"Pharaoh Nebka is gravely concerned. While his enormous tomb at his capital Menat Khufu continues to proceed, the unfortunate death of his chief vizier, who had been directing the supply of resources to this massive project, has meant that the flow of stone and wood to the immense and sprawling construction site is drying up.
"At the same time, Pharaoh is alarmed by the reports that the Libyans are redoubling their attacks on the caravans from the African interior, which supply Egypt with much of her luxury goods.
"Pharaoh has decreed that the Libyans must be crushed, and crushed with all possible speed. To this end, he wishes you to establish a colony at Selima Oasis, where your army can both safeguard the African trade routes and support the advance of Nebka's foremost general, Marsenant, as he advances up the Nile towards Nekhen and beyond. Although Selima Oasis has sparse natural resources of its own, the few that it does feature are exactly what Pharaoh needs.
"Pharaoh's plan is simple. You will serve as a forward supply post for Marsenant's forces as they advance up the Nile towards Nekhen, Abu and Dunqul Oasis. Marsenant has the authority of the Pharaoh to requisition all the military resources he needs from you, be they soldiers, weapons or other martial supplies. At the same time, you will support and protect the precious caravan routes into Egypt from Iken and Pwenet.
"This will be a difficult mission. But Pharaoh also has one last task for you. Pharaoh has decreed that Marsenant should receive a mudbrick pyramid of his own as a tomb, an honour almost unheard of for one outside the royal family. Pharaoh requires that you construct this tomb for him, that Marsenant might spend his eternal sleep close to the battlefields where he is winning the greatest victories of his career. While Pharaoh knows that such an undertaking will be hugely difficult in an area without any local supplies of clay, he will endeavour to send you as much support as possible without drawing undue attention to the new construction project.
Pharaoh knows that this will not be an easy mission. But he has the greatest confidence in you. Do not fail him."
Ok, I don't know how many of you read the (now removed) post I wrote in This contest will not start in the usual way. Each player who wishes to participate will have to register first, and then on the first day of the competition each player will receive the save game file by e-mail. This is important as each save file will have to have a unique ID number (more on that later). The contestants will obviously build the city in the usual way, for ten years, until they receive a December save notice for marble rather than sandstone. At this point, they save their final game, and send the file back in to the organiser. This is the point at which it gets radically different from most contests. Each map will be briefly checked to ensure that no cheating has occurred, and then the maps will be redistributed All in all this event is designed to test the contestant's ability to think on their feet, build a working city with a low level of initial planning and incorporate the work of people with totally different mindsets into their own city. It will not be possible for a player to simply demolish the work of the contestant who played the map before them, since restarting a city a third of the way through the event would put the player out of the contest. Scoring will be slightly complicated, but not ridiculously so. Players will be marked in teams - if one map is given a score of 100, each of the players who worked on that map will be given 100 points. However, since over the course of the three rounds the player will have worked on three different maps, each contestant would receive three marks for his/her three maps. Adding these scores together would give the final score for each player. This is much easier than trying to grade the player's individual contribution to a map, which would me messy and subjective. Marking them this way also removes any incentive for gamesmanship - it's in the player's own best interest to make it as easy as possible for the player who succeeds them. Minimizing the opportunity for collaboration between players (such as ensuring that no one knows which city is which, hence the ID number rather than "WinterPharaoh's entry") will also help minimize the opportunity for cheating. While the possibility exists for cities to get lost/misdirected/etc, the chance is no greater than when sending out normal contest maps, and since the whole purpose of the contest is that the maps are The contest will obviously be run in three segments, and will probably take place during February/early March, for those of you who might be interested. So there you have it. While this is by no means the 'official' registration, I would be most obliged if anyone who would be [This message has been edited by WinterPharaoh (edited 02-03-2005 @ 08:41 AM).]
"You're just jealous because the little voices talk to me!" - Sara Rain Morgan