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[ENG] Campaign: Montezuma #3 Quetzalcoatl · Start the game already!

0:27
Music Welcome back to the Aztec Campaign.
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We're back to talk about the reign of Moctezuma and the
0:32
Spanish invasion under Cortez. Today we're playing the third
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mission in which we have to fight the Spanish for the very
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first time. I'm quite looking forward to it
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because after learning the true story about Cortez and his
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narcissistic complexes, I'm actually eager to get back at
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him. This mission is called
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Quetzalcoatl and I'll be telling you a little more about this
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deity today. But first we'll get another
1:01
introduction from Kwakhtemoc. Right at the beginning he will
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mention that the lake around Tenochtitlan began to boil and
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caused a flood, which is ironically also the name of the
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5th mission. But this is a reference to the
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fifth of eight omens that were seen by the Aztecs as a sign of
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an incoming catastrophe. Passed down to you by Kwok
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Demuk, Jaguar warrior of Tenochtitlan, another Roman.
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The lake around the great city of Tenochtitlan rose and boiled.
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It foamed until it washed against the houses of the city,
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sweeping many of them into the lake.
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I accompanied our dignitaries to meet with the new arrivals.
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We journey towards the coast through the lands of our
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enemies, the Talatzkala. When we emerge from the forest,
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the strangers welcomed us, although they kept their weapons
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nearby. I told them that we were Aztecs,
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representatives of the great Montezuma.
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Their leader said that his people were Spanish, and he
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named himself Cortes, although he seemed pleased when we
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referred to him as Quetzalcoatl. Although their armor and animals
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seem otherworldly, they did not seem like gods to me.
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We presented Cortez gifts of finest cotton and plumes of bird
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feathers, but he seemed more interested in the gold
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ornaments. He asked again and again if
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there was more gold to be found into Notch the clan.
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By now Cortez had advanced all the way to the lands of the
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Clachcala. There was initial warfare made
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between Plachcala and the Spanish.
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However, when Cortez heard stories about the size of the
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Gnostic clan and the number of our brave Aztec warriors, he
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suggested that the Spanish and that Lash Gala join forces and
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attack the Aztecs. At the end of the second
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campaign mission, I told you the story of Cortez's century long
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deception, how he cunningly used Maktatsuma's bribes to feed the
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Spanish king the legend that he was supposedly the returning God
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of Ketzar Quatl, which was not true at all.
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Moctezuma tried to get rid of Cortez early on by bribing him,
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but Cortez couldn't return home because he faced the gallows for
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sailing to America without permission and conquering the
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country. I have also told you that the
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campaign unfortunately takes Cortez story as if it were
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reality and therefore retells not the true events but the lies
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of Ernand Cortez, thus making the Aztecs appear much more
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simple minded that they actually were.
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Neither Moktatsuma nor anyone else considered Ernan Cortez to
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be Katzar Kwadl. Let's go into this anyway and
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see what we can find out about this God.
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Katzar Kwadl was often depicted as a feathered serpent.
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Because that is probably what the name literally means.
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There's also a figurative meaning.
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Katzar Kwadl refers to the wisest of people, while
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Ketzerkootl was always depicted as a feathered serpent in the
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oldest traditions. Ancient Mayan finds already show
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depictions of Ketzerkootl with more human like features.
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While we're on the subject, Ketzerkootl was a God who was
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worshipped and feared in various ways by many people in Central
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America, not just the Aztecs. However, it can be said that
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Ketzerkootl was the most important deity for the Aztecs
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because in the Aztec belief, he played a similar role to
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Prometheus in Greek mythology, as he was also credited with
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creating humanity. Aztec gods were also assigned to
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the Aztec calendar for rituals, and as luck would have it,
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Quetzalcoatl was assigned to the year 1519, the very year in
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which Hernan Cortez encountered the Aztecs.
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Here in the intro, this first encounter was described as
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Moqtat Zuma giving him gifts and inviting him to Tenochtitlan.
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But that, my friends, is just wrong.
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That's not true at all. Montezuma sent Cortez these
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gifts to get him to leave. Again, as I said, he wanted to
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bribe him to go away. Cortez, of course, took these
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gifts, but he insisted on being allowed to come to Tenochtitlan.
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Which Montezuma strictly forbid. The message was clear as day.
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It was nice having you here. Here's some gold.
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Now get lost. Accordingly, Montezuma's
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diplomats left immediately after delivering this message.
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Without Cortez, of course. After the withdrawal of
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Montezuma's envoys, the king of the Totonox, an Aztec vessel,
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contacted the Spaniards and formed an alliance with them
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because they had a common enemy. We already learned in the first
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two missions that Aztec vessels suffered a terrible fate because
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they were forced to fight in the Garland Wars.
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Therefore, they saw this as an opportunity to get rid of their
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hated rulers. Although the Cuban governor's
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order, namely the exploration of the area, had technically been
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fulfilled with the landing, Kortez denies his soldiers to
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return to Cuba and instead founded the settlement of Villa
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Rica de la Veracruz, just a few kilometers from what is now the
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city of Veracruz. There he quickly had himself
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appointed Captain General, making him directly subordinate
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to the Spanish Crown instead of the Cuban governor, and thereby
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freeing him from any obligations to the hostile governor in Cuba.
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At last he could devote himself to his campaign of conquest to
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win the crown over to this 'cause he sent a ship loaded
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with all the gold the newcomers could gather back to Spain.
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He had all other ships destroyed to eliminate any possibility of
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retreat, which we've seen at the end of the second mission.
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He then marched inland with about 300 soldiers and a
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significantly larger number of Tottenox.
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And by the way, no one actually believed Cortez to be
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Quetzalcoatl. Not his Tautanak allies, not the
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Maya whom he had met earlier, and certainly not Moctezuma.
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The intro also mentions the Tlaxcaltecs.
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This is the people we had already fought in the previous
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mission. They were essentially the arc
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enemies of Tenochtitlan and therefore of us playing as the
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Aztecs from Tenochtitlan. It's true that these Lux Caltex
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initially resisted Cortez's campaign, and quite effectively
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so even though the Spaniards had far superior weapons, I imagine
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it felt a bit like being stuck in the feudal age while having
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to fight conquistadors. They must have had insane micro
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though. In any case, Cortez became
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increasingly desperate and made several peace offers to the Lux
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Caltex while fighting them, which they declined one after
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another until they finally decided that it was probably for
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the better to be allied with the Spanish once they realized they
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shared a common enemy in the Aztecs.
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Since the alliance between the Spaniards and the TLACS Caltex
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was formed on September 23rd in 1519, the events of this mission
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must have taken place shortly before that.
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We begin the mission with a settlement in the South of the
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map, surrounded by lush jungle, a few starting resources and
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most importantly already in the castle.
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Our settlement is deep in the jungle, so it looks like we're
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safe for now. We do not know the intentions of
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the Spanish arrivals. For now, our enemies are the
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Tlash Gala. To the east are the Spaniards
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and to the West the Tlaxcaltex. At first we don't see anything
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from the Spaniards, but we do know that the Claxcal techs
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likely have a city in the West that can defend itself.
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Our own settlement is equipped with a few buildings and farms,
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but we barely have any villages, so we need to start booming.
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However, right after I queued up my first villagers, we received
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news from our allies. The Spanish are attacking our
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allies in Tabasco. We must come to the raid.
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Yes, I failed to mention that we have allies.
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We are not alone in this missions.
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Our allies, the Tabasco, are settled just north of us along a
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river and unfortunately well within the range of Spanish
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attacks. The Tabasco have a small
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settlement and are being attacked by Spanish cannon
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galleons. On top of that, they're
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dangerously close to the Tux Caltex and therefore need
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protection from them as well. They're kind of sandwiched in
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between these two enemies, and let me tell you, this was not
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easy on the hardest difficulty to play.
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Since you lack the resources to create an army in the beginning
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and the Spaniards attacked the allies right away, I had to
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start experimenting to save Tabasco.
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You can complete the mission without the Tabasco surviving,
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but I was determined. And besides, there's an
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achievement for finishing the mission while keeping them
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alive. I tried and tried again, and I
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finally managed it on my fourth attempt.
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And here is how I did it. I immediately sent a villager to
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the allies because they're actually quite far away from us
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and there's quite The Walking distance.
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And I protected this villager by my Eagle Warrior from the
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Jaguars roaming around in the jungle.
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That villager then quickly built 2 monasteries, 1 for a monk and
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the other to research sanctity to give them a better survival
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chance against conquistadors and well then I had two monasteries
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to build monks from. I then converted the
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conquistadors, Knights and long swordsmen and I used them to
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attack the Canon galleons. Later I also researched
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atonement because the Spaniards kept converting my conquistadors
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back and I needed something against those monks.
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It was a much slower economic start for me but it seems like
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this was the only way for me to stop the Spaniards initial push.
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Speaking of economy, this of course really set my eco back
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because I had to go and gold and invest everything into building
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monks. But as soon as I could I started
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building a second town centre and I actually started my boom.
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But since the population cap is 100, in this mission I only went
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up to 70 milligers and then deleted some to make space for
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more military. I built castles near the ally
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and launched attacks from. But first I had to advance to
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the imperial age so I could produce trebuchets and finally
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destroy the settlements of the Klux Kalteks and the Spanish.
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Speaking of enemies, the Spaniards have allied themselves
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with the Klux Kalteks and now want to fight us together.
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Our runners have confirmed that the Spanish and Trascala have
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formed an alliance against us. Now we must do battle with them
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both. So This is why we know that this
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fight or this mission should take place around the September
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of 1519, because that's when this alliance was formed.
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But this alliance doesn't make things easier for us.
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Not only do we have to protect our ally again and even more,
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they're being attacked from both sides now.
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So the boom I described earlier was anything but simple.
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But fortunately the Aztecs have excellent monks, and whatever
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military I couldn't afford, I simply converted from the
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Spaniards. They seem to have endless troops
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though, so it was quite the task.
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I also got a little lucky with the placement of one of my
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castles to the West of Tabasco, because that's where the enemy,
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the Plux Caltex, sent their troops, and they kind of always
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sent them right under my castle, which kept both me and my allies
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pretty safe for now. Of course, they didn't like my
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castle, so they did haul the one or other trebuchet at me, but
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that I just sniped with my Eagle Warriors.
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So for now, the Plux Caltex were kept in check.
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Luckily, there is also a way to weaken my other enemies, the
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Spanish. The Spanish armies are dangerous
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because of the beasts they ride into battle.
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If we could capture these animals then the Spanish would
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be much less of a threat. This is the pen where we will
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corral the captured Spanish horses.
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Sounded great, but my ungrateful ally really put me in a bind.
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Here the horses are kept by the Spaniards and small pens.
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There are a total of 26 horses on the map and I had to bring
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back 20 of them into my settlement.
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Unfortunately, the Tabasco never got word of my side quest and
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slaughtered 7 of the Spanish horses at the first opportunity.
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26 -, 7 that doesn't make 20. That's nineteen horses.
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So they kind of failed me there to complete the mission.
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Also, and this is getting worse and worse, I must defeat the
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Spaniards as well as the Flux Caltex, either by destroying
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them outright or by stealing twenty horses, which I can't do
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because they killed my horses. And anyone who knows the old
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campaigns know that the AI only surrenders when it has no units
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or buildings left. In my search for the horse pens,
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I reached the coast and the north and discovered several
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shipwrecks, and that's when I started looking for Cortez.
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It is here that the Spanish sank their own transports to prove
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their determination to conquer our lands.
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Cortez must be nearby. I looked everywhere I look close
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by, and then started to look in every nook and cranny.
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I explored everything there was to explore on this map, trying
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to find Cortez and trying to do some alternative history, maybe
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by murdering him before he could conquer Tenochtitlan.
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But there was no sign of Cortez. He was simply not on the map.
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Which is a shame because they kind of teased me into looking
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for him. But it does make sense because
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they didn't. I mean, the developers didn't
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want to have some alternative history written in this mission
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at least the campaign against the Tux Caltex was child's play.
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Facing the Spanish, however, was quite another story.
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They had castles with fortified walls, cannon galleons and
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bomber towers. The dealt serious dam.
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Thanks to my fully upgraded Eagle Warriors though, and a bit
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of patience, I managed to sneak through the jungle and defeat
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the Spanish to the last man and ship, thus completing the
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mission successful. Although the Aztec warriors
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fought well that day, my men were frightened by the beasts
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that the Spanish rolled into combat and by the noise of their
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exploding weapons. Although we had survived the
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attack, I thought it best to withdraw towards the Gnostic
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land and share with Emperor Montezuma all that we had
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learned. I don't know if my uncle
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Montezuma was being cowardly or merely trying to preserve us
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from the wrath of the gods, but he sent more gifts to Cortez,
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along with an invitation to visit our great city as his
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personal guest. I was there when Montezuma met
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Cortez on one of the causeways leading into our great city.
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The Spanish had evidently never seen anything like the NOC de
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clan, and they stared in wonder at the brightly colored markets
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and pyramids rising out of a man made island in the middle of the
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gigantic Lake Desh Coco. Some of the Spanish soldiers
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asked whether it was all a dream, the first glimpse of
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things never heard, seen or dreamed before.
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Montezuma LED Cortez to the top of the Great Pyramid, where he
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pointed out the various canals and neighborhoods of the city.
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But Cortez was mostly interested in gold ornaments and helped
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himself to any which he encountered.
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I was no longer convinced that this man was Quetzalcoatl.
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So says Guatemuk Jaguar worry of Tenosti plan.
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Guatemuk's doubts about Cortez were well founded, but he should
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have doubted a few other things too.
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For stars. I couldn't find any sources for
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the battle that we fought in this mission.
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Historians agree that after forming their alliance, both
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Cortez and the Klax Caltex knew they stood no chance alone
18:14
against Tenochtitlan. Instead, after fighting the Klax
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Kala for nearly two weeks, the Spanish recuperated in Klax Kala
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and then together marched on with their military to Cholula
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in October 1519. There they killed the local
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king, who had just broken his alliance with the Tlacskaltec
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for having become a vessel of the Aztecs and thus a target of
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the Tlacskaltecs. Had the king known that the
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Tlacskaltec would ally with the Spaniards, he might have
18:47
resisted vessel, but let's be honest, his situation was grim
18:52
either way. Become an Aztec vessel and
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supply them with human sacrifices, or become a Spanish
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ally and be forced to March against the Aztecs to a likely
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death. The king of Cholula was replaced
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by a loyal puppet, making Cholula a further ally of
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Cortez. Now Cortez finally had an army
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large enough to take on Tenochtitlan, but of course it
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was different than what's being told in this mission because he
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never received an invitation to go to Tenochtitlan.
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Instead he had to undertake a two week long mark, reaching the
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Asta capital on November 8th in 1519.
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What exactly happened that day is quite hard to reconstruct.
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It's mostly guesswork, but there are a few sources that help us
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guessing. Most sources claim Mokatsuma,
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the second in court, has actually met and supposedly
19:48
exchanged gifts. Moctezuma then is said to have
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given Cortez an Aztec calendar and gold and silver discs, which
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Cortez allegedly melted down to send back to the King of Spain.
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With what ship, I have no idea. What we do know is that Cortez
20:06
and his men gained access to Tenochtitlan in a peaceful way.
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Cortez claimed that Moctezuma immediately handed over his
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realm to the King of Spain, something historians find
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utterly implausible. Some historians speculate why
20:21
Cortez made these claims in the 1st place, and there is evidence
20:26
of an Aztec source that quotes Muktat Zuma as saying to Cortez
20:31
in Kuznahwatl, which I can't speak.
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So this is a translation I found on the Internet in English.
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It goes as follows. You have come to sit on your
20:40
seat of authority, which I have kept for a while, for you, where
20:45
I have been in charge, for you, for your agents, the rulers.
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But we know Azteculture prized extreme politeness and often
20:54
said the opposite of what was actually meant.
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So historians believe that even if this account is authentic,
21:01
Moktatsuma was merely expressing in a very polite way his own
21:06
long standing legitimacy as a ruler.
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Of course, it's didn't help that this phrasing only fueled the
21:14
myth that Moktatsuma believed Cortez to be the returning
21:17
Quetzalcoatl, and that fits neatly into Cortez's
21:21
fabrications. In any case, after eight months
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of fighting the Aztecs and other tribes, Cortez finally gained
21:29
entry to Tenochtitlan. One must admit the man was both
21:34
bold and cunning, perhaps held by having firearms against
21:38
people only armed with Spears. Sadly, this does mark the true
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downfall of the Aztec Empire, which I will recount in the
21:47
upcoming missions. But for now, just remember that
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this is not the end of the Aztec Empire, because pride comes
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before the fall.