First game as The Inca on Noble...advice?

[Roblord]

Well, Warlord has gotten too easy for me, so I've gone up to Noble level. So far...I've been getting trashed. Most frustrating. I'm about to start a new game as the Inca(using the Warlords expansion). Any advice on how to get a good start...recommended research..wonders...etc?

Rob

 

[Lars_Domus]

Well, if you're having trouble, Inca is certainly a great choice of civ. Why don't you tell us more specifically what areas of the game you're having trouble with, and about the strategies you've been using untill now? It will give us a little more to go by.

Meanwhile, why don't you take a look at Sisutil's beginner's guide - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632
It hasn't been updated for Warlords yet, but the basics remain the same.

 

[Roblord]

I'm primarily a builder, but on Noble, I can't even seem to keep pace with the AI. I'm not really a very good warmonger. Seems there's so many choices...don't know where to start. Plus...I usually play huge maps...so units I build now are out of date by the time I actually fight. Also, having a lot of money issues....even as the Inca(grr). My nearest neighbor is the zulu with 7 cities to my 5. He's not that close though as I've yet to even see his cultural borders. I'm playing continents, Huge, Marathon. He appears to be my only neighbor out of 7 civs.

Rob

 

[Lars_Domus]

First of all, read Sisiutil's guide. You wont be sorry

If you haven't learned to manage your workers manually, and specializing your cities, now would be a good time. It is usually all it takes to keep up with the AI in tech. You'll find some tips on this in that guide.

More specifically, my Inca strategy would be (I do encourage you to read the above mentioned guide, and try to figure things out for yourself, though) :

Spoiler :

You should go for a religion by researching Meditation or Polytheism right of the bat. Personally I prefer Polytheism, as it gives you a leg up in getting to Monotheism should someone beat you to the punch. Right... If there's stone near your starting site, get Masonry next and hook it up ASAP. If there's no stone, but on the other hand lots of forrest, go straight for Bronze Working instead. At any rate, try to get Bronze Working as soon as you can. After you founded your second city (which you really should get going as soon as possible) go for Stonehenge. In between the Industrious trait and stone and/or chopping you're almost guaranteed to get it, and it WILL yield an early Great Prophet, and most likely a second one too. You can use these for slingshots, or shrines. The second one should help your economic situation.

After you get Pottery, start whipping Terraces in all your cities - don't worry, the population will soon grow back because of the Granary effect. Since Terraces take care of all your early cultural needs, there's really no point in being hesitant in going for Calendar early, if you have resources that require it. Sometimes, if I've built Stonehenge, I'll holde out on Calendar to get the most out of my free Monuments. No need for such foolishnes with Terraces.

Once you get the hang of specializing cities and outtech the AI, outdated units are no longer a problem. They might not be up to your technological standards, but they'll still be en par with the AIs army.

 

[Murky]

Being that you are on noble you should be able to get either Buddism or Polytheism. I like Buddism if it's possible because it takes less time.

HC's traits are industrious and financial which are pretty good. A cottage based economy works really well with financial and industrious is great for early great wonders.

If I were playing it would problably go something like quecha->worker->settler->quecha->quecha-settler.

The tech path would look something like mediation->food tech if needed->wheel->pottery->mining->bronze working. An axemen rush should work but you could also go for the CS slingshot or build the Pyramids.

Edited: see below.

 

[Lars_Domus]

HC's traits are aggressive and financial which are pretty good. A cottage based economy works really well with financial and aggressive is great for early rushes soon after building a few barracks in your production center(s).

Actually, he's Financial and Industrious in Warlords... No matter, the Quechua still starts with Combat I, but you don't get the cheap Barracks anymore.

 

[Murky]

Actually, he's Financial and Industrious in Warlords... No matter, the Quechua still starts with Combat I, but you don't get the cheap Barracks anymore.

Oops yeah you're right. I was thinking of vanilla HC. Still he's good with those traits too. It should make building things like Stonehenge, Oracle, Pyramids and the Parthenon go a lot faster. Made some corrections to my previous post.

 

[thenooblet22]

My advice is, even thoguh your peaceful, you have to capture at least one neighboring civiliation. It will slingshot you with gold and research, and you'll have an edge for the rest of the game. Its a basic survival tactic in this cruel, cruel CivIV world...

 

[chapablo]

I play mostly with the Inca at warlord/noble levels (I knew they were overpowered as Aggressive and Financial in CivIV) and I find them to be the most appropriate for my development pattern and style. In warlords, the Quechua has the automatic "Strength I" upgrade, which makes this cheap unit very useful in the ealy game. In the capital, my pattern is always: Barracks, Quechua, Stonehenge (you start with mysticism), quechua, settler, settler, quechua, worker terrace/granary, library. Remember you start with a Quechua, so make good use of it to explore. If you luck out and find additional villages with maps, gold, science, or units, incorportae them into your strategy.
For science, my first objective is to discover Buddhism (best) or Hinduism (2nd best). Stonehenge boosts your culture with a monument, and makes you quite influential from the start, spreading your religion. Then focus on discoveries that allow for improving nearby resources on land and sea. Animal husbandry, mining, and some early naval skills will allow for faster growth. 1 worker will do the job just fine at the beginning, but if you find one from a tribal village or train more, make sure you focus on resources, then on farmland. Avoid the tech that obsoletes stonehenge until you think/know others have it. Stonehenge is a great starter advantage, and shutting it down yourself is like shooting your foot.
Your first great person in your capital is likely to be a prophet (stonehenge will make sure of that) so use him to build your religious wonder for buddhism or hinduism.
This is optional, but if you are playing in snaking or narrow continents with many civs, it will keep you on top of things for quite a while. Your first quechua should be exploring, and if he finds another civ before 2500BC, you should declare war and move right next to the main city. By this point they probably don't have other cities, which helps a lot. The units will be forced to either attack your city/ies or return home. If you're strong enough, try and take them on, but it's best to just sit the unit there and stall their growth. While they cower in fear, you grow and expand. If you lose your unit or have built cities blocking their growth, call for peace. They've never said no. Until your second, third, and maybe fourth cities can produce a quechua in 6 turns or less, focus unit production on the capital. The younger cities should build granaries, temples, barracks, and libraries in that order. Any high shield-producing cities can afford squeezing a worker or 2 somewhere in there.
I've followed this overall pattern with high success rates. I encourage all to try it. After this starting strategy, focus on training a settler every 3 or 4 orders. But make sure you ALWAYS send your settler attached to another unit.

 

[Cookie Crumbs]

With Mysticism you can grab a lot of the early religions (I suggest Hinduism because it also sets you up for Judaism (Monotheism)>Christianity (Theology). With Industrious you can make a grab for early wonders like Stonehenge and The Oracle, which will give you Great Prophets to grab more religions.
This way I managed to get 5 religions on Prince, missing Hinduism and Judaism. With all those religions you can either pursue a Cultural victory or spread one around for Diplomatic.

 

[DarkSchneider]

A good way to start is to go for Polytheism, as you shoul be just about guarenteed to get a first religion. The Quecha is good to steal a worker from the AI, and sending 3 to an enemy starting city is usually enough to capture it! Aside from that, be sure to build lots of cottages, as with any financial Civ. On Noble you should be able to maintain a tech lead on your opponents thoughout the entire game, and use that to your advantage.

 

[OmegaPrecept]

Some months ago around Jan 08 I found an amazing guide on this forum with detailed pictures and advice on this very subject (passing Nobel using Inca and then some). I stopped playing for about 6 months or so and just started up again. I wanted to review the guide because the person who wrote it was genius, after one read I immediately saw results in my game play. I was able to implement his strategy and mindset and I jumped leaps and bounds. I cant seem to find that guide again and its driving me nuts. I will keep searching and If I find It I will leave a link for it here. In the mean time If any one knows what I am talking about please let me know. I would love to revisit that wonderful guide.

 

[CheScott]

Alright, I play BtS, so keep that in mind.

But, I had a similar problem when I got sick of kicking everyone's butts on Easy difficulties with peaceful builder philosophy.


The main things I've discovered is that you've got to get militaristic, if even just a little bit. Even as a peaceful builder, you need a strong army to defend what you've created from the uncultured hoards. And, if you can take out the guy next to you early, why not? A lot of things can happen in the course of a game and, even if he's looking like a loser now, that could change. Kill them and take their women. That gives you, not only clout and gives the other civs a reason to give you a break, but it gives you some breathing room on your borders. A strong military is not optional.

As a peaceful builder, the tendancy is to just try to build everything that's available and then maybe some military units later once you've run out of stuff or at least stuff you care about. But look more closely at the city and figure out what the city really *needs*. In my mind, there is no given formula for this. But don't go building a bunch of libraries on the borders of hostile AI's. At least, not until you have Walls and Barracks and a staunch defense. AI's tend to suck at culture, so you probably won't have to worry about their borders overtaking yours.

Another thing is, and this is critical, use smaller maps. Use them as stepping stones. The game is a lot more transparent with 2-4 AI's playing, instead of 10. You can use this to analyze your playing more critically and streamline your play style, once you've masterd Tiny, move up to Small. Use them as stepping stones. Not only did I find this very helpful, but the game runs better.

I had the exact same problem you are having in transfering into higher difficulties a few months ago. After scaling it down and analyzing my mistakes, I've got a win in Price difficulty.

I'm sorry if that wasn't very specific, but that's more or less exactly how I addressed my problems. Basically, there's a hitch in your swing and you need to do some batting practice to work it out.