Melanie, Ruler of the Nile

I haven't posted anything for a while, and I blame it on Egypt. I haven't been there or anything, and they didn't send assassins after me. No, I've become hopelessly addicted to a computer game involving Egypt.

You build and manage ancient Egyptian cities. I can't seem to stop playing it. By all accounts, it SHOULD be boring. I mean, it's just a city with these little Egyptians running around all over it. But I get such a kick out of planning their city for maximum efficiency, building up industries so they can trade and make the city prosperous, stuff like that.

The two things I DON'T like about it are: fire and armies. Every now and then, for random reasons unclear to me, something in my city starts burning. I keep building firehouses in an attempt to get the firemen to put out the flames faster, but I don't know what causes them in the first place! Then I have to wait for the fire to be put out, clear the rubble, and re-build whatever was there before.

Also, other cities periodically send armies to attack me. Not every level has this, but I just finished a level that had it A LOT!!! Practically the first thing I had to do after setting up the sity was build forts and start recruiting people, because by the time I had a decent amount of soldiers, there were armies coming at me from all sides! And when a group of soldiers gets beat up, their moral goes down, and they run and hide in their fort, and refuse to fight! Then the enemy troops swarm through my city, and knock over all of the buildings, until I'm left with a massive field of rubble.

I've discovered that constantly sending gifts to the Pharaoh cuts down on the armies, but I don't always have enough money for this.

The other part of the game that's a little tricky are the gods. Some levels, you only have one god that you have to appease. Other levels, you have THREE! So you're constantly building temples, and holding religious festivals, in an effort to keep some god from smiting you. If you make the god happy enough, he might make the Nile flood really well (better for crops), fill your industries with supplies, or even destroy an enemy army! (I really liked that one).

You also get to build monuments. I recently completed a level where I got to build a stepped pyramid. I'm hoping I get to build the Sphinx.

Well, I'd write more, but my people need me....