Pharaoh: A New Eracan get ratherhectic and chaotic. Because according to the game, the people of Ancient Egypt didn’t have decent pathfinding AI and needed everything delivered to their doorstep from food to education. Not exactly far off from the modern human. In any case, players need to provide everything for their citizens inPharaoh.
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It just so happens that “everything” is quite a lot, and it can be overwhelming for beginners to keep tabs on which buildings or services are the most crucial. These following structures need to be prioritized, otherwise, players will go down in history as the worst mayor in Ancient Egypt. Consider this a checklist to prevent society’s collapse.
10Tax Collector’s Office
The treasury can run dry fast inPharaohwithout players noticing. So as early as they can, players must build a Tax Collector if they want to keep playing and managing their city. And even then, recuperating their yearly expenses might just be for breaking even, what more with un-taxed citizens?
Do note that Tax Collectors willneed a Palaceas a prerequisite since it is there that players can adjust the taxation rate. And taxation inPharaohisn’t just for sustaining the machinery and society, players can also use it wisely to either invite more citizens (lower the tax) or prevent immigration (increase the tax).
9Storage Yard
Storage Yards are crucialfor unperishable goodsand despite not being an urgent structure compared to food storage, players will still do well to build one immediately and as early as the first occupied house. That’s because Ptah, one of the deities or patrons ofPharaoh, loves to give some bundles of goods if he’s happy.
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He’s often happy at the start of every city. Having these extra supplies can work well for players looking to improve their relationships with other kingdoms or cities. Of course, players will eventually need storage for ceramics as a stepping stone for fancier housing improvements, so Storage Yards are mandatory.
8Granary
Granaries are more important than Storage Yards once players start gathering food for their populace. Often, too many players forget to build Granaries and are left wondering why their Bazaars are empty and why their citizens are improving their lives.
Moreover, players can also manipulate their Granary storage to diversify the food supply in every housing district. Because there’s usually one dominant food source that will take over space in the Granaries, players will do well to give space to other food sources.
7Physician
Physicians are also some of the most easily forgotten buildings at the start of every district inPharaohand the results can be rather devastating if players realize that they failed toprovide basic healthcarefor their citizens too late. Diseases and plagues can easily wipe out whole households and then spread to adjacent ones.
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Having just one Physician building in an enclosed loop in every housing district ensures that the players' workforce or general population doesn’t take a hit and cripple the economy if they ever get swept by a plague. It’s more important than any other healthcare service building.
6Firehouse
Fire can easily sneak into people’s homes and catch players by surprise, so it’s better to be safe than sorry and generally, it’s good practice to sprinkle these Firehouses all over (no pun intended). While that could also mean allotting more budget for the wages of Firehouses, losing buildings to a proliferating fire is most costly.
It’s also worth noting that the pathfinding for Firehouse NPCs is terrible, like most other AI pathfinding inPharaoh(though it’s intended). That’s why having multiple of these Firehouses to the point where their paths overlap is nothing to be ashamed of.
5Architect’s Post
Like fires, buildings collapsing is a moderately significant headache inPharaoh. Temples, for example, are more prone to such occurrences. So as a rule of thumb, it’s best to just bundle the Firehouses with the Architect’s Post when laying out cities.
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Funny enough,industrial buildings like mines and quarriesneed this building more than others and it can be a pain to supply them with employees since industrial areas tend to be far from housing districts. So players might have to include some detached slum houses for the purpose of consistent worker supply for Architect’s Posts and their corresponding industrial buildings.
4Festival Square
The patrons or deities inPharaohare a fickle bunch and their attention span typically lasts for only a month unless players dedicate a Temple Complex to them. So if players want to avoid some surprise plagues, fires, collapses, floods, and other disasters, they need to immediately build a Festival Square as soon as a city starts.
Thankfully, the Festival Square needs neither architects nor firemen, so players can just make a random four-way intersection and plop the building over. It’s always barren and sadly doesn’t have festival animations but it’s crucial if players want their city to stay intact.
3Police Station
No matter how well the city does, there will always be criminals, especially if the unemployment rate is high. And even if everything seems well in all neighborhoods, there’s also always a high chance that some ancient punks will steal from the Tax Collector’s office.
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So it’s best to build Police Stations in neighborhoods at all times in addition to the Firehouse and Architect’s Post. For safer measures, placing Police Stations right beside Tax Collectors ensures that players don’t lose money in repeated annoying successions.
2Bazaar
Players will do well with prioritizing not just one Bazaar, but two for better service coverage. After all, these Bazaars provide food and pottery to the citizens. Their route is easily disrupted by intersections (usually made for entertainment buildings) so having two or even three in a large housing district ensures that everyone gets to preserve their lifestyle.
Fancy houses can quickly devolve if a Bazaar NPC or peddler misses their house, resulting in a cascading population loss. Players don’t need to worry about having multiple service buildings since unemployment is a constantproblem inPharaohand having multiple Bazaars can help improve that.
1Water Supply
Water Supplies, the more advanced ones, are by far the most important structures in maintaining houses at good capacities. Water is practically the difference between a beggar shack and a decent hut inPharaoh. It’s recommended to forego the basic Well structure and just build the advanced Well.
That’s because the primitive or basic Well’s coverage is terrible and should only be made for sacrificial houses (those intended for industrial districts). Depending on their housing layouts, players might need to build two of these for more thorough coverage. Egypt is a hot place after all.
