Aztecs

[~Isabella of Castile~]

just out of curiousity when do you find the Aztecs? and do you have to send ships scouting the map for it? and also how do you get troops there? does a sudden large expanse of water appear? please tell plus add any info you'd like :P
sorry if someone already posted this, I didn't have time to look and see.. I've got to jump offline soon, so if it's so sorry.

[ByzantineKnight]

At a certain point in time (not sure what time), a whole new part of the map opens up, you just send your ships over (with a couple full stacks) and conquer America!!

[KHPike]

A good place to build an army and send ships is at England. It's the nearest point to the Aztecs. Just send your ships northwest when you're ready. Bring lots of armies and heavy cavalry and some young generals and prepare for a long voyage!

[~Isabella of Castile~]

that's odd.. so I can just send ships northwest from England and I find the Aztecs?

[KHPike]

You must first get 'The World is Round' event which occurs around 1450 to 1490. Then you must be able to build ocean-going ships eg. caravel, carrack

[Lorenzo_H]

Bring as many priests as you can and at least 4 merchants.

Once there, go for Brazil first. Its a rebel town which should be easy to take, and once you do, send the Merchants for the Gold. Then move onto the Caribbean, Florida and eventually into the Yucatan Bay, where you will find the Aztecs. Unless you are Spain or Portugal, you are going to have a tough time conquering them. Be sure to bring as many gunpowder units as you can. Cavalry is also effective. If you are short on troops use the 24 availible mercenaries - they are cheap sword fodder. Be sure to build wooden walls in all your new world towns (if Portuguese or Spain) and crank out Conquistadors by the hundred.

Once your on top of things in the New World, or even before this stage, get Merchants onto all the Gold and Tobacco.

[JCoyote]

I did it with 2 stacks. The Aztecs react to taking the first city very aggressively. After taking it, I broke them on the walls as they kept attacking. I hired plenty of mercs and cranked out the Conquistadores as fast as I could. But I didn't take Brazil first... I just went straight for the Aztecs. The rest is just mopping up.

I wouldn't bother taking merchants. I usually have Timbuktu and Arguin long before this. It's better just to have merchants down there moving gold and ivory til you can get merchants produced in the new world... it only takes a couple turns after taking a city to do it. Locking up merchants for a long ocean voyage is inefficient. Better to make them on the spot.

[zstajerski]

Coyote is right I usually make with cca 4-5 merchants near Timuktu around 2000-3000 florins each turn, when you assume that you travel 5 turns to the new world, thats about 10.000 to 15.000 florins lost (now count how many trops you can upkeep with such an amount!!!)

It is really better to spawn merchant while in the new world and leave the old ones behind in timbuktu!

but there is a down side, all merchants far away from your capital get the "Loyal to coin" trait

And a word of warning:
Aztects RULE melle combat, use a lot of ribaults and culverines supported by cavalry!
Otherwise good luck

[KHPike]

Hmmm. Not very easy to protect archers and artillery vs aztecs. They react to them very aggressively and will charge them down, attempting to plow through my combat line in the process too. Their weakness is their mobility - they're easily flanked by cav.

I usually fight them with tons of heavy cav and try to do downhill charges. One downside of the new world is that it's packed with dense jungle - bad for cavalry.

Anyone tried setting capital in New World?

[gingergenius]

For the English what really merks the Atzecs are guns.

I had 4 stacks full of mercenaries, each with a general, and I defeated the main Aztec force in 2 major battles. Bring over elephants, arquebusiers, any heavy cavalry and horse archers and victory will be simple. In the jungle tactics don't matter, just line up defensively, wait for them to come and when the time is right, charge. By this time yours and their reinforcements should be on the battlefield as well.

On my current campaign I'm collecting 2 units of every type of mercenary available (including crusaders) in forts around my capital. If I want every mercenary unit the English can get, I'll have to wait until 1450 or something but nevermind. It's really fun seeing every culture in the game represented on the same battlefield - and thinking of the Aztecs as they are confronted with whites, blacks, browns, guns, cavalry, elephants and artillery for the first time all on the same day.

[JCoyote]

That is true, elephants of any kind could put a tremendous hurt on an aztec army.

[Lorenzo_H]

How the heck do I get to Arguin and Timbuktu? It looks like the only way is by sea, correct? Its a pity I didn't arrive there before in my game because now it is only 15 turns away from the end and I probably won't have time to exploit the gold there.

[sapi]

You can walk to timbuktu by travelling south from the medeterranian coast through the mountains (toggle_fow and right click near the settlement then leave your men for a while).

Arguin can be reached by following the coast west and then northwards

[TevashSzat]

That is true, elephants of any kind could put a tremendous hurt on an aztec army.

If Cortez only had one artillery elephant that the Timurids have, he probably would have been able to conquer the Aztecs just by himself

[ByzantineKnight]

If Cortez only had one artillery elephant that the Timurids have, he probably would have been able to conquer the Aztecs just by himself