Of all the Civ Civs, The Zulus are perhaps least deserving. Their Golden age consisted mainly of uniting a few tribes and conquering a little land, and it ended with them being defeated by British Colonists - not exactly the material you expect to stand the test of time. Their UU replaces the Spearman, yet was used in the 19th century. And unfortunately for those who want to play it, their strength in Civ is more or less accurate.
Their two Civ Traits, militaristic and Expansionist, work quite well together, as they both belong in the category of traits you dont want your neighbor to have. What theyre good for is building a lot of cities and letting no-one stop you while doing so. The bonus scout can be used for finding enemies as well as city spots, and being able to raze cities when they get in your way gives your settlers much-needed breathing room. Tons of small cities (what Expansionist Civs tend to have) are ideal for pumping out military units, which have relatively small costs and therefore arent a huge investment from each city. The many cities also give you the unit support you need while youre a Despotism. So far, so good.
The trouble with the Zulu starts when you start wondering which military units theyre going to build. An early UU is ideal for a militaristic Civ, and once again the Zulu manage they need only research one tech to get the Impi, a spearman with an extra movement point. But it is with the Impi themselves that the problems begin. Though there are several good defensive UUs, The Zulus are the only militaristic Civ to have one (unless you have PTW and not C3C, in which case Carthage has one too), and with good reason too militaristic UUs should be conquering cities, not ensuring a strong border. Even a spearman (the very unit Impi replaces) has a 67% chance of successfully defending against an Impi assault.
Luckily, Impi have two redeeming factors. The first is to think of them not as city-destroyers but as more indirect warriors. For instance, their extra speed makes them great worker/settler captors, and also makes them good at improvement destroying. In one game I was able to more or less avoid conflict with my opponent, and simply harassed him until he gave me cities for peace.
The second redeemer is to remember that Impi are the first units in the game to get withdraw. This means that they will retreat from a battle when at one hit point., living to fight another day. This means that you can position your Impi at the doorstep of your enemys city (you rarely need to worry about the defensive Impi being attacked), and next turn you can freely attack, knowing that if you lose you can heal and return. This system is tedious and isnt foolproof (if the defender is reduced to 1 hit point too, the Impi wont retreat because itll think theres a good chance to finish the guy off), but offsets the Impi offensive weakness slightly.
Even with these abilities, the Impi are an awkward UU for a militaristic Civ, and the Zulus will not be able to do many Impi sweeps across the continent which is unfortunate, because that is just what the Expansionist trait needs to be powerful.
Even if you manage to secure a reasonable empire in the beginning with your Impi, from then on youre basically on your own. The Expansionist trait is not good past the ancient era, and an early militaristic UU means that you dont have much of an advantage later on. You might be able to thrive if you did well enough in the beginning, but will likely get slaughtered by Sipahi or Panzers in the following eras.
Summary
A very early-oriented Civ will not do well if you dont practically win in the beginning. A weak UU especially so because the civ is militaristic makes warmongering (your only choice) a poor option. A third-tier Civ, although on crowded Pangeas it advances to the second-tier.
Their two Civ Traits, militaristic and Expansionist, work quite well together, as they both belong in the category of traits you dont want your neighbor to have. What theyre good for is building a lot of cities and letting no-one stop you while doing so. The bonus scout can be used for finding enemies as well as city spots, and being able to raze cities when they get in your way gives your settlers much-needed breathing room. Tons of small cities (what Expansionist Civs tend to have) are ideal for pumping out military units, which have relatively small costs and therefore arent a huge investment from each city. The many cities also give you the unit support you need while youre a Despotism. So far, so good.
The trouble with the Zulu starts when you start wondering which military units theyre going to build. An early UU is ideal for a militaristic Civ, and once again the Zulu manage they need only research one tech to get the Impi, a spearman with an extra movement point. But it is with the Impi themselves that the problems begin. Though there are several good defensive UUs, The Zulus are the only militaristic Civ to have one (unless you have PTW and not C3C, in which case Carthage has one too), and with good reason too militaristic UUs should be conquering cities, not ensuring a strong border. Even a spearman (the very unit Impi replaces) has a 67% chance of successfully defending against an Impi assault.
Luckily, Impi have two redeeming factors. The first is to think of them not as city-destroyers but as more indirect warriors. For instance, their extra speed makes them great worker/settler captors, and also makes them good at improvement destroying. In one game I was able to more or less avoid conflict with my opponent, and simply harassed him until he gave me cities for peace.
The second redeemer is to remember that Impi are the first units in the game to get withdraw. This means that they will retreat from a battle when at one hit point., living to fight another day. This means that you can position your Impi at the doorstep of your enemys city (you rarely need to worry about the defensive Impi being attacked), and next turn you can freely attack, knowing that if you lose you can heal and return. This system is tedious and isnt foolproof (if the defender is reduced to 1 hit point too, the Impi wont retreat because itll think theres a good chance to finish the guy off), but offsets the Impi offensive weakness slightly.
Even with these abilities, the Impi are an awkward UU for a militaristic Civ, and the Zulus will not be able to do many Impi sweeps across the continent which is unfortunate, because that is just what the Expansionist trait needs to be powerful.
Even if you manage to secure a reasonable empire in the beginning with your Impi, from then on youre basically on your own. The Expansionist trait is not good past the ancient era, and an early militaristic UU means that you dont have much of an advantage later on. You might be able to thrive if you did well enough in the beginning, but will likely get slaughtered by Sipahi or Panzers in the following eras.
Summary
A very early-oriented Civ will not do well if you dont practically win in the beginning. A weak UU especially so because the civ is militaristic makes warmongering (your only choice) a poor option. A third-tier Civ, although on crowded Pangeas it advances to the second-tier.
