Well, it looks like we've got 6 Axemen bearing down on Shaka's capital. Normally that would be good, except there are only 2 of them that are healthy at the moment. A shame really, since Shaka has only 2 Archers behind those 40% cultural defenses.
It does look like Shaka wants to reinforce the city with another Archer, though. I would end up whacking that Archer after a couple of turns.
Sadly, he would turn out a couple more Archers in back-to-back turns before our troops could even move into position ... let alone heal for an assault on Ulundi.
Also on the first turn, the Oracle is built in a distant land and Confucianism is founded. Ramesses would convert and adopt CS on the following turn.
I didn't see any discussion about what to do with the Great General. So I merged him in our capital for the extra xp.
While I was trying to get a couple more Axemen healed and get some reinforcements down there, Shaka went and trained up a Settler in his capital. I decided to back our forces off in an effort to get him to send that Settler out. I was hoping it would take a couple of Archers with it, as the city was up to 5 Archers by this time. But, it was to be a no-go. Instead, Shaka sent a Galley back to Ulundi, presumably to pick up the Settler.
I ended up capturing a couple more of his Workers, before I noticed that a plains tile had a mine sitting on top of it. A dead give-away for metal, every time. That had to go. So I sent our lone Chariot in to take out that mine.
I also decided to pillage his cows. Normally I don't prioritize pillaging food resources, but we needed the cash. Research was turned off by this time and we were still losing money.
With the Chariot being right next to his city, Shaka committed a fatal error. He lost 1 Archer attacking our Chariot. A 2
nd, and successful, assault on the Chariot pulled another Archer out of the city. He also then sent another Archer north out of the city. I had my opportunity! I killed the northern Archer and moved our forces back into position to take Ulundi.
The city fell on the final turn. Even though he was able to
the city back to 4 defending Archers before the assault. He lost the Settler and a Galley when his city fell ...
And the
only reason I was able to take it was because Shaka decided to heal a wounded CG2 Archer on that cow tile rather than pull it back into the city.
If he had done that, I would not have had enough troops to take the city.
I decided to keep the city. Not sure if we can afford it or not, though. Well, we can't. We were at -1gpt at 0% when the battle started. We lost enough Axemen to bring us positive at +2gpt during the battle.
We've got a bit of cash (122 gold) and 4 turns to figure out our economy.
Of course, Shaka could still get a lucky roll on the IBT and get the city back. Our lone cover Axeman defending the city is also wounded. The odds should still be in our favor. Plus if he waits to heal the Archer 1 more turn, we will have the city reinforced and that Archer will most likely be dead.
I spent most of the 10 turns building Axemen, mainly from a lack of anything else to build. The 2 Spearmen that Ozbenno queued up are fortified in Babylon and Cuzco. Cuzco also built a Settler,
which still has movement, out of Cuzco. Do we have any dot map discussions?
There are also a couple of Chariots in the queues. These guys need to head east (I presume) in an effort to locate Ramesses cities. We have OB with him, and are on the trade network. If we could locate him, we could bring in some foreign trade route income. After Alphabet, we need to head towards Currency. Not only for the extra trade route, but to be able to do some gpt trade deals.
We've still got 5 turns left on Alphabet. I'd probably hold off taking Shaka's last city until Alphabet comes in. If he won't give up any techs, then take the city. If he does agree to a peace deal, we'll have to wait 10 turns, of course. But there is only one way for him to get a Settler out of Nobamba. And we've got enough Axemen on hand to follow it ...
A bit past the 72 hour window. Thanks for being patient with me. The save is attached ...
I wouldn't go so far as to say we have too many, but we do have enough for our needs. I laid down a couple more cottages, in addition to the ones that Ozbenno started. I also used a lot of the Workers to gets some roads built to Zululand.
Oh well, take what you can get, I guess. 
