If they can only have 1 city, then can they siege another city? And if yes, then what happens when they win that siege? Do they automatically get a salting option?



Edit: I am asking, because I am playing military-only victory games, and I want to give every faction a fighting chance (hence, I took away the Roving Clans' inability to declare war).

IIRC, Cultists have a special trait that both allows and forces them to instantly raze any city they capture, and gives them stockpiles based on the city's population. I don't think they can win a Supremacy or Expansion victory, but they can win an Elimination victory.



If you create a custom faction based on Cultists but without the city-razing trait, I think they get to keep any cities they capture. (The primary Cultist trait just says that you can't build settlers, not that you can't have more than one city...again, IIRC)

Cultists can win a supremacy victory, they only need to take out capitals.

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
Cultists can win a supremacy victory, they only need to take out capitals.

True. You might even argue that they're the best faction at achieving supremacy, because once they snipe a capital, it's gone and can't be taken back.

Nosferatiel wrote:
True. You might even argue that they're the best faction at achieving supremacy, because once they snipe a capital, it's gone and can't be taken back.

I certainly wouldn't argue against the creator of the Cultists himself



But yes, I found Cultist supremacy victory to be the easiest victory condition to achieve.

Antistone wrote:
IIRC, Cultists have a special trait that both allows and forces them to instantly raze any city they capture, and gives them stockpiles based on the city's population. I don't think they can win a Supremacy or Expansion victory, but they can win an Elimination victory.

Ah, excellent. I was a bit worried, since they haven't done well in any of the games I've played. But then it's a small sampling, and it may be an issue with how the AI uses the faction as well (generally, Drakkens seem to clearly be the strongest AI faction every game).

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
But yes, I found Cultist supremacy victory to be the easiest victory condition to achieve.

Of course. The cult must reign supreme to bring the end!

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
Cultists can win a supremacy victory, they only need to take out capitals.

A dumb question, but I really don't know: How can you tell if you run into an opponent capital?

There will be a crown next to the city's name. That's how you know it's the capital.

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
There will be a crown next to the city's name. That's how you know it's the capital.

Ah; ok. Thanks!

I've been told that the Conversion trait has been bugged for a long time if you play Cultists without Weapons of the Enemy (the insta-raze trait). The way it works is that Converted villages should only increase the upkeep of your main city, but it seems that all Cultist cities are incorrectly considered main cities, which means that your upkeep doubles with two cities, triples with three, and so on until you go broke.



I haven't actually experienced this because I never played Cultists without Weapons of the Enemy, but I played Broken Lords with Conversion (the Cultist mind control ability) and I didn't go bankrupt after having four cities and four converted villages (I should've had 16x the upkeep penalty had I played Cultists instead of Broken Lords).

AronTimes wrote:
I've been told that the Conversion trait has been bugged for a long time if you play Cultists without Weapons of the Enemy (the insta-raze trait). The way it works is that Converted villages should only increase the upkeep of your main city, but it seems that all Cultist cities are incorrectly considered main cities, which means that your upkeep doubles with two cities, triples with three, and so on until you go broke.



I haven't actually experienced this because I never played Cultists without Weapons of the Enemy, but I played Broken Lords with Conversion (the Cultist mind control ability) and I didn't go bankrupt after having four cities and four converted villages (I should've had 16x the upkeep penalty had I played Cultists instead of Broken Lords).

I have not experienced this is any of my playthroughs as the Cultists. Conversion appears to be working fine for me.