A plan emerges

(Updated to reflect changes detailed in post 2)

I decide to build 2 separate housing blocks, both around the western edge of the oasis where the Kingdom road runs.

These will hold 22 fancy residences and 10 common manors, for a total population of 3,024.

Scribe housing

I plan to build my scribe housing towards the south, between the main oasis and the small lake to the southwest. This will be a relatively simple 44-tile loop of plaza encircling the temple complex, and will hold 10 common manors (with only minimum external beautification required) as well as the palace and mansion:



Legend

So I can use the temple complex glyph, North is top right in this diagram. Not pictured is a large statue the other side of the road running behind the top row of manors (which is critical to get enough desirability for the house at the top right corner).

The ostrich spawn point here (marked with a well) almost scuppers me, and I momentarily forget to include a physician, but I eventually squeeze everything in without needing to delete any trees.

Entertainment coverage is provided by destination walkers who enter from the road shown to the top, and exit past the palace to reach the performance venues.

Worker housing

Further to the north, I'll build a worker housing block around the festival square (a development of the design I used in Abedju).



Legend

At first, I think I will have to sacrifice 3 trees to accommodate this block, but I eventually realise a small alteration will save them. The cost of this change is that the main loop road is now 46 tiles long (making me twitchy about fire coverage in particular), so a second firehouse will be included.

2 Extra road tiles under the festival square (directly underneath the roadblock) will provide access to it and the internal pavilion.

Entertainers will enter from the bottom. Those heading to the internal pavilion will head around the left-hand side of the loop; those heading to the pavilion in the top right will use the right-hand side of the loop.

All the road tiles shown will eventually be plaza: the one the entry road at the bottom is particularly useful for getting enough desirability to the house immediately to the left of that entry road, but other options (e.g. replacing the some of the nearby gardens/statues with shrines) will also work just fine.

Services and industry

Between the two housing blocks, a small service area will include my pottery, beer, papyrus and weapons industries, hunters, one additional booth, and all the performer schools (a single dance school, two conservatories and two juggler schools).

Wood cutters will be placed near the west and south shores of the main oasis, with labour access provided by a road running behind the housing on the right of my worker block.

Military

Because the city gets quite close to the SW corner of the map, one infantry fort will be positioned between my luxury housing block and the map edge, with another in the NW corner of the map. The remaining 4 forts (2 infantry, 2 archer) will be arranged in pairs at either 'end' of the city, near the Kingdom road entry and exit points.

With everything planned, it looks like I won't have to delete a single tree!


Time to get building, I think...

[This message has been edited by Caesar Alan (edited 04-25-2022 @ 07:25 PM).]

As I begin laying out my city, it dawns on me that I've made a mistake.

My planned layout would mean most trade taking place in storage yards in the service area between the two housing blocks, but that isn't where my storage yards for wood (or imported copper) are. There's a good chance traders will spend time bouncing back-and-forth between those two sets of storage.

And once the scribe housing is built, the journey between those storage yards will be quite a circuitous one.

As mistakes go, this one is unlikely to be fatal, but it is annoying enough that I think I need to do something about it.

After a bit of head-scratching, I realise I can shift my worker housing block a little further north.

That buys just enough room for me to finesse the design of the service area to squeeze in:

four storage yards that - between them - will hold imported fish, clay, barley, reeds, linen and copper; beer, papyrus and wood for export; and pottery and weapons.

my potters, breweries, papyrus makers and 3 of my 5 weaponsmiths

performer schools and the recruiter

hunting lodges and a storage yard for the swift depositing of game meat. This storage yard will also hold imported chickpeas, which my luxury housing will eat instead of fish.

I relocate my wood cutters (and the last 2 weaponsmiths) to the western and southern shores of the main oasis, with labour access provided by running a road behind the housing on the east side of my worker block.

All of which means I no longer need the mini industrial zone to the south of my scribe housing.

These changes also mean I need to slightly tweak the layout of both my housing blocks. I've now updated my previous post with the revised designs.

[This message has been edited by Caesar Alan (edited 04-20-2022 @ 03:01 PM).]

A brief note on food supply

I've just edited my previous post to note that my luxury housing will eat game meat and imported chickpeas, whereas my worker housing will instead eat game meat and imported fish. This is to take some of the pressure off the trade routes to Behdet and Abedju. My plan calls for importing the maximum 2500 reeds from Behdet, plus the maximum 2500 barley and ~800 linen from Abedju each year. Without a lot of tedious micromanagement, Behdet will also likely sell a little clay each year.

Getting over 4500 fish every year across those two trade routes on top of all those other imports might be a little much to ask for; a little over 3000 (which will suffice for my working population) feels more deliverable. The 2500 chickpeas/year available from Men-Nefer will be more than enough for the luxury housing block.

As I did in Abedju, I plan to stockpile imported food before releasing it to my worker housing block (here, I'll store around 8000 fish, which should take just under two years to acquire); this should facilitate a comparatively swift, controlled evolution from common residence to spacious residence.

I'll deliberately withhold linen until all houses are well-stocked with both food types; this will minimise the amount of fish eaten during the time bazaars take to distribute fish around the whole housing block (likely several months).

[This message has been edited by Caesar Alan (edited 04-20-2022 @ 10:53 PM).]

Year 1

I begin by setting wages to Kingdom +5, and setting 'Health and Sanitation' as labour priority #1, and 'Industry and Commerce' as #2.

I lay out the roads for my worker housing block, and the central industrial area between the two housing blocks. Around the shores of the main oasis, I remodel a short stretch of the Kingdom road to accommodate my planned wood industry, adding a roadblock and a few extra tiles of road, and deleting a handful of tiles.

I then add 37 tiles of housing - 30 along the southeast and southwest sides of my worker housing block (to provide labour access to the wood industry and the central area), and 7 along the southeast edge of the central area (to improve labour access; these will eventually be part of 3 of my manors).

In places where 2x2 houses will form, I add 3 of the 4 tiles, and will add the 4th to merge them once those have filled with people. In places where 2x2 houses won't form just yet, I add 2 tiles that will later expand to a 2x2 house (with surrounding buildings, statues and/or roads directing them to expand in the direction I want).

I place a water carrier in my worker housing block; this will be the first building staffed. The second building I want staffed is a storage yard in the central industrial area which will hold imported barley and later beer for export, so I add that next. I then begin adding wood cutters.

By the time I've placed my first 2 (of 7 planned) wood cutters, the storage yard is fully-staffed, so I open the trade route to Abedju and begin importing barley.

Interlude - initial trading strategy

The most profitable export in Selima Oasis is wood (at 200 Db per 100 pieces) followed by papyrus (a net 134 Db per 100 pieces) and then beer (a net 92 Db per 100 pieces). So it may seem a little strange that I'm prioritising beer production.

The reason for that is because Abedju buys both papyrus and wood. In year 1, exports will take a while to get going, so Abedju won't be able to buy the full quota of both. Indeed, there is a possibility that papyrus sales could displace more profitable wood sales.

Beer sales, though, cannot displace wood sales, as none of my trading partners buy both. So any beer I manage to sell in year 1 will definitely be in addition to wood sales.

Although the trade route to Timna is 550 Db more expensive than the trade route to Men-Nefer, I'll need copper before I need chickpeas, so I'll sell beer to Timna in year 1. That also means I can sell papyrus to Timna without impacting wood sales...

End of interlude

I continue placing wood cutters until I have 7 up and running, then add a storage yard for wood, and 3 firehouses (one in the housing block, one in the main industrial area, one by the wood cutters). I then place my 5 planned breweries, just in time for the first deliveries of barley from Abedju.

The second trader from Abedju is going to hit the barley storage just before some wood arrives at the wood storage yard. So I redirect him to the wood storage yard by temporarily allowing it to accept additional barley imports; he buys the wood that has arrived by the time he gets there, before heading back to sell more barley, by which time there is yet more wood ready for sale

With the proceeds of my first wood sales, I add more housing tiles to the housing block, and open the trade route to Behdet.

Once both Behdet's traders are on their way to buy wood, I add a storage yard for reeds/papyrus, and begin importing reeds. The proceeds of more wood sales pay for a full complement of 5 planned papyrus makers.

In July, the first beer is delivered to storage yards. I open the trade route to Timna and begin exporting beer. I also place 3 shrines (2 for Seth, 1 for Ra) in my housing block, and add an architect to the main industrial area to keep my storage yards upright.

In September, I've accumulated enough money (and ample spare employees), so place my recruiter and first archer fort. I also add a medium statue to my housing block to nudge all the housing there to sturdy hut.

As funds allow, I add the roads a water carrier and 12 further tiles of housing to my luxury housing block. Crime rates are creeping upwards, so I add courthouses (an outrageous indulgence, but money and employees are both reasonably plentiful) to both housing blocks, as well as architects.

In December, I add 6 more housing tiles and a firehouse to my luxury housing block, as well as my mansion, setting my salary to 0 as I do.

Year-end summary

I have placed all tiles of housing in my worker block, and all but 10 in my luxury block. Aside from 7 vacant lots in my luxury block, all housing is at sturdy hut.

I have built all 5 planned brewers, all 5 planned papyrus makers, and all 7 planned wood cutters. I have placed 1 archer fort and trained 6 archers.

I sold 2500 wood (quota) to Behdet, 2500 wood (quota) and 200 papyrus to Abedju, and 1300 beer and 800 papyrus to Timna.

At the beginning of year 2, I have the following ratings:

Culture: 5
Prosperity: 7
Kingdom: 41

Population: 641
Money: 4522 Db (year 1 net profit: 22 Db)

[This message has been edited by Caesar Alan (edited 04-20-2022 @ 07:46 PM).]

Year 2

The first order of business in year 2 is food. I add my 3 planned hunting lodges (all near the ostrich spawn point next to my luxury housing block) and a storage yard for game meat right next to them. I then add a granary which will 'get' game meat in the central industrial area near the worker housing block.

I build my second archer fort. I also add fire/damage protection for my mansion.

At the beginning of February, Pharaoh requests luxury goods, so I open the trade route to Kerma and begin importing it. Bearing in mind the mission briefing (and a dim recollection that supplies from Kerma may be unreliable), I decide to import all the ebony I can afford. That turns out to be the full quota of 1500 pieces. The request is dispatched without delay (unless otherwise noted, all future requests will be too!).

In June, I begin distributing food, place my palace and add tax collectors to both housing blocks.

In August, with the money flowing rapidly and the gods getting cranky once again, I add Seth's temple complex and a temple to Ra to my luxury housing block. I set some further labour priorities to direct the resultant worker shortage into 'Religion'. I then add juggler coverage and additional fire/damage protection for my performer schools.

In September, a siege shuts down the trade route to Kerma. Tedious.

I then sit back and accumulate funds to ensure I meet my year-end profitability target. I have a little cash to spare in December, so import 600 copper, and build my 5 planned weaponsmiths in preparation for year 3.

Year-end summary

I have placed all planned tiles of housing; my worker block is at meagre shanty, my luxury block at ordinary cottage.

I have built all my planned industrial buildings, with the exception of 2 potters.

I have placed both planned archer forts and trained 26 archers.

I sold 2500 wood (quota) to Behdet, 2500 wood (quota) and 900 papyrus to Abedju, and 2500 beer and 1500 papyrus to Timna.

At the beginning of year 3, I have the following ratings:

Culture: 10
Prosperity: 20
Kingdom: 51

Population: 1047
Money: 4599 Db (year 2 net profit: 77 Db)

[This message has been edited by Caesar Alan (edited 04-21-2022 @ 00:18 AM).]

Year 3

In January, Pharaoh requests 200 more ebony - and gets it.

Without using 'future knowledge', I can't know how many more of these requests I'm going to have to satisfy before I get the chance to lift the siege at Kerma. In turn, that means I'm not sure how much of my stockpiled luxury goods I can actually use. Assuming annual requests for 200 ebony, I've got enough for just under 3 more years. I'm going to hope that's enough and see how I go.

I have two major jobs in year 3 - building infantry, and developing my luxury housing.

But first, I'm going to need more money and more workers. Quite a lot of both. So I raise taxes to 15% and wages to Kingdom +8, then place a temple to Ra in my worker housing block. I also add the festival square to generate some much-needed desirability.

Next, I open the trade route to Men-Nefer and begin importing chickpeas. I also place a storage yard for clay/pottery, and begin importing clay, as well as linen. Once clay arrives, I place 2 potters.

With the goods needed to evolve my luxury housing largely taken care of, I turn my attention to services. It's at this point that I realise I've neglected to place any physicians. While disease risk is beginning to look pretty ugly, it's not yet critical anywhere. Bullet dodged.

In March, I finish training my second fort load of archers, and build my first infantry fort. I then set about adding services to my luxury block: beginning with a dance school, conservatory and pavilion, then a dentist, scribal school and second bazaar.

By May, I have everything in place, and have produced my first pottery. I adjust my trade orders to reserve 400 papyrus and beer for domestic use, then release pottery to the luxury housing. I also get my first warning of an impending Libyan invasion.

I set bazaars in the luxury housing block to buy chickpeas, beer, linen and luxury goods, and wait for them all to be distributed.

While I'm waiting, I add a booth to my worker housing block so they evolve to ordinary cottage (doubling my tax take from them in the process).

By December, I have a few Db spare, so add the remaining road tiles I will need.

Year-end summary

My worker block is now at ordinary cottage. My luxury block is a mix of 6 fancy residences (waiting for luxury goods, which have just been collected from storage) and 4 common residences (waiting on more chickpeas).

I have built all my planned industrial buildings.

I have placed both planned archer forts and 1 infantry fort, have trained all 32 archers and just finished training my 16th infantryman.

I sold 2500 wood (quota) to Behdet, 2500 wood (quota) and 1100 papyrus to Abedju, 1800 beer and 600 papyrus to Timna, and 600 beer to Men-Nefer.

At the beginning of year 4, I have the following ratings:

Culture: 25
Prosperity: 38
Kingdom: 64

Population: 1784
Money: 4941 Db (year 3 net profit: 342 Db)

[This message has been edited by Caesar Alan (edited 04-26-2022 @ 11:15 PM).]

Year 4

I immediately place a 2nd infantry fort.

At the end of January, Pharaoh requests 200 more ebony - it is dispatched immediately.

I'm also invited to send troops to help lift the siege at Kerma. The deadline is 14 months hence, and a visit from the Libyans is imminent, so that'll have to wait.

In February, the first 3 common manors evolve, solving a nascent unemployment crisis. I immediately raise taxes to 17%.

The other 7 houses in my luxury block can't yet evolve to manors - 4 because I'm intentionally withholding some of the desirability they need, and 3 because some tiles of the Kingdom road I've deliberately left behind are blocking their way.

In March, I evolve a 4th manor, and release pottery to the worker housing block to generate more unemployment.

At the end of May, the Libyans arrive. 2 companies of archers and 1 of infantry unceremoniously smack them around. Total losses: 2 infantry.

Once I've replaced those losses and finished training my 2nd infantry company, I send 2 infantry and 1 archer forts off to lift the siege at Kerma. Since that leaves my defenses rather threadbare, and my recruiter needs more work, I add my final 2 infantry forts.

Cash is now flowing very quickly, so I add a bandstand, pavilion and school to my worker block, evolving everything there to common residence. I then place 2 storage yards for fish, and begin importing it.

I evolve my 5th and 6th common manor as unemployment allows, then place my remaining performer schools, and all entertainment venues other than the pavilion in the centre of my worker block. I also add a dentist to the worker block, apothecaries to both blocks, all my remaining planned shrines, and all the beautification for the worker block.

Year-end summary

My worker block is now at common residences. My luxury block is a mix of 6 common manors, 2 fancy residences (which need space), 1 elegant residence (needs desirability) and 1 common residence (still waiting on more chickpeas).

I have built all planned buildings except 1 pavilion and 1 large statue.

I have placed all planned forts (2 archer, 4 infantry), and currently have 32 archers and 34 infantry. 16 archers and 32 infantry are currently off (hopefully) saving Kerma.

I sold 2500 wood (quota) to Behdet, 2500 wood (quota) and 200 papyrus to Abedju, 300 beer and 1500 papyrus to Timna, and 900 beer to Men-Nefer.

At the beginning of year 5, I have the following ratings:

Culture: 35
Prosperity: 81
Kingdom: 77

Population: 2513
Money: 6057 Db (year 4 net profit: 1116 Db - more than I expected, so I could/should have built that pavilion after all!)

[This message has been edited by Caesar Alan (edited 04-25-2022 @ 07:25 PM).]

Year 5

I immediately place the final pavilion. The final large statue will be withheld until I'm ready to evolve my last manor. I also evolve my 7th and 8th manors (something else I probably should have done in December...)

At the end of January, Pharaoh once again requests 200 ebony - it is dispatched immediately.

By May, the final house in the luxury block has chickpeas, and I have accumulated my target of 8000 fish. I place the final large statue to evolve my 9th manor and release the fish to the worker block. All I can do now is wait for fish to be distributed to all the houses.

In June, my troops return from a successful liberation of Kerma. The trade route is re-enabled in September, so I immediately open it, but cannot yet buy any more luxury goods (because I'd maxed out imports when the route closed down).

In December, I evolve my 10th and final common manor. I also remember (somewhat belatedly) to add Sekhmet's oracle and Anubis' altar to the temple complex. Neither has any practical use in this city, but ... you know ... pretty

Year-end summary

My worker block is now mostly spacious residences, with 3 common residences still waiting on fish. My luxury block is now fully-evolved to common manor.

I have built all planned buildings.

I currently have 31 archers and 42 infantry.

I sold 2500 wood (quota) to Behdet, 2500 wood (quota) and 600 papyrus to Abedju, 1200 beer and 700 papyrus to Timna, and 600 beer to Men-Nefer.

At the beginning of year 6, I have the following ratings:

Culture: 35
Prosperity: 100
Kingdom: 87

Population: 2824
Money: 12660 Db (year 5 net profit: a cool 6603 Db)

[This message has been edited by Caesar Alan (edited 04-21-2022 @ 03:03 AM).]

Year 6

Instead of his customary 200 pieces, Pharaoh requests just 100 pieces of ebony at the end of January. I have to wait for the first caravan from Kerma to arrive, but dispatch the request as soon as it does. I'll now greedily hoard as much ebony as I can get my hands on.

In April, the final house in my worker block gets fish. I switch one of the two bazaars back to buying just game meat, and also set it to buy linen.

All houses in the worker block evolve to fancy residence by June, and the victory screen rolls when my population hits the required 3,000 in July.

Final mission stats

Culture: 35 (maximum possible without mortuaries)
Prosperity: 100
Kingdom: 100

Population: 3000
Money: 17514 Db

Completion time: 66 months

The finished city has 4 full forts of infantry, and 2 full forts of archers, 'perfect' coverage for all available healthcare, entertainment, religion and education buildings.

I did not delete a single tree, and also ended up not deleting anything I placed - I only removed ~30 tiles of the Kingdom road.

The city will run stably, without intervention (other than to fight off invasions, respond to requests for goods and troops, restart trade with Kerma, and import papyrus from Men-Nefer when trade with Behdet is cut off) for 5 years. During that time, the remaining 24 people will take up residence, and city funds rise to over 80000 Db.

I’ve really enjoyed reading along. Apologies for not being more conversational while you’ve been designing and building. It’s a lovely idea to force yourself to be profitable each year.

And while I know the build logs are quite a lot of effort, I’ve always found them extremely useful to learn the trick other people use - especially in the early game. Here it was great to read your year 1 trading logic.

One question - my approach in year 1 to placing industry buildings has always been to ensure each production building will always be fully staffed. That sometimes means restraining myself from placing too many at once. I imagine once upon a time I reviewed the data around production rates as a function of employees and decided that was the optimal approach. Is this your approach too?

Cantique Thank you for your kind words: it's nice to know others are reading along and finding some value in my ramblings

My approach in the early game is definitely to prefer one fully-staffed building over 2 partially staffed ones.

The reason for that isn't about production rates, though, but rather about value for money.

In most cases, two half-staffed buildings will produce goods at almost exactly the same rate as one fully-staffed building. And obviously it's cheaper to pay for just one building if that's all you can staff right now.

There are a few corner cases where multiple partially-staffed buildings can produce goods fractionally quicker than a single fully-staffed one. But the difference in overall production is tiny - roughly 1 to 2% - and almost never worth the extra cost.

In the early game, I do sometimes place industrial buildings that I can't fully-staff immediately. But I normally only do that if I know I will be able to fully-staff them by the time their labour-seeker reaches housing.

I'll also sometimes adjust labour priorities or shut down industries to shift workers between export industries. A couple of examples from my Abedju:

1. At the very beginning of the level, it set 'food production and distribution' to priority #1; this was so my work camp got the first workers and started producing labourers for my floodplain flax farms as quickly as possible. But once all the farms were being worked, I set 'industry and commerce' as priority #1, so those workers would be redeployed to my papyrus industry.

2. Just before the flood in year 2, I temporarily turned off my papyrus industry. This was because I'd already produced all the papyrus I was going to sell that year, so temporarily reassigning those workers to linen production made more sense.

Hope this is helpful!

Quoted from Caesar Alan:

I did not delete a single tree

Very nice.

I've finally got round to submitting my finished city to the Downloads.

You can find it here: https://pharaoh.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=1479