Ok, I'm in the middle of my 4th game, finally knowing what I'm doing, more or less. It is a bloody rollercoaster of emotions! This game is the best thing since... well, if not since sliced bread, then since Civ 4 for sure!
Playing as Egypt, it appears for the second time, I have no recollection of the first game as Egypt, it was long ago on an older laptop, but cloud saves tell me I did play as them. This time I've chosen a large desert map for theming purposes, and was given a sea on the West, a large desert on the North, Babylon on the SW, Carthage on the East, and Rome on the NE further away.
For the first time I've tinkered with the game settings and selected Male Primogeniture. What do you think? Up to 5th generation my direct heirs were all daughters!
Four generations of Egyptian female Pharaohs wearing metal golden beards, oh my! (Hatty's daughter never ascended, she was survived by her own daughter to ascend the throne.) All the males were on the stepson's branch who never got to rule. The 5th generation Queen had some problem though. Rather a couple of problems. Three problems, if you will. I'll go back a bit
The long standing problem was the international relations. Babylon SW stole one nice tribal spot for a city, and then sent an army through my territory North to steal 2 more spots over a large desert, but I was kinda willing to be friends with them, despite them threatening me constantly with war and Egypt ending up paying three simultaneous tributes to Babylon. I did not mind it though, Egypt was rich. Egypt was so rich that Egyptians seemed to sweat gold. If there was some problem, it surely could be burried under a large enough pile of gold. And it was so always. Just throw money, there was always more where it came from. No matter that Egypt did not know Coinage for a very long time, nobody asked too many questions after being hit by a large lump of gold into their forehead. I hope I got my point through, Egypt paid its way in under the sun. Always. Especially with Babylon.
Carthage to the East was less known to Egypt and stole two much more relevant city spots, so I was kinda leaning into not paying them, not with gold at least, more like with iron, despite them being much stronger and all. I was making slow but assured preparations. Pre-sculpting some anti-Carthaginian slogans and pictures in strategically located stone slabs. But then an event fires up, where I'm given a choice to make a National Alliance wih them outright, just like that, probably for some gold. Egypt has never ever refused to pay some gold, and not on this occasion either. Especially, when Carthage acted like a shield from all of the Eastern side of the map. What's that, what slogan slabs? You must be mistaken, I have never mentioned any slabs.
So the solution of this first problem proved to be quite nice. Some Hatusimanistania from outside of the map on the distant East behind the event horizon declared war on Egypt, and Carthage did hold our back. Not that over a couple of decades or so of the war there were any hostilities between the H-land and Carthage, leave alone Egypt already. It is not easy to traverse a few million lightyears on foot through an immense desert of time and space in the Early Eras, after all, not when you still haven't learned the wormhole travel technology. Then, after a while, Egypt threw some tribute in the general direction of the East, and in due course received a 100th generation of a carrier pigeon bringing the message from Hatumistan that they were good. None of this was strictly necessary of course, but Egypt came up with some scribes-holding institutions by the time, and the scribes insisted on keeping records in good order and all businesses to be finished, preferrably, if the Queen would be so kind, thank you Your Majesty, just sign here and here and here, thank you so much again, Ma'am.
Second problem was war. Another war, that came from much closer than from beyond the map boundaries. On the year of the crowning of the 5th generation of Egyptian female Pharaoh, Babylon finaly got so used to being knocked out by Egyptian lumps of gold to the head that they apparently developped some sort of immunity to the very useful phenomenon and demonstrated it by declaring war on Egypt just like that, with no associated event. I call that blatant cheating and an obvious bug on the part of AI
The new Queen Pharaoh celebrated the start of war by a marriage to a handsome man and watching in delight how our Carthaginian allies moved in to hold not our back but our forefront this time. Seriously, I was quite pleased how ally AI helped me in the war, it really really went and did save my front a** in the very spots where it was most needed, well done!
So Babylon attacked from the Southern and Northern holdings, luckily, Egypt had very successfuly split its armies just enough to defend in every direction, and Carthaginians plugged all the holes and provided all the necessary distractions. Amazing work from their King Hanniblum or what was his name?
So the second problem, although terrifying at first, turned out to be quite an opportunity, with Babylonian two northern and one SE posessions eventually falling to Egypt, and the rest of their heartlands ripening to follow the suit with every passing turn, I mean year.
The third problem, however, was the most serious, and now I have deep compassion with every royal family alive out there IRL, and in a similar situation. It was, of course, the problem of successsion. However handsome the Pharaoh consort was, married at the earliest opportunity, note it, nothing came out of the union. Then there was some attempt to influence some courtier by the Queen but Officialy the King Pharaoh, the event involved some clothes and not asking permission of the Consort who get mightily pissed to the point of becoming Vengeful, yes, capital V, it took a great deal of time and effort to get even with him, still nothing, he turned Chaste after making up, can you believe it, until in despair, he was appointed General of some unit in the midst of action, and at least here he did not dissapoint and died in a battlefield fairly quickly. Phew, although more than 10 years wasted. Succession lay in the stepson's branch from back 5 generations. Second marriage. Some worse looking sly individual, but whatever. Just do right what is needed. And bloody hell, some sheninagans again, some crazy events, where husband sort of can become terrified, but then situation saved just in the nick of time, and then the royal couple approaching their thirty-somethings and supernatural player starting to lose all hope and resigning to an alternate line already, but then they finally produce an heir, a daughter! 6th generation female heir in a male primogeniture, one hundred years in! I genuinely laughed out loud at this point
But then, a couple of years later, there was another royal birth. A son, a male heir, not a firstborn, but the first male born in the direct line, in a hundred years or so. By law, now this baby is the direct heir. I had to save the game and make a break to cope with the event.
What lies ahead of Egypt, what will the second century of the known history be? Will it be all about cold sandwitches for breakfast and unwashed socks giving +6 culture per city? It remains to be seen.
No pictures this time, sorry. I only intended to write like four lines, but the page never ended, so I just kept writing
