Immortal Challenge #15 The Zulu

[Fire0rb]

Here a map which is not that hard and can be used to achieve all of the VCs.

You play with the Zulu

- Leader - Shaka
- Capital - Ulundi
- Unique Ability - Iklwa;reduction of 50% of maintenance costs for his melee units and all military units require 25 percent less XP to earn a promotion
- Unique Unit - Impi; Replaces Pikeman; Can undertake a ranged attack before entering into a melee combat
- Unique Building - Ikanda; Replaces Barracks; provides new upgrades, such as bonus to flanking & vs. gunpowder units

All standard pangea.
Here you go the starting location.

Spoiler :

Additional Info

Spoiler :

The start looks not that great (but hey we got IMBA salts) but there are some serious imba expansion possibilities. The point of the game for me was leanring better troop movement and winning via Domination as fast as possible but i failed a bit already

Best thing is this particular spot, never seen so much freaking citrus in one place on normal resource settings.

Spoiler :

 

[Fire0rb]

Finished Turn 181 via Domination

Spoiler :

Did Liberty opening with pyraminds like glory7 described in his guide and stole a worker off Sejong.
Initially i did want to use sejong as a bootcamp but Caesar did drop a city right SE of Bulawayo. it had only 9 def and i did want to build Bulawayo so i just switched targets and did get my 5 archers/CBs to level a bit on the city.
Then i decided to go after rome where i could get more xp for my CBs. Stocked up to about 10 CBs and some spearmen/impis as soon as i got the tech.
(Btw you need writing for Civil Service and Zulu without Impis would not work, so much harder when you really wanan skip the whole upper tech tree)
Then i made the decision to go counter clockwise around and get the capitals because they lined up quite nicely. I had bad happiness issues after claiming the captial of Siam and Japan so my cities were forced to build all buildings which gave happiness (including shrines and temples due to religion) to get anything better than -10. After getting Thebes which had some happiness wonders i was able to get positive in happiness and rolled through the last two capitals with easy.

Could have sped up by building a 2nd army which farms Sejong but i was busy building happiness buildings to not drop much lower than -10. As you can see in the screen i have mroe than 6k gold so i could afford to buy a lot more of the buildings but for my 2nd attempt in domination it was fair. (normally i play much more peaceful )
Another thing was that i only found 1 mercantile CS, maybe there are more but my scouting was not perfect...

Spoiler :

 

[Ergo Sum]

Took the jump from Emperor!

Spoiler :

I'm about t151. Nice map btw, very hospitable start. Anyway I grew peacefully (probably my first problem) til about t100. Right when I was to declare on Rome Boudica called me up to go to war against Sejong...should've let her take Korea. We split it, she got the capital; Rome was a slog because of the jungle, and he got great wall; France was much easier. I stopped there. So I wanted to do counterclockwise conquer but I've been slowed down considerably. And I didn't scout Siam at all - does the mountain range completely surround the capital or does it open up more towards Japan? I'll probably have to push through Japan and Siam with Xbows and Impis then bring up cannons/arty for Thebes and Boudica.

Final question - do I have to take Seoul after Boudica conquered it for domination?

 

[Novalia]

Nope.

 

[Fire0rb]

Final question - do I have to take Seoul after Boudica conquered it for domination?

Yes in BNW you need to control every enemy capital for a conquest victory

 

[PureCalm]

Hey guys, I just downloaded the game but when I tried to open it it says 'Required DLC is not available'. As far as I know I have everything you can get for the game but would you mind listing all the things required to open it so I can double check?

Thanks

Edit: If someone could let me know how to double check what I have as well I would appreciate it!

 

[Fire0rb]

If you want to host a game via internet you can see what dlcs you have.

I have: Mongolia, Spain and Inca, Denmark, Polynesia, Korea, Ancient Wonders, Babylon, G&K, BNW.

 

[Past Redemption]

This actually looks extremely easy. Will play when I get home, but a sub 150 domination victory look pretty doable here...

Not sure what the other civs are, though, outside of korea and Celts, neither of which seems particularly problematic. Arabia/Mongol might be a problem.

 

[Fire0rb]

Yes its a very good map and you can do very fast finishes here

 

[Past Redemption]

Yes its a very good map and you can do very fast finishes here

Then why is it a "challenge?"

 

[Fire0rb]

Well the challenge is to get the best finish time.
It may be easy to geet a victory but being very fast is not THAT easy.

And on the other hand i just wanted to share this nice map

 

[Past Redemption]

Well the challenge is to get the best finish time.
It may be easy to geet a victory but being very fast is not THAT easy.

And on the other hand i just wanted to share this nice map

I should have posted the one I got a few days ago. Immortal, Capital is on a coast with three salt, and has 4 expansion spots with 1-2 salt each. Total of 11 salt between all my cities, and 4 citrus to boot in the nearby jungle. None of them are even forward expansions.

Probably the easiest game I've ever played.

 

[Ergo Sum]

Finish t212 dom! yay!

Spoiler :

slogged through Japan and Siam (a solid 30 or 40 turns) after delivering cannons to the other side of the map; teched to Dynamite (completed 5 turns ahead of schedule with Oxford lol) and finished off Egypt and Boudica in 10 more turns. Arty really breaks the game.

Next?

 

[PureCalm]

If you want to host a game via internet you can see what dlcs you have.

I have: Mongolia, Spain and Inca, Denmark, Polynesia, Korea, Ancient Wonders, Babylon, G&K, BNW.

Ah, didnt have my ancient wonders pack activated. Thanks

Spoiler :

Got a turn 211 Domination win. Started out with a war on Sejong, capturing Seoul then using Busan for exp for a while before taking out Ceasar. Went through high and then France very quickly then got held up for a little while at Japan with his samurai, before taqking out Egypt, Siam and then finally Boudicca.


I usually never play for domination wins but found this pretty fun, I had a couple of insane crossbowmen towards the end, logistic, range, 3 accuracy, 3 barrage. The 3 movement impi also make combat so much more fun lol

 

[Blicero]

T100 progress:

Spoiler :

Semi-easy start; ample food + production and with stone everywhere will have good fpt generation.

Koreans are down; Celts are next. After Korea I was faced with choosing Celts vs. Romans as the next target (Oda had already taken care of Thebes). Neither are easily accessible, so I think I'll go with Celts as it secures the Eastern front. Trouble is she placed Dublin in the best possible position (from her perspective) on the tile right behind the isthmus, which is gonna be a beast to take. I think I'll research optics and come in through the backdoor. Backdoor Boudicca.

There are two awesome city locations on both coasts, and I can't resist settling them. It will probably set me back, but they are both too sick to pass. In fact I realized in the screenshot that I already settled one of them.

BO: scout -> monument -> archer -> worker -> granary -> shrine -> archer x2 -> settler -> caravan -> spearman (bought) -> archer x2

Tech: archery -> pottery -> mining -> AH -> masonry (religion) -> BW (iron/spears/impi) -> wheel -> writing -> construction

Religion: Got pantheon from two faith CS, so didn't have to build a shrine. Chose stone circles with all the stone about. Took church property + holy warriors

SP: Liberty to fast settler -> citizenship -> patronage opener -> consulates (well, nearly there at T100). Will hopefully get the Oracle and go back and finish up Liberty. May use GE on HS.

And screenshot:

Spoiler :

 

[Blicero]

Finally managed to finish with T255 domination. I got surprised by the fact that you need to control all capitols. Japan owned Thebes, and I thought that was ok for the VC. Oops.

Can't seem to get it under T200 on domination. Don't know how you guys manage to do it. Standard maps sure are a lot of ground to cover.

Final screen:

Spoiler :

 

[Furycrab]

Messing around right now in this game, Ill post time if I finish it, but Cerro game is always pretty hilarious. Cerro + Salt + Impi makes for some fairly hilarious gameplay.

 

[Fire0rb]

Can't seem to get it under T200 on domination. Don't know how you guys manage to do it. Standard maps sure are a lot of ground to cover.

Just get your 6-7 archers and roll with it and dont stop until you have won. I mean i didnt loose a single range unit in this game and Impis are a good cannon fodder.

And only conquer these cities you really need. You conquered more than just Paris from France and same with Siam, even though they were located quite nicely to just capital snipe them.

 

[neilkaz]

This is just what I'm looking for and I'll try domination since I haven't been warlike at all in BNW.

I've made the move up to Immortal since after winning a SV on turn 283 in my previous game as Zulu on Emperor, it is clear to me to move up.

Fire_orb mentions "Did Liberty opening with pyraminds like glory7 described in his guide"

Please like me to his guide. I try to read most of what he posts but can't find this.

My first BNW Immortal game is using Poland and I seem to be set up to win it, and once I do, it's time for this and some other Immortal challenges.

Thx ,,, neilkaz ,,,

 

[Moriarte]

Here