Hey all,

This is based on my Earth game with 16 civs. This started because I couldn't sleep one night. Hope you all enjoy.

Nov 19, 1880 Rome, Rome:

High General Julian Aurelis, a man in his late forties but a still strong from years of combat and leading men in the field, sat in his office at the Department of War looking over stacks of troop placements along the Roman border. He was contemplating strengthening the Border Guard near Germany, but with the former Greek state in rebellion he wondered where he was going to get the troops for it. By Mars how he hated paperwork. He picked up another report that showed he had another phalanx of troops in Caesar province that he could re-equip train and send to the German border. He was drafting the orders when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. Glad for any distraction he raised his deep voice, “Enter.”

His clerk Liberius Sergius stuck his head in the door, “Sure I just received a message from the Emperor, he requests your presence immediately.”

“Thank you, Liberius.” Julian stood and glanced at a nearby mirror, making sure his uniform was in order. As usual his red and gold uniform was in perfect order. He picked off a couple pieces of non-existent fluff, grabbed his pistol from his deck and put his ceremonial helmet underneath his arm and strode out of his office. He reached the Emperor’s office and the two solders in ceremonial armor and pikes stiffed to attention and saluted. He returned the salute and entered the office.

His Majesty and Lord Emperor, Maximus Mordalis the Third was lounging on his throne, the Minister of Religion and Minister of Foreign Relations stood talking just off to the side. Emperor Mordalis gestured to a Greek slave standing in the shadows, who was in his last year of servitude before becoming a full Roman citizen.

“Slave, bring a cup of Pompeli’s finest red wine for the General. And now that your all here we can being.” He sat up and looked at each of the three men in the room. “Gentlemen, we are at war.” He announced it has he would if he was going for an afternoon ride. It was a few seconds before Julian found his voice.

“Emperor, who are we at war with exactly? The Germans are building their forces but are not ready for something like this, the Greeks and France are but a shadow of their former glory, have the English decided to attack us or the Egyptians break our long time alliance.”

“No, my good friend. Don’t get yourself worked up. I received a message today stating that the Americans have declared war on us. Ha, the Americans of all people. They said something about are treatment of the Greeks and they won’t stand for slavery,” replied Maximus. “Mr. Minister, what is your opinion of this?” he nodded to rather overweight Leonius Fidelis, the Minister of Foreign Relations.

“Well, the Americans have always looked down their noses at slavery of any kind. They have fought a war with the Aztecs over it. However, the Aztecs only agreed to end slavery because they were in the middle of a war with the Babylonians for the control of northern area of South America. They have gunpowder weaponry but they are hardly as refined as our own. They will be no threat,” lectured the older man with a voice raspy from smoking too much pipeweed.

“Hmm, interesting, “ murmured Maximus, “Your opinion General?”

“We have never fought this type of war before, your Excellency. Our fleet of ships is small. We control most of the land surrounding the Mediterranean and our allies Egypt the rest. I would have to ask the Admiral for more details but it would take quite a bit of money and resources to build enough ships to carry our armies to assault America directly. And we would need several more phalanxes of cavalry as well. We would have to increase our conscription rate for that.”

Maximus rested his chin on his hand and look at the General, “If we have these problems, would not the Americans have the same problem as well.”

“They would, your Excellency.”

“Well then, he is what we shall do. I’d rather not raise the taxes and the conscription rate all at once, after all with happy citizens we don’t have hold them down with troops. So I will increase conscription so that you can train your cavalry and infantry, but the ships will take longer in coming. If the Americans do decide to pay us a visit then we shall see.”

Julian saluted with his hand over his heart and bowed, “It shall be done.” He then turned on his heel and marched from the room. Mars does provide for the honourable warrior, more troops at his disposable because of a threat that would never materialize. He went back to his paperwork with a smile.

cool awesome great story keep posting :) i'll be following

Mar 1881 Rhiems, Rome

Lieutenant Marcus Marcellus stood over looking the green, rolling hills outside Rhiems in Northern Rome and watched the sun reflect off the waters of the English Channel. Any other commander would have enjoyed the view and pleasure of Rhiems as an outpost he thought to himself, but for him it just an exile. How was I to know that she was the High Priest of Jupiter’s daughter? One night of passion, even one night of unbelievable passion was not worth this, stuck away from any chance of earning a promotion. If he was on the German board there was always the threat that they might attack or he could be stationed in the Greek territory putting down the last few rebels that refused to accept Roman rule. He shook his head in disbelief and took one final glance toward the water, and that’s when he noticed something out of the ordinary.

“Paulus,” he called inside the outpost, “There was no Roman warships scheduled for today, correct?”

The outpost quartermaster looked up from the tile game he was playing against his junior assistant, “No, not for several days. You know that sir, why are you asking?”

The lieutenant ignored the question, and he did indeed know that there was no Roman warship arriving for a few days, “Get me the spyglass,” he commanded.

With a nod of his head the quartermaster sent his younger assistant running for the spyglass and he joined his commander outside, “Yeah, that’s definitely not one of ours, could be one of those English man-o-wars.”

He didn’t agree with the quartermaster but kept his opinion to himself. The quartermaster was far older then he and had more connections then even a young officer like himself. The junior assistant returned with the spyglass. A wave of dread mingle with anticipation went through as he raised the spyglass. Maybe this posting wouldn’t so bad after all. He focused in on the approaching warship. “By the blade of Mars, that’s an American warship. Sound the call to arms!!! We must save that fishing village.” And as if his words were what the Americans were waiting for, they start sending cannon balls flying toward the village.

Within half an hour he was riding at the head of his phalanx of cavalry with a couple of horse-drawn cannons following behind. Smoke and flame rose from the fishing village. They were riding in blind against a force where they didn’t know the strength or size of the attacking force and you know what he felt this alive since the Greek war ended almost five years ago. The American forces met the Romans on the edge of the village, they has erected a makeshift barricade from the villager’s furniture. Marcus laughed aloud when he saw the attackers, less then a phalanx worth of musketmen and even some bowmen. He laughed again, was this the best the American’s had?

“Form rank!!” he commanded, “Advance at half pace and target the musketmen when I give the order. After we have eliminated most of the musketmen we charge and leap over the barricade and cut off their escape. Cannoneers take your pieces to the hill on the right side of the village and bombard that ship. Ready!! Fire!!”

He sited down the length of his rifle and squeezed the trigger, and the musketman he was aiming at went down as the bullet pieced his armor. He quickly reloaded and fired again and another American invader fell. A quick glance to his left and right show him the others were keeping pace. The invaders were falling quickly; the Americans had to sped all the time reloading. He drew his short sword and signaled the charge as he spurred his mount into action. Most of Americans suffering against the stronger fire power turned and fled when the phalanx charged. But not all as one of the crude American bullet ricocheted off his helmet. Some of the Americans were tramped by the horses and other fell to good Roman steel, the remainder surrendered when their saw their warship sailing away after receiving fire from cannons with longer range then their own.

“The warship got away, but we won the day, boys!!” Marcus raised he sword dripping American blood into the air, “The history books are going to remember this day as the biggest mistake the Americans ever made.”

Excellent start to the story, I'll be following. Any chance of pictures? :)

Sorry, no pictures.

I have moved way past that point. I never even thought to keep pictures of the game.

General Julian stood outside underneath a canvas awning as the spring rain came fell around. He was waiting for the arrival of Lieutenant Marcellus back from Rheims. It’s too bad the rail lines don’t run to Northern Rome yet, he thought and then shrugged. As with everything in Rome it was dictated by the military, the military he was in charge of and it dictated that the rail lines run to the Roman-German border and to the Greek province incase there was another uprising.

About a half-hour later he noticed a speck on the horizon and over the next couple of hours is grew from a speck into a lone rider. Lieutenant Marcellus dismounted quickly and ducked under the awning after leaving instructions with a private on how to care for his horse. Julian nodded to himself, a man that looked after his horse well, was a leader who would look after his troops the same.

“Welcome back to Rome, Lieutenant,” he greeted the young officer.

Marcellus saluted with a hand over his heart and quick bow, “Thank you, sir. I can’t tell you how glad I am to be back in Rome.”

“Even with the rain?” Julian answered with a small smile.

“What rain, sir?” Marcus returned the smile.

“Well go inside and I’ll give you the opportunity to bath and change.”

“Thank you, sir.”

A couple of hours later, he found himself was sitting in his office with a cup of tea as he listened to Lieutenant Marcellus’ recounting of the battle. He had read Marcus’ report when he first sent it, but he enjoyed hearing him re-tell it. When a soldier was re-telling a battle he often remember details that might not have gone into the report and the look in a soldier’s eyes as he told of battle, often gave him an insight into his character. When he was done he looked into Marcus’ eyes and I know I’m making the right decision, politics be damned.

“Lieutenant, you’ve heard how in a couple of days time there will be a fleet leaving Rome for America and with the force we send we shall have ourselves our first Roman colony,” it was more statement then fact, everyone could see the numerous sails in the harbour.

“Yes, sir.” Marcus replied gloomily.

“Well, Lieutenant. I hearby, promote you to Major Marcus Marcellus.”

Julian laughed has the young man’s jaw dropped first at promoted and unbelievable further when he said Major. Marcus stammered an answer after the General raised an eyebrow, “T-thank you, sir. B-but what about that incident and right past captain, sir?

“Well, I never should have sent you up there in the first place, Major. You showed your skill in battle up there and Quartermaster Paulus is an old family friend and he had nothing but good things to say about you. I will deal with any political backlash from this; I am after all a General and I have a few connections.”

Private First Class Felix Aurelis stood at the Rome docks watching as everyone ran around preparing these last ships to the join the fleet that was already anchored in the Mediterranean. His father’s ship was going to be the flagship of the fleet. He was proud to be a part of the Aurelis family. His uncle was the High General and now his father was going to lead the fleet that would bring Roman fist across the ocean to strike at the Americans. His gaze shifted from the work going on to the flagship itself. It was one of the biggest ships in the current fleet with five masts all bearing the Roman flag; the RIN (Roman Imperial Navy) Striker was an impressive ship. Even more impressive was the armor plating that had been installed on the hull, only about a quarter of the ships had been refitted with the armor plating.

His father, who stood nearby with his arm around his mother noticed him admiring the ship. “She sure is a beauty, isn’t she?” said Commander Titus Aurelis, “But a hear tell that there will be no more of her like anymore. We are going to be switching to iron ships with powerful diesel engines like the trains.”

“So how come you not taking one of those against the Americans?” asked Septima, his wife.

Felix answered quickly before his dad could, “Because, mom it’s going to take to long to build something like that and we need to defend our nation’s honor.”

“Your son is right, dear. Our honor must be avenged.”
Felix pointed at a series of large crates that were getting ready to be loaded “Hey, dad what are those?”

Titus sniffed, “Those are the old model of the Excessum Guns and some out modeled cannons. Since is looks like the Americans are so far behind us in technology, my brother has decided to send these instead of the new long-range artillery and those fancy machine guns that everyone is talking about.”

Felix nodded at that, his squad was one of the few that had already trained with the new machine guns. His squad was stationed at the German-Roman border. He wished he were joining his father overseas even if he had to use out-dated equipment, that were all the glory would be. After wishing his father the best of luck, him and his mother watched as the RIN Striker pulled out of the harbor and sailed away to lead the fleet to America. Felix could have spent that night as his parent’s place, but stayed in the local barracks, he didn’t want to tease himself with luxury. The next day he boarded a train that took him back to Byzantium. He looked forwarded to getting back with his squad, back to the routine. That way he could forget about all the glory that the troops over in America would bring to themselves and their families.

great story

Keep posting man. This is pretty good.