The Scramble for Africa Scenario for Civilization 5 comes with 12 playable civilizations and 7 mostly challenging Steam Achievements. Read about some of these achievements in this post and get an overview of the strategy guides for the harder achievements.
Before you get cracking in this scenario, you might want to have a look at the Scramble for Africa Map.
Maybe you already have all scenario specific Steam achievements and want to win the scenario on deity difficulty with all nations? Scroll down and dig through the Scramble for Africa strategy guides for playing on deity difficulty.
Scramble for Africa Steam Achievements
I Prefer my Africa Scrambled
Win the Scramble for Africa scenario as any civ on any difficulty.
This Steam achievement is easy. You can do it on any difficulty and when you read this and came via Google, you’ll probably already have it. Anyway most of my guides will lead you to victory, so you’ll get it on the fly!
Praise the Victories
Win the Scramble for Africa playing as the Boers on Deity.
There’s two deity achievements for Scramble for Africa and this is one of them. Here’s the guide that will help you through: Scramble for Africa – Praise the Victories Steam Achievement Guide.
Ottoman Carpentry
Win the Scramble for Africa playing as the Ottomans on Deity.
The second deity achievement is just as hard as the first one. With Italy as your arc enemy it’s hard to survive the first 20 turns. If you do survive, fame and honor await you! Read how it’s done in the Scramble for Africa – Ottoman Carpentry Steam Achievement Guide.
Dr Livingstone I presume?
Playing as Belgium, move your Stanley Explorer to within a tile of England’s Livingstone Explorer.
This one is a bit tricky. Often assumed broken it also seemed broken for me at first. You’ll have to walk around Dr Livingstone for a while. For me the achievement only got triggered, once Dr Livingstone stood next to me when England’s turn started. As soon as he moved, the Steam achievement popped up. Read more about it in the Scramble for Africa Belgium Strategy (Deity). (Coming soon!)
The Rhodes Colossus
Playing as England in Scramble for Africa, complete a railroad from Cairo to Capetown.
This one has been a tough nut to crack. On deity difficulty at least. The achievement doesn’t require deity difficulty though, so you can easily get it on lower levels of difficulty. If you want to give it a try on deity, check out the Scramble for Africa – The Rhodes Colossus Steam Achievement Guide (aka English Deity Strategy).
Nigerian Bank Account
In Scramble for Africa, marry Sokoto or Bornu.
The Nigerian Bank Account Steam achievement also does not require a high level of difficulty. Probably you could do it within minutes starting with Belgium or Germany, building your infrastructure and marrying either (!) of these City States. Marrying both of them is required, I think, for winning this scenario on deity playing Germany. So you might want to take a look at Scramble for Africa Germany Strategy (Deity).
Discoverer
Playing as Italy in Scramble for Africa, earn the VP for finding two Natural Wonders.
Whereas I first thought this was a tough nut to crack, I got this Steam achievement in the 3rd attempt. It’s really not that hard: Play on the lowest difficulty, so you start with more units already and more importantly: Probably the AI starts with less! Then build some explorers, open borders with the Ottomans and Egypt and send your troops into the heart of the dark continent. If you’re lucky you will find King Solomon’s Mines with your riflemen already a little south of the Ottomans. The source of Nile is usually in Egypt or south of it in Ethiopia. Mt. Kilimanjaro also often is in Ethiopia or a little south of it. Sometimes even meeting Ethiopia very early and accepting embassies can grant you the discovery of a Natural wonder:
Scramble for Africa Strategy Guides (Deity)
The Scramble for Africa scenario really got me hooked when I was going for the Boers deity Steam achievement. Since then I wanted to win this scenario with all playable civilizations – on deity difficulty. I’m at 10/12 so far. Here’s the scoring board of how well I did with these civs:
- Boers ~8000
- Zulu 7074
- Ethiopia 6128 (in 2014, the 2020 game came close with 6082 VP)
- France 5242
- Egypt 5014
- England ~4800
- Belgium 4766 (in 2014, the 2020 game barely won with only 3027 VP)
- Portugal 4126
- Ottomans 4388
- Morocco 4368, but no victory
- Italy ~4300
- Germany 3254
Here’s the overview and links to the Scramble for Africa strategy guides, I created up to now. I also provided my initial save games so you can play the maps that I won. If that helps you, please Facebook-like or Google+1 this page at the bottom to help others find the page! Cheers!
3 North African Civilizations
North African Civilizations earn Victory points through their Gold per Turn income (GPT). Naturally the Social policies of these 3 civs support GPT. Two of the three Social policy “trees” are directly impacting Gold generation via cities and trade routes. The third “tree” focuses on the military:
- Caravans: +2GPT from Land trade routes
- Commercial Hub: +10G in the Capital
- Improved Wares: +1G from Markets
- Conscription: -33% Unit Maintenance costs
- Army of the Sahara: +50 combat bonus fighting in the desert
- Berber Heritage: +25% production of mounted units
Egypt
Only in 2020 after a helpful comment on this page I finished the Scramble for Africa with Egypt. Without somehow delaying war with Italy this just wasn’t possible at all. Read all about it here: Scramble for Africa Egypt Strategy (Deity)
No initial savegame uploaded, mainly since playing Egypt can be done without specific map aspects being helpful or unhelpful.
The Ottomans
Only after I finally won with the Boers I straightaway continued working on the “Ottoman Carpentry” Steam achievement. First it proved just as hard as “Praise the Victories” but a guide on civfanatics really helped. I altered it slightly and won my game. Here’s what I did to make it: Scramble for Africa – Ottoman Carpentry Steam Achievement Guide
Download the initial savegame: Ottomans-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
Morocco
Also in 2020, inspired by the updates to this blog and particular catching up with some guides for games played in 2014 I was eager to try Morocco again. Earlier I’ve some games where I survived but scored only around 1500 VP. This year, I’ve had an amazing game with a score of 4368 that wasn’t a victory due to Ethiopias 7k score.
3 Sub-Saharan Civilizations
Sub-Saharan Civilizations earn Victory points through their Culture per Turn. Evidently the Ethiopian AI also earns VP through culture from defeated enemies. Otherwise a score around 8000 wouldn’t be possible for Ethiopia. Rightfully so the Social policies of these 3 civs support culture. One of the two Social policy trees are contributing to generating culture. The other tree supports the military, which at least the Boer and Zulus need desparately:
- Fine Arts: 50% of excess Happiness contribute to Culture per turn
- Genius: A free Great Person of your choice appears next to the capital
- Cultural Centers: +5 Culture from each Great Work
- Genius: A free Great Person of your choice appears next to the capital
- Warrior Code: +15% Production training melee units, a free Great General and +50% faster generation of Great Generals
- Nationalism: +15% combat bonus in your territory
- Discipline: +15% combat strength for units with another unit in an adjacent tile
- Nationalism: +15% combat bonus in your territory
Finishing the military tree results in a +30% combat bonus while staying in formation and fighting at home. That’s nice, but actually only counters the huge bonuses the Europeans get from their Social Policies (see below).
Boer
Getting the “Praise the Victories” Steam achievement was my main motivation for playing the Scramble for Africa again. It took me several attempts on Emperor already and I thought I could never make it on Immortal let alone Deity. Making this achievement depends very much on the map you’re playing on. So I recommend not to try desperately on lower levels of difficulty: It’s annoying to realize you’ve got the perfect map – but you’re not playing on Deity and won’t get the achievement. Read how it worked for me in the Scramble for Africa – Praise the Victories Steam Achievement Guide.
Download the initial savegame: Boers-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
Ethiopia
So far every civilization I played on Deity had to annihilate Ethiopia to win. The main reason: Ethiopia’s culture output is so high, the amount of Victory points (VP) they get every single turn. My thinking was: If Ethiopia is so dominant while being played by the AI, maybe I should try it, too. Playing Ethiopia yourself on Deity is a tough nut to crack nonetheless. I dare saying without some of the most beneficial natural wonders in your territory, it’s hard to win. On the upside: Victory with Ethiopia is repeatable at a score of ~6k! Check out the Scramble for Africa Ethiopia Strategy (Deity).
Download the initial savegame: Ethiopia-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
The Zulu
Also in 2020 I’ve tried several times playing the Zulus. Even though I survived and prospered until around turn 40 and defended my capital from coastal bombardments and invading English and Portuguese, eventually my northern front broke and I lost cities to incoming Belgians etc.
As of early November 2020 the Zulu are done. Meaning: Achieved! What a tough nut to crack. Read about it in Mission: Possible! Scramble for Africa Zulu Strategy (Deity).
Download an initial savegame, significantly favoring the Zulu, but also Ethiopia: Zulu-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
European Civilizations
European Civilizations earn double Victory points for land, or number of tiles controlled. So naturally their Social policies are aimed at conquest and covering land. The first tree covers the Military and grants a +30% bonus against the native fortifications (cities and units), which is HUGE. The second tree covers land and unit purchases and grants 3 settlers. The third tree supports the economy of growing empires by improving trade and happiness:
- Advanced Siege Tactics: +30% combat bonus attacking cities
- Principal of Effective Occupation: +30% combat bonus attacking fortified units + free Courthouse in each captured city
- Sphere of Influence: 50% price of purchasing tiles and 33% cheaper unit purchases
- Colonialism: +25% tile improvement speed and 3 free Settlers
- Trade Unions: -50% maintenance costs of Roads and Railroads and +2 Happiness for each Luxury resource
- Capitalism: +1G for each trade route, +1 Happiness for each city connected to the Capital
The 2nd tree sounds interesting, but since Europeans are weak in culture in this scenario, you’ll reach the 3 free Settlers way too late. By that time, being a human player vs. AI the other Europeans will have settled everything already. Go with the other trees instead.
France
While being played by the AI, France dominates the west of Africa. On deity difficulty it takes a lot to achieve this domination and defeat Morocco, contain Italy, defeat Egypt and get a passage to Ethiopia. I really had my hands full ending up victorious playing France. Here’s the guide: Scramble for Africa France Strategy (Deity)
Download the initial savegame: France-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
England
By now you will see the pattern: Contain other Europeans, settle like crazy and defeat Ethiopia. This is key for all European civilizations in Scramble for Africa and England is no exception. Here’s how I ended victorious on Deity difficulty and even made The Rhodes Colossus Steam Achievement.
Download the initial savegame: England-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
Belgium
Only two Europeans left to win with. Belgium was next on the list and with it’s unique powers it’s big fun to play and still challenging. Making Belgium a major colonial power on Deity difficulty is possible. Read about it in the Scramble for Africa Belgium Strategy (Deity).
Download the initial savegame: Belgium-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
Portugal
With Italy being very hard, I wanted to see whether it was easier to play a European civilization that already has more cities in Africa. The answer is no: Playing Portugal is just as hard as Italy, since all the other Europeans settle like crazy. But it’s doable. I will share my experience here, soon…
Download the initial savegame: Portugal-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
Italy
There’s no achievement for Italy, but after it was so hard to defeat them (on Deity) with the Ottomans, I wanted to see how it works the other way round. I was surprised how hard it was to play the Europeans in Scramble for Africa! Of course it’s easier to deal with your military enemies – the African civilizations. On the other hand it’s incredibly hard to keep up with the other Europeans in terms of discovery and colonization. It was a big effort, so I decided to write a guide about it, too: Scramble for Africa Italy Strategy (Deity) guide
Download the initial savegame: Italy-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
Germany
Belgium (starting with no cities) was still a lot easier than Germany (starting with two cities). The main reason being Belgium’s unique power to move quicker next to rivers. So you need to work hard with Germany in order to not find yourself surrounded and isolated. Clever diplomacy (just as Bismarck himself) will help you reach your goals and find yourself ranking number 1 in the end. Here’s how I did it: Scramble for Africa Germany Strategy (Deity)
Download the initial savegame: Germany-AutoSave_Initial_0000-AD-1881-January.Civ5Save
Hey Kal, been following your guides for a while now. I recently beat Scramble for Africa on every faction as deity. I found Zulu and Morocco to be the toughest by far. For Morocco, here’s how I did it:
Sold my luxuries to Italy in exchange for them declaring on Egypt. Then declared war on every European, including Italy, getting back my luxury. Eventually this lets you demand GPT from some of the Europeans who you didn’t even fight with in exchange for peace. By turn 10, Belgium and Germany both offered 10 GPT each for peace, even though no fighting happened with them.
Due to Italy being at war with me and Egypt, Italy did not declare on Ottoman. Italy took Egypt’s starting cities, and basically crippled Egypt. Ottoman’s became quite strong, but this was fine. They would later prove to be useful in the central African war against Germany.
I spent the early turns building caravans, and went with the early privateer + double cannon rush for Gibraltar. From this point onward, Marrakech built 3 settlers back to back working the best hammer tiles and Agadir built armory followed by 6 frigates using the iron from Gibraltar.
The two starting berber cavalry were used to scout the desert and also Ethiopia and some of the natural wonders for much needed happiness. As soon as I found 3 wonders (especially Mt Kilimanjaro for the terrain bonus), I declared on Ethiopia and pillaged every tile and caravan with my cavalry. I also stole workers and used them to chop jungle in Ethiopia’s own territory. This would be useful in the inevitable fight against Ethiopia. What you do with the 2 starting cavalry is probably the most important part of the game, it greatly cripples Ethiopia and speeds up your economy.
Ethiopia was crippled so badly by the cavalry that they offered my a city (Harar) in exchange for peace, which I promptly accepted. I took the workers I stole from Ethiopia to build up Harare and chop jungle on their borders.
Using the settlers I build from Marrakech, I founded a line of 3 cities along the desert all the way from Marrakech to Harar, leaving the maximum distance (6-7 tiles) between them and purchasing tiles connecting my borders so I could build a long road from Marrakech to Harar. This would give my main army a path to Ethiopia. Each city I founded had the same build order: Worker –> Armory –> Rifleman for the rest of the game.
The first social policy I took was the desert combat bonus. This bonus is useful for defending Agadir from France, allowing rifleman on the kasbah to basically last a long time. A fortified rifleman with desert social policy and kasbah and great general bonus and double promoted open terrain basically has around 90 strength, even more with adjacent medic and cover promotion. On top of this, Agadir was pumping out frigates with bonus damage vs land units, so I was able to defend Agadir from France effectively with just frigates and rifleman sitting on kasbahs.
Once I had 4-5 frigates with range promotion, I sent them to take Lisbon. It helped that I was able to steal a couple ironclad from Portugal and Italy with my one and only privateer. After taking Lisbon, I made peace with Portugal in exchange for GPT. Same with England.
Bribed Ottomans to declare on Italy. Ottomans took the Italian cities which used to be Egyptian. While this was going on, I took Algiers and sent my fleet to slowly take the Italian cities. Italy had completely fallen to me and the Ottomans by around turn 60.
France sent a massive army to Agadir and my expansions for much of the game, but the desert social policy combined with kasbahs allowed me to defend very effectively with riflemen and cannons. It helped that I had 4 extra cities (including Harar) pumping out riflemen throughout the game to replace injured rifleman at the kasbahs.
Gold was used to purchase factories, armories and academies in every city. Every other building was ignored. Anytime the Ottomans had a GPT of more than 100, I would sell them a European city. I first sold them Algiers, then the Italian cities one by one once I no longer needed coal. Surplus gold at this point was spent on units. England and France refused peace, and both had a presence in western Africa, senting units nonstop at the Sahara. The kasbah riflemen and my surrounding cannons butchered them earning me even more gold. I was patiently waiting for some of these cannons to get logistics promotion.
At some point, Germany suddenly declared on me and threatened one of my expansions near Harar. It was weakly defended, and not on desert, so I sold it to the Ottomans the turn before it was captured, and bribed them to declare on Germany. Germany took the city, and I took it back and sold it back. This happened back and forth for about 6 turns straight. I had about 400 GPT all from selling this single 1 pop city to the Ottomans about 6 times.
The Germans proved to be a major nuisance, since I could not abuse my bonuses on non desert land and they sent massive armies at my 2 expansions deep in the heartland of Africa. They cutoff my army en route to Ethiopia, and I had to constantly purchase rifleman to keep the war going in Harar against Ethiopia. I plopped citadels and roads everywhere in Ethiopia and chopped jungle to give better access to my cannons for firing on Ethiopian cities. Belgium fortunately declared on Ethiopia and took Adwa. I also purchased every city state in central Africa to stall German troops.
Eventually, with Ottoman support, I regained control of central Africa and the line of cities connecting Marrakech to Harar was secured with forts roads and riflemen. With the help of Belgium, who were at war with both Ethiopia and myself, we both took Ethiopian cities from Ethiopia and I took some Belgian cities originally beloning to Ethiopia.
By around turn 75, I was second in score only to Ethiopia. The other factions stood no chance, as I was getting upwards of 800 GPT and selling cities to Ottoman whenever they had any noticeable GPT. Egypt and Italy were completely eliminated from the game, and Ethiopia had 3 highly defended cities on jungle terrain with lots of mehal sefari. I was able to make peace with all Europeans and sent my entire army to Addis Ababa for one final push.
Slowly I took the Ethiopian cities, and pushed hard with workers cutting as much jungle as they could. Plopped a citadel right next to Addis Ababa to clear out the jungle for my cannons to fire. I finally took the last Ethiopian city with only 4 turns to go. They were the only faction beating me in score before I wiped their last city.
Overally, I think Morocco is among the hardest civs on deity, perhaps second only to Zulu in terms of difficulty. The main drawbacks are the fact that you don’t get points for killing units like the Boers, and unlike other north Africans you are far from the Ethiopians. You basically have to fight every European civ to secure the road from Morocco to Ethiopia while also dominating the seas so you can sell cities to Ottoman/Egypt. I think the Ottomans need to survive to reliably win, otherwise Italy takes the sahara and defending the sahara against both Italy and France at once early on is just too difficult.
As for a Civ5 scenario player, I am so happy to watch such a great article. It is quite helpful. Thanks for your contribution.
Last week, I managed to win as Morocco on deity with 8386 points at 99t while Ethiopia got 5983 points. The max total income I got during the game is approximatly 3200 gold per turn(GPT).Here are some tips I want to share.
1. North African empires get 1 point when they earn 13 gold.Noticed that this 13 gold must be in terms of GPT not cash (such as pillage,conquer a city or kill a combat unit).The total in come (contain the total expense) is used to calculate the point which can be seen when you put your mouse at the gold on the top of the game screen. Usually we can sell our resources or citys to Egypt, The Ottomans to get more GPT but this is finite. However, after make a friendship declaration, we can use our cash to change GPT(about 27.6 gold to 1 GPT). In other words, we change the cash to points whick can not be achieved before.
2. The route of the war for Morocco is GIBRALTAR(England),ALGIERS(the France capital) ,two Italian citys which contain coals, Libson(the Portugal capital) and other cities along the west africa coast. At turn 4, France and Italy are likely to declare war against the ottomans so I redirect italy to fight Egypt (after that I also declare war against Italy). After produced several rifled cannon and 1 pirate boat, I conquered GIBRALTAR. At around 20t I steal some territory of ALGIERS by using a great general and then conquer it. Fortunately, Italy keep peace with The ottomans and my rifled cannon can attack Italy cities safely on the Ottomans’ territory. After build strong naval force, the fight will be easy.
3. During the game, I declare friendship with The Ottomans, Egypt and Ethiopia. Diplomacy is quite important in this scenario and Morocco need friends. I avoid to keep more cities than the three empire mentioned above and try to denounce the same leader they have already denounced. Fighting together has a great effect to build friendship. To make friendship with Ethiopia, I try to alleviate my warmonger level (because I have to conquer many cities). OUAGADOUGOU, a mercantile city state located near France and England, is a great target. I use lots of money to allied it at 40 turn. After that it is conquered by France and I liberate it several times. Also, leave Italy alive, do not remove it from the game.
Hope these tips can be helpful. I am a Chinese civ5 player, so sorry for my poor English level.
Have a nice day!
Hey Mo! Thanks so much for those hints!
Most of them will find their way into the upcoming Morocco guide. Me and a friend have played Morocco about 2 dozen times and only 1 time successful, even though we did exactly what you did. It’s a chore and not easily reproducible, which is why I can only congratulate you 🙂
PS: Your English is excellent, don’t be sorry about it. Anybody lecturing you about it, I’d consider arrogant 🙂
I just won a landslide victory as Egypt on Deity with 7788 points. Even though I never attacked Ethiopia, I still ended up having a lead of about 2000 points over it.
Egypt is probably one of this scenario’s easiest civs if you can pull off a semi-reliable AI exploit. I’m not the one who originally found it, but I don’t remember where I read about it. I believe it works for Morocco as well.
When Italy is about to declare war either on you or the Ottomans (whichever comes first), bribe it against Morocco, then declare war on it immediately. (Don’t do it directly, though. The Ottomans should be willing to pay you.) Even though Italy really wants to fight the Ottomans, it’s too hesitant to add a third war to the mix, so it will remain at peace with them for quite a while. As a result, instead of dying an early death, they will survive and flourish, becoming an excellent trading partner alongside Morocco.
This exploit doesn’t seem to put Morocco in any danger. As for you, from my experience, there’s about a 50% chance that Italy will respond to your declaration of war by attacking Alexandria. If that happens, you may want to reload or restart. It would probably be quite hard to fight off its fleet this early in the game. But if this doesn’t happen, the Italian AI just breaks and decides that the best course of action is to have its fleet and army stay at home while sending droves of unescorted settlers (!) into your territory. This removes any need to create your own workers.
With this, Italy will remain utterly stagnant as you gradually build up a fleet of your own, which you can then use to knock it out of the game, crushing its dreams of colonization before it gets even a single African city. The Ottomans should be willing to pay you their entire income for its cities Just keep an eye out for some occasional Italian land units that may be exiled near your starting territory, either because Italy ran out of land to place them on, or because you conquered and sold the city they were guarding to a civ whose territory they can’t enter.
You can then expand westward in a manner much like in this blog’s Ottomans guide, grabbing and selling Algiers, Gibraltar and Lisbon to Morocco for equally massive amounts of gold. I’d also advise creating a second fleet to seal off the Red Sea before the first Europeans arrive there. From my experience, two Ironclads with Boarding Party promotions are enough for that at first. The ships of Portugal, France and England just engaged in a staring contest with them, apparently being unwilling to try breaking through. In my case, this second fleet eventually became strong enough to push the front lines a little, though the sheer size of Portugal’s fleet made it difficult to advance without casualties.
While all of this happened, my army saw little action and need for expansion. Ethiopia and the Ottomans made excellent buffer states who could stand their ground against European invaders, which left me with only a narrow and easily defendable front line with Germany. (The AI doesn’t seem to understand that if there’s a huge lake on the quickest invasion route, its units should go around it instead of turning themselves into cannon fodder.) So most of my cities were free to focus on churning out as much gold as possible.
During the late game, all five surviving Europeans offered me huge amounts of gold in exchange for peace. I accepted, since it seemed more profitable than continuing to fight them. But this resulted in a relatively boring finale, since it left me with little to do other than watch as I made over 2000 gold per turn. Although I did use this opportunity to conquer Mogadishu, Zanzibar and Segou. The latter’s capture enabled another hilarious AI exploit. For some reason, Ethiopia insisted on liberating the city whenever it bought it. Since this left it without any units, I was able to reconquer it once per turn and sell it again. After six conquests, Ethiopia finally ran out of things to give me, so I grabbed the city one last time and sold it to the Ottomans. In the process, it was reduced to a size of one citizen, lost all of its buildings, and had all of its improvements pillaged. The sheer amount of warmongering penalties this gave me made the surviving Africans hate me even more than the Europeans did, but I still think it was a war crime worth committing. Morocco and Ethiopia already hated me anyway.
Germany’s payments ended a while before the game’s end, so I conquered Swakopmund and sold it to Portugal. Douala was sadly sealed off by the borders of England and Portugal. Then the four remaining Europeans all attacked me again on turn 95 and wrecked my fleet. That ended the game on a bit of a sour note, but I was still able to inflict heavy casualties on them during the massacre and recapture Swakopmund.
On a side note, I sent the Dervish Cavalry I started with south to establish contact with the Zulus and Boers. You probably have to do this really early in order to evade the Europeans. In the process, I found three of the four natural wonders. The 12 happiness this gave me was probably the best thing about it. King Solomon’s Mines weren’t hard to find either, as they ended up in the Ottomans’ territory. Contacting the Zulus proved to be useless, as they quickly committed suicide by declaring war on Portugal. But the Boers made a nice trading partner for surplus luxury resources. Their end didn’t come until the second half of the game when I made peace with Germany, causing it to immediately attack them together with England.
Overall, this was an interesting game. Egypt is actually in a good position to destroy Ethiopia, since it can easily restrict its expansion, but I wanted to see if it’s possible to defeat it in a fair competition. And now I have confirmed that. It may very well be possible to outscore Ethiopia with the other North Africans as well, but they are probably more challenging to play as, seeing how they have to fight actual wars in the early game instead of just integrating illegal Italian immigrants.
That said, the end game was really anticlimactic. I’d like to give this another shot one day and see if its possible to continue expanding along the coast of Africa instead of making peace. Don’t know if I could earn more gold that way, but it’d make for a much more exciting conclusion.
Hey there 🙂
THANKS SO MUCH for this advise! I’ve mentioned and linked to you from this brand new post: Scramble for Africa Egypt Strategy (Deity)
I’ve followed the advice on how to deal with Italy’s AI, delay war with them and also win a great victory with Egypt. Only 5k score, instead of 8k, but still awesome. Besides: The same works for Morocco as well, so I’m currently in a game where I delayed war with Portugal to a point to survive and prosper as Morocco. More from that game later.
Not sure how this could be useful, but I accidentally found out a loophole to go to war with another European civ as a European. I will put it here for the record.
1. Get friendly with an African civ that won’t fall easily (Ethiopia, Morocco, Egypt)
2. Form a defensive pact
3. Eventually, a European civ will declare war on your African friend. You automatically get involved as well. You go to war with only one civ, however.
Be aware that war against a major European civ will be a slugfest. Only try this if you are confident in your military. I was playing on Emperor as Belgium and had to fight through swarms after swarms of rifled cannons and explorers (yes seriously) with +50% defense promotions.
Uuuuh, nice! Thanks for that one!
I’m trying to play with Cetswayo, I use In Game Editor to have 4 canon and 3 modern ships and that is enought to win with him. But, sometimes I lost my citis for no reason. Luanda, for example, each 3 turns back to Portugal power and I don’t know why.
Okay. This blog is awesome. Regarding the “Discoverer Achievement” … helpful tip for future people. Start the scenario. Save your game. Then save the map. Go into the Civ V Mod Builder. Load the map and find where the landmarks are. You should be able to get to 2 of them. On the Settler level, I actually found 3 of the 4 before any other European Civilization did.
about the Livingstone achievement – there is at least one other civ achievement which also has a similar “bug” – that’s entering a snow tile for “Where’s the biathlon” – which will only trigger if you don’t have fast movement triggered on. It’s probably the same with this.
Ethiopia deity isn’t too hard to achieve, I did it first try without doing lower difficulties. Just park a Mehal Sefari on a jungle or hill next to a secondary city and build a fort there for;
– Bonus for larger civ (20%)
– Jungle or hill defensive bonus (25%)
– 15+15+15% for rough terrain (45%)
– 15% up to 25% near capital (20%)
– Defending bonus (40%) (40%)
– Fortress (50%) (50%)
– Flanking (30%)
Total; 230% increase (78.2 strength) and 280% with citadel (95.2 strength)
Basically I killed unit after unit from Belgium, Germany and Portugal that were sent my way
Great article! I noticed you have done a lot of Civ5 scenario, will you do Conquest of the New World Deluxe?
Thanks a lot!
I want to finish 2 more strategy guides (Russia and Austria) for Into the Renaissance before I forget everything…
Then I wanted to play Wonders of the Ancient World (because there are more achievements). Now that you asked about it though – I’ll play Conquest of the New World next. 🙂
Cool article. Helpful too.
Thanks! Good to hear! 🙂