Montezuma's Revenge (BTS)

[slobberinbear]

The Oracle is a key part to this strategy if you don't do the early Jag rush.

If you go for the Oracle, you need to do it soon. Tech up to Priesthood, start on the Oracle while researching writing, then take Code of Laws. This is a delay in your military plans but the production payoff of early sacrificial altars is huge. Getting writing out of the way early also sets you up to run a SE for your post-conquest period. I would only do this in combination with a Jag-only rush at Prince level and below. At higher levels, if you get the Oracle, you should assume you're going to need catapults too -- which means the sacrificial altars get used for more than just military, and you are probably REXing while you're waiting for Construction.

If you are trying to do an early Jag rush on Monarch or higher, you need to beeline Iron Working (after getting the Wheel and one food tech, of course) and hammer the AI with fast Woodsman II Jags. Whip your cities all the way down and go after the capital first. Raze everything else except a holy/wonder city. Make sure you get Writing quickly after IW, so you can economically recover.

The sacrificial altar is one of the best buildings in the game. In the early/mid game, everything is whippable and with enough food to regrow combined with a quick unhappiness period, it's a giant production advantage.

 

[Munch]

Previously I had really thought the sacrifical alter sounded useless, but after trying it (in the civ sense of the word trying, which means using it to the maximum extent, like 'trying' financial means minimising tiles with 1 ) I think you're right, it's provides a huge production boost. With granaries you can get a nice mix of building troops and whipping troops with hardly any penalty, very nice. I think I teched to them too late, but I had other infrastructural needs too.

I'm playing on Emperor, which I've only just got up to. I tried to grab Polytheism but missed out by 2 turns, so went Mining-Agriculture-Bronze (cos I had rice and needed something for my worker to do after building mines on tiles without trees). Then Wheel-2nd city (on marble with 3 food resources on second pop, but 2 of them claimed by the capital already)-Pottery-Polytheism-Priesthood-3rd city (to grab copper)-Masonry-build the Oracle and choose Metal Casting.

Chose MC cos I had copper claimed by my 3rd city and wanted the Colossus and forges. Perhaps in hindsight that was a mistake, and I should have teched Writing to pop CoL with the Oracle. Still it was an expensive tech I would have otherwise put off, and it was great trading fodder! I teched IW-AH and then made a trade with Gandhi, gained Archery, Writing, Fishing and Monotheism for I think MC. At this point the two other civs I had met (Pacal and Sury) declared war on Gandhi, so I promptly attacked my only neighbour Sury while he was probably out looking for India: razed one, captured a coastal one and then captured his capital with the Great Lighthouse.

This was a pretty good place to be, and by now I realised that Sury and I where on an eastern subcontinent separated from Gandhi and Pacal by a single tile land bridge, which Pacal had settled on. He then captured a barb city on our side of the bridge, and I had to act: swung my forces west and took both his cities, each of which I lost and regained. Now I have a nicely defendable western settlement.

In a good position now, third on the board and Sury has just invaded (he's still mad about the last war and the fact I founded christianity in his old capital), but I think I can take him. I'm promoting my axes with strength and my jags with CR, with a couple of exceptions. An axe I gave medic I to survived an unlikely battle and is now medic II, and I have a couple of jags with Woodsman II and even III. A great combo is Woodsman II and bonus vs. catapults, because you can leap through the enemy forests with the other woodsmen and hold that position by the enemy's city without fear of siege weapons cracking your stack open; then just wait for the catapults to arrive (most CR promoted with some suiciders promoted with collateral damage).

A great civ overall

 

[Ninja2]

Great article, Bear! I need to whip and chop more with any CIV, I guess, to improve my early game performance!

 

[mtr12]

Good work. I like to warmonger and I found the advice great (my fav leaders are Toku and Monty). One nitpick: Theology isn't a civic. Theocracy is.

I've always had trouble with whipping. I always overdid it and went into a crash because of unhappiness. So I took a step back and stopped whipping much, instead chopping more and working 4 production tiles. I hope this guide will get me back to being a whipping addict.