A Vox Populi(CBP) Guide: The Zulus

Overview

A guide on how to play the Zulus with the Vox Populi(Community Balance Patch) mod. No other civ focuses so heavily on buffing infantry above all else, and no other pure warmonger focuses so much on building towards their Unique Unit.

Introduction

These guides are designed to help players who are new to Civ but still interested in Vox Populi, familiar with Civ but new to Vox Populi, or even those well versed in Vox Populi who just want to see if there’s anything they didn’t know about a particular civilization. I am actually a big fan of Zigzagzigal’s Civ guide series, and it really helped me learn a lot about the game, and I wanted to bring a similar experience for fans of the Vox Populi or Community Balance Patch modpack. For those interested in the modpack it can be downloaded here[forums.civfanatics.com]

Anyways, without further ado, onto the Zulus!

Before I go into depth with this guide, here’s an explanation of some terminology I’ll be using throughout for the sake of newer players.

Beelining – Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you’d research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher – The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. +33% Great Scientist rate and +25% growth in all cities from rationalism.)
GWAM – Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener – The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% Great Person Rate and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Tall Empire – A low number of cities with a high population each.
UA – Unique Ability – the unique thing a Civilization has which doesn’t need to be built.
UB – Unique Building – A replacement for a normal building that can only be built and used by one Civilization.
UI – Unique Improvement – A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn’t replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single civilization
UU – Unique Unit – A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by militaristic City-States when allied.
Uniques – Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire – A high number of cities with a low population each.
XP – Experience Points – Get enough and you’ll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

Brief Unique Summary

The Zulus have a plains & avoid jungle start bias. This will push you a bit away from the center of the map and make it a little harder to conquer the world due to some civs being farther away, but plains at least keep you away from the tundra edges of the map, and the open terrain is ideal for the faster Zulu melee units

Melee and Gun units require 50% less maintenance, and all units require 25% less xp to get to their next promotion

Your military is 50% more effective at intimidating City States.

A standard melee unit

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (28 instead of 25)
• Obsoletes at Replaceable Parts rather than Rifling
• Performs a ranged attack before engaging in melee, and +25% combat strength against gunpowder units (Spear Throw)

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

None

Positive Changes

• +1
• Melee & gun units receive the Iklwa promotion
• Military Supply Cap increased by 2(up from 1)

Misc. Changes
Arrives at Bronze Working instead of Military Theory

Strategies and Victory Routes

These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the Zulu uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking

The Zulu uniques focus solely on warfare more than almost every other civ. However, almost no civs can match the mid-game rushing potential of the Zulus. Defensively their military bonuses hold up well too, especially against ranged units, although armored units could pose a threat. Ikandas also make sure even if you have to buy units in a pinch they’ll be more upgraded then most, at least if it’s a melee/gun unit.
The only other things of note is that the Zulus have a slight gold advantage due to being able to support a larger army then most civs, or have the same size while making decent money, as well as being able to get a bit more gold from bullying city states. Of course this actively discourages them from diplomacy.

Unique Ability: Iklwa

The Zulus rely heavily on infantry units, which, excluding the swordsman and longswordsman, are best attributed to being spammable due to not requiring resources. However this comes with a few drawbacks. They tend to be a bit weaker then their resource using counterparts, having to amass so many can put a drain on your economy, and their expendable nature means they struggle to gain promotions. The UB helps to alleviate the first issue, while the UA handles the last two.

Above: I had only conquered one city at this point, with fairly minimal resistance at that. This spearman has nonetheless gotten Buffalo Horns and Shock I

All Zulu units require 25% less xp for promotions. This means units get stronger faster, get minor heals more often, and overall can just hit above their normal combat experience compared to other civs. While this is nice for melee units as they get to buffalo horns really quickly even with just the UB giving xp, they will still be somewhat slow to the higher level promotions because of the buffalo detour. This is probably most useful to your seige units you’ll have to take out cities, as they’ll rapidly get to volley.

The other important part of the UA is the 50% reduced maintenance for melee/gun units. Many early game warmongers with strong melee units, the Persians, the Greeks, and even the Aztecs(kinda) will almost certainly be losing money in order to build a good enough force to actually conquer anything. The Zulus in contrast, can build a force of mostly spearmen, sprinkle in a swordsman or two as well as a few catapults, and they’ll still most likely be making some money. This means you don’t need to waste as much time trying to build markets or attempt to maybe find a decent trade route, which probably isn’t going to happen that early in the game. The Zulus should definitely still do so, but they can reliably go conquering first before having to do so.

A more minor but still useful part of their UA involves tribute from city states. Getting tribute from a city state is a little bit complicated. You’ll almost always be able to get some tribute, but the amount they’ll give is based on several factors, most notably nearby military units. The Zulu will increase the intimidation of their units by 50%. This can actually mean you can get a good amount of money from city states early on since you can guarantee a high amount of money. Enough to buy a unit or worker or upgrade a unit or two, just from one city state. This is mostly an early game bonus, as you can gain more from city states in the late game by either allying them, or conquering them.

Unique Building: The Ikanda

The Ikanda is the reason that the Zulus commit almost solely to melee/gun units. The Ikanda grants those units the Iklwa promotion, which leads into Buffalo Chest, Buffalo Horns, and then finally Buffalo Loins.

• +10% combat strength while attacking
• +2xp for every turn spent unembarked in the enemy territory of a major civ

This is a decent bump to your unit’s strength but what is more important is that your units will rapidly be gaining xp while in enemy territory, this combined with the fact that Zulu units require less xp to level up means you’ll be very quickly promoting units

As the Ikanda gives the normal +15xp of a barracks, you can obtain Buffalo Chest immediately when building a unit.

• +10% combat strength
• +10% combat strength while attacking
• +2xp for every turn spent unembarked in the enemy territory of a major civ
• +25 hit points

A bit more combat strength, and more health, which will give you a big advantage even against units who have more combat strength

• +20% combat strength
• +10% combat strength while attacking
• +2xp for every turn spent unembarked in the enemy territory of a major civ
• +25 hit points
• Flanking Bonus increased by 33%*

*Not particularly accurate, the flank bonus increases by +25% or by an additional 250% of what it used to be, depending on how you want to represent it

Flank bonuses seem to be both confusing and the numbers given just straight up wrong in Vox Populi, but long story short, instead of getting +10% combat strength for each adjacent unit, a unit with Buffalo Horns gets +35% combat strength per adjacent unit. Yes, 35%, you read that right, on top of 25 hp and 30% combat strength when attacking

• +30% combat strength
• +10% combat strength while attacking
• +2xp for every turn spent unembarked in the enemy territory of a major civ
• +25 hit points
• Flanking Bonus increased by 33%*
• +1 Movement

*Not particularly accurate, the flank bonus increases by +25% or by an additional 250% of what it used to be, depending on how you want to represent it

Finally, Loins gives your melee units extra movement, making them pretty much completely usurp the role of cavalry, with tons of combat strength and other benefits on top

The Ikanda does have one other benefit, and it may seem really minor and not worth discussing. Ikandas give +1 culture. Many unique buildings give a small extra yield boost on top of their unique function, and ultimately they don’t make a large difference, but in this case I’d argue it does. The Zulus are likely to take their time building arenas and amphitheaters, so will lack culture, taking longer for policies and causing more unhappiness. This 1 culture doesn’t fully make up for that, but it gives the Zulus a notably better early culture then most early warmongers, although still less then most peaceful civs.

Unique Unit: The Impi

The Zulus Uniques help almost entirely eliminate the weaknesses of melee units, and add a few useful bonuses on top, but they lack a real punch to get through strong defenses. The Impi are that punch

The Impi are a truly monstrous unit of the renaissance, that can beat pretty much any unit of it’s era, and still hold up well against industrial units. On the surface, Impi don’t actually seem all that impressive. They are decently stronger then tercios, but actually less so then the other tercio replacement UUs, and they only have one unique promotion, that doesn’t even carry over on upgrade. That promotion however, is Spear throw, and it is powerful.

Above: 22 damage from the ranged attack, and 42 from melee

The main benefit to Spear Throw is that Impis will perform a ranged attack before they engage in a melee fight. I’ve found the ranged attack can do anywhere from just over half the damage of the melee attack to closer to a third, but either way, it’s a noticeable, though not insane amount of damage. The ranged attack can kill low health units on it’s own, but don’t rely on it doing so. What’s important is that it deals damage, reducing the target unit’s combat strength, and then a melee attack occurs. This means that even though the numbers might not look in your favor, on offense the Zulus can still beat any unit one on one. With the Zulus bonuses though, it’s rarely going to be 1 on 1, most likely the Zulus can outmass their opponents, and the Impi are no exception.

The other bonus that Spear Throw gives is +25% combat strength against gunpowder units. Gunpowder units are basically all the melee units after tercios(not including them) that aren’t otherwise classified as mounted or amor. The only thing that this is relevant against are fusiliers, and any fusilier replacement UUs. Fusiliers have a combat strength of 38, 10 higher then Impi. With Spear Throw, Impis effectively have 35 combat strength against fusiliers, which is still a slight disadvantage. In addition fusiliers also start with field works, giving +15hp and +15% combat strength against ranged attacks. This means that your Impi’s ranged attack is less effective, although it should still likely do enough damage to ignore the +15hp. 1 on 1 Impis will most likely loss against fusiliers, but the Buffalo promotions allow you to win if you can get enough flanking bonuses, and while this will require favorable numbers, the Zulus excel at this, and they don’t need more then they normally would have anyways. It should be noted that while Impi still hold up decently to fusiliers, they will struggle once cavalry and gatling guns enter the picture, so upgrading them into fusiliers and quickly into riflemen is a good idea.

One more quick thing to say about Impis. I said earlier that the other tercio replacements have higher combat strength then Impi, which is true. However, for whatever reason, the French Musketeer and the Swedish Carolean are classified as gunpowder units, unlike tercios. This means that the +25% combat strength against gunpowder units applies, and they are still quite a bit weaker then fusiliers, so Impis will tear through these units, and therefore the Zulu can laugh at what are otherwise two of the strongest conquerors in the game.

None

Policies

The Zulu take a pretty standard warmonger route of Authority followed by Fealty and then finishing with Imperialism.

Opener: Little bit of production to help early unit and building construction, plus easier barbarians and some culture out of them and any other units you kill to boot

Dominance: Get some science out of your kills too, plus the healing will allow your units to stand a bit of a chance at surviving a followup attack after defeating another unit

Tribute: The Zulus are more inclined then most to bully City States, so getting some culture from it is nice

Imperium: You’re bound to be conquering a lot of cities, so this will probably add up to several techs and a few policies

Discipline: The Zulus may handle unit maintenance well, but they’ll struggle with happiness as much as any warmonger. This will help mitigate that.

Honor: Make sure you’ve always got your Ikandas up, and you’re gonna get a nice free boost to your army every now and again

Finisher: Landsknechts, Foreign Legions and Mercenaries all benefit from the Ikanda, and so are exceptionally good for the Zulu. Landsknechts even upgrade into Impi

Opener: Monasteries are a solid building, definitely build them where you can, but it’s going to be hard to build them in every city considering how much you’re likely to conquer

Nobility: The Zulus want to build armories even more then most warmongers, so faster built and maintenance free armories are a must. The castle happiness is very helpful as well

Divine Right: Reduces unhappiness by a very large amount, plus if you actually manage to keep your happiness up for any length of time, enjoy a nice bit of culture

Serfdom: You’re bound to have plenty of pastures somewhere at this point, especially given your plains start bias. Make them better

Burghers: You’re bound to be conquering lots of resources and getting plenty of We Love the King Days, so get some production out of them.

Organized Religion: Not very useful if you didn’t found a religion, but is still somewhat useful to get monasteries and industrial era great people a bit faster.

Finisher: Whether you’ve founded your own religion or had one spread to you, some extra yields never hurt

Opener: Your Great Generals can actually keep up with your melee units now. Plus if you need to conquer someone overseas, faster navies can help with that.

Colonialism: You’ll have lots of monopolies by now, get some more use out of them.

Regimental Tradition: Faster Great General and Admiral generation, as well as making them stronger, good to have on the land or on the sea

Martial Law: You’ll definitely have plenty of puppet cities, and conquered ones too. Both of them will be less of a burden now.

Exploitation: Some extra yields on almost every tile of the empire, and the expanded upgrade positions has some niche use

Civilizing Mission: Gold from conquering cities, and production in said conquered cities, everything you need to push the front line.

Finisher: A stronger navy, and a new way to use air units to help manage unhappiness.

Ideology

The best option for almost every pure warmonger is Autocracy, and the Zulus are no exception.

Elite Forces: This stacks beautifully with the Zulu UA, making units start with tons of promotions, and gain them just as fast

New World Order: The Zulus need every bonus they can get to reduce unhappiness, and this is a big one

Military-Industrial Complex: Cheaper unit upgrades are nice for those last expensive, bulk upgrades

Lightning Warfare: You already some of the strongest gun units in the game, double down on that advantage

Martial Spirit: An amazing bonus to clean up your last conquest or two, but it is a temporary boost. If you still have more then two civs to conquer, it might be better to postpone this, but it is always worth getting when the moment is right.

Air Supremacy: Free Airports in every city means that you almost don’t need a navy as long as you have a city on every continent. Also makes air units quicker to build if you need to.

Wonders

Statue of Zeus: Your units won’t have very many high level upgrades at this point, especially your siege, so this is quite nice

Terracotta Army: You’ll be killing lots of units, so some extra culture on top of Authority’s is welcome

Alhambra(Authority Only): Add another promotion to the newly built unit pile

Chichen Itza: Reduces empire wide unhappiness by a good amount.

Red Fort(Fealty Only): Put this in a city that you’re worried might get some warfare brought to it, and laugh at its invincibility.

Brandenburg Gate: While it only applies to one city, units coming out of that city will have an absurd amount of promotions

Neuschawnstein: A bit hard to build given it has terrain requirements, but it’ll give lots of happiness from your already cheaper castles

Prora(Autocracy only): A very high amount of happiness, might not entirely get rid of your unhappiness issues on its own, but it goes a long way.

Pentagon(Imperialism only): Some free air units, and get them out faster. Solid if you need the air support

CERN: Two free techs to clean up your last units.

Hubble Space Telescope Similar to CERN, you’ll most likely only need one of them to clean up your final units

Pitfalls to Avoid

The Zulus are one of the simplest civs in the game, but mistakes are still possible

Your melee units can do basically all unit fighting, but they can’t really get away with taking cities on their own. You’ll need some siege

The Ikanda gives massive bonuses to your melee units, more then enough to justify war. Waiting for Impis is wasting about 2 eras of war. Not to mention your Impis will be stronger if you war earlier, since they upgrade right from the units you’ll be using, and therefore have more promotions.

Unraveling Ulundi: Counter Strategies

Shaka may be a monstrous melee conqueror, but he’s very single minded in this, and can be exploited in other ways.

There isn’t a lot you can do about The Zulus reduced gold maintenance on melee units, but it’s good to note that while this makes The Zulus better able to keep an army going, they are no better at getting that army up then anyone else, as they have no benefits to gold or production. With their cheaper promotions, it is very important to kill every unit you can, try your hardest to prevent low health units from escaping. The Zulus also have more incentive then most to bully city states, especially in the early game, and this presents an opportunity for you. City States that are bullied may give you quests, such as giving them a pledge of protection, denouncing the civ that bullied them, or even declaring war on that civ. This means that you might be able to get easy alliances with city states near the Zulus

The main thing to consider with Ikandas is the Buffalo line of promotions. Zulu melee units get massive flanking bonuses, so try to keep you units tightly packed, and don’t let lone units try to take down any Zulu units unless you are very willing to lose them. Zulu units are also faster, and you are going to struggle to take them out with your melee units. Mounted units are rarely an option unless you are up against Swordsmen/Longswordsmen, but armor units can work well in the late game. The best option overall is probably ranged units. As long as you can keep them protected for long enough they should be able to kill zulu units. Normal ranged units are quite vulnerable to being overrun by Zulu units if they do get caught out though, mounted ranged units can somewhat avoid this, but will likely be even frailer due to most Zulu units having formation I.

Impis may be one of the scariest units in the entire game, but they ultimately are the extreme conclusion to all of the Zulu melee units. Try to keep your units together, focus fire single units with ranged units, and don’t let any low health units escape. One other thing to note is that Impis on their own can’t really take cities, so send a small contingent of mounted units to try and take out their siege units, and even if the Zulus decimate your army, they’ll struggle against your cities. If you have a Zulu neighbor, once you get into the renaissance, it is important to get to industrial units ASAP, especially gatling guns.

Early Game Warmongers: The Zulus are likely to go into early wars, and will therefore have a fairly large army, but if you have a strong early unique unit, beating the Zulus shouldn’t prove that challenging, and more importantly, this means you take them out before Impis become a threat.

Mid Game Warmongers: A scary time to fight the Zulus, but all hope isn’t lost. Wait for the Zulus to declare war on someone else, let them commit to that war a bit, and then rush your units to their cities as fast as possible.

Late Game Warmongers: Zulu gun units are strong, but they have a lot more counters then Zulu melee units. Armor units will still easily outmaneuver them, and air units can do lots of damage.

Scientific Players: Make sure if you have a Zulu neighbor to keep on top of military tech, as well as having a decent standing army, and the Zulu shouldn’t be able to easily beat you.

Cultural Players: Try your best to keep up a good standing army, as well as staying on top of constructing defensive buildings.

Diplomatic Players: In the mid-game, passing global peace accords will hit the Zulu hard, as their cheap units suddenly become not so cheap, and they lose one of their biggest advantages. The Zulus tend to bully City States early on, which actually provides a great opportunity for early City State alliances

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