Aztecs Overpowered

[Lacessit]

Gunpowder and cavalry are your friends! Don't try to match the aztecs in fierceness, they'll always beat you. Infantry is useless against them, except for pinning down a line. Cavalry, artillery and arquebusiers will destroy the Aztec morale though, after that, your infantry should be able to rip through them!

[Xehh II]

How do you use cavalry in the Aztec Jungles? Whenever I fight them it's endless jungles.

[Ramses II CP]

Less a problem with the quality of your troops, more a problem with their morale. Bring a standard, a high chivalry general, and some guns. Problem solved. :)

[IrishArmenian]

Missile cavalry is ideal against the Aztecs, preferably Heavy Missile Cavalry. If unavailable, just use good charger cavalry!
I utilised Boyar Sons to much effect against the Aztecs! You'd be surprised at the amount of damage a cavalry unit can do to an Aztec army. Remember, taking prisoners is far more effective than killing in combat, so chase down the routers in the case that they do muster enough strength to return to the battle!

[FactionHeir]

Heavy cavalry, even in a jungle, will easily crush an equal aztec infantry army. Actually, I had a stack composed only of Albanian cav, Mailed knights, chiv knights and serbian hussars, and the battle was over in under 5 minutes.

As for infantry tactics, you can usually beat them handily if you bring long range missile units. Archers work better than crossbows against them. So hire some free company longbows or venetian archers in your case.

Also, the best way to beat them is to take their northern city and just hold it. They'll besiege it every turn and in a sally, you can easily beat them.

[Slaists]

i understand that in the game heavy cavalry is the tool to beat aztecs. however, if we consider realism, it should not be the case that iron + sword heavy european infantry should lose to a stone-age army (aztecs)... however fierce they would be.

[Benandorf]

But they could and did, to some extent. In the times soon after Europeans began colonizing America, there were many instances where old technology beat out the newer weapons of the Europeans simply because their warriors were skilled and fierce. Weapon Tech hadn't changed enough to make a big enough difference to allow the Europeans to just walk through the native armies. The Natives had too many numbers, and many skilled, brave warriors.

Technology didn't change a whole lot for a long time. In fact, in the 1400 years between RTW and M2:TW, there historically was not that much change. Better armor, the Crossbow, better lances, and better siege equipment, but nothing compared to, say, early 1900s vs. modern weapons.

[HoreTore]

i understand that in the game heavy cavalry is the tool to beat aztecs. however, if we consider realism, it should not be the case that iron + sword heavy european infantry should lose to a stone-age army (aztecs)... however fierce they would be.

It would be VERY bad for gameplay if the aztecs were depicted realistically. They would pose NO challenge, and as such be boring and completely pointless.

[Matt_Lane]

I had a similar problem during my South American vacation. I lost most of my infantry when I attacked the first northern city, I couldn't believe that English Armored Swordsman could be cut down by clubs and spears. Reinforcements were still many turns away but fortunately by this stage of the game my economy was such that I was able to hire an army of local mercenaries to supplement my meager cavalry & longbow men. These were inferior to the enemy's troops but they could be relied upon to pin them long enough for cavalry or infantry to sweep round and attack their rear. Please note this was with the game set at the default difficulty and I expect the harder settings would make the line route much quicker.

[Mr Frost]

In reality , Caledonian Rhyfelwyrs' army would have slaughtered huge numbers the Aztec warriors .

The Aztecs' best and favorite weapons were obsidian edged wooden swords {imagine a thin cricket bat with slots on the leading edges which shards of carefully knapped obsidian were inserted} . Obsidian is glass . When glass {volcanic or otherwise} impacts hard steel , the glass shatters .

The only weapons they had even remotely suitable for combating foes who wear steel plate were stone headed maces {depending on what type of stone was used , some would also shatter on steel} which would still have been much inferior to the steel headed ones plate armour was designed to resist .

There has been suggested that Atlatl launched darts were good against plate , however the projectiles were still tipped with stone or bone which is again likely to shatter on steel and if they truely were all that lethal to plate , the Spanish Conquistidores would have been wipped out by massed volleys of them , which history shows did not happen . Likely , the weapon could sometimes penetrate with a perfect strike from a perfect angle and this was blown out of proportion by the Spaniards whom were by then used to being nigh invunerable to native weapons .



Personally , I think the Aztecs need a reverse of the ap function , where armour has twice its' value and to ballance this give them larger numbers plus atlatls {javlin mechanics with longer range would do , but still double armour verses them} in good numbers .

[Husar]

Since Patch 1.2 I found it quite a bit easier to beat the aztecs, even with armoured swordsmen and the likes. Just remember to bring more than one army, two or three full stacks should do the trick. Oh and I think artillery and ranged units can be very effective, the Aztecs like to start with a ranged duel after which my arquebusiers and cannons have sometimes wiped out half their army or more. When they then charge my infantry, they're easily routed by a few cavalry units on the flanks or in their back. Making sure your units have armour and especially weapon upgrades also helps a lot.

[Iavorios]

After all you must know that spanish did not wear full plate armors. They used brest plates, helments, and sometimes a shield. This not only does not protect the hall body, but in the hot, wet whether tires the warrior to fast. So it is not a big problem to cut these man's leg or arm and just let him bleed to dead.

[Ramses II CP]

It's also worth considering that if you sailed across the sea and found the equivilent of 6 stacks of peasants, you'd be pretty disappointed. It's a good thing that they present some challenge, even if unrealistic.