Who says that wonders are their own reward? So it is with Ramses, who gets large amounts of Culture for completing wonders and a small amount for finishing buildings.

With a nice river start, Egypt gains bonuses towards wonders and districts. Wonders are a great source of Culture with Ramses’ Abu Simbel ability that gives 30% of the construction cost as Culture. The Sphinx then gives even more Culture if placed adjacent to these Wonders. The Maryannu Chariot Archer will protect Egypt while they focus on construction, leading to a Culture Victory.

Iconic for the New Kingdom of Egypt, Ramses’s reign is marked not by anything distinctive but by a series of exemplary moments – military conquests, monumental architecture, etc. Here is the arrogance and might of the pharaoh made flesh.

Many of our leaders come from obscurity to greatness. Pachacuti was the second son of a royal dynasty and was never intended to lead the Inca. Cleopatra was the subject of a foreign kingdom that rose into rebellion. Not so with Ramses, the son of Seti.

While Seti’s family was not originally royal, they emerged in the wake of the social and religious upheaval of Akhenaten, who sought to create a new religious order and under whose rule (and subsequent rule of Tutankhamun), Egypt’s foreign borders declined. Seti sought to correct this – expanding Egyptian power to conquer the Anatolian Hittites and re-establishing Egypt as a far-flung empire whose borders extended far beyond the Nile. Ramses showed promise early, and his father appointed him as regent at the age of ten. Seti’s reconsolidation of Egyptian power was outward-looking in other ways, incorporating Syrian deities into the thought-to-be monolithic and conservative Egyptian state.

In his early years, Ramses sent warriors to subdue Syria, Libya, and the Hittites and, in a brilliant strategical maneuver against Sardinian pirates, captured the entirety of the rebel fleet by allowing them certain victories that lulled them into complacency. Another significant point in his expansion was the Battle of Kadesh (in Syria), where an overextended Egyptian force, personally led by the pharaoh, captured a Hittite city but then was forced to retreat. What might have been a demoralizing defeat turned into victory, as the Egyptians used the time to rethink their strategies and push the war to a draw. The resultant peace treaty became the balance of power in the region.

At home, Ramses embarked on a construction spree, most notably the temples at Ramesseum and Abu Simbel, ensuring that his name – often under its Greek version, Ozymandias – lived through the ages.

Ramses died well into his nineties, giving Egypt nearly seven decades with him on the throne. His name is now synonymous with Egyptian power, arrogance, and might (rightly or wrongly).