stJNES5.2: From the Beginning
Update 4, 2100 B.C.E.
The Saxon army is thoroughly defeated at the Battle of Knob Hill, the Angles swarm into the valleys of Saxonia. However, what they did not realize is that their once-trustworthy allies in the north had other plans in mind. Bringing down thousands of men in a Betrayal Army, the Isle peoples slaughter the Angle army from behind, cutting their flanks and destroying their supplies. This was just after a grand road was built between the capitals of the two kingdoms, meant to be a tying bond between the two monarchs. Surprised and outraged, Harkal, the King of the Angles, withdraws all armies back to Angleland, and prepares for the defense of his lands. But the damage is done, and it is a very bleak chance that the Angles will be a free nation, and not another page in some future history book. (Ises: -300 Spearmen, -400 Highlanders; Angles: -1,000 Spearmen, -1,000 Archers)
Isle Forces flank the Angles
Meanwhile, the Picts are not sitting idle. From their barren northern homeland, explorers are sent to Iceland in the north, a large yet settling island, full of resources unknown to the Picts. Then settlers are sent south, who land in Ireland and befriend the Irish, who roam the land in a free, lawless society.
The Laplanders attempt to expand into the mountainous icy lands of the Vikings goes horribly wrong. First, they are faced with a declining population, and thus a declining army. Lapland has suffered countless blizzards and winters below average temperature, and longer then the average length. Furthermore, the Vikings are more numerous and more savage, making expansion small, if any.
Boosted with new trade from the Mediterranean, the Assyrians lay down their weapons and begin to build roads and forts, creating a more modern land. Mesopotamia is soon connected by an intricate system of stone, dirt, and (sometimes, in the cities) marble roads. The creation of this wonder of the world is by the hand and leg of the Assyrian foot soldier, ordered by the King so as to keep them in shape. However, not all forces are being used. Assyrian armies still march not against the western foes, but in the east, where the Caspian Sea is rounded and a frontier established at the backdoor of Bactria.
Antigot, the trading empire of the Western Mediterranean, shows how it can perform in war. With nearly four thousand soldiers, Antigot launches a two-pronged pre-emptive attack on the tribal empire of the Fez. Most of the army meets with the Fez army as soon as the border is crossed near Istai, the Antigot colony. Being outnumbered almost two Fez soldiers to every 1 Antigotian, the battle, at first, looks bleak for the trading empire. However, the tables are turned at the Battle of Bluff Hill, where the two armies meet. Antigot general, Karin Sufa (a woman), intends to make the best of her 2,600 swordsmen. She picks the Bluffs here in the desert, where the Fez come charging. She orders the flanking movements that are really just to corner the Fez. Soon the Fez are fighting, in front of them the iron swords of Antigot, behind them a fall of nearly three hundred feet onto hard, sun-backed ground. Finally, they surrender, nearly 3,000 men are captured. The rest of the Fez who can fight are dispersed among the deserts in the south as the two Antigotian armies meet up and pursue to take the remainder of the fertile coastal land, leaving the Fez trapped inland. (Antigot: -500 swordsmen; Fez: -3,500 Spearmen, -1,000 Archers, -1,000 horsemen)
In the dry highlands of Bactria, the Persians continue to advance. The Bactrians are continually pushed back as Persian superiority in warfare begins to solidify, and the Bactrians have nothing to counter them with. Faced with imminent defeat, the Bactrians begin to burn their own villages and farms as they flee northward. Meanwhile, a disease spreads throughout the homeland of the Bactrians, further ensuring their destruction. (Persia: -300 Spearmen).
Across the Gulf and into Arabia, the Persian colonies are given a facelift when engineers and constructers arrive and build a few ports for trade. However, having little to offer the mainland, the Arabian colonies trade little, but concentrate more on building up their own infrastructure with farms and roads. The colony is expanded a bit with a Persian army, but nothing so extreme as to warrant aggression from nearby tribes. Meanwhile, Zoroastrianism continues to spread, creating significant sects in Sumeria and Gujarat, the two largest Persian trading partners.
Muscovite soldiers march south, into the grassy steppe, home of the Scythian horse lords. At first, the Scythian cavalry makes mince meat pie of the Muscovite foot soldiers sent here, but when the Rurik riders arrive, the Scythians are beat back. For even though the Scythians are born and raised as men with horses, they are no match for the trained and experience of the Rurik riders. (Muscovy: -500 Spearmen)
The Scythian Steppe.
Four cities once inhabited the region of Saba, in the barren southwest region of Arabia. There was never a time when these cities were not at war with each other, bringing much hardship to the already hard land. However, the four were eventually united. But how, how can such hatred and rivalry be brought to an end? The city-state of Saba sat on a naturally created harbor, whose connection to the Red Sea played a large role. As more and more riches began to sail south from Egypt, the port began to grow. Soon, Saba grew larger and more powerful, not to mention richer, then its rivals. Realizing the jewel of Saba, the three other cities aligned with each other, bent on the destruction of Saba. However, it was not to be. The Sabanese fought these three off, and eventually conquered its rivals. And thus, the unity was accomplished, and the Sabanese Empire began. The expansion along the coast of Arabia, wherever fertile, and the settling of the continent across the sea, soon occupied much of the empires time.
Helvetti settlers pursue the northern barbarians in the north, and soon root them out of their mountain villages and take them for their own. But, amidst the expansion, a villager from a northern settlement makes an important discovery, Along a forgotten path, the boy of ten years stumbles across a cave. Being an anxious and curious boy that he was, he followed the path inside. Here he found a rock of a certain yellowish glow. Thinking nothing of it, he threw it at the wall for fun. What interested him was that it did not break, but instead it conformed to the wall it hit and fell back to the floor. Knowing only one metal that does that, he scooped up the rock and darted home. The family is not rich, living in a palace outside their home village. The rock was gold, and the cave as added much to the Helvetti economy.
The Minoans launch an expected attack upon the island fortress of Rhodes. However, to get to the island, the Minoans first must destroy the Rhodesian navy. Unfit for the job by itself, the Minoans employ Lydian galleys, and together the navy attacks the Rhodesians. How powerful the triremes are, they are no match for the combined powers of Lydia and Minoa, and are destroyed. The island is then under attack by a Minoan army, who lands near the capital of Rhodes itself. Not long after the fall of Rhodes did the Egyptians occupy the Rhodesian African colony, and the Spartans take the Aegean islands for themselves. The nation of Rhodes is destroyed.
The Gujarati are the first Indian nation to enter the Iron Age, as their expansion into the Indian Ocean exceeds any other. From their new Omani colony, the Gujarati send explorers south, and eventually find the island of Socotra, which easily supports a trading village. Interaction between these islands and the homeland create a trade route, which indeed eventually spreads to the Gujarati tradition trade partner, the Persians, with whom they learn the iron technology from.
The Magadhan army continues to pursue the beaten and bloody Lothalian soldiers, whom have retreated to their capital. Inventing the first Indian catapult, the Magadhans besiege Lothal, and soon get help from the Harappans who have invaded from the west. Met with astounding odds, Lothal soon capitulates, and the allied army occupies the city. (Harappan: -200 Spearmen, -200 Archers; Magadha: -500 Spearmen, -600 Archers)
In a victory party, the Magadhans invite the top generals and leaders of Harappan to join them. As soon as the guests have arrived, the Magadhan soldiers storm the room, and destroy all the Harappans they can find. Only a few escape, only to find their country under attack, and their army leaderless. The Harappan army, without many leaders, fights defensively and offers no hardcore counterattacks to the backstab invasion of their country. And the newly built roads do not help the problem. Coming back from the victorious siege at Lothal, the Harappans find their own capital under siege, and scramble to assemble a defensive army. (no major casualties yet).
However, even though the Magadhans are on a move, logistical problems create confusing questions that need answering. Roads are desperately needed from the Magadhan homelands to at least Lothal, to expedite the transport of reinforcements and supplies. It was expected that the Magadhans could have conquered the Harappan capital were it not for faulty logistics. Also, raids along their northern provinces by Aryan barbarians are intensifying, and some think something big is on the horizon.
Hittite troops gather at the border with Mitanni. Mitanni soldiers are put on high alert. If the trading nation is invaded, this could mean a dramatic and fatal disruption of Eastern Mediterranean trade.
Back into the Western Mediterranean, the Carthaginians have appeared to abandon the Numidian capital. However, as the Numidian army comes to occupy their beloved city, the Carthaginians open fire from above with archers, and the gates snap shut. A bloodbath ensues, where the Carthaginians slaughter most of the Numidians who are within the city. After the city falls, the Carthaginians continue into the desert to occupy much of what is left of Numidia. The remainder is still occupied by a rather large army, but it is ill supplied and expected to fight at half its strength. (Numidia: -1,000 Spearmen, -1,000 Archers; Carthage: -500 Spearmen, -500 Archers)
OOC:
Das, I increased your spearmen two more times, as I think you forgot that you had an asterisk by your name (which gives you +2 spending points).
Warman, since it costs 4 spending points, not 2, to create a trade route, I spend those two on your spearmen.
