Procurator
Latus
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           "Go Leafs Go!"

P.S. Mars does not destroy your granaries.

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I dont know what WW3 will be fought with, but the next war will be faught with sticks and stones-Albert Einstein

here is a short list of the curses and blessings I encountered. No doubt they have been listed before, but searches on 'curse', 'blessing', and their names did not reveal much.

Ceres:
a) destroys crops
b) sends locusts (difference with previous: lands remain barren for several months)
c) boosts fertility of crops

Mars:
a) Curses a fort
b) Sends a spirit to watch over city. Spirit kills about half a legion of attackers or was it 40%?

Mercury:
a) Spirits away some goods from your granaries / warehouses
b) rains fire and hail destroying granaries / warehouses
c) Fills granaries

Neptune:
a) sends a storm sinking all ships
b) doubles all pay (both land and sea trade, even natives) and garnts smooth passage

Venus:
a) makes people feel sad
b) spreads disease
c) make speople feel happy (and a baby boom)

Most of them seem to have two curses and one blessing.
I find some curses are worse than others. Many depend on the scenario. For instance, I found I could safely ingnore Mars on the first peaceful career scenarios - not on all.

If Ceres takes away your crops, your crops tend to come in in bunches years after. I prefer the to come in gradually.
The locusts are even worse. The land must first heal of this disaster, often taking months. And as we all know, you cannot live from food imports.

Somehow I no longer throw an early party at mars, most scenarios grant you some time before the first crosses appear on the empire map.

Neptune now is the main source of my parties. I can always use an extra 10K or so of money. You can probably safely ignore him if you do not need extra money, have no sea trade routes and no fishing.

I can not ignore Venus, as continued neglectance causes her to spread diseases in the town against which doctors are of no avail.

No doubt some of you can point out that Mars & Neptune also have two curses, just like the others.

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[Omnium harum gentium virtute praecipui Batavi non multum ex ripa]

I do so immediately. Put in a temple, give a large festival (for all of 50Db or less ) Blessing is almost guaranteed and you can ignore most of the earliest invasion.

Real value for money.

Neptune is next, but as it takes about a year or two to get my export going, that's okay.

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Homage to thee, Osiris, Lord of Eternity, King of the Gods, whose names are manifold, whose forms are holy, thou being of hidden form in the temples, whose Ka is holy."
-- Book of the Dead (1240 BC)

I believe Mars also has another curse where he "inspires" rebellion in your provinces.

The Imperator

[This message has been edited by The Imperator (edited 03-26-2000).]

In my experience, the spirit of mars takes out 9 invaders. This means 9 people, not 9 elephants or any similar type enemy.

1 Small temple - for 750 people (1 to each god for a total of 5 temples)
1 Large temple - for 1500 people (1 to each god again)
1 oracle - 500 people (but for all 5 gods)

so a population of 1500 people you need 2 small temples for each god (total of 10) or 1 large temple to each god or 3 oracles.

If you have 3 oracles, then you homes will not evolve past small shacks. But if you have five housing blocks with one small temple each, then you can build all oracles to keep the gods happy. Saves on workers.

Before, I had all the gods exalted at all times. Have more temples than nessesary and by throwing festivals constantly does that. This is bad. To get another blessing from the gods, you have to get one (the one you want blessing from) angry (or irritated). Then get that god to exalted again. Stupid i know, they fixed this in pharaoh. To do this, wait for the god to give you a blessing, then delete all of his (or her) temples, while leaving all other temples to other gods alone. This will make that god angry real fast. Then build those deleted temples back, best to have 1 extra temple compared to the other gods (so if other gods have 5 small temples, build 6 small temples to that one god). This will get that one god exalted real fast. Throw a couple of large festivals and wait for another blessing.

That works great, but takes time. I recommend you only do this with neptune, mars, and/or venus. hope i helped.

Fishman
Down with the Governor! Follow me to Pharaoh!
Pharaoh Heaven

Cheers,