1 AD – 20 AD: Turn 1
Domestic Events
It hath begun.
What hath begun? There are many answers to this, some more direct than others. An obvious answer to this question, is that 1 AD marks the first year of the new Roman calendar, the calendar of Anno Domini, created to honor Rome’s great success against the dead nation of Carthage, and more than that, created to honor the Roman god Jupiter, king over all of the divine. 1 AD is indeed the first year of the Roman calendar, that even now spreads in use across the Mediterranean, and further, to the Levant, and beyond
But to be satisfied with that answer, one would have to be shallow indeed. For more than just a new calendar has begun. Across the Mediterranean, indeed, across the world, something is happening. It is as if the people of the earth are coming alive again, as if their flame to live is rekindled.
War will stalk this earth, war with a fiery passion, and thousands, if not more, of innocent and evil alike, will be snuffed out, extinguished. But there will be happiness, as well, as empires are built to last for a hundred generations, and more, empires that will feed the hungry, and clothe the helpless.
And this story, one that will take centuries to tell, begins in a land that knows little of philosophy, or fate, or destiny. It begins in Gaul, a barbaric nation that seeks little but plunder.
Gaul, little more than a collection of tribes under the banner of a supreme chieftain, looses their leader. Brennus, the man who had once been great enough to unite a nation behind him, dies in a hunt. His successor tries to keep the nation together, but Gaul is slowly falling into an even greater level of tribalism than before. Without strong leadership, it seems that Gaul will disintegrate.
Iberia, perhaps due to the fact that the Gaul threat is becoming less and less of a fear, is calm, and quiet. Lusitania and Barcelona meander on, untouched by war, naïve…
Meanwhile, Icosium does much of the same. Icosium was forged with violent roots, by those angry with Carthage’s failings. However, Icosium is falling into the mold of its predecessor state, becoming ever more mercantile, much to the anger of the radicals.
And now, we come to Rome. Rome, the most powerful nation in the world. Rome, the city that conquered itself an empire. Here, in this most vibrant of nations, the senate commissions a new type of soldier: the Roman Legionnaire. They are largely considered elite, and the best of the best. However, as Rome massively expands its army, training suffers.
(-1 Army Training)
Rome also begins to encourage its merchants to focus their trade westward. There are a number of speculations why this is occurring, some of them quite benign, but not all of them pleasant…
In Greece, the Republicans in control of the Senate pass a variety of measures, one of which builds universities throughout the nation, and another of which quadruples the size of the army. The newly enlightened population wonders what the point of the military buildup is, as all the nations surrounding Greece are de facto allies, but the questions have been dealt with for now, by an official statement that the army must be bigger, for Greece to have prestige in the world. The army, massively expanded, is a poorly trained wreck, but it is prestigious. How odd.
(-1 Army Training)
Byzantium celebrates a great diplomatic success, as it formalizes the Hellenic Alliance with Greece. However, soon after that treaty was signed, the old monarch of Byzantium died, and his son, the Emperor Constantine I, takes power.
Constantine I is a dark and mysterious man, with shadowy comings and goings, but his first moves as ruler of Byzantium are domestic, and quite straight-forward. To better assimilate the newly conquered territories of former Hatti, in Anatolia, Constantine declares that all religions should be tolerated, and revered. He orders his priests to find the underlying similarities between Greek and Hittite Polytheisms. The decree actually goes along rather well, and Byzantium is all the better for it.
(+1 Culture)
The army is also drastically grown.
(-1 Military Training)
Constantine I, despite his primarily peaceful successes in his early years, as Emperor, always schemed for more. And so, in a speech outlining his dream of Thracian freedom (under a Byzantine yolk, of course, for their own good), Constantine declared war on Macedonia.
(See Military Events)
South, in Phoenicia, the newly reborn oligarchic nation does not get off to a good start. Prominent nationalists start being assassinated, and the lords of the nation begin to become paranoid, each blaming the next for the goings on, even as the body count continues to rise. The oligarchs who remain start to isolate themselves, hiding away in their estates, which proves an effective way to keep themselves from getting killed, but the people of Phoenicia do not appreciate how out of touch their leaders are becoming with both affairs of state, and the nation’s own people.
(-1 Culture, -1 Confidence, -1 Leadership)
Meanwhile, as the Phoenician leaders become more and more preoccupied with keeping themselves from getting killed, rumors start to spread, of invasion from Assyria, or Israel, or both. Neither invasion materializes, but public sympathy begins to sway in the direction of the third nation that borders Phoenicia: Byzantium. Out of power Phoenician aristocrats, aristocrats clearly in league with the interests of Emperor Constantine I, but Phoenicians nevertheless, use the opportunity to try to size power.
The Phoenician oligarchs, who hid themselves away on their estates to keep themselves from getting killed, come to the awkward realizations that in their haste to protect their own lives, and accuse each other, they failed to see the conspiracy around them.
One of the oligarchs, Hiram, takes the lead from his fellows, and starkly declares that all the unrest is Byzantium’s doing, which by now, to even the slightly informed citizen, is clearly true. However, such is the confused state of things in Phoenicia, that not all care. Clashes occur between the Hiramites, and the Byzantine sympathizers, clashes that threaten to plunge the nation into civil war.
Expecting a full blown Byzantine invasion, and worrying that what remained of his power would not last long, Hiram abolished the confusing system of the oligarchs, and declared himself King of Phoenicia. He consolidated his power, violently, executing all prominent Byzantine sympathizers who did not have the time to flee to said nation, and, in so doing, recovered some vestiges of national pride.
(+1 Phoenician Confidence)
Hiram then waited for what he considered to be an inevitable Byzantine invasion, but it never materialized. It seemed that Emperor Constantine I was too preoccupied with Thracian matters…
And now, to contrast, we come to a much more stable nation. Israel. In sharp comparison to Emperor Constantine I, the Hebrew monarch, King David II, is a weak, fat man, more interested in his court, than on such things as the fate of the nation, and the world.
However, those who pull his strings, those of the Hebrew priesthood, are more powerful than ever before. Under their direction, Israel focuses its efforts eastwards, at the tribes of Arabia. The tribes, especially those closest to Jerusalem, already mostly Jewish, are very conducive to good relations with the Hebrew throne. While not willing to be subject to direct Israeli rule, many chieftains, in a sign of homage, agree to support Israel, if a war comes.
King David grows his army, but besides that, things in Israel are quiet.
(-1 Military Training)
Quiet is the last word to describe the lands of the Nile, sadly. Tantamani, King of Cush, is, unlike most of the rulers of the day, a very straightforward man. He wanted an empire, and so he decided to forge one. With iron and blood, of course. And so, Tantamani raised a huge army, and invaded Upper Egypt, beginning the War of the Nile.
(-1 Military Training)
(See Military Events)
Further east, in Assyria, a radical king named Sargon takes the throne. Assyria was always very militant, but Sargon stirs up the war hawks even more, by massing an army five times greater than the one Assyria had before. This action, coupled with the fact that the growing army is filled with vagabonds and fanatics, causes many Persians, in their nation to the east, and indeed, some moderate Assyrian lords, to begin calling him Sargon the Mad.
(-1 Assyrian Army Training)
In Persia, there is general unrest, which seems a portent of what is to come…
Of course, portents don’t really compare to the situation in India. On the subcontinent, chaos is already a fact of life. The Three Princes’ War has raged for decades, decades in which the nation of Mohenjo-Daro has been embroiled in a bitter, indecisive war against Bengal, Harappa, and, more recently, a massive uprising with its own interior.
As the massive uprising, lead by a man named Simuka, did nothing but grow in size and strength, it was predicted by some that the great Mohenjo-Daro were all but defeated. However, even as Simuka’s rebels wreaked havoc, a prince named Ashoka rose to power in Mohenjo-Daro.
And he vowed that Mohenjo-Daro would win its war, win its war, and move on, to greater glory.
Ashoka reformed the military, organizing it into three distinct armies, and removing incompetent officials from their posts. He then ordered a variety of propaganda to be distributed, that promised that after Mohenjo-Daro won its war, there would be a great era of prosperity. This might well have had been greeted with skepticism by the peasants, had not Ashoka achieved a great diplomatic victory.
He convinced the prince of Bengal to sign an armistice, with real agreements as to what was to become of the Mohenjo-Daro occupied parts of Bengal to occur at a later date.
The Bengalis expected a trick, and generally were quite angry at their leader for allowing such an agreement to take place, but Mohenjo-Daro citizens started to believe Ashoka’s propaganda, in earnest.
(-1 Bengali Confidence, +1 Mohenjo-Daro Confidence)
Meanwhile, the loosely incorporated Burmese territories of Bengal fall from its grasp.
Cambodia, as per the status quo of its hundreds of years of existence, does nothing interesting.
And now, we come to China. The Middle Kingdom. The sadly fragmented Middle Kingdom, which has not been joined together by a single, stable dynasty, for centuries now.
However, as with many places in these tumultuous decades, China is undergoing a time of change. Change that, one man hopes, will bring unity.
That man’s name is Emperor Xiao. Emperor Xiao of the Chu Dynasty, named after the legendary Xia of ages past.
Emperor Xiao came to power at age 36, already an older man, upon his ascension to the throne. He was not a warrior, but he was a cunning diplomat. And, as any emperor, his first and foremost wish was to reunite China under his banner.
And, instead of doing this through war, he intended to do this through peace. Emperor Xiao decreed that a Council of China was to be formed, in Shanghai, with representatives from all the different Chinese states.
The lesser nations of Nan and Liang agreed to send representatives, immediately, and, after some skilled negotiation, the great empire of Zhou agreed to do the same. Wu Taiwan remained aloft from the proceedings, denouncing them as treason against the natural order, but few paid much attention to that rogue nation, a husk of what it once was. As the Council of China convened for the first time successfully, and then did so again, the next year, with positive results, and then the year after that, and so on, and so on, it became clear that Emperor Xiao had achieved a great accomplishment.
(+2 Chu Confidence)
Emperor Xiao also commissioned a great palace for the Council of China to meet at, which, by all estimations, will take a long time to build, but when it is done, will be a sight to behold.
However, one cannot go through life with a perfect record. Xiao’s decision to create a Chu Imperial Guard was, to put it flatly, a small disaster. Even as he preached words of unity, he formed the core of the Chu army with fanatics, who were quite confident in their opinion that Chu Chinese were superior to all others. While fanatics have their uses, they rarely convince moderates to join their cause.
(-1 Chu Confidence, -1 Army Training)
Emperor Xiao also ordered expansion northwestward, cutting off future avenues of Zhou growth, much to that nation’s chagrin. Despite his actions, the western barbarians are still quiet. For now…
Military Events
The Thracian War, as it came to be called, was one of a tiny nation, against a monolith. Emperor Constantine wanted to extend Byzantine rule over northern Greece, and by Zeus, he pledged to.
Twenty thousand Byzantine soldiers invaded poor Macedon.
In truth, however, the Macedonians were better prepared that most would have expected. Though their nation was tiny, their army was ten thousand strong, and no less trained than that of the invaders. Initial casualties, at skirmishes against the border, were more or less equal, until the Macedonians began what they considered to be a tactical retreat.
(-2 000 Byzantine Soldiers, -2 000 Macedonian Soldiers)
The so called tactical retreat slowly turned into a rout. When the Macedonians tried to mass their army by their capital of Pella, Byzantine forces goaded them into attacking before they were ready, by striking at lightly-defended Macedonian towns. At the Battle of the Eastern Bush, Macedon suffered a horrible loss.
(-2 000 Byzantine Soldiers, -5 000 Macedonian Soldiers)
Pella was quickly thereafter put under Byzantine banners, and with their capital gone, the Macedonian army fell apart, leaving the Byzantines in full control of Macedon. However, rebels still take a toll.
(-Macedonia as an independent nation, -1 000 Byzantine Soldiers)
Perhaps it was a rumor started by the Macedonian rebels, but Epirus soon was abuzz with the notion that Byzantium intended to continue their westward march. Border clashes took place, but it seemed that for one reason or another, the Byzantines did not intend to march proudly on. The Epirusians took this stay of execution as a great victory, but rumor abounded that the only reason the Byzantines did not proceed with their so-called plans, was because logistics prevented them from doing so.
Those of the nation of Greece, meanwhile, supposedly in a full alliance with Byzantium, greet these proceedings with confusion and worry, and upon the floors of the assemblies, topics ranging from whether Greece should pull out of its alliance, to whether Greece should declare war on Byzantium, are debated.
To the south, a different war brewed, as Cushites invaded Upper Egypt in force. Using a combination of highly effective tactics, the Cushites crushed an Egyptian army, and conquered Meroe.
(-2 000 Cushite Soldiers, -3 000 Upper Egyptian Soldiers)
However, from there, logistics stalled Cush’s advance, along with a failure for their military commanders to consider the presence of an Upper Egyptian fleet of river boats, upon the Nile River.
(-6 Cushite Ships, -1 000 Cushite Soldiers, -1 000 Cushite Royal Guards, -4 Upper Egyptian Ships, -2 000 Upper Egyptian Soldiers)
And so, in an odd series of coincidences, while Upper Egypt’s army was fully and totally defeated, its navy allows Upper Egypt to live for another day. That, and support in the form of supplies from Lower Egypt. However, with the majority of the nation in Cushite hands, it seems that Upper Egypt is on borrowed time.
More interestingly, it remains to be seen what Cush intends to do with its conquered lands…
Assyria declares war on Persia, touching off a massive conflict that became known as Sargon’s War.
(See Spotlight)
With Bengal accepting an armistice, the scholars of India wondered if the Three Princes’ War could still be called as such, now that one of the prime participants had dropped out. The majority of the Indian populace, however, cared little about technicalities.
And so, in the eyes of most, the Three Princes’ War continued to rage.
Ashoka’s three armies, the Army of the Ganges, the Army of the Indus, and the Army of the Deccan, were all given very distinct priorities. The Army of the Deccan, for instance, was ordered to end Simuka’s rebellion, at all costs.
And so, the five thousand men of the Army of the Deccan struck at the rebel pocket. It was only when a concentrated effort was made against the rebels that Ashoka and his commanders truly realized how weak they had been.
The rebellion collapsed like a beautifully orchestrated metaphor. As the Army of the Deccan moved in, slaughtering resistors, and hunting down the leaders of the rebellion, as they tried to flee, the populace under re-imposed Mohenjo-Daro rule greeted the soldiers of the Army of the Deccan warmly, for the most part. They were tired of the chaos of the rebellion, tired of the war, and wanted the peace and prosperity that Ashoka promised.
However, besides any majority, there is a minority. Simuka, and those closest to him continued to resist, moving further and further north, as land slid from their control. Eventually, Simuka was able to slip past Mohenjo-Daro patrols, and escape to Harappa. Isolated pockets of resistance still remain, in central India, and in conquering the rebels, a great toll was taken on the Mohenjo-Daro forces.
(-3 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers)
But still, only fools called the actions of the Army of the Deccan a failure.
With the rebels mostly dealt with, Ashoka turned his gaze to the nation of Harappa, and decreed that the Harappans would be put in their place.
The Harappans, meanwhile, seeing that Bengal had dropped out of their coalition, were afraid of what might happen, if they lost the war. Their prince ordered the army of Harappa to be tripled, and this brought expected results.
(-1 Harappan Army Training)
As the Army of the Indus was brought to bear against Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro commanders noticed something. Their army was outnumbered three to one. The Army of the Indus was better trained than the Harappans, but still, no commander considered three to one good odds.
The Army of the Indus bunkered in, and fortified the regions opposite the Harappan controlled territories, even as messengers were sent across the nation, ordering the Army of the Ganges to rush to their aid.
The Harappans knew that once the Army of the Ganges arrived in the region, any further offensive they mounted would be doomed. And so, while the Army of the Indus waited for their brethren to arrive, the Harappans struck.
Slaughter ensued.
The commander of the Army of the Indus ordered a tactical retreat, even as his troops killed as many Harappans as they could, even as the Harappans’ nearly overwhelming numbers struck Mohenjo-Daro defensive lines.
(-4 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers, -5 000 Harappan Soldiers)
As Mohenjo-Daro forces were pushed back, west, across the Chenab River, and south, across the plains, Harappan forces began to celebrate victory. They did this a little too early, it seemed.
When the Army of the Ganges finally arrived, and linked up with the remnants of the Army of the Indus, the Harappans realized their folly. They were overextended, and now facing a pair of armies that outnumbered them. And so, it was the Harappans who began to retreat.
In short order, using flanking maneuvers to devastating effect, the Mohenjo-Daro armies evicted the Harappans from their territory, recaptured the trading center of Ludhiana, and pressed onwards into native Harappan soil.
The Harappans still hold the regions between the Chenab and the Satlej rivers, but it seems their time is running out.
(-4 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers, -6 000 Harappan Soldiers)
A series of events, however, stopped Ashoka from claiming total victory. In the east, in the Bengali areas occupied by the Mohenjo-Daro until the inevitable treaty, the disappearance of the Army of the Ganges all but invited rebellions.
Rebellions engulfed the occupied lands, even as what few Mohenjo-Daro forces that remained failed to suppress them.
(-1 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers)
The Bengali prince swears he does not fund the rebellions, but Ashoka is not so sure.
Random Events
None.
Domestic Events
It hath begun.
What hath begun? There are many answers to this, some more direct than others. An obvious answer to this question, is that 1 AD marks the first year of the new Roman calendar, the calendar of Anno Domini, created to honor Rome’s great success against the dead nation of Carthage, and more than that, created to honor the Roman god Jupiter, king over all of the divine. 1 AD is indeed the first year of the Roman calendar, that even now spreads in use across the Mediterranean, and further, to the Levant, and beyond
But to be satisfied with that answer, one would have to be shallow indeed. For more than just a new calendar has begun. Across the Mediterranean, indeed, across the world, something is happening. It is as if the people of the earth are coming alive again, as if their flame to live is rekindled.
War will stalk this earth, war with a fiery passion, and thousands, if not more, of innocent and evil alike, will be snuffed out, extinguished. But there will be happiness, as well, as empires are built to last for a hundred generations, and more, empires that will feed the hungry, and clothe the helpless.
And this story, one that will take centuries to tell, begins in a land that knows little of philosophy, or fate, or destiny. It begins in Gaul, a barbaric nation that seeks little but plunder.
Gaul, little more than a collection of tribes under the banner of a supreme chieftain, looses their leader. Brennus, the man who had once been great enough to unite a nation behind him, dies in a hunt. His successor tries to keep the nation together, but Gaul is slowly falling into an even greater level of tribalism than before. Without strong leadership, it seems that Gaul will disintegrate.
Iberia, perhaps due to the fact that the Gaul threat is becoming less and less of a fear, is calm, and quiet. Lusitania and Barcelona meander on, untouched by war, naïve…
Meanwhile, Icosium does much of the same. Icosium was forged with violent roots, by those angry with Carthage’s failings. However, Icosium is falling into the mold of its predecessor state, becoming ever more mercantile, much to the anger of the radicals.
And now, we come to Rome. Rome, the most powerful nation in the world. Rome, the city that conquered itself an empire. Here, in this most vibrant of nations, the senate commissions a new type of soldier: the Roman Legionnaire. They are largely considered elite, and the best of the best. However, as Rome massively expands its army, training suffers.
(-1 Army Training)
Rome also begins to encourage its merchants to focus their trade westward. There are a number of speculations why this is occurring, some of them quite benign, but not all of them pleasant…
In Greece, the Republicans in control of the Senate pass a variety of measures, one of which builds universities throughout the nation, and another of which quadruples the size of the army. The newly enlightened population wonders what the point of the military buildup is, as all the nations surrounding Greece are de facto allies, but the questions have been dealt with for now, by an official statement that the army must be bigger, for Greece to have prestige in the world. The army, massively expanded, is a poorly trained wreck, but it is prestigious. How odd.
(-1 Army Training)
Byzantium celebrates a great diplomatic success, as it formalizes the Hellenic Alliance with Greece. However, soon after that treaty was signed, the old monarch of Byzantium died, and his son, the Emperor Constantine I, takes power.
Constantine I is a dark and mysterious man, with shadowy comings and goings, but his first moves as ruler of Byzantium are domestic, and quite straight-forward. To better assimilate the newly conquered territories of former Hatti, in Anatolia, Constantine declares that all religions should be tolerated, and revered. He orders his priests to find the underlying similarities between Greek and Hittite Polytheisms. The decree actually goes along rather well, and Byzantium is all the better for it.
(+1 Culture)
The army is also drastically grown.
(-1 Military Training)
Constantine I, despite his primarily peaceful successes in his early years, as Emperor, always schemed for more. And so, in a speech outlining his dream of Thracian freedom (under a Byzantine yolk, of course, for their own good), Constantine declared war on Macedonia.
(See Military Events)
South, in Phoenicia, the newly reborn oligarchic nation does not get off to a good start. Prominent nationalists start being assassinated, and the lords of the nation begin to become paranoid, each blaming the next for the goings on, even as the body count continues to rise. The oligarchs who remain start to isolate themselves, hiding away in their estates, which proves an effective way to keep themselves from getting killed, but the people of Phoenicia do not appreciate how out of touch their leaders are becoming with both affairs of state, and the nation’s own people.
(-1 Culture, -1 Confidence, -1 Leadership)
Meanwhile, as the Phoenician leaders become more and more preoccupied with keeping themselves from getting killed, rumors start to spread, of invasion from Assyria, or Israel, or both. Neither invasion materializes, but public sympathy begins to sway in the direction of the third nation that borders Phoenicia: Byzantium. Out of power Phoenician aristocrats, aristocrats clearly in league with the interests of Emperor Constantine I, but Phoenicians nevertheless, use the opportunity to try to size power.
The Phoenician oligarchs, who hid themselves away on their estates to keep themselves from getting killed, come to the awkward realizations that in their haste to protect their own lives, and accuse each other, they failed to see the conspiracy around them.
One of the oligarchs, Hiram, takes the lead from his fellows, and starkly declares that all the unrest is Byzantium’s doing, which by now, to even the slightly informed citizen, is clearly true. However, such is the confused state of things in Phoenicia, that not all care. Clashes occur between the Hiramites, and the Byzantine sympathizers, clashes that threaten to plunge the nation into civil war.
Expecting a full blown Byzantine invasion, and worrying that what remained of his power would not last long, Hiram abolished the confusing system of the oligarchs, and declared himself King of Phoenicia. He consolidated his power, violently, executing all prominent Byzantine sympathizers who did not have the time to flee to said nation, and, in so doing, recovered some vestiges of national pride.
(+1 Phoenician Confidence)
Hiram then waited for what he considered to be an inevitable Byzantine invasion, but it never materialized. It seemed that Emperor Constantine I was too preoccupied with Thracian matters…
And now, to contrast, we come to a much more stable nation. Israel. In sharp comparison to Emperor Constantine I, the Hebrew monarch, King David II, is a weak, fat man, more interested in his court, than on such things as the fate of the nation, and the world.
However, those who pull his strings, those of the Hebrew priesthood, are more powerful than ever before. Under their direction, Israel focuses its efforts eastwards, at the tribes of Arabia. The tribes, especially those closest to Jerusalem, already mostly Jewish, are very conducive to good relations with the Hebrew throne. While not willing to be subject to direct Israeli rule, many chieftains, in a sign of homage, agree to support Israel, if a war comes.
King David grows his army, but besides that, things in Israel are quiet.
(-1 Military Training)
Quiet is the last word to describe the lands of the Nile, sadly. Tantamani, King of Cush, is, unlike most of the rulers of the day, a very straightforward man. He wanted an empire, and so he decided to forge one. With iron and blood, of course. And so, Tantamani raised a huge army, and invaded Upper Egypt, beginning the War of the Nile.
(-1 Military Training)
(See Military Events)
Further east, in Assyria, a radical king named Sargon takes the throne. Assyria was always very militant, but Sargon stirs up the war hawks even more, by massing an army five times greater than the one Assyria had before. This action, coupled with the fact that the growing army is filled with vagabonds and fanatics, causes many Persians, in their nation to the east, and indeed, some moderate Assyrian lords, to begin calling him Sargon the Mad.
(-1 Assyrian Army Training)
In Persia, there is general unrest, which seems a portent of what is to come…
Of course, portents don’t really compare to the situation in India. On the subcontinent, chaos is already a fact of life. The Three Princes’ War has raged for decades, decades in which the nation of Mohenjo-Daro has been embroiled in a bitter, indecisive war against Bengal, Harappa, and, more recently, a massive uprising with its own interior.
As the massive uprising, lead by a man named Simuka, did nothing but grow in size and strength, it was predicted by some that the great Mohenjo-Daro were all but defeated. However, even as Simuka’s rebels wreaked havoc, a prince named Ashoka rose to power in Mohenjo-Daro.
And he vowed that Mohenjo-Daro would win its war, win its war, and move on, to greater glory.
Ashoka reformed the military, organizing it into three distinct armies, and removing incompetent officials from their posts. He then ordered a variety of propaganda to be distributed, that promised that after Mohenjo-Daro won its war, there would be a great era of prosperity. This might well have had been greeted with skepticism by the peasants, had not Ashoka achieved a great diplomatic victory.
He convinced the prince of Bengal to sign an armistice, with real agreements as to what was to become of the Mohenjo-Daro occupied parts of Bengal to occur at a later date.
The Bengalis expected a trick, and generally were quite angry at their leader for allowing such an agreement to take place, but Mohenjo-Daro citizens started to believe Ashoka’s propaganda, in earnest.
(-1 Bengali Confidence, +1 Mohenjo-Daro Confidence)
Meanwhile, the loosely incorporated Burmese territories of Bengal fall from its grasp.
Cambodia, as per the status quo of its hundreds of years of existence, does nothing interesting.
And now, we come to China. The Middle Kingdom. The sadly fragmented Middle Kingdom, which has not been joined together by a single, stable dynasty, for centuries now.
However, as with many places in these tumultuous decades, China is undergoing a time of change. Change that, one man hopes, will bring unity.
That man’s name is Emperor Xiao. Emperor Xiao of the Chu Dynasty, named after the legendary Xia of ages past.
Emperor Xiao came to power at age 36, already an older man, upon his ascension to the throne. He was not a warrior, but he was a cunning diplomat. And, as any emperor, his first and foremost wish was to reunite China under his banner.
And, instead of doing this through war, he intended to do this through peace. Emperor Xiao decreed that a Council of China was to be formed, in Shanghai, with representatives from all the different Chinese states.
The lesser nations of Nan and Liang agreed to send representatives, immediately, and, after some skilled negotiation, the great empire of Zhou agreed to do the same. Wu Taiwan remained aloft from the proceedings, denouncing them as treason against the natural order, but few paid much attention to that rogue nation, a husk of what it once was. As the Council of China convened for the first time successfully, and then did so again, the next year, with positive results, and then the year after that, and so on, and so on, it became clear that Emperor Xiao had achieved a great accomplishment.
(+2 Chu Confidence)
Emperor Xiao also commissioned a great palace for the Council of China to meet at, which, by all estimations, will take a long time to build, but when it is done, will be a sight to behold.
However, one cannot go through life with a perfect record. Xiao’s decision to create a Chu Imperial Guard was, to put it flatly, a small disaster. Even as he preached words of unity, he formed the core of the Chu army with fanatics, who were quite confident in their opinion that Chu Chinese were superior to all others. While fanatics have their uses, they rarely convince moderates to join their cause.
(-1 Chu Confidence, -1 Army Training)
Emperor Xiao also ordered expansion northwestward, cutting off future avenues of Zhou growth, much to that nation’s chagrin. Despite his actions, the western barbarians are still quiet. For now…
Military Events
The Thracian War, as it came to be called, was one of a tiny nation, against a monolith. Emperor Constantine wanted to extend Byzantine rule over northern Greece, and by Zeus, he pledged to.
Twenty thousand Byzantine soldiers invaded poor Macedon.
In truth, however, the Macedonians were better prepared that most would have expected. Though their nation was tiny, their army was ten thousand strong, and no less trained than that of the invaders. Initial casualties, at skirmishes against the border, were more or less equal, until the Macedonians began what they considered to be a tactical retreat.
(-2 000 Byzantine Soldiers, -2 000 Macedonian Soldiers)
The so called tactical retreat slowly turned into a rout. When the Macedonians tried to mass their army by their capital of Pella, Byzantine forces goaded them into attacking before they were ready, by striking at lightly-defended Macedonian towns. At the Battle of the Eastern Bush, Macedon suffered a horrible loss.
(-2 000 Byzantine Soldiers, -5 000 Macedonian Soldiers)
Pella was quickly thereafter put under Byzantine banners, and with their capital gone, the Macedonian army fell apart, leaving the Byzantines in full control of Macedon. However, rebels still take a toll.
(-Macedonia as an independent nation, -1 000 Byzantine Soldiers)
Perhaps it was a rumor started by the Macedonian rebels, but Epirus soon was abuzz with the notion that Byzantium intended to continue their westward march. Border clashes took place, but it seemed that for one reason or another, the Byzantines did not intend to march proudly on. The Epirusians took this stay of execution as a great victory, but rumor abounded that the only reason the Byzantines did not proceed with their so-called plans, was because logistics prevented them from doing so.
Those of the nation of Greece, meanwhile, supposedly in a full alliance with Byzantium, greet these proceedings with confusion and worry, and upon the floors of the assemblies, topics ranging from whether Greece should pull out of its alliance, to whether Greece should declare war on Byzantium, are debated.
To the south, a different war brewed, as Cushites invaded Upper Egypt in force. Using a combination of highly effective tactics, the Cushites crushed an Egyptian army, and conquered Meroe.
(-2 000 Cushite Soldiers, -3 000 Upper Egyptian Soldiers)
However, from there, logistics stalled Cush’s advance, along with a failure for their military commanders to consider the presence of an Upper Egyptian fleet of river boats, upon the Nile River.
(-6 Cushite Ships, -1 000 Cushite Soldiers, -1 000 Cushite Royal Guards, -4 Upper Egyptian Ships, -2 000 Upper Egyptian Soldiers)
And so, in an odd series of coincidences, while Upper Egypt’s army was fully and totally defeated, its navy allows Upper Egypt to live for another day. That, and support in the form of supplies from Lower Egypt. However, with the majority of the nation in Cushite hands, it seems that Upper Egypt is on borrowed time.
More interestingly, it remains to be seen what Cush intends to do with its conquered lands…
Assyria declares war on Persia, touching off a massive conflict that became known as Sargon’s War.
(See Spotlight)
With Bengal accepting an armistice, the scholars of India wondered if the Three Princes’ War could still be called as such, now that one of the prime participants had dropped out. The majority of the Indian populace, however, cared little about technicalities.
And so, in the eyes of most, the Three Princes’ War continued to rage.
Ashoka’s three armies, the Army of the Ganges, the Army of the Indus, and the Army of the Deccan, were all given very distinct priorities. The Army of the Deccan, for instance, was ordered to end Simuka’s rebellion, at all costs.
And so, the five thousand men of the Army of the Deccan struck at the rebel pocket. It was only when a concentrated effort was made against the rebels that Ashoka and his commanders truly realized how weak they had been.
The rebellion collapsed like a beautifully orchestrated metaphor. As the Army of the Deccan moved in, slaughtering resistors, and hunting down the leaders of the rebellion, as they tried to flee, the populace under re-imposed Mohenjo-Daro rule greeted the soldiers of the Army of the Deccan warmly, for the most part. They were tired of the chaos of the rebellion, tired of the war, and wanted the peace and prosperity that Ashoka promised.
However, besides any majority, there is a minority. Simuka, and those closest to him continued to resist, moving further and further north, as land slid from their control. Eventually, Simuka was able to slip past Mohenjo-Daro patrols, and escape to Harappa. Isolated pockets of resistance still remain, in central India, and in conquering the rebels, a great toll was taken on the Mohenjo-Daro forces.
(-3 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers)
But still, only fools called the actions of the Army of the Deccan a failure.
With the rebels mostly dealt with, Ashoka turned his gaze to the nation of Harappa, and decreed that the Harappans would be put in their place.
The Harappans, meanwhile, seeing that Bengal had dropped out of their coalition, were afraid of what might happen, if they lost the war. Their prince ordered the army of Harappa to be tripled, and this brought expected results.
(-1 Harappan Army Training)
As the Army of the Indus was brought to bear against Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro commanders noticed something. Their army was outnumbered three to one. The Army of the Indus was better trained than the Harappans, but still, no commander considered three to one good odds.
The Army of the Indus bunkered in, and fortified the regions opposite the Harappan controlled territories, even as messengers were sent across the nation, ordering the Army of the Ganges to rush to their aid.
The Harappans knew that once the Army of the Ganges arrived in the region, any further offensive they mounted would be doomed. And so, while the Army of the Indus waited for their brethren to arrive, the Harappans struck.
Slaughter ensued.
The commander of the Army of the Indus ordered a tactical retreat, even as his troops killed as many Harappans as they could, even as the Harappans’ nearly overwhelming numbers struck Mohenjo-Daro defensive lines.
(-4 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers, -5 000 Harappan Soldiers)
As Mohenjo-Daro forces were pushed back, west, across the Chenab River, and south, across the plains, Harappan forces began to celebrate victory. They did this a little too early, it seemed.
When the Army of the Ganges finally arrived, and linked up with the remnants of the Army of the Indus, the Harappans realized their folly. They were overextended, and now facing a pair of armies that outnumbered them. And so, it was the Harappans who began to retreat.
In short order, using flanking maneuvers to devastating effect, the Mohenjo-Daro armies evicted the Harappans from their territory, recaptured the trading center of Ludhiana, and pressed onwards into native Harappan soil.
The Harappans still hold the regions between the Chenab and the Satlej rivers, but it seems their time is running out.
(-4 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers, -6 000 Harappan Soldiers)
A series of events, however, stopped Ashoka from claiming total victory. In the east, in the Bengali areas occupied by the Mohenjo-Daro until the inevitable treaty, the disappearance of the Army of the Ganges all but invited rebellions.
Rebellions engulfed the occupied lands, even as what few Mohenjo-Daro forces that remained failed to suppress them.
(-1 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers)
The Bengali prince swears he does not fund the rebellions, but Ashoka is not so sure.
Random Events
None.
.
