It seems almost everyone I come across uses the Zulu in H2H and it has gotten to the point where I don't even want to play anymore because of it. What are some ways I can beat this civilization?
It seems almost everyone I come across uses the Zulu in H2H and it has gotten to the point where I don't even want to play anymore because of it. What are some ways I can beat this civilization?
When playing a Zulu you have to accept one "fact": If they get to you with an army within the first 8 turns, you are (probably) going to lose. Aside from that, there are some ways you can adjust your style of play.
Btw, what is your style anyways? Aggressive, expansion, horses, settler walking? Civs?
- It is a good idea to get about 3 warriors out before you start doing other things. Especially if you are in the middle of the map
- If you settler-walk, do not walk for too long and do not walk towards the center of the map.
- Use those warriors to get any close barbs and keep on walking to scout the area and locate where the Zulu is coming from.
- Block areas off with choke points if possible (fortify warriors in one tile connection spots)
- Archers are not necessary to defend against Zulu. It usually takes too long to tech to archers first and then get units out.
- Horses are questionable against Zulu. Very expensive investment (HA is 60 hammers and 20 beakers tech). HAs lose 4.5 vs. 4.5 quite often and the Zulu has more than one WA out and the WAs can surprise you due to the 2 tile movement.
- If you use HAs, guard them with your scouting warriors since injured HAs get killed easily by impis. But keep in mind that a vet impi army overruns single warriors on neutral tiles.
- If Zulu attacks your city, use the 4 warrior trick and kill the army (riskier, but better). Or army up in your cap. But then they are most likely going to retreat and eat up all the barbs or block your trees.
If they do not get to you within the first turns, then they are going to overrun all the barb huts and therefore it will be hard to get gold. If they get all 3 AI caps quickly it will be a tough one. But if you manage to get 1 AI cap yourself or the Zulu only takes 1 or 2 caps, it is doable. Just keep in mind that you won't get as much gold as usual from barbs and adjust your strat (less horses or something like that). Impi are only lethal in the first 10 turns. After that you should be able to defend your turf against them. Then it depends on the number of AI caps they take.
The important thing to remember is that they are at a disadvantage once they enter medieval. Their growth bonus makes it harder for them to expand from 2 and 3 pop cities. So they have to grow their cities more. Which is fine if they get the AI caps, but a problem if they do not.
Last edited by REM018; 06-06-2012 at 08:37 AM. Reason: Why are you even reading this?!
Read REM's post again. I don't think you will find better infomation. The key is that most Zulu players in ranked are pretty bad players. If you do play a good Zulu player.... well.... unless you are China or America then they are probably going to beat you more often than not.
Some good civ's to use against Zulu:
China (more production and great at playing from behind/with minimal cities)
USA (all you have to do is survive to 5 techs and you should win)
Arabs (can kill impi's with warriors no problem)
Spanish (if you can defend your cap then you can expand to the islands)
Aztecs (start with gold and autoheal can protect your HA as long as you keep it in trees or on a hill)
Germans (warriors can kills impi's easier due to vet. good at playing from behind)
Notice that I basically just listed the best civs in general other than the Zulu! If you are Russia and are playing a decent Zulu player with a decent start then you are going to need some luck.
The Zulu are truly hard to face especially when a good player is behind them. People get it twisted that there are good Zulu players and there are average and the garbage. You know you are facing a good Zulu player when they skip barbs especially in h2h because the aim is to kill you or put pressure as soon as possible. Since there are more than 2% of zulu players that do that then you have to worry about your barbs. As Rem0 said that surviving the first 10 turns is pivotal for a chance against them. Map location will be key for your chance in winning.
You must work on two trees no matter you setter walk or not to get as much force on the field as possible. Having a warrior overran is not bad especially if it happens more than 3 turns away from your cap as you know what is about to go down. Not getting more than 2 warriors out I know will come to failure. There are many time forks to come across and that one path you was going with 3 warriors can become 4 paths. What you do in the beginning 10 turns counts towards your survival but you do have to understand that some games there will just be nothing you can do because I hate to say it but starting positions means almost everything.
Great advice all around. The knowledge level on this board never ceases to amaze me.
Sometimes there is nothing you can do, but you can improve your chances by playing smart.
I agree most Zulu players aren't very good after the initial rush. I don't think they get the chance to play many longer games.
There are about 25 players who are Zulu all the time. Learn their names or write them on a scratch pad next to your xbox. That way, at least you know what is coming and you can get a decent CIV to defend. I like to counter them with either the Arabs, Actecs, or Spain. China and USA would also be good also, but - like the Zulu - I never play them just out of principal. Unless, of course, the other player talks trash or glitches.... then I'm coming at them with USA or Zulu.
Scan the mountains for boarders - this is handy with other civs and twice as handy vs zulu. Seeing zulu boarders is good but other ai boarders are worth noting too, since its quite likely he will take one - now you have an idea how much time you have.
But when i play the zulu generally i just stop caring much about the win. the strategies id probably use to win against a zulu noob are pretty much useless for playing against quality and will just teach me bad habits.
So i just do fun stuff.... I remember using the mongols to settler rush / warrior rush a zulu (and suceeded). bet he didn't expect that!
hard 2 beat a gd zulu player, but i would suggest bronze working first followed by a nice legion squads of death, most zulu players will have the confidence of there early ancient success leaving them vulnerable 2 a well placed attack, failing that ,china is a gd deterrant
They will be far too focused on getting impis everywhere and you will rarely see their tech start to increase until at least 1000bc. Your main goal is to get to 100g and another settler out of your cap on a galley to somewhere safe. (fish islands). Your cap is easy to defend. Then you can out tech him to most early bonus' and build a legion army or two if he starts to camp you. If he's camping you he's not taking down AI. Most don't know what to do when it gets to medieval.
Duke I've always found that India is a great adversary to the zulu especially on a rubber/oak tile.Very easy to expand and Fundi legions can mop up later.
Turns out to be another of those threads where the OP disappears. Asks a question, everybody chimes in and that's the last we heard of the OP ...
this is what i do aainst a zulu:
chinese - custom ur city so that ur on 2 scince and 1 forest and buy a galley and research bronze working. after 5 turns change the galley to a archer and rush it for 0 gold. then do double forest to get another 2 arches out to get a archer army in 10 turns
That just sounds like a long road to certain death tbh. What you gonna do with no Gold and the zulu camp you? You need to get out there and try to get some gold, map knowlegde etc.Originally Posted by ICrazy skills
chinese - custom ur city so that ur on 2 scince and 1 forest and buy a galley and research bronze working. after 5 turns change the galley to a archer and rush it for 0 gold. then do double forest to get another 2 arches out to get a archer army in 10 turns
I like to play the Arabs but the Zulu seem to either get to me very early or steal all the gold/capitals and I am not sure what to do. However, you guys have provided some good information so next time I run into one I will try some of these tips.
If you know the the guy your playing is going to use the zulu I always play Arabs. There are no better impi killers than the fundy warrior. I pump out 4 to 6 warriors depending on map location and start working on horses then legions. I rush a barracks as soon as possible and start pumping out legions and settlers and work my way to nav after mathmatics bonus and drop off on a galleon anywhere from 4 to 6 legion armies and have fun killing his stupid a%%. Ive done this to the point where the zulu player has had as many as 20 techs to my 8. Cats can be another option but ive found that they lose to archers fairly easily and dont want to waste the production. Scout out his cities is another important part of this attack as well dont just attack the first city you see, make sure its got at least a library or a market in it. Most zulu players are impatient morons so as soon as you take there best city they dont have the patience to work at an even game and usually quit. Anyways playing a zulu player is never fun for me and I will usually avoid them.
LoL. Very true.
It just depends who is closest to Zulu cap, they are searching with single warriors but to form an army they all go in the same direction. If they find your cap they are coming for you, if they don't then they are going for someone else first. 3 warriors fortified in cap will have a good go at stopping 2 veteran zulu armies. If they reach you first, all you can do is defend yourself and half the time they will quit because it has wasted too much of there resources and given everyone else time to defend. If they succeed, they keep the ball rolling.
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