Pong 6: The Aztecs

For Pong 6 we decided to do a draft, where each player was randomly given three civilizations and were able to choose one from them.

I drew Arabia, England, and the Aztec.

We did the draft a full week before we started the game, so everyone had time to consider their options, but I chose the Aztec pretty quickly. I don't really like England's bonuses, especially on the low-sea settings we've been playing on, and having just played a majorly religious game in Pong 5 with Egypt, the Arab's focus on faith just didn't entice me. I was craving for war, and the Aztecs were as good as any civ for that!

I knew off the bat that I would be rushing. I would have a lot of Eagle Warriors, and I would throw them at my nearest neighbor and bring home lots and lots of slaves to improve my land, and utilize the Aztec Legend of the Five Suns ability to rush districts. I would be seeking out luxuries at all costs, to increase my combat bonuses through Gifts for the Tlatoani.

With a week between being assigned our civilizations and starting up the game, I actually sat down and played out a few early games as the Aztecs, to ensure I understood how all their mechanics worked, and to play with different build orders. It was easy to steamroll the AIs, and the number of slaves I captured was insane in every test run.

The actual game did not go so well.

Session 1

I wasn't thrilled with my start location, so I decided to move my settler.

Even after moving, I didn't see any luxuries on land. I wasn't planning on building on the coast or rushing for Sailing, so those Pearls really weren't useful.

We have a turn-1 mulligan rule, where you're allowed to request a restart on the first turn if you hate your start. I ponder it, and wait for everyone else to chime in first. I decline because everyone else did, and the land isn't that bad.

I settle and take another step with my Eagle Warrior, and my stomach sinks a little as I still don't see any luxuries. 

As I've mentioned in my past two blogs, I often shoot for an intentional Dark Classical Age. If you're not right on top of other people, the loyalty penalty doesn't matter at all, and I've found that using the Dark Age dedications to springboard to a certain Heroic Medieval Age play pretty well.

Some of the highest and easiest-to-control Era-Point historic events are building your civilization unique units, improvements, districts, or buildings. Playing the Aztecs, you start with one of your units off the bat. This +4 is effectively wasted, but hey, Eagle Warriors.

I find the borders of Scotland (Zar) on turn 5. Far too close.

I walk away from the borders, hoping that he chose to explore in a different direction and doesn't find me too soon.

Oh well. A scout of his finds my Eagle Warrior, despite my skirting his borders.

HEY! SALT! I finally found a luxury.

I built a scout, and head it through the mountain pass.

Scouts finds Armagh. I care not about faith, so they're a valid target.

COFFEE! So there are some luxuries out there.

Eagle Warrior finds a barbarian camp. Practices battles on them for a while, gaining some XP and gold.

Scotland founds a pantheon. Pretty early! He's either dedicated to it, got lucky with a natural wonder, or popped a hut with some faith in it.

I pop open the Settler View and my stomach drops again. Moving my original settler East has effectively made it so I can't settle in that mountain pass.

If I push further through though, I can grab three luxuries! I'm starving for them at this point, so this becomes my primary goal.

I'm still churning out Eagle Warriors and will start on some Slingers soon.

Barbs come from the northwest. Guess I'm rushing that Slinger.

Zar has also scouted me out.

AAAAAH! The north is a violent place, and my scout barely survives this ill-fated move.

Zar is building units. So am I.

I meet Spain, an AI. They send a delegation, and I send one back.

Some decent distance between us, but I'm planning to expand that way, so they might make a good target for my early rush, if I can keep Zar at bay.

Spain is outrushing my rush! They're throwing everything they have at Muscat.

I go to war with Armagh shortly after. I'm not ready for a full-on attack at this point, but there's an easy to take worker, and I figure I can farm slaves while I'm waiting for the rest of my troops.

Units marching to Armagh. The rough terrain is slowing me down quite a bit.

I never ended up popping the Craftsmanship eureka, because I didn't build my own worker. As a serial eureka-hunter, this stung a bit.

I didn't get many screenshots of it, but Spain got Muscat low, but never took it. Eventually they were completely beaten back by the City State.

We build units.

I miscalculated a bit, and moved my units to have fun in Armagh without securing an escort for my Settler. It ends up sitting idle for a few turns while I rearrange stuff to ensure safety as I head to the barbarian north.

I've killed at least 3 city state warriors at this point, and not gotten a single worker.

The Classical Era is coming, and I have to be genuinely careful if I want to go into the intentional Dark Age at this point.

This is America.

I meet Nate as my Settler pushes north. I worry that he'll try to block an optimal placing with his scout, but he mostly leaves me alone.

I've killed 4 warriors now, and still no slaves. I'm getting more than a little beat up, and I still don't have any luxuries for the combat bonuses. My Eagle Warrior to the east needs to fall back for reinforcements.

Nate conquers Madrid, eliminating Spain, and settles New York even closer. It looks like we're all on top of each other.

I take the delegation and send one back. He does not accept.

I finally get a good number of Eagles in position and push forward.

Six warriors killed, and I finally get my first slave worker.

My second city is finally up, and I send the slave there to connect the three luxuries.

Welp.

I'm pretty starved for land as it is, and this aggressive settle all but pens me in. I just got Bronze Working and saw the Iron there ~5 turns ago, and Zar crammed a city right up my butt. My own settler was 1 turn from completion.

I'm also low on gold, making it difficult for me to buy my way to that iron. Zar didn't have that problem, and quickly gobbled it up into his borders.

Dark Age! WOO!

Scotland also goes Dark, while America goes Normal.

You can also take a look at the Settler View, which is abysmal. 

Zar and I chat on Discord a bit, and although I'm salty about his aggressive settle, I agree to his proposal of a Declaration of Friendship. America's military strength numbers are high, and they're experienced from their battles with Spain. I've been struggling to get my own rush going at full speed and my settling is far behind schedule, so I'm feeling weak. I accept it.

I conquer Armagh. I must have killed 9 units, and only gotten 2 slaves.

I send a governor there to quell the loyalty problems.

The Aztec Empire, as it is. There's no land to settle for me anymore, it's conquest or bust.

The rough terrain and mountains make for really tenuous connections between cities, and the lack of slaves from battles has left me underdeveloped. I'm actually building workers in two cities.

America goes into a further war posture, as their archers explore the jungles.

My army is heading to Muscat.

I managed to get a slave in the opening assault on Muscat, making my rate 30%. This is far lower than anything in the "warmup" games I played by myself.

The World at the end of the session.

Techs and Civics.

I haven't done much with the techs I've gotten, focused mostly on the rush. I don't have any districts.

Civic-wise I'm jumping into Autocracy early next session.

I'm not in the running for anything. No districts, no nothing.

Magnus got nerfed, but I still like him. I chopped some forests and some stone, and his ability is still pretty decent. I didn't consider Liang because I wasn't planning to build workers. Boy, was I wrong.

I went with Amani because I expect loyalty shenanigans with how on top of everyone we all are.

The history of the Aztecs

My cities.

Session 2

Taking some time to look at the map and think about things between the sessions, shaking the tunnel-vision of the during-session rush, I realize I'm in a very bad situation. 

Though I'm fielding a decent army, I've been extremely stunted by aggressive settling of my opponents, the lack of luxuries early on (stings double hard for the Aztecs), and the rough terrain slowing my initial conquests.

I'm stuck between Ayronis' America, fresh off their conquest of Spain, and Scotland run by Zar, who I've noted as a skilled commander / warmonger in the past two games. There's really nowhere else for Zar to go but north through me, and an alliance with America to split up my land seems like a foregone conclusion.

I meet AI-Egypt at the start of the session. They don't have much to trade.

I enter Autocracy, and continue to push civics to help with war.

I didn't make any real use of the Dark Age policies. The double-edged sword effects irk me.

America and Scotland sign a friendship agreement, and my paranoia sets in.

Compounding it, Zar begins roleplaying offense to my conquering of Muscat. I respond with apologies, stating the city-states violence to Spain, and our need for slaves, expansion, and luxuries. He is unmoved, and says he was dealing with the city-state before our conquests.

It's only a matter of time in my mind.

Nate's got a big army. Lots of Archers.

My friednship agreement with Scotland still has 13 turns on it, and I begin to think that if I want that long, I'm just going to be crushed on both sides. 

I begin to think about war with America, to nip things in the bud a bit. I'm hoping that his rapid expansions have come at a cost, and that maybe his seemingly large army can't effectively defend everything at once.

This deal sucks, but I take it. She won't offer gpt or anything better, and I'm starving for gold.

My troops are in position, and I declare war.

Nate had tabbed over to Discord to question what my troop buildup was about. By the time had started to hear the sound effects of war, I had already started killing his archers. From his perspective, our armies snuck in during the night and began slitting throats.

The Battle for New York was quick and decisive. American troops also produced more slaves, for whatever reason, and I was able to chop-rush walls quickly.

I was able to kill a good deal of Archers early on in my sneak attack, but he had even more in reserve. I lost a decent number of Eagle Warriors before falling back to regroup.

My friendship with Zar ends, and he refuses to sign a new agreement, calling me a "treacherous neighbor."

I've started building up reserve forces and leaving them behind in my southern cities in preparation for this, but I'm definitely not ready for a war from that side.

I'm not too afraid of what I can see, but he's certainly got a lot more in reserve.

Zar declares war, and I quickly churn out more southern defenses.

Hilariously, the terrain to my south isn't as rough as everything else in my empire, making it fairly difficult to defend. With no real buffer between my capital and his armies, I'm worried.

An Age of Heroes. The Aztecs could use a few.

Nate and I trade a few units in the north around New York, but mostly just vie for better positioning. It's difficult for him to push forward and take the city with those forests there, anything he sends in got tore up by archers and city strikes.

Eventually enough of my army has moved east to make an attempt on Los Angeles.

Techs and Civics.

I've got Machinery, which would mean I have Crossbowmen, but my economy is in the crapper and I don't have enough to upgrade many of them.

Civics-wise, I don't have a whole lot of direction. Rudderless.

Surprised there's only one religion founded at this point! Not that it matters much for me.

War is all we know.

I took Victor in hopes of getting that double-shot promotion. Between the two fronts, I never had time to pop back into this screen and apply the promotions I earned to him.

History!

I have the strongest army, but not by any sort of blow-away margins. I'm fighting a war on two sides, my economy continues to be stunted, and units are rapidly becoming antiquated, so it's not looking good.

City Stuff.

Session 3

The war in the south with Zar's Scotland really heats up this session, as he upgrades to a bunch of Knights and rolls over me. As a result of juggling the two fronts of battle, I didn't get a whole lot of screenshots of the fall of the Aztec Empire.

I also learned how horrible a two-front war can be with simultaneous turns. I had expected that it would be difficult to deal with both your enemies acting at the same time, making ranged attacks you can't hope to answer before your own units die, losing units on fronts you weren't looking at, etc, but I was unprepared for how the game seems to freeze all your units when one is under attack. I would be looking at the north in my battle with America, and Zar would attack something in the south, causing everything I had to just sit there, while Ayronis was free to pummel me. I angrily mashed B over and over trying to get archers to fire, but they would not.

Zar's Knights and Crossbowmen show up. The mostly flat terrain and the aggressive settling he did allowed them to walk straight up to my cities, and there's very little I can do. My archers and Eagle Warriors barely scratch them, and anything in the open is eaten alive by crossbow bolts.

I try to focus on the north. I take Los Angeles, but Nate instantly re-takes it with a Horseman.

His ranged units pelt me while I'm paralyzed from the Scots savaging my cities, and my army quickly begins to unravel. I have to fall back.

My defenses melt in the face of the Knights+Crossbow combo. I had expected trouble, but nothing this severe. I managed to take out a knight and a few crossbowmen, but he cut through me like nothing I had seen before.

I attempt to regroup. I still have a decent force in the north. I ponder sending it south to fight Zar, but based on how the battles have gone they won't do much.

Nate won't accept peace, due to my stubbornness regarding not returning New York earlier.

Like a hot knife through butter. Ugh.

I take a final stab at Los Angeles, leaving some troops to defend New York and Texcoco.

My capital falls. Two turns later, Armagh does as well.

There wasn't much I could do, and what little I tried failed miserably.

My siege of Los Angeles failed, and I was driven back as Texcoco falls.

I'm pretty much just a speed bump between these two superior armies at this point.

I certainly hurt Ayronis a lot more than Zar. The war I fought with America felt somewhat equal, as we traded units and used the terrain to take our shots when we could. When Zar entered the war, he just carved a path of destruction through me that I was unable to stop.

The two great Empires meet outside New York, the last stand of the Aztec Empire. Our mighty Eagle Warriors slaughtered and left to rot on the battlefields, a single crossbowman stands to defend.

The Scots win the day, and conquer the city.

I wanted war, and I got it. I was stuck between two powerful empires, denied meaningful expansion areas by aggressively forward settling, and in the end was decimated by Zar's Knights.

I wonder what will happen after I'm dead, but I would not be wondering long. On Discord, Nate confirmed that the Scots continued their warmongering, and began to make quick work of the American-Spanish empire as well.

I also wonder if there was anything I could have done to change my fate. I made a bunch of little mistakes that certainly added up, but I feel like it was a real uphill battle for me all game. It's possible that I could have worked with Nate to control Zar instead of attacking him, but I had written off the America-Scotland alliance as a foregone conclusion, and just assumed that being sandwiched like that made me the obvious target.

/shrug

On to Pong 7!