JosefStalinator
Я буду снова здесь
Wubba360 said:
Indeed, I've been nervously checking this thread every time i see a new post, fearing the dreaded "sorry guys I'm just not interested anymore" message.
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Civilization 7 has been announced. For more info please check the forum here .
DisNES II "A Twist of Fate"
- Thread starter Disenfrancised
- Start date
Indeed, I've been nervously checking this thread every time i see a new post, fearing the dreaded "sorry guys I'm just not interested anymore" message.
das
Regeneration In Process
Damnit Dis, this is the second NES that you freeze just before the most important, decisive year! 
Symphony D.
Deity
OOC: You needn't worry das, even if you somehow manage to do greivous damage to either myself or Panda, or even both, you don't have enough forces to guard against all the various bad things headed your way this turn in your big, overstretched country. 
Oh yes, and rue, Icmancin, for your country choice designed specifically to annoy me. Rue.
Oh yes, and rue, Icmancin, for your country choice designed specifically to annoy me. Rue.
das
Regeneration In Process
Oh don't worry, my forces should be enough to drag down as many of you as possible.
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
das said:Damnit Dis, this is the second NES that you freeze just before the most important, decisive year!
Thats true - I think the obvious conclusion is that I hate everyone, especially das (as the update will reveal...or not)
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
*bashes head* I thought that was the update! 
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
alex994 said:*bashes head* I thought that was the update!
Quiet you, or I'll start taking your military orders literally! (you made rather a number of errors with regards to the difference between east and west and some place names
)
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
Meh, doesn't really matter. Lost a bit of my interest after the people I were fighting suddenly both decided to quit anyways.
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
Update 1706: Leave your legacy in gold
Non Military
The Aragonese cities of Saragossa and Tortosa are rebuilt to some extent and the masses of refugees distributed throughout the kingdom are finally able to return home. The size of Barcelona means that work still continues, and it will be several years before the trade and crafts of the city pick up once again (though the great docks were undamaged thanks to a fanatical group of Aragonese volunteers and noble guard last year). The Aragonese court has also taken advantage of this rare opportunity to relocate their capital from the ancient seat of Aragon in Saragossa to the more central and much more easily defended city of Cagliari on Sardinia. This is lauded as a wise move by many (+1 confidence), but the symbolic effects of moving the capital out of the Iberian Peninsula may show in the future.
King Christian of Kalmar has emerged from his long depression and has begun a series of measures to reorganize the union into a quiet and prosperous state, quite different from the military machine he seemed to have in mind before the English attacked. A series of new mills and ship build facilities at the Capital, combined with the rise trade between the various Baltic States allows the capital to become a great centre of wealth (+Kalmar Economy Centre)
The Empire of Songhay has begun to stockpile great quantities of salt, minerals and gold in preparation for the opening of strong trading links with Iberia, but oddly enough continues to push down the forested and swampy lands of the Niger River rather than securing the much easier route to the Iberian base in Senegal.
The Russians rebuild the city of Astrakhan as it is now safe in their secure zone. A new series of crops has been planted and it is likely that Astrakhan will return to full productivity with the next harvest.
Umstrukturieren
With the grumbling northern realms (aside from Poland) dealt with, the Holy Roman Emperor continued with his plan for the Südlichreich to create a proper modern state equivalent to Britain or France. To this end Josef the third moved the administrative organs of the empire, including the new Reichstag of his father, to the city of München (Munich) in the geographical centre of the Südlichreich and had a grand new assembly hall built on the banks of the Isar. Worms remained the official residence of the emperor, as well as the place new emperors will be crowned, but despite all the talk of cultural capitals Worms importance, and the upper Rhine as a whole lost a great deal of political power. The new capital was met with approval in most other regions of the land however, particularly northern Italy, and the Military establishment approved of its new and superior defensive position (+1 Centralization). The Emperor and Reichstag issued a number of decrees from their new abode; protective tariffs were implemented and new manufactories were constructed, including new Venetian-style Arsenals in Split and Viareggio, and numerous small shops and mines flourished under the demands for material generated by the campaigns in the Balkans, as did riverine commerce (+Vienna Economy Centre). Soon the Südlichreich might even rival the prosperity of the northern princes, but the protective tariffs imposed have had a dampening Mediterranean commerce, which proved particularly unfortunate for the Aragonese struggling to rebuild after the ravages of Alexiss campaigns (-1 Imperial Economy, -1 Aragonese Economy).
Josef wasnt the only Hapsburg with plans however, as the serious new prince of Burgundy Ulrich Hapsburg, embarked on a set of changes and reforms. He created a new general staff of military leaders by calling up old Burgundians whod served in the imperial army and hired a number of Swedish officers who had become dissatisfied with the current climate in the Kalmar union, and raised a large army to serve under them in a manner modeled on the fearsome army of France (+1 Military leadership). Ulrich also was most active on the diplomatic front, integrating himself very firmly with the nobles of his principality and creating strong familial links with the court of Savoy, and it is rumoured that Duke Victor is considering allowing the marriage of Ulrichs cousin to his favoured heir (the Duke himself being childless). His greatest dynastic coup, as well as the use he put his new army to is detailed below.
The final German state worthy of note this year was Mecklenburg, who taking advantage of the rising Südlichreich tariffs, the low taxation levels allowable only by a small state, and (it is rumoured) some smuggling, to boost their trading economy to new heights (+Rostock economy centre). Mecklenburg merchants and mercenaries can now be found from the forefront of the British colonial armies in the Indian ocean to manning the barricades in Courland.
An Eastern Renaissance
White Malaya under Rajah Ascari is a environment that has never been seen before in the world the tree of European rationality has been successfully replanted in the fertile soils of the Malay peninsula, and it is bearing a rich harvest. Of course most of this is due to contingent and happy circumstances outside the control of any ruler, but what the Ascari Dynasty has done has been exemplary. Artists and philosophers have flocked to Malacca and created a delightful fusion of eastern and western ideas around the nucleus of the old Iberian knowledge, but the Rajah has reserved his strongest support for the technical sciences and artifice and great strides are being made as artisans and ideas flock from all over South East Asia. Products and designs are beginning to be the equal in quality of contemporary European versions, though the development of basic science still lags behind by a few decades.
The Ascari dynasty is far from the only ones investing and encouraging new technical development and risky trade ventures, for one of the characteristics of the turn of century South East Asia is the great number of people with money, but not land. There are no less than four minorities defined by various religious and ethnic factors (Landless Iberians, Chinese Christians, Chinese Muslims, Sinhalese refugees) that place great importance in intellectual and commercial skill, and have the mobility and money to drive the engine of invention. This powerful middle class will great influence on South East Asia in the future. (+1 White Malay Economy)
A second source of financial fluidity is also present the Shipping Guilds or Gremio which have been flourishing in the last few years. The pressure of the pirate wars forced the states of the South China Sea to set up convoy systems to protect their merchant traffic, and indeed well over a thousand vessels a month travel the edges of the Hue-Malacca-Bintulu triangle. But there were not enough naval ships or state funds to protect the routes to every little town and city all the time, thus ship captains and financiers began to pool their resources and funding to build new better ships and hire escorts or bribe pirates (often the same thing), and the benefits of cooperation soon became clear. In the cut-throat world of the sea lanes, and with the pirate threat begin to wane; the successful Gremio began looking for suitable investments for the funds they had accumulated. Great profits are possible for craftsmen with bright ideas
Of course Malaya was not the only area in the region that were experience the effects or benefits of this renaissance, merely the beating heart as ideas and money pulsed in and out from Arakan, parts of the Indon sultanates realm and the Viet lands (indeed the richest Gremio were often Viet run), and even to such far away places as Neva Sinhala and Chittagong (+1 age to the Dai Viet, Indon, Arakan). Exceptions to this abound, much as they did in renaissance Europe; despite all the Kings efforts Ayutthaya still remains in an agricultural rut and its minuscule middle class is dominated by foreign traders, no taxes on merchants is all very well but you need a strong merchentile class in the first place to develop it, perhaps in a few years. His new found interest in religious matters also encourages young men to turn away from more worldly affairs in search of spiritual wealth.
Ayutthaya is experimenting with some things however its political structure for one, as the King sets up a chamber of lords and promises to set up a chamber of the people in the future. This is quite an unusual departure from standard south east Asian policy and most people in Ayutthaya dont know what to make of it, and there is already grumbling from the nobles, particularly as membership of the chamber of lords requires that the nobles spend at least half the year in the capital (+1 Centralization, -1 Confidence), something that makes the oft rebellious vassals of the great city nervous.
As a quick note the Indon involvement in the renaissance is best described as patchy, the merchants of the great Javan cities are certainly interested in the new developments and are working hard to implement them, but Indonesian middle class is quite small and less fluid than the more northerly states. The nobles of the Javanese interior feel threatened by the change and their potential loss of power, and the generals who have been forging their way into the highlands of Borneo feel cheated by the sultans perceived giving in to Malay power
Military
The King of Affalon sponsored a number of expeditions further down the coast of Transoceania, but apart from planting the Affalonian flag on a few odd rocks and leaving nothing much was accomplished the kingdoms current colonies are still almost free land and sufficient to absorb the meager amounts of colonists Affalon can produce.
The new confidence of the Russian Imperator lets him send some troops to extend the regions of control in Siberia, where many colonists willing to escape the terrors of the Great Russian-Turkish war join them. Enough said really.
The men of Songhay progress further down the great Niger river, though they are still a long way from the sea. The Camel riders have been left behind this year and instead secure the empires northern expanse. Several Berber raids are easily beaten off much to the peoples approval (+1 Confidence)
(-2 Songhay Divisions)
The Axe of the Lifegiver
Priest-King Tlaneltoquititletl was anxious to spread the word of the Lifegiver and the minor Mayan cities of the Arawak coast only served to wet the zealots appetite for more conquests. There was a ready target as well the weak and sinful merchants of the Tho league were fruit waiting to be plucked. Thus in summer the armies of the Priest-King once more began to march. Heading out from the easternmost lands of the empire a tight and disciplined force of zealots and auxiliary troops moved along the coast towards Tho.
The first battles occurred in the coastal waters as the Acolhuan fleet scouted ahead of the armies advance. When they encountered the Tho fleet that had been quickly assembled and sent to keep the seas clear they fell back, seeking to lead the Mayans into a trap. The rather guileless Tho fleet fell for this stratagem, and was soon surrounded by the Acolhuan ships materializing out of secret bays, loaded with vicious and heavily armed Zealots who were all quickly sent to the seabed. For the difference in quality between the two navies in both men and ships were immense, and the Mayans despite falling for the trap were able to reform into battle order and have their slingers launch a hail of flaming projectiles on their ambushers. Their stout oarsmen allowed the Mayans to prevent the fearsome zealots form reaching their ships and the Acolhuans broke in disarray and fled back to the empire. The Mayans set off in pursuit, and for now at least the seas belong to Tho.
The land was quite a different matter as the heavily armed Zealots broke any force sent against them, and their heavy armour (which had proved a hindrance on the high seas) made the Mayan slingers and hit and run tactics practically useless. By the start of the rainy season the westernmost of the Leagues great cities was in Acolhuan hands, the empire slowed by having to operate at the extremes of their supply lines without the aid of the sea, and loot was flowing back towards Texcoco. The commanders were sure that next summer would bring more easy victories as the Zealots set about converting populace. The Priest-King may need to reign in his favoured warriors if he is to go ahead with his plan of applying Mayan civil officials to assist the empire the Bureaucratic elite and their wealth were the first targeted by the invaders and over half were wiped out in the first week.
(-18 Acolhuan Squadrons, -6 Tho Squadrons, -3 Zealot Divisions, -4 Acolhuan Divisions, -4 Kukulcan's Slingers, -3 Tho Divisions)
Nina allwi
The Sapa-Inca had a number of things on his mind in the early days of the year the opportunity and threat of the men from across the sea, and the ever present menace of the Chibcha in the north. He decided to deal with the threat he understood best first the Chibcha must be shown who was the lord of the Andes. He set a great force of some twenty thousand men to the Northern provinces, where they set about preparing for a campaign. The Incans spoke of military exercises but the Chibcha could read the writing on the wall; no one would gather the enormous amount of supplies an army of such a size required without having a plan of conquest in mind. Thus the Chibcha decided to strike first whilst the enemy were disorganized and newly arrived. Marching to the west of the Andes they managed to avoid the easternmost portions of the Incan forces, and by keeping in a compact mass they overcame the scattered Incan forces in succession, the skills and savagery learnt fighting the Caribs for decades proving rather useful against the motivated but untried Incans. Securing the mountain passes allowed the Chibcha to move with speed and surprising safety down into body of the empire as they were relatively safe from attacks from the east. After a few months they found themselves on the lip of the rich Quito valley, one of the core productive regions of the empire, and swept down like the ravening horde they were. Things looked bad for the Sapa-Incas subjects at that point as the swift Chibcha action threatened to cut off the coastal cities to the north, the army was in disarray and the rich port of Guayaquil was under siege.
However here the invaders speedy movement worked against them, for they had not been able to transport siege weapons with their speedy march, and while towers and catapults were being constructed the Incans had a chance to strike back. The various Incan armies began to push out the coastal cities and try the guards of the mountain passes whilst the Chibcha were tied down in the siege. The Chibchas lost ground on all fronts but towards the end of the year they finally broke through to the city of Guayaquil to meet a most unpleasant surprise. For the Sapa-Inca had be assiduously courting the Viet captains and commanders, though some of his suggestions were met with amusement and others with fear of how Nguyen Lords would react; for the South East Asians had learnt well from the history of the Iberian empire and its fall. However the Sapa-Inca had managed to persuade some admirals to aide him in this war and thus when the Chibchan forces broke through into the inner city they were presented with a rain of hot metal. Broken and in disarray, the Chibcha retreated to the surrounding countryside; Nina allwi or fire war had come to Xaxam for the first, but almost assuredly not the last, time.
(-19 Chibcha Divisions, -16 Incan Divisions)
The French War Begins
To describe the great struggles of the dynastic European states as a game of chess would be an oversimplification as gross as the contents of King Alexis interrogation rooms; the number of the players, the fact the pieces have minds of their own, the variable nature of the board make the comparison foolish. However it is not completely useless, for much like in chess there are pieces of great worth in the game of houses. As France totters towards its end at the hand of the Iberians there are four remaining royal pieces, the last of the Plantagenets in truth; the surviving younger brothers of Alexis, Alphonse and Henry, and his two young daughters Christine and Dominique. If France falls, whichever player hold these pieces will have the best claim over the lands that remain and there are players who have not yet moved their forces
At the beginning of the year the Aragonese prepared themselves for one final push great taxes were imposed on the floundering Aragonese merchants and nobles, and the economy is in shambles and destined for free fall unless something is done swiftly. However despite the dangers of such a course of action it was met with approval by most sections of the populace, the ravages of the Teufelfranz are still fresh in everyones memory, and no sacrifice is too great to punish the demonic Frenchmen (+5 volunteer divisions)! At the same time the French are also experiencing a surge in patriotism as the younger brother of Alexis, Alphonse, is crowned King Alphonse I in Paris and the people are prepared to fight to the last man as the country disintegrates around them. Oddly however the decline is not as fast as the Aragonese coalition would have hoped, Alphonse still has cash to spend and food for his populace, though how remains a mystery, as his emergency measures to seize church lands would be wholly insufficient.
The first battles of the year came in February when the Aragonese began an intensive naval barrage at the mouth of the Seine, and although the French coastal guns were sufficient to drive them off, the threat of an attack from behind delayed the planed French offensive for several weeks. Thus when the French finally did make a grand assault to the east of the Loire they encountered a colossal coalition army coming the other way! The hilly nature of the terrain aided the French as this was indeed their home ground, but the sheer size of the Coalition army nearly half a million strong, allowed them to force their way north. A great stand was made by the French at Auxerre which resulted in the death of general Adrien, but that too was driven back and the Coalition were marching towards Paris by June. However here the size of the Coalition army worked against them for maintaining good supply lines (something the experienced and wise commanders of the Aragonese general staff made sure to do) took considerable time.
While all this was going on the French and the coalition were battling back and forth on the Loire, whilst the Coalition had superior numbers the French were on the defensive and partisan activity took an enormous toll on the Aragonese forces, and no decisive gains or losses occurred. However the Aragonese had another ally to play, and when the Iberian fleet appeared off the coast of Brittany the French finally knew fear. The Iberians quickly overran the undefended peninsula, but the caution of the commanders after their earlier defeat, and the small amount of supplies and men provided them prevented further gains. However having to watch their west as well distracted the French defenders of the Loire enough for the Aragonese to make some gains north of the river.
Things looked very dark for France, the enemies were advancing on all fronts, and what is more the King had disappeared! No one but the innermost court knew where he was, and they were keeping a close lip. When the young princesses were abducted from their beds in august the people despaired indeed France as they knew it appeared doomed, and the nobles began to consider seriously the proposals the Aragonese were circulating as civil order began to break down in France.
However things are never as simple as they first appear, and when the Coalition forces finally reached Paris in the summer months they found it already aflame, and a strange flag flying over it a flag of red, yellow and blue the flag of Burgundy! For it appears Prince Ulrich had rather more in mind than mere army reforms for his new kingdom; it was his network of spies, using their close knowledge of their French counterparts, which had abducted Christine and Dominique and secreted them off to Dijon. There he had quietly married the infant Christine to his year old son Rudolph and proclaimed Rudolph King in France, with himself as regent of course. The first the world knew of this was when the Burgundians launched a flying column down the coast of la Manche from Flanders and ceased the mouth of the Seine. Two more armies struck out for Paris as well from central Burgundy and the north respectively. Stunned by this and with most of their army in the south fighting the coalition the French were unable to man the vast system of defenses in Île-de-France properly, and the Burgundians were able to simple avoid the strong points and break through the undermanned ones. Within a month the Burgundians were fighting for Paris in what was a very interesting battle indeed. For the Burgundians had a claim to France, were related to the French, and promised to drive out the evil coalition, whats more Prince Ulrich made considerable effort to make the Burgundians loved, organizing food relief even into precincts of the city that were fighting against him. The people of Paris wavered back and forth, but in the end the city turned to the Burgundians and swore allegiance to King Rudolph.
Thus when the Aragonese arrived they found not the broken French army they were expecting, but a powerful, fresh and well supplied Burgundian one. Without orders, and not wishing to start a war with Burgundy (or indeed the Holy Roman Empire of which Burgundy was a vassal), the Aragonese commanders called off the plans for an assault on Paris and merely camped outside the city. However they still had a clear enemy to fight in the east where the French government had fled to Le Mans under the command of Prince Henry. The Burgundians did not have the men to venture further into France and guard Paris, so it looked like the majority of France would fall after all
Or not, for King Alphonse had not been idle in truth, and there was more than one royal French wedding occurring in 1706. For the first time in over a hundred years a Plantagenet was being wed in Canterbury, as Alphonse married King Edward of Great Britains daughter, forging the United Kingdom of Great Britain and France (or the Second Plantagenet Empire as most in Europe immediately dubbed it), and Britain finally involved herself in the French war. Despite Alphonses wishes King Edward made him stay in London, not wanting to loose his prize to some stray arrow, and the British fleet took control of La Manche under the command of Admiral Hardy. The powerful and experienced British ships nearly effortlessly destroyed the Aragonese fleets and politely ordered the Iberians away (who complied knowing the British had by far the superior position), and the blockade of northern France was over. Vast amounts of weaponry, and more importantly, food flooded Normandy and the north of France and the French economy and people were saved from total collapse (incidentally the English also effected a take over of Frances remaining economy to their own profit (+Plymouth Economy centre)). The newly secured La Manche was also used to transport numerous divisions of British troops, which quickly fanned out into the French regions and brought the fragmenting French army back together.
The shock of this and the sudden resurgence in the French Army forced the Aragonese coalition back on all fronts and as the year drew to a close they were made to give up Orleans and even some of the south bank of the Loire. Thus the years end finds the fresh and powerful English and the Burgundians in control of the northern parts of France and the support of the populace, but unsure what to do about each other, Iberia is locked up in Brittany, and the Aragonese coalition controlling the south. Despite controlling the majority of the land and having the greatest army Aragon is likely in the worse position; with the French partisans striking mercilessly, their economy in shambles, and the loyalty of their allies questionable considering the links between Savoy and Burgundy (and their both being vassals of the HRE) and the Iberian desire to appease the powerful British. France is gone but the French war may only be beginning
(English and French Stats merged)
(-3 Man OWar Squadrons, -9 Aragonese Squadrons, -2 British Divisions, -8 Burgundian Divisions, -21 French Divisions, -15 French Conscript Divisions, -6 Brigade de Fusee, -20 Aragonese Divisions, -9 Berber Cavalry Divisions, -9 Savoyard Divisions, -4 Noble Guard Divisions, -1 Iberian Division)
Baltic brawls
Courland-Lithuania has been a thorn in the Russian side for a number of years now, a living reminder of the incomplete success of the Imperators polices. But this reminder will be tolerated no longer! For the Imperator had decreed the entire nation of Courland-Lithuania illegal! This confused people somewhat, for surely the Imperator had declared the nation illegal when nobility was outlawed, and what does declaring something illegal do when youre already actively at war with it? But no matter Courland-Lithuania was going down
or was it? The first move the Russians made was constructing and portaging ships into the gulf of Finland to form a new Baltic fleet. The time taken to do that delayed their plans for a January assault somewhat, but rather more worrisomely gave the Courlanders warning; for the Russians needed to keep Helsinki open to trade to reap the profits, and the Courlanders were not without friends amongst the Baltic traders and the Finns. Thus the Courlanders curtailed their raids (not that any were planned for this year) and rushed their defensive plans to completion. Thus when the Russians arrived they encountered a most unpleasant series of surprises.
One; The midnight naval foray by the Russians was met by the Courlander fleet in what will go down in history as the Battle of the Black Waves, fought in the dead of midnight on freezing waters that would kill a man in seconds of exposure. However the Russian fleet has the numbers and the skill to carry the day, and the Courlanders were forced to fall back and the Russians were able to unload their troops on the Bay of Riga). Two; the Courlanders had fortified the bay of Riga with cannon emplacements and defensive structures, and had forces prepared to intercept landers as they came. However the спецназ were more than a match for such obstacles and the Courish forts were soon full of corpses. The Russians were now in a position to spread out onto the bulk of the rebelling region when they encountered the third unpleasant surprise Courland-Lithuania was now crisscrossed with internal fortifications manned with conscripts (and later volunteers as the спецназ waged their reign of terror). Unable to move as freely as they wished the Russians none the less embarked on their campaign of destruction; looting, burning and destroying. The Russian forces that battered on the outskirts of the rebel held regions managed to push them back to their defensive lines but didnt achieve their desired breakthrough, and later in the year the Russians in the more difficult and boggy terrain north of Riga were finally ally tracked down and destroyed (though a good number managed to flee to the ships. West of Riga the Russians still roam at large, resupplied by ship, it seems the final destruction of Courland is not on schedule, but awaits the application of more numbers.
(-1 Riga Economy, +15 Conscripts, +5 Volunteers)
(-5 Russian Squadrons, -6 Courlander-Lithuanian Squadrons, -7 спецназ, -3 Russian Divisions, -3 Russian irregular divisions, -12 Courlander-Lithuanian Divisions, -8 C-L Conscript divisions)
Non Military
The Aragonese cities of Saragossa and Tortosa are rebuilt to some extent and the masses of refugees distributed throughout the kingdom are finally able to return home. The size of Barcelona means that work still continues, and it will be several years before the trade and crafts of the city pick up once again (though the great docks were undamaged thanks to a fanatical group of Aragonese volunteers and noble guard last year). The Aragonese court has also taken advantage of this rare opportunity to relocate their capital from the ancient seat of Aragon in Saragossa to the more central and much more easily defended city of Cagliari on Sardinia. This is lauded as a wise move by many (+1 confidence), but the symbolic effects of moving the capital out of the Iberian Peninsula may show in the future.
King Christian of Kalmar has emerged from his long depression and has begun a series of measures to reorganize the union into a quiet and prosperous state, quite different from the military machine he seemed to have in mind before the English attacked. A series of new mills and ship build facilities at the Capital, combined with the rise trade between the various Baltic States allows the capital to become a great centre of wealth (+Kalmar Economy Centre)
The Empire of Songhay has begun to stockpile great quantities of salt, minerals and gold in preparation for the opening of strong trading links with Iberia, but oddly enough continues to push down the forested and swampy lands of the Niger River rather than securing the much easier route to the Iberian base in Senegal.
The Russians rebuild the city of Astrakhan as it is now safe in their secure zone. A new series of crops has been planted and it is likely that Astrakhan will return to full productivity with the next harvest.
Umstrukturieren
With the grumbling northern realms (aside from Poland) dealt with, the Holy Roman Emperor continued with his plan for the Südlichreich to create a proper modern state equivalent to Britain or France. To this end Josef the third moved the administrative organs of the empire, including the new Reichstag of his father, to the city of München (Munich) in the geographical centre of the Südlichreich and had a grand new assembly hall built on the banks of the Isar. Worms remained the official residence of the emperor, as well as the place new emperors will be crowned, but despite all the talk of cultural capitals Worms importance, and the upper Rhine as a whole lost a great deal of political power. The new capital was met with approval in most other regions of the land however, particularly northern Italy, and the Military establishment approved of its new and superior defensive position (+1 Centralization). The Emperor and Reichstag issued a number of decrees from their new abode; protective tariffs were implemented and new manufactories were constructed, including new Venetian-style Arsenals in Split and Viareggio, and numerous small shops and mines flourished under the demands for material generated by the campaigns in the Balkans, as did riverine commerce (+Vienna Economy Centre). Soon the Südlichreich might even rival the prosperity of the northern princes, but the protective tariffs imposed have had a dampening Mediterranean commerce, which proved particularly unfortunate for the Aragonese struggling to rebuild after the ravages of Alexiss campaigns (-1 Imperial Economy, -1 Aragonese Economy).
Josef wasnt the only Hapsburg with plans however, as the serious new prince of Burgundy Ulrich Hapsburg, embarked on a set of changes and reforms. He created a new general staff of military leaders by calling up old Burgundians whod served in the imperial army and hired a number of Swedish officers who had become dissatisfied with the current climate in the Kalmar union, and raised a large army to serve under them in a manner modeled on the fearsome army of France (+1 Military leadership). Ulrich also was most active on the diplomatic front, integrating himself very firmly with the nobles of his principality and creating strong familial links with the court of Savoy, and it is rumoured that Duke Victor is considering allowing the marriage of Ulrichs cousin to his favoured heir (the Duke himself being childless). His greatest dynastic coup, as well as the use he put his new army to is detailed below.
The final German state worthy of note this year was Mecklenburg, who taking advantage of the rising Südlichreich tariffs, the low taxation levels allowable only by a small state, and (it is rumoured) some smuggling, to boost their trading economy to new heights (+Rostock economy centre). Mecklenburg merchants and mercenaries can now be found from the forefront of the British colonial armies in the Indian ocean to manning the barricades in Courland.
An Eastern Renaissance
White Malaya under Rajah Ascari is a environment that has never been seen before in the world the tree of European rationality has been successfully replanted in the fertile soils of the Malay peninsula, and it is bearing a rich harvest. Of course most of this is due to contingent and happy circumstances outside the control of any ruler, but what the Ascari Dynasty has done has been exemplary. Artists and philosophers have flocked to Malacca and created a delightful fusion of eastern and western ideas around the nucleus of the old Iberian knowledge, but the Rajah has reserved his strongest support for the technical sciences and artifice and great strides are being made as artisans and ideas flock from all over South East Asia. Products and designs are beginning to be the equal in quality of contemporary European versions, though the development of basic science still lags behind by a few decades.
The Ascari dynasty is far from the only ones investing and encouraging new technical development and risky trade ventures, for one of the characteristics of the turn of century South East Asia is the great number of people with money, but not land. There are no less than four minorities defined by various religious and ethnic factors (Landless Iberians, Chinese Christians, Chinese Muslims, Sinhalese refugees) that place great importance in intellectual and commercial skill, and have the mobility and money to drive the engine of invention. This powerful middle class will great influence on South East Asia in the future. (+1 White Malay Economy)
A second source of financial fluidity is also present the Shipping Guilds or Gremio which have been flourishing in the last few years. The pressure of the pirate wars forced the states of the South China Sea to set up convoy systems to protect their merchant traffic, and indeed well over a thousand vessels a month travel the edges of the Hue-Malacca-Bintulu triangle. But there were not enough naval ships or state funds to protect the routes to every little town and city all the time, thus ship captains and financiers began to pool their resources and funding to build new better ships and hire escorts or bribe pirates (often the same thing), and the benefits of cooperation soon became clear. In the cut-throat world of the sea lanes, and with the pirate threat begin to wane; the successful Gremio began looking for suitable investments for the funds they had accumulated. Great profits are possible for craftsmen with bright ideas
Of course Malaya was not the only area in the region that were experience the effects or benefits of this renaissance, merely the beating heart as ideas and money pulsed in and out from Arakan, parts of the Indon sultanates realm and the Viet lands (indeed the richest Gremio were often Viet run), and even to such far away places as Neva Sinhala and Chittagong (+1 age to the Dai Viet, Indon, Arakan). Exceptions to this abound, much as they did in renaissance Europe; despite all the Kings efforts Ayutthaya still remains in an agricultural rut and its minuscule middle class is dominated by foreign traders, no taxes on merchants is all very well but you need a strong merchentile class in the first place to develop it, perhaps in a few years. His new found interest in religious matters also encourages young men to turn away from more worldly affairs in search of spiritual wealth.
Ayutthaya is experimenting with some things however its political structure for one, as the King sets up a chamber of lords and promises to set up a chamber of the people in the future. This is quite an unusual departure from standard south east Asian policy and most people in Ayutthaya dont know what to make of it, and there is already grumbling from the nobles, particularly as membership of the chamber of lords requires that the nobles spend at least half the year in the capital (+1 Centralization, -1 Confidence), something that makes the oft rebellious vassals of the great city nervous.
As a quick note the Indon involvement in the renaissance is best described as patchy, the merchants of the great Javan cities are certainly interested in the new developments and are working hard to implement them, but Indonesian middle class is quite small and less fluid than the more northerly states. The nobles of the Javanese interior feel threatened by the change and their potential loss of power, and the generals who have been forging their way into the highlands of Borneo feel cheated by the sultans perceived giving in to Malay power
Military
The King of Affalon sponsored a number of expeditions further down the coast of Transoceania, but apart from planting the Affalonian flag on a few odd rocks and leaving nothing much was accomplished the kingdoms current colonies are still almost free land and sufficient to absorb the meager amounts of colonists Affalon can produce.
The new confidence of the Russian Imperator lets him send some troops to extend the regions of control in Siberia, where many colonists willing to escape the terrors of the Great Russian-Turkish war join them. Enough said really.
The men of Songhay progress further down the great Niger river, though they are still a long way from the sea. The Camel riders have been left behind this year and instead secure the empires northern expanse. Several Berber raids are easily beaten off much to the peoples approval (+1 Confidence)
(-2 Songhay Divisions)
The Axe of the Lifegiver
Priest-King Tlaneltoquititletl was anxious to spread the word of the Lifegiver and the minor Mayan cities of the Arawak coast only served to wet the zealots appetite for more conquests. There was a ready target as well the weak and sinful merchants of the Tho league were fruit waiting to be plucked. Thus in summer the armies of the Priest-King once more began to march. Heading out from the easternmost lands of the empire a tight and disciplined force of zealots and auxiliary troops moved along the coast towards Tho.
The first battles occurred in the coastal waters as the Acolhuan fleet scouted ahead of the armies advance. When they encountered the Tho fleet that had been quickly assembled and sent to keep the seas clear they fell back, seeking to lead the Mayans into a trap. The rather guileless Tho fleet fell for this stratagem, and was soon surrounded by the Acolhuan ships materializing out of secret bays, loaded with vicious and heavily armed Zealots who were all quickly sent to the seabed. For the difference in quality between the two navies in both men and ships were immense, and the Mayans despite falling for the trap were able to reform into battle order and have their slingers launch a hail of flaming projectiles on their ambushers. Their stout oarsmen allowed the Mayans to prevent the fearsome zealots form reaching their ships and the Acolhuans broke in disarray and fled back to the empire. The Mayans set off in pursuit, and for now at least the seas belong to Tho.
The land was quite a different matter as the heavily armed Zealots broke any force sent against them, and their heavy armour (which had proved a hindrance on the high seas) made the Mayan slingers and hit and run tactics practically useless. By the start of the rainy season the westernmost of the Leagues great cities was in Acolhuan hands, the empire slowed by having to operate at the extremes of their supply lines without the aid of the sea, and loot was flowing back towards Texcoco. The commanders were sure that next summer would bring more easy victories as the Zealots set about converting populace. The Priest-King may need to reign in his favoured warriors if he is to go ahead with his plan of applying Mayan civil officials to assist the empire the Bureaucratic elite and their wealth were the first targeted by the invaders and over half were wiped out in the first week.
(-18 Acolhuan Squadrons, -6 Tho Squadrons, -3 Zealot Divisions, -4 Acolhuan Divisions, -4 Kukulcan's Slingers, -3 Tho Divisions)
Nina allwi
The Sapa-Inca had a number of things on his mind in the early days of the year the opportunity and threat of the men from across the sea, and the ever present menace of the Chibcha in the north. He decided to deal with the threat he understood best first the Chibcha must be shown who was the lord of the Andes. He set a great force of some twenty thousand men to the Northern provinces, where they set about preparing for a campaign. The Incans spoke of military exercises but the Chibcha could read the writing on the wall; no one would gather the enormous amount of supplies an army of such a size required without having a plan of conquest in mind. Thus the Chibcha decided to strike first whilst the enemy were disorganized and newly arrived. Marching to the west of the Andes they managed to avoid the easternmost portions of the Incan forces, and by keeping in a compact mass they overcame the scattered Incan forces in succession, the skills and savagery learnt fighting the Caribs for decades proving rather useful against the motivated but untried Incans. Securing the mountain passes allowed the Chibcha to move with speed and surprising safety down into body of the empire as they were relatively safe from attacks from the east. After a few months they found themselves on the lip of the rich Quito valley, one of the core productive regions of the empire, and swept down like the ravening horde they were. Things looked bad for the Sapa-Incas subjects at that point as the swift Chibcha action threatened to cut off the coastal cities to the north, the army was in disarray and the rich port of Guayaquil was under siege.
However here the invaders speedy movement worked against them, for they had not been able to transport siege weapons with their speedy march, and while towers and catapults were being constructed the Incans had a chance to strike back. The various Incan armies began to push out the coastal cities and try the guards of the mountain passes whilst the Chibcha were tied down in the siege. The Chibchas lost ground on all fronts but towards the end of the year they finally broke through to the city of Guayaquil to meet a most unpleasant surprise. For the Sapa-Inca had be assiduously courting the Viet captains and commanders, though some of his suggestions were met with amusement and others with fear of how Nguyen Lords would react; for the South East Asians had learnt well from the history of the Iberian empire and its fall. However the Sapa-Inca had managed to persuade some admirals to aide him in this war and thus when the Chibchan forces broke through into the inner city they were presented with a rain of hot metal. Broken and in disarray, the Chibcha retreated to the surrounding countryside; Nina allwi or fire war had come to Xaxam for the first, but almost assuredly not the last, time.
(-19 Chibcha Divisions, -16 Incan Divisions)
The French War Begins
To describe the great struggles of the dynastic European states as a game of chess would be an oversimplification as gross as the contents of King Alexis interrogation rooms; the number of the players, the fact the pieces have minds of their own, the variable nature of the board make the comparison foolish. However it is not completely useless, for much like in chess there are pieces of great worth in the game of houses. As France totters towards its end at the hand of the Iberians there are four remaining royal pieces, the last of the Plantagenets in truth; the surviving younger brothers of Alexis, Alphonse and Henry, and his two young daughters Christine and Dominique. If France falls, whichever player hold these pieces will have the best claim over the lands that remain and there are players who have not yet moved their forces
At the beginning of the year the Aragonese prepared themselves for one final push great taxes were imposed on the floundering Aragonese merchants and nobles, and the economy is in shambles and destined for free fall unless something is done swiftly. However despite the dangers of such a course of action it was met with approval by most sections of the populace, the ravages of the Teufelfranz are still fresh in everyones memory, and no sacrifice is too great to punish the demonic Frenchmen (+5 volunteer divisions)! At the same time the French are also experiencing a surge in patriotism as the younger brother of Alexis, Alphonse, is crowned King Alphonse I in Paris and the people are prepared to fight to the last man as the country disintegrates around them. Oddly however the decline is not as fast as the Aragonese coalition would have hoped, Alphonse still has cash to spend and food for his populace, though how remains a mystery, as his emergency measures to seize church lands would be wholly insufficient.
The first battles of the year came in February when the Aragonese began an intensive naval barrage at the mouth of the Seine, and although the French coastal guns were sufficient to drive them off, the threat of an attack from behind delayed the planed French offensive for several weeks. Thus when the French finally did make a grand assault to the east of the Loire they encountered a colossal coalition army coming the other way! The hilly nature of the terrain aided the French as this was indeed their home ground, but the sheer size of the Coalition army nearly half a million strong, allowed them to force their way north. A great stand was made by the French at Auxerre which resulted in the death of general Adrien, but that too was driven back and the Coalition were marching towards Paris by June. However here the size of the Coalition army worked against them for maintaining good supply lines (something the experienced and wise commanders of the Aragonese general staff made sure to do) took considerable time.
While all this was going on the French and the coalition were battling back and forth on the Loire, whilst the Coalition had superior numbers the French were on the defensive and partisan activity took an enormous toll on the Aragonese forces, and no decisive gains or losses occurred. However the Aragonese had another ally to play, and when the Iberian fleet appeared off the coast of Brittany the French finally knew fear. The Iberians quickly overran the undefended peninsula, but the caution of the commanders after their earlier defeat, and the small amount of supplies and men provided them prevented further gains. However having to watch their west as well distracted the French defenders of the Loire enough for the Aragonese to make some gains north of the river.
Things looked very dark for France, the enemies were advancing on all fronts, and what is more the King had disappeared! No one but the innermost court knew where he was, and they were keeping a close lip. When the young princesses were abducted from their beds in august the people despaired indeed France as they knew it appeared doomed, and the nobles began to consider seriously the proposals the Aragonese were circulating as civil order began to break down in France.
However things are never as simple as they first appear, and when the Coalition forces finally reached Paris in the summer months they found it already aflame, and a strange flag flying over it a flag of red, yellow and blue the flag of Burgundy! For it appears Prince Ulrich had rather more in mind than mere army reforms for his new kingdom; it was his network of spies, using their close knowledge of their French counterparts, which had abducted Christine and Dominique and secreted them off to Dijon. There he had quietly married the infant Christine to his year old son Rudolph and proclaimed Rudolph King in France, with himself as regent of course. The first the world knew of this was when the Burgundians launched a flying column down the coast of la Manche from Flanders and ceased the mouth of the Seine. Two more armies struck out for Paris as well from central Burgundy and the north respectively. Stunned by this and with most of their army in the south fighting the coalition the French were unable to man the vast system of defenses in Île-de-France properly, and the Burgundians were able to simple avoid the strong points and break through the undermanned ones. Within a month the Burgundians were fighting for Paris in what was a very interesting battle indeed. For the Burgundians had a claim to France, were related to the French, and promised to drive out the evil coalition, whats more Prince Ulrich made considerable effort to make the Burgundians loved, organizing food relief even into precincts of the city that were fighting against him. The people of Paris wavered back and forth, but in the end the city turned to the Burgundians and swore allegiance to King Rudolph.
Thus when the Aragonese arrived they found not the broken French army they were expecting, but a powerful, fresh and well supplied Burgundian one. Without orders, and not wishing to start a war with Burgundy (or indeed the Holy Roman Empire of which Burgundy was a vassal), the Aragonese commanders called off the plans for an assault on Paris and merely camped outside the city. However they still had a clear enemy to fight in the east where the French government had fled to Le Mans under the command of Prince Henry. The Burgundians did not have the men to venture further into France and guard Paris, so it looked like the majority of France would fall after all
Or not, for King Alphonse had not been idle in truth, and there was more than one royal French wedding occurring in 1706. For the first time in over a hundred years a Plantagenet was being wed in Canterbury, as Alphonse married King Edward of Great Britains daughter, forging the United Kingdom of Great Britain and France (or the Second Plantagenet Empire as most in Europe immediately dubbed it), and Britain finally involved herself in the French war. Despite Alphonses wishes King Edward made him stay in London, not wanting to loose his prize to some stray arrow, and the British fleet took control of La Manche under the command of Admiral Hardy. The powerful and experienced British ships nearly effortlessly destroyed the Aragonese fleets and politely ordered the Iberians away (who complied knowing the British had by far the superior position), and the blockade of northern France was over. Vast amounts of weaponry, and more importantly, food flooded Normandy and the north of France and the French economy and people were saved from total collapse (incidentally the English also effected a take over of Frances remaining economy to their own profit (+Plymouth Economy centre)). The newly secured La Manche was also used to transport numerous divisions of British troops, which quickly fanned out into the French regions and brought the fragmenting French army back together.
The shock of this and the sudden resurgence in the French Army forced the Aragonese coalition back on all fronts and as the year drew to a close they were made to give up Orleans and even some of the south bank of the Loire. Thus the years end finds the fresh and powerful English and the Burgundians in control of the northern parts of France and the support of the populace, but unsure what to do about each other, Iberia is locked up in Brittany, and the Aragonese coalition controlling the south. Despite controlling the majority of the land and having the greatest army Aragon is likely in the worse position; with the French partisans striking mercilessly, their economy in shambles, and the loyalty of their allies questionable considering the links between Savoy and Burgundy (and their both being vassals of the HRE) and the Iberian desire to appease the powerful British. France is gone but the French war may only be beginning
(English and French Stats merged)
(-3 Man OWar Squadrons, -9 Aragonese Squadrons, -2 British Divisions, -8 Burgundian Divisions, -21 French Divisions, -15 French Conscript Divisions, -6 Brigade de Fusee, -20 Aragonese Divisions, -9 Berber Cavalry Divisions, -9 Savoyard Divisions, -4 Noble Guard Divisions, -1 Iberian Division)
Baltic brawls
Courland-Lithuania has been a thorn in the Russian side for a number of years now, a living reminder of the incomplete success of the Imperators polices. But this reminder will be tolerated no longer! For the Imperator had decreed the entire nation of Courland-Lithuania illegal! This confused people somewhat, for surely the Imperator had declared the nation illegal when nobility was outlawed, and what does declaring something illegal do when youre already actively at war with it? But no matter Courland-Lithuania was going down
or was it? The first move the Russians made was constructing and portaging ships into the gulf of Finland to form a new Baltic fleet. The time taken to do that delayed their plans for a January assault somewhat, but rather more worrisomely gave the Courlanders warning; for the Russians needed to keep Helsinki open to trade to reap the profits, and the Courlanders were not without friends amongst the Baltic traders and the Finns. Thus the Courlanders curtailed their raids (not that any were planned for this year) and rushed their defensive plans to completion. Thus when the Russians arrived they encountered a most unpleasant series of surprises.
One; The midnight naval foray by the Russians was met by the Courlander fleet in what will go down in history as the Battle of the Black Waves, fought in the dead of midnight on freezing waters that would kill a man in seconds of exposure. However the Russian fleet has the numbers and the skill to carry the day, and the Courlanders were forced to fall back and the Russians were able to unload their troops on the Bay of Riga). Two; the Courlanders had fortified the bay of Riga with cannon emplacements and defensive structures, and had forces prepared to intercept landers as they came. However the спецназ were more than a match for such obstacles and the Courish forts were soon full of corpses. The Russians were now in a position to spread out onto the bulk of the rebelling region when they encountered the third unpleasant surprise Courland-Lithuania was now crisscrossed with internal fortifications manned with conscripts (and later volunteers as the спецназ waged their reign of terror). Unable to move as freely as they wished the Russians none the less embarked on their campaign of destruction; looting, burning and destroying. The Russian forces that battered on the outskirts of the rebel held regions managed to push them back to their defensive lines but didnt achieve their desired breakthrough, and later in the year the Russians in the more difficult and boggy terrain north of Riga were finally ally tracked down and destroyed (though a good number managed to flee to the ships. West of Riga the Russians still roam at large, resupplied by ship, it seems the final destruction of Courland is not on schedule, but awaits the application of more numbers.
(-1 Riga Economy, +15 Conscripts, +5 Volunteers)
(-5 Russian Squadrons, -6 Courlander-Lithuanian Squadrons, -7 спецназ, -3 Russian Divisions, -3 Russian irregular divisions, -12 Courlander-Lithuanian Divisions, -8 C-L Conscript divisions)
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
A field well watered in blood…
The Great Turkish war rages on, despite the slightly more relaxed attitude displayed by the Russians with the knowledge of the strike their allies are making, a possibly erroneous point of view as the Turks still have plenty of fight left in them. To begin with the Russians finally abandoned the plans of major attacks in the extreme west where the Pripet marshes made movement impossible for most of the year, and instead set up a group of raiders and Special Forces that would prove a thorn in the Turkish side for most of the year, destroying and disrupting supplies and massacring settlers, and even forcing the Turks to call off most of their plans for Galicia. However the more standard thrusts the Russians make into the Ukraine fair rather worse; force centre-left managed to break through the defensive curtain only to be set upon by the mobile reserves the Turks had placed in Kryvyi Rih and defeated mid-massacre of Turkish farmers. Force Centre-Right experienced a similar fate when they attempted to surround the city of Dnepropetrovsk and cut it off, only to be enveloped themselves by a much larger Turkish army heading east from the Dneipr, Russian verve unfortunately proving insufficient against Turkish guns and numbers.
While this was going on the Russians were making considerable progress on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, taking city after city as an apparently insufficient Turkish force less than a quarter their number attempted to hold them back. It was only when the Turkish fleet reestablished superiority on the sea of Azov that the Russians realized in was all a trap of colossal dimensions as the Turks landed troops of the eastern shore of the sea, the Turkish army that had destroyed force centre-right curved south to the Don and a daring Turkish naval assault was made on the city of Azov itself. Attacked so quickly from three directions the city fell despite its large number of defenders (though спецназ snipers cost the Turks thousands of men for months afterwards). With this the Russians were forced to feel north from their Crimean gains, though they inflicted great causalities on the Turks – for the first time in this theatre of the war the Turkish dead outnumbered the Russian, and the Turks had no where near the gains the first great push had given them.
Further east however the Russians were having rather more luck as they pushed deep into the Caucasus, for once outnumbering the Turkish fighters in men and material. The Russian fleet had quickly made the Caspian a Russian lake and the Russian and Quqonid forces soon had control of the entire eastern shore (more on the Quqonid part of the war later). Meanwhile a force was pushing the Ottomans deeper and deeper into the mountains, where the спецназ wrecked havoc in combination with the few remaining Georgians. Soon the eastern part of the greater Caucasus mountains were Russian and raids were being mounted into Georgian and Azeri valleys, progress has slowed, more due to terrain than anything else as the Turks are only able to put up a resistance when and where they can be supplied via the black sea.
A interesting feature of the war this year has been the decision of both sides to disregard some of the unwritten rules of civilized combat; and biological warfare was employed to the utmost. Dead bodies were hurled into fortifications, wells were poisoned and rivers polluted, jolly good times all round with the спецназ and the Turkish bashi-bazouks. Naturally a number of plagues now sweep the lands north of the black sea and the civilian population is not exempt and many farmers die (-1 Russian Economy, Turkish farmers die as well but this is only a tiny fraction of the Ottoman Empire)
In the Balkans the armies of the Holy Roman Empire were waging a rather successful…if unsophisticated campaign against the Turks. Instead of the game of maneuver and raids the Turks and the Russians were playing in the Ukraine and southern Russia, the Imperials simply armed nearly a million troops to the teeth and launched them into the Balkans in a two pronged attack designed to crush with sheer weight of numbers. Out of Split and the northern reaches of the Danube the two armies marched, the former bulldozing over the Turkish troops sent to stop it, though they did loose a great number of men to Turkish traps, the latter spilling out onto the Alföld and overwhelming numerous Turkish fortresses and proving a match for the vast conscript armies the Turks had raised. However after the initial success thing slowed for the imperials in the north and the openness of the plains made it hard to secure defensive boundaries and supply routes from raids, and the tide of the Imperial army flowed back and forth north of the Danube for the rest of the year, with the Turkish armies still managing to hold most of the lower Danube and the wealthy grain lands around Bucharest. South of the Danube the Imperials made more decisive gains after the aforementioned destruction of the Turkish army round Split; steady progress was made eastward as another Turkish army was engulfed after a detour near Belgrade. The southern army did have to move further north than their planned route as the Turkish resistance in the mountains of the south was remarkable fierce, and had surprising support form the local population, but they soon reached the Danube, and by autumn hand taken Varna on the Black sea coast. The Great drive east had succeed for the most part, and the still numerous and strong imperial armies had divided the Turkish Balkan empire into pockets of the resistance.
On the seas of the eastern Mediterranean a second great campaign was fought between the Imperials and the Turks, and it was a wise move on the part of both the sultan and the Emperor (and their military commanders of course) to send no troops by sea. The battle for the eastern Mediterranean was bloody and violent; the Turks began by raiding the imperial supply routes, only to fall back when the new imperial fleet built by the emperors arsenals in Venice, Spilt and Viareggio hove to on the scene. This powerful new fleet hounded the Ottoman raiders all the way back to Crete (destroying many of the privateers the Ottomans had tried to support), only to be stopped in the battle of Kythira when the Ottomans managed to gather their various raiders and deploy a true battle fleet. The Battle of Kythira went badly for the Imperials, for even though they had superior numbers, the Ottomans had managed to catch them by surprise and their crews, hardened by a thousand engagements in the Indian ocean managed to drive their way into the superior drill of the Imperials and pluck victory from the maelstrom of cannon and fire. With this the Ottomans were nominally ascendant in the eastern Mediterranean but had not the strength to mount further raids; the imperials still had a great fleet but were unwilling to risk such a defeat again, preferring to guard the entrance to the Adriatic instead.
(+10 Imperial Irregular Divisions, +20 Ottoman Irregular Divisions)
(-17 Imperial Squadrons, -27 Ottoman Squadrons, -3 Russian Squadrons, -25 Imperial Divisions, -17 Ottomans Conscript Divisions, -33 Ottoman Divisions, -14 Janissary Divisions, -4 Imperial irregular divisions, -5 Ottoman Irregular divisions, 6 спецназ Divisions, 22 Russian Divisions, -1 Russian Irregular Divisions)
…a sea ablaze…
The French war was not the only war King Edward had decided to get himself involved in this year, clearly enjoying Britain’s flowering as a Great Power, he choose to strike in the Turkish war as well! Clearly on the Russian side from the start (it was common knowledge in the rumourmills of London that the King had allowed a Russian diplomatic mission to hire passage on a British ship and set up shop in Colombo), he choose to strike at the “soft underbelly of the pestilent Turkish beast” – their holdings on the Indian ocean…their nearly undefended holdings on the Indian Ocean. The first British move was to attack Zanzibar in a nighttime assault, a quite unnecessary tactic when you have a force fifteen times the size of the defenders, but the British commander obviously believed in being thorough! With that done the British fleet struck all across the Arabian sea – Goa, Socotra, Adan, the Swahili cities, all felt the shock of British cannon and British marines as the King enforced his rule. After a few months the Ottoman Indian fleet was sinking to the seabed or had fled to the red sea or Persian gulf, and the British had the lifeblood of the ottoman economy in their hands. The only failure the British made was in not being able to advance very far from the ports they had taken – the supplies they had brought with them were wholly insufficient for a long inland campaign half the world away from Britain.
Luckily for the British the natives often did their work for them as Calicut rose up in revolt and the African lands frayed into anarchy. The time of Ottoman dominance in the Indian ocean maybe over; the only apparent aid the can ask for is from the Gujarati’s…who are unlikely to be a match for the British fleet (though land power is very different matter), and the Gujarati’s winning is as bad a prospect for ottoman dominance as them loosing.
(-1 Turkish Economy)
(-4 Ottoman Squadrons, -2 English Man O’War Squadrons, -4 Ottoman Divisions)
…and an empire in fear
Now to the final section of the Great Turkish war – the east, where the Quqonids face the Turks and the Gujarati’s in the eternal battle of city folk against the men of the steppe and mountain. In the beginning of the year it seems the men of the city are winning as the Ottomans, abandoning any hope of a quick movement across Persia, begin a very slow creep of their fortified forward line. By throwing up hundreds of small mutually supporting forts they slowly deeper moved into the Zagros Mountains against the raiding Quqonids. Their spies are far more far ranging than their soldiers however, and manage to create murmurings of Persian revolt against the Khanate with promises of Persian independence.
It is apparent that some of the Persians believe the Ottoman promises for when the Ottomans military front finally came in range of the great cities of Isfahan and the fortified markets of Arak they launched lightening thrusts to take the city, and each time was let in by Persian traitors whilst the Khanate forces were forced to flee. As the year ended the Ottoman fortifications crept on into the heart of Persia. The lavish rewards the Ottomans foisted the traitors of Isfahan with stirred up the fires of rebellion amongst the Persian elite; and soon a large region centered on Tehran were actively flouting the orders of the Khan and killing any messengers of officials he sent. There were also minor rebellions in various Persian cities but all except the city of Kerman have been stamped out.
On the other side of Persia the Gujarati’s have given up on attempts to take the highlands all together, demeaning the Ottoman technique too costly in men and materials and instead merely seeking to secure the fertile lowlands around the Indus as a new part of the Sultanate. Meanwhile further north the Gujarati armies were faced with a problem that has foiled many an empire – a scythic force encamped in the mountains of Afghanistan. Since these would be nearly impossible to wrinkle out of their strongholds the Gujarati commanders decided to do the obvious thing – and ignore them; the Gujarati’s did not need to conquer the lands of the Pastuns and Afghani’s after all, merely travel through them to wage war on the heartlands of the Khanate. Thus moving north from Kabul into the best pass through the mountains the Gujarati army focused all their energies on keeping this one line open, and such was the concentration of forces that they were largely successful and the Khanates men railed fruitlessly against their defenses. In summer the Gujarati’s finally broke through the mountains and spilled out in the valley of the Amu Darya, only to face a new threat. For the Gujarati’s had finally reached the true forces of the Khanate, and the Horde of the Khan savaged the Indian invaders mercilessly. With this threat and the lack of potable water the Gujarati’s were stuck – they couldn’t proceed without more supplies and men, and they could go back to the mountains without the risk of being overwhelmed; it will take some inspired planning to achieve much next year.
The traditional warfare of the Khanate was all very well, and it was certainly providing a tremendous toll on their enemies whilst not costing the khanate much in terms of men or material, but their enemies were still gaining ground and had no appearance of collapsing. The Khan had decided – it was time to take the war to the enemy! Thus once the Russians had secured the Caspian sea and the Turks were bogged down in Persia the Quqonids portaged their ships overland and began to ferry troops across into the Caucasus at the same time the Russians began their southward assault. The Quqonids quickly overwhelmed the meager defenders of the area around Baku and swept into the mountains. Though slowed by what is some of the most difficult terrain in the world the Quqonids stand posed to run rampant over the fertile plains of Mesopotamia.
In other news the Quqonid incursion into china has slowly been reverting to Qing rule as Khanates attention and men are elsewhere.
This year was a sad time indeed for the Ottoman Turks, not for two hundred years have they lost so much so fast as great enemies invade from every direction. Is the brief Ottoman moment in the Sun of empire over? Or will they emerge from this crisis victorious and move on to still greater heights?
(-5 Ottoman Divisions, -5 Janissary Divisions, -13 Gujarati Divisions, -8 Quqonid Divisions, -4 Quqonid Irregular divisions)
Siege of the Forbidden City
It is with a fearful heart that the Da Qing Emperor Kangxi greeted the new year, for he believed the time had come for his empire – the Japanese were massing in the north and east, and the Ming were returning to claim what had been theirs. Desperate times calls for desperate measures and the emperor issued an edict that doubled the size of the conscript and regular armies raised so far in the war, and they girdled themselves for a battle to the end. In the words of Prince Yinzhen “We are a Warrior Race, we will die a warrior’s death!” – the Manchu would not go down without a fight!
Despite these brave words it is questionable how much confidence the emperor really had, as he evacuated the imperial family bar himself and the prince to the safe city of Yumen, along with all the essentials of civil government.
Now to the movements of the war itself – the once honorable “dance of dragons” has become a brutal and vicious campaign. To begin with the Japanese pulled out of Hebei and their positions north of the yellow river as the Ming soldiers arrive to replace them, the Ming also having raised a vast swarm of an army though smaller than that of the Qing. The powerful and elite Japanese forces refocus themselves to the coast of the Bo Hai, properly securing Tianjin and taking Tangshan, and rather easily defeating a Qing army sent to stop them. This close to the coasts the Japanese supplies flowed freely despite Qing sabotage, though this would not last throughout the year.
The Japanese and the Ming then began the slow and bloody march towards Beijing, pushing their way through the vast conscript horde of the Qing. The Japanese in particular experienced great difficulty passing the hilly regions east of the Qing capital where Prince Yinzhen (nicknamed the “Snow Leopard” due to his love of ambushes in the hills) had relocated his army to match the Japanese movements. Here the inspiring young prince used his Ma Bing and conscripts well against the elite Japanese troopers by funneling and trapping them and laying on them whilst they were weak. In the end the Japanese abandoned plans for taking the north western hills and instead forged straight across the plains to the great city. The Ming also followed the strategy, not wishing to risk themselves on the mountains and hills and thus, like the Japanese, came under a withering assault as they moved deeper into Hebei. The Qing Ma Bing utilized modern gunpowder and steppe tactics to terrible effectiveness while vast hordes of conscripts tied down the invaders long enough for them to come under withering artillery barrage; the road towards Beijing in the words of one Ming commander was like “wading through tar”. However all was not going the Qing way, as their conscripts fell like flies before the invaders.
In the rest of china the Da Qing are not so much on the back step. In the far north the Japanese preoccupation with taking Beijing allows a Manchu assault to push them back to their fortified lines. Although unable to take the fortified city of Fushan as planned, several raiding armies managed to slip over the frozen Amur and Ussuri and start causing trouble behind enemy lines, though as long as the Japanese controlled the sea their supplies could never really be interrupted. But for now the Japanese dominance in Manchuria is over as they are force to hunker down in the fortified cities. Further west things aren’t going so well for the Qing, as the apparent dire straits of the Qing, and ceaseless Japanese prodding has caused some Mongol tribes (though certainly not all) to begin to assert their autonomy and kill Qing officials.
In the south the Ming made a number of poorly planned thrusts to reclaim their lands, though with most of the Generals and armies in the north little progress was made. They did however succeed in retaking Liuzhou, and were beginning to threaten the somewhat overstretched Qing positions in the extreme south. Things were further complicated when, spurred on by Qing urgings to “seize the day”, a fraction of southerners and merchant-liberals around Guangzhou decided they had had enough of both fractions and rose up in a well organized revolt against both emperors, quickly taking a great deal of Guangdong as the Qing retreated, uncertain what to do. However Niowanggiyan, keen to prove the worth of his new yellow jacket, was struck by a plan – with the Guang rebellion distracting the disorganized Ming in the south, the way to the enemies heart lay open! Leaving a few divisions to secure his back and the rich lands of the Sichuan basin he rapidly relocated the southern forces into centre west of china and then surged on in an ambitious plan – he would sweep down the Yangtze and destroy Nanjing itself! Moving as quickly as possible he left most of his supply trains in the west and lived off the land as his army pushed down through the river lands, outmaneuvering or destroying the Ming forces sent to destroy it and reached Nanjing after a mere two months with a wake of devastation behind them. However Niowanggiyan had miscalculated – he had not the men, the engines or the time to take the great city, and thus was forced to lay waste to the land around it (the city was easily supplied by the river however). But his actions none the less have given the Qing a great advantage, in the following year the Manchu general could strike in any direction and potentially tear the heart out of the Ming.
Returning to Beijing at the end of the year the Japanese and Ming have pushed ever closer, and the Japanese now are encamped outside the city though they have not been about to effect a siege thanks to the numbers of Qing soldiers. All the tricks and mobility of the plains are now past as the Japanese mount forays into the metropolis and engage in brutal street fighting, where the fierce Japanese and their warrior code have the edge in close combat. The Forbidden City still stands unbroken however, but as the Ming approach the Qing’s seemingly inexhaustible manpower may finally run out…
(-1 Ming Economy, +Guang Rebels, +20 Nan Ming Conscripts, +30 Da Qing Conscript Divisions)
(-32 Da Qing Divisions, -34 Da Qing Conscript Divisions, -8 Ma Bing Divisions, -28 Nan Ming Divisions, -14 Nan Ming Conscript Divisions, -22 Japanese Divisions, -5 Nepalese Divisions)
Pirate wars V: No Stone Unturned
It is said by many that the pirate wars have finally subsided, and although piracy is still rife in South East Asia the time when they could hold whole cities to ransom is most definitely over. A small resurgence however occurs in the north when the Da Qing offer note of Marque to attack Japanese shipping to anyone and everyone who wishes, to the detriment of the Japanese Luzon colony. The Guangdong rebels also willing allow pirates to dock and raid the Japanese and Nan Ming seaways in search of revenge and gold.
Further south however things are rather quieter as the Indon Sultanate adopts the convoy system favoured by the other powers to curb their problems on the Java Sea, though the number of pirates was beginning to drop anyway as they appeared to relocate to the South China Sea. It seems a constant background noise of piracy will be an ever present threat in the great archipelago as long as there are states willing to offer them safe harbour.
On the colonial front the Island of Borneo is finally completely portioned under the various powers; the White Malay have taken a lions share, with the northern and western coasts and most of the inner highlands under their direct control or in the hands of a client tribe, the Sulu Sultanate has the northern tip and the Indon sultanate the lowlands and jungles of the southern coast. To make up for their lack of land in Borneo, Indon and Sulu turned their attention to the island of Sulawesi and quickly imposed military control over all the lands (though the development is still near zero).
In the east the nation of Neva Sinhala is beginning to flourish as the great convoy routes are extended all the way to Vihaynagaraya and Sinhalese refugees begin to flow from the Indochinese peninsula (bring with them wealth and skills (+1 Economy)). This surge in population makes the Neva Sinhalese spill down the southern coast (as most settlers don’t stray more than a mile from the sea) to the Digul River and beyond. Meanwhile the Indon Sultanate establishes a small as-yet unnamed holding further east along the coast – perhaps as a base to further ventures?
(-3 Japanese Squadrons, -2 White Malay, Dai Viet Squadrons, -4 Indon Squadrons, -1 Neva Sinhala Squadrons)
Random Events
Speculation and bad harvests damage the economy of Arakan (-1 Economy)
The generals and leaders of Madras continue to rust with nothing to do (-1 Military Leadership)
Plagues afflict the men the Songhay Empire have sent into the southern jungles (-3 Army divisions)
Battling for your very existence doesn’t really help the educational establishment in France (-1 Education)
Pacific storms damaging the far ranging Dai Viet Navy (-4 Squadrons)
Managing the complex and collapsing systems of the French government proves quite the strain on the British bureaucracy and government (-1 Civilian leadership)
As with Aragon before it, the thrill of a military career draws many young men away from the pursuit of knowledge in the Südlichreich of the HRE (-1 Education)
The Kingdom of Kong begins to experience a culture clash between the Iberophilic elite in the city and the people of the outlying villages (-1 Culture)
Notes
Diplomacy
From the Ming Emperor of China
To the Later Jin
We must speak, surely you can recognise that the war is over…
The Great Turkish war rages on, despite the slightly more relaxed attitude displayed by the Russians with the knowledge of the strike their allies are making, a possibly erroneous point of view as the Turks still have plenty of fight left in them. To begin with the Russians finally abandoned the plans of major attacks in the extreme west where the Pripet marshes made movement impossible for most of the year, and instead set up a group of raiders and Special Forces that would prove a thorn in the Turkish side for most of the year, destroying and disrupting supplies and massacring settlers, and even forcing the Turks to call off most of their plans for Galicia. However the more standard thrusts the Russians make into the Ukraine fair rather worse; force centre-left managed to break through the defensive curtain only to be set upon by the mobile reserves the Turks had placed in Kryvyi Rih and defeated mid-massacre of Turkish farmers. Force Centre-Right experienced a similar fate when they attempted to surround the city of Dnepropetrovsk and cut it off, only to be enveloped themselves by a much larger Turkish army heading east from the Dneipr, Russian verve unfortunately proving insufficient against Turkish guns and numbers.
While this was going on the Russians were making considerable progress on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, taking city after city as an apparently insufficient Turkish force less than a quarter their number attempted to hold them back. It was only when the Turkish fleet reestablished superiority on the sea of Azov that the Russians realized in was all a trap of colossal dimensions as the Turks landed troops of the eastern shore of the sea, the Turkish army that had destroyed force centre-right curved south to the Don and a daring Turkish naval assault was made on the city of Azov itself. Attacked so quickly from three directions the city fell despite its large number of defenders (though спецназ snipers cost the Turks thousands of men for months afterwards). With this the Russians were forced to feel north from their Crimean gains, though they inflicted great causalities on the Turks – for the first time in this theatre of the war the Turkish dead outnumbered the Russian, and the Turks had no where near the gains the first great push had given them.
Further east however the Russians were having rather more luck as they pushed deep into the Caucasus, for once outnumbering the Turkish fighters in men and material. The Russian fleet had quickly made the Caspian a Russian lake and the Russian and Quqonid forces soon had control of the entire eastern shore (more on the Quqonid part of the war later). Meanwhile a force was pushing the Ottomans deeper and deeper into the mountains, where the спецназ wrecked havoc in combination with the few remaining Georgians. Soon the eastern part of the greater Caucasus mountains were Russian and raids were being mounted into Georgian and Azeri valleys, progress has slowed, more due to terrain than anything else as the Turks are only able to put up a resistance when and where they can be supplied via the black sea.
A interesting feature of the war this year has been the decision of both sides to disregard some of the unwritten rules of civilized combat; and biological warfare was employed to the utmost. Dead bodies were hurled into fortifications, wells were poisoned and rivers polluted, jolly good times all round with the спецназ and the Turkish bashi-bazouks. Naturally a number of plagues now sweep the lands north of the black sea and the civilian population is not exempt and many farmers die (-1 Russian Economy, Turkish farmers die as well but this is only a tiny fraction of the Ottoman Empire)
In the Balkans the armies of the Holy Roman Empire were waging a rather successful…if unsophisticated campaign against the Turks. Instead of the game of maneuver and raids the Turks and the Russians were playing in the Ukraine and southern Russia, the Imperials simply armed nearly a million troops to the teeth and launched them into the Balkans in a two pronged attack designed to crush with sheer weight of numbers. Out of Split and the northern reaches of the Danube the two armies marched, the former bulldozing over the Turkish troops sent to stop it, though they did loose a great number of men to Turkish traps, the latter spilling out onto the Alföld and overwhelming numerous Turkish fortresses and proving a match for the vast conscript armies the Turks had raised. However after the initial success thing slowed for the imperials in the north and the openness of the plains made it hard to secure defensive boundaries and supply routes from raids, and the tide of the Imperial army flowed back and forth north of the Danube for the rest of the year, with the Turkish armies still managing to hold most of the lower Danube and the wealthy grain lands around Bucharest. South of the Danube the Imperials made more decisive gains after the aforementioned destruction of the Turkish army round Split; steady progress was made eastward as another Turkish army was engulfed after a detour near Belgrade. The southern army did have to move further north than their planned route as the Turkish resistance in the mountains of the south was remarkable fierce, and had surprising support form the local population, but they soon reached the Danube, and by autumn hand taken Varna on the Black sea coast. The Great drive east had succeed for the most part, and the still numerous and strong imperial armies had divided the Turkish Balkan empire into pockets of the resistance.
On the seas of the eastern Mediterranean a second great campaign was fought between the Imperials and the Turks, and it was a wise move on the part of both the sultan and the Emperor (and their military commanders of course) to send no troops by sea. The battle for the eastern Mediterranean was bloody and violent; the Turks began by raiding the imperial supply routes, only to fall back when the new imperial fleet built by the emperors arsenals in Venice, Spilt and Viareggio hove to on the scene. This powerful new fleet hounded the Ottoman raiders all the way back to Crete (destroying many of the privateers the Ottomans had tried to support), only to be stopped in the battle of Kythira when the Ottomans managed to gather their various raiders and deploy a true battle fleet. The Battle of Kythira went badly for the Imperials, for even though they had superior numbers, the Ottomans had managed to catch them by surprise and their crews, hardened by a thousand engagements in the Indian ocean managed to drive their way into the superior drill of the Imperials and pluck victory from the maelstrom of cannon and fire. With this the Ottomans were nominally ascendant in the eastern Mediterranean but had not the strength to mount further raids; the imperials still had a great fleet but were unwilling to risk such a defeat again, preferring to guard the entrance to the Adriatic instead.
(+10 Imperial Irregular Divisions, +20 Ottoman Irregular Divisions)
(-17 Imperial Squadrons, -27 Ottoman Squadrons, -3 Russian Squadrons, -25 Imperial Divisions, -17 Ottomans Conscript Divisions, -33 Ottoman Divisions, -14 Janissary Divisions, -4 Imperial irregular divisions, -5 Ottoman Irregular divisions, 6 спецназ Divisions, 22 Russian Divisions, -1 Russian Irregular Divisions)
…a sea ablaze…
The French war was not the only war King Edward had decided to get himself involved in this year, clearly enjoying Britain’s flowering as a Great Power, he choose to strike in the Turkish war as well! Clearly on the Russian side from the start (it was common knowledge in the rumourmills of London that the King had allowed a Russian diplomatic mission to hire passage on a British ship and set up shop in Colombo), he choose to strike at the “soft underbelly of the pestilent Turkish beast” – their holdings on the Indian ocean…their nearly undefended holdings on the Indian Ocean. The first British move was to attack Zanzibar in a nighttime assault, a quite unnecessary tactic when you have a force fifteen times the size of the defenders, but the British commander obviously believed in being thorough! With that done the British fleet struck all across the Arabian sea – Goa, Socotra, Adan, the Swahili cities, all felt the shock of British cannon and British marines as the King enforced his rule. After a few months the Ottoman Indian fleet was sinking to the seabed or had fled to the red sea or Persian gulf, and the British had the lifeblood of the ottoman economy in their hands. The only failure the British made was in not being able to advance very far from the ports they had taken – the supplies they had brought with them were wholly insufficient for a long inland campaign half the world away from Britain.
Luckily for the British the natives often did their work for them as Calicut rose up in revolt and the African lands frayed into anarchy. The time of Ottoman dominance in the Indian ocean maybe over; the only apparent aid the can ask for is from the Gujarati’s…who are unlikely to be a match for the British fleet (though land power is very different matter), and the Gujarati’s winning is as bad a prospect for ottoman dominance as them loosing.
(-1 Turkish Economy)
(-4 Ottoman Squadrons, -2 English Man O’War Squadrons, -4 Ottoman Divisions)
…and an empire in fear
Now to the final section of the Great Turkish war – the east, where the Quqonids face the Turks and the Gujarati’s in the eternal battle of city folk against the men of the steppe and mountain. In the beginning of the year it seems the men of the city are winning as the Ottomans, abandoning any hope of a quick movement across Persia, begin a very slow creep of their fortified forward line. By throwing up hundreds of small mutually supporting forts they slowly deeper moved into the Zagros Mountains against the raiding Quqonids. Their spies are far more far ranging than their soldiers however, and manage to create murmurings of Persian revolt against the Khanate with promises of Persian independence.
It is apparent that some of the Persians believe the Ottoman promises for when the Ottomans military front finally came in range of the great cities of Isfahan and the fortified markets of Arak they launched lightening thrusts to take the city, and each time was let in by Persian traitors whilst the Khanate forces were forced to flee. As the year ended the Ottoman fortifications crept on into the heart of Persia. The lavish rewards the Ottomans foisted the traitors of Isfahan with stirred up the fires of rebellion amongst the Persian elite; and soon a large region centered on Tehran were actively flouting the orders of the Khan and killing any messengers of officials he sent. There were also minor rebellions in various Persian cities but all except the city of Kerman have been stamped out.
On the other side of Persia the Gujarati’s have given up on attempts to take the highlands all together, demeaning the Ottoman technique too costly in men and materials and instead merely seeking to secure the fertile lowlands around the Indus as a new part of the Sultanate. Meanwhile further north the Gujarati armies were faced with a problem that has foiled many an empire – a scythic force encamped in the mountains of Afghanistan. Since these would be nearly impossible to wrinkle out of their strongholds the Gujarati commanders decided to do the obvious thing – and ignore them; the Gujarati’s did not need to conquer the lands of the Pastuns and Afghani’s after all, merely travel through them to wage war on the heartlands of the Khanate. Thus moving north from Kabul into the best pass through the mountains the Gujarati army focused all their energies on keeping this one line open, and such was the concentration of forces that they were largely successful and the Khanates men railed fruitlessly against their defenses. In summer the Gujarati’s finally broke through the mountains and spilled out in the valley of the Amu Darya, only to face a new threat. For the Gujarati’s had finally reached the true forces of the Khanate, and the Horde of the Khan savaged the Indian invaders mercilessly. With this threat and the lack of potable water the Gujarati’s were stuck – they couldn’t proceed without more supplies and men, and they could go back to the mountains without the risk of being overwhelmed; it will take some inspired planning to achieve much next year.
The traditional warfare of the Khanate was all very well, and it was certainly providing a tremendous toll on their enemies whilst not costing the khanate much in terms of men or material, but their enemies were still gaining ground and had no appearance of collapsing. The Khan had decided – it was time to take the war to the enemy! Thus once the Russians had secured the Caspian sea and the Turks were bogged down in Persia the Quqonids portaged their ships overland and began to ferry troops across into the Caucasus at the same time the Russians began their southward assault. The Quqonids quickly overwhelmed the meager defenders of the area around Baku and swept into the mountains. Though slowed by what is some of the most difficult terrain in the world the Quqonids stand posed to run rampant over the fertile plains of Mesopotamia.
In other news the Quqonid incursion into china has slowly been reverting to Qing rule as Khanates attention and men are elsewhere.
This year was a sad time indeed for the Ottoman Turks, not for two hundred years have they lost so much so fast as great enemies invade from every direction. Is the brief Ottoman moment in the Sun of empire over? Or will they emerge from this crisis victorious and move on to still greater heights?
(-5 Ottoman Divisions, -5 Janissary Divisions, -13 Gujarati Divisions, -8 Quqonid Divisions, -4 Quqonid Irregular divisions)
Siege of the Forbidden City
It is with a fearful heart that the Da Qing Emperor Kangxi greeted the new year, for he believed the time had come for his empire – the Japanese were massing in the north and east, and the Ming were returning to claim what had been theirs. Desperate times calls for desperate measures and the emperor issued an edict that doubled the size of the conscript and regular armies raised so far in the war, and they girdled themselves for a battle to the end. In the words of Prince Yinzhen “We are a Warrior Race, we will die a warrior’s death!” – the Manchu would not go down without a fight!
Despite these brave words it is questionable how much confidence the emperor really had, as he evacuated the imperial family bar himself and the prince to the safe city of Yumen, along with all the essentials of civil government.
Now to the movements of the war itself – the once honorable “dance of dragons” has become a brutal and vicious campaign. To begin with the Japanese pulled out of Hebei and their positions north of the yellow river as the Ming soldiers arrive to replace them, the Ming also having raised a vast swarm of an army though smaller than that of the Qing. The powerful and elite Japanese forces refocus themselves to the coast of the Bo Hai, properly securing Tianjin and taking Tangshan, and rather easily defeating a Qing army sent to stop them. This close to the coasts the Japanese supplies flowed freely despite Qing sabotage, though this would not last throughout the year.
The Japanese and the Ming then began the slow and bloody march towards Beijing, pushing their way through the vast conscript horde of the Qing. The Japanese in particular experienced great difficulty passing the hilly regions east of the Qing capital where Prince Yinzhen (nicknamed the “Snow Leopard” due to his love of ambushes in the hills) had relocated his army to match the Japanese movements. Here the inspiring young prince used his Ma Bing and conscripts well against the elite Japanese troopers by funneling and trapping them and laying on them whilst they were weak. In the end the Japanese abandoned plans for taking the north western hills and instead forged straight across the plains to the great city. The Ming also followed the strategy, not wishing to risk themselves on the mountains and hills and thus, like the Japanese, came under a withering assault as they moved deeper into Hebei. The Qing Ma Bing utilized modern gunpowder and steppe tactics to terrible effectiveness while vast hordes of conscripts tied down the invaders long enough for them to come under withering artillery barrage; the road towards Beijing in the words of one Ming commander was like “wading through tar”. However all was not going the Qing way, as their conscripts fell like flies before the invaders.
In the rest of china the Da Qing are not so much on the back step. In the far north the Japanese preoccupation with taking Beijing allows a Manchu assault to push them back to their fortified lines. Although unable to take the fortified city of Fushan as planned, several raiding armies managed to slip over the frozen Amur and Ussuri and start causing trouble behind enemy lines, though as long as the Japanese controlled the sea their supplies could never really be interrupted. But for now the Japanese dominance in Manchuria is over as they are force to hunker down in the fortified cities. Further west things aren’t going so well for the Qing, as the apparent dire straits of the Qing, and ceaseless Japanese prodding has caused some Mongol tribes (though certainly not all) to begin to assert their autonomy and kill Qing officials.
In the south the Ming made a number of poorly planned thrusts to reclaim their lands, though with most of the Generals and armies in the north little progress was made. They did however succeed in retaking Liuzhou, and were beginning to threaten the somewhat overstretched Qing positions in the extreme south. Things were further complicated when, spurred on by Qing urgings to “seize the day”, a fraction of southerners and merchant-liberals around Guangzhou decided they had had enough of both fractions and rose up in a well organized revolt against both emperors, quickly taking a great deal of Guangdong as the Qing retreated, uncertain what to do. However Niowanggiyan, keen to prove the worth of his new yellow jacket, was struck by a plan – with the Guang rebellion distracting the disorganized Ming in the south, the way to the enemies heart lay open! Leaving a few divisions to secure his back and the rich lands of the Sichuan basin he rapidly relocated the southern forces into centre west of china and then surged on in an ambitious plan – he would sweep down the Yangtze and destroy Nanjing itself! Moving as quickly as possible he left most of his supply trains in the west and lived off the land as his army pushed down through the river lands, outmaneuvering or destroying the Ming forces sent to destroy it and reached Nanjing after a mere two months with a wake of devastation behind them. However Niowanggiyan had miscalculated – he had not the men, the engines or the time to take the great city, and thus was forced to lay waste to the land around it (the city was easily supplied by the river however). But his actions none the less have given the Qing a great advantage, in the following year the Manchu general could strike in any direction and potentially tear the heart out of the Ming.
Returning to Beijing at the end of the year the Japanese and Ming have pushed ever closer, and the Japanese now are encamped outside the city though they have not been about to effect a siege thanks to the numbers of Qing soldiers. All the tricks and mobility of the plains are now past as the Japanese mount forays into the metropolis and engage in brutal street fighting, where the fierce Japanese and their warrior code have the edge in close combat. The Forbidden City still stands unbroken however, but as the Ming approach the Qing’s seemingly inexhaustible manpower may finally run out…
(-1 Ming Economy, +Guang Rebels, +20 Nan Ming Conscripts, +30 Da Qing Conscript Divisions)
(-32 Da Qing Divisions, -34 Da Qing Conscript Divisions, -8 Ma Bing Divisions, -28 Nan Ming Divisions, -14 Nan Ming Conscript Divisions, -22 Japanese Divisions, -5 Nepalese Divisions)
Pirate wars V: No Stone Unturned
It is said by many that the pirate wars have finally subsided, and although piracy is still rife in South East Asia the time when they could hold whole cities to ransom is most definitely over. A small resurgence however occurs in the north when the Da Qing offer note of Marque to attack Japanese shipping to anyone and everyone who wishes, to the detriment of the Japanese Luzon colony. The Guangdong rebels also willing allow pirates to dock and raid the Japanese and Nan Ming seaways in search of revenge and gold.
Further south however things are rather quieter as the Indon Sultanate adopts the convoy system favoured by the other powers to curb their problems on the Java Sea, though the number of pirates was beginning to drop anyway as they appeared to relocate to the South China Sea. It seems a constant background noise of piracy will be an ever present threat in the great archipelago as long as there are states willing to offer them safe harbour.
On the colonial front the Island of Borneo is finally completely portioned under the various powers; the White Malay have taken a lions share, with the northern and western coasts and most of the inner highlands under their direct control or in the hands of a client tribe, the Sulu Sultanate has the northern tip and the Indon sultanate the lowlands and jungles of the southern coast. To make up for their lack of land in Borneo, Indon and Sulu turned their attention to the island of Sulawesi and quickly imposed military control over all the lands (though the development is still near zero).
In the east the nation of Neva Sinhala is beginning to flourish as the great convoy routes are extended all the way to Vihaynagaraya and Sinhalese refugees begin to flow from the Indochinese peninsula (bring with them wealth and skills (+1 Economy)). This surge in population makes the Neva Sinhalese spill down the southern coast (as most settlers don’t stray more than a mile from the sea) to the Digul River and beyond. Meanwhile the Indon Sultanate establishes a small as-yet unnamed holding further east along the coast – perhaps as a base to further ventures?
(-3 Japanese Squadrons, -2 White Malay, Dai Viet Squadrons, -4 Indon Squadrons, -1 Neva Sinhala Squadrons)
Random Events
Speculation and bad harvests damage the economy of Arakan (-1 Economy)
The generals and leaders of Madras continue to rust with nothing to do (-1 Military Leadership)
Plagues afflict the men the Songhay Empire have sent into the southern jungles (-3 Army divisions)
Battling for your very existence doesn’t really help the educational establishment in France (-1 Education)
Pacific storms damaging the far ranging Dai Viet Navy (-4 Squadrons)
Managing the complex and collapsing systems of the French government proves quite the strain on the British bureaucracy and government (-1 Civilian leadership)
As with Aragon before it, the thrill of a military career draws many young men away from the pursuit of knowledge in the Südlichreich of the HRE (-1 Education)
The Kingdom of Kong begins to experience a culture clash between the Iberophilic elite in the city and the people of the outlying villages (-1 Culture)
Notes
Diplomacy
From the Ming Emperor of China
To the Later Jin
We must speak, surely you can recognise that the war is over…
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
here too (map)
Swissempire
Poet Jester
Amazing Update, wow, i'm am blown away
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
OH GREAT GREY HEAVENS!!!!
The fate of China, and Asia, is decided.... *sniff* If I lose, I will never be able to look at my egg rolls ever again.
The fate of China, and Asia, is decided.... *sniff* If I lose, I will never be able to look at my egg rolls ever again.
JosefStalinator
Я буду снова здесь
:O I knew I should never have invaded the Ottomans!
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
Hmm still half an hour to go - should I post the map and leave you to twist in the agony of not knowing the reason for stuff?
Swissempire
Poet Jester
Yes!!! Do It!!!!
JosefStalinator
Я буду снова здесь
It would be too much of a health hazard- you may get sued. Don't do it.
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
well there we go - I wonder who will hate me more - Symphony or Cuiv?
Also 10 points to whoever gets the reasoning for the new British-French colour (unless your das, he'll only get 2 points)
Also 10 points to whoever gets the reasoning for the new British-French colour (unless your das, he'll only get 2 points)
