Why is many peple so annoyed about the Zulu?

[Dragon67]

I have read many treats about how aggressive they are against you. I'm not an expert, since I suck in early war, and have other weakness. I believe I have played about 60 games so fare. And the Zulu has only declared war against me once, I’m serious, and not kidding. I use them as my attack dogs, and tries as possible I can to make trades to them, even support them. I wonder what kinds of tactics you people use against the Zulu, so may we can learn more about those aggressive nations. The same to the Germans, but they are a little bit harder to handle.
My worst backstabbers are the Chinese/Indians/Persians and Egypt, and I need to learn more about them, that’s my weakness.
I hope we all in this topic can discuss some experians, and maybe teach more to improve our weakness from each other, against those who threatening us.

 

[Dragon67]

I forgot, I don't think it is a newbie thread, since I believe you must use different tactics against different kinds of civ's.
Oh, by the way I am a warmonger, but I don't think that’s why Zulu likes me

 

[WildFire]

What level are you playing? Depending on the difficulty of the level, the aggression could vary a lot! On chieftan, most likely, they will stay in the Ancient and Middle ages while the human bolts ahead and destroys the world. On diety, the AI is VERY aggresive and will sign Military Alliances and MPP without much thought. And the Zulu have always been a$$holes in my games, declaring war and backstabbing and just doing everything they can to make the humans Civilization be dead.

 

[WildFire]

Well yeah you have to use different tactics against different Civ's. For example, against the Persians you want to try and eliminate them ASAP since they almost always become a major powerhouse in the game because of the early conquests that they have with their immortals. The Ottomans are difficult especially once they get an abundace of Sipahi's because they are very deadly.

Being a warmonger, I am not sure how the Zulu would like you unless you didnt do anything to them, or to someone that they were trading with.

 

[Dragon67]

Originally posted by WildFire444
What level are you playing? Depending on the difficulty of the level, the aggression could vary a lot! On chieftan, most likely, they will stay in the Ancient and Middle ages while the human bolts ahead and destroys the world. On diety, the AI is VERY aggresive and will sign Military Alliances and MPP without much thought. And the Zulu have always been a$$holes in my games, declaring war and backstabbing and just doing everything they can to make the humans Civilization be dead.

I use Monarch lever

 

[WildFire]

Than thats kind of weird. They always are the first to initiate World War in my game, and than the world is chaos. I guess you are just one lucky guy!

 

[Dragon67]

Originally posted by WildFire444
Than thats kind of weird. They always are the first to initiate World War in my game, and than the world is chaos. I guess you are just one lucky guy!

Well maby, but it's strange after 60 games, so I don't think so.
They also starts WW in my games, but not against me


I always try to be nice to them, and as I said before, I support them, always try to make trade, and it is my second army, not hard to make them as an ally (Shaka loves war : D ) . But not if they are too weak. The trade is the clue to make them nice, since they almost everytime is backward from the beginning, and need support badly. That’s why I believe they became backstabbers, to grab bad needed resources(since they lacks of workers).

But I say It again I'm not an expert, I have lots of weakness

 

[Dragon67]

This is an typical example how the zulu acts against me

 

[Scyphax]

I believe that civs reaction to you depends on their civ, how weak you are, how much you trade with them, your rep, your culture, your tech level and how much blank space there is on the map.

The Zulus generally don't create much culture and only in the early game do have a strong military and are tech leaders.
If you trade with them earlý in the game they won't make any demands (they get what they want). Latter in the game you should be stonger than them and they are much less likely to attack you.

 

[Dragon67]

And when that time comes, I go fore conquest, and try use Zulu as ally, if they still are alive. I use to and prefer to play as Military/religious/ Expansionist. The Zulu ARE actually Militaristic/expansionistic so may you are right about that.
If I not are able to get an "reasonable trade", I trade world maps like mad, almost every second turn. That makes them pleased, and I get some gold.

This is a little of topic (story), but it is an example of how many of my games goes: Started the game - 4 continents 31 civ. At my continent, the Germans were north of me. West: Japanese/Korea/Ethiopians (an added new civ agg. level4). To the south: Persians, south of that Zulu, and in the fare south, the Indians.
Sounds like a living nightmare??? Yeah, I was almost to give up from the start, because I was surrounded by aggressive civs only. But what happened? In 2000 BC the Persians attacked me, and I managed to get an alliance with Germans/Zulu and Ethiopians, and that was the Persians destiny. After that we stayed in peace until the late middle age. Then suddenly the "peacefully" Indians attacked the Zulu. I was not able to help the Zulu with forces, since the Indians were very powerfully, so I decided to help them economical (I was in that stage economical powerful). So I gave the Zulu free Iron/Saltpetre 2000-3000 gold, and I succeeded to prevent the Indians to wipe out the Zulu. When the war ended, and two turn later, the Indians attacked me Once again I asked my old ally fore help, no problems, and we all wiped out the Indians.
Rest of this game was only a conquest raid fore me, and won the game.
What was strange with this game, was that those who I expected to be warmongers were peaceful, and loyal to me. And those I expected to be peacefully, they all attacked me. So I was supprised to the way that game turned.
But this story also proves my weakness against peacefully civilisations.

 

[DaveMcW]

The Zulu are very mean (aggression level 5) if they have a bigger army than you. But since they are so bad at building this doesn't happen much.

On Emperor and Deity when they start with free units, neglecting your early defense with the Zulu as a neighbor can be fatal.

 

[Dragon67]

Well I have sometimes wonder why I always play at monarch, maybe it's time to try some of those two high levels. You are right about the free units, but they have also free units at monarch level, but not so many. That's why I always build a large defence from start, to prevent an early invasion and to use them as military police. 2 spearmans in each city, 3 spearmans in cities close to border, rest of them worrier/upgrade swordsmen. Maybe that can explain something?
But it kills my economy badly, and I have to manage it well, to keep me in tech lead position.

 

[hbdragon88]

I'm annoyed at them because they will demand tribute more often than Russia, Germany, or Aztecs, and will declare war instantly if I scale their tribute. And this is on chieftain too. On monarch, in this month's gotm, it was even worse. Luckily I had dealt with the Germans first. I scaled their tribute and they declared war on me; after that, I didn't scale the Zulu's or anybody else's tribute.

 

[Tiger_Nation]

The zulus always seem to be far away from me but they once declared war on me they lost. I was twice the size of them four times the production and witha roughly similar standing army so it was pretty easy but that was in the later stages of the game I had a buffer state between me and them earlier but I killied off the babilonians and I lost my buffer state.

 

[ThePrankMonkey]

its their level of hostility. even when they are smaller and weaker they STILL try to pick on you unless you're really trading with them and you have stuff they want or need. in my latest game they only have four cities and they have tried numerous times to extort tech out of me and ive told them to get bent every time.
the aztecs are also in this game and they declared war twice and went away with blackeyes.

it just seems weird that with the zulu anytime you trade with them it costs you more than if you trade with any other civ even if you are the most powerful civ in the game they still try to demand large amounts of gold from you for even a luxury. i usually just conquer them and i avoid the hassle of being overcharged.

 

[Globetrotter]

In my current Deity game, i had to overrun the Zulus as soon as i noticed they did not have iron on their territory, whereas i had this resource. I just built lots of Swordsmen + Chariots (playing the Egyptians), and put the Zulus down to a couple of cities.

Persia was taken care of the Greeks, Chinese and Russians.

Amazingly, Germany is the most backward civ (Huge map, 16 civ, continents) in tech and in military power...

In a previous game, Germany was eliminated by its neighbors early in the game, and the Zulus grew very strong and destroyed most of their neighbors (i was Zulu's ally), and they beat me in space race by peanuts... (on Deity that is)

 

[Dragon67]

The last picture was from my last game. Here is another example from my new game(Monarch), this is amazing.....Zulu is still in Despotism, and huge step behind me in the tech race. Also this time he is nice and trusty ally. Also look at what my advisor says, he outnumber me by forces, and is still political forward me.

I did not trade much this time, but gave him many world map trade, and sometimes also fore free, and it still works

That's why I don't understand why he is nice to me and no others...

I also prefer those who demand stuff fore free, instead of those who are ROP rapers. In that case I can make my own choice, if I want war or not. And I think that is a more fair way to declear a war, and I always try to prepare fore it (many defenders).

 

[Sarevok]

I hate the zulu, but i also agree trhat the persians and indians backstab the most out of any other civ. for some reason, india just does stuff you piss the player off...

 

[PersianImmortal]

and the germans too..

I could make everyone polite towards me by giving them something as a gift.. not the germans.. once i even gave them saltpeter when they were attacked by an alliance but not a peep.. never gracious..

 

[BiatchGuy]

I don't know about playing against, but I never have much luck when playing as the Zulu. Their UU kinda sucks imo.