What to do about Egypt?

[Mayfield The Conqueror]

So, I started this game up again after I read about Player1's bug fixer mod, and I am playing Egypt on VH/VH right now. What a bloody cakewalk. They have way too many advantages:

#1. They start out with only one hostile neighbor. Now some games the Selecuid's can be a hassle but most you can just destroy them quickly.

#2. Once you build ports/mines, you will be creating gold out of thin air. I feel like Gargamel in The Smurfs. This needs to be lessened as I am building in every province and still have plenty of gold left over.

#3. They grow insanely fast. I do not know why or how they do but they really do have to be stopped from reproducing like bunny rabbits.

Some suggestions for a mod:

#1.Take out mines period.. they already get enough gold from trade.
#2. Take out some of the tradeable goods from their territories.
#3. Decrease the size of their cities at the start. This will at least slow them down.

Any other thoughts?

[magnum]

How about just removing thier grain resource? They have 2 which adds about 3% pop growth to most of their starting provinces. Bigger populations means more trade. They are also trade resources so they are getting trade from the grain itself.

I've never tried removing the grain resources from Egypt (never honestly felt a desire to even play Egypt) so I don't know the overall impact this would have on them, however I'd think that it would seriously impact both their population growth and their trade.

[vale]

I don't like egypt, they are kinda too powerful.

[Mayfield The Conqueror]

How about just removing thier grain resource? They have 2 which adds about 3% pop growth to most of their starting provinces. Bigger populations means more trade. They are also trade resources so they are getting trade from the grain itself.

I've never tried removing the grain resources from Egypt (never honestly felt a desire to even play Egypt) so I don't know the overall impact this would have on them, however I'd think that it would seriously impact both their population growth and their trade.

Good idea, I will attempt to learn how to do that and see what happens. Will also try with mines in Thebes and without mines. That'll fix em! :)

[Retos_ON]

one question that it is "amazing" regarding Egypt and owning the pyramid ( I don't recall the name of the city itself)....I am playing with July faction and had got this pyramid and from then all my provinces has increase happiness...I mind in all the settlements...well I thought it was going to increase only on the Egypt provinces but it had worked for all...somehow it's a bit wear...or maybe not

[vastator]

one question that it is "amazing" regarding Egypt and owning the pyramid ( I don't recall the name of the city itself)....I am playing with July faction and had got this pyramid and from then all my provinces has increase happiness...I mind in all the settlements...well I thought it was going to increase only on the Egypt provinces but it had worked for all...somehow it's a bit wear...or maybe not

Capturing ANY Wonder gives you a temporary happiness bonus in all settlements. Owning the Great Pyramid means you ignore any culture penalties for being non-Egyptian.

[Retos_ON]

Capturing ANY Wonder gives you a temporary happiness bonus in all settlements. Owning the Great Pyramid means you ignore any culture penalties for being non-Egyptian.

thanks...i'll keep a look to the temporary happines bonus

[Aetius the Last Roman]

First you gotta take the punch out of their terminator Axemen, then their armour plated chariot tanks, reduce the numbers on the horde desert cavalry and couple that with the campaign map changes above, that should reduce the Egyptians considerably.

[amazon77]

Indeed the Egyptians are overpowered. Perhaps even more than the romans.

Although i don't find this fair, or quite accurate, historically speaking, i don't mind too much about it.

Reasons:

1) The Egyptians are a great fuction for the begginer. Of course you "have" to play as the Romans as a begginer, but it's not bad to have an easy non-roman fuction.

2) I did try to play with them, got bored and quited. Simply don't play as them if you find them not challenging a bit.

3) They provide a decent enemy when you play a "west" faction and you finally reach their lands. This is hardly the case for Scythians, Pontics, Armenians and Parthians when (and if) you finally reach them. And, no, egyptians don't take their lands (as opposed with the Seleucid lands).

Frankly, i'm very happy they are so overpowered, + they get a combat bonus in deserts. What would i do with my 3+ exp Urbanners or 3+ exp Foresters, hadn't it been for smashing Egyptian armies in the desert?

[antisocialmunky]

A even more powerful Uber-Macedon with Legionary Cohorts and War Elephants that we'd call the Selucid Empire.

Or masses of Persian Cavalry and Catanks.

[amazon77]

Seleucid Empire has impressive troop types indeed, but they go down against Egypt in the first decade or so .

Furthermore, i'd classify as overpowered those factions that get an early advantage, so they can get a lot of towns easily as soon as the games starts. For example, roman strength lies more in Hastatii than in Urbans.

Likewise, Seleucids can built Legionary cohorts, but so late in the game i guess it doesn't have much effect anyway.

[katank]

Yep, I never reach the late game units in many cases. The first 5 turns more or less seal your destiny in many cases.

Germania if not for money problems, is the most OP due to spear warbands.

Scythian for same reason due to their HA @ town level.

On the other hand, Carthage is hard since Iberians suck. Spanish has it even rougher as they can only build town militia at the beginning which surprisingly suck even more than Iberians.

[Mayfield The Conqueror]

The reason I singled out Egypt is that they have huge economic and growth advantages over everyone. I currently have every city constructing a building plus a unit every turn. Most other factions in the early game you actually have to make tough decisions on what to do.. and Egypt has none of these problems to worry about. So they just tech up and become an arrow-tossing steam-roller eventually. I just wanted to slow them down economically to make things a bit more even handed.

[vastator]

First you gotta take the punch out of their terminator Axemen, then their armour plated chariot tanks, reduce the numbers on the horde desert cavalry and couple that with the campaign map changes above, that should reduce the Egyptians considerably.

Yup, that's what I've done for my campaign. Bowmen and Desert Cavalry have the same numbers as regular units and Heavy Chariots can't be recruited. The scythe blade secondary attack on the other chariots has been replaced by a knife for the Chariot Archers and an axe for the General's Bodyguard. I've also reduced their starting population by a few thousand - they can afford it!

[vastator]

Looking at the last posts from amazon77 and katank the solution is to bump up the stats for Carthage and the Seleucids. I've added 3 to the Iberians' defence and 2 to the Libyan Spearmen's attack, with 2 added to the Levy Pikemen's defence as they're clearly wearing helmets. Egypt now has a starting treasury of 7,000 denarii, but the Seleucids now have 10,000 and Carthage a whopping 15,000. Carthage can now recruit slingers in practice ranges (like Egypt), with archers and ballistas available in archery ranges. The Seleucids also have ballistas and a larger population. I only finished the mods today, so I'm itching to try them out!

[Zakor]

Capturing ANY Wonder gives you a temporary happiness bonus in all settlements. Owning the Great Pyramid means you ignore any culture penalties for being non-Egyptian.

If this is true, why do Memphis and Alexandria rebel so quickly even when I own the pyramid?