HOLDER'S HEROES

Representing a large portion of the gold brigade, the Egyptians are one of the biblical civilizations featured in Redemption. The Egyptians have been a part of Redemption since the very beginning and their strength is in part because of that. Let's take some time to explore the Egyptians.

Follow up:

The Egyptians are undeniably viable as a defense on their own. This is mainly due to the large pool of Egyptian Evil Characters and Enhancements to draw from. With eleven Evil Characters and nine evil Enhancements, a pure Egyptian defense can be used with relative ease. To be noted, I did not include cards related to Joseph unless they are specifically noted as being Egyptian, so depending on who you talk to you, may come up with slighty larger numbers of Evil Characters and Enhancements. I also only included gold brigade cards, so cards like Dream, which could be considered Egyptian, are not included.

A great thing about the Egyptian Evil Characters is the variety and usefulness of their special abilities. You've got a nice banding chain available with Egyptian Archer and Egyptian Wisemen as well as having some with high numbers and some with low numbers. One of my personal grievances, and general shortcomings, is that Pharaoh has no special ability. This is very dissapointing seeing as he was the king of all Egypt, which just so happened to control most of the area surrounding the holy land. Sadly enough, there are many better Evil Character choices for an Egyptian defense that Pharaoh. Which Evil Character is strongest is up for debate, and more so depends on preference of individual players. My personal opinion is that King So is the best, because his first strike ability is extended to all Egyptians in battle and with the banding available, this makes for strong blocking capabilites, not to mention the first strike cannot be negated with an Egypt site in play.

The Egyptian evil Enhancements are quite good. There are some battle winners and some support-style Enhancements as well. It is a very well rounded core of Enhancements. A nice attribute of most of them is that they have high defensive numbers, making your blocks much easier against FbtN as well as having some cannot-be-negated possiblities with Enslaved by Egpyt and Hadad Arises. The gods of Egypt is a great set aside for the Egyptians as well, as it really serves to improve their blocking capabilities against initiative type offenses.

Currently Egypt sites really help with an Egyptian defense but Pharaoh's Prison really doesn't yield any special benefit other than possibly resricting access. I'm hopeful of some additions or reprints that will make Pharaoh's Prison as good to have as Egypt. Even though the Egyptians currently have a larger pool of cards , there are still a lot of possiblities for new and reprinted cards.

For another view of the Egyptians I encourage you to read the article by Bryon Hake entitled, "We have given the hand to the Egyptians..."