Before starting, here are the specs I play with, epic speed, monarch, standard size world. In playing the Incas, I used the Continents map selection.
I usually play as the Dutch, which definitely favors a building style of game play. I wanted to try something different, so I played a couple of games as the Incas. At first it's a lot of fun, you start building nothing but Quechuas. Send the first few out to find your nearest neighbors. Research Mining, then BW, so you can pop Quechuas. Once you've found another civ, wait until you've assembled ten Quechuas, then go attack. This will usually be at about 2300-2500 BC. It's like taking candy from a baby, and you can take out that first civ altogether and hurt a second one. It looks like you're already on the road to victory.
Not so fast. At that point, you usually have three cities, your capital, the dead civ's capital and its second city. However, the latter two are almost always a long way from your capital and that's a problem for trade routes. You'll find that your income per turn is really low. You have to keep your slider below 20% or so, which really hurts tech advance. Because of these financial difficulties, you can't build more settlers and connect up with the distant cities. Also, you can't just build a road to them because of the barbarians that are roaming around. In the end, I find that my advantage has evaporated by the mid-game and I'm often even slightly behind in techs. Is anyone else's experience like this?
I usually play as the Dutch, which definitely favors a building style of game play. I wanted to try something different, so I played a couple of games as the Incas. At first it's a lot of fun, you start building nothing but Quechuas. Send the first few out to find your nearest neighbors. Research Mining, then BW, so you can pop Quechuas. Once you've found another civ, wait until you've assembled ten Quechuas, then go attack. This will usually be at about 2300-2500 BC. It's like taking candy from a baby, and you can take out that first civ altogether and hurt a second one. It looks like you're already on the road to victory.
Not so fast. At that point, you usually have three cities, your capital, the dead civ's capital and its second city. However, the latter two are almost always a long way from your capital and that's a problem for trade routes. You'll find that your income per turn is really low. You have to keep your slider below 20% or so, which really hurts tech advance. Because of these financial difficulties, you can't build more settlers and connect up with the distant cities. Also, you can't just build a road to them because of the barbarians that are roaming around. In the end, I find that my advantage has evaporated by the mid-game and I'm often even slightly behind in techs. Is anyone else's experience like this?
Comment