War Academy:Zululand objectives

[roadcage]

Zululand is far away, backward, and somehow or another cornered the Gems market.

We wantirect access to Gems

We want:Secure base on their island from which to export said Gems

Naturally, this campaign will have a significant naval component and will most likely be executed in the distant future. But hey, lets plan!

Ssgt roadcage (retired)

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

The whole island...........

Four words:

COMPLETE MONOPOLY OF GEMS

[Panzer32]

Yup, thats the only logical reason to go to war against the Zulus.

[Kloreep]

Obviously, we want gems. But exactly how much of Zululand do we want? I see 3 possible levels of conquest:

Small scope: must conquer 1 city (Ulundi). After Conquest, we would raze/worker farm Ulundi in favor of a new port city (SE of Ulundi looks good to me). Once this new city was firmly in place, we would negotiate peace.
This should be a fairly easy one to pull off, especially if we get Riflemen before the fleet launches (which looks likely). Once the new city has its first cultural expansion, this would give us 8 Gem resources. The downsides of this plan are 1) 4 gems would be left in Zulu hands, 2) this city would be under a lot of cultural pressure, even if we kept it racially pure and 3) it wouldn't weaken our new enemies signifigantly (though any loss is bad for the land-poor Zulu).

Medium scope: must conquer 3 cities (Ulundi, Bapedi, Hlobane). Pretty simple, and we wouldn't have to worry about moving any cities as these three are connected and Hlobane is a port. We get all 12 gem resources this way; however, this would need a lot more investment than a small scope capture & defense of Ulundi. Also, Bapedi would be under a lot of cultural pressure.

Large scope: conquer all of Zululand (7 cities). Would require the largest investment in an invasion fleet, but we'd never have to worry about the security of those gem supplies, and we could be certain the Zulu would never vote against us in the UN.

Beyond this, I don't see a lot in the way of tactics; it's a pretty flat continent, so I think it would be mostly a Cavalry rush (unless we go with small scope, in which case it would be a quick Cavalry attack followed by a stack of Riflemen).

So, what scope? I favor complete conquest, but a medium scope assault aiming for the gems would work just as well, and we could finish up the conquest later if we wanted.

[roadcage]

Thanks guys! this really helps. Lets start with the scope question.

Does the one city relocated method result in a secure base? doubtful

Does the 3 city method result in a secure base? I think so.

Obviously total conquest meets the stated goals.

Next question, other than force level, do we see any significant difference tactically between the last two scenarios?

comments welcome

Ssgt roadcage (retired)

[roadcage]

Another thought, Isandhlwana is built on an Iron hill, and there are ponies near Zimbabewe

And yes the cultural pressure for anything short of all 7 looks intense.

I am leaning towards total annexation.

Anybody want this one?

Ssgt roadcage (retired)

[Kloreep]

I think limiting it to the three gem cities would be possible. The only city that would have any overlap is Bapedi (which shares two tiles with Isandhlwana). To protect against a flip, I doubt the garrisons would need to be much bigger than what we'd want for protection anyway.

On the other hand, is the investment to keep those three cities safe much more than that needed to sweep the continent? I doubt it. Even with slow-movers like swords, we'll probably face the Zulu offensive army during our conquest, the continent is so small. Once that's done, why not clean up?

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

The whole island.

Two words:

CULTURE FLIP

(I feel like some kinda spy giving out passcodes for field operatives. )

[Meshelic]

I've been advocating we take on the whole Zulu island since we discovered it. They are weak, backwards, and un-rightfully making $$$ or happinness of those gems, so lets fix this problem and take out Zululand first!

[joncnunn]

I prefer no foreign wars overseas.

Notice how close Chinese capital is, the Southwestern portion of the island will be under a lot of Chinese culture presure if Zulu's overall culture is decreased. (Even more if that city is captured or razed.)

[Aggie]

My vision of the the invasion. 15 calavary and 5 ships to carry them and then after the invasion we bring infantry to occupy it. Or we could go with another ship and land 3 defensive units with the invasion. We take the capital and gems first then eliminate the zulus's.
Aggie

[ManicStarSeed]

Total Annexation.

2 waves of forces.

First one consists of heavy offense and bombard. the second one can have primarilay defenders and offensive reinforcments.
Spaced 2-4 turns apart, we can press them hard, not having to let up if we encounter stiffer resistance thn planned.

Mss

[Shiber]

First of all, I apologize if I'm repeating what someone else already said. I haven't been around for three days and it's very hard to read up on everything I missed.
Now, what I'm saying is that we should consider the option to allow the Zulu to surrender during the war. Under our control, their cities will be very unproductive, but under Zulu control they can be productive and pay us a large tribute.

[roadcage]

The value is in exporting 10 Gems. I imagine temples to evntually knit the influence zones together, and cities adjusted to maintain pop at a cheap level with taxmen or scientists depending upon which we need at the time. This seems like tribute enough to me.

[Meshelic]

I agree with roadcage on this one.