The key gameplay “niche” of the Aztecs is their incredibly high food gather rate. In a treaty game, the Aztecs have the highest disparity between number of estates and farms on the field - Generally, I’ve used 2.5 farms but upwards of 9 estates just to keep them at a roughly even income.
Personally? Lean into this. Give them more ways to generate food. Give their farms a BBT that directly impacts farm gather rates. Give them more cards based on their incredibly detailed city-building that enabled such ridiculously effective agricultural methods on a literal lake. Lean into the thematic, as that is what makes the civ fun to play.
Don’t give the an easy way to gather coin. Give them more leeway with food so they can choose what to do with the extra villagers they now have.
(On that note, I think this is the stance that should have been taken with the Incans… but for gold, and the Hauds should have a similar stance with wood. The Lakota should have a stance like this with food, but specifically with huntable food, in the same manner that the Aztecs are slanted so heavily towards farming.)
Yes! That is what makes them fun! Not everything should be traditionally “balanced”. Aztecs were known for their ridiculously efficient farming methods in Tenochtitlan, to the point where the city was basically kept afloat by their incredible farming techniques.
Give them more farming! It frees up room for them to build more estates… or do whatever they want with those extra villagers they’ll get by taking a few off farming. You can buff collection rates of a resource indirectly like this, as this will also potentially increase their late-game wood potential as they need fewer villagers on food to keep up with their spending.
Exactly my point. Lean into it. Take it further. Push the concept. Teepees weren’t built solely of wood, they were massive canvasses of sewn buffalo hide, tanned and held together. Lakota buildings should cost food as well as a lesser amount of wood.
Turn the Fur Market into a way for them to produce wild animals to hunt. Preferably bison, but could be a ramping cycle through different animals that each contain more food than the last. Let villagers gather directly from the Fur Market to gather coin, to mimic selling the fur that they’re collecting for coin.
Ok, then we are in the same team. I had propose that chinampa or great chinampa card would boost farm and states base gather rates cause both are agriculture. All we know that aztecs spend a lot cause lack of canons and 2pop units having to train units constantly. But yes BB need some rework with long term benefits
Perhabs but Native Americans (except Incas .-.) need a building with trickle. Then how about this:
TRIBUTES (NEW): Noble huts generate a trickle of gold. Instead of being a default thing of “Temple”.
Well yes there would need to be some kind of balance, for starters card numbers should remain the same for each age, but you have to admit that new civs have a lot of “unique” cards compared to old civs.
1ST TEPOCHALLI (NEW): Delivers 2 Villagers, +10% Villager Gather rates. Well this cards as I said basically is Temple of Xolotl Support moved to Age I, there are a lot of things natives dont have, that they need (except Incas).
4TH CACAO CURRENCY (NEW): Beter market exchange rates of food and gold. Yes and no, they are like but different, it would replace “Advance Market”.
5TH RITUAL SACRIFICE (NEW): Units lost grant experience.
You mean the upgrade at the Plaza? Can be tweaked to only affect own troops, “as you are sacrificing them”, though if possible would be nice if only affected the ones you delete, so soldiers lost in battle dont count.
TEAM RICH LAND I (NEW): AI, Delivers 1 Cooper mine to each player
TEAM RICH LAND II (NEW): AIII, Delivers 1 Silver mine to each player Aztec mining cards is great with it, nearly have the same recolection as buffed food eco, trouble is mines alway run out, its an AIII card that by the time if playing with allies (and ai) mines will be gone or too few.
NATIVE ALLIES (INCAS): Ships 1 native embassy and enables to chose and ally. Chosen ally allows to train its units and develop some of its unique improvements. Allies: Mayas, Zapotecs, Caribs.
TEAM IMPROVED BUILDINGS (INCAS): +25% building hit points (Replaces Improved Buildings, due Monumental Architecture).
MONUMENTAL ARQUITECTURE (INCAS) : +45% Hit points, +25% Town center attack.
Uniqueness to the Incas? the card is great. Gameplay wise yes maybe too much hp (Cards + Card Ceremony + Elder, yes I know) but all in all this is circunstancial, if you want to focus on strong buildings instead of strong army this should be a choosable option (not that we cant right now mind you, we can). This hp building cards are lore/historical wise more than gameplay wise.
CALMECAC: Delivers 1 Priest (+1 Priest build limit), 1 Noble Hut and Allows to hire Priests from Noble hut for 100 gold.
Dont understand the problem here, Warrior Priest main function is the Plaza just to clarify again Plaza max remains 10 WP, WP max count increases to 25 (10 base + 15 cards) if you send all the temple support + calmecac.
WP are good but if you are rushed by cav or they are killed you get crippled. Hiring cost could be increase to 200 gold for balancing.
How so? explain further please. Maybe not the most “balanced” feature but again lore wise Aztecs had a big population and many were warriors, this card serve to express that porpouse. (Not that they need it, since they have the ceremony to boost creation speed).
Again plaza WP capicity I didnt mention to be increased. I could settle with Religious Unity being moved to AIII or AIV, you have to admit temple supports are great cards and most are stacked in AIII.
I disagree totally here, you have to remember Aztecs were great runners, the Empire had constant “Mailing” system, ex: the Emperor had fish brought from Veracruz in a single day.
TEMATLATL (OTONTIN SLINGER COMBAT) : (Moved from Age IV) +10% Ototin attack, grants area damage.
Fair enough.
Yes Aztec units need adjustments, compared with Incas, Europeans or even Asians, Native Americans (except Incas) in the economy department are lacking, its economy is very fragile, we depend too much on ifs, if mines are not depleated, if there is wood, if you send priests, etc.
When cards should add variability to gameplay not dictate how a civ should be played.
@AnaWinters, @Ekdal1378, Im with you friends. Though boosting further food farming could be usefull along this cards:
CACAO FARMING (NEW): Gain a trickle of gold while gathering food in farms.
Early we get coin from Temple and mines, and then swich from mines to farming (farms).
In terms of units: COYOTE: has a great attack with all cards and all but the lack of bonus vs artillery or light infantry makes them to me feel quite useless, since a few canon shots kill them easy.
In historical terms, this unit has a lot of cardas and focuses while it isnt even “historical” since there wasnt a Coyote order or something.
PUMA SPEARMEN: is great overall, its even greater than the euro counterpart (without taking in account their gold cost). And thats one of my greatest trouble with how Aztecs were design, its seems to me that we need a lot of cards in order to make their military units “usefull”.
OTONTIN: Originally it was Macehualtin (aka the representation of commoners joining the warrior societies to archive noblehood) thus it had low stats, low hp, etc. Then was renamed to Otontin, a elite noble unit that shared prestige and blabla with the skull knights, while stats remain equal.
ARROW KNIGHT: I felt that before they were more usefull, right now I have trouble with killing canons, normally had around 15 to do that now they strugle even if they reach their shoting range.
Which is way too high, while most archers dont reach this range. So I would prefer them as a “skirmisher” type of unit rather than a anti artillery (with more speed and attack speed, bonuses vs light and heavy inf).
EAGLE WARRIORS: They are suppoused to be the Aztec “dragoons” of sorts in functionality. Would be nice if Arrow knights had bonuses vs other units, light inf, heavy inf, while eagle warriors had bonus vs artillery as plus of their bonuses.
JAGUAR KNIGHT: They dont have much hp, they dont have a outstanding attack, they are slow, compared with ex Roledero that has 40% melee resistance and 6 speed in full steel armor, jaguar has 10% melee resistance and 4.75 speed, that means in stealth they have 2.38, coyote 3.13.
So bosting their stealth movement speed would be nice (steatlh movement speed reduced to 25% instead of 50%, plus boosting their normal speed) since they represent felines, and they do like to stalk.
TEMPLE OF TEZCATLIPOCA CARD SUGGESTION
SKULL KNIGHT They are great, but slow as jaguars, and we cant build them normally, it takes 9.33 seconds to spawn them with full 25 plaza, in general Im against this magic spawning.
In other things Id like to mention too: FENCING SCHOOL CARD: displays in the tool tip +40% skull knight build.
I have use it and it seems not to increase or decrease it 9.33, the wiki states that it improves WP creation time, have test it and also does nothing.
AGRARIAN WAYS: Is half working, giving free improvements but not allowing to research V age ones, Inca card is working however.
Arrow Knight with tolerance to siege.
Coyote racer with bonuses against skirmish, archers and cannons.
Like all civilizations, a more reliable source of wood.
I think that vs non heavy infantry is enough to differenciate from chimu runners that has one vs canons. Aztecs struggle a lot vs skirmishers focused civs as China, USA or Hausa.
Also I think that USA flag need a nerf, not the bigger radius that they get on the last patch. That bonus to HP of buildings (they can train tons of barracks unlike natives) and their skirmishers is too much.
I would like to share this rec that I played today against a very competent Aztec. Look at the rec and then tell me what you think.
My opinion, if this Aztec managed to be almost the entire game on my side, it is because Aztecas is underestimated.
In the end I lost, because I ruined the final battle, I gave away all my skirmishes. Likewise, it proves my point that azzys don’t need any more benefits. His units are a little weaker, but more profitable, I was surprised that his army could row so fast, I felt playing against a Russian.