Nobles' Club 251: Shaka of the Zulu

[Jellybug]

I'm giving this a go. Immortal difficulty. Looks good so far.

Spoiler To 100BC :

Settled in place, second city grabs pigs and copper, third near stone. Plan is pyramids into four city catapults on either Ramses or Mansa. Wasn't sure whether to go for writing or masonry first. Wound up going masonry, and the gold mine helped me pick up writing in a reasonable time anyway.



Apparently Zulu scouts can wrestle bears.


Was going to settle where the worker is, but Mansa beat me. I considered whipping the fourth settler, but I wanted the gold mine to be worked so I could get to writing faster. Figured even if Mali beat me, I could settle a little farther north and steal the corn back with a library, working the deer and specialists with Rep. I completed Pyramids in 1120BC, which I think is reasonable.


Here's the starting area at T111. Should I bulb machinery or philo? I'm leaning toward machinery. I can take out Inca with my current stack, then continue onto whomever with trebs later. The economy isn't online from Mansa's lands yet, and I can still get +18 if building all wealth. I have the world's third best GNP at 0% science (yay mids).



Here's the new land. Decent slice. Stalin will probably come after me for the corn city in the south. Hopefully I can roll the Inca first, who don't have monarchy. By the time people get Feud, I can be kinda near trebs. Will go Hindu soon, maybe should have done already. Not sure what to do exactly but I'm tech leader and have most land. Could probably go cuirassiers or trebs/cannons from here. Next tech is important. Civil Service or Metal Casting->machinery bulb? I don't want to go Caste before war, but the capital has decent commerce. I don't have a lot of happiness resources, which lends itself to whipping, so forges might be a good idea. This is a big macro choice and I'm unsure.

 

[sampsa]

@Jellybug

Spoiler :

First thing I note is that you have many cities way under -cap working specialists. I think in general that's a pretty big mistake. You have a lot of unworked green tiles you could've grown onto and it would show a big difference now. Massing rep specialists is OK when hitting -cap but in general, they should be ran under pacifism and/or during a golden age.

I think I'd try to win liberalism still, even though the date probably won't be great. So now I'd grow cities intending to bulb philo and start a GA with the next one, only then go specialists. Machinery-engineering would be the "fast war"-route, but it's not so clear to me if your empire can handle it.

 

[Jellybug]

@sampsa

Spoiler :

Thank you for the reply. You are extremely diligent and on point, and I will keep your words in mind about growing more in the future to help recovery. I have a few questions:

1.You think I should convert Hindu now, later (during Golden Age), or never? I think now is a decent time, esp. if I grab monotheism. Don't need many buildings but extra failgold be nice. Would make me pleased with Stalin but pissy with Saladin and Huayna.

2.I'm making a settler now to grab the silver up north. Will just plant and work the silver to give my empire happiness, +2 if I go forges (with gold that's 2/3 resis with gold), but may not be necessary given the sugar. Is this resource grab worth it?

3.My remaining army is 12 catapults, 8 axes, 8 impi (effectively, say, 5 axes 5 impi bc I'll need military police in Mali land). After taking the barb city just to the west (or even before), should I go after Capac with just Classical units? His land is really good, and as I see it he doesn't have much tech to bribe people, and nobody likes him. Still no monarchy on him (expecting this any second), so still maybe 10-15 turns from Feud? Problem is that city closest to my core is kinda crappy and far from his own core. I wouldn't mind chilling for a bit, but the units are costing money. If I don't continue war, should I disband units or keep them around in case of trouble with Stalin or Alex (who may vassal Ramses), then upgrade/ add them directly to a stack of maces/rifles alongside cannons?

4. Tech path if playing peacefully till Lib. Basically, cuirs or cannons? Next techs are myst->meditation->bulb philosophy, then lit->music, then civil service en route to Cuirs? I don't have marble so my inclination is go for Steel instead, going Civil Service after philo and switching to Bureau. Maybe it's CS after Philo anyway and backfill music later, even for cuirassiers, but Drama and Music might be good trading chips, could pick up Metal Casting for example.

 

[sampsa]

@Jellybug

Spoiler :

1. Yes, now feels like a good time to convert to a religion. In general I'd nearly always try to run one if the diplo situation allows it. And it usually does, we can ignore AIs who dislike us but getting people up to friendly is very beneficial.

2. I think the city won't immediately pay for itself working just the silver mine, but that immediate +1 to be +2 is probably worth it. I notice you are slow building that settler. It's way better to grow to 6 and whip it (then build wealth for example).

3. Yes with that army, maybe you can immediately go for HC? Barb city is not that important probably. If you choose to not go that route, take barb city/cities and probably disband some of the weaker units.

4. Well, steel is an option but I'd nearly always favor cuirs because they are so efficient. Maybe if you don't have a tech advantage at all you will need cannons.