Maya= The Broken Civ?

[Zardnaar]

How good do you think the Maya are? I started my 1st game on Monarch as them and wow.

Agriculture + Industrious = the fastet growth rate in the game unless I'm mistaken somehow. In my current game I managed to get a settler from a nearby goody hut and since both my 1st cities were located on floodplanes (one with wheat...). It was a city explosian and with fast building settlers to. I had 4 settler factories going. Most of my empire is located on floodplainds and desert as well and I'm getting close to steam power.

The UU

I really like the Javelin Thrower. Some people don't like it because of an early golden age or maybe they like the raw power of Immortals, Legion or the defense of a hoplite. I'll try and address these issues.

Early Golden Age. I wonder if people realize you don'y have to use your UU straight away. With the mayan traits I think you want to concentrate on city expansion rather than an early offensive. I used my javelin Throwers when I hit the middle ages (knights, Leonardos Workshop etc) theres still plenty of archers, swordsman etc left aroung by the AI. 2-3 javelin throwers seem to be able to take a pikeman as well. If you rerally need to trigger your GA its not to hard.

Enslavement. Remember Mayans are quick at City expansion. Well their UU kicks ass for exploring goody huts or beating back barbarian uprisings. Such slaves can be used to build roads or join your cities. Even faster city growth basically. In my current game I built 6 Javelin throwers and lost count of how many barbarian and Zulu slaves I have captured. I now have Calvary but my 4 remaining javelin throwers are still soldiering on. I rarely go for the killing blow on a civ preferring to kill them in a series of short wars (5-10 turns or so). Those last remainging JT are still roundig up obsolete archers and Impoi when I decide to take another bite out of the Zulus. Eventually I'll upgrade them to TOW infantry or keep them in my capital as a ceremonial guard. Kinda useful when I hit steampower having bulk workers.

 

[Chieftess]

Play again. I think part of that was the luck of the draw - 2 cities on floodplains, and 2 settler factories (which can be rare).

 

[socralynnek]

I too, think that Agr+Ind is a very strong combo. Because with agricultural you get faster expansion(but only with fresh water, I must admit) and with ind you get the fast workers that can keep pace with the expansion.

 

[ssvensson]

Zardnaard - as I wrote in one of ur threads I'm currently playing as Mayans and I think their trait are vere cool indeed - Middle Ages on my 1st C3C Monarch game and everything goes according to plans!

 

[cgannon64]

Industrious isn't that great, I'll take a few other traits over it.

Agricultural starts helping you later in the game (post-Despotism) unless you get lucky and get multiple river starts.

Enslavement is great, but their UU having only 2 attack makes it relatively short-lived. I still like the UU, but you need to make alot of them to be effective. If they had 3 attack, then I'd start to say that they're overpowered...

 

[Revolutionary]

I prefer the sumerians, celts, and iroquois over the mayans but hey thats just me

 

[Juhahu]

Originally posted by Revolutionary
I prefer the sumerians, celts, and iroquois over the mayans but hey thats just me

Sumerians, celts, and iroquois have all good second trait and very good UUs. Maya industrous is very good too, but their UU is really useless in multiplayer games. It only works agaisnt AI, because AI doesn't have any I.

 

[Civrules]

Actually Industrious and Agricultural are strong but they are even stronger when you add a Javelin Thrower. I think it would be more balanced if the traits were not the Mayans traits.

I also tried to play as a non-industrious civ but it was very, very slow. I couldn't stand it. I like making fast progress.

 

[Adam7Eight]

Originally posted by cgannon64
Industrious isn't that great,...

You're kidding, right?

Industrious is my favorite trait by far. I love fast production and I think that the Mayans are the best civ in the game.

 

[Revolutionary]

Originally posted by low


You're kidding, right?

Industrious is my favorite trait by far. I love fast production and I think that the Mayans are the best civ in the game.

Industrious is great but mostly early in the game because once you get a large force of captured worker it makes that industrious not really useful, especial since the industrious trait no longer makes those captured workers work faster then if they were captured by a non-industrious civs

 

[Zardnaar]

Still they have 2 of the better traits and I like the UU. I'm not a huge warmonger in my current game. Going for a spaceship win since I haven't done it yet. I avoided an early war favoring expansion.

The only downside is no cheap stuff (ok aquaducts and other stuff late game). How do you attach a save game? I tried using the browse thing but the file was to big.

 

[Bleser]

Originally posted by Revolutionary


Industrious is great but mostly early in the game because once you get a large force of captured worker it makes that industrious not really useful, especial since the industrious trait no longer makes those captured workers work faster then if they were captured by a non-industrious civs

But not all of us raze the AI's cities and get tons of enslaved workers (at least I don't), and having fewer "real" workers that can clean up pollution and build railroads in one turn is pretty darn sweet.

 

[Bleser]

Originally posted by Zardnaar
How good do you think the Maya are? I started my 1st game on Monarch as them and wow.

Agriculture + Industrious = the fastet growth rate in the game unless I'm mistaken somehow. In my current game I managed to get a settler from a nearby goody hut and since both my 1st cities were located on floodplanes (one with wheat...). It was a city explosian and with fast building settlers to. I had 4 settler factories going. Most of my empire is located on floodplainds and desert as well and I'm getting close to steam power.

The UU

I really like the Javelin Thrower. Some people don't like it because of an early golden age or maybe they like the raw power of Immortals, Legion or the defense of a hoplite. I'll try and address these issues.

Early Golden Age. I wonder if people realize you don'y have to use your UU straight away. With the mayan traits I think you want to concentrate on city expansion rather than an early offensive. I used my javelin Throwers when I hit the middle ages (knights, Leonardos Workshop etc) theres still plenty of archers, swordsman etc left aroung by the AI. 2-3 javelin throwers seem to be able to take a pikeman as well. If you rerally need to trigger your GA its not to hard.

Enslavement. Remember Mayans are quick at City expansion. Well their UU kicks ass for exploring goody huts or beating back barbarian uprisings. Such slaves can be used to build roads or join your cities. Even faster city growth basically. In my current game I built 6 Javelin throwers and lost count of how many barbarian and Zulu slaves I have captured. I now have Calvary but my 4 remaining javelin throwers are still soldiering on. I rarely go for the killing blow on a civ preferring to kill them in a series of short wars (5-10 turns or so). Those last remainging JT are still roundig up obsolete archers and Impoi when I decide to take another bite out of the Zulus. Eventually I'll upgrade them to TOW infantry or keep them in my capital as a ceremonial guard. Kinda useful when I hit steampower having bulk workers.

It seems like you like the Mayans, so why did you call them the "broken civ" in your subject heading?

 

[EddyG17]

I think Agr-Exp. is the best trait combo, too bad there isn,t any other civ like that I ussually build the pyraminds for a golden age and a boost in already fast growing cities, But with celts, Agr-Rel. i built the pyramids, didn't hit a golden age but still I manage to build the temple of artemis, helping a vast empire to start producing culture, instead with the mayas i had to settle with the G. Library.

 

[Zardnaar]

Originally posted by Bleser


It seems like you like the Mayans, so why did you call them the "broken civ" in your subject heading?

Ok maybe not broken. But there are certain civs whose traits work a little to well togather (Egypt and Persia being some others). If you throw in a decent UU (and in the Mayas case its a worker farm) and its a good combo. Any captured workers can be added to you cities for even faster growth.

You usually know when the game is won or lost. I think I have won already with hardly a shot fired.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I think it's the agricultural start with the rivers--very little to do with industrious or the UU. I had similar experiences with the my first Netherlands game and my most recent Sumerian game. Face it, if you get that kind of expansion (especially if not crowded early), then you will be way ahead. If this is on a difficulty where you usually win, then it's practically "game over" from the beginning.

I wonder if people moving up a level shouldn't aim for an agricultural start on a river for their first try?

 

[Revolutionary]

Originally posted by Bleser


But not all of us raze the AI's cities and get tons of enslaved workers (at least I don't), and having fewer "real" workers that can clean up pollution and build railroads in one turn is pretty darn sweet.

true but I'm not usually a warmongerer its the AI that loves to declare war on me by sending settlers and military units through my territory and refusing to leave

 

[Turner]

I love the enslaved worker ability. I just might start getting more barbarians in my games. Free workers! W00t!

Interesting combo, this agricultural and industrious. Later in the game, bonus to food and shields (if nothing else, desert towns will be far more productive now.) plus the free workers. . .

 

[Gypsy1220]

I've found the Mayans to be great, my fav of the new Civs. Love the "enslavement" I've only had to build 3 workers and that's only because I've got cities on 2 different continents and it takes too long to transport them all with Galleons.
By far, ag is the best trait in the game. Seems like its almost always a river start (current Epic game I got rivers, dyes, and costal start position). Industrial is also a good trait, but I perfer Religious for the shorter anarchy.

 

[unumplurum]

To me, it seems like the coolest (perhaps not the best) trait of agricultural is the 2-food desert. It makes late-game expansion into oil and uranium a LOT easier, especially because you can actually increase the city size enough to get a defensive bonus.