Post by {PHX} Alaron on Sept 6, 2012 7:55:05 GMT 1
Since they are yet to be any Aztec strategies posted on this forum, I am going to do my best to write one up. I am not exactly the greatest Aztec player myself, but I do know plenty about the civ and the basic ideas behind it. So I will try to incorporate that into this in order to help you players come up with the best build order for you.
So a little bit about the civ. Aztecs are a native civ, so they do receive vision of all trade posts at the beginning of the game, they have a Warchief capable of increasing the amount of experience points you receive per kill. This includes both units and buildings as long as the unit dealing the final blow is within that Warchief's aura. Aztecs also receive 5 additional population for every Warhut they build, which makes up for that expensive 250 wood investment. Most significantly, Aztecs get a unit called the "Warrior Priest," which can heal units and more importantly can dance on the fire pit for the same effect as 2 dancing villagers.
Aztecs actually have a fairly powerful army in age 2 and age 3. Puma Spearmen are a fantastic improvement over pikemen, and cost roughly the same villager seconds to make. Mace are cheap and very cost effective, having a high rate of fire and being very easy to hit and run enemy units with. Coyotes are also quite a cost effective cavalry unit. Especially after you have shipped their age 2 upgrade, boosting their hitpoints and making them even FASTER than mounted cavalry such as Uhlans or Hussar. In age 3 Eagle Runners are great units all around, being the Aztecs "Dragoon" unit. They are very strong against cavalry, don't be fooled by their size compared to other ranged cavs.
So the basic idea of this strategy is to take advantage of the Warrior Priests dancing abilities as early as possible. I will explain more as we go through the build order.
Deck:
*** Are required cards. ** Are important cards. * Are recommended cards.
- 3 Villagers (Age 1)***
- Furrier (Age 1)*
- Exotic Hardwoods (Age 1)*
- 3 Warrior Priests (Age 2)***
- 5 Villagers (Age 2)***
- 4 Villagers (Age 2)***
- 700 Wood (Age 2)**
- 9 Mace (Age 2)**
- 8 Mace (Age 2)*
- Coyote Runner Upgrade (Age 2)*
- 6 Puma (Age 2)**
- 6 Coyote (Age 2)**
- Infinite 600 Coin (Age 2)**
- 8 Villagers (Age 3)*
Discovery
Aztecs will always have the crates for at least a firepit and a house. If you have an additional wood crate you should also build a market and gather the 50/50 resources for the first hunting upgrade, "Hunting Dogs." If you got a coin crate instead, it is still possible to get a market and simply gather additional coin in order to buy the wood for a house, then gather the 50/50 for hunting dogs, but you don't have to, it is possible to get the market in transition if necessary.
- Once the firepit is built get your Warrior Priest dancing as quickly as possible and be sure to switch the dance to experience points in order to get that first shipment as soon as possible.
- Ship 3 Villagers
- Age up with 16 population (15 Villagers, remember, the WP takes 1 population as well) and pick the fast age up politician.
The reasoning behind the fast age up is to get the 3WP card as quickly as possible, and really take advantage of their effective firepit dancing abilities to boost your economy, shipment rate, production, military strength, etc. whenever it is most required.
Transition
I'll be honest, I'm not exactly sure what the best thing to do at this point the game for Aztecs is. You may have to mess around with vill distribution to get what you need once you hit Colonial. However, I believe your goals should be a minimum of this:
- A Market & Hunting Dogs (if you do not have one already)
- Resources for Steel Traps (2nd food upgrade: 125wood/125coin)
- 100 food for vill production immediately after age up
- Close to 250 wood for a warhut
So in order to meet these goals I would have to say that you probably want the large majority of villagers on wood and maybe some on coin later during transition to Colonial for the Steel Traps.
Colonial
Once you reach this point try to distribute vills appropriately according to what you need. Again, I am not a heavy Aztecs player, so I do not know exact vill distributions, so you may need to work them out for yourself overtime.
Immediately After Age Up:
- Ship 3 Warrior Priests
- Switch Firepit Dance to Warrior Priest Dance (Until you have reached 6 WPs—because 6 is the maximum for Colonial—or need to dance for something else in case of emergency)
- Build Warhut
Afterwards:
- Ship 5 Villagers
- Create units accordingly to what your opponent is making. This means that you may need to switch up villager distributions if you need to mix in more puma or more mace, etc.
- If pressured ship a military shipment, and if not, continue to boom with the 4 vill card. (However, feel free to mix it up if you like)
- After the 4 vill card you can begin spamming military shipments and try to push out of your base. Careful not to sacrifice your army, it is a cost effective army, but keep in mind that in equal numbers it will often not be able to take out the opponents army.
After that just continue to adapt to your opponent.
Some helpful tips...
- Be sure to have your firepit dancing for what you need. If you're not fighting, and you're on attack dance, those are wasted seconds that can go into increasing production time. Also keep in mind if you have a really small army, it may be better—even when fighting—to production dance rather than attack dance. This way your reinforcements arrive faster.
- When going for treasures early in the game, it's nice to allow your converted guardians to deal the final blow to treasure guardians. This allows you to gain additional experience from those kills because of the Warchief aura.
- When you begin to do lots of fighting, be sure to research the Big Button at the firepit. This allows you to gain 3x the experience from kills instead of 2x the experience. Meaning more shipments for you!
Good Luck and Have Fun!
So a little bit about the civ. Aztecs are a native civ, so they do receive vision of all trade posts at the beginning of the game, they have a Warchief capable of increasing the amount of experience points you receive per kill. This includes both units and buildings as long as the unit dealing the final blow is within that Warchief's aura. Aztecs also receive 5 additional population for every Warhut they build, which makes up for that expensive 250 wood investment. Most significantly, Aztecs get a unit called the "Warrior Priest," which can heal units and more importantly can dance on the fire pit for the same effect as 2 dancing villagers.
Aztecs actually have a fairly powerful army in age 2 and age 3. Puma Spearmen are a fantastic improvement over pikemen, and cost roughly the same villager seconds to make. Mace are cheap and very cost effective, having a high rate of fire and being very easy to hit and run enemy units with. Coyotes are also quite a cost effective cavalry unit. Especially after you have shipped their age 2 upgrade, boosting their hitpoints and making them even FASTER than mounted cavalry such as Uhlans or Hussar. In age 3 Eagle Runners are great units all around, being the Aztecs "Dragoon" unit. They are very strong against cavalry, don't be fooled by their size compared to other ranged cavs.
So the basic idea of this strategy is to take advantage of the Warrior Priests dancing abilities as early as possible. I will explain more as we go through the build order.
Deck:
*** Are required cards. ** Are important cards. * Are recommended cards.
- 3 Villagers (Age 1)***
- Furrier (Age 1)*
- Exotic Hardwoods (Age 1)*
- 3 Warrior Priests (Age 2)***
- 5 Villagers (Age 2)***
- 4 Villagers (Age 2)***
- 700 Wood (Age 2)**
- 9 Mace (Age 2)**
- 8 Mace (Age 2)*
- Coyote Runner Upgrade (Age 2)*
- 6 Puma (Age 2)**
- 6 Coyote (Age 2)**
- Infinite 600 Coin (Age 2)**
- 8 Villagers (Age 3)*
Discovery
Aztecs will always have the crates for at least a firepit and a house. If you have an additional wood crate you should also build a market and gather the 50/50 resources for the first hunting upgrade, "Hunting Dogs." If you got a coin crate instead, it is still possible to get a market and simply gather additional coin in order to buy the wood for a house, then gather the 50/50 for hunting dogs, but you don't have to, it is possible to get the market in transition if necessary.
- Once the firepit is built get your Warrior Priest dancing as quickly as possible and be sure to switch the dance to experience points in order to get that first shipment as soon as possible.
- Ship 3 Villagers
- Age up with 16 population (15 Villagers, remember, the WP takes 1 population as well) and pick the fast age up politician.
The reasoning behind the fast age up is to get the 3WP card as quickly as possible, and really take advantage of their effective firepit dancing abilities to boost your economy, shipment rate, production, military strength, etc. whenever it is most required.
Transition
I'll be honest, I'm not exactly sure what the best thing to do at this point the game for Aztecs is. You may have to mess around with vill distribution to get what you need once you hit Colonial. However, I believe your goals should be a minimum of this:
- A Market & Hunting Dogs (if you do not have one already)
- Resources for Steel Traps (2nd food upgrade: 125wood/125coin)
- 100 food for vill production immediately after age up
- Close to 250 wood for a warhut
So in order to meet these goals I would have to say that you probably want the large majority of villagers on wood and maybe some on coin later during transition to Colonial for the Steel Traps.
Colonial
Once you reach this point try to distribute vills appropriately according to what you need. Again, I am not a heavy Aztecs player, so I do not know exact vill distributions, so you may need to work them out for yourself overtime.
Immediately After Age Up:
- Ship 3 Warrior Priests
- Switch Firepit Dance to Warrior Priest Dance (Until you have reached 6 WPs—because 6 is the maximum for Colonial—or need to dance for something else in case of emergency)
- Build Warhut
Afterwards:
- Ship 5 Villagers
- Create units accordingly to what your opponent is making. This means that you may need to switch up villager distributions if you need to mix in more puma or more mace, etc.
- If pressured ship a military shipment, and if not, continue to boom with the 4 vill card. (However, feel free to mix it up if you like)
- After the 4 vill card you can begin spamming military shipments and try to push out of your base. Careful not to sacrifice your army, it is a cost effective army, but keep in mind that in equal numbers it will often not be able to take out the opponents army.
After that just continue to adapt to your opponent.
Some helpful tips...
- Be sure to have your firepit dancing for what you need. If you're not fighting, and you're on attack dance, those are wasted seconds that can go into increasing production time. Also keep in mind if you have a really small army, it may be better—even when fighting—to production dance rather than attack dance. This way your reinforcements arrive faster.
- When going for treasures early in the game, it's nice to allow your converted guardians to deal the final blow to treasure guardians. This allows you to gain additional experience from those kills because of the Warchief aura.
- When you begin to do lots of fighting, be sure to research the Big Button at the firepit. This allows you to gain 3x the experience from kills instead of 2x the experience. Meaning more shipments for you!
Good Luck and Have Fun!