Well, I've just spent the last 3 hrs in an intensive Greek history lesson, I've only looked into ancient and modern parts so far, but the rest may follow. Maybe what I've learnt can add to the debate. The more I read, the more I hope that next month's GOTM is going to be fairly historically acurate. I'd love to try to role play it to a certain extent.
Anyway, from my reading here are some general ideas of what we might see and what strategies might be effective, followed by a bit of history and some further ideas:
- Civs I'd expect: Egypt, Hittites (?), Persians, Ottomans, Romans, Carthage, France, England, Russia
- Early wars with the Egyptians and Hittites might bear fruit.
- The Persians may also be an early threat.
- We'll have iron and coal but no saltpeter?
- Expect the Ottomans to be annoyed or furious with us for most of the game.
- LOADS of delicate alliances to be founded and managed. Expect sporadic wars to break out left right and centre from the middle ages onwards.
- A tricky middle ages with a lack of saltpeter in our local area? Rise back to the assendence in modern times as we have coal and iron (ironworks?).
- A powerful Ottoman empire in the east, with whom we will need to constantly battle one way or another for the political and cultural dominance of our immediate region.
50,000 years ago
The first hunters from Africa and Asia set foot in the Greek heartland, hunting herds of game
7000 BC
Evidence of the first farming communities establishing themselves in what is now modern day Greece
2200BC - 1400BC - The Minoan Period
Settlers found communities on Crete, with its great opportunities for plentiful fishing and trade. The Minoans were the 1st great Aegean culture, with had developed a knowledge of writing, and thrived due to plentiful food sources and efficient farming methods.
- Map Making early will be v. useful to settle lush terrain on islands close by.
- Lets build some early libraries too!
1550BC - 1000 BC The Mycenean Period
(The Myceneans developed later than the Minoans, but by 1400BC had become very prosperous. They buried their dead with gold, jewelery, swords and silver cups. Their wealth came from a strong agriculture and international trade. Their warlike attitude allowed them to conquer the Minoans in around 1400BC. By 1200BC they were launching raids on foreign lands, hence the legend of the siege of Troy.But the wars took their toll, and Mycenean culture collapsed into civil war in around 1000BC.
1000 - 750BC - The Greek Dark Age
Following the collapse of the Mycenean culture, the Greeks went through a period of decline (revolution?) The population slumped, and artists and writers ceased their works.Recovery was slow, but recieved a major boost by the discovery of a new technology to smelt iron ore. Plentiful tools helped increase food production and thus restore the population and prosperity
- So we're likely to have iron then?
750-480BC - The Archaic Age
The Greeks gradual develop the unique idea that power is best shared. The City state is established, and new imaginative forms of art and architecture are developed. As the economy improved in the Archaic Age, the population grew rapidly, creating a shortage of good land and natural resources. The search for new farmland and metal ore drove Greeks to settle far from their homeland, sometimes living in others' settlements, sometimes establishing trading posts, and sometimes founding colonies as new city-states. By 500 bc, Greeks had founded numerous colonies in present-day southern France, Spain, southern Italy, North Africa, and along the coast of the Black Sea.
- So now were a Republic then. Or at least thinking about becoming one... I doubt we'd be able to settle new towns this late in the game though. Maybe grabbing the last few bits of terrain in Africa might be a possiblity though...
480-323BC The Classic Age
By 500BC Sparta was a powerful city state with a fearsome army. Athens was also a large city state, but with a much more democratic form of government. The Athenian powers sought an alliance with the hugely powerful persian empire to protect them from the increasingly agressive Spartans. However, the Athenians quickly abandoned this alliance to go to the aid of their Ionian Greek friends who were attempting to rebel from Persian control. This led to the first Persian Wars (490-479BC). The hugely outnumbered Greeks managed to repulse the initial Persian attack at Marathon, A messenger ran more than 32 km (20 mi) from Marathon to Athens to announce the news, a run memorialized in modern marathon races. (Well, you learn something new every day!).
To avenge their defeat at Maraton, Xeres lead the Persians ammased with army so large that the Greeks claimed it required seven days and seven nights of continuous marching for it to cross a pontoon bridge between Asia Minor and Mainland Greece. Some city-states in northern and central Greece surrendered, but Sparta led an alliance of 31 city-states against the Persians. A small detachment of Greek soldiers led by Spartan king Leonidas I gave their lives to temporarily block Xerxess army at a narrow pass called Thermopylae (see Battle of Thermopylae).
By the time the invading Persians reached Athens, the residents had evacuated, and the Persians burned an empty city. Athens was prepared to fight with its navy, built up from the proceeds of a rich discovery of silver a few years before. The Athenian general Themistocles defeated the Persian navy in the Battle of Salamís by luring Persian ships into a narrow channel, where the Greeks heavier ships proceeded to ram and sink them. In 479 bc the Greeks completed their triumph by defeating the Persian infantry at Plataea, relying on superior tactics and armor. This string of unexpected Greek victories in the Persian Wars preserved the Greeks independence and gave them so much self-confidence that they felt superior.
- Well, this certainly looks like this is the equivalent of our golden age! We'll need a fair few elite hoplites to drive back all those immortals though!
1453
Ottomans capture Greek capital of Constantinople
1770-1814
Alliances with the Russian Orthodox powers and spurred on by ideas generated by the French revolution, nationalism and insurgence against Ottoman rule are rampant
- Our initial strong culture makes it hard for Ottomans to dominate. And a keen interest in science, language and the arts helps us to retain our national identity. (Lots of libraries early on will really help).
1814 Armed revolt.
Alexandros Ypsilantis, a Greek general in the service of Russian emperor Alexander I, launches an attack from Russian territory into Moldavia, then part of the Ottoman Empire. Hoped-for Russian assistance failed to materialize, however, and the invasion was defeated. Another uprising at about the same time in the Pelopónnisos, led by Archbishop Germanos of Pátrai, met with greater success. The Greek War of Independence had begun.
- Russian MPP or alliance possibilities. But would they stab us in the back?
1814 Cont...
With no help from the world powers, England, France, Austria, Prussia and Russia and with the Ottomans signing an alliance with Egypt in return for the promise of handing them Crete, the future of the Greek uprising looks grim
- Effective alliances and MPPs will be key to retaining our grip on the region, with powerful players in other parts of Europe holding the key to our future as a great power.
1815-1827
With the war escalating and the threat to delicate eastern mediterranean trade routes intensifying, France, Russia and Britain join forces to oust the Ottoman-Egyptian threat. Count Ioánnis Kapodístrias, a Greek who had served as the joint foreign minister for Emperor Alexander I, was elected president of Greece, and a new constitution, the third drafted for the still unofficial state, was proclaimed.
- A Ha. Alliances might come good in the end!
1831-1832
Political instability, anarchy and intervention of the great powers leads them to nominate Otto of the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty to be king of Greece
- Threat of almost vassiliasation by great powers if we put too much reliance on them... Should have got hold of some more luxuries to control disorder there...
1843 Military coup
1862
Eventual overthrow of King Otto and granting of the throne to King George of the Danish Glücksburg dynasty. New constitution and greater political stability followed
1864-1908
Expansionist aspirations for the fledgeling greek state. Thessaly and part of Epirus ceded to Greece by the Ottomans in 1881 after the Ottomans lost the Russo-Turkish war.1896 - Revolt against Ottoman rule in predominantly greek island of Crete - brutally crushed by the Ottomans, but crete eventually becomes Greek in 1908
- Even in late game, culture and nationality continue to play a vital role. Tussles with the Ottomans continue into the modern age?
1910-1912 1st Balkan War
Modernisation, build up of the economy and armed forces, leading up to an alliance with Serbia, Bulgaria and Motenegro and a declaration of war against the Ottomans. Ottoman forces, heavily outnumbered, are beaten back from most of southern europe and the ailing ottoman empire cedes most of its european possessions to the Greeks.
1913 - 2nd Balkan War
Squabbling over territory captured during the first war leads to confict between Greece and Bulgaria, ending a month later with Bulgarian defeat.
1914-1918 1st world war
Greece sides with the allied powers, while the Ottomans side with Germany and Austria-Hungary. More conflict ensues
1939-1945 2nd world war
Mussolini demands an ROP through Greek Lands, which is refused, and war is declared. Greeks repulse the invaders and capture some of Albania (under a puppet Greek govt.) However, in 1941, German troops invade and over-run Greece despite British attempts to hold out in Crete. The harshness of the occupation regime led to terrible famine and spiraling inflation. More than 100,000 Greeks died as a result of the famine, and in 1943 most of the countrys Jews were deported to Nazi death camps in Poland.
1945-Present
After liberation, civil war between communists and nationalists. Ending in defeat for the communists. Greece joins NATO, various military coups, the creation of the Greek democract after the end of the militarty junta, then subsequently the EU.
Not likely, but that's what I was thinking.
). Maybe islands for us, pangaea for the AI.
and enforcing heavy usage of boats / harbor for commerce and expansion.
I can't contain them anymore!!!!
