I've been thoroughly enjoying these civ specific discussions of late, initiated by Mark and others. Heck, even the Persian discussion was worthwhile. However, since Hydarnes is apparently off discussing existentialism elsewhere, I guess nobody will bring up Egypt. So here I go. I don't mean to do a thorough analysis of Egypt as was done with the other civs by better players, I just mean to start the thread. Much of the below will be old news to many of you.
To start, I think Egypt is the ideal civ to learn the game. Egypt has no overwhelming econ aspect that will ruin your early game learning. Whereas learning the game with economic aberrations such as Shang/Phoe/Palmy/Persia/Mace certainly will. Many of the strats written, can be employed using Egypt, practically verbatim.
On the military front, I think the Egyptian military bonuses are enough to give a newbie a slight edge to win a few games, yet not domineering as per Hittite. The scythes and CAs are easy units to use, even in the hands of a newbie. The allowance of a few games won, encourages the newbie to explore the game further, yet the Egyptian military does not allow the newbie to progress his game w/o having learned a few more skills. The newbie learns that it is not all about pumping scythes. The newbie learns that he has the most ranged unit in the entire game. The newbie comes across helos, and puzzles.
It has been said elsewhere that Egypt is one fine balanced civ that requires no alterations. It is this characteristic that makes it so ideal for The First Pet Civ. Yet, Egypt still allows the better players to have fun. For those of you that have played Street Fighter, it's sort of like Ryu/Ken. Nicely balanced, easy for a newbie to pick up and win a few games, yet requires some further study before you can be competitive, and in the hands of a master, can be just plain outrageous.
While I cannot say that I am a competitive Egy player, I think I can say that I have learned that Egy is not just about scythe hordes. The Egyptian bz is not very different from all the other camel/CA/ST civs. But as for iron,
Scythes:
You can't pump scythes unless you have the economy. I used to think "hey, scythes cost no gold, so they are practically free!". So I'd build my 20 stables, then realize that I do not have the wood income to pump scythes from all 20 stables. Dumb, dumb, me. This happens especially often in water maps, when I am pumping triremes as well. Dumb. IMHO, I think the Egy player should just let his allies take care of the waters, and just focus his wood supply on scythes.
Priests/EAs:
I realized that one of the best protection that I can give to priests are EAs. This is the same reasoning as protecting priests with towers. The EAs distract fire from the would-be priests killers. I don't use the EAs themselves to kill the priest killers, but just to distract them. I use scythes for the actual priest-killer-killing. Priests/EAs also move at the same speed, making marches manageable. The priests can also always constantly keep the EAs at peak hp. Also, if an EA gets converted, you aren't likely to lose many priests.
Gold:
I read about this in a DM guide. Once you have gotten all the necessary upgrades, and have plenty of gold in the bank for extra priests and EAs, I think it may be worthwhile to have your allies with coinage mine your gold. This should be more optimal than you mining the gold and tribing to them. Put your vills on wood and farms instead. When you do need extra gold, ask your coinaged allies. I haven't tried this yet though.
STs:
While calling your siege buddy is the best option, I've realized that fully upgraded STs aren't so bad. They still suck against helos, but in cases of walls/towers, you need not call your Hittite buddy from across the map. Heck, with the small splash, you can have your scythes munching on the walls, and have your STs bombard them as well. They are also as effective vs compies in iron, as they were in bz. And yes, I see people producing compies in iron all the time. And why not, if you are a compie civ against a catless civ?
Allies:
In theory, I think the ideal civ allies for Egy would be Phoe and Hittite. Phoe takes care of wood and seas. Hitt fills the siege gap. Also, as discussed in the Baby thread, mediocrity sucks. I would be irked if I saw my Phoe ally pumping his pathetic scythes, when I am pumping fully upgraded Egyptian scythes. I'm not talking about that 1st wave of scythes that Phoe can produce when he is the 1st to reach iron. I'm talking about the mid-Iron game. Let's have some phants and remes, Mr. Phoe. As for Mr. Hitt, your scythes are purty good, but I would still rather have your cats and HAs. Heck, I'll give Hitt the gold to do so. Its probably still a good idea to at least get the scythe upgrade, to have that option to produce scythes, but in mid iron, I would rather not have my Hittite ally get all the armor and attack upgrades, build 20 stables, and pump scythes. That's my job, dude, please do yours. In the late game, when there is no gold, sure, please be my guest. However, even then, I think it may be more worthwhile if the Hitt produces CAs, since he will then still be employing his military bonus. And he prob got all the armor upgrades, too, where as his cav armor upgrade may not be complete. Of course, all this requires competent dependable allies, so in a mystery game, I guess producing a shopping mall variety of units is acceptable.
Blah blah blah.. ok, enough posting for one day.
-joecho