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== DISCLAIMER ==
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1) You are free to copy and redistribute this FAQ in its unmodified form.
2) If you modify this FAQ, you may not redistribute or copy it.
3) You are not entitled to charge money, directly or indirectly, for access to
this FAQ.
Written by: Polaris
Latest Version Hosted on: www.GameFAQs.com
v0.1 ( 5- 9-2008) Original Release
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== LEVELS ==
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-Written for Hard and Impossible Difficulties
-Tip: Quitting the game (returning to menu or exitting to windows) any time
before you click the 'OK' button on the defeat screen preserves your progress
as of the beginning of that level. This is a required strategy against some of
the more unfair map archetypes, notably the Nile and Meteor levels.
RISE OF THE SCARAB KING
Charactersistics: No special characteristics, good mix of map attributes
Favored Advisors: Anyone
Difficulty: Average
MOUNTAINS OF SEMIB
Characteristics: More mountains, mountain cities, additional mine
Favored Advisors: Anyone except Architect
Difficulty: Above Average
CITIES OF ATHAN'TEP
Characteristics: More cities
Favored Advisors: Architect, General
Difficulty: Average
UP THE NILE
Characteristics: More water, cities divided by river
Favored Advisors: General, Engineer, Alchemist
Difficulty: Very Hard
SHRINE OF PETNU
Characteristics: Jungle, fewer mountains and mines
Favored Advisors: General, Scout
Difficulty: Easy
SHUBNEFER THE HERETIC
Characteristics: Starts with Island maps ends with spies
Favored Advisors: Anyone except Scout
Difficulty: Easy
TRIALS OF NANAKHUT
Characteristics: Face challenges such as no mine, no growth, 10 fewer turns,
Meteors, Plagued cities, etc
Favored Advisors: General, Engineer
Difficulty: Very Hard
PLAGUES OF EGYPT
Characteristics: Specific disadvantages
Favored Advisors:
Difficulty:
MYSTERY ISLAND
Characteristics: Random maps
Favored Advisors: Variable
Difficulty: Hard
USER MADE
You can modify the scripts directory to make your own scenarios.
-The template.xml explains what you can do.
-Random.xml is a good reference for several different designs.
-I haven't figured out a way to load another script, so it appears you have to
just overwrite one of the scenarios. I suggest replacing a map you don't like,
but still back it up before overwriting it (just in case).
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== OVERALL STRATEGY ==
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PHASE 1: 85 turns remain
-1st Priority: Search for cities
---Look for crop tiles
---When you find a city, check for an adjacent city
---Avoid water (unless you are on the small side of a river)
---Do not hug the map perimiter
---Do search the mountain outline to determine mountain shape
(there are 3 shapes: U, I, and Z)
---When possible, scan every other row or column to find crops
-2nd Priority: Place workers on unmanned mines
PHASE 2: ~65 turns remaining, or 3 cities found
-1st Priority: Connect cities with roads
-2nd Priority: Search for more cities
-3th Priority: Add first worker to a mine (to get the foreman bonus)
---If feasible, wait until you have 10 free population to do this
-4rd Priority: Search for mercenary camp (for population to either mine or
connect cities)
-5th Priority: Search for additional mines (usually up to 3;
but +1 for Alchemist, +1 for the 'Mountains' campaign)
-6th Priority: Search for cairn stones
---Cairn Stones are almost always along the outer perimeter, and are usually
near the mercenary camp
---Cairn Strongholds are always in the mercenary camps
---Barbarian spawners will never be on a crop, mountain, or water tile
-7th Priority: Add surplus population to mines
---If you quickly find plural mines, adding workers to mining increases in
priority
PHASE 3: ~15 turns left (depending on water amount and whether you need an
advisor), or all Phase 2 priorities complete
-1st Task (High Priority): Look for obelisk
-2nd Task (Priority): If not already done so, deduce cairn stone locations
---Reducing possible tiles so that only one city is attackable is good enough
-3rd Task (Priority): If you are just shy of getting a research add workers to
mining
---Count (the number of karets to the next technology) and subtract (your turn
number + 4) to deduce whether more workers will help
---The research bar ends before the next technology icon if you workers will
not have enough time to complete the research
-4th Task (Priority): Search cities you will defend for +weapons
---Only cities that have a +2 or +3 weapon can have another item, the rest
will all have scarab power as a secondary item
-5th Task (High Priority): If your advisor is up for replacement, search cities
for a new advisor
-6th Task (Low Priority): If you have enough moves, finish searching water for
OASIS letter
-7th Task (Low Priority): If you need them, look for more followers
-8th Task (Low Priority): Revisit the Obelisk (repeatedly)
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== ADVISORS ==
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ARCHITECT
-Increases Max City Size to 500 (from 400)
-Increases Max Capital Size to 700 (from 600)
-Increases City Growth Rate (Unknown Percentage Bonus)
-Start with a bonus city
---Advice: Increase the priority of finding a mercenary camp, reduce priority
of finding mines; not enough free population is the disadvantage the architect
must work around
ENGINEER
-Roads Cost 1 population (instead of 5)
-Roads automatically placed through mines and mountain passageways
---Advice: It's difficult to lose with the Engineer, don't worry about it.
GENERAL
-All cities get +2 attack
-View barbarian horde size before they attack
-Redploy forces in between phases
---Advice: The most important thing for this guy is to have all your cities
connected, but that's the most important thing anyway. Research is less
important.
MOTHER SERAPABEE
-Start with +20 followers
-Can gain additional 37 followers by revisiting Nomad Camp (future clicks are
worth +1?)
-Road automatically placed through Mother Serapabee's Nomad Camp
---Advice: Take advantage of the starting population bonus as quickly as
possible
SCOUT
-See (but not explore) four adjacent tiles for each step
-Mountains start explored, mines start underneath ? marks
---Advice: Visit important locations quicker, but don't get single-minded
about it and maintain a balanced game.
ALCHEMIST
-One additional mine on the map
-Gain 5 population whenever a mine is discovered
-Research Faster (+37.5% faster research rate)
---Advice: Although his specialty is research, don't focus any more heavily on
mining unless you can do so before turn 50. Otherwise just play as normal and
accept 1 free tech from him.
-In normal and easy difficulty, I think the advisors are relatively equal. I
would probably give the edge to the Scout as the best.
-In hard and impossible difficulty, I rate the advisors like so:
1) Engineer
2) General
3) Mother Serapabee
4) Architect
5) Scout & Alchemist (tie)
(The Scout and Alchemist ARE good on certain maps, but their specialized maps
are not the hard ones, unfortunately)
(Engineer and Mother Serapabee are ranked as such because they are the best at
connecting cities, which is the key to winning Oasis)
(The General is ranked as such because higher difficulties have more waves and
fewer weapons in cities, making him doubly useful)
(The Architect has a good bonus, but he's one dimensional; versatility is
important because you can't always start the maps the way you would like)
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== TECHNOLOGIES ==
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-A Foreman (mine with any population in it) is worth 1% Research per turn
-10 Miners are worth 1% Research points per turn (Equal to 1 Foreman)
-Adding workers to a mine doubles their production for that turn
-Some of the high level techs have a lower research cost
ARROWS
-Improved Hit Rate
---Each of the Hit and Evade Rate techs are worth about +1.5 attack.
HELMETS
-Improved Evade Rate
---Each of the Hit and Evade Rate techs are worth about +1.5 attack.
BARRICADES
-Kills 10 Barbarians whenever they attack any city
---This tech is basically worthless, don't stretch your research unless you
can get the next one too.
CATAPULT
-Deals Heavy Damage, but attacks slowly
---Very powerful, this tech is worth stretching for.
PLATE MAIL (L2)
-Improved Helmets
---Each of the Hit and Evade Rate techs are worth about +1.5 attack.
CROSSBOWS (L2)
-Improved Arrows
---Each of the Hit and Evade Rate techs are worth about +1.5 attack.
BALLISTA (L2)
-Improved Catapult (attacks more quickly)
---At the point you get this one, your tech level is dominant against
barbarians. You should be able to win outnumbered two to one.
BEAR TRAPS (L2)
-Improved Barricades (Kills 20 Barbarians)
---Unlike Barricades, this tech is actually decent because you will be
outnumbered when you've gotten this high on the tech tree.
PIKES
-Recruit 20 Extra Soldiers to each attacked city
---Pretty good, but it's all gravy at this point, anyway.
CARTOGRAPHY
-Visit 5 random tiles, as though you had clicked on them
---Basically just compensates for the number of times you clicked on mines
adding workers.
BONUS SCARAB POWER (repeats)
-Adds +100 Scarab Power
---Gets more expensive each time you get it. Worthless, really.
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== DIFFICULTIES ==
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EASY
-Advisors remain with you for 1 extra map. (6 maps for most campaigns)
-Barbarian horde size is small.
-Reveal time of Barbarian path begins at 10 seconds
NORMAL
-This is a good challenge to learn the game on. It's pretty well balanced here.
-Advisors remain with you for the default number of maps. (5 maps)
-Reveal time of Barbarian path begins at 7.5 seconds
HARD
-FAQ written for this difficulty.
-Advisors remain with you for 1 fewer maps. (4 maps for most campaigns)
-Barbarian horde size and wave count is larger.
-Reveal time of Barbarian path begins at 5 seconds
IMPOSSIBLE
-Too many maps really are impossible on this difficulty making it a trial in
luck instead of skill.
-Advisors remain with you for 2 fewer maps. (3 maps for most campaigns)
-Barbarian horde size and wave count is much larger.
-Reveal time of Barbarian path begins at 5 seconds
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== TERRAIN ==
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ROAD PEOPLE TERRAIN TYPE
Y 2 DESERT
Y 3 NOMAD TENTS (Periphery)
Y 5 NOMAD TENTS (Central)
Y 9 NOMAD CAMP
Y Up to 37 NOMAD CAMP (Mother Serapabee)
N 2-4 scrb OASIS WATER
N 2-4 scrb OASIS OBELISK
N 0 MOUNTAIN
N* -10 MINE
Y 2 MOUNTAIN PASS
Y 1 CROP
Y 2-4 OVERLAPPED CROP (2-4)
Y 0 CITY
Y 0 CAPITAL
N 0 MOUNTAIN CITY
Y 0 PLAGUED CITY (and variants)
N Overlay LIGHT JUNGLE
N Overlay HEAVY JUNGLE
N? Overlay CAIRN STONES
N Overlay CAIRN STRONGHOLD
-Revisitable terrain:
---Serapabee's Nomad Camp (provides 1 fewer population each visit)
---The Obelisk (random effect each visit: small scarab power, large scarab
power, 1 extra turn, research bonus)
---Mine (up to 10 population added to mine to increase research rate)
---Light and Heavy Jungle (Heavy Jungle is worth about 20% research, Light is
worth about 15%)
---City, Capital, or Mountain City (random item or scarab power)
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== MATHEMATICAL APPENDIX ==
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RESEARCH RATES
-A foreman is worth 1% research per turn
-A worker is worth 0.1% research per turn
-The Alchemist increases your research rate by 37.5%
-See the section on Technology for a full explanation
OBELISK FREQUENCY OF EVENTS ON REVISITING
-60% Small Scarab Power
-15% Large Scarab Power
-15% Bonus Research
-10% Bonus Turn
-Percentages are approximate
-Raw Data: 34 Small, 10 Large, 9 Research, 5 Turns
CITY GROWTH RATE
-Tested on Cities of Athan'tep
-Every multiple of 5 turns, city population increases by the accumulated
population
-0.003 population gained each turn (according to the templates.xml)
-0.15 population accumulates each turn (6.5 turns to accumulate) (2 cities, no)
COMBAT MATHEMATICS
-The +damage items work like this: each time your soldiers score a hit then
each +damage kills 1/2 of a barbarian
-Hit / Miss rates are a mystery
-Catapult and Ballista frequency and damage are a mystery, but as a
guesstimate, the catapult kills 15 soldiers in about the time it takes for
100 soldiers on both teams to perish
-How spies work: If you find them within a certain number of turns
(usually 35), the city is saved. Otherwise, the city will be destroyed as soon
as the barbarians reach it.
