Xerxes as happy for his empire. It was a large and rich country. It occupied a continent of its own because of the glorious conquest of earlier rulers. It was technologically advanced as well, and it made rich profit by selling his advances to less enlightend nations. Only one thing botherd Xerxes. That thing was called Carthage. The evil Carthigians had brutally dominated the peacefull peoples around them for mellenia. And now by pure chance these sub-human monsters occupied the only known source of the most valuble substance on the planet. Oil. Xerxes knew of the marvels his engineers could build if they controlled even a little of this marvelous substance. Yet none of these marvels could ever be built without it. It was essential if the Persians were to assume their rightfull place as leaders of the world. Xerxes would make the oil his! But how? By controlling the oil the war mongering Carthigians had built mighty weapons. His soldiers might never be able to capture the Carthigian oil if they had to face dug in fortified infantry. Not only that, they would have to face fierce bombardment from air land and sea when they attacked. And without oil they would have no way to fight back. But the Persians needed the oil! There was only one way to get it: force. Overwhelming force. Consulting with his military advisor he learned that the best way to go about it would be to capture the coastal city nearest to the oil: Theveste, and burn it to the ground! Further consultation, reconnisance and planning showed that anything other than an amphibious assault would leave the troops stranded on beach trying to organize themselves while being fiercely counterattacked by the rest of the Carthigian army and allow them to bring massive reinforcments into the city. No. The only way would be with a complete surprise attack. Unfortunately no such troops were known to exist. The Persians had large armies, but none had the necassary training or equipment to conduct such an assault. The top Perian generals and scientist put their heads together. They concluded that in 4 years, with adequate funding, they could discover how to conduct a beach assault and train and equip troops to do the same. Xerxes orderd them to do so. In the meantime the preperations began. Massive amounts of food and supplies were stockpiled to feed the troops once they landed. Additional troops were trained to defend the landing sites after they were secured. A group of brave citizens and engineers agreed to accompany the soldiers to contruct the necassary buildings to extract the oil and ship it home after the invasion. Cities. The plan had the finishing touches applied to it. The generals concluded that our outdated boats wouldnt be able to keep the army reinforced and supplied quickly enough. They made plans to have troops and supplies airlifted in. Workers were trained to build air strips quickly after the invasion. Massive wooden ships called galleons were produced in great numbers to carry the marines (for so the amphibous assault troops had been named) to enemy shores. Finally, the invasion force set out.

They reached the shore of Theveste after a long crowded ride. By the time they arrived, the morale of the marines was a little low, but they were eager to defeat the Carthigians in battle. The citizens of Theveste never knew what hit them. It had been a popular beach resort before the invasion. Startled Carthigian citizens on the beach fled when they saw the landing craft full of Perians marines approached. The Carthigian garrison in the city were terrified when they saw the massive scale of the invasion. They manned gun emplacements and machine guns near the edge of the city. They were able to hold off the first few waves of marines. But they were overwhelmed. The citizens of Theveste were shown little mercy. Those that were not driven out of their homes or enslaved were slain by the overzealous Persian soldiers, eager for revenge after having seen the first waves butcherd so brutally. The city of Theveste, once a prosperous town, was no longer on the map by sunset. The next task was soon to begin.

After the invading army had landed they realized theur target, the oil wells, were a few miles to the east of where Theveste used to be. They set out after they were reorgannized. The Carthigian goverment was still in shock and citizens of cities near the former location of Thevest were terrified when the heard of the butcher at Thevest. The Carthigian goverment made no attempt to interfer with the landing party just yet, but they were able to bribe the spineless weak Scandinavians to join them. Xerxes was not very concerned with the Scandinavians at the minute however. They were weak and had no navy whatsoever. Merely a few outdated galleys. He was glefull at the success of the mission however. The oil was secured and a city was founded over it to protectit from the Carthigians. An arifield had been constructed and more marines were departing for Carthage by the hour. And reinforcements had arrived by sea int eh form of 8 new marine battalions. Yes, things were going well so far, but would that continue?

To be continued:


PS: This was on monarch difficulty level with %70 water, continents and 8 civs, none of which are wiped out but 2 are on 3-4 city islands, because of me :)

Here is a screenie of the mini-map prior to the invasion.

Carthage= Brown
Persians=Light Green
Romans=Red
Scandinavians=Dark Green
Zulu=Yellow
Ottomans=Light Purple
Indians=Dark Purple
Arabians=Orange

Good job I like.

:hears Star Wars Song theme play::gunshot::music stops: sorry saw the title and just couldnt help

Heh, it's pretty good, but please use some more linebreaks.
And keep writing!

All was peacefull. Xerxes controlled the oil and was airlifting more reinforcements in daily. Eventually, small groups of Carthigian soldiers started to attack. Xerxes knew that soon, mass attacks would begin. He decided to take more action to try and put the Carthigians on the defence again. 25 marine battalions were gatherd together to attack the nearest Carthigian city. THey marched for over a week to reach it. 2 inantry battalions were left to gaurd artillery on a nearby hill. The rest of the marines proceeded forward. The attack was a large and bloody one. The persians were drawn into long drawn out street battles against an elusive foe. But the city was taken. The marines took everything of value, and then burned it to the ground. They began to head back to the beachead, but bands of carthigian guerillas attacked. eventually, bloddy and tired, they arrived back at the beachead. They were greeted with warm cheers.

Back in persopolis it was a different story however. Riots destroyed several parts of the city. Protesters lined up in front of the palace shouting slogans like "NO blood for oil!" and other such phrases (Sorry, I couldnt resist :) )Other large metropolises were experiencing similar disorder. Now that their objective had been accomplished Xerxes was ready for peace. But it was not going to be so easy.

To be continue...

excellent story. kee up the good work.