Rules Basis for City Design

Heading in, all of my previous cities had been built without building a Temple Complex (no extra benefits), Personal Mansion (no KR rise by 1 each year or gifts to the Pharaoh), and no Festival Square (no god blessings or staving off curses, no temporarily boosting city sentiment) unless there aren‘t enough requests to sufficiently raise the Kingdom Rating and Ra is present. Also, all of my cities had a goal of no debt, no gift, high levels of housing, as high as possible health coverage for all three areas, a fully connected city in the end (including the monument), max Prosperity Rating and as high of a Culture Rating as reasonably possible for the level. At Dunqul Oasis, this meant 100 for both.

In Dunqul, the lack of a Festival Square meant Seth couldn’t strike down any invaders, and the lack of his Temple Complex meant experience would be more difficult to get. Those rules, combined with the lack of gatehouses or towers in the mission, would definitely make the level more militarily challenging. The rule of not taking the gift would make the level much more difficult, given how early the invasions start.

So, I had to decide, would I play by my old rules, or would I lighten up on them in order to make sure I passed the level? In a stroke of insanity, I chose my old rules.

City Planning

To start, I took a look at the map and the available raw materials, as well as any good chokepoints I might be able to make use of. The city has 4 hyena patches around the oasis, along with a couple of ostrich herds. The only food available is ostrich. The available raw materials are wood, granite, sandstone, and gems. This isn‘t too bad, wood and gems, along with their finished good, jewelry, sell at a high price, and all raw materials are available for the monument. Unfortunately, wood to Buhen will shut down early according to the mission briefing (and other forumers) and gemstone mines are very expensive to start up, as is the trade route to Byblos to sell them (1500Db). The sand dunes and rocks break up the terrain, making standard housing blocks virtually impossible here. The only spot where one was easily available didn‘t have good access to a water carrier. In order to harvest any appreciable amount of wood, the wood industry must be placed in the north and a bridge to the main island in the oasis must be built. This means some amount of housing must be placed in the north near the entrance. The starting trade routes along with potentially useful goods were:

Byblos: sells 2500 copper, buys 2500 gems, luxury goods
On/Heliopolis: sells 2500 clay, reeds
Men-nefer/Memphis: sells 2500 chickpeas, papyrus, buys 2500 luxury goods
Henen-nesw/Herakleopolis: sells 2500 figs, clay, beer, flax
Selima Oasis: sells 2500 luxury goods (ebony), buys 2500 pottery, linen, papyrus
Buhen: buys 2500 wood (closes early)
Kerma: none (closes early)

Next, I downloaded some of the Pharaoh Dunqul missions in the Download Section. I did this mainly to see what trade routes and good will become available and how people placed their city in the inhospitable terrain. While I didn’t get any really good ideas for housing, the future trade routes proved invaluable. From it, I could see the following potentially useful goods became available:

Trade to Saqarra: buys 1500 pottery, papyrus, 2500 wood (eventually)
Trade to Nehken/Hierakonpolis: sells 2500 beer, flax, linen
Trade to Dahkla Oasis: buys 2500 linen, papyrus, 25 granite
Trade to Djedu/Abusir: sells 2500 fish, reeds, papyrus, buys 2500 linen
Trade to Iunet/Dendera: sells 2500 clay, copper

This means that in the end, I can import 2500 of three types of foods, enough clay for 5000 pottery, 5000 beer, enough flax for 5000 linen plus 2500 linen, and enough reeds for 5000 papyrus plus 5000 papyrus. I assume that a senet house consumes 720 beer per year (12 walks at 60 beer per walk), each mortuary consumes 780 linen per year (13 walks at 60 linen per walk), each school consumes 480 papyrus per year (12 walks at 40 papyrus per walk), and each library consumes 720 papyrus per year (12 walks at 60 papyrus per walk). Since only a handful of mortuaries will be needed, there is more than enough flax to produce all of the linen the city needs plus create exports. Since the city is small, only 1 senet house is needed, meaning there is more than enough beer. Since no buildings consume pottery, there is more than enough clay to make the necessary pottery for the city and make enough for export. The high requirement of schools and libraries might outstretch the reeds supply, requiring some papyrus imports for 100 Culture. Food will be difficult to fulfill if I want everyone above a Common Residence.

Of particular note on the trade routes is Henen-nesw/Herakleopolis. They sell 10000 goods that my city will be buying, but they won’t be able to sell that high of a volume. The most constraining good they sell is figs, whereas clay, beer, and flax can be obtained elsewhere. Therefore, pottery, beer, and flax consumption should be kept fairly low in order to assure the city of near maximum figs. This means that pottery and linen exports will be low to none in the final city.

Next comes the question of luxury good exports or having Palatial Estates. Early on, luxury good exports would be very lucrative and helpful. Palatial Estates make the city nicer and provide more in taxes later on, however. In order to make it more of a challenge, Palatial Estates are chose. The single jeweler necessary will be built early on for export until it is time for Palatial Estates, and enough Palatial Estates will be built to generate enough taxes to cover what a single Stately Manor required for 100 Prosperity would generate along with the maximum possible export of luxury goods, thus making the choice an economically beneficial one in the (very) long run. This is 5 Palatial Estates. The Palatial Estates will consume 1000 of 3 types of food each year. Since one of those foods will be game meat, there will be 1500 of 2 food types and 2500 of a third available for the rest of my city to consume from import. The highest number of Fancy Residences that I feel would be comfortably serviced would be 35, 10 for each of the 1500 imported foods, and 15 for each of the 2500. If that stretches the food supplies too much, those numbers can be reduce. The lowest number of Fancy Residences I can have and still have 3500 people is 28.

City Design

In order to keep linen consumption low, I would like to have only 2 housing blocks. Unfortunately, this complicates things greatly; the only area open that will accommodate the housing necessary for only 2 housing blocks while having the proper amounts of food distribution available is difficult to get water to. The work around? Use the fact that the entrance and exit square of walkers for the water supply are different, as shown in Brugle’s Random walker start and finish points and as I successfully used in my North Dahshur. To solve the problem of distribution among the near-loop, and to keep it down to only 1 mortuary, I repeated the trick inside the near-loop on most service buildings. To get the 2nd food necessary, bazaars would have to be placed on the outside of the loop which would only buy certain foods. This is basically how the west block was begun.

The east block was much easier. Water access was much easier and there was enough space for a smaller block, as well. This is where I decided to place the block that would contain the Palatial Estates. The bazaar on the inside of the block would get 2 foods and all goods that the block needed. A road on the outside of the Palatial Estates would be used to supply the senet house and the 3rd food. Short and simple design.

As had been said before, the wood industry would have to be north of the oasis, placing it by the east block. I decided to place the industry on the island itself and have the labor seekers cross the bridge in order to get workers. Game for the block would be supplied by 3 hunting lodges placed to the east of the block. To the north of the block would be the gem/luxury good industries, along with the pottery industry, the weapons industry, and the recruiter. To the south of the block would be the palace, the senet house as I said before, and the 3rd temple for the Palatial Estates.

In the west block, to the southeast would be hunting, as well as the main granary and storage yard for the block along with entertainment suppliers and a bazaar for the 2nd food. To the east, I placed the monument related structures and a bazaar. To the north I placed the granite and sandstone quarries, along with the academy. To the northwest, I placed the linen and papyrus industries. I allocated enough space for there to be enough industries to produce the maximum amount that the city possibly could from the imports available, incase I had the workers available.

For the 2nd foods, I decided to have the east block eat figs as their second food, have the Palatial Estates eat chickpeas as their 3rd food, have the middle of the west block eat the rest of the chickpeas, and have the outside parts of the west block eat fish. This gave a good balance of food if close to the maximum was imported each year.

Failed Attempts

My first attempt failed very early on. I had counted on labor seekers going in both directions on occasion, but some buildings never got staffed. One of those buildings was a potter, which would have been very helpful for exporting goods, one was a fire station, which is obviously critical, and also some police stations. The locations of the building just wouldn’t allow the labor seekers to go the other way, so with this knowledge, I started over.

My second attempt failed because the second Bedouin attackers did something unexpected and unfortunate. Normally, enemy soldiers will chose a position to move their company to, and then go without reevaluating where they want to go. This makes hit-and-run tactics work well with archers. These Bedouin never did that; the quicker Bedouin simply chased the archers down, constantly reevaluating where their prey went. This is the only occurence that I have ever noticed. Since I had not counted on this, I did not even have infantry at the time. Thus, I stood no chance of winning, and so quit.

Success

For my third attempt I decided to make some changes to the start of my city. I decided that I did need infantry early on, so I needed to open the trade route to Byblos early to get the copper. That also meant I would have to start gems much earlier than I had initially planned to.

All messages of importance will be recorded in the month stated in the message box.

2246
Jan
Immediately pen in the 3 hyena groups to the north and west of the oasis. Then placed the road for the east block and placed 12 housing groups (sets of 4 plots).

Feb
Built wood cutters on the island along with a fire post and architect post.

March
Built a storage yard for the wood. Built a firehouse and architects post in the housing block. Opened the trade route to Buhen. Built 2 gemstone mines and a storage yard. Built a water supply.

April
Sold 400 wood.

June
Built jeweler, fire house and architect post.

July
Sold 800 wood. Opened trade route to Byblos.

Aug.
Sold 400 wood. Built firehouse, architect, and recruiter. Sold 100 gem, 100 luxury goods, 100 wood.

Oct.
Sold 700 wood, built archer fort.

Nov.
Sold 100 luxury, 300 gem. Built gemstone mine. Sold 100 wood, built firehouse, architect.

End of Year: 340 Debens, 332 Population, 0 Culture, 4 Prosperity, 39 Kingdom

2245

Jan
At the end of the month, received warning of Bedouin in 6 months.

Feb.
Sold 800 wood, 100 luxury, 300 gem. Sold 100 gem, bought 400 copper. Sold 400 wood. Trade route to Kerma closes.

March
Sold 400 wood. Trade route to Buhen closes (along with wood sales)

April
Built gemstone mine, shut off wood industry, built 1 house. Received request for 60 weapons, will ignore it.

May
Sold 300 gem, 200 luxury. Built weapon smith.

June
Bought 200 copper.

July
Bedouin attack, time to start hit-and-run with the archers.

August
Sold 700 gem, 100 luxury. Built infantry fort.

Oct.
Trade route to Saqarra available.

Nov.
Sold 100 luxury, 600 gem. Sold 100 luxury.

Dec.
Open trade route to Saqarra, turned off jewelry.

End of Year: 281 Db, 364 pop., 0 CR, 10 PR, 35 KR

2244

Jan.
Sold 400 wood.

Feb.
Sold 600 gem, bought 200 copper. Sold 200 gem. Finally defeated the Bedouin.

April
Sold 800 wood, built hunting lodge

May
Sold 600 gem, bought 200 copper. Sold 200 gem. Built temple to Seth.

July
Sold 300 wood, deleted 1 wood cutter. Built temple to Ptah, 2 shrines to Seth, Ra.

Aug.
Sold 600 gems. Started west housing block with 6 houses. Sold 100 gems.

Sept.
Famine request for 1200 game meat in 7 months.

Oct.
Built hunting lodge. Built granite quarry.

Nov.
Sold 300 gem. Turned on jeweler, turned off wood due to surplus. Built firehouse, architect, SY. Received request for 12 granite in 12 months.

End of Year: 306 Db, 492 pop., 5 CR, 8 PR, 35 KR

2243

Jan
Sold 800 wood. Built granite quarry. Built water supply for west block, built 1 house in west. Bedouin attack in 3 months.

Feb.
Dispatched famine request. Sold 100 luxury, 700 gem. Sold 300 gem. Built archer fort.

March
Turned wood on. Turned game off. Kingdom Rating rises from fulfilling famine request.

April
Sold 700 wood. Built 5 police stations. Bedouin attack, time to hit-and-run again.

May
KR rise from sacrifices in combat.

June
Turned off wood.

July
Sold 100 luxury, 500 gem.

Aug.
Built firehouse, architect, SY. All armies flee.

Sept.
Open trade route to Henen-nesw/Herakleopolis. Built 3 houses. Sold 200 gem

Oct.
Dispatch granite. Turned granite off. Built sandstone quarry. Bought 800 flax. Built 2 weaver. Saqarra will trade more wood. Buhen falls since no weapons were sent.

Nov.
Sold 100 luxury, 200 gem, bought 200 copper. Turned wood on. Sold 800 wood. Built firehouse, architect. Sold 200 wood. Built 3 houses in west block. KR rise from granite request.

Dec.
Turned linen off due to lack of workers.

End of Year: 1845 Db, 602 pop., 5 CR, 10 PR, 50 KR

2242

Jan
Built house in east block to replace destroyed one. Built 2 physicians.

Feb.
Bought 400 copper, sold 100 luxury, 700 gem. Sold 800 wood

March
Built granary, hunting lodge, firehouse, architect.

April
Built bazaar.

May
Sold 100 luxury, 400 gem, bought 400 copper. Built hunting lodge. Sold 100 luxury, 300 gem. Kushites invade in 1 year.

June
Sold 700 wood. Sold 100 wood.

July
Built temple to Seth, Ra. Built 2 shrines to Seth. Built 1 shrine to Ptah.

Aug.
Sold 100 luxury, 400 gem.

Sept.
Sold 600 wood. Sold 100 wood. Built 3 houses in west block.

Nov.
Sold 100 luxury, 500 gem, bought 800 copper. Request for 19 granite in 12 months.

Dec.
Turned on granite. Sold 200 wood.

End of Year: 1884 Db, 861 pop., 5 CR, 14 PR, 50 KR

2241

Jan.
Sold 100 luxury, 700 gem.

Feb.
Sold 100 luxury.

March
Sold 800 wood. Sold 500 wood.

May
Sold 100 luxury, 600 gem, bought 300 copper.

At this point I will stop tracking imports and exports, since money will not be much of an issue and since I lost track with the Kushite invasion.

June
Kushites attack. Hit-and-run only works on 1 Kushite company per archer company, and I’m outnumbered.

July
Trade route to Nehken/Hierakonpolis available.

Sept.
Famine request for 1200 game in 7 months.

Oct.
Dispatched famine request. Built archer fort.

Nov.
Dispatch granite.

Dec.
KR rise from famine.

End of Year: 4689 Db, 1029 pop., 5 CR, 17 PR, 55 KR
By this point in time, Kushites have killed off the infantry company, forced one of my archer companies to rest due to lack of moral, had their archers flee, have a company chasing my archer company, and some of their infantry has had a little fun with my west housing block. Eventually, archers will keep enough companies busy to force them to flee.

2240

March
KR rise from granite request. Trade route to Dahkla Oasis available.

July
KR rise from sacrifices in combat.

Oct.
Built academy.

End of Year: 4424 Db, 603 pop., 5 CR, 10 PR, 67 KR.
At some point in time before July, the Kushites finally fled the city. I forgot to record when they did so.

2239

Jan.
Bedouin attack in 3 months.

April
Bedouins attack, dispatched quickly.

May
KR rise from sacrifices in combat.

Aug.
Built 2 more weavers.

Sept.
Famine request 1500 game in 7 months.

Oct.
Turned granite on.

Nov.
Dispatched famine request.

End of Year: 4624 Db, 1170 pop., 5 CR, 21 PR, 72 KR

2238

Feb.-March
Built plaza for desirability.

March
Built 2 shrines to Seth, 1 to Ptah and Ra. KR rise from famine.

April
Built 2 pavilions, 1 dance school.

June
Deleted dance school, rebuilt elsewhere.

Nov.
Request 16 sandstone in 12 months.

Dec.
Built 4 police stations, 1 dance school.

End of Year: 1829 Db, 1617 pop., 15 CR, 30 PR, 76 KR.

2237

April
Built infantry fort.

June
Built pavilion.

Aug.
Dispatched sandstone.

Sept.
KR rise from sandstone.

Oct.
Built 2nd SY for quarries,

End of Year: 1949 Db, 1818 pop., 15 CR, 33 PR, 79 KR.

2236

Jan.
Rebuilt initial dance school.

May
Built 2 SY for papyrus, 6 papyrus makers. Opened trade routes to On/Heliopolis and Djedu/Abusir. Kushites invade in 1 year.

Aug.
Built school in west block.

Sept.
Famine request 1500 game in 7 months.

Oct.
Dispatch famine.

Nov.
Request 13 sandstone in 12 months. KR rise from famine.

Dec.
Trade route to Iunet/Dendera available.

End of Year: 3705 Db, 2014 pop., 15 CR, 44 PR, 84 KR

2235

Jan.
Dispatch sandstone. Built firehouse, architect, palace, 2 courthouses, shrine to Ptah. Bedouin attack in 3 months, which is right about when Kushites show up.

Feb.
Built 3 tax collectors.

April
Bedouin attack from southeast, for the moment leave them alone until Kushites show. KR rise from sandstone.

May
Kushites attack, also from the southeast. KR rise from sacrifices in combat. Going to lure the Bedouins first, eliminate them, and then use the archers to lure the Kushites up to my army. Very painful overall, though.

End of Year: 5834 Db, 2015 pop., 15 CR, 44 PR, 94 KR.

2234

Feb.
Begin importing beer. Open trade route to Men-nefer/Memphis. Begin importing all 3 types of food.

April
Built juggler school, open trade route to Nehken/Hierakonpolis.

May
Built statues for where Palatial Estates will develop.

July
Built school in east block. KR rise from sacrifices in combat.

Aug.
Built 1 house in east block to improve worker access. Can do since now housing is sufficiently evolved to lower risks of fire.

Sept.
Famine request 1000 game in 7 months.

Oct.
Built courthouse by west block.

Nov.
Dispatch famine. Request for 22 sandstone in 12 months.

Dec.
KR rise from famine.

End of Year: 2162 Db, 2183 pop., 15 CR, 42 PR, 99 KR.

2233

Feb.
Delete extra house in east. Built dentist in east block.

March
Built 2 conservatories.

April
Dispatch sandstone.

June
KR rise from sandstone.

Aug.
Built mortuary in east block.

Sept.
Built library in east block.

End of Year: 804 Db, 2337 pop., 35 CR, 32 PR, 99 KR.

2232
By now, I’ve decided to build the minimum 28 Fancy Residences, since food imports aren’t always max and game meat production is already stretched thin.

Jan.
Bedouin attack in 3 months.

Feb.
Built dentist in west block, built conservatory.

March
Built second dentist in west block.

April
Bedouin attack, dispatched quickly.

May
KR rise from sacrifices in combat.

Aug.
Built 2 shrines to Seth, 1 to Ptah and Ra.

Sept.
Famine request for 700 game in 7 months.

Oct.
Dispatch famine.

End of Year: 2408 Db, 2451 pop., 40 CR, 66 PR, 100 KR.
From here on out, only going to mention important or unusual events.

2231

Jan.
KR rise from famine.

March
Built senet house.

Nov.
Request 18 granite in 12 months.

Dec.
Dispatch granite.

End of Year: 2405 Db, 1808 pop., 55 CR, 69 PR, 99 KR.

2230

End of Year: 1342 Db, 2293 pop., 55 CR, 93 PR, 99 KR.

2229

Jan.
Bedouin attack in 3 months.

April
Bedouin attack, immediately killed.

May
Kushites attack in 1 year.

June
Built SY to hold granite for monument.

End of Year: 3861 Db, 2580 pop., 55 CR, 100 PR, 100 KR.

2228

May
Kushites invade, eventually lured to infantry and forced to flee.

End of Year: 9954 Db, 2906 pop., 40 CR, 100 PR, 100 KR.

2227

End of Year: 16981 Db, 3286 pop., 40 CR, 100 PR, 98 KR.

2226

Jan.
Bedouin attack in 3 months.

April
Bedouin attack.

July
While Bedouin flee, built final house, placed in west block.

Oct.
Built second mortuary for culture and health.

Nov.
Finally fully connected all roads in the city.

End of year: 28500 Db, 3437 pop., 55 CR, 100 PR, 100 KR.

2225

Feb.
Delete police stations.

Aug.
Placed obelisk.

End of Year: 39499 Db, 3491 pop., 75 CR, 100 PR, 100 KR.

2224

May
Kushites invade in 1 year.

End of Year: 54271 Db, 3551 pop., 100 CR, 100 PR, 100 KR.

2223

May
Kushites invade.

End of Year: 71392 Db, 3560 pop., 100 CR, 100 PR, 100 KR.

2222

Jan.
Bedouin attack in 3 months.

March
Obelisk finished. Victory is declared at the end of the month.

Results and Conclusions

Time: 291 months
Culture Rating: 100
Prosperity Rating: 100
Kingdom Rating: 100
City Funds: 76151
Population: 3568
Score: 16654

Obviously the score is inflated due to how long I spent perfecting the city.

I’m not quite sure why people seem to struggle so much on this level. Granted, it is quite difficult, but it certainly isn’t impossible. Using hit-and-run tactics with archers will really help against invasions, and the hardest part is getting enough goods sold before the second Bedouin invasion and first Kushite invasion. So long as you have enough archers, and a few infantry, a lot of patience will see you through the early battles.

Probably the main trick is to keep your city small at the beginning until you have the army necessary to defeat a Kushite invasion straight up. Perhaps too many people get the urge to expand the city after a period of time, but on this level, that could be fatal to your city. If the city is small, all you need is 1 hunting lodge, 1 granite quarry, 1 sandstone quarry, some wood cutters, and another good export, and that will see you through any request while providing enough funds to buy the copper and pay for the forts for your military. While taking the kingdom gift for going into debt the first time would have been helpful, it obviously wasn’t necessary.

I’ll try to submit the saves to the Download Section soon.

Well, that’s my take on Dunqul Oasis at Very Hard. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.

GodOfRandomDeath,

Dunqul Oasis at Very Hard without debt or the "rescue" gift is very impressive. Congratulations!

Your statement "I’m not quite sure why people seem to struggle so much on this level." seems strange. In my opinion, failing (and restarting) is the ultimate in struggling. I'd expect many players to struggle, including those who have less experience, play rapidly, are a little careless, or haven't handled strong attacks.

Submitted to the Downloads Section, hopefully will show up in the next couple of days.

Brugle,

Thanks for the congrats.

I personally don't consider restarting the ultimate in struggling, I've restarted in most of the missions and I expect to restart, even in the easy money makers. I restarted in Djedu/Abusir, Behdet/Apollinopolis, Meidum, Timna, etc. Mostly it is due to carelessness at the beginning on my part, had I actually been paying attention I would have never had to restart in most. If I have to restart because the game itself is challenging, then I would certainly consider it a struggle.

For Dunqul, I restarted because of two highly unanticipated reasons. First was unusual walker behavior, my military was fine and was actually in better shape than my successful attempt. The second was the Bedouin army doing something I had never seen before, nor saw at any other time in Dunqul. I personally wouldn't call that struggling, I would consider those odd and rare quirks in the game, which can be difficult to plan for. Figures the one level I finally really pay attention to and I get done in by game toying with me. You generally seem to think otherwise on the restarting issue, which I completely respect and feel makes your cities all that more impressive. I guess the validity of the statement depends on the individual and their playing style.

While I do expect people to struggle somewhat, it is the level of struggling that suprises me. I don't consider myself an expert, and yet I was able to overcome the challenges. Hopefully my post, combined with yours and CartoucheBee's, can help more people through the mission.

Congrats GodOfRandomDeath

I'm very interested to take a look at your city..

I completed Dunqul without dept (and without rescue) at very hard some weeks ago.
It was very challenging for me and I don't regard me as a novice player

I played with Cleo installed and the following rules:
- no personal funds
- never in dept
- no gifts
- no blessings
- no cheats, no features, no free stuff

Results:
Culture: 70 (max. with Cleo)
Prosperity: 100
Kingdom: 100
Funds: 61612
Population: 3503 (4 Palatial Estates and 30 Fancy Residences)
Months: 200 (very slow - for me)
Score: 18561

You can find the saves here

[This message has been edited by Max (edited 03-03-2005 @ 11:10 AM).]

Max,

I like your Dunqul. It's quite compact, which makes it much easier to defend, and is very efficient. You could even afford to use two types of imported food to feed your Fancy Residences in the block with estates, while I had to expend quite some effort to ensure that mine got enough imported food for everyone. Wish you had posted your Dunqul before I started, so that I knew it was possible heading in. I don't think anyone would think that the person who holds the record time for Rostja/Giza is a novice.

I'm curious as to why you decided to build 4 Palatial Estates. I built 5 in order to rationalize the decision to not have jewelry exports in the final city.

Definitely an excellent city that people should download to study from

Has anyone seen a Dunqul on VH which didn't rely heavily on police?

Fair enough. Not half a dozen players can make it.

Thanks GodOfRandomDeath,

as for only 4 Palatial Estates - it's just for symmetric (aesthetic) reasons.

Saves are in the Download Section.

I just finished Dunqul this weekend on my (slow) replay of all the P/C missions at VH. Did go into debt and did take the backup loan, but didn't fence in the hyena's. Only used two (paid) walls to block the ones right North of the oasis. For the rest private rules as Max's.

My initial tactics was similar to GoRD, sell as much wood as possible to Buhen before they close down and use the money to finance jewelry industry and raise as much soldiers as quickly as possible. I went heavily into debt to have two archer companies fight off the hyena's near the entry point. My two archer companies (not full) took the first Bedouin attack, the second they were helped by a few infantry.

The real bottleneck is the big invasion of the Kushites. I handled the invasion by using natural bottlenecks, and adding some walls to have the attacks come in separate waves. Money was no issue at that point. I had two academy trained infantry and four archer legions (not quite complete) but that turned out not to be enough. The Kushites scared all of them away, and thrashed part of my city in the process, but to my surprise the enemy was equally scared, and took off, while the city was at their mercy. Now who said there are no friendly Kushites?

As stated, once I survided this big attack the rest was childs play. I do remember having a few blessings from Seth, but I guess I could have done without, as I do usually. I just tried to meet completion criteria so my final city doesn't really look nice, but this certainly was a nice challenge. I first played at hard just to test whether my approach would work at all, and then I still needed two tries (first one without debt), before I was lucky at VH. Now working on Thinis.

To my knowledge, GoRD, nobody even thought of trying Dunqul without debt AND without Police... I tried myself to attract the first enemies all around the map until they get demoralized, but even after one year they were still there, and running faster than my troops which were one by one eradicated.

joshofet,

Nice. The first invasion of the Kushites also gave me and my city fits, fortunately I kept balancing the distracting archer companies enough to prevent a free-for-all on the city. About the only use I've found for archers. Good luck on Thinis.

Tryhard,

My city did have a few police. I just didn't find them very useful with my tactics, and thus eventually eliminated them. The enemy often will spend vast amounts of time chasing my archers. I just make sure to closely follow along. I know that if the enemy is the faster Bedouin, then I have to move my archers the moment I see them move. If it's the slower Kushites, then I know I have time. I also try to have a spare archer company, so that I can trade them out when moral becomes a problem. I find hit-and-run extremely useful if you don't have a whole lot of troops or towers.