Oh, and before I say anything else, I have changed naval combat. Instead of fleets of ships fighting, there will only be one ship per unit. One frigate in the game means one frigate in the story, but land combat remains the same. Also, the ships now have names.
These are what the prefixes mean:
RS: Roman Ship
USS: US Ship
BS: Babylonian Ship
BZS: Byzantine Ship
ES: Egyptian Ship
CS: Carthaginian ship
CHS: Chinese Ship
DS: Dutch Ship
MS: Mayan Ship
PS: Pirate Ship (Used for privateers)
See if you can figure out who owns what ship.
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Chapter 26: The American War Continues
And, it was the only war to happen in this chapter. In 1793, The war between the Dutch and the Carthaginians ended. Now only the war against America (Rome, Babylon, Dutch, Carthage, Byzantines vs. America) remained.
Byzantine spearmen occupied a mountain pass 300 miles northeast of San Francisco. They were attacked several times by Americans, and held the location each time. It is not known what all of the attackers were, but at least one was an American Cavalry unit. The spearmen are pictured here, along with mysterious messages on small wonders:
Little was done in 1794, and in several other years in this chapter, by Rome against America because R&R was needed by Roman Cavalry. This shall be the only time this will be mentioned.
China seemed to have a thing with rebuilding cities. In 1795, they built Shantung Southeast of- but this time, not on top of- the ruins of Cuzco.
Smoke-Jaguar had a request for Caeser soon after this. He asked for a Mutual Protection Pact and Right of Passage, plus a signifigant yearly tribute (They asked for 23 gpt- a total of 460 gold). Caeser wanted the pact, as he could use their help, but would not pay so high of a tribute, and he could only decrease the tribute by a small amount (I could decrease it to 21 gpt, or 420 gold total. Sorry, I don't really need their help all that much), so he declined.
The Roman Frigate
RS Starling had been bombarding the rail lines near St. Louis and Seattle for a while now, without much sucess. And it would soon have nil sucess, as a sunken ship can't do much. It was sunk by the American Frigate
USS Discovery.
The battle of New York began again with a surprise attack in 1796. A Roman Cavalry unit acted as shock troopers for the first attack, catching the Americans off-guard, although they managed to force the Cavalry to retreat. Hadrian had better luck, and his army defeated 3 American Riflemen garrisons before running out of steam. One barely alive riflemen garrison remained, which, unfortunately, proved to be strong enough to defeat attacking Roman riflemen. But it wasn't strong enough to defeat Roman Cavalry that arrived soon after.
The Americans launched a somewhat pathetic counterattack in 1797. Actually, it was not on the city itself, it was on a heavily injured Cavalry unit outside the city, which fell to American Cavalry easily. Nothing else was there to guard the cannons that had been there, so America now had a multitude of Roman Cannons.
Elsewhere, American Cavalry attacked Riflemen at Byzantium and retreated.
In 1798, Roman Cavalry defeated the Cavalry that had captured the Roman Cannons and the cannons were Roman again. Roman Riflemen then attacked the retreating Cavalry at Byzantium...
...and lost. Another
battle. Oh well, other Riflemen defeated these so-called 'Invincible Cavalry'.
In the seas near Tatung island (that is, the island that contains Tatung and Nippur), the Roman privateer
PS Nefarious was aching for a ship to loot. They came across the Babylonian Galleon
BS Lighting and killed the crew, and captured the ship, which has been renamed to
PS Lightning. No gold was found, but a lot of tasty food was.
Another pincemeal attack came in 1799. American Cavalry suicided themselves against the defenders of Sardica. They had more luck at Byzantium, though, and defeated Riflemen to the NW of the city.
The Roman railroads showed just how powerful they could be in 1800, as they allowed Hadrian's army to quickly move around Roman territory and kill American Cavalry near New York, then near Byzantium.
The American War shrunk slightly in 1801, when Carthage made peace with America:
Scoundrels. Not only did this lose an ally, it also lost some luxuries and gold.
And speaking of the war, America's pathetic attacks continued soon after with a failed Cavalry attack at Tarentum. This time, the riflemen counter against American Cavalry in 1802 succeded without retribution.
San Francisco was also attacked, and Hadrian's army fought valiantly against the riflemen in the city, but only defeated one garrison and suffered much injury. They must wait for artillery support before continuing.
Also in 1802, Caeser went to Hannibal and asked how much it would cost for those luxuries he was selling as part of the alliance to be returned. "A small fee... of 39 gold and some of your resources."
"Fine," said Caeser, who added under his breath, "a$$hole..."
On the bright side of money, Caeser's alliance with Babylon was now expired. They are not a useful ally, so Caeser cancelled the alliance. That was a major drain on the Roman treasury.
Speaking of Babylon, they asked for trade of world maps in 1803. Caeser sweetened the deal by asking for some gold and an embargo against the Maya:
America saw a weak spot at New York and attacked the city with two cavalry units. And yet, Roman Riflemen held against both. Caeser commends their bravery.
There had long been empty space in the center of Incaland. It was finally settled by the Byzantines in 1803. Brusa now exists in that somewhat hostile environment.
The Byzantines had a multitude of forces in the mountains near Sardica and Vitcos. In 1805, American Cavalry assaulted Byzantine Longbowmen at this position- and failed miserably.
The Babylonian citizens of Shurrupak had long been under the rule of China. They got tired of that in the fall of 1805 and held a revolt, and overthrew control of the city. But, the Mayan government staked a claim on the city, and theirs was more defensible than Babylon's claim. Shurrupak now belonged to the Maya.
Speaking of the Maya, they had vulnerable ships near Lagartero's harbor in 1806. The
PS Lightning attacked the Mayan frigate
MS Itza, and, unfortunately, lost. And, on the topic of naval battles, the
RS Dominator and the
RS Crusher met up with the
USS Discovery near Pisae. The Dominator provided bombardment while the Crusher attacked- and the Crusher lost. Naval battles are not on Rome's side this year.
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Hold on, I have to take a break. She-who-must-be-obeyed, a.k.a., my mom, needs the computer.
K, I'm back.
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It's a good thing, then, that land battles are. Hadrian's army recovered enough to attack, and they defeated another riflemen garrison in San Francisco, but returned to the same level of injury is before they had started healing.
The second of the five cities Caeser has planned was built soon after this victory. It was named Seleucia, and it was located approximately 200 miles North-Northwest of what used to be Atlanta.
Very good news came in 1807. The embargo Egypt and America had against Rome was over. As soon as Caeser's embargoes ended in a few years, they could trade freely.
The Byzantines showed no mercy against the American Cavalry West of Sardica. The Longbowmen finished them off.
William came to Caeser with a... er... "request" later that year. "Caeser," he said, "My people have heard of your 'electic power' and wish it for themselves. Could I have the secrets?"
"What is your price?" asked Caeser.
"Nothing. Give it to me."
"I am outraged that you would ask..."
"I'm not asking. I'm telling. Give me Electricity, or else!"
"Or else what?" asked Caeser, "Will you declare war on me and break our deal, ruin your reputation, and prompt me to get everyone else to attack you?"
"Um... well... Grr. You win this round, Caeser!" was William's reply.
Speaking of Science, Roman scientists made another discovery. And for the first time in a while, they had a monopoly on it. It was a description of a scientific method for expirementation.
Meanwhile, at San Francisco, the artillery had arrived and it rained death on the city. Caeser finds this tactic to be extremely useful. Then, Roman Cavalry charged and defeated one of the garrisons with ease. Caeser is highly impressed with their performance, and asked the leader, Maximus, to come with him to Ravenna for something that is currently top secret.
Hadrian's Army defeated another of the city's rifle garrisons, allowing for Roman Riflemen to come in for the last battle. Which they won.
America's rapidly declining empire continued to get worse in 1809. Not only did their attack on San Francisco fail, but they lost another city in Incaland: Corihuayrachina was destroyed.
Rome also got some bad news. Two unrelated events in quick succesion caused great unhappiness in the Roman Empire. First, the silks for gold deal with China ran out, and Caeser saw it to be too expensive to renew. Heck, it couldn't cause that much unhappiness to lose silks, could it?
But something else could. Varna's citizens had long been fighting to return control of the city to the Byzantines, and in 1810, they won. This returned 2 soruces of Ivory to the control of the Byzantines. This doesn't seem so bad, but the other 3 are all being exported! The loss of two luxuries caused a bit of unhappiness, and 4 cities rioted because of it.
But, better news was to come. Caeser and Maximus' efforts in Ravenna had allowed for the creation of a Military Academy to train more leaders to lead armies. Maximus will teach them.
And, it is sure that 1810 will be an eventful year (I have not done anything in it yet- just the 1808-1810 interturn).