Anyone feel this game is easier in the early going than Caesar 3?

[Nemesis Whip]

Caesar III was a game I grew up loving in the late 1990s/early 2000s. The idea that you could build your own town/city with possible invasions and eventually have palaces and a hippodrome appealed to me.

Some time later I played Pharoah and I found that the game, at least in the early going, was much easier for me.

My problem with Caesar 3 is it's probably the most rugged around the edges in the Impressions series (Caesar 3, Pharoah, Zeus, Emperor). Granted this was the first game and back in 1998 games weren't quite as refined and streamlined as modern games today. But starting with Miletus and Lugdunum I start having real problems with just keeping housing up to Large Insulae. Once you run into Small Villas and the like you get the rich class of citizens, who don't count as workers which is something to consider.

Gatehouses are a pretty crude way to keep your people from wandering too far. This was done a lot better with Pharoah because of roadblocks which prevent access for wandering people unless they were to make a destination to somewhere.

In Pharoah I've gotten fairly far into the game, building my share of pyramids and other great monuments without too much trouble. I just feel it takes most of everything Caesar 3 did and made it a lot better. My only gripes are the music and the lack of cinematics, which compared to Caesar 3 the only cinematics was when you entered a different period in Egyptian history. The music isn't as epic as Caesar 3 but that's only a very minor gripe.

I haven't gotten to Zeus or Emperor yet but once I beat Pharoah/Cleopatra that's what I plan to do.

The main difficulty for me in Pharoah/Cleopatra is the placement of your setup. Caesar 3 the only difficult mission that involved placement setup was Lugdunum, because of the natives and the farmland being in the central part of the map. The later missions of Pharoah and much of the expansion of Cleopatra are rather difficult, but in the early going it felt like they were taking it rather easy with me.

In Caesar 3 starting with the 4th or 5th mission I felt like I really had to know how to play the game in order to progress, whereas in Pharoah I was still being given new buildings and monuments in the 4th or 5th mission. The first mission that really did me in was the 5th mission in Caesar 3 if you picked the military side. Those Carthaginians were a whole lot of trouble, plus the population requirement was rather high.

[5M0k1N]

yea caesar was a lot harder to me although obviously playing that first and pharaoh afterwards will mean youll have an easier time there. some odd stuff in pharaoh like if youre playing on very hard the enemy chariouts are practically invincible. the difficulty curve feels a bit odd at times but yea, more polished and accesible than caesar 3

for Lugdunum in particual from what i remember i couldnt import enough pottery for all of my houses so i ended up stockpiling it (obviously that meant a lot of my houses devolved) for a long time so afterwards i knew i wouldnt run out of it and could plan my stuff without worrying about it

[Telariust]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/564530/discussions/0/3094509155613513260/#c3186860850597186065