1962 AD - We do indeed revert to the draft in Middelburg. A Conscript Mech Inf is redlined but defeats a Regular Guerilla that Scandinavia landed. A second one defeats the English Infantry remaining on the island. Both are promoted to regular. It has not escaped my thought that with a few Bombers in Middelburg, these guys might be able to take the remainder of the island after a bit of rest and recuperation.
Good news in the Middle East! I remember to reinforce Gergovia and attack the nearby troops!
The beating up the nearby troops part gets off to a great start.
:sarcasm alert:
Fortunately the rest of the battles there go well, and all the threatening troops are defeated. Searching around for another unit on which to use our new tank's remaining movement point, we find...
A Spearman!
! Time for another classic Tank v. Spearman battle!
Once again our magnificent armies are victorious. Funny how the battles tank commanders are most concerned about are the ones against spearmen...because they know their name will forever live in infamy if they lose!
The Hittite naval fleet split up last turn. We decide to target the northern portion that hasn't reached harbour.
Only one Frigate is sunk this turn. But the Hittites must know their navy is in severe danger.
Their army is soon to be in severe danger, as well.
One tank falls in the battle, but Ankuwa is taken as Greece's first city in South America. Europe is the last continent on which we do not control a city.
Naval reports from Alaska indicate Spain plans to found a new city on the Aleutian Islands, the cities of Molde and Brighton on the West Coast of Alaska have fallen to America, and that the new city of Cincinnati has been founded in southern Alaska. It also has been confirmed that the north Canadian cities of Malinalco and Basra now belong to America.
Back in Asia, we are greeted with good signs at Valencia.
The battle is easy, and the city is ours. We now have a new northernmost city.
The city of Byblos in Africa falls almost as easily.
And Giza utterly fails to stand up to Ajax's Army.
And in just three years, the picture in southern Africa has changed completely. I still have deals with all the other African nations, so they are safe - for now.
As I prepare for the eventual Battle of Trondheim, I stumble upon what must be the main portion of England's Army.
There is a Mechanized Infantry with all those Artillery, but with the English having a cumulative attack of 64, I don't think one Mech Inf is enough. And I don't need England capturing eight Artillery. So we send all that we can in that direction - starting with planes.
The planes do well. I draft two new Mech Infantry and send them there, and find three Tanks to send there. The odds are now 52 for England and 60 for us, not counting our artillery bombardments. We figure that is good enough, and will let the English attack our impromptu stack if they wish.
Our bombing of Persia continues this turn. We now switch from Persepolis to more strategic targets - in this case, meaning Persia's wine supply.
Our Bombers have an 80% success rate - just enough to take out all of Persia's wine. That ought to slow them down a bit.
1962 IBT - We spot a Galleon off the coast of West Africa. An ordinary enough event - but it's a Sumerian Galleon! They're finally expanding off Greenland! We're rather surprised, but it was bound to happen eventually.
Then we get even more of a surprise:
Koreans attacking from the South? Well, that's what happening.
***
The Commander of Lugdunum had been having a good year. He was one of the few military men fortunate enough to have a permanent home, and though the city was newly Greek, it was deemed to be in the safe zone. His job was, in short, to make sure everything kept going the way it was. Troops were only stationed in cities such as Lugdunum for the unlikely event that things didn't keep going how they were going.
This particular week he was taking a holiday in the city, releasing the tension involved in even a peaceful miltary life. He was enjoying a delicious sandwich at a cafe on Tuesday of that week, having taken the week off for vacation, and didn't think much of the military Jeep he saw driving down the road; it was a common enough occurence. He continued eating his sandwich and thinking of the golf course where he would meet a friend for a round of eighteen later that day. But before he could finish his meal, sirens went off.
"What...why are those going off?" he asked aloud, to no one in particular. He knew they were only to be used in the event of actual attack, whether by air or land. Both of those possibilities had not even been on the radar the previous Friday. Well, he figured, he ought to head to the local headquarters and figure out what was going on. He got up from his table and started towards the street and his luxurious car.
"Sir! We're supposed to be going to the nearest shelters! We have a basement under the store!" shouted the cafe owner. The Commander turned back, realizing he must seem insane to be leaving for a drive when military vehicles would soon be patrolling the steets. He walked over.
"I'm in the military, ma'am. Reporting to the headquarters." He showed her his ID just so there wouldn't be any arguments.
"Oh my...you're the Commander here? What is happening? Is it a drill?" asked the cafeowner.
"I don't know," replied the Commander. "I'm as clueless as anyone on this. We'll get things sorted out, though. Reports haven't indicated any danger, so I'm hopeful this will all be settled with an hour or two." With that he went back to his car and started towards the local military headquarters. Before he got too far, he was stopped by a tank and ordered to park. When he showed them his ID, they immediately radioed back to HQ. They then put him on the line.
"Sergeant, what is going on?" he asked the sergeant in the headquarters. "Why are we in a state of military emergency when last Friday our reports showed no danger whatsoever?"
"There are Koreans approaching the city, sir. Cavalry. We don't know where they're coming from, but it sure looks like they plan on attacking."
"How sure are we that they are aggressive Koreans? Are we sure this isn't some greenhorn eager for combat mistaking nomadic camel-riders for enemies?" asked the Commander.
"Yes, sir. We've seen them for over half an hour now and there can be no doubt they are Korean. Korean epaulettes and everything."
"Sly rats," said the Commander. "I'll be back in fifteen minutes. Clear the main roads for me. Have the tanks defend the city from the farthest suburbs. They aren't going to take this city today."
It didn't take more than two minutes for the Commander to be back in his military element after arriving at the headquarters. Nevertheless, he still was amazed that there was no word of this attack earlier - sure, there were sneak attacks in borderlands, but this wasn't borderland anymore.
"All the tank divisions are ready?"
"Yes, sir. Ready and waiting. We should have them defeated without too much trouble," replied the local lieutenant in charge of tank deployments.
"Excellent. Now, get me a general or someone on the phone. I want to know what exactly is going on here," ordered the Commander.
Three minutes later, he had the vice general of the entire Greek Army on the phone.
"I've heard nothing of the sort," said the Vice General. "Korean Cavalry in Africa? Are you sure it's not rogue Mongols?"
"Positive," replied the Commander. "They're Koreans, tried and true. Looks like them and have the proper insignia. And yes, they are coming from the south. Beats me where from - that's what I was hoping you'd know."
"I'll let you know if someone informs me otherwise, but I can't recall any information on them whatsoever, neither from military nor covert sources. Agedincum reported seeing Sumerian Galleons two weeks ago, but otherwise Africa has been quiet."
"Very well. Thank you, sir," replied the Commander. Well, our investments in espionage are sure paying off, he thought. But now wasn't the time to prepare an argument for higher espionage spending at next year's budgetary meeting. For now he had to fight.
On the whole, the battle went very well for the Greeks. The Cavalry managed to surround and disable some tanks, but were cut down thoroughly. By the evening the city appeared secure. The Commander went home satisfied with his troops' performance and hoping someone could shed some light on exactly how the Korean troops had arrived before too long.
But the satisfaction of victory would be short-lived. For at 2:45 A.M. that night, the Commander's phone rang. He was almost certain it was about the military from the second he woke up. And he didn't figure it was good news - he had told his subordinates to let him know any information on how the Koreans had advanced the next day. So he wasn't especially surprised to be called back to the front when he answered the phone. He took a quick cold shower to wake himself up, and then sped down to the military headquarters.
"What're those bloody Koreans up to now?" he asked upon arriving twenty minutes later.
"Well, it seems some snuck around our night watchposts and have started burning buildings in the southern parts of town. Tanks are already on their way there. We're expecting a frontal attack as well. Many of our tank crews were at home sleeping at the time of the advance, so that defence will be formed as is possible," outlined the deputy.
"How many tanks are ready now?"
"Only about one-fourth have been deployed. Another three are being deployed every three minutes."
"Double the pace. Those Koreans are sly attacking in shifts like this, but we're going to show them what Greek tanks can do. Let those cadets know that if they don't succeed, none of us will be here tomorrow, so they right better get down here in record time" said the Commander. And what he said was true - if the Cavalry succeeded, they wouldn't be in the Greek military installations tomorrow.
But the Koreans had already gained an edge, even at this early time in their attack. The blitz troops had incited many fires and much chaos in the southeast and southwest parts of the cities. The Korean frontal assault faced few tanks, and with a quick charge was able to keep their casualties reasonable. The Cavalry immediately set about setting the area to fire. By the time half the Greek tanks had been deployed, much of the southern half of the city was in flames. Tanks were kept from retreat by the flames, and vulnerable to cavalry surrounding them with Molotov cocktails demanding their surrender. Elsewhere, citizens fleeing burning buildings kept the tanks from pursuing the Cavalry. The situation became dire.
The Commander realized the Greeks had lost the momentum, and that by now the amount of chaos had spun the situation out of control. He had been in communication with his superiors throughout the night. With the city evidently falling, he called Athens once more.
"Do not surrender the city," ordered the Greek General of the Army, now on duty in Athens. "Lugdunum is of the highest importance. Its Wonders must not be lost if at all possible, and absolutely must not be destroyed. Pull back to defend them if all else is lost."
"Yes, sir," acknowledged the Commander. Within ten minutes he gave the order to do just that.
Even the concentration of Greek tanks at the wonders wasn't enough. It did stop Korean progress in the immediate area, but the Koreans simply left the areas around the Wonders alone and continued ravaging other areas of the city. The strategy was soon shown to be ineffective. As the Cavalry neared the headquarters, the Commander received an order to evacuate as many of the troops as possible, foresaking the equipment. The city was lost. It was best that the Greeks evacuated while some areas were still unharmed than to continue to fight until the entire city, as well as its Wonders, were ruins. Thus a pull-out was initiated, and by 7:00 AM the military had left the city for Entremont. The Commander found the defeat difficult to bear, especially as it meant the loss of his adopted city. Yet he wasn't blamed for the defeat - the higher commanders were in agreement that the Koreans somehow sneaking up on Lugdunum was the unacceptable situation.
***
Three weeks later, a similar situation occured at Hispalis. The "phantom Koreans" had proved quite effective, and had greatly shanken up the Greek situation in Africa. The government felt fortunate elections were not occuring soon.
Four weeks after that, the Greek government published a report on the situation. They only possible course of action, they concluded, was that the Korean fleet off the West African coast had landed the troops just out of Greek view south of Agedincum, and they had then used neutral railroads to reach Lugdunum. It was agreed that such possibilities would always be checked in the future.
Sure enough, we soon received this field report:
The report was correct - Korea had even established a city on the west coast of Africa. It wouldn't last long.
In better news, America allied with Persia against Spain. We could always use another ally. America also canceled their trade embargo against Persia with me. Hmm, cancel the trade embargo against Persia, cancel the luxury deal (even if they were broke)...let's not get any ideas about whom to ally against with Persia next time, Lincoln
.
The Byzantines go on the offensive against China, and succeed where Mongolia seemed bamboozled, taking Tsingtao fairly easily.
And Babylon, the ever-so-eager war ally of mine awhile back, declares war on Zululand. So much for peace in Africa.
Of far greater concern to me than Babylon's imperialist ambitions, however, is making sure the sly Koreans do not get to keep their new cities in Africa.