Egyptian Longevity Challenge

[The Q-Meister]

Trying to play a game as Egypt and last until the end of the game without collapsing. Not easy: with barbs, natives, either a hostile Europe or a hostile Middle East and of course, the good ol African economy boosting my stability (sarcasm) it provides many challenges for the player. Even with Great Wall I still have Impis running across and they're such a pain as they love to avoid combat when they will lose and go after an important resource, worker or road. Although the barbs in Europe may be more numerous it's easier IMHO because you have natural choke points in Europe (the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Hellespont, etc) that the vast Sahara does not provide.

My first inspiration for doing this was to get a cultural victory as I thought their UHV already puts Egypt in a great position to do so, then I realized that the game really doesn't want Egypt to last that long!

Anyway I'll keep on working at it but was wondering if anyone has done it already or are willing to have a go at it. Screenshots/save games are most welcome. Good Luck!!

 

[Lone Wolf]

Even with Great Wall I still have Impis running across and they're such a pain as they love to avoid combat when they will lose and go after an important resource, worker or road.

Axemen, Axemen, Axemen.

 

[Jet]

In older versions it was a lot easier than it seems to be now. Good luck

 

[onedreamer]

Anyway I'll keep on working at it but was wondering if anyone has done it already or are willing to have a go at it. Screenshots/save games are most welcome. Good Luck!!

my problem aren't really barbarians (I don't even build the Great Wall) but stability. For some reason the Foreign stability sucks when I play with Egypt. Maybe I shouldn't take out Ethiopia ? That's about the only war I normally wage in RFC Egypt, and it lasts at worst 5 turns with no prisoners. Keep us informed if you manage to get a foreign stability rating of 3+ for a long time.

 

[The Q-Meister]

Onedreamer: Those are my biggest problems exactly!!

The Impis are annoying but manageable most of the time, I do build axemen but the borders are so vast and their 2 movement makes it difficult to always go where I need to all the time esp before construction and bridges are built. I Guess I need to build more....

Anyway the Foreign rating always takes a HUGE hit! I try to meet the Euro civs, sign open borders, meekly agree to whatever they want, gift them coin and maps to get them to like me..but still does nothing to my foreign rating. Stability is def the biggest problem for me with Egypt.

EDIT: when I play I almost never take out Ethiopia (Figure that their stability will take them out soon enough ) I still have a terrible foreign rating; Saladin likes me, he hates me, no difference. Still terrible. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe the other civs view you as weak and conquerable?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Sounds like viceroyalty and some vassals (Mali, Ethiopia) are in order.

 

[Verily]

Sounds like viceroyalty and some vassals (Mali, Ethiopia) are in order.

And the Khmer. Never forget to have a Galley sitting next to their spawn area when they spawn; they'll nearly always vassalize to pretty much any civ.

 

[onedreamer]

I still think that there is a problem with Egyptian foreign stability rating, but Rhye says no.... ¬_¬

Read this: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=269118

 

[The Q-Meister]

I'm not sure what it is but it is kind of strage though; as the Romans for instance I conquer or at least declare war on just about everyone yet my foreign rating was never a problem. As Egypt seems there is nothing I can do. I'll try to get vassals in my next game.

I was also wondering if Egypt's relative weakness and the fact that many nations conquered/vassalized Egypt historically (Persia, Arabia, Greece, Rome, England, Turkey etc) that that has an affect on their foreign rating as many leaders are thinking about taking over Egypt instead of "making nice" with it regardless of a leader's feelings towards you.

 

[The Q-Meister]

Just finished playing my best game as Egypt - lasted until 1435 before collapsing. I don't think I could have done much better, the game really does not want you to survive!

I gave up on trying to improve my foreign rating, had no religion, Open Borders with Europe, and even eventually Arabia, had the Euro civs either Cautious or Pleased with me, Ethiopia generally liked me though did declare war on me once I assume because of Close Borders. I found that gifting Meditation was an easy and harmless way to get civs to like me, they wouldn't trade me any tech for it anyway.

The foreign rating seems to start taking a hit when Ethiopia spawns and then takes a major hit when Arabia comes in the mix, regardless of their attitudes towards you.

But the problem that I omitted to mention in the 1st post was PLAGUES! In Egypt, they are absolutely devastating! They completely wiped out my workers, almost my entire army and it was such a shame as I had made an elaborate defensive wall with Axemen along the Nile. And I couldn't move them out as coincidentally or not, plagues seem to coincide with a simultaneous Camel Archer/War Elephant/Impi attack so I need all the troops I could muster. I even had size 1 cities that got the plague and kept on having it for 4-5 turns!

I did take it as a "moral" victory of sorts that despite wars with Rome, Babylon, Arabia, Ethipioa at different times and repeated Barb/Native attacks I managed never to lose a city. Jerusalem declared Independence towards the end but that's about it. Mercs def saved me a couple times as did the Temple of Kulkalan. Had a stellar combat ratio but expansion never went beyond 3.

I think I'm personally done with this Challenge for now, I'd like to know if anyone has done better in monarch because I really did try hard in this one!

 

[onedreamer]

well I surrendered when I wrote the post I linked. I was actually trying the Egyptian Space Race challenge with only its historically territory. I think the problem is really that Ethiopia has core in part of Egypt and maybe Arabia too ? I normally take out Ethiopia, I could try to not expand too much south on the Nile (but surviving without Elephants will be hard) and/or accept requests of cities flipping to Ethiopia, or try to take out Arabia as well, but that's gonna be harsh.

I'm gonna give it one more try with a different city map not aimed at production (different city maps are what makes games in RFC quite different) and make you know ^^

 

[Cossack Captain]

Just finished playing my best game as Egypt - lasted until 1435 before collapsing. I don't think I could have done much better, the game really does not want you to survive!

1435!?!??! Wow!! I am impressed! When I play Egypt I am happy to make it to when the Arabs spawn!

 

[onedreamer]

I have restarted an Egypt game with longevity challenge. I'm in the Early Middle Ages and so far things are not going so well:

- I founded Thebes (Stonehenge and Pyramids) one tile to the north, then Butos (Great Lighthouse), then Avaris (Great Library) on the grassland tile (it isn't its real location though), then Elephantine in Upper Egypt which takes the Cotton and Elephants. City locations are good so far. I achieved the 2 cultural goals and enjoyed a golden age.
- The plague a few years after the spawn of Arabia was really devasting in Egypt. It lasted more than in all other lands are had really harsh effects. All my thriving cities fell to pop 1, my cottages reset, almost all my units died and only a miracle saved me from barbarian incursions.
- A big problem is that Judaism spred in all my cities and I am the only civ with this religion. I converted to Judaism in the M.A. and Arabia declared a few turns later (also because of the plague, which they didn't experience).
- I never attacked Ethiopia although it did declare at a certain point, but the war ended with no fights. I wanted to check if stability would be higher if I didn't colonize anything outside Egypt. Check stability below.
Stability:
- In the Middle Age I tried switching civs. Switching to Vassalage+Organized Religion caused a drop to Unstable. I reloaded and switched to Vassalage+Theocracy and got a huge bonus to civics stability (5 stars). So it seems that Theocracy is preferrable for stability in Egypt.
- Foreign Stability is at 1 star, as always with Egypt. I don't have many OB now but as I noticed in previous games having them doesn't really seem to help with Egypt. I thought that holding Ethiopia's core could be a cause for the low Foreign Stability but my current game excludes this option. At this point I'd really like to inquire Rhye or someone who can read the code because I don't see a reason why Foreign Stability is ALWAYS at 1 star when I play Egypt no matter what I do. It doesn't happen with any other civ so I do suspect there's some code somewhere that causes this, although Rhye said no >.>

 

[coko]

From a count of the last 10 games, (me NOT playing Egypt) I've seen them build the Great Wall 4 times, and only survive till the Turks about 2 times, and only once seem to be continuing to look good!

But Africa does look like a death trap...

 

[The Q-Meister]

It seems that with religion Egypt esp in the Middle Ages, is between a rock and a hard place as you either will anger Europe or anger (the more likely to invade) Arabia.

Ethiopia has declared war on me in every single game regardless of attitudes towards me, regardless of religion or no religion. Hard to build up large garrisons in Egyptian cities with devastating plagues coming around.

Yea OB didn't seem to do much for me, I was being a total wimp in one game and gifting techs, money, maps anything and civs did like me and did sign OB with me, but it did not change my foreign rating.