Table: 1
___/|Gathering Rates*|\___
Ressource | Palmyran | Normal | Bonus**
Wood .76.56.76
Stone .65.45.65
Gold .65.45.65
Forage .65.45Nil
Hunt .65.45.75
Fish .80.60Nil
Farm .45.40Nil
*All rates are givin as the amount of food gathered per second. As Above table shows, Palmyran has a very capable economy. Now, what do these figgures amount to? Table: 2 Notice palmyrans production value of Foraging(berry-picking), at a whopping .65 food its faster than shore fishing for all other civilazations. Now, as Palmyran Villagers cost 75 food each, you require a 50 advantage in production to break even. Also, the expensive villagers means that Palmyran can afford only 2 vilagers in compasion to every other civilazations 4(shang is an exception with 5) fro mstarting resources on default resource games. However, you effectively have 1½ villagers for cost, and productivity increase in refrence to food sources(Fishign and farming excepted), therefore your starting 3 villagers are equivelent to 4 villagers in productivity. for palmyran to gain an edge on the opponent it is Imperitive to find a Food source Quickly, in fact ASAP! avoidin hunting gazelles who do not have a forest nearby unless you have a large number of straggler trees(those single 75 wood trees), or a forest close to your TC(towncenter). Why? because as Palmyran you won't to perserve resources as often as possible. Therefore, berries are often the most relible food source, as they can't move, and they do not decay. In fact, having more than 1 villager to a single berry bush is counter-productive, and should be avoided at all-costs, unless it will sacrifice villager flow. However, having more than 1 villager per gazelle is very productive, as it minimizes decay. For elephants your should maintain a ratio of 8 villagers to one elephant being harvested. Shore fish should be avoided as unless encountered in packs of 4 or more their far more diffucult to maintain a steady villager flow, as villagers often stumble and bump into each other, reducing effiecancy. Therefore berrys are the most efficent starting food source. Do not explore for a "sweetspot" but rapidly place a granery near your berries:: although speed matters, do not place the gtranery in-effiecntly. Therefore, should you have a line of berries, place the granery 1 tile from the line, so as to maximize effiecancy. In sitations Where berries are not conviently place, try to place the Granery wher ethe most berries can be gathered with a single villager to a bush. although it will apear that your 5 villagers are doing well on the berries, place our 6th and possibly 7th villager on berries. the 7th villager should only be Placed on berries in a sitation where it is required, do to lag between villager production. The advice of Celestial dawn: "Your Town center should never be idle" does not apply to the Palmyrans. Do not succemb to the notion of building 20 or more villagers, Unless you plan on doing a massive boom/power-up and have the location to do such a strategy. Palmyran is more than eqaul to most civilazations with 17 villagers, which is about 24 villagers in other civilazations. Also, beware of performing large dock-build ups, as Palmyras food gathers often strip food sites bare in a short time, requiring multiple food buildings. A few fishing boats is suitable, as well as 1 or 2 trade boats if you know where an allies dock is. Scotuing is always paramount, however Palmyra can not afford the early scouting of other Civilazations, as that is taking almost 2 villagers from production. However, scouting is paramount for discovering secondary food sources. Palmyran appears to be slow, but givin a solid spot(a few gazalle herds, 1 or 2 straggler trees and decent berries) Palmyra can make it to the bronze age before other civilazations with the exception of shang. Phoenician loses what few advances it holds over Palmyran besides the ability to Tool faster. The Tool age is not a happy time for Palmyra. They have all units in the Tool age , but then again, only two civilazations lack units in the tool age. Palmyra is not an exceptional fast civilazation to the tool-age, and as such it shouldn't rarely tool rush, although a rare "resource eqaulization", the act of sending a few Slingers or bowmen towards the opponent as your go to the Bronze age in order to stunt their economy and gain reconionce, is still a viable tactic. Walls can be used, in fact i believe walls should always be used for protection of valuble areas(gold, wood and a single food source, can be a protected granery with farms) from raids. A Stable should be constructed at your Town while you move villagers from a surplussed resource to Gold. Go towards the Bronze age with a market as your 2nd technology building, and train a scout. Discover nearby land, and any enemy infiltrations, and respond as appopriate. As your Bronzing your should have built a 2nd or 3rd stable, and stockpiled enough gold to aford 2-3 camels when your arrive at Bronze. Research Leather Armor For Cavalry and Toolworking, in that order, then economic upgrades as desired, leaving around 400 food in the bank for bronze, and then depending on your choice in bronze, Metelworking or move towards Composite bowmen. You should be 2-3 camels and send them out to harras and destroy what they can, targeting villagers. Use those fast camels(2.5 tiles every second movement) to scout out your opponent. Now, what you do from here is up to you....
**Special Civ: Phoenician for wood, Bablyonian for Stone, Egyptian for gold and Persian for Hunting. All "special" civs recieve a +3 carrying ca
Productivity
Wood: 26% increased productivity
Stone: 45% increased productivity
Gold: 45% increased productivity
Forage: 45% increased productivity Hunting: 45% increased productivity
Fishing: 33% increased productivity
Farming: 12% increased productivity
Now, the above table shows the approximate increase of each resources productivity as Palmyran. As you can see Palmyrans "natural" resources all benefit from a large productiveity increase, in fact, said increases are incredible high when checked against the "sound" documentation of Microsofts manauls. Microsoft has an annoying habbit of converting decimal point values to Percentage values. witness the Assyrian fire-rate. Said fire rate should be .9 for Mounted archers, and .75 or .8 for foot archers. However, all Assyrian archers share a 1.1 fire-rate.