1970 AD - Our Scientists, working at breakneck speed the past four years and breaking the budget several times over in the process, complete a great breakthrough in electricity this year!
Unfortunately, the state of the treasury mandates a breakdown in scientific funding, as at the current rate of research, pretty soon Greece will be broke.
The decade begins with much war going on. We've got a pretty bad-looking Diplomacy screen.
Making the easy decision first, we decide to attack Antalya in Madagascar. That'll teach the Ottomans not to declare war on us!
The much tougher decision is what to do in South America.
************
The Lieutenant General leading the campaign in Brazil radioed to Athens to get advice on the situation, having just received notice from an Ottoman messenger that Greece and the Ottomans were now in a state of war. When he had first heard this, he had thought it absurd, but the messenger insisted on his seriousness, and had what appeared to be official documents.
"Hello? Sorry to call in the middle of the night, but I've received word that we're at war with the Ottomans. Is this true?" he asked.
"Yes, they declared war a few hours ago, the infidels," replied the secretary. "Hold on, the King asked to talk with you when you called," she added, and went to find the King.
Wow, thought the Lieutenant General. The King. But as he thought on it, he realized why. The Ottomans obviously knew exactly where they were, and turning to the Hittites for shelter was an impossibility. The plan had been to eventually move on Ugarit when reinforcements arrived, but that depended on the right of passage agreement with the Ottomans. Now that war had been declared, not only were reinforcements not coming, but his army was genuinely trapped -
"Hello, Lieutenant General?" said the King.
"Yes, Your Honour," replied the Lieutenant General.
"We realize your army is in a bit of a tough position given the recent declaration of war. We're formulating a strategy right now. A spy is investigating the Ottoman city of Edrine to your north, and if it is poorly defended, we may have you seek shelter there. If it is too well defended, we will have you move west to Iznik or Ankuwa. Moving against the Hittites at this time is, as I'm sure you know, an impossibility. However, you will have the support of the aircraft carrier off the Hittite east coast helping destroy any troops you encounter and doing its best to deny the Ottomans and Hittites resources. They spy should complete her report within the next day and a half. In the mean time, I would like you to bring your army together as one, withdrawing the siege form Ugarit. How spread out is your army at this time?"
"We have one tank unit southwest of Ugarit and one northeast, Sire," replied the Lieutenant General. "The rest are all here with me. It will take about eighteen months for all of the troops to join together."
"Very well," said the King. "Have them start joining at once. You'll have to be on the lookout for Ottoman attacks on the short-term - we don't know from here what their attack plans are. I will call you back on the radio when the spy completes her report."
"It shall be done," replied the Lietenant General. He could hardly believe he had just spoke with the King of the Greek Empire. Very few of the forty-five million citizens ever got a chance to do so, even amongst those fairly high up in the military, as he was. The King was the most powerful man in the world, and he couldn't devote much of his time to trivial matters - of course an army being stranded in the Amazon was no trivial matter, and the Lietenant knew that however hard he, his troops, and Athens worked, in the end his fate depended mostly on the actions of the Hittites and Ottomans. He would live and die with his army.
Thirty-eight hours later, the King was on the radio again.
"General, our spy has completed her report. The Ottomans have as many group troops in Edrine as there are in your entire army. However, they have only one group of ancient Trebuchets for artillery. We believe that with artillery and air support, your forces could take the city. Do you agree?"
"Certainly, your honour. All is contingent on our troops surviving to the gates of the city, of course, but with my current numbers, we could certainly take the city."
"Excellent. Also - we have promoted you to general. Considering the impossibility of any higher commander arriving anytime soon, it only made sense."
"Thank you very much, my liege," replied the Lieutenant General. This had to be the best day of his life - being promoted by the King himself. Never mind that he was still utterly surrounded by enemies!
To the north, reinforcements were beginning the long, slow trek to meet up with the trapped troops.
************
Korea still wants Motorized Transportation for peace, so we have to decide whether to take Namp'o, destroying their air force but leaving our troops dangerously exposed to counterattacks, or to stay at Inch'on and use Flak to wear them down. In the end the temptation to rub it in their face that they don't have tanks wins out, and we advance.
Once again one army does great while another struggles, but wins in the end. Korea still has at least one Regular Infantry, but all we've got left within distance this turn is a three-hitpoint army, so we decide to finish the advance next turn.
My next advance is against Santiago, Spain. Planned last turn, we see no reason to cancel the advance in light of the recent betrayal by the Byzantines.
Rather than turn back any tanks to take the Byzantine ground seperating Spain from our main lands, we keep right on advancing. Madrid is our next target.
We then begin our movement against the Byzantines. Our very first attack against them yields...
A great leader! It almost seems like a sign that we are destined to win. We name this leader Dienekes. I consider a Paratrooper Army - how cool would a whole army parachuting down on an enemy island be? - but ultimately decide on another Tank army. Maybe we'll build a Modern Paratrooper army someday. Regular ones just don't have that strong of an attack.
Alas, we have not enough troops to advance farther against the Byzantines than one attack on a redlined Cavalry. Thus we are forced to wait and see what they do in response. But first, we decide to strike a deal with Xerxes. One fewer enemy, especially when that enemy is relatively strong, is always a good thing, and this way they won't make peace with the Byzantines and then throw all their weight at me.
The peace deal also ends three embargoes against us, though none of that matters, as we're at war with all the other embargo partners. We then look for further deals. One possibility is a Mututal Protection Pact with my historic worst enemy. But seeing as how Xerxes wants Saltpeter, Iron, Radio, Motorized Transportation, a World Map, 105 gold per turn, and 1124 gold lump sum for such a deal (can't blame him, either, with all our wars) we don't go for that possibility. Instead we strike this deal.
Sorry, Theodora. Maybe you shouldn't have declared war on us?
We also strike a nice luxury export deal, helping our treasury a good deal (89 GPT overall). Persia is still Furious with us, but at least the deals are profitable.
The Maya aren't as willing to make deals. They call my four luxuries "rubbish".
And they call that "polite"?
America, however, agrees to a good deal for Furs.
At long last we have all luxuries! On that happy note, we end the turn.