Enders Game 2: Xenocide and the Speakers for the Dead

[Speaker]

Child prodigy, Temujin, has ascended to the throne of Mongolia, a semi-Xenophobic race. It's not that the Mongols hate the other seven nations that populate their singular-landmass world, but since there can be no spaceships to take them to the stars, no world dominance from having a large population and land area, or having a lot of culture, and there can be no United Nations to unite the world, the Mongols recognize that it is either kill or be killed and they would prefer not to die.

Science in this world of Deities is relaxed, where the soothsayers take their time, studying at a rate that would be expected on a larger world.

Wise men Sullla and Speaker have been selected to tell the story of Temujin, and while they are proud of their Mongolian heritage, they regret the tension between competing nations, all of which have the same right to live as their native Mongolia. They have chosen to share the tales of the vanquished, to act as scribes, who will forever be known as the "Speakers for the Dead."

EG2-4000BC

 

[amirsan]

Ill join! I'm doing pretty good in my current Diety Game.

 

[ChrTh]

I'm not going to be able to play, but I just got to say: Speaker, put the Orson Scott Card books down, and slowly walk away
(did you read the "new" short story collection?)

 

[Sullla]

A translation of Speaker's first post:

Enders Game 2: Xenocide and the Speakers for the Dead

Civ: Mongolia
Map: Standard size, 60% water pangea
Climate: Standard, Temperate, 5 billion age
Difficulty: Deity
Opponents: 7 AI civs (some randomly chosen, some not), no barbs
Victory Conditions: conquest ONLY

Variant Rules:
1) No capturing of enemy cities, only razing is allowed (Xenophobia).
2) For this game, the tech rate has been slowed down significantly so that the different eras will progress more slowly. This has been done so we will have a chance to fight wars in all eras, instead of simply conquering everyone in the modern age.
3) Whenever an AI opponent is destroyed, either Speaker or myself will write up the soliloquy for their vanished civilization. Not having read this particular series of books, I don't know exactly what Speaker has in mind as yet, but I reckon that I'll be able to figure it out.

Roster
Speaker
Sullla

And, um, that's it guys. Sorry, but we're running this as a two-man game, in the best tradition of Sirian and Charis. To those who expressed interest in the game, thank you but we unfortunately aren't accepting any signups.

On that note, Speaker did you want to play the first 20 turns or should I? Since I generated/tweaked the map in the Editor and you created the idea, I think the first turns should be yours; but of course I wouldn't have a problem with playing first either.

 

[Speaker]

Here is an account of the first 35 seasons of Mongolia, as duly recorded by the man known only as "the Speaker," who chose his number of seasons based largely on the precedent established by a mysterious historian known sometimes as "Charis" in the epic tale of the Cuban Isolationists.

Led by the child prodigy, Temujin, the Mongolian nation emerged from the fog. They sent their scout onto a nearby mountain to see the lay of the land, while their workers were sent to the grassy fields that were filled with purple fruit. "Wine" they called the fruits. To the southeast, large gray animals were seen romping in the plains. The great town of Karakorum was founded in the year that is known as 3950, and the soothsayers started working on developing a system of letters that would help in creating words. Scouts were dispatched to wander the lands and they found plains rich in food. Contact was made with tribes who called themselves Carthage, the Iroquois, Arabia, Rome, and Germany, and various trades of technology left Mongolia with the knowledge of Bronze Working, Masonry, Alphabet, the Wheel, and Ceremonial Burial, in addition to Pottery and Warrior Code, which the Mongol people had traditionally known.

The people of Karakorum, slow in creating a building to hold grain, were hurried along in 2630 by the whip of their glorious leader, Temujin. While Karakorum is rich in food, able to store a surplus of five barrels of grain every season, it may need to focus more on production at the expense of agriculture, in order for settlers to be trained to spread the Mongolian population to other regions.

While history may prove otherwise, Temujin's decision to fire all soothsayers in 3200, until a concept known as "Polytheism" could be investigated, may be described as weed. Temujin underestimated the decreased rate of science and expected his neighbors to have already discovered what he calls "Mysticism," but since the Carthaginians have already developed a system of recording words, Mysticism may not be too far away after all. Temujin considers a 40 season investigation of Polytheism to be a great direction for his soothsayers to eventually pursue.

The great historian, Sullla, will now report on the next 20 or 25 seasons of Mongolian history, years which were very important in shaping the early boundaries of our great nation. During this time, the tribe known as the Iroquois began to encroach on land seen as belonging to Mongolia, and their city of Allegheny may have become a point of contention between the two neighbors.

EG2-2430BC

 

[SHard]

I'm going to follow this game with great interest. My warmongering really needs to be worked on (Only one domination win and no conquest wins in the history of my civ3.) Good luck

 

[Sullla]

I've played 25 turns; now remains the task of turning my notes into a fictional narrative. Give me until the end of tonight, I should have it done by then.

 

[Sullla]

Sitting in the throne room of his primitive dwelling, Temujin, the Great Khan of the Mongols, had a vision. Lounging on his wooden throne in the building of rough, uncut stone which served as the Mongol palace, he looked ahead to the future and thought of the greatness which once day would belong to the Mongol people. Karakorum was the largest city in the world, true, but at the moment was little more than an overgrown hovel; "like a thousand villages pushed together in one place" was the phrase that foreign visitors were apt to use. The city's streets followed no design ever thought up by human mind, unless it was the mind of a madman; anyone not used to the cluttered lanes of the city would find himself hopelessly lost within moments. The streets were unpaved, nothing more than dirt beaten into the ground by the passing of thousands of bare feet - dirt which turned all too often to mud when the rains came out of the northwest from over the sea. And the smell! Filth and human offal choked the streets wherever the khan's men did not work to keep it clean, mixing with mud and cast-out food to create a fearsome and entirely unwholesome result perhaps best described as "muck". If Karakorum was a thousand villages in one place, surely it smelled the part as well!

Other civilizations had long ago sent out teams of settlers to found other cities, spreading their own culture and way of life across the globe. The Mongols, alone of all peoples, remained confined to their ancestral home in but one place. Karakorum was full to the bursting point with them; the high and mighty, the poor and starving, and everyone in between rubbed shoulders in the city's streets as they bought and sold, loved and hated, were born and died, all without ever traveling more than a few blocks. Such a city was without peer in terms of sheer size, a marvel in THAT respect for all the world; without its granaries full of wheat, such a city never could have existed. Sometimes it seemed as though the sheer mass of people must overwhelm the very limited capacity of the government to rule them and bring the whole house of cards tumbling down. But the noise of the crowds, the haggling in the marketplace, the hustle and bustle of a hundred thousand people living out their lives; Temujin saw none of it as he sat in his palace of stone, looking to the future and what might be.

When the gods had created the world from out of the nothingness of the aether, they had scattered its peoples across the length and breadth of the earth. Of all the different civilizations, it could truly be said that the Mongols sat at the very crossroads of the world. Pessimists argued that they were surrounded by enemies on all sides, and while that may have been true, Temujin saw that (at least in the short term) there were profits to be made at hand. And as to later... well, Temujin would deal with that when the time came. Those closest to the great khan knew that he was not famous for his generosity; should the Mongols ever gain the upper hand upon one of their foes, Temujin would be sure to take advantage to the fullest.

For the moment, however, the Mongols were weak and utterly lacking in military strength. Temujin knew that he and his people must bide their time, focus all their efforts towards beginning and sustaining expansion while smiling for the foreign diplomats and pretending to be friends with all. On this very day Temujin was to meet with ambassadors from the Arabs, Carthaginians, and Germans. Each of them possessed a separate technology which no one else knew, and each was smugly confident in the superiority of his own civilization. What possible threat could the Mongols be - the silly barbarians still only had but one city! They held their audiences with the backwards khan, condescending from start to finish, more eager than anything else simply to get the meeting over with and leave this disgusting city once and for all. And at the end of the day, without the foreign diplomats quite realizing what had happened, Temujin was in possession of all of their technologies and was himself richer by quite a bit of gold. That gold was channeled back into improving Mongolia's international reputation, gaining contact with new foreign cultures (the Koreans and Scandinavians) and sending representatives abroad to found embassies everywhere. All the world hailed the diplomatic efforts of the great khan, as polite faces greeted the Mongol envoys in every foreign nation. And Temujin, still sitting on his rough throne in his hall of stone, was pleased.

As the years rolled by, the Mongols did send out teams of settlers to create more cities and claim the territory which was rightfully theirs. Their efforts were dwarfed by those of the great civs around them, but Temujin was not worried. It was merely a matter of time until the Mongols were triumphant and all the world recognized their superiority. Other nations made more great breakthroughs and introduced new technologies to the world. Not the Mongols; they continued to devote only a tiny fraction of their wealth to the study of "Polytheism", a philosophy concerning the belief in many gods. The Mongols were by no means a backwards nation in technology, however; when the sages of another nation discovered how to represent the earth's surface on paper through the use of something known as "maps", the Mongols used the rich knowledge of the world brought back by their long-exploring scouts to obtain technological parity at a greatly reduced cost. As the rest of the world sat amazed at Temujin's golden tongue which never seemed to fail at diplomacy, the khan only smiled his broken-toothed grin and silently thanked his earlier foresight for sending out three scouts in the earliest days of his civ.

Only one ill-omened event marred the end of this period of Temjin's rule. A Roman ambassador from their embassy arrived one day at the palace dressed in the formal toga virilis of a Roman citizen, bearing a politely worded but poorly disguised threat from Rome, asking the Mongols to pay tribute or face military consequences. With fewer military units at his call than cities to defend (and those units that did exist uniformly of low quality), Temujin had no choice other than to smile politely and accede to the demands of Rome. Behind closed doors, the khan raged and fumed at the effrontery of the foreigners, promising one day to burn every Roman city to the ground and spare none of its people. It was only a matter of time, after all, until Temujin cast off the veil of meek humility and let loose his raging hordes upon the rest of the world. But until that glorious time arrived, Temujin was content to bide his time in his gloomy hall of stone and dream of what might be...

EG2 1550BC

 

[Sullla]

OK, now for what really happened. While I like writing the fiction, it doesn't really describe what happened. Here's the turnlon:

(0) 2430BC Everything lookin' hunky dorey. Need more cities though; one isn't enough.

(2) 2350BC Brokering opportunity opens up. Writing, Mysticism, and Iron Working are all out there as separate monopoly techs. Deal-making ensues. We end up with all techs, contact with the Koreans/Scandinavians, and 285g in the bank. That money goes to fund embassies with all civs (except Germany, who we ran out of cash for).

(3) 2310BC First settler built. We can pump them every five turns forever if desired (and we do).

(4) 2270BC Remember to turn on 40-turn min science on Polytheism.

(7) 2150BC Ta-tu founded to the south.

(9) 2070BC Horseback Riding picked up in another deal favorable to us.

(10) 2030BC Pick up a Scandinavian worker.

(13) 1910BC Kazan founded. Another settler built as well. We can produce them every 5 turns going 2 turns at size 5, then 3 at size 6.

(15) 1830BC Arabs have Math; good thing we didn't try to run min science on that.

(16) 1790BC The Arabs and Carthaginians have Math/Code of Laws, and no one else has them. Obviously we can't get either one at the moment until more civs get both.

(17) 1750BC Almarikh founded. Now we no longer look so pathetic.

(19) 1700BC We can broker a deal, but the cost is too high for too little gain at the moment.

(20) 1675BC Iroquois have settled another city in what should be our territory. They will get what's coming to them in time... Map Making has been discovered and traded around. After some magnificent trading rounds, we have Math, CoL, Map Making, and the full world map. Cost was about 6gpt.

(23) 1600BC Caesar demands money from us. In no position to refuse, we comply. Tabriz founded to secure us silks in the distant future. It's worthless jungle for now.

(25) 1550BC Germans go to war with Carthage (that's bigtime news).

Keep trading for world maps. Settler in the field moves one tile west to red dot and settles there. The circled warrior and scout in green move to the green "x"s in order to block off further AI expansion through the narrow corridor (at least until cultural borders expand). Expect Rome and Iroquois to go to war any moment now, since both are out of land. We'll want to side with Rome if that conflict occurs. Try to get control of the iron in the south, the only one even remotely close to us. We'll likely have to trade for horses, unless we can steal the nearby one from the Iroquois. I'd suggest playing 20 turns each from here on out Speaker. Have fun!

 

[Sullla]

EDIT: double post, sorry.

 

[Speaker]

With much glee, the child-leader Temujin looked straight down into the ground. He stood atop a large mountain, the inside of which was filled with a powerful metal, which when extracted, would outfit his glorious armies. "Now that we have procured this 'Iron,'" Temujin said, we are unstoppable. The world will quake at the footsteps of our powerful army, which will march through the heart of the lands of our neigh...I mean enemies."

"But sir," Temujin's top aide and advisor said, as he stood next to his leader. "It will take many seasons to build roads to carry this Iron. What will we do in the meantime?"

Temujin turned toward his aide and scowled.

***

The years 1525 to 1050 were a prosperous and glorious time for Temujin and the Mongolian people. It was then that Temujin, fresh off of his embarassing conflict with Rome, decided to build an army worthy of his name. In the great cities of Kazan and Almarikh he ordered the construction of barracks, so troops could better be trained for battle. He wanted experienced troops, who could heartily defend his people. In the next 20 seasons, Kazan and Almarikh would train warriors who would exchange their axes for swords, as soon as the necessary materials to outfit such an army were procured and brought to the core of Mongolia. The great city of Hovd was founded next to an iron pit, securing the vital resource and while the great-Iron road was under construction, warriors were trained in anticipation of the day when they might be ready for battle.

Many towns were founded during this period, as the population of the great city of Karakorum continued to swell past a managable size. Every five seasons, Temujin would choose 20,000 residents and send them into the wild to found new villages, to spread the Mongolian spirit as far as the eye could see. The land was fertile and the towns were popular. In Ta-Tu, Temujin trained the population to work, sending out more and more young men and women to work the land.

The Mongolian soothsayers, having spent 40 seasons pursuing an idea, finally developed a religion where many different Gods could be worshipped a the same time. Although this knowledge had been developed a few seasons earlier by the Carthaginians, few other tribes had worked on the idea. Mongolia tought this Polytheism to Arabia and Rome in exchange for many gold coins as well as an even more special prize. Arabia taught Temujin to think about things that they called "abstract." Temujin was puzzled, but the Arabians told him that that was the point. Temujin ordered his scientists to spend the next 40 seasons developing a better system of government, where the people would have some say in how they were ruled.

On the beautiful grasslands to the east of Karakorum, scores of warriors met in bloody battle, axes meeting flesh with horrible casualties on both sides. Men on horseback and men with spears gradually entered the fray, which lasted for many years. The tribes known as the Romans and the Iroquois had run out of land to fill with their excess population and thus the first Great War began. Neither side was able to make any gains in terms of land, and thus, the deaths of their strong, young men was all in vain. Elsewhere, the German tribe battled the Carthaginian tribe to a standstill as well. The warlike Romans did manage, however, to destroy several towns that held allegiance to the Scandinavian tribe, although these towns were small and insignificant to the Scandinavian people, being so far away from the great city of Trondheim.

Several spectacular works of architecture and masonry were completed during this time, as Rome constructed a set of triangular buildings known as "Pyramids," as well as a massive statue which they called "the Colossus." Arabia built a great temple which they called "the Oracle." While this historian has not seen the aforementioned works, he has read numerous accounts of their greatness and hopes to someday see them before they are destroyed by the raging Mongol hordes.

***

With unthinkable quickness, Temujin shoved his aide off the edge of the mountain into the gaping iron pit below. The unfortunate man's screams were quickly silenced as his blood stained the dark ground below. "I name this mine Hovd," Temujin bellowed. "The Iroquois will soon pay for their audacity and the Romans and Carthaginians for their arrogance." Temujin walked away from the pit having lost an aide, but he would appoint another soon. He had his iron. Everything was going according to his design.

(File Upload being flaky. Savegame emailed to Sullla)

 

[Speaker]

IT- Everything looks really good.

1525BC (1) Kazan Barracks => Warrior. Rome builds Pyramids. Mecca builds Oracle.

1500BC (2) Ulaanbaatar founded. CoL to Iroquoid and to Scandinavia for a worker.

IT- Warriors from Hispalis and Allegheny meet.

1475BC (3) Ivory allows lux to drop to 20%. Settler heads toward iron in the northeast.

IT- Carthaginian warrior destroys 3 German Archers.

1375BC (7) Carthage has Poly and Philo. Only Germany has Philo. Hold off trading until we get Polytheism.

IT- Rome declares on Vikings.

1350BC (8) Heavy map trading.

IT- Carthage demands TM and 29 gold. They are far away and at war, but we have no military so no need to push our luck over a few coins.

1275BC (11) Hovd claims iron.

1225BC (13) Darhan founded in the jungle. Arabs have construction.

IT- Pisae builds Collossus.

1100BC (18) Carthage develops currency.

1075BC (19) Polytheism traded for Philosophy and some cash. Construction and Currency cost too much and why speed up the tech rate by giving Arabia two techs and 350 gold? Mini sci started on Republic.

1050BC (20) Dalandzadgag founded.

Conclusion- Both Rome and Iroquois have iron, but their cities near us will not be connected forever. We should connect our iron as quickly as possible and attack them with swords or MDI as soon as possible (it will take a while to connect the iron, but I like our chances against the AI, especially since these two civs have been at war for a long time and show no sign of pausing. The Iroqouis have one source of horses but cannot connect it anytime soon.). The settler near Ta-Tu is going to a southern location that you can choose. We should think about our FP site soon. Remember that we are razing all cities, so we should probably build our second core to the south. War will be upon us soon. Have fun.

PS- You may want to reconsider my decision to not buy Construction and Currency. Then again, you might not want to.

 

[Sullla]

Talk about quick turnaround. I've never been up again in a SG two hours after I finished my last turn! Will get to it as soon as I can, hopefully sometime tomorrow - but maybe not.

 

[Speaker]

I'm completely free for the next couple days, but am moving to New York this weekend, so until then, expect a quick turn around. After that, once I start work....

 

[Sullla]

Played the turns but only halfway done with the story. Rather than see this bumped off the first page, I thought I'd post what I have done so far...

"Demands"

They were always after Temujin, hounding him like mastiffs sent on the trail of a fleeing hind. On the best of days, it was the palace staff that dogged his every move from sunup to sundown. There was always something that could only be settled by the personal attentions of the great khan, whether it was how many spears to order for the latest crop of Mongol warriors or how much the cooks should be paid down in the great kitchens. Few knew that his trips to the outlying cities to "supervise" their development was often nothing more than an excuse to get away from the constant and unending demands on his time, day in and day out without end from spring to fall and back to spring again. But although the neverending demands on his time were a pain for Temujin to deal with, he knew that in the long run the hundreds of advisors who helped to run the nation of Mongolia had only the best interests of the state in mind.

On the worst of days, like today, he faced men who held no such compunctions.

Seated on his plain wooden throne in the unadorned hall of rough granite that he used as his receptional hall, Temujin started down at the Arab ambassador before him. Temujin's garb was as plain as his surroundings, nothing more than a soldier's overcoat of tough boiled leather to protect the body, held back by a simple belt adorned only with a small silver buckle, which tucked into soft, baggy trousers of animal hides ideal for horseback riding. Temujin was used to wearing a cap of warm animal fur when out in the field, but today his head was left bare to reveal the shaggy mass of black hair that ran down to the top of his neck. Draped on the wall behind him was the national flag, a steel gauntleted fist upraised to the sky on a field of yellowish gold: the banner known everywhere as "Temujin's Fist." The rest of the room was as bare as a baby's bottom, if considerably less smooth; the rough-hewn stone blocks looked as if they had been set in place yesterday, rather than centuries before. Apparently no one had ever bothered to smooth them into a more civilized form; apparently no one had cared.

The Arab emissary was wrapped in simple robes as well, although the soft-colored garments designed to keep out the heat of the desert sands were made of the finest silks. The ambassador, Omar by name, now peered out from under the hood of his cloaked robe awaiting an answer to the news that he had brought the khan. Temujin had greeted the proposal - no! no need to lie about what it was; better simply to have out with it and call it by its proper name - had greeted the demand with cold silence when it was delivered to the palace earlier that morning. Bad enough that the Koreans had seen fit to level a threat of their own barely a week earlier; now it seemed that everyone was jumping on the Mongols at the slighest sign of weakness. Though he hated what he was about to do with every fiber of his being, Temujin knew what his answer had to be.

"Your terms are acceptable to us. We will have the money you require ready to be transported across the deserts within a fortnight," said Temujin in a voice as cold as the stone around him. The words were dragged out as though pulled with a pair of forceps. It was bad enough that his nation was weak compared to the rest of the world; must they rub it into his face at every opportunity?

The Arab bowed politely and went out. No sooner had he left than Temujin dropped the polite fascade he used for public audiences and hurled the earthenware mug of ale proferred to him by a servant to the ground. The container shattered on impact, spraying the foamy liquid across the dirt floor to stain the ground in dark rivulets. It made Temujin think of blood. He swore to himself that he would not suffer such a humiliation again, not in the very halls of his palace. "Next time," he thought darkly, "things are going to be different."

 

[Sullla]

"Demands", Part 2

Temujin stared daggers into the face of the fat fool in front of him. He was back in his audience hall once again, seated once more upon the uncomfortable throne, receiving yet another pompous foreign dignitary. It was not a duty that he relished. The current arrogant ass was a Scandinavian by the name of Hrolfgar, from some ancient and noble lineage with extensive ties to the Viking throne - ties which he had just spent the last hour telling Temujin about in great detail. Other nations would not have had to put up with this kind of drivel, but everyone knew the weaknesses of Mongolia, and so the khan had to put up with this mindless banter. He passed the time in these interminable audiences by fantasizing about driving a spear deep into the gut of the man in front of him; with so much flesh, it would be just like harpooning a whale. Temujin chuckled inwardly at the thought.

The mindless babble began to approach a somewhat topical subject; it appeared as though Hrolfgar was finally going to announce why he had been sent to Karakorum in the first place.

"Yes, you see, the greatness of Trondheim is indeed beyond compare to any city in the known world," he droned onward, "but it could be even more beautiful. Yes, much more beautiful. If only we knew how to construct things like aqueducts and colosseums, we could make the city that much more magnificent. And you'll share with us the knowledge of Construction that you have, won't you Temujin?"

"What are you asking of me? Have out with it, man!" said Temujin, eager for this meeting to be over.

"I'm just making a reasonable request for you to share the fruits of your research with us, that's all," answered Hrolfgar. Now that the actual reason for his coming was at hand, he seemed quite a bit more nervous than when discussing the glorious deeds of his ancestors. "As one nation to another. Brother to brother, you know? I'm sure that that won't be a problem." From his expression, he certainly hoped that it wouldn't be a problem.

"Is that a threat?" asked Temujin softly, well known to be his most dangerous tone.

Hrolfgar mopped his consierable brow with a silk hankerchief; sweat had begun appearing on his face all of a sudden. "No! Not a threat, not at all," he answered nervously. "No threats between such friendly nations. But surely you must, ah, recognize the reality of your political situation. Scandinavia is a mighty country, the largest in the world, and when King Rangar requests a, err, gift from you it would not be, ah, polite to refuse."

"We paid good money to Arabia for those secrets, and I will not give away the knowledge of Mongolia so easily," replied Temujin, rising to his feet from the throne. "Ragnar should know that we do not subscribe to blackmail here in Mongolia. And as for you... well, Scandinavia is a long way away from Karakorum." And for the first time that day, Temujin smiled.

That was when Hrolfgar really began to sweat.

A short time later, as the audience hall was being cleaned of the mess that inevitably came with such public demonstrations, an aide spoke up to Temujin on the certainty of war. The khan laughed. "Let them come! The Romans will keep most of the heat off of us. As for what does come, I'm off for the northern frontier to attend to matters personally. And," he continued, "it was important to show the rest of the world that we are not a doormat to be walked upon whenever they feel like extortion."

"Isn't that right?" he asked, raising his voice to carry throughout the hall to all of the notable persons gathered within. They all solemnly nodded their heads in assent - not that anyone would have been in the mood to disagree with Temujin considering what had just happened.

* * * * *

The cool breeze blowing through his dark hair was a refreshing relief from the sweltering heat of the jungle; all too quickly it was gone, causing a fresh trickle of sweat to run down Temujin's forehead. He was where he always served best, among his soldiers in the frontier town of Hovd, the most likely target for the Scandinavians to attack. They had tried it in the earliest days of the war, sending a force of archers against the city walls, only to be driven off and destroyed miraculously by a small contingent of local militia. The khan had already given a speech in their honor and planned to erect a statue of the hometown heroes at some later date - when funds were not so tight. For Hovd was not just any ramshackle frontier trading post flying the banner of Temujin's Fist; it was also the location of the nation's only iron mine. Even as he stood here on the walls of the town gazing out to the horizon, he knew that somewhere far to the south worker gangs were building a great road through the jungle to connect the iron mine to the rest of the country and enable the construction of deadly new weapons. When that day came, Mongolia would cease to be a laughingstock among the nations of the world.

"There's another one, sir." The spearman on his right pointed out into the deep jungles, and Temujin squinted to follow the direction of his arm. His eyes weren't as good as they had been in younger days; now where were they? Ah - there! Out amongst the trees he saw a sudden flash of color, there and then gone in an instant. The boy was right; they were indeed outside the city waiting for the moment to strike.

Later that night he met with his advisors in the local town hall, which was little more than an overgrown barn usually used for storing cattle. Even right now there was still a light covering of hay over the dirt floor, and the place stank of manure. Temujin didn't care; the place suited his purposes.

"We know from our scouts that there are Scandinavian forces out there in the jungles, and quite a lot of them unless our estimates are wrong," he began. "What would you propose we do about it?"

"My lord, I don't see any alternative but to surrender the town," answered Chagatai. He was Temujin's third and youngest son, although neither acknowledged it in the formal councils; a good diplomat with many political uses but not a fighter. "It's simply a matter of numbers; they've got us nearly surrounded and outnumbered at least two to one. Maybe more than that by now. When they attack, it won't be a battle - it will be a massacre."

"Baah! You never had the balls for a siege Chagatai, so shut your mouth and keep quiet!" That was Ogodei, the khan's oldest son. Always full of bluster and eager for a fight, Temujin frequently thought Ogodei what he himself would have been like had he not learned the need for diplomatic tact at an early age. "We can hold those dogs out for a dozen years if need be, right Jochi?"

The recipient of that question was Temujin's middle son, the fourth and final member of the council that mattered. There were other aides and such present, but they were nothing more than underlings that would agree to whatever the main leaders decided. Jochi was a silent man, much given to introspection, who rarely spoke and never let what he was thinking appear on his face. Of the three, Temujin thought his middle son the most dangerous by far. As was his want, Jochi merely smiled at his brother's question and looked pointedly at Temujin, indicating that he yielded the floor back to the khan.

"Chagatai, you have to learn something," said Temujin. "It's one thing to negotiate with other peoples; I'm willing to do that from time to time because I know it's in the best interests of our nation. But it's another thing entirely to bend down in the dust and lick the feet of our foreign oppressors!"

"But Father!" interrupted Chagatai, leaping to his feet.

"Never cut in on me when I'm speaking!" roared Temujin, standing as well. He was almost a head shorter than his son, but the younger man cringed back all the same at the naked fury in the khan's eyes. "We do not surrender to threats. Ever! Do you hear me?! They will talk with us and ask for peace, mark my word."

Already on his feet, Temujin dismissed the meeting by walking out of the barn, calling back over his shoulder as he did so. "And if you ever call me by that name again while we're in formal council, I'll kill you myself."

Discipline could be harsh in the family of the great khan.

* * * * *

Day after day passed outside the city of Hovd, and every night the number of campfires they could see out in the steamy forests grew greater. Temujin took to pacing the walls of the city endlessly, his nerves on end from the tension. As every day passed without word from the Scandinavians, he became visibly more and more tense, like a cork screwed tighter and tighter into a bottle. Doubts began to creep into his mind, a feeling completely alien to the khan who always seemed impossibly sure of himself and his own actions. Had he made the right decision? Maybe he should have considered abandoning the city to save the rest of his civilization. But... no! Hovd was the location of his only iron mine, the keystone of his entire carefully laid plans. This place among all others he must defend to the death.

A booming sound went up from the jungles, the noise of hundreds of war drums beating in unison. Whoops and cheers could be heard echoing between the trees as the Viking hordes began their advance on the city. Temujin swore and grabbed the nearest aide, issuing forth a stream of directions on how to prepare the city for imminent attack. Within moments, the town was bustling with activity as men everywhere grabbed their weapons and prepared to take positions on the wall. They were not on the whole a very promising lot, however; some men were armed with fine spears capable of stopping a determined assault, but most of the city was to be guarded by local militia with no equipment better than rough stone axes. Out of desperation, Temujin had armed many of the local women as well, but he didn't think it would do much good in the end. When the Vikings came in numbers, the walls would be overrun and the streets would flow with Mongol blood.

On they came, the foreigners decked out with shiny swords and with their faces painted in bizzare patterns of runes incomprehensible to the Mongol defenders. They could be easily seen through the trees now, thousands in all, far too many to stop. Temujin fingered his fine sword and prepared to die gloriously in battle.

Out of nowhere the silvery note of a trumpet sounded across the battlefield. Everyone present, Viking and Mongol alike looked around confusedly for the source of the sound. The call came once, twice, then a third time - and, shockingly, the Scandinavians began to retreat back into the jungles. His aides looked at his in befuddlement and Temujin smiled back confidently, but in reality he had no more idea what was going on than they did. Why retreat now when victory seemed to be at hand?

The mystery soon revealed itself in the presence of a messenger of the Scandinavian court, who called off the armies and was ushered in to talk with Temujin along with the Viking commander Erikk. He annouced that he was prepared to offer a peace treaty with the Mongols, provided a pittance of gold was kicked in along with the deal. Temujin was more than happy to oblige.

"But, but..." sputtered Erikk to the effeminate ambassador, "I'm about to run over the city here. There's no need to make peace, we're about to win! Give me another day and I'll reduce this city to rubble!"

The ambassador sniffed at the mud-stained uniform of his fellow countryman. "I'm sorry, sir, but my orders come directly from the king himself, so I'm afraid you're outranked. And Ragnar explicitly sent me here to ask for a fair and just peace, which Khan Temujin is prepared to offer. Your barbaric actions have no place here."

"If Ragnar were here, I'm sure he would side with me," shot back Erikk in barely restrained tones of anger.

"Well he's not, so I guess we'll have to do things the 'civilized' way," beamed Temujin back happily. After the meeting had concluded and the Scandinavians shown their way back, all of the Mongols had a good laugh at their ineptitude of their foes. "That's bureaucracy for you!" chuckled Temujin over a mug of good home-brewed beer. He slapped Chagatai on the back, nearly sending his son to the floor. "Didn't I tell you they'd talk to us? And for the last time: we Mongols don't give in to demands!"

EG2 550BC

 

[Sullla]

Fun turn; the war with Scandinavia was completely unexpected. Here's what actually happened while I was playing:

(0) 1050BC For the most part we have plenty of veteran warriors; what we really need are vet spears to provide real defense. I will swap after the current builds finish. When Ulaanbaator finishes its granary, it becomes the worker factory instead of Ta-Tu. Other cities mostly need to keep growing.

We can get Construction at a good discount, not sure what Speaker didn't think that this was a good deal. Polytheism + 376g for Construction. It would have run close to 700g without kicking in Polytheism; sounds like a good deal to me.

(1) 1025BC Pick up an Iroquois worker for Philosophy, an outdated tech.

(2) 1000BC Wow, it "pick on the Mongols" day. Koreans demand Philosophy; seeing as how they could have demanded a much more valuable tech, we are glad to give it to them. Then the Arabs demand gold from us, which we again have to accept. Then the Romans demand we leave their territory, which we agree to do. Temujin wants his iron!

(4) 950BC Ulaanbaator's granary whipped (only got 16 shields, but at 3 shields/turn that's 6 turns; and it will only take 4 turns to regrow in size. Clear benefit.)

(7) 875BC Arabs complete Great Wall, Carthaginians complete Lighthouse. The Arabs have settled where I wanted to in the south one turn before I could get there. Arrg!

(8) 850BC Rangar demands Construction from us. I'll give away cheap gold and the like, but an expensive tech that we paid good money for is another thing entirely. Temujin declines, Rangar declares war. We survive an attack by the only Scandinavian unit in our territory. This certainly makes things more interesting; we'll need to seek peace ASAP. Mandalgovi founded in a horrible spot, forced by the Arabs.

(10) 800BC Carthage and Vikings go to war (not big news at all). Arabia jumps into Middle Ages too; nothing we can do about it at this time, of course. .

(11) 775BC Arabs declare war on Germany, and that IS big news.

(12) 750BC Korea goes to war with Germans. Dogpile on Bis; good thing his enemies are mostly a world away. Now everyone is in the Middle Ages; we get there too for 220g + 10gpt. We could trade for it in straight-up gold, but then we wouldn't have enough money for upgrades. Only Korea has any Middle Ages tech; they drew Monotheism.

(15) 690BC If the Vikings don't talk with us soon, we are majorly screwed. Big time force descending on our Iron City, practically no defense up there. Please talk to us!

(16) 670BC Ha ha ha! With 8 swords and 2 archers outside Hovd, now Ragnar will talk to us. Peace GLADLY signed. Note to self: never try to bluff with Temujin again. We live to fight another day. Here's what the situation looked like:

(17) 650BC End of war "happiness" sends our cities into disorder. Hard to remember that in despotism. Too bad Viking units are still camping out on top of our iron, preventing me from hooking it up.

(18) 630BC Damn Vikings! Get off my iron! Trade our excess wines for Scandinavian furs, both for happiness purposes and to get the Vikings back to polite with us.

(20) 590BC This is disgusting. We can NOT get to our iron! There are dozens of Viking units walking around the area, camping out on the mountains around it. We are losing our window of opportunity to attack, because of the worthless pathfinding ability of the AI. Bah!

(21) 570BC Finally we can reach the iron outside Hovd. Workers move to hook it up.

(22) 550BC Done.

Iron will be hooked up in 2 more turns, then we can upgrade and fight. Iroquois look like the only real target at the moment; just razing and replacing Tonawanda + Allegheny would be a BIG gain for us. There are three settlers in Ta-Tu ready to replace razed cities. Do NOT piss off Korea or Scandinavia, they have tons of units in our territory as part of a Deity Right of Passage (TM); going to attack Germany, probably. Lightning strike against the Iroquois followed by a quick peace would probably serve us best. Once we get into Republic, things should pick up a lot too. We're down only Monotheism and the government techs at the moment. Good luck - at least we're still alive!

 

[Sullla]

Don't expect me to be able to play 20 turns AND write that kind of a story ever 24 hours; I can't keep that kind of pace up all the time. So no need to try and hurry with your turns Speaker, take all the time you need.

I've given you some more characters to play with, if you want to use them fine or you can keep them out. This is the second time I've written about Temujin, and I feel as though I really have his character down pat. That shouldn't keep you from writing about things however you see fit, just bear in mind that this is how I'm going to present him. Good luck on the next turn!

Map:

 

[Speaker]

Sitting in his stone palace, Temujin looked over his lands. What had recently been lavish gardens and lush green pastures, had now become trampled from the large foreign armies continually marching south. Some of them used his roads, getting in the way of the Mongolian military and workforce. Most of them stepped wherever they pleased, plundering the land as they went. The Mongolian citizens were barely able to work the land to keep the population well nourished. All of this and none of this Temujin saw as he looked out his window.

"Ogodei, what news from Hovd?" Temujin methodically said, still looking out the window, the second his sons walked into the room.

Ogodei slowly turned and looked at his brother Jochi to his right. How had their father known they had entered the room? Ogodei had noticed a subtle change in his father of late. He was always on edge, always resentful. He had killed five aides in the last week alone. He had even snapped at Chagatai in the last council meeting. Jochi was elbowing him.

"Uh, good news sir from Hovd sir. The iron pit is being worked and our forges have created dozens of new weapons which are known as "swords." Our warriors have been trained to fight with these swords and the army awaits your command."

Temjuin slowly turned away from the window, hands clasped together. "Good. Get me the emissary from Hiawatha NOW!"

*****

Somewhere near Kazan.

"Move your feet, move your feet, strike fast, move your feet." The instructor droned on. For an entire season they had trained to fight with these new weapons. Magdalai was the best and the brightest of the young Mongolian fighting force, and from the first second he picked up his new sword, he knew his life's purpose. He was born the second of five sons in a large family of farmers. His father was a farmer. His father's father was a farmer. His mother's father was a farmer. His brothers were farmers. But Magdalai hated farming. He hated dirt. He hated seeds. He hated people. He wasn't the biggest or the fastest, but he was the smartest. And maybe more importantly, he was the meanest. Growing up, he was always fighting, and he was always winning. His enemies failed against him because they were not willing to kill him. Magdalai did not care what happened to him. He was beaten many times, twice within an inch of his life, but once he healed, even if it was a month or a year later, he would always finish the fight. Everyone soon learned to stay out of his way. When he was old enough, Magdalai volunteered to join the Mongolian army, where he learned discipline and nationalism. He never picked a fight again...with a Mongolian.

With a sword in his hand, Magdalai finally felt alive. His strokes were the most precise. His slashes the most vicious. In training, he never received a single scratch, and sent eight men to the infirmary. He made the highest score on the fitness test and the other men all looked up to him. It came as no surprise when he was chosen as Ghan, the head of the army.

"Allow me to interrupt you, instructor," Magdalai said. "Men listen to me. I have just received orders from Karakorum. Tomorrow we march. War will soon be upon us. Soon the world will feel the fury of Temujin's Fist!"

*****

The Iroquois emissary walked into the room slowly. Too slowly, Temujin thought. The Great Khan looked over the emissary catching every detail in the blink of an eye. Beads of sweat on his brow belied his air of confidence. They also showed how fat and out of shape he was. The blubbery man stood in the doorway, awaiting command from the cavalier Khan. He had noticed a change in the Khan, the last few weeks and the early hour of this call, had him trembling. He couldn't look at Temujin. The great man's steely glare burned his skin like the leaves he had been forced to use to clean himself the past week. Yes, something certainly was different.

"You will teach us the secrets of literature," Temujin said simply, no emotion revealed.

"Uh, literature? What do you mean?" The emissary stammered. "Surely you do not mean that..."

"Yes." Temujin replied.

"We cannot, uh, give you the secrets of literature for nothing," the emissary said."

"Oh, but you will," Temujin said, a slight smile breaking on his lips.

"Well, I never," the emissary replied. "Hiawatha will be most displeased with your apparent lack of respect."

"And another thing," Temujin added. "Remove your troops from our land. They are no longer welcome in Mongolia. Your failure to remove them will be considered an act of war."

"War? Ahahahaha!" The emissary bellowed. Mongolia is weak. And we will take pleasure in annexing your feeble land. War it is." The emissary dispatched his aide to send a messenger to Hiawatha. The sidling Jochi, who had crept within two steps of the unwitting emissary, allowed the aide to pass, so Hiawatha would know what was coming and not claim he had been attacked without warning. "On a personal level Temujin, I shall take pleasure in sitting on your own throne just as soon as Karakorum is ground to dust and you with it.

Those were the emissary's futile last words.

"Guards, call the maid and ask her to remove the emissary." Temujin said with a smile. Jochi's face showed nothing as he wiped off his hands and walked out of the room.

*****

Near the ruins of Allegheny

"I annoit this new settlement Choybalsan!" Magdalai yelled, thrusting his fist toward the sky, an act his thousands of troops replicated, filling the air with cheers. "Tonight, we will dance on the graves of our enemies!"

More cheers.

"Allegheny is no more, as is Tonawanda in the south! We have lost but three units and slaughtered a dozen of the enemy!"

The applause was thundering and Magdalai allowed them a moment to revel before he quieted them again.

"I do not know yet whether we will push on, or whether we will demand reparations and consolidate our empire, but tonight it does not matter! We have Iroquois food to feast on and Iroquoi women to..."

Magdalai again waited for the cheers to die down and then he unsheathed his great sword that already had 15 ticks on the handle. He pointed it toward the sky.

"This is Spears' bane! Temujin's Fist will fly forever!"

This time Magdalai let the cheers go. Hiawatha would hear them all the way in Salmanaca. No one would push around Mongolia ever again.

EG2-190BC

 

[Speaker]

IT- War preprations started. Roads constructed towards Allegheny and Tonawanda, our targets.

530BC (1) Continued preparations. Iron connects.

510BC (2) Shuffling troops for preparation. Building fortress on iron. 9 warriors given brand new swords and trained to use them.

410BC (7) Karakorum, at 10 spt, can build a swordsman every 3 turns now. Iroquois refuse to give Literature. Troops ordered out of our territory. They declare war. Spices connect, dropping luxuries. 6 swordsmen, a settler, and 2 workers move next to Allegheny.

390BC (8) Swordsmen destroys warrior, capturing two slaves.

Allegheny
Vet Sword d. Reg Spear 4-1
Ved Sword l. Reg Spear 4-3
Vet Sword d. Vet Archer 4-3
Vet Sword d. Reg Spear 2-1

Allegheny razed.
Stray warrior and spearman defeated.

Troops move into position near Tonawanda.

IT- Iroquois sword d. our spearman near Tonawanda.

370BC (9) Choybalsan founded on the ruins of Allegheny.

Tonawanda
Vet Sword d. Reg Spear 4-3 upgrades
Vet Sword d. Reg Spear 4-0 upgrades
Vet Sword d. Reg Sword 3-1 upgrades

Tonawanda razed.

IT- Carthage and Germany peace. First Mounted Warrior appears in the field.

350BC (10) Sword/Settler pair cut down.

2 MW and a Sword slaughtered.

IT- Iro Sword kills Sword.

330BC (11) Kill a couple stray units.

310BC (12) Erdenet founded in the ruins of Tonawanda. Pillage Iroquois horses.

IT- Korea demands TM and 36 gold. This is the last time. They have so many units in our territory that I can't say no. Two Iroquois swords are skewered attacking our swords, killing our pillaging sword, but upgrading another sword.

290BC (13) No battle, consolidating troops.

IT- Iros pillage road connecting our iron city to our core. The rivers are making it difficult to get troops up there. I will buckle down to secure the region.

270BC (14) Elite sword redlines but defeats pillaging spear.

IT- Didn't notice an archer under a spearman and he is redlined before he defeats our scouting warrior in the north. Palace expands and gets a second level.

250BC (15) Major troops shuffling to secure the north and keep our roads clean around Karakorum. Karakorum has grown and requires a scientist until we can reconnect the spices. Allows science to be dropped to 0%.

IT- Legion army steps into the field. Yikes. Iroquois warrior dies against our warrior in Mandalgovi without a scratch.

230BC (16) Kill warrior. Iroquois SoD of archers and warriors moves toward Hovd. Hopefully we will be able to turn them back. Elite Sword kills spearman but does not spawn great leader.

IT- Two archers attack warrior on the iron, one of which dies. Warriors disperse. Hannibal demands 43gold and our TM. They are in the middle of/just finished with their golden age and no doubt have a ton of units to throw at us, so I don't risk it.

210BC (17) Iroquois archer kills a swordsman, but I kill him with a warrior and our iron is safe. Kill spearman with a sword who upgrades to elite at Tabriz. Kill a warrior with a sword. Iron is back online.

IT- Mounted Warrior appears out of the fog and kills a spearman (protecting a swordsman), so if it hadn't already been started, the Iroquois now have their Golden Age.

190BC (18) Spices are back online. Sword kills warrior. Sword kills warrior who is "protecting" a settler.

Conclusion- I am stopping here so you can make the next decision. Peace can be had and the Iros will give Literature, 106gold, 2gpt, and their WM, and will give a city or two, but I think that would belie the spirit of the game. You can take the peace if you want, or you can press on. There are a bunch of swords in Choybalsan which can move on toward Niagra Falls, as well as a bunch near Tabriz which can move toward St. Regis. Or if you want, the swords near Tabriz still have movement if you want to move them back toward Darhan so they can attack Cattaragus. I'm not sure what I would do since we are facing the Iroquois golden age. On the other hand, they only have a few productive cities and no horses connected. I leave it in your very capable hands Sullla. Oh, and we just finished Republic but I was waiting until the war was over to revolt. I wasn't too worried about technology. Engineering came out along with Monotheism, so you can look into catching us up there as well.

PS- I am moving to New York tomorrow, so I won't be able to play until Sunday, so take your time and enjoy!