CIV OF THE WEEK: Zulus

[Provost Harrison]

Yay got there first. They are up at www.civ3.com

[Provost Harrison]

They are a militaristic and expansionistic civ (sound like nasty little bastards ) headed by Shaka Zulu, and start with Warrior Code and Pottery. Their special unit is an Impi, an upgraded Spearman, so they have 1-2-2 (ADM) as opposed to 1-2-1 for a normal Spearman, so they sound like a useful reconnaisance unit.

And there is a bit of babble about who the Zulu are.

[Dr. Nick]

Well, I dunno why the Impi is a defensive unit, as the idea of the Impi was to attack the evil colonial overlords, and the Zulus were always on the offensive... still...

[Provost Harrison]

Well the concept Firaxis seem to describe is that they are a 'mobile defence force', which can move from one part of the empire to another reasonably quickly to reinforce positions against attack...

[orange]

221 would have been better, IMO.

[Provost Harrison]

Actually yeah Orange, that would strike me as a more useful unit!

[orange]

Yeah, I mean...a phalanx with a decent attack basically

btw: don't bother trying to post this at CGN first, I already beat you to it

[Mahdimael]

Aha, but if you read correctly, it also said that the Impi also require no resources, which will undoubtedly be a great boon in the beginning of the game. That means you'll be able to pump these guys out without having to worry about colonies or anything. Looks like a strong unit to have

[cyril25376]

Don't forget that the Impi unit can also retreat.

[orange]

Originally posted by Mahdimael
Aha, but if you read correctly, it also said that the Impi also require no resources, which will undoubtedly be a great boon in the beginning of the game. That means you'll be able to pump these guys out without having to worry about colonies or anything. Looks like a strong unit to have

Definitely, but wouldn't it be better if you could pump out these guys with 2 attack?

[Dauphin]

I don't like the name Impi, the names gives me images of small imps. If their abilities are proved to be poor compared to other UU I will no doubt end up calling them Gimpies instead.

[Comrade Tribune]

I think the Impis are great competition for the job of "most useless UU". And people were complaining about Cossacks!

[orange]

I don't know about that Comrade...

think about the benefits of a mobile phalanx for exploration purposes, especially early in the game. The problem with using a horseman is that it is easily defeated by barbs. At least now you'll have an easier time exploring

[Martinus]

Originally posted by orange
At least now you'll have an easier time exploring

And since they are expansionistic and would have most of Africa for themselves on the world map, they would get all these goodie huts in no time. Scary

[joer]

I said that the Cossack was lousy UU, and I think the Impi is cool. A movement of 2 for a cheap defensive unit you have nearly right at the start is great.

Think about it: In the beginning, the computer enemy is usually strongest and can wreak havoc among you. As a peaceful expansionist, I often neglect my defence in new cities a bit, concentrating on infrastructure.
A 2-movement defender (twice as fast as the standard) can just hop over much faster from neighbouring cities to defend an attacked city. It can also be used to explore safely, defend against barbarians and just hinder the enemy to expand, be stationed in strategic bottlenecks and be used as quick resupply in case you really need to rush a defence into a city. All that for the same cost as your standard spearman.

A 2-2-1 unit would probably be useless once Legions (3-2-1?) are availible.

On the other hand, your cossack gives you only 30 percent more defense for a costly attack unit at a much later period of time.

And I even think that the Impi measure up pretty well against the war chariot (Egyption, 2-1-2, as good as any horseman) and is certainly cooler than the Jaguar warrior (Aztec, 1-1-2).

Too bad I don't like the Zulus otherwise.