Rhye's of Civilization Expanded - Egyptian strategy
From Rhye's Mods Wiki
The lands at your disposal are fertile, but not very productive. To balance this however, you have two great UU's at your disposal. It would be foolish not to make full advantage of them, so prepare for some desert warfare!
Your first task, the usual exploring and making contacts, is pretty limited. Suez is blocked, and there is mainly desert to explore. Send a warrior to Carthage through the desert. If you make him follow the coastline, he won't survive. As a bonus you can get the two goody huts there, potentially giving you somewhat advanced techs. The next task is founding a second city. A good choice would be one tile south west of the goody hut between you and Ethiopia. Build a monument there so you can grab the best tiles, and push back the cultural borders of Ethiopia. These two cities should be sufficient for the Egyptian war machine. When your borders engulf the horses in the north, start producing chariots. Their enslave capability, together with the industrious trait, allows you to create and maintain a larger army. Use them to kill some barbarians, while you wait for your army to grow strong enough. Add some cheap axemen to the mix when available. Before you start your conquest, it is best you switch to monarchy first. You may try getting it as bonus tech from filosophy; you probably are at the head of the tech race through huts and trading. Don't acquire mounted combat too soon, because you won't be able to make chariots anymore.
When your army is about twenty strong, it's time for some major expansion. Your best choice to start would be Arabia, though you may want to eliminate the Hebrews first, because they will not allow you to move through their land without a ROP agreement. When your golden age commences, Egypt is suddenly transformed into a productive power. Use this advantage to build more troops to continue your campaign. Even Persian immortals will offer little resistance to your might. There are two limits to how far you can go: the OCN and the Middle Ages. The first you will hit quite fast. It shouldn't be hard to get a leader out of one of your victories. Both Persepolis or the Ottoman capital Sogut are productive power houses, and are good locations to rush build the Forbidden Palace. Later on, you can build the India Trading Company in the other one. By the time the second limit is reached, your conquest will probably already have ended. Natural borders are nice to defend your empire later on, and thus a good indication to end your expansion in that direction. The mountains to the north and east of Persia, the mountains of Caucasus in the north and Byzantium in the north west are logical choices. In the west you may want to conquer Carthage for easy control of Gibraltar. Stay out of Ethiopia, there is nothing for you there. They are close, but conquering them will increase corruption throughout your empire even more.
By the time you enter the Middle Ages, you are potentially world leader in about everything. The Islam wonders are yours, and with easy acces to spices, so is the important India Trading Company. Your position provides you with lots of resources to trade, so much you probably won't get rid of everything. Cultural victory is extremely viable as you're religious, and you will have lots of gold to rush improvements. If you have patience, domination or a spaceship victory shouldn't be too hard as well.
Author: Perikles
