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Description:
Nekhen Oasis is a scenario designed for competition.
History:
The aging Pharaoh had decided to build his tomb in the cliffs of the Nekhen area, close to his pharaonic city: Henen-nesw. For this, he forwarded enough lamps to the area and had set an artisan camp in the area, under the control of one local tribal leader (yourself) and the support of a small infantry company: the Lions. Even his best chariot, to lead him to Heaven, is already in Nekhen. That was in late 2201, when the Pharaoh dynasty was ruling only a small territory, Egypt being split between rival tribes and leaders. Pharaoh’s main rival, the Mwami from Pwenet, launched an attack on Pharaoh’s places in early 2200. In May, the regular Egyptian army was defeated in Buhen; Pharaoh himself was killed during the battle. However, the Pwenet army suffered so many casualties that it was licking its wounds and could not move forward.
You cannot expect much from the new infant Pharaoh and his routed army, but the Pwenet leader is a hateful mass killer you cannot sympathise with. Already refugees escaping from Buhen reach Nekhen in droves. Buhen is besieged and, if it falls, Nekhen oasis will fall too. As nothing can be grown in Buhen’s gardens during winter, you have to help the besieged smuggling food into the fortress, hoping that the new Pharaoh will eventually manage to raise a new army.
Nekhen Oasis is the only place in the whole Egypt where granates can be grown successfully. On the other hand, it is the only crop that grows there. Granates are such a delicatessen that they fetch higher prices than gold (see Overseer). You know that the Mwami from Pwenet wants to enrich himself with your oasis, but he fears nobody else than you would be able to grow granates. He so decides to intimidate you, forces you to cultivate granates like a slave and extort from you your whole harvest. But he ignores that granates can be harvested twice a year…
You need so to grow granates for Pwenet and for Buhen. You also need desperately to build an obelisk to honour Seth and keep Pwenet’s evil away. You need to raise a small army to protect the oasis against the Bedouin marauders. But you have little money. Unless you manage to sell the huge stock of lamps, which is worth overall more than 55,000 debens. But who could by that? The leader from Pwenet, himself building his own tomb.
Level:
You will open the saved game at Very Hard level. Hit the “Pause” button (“P”), decrease the level from the Menu toolbar to the one you want to play and save the game under a new name (for example Nekhen-Oasis-scenario-Normal). So the amount of money you have will remain the same (8000 db), only the city costs will decrease according to the level you choose.
Rules:
You will be requested twice a year increasing quantities of granates. The deliveries can suffer some delay, but not much. Buhen will reward you for your help with the granite you need, Pwenet will purchase your lamps, Henen-nesw your copper for the weapons of Pharaoh’s new army. You can use the money you earn to create your own small army to fight against the Bedouin bandits.
Pharaoh’s camp cannot be touched or the new Pharaoh will not like it: you can never erase any of the 10 Storage Yards within the compound rectangle, neither the artisans nor the workers’ camp. You also need to keep the chariot of Pharaoh’s father in any of the storage yards throughout the whole game. The critical asset for your success is the way you get money and protect your village. Meanwhile, as your people work very hard, you must give them some relief improving their villagers’ status.
At the end of the game, you must have THREE infantry forts, with at least one soldier in each of them. The OBELISK must be completed (6 in the overseer). You must have a Kingdom Rating of 100, a Culture Rating of 25 and Prosperity of 45 at least.
The winner is the one with the highest amount of money in the city vaults at completion, in December 2192, PLUS the value of every infantry soldier remaining, at 500 each.
If you have 20110 db and 41 infantry soldiers, your score is:
20110+41*500=20110+20500=40510.
Game strategy and advice:
You will need to manage at your best the space available, the trade and the workforce. The rate for borrowing money is so high (30%) that you have to manage your finances carefully. You also need a Kingdom rating of 100, so cannot go below a certain level or you will never be able to recover the lost points.
Using money to buy weapons is useful, as an infantry soldier is rewarded for more (500) than the purchase value of his weapon (325). And they will help you to survive, but you need to protect them.
The bazaar ladies will fetch one type of food in the Storage Yards as soon as it is set as an imported good in the trade overseer. You can choose to eat your production or to import fish from Pwenet and/or game from Dakhlah.
You can make a lot of money exporting wood. But don’t you need the areas to cultivate granates? You can also export papyrus, but won’t you miss for a scribal school to reach a Prosperity Rating of 45? You will also see that every block of granite can be sold for 100 debens, but will you remain with the 100 blocks needed for the obelisk?
Incidentally, you will have to take care of the hyenas and get rid of the problem soon. Do not underestimate the Beduins. Firsts requests: check out who you should help first.
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