Americas campaign: Aztecs

[frogbeastegg]

This topic is for the Aztec faction in Kingdoms expansion's Americas campaign.

[Mad Mac]

Ah, the Aztecs.

The Aztecs start as the biggest, strongest faction, but they have this wee little problem where everyone hates their guts and won't ally with you. The Thrax's in paticular exist only to piss you off. They start off right next to your lands with 2 settlements and a couple of full stacks. They will attack you in the first 1-3 turns no matter what you do, so accept the inevitible and make finishing them off your priority.

From there, I usually try to make nice with the Spanish and Mayans while moving to take on the Tarasians. They're just as single-minded and annoying as the Thrax, but their settlements are farther away so it's harder to take them out. With any luck, the Spanish and Mayans will fight each other and stay out of your hair for a while.

Regarding the unit roster...

For Field Battles, don't neglect to take archers, especially vs other native factions. Just don't. I know the archers are kind of crummy, and you've got all that sexy Heavy Infantry, but it doesn't matter.

Fact is, you're playing a faction with no Calv and your heaviest guys wear cotton armor. Archers own you. Even the crappy Aztec Archers you're stuck will devour your very soul in field battles if you just mass infantry.

You also have javelin units, but with 5 missle attack and no AP, they're a negligible threat, and not hard as hard to run down as archers. They can mostly be ignored.

The Exception is Arrow Warriors, who are more of a solid infantry unit that happens to throw javelins than the other way around. Arrow warriors have a decent (7) missle attack, but also have a solid melee attack and a whopping 6 charge bonus. They can't skirmish, either. Nice unit to flank with, softening the target with a few javelins in the back and then charging home.

Coyote Priests are indispensable. They fight as well as your best infantry, but with only 40 members. On top of that, they have excellent morale and can chant to boost the morale of nearby units while scaring the enemy. Just be sure to spread them out in your ranks for best effect.

Other than that, the roster is pretty straight forward. Only use spearmen vs the Spanish or other Europe factions, use Eagle Warriors as shock troops, and Jaguar or Cuath-whats-its as your mainline infantry. Jaguar Wariors may not look that impressive in terms of stats, but they're fast, have monster morale and will run over almost anything with as long as you have a decent number of them.

[Agentdoom]

How do you deal with the heavy calvary of Spain and France? Swarm with spears?

[Mad Mac]

One other thing to keep in mind with the Aztecs. The Tarascans and Thraxs have the exact same line-up that you do. The Mayans have mostly the same units you do. The Spain use different units, but there's are mostly superior to yours...as a result, you're not only surrounded by enemies, but you've got a serious "Anything you can do, they can do better" problem.

Simply put, you can't realistically overpower your enemies with elite units, or out tech them, or anything of that nature. Since you're on level ground (at best) with all the enemies you'll be fighting most of the campaign, winning battles is pure numbers, tatics, and campaign map positioning. With no Cavalry and an army based mostly on heavy infantry, there's only so much you can do to overcome superior numbers, so don't get reckless in tackling 3 enemy stacks at once. You aren't the spanish, and even a full stack of Jaguar Warriors can get torn apart quickly when surrounded by hordes of cheap spearmen and archers.

Also, no Siege Weapons combined with the above means that offensive sieges are a pain in the arse. Unless you have overwhelming superiority, you'll often have little choice but to wait them out, as even rebel settlements are usually defended by 12-15 units.

[Mad Mac]

I pretty much just spear swarm calvary, yeah. The only horses you'll be seeing much are Conquistadors and Generals Bodyguards (3 HP!) so calvary is insanely tough. Once the spears have them bogged down, you can use heavy infantry to help bring them down faster.

One thing I noticed the AI likes to do now is hide a big force of Calvary in the forest untill they're ready to jump out and destroy everything. If I don't see as many horses as I expected, I usually send some spearmen into the nearest treeline to flush them out.

[Kekvit Irae]

Starting out as the Aztecs, you will want to break away from the Total War tradition of sending out your heir to fight while your leader stays home and enjoys hot cocoa. Your faction heir differs greatly from your faction leader for one very important reason: the lack of Night Fighter. And with several stacks of full armies of Thrax's at your doorstep, Night Fighter can be a total life-saver in avoiding enemy reinforcements. Use this to your advantage as you whittle down the Thrax piece by piece. Just be sure to have your heir in an army to attack the rebel settlements so he can gain valor and command.

As noted above, your main units are going to be comprised of Aztec Archers and Arrow Warriors, seated behind a wall of Eagle Warriors. If this is not feasible, simply have the Arrow Warriors in front and the Archers behind them. The Arrow Warriors will hold their own in melee. If you are playing a short campaign, you do not need to engage the Spanish. Avoid them at all costs, as your arrows will not do much against the superior armor factor of the Spaniards. Sadly, your proximity to Vera Cruz means that a confrontation is inevitable.

[Gaius Terentius Varro]

All the starting native Faction Heirs in Americas start with 0 loyalty and CAN rebel which can be davastating to say the least. Don't put them in charge of your troops. Not sure it's working as intended.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1666618&postcount=5
The arrows might not do much against the armour but flame arrows are just as effective against morale as before.

[dark@hunter]

jaguar warriors are my favorite units in this faction

[kingman]

From there, I usually try to make nice with the Spanish and Mayans while moving to take on the Tarasians. They're just as single-minded and annoying as the Thrax, but their settlements are farther away so it's harder to take them out. With any luck, the Spanish and Mayans will fight each other and stay out of your hair for a while.

[joehempel]

Wierd, I never had any of the other factions attack me at all.

I just attacked Spain, took all their territories except their capitol and took all the rebel factions.

Plus that one region in the middle of all mine, I can't remember the name.

Of course this was on the short campaign. I finished that just as England was taking hold in the New World.

I like this campaign, I'm not very good at the game, but I'm finally getting the hang of it. By the time I won I was Number 1 in everything, that was the first time I was number 1 in financing in any of the campaigns I've done.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

This is one faction that unfortunately you have to start off by zerging the unholy **** outta the map before you have time to rest. You simply cannot sit back and take thing slow as everyone wants to kick your ***. This also makes roleplay a ***** cuz you can only start after youve worked all of your border problems out.
Its kind of like the WRE in BI but not Roman, and without all of the social problems.

[clark40]

I like this campaign, I'm not very good at the game, but I'm finally getting the hang of it. By the time I won I was Number 1 in everything, that was the first time I was number 1 in financing in any of the campaigns I've done.

Clark
mcsa (http://www.mcsaclass.com)
USA