A continent unified, a feud resolved

I started as the Zulus on a random map, playing King difficulty. I was fortunate enough to begin with two settlers, and quickly built up four cities. That was when I met my northern neighbors. A Russian elephant came down to my capital of Zimbabwe, and was very hostile in Diplomacy, demanding technology and money. Disliking being bullied, I declined, and we went to war.

From then on, it was largely a matter of futile hostility. The Russians sent endless numbers of Elephants charging against my two Phalanxes and my city walls, resulting only in horrendous Russian casualties and wasted city production. At first, I couldn't expand because whenever I stepped away from the protection of my cities my Settlers would be killed, but gradually I used my own legions to expand across the southern portion of the continent, building about 20 cities. The Russians asked for Diplomatic negotiations quite a few times, but every time they insisted I give them something. Therefore, I declined. I was not in a warmongering mood, so I played the role of purely defensive, reasoning that it was better the Russians wasted production on building units to attack me without result than on building wonders.

Over time, I met with the Spanish, who allied with me against the Russians, and the Greeks, who allied with Russia against me. The Greeks proved more fearsome adversaries than their allies, landing a small invasion force which managed to seize one of my smaller cities and threaten several others before my knights could drive them from the Zulu countryside. Soon after, I tired of having the Russians attack my Capital directly, and so decided to create a militarized buffer between my kingdom and the Russians by seizing their city of Odessa which was sandwiched on the narrow stretch of land dividing the continent between Zulu lands and Russia, and then filling it with extremely large concentrations of riflemen. This worked, but I was beginning to grow tired of the feud as the modern age arrived. With the arrival of the Fascist government (I was using the Fascism patch), I decided it was time to put an end to it once and for all.

With images of a charismatic leader calling for the Zulu's to unite against the Russian enemy and therefore toppling the peaceful Democracy they had lived in for centuries churning in my mind, my entire economy turned towards making as many howitzers as I could muster. Soon, I managed to rebuild my once pitiful military, and the great horde surged across the border, killing any Russian unit it saw. The Zulu counter-attack, delayed for thousands of years, hit the Russians hard. With great efficiency, the great war machine cut a swath of destruction through the Russian lands. Minsk and Moscow fell within two turns, their own efficient railroad system turning against them, and from there the rest of the continent was a simple matter of bombardment, seizure, and partisan clean-up. By the time the massive continent, which had been heavily colonized my own opponent, was firmly in Zulu hands, I was by far the largest and most feared Empire in the world. However, I was satisfied with finally having annihilated my ancient foe, and abandoned my role as a raging monster of a military machine for the quiet, unassuming scientific life my people had practiced previously. Despite several border skirmishes which saw some Greek, Indian, and Spanish cities fall into my hands, I switched back to Democracy and won the space race without becoming involved in a major offense ever again.

The moral of the story: Don't let an opponent you've been picking on for centuries develop Howitzers before you, and if they do at least pillage your railoads in preparation for whats coming.

By Scott Schaffer (scottds@mindspring.com)