It’s recently been my birthday – I’m now a shockingly handsome young lad of 34 (gosh, time flies!). And my wife, being the absolute diamond that she is, and knowing that I am a spoiler alert massive nerd (shocking, I know), treated me to some new board games. Now, this particular game is one I’ve had my wee eye on for a while, and it’s called Cultivate. You basically pick a cult leader and then go about building your very own cult. I thought that sounded like an absolute blast, so it naturally went straight onto my seemingly never-ending list of games I’d like in the future. The main aim of this game is to create a thriving cult using different types of cultists that can, of course, be sacrificed for other, different, or even better cultists.
Nitty Gritty: Kool-Aid Edition
The game itself is pretty straightforward. You have your commune board in front of you and a cult leader. There are several different types of leaders, all with their own distinct personality and three different end goals or victory conditions. Each turn, you can play a card from your hand to ‘attract’ another cultist (or, ahem, ‘convert’ them) to your commune and place them in the lowest available section of any column you choose. They must go on the lowest row in that column, and you can’t swap one for one already in play (unless a card specifically says you can, of course).
It’s recently been my birthday – I’m now a shockingly handsome young lad of 34 (gosh, time flies!). And my wife, being the absolute diamond that she is, and knowing that I am a spoiler alert massive nerd (shocking, I know), treated me to some new board games. Now, this particular game is one I’ve had my wee eye on for a while, and it’s called Cultivate. You basically pick a cult leader and then go about building your very own cult. I thought that sounded like an absolute blast, so it naturally went straight onto my seemingly never-ending list of games I’d like in the future. The main aim of this game is to create a thriving cult using different types of cultists that can, of course, be sacrificed for other, different, or even better cultists.
Nitty Gritty: Kool-Aid Edition
The game itself is pretty straightforward. You have your commune board in front of you and a cult leader. There are several different types of leaders, all with their own distinct personality and three different end goals or victory conditions. Each turn, you can play a card from your hand to ‘attract’ another cultist (or, ahem, ‘convert’ them) to your commune and place them in the lowest available section of any column you choose. They must go on the lowest row in that column, and you can’t swap one for one already in play (unless a card specifically says you can, of course).
Now, why on Earth would you want to do this, you ask? Well, your glorious victory conditions will demand a very specific setup on your commune board. You might need a certain number of celebrities chilling in particular spots, or perhaps a delightful mix of children and scientists strategically placed. Each cultist type even has a specific value attached to them. You can sacrifice them, if needed, to swap for an equal amount of ‘value’ – which also means you can free up valuable space if you’ve accidentally plonked one where it’s not needed. But remember, you must place new cultists on the lowest possible row of whatever column you’re putting them in. So, if you sacrifice one on a higher row, your new lowest free space in that column will have changed! Keep an eye on that.
Oh, and there are also cards that let you mess with your opponent’s commune. Fancy nicking one of their followers or sending them packing back to the communal pile? Go on, you know you want to! Finally, there are the ‘bad people’ you can bring into your commune. These chaps are like spies – they don’t count towards your overall goal and actually detract from your final score. Nasty business, but sometimes a necessary evil.
The last thing to mention are the rather splendid ‘super rooms’. Each player board has these special action spaces, nestled snugly at the bottom of each column. This means all the other spaces above them have to be filled before you can house your happy little cultist inside. But once they’re in, they’re safe as houses – they can’t be messed with! Their powers can be as simple as being worth a certain amount of victory points at the end of the game, or as game-changing as allowing you to make certain moves twice per round. Once someone has completely filled their commune, it’s game over, and it’s time to tally up those points!
2-Player Brainwashing: My Take
Now, I’ll be honest, Cultivate was… okay. With two players, it didn’t exactly set my world on fire. There are other games out there with similar mechanics that just seem to ‘click’ better, if you know what I mean. Stonespine Architects, for example, has a very similar feel and just seems to flow more smoothly for me. Cultivate isn’t bad by any means, but given the choice, Stonespine would win every single time.
Perhaps Cultivate shines more with a higher player count, but having only played it with two, I can only give my honest opinion. There isn’t a huge amount of player interaction required for two people, beyond simply explaining what you’re planning to do on your turn. Towards the end, you might start eyeing up someone’s cultists for a cheeky snatch, but for the most part, you’re pretty much just doing your own thing on your board.
Tips and Tricks (From My Experience)
My straightforward tips for this game would be:
Don’t forget that when you remove a cultist from your commune to swap for something else, any removed cultist leaves a free space behind. I definitely did not, for example, remove two cultists, leaving a free space above the one I needed to place my new one in… nope, not me at all!
The bottom-row powers (the ‘super rooms’) are all genuinely useful, and the sooner you can get one of those upgrades, the better. They can really boost your game.
