These guides are designed to help players who are new to Civ but still interested in Vox Populi, familiar with Civ but new to Vox Populi, or even those well versed in Vox Populi who just want to see if there's anything they didn't know about a particular civilization. I am actually a big fan of Zigzagzigal's Civ guide series, and it really helped me learn a lot about the game, and I wanted to bring a similar experience for fans of the Vox Populi or Community Balance Patch modpack. For those interested in the modpack it can be downloaded here[forums.civfanatics.com]

Anyways, without further ado, onto the Inca!

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. +33% Great Scientist rate and +25% growth in all cities from rationalism.)
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% Great Person Rate and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Tall Empire - A low number of cities with a high population each.
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 and used by one Civilization.
UI - Unique Improvement - A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn't replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single 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.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

The Inca have a mountain start bias, which is great for their UA and UI. It also gives you a great chance of being in very hilly terrain, which is also great for the UA and UI


Units ignore terrain costs when on hills and may cross mountains

Cities, Roads and Railroads may be built on mountains

Mountains provide & & scaling with era




A ranged unit



Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (7 instead of 6)
  
• Higher ranged strength (7 instead of 6)
  
• Higher range (2 instead of 1)
  
• Obsoletes at Currency rather than Calendar

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• Ranged attacks cause the target to have -15% combat strength for 5 turns. Ignore zone of control(Concussive Hits)

These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the Incan uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking


The Waraq'ak can be tough to face, and the Incan ability to ignore hills, and move through mountains where almost nothing can touch them is powerful if situational on both offense and defense
Science is probably the Incas best victory route. Mountains will provide a surprisingly high amount of science if you have enough of them, as well as a good amount of food. Terrace Farms will give tons of food, either on their own if you have lots of mountains, or by giving lots of extra food to nearby farms. They also give a good bit of production to offset not building as many mines.
Mountains give as much gold as they do science and food, meaning you should have a solid economy given enough mountains
The Inca lack any bonuses towards culture, diplomacy or religion.

The Inca have an almost unparalleled ability to traverse the map. Units ignore terrain costs moving into hills. This is more then just ignoring the penalty of hills, it will even allow units to ignore a river crossing if they are moving onto a hill. Forests and Jungles will be removed as the game moves on, meaning that even civs with bonuses towards moving through them, mainly the Aztecs and Iroquois, will be less able to benefit from it as the game moves on. You can't however, destroy hills. Hills will be there for the entire game, and while some areas of the map are likely hillier then others, there is usually at least one hill near wherever your units are.


I can see my house from here!

Moving through hills faster would already give a great amount of mobility for both exploration and combat, but mountains act identical to hills for the Inca in terms of movement cost. No other civ can do this except with two units, highly upgraded scout units and the helicopter gunship. The Inca can do it with every unit. Keep ranged units up in mountains to prevent retaliation from melee fighters. Ambush enemy units and then retreat back into the mountains with cavalry. Pull back injured units away from the fight where the enemy can't pick them off. Mountain movement gives the Inca unparalleled levels of flexibility in unit positioning. Do note that units on mountain tiles cannot heal, so you shouldn't keep weak units in mountains as they are still at risk of ranged fire. If this was the only part of the Incan UA it would already be pretty good if a bit situational given mountains can't be found everywhere, but there's more.


This screenshot was before the update that gave Incan mountains gold, just note that you have as much gold as you do food or science

Mountains give +1 food, science, and gold, scaling with era the same way the Moroccan UA does, increasing to +2 in the medieval era and then +1 every era after that, for a maximum +7 of each yield per mountain in the Information Era. That's about half an academy, a slightly worse farm and about a village in one tile. Early game this still doesn't quite make them workable tiles, but once medieval era rolls around 2 food is decent enough and the science and gold on top is nice, and it just keeps increasing from there.


Just a happy accident that the mountain city I founded was Machu

Finally, you can build cities, roads and railroads on mountains. This might make for some slightly cheaper road routes as you can skip having to cut around the mountains, as well as maybe having cities that can reach a few more resources. It is actually worth building on mountains if you can though, because the food and science will stay on the city center, increasing with era, so you get those extra yields without needing to use a citizen. Technically speaking, if you build a city on a mountain tile, surrounded only by mountain tiles, it would be unconquerable. Building roads on mountains however, does allow enemy units to move onto the mountain tile, so try to limit how many roads you build on mountains, as you could lose your advantage on defense.

One last weird thing to note about mountains; a unit standing on a mountain will still have their line of sight blocked by a hill tile with a forest/jungle on it, so for line of sight mountains are no better then hills.

The Slinger is by itself, not a great unit. It has weak stats, and only has 1 range. The Waraq'ak, in contrast, has better stats, more range, and an incredibly powerful promotion


Above: The dazed status effect is caused by Concussive Hits

This promotion is Concussive Hits. This causes any unit hit by a Slinger to have -15% combat strength for 5 turns. 5 turns is a very long time, and 15% is a major amount. It's the same penalty a unit suffers when they are defending in a marsh, except it also applies on offense. As you upgrade your units, this effectively means that as long as you can get the first shot, even if they get close melee units of the same era will almost certainly lose. Concussive Hits also allows Slingers to ignore Zone of Control, which coupled with your mountain and hills movement makes them really hard to pin down.

If you find another civ early enough, a few Waraq'ak should be all you need to take out their few units, and siege down their city before they get up walls

• Units hit by this unit have -15% combat strength for 5 turns. Ignores Zone of Control(Concussive Hits)

Waraq'ak come very early, meaning your production and economic base may not be in the best place to build them en masse for upgrading. I'd wait till the late when you are close to currency, then build a lot of them. Upgrade them into composite bowmen, then conquer whoever last looked at you funny.

Waraq'ak are a powerful unique unit that, assuming they aren't killed (which they have things to help prevent) carry over powerful upgrades throughout the entire game. The Incan UA allows for unmatched movement, as well as science and food in normally desolate terrain. Despite all those powerful advantages, the Terrace Farm is still arguably the strongest of the 3 Incan Uniques.

Some quick math on Terrace Farms

The Likely Maximum Yield is considering a Terrace Farm with 3 adjacent mountains, anything more is pretty unlikely. But still, 9 food is a large amount, not to mention the production, as well as any other additional yields from policies. Normal farms, on the other hand, have a likely maximum yield of 7 food, and a theoretical maximum of 9 food. Of course, there is one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet. Mountains are needed for these yields. A Terrace Farm out on a random, mountainless hill only has 6 food. However, it is still worth building Terrace Farms on those hills instead of mines most of the time, because Terrace Farms give adjacent farms +1 food, which is a better adjacency rate then 2 adjacent farms giving a 3rd farm +1 food. No matter if they are out in the open, or in their home mountains, the Inca are guaranteed more food then most as long as they have a hill somewhere.


Above: Early game, even a Terrace Farm with no mountains is a stellar tile, 1 food 4 production is solid, let alone 3 or 4 food.

The Inca should start with Progress to help get the worker infrastructure to build Terrace Farms as fast as possible, go Fealty next for more growth, and finish with Rationalism to bump up science a lot.


Opener: If at all possible, try to avoid growing your capital much before you get this, you'll get more science that way. The culture you immediately get from this will likely almost be enough for the next policy

Liberty: If you don't have any worker techs yet, it might be a good idea to save this for later, otherwise this makes sure you're improving stuff ASAP

Organization: Faster workers, settlers, and even great people all help infrastructure get built just a little bit faster

Expertise: Faster building construction is great, especially in the early game where production might be sparse. Also pairs great with Goddess of the Home if you took that.

Equality: This will be nice to reduce unhappiness both as your cities grow large and as you conquer with upgraded Slingers

Fraternity: The food won't be a big factor soon, but the extra science is pretty decent.

Finisher: This should be a good bit of gold, which is important to upgrade your Slingers as the Inca lack a gold bonus


Opener: Monasteries are a solid building, and the cheaper building purchases are nice

Nobility: You probably didn't have much trouble building castles before this, but this will still make it faster, you really just want the happiness this policy will give.

Divine Right: More happiness, more culture for having happiness

Serfdom: A little bit of culture and production, plus much better internal trade routes to enhance growth even more. Your hill start means you might have a bit more sheep then most, so this will help make you a bit less sad you can't build Terrace Farms on sheep. A bit less sad.

Burghers: More production and a bit less unhappiness.

Organized Religion: Even if you didn't found a religion, the extra faith is nice to purchase great people with later on.

Finisher: Just get someone to hard convert you or keep your own religion strong and enjoy some extra yields


Opener: Little bit of science and a small bit of production too. Happiness should become an issue of the past for you as well. Grow to your heart's content

Scientific Revolution: Observatories are significantly more useful to you then any other civ, as you were already seeking out mountains, so this should actually be a lot of science.

Empiricism: Helps make sure other civs won't leech off your science lead.

Rights of Man: A bit of extra yields across the empire, this should actually be a good bit of food as you are probably working a lot of tiles instead of specialists

Enlightenment: Postponing this as long as possible means you're getting a more expensive tech for free.

Free Thought: Extra science from Great Scientists is always good

Finisher: More Great Scientists, More Growth, All is good for the Inca

A Science Inca should go Order to maximize your infrastructure, but if you are committed to domination Autocracy will serve you better


Worker's Faculties: Free Factories is a nice boost, plus they'll now give some extra science

Communism: You lack strong production bonuses, and there are some crucial late game science wonders, this will help you bridge the gap.

Peace, Land, Bread: If you've been doing lots of conquering, both poverty and building maintenance are probably a big drain, so this helps both problems and gives some growth


Academy of Sciences: Free Research Labs possibly before you have them researched will help push your science up like crazy

Five Year Plan: Terrace Farms normally just give food and some production, but not as much as a mine. This is still less then a mine but it puts you a lot closer and is still a huge boost


Spaceflight Pioneers: Save every engineer you get for when you can build spaceships and win the game almost instantly.


Military-Industrial Complex: The Bulk of the Incan army is likely to be upgraded Slingers that you want to keep upgrading, so cheaper ones are nice. Oh and don't forget your Terrace Farms are giving some science now, which is nice

Elite Forces: New units start better, old units get better quicker, all you could want for a world-conquering force

New World Order: Not only will you have lots of cities, you'll likely have several large ones, so any unhappiness reduction is a must


Third Alternative: The Inca lack a gold bonus, so this will make sure you can actually maintain your army.

Police State: Another great bonus to help manage happiness


Air Supremacy: Free Airports in every city means that you almost don't need a navy as long as you have a city on every continent. Also makes air units quicker to build if you need to.

Temple of Artemis: You are already good at growth, and at making awesome ranged units. Why not do both better?


Oracle: Almost a free tech and almost a free social policy, what more could you want?

Terracotta Army: You'll likely kill your fair share of units, and your workers are gonna be building a ton of stuff. Get culture from kills and build stuff faster.


Forbidden Palace(Progress Only): Cheaper purchases are nice considering your lack of any gold bonuses

Machu Picchu: A fantastic wonder considering how many mountains you'll probably have. I'd try to build it in Machu for historical accuracy, but that's just me.


Porcelain Tower: Extra science and a scientist are always great to have.

Red Fort(Fealty Only): If you have any cities near a rival you haven't conquered yet that you are worried could be a target, build this and watch their assault be met with failure.


Eiffel Tower: Helps to get those last social policies so you can actually build late game wonders. Inca lack culture and may find themselves building spaceship parts without enough policies to build Information Era wonders

Neuschwanstein You'll certainly have a mountain to build this on, and might have some happiness problems, so this is worth building.


Empire State Building: The extra gold is desperately needed, the extra Great Person is nice too.

Prora(Autocracy Only): Your happiness problems may not be completely over, but they are certainly lessened.

Kremlin(Order Only): You mostly want it for the free social policy


Bletchley Park: Helps prevent enemy spies leeching off of your tech lead, also makes your spies a lot better which is nice.


CERN: Two free techs is amazing, plain and simple

Great Firewall: If you had problems with spies before, you will no longer

Hubble Space Telescope: An essential wonder for a science win, both giving two Great Scientists and increasing the production speed of Spaceship Parts

The Inca aren't the most complicated civ, but their playstyle is definitely a bit unusual, so mistakes can definitely happen.


It is preferable to build a city on a mountain, IF it can reach all the resources you want it to. Sometimes a mountain spot is just in the middle of nowhere, and while they are significantly better for the Inca then anyone else, they still need luxury and strategic resources


Waraq'aks are a good unit for their time, but they can become quickly obsolete. There is a pretty short window where Waraq'aks are effective without being upgraded. Once spearman and walls start appearing, they aren't going to be very effective. Even upgraded into archers, they aren't much better. It's not until composite bowmen and even moreso crossbowman that they become more effective


It might be hard in the early game to build up a large amount of Waraq'ak due to your lack of infrastructure, however their promotion is good enough to warrant using them, albeit in upgraded form. Waraq'ak into composite bowmen are pretty strong, however Machinery locks you out of building more Waraq'ak. Make sure you have a good amount of Waraq'ak before you research it.


There is no building in Vox Populi that requires a city be next to a mountain, so if you put a city next to one, that is a wasted Terrace Farm spot. The only time you'd want to is if that spot, and not the spot on the mountain, allows you to reach extra resources that can't be easily picked up by a second city.


Terrace Farms do give additional production, but it is less then mines, and therefore you might be a little short on production. The next best thing to mines are lumbermills, so make sure to keep around plenty of forests, especially ones that aren't next to or on a hill

The Inca have strong growth, with defensive terrain that they can move through better then anyone else, and a powerful unique unit to go with that movement. However, their reliance on those exact things can be their undoing.


The Inca are going to settle in the mountains as much as possible, and I wouldn't try to contest them on this, if you settle that land first they will use it against you in their invasion. However, mountain land tends to be, for every other civ, not very good. This means that the Inca might leave traditionally good land alone, at least for a time, so you can grab it up yourself. If you are trying to counter the Incan movement options, ranged units are your best bet if they are anywhere near mountains, as they can still attack them there. If there are no mountains but still some hills, mounted units are the best bet as they can give chase even through hills, unless of course the Incans have their own mounted units, although even then mounted units are the best bet, you'll just still be at a disadvantage.


Waraq'aks themselves are obnoxious but not much of a threat once you get up spearman and walls. It is when the Incans start upgrading them they become a threat. Mounted Ranged are probably the best option if they aren't in the mountains, although several mounted melee units can do the job too. Regular ranged units can do ok, and are the best option if they do have nearby mountains, although in equal numbers they will likely lose. Once the Incans upgrade to composite bowmen, the goal is to kill any former Waraq'ak at almost any cost. There likely won't be that many of them considering how early they come, maybe around 10 at the most, but even a few make the whole army fight better.


Trying to take good Terrace Farm spots yourself is a bad idea as you are just asking the Inca to invade. The best bet is to try and send some raiding units into Incan lands to pillage them. They may move effectively through mountains but mountains block city ranged fire as much as it does for any other civ. Plus if you do successfully invade the Inca Terrace Farms will be great tiles.


Early-Game Warmongers: The Inca are gonna be a tough nut to crack this early. I would wait to invade until later. If the Inca do found a city outside of their mountains, or just get unlucky and don't spawn near any mountains, they actually shouldn't be too bad, Waraq'ak are annoying but shouldn't deal much damage and can be taken down with enough persistence.

Mid-Game Warmongers: Try to take out their upgraded Waraq'ak, they won't be able to rebuild them, and while their mountain movement will be annoying, if you make sure to have a strong enough military with enough ranged units mixed in, they should go down pretty easy.

Late-Game Warmongers: At this point mountains can be circumvented through air units, siege unit's indirect fire, and even the helicopter gunship just being able to move on them. Hills aren't as big an issue either since units are much faster. The Inca should be a decently easy target, and a lucrative one at that.

Scientific Players: The Inca have a decent amount of science bonuses and lots of growth/production. They don't have a particular weakness to a strictly scientific strategy. Just try your best to stay ahead and grab good science wonders. A possible option is to try to invade with a superior force, especially from the sea if the Inca are coastal enough. Their mountain bonus doesn't help against ships, although upgraded Waraq'ak could still prove a nuisance.

Cultural Civs: The Inca lack culture and shouldn't prove a roadblock to your tourism. In fact, if you go a different ideology then them you could give them a lot of issues on the happiness front, possibly even forcing an ideology switch.

Diplomatic Civs: The Inca have a weak economy but a warmonger edge so passing global peace accords will hurt them a lot. The standard scientific counters of Arts Funding and Spaceflight Regulations help too.

These guide cover every civ in the game, and can be used as a quick reference

• Civ Summaries

• America (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Arabia (Culture/Science)
  
• Assyria (Science/Domination)
  
• Austria (Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Aztecs (Domination/Science)
  
• Babylon (Science)
  
• Brazil (Culture)
  
• Byzantium (All)
  
• Carthage (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• The Celts (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• China (Domination/Culture)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• Egypt (Culture)
  
• England (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• Ethiopia (Science)
  
• France (Domination/Culture)
  
• Germany (Diplomacy/Science)
  
• Greece (Domination/Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Huns (Domination)
  
• India (Science/Culture)
  
• Indonesia (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• The Iroquois (Domination)
  
• Japan (Domination/Culture)
  
• Korea (Science/Domination)
  
• The Maya (Science/Domination)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Morocco (Culture/Diplomacy)
  
• The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination)
  
• The Ottomans (Domination/Science)
  
• Persia(Domination/Culture)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Rome (Domination/Science)
  
• Russia (Science/Domination)
  
• The Shoshone (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Siam (Diplomacy/Science/Culture)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Domination/Culture)
  
• Sweden (Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomacy/Culture/Domination)
  
• The Zulus (Domination)