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Erlitou's Elite

Here on the plains of Erlitou, a new town shall be established. The nearby river will provide plentiful quantities of delicious fish, and the fertile soil is ideal for bountiful harvests of nutritious wheat. Additional food can be imported from Hemudu or Banpo as necessary. As before, fine ceramics can be produced at kilns.

It has been said that wonderful gifts come in small packages, and so it is true with the tiny silkworm. This marvellous creature, when fed a diet of tender mulberry leaves, produces a delicate strand of precious silk. Weavers can then meld these fragile filaments into luxurious garments -- which are already highly prized by the growing number of new elite. Your village, in fact, needs a special neighbourhood reserved for a special number of these prosperous citizens. As word spreads of the beautiful silk being produced at your town, do not be too surprised if a greedy neighbour asks for some samples.

City - Erlitou
Starts Feb 1897 BCE
13500 starting cash on very easy; 9000 starting cash on easy to hard; 7200 starting cash on very hard

Requirements:
  • 40 people in Lavish Siheyuan or better
  • Produce 5 bolts of silk in one year

This is the first of the 'real' missions. Your on-screen hints explain how to plan a new city; how to work out where everything is going to go; how you are going to make money; how to reach your goals.

The first thing to do is build a few houses round the ready made road loop and organise some food. I started with 3 fishermen which was probably too many, 1 wheat farm and 1 hemp farm. I decided where my elite houses would go (up the slope on the small plateau to the right of the housing loop) and then where my silkworm sheds would fit in. I built these straight away - two sheds to the right of the top of the loop.

I then started 2 clay pits and 4 kilns for ceramics and sent a little money to Banpo and Hemudu to find out what they will trade with me. You will discover they will both buy the silk you make, Hemudu will buy your ceramics and one will sell millet, one rice. It's a good idea to open trade with both and import both types of food. You will need a third type for your elite housing and having four means that you won't run out at an inopportune moment.

I sent some ceramics to Shen Nong to keep the gods happy. Remember to check every so often to see if more homage is needed. I had to build a second hemp farm.

The silk requirement would have been done really quickly had I remembered to build a warehouse, as it was it was done the next year. In April 1895 I had a demand for 2 silk from Hemudu. You don't have to comply, but it's a good idea not to fall out with them. After that I started exporting silk.

Next came the elite houses. Lavish Siheyuans hold 10 people, so you will need four. They require hemp and ceramics to be built, an inspector, ancestral shrine, herbalist, music and acrobats. They also require appetizing food which you will have in your market by this time and silk so you will need to build a silk shop. I didn't build a ceramics shop as I had finished the mission before they needed restocking and, as I was using only one market, I didn't particularly want my common housing to evolve too much with the addition of ceramics.

I eventually got my silk production requirement in 1893 (remember it's what you produce in a calendar year, February to January) and then had to wait for the last few people to come into my elite houses.

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