I've been playing all the Civs to see how they fare under R&F rules and there are a bunch of interesting interactions there, especially with Faith and Monumentality. Here, we'll talk about the Aztecs, so that means Faith = Builders = Districts.
I did the usual Aztec thing. Didn't spawn next to a Civ so I Declared War on the first City State I could find as soon as I could find it - literally attacking it with my first Eagle Warrior. This is to stimulate that CS to build lots of units. Which it did. By the time I swung back with a couple Eagle Warriors and a pair of Archers, Granada had diligently built up a sizable army. Most of those got turned into Builders and that's how I built my first Campus and Holy Site. Why Holy Site? I spawned near desert and chose Desert Folklore. I was going to milk that area for every point of Faith I could get so I can rush-buy a crapton of Builders. This would probably work equally well with Tundra, of course. It was incidental that I actually founded a Religion, this being King difficulty and all.
Since none of my cities were actually building Districts, they spent their time building Wonders - Pyramids for more Builder charges (affects capture count as well). I chopped the Temple of Artemis into my third city using captured Builders and Magnus.
Train doesn't stop there. I never had much use for the Giant's Causeway (Viking's Expansion DLC). It was a little finicky for me for +5 Combat Strength, which I'll have to re-up every time I upgrade the unit. But I won't be upgrading Eagle Warriors! I built something like 12 of them and spun them round the Causeway. It was like 20 tiles away, but well worth the trip. 28+5 = 33! After Robert the Bruce felt the sting of that, I had 8 Luxuries, so their Combat Strength was 41! That's equivalent to the Strength of a Pikeman, which is awesome considering how few Cogs an Eagle Warrior costs, and the gold maintenance is ZERO.
I used them for nearly constant war (Geneva was uselesss to me) up until the Industrial Era. I only had to pay the support of 5 units - 3 Crossbowmen and 2 Knights. But my army was humongous. Never ran the Conscription card - maintenance was too low. I ran Retainers between production spurts, and eventually War of Religion when I got the card (additional +4 Combat Strength). Between that and Oligarchic Legacy, my Eagle Warriors were performing like 49 Strength units - Samurai on a budget.
All this is well and good (and typical), but the reworked Commando is a real changer. Three movement Melee units are very useful, especially with +7 against Melee and Ranged units. Tortoise is still the promo of choice for frontliners, but early Commando is a strong incentive to go Battlecry. Makes the units much easier to move from place to place and maneuver to attack enemy ranged - almost like half-cavalry. Now I'm wondering how the Bersekers are like!
TLDR: Can now use Faith for Builders to rush Districts. Eagle Warriors benefit from buffed Melee promo line. Tlachtli ever so slightly less useless.
I did the usual Aztec thing. Didn't spawn next to a Civ so I Declared War on the first City State I could find as soon as I could find it - literally attacking it with my first Eagle Warrior. This is to stimulate that CS to build lots of units. Which it did. By the time I swung back with a couple Eagle Warriors and a pair of Archers, Granada had diligently built up a sizable army. Most of those got turned into Builders and that's how I built my first Campus and Holy Site. Why Holy Site? I spawned near desert and chose Desert Folklore. I was going to milk that area for every point of Faith I could get so I can rush-buy a crapton of Builders. This would probably work equally well with Tundra, of course. It was incidental that I actually founded a Religion, this being King difficulty and all.
Since none of my cities were actually building Districts, they spent their time building Wonders - Pyramids for more Builder charges (affects capture count as well). I chopped the Temple of Artemis into my third city using captured Builders and Magnus.
Train doesn't stop there. I never had much use for the Giant's Causeway (Viking's Expansion DLC). It was a little finicky for me for +5 Combat Strength, which I'll have to re-up every time I upgrade the unit. But I won't be upgrading Eagle Warriors! I built something like 12 of them and spun them round the Causeway. It was like 20 tiles away, but well worth the trip. 28+5 = 33! After Robert the Bruce felt the sting of that, I had 8 Luxuries, so their Combat Strength was 41! That's equivalent to the Strength of a Pikeman, which is awesome considering how few Cogs an Eagle Warrior costs, and the gold maintenance is ZERO.
I used them for nearly constant war (Geneva was uselesss to me) up until the Industrial Era. I only had to pay the support of 5 units - 3 Crossbowmen and 2 Knights. But my army was humongous. Never ran the Conscription card - maintenance was too low. I ran Retainers between production spurts, and eventually War of Religion when I got the card (additional +4 Combat Strength). Between that and Oligarchic Legacy, my Eagle Warriors were performing like 49 Strength units - Samurai on a budget.
All this is well and good (and typical), but the reworked Commando is a real changer. Three movement Melee units are very useful, especially with +7 against Melee and Ranged units. Tortoise is still the promo of choice for frontliners, but early Commando is a strong incentive to go Battlecry. Makes the units much easier to move from place to place and maneuver to attack enemy ranged - almost like half-cavalry. Now I'm wondering how the Bersekers are like!
TLDR: Can now use Faith for Builders to rush Districts. Eagle Warriors benefit from buffed Melee promo line. Tlachtli ever so slightly less useless.
