Rhye's and Fall of Civilization - Egyptian strategy
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The Egyptians (UHV)
by Abegweit
Overview
In real life, Ramesses II conquered Palestine and Syria and they remained in Egyptian hands for hundreds of years after his death. In Civ’s alternate world, he is boxed in by the Hebrews. He has no idea how to deal with them and consequently turtles up in his North African cubbyhole. In Civ, Ram never meets anyone who doesn’t come calling at the door.
Eventually some powerful civilization on the rise, Persia or Arabia, will take down the Hebrews and he will have a neighbour. His vast stock of archers and daunting culture may well protect him, and he can survive for a long time. However, he will never be in the hunt and, sooner or later, will be conquered.
In fact, he has an extremely powerful civ. The key is to get off to the right start.
The Unique Historical Victory
It can be shown mathematically that the only way to win the Egyptian UHV is to build at least two wonders. You have 86 turns to get 500 culture. Your Palace gives you some but most, to be precise – 328, will have to come from somewhere else. Stonehenge is the best early wonder, as it gives you 9 cpt (eight for the wonder and one for the obelisk). It will take 37 turns to accumulate enough, leaving you 48 turns to get it built. If you start out on Stonehenge as soon as you can, you won’t come close to finishing in time. The better move is clearly to build a worker first to bring the stone on line. That still doesn’t work. It is also possible to get a temple or library up before the deadline but it won’t help you either.
You absolutely need a second wonder. Logically that would be the Pyramids, since you need Masonry to use the stone anyway. Counting everything together, you will have 17 cpt, enough to attain your objective in a mere 30 turns. Together with whatever you get before the Pyramids are finished, it should be more than ample
Selecting Your city position
Egypt starts in an area with many flood plains. The natural starting position is one south in the desert. This keeps the stone within reach and turns the desert tile into something productive. If you do that, you will quickly find that you are stifled in bad health. Even aside from that, your historical objective has just become unreachable. You simply do not have enough time to get enough culture by Turn 86.
One reason why Ram does so poorly in this game (although certainly not the main one) is that, unlike you, he doesn’t have pre-knowledge of the map. To the north, there are many rich resources – wheat, marble and fish. The land is healthy, too. There is less diseased water and the health resources help in any case.
It doesn’t take long to get there either. You can settle on the coast on the second turn, which is as fast as the desert tile would be. The natural move is to settle the plains tile on the coast to the northwest. This brings in wheat, fish and marble. A very nice spot indeed. It is also a mistake. The computer likes it (which should be proof that it is a mistake!). If you settle there, you have also lost. The problem is that you no longer have the stone. Without stone, you have no chance.
The solution is to forget your prejudice against settling one square off the coast. The water tiles can be worked by other cities anyway. The proper location is the desert tile one south of there, or two to the northwest of the starting location. It has also access to marble and wheat. Most importantly, it retains the stone. The combination of the wheat and stone will bring you home. Once you have chosen this spot, the rest is easy. Your capital’s name turns out to be Siwa. Apparently, this place was a necropolis in Ancient Times. Whatever.
Ultimately, you will want two to four cities. As well as Siwa, you need a city to build the Great Light. You should also plan on taking Jerusalem – as a matter of principle. There is also a nice spot for a fourth city two tiles to the northwest of the capital. The last two are not necessary though.
Build Those Wonders
Build order: Worker-Stonehenge-Pyramids!
Research order: Mysticism-Masonry
Once the worker is trained, he should farm the wheat while waiting for knowledge of Masonry to be acquired. The timing is perfect and you can move straight from the wheat to the stone. Whip both Stonehenge and the Pyramids as soon as you can. It is possible to finish the two before turn 50 if you are careful. That’s more than enough to get your first objective in time. Actually, five hundred culture is easy. Once you understand where the proper location for the capital must be, you can have far more than that.
5000 Culture?!
To get maximum culture at turn 143, you must plan for it right from the beginning. In fact, the build order suggested above is not optimal. You need to lay some groundwork for pumping out the rest of the wonders in a remarkably short period of time.
- A note from another player: If you get music first, which is definitely doable, you will get a great artist; his building can produce 4000 culture points, which will virtually guarantee you the 5000.
Initially you will be cycling from size 2 to 4, whipping two citizens. To whip more efficiently, you will need to whip three at a time, going from size 3 to size 6 and back. At size three, you can work the wheat and the two quarries, which is ideal. As you grow, plains and forest tiles to the northwest will added as well. Later, you may start whipping four or even five citizens.
Build wonders while the city is growing. If there is something you need, switch to it when the city is at maximum size. Whip that instead. Then return to building your wonder. When it completes, start another. This way you spend most of your time on the wonders while getting out the other stuff you need as well. This technique is especially important for settlers, since you absolutely don’t want to be building them at size 3 preventing growth.
In the shot above from Turn 86, the capital is about to grow to size 6. This normally would be the moment to switch and whip something else. However, there wasn’t anything useful available at that point so Artemis was allowed complete normally and the Great Library was whipped, as was the Leaning Tower. In civ, there are always exceptions to every rule.
In order to grow back your population rapidly, you will absolutely need a Granary. To research Pottery immediately would be a mistake though, because Masonry is needed for quarrying. You will also need an additional warrior in order to keep the population happy at size six. And, in fact, you might as well slip the warrior before Stonehenge. Why waste the stone on a warrior when the wonders will get double value from it?
Here is the capital when it first reaches size four. Stonehenge is almost finished but should be put it aside. The granary is more important and the wonder will benefit from the overflow anyway.
There are a couple of pitfalls to avoid. Your free tech from the Oracle should be Alphabet (!), which gets you well on the way to Literature. Thus getting to Writing in time is important. Also, the computer likes to work a plains at size three instead of the wheat. Do not listen to it! It likes to hire priests too. Blow off! Unfortunately, micro-management will be the order of the day. This is typical of any game involving heavy use of the whip.
The research sequence should thus be:
Mysticism – Masonry – Pottery – Priesthood – Writing – Alphabet (free tech) – Literature.
After that, you need Math for catapults to take Yerushalayim. You do want it, don’t you? Music (make sure you get it before the end, just for the principle of the thing), Drama and Philosophy are the remaining techs which have value. Hint: it is possible to use a Great Scientist to get to Philosophy and Angkor Wat. The exact method is left as an exercise for the reader.
By choosing the right moment to build stuff, the capital can be almost astonishingly powerful. This shot is taken at Turn 143. By that time, Siwa had built ten wonders, including Angkor Wat and Notre Dame (actually everything available before Construction except the HG and, of course, the Great Light). It also had a barracks, granary, temple, monastery, theatre, library and obelisk (OK, the last was free…). Not to mention that also trained every military unit in the land.
While it’s fun to go after Angkor Wat, it doesn’t really maximize score. By stopping at Music and Drama and turning up the culture slider, it is possible to attain 10,000 culture without any GP luck at all.
The Great Lighthouse
The one essential wonder which the capital cannot build is The Great Lighthouse. This task is left to your second city, which should go on the copper hill to the east where it can share the marble and exploit the crabs and horses. This makes for pretty decent production (and there is no other location on the coast which has any at all) so it will build the Light. After the granary, your next two whips in the capital should be your barracks and your settler. The order is not as important as the precise moment in the growth cycle of Siwa. The Barracks costs two pop so the city should be at least size five. The settler costs three so it should be at size six when it is whipped. Because of the mechanics of growth, the Barracks should come first.
The city will have little to do anyway and costs maintenance money. You need Fishing, AH and Bronze in order to develop it. Unfortunately, the priority is Writing so its initial growth will be pathetic. Do not fear. Once you get Writing (and Alpha), you should be able to trade for these techs in order to get it on the proper track. Don’t forget to go visit the Carthaginians if they haven’t dropped by themselves. When you finally have the crabs on board, you can grow Copper Town to size three, exploiting the marble and horses to build the Light in plenty of time.
Military
When you run out of wonders, the capital should finally start to build some military. You will have to take a break in the wonder mania somewhere after Lit anyway. Axes and cats can grab Jerusalem where you can build The Temple of Solomon and perhaps The Church of the Nativity. Pikes and axes can defend against the horse archers and impis who will appear out of the desert. Be assured that they will. Near the end you may see some camel archers too. In general, build your military normally. Whipping is not efficient for less than 31 hammers.
Emperor
The UHV is also attainable when playing at Emperor. The extra warrior at the beginning is even more important at this level than at Monarch. In fact, you will need a third one fairly soon. By the same reasoning, it is a good idea to train it right away.
While happiness is an issue, the main difference between the two levels is research speed. Because of this, you are going to miss to lose wonders to the AI. Worst of all, you will lose the Oracle. This hurts badly. Don’t even try for it. You won’t get it, which makes Priesthood a waste of time. You need to get to Alphabet and Literature as fast as possible. Otherwise you may lose the Great Lib too, and that would end your chances altogether. Use every trick you can think of to speed up your research. Build lots of cottages. After you have your Library, hire scientists. After Alphabet, you can consider building research. It should save a couple of turns.
At this level it is simply not possible to build 5000 culture through buildings and wonders. This being the case, you are going to have to find the rest through other means. Counting on an artist to appear from your GP factory is cheesy (although admittedly it is likely). Surely you should plan to find another way to get the thousand odd which remain. There are two possibilities. You can either get Music for the free GA or you can try Drama for the culture slider and the theatres. Back of the napkin calculations seem to indicate that the Drama route does not generate enough culture, although it will be close. It is possible to get to Music on time, although it is very tight.
The Egyptians (Historical UHV under the new patch)
by Louis XIV
Overview
This strategy is similar to the one described above by Abegweit, however it is pretty infallible (I've done it 5 times in a row, with the worst-case scenario involved, and it still managed to work every time). The best thing is that it follows history quite accurately (if you install the Sphinx modcomp to replace Stonehenge).
Settle your capital: Ineb-Hedj
Since it is the time of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, what better place to found our capital than Ineb-Hedj, or Memphis in modern-day terms. Although it might seem like a waste of the marble resource at first, settling here makes the UHV extremely easy to achieve. Send your settler 2 spots to the north (on top of the marble) to found the ancient capital. With your warrior, you can send him southwest to pop the goody hut, or leave him in your capital to defend.
500 Culture: The first steps
Once Ineb-Hedj has been settled, research Mysticism and build a worker to farm that nice, health-improving and extra food-giving wheat to the northwest.
The research order here is Mysticism - Masonry - Pottery - Fishing - Writing - Sailing - Aesthetics - Literature (you will need to trade for Polytheism, but we'll get to that later).
As soon as you build your worker, start building Stonehenge/the Sphinx. When your worker is finished farming the wheat, have him start building a farm on the grass tile north of Ineb-Hedj but don't finish. When Masonry is 1-2 steps from being completed, send him to build a quarry on the stone in the southwest.
Once the quarry has been completed, send your worker to finish off the farm on the grass and to build cottages on the floodplains, and WHIP Stonehenge AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
When Stonehenge has been whipped, start building the pyramids and WHIP the Pyramids ASAP as well. Then start building a settler (don't whip).
Per-Wadjet - The Great Lighthouse and the Great Library
Next, send your settler to the northwest and found Per-Wadjet, and build a workboat to access the fish resource. Start building a library in Ineb-Hedj, and as soon as you can, whip both the library and the work boat. Send the work boat to work the fish tile, and start building the Great Lighthouse in Per-Wadjet and build a warrior in Ineb-Hedj to send over to Per-Wadjet to protect the city and keep it happy.
Build another warrior and send it west to meet Carthage, and start building a granary in Ineb-Hedj, but don't whip it. At this point, you need your cottages to keep growing for the extra research point.
Around turn 82, you should pop either a Great Engineer or a Great Prophet. If you have a great engineer, you’re laughing as you can be assured that you will get the UHV. Just keep him around until you have researched Literature then use him to build the Great Library. If you have a Great Prophet, send him to Per-Wadjet to join the city (don’t use him to research Meditation). As soon as the Great Lighthouse is built (don’t whip), build a harbor, then build the Great Library in Per-Wadjet - make sure you don't whip the Lighthouse.
Diplomacy
As far as diplomacy goes, sign open borders with the Greeks when they spawn, and gift Agriculture to Carthage then sign open borders. A key move is to stay on good terms with the Carthaginians, because as soon as you finish Aesthetics, you want to trade it to Carthage for Polytheism.
5000 Culture
Switch to Caste System and put 2 specialists as artists. The last key for this strategy is to pop a Great Artist in Ineb Hedj and have him create a great work. If Judaism spreads, switch it to your state religion, and if you can trade Aesthetics to the Persians for Monotheism, switch your civics to Caste and Organized Religion at the same time.
If you don’t get a great artist, put all of your citizens as Artist specialists in Per-Wadjet and Ineb-Hedj, you should definitely get a great artist within the next 2 Great Artist spawns.
The Finale
Other than that, the game is up to you. Build a settler in Ineb Hedj and send him to settle the New Kingdom in Niwt-rst, build up an army, trade techs, whatever, it’s up to you until turn 152. The game is yours at this point.
The Egyptians (Cultural/Diplomatic Victory)
by Rod
Overview
The game as Egypt is tough on all levels. The first 50 turns of the game we are completely alone, as the Barbarians trap us in Egypt. After this turn other civilizations like Persia, Rome and Greece will rise very soon and they are advanced to us. Rome and Greece are also hostile towards us and we also have to deal with numerous Barbarians , who will threaten our homelands. The Sea Peoples, who are appearing from 1200 BC till 100 AD will roam the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and try to destroy our Fishing Fleets and our navy. After 200 AD (turn 130) Hordes of Bedouin Camel Archers and Horse Archers will set pace to our lands coming from the west. These attacks continue until 900 AD and its gets only worse when some guys called Arabs will decide to found Makkah as their capital, Islam as their religion and an army of Camel Archers as their basic arguments. We can not avoid the Arabian Onslaught in 630 AD, as Egypt is an integrative part of the Islamic world and Cairo was THE center of science in the whole umma.
All in all to be frank Egypt in RFC is not meant to survive. But we can change that It is a challenge, but it is possible. The key is to use our Unique Powers and Unique Units to best effect. Our Unique Power is that we start the game as a civilization and so we have Slavery and Hereditary Rule from the first turn enabled. That means we can whip and keep our people quiet with military presence. So we need big cities, which are growing fast .. we will found them.
But in order to do this every single step in the first turns is critical. We have plan exactly every single turn and every single decision. We have to know when to built what and on which place and when to research what. For this purpose I wrote this guide, which will make us survive all this dangers and lays the foundation for the middle game.
So we start our game as Ramesses II, Pharaoh of Egypt and on Emperor level.
The First Turns
The start : Our starting technologies are Agriculture and Wheel. Our starting units are one settler and one warrior. There are only 2 other civilizations : Chinese and Indian. They start with the same units. The Chinese have Mining and Agriculture, the Indians have Agriculture and Mysticism. Our first target is to outperform these competitors and to secure our Homelands.
1st turn : We start the game with one settler and one warrior. At first we do not found our capital instantly. We move to the sea. So go 1-1 (numpad) with the settler. Our warrior will explore the surroundings. So move him to the north east.
2nd turn : We will found our capital, but we do not use the tile which is highlighted. Instead we use the tile left to it. The highlighted tile is better, but we need to think ahead and later we will built Sin, which needs the critical two tiles that we now spare for it. In this case Sin will become very productive instead of being a mere placeholder and border defense. So we move our settler 1 (numpad) and found the city. The name is Xou – I change the name now normally. We start to build warrior and research Fishing. Our start unit warrior moves on until he reaches Sinai. There we can already see the borders of Yerushalem and inside are lots of units (7), especially 3 archers .. we are trapped for now.
3rd till 5th turn : we move our settler along the eastern coast to the south.
6th turn : Our cultural borders increase, which is important as now the tile with the wheat can be harvested.
10th turn : Our warrior now reached a lake in the Highlands of Ethiopia. He will have an encounter with an animal. We should survive this. In anyway at this lake, we have to turn west again. Our warrior needs to roam around the later position of Niwt-Rst to keep the area free of predatory animals.
12th turn : We researched Fishing. Now we instantly change the production in our city to Work Boat. There are two rounds left for warrior, we will finish later. In the research we now go for Pottery. We need the granary and even more important the cottages.
14th turn : Our city grow to size 2, so we can rush the work boat.
15th turn : Our work boat moves to the fish tile and we start production of a worker. Our warrior moves westwards and discovers Elephants, that will be important later.
16th turn : The Nets are in place. Our exploring warrior should soon encounter another animal . Our city is now growing (producing worker) with 5 spare food. That is not bad
24th turn : The worker is finished we move him to our to wheat field and start farm next turn. In the city we can continue warrior.
25th turn : Our first warrior is produced, we start another one.
27th turn : We finished Pottery. We research Mysticism.
30th turn : The city grew to 2. We emphasize on growth (food), so make sure the buttons are activated and the wheat field is harvested. Our roaming warrior is cleaning the Nile Region from animals – this important for our later city.
33rd turn : Our Worker finished the farm. Don’t build a road. Our city will grow to 3 soon. So now move the farmer to the flood plains field south of the farm. There you start a cottage.
35th turn : Our city is 3 now, so we switch to settler.
39th turn : We finished Mysticism, so we go for Masonry.
41st turn : In our city we can now rush the settler. There is one warrior in our city. We send him the tile left of the incense, he will protect the settler, when he arrives on this tile. Our roaming warrior keeps on cleaning the area, too.
42rd turn : We finished our settler, so now we send him to the tile left of the incense. In the city we continue our warrior.
43rd turn : The now 3rd Warrior is finished, we start the 4th one. Our worker finished cottage, we move him to the flood plains tile north of our later city Niwt-Rst
44th turn : we found Niwt-Rst, our second city ! We already have one warrior together with the settler, so the city is protected. We start to produce worker in the queue. The worker on the northern tile starts a cottage.
46th turn : The 4th warrior is finished in our capital and the city reaches 3, so we start settler.
51st turn : Only two turns until masonry and the Greeks arrived so we need to check our results so far …
The Next 40 Turns
Turn 52 : Only turn until Masonry so at the end of the turn, we give the move order to our worker. He will move to the stone tile.
Turn 53 : Masonry is researched at last. We start to discover Animal Husbandry. Our worker will arrive on the stone tile and starts to build the so important quarry for our later Stonehenge.
Turn 55 : Finally we finished our second settler in our capital. This settler moves to Sinai (the desert hill tile, which connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea).
Turn 57 : In Niwt-Rst we finished our worker and we instantly move him to the stone tile. In the meanwhile we start Pyramids in Niwt-Rst. Turn 58 : We can found Sin .. it will be become the gate to conquer Yerushalem later. In the production queue we decide for barracks.
Turn 60 : Our workers finished the quarry and we can move them to the marble tile. We also can move our roaming start warrior to Sin.
Turn 64 : We can rush Stonehenge in our capital and this is not too early. Stonehenge is an important part of our strategy as it saves us the obelisks either in Niwt-Rst as in Sin, which we need to reach the Copper and Horse Resources later.
Turn 65 : What a moment … our first world wonder and suddenly the world gets centered and we feel so small …
Turn 66 : Our workers finished the next quarry, which will make a production hub out of Sin. We let them start a road on the tile right of the marble.
Turn 67 : At least we discovered Animal Husbandry and we can start Mining. Horses pop up just between Niwt-Rst and Sin, but it will take a few turns, before the culture of this cities is strong enough to cover the tile.
Turn 69 : The workers finished the road and they move now to the tile with the horses.
Turn 70 : The workers start another road.
Turn 72 : The next road is finished and a short check tells us that the culture ratio is on 8 of 10 in both cities. That means we have two turns left and we should use them. There is still an unfinished cottage north of Niwt-Rst. (From turn 52, just north of Niwt-Rst). We move there now and order cottage.
Turn 73 : Mining is researched and we start Bronze Working. But there is more .. the next cottage is finished and it looks nice. We move our one worker who is free back on the horse tile as in next turn the culture borders will increase. His colleague will follow him next turn , too.
Turn 78 : There it is, our first pasture. Soon we can start to produce our War Chariots. The target is now to build an army of War Chariots to conquer Yerushalem and therefore to gain our religion : Judaism … The now free worker will go to the desert hill tile right (east) of the horse pasture. His colleague will follow him next turn and they will build there our first mine. In the meanwhile we make sure that Niwt-Rst is using the Horse Tile, as we still want to let Sin grow a little more.
Turn 80 : Our capital is ready for army building. The barracks are finished and we start our first War Chariot.
Turn 81 : The Persians enter the game. Now the time to conquer our part of the Middle East is running out … but we are prepared and our targets are clear.
In the comparison we would see that we already catched up with the Indians in Infrastructure and City Size, but we are far behind the Chinese as they have simply too fertile areas in their homelands. We can’t help it.
But the odds are changing now in our favor. Thanks to our Unique Unit the War Chariot, we will be able to make some strategically important acquisitions and also to fill our treasury. The whole game long we will depend on deficit spending for research so just get as much gold as possible.
In the Persians we will find a very reliable and strong ally, so please by no means attack them, but just the opposite, make sure that they take Hattusa, as they will defend this town perfectly against the Greeks, who would otherwise treaten us. (Btw a strong (and non-islamic) Persia is also the best guarantee for a weak Arabia … and that is our only chance) But all this will happen later.
Turn 83 : What a feeling. Our first Chariots rolls on the streets of our Capital. We leave it there for a while, as it keeps the citizen happy. As we maybe can notice our capital is getting quite big already (and as a side notice, the first cottage that we built long ago became a village in the meanwhile )
Our workers finished the mine, so we make sure that Sin is harvesting the mine now. The workers will build a road and btw. Sin finished the barracks, so also there we can start a War Chariot.
Turn 85 : The Romans founded their capital .. they will give us more than one headache later, but for now they are still weak and friendly.
Turn 86 : We researched Bronze Working and .. what a nice surprise .. our already built mine is exactly on a copper resource. (This is certainly a little cheating, but Egypt is really too hard, so I have too use my experience in order to plan ahead), besides the workers also finished the road exactly in this moment, so we can move them one tile north of the horses and to build a cottage there.
In the research we go for Sailing and in Niwt-Rst we shift from the Horse Pasture tile to a flood plains tile as we want to grow to 4 soon.
Turn 90 : We can rush the Pyramids in Niwt-Rst as the city size is big enough and the production is also advanced enough. In the meanwhile we can already send one Chariot from our Capital to Sin and we can also let one of the Chariots in Sin do some reconnaissance nearby Yerushalem and Susa.
Turn 91 : The next world wonder is finished .. and everything in the first 100 turns And as cool as it is to have the Pyramids at exactly in the right place and nearly the right time (just 1000 years difference ) we even really need them.
An immediate positive effect like with Stonehenge is unfortunately not there as we do not plan to change our government in near future. But more important is that the culture of Niwt-Rst is now growing with 7 point per turn. So we can be sure that we reach the elephants resource in time. The elephants not only provide happiness, but (after we have researched Construction) the elephant resource will supply us with War Elephants … War Elephants are our most important offensive weapon against the fanatic Arabians so plan ahead. Of all the dangers that we will face during the centuries the Arabians will prove to be the biggest one … sounds a little actual, doesn’t it …
At this point the guide will finish, because now you have everything in your hands. But I wrote general strategic hints and suggestion in the next chapter.
The next X turns
Actually you can start to conquer the first cities. At first you go for Sur, because your units need experience to overcome the 3 archers in Yerushalem. At the same time, you may assault Iquy.
By turn 102 you are able to have Sur, Yerushalem and Iquy in your hands. Sur is not meant to grow anymore, but from the start it will only produce settlers, but this it will do perfectly.
After we will have researched Sailing, we will need Hunting, we will need Writing etc.
Sailing enables us to create our navy. We need at least 4 galleys in place, which are protecting our fishing boats next to our capital and later next to Yerushalem. Yerushalem is of course very important for us. As soon as it got conquered Judaism will spread in our lands. Our first Great Person is very likely a Prophet thanks to Stonehenge So we also get the Temple of Solomon early. Altogether Yerushalem is meant to be one of my three cities for cultural victory, especially now with the new rule for the resurrection of dead civilizations.
Hunting is necessary to create Spearmen. Spearmen will be the backbone of our army, as they are the only ones, who will (behind the thick city walls) protect us against Camel Archers. The interesting thing is that we basically just need to fortify Yerushalem and Iquy, because neither Sur, nor Sin or any other city get touched except one or two times.
It also should be possible to agree on Open Borders either with Persia as with India early and we can send one Chariot till China, because the Chinese are really very good trading partners. Just trade everything with them.
In general warfare we need a little luck, because the Greeks and the Romans are now most likely to be busy with themselves, but after some while they both will come for us. So you should hope that Persia is in War with Greece at this time, because it will really boost our relations with Persia and the Greeks are exhausting themselves in fighting the land army of Persia, so that we just have to protect the sea. (Hattusa needs to be Persian, you remember)
Iquy is strategically quite important for us, because it will be our outpost against the masses of Bedouin Camel Archers who will come later. Normally they would go for our capital, but in this case we can direct them to Iquy. What we need in Iquy is a permament presence of 4 Spearmen and a Wall, as soon as the raids are starting. Do not waste time! Also the Romans will attack exactly at this points … so either maintain the best relationship possible or equip Iquy with at least 2 Axemen.
The benefit of fortifying Iquy is that only very few units will come for our capital, so that most of the time nobody is disturbing (razing) this very important area. Keep Iquy!
It is quite possible to get the Great Lighthouse until turn 110 – 115. Try it, actually I really like the effect and .. the Lighthouse would stand at the same place where Alexandria is supposed to be. The Great Library on the other hands is quite impossible , simply because we do not get Literature early enough.
Do not forget to send your units into Mercenary Service as soon as you do not need them. This can often really increase your finances.
Last but not least we have to settle. The Maghreb is not the best place for settling (because it is simply to dangerous). But .. the Eastern African Coast is our natural habit. Settle the whole eastern coast until South Africa, because only there you will find Iron.. and on the way downwards you will stumble over 2 Gems, 1 Silver, 1 Gold, 2 Sugar, 1 Copper Resource next to more Horses, Cows, Incense, Elephants, Crabs, Fishes and more. (not to mention … attention : spoiler … coal ) The area is worth every effort.
… I normally develop this starting position into a Cultural Victory or Diplomatic Victory, but maybe you can do even more.
Egyptian UHV
by Mxzs
Summary
You must surmount four tasks in order to win the Egyptian Historical Victory. You can win the first (getting 500 culture by 700BC) by building Wonders early (Stonehenge, Pyramids, Oracle). You can win the second (building the Pyramids, Great Lighthouse, and Great Library by AD 250) by bee-lining the appropriate techs. You can win a decent shot at the third (getting 5000 culture by AD 450) by switching to Caste System and hiring two or three Artist specialists in your capital. The (unofficial) fourth task is to survive an onslaught of barbarians and Impis. You can better your chances here by building the Great Wall.
Details
1. Move your initial Settler two squares northwest to settle at Siwa, which is relatively healthy and has access to the Stone, Marble, and population-supporting Wheat squares. Your initial build order (once appropriate techs have been researched) will be Worker-Stonehenge-Pyramids-Oracle-Settler. Initial tech path will be Mysticism-Masonry-Meditation-Priesthood-Writing.
2. Send your Warrior to pop the African goodie huts. If you're lucky, you can get all of them and their benefits, and if you're really lucky your Warrior might even make it back to Siwa. It's probably a suicide mission, though, and there's a good chance you won't get the hut down near the Cape of Good Hope because of all the durned wildlife. Well, c'est la vie.
3. Once your Worker is built, have it farm the Wheat square, then move down to quarry the Stone and then up to quarry the Marble. He should also build a road from Siwa to Per-Atum (the hill on the Red Sea that has/will have Bronze in it). It's also a good idea to build a road down to the Stone quarry, so that you can get troops down quickly to fight Impis later on. You will have three forests within your borders, eventually, and after you get Bronzeworking you can chop these to rush some stuff. If you run out of stuff for your Worker to do, no worries. Farming, quarrying, and road-building are the important things.
Side note A: If you're nervous about getting the Oracle (which is one of the key bits in this strategy), you can interrupt Pyramids to build it. But if you do this, be sure that the Oracle isn't built until after you get Writing. That's because you will use the Oracle to get Mathematics as your free tech, and Mathematics isn't available for discovery until after Writing. (You want Mathematics because it will make reaching Construction—and the Great Wall—much easier.)
Side note B: If you get your Warrior back from his expeditions, well, three cheers and a tiger for you—he can keep Siwa from getting an angry citizen or two. Otherwise, you might have to build another Warrior before you build your Settler.
5. After you get your three initial Wonders built—and maybe after you get the Settler built—switch to Caste System. You will not have whipped anything, and Siwa should be size 6. At this point you can throttle growth back. Put the extra population (2 or 3, depending on how big you let Siwa get) to work as Artists.
6. You will probably get a Great Prophet as your first GP. If so, put him to work as a super-specialist—the extra hammers are good, and you can probably get Polytheism (the only religious tech worth getting) from one of your neighbors later on. If you're lucky and get a Great Engineer, save him to rush build one of your later wonders (any that you're nervous about getting). Having Artists at work in Siwa, though, will give you a solid shot at getting a Great Artist as your second GP. You will also probably get a third GP before time runs out, so you will have two shots at getting a Great Artist. If and when you do, have him create his great work. That by itself will get you 80% toward meeting the third UHV.
7. After you build your Settler, move it to the Red Sea coast. I like to build Per-Atum, on the hill with Bronze, so as to save the trouble of building a mine on that hill. Have that city start building the Great Lighthouse as soon as you get Sailing. The hill in Sinai either is or will quickly move within your cultural boundaries, and you can use your Worker to mine it (once you have Mining; see below).
8. After you have built your Settler and gotten Writing and Mathematics, you have a lot of leeway in what you build and what you research. In Siwa, you should build a Library and maybe a Barracks. If you get Bronzeworking quickly (see below) you can also start building Axemen. (Alternately, if you don't get Bronzeworking but do get Archery or Hunting, you can build Archers or Spearmen).
9. For techs: You will have made contact with the Greeks, and will eventually make contact with the Carthaginians and Romans. They will have or will quickly get Alphabet, so you won't have to research that tech in order to trade with them. Use the opportunity to secure from them some of the following: Sailing, Bronzeworking, Polytheism, Mining, Fishing, Hunting, Archery. (The price will be steep, but worth it.) The first four techs in that list are the key ones to get. You need Sailing for the Lighthouse; Mining to build a mine in Sinai; Polytheism to get to Literature; and Bronzeworking to build Axemen. You need Fishing only if you can't get Sailing directly; and you need Hunting and Archery only if you're feeling extra nervous about your neighbors. Whatever you can't trade for, you'll have to research. Except for Bronzeworking, though, most of these techs are pretty cheap.
9. But Construction is what you should be concentrating on after getting Mathematics. It won't be a quick research, but it won't take inordinately long to get, either. As soon as you get it, start building the Great Wall. Before you can win a Historical Victory, there will be about 20 turns during which you will have to defend your cities and the Wonders they contain from barbarian Camel Archers, and the Wall will solve that problem nicely. The Wall won't protect you from Impis, but that's why God created Axemen.
10. After you get Construction, beeline Literature and build the Great Library. If you haven't gotten a Great Artist by this point, you can continue on to Music. You should be able to get that tech and its free Great Artist before time runs out.
From that point on, it's mostly just a question of protecting yourself from Impis and any neighbors (most likely the Romans, but occasionally the Carthaginians or the Ethiopians) who get randy. I rarely have any problems with my neighbors, but even when I do, they don't do much. The barbs usually show up at about the time my competitors would be getting aggressive, and that keeps them busy while I'm snug behind the Great Wall. Anyway, if you've timed it right, you will have built the Great Library about 10 to 20 turns before Turn 143 rolls around, and you can use that time to churn out Axemen. Siwa will probably be able to kick a new Axemen out every 2 turns.
This strategy isn't foolproof. One of your rivals might get the Oracle or the Pyramids before you do; less likely, but still possible, they might snag the Wall or the Lighthouse. You might not get a Great Artist. You might also have the really bad luck to have a unit-killing plague hit just as hordes of Impis come up from the south. (In one of my tests, I had a trifecta of bad luck: hordes of Impis, a plague that killed all my units, and a mediated treaty between the Natives and the Ethiopians, who are usually a bit of a buffer. **That** game got ugly at the end.) But I've found that I have an excellent shot at fulfilling the Historical goals with this strategy.
Egyptian UHV on BTS, Monarch level
by Jeff1787
Start off by moving the settler one square north and settle on turn 2. The wheat and grassland up north in the Nile Delta are helpful for growth and health. The warrior can head to central and southern Africa to look for huts.
On turn 2 settle the capitol city of Niwt-Rst. Here is the build order:
- Worker
- Warrior
- Warrior
- Stonehenge
- Pyramids
- Settler
- Library
- Granary
- Great Library
- Military units
Here is the research order for the Egyptian Old Kingdom:
- Mining
- Masonry (Pyramids)
- Mysticism (Stonehenge for the Caste System and then hopefully a Great Artist)
- Fishing
- Sailing (Great Lighthouse)
- Pottery
- Writing
- Polytheism
- Aesthetics
- Literature (Great Library)
- Bronze working
- Animal husbandry
The order for the worker (I only used one the entire game) goes something like this:
- Farm the wheat field
- Quarry the stone
- Quarry the marble
- Mine the hill to the east
- Farm the northern grassland
Here is how the plan should progress:
Once Mysticism is researched it allows Stonehenge. Since the stone quarry cuts the research time in half, Stonehenge should be completed around turn 43. Then immediately switch from slavery to the Caste System and start working some artist citizens. The idea is to get a Great Artist. This is where some luck comes into play. You have to make sure that the percentage of producing a Great Artist is quite a bit higher then that of producing some type of other Great Person.
After, Stonehenge I immediately started work on the Pyramids and got them on turn 61.
I got the Great Artist on turn 64 and kept him to use on my 2nd city which would eventually be settled on the Mediterranean coast to build the Great Lighthouse. If for some reason you don’t get a Great Artist, keep trying to get one by working artist citizens. You must get a Great Artist!
After I got the Great Artist, I immediately switched back to slavery. Also, if you don’t get the Great Artist until later in the game, Stonehenge and the Pyramids will give you the 500 culture points for the 1st victory condition by turn 86.
I used slavery to help rush what was left of my settler. I then settled the city of Per-Wadjet one square west of the wheat field. This was on turn 72. I immediately used my Great Artist to create and a Great Work and 4,000 culture points. I now had enough points to satisfy victory conditions 1 and 3.
In Per-Wadjet the build order was simply the Great Lighthouse and then military units for protection. When building the Great Lighthouse you have to work the marble quarry, or else take the risk that it will not get built in time. On turn 101, I rushed what was left of the Great Lighthouse and then concentrated on military.
On turn 108, I rushed what was left of the Great Library in Niwt-Rst. Then I just produced military.
At one point, both Greece and Rome declared war on me, but they never invaded. I eventually gave them technology for peace.
Plague and barbarians were a problem, but I weathered the storm.
More hints
1) Stay with one city. Establish it on Mediterranean coastline. That way you can build all 3 wonders in one city. 2) Besides the 3 wonders required in UHV, build other wonders which will increase your culture rate per turn. 3) Learn Music to control your culture rate. 4) Towards the end, your city should only produce culture
Egyptian Historical Guide
by Sean Meade
I cannot praise Rhye's and Fall of Civilization highly enough. It is hard to imagine going back to playing normal Civ. It is, in my mind, the Civilization I always wanted. I am very grateful to Rhye for making it.
Obviously, a huge part of the genius of RFC is the Unique Historical Victories. I have played all of them and enjoyed them immensely.
However, some of the UHVs actually make the gameplay less historical. For example, it's often better to found your capital in a non-historic place if you want to win the UHV.
So, I got it into my mind, pretty shortly after starting to play through the UHVs, that I would go back and play more historically, setting the UHVs, or parts of them, aside sometimes. You know, for fun.
Obviously, my goal is more art, and prejudice, than science. I mean, the gameplay of Civ and RHC will preclude many historical simulations. The main one I think of off the top of my head is density and placement of cities. At this point, I just have to make a judgment call on how I want to play or try multiple ways and see what I like best.
As much as I am setting out to play more historically, it's not like I'm looking for graduate degree verisimilitude. Sort of following the Wikipedia entry will almost certainly be good enough for me.
So, let's get this show on the road.
Ancient Egypt - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt
timeline (BC)
2560 - Great Pyramid completed
1985 - territory in Nubia, defensive structure in Eastern Delta
1400 - furthest extent of Egyptian empire, including Palestine and western Syria
285-247 - Lighthouse
200 - Great Library founded
Here's a cool quote from the Wikipedia entry that especially pertains to technology:
The civilization of ancient Egypt thrived from its adaptation to the conditions of the Nile River Valley. Controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which fueled social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military that defeated foreign enemies and asserted Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a divine pharaoh who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people through an elaborate system of religious beliefs.[4][5]
The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians included a system of mathematics, quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that facilitated the building of monumental pyramids, temples and obelisks, faience and glass technology, a practical and effective system of medicine, new forms of literature, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, and the earliest known peace treaty.[6] Egypt left a lasting legacy: art and architecture were copied and antiquities paraded around the world, and monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of tourists and writers for centuries.
One more introductory note: I always play on Viceroy. This is my leisure time. Many of the players here obviously enjoy a great challenge. I enjoy winning a medium-sized challenge ;-)
I owe much to the Egyptian strategy guides. You should read them.
Recap of the Egyptian Unique Historical Victory conditions:
- Have more than 500 Culture in 700 BC (turn 86)
- Build the Pyramids, the Great Library, and the Great Lighthouse by 250 AD
- Have more than 5000 Culture in 450 AD
I found my capital city, Niwt-Rst (The Southern City, known to us through the Greeks as Thebes) at the default starting place. Start building a worker.
(Reading the Wikipedia article, I discover that Memphis was a capital of Egypt as early as 3150. So this is definitely a possibility. It would also have the added benefit of letting me build the Pyramids in their proper geographic location, right on the marble: Ineb Hedj, The White Walls (Memphis is the Greek name). (Technically, Ineb Hedj was on the west bank of the Nile, but Rhye decided to link it to this square and I agree. You get the added benefit of not having to quarry the marble.))
We run into another major historical decision right away: The Egypt strategy guides recommend building Stonehenge to meet the first UHV condition. I'm obviously not going to do that. Can the first victory condition be attained without it?
Yes, in Viceroy. I could not not get to it in Monarchy. Maybe someone else can.
(It occurred to me that I could if I built Stonehenge but thought of it as some early pyramid, say the Step Pyramid of Djoser ;-)
My first two techs are Mining and Masonry.
Now I've got a lot of waiting to do. I explore with my warrior, popping the goody huts in Mombasa, South Africa and Chad(?).
Just keep the default civics, Hereditary Rule and Slavery.
We have time in Viceroy to research extra techs. Next I pick Mysticism and Polytheism to provide the Egyptian spiritual foundation.
(If you haven't done it already, consider turning on the clock in the Other tab in the Options menu. It also includes the Turn you're on and makes it easier to track your progress (given Rhye's pre-calendar obfuscation ;-).
Worker's done: Turn 12. Start the Pyramids. Quarry and connect the stone.
On the particular game I'm using to write this guide I get a worker in the Mombasa village. Pretty good score. Can I get him back to civilization without an accompanying warrior? Save and try. Up to Ethiopia. I see a panther. 'Please Mr Panther, don't eat me.' He heads the other direction. Made it back to the incense by turn 25! Build a road.
Fishing and Sailing, Pottery, Animal Husbandry and Archery.
Turn 27: Worker finishes stone quarry and road. 16 turns until the Pyramids are completed. Build a road to the marble.
Turn 29: My warrior arrives at the South African goody hut (had to stop and heal up after a panther strike). 62 gold.
Incidentally, my research has been pegged at 100%. This is my first gold.
Now the warrior begins the long trip home. Send my second worker to build a road on the marble, eventually meeting the first worker there. Then quarry the marble.
Time to start watching N-R to see when we can whip out the Pyramids.
Finish the marble quarry. Head back SW and build a cottage.
Discover Animal Husbandry and the horses NE of N-R. Does Mr Nimoy say 'kind' or 'kine'? It sounds to me like the former, but should be the latter ;-)
This is it: turn 40: whip The Pyramids.
Next we need to build a Settler, of course.
Our borders have expanded and the cottage is done. Time to irrigate the wheat (for health for N-R and thinking of our coming city, Per-Wadjet (just W of the wheat).
Last batch of techs is done. Now we need Bronze Working (to chop out the GLight). Then Monotheism (in honor of Amenhotep IV and presuming Yerushalayim will found Judaism before I complete it (in one of my games they didn't!)) and Writing.
I finish irrigating the wheat and like to build a road in that square, too. N-R is healthy at population 2!
Lord McCauley has completed his greatest work and I am the second most cultured civilization in the world.
Workers move one square E and irrigate it, too.
Meet the Greeks, make peace, farewell.
Next worker job: go build a road on the dye.
Turn 58: Settler done. Time to start preparing for Impis, barbarians and capturing Yerushalayim (if we can pull it off). Build a barracks.
Found Per-Wadjet W of the wheat, approximate future location where Alexander will found his famous name-sake. Start the GLight immediately. I turn my research down a notch to keep my gold around 60.
(Technically, historical Alexandria is probably E of the westernmost reach of the Nile delta, but we want to spread out a little...)
(Since there's wheat available and good farm land, I chose not to build a work boat for whoever decides to war against me to pillage.)
Turn 60: my wondering warrior finally reaches the Chad goody hut (exactly 6 squares due SW of N-R). He gets a useless map, which doesn't seem a proper reward for the trek. Oh well, I did get a worker in Mombasa.
Ok, now it's time to beeline Music. This is essential to my strategy for getting 5000 culture by 450 AD: being the first to Music gives you a free Great Artist who can build a Great Work worth 4000 culture. And it's doable on Viceroy. We'll pick up Literature on the way for the Great Library.
Chop the forest NW of P-W. Then move south and build a cottage and road.
Complete the barracks in N-R and start an archer. Whip in N-R at your discretion, probably between population 3 and 6. It's always unhealthy anyway.
Worker(s) chop the two remaining forest in P-W's fat cross, now that the border has expanded. Your choice how to improve those tiles.
The wondering warrior returns to garrison P-W.
Build a catapult in N-R for eventual Yeru'm campaign. We cannot get there as soon as the pharaohs did and still meet the UHV. You could punt the first UHV condition to be more historically accurate and go after Yeru'm earlier. Keep building your military in N-R. If you'd rather be building chariots or spearmen at this point, connect the horses or copper earlier. Having a decent-sized military when Ethiopia shows up keeps them from getting frisky, too.
P-W acquires Judaism in turn 79, which will mean 7 more culture for our goal of 500 by turn 86.
Turn 86: 512 culture. We made it!
Furthermore, the GLight is ready to be whipped. Do it.
(To be more historically accurate, we could hold off finishing the GLight until later, since we're finishing almost 500 years before the historical date.)
Ok, the hard part is over. We've shot our wad on the GLight, chopping all three of the forests. But we've got a 100% chance of popping a Great Engineer in N-R 23 turns from now, and he's going to finish the GLib for us.
Hook up the horses and copper if you haven't done so already. After that, I like to start building a road to Yeru'm. I also like to build a fort on the Sinai (desert) tile (2 above the copper). It fulfills the role for me of the Eastern Delta defenses the pharaohs built. Notionally, it can also serve as an anachronistic Suez Canal (though I have no navy and plan on winning before I can use it :-). (Did you know ships can enter forts and you can use them like canals? Took me a long time to learn that :-)
Turn 101: Toynbee ranks us the 8th most powerful civ in the world. Well, yes, we haven't been going for power.
Turn 103: First to Music. Pick which city you want to favor with the Great Work. N-R would be more historically accurate: Temple of Karnak, King Tut's tomb, something like that.
I like to research Calendar next to put a date on those turn numbers.
I captured Yeru'm on turn 108, renamed it Aarru-Hetep, and met Hammurabi and Asoka.
Turn 110/210 BC. My Great Engineer is born and I use him to finish the GLib right around the time it was historically founded! Enjoy your Golden Age.
We have actually met all of the UHV conditions many years early, but have to wait until 450 AD for the win. You would think, getting it done that early, that I could do it on Monarch (without building Stonehenge), but I'll be darned if I can. Of course, I only made that first condition with a 12 culture cushion. If you can do it, I hope you'll tell me how.
Caught the plague in turn 122. Rats (get it? ;-). Finally over on turn 130.
Hmm. After the plague, Sur is unoccupied. Maybe I'll try to snag it and see if I can hold it.
I accidentally found Christianity in P-W in 350 AD.
First Impi invasion in 370 AD. Lose Sur back to the Babylonians.
And the win in 450. 5655 normalized score. Neville Chamberlain.
One final (maybe cheesy) note: My children have been studying about Egypt a little in school and my son showed enough interest in Civ that I could lead him to play Egypt historically (didn't worry about the UHV). Some of his ideas I had to warn against based on what I knew was coming: Ethiopia, Arabia, Impis, barbarians and plague. He thought we had a chance of winning outright and I had to disabuse him of that notion, based largely on Egypt's starting postion - lack of resources, lack of good places to expand, lack of lots of arable land, etc. Yesterday when we went to an Egypt exhibit in town he was able to identify the basics of what we had done on the map. RFC is educational! :-)
