Author's
Description:
Not the fastest win, admittedly, but at
least I finished the
mission on the first try, before knowing what would happen.
A slow start. The mission clearly provided numerous ways to
keep the treasury in black ink. Papyrus, linen (from mported
flax), beer, gold (from mines). Fish and barley on the side.
However, the small starting purse of 5000 debens, along with
the short time to first harvest (less than six months) and
the promise of a mediocre flood, didn't make for rapid
expansion. The key question seemed to be whether to import
food or grow it. I decided that bringing food in immediately
would work better, and that probably was a mistake.
Importing food meant spending 1000 debens on opening a trade
route. Perwadjyt offered figs but wouldn't buy anything.
Men-nefer sold chickpeas and was interested in beer and barley. In either case, that left
4000 debens, 900 of which would be needed for a palace, and 250 debens for each gold mine.
Being determined to not run out of money, I concluded that gold mining wasn't initially
feasible. Also, I didn't want to set up the palace in splendid isolation near the edge of
the map,which would have been necessary for optimal mining. So, that left brewing beer for
Men-nefer or opening a second trade route to Nekhen (at the cost of 300 debens) and
selling papyrus.
Beer it was (again, probably a mistake), and thus my first
colony was established on "Barley Island". The first harvest
was more pitiful than I expected (960 barley), and imported
chickpeas took a bite out of my treasury as the housing filled up its larders. Still,
after the second harvest, Behdet was turning a profit and I was preparing to expand.
Then a demand for 1400 pottery in nine months arrived. Ouch!
I changed my plans and built a couple of clay pits and potters, but they only produced 600
before the demand came due. I ended up importing the other 800 to meet it on time, which
hammered my treasury. Adding to the difficulties was another demand, to the tune of 1100
beer, along with another mediocre flood. Well, that ate up my sole source of revenue, so I
bowed to circumstances, ran out of money, and received a gift of 2500 debens.
In the process of struggling to set up some papyrus makers, an unexpected windfall of
bricks from Pharaoh suddenly made things a lot easier. "You need money to make
money", and now I simply sold the bricks back to Men-nefer. From there on, Behdet's
fortune was assured and the rest of the mission was straight forward.
A few notes. I was surprised to find the mission didn't offer the chance to build a
courthouse. Actually, I didn't notice this until the time came to do so. I ended up
plugging a large statue into the hole left in the city plans.
For quite a while, Timna was allowed to buy fish, and Men-nefer barley. Once trade volume
built up, this turned out to actually diminish the yearly profits, because more valuable
goods were being left unpurchased in the storage yards. The final few years of the mission
were basically spent buying bricks as fast as Perwadjyt would deliver them, and building
the mastaba. Occasionally, a load of bricks would somehow get lost. The workers would drag
a sledge of them to the construction site, and then they'd vanish rather than being used.
Odd. It might have had something to do with the bricklayers half-disappearing from
the site just before the sledge arrived, then marching back from their guild building. I
always maintained full employment, though, so I don't know why they did that.
Anyhow, the save file was made just after victory had been
achieved. It's set to run another two years. A Nubian fleet will arrive for battle only a
month later, so there's a chance to play with the warships, if you like. My family's name
is Tahrqa.
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