How do you deal with early Zulu?

[Necandus]

I am playing as Persians and they started 20 hexes away from me. By the classical age + now they are spamming Impis (sp?) at me. I can keep them from beating me by creating choke points and using archers and swordsman but no matter how many I kill they keep zerging on the horizon with no end in sight.

No matter how many I kill they never agree to negotiate for peace. I don't even know how long its been now, 50 turns? 100? Obviously I can kill them eventually but I am almost certain the cost in doing so will cause me to lose the game in the long run. All the other Civs and spamming tech and wonders while I slog through this war using most of my resources to fight it.

How do you all deal with such an early and aggressive neighbor with such a powerful and unique early game unit?

Thanks

 

[budweiser]

I respin the map. I don't want to bother with 100 turns of combat while I am trying to enjoy the new features.

 

[Athelfirth]

I change my game plan to attack them as early as possible. As much as I would like to play the more passive tech game there's nothing more annoying than units constantly pillaging border tiles, stunting your growth, and generally being a pain in the ass. Destroy them early then grow in peace.

 

[adwcta]

Wait out a wave, have a couple Trebs ready. Go on the offensive. Get a city (the least well defended one) down to 0 health. Wait a turn. See if he wants peace (he should). If he doesn't, take the city. Next turn, see if he wants peace and you'll give him back that city. Now he REALLY should take that offer.

If you have a good choke point, you shouldn't be losing any (or maybe only a couple) units. You'll eventually generate a great general, make him citadel next to the choke point, and you should be fine. You don't really "lose" any resources doing this except the extra gold for the extra unit maintenance. And, you get to level up your guys very quickly and generate some generals, capture a worker or two, etc.

 

[malitano]

Eradicate them in the classical era. They ruined my first game, on my second game I did not make the same mistake.

 

[Arilian]

Hardly

 

[HaloCapella]

go for honor, build a citadel adjacent to city, garrison it and see the impi drop like flies.

 

[IAmOzymandias]

like halo said, the honour tree's bonuses would be a big plus.

I'd reccommend out-teching them. Get some CB's up and on the defensive, hold the line while you push science (not only so as not to lose the war, but to keep up with the other civs) and when you pop XB, upgrade them quick, then feed off them and get the massive culture for killing their stream of enemy units.

 

[Falconiano]

Early DoW them so they can't pile up units, toss citadel closest to them, steal workers, plunder improvements, denounce, demand, bribe others to DoW them, flip their religion and destroy their trade routes.

 

[Createk]

Kill them with CB, swordsmen and catapults

 

[Catan_Settler]

Same thing with all aggressive early neighbours-- don't sit around expecting a free ride. Get ready for them, kill off the first wave or two, then launch your counter attack. Easy XP is nice and all, but sitting there at a choke point is not helping you move the game forward, as you have already have realized.

 

[Tabarnak]

The last 2 deity challenges have a neighbor Zulu at your door. But those who have successfully ''resisted'' and won the game seems to have a large preference on the ''how to avoid the war and bribe the AI to fight others instead of trying to build the biggest and smartest army.

It's impressive to me because i don't have this kind of play in my head because i mostly play against humans. And that's why i suck at deity . Fortunately, humans don't get huge bonuses

I naturally play towards best use of my proper elements(i.e. map, policy trees, BO order,etc) than actually ''try'' to manipulate the AI at a point where the game can be only focused and won by bribing the AI, which kills a bit the essence of the game, in my opinion. This might be why i prefer mp than sp in general. Of course, deity players do both, but they tend to be raped in mp when they jump against humans too...2 worlds, 2 games.

I mean...why the Zulus don't finish you off, no matter what? Like a real human? Because the game would be unwinnable at deity. And i respect that. But this is also why i don't like this level

So you have 2 options :

-Play like Rambo and try to kill them all
-Be a p*ussy and play at ''hide and seek'' and finally won against clueless AIs


The 2nd option is the smartest even if you look like a little girl

 

[Moriarte]

-Be a p*ussy and play at ''hide and seek'' and finally won against clueless AIs

Welcome to the brave new world!

 

[Securion]

1. Settle your GGs.
2. Dont bother too much with ranged units, they are WORTHLESS against impis. Use Pikemen (Beeline Longswords) and rotate them.
3. PRIORITIZE getting Faith Healers Pantheon to keep your Pikemen alive. You need your units to get high promotions! (Because the impis will!)
4. Build Barracks (and Armoury).
5. Dont stop expanding. Expand AWAY to gather strength.
... etc...

Faith Healers is the key though...

 

[Dan Quale]

Bribe someone else with a big army into backstabbing him if you can. That will stop the zerging in your direction or at least slow him down enough for you to push forward or secure a better defensive line. Also it things start to sour for him and you near his territory peace could be an option.

 

[Falconiano]

Just faced neighbor Zulu.
You know what I did? I had them suicide. Popped 2 citadels on the border, next to jungles. -60 hp every turn, can't pillage it.
They kept running into their death until Sweden zerged them from their back and conquered them all.

And then Sweden started piling bodies near my citadels too.

There should be a natural wonder called The Great Graveyard that pops up when some mega massacre like this happens.

 

[Hieschen]

Had 2 early encounters for the moment (on emperor, never met them in immortal games at this time)

4 archers and 2 melee (spearman) were enough to:

a) kill the attack wave
b) pursuit the retreating remnants of his army
c) conquer 2 recently spammed cities

I proposed him peace thereafter and he accepted my terms (no white peace)

Beelined machinery after edu, upgraded my archers to x-bows.

If in doubt, build some kind of unit when there is a lull in the builders chain of a city,

Settling a GG on a pass through point worked for me too.

This would be enough around +-T140 to go and just kill him.

Was reluctant in each iteration because of the warmonger penalty, so i just used these troops to impress him.

"si vis pacem, para bellum"

 

[casualplayer]

When Zulu decides to go to war, and he will, he doesn't seem real choosy about who he attacks as long as they are close. Bribe him to go pick on the other guy.

I've been Friendly with Zulu but never more than 2 green modifiers worth, no matter what I do. He has also attacked me from a Friendly status so don't get too comfortable. He's a cranky one.

 

[caketastydelish]

I've never played as Persia (as much as I hate to admit it) but shouldn't your immortals be able to hold their own?

 

[Dtekkar]

delete