Insane_Panda
Deity
Bwahaha.
Carthage pwn3d!
Carthage pwn3d!
ITNES I - An Epoch of Change
- Thread starter das
- Start date
silver 2039
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
- 16,208
Rouge State....
Symphony D.
Deity
Is that better than being a Red State, or a Purple one? 
Prestige is only a superficial measure of what we players already know. Regardless of what das sets DIE's prestige to, who will ever believe in a treaty with them again? 
Finmaster
The White Ghost
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2003
- Messages
- 2,716
Oh c'mon now, DIE has only been reacting to the actions of other people (first Dach when signing separate peace, then sheep/silver), its not like DIE has been screwing allies over for fun.
..well maybe a little bit for that too, but always with a good reason
Loyalty is a two-way street, why should DIE be loyal to those who aren't loyal to us?
..well maybe a little bit for that too, but always with a good reason
Loyalty is a two-way street, why should DIE be loyal to those who aren't loyal to us?
I never said we'd trust treaties signed by any of those other either...
In any case I sure don't fault you for playing the way you do, you are clearly the most successful player in the NES right now, so any complaints should be seen in the light of that.
In any case I sure don't fault you for playing the way you do, you are clearly the most successful player in the NES right now, so any complaints should be seen in the light of that.
Symphony D.
Deity
Meanwhile, in the shadows, there are the discordant sounds of many people laughing...
das
Regeneration In Process
IT IV Update 5 - Years 420-425 AD
Non-Military Events:
The Age of Discovery continues, and while the West's greatest colonial powers are busy fighting each other, the East's colonialism undergoes a boom, with more and more expeditions, brand new discoveries and expansion.
(see military events, see spotlight)
In a sudden and unprecedented move, Erezius I and the rest of the royal family left Nord Lisbon for the Tuniit Isle, although the official capital and the rest of the government (the court, the bureaucracy) remained at home. As Nortugal is an absolute monarchy, that naturally causes lots of confusion and problems (-1 Efficiency)... This move was probably done to safeguard the royal family from a possible enemy invasion, but it had some other sideffects. For instance, Erezius' example is followed by many, particularily but not solely by many nobles. The development of the colonies is thus sped up considerably, and many already call for further expansion, especially in the Tuniit Isle itself. Meanwhile, even closer contact between the Nortuguese and the native states was established. Consequently, the Nortuguese signed more treaties with the Dawn Land and Algonquia, although this was probably caused mostly by the demands of the ongoing war with the Punic Empire. More specifically, Nortugal ceded many of its previous conquests in the mainland of "Heaven's Portugal" to the Algonquians and the Kingdom of Dawn Land. As these lands were already depopulated, taking over them was comparatively easy as the populations in the native states have mostly recovered from the effect of the epidemics. The Wabanaki are particularily happy about this as many holy sites were included in the transfer (+1 Confidence). In exchange, the two states officially pledged to help Nortugal in its war with the Punic Empire... It wasn't at first obvious as to just what could they do, until the Nortuguese basically went and built the Wabanaki a navy - ten new, modern ships. Naturally, the Wabanaki had lots and lots of problems actually using them, but with some Nortuguese assistance they managed to get the hang of the basics. More generally, the Nortuguese continued their efforts to speed up the progress of the tribes, sending advisers, engineers, weapons and so forth, and also inviting Wabanaki and Algonquian apprentices to the colonial harbours and manufactories. Already, much progress has been achieved, although the two nations themselves are highly confused and it is yet to be seen how all this will affect the society (so far, the most visible effect was a negative one - the grumbling of the traditionalists) (-1 Confidence both).
The two native states also made considerable expansionary efforts. The Wabanaki concentrated on missionary efforts; these weren't as succesful as was hoped amongst the more advanced tribes, but some did join, especially the more primitive (thus less culturally-independent, and easily malleable) of the Mik'maqs. Some minor missionary outposts were established in Nortuguese-occupied territory in the south as well. The Algonquians, meanwhile, expanded much further than that, though at the price of becoming even more decentralised and disparate. As a result of some masterful diplomacy - as well as the fear of the Nortuguese (in the far western case also need for allies against the Adena slave raiders), the increasing trade ties and the rich gifts sent to some chieftains - the Algonquian Confederation now managed to unite, though not all, but most of the Algonquian tribes, even though this unity is to a large extent superfluous.
Several Olmec city-states and warlords on the Carib Sea coast signed a treaty with "Carthage", pledging loyalty as vassals in exchange for technological assistance (however, the Punic Empire was barely capable even of that; nor was it in any position to establish any real control over its vassals).
Huancac's contact with the Old Worlders also increases; the trade agreements of the previous few years begin to pay off, while Old World technology gradually becomes more widespread in the Huanc use. It is a gradual process, ofcourse, nowhere near the "crash course" of the Dawn Land.
The Guarani, who had already been quite advanced by local standards, were further jump-started first by the need to recover from the effect of the epidemics, and then by the sudden trade contacts with Phoenicia. Numerous Parana Basin tribes formed a tribal confederation around the religious center of Ypacarai, though it is a very fragile one due to various differences and the rise of other centers.
The first Wabanaki diplomats arrived in Europe with Nortuguese trade ships, though virtually nobody takes them seriously there (making them a scientific curiosity at best).
A grand Dukunnugeyan expedition established trade contacts with the Kwa city-states, was forced to bypass Iberia due to the Punic paranoia, and eventually reached Nortugal itself. The delegation included Nevasanghist philosophers, who were surprisingly well-received, as the bearers of a nontheistic religion; Nevasanghism has already aroused the curiosity of many of Hibernia's cultural and political elites, and there are rumours that some had actually converted...
The Carib Plague seems to have petered out for now; that said, some similar outbreaks have occured in Wagadou (-1 Wagadou levy thousand)...
An uneasy peace came in Alba, the Iceni exhausted economically and the Caledonians - militarily. Emperor Solpher I rose to power and officially surrendered his religious powers to the Lord-Pontiff (-1 Confidence), also correcting the Iceni religious practices as to match the Gaelic ones even more closely. The Caledonians themselves agree to retreat to pre-war borders after the end of the "heresy", although they also demand a re-negotiation of the Iceni-Cymrese Close Cooperation Treaty as to limit the freedom of the Sons of Sol to operate in non-Iceni territory and to include Caledonia within it. In combination with Llywelyn I's suspicious death and the more independent political course of his heir Llywelyn II, this means that Cymru ceases to be an Iceni client state, and also, the Caledonians naturally become the leaders in the new Alban Cooperation Treaty and hegemons of Alba, being more strong on the sea and in economy if not on the land. The Iceni aren't happy, but everyone concentrates on reconstruction for now.
Caledonia also seems to have decided to remain neutral in the present Sixth Transpoenic War (already called the Atlantic War by many).
In a move as unexpected as the Dacoillyrian defection from the Empire Pact and attack on Carthage, Dacoillyria and Luca sign a separate peace treaty with the Punic Empire, to the utter outrage of their Solist and Nortuguese allies and some of the particularily Poenophobic circles in those countries and elsewhere (-1 Dacoillyrian, Lucan Prestige); most Dacoillyrians and Lucans, however, are happy with the grand victory scored and confirmed now (+1 Dacoillyrian, Lucan Confidence). Basically, Carthage was forced to abandon all of its Old World territories apart from Iberia, to where the Punic Empire was relocated. Keeping most of their Transpoenic gains, the Dacoillyrians handed Malta over to the Lucans. North Africa was partitioned between Dacoillyria, Luca and Wagadou; the east, including former Carthage itself (soon rebuilt as Nova Nagara - the new capital of Lucan Africa), was taken by Luca, the west, with Mauri, was seized by Dacoillyria, and the southern Berber lands, mostly under Wagadou control anyway, went to the West African empire. Some paranoia and restrictions aside, the Punics are not mistreated by any of the conqueror empires; nevertheless, many left for Iberia (as was allowed by the treaty), especially early on, although at later dates the Dacoillyrian "Runaway Tax" complicated things. Still, the Punic Empire in Iberia received many refugees and immigrants. The peninsula underwent massive, rapid development, with many new cities founded, but there clearly wasn't enough place for all the newly-arrived. So many were told to go and fight for their own land. Meanwhile, the badly-injured Emperor Hannibal VI effectively turned the power over to General Gisco Hasdrubal Vect, with the position of Regent and the capital in the city of Didalia. The Punic Empire seems to have narrowly avoided utter destruction, although its defeat still is very demoralising, especially as Mauri still held out as of the peace treaty (-1 Punic Confidence). But now, the main concern is the war with Nortugal, as the future greatness and survival of both maritime empires depends on the unchallenged control of the Atlantic Ocean...
Under High Elder Tervel's guidance, Tarunia rallies for the war, although with the humiliating defeats it is hard to whip up the public enthusiasm as much as the Monks would have liked (+1 Confidence).
The Wenedians annexed straightforwardly their latest western Frankish gains, and launched a colonisation program that is progressing along steadily.
The Mediterranean Trade League project's status remains uncertain; although it is yet to be formalized, the Dacoillyrians do not seem to abandon it neither, and are taking various efforts to strenghthen the trade ties within the Mediterranean itself - most of the times it includes lowered and standardized tariffs. These policies do result in a general upsurge in trade, especially in combination with some other events.
An Onoghurian-Alanian alliance is confirmed, and as a gesture of good will the Onoghurians ceded to Alania the lands taken from lesser Alan tribes.
Wagadou prospers from trade as trade is reopened with Carthage, opened with Nortugal, and also opened with Dacoillyria and Luca via their North African provinces.
In a gesture of good will, the Nortuguese ceded some of their outposts to the Kwa city-states of West Africa.
As the Bantu grow increasingly advanced, two major, organised Nevasanghist states had arisen with Dukunnugeyan help. Naturally, both of them - Nsigeya and Luigeya - have largely pro-Dukunnugeyan orientations, the former even ruled by a Dukunnugeyan prince.
Sri Dukunnugeya, as that country is now known, had organized a cultural festival, inviting many foreign dignitaries there as well. The event was largely a success.
Phoenicea had joined the Sublimity of the Southern Seas (as an observer, for now at least) and generally intended the hand of friendship and commerce towards the states of East Asia, reaching as far as Nihon.
The Aryavartan king had fallen ill at a quite inopportunate moment (see spotlight)...
The Khmers had unexpectedly purchased Hainan from Hong Kong.
Military Events:
Exploration and colonialism are taken to a new level, and the great eastern sea powers reach out further than they even dared dream a few decades ago. Yet ofcourse the colonial expansion is rarely peaceful, and much bloodshed has already occured - even more may follow.
(see non-military events, see spotlight)
(-1 Aryavartan Confidence, advance into Middle Medieval Age becomes possible (will happen randomly to those with Enlightened education within the next few turns))
(-4 Dukunnugeyan ships, -12 Aryavartan thousands, -28 Aryavartan ships, -2 Hong Kee thousands, -4 Nihonese thousands, -2 Nihonese Samurai thousands, -3 Khmer thousands)
The Nortuguese march across "Heaven's Portugal" continued. Upon leaving the extended Algonquian area, the Nortuguese continued to bring havoc and destruction with them, making the locals retaliate in kind; but ultimately, though taking casualties, the Nortuguese almost always managed to pay back in full, wiping out entire small tribes. However, the Nortuguese also decided that perhaps the northerners weren't the only ones in this land that could be worked with; and as their manpower shrunk, the Nortuguese decided to offer alliances and weapons to local tribes in exchange for supplies and men. As the Nortuguese reputation spread, some tribes panicked - and accepted. That set precedent, and the Nortuguese were able to recruit a considerable amount of local troops as they went (+10 levy thousands). Ultimately, after several years, they stopped near the limits of the Punic-occupied territory (including a small Nortuguese colony, by the way) and there set up camp and built some forts. After some months, the Nortuguese commanders and their native allies alike have become quite restless. Nortugal's little native army is likely to be initiated into the realm of true modern warfare any moment now...
(-4 Nortuguese thousands, -3 Nortuguese levy thousands)
Huancac's northern push continued, but by now things begun to get more difficult. The terrain that the Huanc had entered was more difficult and alien in some regards, while the resistance was fiercer than that of the broken Guangalans. Also, despite naval supply efforts, the Huanc have become very much overstretched by now. Although the weak Olmeguaymi tribes have been defeated and methodically conquered within three years, the Caribs fought a vigorous resistance campaign, with ambushes, hit-and-runs and so forth. Still, eventually large swathes of land have been taken. The Army of Quito - the main Huanc tool for violent expansion - was weakened and weary, but capable of advancing further, theoretically. Practically, other issues came up with the Bacata Rebellion, which soon spread all over Guangala's key regions. The rebels weren't too strong, but had apparently surprised the Huanc and damaged their supply routes. At the price of abandoning some of the Carib conquests and razing Bacata itself, the rebellion was mostly defeated in the east; yet threats still remain, especially as the west is still in rebel hands, although fortunately they were distracted by interfighting. This wasn't the worst news for Huancac, though...
(-7 Huanc thousands)
The worst came from the south. After lenghty preparations, the Tiwanakans - under their new ruler Aputikalu III - got tired of waiting for the Huanc to make the first move and made it themselves, crossing the border in many small groups, advancing via all the passes they could possibly attack through. Surprised by this wide assault, the outnumbered Huanc fought valorously on the border, but inevitably several small Tiwanakan groups succesfully outflanked them and the Huanc were forced to retreat under their persistant attacks - or stand, and die. The Tiwanakan casualties were higher than expected, but the Earth Emperor's army was now free to advance further. The two main prongs were the coastal one and the one along the Apurimac; though encountering bitter resistance, the Tiwanakans plowed on, taking several cities. The Huanc people did resist fanatically, and with the help from some regulars stopped an overeager Tiwanakan army at the coastal city of Atico, even driving it back later. The Tiwanakan advance halted soon after, though it is unclear as to why exactly. Tiwanaku's Mojo vassals helped secure some lands to the east and generally assisted the initial attack, but later were mostly preoccupied with their intermittent strife with the free Mojos, who have reportedly scored some local victories recently.
(-13 Huanc thousands, -6 Huanc levy thousands, -18 Tiwanakan thousands)
The Sixth Transpoenic War clearly needed a new name, as its main theatre moved west, beyond the Pillars of Hercules and into the Atlantic Ocean. The Punic Empire, battered, even crippled, but still formidable in its unique indefatigable fashion, was pitted against Gaul, Cimberland (mostly represented by an expeditionary force fighting alongside the Gauls) and Nortugal, or so it seemed at least. While the Solist powers grew desperate and fatalistic, the Nortuguese were, though somewhat desperate as well, determined to win. For both the Punic Empire and Nortugal, their periphereal European homes seemed to be worth defending only as long as there were no alternatives; these lands were clearly doomed in the long-term, which was why both looked to the west with hope - and hatred, for their hated enemies were there too. It was clear that only one was to inherit the New World, and that the loser was quite simply doomed. It was also clear that the winner will be the one who will control the Atlantic. The Atlantic Ocean was vast, and far from explored; it was completely impossible to control all of it, or even all of its usual sea lanes. But there were some key spots, and both sides saw that the single most important island in the Atlantic Ocean was Alantkage[1], a Carthaginian colony to which the vital Punic naval communications were tied. And so both sides amassed vast fleets and converged on that little barren forsaken island in the middle of nowhere, an island which suddenly became at the center of the world of both the Nortuguese and the Punics. More specifically, the Nortuguese brought in ships from Hibernia and the Carib Sea; they were also joined by the nascent Wabanaki fleet (see non-military events). At least, that was the idea. In truth, however, the Punics came just in time to confront the Nortuguese fleet from the Carib Sea, having sailed with almost miracilous speed. Unprepared, the Nortuguese were forced to retreat at first, but the Punic attempt to turn this into a decisive battle had failed - the Nortuguese ships were more maneuverable, and so were able to avoid a decisve battle. Soon after, the Nortuguese and Wabanaki reinforcements had arrived, and the true Battle of Alantkage begun just as the Punics finished hastily restocking. They were attacked from multiple directions while the Wabanaki and the Algonquians assaulted the island itself, massacring everyone they could find. Outraged, the Punics landed their own troops there. The New World natives fought with surprising resilence, using all sorts of innovative tactics, but ultimately they were mostly slaughtered, with only a few escaping to the ships. As for the naval battle itself, it raged with no end in sight, the fleets disengaging and engaging again. Yet ofcourse such naval battles cannot last forever, especially in the middle of an ocean, so on the fourth day both sides decided to commit to a final, decisive battle. At morning, however, a new fleet emerged. It was large, though clearly battered by the fierce Atlantic storms, to which the Dacoillyrians (for it was their fleet) weren't used to or prepared for at all. Still, it was comparatively fresh and in position to decide the outcome by itself. Both sides knew that the Dacoillyrians were rather unpredictable, and could support either side here. They didn't know that they already chose to support one over the other by blasting aside the smaller Punic fleet at the Pillars of Hercules by using their powerful Juggernauts, soon after most Punic ships left for Alantkage. Leaving the all-too-heavy and slow Juggernauts to guard the Pillars, the main Dacoillyrian fleet braved the bad weather and eventually reached Alantkage (about the location of which they knew from the captured Carthaginian maps, amongst other sources we can only guess). The Dacoillyrians signalled that they came to help the Punics, making the Nortuguese hearts sink. Still, this was it. They attacked, hoping to defeat the Punics before the Dacoillyrians reach them. No such luck - the Punic formation was only properly broken when the Dacoillyrian fleet slammed into its rear ships, trapping it between hostile fleets and dooming it to destruction. The Punics fought to the last drop of blood, with fanaticism never seem outside of the Carthaginian military, but ultimately, all the blood was shed and all the ships were sunk (the Dacoillyrian usage of Byblos fire, or something very similar to it, helped speed the process up). The Punic Empire's last best hope was on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, lost in the Battle of Alantkage. Everything else goes under "aftermatch": the death from starvation of the Punic forces on Alantkage and the Wabanaki reoccupation, the Nortuguese conquest of Khuba and (back in the Old World) Dido-Hadast[2], the blockades of and starvations on the remaining Carthaginian Carib islands, the gruesome, painful, extra-long (in many regards) death of the Dacoillyrian ambassador in Didalia when the news from Alantkage finally begun to reach Iberia. The Atlantic Ocean was now Nortuguese. They had the initiative, and were in position to pick off the Punic colonies one after another, just like they did do. Nortugal won, and the casualties no longer mattered (+1 Confidence).
(-7 Wabanaki thousands, -6 Wabanaki ships, -3 Algonquian thousands, -5 Nortuguese thousands, -54 Nortuguese ships, -5 Punic thousands, -24 Punic Imperial Stormtroopers, -98 Punic ships, -42 Dacoillyrian ships, -1 Dacoillyrian Juggernaut)
Back in Europe, the Punics launched a massive assault on Catalonia, throwing simply huge hordes there and baffling the Solist commanders. Though they soon realized that most of the attackers were merely angry, fanatical refugees with mostly poor equipment and little (if any) training, the Gauls and the Cimberlanders still had lots of trouble defending against this flow, especially as it was actually several flows. Rebellion after rebellion commenced behind the Solist lines as well. Though the Solist cavalry-dominated tactics allowed them to ride down most of the light infantry attackers, the Punics soon showed innovation in the form of all sorts of crude, yet effective anti-cavalry weapons, such as caltrops and makeshift pikes. Gradually, the casualties mounted, but with the defeat of the Franks and the apparent return of DIE to the anti-Punic camp, more reinforcements were deployed. Solist attempts to attack beyond the Iber have been repulsed, but territorially the Punics made very little gains. The noticeable absence of the Imperial Stormtroopers from the battlefield (combined with the limited presence of actual regular troops) probably has more than anything else to do with this.
(-7 Punic thousands, -84 Punic levy thousands, -9 Gaelic thousands, -9 Gaelic Equites Invictii, -8 Gaelic levy thousands, -9 Cimbrian thousands, -6 Cimbrian levy thousands, -7 Cimbrian Royal Guard thousands)
Tarunia's war for survival continued. Contrary to the worst fears of the Tarunist Monks, Nordrike didn't launch any major offensive operations apart from a single raid against Nadruvia. It must be said ofcourse that this raid was more like a major naval campaign; the Nordrikians again utilised the speed of their longboats to intercept a fleet on the move, only this time it was the Nadruvian one, hurrying to link up with Tarunia's rebuilt navy in the north. The more primitive Nadruvian ships were easily sunk, at least before they recovered from the shock; when they did, the Nadruvians showed wonders of fortitude and bravery, not allowing a single ship to fall in enemy hands, but ultimately were forced to retreat with their wreck of a fleet. A few Nadruvian ships were only saved by the fact that the Nordrikians were in a hurry; immediately after the engagement they sailed on northeastwards, towards the important Nadruvian trade port of Kolka. Straightforwardly, they came, attacked, conquered, burned down everything they couldn't take with them and left. On the way back, a Tarunian naval detachment was repulsed, though this was merely a skirmish (-1 Tarunian, Nadruvian trade, +1 Nordrikian banked eco. point). Aside from that, the Nordrikians "definnised" their previous conquests in response to a Tarunian claim that these lands were Finnish-majority (and also to some uprisings in Copenhagen, which had suffered badly both due to the rebellions themselves and their various consequences, losing much of its commercial importance, if only temporarily). Far more serious for Tarunia was the war's land segment. Though almost the entire Tarunian army stood guard on the great eastern wall, the Mordvins amassed an even larger army, and replied to the Tarunian archers in kind, only also bringing up Bulghar-style onagers. But in addition to all that and the siege ladders, the Mordvin Emperor had a particularily good ace up his sleeve, the Kantir, who had somehow managed to infiltrate several vital points on the wall. They opened gates, cut at the enemy archers, created diversions and assassinated important Tarunian commanders; meanwhile, the straightforward assault begun as well, and pitched melees ensued along nearly the entire wall. The Mordvins died in large numbers, but ultimately, the ill-trained, poorly-led Tarunians broke first - and were mostly slaughtered as the Mordvins charged after them. This was the Skaggerak of the land. After it, the Mordvins advanced quickly, giving the Tarunians no time to regroup and landing defeat after defeat, taking city after city. The Tarunians despaired and ordered levies on a massive scale, throwing their economy into a crisis. This was not enough to save the city of Mstipuri, to the southeast from Palmenia, but the Mordvins were held up near the capital itself. But the Tarunian army is in ruins, the north is rebelling, and the Mordvin soldiers are already standing on the shores of the long-coveted Baltic Sea. Tarunia's end is near.
(-5 Tarunian thousands, -46 Tarunian Northmen thousands, -52 Tarunian levy thousands, -2 Tarunian ships, -4 Nordrikian thousands, -6 Nordrikian Berserkir Guard thousands, -10 Nordrikian ships, -5 Nadruvian thousands, -32 Nadruvian ships, -38 Mordvin thousands, -3 Mordvin Kantir thousands)
Another state to the south had ended... again. Frankland's revival under Waldimar turned out to be a short-lived one. Nevertheless, the Franks went down fighting this time. Possibly realising that his end was drawing near, with a large Gaelic army marching north, Waldimar ordered seeveral large-scale atrocities, both to do as much damage to Gaul as possible (this especially included the massacres in Frankish-occupied territory, combined with the Frankish colonialism that followed) and to play the psychological warfare card. It worked quite well in that the enraged Gauls were easily lured towards Remi. However, when the Franks attacked them there from various pre-hidden positions, it turned out that the Gauls had a considerable numeric superiority on the field, especially as more reinforcements arrived. Still, the Franks fought with the usual ferocity and innovativeness, and it was only after a very brutal, lenghty, high-casualty battle that the Frankish horde was broken - mostly slaughtered. Remi had to be taken by storm, but the Franks holed up in the empty city resisted to the last. Nevertheless, when the horde was broken it was broken; the Franks dispersed in the countryside to continue a sort of a guerrila war against the Gauls. Perhaps Waldimar - who had survived the last battle - could have rallied his people again and fought on for quite some time; but at this point, the Wenedians started their third war with the Franks as of the last quarter-century, and steamrolled the undefended Frankish heartlands. Some Franks surrendered. Some fought on and died. A marginal majority, however, fled west. By the time the Wenedians finished their conquest of Frankland, stopping straight on the Rhine, vast hordes of Franks had already settled in the west. However, they were a disorderly mob, and Waldimar could do little with them. He did raise a new army, but it was soon destroyed, and Warlord Waldimar died in that last battle as well. The Gauls were left in a confused situation, with their northeast crawling with far more Franks than one could catch, much less kill. Still, they did kill many of them. After a while, a divide-and-conquer policy had been adapted, the more traditionally-Solist Franks (many of them former cryptos or apostates of National-Solism) being supported against the more fanatical ones. In any case, the Franks don't seem to be an immediate threat, disorderly and demoralized as they are. Perhaps rather more alarming is the suddenly-powerful and extensive Wenedia, but it still is yet to properly integrate its western gains (in fact, it is looking quite overstretched)...
(-Frankland as an independent nation, -6 Wenedian thousands, -10 Gaelic thousands, -8 Gaelic Equites Invictii thousands, -17 Gaelic levy thousands)
Non-Military Events:
The Age of Discovery continues, and while the West's greatest colonial powers are busy fighting each other, the East's colonialism undergoes a boom, with more and more expeditions, brand new discoveries and expansion.
(see military events, see spotlight)
In a sudden and unprecedented move, Erezius I and the rest of the royal family left Nord Lisbon for the Tuniit Isle, although the official capital and the rest of the government (the court, the bureaucracy) remained at home. As Nortugal is an absolute monarchy, that naturally causes lots of confusion and problems (-1 Efficiency)... This move was probably done to safeguard the royal family from a possible enemy invasion, but it had some other sideffects. For instance, Erezius' example is followed by many, particularily but not solely by many nobles. The development of the colonies is thus sped up considerably, and many already call for further expansion, especially in the Tuniit Isle itself. Meanwhile, even closer contact between the Nortuguese and the native states was established. Consequently, the Nortuguese signed more treaties with the Dawn Land and Algonquia, although this was probably caused mostly by the demands of the ongoing war with the Punic Empire. More specifically, Nortugal ceded many of its previous conquests in the mainland of "Heaven's Portugal" to the Algonquians and the Kingdom of Dawn Land. As these lands were already depopulated, taking over them was comparatively easy as the populations in the native states have mostly recovered from the effect of the epidemics. The Wabanaki are particularily happy about this as many holy sites were included in the transfer (+1 Confidence). In exchange, the two states officially pledged to help Nortugal in its war with the Punic Empire... It wasn't at first obvious as to just what could they do, until the Nortuguese basically went and built the Wabanaki a navy - ten new, modern ships. Naturally, the Wabanaki had lots and lots of problems actually using them, but with some Nortuguese assistance they managed to get the hang of the basics. More generally, the Nortuguese continued their efforts to speed up the progress of the tribes, sending advisers, engineers, weapons and so forth, and also inviting Wabanaki and Algonquian apprentices to the colonial harbours and manufactories. Already, much progress has been achieved, although the two nations themselves are highly confused and it is yet to be seen how all this will affect the society (so far, the most visible effect was a negative one - the grumbling of the traditionalists) (-1 Confidence both).
The two native states also made considerable expansionary efforts. The Wabanaki concentrated on missionary efforts; these weren't as succesful as was hoped amongst the more advanced tribes, but some did join, especially the more primitive (thus less culturally-independent, and easily malleable) of the Mik'maqs. Some minor missionary outposts were established in Nortuguese-occupied territory in the south as well. The Algonquians, meanwhile, expanded much further than that, though at the price of becoming even more decentralised and disparate. As a result of some masterful diplomacy - as well as the fear of the Nortuguese (in the far western case also need for allies against the Adena slave raiders), the increasing trade ties and the rich gifts sent to some chieftains - the Algonquian Confederation now managed to unite, though not all, but most of the Algonquian tribes, even though this unity is to a large extent superfluous.
Several Olmec city-states and warlords on the Carib Sea coast signed a treaty with "Carthage", pledging loyalty as vassals in exchange for technological assistance (however, the Punic Empire was barely capable even of that; nor was it in any position to establish any real control over its vassals).
Huancac's contact with the Old Worlders also increases; the trade agreements of the previous few years begin to pay off, while Old World technology gradually becomes more widespread in the Huanc use. It is a gradual process, ofcourse, nowhere near the "crash course" of the Dawn Land.
The Guarani, who had already been quite advanced by local standards, were further jump-started first by the need to recover from the effect of the epidemics, and then by the sudden trade contacts with Phoenicia. Numerous Parana Basin tribes formed a tribal confederation around the religious center of Ypacarai, though it is a very fragile one due to various differences and the rise of other centers.
The first Wabanaki diplomats arrived in Europe with Nortuguese trade ships, though virtually nobody takes them seriously there (making them a scientific curiosity at best).
A grand Dukunnugeyan expedition established trade contacts with the Kwa city-states, was forced to bypass Iberia due to the Punic paranoia, and eventually reached Nortugal itself. The delegation included Nevasanghist philosophers, who were surprisingly well-received, as the bearers of a nontheistic religion; Nevasanghism has already aroused the curiosity of many of Hibernia's cultural and political elites, and there are rumours that some had actually converted...
The Carib Plague seems to have petered out for now; that said, some similar outbreaks have occured in Wagadou (-1 Wagadou levy thousand)...
An uneasy peace came in Alba, the Iceni exhausted economically and the Caledonians - militarily. Emperor Solpher I rose to power and officially surrendered his religious powers to the Lord-Pontiff (-1 Confidence), also correcting the Iceni religious practices as to match the Gaelic ones even more closely. The Caledonians themselves agree to retreat to pre-war borders after the end of the "heresy", although they also demand a re-negotiation of the Iceni-Cymrese Close Cooperation Treaty as to limit the freedom of the Sons of Sol to operate in non-Iceni territory and to include Caledonia within it. In combination with Llywelyn I's suspicious death and the more independent political course of his heir Llywelyn II, this means that Cymru ceases to be an Iceni client state, and also, the Caledonians naturally become the leaders in the new Alban Cooperation Treaty and hegemons of Alba, being more strong on the sea and in economy if not on the land. The Iceni aren't happy, but everyone concentrates on reconstruction for now.
Caledonia also seems to have decided to remain neutral in the present Sixth Transpoenic War (already called the Atlantic War by many).
In a move as unexpected as the Dacoillyrian defection from the Empire Pact and attack on Carthage, Dacoillyria and Luca sign a separate peace treaty with the Punic Empire, to the utter outrage of their Solist and Nortuguese allies and some of the particularily Poenophobic circles in those countries and elsewhere (-1 Dacoillyrian, Lucan Prestige); most Dacoillyrians and Lucans, however, are happy with the grand victory scored and confirmed now (+1 Dacoillyrian, Lucan Confidence). Basically, Carthage was forced to abandon all of its Old World territories apart from Iberia, to where the Punic Empire was relocated. Keeping most of their Transpoenic gains, the Dacoillyrians handed Malta over to the Lucans. North Africa was partitioned between Dacoillyria, Luca and Wagadou; the east, including former Carthage itself (soon rebuilt as Nova Nagara - the new capital of Lucan Africa), was taken by Luca, the west, with Mauri, was seized by Dacoillyria, and the southern Berber lands, mostly under Wagadou control anyway, went to the West African empire. Some paranoia and restrictions aside, the Punics are not mistreated by any of the conqueror empires; nevertheless, many left for Iberia (as was allowed by the treaty), especially early on, although at later dates the Dacoillyrian "Runaway Tax" complicated things. Still, the Punic Empire in Iberia received many refugees and immigrants. The peninsula underwent massive, rapid development, with many new cities founded, but there clearly wasn't enough place for all the newly-arrived. So many were told to go and fight for their own land. Meanwhile, the badly-injured Emperor Hannibal VI effectively turned the power over to General Gisco Hasdrubal Vect, with the position of Regent and the capital in the city of Didalia. The Punic Empire seems to have narrowly avoided utter destruction, although its defeat still is very demoralising, especially as Mauri still held out as of the peace treaty (-1 Punic Confidence). But now, the main concern is the war with Nortugal, as the future greatness and survival of both maritime empires depends on the unchallenged control of the Atlantic Ocean...
Under High Elder Tervel's guidance, Tarunia rallies for the war, although with the humiliating defeats it is hard to whip up the public enthusiasm as much as the Monks would have liked (+1 Confidence).
The Wenedians annexed straightforwardly their latest western Frankish gains, and launched a colonisation program that is progressing along steadily.
The Mediterranean Trade League project's status remains uncertain; although it is yet to be formalized, the Dacoillyrians do not seem to abandon it neither, and are taking various efforts to strenghthen the trade ties within the Mediterranean itself - most of the times it includes lowered and standardized tariffs. These policies do result in a general upsurge in trade, especially in combination with some other events.
An Onoghurian-Alanian alliance is confirmed, and as a gesture of good will the Onoghurians ceded to Alania the lands taken from lesser Alan tribes.
Wagadou prospers from trade as trade is reopened with Carthage, opened with Nortugal, and also opened with Dacoillyria and Luca via their North African provinces.
In a gesture of good will, the Nortuguese ceded some of their outposts to the Kwa city-states of West Africa.
As the Bantu grow increasingly advanced, two major, organised Nevasanghist states had arisen with Dukunnugeyan help. Naturally, both of them - Nsigeya and Luigeya - have largely pro-Dukunnugeyan orientations, the former even ruled by a Dukunnugeyan prince.
Sri Dukunnugeya, as that country is now known, had organized a cultural festival, inviting many foreign dignitaries there as well. The event was largely a success.
Phoenicea had joined the Sublimity of the Southern Seas (as an observer, for now at least) and generally intended the hand of friendship and commerce towards the states of East Asia, reaching as far as Nihon.
The Aryavartan king had fallen ill at a quite inopportunate moment (see spotlight)...
The Khmers had unexpectedly purchased Hainan from Hong Kong.
Military Events:
Exploration and colonialism are taken to a new level, and the great eastern sea powers reach out further than they even dared dream a few decades ago. Yet ofcourse the colonial expansion is rarely peaceful, and much bloodshed has already occured - even more may follow.
(see non-military events, see spotlight)
(-1 Aryavartan Confidence, advance into Middle Medieval Age becomes possible (will happen randomly to those with Enlightened education within the next few turns))
(-4 Dukunnugeyan ships, -12 Aryavartan thousands, -28 Aryavartan ships, -2 Hong Kee thousands, -4 Nihonese thousands, -2 Nihonese Samurai thousands, -3 Khmer thousands)
The Nortuguese march across "Heaven's Portugal" continued. Upon leaving the extended Algonquian area, the Nortuguese continued to bring havoc and destruction with them, making the locals retaliate in kind; but ultimately, though taking casualties, the Nortuguese almost always managed to pay back in full, wiping out entire small tribes. However, the Nortuguese also decided that perhaps the northerners weren't the only ones in this land that could be worked with; and as their manpower shrunk, the Nortuguese decided to offer alliances and weapons to local tribes in exchange for supplies and men. As the Nortuguese reputation spread, some tribes panicked - and accepted. That set precedent, and the Nortuguese were able to recruit a considerable amount of local troops as they went (+10 levy thousands). Ultimately, after several years, they stopped near the limits of the Punic-occupied territory (including a small Nortuguese colony, by the way) and there set up camp and built some forts. After some months, the Nortuguese commanders and their native allies alike have become quite restless. Nortugal's little native army is likely to be initiated into the realm of true modern warfare any moment now...
(-4 Nortuguese thousands, -3 Nortuguese levy thousands)
Huancac's northern push continued, but by now things begun to get more difficult. The terrain that the Huanc had entered was more difficult and alien in some regards, while the resistance was fiercer than that of the broken Guangalans. Also, despite naval supply efforts, the Huanc have become very much overstretched by now. Although the weak Olmeguaymi tribes have been defeated and methodically conquered within three years, the Caribs fought a vigorous resistance campaign, with ambushes, hit-and-runs and so forth. Still, eventually large swathes of land have been taken. The Army of Quito - the main Huanc tool for violent expansion - was weakened and weary, but capable of advancing further, theoretically. Practically, other issues came up with the Bacata Rebellion, which soon spread all over Guangala's key regions. The rebels weren't too strong, but had apparently surprised the Huanc and damaged their supply routes. At the price of abandoning some of the Carib conquests and razing Bacata itself, the rebellion was mostly defeated in the east; yet threats still remain, especially as the west is still in rebel hands, although fortunately they were distracted by interfighting. This wasn't the worst news for Huancac, though...
(-7 Huanc thousands)
The worst came from the south. After lenghty preparations, the Tiwanakans - under their new ruler Aputikalu III - got tired of waiting for the Huanc to make the first move and made it themselves, crossing the border in many small groups, advancing via all the passes they could possibly attack through. Surprised by this wide assault, the outnumbered Huanc fought valorously on the border, but inevitably several small Tiwanakan groups succesfully outflanked them and the Huanc were forced to retreat under their persistant attacks - or stand, and die. The Tiwanakan casualties were higher than expected, but the Earth Emperor's army was now free to advance further. The two main prongs were the coastal one and the one along the Apurimac; though encountering bitter resistance, the Tiwanakans plowed on, taking several cities. The Huanc people did resist fanatically, and with the help from some regulars stopped an overeager Tiwanakan army at the coastal city of Atico, even driving it back later. The Tiwanakan advance halted soon after, though it is unclear as to why exactly. Tiwanaku's Mojo vassals helped secure some lands to the east and generally assisted the initial attack, but later were mostly preoccupied with their intermittent strife with the free Mojos, who have reportedly scored some local victories recently.
(-13 Huanc thousands, -6 Huanc levy thousands, -18 Tiwanakan thousands)
The Sixth Transpoenic War clearly needed a new name, as its main theatre moved west, beyond the Pillars of Hercules and into the Atlantic Ocean. The Punic Empire, battered, even crippled, but still formidable in its unique indefatigable fashion, was pitted against Gaul, Cimberland (mostly represented by an expeditionary force fighting alongside the Gauls) and Nortugal, or so it seemed at least. While the Solist powers grew desperate and fatalistic, the Nortuguese were, though somewhat desperate as well, determined to win. For both the Punic Empire and Nortugal, their periphereal European homes seemed to be worth defending only as long as there were no alternatives; these lands were clearly doomed in the long-term, which was why both looked to the west with hope - and hatred, for their hated enemies were there too. It was clear that only one was to inherit the New World, and that the loser was quite simply doomed. It was also clear that the winner will be the one who will control the Atlantic. The Atlantic Ocean was vast, and far from explored; it was completely impossible to control all of it, or even all of its usual sea lanes. But there were some key spots, and both sides saw that the single most important island in the Atlantic Ocean was Alantkage[1], a Carthaginian colony to which the vital Punic naval communications were tied. And so both sides amassed vast fleets and converged on that little barren forsaken island in the middle of nowhere, an island which suddenly became at the center of the world of both the Nortuguese and the Punics. More specifically, the Nortuguese brought in ships from Hibernia and the Carib Sea; they were also joined by the nascent Wabanaki fleet (see non-military events). At least, that was the idea. In truth, however, the Punics came just in time to confront the Nortuguese fleet from the Carib Sea, having sailed with almost miracilous speed. Unprepared, the Nortuguese were forced to retreat at first, but the Punic attempt to turn this into a decisive battle had failed - the Nortuguese ships were more maneuverable, and so were able to avoid a decisve battle. Soon after, the Nortuguese and Wabanaki reinforcements had arrived, and the true Battle of Alantkage begun just as the Punics finished hastily restocking. They were attacked from multiple directions while the Wabanaki and the Algonquians assaulted the island itself, massacring everyone they could find. Outraged, the Punics landed their own troops there. The New World natives fought with surprising resilence, using all sorts of innovative tactics, but ultimately they were mostly slaughtered, with only a few escaping to the ships. As for the naval battle itself, it raged with no end in sight, the fleets disengaging and engaging again. Yet ofcourse such naval battles cannot last forever, especially in the middle of an ocean, so on the fourth day both sides decided to commit to a final, decisive battle. At morning, however, a new fleet emerged. It was large, though clearly battered by the fierce Atlantic storms, to which the Dacoillyrians (for it was their fleet) weren't used to or prepared for at all. Still, it was comparatively fresh and in position to decide the outcome by itself. Both sides knew that the Dacoillyrians were rather unpredictable, and could support either side here. They didn't know that they already chose to support one over the other by blasting aside the smaller Punic fleet at the Pillars of Hercules by using their powerful Juggernauts, soon after most Punic ships left for Alantkage. Leaving the all-too-heavy and slow Juggernauts to guard the Pillars, the main Dacoillyrian fleet braved the bad weather and eventually reached Alantkage (about the location of which they knew from the captured Carthaginian maps, amongst other sources we can only guess). The Dacoillyrians signalled that they came to help the Punics, making the Nortuguese hearts sink. Still, this was it. They attacked, hoping to defeat the Punics before the Dacoillyrians reach them. No such luck - the Punic formation was only properly broken when the Dacoillyrian fleet slammed into its rear ships, trapping it between hostile fleets and dooming it to destruction. The Punics fought to the last drop of blood, with fanaticism never seem outside of the Carthaginian military, but ultimately, all the blood was shed and all the ships were sunk (the Dacoillyrian usage of Byblos fire, or something very similar to it, helped speed the process up). The Punic Empire's last best hope was on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, lost in the Battle of Alantkage. Everything else goes under "aftermatch": the death from starvation of the Punic forces on Alantkage and the Wabanaki reoccupation, the Nortuguese conquest of Khuba and (back in the Old World) Dido-Hadast[2], the blockades of and starvations on the remaining Carthaginian Carib islands, the gruesome, painful, extra-long (in many regards) death of the Dacoillyrian ambassador in Didalia when the news from Alantkage finally begun to reach Iberia. The Atlantic Ocean was now Nortuguese. They had the initiative, and were in position to pick off the Punic colonies one after another, just like they did do. Nortugal won, and the casualties no longer mattered (+1 Confidence).
(-7 Wabanaki thousands, -6 Wabanaki ships, -3 Algonquian thousands, -5 Nortuguese thousands, -54 Nortuguese ships, -5 Punic thousands, -24 Punic Imperial Stormtroopers, -98 Punic ships, -42 Dacoillyrian ships, -1 Dacoillyrian Juggernaut)
Back in Europe, the Punics launched a massive assault on Catalonia, throwing simply huge hordes there and baffling the Solist commanders. Though they soon realized that most of the attackers were merely angry, fanatical refugees with mostly poor equipment and little (if any) training, the Gauls and the Cimberlanders still had lots of trouble defending against this flow, especially as it was actually several flows. Rebellion after rebellion commenced behind the Solist lines as well. Though the Solist cavalry-dominated tactics allowed them to ride down most of the light infantry attackers, the Punics soon showed innovation in the form of all sorts of crude, yet effective anti-cavalry weapons, such as caltrops and makeshift pikes. Gradually, the casualties mounted, but with the defeat of the Franks and the apparent return of DIE to the anti-Punic camp, more reinforcements were deployed. Solist attempts to attack beyond the Iber have been repulsed, but territorially the Punics made very little gains. The noticeable absence of the Imperial Stormtroopers from the battlefield (combined with the limited presence of actual regular troops) probably has more than anything else to do with this.
(-7 Punic thousands, -84 Punic levy thousands, -9 Gaelic thousands, -9 Gaelic Equites Invictii, -8 Gaelic levy thousands, -9 Cimbrian thousands, -6 Cimbrian levy thousands, -7 Cimbrian Royal Guard thousands)
Tarunia's war for survival continued. Contrary to the worst fears of the Tarunist Monks, Nordrike didn't launch any major offensive operations apart from a single raid against Nadruvia. It must be said ofcourse that this raid was more like a major naval campaign; the Nordrikians again utilised the speed of their longboats to intercept a fleet on the move, only this time it was the Nadruvian one, hurrying to link up with Tarunia's rebuilt navy in the north. The more primitive Nadruvian ships were easily sunk, at least before they recovered from the shock; when they did, the Nadruvians showed wonders of fortitude and bravery, not allowing a single ship to fall in enemy hands, but ultimately were forced to retreat with their wreck of a fleet. A few Nadruvian ships were only saved by the fact that the Nordrikians were in a hurry; immediately after the engagement they sailed on northeastwards, towards the important Nadruvian trade port of Kolka. Straightforwardly, they came, attacked, conquered, burned down everything they couldn't take with them and left. On the way back, a Tarunian naval detachment was repulsed, though this was merely a skirmish (-1 Tarunian, Nadruvian trade, +1 Nordrikian banked eco. point). Aside from that, the Nordrikians "definnised" their previous conquests in response to a Tarunian claim that these lands were Finnish-majority (and also to some uprisings in Copenhagen, which had suffered badly both due to the rebellions themselves and their various consequences, losing much of its commercial importance, if only temporarily). Far more serious for Tarunia was the war's land segment. Though almost the entire Tarunian army stood guard on the great eastern wall, the Mordvins amassed an even larger army, and replied to the Tarunian archers in kind, only also bringing up Bulghar-style onagers. But in addition to all that and the siege ladders, the Mordvin Emperor had a particularily good ace up his sleeve, the Kantir, who had somehow managed to infiltrate several vital points on the wall. They opened gates, cut at the enemy archers, created diversions and assassinated important Tarunian commanders; meanwhile, the straightforward assault begun as well, and pitched melees ensued along nearly the entire wall. The Mordvins died in large numbers, but ultimately, the ill-trained, poorly-led Tarunians broke first - and were mostly slaughtered as the Mordvins charged after them. This was the Skaggerak of the land. After it, the Mordvins advanced quickly, giving the Tarunians no time to regroup and landing defeat after defeat, taking city after city. The Tarunians despaired and ordered levies on a massive scale, throwing their economy into a crisis. This was not enough to save the city of Mstipuri, to the southeast from Palmenia, but the Mordvins were held up near the capital itself. But the Tarunian army is in ruins, the north is rebelling, and the Mordvin soldiers are already standing on the shores of the long-coveted Baltic Sea. Tarunia's end is near.
(-5 Tarunian thousands, -46 Tarunian Northmen thousands, -52 Tarunian levy thousands, -2 Tarunian ships, -4 Nordrikian thousands, -6 Nordrikian Berserkir Guard thousands, -10 Nordrikian ships, -5 Nadruvian thousands, -32 Nadruvian ships, -38 Mordvin thousands, -3 Mordvin Kantir thousands)
Another state to the south had ended... again. Frankland's revival under Waldimar turned out to be a short-lived one. Nevertheless, the Franks went down fighting this time. Possibly realising that his end was drawing near, with a large Gaelic army marching north, Waldimar ordered seeveral large-scale atrocities, both to do as much damage to Gaul as possible (this especially included the massacres in Frankish-occupied territory, combined with the Frankish colonialism that followed) and to play the psychological warfare card. It worked quite well in that the enraged Gauls were easily lured towards Remi. However, when the Franks attacked them there from various pre-hidden positions, it turned out that the Gauls had a considerable numeric superiority on the field, especially as more reinforcements arrived. Still, the Franks fought with the usual ferocity and innovativeness, and it was only after a very brutal, lenghty, high-casualty battle that the Frankish horde was broken - mostly slaughtered. Remi had to be taken by storm, but the Franks holed up in the empty city resisted to the last. Nevertheless, when the horde was broken it was broken; the Franks dispersed in the countryside to continue a sort of a guerrila war against the Gauls. Perhaps Waldimar - who had survived the last battle - could have rallied his people again and fought on for quite some time; but at this point, the Wenedians started their third war with the Franks as of the last quarter-century, and steamrolled the undefended Frankish heartlands. Some Franks surrendered. Some fought on and died. A marginal majority, however, fled west. By the time the Wenedians finished their conquest of Frankland, stopping straight on the Rhine, vast hordes of Franks had already settled in the west. However, they were a disorderly mob, and Waldimar could do little with them. He did raise a new army, but it was soon destroyed, and Warlord Waldimar died in that last battle as well. The Gauls were left in a confused situation, with their northeast crawling with far more Franks than one could catch, much less kill. Still, they did kill many of them. After a while, a divide-and-conquer policy had been adapted, the more traditionally-Solist Franks (many of them former cryptos or apostates of National-Solism) being supported against the more fanatical ones. In any case, the Franks don't seem to be an immediate threat, disorderly and demoralized as they are. Perhaps rather more alarming is the suddenly-powerful and extensive Wenedia, but it still is yet to properly integrate its western gains (in fact, it is looking quite overstretched)...
(-Frankland as an independent nation, -6 Wenedian thousands, -10 Gaelic thousands, -8 Gaelic Equites Invictii thousands, -17 Gaelic levy thousands)
das
Regeneration In Process
Meanwhile, the Slavic War simply petered out, much like the Carib Plague in Europe. As already mentioned, Wenedia and Nadruvia moved on to other external engagements, while Cernorus retreated into civil war. Discredited, Velikiy Knyaz Vladimir was eventually kill and deposed by Khoriv, one of his commanders. The civil war that followed was surprisingly quickly, as Khoriv had the support both amongst the elite and in the people. After defeating his enemies, he introduced sweeping reforms, rebuilding the army but cancelling the Vojna Krajina, and helping finish various previous reforms.
(-2 Cernorusian thousands, -2 Cernorusian Ljuta Druzhina thousands)
Sporadic Berber and Punic resistance in former Punic North Africa continued - but not for long. Skilled in the art of counterinsurgency, the Lucans quickly captured and razed the desert city of Sabha, breaking the back of the Garamantean rebels at least. The rest took more time, but gradually the Berbers accepted Lucan rule, while the surviving Punic resistors were driven underground or reduced to small-scale banditry. The Dacoillyrians encountered less resistance in general, successfully playing the would-be-rebel factions against each other. Wagadou's loyal Berbers had little trouble asserting control within the Ghana's jurisdiction.
(-2 Lucan thousands, -2 Lucan Companion Cavalry thousands, -1 Dacoillyrian thousand, -2 Wagadou thousands, -2 Wagadou Imperial Berber Camelry)
Wagadou consolidated its vast, increasingly-overstretched and bloated empire. Several rebellions and minor Mande tribes have been crushed ruthlessly.
(-6 Wagadou thousands, -1 Wagadou levy thousand)
The Egyptian Civil War escalated further, as the foreign interventions begun. First of all, Parhae, seeking to take over Egypt's Arabian colonies, allied with General Kufu's Republic, quickly occupying the Menesite-held Israeli heartlands - without any resistance apart from that provided by the Israelis themselves. A Parhaen fleet hurried into the Red Sea, but was too late - the remnants of the Menesite army's Arabian force were already in General Menes' Egyptian base of Sawu. General Menes' fleet, however, was attacked in the harbour of Sawu itself and destroyed in a furious battle. However, far from the entirety of the Menesite fleet was to be found there, as most of it took to privateering instead, leading the Parhaens on many a wild goose chase. Parhae wasn't the only foreign power to intervenne, however; the Phoenicians, wary of being caught between Parhae and its Republican allies and also eager (with the exception of Eliat - but the new parliamentary system meant that its objections weren't all that crucial as long as the Mediterranean Phoenician representatives agreed) to secure the very useful Sile Canal. For this purpose the Phoenicians had prepared a fairly impressive military for such a peaceful nation; reflecting upon the maritime nature of Phoenicia's power, that army's elite were the marine "Tyrian Sea Guards". While the Republic fought a three-front war with the Berbers, Nubia and General Menes, its capital, Akam, was basically ripe for the taking. Still, it did have some defenses and defenders, and the Phoenicians didn't want to take any chances, knowing full well that their country's very survival may depend on the success of the Egyptian campaign. In the end, everything went dandy: the pathetic Republican fleet was surprised and destroyed at the mouth of the Nile, the fleet advanced up the Nile and through the Sile Canal unopposed with the citizens and defenders utterly stunned and confused, the Tyrian Sea Guards disembarked and secured the harbours of Akam and Sile, and, with the probably-redundant help of regular troops, chopped up the defenders and killed General Kufu and his closest supporters in Akam itself (1 banked eco. point to Phoenicia). The Egyptian Republic still did retain some local leaders, sent by Kufu to supervise the war efforts in the south; yet now this policy backfired, as with Kufu's death they lost coordination and begun fighting for power, several defecting to the merciful General Menes. Thus the Republic ended - but the fighting was far from over. Phoenicians occupied the Sinai and some parts of far northern Egypt. The Berber hordes, rallied by a warlord called Nimlot, moved back to Egypt - this time to do things like they should have done, according to Nimlot, from the very start (in other words, instead of trying to work with the Egyptians, they just raped, killed, looted and razed everyone and everything they saw there - and as Egypt's population was always remarkably concentrated, the direct and indirect civilian casualties were almost unprecedented). The Berber rampage was only stopped by Menes in the Battle of Abydos, where Nimlot himself died. Having lost their visionary leaders, the Berbers shrugged and went home... with a record amount of loot, so one can't really say it was a total waste of time. A different problem came up when the Lucans occupied coastal Libya, to the joy of local Greeks and Egyptians (the tribal Berbers didn't put up much of a fight, simply retreating into the desert). As for Menes, he would've liked to pursue the Berbers, but new problems came up - the Nubians marched north, and were defeated at Thebes itself. Having emerged as the saviour of Egypt (never mind the fact that he kinda was behind everything that happened from the very start), Menes proceeded to claim for himself the titles of "Pharaoh" and "Imperator" (in a nod both to the Dacoillyrian title and to the original Roman meaning of the word), and, no longer challenged by any serious Egyptian factions, officially restored the capital to Thebes, renounced all Republican reforms and divided the key positions in the state between his old supporters and the surviving administrators of pre-civil war Egypt. Yet he and the rest of Egypt celebrated too early as the Parhaens landed at and captured Sawu. The clumsy early attempt to retake it, based on the erroneous understandment that the Parhaens merely landed a thousand or two maximum, was repulsed, and all that Menes had gained was already being threatened, especially as Nubians marched north again... Fortunately, however, the Nubians themselves soon begun fighting the Parhaens as well, winning time for Menes to levy a fairly large, if poorly-equipped, army. Confused about his situation, especially with the Phoenicia-Parhaen non-aggression pact taken into account, the Parhaen commander decided not to press on yet. The situation remains highly-confusing and volatile.
(-Egyptian Republic as an independent nation, -1 Phoenician thousand, -2 Phoenician Tyrian Sea Guards, -1 Phoenician ship, -4 Parhaen thousands, -1 Parhaen Eternal Legion, -6 Parhaen ships, -1 Lucan Companion Cavalry thousand, -16 Menesite thousands, -3 Menesite levy thousands, -13 Menesite ships, -8 Nubian thousands, -3 Nubian levy thousands)
To the relief of their other neighbours, Onoghurian Bulgharia and Tieh China attacked Turan. The original cause was the disappearence of the Onoghurian ambassador prince who was travelling by the Silk Route to Tieh China; declaring that the Turanese were at best too incompetent and at worst too belligerent to be allowed to control a vital portion of the Silk Route, Onoghuria proclaimed its intention to make the Silk Route safe by any means that may be necessary. That equaled war. Though the hoped-for rebellions in Turan mostly failed to occur, the Bulghars gained some other allies - namely, the Ugrians on the upper Itil, who were fighting a war for survival with the Turanese, and the Tieh, who too were interested in Central Asian expansion. From the start, the Turanese fared poorly. Their initial Ugrian campaign, to take the city of Archali, was already started when the Onoghurians attacked, and due to the excellent coordination between the Onoghurians and Ugrians (the former were allowed to operate from the territory of the latter, among other things) it was turned into a disastrous defeat: one Turanese army was confronted by an unexpectedly-large Bulgharo-Ugrian army and was then eliminated, while another was attacked by the Onoghurians on the move, barely regroupped, tried to retreat south but was then cut off from its retreat route by another Onoghurian army. This already was a catastrophe, but ofcourse the Onoghurians didn't stop there. An ambitious amphibious operation in the northern Caspian placed a large Onoghurian force in the rear of the Turanese border defenders. The ensuing battle at Buran-Kosa was bitterly contested, but the Onoghurians won in the end. The Ugrians in the north capitalised on their previous victories and with the help of the new Onoghurian Onoghurets siege units retook the city of Ilek, lost a few years ago in the beginning of the Turanese-Ugrian War. The Turanese scurried to regroup in the east, preparing to defend themselves, but the Onoghurians didn't seem very willing to move further, although they did secure the rest of Turan's Caspian coastline in 424. Meanwhile, the Tieh Chinese attacked with overwhelming force, virtually trampling the Turanese defenders on the shores of Lake Bu-ku[3]. Advancing along the Silk Route, the Tieh Chinese paid their toll to attrition and Turanese raids, but ultimately secured a large territory. The Turanese were forced to retreat to their central areas, and there regroupped and recovered from the shock. Meanwhile, both sides suffered from the disruption of the Silk Route.
(-10 Onoghurian thousands, -2 Onoghurian Onoghurets thousands, -52 Turanese thousands, -17 Tieh thousands)
Random Events:
Various calamities damage the Phoenicean fleet considerably (-5 Phoenicean ships).
Carhaginian Iberia's infrastructure is considerably improved, now that government attention is naturally centered there, while vast human resources have been provided by the exodus from North Africa (+1 Infrastructure).
The Tieh dynasty's apparent lack of interest in reuniting China actually improved its international standing, at least in East Asia as it seems to have no immediate belligerent intentions there (+1 Prestige).
Special Bonuses:
Best Cultural Orders: Sri Dukunnugeya (+1 Prestige).
Best Colonial Orders: Khmeria (+1 Trade).
Best Stories: Dawn Land (cultural bonus).
Spotlight:
The East's New Horizons.
"We set out, to whatever fate might await us there where no Khmer had ever tread before."
- Admiral Nguyen Chan. Year 421 AD.
While the western civilisations, in their pursuit of land, wealth and power, started a new series of brutal wars, the eastern ones - at least those of a more mercantile type - seeked new lands chiefly beyond the oceans. That was not a new tendency in itself. Aryavarta and Dukunnugeya had since they first came to be concentrated on the conquest of Africa, the Khmers persistantly expanded in New Khmeria (once New Sinhala), and the Nihonese turned to the various island chains to their north, south and east. It was this Nihonese drive, along with the information provided by the western explorers (including, in this case, Phoenicia, which, though itself eastern, is best listed with the western colonialists for numerous reasons), that gave the eastern colonialism a new push, and opened whole new horizons before it, as the Nihonese stumbled upon a whole new world beyond the oceans. A backwards, chaos-filled world ripe for the taking.
So they came and took it. Not all of it, ofcourse - it was way too huge, and the more the Nihonese explored it, the more they realised the vastness of its size. But they took a lot of ground. Vast propaganda campaigns were launched to get colonists for this New World. Lots and lots of money was poured into the expansion, the military campaigns, the development and so forth. Dockyards and harbours worked without rest - new ships were built, old ships were restocked and repaired. An immense effort was undertaken by all of Nihon, and it soon paid off. Yet such an effort never goes unnoticed, and in due time the Hong Kees procurred enough information to launch an expedition of their own to the east. The Khmers, while busy redoubling their efforts in New Khmeria, took notice as well, and negotiated with Hong Kong, and as a result, in 421 AD, Admiral Nguyen Chan led a Khmer expedition across the Great Ocean, eventually arriving at the Olmec coast. After travelling some more, a Khmer "base camp" was set up near the Olmec city-state of Tapachula, ruled by a paranoid warlord, who mistook the Khmers for the Nihonese who have, as he had long expected, finally come to conquer them all. He mustered his small, but seasoned cavalry arm and attacked the Khmer camp at night. The attack was repulsed, but with considerable bloodshed. The Khmers weren't ready for siege operations, so they simply fortified their camp and tried to negotiate. The attempts didn't have any success, but the attacks ceased soon enough... Meanwhile, the fleet itself established contact with slightly more peaceful natives, most notably the mercantile city-state of Cuzo, with which negotiations were carried out in Phoenician of all languages (a few of the crew members knew some standard Phoenician, but the natives had Carthaginian translators; still, it was better than nothing) and trade was set up. Further to the southeast, there was a war going on, but not quite like the petty ones of the Olmec warlords; instead, it was a methodical conquest. Thus first contact with the Huanc Empire was made as well.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kees expanded on their previous gains in the area, seizing new land. This included a major military campaign against the Olmetoltec city of Mazatlan; fortunately, the Olmetoltecs were neither particularily strong nor advanced, and the fierceness of their defense did little to hamper the Chinese conquerors. Lastly, in late 422 AD, the Nihonese had arrived in Olmecia. Having already acquired valuable conquering experience in Aztlan, the Nihonese conquered several city-states in the northwest. Resistance was quite strong, and the occasional Carib Plague outbreak took their toll, but the Nihonese secured their goals and landed further to the southeast in 423 AD, actually taking Tapachula (which was in anarchy)... and discovering the Khmer camp. The Khmers did by then capture some additional territory, though it wasn't much as of yet. The Nihonese shrugged and concentrated on inland expansion, advancing to meet one of the Punic Empire's "vassal states"... To sum up, the Scramble for Olmecia had begun.
It is noteworthy that only one serious expansion effort was made in the New World outside of Olmecia when the Hong Kees seized even more land from the Chinook in the far north. The confrontations between Asians and New Worlders grew more and more violent with every instance...
Far to the southwest, the Khmers continued their colonial operations in Oceania. First and foremost, ofcourse, this meant New Khmeria, where a new grand effort was made to expand the Khmer Empire. Culturally, economically, politically and militarily, the Khmers advanced by a myriad paths, and tribe after tribe joined the Khmer Empire. At times, serious armed resistance was encountered; but it was never serious enough, ofcourse. Vast areas were secured; mostly importantly this included the entire Fan Li River[4] basin. It must be emphasized ofcourse that this conquest was mostly a peaceful one, and the Khmers did their best to integrate the aborigines into the rising colonial society without destroying their traditional culture or society (at least directly). Aside from that, some more exploring was done in the region. Trade outposts were established in the Polynesian islands... and another one in that island to the southeast of New Khmeria. Soon enough, however, a startling "discovery" was made - the Aboriginals on that island (now called Agnihariya) were far outnumbered by the Dukunnugeyans, who have apparently already set themselves up quite well, with cities, flourishing agriculture and a governor from the royal family. The Khmers didn't know quite what to make of this, especially as all evidence pointed towards the Dukunnugeyans arriving here earlier than the Khmers by a few years at least.
The most tragic - and most enigmatic - page here is that of Aryavarta. That country was facing a crisis of expansion for several centuries now. The northern direction was denied by nature itself; the eastern one was denied by Khmeria, and gradually, but quite consistantly the Aryavartans (and their Kalingan predecessors) shifted westwards. But the west too was denied by strong empires... The southwest would have been optimal under the circumstances, but the breakaway colony of Aryavarta (Sri Dukunnugeya, ofcourse) had blocked that direction as well. So the Aryavartans had, approximately a decade ago, decided to set up a colony in Namibia, basically going around Dukunnugeya. If succesful, that entreprise would have given Aryavarta a new, promising colony and an excellent new opportunity to reconquer Dukunnugeya at long last. But to succeed, it needed lots and lots of troops, funds, supplies and efforts. And it succesfully sucked all of that up. And there were some successes. But the price was simply not worth it, and this was increasingly realised by many at home. However, the Aryavartans persisted, even as the Khoisans and Khoisania's myriad diseases attacked them. Rumours said that the king had finally despaired and was about to order the withdrawal... when suddenly, he fell ill, leaving the running of the country in the hands of the low-initiative bureaucracy. The expedition continued, but not for long... The region in question was always plagued by storms and pirates, now even moreso than usual. Some of the worst storms came in 422 AD - and were immediately used by the pirates, who were basically drawn by the vast Aryavartan convoys (full of supplies, funds and so forth) like moths to light. The storms had rendered the Aryavartan ships, designed for Central Indian Ocean, even more vulnerable than normally. Between the storms and the pirates, the overstretched, battered Aryavartan fleet was simply destroyed, with only a few ships (those in particularily poor conditions since 420 AD) surviving due to removed from the convoys. The Dukunnugeyan trade fleet was also attacked, but not quite as much as the Aryavartan one, being not quite as vulnerable, especially with the Dukunnugeyan bases nearby.
In any case, this meant that the Aryavartan supply routes to Namibia were cut. The supply situation in Namibia was poor enough as it is, but now open starvation begun in the Aryavartan army. It increasingly had to forage and raid, annoying the Khoisans and spreading itself quite thin. The renewed Khoisan "indirect" attacks made things even worse. While the army was on the brink of fighting for food, attacks intensified even further, and eventually the Aryavartan presence simply collapsed, and they all were slaughtered by the natives, their base razed. Nothing is worse than an expensive, unpopular failure. The popular outcry at home was immense, and frantic claims by some officials that Dukunnugeya was behind it all were ignored outside of Dravidia as a mere attempt to find some scapegoat. Whatever the case may be (as indeed the exact development remains unknown - the above facts are merely commonly-accepted, so they may not even be true at all), Aryavarta's colonial project had apparently failed.
Lastly, we should speak in some more detail about Dukunnugeya's expansion, for it too is most noteworthy, especially due to its unique trait - the use of "Virupakkha's Breath"[5], upon which the prosperity and greatness of modern Dukunnugeya rested and still rests. It is thanks to this wind system that the Dukunnugeyans had succesfully travelled to New Khmeria and all the way to Nihon from there; the Southern Route functioned similarily, only more regularily. It also helped found Dukunnugeya's abortive New Khmer colonial empire. That clearly was not to be, and seems to have been a result of a mistake in the first place, but still could be considered ominous, as now, more and more colonies arose. Things didn't stop with Agnihariya, ofcourse. Using western and eastern knowledge, and Dukunnugeya's own unique technologies, the neo-Sinhalese explorers seeked the fabled New World... and found it, too. Specifically, one expedition travelled west across the southern Atlantic, and set up a trade outpost in Guarani territory, specifically - in Tavytero; and another, relying on the various navigation instruments more, had eventually managed to reach the New World from Agnihariya, basically just letting Virupakkha's Breath carry them there. At first it didn't seem obvious that it WAS, in fact, the same New World all had been talking about, but soon enough it was figured out that even if it wasn't, it was quite close enough. Slowly, but surely, the seeds of a great future southern empire were being spread and disseminated.
It is impossible to guess what effects will all this have on the near and distant futures, but already, it is clear that a new era had begun, a trully global one. An era of world-wide trade... and, if history teaches us anything, world-wide war. But as already said, it is impossible to guess what awaits the world now, in this new age.
NPC Diplo:
From: City-State of Cuzo
To: Khmeria
We would appreciate a trade agreement, especially if you agree to help us arm and train our army.
From: Cernorus
To: Onoghuria
We propose an alliance.
From: Menesite Egypt
To: Phoenicia
I believe that it is time for us to formalise our alliance.
From: Nubia
To: Phoenicia
Please place some sort of a pressure upon General Menes, so that he will recognize our independence. We shall agree to retreat from Egypt Proper if he does, and to help him against the Parhaens.
OOC:
[1] Alantkage=OTL Bermuda.
[2] Dido-Hadast=OTL Azores.
[3] Lake Bu-ku=OTL Lake Balkhash.
[4] Fan Li River=OTL Darling River.
[5] Virupakkha's Breath=OTL Roaring Forties.
Note - there seem to be some errors with the stats... Possibly lots of errors. (I only noticed this accidentally - don't know how did it happen, I could've sworn that I did do the stat changes for everyone...) So please report them quickly if you notice any. Sorry in advance about any mistakes or misunderstandments both there and in the update, especially in the spotlight.
(-2 Cernorusian thousands, -2 Cernorusian Ljuta Druzhina thousands)
Sporadic Berber and Punic resistance in former Punic North Africa continued - but not for long. Skilled in the art of counterinsurgency, the Lucans quickly captured and razed the desert city of Sabha, breaking the back of the Garamantean rebels at least. The rest took more time, but gradually the Berbers accepted Lucan rule, while the surviving Punic resistors were driven underground or reduced to small-scale banditry. The Dacoillyrians encountered less resistance in general, successfully playing the would-be-rebel factions against each other. Wagadou's loyal Berbers had little trouble asserting control within the Ghana's jurisdiction.
(-2 Lucan thousands, -2 Lucan Companion Cavalry thousands, -1 Dacoillyrian thousand, -2 Wagadou thousands, -2 Wagadou Imperial Berber Camelry)
Wagadou consolidated its vast, increasingly-overstretched and bloated empire. Several rebellions and minor Mande tribes have been crushed ruthlessly.
(-6 Wagadou thousands, -1 Wagadou levy thousand)
The Egyptian Civil War escalated further, as the foreign interventions begun. First of all, Parhae, seeking to take over Egypt's Arabian colonies, allied with General Kufu's Republic, quickly occupying the Menesite-held Israeli heartlands - without any resistance apart from that provided by the Israelis themselves. A Parhaen fleet hurried into the Red Sea, but was too late - the remnants of the Menesite army's Arabian force were already in General Menes' Egyptian base of Sawu. General Menes' fleet, however, was attacked in the harbour of Sawu itself and destroyed in a furious battle. However, far from the entirety of the Menesite fleet was to be found there, as most of it took to privateering instead, leading the Parhaens on many a wild goose chase. Parhae wasn't the only foreign power to intervenne, however; the Phoenicians, wary of being caught between Parhae and its Republican allies and also eager (with the exception of Eliat - but the new parliamentary system meant that its objections weren't all that crucial as long as the Mediterranean Phoenician representatives agreed) to secure the very useful Sile Canal. For this purpose the Phoenicians had prepared a fairly impressive military for such a peaceful nation; reflecting upon the maritime nature of Phoenicia's power, that army's elite were the marine "Tyrian Sea Guards". While the Republic fought a three-front war with the Berbers, Nubia and General Menes, its capital, Akam, was basically ripe for the taking. Still, it did have some defenses and defenders, and the Phoenicians didn't want to take any chances, knowing full well that their country's very survival may depend on the success of the Egyptian campaign. In the end, everything went dandy: the pathetic Republican fleet was surprised and destroyed at the mouth of the Nile, the fleet advanced up the Nile and through the Sile Canal unopposed with the citizens and defenders utterly stunned and confused, the Tyrian Sea Guards disembarked and secured the harbours of Akam and Sile, and, with the probably-redundant help of regular troops, chopped up the defenders and killed General Kufu and his closest supporters in Akam itself (1 banked eco. point to Phoenicia). The Egyptian Republic still did retain some local leaders, sent by Kufu to supervise the war efforts in the south; yet now this policy backfired, as with Kufu's death they lost coordination and begun fighting for power, several defecting to the merciful General Menes. Thus the Republic ended - but the fighting was far from over. Phoenicians occupied the Sinai and some parts of far northern Egypt. The Berber hordes, rallied by a warlord called Nimlot, moved back to Egypt - this time to do things like they should have done, according to Nimlot, from the very start (in other words, instead of trying to work with the Egyptians, they just raped, killed, looted and razed everyone and everything they saw there - and as Egypt's population was always remarkably concentrated, the direct and indirect civilian casualties were almost unprecedented). The Berber rampage was only stopped by Menes in the Battle of Abydos, where Nimlot himself died. Having lost their visionary leaders, the Berbers shrugged and went home... with a record amount of loot, so one can't really say it was a total waste of time. A different problem came up when the Lucans occupied coastal Libya, to the joy of local Greeks and Egyptians (the tribal Berbers didn't put up much of a fight, simply retreating into the desert). As for Menes, he would've liked to pursue the Berbers, but new problems came up - the Nubians marched north, and were defeated at Thebes itself. Having emerged as the saviour of Egypt (never mind the fact that he kinda was behind everything that happened from the very start), Menes proceeded to claim for himself the titles of "Pharaoh" and "Imperator" (in a nod both to the Dacoillyrian title and to the original Roman meaning of the word), and, no longer challenged by any serious Egyptian factions, officially restored the capital to Thebes, renounced all Republican reforms and divided the key positions in the state between his old supporters and the surviving administrators of pre-civil war Egypt. Yet he and the rest of Egypt celebrated too early as the Parhaens landed at and captured Sawu. The clumsy early attempt to retake it, based on the erroneous understandment that the Parhaens merely landed a thousand or two maximum, was repulsed, and all that Menes had gained was already being threatened, especially as Nubians marched north again... Fortunately, however, the Nubians themselves soon begun fighting the Parhaens as well, winning time for Menes to levy a fairly large, if poorly-equipped, army. Confused about his situation, especially with the Phoenicia-Parhaen non-aggression pact taken into account, the Parhaen commander decided not to press on yet. The situation remains highly-confusing and volatile.
(-Egyptian Republic as an independent nation, -1 Phoenician thousand, -2 Phoenician Tyrian Sea Guards, -1 Phoenician ship, -4 Parhaen thousands, -1 Parhaen Eternal Legion, -6 Parhaen ships, -1 Lucan Companion Cavalry thousand, -16 Menesite thousands, -3 Menesite levy thousands, -13 Menesite ships, -8 Nubian thousands, -3 Nubian levy thousands)
To the relief of their other neighbours, Onoghurian Bulgharia and Tieh China attacked Turan. The original cause was the disappearence of the Onoghurian ambassador prince who was travelling by the Silk Route to Tieh China; declaring that the Turanese were at best too incompetent and at worst too belligerent to be allowed to control a vital portion of the Silk Route, Onoghuria proclaimed its intention to make the Silk Route safe by any means that may be necessary. That equaled war. Though the hoped-for rebellions in Turan mostly failed to occur, the Bulghars gained some other allies - namely, the Ugrians on the upper Itil, who were fighting a war for survival with the Turanese, and the Tieh, who too were interested in Central Asian expansion. From the start, the Turanese fared poorly. Their initial Ugrian campaign, to take the city of Archali, was already started when the Onoghurians attacked, and due to the excellent coordination between the Onoghurians and Ugrians (the former were allowed to operate from the territory of the latter, among other things) it was turned into a disastrous defeat: one Turanese army was confronted by an unexpectedly-large Bulgharo-Ugrian army and was then eliminated, while another was attacked by the Onoghurians on the move, barely regroupped, tried to retreat south but was then cut off from its retreat route by another Onoghurian army. This already was a catastrophe, but ofcourse the Onoghurians didn't stop there. An ambitious amphibious operation in the northern Caspian placed a large Onoghurian force in the rear of the Turanese border defenders. The ensuing battle at Buran-Kosa was bitterly contested, but the Onoghurians won in the end. The Ugrians in the north capitalised on their previous victories and with the help of the new Onoghurian Onoghurets siege units retook the city of Ilek, lost a few years ago in the beginning of the Turanese-Ugrian War. The Turanese scurried to regroup in the east, preparing to defend themselves, but the Onoghurians didn't seem very willing to move further, although they did secure the rest of Turan's Caspian coastline in 424. Meanwhile, the Tieh Chinese attacked with overwhelming force, virtually trampling the Turanese defenders on the shores of Lake Bu-ku[3]. Advancing along the Silk Route, the Tieh Chinese paid their toll to attrition and Turanese raids, but ultimately secured a large territory. The Turanese were forced to retreat to their central areas, and there regroupped and recovered from the shock. Meanwhile, both sides suffered from the disruption of the Silk Route.
(-10 Onoghurian thousands, -2 Onoghurian Onoghurets thousands, -52 Turanese thousands, -17 Tieh thousands)
Random Events:
Various calamities damage the Phoenicean fleet considerably (-5 Phoenicean ships).
Carhaginian Iberia's infrastructure is considerably improved, now that government attention is naturally centered there, while vast human resources have been provided by the exodus from North Africa (+1 Infrastructure).
The Tieh dynasty's apparent lack of interest in reuniting China actually improved its international standing, at least in East Asia as it seems to have no immediate belligerent intentions there (+1 Prestige).
Special Bonuses:
Best Cultural Orders: Sri Dukunnugeya (+1 Prestige).
Best Colonial Orders: Khmeria (+1 Trade).
Best Stories: Dawn Land (cultural bonus).
Spotlight:
The East's New Horizons.
"We set out, to whatever fate might await us there where no Khmer had ever tread before."
- Admiral Nguyen Chan. Year 421 AD.
While the western civilisations, in their pursuit of land, wealth and power, started a new series of brutal wars, the eastern ones - at least those of a more mercantile type - seeked new lands chiefly beyond the oceans. That was not a new tendency in itself. Aryavarta and Dukunnugeya had since they first came to be concentrated on the conquest of Africa, the Khmers persistantly expanded in New Khmeria (once New Sinhala), and the Nihonese turned to the various island chains to their north, south and east. It was this Nihonese drive, along with the information provided by the western explorers (including, in this case, Phoenicia, which, though itself eastern, is best listed with the western colonialists for numerous reasons), that gave the eastern colonialism a new push, and opened whole new horizons before it, as the Nihonese stumbled upon a whole new world beyond the oceans. A backwards, chaos-filled world ripe for the taking.
So they came and took it. Not all of it, ofcourse - it was way too huge, and the more the Nihonese explored it, the more they realised the vastness of its size. But they took a lot of ground. Vast propaganda campaigns were launched to get colonists for this New World. Lots and lots of money was poured into the expansion, the military campaigns, the development and so forth. Dockyards and harbours worked without rest - new ships were built, old ships were restocked and repaired. An immense effort was undertaken by all of Nihon, and it soon paid off. Yet such an effort never goes unnoticed, and in due time the Hong Kees procurred enough information to launch an expedition of their own to the east. The Khmers, while busy redoubling their efforts in New Khmeria, took notice as well, and negotiated with Hong Kong, and as a result, in 421 AD, Admiral Nguyen Chan led a Khmer expedition across the Great Ocean, eventually arriving at the Olmec coast. After travelling some more, a Khmer "base camp" was set up near the Olmec city-state of Tapachula, ruled by a paranoid warlord, who mistook the Khmers for the Nihonese who have, as he had long expected, finally come to conquer them all. He mustered his small, but seasoned cavalry arm and attacked the Khmer camp at night. The attack was repulsed, but with considerable bloodshed. The Khmers weren't ready for siege operations, so they simply fortified their camp and tried to negotiate. The attempts didn't have any success, but the attacks ceased soon enough... Meanwhile, the fleet itself established contact with slightly more peaceful natives, most notably the mercantile city-state of Cuzo, with which negotiations were carried out in Phoenician of all languages (a few of the crew members knew some standard Phoenician, but the natives had Carthaginian translators; still, it was better than nothing) and trade was set up. Further to the southeast, there was a war going on, but not quite like the petty ones of the Olmec warlords; instead, it was a methodical conquest. Thus first contact with the Huanc Empire was made as well.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kees expanded on their previous gains in the area, seizing new land. This included a major military campaign against the Olmetoltec city of Mazatlan; fortunately, the Olmetoltecs were neither particularily strong nor advanced, and the fierceness of their defense did little to hamper the Chinese conquerors. Lastly, in late 422 AD, the Nihonese had arrived in Olmecia. Having already acquired valuable conquering experience in Aztlan, the Nihonese conquered several city-states in the northwest. Resistance was quite strong, and the occasional Carib Plague outbreak took their toll, but the Nihonese secured their goals and landed further to the southeast in 423 AD, actually taking Tapachula (which was in anarchy)... and discovering the Khmer camp. The Khmers did by then capture some additional territory, though it wasn't much as of yet. The Nihonese shrugged and concentrated on inland expansion, advancing to meet one of the Punic Empire's "vassal states"... To sum up, the Scramble for Olmecia had begun.
It is noteworthy that only one serious expansion effort was made in the New World outside of Olmecia when the Hong Kees seized even more land from the Chinook in the far north. The confrontations between Asians and New Worlders grew more and more violent with every instance...
Far to the southwest, the Khmers continued their colonial operations in Oceania. First and foremost, ofcourse, this meant New Khmeria, where a new grand effort was made to expand the Khmer Empire. Culturally, economically, politically and militarily, the Khmers advanced by a myriad paths, and tribe after tribe joined the Khmer Empire. At times, serious armed resistance was encountered; but it was never serious enough, ofcourse. Vast areas were secured; mostly importantly this included the entire Fan Li River[4] basin. It must be emphasized ofcourse that this conquest was mostly a peaceful one, and the Khmers did their best to integrate the aborigines into the rising colonial society without destroying their traditional culture or society (at least directly). Aside from that, some more exploring was done in the region. Trade outposts were established in the Polynesian islands... and another one in that island to the southeast of New Khmeria. Soon enough, however, a startling "discovery" was made - the Aboriginals on that island (now called Agnihariya) were far outnumbered by the Dukunnugeyans, who have apparently already set themselves up quite well, with cities, flourishing agriculture and a governor from the royal family. The Khmers didn't know quite what to make of this, especially as all evidence pointed towards the Dukunnugeyans arriving here earlier than the Khmers by a few years at least.
The most tragic - and most enigmatic - page here is that of Aryavarta. That country was facing a crisis of expansion for several centuries now. The northern direction was denied by nature itself; the eastern one was denied by Khmeria, and gradually, but quite consistantly the Aryavartans (and their Kalingan predecessors) shifted westwards. But the west too was denied by strong empires... The southwest would have been optimal under the circumstances, but the breakaway colony of Aryavarta (Sri Dukunnugeya, ofcourse) had blocked that direction as well. So the Aryavartans had, approximately a decade ago, decided to set up a colony in Namibia, basically going around Dukunnugeya. If succesful, that entreprise would have given Aryavarta a new, promising colony and an excellent new opportunity to reconquer Dukunnugeya at long last. But to succeed, it needed lots and lots of troops, funds, supplies and efforts. And it succesfully sucked all of that up. And there were some successes. But the price was simply not worth it, and this was increasingly realised by many at home. However, the Aryavartans persisted, even as the Khoisans and Khoisania's myriad diseases attacked them. Rumours said that the king had finally despaired and was about to order the withdrawal... when suddenly, he fell ill, leaving the running of the country in the hands of the low-initiative bureaucracy. The expedition continued, but not for long... The region in question was always plagued by storms and pirates, now even moreso than usual. Some of the worst storms came in 422 AD - and were immediately used by the pirates, who were basically drawn by the vast Aryavartan convoys (full of supplies, funds and so forth) like moths to light. The storms had rendered the Aryavartan ships, designed for Central Indian Ocean, even more vulnerable than normally. Between the storms and the pirates, the overstretched, battered Aryavartan fleet was simply destroyed, with only a few ships (those in particularily poor conditions since 420 AD) surviving due to removed from the convoys. The Dukunnugeyan trade fleet was also attacked, but not quite as much as the Aryavartan one, being not quite as vulnerable, especially with the Dukunnugeyan bases nearby.
In any case, this meant that the Aryavartan supply routes to Namibia were cut. The supply situation in Namibia was poor enough as it is, but now open starvation begun in the Aryavartan army. It increasingly had to forage and raid, annoying the Khoisans and spreading itself quite thin. The renewed Khoisan "indirect" attacks made things even worse. While the army was on the brink of fighting for food, attacks intensified even further, and eventually the Aryavartan presence simply collapsed, and they all were slaughtered by the natives, their base razed. Nothing is worse than an expensive, unpopular failure. The popular outcry at home was immense, and frantic claims by some officials that Dukunnugeya was behind it all were ignored outside of Dravidia as a mere attempt to find some scapegoat. Whatever the case may be (as indeed the exact development remains unknown - the above facts are merely commonly-accepted, so they may not even be true at all), Aryavarta's colonial project had apparently failed.
Lastly, we should speak in some more detail about Dukunnugeya's expansion, for it too is most noteworthy, especially due to its unique trait - the use of "Virupakkha's Breath"[5], upon which the prosperity and greatness of modern Dukunnugeya rested and still rests. It is thanks to this wind system that the Dukunnugeyans had succesfully travelled to New Khmeria and all the way to Nihon from there; the Southern Route functioned similarily, only more regularily. It also helped found Dukunnugeya's abortive New Khmer colonial empire. That clearly was not to be, and seems to have been a result of a mistake in the first place, but still could be considered ominous, as now, more and more colonies arose. Things didn't stop with Agnihariya, ofcourse. Using western and eastern knowledge, and Dukunnugeya's own unique technologies, the neo-Sinhalese explorers seeked the fabled New World... and found it, too. Specifically, one expedition travelled west across the southern Atlantic, and set up a trade outpost in Guarani territory, specifically - in Tavytero; and another, relying on the various navigation instruments more, had eventually managed to reach the New World from Agnihariya, basically just letting Virupakkha's Breath carry them there. At first it didn't seem obvious that it WAS, in fact, the same New World all had been talking about, but soon enough it was figured out that even if it wasn't, it was quite close enough. Slowly, but surely, the seeds of a great future southern empire were being spread and disseminated.
It is impossible to guess what effects will all this have on the near and distant futures, but already, it is clear that a new era had begun, a trully global one. An era of world-wide trade... and, if history teaches us anything, world-wide war. But as already said, it is impossible to guess what awaits the world now, in this new age.
NPC Diplo:
From: City-State of Cuzo
To: Khmeria
We would appreciate a trade agreement, especially if you agree to help us arm and train our army.
From: Cernorus
To: Onoghuria
We propose an alliance.
From: Menesite Egypt
To: Phoenicia
I believe that it is time for us to formalise our alliance.
From: Nubia
To: Phoenicia
Please place some sort of a pressure upon General Menes, so that he will recognize our independence. We shall agree to retreat from Egypt Proper if he does, and to help him against the Parhaens.
OOC:
[1] Alantkage=OTL Bermuda.
[2] Dido-Hadast=OTL Azores.
[3] Lake Bu-ku=OTL Lake Balkhash.
[4] Fan Li River=OTL Darling River.
[5] Virupakkha's Breath=OTL Roaring Forties.
Note - there seem to be some errors with the stats... Possibly lots of errors. (I only noticed this accidentally - don't know how did it happen, I could've sworn that I did do the stat changes for everyone...) So please report them quickly if you notice any. Sorry in advance about any mistakes or misunderstandments both there and in the update, especially in the spotlight.
das
Regeneration In Process
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
OOC: You know, I asked for Tieh China to be NPC'ed and you go and invade Turan (You're good....)
Lucky!!! YOU SOLD HAINAN TO SYMPHONY?????? GRRR YOU
(You're good....)Lucky!!! YOU SOLD HAINAN TO SYMPHONY?????? GRRR YOU
MjM
Deity
Ugh. Dead again. Can I take Menesite Egypt, or do I have to take something different, das?
MjM
Deity
Actually, nevermind, I dont want Menesite Egypt. They are Phoenician lapdogs. I guess im out for a bit.
The Strategos
Thanatos
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2002
- Messages
- 1,175
Luckymoose
The World is Mine
OOC: You know, I asked for Tieh China to be NPC'ed and you go and invade Turan
Lucky!!! YOU SOLD HAINAN TO SYMPHONY?????? GRRR YOU
Great Update Das, as usual.
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
fantastic update das!
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