Guys am I the only one seeing this

I feel a bit bad for the enemy Ely down there, he's fucked the moment I BG

Let’s get this over with. Cymanti isn’t well-balanced or fun to fight against, and there’s little to no variation in gameplay: Get hexapods, spam hexapods, upgrade economy, research Doomux, spam Doomuxes. Sure, sometimes you’ll use Raychi or Exidia, maybe even Phychi or Kitons, and eventually get a ton of Centipedes. But the most likely outcome of a game is Doomux-Exidia spam. Raychi if there’s a water gap and Kitons for last-minute defense.

Once the economy is up and running, there’s no reason to make any other units (except shamans for buffs and cloaks for scout/espionage), so here’s my suggested rework:

Cymanti loses their ability to create any insect units from their cities, Shamans gain Creeping and a movement buff when they’re near Fungus, and they can make a few “normal” units, such as riders and archers. However, they cannot make catapults or Knights, and they won’t have typical water travel.

Now, Cymanti Shamans will gain an ability; Spread. If they’re on a forest tile in their territory, they’ll spread Spores for two stars (may be subject to change). When on a tile with Fungus, they’ll have the ability to use “Grow” for three stars (may be subject to change). Now, there’s two different ideas branching from here, and I’ll talk about them both.

Version 1: The Shaman is pushed off the tile, and an Insect Egg unit is created on the tile (5 HP, 1 Defense, 0 movement, 0 attack). It has the ability to “Hatch”, which will transform it into a Cymanti insect units based on how old it is. If hatched immediately, a Hexapod pops out. Turn two, Phychi, three, Kiton, four, Exidia, five, Doomux.

There’d potentially be small buffs to Cymanti insects to balance it better, as waiting five turns for a Doomux is pretty brutal, but then again- you could have a Doomux on turn seven, so it wouldn’t be any major buff.

There’d be aquatic eggs made on Algae, which would have a three-turn incubation period. Turn one, Phychi, two, Raychi, and on turn three, it’d hatch into a new Cymanti aquatic unit (15 HP, 2 Defense, 2 Movement, 0 Attack, Creep, Aquatic, Scout) with the ability to create Algae and use “Grow” (which would cost five stars, may be subject to change).

Centipedes can be made like normal, or the super unit would be replaced by an Elder Shaman or something along those lines that’d probably be able to use Grow and Spread for free and the eggs they’d make would hatch faster, but would cost two stars to hatch.

Version 2: The Fungus structure is changed into a Nest, which shouldn’t be adjacent to another Nest for reasons explained later. The population given by the Fungus remains unchanged, but it won’t give more if the Fungus wasn’t fully grown. The Nest will grow in phases, starting at 1/5, and grow by one each turn. At any phase and turn, three stars can be used to “Hatch” the nest, which will create a Cymanti insect depending on how long it’s grown (the same age system as the Egg Unit previously mentioned). Once “Hatch” is used, the Nest will regress to 1/5, and start again.

There’s a Water Nest variant which is created on Algae, and it functions similarly to the Nest, and has the growing function of the Water Egg mentioned in Version 1, and it costs four stars to Hatch.

If an enemy unit lands on a Nest, they’ll have a temporary -0.5 defense debuff, and on their next turn they can spend a turn to Destroy the Nest. But if an enemy captures your city with a Nest, the Nest will have its max phase set to 1, and the enemy can spend six stars to hatch a Hexapod, or if it’s a Water Nest, spend eight for a Phychi.

Nests and Water Nests can’t use Hatch if the city they belong to is being Sieged. Additionally, the reason why Nests and Water Nests shouldn’t be adjacent to other Nests is because for each adjacent Nest, the cost to Hatch increases by one for both Cymanti and invaders who captured the city.

The goal behind the rework suggestion is to make Cymanti more dynamic. So now, if the enemy suddenly breaks your front line, instead of making Doomuxes from all cities, you panic-hatch as many Cymanti insects as you can to defend your territory. The army is immediately more varied, and your opponents wouldn’t know what to expect from your territory. These reworks also make it so that developing your territory is more worthwhile than just invading willy-nilly, and it is easier to develop cities more, and get more fungus without exploding Doomuxes or killing poisoned units.

With version 2, Cymanti would want to be a bit more defensive and could lose a few Shamans without big consequences. But in version 1, any Shaman killed would be hugely detrimental, and they’d have to micromanage their Shamans every turn, and Cymanti insects would probably only come from inside their territory. Whereas in version 2, Cymanti would be rewarded for risky plays, developing cities on the frontlines for quicker attacks.

In both versions, Doomuxes wouldn’t likely hatch on the front lines, as they’re the fastest, and Phychi, Exidia, maybe even Kiton and Hexapod would still be able to have some use at the front lines to stall for Doomuxes to arrive.

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Here’s additional information I forgot to mention earlier on: In version 1, Eggs can be hatched even after the enemy takes over the city, and won’t swap teams. Shamans would probably either get an HP or Defense buff, and Eggs could be converted by Mind-Benders, although that is highly unlikely.

For both versions, technologies would need to be researched to allow Eggs/Nests to hatch/grow into Exidia and Doomuxes, as well as the third stage aquatic insect.

For version 2, Nests would reveal invisible units that land on them, and wouldn’t be able to use Hatch until no unit is on top of it.

For the third stage aquatic unit I suggested, I forgot to mention that they’d also have an algae version of “Spread” that’d cost four stars (may be subject to change).

Cymanti would become more defensive, but also more worthwhile to attack. You wouldn’t need to take a city to gain benefits from invading, as you could destroy Nests or Eggs before they mature. Cloaks would be better at espionage to Cymanti than forcing them to build five Doomuxes, and general interactions with Cymanti would be more engaging than just dying to a horde of Doomuxes.

This rework suggestion was made on mobile, so I apologize for any typos or grammatical errors I made, as going up to review and edit this text would be like walking barefoot in Legoland. Any suggestions, feedback, and general discussion about this concept is welcome! Tell me if my idea sucks or has something going for it, and I am completely fine if anyone decides to use my rework concept for their own purposes as long as I am credited.

Thank you so much for reading this article-length rework suggestion written at 12:50 AM, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day/evening.

Hexonia is abandonware at this point. Anything similar outside Civ ports?

I've played Ai-Mo quite often since this was the first tribe I bought. I want to double check the best steps for Ai-Mo since right now, I usually pick hunting or a tech that lets me upgrade the capital and wait until I get Pacifist before I capture a city and upgrade my capital again

Idk if this sub had this discussion 100 times before, but how would you feel about buffing Hoodrick by having their starting unit be a warrior?

Mindbent this centipede a few turns ago and I never get the option to capture the city with it.

Been playing Cyamnti or Polaris in single player. I just find it funny what a steam roller cyamnit is versus the bot. as soon you got your wall of centipede with Exidas in the background you keep making more and advancing in a world war 1 style step by step, quite unstoppable tactic. perhaps not the fastest but the most fun watching the bot poke your lines.

Polaris can freeze units inside villages, which allows you to take time capturing it, most of the time reinforcement can't reach y in time. This is even a stronger tactic, win by not allowing bot build units.

What's your thought or tactics...

On the other hand, if a dev reads that. The bot keeps making a lot of longswords and defenders when it feels it is about to lose, the only AI which keeps spamming catapults like crazy is Elyrion. Would be the right tactic to beat my strategy and make the game more interesting, else the bot feels like it doesn't know what it's doing. Even a knight which waits for the right opportunity could kill so many Exidas. I think this could be implemented more or less easy, at least logic wise it wouldnt be that hard. Calculate according to army composition what would be generally be the best counter.

https://preview.redd.it/c2yk5mlkqg4e1.jpg?width=945&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16a3b5e03d4ec526b5f9acfe32a54f14bbcef63a

I understand the lore withElyrion being unable to get rid of trews, but I find it so frustrating when I would have the perfect sanctuary or forge spot, but there's a tree in the way. I think it would be nice if there was a tech that allows you to move trees.

This is now the third live game in a row I have started where someone joins then doesn’t accept. Why do this. Is it just to mess with people? The only reason I could see would be that I am then forced to start another game and 10 min later they might accept while I play the other game (if I hadn’t cancelled the first one). It’s frustarating at times when live games take 5 min or so to fill. If it happens twice in a row, that’s 15 min wasted.

https://share.polytopia.io/g/e13d58f3-befb-4d83-64c0-08dd0e32302a

Tiny drylands with 9 players. We were allies to the end! Milklator (Vinger) came out as the clear winner after a hard fought battle against Cymanti and then our former ally Elyrion. I (Imperious) was prepared to resign, but he resigned first. Good game, fellow human!

Not entirely sure why, but I’m guessing it was acknowledging a biter betrayal by Elyrion where they swooped in and stole my second city as I was working to reclaim it from Cymanti. Just a few turns prior, I used a knight to help clear a centipede on their second city, only to have them sit by while Cymanti sieges my second city shortly after. Needless to say, I immediately broke peace with them and decided I’d rather lose than allow them to win like that.

Either way, milklator is a standout player! Hope to see you around for more games!!

Didn't know I was so close 😱

My 3 stars are bitter now 😢

I guess few peoples play this mode or they don't care about some tribes 😅

The Cymanti are a literal people