Aztecs (Age of Empires III)/Strategy

The Aztecs have the least varied army in the game: An extremely powerful infantry, a decent navy, and nothing else.

Strengths
The Aztecs have a large force of infantry. The War Hut units are cheap and light, but still somewhat effective. War Hut units are easily massed, and should make up the majority of your fighting force, dealing damage and taking the heat off your stronger units. The Noble's Hut trains elite forces, slow, but hard-hitting.

The Aztecs have two very powerful infantry: The Jaguar Prowl Knight, which is not only good against both cavalry and infantry, but it is also stealthed. The Skull Knight does great damage, and has an AOE attack.

Despite the differences, Aztecs play quite similarly to the other armies, with the Coyote Runner taking the place of melee cavalry, and the Eagle Runner Knight replacing ranged cavalry. The Warrior Priest can not only heal troops, but it also fights well, and it counts as two units when dancing at the Fire Pit.

The Aztecs have the best navy of the Native Americans, with the Tlaloc Canoe dominating the seas. As a Canoe, it also counts as a Fishing Ship, and so can gather Food or Coin during peacetime. It's not as powerful as the European Frigates or the Asian Tekkousen or Fuchuan, however.

Weaknesses
The lack of artillery weakens the Aztec army: the Arrow Knight is the best anti-building unit, but they have nothing that can send infantry armies in disarray similar to a Great Cannon - or even a Falconet. The Skull Knight has a area attack, but melee only, and it can only be trained from the Fire Pit - time that could be spent on other useful dances.

They have less ranged capabilities than most armies, and will do most of their fighting in melee - and most of their units are slow enough that enemy artillery will do serious damage.

And even though they have the strongest Native American navy, they are still at a disadvantage when facing European or Asian vessels - they need a large force of Canoes to counter a few Frigates.