[BNW] Suggestions for last remaining victory achievements

[rogermexico]

I'm back playing Civ V after not playing for several years. Thanks to all the great advice in this forum, I've shaken off the rust and have won a few games. Now that I'm back in the swing of things, I'd like to complete all the Steam achievements for winning with each Civ.
I just a few left: Portugal, Austria, the Huns and the Zulu.
I'd love to hear suggestions from all of you on fun approaches for each of these. What are some enjoyable strategies for those four specific Civs that people would recommend?
I'm a pretty unskilled player—I usually play King, Epic speed, Huge maps. Usually I'm a fairly peaceful turtle player, which is probably why I haven't finished with the Huns or Zulu yet. But I'm open to suggestions for what you all think will be the most enjoyable ways to tackle these four games.
Thanks in advance!

 

[mbbcam]

With the Huns and Zulu you could just roll a Pangaea map and try peddroelm's Honor-Commerce-Autocracy strategy. You will find a guide for it if you search these forums and some videos on YouTube if you want a demo. It should be complete mayhem .

 

[rogermexico]

Thanks for that mbbcam! I had never seen peddrolem's videos before—they're great!
So if I’m understanding the basics of the strategy correctly:

• Build three cities with good production potential and as many luxuries as possible (for my future happiness crunch.)
• Get the basic infrastructure up and running quickly as I always would (Monuments, libraries, granaries.)
• Work a Barracks in there (which I never do in my peaceful games.)
• Get caravans up as quickly to get the economy going.
• Once I have that done, start cranking out units. Possibly sooner if I’m the Huns to take advantage of the early UU.
• In general tech towards Philosophy and then Education like always, again making detours for UUs.
• Instead of Tradition or Liberty, go full Honour.
• After that go Commerce.
• The two of those policy trees combined will reduce my overall military expenses, and give me the cash I need to rush buy new units as they come online.
• Once I feel like I’ve got the forces and infrastructure I need, commence warfare, and just keep rolling until it's over, using my cash to keep my military advantage instead of worrying about building a massive tech lead into the modern era.

Is that the basic idea? It's a long way from my usual turtle games but will probably be the best way to get the Hun/Zulu experience I imagine.

 

[mbbcam]

That's a good summary. You may need to be a bit flexible depending on your nearest neighbours, and depending on the terrain. Aggressive neighbours can make it necessary to get six archers asap, and a lot of jungle and hills can slow down an offensive a lot. It can make life a lot easier if you declare war on a neighbouring City State and use that to train archers or composite bows so that they get a few promotions. Crossbows with logistics are particularly deadly, provided you get them early enough. Once you start encountering Muskets it gets harder, so you need Gatling Guns. But I would think that on King you ought to be able to overwhelm the enemy in fairly short order. And obviously you would beeline the techs for the UUs so you can get them into the action in good time. But try to resist the temptation to use them piecemeal. Use a group of them. Much more effective. It is all a learning experience, and it may take you a while to get it working well. If you are not used to warfare, tactics need to be learned.

 

[rogermexico]

Ok cool, that's all very helpful. Alright I am going to roll up a Huns Pangea game and give it a go. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks!

 

[rogermexico]

Well, I did it finally.
I really struggled with the domination wins. I don't know how many Huns games I started and abandoned a hundred turns in. In the end I went back and finished up Portugal (diplo), Austria (science), and realized I needed to do Sweden and Indonesia (both culture) as well.
Then I went back and tackled the Huns and Zulu domination games. As a long-time peaceful player I always work hard on getting those green diplo modifiers with the AI, and couldn't shake the feeling that I was doing something wrong when they started turning red on me.
What I realized eventually is that with both of those Civs I was pushing for a really early victory based on the UUs. And I'm just not a skilled enough warmonger to do it quickly. So I did a Zulu game where I followed the Honor-Commerce-Autocracy path but waited until the Industrial age for the big conquest push with Impi-Rifles and Artillery. By that time I had Commerce fully filled and Autocracy started, and the difference that makes for happiness and the economy is tremendous.
And then for the Huns I was pretty burnt out on warfare so I decided to tackle another long-elusive achievement. In all these years playing I've never won on Deity. So I fired up a duel game against Venice. I realize that will sound cheesy to the skilled players here but wow, even that was the skin of my teeth (so many units!), and I don't think I would have won without the experience of all those abandoned Hun starts previously.
Anyway, thanks for the advice from folks! I feel like I learned a lot about how the game works. One thing I did was switch from Epic to Standard pace, and I feel like the game makes a lot more sense now. I'm looking forward to improving turn times now with my new-found understanding.

 

[BlackWizard]

I also got first deity win on duel map against venice with huns. Dont worry if it sounds cheesy. That why the settings are there Congrats for first deity win