Egypt

Egypt

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Primary culture

Macedonian (Hellenistic)

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Capital province

Alexandreia

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Government

Aristocratic Monarchy

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State religion

Hellenic

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Military traditions

Arabic & Levantine

Egypt is a major power in the Middle East centered around the Nile delta and Alexandria, the city of Alexander the Great and one of the wealthiest and most densely populated areas of this part of the ancient world. It is one of the larger and wealthier countries in 450 A.V.C (304 BC) and is the most stable out of the three largest diadochi kingdoms.

Egypt borders the small break-away nation of Cyrenaica to the west, the small nations of Judea and Nabatea to the east, the moderately-sized kingdoms of Kush and Blemmia to the south, as well as the client state of Dodekaschoinos, and the great empires of Phrygia and the Seleukid Empire to the north and north-east, respectively.

History

The Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt is the latest incarnation of the (in 304 BC) nearly 3000-year-old Ancient Egyptian civilization. It is, however, not a true native Egyptian kingdom but rather an Egyptian kingdom ruled by a Macedonian upper-class aristocracy and a Greek minority that was installed and introduced, respectively, after Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt in 332-331 BC. Egypt is one of the four main successor states to Alexander the Great's empire that fell about two decades prior. Ptolemaic Egypt is ruled by Ptolemy Soter Lagid, one of the diadochi of Alexander the Great who fought for control over and later partitioned Alexander's empire among themselves after Alexander's death in 323 BC. The Ptolemaic dynasty was able to secure the wealthiest province of the empire, Egypt, for themselves, became rulers of the region and would remain so until 30 BC when Egypt was conquered by Rome, thus ending Egypt as an independent nation for over 2000 years to come.

Government

Ptolemaic Egypt starts off as an Aristocratic Monarchy that is ruled by Basileus Ptolemy I Soter Lagid (11 6 6 8), of the Lagid family. As the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, Ptolemy is 63 years old at the start of the game and has a total of 10.000wealth at the start of the game. Ptolemy himself starts off with the character trait cautious and both him and all members of his dynasty also have the character trait Blood of the Lagidae which grants +20Prominence and +1Zeal for the character while giving +5%Happiness for pops that don't follow the primary culture and +5%research points for the nation. The trait is inherited patrilineally.

Economy

Egypt has a Population of 1813 pops at the beginning of the game in 450 A.V.C (304 BC), divided across 183 cities. The population (and their religions) consists of the following:

• 1473 Kemetic Egyptians
• 144 Hellenic Macedonians
• 79 Jewish Hebrews
• 36 Canaanite Phoenicians
• 21 Arabic Nabateans
• 17 Arabic Phoenicians
• 15 Kemetic Macedonians
• 8 Kemetic Meroitics
• 8 Kemetic Phoenicians
• 4 Arabic Egyptians
• 4 Hellenic Cyrenaicans
• 2 Druidic Lepontics
• 1 Arabic Hebrews
• 1 Megalithic Garamantics

Population Types are as follows.

• 527 Citizens (44.55%)
• 397 Freemen (33.56%)
• 199 Tribesmen (16.82%)
• 690 Slaves (58.33%)

Army

Egypt begins with an army of 12 Cohorts, consisting of 4Camel Cavalry, 4Heavy Infantry, and 4Light Cavalry. Their maximum Manpower at 450 A.V.C. (304 BC) is 50,041 with +245 Manpower gained each month from the following sources;

• From Pops: 238
• From Subjects: 6

Navy

Egypt initially starts off with a fleet of 60 ships. 30 located in the port of Alexandria consisting of:

• 15 Liburnians
• 15 Triremes

The other fleet of 30 ships is located in the Arabian Sea at the port of Myos Hormos consisting of:

• 15 Liburnians
• 15 Triremes

Diplomacy

Egypt has no allies in 450 A.V.C (304 BC) but has three subjects; Kos, and Andros, and Dodekaschoinos which are located in the Ionian Sea near Macedon, Thrace and Phrygia.

Decisions

As one of the Diadochi kingdoms, Egypt can take the decision to reunite Alexander the Great's empire if they can conquer the other Diadochi kingdoms. This, however, requires Egypt to retain its Monarchy and Hellenic Greek primary culture.

id

Reunite Alexander's Empire

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For too long have parasites and scavengers made a feast of the Great Empire that Alexander spent a lifetime building. It is time we do away with all claimants, usurpers and delusional provincial strongmen. There can be only one authority within the empire of Alexander the Great, one upholder of the great Hellenistic legacy that this great man founded.\nThat one power could not possibly come from any dynasty but our own. Only a family that respects the Argead traditions can legitimately claim its legacy.

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Potential requirements Has atleast 1 cities country_culture_group = hellenic is_monarchy = yes is not tag ALX OR: is ai Has atleast 40 cities highlight: OR: Owns City:379 Owns City:418 Owns City:426 Owns City:427 Owns City:440 Owns City:416 Owns City:350 Owns City:189 Owns City:292 Owns City:516 Owns City:500 Owns City:659 Owns City:743 Owns City:790 Owns City:1874 Owns City:5537 Owns City:918 Owns City:911 Owns City:946 Owns City:4799 Owns City:1595 Owns City:6611 Owns City:7314 Owns City:6821	Allow custom_tooltip: text = formable_not_argeads_exists Not any_country: is not tag ALX is_monarchy = yes Nation not in a (civil) war
Effects if: limit: is_tribal = yes add_country_modifier: name = civilized_tribe duration = 5475 if: limit: Not government = imperium change_government = imperium switch_government_type_event_clearup_effect = yes add_country_modifier: name = "argead_empire_modifier" duration = -1 change_country_name = "ARGEAD_NAME" hidden_effect: change_country_adjective = "ARGEAD_ADJECTIVE" change_country_color = "argead_blue" Change to country: ALX trigger_event: id = diadochi_flavor.7 custom_tooltip = argead_empire_tooltip hidden_effect: every_province: limit: OR: region = parthia_region region = syria_region region = ariana_region region = bactriana_region region = media_region region = persis_region region = gedrosia_region region = mesopotamia_region region = assyria_region region = bithynia_region region = cappadocia_region region = galatia_region region = cilicia_region region = asia_region region = greece_region region = palestine_region region = gandhara_region region = lower_egypt_region region = upper_egypt_region region = macedonia_region region = thrace_region Not owner = ROOT add_claim = ROOT if: limit: is_iron_man = yes is ai set_variable = ach_alexanders_empire_var

Reformation

If Egypt is destroyed (completely annexed and removed from the map), then any other nation that has Egyptian primary culture and Kemetic state religion can restore it through a decision.

id

Form Egypt

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Egypt is perhaps the oldest civilization of all, and yet she is not free. Instead pretenders have usurped the kingdom and play at honoring the old gods. This cannot be tolerated. We must unite Upper and Lower Egypt once again under a dynasty that truly understands and cherishes the legacy of the Pharaohs.

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Potential requirements Has atleast 1 cities country_culture_group = north_african is_monarchy = yes is not tag EGY is not tag EGT OR: is ai Has atleast 20 cities is not a endgame tag highlight: OR: Owns City:500 Owns City:503 Owns City:509 Owns City:534 Owns City:516 Owns City:539 Owns City:561 Owns City:569 Owns City:591	Allow custom_tooltip: text = egypt_not_existing Not any_country: is not tag EGT Not any_country: is not tag EGY Nation not in a (civil) war
Effects if: limit: is_tribal = yes add_country_modifier: name = civilized_tribe duration = 5475 if: limit: Not government = theocratic_monarchy change_government = theocratic_monarchy switch_government_type_event_clearup_effect = yes change_country_name = "EGYPT_NAME" hidden_effect: change_country_flag = EGYPTIAN_FLAG change_country_adjective = "EGYPT_ADJECTIVE" change_country_color = "egypt_color" Change to country: EGT if: limit: p:500: is_capital = no set_capital = 500 p:500: capital_formable_medium_effect = yes formable_capital_modifier_large_effect = yes custom_tooltip = egypt_claims_tooltip hidden_effect: every_province: limit: OR: region = lower_egypt_region region = upper_egypt_region Not owner = ROOT add_claim = ROOT hidden_effect: set_variable: name = ach_new_kingdom_var

Strategy

Initial situation

Out of the three largest diadochi kingdoms (Egypt, Phrygia and the Seleukid Empire), Egypt is the most stable one. While Phrygia and the Seleukid Empire have to worry about internal issues due to the fact that their population is split between a wide variety of cultures and religions and none of them have a clear majority, Egypt does not suffer from such internal disunity. Out of Egypt's 1813 pops, 1473 are Kemetic Egyptians, 144 are Hellenic Macedonians and the rest (which make up a much smaller minority) are a mix of different religions and cultures.

Right from the start, however, Egypt still faces the problem of having a Hellenic Greek minority as the ruling upper class and having the same state religion and primary culture while the majority of the country is populated by Kemetic Egyptians, which can cause problems due to conflicting cultures and religions. Egypt does, however, get an event early on in the game called "The Cult of Serapis" that allows it to address this issue in different ways depending on the choices made.

Egypt has one of the most unusual geographies as a nation. The vast majority of its geography is covered with impassable deserts that can only be traversed along a set of narrow pathways, funneling armies into bottlenecks. Likewise, Egypt's population population is concentrated almost entirely along the Nile River. While this makes it easier to defend the country's core regions, it also makes Egypt more vulnerable to conquerors since if they manage to break through the bottlenecks and seize control of the Nile River, they will more or less control the entire country. This makes it extremely important to protect the Nile river and the surrounding regions as they are

Despite being one of the largest and wealthiest nations in the world and indisputably the largest military power within its immediate neighborhood, Egypt still faces some threats to its territorial integrity. The most immediate threat would be from Kush and Blemmia to the south. While Egypt can try to befriend them, since Kush and Blemmia have very limited expansion opportunities once one has conquered the other, this means that sooner or later, war will likely break out between Egypt and whichever state that emerges on top.

In addition to that, Egypt is also threatened by Phrygia to the north. While Egypt starts out as wealthier than most of its neighbors Phrygia has a significant advantage in terms of military power and a head-on confrontation is not an option early on.

Despite its wealth, Egypt does not have everything. Egypt lacks both Wood and Iron, which makes it harder to build up a navy and army respectively. Trading resources to import Iron and Wood will allow Egypt to more easily build up and maintain working navy with Wood while Iron will allow Egypt to field Heavy Infantry, which can are a powerful and very useful infantry unit to have.

Expansion

When playing as Egypt, one will have to work to secure their flanks by conquering smaller neighbors to consolidate Egypt's position in East Africa while building up Egypt's economy and military and waiting for Phrygia to become weakened. The best target to start the consolidation of the Egypt's rule on East Africa would be the small nation of Cyrenaica to Egypt's west. It is small and weak but should be annexed nonetheless to prevent it from forming any alliances with Egypt's enemies. In addition to that, this will also grant Egypt a handful of provinces for relatively little aggressive expansion. Next up would be Egypt's southern neighbors Kush and Blemmia. Since Kush and Blemmia have very limited expansion routes and the Nile Delta is one of the wealthiest areas in the game, once one nation is able to conquer the other, they are very likely to eventually attack Egypt to expand northwards down the Nile.

As such, Egypt would do very well to work to secure their southern flank by attacking Kush and Blemmia and warring them down into the ground and conquering them entirely. The provinces gained from this are relatively remote and should thus be able to develop relatively quietly for the rest of the game. Once both of these countries have been annexed, the southern flank should be mostly secure as the rest of the nations in the area are too small to pose a credible threat for most of the game.

Once the south has been secured, Egypt is now in a much more powerful position to expand its dominion. One option could be to build up a large navy and launch a conquest of the island of Crete to the north of Egypt and from there move on to Greece.

Alternatively, Egypt could also attempt to focus on Phrygia by allying some of Phrygia's stronger enemies (like the Seleukid Empire) and then attacking Phrygia to conquer territories from them. If Phrygia ever is seriously weakened by internal instability or ends up in a costly war (such as against their larger neighbor, the Seleukid Empire), that is a prime opportunity for Egypt to possibly strike and weaken Phrygia further. If Phrygia ever disintegrates due to revolts, civil wars or foreign aggression, Egypt is in a prime position to expand into the Middle East and strengthen its position further.