Egyptians are a strong economic nation with a flair for building Wonders of the World. To make the most of them you will no doubt wish to construct at least one Wonder, preferably 2 or more. In particular, the Terra Cotta Army wonder can augment your normal military production nicely, since the Egyptians can build this wonder so much earlier than other nations. Egyptians can also play a standard game quite well. Their abundant Food income throughout the game allows them to either produce extra Citizens to max their income levels quicker or alternatively can be spent on extra Food-based military units to augment your forces.

That extra Food also comes in handy when creating more Citizens to help fast-build a Wonder by placing many workers on it at once.

A unique strategy the Egyptians can utilize is a very early Chariot rush using only one starting City. The advantage of this rush is that your opponent won't have Light Cavalry available to him yet (which is the best counter to Chariots and Horse Archers). He'll be stuck defending with Archers. Max out your 7 starting Farms and research Commerce I, Military I, then Classical Age and Military II. At this point you will have a respectable early Wealth income from your Farms and plenty of Wealth saved from not researching Science I. You are then able to use all your Timber income on a Stable and a bunch of Chariots to raid your opponent heavily. After this rush is in motion, concentrate on ensuring your Chariots do maximum damage while at the same time working on increasing your economy (Civic I and your 2nd City should be a high priority after the rush starts).


Start with a Granary and receive Granary upgrades for free.


Why is it important?

With this combination of bonuses, the Egyptians have a great Food income throughout the game. Just be sure to protect your Farmers.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Build 2nd Granary relatively early: Be sure to construct a Granary at your 2nd City once you have about 11 Farms total, since the Granary upgrades make this quite effective.
  
  
• Build all 7 Farms at your capital: The free Granary stacks rather conveniently with the ability for Egyptians to build 7 Farms per City. Instead of just 5 Farms getting the benefit of the nearby Granary, all 7 will gain the production bonus!

May build 7 Farms per City.

Why is it important?

This ability stacks with the free Granary and Granary upgrades, allowing Egyptian nations to have nearly unmatched Food income throughout the early parts of the game. It also centralizes your farming, which is helpful defensively because the less spread out your buildings are, the easier it is to defend them.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Centralized farming: You'll be able to last through much of the game with 2 cities full of Farms. This can be a double-edged sword if your opponent manages to capture one of these two important cities and take a large chunk of your Food income, but usually it works out in your favor since you're able to protect these cities easier than you would if your farms sprawled over several different cities.
  
  
• Stacks with Granary bonus: Be sure to build 7 Farms at your capital City to take advantage of the Granary you already have there - each Farm will produce more food.

Wonders cost 25% less, can be built an age early, and may build two per City.

Why is it important?

Since wonders themselves provide some great bonuses, the Egyptian player has the ability to "customize" his nation powers. Whether you decide to go for the Pyramids or the Colossus early on - or even wait for a later Wonder - the choices you make will give you Wonder bonuses that are not unlike nation powers. In this way, Egyptian nations are a bit more flexible than other nations. It's best to devise your Wonder-building plans early as the Egyptians, so that immediately upon reaching a new age you have the right resources to build a specific wonder.

In team games, building the Terra Cotta Army early in the game can provide an excellent source of fresh troops throughout the game. Even if you're not aggressively attacking, the extra troops help in a pinch!

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Construct Wonders: Don't shy away from building wonders as Egypt.
  
  
• Fast-build your Wonders: When constructing a Wonder or any building, each additional citizen working on that building helps complete that building faster. However each new citizen that helps out will help less and less (2 citizens won't complete a building twice as fast and 3 citizens won't complete a building anywhere near three times as fast). You also should realize that while your citizens are helping construct a building, they're not producing resources for you. In essence, this raises the cost of Wonders since you would've gathered extra resources if those Citizens were working. A good rule of thumb to create buildings rapidly is "use 4 citizens". You won't sacrifice too much economy and the 4th citizen is still helping build fast enough to be worth it.

+10% food commerce limit

Why is it important?

With free Granary upgrades and 7 Farms per City, the Egyptian player would normally find himself capped at a maximum food income earlier than other players but hardly earn that much more food than them overall. With this extra 10% food commerce limit, Egyptian players are able to more effectively utilize their other two bonuses.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Single City Chariot Rush: The Egyptians are able to get their Food income to around +100 early in the game by skipping Science I and using the extra Timber to max their capital City at 7 Farms. Research Commerce I, then Military I, then Classical (the food for Classical should come in quite rapidly). When you reach Classical, get Military II. Build a Stable and begin constructing Chariots (with a few Light Horse to fend off attacks by enemy Archers or Light Horses). Then raid your opponent heavily while you tech up in the background (cease making raiding units after you see your opponent spending a lot of resources on defenses; at this point you've caused him to sink a lot of resources into defense and slow up his technological and economic growth)

Farms produce +2 Wealth

Why is it important?

This is yet another bonus that works as a great combination with the other Egyptian Farm bonuses. Wealth is one of the hardest resources to increase, especially early in the game, so this bonus is rather significant (especially while pulling off a Single City Chariot Rush).

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Build Farms: It's very simple to utilize this nation power, since you're going to be building Farms anyway. It does help to actively acknowledge that you're getting the extra Wealth though, as players tend to forget that they have a huge early stockpile of 250 Wealth that could be used to buy Food/Timber to drastically increase your early economy.
  
  
• It's generally not worth it to produce Farms specifically for increasing Wealth production, since Markets give you +10 Wealth income for much less Timber and Caravan trade routes are even cheaper than that, if you still have free routes to establish. Wealth from Farms is more of an extra secondary benefit.

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