Incan strategies?

[Quillan]

It is very hard to beat a Financial civilization that starts with Mysticism to a religion if they want it first. Either a coastal seafood resource or an oasis gives 2 commerce, which Financial makes 3. Stack that on top of the palace commerce and if you have either you'll probably get there before anyone else. If you don't have either one, someone with such a bonus might beat you to it, and higher difficulty levels increase that possibility, but the AI does seem to go after Buddhism first.

[LDiCesare]

It is very hard to beat a Financial civilization that starts with Mysticism to a religion if they want it first. Either a coastal seafood resource or an oasis gives 2 commerce, which Financial makes 3.

Seafood is usable only if you start with fishing, and the Incans do not.

[couerdelion]

So that's Fishing/Mysticism and Financial - I'm trying to figure out who that might be.

For the rest, the 3g start relies still on a Financial/Mysticism start and either an oasis or a riverside commerce resource.

As a rule, I never go for Meditation because it is too risky. Perhaps settled on a riverside wine with another to work (or an oasis) is the only time I might briefly consider going down that route but then I could probably convince myself that I don’t mind the extra 1 or 2 turns for Polytheism if my commerce starts with these bonuses (boni?)

[Quillan]

Tell me about it. My last Inca game I settled one city on top of a Dye resource so I had a river mouth location, and the central square was generating 3 commerce immediately. On a river with dye or spices around could be huge for any Financial civ.

[Shalkai]

Fishing/Myst = Isabella, who can usually be counted on to found at least two religions in any game she's in.

Good thing she isn't financial, too, or she'd probably snag all seven!

[Quillan]

In my experience, Isabella with seafood usually founds 3-5 religions. She'll almost always get either Buddhism or Hinduism, plus Judaism, and at least one of Christianity, Taoism or Islam. I rarely see her get Confucianism.

[couerdelion]

Isabella has always been a religious freak. I think that's why she's in the game. It must have something to do with launching inquisitions, while still not having the Pottery tech.

[#07]

So we've established that the Inca's rule and it's enough to make me start my next game with them. Actually, I've been meaning to go for a cultural victory for a while - anyone have this experience with the Inca?
I've never gone for a cultural win, and I know many factors dictate which direction you follow, but has anyone pulled this off successfully at Emporer with the Inca?

[snoopy369]

Cultural victory with Inca shouldn't be that hard, industrious is a huge tech for cultural (not for the early wonders, which drive a very small % of my culture, but for the later non-bonus-material wonders like Hollywood). Having a religion or three also helps, with FIN giving you a big edge on getting the various religions particularly in the middle of the tech tree (Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity)...

[couerdelion]

With all these negative jibes at poor old Izzy, and unbridled praise of Huayna, I decided to quit my previous game is Isabella, and start a new one with the Incans
(perhaps it might also have something to do with the 12 Spanish chariots that bounced off Carthage’s walls – only one actually bounced - killing two archers.

Just in case, you had not got the message, the Inca’s rock. I obviously went for the traditional Inca start by going for Fishing first and then Polytheism. Obviously my AI rivals weren’t very religious because I got Hinduism.

Leap forward to 1780 BC and I’ve just completed the Oracle in Athens, to add to Stonehenge there. I took Codes of Law this time although I think that Metalworking might have been more sensible for an industrious civ by Huayna.

Once clear advantage that HC has is that he has little problem defending two separate centres of civilisation – this point will be put to the test as all the barbarians in my side of the world have decided to converge on the recently finished Oracle.

So as to the checklist it’s

1) Early conquest – Check
2) Early religion – Check (twice if you include Confucianism)
3) Wonders - Check
4) Pottery for Terraces and Cottages – Check
5) Economic build up using Quecha as barb-basher – Check

It looks like you can have it all.

p.s. I was a little lucky with a couple of hut techs (Fishing/Wheel) and for Alexander to finish a cow pasture for me – I’ve yet to research the tech.

[Hauptman]

I definately have to vouch for the Inca's. I havent ever tried the whole quecha rush in anything other than multiplayer... until this weekend.

But I gotta say... The incas are da bomb. Emporer huge marathon 18 civs... I won domination in the 1700s for a new high score!

Early game, I headed out scouting and just cranked Quechas, no workers, no graneries, nothin, just little warriors. Found the portugese and korea close by. Korea beeing protective, not such a good thing, so I went after portugal first. Snatched workers from both of them then captured Lisbon. A couple of Quechas survived and headed south to Koreatown with cover and city raider1. matched up with new fresh warriors, even protective couldnt stop me.

Not only did this give me 3 great cities and 4 free workers (by the end) It gave me a HUGE area to expand into at my leisure. I built every wonder I could get my greedy little hands onto and this gave me such huge culture that I captured 3 or 4 MORE cities from Ragnar (who was friendly) and a couple short (but tough) wars to my north captured a few and vasalized some previosly agresive neighbors. The whole game ( ON EMPORER!) I was the tech leader and finally won the game by attacking and vassalizing rome's riflemen with my tanks and bombers.... just like it was monarch.

[couerdelion]

Have to say that I’m having a really easy game with HC and I’m not entirely sure why given that I was running with almost no trade until I got my third city and had to wait until my sixth city before the two parts of the empire were linked and my capital got horses and copper while it was my fifth city that provided my first happiness resource (Silver). The fifth and sixth cities were the ones that also linked up the two parts to the empire via a coastal link.

Now approaching 900 AD and I’m heading for Guilds and Banking to upgrade my shrine gold. Also being able to run Pacifism, the wonder-fuelled GPs are popping out left right and centre while my tech lead is now rapidly expanding – I have little to fear for the Liberalism run so should be able to grab something ridiculous like Assembly Line or Physics. Techwise, this is about as fast as I can recall going through the tree.

And I’m still using my Quecha on the occasional barb city that pops up to the south.

All in all, one of the easiest game I can recall ever playing.

[Fleme]

I'm glad to see others jumping on the Inca bandwagon too

[martin mcmartin]

yeah, well, looks like I am the only one who's not able to start one of those nice new-strat Inca games! the reasons: 2 little (cute) monsters, one, non-philipino, wife and a 2-month old game with the dutch that screams to be finished, if I ever do finish it....

Mc

[Supr49er]

If I feel like building wonders, it's Huayna Capac and the mighty Incas for me. I love exploring with Quechas, and gettinga stack of them to 10XP.