As my slow crawl through the Archaic period continues, I have reached Behdet.
As with the rest of this playthrough, I'll be employing the following 'personal rules':
1. Very Hard difficulty
2. No debt, and no bailout gift
3. Beginning no later than year 2, net positive cashflow every year
4. No personal salary (and therefore no gifts to massage that Kingdom Rating)
5. Maximum possible Prosperity rating
6. Maximum possible Culture rating, with 'Perfect' coverage of all healthcare, religion, entertainment, and - wherever papyrus availability allows - education buildings
Initial observations
The somewhat surprising absence of courthouses means housing will be limited to modest apartment, for a maximum prosperity rating of 50.
All housing will therefore be evolved to modest apartment. Although not necessary to achieve that, all housing will have access to temples of both gods worshipped in Behdet, scribal schools, and all available forms of entertainment.
Startup cash is decidedly stingy (just 3,750 Db on Very Hard), so I'm going to need to generate more cash quickly. Particularly since it appears I'll need to import all the bricks needed for a medium mastaba. Maximum brick imports will set me back 6,000 Db a year.
Clay, barley and reeds are available locally, with more clay and reeds, as well as flax, available to import. Export options are plentiful, with the most lucrative being 50 beer, 50 papyrus and 25 linen. I'll aim to export all of the above.
Usable floodplain is fairly limited (~15 farms on the west bank, with the option of 4 more on the northern half of the east bank). And the first harvest will be in June, so I won't get much from it in year 1.
The only reed beds are inconveniently sited on the southern half of the east bank, where most of the available space will be needed to provide the full complement of services to the housing needed to staff the ferry terminal. Reed gatherers are therefore best sited on the west bank, next to the the papyrus makers. This means a longer journey to harvest the reeds, so additional reed gatherers will be needed.
So, all told, immediate options for exports are somewhat limited, although I could produce papyrus and linen from imported reeds and flax, and/or invest in a river crossing to access local reeds.
Luckily, gold mining is available in Behdet, and careful placement means 20+ gold mines can be sited within optimum distance of the palace. The high startup cost of gold mining means I'll only be able to place 3 mines initially, but that should be enough to get things moving.
Staffing all those gold mines, together with all my planned export industries will require a fairly sizeable population - somewhere in the region of 3,500.
Fishing is available in Behdet, but usable shoreline is at a premium. Factoring in the need for a dock, shipwright and ferry terminal, there is space for 5 fishing wharves on the west bank. Several more could be placed on the east bank, but that's also the best place for the navy Pharaoh so desperately wants.
I plan to feed fish to my main (120 tile) housing block on the west bank and the houses on the east bank (around 2,250 people all told). The 5 possible wharves on the west bank should be enough for that. A smaller (68 tile) housing block on the west bank will eat chickpeas, with 4 floodplain farms supplementing imports from Men-Nefer. The remaining 11 farms on the west bank will be dedicated to barley.
I therefore don'tneed the extra shoreline and floodplain on the northern half of the east bank. And since a direct ferry connection to the southern half of the east bank means a (much) less circuitous journey for my reed gatherers, I'll forgo building on the northern half.
4 warship wharves will be placed on the east bank. A full complement of forts (4 infantry, 2 archers) will cover the main attack vectors on the west bank.
Completion time is going to be limited by how quickly I can import bricks for the mastaba. Factoring in the cost of the trade route to Perwadjyt, I probably can't afford to start imports in year 1; I will aim for maximum imports beginning in year 2.
As with the rest of this playthrough, I'll be employing the following 'personal rules':
1. Very Hard difficulty
2. No debt, and no bailout gift
3. Beginning no later than year 2, net positive cashflow every year
4. No personal salary (and therefore no gifts to massage that Kingdom Rating)
5. Maximum possible Prosperity rating
6. Maximum possible Culture rating, with 'Perfect' coverage of all healthcare, religion, entertainment, and - wherever papyrus availability allows - education buildings
The somewhat surprising absence of courthouses means housing will be limited to modest apartment, for a maximum prosperity rating of 50.
All housing will therefore be evolved to modest apartment. Although not necessary to achieve that, all housing will have access to temples of both gods worshipped in Behdet, scribal schools, and all available forms of entertainment.
Startup cash is decidedly stingy (just 3,750 Db on Very Hard), so I'm going to need to generate more cash quickly. Particularly since it appears I'll need to import all the bricks needed for a medium mastaba. Maximum brick imports will set me back 6,000 Db a year.
Clay, barley and reeds are available locally, with more clay and reeds, as well as flax, available to import. Export options are plentiful, with the most lucrative being 50 beer, 50 papyrus and 25 linen. I'll aim to export all of the above.
Usable floodplain is fairly limited (~15 farms on the west bank, with the option of 4 more on the northern half of the east bank). And the first harvest will be in June, so I won't get much from it in year 1.
The only reed beds are inconveniently sited on the southern half of the east bank, where most of the available space will be needed to provide the full complement of services to the housing needed to staff the ferry terminal. Reed gatherers are therefore best sited on the west bank, next to the the papyrus makers. This means a longer journey to harvest the reeds, so additional reed gatherers will be needed.
So, all told, immediate options for exports are somewhat limited, although I could produce papyrus and linen from imported reeds and flax, and/or invest in a river crossing to access local reeds.
Luckily, gold mining is available in Behdet, and careful placement means 20+ gold mines can be sited within optimum distance of the palace. The high startup cost of gold mining means I'll only be able to place 3 mines initially, but that should be enough to get things moving.
Staffing all those gold mines, together with all my planned export industries will require a fairly sizeable population - somewhere in the region of 3,500.
Fishing is available in Behdet, but usable shoreline is at a premium. Factoring in the need for a dock, shipwright and ferry terminal, there is space for 5 fishing wharves on the west bank. Several more could be placed on the east bank, but that's also the best place for the navy Pharaoh so desperately wants.
I plan to feed fish to my main (120 tile) housing block on the west bank and the houses on the east bank (around 2,250 people all told). The 5 possible wharves on the west bank should be enough for that. A smaller (68 tile) housing block on the west bank will eat chickpeas, with 4 floodplain farms supplementing imports from Men-Nefer. The remaining 11 farms on the west bank will be dedicated to barley.
I therefore don't
4 warship wharves will be placed on the east bank. A full complement of forts (4 infantry, 2 archers) will cover the main attack vectors on the west bank.
Completion time is going to be limited by how quickly I can import bricks for the mastaba. Factoring in the cost of the trade route to Perwadjyt, I probably can't afford to start imports in year 1; I will aim for maximum imports beginning in year 2.
[This message has been edited by Caesar Alan (edited 12-08-2021 @ 03:54 PM).]