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[ENG] Campaign: Montezuma #5 The Boiling Lake · Start the game already!

0:27
Welcome back to the Aztec Campaign series and to Mission 5
0:32
out of 6. We're slowly approaching the
0:35
final and I have to admit I was really looking forward to
0:39
continuing this campaign since I roughly remembered what was
0:43
coming from way back. And let's just say my memory
0:47
didn't deceive me. In the previous mission, after
0:51
the Spaniards killed the Aztec ruler Moctezuma, we managed not
0:55
only to drive out Cortez and his men, along with their Tlacscalan
1:00
allies, from our capital Tenochtitlan, but also to
1:05
inflict heavy losses on them. While the Aztec warriors were
1:10
pursuing Cortez, a successor to Moctezuma was being sought, and
1:14
we know him all too well. Passed down to you by
1:18
Gwaltdemuk, Emperor of the Nostitlan.
1:22
The death of Montezuma only served to further inflamed the
1:25
fury of my people. I plan to lead the attack
1:28
personally against the Spanish. That is as it should be, Cuau
1:33
Demo, the priests told me. For you are now our emperor.
1:39
I took my place on the Igpali throne, and the headdress of the
1:43
Emperor was placed upon my head. A crown is never a comfortable
1:48
thing to wear. Cortez had still not made it far
1:52
from Penostiplan, for the Spanish were weighed down with
1:56
our stolen gold as they fled around the shores of the lake.
2:00
My warriors pursued them in canoes.
2:04
I sent additional warriors by land, for it was obvious now
2:07
that Cortez was attempting to flee back to the safety of his
2:11
allies. In Flash Gala, we caught up with
2:13
the Spanish on the north side of Lake Teshkoco.
2:17
In Guachtemoc's account, he was appointed ruler by the priests
2:21
and that did make me curious about how Aztec rulers were
2:24
actually chosen from European medieval history.
2:28
For example, we know hereditary succession where the eldest son
2:33
of a monarch automatically becomes his successor by
2:36
birthright no matter how old he is.
2:39
For example, Henry the Fourth was made Co ruler at the young
2:43
age of three and sole ruler of the Holy Roman Empire at age 6
2:49
in the mid 11th century. Unfortunately, the process of
2:53
appointing new rulers among the Aztecs is poorly documented.
2:58
The Aztec Empire should be imagined as a kind of
3:01
confederation. Many Aztec vessels had rulers
3:05
appointed by the Aztecs, loyal to them, of course, and in
3:08
charge of mainly overseeing tribute payments.
3:12
The succession in those vessel states varied.
3:15
Sometimes it was the sons of the monarchs, sometimes the brothers
3:19
of the deceased, and according to the Encyclopedia Britannica,
3:24
in rare cases a council selected the most capable candidate from
3:28
the King's relatives. We don't know exactly who sat on
3:32
such councils, but it's quite likely that priests were
3:36
involved. So it doesn't make sense what
3:38
Quaktamak's been telling us in this intro.
3:41
Since the interim king after Mctutsum of the Second had no
3:45
surviving brothers and or children, the choice fell on
3:49
Kwak Temak, who as a cousin was at least distantly related to
3:54
his predecessors. Montezuma's son, incidentally,
3:58
had been killed during La Noche Triste and otherwise would
4:02
certainly have been a candidate as well.
4:05
We don't know exactly when Kwak Temak was born, but it is
4:09
assumed that he was about 25 years old when he was crowned.
4:15
That's quite impressive, and Kwokhtemak is basically the kind
4:19
of candidate modern employers have in mind when they describe
4:23
their ideal hire. Just two weeks ago, a student
4:27
came to my office for advice on career prospects and education.
4:31
She had just finished her master's in something that's
4:34
called a Buch Bisenchaft in German.
4:36
It's, it's well literally translated to book studies,
4:40
science of books, whatever that is in in English.
4:43
But she couldn't find a job because employers expected her
4:47
to already have work experience, even though she just had
4:52
graduated. Kwak Temak was the same age as
4:56
that student who is now beginning another degree with
4:59
better job prospects. But one must remember that Kwak
5:02
Temak's life expectancy back then was only about half of
5:06
hours. Harsh times back then.
5:09
But Kwok Tamar came from a very good house.
5:13
He was the son of the 8th Aztec ruler.
5:17
Oh God, I forgot to look up the name.
5:19
I think he's pronounced Hui Subtle.
5:22
Probably butchered that one. Anyway, this monarch he ranged
5:27
from 1486 to 15 O2, which again shows that succession did not
5:33
automatically pass to the King's son.
5:36
Unlike the student from my consultation, however, Kwak
5:40
Temak already had professional experience as a ruler.
5:44
In the year 1515, he became the ruler of Platelolko, a city
5:50
directly adjacent to Tenochtitlan, basically the
5:54
perfect training ground for a young leader.
5:57
He was only a bit over 20 years old at the time, but had already
6:02
distinguished himself as a capable warrior, capturing
6:05
enough prisoners to be elevated to becoming an Eagle Warrior.
6:10
And if all that weren't enough, marrying Moktatsuma the Second's
6:14
daughter certainly didn't hurt his chances.
6:18
So really, the student in my consultation shouldn't wonder
6:22
why she isn't getting hired. I bet job interviews would go
6:25
very differently if she showed up with, well, for human
6:29
sacrifices, for starters. Anyway, I digress.
6:33
My point was that the exact circumstances of Kwaktamak's
6:37
appointment as a ruler remain unclear, but the game's
6:41
narrative is at least plausible. What is certain, however, is
6:46
that it wasn't Kwaktamak who drove the Spaniards out of
6:48
Tenochtitlan or pursued them. That was still his predecessor,
6:52
Moktatsuma's brother, who then died after I think 70 days in,
6:57
as being the ruler. So as much as I like Kwaktamak,
7:01
we have to state that he's basically priding himself in
7:06
this campaign with doing something that he actually
7:09
didn't do. He's taking the credit for
7:12
driving out Cortez out of Tenochtitlan when in reality it
7:16
wasn't him. But for the sake of this mission
7:20
we'll just assume it was Quaktamoc.
7:23
He probably was part of the defence of Tenochtitlan maybe, I
7:28
don't know. I I haven't found any sources
7:31
that directly link Quartemox to be one of the soldiers that
7:36
drove out Cortez out of Tenochtitlan, or whether he was
7:41
someone who was pursuing Cortez. But he was a fearless warrior
7:47
that we know. Even after becoming the ruler of
7:51
the Aztec Empire, he offered relentless resistance against
7:55
the Spanish and is therefore regarded as a national hero in
7:59
Mexico even 500 years later today.
8:03
In this campaign, we managed to hold off the Spanish north of
8:07
Lake Texaco. More precisely, this 5th mission
8:11
probably takes place at Lake Zumpango, the northernmost part
8:17
of Lake Texaco, which besides the main lake, also included
8:21
four connected lakes. They were all interconnected,
8:25
with Zumpango being the northernmost of these four
8:28
lakes. Now that we've been able to pin
8:31
down the Spanish, our goal is to defeat both them and their tax
8:35
Calen allies, hopefully once and for all.
8:38
We get there from the South and have to destroy their joint
8:42
fortress in the north of the lake.
8:44
In the far South we have a town centre and some farms, while in
8:49
the east we have a heavily fortified stronghold with a
8:52
castle in various military buildings.
8:55
That castle probably represents an Aztec military island in Lake
9:00
Shaltokan. It took me some time, but the
9:04
map in this 5th mission does a pretty good job representing the
9:07
size of the historical clashes. Sure, the scale is totally off,
9:12
but who cares, It's a video game.
9:15
The map clearly mirrors real places, and I for one love that.
9:19
So after we've gotten this overview, I think we can start
9:24
the mission at the beginning. We have a few ships which I
9:28
immediately sent north. When I later tried to select
9:32
them, nothing happened. It quickly became clear that the
9:36
Spanish controlled the waters. But my soldiers tell me we can
9:41
gain a very different kind of advantage over the Spanish.
9:45
My emperor We have been studying Spanish horses and cannon and
9:49
have found that there is no reason Aztecs could not use
9:51
these weapons provided we had the proper materials.
9:54
If we capture Spanish horses, it is possible that we could train
9:58
Calvary of our own. If we capture their stores of
10:00
gunpowder, we could even create some cannons to use against the
10:04
Spanish. So whenever I hear something
10:07
like that, it usually means I have to send my units to the
10:10
remotest corners to find some hidden Spanish troops or horses.
10:14
But first we must chase down the Spanish.
10:19
The Spanish shall never again set food in Tenochtitlan.
10:22
Let none escape our blades. In the east, in front of a
10:26
fortress, we repel the Spanish with a group of Eagle Warriors,
10:31
Jaguar Warriors and Arbolesters while the Spanish flee N towards
10:36
the Tlaxalan allies. It doesn't help them though.
10:40
With my Arbs I focus on the Conquistadors and the Tlaxalan
10:44
Jaguar Warriors and the rest is up to my melee units.
10:48
After defeating them, I did actually find some horses hidden
10:53
by the Spanish. We have captured a Spanish
10:56
horse. If we return it to our citadel,
10:59
perhaps we can learn to ride it into battle.
11:02
Aha, so the Aztecs can indeed learn to ride.
11:06
Too bad. And the horses are penned in by
11:08
the fortified walls. Don't ask me why.
11:11
And it takes a while to free them.
11:14
While I'm waiting for my Eagle Warriors to punch down the
11:17
fortified walls, I scout the rest of the revealed man I find
11:23
in the West. There's a line of towers that
11:25
gives me a view of the jungle and also reveals stone and gold
11:29
deposits. Seems like a good spot to build
11:32
up my economy I think since where my Town Center stands
11:36
there's barely enough room for a few farms and a lumber camp so I
11:40
will have to expand quite quickly.
11:43
But the Plex callens noticed my expansion right away and sent
11:47
siege weapons and Jaguar warriors and crossbowmen to
11:51
destroy my Town Center that has just been built, forcing me to
11:55
build a new one further South under the protection of my
11:59
towers that were already pre built for me.
12:03
I also built a siege workshop to defend myself, which proved very
12:06
important. I also pulled back some of my
12:09
troops from the east to defend my new economy in the West, and
12:13
once I felt secure enough, I built a second Town Center at
12:17
the stone deposit, and shortly after that a castle to avoid
12:22
being pushed again. Along the way I discovered more
12:25
Spanish horses together with the ones in the east that I finally
12:29
freed up. I sent them all to my castle to
12:32
be trained. We have trained a horse rider.
12:35
You don't know it, but I just did you a huge favour.
12:39
You only had to hear that little sound bite once, but I had to
12:43
listen to it about 10 times in a row since all my horses arrived
12:47
simultaneously and triggered it each time.
12:51
This kind of got on my nerves because I first I thought my
12:54
game was broken because it just kept repeating the same and same
12:58
sound file. But anyway, it was probably just
13:02
a bit of annoying scripting. Thankfully, it's worth the wait.
13:06
The horses turn into Shallotte Warriors, the Aztec regional
13:10
cavalry unit that they share with the Maya and the Inca.
13:16
But here they have +6 attack and a very strong armor, making them
13:21
much more powerful than usual. I then focused entirely on the
13:26
West and began building a fleet of fast fire ships, since I
13:29
found a small island with a large gold deposit in the middle
13:32
of the Lake Texcoco that I desperately wanted to secure.
13:36
Unfortunately, there was no room for a castle or Town Center on
13:40
that little island, so I had to rely on ships until I had enough
13:45
stone for towers. Step by step I gained more
13:49
control not only over the waters, but also on both shores
13:53
West and east. During the game I also
13:57
discovered some Spanish trade cards they had abandoned, some
14:01
in the Far East apparently forgotten.
14:03
In their haste to flee, the Spanish abandoned these carts
14:06
filled with gunpowder. And some in the West by a
14:10
collapsed building. It is an old Spanish ammunition
14:13
depot. These wagon loads of gunpowder
14:15
might be useful. I sent all of those back to my
14:18
castle as well, just like I did with the horses.
14:21
Honestly, I expected hand cannon years that I could use against
14:24
the tux calons, but instead I got a little surprise.
14:29
We have created a bombard cannon.
14:31
We have created a bombard cannon.
14:33
We have created a bombard cannon.
14:34
We have created a Bombard Cannon.
14:37
Not so pleasant, right? I figured after the first time
14:40
you'd think you were safe, so I used all my podcasting power to
14:43
trick you. Ha ha, unfortunately this
14:46
doesn't just happen once in the mission, but I'll spare you the
14:49
repeats, or will I? No, honestly, I will, don't
14:53
worry. At least no one can say I didn't
14:55
give you the authentic gameplay experience, right?
14:58
In total I got 7 bombard cannons if you counted correctly, and as
15:03
you can imagine, I now felt unstoppable with these Spanish
15:07
weapons. It was easy to crush both Plex
15:10
calons and Spaniards at the same time.
15:13
In a spectacular 3 front war. I overran their defenses in the
15:18
West with Eagle warriors and Jaguar warriors and traps in the
15:23
east with bombard cannons and shlattle warriors that I all
15:26
conquered from the Spanish and from the water with fast fire
15:30
ships. It didn't take too long before I
15:33
destroyed the Claxcallon Town Center and they instantly
15:36
surrendered. Only the Spanish remained
15:40
entrenched deep in the jungle with multiple castles.
15:44
And to be honest, I was quite surprised by such heavy
15:47
fortifications considering they were supposed to be on the run
15:52
and fleeing from us. But pinned down as they were,
15:56
and thanks to my siege weapons, their castles fell 1 by 1, and
16:01
when I destroyed their last town centre, they surrendered even
16:05
though one of their castles was still standing.
16:08
What a great battle that wasn't. Sure enough, you don't have to
16:12
do it like me. You don't have to go all the way
16:15
and fight on all fronts at the same time.
16:18
But trust me, it was a lot of fun this way, because I actually
16:21
believe that this mission is probably very easy if you take
16:25
your time. And I also seized every
16:29
advantage that was presented to me in this mission, and
16:34
mercilessly turned the Spaniards own weapons against them.
16:38
I hope that the surviving Spanish on the edge of the lake
16:41
could see as their captured comrades were dragged up the
16:44
steps of the Great Pyramid. Perhaps they would then
16:48
understand why we feared the wrath of the feathered serpent
16:51
Quetzalcoatl. Perhaps they would know fear as
16:54
well. With the fighting having
16:57
subsided, there was much work to be done.
17:00
Our city had suffered much from the Spanish occupation and the
17:03
fighting in the streets. The priests set out to repair
17:07
the temples, for the Spanish had cast down the idols that we had
17:10
placed there. We began a celebration to give
17:14
thanks to the gods, and a great plague struck to Notch Ditlan.
17:19
Many of our people became hopeless and could only lie in
17:23
their beds. Many others died.
17:27
We did not know if the gods were still unhappy with us or if this
17:30
was some weapon unleashed by the Spanish.
17:33
Regardless, if Cortez returned, he would find a much weakened
17:38
city. I could not let that happen.
17:40
So says Quo Demuk, emperor of Tenochtitlan.
17:44
Cortez was incredibly lucky. Whatever he did, somehow he
17:48
always pulled through, and even when things went terribly wrong,
17:53
he survived. The disease Kwok Timok,
17:56
described here as a new weapon of the Spaniards, was smallpox.
18:01
But don't think Cortez deliberately infected the
18:04
Aztecs. He didn't even know they had no
18:07
immunity to smallpox. We can actually trace that it
18:11
wasn't Cortez or his men who brought smallpox, but rather one
18:15
of the Spanish conquistadors sent by the Cuban governor to
18:18
capture Cortez. Just imagine his luck.
18:22
Not only did he defeat his Spanish pursuers, but one of the
18:26
survivors happened to be infected with smallpox and that
18:30
soldier then rushed back with Contesto Tenochtitlan, since the
18:35
rest of the enforcements had been captured and sacrificed.
18:38
But that's not enough. Somehow that one soldier managed
18:42
to spread the disease to the population.
18:45
It is estimated that in the year 1520, Mexico's population was
18:50
about 22 million. Estimates say that 5 to 8
18:56
million died of smallpox because of that one soldier that somehow
19:01
miraculously survived. But 5 to 8,000,000 out of
19:06
22,000,000, that's one in four people have died, maybe even one
19:10
in three, because of smallpox. All because one damned soldier
19:17
carrying this virus among the victims was also the Aztec
19:22
ruler, by the way, and the successor of Moktat Zuma the
19:24
Second, which finally brought Kwokt Hammock to power.
19:28
So the campaign and real history of the Aztecs begin to converge
19:33
again. But why was this virus able to
19:36
wipe out so much of the Aztec population so quickly?
19:41
Smallpox was an incredibly deadly and infectious disease
19:45
caused by the variola virus. It appeared as hundreds or
19:49
thousands of small blisters all over the body, especially on
19:53
arms, legs and and the head. In English they are called
19:57
smallpox to distinguish them from the great pox, which is
20:01
syphilis, but unlike syphilis which is a sexually transmitted
20:05
disease. Smallpox spreads much easier via
20:09
droplets, like for example through coughing, which is
20:12
probably something that happens a lot on a battlefield.
20:15
Smallpox didn't take too long to manifest.
20:19
Within a week 1 was contagious. Within two weeks, severely I'll
20:24
infected people suffered repeated bouts of high fever,
20:28
chills, severe headaches, back pain and and inflammations of
20:33
their mucous membranes. I'll spare you the grosser
20:36
details, but one thing is clear, The Aztecs couldn't fight under
20:40
these conditions even if they didn't die from smallpox.
20:45
And unlike Europeans, the Aztecs had no prior exposure to
20:50
smallpox and thus no immunity, making them defenseless.
20:55
The short incubation period, easy transmission, and lack of
20:58
immune resistance combined into a deadly cocktail, which Cortez
21:03
and his men interpreted as a divine sign.
21:07
We're very lucky to live in modern times.
21:09
Since 1979, smallpox has been declared eradicated after
21:14
centuries of devastating humanity.
21:18
Earlier, I hinted that the campaign aligns a bit more with
21:21
real history at this point, but one key event was left out.
21:25
In reality, Cortez and his men fled W along Lake Texaco, then
21:30
around the north to the east to seek refuge with their Tax Calan
21:35
allies. After nearly a week on the run,
21:38
on July 7th in 1520, the Spaniards were intercepted by
21:43
the Aztecs on a plain near Ottompam.
21:46
That's where the real battle corresponding to this mission
21:49
took place, not north of Lake Texaco, but east of it near the
21:53
Tax Calan border. This battle went down in history
21:57
as the Battle of Otumba, A decisive Spanish victory over
22:02
the Aztecs. Allegedly about 500 Spaniards
22:06
with an unknown number of lux calons faced over 20,000 Aztecs.
22:11
So after a week long pursuit, the exhausted Spaniards faced
22:15
confident Aztec forces. But 2 Spanish strategies
22:20
instantly overwhelmed the Aztecs.
22:23
First, they used their remaining cavalry to charge into the Aztec
22:27
forces, terrifying the Aztecs, who apparently experienced
22:32
Spanish mounted combat and open planes for the very first time.
22:36
Second, the Spanish soldiers had orders to specifically target
22:41
Aztec leaders, recognizable by their feathered headdresses.
22:46
Spanish armor also gave them a massive advantage, shrugging of
22:50
Aztec weapons while their firearms tore through the ranks.
22:54
After the Aztec commander in Still, it's hard to explain how
23:02
so few Spaniards managed such a decisive victory.
23:07
Unfortunately, we again only have Spanish accounts.
23:11
Hardly unbiased, of course, but I found a book attempting to
23:15
fill these gaps suggesting that after killing the Aztec leaders
23:19
with the risky cavalry manoeuvres, and once cavalry was
23:23
no longer effective, the Spanish fought in square or even arc
23:28
formations, using natural and artificial defenses to grind
23:33
down the Aztecs. In other words, the Spaniards
23:37
were that annoying ranked player who walls in his last villages
23:42
and conks at the edge of the map and just refuses to resign.
23:46
And after thousands of Aztecs have died, their army withdrew
23:51
to Tenochtitlan and Cortez actually found refuge in
23:54
Tlaxcala to recover. Since the campaign is told from
23:59
the Aztec perspective, having the Aztecs lose would be hard to
24:03
represent, so Quochtemox narration frames the disaster as
24:07
being mainly due to smallpox. And don't get me wrong, smallpox
24:12
was probably very decisive in this battle.
24:14
I'd even suspect, though I found no sources to confirm it, that
24:18
smallpox weakened Aztecs were already fighting at Otumba.
24:22
Still, it's important to note that the Spaniards and their
24:25
allies won a truly crucial battle there.
24:28
While I was researching Otumba, I stumble on something that I
24:31
can't keep from you, and strategy gamers will probably
24:35
love this. I found an academic paper by an
24:39
author called Lewis about simulating the battle of Otumba
24:43
in Medieval 2 Total War. The article itself wasn't
24:48
relevant for us, so it didn't actually get into this episode,
24:51
but I checked out how the battle was represented in the game, and
24:56
while Cortez's army is definitely bigger than it was in
25:00
reality, it was pretty cool to see the battle recreated in
25:03
another game. I've included a video link in
25:07
the episode description if you want to check it out and wrap
25:11
things up. Here are a few fun facts about
25:14
this mission. First, the trade cards that
25:17
transform into bombed cannons when brought to your castle were
25:21
pulled by camels after update 5-6 OO 5.
25:26
Since the update introduced regional trade cards and Gaia
25:29
units used Saracen architecture, but later because camels had no
25:35
place in Mesoamerica. Later this was patched for this
25:39
mission. And Speaking of mounts, it's a
25:42
bit odd that in this mission we collect Spanish horses and turn
25:46
them into Shlat warriors. If you want to know more about
25:50
the Shlat warriors, check out my Civilization episode about the
25:54
Aztecs. In reality, the Aztecs did have
25:58
A use for these captured horses, though not in combat but for
26:02
mainly work and of course being the Aztecs for sacrifice.
26:08
So that's it for this mission and we're almost done with the
26:12
campaign. The next one will finish the
26:16
campaign and seal the fate of the Aztec Empire.
26:20
I hope you enjoyed this episode and I'll see you in the next
26:24
one.