Update XII- 1400 BCE
FOR KING, FOR NATION, FOR VENGEANCE!!!
-Hannibal, the last General of Karthage, at the Battle of the Tiber.
Hawaii's battle against the undead horde has reached its climax! The unnumerable waking dead piled up high enough to scale the very fortress walls of Hawaii's city of Panama, while Hawaiian storms battered their enemies. The undead even managed to raise a few massive skeletal bodies from the depths of the ocean to fight for them. The Antarcticans had left, now only the penguins, a few Dur Veliz, and the Vol'kiss aided Hawaii.
In a daring strike Vol'Kiss volcanists and Hawaiian serpent riders managed to get into the Amazon basin. There, every volcanist prepared a massive spell to destroy the gates that the dead were arriving through. Fending off masses of undead, they completed their spell just before being completely overrun. The devestation left nothing for thousands of kilometers, save the volcanists and Hawaiians, who were protected from the spell.
A massive tract of central America is reduced to a lava-covered wasteland. All of the known undead gates are destroyed or sunken into the depths of the earth. The massive undead city, which was believed to hold the ruling mind of these terrors, is wiped completely from the face of the earth.
Jubilant in their victory, they left the mangled landscapes and returned to central america. Upon their arrival, they discovered that with the demise of their ruling mind, most of the walking corpses had returned to their natural state of death, and those who didn't fought each other. But due to the absence of Antarctica's holy Clerics of the Ice, the casualties were much higher. Nonetheless, it seems that peace will once again exist in the Americas.
(-3 thousand Hawaiian infantry, -10 serpent riders, -30 Vol'kiss volcanists, -1 thousand penguins from each nation)
The natives of Ontario, who have become very reliant and integrated into Hyperborean society already, have pledged allegiance to their good friends. Also, settlers are finally moving into occupied Quebec.
(+10 000 population)
Avalon has wrested control of OTL Baffin island from the natives. They treated the captured people with great kindness however, so there have been no revolts. The brief battle with the natives had few casualties on either side, and many defeated warriors joined the Avalonian army. In the end, the new soldiers were roughly as common as the casualties, so the Avalonian army remains unchanged in size.
Gorin has gone into another period of isolation. Their only contact with the outside world is through Avalon. Germania has been surprisingly forgiving to Gorin, and has not attempted to launch a retaliatory attack on their attackers.
The defeat of Karthage, which very recently ago seemed inevitable, is beginning to appear increasingly unlikely.
Firstly, Abyssinia, the nation charged with defending the occupied Karthaginian mainland, is experiencing problems at home. Many of the people are angry, for unlike most of the other anti-Karthage coalition nations, they have not been force-fed propaganda since the war began. Abyssinian civilians are demanding that Karthage, a nation that has never wronged them, should have its lands returned. To quell these protests, some of the army was recalled, both to appease the civilians and make sure that no uprisings occur.
Secondly, the people of all the occupied lands are resisting their oppressors with with extreme violence. The resistance in the actual city of Karthage was so strong that the remaining Abyssinian garrison was destroyed, and the capital fell back into Karthaginian hands.
(Off topic: If you want pictures of what Karthage looks like after all of this, look at Osgiliath from Lord of the Rings)
(-1 thousand Abyssinian infantry)
Thirdly, New Atlantis, pleased that Karthage had agreed to instigate a democratic government, has joined the war on Karthages side, greatly evening up the two sides of the war.
The New Atlantean army stormed over occupied mainland Karthage, slaughtering the remenants of the Abyssinian defense and returned the land back to Karthage.
(-1 thousand Abyssinian infantry)
In Italy, the rebellions were nearly as strong as those in mainland Karthage. The Elgovian/Hyperborean army, fed up with the occupied people, slaughtered thousands. But this only made things worse. Citizens everywhere ttook up arms to fight their opressors. But they lacked the organization or numbers to take down the combined force alone.
(-10 000 Karthaginian population, +10 thousand Karthaginian militia)
But they weren't alone.
The Balaerian and Karthaginian defenders of Rome launched an attack on the Hyperborean/ Elgovian force. Finding themselves outmagicked and outnumbered, they decided to pull back and fight at a more advantageous time. But they had forgotten the Karthaginian resistance.
As the Elgovian/Hyperborean army pulled out of the field of battle to escape by sea, Karthaginian farmers, armed with a multitude of weapons and farm implements, cut them off and attacked. The Elgovians and Hyperboreans were forced to fight, but they couldn't have been located in much of a worse spot. Their path of retreat to the sea had led them into an area on the side of the river Tiber. No cover was provided by the rolling hills, and the river was running wild because of Karthaginian aquamancers.
The Hyperboreans/Elgovians fought a bloody battle, but they were badly outnumbered. Hyperborean magi desperately tried to set up a warp portal out of there, but aquamancers managed to cancel out their magical fields enough to slow the portal opening to a crawl.
As the defending force was cut down further and further, desperation set in like none had expected before the start of the war. The remaining force tried to break out through the Karthaginian farmer militias. Though they took heavy casualties, they managed to break out and get to their ships. Where they were confronted with a group of Karthaginian and Balaerian leviathans.
Totally trapped, it was then that the warp portal was activated. The remaining Hyperborean/Elgovian army managed to escape to Rhodes. The ships were not so lucky. They fought the large group of leviathans, but were all sunk and their crews eaten. With this stunning victory, to later be called the Battle of the Tiber, Karthage and her allies had secured most of the Westernern Mediterranean.
(-4 thousand Elgovian infantry, -3 thousand Hyperborean infantry, -10 Elgovian galleys, -2 thousand Karthaginian infantry, -4 thousand Karthaginian militia, -1 thousand Balaerian infantry, -1 thousand Balaerian archers)
But Illyria hadn't acted yet. Regathering their deadly force, they charged into former Helvetia, to find it ungarrisoned. The people, not as devoted to Karthage as Mainlanders or Italians, didn't resist much.
(-1 thousand Illyrian infantry)
About to charge into southern Italy, the Illyrians realised something: Balaeria's forces would be concentrated in Italy, but its colonies on Europe's southern coast should be practically undefended, as they wouldn't expect an attack to come from what had earlier been Karthage.
So the Illyrian army charged through Balaeria, slaughtering every enemy or civilian they saw and raising them back as undead minions.
Balaeria would have been crushed if it hadn't been for their swift naval messenger system. Word quickly reached the Balaeric Italian army of the invasion, so they pulled half of their army out and raced back to defend their lands. They arrived in Massilia just before the Illyrians.
The invaders threw everything they had into the scrambling garrison. Unable to put up a sufficient defense, they were crushed, and Illyria took all of Balaeria's mainland European possessions. As they were about to turn around and help their allies of Elgovia and Hyperborea in Italy, they realised something: New Atlantis' forces were mostly in Karthage, and Iberia would likely be lightly defended.
(-2 thousand Balaerian infantry, -1 thousand Balaerian archers, -1 Balaerian loyalty, -60 000 population, -1000 Illyrian infantry, -20 Posessed Warriors)
So Illyria charged into New Atlantis. But the New Atlanteans had received plenty of warning about this attack. They weren't so stupid that they would think that Illyria would charge through two enemy nations and stop at the third. Allowing Illyria to take a city, the New Atlantean army snuck up from behind and surrounded the invaders. Illyria had stretched itself too thin.
With its supply lines cut off, Illyria could still keep fed, fortunately for them. They were forced to eat the dead, then each other. Conditions were miserable for Illyria's nonmagical parts of the army.
Something had to be done quickly. Sending out a large group of Posessed warriors and simultaneously driving many soldiers temporarily mad with chaotic magic, Illyria made a lightning break out of the city. While this saved most of the army, the possessed warriors were slaughtered. The retreated went all the way to central Balaeria, where Illyria set up defenses at the base of the Alps. While the Illyrian advance is halted, all of their new lands have been used or pillaged, resulting in great riches.
(+1 Illyrian economy level, -2 thousand Illyrian infantry, -30 Possessed Warriors, -20 Chaos Sorcerers, -1 thousand New Atlantean infantry, -5 Golems)
Illyria and New Atlantis were at a stalemate, but Elgovia and Hyperborea were ready to strike back. The sent their troops back to Southern Italy, pushing out the small group of defenders, and now control the same land they did at the very first attack on Karthage.
On the Khemri front, the military advance has halted. Seemingly satisfied with their gains, they relaxed and began to consolidate their gains. Then, the rebellions began.
With hatred almost as strong as in the rebels in Karthage, the Karthaginian citizens drove off the border garrison in Leptis Magna and declared themselves to once again be part of Karthage. The city further to the west is rebelling, but hasn't yet overthrown their garrison.
(-1 thousand Khemri infantry, +1 Karthaginian loyalty)
In summary, all of the involved nations are being bled dry, except for New Atlantis and Illyria. Karthage has recaptured many of its former lands, and is poised to retake more. Its temporary capital is still at Messina, because it is more defensible and Karthage is still too badly damaged (think Minas Tirith and Osgiliath) Illyria has nearly doubled in size since the outbreak of the war, and has profited the most from it. And the Lich King of Khemri went on a vacation with King Menelik of Abyssinia and left the control of their nation to a drunk polar bear who felt like giving peace a chance. (Didn't send orders)
Songhai has expanded into new lands, and Sudafrika has taken some more land from its barbaric enemies.
The Urrian civil war is over, but not without the customary Welikoslavian dealbreaking, or at least dealbending. Convincing a significant fraction of the Babylonian army to join them, Welikoslavia took the southern coast of the Black sea and the Caucasus mountains before Ur officially took control of Babylon. Welikoslavia now owns every square inch of the Black sea's coastline.
(+20 000 population, +2 thousand cavalry, +1 thousand archers)
But many Babylonians and ALL Urrians view this with great anger. Welikoslavia has made itself a formidable enemy.
The Indus have paid little heed to this however. They have taken what Ur promised them, and once their job was completed, left. They are now working on improving the defense of their nation, fearing a Mongol attack.
But the Mongol invasion did not target their neighbours south of the Himalayas. It was an invasion of Kojaro. Kojaro lost the battle at sea (read Contempt's story), but they would not allow a landing on their islands.
Using huge groups of communicators focusing their power, they were able to completely block the Mongols crucial tactic of time manipulation. Nevertheless, the Mongols still managed to set up a beachhead, but it has been incapable of advancing inland, for constant archer fire and magical supression is cancelling the capabilities of all of the Mongol army.
But due to Mongol control of the seas, Kojaro's colonies have lost commmunication with their mother country, and are dying.
(-40 Mongol galleys, -10 Chinese galleys, -60 Kojaro galleys, -1 thousand Mongol cavalry, -1 thousand Kojaro infantry, -1 thousand Kojaro archers)
The opportunistic Vol'Kiss are colonising the OTL Phillipines, currently controlled by Kojaro, which has lost most of its capability for sea travel.
The Antarcticans, having isolated themselves from the outside world, have turned their attention inwards, and have completed the construction of a massive ice road system.
Note: Well, looks like I can't do the stats right now. Maybe tomorrow *ducks as tomato flies past.
). However, I do have two very minor issues.
