BOTM 243: Shaka and Hobbes
You are Shaka Zulu. When you were six years old, you were a mischievious child with an imaginary friend called Hobbes. No, Hobbes was not a stuffed tiger come to life, he was a political philosopher with a strange, foreign accent some might identify as "English". Your parents thought Hobbes was a strange playmate for a boy to have, but the conversations he had with you were a great comfort, helping to make sense of the dystopian state of nature in which you grew up. As he explained, "In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation nor the use of commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
Now that you have become leader of your people, these conversations have served you well, for you start the game with the knowledge of Fascism (in addition to your normal starting techs). You may, if you wish, immediately switch to the Police State civic. It may be urgent to do so, because the game starts with a war of all against all. (In other words, each civilization in the game is at war with each of the others.) You may make peace with your rivals, if you choose to do so, but with this particular set of rivals, you may find it difficult to keep the peace.
Find a path forward, lest your game be nasty, brutish, and short.
Game settings:
Playing as: Shaka of Zululand
Rivals: 4 AIs
Difficulty: Emperor
Starting Era: Ancient
Speed: Normal
Options: No barbarians, no goody huts, no random events
Victory Conditions: All enabled. Espionage Cultural Victories count as Cultural Victories.
Map settings:
Map: Big and Small, Massive Continents, Islands Mixed In
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Mapsize: Small
Climate: Temperate
Sea level: Medium
Map latitudes: -90°S to 90°N
Shaka is Aggressive and Expansive, and you start with Fascism, Agriculture and Hunting.
The Aggressive trait gives free Combat I promotion for melee and gunpowder units and double production speed of Barracks and Drydock
The Expansive trait gives +2 health/city and +25% hammers for worker production and double production speed of Granary and Harbor
Unique unit: Impi (replaces Spearman)
The impi is a super-fast mover: It has 2 movement points, and starts with the mobility promotion, giving -1 terrain movement cost - which means it keeps the fast movement over most forest, jungle and hills (but not forested or jungled hills).
Unique Building: Ikhanda (replaces Barracks)
Not just a mere barracks, the ikhanda acts like a mini-courthouse, reducing city maintenance by 20%. However it costs more to build - 60 hammers against 50 for the plain barracks.
Starting screenshot
This is the start of the game (click for a bigger image):
Adventurer Class bonuses:
You play on Prince level, but the AI still have Emperor level starting units. This is a tough game and there's no shame in taking this Adventurer save.
Challenger Class Equalizers:
You play on Deity level. The AI still only have Emperor level starting units. This is a tough game and I would advise against taking this Challenger save. Then again, I'm not a Deity-level player and you are, so what good is my advice?
To Enter the Competition:
This competition will open at 00:01 am on 22 Oct 2022, server local time (UTC-6:00). From that date and time, you'll be able to get your chosen starting save >>>here<<<.
Submit the save after your victory (or defeat) here, by
Here is a link to a list of the differences between Vanilla, Warlords and BtS.
Software Versions
Windows: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Warlords), patched to version 3.19, and with the BUFFY mod version 3.19.005 installed. You can download the BUFFY mod here. Players using Windows Vista or Windows 7 are encouraged to read the notes on Vista fixes here.
Macintosh: This game MUST be played in Beyond the Sword (NOT Civ4 Vanilla or Warlords), patched to version 3.19, and with the Mac BUFFY mod version 3.19.003 installed. You can download the Mac BUFFY mod here.
While playing...
Remember - for your entry to be accepted, it MUST be your first attempt to play this game, and you MUST NOT replay any turns. If you make a mistake while playing, you have to live with it, learn from it, and carry on the game without replaying.
We will open 'spoiler' threads during the month for players to discuss what happens in their games. Do not discuss any details of your game outside those threads.
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