Rhye’s and Fall of the Inca

UHV

The Incas unique historic victory conditions are:

1. No European colonies in South America in 1600 AD
2. Have 5000 gold in 1700 AD
3. No European colonies in South America in 1800 AD

Unique Power

Terraces: Mountains produce 2 food and 1 hammer.

This is one of THE best unique powers in the entire mod. Playing Rhye’s and Fall Inca you can grow very big and productive cities where Europeans would only have small villages next to a mountain range.

Unique Building – Inca terrace

Unique Unit – Quechua

Quechua replace the normal warrior so you instantly start with some of them. They come with Fight 1 (+10%) and have a 100% bonus against archers. So unlike normal warriors, the Quechua can defeat enemy archers in their first cities: They have 3 base strength +25% in cities +25% fortification bonus, so 4.5 combat strength. With your bonuses you already have 4.4 combat strength (2 base strength +10% +100% against archers). In Rhye’s and Fall of Civilization you will use this to conquer Tucume. In Civilization 4 this comes handy on Deity difficulty.

Incan Strategy

Playing Rhye’s and Fall Inca is incredibly much fun! While first you’re a late starter, behind in everything, you can make the UHV and play a united South America until global dominance.

Here’s as quick summary:

• Found Nazca on the corn – you need a coastal city for trade and to prevent the conquest event.
• Settle South America quickly – use Axemen to defend against Native Dog Soldiers.
• Spawn Great Merchants for Gold.

First found Nazca on the corn, so you’ll have a coastal city. This is important for both trade and to build naval units later in your most productive city (at the start). Only 1 Quetchua stays in Nazca. Research sailing first!!!

Send 1 archer south, together with a settler. Make them wait on the stone but DON’T found your second city yet.

The rest of your units moves north and razes Tucume. Move 2 settlers with that army.
In the very turn you research sailing, re-found tucume and your “2nd city” in south. This will get you harbors in both cities instantly! Invaluable! Now set research directly to calendar (you’ll need plantations to make use of your bonus resources), then feudalism (you’ll need longbow-archers).

Your 4th city goes 1 East of the river in Venezuela so it reaches the prawns.
The 5th city in will be in Chile 1 North of the game (right next to the prawns). You’ll have to go there with a galley, built in Nazca.

Rhye’s and Fall Inca – Preventing the Conquest event

Use explorers to explore Southern America, make sure to have 1 at the tip of Brazil by about 1400, to hopefully meet France or Portugal. If you miss either of these civs when they start exploring, you can as well restart, because then the Arabs will discover you from the Pacific, landing directly at your main-land, triggering the conquest event. Even with longbow-archers you don’t stand a chance against cannons, musketmen and camel-archers.

Either way – once you meet “the old world”, you’ll get the flu. Deal with the pest by whipping your buildings, ignore food and focus on spawning great persons (merchants). Once the flu has passed – switch to maximum growth again.

Rhye’s and Fall Inca – Sweet spots and big money

Timing is essential now. Once you meet the Europeans, build 3 settlers. These found:

• 1-2 cities in Argentina
• 1 city in the North between Venezuela and New-Tucume (so it gets corn and mussels). that should secure goal 1. I usually leave that space out first, because Venezuela is better. Now you’ll need to cover it, because the Europeans will recklessly settle that spot.
• Switch Great Person production to Merchants in all cities. Max for gold once you have essential defensive techs.

By switching all cities’ specialists to Merchants in time, you’ll have 3 Great Merchants before 1700. Sending them to Europe should easily bring lots of gold. This plus switching to massive gold production instead of research gets you to 3000 gold in time.

I had to pay 220 gold tribute to Spain, but they were very grateful and it bought me enduring peace. As soon as you have the gold, focus on research – with my gold-grinding cities I could catch up in tech quite quickly (80% science).

Garrison your North-Eastern and Argentinian cities, as you’ll enrage Spain with even settling there at all. If you paid them some tribute before they probably won’t attack you. Have them be pissed off until they collapse (which they always do, once they don’t make their colonization goal).

Making both enough Gold and denying the Europeans South America should grant you the Unique Historical Victory for Rhye’s and Fall Inca:

Unique Historical Victory with Inca

Ranking as Inca

Rhye’s and Fall Inca – Beyond the UHV: The other United States of (South) America

Starting somewhat after 1800 the game mechanic grants you a research boost. This will enable you to catch up in technology until eventually becoming the tech lead. At this time I usually never focus on military. Mainly because: By the time you have built an army and shipped it to Europe or Asia, it’ll be deprecated units. This is why in 1960 I basically had no army except for the units defending my cities.

Once I reached the end of the tech tree I started my conquest. By 2040 my Inca empire had vassalized Rome, Spain, Arabia and Turkey. The first two giving me a good bridgehead to Europe, the latter two granting me easy access to Asia.

United States of South America invading Europe

Vassals of the Inca empire: Rome, Arabia, Spain and Turkey.

So striving for total world domination (and revenge for what colonization had done to most native South American tribes), I attacked Europe. Laying waste to big parts of the country, I got trapped in the circle of ever-decreasing stability that usually comes in the late game of Rhye’s and Fall. I eventually collapsed in 2058, which is about half a millennium (an earlier version wrongly said “century”) after the real Inca empire was conquered by the Spanish.

Collapse of the Inca Empire

After destroying the old world, focus on remaining civs in Asia

The usual official strategy guides are still here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090514073418/http://rhye.civfanatics.net/wiki/index.php?title=Rhye%27s_and_Fall_of_Civilization_-_Incan_strategy

Oh and if you liked playing Rhye’s and Fall Inca, you will love playing the Inca in the Conquest of the New World Scenario for Civilization 5. Check out the Macho Picchu Steam Achievement Guide.