= Pharaoh. === ======= Build a Kingdom. =========== Rule the Nile. =============== Live Forever. =================== ======================= =========================== =============================== =================================== ========================================================================= Pharaoh - Income Strategy FAQ Version 1.0 07/10/02 Written by Andra B. (vixenchik66@hotmail.com) GameFAQs username: VixenChik ========================================================================= Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Adjusting the game speed for maximum efficiency 3. Establishing home industry a. Resource assessment b. Opening trade routes c. Industrial city sectors d. Exporting goods 4. Importing raw materials/goods to increase industry a. Assessing industry capabilities b. Import/export price analysis c. New trade routes d. Expanding your industries e. Balance your imports/exports 5. Storage Yards and Docks 6. Taxes, taxes, taxes! a. Town Palace and Tax Collectors b. Percentage of population registered for taxes c. Wages vs. Tax rate d. Beautify your city 7. Special Thanks 8. Copyright/credits/etc. ========================================================================= 1. Introduction ========================================================================= One of the most significant challenges to new Pharaoh players is the problem of successfully increasing the financial income in the city. Becoming bankrupt is not only frustrating, it can keep you from achieving that fantastic "Victory!" box at the end of a level. Although Pharaoh will grant you additional debens the first time you run out of money, you can end up in quite a dilemma if that initial grant runs out and you still find yourself in the hole. It is impossible to win most scenarios without at least a small prosperity rating, and your prosperity rating will stay at 0 if your city remains bankrupt. Additionally, you will not be able to pay the all-important yearly cash tribute to Pharaoh (which is done automatically at the end of the year by your Overseer of the Treasury), which will affect your Kingdom rating as well. How then, can you turn things around and become a financial mastermind? Everyone knows that there's no satisfaction to be had from using cheat codes. The good news: with some basic strategic planning and a little practice, you'll never need to cheat your way to a healthy bank balance. ========================================================================= 2. Adjusting the game speed for maximum efficiency ========================================================================= When beginning a new level, the first thing you'll want to do is set the game speed to its lowest level, which is 10% (this can be done by going to the "Options" menu, clicking "Game Speed," and setting the speed to 10%). This affords you a significant amount of time to mentally map out your city and to begin placement of industries and housing blocks. Slowing down the game speed allows you to avoid the passing of months and months without progress in your city. Another important note: By developing the placement of your city quickly, yet not allowing significant game time to pass, you will avoid pissing off the Gods, which is very important, particularly in later levels of the game. Once your initial industries and housing blocks are set up, change the speed to whatever you prefer (I usually change it to 80% until the city is really starting to rock and roll, and then I change it to 100%). ========================================================================= 3. Establishing home industry ========================================================================= a. Resource assessment After you've essentially established food production for your city (which can be done quickly as the first order of business), it's time to see about making some money! Assessing your available resources enables you to see how much money you can make without spending a dime. Virtually anything can probably be exported (depending on the particular level you are playing). If you can plant barley farms, you can produce beer for your townspeople as well as for export. Flax farms enable you to make Linens. Clay pits for pottery. Different types of stone quarries produce stone blocks. This is all pretty basic, but the trick is to envision all of your products as valuable commodities, which they are. Whatever you can produce from within the city should be your first export. Also remember that raw materials can be exported as well (such as barley). If you have 6 barley farms and 4 breweries, you're going to be producing a lot of extra barley, which you can export if you like. THE MORE ITEMS YOU EXPORT, THE MORE MONEY YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE. Even selling excess barley, which sells for a low price, can add a chunk to your pocketbook. b. Opening trade routes Once you have established which products you can produce, it's time to open some trade routes so that you can make some money when you actually start producing goods. Click on the World Map and look around to see which cities are willing to trade with you, and what they are willing to trade. Keep in mind that each city will only trade a set amount each year (i.e., 40 blocks of plain stone per year). You cannot exceed this amount, though sometimes if you please the Gods, they will increase the amount of possible trading. If you plan to produce a large amount of beer (example), and more than one city is looking to buy beer, then be sure to open both trade routes. This increases your odds of maximum trading (and maximum income) for that product. As you're just beginning your industries, be sure to only open trade routes with cities with whom you will actually be trading. This cuts down on traffic (which is very important when trading by water). Note: If a city only trades by water, be sure to build a Dock as soon as possible. c. Industrial city sectors Strategic placement of housing blocks and industrial buildings (breweries, jewelers, etc.) is crucial for creating efficient industries. If you plan to establish reed gatherers, and, subsequently, papyrus makers, you should always place these types of building as near to the source of the raw materials (i.e., reeds) as possible. I always create entire sections of my city that are entirely devoted to industry. They are, in effect, the "slums" of the city. Housing blocks must be placed near to the industries in order to provide sufficient worker access, yet industrial buildings have a negative effect on the desirability of neighborhoods. Not to worry. Slums are okay - in fact, they're pretty necessary. You can build a lovely Beverly Hills area in another section of your map, away from the industry so that your spoiled, snobbish city inhabitants don't have to even acknowledge the existence of your slums. Note: You'll want to provide the people in your "low-rent" housing districts with food, or city health will worsen. Make sure you instruct bazaar buyers in these areas to ONLY buy food, otherwise, you'll be providing your ghetto workers with pottery, beer, etc., which they don't need, and which is a waste of expensive materials. Don't feel mean, they're only imaginary people. ;) See the Storage Yard section of this FAQ for some important tips, which will help you keep your industries running efficiently. d. Exporting goods At last! It's time to make some money after all of your hard work (or rather, the hard work of your citizens). You won't want to export all of your beer, linen, etc., or else the fancy-schmancy areas of your city will suffer and the houses will not evolve. It is always a good idea to keep a nice stock of beer, pottery and linens (and eventually, luxury goods) in your Storage Yards for your wealthy citizens. The amount you choose to keep will vary based on the size of your city (and the size of your well-to-do neighborhoods). Visit your Overseer of Commerce and click on whichever products you will be exporting. It is always wise to manually set the import amount (rather than letting the Overseer do it automatically). This gives you more control over product management and increases efficiency not only in exporting, but also in basic management of your city. Instruct the Overseer of Commerce to "export when over XXXX" amount. This will ensure that you have a steady supply for your own residents, but will be exporting the excess goods. You'll be surprised how fast the money starts rolling in! ========================================================================= 4. Importing raw materials/goods to increase industry ========================================================================= a. Assessing industry capabilities Congratulations! You've got your first industries established, and now it's time to see just how much more income you can make. Check to see which additional industries you can build (on your regular menus). If, for example, you're already producing beer and papyrus, you might want to check to see if you're able to build potters, jewelers, etc. (even if you cannot build clay pits or gemstone mines). Let's say that you would like to create potters and weavers, but you don't have the raw materials. Not a problem! You can almost always import the raw materials that you'll need to make a finished product. b. Import/export price analysis Visit your Overseer of Commerce and click "Show Prices." You will see that while it may cost you over a hundred debens to import a single shipment of pottery, it costs almost nothing to import clay. You will also notice, being the shrewd businessperson that you are, that selling pottery could turn quite a profit. The math is simple: If it costs 20 debens to import clay (just an example), and pottery can be exported at a price of 160 debens, that's a 140 deben profit in your favor. Now that you've decided which new industries you'd like to create, and have examined the profit margins, it's time to open up some new trade routes and make some more cash. c. New trade routes If, for example, you've decided to create pottery and linen, visit the World Map once again and look for cities which sell clay and flax, the items you will need to create your finished products (Note: One of the cities with which you've already opened a trade route may be selling these goods). Open these new trade routes, and then visit your Overseer of Commerce once again. Make sure that you instruct the Overseer to import plenty of raw materials for your industry. This can be done by manually clicking the "Import to maintain XXXX" amount box. If you're not importing enough, your industries will stagnate from time to time without materials. You'll want to import enough materials to keep a pretty steady supply in your Storage Yards. This way, you can keep up a consistent production schedule in your industries and produce enough goods to keep your citizens happy, yet have enough surplus goods to export and turn a nice profit. Instruct the Overseer to export the goods you'll be making, and then go ahead and set up your new industries. d. Expanding your industries Time to capitalize on those cheap raw materials and turn them into cash-making bundles of opportunity! You'll want to set up some new industrial housing blocks to accommodate your new industries, and, as before, set up your industries next to these new neighborhoods. e. Balance your imports/exports The cash amount of your exports should ALWAYS be greater than the cash amount of your imports. Once you get some successful industries rolling, you'll see a tremendous difference between the two. You can compare the figures by visiting your Overseer of the Treasury and checking his list of income/expenses, where the "Imports Cost" figure and the "Exports Earn" figures are clearly marked. If a few "years" have gone by and your import cost is exceeding the earnings of your exports, check with the Overseer of Commerce. You may be importing an excessive amount of materials, or you may have forgotten to instruct the Overseer to export something (it happens). Additionally, make sure that you have not set one of your imports or exports to "Stockpiling," as nothing that is being stockpiled can be used or traded. ========================================================================= 5. Storage Yards and Docks ========================================================================= Storage Yard placement is far more important than you might think. When developing your industries, you should always have a couple of Storage Yards directly next to your Potters, Weavers, etc. that are dedicated specifically to these industries. Setting the commands for your Storage Yards is extremely important. For example, if you have a city industry section devoted to making pottery, linen and beer, you will want to have 2 or 3 Storage Yards next to the Potters, Weavers and Breweries. The Storage Yards should be instructed to accept NOTHING except for clay, flax and barley. Additionally, NONE of your other Storage Yards should accept these raw materials. This ensures that when you import or produce any of the raw materials, they will go directly to the Storage Yards nearest your industries, for prompt delivery to the appropriate building. Additionally, the Storage Yards nearest your ritzy neighborhoods should be set to accept your finer goods (such as beer and pottery). This enables the bazaar workers in the fancier part of town to have quick access to the goods, which will allow your rich citizens to have a steady supply of fine goods (their houses will quickly devolve if they receive an erratic supply). Storage Yards located next to your Docks should be set to accept all goods that you are exporting. This ensures that traders who come by water will have quicker access to the goods they are buying. If you are doing a lot of trading by water, it is a good idea to have more than one Dock. On levels with a lot of water trading, I usually set up 2 or 3 in order to cut down on Dock traffic and expedite the trading process. Sometimes it will be necessary to place your Dock on the opposite side of the river from where you are manufacturing your goods. Be sure to place ferry landings (or bridges, if applicable) as close to your industrial areas as possible, so that the goods you are exporting will be taken to the Storage Yards near your Docks as soon as possible. ========================================================================= 6. Taxes, taxes, taxes! ========================================================================= a. Town Palace and Tax Collectors As soon as possible, make sure to build your Town Palace. You cannot build Tax Collectors without one, and Tax Collectors are a surprisingly easy way to make a lot of money every "year." Tax Collectors should be placed near every housing block. Don't neglect to put Tax Collectors in your slums - even though the tax income will be smaller from these areas, it is still important to make sure that the majority of your citizens are registered for taxes. b. Percentage of population registered for taxes At the very minimum, at least 80% of the population in your city should be registered for taxes. You can check to see what percentage of the population is registered for taxes by visiting your Overseer of Commerce. Near the top of the "page," the Overseer will list how much money has been collected so far that year, what percentage of the population is registered for taxes, and how much money has been uncollected for that year. If you find that a large number of people in your city are not paying taxes, visit the Overlay menu, go to Administration, and click "Taxes." You will be able to scroll around the map and identify (by placing your mouse over the different pillars) which houses are unregistered for taxes, and you can then place new Tax Collectors where they are needed. c. Wages vs. tax rate The tax rate in the game is typically set at 9%. I always bump it up to 10%, and I never have any complaints from my citizens about unfair taxation (and I have yet to see a Boston Tea Party at one of my Docks!). You can change the tax rate by visiting the Overseer of the Workers and manually changing it (it is located at the bottom of the "page"). The wages that you pay your workers should always equal the rate that the Kingdom pays (this is also found at the bottom of the "page" when visiting the Overseer of the Workers). Typically, with a tax rate of 10% and with the majority of your citizens registered for taxes, you will notice (by visiting the Overseer of the Treasury and reading his list) that you are collecting more in taxes than you are paying out in wages. This hardly seems fair to your hard-working citizens, but they don't seem to mind, and it looks so nice on your treasury list! d. Beautify your city Ah, the fun stuff. Take some time in your ritzy neighborhoods to really spruce things up for the local rich folk. Gardens, statues, plazas (a must), lots of entertainment, fine goods, plenty of access to religion - the works! It doesn't just make the neighborhoods look nice, it helps to achieve another notch of capitalistic gain for you: the nicer the neighborhood, the more you will collect in taxes. It can make a pretty significant difference, so get creative and beautify those top-notch neighborhoods. By this time, you ought to have more money than you know what to do with, so have fun! ========================================================================= 7. Special Thanks ========================================================================= -Pistikus, my best friend, a would-be slayer of dragons, who took time out of obsessively writing his Scooby Doo Walkthrough to check out my little Pharaoh FAQ, and who thinks my ridiculous ASCII pyramid is top-notch. -My ex-boyfriend, for making me feel like I was a crappy Pharaoh player and that his skills were far superior to my own, so that I was able to realize - quite recently in fact - that I, too, am a strategic genius and have totally mastered this game. Huh. -TJ, Curt, TGA, Omni, Silver, Omega and the rest of the crew from RPFF * S *, for being fun and playing Naked Crisco Twister on random Saturday nights. ========================================================================= 8. Copyright/Credits/Etc. ========================================================================= The copyright to this FAQ belongs to GameFAQs user VixenChik (Andra B.). All material contained herein was written solely by the lovely Miss Andra B., belongs to her, and shall not be used without her express permission. Thank you kindly! The copyright to "Pharaoh" (1999) belongs to Sierra On-Line Inc.