TNESI: The Glorious Mysteries
- Thread starter Thlayli
- Start date
silver 2039
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
- 16,208
it is tommorow where is the update?? And which nation was I?
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
The Golden Horde, you are.
Abaddon
Deity
Thy .. will this become a regualr NES again or will updates continue to be this pace?
silver 2039
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
- 16,208
I thought I was Japan....I vaugly remeber a Japanese-Ming-Yuan war......where the Ming betrayed me and the Yuan were invading Japanese Korea...yeah
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
That was disenfrancised's nes silver 
silver 2039
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
- 16,208
Ah well...the Far East looks practically the same for all these NES's...
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
After this update, I'm going to take BT orders for the next 10-15 years. Any outstanding wars (most ongoing wars will be resolved or almost finished) will be ended during that time also.
~Darkening~
Weep, Mother.
O.o *another eye twitch* o.O
You know, I do consider this torture Thy and it will be repaid......
You know, I do consider this torture Thy and it will be repaid......
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Yes, this is the pre-update post. I've almost finished the update. The spotlight is underway, and now I just need to go back and add minor wars, make changes, and do anything that's left.
But, it's been a couple months since my last update, and you all deserve some sort of an explanation.
Well, back in December, the holidays happened, which I thought would give me lots of free time, but didn't. January came, and school started again, and I didn't get much time then either, since mid-terms happened. February was after that, and I did some sporadic work on the update, but that was stopped by leaving for D.C. in the later half of the month. When I came back, school happened, again, which tends to take up most of my time, along with sports, etc.
Also, other projects have been taking up my time, and trust me, at a much later date you'll all say, "Oh, so that's what he was spending all his time on."
So, apologies, sorry, you can lynch me if you really like. The update will be up in around 2 hours, so if you have anything important to say, get it off your chest now.
Also, I feel like one of the living dead. It's pretty much a race against time...not against Iggy, but until my organs fail completely.
But, it's been a couple months since my last update, and you all deserve some sort of an explanation.
Well, back in December, the holidays happened, which I thought would give me lots of free time, but didn't. January came, and school started again, and I didn't get much time then either, since mid-terms happened. February was after that, and I did some sporadic work on the update, but that was stopped by leaving for D.C. in the later half of the month. When I came back, school happened, again, which tends to take up most of my time, along with sports, etc.
Also, other projects have been taking up my time, and trust me, at a much later date you'll all say, "Oh, so that's what he was spending all his time on."
So, apologies, sorry, you can lynch me if you really like. The update will be up in around 2 hours, so if you have anything important to say, get it off your chest now.
Also, I feel like one of the living dead. It's pretty much a race against time...not against Iggy, but until my organs fail completely.
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Due to the fact that it's 4 bloody 15 AM, certain things may be missing from the update.
They include:
-Darkening's war in Malayu (sorry Dark)
-Domestic events for China
-Galicia, and the battle of Kiev
-Coherency
They'll be up tomorrow. I'd rather post the update now.
They include:
-Darkening's war in Malayu (sorry Dark)
-Domestic events for China
-Galicia, and the battle of Kiev
-Coherency
They'll be up tomorrow. I'd rather post the update now.
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Update 5: 1510
“The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last…the great battle for our time.”
-Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
Death will come to Europe, like it has never come before. None shall be spared that cold embrace. At the end, generals and peasants will fall, nobles and popes will see their last, and even a Khan shall finally face Judgement. The nations of Europe will accept their mortality as quickly as their owners...for nations are even weaker and more vulnerable than a house of glass.
Domestic Events:
The constant wars of the past decade are beginning to take their toll on Europe. Roads are degrading, and education has had very little funding put into it. While new forms of music and art are beginning to flourish, outside of Northern Italy these artisans aren’t given much state support or patronage.
Overall, the people’s mood is turning darker. They’re sick of the levies, conscriptions, and occasional invasions that occur to their nations, and even in the Norse Empire opposition is rising towards the Emperor’s plans to pour more troops into the “quagmire” of Germany. But as the war in Germany reached a titanic, if temporary conclusion, the lower classes are beginning to thirst for a return to peace, and rebuilding.
(-1 Confidence, Infrastructure, Education to all warring European nations)
---
Ireland is tempted to join the war, but despises the Norse and the Catholic League equally, so instead they continue to look west and expand their colonies. Seriously embarrassed by the near-failure of the southern colonization, more money and supplies are poured into the effort. Fort Patrick, now Patrickstown, is rebuilt in a better location with a good harbor, and colonists are beginning to arrive and farm the land. Native attacks remain troublesome but infrequent.
Further north, an actual army is finally organized to fight the Four Nations, augmented by colonial militia that are all too eager to avenge their burned farms. They make serious headway, and no mercy is shown to Avalonian villages that are quickly ransacked and destroyed. The natives mostly avoided pitched battles, preferring to stage ambushes and guerilla attacks from the unmapped forests. The campaign has come to a temporary halt, but the majority of tribes are being forced west, allowing Irish settlers to expand all the way to Lake Connaught.
(-5 Irish Thousands)
Irish and Norse relations were seriously strained when Norse guns were found in the possession of several captured natives. And according to them, Norse “traders” were the ones that trained them in their use.
Thanks to sparse colonization in the north, the Algonquin tribes friendly to the Irish allow them to expand down the river.
---
Genoan efforts to expand Nuova Liguria are continuing rapidly, and the newly founded colony of Nuova Sardinia is booming. (OTL South Africa) The occupied Andalusian lands in South Avalon are (reluctantly) turned over to the Leonese. Rumors of gold and other precious minerals being discovered in the interior of Nuova Liguria are on the rise, and eager colonists are racing into the hills to get slaughtered by the natives that live there. Already a colonial militia is being established to deal with this problem. Also, citizenship restrictions and other laws are adjusted to allow Irish, Swiss and Neapolitan immigrants to assimilate better into the colonial culture. Already an interesting melting pot is forming in these colonies…
(+Genoan Economy)
---
Elsewhere in Avalon, Brittany begins to expand her colonies to the north. The hostile Pequot Confederation had been destroyed twenty years ago, so there was little resistance to their continued growth. Even the tiny Norse outpost of Storrsen experienced some growth, largely from North German immigrants. Of course, border clashes between the Norse, Breton and Irish colonies are growing in intensity.
---
The last Andalusian outpost in the New World, the tiny, isolated island of Majarda, had been fanatically resisting the half-hearted attempts by the Spanish navy to destroy it. For three years they repulsed every assault, and finally when their enemies retreated back to their Alkaribi (Caribbean) bases, they thought that they’d finally won…but soon after a new, unknown fleet appeared from the east and wiped out the remaining defenders.
They were Swedish. About thirty ships of the line had arrived, the remainder of the Swedish navy that hadn’t been turned over to the Norse. And they were packed with colonists. So the colonial nation of New Sweden (or Nya Sverige) was formed, and it doesn’t seem like they’ve starved to death yet. The Leonese colonial governors are too amused to destroy the tiny settlement, and after all, it will be interesting to see if a colony can survive in Avalon without European support…
(+Nya Sverige)
---
Yet another new colony was founded in the New World this year, but not by any European power.
For years, a large, discontented minority of Anglo-Saxons in Cornwall, Kent, and other sections of eastern Britain had been quietly protesting the “despotic” actions of the Emperor, especially in refusing to lower taxes or allow religious toleration. Military victories and prosperity kept this discontent down, but recently a wave of crackdowns on Catholic and traditional Christian churches left many Anglo-Saxons wishing for more. While the more Nordic, assimilated peoples of eastern Britain were patriotic and supportive of their Emperor, the Engles (as they are often called) remained mostly Catholic, and refused to change their local dialects or customs to fit the rest of the country. Armed clashes and rioting occasionally disrupted the peace of the countryside.
Enough was enough. A large party of settlers, numbering five thousand, chartered fifteen ships with their pooled wealth. Led by a cloth merchant named Bernard Lloyd, they struck out into the Atlantic, hoping to build a better nation. The Norse authorities considered stopping them, but then again, it was probably better to send those malcontents off to oblivion anyway.
The voyage was difficult, and several ships sank on the way. Hundreds of colonists died from disease or malnutrition, but eventually the ragged fleet arrived off the eastern coast of Avalon, near Patrickstown. The outpost, though polite, told the colonists to get their flea-ridden carcasses off Irish land. And so they did just that, eventually landing further to the south, on a sunny beach in a small bay.
The climate was fairly supportive, and by sheer dumb luck the colonists had managed to find a good location to settle in. Their first town, named Patley, has begun to slowly prosper, and trade with Patrickstown and Aguaviva. (Florida) A system of (shockingly) democratic government has been established, and though it remains to be seen if such a radical system will succeed, their powerful neighbors are content to ignore the settlement, called the “Free Nation of Avalon.” Perhaps that will soon change…
OOC: Sorry Azash, I needed to change your location and backstory a little, or you would have died horribly.
---
Back in Europe, the effects of the Enlightenment are steadily spreading.
(Provence, Irish Empire, Lothringen, Switzerland, Poland enter Early Enlightenment Age)
---
No official peace treaty has been signed between the Byzantine Empire, Persia, and the Muwahhidun Empire. However, both the Persians and Egyptians are incredibly exhausted by the fight, and Byzantium, probably the only nation capable of ending the war, is extremely busy fighting the Austrians in Hungary. So the lines of control have become the de facto borders, unofficially ending the war in Palestine and Sinai.
Of course, in Nubia and Adal the war between Zanzibar and Egypt continues furiously…
---
In Aquitaine, public opinions are turning against the war, as the people do not agree with aligning the nation with heretics and abandoning the Catholic League.
(-1 Confidence)
---
Emperor Canute IV is beginning to face serious domestic opposition to the continuation of the war. The loss of the French territories was viewed by many of the nobility as a blunder, and it is generally viewed that the territories in southern Germany can’t be held permanently. The newly forged alliances with Aquitaine and Lothringen are also unsettling…how much can they trust these Catholics?
Sweden is occupied and fully annexed into the Norse Empire, which of course brings a huge amount of wealth and territory under Canute’s control, as the treasury is shipped to Britain. But the Swedes retain a highly separate identity, and won’t assimilate easily into the culture of the Empire.
As planned, the Swedish Navy surrenders to the Norse, but only approximately 20 ships are turned over to the Norse. While many Swedish ships did leave for Avalon, the remainder of the navy betrays the Norse and goes over to their new, eastern enemy…
(-1 Norse Culture, -1 Norse Confidence, +Norse Economy, +1 Norse eco point, +15 Norse Squadrons, +15 Golden Horde Squadrons)
---
The Pope calls upon all Christendom to help repel the Byzantine heretics, “little more than barbarians,” that are encroaching upon the Eternal City itself. While the small Italian kingdoms of Tuscany and Milan eagerly respond to the call, the rest of the Catholic League is either silent, or too busy fighting in other theaters to give actual support.
(+10 Papal Regiments)
---
Galicia puts out a public call for volunteers to help turn back the Mongol hordes, and a national levy is instituted. The militarized Galician people quickly respond to the call, and thousands of volunteers flock to the capital to join the Tsar’s army.
(+5 Levy Thousands, +10 Thousands, +5 Kulikovan Thousands)
---
The Sultan of Delhi, Abubenadam, having finally helped his nation stagger out of its civil war with the Indus princes, decides that massive reforms need to be enacted. The old, corrupted civilian leadership is finally replaced with a more efficient bureaucracy, with which the Sultan writes and institutes a new law code based on Hindu-Muslim equality. There is some grumbling among the noble Muslims, but most of them have already been purged and executed, anyways. The Zanzibaris also provided some assistance.
The newly reformed bureaucracy is reorganized into a system of ministries and a state council, named the Diwan. After significant protest from the nobles, the Sultan did reserve several spots for the most powerful princes, but overall the power of the nobility has been significantly reduced by these actions.
Meanwhile, growing rumors of a new faith in the Punjab are spreading. Massive crowds have supposedly gathered to hear the teachings of a guru who is neither Hindu nor Muslim…
---
Min China steadily recovers from the Rice Riots of the past year, though the erratic climate continues to cause food shortages in some rural areas. As many fields in central China lay fallow due to the cold spring, the Feliben island provinces with their warmer climate have become increasingly useful as a source of food.
While confidence in the Emperor has largely been restored, rioting and violence has sporadically broken out in several Vietnamese cities and villages over the past year. Many Vietnamese, particularly those in the north, are fairly assimilated and loyal to the Min, but others yearn for independence...or perhaps they find common cause with Ayutthaya to the west?
As the year drew to an end, a large-scale border clash occurred between Min and Ayutthayan forces, with over 5,000 soldiers on each side involved in the skirmish. After the fighting ended, a cryptic message from the God-King was received in Suzhou, demanding "payment" from the Emperor. What kind of payment is known to him alone...
(+Min Confidence, +Min Economy, -1 Min Thousand)
The Yuan Empire quietly signed a renewed non-aggression pact with Ayutthaya, and exchanged ambassadors. This quickly attracted the attention of Min diplomats, who duly noted the warming relations in their dispatches to the capital. Rumors of some other alliance may be unfounded, but they still persist...
---
In Malayu, an ambitious general overthrows the King with the army's support. Unfortunately, this causes chaos and civil war, punctuated by the intervention of the Sultan of Atjeh, of all people. (see military events)
“The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last…the great battle for our time.”
-Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
Death will come to Europe, like it has never come before. None shall be spared that cold embrace. At the end, generals and peasants will fall, nobles and popes will see their last, and even a Khan shall finally face Judgement. The nations of Europe will accept their mortality as quickly as their owners...for nations are even weaker and more vulnerable than a house of glass.
Domestic Events:
The constant wars of the past decade are beginning to take their toll on Europe. Roads are degrading, and education has had very little funding put into it. While new forms of music and art are beginning to flourish, outside of Northern Italy these artisans aren’t given much state support or patronage.
Overall, the people’s mood is turning darker. They’re sick of the levies, conscriptions, and occasional invasions that occur to their nations, and even in the Norse Empire opposition is rising towards the Emperor’s plans to pour more troops into the “quagmire” of Germany. But as the war in Germany reached a titanic, if temporary conclusion, the lower classes are beginning to thirst for a return to peace, and rebuilding.
(-1 Confidence, Infrastructure, Education to all warring European nations)
---
Ireland is tempted to join the war, but despises the Norse and the Catholic League equally, so instead they continue to look west and expand their colonies. Seriously embarrassed by the near-failure of the southern colonization, more money and supplies are poured into the effort. Fort Patrick, now Patrickstown, is rebuilt in a better location with a good harbor, and colonists are beginning to arrive and farm the land. Native attacks remain troublesome but infrequent.
Further north, an actual army is finally organized to fight the Four Nations, augmented by colonial militia that are all too eager to avenge their burned farms. They make serious headway, and no mercy is shown to Avalonian villages that are quickly ransacked and destroyed. The natives mostly avoided pitched battles, preferring to stage ambushes and guerilla attacks from the unmapped forests. The campaign has come to a temporary halt, but the majority of tribes are being forced west, allowing Irish settlers to expand all the way to Lake Connaught.
(-5 Irish Thousands)
Irish and Norse relations were seriously strained when Norse guns were found in the possession of several captured natives. And according to them, Norse “traders” were the ones that trained them in their use.
Thanks to sparse colonization in the north, the Algonquin tribes friendly to the Irish allow them to expand down the river.
---
Genoan efforts to expand Nuova Liguria are continuing rapidly, and the newly founded colony of Nuova Sardinia is booming. (OTL South Africa) The occupied Andalusian lands in South Avalon are (reluctantly) turned over to the Leonese. Rumors of gold and other precious minerals being discovered in the interior of Nuova Liguria are on the rise, and eager colonists are racing into the hills to get slaughtered by the natives that live there. Already a colonial militia is being established to deal with this problem. Also, citizenship restrictions and other laws are adjusted to allow Irish, Swiss and Neapolitan immigrants to assimilate better into the colonial culture. Already an interesting melting pot is forming in these colonies…
(+Genoan Economy)
---
Elsewhere in Avalon, Brittany begins to expand her colonies to the north. The hostile Pequot Confederation had been destroyed twenty years ago, so there was little resistance to their continued growth. Even the tiny Norse outpost of Storrsen experienced some growth, largely from North German immigrants. Of course, border clashes between the Norse, Breton and Irish colonies are growing in intensity.
---
The last Andalusian outpost in the New World, the tiny, isolated island of Majarda, had been fanatically resisting the half-hearted attempts by the Spanish navy to destroy it. For three years they repulsed every assault, and finally when their enemies retreated back to their Alkaribi (Caribbean) bases, they thought that they’d finally won…but soon after a new, unknown fleet appeared from the east and wiped out the remaining defenders.
They were Swedish. About thirty ships of the line had arrived, the remainder of the Swedish navy that hadn’t been turned over to the Norse. And they were packed with colonists. So the colonial nation of New Sweden (or Nya Sverige) was formed, and it doesn’t seem like they’ve starved to death yet. The Leonese colonial governors are too amused to destroy the tiny settlement, and after all, it will be interesting to see if a colony can survive in Avalon without European support…
(+Nya Sverige)
---
Yet another new colony was founded in the New World this year, but not by any European power.
For years, a large, discontented minority of Anglo-Saxons in Cornwall, Kent, and other sections of eastern Britain had been quietly protesting the “despotic” actions of the Emperor, especially in refusing to lower taxes or allow religious toleration. Military victories and prosperity kept this discontent down, but recently a wave of crackdowns on Catholic and traditional Christian churches left many Anglo-Saxons wishing for more. While the more Nordic, assimilated peoples of eastern Britain were patriotic and supportive of their Emperor, the Engles (as they are often called) remained mostly Catholic, and refused to change their local dialects or customs to fit the rest of the country. Armed clashes and rioting occasionally disrupted the peace of the countryside.
Enough was enough. A large party of settlers, numbering five thousand, chartered fifteen ships with their pooled wealth. Led by a cloth merchant named Bernard Lloyd, they struck out into the Atlantic, hoping to build a better nation. The Norse authorities considered stopping them, but then again, it was probably better to send those malcontents off to oblivion anyway.
The voyage was difficult, and several ships sank on the way. Hundreds of colonists died from disease or malnutrition, but eventually the ragged fleet arrived off the eastern coast of Avalon, near Patrickstown. The outpost, though polite, told the colonists to get their flea-ridden carcasses off Irish land. And so they did just that, eventually landing further to the south, on a sunny beach in a small bay.
The climate was fairly supportive, and by sheer dumb luck the colonists had managed to find a good location to settle in. Their first town, named Patley, has begun to slowly prosper, and trade with Patrickstown and Aguaviva. (Florida) A system of (shockingly) democratic government has been established, and though it remains to be seen if such a radical system will succeed, their powerful neighbors are content to ignore the settlement, called the “Free Nation of Avalon.” Perhaps that will soon change…
OOC: Sorry Azash, I needed to change your location and backstory a little, or you would have died horribly.
---
Back in Europe, the effects of the Enlightenment are steadily spreading.
(Provence, Irish Empire, Lothringen, Switzerland, Poland enter Early Enlightenment Age)
---
No official peace treaty has been signed between the Byzantine Empire, Persia, and the Muwahhidun Empire. However, both the Persians and Egyptians are incredibly exhausted by the fight, and Byzantium, probably the only nation capable of ending the war, is extremely busy fighting the Austrians in Hungary. So the lines of control have become the de facto borders, unofficially ending the war in Palestine and Sinai.
Of course, in Nubia and Adal the war between Zanzibar and Egypt continues furiously…
---
In Aquitaine, public opinions are turning against the war, as the people do not agree with aligning the nation with heretics and abandoning the Catholic League.
(-1 Confidence)
---
Emperor Canute IV is beginning to face serious domestic opposition to the continuation of the war. The loss of the French territories was viewed by many of the nobility as a blunder, and it is generally viewed that the territories in southern Germany can’t be held permanently. The newly forged alliances with Aquitaine and Lothringen are also unsettling…how much can they trust these Catholics?
Sweden is occupied and fully annexed into the Norse Empire, which of course brings a huge amount of wealth and territory under Canute’s control, as the treasury is shipped to Britain. But the Swedes retain a highly separate identity, and won’t assimilate easily into the culture of the Empire.
As planned, the Swedish Navy surrenders to the Norse, but only approximately 20 ships are turned over to the Norse. While many Swedish ships did leave for Avalon, the remainder of the navy betrays the Norse and goes over to their new, eastern enemy…
(-1 Norse Culture, -1 Norse Confidence, +Norse Economy, +1 Norse eco point, +15 Norse Squadrons, +15 Golden Horde Squadrons)
---
The Pope calls upon all Christendom to help repel the Byzantine heretics, “little more than barbarians,” that are encroaching upon the Eternal City itself. While the small Italian kingdoms of Tuscany and Milan eagerly respond to the call, the rest of the Catholic League is either silent, or too busy fighting in other theaters to give actual support.
(+10 Papal Regiments)
---
Galicia puts out a public call for volunteers to help turn back the Mongol hordes, and a national levy is instituted. The militarized Galician people quickly respond to the call, and thousands of volunteers flock to the capital to join the Tsar’s army.
(+5 Levy Thousands, +10 Thousands, +5 Kulikovan Thousands)
---
The Sultan of Delhi, Abubenadam, having finally helped his nation stagger out of its civil war with the Indus princes, decides that massive reforms need to be enacted. The old, corrupted civilian leadership is finally replaced with a more efficient bureaucracy, with which the Sultan writes and institutes a new law code based on Hindu-Muslim equality. There is some grumbling among the noble Muslims, but most of them have already been purged and executed, anyways. The Zanzibaris also provided some assistance.
The newly reformed bureaucracy is reorganized into a system of ministries and a state council, named the Diwan. After significant protest from the nobles, the Sultan did reserve several spots for the most powerful princes, but overall the power of the nobility has been significantly reduced by these actions.
Meanwhile, growing rumors of a new faith in the Punjab are spreading. Massive crowds have supposedly gathered to hear the teachings of a guru who is neither Hindu nor Muslim…
---
Min China steadily recovers from the Rice Riots of the past year, though the erratic climate continues to cause food shortages in some rural areas. As many fields in central China lay fallow due to the cold spring, the Feliben island provinces with their warmer climate have become increasingly useful as a source of food.
While confidence in the Emperor has largely been restored, rioting and violence has sporadically broken out in several Vietnamese cities and villages over the past year. Many Vietnamese, particularly those in the north, are fairly assimilated and loyal to the Min, but others yearn for independence...or perhaps they find common cause with Ayutthaya to the west?
As the year drew to an end, a large-scale border clash occurred between Min and Ayutthayan forces, with over 5,000 soldiers on each side involved in the skirmish. After the fighting ended, a cryptic message from the God-King was received in Suzhou, demanding "payment" from the Emperor. What kind of payment is known to him alone...
(+Min Confidence, +Min Economy, -1 Min Thousand)
The Yuan Empire quietly signed a renewed non-aggression pact with Ayutthaya, and exchanged ambassadors. This quickly attracted the attention of Min diplomats, who duly noted the warming relations in their dispatches to the capital. Rumors of some other alliance may be unfounded, but they still persist...
---
In Malayu, an ambitious general overthrows the King with the army's support. Unfortunately, this causes chaos and civil war, punctuated by the intervention of the Sultan of Atjeh, of all people. (see military events)
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Military Events:
In Zanzibar and Cairo, an Emperor and a Sultan were each planning to end the war that had occupied their nations for most of the past decade. The opening moves were made by Zanzibar, who fortified the port of Berbera, and began to re-supply the besieged cities in the Horn of Africa by sea. Meanwhile the Muwahhidun Empire, pulling their troops back from the Sinai, assembled a huge force to attack Zanzibar.
The Egyptians stuck first blood, as two armies reinforced the besiegers in the Horn, while another began to decimate the Southern Adalese tribes that had supported Zanzibar. As the months dragged on, it looked like the coastal cities would soon surrender to the Druze, despite total Zanzibari naval superiority.
However, the Sultan of Zanzibar had been preparing an invasion of his own. Emptying out the large Zanzibari treasury, the army was reformed, trained and enlarged. Small detachments were sent to reinforce the besieged cities, and then the combined Zanzibari and Hadramauti fleet sailed once again into the Red Sea, meeting no opposition. Then an army attacked towards Adal (the capital) out of Berbera, while a combined force of 55,000 soldiers from Zanzibar, Hadramaut and even a small group from the Bahmani Empire landed at the port of Jiddah, on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea. Hadramaut’s top commander, Hassim al’Jafarri, led the invasion force. The tables of the war had turned.
The brilliant Druze commander, General Massari ibn-Ahmad, realized that if the Alliance managed to cut off Adal and Nubia from Lower Egypt, the Empire itself would be in danger of collapse. Sending a force to attack down the African coast as a distraction, he marched north, arriving just in time to crush the Zanzimauti force that was about to capture Adal. Forcing them back towards Berbera, he force-marched his troops north as fast as possible…
Meanwhile, Jafarri’s force was marching inland, crushing all the Druze garrisons and levies thrown at them. Once they reached the Nile, a major Sunni rebellion broke out across Upper Egypt, one that was only barely suppressed with extreme brutality by the Medjai detachments in the area. If al-Jafarri had only known that Cairo was almost totally undefended, he might have been able to end the war, and the Muwahhidun Empire, with a single blow. But as it was, he marched his troops south, towards Khartoum.
Khartoum was the capital of the Druze’s Nubian province, and the main supply center for their armies in Adal. If the allies could take this city, the largest Egyptian army could be practically annihilated. However, just as they approached the city, Massari’s army arrived from the south. Al-Jafaari made the crucial decision to attack before the Druze could fortify. However, the Zanzibari and Hadramauti forces had to attack across the Nile River.
A makeshift fleet of fishing boats and rafts managed to transport only half of the allied army across the river before Massari’s Medjai charged them, driving the enemy back into the Nile. Seeing that to continue the attack was futile, al-Jafaari decided to retreat back to his base, giving weapons and support to Sunni rebels along the way.
Even though the Druze weren’t destroyed, the attack did cause the Muwahhiduns to withdraw from the Horn of Africa, and bought Zanzibar crucial time to refortify Berbera, their main base. As the battle lines have stabilized across Africa, perhaps it is time to sign peace? Then again, the exhausted nations of the Near East could make one final push for victory…
(-21 Muwahhidun Thousands, -11 Medjai Warrior Thousands, -15 Levy Thousands, -11 Zanzibari Thousands, -14 Hadramauti Thousands, -6 Desert Walker Thousands, -2 Bahmani Thousands)
A combination of Bedouin raids and Hadramauti attacks managed to destroy the final, isolated Druze army in Arabia.
(-6 Muwahhidun Thousands, -3 Hadramauti Thousands, -1 Desert Walker Thousand)
As soon as the siege of Ixvilla began, the fate of the Andalusian Caliphate was sealed. Even as the last Majardid supporters in Morocco were slaughtered, pinned down by a combined Spanish and Zayanid force, elements within the Caliph’s court were calling for a peaceful “settlement” with the Spanish, distinctly avoiding any talk of surrender. Of course, the Caliph, who most people suspected of being at least partially insane, publicly executed these elements, and destroyed several pro-Spanish and pro-peace coup attempts. Then he prepared for the end.
The city itself was surrounded by one of the most impressive series of fortifications in Europe, rivaled only by Constantinople herself. And forty thousand fanatical conscripts stood to defend her walls. For the sake of Islam’s continued existence, the Mecca of the West had to be protected.
But the Spanish Emperor was in no hurry. Gathering his armies, he surrounded the majestic city, and waited for it to fall into famine and desperation. After seven months of bombardment, skirmishing, and dwindling supplies for the Andalusians, Ferdinand gave the order to launch a final assault. Three forces simultaneously attacked the city from the north, south, and east. The defenders fought fanatically, but were overstretched and outmatched by the waves of Tercios that flooded across the walls. The outer ring of fortifications was abandoned, and the disorganized defenders retreated to the city walls.
The Spanish pressed their attack, but were forced back after three attempts to breach the inner walls. But then a random bullet killed the Genoan commander of a large company of mercenaries that had offered their services to the city. The mercenaries defected to the Spanish, giving them crucial information about the weakness of the main gate. Pounded relentlessly by enemy cannons, the gate eventually gave way, and the city was finally breached. Men, women and children were killed in the brutal street fighting that followed, and it became clear that the city had fallen. The Caliph himself was captured in his palace, killing three Spaniards before he was knocked unconscious.
The city, once the cultural center of Western Europe, was utterly ruined. But the Empire of Christian Spain lay triumphant, and was now undoubtedly the most powerful nation in Western Europe, if not the world. In a minor side note, the Majardid Caliph was taken to Toledo, where he was tried and beheaded in what would be remembered as one of the greatest public executions of the century.
Spain now stood at the peak of her external strength. Of course, that didn’t stop a huge internal crisis from nearly ripping the union of Aragon and Leon apart… (see below)
(-Majardid Caliphate of Andalusia, -8 Spanish Regiments, -3 Tercio Regiments)
---
Further to the north, Byzantium and Austria prepared to settle what was just the eastern extension of a massive war between the Catholic League and their enemies. The opening moves were made by Austria, who reinforced their Croatian gains, and probed the Byzantine defenses in Hungary. When their scouts reported that Byzantine armies under the King of “Hungary” were massing near Budapest, they launched their planned assault, down the Adriatic coast towards their objective: Salonika. A victory there would separate the Greek and Slavic areas of the Empire, promoting rebellions and allowing Austria to strike at Constantinople herself.
The Byzantines weren’t totally unprepared, but they hadn’t been expecting an attack with this kind of force. The Austrians quickly eluded the two Byzantine armies in the region tasked with keeping them in check, and moved south. The Austrian cavalry, probably the best in Europe, easily outmaneuvered and destroyed the isolated garrisons and levies in the area. Finally, the Sebastokrator diverted forces south, and linked up with a significant relief force that was marching from Constantinople.
Salonika had slowly been worn down by two months of siege, the city was strained to the breaking point. Though of slightly higher quality, the Austrians now faced an approaching Byzantine army more than twice their size. In the “Battle” of Salonika, which was really a series of disjointed skirmishes fought around the city, the Austrian rearguard was decisively smashed by disciplined Byzantine forces, aided by the Salonikan garrison.
Of course, this bought time for Leopold to withdraw his army to the north, during which time the Croatian gains could be heavily fortified. Both sides claimed victory in the south…but Byzantium had other plans in mind.
In Palestine to the south, away from the prying eyes of foreign spies in Constantinople, a massive expeditionary force was forming. Over 200 ships, a massive flotilla of a size unseen since Roman times, was gathering to restore the Empress’ dominance in the Mediterranean. The Papal and Austrian fleets in the Adriatic assumed that they had broken Byzantium’s naval power. In the two quick, decisive naval engagements that followed, they were proven horribly wrong. Soon Byzantine armies were landing unopposed in Venice, the site of their previous defeats.
For the final, decapitating strike, a Byzantine army in Italy crossed the Papal border, laying siege to Rome itself. Several desperate pleas were sent to Tuscany, Milan, and Spain. While the Florentines quickly marched south with an army to relieve the Eternal City, Spain and Milan remained curiously silent, for entirely different reasons.
After several months, the situation in Rome had become desperate. The inexperienced Tuscan army failed to break the siege, and only the fanaticism of the Michaelite forces guarding the Vatican held the resistance together. But it was not enough. Byzantine artillery breached the walls, and troops poured in. The resulting chaos and sack of Rome would be remembered as one of history’s saddest moments, as the city was laid waste by brutal house to house fighting. Pope Pius himself was shot while fleeing the city, along with his personal guards.
As the news slowly spread throughout the Catholic world, a furious outcry against Byzantium grew across the continent. Public burnings in effigy of the Empress and her husband were very common, as nobles and peasants alike demanded that their kings declare war on the satanic empire that destroyed the Holy See. This caused a bit of a crisis in Spain…(see below)
Despite the wave of hatred, Byzantine forces were universally victorious. Austria was slowly forced out of Albania, and Hungary was totally overrun, as the Austrian-backed pretender fled the country. Soon Vienna itself came under threat. The war seems close to its end…and against all odds, the power of the Catholic League seems broken.
(-16 Austrian Regiments, -8 Radiant Cross Regiments, -Austrian Confidence, -27 Byzantine Thousands, +Byzantine Confidence, -2 Papal States Confidence, All Papal Stats greatly reduced, -All Papal Regiments, +10 Papal irregular regiments, +5 Florentine Irregular Regiments, -1 Florentine Confidence)
---
Provence had made some serious blunders in the previous years, but they weren’t absolute idiots. Their neighbor Aquitaine had signed peace with the Norse, committed troops to the overthrow of the Catholic League in Bavaria, and Gilles had declared himself King of France in Orleans. That was France that definitely included Provence. It wouldn’t take a genius to determine what was going to happen next. Though King Francois I expected Aquitaine;s betrayal, he didn’t expect a huge Norse army to enter from the north.
The smaller, more efficient Provencal army managed to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy’s forces, and Aquitaine’s initial assault towards Marseilles was blunted. King Gilles re-directed the army towards Avignon, where the Norse had also aimed their main assault. If the two armies could link up at the heavily fortified city, their combined strength could easily overwhelm the remainder of Provencal's armies and march on the capital.
The battle began quickly, as the two French armies clashed. Aquitaine’s troops gradually forced back the Provencal regulars, but the Italian Cohorts, oddly loyal for mercenaries, held fast in the center of their flank. A wall of bodies slowly grew outside the city famous for its beauty. Then the Norse entered the fray, and the Cohorts finally broke under the fanatical charge of the Tredje. Provence’s remaining forces were hemmed up against the walls of the city, and relentlessly cut down. As the last resistors finally fell, the exhausted Norse and Aquitainians celebrated their hard-won victory.
Their expressions turned to horror as waves of Spanish cavalry swept through the field, cutting Aquitaine’s battered army to pieces. The Norse, shocked by this new development, gathered their forces and retreated back towards Switzerland. A new power had entered the struggle in the French War.
(It’s 4 AM, do you really expect me to do these casualties?)
---
Spain had always been a strongly Catholic nation. But Emperor Ferdinand II had been slowly, subtly moving his nation away from Papal interference. Together with the Archbishop of Toledo, himself a former Papal candidate, the Empire of Christian Spain had slowly been moving away from the Vatican…even though the Spanish Catholic Church was mostly independent from Rome, anyway.
But independent or no, Pope Pius was beloved among the people of Spain. His death (or martyrdom) sparked an uproar among peasants and nobles alike, who demanded that the Emperor send troops to relieve Rome, save the Pope, fight the Byzantine heretics…to do something, anything for that matter. But Ferdinand ignored the people’s pleas, content to consolidate power in Spain.
The riots began in summer, when abnormally cold temperatures resulted in crop failures, just as the news of Rome’s fall filtered through. Aragon and Valencia were in an uproar, and despite all of Spain's glorious victories, the agitated rabble still screamed for the Emperor’s blood. Material losses were fairly low, as Tercio divisions methodically destroyed all organized resistance in the disordered cities.
The crisis intensified when several Spanish soldiers came forward, revealing that Spanish ships had been refitted with Byzantine standards, and sent to aid the flotilla in Palestine that crushed the Papal and Austrian fleets in the Adriatic Sea, and helped transport troops to Italy. Doing nothing was one thing, but actively aiding the enemy was another. A large delegation of nobles and clergy publicly approached the Emperor, asking him to explain his actions.
They were refused an audience. At this point, a major rebellion against the Crown might have broken out. But Ferdinand belatedly took action.
The Emperor gave a public speech, denying all involvement in aiding the Byzantines, and laying full blame for the crisis on Aquitaine. King Gilles, the Emperor said, deluded Spain into a false complacency, and then formed an alliance with the Norse, betraying the Catholic League in its’ hour of greatest need. They were the true betrayers of Rome, not innocent Spain.
This reasoning seemed doubtful at best…but then news came across the mountains of Aquitaine attacking Provence, a loyal Catholic League member. With their suspicions confirmed, the people cheered the army on to victory, glad to finally have a scapegoat for the chaos in Italy.
Aquitaine had committed most of their army to their attacks on Provence, and invasion was underway when the Spanish declaration of war arrived. Too late to withdraw their forces, King Gilles could only raise an emergency levy when the Spanish forces came flooding out of the Pyrenees. Toulouse was a well-fortified city, but the surprise attack, and excellent Spanish artillery, breached the walls and crushed the inexperienced defenders. The King himself fled north to Orleans, gathering his forces in central France.
The Spaniards, slightly reluctant to do too much damage to their former (and current?) ally, secured the major southern cities and linked up with Provence, just in time to secure the final victory at the Battle of Avignon.
---
All had been quiet in Asia, for a while. That peace was disturbed when Japan launched a surprise winter assault on Hokkaido, completely surprising the undersupplied Yuan garrison. Aided by a local rebellion, the Japanese troops routed the Yuan, whose famed cavalry were ineffective in the snowy, heavily forested terrain. After a few months of harsh fighting, Japanese forces had secured the entire island. They fortified their positions, and awaited a Yuan counterstrike that never came.
Needless to say, the Yuan emperor was furious to hear of this defeat, and vowed (maybe in a rash moment) to create a pyramid of skulls in Kyoto that would double the height of those made by his Mongolian ancestors. In a small skirmish off Korea, the Yuan narrowly defeated the Japanese navy, and Yuan troops appear to be staging for some type of invasion, though where is yet to be determined.
This crisis creates yet another interesting dilemma for the Min Emperor in Suzhou. Both the Japanese and the Yuan are demanding his support…and ominously threatening war if they are refused.
(-7 Yuan Thousands, -2 Yuan Ships, -4 Japanese Thousands, -3 Japanese Ships, +Japanese Confidence)
OOC: Don't post yet! Just putting the finishing touches on the spotlight, it will be up in 30 minutes.
In Zanzibar and Cairo, an Emperor and a Sultan were each planning to end the war that had occupied their nations for most of the past decade. The opening moves were made by Zanzibar, who fortified the port of Berbera, and began to re-supply the besieged cities in the Horn of Africa by sea. Meanwhile the Muwahhidun Empire, pulling their troops back from the Sinai, assembled a huge force to attack Zanzibar.
The Egyptians stuck first blood, as two armies reinforced the besiegers in the Horn, while another began to decimate the Southern Adalese tribes that had supported Zanzibar. As the months dragged on, it looked like the coastal cities would soon surrender to the Druze, despite total Zanzibari naval superiority.
However, the Sultan of Zanzibar had been preparing an invasion of his own. Emptying out the large Zanzibari treasury, the army was reformed, trained and enlarged. Small detachments were sent to reinforce the besieged cities, and then the combined Zanzibari and Hadramauti fleet sailed once again into the Red Sea, meeting no opposition. Then an army attacked towards Adal (the capital) out of Berbera, while a combined force of 55,000 soldiers from Zanzibar, Hadramaut and even a small group from the Bahmani Empire landed at the port of Jiddah, on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea. Hadramaut’s top commander, Hassim al’Jafarri, led the invasion force. The tables of the war had turned.
The brilliant Druze commander, General Massari ibn-Ahmad, realized that if the Alliance managed to cut off Adal and Nubia from Lower Egypt, the Empire itself would be in danger of collapse. Sending a force to attack down the African coast as a distraction, he marched north, arriving just in time to crush the Zanzimauti force that was about to capture Adal. Forcing them back towards Berbera, he force-marched his troops north as fast as possible…
Meanwhile, Jafarri’s force was marching inland, crushing all the Druze garrisons and levies thrown at them. Once they reached the Nile, a major Sunni rebellion broke out across Upper Egypt, one that was only barely suppressed with extreme brutality by the Medjai detachments in the area. If al-Jafarri had only known that Cairo was almost totally undefended, he might have been able to end the war, and the Muwahhidun Empire, with a single blow. But as it was, he marched his troops south, towards Khartoum.
Khartoum was the capital of the Druze’s Nubian province, and the main supply center for their armies in Adal. If the allies could take this city, the largest Egyptian army could be practically annihilated. However, just as they approached the city, Massari’s army arrived from the south. Al-Jafaari made the crucial decision to attack before the Druze could fortify. However, the Zanzibari and Hadramauti forces had to attack across the Nile River.
A makeshift fleet of fishing boats and rafts managed to transport only half of the allied army across the river before Massari’s Medjai charged them, driving the enemy back into the Nile. Seeing that to continue the attack was futile, al-Jafaari decided to retreat back to his base, giving weapons and support to Sunni rebels along the way.
Even though the Druze weren’t destroyed, the attack did cause the Muwahhiduns to withdraw from the Horn of Africa, and bought Zanzibar crucial time to refortify Berbera, their main base. As the battle lines have stabilized across Africa, perhaps it is time to sign peace? Then again, the exhausted nations of the Near East could make one final push for victory…
(-21 Muwahhidun Thousands, -11 Medjai Warrior Thousands, -15 Levy Thousands, -11 Zanzibari Thousands, -14 Hadramauti Thousands, -6 Desert Walker Thousands, -2 Bahmani Thousands)
A combination of Bedouin raids and Hadramauti attacks managed to destroy the final, isolated Druze army in Arabia.
(-6 Muwahhidun Thousands, -3 Hadramauti Thousands, -1 Desert Walker Thousand)
As soon as the siege of Ixvilla began, the fate of the Andalusian Caliphate was sealed. Even as the last Majardid supporters in Morocco were slaughtered, pinned down by a combined Spanish and Zayanid force, elements within the Caliph’s court were calling for a peaceful “settlement” with the Spanish, distinctly avoiding any talk of surrender. Of course, the Caliph, who most people suspected of being at least partially insane, publicly executed these elements, and destroyed several pro-Spanish and pro-peace coup attempts. Then he prepared for the end.
The city itself was surrounded by one of the most impressive series of fortifications in Europe, rivaled only by Constantinople herself. And forty thousand fanatical conscripts stood to defend her walls. For the sake of Islam’s continued existence, the Mecca of the West had to be protected.
But the Spanish Emperor was in no hurry. Gathering his armies, he surrounded the majestic city, and waited for it to fall into famine and desperation. After seven months of bombardment, skirmishing, and dwindling supplies for the Andalusians, Ferdinand gave the order to launch a final assault. Three forces simultaneously attacked the city from the north, south, and east. The defenders fought fanatically, but were overstretched and outmatched by the waves of Tercios that flooded across the walls. The outer ring of fortifications was abandoned, and the disorganized defenders retreated to the city walls.
The Spanish pressed their attack, but were forced back after three attempts to breach the inner walls. But then a random bullet killed the Genoan commander of a large company of mercenaries that had offered their services to the city. The mercenaries defected to the Spanish, giving them crucial information about the weakness of the main gate. Pounded relentlessly by enemy cannons, the gate eventually gave way, and the city was finally breached. Men, women and children were killed in the brutal street fighting that followed, and it became clear that the city had fallen. The Caliph himself was captured in his palace, killing three Spaniards before he was knocked unconscious.
The city, once the cultural center of Western Europe, was utterly ruined. But the Empire of Christian Spain lay triumphant, and was now undoubtedly the most powerful nation in Western Europe, if not the world. In a minor side note, the Majardid Caliph was taken to Toledo, where he was tried and beheaded in what would be remembered as one of the greatest public executions of the century.
Spain now stood at the peak of her external strength. Of course, that didn’t stop a huge internal crisis from nearly ripping the union of Aragon and Leon apart… (see below)
(-Majardid Caliphate of Andalusia, -8 Spanish Regiments, -3 Tercio Regiments)
---
Further to the north, Byzantium and Austria prepared to settle what was just the eastern extension of a massive war between the Catholic League and their enemies. The opening moves were made by Austria, who reinforced their Croatian gains, and probed the Byzantine defenses in Hungary. When their scouts reported that Byzantine armies under the King of “Hungary” were massing near Budapest, they launched their planned assault, down the Adriatic coast towards their objective: Salonika. A victory there would separate the Greek and Slavic areas of the Empire, promoting rebellions and allowing Austria to strike at Constantinople herself.
The Byzantines weren’t totally unprepared, but they hadn’t been expecting an attack with this kind of force. The Austrians quickly eluded the two Byzantine armies in the region tasked with keeping them in check, and moved south. The Austrian cavalry, probably the best in Europe, easily outmaneuvered and destroyed the isolated garrisons and levies in the area. Finally, the Sebastokrator diverted forces south, and linked up with a significant relief force that was marching from Constantinople.
Salonika had slowly been worn down by two months of siege, the city was strained to the breaking point. Though of slightly higher quality, the Austrians now faced an approaching Byzantine army more than twice their size. In the “Battle” of Salonika, which was really a series of disjointed skirmishes fought around the city, the Austrian rearguard was decisively smashed by disciplined Byzantine forces, aided by the Salonikan garrison.
Of course, this bought time for Leopold to withdraw his army to the north, during which time the Croatian gains could be heavily fortified. Both sides claimed victory in the south…but Byzantium had other plans in mind.
In Palestine to the south, away from the prying eyes of foreign spies in Constantinople, a massive expeditionary force was forming. Over 200 ships, a massive flotilla of a size unseen since Roman times, was gathering to restore the Empress’ dominance in the Mediterranean. The Papal and Austrian fleets in the Adriatic assumed that they had broken Byzantium’s naval power. In the two quick, decisive naval engagements that followed, they were proven horribly wrong. Soon Byzantine armies were landing unopposed in Venice, the site of their previous defeats.
For the final, decapitating strike, a Byzantine army in Italy crossed the Papal border, laying siege to Rome itself. Several desperate pleas were sent to Tuscany, Milan, and Spain. While the Florentines quickly marched south with an army to relieve the Eternal City, Spain and Milan remained curiously silent, for entirely different reasons.
After several months, the situation in Rome had become desperate. The inexperienced Tuscan army failed to break the siege, and only the fanaticism of the Michaelite forces guarding the Vatican held the resistance together. But it was not enough. Byzantine artillery breached the walls, and troops poured in. The resulting chaos and sack of Rome would be remembered as one of history’s saddest moments, as the city was laid waste by brutal house to house fighting. Pope Pius himself was shot while fleeing the city, along with his personal guards.
As the news slowly spread throughout the Catholic world, a furious outcry against Byzantium grew across the continent. Public burnings in effigy of the Empress and her husband were very common, as nobles and peasants alike demanded that their kings declare war on the satanic empire that destroyed the Holy See. This caused a bit of a crisis in Spain…(see below)
Despite the wave of hatred, Byzantine forces were universally victorious. Austria was slowly forced out of Albania, and Hungary was totally overrun, as the Austrian-backed pretender fled the country. Soon Vienna itself came under threat. The war seems close to its end…and against all odds, the power of the Catholic League seems broken.
(-16 Austrian Regiments, -8 Radiant Cross Regiments, -Austrian Confidence, -27 Byzantine Thousands, +Byzantine Confidence, -2 Papal States Confidence, All Papal Stats greatly reduced, -All Papal Regiments, +10 Papal irregular regiments, +5 Florentine Irregular Regiments, -1 Florentine Confidence)
---
Provence had made some serious blunders in the previous years, but they weren’t absolute idiots. Their neighbor Aquitaine had signed peace with the Norse, committed troops to the overthrow of the Catholic League in Bavaria, and Gilles had declared himself King of France in Orleans. That was France that definitely included Provence. It wouldn’t take a genius to determine what was going to happen next. Though King Francois I expected Aquitaine;s betrayal, he didn’t expect a huge Norse army to enter from the north.
The smaller, more efficient Provencal army managed to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy’s forces, and Aquitaine’s initial assault towards Marseilles was blunted. King Gilles re-directed the army towards Avignon, where the Norse had also aimed their main assault. If the two armies could link up at the heavily fortified city, their combined strength could easily overwhelm the remainder of Provencal's armies and march on the capital.
The battle began quickly, as the two French armies clashed. Aquitaine’s troops gradually forced back the Provencal regulars, but the Italian Cohorts, oddly loyal for mercenaries, held fast in the center of their flank. A wall of bodies slowly grew outside the city famous for its beauty. Then the Norse entered the fray, and the Cohorts finally broke under the fanatical charge of the Tredje. Provence’s remaining forces were hemmed up against the walls of the city, and relentlessly cut down. As the last resistors finally fell, the exhausted Norse and Aquitainians celebrated their hard-won victory.
Their expressions turned to horror as waves of Spanish cavalry swept through the field, cutting Aquitaine’s battered army to pieces. The Norse, shocked by this new development, gathered their forces and retreated back towards Switzerland. A new power had entered the struggle in the French War.
(It’s 4 AM, do you really expect me to do these casualties?)
---
Spain had always been a strongly Catholic nation. But Emperor Ferdinand II had been slowly, subtly moving his nation away from Papal interference. Together with the Archbishop of Toledo, himself a former Papal candidate, the Empire of Christian Spain had slowly been moving away from the Vatican…even though the Spanish Catholic Church was mostly independent from Rome, anyway.
But independent or no, Pope Pius was beloved among the people of Spain. His death (or martyrdom) sparked an uproar among peasants and nobles alike, who demanded that the Emperor send troops to relieve Rome, save the Pope, fight the Byzantine heretics…to do something, anything for that matter. But Ferdinand ignored the people’s pleas, content to consolidate power in Spain.
The riots began in summer, when abnormally cold temperatures resulted in crop failures, just as the news of Rome’s fall filtered through. Aragon and Valencia were in an uproar, and despite all of Spain's glorious victories, the agitated rabble still screamed for the Emperor’s blood. Material losses were fairly low, as Tercio divisions methodically destroyed all organized resistance in the disordered cities.
The crisis intensified when several Spanish soldiers came forward, revealing that Spanish ships had been refitted with Byzantine standards, and sent to aid the flotilla in Palestine that crushed the Papal and Austrian fleets in the Adriatic Sea, and helped transport troops to Italy. Doing nothing was one thing, but actively aiding the enemy was another. A large delegation of nobles and clergy publicly approached the Emperor, asking him to explain his actions.
They were refused an audience. At this point, a major rebellion against the Crown might have broken out. But Ferdinand belatedly took action.
The Emperor gave a public speech, denying all involvement in aiding the Byzantines, and laying full blame for the crisis on Aquitaine. King Gilles, the Emperor said, deluded Spain into a false complacency, and then formed an alliance with the Norse, betraying the Catholic League in its’ hour of greatest need. They were the true betrayers of Rome, not innocent Spain.
This reasoning seemed doubtful at best…but then news came across the mountains of Aquitaine attacking Provence, a loyal Catholic League member. With their suspicions confirmed, the people cheered the army on to victory, glad to finally have a scapegoat for the chaos in Italy.
Aquitaine had committed most of their army to their attacks on Provence, and invasion was underway when the Spanish declaration of war arrived. Too late to withdraw their forces, King Gilles could only raise an emergency levy when the Spanish forces came flooding out of the Pyrenees. Toulouse was a well-fortified city, but the surprise attack, and excellent Spanish artillery, breached the walls and crushed the inexperienced defenders. The King himself fled north to Orleans, gathering his forces in central France.
The Spaniards, slightly reluctant to do too much damage to their former (and current?) ally, secured the major southern cities and linked up with Provence, just in time to secure the final victory at the Battle of Avignon.
---
All had been quiet in Asia, for a while. That peace was disturbed when Japan launched a surprise winter assault on Hokkaido, completely surprising the undersupplied Yuan garrison. Aided by a local rebellion, the Japanese troops routed the Yuan, whose famed cavalry were ineffective in the snowy, heavily forested terrain. After a few months of harsh fighting, Japanese forces had secured the entire island. They fortified their positions, and awaited a Yuan counterstrike that never came.
Needless to say, the Yuan emperor was furious to hear of this defeat, and vowed (maybe in a rash moment) to create a pyramid of skulls in Kyoto that would double the height of those made by his Mongolian ancestors. In a small skirmish off Korea, the Yuan narrowly defeated the Japanese navy, and Yuan troops appear to be staging for some type of invasion, though where is yet to be determined.
This crisis creates yet another interesting dilemma for the Min Emperor in Suzhou. Both the Japanese and the Yuan are demanding his support…and ominously threatening war if they are refused.
(-7 Yuan Thousands, -2 Yuan Ships, -4 Japanese Thousands, -3 Japanese Ships, +Japanese Confidence)
OOC: Don't post yet! Just putting the finishing touches on the spotlight, it will be up in 30 minutes.
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Spotlight: Conclusion to the Ten Years War
-It is not an army, my lord. It is a horde.
-Credited to General Sigurd Henriksen, Norse Empire
It seemed like Bavaria, only two years before the greatest empire seen in Germany since Charlemagne, was a hopelessly lost cause. The Norse had already smashed the finest Bavarian armies in the north, and despite a coup that deposed the ineffectual Otto I, and replaced him with the pragmatic Lord-Commander Ruthor Bernhardt, the Norse simply had too many well equipped armies, all bearing down on Munich.
The Swiss, opportunistic and eager to destroy all the Catholic nations surrounding them, attacked Milan, preventing them from sending the much-needed aid that might have saved Rome. They also attacked Austrias western lands, catching the unprepared Austrians off guard, and preventing them from sending aid to Bavaria as planned. Though the Swiss themselves were soon forced back from Milan by superior Italian troops and the strong fortifications of the city, the distraction prevented any help from the Catholic League getting to Bavaria.
Soon only the Danube separated Munich from the approaching armies of the Norse and Lothringen. And then, yet another Norse army approached from the south, out of Switzerland. Though the Landsknecht forced it back from the capital, it seemed that Bavaria, and all Germany, would soon be under Norse control.
But in the east, Mamai Khan had other plans. He would not sit quietly and wait for the counterstrike to come. So he began to organize what would be known as the Great Horde. First, he carved several puppet states out of the occupied Baltic lands. A mercantile Republic of Courland was founded on the Genoan model, and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was restored in a smaller, less threatening form. The Khan began to transport his armies rapidly towards Poland, who had joined the growing list of the Hordes allies in return for aid against Poland.
In Warsaw, they gathered, Courlanders, Poles, Lithuanians, Kostromans, and thousands from the Golden Horde, a massive force numbering almost 200,000 men. The training and quality of much of this force was absolutely horrible, but it was definitely imposing.
Shrewdly assessing his strengths and those of his enemies, the Khan moved some of his forces north to fortify Courland, while waiting for the Norse to make the first move in Poland.
The Norse quickly attacked Riga in an attempt to secure the strategic city as a forward base to operate against the Horde. Unfortunately, they failed to consider that a large portion of the Swedish navy continued to fight, and had pledged their allegiance to the Horde. Along with a small fleet hired by the Courlanders, and several Horde ships that had been literally dragged across Northern Russia in pieces and rebuilt in the port, this very strange combined fleet gave battle to the approaching Norse expeditionary force.
Fanatical resistance from the Swedes, along with good use of artillery, allowed the allied forces to initially board and destroy several Norse ships. Due to better numbers and organization, the battle eventually swayed in favor of the Norse. But most of the allied ships were able to escape back into Rigas harbor. The heavily damaged Norse fleet had lost many of their troop transports, and after reports indicated that the city had been fortified, the Norse commander decided to retreat back to Stockholm, rather than needlessly slaughter his remaining troops.
With their northern flanks secured, the Golden Horde was free to concentrate on Germany.
The Norse generals had launched a three-pronged invasion of Poland, which focused on capturing Danzig in the north, and Wroclaw in the south. The Khan completely ignored the assault on Wroclaw, judging it to be irrelevant in the greater strategic plan. As Polish troops were diverted to slow the southern invasion, the Khan moved his forces towards Danzig.
The first confrontation was a disaster for both sides. The Norse slaughtered thousands of Kostroman levymen, but in their headlong advance the Norse allowed the superior Horde cavalry to outflank their advancing force. Crushed between Mongol and Polish cavalries, the Norse footsoldiers were cut to pieces, trying in vain to regain their formations. This battle demonstrated that cavalry forces were far more effective as a weapon of maneuver than for pure shock value, and that arquebuses were very ineffective at close quarters fighting.
The Horde-led invasion crossed into Germany, capturing Berlin in a costly assault before the Norse could bring up reinforcements. King Canute, personally commanding the siege of Munich in southern Germany, faced the potential that his supply lines would be severed entirely if the Horde reached Hamburg. Fully knowing that he would lose southern Germany by his actions, the Emperor ordered all Norse armies to pull back from the Danube. In a masterful display of maneuverability, Norse units managed to swing back from southern Germany to fortify a new defensive line based in Hamburg.
The Horde detached a small force to bottle up the Hamburg army, and moved around the south of the city to outflank them entirely. The decisive conflict was delayed, as both armies jockeyed for superior position.
The Norse finally managed to intercept the Horde forces at the city of Bremen, which held a key supply depot for Norse armies across Germany. Over 100,000 Norse soldiers faced a Horde-led force of 160,000. The outcome of the battle would determine the fate of Europe, and the world.
Mamai Khan and King Canute IV were both experienced commanders, and neither made any incompetent blunders. The Khan massed his cavalry on both flanks with a center of Courlander and Kostroman pikemen. Behind them he held his few arquebusiers, the Polish infantry and the Lithuanian noble cavalry in reserve.
Canutes army was more straightforward. He too divided his cavalry and placed it on the flanks. But he organized his pikemen into several small, maneuverable square formations, and placed Tredje and gunners within the gaps.
The battle was joined, as the Khans cavalry engaged their Norse counterparts. The Norse horsemen were slowly driven off the field, forced outward by force of numbers. The cavalry regrouped and retreated to the center of Canutes line, as several pikemen formations engaged the cavalry, smashing into the horse before they could surround the rear of the Norse formation. Meanwhile, the infantry battle was going well for the Norse. The Tredje mowed down rank after rank of Eastern European militiamen, and soon the Kostromans broke, their retreat turning rapidly into a rout.
The Norse also secured their flanks, as more pikemen plowed into the elite Mongol cavalry, neutralizing them and forcing some riders to dismount, or be crushed with their dying horses. Canute then unveiled his coup de grace: his cavalry, reformed, charged through the holes in the pikemen formation. Already wavering from the routed Kostromans, the remainder of the allied infantry began to flee the field, as the Horde center was bent backwards and fragmented by the Norse charge, personally led by Emperor Canute IV himself.
The vast Horde force was slowly beginning to disintegrate. Just as the Emperor thought that the victory had been won, a small Bavarian relief force arrived behind the Horde lines. Comprised of mostly fast moving light cavalry, they were led by none other than Lord-Commander Bernhardt.
Seeing that the situation was grim, the Lord-Commander and the Khan prepared a countercharge, with all their remaining cavalry. Plowing through their own troops as well as the enemys, the Bavarian-Mongol and Norse forces smashed into each other, as the center of both lines collapsed into a brutal cavalry melee.
At this point, in the chaos of the battle, Emperor Canute fell from his horse, struck by a random bullet in the neck. He was mortally wounded. As the Norse despaired over their monarchs death, the Horde forces were reinvigorated. The line reformed itself, as fresh Polish infantry from the rear led the charge in pushing back the Norse lines. As the pikemen and Tredje formations began to lose shape in the chaotic melee, the line slowly began to bend back in the other direction. Leaderless and under pressure, the Norse were about to break.
And then, yet another force arrived onto the field, a large army commanded by King Lothair, of Lothringen, who had also abandoned the siege of Munich to come to the Norses aid in the north. Fresh waves of Lothringen cavalry plowed into the left flank of the Hordes armies. Mamai Khan saw the victory slipping through his fingers, but led the noble cavalry of Poland, Lithuania, and the Golden Horde in one, final charge. But the exhausted steppe horses could not meet the speed of the European chargers in Lothringens armies. The Khan and his retainers were surrounded, and the standard of the Golden Horde fell. Mamai himself died then, some say from Lothairs sword stroke, in retribution for the killing of his old friend Canute.
The Battle of Bremen came to a swift end, as the Hordes forces fought to the death, the Kostromans and Lithuanians surrendered, and the Poles and Courlanders fled to fortify their gains in the east. Lord-Commander Bernhardt was nowhere to be found, but later turned up in Munich, denying all participation in the battle. But it was a truly pyrrhic victory for the Norse, as their finest armies were crippled, and most of central Germany lost to the Bavarians.
With all sides exhausted and utterly depleted, with the leaders of both coalitions dead, will the war finally end? Or will the nations of east and west continue to clash until the end of time itself?
Only time will tell.
(-42 Norse Regiments, -8 Tredje Regiments -36 Golden Horde Thousands, -12 Cossack Thousands, -12 Kostroman Thousands, -14 Lithuanian Thousands, -9 Kostroman Thousands, -14 Bavarian Regiments, -3 Landsknecht Regiments, -6 Lothringen Regiments, -5 Swiss Regiments, -2 Confidence to all warring nations except Bavaria)
-It is not an army, my lord. It is a horde.
-Credited to General Sigurd Henriksen, Norse Empire
It seemed like Bavaria, only two years before the greatest empire seen in Germany since Charlemagne, was a hopelessly lost cause. The Norse had already smashed the finest Bavarian armies in the north, and despite a coup that deposed the ineffectual Otto I, and replaced him with the pragmatic Lord-Commander Ruthor Bernhardt, the Norse simply had too many well equipped armies, all bearing down on Munich.
The Swiss, opportunistic and eager to destroy all the Catholic nations surrounding them, attacked Milan, preventing them from sending the much-needed aid that might have saved Rome. They also attacked Austrias western lands, catching the unprepared Austrians off guard, and preventing them from sending aid to Bavaria as planned. Though the Swiss themselves were soon forced back from Milan by superior Italian troops and the strong fortifications of the city, the distraction prevented any help from the Catholic League getting to Bavaria.
Soon only the Danube separated Munich from the approaching armies of the Norse and Lothringen. And then, yet another Norse army approached from the south, out of Switzerland. Though the Landsknecht forced it back from the capital, it seemed that Bavaria, and all Germany, would soon be under Norse control.
But in the east, Mamai Khan had other plans. He would not sit quietly and wait for the counterstrike to come. So he began to organize what would be known as the Great Horde. First, he carved several puppet states out of the occupied Baltic lands. A mercantile Republic of Courland was founded on the Genoan model, and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was restored in a smaller, less threatening form. The Khan began to transport his armies rapidly towards Poland, who had joined the growing list of the Hordes allies in return for aid against Poland.
In Warsaw, they gathered, Courlanders, Poles, Lithuanians, Kostromans, and thousands from the Golden Horde, a massive force numbering almost 200,000 men. The training and quality of much of this force was absolutely horrible, but it was definitely imposing.
Shrewdly assessing his strengths and those of his enemies, the Khan moved some of his forces north to fortify Courland, while waiting for the Norse to make the first move in Poland.
The Norse quickly attacked Riga in an attempt to secure the strategic city as a forward base to operate against the Horde. Unfortunately, they failed to consider that a large portion of the Swedish navy continued to fight, and had pledged their allegiance to the Horde. Along with a small fleet hired by the Courlanders, and several Horde ships that had been literally dragged across Northern Russia in pieces and rebuilt in the port, this very strange combined fleet gave battle to the approaching Norse expeditionary force.
Fanatical resistance from the Swedes, along with good use of artillery, allowed the allied forces to initially board and destroy several Norse ships. Due to better numbers and organization, the battle eventually swayed in favor of the Norse. But most of the allied ships were able to escape back into Rigas harbor. The heavily damaged Norse fleet had lost many of their troop transports, and after reports indicated that the city had been fortified, the Norse commander decided to retreat back to Stockholm, rather than needlessly slaughter his remaining troops.
With their northern flanks secured, the Golden Horde was free to concentrate on Germany.
The Norse generals had launched a three-pronged invasion of Poland, which focused on capturing Danzig in the north, and Wroclaw in the south. The Khan completely ignored the assault on Wroclaw, judging it to be irrelevant in the greater strategic plan. As Polish troops were diverted to slow the southern invasion, the Khan moved his forces towards Danzig.
The first confrontation was a disaster for both sides. The Norse slaughtered thousands of Kostroman levymen, but in their headlong advance the Norse allowed the superior Horde cavalry to outflank their advancing force. Crushed between Mongol and Polish cavalries, the Norse footsoldiers were cut to pieces, trying in vain to regain their formations. This battle demonstrated that cavalry forces were far more effective as a weapon of maneuver than for pure shock value, and that arquebuses were very ineffective at close quarters fighting.
The Horde-led invasion crossed into Germany, capturing Berlin in a costly assault before the Norse could bring up reinforcements. King Canute, personally commanding the siege of Munich in southern Germany, faced the potential that his supply lines would be severed entirely if the Horde reached Hamburg. Fully knowing that he would lose southern Germany by his actions, the Emperor ordered all Norse armies to pull back from the Danube. In a masterful display of maneuverability, Norse units managed to swing back from southern Germany to fortify a new defensive line based in Hamburg.
The Horde detached a small force to bottle up the Hamburg army, and moved around the south of the city to outflank them entirely. The decisive conflict was delayed, as both armies jockeyed for superior position.
The Norse finally managed to intercept the Horde forces at the city of Bremen, which held a key supply depot for Norse armies across Germany. Over 100,000 Norse soldiers faced a Horde-led force of 160,000. The outcome of the battle would determine the fate of Europe, and the world.
Mamai Khan and King Canute IV were both experienced commanders, and neither made any incompetent blunders. The Khan massed his cavalry on both flanks with a center of Courlander and Kostroman pikemen. Behind them he held his few arquebusiers, the Polish infantry and the Lithuanian noble cavalry in reserve.
Canutes army was more straightforward. He too divided his cavalry and placed it on the flanks. But he organized his pikemen into several small, maneuverable square formations, and placed Tredje and gunners within the gaps.
The battle was joined, as the Khans cavalry engaged their Norse counterparts. The Norse horsemen were slowly driven off the field, forced outward by force of numbers. The cavalry regrouped and retreated to the center of Canutes line, as several pikemen formations engaged the cavalry, smashing into the horse before they could surround the rear of the Norse formation. Meanwhile, the infantry battle was going well for the Norse. The Tredje mowed down rank after rank of Eastern European militiamen, and soon the Kostromans broke, their retreat turning rapidly into a rout.
The Norse also secured their flanks, as more pikemen plowed into the elite Mongol cavalry, neutralizing them and forcing some riders to dismount, or be crushed with their dying horses. Canute then unveiled his coup de grace: his cavalry, reformed, charged through the holes in the pikemen formation. Already wavering from the routed Kostromans, the remainder of the allied infantry began to flee the field, as the Horde center was bent backwards and fragmented by the Norse charge, personally led by Emperor Canute IV himself.
The vast Horde force was slowly beginning to disintegrate. Just as the Emperor thought that the victory had been won, a small Bavarian relief force arrived behind the Horde lines. Comprised of mostly fast moving light cavalry, they were led by none other than Lord-Commander Bernhardt.
Seeing that the situation was grim, the Lord-Commander and the Khan prepared a countercharge, with all their remaining cavalry. Plowing through their own troops as well as the enemys, the Bavarian-Mongol and Norse forces smashed into each other, as the center of both lines collapsed into a brutal cavalry melee.
At this point, in the chaos of the battle, Emperor Canute fell from his horse, struck by a random bullet in the neck. He was mortally wounded. As the Norse despaired over their monarchs death, the Horde forces were reinvigorated. The line reformed itself, as fresh Polish infantry from the rear led the charge in pushing back the Norse lines. As the pikemen and Tredje formations began to lose shape in the chaotic melee, the line slowly began to bend back in the other direction. Leaderless and under pressure, the Norse were about to break.
And then, yet another force arrived onto the field, a large army commanded by King Lothair, of Lothringen, who had also abandoned the siege of Munich to come to the Norses aid in the north. Fresh waves of Lothringen cavalry plowed into the left flank of the Hordes armies. Mamai Khan saw the victory slipping through his fingers, but led the noble cavalry of Poland, Lithuania, and the Golden Horde in one, final charge. But the exhausted steppe horses could not meet the speed of the European chargers in Lothringens armies. The Khan and his retainers were surrounded, and the standard of the Golden Horde fell. Mamai himself died then, some say from Lothairs sword stroke, in retribution for the killing of his old friend Canute.
The Battle of Bremen came to a swift end, as the Hordes forces fought to the death, the Kostromans and Lithuanians surrendered, and the Poles and Courlanders fled to fortify their gains in the east. Lord-Commander Bernhardt was nowhere to be found, but later turned up in Munich, denying all participation in the battle. But it was a truly pyrrhic victory for the Norse, as their finest armies were crippled, and most of central Germany lost to the Bavarians.
With all sides exhausted and utterly depleted, with the leaders of both coalitions dead, will the war finally end? Or will the nations of east and west continue to clash until the end of time itself?
Only time will tell.
(-42 Norse Regiments, -8 Tredje Regiments -36 Golden Horde Thousands, -12 Cossack Thousands, -12 Kostroman Thousands, -14 Lithuanian Thousands, -9 Kostroman Thousands, -14 Bavarian Regiments, -3 Landsknecht Regiments, -6 Lothringen Regiments, -5 Swiss Regiments, -2 Confidence to all warring nations except Bavaria)
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
In your face, Iggy! Your Canadian, cybernetic, penguin face!
Diplomacy:
From: Leopold I of Austria
To: The Byzantine Empire
I acknowledge my defeat at Salonika, and wish for an amiable peace between our nations. In return for control over Croatia, a traditionally Catholic province, I am willing to recognize Hungary as a sovereign possession of the Byzantine crown, and also to pay 2,000,000 ducats for the cession of the territory. This is a much better settlement than wresting the land from us by force, and we assure you, that task would only result in failure.
From: Nya Sverige
To: The Empire of Christian Spain
We are no threat to Spain, and we assure you that we have no intention to settle on Spanish land. Leave us in peace, and we will gladly trade with you.
From: Japan
To: Min China
We humbly request our ally's support against the vile Yuan attempting to seize rightful Japanese lands!
From: Yuan China
To: Min China
If you truly wish for continued peace between the two Chinas, you will repudiate all ties with the Japanese, and immediately declare war on them. Failure to do so will result in severe negative consequences...but we know that we can rely on your support, friend.
From: Ayutthaya
To: Min China
We request payment of what is owed us. Our patience runs thin.
OOC:
Yeah, the map probably has problems, and Malayu isn't done. Sorry, tomorrow I'll do something about that.
Post away...I'm going into a coma now.
Spoiler Los mapas della doom. :
Diplomacy:
From: Leopold I of Austria
To: The Byzantine Empire
I acknowledge my defeat at Salonika, and wish for an amiable peace between our nations. In return for control over Croatia, a traditionally Catholic province, I am willing to recognize Hungary as a sovereign possession of the Byzantine crown, and also to pay 2,000,000 ducats for the cession of the territory. This is a much better settlement than wresting the land from us by force, and we assure you, that task would only result in failure.
From: Nya Sverige
To: The Empire of Christian Spain
We are no threat to Spain, and we assure you that we have no intention to settle on Spanish land. Leave us in peace, and we will gladly trade with you.
From: Japan
To: Min China
We humbly request our ally's support against the vile Yuan attempting to seize rightful Japanese lands!
From: Yuan China
To: Min China
If you truly wish for continued peace between the two Chinas, you will repudiate all ties with the Japanese, and immediately declare war on them. Failure to do so will result in severe negative consequences...but we know that we can rely on your support, friend.
From: Ayutthaya
To: Min China
We request payment of what is owed us. Our patience runs thin.
OOC:
Yeah, the map probably has problems, and Malayu isn't done. Sorry, tomorrow I'll do something about that.
Post away...I'm going into a coma now.
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