


You aren’t a city governor going from region to region as with the Caesar series – you begin as the founder of a city, and then play as that founder’s descendants over the course of 2,000 years, eventually becoming Pharaoh and building monuments that will stand throughout history (until Lara Croft comes along to defile them, of course). Pharaoh consists of several stand-alone scenarios and a massive campaign that, in an inspired gameplay choice, casts you as progenitor of your own dynasty. It’s a challenge to make sure your neighborhoods have access to all the amenities they demand when housing space is so limited. Since the Egyptians never developed aqueduct systems, you must zone housing only on or near grasslands.

You cannot depend on crops the way you did in Rome, so you have to make sure you have enough money to buy food from other cities in the event of a shortage. If the flooding doesn’t leave much fertile land in a given year, a food shortage is guaranteed. Egypt is at the mercy of the Nile’s notoriously fickle flood/recede patterns.
