Zulu in the 1970s and was composed of discrete areas of historical Zululand. With the abolition of the apartheid system, KwaZulu in 1994 was reincorporated into Natal province. The Zulu were the single largest ethnic group in modern South Africa and now number about nine million.

Unique Unit: the Impi

ImpiWhen Shaka took control of the Zulu, the first thing he did was to reorganize the army and devise new tactics. Rather than relying on traditional methods of attacking (i.e., lobbing spears at enemies from a distance), Shaka outfitted his Impi with short-handled, long-bladed assegai spears which forced them to fight in close quarters. His tactical brilliance is also evident in the use of complex flanking formations where the strongest group of soldiers ("the chest") would engage the enemy while two columns of "horns" would circle the enemy and attack from behind. The Impi routinely traveled 50 miles per day or more, and under Shaka's leadership, they crushed all opposition from neighboring tribes.

The Impi is an upgraded version of the spearman. It requires no resources to build, and allows the Zulus to quickly build a strong, mobile defense force.
Attack Defense Move
Standard Spearman 1 2 1
Zulu Impi 1 2 2

* end of report *

 

[Provolution]

2800 BC

Out from the fields the Japanatican scouts could to their amazement see some black people with spears coming towards them. They smiled broadly, and said they could do business with Japanatica. By a sudden, they agreed on learning Japanaticans warrior code and pottery, as well as giving away a fortune in gold, a full 35 gold. Considering this to the renewed offer from Babylonia, which has now added both pottery, warrior code and 19 gold to the plate, Japanatican officials, too far away from Fanatikku to send runners back for consultations, which would have caused the nation a century of negotiations, the general opinion in the expedition, based on the political winds from home, decided to trade with both. As it proved later, the Zulus came the strongest out of the transaction, holding both the unknown alphabeth, a series of funny signs that made Japanatican emmisaries to feel strangely dumb and inferior, and the mysterious mysticism, to difficult to be explained at that time, but had something to do with feeling scared and in awe for the unknown, shivering to thunder and so on.

Yet, even historians disagree on the prudency of this trade, the Japanatican people felt happy, knowing they had saved maybe a millennium worth of research or more. The state coffers of Japanatica came as a result up to 65 gold.


Special on Impi:

The Zulus have:
Bronze Working, Pottery, Warrior Code, The Wheel

Plus they have Alphabeth and mystiscim we both want.

 

[Cyc]

This sub-forum is designed for government offices, Provolution. These threads do not belong here. They go in the Citizen's sb-forum. Please have them moved by a Mod.

 

[Rik Meleet]

Moderator Action: moved to citizens section

 

[Provolution]

Zulu Intelligence Update

Stronger Military
Horses
No Iron, but close to get one

does not have Horseback Riding AND Masonry

Special Report

The Zlus, located some 8 tiles away, northeast, from Immo, seems to respectus and remain polite.
Likely, the Zulu may remain polite with Japanatica as long as we do not contest their resources and expansion possibilities, and can develop a sustainable border with them. We may seek to hva beneficial relations with them, until we have clarified our difficult relation with the Romans, which means that we must deal with the Riomans first.

This means we need to build Zojoji up North on the coast with Iron, to build the other two Northern locations in the updated National Security Plan. It is important that Zojoji can become a coastal city, so we can expand our maritime options in term 2.


The Zulus are disadvantaged in that their special unit the impi will be quickly obsoleted and phased out in the military race. This means that we should focus on defending ourselves against the Romans first, as they are militarily stronger to us, they resemble only a long term threat, if we can maintain good relations with them. Still, they are the ones closest to us, and that we may well establish a defensible border both with Baylonians in the South and the Zulus in the Northeast

I suggest the following measures to counter Zulu influence

Build border cities in the Northeast in order to both contain Zulus and Romans.
Place a garrison on that Eastern Iron, until we can build a city there and deprive Romans of Iron, long term secure those 4 coastal silks.Ideally, we should develop a wedge of cities between the Zulus and the Romans, driving the militarily superior Zulus to the Northern Wastelands and keeping the bountiful south to Japanatica. That extra iron may provide us a local military base that does not rely on roads to develop better troops in the East-

I also suggest we go for Monarchy as soon as we can in order to both be militrily prepared and to have a system that lets us use more than the present commerce, foods and shields bonuses.