Update 21 - 1000 B.C.
A magnificent discovery occurs in China! The people, finally put a use to the silk-worms which had always been abundant in their lands. A great economic boom occurs in China (+2 economy). Even better, the lost explorers have come back to the emperor's court. They say they had traveled far and wide and come upon a remarkable discovery. There are nations to the West of China! To the Southwest to be specific, and they had to go many miles around dangerous mountains. But find these new nations they did. The people called themselves Dravidians there, were of darker skin, and were engaged in a giant war against another people called the Aryans. They didn't stay long but they soon found that the country was very rich in resources, much like China, and just as advanced. This sends shockwaves through Chinese society, as previously it was believed China and the surrounding nations were the only people in the world.
In the North things aren't going quite as rosy. Chinese troops continue to advance, but the burden of foolhardishly attacking all tartars regardless of tribal distinctions in very bad terrain is starting to take it's toll. Far worse, the pressure the Chinese have put across every single tribe of the tartars has resulted in a unision of the Tartars! Under the Huan dynasty of the North, the Xiong-Nu have united into a powerful force and seem ready to push the Chinese out of the steppes.
In Persia, the army slowly rebuilds from the Aryan purge, but the lesson doesn't seem to have sunk in. The Persians attempt to use some strange new "technique" called propaganda to make the Aryans join their kingdom. There is absolutely no success here as the only thing the Shah succeeds in doing is pestering the Aryans more. Propaganda also proves be an utter failure in Dubai. The bedouins grow tired of their chief enemy's ally telling them to join his kingdom and all
"propagandists" are killed by the tribes they are sent to.
On the other side of the Aryan world, the fight against the Dravidians rages on. The battle is waged on 3 fronts; the Suparakan, the Delhi, and the North Calicutan. In Suparaka, the Aryans charged against the city of Mumbai, to be met with a large army of men from Hoysalas, Suparaka, and even Sinhala. The result is a sound victory for the Dravidians. As the Aryans try to retreat, they find that their retreat route has been sealed off by the Calicutan armies to the North, who promptly finish them off. Elsewhere, the Calicutans try to expand slowly to the North, but here the Aryans are very well established and the battle is difficult. Neither side makes any major gains.
Casualties:
600 Aryans, 200 Suparakans, 100 Hoysalans, 50 Sinhalans, 50 Calicutans
In Assyria, the Sharkon dynasty rises to power. A road is built between Nineveh and Khirashma improving travel in the nation greatly and pleasing the populace. Sharkon's popularity does not last long however. For the first time in history a religion is violently imposed on the people, as all who refuse to strictly adhere to Naradakism are swiftly removed. The result is a state completely unified under one religion, but displeased with the King. This is nothing compared to what will come. Upon insulting Nabatean missionaries, the Arabic kingdom increased their army 19 times until it reached 1000 people. It quickly summoned help from it's Arabic allies until a force of some 1700 troops, along with the bedouin tribes that quickly joined up. The result is a complete slaughter of all 425 men Sharkon sent to tame the bedouins. To add insult to injury, the combined Arabic forces have started pushing towards the Euphrates itself!
Casualties:
425 Assyrians, 300 Nabateans, 100 Bakkahns, 50 Sab'aans
In Judea, a prince named David is born. The boy is only 6 years of age, but the priests of the monotheists are making a great deal about him, saying he will lead the Jews to glory. The Heemistic nation of Imperia looks cautiously at the child of it's Northern adversary. Although traditionally living in peace, tensions between the Jews and Heemists have escalated in the past century, mostly over royal feuds.
The Alemanni have by now become a well established civilized kingdom, distant from the barbaric existance of their ancestors. The Bierrhut wonder is continued, the economy is grown, and Alemanni goods have started to be shipped to Minoa. Every week now, barrels of Germanic goods are sent down the Danube to Knossos... although briefly interrupted by the Helvetian incursions. Farther North, the fight against the Vandals continues. Chondomarius' nation seems to have started on the path to the unthinkable... uniting all the germanis under one empire.
The Shang kingdom continues to prosper. More and more cities appear on the imperial map, as the centralized goverment runs a careful bureaucracy of it's realms and the emperor's policies. Centered in cities surrounded by carefully layed out farmland, the Shang population booms greatly. Royal stables are also set up in these cities, and the Shang generals soon discover a devistatingly effective strategy; chariots. Shang chariots are the most powerful ground forces in all of Asia. With this new weaponry, the Shang dynasty easily pushes aside the barbarians to the Southwest, however it is only a matter of time before the grasslands turn into jungle and mountains, and the Chinese army turns back from such terrain.
To the east, the seas are filled with blood. The Hokkaido annhialate the Choson kingdom and capture Seoul, plundering it for what economy levels they find among the ruins. But the tide shifts against the Hokkaido soon enough. 400 Japanese soldiers along with 25 junks slice through the Hokkaido navy and assault Hokkaido proper itself, which after the campaigns in Choson is virtually undefended. Japanese troops also assault Choson, and gain a considerable beachead. In Choson however, the Japanese are heavily outnumbered. With no way to get home, the Hokkaido shogun proposes peace.
Casualties:
10 Japanese ships, 15 Hokkaido ships, 100 Hokkadio men, 50 Japanese men
General Maximus Castratus, 1128 - 1073 b.c.
In Minoa, the fight against the barbarian incursion continues. General Maximus Castratus is given command of some 300 men by the emperor to put an end to the matter. Against him is the wild throng of Helvetii, some 500 strong and led by the vicious Peni Spermix who has rammed into Minoan lands through a narrow passage in the bushy forests of the Alps. Castratus' first attack comes from the West, as Minoan legions slice the Helvetian Intrusion down the center, seperating the tip from the reinforcements. With the alpine passage sealed, Spermix is stuck inside Minoan lands with no way to get out. He tries one last lunge at the jackpot that is Rome. However, here he encounters the contignent of Minoan troops yet. Led by Castratus, the Trojan legion meets Spermix head on. Spermix's forces are enveloped by the more orginized Minoans and bounce back. The battle that ensues is relatively short, but certainly has no lack of blood as Spermix is killed. His forces split off and flee in whichever which direction they can before being swept up by mounted Minoan agents. With the actual front taken care of, nothing is left for Castratus to do but stomp out the Helvetian spheres of influence farther North. All is good in the Minoan kingdom once again... although celtic raids have taken away some of the progress made by the recent campaigns against the Gauls, and traveling from one side of the empire to the other over land is unheard of.
Casualties:
500 Helvetians, 150 Minoans
In Minoa-Kush a deal is made with the rebellion, but the leader Ismaan insists on completely driving out the foreign invaders and launches one last desperate attack on the newly established Minoan capital. Backed by a loyal Kuchite populace and prepared legions, the rebellion is finally put down for good. Whatever lands it controlled are given to the Minoan-Kuchite goverment, meaning that Minoa now controls half of all the Kuchites. Minoanization is stopped, although Minoan quickly becomes the official script of the land. As the Kuchite language doesn't confrom itself to the Minoan lettres easily, many of the educated Kuchites opt to take upon the language completely. Minoa-Kush is by now mostly very distant to Minoa, but the more favoring parts have a distinct combined culture of the two. Axumopolis for example, on the shores of the red sea contains a Minoan acropolis dedicated to the Ethiopian gods, a marble city centre of temples academies and store-houses, surrounded by a sea of traditional Ethiopian mud brick dwellings and mud huts with thatched roofs.
Casualties:
100 Kuchites
The Portuguese kingdom seems near collapse. There has been no solid leadership for centuries, the infrastructure is detirorating, and the uncivilized Iberian tribes have begun border raids once again. It's not a qeustion of if, but when.
Diplomacy
From Aryan Tribes
To Persia
Stop sending your people into our lands
period or you
will get what's coming for you and we won't withdraw like last time.
From Nabatea
To Assyria
Retreat past the Euphrates and we will leave you be.
From Arya
To Calicut
We bow down before your superior kingship and humbly ask for peace. We would retreat past the ancient borders of the Delhi kingdom and never pass them again for a dozen centuries.
From Hokkaido
To Japan
We propose peace. You can have all of what is left of our island home and we will keep what we captured from the Choson. We shall then swear to never attack you agian. Shall you agree?
Trade
Alemannia: to Minoa [1/3]
Assyria: to Persia [2/3]
China: to Japan [1/3], to Shang [1/3]
Japan: to China [1/3]
Minoa: to Hatti [2/3], to Egypt [2/3], to Alemannia [1/3]
Thrace: to Dacia [2/3]
OOC: Everybody who trades with China from the West (meaning Dravidian lands and beyond) now recieves 2 economies per turn instead of one. China still gets one back, but it has full control over who gets it's trade routes or not. Of course nobody has contact with China besides the asian nations yet..
People, enough with these modern concepts floating around. There is no real propaganda around, I mean, propaganda through what media
?
Also, some of you really seem to be overestimating the power of the npc's and keep attacking only the gray blobs. Guys, the gray blobs are often much worse than the npcs. Grey blobs represent genuinely powerful barbarians... the Huns, the Mongols, the Turks, etc. etc., whereas npc's represent everything from powerful empires to little fledging states. I'm not saying go kill all the npc's though, cause it's more difficult to control land captured from them than an annhialated grey blob
.
