Mayan Calendar

[AdamCrock]

Currently playing as Mayans. After researching Theology I was like What the... ?! The date ... It's broken !
At first I was confused b'ak'tuns ? What's that ? Now I did do some diggin and know that in the Long Count 'tun counts are roughly years (360 days to be exact - but why not 365 ?) and one k'tun is equal to 20 'tun counts (which is roughly 20 years but we loose 5 x 20 = 100 days each 'tun count because it's 360 and not 365). It is even moreso confusing because of the BC - AD transition. Mayans does not have that so the Long Count date 0.0.0.0.0 is believed to be 3114 BC. Interesting fact I've found about 2012 Doomsayers (now know to be -obviosly- horribly wrong ) that there is no such cylcle as 13 b'ak'tuns in the Long Count. It was simply jumping on to the next b'ak'tun in the calendar and nothing more. There is however piktun cycle which is 20 b'ak'tuns which is roughly 20^3 "Mayan Long Count years" or 'tun's (and has inherent missing 5 days in a year error).

Now that we have (roughly) the science behind that calendar down let's talk about how it relates to the game
I dont follow exactly years per turn but maybe there's a period in the game when 1 turn = 20 years - coincidence ? xD Mayans were obviosly fixated on multiplying everything by 20 in their calendar.

How do You feel seeing Mayan date instead of the usuall BC/AD date ? Me ? I love it ! It reminds me of Star Trek series - You know : "Captain's log, stardate (insert date here)" . In my game I created "The Old Ones" religion for my Mayans and now am waiting for the return of the great Cthulu. Renamed "holy sites" to "landing sites" in my mind It's so great that You can customize Your religion in Civ 5 !!

What's Your strategy distributing Long Count Great Person ? (or "The Old Ones" which have landed in from the great void in my imagination hehe ) I usually am starting with engineer to hurry up some ancient wonders, than scientist to build academy and finaly artists/writers/musician to compliment theming up wonders. What's Yours ?

 

[Guerrilla]

Yes, I often prioritise getting Great Engineers, to speed up the building of wonders, because I usually only build wonders when I really want them, and when I do so, I don't want to risk losing a wonder-building race, and getting compensatory gold. I'd rather my cities either complete the wonder they try to build or build other useful buildings or produce military units.

And yes, I love Great Scientists, to create at least one academy early in a game. I find the gaining of technologies to be more of a challenge in Civ 5 than previous Civ games, because we can't trade technologies in Civ 5. I do love the Civ 5 feature allowing us to use spies to steal technologies ...but we can't get spies in Civ 5 until the Renaissance and it seems to take them a long time to do so. E.g. I put a spy in Madrid, and the counter predicted it would take the spy ~85 turns, i.e. ~170 years, to research it.

Last time I played, I think the first Long Count Great Person I chose was a Great Prophet - either to start a religion or to add extra features to a religion.... I find it easiest to get Great people from the Long Count and from Social Policies, and to some extent, from certain wonders.

(I'm only just starting to learn how to also get Great People from Specialists easily - by (1) founding cities where I get a significant food surplus to support Specialists, (2) getting the technologies to build buildings that give a city Specialist slots, (3) developing the productive capacity of a city with a significant food surplus such that the city can build those Specialist-supporting buildings faster.... Until I learnt this, I wasn't getting Great People this way until late in the game.)

I've played as the Mayans 2x. I'm still exploring the costs & benefits of how soon to go for the Theology technology. E.g. getting it sooner could mean significantly more Great People (especially since earlier turns in Civ 5 represent more years than later turns do), but this is at the expense of other technologies, which make a difference to one's economy, military, etc..

 

[NebulousJaguar]

I just finished a game with maya yesterday (because I never won a game with them apparently). I ended up getting theology sometime around the medieval era, that's just how the game went for me. My first great person from a baktun was great engineer because I wanted a manufactory asap. My second great person was a scientist because I wanted an academy in a certain city at that time. Then.... I dont recall If i ever got a third baktun before winning science victory. I dont remember getting a third great person from a baktun.

But it was an interesting game where I focused on tradition, piety, rationalism, order ideology, and the city state policy (i forgot its name). I have never played a game where my religion was dominant, but this game was so easy to dominate religion. I had so many missionaries I ran out of ideas for where to send them. Then eventually I used faith on building science buildings, then on great engineers/scientists. I saved up 6 great engineers for spaceship. I had great scientists popping up everywhere (by this i mean, they were generating the fastest), my military went from the weakest to the strongest just by tech-advancements (it was a small military by numbers). The overall experience was a religious/scientific blur. A bit overwhelming. If i was better at the game I probably would have gotten a science victory sooner, but I think this was my fastest science victory so far. it was over sometime between turn 415 and 420 on standard pace, I forgot the exact turn.

I also noticed the mayan technology map does not have eras once you get theology. It just became one long atomic era. Was that just me? I was wondering if this was some kind of glitch.

If i ever play maya again it would be by random, and not by choice. Randomizing tends to be my preference. And if I roll maya on a future randomized game, I will try liberty instead of tradition and maybe get into a few wars instead of avoiding war. The unique building for maya was really helpful, and just two atlatls were enough for me to fend off the raging barbarians early on.

 

[aafritz17]

If playing on a map where Civs are separated by water (continents, islands, etc) and you want to meet them all asap, take a Great Admiral. They can swim oceans immediately.

And stop only on ocean tiles, because early barbs are only triremes, and can do only shallow coastal water. Don't remember for sure, think GA's movement is 4. So you can traverse a couple of coastal tiles, just don't stop on them.

 

[claudiupb]

You should pretty much beeline Theology with Mayans. Many baktuns are actually pretty early in the game, so if you get Theology late you might miss out on 2-3 great people. I think this is the calendar on standard speed:
Turn 62
Turn 72
Turn 86
Turn 101
Turn 117
Turn 133
Turn 152
Turn 183

As you can see you will get at least 5 if you complete theology before turn 100. My favorite order is scientist, prophet, engineer. If you manage to get to theology fast and get the scientist on turn 72 that academy will be quite strong.

Maya is strong for liberty as the Unique building is very very strong. I think a liberty-piety mix would make them quite powerful.