The Zulu declared war again, as did the Indians and the Native Americans. (I was particuarly upset with them – I’d been the only civilization prepared to give them anything for centuries and had always refused when other civs told me to stop trading with them.)

Anyway, though I’d built up my forces, I hadn’t built them up enough. The Zulu stormed over my borders and wiped me out – all except one small city stuck between the mountains and the sea. They would have taken that, too, but I paid them off to get a peace treaty.

Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword

All that remained.

There was nothing left I could do, except sit back in my little city as the mighty Zulu gained a diplomatic victory.

The glorious Egyptian empire that had once covered half the globe was now a tiny, isolated state with no resources except corn and bananas and no power on the world stage. Our ancient cities were in the hands of the Zulu and we were left with a small city that had once, not so long ago, belonged to barbarians.

It hurts to see our cultural heritage and treasures in the hands of others but, still, we survived. That’s something.