Aow4 Industrious Culture Guide

[GamerSerg]

An introduction to the Industrious Culture with tips for using them effectively and a fun, thematic build that introduces Industrious culture and Materium Tomes & Traits with a look at the crafting system and underground game play for new players. This guide is mostly for those who are new to playing Industrious Culture or would like a better understanding of how their units, structures and abilities can work together. This guide is based on the most current version of the game as of July 8, 2025 with all DLC and Pantheon unlocks.

If you're new to the game and find it helpful, positive comments & likes here and/or on Steam are always appreciated. I'm new to writing guides so any helpful, constructive feedback presented in a friendly way is also appreciated. Thanks!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3518497330

 

[Prebyster_Johannes]

Great guide! Can't upvote it on Steam since I own on GoG, but it's very helpful since I've struggled with Industrious. Keep up the good work!

 

[Streletz]

Depends what is the purpose of your guide. It's a good overall review of the faction, but quite far from the meta/competitive/minmax way of playing.

 

[GamerSerg]

Depends what is the purpose of your guide. It's a good overall review of the faction, but quite far from the meta/competitive/minmax way of playing.

Thanks for the feedback. I tried to make it clear in the introduction and throughout the guide that it is a beginner's overview of the faction and Materium only traits & tomes, with a fun, thematic build for new players learning how the culture works, not a brutal difficulty or multiplayer advanced guide but I continue to get negative comments and downvotes about how it doesn't cover this or that super op competitive strategy. I do mention that mixing in other affinities, traits and tomes can make the build even more powerful but I don't know how else to make it more clear. Part of me thinks I should just not bother with a build but actual new players tell me they appreciate it and I like to highlight the fun Role-play, thematic, fantasy arch-type of factions you can create with the amazing customization options available.

 

[Akani Sar-Teel]

It looks good overall and I'm giving it a thumbs-up there.

However, two things come to mind:

I'm not sure that I'd use a giant king as a ruler for a faction meant for beginners. Aside from the fact that they may not have the relevant expansion, giant kings may be a bit less approachable than a champion or wizard king.

Second, two very important materium perks warrant being added to that section:

The outpost-building one, because getting outposts up quickly and inexpensively has utility all throughout the game

The one that grants a morale boost for adjacent same-type province improvements. Given that there's already a section that talks about the importance of clustering things around SPIs, the fact that materium makes it even better (and not just for SPI-related ones) should be highlighted. Especially since new players are much more likely to have trouble managing morale.

 

[GamerSerg]

It looks good overall and I'm giving it a thumbs-up there.

However, two things come to mind:

I'm not sure that I'd use a giant king as a ruler for a faction meant for beginners. Aside from the fact that they may not have the relevant expansion, giant kings may be a bit less approachable than a champion or wizard king.

Second, two very important materium perks warrant being added to that section:

The outpost-building one, because getting outposts up quickly and inexpensively has utility all throughout the game

The one that grants a morale boost for adjacent same-type province improvements. Given that there's already a section that talks about the importance of clustering things around SPIs, the fact that materium makes it even better (and not just for SPI-related ones) should be highlighted. Especially since new players are much more likely to have trouble managing morale.

All good points. Really all of the Materium tree perks are good but I wanted to just highlight a few, not go over all of them so had to stop somewhere but you are right both of those are very good. I do think the outpost one is a little less useful in the underground.

One of the main themes of the build is being the best crafter and Giant King is just too good to pass up for that. Their ruler tree is all about crafting and they get Fragment income which is huge. I do mention that the guide is written with all DLC and Pantheon unlocks available. Also, I was planning to do a guide for every culture and I don't want every build to be limited to just Champion and Wizard King only. I felt this was a good place to highlight Giant King (although Dragon Lord also works very well here).

Thanks for the friendly feedback, much appreciated!