Does anyone have a good Mayan Science/religion strategy?

[Trogdor561]

So I love playing the Mayans: best UB in the game and a UA which allows for a lot of flexibility. Using the faith and science from the Pyramid, I'm trying to come up with a faith-religion synergy strategy (I play on Emperor)- Use the Jesuit Education and the belief which gives you beakers from missionary spreading to try and speed my way up the tech tree.
Because Mayans have an incentive to beeline Theology, I don't usually have a problem getting religion/ religious wonders up.
My main problem is cultural policies... I don't feel like I have enough steam to fill up piety and tradition without falling behind on growth. Should I dip into Liberty instead?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[chazzycat]

i'd definitely recommend liberty instead of tradition for the Mayans. You generally want to build a decent number of cities to take advantage of the UB and piety policies. Representation will really help on the policy costs. Also, for wide empires happiness is the problem, not food. Meritocracy helps there.

I haven't tried jesuit education yet, but it does seem like it would be strong for this strategy. On emperor, sacred sites combined with pagodas/mosques is another good option to get a big head-start on tourism.

 

[Trogdor561]

Thanks ChazzyCat. I think one of the problems is I've always played tall Korea or Aztec games, going wide doesn't come easy.

 

[joncnunn]

As to me I'm so used to tall empires, I personally play better with Maya as Tall than I would trying it wide.

Tall for Maya does work (much easier to build the boring but highly practical National Wonders that way); and is pretty much standard Tall (only building Pyramids in addition to Libraries) But note that your science bonus from your UB will get offset by those several of the "free" great people types increasing the counter for the next natural born Great Scientist. In BNW you can minimize this by taking all four of Artist/Writer/Musican/Phophet before choosing say Great Engineer.

 

[Catan_Settler]

edit wrong version

 

[Browd]

This thread is tagged BNW, but your strat is G&K. Ceremonial Burial has been nerfed, no more "left side of Rationalism", Piety is greatly improved, with Reformation beliefs and no more Rationalism conflict, new Ideologies and related policies/tenets, and a 5% per city science penalty. Lots to rethink here.

 

[SolDelta]

If you're going Jesuit Education, you might want a founder belief that doesn't involve giving the AI faith built universities too. Personally I'd go Church Property or Tithe, you can make up the science lost by not going interfaith dialogues by having more of a capacity to rush buy libraries in new cities, which, if going wide, (which imho, you should) is important for getting those cities up to par scientifically. Mosques and Pagodas are also pretty good at keeping your culture and happiness up, and they pay for themselves eventually, faithwise. Maybe grab Messenger of the Gods, too; 4 extra science per city (with pyramids as well) is kind of incredible, particularly early on.