1958 AD - The Celts rushed troops in Lugdunum last turn, as it is down to size 8. Well, that won't make us reconsider attacking it - quite the opposite!
The 1956 destruction of Lugdunum's barracks means surviving veterans have only recovered to 3 hitpoints, and the new rushed Rifleman has only three. Which makes it all the easier for our Artillery to redline all the troops, and therafter reduce the city's populaton from 8 to 4 and destroy the marketplace and temple. Our Bombers follow that up by destroying all the city's defenders less Cavalry, reducing its size to 2, and turning its library and bank into piles of rubble. Leonidas then leads the charge to take the greatly weakened city.
Leonidas easily wins, and greatest city in the world - well, at least before all our shelling and bombing - is ours. Hattusas now holds that revered title. P'yongyang has the good fortune of joining the Top 5 list - and we have the good fortune of now controlling the Sistine Chapel and having the world's happiest population
! We also get the Great Wall, Shakespeare's Theatre, and Universal Suffrage, which is rather hard to implement in an absolute monarchy such as ours. Maybe we have it on the city level?
Theodoros Kolokotronis and Ajax continue on the the Celtic last city of Agedincum. The rest of our tanks in the area head south, to conquer Persian Africa. Our new tanks brush up their skills against some unfortunate Spanish troops in our territory and some slightly less unfortunate Korean ones, who nevertheless can only force retreats from our tanks.
Across the seas, the Aztec city of Texcoco is looking rather doomed.
After all our bombardment, it has three redlined Infantry. One of our tanks take out two, and the third destroys the last, and the city is ours. We are now up to the Rio Grande River in the New World, and with tanks arriving every turn from Australia, our progress is sure to onlly increase.
Spain also feels the bite of the Greek Navy this turn, off the west coast of North America of all places.
Our Battleship hardly receives a nick from the exchange. Farther south, an Incan frigate that had the nerve to bombard some of our troops just outside Teotihucan receives a similar fate to that of the Spanish destroyer. And with those victories, 1958 ends.
1958 IBT -
An interesting request. And certainly we
could own the Babylonians if we wanted to. But in the spirit of world peace, we decline the opportunity to destroy Babylon. Because we all want world peace, right? You say no? You evil person! Wait, what? We're trying to conquer the world? Oh yes, of course. I forgot that. I suppose you aren't evil, just reading this thread's title. Well, I already decided to let Babylon live for now, but don't worry, once the rest of our wars are going well, they will also be incorporated into Greece.
An Incan Frigate (seems like there's always more of those) was foolish enough soon afterwards to try to bombard our Battleship that just owned a Spanish Destroyer. Really smart move there. Guess who the Battleship's next target is now?
But things quickly change from happy-go-lucky when I realize I entirely forgot about the troops the Inca landed on our native island, just outside Sparta. The situation is an Elite Cavalry and Veteran Medieval Infantry against our Fortified Veteran Hoplite in the City of Sparta. Even with defensive bonuses, the odds are stacked against us. But that's no reason to give up.
***
"Idiotic government. First they leave the east coast entirely undefended, then they refuse to draft troops when the second-oldest city in Greece is threatened by foreigners. And we're right down the road from them, nonetheless," complained Sparta's commander. "What do you think?"
"Sometimes I think our government's hardly more reliable than any of the foreign governments, with all their mindless tactics," replied the Captain he was with. "At least our offensives tend to be well-organized - but I'm mind-boggled by them here."
"Well, even if we are abandoned by Athens, I'm not letting my hometown fall without a fight," the Commander decided. "Let's go rally the men. They say Hoplites are still bringing home victories in Africa, let's pray to Athena they can bring home victory at the place of their perfection."
It didn't escape the men of the garrison that they were outnumbered by better-armed opponents. True, their tactics were superior, and they had the advantage of knowing the city, but given the circumstances they were, understandably, nervous. They hoped the Commander had something ingenious up his sleeve at his speech.
"Fellow Spartans, we have a great task before us. Never has a city on our native island faced such great peril. Yet the Incan forces are not insurmountable. Countless times have Hoplites withstood fiercer enemies - be it hordes or Persian Cavalry in India, machine gunners in Africa, French swordsmen in Australia, or volleys of Dutch arrows in Malaysia. We have a storied history, and it is now our task to add another chapter to that story. Our art may be ancient, but it is also legendary. And legends do not die easily. We are that legend incarnate. Men, we have prevailed countless times before to earn this reputation, let us keep it up now. These Inca are no more immortal than the previous enemies Hoplites have faced. Keep faith, care for your comrades, and remember the legendary power our tactics have shown the world in the past. Then the city shall never fall. We will win this battle, men.
This is Sparta!!!"
The Hoplite defenders were renewed, restored of confidence, and fought like it. The Cavalry could only do slight damage, seemingly meeting with spears whenever they turned a street corner. Shocked and distraught, they eventually retreated, stupefied by the Spartan defence.
The Medieval Infantry then charged, and the Spartans met them not with stealth but with a wall of shields. With the same phalanx tactics used by the ancients, they systematically slaughtered wave after wave of the Incan invaders, and when the Inca tried to retreat, Spartans hidden near the edges of the city came out and cut them down. The Incan Colonel in charge of the invasion was absolutely stunned. He had heard the legends of the Hoplites, all military men in the world had, but he didn't believe it would actually play out now. He had went lost seven-eighths of his invasion force to an ancient opponent half his size - he wasn't sure whether he feared facing the Greeks again or facing his superiors more.
***
The Incan invasion was completely demolished by the Hoplites, but the resistence in Camulodunum could not be adequately suppressed by my Infantry.
The city will be retaken the next turn if at all possible.
And finishing the IBT on the same theme as it started, peace has spread its wings again and has saved the Chinese at least from fighting both the Byzantines and Mongols at once.
'ed in terms of efficiency in battle - he lost 6 hitpoints over an Infantry and two rifles. But that's what happens when your competition is as elite a Hoplite group as that of Leonidas.
. The Hoplites were just getting warmed up in Part Forty-Five.
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I think I saw that video before.
