Inca Noble Random Map - Check Out This Start!

It's Noble / Normal speed and the leader is Huyana of the Incas - and the start has a good bit of Flood Plains and a stone resource. Huyana is Industrious so this really favors building some of the early wonders. The Financial trait benefits from cottaging all those flood plain tiles.

I favor settling on the grassland to the southwest and getting the later river tile bonuses and beeline Animal Husbandry / Masonry / Mining and go nuts on the wonders.

Here is a screen shot and a 4000BC save - Who would recommend this for somebody learning how to play Noble Level?

I don't think encouraging wonder spam is the way to go about learning noble. I think it's more important to get a grasp of the basic game concepts... when and why to build wonders is more of a nuance that comes with experience.

Noble is probably not the level for long debates about where to settle. In place is fine, 1SW is probably fine too. Wonders are probably fine as well, but you should play out a few turns rather than make strategy decisions based on the start and traits on the first turn. Don't get ahead of yourself.

Start building a worker, start teching AH unless there is something cool in the fog, and explore a bit, then check in again.

Incas have the most broken leader in the game. That being said Ai defend with warriors anyway on this level.

Industrious trait and the UU make for a silly combo. On top of that financial too!!! For me its just too much.

Overall try to play a game where the economy is key. Try not to build too many pointless wonders. Only build what is useful. Wonder spamming wont improve your game.

JBossch said:

Noble is probably not the level for long debates about where to settle. In place is fine, 1SW is probably fine too. Wonders are probably fine as well, but you should play out a few turns rather than make strategy decisions based on the start and traits on the first turn. Don't get ahead of yourself.

Start building a worker, start teching AH unless there is something cool in the fog, and explore a bit, then check in again.

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I would guess a start like this combined with a leader like this would be very hard to lose - though I guess it could teach the wrong habits. Anyway, it is a pretty fun start!

Regarding wonder spam - You're probably right, but I really like synergy between the available stone and the Industrious trait and the flood plains and the Financial trait. On top of that, the city site has a couple of hills to mine. However, I decided to skip Stonehenge and the Great Wall and go after the Pyramids and then focus on claiming some land.

Here is what I have at 1000BC. (Turn 75)

Research path was as follows:
Masonry (Turn 5 hut)
Animal Husbandry (Turn 10)
Mining (Turn 16)
The Wheel (Turn 24)
Pottery (Turn 31)
Bronze Working (Turn 43 - Sets up the Slavery economy)
Writing (Turn 51)
Alphabet (Turn 68 - Traded Hunting and Fishing for Masonry)

Iron Working is due on Turn 76.

For production, I went with the Worker - Quechua - Pyramids gambit. The Pyramids were finished on Turn 45. Then I changed my civics to HR and Slavery and whipped out a Terrace on Turn 48 and Settlers on Turns 58 and 68, producing some Quechuas in between. I have not built a library yet because I need to focus on building some military and settlers.

Here is a screen shot and a save. Unfortunately, I will be out of town until about New Year's Eve so will not be continuing for a bit. Thanks for the feedback.

Why pyramids?

Harv said:

Regarding wonder spam - You're probably right, but I really like synergy between the available stone and the Industrious trait and the flood plains and the Financial trait. On top of that, the city site has a couple of hills to mine. However, I decided to skip Stonehenge and the Great Wall and go after the Pyramids and then focus on claiming some land.

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In bold is what worries me. You prioritise grabbing the mids over grabbing land. Ouch...

On noble you can get away with this, but soon you will find that you at least need to get some cities up and running before you even think about wonders. Grabbing the mids first is quite a commitment, and one that you should never ever make imo.

Also the mids are amazing when you have huge amounts of food and you can run specialists like mad. Here you are financial, you will want to work cottages to make the most of that. What would the pyramids do for you this game?

Edit: more woprkers would be nice as well...

what i would do next is maybee some Library abd Great Library in Cuzco plus the additional Cottage spam as Financial

In general you want to get out a second city before you start on wonders. That way you can still be expanding while wonder building.

with this leader a strange option may have been to settle on the stone, builder worker-quecha-settler-SH-GW-settler-pyramids. Pyramids can be delayed a bit as the AI take longer for it.

There is nothing wrong with a heavy wonder strategy, players just have to be aware of the cost in doing so, which is usually land in the early game or a rush

Think should be boring and just churn out workers settlers and archers for a while . Probably 1 settler 2 workers 1 settler and settle NW in jungle and NE for sea food. Don't stop expanding land and military until are stopped by the AI. Back to basics really
Get iron working to clear the jungle and find iron then move on from there.

JBossch said:

Why pyramids?

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Color Coordintion: The Incas color is yellow and and there are lots of yellow-brown plains squares in the capital's BFC. The Pyramids are also yellow-brown and therefore I should build them.

Here is the madness to my method:

1. I do not have access to an early luxury resource and therefore my happy cap is stuck at 5 until I get a better form of government. If I run HR, I can whip a settler every 10 turns and slow-build Quechuas and build cottages in those five floodplain tiles and get an economy going. Therefore, I built the Pyramids early to gain early access to HR.

2. With this early access to HR, I can ignore Monarchy in the tech tree and go after Calendar, since I have good plantation resources nearby, and Metal Casting, since I should be building Forges as an Industrious leader. It turned out that Monarchy was available in trade in Turn 112, so I had 67 turns of access to HR.

3. The options are still open to switch to either Representation, or Universal Suffrage, or even Police State, once the happiness problem is mitigated.

4. The Pyramids produce Engineer points. A forge running an Engineer will add more engineer points so there is further synergy. The Great Engineer can then rush a wonder that would otherwise be more difficult to build. (no marble)

The criticism that the Pyramids were built too early is noted. This was a gambit and at Noble level, I can get away with it. Also noted that I had three cities and only one worker at Turn 75. It may have been a better opening to build Quechuas until the city grew to Size 4 and then build a second city and then build the Pyramids.

Instead, I am having the new cities grow to Size 4 and whip Terraces, then slow-build Quechua and whip a worker when recovered to Size 4. Eventually some workers will be there.

Regarding the libraries, they have to wait until I take a break from expanding or building units. I am whipping either Settlers or Workers and slow-building units so there is no place to build a library for a while. Regarding the Great Library, it is unlikely that I am going to build it.

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I have played up to 500 AD (Turn 135) and here is what I have done:

Research was as follows:
Iron Working Turn 76
Polytheism Turn 83 from trade
Sailing Turn 83 from trade
Archery Turn 83 from trade
Mathematics Turn 84
Calendar Turn 94
Metal Casting Turn 103
Currency Turn 111
Monotheism Turn 111 from trade
Monarchy Turn 118 from trade
Theology Turn 121 (What do you think of the location of the Holy City?)
Meditation Turn 121
Priesthood Turn 123
Aesthetics Turn 125
Construction Turn 125 from trade
Drama Turn 129
Literature Turn 132

So I am researching everything up to Music which will be ready on Turn 136. The Great Artist will start a Golden Age and I will make the conversion to Christianity. The Great Engineer from Cuzco will go build the Apostolic Palace in the Holy City.

I did some expansion and claimed most of the city sites with food. I plan to take a break from expanding since the nearest sites do not have much food and will therefore take more time to develop.

Wonders: I build the Hanging Gardens (Turn 104) in Cuzco for the health bonus and some more Engineer Points. The Great Engineer (Turn 95) build the Mausoleum of Mausollos to put some cultural pressure. I guess I will try to run a few Golden Ages while at it.

Civics: I am thinking about running MORBUCS. (Mercantilism - Organized Religion - Bureaucracy - Universal suffrage - Caste System) I will run Mercantilism if I can get to Banking during the upcoming Golden Age. Those cottages are asking for Bureaucracy. I am thinking about Universal Suffrage so that I can gold rush instead of pop rush; those cities are getting too big for Slavery to be efficient. I will replace Slavery with either Caste System or Serfdom.

Thoughts? Criticisms? Suggestions?

Doing good. Probably need more workers 8 is okish but a bit low, closer to 12-14 would be better for clearing jungle and building farms and mines and stuff . I'd still keep expanding north towards Justian. You'll need workers to get these cities of the ground.
You have a good tech lead could just build 10 swordsmen and 6-7 catapults and take Washington. Might not even need that many. You seem to be going down the artsy part of the tech tree Not my style unless going for culture win. Good luck keep it up

@Harv

Very good expanding and blocking Lincoln. Tech speed is good also. But why aren't you using representation civic? You can tech faster by running some scientists.

2 turns later you will get a Great Engineer. I think you will use it to build Great Library(?).

You have 9 cities, 8 workers. There are some cities working unimproved tiles. You can run specialists in these cities. Caste and Representations civics can create a good synergy for this. But you need research CoL first.

Also you should consider building stronger units like axeman or swordsman instead of quechuas. Lincoln will have longbows soon. Researching engineering and building an army with trebs to conquer Lincoln would be a nice plan.

Finally you can adopt a state religion (hinduism probably) and use its advantages(diplo, civic, happiness bonuses). Very good game so far.

Harv said:

1. I do not have access to an early luxury resource and therefore my happy cap is stuck at 5 until I get a better form of government. If I run HR, I can whip a settler every 10 turns and slow-build Quechuas and build cottages in those five floodplain tiles and get an economy going. Therefore, I built the Pyramids early to gain early access to HR.

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Going for the pyramids for HR? That surely seems to miss the point of building the pyramids?

mrt309 said:

@Harv

Very good expanding and blocking Lincoln. Tech speed is good also. But why aren't you using representation civic? You can tech faster by running some scientists.

2 turns later you will get a Great Engineer. I think you will use it to build Great Library(?).

You have 9 cities, 8 workers. There are some cities working unimproved tiles. You can run specialists in these cities. Caste and Representations civics can create a good synergy for this. But you need research CoL first.

Also you should consider building stronger units like axeman or swordsman instead of quechuas. Lincoln will have longbows soon. Researching engineering and building an army with trebs to conquer Lincoln would be a nice plan.

Finally you can adopt a state religion (hinduism probably) and use its advantages(diplo, civic, happiness bonuses). Very good game so far.

Click to expand...

Eventually I took most of these ideas and added a little more madness.

Here is what I did between 500AD and 1000AD:

My Research path was Music, (136) Code of Laws, (138) Civil Service, (143) Machinery, (146) Paper, (147) Printing Press, (155) and Engineering. (158) I am working on Divine Right next.

Researching Music resulted in a Great Artist and I decided to delay the Golden Age for two turns while I moved the Great Engineer towards Vilcabamba. On Turn 138, I started the Golden Age, converted the empire to Christianity, and had the Great Engineer rush the Apostolic Palace. I then changed my civics to Universal Suffrage, Caste System, and Organized Religion. I chose Universal Suffrage for during the Golden Age because I had a few towns in Cuzco that would produce two hammers and I was still growing my other cities and therefore not running many specialists. I made the change to Bureaucracy when it became available. Cuzco spammed Christian Missionaries to all the other cities. At the end of the Golden Age, I changed my civics to Representation, Bureaucracy, Caste System, and Theocracy.

Surprisingly, Tiwanaku popped another Great Engineer on Turn 158 (24% probability vs 52% for a Great Artist) so I decided to use him to build the Great Library there and Tiwanaku will be my Great Person Farm. Unfortunately I had already started building the University of Sankore in Huamanga and that will cost me 2 Great Scientist points in the long run.

I also built the Globe Theatre in Vilcabamba. At the time I was thinking there is lots of food there and it will grow pretty big.

The Moai Statues went to Vitcos, with lots of Coast tiles and a food source to expand on them quickly. There was one city site with one more water tile, but I think this choice is good enough.

Regarding the army, I am working on it. It looks like I have 8 Macemen (which will be CR2) and I will promote about 8 Quechuas to Macemen and they will have Combat 1. I am working on building some Trebuchets.

Here is a save and a screen shot at 1000AD.

ADDED: I ended up taking over the continent with the Maces and Trebuchets. Justin took a little longer and I was starting to upgrade to rifles by the time I was getting to his corner of the globe. Then I decided to settle in for an 1848 Space win (62,132 points) instead of rolling over the other continent.

Thanks for your feedback - You are saying that I should build the second city before building the Pyramids in the future and it will turn out to be a better long term plan. You are also saying that I should have a few more workers in the early game.

I will make a note of that and try another game with a different leader and play a different style.