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Author |
File Description |
Tryhard |
Posted on 09/10/02 @ 12:00 AM
File Details |
Era/Kingdom: |
New Kingdom |
Score: |
102000 |
Difficulty: |
Very Hard |
I was not so fascinated by the Khmun scenario, but was interested to follow Memsurs on this one. Game starts in 1540. Bubastis opens in 1536 and is of little help, except for buying beer. Rowarty opens only in 1533.
What I first checked is that I can reach the stately manor status: I can import luxuries from two cities but they are of the same kind. I can import only 2,500 of a second type of food from Rowarty, which besides that opens late in the game. Ra would help me from time to time to get 4,000 but it will not be enough to feed the 23 manors I can set in one block. So I plan a smaller manors block.
My two first tries were failures because my KR dropped to 0 for over-indebtment. The second time, only for a question of seconds, but my strategy was bad anyway:
· Setting immediately a chariot fort: wood costs 310 each, so 3100 for ten soldiers, plus 1250 to open the trade route to Tyre for this sole purpose. It is something I cannot afford.
· Setting barley farms on both banks: as the harvest is made in August, it is too late to expect selling lots of beer on the first year; then on the second year I have far too much barley and am too short of money to set more factories.
· Setting brick factories: bricks are sold for 120 each, but I can sell only 1,500 per year, so an income of 1800 a year. I have to buy both raw materials, that cost some 43 per 100 bricks (38 clay + 21/4 straw). So my margin is 1155 a year, notwithstanding the cost of 90 per factory and the staff. It is not profitable enough in a very young city. Besides that, I have to get the workforce, so the corresponding population, so the corresponding increase in Religion spending in the critical early stages. To be abandonned.
I noticed that the Culture rating required is 55, and expected probable scores of extra workforce, so I decided not to set the pavilions within the workers’ blocks but on both sides, like in a manors block.
I have seen that Memsurs has put three temples on the workers’ block. That is of little help as two are enough, but it is a way to please the Gods and get rid of the unemployed. In those common residence blocks, their desirability is worth a large statue. So I did the same.
I set Food at 1 on the overseer, so start to have workers on the farms in March. For the first harvest, I manage to get 2,040 barley. I have set 7 barley farms and 7 beer factories. I open in late September the road to Men-Nefer; I do not yet have beer but if I wait, the caravan buys in January only. So I set the beer SY at “Accept pottery” too and the overseer at “Import 100 pottery”. While the caravan comes to the SY, I remove the import (I set “Import 0” or they may sell anyway 800 pottery each). I sell 700 beer in December what, contrarily to my habit, makes me pass the first year with a positive balance.
I have set an archer fort. As said in my thread “Going further in fighting skills”, whoever the enemy, in our case the frightening Hyksos, the troops sent get the same results. So against a “modest” enemy (1 to 35), I bet/hope that 16 archers will do it (they do but by the shortest margin as 5 only come back). I have checked with Memsurs’ game that the first terrestrial invasion is in November 1537. I have three full years to get chariot forts. I checked that Memsurs ended his game with nearly no troop, what surprises me as there is quite a nasty Hyksos invasion following his save.
The first years are painful to ensure you have enough money, selling beer and gaining no tax. The first fight, North, is tough too. You need towers. Otherwise Khmun is a routine: little by little, you increase the number of barley farms following the increase of the local consumption by the growing population.
I stopped the game like Memsurs in early 1524 to compare on a simple scenario, as he is an experienced player too but at Hard; but I finished two months later as I wanted to see the last fight against the Hyksos (I eradicated). This is not a competition of achievements, as I always play extreme data gaming (in this case, the highest possible number of stable stately manors), not the simple game for fun.
CR: 55 (required), Prosperity: 100 (of course)
KR: 76. I forgot it completely (39 three years before) so had to run after it with lavish gifts.
More interesting:
Final treasury Memsurs 26000+, Tryhard 102000+
Population: Memsurs 6028 ; Tryhard 7700
Wages/Taxes (tax income): Memsurs 32/9% (14736); Tryhard 40/17% (44569)
Unemployment Memsurs 7%, Tryhard 0-2%
Attitude : Memsurs : positive, Tryhard : positive
Number of stable stately manors : Memsurs 9, Tryhard 20
Annual exports: Memsurs 10080 (last data), Tryhard late average 11500 (min 80% of the beer is sold every year to Bubastis, Men-Nefer, Itjtawy). Like Memsurs, I never open the road to Pwenet, which is useless.
I do not have a save in December for Memsurs and I do not know the housing level related income rates at Hard (however there is a thread about it here). A manor brings me some 1400 db, a common residence 224, so my manors bring me in some 28,000 a year.
I had to spend more money than Memsurs (buildings are a bit more expensive, and I have 14 towers and 4 chariots fort (notwithstanding some heavy casualties on both during the fights). Otherwise our games are very similar (as said, a big difference in Khmun would be surprising). I simply got more money, however my running costs, and am ready to get even more. This is the point I always emphasize: at V.Hard, the handling of money is so critical that even poor financers like me push the limits. I ensure a high tax rate by giving a high wage and keeping unemployment around 0-1% (people would not stand this rate above 5% unemployed), adding/removing camps.
How did I reach 20 stable stately manors with some meat only to buy? First I cheated, I refused the KR gifts from Ra but accepted the Trade gifts, pushing the meat trade to 4,000 nearly every year. Second, I ensured that all meat was first delivered every year by the Rowarty caravans, then only I imported papyrus (this is not a critical issue in Khmun as several cities sell papyrus). The more important I learnt from my failures in Thinis and following success in Serabit Khadim: I set a block of residences and make them evolve to manors -one by one, two-three of them a year- only when they are all fully occupied (92), when they have themselves enough of the rare food to stand two or three years (some 400-550 each) AND when they nearly all in the block have lots of the imported food. Because the bazaar ladies do not start selling from the bazaar: when the buying bazaar lady reaches the bazaar, the selling bazaar lady starts selling from where she is within the block, so you cannot know which houses will get the rare food first. If you handle it badly, one manor may miss food while some residences are getting it all, it devolves and you lose its population and goods.
Incidentally; I got several blessings from Seth but never had the Spirit of Seth. It is not yet clear to me about it, sometimes you get it when the first enemies are coming in, sometimes weeks later; anyway if you reload you always get it at the same moment. Often at V.Hard, it kills only some enemies (Dunqul, Surfing), sometimes –rarely- nearly them all, even the chariots.
Another event I already noticed is the experience gain by chariots. Against the same enemy, sometimes it is very slow, sometimes you gain four levels per company in one fight. My soldiers were all greens (I did not have money for the academy first, then did not bother) but I am pretty sure that there is a larger gap between Green and Experienced than between Experienced and the levels above. |
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
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Downloads: | 528 |
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Size: | 352.14 KB |
Added: | 09/10/02 |
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