Aztecs (Age of Empires II)/Strategy

The Aztecs are an Infantry and Monk oriented civilization.

Strengths
Their free Loom frees up gold in the Dark Age, allowing them to train five militia without having to task any villagers to mine gold. This, combined with their faster military buildings, allows them to perform a Dark Age rush more effectively than other civilizations.

Their unique technology, Garland Wars, increases the attack of all infantry by four. This gives all of their infantry massive attack compared to those of other civilizations. Their unique unit, the Jaguar Warrior, benefits greatly from this. The Jaguar Warrior already has a large attack and a bonus against other infantry. When coupled with their unique technology they can defeat any other infantry unit in the game. Their Monks are also the best in the game. The Aztecs can research every single Monastery technology, and their monks receive extra hitpoints every time one is researched. In some situations, this bonus is of somewhat questionable value, but with all monk technologies researched an Aztec monk has ninety-five HP. This makes the Aztecs one of the best civilizations for their monk rushes (combined with increased gold generation of relics) and allows them to excel at punishing any civilization that lacks Heresy, particularly civilizations that heavily depends on expensive units (such as the Persians, Slavs, Indians, and Koreans).

Any relics captured by the Aztecs or their teammates generates gold 33% faster, which is very helpful if the player's team has a lot of relics. In the late game, they have access to Siege Rams and Siege Onagers.

Weaknesses
The Aztecs' total lack of cavalry or gunpowder puts them at a huge disadvantage in the late game. While Eagle Warriors make decent cavalry substitutes in the Castle Age and early Imperial Age, they don't have a lot of HP so are easily outmatched by Paladins and they cost a lot of gold, unlike Hussars. While Aztec Pikemen have greater basic attack than other civilizations' Halberdiers, they are nowhere near generally as effective against cavalry. This further compounds the problem of the Aztecs' lack of cavalry.

The Aztecs have the weakest navy in the game as they are the only civilization which cannot make Galleons and cannot create Demolition Ships either which causes them to be extremely weak on water maps in the Imperial Age.

They also have a relatively weak defence because they are unable to build Keeps or Bombard Towers. Also, Aztecs lack Architecture, Hoardings, and even Masonry.

Even though the Aztecs have Arbalests, they are missing two important archer upgrades (Thumb Ring and Ring Archer Armor), making their archer fairly weak lategame when compared to civilizations with stronger archers such the Chinese and Britons,

Strategy
Aztecs have a very effective five Militia Dark Age rush (drush) as they get Loom for free, and military units create faster. A standard drush consists of three Militia, so Aztecs get a large advantage here, especially when the opponent is also drushing. In a 1v1, Aztec players should almost always drush, as it is one of their key advantages and makes up for potential struggling later on.

Aztecs have a powerful economic advantage because of their Villager carrying bonus, and if the player choose not to drush, this combined with the extra gold can make a large economic difference. This helps make up for the fact that Aztecs lack Scouts in the Feudal age. In the Castle and Imperial Age, an aztec player must use Monks, Eagle Warriors, Jaguar Warriors and Champions as needed. Monks can deter Cavalry charges with proper support, Eagle Warriors are great against Archers and for raiding, and Jaguar Warriors can easily defeat other Infantry, especially Champions who have a bonus against Eagle Warriors. The player must mix Siege Onagers and Siege Rams in its  army for better results.

Once in the Imperial age,  an Aztec player must focus on gold production (relics are good because of the Aztec team bonus) and mass-produce large numbers of Garland Wars boosted Elite Eagle Warriors for raiding. If the opponent is using lots of heavy Cavalry, the player must make Monks to convert them, as Cavalry can quickly overrun Eagle Warriors. The main strength of Eagles is their speed and resistance to arrow fire, allowing them to run under Castles and Town Centers with impunity. It is important to not let the game drag on too long, as there is very little Aztecs can do in the Post-Imperial Age.

Aztecs should try to keep their feet dry where possible, as they have indisputably the worst Navy in the game. Lacking Galleons, Cannon Galleons, and Demolition Ships, their only hope is to take over the water before the foe can get the Galleons upgrade. On primarily sea-based maps, it is vitally important to control the water from early game, since War Galleys stand no chance going up against an army of Galleons. Fire Ships are good for taking the water and holding it, since Aztecs fortunately get Fast Fire Ships and all the relevant technologies.

If the player is  forced to go defensive as Aztecs,  he or she must use Monks and building walls. Lacking Masonry, Architecture and Hoardings their Castles go down extremely fast, and should never be relied on for defense.

The Aztecs main foe would be civilizations that utilize heavy cavalry and good pound units to a great extent, like the Spanish or the Persians with hand cannoneers and Paladins doing formidable damage against Aztecs' infantry (in addition to the lack of Halberdiers to deal with strong Paladins, although the Aztecs can easily punish the Persians due the Persians lacking Heresy). The Aztecs, like many Native American civilizations, will struggle against the Byzantine Cataphracts due to the anti-infantry nature of the units in addition to their cheaper Skirmishers and stronger archery line should the Aztecs try to counter the Cataphracts with archers. Aztecs will however find easier to play against archers' civilizations and other infantry civilizations, like Goths.

Strategy changes in The Forgotten
Despite the loss of their free loom bonus (replaced with +50 gold at start), the Aztecs are still a good rushing civilization. Their new unique tech Atlatl Improves the range and damage of their Skirmishers, making them one of the best Skirmishers in the game.

Strategy changes in The African Kingdoms
The Eagle Scout is now available in the Feudal Age, meaning Aztecs have the option to spend their 50 extra gold on two eagle scouts instead of a five milita drush. Eagle scouts have a very long build time in the Feudal Age, but Aztecs partially circumvent this with their 15% faster military production. Despite being very expensive, the eagle scout is an impressive unit in Feudal Age warfare, countering Archer, Skirmisher, and Spearman lines (in total cost but not taking into account gold scarcity later on). Considering their counter, the Militia line are very rarely seen in Feudal, that mostly leaves Scout Cavalry as their only contender.

Strategy changes in Rise of the Rajas
The military creation bonus no longer applies to Monks, meaning that a Monk Rush will be somewhat delayed, but still viable. The do however get access to the Demolition Raft (despite lacking gunpowder), in order to slightly boost their early navy, though they still have the worst navy in the game.

Alliances
In team games, Aztec players should generally try to play in the pocket position (between two allies), since in this way they can perform an economic boom and serve as Springboards in Springboard tactics. They are however not ill-placed in the front line either, because of their good rushing abilities. As they lack cavalry and a strong navy, it is preferred that their ally must have cavalry and good navy in order to cover their natural weaknesses.

The Aztec team bonus allows allied monasteries to produce more gold from collected relics. This gives to the entire team an edge, especially in the late game when the gold becomes scarce. This bonus makes an excellent synergy with other bonuses to gold collection, and also the Indian Sultans technology. A Portuguese ally will have little trouble with gold in the late game. A Spanish ally will add +33% gold from trade for the whole team.

The Aztecs greatly benefits from team bonuses to infantry such as the Goths' (+20% faster barracks in addition to the faster Aztecs' faster military production), and the Italians' (Condottieri available for defending infantry and buildings against cannons). The Slav team bonus allows to the Aztecs to save some wood or get more population space and this can prove useful even in a Drush.

An alliance with Byzantines makes the strong Aztec monks even more useful by increasing their healing speed. Allying with Britons will prove useful since it will ease the creation of a large amount of Aztec skirmishers, which are improved with the Atlatl technology. Last but not least, allying with Berbers will add the Genitour to their Archery Range, which makes it possible for the Aztecs to have a cavalry unit. The Genitour is also counted as a skirmisher and will benefit from the Atlatl technology. Similarly to the Berbers, the Vietnamese benefit them with Imperial Skirmishers. Combined with Atlatl and fast training, they rival ranged units of archer civilisations, as they will boast 8 damage and 9 range, outranging and neutralising most missile units, while being cheaper and versatile, essentially replacing Arbalests. Their trash is effectively improved, despite lacking both Hussars and Halberdiers.

Also, Aztecs make up for the Vietnamese bad early game and can abuse the revelation of enemy Town Centers to accurately rush enemy positions.

The Chinese team bonus of 45 more food on farms adds to the Aztecs hidden farm bonus. Apart from that, Chinese also bring great missile units (including Chu Ko Nu units) and Camels to assist the Aztec infantry, mainly against cavalry. They can also operate efficiently in Springboard tactics, catapulting the Chinese to later ages in order to abuse their cheap technologies to create unpredictable, confusing armies, while Aztec infantry rush.

The Burmese might probably be among the top allies for an Aztec player, as they reveal relic positions. This, combined with the extra income from Relics, gives them an enormous advantage, as they can easily score a religious victory, while receiving economic advantages and a motive to rush with both sides' Monk. They can cooperate efficiently in Springboard tactics (with the Burmese serving as Springs), as the Burmese offer immense oppοrtunities from the Feudal Age on, with great cavalry and spear units and fine siege (including Bombard Cannons ). It should be noted, however, that their naval game will lack badly, limiting this otherwise great alliance to land maps.

Advantages vs other civilizations

 * The Jaguar Warrior counters almost all types of infantry even the infantry from prominent infantry civilizations civilizations like, Goths, Burmese, Malay, Vikings and Celts, with the exception of the Teutonic knight of the Teutons, the Japanese Samurai (both of which they are arguably in tie against Jaguar Warriors) and the Malian Gbeto as they can hit and run them.
 * Aztec monks can counter knights, elephant units and several unique types of cavalry, which means civilizations reliant on heavy cavalry, like Persians, Franks, Burmese, and sometimes Berbers(if they choose to go for knights) have a hard time against them if the Aztecs exploit their monk bonus. Also  despite the fact they don't get the Halberdier upgrade, their Pikemen upgraded with garland wars also can counter cavalry, making a decent counter to cavalry reliant civilizations
 * Being a civilization with good early game and able to perform early game raids they can defeat civilizations that fare otherwise ( bad early game but good late game)like the Turks, the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Khmer, particularly in open maps like Arabia if starting from Feudal and Dark Age,
 * As they have access to Eagle Warriors and have the Garland wars technology and the same time they get the Atlatl Technology, they can give to archer based civilizations such as Britons, Vietnamese, Ethiopians, and Mayans a hard time by exploiting the benefits of their Skirmishers and Eagle Warriors, sometimes this can also can prove effective against Cavalry Archer based civilizations such as Mongols (as also both units deal bonus damage to cavalry archers), Eagle Warriors can also be unpleasant for civilizations that rely on siege engines like the Ethiopians and Celts.

Disadvantages vs other civilizations

 * Since they don't get access to any kind of gunpowder unit aside from petards and demolition ships and at the same time having no cavalry they fare poorly at late game against civilizations that fare otherwise like Turks, Portuguese and Spanish, specially if the game starts at castle age onwards, sometimes this disadvantage can also being exploited in closed maps like Black Forest against Aztecs as late game civilizations can build up their way to imperial age if they manage to wall up in the early game and survive.
 * Since they lack many upgrades at their dock they fare poorly in naval warfare specially against civilizations that have naval advantages like vikings, Malay, Berber, Italians, etc. this is specially noticeable in water based maps like Islands.
 * Byzantine Cataphracts counter the Aztecs perfectly, as they are too dependent on infantry and lack the proper counters to deal with them ( aside of their Pikemen with garland wars which still have problems countering Cataphracts).  also Large contingents of Mayan Plumed Archers can be a problem for the Aztecs if they don't make use of skirmishers.
 * Besides Aztec Monks  can be a good counter against cavalry in mid game they require heavy micromanagement so in late game as civilizations with access to good Cavalry and the Heresy technology like the Spanish can turn back against the Aztec monks at late game.

Situational Advantages

 * If playing the " Capture the Relic" game mode as the aztecs are a primarily monk civilization, with a bonus that makes their monks to have better HP and got all the monastery technologies, they have a great advantage as their monks have a better chance to survive against any enemy patrol on the center of the map looking out the relic, and retrieve them to the monastery.