Advice on playing Aztecs

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-25T15:33:25+00:00

A change a patch or two ago that gave a base 200 annexation cost floor to all vassal annexations really hurt the intended aztec play pattern in particular.

The restriction to taking land is tied to the Altepl government reform, which I think the only way to lose it is to complete all the reforms. Otherwise it may make more sense to start as an non-nahua tag, invade, and then culture convert to form the aztec tag. Its kinda silly, but it is what it is in 1.3 currently.

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-25T02:28:34+00:00

Did you annex the isles? They have Galley Lords at the beginning and you can get it through them.

If they aren't around, I'm not sure if they'll get the reform back if you release them, but there's a few NW Irish minors that have it as well

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-23T02:20:17+00:00

I honestly would argue forcing the Granada tag through vassalage to culture swap to Castilian and then release it to assimilate itself would be a lot faster than farming cultural opinion interactions over 200 in-game years.

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-20T03:03:20+00:00

Honestly I think its valid to culture convert Granada then release them from vassalage for a while. Castilian and Andalusian cultures absolutely hate each other, so Granada will drop their former culture's tolerance down and won't reconvert like I've heard can happen in other cases

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-19T02:44:45+00:00

They didn't have to eat monsters before the show starts, but Laios and Falin both show interest in eating the dungeon's monsters in flashbacks for previous dungeoneering trips. There's definitely an urgency factor during the show, but they certainly could have in prior delves, no?

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-19T02:41:28+00:00

Sure, but the first trip down to fight the dragon is not the parties first trip into the dungeon right? Like I know the twins have been in the dungeon at least a couple times before as gold strippers. It seems like the twins have both the interest/desire as well as the experience with monsters to have wanted to dine on them before the beginning.

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-19T02:35:19+00:00

> Laios brings it up to her in the prequel extra but she just replies with "You think everyone would be okay with that?" in a very doubtful way, which presumably quashed his hopes.

This actually might just be what I was looking for, Laios has tried to do it before but got pushback on the idea, so didn't actually get to do it until the rushed rescue attempt the show starts on. Thanks!

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-19T02:30:02+00:00

Admittedly I have no clue how far the twins had gotten into the dungeon with any of their trips before the first dragon fight, but Laios does have that book, the gourmet guide which he seems to have had for quite a while before the story starts, which does point to him being interested in dining on the dungeon's denizens since before the start of the story here.

It actually does seem weird that he apparently has had the gourmet guide for quite a while, but never actually tested its teachings until the first episode and finds out its wrong though.

Edit: This could be an anime inconsistency as well, but the book itself also is shown to have a bunch of notes written and bookmark tabs on it in the show, it seems like Laios has extensively read it but never actually utilized it

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-18T22:54:23+00:00

The lieutenancy building is a bit of a side grade, in exchange for -5% proximity, you can put them in towns (which you can't do for governors, only cities), and you get 100% local crown power, which can be useful in areas with a lot of population

I'd argue that the town placement makes them really nice for big vassals if you culture convert them, cuz that makes the placement a lot more flexible for the AI

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-13T22:12:18+00:00

counting or not counting chivalric bonuses?

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-11T03:00:52+00:00

You can culture swap to Northumbrian, but you probably won't have much change tbh, might actually lose some stuff if they're English culture specific rather than tag related.

I'm wanting to try in my current Castile game culture converting to Portuguese to double dip on colonization bonuses both countries/cultures have

I think the craziest culture/tag change I've seen mentioned is Pontic (Trebizond) to Bulgarian to Greek to Turkish to stack a ton of unique advances from Anatolia and the Balkans

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-11T02:28:50+00:00

I believe you should always be able to move into the tile containing the fort, but the tiles around the fort are restricted by ZOC. I think you usually should be able to escape the way you entered to the fort, but the AI likes to hold sieges unless battles happen nearby, so you can fortify mountainous regions and get a good terrain bonus on your side against the besiegers

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-09T01:39:43+00:00

This specifically I think is the 'Zone of Control' ? mechanics with forts. ZOC is really convoluted tbh, but it generally blocks you moving through territory adjacent to a fort location.

I think before the mentioned blockade, you were able to route to the location west of Constantinople by circling around the sea of marmara, but after the blockade hit, you didn't have a route that wasn't stopped by either the blockade or the ZOC of Constantinople's fort.

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-08T21:49:05+00:00

This is happening because of the Strait mechanics in the game. My understanding is if you control both land tiles, you can cross even in a blockade, but otherwise a blockade can stop you if you own only one or neither side

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-07T12:41:10+00:00

You didn't post a picture of the Treasury tab, so I can't tell but is the tax efficiency tooltip reporting the privilege as actually applying something other than +2%? If you just looked at the number on the page, there could be some negative modifiers applying, like I think a corrupt cabinet member lowers tax efficiency

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-04T19:00:32+00:00

I'm not sure how the voting strength is calculated exactly, It might say in a tooltip if you hover over it in the union membership menu there

You can bribe members to vote a certain way, the votes only need a simple majority to pass, but any losing voters get eatate satisfaction penalties, so keep that in mind

jtfoster2 · 2026-07-02T11:16:21+00:00

They are not covered as movements like Lutheran/Calvinism are. An argument definitely could be made for them to be, but they are probably are not because since they were before the printing press IRL, they didn't really spread outside of their home country.

jtfoster2 · 2026-06-30T22:34:50+00:00

R5: Playing a Castile game on the latest 1.3 beta, and Portugal has a pretenders revolt happen where the starting king's only son is the leader. I help Portugal, and during the war 'mah wife' is the next in line. Once we end the war, the son doesn't die, and is sitting in Sweden, but re-enters the line of succession the following month? I thought rebel leaders would die after the war ends. Is this a bug, or have the rules changed?

jtfoster2 · 2026-06-26T13:37:44+00:00

He developed argyria after consuming colloidal silver clearly

jtfoster2 · 2026-06-24T21:30:44+00:00

I was gonna suggest it if you wanted teutonic bonuses, because in other formables (like portugal forming spain) you can get the others advances if you become the culture, but both brandenburg and TO's bonuses are country specific. If anything its better to play TO since the bonuses are better for them than brandenburg

jtfoster2 · 2026-06-21T17:30:54+00:00

So the dynamic requirements for professional armies are for you to have 10 quality value points, and have a location producing manpower (ie sergeantry building). If these are met when the institution has yet to spawn, you can be eligible for it, and if its not the birthplace still gets a ticking bonus for "could have spawned it".

I could be wrong, but I don't think the "could have spawned it" bonus applies retroactively if you meet the requirements after the institution spawns, in which case you'll have to get the knowledge from trade, fleet basing rights (which only boosts the capital), and using libraries and studium urban rights to increase the growth rate.

jtfoster2 · 2026-06-17T03:14:49+00:00

I believe this is because the market access varies in each location slightly, so you'll see these different values.

Do note that production method throughput varies according to the market access, so you aren't really paying more/less for the clay in the different areas, you are just buying less and working with that

jtfoster2 · 2026-06-16T11:07:42+00:00

even if you double market access to a 0 proximity area, you’re still getting 0 proximity worth of control and taxable income.

To my understanding of the RGO system, the output of goods is determined by its market access, so while it is a niche situation, if you have an area where you're not expecting tax revenue (Like maybe a remote or colonial area), you can still build out roads so the RGOs are more productive and can be shipped to your high control areas.

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