About Cultists and assimilation

[Z0nK]

I'm still learning the game but as far as I have understood you can only assimilate minor factions in regions you own. So as Cultists you can only assimilate the faction at you capital city? Considering you can't really take 10 turns at the start to find the ideal region, that seems pretty bad. Really bad, since Cultists seem to be such an interesting faction.

[Z0nK]

It also seems you can assimilate only one minor faction then.

[Groo the one]

Originally posted by Z0nK:

I'm still learning the game but as far as I have understood you can only assimilate minor factions in regions you own... It also seems you can assimilate only one minor faction then.

Didn't play clutists since a long time (shame on me). But if I remember correctly, the converted villages outside the capital territory count as "owned regions", so you should be able to assimilate these minor factions, too. Keep in mind, you have to get the tech to assimilate a 2nd or 3rd minor faction, first.

[Z0nK]

Originally posted by Groo the one:

Originally posted by Z0nK:

I'm still learning the game but as far as I have understood you can only assimilate minor factions in regions you own... It also seems you can assimilate only one minor faction then.

Didn't play clutists since a long time (shame on me). But if I remember correctly, the converted villages outside the capital territory count as "owned regions", so you should be able to assimilate these minor factions, too. Keep in mind, you have to get the tech to assimilate a 2nd or 3rd minor faction, first.

Oh, I hope you're right. Thx, man!

[Carnasid]

Cultists can assimilate any faction they have converted, even if it is in another player's territory.

[Gilmoy]

Cultist conversions are fun because they're a unique mechanism. Every converted village, anywhere in the world, even within an enemy empire (at war with you), acts like a mini-city you own.

- It gathers FIDSJ (J = influence :) in its hex, and the 6 adjacent hexes, but clipped by the region boundaries. (An enemy would lose these FIDS.)

- It gets a garrison (of the same size as your city garrison). You can park any of your units there, including your Cultist units. Garrisoned units cost [edit] no upkeep, as usual.

- It gets sight radius 1 (or 0 in winter).

Converted villages count as if "in your region" (no matter where they are).

- Your city instantly gets +1 pop per conversion. More workers is good.

- You can immediately assimilate the village's nation. (in fact, the game will nag you about this with pop-ups)

- Each minor race's assimilation bonus counts all minor villages that are physically in your region, plus all converted villages, anywhere in the world. (The world is your region!) So if you have a pacified Kazanji in your region, and you later convert 3 other Kazanji villages (even if they're in 3 different regions), then you have 4 total, and assimilating them would give you +5% influence * 4 = +20% influence. You can also assimilate right away, and then gradually convert more villages of the same race, and your bonus will go up with each conversion (to the max of 5).

You can also change an assimilation; it just costs more influence. Sometimes you want one bonus for early-game, and later you find the ideal candidate for the midgame. Just pay to break your cell phone contract; then you can sign with a different ... provider. Yeah.

[northernwater]

What about trade?

[Gilmoy]

Cultist almost never gets a trade route. Trade is basically a non-factor for this faction.

There are two ways Cultist could get a trade route. Both are oddball/slow.

1. Hire any Roving Clans hero. Their top-tier faction hero skill is "allow trade routes even in war or cold war". Level him up enough, then make him administrator of your only city. This requires that you have 1+ other players still adjacent to your region, since roadways/trade routes don't traverse neutral regions.

2. Beat up an AI so bad that its mood changes from "leery" to "terrified". It might offer a truce, and gift you a city (and that city's region). It usually chooses a city that is disjoint from you, so you may have to force its hand by razing N-2 of its cities except its capital and one adjacent to you. Actually, you could probably offer a truce yourself and demand a city of your choice, and the AI might accept.

If you do #2 and have multiple Cultist cities, all of them can level up their center/districts to 3. You do get expansion disapproval, like any other faction.

[Жора]

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

2. Beat up an AI so bad that its mood changes from "leery" to "terrified". It might offer a truce, and gift you a city (and that city's region). It usually chooses a city that is disjoint from you, so you may have to force its hand by razing N-2 of its cities except its capital and one adjacent to you. Actually, you could probably offer a truce yourself and demand a city of your choice, and the AI might accept.

If you do #2 and have multiple Cultist cities, all of them can level up their center/districts to 3. You do get expansion disapproval, like any other faction.

This is a bug for all we know:

Originally posted by melanie.jayasooriya:

Unfortunately it's a bug... :(

[M(i)ech]

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

Cultist almost never gets a trade route. Trade is basically a non-factor for this faction.

There are two ways Cultist could get a trade route. Both are oddball/slow.

1. Hire any Roving Clans hero. Their top-tier faction hero skill is "allow trade routes even in war or cold war". Level him up enough, then make him administrator of your only city. This requires that you have 1+ other players still adjacent to your region, since roadways/trade routes don't traverse neutral regions.

2. Beat up an AI so bad that its mood changes from "leery" to "terrified". It might offer a truce, and gift you a city (and that city's region). It usually chooses a city that is disjoint from you, so you may have to force its hand by razing N-2 of its cities except its capital and one adjacent to you. Actually, you could probably offer a truce yourself and demand a city of your choice, and the AI might accept.

If you do #2 and have multiple Cultist cities, all of them can level up their center/districts to 3. You do get expansion disapproval, like any other faction.

I never played Cultists, yet.
Can't they have overseas trade if they spawn at the coast?

[Groo the one]

Originally posted by M(i)ech:

Can't they have overseas trade if they spawn at the coast?

In case the following conditions are given, they can have:

"Sea Trade is available to coastal cities that have the Cargo Docks improvement built. Sea Trade allows for very long distance (and therefore high DustSmall.pngDust and ScienceSmall.pngScience producing) Trade Routes.

As with standard Trade Routes, Sea Trade Routes can only be made between cities that both have the Cargo Docks improvement. Sea Trade Routes can also only be made between 2 cities that the player owns, or between one city that the player owns, and one of a friendly or allied faction. Both regions also have to border the same ocean region."

Source: http://endlesslegend.gamepedia.com/Trade_Routes

[Gilmoy]

Oh, I meant Cultist almost never get trade routes /with themselves/. It's rare that you ever get two cities in adjacent regions. Probably AIs that offer truce-and-city run an algorithm to pick a city least useful to you. (I always get 2 cities far apart, but that's very useful, too: my troops are always near the 2nd city, and they can retrofit.)

A peaceful Cultist can always create regular trade routes with other nations. (Style points for trading with the same nation that was the target of your Cultist faction quest chapter 4.1, whose city you had to destroy. Double style points for letting them re-settle that region, and then /trading with it/ :)