Malys Faisent
Croissant King
The following is a slightly embellished rendition of a game of mine on Friday night, which I haven't quite finished yet:
I started the game on a decent sized island, alone (it seemed) in the fertile plains of the northern coast of my land. Quickly I set about building warrior upon warrior to explore and gain knowledge from the relatively less civilized tribes that were near me.
While I was busy researching the workings of bronze I had a friendly people tell me of the gods, and how to bury our dead to properly join with them. Shortly after, I met a tribe of bow-weilders that explained the honor of combat. The next decade I found another people, a people that dyed their clothing a repulsive orange! But they were nearly as advanced as I! Their workers dotted the landscape below my warrior chief and he had a vision from the gods! Attack and slay these people at once, these so called, 'English' before they could seek to rival our dominance.
So we did, and the war lasted many a century until the English were finally driven to their deaths, their lands and cities claimed by the ruthless (though snappily pink dressed) French.
During the war I had discovered the uses of horses and Iron, and though our fields were thick with the hooves of horses, no Iron could be found anywhere in our lands, except the small vein we discovered in our early research, certainly nothing to found an empire on!
We looked longingly at the sea, wondering if the deep gods that dwelt below it would permit our passage, and by the time we controlled all of our island (now known as Frankrovia) the winds blew change upon us. Out of the deep blue a wonderous people landed in the south, a strange and beautiful purple wearing people, a people with boats, and knowledge of maps and other great things. We quickly emptied our war-filled coffers to them to learn their ways, trading our new maps with theirs, but then they did the unthinkable! The set foot on Holy Frankrovia! The horror as our multiple gods shouted for us to slay the Indian and lay waste to their accursed town.
Our armies, well versed in combat, and well trained in achieving victory were immediately successful in driving these purple beings from our lands. We constructed great ships and stopped working on the greatest library the world had ever seen, instead burning the books in a huge pyre to light the way for our ships, the Great Lighthouse was born! (we had heard rumors that the Russians had created a Library far greater than anything we could have accomplished...though we'd yet to meet these Russian people).
We set sail towards the homeland of the Purple People and ran across a ship with blue sails, and met our worthwhile friends, the Germans. It seems that these barbarians had also been disgraced by the Indians, and it only took a tiny fraction of our coffers to convince them that the Indians should pay the price of their treachery. We landed on a small fertile island, and quickly dispatched those that defended it setting our dominance over the indians that lived there. We pressed forward, noticing our allies had conquered the next island, a small dismal affair which we would not have wanted anyway. Then we landed on the Indian Isle, a strange place with Ivory, incense, and lo! and behold! IRON!
We conquered the city nearest to Holy Frankrovia, preparing to set up a harbor to export back fine ivory home (the people were starting to get restless about the war, something about the Senate...) When the first devestating calamity took place! The Indians retook the city of New Paris and drove us off of their land! They took the initiative and demanded peace from us, which we gave them...long enough to lick our wounds and prepare for vengance!
Years passed and we reached the threshold of a new age, though the lack of Iron was horrible to bear, for knights were now within our grasp. The only Iron in the world (that we knew of, it seems our erstwhile friends the Germans had mountains of this most precious metal) lay in the mountains on the Indian's far coast. Our ships made ready to sail, well out to sea by the gifts of our burning books..err lighthouse (we have many authors that don't rate well...) We circled around the Indians well out of reach and sight of any of their vessels, and demanded that they share Ivory and Incense with us, since they'd so far refused to trade. They kept with their refusal, and we told them that they would pay the ultimate price...
Our ships landed and conquered the small mining town, renamed to the Iron Republic, the population resisted our rule for sometime, but we paid good gold, a metal they had lacking and we made a harbor. Ever so quickly we exported the iron in our trade fleet, and turned to making knights with our well trained horsemen. The next exodus occured and we split the Indian empire right down the middle, demanded peace for the contents of their entire treasury, and set about solidifying our gains.
At home we found the workings of gunpowder, and combined with our divine might we realized that we could make the most effective soldiers the world had ever seen! But saltpetre was no-where to be found except in small quantities from the effluvia of our horses. We turned to our so-called friends, the Germans and asked if they had any to spare. They had no idea what we were talking about, so I asked them if they would like to exchange maps so that we could survey one another's lands...and that is when I found the ultimate treachery!
The Germans had stockpiles of Iron that they never mentioned to us...they had helped instigate the war against India for their own political reasons, leading our people astray! Not only that they had a wealth of Saltpetre as well! This would not do. We assaulted the mountainous town of Bremen to claim both and took it without much of a problem for we had many valiant knights from the Indian campaign, which had now settled into a stable peace where we traded back Ivory, Incense, Furs, and Dyes...a wonderful arrangement. Once Bremen fell, the Germans were incensed and sent hordes of their swordsmen (Iron beyond belief! A wealth of kings and nations!) into the mountains to oust our rightful rule. Little did they know that we had rushed a barracks and harbor to completion, and had retooled our spearmen into Musketeers...with long frilly pink trim even! Whether it was the sight of our pink frocks or the pounding of our muskets, we drove the Germans away and disgraced them into peace.
We entered our Golden Age (though scholars are loathe to give it such a misnomer...the Holy Pink French have always had gold to spare!) Shifting our industry from creating troops and coin to financing science was a fateful turn, for almost as soon as we'd pacified the Germans, one of our tiny galleys made the most important discovery the world had ever seen...an entire continent (much unlike the small islands of the Germans and Indians, and the perfectly sized Frankrovia). A Huge continent filled with all manners of people, from green cloaked Aztecs, to the rugged Browns of the Russians (which we'd heard the rumors about earlier). There were yellowish Zulu and light blue Chinese. A wealth of information flowed forth from them, technologies that we'd only dreamed of. We traded back and forth ever increasing in our profits and quickly the Great French entered a new age. Unfortunately it seemed our 'Golden Age' expired about the time we became industrious, but so much the better.
We learned many things in a short time, discovering the uses of Refining and Steel, and then realized yet again that we had no oil! The Blue Germans had resources galore, the only thing the lacked was rubber. Oil, Iron, Coal, Saltpetre, Horses! While Frankrovia had only horses, whilst it was twice the size of the small German lands. Luckily the importance of rubber was discovered, and we found that the lands we'd taken a thousand years before from the Indian had it in abundance. The Germans would not trade oil to me, claiming that they had no idea what we meant by oil! They asked that they share my research into refining, but I was no fool, instead my cavalry conquered their desert city and lay claim to the oil surrounding it, the fools didn't even know what they'd lost (though they had numerous other deposits...) and asked for peace.
Thats where I left it...it is 1882 and I am about 3 turns from tanks, the Indians and Germans are quite buddy buddy now, the other civilizations are getting slightly ancy about the French (perhaps the pink, I dunno) I am converting to a modern navy and army (infantry and battleships) and debating if I should smash the remnants of the Indians and risk another war with the Germans (who right now are more powerful than I on their island, with only my two cities...that is they have many many many more troops, though mine are better...but if they manage to contest my oil, I might be done for...) The really annoying thing, and the reasons for all my conquests has been strategic resources...other than horses I didn't have any on my continent, which is almost the size of the Indian's island and the German's island put together. I am desparately hoping that I'll have aluminum and uranium, or that the Germans/Indians have it since I am ahead of them in the tech race...if either is only on the large continent there will be a huge problem.
I started the game on a decent sized island, alone (it seemed) in the fertile plains of the northern coast of my land. Quickly I set about building warrior upon warrior to explore and gain knowledge from the relatively less civilized tribes that were near me.
While I was busy researching the workings of bronze I had a friendly people tell me of the gods, and how to bury our dead to properly join with them. Shortly after, I met a tribe of bow-weilders that explained the honor of combat. The next decade I found another people, a people that dyed their clothing a repulsive orange! But they were nearly as advanced as I! Their workers dotted the landscape below my warrior chief and he had a vision from the gods! Attack and slay these people at once, these so called, 'English' before they could seek to rival our dominance.
So we did, and the war lasted many a century until the English were finally driven to their deaths, their lands and cities claimed by the ruthless (though snappily pink dressed) French.
During the war I had discovered the uses of horses and Iron, and though our fields were thick with the hooves of horses, no Iron could be found anywhere in our lands, except the small vein we discovered in our early research, certainly nothing to found an empire on!
We looked longingly at the sea, wondering if the deep gods that dwelt below it would permit our passage, and by the time we controlled all of our island (now known as Frankrovia) the winds blew change upon us. Out of the deep blue a wonderous people landed in the south, a strange and beautiful purple wearing people, a people with boats, and knowledge of maps and other great things. We quickly emptied our war-filled coffers to them to learn their ways, trading our new maps with theirs, but then they did the unthinkable! The set foot on Holy Frankrovia! The horror as our multiple gods shouted for us to slay the Indian and lay waste to their accursed town.
Our armies, well versed in combat, and well trained in achieving victory were immediately successful in driving these purple beings from our lands. We constructed great ships and stopped working on the greatest library the world had ever seen, instead burning the books in a huge pyre to light the way for our ships, the Great Lighthouse was born! (we had heard rumors that the Russians had created a Library far greater than anything we could have accomplished...though we'd yet to meet these Russian people).
We set sail towards the homeland of the Purple People and ran across a ship with blue sails, and met our worthwhile friends, the Germans. It seems that these barbarians had also been disgraced by the Indians, and it only took a tiny fraction of our coffers to convince them that the Indians should pay the price of their treachery. We landed on a small fertile island, and quickly dispatched those that defended it setting our dominance over the indians that lived there. We pressed forward, noticing our allies had conquered the next island, a small dismal affair which we would not have wanted anyway. Then we landed on the Indian Isle, a strange place with Ivory, incense, and lo! and behold! IRON!
We conquered the city nearest to Holy Frankrovia, preparing to set up a harbor to export back fine ivory home (the people were starting to get restless about the war, something about the Senate...) When the first devestating calamity took place! The Indians retook the city of New Paris and drove us off of their land! They took the initiative and demanded peace from us, which we gave them...long enough to lick our wounds and prepare for vengance!
Years passed and we reached the threshold of a new age, though the lack of Iron was horrible to bear, for knights were now within our grasp. The only Iron in the world (that we knew of, it seems our erstwhile friends the Germans had mountains of this most precious metal) lay in the mountains on the Indian's far coast. Our ships made ready to sail, well out to sea by the gifts of our burning books..err lighthouse (we have many authors that don't rate well...) We circled around the Indians well out of reach and sight of any of their vessels, and demanded that they share Ivory and Incense with us, since they'd so far refused to trade. They kept with their refusal, and we told them that they would pay the ultimate price...
Our ships landed and conquered the small mining town, renamed to the Iron Republic, the population resisted our rule for sometime, but we paid good gold, a metal they had lacking and we made a harbor. Ever so quickly we exported the iron in our trade fleet, and turned to making knights with our well trained horsemen. The next exodus occured and we split the Indian empire right down the middle, demanded peace for the contents of their entire treasury, and set about solidifying our gains.
At home we found the workings of gunpowder, and combined with our divine might we realized that we could make the most effective soldiers the world had ever seen! But saltpetre was no-where to be found except in small quantities from the effluvia of our horses. We turned to our so-called friends, the Germans and asked if they had any to spare. They had no idea what we were talking about, so I asked them if they would like to exchange maps so that we could survey one another's lands...and that is when I found the ultimate treachery!
The Germans had stockpiles of Iron that they never mentioned to us...they had helped instigate the war against India for their own political reasons, leading our people astray! Not only that they had a wealth of Saltpetre as well! This would not do. We assaulted the mountainous town of Bremen to claim both and took it without much of a problem for we had many valiant knights from the Indian campaign, which had now settled into a stable peace where we traded back Ivory, Incense, Furs, and Dyes...a wonderful arrangement. Once Bremen fell, the Germans were incensed and sent hordes of their swordsmen (Iron beyond belief! A wealth of kings and nations!) into the mountains to oust our rightful rule. Little did they know that we had rushed a barracks and harbor to completion, and had retooled our spearmen into Musketeers...with long frilly pink trim even! Whether it was the sight of our pink frocks or the pounding of our muskets, we drove the Germans away and disgraced them into peace.
We entered our Golden Age (though scholars are loathe to give it such a misnomer...the Holy Pink French have always had gold to spare!) Shifting our industry from creating troops and coin to financing science was a fateful turn, for almost as soon as we'd pacified the Germans, one of our tiny galleys made the most important discovery the world had ever seen...an entire continent (much unlike the small islands of the Germans and Indians, and the perfectly sized Frankrovia). A Huge continent filled with all manners of people, from green cloaked Aztecs, to the rugged Browns of the Russians (which we'd heard the rumors about earlier). There were yellowish Zulu and light blue Chinese. A wealth of information flowed forth from them, technologies that we'd only dreamed of. We traded back and forth ever increasing in our profits and quickly the Great French entered a new age. Unfortunately it seemed our 'Golden Age' expired about the time we became industrious, but so much the better.
We learned many things in a short time, discovering the uses of Refining and Steel, and then realized yet again that we had no oil! The Blue Germans had resources galore, the only thing the lacked was rubber. Oil, Iron, Coal, Saltpetre, Horses! While Frankrovia had only horses, whilst it was twice the size of the small German lands. Luckily the importance of rubber was discovered, and we found that the lands we'd taken a thousand years before from the Indian had it in abundance. The Germans would not trade oil to me, claiming that they had no idea what we meant by oil! They asked that they share my research into refining, but I was no fool, instead my cavalry conquered their desert city and lay claim to the oil surrounding it, the fools didn't even know what they'd lost (though they had numerous other deposits...) and asked for peace.
Thats where I left it...it is 1882 and I am about 3 turns from tanks, the Indians and Germans are quite buddy buddy now, the other civilizations are getting slightly ancy about the French (perhaps the pink, I dunno) I am converting to a modern navy and army (infantry and battleships) and debating if I should smash the remnants of the Indians and risk another war with the Germans (who right now are more powerful than I on their island, with only my two cities...that is they have many many many more troops, though mine are better...but if they manage to contest my oil, I might be done for...) The really annoying thing, and the reasons for all my conquests has been strategic resources...other than horses I didn't have any on my continent, which is almost the size of the Indian's island and the German's island put together. I am desparately hoping that I'll have aluminum and uranium, or that the Germans/Indians have it since I am ahead of them in the tech race...if either is only on the large continent there will be a huge problem.
