Use war and slavery to rapidly produce a 'Tall Empire' with Aztecs. Place victory districts in record time and take the lead early.
I use mods that affect gameplay: More Housing - makes it possible to go 'tall' instead of always hitting pop bottlenecks.
Starting Scout - so useful, helps get the game moving much better. Really helps!
Starting builder - useful, and adds more strategy to turn one - what to research? Mining for chops or something else for improvements?
These mods do not invalidate the concept, they merely make playing more fun (for me). The housing mod needs a bit of a nerf imo but housing caps suck, no wonder nobody's trying to go tall...
Righto:
The Aztec Eagle Warrior's unique ability is that it 'has a chance' of converting enemy units into builders. This 'chance' is very high, where it seems 9 times out of ten (maybe 8?), you get a builder in return for a kill.
The Aztec builder also has a unique ability, it can use a charge to complete 20% of a districts original cost.
What does a district's 'original cost' mean - does this mean scaling district costs diminish this ability? No, they do not. A district be it your first or tenth of the same type, be it 60 hammers or 200, only takes 5 builder charges to finish. AND, this is the important bit, it does not need to cost your city a single turn of production.
This is not news, but I'll reiterate here for those it is new to. A city can build something else while your builder makes a district. Having the builder in place on the district site/planned site, switch the city to the district, use the builder charge, and switch back in the same turn to what the city was making. Next turn do the same, always switching back. Free districts. FREE. Will it take 108 turns!!!!! Not any more...
What this means is, played correctly, Aztec cities can outproduce any other city in early game (Tall) and they do not need to care about scaling district costs, finicking about trying to delay techs to keep costs down, or any of that nonsense. When feudalism rolls around your builders now have 5 charges - a complete district - for about 40% of the hammers a district actually costs - but that's later in the game. What this also means is you can 'play tall', as less cities can do more early than they'd typically be able to do. What this also implies (and it works) is flatter land, late placements etc, can all be developed rapidly.
I played out the first 100 turns using this concept in various scenarios. Things I learned:
Have a plan. Loads of spare builders in the middle of war/s can be very distracting. e.g. If you want a culture victory get the techs, spam inspirations/eurekas etc and use slaves to make theatre districts, not mines and plantations and stuff. Part of a cities normal function is to make/buy workers for these type of demands. Slaves are for district spamming, turning war/post-war into empire transforming events.
Food can be as important as hammers. Spamming your victory districts is awesome, but you want some commerce and industry too right? The districts are free, go easy on your early obsession with hammers so you have populations to support a commerce and industry district spam once feudalism rolls around.
You can get slaves off city state units but not barbarians. You can't get slaves if you upgrade your Eagle warriors to swordsmen. You can buff your Eagle Warriors with Aztecs ability where each unique luxury gives +1 combat strength. The focus of your wars can thus be strategic, those spots with unique luxuries you don't yet have. In this manner you can sustain your Eagle warriors without a sword upgrade for some time.
Archers are great to help out. A one-two smack from two Eagle Warriors sometimes gets a kill/slave, weakened first by an archer then the one-two you always get the kill, and nearly always a slave.
You don't need a ton of cities (Emperor difficulty). Six is awesome to synchronize Aztec amenity bonuses but it's up to you. In my example below I had seven because strategically... that's where the iron was at.
A settler is a most excellent support unit when you want to attack someone further away. Now you can: heal/upgrade/spam reinforcements, even spam a holy site for combat bonuses if that's your style...
Here's an example using these ideas for 100 turns with a plan - to science the s*** out of it.
I started a war with La Venta ~ turn 30 as I had 3 Eagle Warriors close and met no neighbors yet. I got 4 free builders there and the city, bought a fifth builder and spammed 3x campus districts in my now three (one being La Venta) cities. At turn 49 I have 3 completed campus districts, a larger force, a fourth city, and Hojo has just forward settled me.
I take Hojo cities and units and subsequently get slaves, I make campus districts immediately the city is mine (and simultaneous repairs). At turn 62 I have 5 x campus districts. Turn 63, 78, 99, great scientists... I take the lead in techs by turn 80, I am double the next best leader in science by turn 90 with 7 campus districts. I also now have 8 traders, 3 docks, four commercial hubs, and several industrial hubs.
At turn 100 the other neighbors I've met hate me, my Eagle Warriors are looking decidedly weak compared to the knights at my borders. I finish researching gunpowder.
This strategy is very effective and versatile. Only isolation or lack of focus will mute it, and unless on islands, a forward settle solves many isolation issues.
I've used it to spam out a religion - spammed 2 holy sites, did holy site prayers immediately upon completion and then chopped in the last of the prayers - by one turn the last prophet hahaha.
I've used it to spam early commerce for gold - boring... unless running out of gold I reckon the lack of district cost scaling means you can do this later and go for the win earlier.
Anyway, what's your plan for your Empire? can you build it with slaves?
I use mods that affect gameplay: More Housing - makes it possible to go 'tall' instead of always hitting pop bottlenecks.
Starting Scout - so useful, helps get the game moving much better. Really helps!
Starting builder - useful, and adds more strategy to turn one - what to research? Mining for chops or something else for improvements?
These mods do not invalidate the concept, they merely make playing more fun (for me). The housing mod needs a bit of a nerf imo but housing caps suck, no wonder nobody's trying to go tall...
Righto:
The Aztec Eagle Warrior's unique ability is that it 'has a chance' of converting enemy units into builders. This 'chance' is very high, where it seems 9 times out of ten (maybe 8?), you get a builder in return for a kill.
The Aztec builder also has a unique ability, it can use a charge to complete 20% of a districts original cost.
What does a district's 'original cost' mean - does this mean scaling district costs diminish this ability? No, they do not. A district be it your first or tenth of the same type, be it 60 hammers or 200, only takes 5 builder charges to finish. AND, this is the important bit, it does not need to cost your city a single turn of production.
This is not news, but I'll reiterate here for those it is new to. A city can build something else while your builder makes a district. Having the builder in place on the district site/planned site, switch the city to the district, use the builder charge, and switch back in the same turn to what the city was making. Next turn do the same, always switching back. Free districts. FREE. Will it take 108 turns!!!!! Not any more...
What this means is, played correctly, Aztec cities can outproduce any other city in early game (Tall) and they do not need to care about scaling district costs, finicking about trying to delay techs to keep costs down, or any of that nonsense. When feudalism rolls around your builders now have 5 charges - a complete district - for about 40% of the hammers a district actually costs - but that's later in the game. What this also means is you can 'play tall', as less cities can do more early than they'd typically be able to do. What this also implies (and it works) is flatter land, late placements etc, can all be developed rapidly.
I played out the first 100 turns using this concept in various scenarios. Things I learned:
Have a plan. Loads of spare builders in the middle of war/s can be very distracting. e.g. If you want a culture victory get the techs, spam inspirations/eurekas etc and use slaves to make theatre districts, not mines and plantations and stuff. Part of a cities normal function is to make/buy workers for these type of demands. Slaves are for district spamming, turning war/post-war into empire transforming events.
Food can be as important as hammers. Spamming your victory districts is awesome, but you want some commerce and industry too right? The districts are free, go easy on your early obsession with hammers so you have populations to support a commerce and industry district spam once feudalism rolls around.
You can get slaves off city state units but not barbarians. You can't get slaves if you upgrade your Eagle warriors to swordsmen. You can buff your Eagle Warriors with Aztecs ability where each unique luxury gives +1 combat strength. The focus of your wars can thus be strategic, those spots with unique luxuries you don't yet have. In this manner you can sustain your Eagle warriors without a sword upgrade for some time.
Archers are great to help out. A one-two smack from two Eagle Warriors sometimes gets a kill/slave, weakened first by an archer then the one-two you always get the kill, and nearly always a slave.
You don't need a ton of cities (Emperor difficulty). Six is awesome to synchronize Aztec amenity bonuses but it's up to you. In my example below I had seven because strategically... that's where the iron was at.
A settler is a most excellent support unit when you want to attack someone further away. Now you can: heal/upgrade/spam reinforcements, even spam a holy site for combat bonuses if that's your style...
Here's an example using these ideas for 100 turns with a plan - to science the s*** out of it.
I started a war with La Venta ~ turn 30 as I had 3 Eagle Warriors close and met no neighbors yet. I got 4 free builders there and the city, bought a fifth builder and spammed 3x campus districts in my now three (one being La Venta) cities. At turn 49 I have 3 completed campus districts, a larger force, a fourth city, and Hojo has just forward settled me.
I take Hojo cities and units and subsequently get slaves, I make campus districts immediately the city is mine (and simultaneous repairs). At turn 62 I have 5 x campus districts. Turn 63, 78, 99, great scientists... I take the lead in techs by turn 80, I am double the next best leader in science by turn 90 with 7 campus districts. I also now have 8 traders, 3 docks, four commercial hubs, and several industrial hubs.
At turn 100 the other neighbors I've met hate me, my Eagle Warriors are looking decidedly weak compared to the knights at my borders. I finish researching gunpowder.
This strategy is very effective and versatile. Only isolation or lack of focus will mute it, and unless on islands, a forward settle solves many isolation issues.
I've used it to spam out a religion - spammed 2 holy sites, did holy site prayers immediately upon completion and then chopped in the last of the prayers - by one turn the last prophet hahaha.
I've used it to spam early commerce for gold - boring... unless running out of gold I reckon the lack of district cost scaling means you can do this later and go for the win earlier.
Anyway, what's your plan for your Empire? can you build it with slaves?
