Nothing But War Here

[Sonereal]

Entry #1

After several damnable years of heated tribal conflict in the dense jungles east of Kyoto, the warbands are finally returning and not a day too soon. I am sorry if my anger reveals itself in my writing today but its hard not to be frustrated. It was my job to coordinate the three warbands sent into the jungles to root out the barbarian strongholds. Needless to say, coordination lacked and it was by no means my fault.

The High Chief ordered scouts to....scout out barbarian positions and to return with estimated troop strengths and fortifications. These men should have their brains bashed in with studded clubs and have their bodies dishonorably thrown into in Kyoto Bay. This was their report, verbatim.

"Barbarian numbers are low and disorganized. Light fortifications in a canyon. Rooting out the barbarians should be trivial."

Regardless, the commanders, Warlords, knew that fighting against an enemy in the jungle would take a bit of manpower and at the time, we didn't find ourselves lacking in manpower. We easily had three times estimated enemy troop strength in volunteers all drawn from Kyoto. The Warbands left Kyoto and expected to return within three months.

It took two years.

The barbarians weren't disorganized, had nearly three times their estimated troop strength, and knew how to fight in the jungles. Disorganization was a problem for them and may have been what lead to their downfall but without that fatal flaw, I question whether or not we would have decimated the barbarians in the jungles the way we did.

We ran into a wall of resistance when we started getting close to the location of the camp and soon, both sides were doing more moving than actual fighting, each trying to gain a dominant position. At this time, our men were armed with clubs and dressed lightly to travel light through the jungle. Later on, clubs would become stud for added damage. A club with shock rocks on it can kill very effectively. Disease, after all, was the main killer in this war.

While neither side really launched a major attack on the other for a long time in the war, both sides did launch raids on one another. Small-scale raids that won't even show up in the history books. The other weapon in our arsenal was the rare bow and arrow. Rare because we had no way to use it. Archers were hard-pressed to launch a volley on targets in dense foliage and were kept back in Kyoto. Occasionally, raiders from the Marshlands would attempt to raid Kyoto but would be ripped to shreds at the border by archer fire.

Anyway, the war in the jungle dragged on. Men who didn't drop because of the heat dropped because of wounds or disease. After nearly two years, the Warbands did find their chance to strike.

The barbarian encampment was hit hard on all sides and while the defenders did manage to keep hold on the encampment, the damage was done. The barbarian army quickly spiraled in quality from there as many raiders deserted their posts. A second attack the next day ended the war for the most part.

Three warbands, units, went into the jungle. Two suffered severe casualties while the third suffered moderate causalities. We recovered at least 75 bodies of barbarians from battles and another 30 found in the encampment. We're guessing many more died of wounds but are hard to find in all the jungle. We lost 50 men in battles and nearly 200 to infection or disease sadly. The Kyoto Army won't be able to see effective combat in a long time.

 

[Arexander]

Another great story to follow! Yay for me!

Oh, and yay for you too.

 

[Desertsnow]

(subscription post)

 

[Sonereal]

Entry #2

General Perse of the American Empire Army drew his sword and held it into the air, "King Roosevelt just sent the word over the wire! If the Mexicans think they can resist the might of our glorious guns, then I say, let's give them something to resist!"

The artillery gunners cheered and swarmed the massive guns they worked. These men, drawn from Houston and Washington City, armed the artillery pieces and calculated where to fire. Despite having a hour before its time to fire, these men worked quickly and wordlessly to bring glory to the Empire.
-------

The Mexican Army is weak. From what I've gathered, they lack an navy and are using Napoleonic cannons. Their troops are armed with outdated rifles and only some of their men are armed with repeaters. However, they are dug in at the border and uprooting them from the hills north of Mexico City will require more than bayonet charges. I have Napoleonic cannons and modern artillery pieces. The plan of action is to wreak havoc on the Mexican troops on the coast. We will root them out of the forest with cannon fire and infantry troops.

Meanwhile, we will root out their riflemen from the hills north of Mexico City by opening up the invasion with prolonged artillery bombardment.

 

[Sonereal]

Entry #3

The Mexicans probably saw it coming but were in no shape to do anything about it. Artillery shell after artillery smashed their forces fortified along the border. Tens of thousands of men fought for in the wilderness. The Mexicans attempted a charge against American infantry but our machine guns mowed down their bayonet riflemen down.

After several hours of fighting, some Mexicans started deserting just the sound of the whistle only to be shot by an officer. The President of Mexico, a dictator if there ever was one, demanded that no ground be given up to the invaders under threat of death.

And they fought that way. The Mexican defenders in the wilderness fought for every inch of ground. Cannon fire from the Pounders and Ironclads off the coast did little to break their morale or hurt them. Finally, their line broke and they fell back to the suburbs of Mexico City and tried, in vain, to hold out there. The town made a juicy target for cannon fire but the fighting was still brutal.

We scored a victory today but from what intel gathers, the fight ahead will be rough. Mexico has fallen back behind the concrete fortifications surrounding Mexico City. They have an artillery battery lashing out at everything they can, including the frigates the USN still uses off the coast of Mexico. Their Napoleons try to sink our ironclads but the explosives are too weak to do lasting damage.

 

[Sonereal]

Entry #4

American troops are withdrawing from Mexico after a year of combat. Despite not achieving territorial gains, the damage had been done. Rebuilding the infrastructure destroyed in North Mexico will take them years. Mines had been blown to bits. Towns wiped from the face of the earth.

When the American Empire realized they weren't going to crack the static defenses around Mexico City, they simply started burning everything they could to the ground. That got the President to the peace talks. Not only did Mexico lose the war, but they were force to pay reperations for "loss of American loss and equipment". Worst: They had to grant a lopsided trade agreement for their sugarcane and pearls and allow America to set up a military base in Central America.

If I had to guess, between 100,000 to 250,000 lives were loss. Mexico was hit hard and I doubt they can ever recover, especially now that Germany denounced their government.

The Villa Line, or the line of static defenses surrounding Mexico City, revealed a flaw in American doctrine and quite possibly the military doctrines of world powers across the globe. Infantry charges just lead to an excessive number of casualties for very little gain. America came very close to breaking into the city one chemical weapons were deployed but a counterattack coupled with the use of gas masks pushed American forces back.

The coastal batteries marked the end to the usefulness of frigates. Before, we thought they would still be useful like our Napoleon cannons were. Quite the opposite, artillery pieces ripped through frigates like butter and we lost several ships that way. Our ironclads were better off but their guns did little against the Villa Line near the beaches. Destroyers may have been capable but they were new and in short supply.

Truth be told, we won the war but not by enough. The Mexicans used outdated rifles for crying out loud but their sheer ferocity and excellent generals prevented us from marching through Mexico City.

The war's over for now but I already see the next war and the it is in the skies. Flying fortresses and terror bombers. Infantry backed up with highly armored weapon platforms. Nerve gas.

All these weapons will lead to victory in the next round.

-General Perse, 1911

 

[Sonereal]

Entry #5

1915

The Empire of Mexico controls all of Central America and parts of South America. Despite this, the country has spiraled into increasing debt. Reparations to the American Empire caused Mexico to pull money out of research. Mines and towns destroyed in the Second Mexican-American War still lay in a state of great disrepair.

The Americans even tore up the trenches on Mexico's side of the border and the government was unable to adequatly repair them when the Third Mexican-American War broke out.

Two bomber wings based in Houston flew over the border in the early morning hours and tore a swath of destruction Mexican lines before the declaration of war even reached the President of Mexico. Destroyers and Ironclads bombarded the coastal forts of Mexico City. The bombings and artillery shelling were too much for the Mexican defenders and for the second time, they fell back to the Villa Line. American bombers, however, did what normal artillery couldn't.

Punch a line through the Villa Line. The Americans surged forward into the city. Key defensive positions were destroyed by American bombers leveling entire city blocks in an attempt to flush out the defenders. The deadly city fighting ended when MNA Headquarters fell into American hands. Mexico City, along with all of Central America, was now in American hands.

American paratroopers landed in Cuba and seized control of the Governor's Mansion and the sugarcane fields the same day.

 

[Sonereal]

Some Idle Thoughts.....

On marathon speed, a war that doesn't take any cities is still VERY devastating it seems. Take into account the long improvement build times and unit costs and you'll see what I'm driving at. In a previous (pre-patch) game, I remember going to war with the massive Iroquois civilization and I fought them to a bloody stalemate and signed a white peace, neither of us gaining or losing cities. The Iroquois had lost so much troopwise though that other civilizations started declaring on the crumbling empire.

In this game, fighting to a stalemate is just as bad as losing which is why pillaging does wonders.

If you pillage an improvement and destroy roads, then you're crippling the enemy terribly. Roads and railroads take a relatively long time to build and improvements a while to repair to the point where its possible to cripple the enemy without taking a single city.

One improvement I destroyed was a coal mine. Not only would this take a while to rebuild (which they never got a chance to do) but it pretty much ended any chance of them beating my Navy at sea. Mexico's "fleet" consisted of a single frigate which I'm sure was having to deal with a resource penalty. It was going up against Flying Fortresses and Destroyers.

The city buffs have done wonders. No AI, so far, is steamrolling anyone else. The war between Russia and Japan stalemated for a long time with Japan nearly taking a city before Russia resurged and took Habrin. Italy, a very weak civilization, is surviving against a French/German/Russian onslaught because its northernmost city is buffed and the Alps.

At some point, it truly is difficult to take a wall/castle city without serious firepower. In the first war of Mexico, I had only one artillery, cannon, ironclads, and frigates pounding away at Mexico City which responded with artillery fire. Before the patch, I should've been able to take Mexico City with that force and the three or four infantry I had sent. Not so here.

In the end, I would have to continually bomb the mess out of the city with bombers and destroyers along with artillery fire before even thinking sending in infantry was a good idea.