The Definitive Egyptian

By The Golden Arm · vanilla

The Golden Arm’s original Egyptian overview compares the economic and strategic identities of Ra, Isis and Set.

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.

Using Ra

With the patch completely Nerfing Ra, his bonuses have become rather weak. Despite this Ra has gathered quite a following, and is still played a fair share (although still the least). Ra is versatile in the way that he can go focus on both Barracks Lines and Midgol Lines in choosing his minor god path, and still have a very strong economy.

Playing Ra

I have to say I enjoy playing Ra a lot because there are so many different methods you can play out. I’m not so fond of him on water, even more so now after reading the article about how Adze of Wepwawet was a useless tech. Firstly, judging on my opponent I will make the decision to either FH or turtle a little first for defense (ultimately your goal is still to get to Heroic A.S.A.P). On land i’ll definetly go Ptah. I’ll say either Bast or Ptah (Shifting Sands some of his wood villagers to your TC works wonders) is good on water, so I don’t think it really matters either way. For Heroic i’ll usually choose Sehkmet, since she has an awsome range tech for your Chariot Archers and makes Siege even more powerful. I think the best thing about Hathor is his “Sun Dried Mud Brick” tech, which makes buildings cost 15% less.

In Mythic I find myself going Osiris alot more than Horus, just because I find that Tornado is very in-effective, which is unfortunate. Son Of Osiris is a very good GP, which usually gets a lot of my opponent’s attention, once again letting my army pilage at will. I suggest only going Horus when you think a game will go on for a long time, so you can reap the benefits of his awesome barracks Myth Techs.

Utilizing Ra’s Bonuses

Pharaoh Empowering increased 5%

This is one of the best Bonuses Ra recieves. I would have to say this almost makes me want to scout with my Priest, but I still find it useful to do one pass with the Pharaoh, then reaping the benefits of my Pharaoh’s empowering.

Priest Empowering

While this seems like a great bonus, it is only a 10% empower rate, and at 2 pop. per Priest, the resources are better spent on 2 more Villagers (2 Villagers = 100 Food 2 Pop) (Priest = 100 Gold 2 Pop). If you do decide to use Priests, put them at a large gather point (10+ Villagers at least).

Camels & Chariot Archers have 10% more HP and move 10% faster

All the more incentive to use Midgol units. This bonus has raiding writen all over it – with the increased speed and HP, it makes this combo a great raiding party, as well as a great standard fighting combo.

Monuments cost 25% less and have 20% more HP

As I mentioned earlier, this bonus helps Ra get more monuments up faster, and also gives Ra the opportunity to have many more Myth Units and Techs quicker than his Isis/Set comrades.

Archaic GP – Rain

This GP is best used:

To block a Frost, Ancestors etc that you know is coming (e.g: he/she just went Heroic and his army is approaching).
Mid-Classical so you can get all the nice food-costing techs and still spam Spearmen.
In combo with Locust swarm, minimizing the bonus recieved by your opponent.

Using Isis

The most popular of the three (in the lower ratings) and my personal favorite is Isis. She has some very good and very powerful Bonuses and has one of the best minor-god path choices. Using Isis is very similar to Ra, and she is very easy to play as. If you want to learn any of the Egyptians, I suggest getting started with her.

Playing Isis

Firstly, I don’t believe in build orders, but i’ll post this one anyways as a guideline. I will use this BO on Alfheim, Watering Hole and Savannah. It can also be used on Ghost Lake and Oasis if you have starting hunting.

Villagers 1-2: Hunting (Research Hunting Dogs)
Villager 3: Hunting
Villager 4: Hunting
Villager 5: Hunting
Villager 6: Gold
Villager 7: Wood
Villager 8: Gold
Villager 9: Wood
Villager 10: Gold
Villager 11: Buid house then build Monument
Villager 12: Next Food Source (Berries, Chickens or Next Hunting)
Villager 13- Onwards: Food, and one will go to Gold somewhere in there

After your villager has finished his Monument, build another house. By this time you should have enough gold for a Temple, so get this villager to build a temple, then either finish your housing or send him to a resource. Isis is OK on water; nothing particularily special. I try to get a monument close enough to my docks to stop annoying classical water GPs (Pestilance, Serpents, etc) and if im in trouble close to my docks, I might even throw up a tower.

The very popular Isis FH is very powerful … with Eclipse + Ancestors combo being a force on its own, but supported it is very powerful. I wont post a build order because your aim is simple for the FH: 720 food and 450 gold by Classical. For classical I will go Anubis 90% of the time, unless I am aiming for Eclipse and Ancestors. Anubis is alot better than Bast IMO- his MU is better, a better GP (out of Ancestors combo) and awesome Techs (benefits Spears and favor gather rates). Heroic will also be 80% Neph, although I also like to “Building Boom” with Hathor: Roc drops are still very powerful (and annoying), and Petsuchos are perhaps the best Heroic MU around.

For the Mythic age I will most likely choose Thoth, because Meteor is usually a game ender (if your game gets that far), and I love the Phoenix. Also, his Economic tech is equal to another line of gathering. I will choose Osiris if I think that Meteor won’t finish them.

Utilizing Isis’s Bonuses

All Technologies Cost 10% Less Food, Wood and Gold

Awesome bonus. This is the reason I started playing as Isis, and this is a very easy bonus to utilize! Just research a lot of techs.

Monuments Prevent God Powers From Being Targeted Nearby

I both love (when im playing as her) and hate (when im playing against her) this GP. This is great for stopping such annoying GPs as Frost and Meteor from being cast too close to your base, but be sure to spread your monuments to optimize this bonus.

Town Centers Support +3 Maximum Population

This brings the Egyptians “Power in Numbers” out properly. Giving Isis 3 More pop per TC is great, because in this game, pop is definitly a scare resource, and the more population you can muster the better.

Priests Construct Obelisks 60% Faster, Obelisks Cost 33% Less

This is Isis’s scouting, which I find to be quite effective (as long as you can keep them standing). This form of scouting is very good in 1v1s (where the map isn’t very big), but in team games it gets more difficult to scout the larger areas around your base.

Archaic GP – Prosperity

I will use this GP just before I start to farm, so I have ample Gold for all my needs. Also to optimize this, I will put my Pharaoh, and perhaps a few villagers on mining. This is a very straight forward GP you use when you need gold – make sure you’re gold mine won’t run out soon before you cast this!

Using Set

Set has the hardest time when it comes to Micromanagement. First thing you’re going to do is build a monument on any map, then move to Food. Also, you have to get your Priest working (Shift-clicking him makes this quite a bit easier) and get that Hyena scouting. Set has awesome scouting, so use this to your advantage. Another thing Set has is Archaic Map control (bye bye Mr. Norse Forward Builder). Use animals to your advantage- Apes are the best (Cheap + Strong). Only convert animals that are worth converting (Elephants, Lions, Rhinos …) which means try staying away from Deer, Giraffes, etc.

In Classical I will go Ptah alot of the time, unless its water where I suggest going Anubis for Plague of Serpents. In Heroic, Nepthys is almost a 100% choice over Sek. In Mythic, you best choice will most likely be Meteor, although going Horus for line upgrades is always nice. Just remember, with Set you need alot of practice at getting your micro-management down. Watch alot of recorded games to help you there.

Playing Set

Only convert animals that are worth converting (Elephants, Lions, Rhinos …) which means try staying away from Deer, Giraffes, etc. In Classical I will go Ptah alot of the time, unless its water where I suggest going Anubis for Plague of Serpents. In Heroic, Nepthys is almost a 100% choice over Sek. In Mythic, you best choice will most likely be Meteor, although going Horus for line upgrades is always nice. Just remember, with Set you need alot of practice at getting your micro-management down. Watch alot of recorded games to help you there.

Utilizing Set’s Bonuses

Priests Can Convert Wild Animals

The free part about Sets army, and his biggest bonus can be found here: Priests wandering around, converting animals to fight for him. There is nothing worse than going in to raid or fight your opponent, and finding 2 Elephants, 3 Rhinos, 5 Lions, all of which he paid nothing for.

Pharaoh Can Summon Animals

The next part of the free army comes in here … not so much anything else but Apes (and Crocodiles in Heroic). With the Apes of Set costing a mere 3 favor, and taking a tiny 1 pop slot, this is where Set’s lack of economy balances out, because he quite simply doesn’t need much of an economy in the first place to build an army.

Free Animals upon Age Advancement

If it wasn’t enough that Set gets all these free animals, he gets even more produced at the temple free of charge when he advances an age.

20% Faster Archer Training

Again, more army faster, and with a game based so much on speed and aggressiveness this bonus fits right in. With the additional bonuses, this makes Set Slingers + Apes of Set a more than deadly combination against not only other Egyptian Civs, but any civ in general.

20% Slinger HP, 10% Hack Armor

This Bonus is very self-explanitory … what can I say other than, spam slingers :). This far outbalances Set’s Slingers against other Egyptians … Ra and Isis have a hell of time against Set in Classical as is without this bonus, but with this no other mixed or single-unit army of Ra or Isis can match it.

Migdol Stronghold costs 25% less

300 Gold Midgols is another blessing that Set has, while its only a 100 Gold saving, it makes placing these pesky mega-towers around your opponent’s already animal-infested base easier.

Archaic GP – Vision

Here are some of the more common uses of Vision:

Used straight away to find animals to convert.
In Combination with Shifting Sands (Ptah) to grab some enemy villagers and bring them to your TC (TC+tower fire kills them with ease).
In Combination with Siege, Shifting Sands and Ancestors (A lesser used but very powerful combo)
Used with Mythic GPs and ally’s GPs.

Wrapping things up…

Things to Remember

Upgrade are always nice, but dont choose a god solely for his upgrades, or solely for his MU. Bast may have nice Techs, but she falls short in so many other areas, where as Anubis is a great all round classical god.
Nothing provides better help than Recorded games, watch both your own (look for ways to improve) and experts.
Be aggressive! With egyptians I used to find myself sitting back and just waiting to attack. Although this may be OK to do in some situations, it is usually best to be agressive- get the upper hand and take map control.

Thanks to …

ES for Making Age of Mythology.
All people who bother to read this Guide.
Coffee for keeping me awake :).

Cheers! The Golden Arm

Source: The Golden Arm · HeavenGames