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Author |
File Description |
Tryhard |
Posted on 03/10/03 @ 12:00 AM
File Details |
Era/Kingdom: |
Custom |
Score: |
34025 |
Difficulty: |
Hard |
However it did not seem much more interesting than North Dashur, I have seen so many people puzzled with money management in South Dashur that I played it, twice at VHard, to provide references in resources management. Games starts in January 2575.
I had to give myself some challenging rules that were: To combine the speed of building the pyramid with the efficiency of agriculture and the optimisation of the exports.
Characteristics for South Dashur:
1. One type of food: grain, that can be imported from two cities. It is unlikely that the two routes close, so one can store the grain in Storage Yards and set the overseer at “Import as much as 0”. The granaries become useless. On the other hand, you cannot any more export grain to Serabit Khadim. However, The opening of this route costs 800, grain is worth 21 and SK buys 2,500 a year, meaning a maximum income of 525 a year or, as the route closes down anyway on year 9, a maximum profit of some 3,500 db.
This means that it is better using the money for more profitable purposes or open it only when you have a financial margin as much as enough food for your people. This leads us to the second point:
2. At Vhard (and I think at most levels), the housing limit is common residence, which never needs any library, luxuries, mortuary, dentist, apothecary (no swamps) and even only one God. Common residences at Vhard are not really Tax Income Productive, say 200 db for a full 80 people house at 15% (wages at Kingdom+10). So, if you stick to the required limit of 3,500 people, an income of 8,750 a year. Beyond 5,000, it brought me some 13,300+ a year, which then becomes valuable. So it is better to stay at residence level and export papyrus or increase the size of the population and add work camps to create artificial workforce (wages totalise 8,000+ db). This leads us to the third point:
3. Exports:
4395 (papyrus and linen)
14165 (papyrus, linen, beer, pottery, limestone)
12550 (1600 grain)
12685 (3000 grain)
13118 (1400 grain)
10874 (0 grain)
13178 (1700 grain)
18321 (3200 grain)
15240 (0 grain, closed)
15847
21676
18865
16840 (end of October 2563, game won)
For example, I made only 2289 db with grain exports to Serabit Khadim compared to a global sale of 173,589 (grain 3%).
As the residences need neither linen nor mortuaries, the linen can be devoted to exports.
There is a problem with the trade system that probably hampers most players: Meidum sells altogether the needed stones, clay and reeds and buys altogether limestone, barley, linen and beer. Limestone and barley share the same value for export (37, 35). I did not bother to sell barley as I would have had to micromanage my trade according to resources fluctuating with the floods. Meanwhile, I ensured that the stone, linen, flax, reeds, limestone, clay SYs were closed to each other and close to the docks for a fast delivery. I use to import 400 clay, 400 reeds and 400 stones per trip what, with the gift of 64 stones in 2570, smoothes the building of the pyramid.
I used to sell pottery only when I had a large excedent: pottery was not for sale but, when I reached 2,400, I have set the overseer at “Sell above 800”. This allows the caravan from Selima or a ship from Abu to get a full load and not waste time going and coming from a place to another. Then I close the pottery export until the next massive delivery.
Number of docks: we have long witnessed here arguments about “1 or more docks”. I contributed to the point but since a while, emphasize the only realistic conclusion: the One Dock Strategy is absolute nonsense, unless there is only one maritime route connecting your city to Egypt. I am sorry to be so aggressive to the relevant fellow players but, to me, this discussion has to stop as it was since the beginning a misleading and erroneous concept. South Dashur is the best example to vilify the One Dock Strategy. Only Abu and Meidum trade by the river, and Meidum sends only one ship at a time, when Abu sends two. However, I have three docks (two might have been enough, but three is better). The deliveries are fast enough, so the ships never queue for long, and a ship never queues more than three times. Also, any time a ship leaves a dock, the queuing ships may move. With the speed of the delivery, it is rare a ship to queue more than 2 months, what is the time –even optimized- for the docking ship to sell and purchase. And even so, in the case of Meidum, a second ship comes in. The number of docks is a also a factor favorising the flow of ships: more happen to appear on the map at the same time than when only one dock exists: when too many ships queue at the dock, the game considers no trade is possible and forbids additional ships to come.
Eventually, all the exports can be performed smoothly, without micromanagement, except under exceptional circumstances, what leads us to the fourth point:
4. Blessings: it is critical to work on them as they change the fate of the game. The flooding is insignificant, so a minor or a major blessing from Osiris help a lot (grain and barley)
Trade is most often limited to 1,500 or 2,500. especially with flax and linen, a minor trade blessing from Ra is useful. Accordingly, a minor blessing from Ptah helps filling up the linen factories. I had more factories that my flax imports can stand, but I used to get 3 blessings/2 years, this combined with blessings from Ra increased notably the volume of exports.
Altogether, a major blessing from Ptah is nice: I got once pottery, in the following game clay, so more or less the same. BTW not only it is useless to craft luxuries, but you could also be gifted with gems or luxuries (minor or major blessing from Ptah): as they are not exportable, it is a waste.
Also, you maybe at this very game more interested in minor blessing than major ones: The requests rewards are such that the Kingdom Rating reaches easily 100 anyway, a major blessing from Ra or Osiris or two consecutive minors have more or less the same effect. Also, in the four months following a festival, it is likely that you will be blessed, more probably by the corresponding God but, with a lower probability, any other one with two ankhs or more. If you are blessed the month following the festival by a third God, the sympathy of the God recently cherished remains valid, and you are likely to get two blessings in a row from two Gods, say on the average five blessings/two years.
Now that you have quickly reached the common residence status, have set high Wage/Tax rates, limited unemployment, ensured you maximise the exports, earn money fast (so fulfil easily the requests for 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 db) and provide all goods to your city, cherish the Gods, remains to build the pyramid fast enough, it is the fifth point
5. You have to set the pyramid close to the floodplain, or you waste time on both trip from the workers. You should also set the SYs close to the pyramid. A better mapping than mine would have been to set the pyramid closer to the docks/SY, but I had also made the choice of maximising the sea trade, so I had as a time limiting factor the buying of stones . I lost little according to my choices. I could also from time to time have micromanaged my trade and imported a some more stones, what I did once. I also chose to have more limestone mines but no limestone SY on the Eastern bank, for the ship CPs not to queue at the ferry.
Parameters: Mission won in 154 months; Score 34,025; Treasury 92,059; CR 15, KR 100, PR 58, Population 5,612. |
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Added: | 03/10/03 |
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