Battleground - Series

[GONeill85]

Written as if in the style of a television program filmed hundreds of years after the events. There are two presenters. Anyone that appears like this: "name" is suppose to be an actor acting as a person from the time who has left a diary or written a letter to someone in order to give first person accounts. Its a bit like the 21st Century battlefield series shown in the UK by Dan and Peter Snow. I plan to do a series. I've written the first episode here... The second should come tomorrow...

Episode One - The England - Maya War

Presenter 1: In 1026 the whole of the ynys enfawr continent was in complete turmoil. A power struggle ensued on who would be the world leader for the next five hundred years. Three sides with very different agendas, strategies and military assets faced each other for the control of the whole continent. In this episode we find out how the first part of this war happened.
Presenter 2: In 1026 the map of the ynys enfawr looked very different as it does today, Nowadays England rules the entire continent, but back then, England was just one of three nations on the massive land mass. Occupying the east side of the island, they controlled the large dye fields to the north of the continent and the gold reserves in the centre. Along with their overseas territories England was a very wealthy nation, much as it is today. In those days it was lead by a man named Churchill; a very stubborn and strong man who brought a more military appearance to the peaceful isolationists. When he came to power he began to be more open to dialog with the other world leaders and also upgraded the military to the country. His most impressive achievement was a new type of soldier the Redcoat riflemen.
Present 1: Just west of the English, lay the nation of Maya, their main settlements; of the Mutal, Mayapan, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Lakamha and Calskmul were fantastical placed to take advantage of several natural defences and rich soil. Though they had access in dye, just north of the Mayapan settlement, they weren't as wealthy as the English. Their leader, Pacal II was a tyrant based on tradition. His army was even heavily traditional. Most of it was chariots, swordsman or a special unit he had devised himself, the Holkan. The army was also relatively large, according to history records they had twice as many soldiers per citizens as either the Arbians or English and was more manoeuvrable. Pacal was extremely jealous of the British and made no attempt to hide his desire to annex the cities of Leeds and Liverpool from the English to gain a better economy.
Presenter 2: Saladin was the leader of the Arbian nation, just west of the Maya. They had no land connection to the English and were resource poor. Saladin was very aware of the precarious position he was in and constantly tried to find ways in order to keep his small nation at peace. He even set up a small colony to the south of the islands on what is now known as the Kufah peninsular. His army was more modern than the Maya main forces and had several longbow men. But his army was small and wasn't very manoeuvrable, making him unable to really launch as offensive. If there was a war, he would have to sit back and destroy the enemy at his gates.
Present 1: By 1026 the border of the English - Maya ran along the English cities of Oxford, Leeds and Norwich; with Newcastle close to their rear. Leeds was a gold mining town, but it in 1020, something else was discovered by complete accident by an explorer. Uranium. Suddenly Leeds became a focus point of diplomatic discussion. It could be used as a massive weapon, even though England did not possess anywhere near the technology needed to build the weapon. Still Maya went into talks about joint administration of the area. Talks broke down after just hours when the Arabians insulted the Maya delegation and walked out of the negotiations. It was a disaster for the Maya, they had hoped the Arabians would support their efforts.
Presenter 2: What happened next amazed the world and brought attention to the continent for the first time in nearly a thousand years.
Presenter 1: Pacal II went back to his war ministers and asked them how long they could get the army ready for war. They replied "with one word from you we can take Leeds in days". The Maya leader was dismissive of his generals, he had other plans.
Presenter 2: He knew that if he attacked England, Saladin would declare war on him attempting to make sure the Uranium mine didn't fall in the Maya hands.
Presenter 1: Saladin knew the English were about honourable battle and facing the enemy. But the Mayan's, they had been found spying on both the English and the Arabian nations for decades, they couldn't be trusted.
Presenter 2: Pacal threw his hand on the map and pointed to the Arabian nation. "I want them to be taken out."

"General Juyan Poiltic": We were amazed at his move. We could have taken Leeds and forced the English to back down, but to attack the Arabians was nonsense, there was nothing there but poor land and crabs.

Presenter 1: The Generals were furious, they protested and refused to march their troops on such a pointless war. Pacal executed three generals the next day. The day after that; Maya went to war with Arabia.
Presenter 2: Pacal's hope was to achieve two distinct objectives. First of all was to eliminate the threat to his west and prevent a war on two fronts, which he knew his army couldn't fight.
Presenter 1: The second was a little more subjective. Certain parts of the Arbian people were Maya sympathisers and would sign up to the Maya army as longbow men if Pacal would rescue them from Saladin. That would have given Pacal a boost in his defence against the English army.
Presenter 2: The English did nothing; even when Saladin asked for support, Churchill turned him away.
Presenter 1: But at this time the English army was still small. On the frontline the English only had six regiments of redcoats. This faced nearly 25 regiments of Maya troops. It was the only way to give English soldiers a good chance of living to retirement. But Churchill knew England would soon be involved in this war and new regiments were being formed all the time.
Presenter 2: Pacal's plan was to attack in one large army and take the Arbian capital Mecca within months of the war. But Pacal forgot two important positions, there were military positions in between his army and Mecca and on their way there Pacal forces got slaughtered by these forces. Pacal's forces retreated.
Presenter 1: What followed was a few months of quick skirmishes on the border with neither side gaining any ground or having any major victory. Pacal was furious, he blamed his generals and his troops. Three more Generals were executed in order to set an example.

"General Juyan Poiltic": We were all afraid in the higher echelon of command that we would be next. Every day we heard rumours. Most were incorrect, but others were not, it was those latter ones that made you think if you were going to be a rumour or an example.

Presenter 1: Across the border in England, Churchill watched patiently. He now had 7 regiments that he could use in the attack, but he felt that it wasn't enough. He wanted at least twice that but something was about to change his minds.
Presenter 2: In a little town called Hastings a foreigner was caught stealing a loaf of bread. He was brought to the tower of London for questioning. In his interrogation it was revealed he was a Major in Maya military who deserted. What was of more interest was the reason he deserted. His unit had been sent to the English border, in was hinted to attack Leeds. Churchill was furious and decided to launch a pre-emptive strike.
Presenter 1: The Major was wrong. Pacal knew a war with the English now would not go their way. He would be fighting a war on two fronts and would be killed off quickly. The movement of the Major's unit was to replace a defensive regiment that was more experienced and wanted on the front line with the Arbians.
Presenter 2: The British plan was to send four regiments to attack on the north and three on the south, while re-enforcements came to help them as soon as they were available. The southern army group met heavy resistance in the first weeks of the war and was forced to retreat back to Norwich. It was not surprising as this was where the gap between the Arbians and the English was smallest going through the Maya empire and it was the highest concentration of enemy troops. However the northern army suddenly gained a large area of land. In three weeks they gained the cities of Uxmal and Mayapan in a short space of time. But then they hit a snag. Even with the re-enforcement of a fifth regiment, the 22nd Redcoats, the English were heavily outnumbered. The Maya capital was just south of their position and it kept enough counter attacks going up and Mayapan kept on rebelling that with the exception of the 13th Redcoats, who were in Uxmal, they were relatively pinned down in Mayapan.
Presenter 1: Meanwhile a large Maya force headed for their ultimate goal; Leeds. In the attack force; it twelve regiments of crack troops. In Leeds; one redcoat regiment and one explorer regiment resting. But help was on hand; the 38th regiment was nearby and raced to Leeds. It got there just in time. While the 56th regiment held its positions the 38th went on continuous attacks against the Maya force dislodging it from its strong positions and forcing the army to retreat in shambles. It was a momentous day.

"Private Julian Campbell": It was a pleasure to be with the 38th. Yes we were tired, yes were hungry. At one point we hadn't eaten for three days and were in battle for probably longer, but we kept on shooting the enemy with all our might. When we returned to barracks in Leeds, the people in the street cheered us on. There was talk that we would end the war, the 38th all on our own. I have to admit, we thought we could.

Presenter 2: Then on the tenth week, the 22nd Redcoats tried a daring counter offensive on the northern sector and while on their way back to base were caught out in the open and completely destroyed by five regiments of chariots. Still it was a pyrrhic victory for the Maya. They lost three regiments in the process and were forced to retreat to the capital and fortify.
Presenter 1: Still the northern army was pinned down by constant rioting in their captured city. It was up to the southern area. The 38th was weakened by the Leeds offensive and in serious need of rest and the southern army had been supplied with six new regiments. They marched at once and over run the border position, they turned their attention to the little settlement at Calskmul. The city was almost deserted and was easily taken. Then the army marched up the most fortified and defendable place on the whole continent; Lakamha. Surrounded by mountains on the west and east of the city and a river to the north, the only feasible way to assault the position was to attack from the south. Not only that it was the headquarters for the whole army fighting the way with Saladin and was extremely fortified.
Presenter 1: Worse for the English soldiers was news that Arbian forces would not cross the Mayan border and that some of the Arabian forces had switched sides to fight with the Mayan. They now had longbow men.

"Captain Harry Ingram": I told the men not to worry. There was nothing that could beat the English rifle. But thoughts went to the wives and children of the 22nd regiment. The men were worried. They wanted the 38th.

Presenter 2: The long march gave the troops time to think and some wanted the war to be over. But as they reached the outskirts of the city news from Leeds arrived. The 38th had left the city and was marching south to the northern end of Lakamha.

"Private Julian Campbell": There was no way we weren't going to fight in that important battle. If we had lost that area, we could have lost the war. No the 38th had to fight, we were back to full strength and still singing songs from the Leeds offensive. We knew we struck fear into the hearts of out enemy.

Presenter 1: The news alone gave the southern army a huge boost to their moral and suddenly they attacked the city. The Mayan army could not resist well enough, even if they killed a few English, it was not enough.
Presenter 2: When the 38th joined the battle, they crossed the river to attack. It was a daring move that could have cost them. But they took the city without losing a single man.

"Private Julian Campbell": We secured about 100 POWs that day. I heard them call us the Ghost regiment, because no matter what they fired at us, it passed straight through us.

Presenter 1: England had secured a major victory and with the 38th in tow the southern army quickly secured the Chichen Itza settlement just west of their positions and south of the capital. Then the final battle was coming up. The northern army was freed up when re-enforcements came and they placed themselves just east of the capital on a hill. The southern army came up and positioned themselves just south of the capital. The 38th was poised to attack again. Pacal was angry, but he refused to surrender. He knew he had 15 regiments in his capital, the English faced him with only seven.

"General Juyan Poiltic": In those last days he was madder than ever. Said we would win a large victory and take the land by force. We knew our only option was to settle diplomatically but what could we do, we were loyal servants. What could we have done?

Presenter 2: On the 20th week of the war, the 38th forced the last of the Mayan forces to surrender. The Capital was taken. English losses were estimated to be around the 1000 mark, while the Mayan losses were even higher around the 5000 mark. Pacal was shot by a Private Julian Campbell when the 38th went to arrest the leader in his Palace.

"Private Julian Campbell": The palace guards stood down as soon as they saw us, but Pacal, he was crazy, he grabbed a spear and threw it at our small party. I shot a warning to stop him throwing the second in his hand. I didn't mean to kill him, but he did mean to kill us. I had no idea he had hit my best friend Ian Tucker. He died on the spot.

Presenter 1: Corporal Ian Tucker was the last man to die in this war. But not the last to die in this series of wars, find out next episode what happened in the next episode as a direct result of these events.

 

[Dumanios]

Nice Story!

 

[GONeill85]

Episode Two - The England - Arabian War

Presenter 1: The Maya were gone from the continent. Their people under the rule of the English and their leader dead but something was among them that the English had not counted on; Arabian longbow men.
Presenter 2: Together with the actions of Saladin during the original England - Maya - Arabian conflict, a second war was brewing very close to the end of the England - Maya war. Today we look at the England - Arabian war.
Presenter 1: War between the English and Arabians was a certainty, it was just a question on who would declare war and when.
Presenter 2: Saladin, the leader of the Arabians was in a delicate position. He controlled a small nation, that right in the centre was the Mecca desert region, inhospitable and money draining area. Also he recently lost 20% of his army, either by desertion and defection to the Maya nation or by losses on the front line. People were rioting in Basra, Baghdad and Medina and troops had to be sent to help keep order. His economy was in tatters.
Presenter 1: England couldn't be in a better position. The Maya population welcomed a lot of the reforms that the English leader, Churchill, initiated; education for all, free health care and lower taxes. Their army was also the largest it had ever been and was well trained and battle hardened; not to mention the fact it was highly advanced compared to the Arabians.
Presenter 2: It's not entirely clear what started off the war, but there are three incidents which are thought to have brought on the war quicker than many expected.
Presenter 1: It's here at the Palace gardens in Mecca that the first incident occurred. It was a sunny July afternoon, the England - Maya conflict was in full swing and the Maya had recently pulled back from their conflict with the Arabians. Saladin was taking a walk down this very path up to his aviary, which still exists at the end there, when someone approached him with two guards.

"Peter Yellow": I approached Saladin with the two escorts. At this time the 38th had just beaten back the Maya counter offensive force and we had just taken Calskmul. But our poor troops needed help, we were pinned at the north end and the south end was in need of rest. I asked Saladin if his forces would take advantage of the gap now on their front lines. After all, they were at war with the Maya too.

Presenter 2: The response was swift, no!
Presenter 1: The English had to go it alone and it is thought that it cost the 22nd regiment their lives. Churchill was furious. The Arabian leadership were quite happy for his soldiers to put down their lives for their own survival and do nothing to help.
Presenter 1: It doubtful that the Arabians could have taken any territory, but a lack of any kind of attack meant that the Maya military didn't have to station as many troops in the south as they would have had to do if the Arabians were more offensive. But with extra troops needed in the south, the English could have taken the advantage and ended the war quickly by attacking with their northern army. Instead, they remained pinned down and they lost the 22nd regiment.
Presenter 2: The second incident happened here in Lakamha. England attacked with it superior Southern army. Rumours were rife that the city was occupied by Arabian defectors. It was while securing the settlement that the 9th Redcoat Regiment found a group of soldiers hiding here in the down town tavern, the Crossed Swords. When speaking to them in Mayan they couldn't respond.

"Corporal John Kebbles": They just didn’t speak the Mayan language. We were all puzzled. We then noticed their weapons. They weren't the standard Maya issue. Then I asked them; "are you Arabian?" To our surprise they all stood up and send yes back to us in Arabian.

Presenter 1: Churchill was furious that Saladin couldn't keep troops in line. There was even a rumour that Saladin had supplied the troops to the Mayan military in order to slow down the English advance.
Presenter 2: It was a political minefield and the mine was about to explode.
Presenter 1: The war between England and Maya quickly ended with the Mayan people now under English rule. Saladin and Churchill met in order to sort out new borders between England and Arabia. It wasn't long before the question of POWs from Arabia was mentioned. Churchill was defiant. Anyone who had fought for the Mayan side who wasn't Mayan was to be kept locked up. Saladin wanted them to be re-patronised. It was a political disaster. Saladin's decision to ask for this was the final straw. Not even Joso II asked England for the twenty troops found in the Mayan capital, as far as the Portuguese were concerned, they defected and were no longer their responsibility. If Saladin had gone down this route, it was more than likely England would have waited for war but Churchill moved troops to the Arabian border.
Presenter 2: Here at the Medina town border a guard was sitting on duty keeping an eye out towards the British frontier. His friend sat across the way eating an apple. It was 06:05am on the 12th September 1026. The guard eating the apple looked up to his friend and offered him a second apple from his rations. As the apple was being passed across the two soldiers, the guard being passed the apple was shot in the head by a English rifleman. The other guard fell down in shock. The war had started.
Presenter 1: It took just thirty minutes for English to secure Medina. Casualties on both sides were light. Only 26 people were killed on the Arabian side, none was recorded on the English side.
Presenter 2: Saladin was furious and called in his generals. They advised him that the mountains that split the Damascus from the England border would mean that the English could not attack there and that the Mecca, Medina, Baghdad crossroads was a vital route for the English. Saladin immediately ordered his generals to send all available forces to guard the cross roads.
Presenter 1: If the crossroads was taken the English would be able to attack the northern peninsular, the southern peninsular and the middle towns of Mecca and Damascus. There was no other way to attack the Arabian nation other than through the crossroads.
Presenter 2: The English sent four of their best divisions to attack the crossroads. Up against them were 12 divisions of the Arabians army. However their troops were outdated and completely lacking morale. Leading the English army was a General Lockhead, he was a tough veteran from the Mayan war.
Presenter 1: They lined up here at the south part of the crossroad's hill. The chariots of the Arabian nation were stationed here at the front, behind them the longbow men and to the left flank three regiments of swordsmen. The English faced their opponents in two short lines. The Arabians' task was to hold the crossroads. They didn't need to do anything but stay still and wait for the attack. The English on the other hand had to attack.
Presenter 2: Considering the Arabian tactics in the Mayan conflict you would have thought they would have been able to stand still. However a Colonel in the Saladin ranks broke his army out of formation and charged at the English. The English saw this and immediately formed square. This impenetrable formation cut down the regiment of chariots incredibly quickly.
Presenter 1: The rest of the Arabian army saw the devastation and the chariots immediately charged in order to support their fiends, which ended with the same results.

"Private Joe Johnson": They kept on coming in their chariots. It was madness; there was no way to break through our square formation. Their horses kept on rearing and throwing drivers out of their vehicles. It was a turkey shoot, but they would have done the same.

Presenter 2: The more reliable and orderly units of the Swordsman and Longbow men stayed back. They knew that attacking the force head on was a silly idea. The English still faced 8 regiments and outnumbered 2 to 1.
Presenter 1: But the English still had rifles. They reformed back into lines and marched forward. The longbow men quickly fired on the advancing troops. The English took high casualties on the open ground. The 38th on the left flank took 20% casualties in the advance forward, but when they reached their firing range the weapons did devastating damage to the Saladin's army. The swordsmen came in from the right flank on the English ranks. They were cut down before they could get close and the troops that made it to the lines were engaged by a new English weapon developed during the Mayan war, the bayonet.
Presenter 2: The loss of the Crossroads was a disaster. Only 84 men made it back to Mecca; England lost 150 killed and 100 wounded during the battle.
Presenter 1: With crossroads taken England split its attack force into three sections. The first took the Mecca, Basra and Kufah without slowing down. The second took out Damascus and the third attacked the northern area; Baghdad and Najrm.
Presenter 2: Saladin didn't even see the end of the war, he was captured during the attack on Mecca and was sent to the tower of London for the rest of the war.
Presenter 1: It was only Najrm that actually put up any kind of resistance, destroying an entire English regiment on the fourth day of the final battle in the war during a mix up of orders on the English side.
Presenter 2: But it didn't make a difference. The English had complete control over the whole continent and steadily English-ized the entire continent.
Presenter 1: Now the war is almost completely out of the public's mind and England is a world power. People from all background fight in a joint army and is a true sign of the unity of this continent.

 

[CIV D]

Very intresting! Keep it up!

 

[GONeill85]

Very intresting! Keep it up!

Nice Story!

Thanks - I've got the third episode ready. However there are no more episodes at the moment (the wars aren't waged yet but I'm working on it), unless people would like to read about other AI wars that have gone on. I've got Korea vs Portugalese Alliance (2 wars in one episode), Egyptian vs Shaka and Babylonian Alliance Vs Egyptian Alliance that could be written.

However here is episode three

Episode Three - The Chinese - English Conflict

Presenter 1: Down this street two hundred years ago a man was running. Behind him were two others, looking as if they were chasing him. As the first man turned round, he felt a sharp pain in his torso. He immediately knew he was shot and fell to the ground.
Presenter 2: The two men chasing him were English military intelligence. The man on the floor was never formally identified, but his nationality was discovered. He was Chinese and this town is Carlisle.
Presenter 1: The English had evidence of Chinese espionage activity within their borders. The leadership was furious. What started was a chain of events that would lead to a three year struggle that would cripple an empire and make the world's first Mega Power. This is the story of the Chinese - English Conflict.
Presenter 2: In 1321 there were three super powers. England was a massive technological economic marvel. The English leader and people lived in complete luxury.
Presenter 1: The Chinese main power was based just north of the English, very affluent people, but some of their lands was an ice wasteland. Technologically they had roughly the same as England, but their military wasn't the main focus of the economy so most of the units were obsolete. Recently China had just colonised four islands to the east of the English empire. It infuriated several nations and made the Chinese very unpopular.
Presenter 2: But the Chinese were in tough competition with the Egyptians. They had a massive empire based to the west of both empires. The Achilles heal of the Egyptians was the Zulu empire. For six hundred years the Zulus were vassals of the Egyptians and were in a bad state. The Egyptians didn't much care for the empire and the Zulus were treated like second class citizens. Much of the Egyptian army was in Zulu to keep rebellions down and defend the technologically background nation.
Presenter 1: China was jealous of England's richness. Part of that richness is based here at the incense fields near Carlisle, just south of the original China - England border. England had colonised this land nearly 800 years before and it was a bit of a diplomatic minefield.
Presenter 2: But England would never give the three cities on the colony over to China. Soon improvements were destroyed and people went missing on the English side.
Presenter 1: England's leaders thought it was Chinese intervention, but they had no proof. So they decided to build a large army to defend the army.
Presenter 2: It wasn't long though before the Carlisle incident occurred. A Chinese spy was caught trying to sabotage the City's barracks. England kept the discovery under their hats until the end of the war. They hadn't the army yet to defend the area against such a large military force. But it did have something else up its sleeves.
Presenter 1: Since the early 1300's England's navy was being built up. But it was by no means large enough to force a war on the Chinese. So they hired 8 of these; Privateers.
Presenter 2: The Privateers set sail and cut started a private war against the Chinese. In the first six months of their campaign they destroyed 12 galleons heading to the outer colony ring and five caravels escorting them, with the loss of only one vessel.

"Joe Sprinkler": We engaged those Chinese hounds and took all the prize money for ourselves. The English leadership was happy with the results. We had technically cut off the Chinese colonies from all kinds of supplies and re-enforcements.

Presenter 1: The blockade on the Chinese mainland had cut the Chinese down to a limited economy and their navy was in tatters. The English began moving troops to the Chinese borders.
Presenter 2: China was a large empire. Technically split into four areas. The first is the west, a low production but high economical centre. The southern east was a growing field, with elephants, gold, uranium and China's only supply of coal. The northern east was China's oil and aluminium area, but it was mostly icy wasteland. Connecting these three areas was a single land bridge that had a city cross all of the land, Xian. Then there was the Western colony island and the Eastern Colony islands. The English had two army groups, the first was to take the main land, attack from the Southern East moving north and then taking the west once the east had been secured and finish off taking the nonstrategic western colonies. The second army consisted of the first marine regiments. They were to attack the Eastern colonies.
Presenter 1: The English had a massive troop concentration and a large advantage in troop quality. And by the time that the war started they had three boats for every one of the Chinese. The Chinese however had a secret weapon, the airship.
Presenter 2: The English knew how to make airships but had seen their use by the Chinese in the Chinese - Babylonian war. The leadership thought they were highly unreliable and gave no real advantage.
Presenter 1: England attacked on the 20th March. Within days England had secured two cities. But the marine forces were having problems. They had to hunt for the Chinese on the islands and attack through heavy jungle.
Presenter 2: The main force of infantry attacking the main land had three objectives, Beijing, Shanghai and Xian. It became known to the English forces as the victory line not because England would offer peace there but by taking those three cities the English would deprive the Chinese of all their oil, coal, uranium and aluminium.
Presenter 1: After that the Chinese would be limited to their potential firepower.

"Private Joshua Tolkien": Xian was a huge target. If we took Xian we could control the flow of troops from the west to the east and have a good point in which to launch a massive assault into the rich cities on the western Chinese lands.

Presenter 2: By taking Xian the English would also take the most strategic area in the whole of the Chinese Empire. If China lost this area, they would lose their best chance of being able to bottleneck on the approach. Xian received the best troops.
Presenter 1: The advance across the Chinese empire was slow to the English. It took an hour to cover every 100 meters. The Chinese were putting up heavy resistance, but it was not effective enough. Chinese after Chinese soldier fell causing very little damage to their English counterparts.
Presenter 2: The only thing that was causing any damage was the airships, but even then there were limited.
Presenter 1: The Chinese leader, Mao Zedong made a fatal error. Instead of placing the airships in the rear and using their range effectively, he placed them at the front lines. This was a disaster out of the 14 squadrons deployed during the war, all were captured by English forces when they overran their bases and all were captured in the first year of the war.

"Flight Leiutenant Chiang Kai-shek": The English were moving towards Xian. Where we were based was fantastic for bombing them on the approach. But then our orders came through, we were to move Xian, at the front lines.

Presenter 2: It was a huge gamble based on speed. The Chinese leaders thought that by placing their airships close to the front line that they would be able to hit more targets and be faster at getting to their targets, giving them less warning.
Presenter 1: But the Chinese leaders were being fed misinformation on the English numbers. While England had committed only eight regiments to the outer colonies the English knew that the mainland was a tough nut to crack, By the time they reached their first objective; Beijing they had fifty infantry divisions on the ground. It was an enormous amount of field power. The airships, of what was now only two squadrons, would have little if any effect on the flow of troops.
Presenter 2: The English had also deployed its latest weapon, an oil based destroyer and it was laying siege to city after city on the Chinese coast.
Presenter 1: The English then split into three equal forces on the main land. Each with one of the main objectives and orders not to attack until the every one of the groups had got into position.
Presenter 2: Within 8 months the English had reached their objectives, and now the attacks had to begin. The Beijing force quickly overran their opponents and took the city with what almost seemed as if it was with a wave of a hand.
Presenter 1: Shanghai was walked into. It looked as if the Chinese will to fight was gone. Now The English had all the oil, uranium, coal and aluminium that the Chinese had once possessed. It was a disaster for the Chinese.
Presenter 2: But the city of Xian was a different story. It provided the Chinese with a good strategic point in which to create a bottleneck on the English forces.
Presenter 1: The English only had this one road on which to approach on and it was covered with Chinese longbow men, musket men and riflemen, against them stood 16 regiments of infantry.
Presenter 2: It was nearly four months of fighting for Xian. In the end Xian was in English hands.
Presenter 1: It had cost the English nearly 1000 lives to take this land, half of the entire cost for the war. The Chinese had over 4000 KIA, nearly 12000 wounded and 38000 taken prisoner.
Presenter 2: This lead to a serious problem in the English. They hadn't the space for such a large prisoner population and it began what is known as the great jail building program. Also the losses at Xian caused mass rioting in several cities across the English Empire. Troops originally marked for going to the war against Chinese were sent to cities to quell the rioting.
Presenter 1: This slowed the assault on the western side of the island. The northern east side was completely secured and the colony ring on the east was now in English hands.
Presenter 2: The Chinese rushed several new divisions of musket men in order to stop the advancing English. And it did just that. Due to the re-enforcements not coming, the tough terrain, the losses at Xian, the large area which needed to be advanced on and the increased army presence on the western part of the Chinese empire, the English forces advanced less than 20 metres an hour.
Presenter 1: At that rate it would take a further five years to finish the war. Something the English government was reluctant to do.

"Private Joshua Tolkien": They said that when we had taken Xian the fight would get easier. But it certainly didn't. I know most of their crack troops were in Xian and were now dead, wounded or our prisoners but something that the Egyptians had learnt in the Zulu riots, is an untrained man is still lethal with a gun in his hand.

Presenter 2: Now every man in the Chinese empire signed up for military duty. They were all given this; a Qing Matchlock musket. Simple weapon to use; all you do is get a bullet casing, bite off the top put the shot and half the powder down the barrel and half in the firing mechanism here and then point and shoot.
Presenter 1: It was so simple it took more than 80% of the Chinese civilians less than a day to be trained in its use.
Presenter 2: But the troops were highly undisciplined and could not sustain fire needed in order to keep the English back.
Presenter 1: Not only were the weapons inaccurate but they were slow at firing, especially to the new recruits. A veteran could fire a matchlock four times a minute; the majority of the Chinese forces could only manage two on a good day.
Presenter 2: Compare this to the English rifle, they could first thirty shots a minute.
Presenter 1: It wasn't long before the English started picking up pace and overrunning positions. Again the bayonet came into play by changing Chinese trenches.

"Private Joshua Tolkien": Firing on the Chinese often wasn't good enough. We could shoot at them all we liked in their little trenches. But it didn't kill enough of them. We had to get in there and get them with our bayonets.

Presenter 2: The English were winning a war against an army which should have had them on the run.
Presenter 1: After 20 months of fighting the English captured the last city. It was a huge relief to the English soldiers. They could now relax.
Presenter 2: Something that was to be taken from the entire war was the casualty list. The English had lost 2000 killed and 14000 wounded. The Chinese had lost nearly 20000 killed and 56000 wounded. It was a massive loss of life never before seen.
Presenter 1: In all there was three years of military action. One year was with the Privateers and two with the official land war.
Presenter 2: It ended with the English now three times the size of any other nation in the world, their army now the envy of the world and China forever wiped from the map.
Presenter 1: Even now the people of the former nation of China have strong links to the past and a day of mourning is often noted on the December 14th, the official end of the war.
Presenter 2: Memorials like this are all over the former Chinese land and at special places throughout the English empire commemorating the 22000 lives lost during the conflict. The most interesting point to note is that the English leadership have placed both sides as one, in order to show our now unified presence in the world.

 

[CIV D]

One question. Are the Chinese on the same continent as England?

 

[GONeill85]

One question. Are the Chinese on the same continent as England?

In the game England has a single landmass, which use to host the Maya and Arbian empires. Before that war England looked else where to expand instead of waring with the two nations when it wasn't ready. Just to the north they found a rich desert of incense, planted three cities (Carlisle, Ipswich and Leicester) and then found out the continent already had the Chinese on it. The cultural boundries mean that Liverpool which is on the main land and Carlisle are connected. England decided to hold their ground and fortified the beachhead (I worked out that China and I would be at war at some point, we were too close geopgraphically not to and both of us had good sized empires, its easier to attack from the land than from the sea - especially to prepare, which is why I won a lot quicker than I thought I would).