The Deity Challenge Line-up #19 - The Aztecs

Too bad I doubt you can really get a religion on this map for even more food !

Does this game have Raging Barbarians on? I thought there were a lot of those camps. Also, a lot of ruins.

Used Jaguars to explore instead of Scouts. So far, that was a sound decision, as I now have the trust of Sofia, and got an Archer out of it. Soon enough I'll get Antwerp.

Opened up Honor, then went for Tradition. So far, that's paying off, but I fear I may have made a few mistakes. Namely, I built my next two cities in quick succession, maybe I should've closed Tradition first. Also, I probably took too long to build a Library.



My opponents are already in Medieval Age. I thought that was fast, but this is Deity, and I don't have much experience here.

Also, apparently everyone in this game is going for a strong religion. I didn't even get a Pantheon, and I already see religions being enhanced and reformed. That Shrine I built is not going to be useful.

Still, it has been accessible, and China isn't invading (probably thanks to my half-decent army). Once those cities start growing I should be able to catch up. Not sure if I should found a 4th city, but I don't see much point in doing so.

You grabbed pretty much the same 4 city locations I did, then snuck Teotihuacan in a place where I didn't think it would fit (Obviously, it does fit and it looks like a nice city….just didn't occur to me).

I sent my first there because I wanted to grab land before the CS does. There's a good chance someone on his 3rd/4th spot would look there and find little interest.

By the way I forgot to say that I got ToA on turn 27 Pretty sure the AI was angry !

Given how hotly contested that SE coastal spot was, I sent my 1st there. The 2nd expo on the desert lake just called out to me, so that northern expo was an afterthought.

One question regarding settling next to 2 CS like that: what if someone else allies them and you get a DoW? Tough to defend, yes? I guess I'm addicted to space…….but in retrospect, I do like the location the way you did it. Just not sure how you also got the SE expo.

I almost settled that spot by the CS as well but it seemed pretty tight and I wasn't sure I could make it work and since I had enough space to the south for 4 cities I gave up on the idea. It is nice to see how Acken made it work though... very nicely done and with 5 cities your gonna have plenty of extra spt! Of course later down the road I captured all those cities and sold them to Poland. Oh and Acken got to the perfect spot for the Cotton and Dyes where in my game I wasn't watching close enough and Pacal snuck in the city for the Cotton. Once again pretty sweet since your at 91spt and going to finish Education around turn 106. Another impressive example!

I killed a chinese settler with an archer to secure the cotton spot. Both north and south city were settled before turn 45 too. My BO was basically: Scout Monument ToA Scout Settlerx2
I got a lucky double worker steal on China too.

Admittedly though I had to use GM bombs... and thought of using bombs as well...
would've won sooner if I had any shred of faith income to actually BUY a GM/Morocco was not so darned far away I had to swim my GMs there since I gave up walking... way too many units in the way.

My worst fears from last time never materialized, on the other hand an unexpected threat from the other side of the world (Poland) proved to be a little scary...
He ate up Babylon and China and took Surabaya to my north... then he GG bombed me 2 times and would've done a 3rd if I didn't send my units to block (but since my borders were so large going for CV, my empire wasn't really affected)... although he's been a jerk this game... he backstab-denounced me, Willy, and Gajah (who were all his friends and two of them actually went Order like him), all in the span of several turns! He Dow'd them eventually, but didn't DoW me so I didn't have to bribe (I had enough green buffs to stay at "neutral" even after his denouncement although I felt like I wanted to send some his way but the game ended eventually... maybe when I meet him again in another game...)

btw my only lvl 3 spy died on an 82% coup and afterwards I managed to get another spy to lvl2 but at that point everyone caught me spying and I promised them to stop... the civs I hadn't spied on yet were all eclipsed by my research already... so minimal CS influence this time... only Ife, the faith from which provided me with a faith GE in modern era when one of my cities still had a religion.

Faith income was non-existent all game... and then Babylon had to go ahead and take over Ife (the only FREAKING religious CS on the whole map) for a turn or two while I was short on gold (I was their ally); Poland, who was at war with them and eventually wiped them out captured the CS in like, 2 turns... wonderful...


Seems a waste of crabs (so I settled there and sold the city)... I also went for the cotton coastal spot and then sold it as well... might as well make money.


My only faith income is a mere 3 temples and shrines, 1 monastery, and one mosque for a puny +14... that said, late game it's not like I can buy any GP anyway... all the religions competed against each other and in the end none of my cities had a major religion...


My good friend Willy nuking Poland on my behalf... the game ended with the world on fire... It's also the first time on deity for me, I think, in which my capitol was not my biggest city at the end of the game... wow... (wonderwhoring and working those guild slots does take its toll on growth... and my second city had much more farmland); behold a jaguar which made it all the way through the tech tree to become a mech infantry


That said, my capitol would've ran out of tiles and slots to work anyway... it also has EXACTLY +999 bpt what a beautiful number. Endgame tourism was just north of 700 (Willy took Louvre, Gajah took Uffizi 6 turns before I finished so I was left with just Sistine, but I got 4 landmarks in my lands, which made up for the lack of theming wonders nicely)

Casimir