Tips for Shaka Zulu Domination

[Assault Potato]

I'm planning to play as the Zulus, King difficulty, Pangea map, Large. I've only won by Domination only once, and it was my first game. It seemed really easy back then, but I was playing on Chieftain and Small map. This is currently my fifth game, and second time playing on King.

Is there any tips for conquering as the Zulus? The games that I had played, especially on King, I had never actually prioritised military, especially true when the game just starts. I had rush straight ahead to Science and Gold generation. It was only up to mid-late game did I start to build military, having won the race in the science and GPT areas. I had also always went for Tradition, having only built tall empires and never attempted wide.

Therefore, is there anything that I have to change from my current playstyle to win a domination victory on King? I was planning to go Tradition, Honour and Rationalism, but after reading some guides Liberty and Commerce seems to be the way to go. Do I need to sacrifice rushing the Great Library to build units? Please advise.

[ValDarkmoon]

In my experience playing on King without investing in some resources into military units the rsult will be that the first civ that finds you will declare war particularly if it's a warlike leader. If AI civs don't fear you they will take your stuff. Try to find choke points on the map either with mountains or ocean borders and build a well defended city in the choke. This city is there for it's defensibility and little else build on the easiest to defend terrain you can and rush walls and ranged units to place around it and keep them upgraded. You will need a handful of ships to deal with enemy ships and embarked units as well if using ocean instead of mountains. If it's not possible to cut off your rivals like this then you will need a stronger military to defend yourself. You really can't get away with establishing your infrastructure before defending any of it on the higher difficulties.

Do this and the AI will still declare war and will often refuse to make peace for a long time as you grind down dozens of invaders one at a time. The good news is that the protected part of your empire can focus on improving scientific, gold, production or cultural output in relative safety thanks to your beefed up front line. Also the computer gets bonuses to help it on King and while the bonuses seem to account for a lot their resources are still finite, eventually they will run out of gold to buy units to fight you.

Try to make sure you don't have to fight on two fronts, try hard to trade with anyone on the opposite side of your borders from the civ you are at war with and denounce the warring leader especially if the other civ you are worried about seems to have no love for them either. Civs that are getting resources from your lands without invading will be less likely to invade especially if both of you hate the same rival leaders.

[zxcvbob]

You dont need the Great Library. (Temple of Artemis or that Mausoleum one or The Oracle are better anyway and easier to get). Get libraries and archers quickly. Build the national college and beeline civil service so you can start spamming Impis (you're still building monuments and barracks and improving resource tiles, etc too) Upgrade your archers. Now you might be ready to take your first victim. Keep teching towards dynamite because the cities will get harder as the game progresses. Impis are not all that strong against cities, but they pulverized everything else and enough of them can overwhelm a city.

I played a domination game recently, where instead of Tradition or Liberty, I started right into Honor. I took the right side first for the culture from city garrison and the cheaper upgrades. After I filled Honor, I took Commerce next and filled that. (then a point or two in Rationalism and the Exploration opener) It worked surprisingly well. (Emperor level and Babylon, I usually play at the King level)

Build roads towards your enemy's cities before you declare war so your cannons and reinforcements can get there faster, and then after you take the city you can connect it quickly for the GPT.

[cerberusiv]

It may seem obvious but the Zulu special promos are good so build their barracks replacement early and build spears not swords so you can upgrade to impis. Don't forget impis upgrade to riflemen not lancers at which point the special promos will no longer be available for them.

Speaking of promos the Zulus get a discount. Instead of promotion at 15, 30 and 60 it's at 11, 23 and 45. I don't build military academies in most situations but Zulu cities with barracks, armory and mil academy produce new units with 3 promos straight off so as the 3rd promo is usually good (and a 4th within reach) mil academies are worthwhile. Maybe even consider Autocracy as your ideology.

[TheMongrelHun]

I did a zulu game with 22 civs domination only on pangea and by the turn 500ish i had 30 or more cities, 4000 GPT and over 800 hapiness. They main key to getting a decisive domination victory is with hapiness, promotions and knowing when the right time to strike is. Make sure to get the barracks replacement and get maybe 10 or so units ( 3 seige, 3 ranged, and 4 melee) so that if a unit is about to die another unit can protect it. By utilizing the same units over and over they get extreamly strong with promotions and will not die.

With happiness make sure to improve 1/2 luxury resources before you start conquring. When you see a civ you want to attack go for cities that have the closest luxury and make sure to produce many happines buildings so that your cities continue to grow.

Kniwing when to strike can be the hardest thing to know. One way to know is when a civ either quite likes/dislikes you. If you can also make them afraid it is an added bonus. Surround their borders with units and make sure they dont have many defending units. Rush in all the seige units to lower the cities defenses and wipe out any remaining units with your melee and ranged units.

And most of all tend to go for Freedom and honor and Autocracy down the line, it will help to boost your units alot and push for more promotions

[Assault Potato]

Originally posted by BurntOutAsh:

I did a zulu game with 22 civs domination only on pangea and by the turn 500ish i had 30 or more cities, 4000 GPT and over 800 hapiness. They main key to getting a decisive domination victory is with hapiness, promotions and knowing when the right time to strike is. Make sure to get the barracks replacement and get maybe 10 or so units ( 3 seige, 3 ranged, and 4 melee) so that if a unit is about to die another unit can protect it. By utilizing the same units over and over they get extreamly strong with promotions and will not die.

With happiness make sure to improve 1/2 luxury resources before you start conquring. When you see a civ you want to attack go for cities that have the closest luxury and make sure to produce many happines buildings so that your cities continue to grow.

Kniwing when to strike can be the hardest thing to know. One way to know is when a civ either quite likes/dislikes you. If you can also make them afraid it is an added bonus. Surround their borders with units and make sure they dont have many defending units. Rush in all the seige units to lower the cities defenses and wipe out any remaining units with your melee and ranged units.

And most of all tend to go for Freedom and honor and Autocracy down the line, it will help to boost your units alot and push for more promotions

Game speed and difficulty?