Labor Camps and paharoh health questions

[zaldar]

Ok bought this recently and thought oh I've completed ceaser III I'm an old hand I'll just jump right in. Heh! Well after being overthrown and going back to go through the tutorials I finished the first "easy" campagin (Nubit I believe) on hard. Question on Labor camps. When I wanted to start placing stele I build a labor camp around the granite quarry. Overseer, common and luxuary shops laborers, bakery, priest and a few shrines. One thing I should have done is built the shops first and let them fill with supplies before building the overseer and laborer houses. However after the laborers stopped protesteing and started buying and working I left to do other things, than when I came back the shop keepers had started protesting. Seems they had not enough demand to meet there needs for food (I had two other sets of luxuary and common shops elsewhere in my main city). By this time I didn't need any more granite so I just destroyed everything but that started me thinking. Do most people simply build the labor camps in the main city and have them walk to the work site unless you are building a pryamid or will end up having twenty or so laborers?

Also do you have any control over the pharohs health? I've seen him leave to get health check ups when I have a working hospital, does this actually increase his lifespan along with a varied diet? Would be useful, after having one no tomb prestige hit I almost always build a small mastaba and a mortuary before most anything else now.

[MarkDuffy]

Nubt is the first Moderate city. Nekhen is the first Easy city.

I have some problems with your explanation of your failed Labor Camp. Shops don't need bricks whereas the other buildings do. They should have been built first anyway. I would assume that your Labor Camp problem was food. Build the Bakeries first (bricks). Two of them, minimum. This assumes your city has lots of food first. It really depends on your brickmaking/bricklaying operation & how efficient it is. You also didn't say anything about Hospital/Apothecary. You need two Priests, with a papyrus maker. I also place a Noble in my Labor Camps (Servants, Entertainer).

A Labor Camp with Educated Workers really needs to be a mini-city.

Quarry & mine from your city. It is easier that way. Two Overseers on each Quarry/Mine job will solve distance issues if one doesn't work fast enough for you, even on HARD.

Try to build your city smack dab in the middle of the map. Makes the distances to everything equal.

I will start with a minimum of 16 laborers. Then I double it. Then I will go crazy if I need to quarry limestone & build pyramids. I like to build.

More is ALWAYS better.

Age 6 is about the youngest & 48 is about the oldest for Pharaoh. Diet/Health Care don't appear to matter, but I don't really know. Worry when Pharaoh gets to be 30.

If you have zero prestige, you do not need a tomb for Pharaoh nor a Mortuary. You need an Active Mortuary to prevent the Funeral alert icon. When you begin to have prestige, you need a Mortuary & a Tomb for Pharaoh. You do not need a Priest to activate the Mortuary when Pharaoh dies almost all of the time. This is one of those fuzzy issues ~ Active Mortuary. You need either/or, but both is best (& how the game should work, but doesn't).

My Priest #6 is a Funeral Priest (Education, Health, 3 Tend Gods, Funeral in that order). Just to be safe, I change the Priest nearest my Mortuary (which I always build early) to Funeral when Pharaoh dies if I have no funeral Priest.

:)

[zaldar]

Sorry looked again and it was Nubt the first easy campaign and I hadn't explained myself well. I had already built most of my city before I added a labor camp which I had envisoned as an offshoot of my first city.

Main city had a hospital and an apotocary several bricklayers and such already as well as shops. I've attached a save game I made after I had already won. (wanted to see how my cult temple turned out didn't build it until late).

When I play it again I'm thinking about building the labor camps in the main city rather than by the quary. Any advice is welcome! (I may try and build it on the other side of the nile by the basalt quarry at some point if I get bored enough)

[MarkDuffy]

I'll take a look at your save, Zaldar. Be back in 15 minutes.

~ ~ ~

Ok, We are in Nekhen. City is 21 years old & past victory. On HARD.

Your MESSAGE LOG shows you didn't have landings nor Cargo Drop Off Points (DOP). Landings you have under control, but not DOPs. You need to place one in the middle of your city & leave it generic before you ever go to the World Map. When you got the message "No DOP in your city" the game automatically places one for you. Yours is on the eastern edge of the map & your people keep going to it. Delete it & place one in your city. You lose its contents. No worries cuz you will get more. Palace Storage Area (ones by mines will be SA also) is NOT a DOP. You can leave it there if you place all the Exchanges I suggest below.

You have farmers three deep. You have buildings with blocked doors (shops main city). Your Nobles are a mess. Always have a space or road in front of every door. Most of your city is fine. Build in X2's back to back rows.

You have only three bakeries (3 X 500 = 1500) & one granary (2000). Your last Harvest was 3132. You don't have enough room for food. Especially when your Scribes have papyrus (which they don't), cuz they will count the farms better.

You have only 3 papyrus makers. They hold 12 max each. You have papyrus reserved at 40. No papyrus for anyone. Reserve is for the Wolrd Map. Your city only can use amounts above 40. Priests need papyrus also. Some of your Priests have papyrus & I don't know why.

You need more common shops. You need to build your shops in the same location in complete sets.

Place an Exchange in your labor camp, one in the middle of your city, one by your barge landings & one by your shipwright. No Scribes needed. This is overkill & kind of a joke. ;)

Actually, you are doing fine, Zaldar. Remember you decided to jump into HARD.

Now about your Labor camp. Where are they quarrying & where are they constructing? Six of one & half dozen of the other, right? Don't build a Labor Camp. Save the Educated you waste on Priests there for your main city. No Hospital there & that made your people walk to your city. They walked for worship anyway.

The time your people spend walking is the time they cannot do other things.

:)

[Keith]

zaldar, I generally don't bother with labor camps anymore. If I can import the item I'll do that instead if I can afford the offset in trade, usually food.

If I do quarry something, I'll just build all my overseers and laborers in my city trying to keep them close to the river to shorten the walk somewhat, if they have to cross the river. If they don't have to cross the river I'll build them in an area near in or very close to my city on the side that the quarry is located to shorten the walk.

Provided all else is going well in your city you should have no problem getting them to walk the distance and do the work. It helps to have a few sets of 4 or more in multiples of four, that way those that don't report can go shopping, see the doctor, visit a shrine or temple.

The reason I stopped using them is because I found that even when the camps supposedly had everthing they needed to be happy, the residents there still went back to the city to get things they wanted even when it was available right near home. This caused an increase in delays, travel times back and forth, and a rise in disatisfaction. Plus, people from my city were traveling to the the camp to get things and causing problems in the city as well.