Mayan Long Count Great People Order/Timing

Recently played my first game as the Mayans and was struck by how many options their unique ability gives you. Was wondering what order people tend to select their great people in? It seems to me that the early academy from a GS makes that a strong first choice. Also, if anyone knows cool timings to hit (e.g. GE generated at the perfect time to get a hard to build wonder). I was thinking that using a GE to get the Leaning Tower could be big for culture victory, knowing how much of a difference it makes for that victory condition, plus you get it right back.

Very game dependent:

If I just founded a Religion and have very little faith saved up, I'm highly likely to pick Great Prophet there to enhance super early.

If you already have the faith to spawn a GP but the RNG hasn't given you one yet, choose something else to avoid wasting the accumulated faith entirely.
Also note that this will increase the amount of faith you need for the next Great Prophet.

Yes, there has to be a GE I want to build right then to pick.

For GE / GS / [technically G Mer but why would you choose it before the other two], it's also important to check how close you are to getting the next GS since this will increase the cost of the next GE / GS / G Mer.

For GW you want be close to the 8 turns into hosting the Worlds Congress ideally 8 turns into the Golden Age.

For GA, either to fill Sistine / Uffizini / secondarily trading for another work to fill another theming bonus or alternatively if you want a Golden Age right then.

For G Musican, while hosting the Olympics.

Note that this will increase the cost of the next guild person of that type so you may want to consider where you are in that count as well.

In G&K it was sometimes possible to be forced to pick either a Great Admiral or Great General because you had already chosen everything else, but this is much less likely to occur in BNW with the two additional guild great people.

If there's no pressing need for one of the other choices, I find that an early great admiral can be helpful to allow scouting on continents-type maps without researching astronomy.

Very difficulty dependent. If you went liberty or piety you will have a free great person when you finish so you have a lot of timings to sort out, but I think that if you DO go liberty or piety you will need to make up the science, so getting an academy early is important.

Lets review,what was the earliest date that you could unlock the Bak Tun, was it 62 or 72?

Turn 52. Good luck.

^ really? I'm guessing free tech on the way and pyramids in cities asap, that's insanely early

T52 is pretty much impossible, so T62 is the earliest you can realistically unlock it. And I'm not sure that's possible without GL > NC either but I could be wrong there. T62 is worth going for on lower difficulties.

Some things to keep in mind:

- The "free" Great Prophet increases the GSEM counter. It's often not the best choice depending on what victory you're going for and what beliefs you want. Maya should have no problem founding and enhancing their religion naturally. It also comes at a huge opportunity cost of early beakers/gold.

- There's nothing wrong with taking a GM early. In fact, that may be the optimal play. If you found the calendar early enough, then you will cycle through GPs to the point where you should take a merchant at some point anyway. An early 500 gold and some CS influence is extremely useful and much more so early than it will be late game since GMs do not scale like other people.

- Early GS is the best choice and should always be taken first or second depending on when you initiate the calendar. None of the other bonuses come close to free early academy.

- As Maya, it's key to explore fast and meet as many CS as you can. You want to use the T100+ great people to complete CS quests whenever possible. It doesn't really matter what order you take the artists, musicians, general, etc. so pay attention to which great people city states want. Even on a landlocked map a Great Admiral is probably your best pick if it completes a quest for 3 city states.

I haven't played Maya much, because I found it to be a deity-tier civilization and I prefer harder civs to play, but I agree that GS and plant it should be first. I also agree that CS quests matter, and thus the admiral is a good pick. Next I like the GE because there is always some very high priority wonder I would never get otherwise, and the GP point I get from the wonder eventually makes up for the increased GP cost. Next I like the prophet, because it is about that time that I finish Piety and I like to plant several mega-holy sites. The GWAM I like to save, for a couple of reasons: first, I like to leave the door open that I might choose Autocracy later. Pick up futurism first, and then get it. Second is that I might want to theme Broadway/Sistine/Uffizi later. Third is that all three are more effective later, after I get more puppets, tourism, and world's fair.

The Merchant can explore and discover CS, too, just as well as an admiral, by the way. But because of the increased GP cost you still might not want to do that, unless you've got multiple CS quests. I actually use my free MoV from Venice to do just that. If you have a good opportunity to early warmonger, though, I recommend not exploring at all.

If going for CV, time the GE to nab one of the renaissance theming bonus wonders, and the musician to pop just after interet. Otherwise, just try to make sure your natural gp generation isnt messed up too much (i.e. getting a gp rigght before one spawns naturally). Also, try to get the writer around the post World's Fair culture bulb, regardless of VC