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Decided I’d take a bit to write about one of the civs that is, in my opinion, among the MOST fun to play.
The Aztecs.
Man…those guys are just insane.
A solid set of abilities…Militaristic and Religious, and a UU that never goes out of style.
You just can’t get any better than that.
So…what’s the big deal, you might ask? With a fast-moving warrior, you’re almost sure to waste your golden age when you’ve got the tiniest handful of cities and that sucks, you have the UU with the worst stats in the whole game, and that sucks, and some people regard militaristic as not being in the upper echelon of civ traits, so THAT sucks.
I would contend though, that those who break the civ apart like that are simply missing the big picture.
The strength of the Aztec lies not in their individual abilities and traits, but in the package taken as a whole, and in this case, the whole really IS greater than the sum of its parts.
Here’s why:
First, the Jaguar Warrior. Simply an amazing piece of work. Can be built for a song (same price as a Warrior), upgrades to Swordsmen later on (if you want to), and it’s FAST!
The speed gains seen by a handful of Aztec scouts accomplishes essentially the same goals as the Industrious workers building an early military road network…without the workers OR the roads (actually, enhanced BY both…it’s just that the roads come together at normal rates), but that’s not all. In addition to starting the game with the ability to project their power better than anybody, the Aztecs are better at exploration than Expansionist civs (who must choose between building a non-attack capable scout or a warrior…the Aztec get both in the same package). True, the Aztec don’t always get good stuff from huts, but more often than not they do! How’s that? Simply because Aztecs are Militaristic, meaning that even barbarians from huts are good things (faster promotions), and a matched pair of exploring Jags can take on anything that comes out of a hut, growing stronger with each victory.
Like Expansionist civs, the Aztec have the advantage of being able to see more of the map, more quickly, and can pick the best spots (food and luxury wise) to build their new cities in while the rest of the civs are stumbling around in the dark.
Also like Expansionist civs (not bad, since they don’t have to bother with having the Expansionist trait), they get to meet neighboring civs more quickly (opening up early trading opportunities and the like), and see more than their fair share of goody huts.
Having played the group a number of times, here’s what I have found to be a winning strategy with one of the premier rough and tumble civs in the game:
The Opener
The Aztec are not particularly hurt by a less than optimal starting position. Just put ‘em anywhere and they can thrive, and God help anyone near you if you DO get so much as a single cow, wheat stalk or forested game tile in the radius of your starting city. The main REASON they’re not particularly bothered by the weaker start is that they bust up the shroud (fog of war) so quickly, that by the time you’re ready to build that next city, you have 3-4 OUTSTANDING sites all picked out, and have likely begun a road to one of them!
Just build your city anyplace…set up shop and start growing like a weed.
Your first goal is to build some Jags…at least 2 for exploring and 1 for defense, and start exploring. Very quickly, you’ll uncover an ever-widening swath of territory, revealing all manner of terrain, bonus food tiles, luxuries, goody huts, and rival civs, and right now, all you’re doing is taking notes. Don’t get rowdy yet…no need…(“YET” being the operative word).
Getting the Lay of the Land
The reason you’re not getting rowdy yet is that it’s far, FAR more important to map the continent you’re on than it is to knock a neighboring civ out of commission really early (though with the Aztec, I have caused civ-extinctions even before they could build a second city). So…build as many Jags as you can (in fact, build them any time you’re waiting for the city to grow large enough to build a settler), and send ever-increasing numbers of them out exploring (individually at first, in groups (wolf packs) later.
Your goal – to map the continent, taking note of the locations of enemy civs, bonus food tiles, and luxury patches. Nothing else matters in the early game.
The good thing is that while you are getting the lay of the land, you’re also building a steady diet of settlers, enabling you to build MORE Jags and MORE settlers, such that by the time you have 3-4 cities up and running, you’ve probably mapped out your continent (I can generally map out my whole continent by this point if playing Large worlds and smaller), and you have at least a dozen speedy Jags running around.
Time to make everyone pay.
The First Assault
Go for the jugular (jagular?) of the largest civ near you. If they have a size 2+ city that’s not the capitol, or any city that has done it’s first border bump, hit it.
You can see the defenders by probing in a turn or two before, so you know if they’ve got spearmen or not, and if they don’t have spearmen yet, then 4-5 Jags will take the city. If they DO have spearmen, bring 7-8 Jags on the attack. In any case, you’ve got enough warriors on hand to get the job done, but don’t stop there. Take that first city, hole up to heal, use pre-emptive strikes to hit incoming enemy archers (might as well let the warriors attack you and take the defensive bonus, but take out the Archers on their way in), and when you’ve replaced your losses from the first assault, do it again!
Keep in mind too that your Jags can make lots of little detours…raiding new settler parties that the civ you’re at war with might be sending out (free workers!), and capturing any workers you might run across in the field.
You might not be an Industrious civ, but with so many workers captured in the ancient era, you will quickly gain most of the key benefits of that civ trait as well!
The point is…since we’re talking about the ancient era, capturing 1-2 cities will be enough to accomplish three goals:
1) It’ll give you your golden age. Faster Jags. Not a GREAT golden age, but hey…it’s what you have to live with.
2) Free tech when the first civ cries uncle
3) 1-2 extra cities, and one less viable opponent
Having done that by 1900 BC or so…having wrecked a neighboring civ and captured 4-5 workers, you are free to turn your attention to the next largest neighbor.
This is oscillating war at its finest…made even finer by the fact that your captured workers and fast warriors can rapidly shift from one front to the other, even if the road network is not quite complete (though you should waste no time in connecting your cities and building that military road network…of vital importance to getting as much mileage as you can out of your Jags).
Points to remember (or at least keep in mind):
1) Don’t bother researching (at all). You’ll need the money to support your army (which will invariably be…well…huge, by ancient era standards), and you’ll get tech faster from goody huts and conquered neighbors anyway.
2) Have your starting worker build at least one mine in a good spot for your first couple of cities. The boon shaves 1-2 turns of “Jag-Time”
3) Aside from the mine at your first city, the only concern your starting worker should have is road building. Additional mines can be built with captured workers, which will be coming soon to an Aztec city near you.
4) As an Aztec player, your cities should only focus on four things. NOTHING else matters but these four: Jags, Settlers (which enable you to build MORE Jags), Barracks (which enable you to build BETTER Jags), and Temples (your people are HAPPY about….building Jags). That’s it. Anything else, and you’re wasting your time and your advantage.
5) You OWN the early game, and everything in it. Nobody on your starting continent lives and breathes without your expressed permission.
6) Attrition is your friend, and despite the Jag’s retreat potential, you WILL lose some, every time you attack a city. Get used to it, and get over it. They’re cheap, and you can make more.
The combination of a hatefully strong early game UU enables you to mimic the traits of Expansionist (fast exploration, more goody huts) and Industrious (vast numbers of ancient era slave workers captured), giving you the most important benefits of both, for free.
Your nearest and most likely rivals simply cannot touch you (your biggest threat coming from the Iroquois, but you can kill them before they can build any MW’s at all, even if you take your sweet time about it, and in any case, three Jags can be built for the price of a single MW, which is an uneven fight no matter how you slice it).
You are, in the ancient era, the Japanese film equivalent of Godzilla. Your traits and your UU converge in such a way that you can see the essential benefits of at least one, possibly two other Civ traits you don’t even posses. In turn, these advantages can rapidly catapult you into a position of utter dominance on your starting continent, giving you room to grow and expand and all but ensuring a steady stream of Great Leaders (lots of ancient wonders).
Give ‘em a spin….you’ll love it!
-=Vel=-
The Aztecs.
Man…those guys are just insane.
A solid set of abilities…Militaristic and Religious, and a UU that never goes out of style.
You just can’t get any better than that.
So…what’s the big deal, you might ask? With a fast-moving warrior, you’re almost sure to waste your golden age when you’ve got the tiniest handful of cities and that sucks, you have the UU with the worst stats in the whole game, and that sucks, and some people regard militaristic as not being in the upper echelon of civ traits, so THAT sucks.
I would contend though, that those who break the civ apart like that are simply missing the big picture.
The strength of the Aztec lies not in their individual abilities and traits, but in the package taken as a whole, and in this case, the whole really IS greater than the sum of its parts.
Here’s why:
First, the Jaguar Warrior. Simply an amazing piece of work. Can be built for a song (same price as a Warrior), upgrades to Swordsmen later on (if you want to), and it’s FAST!
The speed gains seen by a handful of Aztec scouts accomplishes essentially the same goals as the Industrious workers building an early military road network…without the workers OR the roads (actually, enhanced BY both…it’s just that the roads come together at normal rates), but that’s not all. In addition to starting the game with the ability to project their power better than anybody, the Aztecs are better at exploration than Expansionist civs (who must choose between building a non-attack capable scout or a warrior…the Aztec get both in the same package). True, the Aztec don’t always get good stuff from huts, but more often than not they do! How’s that? Simply because Aztecs are Militaristic, meaning that even barbarians from huts are good things (faster promotions), and a matched pair of exploring Jags can take on anything that comes out of a hut, growing stronger with each victory.
Like Expansionist civs, the Aztec have the advantage of being able to see more of the map, more quickly, and can pick the best spots (food and luxury wise) to build their new cities in while the rest of the civs are stumbling around in the dark.
Also like Expansionist civs (not bad, since they don’t have to bother with having the Expansionist trait), they get to meet neighboring civs more quickly (opening up early trading opportunities and the like), and see more than their fair share of goody huts.
Having played the group a number of times, here’s what I have found to be a winning strategy with one of the premier rough and tumble civs in the game:
The Opener
The Aztec are not particularly hurt by a less than optimal starting position. Just put ‘em anywhere and they can thrive, and God help anyone near you if you DO get so much as a single cow, wheat stalk or forested game tile in the radius of your starting city. The main REASON they’re not particularly bothered by the weaker start is that they bust up the shroud (fog of war) so quickly, that by the time you’re ready to build that next city, you have 3-4 OUTSTANDING sites all picked out, and have likely begun a road to one of them!
Just build your city anyplace…set up shop and start growing like a weed.
Your first goal is to build some Jags…at least 2 for exploring and 1 for defense, and start exploring. Very quickly, you’ll uncover an ever-widening swath of territory, revealing all manner of terrain, bonus food tiles, luxuries, goody huts, and rival civs, and right now, all you’re doing is taking notes. Don’t get rowdy yet…no need…(“YET” being the operative word).
Getting the Lay of the Land
The reason you’re not getting rowdy yet is that it’s far, FAR more important to map the continent you’re on than it is to knock a neighboring civ out of commission really early (though with the Aztec, I have caused civ-extinctions even before they could build a second city). So…build as many Jags as you can (in fact, build them any time you’re waiting for the city to grow large enough to build a settler), and send ever-increasing numbers of them out exploring (individually at first, in groups (wolf packs) later.
Your goal – to map the continent, taking note of the locations of enemy civs, bonus food tiles, and luxury patches. Nothing else matters in the early game.
The good thing is that while you are getting the lay of the land, you’re also building a steady diet of settlers, enabling you to build MORE Jags and MORE settlers, such that by the time you have 3-4 cities up and running, you’ve probably mapped out your continent (I can generally map out my whole continent by this point if playing Large worlds and smaller), and you have at least a dozen speedy Jags running around.
Time to make everyone pay.
The First Assault
Go for the jugular (jagular?) of the largest civ near you. If they have a size 2+ city that’s not the capitol, or any city that has done it’s first border bump, hit it.
You can see the defenders by probing in a turn or two before, so you know if they’ve got spearmen or not, and if they don’t have spearmen yet, then 4-5 Jags will take the city. If they DO have spearmen, bring 7-8 Jags on the attack. In any case, you’ve got enough warriors on hand to get the job done, but don’t stop there. Take that first city, hole up to heal, use pre-emptive strikes to hit incoming enemy archers (might as well let the warriors attack you and take the defensive bonus, but take out the Archers on their way in), and when you’ve replaced your losses from the first assault, do it again!
Keep in mind too that your Jags can make lots of little detours…raiding new settler parties that the civ you’re at war with might be sending out (free workers!), and capturing any workers you might run across in the field.
You might not be an Industrious civ, but with so many workers captured in the ancient era, you will quickly gain most of the key benefits of that civ trait as well!
The point is…since we’re talking about the ancient era, capturing 1-2 cities will be enough to accomplish three goals:
1) It’ll give you your golden age. Faster Jags. Not a GREAT golden age, but hey…it’s what you have to live with.
2) Free tech when the first civ cries uncle
3) 1-2 extra cities, and one less viable opponent
Having done that by 1900 BC or so…having wrecked a neighboring civ and captured 4-5 workers, you are free to turn your attention to the next largest neighbor.
This is oscillating war at its finest…made even finer by the fact that your captured workers and fast warriors can rapidly shift from one front to the other, even if the road network is not quite complete (though you should waste no time in connecting your cities and building that military road network…of vital importance to getting as much mileage as you can out of your Jags).
Points to remember (or at least keep in mind):
1) Don’t bother researching (at all). You’ll need the money to support your army (which will invariably be…well…huge, by ancient era standards), and you’ll get tech faster from goody huts and conquered neighbors anyway.
2) Have your starting worker build at least one mine in a good spot for your first couple of cities. The boon shaves 1-2 turns of “Jag-Time”
3) Aside from the mine at your first city, the only concern your starting worker should have is road building. Additional mines can be built with captured workers, which will be coming soon to an Aztec city near you.
4) As an Aztec player, your cities should only focus on four things. NOTHING else matters but these four: Jags, Settlers (which enable you to build MORE Jags), Barracks (which enable you to build BETTER Jags), and Temples (your people are HAPPY about….building Jags). That’s it. Anything else, and you’re wasting your time and your advantage.
5) You OWN the early game, and everything in it. Nobody on your starting continent lives and breathes without your expressed permission.
6) Attrition is your friend, and despite the Jag’s retreat potential, you WILL lose some, every time you attack a city. Get used to it, and get over it. They’re cheap, and you can make more.
The combination of a hatefully strong early game UU enables you to mimic the traits of Expansionist (fast exploration, more goody huts) and Industrious (vast numbers of ancient era slave workers captured), giving you the most important benefits of both, for free.
Your nearest and most likely rivals simply cannot touch you (your biggest threat coming from the Iroquois, but you can kill them before they can build any MW’s at all, even if you take your sweet time about it, and in any case, three Jags can be built for the price of a single MW, which is an uneven fight no matter how you slice it).
You are, in the ancient era, the Japanese film equivalent of Godzilla. Your traits and your UU converge in such a way that you can see the essential benefits of at least one, possibly two other Civ traits you don’t even posses. In turn, these advantages can rapidly catapult you into a position of utter dominance on your starting continent, giving you room to grow and expand and all but ensuring a steady stream of Great Leaders (lots of ancient wonders).
Give ‘em a spin….you’ll love it!
-=Vel=-
.
on an archipelago with no goody huts at all!
depending on the world parameters. Ind, Rel, Mil, and even Com are much less impacted by world parameters. A big point of Vel's thread is that the Jags largely give the benefits of expansionist, but with the advantage of retaining its two (non-expansionist) trait advantages. That benefit, IMHO, is largely subject to the map parameters.
) provided one is limited to making that case considering all possible map parameters - each civ has the potential to be hurt or helped depending on what the random map generator throws at it, some more than others (
to Firaxis -- awfully good balance for the most part). Some civs, however, seem to me to be better "generalists" - playable under all conditions, but without a significant advantage in any particular settings. The Aztecs, IMHO, tend to be more streaky -- some of their benefits (which I agree Vel details very well) are very dependent on map formation. If you are prevented from attacking a number of other civs until the Great Lighthouse / Navigation / Astronomy, the Jags become much less fearsome attackers.
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