A 4UC Vox Populi Guide: The Inca

These are an updated set of guides for the Vox Populi mod meant to help players learn the details and how to play each civ in the game. Whether new to civ entirely, experienced in civ but new to Vox Populi, or even well experienced with the mod and just looking for a refresher, these guides are designed to be useful to all. These guides were inspired by Zigzagzigal's guides, as they helped me learn a lot about the game when I first started playing it over a decade ago, and I wanted to provide a similar experience for the Vox Populi mod, which has become my go to way to play civ v, and is my favorite strategy game. For those looking for the download for the mod, it can be found here[forums.civfanatics.com]

With that out of the way, onto The Inca!

Before getting into the specifics of the civ, a few terms that I may be using during this guide will be defined here

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. All Naval and Air units gaining a promotion increasing their strength as they take damage from Imperialism.)
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% GWAM generation, +10% culture generation during golden ages and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Scaling with Era - Any trait scaling with era will double in the medieval era, then increase by the same amount every era afterwards (For example, a +1 bonus scaling with era would increase to +2 in the medieval, +3 in the renaissance, etc. until a max of +7 in the information era)
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.
UGP - Unique Great Person - A replacement for a great person that only one civilization can generate
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.
WLTKD - We love the king day.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.
ZOC - Stands for "Zone of Control" which is the effect that causes units to use all their movement if they move from a space adjacent to an enemy unit to another space still adjacent to that same unit

The Inca have a mountain start bias. Their UA, UI and the Inti Maceman all interact with mountains, so this is excellent for the Inca
Units can cross mountains and ignore terrain costs when entering hills or mountains

Cities, roads and railroads can be built on mountains

+1 +1 & +1 from mountains, scaling with era

A ranged unit

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (6 instead of 5)
  
• Higher ranged strength (7 instead of 6)
  
• Higher ranges (2 instead of 1)
  
• Obsoletes at Currency rather than Calendar

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

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

A melee unit

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (23 instead of 22)
  
• Obsoletes at Rifling rather than Gunpowder

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +25% combat strength in mountains and hills. +15hp(Sentinel of the Sun)

Positive Changes

• +2
  
• Total non specialist food consumption cannot exceed food production
  
• +5% & from city connections and industrial city connections

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 Inca have pretty much unparalleled mobility on land due to their UA. Combined with the Warak'aq they have an extremely strong army that is a bit stronger on defense then offense.
The Inca have no bonuses to culture or tourism
The Inca have a solid amount of science from their UA, but their infrastructure is top tier, especially if they have proper mountain terrain, but even without, the Pata-Pata and Qullqa give a lot of bonuses
Both the Incan UA, the Pata-Pata and the Qullqa give a solid amount of gold, especially late game, however The Inca do lack any diplomatic bonuses
Finally the Inca have no bonus to religion

Big mountains, every kind of hostile terrain on all sides, yeah, this is Cusco alright

All mountains give 1 production, gold, and science, scaling with era. At the start of the game this isn't quite good enough yields to make them a good enough tile to work and allow your city to actually grow, but even in the medieval era they become solid yields and from there grow to be truly incredible over the eras. You can also settle cities on these mountains, and if you aren't sacrificing anything by doing so, you should always do so, not only does this give your city a nice defense bonus, you are working the yields beneath it, most notably the science is a huge deal at the beginning of the game.

Of arguably even more importance is that all land units(even civilian) ignore terrain penalties moving into hills and mountains. This includes forest, desert, and snow (but not river crossings) as long as you are moving onto a hill. This gives you probably the most mobile army of any civ. Hills also give a small defensive bonus, so always position your units on hills if possible for both a mobility and combat boost.

Seems our neighbors are also a fan of slings. Shame ours are better

The most important part of Warak'aqs is that the Concussive Hits promotion. If a unit is attacked by a Warak'aq it gains the dazed condition for 5 turns, giving them a 15% combat strength penalty. Always attack with a Warak'aq first and you gain a massive edge in the fight. While stronger then the slinger with an additional range it is still somewhat difficult to fight a real war with just un-upgraded Warak'aqs, so I would recommend rushing Calendar so you can upgrade to archers for the power boost if you plan on actually fighting anyone this early, which combined with your UA I'd recommend doing so.

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

Since Warak'aqs are available so early, they obsolete very early as well, at a point in the game where you still won't have the capacity to build a ton of units. Delay currency as much as you can, but it may prove difficult to mass a lot of Warak'aqs before they expire, but with how strong Concussive Hits is, it is worth it to try and build as many as you can.

The Qullqa comes with 3 notable bonuses, on a building that would already be very early in a city's build order. First is simply just an extra +2 production, which again, on a building this early is a very big deal. This lets your cities get online much faster. Secondly is preventing your food consumption from citizens to be more then your food production. This doesn't account for specialists, but still, early game this prevent starvation. Given The Inca's penchant for settling in mountains and hills, they often find themselves in very food short areas, so the Qullqa can at least keep the city stable until either buildings or tile improvements can give more food.

Qullqas also give extra gold from city connections, which probably won't add up to an immense amount, but more importantly gives extra production from industrial city connections. For such an early building it gives a great payoff much later in the game, given a solid production boost once your railroads and seaports are built up.

Despite all of The Inca's early advantages, their UA, the Warak'aq, and even the Qullqa, the Pata-Pata may still be the most impactful of all of them.

The start of something great

Pata-Patas give as much food as a freshwater farm, and more production then a mine. The food is especially important given the lack of food otherwise in hill and mountain heavy areas, but the production means you aren't losing out from not building mines. They also gain the same adjacency bonuses that farms get, including from, and to other farms, as well as from mountains. Make sure you build farms on the flat tiles next to hills if possible, and the already great tiles will be even stronger. Pata-Patas also gain a lot of extra yields throughout the game, including some science and gold. Build these on every single resourceless hill in your empire.

Ah, smell that crisp mountain air. Makes me want to smash something

Compared to every other one of the Inca's uniques, the Inti Maceman doesn't completely change or significantly improve the Incan game, but that isn't to say it is a bad unit, as it still benefits greatly from the Incan UA in particular. The Inti Maceman doubles down on the Incan strengths, getting a large 25% combat boost when in hills or mountains. The mountain part is only useful defensively (unless you're up against a Carthaginian Atlas Elephant) but the hill part can be used to smash anyone who tries to challenge you in the hills. Probably more important though is the extra 15 hp, technically making Inti Maceman the highest hp units of their era, and every era as they are upgraded.

• +25% combat strength in mountains and hills. +15hp(Sentinel of the Sun)

The Inca should start with Progress to get their Pata-Patas built faster, then Fealty for the general infrastructure boosts. Their third policy depends on their victory route. Imperialism for domination and Rationalism for science.

Opener: A solid bit of science and culture. Should get you to your second policy almost immediately

Liberty: Getting a worker online to get your luxuries and hills improved quickly

Organization: A nice bit of production, and even more benefits to your workers

Expertise: Even more production to get your cities online fast

Equality: If you've been expanding fast and/or conquering happiness might somewhat of a problem. This should help a fair bit with that

Fraternity: Some solid food and science. You already are encouraged to connect cities quickly with the Qullqa, this gives extra benefits

Finisher: A nice influx of gold to keep you going until your mountains really get good

Opener: You aren't necessarily doing a ton with faith, might as well get a decent building from it

Nobility: Faster production towards two very important medieval buildings? Yes please

Serfdom: You're hopefully working a bunch of mountains and hills, so this gives a bit of faith and culture for doing so

Divine Right: You're bound to have a decent bit of happiness issues, so this is a little bit of a relief. Plus the extra border growth is nice.

Fiefdoms: A little bit extra help towards unhappiness, plus better internal trade if you are doing that.

Organized Religion: If/Once you can get a religion properly set up, this will help keep it going

Finisher: A nice bit of yields in all your cities assuming you've got your majority religion well spread.

Opener: The extra great general movement is huge, plus you can't complain about cheaper units

Regimental System: Generals are important, and this makes them even better at boosting your army (and navy for admirals)

Civilizing Mission: You'll be doing lots of conquering, this just makes those cities you get this late actually useful.

Exploitation: The Inca tend to build more farms then most, this makes them at least vaguely keep up with your Pata-Patas

Colonialism: Yields from buildings you want, and extra bonuses from monopolies you probably have. Very nice

Martial Law: Happiness could be a fairly big problem at this point in the game, and this is potentially a lot.

Finisher: While quite strong on land, your navy and air force are relatively generic, so this helps a decent bit with that.

Opener: More food to add to the pile, plus the all important scientist specialists are better to work

Employment Law: Both a nice production boost, and lets your massive food yields go even farther

Liberalism: Better specialists, and more great people during golden ages. Very nice

Mass Education: Feel free to take this earlier if you have an opportunity to grab an expensive ahead of time tech and/or are ready to start building public schools en masse

Emancipation: You should have a very large population by this point, so this could be a massive amount of culture and a golden age to boot

Secularism: All those academies you probably have are really gonna be amazing now

Finisher: Makes it a bit harder for spies to steal your stuff, plus a nice aid to reduce unhappiness.

A science Inca prefers Order but a domination Inca is going to want Autocracy

Workers Faculties: Free factories(note, not needing coal) that increase your science? Yes please

Peace, Land, Bread: A great boost to your already large city growth

Communism: Lets your money go further into infrastructure, and makes it easier to get out wonders

Five Year Plan: A massive production boost, even ignoring the boost to Pata-Patas, and you also get that

Great Leap Forward: Should help push you fast towards the end of the tech tree

Spaceflight Pioneers: Gives you a bunch of science to get to spaceship techs, and lets you use your engineers to push out your spaceship parts almost immediately
Military Industrial Complex: This will give you a ton of science from Pata-Patas.

Elite Forces: Better new troops, better current troops, better army

Lebensraum: Some nice boosts for border growth, citadels, and city razing, all things you are doing and using

Lightning Warfare: Faster generals, and better land melee units. Compounded with your UA this gives you an oppressive, mobile army

Martial Spirit: Time this carefully, and you can use the attack bonus to win the game before it expires

Air Supremacy: Helps you get up an air force fast, allowing for easy air dominance

Terrain/resource specific pantheons are not listed here unless they have some other synergy with a civ's uniques, however they can often be a great choice if the terrain/resources you start with favors them

Goddess of Nature: Lets you get even more out of your mountains, especially early, where they are at their worst

Goddess of the Home: Food may be scarce early, this should largely alleviate that.

Council of Elders: A great boost to your science

Hero Worship: If you are committed to lots of conquest, this is an amazing choice

Cathedrals: A big bonus to all the farms you're probably building

Teocallis: If you're committing to lots of warfare, this makes your army much better

Orders: Great choice if you plan to go domination, just like Teocallis

Mosques: A nice bit of science, but also a lot of culture, the one thing The Inca lack

Zealotry: Allows you to really put your faith towards domination if that's your path

Mendicancy: Lets you really compete with spreading your religion

Divine Teachings: The best reformation belief for any science civ

Crusader Spirit: A huge boost to your army strength

Defender of the Faith: A good backup to Crusader Spirit if someone gets it first

Temple of Artemis: Lets you build up your Warak'aq army a lot easier

Statue of Zeus: A bit hard to nab given the usual Incan tech path, but can be a great boon to your early wars

Terracotta Army: A boost to fighting with extra culture

Great Library: A free tech to boost you into the medieval to make your mountains worth working

Oracle: Almost a free tech and policy. Great for any civ

Forbidden Palace(Progress Only): Lets your gold go a lot farther towards your infrastructure

Machu Picchu: Not only should this be easy for you to build, but it compounds with the Qullqa for some powerful city connections

Red Fort(Fealty Only): Build this in a border city and either let it sit comfortably safe, or use it as a staging ground

Porcelain Tower: Build this in the city with the most mountains and reap the science benefits

Neuschwanstein: A big happiness boost, which you probably need
Kremlin(Order Only): A free policy, plus if you need to get more armor units built you can do that much faster now

Prora(Autocracy Only): A free policy, plus a decent bit of happiness which you definitely need

Bletchley Park(Rationalism Only): Makes it much harder for spies to steal your tech lead and/or mess with your cities

Pentagon(Imperialism Only): All but guarantees you will have the best air force in the world

Hubble Space Telescope(Science): A free scientist to get you to spaceships, plus production boosts to actually build them

Great Firewall(Science): Makes it all but impossible for spies to steal from you

CERN: Two free techs to finish out the tech tree. What more do you want?

The Incan bonuses may seem relatively straightforward, but there are a few quirks in the way they work that can trip someone up

While you absolutely want to settle in mountainous regions early, mountain tiles aren't really workable until the medieval era. For whatever reason though, the city governor likes to work them over better food and production tiles. Keep an eye on cities in the early game with lots of mountains, and lock food and production tiles if you need to.
While I mentioned this in the Warak'aq section, it bares repeating that they are an excellent unit, but since they obsolete so early, it can be hard to build up their numbers. Delay Currency as long as you can, and build as many Warak'aqs as you can before you finally have to.
These points go together in that there is basically no reason to build a mine on a resourceless hill instead of a Pata-Pata, and there is no reason to not build farms next to hills if possible, so you can further increase the adjacency of Pata-Patas
Mountains can be a great retreat route, but units cannot heal when on a mountain, so a weak unit can easily be shot and killed by ranged units. Pull them past the mountains so they can heal in safety

The Inca are able to use terrain normally difficult for other civs extremely effectively, both in warfare and city building. However, they have certain weak periods that can be exploited

If it all possible avoid fighting The Inca around hills, but that's far easier to say then do, as hills are just about everywhere. Mounted units are your best option as they can equal the movement bonuses The Inca get in hills. If you instead have to fight, especially invade around mountains, ranged units will be necessary as your units can't follow them into the mountains I almost finished the entire guide before realizing I was spelling it as "Waraq'ak". Feels bad

Warak'aqs can severely weaken your army, and can be difficult to pin down thanks to the Incan UA. However, they obsolete very early, meaning it will be difficult for The Inca to amass many of them. Once upgraded to composite bowman and beyond, do whatever you can to kill them, and The Inca lose one of their biggest military advantages

Messing up Incan roads and blockading their cities can have an outsized effect on the Incan economy, so keep that in mind.
The Pata-Pata is what allow the Inca to really work with otherwise poor terrain domestically. Given they are in hills it is also somewhat difficult to pillage them. While The Inca aren't exactly the easiest civ to conquer, the Pata-Pata does give you an excellent reason to want to do so.
Inti Maceman double down on the Incan strengths, so just do your best to not fight Inti Maceman in hills, and they should only prove to be a slightly bulkier melee unit
Early Game Warmongers: The Inca are almost impossible to crack this early, given the Warak'aq and the difficult hill and mountain terrain. I'd attack someone else if at all possible, but if you are determined, consider bringing horseman to take out Warak'aqs and chase units across hills

Mid Game Warmongers: Take out any upgraded Warak'aqs, and bring a mobile army if possible to even the odds in hills

Late Game Warmongers: Air and naval units care little about hills and mountains. Use them as much as possible to weaken or fully conquer The Inca before you need to go in on land

Scientific Players: If in a hilly area of your own, make sure to stay up to date on unit and defensive techs, particularly those with mounted units

Diplomatic Players: The Inca often struggle with happiness, so banning their luxuries can be a big blow.

Cultural Players: As long as you aren't in risk of invasion, The Inca should prove little direct competition.

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