These are personal rules that I always follow (except in a competition):
* Hard difficulty.
* No cheats (such as free gardens or multiple recruiters).
* No personal funds used. (This makes the economy more challenging and the Kingdom Rating more interesting.)
* The final city is stable without interventions except in response to external events. If demographics didn't change, and barring unlikely events (such as many years of unusually bad floods), the city could run forever.
* All houses are at least ordinary cottages.
* All juggle, music, and dance stages have shows frequently.
* All schools, libraries, mortuaries, and senet houses are supplied most of the time (so far, it's been all of the time in the final city).
The last rule listed (buildings are kept supplied) is not very popular. I looked at many of the Bakis in the Downloads, and quite a few have some non-functional libraries that lack papyrus (or will soon run out), although they still count toward Culture. Hard difficulty level is a major factor, since buildings consume twice as much papyrus, linen, and beer as at Normal difficulty.
In Baki, I'd add the following rules since they wouldn't be a problem:
* No debt and no "bailout".
* 100 Prosperity.
* All houses are at least spacious homesteads.
In addition, the following rules are the inspiration for this effort:
* One dock.
* All roads are connected.
Accepting those rules, how would one build Baki "the easy way"? Population would be little more than the required 10000. To avoid the uncertainty of game meat production when herds are widely separated, many people would eat only figs, produced in both floodplain and meadow farms. Beer and linen consumption would be minimized by making most houses spacious homesteads and by having only 1 senet house and perhaps 2 mortuaries (whose embalmers pass at least 40% of the population). A few estates or several manors would raise Prosperity to 100. The only difficulty would be supplying the 3 libraries and several (perhaps 4) schools, since papyrus would have to be imported (along with the maximum reeds). Since there would be little other river trade (no exports would be necessary, with lots of gold mines), even an inefficient dock should be able to handle it.
But this isn't about "the easy way". To make beer precious, add the following rule:
* All houses are at least residences.
This means that the city will have to purchase most of the 4000 barley/year that Rowarty will sell. Rowarty also sells papyrus, so the dock must be efficient. When the dock is disconnected from much of the city, this would be fairly easy. However, since all roads will be connected, this is difficult.
Unless all libraries and schools are quite close to the dock (not an attractive picture), several extra papyrus-distributing storage yards will be required. I haven't tried it, but I'm assuming that it is possible to make a docker deliver papyrus imports to the closest storage yard (perhaps by always having much more room in that storage yard). If that assumption is wrong, then my Baki will fall apart.
Now comes the fun part. To make a nice city even nicer, add these related rules:
* 100 Culture. (With Cleopatra, Culture will be only 70, since there are no zoos.)
* "Perfect" Health, Education, and Entertainment coverage.
* Every house is passed by a teacher and a librarian.
This greatly increases the papyrus required, with 13 libraries and perhaps 6 schools. Since a library consumes about 480 papyrus/year and a school consumes about 240 papyrus/year, about 7680 papyrus/year would be needed, requiring the opening of a fifth river trade route (besides being a major distribution headache). Thoth's oracle is clearly indicated, since it cuts papyrus consumption by 30% (by 40% at Normal difficulty). A side benefit is Ptah's increase in gold production, which will help pay for all that papyrus. Total papyrus consumption is cut to about 5376/year, of which 1500/year will come from imported reeds. A fifth river trade route will not be necessary, but the dock must be highly efficient, with at least 5 ships/year (preferably 6/year most of the time) from Rowarty. Of course, putting a school and a library in each housing block makes papyrus distribution a little harder.
Buying beer by water would mean the same distribution problem (at a smaller scale) that papyrus causes, so beer will not be imported. Since a senet house consumes around 480 beer/year and there will be roughly 120 houses, there will be only 2 senet houses. This means that there must be precisely 10000 people, since any more would drop Culture to 90.
To avoid buying linen (which can be imported by water), total linen consumption is limited to the 2500 flax per year that Abu will sell. Since a mortuary consumes about 480 linen per year, there could be at most 5 housing blocks. To allow more linen-using houses (up to about 24), there will be only 4 housing blocks.
A few more design constraints could be interesting. Let's add:
* Exports of expensive goods, including copper and jewels by water, to stress the dock even more.
* Lots and lots of gold mining.
* The palace, mansion, festival square, and best houses in the same area.
To produce the copper and jewels for export, one housing block will be on the west bank. To maximize gold production, another (with palace and other good stuff) will be in the northeast. One will support the meadow farming area, and one will support the dock near the ship entrance point. All housing block locations are determined.
Since jewels will be exported, the high-class housing block (in the northeast) will have manors instead of estates. Jewels will be stored near that block as well as near the dock. I haven't tried it, but I'm assuming that it is possible to make a docker get jewel exports from the closest storage yard (perhaps by always having much more jewels in that storage yard). If that assumption is wrong, then (unlike imports) nothing bad will happen--jewels just won't be exported.
One last thing before going into details. This will be a long mission, with an aging workforce. To be nice, add:
* People will not be kicked out of their homes to attract younger immigrants.
Therefore, the amount of scribal housing will be minimized. Hopefully, there will be significant unemployment in the final city, which would allow it to run many extra years.