Chapter 9: War returns to the Mediterannean
There was a large area of water that was not cut off from the ocean seperating the main continent from the island Egypt and Russia were on, called Africa, connected to the ocean by the straits of Moscow and Hispalis. This area was called the mediterannean sea, a relatively peaceful area. But peace there would not last forever. It would last only another 30 years, in fact.
But that didn't happen yet. One of the innovations of feudalism was a weapon called a "pike". Caeser implementeed the use of this weapon, giving it- as well as better armor- to his bronze-spear-wielding soldiers.
And here is where the peace ends. In the year 560, 830 years after the end of the Russo-Egyptian War, a peace was shattered that would end up with the triggering of the War of the Mediterannean Sea:
The cause of this war was not known for sure, although it started on the exact same date as Egypt's entrance into the middle ages.
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Hold on, have to go now. Be back at some point.
Okay, some point is now.
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Some wondered if something had happened at the beginning of the Egyptian middle ages that had caused this. Perhaps, it was because many of Cleo's advisors had been fired about this time due to secret thefts for their own gain, so could her new advisors be corrupt and power-hungry? No one really knows.
What is known is that they wanted help in the war. In 580, Cleo contacted Caeser with a proposition:
Caeser thought about this. He agreed with Cleo that the world probably would be a better place without Russia, he wasn't sure he wanted to enter the war. He replied, "Will you pay me to stay in the war?" The two leaders then haggled on a price for a while before agreeing on this:
They both left, preparing for war. This deal would last for 200 years, or until Russia was destroyed or one of them signed peace, whichever came first.
But, for a while, nothing interesting happened in the war, or at all.
Although things did happen outside the war, such as the founding of the Roman city of Lutetia in 590:
In 640, Caeser recieved news that Lincoln was working on a wonder, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" In New York. Caeser was also building this, in Cumae, so he wanted to know how it was progressing in New York compared to Cumae. The embassy in Washington reported this:
Good, that was much slower than the one in Cumae.
Later that same year, the first important battle in the War of the Mediterannean happened. Egyptian forces attacked the Russian city of Rostov. It was a long battle, and Caeser does not know exactly what happened to this day. But he does know that before the end of 640, The Battle of Rostov had concluded in an Egyptian victory. 1 city down, 5 to go.
Caeser hoped to get similar luck attacking Yekaterinburg, the only Russian city off of Africa. Alas, he did not.
In 650, Roman Horsemen charged at Yekaterinburg. They fought bravely against Russian spearmen, and almost defeated them, but alas, lost the battle. A new unit of spearmen appeared to take their place. A Roman Legion charged, only to be wiped out with even less sucess than the Horsemen. (Read my further attacks on Yekaterinburg and see why I hate the RNG) The siege now had run out of troops, and would need more before The Battle of Yekaterinburg ended.
10 years passed before anything happened. Then, Catherine came to Caeser, requesting peace. (No screenie, forgot to take one) "Forget it," said Caeser, "Cleo is paying me more to stay in the war." Speaking of which, shortly after Cathy's request, Egyptian forces won control of the Russian city of Novgorod.
The Battle of Yekaterinburg continued in 670 when more reinforcements arrived. Roman Catapults bombarded the city, with little, but still some, success. 1/3 of one of the spearmen units in the city was wiped out. Then came charges from the Roman Leigons. The first charge fought valiantly against the full-strength spearmen, and almost won. The second charge fought against the other, 2/3 strength spearmen unit in the city. It was a long battle, but after a week of fighting, the Roman Leigons won the battle- and a promotion. The first victory of the war has made Roman citizens eager to continue aiding the war effort. Caeser's advisor has said Rome is in a Golden Age.
Roman citizens even built Caeser's Palace a stone wall on the first floor:
"Interesting," said Caeser, "what triggers this 'Golden Age'?" "A victory from certain units, or the building of certain wonders," answered his domestic advisor, Claudius. "Does anyone else have one, or has had one?" "We do not know, although we know that the Maya got one from building the Pyramids, and we suspect Egypt has one right now from a war chariot victory." "Ah, interesting," said Caeser, "Okay, goodbye now."
One thing would probably not make the Roman citzens happy, though: Idiotic generals (a.k.a., me) accidentally left the Roman Catapults undefended, and they were destroyed by Russian Archers.
Remember Sun Tzu's art of War? Well, the Byzantines started it in Adrianople in 680. Again, Caeser wanted to know how it was progressing, and asked for a report from the embasssy in Constantinople to check out the city and see how it was doing:
Caeser laughed. He could build 3 Sun Tzus in Cumae before Theodora finished the one in Adrianople.
And as usual, the battle of Yekaterinburg continued. The half-strength Roman Legion attacked. Unfortunately, they lost the battle, almost defeating a Russian spear. Caeser was getting tired of that happening.
And Russia was definately having better luck than Caeser. Their archers were weaker than Roman Leigons, but SOMEHOW, after 2 Russian Archers were unloaded from galleys earlier, when the first attacked in The Battle of Hispalis, they barely had any casualties and defeated the Roman spear garrison, taking the city!!! (DAMN YOU, RNG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This made me so mad. I mean, seriously, if my 3-attack Leigons can't defeat their spears, why can their 2-attack Archers defeat mine?) (Oh, and BTW, don't include swear words in pictures you want to show here- apparently, the autocensor will block them, even if they are in IMG tags, as I have just found out!)
Caeser now concentrates efforts on recapturing this city.
Speaking of captured cities, Yaroslavl' fell to Egyptian forces in 690.
But now, Caeser's luck was changing. The assualt on Yekaterinburg continued in 700 AD. A Roman Leigon attacked, yet again, a spear in the city. This time, they won, and with mild casulaties. After 50 years of fighting, the city had finally fallen. As there was too little left of it to make it worth keeping, the Roman Leigonaries burned the city to the ground.
Soon after, other Roman Leigons attacked Hispalis. The Russian Archers were simply no match for the Roman Leigons' superior technology. Hispalis was recaptured by Roman forces.
The 2 Russian Galley "fleets" that had transported the Russian Archers were now fleeing, trying to escape to Moscow. A Roman Galley fleet met them in battle. They almost succeeded in destroying one of them, but could not finish the job and were sunk.
The Galleys proceeded to head towards Moscow. They would never get there.
But, before that, in January of 720, Roman scientists finished their discovery of a new field of science called "Engineering".
They could now build better artillery units, called "Trebuchets", could plant forests in certain areas, and could build bridges. Roman workers proceeded to build bridges at places were roads crossed rivers. Scientists accompanied them. As the bridges on the Tiber river were being built, they noticed just how different the desert near the river was from the desert farther away. So different, that they have now come to recognize it as an entirely new terrain- flood plains. Probably, this was why Rome had managed to grow so big, so fast. Caeser was quick to want to trade this knowledge and asked what his friends in other nations would offer. Only two were worth taking, a trade with the Byzantines for two other technologies, of the Republican government and the idea of Monotheism, plus some gold, and a trade with America for an alliance vs. Russia, plus some gold.
Now, back to the war. Soon after this trade, Roman galleys attacked the fleeing Russian ones. They sunk the fleet that was at full strentgth, leaving only the remnants of the other one to fight. It was sunk in 730 AD.
Soon after, St. Petersburg fell to Egyptian forces, leaving only the Russian capital, Moscow, to conquer. Late in 740 AD, Egyptian War chariots attacked. The battle was witnessed by Roman Galleys. Before the battle, the galleys noticed it was elite. It must have been through battles in the war in the past- meaning that Claudius was right about his guess. Egypt was in a golden age. Of course, The Battle of Moscow ended in a victory for Egypt, but that was only one spearmen unit. At least one more remained to defend Moscow.
However, with 3 countries attacking it at once, and only one city left...
Russia's days are numbered.
(Again, No end turn screenie)