how to beat the aztecs

I play as the japanese but my friend always beats me with the aztecs. What are some good strategies to defeat the aztecs? Thanks for the help

When you are the Japanese and he is the Aztecs, your strength is that you should be able to out-research him in the long-term, but he can rush you in the early stages of the game, if you aren't prepared.

Since he can buy a warrior on the first turn of the game, he has an advantage getting to the barbarians and scouting the map. You want to be quick with your own warriors so you can get as much from the map as you can. You should manually manage your workers so that you can get a warrior out on turn three and then on turn six, and then switch to food in your capital. With your first two warriors, you want to get as many of the barbarian huts as you can and you also want to scout the map to determine how close his cities are. From the barbarian huts, you are hoping to get two things -- enough 100 gold to get to your free settler, and a free galley.

If you find that he has settled nearby, your first tech should be Bronze Working, as you'll need the archers to properly defend, but also consider that fish are important to a successful Japanese opening game, and Bronze Working allows for that, too. However, if you've scouted your nearby region, and haven't seen any sign of his units, then you should start with Alphabet instead, and get a leg up on your research speed, and then go for Bronze Working.

Hopefully you've got your 100 gold from barbarian huts, including free caravans and spies. If you are close -- like 85 gold or more -- it may be worth switching your capital to gold for a few turns to get the 100 necessary for the free settler, and then back to science. If you did get the free setter, use that as your only additional city until you can get to Code of Laws and switch to Republic. If you were extra lucky, and got the free galley, consider settling on an island instead of the mainland. This plays to your strength as the Japanese, with the ocean food bonus you can get some great trade going, and also it makes it harder for your opponent to rush you with warriors.

Once you've got your free settler and Alphabet, go ahead and spend the gold to buy a Library in your capital. This will get your science production going at full speed. In this stage of the game, you should worry about two things -- getting archer armies in fortifed in your two cities, and getting to to Code of Laws to switch to Republic. If there are some resources nearby which can be worked with some early techs, go ahead and detour your research for them.

When you get a Republic, worry about settling cities three, four and maybe five. Again, Islands are probably good locations to settle on, given your choice of civ and his choice. You probably want to end this stage of the game with one city good at science (which should be your capital, if you've followed my advice above), one city specialized in gold, one city specialized in raw production with forests and hills, and another city or two doing whatever the terrain around you suggests. Choose a second science city over a second gold city, with this combination of civs. As you are settling your cities (with archer defences), you and working toward Democracy. Ideally, you can finish researching Democracy just after you produce the settler for the fifth city, and then switch before he has settled.

If you've hit Democracy without losing any ground to your opponent, you are in good shape for the rest of the game. You should already be ahead in research, and from here on out your lead will only grow. At this point, work toward Feudalism and build a pikeman or two in your cities. Obviously if your opponent has been pressing your hard, build full pikemen armies, but otherwise a single pikeman might do. When you get to Feudalism, take advantage of your Knight bonus. Get a Knight army out, and it is finally time to go on the offensive. Check "Who's winning" to be sure you are ahead in research, but if this is the case, press your advantage either with your Aztec opponent, or with the nearest AI.

Good luck!

Going on the offensive against the Aztecs can be hard, because if you can't kill his unit on the first try, with your strongest unit, then you have to get lucky to win cause he will just heal, and gain promotions. To help you out in that regard, it might be wise to build some spies to reduce the fortifications, and maybe bring naval support if possible this early.

Try to reduce his defenses as much as possible so you get the victories, without him self-healing to full.

If your the japanese you should be able to tech ahead, so having more advanced units helps too.