Lord Kid said:
I guess my logic and strategy was flawed in that I thought an early rush meant to go right after the capital. I do admit that I prefer civ's like Cathy over the aggressive ones, but I am liking Huayna at the moment because it seems to be easier to attack, take cities, then build infrastructure and keep a higher science level than other aggro civs, mainly due to the financial trait, I'm sure.
I wasn't clear enough and did not mean to suggest attacking the capital until much later. *Usually* after you have axeman and/or catapults.
The idea with Quecha's is to terrorize your closest neighbors immediately. If you find them fast enough you won't even get diplomatic negatives from other Civs. I usually draw my 2-3 closest neighbors into combat via worker grab and don't give up peace until they are wiped out or manage to force my hand through good tactical manuevering. Yes, the AI occasionally makes a good strong move in ancient era combat.
Remember, because of city size there is effectively no war weariness in the Ancient world. You can fight for millenium if things are going well. I usually don't give anyone peace until I get Alphabet and can extort techs as part of the deal. Even then I always stay at war with the Civ I intend to wipe out first (don't want the diplomatic negatives of giving peace then starting the war again 20 turns later).
Use your Quechas to ****** growth and keep neighbors from hooking up horses or metal. They will shuttle their archers about their "empire" (1-3 cities depending on when you can make the worker grab) and occasionally towards your cities. Catch them in open field encounters and you will dominate. While you are doing this (and fending off barbarians) you can build up a few CR3 Quecha and several other well promoted ones. Once you get a couple good CR Quecha's start taking out non-capital cities (even ones on hills if you are willing to sacrifice a couple scrub Quechas before you send in the CR guys). The domination has begun.
While all this is going on find horses and metal and get them hooked up. Mines, cottages and farms can be built when there is nothing inside your cultural borders to chop. Since your opponents only have archers at their disposal any pillage party they send your way is just more exp for your budding Quecha horde. Needless to say, have your new slave workers chopping like madmen after you get slavery. Once I have a large Quecha force and a few other cities (one built via settler, a couple via conquest) I can usually grab Stonehege or the Oracle. I also got Hinduism in about 90% of my games because with Quecha's you don't need to b-line for axes or chariots. The AI throws archers and the occasional barbarian warrior early in the game and you can own them with the Quecha horde. My first two techs are Mysticism and Polytheism in every Inca game and it has worked almost every time.
Depending on your financial situation and resource placement you can upgrade those CR3 Quechas to axes relatively early in the game and maybe even take a crack at a capital city. You might lose them all but it is worth it to grab an early capital. Powell doctrine applies here. Never initiate a city attack unless you are backed by overwhelming force that you know will win even if it takes casualties. As an added bonus, if you don't lose your CR3 units the chances of grabbing a second early capital increase. You are also well on your way to qualifying for a Heroic Epic and your first general.
I usually have to wait until I get catapults to take out capitals but a good 25% of the Inca games I have played (played them about 10-12 times) I sacked an enemy capital prior to 0 AD. I nailed Izzy one game the turn after she founded Buddism with my starting Quecha.
So that is why I think Quecha's are overpowered. My highest score on Vanilla by far (over 70K) and my second highest Warlords score (just under 70K) were with the Inca. Oddly, my highest score on Warlords (over 70K) was with Mansa. I have much respect for skirmishers (and fear them greatly when playing the Inca, DON"T attack Mansa with the above tactics if he is in the game!). Needless to say, all three were early domination victories (the vanilla civ Inca win was in the mid-1500's).
Hope that clears things up a little. Play the Inca roughly as described above and you will be surprised how well it works on anything but an isolated or Archipelago start. The idea behind early UU's is to fight early wars. If the player doesn't t do that (or do it properly) it isn't the UU's fault