Hey guys,



I have been playing the cultists or the one city challenge for CIV 5 people. I wanted to share some of my thoughts and ask the forum readers some cultists related strategy questions.



My game settings:

Normal speed. Pangea Map (4 players). Endless difficulty. 4 AIs : Wild walkers, Roven Clans, Necrophages, Arden Mages.



My starting region was very nice. Long rivers, A couple of anomalies. But more importantly I had a source of titanium, glass steel and 2 sources of dye, and Icewargs (Geldryn?) were my minor faction. I knew that if I played it right. I could dominate the early game.



My trouble was my region was quickly closed off by Roven clans to my East, Wild walkers to my south, Arden Mages to my West and a contested region to my north by both Arden Mages and Necrophages. Enough to say I was not getting any chances to convert other minor factions in near by region. I had this thought in the back of my head that my main purpose as the cultists is to get those minor factions. Benefit frm the resources and FIDSI they provide. But things were not going my way. My Tech speed was not th best either.



So I waited...got all my basic buildings from Era 1. By this time I had a nice stockpile of Titanium, Glass Steel, and Dye (which I had been using). I went for the science building in Era2 first. Followed by peace Tech, Wepon and finally Tier 2 Units Nameless guards.



All the AIs wanted peace with me surprisingly. And willing to give me something in returns. I had plenty of influence thx to the Cultist Governor (influence boost) and cultists faction skills, plus the dye boost. I don't remember if I converted a Roven clan minor village while I was at peace with them or after. But it worked out, I was able to progress a bit further in my faction quest. The reward was a nice trinket for cultist units. It gave some initiative and some damage. I hired a draken hero ..my front line were ice worgs (assimilated unit) nameless guards at the back. By this time I got the notification Wild walkers have 50% of the known land. But everything just snow balled frm there. I was aiming for a wonder victory but I won by supremacy.



I don't think I can repeat this performance if my starting Region did not have those resources. It was the first time i won with th cultists out of several tries.



Frm my experience. I don't think those minor villages are really gonna help u much. Cultists should be played like any other faction. Focused on conquest, using cultist faction units with good gear. I would love to hear some of your experiences with the cultists. I did not let the game drag on too much Becuz I don't think I could have won a late victory with just adamantium in my region. Thx for reading.

My experience has been very different, but some of that seems to come down to how we configure our games. I have basically been playing (not just for cultists) with 2 factions per smallish continent (8-10 regions) which makes it far more feasible for me to defend minor faction towns. I am yet to try a cult game on a massive continent but I really should. What I can say is that where villages are defensible they make a huge difference, even if you only have 3-4 of them early on. If I can do it without substantial cost to region size and FIDSI, I'll often try to put my first city somewhere that either has a decent count of villages, or creates defensible pockets in the map.



As well as the economy boost (including having extra workers available), faction villages help me produce nothing but Archers, using free units as tanks that can be replenished both near the capital, and while attacking far off opponents. If a military campaign is successful, I'll usually end up with more units than I started with (although with potentially some loss of quality, heh).



I guess I do agree with you that the core damage output of your army (especially later on) should be units you produce yourself, but I carry truckloads of villager cannon fodder with me

I use the villagers to bolster my bank. I sell them. I do mix my village population with various spawned units to improve the defensive capability. City made units are much better because of upgradeable equipment.

Im going for th wonder victory for the Know thy enemy achievement, and I have spent the last 25 turns running around like an idiot looking for the roaming armies of quest 4. Found two yellow ones, defeated them, apparently not the right ones. This is such sloppy game design... Please anyone tell me there is a trick or hint or whatever I can do

Thanks for the play-by-play! It does sound like an excellent starting area, and it sounds like you played it well. I think Cultists are one of the harder factions to play, and it shows on Endless difficulty games. Supremacy does still seem like the right route, although I've never pursued the quest to completion, not sure how fast the Cultist one goes.



I still think converted villages are vital-- but it's less about getting a ton of them at the end of the game, and more about getting enough of them, early enough. Assimilating villages ASAP (all pop on influence) is the only thing allowing Cultists to compete with the other factions (especially on Science). You don't want to be stuck in tier 1 through turn 40...



But the other thing about assimilated villages is the huge difference between having an assimilated culture worth +5% damage and an assimilated culture worth +30% damage. (And then, +30% life, then, +30% attack....)

I just won a game on serious with them in 2 hours. it was shockingly easy on serious difficulty. It was argent, wind walkers, and broken lords. I rushed conversion of factions and quickly amassed a horde and rolled the AI very quickly. it comes down to a careful balance between gold an influence and just smacking the AI cities early.