The main objective of this level was to complete a full size Pyramid complex. Now, this isn't like any other monument which I have encountered thus far.... this one required 1440 blocks of plain stone and 1200 blocks of limestone. The plain stone was not a problem as I could quarry them. The limestone had to be imported... and let me tell you that limestone is blardy, blardy expensive.
So, in order to get my city up and running, the first thing that I had to do was to get a population happening. This population not only required food, but religious access as well as medical facilities. After the basic requirements are setup, then and only then can the industry and commerce sector take place. You see, without food, the people won't come to the city. Without religious access, the city can't prosper i.e. the people and tempremental gods (yes, with the "S" as in multiple, fickle, jealous beings) get upset. The gods, in their fit of rage might do something terrible to your city i.e. blowing up your storage yard which you have filled with gems. FYI, a temple complex needs 50 employees in order to function!! Without medical access i.e. physicians and apothecaries, your population will come down with malaria or the plague. When this happens, the infected people die and that house will remain empty for about 1 - 2 months.
Then of course, there are the architects (who patrol the area to make sure that your buildings don't collapse on you), the fire stations (buildings in Egypt have a tendency to catch on fire) and the police stations (who ensure that there is law and order within the vicinity and who also try to ensure that your precious gold supplies do not get stolen from the town palace and your personal mansion). Of course, you need water supplies for your citizens to bath and cook in, a mortuary for them to embalm their deceased for the passage into the afterlife, granaries and stock yards to hold food and supplies etc. You also need bazaars, bridges, dentists, docks, carpenters, stone builders, temples, shrines, farms, potters, jewellers... the list goes on and on and on (this is a VERY complex game).
You start of the game with X amount of debens (the local currency) and trust me when I say that it isn't a whole lot. You will almost always run out of it. However, the Pharoah will lend you some once you get in the red but paying him back within a year is a good thing to do because the lad tends to get upset and send his undefeatable army to kick your arse. Once the army gets to your city, it is time to restart the game *sigh*.
The Pharoah is a demanding sort of fellow. At times, he will request for things i.e. 1200 gems or food or something of that nature. Needless to say, these requests almost always comes at the most inappropriate times i.e. when your city is short of food or needs those valuable gems to export as they need to generate debens. If you don't fulfill the Pharoah's requests, he will get unhappy with you and your kingdom rating falls. You need to establish a good kingdom rating for all levels of this game. This rating can be increased by bribery by the way :o) .
Houses in Egypt evolve over time... i.e. it always starts off as a yucky mud hut and it can evolve into luxurious manors. In order to evolve, the residents need access to certain items i.e. in order to evolve from a shanty hut, the residents need access to food and water. The demand for goods and services increase as the home evolves i.e. they need pottery, lots of beer (these people are alcoholics me thinks...), linen, more types of food, access to entertainment, education and health care. The more evolved the home is, the more people can live in it. People don't like living next to police stations, bazaars, granaries but they love living next to the governor (me :o) ), gardens and statues.
The general level of the homes in the city contribute to the properity rating of the game. So it helps if the homes are fairly evolved... however, as I found out the hard way, these homes shouldn't be too evolved. You see, if the homes have evolved to manors (for example), the residents of that home won't do manual labour... they are aristocrats you see. They sit around, eat and drink a lot, demand close access to education and entertainment structures etc. They do however, pay a lot of tax (their only plus point). So once your homes have evolved into manors, you will find that your workforce decreases... I didn't know this *sigh*. Pretty obvious I know but I was so excited that my shanty huts were evolving into beautiful buildings. Once a home has evolved, it can also devolve i.e. you cut off their supplies of pottery for example. When a home devolves, the residents move out and other moves in. However, word gets around that people are being thrown out of their homes and people will not want to come to your city. Oh you can increase their wages, decrease their tax but it doesn't work that well... in no time at all, you will find that your city is in debt and has no workers!! Trust me on this one...
THE THE THE most irritating thing about this game is waiting around for monuments to get built. The Pyramid takes absolutely AGES... despite having tens of work camps around the area to help build it... they build it layer by layer... my last Pyramid took about 60 game playing YEARS to complete. I was so happy when they placed the last stone at the very top as I was getting BORED waiting for it to completed. But then, after the last stone was placed, the entire structure had to be carved so the stone workers had to carve them all the way down to the bottom, stone by stone, layer by layer... whilst this is happening, events are naturally happening in your city, i.e. the Pharoah will demand something, a neighbouring company will attack you, your population becomes old and thus, your workforce shrinks etc.
I can write a thesis on this game. As this is getting rather long, I will stop here. I have a long way to go and I have already bought Cleopatra, the expansion set to Pharoah. Oh goodness....
