One way to ensure better crops is too make sure that you stay tight with the gods, particularly Osiris. Unfortunately, on most levels (as was true in Ancient Egypt) there is very little land available that is suitable for crop production.

Since you have to feed your people for an entire year on the fruits of your labor, you'll find that overproduction and mass storage is the best way to ensure long term survival. If the floods were too high, your crops may be destroyed (as well as buildings that were too close to the banks of the Nile. If the floods were too low, the land may not receive the nutrients it needs and your harvests will be light. When things dry out a bit, you'll send your workers back in to start harvesting the many bounties of Nile Delta farming Вї flax, barley, grain, figs, and chickpeas just to name a few. Each year you'll watch as your fields are covered over by the Nile's waters. In Pharaoh, Impressions has done a tremendous job of recreating this annual event. If the floods were not good, everyone starved. If the floods were good, then huge crops grew and everyone was happy. As if this wasn't problem enough in and of itself, once a year, the Nile flooded, leaving rich deposits of silt that made the land suitable for growing again. One of the greatest challenges to life in Ancient Egypt was the fact that farming could only be done on the narrow strips of land right next to the Nile. Eventually your family will be given assignments of greater and greater importance until one day when you will have accumulated the power to take the throne for yourself. Those who are more concerned with building the largest city they can will be happy to know that the game doesn't automatically end at the completion of a mission Вї you can choose to keep governing any of your cities to watch them flourish for as long as you like. It's never easy, but the sense of accomplishment at the end of each mission is well worth the trouble. As you slowly try to lead your family to eventual control of the nation, you'll have to gather resources for Pharaoh, build increasingly massive tombs for the city nobles and appease the often-fickle gods of Ancient Egypt. With each successful village, you will move forward in time and take on the role of one of your offspring leading larger groups of people as they take part in the grand history that made Egypt one of the most thought-provoking empires of all time. You must build a village and help your people flourish. The basic idea behind Pharaoh is pretty simple Вї you start the game as a leader of a small tribe in Egypt. With Impressions' latest historical world building game Pharaoh, I've finally been able to fill that void in my play experience. But while I have enjoyed my countless hours with titles like Lords of the Realm, Settlers, and Caesar, there was always something missing Вї a sense of truly grand accomplishment. From my first moments with Populous and SimCity, watching my people spread out over a virtual landscape with buildings of ever growing complexity, I was hooked.

I have always found something so compelling about world building games.

Temple complex ptah pharaoh game