The Maya Rule...

[WeneedmoreCivs]

Wow, I just tried the Maya for the first time yesterday and I was shocked at how awesome they are. Starting the game with a ranged unit is HUGE, especially because you can get them promoted to 2 shots a turn really early on which gives a massive advantage. The UB is also amazing, with the +2 Faith and +2 Science creating a heck of a windfall. If you use the right Pantheon/Religion/Wonder choices, you can generate 50+ faith a turn with just 1 city before the Renaissance. I used that massive faith generation to build an army (using that religious trait which allows Faith purchases of units) which I then used to complete the domination of my continent (which had 0 city states and only 2 other countries even though the world had 22 civs and 41 city states), all while receiving periodic Great People thanks to the awesome UA.

So far I've played with The Netherlands (Sea Beggars are badass and Polders are cool, but the UA sucks), The Huns (Battering Rams are amazing, Horse Archers are excellent and the UA is great, but they fizzle out quickly) and The Celts (Good UA, but they are pretty weak otherwise).

Gods and Kings is a wonderful expansion, it truly enhances the game while also speeding up the loading time!

Now if only I had the free time to actually play it!

I still need to try Austria, Byzantium, Carthage, Ethiopia and Sweden.

 

[pspboy7]

Wow, I just tried the Maya for the first time yesterday and I was shocked at how awesome they are. Starting the game with a ranged unit is HUGE, especially because you can get them promoted to 2 shots a turn really early on which gives a massive advantage. The UB is also amazing, with the +2 Faith and +2 Science creating a heck of a windfall. If you use the right Pantheon/Religion/Wonder choices, you can generate 50+ faith a turn with just 1 city before the Renaissance. I used that massive faith generation to build an army (using that religious trait which allows Faith purchases of units) which I then used to complete the domination of my continent (which had 0 city states and only 2 other countries even though the world had 22 civs and 41 city states), all while receiving periodic Great People thanks to the awesome UA.

So far I've played with The Netherlands (Sea Beggars are badass and Polders are cool, but the UA sucks), The Huns (Battering Rams are amazing, Horse Archers are excellent and the UA is great, but they fizzle out quickly) and The Celts (Good UA, but they are pretty weak otherwise).

Gods and Kings is a wonderful expansion, it truly enhances the game while also speeding up the loading time!

Now if only I had the free time to actually play it!

I still need to try Austria, Byzantium, Carthage, Ethiopia and Sweden.

The Maya is pretty cool, but very strategic and hard to master early. How you use your "free" great people is very important. I like to use the free GE first and hammer out an important wonder like HS or PT, or grab the GM for getting so bonus money and CS influence. I like the fact the the UU is not dependant on a tech (other than agriculture which everyone get's anyways). The Long Count thing kinda eludes me though, it's hard to tell when each cycle ends for me hehe. Still, I like the Mayans far better then the Huns atm.

 

[civnoob13]

The maya will almost definitely be the next civ I play. Their UB seems fun, if not a little OP, and the UA will allow me to finally try out the GA golden age. Their UU also sounds good from what you said. About loading time though, I've noticed that it takes much longer to load the game itself now and that late-game turn times are probably longer as well.

 

[WeneedmoreCivs]

The maya will almost definitely be the next civ I play. Their UB seems fun, if not a little OP, and the UA will allow me to finally try out the GA golden age. Their UU also sounds good from what you said. About loading time though, I've noticed that it takes much longer to load the game itself now and that late-game turn times are probably longer as well.

I try not to load the actual game because for some reason my Civ V wont open if I shut it down unless I reinstall...every time!

The game itself seems to cycle turns faster now, though I'll admit that I haven't gone that far into the modern era yet. I played with Spies in one game and I can see how that added feature could slow things down as each civ has multiple spies.

I wish I was going home...but I wont be home for another 5+ hours to play the game. I really wanna try another new civ, or even try an old one with a major rebalance.

 

[ahawk]

The only part of the Maya that is a problem is the UA. It's a mixed blessing, in that getting the UA's unique people will probably speed up getting the 1st great person of any given type, but because that great person counts toward the amount of points needed to earn them in a city, it's going to mean that the 2nd great person of any given type may be delayed for some time.

That's not too bad, because an earlier 1st great person can give you bonuses earlier than normal, but if your strategy normally revolves around getting a whole bunch of great people, well, it may be a problem.

I try not to load the actual game because for some reason my Civ V wont open if I shut it down unless I reinstall...every time!

Verify your game cache. I've had the same problem, and usually it's an issue of needing to verify the game cache, which you can do by going into the Steam Library, right-clicking the title of the game, selecting 'Properties' from the drop-down menu, and clicking the 'Local Files' tab that contains the ability to 'Verify the integrity of your game cache'.

 

[Flying Mathias]

TThe Long Count thing kinda eludes me though, it's hard to tell when each cycle ends for me hehe. Still, I like the Mayans far better then the Huns atm.

It's 20 Katun to make a Bak'tun.

 

[Sherlock]

My first game was with the Maya. Good CiV. I love having a ranged unit instead of scouts.

 

[iconocast]

fyi the ua resets once u get all 7 of the great ppl

 

[thadian]

i just hate having to prioritize theology to get maximum use out of it, however its one of my favorite abilities in the game.

i like the prophet first so i can guarantee religion + enhance, second by Scientist or Engineer.

 

[iconocast]

imo prophet is a waist, ur shrine/pyramid is already giveing u +2 and science ( the extra science will let u get to theology faster). get enganeer and rush stonehenge or another wonder. ur already going to be in the lead wit faith ( generaly speaking)

 

[bokaj]

The maya are a great civ! however i wouldn'go for a GP focused strategy with them because their ability increases the turns to get to the next GP. since they already have GP focus it's nice to be able to focus on sth. else like science (Pyramid UB!) early on.

 

[Antonin Dvorak]

The Maya were the first civ I played when I got G&K. Combining the 2 science from the pyramid early on with the messenger of the gods pantheon belief (+ science from trade routes) and then with religion the interfaith dialogue (+ science when spreading your religion to a city following another one) can make for a good science victory.

Even with a science victory not as a long term goal, you can still achieve a nice tech lead early on for say domination or wonder building purposes.

 

[MisterBoomBoom]

It's 20 Katun to make a Bak'tun.

A Mayan countdown to their next GP would be nice.
Aslo...anybody know what happens after you have gone through all your GP selections? Reboot? or no more GP's?

 

[Khadroth]

A Mayan countdown to their next GP would be nice.
Aslo...anybody know what happens after you have gone through all your GP selections? Reboot? or no more GP's?

I've heard it restarts allowing you to pick any option again for your GP.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I've heard it restarts allowing you to pick any option again for your GP.

Yeah I can confirm that.

I had fun with the game I used them (never finished it though). I lucked into the Mausoleum to make the great person activity even more fun. However, it's the building that drives them.

 

[Adjuvant]

Nuke someone in 2012 for an achievement? My games hardly ever last past 1900.

 

[lordrune]

Yeah a cheap +2 science and +2 faith, early, in every city is just invaluable. It virtually guarantees you're going to get an early religion if you want one, and a strong science start to boot, without sacrificing anything else, and the bonuses from that will just build onto whatever else you're doing. And archers instead of warriors to start? Yeah, I'll take that too.

 

[Koolaidking]

I am playing my second game of G&K with the Mayans and it is going great. Not having to tech anything for Pascal's UA lets you build range units instead of scouts, making my starting build the UU, worker, Pyramid. I am playing emperor, standard, earth; and i took down both Polynesia's cities with 6 UUs, 1 spearman, and 1 horseman before turn 80. I built the pyramids first in almost every city, and with my liberty start and domination style i could buy a missionary every 5 turns.

But there UA is really where they shine. Yeah the great person does count toward the normal increase to there respective spawn rates, but that just means you get to work great land tiles with your population and not worry about feeding specialists. The first GP i picked was the GA, and the insta-golden age let me make over 100 gold per turn during the renaissance! Next was a GM for some more money and influence. I used my GS to bulb chemistry, and my GE to build the PT that gave me another GE to build The Big Ben. However, i also had an extremely hard time trying to figure out the calendar system and unfortunately it made their UA seem like a proc instead of something i could plan for. I read above that someone wanted a GP countdown timer somewhere, and i cant help but think that's extremely appropriate.

Nevertheless i love this Civ! i see the Mayans as tile working civ that gets the benefits of a specialist civilization without having to have specialist cities. When i play other civs, i an usually inclined to only produce one or two types of GP, so it was a lot of fun for me to try and find times to use all of the GP stratigically, as well as an easy way to see all of the new abilities of the GP from the expansion in a real game setting (not just paragraphs in the civilopedia).

 

[Saxony]

Nuke someone in 2012 for an achievement? My games hardly ever last past 1900.

Start in Inforamation era, easyest that way.

 

[Seven05]

The Mayans are crazy OP in so many ways all due to their UB really. Ancient ruin faith pops aside you should be the first to get your pantheon and the first to get your religion (and the first to anhance your religion, before the second religion is even founded if you want to). The value of that can't be emphasized enough.

Consider this...
Shrine is +2 faith, +2 science (+1 happy with religion)
Messenger of the gods is +2 science per city with trade route
Meritocracy is +1 happy per city with trade route
Pagoda is +2 happy, +2 culture and +2 faith

So, for the cost of a shrine and a little bit of faith you have a city with +4 faith, +4 science and +4 happy.

Add in the long count and you don't ever need to use specialists or build wonders for GPP.

So Mayans are the ultimate ICS civ. If you though ICS was broken with CiV was first released try it with the Mayans