To avoid discussing them individually, here are some "personal rules" I've used in my recent cities and intend to use in Waset:
* Very Hard difficulty (and, accordingly, very good fire protection).
* A stable city, consuming no more of anything than it produces and imports.
* Schools, libraries, mortuaries, and senet houses are well supplied.
* All houses are evolved to a fairly high level.
* Good defense--6 academy-trained forts and (if possible) several warships.
* Lots of income from trade, taxes, and (if possible) gold.
* Decent Culture.
* Prosperity 100.
* All roads (including the Kingdom Road) are connected.
* A city center has most of the best buildings and houses.
The first 7 of those rules have an immediate impact on the design.

First, look at goods consumption by buildings. Each time a walker leaves at Very Hard difficulty (without Thoth's oracle or Anubis's altar), a senet house consumes 60 beer, a mortuary consumes 60 linen, a library consumes 60 papyrus, and a school consumes 40 papyrus. I've assumed that such walkers will make at most 12 walks per year, but thought it best to check walk frequency. I intend to use 42-tile intersection-free housing block loop roads (with 2 firehouses) in Waset, so I ran some tests in my last 3 cities (which also used 42-tile housing loop roads). The results surprised me a bit.

With tests on 2 senet houses, walk frequency was 9/year for one and a bit less than 10/year for the other. I don't consider these numbers too reliable, since senet players sometimes disappear instead of returning to the senet house, and the large size of the senet house (and therefore the potential separation of entry and exit points) makes the round-trip walk distance more dependent on orientation.

With tests on 3 mortuaries, walk frequency ranged from a bit under 12/year to perhaps 12.7 per year. In some cases, higher than I had assumed! Fortunately, each city had some spare linen production.

With tests on 4 libraries, walk frequency ranged from a bit over 10/year to a bit under 11/year. With tests on 6 schools, walk frequency ranged from somewhat under 11/year to about 11/year. Very good, as we shall see!

How do these figures on goods consumption affect the design?

Waset can import 4000 beer/year from Thinis. 1 senet house will be enough for the Culture rating, since papyrus imports (discussed later) will be more limiting. Assuming that the senet player takes 12 walks/year, 136 beer-using houses can be supported. That's more than enough, so beer consumption won't be a factor.

However, linen consumption will be important. Waset can import 2500 linen/year from Khmun. I'll assume that a mortician takes 12.8 walks/year. If 1 mortuary is built then 72 linen-using houses can be supported. If 2 mortuaries are built then 40 linen-using houses can be supported. It would have been nice to be able to build a few more linen-using houses (as would have been the case if a mortician took 12 walks/year), but I don't want to endanger the city's stability.

Waset can import 2500 papyrus/year from Men-nefer. The assumed walk frequency for both teachers and librarians will be lowered from 12/year to 11.3/year. There's no effect if 0 libraries are built, since 5 schools would be allowed in either case. There's no effect if 2 libraries are built, since 2 schools would be allowed in either case. However, if 1 library is built, then the new walk frequency allows 4 schools (instead of 3), which can help a lot.

The next post will discuss housing.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 06-30-2002 @ 04:07 AM).]

Housing placement is affected by the "rules" of high income and good defense. Without a compelling reason, all of the ore-bearing rock will be exploited (for gold or copper), so the best housing block must be in the northeast (with the palace and other "nice" buildings nearby). To support farming, a housing block must be on the west-central landmass, and it shouldn't be too far south if the high-fertility meadow is to be heavily exploited. Quite a few waterfront buildings (ferry terminals, dock, shipwright, several fishing wharves, several warship wharves, at least 1 transport wharf) are needed, so a housing block must be in 1 of 3 places that have appropriate coastline: near the southern end of the west-central landmass, on the island, or in the southeast. Of those 3 places, only the southeast has room for a full-sized (in this case, a 42-tile loop) block. While it appears to be possible to support everything with 3 housing blocks (which could hold the required population (6000) even if one of the blocks is not full-sized), it would be much easier (on labor-seekers and the designer) to have 4 or more blocks.

What should the minimum housing level be? While a higher population would be possible if sub-residence housing is allowed, I prefer residences. Since multiple foods are available locally, all houses could be at least spacious residences.

Could the minimum housing be fancy residences? Yes, there would be enough linen if there was only 1 mortuary. I'd want Culture more than 55 (the requirement), so the block with that mortuary would have to hold at least 40% of the people. The mortuary would be in a block with lots of stately manors, and it's hard to put much over 2400 people in such a block, so the population would be limited to a little over 6000. If there were 2 libraries and 2 schools in 3 housing blocks, and the school-age population was fairly small, then Culture 70 would be possible. Another possibility is to have 1 library and 4 schools in 4 housing blocks, which would limit Culture to 65.

If the minimum housing is only spacious residences, then 2 mortuaries could be built, and a higher population would be possible. With more people, it would be difficult to obtain Culture 70 with only 2 schools, so there would be 1 library and 4 schools. Culture would be 65. If the education buildings were in 5 blocks then the maximum population (and waterfront buildings) would be possible, but that would limit the best houses to spacious manors. If the education buildings were in 4 blocks, then the best houses would be stately manors.

Making all houses fancy residences or better would be nice, and I might choose to do it except that it would be similar to my Dakhla Oasis (except that Dakhla had estates instead of manors). At the moment, I feel like having more people, so some houses will be only spacious residences (and Culture will be only 65). While I'm willing to give up the highest housing for a good reason (as in Dunqul Oasis), I prefer to have some, so there will be only 4 housing blocks, 1 of them with stately manors.

Where to put those 4 housing blocks is a difficult decision. I think that there's room for 3 full-size blocks on the east bank, and around 10000 people sounds nice, so the tentative decision is to have:
* A luxury block in the northeast, with a senet house, a library, a mortuary, lots of stately manors, and a few fancy residences.
* A luxury block in the east, with a mortuary, lots of spacious manors, and a few fancy residences.
* A block in the southeast, with lots of spacious residences.
* A block near the middle of the west-central landmass, with lots of spacious residences.
The two luxury blocks will have a total of no more than 40 houses. All housing blocks will have a school.

If this plan is kept, the west-central landmass will have only 1 waterfront structure: a ferry terminal. The east bank will have a ferry terminal, the dock, the shipwright, 5 (or possibly 6) fishing wharves, 4 warship wharves, and 1 (or possibly 2) transport wharves. I'd prefer to have more warships, but this seems reasonable.

It seems (from reading descriptions in the Downloads) that exploiting the island is a common practice. Building on the island would have been fun, but at the moment I think that I'd enjoy other things (like a larger population) more.

Further details will be reported when they're worked out. Don't hold your breath.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 06-30-2002 @ 01:08 AM).]

Great Scott!  You and I impose remarkably different rules on ourselves when tackling Waset.  I just wanted to mention that the windmill structures I just described in another post offer a great way of stretching those consumables used by the service walkers to cover more people.  In a windmill, each trip one of these guys makes services a different housing block.  Of course, someone would have to put a gun to my head to get me to try using the windmill design I show in the other thread in a game at very hard.  It would have to re-engineered to open it up more to create more spots from which 1x1 buildings could see the central X intersection.  That way, one could have four firehouses near the X, from which the firemen simultaneously head up each of the four roads leading to the housing blocks.  They would be 90 degrees out of phase.

I cannot wait to see Waset in the hands of a master!

Hi StephAmon,

Yes, our preferences are quite different. I've always enjoyed building cities that are stable enough to run for many years without intervention (other than for obvious things like defeating invasions). I suppose that, with enough testing, you might find locations for a pair of firehouses whose firemen would take exactly the same time to make their quadramble. However (as you mentioned), more firehouses would be needed at Very Hard difficulty, and exactly synchronizing perhaps 4 firemen would be a pain.

Your windmill would indeed expand the coverage of goods-consuming buildings, with the most benefit probably from the mortuary. And (looking at your Waset) it can support a lot of other buildings, such as quarries and farms. Plus, it's fun to watch a windmill spin!

If I wanted to "stretch those consumables" (using linen as an example), I'd probably make the mortician follow a very long path (that goes through several housing blocks) from his spawning point to his return point. Not only would there be no start-up or resynchronization worries, but the mortuary would consume less linen (because walks would be less frequent) while covering lots of people. Of course, those blocks would need more support buildings (physicians, courthouses, temples, etc) than a windmill, but in a large city there should be plenty of workers.

When I first realized that long walks were possible, I decided to not use them in "family history" missions. However, I might change my mind, especially if there's a mission with little linen available for mortuaries, a high Culture requirement, and either a high population requirement or the potential to have a high population with no other drawbacks.

Anyway, I love your windmill, but I think I'll stick with my current Waset plans (when I get a chance to work on them).

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 07-01-2002 @ 01:12 AM).]

In a few ways, Waset's design is a change-of-pace for me. First, with around 6000 working people, there should be more than enough workers. Therefore, I'll be less concerned with worker efficiency (such as minimizing the number of firehouses and architect posts) and will use temples instead of shrines (to save money) when appropriate. Second, both water trade cities should have no problem importing and exporting all desired goods, so the dock will be placed in the most convenient place instead of near the ship entry point. Third, I'm trying to put a lot of people into both scribal and worker housing blocks.

The housing blocks will use 42-tile intersection-free loop roads. Each will have 2 bazaars and (obviously) everything else needed. The 2 bazaars in each block should easily get enough food, since there's enough space to put granaries near all of the blocks, but handling goods takes a little care. Each block will also have a booth at a roadblocked intersection, which isn't necessary (since jugglers could go from their school through the block to their pavilions, like musicians and dancers), but I like to do it.

The dock will be on the east bank, near the center of the map. There will be only 1 storage yard for each non-food non-stone good. [edit: this is not true--see the next post.] The storage yards for pottery (which Khmun buys) and linen (which Khmun sells) will be very close to the dock, and the storage yards for beer and luxury goods won't be too far away. (If I decide to sell the excess luxury goods (2 jewelers will produce 240/year more than are consumed) to Men-nefer, then the luxury goods storage yard will also be very close to the dock.) The luxury housing blocks will be close enough to those storage yards so that each bazaar should be able to get 2 goods before running out of either. The ferry terminals will be fairly close to the dock and to the west housing block (on the west-central landmass), so each bazaar in the worker housing blocks should be able to get 1 good before running out.

I've designed the northeast (best) housing block, with 17 stately manors and 1 fancy residence, to provide labor access for the gold and copper mines. Ra's temple complex is on the loop, and all other "nice" buildings are either just outside the houses (palace, mansion, festival square, and sun temple) or a few tiles away (small pyramid). I'm assuming that the copper storage yard and military buildings (weaponsmiths, recruiter, and academy) can be put near the copper mines (with labor access from the east housing block), but if that doesn't work out then the design may have to change a bit.

The east (second best) housing block should have 20 spacious manors and 2 fancy residences. That makes 40 linen-using houses, the calculated maximum. If, after building the city, the morticians happen to average more than 12.8 walks per year each, then a few fancy residences will be deleted.

I hope to build the worker housing blocks with a "kink" in the loop, which allows 35 spacious residences in each. Squeezing that many spacious residences close together means that several desirability boosters outside of the houses will be needed. If doing that along with supplying labor access to nearby industries (such as meadow farms or fishing wharves) is problematic, then the "kink" may be removed from one or both loops, which reduces the number of spacious residences to 33.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 07-02-2002 @ 03:12 AM).]

I goofed again.

If there is only 1 storage yard for linen, then the 2 mortuaries will not be well supplied unless they are moved closer to the linen storage yard. (This would be a way to reduce linen consumption, but seems risky if there are multiple mortuaries.) Therefore, 2 linen storage yards will be built and, if necessary to keep the mortuaries supplied, 1 will "get" linen from the other. Both linen storage yards will be very close to the dock.

A so-called "Brugle storage yard" (one that's full of a "filler" such as granite but that "gets" linen) could be used to distribute the linen, but I'd rather not. If there's a request for the "filler" then it would be a bit troublesome to dispatch the request and then get the storage yard to work properly again. I intend for my cities to run without intervention (except for obvious things like defeating invasions and dispatching requests) for many years.

I've designed the west-central land mass. The housing block has 35 spacious residences. All farms are meadow farms, so work camps will be used only for monument construction.

There are 35 irrigated meadow farms. The 18 higher fertility (81% to 99%) are grain farms, which should produce 20536/year (enough for everyone), if both harvests can be delivered in time. The 17 lower fertility (42% to 78%) are fig farms, which should produce 10760/year (enough for half of the people). (The other half of the people will eat fish.)

To help ensure that grain can be delivered quickly (so the cart pushers can get back to their farms before the next harvest), there are 3 food storage yards on the west-central land mass. There is also 1 granary. The mainland will have much more food storage space.

I'm not sure what to work on next. The dock area is crucial, but I'm tempted to design the clay/pottery/brick industry. There should be 14 potters, 5 brickworks, and 14 to 17 clay pits (more than 14 if I decide to sell Dunqul some clay (in addition to pottery)). It'll be a challenge to put all of them close together.

I hope this blow-by-blow account isn't too boring--there isn't much to report today.

I decided to delete one of the least productive fig farms (leaving 16 fig and 18 grain farms), so fig production will be only 10304/year. Since that farm was the only one irrigated by a significant stretch of ditch, eliminating the farm (and moving the water lift to the other side of the land mass) meant that a lot of irrigation ditch (that nearly surrounded the housing block) could be eliminated. It also meant that the food storage yards could be moved a little closer to the farms and ferry terminal.

I started designing the dock area, and found that I wanted it to contain too many things (trade storage yards, food storage yards, granaries, military, and entertainment schools). So I'm now slightly redesigning the area around the northeast (best) block to support a few more things (in addition to already-planned quarries, copper mines, and gold mines), including the weaponsmiths (with the rest of the military some distance away), a conservatory, probably a granary and a fig storage yard, and maybe a dance school.

I'm also trying to fit in some extra bandstands and booths. For Culture 65 with a little over 10000 people, the city needs to contain 21 juggle stages, 12 music stages, 6 dance stages, and 1 senet house. I plan for each housing block to have 2 pavilions and 1 booth (plus 1 senet house in the best block), so the city will need to contain an additional 4 bandstands and 5 booths. (The west area should have 1 extra bandstand and 1 extra booth.)

Hi Brugle,
after having sweated on Surfing, I decided to come to a classic scenario. Hesitated between Iken, North Dashur and some others, but eventually looked at the trade in Waset and it seemed fine to me. So I will join you on this one (though you will sure have finished when I am just starting). Nonetheless, I would have preferred a scenario without Bast.
As usual, the first years will be critical, but Pharaoh is more generous than in ON: some 750 more, some 750 more with the gift. I downloaded Vriesea's and Gomericus to see how fast the trade changes (I hope it does not too fast).
A critical difference between you and me is that I do not hesitate diving into heavy debt early to recover faster. I also bet much more on the highest level of housing for income generation. You also dislike in general having some poor housing scattered around industrial and delivery blocks, what bothers me little.
I know that I will not import gems, but even wonder about gold in the early years (staff consuming, interest rate 20%).
BTW I hope you enjoyed my last research on trade.

Hi Tryhard,

It's nice to have comments, especially from someone building the same city. I wouldn't be surprised if you finish Waset before I complete the design phase.

Yes, I find the game more interesting with a decent (eventual) minimum housing level and without debt (and, often, without the "rescue gift"). There's nothing special about those restrictions--I just enjoy the game more that way. Some people use other restrictions (such as not "fencing" hyenas) that don't appeal to me.

I also like high-level housing, and have built a lot of it in some missions, such as Dakhla Oasis. Sometimes other things seemed more important, so I built just enough scribal housing for Prosperity 100, as in Dunqul Oasis. My Waset should collect a fair amount of taxes from over 4000 scribes, almost half of them in stately manors (the best housing). The lack of papyrus (to operate another library) is the reason that there will be spacious manors. (There are many differences in playing at Very Hard difficulty, but the high consumption of goods by buildings is very important from a design standpoint, as suggested by the thread title.)

In Waset, copper makes more money per worker than other industries. If a lot of gold mines are built (I plan 7) then gold is next, even if the palace is fully staffed (which isn't necessary--a single palace worker is sufficient). Waset may have enough initial money to start both gold and copper production almost immediately. On the other hand, if a fast completion is desired then the trade route to Dunqul Oasis will be opened quickly, so an early pottery industry may make sense. I'll examine those issues later.

I did enjoy your trade research. It was rather thorough.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 07-04-2002 @ 05:20 AM).]

I played the two first years fast, but won't go much further, as I am going to Burundi tomorrow. As said, the amount of money given is enough to ensure a smooth start. I also checked in other games that there is nearly no event about the trade routes. Trade of linen and papyrus will remain limited (similar to Djedu).
As often now, I ignore the food on first year. First houses are set close to the dock place (South of the gold mines, I intend to start selling pottery soon) and close to the Northern mines (3 copper mines). Then a housing block to give enough people to feed the 36 workers for the 3 copper mines, as for the 3 clay pits, 2 pottery, 2 SY and the structural needs. Game set at taxes=0 and wages at 32 (I still do not know if people realize that 9% taxes do not exist when there is no tax collector).
No ferry, no bazaar, no entertainment at all.
I open the route to Copper (noticed late it was a caravan route) in August. The 2 (of course!) caravans can pick 900 copper, then I send them down a bit to sell 100 beer. I cancel the import, so they come back to the copper SY and manage to get the 600 copper allowed in December. On Year 2, there is enough stock to ensure I sell 1500. Perhaps a seventh gold mine, but not yet; weapons first.

Before the end of the year, I have enough money and staff to set 3 gold mines. I got 1200 gold on the first year, could have done better but copper was more important. I set Government at 9, I always miss people, but there is enough for my courthouse to work and there is at least one in the town palace, it is enough. When I go below 0, I close the clay pits for one minute or two (I already have extra clay), until people flow in. I can sell only 200 pottery in the first year, but I am ready for selling more in the second year. I take special care of Bast, Ra later. At the mid-year 2 I have already 4 ankhs for Bast. Osiris, I barely care for now, I will not use the floodplain.

As soon as December Year 1, I set the ferry and a farm block (18x7 inside, the drain will pass inside the farms). I set two farms, inactive, as I do not remember the crop time. Grain in January, useless for now but figs in September, perfect.
January Year 2, I set a second housing block and start setting the farms and a better infrastructure. The harvests are fabulous in Waset, Bast will be useful mostly for linen and to save money on luxuries.
I give up a bit with the sale of pottery. Staff is not coming fast enough and I have enough money. Better concentrating on food and importing beer as a BBB can be called for soon.
The Kingdom Rating. Well, we are not on Surfing. It can wait.

Tryhard,

Less than a day after your first post and you've played 2 years "for real". Four days after my first post and my design is maybe half done. I may still be designing when you return from Burundi!

According to the Tax_Sentiment_Model_*.txt files, having no people registered for taxes has the same effect as a 0% tax rate. (This is apparently not the case for Caesar III, so (when I remember!) I set taxes to 0% at the start of a mission to prevent myself from developing a bad habit.)

While Bast's big blessing is very nice (when the bazaars contain food or goods), I never depend on it.

I finally designed the dock area, the clay/pottery/brick industry (mixed in with waterfront buildings), the fishing industry, the (small) jewelry and shipbuilding industries (using gems and wood from Dunqul Oasis), and the rest of the granaries and food storage yards. There will be only 14 clay pits, so clay will not be sold.

To my surprise, one of the difficulties was making sure that the granaries could "get" enough from the food storage yards. (The mission briefing suggests that there will be food requests, so all food will first go into storage yards.) Building more granaries would help, but things were crowded enough with one granary for each housing block. To allow various cart pushers (carrying fish, clay, or pottery) to take the quickest routes to their destinations, there will be a short-cut across one loop, so that loop was shortened (to give its buildings good labor access), which required another loop to be shortened, which all contributed to the crowding.

The east housing block, southeast housing block, and monument construction areas remain to be designed. The southeast housing block is a worker block, and should be quite similar to the west housing block. The east housing block is a luxury block, and should be somewhat similar to the northeast (best) housing block. While the east housing block has only spacious manors, it may be hard to make the neighborhood sufficiently desirable, since about half the perimeter is already occupied (and that half contains only 2 major desirability boosters, the festival square and a large statue). We'll see.

After designing the east and southeast housing blocks, all that remained was the monument construction area (which also contains the recruiter and military academy). It has plenty of space for work camps, stonemason guilds, and carpenter guilds, so how many of each should be built? I know (from building Bahariya Oasis) that 2 work camps, 2 stonemason guilds, and 1 carpenter guild are enough to complete a sun temple fairly quickly when sandstone is limited to 40/year. Most of the small pyramid should be complete before work begins on the sun temple, but the scaffolding work (which requires 8 carpenters) may conflict with building the last few ramps on the pyramid. To be safe, I decided to build an extra carpenter guild, making 2 of each construction building. Later, if more of any of them appear to be needed, they may be added.

After seeing how much stuff was planned, I began to wonder if there would be enough workers. After all, over 40% of the population will be scribes. So I counted the workers, and (assuming no mistakes) 2389 will be needed. The residences should house 6156 people when full, and if 40% of them work then unemployment will be about 3%. That's less margin for error than I prefer, and I briefly considered modifying the design to use fewer temples and more shrines (up to 10 temples could be eliminated, reducing the work force by over 3%), but I don't think I'll bother.

OK, the design is done. Time to start building? Not quite.

How should Waset be built? I'll start with gold mining, quickly followed by copper mining. (Thinis may buy its quota of copper (1500) in the first year if the 3 copper mines are running by early June.) Pottery should be the next export industry, since I hope to start it before straw is available to make bricks. When there's plenty of income left over after buying the full quota of sandstone (and maybe some wood) from Dunqul Oasis, food production should start.

The first few vacant lots will be put in the northeast block, to supply labor access to the gold mines, palace, and copper mines. However, many of the first bunch of vacant lots will be in the southeast block, since it is closer to the entry point. Fortunately, the southeast block supplies labor access to the clay, pottery, shipbuilding, and fish industries, so they will be easy to start.

When food is available, each housing block will initially be given a single food. The luxury blocks (northeast and east) will get grain, the southeast block will get fish, and the west block will get figs. As surpluses accumulate, the northeast block will be given figs and the east block will be given fish, although their people will continue to eat only grain until the houses are evolved to spacious residences (which require dentists). If there are large grain surpluses, some of it will be given to the worker blocks, which will reduce consumption of figs and/or fish.

I expect that the completion time will be determined by construction of the sun temple. Therefore, the maximum amount of sandstone will be imported, starting in the first year. If possible, I'd also like to start working on the small pyramid (by quarrying limestone and plain stone) in the first year, but I'll play that one by ear.

One more thing. Since there won't be many spare workers, I'll want to avoid having a lot of births. That means not having a lot of vacancies at the beginning of a year. In other words, if I am considering evolving some houses in December, I'll wait until January.

Now I can start building Waset.

Hi Brugle,
I am now in Burundi, in a place called Muyinga where I have poor access to the Internet (if ever). I will carry on with Waset...

Tryhard,
I hope you're enjoying Burundi. As you'll see by my next post, I still haven't caught up to you in Waset.

I've only built Waset for 1 year, mostly setting up money-making enterprises, and also starting the accumulation of monument materials. (No surprises there. ) I'll summarize the results by subject, as opposed to my usual month-by-month account. (Does anyone prefer a particular reporting style?)

I forgot to mention in reply #15 that these "personal rules" will be followed during construction:
* No cheats, of course.
* No personal funds.
* No debt and no "rescue" gift.
Also, I'll try to avoid deleting anything except roads, but may violate this "rule" if I really mess up.

Waset begins in 2015BC with 6750 Db (at Very Hard difficulty), which was spent by early Apr. For the rest of the year, construction was limited by income. (This will probably continue for the next couple of years.)

Initially, 67 vacant lots were placed in the northeast and southeast housing blocks, as parts of 23 2x2 houses. The remaining vacant lots for those houses were placed as appropriate. Vacant lots for other houses were placed in Aug. Vacant lots were placed in the east housing block in Sep.

2 gold mines were operational in Feb, and all 7 were operational in Mar. The palace and all 3 copper mines were operational in Apr. 2 clay pits were operational in Jun. A potter was operational in Aug. By Dec, 5 clay pits and 5 potters were operational. For the year, 5700 gold was delivered to the palace, 1500 copper (the quota) was sold to Thinis, and 400 pottery was sold to Dunqul Oasis.

Late in the year, 40 sandstone (the quota) were bought from Dunqul Oasis, which will continue each year until there is enough for the sun temple. Construction of the sun temple should determine when the city finishes, if construction of the small pyramid doesn't dawdle. Accordingly, all 3 limestone quarries were operational in Nov, and the plain stone quarry was operational in Dec.

The first architect posts and firehouse were operational in May. The first water supplies, temples, and shrine were operational in Jul. The first physician and courthouses were operational in Dec. Labor priorities were changed infrequently, and detailed micromanagement was avoided. (Religion and Government generally had no priority and just a few workers, unlike the usually-fully-staffed Industry, Infrastructure, and Health.)

The year ended with 867 people, with (in my opinion) things going well. Thinking about the beginning of the next year, I considered starting food production, and I also considered doing very little (besides building another potter) to save money for defense. But, instead, I expect to begin the next year by expanding the clay and pottery production to sell a lot of pottery to Khmun. (No surprises there. ) This may delay the start of defenses by a few months, but should allow faster expansion later. (For example, it would be nice to build a temple complex and a festival square and to hold a couple of festivals, but that will cost around 4000 Db.) Hopefully, I won't take as long to build the next few years of Waset.

I finally managed to play another year (2014BC) of Waset. It wasn't doing as well as I thought, since city health dropped to average in May and to below average in Oct.

The clay industry rapidly expanded, with 11 clay pits operational in Feb. The pottery industry expanded as more clay was produced, with the 14th (last) potter operational in Aug. The dock was operational in Jul. For the year, Dunqul Oasis bought 2500 pottery (the quota) and Khmun (a river trade city) bought 2900 pottery (over the quota). Thinis (again) bought 1500 copper (the quota) and the palace received 8100 gold. (After this, only unusual trade or gold figures will be reported.)

The shipwright was operational in Feb. The 1st fishing wharf was operational in Apr, and the 5th (last) fishing wharf was operational in Aug. The first food (fish) arrived in houses (in the southeast block) in Aug.

A bunch of vacant lots were placed in the west block (and the ferry was built, of course) in Apr. (More vacant lots were added when appropriate.) The dock and an adjacent storage yard (without road access at the time) were also built in Apr, so that immigrants would stay a little farther from the crocodile. People first arrived in the west block in Jun.

The water lift and 9 high-fertility (99%) meadow grain farms were operational in Oct. The 10th grain farm (98% fertility) was operational in Nov.

Laborers began clearing the small pyramid site in Mar. Preparation finished and stone masons arrived at the site in Dec. (At this point, 36 limestone and 12 plain stone had been produced.)

The year ended with 1988 people. The city turned a tiny profit. Hopefully, health will soon improve as more people get food. (The first grain harvest will be in Jan, and the fishing wharves are quite productive.)

I completed Dakhla Oasis just a few days ago, and today was the day to tackle Waset, so I thought I'd tell you how it went.

It took me about four hours of planning and two hours of playtime. It is a very nice looking city, though I'm sure it's nowhere near as efficient as yours.

Mission was completed in 23 years with 54,410 Db and a final population of 6344. The final ratings were:

Culture - 55
Prosperity - 100
Kingdom - 100
Monument - 20

The final score was 12,226.

[This message has been edited by Hakeem928 (edited 07-20-2002 @ 08:53 PM).]

I forgot to mention that I play on Hard with Cleopatra installed.

Hakeem928,
I'm glad you enjoyed building Waset. The design would be simpler at Hard difficulty, since the lower goods consumption allows more schools, libraries, and linen-using houses.

I don't shoot for the moon, like you, Brugle.

From memory, I had 6 spacious manors, 19 fancy residences, 13 common residences, 32 spacious apartments and 7 spacious homesteads. I only had three schools, two mortuaries, and 25 linen-using houses.

I played the third year (2013 BC) of Waset. City health was disappointing, falling to poor in Mar. Fortunately, before plague arrived, city health improved to below average in Jun and to average in Nov.

I had forgotten that worse city health meant more deaths (and also births) in Jan, so more vacant lots were placed in the west block (to get a few more workers fairly quickly). Also, to get food to people faster, I changed my plans and started the east block on fish, where the first houses got food in Mar and all existing houses had food in Oct. As planned, the northeast block started on grain, where the first houses got food in Mar and all existing houses had food in Jul. All existing houses in the southeast block had food in Jun. (Early next year, the west block should start on grain, also contrary to the original plan.)

A request for 1100 fish was received in May and dispatched in Dec.

The 1st brickworks was operational in Mar. The clay industry was completed, with 14 clay pits operational in Jun. More brickworks were added as clay was produced, with the 5th (last) brickworks operational in Nov.

The recruiter and military academy were operational and the 1st fort (archers) was built in Mar. The 2 weaponsmiths were operational and the first soldier was trained in Apr.

The 1st course of the small pyramid was done in Mar, freeing some storage yard space. The carpenter guild with 100 wood (the only wood imported during the year) was operational in Jun. The 1st ramp was completed in Sep. The 2nd course was finished in Nov, using most of the stored stone. (Wood imports will be resumed early next year, and pyramid construction should be determined by quarrying. Further pyramid progress reports will be limited to significant events.)

The festival square was built in Jul. The 1st festival (to Ra) was held in Sep. The 2nd festival (to Bast) was held in Nov. More festivals will be held in later years.

All 4 tax collectors were operational in Aug, which ended with 94% of the people taxed. Everyone was taxed at the end of Sep.

The mansion was built (with salary set to 0) in Dec.

The year ended with 3140 people. Once again there was a tiny profit. Once again I'm optimistic, but hopefully with better cause--city health is improving and export industries are fully developed.

[Edit added August 15. The 11th (91% fertile) meadow grain farm was operational in Jan.]

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 08-15-2002 @ 06:17 PM).]

Assuming that there are no unexpected problems, the initial construction worries in Waset should soon be over, with more than enough money, everyone eating (except for new immigrants), defenses getting better, and monuments on schedule. The next major task is housing development, especially scribal housing. These are my tentative plans, subject to change without notice.

The east block (second-best housing) will be developed the fastest. In the fourth year, houses will be evolved to spacious apartments, which will require beer imports. In the fifth year, at least some of the houses will be evolved to common manors, which will require grain (the second food) plus jewelers plus imports of papyrus and linen and gems. Eventually, houses will be evolved to spacious manors. I'll decide later when to add the few remaining houses.

The northeast block (best housing) will be developed similarly to the east block, but a little slower. In the fourth year, houses will be evolved to spacious homesteads. In the fifth year, houses will be evolved to spacious residences, which will require (in addition to imports used by the east block) figs (the second food). In the sixth year, at least some of the houses will be evolved to common manors. Eventually, in multiple years, houses will be evolved to stately manors.

The west block, since it is farthest from the entry point, will be developed cautiously. In the fourth year, food will be supplied and most of the remaining houses will be added. In the fifth year, houses will be evolved to ordinary cottages (or perhaps to spacious homesteads). Eventually, houses will be evolved to spacious residences.

The southeast block will be developed similarly to the west block, but the timing may vary considerably. Since it is nearest to the entry point, its population can be increased rapidly whenever workers are needed (if food supplies are adequate).

It appears that a lot of figs and extra grain will be needed by the fifth year for second foods. Both should be developed rapidly in the fourth year.

Please note: my playing time will be sporadic for several weeks. (I had hoped to finish Waset by now.) The next report might be in a day, a week, or a month.