Meso-America Strategies

[amtrick]

Looked back in previous threads and don't find much about this topic. Any views out there on good/bad civs to start with and/or strategies that work best?

 

[Gaddow]

I played this conquest for the first time this weekend. On Monarch level my goal was to get the 2000 culture points in one city. I went with the Maya but I think the strategy would work well with any of the three. I only built 4 cities to keep the area I needed to defend small. The key is using your UU to enslave workers then sacrificing them at your capital for the culture.

 

[silver 2039]

I won a Histograph victory as the Maya. The first thing I did was to capture that OCC civ nearby. Then The Aztec's kept on attacking me the rest of the game so I was'nt able to do much else.

 

[DBear]

Beeline to Silent Hunters and conquer, conquer, conquer. Silent Hunters beat ANYTHING in this scenario. Raze cities, get slave workers, sac em, lather, rinse, repeat.

 

[CerberusIV]

The Inca are quite easy to win with - only one border to defend and only one civ starts nearby. Beat up the civ to the north of you and hunt down all the barb camps you can with your UU. Expand to around a dozen cities (to boost your research). Focus on building cultural improvements and Wonders in your capital. Towards the end gather all those captured workers in the capital and sacrifice them.

 

[socralynnek]

I only palyed as Maya on Monarch and won by sacrificing tons of slave workers. But I also think, the Inca have the best starting position. Beat your neighbor civ and get that chokepoint where South America goes into Mesoamerica. And go on enslaving....

 

[Slax]

I finished this at Regent as the Aztecs yesterday.

I expanded, eliminated one civ to the south and built all the culture buildings I could. I made one mistake: I thought you only needed 2000 culture in one city OR 7000 in entire civ. In reality you need to have BOTH to win. Because of this, once I reached the civ limit, I had to move quickly to sacrifice workers to get my capital to the 2000 mark before time was up. I won with only 3 turns left. If I hadn't focused on wonders in my capital, I would not have won by this victory condition.

 

[socralynnek]

You're not right, you only need one condition. But remember, the total civ constraint is having 7000 AND double of the second rival.

 

[jm chen]

Maya is my favorite. Make sure you build a sacrificial altar before sacrificing all those slave workers, since the altar doubles the culture points from 20 to 40. If you're going for a 2000-pt culture victory, sacrifice them all in your capital and build wonders the rest of the time.

I believe the Temple of the Moon gives two free sci advances, so it's good to shoot for.

I like the Blood Cult government but I've heard people say it's useless.

Beeline for Enslavement -- then you can build Javelin Throwers and start enslaving barbs right away.

Keep up your military -- the other civs WILL attack you.

If you've captured other people's cities, build a worker first. Often the worker will be of the captured civ's nationality, therefore a slave, therefore a candidate for sacrifice. I used this as the Inca in the Age of Discovery scenario but I suspect it works fine in Mesoamerica too.

 

[Longasc]

I like the Aztecs - they have also a very good starting position for founding your own cities, the Inca are a little bit limited by Terrain. The Mayans have the advantage that their Capitel is exactly in the middle, but their initial position is not as good as the Aztec. I also like the Jaguar Warrior.

But as many already said, the Silent Hunter is key to victory - get it ASAP.

BTW, as the Aztecs you can usually overrun the Toltecs very early.

My preference:

1. Aztecs
2. Mayans
3. Inca (1 and 2 can depend on taste, I -think- the Inca are the hardest to play)

 

[CerberusIV]

The key wonder is the one that gives you courthouses (Netza?'s Court) in every city. Get that with a decent number of cities and you are well on course.