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Make Dakhlah a challenge 2
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Author |
File Description |
Tryhard |
Posted on 03/29/04 @ 12:00 AM
File Details |
Era/Kingdom: |
New Kingdom |
Score: |
111500 |
Difficulty: |
Very Hard |
I will start (writing for the third time) with the conclusion: end of March 2238.
I have to play the game three times as, first, the city was nice and worked perfectly but was a bit of a mess, what is not a surprise with a rough planning. The evolution, especially the handling of proper figures, shows at the end when one player (Brugle) remains better than the other (Tryhard).
For my second version, the try was used for a proper mapping, still leaving some margin for more industries or farms. But I still missed some 550 people. Though my future estates evolved eventually some months before Brugle for all status above cottage, people were not coming fast enough in the 17 estates. Nearly all missing people should have been estate inhabitants. Writing these notes, I realized that the clue would have been to set 1x1 apartments nearby every residence made to become a manor and make them merge while evolving. I would have then have had up to 38 more people available for every manor/estate when merging and would have made it.
So I replayed since the beginning of the third year and it worked. Otherwise the two games were comparable. Of course I finish this last version with 20,000 more debens as I have more rich tax payers.
THE OBELISK
In my first run, my obelisk was not yet finished, it would be in July. I simply did not notice that Brugle fulfilled the request for wood nearly immediately, while I voluntarily delayed a bit to sell more wood. So Dunqul opened 4 months later, hence my delay. In the second game, I also finished in March. I noted that fulfilling the request immediately would allow to finish the obelisk some months before. The route to Dunqul opened in October, some seconds missing not to be able to import the first 24 granite stones. While playing for the third time, I took the opportunity. Dunqul opened in July and I imported 40 granite this year. The obelisk was finished in 91 months and I made a win to see the results.
Completion: 91 months
Culture: 55
Prosperity: 100
Kingdom: 94
Treasury: 160,000
Population 9,9992
Score: 98,500
Then I finished the obelisk and omitted one bandstand until the 99 months deadline. Add the bandstand on the ready tiles near the temple complex and you win as soon as it gets staffed.
EVOLUTION
My first game saw nearly exactly the same evolution in money, housing status and population as Brugle and ended with the same results in terms of finances. My second version worked faster and better than the first one, the third one worked again one month faster and way better.
Completion: 99 months
Culture: 55
Prosperity: 100
Kingdom: 100
Treasury: 208,000
Population 7,147
Score: 111,500
I miss 45 people; 15 in a residence which devolved late, 26 in one estate and 2 in another. For the 26 missing, I had forgotten to set the hut, so 19 people are missing who should be there otherwise. I also thought of using, but too late, groups of 1x1 huts nearby the block. As soon as the immigrants come in, I kick everybody out. Some go into an estate.
My Culture rating is 55. I do not like reaching ratings much above the requirements.
As declared my objective, my intention was to show how the two games are typical of each style, Brugle and mine. So the games had to be comparable, contrarily to our Baki or Waset which are totally different from each other. Hence the 6 forts.
Workers housing block
made of 40 fancy residences, all touching the road, even if it is a corner. The inside is 20 tiles long by 7 wide. So most workers nearly never make a complete loop, while they always do in Brugle’s game.
I started with these blocks years ago but they are now working perfectly, except maybe for the tax collector who has a 99% efficiency. In the past, I often faced accidents but I know now where to locate all buildings for their workers to work efficiently. For example, even with Bast, 4 bazaars scattered around the block are needed for the block to evolve at a correct speed and an homogeneous way.
During my two last games, a priest ignored some houses, but I am used to this when I am expecting 2500+ immigrants in many different locations, in this common case when all residences had evolved in a go. When the figures went down, the priest performed normally.
I eventually started the game with this block to have more people in my city in December.
Estates block
Made of 17 estates, it is not my current block but an older version as I could not expect enough meat for more houses without taking risks. In my second game, I was lucky enough to get a Bast Best Blessing when I had just received the gift of 1400 meat and had purchased 800 more. So the amounts in the bazaars increased and allowed to deliver to the last 3 spacious manors still missing meat. In the third game, it took me time to realize that my last modest estate did not have a problem of desirability but was missing meat. I loaded two months before and imported meat instead of reeds. Fortunately, it worked.
I do not like houses which have a housing status below the maximum possible, in this case modest estate. So I imported meat early, when my houses were still cottages.
My population does not worship me, they simply like me, what is normal with a tax rate of 19%.
Religion
I first never worked on Ptah but, on my third game, I realized Ptah was very angry and was forced to add shrines fast to cool down his temper. I did it so well that I was blessed some months later. As usual, I forced some of the major blessings from Bast and trade blessings from Ra. I was blessed first by Ra as soon as September 2245 and by Bast in September 2244.
Industries
The Kingdom road kept disconnected for three years, until I noticed I was missing one tile on the way and connected it
Everything was made to maximize the exports on the first years, even micromanagement of the caravans. In 2246, I exported 4,000 wood and 1,200 papyrus. In 2245, I exported 20,400 of goods. Then a gap (16,500 then 17,500) as my people were starting to prey on my own goods meanwhile I lost the sale of 1800 wood needed for the request. Afterwards, the exports stood between 26,000 and 31,000.
I imported the first clay to save the workforce for other duties.
Brugle declared he did not want to delete anything, what I did without remorse, even if it is not too much, mostly small statues to forbid early mergers. As Brugle said in his recent reply, he checked where were the merging tiles, what I ignored.
I had set more woodcutters, potteries, bricks and linen factories that are eventually useful in a completed city. On the opposite, I did not concentrate much on barley and beer, until late in the game. Neither do I fabricate jewels. I rather buy 100, what makes the caravan from Saqqara and Selima roam between nearby storage yards, improving their purchases of the most valuable items wood and papyrus.
However I keep some huts, I made efforts to minimize their number. Eventually, I realize that I could even have made the game without any hut, using the merges of my estates block. I would have oriented both blocks the other way round. My city would then be full of funny roads East, like Brugle. The chosen location of the farms and water lifts would have been different.
My hunting lodges do not work as well as Brugle’s because I managed to build items where ostriches may appear. So they vanish and hunters have sometimes to fetch ostriches from the other flock. In my last game, I did not build the two shrines where I had seen ostriches vanishing and the lodges worked way better.
I had to invest more than Brugle in the first years to justify the end. While I had much more money than Brugle at the end of each of the first years, I had eventually just a bit more after 5 years. Afterwards, the tax collection compensated.
Conclusion: after the third game, I am eventually very satisfied with my city. But it took me three rounds and several ‘replays’ to submit a city which is worth the comparison with Brugle’s Dakhlah. That was a really nice challenge. |
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Downloads: | 532 |
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Size: | 298.83 KB |
Added: | 03/29/04 |
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