Strategy's playing as aztec's on prince and above.

[blunt3d]

I know alot of people don't really play as aztec's because of thier UU,but does anyone know some good strategy's that have worked for you or for some one else?

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Their UB in warlords is incredible - half duration whip anger. I am playing with them now and my farm cities equal my HE city for production of units.

Put one hammer into a unit, whip an axe/spear/jaguar for 2 pop, builds another quickly and only 7-8 turns later I can do it again (on Epic). 2 units every 7-8 turns is great to quickly ramp up for war.

The UU isn't great, but they are fun to exploit. I am running theology at the moment and can build jaguar with forest 2 + cover to rush through to the enemies back lines and take out archers on resources.

 

[mice]

Here's a link to the UU guide which gives some good tips for using the ?? aztec UU.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=194003

Best part is you don't need any resource. This and the whipping make it a great civ to play.

Here is the Sacrifcial alter bit from William of Orange's UB guide

Spoiler :

Aztec Sacrificial Altar (Courthouse):

I just realized that these badboys are only 90 shields compared to the 120 needed for a courthouse! In addition to halving maintenaince costs in the city it also halves the anger caused by whipping buildings in the city. I have not played many Aztec games but I recall reading about a false OCC on another forum, but linked here (I couldn't find it) where the Aztecs started on a Plains/Hill island and needed to wait until Optics to get across the ocean. The prospect of rushing buildings through slavery seemed to make the task more managable. I had played as the Incas one time on the 1000 AD Earth map and I never left slavery until I had emancipation. I wonder about the same strategy with the Aztecs, seems to be far more effective. Finally, contrary to what the manual says units, in fact anything get the discounted unhappiness from rushing (amazing what nice people can point out and you can verify by playing the game and testing ). Holy Quetzalcoatl! That changes everything!

Possible Synergies:

One could whip their hands bloody, but to what advantage? Fast culture, fast science/research or fast infrastructure like banks, grocers, etc. Space race might benefit from this strategy, but can projects be whipped? Once you whip production buildings, you can pump out units and dominate/conquer the world. Or just whip the units out and slay everything in your path.

A large spanning empire through conquest would be able to build cheaper courthouses and then whip some culture and happiness buildings to help keep maintainance costs down and develop captured cities into productive contributors more quickly. In war times you could have the possiblity of both drafting and then whipping units.

Finally, you can finish off a wonder earlier and perhaps beat the AI to a few depending on difficulty level.

Possible Drawbacks?

The Altars come too late to help whip barracks and the aggressive Monty gets cheaper barracks anyway. But, now that I know the reduced penalty for whipping does apply to units, a quick ASAP conquest victory is likely not going to be done with needing CoL. This is one of the reasons I have used this technique very little but am more open to trying mid-game conquests. If you are on a large map with many civs, this UB makes more sense. You could be pumping out settlers and workers and units and scouts or even missionaries. However, continuing whipping will keep the population low in those cities if you want to be economical since larger cities taker longer to get back up to that high population and having low populated cities would mean that perhaps you are not utilizing all of the good tiles available to be worked in the far cross. Having low population might result in slower teching, but if you are whipping settlers and workers and the Altars help lower maintainence then having many small cities might offset that.

Summary:

An appropriately related UB for the Aztecs, but not the culture bomb like in Civ 3 and not as powerful as could be due to the late appearance. That being said, an Oracle slingshot could give you it quicker and then it might be worth more, but a slingshot solely to use this UB doesn't really merit the risk, especially on higher levels and now needing Math too. Can be effective for starting out and if it is the first thing build/whipped in a newly captured city, then it will become a contributing city soon enough. I owe this UB an apology for not originally realizing the full potential and the ability to whip units. I shall try my next game using the Aztecs.

Other than that, he's spiritual, so strats with a lot of civic manipulation. This ties in well with the whipping and a Slavery/Caste system combo using specialists. and of course religion civic swapping, OR and Theocracy

 

[InvisibleStalke]

You don't need math to slingshot the sacrifical altar. Its well worth trying for if you don't have close opponents. Something like:

- Get two cities.
- Rush Oracle (I went animal husbandry->masonry (two marble squares in fat cross->wheel (from hut)->polytheism->priesthood->writing) for a fairly early Oracle and COL.
- Rapid expansion for local city sites - aim for 4 or so.
- Chop / whip sacrificial altars while teching for Construction using scientists in capital for research.
- Whip/Whip/Whip a quick devastating army. Expand to take out two opponents if you can. Your production should dwarf anything the AI throws and you can keep lightbulbing for research.
- Switch to caste system everywhere and grow cities back. Your empire is larger, has lots of courthouses and can run a lot of scientists or cottages (I would just leave what I find or choose what is natural for the city - but keep a lot of farm cities for whipping).
- Once your economy is back up and you are ready, rinse and repeat. This time your cities will be larger and you have a lot of them.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Some games that might offer ideas...

ALC #1
My ALC #1 Shadow
The Frozen Jungle
Covenant of the Sea
GotM XVI
Apocalypto