How we learned to love the Panzer

I approached CivIII with the intention to start out at a relatively challenging level and play until i win one. For me this meant starting out at Regent and playing each game to the bitter (or otherwise) end. Civ has always been an exercise of the imagination for me. Doomed last stands, particularly from my early CivI games, are often as valued in my memory as warmly as some of the greatest victories.

In the first few games of a new Civ release the world hasn't yet sunk into a predictable cycle. You make stupid mistakes. Built units that turn out to be of little use. Research the wrong things. Try to guess which wonders will be the most important. Just like life.

You plunge in with no pre-conceptions. The world is new. Anything can happen.

I played my first few CivI games at Prince and suffered quite a few maulings. I played my first CivII game at King and strangely eeked out a space victory at the very end. That must have got me overly confident because I lost my next one.

At last I'm posting an account of my first CivIII game. It took a good three weeks to play, and another week to flesh out this history which I sketched while going along. (You get married, get a full time job, and you just can't play these things like you once did.)

So here it is. I played at Regent. 8 civs. Normal map with default settings. Restless barbs.

P.S.
must be the Germans inspire creativity. Sure are a lot of German tales here.

Early Years
or
A small and backward nation

In the beginning we could little imagine what the world had waiting for us. We were a tiny band of settlers on the great Dortmunder flats, south of the Desert of Death, west of the Black Forest. Our leader, Herr Heffalump, found the land fruitful and so we settled there, our tiny encampment eventually growing into the town of Berlin.

In those early years we were content with our lot and did little more than explore the neighboring lands with our warriors, and research such secrets as the wheel, and pottery. Life was peaceful and simple, although a bit crude. We would in those years sometimes lose thousands of our people to strange diseases which swept over us. However our military explored much of the continent around us and by approximately 3000 BC Berlin had grown enough that settlers could be dispatched to found a new city.

Then, to the northeast of us, our forces stumbled across the city of Orleans and met the French. A strange and rather shifty people with an air of haughty superiority. Despite initial impressions however they turned out to be polite and peace was immediately established between our nations. It is now not without some shame that I admit how impressed we were with the span of their great empire. Already they had several cities and were rapidly expanding in the direction of Berlin.

Herr Heffalump, in council with his advisors, decided we needed to contain this sprawling competitor in order to protect our lands. So the first settlers from Berlin were dispatched to the far north. They would found a city to mark the borders of the German empire. In the future we would settle the lands they had bypassed.

We were not a great power and historians would later document just how far we were behind the world. In 1050 BC we had 3 cities. The French six. The faraway Aztec empire, eight.

Our slow growth resulted from a mix of circumstances. In order to contain French growth Herr Heffalump had sent our settlers on a long journey to the north. The town of Leipzig, founded 2150 BC, lay nestled in a valley ringed by moutains and hills. The site was chosen both to contain the French and to provide access to what scouts had reported were wild horses. (Herr Heffalump, on the advice of his seers, hoped to tame these beasts and use them in methods of war-making. Roads were build to the valley of horses to provide easy transportation to the town market. Still however no progress was being made in new weapons! So Heffalump made a journey north himself to have a personal look. Strange, fat spotted beasts. Cattle! Arrghhh) Growth was slow and in the early years the accessible terrain was not particularly fertile.

Growth was also initially slow in the new town on Munich, founded in 2030 BC. This town lay just north of the Desert of Death and just southwest of French Orleans(2). Heffalump ordered it heavily fortified, and fretted over the cultural influence of nearby Orleans where the people had erected temples and spent their days lying around in the sun, sipping Beaujolais. Instead of settlers Heffalump ordered a temple built and hoped the fine German art of beer brewing would take off.

The locations of these two towns were sometimes regarded as mistakes by the German government. Particularly Leipzig. The slow growth ensured the inevitability that Berlin must provide not only the settlers for the 2nd and 3rd cities, but also the 4th and 5th. The continued depletion of population disrupted our efforts at science and industry. The sages who came and made studies in our lands told us we were backward. Told us we were weak. Told us we were few in number.

The destruction of a Celt encampment by our forces in 950 BC allowed westward expansion. Potsdam 850 BC and Hamburg 230 BC were the results. Hamburg brought with it a valuable resource: horses. At last Heffalump had his mounted units! Both of these cities grew well and added some life to the empire outside of Berlin.

By 100 BC our form of government had evolved into a monarchy, with King Heffalump as our leader and savior.

300 A.D.
Our empire, minus Leipzig. A tale of poorly placed cities.

Place holder spot for image

Hanging Gardens, and Persians
or,
The German Sandwich

The founding of Konigsburg solidified our border in the north with France. We turned our attention south. Our explorations had turned up a source of iron in as of yet unclaimed lands. In this area the town of Wien was founded in the year 400 AD. The lands around Wien were highly suited for farming but lacked easy access to fresh water. Irrigation was a problem and the city stagnated for many years.

It was around this time we discovered Persians in the south of our continent. Since our last explorations there a 1000 years before the Persians had founded two towns: Gordium(2) and Tarsus(1). Later, further to the south, we would also find the town of Bactra(3). Despite Heffalump's anger at finding foreigners on lands rightfully German a peace treaty was agreed upon and we gave them the secrets to monarchy in exchange for Code of Laws.

These were not good years for the empire and reminders of our relative weakness were thrust upon us year after year. Our efforts to build a great library and other wonders were continually frustrated as other nations beat us in constructing these marvels. Our one success, Hanging Gardens (built in Berlin in 410 AD) was soon eclipsed by other accomplishments in more distant lands. Both Persia and France now treated us with (polite) disdain and disrespect. Our perceived lack of culture manifested itself in all our encounters.

By 660, in the year we founded Lubeck on the island of Juist, our empire seemed to be fulfilling a disappointing destiny. In the north and south our borders had met their limits.

We were a minor state caught between France and Persia. And we were going nowhere.

Revolution and the Battle of Augsburg
or,
Go south young man

A survey conducted in later years by historians would reveal that in 1000 AD we had 8 cities. In comparison at this time the French had 13, England 15, America 14, Zululand 12 and the Aztec 13. Even the relatively weak Persians had 8 to 10 cities in this era.

Our monarchy was overthrown in 780 and the German nation sank into anarchy and famine. We suffered for 50 long years -- a time when bandits roamed the land and trade and harvests were greatly disrupted. At last in 830 a congress of town elders from the German cities gathered in Berlin and a new form of government was devised: a republic.

This new form of governance proved beneficial for Germany. Industrial and scientific output skyrocketed. The coffers were full, allowing us to build and maintain numerous additional improvements throughout our cities and towns.

But the need for Lebensraum could not be denied. Chancellor Heffalump was determined to secure it at the expense of the Persians who were not native to the continent, and whose presence was unwelcome. We readied our small military for a quick and, hopefully, decisive campaign in the south. Our targets were Tarsus and Gordium.

In 1120 the campaign began as 2 swordsmen corps, 1 troop of archers, and 2 pikemen corps crossed the border. We surrounded Tarsus(3) and attacked. In the bloody battle that followed both of our swordsmen corps were destroyed, but the archers overcame a decimated enemy defense and the town fell our hands. Heffalump greeted the great German victory by ordering the heathen city re-christened as Augsburg.

Persia counterattacked by landing troops of Immortals and Warriors by Konigsburg. The attack was beaten off and the enemy driven into the sea.

We replenished our offensive force with reinforcements and in 1240 had surrounded Gordium with 6 swordsmen corps and with pikemen in support. We lost 3000 men in the assault. However our force of arms carried the day and Gordium's garrison collapsed. The town was ours. Our victory complete, the Chancellor contacted Xerses of the Persians and we agreed to peace. For the Persians it was a bitter loss.

The two new towns were of great benefit to Germany. Aside from the land and commerce they brought with them access to resources of silk in three separate locations. The silk was a valuable trading commodity and of immense benefit to us in negotiations.

We were still a small nation, and slightly backward scientifically. But we had proven ourselves on the field of battle. Germany was made of steel.

First Franco-German War
or,
How we lost our beloved Leipzig

In 1350 an event occurred which was to forever change German/French relations. A revolt broke out in Leipzig, the governor was deposed, and the strong cultural lure of neigboring France asserted itself. The city of Leipzig, the second-oldest and third-largest in the nation, fell into French hands and the northern neck of Germany was cut off. Negotiations were immediately opened with Joan d'Arc but previously polite Joan was suddenly aloof and full of herself with arrogant pride. She declined our requests to return the city. Diplomacy failed.

Chancellor Heffalump ordered general preprations for war. In the cities people lined the streets and cheered as their soldiers marched north. By 1420 an invasion force assembled from around the Reich had gathered in Munich and set off for the borderlands: 7 Knight orders, 14 swordsment corps, 11 pikemen corps and a mobile force of catapults. Our ambassador again made demands for the return of Leipzig(8). France refused and the very next day the German forces poured over the border.

Ingtelligence reports had revealed the captured German city was heavily defended with new French musketeer units. Rather than risk a frontal assault (and waste valued units) the forces settled in on the mountains & hills surrounding Leipzig. The long siege began. Meanwhile the bulk of the invasion force hit further to the east ..... at the huge city of Orleans(12) which pre-war intelligence reports had shown to be poorly defended. Almost immediately Orleans fell. Heffalump ordered the city razed and large numbers of captured French workers were shipped deep into Germany, along with catapults. This great victory was tempered by a loss. Our expeditionary force sent from Lubeck towards Amiens aboard a fleet of caravels was caught out on the open sea by French naval forces and sunk with heavy loss of life.

For twenty years the flames of war burned across the land, with our brave German knights and pikemen generally getting the better of the French longbow and spearmen forces. French losses were huge and the mighty German forces steadily advanced the front, but we couldn't penetrate the musketeer-guarded cities. Heffalump ordered a push towards the saltpeter resources that lay northeast of where Orleans had formerly stood. At last, after a vicious battle with many casualties on both sides, the saltpeter deposits were captured. To secure them for Germany the Chancellor ordered the city of Kriegstadt to be built directly atop the saltpeter. We fortified it with our best men.

Losing the sole source of saltpeter on the continent seemed to demoralize the spineless French. Joan d'Arc sued for peace in 1455. Our loyal Chancellor reluctantly agreed. German resolve for the war had weakened. In the streets there were riots. Food was short. Trade was crippled. Great resources needed to keep the people happy were causing famine conditions in Konigsburg and Potsdam.

So it ended. Leipzig remained in French hands.

1420 AD
On the eve of First Franco-German War. Near Leipzig

Second Franco-German War
or,
"The new cannon can't hit musketeers worth %&@# Herr Chancellor, but they sure take out their libraries!"

The following one hundred years were relatively uneventful and characterized by slow but steady economic growth, and a deepening of trade links with the outside world. In 1495 new saltpeter deposits were discovered on the French side of the border, near Reims, and France was able to resume the building of modern, gunpowder units.

The expanding cultural & military power of France greatly alarmed Heffalump and his generals. Eventually a decision was made to strike at France before her power became to great to resist. The immediate target of this assault would be the new saltpeter deposits just on the other side of the border near Rheims, Rheims itself, and of course the festering wound of Leipzig.

Our assault begain in 1550 with a surprise attack on Rheims(11) spearheaded by a large mixed force of calvary and musketeers accompanied by a battery of the newly invented cannons. Another large force, again accompanied by several batteries of cannon, fortified itself in the mountains and hills ringing Leipzig. Smaller forces were sent deep into France to pillage and cut supply lines.

The decadent and self-serving French counterattacked with unexpected ferocity. A large corp of French longbowmen and riflemen recaptured the saltpeter mines. In a great battle they wiped out the heart of our invasion force: over 8 divisions. Only our cannon battery and musketeers entrenched in the hills over Rheims survived the assault. Further north, swarms of enemy divisions surrounded Kriegstadt. Multiple assaults were fought off but only with the help of quickly rushed reinforcements. A general, Barbarossa, came to prominence during these battles, and during a break in the fighting Heffalump ordered him to return to Munich to lead a great German army. To lead a great German army to victory.

But by 1580 the situation was deteriorationg for Germany. French units attacked and pillaged around the cities of Kriegstadt, Munich, Berlin Konigsburg and Lubeck. By 1590 the corridor between Munich and Kriegstadt was closed by French forces. Shortly thereafter the French launched a MASSIVE attack on Kriegstadt, expending 10 full divisions of longbowmen in a prolonged assault. Again the city held but defenses were weakening. In the face of these terrible blows we came to realize that all hopes of taking Leipzig and Rheims was lost. The generals counciled Herr Heffalump to lift the sieges at Rheims and Leipzig. To abandon our fortified positions in the mountains around these cities and redistribute the forces to fend off French assaults. But Heffalump would have none of it. The new cannon had proved ineffective and weakening fortified enemy troops but much better at destroying city improvements and killing inhabitants. If Rheims and Leipzig could not be taken ..... they were to be destroyed. If we could not have Leipzig, neither would the French! German batteries remained on mountains overlooking the cities, heavily fortifed, firing day and night into the vulnerable cities below.

By 1605 the end was near for our defiant Kriegstadt. Hopelessly outnumbered, and down the last defending unit, negotiations were opened by Heffalump with the English who subsequently intervened and purchased the city for a handsome price in gold and science. The English were a great power, exceeded only by the Aztec people in influence, but their continent was faraway and Heffalump judged their presence to be of little trouble. The French, unwilling to risk war with the English, lifted their siege. Kriegstadt was to be English.

The war played itself out with consolatory two victories for our battered troops. In 1630 a massive French assault on Munich was repulsed by the Great 1st Army under Barbarossa. In the swirling battles approximately two dozen French divisions were destroyed, and for the first time in decades no new invasion force came to replace them. The French were drained. In later years a Great Epic was to be written about this victory that would forever remain a part of German cultural lore.

Finally in 1635 a German expeditionary force captured the French town of Cherbourg(2) at the southern tip of the continent, thus leaving only two towns on the southern continent outside of German control: the Zulu Swazi(1) and the Persian Bactra(5). Cherbourg brought with it a second source of iron supplies for the German empire. In 1640 a stalemated war came to end with the agreement of peace terms. We had lost Kriegstadt and with it our saltpeter supply. The French lost Cherbourg and saw two of their cities reduced to the size of small towns.

Persian Adventure, French Treachery

The following seventy years were characterized by slow but steady development of population and influence. A wide array of trade deals were worked out with the English, Russians and Zulu. In exchange for excess German wine and silks these trades brought incense, gems and spices to our lands for the first time. And from the English came saltpeter. Heffalump ordered resources devoted to the development of civic improvements: cathedrals, banks and universities sprang up in the cities that lacked them. A military academy was established in Munich. This city, and neighboring Konigsburg, were the center of German industry. By the 1780s both were leading the evolution of German manufacturing with a new improvement known as the factory.

Meanwhile, trouble was brewing abroad. In 1766 the Zulu, Frech and Russians went to war against England. The mighty English quickly began liquidating the weak Russian empire. But then the Franco-Russo alliance was joined by the Aztecs and the tide of battle turned against England as her cities fell. The Persians unwisely chose to cast their lot with the English. Only Germany and the tiny American civilization remained disentangled.

In 1770 the French got their first victory with capture of Kriegstadt from the English. Meanwhile, Joan of Arc and the Persian leader contacted Heffalump and requested rights of passage. With their forces on opposing ends of the continent both needed to cross German territory to attack the other. Heffalump denied the requests, but chose not to expel enemy forces when they crossed into German territory. "Let them maul each other!" he declared.

The influence of passing Persian troops was never determined but in 1786 the German (formerly Persian) city of Gordium(6) revolted and fell under Persian control. The event shifted the national borders uncomfortably north and left the small town of Augsburg dangling at the tip of the suddenly vulnerable German south. The situation was untenable and Heffalump ordered general preparations for war.

In 1792 the French and Persian expeditionary forces met just outside of Hamburg. The French, numerically superior, routed the Persian force. This did not go unnoticed by Heffalump or his generals and German forces were soon arrayed along the southern border to take advantage of Persian weakness. In a short but decisive campaign the towns of Gordium(5) and Swazi(2) were captured. The fall of the last Persian town on the continent, Bactra(5), would take another 20 years but with that victory the entire south of the continent fell under German control for the first time. Persia would never return.

The reaction of the French court to Persian defeat was not one of pleasure ... contrary to Heffalump's expectations. A large contingent of French forces remained outside of Hamburg. When Heffalump politely asked for them to return to their beloved France, Joan had one reaction: WAR. And so it began. In such a surprising and treacherous manner: the Third Franco-German War.

From the start the war waged without enthusiasm by our people. Deep in our own homeland and on the defensive, the best Germany could hope for was to hold territory and cities. Cities we managed to hold thanks to the weak offensive technology of the day. Calvary and longbowmen were no match for our infantry fortified in cities!

French military expenditures in the failed 20 year siege of Hamburg were enormous. However the situation worked against the Germany as well. Calvary attacks against pillaging enemy infantry were sometimes unsuccessful, always costly. The only city to change hands during the war was Amiens(2), a small tundra town sharing the same island as Lubeck. Elsewhere the French had numerical superiority and soon controlled wide swathes of eastern and central German territory. Irrigation was torn up, mines destroyed, roads made unusable. The damage was enormous. Germany was suffering.

After years of fruitless warfare the French attack spent itself and in 1816 Joan the Tramp and Chancellor Heffalump signed yet another peace treaty; their third. French forces retreated from the land.

We could not forget the long, brutal siege.

1832
Bactra, now German, in the south. And a map of our continent.

Railroads and Reconstruction
The good life

The war ended overseas as well. The Aztecs ended up the decisive victor. They'd overrun over half of the English continent. A dozen cities, both English and Russian (these latter briefly conquered by the English) fell under their control. The peace in that land would not last long and within a couple decades the Aztec and Russians were again at war with the English, gradually capturing English cities and forcing Elizabeth into an ever shrinking pocket of her continent. By 1886 she would be down to 6 cities. For her, the end was near.

South, in Afrika, Shaka and his Zulu resumed their campaigns against the Persians. Persopolis collapsed under Zulu force and soon afterwards so did heart of the Persian homeland. By 1840 the Persian empire was reduced to three island cites south of Germany.

In Germany the peace proved more enduring.

For the first time the entire south of our continent was under German control and there was much to be done around the new cities of Bactra, Gordium and Swazi. Irrigation, mines, road. And of course: railroad. This latest invention was winding across the German homeland as ribbons of track sprang up across the land, linking all the German cities. The railroad brought with it extra productivity. More food. More trade. More resources. Cities blossomed in size. New trade routes renewed the supply of luxuries that had been unavailable during the war. The people celebrated and several long planned expansions of the Chancellor's palace were completed.

Oh how we hailed him. We sung his praises in the streets and hung his portrait in our homes. Our benevolent and wise Chancellor.

All the major cities now had factories. These great enterprises revolutionized German industry and led eventually to a surge of new infrastructure across the land.

So the decades passed in a peaceful, happy blur. A German citizen born in 1835 would live out his life without ever knowing war or riot, anarchy or famine. He would flock to cities like Berlin(23), and along with 2,790,000 other Berliners would know only a soft, comfortable life.

Outside, the world wasn't so pleasant. France and Zululand carried on their war with Persia, and periodically their fleets made appearances off of the south coast of Germany to shell the Persian garrisons in the island cities to the south. The Persian capitol Sidon(1) and another small town were reduced gradually to rubble.

America's last city disappeared under Aztec assault in 1886. London fell to the Aztec in 1908. For England the wounds of war had long been fatal and when her last city was destroyed in 1914 it was no surprise. The English collapse also meant the loss of Germany's source of oil -- a source that had been secured in a trade with the English. Fortunately for Germany in the same year another source of oil was discovered near Hamburg.

The Aztec conquests worried Heffalump greatly for the Aztecs now wielded immense power over two continents and 25+ cities. Aztec power seemed ...... infinite. Infinite in population, land, and military power. Infinite in treachery. The Russians, briefly allied with the Aztec in their campaign against the English, were in turn fallen upon by Aztec calvary. By 1934 the Aztec had wiped Russia off the face of the earth.

Yes my friends, we feared the Aztec.

But their threat remained distant and ill-defined. So we went on with our lives .... comfortably.

Fourth Franco-German War
or,
"But Mother, I don't want to go off to war"

"We weren't ready" would be the refrain in later years. We weren't ready for the strange, lumbering machines that filled our skies and blasted us with bombs. Weren't ready for the hordes of French calvary that burst across the border with terrible force. After so many years of peace, war in 1928 seemed but an unlikely nightmare. Naturally we fought back, but still the enemy came. And they came with their partners -- the foul, backstabbing Zulu.

Again we fell back to our cities, unable to defend and hold territory. Offensively we were at a nadir. Great hopes had been placed in new technology -- great armored machines of awesome firepower. But their deployment was still two decades away. Meanwhile we had no source of saltpeter and thus no means to supplement the half dozen calvary units on hand.

In desperation we opened negotiations with the Aztec. Surprisingly they were quite symathetic to our plight. In return for the secrets of Mass Production,190 gold and wine we received from them an alliance against the French, saltpeter, and incense.

The Aztec did their "duty" and immediately overran two small French towns far overseas. Alas, that was the last we heard of them. Germany was left to fend for itself. With saltpeter .... thankfully.

The Zulu made repeated landings in the south of Germany. In one memorable instance they landed 8 divisions of calvary on the outskirts of Wien. Before they could attack we surrounded them. And massacred them. The fighting was bitter. Maurading French forces wreaked destruction across the land. Our countrymen in Wien and Konigsburg died by the thousands of famine. Rail and road connections were cut. Berlin assaulted.

And then one miserable, rotten war-torn day our 2nd Army penetrated French lines and struck the French city of Chartres(6). It fell with little noise, like wet leaves under boots, and our forces raised the German banner over the city. Heffalump ordered it razed. As punishment for their aggression the entire populace was enslaved and sent deep into the German homeland to repair damages inflicted by the Zulu.

As unexpectedly as it began it ended. Joan, distraught at the loss of her citizens (or maybe the oil fields around Chartres), sued for peace. We must, she told our Chancellor, work for a lasting peace so that these evils don't visit our lands again.

Afer several more years the Zulu too agreed to peace on equal terms in 1946. Once more Germany had survived intact, but once more great damage had been inflicted on the land. Perhaps most importantly, the costs of waging war had delayed our research efforts by nearly two decades.

Blood and Glory
or,
How we learned to love the Panzer

By 1976 the world was much changed. A glorious German republic that had endured a thousand years was consigned to the rubbish heap of history. Revolution tore the land asunder. Anarchy and starvation stalked the land for years until, finally, a grimmer, less forgiving regime came to power. A regime that ended our liberal ideals and placed tanks in our streets. We learned about martial law and forced labor. We learned to suffer.

At the center of it all, cloaked in the usual garments of power was our leader Comrade Heffalump. These new changes are necessary he told us from high podiums. We must first endure before we can prosper. My friends, a great destiny awaits the German nation.

The great war began with a blitzkrieg of PanzerKampfWagens, infantry and artillery into French territory. Luftwaffe flew over our heads on their way to pound the enemy. We have been persecuted by the French for too long Comrade Heffalump declared on the day of the attack. Let us strike a blow for freedom. Freiheit!

Our initial assault was against Rheims(18). Infantry landed from sea on hills behind the city to cut off reinforcements. Our main strike force crossed the border and headed for the target. We might have captured it had not half our planned strike force been mistakenly left out range on the day of the initial assault. Oh the debacle! Attacks by the 3rd and 5th Armys succeeded but we didn't have enough force to take the city. The enemy mobilized and began their counterattack. French tanks tore through our infantry and headed for Berlin. Our assault forces disengaged from Rheims and hit their flanks, destroying them. The next wave of French armor arrived. Again we engaged and destroyed. The pattern repeated. Again and again. The massive armored battles on the plains west of Rheims cost us a half dozen Panzer divisions and drained several more, but we inflicted far worse. By 1980 we regained the initiative and moved towards Rheims(3), now a mostly deserted and destroyed city.

Elsewhere the enemy poured across our northern border near Konigsburg, and the northeast near Munich where we had built great fortifications to protect our rubber supplies. The lessons of all the last wars had been learned and we were ready for them. Fortifications had been built at strategic locations, allowing our offensive forces to attack the enemy flanks when they disengaged from assaulting our cities. Retreating French units never made it back home. Roads and rail leading up to our borders were bombed or shelled into oblivion. Artillery in strongly defended fortifications weakened the enemy as they approached.

At Amiens, on our island of Juist, the enemy landed in force and began an assault on the city. We lost 3 divisions in the defense of that place .. a badly decimated unit of conscripts just barely managed to hold out. Help arrived in the form of Panzers from Lubeck and we drove French forces into the sea.

We took the offensive. The assault on Leipzig by our 4th Army and supporting units was successful and Leipzig(6) once again was ours after 600+ years of French occupation! Leipzig again a German stadt! But only for a day. Comrade Heffalump doubted to the fealty of the populace accustomed so long to French ways. He ordered the citizens sent to labor camps and destroyed the city. A decimated Kriegstadt(1) succumbed to us in that same year, 1982. This city he ordered fortified.

The war was not without losses. A Zulu task force captured the new German colony of Bismarck(4). It lasted for a year under Zulu rule before being captured and destroyed by the Aztec. This faraway place could not be saved.

On the backs of our Panzers we took Rouen(11), just up the coast from Konigsburg. The city was razed. An enemy counterthrust hit our flanks but it was weaker than expected. The German armies marched on, and using a new tactic. Enslaved Frenchmen were sent ahead of task force. As the enemy arrived to liberate them our Panzers fell upon their flanks. In this manner we liquidated their counterattacks.

The war crescendoed to a climax. Our 3rd Army, having captured Rheims, thrust deep into French territory and now found itself and a handful of supporting units outside of Marseilles(15). The 4th Army and also the 5th Army, now on the northern front, arrived on the outskirts of Lyon(20). The battle for both cities was fierce. Numerous French artillery corps in Lyon proved especially damaging to assaulting armored units. Wave after wave of panzers went against the city. The 46th Panzer division. Crippled. Retreated. The 109th. Crippled. The 68th. Destroyed. The 22nd. Crippled. We penetrated the city but at a high cost. 5 drained Panzer divisions and the 5th Army had to be sent back to Germany to re-outfit and replenish. But we won a great victory. Lyon fell. Marseilles fell.

Our great victories broke the back of French power. Two more great cities fallen and razed. And France's supply of rubber came under our control, crippling their industrial production. We brushed away the meager French counterattack and marched on Paris(29) itself. Along the way we captured and razed Bescancon(9). The battle for Paris was preceded by an armored engagement outside the city. We lost the 48th Infantry and 34th Panzer divisions. Then we destroyed their armored column: 3 tanks divisions. It was the last great tank battle of the war. We lay siege to the great city of Paris and after a sharp fight we took it.

Paris was famous throughout the world for its splendor and great achievements, and our comrade Heffalump could not bring himself to destroy it. This great city .. the home of JS Bach's Cathedral. Site of the Hoover Dam. "Let Parisians live in their magnificent city", he ordered, "so long as they do so under the watchful eyes of German socialism". Joan, now fled to less comfortable digs in Tours (22), sued for peace. Desperate to save the remnants of France, she begged for mercy. We obliged her but at the cost of Avignon(6), a city in the far, mountainous north of the continent. Her concession of this city left France with Dijon(2) at the frozen tip of the northern peninsula, and Tours(22) and Grenoble(11) in the south.

Peace proved fleeting. The very next year the Parisians revolted, momentarily throwing off German control and declaring themselves a part of France. Heffalump sent in the Panzers. Paris was recaptured but, again, not razed. Heffalump could not bring himself to do it. Instead he sent the 3rd Army and a detachment of Panzers south ..... and razed Tours(22). Our comrade knew that in all likelihood we would fail in the long run to keep a lid on the rebellious Parisians. So be it. We had all but destroyed their nation now. We'd left their cities in ruin. Pillaged the fields. Enslaved the citizens. The greatness of France exists only in history books.

As one last final insult we demanded Dijon(2) for peace. Joan complied. And so in 1999 we made peace, for the last time, with the French and their Zulu allies.

Let war be behind us. No more grayness and suffering. I'm tired of this uniform. There are new, fertile lands to settle in the conquered territories.....

1996
Our workers toiling in the neue länder of the north. Within 3 years Avignon (and Dijon, to north, not pictured) would also be ceded to us. Also pictured, Leipzig at it's new location, and the new town of Rostock near the old site of Lyon.

Hitting our Stride
or,
How long does it take to build a spaceship, anyway?

The war established Germany as a superpower. The Aztec and German nations stood astride the world like a Colossus. The Zulu, while strong, could not match us. The shattered French huddled in our shadow. The other nations .... just ashes now, my friend.

The Aztec leader, Montezuma, greeted our arrival on the world stage by demanding the secrets of Rocketry as the price for our continued survival. Our leader Heffalump told him to take a fine German wurst and stuff it up his &#$%. Montezuma responded by sending bombers from one of his overseas possessions on the islands west of Germany. We braced for another war. But to our great fortune the Zulu nation, also at war with the Aztec, landed on the western islands and captured them the very next year. We never saw Aztec bombers again. A state of war would exist between our countries for nearly ten more years, but it was a phony war, without military action.

Once more revolution tore through our land. Paris revolted and returned to the French but this time we allowed her to go. Germany was in anarchy. Communism was dead. But at last something good came from the turmoil. A new consitution was written that restored the liberties we had lost nearly 30 years before. In 2006 the land of Germany became a democracy. Our great leader, Heffalump, remained head of state, but power was much devolved now. He had to suffer our whims, our tempermental nature.

The new system of government was hugely productive for us both economically and scientifically. We build SETI in 2009 and finished adding research labs to all our cities except for a few of the very newest. The German armed forces were demobilized and scaled down from 105 divisions to 90, and a few years later to approximately 75 divisions. The 3rd Army was disbanded altogether. For the first time in the history of the world it became clear that the German nation was the leader in scientific research and techonology.

The problem of the French had not gone away, but we dealt with it peacefully. In 2027 Kriegstadt voted to leave the Fatherland and rejoin France. This was allowed to happen without bloodshed, to the credit of both nations. Germany did not fear the development. France was a tiny shell of its former self and comparatively speaking its cultural influence on the world was waning.

In 2028 German achievements continued with the launch of the Apollo mission from Munich. The moonshot heralded the beginning of the space age. Heffalump in recent years had become determined to have Germany realize a destiny in the stars. Nothing less than the colonization of Alpha Centauri was proposed. Despite the success of Apollo this mission seemed like a dream to us. Alpha Centauri? Colonists? To realize this goal no less than 90% of the government's budget was devoted to research, and science was humming along with new advances coming every few years. For the most part our budget was sustained by selling recent advances to the other nations. In 2038 for example we sold Ecology to the Zulu, Aztec and French for the grand total of 1140 gold, spices, and regular payments of 92 gold per turn. Such tactics left us with a hefty treasury and only minor deficits. And by 2038 we'd completed several parts of our great spacecraft: the cockpit, engines, and docking bay.

The future looked bright for Germany. Both in technology and in manufacturing capacity our power exceeded that of our rivals. Our cultural influence was nearing parity with that of France.

Yet for all our progress and prosperity we could not win our race to the stars. Our Chancellor's health failed and he reluctantly announced his impending retirement in 2050. Alpha Centauri would remain, in his life, a dream unrealized.

His last few years have been darkened with the prospect of another long and hard conflict. The Aztec, destroyer of the American, English and Russian empires, now saw Germany as the next conquest. In 2040 Aztec naval groups were sighted in German territorial waters off of Rheims. They retreated when asked but six years later another naval group landed troops near Dijon and our nations went to war. We pulverized their meek force: 3 tank, 3 mechanized, and 2 paratroop divisions. Two years later we pulverized another Aztec force of 8 divisions as it landed by Bremerhafen. Our homeland is secure but the world is lost in war once again.

It is clear that a great campaign is needed to rid the world of Aztec aggression. The barbarous nation has been allowed to grow too powerful. But this great campaign will have to be led by another leader.

Our great chancellor passed from this world in 2050. He left us here alone in this gloomy world. Alone with the Zulu, and with the Aztec.

Whew! That's the story. I didn't win but am pleased that i managed to hold on and finish in decent shape. Had I been a little more disciplined at waging my wars perhaps I wouldn't have run out of time...

The Aztec finished ahead of me, beating me decisively on the histograph. They ended up quite powerful and I was in danger of losing a domination victory to them due to the breadth of territory they controlled.

I finished second, just ahead of the French.

I'm not going to go into a lot of analysis now. But one thing that ended up distracting me in the early game was borders. I was so concerned about getting borders where i wanted them that i made some poor city placement decisions. Not just with Leipzig, but Potsdam and one or two others.

Was quite impressed with the intensity of the AI in wars. I hung on through some of the franco-german wars by the skin of my teeth.

Was continually behind in culture and will have to improve my strategy in that aspect. A large part of the problem though was that I just had fewer cities. Fewer cities = fewer improvements = fewer culture pts. i sure feel like I dawdled with my settlers in the early game.

i'd hoped to get more pictures here but see now that some of my planned screenshots are too large and a %#*& to download on a modem connection (as I am now). Perhaps I shrink a couple that I missed and add them tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed it the story. I enjoyed playing and writing it.

*applause* *whistle*

Great yarn, Herr Heffalump. Magnificent writing. I especialy loved the "Dr. Strangelove" style sub-titles.

I began a new German game this weekend, but nothing spectactular yet. Lots of elite spearmen from fighting barbarians, but no "great swordsman".

I hope you post another story sometime soon. I would love to read it.
-joespaniel

I must really say I admire your writing skills as much as I admire your WARS with the frensh.

BUT most of all I admir that you can do that with a full time JOB and WIFE

I am certain I will enjoy the next story you write

WOW

Incredible story. Also proves the point of civ-specific unit: give a decisive advantage in their era French are uncrackable in the middle-ages, but watch out when your neighbours get those Panzers!

It's one thing I like about this game, the scene can change very rapidly, and the AI is very much improved compared to civ2, and it actually produces naval fleets unlike CTP!

Great writing Heffalump!

I thouroughly enjoyed the story, especially as how you didnt do the reload and restart and kept the writing and theme consistent, good job... maybe Ill put up one myself?