[GS] A General Strategy for Montezuma's Aztec

[megabearsfan]

I put up another leader strategy guide on my blog a week ago (sorry for being late about posting it here). This guide is a vanilla civ that was requested by one of my supporters, and covers Montezuma of the Aztec:
http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2020/02/02/Civilization-VI-strategy-Montezuma-of-Aztec.aspx
Even though Montezuma is a vanilla leader, this guide is up to date with Gathering Storm rules.

Montezuma is built to be a highly aggressive leader. The Eagle Warrior can capture defeated enemy units as Builders, which can then spend charges to speed up the production of districts. This can dramatically speed up the development of Aztec infrastructure, without necessarily having to actually conquer the other civs' cities. Spam Eagle Warriors (which are ancient and cost 0 maintenance) early in the game using Agoge, and check the combat odds widget in the bottom corner to make sure that you are dealing the killing blow with an Eagle Warrior. Every unit that you kill with a unit that isn't an Eagle Warrior is essentially surrendering a chance at a free Builder! The odds of capturing the unit seems to be determined by the strength of the defeated unit. Odds are displayed in the combat odds widget if the combat is likely to kill the defending unit, and they range from abut 70% against Slingers and Warriors, and degrade to 0% for Musketmen.

Even after the Eagle Warrior becomes obsolete, Aztec can still mass produce Builders (using a Builder-boosting policy, ideally) in their high-production cities, and then use them to rush the production of districts in newer or less-productive cities (effectively shifting production around within their empire). This makes it much more viable for Aztecs to found new mid or late-game cities. Sadly, you can't spend builder charges to rush the repair of a pillaged district (e.g. districts you pillaged before capturing a city). Don't use all your Builders to rush districts though. You should probably keep a few Builders with 1 charge remaining in case you need to repair improvements pillaged by enemies or damaged by disasters.

Montezuma's ability also gives him additional amenity from luxuries within his empire, and each distinct luxury in his empire grants a +1 combat bonus to ALL military units (land, sea, and air). Even though the luxury is improved within Aztec lands, if you trade away the last copy of a luxury, you lose the bonus. You also don't gain the combat bonus for trading for a luxury that you don't already posses. So no reason to be diplomatic or to trade excess luxuries for ones you don't have. Try to prioritize settling (or conquering) near luxuries that you don't already possess, but don't spread yourself too thin, or else you may have trouble with loyalty, or might leave yourself vulnerable to invasion.

The full guide on the blog includes more detailed tips and strategies, as well as some tips for playing against Montezuma's Aztec. I always welcome feedback, so if I missed any good strategies or tactics for Aztec, please share your ideas in this thread or in the comments on the blog.

Happy Civ'ing!

 

[Sykes179]

Worth considering God of the Forge as a Pantheon.

 

[Victoria]

The odds of capturing the unit seems to be determined by the strength of the defeated unit.

It’s the same odds as a sea dog capturing a unit and is based on base strengths... so an eagle warrior army later on is better. If you want I can drag up the table or look for it, it’s in a sea dog post.
Had a quick look at your post... Monty is an awesome science victory player because a builder can build a spaceport and he has plenty of builders for chopping in projects. Also as one charge builders can build a spaceport in a single turn, Monty can have a lot of spaceports. Due to fast Dom start he grows quick, chops fast and if there is some good forest he is one of the fastest SV around.

 

[megabearsfan]

It’s the same odds as a sea dog capturing a unit and is based on base strengths... so an eagle warrior army later on is better. If you want I can drag up the table or look for it, it’s in a sea dog post.

I haven't played much as England. I had forgotten that the Sea Dog in Civ VI could capture units. Good point about the armies. In my test games, I was upgrading to Swords long before I had researched Nationalism. Didn't occur to me to hold onto some Eagle Warriors to turn them into armies. Do you know off-hand what the capture odds are when an Eagle Warrior corp or army defeats renaissance or later units? I might have to load up World-Builder (or an advanced era start) and test that out.

According to the wiki, the Sea Dog cannot capture city state units. (https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Sea_Dog_(Civ6)) Is that true? Eagle Warriors are definitely able to capture CS units.

Had a quick look at your post... Monty is an awesome science victory player because a builder can build a spaceport and he has plenty of builders for chopping in projects. Also as one charge builders can build a spaceport in a single turn, Monty can have a lot of spaceports. Due to fast Dom start he grows quick, chops fast and if there is some good forest he is one of the fastest SV around.

Another excellent point about the Spaceports! I will add a note about that to the guide.

 

[Victoria]

According to the wiki, the Sea Dog cannot capture city state units.

Have a look at Sea Dogs ... and lily’s Comment as the last post. That wiki page I updated with the stats and findings. Sure there is a coding difference around CS troops. Capturing CS ships would make sea dogs too OP in MP.

Another excellent point about the Spaceports! I will add a note about that to the guide

TBH, it is more than a note. They are pretty good at a violent SV

 

[megabearsfan]

Thanks again for the feedback, Victoria. I reloaded an old save and kept some Eagle Warriors around to try grouping them into corps. I had bad luck and didn't earn any captured Builders against renaissance units :/ , but the combat odds did show a non-zero chance (20% against a Field Cannon).

I added a few paragraphs about using Eagle Warrior corps and armies (including a screenshot), as well as a paragraph about pillaging to get science throughout game and then use Builders to rush Spaceports towards a SV. The changelog at the bottom of the page includes links to your posts.

 

[Victoria]

20% .. not bad... also it’s fairly good on muskets.

 

[AlanH11]

For some reason - playing random civs - I always get the Aztecs as a neighbour, or near neighbour. They are a pain in the arse, as the leader is making demands every move, or every other move, and their opinion of me never drops to anything better than unfriendly. This is all far too predictable.
The whole game ought to be set up so it can be random, including leader traits.

 

[Victoria]

The whole game ought to be set up so it can be random, including leader traits.

And yet you will find others who want certain leaders to show certain traits with some variance of course. And that is what we have and for me that works.
With diplomacy you can deal with most issues in one way or another. Monty is a good example.
If I start next to monty (or anyone really) you need to understand primarily where they can expand to as that seems to be the main thing you just cannot stop without a large standing army. Beyond that, I will tend not to get any luxuries Monty does not have at the start and unless he wants to expand onto you that will be enough to be friends.
I will also look at terrain, eagles will die to archers, they are not that strong but certainly on higher levels, the extra eagle strength is a tipping point against melee combat so I tend to not get luxes, build archers, consider the dynamics with other civs around and how I can manipulate them and then decide do I want him as friend or foe. He is much easier to deal with than Trajan despite being an aggressive civ.

Monty is generally a stupid aggressive pliable civ. 80% of the time I can choose how to deal with him just fine. 20% of the time I worry. I like this in the game.

 

[Socrates-]

Thanks for this! Lately I use your blog-entries to pick a civ for my games. I’ts nice to have these articles as a sort of inspiration.

Being a ‘peacemonger’ most of the time: i’m looking forward to conquering the map with my eagle warriors.