Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
  
• New Frontier content packs
  
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

Let them come. Let them break upon our spears. Let them run. Let them stain the land red with their cowardly blood. Our enemies shall fear us as they have feared none before. But the Zulu Empire's strengths are not only forged upon the battlefield. Intimidation and alliances can grant us greater influence in addition to conquest. For our greatest strength of all is our reputation.


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is if they have one.
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - Obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost)

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

The Zulus have no start bias.

• Cities with garrisoned units gain +3 loyalty per turn.
  
• Cities with garrisoned corps or armies gain +5 loyalty per turn instead.
  
• Capturing a city with a land unit upgrades it to a corps if you have the medieval-era Mercenaries civic.
  
• Capturing a city with a corps or naval unit upgrades it to an army or fleet respectively if you have the industrial-era Nationalism civic.
  
• Capturing a city with a fleet upgrades it to an armada if you have the modern-era Mobilisation civic.

• Corps and armies have +5 strength and ranged strength.
  
• May form corps at the medieval-era Mercenaries civic, instead of the industrial-era Nationalism civic.
  
• May form armies at the industrial-era Nationalism civic, instead of the modern-era Mobilisation civic.

A medieval-era anti-cavalry unit which replaces the Pikeman

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

• Costs 260 gold to upgrade, up from 150 (+73%)

• Costs 125 production/500 gold/250 faith, down from 180/720/360 respectively (-31%)
  
• Costs 130 gold to upgrade to from a Spearman, down from 240 (-46%)
  
• Costs 1 gold maintenance per turn, down from 2 (-50%)
  
• Flanking provides +4 strength per other adjacent owned unit, instead of +2.
  
• Gains 25% more experience from combat

An ancient-era speciality district which replaces the Encampment

*All districts increase in cost based on your technological and civic progress. If you have more or the same number of speciality districts as speciality district types you have unlocked and the former number divided by the latter is bigger than the number of copies of this district you have, you will receive a 40% discount.

**Purchasing districts with gold requires the governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to be present in the city. Purchasing districts with faith requires Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion to be present in the city.

• -50% production cost
  
• +1 housing
  
• Allows the direct training of corps and armies, assuming you have the corresponding civics to unlock them
  
• Corps and armies cost 25% less production to train
  
  • This does not stack with the 25% cost reduction offered by Military Academies.
• Buildings in this district generate 2 gold and 1 science in addition to their regular yields.

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


Aside from the spoils of war and the +1 housing bonus Ikandas have, the Zulus lack significant advantages to victory routes other than domination. Thankfully, they're among the best civs in the game at it. Impi are cheap and can counter the powerful Courser and Knight units, but what makes the Zulus really strong is their early, extra-powerful corps, giving them a virtually unmatched strength advantage in the medieval era, and a nearly as strong one until the modern era.

If you really want a backup victory path, the Zulus have a minor edge to science thanks to the extra science output from their Ikanda districts.

The bulk of Zulu strengths don't come into play until the medieval era, but there's plenty you can do to prepare. The Bronze Working technology will allow you to train Spearmen ready for upgrading to Impi later, and also unlocks this unique district.


At first, Ikandas offer relatively little - but they're still very much worth building. They offer half the housing of a Granary and are pretty affordable early in the game. You can build both to allow your cities to grow further, or just neglect Granaries in favour of getting Monuments, Spearmen, Settlers and so forth instead.

More importantly, getting the low-cost Ikandas up and running early will help you on the way to a Great General. Any classical or medieval-era Great General will make Impi, Crossbowmen, Knights and other useful units stronger and faster. For Impi, this is particularly useful as it makes it easier to use their strong flanking ability.


Every Ikanda building, in addition to its regular benefits, will also generate 2 gold and 1 science.

Building a Barracks will cover the maintenance cost of both itself and the Ikanda itself, while the gold generated by Armouries and Military Academies is the same as their maintenance cost - though this depends on your yield modifiers. Cities with a poor amenity situation will have a penalty to all yields, including gold, so the Ikanda gold will no longer cover the cost of the buildings. Conversely, any multiplier to gold (such as a high amount of amenities) will allow the gold bonus to more than cover maintenance.

The science bonus is minor, but purposeful as it allows the Zulus to neglect Campuses early on. Military Tactics, needed for the Impi UU, is an easy technology to beeline, and it's a good idea to do so immediately after researching Bronze Working.


With the Mercenaries and Nationalism civics, you can directly form corps and armies respectively at Ikandas without the need for a Military Academy. Like Military Academies, Ikandas also make corps and armies cheaper to train than it would be to make the individual units and pair them up. It's recommended you only use this feature to make corps rather than armies. It's just as cost-effective in terms of production, and you can use the Zulu civ ability to make them into armies for free, avoiding additional costs.


This also allows you to purchase corps and armies in any city you capture with an intact Encampment, even if they lack a Military Academy - quite useful if you need strong reinforcements.

Keep in mind that forming corps costs double the gold maintenance and strategic resources, and armies cost triple - though resource maintenance (such as oil for Infantry) does not change. Policy cards that reduce maintenance costs treat corps/armies as a single unit, so a corps may cost more than double what a unit costs to maintain. Ensure you have plenty of gold and a good supply of strategic resources!

Because the production cost reduction for training corps and armies doesn't stack, Military Academies are much less useful for the Zulus than other civs. As such, you can neglect the bottom part of the technology tree for quite some time in favour of heading to technologies like Metal Casting to upgrade your Impi and to build Bombard units, and Ballistics for the very useful Cuirassier and Field Cannon units.


The main advantage of Ikandas is that they make securing a Great General much easier. Their low cost, gold, science and housing bonus means they can easily fit in to your general early development plans without causing too much disruption.

Forming corps and armies directly for a discounted cost is also very useful, but make sure you have enough gold and strategic resources to cover the associated increased costs!

Impi are only moderately powerful by themselves, but their low cost and low maintenance makes it easy to overwhelm your enemies with sheer numbers - or you can train Impi corps for only slightly more than other civs have to pay for just one Pikeman. Combined with the other Zulu military advantages, you can take on practically anything in the medieval era and earlier, and even have a good shot against more advanced foes.

While Impi are helpful to have around, don't neglect other units. Getting access to powerful early corps can create some very powerful Bombards, Cuirassiers and so forth as well.


Make your way to Bronze Working early on, and you can train Spearmen ready for upgrading to Impi later. Keep in mind that Spearmen will only match Warriors in strength, and are beaten by Swordsmen, so don't depend on them alone for early-game defence. Getting a couple of Archers trained as well isn't a bad idea. It's also helpful at least one Battering Ram or Siege Tower to deal with city defences.

Don't forget to also build plenty of Monuments along the way - the sooner you get the Mercenaries civic, the longer you'll have a strength advantage over other civs.

On the way to Mercenaries is the Military Training civic, which allows you to build the Statue of Zeus wonder. This wonder is particularly powerful for the Zulus as it provides a +50% production boost to all anti-cavalry units - including Impi!


Impi by default are equal in combat stats to Pikemen, except that flanking bonuses are doubled (you gain +2 strength per adjacent owned unit next to your target instead of +1). Among other things, this means:

• Against cities they're equivalent to Men-at-Arms, but 5 points weaker than Knights.
  
• They have a 5 point advantage when fighting Knights
  
• They have a 5 point disadvantage when fighting Men-at-Arms

That doesn't sound especially impressive, but there's a three key bonuses you can add to make Impi much, much better.

• Ikandas are cheap and should get you on your way to an early Great General, granting you +5 strength and +1 movement.
  
• The Oligarchy government or its legacy card adds +4 strength.
  
• Forming a corps adds +15 strength thanks to Shaka's leader ability, and can be done at a time where no other civ has the ability.

Suddenly, your 45-strength Impi now have 69 strength, and possibly even more if they can make good use of their flanking bonuses. That's enough to match Musketmen corps, and you'll kill Knights in just one hit about half the time.

Impi gain experience faster than other units. If trained in a city with a Barracks, that'll be up to a 50% bonus, making it easy to get to some key promotions. The Thrust promotion cancels out the advantage melee infantry units have against them, and the Schiltron promotion on top puts melee infantry attackers at a disadvantage. Three promotions gets you to Redeploy, which adds +1 movement making flanking easier.


With the renaissance-era Metal Casting technology, Impi can be upgraded to Pike and Shot units. This gives a massive +10 strength boost, but comes at a high cost - upgrading Impi to Pike and Shot units is more expensive than upgrading regular Pikemen, having lots of corps and armies will increase the upgrade costs further, and Pike and Shot units cost four times as much in maintenance. As such, while your Impi are out conquering, you may want to emphasise building up a gold infrastructure at home so you can afford the upgrade.

Aren't you supposed to counter me?

Shaka's leader ablity is where the real power of the Zulus lies. Being able to form corps earlier than other civs allows you to exploit a huge 10-point advantage for a couple of eras, and Shaka adds +5 on top giving you even greater dominance of the battlefield.


To use Shaka's leader ability, you'll need to reach the Mercenaries civic as soon as possible. As such, you'll want a strong culture output. Settling a few cities early on and building Monuments will really help. Head towards the Political Philosophy civic first - from there, you'll need the following:

• Games and Recreation (Boost: Discover the Construction technology - Construction is on the way to Military Engineering, though it's hard to research it in time for the boost to Games and Recreation. Consider just skipping the boost.)
  
• Defensive Tactics (Boost: Be the target of a declaration of war - Mainly out of your hands; you might have to skip this boost.)
  
• Feudalism (Boost: Have six farms in your territory - A couple of Builders can get the job done.)
  
• Military Tradition (Boost: Destroy a Barbarian Encampment - Barbarians are everywhere. Getting this boost is easy.)
  
• Military Training (Boost: Build an Encampment - Easy thanks to the unique Ikanda district.)
  
• Mercenaries (Boost: Have 8 land military units in your territory. If you've been prebuilding plenty of Spearmen ready for upgrading into Impi, or other units to help complement them, this should be easy.)

In addition to unlocking corps, the Mercenaries civic also offers the Professional Army military policy card, cutting the gold cost of unit upgrades in half. That can save a lot of money upgrading Spearmen to Impi, but be careful not to delay launching Impi wars for too long. If you get the Military Tactics technology significantly before Mercenaries, upgrade your Spearmen and start the war anyway. Even without the +15 boost of having corps, Impi making good use of their flanking bonuses in conjunction with a Great General should be able to handle enemy Swordsmen for long enough to secure the Thrust promotion, preventing that particular weakness from being too much of an issue.

If you can get Mercenaries and Military Tactics around the same time, form a Impi corps or two, but otherwise leave the rest as individual units. Those individual units can be upgraded to corps via the Zulu civ ability, saving you production or gold. Starting with a corps or two, meanwhile, will help you handle trickier opponents like promoted Swordsmen. Alternatively, you can substitute those starting corps for a couple of Knights if you have some iron.


Forming early corps is clearly useful in conjunction with Impi, but they aren't the only units that benefit. Zulu Crossbow corps for example have 45 melee strength, which makes them significantly less vulnerable in defence, and with 55 ranged strength, they can reliably take out enemy Crossbowmen in two hits. Bombard corps can handle enemy city defences with ease.

Perhaps where this advantage is at its most powerful is when it is applied to Cuirassier units. Cuirassiers are industrial-era heavy cavalry units with an impressive 64 strength - but what makes them really strong is their placement on the technology tree. Once you have the late-medieval Stirrups and Military Engineering technologies, you only need a mere three more technologies to reach Cuirassiers, providing you with a unit that dominates for quite some time. But being able to create early, powerful corps can grant you an even greater advantage (especially with an appropriate Great General on top). A force of Cuirassier and Bombard corps and/or armies can devastate foes.

The big limiting factor is money. Corps cost double the maintenance cost of individual units, and you'll need to consider carefully if it's worth it for a +15 strength bonus. On average, a Zulu corps will deal around 10% less damage per turn than two individual Zulu units of the same type, though they'll also take less damage as well meaning they don't need to spend as long healing up. This suggests that corps are more effective offensively, and individual units can still be useful defensively.


Shaka allows you to train armies at the industrial-era Nationalism civic, when most civs can only train corps. If your culture output is strong enough that you can get there before other civs, you can exploit a strength advantage of 22 points for a short time!

Aside from ranged units (which can't capture cities and hence can't be upgraded to armies via the Zulu civ ability), there's little need to train armies directly. As corps are just as cost-effective to train as armies, you can just train them as corps and upgrade them via city conquest.

Once other civs reach the modern-era Mobilisation civic, the Zulu advantage will shrink considerably. Shaka will still offer the +5 strength bonus for corps and armies, but that will be your sole remaining unique strength advantage.

• Make sure your culture output is high to make the most of this ability
  
• You often don't need to train corps and armies directly thanks to the Zulu civ ability
  
• Corps and armies are expensive to maintain, so keep your gold infrastructure strong.

No, Mongolia, you're not having this city.

The Zulu civ ability helps you hold on to what you capture by granting you corps or armies from taking cities, and by offering loyalty bonuses from having units present.

Once you have the Mercenaries civic, any land unit that captures a city will turn into a corps. With the Nationalism civic, every corps that captures a city will become an army. Remember that land ranged units, siege units and recon units other than Scouts cannot capture cities and therefore cannot benefit from this. The resultant unit will still be injured from having made the final attack against the city, so you'll want to leave them there to heal up for a few turns.

Thankfully, leaving corps stationed in a city offers a +5 loyalty boost, making it much easier to hold the city (particularly if you move a governor there), so even a unit that's out of the fight for now can still provide some positive effects. In fiercer fights where you can't spare any corps, you can use individual units as a stopgap measure, though that'll only provide a +3 boost.

Though forming corps and armies for free can really help save you production, it will start to place pressure on your gold reserves - particularly once Impi are obsolete. A Pike and Shot unit that becomes a corps for example will start costing you an extra 4 gold per turn. If this starts to become a problem, you may want to set your cities to emphasise gold generation over other yields, and if that's not enough, consider capturing cities with military units that won't be upgraded (like corps if you lack Nationalism, or armies if you have it).


Curiously, if you have the industrial-era Nationalism civic, capturing a city with a melee naval unit will upgrade it to a fleet. If you have the modern-era Mobilisation civic, capturing a city with a melee naval fleet will upgrade it to an armada. Seeing as you'll have probably neglected your navy up to that point, getting a stronger navy at no additional production cost is rather helpful.

Keep in mind that melee naval units are the only naval units that are eligible, as naval ranged units, naval raiders and carriers can't capture cities. Naval melee units are strong against naval raiders, moderately vulnerable to naval ranged units (though forming fleets and armadas easily will help account for this), and particularly vulnerable to promoted air units. Battleships and Missile Cruisers have built-in anti-air defence, so consider bringing at least one to accompany your late-game melee naval units.


The Zulu civ ability is mostly useful for securing offensive conquests, but there may be times where you're on the receiving end of both an enemy military and a lot of loyalty pressure - particularly if you're playing against the Mapuche. If that's the case, position some ranged unit corps or armies in your key border cities so they can provide a good loyalty boost and a strong attack at the same time.


This ability is what provides the Zulus with real lasting power in wars. The unique loyalty boost is one of the strongest in the game, ensuring you don't lose the cities you take, and free corps and armies means your forces can get stronger without you needing to spare any additional production.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.



Oligarchy is the best choice of government considering the strength boost it adds to Impi.

The Warlord's Throne is an appropriate complementary government building. The production boost it offers when capturing cities will help you develop a gold infrastructure at home, allowing you to support more corps and armies.


Merchant Republic is not too far away from the Mercenaries civic and offers a small gold bonus which builds on your Ikanda gold bonus - something you'll need once you start upgrading Impi. Alternatively, given how many military policy cards the Zulus benefit from, you might want to take Monarchy instead.

As for the best government building, you may find the Grand Master's Chapel to be most appropriate. All your Impi conquests will probably result in you getting a lot of Holy Sites and nothing to spend the faith on. With the Grand Master's Chapel, you can spend the faith on additional units. If you're desperate for extra gold and can't support more units, consider getting the Intelligence Agency and using the extra Spy to siphon funds off another civ.


Fascism will be the most effective choice for the Zulus due to its strong strength and unit production bonuses.

The War Department building lets your units heal when they kill others; a useful additional boost in late-game warfare.


If you don't mind the loss of some science, Corporate Libertarianism is ideal. It has plenty of military policy card slots, and makes every city you own with an Ikanda or Commercial Hub district more productive.



Agoge (Military, requires Craftsmenship) - A must-have policy card when you're training up Spearmen ready for upgrading to Impi later.

Conscription (Military, requires State Workforce) - Eliminates the maintenance cost of Spearmen, allowing you to save up more money to upgrade them to Impi later. Individual Impi will be free to maintain as well, though Impi corps and armies will still cost 1 and 2 gold per turn respectively.

Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - If there's an occasion where loyalty is really a problem in a captured city, this policy card may help. It offers loyalty in cities where you have a unit garrisoned, much like the Zulu civ ability, so it doesn't require any extra effort to use.


Equestrian Orders (Military, requires Military Training) - If you're using Ikandas to directly train corps or armies, you'll need to pay double or triple the strategic resource cost respectively. As such, it helps to boost your output of the necessary strategic resources.

Veterancy (Military, requires Military Training) - You can build and develop Ikandas incredibly quickly with this policy card. That can be quite helpful for boosting the housing capacity in new cities.


Chivalry (Military, requires Divine Right) - Cuirassier units are strong for their time and their prerequisite technology (Ballistics) is easy to beeline. With this policy card, an Ikanda and the Mercenaries civic, you can train Cuirassier corps very quickly.

Feudal Contract (Military, requires Feudalism) - Impi will now be cheaper to train than Swordsmen for civs without a production-boosting policy card. Alternatively, you can train Impi corps in the same time it would have previously taken to train a single Impi unit.

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - Neatly coming at the same civic that lets you form corps, this policy card will save you a lot of money over the course of the game. Upgrading corps or armies is expensive!

Retainers (Military, requires Civil Service) - While you're stationing units in cities to boost their loyalty, you can boost their amenities at the same time with this policy card. Particularly useful for prolonged wars where war weariness is really kicking in. Boosting amenities in a city will also boost its loyalty.

Retinues (Military, requires Mercenaries) - Halves the strategic resource costs of upgrading units - particularly useful when upgrading Knights to Cuirassiers, Swordsmen to Musketmen and Coursers to Cavalry.


Drill Manuals (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Extra nitre and coal for your corps, armies, fleets and armadas alike.


Force Modernisation (Military, requires Urbanisation) - Halves the gold and strategic resource upgrade costs - particularly useful for corps and armies, which cost a lot of both to upgrade.

Military Research (Military, requires Urbanisation) - Military Academies now generate +3 science each!

National Identity (Military, requires Nationalism) - This policy card reduces the strength penalty from injured units. This is particularly useful for newly-formed corps and armies from city captures, as it helps them get back into the fight sooner.


Levee en Masse (Military, requires Mobilisation) - The Zulu army can get pretty expensive to maintain, making this policy rather useful. Note that it provides the same -2 maintenance cost for individual units, corps and armies alike.

Martial Law (Wildcard, Fascism only, requires Totalitarianism) - Boosts the loyalty bonus from having military units stationed in a city further, while also reducing the rate at which you gain war weariness.

Propaganda (Military, requires Mass Media) - Helps you manage war weariness, which can be an issue for the Zulus given the city growth promoted by all the housing offered by Ikandas and their buildings.

Third Alternative (Military, Fascism only, requires Totalitarianism) - Military Academies will now generate an extra 4 gold and 2 culture on top of your Ikanda yield bonuses.

Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.

Twilight Valour (Dark Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Adding a +5 attack bonus to Impi helps them rip through enemies quickly, and not being able to heal outside friendly territory isn't a problem if you can capture new cities quickly enough. If you're stuck with a low-health unit in enemy lands, combine it with a unit at full health to form a corps, and it'll only be half as injured.

Reform the Coinage (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - This dedication really helps you get much-needed gold to support your corps and armies. Not only does it boost the gold from international trade, but by making trade routes safe from pillaging, you can safely trade with anyone you're not at war with.

To Arms! (Dedication, Industrial to Information eras) - The ease in which the Zulus can obtain corps and armies pushes your opponents to obtain some of their own. By killing those, you can get plenty of era score with this dedication.

Cyber Warfare (Dark Age, Information to Future eras) - The Zulu emphasis on corps and armies lessens in impact somewhat at aircraft and Giant Death Robots (neither of which can form corps nor armies) enter the game. This strength bonus should help you stand up to them.


How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key relevant votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs

Arms Control - Effect B (The target player loses all of their nuclear weapons) on a war rival

Corps and armies represent a significant investment, and nuclear weapons can wipe out a large number in an instant. As such, you'll want to avoid other civs having nukes.

Mercenary Companies - Effect B (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type, is -50% of the cost until the next World Congress) on whichever of production, gold or faith you are most able to spare.

New corps and armies can be made exceptionally affordable.

Military Advisory - Effect A (Units of the chosen land promotion class gain +5 strength) on anti-cavalry or heavy cavalry

You can boost the strength of your Impi, or maybe get some even stronger Cuirassier corps/armies instead.

Patronage - Effect A (Earn double points towards Great People of this class) on Great Generals

Extend your advantage even further.

Public Relations - Effect B (The chosen civ generates 50% fewer grievances, and other civs generate 50% fewer grievances toward this civ) on yourself.

Minimises a downside of warfare.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) for Encampments

Makes developing Ikanda districts easy.

God of the Forge - This can help you train Spearmen ready for upgrading later.

God of the Open Sky - A helpful culture boost to get you to Mercenaries and Nationalism sooner.

Goddess of Festivals - An alternative culture boost.


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Stewardship (Founder) - While generally the weakest of the two gold-boosting founder beliefs, this belief is still better than nothing if you really need some extra cash to maintain corps and armies.

Tithe (Founder) - Offers gold, helping you to support your corps and armies.


Akkad (Militaristic) - Your Impi, along with any other melee infantry or anti-cavalry units you have, will be able to deal with city walls or urban defences with ease.

Bologna (Scientific) - Bologna can help you dominate Great General generation, making it harder for other civs to face you with ones of their own.

Kabul (Militaristic) - Impi need a promotion or two to be able to counter the bonus Swordsmen and Musketmen have against them. If you're suzerain over Kabul, you can gain experience faster and get to those crucial promotions.

Kumasi (Cultural) - The Zulus benefit from gold and culture alike for getting to key civics and maintaining corps/armies respectively, and here's a city-state that boosts both.

Ngazargamu (Militaristic) - Developed Ikanda districts can allow you to purchase units cheaply.

Valletta (Militaristic) - You can use the excess faith from capturing cities with Holy Sites to develop your Ikandas with Valletta as your suzerain.

Colosseum (Classical era, Games and Recreation civic) - A helpful boost to culture to get you on the way to Mercenaries and Nationalism, and amenities to help handle war weariness.

Statue of Zeus (Classical era, Military Training technology) - An incredible wonder for the Zulus thanks to the +50% production bonus towards anti-cavalry units. Together with the Feudal Contract policy card, you can train Impi for even cheaper than before!

Terracotta Army (Classical era, Construction technology) - Impi are vulnerable to Swordsmen until they have the Thrust promotion. Thankfully, just one promotion level is enough to get there. The Terracotta Army wonder will give all your units a free promotion level.

Alhambra (Medieval era, Castles technology) - The Zulus benefit greatly from a wide range of militaristic policy cards, so having more available will be very helpful.

Venetian Arsenal (Renaissance era, Mass Production technology) - Later in the game, you can upgrade the formation type of naval melee units for free by capturing cities, much as you can with land units. Combined with this wonder, you can end up getting two armadas for the price of a single unit - that's a saving of up to 83% on the production cost!

Great Zimbabwe (Renaissance era, Banking technology) - One of the strongest sources of gold from any single wonder, which will really help you support your corps and armies.


Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.


Yi Sun-Sin (Great Admiral) - A free Ironclad, which can be made into a fleet and then armada when it captures a city with the Nationalism and Mobilisation civics respectively - all without the need for the Steam Power technology. Neatly, you'll also receive enough coal to cover resource maintenance, even if it becomes a fleet or armada.


Rani Lakshmibai (Great General) - Grants you a Cavalry unit, which can become a corps then army by capturing cities - all without you needing to research Military Science.


Stamford Raffles (Great Merchant) - Helps you get a foothold on a new continent, somewhat circumventing the need for a strong navy.


Douglas MacArthur (Great General) - Grants a Tank without the need for the Combustion technology. If you can generate Great Generals fast enough, and secure John Rockefeller for a supply of oil, you can support a Tank army without needing to research that whole portion of the technology tree.

The Zulus are by far at their strongest when their civic development is between the medieval and indusrtial eras. Failure to prepare could bring your empire down quickly, but defend well or strike first and you can defeat them.


The large boost to loyalty the Zulus can get makes it hard to flip their cities unless they're particularly isolated, or their units are busy. Use of the governor Amani (the Diplomat) with the Emissary promotion may help to partially counter their loyalty bonus.

As for their ability to form corps and armies from city captures, the simple rule is this: don't let the Zulus take cities. While for some troublesome opponents conceding a minor new city so you can force your opponent to fight you on more favourable terrain is a viable strategy, letting even one city flip gives the Zulus a significant boost to their military. Keep any border you have with the Zulus well-secured; it's a lot easier to fight of an initial attack of individual units than it is to fight a bunch of promoted corps after losing your border cities.


This ability makes the Zulus absolutely terrifying opponents in the medieval era. Zulu corps have a +15 strength advantage over individual units. If their culture output is strong enough they can get Nationalism before you, they can form armies before you can form corps, giving as much as a 22-point advantage. Add a Great General from the Ikanda district for another 5.

Mercifully, this period of dominant strength is narrower than it is for many other warmongers. The Zulus have very little in the way of military advantages prior to them entering the medieval era, so if you're able to pull off an early rush against them, it may be a good idea. Similarly, once you get the modern-era Mobilisation civic letting you form armies, Shaka's leader ability is reduced down to a manageable, if still significant, +5 advantage.

If attacking the Zulus early isn't an option, you need a defence ready. Swordsmen backed up with Crossbowmen can do reasonably well against Impi corps. If there's a Barbarian encampment near your lands, consider using it to train your ranged units to their first promotion - Volley or Garrison will be a huge help.

Maritime empires should have an easier time against the Zulus. Ranged naval units can do decent damage against their land forces, but more to the point, the Zulu unique bonuses don't particularly promote use of units that can counter naval units well.

Early corps and armies do open up a notable vulnerability for the Zulus - they need a lot of gold for their maintenance. While Impi corps are cheap to maintain at 2 gold per turn, Pike and Shot corps cost 8. That means careful disruption of Zulu gold supplies (e.g. pillaging their trade routes, pillaging their Commercial Hubs, refusing to trade gold to them) can really limit their military's potential.

Aside from the threat of Impi, the Zulus can exploit the relatively easy-to-beeline and strong Cuirassiers for an immense strength advantage. Promoted Pike and Shot corps are perhaps your best shot against them until you can get hold of AT Crews, Cavalry or Cuirassiers of your own.


A computer-controlled Shaka aims to form lots of corps and armies, and likes civs that do the same. He dislikes civs that do not.

This makes Shaka likely to look unfavourably towards most civs in the medieval and renaissance eras, when he can form corps and armies but no-one else can, making him potentially unpredictable in regards to which civ he'll target next. On the other hand, that'll make it more likely he'll end up without allies.

Come the industrial era, when other civs can start forming corps, Shaka should become a lot friendlier to much of the world. Forming corps isn't especially difficult as agenda requirements go. Shaka isn't a bad choice for a cultural alliance, seeing as your loyalty pressure on his cities usually won't make that much of an impact anyway thanks to Zulu loyalty advantages.

Shaka won't have the Paranoid hidden agenda (which makes leaders prefer civs with smaller armies), as it conflicts with this main agenda.


Impi themselves aren't a huge threat, but Shaka's leader ability makes them terrifying. A lone unpromoted Impi unit only has 41 strength and will be beaten by a Swordsman - a unit that arrives earlier and costs less to train. The problem sets in once you start facing Impi corps, especially those promoted with the Thrust promotion and accompanied by a Great General. You'll want strength in numbers. Plenty of Crossbowmen with a front line of Swordsmen will help. Exploiting a chokepoint will help even more if possible.


The biggest threat of Ikandas is the fact they make it easy for the Zulus to get a Great General, and the strength and speed bonuses that come with that. There's no easy way to play around that, but one thing that is worth considering is this: the Zulus will build plenty of copies of their unique district, as well as plenty of Commercial Hubs to help maintain their corps and armies. That means they may well neglect their science infrastructure relative to most domination-oriented civs. You may well be able to get to Musketmen before the Zulus can upgrade their Impi, giving you the upper hand in war once more.

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• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

• America - no additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• America - all additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Arabia (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Babylon (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Byzantium (Domination/Religious)
  
• Canada (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• China (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Diplomatic)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• France (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Gaul (Domination)
  
• Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Inca (Religious/Scientific)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mali (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Māori (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Phoenicia (Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide. Lincoln was added later and is only covered in the latter guide.

Other civs with alternative leader personas are not split because the extra personas added in later content do not change the existing gameplay - as such the guides are perfectly usable by players without them.

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.


The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.