Author's
Description:
Bast is not in town, so you have to manage the resources. Seth is useless as the enemy is non-existent. Everything is imported, even the only food available can be. This is a game where I so need lots of people to set industries to import raw materials and export soon. Once again I finish the first year at –4100 db.
Year 1: exports 825 (500 papyrus), pop 1016, no food anywhere.
Year 2: exports 12020 (at least 1700 papyrus, 2000 pottery, 1300 linen, 1900 beer), pop 1176, 0+ db. I set some food, but not on the floodplain, I want for that the basis of the pyramid to be finished. Still no taxes.
Year 3: exports 13670 (at least 1700 papyrus, 2500 pottery, 1900 linen, 3500 beer), Little food availble, I have to set two physicians per block. Pop only 1824, 2824 db. Still no tax.
Year 4: exports 11650 only, people start to use the goods I produce. Pop 2779, 1800 db. Taxes
Year 5: exports 11450, pop 2631 (lack of food). I set the linen at Export above 100, as I am expecting blessings from Ptah which are likely to be on linen.
Year 6: similar, I set the Ptah TC to absorb the extra workforce and attract a blessing from Ptah. I do not bother about the KR (still at 26) as requests are numerous and rewarded with some points.
Year 7: similar, I must even destroy some houses with no food yet as they are susceptible of diseases.
Year 8: at last the pyramid is ready, I can set the floodplain farms. Exports still above 10000. Wages at 40, taxes at 13%.
Year 9: KR still at 29, trade blessing from Ra, useful mostly for the flax as Meidum has so much to sell anyway that they cannot do everything. Best Ptah blessing, linen as expected. All blessings will be for linen, expect when I will force it to be something else: I know a blessing is coming, at the end of the month I set the flax and linen SY at None, I receive either pottery or clay, as wished. Pop 3666, unemployment start to be a problem. Exports drop as people use the goods locally produces (still 7000)
Year 10: I start to set workers camps here and there to absorb the extra workforce. I will have up to 78 of them!
Stone and reeds are in the same SY, to ensure I get some of each every year.
After 8 years, I thought this game would be a huge bore and even thought of stopping, then I detected a pleasant objective. I realized that my limit is the food produced, I cannot import as I need the other goods, so start working on Osiris I neglected before. She will shift from 1 temple and 14 shrines to 3 and 60 shrines. Her best blessing show that I can expand beyond what I was thinking (I have also enough pottery – a Ptah blessing could help anyway-, beer of course, and papyrus for 4 libraries without risk). So I decide to reach 8000 people. Even though I realize I can do better, so clean up my housing blocks, remove extra physicians set in the beginning. So I decide to reach 10,000. My problem is access to water in this case, so I set a funny block North.
Pop 10504, room for 316. I could get 11,000 but not much more, so I stop the game there as the people are coming one by one. Only some 131,000 db after 33 years, this game is very costly. Taxes could reach 15% but not more.
I would especially recommend this game, and Sawu, to the people who want to work on efficient trade systems. It is important to set the SYs very close to the docks, it is critical to have two docks.
THINIS
I remembered I disliked Thinis because you lose definitely the access to several goods that are provided in the beginning and should allow spacious manors. On the other hand, the fights with the Nubians were quite interesting. So I decided to stockpile the necessary goods and wait for the city to be ready to expand fast.
I played the game first without remembering the history. So I managed to import the 15,000 papyrus before the route was shut down. Even more than 15,000 as, when the ship is docking, I empty the papyrus Sys. While the cart pushers are on the road, I have less than 15,000 for the transporter and can import more.
At the end of the first year, two caravans come and buy pottery while it is produced. These caravans also set linen and stones. So I set a SY at accept Linen, another at accept Stone. Then I set the overser at Import 1 stone, or 100 linen: the caravans go to the corresponding SY. I then set the figures at Import 0. They do not sell but come back to the pottery SY where some new loads had been delivered. I can do this 3 or 4 times per caravan, then anyway the caravans leave my city.
I fulfil the extorsion from Men-Nefer, I lose KR points but do not bother. As there is no gift for the monument and easy targets, my problem is not to reach the Kingdom Rating of 90 by accident and win the game. I would like to stay in the range 68-80, as I could finish in 26 month maximum with two lavish gifts. As I am Vizir, I can also make myself lose some points by giving myself an excessive wage in December.
The first fight is a bit difficult as I set the towers late, so only 3 can work. The Nubians are correct fighters, however I have 16 experienced soldiers. I have to make them run after me to break their group in small units and attack one of these. I load the fight several time and manage to lose 6 infantry out of 16. I think I would add an archer fort soon in another try. I perhaps underestimated the archers in the past, my opinion has changed a bit since Dunqul where they show they harass the enemy engaged in a melee.
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