I am on vacation (yea!) but away from Civ IV (boo!), but just before I left I started the Earth 1000AD scenario playing as the Incas, on Noble difficulty. The scenario turns out to be rather similar to the "Age of Discovery" Conquest from C3C, except there's no special tech tree or "sacrifice" culture for the Native American civs. Since the Incas start with very little tech, and no one but the Aztecs to trade techs with until someone (in my case, the Chinese) sends a caravel their way, my guess is that the only victory possible for the Incas is Cultural (particularly because they are Financial).
The Incas also start stuck west of the Andes, which means there are sites for about 4 cities, 2 of them mediocre to poor, before they need to sail around the mountains, either north or south, to develop in the Amazon or Pampas. You start with 2 settlers, and I settled one SW of the starting point so it would be coastal, and another in the hills NW of there (leaving enough room for one more N of that point, and then 1 b/t the two copper sources). Without religion, the only early means of cultural expansion is libraries, though I probably should have researched Theaters sooner, esp. if going for cultural victory. (Border expansion was important to me because of reaching resources and pushing back the fog of war in the Amazon).
If you decide to move your settlers rather than plant immediately, take advantage of that first turn to switch civics, since you start with Bureaucracy enabled (which I took), even though you don't have Civil Service.
I began researching Roads > Pottery, THEN sailing, since I didn't think I should expand around the Andes until I had all 4 starting cities planted (this may be a mistake?). Once you get around the Andes, you theoretically can occupy all of South America, but you have to focus on expansion at the cost of research, and you are already starting well behind the other Civs. My original plan was to adopt the cottage-spam approach with all that "free" land, but you start with enough of a barbarian presence, and with the ongoing threat of European invasion, that I believed I needed a strong military backup for my units. This was probably a mistake, as the barbarians in South America proved weak (Chichen Itza, a Central American barbarian city, required quite some force to subdue, however), and I should have expanded more aggressively. Also, all foreign powers proved "Friendly," probably because I was so weak, and Elizabeth and another civ even gifted me a tech each for no reason other than pity (?).
I probably also should have built a 1.5:1 worker:city ratio, as the Amazon is a mess to settle.
The Pampas in the south are more attractive to settle than the northern coast in many ways (they are temperate), but when the Europeans show up they will try to settle the north first, so I don't know whether I should aim to "box out" the invaders or just go for better quality land.
Also, the only Wonder you seem to have a shot at is the Colossus, since all the non-American civs seem unable to build it (it's disconcerting, though, to see early in the game an entire string of messages about Wonders being built in unknown cities when you don't even have the techs leading up to those Wonders!). Since I was whipping up improvements pretty heavily, I really didn't have much of a GP farm, and so the Wonder was important if only to generate some GP's (though for a culture victory, great merchants are not so useful, except maybe in this scenario to keep science up).
So, anyone out there tackle the Earth 1000AD scenario as Incas (or Aztecs) have any thoughts on possible victory conditions as well as priority tech's, builds, settling, etc.? Is a cultural victory possible, or is pulling the "switch" to 100% so late that there's no way to beat the AI as they go spaceship? Also, why is it that the civs are so friendly to me and to each other (it seems) -- even "worst enemies" seem to have fairly neutral feelings. Is it because I'm playing Noble, because the only PC civ is so weak, or am I missing something? Would the Incas be better off with more wars (among OTHER civs - I don't think I can survive a full-scale Spanish invasion!).
I won't be able to play for almost a week, but when I get back I want to be ready to tackle this fun challenge!
The Incas also start stuck west of the Andes, which means there are sites for about 4 cities, 2 of them mediocre to poor, before they need to sail around the mountains, either north or south, to develop in the Amazon or Pampas. You start with 2 settlers, and I settled one SW of the starting point so it would be coastal, and another in the hills NW of there (leaving enough room for one more N of that point, and then 1 b/t the two copper sources). Without religion, the only early means of cultural expansion is libraries, though I probably should have researched Theaters sooner, esp. if going for cultural victory. (Border expansion was important to me because of reaching resources and pushing back the fog of war in the Amazon).
If you decide to move your settlers rather than plant immediately, take advantage of that first turn to switch civics, since you start with Bureaucracy enabled (which I took), even though you don't have Civil Service.
I began researching Roads > Pottery, THEN sailing, since I didn't think I should expand around the Andes until I had all 4 starting cities planted (this may be a mistake?). Once you get around the Andes, you theoretically can occupy all of South America, but you have to focus on expansion at the cost of research, and you are already starting well behind the other Civs. My original plan was to adopt the cottage-spam approach with all that "free" land, but you start with enough of a barbarian presence, and with the ongoing threat of European invasion, that I believed I needed a strong military backup for my units. This was probably a mistake, as the barbarians in South America proved weak (Chichen Itza, a Central American barbarian city, required quite some force to subdue, however), and I should have expanded more aggressively. Also, all foreign powers proved "Friendly," probably because I was so weak, and Elizabeth and another civ even gifted me a tech each for no reason other than pity (?).
I probably also should have built a 1.5:1 worker:city ratio, as the Amazon is a mess to settle.
The Pampas in the south are more attractive to settle than the northern coast in many ways (they are temperate), but when the Europeans show up they will try to settle the north first, so I don't know whether I should aim to "box out" the invaders or just go for better quality land.
Also, the only Wonder you seem to have a shot at is the Colossus, since all the non-American civs seem unable to build it (it's disconcerting, though, to see early in the game an entire string of messages about Wonders being built in unknown cities when you don't even have the techs leading up to those Wonders!). Since I was whipping up improvements pretty heavily, I really didn't have much of a GP farm, and so the Wonder was important if only to generate some GP's (though for a culture victory, great merchants are not so useful, except maybe in this scenario to keep science up).
So, anyone out there tackle the Earth 1000AD scenario as Incas (or Aztecs) have any thoughts on possible victory conditions as well as priority tech's, builds, settling, etc.? Is a cultural victory possible, or is pulling the "switch" to 100% so late that there's no way to beat the AI as they go spaceship? Also, why is it that the civs are so friendly to me and to each other (it seems) -- even "worst enemies" seem to have fairly neutral feelings. Is it because I'm playing Noble, because the only PC civ is so weak, or am I missing something? Would the Incas be better off with more wars (among OTHER civs - I don't think I can survive a full-scale Spanish invasion!).
I won't be able to play for almost a week, but when I get back I want to be ready to tackle this fun challenge!
