Update 7 - Year 1290 CE
Global Events:
Fennians relieve Finntown in the last moment, just as it was about to fall. The Iroquois are pushed back after surprisingly tough fighting. Elsewhere, Nova Tarentia has been captured by those Fennians, and Greenland with Iceland were returned to Scotia.
(-5 Fennian battalions, -2 Lombardian battalions)
Svenians pull out of Messipia just in time, as the Visgothians were about to cut them off. Messipians then proceeded to crush the remaining Scotians on the Aztec Peninsula...
(-3 Scotian battalions, -6 Messipian battalions)
Visgoths burned down all remaining Svenian Caribbean colonies (1 Economy transferred).
(-4 Visgoth UU, -3 Svenian UU)
The Svenians are a lot less lucky in the Mayan territories. Not only do Visgoths take Mayapun and Chichen Itza, cutting the Svenian supplies off, but also a huge and mystirious army arrived from the south by the order of some Inca. The Svenians are pushed back to the eastern coast...
(-11 Mayan battalions, -2 Visgoth battalions, -3 Severoslavian battalions, -4 Incan battalions, -14 Svenian battalions)
Incan expansion is slowly dragging on in the Amazon rainforest, due to the decidedly hostile terrain.
Camelotium fell and was plundered by the Scotian troops (-1 Economy). Their celebrations did not last long, though, as they were cut off from the sea and supplies. The attrition rate was horrible, nevertheless the Scotians chose to push on. However, they only managed to reach and besiege Londinium, and are losing THOUSANDS of men due to attrition in their camp. What could have been a war-winning measure now led to the entire Scotian army to be stuck in the middle of hostile terrain. Meanwhile, despite the heroic resistance of local militias, the Visgoths seized and pillaged the Scotian capital, Tara (-1 Scotian Economy, 1 Scotian Economy transferred to Visgoths). Most of Eire is now in Crusader hands.
(-29 Scotian battalions, -5 Britannian battalions, -1 Visgothian battalion, -2 Visgothian UU)
The Svenians defeat the Severoslavian fleet decisively, while linking up their forces along the coast. Severoslavians retreat to more defensible positions, allowing the Svenians to plunder some more territory (1 Economy transfer). However, as new orders did not reach the Svenian forces, they fail to launch a decisive offensive.
(-5 Severoslavian battalions, -19 Severoslavian ships, -4 Svenian battalions, -11 Svenian ships)
Severoslavian Ceaser, Dobrinin, has died, and the entire country mourns him. The new regent is determined to outregent the Polian regent, which is not too hard.
Alexandrine blockade hurts Croatia (-1 Economy).
Back in Fennia, Mielus inexplicably sends Fennian settlers to populate the frozen, nearly-uninhabited north of the land. This is looked upon as odd, and a group of nobles planned a nearly-successful coup which was stopped just as it was about to be implemented fully (-1 Confidence). Fennia jumps into the mobilization train (+30 battalions).
Khazars and Baltians sign peace but, apparently due to the Baltian maps (or lack thereof in sufficient quality AND quantity), the Baltians continue to occupy BYZANTINE Crimea, which supposedly was meant to be Khazar, and a corridor leading towards it. The Khazarian force moving in to reclaim that territory was brutally slaughtered, taken by surprise as it was. Meanwhile, most local Tarunists and even some of the Baltian troops who deserted after the peace (-10 battalions), refuse to leave Khazarian territory. They believed this to be dishonorable, and continued their rebellion. They already reached the Caspian Sea, merging with the remainders of the old Gogalite hordes living there, and are generally wrecking havoc (-1 Economy).
(-3 Khazarian battalion)
At least in the research front, things are going better for poor, poor Khazaria. Unexpected progress is being made on the project one (OOC: Erez, the first research you ordered for this turn), while designs for a ship similar to the Berber skullwall, but somewhat more mobile, have been acquired.
Meanwhile, the reason for the Baltian peace with the Khazars becomes rather obvious. They cut off the Black Army-held coast, and stopped two of their battalions from escaping. Ever. The rest reorganized themselves, though, and escaped into Polian territory. The low-moral (after the kings mystirious disappearence), though numerically superior, Polian border troops were crushed, and the Black Army got to the pillaging part (-2 Polian economy). The Regent of Polia himself has been captured (he was leading the Polian troops against the Black Army, but most of them ran away upon hearing of the previous defeats)! However, in Baltia, the people do not fear the Black Army as much as before, believing that the Black Army had ran away in fear, and realizing that it was a rather small force, really.
(-3 Baltian battalions, -16 Polian battalions (OOC: dont worry, most of these were just desertions/prisoners), -4 Black Army battalions)
Some of the Black Army soldiers were persuaded to talk after a long torture session! The Baltian Minister of Questioning (OOC: Its similar to Head of Inquisition, but its Tarunist) will gladly report the results to Henrich von Dunkelheit as soon as reminded to do so (in PM form).
Cretan Republic is no longer there, Croatia is the only one still fighting the Alexandrines. In a sudden burst of wisdom, the Croatian knights chose to abandon Carthage, burning it down (-1 Economy) and fleeing to Lombard positions. Unfortunately, their ships were sunken by the Berber Skullwalls... though the rest of the Berber Fleet still seems to be missing somewhere. The Lombards take the Berber city of Oranus after some hard fighting on the land (the Berbers made a determined last stand, drawing Lombards into the city and inflicting outrageous casualties upon them) and the sea (during which, the last remaining skullwalls were sunken save for one that was captured), but it seems that a large part of Berber population is gone. The Visgothian attempts to get new Berber recruits in their-held territory in Berberia failed, as the cities there are quite depopulated, though there is a growing Visgoth populace: most Berbers fled long ago, and now that Oranus was taken, there is nowhere for them to run to save from the desert... or is there?
(-7 Berber battalions, -5 Berber skullwalls, -12 Croatian battalions, -12 Croatian ships, -16 Lombard battalions, -13 Lombard ships)
Zulu war against the Khoisan League goes well. Ingenious tactics and strategy, combined with the first ever sub-Saharan African seaborne landing, allowed the Zulus to crush much of the Khoisan League. Nevertheless, its remnants withdrew further north and are prepared to fight to the death.
(-3 Zulu battalions)
Georgia sees huge amount of fighting, as Khazars attempt a counteroffensive. Unfortunately, the Byzantines have perfected primitive counterbattery fire and had the surviving Georgian mountaineers attack Khazarian supply lines. The Khazars bogged down, allowing the Byzantines (now-mobilized! (+30 battalions)) to launch a counterattack. It is costly, but pushes the Khazars further back. Unfortunately, this left the Syrian theater of warfare unguarded, and thus the Judeans launched a counteroffensive, advancing far into Cilycia, while Persian reoccupied the Byzantine-held Iraq as it was abandoned by its garrison.
(-29 Khazarian battalions, -9 Khazarian UUs, -37 Byzantine battalions, -3 Byzantine UUs, -3 Judean battalions)
Persians begin a campaign of missionary efforts, forced conversion and nasty things shown to Mithrian priests, somewhat increasing the amount of Itzhakists in the country.
As the year approached its end, the vassal king of Greater Manchuria, in a drunken rage, killed the Turkanese ruler. War is coming between those two Sinhalese vassal states...
Juang Empire is falling!
(spotlight)
(30 battalions defect from Juang to HW, -10 Juang battalions, -3 Heavenly Warrior battalions, -6 NDranese battalions)
The Edo Faction, having lost its leader recently, surrendered without a fight as its remaining forces joined with the Hamamatsu. It is unknown as to what will the former allies against Edo do now...
Sabahese diplomats continue gathering information, however, most information they managed to find in Java. The other missions are progressing rather slowly, though some points of relative interest have been found there as well.
Random Events:
Volunteers rush to join the Baltian army against the Black Armys assault (+5 battalions).
More people join the Order of St. Martin (+5 UU).
African tribes begin minor raiding against the European trade posts. This might develop into something bigger overtime.
Spotlight:
Fall of the Juang Empire
"Freedom comes from the Barrel of a Cannon"
- attrib. to Tzin Shu. "Why Do We Fight?".
In 1286, the Juang Wang Emperor formally abdicated and gave power to his cherished "parliament".
That was the last straw for his Empire. Apart from a minor area surrounding Juankorum and Korea Proper, not only Chinese peasants but even the Chinese and Manchu soldiers have rebelled. All the nobles with any foresight immediately fled to Sinhala or even pledged allegience to Shai Pai Ming. The Heavenly Warriors, once a minor, regional, secret movement now controlled territory roughly the size of Europe, surpassing even Tzin Shu's rebellion area. Meanwhile, the core of the loyalist troops were overtaken by a surprise attack in Korea - the N'Dranese force crushed in into the more patriotic areas of Korea, raising a rebellion and marching on to besiege the pro-Manchu cities further south.
All the remaining loyal troops fled to assist the "parliament" in Juankorum. Interestingly, the system begun to get off the ground, now that it was limited to only a tiny area around the city and thus had less corruption. The "Juankorum Commune" has been declared, and people like the Chinese lawyer Wai Zhen-li and a Manchu noble and brilliant commander Nabunai took over. They seem to plan to create their own state on their peninsula, though unfortunately they chose an arrogant and snobbish Manchu aristocrat, Khokhotai, as the leader of the delegation to Shai Pai Ming.
Meanwhile, grief fills the newly-liberated China. In the age of 79, Tzin Shu, the legendary Chinese rebel called by some "the New Confucius" has died from old age and numerous wounds. Since the rape and death of his two daughters at the hands of the Juang soldiers, he had sworn to fight for Chinese freedom, and he died, seeing that dream fulfilled. His last words were "make China great again".
NPC Diplo:
From: Regent of Polia
To: The All-Powerful Black Army, The Scourge of the God
Please, spare our pious, Christian lands! We shalth pay thee much tribute *secret*and shalth help thee escape from thy foes...*secret*
From: Byzantine Empire
To: Baltia
Consider those straits closed to you.
From: Byzantine Empire
To: Khazaria
We propose peace on prewar orders. You wont even have to pay any reparations. Remember you can barely afford fighting
From: Byzantine Empire
To: Black Army
If the rumors of you being in the Alexandrine employ are false, how are you about cooperation?
From: Alatesh of Turkan
To: Sinhalese Empire
Allow me to take revenge on the killer of my father, the cruel and treacherous Shashlyk-Khan.
From: Shashlyk-Khan of Greater Manchuria
To: Sinhalese Empire
Atamala and his pup Alatesh have always been treacherous! They planned to rebel against you, that was why I struck down that Turkanese snake! Assist me in killing his son and his relatives, and in bringing a GOOD and JUST ruler to preside over Turkan for you!
From: Alatesh of Turkan
To: Sinhalese Empire
Hes lying!
From: Greater Manchuria
To: Sinhalese Empire
My vassal ruler outvassalrulers Turkanese vassal ruler!
(OOC: The mod would like to apologize for the previous two diplos)
From: The Juankorum Parliament
To: Heavenly Warriors
We see the fact that we have no chance to reclaim China, nor do we want your backwards, primitive, opressed lands and its huge, illiterate peasant population. To you, your past-like, dark future, to us, our bright future. We request that you allow us to keep the Juankorum area. In exchange, we will acknowledge you as the new Emperor of the Juang Chinese Empire, or whatever new name you intend to give it. We CAN withstand a siege, we can fight back an assault. You shall not take our city. Not INTACT, anyway.
From: N'Dran
To: Heavenly Warriors
We request that you allow us to keep all the legitimate territories of the Old Korean Empire. It was usurped from us by the Juang scum just as China was from you. In exchange, we will pledge to be your allies and, if needed, assist you in the siege of Juankorum.
OOC:
GREAT! First we had colonialists, and now we seem to have Never-Ending Mobilizations.
Remember, all those playing Tarunist nations it is VERY hard to control your troops and/or population. They are happy raiders, and are good at ignoring orders.
People, PLEASE specify whether you mean economy POINTS (simple growth) or economy LEVELS (sacrifice growth).
I officially introduce the newest feature, the scapegoat-for-the-turn. Whoever holds that prestigious title just happens to either annoy me greatly, either slow down the update due to his/her orders. Normally, he/she should be blamed for everything and tortured as per the good old Spanish traditions. As, objectively, the scapegoat for this turns happens to be me, you people should go and torture Jason for holding up HIS update anyway.
P.S. Ice Eye, Im REALLY sorry so I will give you an economy level in compensation.