Total War: Pharaoh Tausret

Total War: Pharaoh Tausret
Name:	Tausret
From Game:	Total War: Pharaoh
Culture:	Egyptian
Playable:	Yes

Tausret is one of the Egyptian playable factions, and faction leaders in Total War Pharaoh.

Overview

Tausret is a skilled manager of provinces (her faction has better resource buildings) and is allied with Seti, her husband and the chosen heir of Pharaoh Merneptah. The historical Tausret was the last ruler of the nineteenth dynasty. Her roster has strong chariots and decent archers.

Starting Position

Tausret begins with two regions in the Yebu province, on the west bank of the Nile in southern Egypt. You start at war with the faction who controls the other two regions in Yebu, so your first goal is likely to be to take those regions - which include Mes, a region containing a unique outpost, the Valley of the Kings (providing a bonus to Legitimacy, as well as increased morale for an army which visits this outpost). Your starting regions provide food and wood, and there is a small supply of bronze, but they lack stone or gold.

Strategies for Tausret

After taking control of Yebu province, you have the opportunity to colonise empty regions to your west. These regions can provide stone and bronze. Taking your army to colonise these regions is likely to involve crossing a desert, causing attrition. However, if your army visits a shrine of Isis, it will be immune to desert attrition for four turns. Also, when you have colonised a region, you can build a waystation outpost, preventing attrition for your armies in the region.

One difficulty for Tausret is that her faction can only military recruitment buildings in the major settlement in a province (unlike Ramasses or Amenmesse, for example, who can build them in minor settlements). This won't usually be a problem when you control the major settlement. When you only control a minor settlement in a province, there are other ways to recruit units there. For example, if you build up Regard in the Egyptian court with the Viceroy of Kush, you can request to recruit some Kushite spearmen and archers, and if you gain Regard with the First Commander, you can recruit elite Royal Egyptian units. You may also be able to recruit native units, for example if you colonise the unoccupied regions to the west of Yebu, it is possible to recruit Libu Tribesmen (sword infantry) and Libu slingers. Libu units are lightly armoured and are not highly skilled, but they are resistant to the effects of sweltering heat on the battlefield as well as heat attrition on the campaign map.

In battle, your chariots can provide a decisive advantage against enemy skirmishers. Turn off skirmish mode for your chariots, and you can send them through enemy skirmishers. However, your chariots will be in trouble if they are attacked by enemy melee units. If you have played Rome Total War or Rome II, it may help to think of your javelin chariots and bow chariots as the equivalent of javelin cavalry and bow cavalry - they can be effective at disrupting formations and flank attacks with their ranged weapons, but they should only be in melee with very light enemy infantry.

Legacy

Iskar's advice for Tausret is to choose the legacy of Khufu the Builder. As Tausret, your starting position is relatively close to regions which can have Khufu monuments.

If you plan to expand towards Tausret's husband and ally, Seti, Akhenaten the Heretic may also be a good option (this legacy involves combining two gods, so that your shrines and devoted generals get a combination of the benefits of both). This legacy enables you to occupy the ruined city of Akhetaten, which is to the west of Seti's starting position.