Stories & Tales: Emperor Caesar of Rome

[zaphod2016]

After 12 years of silence, your humble narrator returns to tell you the tale of Emperor Caesar of Rome.

Technical details:

CIV1 474.03 via DosBOX
Used "settler cheat", everything else 100% legit
Emperor Difficulty
7 Civilizations
Random Map, default settings

4000BC - Rome

• zaphod2016
• Sep 3, 2021

Our story begins in the year 4,000 B.C. in a modest village named "Rome".

 

[zaphod2016]

Chapter 1: The Underdog

Rome, situated beside a small oasis and vast bay, proved successful. Soon militias and phalanxes explored the nearby lands, and the sister city of Caesarea was founded in 3000 B.C.

Another thousand years passed, and the empire of Rome spread throughout the small island they called home. Littered with deserts, it is a harsh land, lonely and isolated. Finding no one with whom to trade or battle, the Romans take to the sea.

In 1720 BC, Roman diplomats made contact with the Chinese to the west. They promised peace, but were not interested in further trade.

Having spent more than two millennium totally isolated from the world, Roman technology was pitiful in comparison to our newly discovered neighbors. The Chinese already knew anything the Romans might have to offer, and far more.

It was 1480 BC when the Romans first made contact with Germany, north of China, who shared the Roman desires for peace. Like the Chinese, the Germans were far more technologically advanced than the ancient Romans.

The strategy was simple: use caravans from throughout the empire to build Rome into a glorious capital. [tech note: build wonders, swap for improvements and caravans from Rome]. Only by concentrating resources could Rome hope to become as prosperous as the Chinese city of Canton, or the German capital of Berlin. Building a viable trade network with their closest international neighbors was of paramount concern.

Everything changed in 1240 BC. Romans diplomats were peacefully exploring Germany, who were already under attack from Chinese catapults. Historians still debate whether these Roman martyrs of peace were simply causalities of misplaced crossfire, or the victims of something more sinister. Either way, this event forever changed the course of history.

Once forced into war, Roman diplomats went underground, hastily chipping away at China's tech lead by collaborating with their own citizens. Horrified by the unprovoked attack against the Romans, and sharing in her greater vision of peace, rebel Chinese and Roman scientists collaborated in secret, and soon new secrets were discovered.

In 1020 BC the first caravans from Rome arrived in Berlin, and so began a long history of global Roman trade.

In 920 BC Roman diplomats made first contact with the Egyptians to the east.

Forty years later, Roman the first diplomats arrived in Mongolia, under siege from barbarian terrorists, raiding from nearby mountains.

South of Egypt, in 820 BC the Romans made first contact with the English.

Ancient Roman sailors shared legends about a mysterious people living west of China, but in 800 BC, no one knew for sure.

Roman diplomacy spread throughout the ancient world, but despite those best efforts, Rome was still far weaker than neighboring China and Egypt.

It had already been 400 years since China's initial act of aggression, and very little had changed.

How could such a tiny island survive in such a dangerous world?

 

[zaphod2016]

Chapter 2: Rise of the Republic

Historians agree that the first Roman Republic began on January 1, 640 BC.

The defense minister of the First Republic demanded more resources to advance the war against the Chinese. Triremes filled with chariots and catapults had already landed on Roman shores, escalating the centuries old feud. The defense minister argued for a strategy of peace, focusing on the defenses needed to defend the republic, favoring on internal infrastructure over foreign wars. The foreign minister continued the strong traditions of exploration and peaceful diplomacy. The science advisor proposed that mastering the sea was key to better understanding the world, and on this, both defense and foreign ministers agreed. Whoever controlled the sea, controlled the future.

In 540 BC Rome launched Magellan's Expedition, and the first sails worthy of global travel took to the sea

Meanwhile, Egypt waged war upon England, and in 540 BC, captured their capitol of London.

Roman infrastructure developed rapidly, and in 360 BC the city of South Port signified Roman expansion into North Island. A short journey from Syracuse on the mainland, the unclaimed lands were fertile and inviting.

In 200 BC, the Mongol hordes, having been fully infiltrated by barbarian terrorists, joined Egypt's unprovoked war against the English.

By 80BC the last remnants of England had been conquered, and only Egypt remained.

Roman traders slowly trickled into Germany. They were forced to sail fully around the north passage, rather than landing directly in the east, to avoid Chinese aggressors who were still attempting a full occupation of their northern neighbors.

The Republic had fulfilled the promises of those early visionaries.

However, flanked by China to the west, and Egypt to the east, the Roman people looked nervously to the future.

 

[zaphod2016]

Chapter 3: The Need for Modernization

As the ancient world faded into memory, the Roman people were eager for modernization. This meant setting sail in hopes of finding new trading partners, and new technological collaborations. However, many citizen were leery of these sails. A compromise was reached, and Port Angry was founded:

[tech note: under Republic, when on Emperor mode, a single unit leaving the city leads to riots. By home-ing them all in "Port Angry" we isolate the effect to a single city, while the rest of the empire grows without interference. This allows us to have a full armada of units to explore the world, while maintaining all the critical trade bonuses of a Republic ].

In 360AD, brave Roman sailors finally made contact with the mysterious men of the far west.

For the first time in history, a foreign power agreed to an open exchange of technology, helping will critical gaps in Roman knowledge at the time. This ushered in a golden age of scientific discovery, marked by one notable invention in particular:

By 660AD, the Industrialization of Rome was fully underway.

Meanwhile, Chinese savages lay siege to Berlin, the major trading partner with Rome at the time.

A few years later, the Chinese advance to Bonn.

Despite continued continuing Chinese raids against the homeland, the scientific golden age continued, and eventually Egypt was swayed to begin trading technologies with Rome along with Babylon.

Historians now believe that 900AD marked the capture of Frankfurt, and the point at which the last free Germans succumbed to the enslavement of the bloodthirsty Chinese.

For hundreds more years the Romans defended themselves from Chinese attack, continuing the golden age of science, seeking to close the gap as quickly as possible. These efforts culminated in 1100AD with a second great expedition.

The Romans worked tirelessly to close the tech gap, but many feared it was already too late.

 

[zaphod2016]

Chapter 4: Growing Tensions

After the golden age of modernization, Roman engineers began to build the first battleships. By 1120AD the first of these awesome crafts arrived in Frankfurt, and liberated the ancestors of those Germans who had been enslaved a century before.

For 200 years the Chinese tried in vain to recapture Frankfurt from the battleships of Rome.

As the Romans maintained dominance of the sea, the Egyptians announced a device that would change the face of land combat forever.

Roman scientists had failed to achieve tech parity. Advisors knew it was only a matter of time until this new invention fell into the hands of the relentless Chinese. Roman defenses in Frankfurt prepared accordingly.

By 1430AD the mainland of Rome had been fully covered in rail, and the Roman colonization of North Island continue unabated.

Despite the efforts, technologically speaking, Rome continued to lag behind Egypt to the east, and China to the west.

Roman engineers focused all efforts on a project designed to close this gap once and for all. In 1520AD, that project was a success:

Meanwhile, Roman spies, in conjunction with covert Chinese allies, continued to study the latest advances in global technology.

A new era of warfare had begun. In Rome hoped to survive, it must overcome China's air superiority. In 1555AD, as bombs eradicated the defenses of Brundisium, this must have seemed all but impossible to the people of Rome.

To build these modern weapons of war, once again the mainland focused all resources to Rome, and the construction of a massive project that might turn the tides of war.

Powered by the Maximus River, clean, unlimited energy began to power the factories of Rome. And so the military industrial complex took the reins of power, if only unofficially.

 

[zaphod2016]

Chapter 5: A World at War

By 1570AD, the world was filled with mighty battleships at sea, deadly armors on land, and threatening bombers overhead.

All mere child's play compared to what was to come next.

By 1575AD the first Roman Republic was collapsing into anarchy.

In 1580AD, the First Roman Republic came to end, as Zoe Largito, a former general, supported by him army, declared himself the first King of Rome.

The freedoms of the Republic were quickly forfeit in exchange for the perception of air superiority against the Chinese.

Roman scientists reverse-engineered a captured Chinese armor.

The heroic King Largito personally lead the bombers in the famed liberation of Leipzig of 1655.

Ultimately Germany was split, the Romans occupying the north, the Chinese occupying the south.

The official story says that King Largito was sitting on his toilet when he suffered that fateful heart attack in June of 1660. Contrarians claim that arguments regarding the liberation of Berlin led to his assassination. To this day, it remains a fiercely contested topic, with compelling evidence provided by academics on both sides of the debate.

This much is known for sure: following the death of King Largito, the kingdom underwent a swift revolution (or was it a coup d'tat?).

The Egyptians immediately considered the new Communist State of Rome to be a national enemy, and attacked without warning.

Undeterred by the loss of Egyptian allies, the Roman forces in North Germany advanced on Berlin.

The Communists had one objective, and one objective only: win the war, as quickly as possible, at any cost. As funding for science was slashed, and taxes raised by the new state, the citizens of North Germany questioned what they had gained following their liberation from China. This was no longer the great Roman Republic they had longed to join. This was a very different world indeed.

The new Roman state was ready to win at any cost.

Unbeknownst to the new leadership, so was China.

And on June 30, 1680, China did the unthinkable.

In an instant, the population of Berlin was halved, as Roman bombers and armor scrambled to defend the scarred remains of a once great city.

Meanwhile the Egyptians opened an eastern front, landing armor escorted by battleships at the edges of North Island.

The Roman military was spread too thin, and simply unprepared to fight a war on two fronts. The Chinese seized the opportunity, and recaptured Berlin.

The battle became a war of attrition, as China advanced from the south, and Rome defended what remained of North Germany. The stalemate would continue for years, as countless lives were lost.

The Romans switched focus to the eastern front, using its vast armada of battleships to claim a beach head at Heliopolis.

Meanwhile, Roman bombers and battleships reclaimed North Island.

In May of 1720 Roman battleship removed the remaining defenses, and Oryx was captured.

Rome had made great advance in the eastern front against Egypt.

Things were not as good on the western front.

It had been 40 years after the nuclear bombing of Berlin. Large swathes of Germany remained radioactive wasteland. China and Rome remained locked in a bloody stalemate. The people were ready for peace. The Communist leadership of Rome's military industrial complex had other plans.

 

[zaphod2016]

Chapter 6: Cruel Bombs

By 1740, the state of Germany was largely unchanged. Roman bombers struggled to defend North Germany from advancing Chinese artillery.

By 1750, Memphis fell, effectively splitting Egypt in two. Artillery advanced on Roman defenses from the south, from London.

Nearly a decade later, Roman air and sea superiority led to the liberation of London.

Birmingham was soon under siege, as an armada of Roman warships circled the coast.

On the western front, things were about to go from bad, to worse.

In desperation, the Romans launched nuclear weapons against Berlin and Bonn, liberating the whole of Germany, but transforming this once healthy land into a nuclear holocaust.

The Romans had answered one nuclear weapon with two. China was forced into an uneasy peace.

Unbeknownst to China, the Roman Communists had no intention of respecting this peace. This was a government far removed from the lofty ideals of the once great Roman Republic, and its dreams of peace and prosperity for all.

In 1968 Romans captured the city of Birmingham.

By now Egypt, had been reduced to loyalists in Thebes, and two fledgeling colonies on an island further east. The once viable nation of England had been fully liberated, centuries too late.

A decade later, Germany remained a nuclear wasteland and all of this outrageous pollution began to effect the climate on a planetary scale.

By 1782, China had moved an enormous force into Germany, clearly ready for an inevitable second war. The meager resources of a war ravaged Rome had no realistic chance of repelling a full scale invasion, and the Communist leadership was well aware of this fact.

Roman forces began strategically placing armor and mechanized infantry in key locations throughout China.

In response, China sent wave after wave of artillery, escorted by armor and infantry of their own, to the north.

The fragile peace would not last.

Historians are unclear exactly what happened next, but largely agree that it was the Romans who struck first, in January of 1802. Wave after wave of nuclear bomb rained down upon the heathens of China.

In a matter of hours the whole of China had been irradiated, eradicated, and occupied.

When news of these unspeakable war crimes reached the mainland, Rome again collapsed into anarchy.

Most of the Roman Communist party were killed in the following revolution.

Those few who remained alive were given show trials, and promptly imprisoned.

As for the people, engulfed in total anarchy, nothing was certain.

 

[zaphod2016]

Chapter 7: The Second Republic

Historians have long recognized that strong International trade has always been the secret to Rome's success.

In 1802, the cities of Canton, Berlin and Memphis were all in ruins. Rome had effectively destroyed her own best trading partners. The economy was in ruins. Thebes, the whole of China and southern Germany remained fully radioactive. It took nearly 40 years for the cleanup efforts to begin in earnest.

A seemingly endless series of revolutions swept across the Roman territories.

In 1839AD, Roman revolutionaries launched what has come to be known as "the last bomb", destroying Thebes in the process.

China was gone, and Egypt had retreated the Gaza colony, far east of the Roman mainland.

Internationally, there was peace.

Internally, there was not.

Coup followed coup, as the children of various factions of the former Communist military vied for control of the stagnant empire.

Eventually salvation came from an unexpected source. Hugo Alexander, born to modest means along the north shores of what was once England, was an avid student of history, and longed for the glory of the now-legendary Roman Republic. On January 1, 1850 President Alexander was elected the first President of the Democratic Republic of Rome, or what historians now refer to as "The Second Republic".

With Egypt critically weakened, and China destroyed, the defense minister focused on a few carriers full of nukes and bombers. He advocated a policy of "speak softly, but carry a big stick". The world was well aware of the terrible power of Rome. The people prayed they need never experience such horrors again.

The domestic advisor proposed the create of distinct states: Rome (the isle of Roma), North Island, Germany, China, England, and Egypt (aka "Old Egypt") would all be given proportional representation in this new government. Although united under the banner of Rome, each state would be granted a significant amount of autonomy, and oversee their own reconstruction efforts.

The foreign minister would focus on reestablishing new International trade routes, key to Rome's prosperity.

A new science advisor resumed national research, which had stagnated throughout the Communist regime in favor of (now repealed) outrageous taxation.

The people rejoiced, and sang praises to President Alexander in the streets throughout the Second Republic.

The Berlin restoration project began to heal the fractured lands of Germany.

Meanwhile the same was underway in China.

New trade routes were established with Babylon.

In 1857, Mongolian terrorists declared war on our new Babylonian trading partners.

Roman peacekeeping forces arrived in 1868 to find Babylon under siege.

 

[zaphod2016]

Chapter 8: A Global War on Terror

The people of Rome were not interested in further war, but were also not interested in watching their Babylonian allies destroyed by the Mongol hordes, who had technologically stagnated somewhere in the dark ages, following a full descent into terrorist ideologies.

By 1881 Rome had engaged in full-on bombing raids, decimating Mongol forces on Babylon Island.

Rather than permanently occupy these Mongol cities, Roman forces would peacefully relocate Mongol refugees who accepted peace, returning the land to its rightful owner, the Kingdom of Babylon.

The hope was that Babylon, the greatest remaining trading partner of Rome, would prosper, given the proper space and infrastructure their people so badly needed. In retrospect, some historians speak of this period as the start of the "Great Mongolian Genocide". Others argue that the forced modernization of the Mongols was both inevitable and beneficial as a whole.

By 1893 the whole of Babylon had been liberated, along with the Isle of Ormuz to the south.

In 1895, Roman bombers removed the city of Kabul from the face of the earth.

By 1897 the antiquated Mongol forces had been pushed back to the isle of Kashgar.

By 1906, Roman humanitarian forces began to build infrastructure throughout the island of Babylon.

By 1911, the majority of the Second Roman Republic was once again thriving, growing quickly thanks to modernized infrastructure and renewed international trade with Babylon. Attentions turned to new ambitions, beyond war, beyond the petty concerns of a finally peaceful planet.

 

[zaphod2016]

Epilogue

The glorious Second Roman Republic continued to thrive for the 150 years.

By 1944AD they had already built the "perfect" spaceship.

They would not launch for another 40 years.

They waited, so they could watch their Babylonian allies thrive and grow, reorganized into a Republic of their own, embracing peace, prosperity and research.

The population of the main Roma Island remained modest, but a production powerhouse.

Germany grew far larger, with a population of 25 in Berlin.

China thrived as well, with 21 in Canton.

London, the jewel of England, reached a respectable size of 20.

As did Thebes, the capital of "Old" Egypt.

Even the occupied Mongol territory thrived, as Roman diplomats, funded by a massive global economy, staged a series of strategic city revolts.

And so it was that in the year 1999 the Romans arrive on Alpha Centauri.

And that my children is how Hugo Alexander, a president from long ago, laid the foundation for our new home here among the stars.

Now go forth, and guide this new world with the same ethos of peace and prosperity.

 

[Civinator]

Great contribution to the 30th birthday of Civ 1!

The newspaper articles were a nice feature in Civ 1.

 

[Lord_Hill]

Some lovely screenshots there. To this day, I find the DOS graphics utterly charming. The colours really do pop out despite the low resolution.

And I laughed when you reached the point where the Chinese were getting too powerful 'Welp, time to nuke everything that moves!'