The Mayans are an archer-oriented civilization. They are known for their cheap, fully upgraded foot archers, including the Plumed Archer. Their defenses, economy and navy are also good.
Strengths[]
The Mayans are one of the strongest archer civilizations. Their archers decrease in cost every single age, making them the cheapest of any civilization. Their unique unit is the Plumed Archer, an archer with better hit points, armor, speed but lower attack. In groups their lower attack is mostly negated and if outmatched can easily escape due to their high speed. Plumed Archers work well when used in conjunction with Eagle Warriors, who can knock out the Skirmishers and siege weapons that can easily kill the Plumed Archers. Their Eagle Warriors gain an extra forty hit points with the Mayan unique technology El Dorado. This allows the Mayans to field a fast and durable force that can handle most threats.
The economy is strong as well. They start with an extra villager, but with -50 food, which saves the player's Villager creation time. Resources remaining 15% longer is also a strong bonus. The Mayans and teammates also have 50% cheaper walls, which allows them to protect their economy from raids.
Weaknesses[]
Since they are a Mesoamerican civilization, they do not have access to cavalry or gunpowder. Eagle Warriors offer a serviceable replacement but cannot match the damage output of heavy cavalry. Their swordsman line is also weak without Supplies, Gambesons, or the Champion.
Strategy[]
Mayans are useful in a wide variety of situations and have good non-situational bonuses. Their start is slightly different from other civilizations since they start with an extra Villager. This causes them to start out population capped, so they should start by researching Loom. This gives them an advantage over other civilizations, as when they stop to research Loom, they will lose Villager production time, and get one less Villager early-on. This extra Villager can be used to bolster their economy, or to wall off against attacks using cheaper Walls. Their Dark Age is also made stronger by the fact that they get more food out of Sheep, Berries, and Boars.
In the Feudal Age, the Mayans have fewer options than other civilizations due to their lack of Cavalry. However, 10% cheaper Archers allows for a formidable Archer rush. Since Archers need to be massed, the Mayans will typically use their walls to protect themselves while getting their numbers up.
The Castle Age is where the Mayans truly begin to shine. Crossbowmen are exceptionally good with their -20% discount, though they can also go for Plumed Archers if they want to. Plumed Archers are stronger, but require more investment and time to get going. Eagle Warriors synergize very well with either unit.
In the Imperial Age, the Mayans get even cheaper Archers, drastically stronger Eagle Warriors, and their resource bonus really starts helping as resources run low. The Mayan army composition will remain mostly the same, reliant on either Arbalesters or Plumed Archers as their backbone, and either Elite Eagle Warrior or Halberdiers as their frontline unit. The choice of infantry will depend on what the opponent is making, with Halberdiers performing better against cavalry and costing less, while Elite Eagle Warriors perform better at raiding and taking down archers and siege. Siege Rams and Trebuchets will be necessary against buildings. The Mayans will struggle against enemy Onagers and must make sure to apply enough pressure to deny their creation.
On water maps, Mayans have an excellent navy that sadly lacks Cannon Galleons, giving them a challenging time against costal defenses. Their resource lasting bonus gives them an edge on these kind of maps as they will have trees on their islands for longer time as well as their gold mines and those are the resources required for any war vessel.
Strategy changes in The Forgotten[]
As an archer-oriented civilization, Mayans have already strong foot archers. With their new technology Obsidian Arrows, archer line units become more versatile and useful in an attack to the enemy towns, this possible for their bonus against buildings this tech gives to them.
Strategy changes in The African Kingdoms[]
The Obsidian Arrows technology now gives +6 attack bonus against buildings instead of +4 making this technology an indisputable improvement for the Arbalest line. This can also be supplemented with the Arson technology so Eagle Warriors can assist in destroying enemy encampments after the villagers are cleared out or garrison inside town centers/towers.
Their resource bonus is reduced to 15% but despite this drawback they still have a good economy.
Also as a Native American civilization that have access to the Eagle warriors they can now perform an Eagle scout rush on Feudal Age as this unit is now accessible at that Age.
Strategy changes in the Definitive Edition[]
As the Tracking effect now applies automatically upon reaching Feudal Age (since this technology was replaced by Supplies), the scouting skills of their Eagle Scout is slightly improved, as they now don't need to research Tracking. However, their Line of Sight was nerfed in the Dark Age.
Strategy changes in Lords of the West[]
Their Arbalesters have been heavily nerfed with the removal of Obsidian Arrows, mostly because players criticized the concept of Archers destroying buildings easily. Despite this, Mayan Arbalesters are still quite effective thanks to the discount. On the other hand, their Skirmishers are slightly stronger with the new Hul'che Javelineers technology, helping Mayans when gold runs out.
Alliances[]
Mayans make a good teammate, as their ally can cover their weaknesses, allowing their considerable strengths to massively increase. They are typically played as a flank as with most archer civilizations, but they do have the economy to be a viable pocket as well. They pair best with a civilization with strong cavalry and a good anti-siege unit. Their team bonus is great for defense.
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Cumans: Both the Cumans and Mayans have team bonuses that benefit walling, and both have strong booms with options that complement each other's very well.
Spanish: The Spanish will appreciate the discount on their faster-built walls, while the Mayans appreciate the ability to generate gold faster. The Spanish also have Paladins and Bombard Cannons to cover the Mayans' lack of either.
Saracens: The Saracen team bonus will better allow Mayan archers to go for early aggression due to being able to take down enemy walls faster. Later, the Mameluke and Bombard Cannon of the Saracens will aid the Mayans' Plumed Archers.
Compared advantages and disadvantages[]
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Advantages[]
- The Plumed Archer being a ranged unit with bonus attack vs infantry and fair fast movement counters almost all types of infantry even the infantry from prominent infantry civilizations, with the exception of the Goths' Huskarl and all Malian Barracks infantry (as they have a large amount of pierce armor).
- Being a civilization with good early game and able to perform early game raids with their cheaper archers and solid economy they can defeat civilizations that fare otherwise (bad early game but good late game), particularly in open maps like Arabia if starting from Feudal and Dark Age.
- As they have access to Eagle Warriors and have the "El Dorado" technology, they can give a hard time to archer-based civilizations by exploiting the benefits of their tankier Eagle Warriors. Sometimes, this can also prove effective against Cavalry Archer based civilizations such as Mongols and Huns. Their Eagle warriors can also be unpleasant for civilizations reliant on siege units.
- Having complete upgrades for the Arbalest and Skirmishers they have an advantage against civilizations with poor defense, and an advantage to civilizations reliant on Infantry.
- Defensively they have an advantage against civilizations with mediocre siege workshop or proper anti building units thanks to their cheaper Walls and lasting stone mines (without considering the Trebuchets, of which every civilization has access).
Disadvantages[]
- 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, especially if the game starts at Castle Age onwards, sometimes this disadvantage can also being exploited in closed maps like Black Forest against Mayans as late game civilizations can build up their way to Imperial Age if they manage to wall up in the early game and survive.
- Civilizations with tanky units also have a noticeable advantage over Mayans archers as these kinds of units can take a lot of arrow-fire and still deal severe damage.
- Civilizations with good Onagers are also a counter to Mayans if they decide to go for masses of cheap archers.
Situational advantages[]
- Before patch 34699 in the Definitive Edition, as they started with an additional Villager (now tied to their initial Town Center), Mayans had a very distinct advantage in Nomad maps, as they were technically ahead over most of their rivals.
- On the Budapest map, as every player has double start-up (2 Town Centers, double Villagers, and 2 scouts), they also get an advantage, as they start with 8 Villagers (while other civilizations on that map starts with 6), and still getting the penalty of starting with 50 less food (but not 100).
- On maps rich in natural resources like Yucatan (in which players have four more initial Sheep, one more Boar, and double Forage Bushes), Mayans are hugely economically ahead of their rivals, as these will last longer.
- Despite being at a disadvantage in closed maps like Black Forest vs late game civilizations with gunpowder, Mayans still have an advantage on those kinds of maps, thanks to their lasting resource bonus and their cheaper walls, so never underestimate their mid game and even their late game in these maps.
- While the Mayans can excel in 1v1 matches thanks to their rushing capacity and strong early game economic bonuses, the Mayans are also versatile in team games regardless of the starting position. If the player starts in the flank position, the Mayans can open with a standard Archer rush to pressure the nearby opponent. In the pocket position, the Mayans can opt to boom thanks to their strong economic bonus and assist allies with their Plumed Archers and later, their tanky Eagle Warriors.
- As they get Eagle Warriors, when playing the "Capture the Relic" game mode, they get a substantial advantage; Eagle Warriors can patrol the center of the map protecting the Relic, as they have attack bonus against Monks, high conversion resistance, and sizable line of sight.
