high cultist guide?

[The King in Yellow]

i like to run high culstist alot but find it takes me an extremely long time to build up sub par to low quality units with the summons and attempting to get more powerful ones is a huge gamble and waste of sacrifices if it goes south. should i be focusing more on the sea than land expansion?

[Gilmoy]

I do expand on both land and sea.
I emphasize land expansion, to capture iron and sacrifices. Sea sites have only gold.
Also, waterwalking costs 2 MPs, so it's intrinsically slower.

It can take a long time, 5-10 years of being weak before you get some L3 Eldritch Aboms.
I tend to play Huge 7 Marquis. I know how to play a slow, patient game, with every class.

0. Start like any other class. Capture weak farms and towns for income.
Avoid cities, big fights, and all AIs.

1. Use early L1/L2 summons for Deep Warrior fodder, who are ogre-class.
Use them on land to capture mines and ports.

2. Midgame, you can use ships like other classes, esp. with human troops and mages.

3. I exploit waterwalking to hop from peninsula to peninsula, or hide from AI armies.
You should infest the coastal regions the way Dwarf Queen owns the frozen north.
Let AIs distract each other, while you flag their sites near every coast.

3. Finally, summon some L2s like Angler Queen, and promote them to L3.
Then you can slowly summon L3 Eldritch Abominations.
I always pay the max 200% summoning cost to minimize failures.

2 Eldritch Aboms + 1 commander + 0 troops is strong enough to capture a city or citadel.
You never get siege engines, hence Eldritch Aboms are your siege engines.

[The King in Yellow]

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

I do expand on both land and sea.
I emphasize land expansion, to capture iron and sacrifices. Sea sites have only gold.
Also, waterwalking costs 2 MPs, so it's intrinsically slower.

It can take a long time, 5-10 years of being weak before you get some L3 Eldritch Aboms.
I tend to play Huge 7 Marquis. I know how to play a slow, patient game, with every class.

0. Start like any other class. Capture weak farms and towns for income.
Avoid cities, big fights, and all AIs.

1. Use early L1/L2 summons for Deep Warrior fodder, who are ogre-class.
Use them on land to capture mines and ports.

2. Midgame, you can use ships like other classes, esp. with human troops and mages.

3. I exploit waterwalking to hop from peninsula to peninsula, or hide from AI armies.
You should infest the coastal regions the way Dwarf Queen owns the frozen north.
Let AIs distract each other, while you flag their sites near every coast.

3. Finally, summon some L2s like Angler Queen, and promote them to L3.
Then you can slowly summon L3 Eldritch Abominations.
I always pay the max 200% summoning cost to minimize failures.

2 Eldritch Aboms + 1 commander + 0 troops is strong enough to capture a city or citadel.
You never get siege engines, hence Eldritch Aboms are your siege engines.

how do you pay 200% cost

[Draken]

Originally posted by Storm:

how do you pay 200% cost

In the summoning ritual window there is a slider where you can change the amount of sacrifices used from 50% to 200%.

[Gilmoy]

Disregard that, I had them confused with Witch/Bakemono.
High Cultist doesn't have the 50% - 200% slider bar.

~~~~

0. High Cultist villages freespawn weak human-class troops:
+ Insane Fisherman (not Amphibious)
+ Hybrid Fisherman, Hybrid Soldier, Hybrid Spearman (all Amphibious)

They're cannon fodder, but they're stronger than Kobolds or Hoburgs.

1. High Cultist has L1 Astrology (instead of the 50% - 200% sacrifice slider bar).
Always cast that before risking your main summonings.
Buy Lesser Ritual of Mastery until you get it.
There are 5 L1 rituals, so worst-case you'll start with only 1, and buy the other 4.

2-A. For land summonings (adjacent to sea), save up for the ritual cost + 5 for Astrology.
Always cast Astrology first. If the reading is favorable, then cast your summons.

There's still a chance that your summoned monsters stay neutral (hostile) and fight you.
But with a favorable reading, this chance is low, maybe 1 in 8.

This works with:
L1 Call of the Deep
L1 Call Warriors of the Deep
L1 Contact Elder Being

L2 Call Army of the Deep
L2 Contact Old Ones

If the reading is unfavorable, wait out the 1-2 month duration, then repeat.
Hence High Cultist doesn't pay extra sacrifices for safety, but extra time (in game turns).

2-B. Or you can try the deep-water summons at any time, ignoring Astrology.
You must walk or sail 1 commander (and any bodyguards) into deep sea.
That's usually 3-4 squares from land, so it takes 2-3 turns of travel each way.

L1 Ceremony in the Deep
L2 Greater Ceremony in the Deep

Fish aren't a real threat to you, since you can always see them in time to avoid them.
The main risk of walking a lone Cultist commander into deep sea is probably:

- walking blindly into Dispossessed Spirits (since your scouts aren't Amphibious)
- Cloud Lord jumping you from beyond visual range (if Cloud Lord is in your game)

~~~~~~~~

For L1/L2 summons, I try to summon into the same army, usually my starting army.
After 1 successful summons, my army is probably strong enough to beat any later failures.
So the risk is that the very 1st big summons fails. That might kill my starting army.
But I might have 30 minutes or less invested in that game, so I could punt and start over.

Later, the 1st L3 summons for an Eldritch Abom might fail and wipe your 1 army.
Here, I prefer to have 1 Angler Queen or similar try the summons solo, risking nobody else.
Thereafter, always summon into an army that already has 1-3 Aboms, and they'll win the fight vs. 1 hostile Abom.

2 columns = 40 archers + the summoning Cultist will probably beat 1 Eldritch Abom.

~~~~~~~~

Case in point: From a good start, after ~30 minutes I have:
200 +30 gold/turn
90 +16 sacrifices/turn

L1 Astrology
L2 Call Army of the Deep

I cast Astrology, but it's unfavorable for 2 months (turns). I capture some more villages.

I cast Astrology, and now it's favorable.
I cast Call Army for 4 Shambler (ogre-class) + 19 Deep Ones (human-class), friendly.
That's enough beef to capture 2 Ports, a Town, and a Desert Palace.

It's still only Early Spring of Year 2 = turn 33. I think this is a won game already
I see a smooth progression to L2 Contact Old Ones, promote to L3, and Eldritch Aboms.
Then I start capturing AI citadels.

[FaintPulse]

Astrology helps predict when you should try casting. Be near/in water. Separate your caster from bases and armies in case the summoning turns on you. My move with Cultist is to move around the border of the map, capturing anything along the shore.

[Gilmoy]

High Cultist has some real fun with ships.
Units with Amphibious don't count against the 20-unit limit per Ship.

In midgame, assemble a Counterclockwise Fleet in the usual way.
+ 1 Ship, whenever
+ 9 misc land melee, esp. Swordsmen or Pikemen mercs you bought on discount
+ 9 misc land ranged, esp. Archers and Crossbowmen mercs
+ 1 any commander (but prefer Mid or Back rank ones, or they'll die fighting)
+ 1 Scout-like
Do this 2x for redundancy, and so that the 2nd commander can lead land sorties.

Meanwhile, the 2nd commander runs a tour through your villages and gathers up every freespawn Hybrid { Soldier, Spearman, Fisherman } with Amphibious. 5-8 villages over 30 turns can easily produce 30+ of these guys since the last time you gathered them.

1st commander sails the fleet next to the coast, 2nd commander jumps on board.
Now your Fleet is 2 ships + 38 land units + 30 Amphibious
Sail counterclockwise.

Do all of this 2x and sail the other fleet Clockwise
It's stronger than what most Human factions can do on Ships.

~~~~

Units with Floating also don't count as land units, so Enchanter can do a similar thing with Dancing / Living / Animated constructs.

[The King in Yellow]

so far it seems like most of the units are super underwhelming

[Gilmoy]

Freespawn and early summons are indeed human-class chaff.
They can beat other humans by sheer weight of numbers.

Work up to L3 Call Outer God for 1 Eldritch Abomination per summons.
That's your endgame strength. They're totally unfair in your favor.

[The King in Yellow]

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

Freespawn and early summons are indeed human-class chaff.
They can beat other humans by sheer weight of numbers.

Work up to L3 Call Outer God for 1 Eldritch Abomination per summons.
That's your endgame strength. They're totally unfair in your favor.

im not sure how to get to that even, i havent seen it for the cultists

[Gilmoy]

High Cultist has a unique upgrade path.
Your gold-recruitable mages (Cultist of the Deep) max out at L2 only.
This includes your starting 2 mages.

This is deliberate, because your L3 summons are so sick.
Hence High Cultist must do a bit of prep work to get there.

Briefly, walk an L2 mage into deep water and repeatedly cast L2 Contact Old Ones.
You could get Yithian Sages, who have spells but no rituals.
Or you could get Basalt Prince or Angler Queen, both of whom can level up to L3.

So keep trying until you get an L3-capable mage.
Then promote that new guy to L3, and he/she can get L3 Call Outer God.