Tezcatlipoca: copied powers and defensive myth armies — Retold
By Ajax (compiled) · retold
Build a supported defensive myth plan and make Obsidian Mirror answer a concrete problem.
Tezcatlipoca: copy for your position
Tezcatlipoca emphasizes defense and myth units. His starting power, Obsidian Mirror, copies a selected player’s Archaic Age power. Choose the player according to the effect that solves your next economic, defensive, or military problem.
Inspect the other players’ major gods and decide which available starting power solves the next problem. A copied economic tool needs workers or infrastructure able to benefit; a defensive effect needs a useful eligible position; a combat effect needs an engagement worth changing. Read current restrictions before relying on a particular target interaction.
Keep a conventional defense ready while setting up that flexibility. War Hut counters should answer the enemy humans, and Warrior Priests need protection and target access against monsters. Your own myth units contribute most when their specialist counters cannot freely reach them. Do not spend every ordinary resource on a monster while neglecting its escort.
A defensive identity still needs a route to the next mine or food source. Build the position around active resources and a path you can reinforce. If the opponent declines to attack your strongest point, use the information and breathing room to extend safely rather than accumulating idle defenses.
Review whether the copied power changed a purchase, movement, or engagement. If it remained unused while the economy lost ground, simplify the choice to the immediate need. Select a target whose power can improve the position you actually have.
Learn the resource cycle before chasing a rush
Obsidian Mirror’s Aztecs combine infantry mobility, tonalli collection, and ritual sacrifice. Life force released by fallen warriors can be collected through Warrior Priests and religious buildings, supporting temporary divine possession. Preserve the support needed to collect those benefits without sacrificing the army that holds the field.
Check the favor cost, eligible target, and duration before committing to possession or sacrifice. Budget for the army and economy that will remain when the temporary effect ends.
Put support near useful battles
Plan where your army expects to fight and how a Warrior Priest can approach without becoming the first target. Collection value is only practical when support survives to provide it. A Priest placed far behind every engagement may miss an opportunity; one isolated in front may hand the opponent an easy kill.
Religious buildings can make a region strategically meaningful, but they still require a defendable location. Build around a resource or route you want to keep. Scattered infrastructure that cannot support its neighbors is easier to remove than a connected position with a clear reinforcement path.
If the engagement turns bad, withdraw while the support can still leave with the army. Do not lose the entire force trying to collect every remaining benefit. The next fighting cycle requires both soldiers and the infrastructure that makes the civilization’s system work.
Use infantry mobility to choose the fight
The Aztecs do not use a conventional horse cavalry roster. Their infantry and elite Noble’s Hut warriors must be chosen for specific roles rather than treated as interchangeable fast attackers. Read the target bonuses of the War Hut counters and pair them with enough durable or damaging support to hold the intended formation.
Threaten exposed resources instead of repeatedly attacking a fortified center. Force the opponent to reveal where their defenders are, then use that information to protect your own expansion or approach from a better direction. Mobility is valuable because it creates choices; committing to the first visible target throws that advantage away.
Stealth and deception can improve information or positioning, but a hidden unit still needs a useful assignment. Scout a resource route, watch a flank, or prepare a coordinated strike. Leaving a valuable specialist idle in a decorative ambush does not create pressure by itself.
Treat sacrifice as a real cost
Sacrificing an economic unit gives up its future production as well as the resources required to replace it. Before committing, identify exactly what the favor or later perk will purchase and why that purchase matters now. A vague intention to make more myth units is weaker than a clear plan to complete an army and contest a particular resource.
Likewise, temporary divine possession should answer a problem your ordinary army cannot solve efficiently. Support the possessed unit, select an appropriate target, and plan for the temporary effect to end. Do not calculate the next engagement as though that burst of strength will remain permanently available.
Choose a god plan you can execute
Quetzalcoatl’s Tailwind can help a force reach a favorable engagement or leave a dangerous one. Decide which result is worth the cast before using it. Tezcatlipoca’s Obsidian Mirror makes the target player’s Archaic power relevant; choose by what the copied effect can accomplish in your position. Huitzilopochtli’s Blood Pact kills its affected unit afterward, so its temporary strength needs to buy something that survives the unit.
Choose the economy and positioning for your major god’s power. A defensive copied-power plan and an expansion-focused temporary burst make different demands on income, positioning, and scouting.
Practice one complete combat cycle
Start with a limited army and one support group. Choose a contested resource, move together, engage only with useful target access, and withdraw together if the fight deteriorates. Afterward, review ordinary resources spent, soldiers surviving, support surviving, and the territory gained. Add the tonalli and favor benefits to that picture. If they are the only positive result while your economy and army collapse, the cycle was not sustainable. Repeat until combat income strengthens a working position rather than masking an expensive loss.