INES IV: Born Yesterday

Hope I got my orders sent in time.

President Haynes entered the Austin offices of the Federal Texas Ranger District Building, and searched for somebody to speak to. The only man he spotted though was a large man making his way down a narrow hall towards the door that led outside. The President ordered the man to halt, the large man seemed visibly shocked that someone was in the building and slowly turned, hand on his gun before he spotted the President and suddenly changed his body language and saluted, "President Haynes! Sir!" The portly man fumbled with his words before Haynes lifted his hand to silence him, he simply asked, "Where is Ranger Ortega?"

Alas, Ortega was several hundred miles away leading a bloody assassin and a rookie Ranger on a chase through the wild Texas country, the trio crept past buffalo herds, crossed rivers and endured 100 degree heat for several days before Ortega finally slowed his mount and approached a lone building that had no earthly business in this desolate region where a man could die within days. Nevertheless Ortega led his horse to a nearby trough which was mercifully, half full of water, and slowly walked inside, sneaking a glance at Bloody Jack as he stood on his horse on the ridge. Ortega smiled, knew Bloody Jack still thought Ortega was simply a drunkard and did not want a fight. As soon as Ortega entered the building he promptly shed his dusty jacket and threw on a replacement which sported a fine badge that showed he was a Texas Ranger of the highest order. He double checked his guns and pleased that they met with his satisfaction, proceeded to peek out the window, as expected Bloody Jack had dismounted and set up a campsite on the ridge overlooking his shanty. Ortega turned and bent down, lifted a floorboard, then another and another.

Andrew was tired, he had been tailing the assassin for the last 2 days and his body was sore. There was no doubt that Andy was a fine horseman, one of the best in Texas but even the best cannot sit in an saddle for days and not be sore, he groaned quietly and shifted his position as he watched Bloody Jack dismount and set up a campsite. 'Ortega must have stopped in the valley below' thought Andy as he watched Bloody Jack some more. A feeling suddenly spooked him as he reached for his gun and peered at the thing touching his leg, he stared in disbelief as he realized he was staring at Ortega, the famed Ranger himself climbing out of a hole. Ortega smiled and simply said, "Talk about a lucky place to park your horse, had you been one step to the side I would never have gotten out." Ortega sat next to his hole and peered at Bloody Jack while a shocked Andrew looked on.

Bloody Jack was feeling angry, he had several times wanted to just march down into the valley floor and just break down the door and shoot Ortega as he slept and be done with his, but his pride and reputation would not allow it and therefore Bloody Jack simply sat on a rock and cooked a rattlesnake over the fire unaware that two people were creeping up behind him.

Andrew stopped at the lone tree and took his Henry Repeater, and added the special scope he made just for this gun and aimed at the man called Bloody Jack as Ortega crept to a distance of 20 yards and then stood and shouted, "Texas Rangers! You are under arrest!" Bloody Jack froze, his thoughts circling in his head 'How the hell did he get out of that house if I have been watching it.' His hand slowly reached into his jacket and gripped the peacemaker. He spoke, "Well Ranger, seems you got the drop on me. What is the crime of such a lowly hunter?"
Ortega not buying his story for a moment simply said, "Maybe if you weren't reaching for your gun I might believe you, but right now I am going to give you a chance to surrender peacefully by releasing the gun and raising both hands above your head."
Bloody Jack smiled, "Very well Ranger. I shall do as you order." He quickly took his gun and spun around and fired, simultaneously with his gunshot two others rang out, followed by another two. Andy quickly surveyed the scene with his scope, it seems all men were still standing.

Ortega looked down on his arm, blood was trailing down it from a grazed bullet hole and Bloody Jack loudly proclaimed he had shot the Ranger, but wondered why he was feeling lightheaded, he looked down and brought his free hand up to his chest, the hand came back bloodied. There were 3 gunshot wounds in Bloody Jack's chest, 2 right above the heart from Ortega, and the other located near the other lung which came from Andy's Henry. Bloody Jack stared back at Ortega in disbelief, his eyes widened more when he saw Ranger Anderson approach from the darkness, he tried to utter something as he fell to his knees but the blood choked his last words and he collapsed drawing his last breath on this earth. But then both Rangers looked to each other, as Ortega said, "Say kid, did you hear 4 or 5 shots?"
Andy thought for a bit and replied, "Yes sir, I believe there were 5, 1 from me, 2 from you and 2 from him." As Andy said the last word he realized what the veteran ranger was trying to say, he looked to Ortega just as he fell, Andy grabbed him and quickly searched his body for the elusive wound, finally finding it just above his heart. Not necessarily a fatal shot but being miles from the nearest doctor Ortega did not have much chance.

Andy quickly hopped on his horse raced down into the valley and grabbed Ortega's horse before sliding Ortega onto his horse and dumping Bloody Jack's body on his own horse, Andy quickly led the group south. Figuring his best chance lay at reaching an Apache village about 75 miles from here, another 25 miles from there was rails end where telegraph lines come into Apache territory, he can call for a special train to meet at rails end. But it would take Andy and his group nearly 2 days of nonstop riding to make it there and time was something he did not have.

You're fine, germanicus, though hidden cutoffs are coming soon and an interesting group of people have not sent orders.

Dropping from this NES. Sorry.

-L

Oh yeah, I missed the deadline I guess. Just spend 5 EP and any extra I receive on divisions. Do the same stuff I've been doing.

Got ya. And here's a warning/note. My schedule is getting a little crazy a little faster than I thought, so this update (4) might be the last one, and it might not come in a standard update form. I promise you guys something, but what it will be, I do not yet know.

Ah, the perils of starting a NES on a whim.

Farewell in 1904

The Feature Stories:

Things don’t always come with what one might call a choice. The Icelandic War, for example, fired into existence when the Union of Britain decided to try for Vinland’s Iceland, but the war, as is well known, was not defined by battle between those two states—instead, it essentially annihilated both in 1904, as allies and opportunists leapt in.

In truth, the Union of Britain did not survive. Its offer of surrender in late 1903 was accepted as total by the Kingdom of Iberia and Naples, as well as the Angevin Empire. The former established a (accidentally socialist) Irish puppet state, while the latter simply annexed Scotland and Wales, for what London claimed was the first time.

The final Brit communards were swept away by Baltic vessels posing in the northern isles in mid 1904. Understanding that the great 1903 invasion of Russia would only be successful if her allies were warded away, the Balts forced the Angevin fleet into battle at the mouth of the Thames, broke most of it, and then (as already stated) turned north to deal with Russian expeditionary trying to come home, grabbing the Shetlands and Faroes as bases, removing the last bits of free British territory from British control.

Meanwhile, the United States of Vinland died in 1904, but unlike the Union of Britain, this death was made gladly by its own hand. President Andersen completed a devil’s deal with various Combined Syndicalist notables, moved the capital to Albany, passed some socialist laws, declared the ‘Atlantic Union’ and English as an official language, and watched as his power seemed to multiply overnight. True, the Texans and Cheyenne grabbed western parts of the defeated CSA, and Kanata took the bulk of the land around Chicago, but the Atlantic Union was obviously the CSA’s successor, migrants flooded in, and whole ex-CSA divisions of soldiers signed up to serve Andersen, their new socialist liege.

The other major story of 1904 lies along the Pacific Rim, near the water known by many Chinese as the Great Eastern Ocean. The Japanese and the Dragon Republic of China clashed near Beijing, and clashed again. The Chinese predicted the Japanese would try for the capital, but had rather less troops to defend than foreseen, given how many were blockaded away in the Philippines (ironically, relatively peaceful now that everyone had promised it independence). Japan took the capital, but of course all the important leaders of the Dragon Republic had already been sprinted away.

The Chinese and Aleutians tried to reverse the tide by sending the latter’s massive fleet to bombard the home isles, and succeeded in dealing great destruction for a time, but then, with the advent of the Malinke and Iberian navies, the Chinese/Aleutians found themselves outnumbered again, pushed away, defeated. The Japanese foiled an Aleutian push into Manchuria, then drove south along the coast, taking horrendous casualties in readied urban killzones but pushing all the way to the Yangtze. A puppet government (The Democratic People’s Republic of Great China) was set up in Beijing, which forced an issue of native communard resentment against the capitalist Dragon Republic.

By the end of the year, China was foiled again, driven back, despite military aid from the United States of India, and financial aid from the likes of Shengzhou, Xingguo, and the Iberian Company, but the forces of the Dragon Republic retreated in good order, maintained military ranks (despite the loss of a huge number of troopers in the ill-supplied Philippines), and contained the spread of the DPRGC. The war is not over; China still holds its southern coast as well as virtually all inland regions, and shift to wartime readiness has meant the economy has deferred any implosion until later. More than half a million greens were raised on top of called up reserves, and the Chinese are set to repeat the hat trick until the Japanese are pushed away.

The most deeply surprising event of 1904 was associated with the Union of Britian’s final demise. After the Balts massacred the Angevin fleet almost in harbor, they thought themselves probably clear of further attacks from that vector, and focused on angling against returning Russians (who never came, deciding to hide out in Iceland or join with one or another military in America). But late in the year, a vast Nieuw Hollander fleet appeared, took on British troops, and helped them conquer the Oresund region, as well as land near Oslo. The Baltic Sea is chocked off, and Russia’s allies did a number of the traditional Baltic economy.

Of course, the government in Stockholm is far beyond that now. With the assistance of an opportunistic invasion from the Siberian Company, who began enforced administration to the east of the Urals, the Balts secured European Russia. With the formal army in Russia being so small, and all the best Russian officers in the Americas, the vast industrial potential of the region has gently begun to work for Stockholm.

The Sidebars:

The Aleuts spent 1904 on the home front continuing work on various industrial projects, the centerpiece of which was the Vunut River Dam.

Texas began discovering oil wellsprings left and right, which promise to bring great wealth to the country.

Shengzhou signed a defense treaty with Xingguo, perhaps foreshadowing a more direct entry into the Great Eastern War, while carefully posturing Shengzhou forces, taking the defense of the protectorate Miskito into account. The Miskito creole has been made a course in public schools, employing many natives of the smaller country and doing much to convince the people of the protectorate that Shengzhou is serious about a positive relationship. Trade between the two nations is growing stronger.

Tilabaiinke got a better handle on its reactive hinterland territories and overly generous immigrant policy, though fighting between federal soldiers, new immigrants, and natives is still a much larger problem than it had been before 1903. In other news, the wealth of the coastal cities is continuing to skyrocket. (Perhaps one day they will try and build a physical bridge to Mars.)

Sudafrika attempted to expand and reach the borders of the old British colony that was its predecessor, but even with tacit Malinke approval, such recovery was not possible in the face of angry native tribes, much to the disgust of Nieuw Hollanders eager to exploit South Africa’s mineral resources.

The Malinke Empire lowered tariffs with the United Kingdom of Iberia and Naples, Dixie, Sudafrika (the independence of which was also guaranteed), Netherlands-Indie and the Bornu Republic. Various transcontinental railroad routes were mapped out. Closer to home, communist sympathizers in Malinke have begun disappearing.

Iberia annexed Gibraltar.

France finished conquering East Africa but did not aid the socialist rebels in the Holy Roman Empire, who were defeated at great loss of life.

Various noisemakers in the Papal State have died in a series of mysterious accidents. The Pope also declared anathema on the Republic of Greater China, which had little effect on the citizens of the Far East, but made some Iberians happy.

The United States of Greater India finished construction of the first major railroad to cross the subcontinent, and tested it but shipping a huge number of troops northeast to aid the Chinese of the Dragon Republic.

A small number of Malinke airships have appeared in Netherlands-Indie as a tripwire force against possible Nieuw Hollander aggression.

What would have been Story Bonus Events

The tides shall cleanse.

(+5 Aleut divisions)

Bloody Jack and Tomas Ortega’s young legend has inspired growth in the ranks of Texas’ premier peacekeepers.

(+10 Texan Texas Rangers)

The Malinke Emperor blames communists for his people’s unrest. Recruitment is up.

(+5 Malinke divisions)

Colonel Steiner’s worst nightmare has reserves.

(+7 Balt divisions)

General Aiguo Bojing leads a very large number of rabble.

(+10 Republican Chinese irregular divisions)

OOC:

Yes, this is The End. Not much shorter than a real update, but I don’t have the time to do this NES justice right now. I’ll probably still hang around the forum, and if anyone has popular approval and wants to pick this game up, I’m more than happy to send over files, but other than that option…

Hope you guys had fun for a bit.

Good show, Imago. Thanks for running!

I am entirely perplexed as to how we had less troops than we had accounted for, when the amount of soldiers I was able to raise this year easily outnumbered anything the Japanese could have had or been able to move into the mainland. It doesn't seem at all logical to me, but I guess it's not even relevant anymore given the circumstances

Nice final update. I'm both surprised and sad to see this go so soon.

Also, not really sure of the logic behind a Nieuw Holland invasion, but I imagine they would have been fairly easy to expel.

The lack of Russia kinda screwed me over, yeah, but the bulk of the work was being done with Angevin ground troops while I just insta-dusted your fleet. You simply didn't have the economic capacity to build more than 50 squadrons a turn, while I did.

Shadowbound said:

The lack of Russia kinda screwed me over, yeah, but the bulk of the work was being done with Angevin ground troops while I just insta-dusted your fleet. You simply didn't have the economic capacity to build more than 50 squadrons a turn, while I did.

Click to expand...

Meanwhile, I cut off all of your major ports in on invasion. You getting new industry in Russia lessened what would had been a major blow to your economy. Plus, I also had Ground tech 2 at this point, while you had zero, so I would had destroyed any soldiers you sent at me.

A good final update, sad to see it come and go so quickly and before I could have regained Vinlandic soil.

Funnily enough, despite the World War nonsense, I would have been content enough to just sit around all game and build up Vinland's economy to the skies.
But, even if this game went no-where where I wanted it, and my original nation did "die", I indirectly started all of the chaos & nonsense currently going on in this world and that enough for me.

@LOE: There were sizable numbers of Iberian and Malinke ground forces that showed up to help the Japanese. Should have made that clearer.

Anyway, next time I run a NES, I'll do my best to have a clearer timeline for the game. The 1904 semiupdate only took about an hour once I really got to it, which is tantalising--I could probably keep that up all year if that was all the work needed. But stats (and map, to a lesser extent) take a lot of time. I wonder how sucessful a NES would be that was modeled after stat NESes, and still semi-competitive, but based on statless PMed orders. I have a feeling that if enough players bought in, and the updates were clear enough about who had geopolitical strength and momentum, the updates would go just fine. That's not for me right now, but it seems like a way to further symplify while maintaining the core of this sort of game.

EDIT: Also, good game everyone. No one was really frustrating, and your orders were all always fun to read. Needed to say that at some point.

Imago said:

@LOE: There were sizable numbers of Iberian and Malinke ground forces that showed up to help the Japanese. Should have made that clearer.

Click to expand...

I'm not buying at all that the Spanish and Malinese could have gotten a transport flotilla to Manchuria remotely in time to assist the Japanese against our opening offensive, whose entire predication was that it would be undertaken immediately/as soon as humanly possible within the turn. In fact, the premise strikes me as kind of ridiculous; but I'll try not to spam the thread and stuff.

You had less troops too--many were stuck in the Philippines, because of the way I read your 1903 orders, while the Japanese had fortifications. I did the math just China v Japan and then with everyone's extras, and the results both times suggested: Japan gets momentum and China gets favorable casualty rates. The edge on your side was obscured b/c there were no stats.

Oh well.

We raised 35 standard Infantry divisions, plus 40-some conscripts, so barring the magic undertaken by the Spanish and Mali to transport a landing force from the Atlantic to China's coastline before our army could mobilize, I don't understand your point. Especially considering the fact that you apparently gave Japan momentum(?) when as we discussed, that was probably the thing Japan lacked most.

That said, I think debating this in the thread lends a kind of urgency or confrontational air to it that isn't at all intended. Though I appreciate you answering my questions.

Omega124 said:

Meanwhile, I cut off all of your major ports in on invasion. You getting new industry in Russia lessened what would had been a major blow to your economy. Plus, I also had Ground tech 2 at this point, while you had zero, so I would had destroyed any soldiers you sent at me.

Click to expand...

Honestly, all I would have to do is push your troops out, which considering I had two other armies sitting around in Russia, wouldn't have been too hard. I couldn't have defeated the Niuew Hollander fleet, but I would have had the advantage on land, which was all that mattered. Not that it matters at this point.

Niuew Holland's sudden involvement still doesn't really make sense.

Onto other things, I'm hoping there'll be more NESes from you in the future, Imago. They're always lots of fun, even if this one was short-lived.

I had fun playing an aggressively insular nation-continent. Space colonization following massive economic and scientific buildup would have been pretty wild, but this was an interesting end to a brief interesting time in the World Born Yesterday. Good show Imago, I look forward to your next project.

Me too, though to deal with my (and various other modders) RL duties, I've also been thinking about ways to set up a reasonable modless or multi-mod NES. There could be a succession game of sorts from the mod perspective, where players have ahead of time a list of how many updates each mod is going to be responsible for. I think this sort of thing would give a chance for a lot of people to try out modding. To deal with the bias issue (since a lot of the temp mods might also want to be PCs), said countries could be made to tread water (or even default to slight decline) during their player’s ascension to modhood. Combat mechanisms and mod guidelines could be made very public, so if players want to challenge a ruling, they’d have a clear basis and a process to follow to minimize disruption for players who don’t have a problem. Players with secret plans would just have to do their best to keep those plans away from mods they don’t want to confide in (by coming up with ways to set up without spelling out what they’re setting up, perhaps?).

I don't think a succession of moderators is necessarily something you want to have by design... it may just be me, but I don't want any other NESers moderating MY BABIES.