Egyptians

## **Historical brief**

Ancient Egypt was a civilization in Northeast Africa situated in the Nile Valley. Ancient Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The history of ancient Egypt occurred as a series of stable kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age. The Egyptian Empire refers to the period in ancient Egyptian history between the sixteenth century BC and the eleventh century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties of Egypt. Radiocarbon dating places the beginning of the New Kingdom between 1570 BC and 1544 BC. It was Egypt's most prosperous time and marked the peak of its power.

## Rulebook entry

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

As the **Egyptians**, you are empire builders. With so many opportunities for development, you’ll want to consider carefully the best order in which to expand your deck. With your infrastructure located around Egypt’s famous river, the frequent flood of the Nile can bring new opportunities for growth, and you’ll want to keep an eye out for key cards in the market.

## Civilization spotlight

The empire of Egypt lasted for three millennia. It is impossible to capture the depth and diversity of this culture in a deck of 23 cards, instead we have tried to highlight a few aspects. The **Egyptians** are one of the 8 civilisations included in Imperium: Legends.

Egypt is dominated by the Nile and this mighty river features in the Egypt deck – both as two region cards (Nile Valley and Lower Nile) and a vital card Flood of the Nile. While you’re a young nation, the flood will bring you resources in a recurring fashion, as long as you control enough of the rivers of your land. Once you grow to be an Empire, the flood will allow you reprieve from the day-to-day labours, allowing you to acquire civilized cards

Becoming an Empire is represented with your ascension card Unification which is the political joining of upper and lower Egypt under the first king of the First Dynasty, Menes.

We are representing Egypt’s longevity as an Empire by the large number of development cards you get as Egypt. This also means you are likely to be looking inward and developing rather than acquiring a multitude of cards from the market. However, you should not ignore the market entirely, key cards especially water icons will help your strategy. Becoming an empire so early will leave you with some unplayable barbarian cards – you can utilise your Egyptian Hieroglyphics to move those unplayable cards into your history. Once an Empire you could develop Embalming for more opportunities to put cards into your history.

Egypt’s power card is interesting, you get a powerful effect using either the A or B side – we recommend new players use the B side of the power card and doing so with Egypt will give you a larger hand size which is a significant advantage. The A side of the card is more complicated, you can gain an extra action at great cost. Once an empire your A side power will also allow you to accelerate your development but great upheavals always demand more management from you.

You may think inviting unrest for these bonuses is a disaster – but Egypt has some of the best cards in the game for managing unrest, the Obelisk and the Pyramids.

## Strategy

#### Barbarian

For the most part, you want to go through this phase as fast as possible, as the Egypyians only really start to shine as an empire. Don't spend your resources, garrison with your regions and keep them in play. You can already start using Egyptian hieroglyphics to put your barbarian cards and Glory in history. Kushities however is a particularily strong card, and if you get it as your first nation card it can be a reason to extend your time as barbarian slightly longer.

#### Empire

Flood of the Nile is your main way to get cards from the market, and you should aim to use it as much as possible. Remember that between Egyptian legacy and your nation card, you'll be getting 3-4 extra VP per civilised card you pick up (this goes down a bit after your nation card maxes out). Speaking of Egyptian legacy, it's an incredibly powerful card and you should make it your first development, and play it whenever you can. After that, develop Medicine followed by Development to make sure you can continue to develop consistently. Obelisk is also a really good early / mid development to mitigate unrest while generating progress tokens.

#### Best common cards

As mentionned, civilised cards are obviously a big priority for you. Don't be afraid to break through for a random one or grab even the ones that are less useful to you, as you can always put them in your history. Both your starting regions contain a water symbol, so if you're lucky enough to see a Qanat early on in the market, it will get you some good Prosperity plays as well as a minimum of 4 VPs. Other than that, you're pretty hungry for resources so as with Atlanteans cards like City and Metropolis are great picks as well.

## Epic matchups

**Mauryan advances:** Mesure up against the Mauryan Empire, lead by Emporor Ashoka during the 3rd century BCE, as they seek to extend their influence westward. Will your chariots and archers match the war elephants ?

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient\_Egypt
2. ↑ https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2600982/imperium-civilisation-spotlight-egyptians
3. ↑ https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2695493/advanced-strategic-tips-each-nation