If you have the Gathering Storm expansion, click here for the updated guide.

This guide is no longer updated, but will remain for the sake of those without the Gathering Storm expansion.

Note: This guide requires the Rise and Fall expansion.

Content from DLC packs (Poland, Vikings, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia) is marked as such.

War is our faith, and faith is our war. We shall see triumph and defeat in the mortal world, but none shall deny us the right to battle for the fate of the gods themselves. Train the soldiers; show their prowess in battle; create the strongest fighting force yet seen. Develop the cities the gods left us so we may better serve them in life and in death. For should we fail in our quest, all the world shall be plunged into eternal night.


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is (assuming they have one at all).
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) are inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but rather a general indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these should be given more consideration than they would be for other civs but are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, culture, gold, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Describes bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories and Stadiums (which by default offer production and happiness respectively to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - The strategy of obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that deviation (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost.

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders. Unlike unique units, buildings, districts and improvements, civ abilites do not have to be built.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together. This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, maximise the number of copies of the same district in the same area, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out. This is useful if you want to ensure cities have plenty of room for both districts and tile improvements. Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader, which like civ abilities do not have to be built. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit on top of the standard one every civ has.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Complete information on start biases within the game can be found in the Civilizations.xml file (find the Civ 6 folder in Steam's program files, then go through the Base, Assets, Gameplay and Data folders to find the file). DLC and Expansion civs have a similarly-named file in their corresponding folders. If a civilization is not listed as having a start bias there, it does not have one, even if you feel like you keep spawning in the same terrain when playing as that civ.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others, and are hence particularly unique. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district and offers some unique advantages on top. In some cases, there may be minor disadvantages as well, but these are always outweighed by the positive features. All unique districts cost half as much to construct relative to the regular districts they replace.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. Unlike unique buildings or districts, these do not replace a regular improvement. Some require a technology to unlock, and many have their yields improved with later technologies. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be built by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader. These usually replace an existing unit and offer extra advantages (and occasionally minor disadvantages as well in exchange for bigger advantages).

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

The Aztecs have no start bias.

• Builders can use a charge to contribute 20% of the production cost of a district.
  
  • Modifiers to general production and district production do increase the contribution beyond 20%.
    
  • You cannot add a charge to a district that is not currently being worked on.
    
  • Builders cannot be used to help repair pillaged districts.
    
  • If you contribute more production via a charge than is needed to complete the district, the excess is carried over to the next thing you build.

• Every individual type of improved luxury resource within Aztec lands provides +1 amenity to six cities rather than the usual four
  
• Every individual type of improved luxury resource within Aztec lands provides a stacking +1 strength bonus to all military (including land, sea and air) and religious units when attacking.
  
  • This includes special luxuries offered by Great Merchants (Cosmetics from Helena Rubinstein, Jeans from Levi Strauss, Perfume from Estee Lauder and Toys from John Spilsbury)
    
  • Luxury resources from other sources (including trading, from city-states under suzerainity and the bonuses of Buenos Aires and Zanzibar) do not work for this purpose.

An ancient-era melee infantry unit which replaces the Warrior

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

**If you have no access to iron, you may continue to build Eagle Warriors even beyond researching Iron Working.


Negative changes

• Costs 65 production, 260 gold or 130 faith, up from 40, 160 and 80 respectively (+62.5%)

Positive changes

• 28 strength, up from 20
  
• Chance to convert defeated non-Barbarian land military units into Builders with 3 charges
  
  • The chance of this occuring scales based on the strength difference between the Eagle Warrior and the unit it defeats. Scouts for example have a very high chance of being turned into Builders when defeated.
    
  • If you control the Pyramids wonder, Builders acquired this way will start with +1 charge.
    
  • The Serfdom and Public Works policy cards will not affect the number of charges captured Builders start with.
• Costs 45 gold to upgrade to a Swordsman, down from 80 (-44%)

A classical-era Entertainment Complex building which replaces the Arena



Positive changes

• Costs 135 production or 270 gold, down from 150 and 300 respectively (-10%)
  
• +2 faith
  
• +1 Great General Point

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


Culture isn't really a particularly effective path to take as the Aztecs. Amenities stretching to six cities rather than four means you can support more cities and hence have more Theatre Squares, Great Work slots and GWAM point generation, but being able to handle more cities doesn't give the cultural victory an edge over other victory paths. Still, you can use the faith bonus from Tlachtli to buy Naturalists, and use your military advantages to take out a civ that has too high a culture output for your liking.

Domination is clearly the best option for the Aztecs. Eagle Warriors are one of the ancient era's strongest units and every luxury you own will build that advantage up even further. Amenity bonuses help to deal with war weariness while using Builder charges to develop districts saves production that can be used to train up more units.

Religion is a possible backup route for the Aztecs. Tlachtli offer some faith which gives the Aztecs a minor edge, but more importantly the more luxuries you have, the stronger your religious units will be in theological warfare. The major downside to this strategy is that pushing for an early religion comes at the cost of some early warfare potential.

Science victories are an okay backup strategy but generally shouldn't be the primary goal for victory. Being able to get Spaceports built in just five turns in any city is very helpful, and some district-based eurekas are easier to achieve, but the Aztecs don't particularly excel in raw science output the way many more focused civs do.

The Aztec game gets off to a great start with a powerful and fun unique unit you can train from the start of the game, which is great for early rushes and defence alike. The catch is their significantly increased production cost, but once they start providing you with a steady supply of Builders, they'll save a lot more production than they cost.


Eagle Warriors have 28 strength rather than the normal 20. That gives them an advantage over nearly any other ancient-era unit. It also has a curious side-effect; because the strength of your cities is scaled to your strongest unit, your cities will initially defend better than those of any other civs. Nice if you suddenly get swarmed by Barbarians or rushed by a civ like Sumeria at this early stage.

Once you have a few luxuries along with the Oligarchy government and its legacy card, Eagle Warriors will be even stronger at attacking than the Swordsmen of civs without them - keeping them relevant for quite some time. They have no resource requirement and no maintenance, and all you need is the Agoge millitary civic card (from the Craftsmanship civic) to train them considerably faster.

+8 strength is a significant bonus, and it's still good even on higher difficulties where all AI units get a strength boost. Note that the display at the bottom-right showing the strength of my Eagle Warrior also shows the chance of capturing the enemy unit and converting them to a builder.


When you kill a non-Barbarian land military unit with an Eagle Warrior, you have a chance of turning them into a Builder with three charges (four if you have the Pyramids). The chance increases against low-strength units, so Scouts and Slingers are particularly lucrative units to kill.

Because of this, it's possible to avoid constructing Builders for quite some time as the Aztecs - just build a few Eagle Warriors instead and start a war (assuming there's a close enough target). Declaring war on a civ or city-state in the ancient era has no warmonger penalties, so do so!

The problem with capturing Builders in conquest is you'll end up with them some distance away from your homelands, where you'll want to send most of them. Rather than dedicating units to escort them, send them back along the same route new Eagle Warriors go from your homelands to the battlefield. That way, Builders won't be far from a unit that can protect them if need be, but you don't have to divert Eagle Warriors away from combat unecessarily.


A fast attack can take out a civ before they've got much in the way of proper defences, which means a city or two extra for yourself as well as one step closer to domination victory.

However, eventually you'll need to support your Eagle Warriors with other units to deal with better-defended cities. Grabbing Archery early to allow you to build Archers can be useful to help support your Eagle Warriors. Then, after filling in all necessary Builder technologies and Writing (for Campus districts), working towards Construction is a good idea; aside from offering Siege Towers (which will make it much easier for your Eagle Warriors to deal with walled cities), it's also required for the inspiration boost for Games and Recreation (which in turn unlocks the Tlachtli UB).

One huge advantage the Aztecs have is that long, drawn-out wars early in the game don't hurt them the same way it does to other civs. Montezuma's amenity bonus helps deal with war weariness (once you have at least five cities) and constructing the Aztec UB will also provide amenities. Being able to capture Builders and put them to work rushing districts (thanks to the Aztec civ ability) saves production that can then be used to replace lost units, helping the Aztecs weather a war of attrition without setting back development much.


Eagle Warriors can help you defeat another civ early in the game while granting you massive numbers of Builders, but once you face medieval-era units or classical-era UUs, you'll need to move on to something stronger. If you have iron, grab Iron Working and upgrade your Eagle Warriors to Swordsmen. If not, hold off on war for now until you either have it or access to Gunpowder. Eagle Warriors upgraded to Swordsmen won't be able to capture Builders any more, but by this point you'll have more than you know what to do with anyway.

So, you've gone and captured a whole load of Builders with your Eagle Warriors. You can chop some woods or rainforests for quick production boosts, or improve all your tiles in sight, but the Aztecs have another option - rushing districts. Especially for less-productive cities, the ability to rush districts with Builders saves a substantial amount of time helping your empire to be very powerful very early.

Builders always offer 20% of the production of a district at a minimum, no matter how cheap or expensive they are. This means no matter the city, you can always get a district built in 5 turns or less assuming you have enough Builders. This is especially powerful when you consider you can't buy districts with gold or faith unlike most units and buildings. To get a new city off the ground quickly, rushing a Commercial Hub, chopping woods down to rush a Market and then buying a Trader for use in internal trade for food and production is a possibility, as is rushing an Industrial Zone for pure production.


While the Aztec civ ability offers 20% of a district's production per Builder charge by default, any bonus that directly speeds up your district production will also boost this. This includes:

• City Patron Goddess (Pantheon): +25% production to the first district built in a city.
  
• Veterancy (Military policy card, requires the classical-era Military Training civic): +30% production to Encampment districts only.
  
• Merchant Republic (Tier 2 government, requires the renaissance-era Exploration civic): +15% production to all districts.

While City Patron Goddess and Veterancy reduce the amount of Builder charges needed by one, Merchant Republic will not do that alone. Still, you can dedicate four Builder charges and finish the rest off with the city's own production.


To maximise the speed in which you construct districts, there's two tricks you can use.

Firstly, by using all but one charge of Builders elsewhere, you can use multiple one-charge Builders on the same district in the same turn.

Secondly, if you set a city to build a district, you can set it to build something else between turns. When your turn starts, set the city to build that district again, use a Builder to rush production and set it back to whatever else you were building before you press the "end turn" button. This helps to minimise wasted production.


Once Eagle Warriors are obsolete, you'll need to train Builders of your own. The first Builder you train costs 50 production, and that increases by 4 for every one you build. The following table shows the break-even point where using Builder charges to rush a district costs the same as building it directly, expressed in terms of the Builder cost as a percentage of the District cost. For example, if you have no bonuses to Builder charges or production, a builder needs to cost less than 60% of the cost of a district to be worth using to rush them.


You can gain +1 Builder charge from the Pyramids wonder, and +2 from the Serfdom or Public Works policy cards (requires the medieval-era Feudalism civic and the industrial-era Civil Engineering civics respectively). The Ilkum and Public Works policy cards offer a 30% production bonus when constructing Builders.

The preceding table does not take into account the fact you can essentially transfer production from one city to another by building a Builder in the former and rushing production in the latter, nor that you can purchase Builders unlike districts. Still, it's useful to know that Builders need to get very expensive before they stop being worth using to rush districts with.

This is most noticeable when it comes to rushing the Spaceport district. With the Public Works policy card, you only need one Builder to rush the entire thing; the Builder will cost only a fraction of the Spaceport's cost.


Ultimately, the main advantage of this ability is to speed up development in smaller cities, bringing them up to par with the rest of your empire. Combined with amenity bonuses, the Aztecs can support a large, strong empire with ease.

Just improved my first luxury, and my Eagle Warrior will be able to deal more damage while taking less when attacking.

Montezuma's leader ability is a complex one which is simple enough to get the basic idea of, but comes with a lot of depth. In simple terms, every unique luxury you have will make more amenities assuming you have at least five cities, and will make your units better at attacking. More amenities will help you handle a large empire, the negative effects to amenities produced by war weariness, and the loyalty penalties it creates. Stronger units help you conquer faster, or spread religion more effectively.


Your capital will always start near a luxury, so sending one of the Builders you captured back home and improving a resource will be simple enough. Beyond that point, you'll need to actively seek more out. You may want to train a couple of Settlers early on among your Eagle Warrior spam so you can secure other nearby luxuries (and also because having more cities means greater Eagle Warrior spam potential), though capturing enemy cities with different luxuries will also work well.

Each continent in your game will have 4 unique land-based luxuries. On top of that, duel and tiny maps will have 2 sea-based luxuries, small and standard maps will have 3, while large and huge maps will have 4. These are not tied to specific continents. The amber resource can complicate matters as it's both a land and sea resource, meaning you can end up with one fewer luxury on your map than you may otherwise expect.

The following table shows what this can typically mean:

Notes:

• For a normal civ to get the maximum amount of amenities, they need at least four cities. The Aztecs need at least six.
  
• This table only includes luxuries that can be worked on terrain, not special luxuries unlocked by city-states and Great People.
  
• Huge maps are capped at 27 luxuries rather than the 28 you might expect as there are only 27 luxuries in the game.

More unique luxuries in larger maps helps warmongering civs to support larger empires, as is necessary when there's more civs you'll need to beat. A curious side-effect of this for the Aztecs, however, is that the bigger the map size, the stronger Montezuma's units get at attacking. This makes the Aztecs unusual among warmongering (and religious) civs, as usually bigger maps make things harder by adding more opponents, forcing the player to be faster.

Unless you're on a Pangaea map, Inland Sea or other similar types where the world consists of one main landmass, getting Cartography (or the Great Admiral Leif Erikson) reasonably early will be a good idea. Settling clusters of cities overseas will give you useful footholds into continents ready for future expansion, while also securing you the luxuries you need. Sending a small fleet of Builders with your Settler (or saving up gold to purchase them once the city is established) can help rapidly develop the new colony so it can start contributing to your military machine.

On top of these luxuries are the four special ones unlocked from specific Great Merchants. These include Cosmetics from Helena Rubinstein, Jeans from Levi Strauss, Perfume from Estee Lauder and Toys from John Spilsbury. They aren't included in the table because it's harder to consistently get hold of those Great People, but they can make an already-strong bonus even more powerful. Saving up the faith you generate from Tlachtli to acquire these via patronage isn't a bad idea.


Luxuries usually provide +1 amenity to the four cities that need it most. Cities need 1 more amenity to remain content for every two population points starting with the fourth one (so size 3 cities or lower do not require amenities). Long wars will cause cities to temporarily lose amenities via the war weariness mechanic, especially in cities you didn't originally found. This can make keeping cities content quite a challenge for warmongering civs, and cause problems with city loyalty.

Enter Montezuma. By having amenities provide bonuses to six cities instead of four, this essentially makes luxuries 50% more effective at keeping your empire content - assuming discontent isn't concentrated in a very small number of cities (meaning the bonus spreading to more cities is not very helpful). Still, if you find yourself in that situation, you can always build a Tlachtli in those cities. Even during prolonged wars, Aztecs rarely find themselves in a bad deficit of amenities, which means loyalty in captured cities will tend to be higher than it is for most other warmongers.

This is what makes the Aztecs a consistently powerful warmongering civ and not just in the early-game. Every luxury you own adds +1 attack to every unit you have. As the game goes on and you can reach more continents, the potential of this bonus gets bigger and bigger - though keep in mind it only works when attacking. In defence, your units (other than Eagle Warriors) are no stronger than those of other civs.

But that's not all. Strength advantages are exponential in nature; the difference between a +10 strength advantage and +6 has a bigger impact on damage output than the difference between a +6 and a +2 bonus, for example.

The exact formula is quite complicated (you can find it here[forums.civfanatics.com]), so here a table of combat differences and what it means for combat. Note that values for damage can vary by 25% above or below the indicated value so having a minor strength advantage is no guarantee you'll deal more damage than you receive in a melee attack.


Note: Useful points of reference are +4 (Oligarchy government or legacy card), +8 (Eagle Warriors relative to regular Warriors, or Oligarchy government with the legacy card), +10 (the bonus of a corps relative to a regular unit of the same kind) and +17 (the bonus of an army relative to a regular unit of the same kind)

A strength advantage of 30 or more is typically a one-hit kill against enemy units. A strength advantage of 37 or more guarantees a one-hit kill.

Combining this with the table of map sizes, and you can work out the maximum possible effect of Montezuma's leader ability when attacking a unit that would otherwise have the same amount of strength. The following list does not include the four Great Merchant luxuries.

• Duel: +27% damage dealt and -21% damage received
  
• Tiny: +49% damage dealt and -33% damage received
  
• Small: +83% damage dealt and -45% damage received
  
• Standard: +115% damage dealt and -53% damage received
  
• Large: +162% damage dealt and -62% damage received
  
• Huge: +196% damage dealt and -64% damage received

Obviously this is in an ideal situation, but it shows you just how powerful Montezuma can be.

To make the most out of this bonus, once you've settled plenty of luxury colonies throughout the word, emphasis science output so you can add the strength advantage of being at least an era ahead on top of the luxury bonus. You may also want the Nationalism and Mobilisation civics along with a good amount of production and gold so you can build new units, upgrade old ones and put together corps and armies. This will help you tear down city defences very quickly.

Alternatively, the luxury bonus can help make up for being an era behind or not having the cash to upgrade. It can also give units with distinct functions a wider window of use - Eagle Warriors notably can be kept relevant through the classical era, but it also can greatly help Field Cannons (which have a range of 2 but upgrade into Machine Guns, which only have 1 range), among many others.

For a change of pace as the Aztecs, you can also consider using the attack bonus in theological combat, though the need to found a religion to make the most of that bonus can be at odds with the Aztecs' strengths at early warfare unless you can capture a lot of Holy Sites.

Let's start with the basic strength of religious units. Apostles and Inquisitors in their home territory have 110 religious strength. Missionaries have 100, Gurus have 90 and Inquisitors outside their home territory only have 70.

Now, some general bonuses. The Theocracy government adds +5 strength to all religious units, as does the Religious Orders economic policy card. Both are available at the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic. Apostles with the Debater promotion also get a +20 strength boost. If you're in a classical, medieval or renaissance-era dark age, the Inquisition wildcard adds +15 strength to all religious units in friendly territory.

Like regular units, religious units lose one strength for every 10 health they lose, rounded up (a unit at 100 health has no penalty, from 90-99 has a -1 strength penalty, and so on).

Finally, it's time to add on the Aztec attack bonus. Say you secured ten luxuries for a +10 strength boost, and have both Theocracy and Religious Orders. Your Apostles will be frequently one-hitting enemy Missionaries without those bonuses, though watch out for counter-attacks.

Make good use of Governor Moksha (the Cardinal). His Laying On Of Hands promotion allows your religious units to heal up to full health in one turn if they're in his city's limits, minimising the downtime until they can get back to theological combat again, while his Patron Saint promotion gives your Apostles a second promotion. That increases the odds you can secure the Debater promotion for its huge +20 strength bonus.

This all sounds great, but remember that the Aztecs have only a couple of small bonuses to faith generation (the Tlachtli UB and being able to rush Holy Sites) and theological combat does depend on the actions of the other civ. Smart religious civs may attempt to play around your bonuses in theological combat by relying on their superior faith output, spread-religion charges, retreating units that stray too close to yours, or attacking first to weaken your units before you can use your own attack bonus.

• Always be on the look out for new sources of unique luxuries on the terrain or from Great Merchants.
  
• Be willing to settle overseas to secure as much variety as possible.
  
• This ability is mainly useful for warfare, but has some applications in the religious game as well.
  
• Try to attack as much as possible, and avoid situations where units need to mostly defend.

After the powerful other Aztec uniques, the Tlachtli isn't anywhere near as significant - though that's only fair. It's a bit of an awkward UB to build as it requires you to use district capacity on Entertainment Complexes despite Montezuma already adding a huge amenity boost, while the faith bonus can be hard to use well without Holy Sites to complement it.

First things first, actually getting to the building. It unlocks at Games and Recreation, but you should head to Political Philosophy first to pick up the Oligarchy government and its very helpful +4 combat strength for Eagle Warriors (+8 with its legacy card). While you're doing that, you can work towards the Construction technology; it offers both the boost to Games and Recreation and the ability to build Siege Towers.

Once you have the civic, you can use some Builders to rush a couple of Entertainment Complexes. You won't need them in every city; it's a good idea to just have them in cities likely to grow very large. This is partially because they'll be able to build more districts of other kinds, and partially because they'll eventually have the greatest need for amenities. And even if you don't have that as a problem, having excess amenities means you can get bonuses to all kinds of yields.

Arenas (and therefore Tlachtlis) grant +1 culture each; half that of a Monument. While not huge, this does allow you to neglect Theatre Squares to some extent.


The Great General point on offer from Tlachtli is the benefit that's more obvious in purpose. If you have a few Barracks and Tlachtlis, you can generate more Great General Points than most civs, helping you to always have a relevant Great General available. There aren't any ancient-era Great Generals, so you can't get one working with Eagle Warriors, but you'll be able to unlock plenty later in the game. Add Oligarchic Legacy and luxury bonuses on top, and your upgraded Eagle Warrior battles can become rather one-sided.

The tricky part of the UB to make use of is the faith bonus. It may be tempting to go for a religion, but getting both Holy Sites and Entertainment Complexes early means delaying Campuses substantially. When you're playing a very war-focused civ, falling behind on science isn't really a good idea. Instead, consider using the faith for purchasing additional Builders with the Monumentality Golden Age dedication (available in the classical, medieval or renaissance eras), or for the patronage of Great People. Specifically, four Great People, all of whom are merchants:

• John Spilsbury (Industrial era) - Provides Toys
  
• Helena Rubenstein (Atomic era) - Provides Cosmetics
  
• Levi Strauss (Atomic era) - Provides Jeans
  
• Estée Lauder (Information era) - Provides Perfume

Unlike special luxuries from Buenos Aires and Zanzibar, all of these unique luxuries will add strength to your military units, making it worthwhile to grab as many of these Great People as possible!


Ultimately, the Tlachtli isn't an amazing UB but can be helpful in its support functions. Encampments are supported by the extra Great General Point, Holy Sites are supported by the extra faith, warfare is supported by the amenity, and the culture allows you to still get through civics at a reasonable rate even if you lack Theatre Squares.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.


Tier One

The obvious choice is Oligarchy for its +4 strength bonus to melee infantry units, or +8 with its legacy card. Together, they make Eagle Warriors as strong as non-Oligarchy Swordsmen - or stronger with some unique luxuries.

The Warlord's Throne means your warfare will help speed up your development even faster.

Tier Two

Merchant Republic is a decent choice. It makes Builder charges when rushing districts worth more, and by offering two wildcard slots, it gives you a lot of flexibility to build on your military advantages or consolidate your developmental ones. Alternatively, if you want to build on your strengths in theological combat, consider Theocracy.

The Grand Master's Chapel gives you a good use for Tlachtli faith - purchasing units - and allows pillaging to grant you more. Alternatively, the Intelligence Agency's extra Spy and increased Spy success rate will help you to do things like steal eurekas and keep up with technology as the game goes on.

Tier Three

Typically, you'll want to go with Fascism. The +4 strength bonus is a nice advantage in late-game warfare, and stacked with the high luxury attack bonus you'll have by this point in the game, your damage output will be powerful. A bonus to unit production is welcome as well.

For a domination or religious game, grab the War Department so your units can heal when they score kills. For a scientific game, use the Royal Society so your Builders can rush space projects as well as Spaceports.


Ancient Era

Agoge (Military, requires Craftsmanship) - Eagle Warriors are pretty expensive to train at the start of the game, but with this policy you'll be churning them out rapidly.

Ilkum (Economic, requires Craftsmanship) - Although in the early stages of the game you should be capturing Builders via Eagle Warriors rather than training them, this policy is still useful in case you somehow run out and potential nearby enemies are too strong for your Eagle Warriors to take on. A couple of Builders will still often be cheaper than a district.

Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - Eagle Warriors are slow, and early rushes can mean taking cities in the midst of enemy loyalty pressure. This policy card can therefore be very important for ensuring your captured cities don't end up flipping back to free cities when you don't want them to.

Classical Era

Veterancy (Military, requires Military Training) - Cuts down the number of Builder charges needed to rush an Encampment by one.

Medieval Era

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - Adds 2 extra charges to Builders; enough to make every new Builder able to rush an entire district, which is very useful if you want to develop new cities quickly. Note that it won't boost the charges on Builders you capture via Eagle Warriors, but by this point you should be upgrading your Eagle Warriors anyway.

Renaissance Era

Colonial Offices (Economic, requires Exploration) - Setting up colonies on new continents for luxuries is all well and good until the loyalty woes threaten to turn them independent. Use this policy card to stop that problem.

(Religious) Religious Orders (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - Gives all religious units +5 strength. On bigger maps and in conjunction with the Theocracy government, this gives you a humongous advantage in theological combat.

Industrial Era

Colonial Taxes (Economic, requires Colonialism) - Got lots of luxury colonies on other continents? Make them more productive and grant more gold!

Public Works (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) - Makes it much more efficient to train Builders, saving you more production when you use them to rush districts.

Modern Era

Laissez-Faire (Wildcard, requires Capitalism) - This is around the time in the game where the Great Merchants offering unique luxuries arrive. Grabbing this policy helps you to get more, and hence a bigger attack/amenities bonus.

Atomic Era

Sports Media (Economic, requires Professional Sports) - Stadiums get +1 amenity from this policy. Considering your UB is on the way to Stadiums, you might be able to get more out of this policy than many other civs can.


Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Rush some river-adjacent Commercial Hubs, or city centre-adjacent Harbours, and this Golden Age dedication can quickly supply a lot of science.

Monumentality (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Districts are built quickly and cheaply as the Aztecs, meaning this dedication is a great source of era score.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - This offers a reasonable use for Tlachtli faith - purchasing civilian units like Builders, Settlers or Traders.

Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Need more culture? Every district you have will add +1 more; combined with the Aztec civ ability you'll have plenty in no time.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Industrial eras) - Every continent has a unique set of luxuries, so you'll want to settle overseas to maximise your attack bonus. This Golden Age dedication bonus offers a reasonable loyalty boost to help you secure those colonies.

To Arms! (Dedication, Industrial to Information eras) - Killing a corps or army with a unit already grants era score, and this dedication grants even more. Considering how big Montezuma's attack bonus can be by this point in the game, you should be able to take on corps and armies without too much trouble.

City Patron Goddess - This bonus applies even for rushing districts with Builders, letting you get a city's first district built with four Builder charges instead of five.

God of the Forge - Helps you to train Eagle Warriors faster.

Divine Spark - Exploit the Aztec ability to get districts up quickly with a pantheon that offers you additional Great Person Points from Campuses, Theatre Squares and Holy Sites alike.


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Burial Grounds (Enhancer) - You can rush a Holy Site in 5 turns or fewer using Builders, allowing you to quickly create a culture bomb, stealing adjacent tiles. Particularly effective if other civs are building wonders on the borders of your lands.

Crusade (Enhancer) - Assuming you've managed to found a religion, you probably have a good enough faith output to make this belief work. Convert a few border cities, declare war and enjoy a +10 strength bonus on top of all the others you already have.

(Religious) Missionary Zeal (Enhancer) - Playing the religious game? The Aztecs have unrivalled potential for theological combat attack strength (except for maybe Mongolia if they can stack enough diplomatic visibility), though being able to catch up to enemy religious units is another matter. Taking this belief ends that problem.

Warrior Monks (Follower) - Put that Tlachtli faith to good use with a special military unit which can get incredibly strong with promotions - especially with Montezuma's leader ability.


Note: The special luxuries offered by Buenos Aires and Zanzibar do not interact with Montezuma's leader ability.

Kabul (Militaristic) - If you can become suzerain early, your Eagle Warrior Armies will be even harder to stop thanks to their fast promotion gain. Aside from the bonuses of the promotions themselves, more frequent promotions means more frequent healing from applying them.

Stockholm (Scientific) - Great in conjunction with the Aztec ability to get districts up quickly.

Toronto (Industrial) - A wider area of effect for Zoos and Stadiums means you don't need to build as many to enjoy their full bonuses, saving production you can use on other things. This bonus also works on Factories and Power Plants, but you might want to build some anyway for the Great Engineer points.

Yerevan (Religious) - For religious Aztec players, Yerevan gives you access to virtually invincible Apostles by letting you constantly take the Debater promotion. Well, unless a civ declares war on you and starts pillaging them.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - The reduced faith cost to acquire Great People via patronage helps stretch your Tlachtli faith further. To maximise the Great Person Points bonus, don't build an Entertainment Complex in the city as it lacks an associated Great Person.

Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - Unlike the Serfdom civic card, this will boost the number of charges Builders obtained via Eagle Warriors have. And even beyond the point at which Eagle Warriors obsolete, this wonder will still be handy for maximising the district-construction potential of Builders. The bonus works if you capture the wonder (you don't even have to build it), so there's no need to distract yourself from spamming Eagle Warriors and Archers early in the game.

(Religious) Jebel Barkal (Classical era, Iron Working technology) - The bonuses to amenities offered by Montezuma's leader ability allow you to support more cities than most civs, and this wonder can help make up for the relative lack of faith bonuses the Aztecs have. Requires the Nubia civilization pack.

(Religious) Mahabodhi Temple (Classical era, Theology civic) - Want to get started with theological combat sooner? The free Apostles from this wonder should help.

Terracotta Army (Classical era, Construction technology) - You'll have spammed a lot of Eagle Warriors by this point so you'll get an awful lot of free promotions. The bonus Great General point is nice as well.

Angkor Wat (Medieval era, Medieval Faires civic) - The Aztecs' early conquest potential and high amount of amenities means not only do they have a large number of cities to benefit from this wonder, but they can also support the bump up in population. This makes Angkor Wat potentially extremely powerful! Requires the Khmer and Indonesia civilization pack.

Casa de Contratación (Renaissance era, Cartography technology) - For the best attack and amenity bonuses, you'll eventually need to settle on new continents. This wonder makes those cities stronger - so long as they have Governors present.


Remember that these are only the ones that have particular synergy with Aztec uniques, not necessarily the most effective options. Obviously, all Great Generals can be useful in warfare, but it would be redundant to list them all.

Medieval Era

Bi Sheng (Great Engineer) - 1 extra district capacity in a city means you don't have to feel guilty about building an Entertainment Complex and a Tlachtli in a city which doesn't have a scarcity of amenities.

El Cid (Great General) - If you think you have a shot at getting El Cid, keep at least one Eagle Warrior around (considering they don't cost any maintenance that won't be a problem). An Eagle Warrior corps has 38 strength, which stacked with Montezuma's luxury attack bonuses, will keep the unit relevant through the medieval era. Backed by Crossbowmen and other such units, you can carry on going to war and making use of the ability to turn defeated enemies into Builders. Remember, however, that retiring El Cid means losing his area-of-effect strength bonus, so make sure you have another Great General ready if you want to do that.

Leif Erikson (Great Admiral) - Allows you to cross oceans an era early, which helps you reach new continents and secure new luxuries.

Renaissance Era

Mimar Sinan (Great Engineer) - Culture bombing with Industrial Zones is normally a hard bonus to use well, considering the time districts can take to build. Thanks to the Aztec civ ability, however, you can rush the district out in five turns or less. It's particularly effective when you're building an Industrial Zone adjacent to a wonder another civ is trying to build.

Industrial Era

Ada Lovelace (Great Engineer) - Another opportunity to increase a city's district limit by 1.

John Spilsbury (Great Merchant) - The first of the four Great Merchants that offer special luxuries. Every one you can get is a +1 attack bonus to all your units, so do what you can to get hold of as many of them as possible!

Joseph Paxton (Great Engineer) - By making both the Zoo and Stadium in one city extra-strong and with a large radius, it means you can save production on having to build them in other cities.

Napoleon Bonaparte (Great General) - Unlike El Cid, you shouldn't really use Napoleon's bonus to enhance Eagle Warriors. Instead, use the +17 strength boost an army has in conjunction with other bonuses to create a behemoth. Remember, however, that retiring Napoleon means losing his area-of-effect strength bonus, so make sure you have another Great General ready if you want to do that.

Atomic Era

Helena Rubenstein (Great Merchant) - The second of the four unique luxury Great People.

Levi Strauss (Great Merchant) - The third of the four unique luxury Great People.

Information Era

Estée Lauder (Great Merchant) - The last of the four unique luxury Great People.

The Aztecs can be a scary opponent to fight, but put together a sufficient defence and they'll be forced to pursue sub-optimum paths to victory.


Aside from the obvious step of capturing Aztec Builders so they can't rush districts, there's two other ways you can limit the potential of the Aztec civ ability. One, you can obtain the Pyramids for yourself denying them the +1 Builder charge bonus, and two, you can send in fast units to pillage their districts. The Aztecs have to use production to repair districts like everyone else.


This ability has two main shortcomings: the strength bonus only works for attacking, and that the Aztecs have to directly control luxuries to get the amenity/attack bonus, or else gain them via Great Merchants.

The first shortcoming can be exploited by simply attacking Aztec units before they can attack you. Units with a ranged attack are great for this purpose, and cavalry can be pretty effective as well.

The second shortcoming can be exploited by pillaging luxuries in Aztec territory, and ensuring the Aztecs don't get hold of the Great Merchants that offer special luxuries. Remember that every continent has its own unique set of luxuries (ignoring the water-based ones), and cannot have more than four kinds.

Stuck competing against the Aztecs in the religious game? Try to rely on spread-religion charges and mobility rather than trying to compete in strength. If you do have to fight Aztec Apostles or Inquisitors, make sure you have a numbers advantage (it'll also help you use flanking and support bonuses), and attack the Aztec units before they attack you. The Aztecs aren't exceptionally strong at generating faith compared to most religious civs, so that should be manageable.


Montezuma wants to acquire as many luxuries as possible, and dislikes civs that own luxuries he doesn't have. If you lack luxury resources he doesn't have, you'll get a relations bonus.

Pleasing Montezuma generally depends on which continent you're on. If you share a continent with him, your luxuries should generally overlap (he'll probably declare war on you anyway to make use of his Eagle Warriors, but the relations boost should discourage future wars). If you don't share a continent, he'll probably hate you for having luxuries he doesn't have. It's not an agenda you can easily play around; it's usually best to seek allies elsewhere.


Eagle Warriors have 8 more strength than normal Warriors, and even more if you're playing in singleplayer on a difficulty above Prince. A +8 strength bonus makes Eagle Warriors deal 38% more damage while taking 27% less relative to an even Warrior vs. Warrior fight. That sounds frightening, but remember that Eagle Warriors are 63% more expensive than regular Warriors to build. If both you and the Aztecs spam Warriors and Eagle Warriors respectively, they won't necessarily have the upper hand as a result. Getting to the Military Tradition civic will help you even more by allowing you to use flanking and support bonuses, meaning your numerical advantage can start to close the strength difference as well.

If an attack by the Aztecs doesn't happen immediately, grab Archery and build a few Archers. With 25 ranged strength and a slightly lower production cost relative to Eagle Warriors, they're a great choice, but make sure you have some Warriors as well to prevent the Archers being squished in melee combat. Avoid using Spearmen anywhere near the Aztecs if at war; Eagle Warriors have a +13 strength advantage over them.

Now that you're prepared for war against the Aztecs, it's time to turn that threat into an opportunity. You see, Eagle Warriors can turn military units into Builders. The weaker the unit, the more likely it is to be converted into a Builder. Scouts are cheaper than Builders and have only 10 strength. Send some Scouts at the Eagle Warriors, and when they get defeated, capture them back. Builders obtained this way won't increase the cost of future Builders you construct or buy, so you can save a fair bit of production this way while also slightly damaging the invading Aztec forces. The downside is that losing military units can create a lot of war weariness, especially outside your own territory, so be sure not to stretch the war out for too long.


The Aztec UB is generally not much of a threat unless you're in a tight race for Great Generals. Again, a key weakness of the Aztecs is the fact they need to dedicate a lot of production to repair districts, so if you find yourself at war with them, go ahead. It'll also help lessen the amenity advantage the Aztecs tend to have, and heal up your pillaging units.

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These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm.

Compilation Guides

• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications
  
• Civ summaries

Individual Civilization Guides

• America (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Arabia (Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Brazil (All)
  
• China (Cultural/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination)
  
• France (Cultural)
  
• Georgia (Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Domination)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated. You can find these by scrolling to the top of this page, clicking "Zigzagzigal's Guides" and looking near the end of the list of guides. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.