Ancient Egypt Settlement Quick Start Guide

[Deleted User - 9482578]

@Bewildered Zeratul i avoid the hard battle until I have Nubian archers. I build 2 buildings for them at the earliest opportunity. In the guide I suggested doing the hard battle at 30h+; I normally do it before then but you don’t really need to and it depends what troops you’re facing as to whether you should try. I’ll update the guide one day soon to describe that part better.

PS I don’t agree with all parts of the mathematical analysis, it’s written from a theoretical rather than experiential standpoint and doesn’t capture some aspects IMHO.

You are just being nice by saying that, milord, @Lord Grok

For this occasion I will choose not to be nice in turn, lest we form a closed-circuit mutual complimentary loop that amplifies subjective opinions and obscuring the facts (I can't believe I'm saying this because I have long been attributed as "the type of guy who cannot handle the facts" in the Youtubian System (scratched part is gibberish no one understands let's skip it))

Therefore I will not be nice and like to point out this guide does not work. This guide sucks. (And is not worth upgrading.)

A good guide should abstract principles from data; and the principles are generalized and have a wider scope of applicability. Your guide is just laying out the raw data, a step by step chronicles of what you did, it is a rigid finished product and not a (reusable and adaptable) "mold".

Also a good Egyptian Settlement guide should distinguish and focus on its distinct characteristics from those of the main city and other settlements, and talk about for example, what expansions to choose, what obstacles (stones) to remove, how to do the fights.... and not focus on the maze-puzzle solving, "which building goes where and how to connect them" because that part is common with main city and all other settlements and cliche for established players.

To elaborate on the said examples, for choice of expansions, a standard square or rectangular overall shape should be strictly followed for this settlement, and there is no room for fooling around with bizarre shapes in Egypt. For removal of obstacles, basically, if the obstacle is in the middle of the plot of land (an expansion) then consider removing it; if the obstacle is on the edge of the plot (especially when also on the edge of the overall settlement), or the obstacle touches the edge of the main hall, then consider giving priority to the removal of other obstacles. And keep in mind not all obstacles can be removed from all expansions bought; there are limited pickaxes. Generally, consideration should be given to further expand the existing completely open space, instead of removing those obstacles that would result in two separate smaller completely clear spaces rather than one large clear space (to build the Pyramid and such).

For the mathematical analysis of the egyptian settlement guide, however, I'd be glad if the author upgrades the guide by excluding the 3rd battle of Day #1 in the "best case scenario" which assumes the player win all three battles every day.

I followed your guide only up to a portion of the "0 Hour" part and by the "14 hour" (actual 16 hour) I deviated from the guide big time, which I think would happen to everyone else who actually tries to follow the guide, too.

More on those distinct characteristics: The Embassy of Egypt is very big. It best stays on the farthest corner or edge, for the reason of otherwise blocking the player's view and making them unable to see what they are doing behind the gigantic building.

Further more, "the roads are expansive (200 Dabian coins per piece)" -- now this part is already mentioned in your guide, milord; however, it is not mentioned, that, whatever building costs only main city coins & supplies of the player, it means they cost nothing. They can be built excessively, and sold afterward, without the need to plan ahead, which is brain-power-consuming. For example, in the start, do not build excessive roads (expansive) but build as many huts as you can (to ensure sufficient population 1 minute later) and sell them later to give space to Barley Farms in the next step.

With all due respect, just being frank, Milord. @Lord Grok
Signing out.

 

[Deleted User - 9482578]

Key points:

Strict overall square/rectangular shape;

Removal of obstacles to form one large clear space instead of separate smaller clear spaces;

It is possible to win all three battles each day exclusing Battle #3 of Day #1. (A good player only need to know whether something is possible and from there can figure out the HOW by themselves)

 

[DeletedUser117610]

@Bewildered Zeratul I feel that a couple of your points of difference are things stated explicitly or implied by the guide so I’ll let others interpret that as they want, but I will respond to the parts that are not correct:

(1) the hall should *not* remain on the edge. This is true in your city and it it’s perhaps more important in settlements due to impediments. The main reasons are (a) the hall is the nexus of all roads so use it as such (b) it avoids running roads past buildings. Imagine hall next to ToR; if hall is in the corner you need to run 6 roads past the ToR but if you swap them you need 1 road. Think of the hall as negative space. I’ve about given up explaining this point to people so take it or leave it Visibility is a poor reason for sub optimal play, and not at all justified given the size of the settlement buildings as they all always easily accessible.

(2) having one giant space with hall at one edge isn’t necessary or optimal, nor is having a square or rectangle. This relates to #1. At end game I always place 2 pyramids on one side of the hall with 1 road needed to connect both, have 2 4*4 residential buildings on either “wing” with 1 road for each, and 2 pyramids + 2 of the 3*5 + 1 4*4 residential building in the larger space. I use a similar arrangement from start to finish, sometimes I move the hall 1 or 2 spaces on any direction depending on the buildings I want to fit at the time but by the end of the game it’s almost always back in the same spot it move it to in step 1 of the guide

NOTE; keeping 2 of the 3*5 residential buildings is one point where I differ from the mathematical assessment you mentioned. They are marginally less efficient than the 4*4 residential buildings, but tend to be easier to place with obstacles and I avoid the downtime of swapping them out.

(3) you can beat the hard fight on day 1, and if you can do so with few losses then you should do it. You won’t need the loot immediately, but if you’re playing optimally (swapping goods buildings as required, as you say these cost gold/supplies so you can do it often) then you may have up to 8 goods buildings running when they fit and have enough supplies to fuel them, and the loot will be needed to sustain them longer if you’re unlucky with the 4* bonus

 

[DeletedUser117610]

Updated OP to build 2 * Nubian at earliest opportunity. I'll review this on my next play though in a few days, but believe it captures how I've been doing it lately.

 

[Deleted User - 9482578]

Nah, so far I think our opinions are light-years apart. Or, our opinions are "skewed" from each other.

Definition of "skew"

In three-dimensional geometry, skew lines are two lines that do not intersect and are not parallel.

Overall, I don't think a comprehensive Egyptian guide is ever possible. This also goes to the Mathematical guide. No I don't think it is possible. The guide is just too huge and long, and is difficult to prove wrong, in a point by point manner. I can't prove it; I just have a "hunch".

There are too many variables in the problem; and a small deviation from the start can multiple and lead to huge differences in the end.

And how do these variables interact (or do they interact or not) is also unclear. Among the original variables, are there any principal variables (dimension reduction theory) and the other variables (don't know what they are called: non-principal variables? secondary variables? derived variables?) -- also unclear.

My "hunch" is, that a guide should EITHER have an "ahah" moment, and make people realize "that is the key" or "that is the heart of the problem"; OR the guide must be still longer. Hundreds of pages to go through every detail (because small deviation in the start can lead to huge difference in the end as said above). Otherwise, I doubt the guide works -- although I can't prove it (disprove the guide).

For a starter, you and me we have (not) yet to reach consensus on Step #0. That is,

- Move the palace 4 spaces away from the border

Is it 4 spaces from upper border, or from lower border... In my implementation, I placed the palace 4 spaces from the lower border, for easy visibility. 1, 2, 3, 4 sapces. From the uppoer border, however, is it 3 spaces? or 5 spaces? I can't see clearly.

Of course, this is a bad example. Because I now carefully think about it and understand, that you mean 4 spaces from the upper border, where the palace originally sits. But the example can still illustrate, so many things could go wrong; and as a guide, the author should think for the reader, as to what situations circumstances they might be in. And consider all possibilities.

Keywords for casual viewer: Dimension reduction

 

[Muhabir]

As the author of the aforementioned mathematical analysis, I would like to point out that I gave up on trying to adjust my calculations for every single parameter after realising just how much of a leeway we as players have in the Egyptian settlement. It is possible and even expected that you can complete the settlement within the Golden Time Reward period without winning a single hard battle. You can only buy the 1-good expansions and still complete the settlement on time. Heck, you can avoid running any Deben production buildings at all and still complete the settlement on time. The margin of error is incredibly skewed in favour of the player.

To summarize, all this discussion is utterly nonsensical and superfluous. Completing Egypt in the allotted time is just so trivial that as long as you actually have roads between your embassy and other buildings, the specific placements don't matter one bit.

 

[Bobbie Bonkers]

I would just like to say I found this guide really helpful. Following the guide I managed to finish with more than 8 days to spare! Many thanks.

 

[fred54]

5 hours - as soon as a hut's disconnected from the roads I lose it's population so I can't build the Divine Statues.

 

[DJ of BA]

Ancient Egypt Settlement Quick Start Guide
----------------------------------------------------

I started this post in response to feedback in the thread forum.en.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/the-cultural-settlements-are-pay-to-win.39866/, as it seemed people were struggling with the Ancient Egypt Settlement. As the post grew, I moved it to it's own thread here to avoid diverting the discussion in that other thread, and in the (somewhat vain) hope that people may find it helpful and locate it more easily here.

Please like this post if it helps

PS I'm just doing my 3rd settlement now and intend to update this post to optimise and fix any errors I find as I go. Please post feedback, corrections and suggestions in the comments below.

PPS I'm not a fan of this settlement, and I'm not even certain it's worthwhile for the rewards as opposed to say just farming the Japan settlement which can be easily completed in 6 days with a market push strategy. I just figure that if you're going to do it, then you may as well get it over and done with as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Before You Start
- This guide requires 14 hours or so where you can update your base and collect/start productions in 4-hour cycles. If that's not for you then you can still follow the principles outlined here, just skip steps that optimise around the 4-hour cycle (in particular you would likely buy 2 expansions after your first goods collection rather than doing the switching around described in the 5 Hours section to fit 2 divine statues)
- ASSUMPTION: the starting area never has impediments (I think) so you can do same build every time (confirm)

0 Hours
- Move the palace 4 spaces away from the border
- Build 6 houses and 5 roads in the 4*8 area such they are all powered (build 2 huts along one 'side border' with a 3-length road running alongside them, then 4 huts in a clump with the one in the far corner offset from the adjacent hut by one space such that you need 2 roads to reach it). Build 2 potted plants (pots) in the 2*1 space between the huts and 1 pot at the end of the 3-length road.
- Build 2 farms, 1 camp, 1 hut and 2 pots in the 6*8 area such that they are all powered (build 2 farms against the border furthest from the hall with two 3-length roads along each side border to reach them. Build 1 camp and 1 hut in the remaining space next to the hall. Build 2 pots in the gap)
- Complete quests 1, 2 and 3
- Sell the camp and replace it with a farm. You'll now have 3 farms, 1 hut and 2 pots in the 6*8 area.
- Defeat the Easy army in the pyramid. Fight manually to avoid losses using the unattached troops received from the 3rd quest. Don't lose any troops! Make a note of whether you received under 300 loot; this will affect how soon you have to do the medium combat
- Complete the quest 4
- At this stage you'll have 3 farms, 7 huts, around 600 loot, and completed 4 quests

1 Hour
- Start 3*4-hour barley productions as soon as the farms are complete in 1 hour
- At this stage you'll have 3 farms, 7 huts, around 450 loot, and completed 4 quests

5 Hours
- Collect the 3*4-hour barley productions when they finish
- Complete quest 5
- Start 3*4-hour barley productions
- Buy ONE expansion for 1 barley. Ideally choose an expansion touching your hall and one of the roads on the farm side
- Build 5 pots in the expansion (in addition to the 4 you had already) to reach 60 diplomacy
- Complete quest 6
- Buy the tech for Divine Statues with the remaining 14 barley
- Sell all pots. Move all roads into the expansion (roads are expensive at 200 coins so move them out of the way rather than sell them if you have a surplus in the early stages). Move the farm closest the hall over one space so it touches the edge. Move the huts in the 4*8 area so that there is room for 2 more huts. Move the hut in the farm side into the 4*8 region. Build 3 more huts and move one into 4*8 region. At this stage you have 3 farms and 10 huts, the majority of which are disconnected.
- Build 2 Divine Statues. They don't need to be connected.
- Complete quest 7 and gain 25 Barley.
- Sell both divine statues
- Buy a second expansion adjacent to the one you purchased already on the farm side of your hall (cost 5 barley)
- Rearrange your base so that you can build 2 Nubian Archery Ranges (nubian) and connect as many huts as possible to roads (you can fit and power both Nubian and 2 huts in the 4*8 region, 1 hut is in the 6*8 region with the farms, and the other 7 huts are in the expansions you bought).
- At this stage you'll have 2 expansions, 3 farms, 2 nubian, 10 huts, 20 Barley, around 300 loot, and completed 7 quests

9 hours
- Collect the 3*4-hour barley productions when they finish.
- Start production in 1 farm
- Sell the other 2 farms
- Start building 2 Nubian Archers
- Buy pots until you have 160 diplomacy
- Buy the tech for Pottery for 30 barley
- Rearrange your base to build 2 pottery (you can fit 2 pottery and 5 huts in the 6*8 region, and 1 farm and 3+ huts in the expansions)
- Build extra huts if you can connect them to roads
- At this stage you'll have 2 expansions, 1 farm, 2 pottery, 2 nubian, 10+ huts, 5 Barley, around 250 loot, and completed 7 quests

10 hours
Start 2*4-hour pottery production as soon as the buildings are complete in 1 hour.
- At this stage you'll have 2 expansions, 1 farm, 2 pottery, 2 nubian, 10+ huts, 5 Barley, around 150 loot, and completed 7 quests

14 hours
- Collect the 3*4-hour productions when they finish
- Complete quest 8
- Start building 2 Nubian Archers
- Defeat the Medium army in the pyramid. Fight manually to avoid losses. At this stage you'll just have 2 attached Nubian Archer; use them if it makes sense to do so. The medium battle will yield 305-400 loot (I'll assume 350 for simplicity)
- Start 3*8-hour productions
- Buy 4 expansions (cost 1,1,1,5 pottery)
- Build extra good farms and/or pottery if you can fuel them (this will require getting lucky with 4* bonus, or completing the hard battle [I'd normally wait until I have 4 nubian before doing the hard battle, but you may do it sooner if you get a lucky matchup for your unattached troops])
- At this stage you'll have 6 expansions, 1+ farm, 2+ pottery, 2 nubian, 14+ huts, 10 Barley, 2 Pottery, around 200 loot, and completed 8 quests

22 hours
- Collect the 3*8-hour productions when they finish
- Start 3*4-hour productions
- Start building 2 Nubian Archers
- At this stage you'll have 6 expansions, 1+ farm, 2+ pottery, 2 nubian, 14+ huts, 20 Barley, 22 Pottery, around 50 loot, and completed 8 quests

26 hours
- Defeat the Easy army in the pyramid. Fight manually*to avoid losses and use attached troops where possible
- Collect the 3*4-hour productions when they finish
- Start 3*4-hour productions
- Start building troops in all buildings
- At this stage you'll have 6 expansions, 1+ farm, 2+ pottery, 2 nubian, 14+ huts, 25 Barley, 32 Pottery, around 200 loot, and completed 8 quests

30 hours and on
- Repeat the steps from 26 Hours.
- What comes next depends on what mix of goods you need for technology.
- My advice is to look at the total goods you need to buy the technology all the way up to flower farms. Keep your mix of 1 farm and 2 pottery for as long as possible, but when you have enough of one or the other, sell ALL the goods buildings and build a bunch of pots to so that you can buy the clay house tech. Then replace huts with houses as much as possible, and build 3 of the good building you need to get to flowers.
- Once you have all the goods needed for flowers, sell ALL goods and coins buildings again and put pots everywhere. Unlock palms, then sell all the pots and build palms. This should give you enough diplomacy to get flowers.
- Build 3 flowers and set 3*4-hour production, and buy 3 expansions when those productions finish

And that's it. Hope it helps

Your guide is good and easy to understand, I have completed all the levels on 2 worlds and am halfway through them on a 3rd World, my system is very similar with a few minor adjustments, on my main world having completed all settlements, I have continued to do the Egyptian settlement for the fp rewards, think I'm on my 33rd actual run-through now, This is by far one of the easiest of the settlements to do if you ignore the time constraints and secondary rewards