How should I do to be a competent Montezuma?

[Aka]

I recently get an idea to play as Montezuma, and I mean, do everything as the AI Montezuma should do.
So that behooves me to beeline to all vital military techs, and to make invasions into my neighbours' lands for no reason, destroying them or vassalising them.
But I just find it's hard to pull off a victory if I intend to imitate Montezuma at my current difficulty level -- Monarch. Could anyone share me some good strategies so that I can win a magnificent Warmongering Victory while perfectly acting as Montezuma?
And something confusing me a bit is that one of Montezuma's start-tech is Mysticism, and that sounds useless for a warmonger. How can I exploit the value of this start-tech to war?
Speaking of techwise, my current strategy is to beeline to Iron Working to get those UU, which needs no strategic resources. However that doesn't seem so effective in practice.
So above are my questions and confusions, is there anyone so kind to teach me how to be a competent Montezuma in this game? Thank you in advance.

 

[vale]

In my opinion the biggest strength of the Aztecs is their UB, the Sacrificial Altar. It halves the whipping unhappiness even retroactively and in addition costs 25% less than a courthouse. I usually try to tech/oracle to CoL as quickly as reasonable to take full advantage. This also makes the later conquests much less taxing on the economy.

The Jaguar doesn't seem to be such a great unit for rushing with since its tech is so expensive and it isn't doing that well against fortified archers. I guess if you truly don't have any strategic resources they could fill the gap semi-passably but hopefully you can grab copper or horses with your second city so it isn't an issue.

 

[r_rolo1]

I'm only a prince player and my advice sould be taken with proper care. But about the Mist tech, I can say that it can be very useful for wartime, because it almost gives you a religion in a silver cup, and there is no egough happiness in this game...
But seeing the Aelf's Immortal Chalenge I (That was stranded in very difficult conditions, I must say) is more instructive than my words

 

[tempuraki]

i pretty much agree with what vale just wrote. get to CoL fast and build the UBs and whip a lot. in that sense, Mysticism is great becasue it's on the way to the Oracle.

I also will suggest that you whip units only when you have to, to keep the unit maintanece low, then when you have picked out your target, whip units in all your big cities every other turns until you have a sizeable army, or until the happiness cap hits for that city. you don't necessarily have to run a pure FE for this to work, just remember to have enough farms so your cities can grow back fast.

My strategy when I play as monty is to go for IW only if there's no bronze. after the worker techs I usually go for alphabet and construction (catapults) and literature (GL). with all the catapults whipped, I can easily take out one civ and severely cripple another, and be in a good shape landmass-wise. If I managed to build (or even better, capture) the pyramid, then I'd be ok tech-wise also. Then I'd sue for peace, Focus on econ/research for a bit, while waiting for the WW (whip weariness in this case) to go away, then go back to war again with maces and trebs, finish off whoever I didn't get to finish last time. then I might go after another AI if i can find a weak one close by, otherwise I'll just beeline to chemistry and mass grenadiers FTW.

 

[bassist2119]

Keep in mind Monty's other main strength (beyond being aggressive, his starting techs, sac altars, and questionably jags) is being spiritual. Micro-manage your civics often to expoit their full use.
On that note, Monty is in a unique class regarding the spiritual trait - Usually when playing a SPI civ, I switch every 5 turns, the labor civic always switching between slavery and serfdom: this effectively grants the full value of slavery and 1/2 the value of serfdom. In Monty's case, the sac alter hurts this aspect of SPI as you'll want to stay slavery the whole time. Nonetheless, there's plenty to be done in the other civics categories for exploiting the trait. And don't forget religious switching constantly for spy purposes.

 

[Aka]

Thank you all for your advice!
In fact I'm much more of a Prince player than a Monarch player, I just went up a level couple of days ago.
I've never thought about taking a advantage of Mysticism not only to help with the happiness but also to try to get the UB faster. And the higher happiness cap and the less unhappiness after whipping is just what I need to crank out a magnificent army to win a victory.
I'll try that way in my next game as Montezuma, and with your help I think I can be a competent Montezuma and become a competent Monarch player sooner.
Thank you guys!

 

[Dan Quale]

Monty has it about right, as far as a strategy that i like, hes just kind of a pansy, i mean why build a stack of 50 units and march it on your neighbors, when you could, build 4-5 stacks of 100 units and march on everyone, sure the maintenance costs are astounding and 10 percent research is all youll ever get, but their are ways around getting behind on tech. So far my strategy works on emporer, although when i tried to move up to immortal, barbarians destroyed my civ before i got bw, so ill give it a while before moving up. Resource trading with distant civs and vassals is a greaty way to cover war costs, and once you have alphabet a few super production (100+/turn) go a long way towards research, and take less time to develop compared to cottages, so once you have enough armies, switch that production to research/commerce and you can overexpand beyond what you ever thought possible.

 

[vormuir]

Mysticism is great whether you're a warmonger or not -- it means you get an early religion. (Probably at Monarch, almost certainly at Prince.)

Early religion = more happy, and happy is always good.

Also, don't forget the diplomatic benefits if your religion spreads. If a neighbor shares your religion, he's more likely to trade techs with you, and he won't mind if you attack another neighbor who is of a different relgion. He may even join the fight, if you want him to. So, early in the game, it's worth while sending a single missionary to a neighbor civ with no religion.

Finally, early religion = holy city = shrine income once you get a Great Prophet. (Stonehenge and the Oracle both give GP points, or you can build a temple.) Shrine income -> faster teching and/or more $ for upgrades.

Spiritual = swap civics every few turns. Someone has already mentioned slavery and serfdom. Here's another one: slavery and Caste System. When you build a new city, or get a captured one out of revolt? Run CS for a few turns and assign an artist or two in the new town. Voila, fast fast border pops. Or if your economy is tanking badly, run CS and assign some merchants.

Organized Religion vs. Theocracy is another goodie. Run OR when you're in a building phase, then shift to Theocracy when you're ready to start cranking out military units. Switch back when your army is built.

cheers,


Waldo

 

[cabert]

If I play monty, I go for the earliest possible rush :
- tech to IW directly, while building up a few production cities (1 may be enough) in you victims' direction
- whip a handful of jaguars
- kill!

After that you tech up to currency/col and can keep a few of the cities you take.

 

[Preston85]

Haven't played him recently, and I don't have warlords so take my advice as what it is "general stuff".

If your whipping lots make sure you farm a bit to get your pop back up in the 10 turns. Make sure your food resources are irrigated (might not be able to until civil service).

I like to get theology quite early (asap after catapults) when i'm spirital as I can change civics at will so getting that second upgrade on catapults and city raiders is really nice. Gives me quite a powerful stack that usually survives through time with sacrificial catas/cannons later on. I'm also not so tight with it as I am with COL or Civil Service when trading (not something monty usually does).