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Yes Zulu, German, and Persians are annoying as HECK.
My suggestion is give the Greeks Chivalry to fight the Zulu. Remember not to break your 20 turn alliance though. I've accidentally done that a few times and I have had a hard time making Diplomatic agreements after that. Give the Greeks Chivalry first, then the other civs in an order that allows you to get the most bang from your buck. Make as many of them as possible declare war on the Zulu. If you see one on a far island or something, you know they wont go fighting the Zulu even if they would declare war, take their money. Try to cut each civ's headway (money, territory) whenever you make trades.
While they fight, make sure that you build up your army. If you don't you may find that the Greeks have a bigger army and the Zulu are gone so the Greeks will come after you.
Aside from that,
In my last game as China (emperor), I had Babs, Zulu, Germs extorting me right from the start. Of course I gave in with the money. But, having gone for math right after alphabet, refused Babs' threat and I traded it to Zulu and Germany for war against Babs and other techs. Needless to say both Babs and Zulu got their Golden Age but it was good to know that they were wasting it off on each other. I often try to pit early Golden Age civs and/or constructionist civs against each other.
About Germany going for mass swordmen - very true. OMG you should've seen those stacks of swordsmen going to Babylon. The zulus didnt settle any more while fighting the babs. So after I researched currency right after math I got Germany's swordmen to fight the productive Russian empire. That kept both busy for a while. I set Zulu n German ROPs to increase their attitude towards me even though (and because) they both didnt have to cross my territory. The whole time I was still building spearmen because I had had no time to settle and road the iron and horse nearby. lol. Of course Zulu and German attitudes returned to being negative very quickly, but by that time I had a comparable army - so they were not threatening me.
Considering how the AI extorts the human player, I think the AIs also try to extort each other often too. When Babs was extorting me, I'm sure it was trying to extort the Zulu and Germany too, that's probably why it wasn't so hard to get the alliance going.
My suggestion is give the Greeks Chivalry to fight the Zulu. Remember not to break your 20 turn alliance though. I've accidentally done that a few times and I have had a hard time making Diplomatic agreements after that. Give the Greeks Chivalry first, then the other civs in an order that allows you to get the most bang from your buck. Make as many of them as possible declare war on the Zulu. If you see one on a far island or something, you know they wont go fighting the Zulu even if they would declare war, take their money. Try to cut each civ's headway (money, territory) whenever you make trades.
While they fight, make sure that you build up your army. If you don't you may find that the Greeks have a bigger army and the Zulu are gone so the Greeks will come after you.
Aside from that,
In my last game as China (emperor), I had Babs, Zulu, Germs extorting me right from the start. Of course I gave in with the money. But, having gone for math right after alphabet, refused Babs' threat and I traded it to Zulu and Germany for war against Babs and other techs. Needless to say both Babs and Zulu got their Golden Age but it was good to know that they were wasting it off on each other. I often try to pit early Golden Age civs and/or constructionist civs against each other.
About Germany going for mass swordmen - very true. OMG you should've seen those stacks of swordsmen going to Babylon. The zulus didnt settle any more while fighting the babs. So after I researched currency right after math I got Germany's swordmen to fight the productive Russian empire. That kept both busy for a while. I set Zulu n German ROPs to increase their attitude towards me even though (and because) they both didnt have to cross my territory. The whole time I was still building spearmen because I had had no time to settle and road the iron and horse nearby. lol. Of course Zulu and German attitudes returned to being negative very quickly, but by that time I had a comparable army - so they were not threatening me.
Considering how the AI extorts the human player, I think the AIs also try to extort each other often too. When Babs was extorting me, I'm sure it was trying to extort the Zulu and Germany too, that's probably why it wasn't so hard to get the alliance going.
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