Some tries at 100% speed make my reasoning justified, with some changes.

First, I do not “eradicate” the infantry: they are so numerous, so fast and so agressive that I barely kill some.

Second, I met defeat several times. I had just put a hut, the recruitment camp and some factories on the Eastern bank (EB). The Hittites were stuck on the other side but I lost.
The difference with Sumur is that they destroy anything in town. They only ignored my panicked company in its fort to detroy everything else on the continent. I guessed that the game considered that 95% of my city had been destroyed. Defeat was declared.

So I made it again setting also a correct block of houses on the EB. One year after the attack, there was no building except a fort with 5 soldiers on the continent. The Hittites withdrew, one company following another. In May 1274 there was no enemy left on the map.

Good point. I hope there is no other invasion.

So my problem becomes the 3 other parametres: PR of 20, KR of 50, 1800 people.

All are combined as I need a certain level of housing which requires only one type of food, a temple and a booth. Majority of these houses must be of this kind. There is no tax collector, so all the money has to be made on trade, which is minimalistic. A PR of 20 needs me to make at least some money, more than my expenses:
1. Luxuries and weapons make little money compared to the required investments, especially since the two first weapons may be lost as they go to the recruitment camp. Incidentally, there is a request for 500 luxuries before the attack. So I need at least one gem mine and one factory, but these two will be destroyed as there is no rock on the EB: 1000 db lost!
2. I can export pomgranates, but it brings little profit: 1000 pomgranates bring only 250 db, nearly less than their production costs.

Another problem with the prosperity is that I cannot stand a heavy unemployment rate. The cheapest way is to set several pomgranate farms, even if not necessary, as the workcamp is not available to absorb the xtra workforce.

I start with a KR of 40. The major threat in this game is overindebtment. In my try, I have set the mansion immediately, so gifted me every 13 months with a lavish gift. In May 1274, my KR was 40 but my balance was –3193 db, so another over-indebment is coming, making my KR drop to 15 (losing 35 points at a go), and little hope to make enough money to recover within one year. I must make some money since the very beginning, before the attack, to recover faster. After the battle, I have 44 months left, enough to recover 35 points: 4 lavish gifts, the last one bringing only 5 points.

Global strategy:
1.Saving absolutely every deben I can
2.Making enough money through trade to try avoiding a second overindebment, by miracle the first one. The time of settlement of the mansion is critical.
3.Never buy wood (I have 31 chariots) and rely on two forts only: one on the continent, one on the EB. I will simply destroy the second one on the continent.
4.Fulfil the requests if possible, hoping the reward is not a gift of peas. I used Civilis’ EVE.exe but I missed some elements, like which city is doing what and what it may bring.

Economic details
I start with 6281 db, the gift is 1125, total 7400 db.
I will set the the gem mines up North, this way the luxury factories will be on the EB and will not be destroyed.

[This message has been edited by Tryhard (edited 10-26-2003 @ 11:03 AM).]

I eventually did less than planned, but ensured than I was not even over-indebted once.

I wanted a dozen of farms, but it costs a bit more money than they bring in. Also, the second harvest is in November, so I do not have time to sell all the production before the end of the first year, nor even before having to destroy the bridges.
So I use the original settlements to set 6 farms only.

To make things faster, as soon as the game starts, I hit Pause, decrease the speed at 10%, destroy the empty fort (otherwise the new chariots go there), set the bridge to the Eastern bank, bits of road and some huts that will belong both to the industrial block and the housing block. I destroy the worst 3 1x1 huts in town.
I also set a group of huts along the road, closer to the farms, for the rcruiters to work better. I destroy one of the two groups of 1x1 huts closeby.
I set a group of plots along the city, close to the rocks and the Eastern bank. I destroy some more huts in town.
In every case, these fellow citizens fired from their house go nearby to settle and occupy the new plots. I save one month or two instead of waiting for new immigrants to come.

As soon as late January, I start setting two gem mines, a Storage Yard (SY) on the Eastern bank. The 3 new farms are operational.
In some versions of the game, the farms harvest as soon as February 1276, what is not normal (it should be June and November). Brugle recently mentioned the freak behaviours of the meadow farms sometimes.

I know that the enemy will destroy everything, so will destroy it myself. At the very beginning, I destroy the gate South, the granary and the SY in town. Not more as I have lots of workforce. I will destroy the houses in town one by one, when they will start having no food left, as the opinion of the houses with food is better. I also leave the bazaars, even empty. The disease and malaria risks are higher when there is no bazaar, even if no food is dlivered.

As soon as they are 12, I launch the chariots to eradicate the lions. The lions, like to hippos, are programmed to go and sit on the roads and wait for the cart pushers with their harvest of pomgranates.
This time, I delay until April to set the fort on the Eastern Bank. I have largely enough time to establish my two companies before the attack.
So I am indebted in April only. I decide to ignore the mansion for now but invest in productive industries. I set 2 other gem mines (so 4 altogether) and 6 luxury factories.

Contrarily to my first tries, I do not set many houses on the Eastern bank. I have enough time for this. Neither do I feed these people. I set useful workers when I need to balance the working force: policemen, physicians, apothecaries.
In December, I already have 29 chariots. My balance is slightly negative, so I use the last caravan from Jericho to roam between two Storage Yards to buy as much luxury as possible, telling the caravan to sell “100 pottery” in another SY, then changing it for “Import 0”. The caravan goes to the other SY, sells nothing and comes back to the first SY where new pieces of luxuries have been delivered meanwhile. I am not even indebted on 1st of january 1275.

I ignored the request for 500 luxuries. I can lose some KR points, but it is nearly the price of the mansion. I rather set the mansion and offer myself a lavish gift. My KR had dropped to 37, then 34 failing to fulfil the request, it climbs back to 44.

I could export for 3025 db on the first year, 3625 on the second year, before being forced to destroy the bridges.

THE HITTITES ATTACK:
I move one company to the SW corner and charge twice. I barely kill some invaders, but my point is to attract them to the bridge of the Eastern Bank.
Let us be clear, they religiously ignore my troops and rush to the city. So I destroy attractive buildings on the continent, like the academy. I have already destroyed most of the houses.
I keep the temples until the very end, when I see them moving towards these objectives. I make a try and leave the shrine; they ignore it. But they rush to destroy everything else.

Only some Hittites soldiers are coming near the bridge when I destroy it. The company on the Eastern Bank comes on the other side and fires missiles at them. These first ones withdraw as soon as december 1275. In March 1274, the last enemies withdraw.

Ther battle is won. Some would maybe say it is not a proper way of playing, but it is a classic strategy, and more or less what Pharaoh did at Qadesh. Both the King and the Pharaoh used the river to attack and counter-attack. Ramesses II came back claiming he had exterminated the Hittites. The truth is that he was nearly eradicated, only the Hittite King did not lauch his huge reserves, for a reason that is not yet well known.

The day of the real battle ended in a draw. Like here.

At the end of the battle, I set the bridge back immediately, as I have still 700 luxuries for sale and 3200 pomgranates. I also set the houses for new farms and new gem mines.
My prosperity is 2, the overseer says it is because of unemployment. Anyway, seing it above 0 is encouraging.
My kingdom rating is 55. So that is done.
My population is only 392. I had intended since the beginning to set the granary (2?) close to the mines, for them to deserve the block on the Eastern Bank and the original one, from which only the roads remain for now.

Then the two following years are made of calculations to make profits and not lose KR points. I add a fifth mine and open the road to Timna. I will never bother to produce weapons.
I ignore all requests for gems and luxuries as their negative consequences would appear after the end of the game. I fulfill the request for 1000 pomgranates to Waset as it is easy. I also send my 15 experienced chariots left to Jericho where they succeed. The two events bring me some KR points as a reward.

As expected, unemployment jumps. I do not worry about money and score: they will be low anyway. So I set some more (useless) farms and policemen to keep unemployment below 10%, when people start getting annoyed.

I win in November 1271, one month before the deadline.

Prosperity rating: 28
Kingdom rating: 77
Treasury: 2700
Population: 1803
Score: 2329

Congrats Tryhard...

Can't think of anybody more deserving this success...

Well done, Tryhard.

Qadesh at Very Hard was something I intended to try, once I got that far (probably in a couple of years). I figured that I'd probably lose the first time and would have to replay. I guess I'll have to find some other challenge in Cleopatra. (On the other hand, with my memory rapidly deteriorating, I'll probably forget the details of your strategy long before I start Qadesh.)

(Late) Congratulations Tryhard,

I believe, the way you did it, is the only possible successful solution for the standalone mission. Fine work!
In the campaign with the carried over troops my way was very close, and surely impossible without.

---

[The file names refer to the files contained in #682 in the city download section.]

Qadesh at VeryHard in 30 months (How to expel them quickly)

Imho, in Qadesh (at VH) the Hittites can't be really defeated on the battlefield like in Sumur, ie. they can't be completely destroyed or driven away by force. The key is to weaken their morale by killing enough of them, but without engaging into major combat! Time for a hit-and-run approach ... I had to save during the waves of battles, and maybe re-play parts of it, speed at only ten percent to micromanage the distance when to start to retreat - that might not be the way you want to do it, and I do estimate it being terribly hard.

Let us be clear: I played it as part of the career (probably Qadesh is balanced towards this), that means I carry over 3312 Debens and 2 companies from Sumur: 16 chariots & 16 infantrists (with excellent experience, but exhausted, ie. limited morale). As an indiviual mission, you don't receive this benefit, and my tactic doesn't succeed.
Also I destroy the bridge to the northeastern bank purposely two times only against the Hittites.
But I create NO building on the northeastern bank, ie. Qadesh isn't significantly destroyed. And I make them retreat in the 6th month of their invasion, ie. November1275BC.

The following files are included:

>>> a_1276Dec.sav (15:50)
Built more forts (3), more housing (16 2x2), more farms (8) and got the jewelery industry going (7+10). Opened trade routes to Sumur & Jericho. Placed a chariot maker and imported wood. Of course this means enormous debt, but concentrate on building extra troops early on.
The 5th fort (Cobras) should be placed in time (before Jul1276), because their morale starts with 'average' and improves over time to 'perfect', regardless to # of charioteers.

>>> b_FirstContact.sav (1275 Jun 12:36)
Before the attack I was able to create 11 chariots from wood, together with the 20 from the SY this gives 31 charioteers (15 Crocodiles & 16 Cobras). Together with the original 11 Lions this makes 42 (hi, Douglas Adams) fresh build in Qadesh. 16 Falcons are carried over from Sumur.
If not attacked early at the entry points, the enemy approaches first to the middle land bridge with two groups of archers. Now the (fullsize) Cobras charge the bigger (12) group (and gain experience) while holding them in position, and the (very experienced) Falcons shoot arrows at them (more effective & takes care of their lower morale). The smaller (7) enemy group is handled by the incomplete companies: the smaller, but big enough Lions charge, while the bigger Crocodiles develop more firepower.

>>> c_VictoriousSkirmish.sav (Jul 1:26)
The setup above helps to slaughter completely his 2 archer companies a) with minimum damage to the own troops (inflicts a serious hit to morale of the entire enemy army) and b) as quickly as possible to be able to move all own charioteers at will.
The carried over Scorpions (16 infantrists) are still kept in their fort (takes care of their morale). They are weak (against hittitian charioteers) and loosing them hurts the morale of all of the own troops more than infantrists generate fighting power.

>>> d_ForcedRetreat.sav (Jul 4:33)
Being sucked into major combat is deadly, so our brave charioteers have to retreat in time. Doing this on a path on the northwestern side of the ditch (near the farms, away from the city) seems to result in less city-damage later on. Tactical error: The Crocodiles are too early too far east, they must move (temporarily) 4 tiles west, so that the shortest path for the enemies to attack them follows the own troops on the northwestern side of the ditch (and avoids that the enemies take the SHORTER path on the southeastern side).
[The troops of the first 2 invasions (end of may1275) DO aim at the own troops, ie. are attracted by them, only the 3. (end of july1275) has random targets.]
The Scorpions are no good fighting against charioteers and so avoid contact with all kind of enemy troops (when they are pinned, soon charioteers appear). By far the best what they can do is to move around in the nortwestern area as bait: Near enough to influence the moves of the enemies (diverting them from the city), but far enough to not being actually attacked.

>>> e_FrogLooping.sav (Jul 12:7)
While the Scorpions make 'attractive' moves in an interesting distance (try-and-error), the 4 charioteer companies beeline to the bridge to the northeastern bank on a northernmost path. Always the company nearest to the enemies tries to hit them with arrows when they rest from time to time (doing little real damage, but decreasing their morale!), and retreat in the very last moment if they move again. But never engage into melee!
The most challenging thing in this phase is the fantastic user interface of the own companies.

>>> f_BridgeDestroyed.sav (Aug 3:49)
All soldiers of the 4 charioteer companies have reached save the northeastern bank. The first enemy charioteers approach to the bridge. Now the bridge must be destroyed. The troops of the first 2 invasions are still attracted by the own troops - and should they loose interest, rebuilding the bridge with a clear path to attack increases interest again, drawing the enemy chariots & infantry away from the city.
For now all charioteers have to approximate to the river and shoot. The inflicted casualties show the following hittitian troops where more fighting power is needed. The more casualties, the quicker they come - only sometimes delayed by this nice arrangement of police stations, which lies in the way.

>>> g_ThereAndBackAgain.sav (Sep 3:11)
Bridge rebuild and destroyed again. Patience is necessary with the randomness of their moves and losses. But finally the Hittitians are doomed: their charioteers are excellent in overrun tactics, but they don't shoot! (sic); the archers of the first 2 invasions are already gone, and the archers of the 3rd invasion (only 8) are too far away anyway.
The troops of the 3. invasion have random targets (= not addicted to attack the own troops), so before this 2nd wave reaches Qadesh and does really big damage, the 1st wave has to be demoralized!
{While reviewing that savegame for writing this text, I found out, that by moving immediately the Falcons to the Crocodiles (speed10% & pause) all Hittitians can panic already in Oct 11:4!}

>>> h_HittitianPanik.sav (Nov 8:32)
I recommend to watch this savegame in slow motion (10%).

>>> i_1275Dec.sav (15:50)
The last enemies are leaving just the map and the city account is in the black.

>>> j_CloseToTheEdge.sav (1274 Jun 15:50)
Victory will be soon declared (in Jul 1:21).

>>> k_civilis-Qadesh.sav (Jul 13:24)
If I had to submit one single file ...

>>> l_GloryOfRamesses.sav (Nov 15:48)
This city is stable and can fulfill easily all coming requests in time (send or stockpile & send).

{Thanks to joshofet for showing me the location of the absolute time.}

[This message has been edited by civilis (edited 06-17-2004 @ 07:39 AM).]

[to d_ForcedRetreat.sav & e_FrogLooping.sav]
When the Lions are done with their archers, they can go home and wait for 1 more charioteer to be produced instead of frogLooping around the ditch with the others. They must be phased in again when this additional charioteer is between recruiter & academy. Altogether 59 charioteers.

[scripted events: The troops of the first 2 invasions (end of may1275) DO aim at the own troops, ie. are attracted by them, only the 3. (end of july1275) has random targets.]
Maybe the way enemy troops are attracted by own troops is modeled like a field of influence, ie. the amount of attraction grows with proximity and amount of troops (analog to gravitation). I haven't tested it, but this could explain the hittitian tendency to ignore smaller troops and to prefer instead to destroy the city.

Thanks Civilis for the congrats'. Even late, they are more than appreciated.

I did some quick tests with my savegame "g_ThereAndBackAgain.sav" to check the theory I mentioned in my last message (hittitian tendency to ignore smaller troops and to prefer instead to destroy Qadesh because amount of attraction grows with proximity and amount of troops):
Deleting the Lions fort and any one of the three others (max 26/27 charioteers less) makes no big difference in hittitian behaviour: they are still attracted at the bridge point.
Deleting two of the three others (min 31/32 charioteers less) changes hittitian behaviour radically: they immediately aim to the city & destroy.

Of course it may be, that the Hittites count the deleted troops as egyptian casualties and increase their morale differently!?

So what is this "absolute time" you refer to and where is it located?

That's a great download...thanks!

Thanks, StarKey, for your friendly comment.

I use the term "absolute time" for the time as it is stored in save games - raw, without interpretation of the last two bytes (eg. 1275BC Jun 12:36).
Probably Nerdicus used first in some of his AMAZING production calculations 'days' and 'ticks' for parts of the sequence of animation steps, which are correlated to the content of those last two bytes.
They run from 0 to 15 'days' and 0 to 50 'hours/ticks/frames', which seems 'strange'. So joshofet introduced a time more plausibel to us:
{joshofet posted 10-16-03 09:43 ET (US) in the post 39 / 44 of the Event details & breaking of event chains thread: "Civilis, I have found where in the file the date is registred, and developed a utility that tells the day and time of a save. There are 16 days of 51 ticks (I use the term frames) in each month. I have translated that to 32 days of 25 or 26 hours, so we could talk about hours instead of frames or ticks. There are exactly 816 "hours" in a month, pretty close to the average of 730 in RL. I can send you the utility or the (FORTRAN) code if you are interested."}
I use the term "joshofet time" for this time.

Time is 4 long integers with 76(?) bytes offset from a significant sequence like 0, 3, 0, 0, 4, xC1, 0 or something like that (brain dump, I am at work & don't have no Pharaoh tools nearby , joshofet has found them & can therefore surely remember better).

civilis,
Thanks for the explanation, and thanks to joshofet for the idea. (I didn't read (at least that part of) joshofet's post.) It would be (and was) confusing to use the term "day" for anything other than a game day (used by booths, bandstands, and pavilions). (I use the clumsy term "production interval" for a 2-day period.) And 25.5 "hours" in a day makes a lot of sense.

I finally managed to finish Qadesh (it appears the spelling quadesh is less appropriate) at VH. I did go into debt, more than once, and actually the money was a bigger issue than the Hittites. From the above post I only remembered the trick of moving the chariots across the river and destroying the bridges. For the rest I tried to find out myself how to deal with things. I played the campaign, so with three legions, but no money carried over, I only use the 6000+ starting funds and the backup. I had one extra company of charioteers from Sumur, no infantry (didn't have any in Sumur).

I only opened the route to Jericho, and made money by selling lux goods. Three mines and five jewelers produced (almost) the max, no way of getting extra money with blessings, so I didn't need to invoke my additional rule here (no help from the gods).

I ignored the requests, but did store some pomegranates to boost KR a little bit. Could eventually have ignored that as well, because by forging (build/undo mansion twice) a few lavish gifts I ended with KR=53.

Most houses were fed on imported food in a block close to the entry point. Only in the final year can I start boosting prosperity. I finish in Oct '72 slightly in debt with PR=22. It seemed the enemy would not destroy huts on the mainland, only if they happened to come near when attacking other buildings, so I moved most of my citizens to huts near the entry point.

Surely the above posts by Tryhard and Civilis contain some ideas for improvement. I didn't move forts across the water, but needed to rebuild my jewelers after the invasion. Room for improvement, but hey, I made it!

[This message has been edited by joshofet (edited 09-02-2006 @ 11:11 AM).]

Congrats. Dunqul and Qadesh at Very Hard are quite a deal.

I managed to do the impossible and beat Qadesh on Very Hard as an individual mission without relocating my city to the eastern bank. That means no troops from Sumur, no personal savings transferred, defending (most of) my original city, not hitting the 2nd debt anniversary and facing and "beating" the Hittites.

The only "trick" I used was luring one enemy chariot company to the eastern bank and destroying bridges, making them stranded for the rest of the skirmish. I wish they disappeared mid-battle so I could repeat it with one or two more, but it wasn't needed in the end. I am not sure and unwilling to find out if I can win without this one move. Possibly I could, because a lot of enemy troops were already roaming inside my walls, so one company more would hardly make a difference. It is also possible that this made a difference if the morale of the entire enemy army takes the hit when this company disappears from the map. I didn't keep a close eye on them. The enemy left when I charged and destroyed one isolated infrantry company with two of my chariot companies, so during the gameplay, it never occured to me to check if their withdrawal had to do with the stranded company disappearing or if the said company disappeared as soon as they started retreating.

I prepared by some testing and calculation. 8 gemstone mines are just enough to sell 5500 luxury goods a year to all 3 cities that buy them. Problem was, if I build everything in January of the first year, I will go in debt and hit the 2nd debt anniversary in January of the 3rd year. So, I tried to delay debt to March, and actually only reached it in April of the first year. This means that two years later, while I'm still fighting Hittites, I will sell some stockpiled luxury goods between January and March and get out of debt in time, which happens.

I also import 1700 wood to produce chariots for the 3rd chariot fort, which was inside the walls. In the end, I only manage to train 14 chariots for it. At that point, the enemy is at the gates and I need to move out with the 3rd fort. By that time, the first two are aleardy hard at hitting and running from the enemy.

After some 30 saved games and a few reloads during the fight, I manage to win, losing only 11 troops and getting one company to "poor" morale.

Most of my walled part of the city is destroyed, but not personal mansion which is inside (with no funds in it) and a lot of houses survived. I placed personal mansion in the first year after I got in debt. I was afraid if I waited until after the invasion, I could lose because of low KR.

I had a road with houses in south-east corner which enemy never got close to.

Also, most importantly, my gemstones and jewelers all survived and exports were uninterrupted the whole time.

I add a few farms and irrigate them at the start of the game. I don't feed my people before and during the attack, so I made some money by exporting pomegranates too. I didn't check if that lead to less exports of luxury goods to Sumur(?), which I think buys both, but it didn't matter. I sold all luxury goods I could produce and both industries were profitable.

I don't think I killed a single enemy chariot, but I did attack some from the distance and loaded the game if some of my troops got caught by the enemy.

[This message has been edited by Slingshotmo (edited 12-15-2018 @ 00:28 AM).]

Congratulations! I would enjoy watching this if you captured a video, even with the save/reloads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REEitX2A_1o

Sweet, thanks! I would bet since many cities don't get built in one sitting, gameplay often isn't recorded, but I think it's fun to watch when available. I love learning the little nuances of how other people play, that you can only discern by watching.

Thanks for the congrats TheBuilder! It's an old game so people just play it for themselves most of the time and don't intend on posting the video anywhere, so they don't bother recording. In early 2000s when the game was more popular, there was no youtube of course.

I completely agree about watching other people play. You can always learn some small details that could make your life easier. I wish I knew how to properly charge with chariots. I may have underutilized it in that video, but I was afraid if I charge more often, enemy chariots would catch my own.

I only kill four archer/infantry companies and zero chariot companies. I wonder if I could improve the use of my troops and do it sooner, because although the fight is sped up in that video, originally it took me about 90 minutes to do.

This brings to mind an interesting type of challenge I might consider for myself and others, one where you play a game straight through, and are limited by perhaps a one or two hour time limit. Saving and reloading would be allowed, if a player decided that was a wise use of their time within the challenge. Perhaps a clock freeze might be warranted in certain save/load scenarios where you're in a heavily luck based situation and want to avoid certain outcomes, like the earthquake in NAFTA. I think many of us give in to temptation and spend more time with meticulous planning than actually in the city, similar to how in American football the fraction of the game clock where the ball is actually moving is tiny. It could be a fun restriction to put on yourself to test your ability to make the best city within a certain time period. It would definitely put your innate knowledge of the game to the test which also interests me, as you would be sacrificing development time if you want to go back and brush up on ambulomancy or the nuances of farming mechanics, or make a spreadsheet to do precise calculations for how many entertainment venues and so forth you want.

So, it turns out I'm willing to see if Qadesh can be beaten with zero tricks. I'm refering to me deleting bridges and stranding one enemy chariot company on the eastern bank, at around 17:50 in the video I posted above.

I loaded the game again from the point just before I destroyed those bridges, refusing to do it this time around. From then on, I fought the Hittites straight up. It took a few reloads at a certain point because I was braver this time and attacked an infantry and an archer company sooner. This meant my own units are exposed to nearby enemy chariots. I lose more of my units this time, but I destroy one extra infantry company from the enemy, five in total. It was easier than expected.

They retreat in Nov 1275 BC, same as in civilis case. I takes me two more years to get my prosperity and KR up, so final victory is in Dec 1273 BC, which is slower than in the video I posted, but I wasn't rushing anything.

One extra enemy company didn't make the difference, but my bolder approach meant only the academy and a few infrastructure buildings get destroyed in my city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeiTZe2SJrg

[This message has been edited by Slingshotmo (edited 12-24-2018 @ 08:48 AM).]

My hat is off to you, I've always had very little patience for the military aspect of this game when playing by myself. I enjoyed watching.

Thanks! It's not a great watch really, but I hope it's helpful. Over the years, I went from skipping military missions to winning them with money from previous mission to trying to beat the hardest ones individually. I guess Migdol on VH is where I had to learn how to best use my troops, since you don't have personal savings on your disposal to build up a huge army.

Army micromanagement is very clumsy in Pharaoh. Being confident with using your troops makes military missions at least not unenjoyable, but in Qadesh on VH, it finally comes together and if successful, it's actually rewarding.

I really hope more people decide to beat this mission without special strategies or troops from Sumur, because it's doable and it gets easier with some practice and preparation.