WARNING: This guide is no longer updated. Beware factual inaccuracies and proposed strategies which may not be optimum. For something more up-to-date, look at the Brave New World guide.

Zigzagzigal's Guide to the Mayans (BNW)

Note: The Mayans require the Gods and Kings expansion. This guide is based around Gods and Kings mechanics and some elements will be outdated in Brave New World expansion.

The Mayans excel at Science, but unlike some other Science civilizations in the game such as Korea or Babylon, take an approach of building lots of cities rather than building a few very tall. This Science focus reflects the achievements of the real-life Mayan empire, with incredible skill in Astronomy in what was arguably the most advanced pre-Columbian nation. The languages and culture of the Mayans survive to this day - a strong legacy indeed.

Before I go into depth with this guide, here's an explanation of some terminology I'll be using throughout for the sake of newer players.

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. Free Great Person for Liberty.)
ICS - Infinite City Sprawl - A strategy involving constantly building new cities. The Mayans excel at this with the Pyramid UB, but it depends on having plenty of happiness avaliable.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +1 culture for every city for Liberty's opener)
UA - Unique Ability - the unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UB - Unique Building - A replacement for a normal building that can only be built by one Civilization.
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by Militaristic City-States when allied.
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire - A high number of cities with a low population each. Because the Mayans have a unique building which produces Science regardless of population, this is a good choice for them.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

Starting Bias

The Mayans have no start bias. This isn't a problem as you'll probably build plenty of cities to cover all kinds of terrain.

Uniques

Aside from the mandatory Unique Ability, the Mayans have a unique unit and a unique building both in the Ancient era.

Unique Ability: The Long Count

• Ability unlocks upon researching the Theology technology
  
• The Calendar changes to a Mayan Long Count calendar
  
• At the start of every b'ak'tun (on a 394 year cycle) you recieve a free Great Person of your choice
  
• These Great People raise the cost of acquiring the next Great Person of their type by normal means (XP for Generals and Admirals, Faith for Prophets, Great Person points for the rest)
  
• Each Great Person can only be selected once. If you exhaust all options, you start again allowing you to select each one a second time

Unique Unit: Atlatlist (Replaces the Archer)

• Requires the Agriculture technology (Unlocked at start, 1st column overall) instead of Archery
  
• Upgrade cost of 85 rather than 80 on normal speed games (+6%)
  
• Costs 36 Production in normal speed games, down from 40 (-10%)

Unique Building: Pyramid (Replaces the Shrine)

• Requires the Pottery technology (Ancient era, 1st column, 2nd column overall)
  
• Maintenance of 1
  
• 2 faith produced, up from 1
  
• 2 extra science produced

Victory Routes

Note these scores are a matter of personal opinion based on experiences with the Civilization. You may discover a way of utilising the Civ more effectively in unconventional ways.

Cultural: 6/10
Diplomatic: 5/10
Domination: 6/10
Scientific: 9/10

The Mayans are a great Science nation but you could also use their advantages to aid in an early Domination victory or even for Culture.

The Long Count is one of the strangest unique abilities in the game. It doesn't take effect immediately, and it rewards you in one-off events rather than an ever-present bonus. If played right, however, it can net you a large number of Great People in the early to mid game where others are struggling to gain them.

Getting to Theology

The Long Count activates once you unlock the Theology technology. Seeing as this is all the way in the Medieval era, and Great People are awarded in 394 year cycles, you need to act fast.

Here are all the technologies you need:

• Pottery (35 Science)
  
• Calendar (55 Science)
  
• Writing (55 Science)
  
• Philosophy (175 Science)
  
• Drama and Poetry (175 Science)
  
• Theology (250 Science)

Science cost assumes a normal speed game. The total cost comes to 745 Science.

Of course, you'll probably pick up more than this to accomodate worker technologies, (Mining and Animal Husbandry cost 35 Science a piece,) but it depends on your starting location. If you get two plantation luxuries and lots of wheat, you'll be fine to follow this route.

Besides from unlocking the UA, this route immediately gets you access to the Pyramid UB and will quickly get you Libraries - both being Science buildings. Because the Atlatlist UU is available without Archery, it allows you to ignore the technology while focusing on early Theology.

From Theology to Education

Before going into the advantages of the UA itself, it's worth mentioning that Theology is one of the two requirements for Education, a vital Science techology. Hence, getting it early is a key priority. Here's all the further technologies you'll need:

• Animal Husbandry (35)
  
• Archery (35)
  
• Trapping (55)
  
• The Wheel (55)
  
• Horseback Riding (105)
  
• Mathematics (105)
  
• Currency (175)
  
• Civil Service (275)
  
• Education (440)

You'll probably need Mining, Masonry and Construction sooner rather than later, so don't blindly follow this path.

The Cycle

When you research Theology, your calendar changes to a Mayan Long Count calendar (though you can continue to see the old one by scrolling over it.) It works in a system of base 20 - that is to say that whenever a number in the calendar reaches 20, it resets to 0 and the number to the left increases by 1.

The left-most digit shows the current b'ak'tun, which goes up by 1 every 394 years and that's when you get your free Great Person. As such, looking at the second digit gives you a clue whether or not a new Great Person is coming. If it's in the high teens, get ready.

Now for the most important part of the calendar's mechanics. The 394 year cycle isn't based off when you discovered Theology. Instead, it's based around fixed years. Here's all of them that fall within the standard 6050 years of play.

• 3898 BC
  
• 3504 BC
  
• 3110 BC
  
• 2716 BC (0)
  
• 2470 BC (1)
  
• 2322 BC (2)
  
• 1928 BC (3)
  
• 1534 BC (4)
  
• 1140 BC (5)
  
• 746 BC (6)
  
• 352 BC (7)
  
• 42 AD (8)
  
• 436 AD (9)
  
• 830 AD (10)
  
• 1224 AD (11)
  
• 1618 AD (12)
  
• 2012 AD (13)

Obviously, in any normal game you're not going to get a Great Person in 3898 BC, but it's worth being thorough.

Finally, and importantly, these free Great People raise the cost of the next one of its type (Prophets raise the Faith requirement for example.)

The first Great Person

Hopefully, you should have got Theology nice and early, still in the four-digit BCs. Now, here's the hard choice. The first Great Person you pick will have a considerable impact on the rest of the game, as is the power of the early game. Here's an analysis of them all.

Great Prophet

Great Prophets have a huge impact in the earlier game as you can push for a religion (or enhanced religion) before most other players. As you can only pick one of each Great Person until you've chosen them all, it's best to choose the Prophet sooner rather than later.

Verdict: Strong first pick.

Great Scientist

Going down the Science route, getting an Academy up and running early is a great idea. 8 extra Science is an incredible boost earlier in the game, but Great Scientists are good at any time.

Verdict: Strong first pick.

Great Engineer

Rushing a wonder is useful but the best wide-empire wonders tend to come in the mid and late-game. As such, an early Engineer may not be as useful as a Scientist or Prophet. Pick them second or third for maximum impact.

Verdict: Good first pick, but not top-tier.

Great Merchant

Pyramids are cheap to buy and a load of extra cash can help you get them up fast. Mercantile or Maritime city-states (when allied) help support wide empires, and trade missions can be used to get considerable influence in them.

Verdict: Average choice.

Great Admiral

It may seem strange to choose a Great Admiral early on, but there are reasons. For one, naval techs are tied up with mid-game Science techs, which you'll be focusing on. It's difficult to get a Great Admiral to start you off before going into combat, and an early Admiral together with a tech lead could create a very powerful navy.

A more useful use of a Great Admiral is exploring the oceans - it can do so even without Astronomy, and at this stage the seas are safe from Barbarians. However, sight limitations restrict this ability.

Verdict: Average choice.

Great General

Avoiding defensive technologies may have left you vulnerable. Grabbing an early Great General could help cover that weakness, but it comes at the cost of an early Prophet or Scientist.

Verdict: Below average choice.

Great Artist

A Golden Age might be what you need to ensure you're burning through Science infrastructure fast, and don't lose out too much on Social Policies. It'll also get you plenty of cash. Generally, though, Great Artists are for tall, cultural empires, and the cash bonus is best held on to until your empire is much bigger.

Verdict: Poor choice.

Beyond the first Great People


Above: Great People you've already picked will tell you when you picked them. This guy was born in the equivalent of 746 BC.

Later Great People will come further and further apart and probably be less useful (hence this ability is strongest in the mid-game.) You shouldn't base your entire strategy around when Great People arrive, but when the new Bak'tun comes, it's good to know the best Great Person for the times.

Earlier Great People after first two (Renaissance/Industrial)

Admiral - Good choice defensively against rival Privateers, or against naval empires which tend to strike at this point.
Engineer - Good for rushing wonders such as the Forbidden Palace or the Porcelain Tower.
Merchant - A cash boost is great for burning through Universities and Observatories. Later in the game, you'll probably have a tech lead anyway so money from a Merchant makes less of a difference.

Later Great People (Modern, Atomic and Information)

Artist - Golden Ages will net you a lot of cash by this point.
General - At this stage, war moves forward very quickly (Riflemen to Great War Infantry to Infantry) and it's important not to let your guard down. Great Generals before this point may be a bad idea as it comes at the cost of Engineers, etc.

To summarise...

• Get Theology as soon as you can
  
• The times you get Great People are fixed
  
• Get Prophets, Scientists and Engineers sooner
  
• Hold off Artists and Generals until later eras

The Holy Rush is a less conventional strategy and usage may be risky.

The Mayans will probably be the first civ to Theology, having an early tech boost due to the Pyramid UB and the fact other civs going for Education early will probably spend time on other low-tier technologies on the way. Hence, there's a considerable advantage in building the two wonders the technology unlocks.

Of course, building wide, you may suffer from low production and it's probably more worth your while building Settlers rather than wonders. This is where the Holy Rush comes in.

Your first Long Count free Great Person should be an Engineer to rush one of the two Theology wonders. Your second should be a Prophet. The idea is to get a mature religion before most people have a religion at all. If you have a decent capital and feel you can build a wonder in time, dedicate it to the less-preferred of the two.

Method One: Pantheon Squasher

Rushing the Hagia Sophia wonder will in effect exchange your Great Engineer for a Great Prophet. Choosing a second Great Prophet when the next Bak'tun comes allows you to quickly get an enhanced religion, which doing so caps the number of Pantheons in the game. This is particularly effective move against Byzantium, which has a UA granting them a strong religion, but no means of getting a Pantheon faster than anyone else.

Method Two: Science Spam

The Interfaith Dialogue belief gives you Science when you use a Missionary or a Prophet to spread religion to cities of other religions. This works best for Missionaries, as Prophets wipe out opposing religions in cities (hence taking longer until you can get Science again.)

As Missionaries are particularly useful, rushing the Great Mosque of Djenne is a good move as it allows you to make more Science out of them. True, this approach won't give you a second Great Prophet quickly, but it could net you a lot of extra Science in the long-run.

Method Three: Rapid Religion Maturity

The Liberty tree gives you a free Great Person of your choice as a finisher. If you get it soon enough, you could gain a Great Engineer with it - together with a Long Count Great Engineer, you can rush both wonders, netting you a religion with 50% better missionaries, and a Great Prophet slot still avaliable for the next Bak'tun to enhance it.

A problem with this route is the fact you could get a free Great Scientist from the Liberty tree instead, which is more relevant to your victory method. On the other hand, free Prophets frees up a lot of faith for purchasing super-good Missionaries.

Unique units generally offer better attacking, better defence or extra utility. The Atlatlist, however, is somewhat different. The unit itself is no stronger or weaker than a normal Archer, and is merely 10% cheaper to build or buy. The key difference is the technology requirement - this is the only unique out of all the Civilizations to have an earlier technology requirement than the generic unit. Instead of needing the Archery technology, you can build Atlatlists immediately.

While you only need one technology to unlock Archery anyway, consider the fact most worker technologies do not require it, and you don't need it on the way to Theology. Hence, you save precious research turns thanks to this unit, which could be the difference between getting another 394 year cycle in or not.

Besides from how the unit fits in the main strategy, it's useful to note how an earlier, cheaper Archer can aid you otherwise. Being now cheaper than Warriors, there's little reason not to make it your key defensive (or even offensive) force. Using them early and heavily helps you to get the very powerful high-tier promotions - archery units in particular have very good ones.

One hidden disadvantage lies in a slightly higher upgrade cost - 85 rather than 80 in normal games. The difference is small but problematic if you have a large Atlatlist force.

The Early War Strategy


Above: How dishonourable for Genghis Khan! Losing at what he's good at.

Archer-rushing is a reasonable strategy involving amassing Archers in the early game and attacking opponents with them before they have any kind of decent defence. The Mayans can do this more efficently, and launch such an attack earlier.

It's useful to note that Atlatlists are the cheapest unit in the game besides Scouts. Amassing an army of them in the early game isn't too hard, and you can focus on worker technologies instead of having to research Archery (as would be the case for other Archer-rushers.)

Rushing an opponent's capital is a good idea as they include two luxuries - enough to sustain the city for a fair amount of time. In addition, these tend to be in very good locations. Most importantly of all, you wipe out a rival early, giving you more land to expand into.


Above: Of course, you could just take the cash and run. Worthwhile if their defences are better than you expected.

Promotions kept on upgrade

None. Use your Atlatlists sooner rather than later!

Not to be confused with the Pyramids wonder or Songhai's Mud Pyramid Mosque UB.


Note: It doesn't normally offer 1 Happiness. That's from the religious belief Asceticism.

Pyramids make Shrines over twice as good as normal. Instead of 1 faith for 1 maintenance, you recieve 2 faith and 2 science for the same cost. The science bonus is as much as you'd recieve for 2 population points before a Library is built, or 1 point after a Public School is built. As unlike other science buildings, it doesn't depend on population or earlier buildings that do, it's great for a wider empire with not very large cities.

It should also be considered that Pyramids are very cheap to build, at 40 Production in normal speed games - the same as a Warrior! Even cities with appaling production can get this up, and if you really wanted to, the Piety opener makes them twice as fast to build, though this is a poor idea seeing as you'll need the conflicting Rationalism for the science bonuses.

The Piety vs. Rationalism choice is a problem for the Mayans. On the one hand, Piety will let you build Pyramids very quickly and hence get the science rolling early on top of even more faith, but on the other hand, Rationalism helps boost your science gain generally. The solution to this problem is to consider how you're going to win. If you face few rival science empires and want to ride a tech advantage to a Domination victory, go with Piety as you can widen the tech gap early. Otherwise (and in most normal situations) go for Rationalism.

Even if you're not focusing heavily on Piety, an early religion or pantheon is still very useful to have, and 2 faith instead of 1 will get you there sooner. If you build a Pyramid in your capital early, there's a good chance you can pick up the Messenger of the Gods pantheon (+2 science in cities with a trade route) and push your technology rates to even higher levels.

As a Shrine replacement, religious beliefs that apply to Shrines also apply to Pyramids. Feed the World lets cities grow faster with +1 food to Pyramids and Temples, but Asceticism is probably a better choice with +1 happiness per Pyramid for a token size requirement. Extra happiness will help sustain your large number of cities without costing you anything extra.

The Mayans have a pretty straightforward culture route: Liberty, Rationalism, Order. Perfect for wide, scientific empires. Touching upon Piety or Honour may also do for some less conventional techniques, but won't be explored in depth here.

Liberty - Opener

Culture in every city particularly useful for border expansion. New cities will probably dive right in to building Pyramids and may put off Monuments for quite some time (if they build them at all) so being able to start getting tiles from the start will save time, maitainance money and tile-purchasing money.

Liberty - Republic

More production is a great advantage to a large number of cities which may not see workers around to improve tiles for quite some time. Getting up Pyramids faster can't be a bad thing.

Liberty - Collective Rule

A free Settler is handy to expand faster earlier on, but more importantly, you can churn out Settlers quickly in your capital for the rest of the game, and you should do so.

Liberty - Citizenship

A wide empire suffers from having more tiles than Workers can keep up with. Faster worker speed will get your small cities to a healthy level much quicker, but the difference isn't really major until the later game.

Besides that bonus, there's a free worker. One possible strategy may be to build Atlatlists rather than a Worker early on, with this policy compensating for that. Seeing as Workers cost nearly twice as much as Atlatlists (70 vs 36 Production on normal speed games) this isn't a bad move.

Liberty - Representation

Lots of cities slows down Social Policy gain a lot. Because of the strength of the Rationalism tree, you don't really want to lose out on what it can offer you. Hence, a reduction in the increase in Social Policy costs is quite useful. The sooner you get this policy, the more future policies you'll be able to grab which you may otherwise not get.

Liberty - Meritocracy

Every city with a trade route will add 1 happiness to the bucket. Not being local city happiness, this will always be the case. Every few cities, the happiness should be enough to sustain one more city than you may otherwise expect. Unlike other policies in the Liberty tree, however, this is more of a long-term advantage, hence you can hold this off while focusing on those.

Liberty - Finisher

The Liberty finisher offers you an unrestricted Great Person. This is particularly powerful due to the free Great People you'll already be getting with the Long Count. A Great Scientist is probably the best choice, but if you don't already have an enhanced religion, a Great Prophet can get you there quickly and free up faith for Missionaries.

Rationalism - Opener

Extra science in a scientific empire is a no-brainer, but keep in mind your empire must be in a state of happiness to recieve that bonus. Unlike Babylon or Korea, you'll have a harder time of that, building as wide as your happiness will let you. After this point, it may be worth easing up the relentless expansion to avoid dipping into unhappiness. Carry on expanding, yes, but not recklessly.

Being able to purchase Great Scientists with faith really cashes in on the extra faith from Pyramids.

Rationalism - Secularism

Unfortunately, this won't be of much use compared to other policies in the Rationalism tree, seeing as specialists are really for larger cities. Your capital may be at this point, but as a whole, you won't get masses of science from this. Still, it leads on to Free Thought, which is very powerful for your style.

Rationalism - Free Thought

You should have Universities in pretty much all your cities sooner or later, so the science bonus is handy, but probably more useful is the science bonus from Trading Posts. You can settle cities in jungles, placing Trading Posts on top for 3 science in addition to the gold (and food of the tile.) The cash itself from these cities helps to cover research agreements or buying science buildings in low-production cities.

Rationalism - Scientific Revolution

Expanding rapidly may anger some, but generally you should have a few friends around having played peacefully. Thus, you can get extra-powerful research agreements going. Great candidates are weaker nations with lots of gold (tall and unsuccessful empires often fall into this category) as you can maitain relations with them easily and giving them a tech boost won't change the dynamics of the game much.

Rationalism - Humanism

The mid-game is where you're most likely to find happiness problems. Hence, happiness for Unviersities, Observatories and Public Schools can only be a good thing. For maximum wide expansion, it may be a good idea to get this before Secularism. If you can't find any decent new city spots at this point, you may as well grab Secularism first.

Rationalism - Sovereignty

Research agreements are expensive. Sovereignty makes that less of a problem.

Rationalism - Finisher

Two free technologies pushes your science ahead greatly. The mistake to make is putting off finishing the Rationalism tree to make a start on Order. Wide empires don't unlock many social policies. You can't really afford to waste them.

Order - Opener

Together with Liberty's Meritocracy, every city gets 2 happiness (and further bonuses from Rationalism and faith will push that up further.) Enough happiness buildings, faith happiness and policies such as these and you could expand pretty much indefinitely.

Faith-buying an Engineer is a good idea when the CN Tower or Hubble Telescope becomes avaliable.

Order - Nationalism

A wide empire is vulnerable to all sorts of threats. Washington might decide to send a few B-17s your way or Bismarck might go Panzer-crazy. Even for your advanced technology, you may still be vulnerable with a smaller army, or neglecting upgrades for research agreements. A 15% bonus helps level the field. However, this sort of bonus will only help you avoid losing rather than help you win. Planned Economy is a far superior pick.

Order - United Front

You probably won't make friends with City-States much as you need the cash for buying stuff like science buildings. This is probably best left as the final policy in the Order tree to unlock.

Order - Planned Economy

Science! Lots of it! Planned Economy helps tie the Science focus to the Production focus of the end-game, as it encourages you to build lots of factories early. Locate your best cities and focus factories in there first. Those'll be your spaceship building cities very soon.

Order - Socialism

Wide empires building lots of Science buildings will cost you a heap of cash in the endgame. Socialism frees up a fair amount of that for more important usage, such as buying units against incoming enemy attacks from those realising you're about to win.

Order - Communism

With Republic from the Liberty tree, every city gets 3 production over the norm, great for getting those last buildings up in smaller cities. Production from Mines and Quarries is the big advantage though - your highest-production cities get even better, allowing you to scrape a lot of turns off spaceship building.

Order - Finisher

If you manage to reach this point, all your cities will get that little bit better. The problem is, by this stage of the game, getting extra science barely makes a difference, and that's the sole purpose of many of your smaller cities. Still, a boost is a boost.

With all the faith Pyramids are pumping out, having a strong religion is a must-have. While there's relatively few science-based beliefs, even one of them could net you a significant amount of science over the course of the game.

Pantheon - Messenger of the Gods

Pyramids add 2 Science to a city. This adds a further 2 to each city with a trade route - 4 bonus science for each city that won't take long to get adds an awful lot early in the game. This is by far your best choice.

Pantheon - Ancestor Worship

If you can't manage Messenger of the Gods, adding a culture point to every Pyramid is a decent move. These will make sure you still get a fair number of social policies while also helping cities to expand borders without having to build a Monument on top.

Pantheon - Sacred Waters

Not the strongest of choices, but one of only two pantheons offering happiness (and the other one requires size 6+ cities.) More happiness means more cities and more science!

Pantheon - Goddess of Protection

If you're near some pretty aggressive nations and can't manage Messenger of the Gods, boosting city ranged combat strength is an alright move to take. Certainly, it should help you out while you're postponing Composite Bowmen to get to Theology fast.

Founder - Interfaith Dialogue

The only founder belief offering science, this requires you to be actively sending Missionaries or Prophets out to get it. You should generally only use Missionaries for converting cities if you're going down this road as the cities you convert will convert back to another religion faster, hence giving you more opportunity for science.

The science earned isn't flat - larger cities tend to give you more science. Be aware of this.

Unlike many other founder beliefs, it doesn't matter if you don't bring many foreign cities to your religion. Just make sure your own are your religion, foreign cities matter less.

Founder - Ceremonial Burial

Another happiness boost, useful for supporting yet more cities. If you have friendly other civs around you that build tall (e.g. Gandhi) then Peace Loving may also work effectively.

Follower - Asceticism

It doesn't take much to get 3 followers of your religion in a city at this stage in the game, and pretty much every city you own will have a Pyramid. More happiness for everyone!

Follower - Pagodas (or Mosques/Cathedrals)

A strong choice, Pagodas offer 2 happiness each and are bought with faith, which you'll be producing like mad anyway. Plus, they generate more faith for even more of them. Mosques and Cathedrals are useful too but only offer 1 happiness. Taking two religious buildings is a decent idea if your faith production is high enough that you'll run out of places to put one of them.

Follower - Feed the World

A bit of a backup. You don't want your cities to grow excessively tall as your science will be based more on the number of cities rather than the size of them. Nonetheless, this can make smaller Pyramid cities struggling for any growth at all over a hurdle.

Enhancer - Holy Order

If you've got Interfaith Dialogue, you'll probably be spreading religion through Missionaries rather than Prophets. Holy Order makes the former cheaper (but not the latter) playing nicely into that goal. More Missionaries means more science! Even if you didn't manage to get Interfaith Dialogue, you can still spread the religion more effectively this way.

Enhancer - Religious Texts

Religious buildings may take the attention of your faith spending rather than Missionaries and Prophets. Hence, strengthening faith-free spread is useful to stop your cities falling under the sway of other religions.

Enhancer - Defender of the Faith

With cities spread far and wide, your army may be stretched thin. A 20% bonus is more than a Great General's bonus, so it nicely balances out the battlefield.

Any world wonder that's good for a wide civ is good for the Mayans. Stonehenge is missing from the list below because building lots of cities should be getting you your Faith, not spending ages building Stonehenge instead of Settlers.

Ancient Era - Great Library

The Great Library offers a considerable early-game science advantage, though it may be difficult to obtain in the earliest years. If your capital has good production, give it a shot.

Ancient Era - Pyramids

Faster tile improvement will make a significant difference over the course of the game due to the ability to bring new cities to par and connect luxuries faster. However, it's not on the technology path you should be following, making actually building it unlikely. Taking it off someone else is more probable.

Classical Era - Great Wall

Again, this suffers from being on a tech route that other players have time to exploit before you. If you manage to gain it, however, you'll be much harder to attack until you have time to build up a significant tech lead. Rushing it with a Great Engineer is probably the best option, trying to build it manually will probably take too long.

Medieval Era - Great Mosque of Djenne

Because you'll almost certainly be the first to Theology, you have a head start with this strong faith wonder. While rushing it with a Great Engineer (mentioned before in the Holy Rush strategy section) is a possibility, your huge head start to the tech means you could safely build it even with relatively low production. The wonder itself is brilliant for spreading your religion more effectively, particularly in conjunction with the Interfaith Dialogue belief. Remember the Mosque it adds provides 3 faith, 2 culture and 1 happiness on top of the wonder's yields.

Medieval Era - Hagia Sophia

Like the Great Mosque of Djenne, the Hagia Sophia is easy to build with your head start. Together with a Long Count Prophet, you can develop a religion at breakneck speed. For more information, head back to the Holy Rush strategy section.

Medieval Era - Himeji Castle

Defensive wonders are important in the mid-game, where many aggressive opponents have powerful unique units, and any technology gap isn't quite significant enough to guarentee you the upper hand.

Medieval Era - Machu Picchu

The wider the empire, the more money trade routes bring in. Add 25%, and you've got yourself lots of money. Because of the fact Observatories require cities to be adjacent to mountains, you'll probably have a variety of cities that can build this.

Medieval Era - Notre Dame

More happiness means more cities.

Renaissance Era - Porcelain Tower

As a science wonder, this is a must-have in most situations. In Multiplayer, however, everyone will know that signing research agreements will favour you (though being a scientific player, they probably wouldn't sign agreements with you anyway.)

Atomic Era - Great Firewall

It's important to hold on to your technological advantage, particularly where vital Spaceship techs are concerned. As you're building too wide to build the National Intelligence Agency, The Great Firewall makes an effective substitute. You should probably build it in either your capital or largest city. Computer opponents tend to target capitals with Spies while human players know that large cities typically have the highest potential - this will shut down Spies' tech stealing entirely in the city you build it in.

Information Era - CN Tower

In the late-game, building new cities is no longer a priority as you have all the science you need. Instead, the aim is to bring the best cities forward for building Spaceship parts. With an extra point of population in every city, the CN Tower can do just that, and the extra population won't eat into your happiness, either. Broadcast Towers in every city might just squeeze in an extra Social Policy, but aren't the main point here.

Information Era - Hubble Telescope

At the end of the game, it's not unlikely that most of your cities will have quite poor production while your capital storms ahead. The Hubble Telescope is a good building to help lift the lesser cities forward meaning you can get that Spaceship built sooner before rivals. If no other science civs exist in your game, this may only slow you down.

The Mayans may be excellent at gaining science but it doesn't mean they're omnipotent. Here's a few easy mistakes to avoid.

Don't dive straight into Archery!

You have Atlatlists for a reason - to concentrate on getting Theology early. Unless you seriously need to get Composite Bowmen, you probably shouldn't get Archery until after Theology.

By extension...

Scraping a few turns of Theology could mean the difference between an early Great Person or not. Hence, don't get technologies off its path unless either..

• You're being attacked and need better defenders
  
• You need a certain worker technology like Mining, etc
  
• You've researched Theology

Anything else will likely cost you more than it gains you.

Don't waste time attempting the Great Library unless you're sure you can win it!

The Great Library offers an early technology boost, but producing Settlers in that time will net you more cities, hence more science. Getting the Great Library is unlikely as pretty much everyone's after it, though, again, if you think you can make it, go for it.

The Honour tree isn't worth it in early attacks!

If you're using Atlatlists for early attacks, you don't have time to waste. You will barely touch the surface of the Honour tree in the time it takes you to launch an attack, and it will offer you little in the long-run. Liberty's a far better choice.

Don't count on completing Rationalism!

Two free technologies is a huge advantage. But remember that at that stage, Social Policy costs are expensive, particularly with a wide, culture-starved empire. Try to get that bonus, if you can, but don't build your late-game strategy around it.

The Mayans are the premier wide-building science civ, but have a below-average UA and a UU which sees limited use.

Playing against the Long Count

This Unique Ability offers many seeds of its own destruction. First and foremost, it encourages the Mayans to take a technology path which seriously neglects defence. Chances are, in the late Ancient to early Classical eras, your attackers will be stronger than their defenders. A few Spearmen or Swordsmen their way early will be something they'll struggle to handle. If you can't beat them, you'll likely throw them off their technology path and lose out on one or more early Great People.

In the mid-game, attacking the Mayans just before a new b'ak'tun may panic them and make them pick a military Great Person rather than a Prophet, Scientist or Engineer. This will set back their overall strategy somewhat.

Playing against Atlatlists

They may come slightly earlier and be slightly cheaper, but statistically, Atlatlists are identical to Archers. Warriors or Spearmen will deal with them fairly effectively. Because archery units lack defensive promotions, there's little trouble with picking off those doing more damage and causing more havoc.

Playing against Pyramids

It's hard to stop Pyramids being built due to their low cost and high reward. However, you can exploit the playstyle they encourage. The Mayans in decent hands should have lots of cities, but such size is hard to defend. Picking off some smaller cities will set back their science a little and isn't too hard to do.

Strategy by Style

Early-game Aggressors - Pretty much like any other builder civilization in the very early game. You may face a few more Atlatlists than you may Archers with anyone else, but you won't see much difference. Around the Bronze Working/Iron Working time, you'll have an edge over them.
Mid-game Aggressors - Don't launch an attack just before a new b'ak'tun. This will likely result in the Mayans picking a Great General, which would be useful for later-game orientated players but less so for you. Instead, try going just after to avoid any unexpected bonus Great People (and force them to protect a Great Person they haven't used yet.)
Late-game Aggressors - The pre-b'ak'tun intimidation tactic may work better for you. When you're ready for a real war, send two or more forces at different ends of their wide empire. Either it'll spread out their army or drive them to send everything one way, leaving the other parts vulnerable. Their technology advantage will make things hard, but a small defensive force - even if advanced - shouldn't be the hardest thing in the world to beat.
Tall Builders - Make sure you know which city-spots you want before the Mayans go city-mad. Founding those cities quickly is a decent idea.
Wide Builders - Cut off dispersed cities with your own and you might just deprive them of some science, gold and happiness from various trade route bonuses. Unless you have a religion of your own, let theirs spread to your cities organically - if they have Interfaith Dialogue and Messenger of the Gods, this'll help you more than it helps them.

There are four other guides based on Gods and Kings mechanics available. After Brave New World comes out, these guides will be kept in their current form for the sake of players without, but updated versions will be made to account for changes.

Carthage
The Huns
The Incans
Spain