Tips For Playing Maya At Immortal or Deity

[vortical42]

Can anyone give me some good tips for getting started with the Maya since the April Patch changes? The play style seems really interesting, but I'm struggling to wrap my head around it. Is there anything you look for in a starting location that is specific to the Maya? What should the build priorities be for the first 50 turns? Is it worthwhile to try to rush with early military or is it better to focus on pumping out settlers? What about district placement and timing? Is the normal adivice of waiting until feuadlism to chop out districts correct or should I build them earlier?

 

[Lokreah]

Aqueducts give fresh water, so don't neglect those. You can settle outside of the borders of rivers / mountains, for the Aqueduct. Definitely get your farms up as soon as possible. Don't settle on top of luxuries, especially plantations.

Oral Tradition (+1 Culture) from Plantations is also very solid and the AI doesn't contest it.

With the recent addition of newly sprouted cities getting a builder, definitely try to expand asap. Maya is definitely about a few strong core cities with Audience Chamber.

 

[Socrates99]

Focus on expansion early. She's geared for a defensive game so going for war off the bat is bad. Use the settler lense to maximize the number of cities in her bonus range and only go warlike if someone messes that up. Once you have your good spots settled focus on whatever VC you want.