Mad Monty

[Carl5872]

So Im playing a game on marathon as good ol' Montezuma on an earth map. Started in India, which has lots of jungle which is good for my Jags.

I stayed entirely in the Honor track and blitzed England in the southeast asia region. I am a now at war with Kamehameha in the China region, and am outnumbered by many of his Maori wariors, but I have about 5 solid well upgraded units.

I noticed that I am making very few culture per turn, and it is many turns till my next social policy.

Can anyone give me advice on how to turn the situation around?

Not sure what info you experts need to help, but I can tell more if its needed.

 

[Noatz]

Try and find iron, upgrade your jags into swords, gg.

If you can't find iron, retreat for now since you don't want to waste your jags against his warrior unit. Farm barbs for culture instead.

 

[Carl5872]

Try and find iron, upgrade your jags into swords, gg.

If you can't find iron, retreat for now since you don't want to waste your jags against his warrior unit. Farm barbs for culture instead.

Does farming barbs mean that I have my soldiers wandering around and killing the camps, or staying outside the camps and only killing the barbs that leave the camps?

 

[chazzycat]

build some scouts and put them in your cities, I believe each garrison should be +2 culture with honor. That may help.

You're not going to get a ton of culture from killing barbs, there just aren't enough of them. Even playing as Aztecs you have to consider regular culture infrastructure like monuments, temples, city states, etc.

 

[Noatz]

Does farming barbs mean that I have my soldiers wandering around and killing the camps, or staying outside the camps and only killing the barbs that leave the camps?

You can stick a warrior outside a barb camp to do this, but its quite likely that an AI scout will clear the camp before long. You need to get monuments and temples up, upgrade your jags and then renew your offensive.

 

[Karpyan]

Upgrade to Swords/Longswords asap but try to keep the same units with the healing capabilities. IMHO, as they are an initial unit, Jags get obsolete very quickly unless upgraded which requires a lot of iron.

 

[turtlefang]

Good advice here. As an Aztec, you can't ignore the general cultural buildings. These work together with your special abilities and the honor tree. A couple of points:

1) I would not build scouts with the Aztecs but build Jags. If you have completed the honor tree, you should get one happy and two culture from a garrison in each city. Rotate you Jags in and out to make sure that they get experience.

2) Build monuments, temples and other cultural building when possible. A city with one monument, one temple and garrison unit generates 6 culture per turn base.

3) Upgrade your Jags to swords ASAP. Jagswords are simply awesome - woodcraft, 50% defense in jungle, healing 2 pts on kill and hopefully Shock I and Shock II by then. Then fight.

4) In general, you need about 10-12 Jags for the entire game. Try to get them built. These will be your infantry - use them carefully and try not to lose one of them. Its better to pull back than risk a unit loss.

5) Finally, don't forget that a couple of archers supporting your Jagswords are worth a lot. Weaken the enemy first, then kill which lets you heal.

6) Farming barbs. I farm barbs by trying to keep an area settler free so that barb camps will respawn over time. Frankly, I like getting the culture, the experience and the money from killing barbs. So plan according. Sometimes this means razing enemy cities that settle in your preserve. A great tragedy.

7) I haven't found that you have to upgrade make upgrading to longswords critical. It depends on the tech path you want to follow. I pick it up when I have the chance but don't beeline for it. However, if you do manage to get longswords while everyone else has swords - well, its good day to kill.