Pantheon choice, calendar resources

[andersw]

Avoided these starts for sometime (and 3rd 4th which I now use here).
The start will be a bit short on hammers until I get UB up.
Will go authority.
Whats the good strats for calendar starts?
I will get enough faith/gold from UA.
Hammers, culture and science will be prio, or go for even more food so UB give more hammers?
Renewal and only improve the citrus?
At size 10 its 5/5 culture/science and 2 science from markets, ofc unclear how much other cities will yield.
Even thou the later game scaling may diminish this looks really attractive.
Springtime and not get anything until plantations are up?
7 plantations possible within cross this is however mostly gold and food.
Tutelary for early hammers?
3 hammers now equal to an instant mine.
Protection because wars and doesnt care about terrain?
God of war for the silliest earliest religion ever
Take hero worship and plop a bunch of holy sites for hammers still (requires great altar).
Anything I missed?

 

[Closed Sky]

Good plan for calendar starts is progress in my experience, doubly so if your monopoly provides two science or culture on tiles, being the Aztecs complicates it a little. Renewal is really strong but it’s tied to very specific situations, usually involving the Mayans, the Iroquois and forested camp resources along with a lot of deer, definitely not the situation in front of you. Springtime is one of the weakest pantheons, I believe it should never be chosen and you will not connect those plantations for ages. Protection stands in direct contradiction to your goals, you want to spam Jaguars and can earn much more experience than is granted by barracks by the time you would have them built.

I would not waste time on pyramids or shrine, spamming Jaguars and making tributes from city states for production for settlers would be better in my judgement. I don’t know the Aztecs very well, but I would stick to tutelary gods if you're confident you can found just by faith from kills.

If you had spotted another natural wonder best choice in my opinion would have been nature and settling by natural wonders. With authority you are effectively abandoning early monopoly, not to mention not settling on one of the citruses. Their tiles are also quite spread out. That’s my intuitive take, but that start is indeed tricky and you don’t have much explored which is usually crucial to tell what is best.

In the game I currently play I abandoned jungle and my monopoly completely in the early game and burnt two turns to settle on more stable coast and it was a good decision both short and long term. Settling on the initial spot is rarely best move.

 

[andersw]

Good plan for calendar starts is progress in my experience, doubly so if your monopoly provides two science or culture on tiles, being the Aztecs complicates it a little. Renewal is really strong but it’s tied to very specific situations, usually involving the Mayans, the Iroquois and forested camp resources along with a lot of deer, definitely not the situation in front of you. Springtime is one of the weakest pantheons, I believe it should never be chosen and you will not connect those plantations for ages. Protection stands in direct contradiction to your goals, you want to spam Jaguars and can earn much more experience than is granted by barracks by the time you would have them built.

I would not waste time on pyramids or shrine, spamming Jaguars and making tributes from city states for production for settlers would be better in my judgement. I don’t know the Aztecs very well, but I would stick to tutelary gods if you're confident you can found just by faith from kills.

If you had spotted another natural wonder best choice in my opinion would have been nature and settling by natural wonders. With authority you are effectively abandoning early monopoly, not to mention not settling on one of the citruses. Their tiles are also quite spread out. That’s my intuitive take, but that start is indeed tricky and you don’t have much explored which is usually crucial to tell what is best.

In the game I currently play I abandoned jungle and my monopoly completely in the early game and burnt two turns to settle on more stable coast and it was a good decision both short and long term. Settling on the initial spot is rarely best move.

I did go for renewal in the end, was quite ok since it took time to get workers and calendar going.
Got two jaguars free upgraded and that was a bit op with CS18 unit so early.

 

[Closed Sky]

How's your production? Do you work any jungles or forests after making plantations? I think I wouldn't.

 

[andersw]

How's your production? Do you work any jungles or forests after making plantations? I think I wouldn't.

Authority is production, got one engineer plopped, plantations on citrus with herbalist and working a few jungles.
Its not massive prod but good enough, working an engineer and the UB also provides prod.

 

[Closed Sky]

Still I would shay away from authority. I feel it's very weak last few versions in any but perfect scenario. If it makes you consider placing holy sites for production... That's an image. I think authority has only one really good policy right now and conviniently it's the second one so you invest culture in tradition or whatever you need to strong synergies. And if you do a lot of early wars, you end up with a lot of highly exerienced units, so you can skip even that heal on kill.

 

[Thibix Magnus]

Still I would shay away from authority. I feel it's very weak last few versions in any but perfect scenario. If it makes you consider placing holy sites for production... That's an image. I think authority has only one really good policy right now and conviniently it's the second one so you invest culture in tradition or whatever you need to strong synergies. And if you do a lot of early wars, you end up with a lot of highly exerienced units, so you can skip even that heal on kill.

what changes have made authority so weak according to you? Not long ago it was considered the best tree precisely for its flexibility, while progress was more the one needing good scenarios (room and peace) to shine. Or would that depend on map and difficulty?
Besides, out of curiosity, are you using often this mix of 2 authority policies with other trees, do you finish the other tree or do you start a medieval tree, leaving both ancient trees unfinished?

 

[zeofig]

Nothing wrong with authority, especially with Aztecs. You even have a nice close CS.

Renewal goes well with authority here. Citrus+renewal gives great yields without needing to be improved. I would make plantations considerably later, maybe after iron working. You won't need workers at all for a while which lets you focus on units, settlers, and a few buildings.

With springtime I think you would need to go progress for it to be effective. Doesn't have the as much synergy with the Aztec start but could still work.

I think if you go authority/renewal and build 5+ jags and 2+ archers you will have a great time. You can murder CS units for extra yields/XP and easier tribute. If you run out of barbs/CS to bully you can consider a war. All the while renewal will be working for you, completely for free.