Civ Discussion - Inca

[bengalryan9]

The next civilization we will be discussing is the Inca. The Incans are an economic and expansionist civilization with a starting bias towards desert, plains, coastal, and mountains. Their associated wonder is Machu Pikchu (+4 gold, +2 resource slots, and +4 culture and gold to all buildings adjacent to the wonder). They can be unlocked by playing as Maya, Mississippian, Pachacuti, Simon Bolivar, or Harriet Tubman. You can also unlock them by having 3 settlements that each have at least 3 mountains. At the end of the age, they automatically unlock Mexico.

Their unique ability is Apus, which allows mountain tiles to be worked and gives them +2 food and +1 production.
Their unique military unit is the Warak’aq, a heavy archer replacement that ignores movement penalties from rough terrain, has +1 movement point, and has +5 CS when attacking from rough terrain.
Their unique civilian unit is the Chasqui, a scout replacement with increased movement and sight (4 instead of 2) that also ignores movement penalties from terrain and can see over mountains.
Their unique infrastructure is the Terrace Farm, which gives +4 food as well +1 gold to adjacent buildings, but must be built on rough terrain without any type of river or feature.

Incan Civics:
Mit’a – unlocks the Terrace Farm and the Tirakuna tradition. At mastery it unlocks Machu Pikchu and gives +1 happiness to mountain tiles.
Ayllu – gives +2 food to terrace farms in settlements that have a granary. At mastery, it gives farms and terrace farms an additional +3 food if adjacent to a mountain.
Qhapaq Nan – unlocks the Qullqa tradition and prevents rough tiles from ending the movement of any Incan units, plus allows cities with at least 3 worked mountain tiles to start producing treasure convoys worth 2 points each. At mastery, it unlocks the Quipu tradition and gives the Warak’aq the poison ability (+5 CS against wounded units).

Incan Traditions:
Tirakuna - +15% food in settlements with their city center adjacent to a mountain OR with 3 worked mountain tiles
Qullqa – receive +25% of the gold from trade income as food
Quipu – settlements receive +0.5 gold from every urban population and +0.5 production for every rural population

The Inca have changed a bit over the course of the game as the value of food was patched. What are your opinions? Are they good now, or do they still need some help? Who pairs where with them, and who makes for good age transition partners during the course of the game?

 

[Leucarum]

Most improved Civ in the game? They are fun for making sure you don't have to engage with treasure fleets. Terrace Farms are buildable now. Macchu Picchu early is solid.

They are at the mercy of the map seed though. One of the prime arguments against Civ switching IMO is that we should be able to pick civs with crucial start biases from antiquity.

 

[bengalryan9]

I haven't played the Inca since they gained the ability to create treasure fleets from mountains, so I can't really comment on where they stand currently. That sounds pretty fun, though!

I think Inca are similar to Hawai'i in that they are a civ that is very map dependent - if you get the right map generation they can be great, but if the map generator doesn't cooperate you won't get near as much out of them, and there's no real way of controlling how many mountains you'll start near if you start the game in antiquity since no civ there has a mountain bias. Terrace farms can do a lot but they can also be tricky to place (I believe it has been made easier over the patches, though), and you'll probably need to plan ahead for them so you don't accidentally put a district on one of the rare spots that you can build a terrace farm on in an earlier age. I'm not sure actually working mountains is really all that great either as the yields don't seem worth it... I generally only work them to get to tiles on the other side of the range if needed. You'll probably want to work them to get those treasure fleets or the bonus growth from Tirakuna, though.

The Warak'aq is ok. I like the Chasqui as it's really good at exploring at a time when you're just gaining the ability to explore distant lands. Machu Pikchu is definitely a nice wonder to get unlocked early and it can be awesome but you'll have to plan around it to really maximize it's bonus.

They obviously make for a great lead in to Nepal if you can pull that off, but I've found that to be a pretty difficult unlock in general (Inca should have an upper hand though). Outside of that I think they're pretty flexible in terms of who you'd transition to and it really just depends on what victory you want to pursue. As far as which civ to choose in Antiquity, Greece will at least give you a bunch of rough terrain near your start, you'll just have to pray for mountains too.

 

[kotpeter]

I'm not sure, but don't leaders have their own starting bias? (E.g. natural wonders for Isabella)

If so, one can increase the chance for mountains by picking Pachacuti.

 

[Leucarum]

I'm not sure, but don't leaders have their own starting bias? (E.g. natural wonders for Isabella)

If so, one can increase the chance for mountains by picking Pachacuti.

Which again isn't great as you're limiting who works well with whom. I'd argue strongly against any civs outside of antiquity with terrain bias unless civ switching goes.

 

[kotpeter]

Which again isn't great as you're limiting who works well with whom. I'd argue strongly against any civs outside of antiquity with terrain bias unless civ switching goes.

What I like about Inca is that either you can pick Pachacuti to ensure mountains nearby if you want a good Inca game, or you may simply roll a good mountain start with any civ/leader, so that Inca becomes a good strategic pick.

 

[Krikkit1]

What I like about Inca is that either you can pick Pachacuti to ensure mountains nearby if you want a good Inca game, or you may simply roll a good mountain start with any civ/leader, so that Inca becomes a good strategic pick.

They should also let the player choose one Bias from
Biome
Nav River
Mountain
Coast

 

[uppi]

I haven't played the Inca since they gained the ability to create treasure fleets from mountains, so I can't really comment on where they stand currently. That sounds pretty fun, though!

I think Inca are similar to Hawai'i in that they are a civ that is very map dependent - if you get the right map generation they can be great, but if the map generator doesn't cooperate you won't get near as much out of them, and there's no real way of controlling how many mountains you'll start near if you start the game in antiquity since no civ there has a mountain bias. Terrace farms can do a lot but they can also be tricky to place (I believe it has been made easier over the patches, though), and you'll probably need to plan ahead for them so you don't accidentally put a district on one of the rare spots that you can build a terrace farm on in an earlier age. I'm not sure actually working mountains is really all that great either as the yields don't seem worth it... I generally only work them to get to tiles on the other side of the range if needed. You'll probably want to work them to get those treasure fleets or the bonus growth from Tirakuna, though.

The Warak'aq is ok. I like the Chasqui as it's really good at exploring at a time when you're just gaining the ability to explore distant lands. Machu Pikchu is definitely a nice wonder to get unlocked early and it can be awesome but you'll have to plan around it to really maximize it's bonus.

They obviously make for a great lead in to Nepal if you can pull that off, but I've found that to be a pretty difficult unlock in general (Inca should have an upper hand though). Outside of that I think they're pretty flexible in terms of who you'd transition to and it really just depends on what victory you want to pursue. As far as which civ to choose in Antiquity, Greece will at least give you a bunch of rough terrain near your start, you'll just have to pray for mountains too.

An ancient civ with a mountain bias and mountain bonuses would certainly be welcome. That said, they play well as an opportunistic civ: Find yourself surrounded by mountains? Go Inca, even if you did not originally plan to. It helps that their unlock aligns with that: Any map on which you want to play Inca, you will be able to unlock them. There is also a bit of making your own fate: You have the entirety of Antiquity to get to those mountains. If you are going to play Inca, settle and/or conquer those mountains, so you can use them in Exploration.

Same with Nepal, actually: If you don't unlock them, you don't really want to be playing them. And if you are playing Inca and not unlocking Nepal, you are probably doing something wrong.

 

[disjointaccount]

Inca are another civ I don't have super strong thoughts on. I like any civ which offers an alternative route for legacy path completion just because uniqueness and variety is fun, so I'm a fan of their treasure fleets. Outside of that, I recognise their strength, but it's kind of at odds with the fact I just don't like mountains that much. Like I said last week, I really like being able to have properly sprawling cities in 7, so I don't love anything that eats into my 36 tiles, be it ocean or mountain, just from the perspective of it not feeling great. As such, I tend not to play Inca much just because I'm not settling in a way that unlocks them.

Both their UI and UU are kind of underwhelming. Terrace Farms are nice but the rough requirement really limits how many you can get down (better than it was pre-patch I guess), and I find the Warak'aq a bit middling for a similar reason. There's just not that much rough. Inca's power definitely lies in the UA and civics tree.

 

[Sagax]

Inca are another civ I don't have super strong thoughts on. I like any civ which offers an alternative route for legacy path completion just because uniqueness and variety is fun, so I'm a fan of their treasure fleets. Outside of that, I recognise their strength, but it's kind of at odds with the fact I just don't like mountains that much. Like I said last week, I really like being able to have properly sprawling cities in 7, so I don't love anything that eats into my 36 tiles, be it ocean or mountain, just from the perspective of it not feeling great. As such, I tend not to play Inca much just because I'm not settling in a way that unlocks them.

Both their UI and UU are kind of underwhelming. Terrace Farms are nice but the rough requirement really limits how many you can get down (better than it was pre-patch I guess), and I find the Warak'aq a bit middling for a similar reason. There's just not that much rough. Inca's power definitely lies in the UA and civics tree.

While I agree that too many mountains make sprawl awkward, in my games I generally don’t mind having 3-5 of them per settlement. They give pretty good yields by Modern, to the point I may prefer them over mines/quarries/woodcutters.

Also, absolutely do not sleep on Quipu. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other tradition card that pumps out as big of numbers as this one (unless the policy yield mod is lying).