Guide

I did this for planetaom last year, thought I'd put it here, got a lot of good feedback then. I might update it


Pharaohs for Dummies

Main Entry: pha·raoh
Pronunciation: 'fer-(")O, 'far-(")O, 'fA-(")rO
1 : a ruler of ancient Egypt
2 : TYRANT

Cost: Free
Comments: Regenerates after 90 seconds at your town center. Use the hotkey to cycle through heroes to find out where it is.

Damage : 14 Pierce (12 + 2 in classical)
Comments : Double the 6.5 of a Toxote. Should stand up well in early battles.

Range: 12
Comments: This is compared to a range of 16 for a slinger, or 20 for a Chariot Archer.. Pretty damn crappy range! But just imagine that your pharaoh is actually a Cho-Ko-Nu from AOK. A powerful warrior with crappy range. There, don't you feel better?

HitPoints : 110 in classical
Comments : Pretty good for a ranged unit. Compared to 60 for a Toxote and 70 for a peltast. 25 more hp then a mercenary. Can't heal itself though

Armor: 15 % Hack 15 % pierce
Comments: Ok, this kind of sucks. The same hack armor as a camel, and the same pierce armor as a Hersir. Big grade of F for the armor, so therefore you'll need lots of protection for this Pharaoh.

Speed : 4.0
Comments: Same speed as a slinger. Won't win any races for ya. However you are egyptian, so your whole army is slow until you get to heroic.

LOS : 16
Comments: Compare this to the 8 LOS for a priest. Definitely a decent scouter, but only used for scouting with Ra (from what I've seen)

Special (a) : x5 Myth Units
Comments: This equates to 60 damage per second. Therefore, against an Einherjar (who many feel is the best classical myth unit), you will need:

60 Damage/second - 60% pierce armor for einherjar = 24 Damage getting through each attack.
Since an Einherjar has 275 hit points, this means 275 / 24 == 11.4 seconds to kill the unit. As seen below, in the editor it took approx 12 seconds to take one down.

Special ( : Units are trained 30% faster
Comments: This equates to
b.1 Spearmen arrive in 6 seconds instead of 9 (same as an ulfsark or a camel!)
b.2 Axemen in 7 seconds instead of 10
b.3 Slingers in 11 seconds instead of 14
Vs. a Norse rusher, this could help a lot to overwhelm them

Special © : Techs are researched 30% faster
Comments: Not used as much from what I see. Getting the medium spear upgrade in 14 seconds instead of 20 is a nice bonus, but hard to compute how much difference it makes in a game.

Special (d) : Buildings fire arrows twice as fast
Comments: I didn't even know about this one.

Example 1:
Let's take an example, of a tower shooting at 5 throwing axemen which are attacking gold miners

Case 1: Pharaoh and Tower each attack the throwing axemen.
Pharaoh does 12 - 10% = 10.8 damage/second
Tower does (8x2)- 10% == 14.4 damage / second
Total damage == 25.2 damage / second

Case 2: Pharaoh empowers the tower.
Tower does ((8x2)-10 %) + ((8x2) - 10%) == 28.8 damage / second
Total damage == 28.8 damage / second

Result: Pharaoh empowering is a 12.5% improvement.

Example 2:
A Pharaoh empowering a Migdol, facing oncoming Hippikons.
Case 1: The pharaoh and migdol fire separately at the Hippikons.
Pharaoh does 12 - (25% hippikon armor) = 9 damage
Migdol does 12*3 - (25% hippikon armor) = 25 damage
Total damage == 34
Case 2: The pharaoh empowers the migdol
Migdol does 12 * 3 * 2 == 72 - (25% hippikon armor)
Total Damage == 54

Result: The Migdol empowered does 37% more damage then the migdol and pharaoh firing separately.

Special (e):Structures are built 30% faster.
Comments: This is awesome for taking open settlements on the map.
1 Villager building a TC takes 150 seconds
1 Villager empowered takes 105 seconds
Can someone tell me what the math is for 3 villagers, vs. 3 villagers empowered??? I see this quite often.

Special (f)Monuments accumulate favor 5% faster.
Comments: Not worth it. If you empower the Monument to Villagers, you will get 1.1 favor /second instead of 0.97

Special (g) Drop sites create 20% extra resources.
Example :
Say you have 8 farmers surrounding your town center for 5 minutes(a common occurence).
Case 1: Without empowering
300 seconds X 8 farmers * 0.63 rate == 1512 food
Case 2: With empowering
300 seconds X 8 farmers * 0.76 rate == 1824 food
Result: you have enough food for 6 extra spearmen during the crucial 5 to 10 minute mark. Note this does not consider walking to drop off the food.

Time to Kill Myth Units (tested in classical age)
Valkyrie - 21 seconds
Cyclops - 18 seconds
Manticore - 17 seconds
Einherjar - 12 seconds
Sphinx - 12 seconds
Minotaur - 11 seconds
Anubite - 10 seconds
Troll - 9 seconds
Wadjet - 6 seconds

Vs. Other Units
Toxote - Pharoah wins 71/110 hp left
Hoplite - Pharoah wins 35/110 hp left
Hippikon - Hippikon wins 39/150 hp left
Throwing Axeman - Pharoah wins 76/110 hp left
Ulfsark - Pharoah wins 72/110 hp left
Raiding Cavalry - Pharoah wins 33/110 left
Hersir - Pharoah wins 29/110 left


Comments on Special Technologies
Spirit of Maat: Still looking for what the base healing rate is, in hp/second, but this technology doubles that number.. Potentially very valuable for your high price myth units later on.

Funeral Rites: Gx_Iron got this in his match against legions of Fire giants by Darq_Mulfar. The x9 bonus is worth in in this case and others like it. Keep it in the back of your mind.

City of the Dead: Increases the strength of your pharaoh, and also reduces the spawn rate.

Something to think about is the strength of a Pharaoh in mythic with this upgrade:

HP : 100 HP + 10 (classical) + 10 (heroic) + 10 mythic + 30 (city of dead) == 160 hit points

Range: 12 + 6 (heroic) + 2 mythic == 20 range

Attack : 12 + 1.2 (heroic) + 1.2 (mythic) + 2.4 (city of dead) == 16.8 attack (not to mention the armory upgrades)

New Kingdom : 2 of these bad boys , one for empowering the TC at home, and one for Son of Osiris.

Miscellaneous: You can find out where your pharaoh is at all times by using the / key (to cycle through heroes)

If you select a villager and your pharaoh, and then shift-click to create 10 houses, your pharaoh will empower each one, as it is created.

Summary: I would recommend hotkeying your pharaoh early on in the game, and using him in the following order. Important points denoted by an asterisk. YMMV
1*. Empower the opening granary in the archaic age

2.a) Empower the gold miners in the transition to classical (using prosperity if Isis) OR

2.b)use him to pick up relics during the transition.

3. Empower the construction of barracks as soon as you hit classical age.

4*. Empower your TC when you have 4+ farmers up, and to double the TC fire if your gold mine is attacked .

5. Empower your armory construction (in preparation to age to heroic)

6*. In heroic age, empower the building of settlements

7. From heroic age on, I'd use him in battle, for healing and myth unit attacking. Again hotkeying is important, for quickly focusing on Myth units.

8. If you are fighting near your Migdol, use him to empower the Migdol, as you get the benefit of faster unit creation AND the double attack.


Links:

The Pharaoh Egypt Hotel

Background on pharaohs