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.
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.
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 Damascus 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, if he expands to the west, he will be exposed to their invasions.
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.
