An Inca Game

[Fresol]

First post after the threads have been moved to the new sub-forum. And I bring to you a Regent/Normal 600 AD Inca game on SVN revision 983.

The three Incan historical goals are:
1. Andean Road System: Build 5 Tambos and a road along the Andean Coast by 1500 AD (Turn 100)
2. Sierra de la Plata: Have 2500 gold in 1550 AD (Turn 110)
3. Eight Incan Regions: Control 60% of South America in 1700 AD (Turn 140)

I got confused about the 1st goal: I thought it meant building (5 Tambos and a road) along the Andean Coast, but anyways.

The 1st goal is pretty clear, have at least 5 cities and build Tambos(require Construction) in them. Meanwhile culturally control all the tiles labelled with "Andean Coast" and build roads on them. For that you may need more than 5 cities.

The 2nd goal probably implies stopping the research after acquiring Construction. You may also need to conduct a trade mission with a Great Merchant.

The 3rd goal looks out of place. Controlling 60% of South America(mostly foreign tiles) with a single core city? There are only 30 turns between the checks of the 2nd goal and 3rd goal, so you'd want to spam settlers to found cities all over South America.

The New World conquerors will appear at some point in the game, luckily in recent SVN revisions they are more likely to arrive after you have finished the Tambos.

 

[Fresol]

The dawn of the Incas.



Switching to Mercenaries. I think it's the only way to conquer those 3 native cities along the Andes. The 700 starting gold is not given to us without a reason.



I choose Huamanga as our capital. We need a archer as city defender, all the other units go capture Chan Chan. We research Sailing, and then Construction.



I've tried a few starts, this time I got lucky and all Aucac survived. It's OK to lose 2 of them, losing more than 2 is going to be a problem. We take the city of Chan Chan. It has no building inside and will have 2 turns of rebellion. Nevertheless we keep the city.



A native archer from Tiwanaku tried to attack our city and was killed by our defender.



We hurry the barracks in Huamanga.

 

[Fresol]

Chan Chan and Huamanga each hire 2 catapults.



Bombard the native cities. If you have previously lost aucacs, consider hiring more aucacs too.



Huamanga hurries an aucac.



Suicide attack with the catapults, and then attack the city with the aucac. I choose to raze Tiwanaku.



We do the same with Tucume. The catapults all died but aucacs survived.



Our GG Pachacuti is born in Huamanga. I can't think of a good use for him. Have him join the city then!

 

[Fresol]

After the initial wars against the natives, we begin a period of peaceful development. Huamanga hurries a settler.



We found Tiyawanaku. The sheep tile has Incan culture and we can building pasture on it immediately.



Huamanga starts building a market.



Every a few turns, a group of 4 barb dog soldiers will appear either in the north of in the south. They appear on top of mountain tiles. We are using the free wins to get some exp for our aucacs. Aucacs with Shock promotion can handle dog soldiers with no problem.



Tambo, the castle replacement is unlocked by Construction. It's cheap(35 with stone) so there's plenty of time to build 5 tambos.

The Machu Picchu is kind of good, but we have no time to build it this game. Given the nature of the Incan UHV, I'd rather have someone else finish the Wonder and leave me the doubled from .



We found Coqimpu at the same turn of the barbs spawn. We can hurry the walls on the turn, and the 2 aucas can hold the 4 dog soldiers. Basically the power ratio is 4 : 5 * (1 + 0.1 + (0.75 - 0.75 + 0.5)) = 4 : 8 between the dog soldiers and the Shock aucacs in a walled city.

 

[Fresol]

We hurry the market in Huamanga.



Coqimpu is safe now. However, the city placement may be troublesome in the future.



We are already hiring merchants in Huamanga. Better early than late, I think. We train some warriors to make use of Dynasticism.



We found the city Quitu. 4 Aucacs on the gold hill can most certainly hold off the barb dog soldiers. Don't forget to have workers build forts on the calendar resources.



We have built the required road along the Andean Coast.

 

[Fresol]

We're training two scouts, one is to contact the Aztecs, the other goes to Brazil.



Tiyawanaku finishes our first tambo. Its extra culture is helpful too. I've thought about using the spy economy for Inca, but the short length of the game(~80 turns in total) says it's meaningless.



How are you doing, our friends on the peak?



Our GM Tupa Inca-Yupanqui is born in Huamanga. We need galley to bring him to Aztec land.



We have already built the 5 required tambos.



Expansion stability is OK for now.

 

[Fresol]

One of our scout is killed in native land. It's better to travel by sea.



Safe travel, my friend.



Dog soldiers again. With tambos they have zero chance.



Oh no! The Spanish conquerors! Luckily there are no conquistadors. A Spanish caravel dicovered our land near Coqimpu. Hurry an aucac in Chan Chan, and the Spanish will keep bombarding instead of attacking immediately. Other cities hurry aucacs and catapults. Don't use mercenaries, we need to keep the money.



We meet the Aztecs on the same turn. They haven't been discovered yet.



An overview of our cities.



A trade mission to an Aztec city can only give us 900. But we don't have any other choice.

 

[Fresol]

Our scout in Brazil has made contact with several European civilizations. The New World plague has begun.



Time to clean up the conqueror stack. They didn't even do any pillaging?



Spain doesn't have Gunpowder, and it makes the battle easier.



The second historical goal is going to be achieved without problem.



We have researched Bronze Working, and are looking for a quick way to spend all the accumulated wealth.



Catholicism is beginning to spread. Does that mean someone already has Astronomy?

 

[Fresol]

The Moors have invaded Aztec territory.



Random events. Do I need to post them all the time?



Looks like it's time to change civics.



It's 1550 AD and the Triumphal Arch is built in Huamanga.



We are not waiting for the Machu Picchu to finish. We are buying all sorts of techs from Holy Rome. Among them are Meditation(monasteries), Monotheism(Organized Religion), Civil Service(irrigation and Absolutism), Calendar(resources) and Iron Working(rainforest improvements).



Adopting OR+Absolutism.



We convert to Catholicism on the next turn.

 

[Fresol]

French Cayenne. Holy Rome founds Protestantism. We need to spam settlers quickly before more colonizers arrive.



We don't want any wars with the Euro powers. We choose to tolerate the new sects.



Only Quitu converted, it's not a problem.



We meet the irrelevant Japanese.



I forgot to mention, we can build forts on rainforest silver without Iron Working. It's a way to get to use the rainforest resources earlier.



Spamming settlers, we have 30 turns left. The AIs this game really isn't doing that well. 1600 AD is already quite late, but the Europeans are not colonizing much.

 

[Fresol]

We meet some devout Catholics.



Spain is willing to make peace with us.



We do a bit of trading on the side.



We are a member of the Apostolic Palace. We research Metal Casting(free forges), Dramaculture and then Musicculture.



Drama is not a very popular tech among AIs in general, we can sell it for some .

 

[Fresol]

Finally we begin the final settling stage. Focus on culture buildings in these new cities.



The Dutch, will they settle Brazil before us?



We settle more cities. I don't even bother to try the city names.



Random event, pay some money.



So Mali also has caravels?

 

[Fresol]

Founding another 3 cities. Keep an eye on when expansion stability is going to be a problem.





Founding two more cities. We are training settlers and missionaries non-stop.







We still can afford some tech trades.





We can settle everywhere except for the Amazon jungle.





And that's the 60%.

 

[Fresol]

We have more cities than Russia.



We settle the last city.



Build culture in new cities, and use the culture slider for the city borders to expand.



Our expansion stability was fine at the last stability check.



We contol 70% of South America. It's a bit surprising Spain didn't even try to colonize.



There goes the historical victory for Inca!



This has been a rather smooth game. The conquering at start and the New World conquerors are the two critical periods for Inca, I think. Aside from that, expand quickly in the final expansion stage.

 

[Fresol]

I can't help but feel there's a decline in quality in my recent game guides. Maybe it's because I'm always in a hurry trying to finish them? Any suggestion to make the guides better?

 

[ales_]

I don't know. I still like them. It was an unexpectedly quick game.

 

[Fresol]

Yes it was quick, in my India game there was double the amount of screenshots(180:90).

 

[Eric Cartmenez]

Trying an Inca game today

My suggestion, try to take some European civ - maybe Spain for example?, go for their UHV and teach us how to spy and be sneaky

 

[Fresol]

I'll try when I have time. I actually have never finished a Spain UHV before. But from what I've read about, it's all about military conquest and espionage.

 

[calad]

I can't help but feel there's a decline in quality in my recent game guides. Maybe it's because I'm always in a hurry trying to finish them? Any suggestion to make the guides better?

I think they have everything you did. If you want to write more you should mention alternative routes and did you get lucky at some point.

Also what does Machu Pichu do?