Egypt: Upper

Launched in 2008, Egypt: Upper is the 3rd map in the Egyptian series (Egypt: Valley of the Kings, Egypt: Lower, Egypt: Upper and Egypt: Nubia). The map has 26 regions and falls into the small maps category.

This is a split map with a linear layout based around the ancient Nile regions south of the Nile delta. Add desert attack routes, Dhows (i.e. ships) crossing the Nile, and suitable Egyptian design aspects from the region, and the map challenges one and all.

This map is suited for any kind of game, including both 8 player and quadruples. Quads game are tricky since each team member starts with 3 regions, and members of the team who got the start can work together to eliminate the last member to take turn on the opposite team.
FEATURES
Autodeploy: +1 Troop is automatically added to Capitals held by the player at the start of each turn.
The six Auto-Deploy Capitals are:

* Maten
* Anpu
* Atef-Khent
* Abedju
* Wast
* Ta-Seti:Abu

Naming Challenges: This map has many Regions with similar names:

* Wn:Khmun and Wn:Beri Hasan
* Atef-Pehu and Atef-Pehu:Qesy
* Atef-Khent and Atef-Khent:Henennesut
* Aa-ta and Aa-ta:Nubt
* Sep and Set
* Ta-Seti:Abu and Ta-Seti:Nebet
* Thes-Hor:Edfu and Thes-Hor:Djeba
* Ten:Iunyt and Ten:Nekheb

Ranged Attack: Some regions on the map are connected without touching:

* Sep and Tu-ph
* Wn: Khmun and Minu
* Abedju and Ta-Seti: Abu

 Released
 Last Revamp
 Difficulty
 Special feat.

## Starting regions & bonus zones

Starting regions
 4
 5
 6
 7-8

Bonus zones
 Saka
 Zawty
 Abdju
 Thebes
 Abu

## Settings

### Recommended

Due to its small size and quick play, this map works best in a 1v1 format. This makes the map attractive for people who want a quick game. Other popular settings would be sequential, 3-6 player games, doubles, or triples games.

For the most balanced game play, choose No Spoils. The Fog of War setting will add some spice to the game.

### Spoils

* Escalating
Always look for weak players, and try to take them out to gain a few more spoils. Always build up troop stacks on the capitals (taking advantage of the +1 troop auto-deploy).
* Flat Rate
Flat Rate should be avoided on all small maps like this one. It makes the game about luck, and the player who cashes a mixed spoils set in three rounds will have a big advantage.
* No Spoils
No spoils gives the most balanced play for this map due to the map size. If you decide to use this setting, try to gain control of Autodeploy capitals early in the game to get the +1 troop on each turn.
* Nuclear
Want to add an extra challenge to your game? Use the Nuclear Spoils setting, but don't forget that you can nuke yourself if you are not paying attention.
If you are ready to cash a set of spoils, and one of your auto-deploy capitals is going to get nuked, move out to the adjacent region and retake the capital after the cash.

## 1v1

Each player starts with 8 regions. This map has 6 auto deploy capital bonuses (each with a +1 troop bonus). Gaining control of as many capitals as possible early in the game will give you a big lead.

An easy way to win at Egypt: Upper is to get early control over the 6 different bonus zones. Try to control a zone bonus protected by neutral troops, so that you can reinforce/stack and prepare an assault on your next round. Do not attack neutral regions to conquer a bonus zone as you risk wasting your own troops. Doing this will give a substantial advantage to your opponent.

Try to get control of the zone bonus located on each end of the map (Tepihu on Top Left and Abu on bottom right) as they have an advantage since they are accessible from few attacking points.

## Multiplayer

The key for winning multiplayer games is to conquer and hold any of the six capitals early in the game in order to get an auto-deploy advantage over the other players. Also, try to conquer zone bonus on the end of the map (Tepihu on Top Left and Abu on bottom right) early in the game.

## Team games

The best strategy is to go immediately for an opponent elimination. This is especially true in Quadruples games (in which each player starts with 3 regions) where a player can be eliminated even before taking his first turn.

On small team games, Doubles and Triples, the key is to conquer and hold any of the six capitals early in the game in order to get an auto deploy advantage over the other team. Then team members can work together to conquer a bonus zone and go for an opponent elimination

## Additional notes

The Dhows (i.e. the boats) connecting some regions are not map decorations, they show assault/reinforcement paths between the map's regions.

Freestyle can be fun, but if a player can get their first turn in before the others start their turn, that player will gain a small troop advantage for holding auto deploy capitals, so be alert for the game start.

There are no true dead ends, as all regions touch at least 2 others. No regions are particularly difficult to access.

The only bottlenecks regions on the map are Minu, located in the bottom left part of the map, and Abedju. Minu is the only access point between the two sections (left and right) of the map.

The map plays very linearly, meaning the northernmost and southernmost bonuses areas are the best to hold.