Total War: Pharaoh Irsu

Total War: Pharaoh Irsu
Name:	Irsu
From Game:	Total War: Pharaoh
Culture:	Canaanite
Playable:	Yes

Irsu is one of the Canaanite playable factions and faction leaders in Total War Pharaoh.

Irsu

Overview

Irsu is a Canaanite warlord with a reputation for raiding and pillaging. His roster includes well-armoured melee units with a decent charge bonus. Irsu's Canaanite bowmen are of average quality but wear decent armour, giving them an advantage against other low-tier skirmishers (although the native archers which Irsu can recruit in his home province lack armour). Irsu's faction roster includes the Sabu Nagib, professional warriors who are skilled with sword or axe, but who might charge the enemy without orders.

For over two centuries centuries before the start of the campaign, Canaan was a colonial territory of Egypt. In 1458 BCE, "Armies of chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers under the pharaoh Thutmose III thundered through Gaza and defeated a coalition of Canaanite chiefdoms at Megiddo, in what is now northern Israel". - Roger Atwood, Egypt's Final Redoubt in Canaan (Archaeology Magazine).

Canaan has mineral wealth and trade routes, and control of Canaan allowed Egypt to hold back the expansion of the Hittite empire. In parts of Canaan, the people warmed to Egyptian rule, but not everywhere (according to Roger Atwood, in the article quoted above). Irsu's fierce demeanor, and the lack of Egyptian influences compared to Bay, might suggest that he represents the Canaanites who resisted rule by Egypt.

Starting Position

Irsu begins with one region in the province of Damascus. As he is at war at the start of the campaign with the faction which owns the other three regions in the province, he is in immediate danger. Damascus province is in eastern Canaan, so Irsu's home region will not be in the front line when the Sea Peoples begin to attack along the coast. However, Damascus province can still be attacked by the invaders, and is Irsu expands west towards the coast, he may experience more attacks.

Another challenge for Irsu is that Damascus province provides food and there is an opportunity to build a gold mine in one of its regions, but the province lacks wood, stone and bronze. The lack of wood and stone can make it difficult to develop your regions, and the lack of bronze is an obstacle to maintaining armies of higher-tier units.

Strategies for Irsu

Irsu needs to take the other regions of Damascus province quickly, to avoid being overwhelmed. When you take the city of Damascus, you will receive the benefits of a special building, the Grand Temple of Moloch (+250 Favour with Moloch, +2 Legitimacy, -15% upkeep for all units in the province, +5 happiness and +15% resource production).

After taking over the Damascus province, to satisfy Irsu's hunger for resources, you can raid and sack the regions of neighbouring factions, or occupy additional regions and trade for the resources you need. Shechem, the province to the south of Damascus, can provide wood, bronze and stone.

An additional way of satisying your need for resources is to build Forced Labour camps in your settlements - providing a +50% boost to resource production, but only for the region (not the whole province) and with a penalty of -3 happiness. Building the trading outpost and visiting it with your armies, or putting some units in forts, will reduce the demand for resources. Shrines of Moloch provide a small bonus to the melee defence of units on recruitment, and praying at a Moloch shrine boosts the morale of your army.