Winning as Inca (or Aztec) in Earth 1000AD Scenario (Monarch Level)

Anybody has experience winning the game playing as Inca (or Aztec) in Earth 1000AD scenario (monarch level)? I find it tough start since I beginning about 10 techs behind, even though I virtually have the continent to myself, and usually end up last or second last at the end. If anyone have experience winning with those two factions on monarch or higher levels, please share with us how you did it.

Mutax2003

If you have a continent to yourself, these two guys are useless. Their strength is an early attack to take territory and cripple neighbouring civs. If you're on your own, then you can really only take a builder strategy and their early attack strength is over by the time you meet up with anyone.

I have only played this scenario on Prince, as the Spanish, which is REALLY fun, but the last poster is mistaken a bit, I think. When I ended up over in the Americas, there wasn't just the Aztec and Incan empires, there were some barbarian city's too. So your early military advantage can be used to take these and secure the continent. Also, you've got all the goody villages to yourself, and especially as the Aztec, have a great position.

I'd say paramount to your success is expanding quickly, the technology gap will surely be hard to fill, but as soon as you can get a caravel, send it over to the other lands and trade whatever you have to, to get as caught up as possible. I'm interested in this too now... I'll try it out. Though I don't know if I'm good enough for Monarch yet.

While taking a barbarian city or two is good, it really doesn't compare to being able to take out AI cities. When I said these two civs were useless in this situation, I meant in comparison to any of the other civs in the same situation.

The strength of those two civs is with their early attack bonuses and UUs. If you don't have anyone except a few barbarians to attack, then you're playing a game without you main trait advantage and you're better being pretty much anyone else.

petey said:

If you have a continent to yourself, these two guys are useless.

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I wouldn't go quite that far.

If I were doing this as Aztec: Since you can't really leverage the Aggressive trait beyond the help it provides vs Barbarians and late-game tech research is going to be problematic I would beeline every single religion in the game. Do not allow any other civ to found a religion no matter what. You want them ALL if it's at all possible. Second priority would be to get to Caravels and get contact+open borders so you could spread your chosen religion far and wide and either go for a culture win (difficult) or a diplomacy win. If you manage to pull off the religion monopoly every civ in the world will convert to your state religion if you spread it aggressively enough - and that will greatly offset your financial inferiority and probably be enough to lock up a diplomatic win.

As Inca? Hmmm. Financial is going to help a lot in the late game catching up and passing the AI in the tech race - so that's your focus. You'll want to use a Que rush combined with a chop-rushed settler pump to try and conquer all of North and South America as quickly as possible and go for a Domination victory.

By 1000 AD most if not all religions will have been discovered, though scooting up the med sea and taking some holy cities might not be a bad idea as soon as you can, but that will be near or during their industrialization so good luck

You could also use the early game units to take over the one other civ youre a neighbor with. As the incans you'll be protected on all sides by mountains, (its impassible, can't get to that western edge of south america from the eastern half without sailing around the horn..) so just building up there, getting as much wealth going as possible, then trekking an army up to alaska, you may be able to pass those waters with a galley, and come down hard on the mongols, chinese, and japanese... that could work.

So I'd say... as Aztec, try to take over the incan lands asap, to get some great gold sources and an easily defendable spot of land, and as incans, fill out that bit of land and then try to do a reverse migration across the bering straight and hope you can take some civs by surprise.

Beld said:

By 1000 AD most if not all religions will have been discovered

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Nuts I completely blanked on that part.

*shuffles off to pound head on wall in shame*

Another thing I just realised is... you can really use that isolation to your advantage. And your UU's won't be very wasted really, as they'll come in real handy with barbs and barb cities, like i said before, but they'll also require that you build less of them than some civ with better late game UU's, so you're saving time by needing less army to accomplish expansion.

And that brings me to the strat I think would work, and the one I'm going to try when I get home. Expand expand expand, take over atleast all of north or all of south america. Remember that it'll still be a while before you see the other civs, and while they're having their petty wars with 8-12 cities, you'll be ramping up production big time, and once you've got a continent under your belt, you'll burst out of the gate with research.

Remember it'll be really hard for them to get to you until the late game, and even then you should be able to keep them from ever getting a foothold on your shores in the way of their own towns. So expand expand expand and go for sea techs early and often. You'll be left with a huge empire that will be able to prosper in peace while they squabble amongst themselves.

I tried this scenario last night. First as Incas... I quit after two moves. Aztecs after a few more than that.

Starting locations are hideous!

Completely surrounded by desert and mountains. Ye flippin gawds I would have had to march for 5 turns just to find a city site that had more workable tiles than unworkable ones. :sick:

Therefore, you need to research sailing, so you can build a galley to ship your settler past the mountain range. The challenge is the part of the fun, wouldn't need much advice it is an easy scenario.

Mutax2003

mutax2003 said:

The challenge is the part of the fun

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Challenge = Good.

Masochism = Bad.

Vizzini said:

Challenge = Good.

Masochism = Bad.

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Well in the year 1000 AD, anyone with a knowledge of history would have to be masochistic to pick the Aztecs+ Incas. They didn't have any real metal working technology and most of the rest of the world was fiddling around with gunpowder.

Aztecs get a great starting postition, I think i have 5 resources in my city radius. But yeah, you have a lot of desert outside the first city's radius, but i went further north. I hadn't thought about taking over the Incas, that might net me a few extra gold. Also, sometimes those civs over "there" don't fight it out as much as I'd like. Saladin took over the whole indian empire before i even had three cities. Yikes! And you have to go pretty far north to get your first Iron as the Aztecs. I will say its pretty darn hard, but I'm still alive.

On the other hand, someone who tries the incas has some balls. Man, thats the one thats impossible. You're stuck behind mountains with almost nothing. By the time i got around them there were barbarian macemen running around and the europeans already had caravels around. I quit pretty quick.

Krikkitone said:

Well in the year 1000 AD, anyone with a knowledge of history would have to be masochistic to pick the Aztecs+ Incas. They didn't have any real metal working technology and most of the rest of the world was fiddling around with gunpowder.

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True, but the spanish would have never conqured the Aztecs, had they not succumb to their tricks. Sure, eventually, as in the industrial age, it would get hard, but versus the renaissance technology, their population should mop the floor with anything they can ship over in a galleon. I think it's the monarch difficulty level that's really the challenge here. Closeing the gap on Noble would probably be a bit more managable.

Krikkitone said:

Well in the year 1000 AD, anyone with a knowledge of history would have to be masochistic to pick the Aztecs+ Incas. They didn't have any real metal working technology and most of the rest of the world was fiddling around with gunpowder.

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Yes, wouldn't it be fun to be able to rewrite history? Have my Incan riflemen welcome those European longbowmen as they step off their galleon, donate a couple of free techs to them when I am in the mood. If they step out of line, then I would wipe out their upstart cities, maybe stage an invasion across the ocean. In the end, I want to be able to win either by domination or space race.

Mutax2003

mutax2003 said:

Yes, wouldn't it be fun to be able to rewrite history? Have my Incan riflemen welcome those European longbowmen as they step off their galleon, donate a couple of free techs to them when I am in the mood. If they step out of line, then I would wipe out their upstart cities, maybe stage an invasion across the ocean. In the end, I want to be able to win either by domination or space race.

Mutax2003

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Well you probably Can you just have to be Very good. (which should make the victory that much sweeter)

I've managed to survive quite a long time as the Aztecs. I'm still behind in tech, but i have enough to protect myself. One of my strategies was to expand quickly, so i pretty much have the whole of north america. It makes it easier to protect yourself if civs who hate you don't have cities on your continent. I would feel safe fighting off a few cavalry if they ship them over, even if i only have macemen. Currently only the english have a cities over in New England, and I have a defensive pact with them.

Also, another strategy of mine as the aztecs is that i went straight for the gold and silver resources. I hooked them up first, and my third city was even all the way up in northern california where all that gold is. It makea a big difference. I also finally killed off all those barbarians, and have their cities now too, plus a few more of my own.

Lastly, I'm debating a third strategy to get me into contention. I'm the second last civ right now (with incas being the last). I think I can hold off any invasions for a while now, so i think what i really need is someway to get me back into the tech race, sooo...I'm thinking about attacking the strongest civ in the game.

Before you laugh, I should mention that the strongest civ is Saladin. He has control over all of north africa, down the east african coast, the middle east, and he took over the whole indian empire. So yeah, he's pretty strong. But, he has a major weakness that I can use to my advantage.

Jerusalem and Mecca (or Medina, I forget).
They're the holy cities for the worlds three biggest religions, and they are right next to each other. And they have shrines pre-built. Which means a lot of gold. Which I think is really the only way to make me a contender in this game. So capture two cities, reap an extra approx 40-60 gpt. Use that to buy science buildings and tech if i can. So I'm debating a huge sneak attack. I know they'll be well defended, with units probably better than my own. But still, a few galleons of catapults, and a few more of macemen, against a relatively weakly defended city. Then of course I'll just have to hold them, but thats easier than attacking. Ahh.. the challenge

Good luck with that, Greencardman

I liked the challenge as the Aztecs hated the Inca. Anyway I played it quite awhile but the Aztecs just have waay too much space to settle. Economy goes whacky. Then the other modern civs find you and start grabbing your land and pushing you around with gunpowder.
Only tried Noble but It is a pretty darn tough scenario. Good challenge indeed.