The Definitive Egyptian

By The Golden Arm
Published 9/18/03, AoM v1.06

Introduction

Well, considering no one has really done a guide on the Egyptian Civ, and im an 1800+ Egyptian player, I thought, “Hey, why not.” Egyptians are IMO the most versatile of the three Civs. Also, look how they are spread through the Civ rankings: at the time of 1.06, Set is 1st, Isis is probably second and Ra comes in a distant last. They are each quite different to play, and each require different techniques and tactics to play effectively.

General Egyptian Info

Villagers

Egyptian laborers are the slowest builders / gatherers in the game. Are they cheaper than there counterparts? No, yet what makes an Egyptian economy so strong? Well the pharaoh for one, but mostly the fact that Eggy players pack up on villagers quite a bit more than their Greek / Norse companions. The fact that they gather slower makes getting those economic techs earlier all the more important. In a regular 1v1 game, I tend to end up with about 19-22 Villagers on Food, 12 + Villagers on Wood, and anywhere between 20 and 30 Villagers on Gold. In team games if you have a TC advantage, it is suggested to make more.

Favor and Monuments

Egyptians gather favor by building monuments. You can make a total of 5 monuments to generate favor, and you can also use your Pharaoh to increase favor generation (although its not really recommended unless you are trying to aquire a favor goal), Ra’s priests can also help increase your favor gather rate. Ra gets cheaper monuments, so getting your first 2 Monuments up by Classical is quite an easy task. Also, Isis’s monuments protect from God Powers, so popping up a few by your base, forward base, and allies base is great for protection from those nasty “Natural Disasters” like Meteor and Earthquake. Anubis is also armed with a great Tech (Necropolis) which increases your monument favor rate by 10%.

Military

Egyptians have a great Classical counter army. Spears bring up the bulk of most armies, very cheap (50F 20G) and reasonably good vs Cavalry (although they only have a 1.1X Multiplier). Spears are reasonable against pierce attacks as well (they start with a neat 20 Pierce armor). Slingers are the anti-archer unit, which in mass will almost always destroy another mixed Egyptian army. Axemen are the Egyptian counter-infantry unit. These I am trying to use more because I am finding them very effective against Norse players (And Zeus Hoplite spammers) – they have great hack armor but not much else (they are quite weak to pierce attacks).

Now onto to Heroic, where we find ourselves armed with 4 New Units. No.1 being the Camel: while this unit excels against Cavalry and Archers, they are pretty much paper against infantry. They get a neat 2X Multiplier against Cavalry and are reasonably fast (Raid,.. Raid,.. Raid). Another good raider that Egypt has is the Chariot Archer, which has enormous range (20) and great HP. Both together are a great combo, but only real let down is the high costs for Midgol upgrades, and the fact that they both take up 3 population slots. The War Elephant is the strongest human unit in the game, but costs 180F and 70G while taking up the same pop as a Collosus (being 5). The last Heroic unit is the Siege Tower. These are IMO the best Heroic siege unit in the game, with massive HP and relatively quick build times, it is easy to get your opponent’s army focusing on attacking them, leaving your army free to attack enemy units as it sees fit.

Finally, in the Mythic Age, you receive the Catapult … while this gives you range for you’re sieging, I will usually only have a few, mainly using Siege Towers to do my Sieging needs.

Next: Using Ra…