TURN 174 ORDERS DUE BACK BY: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH, 1994.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BIG NOTE! My email address has changed! I now have real Internet access and can be reached at: tharlan@pima.gov. Our new mail system at work now being up, you can also reach a number of people that you could not reach before via my office. For a while I can be reached at CompuServe, but I am going to be phasing that out.
The new rules went into effect this turn, so I made a number of adjustments to your stat sheets, including: changes to government type to match your BL and Infrastructure, changes to your AQR's to make them match the current technology limits, and some other minor modifications.
When I adjusted your QR's, I moved excess points around into Ratings that had not hit maximum. If all of your QR's were at maximum, I added the extra points to your Intel Ratings. If they were at maximum, I added the extra to Religious and so on…
A clarification is necessary on the Merchant Shipping Points basing limitation. Merchant Shipping Points that are assigned to Internal Trade also count against the capacity of a given port. A 4 GPv city, for example, can support up to 80 Merchant Shipping Points - in any combination of Sea Trade and Internal Trade.
Now on the question of Sea Trade Route between nations - each allocated set of shipping to handle a Sea Trade Route must be based at the same city! The program demands this! So, you cannot split the 60 MSP on your route to the Indies between three separate 1 GP cities. It must be handled by one city. I know this makes your life difficult, but tough! On the other hand, MSP on Internal Trade can be parceled out throughout all of the port cities in your Empire in dribs and drabs.
RANDOM EVENTS CONTEST!
We're working on the new Game Masters rules (to go with the Players Rules that you've already received) and part of that project includes a new, updated, incredibly annoying Random Events list. We' ve thought of a bunch already, but I decided to let you - those that will suffer or gain from them - have a shot too. If you send me a set of three or more random events that will work in game-terms and are not catastrophic, and preferably have historical examples or precedent, I'll give you a free turn credit. In addition, those the player(s) that produce the Coolest Random Event, the Most Annoying Random Event and the Most Amazing But Historical Random Event will get an extra two turns of credit. To qualify I need the descriptions of the random events and their effects (in GAME TERMS) by the time that Turn 174 ships out.
RENAISSANCE SUPPLEMENT ERRATA
( Sigh - I am not perfection itself! )
Table 2-2. Years per Turn (Corrected)
Year Years per Base Tax Range Turn Rate 1400-1499 4 80% 1500-1599 3 60% 1600-1699 2 40% 1700-1799 1 20%
2.6.1.1 Ship Movement Effects (Corrected)
The number of Actions per Year is equal to:
Actions Per Year = 8 + Navigation Rating
2.6.4 Limits On Navigation Rating and Conduit Limit (New)
The Navigation Rating and Conduit Limit are limited to the maximum value of this formula, rounded up.
2.6.5 Limits on Trade Range (New)
The Trade Range, in turn, is limited to your Nation's Tech Level minus Two.
TROOP CONVERSIONS
Infantry (200 men = 1 point), Cavalry (200 men = 1 point), Siege Engineers (200 men = 1 point), Warships (2 ships = 1 point), Transports (2 ships = 1 point), Artillery (2 guns = 1 point), Draken (1 airship = 1 point).
Tom's eMail Addresses CompuServe: 71155,1513 InterNet: tharlan@pima.gov
THE GLOBAL EMPIRE SECTION!
LORDS ONE: Thomas Harlan, 4858 East Second Street, Tucson, Arizona. 85711-1207. (602)323-8570. See last page!
LORDS TWO: Sean Harding, 13224 Highview Drive, Burnsville, MN. 55337 (612)890-5878. Turn #22 is the latest. Openings are: Kama Bulgar Khanate, Fiji Islanders, Coptic Nubia, Bohemia. Also the whole New World is opening up as well. Call for positions!
LORDS THREE - THE ONE WORLD: Richard Ketcham, 3456 North Hills Drive, #258C. Austin, TX. 78731-3183. (512)343-6017. Turn #86 is the latest. Openings: Maya, Mexico, Guiana. This here campaign is plugging right along...
LORDS FOUR: Sean Padden, 1105 West Oregon #4, Urban, IL, 61801. (217)332-4794. Internet: padd@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu. Turn #26 is the latest. Openings: Tuhnwhang, Cylos, Otrar, Scythia, Bakonite, White.
LORDS FIVE: Kurt Fangmeier, 2328 East 6th Street, Tucson, Arizona. 85715. (602)326-8267. Internet: fangs@ccit.arizona.edu. Kurt is currently completing the last turn that he will be doing, and then will be turning this campaign over to another which will be Scott Chatham.
LORDS SIX - NEW WORLD: Scott Micheel, 1241 Glorieta Street NE, Albuquerque, NM. 87112-5231. (505)296-4454. Turn #46 is the latest. Openings: Inca, Checic, Cheyenne, Tainozemi, Chimtec, South Mapuche, North Mapuche and Zacatec.
LORDS EIGHT: Kyong Kwon, 4664 Maplewood Avenue, #303. Los Angeles, CA. 90004. (213)666-1884. Kyong has decided to start up this campaign with a limited map area due to the underwhelming response to his previous announcements. Call him for startup information.
LORDS NINE: Thad Plate, 5333 East Thomas Road, #215, Phoenix, Az. 85018. (602)952-8929. Turn #90 latest. Openings: Twilight Kwakiul, Hurshai Dragon, Azerbaijan, Natal, Tibubirra Bands, Ong Eka Ram, Roanoke Russ, Yuksap. Only a four page newsfax????
LORDS TEN: Thad Plate, 5333 East Thomas Road, #215, Phoenix, Az. 85018. (602)952-8929. Turn #49 latest. Openings: Great Zimbabwe, Bohemia, Rayy, Karatou, Chah Bahar, Gurvan Horde.
LORDS ELEVEN: Thad Plate, 5333 East Thomas Road, #215, Phoenix, Az. 85018. (602)952-8929. Turn #10 latest. Openings: Dongola Nubia, Maku, Kashmir, Sadjid Tabriz, Bini Ezi.
LORDS TWELVE: Dean DonArumo, 2110 Avenue M, Huntsville, TX. 77340. (409) 291-3348. Turn #2 is the latest. Openings: Takrur, Persia, Basra, Buganda, Togo, Kongo, Rozwi, Morocco, Zeila, Alfold, Kiev and Lingnan.
LORDS THIRTEEN: Martin Stewart, 773 Zeiss Avenue, St. Louis, MO. 63125. (314) 638-9604. Turn #2 is the latest. People are ordering rulebooks for this game, so I guess it is running…
LORDS ITALIA UNO (CAMPAIGN FOURTEEN) : Fernando Bellizzi, Via Stamiria 15-7, Roma 00162, Italia. (06)44247137. Turn #7 is the latest. Openings: New World is opening up and from the summary map it looks like much of Africa, China and Eastern Europe are open.
LORDS FIFTEEN: Jack Wagner and Jeff Martin, 5328 North 3rd Avenue, Phoenix, AZ. 85013. (602) 279-4008. Turn #26 latest.
BLACK EMPIRE II: Thad Plate, 5333 East Thomas Road, #215. Phoenix, Az. 85018-8036. (602)952-8929. Turn #9 is the latest.
CRUENTI DEI - TARBYR: Thom Ryng, 1435 North Pearl Street, #2, Tacoma, WA. 98406. (206)752-3923 -- No calls before 10am PST or after 9pm PST. Turn #13 is the latest. Openings: Taliabu.
VARIOUS FEES AND LEVIES
Turns: $3.00 per turn (Local), $4.00 per turn (mailed).
Maps: Entire World [8½11] $3.00 (Local) or $5.00 (Mailed). Entire World [1117] $7.00 (Local) or $10.00 (Mailed).
5th Edition Rulebook: $10.00 (Local) or $13.00 (Mailed in US), $15.00 (mailed overseas).
Renaissance Supplement: $3.00 (Local) or $4.00 (mailed the US), $5.00 (mailed overseas).
Back Newsfaxes (Available for turns #143, #144, #145, #153-172): $1.00 per copy (local) or $2.00 per copy (mailed in the US) or $3.00 per copy (mailed overseas).
Newsfax Subscriptions: $2.00 per turn (mailed in the US). These will be mailed at the same time as the regular turns are mailed out.
NORTH ASIA
MERCENARY POOL: 30MC, 20MI, 10MA
MERCENARY AQRS: C11 S15 I15 A11
MERCENARY LEADERS: CHUN'KUO AZADI (LB79)
THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN+2
Tokugawa Gokunen, Shogun of All Nippon, Daimyo of Manila, King of the Phillipines, The Sea-Spear, Monster-Slayer.
DIPLOMACY: None
Gokunen, acting on information he had recieved from "unknown sources" raised a strong new army and dispatched the fleet, supported by many Mongol and Ulan mercenaries to the Tonkin Coast. This fleet was placed under the command of the Prince Iiewasu, despite his low popularity amongst the nobles, due to events of a secret nature that had occured in the remote coast of Akita province, where the Prince had of late been hunting. Apparently, the Shogun confided to the Mongol ambassador, the "Pirates of Monster Island" would be unable to stand against the Prince "now" and so he was given the fleet command. Master Jizu, of course, and General Tohiro were on hand to give advice and make sure no one slacked off.
Prince Iiewasu returned from the southern seas victorious and a hero of the wars against the Viet - at least until the sailors of the fleet related that the Viets had fled away somewhere and that all that the fleet had won was the capture of some merchant ships and a lot of loot from the abandoned city of Thanglong. This occasioned some subdued laughter amongst the lesser nobles… Much later, Gokunen was livid when he learned of the heavy losses sustained in the Nicobar Sea and in waters beyond at the hands of the Mughal Pirates.
THE MONGOL CHINESE EMPIRE+0
K'ang Hsi Gorlos, God-Emperor of the Middle-Kingdom
DIPLOMACY: See below...
Reaping the benefits of peace, the Mongols expanded the city of Harbin in Shangtu and made agricultural improvements in Hsuing'nu. Very good success was had by Illuminated Path priests in Tari Noor, where they found the Moslem inhabitants strongly influenced by Mongol culture and thought. Lord Kushun spent a sweltering summer and two very cold winters in the forests of Jilin convincing the local tribes to behave properly towards the emissaries of the God-Emperor. Eventually they relented.
THE PURE REALM+0
Great Master Fo, Abbot of the Wing Kung Temple of the Greater Vehicle of the Message of the Bodisatva
DIPLOMACY: Hainan and Yu-Lin(t), Hong Kong(t)
The work on Fusan continued, with the city becoming even grander and more glorious! The priest Manzin was sent off to the land of the Golden Mountain to preach to the Tatars that had built a new empire there. Though he was missed, his presence was replaced by a new arrangement between the Japanese Shogunate and the Pure Realm. Under this treaty, the temples and monastaries in Japan came under the spiritual guidance of Fo and the Pure Realm - particularly in the matter of missionary work and religious activities outside of Japan. This strengthened the hand of the Pure Realm tremendously, for the sects not under Pure Realm control in Mongol, Austral and other lands were now theologically outgunned. Fo was pleased.
Father Jiu-Lin, who had been in Annam for a time, serving as a teacher at the monastary in Haiphong, was driven to flee that troubled land by the madness of Altin and then the death of Prince Dyonzal. He made his way to the city of Yu-Lin on Hainan island where he soon became embroiled in attempting to save something of the local merchant guild following the utter collapse of the Annamese state and economy. After the local governor emplored him for quite a long while, Jiu-Lin agreed to extend the protection of the Pure Realm to the island and the city (and not incidentally save their local merchants from ruin).
Fo made two pronouncements to the pilgrims gathered in Fusan, each aimed at various foreign powers: to the non-Buddhist powers - "The Pure Realm is disturbed by events in the Northeast Pacific, in Southwest Asia and the wastelands of Prester John. With the power of Heaven and the prayers of the faithful, we now hope to awake East Asia, the Sleeping Giant." To the Moslems in Central Asia in particular: "Prester John and his Bjarnifolken can kiss my … er … bald pate!"
THE KINGDOM OF PRESTER JOHN+0
Malcom Corrigan, Khagan of Karakocho, The Incarnated One, Wolf-Brother of the Altai, Iskander Returned!
DIPLOMACY: None
The Prestii ran around a lot, moving garrisons, and bothered the Buddhists in Tuhnwhang a lot - until some of them decided to be Sunni instead, just to avoid the trouble. Malcom made raspberries in the direction of the "Purely Round Master Fo".
THE DIVINE KINGDOM OF JUDAH+4
Tui-Yin Ben-Yair, "The Redbeard", The Hand of God, Champion of the Hosts of Christ, Celestial Emperor
DIPLOMACY: No Effect
The Judeans devoted a great deal of effort to upgrading the roads, wells and irrigation districts in Shansi. They were pleased that all feared them. Extensive missionary activity was undertaken in Chinling against the local Confucianist and Buddhist temples. A Yaqui colony was also settled there to secure the southern frontier against the Ming. Elsewhere the engineers and stonemasons were hard at work on the Dragon Gate defences at Anhui, Kiangsu, Yen and Shangtung. Similarly, many Tarahumara veterans were settled in Yanzhi to secure that border-land against the depredations of the Moslem tribes. A Judean diplomatic mission to the Ningsia highlands was wiped out by Taoist bandits. The Redbeard's accountants whimpered as the overseas shipping trade took another hit.
The Franciscans continued their work in southern Judah, opening a new abbey in Nanking. The wandering "black-robes" then pressed on to Suzhou.
THE MING CHINESE EMPIRE+1
Ming-ta Ying-Tuan, Emperor of China, Hammer of the Barbarians, The Redeemer, The Eternally Victorious, Divine Son of Heaven
DIPLOMACY: Chiennan(a)
The Ming army at Kweichou regrouped itself and, aided by a large number of Tibetian mercenaries, rolled south again! Unlike previous efforts, however, this time their advance was unresisted. The local economies of Guizhou, Nanchao and Korat were in ruins and the Viet overlords were long gone. The Ming army advanced cautiously into Annam anyway, fearing that the Viet had fallen back to their homeland to make one final stand. That province they found a blackened wasteland of abandoned villages, poisoned wells and burned-out rice paddies. Near Thanglong, as they came to the sea, they found one more shattered village and in, it, meditating under a tree, the first Viet they had seen. Ming guards brought him to the general commanding the army and the Viet was closely questioned. The Viet, garbed in but rags and a loincloth, stated quietly that he was the Prince Dyonzal, once great in this land.
"Where have your people gone?" snarled the Ming.
"To a dream of pain," responded the ascetic Prince. "they flee themselves and the demons of the mind, but always they will be with them. While they cling to the illusions of the world, they will suffer."
"Why did they flee?"
"Vengeance. My father is mad, consumed by his own grief and sorrow."
Further discussions proved useless, for the Prince had attained such a state of detachment that no useful answers could be had from him, save in areas of philosophy. The Ming General sent him away, under guard, but as the Prince was escorted to a pavillion in the central enclosure of the camp, two men dressed as priests stepped out from the crowd of soldiers watching the procession and struck him down with knives. These fellows were later determined to be in Japanese pay, and were released.
SOUTH ASIA
MERCENARY POOL: 20MI, 30MW, 10MS, 15MA
MERCENARY AQRS: C10 I14 W14 A8
MERCENARY LEADERS: AL-WALID GEBEL-TARIK (L834)
THE VIET ANNAM
In Annam, an otherwise quiet nation of rice farmers and tradesmen, the court at Thanglong was wracked with dissension. A vocal party led by the Lord Kushep continued to plague the SeaLord with demands to attack and destroy the rascally Khemer, who had caused such trouble in the south. The heir, Prince Dyonzal, was thick with the Pure Realm priests - even adopting their Buddhist faith in contravention of his father's worship of the gods of Aotearoa. The merchant lords were in an uproar too, what with the depredations of the Pirates of Monster Island killing trade and leaving their ships stuck in harbor. To all of this, Altin turned a deaf ear, for his beloved wife M'del, lay dying of a slow, wasting sickness, in the chambers of the Blue Lotus, deep within the palace grounds. His heart was sick with fear, for no doctor or mage could stay her decline.
Kushep importuned him once too many times and was dispatched to the north to gather up some garrison troops and return to the capital. During his absence, the Admiral Bogain, who had been keeping watch on the Ming border returned to Thanglong as well with many men under his command. By the time that fellow had come to the palace, however, M'del was dead and Altin - in grief and rage - ordered that the city itself would be her funeral pyre. Dyonzal, his son, also sickened by his beloved mother's death argued vehemently against this insane act, but Altin would have none of it. He banished Dyonzal to the monastary at Haiphong and ordered Bogain's troops to fire the city.
Bogain refused and fighting broke out in the city, but Altin was still the Sea-Spear and Bogain's mutiny was broken and his followers killed. Then there was a great burning and the lamentations of the many rose up to the heavens on roiling clouds of smoke, hell-lit by the fires beneath. Dyonzal fled the monastary soon afterwards and wandered the countryside, seeing that the land was desolate and in ruin, empty of all folk - they had fled the wrath of Altin. "My father's evil has wrought this," he thought, paused in the empty grey ash of a farming village, "his long battles with the Sarawak lords, with his desires and greed and pride, all these things have turned him to a path of illusion and dreams. I cannot follow the same path." And so, like Siddartha before him, he sat beneath a great tree then and meditated upon the evils of the world.
In turn, Altin had taken to sea with the ships of his fleet and after long and dark meditation had come to the inescapable conclusion that his enemies of old, the Sarawak lords, had poisoned or bespelled his beloved wife and now he swore vengenance against them. In this thinking he was guided (though he knew it not) by a new slave-girl he had acquired from the markets of Haiphong. Nita, too , harbored a grudge against those that had sent her family into exile and slavery. "By this iron tool, so sharp with rage" she mused, watching the lean tall figure of Altin at the rail of his flagship, "I will cut the heart from the house of Kuominnin…" Thus did the Viet fleet lunge south into Javan waters, seeking vengenance and destiny...
Within weeks of the departure of Altin's fleet, the harbor of Haiphong - still crammed with merchant shipping stranded by the recent pirate activities - was scene to the sudden dawn appearance of a very large number of Japanese war-junks. In tandem with their swift assault, barges filled with Nippon Imperial marines crashed ashore and several thousand troops poured ashore, shouting battle slogans!
Haiphong was empty. It's streets deserted, the buildings abandoned, the people gone. Japanese patrols reported back to the Prince this state of affairs. Iiewasu turned to the hooded monks that had been lurking about on the command deck, saying "the dogs have run before us. We will not need to summon … aid." The monks turned and filed quietly away, taking their secrets and their "aid" with them. Within three months the Japanese marines had secured the whole province of Annam, which they found to be abandoned by the Viets. When the Ming arrived from the north, they turned administration over to the Chinese and returned home.
KHEMER REBORNE!+0
Bao Dai Rama, Emperor of the True Khemer
DIPLOMACY: Champa(t), Mison(t)
Bao Dai Rama declared that the "Bjarnifolk are pussies!" and he did not seem to mean they were cute little temple cats. Lord Guyunden and Mohomur, investigating events on the east Viet coast, took the opportunity to extend Khemer protection over Champa and Mison. Otherwise, they were confused by the collapse of the Viet realm.
THE KINGDOM OF SARAWAK-2
Komoz Kuomminin, King of Sarawak, Warlord of Indonesia
DIPLOMACY: None
Larjaq, still reeling from the damage inflicted by the Monster Island raids, turned his hand to rebuilding the Sarawak military. And, more importantly, he restored the local census control and tax rolls. "Now", he muttered, "we'll be able to start rebuilding..." Unfortunately for these long range plans, Altin's revenge fleet made landfall on the Pajajaran shores in the fall of 1673 and a 20,000 man army piled ashore. Larjaq was stunned - he had never expected that the Viets would strike back so strongly. He huddled with Prince Komoz as the Viet army advanced upon Sunda across the terraced hills and valleys of Java. To their hand, they could muster only 9,000 men to defend the capital - so they were forced to hole up in Sunda and send a blizzard of dispatches to the Japanese, the Sud Afriqans, anyone that might come to their aid!
Altin's advance, goaded as he was by the poisoned words of the slave-girl Nita, was swift and terrible. Those who opposed him died by the lance or sword or gun and his men were besieging Sunda within weeks of their landing. Despite fanatical resistance by the Sarawak, the city fell within a month and there was a fierce bloodletting. Altin slaughtered, mercilessly, all of those that had once scorned and repudiated him and Nita's vengenance was even more thorough. Some few nobles escaped, but found themselves hunted both by bands of both Viet troops and the flood of new ex-colonists that Altin had dragged back from the old colonies in Annam to secure his foothold in the heartland of the ancient empire.
THE JAVAN EMPIRE+2
Altin Hepakur, King of Java, Emperor of the Maori, The Sea Spear
DIPLOMACY: None
Following the destruction (in main part) of the old Sarawak realm, the Javans expanded to seize the provinces of Kediri and Palembang as well. There was considerable slaughter and reprisal in these provinces as well, particularly as the nobility was wholly replaced by ex-colonists from Annam at the order of Altin and his viceroy, Nita. With the Sarawak high command scattered (Prince Komoz and various generals) or captured and executed at Sunda (Larjaq and others) the Javanese were able to make good headway at securing the provinces. Late in 1674 it was learned that Komoz had made a new capital at Kanti in Perak, amongst the people of his mother.
THE TIMOR SEAHOLD+1
Kolos, Prince of Golan, King of Timor, Scourge of the Seas
DIPLOMACY: Irian / Sorong(f)
The Timor continued their diplomatic pressure on the Iriani and finally convinced them to become full members of the Seahold. Sealord Jakat, on patrol against the Pirates of Monster Island, noted with avarice that the Sarawak had fallen on very hard times. He took some intiative of his own and seized the Sarawak city of Ternate on the Moluccas and when that proved successful, he also seized the rich province of Sabah on the north coast of Borneo. King Viton, who was at first quite displeased by this, then examined the tax receipts from these lands and was quite pleased. He was less pleased to be murdered by his son, Kolos, at the end of 1673. Kolos ascended the Timorese throne without difficulty as Sealord Jakat supported him fully.
THE NAIPON-AUSTRAL EMPIRE+0
Kugyo Sui, Shogun of Australia, Emperor of the Maori
DIPLOMACY: Kosan in Taree(ea), Yaralone(nt)
The Australs rebuilt the city of Iruka in Aanx, showing at last that they were on the road to recovery from the wars against the Timor and the Sarawak. Sui was very pleased to see that the Sarawak had taken another hobnailed boot to the head. Extensive missionary activities were undertaken against the Buddhists in Kosan and much success was had by the Priests of Oro.
THE WHITE TOWER+0
The government (if any) of the White Tower
DIPLOMACY: None
The White Tower people continued to avoid all contact with
their neighbors.
THE NAIPON-SEAHOLD+0
Sugawara Lorama, Daimyo of the Southern Seas
DIPLOMACY: None
Lord Fuwara was eaten by a shark while sailboarding. That was it, really, in the peaceful and bucolic Pacific.
TRANS-ASIA - TINA IS KING!
MERC POOL: 10MI, 30MC, 18MA, 10MS, 10MW, 59MT
MERC AQRS: C10 I15 W15 S12 A10
MERC LEADERS: BASHIR SIDDIG AL'FADDIL (M886)
THE MUGHAL PIRATES+0
Sdara the Pirate, Emperor of India, Khan of the Turogay, Sword of Islam, al-Muad'dib, Hand of Tina
DIPLOMACY: Rajput / Kaunaj(a)
Despite famine and general disaster, Kuchek squeezed the people for more taxes! He would defeat these Danes at last. Prince Sdara, at the command of a new army of 6,000 men, was sent north with brave banners and brazen trumpets, to drive the Aballachi back into the western seas and reclaim the lands of his fathers. At the same time, the Noyan Gjur and the Bantag Urmos left the ruins of Somantha in Surashtra and sailed back into the Bay of Bengal to support their prince in his campaign on the Ganges. Finally, the Bantag Jehu, who spent quite a time sneaking around in central India, took command of a force of loyalists in Jihjohti and attacked north into Rajput.
« Read Aballach and then return »
Sdara, after taking up his new residence in Palankawi on the Adaman Island, took the advice of the native tcho-tcho peoples and unleashed his powerful fleet on the merchants traversing the Nicobar Sea and surrounding waters. Now, these waters still carried a great proportion of trade despite the depredations of Tina and her fleet, and there were still good pickings for Sdara's captains. He rejoiced to see the gold that flowed into his coffers therefrom. It was not the way of his father, he knew, but the state had fallen upon hard times and he desperately needed cash.
GRAND DUCHY OF ABALLACH+3
Bruz Hapsburgh, Grand-Duke of Aballach, Prince of Schwarzkastel, Sikh Stomper
DIPLOMACY: None
In non-war news, Chitor became Hussite. The mercenary al'Fadil did not suffer from the fate of his predecessor, though he did take service with the Aballachi - the loot was so good! - at Bihar in Maghada. Gunter Hapsburgh, still commanding the armies of the Duchy in the east, attacked across the Ganges again, but this time he intended to stay. With the Jats cavalry pacing them to the north with an attack into Gaur, the main Aballachi army drove south through Samatata and into the principate of Arakan. The Mughal prince Sdara, meantime, had marched into Samatata, seen the Aballachi pouring across the Brahmaputra and fallen back into Ava. When the Danes turned south instead and attacked Arakan, he was puzzled, but glad to see them engaged there. He recrossed the mountains into Samatata behind them.
Meanwhile, the Mughal fleet had landed its marines at Nadavaria and reclaimed the province. They wondered for the moment where the Danes were, but soon encountered some of Sdara's men who had crossed the Brahmaputra themselves (in Palas). Now regrouped, Urmos and Sdara learned that the Danes had crushed the Arakani and were advancing into Pegu itself. Torn, they loaded the "Army of Liberation" onto the fleet and sailed back to Rangoon. There they fortified the city and waited for the Danish assault.
Surprisingly, it came! The Hapsburgh army, now cut off from its line of communications and supply, saw no recourse but to smash the heart of the Mughals again and capture the rich capital and the supplies within it. Gunter ordered a massive assault of Rangoon. At this point he committed 26,000 men to the attack, holding back some 16,000 cavalry that were garrisoning Pegu province and searching for supplies. Within Pegu, the Mughals had 20,000 fighting mad Moslems! The fighting lasted for three days on the walls of Rangoon, and then the gates fell to al'Fadil's mercenaries and they poured into the city for their customary orgy of looting and rapine and destruction.
Prince Sdara survived the fall of the third Moghul capital, though Emperor Kuchek did not, and took to the seas with his fleet, which was still very strong. He sailed to the Andaman Islands and seized the city of Palankawi there as his new capital and base for his fleet.
Back on the mainland, Gunter was stuck far from home, and though the mercenaries had scattered once their share of the loot was disbursed he was still quite a ways from any friendly territory. So the Danish army once more hiked, slogged and crawled back through the mountains of Arakan and Samatata to Palas where they ended the turn. The Duchy, however, still had more troubles as the attack by Bantag Jehu into Rajput had made common cause with the maharajah of that province and now the Rajputs rose up in revolt against the Duchy.
Bruz was sorely wounded by a Mughal assassin in late 1673, and took seven months to fully recover from the wounds.
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE OF BOKHARA+3
Tuat Hasan, Khan of Khans, Shahanshah of Persia, Prince of Bukhara, Caliph of the East
DIPLOMACY: None
The Persians were very active, undertaking a long list of projects that helped make their realm one of the most progressive and advanced in all the world. Amongst other things, the cities of Ormuz, Al-Harkam, Ufra, Colchis, Abas and Basra were expanded. A new city, Cem, was built in Mand as well. Many new mosques were built throughout the realm and libraries of scrolls and paper books opened in the larger cities. Hasan was praised by the common folk as a wise and beneficent king. The Shahanshah did, however, perplex his advisors with the question: "What is all of this Byarni drivel about, anyway?". The vizier Masalmah, originally from Neyriz, was arrested by the secret police on charges of "devil-worship" and executed soon after. Later it was revealed that the charges had been falsified by a family enemy.
There was a great deal of troop shuffling in the south, with The bashars Khimiz, Shurhabil and the Amr ibn al As gathering a very large army in Fars and invading the indipendent emirate of Neyriz. Apparently word had gotten out that there was a veritable nest of Mazdists in the province and they were up to no good. The Persians fell on it like two hods of bricks and - essentially - slaughtered everyone in the province. In the process they discovered some interesting relics and gew-gaws, and these were destroyed.
Hasan cursed and wondered why he did not follow his own instincts and deal with the pirates in Indonesia with his own fleet. "Never leave these things to the Chinese," he muttered, "they always cock it up." Orders were drafted to send the fleet east immediately and clear the sea lanes.
THE SULTANATE OF SYRIA+1
Omar, First of the Four, Fist of Allah, Sultan of Syria, Bane of the Infidels
DIPLOMACY: Some effect…
Lord Hafiz was sent to Lebanon to negotiate with the rebellious Sunni there and managed, after a fashion, to restore at least cordial relations between the Sultanate and that province. The Maronite Christians and their Hussite allies, however, were still dead-set against any association with the rule of Omar. The Cilicians were sent south into the Esh'shara hills in Petra in full strength (all 36,000 of them) and a massive search-and-destroy operation was launched. What they did find, however, was a "rose-red city half as old as time" that was utterly abandoned. There were signs, however, that it had been inhabited for quite a long time by nomads of some dubious religious origin, perhaps Hussite converts left over from the recent wars.
THE KINGDOM OF GEORGIA+1
Walid Jahan Muhammad, King of Georgia, Protector of Armenia
DIPLOMACY: None
Jahan undertook an unusual amount of activity this time around, shuffling armies about and gathering (somewhat unexpectedly) a large fleet of idle merchant shipping.
EUROPE - TALK, TALK, TALK…
MERCENARY POOL: 15MI, 10MC, 10MA
MERCENARY AQRS: C11 I16 S16 W15 A11
MERCENARY LEADERS: KHAN OF THE BORKOU (M946)
HOLY KINGDOM OF MACEDON+1
Gustav Thucides, King of Macedonia, Prince of Attica, Emperor of Constantinople, Warden of the East, Spear of God, Overlord of the Wallachs and Hungarians
DIPLOMACY: None
King Gustav, having seen one too many reports about the popular unrest, open rebellion and general laxity of the Wallachians, ordered his generals to him. "This has got to stop," he proclaimed, "Hussite nations are supposed to be models of ruthless efficency and crushing might. These Wallachians are bumbling around like some kind of third world nation on hemp. It is time to … restore … order." And he smiled a big toothy smile. The fleet departed Heraclea the next day.
The Macedonian attack developed along three lines of advance. The fleet, under Lothar, swept out of the Golden Horn and sealed off Debrecen and the mouth of the Danube. At the same time, all Wallachian shipping passing the Sea of Marmara was stopped and seized. Considering that the Macedonians controlled all avenues of approach, they made a killing at this.
The wreckage of the fishing boat 'Lucky Dragon' washed ashore on the coast near Aegespotamae, on the estate of the former Duke of Heraklia. Despite calm weather, which had prevailed for several days, the timbers of the boat were shattered, as if by the grip of a giant hand. Reportedly, traces of gold were found on the wreckage, leading authorities to suspect that the vessel was involved in a smuggling opperation.
The Bulgarians, in turn, made a spoiling attack into Ludgorie, hoping to draw the Wallachian army across the river to deal with them. At the same time the main Macedonian army, under the direct command of Gustav (and supported by Jervis Hozolen) marched north out of Thrace and into Dobruja. Duke Lodmund, however, was not convinced of the danger of the Bulgarian attack and shifted his army into Ialomita to face the main attack. The Wallachian fleet, mostly designed for use on the Danube, was also committed to this defence. As a result, when Gustav's troops reached the great river, they found it held against them by a combined force. The Macedonian king was put out at this, but Hozolen immediately dispatched a messenger to find Lothar.
The Macedonian fleet sortied up the river and drove off the much smaller Wallachian force. Supported now by the fleet, the Macedonians crossed in force at Giurgiu on hundreds of boats as well as two great floating bridges. The Wallachians put up a tenacious defence on the far bank, but their 16,000 men could not contain the 38,000 Macedonians and once the defence ruptured, the Macedonian cavalry wreaked a hideous slaughter upon the fleeing Wallachians. Duke Lodmund was captured in the diaster and Lord Wosul and Cardinal Drakul were both killed.
Following the victory at Giurgiu, the Macedonians wasted no time in marching into Craiova - only to find the Bulgarians already encamped in the city and enjoying the fruits of their victory! Having already "restored order" in Ludgorie, Dobruja, Ialomita and Wallachia, the Macedonian command now split into separate columns and secured Moldavia, Banat, Alfold, Carpathia, Slovakia and Bakony. The Wallachs were left with a rump state comprised of Moravia, Bochnia, Galich, Illyria and Campania (yes, in Italy).
KHAGANATE OF KHIRGIZIA+0
Stephan, Khagan of Khirgizia, Protector of the Christians, Slayer of Slavs, Fist of the One True God, The Wielder of Righteousness
DIPLOMACY: None
Things were very quiet in Khirgiz, save for the funeral of the Khan of the Nogai, which was well attended. Stephan also daydreamed of his realm reaching to the Dnepr so that he could grab some ex-Wallach provinces too...
THE PRINCIPATE OF KRAKOW-1
Raina Ferenczy, Duchess of Wallachia, Defender of the Faith
DIPLOMACY: Pechneg(nt)
Lodmund was very sad that the expected wagonloads of gold did not arrive as expected from the Danes. His nation was in such sorry straits now that he needed that largess to do more than maintain a precarious hold on his throne. The news that a Danish expedition was crossing the northern reaches of the Duchy did not sit well with him either, but unless he was willing to take up arms against the Master of Europe, he could do nothing. The Duke also undertook strong measures against any "cultes, ghoules or other heretikal forces amongst us" with mass arrests and executions. Lodmund did, however, manage to acquire a Pechneg wife and was trying to get her pregnant when he recieved a message that his realm was at war via a Macedonian assassin. Lodmund escaped the attempt, barely, but things were going to get much worse…
After Lodmund was carted off to Thessaloniki to grace the prisons of the Thiucideans, his new wife, Raina, took command of what government remained and relocated the seat of power (in great haste) to the strongly fortified city of Krakow in Bochnia in the north of the land. There she gathered to her what supporters there still remained, and plotted revenge upon the Macedonians. The Baroness S_, a onetime associate and patron of the late Lobelia M_, was slain by an assailant who stabbed her through the heart with a sharpened wooden cane before taking his own life. The assailant appears to have been a former lover, driven mad by the Baroness's many notorious infidelities.
THE SWEDISH EMPIRE OF RUSSIA+2
Octavia 'Whitehair' Gustaffsson, Tsarina of All The Russias, Queen of Sweden, Duchess of Poland
DIPLOMACY: No Effect
Riga Post - Tsarina Reshuffles Cabinet: Foreign Minister Andresen Out.
StCharles Banner - Fair Trade With Aztecs Restored!
Warsaw Tribune - Sawyer, Lass Find Tree In Forest; woodcut page 3.
Kjellstad Star - Tsarina Grants Protection to French Refugees.
The Empress was very concerned to learn from the Naval Office of rumors that various fringe Imperialist and Flat Earther groups intended to take their displeasure with the handling of the recent war, and the Marôcain situation, to a new level of sectarian violence. Otherwise the Morrocan Crisis was occupying all of her time. Foreign Minister Andresen, who had previously been a proponent of cooperation with the Marôcain, was canned and replaced by the very hawkish Count Boervold. There was a great deal of military activity in the Baltic ports and rumors were thick in Riga that the SREF was going to be recalled from Amerikan waters to deal with the Crisis.
Amid all of the rushing about, no one noticed a well mannered Spanish woman with a child and some baggage getting off of a merchantman from Corunna. The woman was met by two Russians and they went off together in a pale brown carriage.
Many ships filled with grain were dispatched to France to help the Spanish and Marôcain alleviate the famines threatening the provinces devastated by the wars there. Prince Lacrimose of Friesland died of a cough he had contracted in Trondelag last year. Administration of his lands in the Low Countries were assumed by the Crown. As it turned out, the SREF and the Swedish Rigan fleet rendezvouzed at Alfredville in Normandy and then sailed south in a massed armada to crush the resistance of the Marôcain and "restore order in the Gades area". Word also came from Moscow that Wesley of Silesia had died while staying in the city and the Crown was forced to assume administration of his lands as well. Public health officials in Berlin released the latest statistics on the 'PA epidemic'. Since this disease was first identified in 1665 by the late Stefan Koppinger, it has claimed more than 150 lives, and is expected to claim as many again this year. Pernicious Anemia remains uncurable.
Some time after the reports came that the Swedish-English fleet had taken on water, men and supplies at Corunna, a runner came from the Kalmar Senate to request the Empress' presence at an emergency convocation of that august body. Octavia was perplexed, no sessions had been scheduled for the day - it was a Sunday - and she glanced down at the parchements indicating the extent of ill-feeling in the Empire over recent events. "Roust out the Guard," she directed the stoic Iroquois that guarded her person, "and have them meet me at the Parliament building". With these precautions, and some others, she then took her 'discreet' carriage down into the broad avenues of the city and to the Parliament.
Upon arrival she made her way to the Royal bench, requesting that the Speaker of the Senate be brought to her. When that worthy, the Altkansler Yeltsin, came to her he could only inform her that a noble of the realm had requested, as was the right, the convocation of the houses of the Senate to address an issue of tremendous import. Just then there was a hush in the chambers and a door opened on the far wall. A tall, elegantly dressed, Spanish woman entered and made her way up the broad marble steps to the speaker's podium. At her side a boy of four labored to carry a heavy wooden box. Octavia squinted at the figure; suddenly recognizing her, she stood up with a snarled curse, her slim white hand drawing a finely machined pistol from her handbag. The 'kansler, horrified, immediately leapt to restrain her. A scuffle ensued as the Iroquois stufffed the 'kansler into the pavement.
At the podium, Margaret de'Seville, the new wife of Thorvald Heyerdahl, raised her hand in greeting to the stunned assembly. Her clear contralto was without accent, testimony to the influence of her maternal grandfather, the famous Admiral Harlock:
"My friends, my people. I come to you in a great hour of need, a time when the staunchest of Catholic hearts is testesd for its purity.
"At this moment, a cancer grows within the heart of Europe! It is a disease which, if unchecked, will devour us all in its evil influence. We name it: Denmark.
"Time and again that evil core of heresy has meddled its pungent tendrils throughout the fortunes of Europe, and now we find, through the good graces of my husband's leadership of the Templar Knights, that the corrupt Danish hand has extended to the very bosom of our allies."
Now she turned to the boy beside her and accepted the heavy box. She placed it on the podium, the noise of the latches clicking back sharp in the utter silence of the hall. She reached within, her hands clad in soft white leather gloves. From it, she withdrew a coal black organ, dark fluid dripping from it.
"I bring you the heart of Robert d'Andelot."
She paused in the even deeper silence as all eyes beheld the gnarled organ which seemed to pulse with vitriol. A dark mist drifted off of the thing as she held it aloft. Beside the podium, the young boy coughed quietly into a hankerchief.
"For this beast, and all like him, Swedish soldiers were asked to give their life on the field of battle. For this beast, and all like him, the peace negotiators at Munich sold our victory and our country, province by province, to the growing edifice of Danish heresy. For this beast, and all like him, members of this very House unwittingly voted to support that lurid treaty and the infected provinces of what was once Occitania remain, to this day, corrupted and besoiled by the bile refuse of the anti-Christ.
"The true Light of our Lord cannot be so easily hidden. As the learned representatives here know, my husband has recently scored a great victory in bringing down the secret evil of the d'Andelot, and continues to drive the cultic havens of daemons from the liberated provinces of central France. It is his desire to craft a new state stretching from Morroco to Normandy, a state purged clean of these hellish influences. And once done, to carry the struggle against the Danes who have caused such misery.
"I come to you, to ask your help. There are elements amongst us, even within our Swedish government, who conspire to aid the fallen Occitanians and would actually order Swede to kill Swede. They speak of an invasion of Maroc, of a return to the throne of the d'Andelot in Occitania, they would attempt to turn even members of the Royal Navy against Heyerdahl, one of their own. Such is the nature of the devil we must fight."
Now Margaret placed the heart in the box again and turned to young Prince Torgen, who still stood at her side.
"For God, for Sweden, for our children. Help us stamp out this evil! Help us create a state so devoted to Christ that the very gates of Hell cannot stand before our Catholic army. Join us! And be purged clean: clean of heart, clean of mind, clean of spirit, united with our Christian Knights of Maroc and the Armies of Sweden to sweep Denmark forever more from the face of Europe!"
The lady paused, her voice choked by emotion. In the right wing of the hall, the assembled peerage began to cheer, shouting cries of "Mar-greeee-ta! Mar-greeeee-ta! Mar-greeee-ta!". Imperial Guards, who had silently filed into the back of the hall during the speech, rushed into the seating of the Flat Earthers and seized the shouting men. Down on the floor, Octavia shook off the hands of her bodyguards and vaulted the railing around the speakers pit. Margaret watched her storm up the stairs to the podium with equanamity, her attention focussed on closing the latches to the box. Octavia gave her a black look as she rounded to the rostrum.
"Quiet!" she shouted, her Imperial voice filling the hall and stilling all action.
"My cousin has made a serious accusation, that the house of d'Andelot, with which this realm has long been allied, is tainted by collusion and secret alliance with the Dane. She accuses Us of plotting the death of her husband, the traitor Heyerdahl, and of planning to restore the house of d'Andelot to the Occitanian throne.
"And I say that this is so! I have commanded the fleets of Sweden and our allies, England and Spain, to strike against her husband's stolen kingdom with the express intent of smashing it into ruin. The Holy Father has proclaimed Heyerdahl excommunicate from the Church of Man and so too all those that follow him."
Margaret, at this news, blanched and took two unsteady steps back to the railing. Torgen looked up at his mother in concern. Octavia continued:
"Margaret of Seville accuses Us of making accomodation with the Dane and this, too, is so. We abandoned war against them when we might have pursued it, but this state did so to secure the fortunes of Our Brothers in Occitania and to preserve our own frontiers."
At this, there was an angry burst of shouting from the Imperialist benches. The white-bearded figure of the Duke of Lower Poland was first amongst the Imperialists to shove through the crowd to shout over the heads of the Imperial Guards:
"Aye! We fled like cowards from the gates of Venice when all Germany was in our grasp! We made a peace that gave the Danes everything back! Coward!"
The Imperial Guards dogpiled on the Duke and he was carried off, still struggling. Octavia shook her head at the denseness of some of her subjects. The right wing of the Senate hall continued to shout and fight with the Guards. Finally, after most of the Flat-Earthers had been hauled out of the Senate, things quieted down enough for her to resume:
"We see that reason will not carry the day here. So. This session is called to a close. You, Margaret, you will have dinner with Us in Our chambers at the palace."
The Iroquois guards hustled deSeville away as well and Octavia strode off of the podium with an icy demeanour.
THE UNITED KINGDOMS OF GREAT BRITAIN+2
Oliver Cromwell, King of England, Scotland, Wales and the Out Isles
DIPLOMACY: None
Times of London - King Oliver Moves Against New Cultic Menace!
Parish Priest - English Priests Aid Spanish Relief Efforts.
Woodcut Weekly - Sultry Spanish Maidens, p.2; British Forces Dispensing Food in Spain, p.4; Marôcain Atrocities, p.5.
Cromwell proclaimed his neutrality in the Spanish Crisis, moving quickly to intern both the Occitanian and Marocain ships in Mahair harbor in the New World. The crews were moved into the prison camps recently vacated by captives taken in pirate raids. The new prisoners quickly discovered caches of voodoo and cultic objects that had been hidden from the Protectors by the previous inhanbitants. While most of these objects were immediately handed over to the Protectors (who destroyed them publicly, so there would no doubt as to their fate), rumors persisted that a clique of Maroc officers kept other objects hidden from the English, so they could be studied and, perhaps, used.
Cromwell, thoroughly disgusted with the Cartel, also denounced Swedish sabre-rattling in the New world. "The Cartel is a mercantile organization, not a military expedition," he said. "If the Swedes are keen to lose yet another fleet, they can do it on their own." He threatened to intern the Swedish elements of the Cartel fleet if they gave him the slightest trouble, and insisted that England was at peace in the New World, with no hostilities anywhere, pointing to an armistice with Aztec, pending the completion of peace negotiations.
The Royal Engineers found some diverting work aside from building fleet-traps and siegeworks; a new postal road was built from the newly expanded Birmingham north to Kingston-on-Hull and thence north through Lothian and Strathclyde into the Highlands. Needless to say, the back-breaking labor required was provided by Aztec slaves and captives. Though many Englishmen and women were horrified at the sight of the toiling slaves, all knew that they were not only heretical demon-worshippers, but Aztecs to boot. Aztecs were not popular in England these days.
Lord Brian clamped down very hard in Ireland and uncovered various nests of insurrection and deviltry. These cancers were expunged with fire and iron and the common populace at last seemed to be cowed by the excessive use of force. Back home in England, there was a new round of supressive activity as the Protectors put on a full-court press to deal with "suspected cultic infestations". The army was called out on several occasions, particularly in north Wales and the port of Penzance. That cosmopolitan city was scene of a wide range of arrests and midnight raids and everyone was unsettled as a result.
Things in the Amerikas were also unsettled as Duke William, having interned the Occitanian and Marôcain ships at Mahair, was killed in a barroom brawl. Sir Aubrey Maturin, his replacement, was sometime in arriving, by which time the Swedes had already left to pursue their own agendas in the Old World. Trade was lost with the Tatars, who were having severe battlefield problems. The Mahair Grandee, who had made such an impression in London social circles last year, took his fleet - now laden with relief supplies - to Portugal where he made many friends amongst the locals and distributed goods to the poor.
THE DUCHY OF BURGUNDY+1
Gunter, Duke of Burgundia, Warden of the Rhine Marches
DIPLOMACY: Normandy(t), Brittany / Lorient(t)
In Dijon, members of the artistic community gathered to protest the government's inaction on the 'PA crisis'. "We love, honor, and respect our Duke," said the noted poet Krimigis, "but while he waits, people are dying." In a related development, government spokesmen denied rumors that the late Baron Pieter was a victim of Pernicious Anemia. Duke Gunter did respond, at the dedication of the new Liberal Arts College of the University of Dijon, that the government would take what steps it could to deal with the problem.
THE DANISH EMPIRE+3
Ramanos Leopoldo Paleologai, King of the Greeks, Emperor of the Danes, Protector of Italy, Mjolnir-na-Midgaard, Rex Germanicus, Pendragon of the Isles
DIPLOMACY: None
Romanos was surprised to learn that his attempts to hire the various mercenary bands in France had been forestalled by the deeper pockets of the Spanish and he ordered his accountants to "make sure it does not happen again!" Work continued on the new road between Genoa and Marseilles, though it was still not complete. New settlements were also made in Champagne to secure that abandoned land against reinfestation by flesheaters or other malcontents.
In financial news, the government closed all banks to Aballachi businesses and government inquiries. When this was questioned, the Aballachi merchants in Venice were told that the Ducal government had forfieted on a massive governmental loan and the credit of the Duchy had been destroyed. "But we didn't borrow any money!" they wailed, but to no avail. The Danish garrison at Gebel-al-Tarik watched the slugfest across the strait with great interest and tsk-tsk'd the Coalition for taking such losses.
General Kieseretsky, accompanied by Lord Marshall Stamma, and a very strong force of veterans, made a quick march in early 1672 across the northern Wallachian littorial (Moravia, Bochnia and Galich) before plunging into the dank wilderness of Goryn. There they scattered the provincial boyars and came at last to the rich grainlands surrounding the southern Russ city of Kiev. The Danish stossstruppen advanced quietly through the fields under cover of darkness, marching in long lines in the light of the quiet moon. They came to the city walls near dawn, hearing the call of the watchmen and the distant sounds of mills and foundries gearing up for the day's work. A low, whistled, signal echoed from one end of the line to the other and there was a rattling clank as a hundred grapnels arced into the darkness.
Moments later, two sharp blue-white explosions broke the dawn quiet and Stamma's crack troops poured into the city, faces grim. The prince of the city, Jamis Thurn, was woken by the distant rattle of musketry and immediately groped under his pillow to remove the odd, green glass pistol that lay there. Kicking the heavy woolen covers aside, he chambered one of the black lacquered rounds and strode to the tall narrow windows that fronted the kreml. As he brushed aside the heavy draperies, two dark figures smashed through the parquetted glass panes. Thurn rolled back and snapped off two quick shots. The leftmost of the assassins exploded in a quiet blur of red, his limbs cartwheeling away from his body. The other brought a blowpipe quickly to his lips and a black cloud of dust spit from it. Thurn, coughing, got off another shot that winged through the window and blew the top dome of the Santa Mazkarovka church off - two miles away across the city.
Tartakoner's "Black Angels" entered the palace within the hour, but the assassins were already gone and the green pistol with them. Later, when Stamma and Kiseritsky viewed the body of the upstart prince and the damage done to his rooms, they cursed for a very long time. Tartakoner cautiously sniffed the scattering of black dust on the floor. "Bad news," he muttered to his companions, "it's hashish and lotus dust."
THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN+0
Lucien Cortez, King of Spain and Occitania, Duke of Catalonia
DIPLOMACY: None
Cortez hired a raft of mercenaries, outbidding the Danes of all people, and, with the aid of a Papal emissary, they were loaded onto the Swedish fleet when it made landfall at Corunna. After taking on water and fresh limes, the Swedes sailed south again to crush the rebellious Heyerdahl and his lackeys. Captain Karl Wilken of the Knights of Wonder was struck down in broad daylight in the streets of Lisbon by bold assasins. The noted adventurer, lately returned from Bruges, is said to have gasped, "My God, Abu was right! Warn Jay Hanly!" before he died.
Even as the massive sea fight continued to develop off of the Pillars of Herakles, the Spanish raised a new army at Barcelona and prepared to repel any new Marôcain assaults. Baron Pedreyo dashed north to attempt to forestall any Burgundian moves into the power vaccum in the lower Loire valley. He had some success, keeping the lords of Anjou and Maine from committing to either side, at least.
Meanwhile, in the valley of the Garronne, the Marôcain army in Limousin had packed up its kit bag and marched south again - though this time it was lacking any mercenary contingents, who had taken Spanish gold to go back to Afriqa - into Aquitaine. Once the Spanish determined from their local informants that the Marôcain army numbered only 13,000 men they sent General Pedro Alamaza-Neverro north with their new army of 18,000 men to engage and crush the invaders. By feinting east towards the Narbonne road, the Marôcain did manage to evade battle in Aquitaine, making their way south through the Andorran pass into the upper Catalonian plains. Alamaza, however, did have the advantage of interior lines of communications and managed to make it back into Catalonia about the time that the Marôcain troops reached the outskirts of Barcelona.
Knowing that the Spanish army was not that far away, the Marôc commander, Kurt Veers, ordered the siege-guns unlimbered and an assault made on the city, hoping to take it before Alamaza's army could come up and relieve the city. Within, Cortez himself commanded the defence (which was not so good, since he was no great shakes as a military wizard) and he quickly learned that heavy Swedish-built siege guns can kick an explosive shell quite a long way. Veer's army of excommunicate Templars hit the walls like a hurricane and overwhelmed the Spanish defence with a single day. Well, the result was pretty much as you'd expect - another slaughter of the literati and anyone that even looked like they might have seen the inside of the government office. Cortez fled in a ship provided by the Islander Captain Parros and eventually showed up in Lisbon. Veers now turned in place and rushed his men to the walls to thumb his nose at Alamaza's troops who arrived too late to save the city. From the walls, Veers and the Marôcain laughed at the anguished faces of the Spanish, knowing that once more they had humiliated them.
Alamaza, after considering suicide, occupied the Marôcain siegeworks for his own and began digging his own trenches and breastworks. Within the city, Veers found himself in a considerable fix. He had expected that the Marôcain fleet would be able to sealift his army out of the city after it's capture, but the fleet was nowhere to be seen. As a result, he rested his men for some weeks, repaired gear and then began considering a breakout from the city. When news came that the Swedish, Sud Afriqan and Mixtec fleets had all attacked Marôc proper, he knew that the only way out of the city would be by his men's own efforts.
So, two months after capturing the city, the Marôcain army made an early morning attack against the Occitanian works and let Alamaza have his shot at redemption. This time, though, no fancy-footwork was going to keep the enraged Spanish from getting to grips with the Marôc, or to keep the new Spanish quick-firing field guns from ripping the Marôc's Swedish-style formations into bloody gobbets. Both Veers and Geyton Shah were killed in the brawl amongst the trenches and the Spanish spent two days mopping up the Marôc stragglers in the city and fields around Barcelona. "The Great Raid" had been brought to the grave at last, but not without terrible cost to the Spanish.
THE DUCHY OF THE ISLES+0
Butai al-Raschid, Emir of Archimedea, Duke of Sicily and Sardinia
DIPLOMACY: Estremadura neutral from Spain.
The Islanders watched the war in the west with interest and wandered around the fringes, taking notes and seeing what there was to see. Captain Parros was lucky to escape the double-siege of Barcelona with his hide intact, but he did so.
THE CHURCH SPIRITUAL+0
Clement the IXth, Pater Patrias, Pope of the Roman Church, The Vicar of Christ, The Successor To Peter, The Keeper of the Keys, The Servant of the Servants of God, Patriarch of Azteca
DIPLOMACY: Lucayo(a)
The Church put strong efforts into Poitou and Limousin after the Marôc abandoned those devastated provinces. A fortress was built in the ruins of Galway in Poitou to serve both as a relief center and a safe haven for Church troops hunting for Pale Bone cultists and flesheaters. With the kind assistance of the Spanish and Swedes, sufficent foodstuffs were available to disseminate to the refugees scattered throughout the broken provinces.
Clement, speaking from the docks in Stockholm, issued a writ of excommunication for Thorvald Heyerdahl "and all who follow him". The rebel admiral was declared apostate and comdemned to hell, particularly for the treachery to the offices of the Church. The Church also supported the war effort against the Marôc with gold and men and arms. No expense would be spared in destroying the "viper at our breast".
In StMichaels, the Huron embassy complained bitterly that they too were a Catholic nation under unprovoked attack by another Catholic nation that was in league with the known enemies of the Church in the Amerikas, yet they had received no redress for this crime. The Jesuits were willing to lend them a goodly sum of cash - at a competitive rate.
AFRICA - SOME ACTION AT LAST!
MERCENARY POOL: 10MI, 10MC
MERCENARY AQRS: C10 I16 S14 W14 A7
MERCENARY LEADERS: BENKAIM AL'SISKO (MA7A)
SULTANATE OF MARÔC +1
Thorvald Heyerdahl, King of Morroco, Prince of Fez, Guardian of the Gate of Hercules, ex-Grand Vizier of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem, Apostate
DIPLOMACY: None
Thorvald's fleet returned from the north with news of both the successes in battle in southern Frankland as well as rumors that the realms of Sweden, England and others would soon be bringing battle to the rocky shores of Morrocco. Thorvald had already guessed as much, what with the blizzard of spies, assassins and kidnappers that were swirling around him. Knowing that his enemies would extend no mercy, the admiral regrouped the fleet off of Graasland and gave a moving speech to the assembled sailors. He personally broke the news to them that the Mother Church had turned its back upon them, excommunicating him. He offered the men the choice of leaving the fleet and fleeing to some Christian land where their souls would be saved, or fighting at his side "against the devils that burrow in the flesh of the Church and men". All assembled knew by rumor that the Lady Margaret had already been sent into the heartland of the enemy, to Riga, to plead with the Kalmar Senate to end this divisive inter-Catholic war. Thorvald's words were filled with emotion and not a man present was not moved to hear the depth of his grief and his iron determination.
The men, despite the sly words of many a foreign agent, and the dispersal of more than a little gold, knew the worth of their commander and the depth of their loyalty to him had yet to be plumbed. The acclaimed him to the dark African heavens with a hundred shouted cheers. The fleet put to sea, fully watered and provisioned, within days - just in time for Heyerdahl to avoid a clever Afriqan kidnapping attempt. Now in his element, the admiral racetracked the fleet off of Cape de SanVincente and waited for the first attack.
The Afriqan fleet that had been at Ciguayo in the Carribean, meantime, had made a swift crossing of the Atlantic along the northern route from Vinland to the Azores and then to Lisbon. At the great port, the Afriqan commanders (Gozerio, Huwelhi and Chokwan) had quite an argument about wether to wait for the Swedish fleet, which had been slow in leaving Mahair on Arawak and had still not cought up with the speedier Afriqan ships. Indeed, though the Afriqans would find out until later, the Swedes had been waiting for the English who wound up not coming at all, and still had to load mercenaries and Spanish troops at Corunna. Knowing that the timetable called for the Afriqans to cover the landing of Mixtec marines in Morroco, Gozerio ordered the fleet south. "I expect that the Marôc will be divided and turned against themselves by the time we arrive", he told the others.
Heyerdahl's fleet attacked the Afriqans as they rounded SanVincente (off the coast of Andalusia), pitting 600 warships against the 500-odd Afriqans. Much to everyone's surprise the Afriqans handily smashed the Marôc fleet, proving their skills at sea-warfare and the worth of their ships as well. Heyerdahl fled the destruction of his beloved fleet with a dark heart, escaping back to StGeorge-the-Defender in bleak depression. Doom was upon him.
The Afriqans had suffered, however at SanVincente, and they put ashore only 7,000 men in Morroco to secure a beachhead for the Mixtecs that were coming. When the Mixtec contingent had landed, late in 1673, there were a total of 12,000 battle-ready troops - barely enough to keep the Marôcain bottled up in StGeorge. So they waited for the Swedes and English to arrive.
This long-awaited event transpired in January of 1674 when the large Swedish fleet landed at the Afriqan beachhead with a veritable flotilla of commanders, representatives, envoys and troops. Now with a combined army of 29,000 Swedish, Mixtec, Afriqan and Spanish troops (supplemented by another 21,000 Danish, Burgundian and Russian mercenaries) the combined command of twelve generals, admirals and nobles of various stripes and colors decided to begin active siegeworks against the city. To this end, they broke camp in the Afriqan beachhead and poured north along the roads to the gates of StGeorge. This was at the end of February. The sun, at least, was not white hot.
Once more Heyerdahl was waiting, his scouts in the hills having kept a very close eye on the 'Coalition' forces. As the van of the Coalition army entered the crossroads town of Bouznika, the Marôc troops in the town opened fire from prepared positions. The lead Swedish cavalry elements were shredded and the Coalition army shook out into battle array. During the confusion of column-to-line deployment, however, few in the Coalition army noted the bright green flares lofted by the Marôc, or the fact that the mercenary contingents had swung left off of the road to occupy the left (anchoring) flank of the army. The Mixtec troops under the Howler regrouped first and launched a flanking attack on the town, supported by the Swedish artillery. As soon as the Mixtec attack had been fully committed, the mercenaries under Noyono and Borkou turned their flags to show the battle-banner of the Templars and attacked the now exposed center of the Coalition army.
Things turned ugly very quickly as the right flank of the Coalition advance was cut by a deep wadi. Luckily for the combined army, Hasurradon of the Mixtecs seized command in the moment and the Swedish corps was able to turn in place and make ranks before the mercenaries finished chewing their way through the shattered Afriqans. The crushing fight continued through the day and into the next as the Coalition force attempted to extricate itself and regroup. During the night, Heyerdahl's force continued to pressure them, however, and the losses to both sides began to mount rapidly. The second day continued in the same vein, though Howler's BloodWorm Legion veterans managed to clear most of the town and Noyono was killed in fighting around the Yellow Mosque.
On the third day, the Coalition troops managed to break through and scatter the Marôc forces. Heyerdahl withdrew behind a screen of berber cavalry to StGeorge. Behind him, the Coalition stumbled around in a daze, about a third of its troops still able to fight. Of these, the vast majority were Swedish veterans, for they had kept the best order through the two hellish days. The Afriqans had been destroyed on the first day and the Mixtecs on the second. The Marôcain capital was then invested, though the Coalition army was now so weak that a full siege could not be maintained and Heyerdahl continued to get couriers and cavalry patrols into and out of the city.
The Coalition settled in for a long siege. The Swedish fleet took up blockade duty offshore. Hasurradon and the Howler closeted themselves in their tents, taking visitors of dubious manner at all hours of the day and night. Long, blisteringly hot days passed. Desultory siegeworks were undertaken by the Swedish siege engineers, but in the unaccustomed heat, many were stricken down by sunstroke.
After four months of disease, heat and pricking raids by the Marôc berber cavalry, the Coalition at last stirred into life. Real work began on the siege lines and many sailors were brought in from the fleet to aid in the construction and labor. After six weeks of toil, a rampart was raised around more than half of the city. The fleet began to shell the city on a daily basis, starting scattered fires and causing a lot of collateral damage. Heyerdahl began to worry about the rampart being completed. In the Coalition siege-lines, The Howler smiled in anticipation as the Marôc began to shore up the gate defences.
It was all a ruse. On a very hot night in September, two Marôc officers in the pay of the Mixtecs opened a side-gate on the Sidi Allal bastion and 2,000 Swedish Imperial Foot Guards poured into the city. Within an hour, the city was ablaze and there was hand-to-hand fighting in all quarters, three gates having fallen to the Coalition troops. It took three days of house-to-house fighting before the city was declared secured by the Coalition. Heyerdahl, however, had escaped, though the Khan of the Borkou had taken a hit on the head and been captured. The Coalition was exhausted and was very happy to simply garrison the city and go into winter quarters for 1674.
Merrakesh, however, still remained in Marôcain hands.
THE CHRISTIAN EMIRATE OF LYBIA+1
Hasan Senussi, Get of Satan, Scourge of the Catholics, Emir of Lybia
DIPLOMACY: Aswan(ea)
The Emir, taking a break from keeping an eye on all of the commotion in Morroco, was enraged to learn that several of his cousins had been secretly attending Catholic rites and taking money from the glib-tongued Papists. Their executions were quite grisly and Hasan was not pleased to learn the extent of Papal meddling in Lybia's affairs. Aswan became Hussite, though the city of Dungunab remains Moslem.
Aside from all of the other excitement, Hasan was stunned to learn one morning that his son, Butil, had dissapeared from his rooms in the seaward side of the palace and that a crude, but unmistakable, note had been found on his pillow. Later, viewing the rooms, and the slick sheen of blood that remained from the guards assigned to the young Prince, the Emir was shaken by the casual violence displayed by the kidnappers. "No one heard anything?" he demanded of his Guard Captain incredulously, surveying the litter of bodies, smashed glass and broken furniture. The Berber Captain, prostrate before his emir, could only shake his head mutely, his tears of despair falling in silver rain. The Emir's hand shook as he read the note again.
THE MALI AX EMPIRE+3
Lloigoitor "The Executioner" Three Smoking Mountain, ne-Axamaloa na-Tochul, King of the Mixtecs, Lord of the Niger, Captain of the Firestorm Banner, True Emperor of the Aztecs, Emperor of Mali, DarkLord of Africa
DIPLOMACY: No Effect
Lloigoitor continued to upgrade his army in Mixe, while sending a relatively small force from the BloodWorm legion off to Morroco under the command of the Howler. The Mixtecs did good work there, though Hassuraddon (the actual infantry commander) died of wounds taken in the fall of StGeorge-the-defender. The local priests in Gambia were glad to welcome the presence of a group of Carmelites that built a new abbey near the port of Brehmen.
THE REPUBLIC OF WEST AFRIQA+0
Basard, President of the Senate
DIPLOMACY: Marampa(a)
The West Afriqans control Susu, Boure, Bomi, Niete, Gagnoa, Akan and Togo. The fleet at Morroco is also under their control. And, once they heard about the formation of the new Republic, the Patashans joined too. Ciguayo and the city of Kasar on it also got dragged along by default.
THE FREE REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA+1
Fukun the Great, President-For-Life of Ethiopia
DIPLOMACY: Walaga(ea), Laliabela(f)
The Ethiopians were very glad that the Sud Afriqans operated a grain market in Tuamorotu on Socotra and they could buy thirty or fourty shiploads of the stuff to offset the very dry years that were afflicting the upper Nile valley. Prince Pakash continued his campaign against the Moslem states with an attack on Kordofan. The Axumites, meanwhile, returned to the Coptic fold. Pakash' campaign in 1673 against the Kordofani was successful, as was a followup effort in 1674 against the Axumites. Both provinces were also returned to the Coptic faith (regardless of how they felt about it).
THE MAASAI KINGDOM+0
Luxun Kaii, King of the Maasai, Prince of Madagascar, Emperor of Ethiopia
DIPLOMACY: No Effect
The Masai spent a lot of effort repairing the last of the damage that the province of Djibuti had suffered in the war against the Ethiopians so many years ago. The Gofan tribes, who had been quite rebellious of late and had not paid their taxes, were swatted with a 27,000 man stick by General Kodorsis Gyen and order was restored in the mines and throughout the province.
EMPIRE OF AFRIQA+0
Ikogen the First, Emperor of the Bantu, Lord of Zimbabwe
DIPLOMACY: Lui(nt), Gagnoa(f)
The cities of Tuamorotu, Iesuwayo, Ngunoyo, Umtata, Port Azure, Arungtane and DeLa Roche were all expanded a level. The Republic Corps of Engineers also began work on an Imperial Highway connecting Ngunoyo in Nguni and Umtata in Transkei, which caused the city fathers of Doara in Tswana to complain, because the road that was being built into their province from Matabele still was not complete. "Just another example of the corruption inherent in the system", grumbled Mayor Uwe. Hova Merina on Madagascar became Catholic.
Senator Ruogo was sent to certain death on the shores of Hova Merina on a diplomatic mission. The natives roasted him and ate him with a peanut sauce. The efforts in Gagnoa met with much better success.
The Afriqan accountants wept to read the lists of ships lost in the Bay of Bengal, Nicobar Sea and other far off ports. Blood was spilling rapdily from the arteries of the Republic. Much more real blood was spilt off of Morroco and in the various battles and sieges there against the heretical Marôcain. The Prince of Doara was killed there, along with General Gozerio, and Doaran administration was undertaken by the Republic.
The venerated President of the Republic, Kwayl, died in the early winter of 1674 of plain old age. His hand-picked successor, Ikogen, ascended the speaker's chair of the republic with a fairly firm step, but soon faltered when confronted with the labyrinthine maze of Afriqan politics and trade negotiations. He got off to a good start by insulting the Chokwan delegation and those noble warriors cursed him and abandoned the republic. The Foreign Ministry scurried to undo the damage, but Ikogen followed up by equally fouling relations with the Matadi and the Marampans. They too left, turned hostile by Ikogen's increasingly strident Bantu nationalism and religious hatred.
Great Zimbabwe, normally a pleasant and active city, began to close up early at night and Ikogen - increasingly confronted by a hostile or obstructionist bureaucracy - began to undertake sporadic purges of those ministry officials who opposed his will. Though foreign policy was well set, the day to day affairs of state began to fray under the struggle for power between the Senate chair and the entrenched bureaucracy.
Then the pay for the garrison of Patasho "was lost at sea" and not replaced and Baron Wupitsu and General Lumis (commanding that garrison) were forced to declare a Ducal state on the Amerikan coast. When news of this at last filtered back to Great Zimbabwe, there was a tremendous uproar in the Senate and many Senators (backed by the ministers) called for Ikogen's resignation. The President responded by ordering his personal guards to open fire on the "rebellious" Senators and a bloodbath ensued. Fighting broke out in the capital then as Ikogen's household troops and mobs of the underclass stormed the villas and townhouses of the upper classes and the bureaucrats. Within days much of the city was aflame and long-standing racial tensions between the Zulu elites and the Bantu had spread into factional conflict on a massive scale.
As there were no regular army units in the heartland (all the regular troops were off getting killed in Morroco) Ikogen was forced to restore order in the capital by allying with the Bantu chiefs in the area and, essentially, forming a new army from their followers. There was a horrible slaughter of Zulus in Great Zimbabwe and Ikogen capped his new transfer of power by declaring himself Emperor of the Afriqan Empire. This did not sit well with many throughout the old Republic, in particular in those areas that had been relying upon the religious and ethnic toleration practiced by the Senate.
Thus, the provinces of Susu, Boure, Bomi, Niete, Gagnoa, Akan and Togo - under the rule of Lord Basard - formed the Republic of West Afriqa to contest the evil rule of Ikogen. They were joined, in principal at least, by Admiral Pobo in Morroco.
But Ikogen's problems were really only just beginning. His personal vendetta against the Zulus had already led to the murder or flight of the Zulu ministers and bureaucrats, and while these did not comprise all of the government by any means, they did comprise a goodly portion and, moreover, they had a power base of their own, in the south, in their traditional homelands. And now, rallied by those who had escaped from Great Zimbabwe during the nights of fire, they formed their own state to defend themselves against what they feared was a war of extermination by the Bantu.
After these first shockwaves had torn through the (new) Empire Ikogen found himself in control of a broad swathe of the northern portion of the old Republic, from Mbundu and the crucial port of Iesuwayo angling south-east to Karanga and its, also critical, port of Iusalem. Further, and perhaps most importantly, the overseas trade empire remained (nominally) in his hands…
ZULU NATAL+0
Ctsuwayo, King of the Zulus and Kaffiria
DIPLOMACY: None
The Zulu rising encompassed the provinces of Tswana, Vaal, Mapungubwe, Phalaborwa, Transkei, Swazi, Sotho, Khosia, Namaqua, Lesthoso, Nguni, Xhosa and Cape.
THE NEW WORLD - WHAT NOW?
MERCENARY POOL: 70I, 60C, 20W, 50A
MERCENARY AQRS: C11 I15 W16 S14 A10
MERCENARY LEADERS: LORD GUMRA (M887)
The Great Northern War (AD 1669-1674)
Tatar and Huron
vs.
Tokugawa, Azuchi, Hideyoshi, Shawnee, Aztec
THE TATAR KINGDOM OF GO-KUR-MATAHN+0
Baqi Jukunii, KhaKhan of the Tatar Hordes, King of the Aelutes
DIPLOMACY: None
The Pure Realm priests, with their work shadowed by the war raging in the southlands, converted the terrified populations of Chandalar, Eagle Han and Ahtena to Buddhist. A Pure Realm emissary also arrived to speak to the court of Baqi, but the war and general panic prevented him from gaining audience with the KhaKhan.
The KhaKhan in turn was scrambling to muster every last man, boy and child that could be put under arms to fight the advancing Nisei armies. The trade fleets were gutted, the warfleet idled, press-gangs stripped the cities and farms, all to throw together one more army to contest the passage of the Nisei up from the south. Noyan Ojilitau was once more placed in command, though his track record was not the greatest…
Following another, more spectacular, failure by Ojilitau, the Tatars lost control of the provinces of Eppinette, Tiagnami, Albany, Abitibi and Eastern Cree.
THE AZUCHI NISEI SHOGUNATE+0
Azuchi Kuma, Shogun of the Azuchi, Lord of the North, Protector of the Emperor of All Japan
DIPLOMACY: None
The Nisei army, now grown to enormous size, rearranged itself outside of Zhai and then, leaving some Tokugawa troops to watch the rear areas, swarmed over the mountains into Kaska. That land they found to be still inhabited by the Tatars, though the locals did not put up much of a fight. A strong garrison was left to discourage any partisan activity and the armies of the Emperor advanced into Tutchone. Here, like Gumra's mercenaries before them, they found the city of Hûkar standing athwart the main highway north. As before it was defended, though the Tatars had apparently decided not to commit their army to the exposed city.
The Hideyoshi general, Kumo Gartaren, who held overall command of the Nisei host, considered the situation. Here was a strong city, held by some four or five thousand Tatars, squarely in the path of his army of 127,000. Once it had fallen, the way would be clear for Nisei cavalry to explode into the north and west, sweeping over the hapless Tatar lands like the tsunami of old. The Azuchi and Tokugawa commanders held counsel with him and recommended a massive barrage, followed by a simultanious assault on all walls and gates. Given the massive edge in numbers and guns, the city would crack like an egg and be crushed. Kumo, uncharacteristically, was quite cautious and refused to consider the plan. The Azuchi and Tokugawa commanders were outraged and declared that they would command the assault.
Kumo, his slate-colored eyes narrow, spoke: "By agreement of all the Shogun, I am in command. I carry the banner of the Emperor, I bear the three cherry blossom mon that signifies the strength of our alliance. A strength of unity of purpose and of mind." He stepped around the map-table, his short squat bulk seeming to fill the tent. The Azuchi and Tokugawa commanders stepped back, involuntarily, from the force of spirit encased in a man's flesh. "I say we do not attack. I say we wait, and we watch."
The next morning the Nisei regiments spread out in the fields and forests around the city and began to dig in. Many draken were sent aloft at the command of Kumo, and angled in paths over the city. Kumo's personal Sioux scouts were sent out to comb the valleys and draws around the city. So too did the general send for the chief of the eta that travelled with the army, dealing with the collection of nightsoil and bodies. Later, the Tokugawa commanders marvelled in disgust at the sight of the Hideyoshi general crouched with a gnarled old eta at the side of the Bohei that wound its way through the river-gates of Hûkar.
A week passed, and the Nisei army labored at an extensive series of siegeworks that crowded all around the city. Mines and adits and breastworks in abundance were planned. Crews of men scoured the forests to cut thousands of trees for rams, ladders and siege-screens. After two weeks of this, the Azuchi and Tokugawa commanders requested audience with Kumo in his tents. On an evening, as the misquitoes were kept at bay by smoking tapers, they sat with him and took tea.
"Lord Kumo," said the Tokugawa commander, "Goldeneye" Jii Daigo, "we respect your authority and wisdom in matters of war, but we must confess that we are greatly puzzled by the extensive works that you have seen fit to start around this city. We outnumber our enemy by many times, and are spending our advantages in mobility and power by sitting here, motionless in the land of the enemy. With respect, lord, what do you intend?"
"Yes," said Kumo, "they are extensive works."
Silence ensued for a moment, and then General Jui, the Azuchi commander, spoke: "We must then beg for enlightenment, lord, for we do not see the reason for these preparations."
Kumo pursed his lips and raised a finger, as if to speak. Then he shook his head and put his hands in his lap instead. Nodding to himself, he spoke: "I consider the prospect of guiding you through the logic of the matter, but I see, since you have not seen it for yourself, that it would be best if I spoke plainly and to the point." He paused again, and sipped some of the fine black tea that had been placed before him.
"The works around this city are extensive because the entire Tatar army is inside, pretending to be ghosts, waiting for us to - foolishly - assail the walls and the … seen … four thousand defenders." There was another moment of silence, and then the Tokugawa commander, muttering, asked: "How many Tatars are inside the city?"
"Oh, about fifty thousand men."
That silence lasted quite a bit longer.
THE TOKUGAWA NISEI SHOGUNATE+0
Tokugawa Ietsuna, Shogun of the Tokugawa, Lord of the Middle Lands, Protector of the Emperor of All Japan
DIPLOMACY: None
The siege of Hûkar was long sung of, later, in the northlands. Neither side was interested in anything other than the destruction of the other. There was little honor in the cruel fighting, but bravery aplenty. The battle of wits between Kumo and Ojilitau became legendary and the strategems and ploys were numberless in the eight months that Kumo commanded the Nisei host besieging Hûkar the Bloody. But near the end of November, as winter closed down hard upon both armies, Kumo fell through the early ice on the Bohei river during a skermish with Tatar cavalry and was taken with a horrible caughing and fever. He died, fighting to maintain command, three weeks later. By then, the Nisei host was so badly mauled by disease, cold, and the incessant endless bleeding of siegework against a strong and determined enemy, that they were forced to abandon the siege and withdraw south into Kaska to winter quarters.
When spring came in 1674 and the Nisei commanders took stock of their thin and ill-fed troops, they found that there were 45,000 men who could march and fight. Winter and Bloody Hûkar had claimed over 80,000 men. The realization of the blow was crushing. Only the sight of the three-blossom banner gave the men heart enough to march north again once the snows had melted, back into the death-ground of Tutchone. Now Ojilitau was waiting. Though his army too had suffered, losing more than half of its strength, he had to drive the Nisei out of Tatar lands, and more importantly, off of the postal road to the east. He attacked the Nisei from ambush as they marched under the shadow of Mount Onögut along the road to the north.
The Tatar plan was audacious and a great gamble, and it failed. The Nisei army smashed their attack and scattered the survivors. Now unopposed again, they returned to the bone-littered fields around Hûkar for a second round. This time, the Nisei were content to seal off the city and starve the defenders out. With their latest army broken, the Tatars could not prevent them. Hûkar fell at the end of 1674, as winter once more closed upon the land. Both Tutchone and Kaska, by the way, became Shinto in the course of all this dreadful excitement.
THE HIDEYOSHI NISEI SHOGUNATE+3
Shizo no-Ichi, Regent for the Hideyoshi Clan…
Hideyoshi Kejin, Shogun of the Hideyoshi, Prince of the Plains, Destroyer of the Iroquois
DIPLOMACY: Pawnee(a - again)
The Hideyoshi wept to see their finest young men die in the snows of Tataria, and all grieved to learn of the death of the brave Kumo. Few indeed of the men they had sent into battle would return.
THE KINGDOM OF NOQUET+0
Tugukun, King of the Noquet, Lord of the North
DIPLOMACY: None
Tukugun, seeing the various opportunities inherent in the war raging around his small nation, sent Black Mountain and the army north through the forests of Chippewa to attack and conquer the Tatar lands beyond. In two separate campaigns, Black Mountain conquered and converted both the provinces of Ogoki and Nameliuni.
The notorious mercenary, Paleface Blacksword, lately returned from service in the armies of Tugukun at the seige of Nipigon, dispatched an unknown assailant in the streets of Pasar. This assailant, who represented himself as a baliff of the Christian High Kingdom of Colorado sent to arrest Captain Blacksword on 'charges associated with the destruction of a village', was found to possess a purple dagger, a wallet containing vials of poison, and a strange purple icon. Coloradan representatives in Pasar denied any knowlege of the victim and local authorities ordered the dagger, wallet, vials, and icon destroyed. Captain Blacksword was unavailable for comment.
THE CHRISTIAN HIGH KINGDOM OF COLORADO+2
Morgan FitzHugh, King of the Ute, High King of Colorado
DIPLOMACY: None
Done with their part in the Great Northern War, the Colorado returned home to their wives and children, happy to be safe and warm in the south, rather than freezing their hineys off in Tataria. Brrr....
THE SHAWNEE EMPIRE+1
Travois, King of the Shawnee, Emperor of the Iroquois
DIPLOMACY:
Travois was quite disenheartened to learn from his agents that the Huron had acquired the services of the mercenary condottas available in the eastern Amerikas. Regardless, however, he pressed the attack into the north. General Kane, reinforced by Lord Hector and more levies from the south, was preparing to avance into Wyandot when his scouts brought word that the Huron was moving south into Tobacco. The army moved north in turn, deploying for battle.
The 30,000 Huron mercenaries proceeded to whip the 18,000 Shawnee regulars pretty severely and Kane made haste to extract his surviving troops back south into Saginaw. The mercenaries then swept down upon the defenceless city of Pasar to take their "due" in loot. Dark Sun Arrow was outraged to learn of the mercenary plans and ordered them to leave the city alone. They laughed and set upon him. Binding his arms and legs with cords, they strapped him to a tree on a hill overlooking the city. He had a fine view of the slaughter and rapine that then ensued, and was a broken man when some peasants released him three days later.
The mercenaries, their appetites whetted by the rape of Pasar, continued to move south, but found the crossing into Saginaw held by Kane's troops. After some desultory efforts to force a crossing, they abandoned the effort to move south and went east instead, crossing the Erie canal into Cayuga. Here too Kane was able to move his cavalry to face them, but the mercenaries had already crossed over the Canal. Several skermishes drove off Kane and his lancers and the mercenaries advanced into Iroquois. There they found and destroyed the small city of Oswego. Dogged now both by Kane's troops and more Shawnee that had come down from a raid of their own into Algonkin, they hastened south into Mohawk, seeking to take the city of Yavra and ship for warmer and more welcoming climes. Faced with the prospect of losing the large, populous and undefended Yavra to the marauders, Kane was forced to pay them a large ransom to succor the city. Thier pockets laden with a great deal of gold, the condotierri departed Yavra peacefully, a song in theirhearts for the easy life of a mercenary!
Peculiar events continued in Gronland, where the Chapultipec city jail was destroyed in a great fire that took out most of the downtown area of the city. The fire, which started relatively small, was not able to be controlled when it was discovered that the water mains servicing the central part of the city were choked with, as Fire Marshall Ulixix stated, "about a million frogs". A liberal expenditure of napathene and tar, however, did clear out the amphibians though the harbor was clogged in turn by their bodies for several weeks. In a side note, all of the prisoners in the jail were killed in the fire. Later it was determined that Aztec Imperial agents had been nosing around before the "accident".
THE HURON CONFEDERATION+1
Slaydeer Redhair, Chief of the Hurons, Warden of the North
DIPLOMACY: None
Slaydeer, seeing that ruin was fast approaching, moved his lodge to Northbay in Huron and set about devoting his energies, not to raiding and slaughter, but to firm administration of what lands remained to him. His warrior champion, Dark Sun Arrow, in turn raised a strong army of mercenaries with Papal gold and prepared to counter-attack south and drive the Shawnee from Huron lands. Slaydeer's move to the north contributed to him narrowly avoiding a Shawnee assassin attack, though he was wounded in the fray that resulted.
Bull Worshippers struck were reported to have struck the village of Otonone. The misshapen savages, screaming their terrible cry, "Blood and souls for our Lord Auroch!" struck at dawn, slew all who could not flee, then plundered and burned the village church before vanishing into the north. Authorities are at a loss to find motives for the attack since the village contained nothing of value and the church has stood empty since 1654, when it was used briefly as a refuge by the Iroquois Emperor's Consort Vihelle after the fall of Adena.
THE AZTEC EMPIRE OF MEXICO+1
Horukel Tlakotani, Emperor of Mexico, Warrior of Christ, Protector of the Faith, Smiter of Infidel, Conqueror of the Incans, Rex Britannicus, Grandan's Worst Nightmare
DIPLOMACY: None
The Aztec fleet continued to prowl the Tatar coast, seeking both Tatar warships and merchantmen for its prey. Neither appeared in great numbers and when scattered merchant ships were encountered they got the "Tina" treatment. The Swedish merchantman, Pride of Lubeck, disappeared after leaving Mahair. It is feared she fell victim to the Tyrian Pirates who have recently begun to prey along the coast of Mexico.
TEUTONIC KINGDOM OF NEW GRANADA+0
Antonio Masa Sfortza, Grand-Master of the Knights of Saint John, Emperor of Caquetio, Fist of Christ, King of New Granada
DIPLOMACY: Cari(f), Shokleng(f), Cyranoville(f), Tupinamba(f)
The Granadans, while following along in the Sud Afriqan plan for peace in the region, continued both to rebuild their army and to press their substantial diplomatic advantage along the Cabo Frio coast with great success. The regions of Jivaro and Choque in the far north-west were abandoned as being unprofitable. In Caquetio a local merchant named Juliano Berneli was arrested on charges of dealing with Tyrean Pirates. According to the constabulary, several articles from the missing English ship Pretty Maid of Pevensea, including Captain Boswell's wooden leg, were found in his shop. The leg was claimed by relatives of the late captain.
THE TRUE INCAN EMPIRE+0
Lauron, Sun-Emperor of the Inca, Blessed of the Sun, Lord of the Tihuasiyo, Protector of the Fisher-Folk, Chaplain of the Order of Christ
DIPLOMACY: None
The True Incans minded their own business.
THE NEW FRENCH EMPIRE+0
Gorlos of Saone, Emperor of France, Prince of Varres, Lord of the South
DIPLOMACY: New France(a), Atuel(t), Montpelier(t)
Supplied with Afriqan gold, Gorlos managed to keep afloat, paying off the last of his creditors and keeping the troops fed and housed. The fleet that had been helping the Nisei lords in their war against the Tatars returned home at last, and was given a luke-warm welcome in Chamonix. Many armsmen loyal to Gorlos were on hand to make sure that the returning men swore loyalty to the new Emperor and forgot the old one. Other efforts were undertaken to convince the lords in the south to swear to Gorlos as well.
BANKS AND AVAILABLE FUNDS
Nation Name Bank Name $ Rate
Nippon-Austral Gokunen Bank of 783 35%
Empire Dajarra
The Persian Bukhara National 1695 36%
Empire Trust
Aztec Empire of Tenochtitlan 1363 40%
Mexico Teocali
Azuchi Nisei New Yedo Torimo 282 40%
Shogunate Bank
Duchy of Banque du Lyons 43 40%
Burgundy
The Danish Banco di 515 40%
Empire Commerzi
Kingdoms of Royal Bank of 455 38%
Britain London
Khaganate of Astrakhan Money 189 40%
Khirgizia Hut
Coptic Maasai M'Beya House of 912 35%
Credit
Tokugawa Nisei Matsuma Bank 322 40%
Azorean Papacy Banco Centrale 225 40%
di'Azorea
Empire of Afriqan Central 804 20%
Afriqa Reserve
Swedish Russia BUX 1192 45%
Duchy of the First Merchant 238 40%
Three Isles of Valetia
Timor Seahold Golan House of 316 40%
Coins
The article in the Renaissance Supplement by Dogbert has generated a great deal of excitement in some quarters, particularly amongst those persons mentioned by name. So, here is yet another rebuttal by an aggreived party - the King of England, Ollie Cromwell.
BAD DOGBERT!
by Oliver Cromwell, Lords I
Dogbert's article was absolutely breathtaking. It laid out the quickest, straightest course to destruction in Lords. Follow his advice, and you will find yourself without an empire in no time.
While the world is full of bad advice (and, indeed, it's not hard to imagine someone intentionally writing bad advice to make new players easier to destroy), the impressive thing about Dogbert's writings is that they so closely follow the logic of the very worst Lords players. Most of these are eliminated from the game in very short order (I have eliminated my share), but some have mastered just enough of the realities of Lords play to survive for a long time, though generally without amounting to much.
In short, Dogbert proposes to make you the Saddam Hussein of Lords: a vicious snake with no grasp of economics, diplomacy, or warfare.
Unfortunately, Lords already has quite a few "Stormin' Normans," who will kick your butt back to Baghdad unless you've laid your plans very, very carefully.
Let us examine a few of Dogbert's errors:
BEING AN ASSHOLE
To a very large extent, "asshole" and "moron" are synonymous. In Lords, the assholes enjoy the sight of blood-soaked ground so much that they sometimes don't realize that most of it is theirs.
In any event, existing Lords campaigns are, to a large extent, populated by existing players. New players generally get the broken-off pieces of empires, possibly consisting of only a single region. These empires are weak and easily destroyed. Established players are ruthless about destroying them. How does an asshole survive such a predicament? Basically, he doesn't.
When you enter a game as a new player, the existing players will put you in one of four categories:
It is vitally important for new players (and, indeed, most established players) to fall into the last category, as far as most of their neighbors are concerned. If the country you are dealt is very small, you might have to spend some time in category 3. If you are in category 2, you can pray that no one notices you, or ally yourself with a Power, thus entering category 3.
Dogbert understands none of this: he assumes that, somehow, you will acquire a strong enough empire that you can prance and pose in your asshole suit, impressing all and sundry with your lordly might, and yet somehow withstand the attack that will follow.
On the other hand, if you seem to be basically rational, and your goals do not seem to lead to instant conflict, the other players will often demote you to the status of, "We'll really have to take him out some day."
This state of affairs can last indefinitely. So long as you are neither the most threatening target nor the easiest target, you can survive. If played skilfully, this stage can last until you are powerful enough that you are not threatened by your immediate neighbors.
ECONOMICS
The vast bulk of England's income is generated by public works and international trade; two things that Dogbert scorns. A sizable fraction of England's NFP are generated by city points; something Dogbert disdains. In fact, Dogbert understands neither money nor power. In Lords, rich empires routinely trash poor empires, because money is an essential ingredient in war. But more about this in the WARFARE section.
In general, the successful, long-lived powers in Lords I are all fiends for economic expansion. The countries that do not go in for this sort of thing are at best stagnant, and are generally short-lived.
INTEL
Dogbert shows his lack of imagination in disdaining Intel. Intel, along with sound strategy, is responsible for England's continued existence. England was invaded twice by huge armadas: once by the Aztecs, and once by the Occitanians. In each case, the invading fleet was trapped and destroyed by well-placed but vastly inferior forces.
Such a performance requires proper use of Intel, in addition to a thorough understanding of the rules, and of the limitations and capabilities of the various unit types.
WARFARE
Dogbert claims to believe in "total war," which presumably means that he attacks his enemies until HE is totally destroyed. He even goes so far as to suggest that everything of value to the enemy be destroyed, contradicting his advice that you steal things of value from them.
This advice was followed by the "Free Companies" in Lords I, who were quickly exterminated by an alliance of established players. The Free Companies burned every city they took, and reduced themselves to starvation and cannibalism, leaving themselves seriously weakened by the time the healthy, well-equipped, well-heeled armies of the European Powers arrived to kill the remnants.
Dogbert refers to Occitania as an interesting example. It is, because Occitania's failure was due entirely to following Dogbert-like strategy. Dogbert says:
"Colin Dunnigan's experience in Occitania is instructive, over the course of a century he took the little Duchy from the backwater of European politics and turned it into a major European Power... then he fucked it up by invading England. But that's what you get when you attempt to court the bitch of goddess Fortune. Ah well."
Under Dunnigan, Occitania was handled precisely as Dogbert suggested: Dunnigan has a mad-dog reputation, he never invests in anything but armies, he has a disdain for Intel, and has an apocalyptic approach to warfare.
Given Dunnigan's policies, Occitania remained a prime example of economic decreptitude: the only third-world country in Europe. With an unusually small NFP production for the size of the country, and a pathetically small income, the only strategy remaining was to sit very still and do nothing while accumulating an immense army.
This strategy leaves an empire vulnerable even when successful, since an army thus obtained cannot be replaced. Once a major battle is lost, the empire becomes inconsequential - meat for the taking.
On the other hand, an economically strong empire generates large quantities of gold and NFP every turn, allowing replacement armies to be built. This allows for a certain amount of disaster tolerance.
Dunnigan's policies exacerbated this. Spain, which made the greater part of Occitania, is "geographically challenged." Armies are difficult to move around in Spain, making Spain difficult to defend. Of course, no roads were built to make Spain defensible; proper Mad Dogberts are all offense and no defense.
With no allies and a long border on the much richer and better-played Danish Empire (with an extensive road network even over flat terrain), Dunnigan languished for a number of turns.
Finally, after the Aztecs attempted to invade England, and had their immense fleet and army simultaneously obliterated for their trouble, Dunnigan saw an example worth emulating. Putting together a fleet of warships, he loaded his army on them and sent them to England.
He neglected to sweep the much smaller English fleet from the seas, and the English harried him sufficiently to cause delays, allowing the entire English army to be in position to contest his landing.
Contested landings are expensive in Lords, and the Occitanians bled and bled…
This was extremely bad generalship, and shows a disdain for tactics that is almost Dogbertian. In the end, his army gone, Colin Dunnigan quit Lords I, and a new player took over the remnants of his empire.
And that, my friends, is what Dogbert's advice will do to you.
OLIVER CROMWELL
ISI RANKINGS FOR TURN 173: 1673-1674 ANNO DOMINI
Rank Nation Name MSI ESI Player Name Phone TR Email address and Notes
1 The Persian Empire 681.2 2 John Thomson 01-317-388-0586 47.3 71161,3417 on CompuServe
2 Republic of Japan 535.8 3 Forrest Johnson 01-503-342-2834 63.3 71061,773 on CompuServe
3 Swedish Empire of Russia 527.0 1 Chris Cornuelle 01-612-379-1567 67.2 bob@gumby.spa.umn.edu on Internet
4 The Danish Empire 501.9 4 Richard Ketcham 01-512-343-6017 47.9 richk@maestro.geo.utexas.edu on InterNet
5 Divine Kingdom of Judah 462.2 6 Robert Kurtz 01-503-635-4550 57.5 73541,2443 on Compuserve
6 Aztec Empire of Mexico 323.3 11 Menachem Turchick 01-602-882-3790 30.0 mturchick@pima.gov on Internet
7 Mali Ax Empire 312.6 9 Thad Plate 01-602-952-8929 42.3 thadplate@aol.com on Internet
8 United Kingdoms of Britain 260.0 14 Oliver Cromwell None 22.3 cromwell@weitek.com on InterNet
9 Sultanate of Syria 257.7 25 (Wilson Hsieh) 01-617-864-9319 11.2 wchsieh@lcs.mit.edu on InterNet
10 Coptic Kingdom of Maasai 249.5 8 (Gary Riviere) 01-714-589-9884 26.5
11 Nippon-Austral Empire 247.6 7 (Kelly Parks) 016023218241 23.9 On the road again...
12 Christian Emirate of Lybia 220.3 13 Ellen Bennett 01-602-747-8627 18.2 ebennett@west.cscwc.pima.edu on Internet
13 Ming Empire of China 206.5 10 Rusty Wallace 01-713-359-7782 34.0
14 Tatar Khanate of Alaska 203.5 18 Tom Towner 01-505-275-3095 22.9
15 Holy Kingdom of Macedon 203.5 17 Colin Dunnigan None 19.4 cdunnigan@pima.gov on Internet
16 Teutonic Kingdom New Granada 199.0 26 (Doug Kooi) 01-602-749-2052 10.9
17 High Kingdom of Colorado 184.1 29 (Mitchell Mock) 01-602-743-8814 10.4 mitch1234@aol.com on Internet
18 New French Empire 173.7 28 (John McNiece) None 14.1
19 Tokugawa Nisei Shogunate 171.0 19 (Dan Martin) 01-602-628-9304 22.9 dmartin@pima.gov on Internet
20 Grand Duchy of Aballach 167.3 24 Jim Frediani 01-707-942-5201 11.9
21 Kingdom of Georgia 166.0 16 Jeff Parkes 01-505-325-1026 6.8
22 The Great Mongol Empire 165.0 15 (Floyd Goldstein) 01-908-671-0609 17.5 fmg@ios.att.com on InterNet
23 Azorean Papacy 156.3 21 (Lisa Bond) 012192935785 6.9 LBond@aol.com on Internet
24 The Mughal Empire 148.3 39 Scott Micheel 01-505-296-4454 6.0 warden@rt66.com on InterNet
25 Kingdom of Spain 144.4 22 James Plamondon 01-510-783-5388 9.8 jamespl@microsoft.com on Internet
26 Shawnee Empire 141.4 12 Seth Zuckerman 01-516-781-9436 26.2
27 Khemer Reborne! 131.3 43 Colin Dunnigan None 6.5 cdunnigan@pima.gov on Internet
28 Republic of West Afriqa 131.1 41 (Mike Kruger) 016023268267 11.1 kruger@argus.lpl.arizona.edu on Internet
29 Free Republic of Ethiopia 126.2 20 (Sean Padden) 01-217-344-8357 18.4 padd@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu on Internet
30 Khaganate of Khirgizia 118.8 37 Michael Work 01-412-441-6159 10.5 shogun@pitt.edu on Internet
31 Hideyoshi Nisei Shogunate 116.7 34 (Chris Baldwin) 01-602-882-7754 8.7
32 True Incan Empire 106.2 23 Tim O'Niell None 14.5 tim_oneill@arizona.edu on Internet
33 Timor Seahold 98.3 31 (Kevin O'Neill) None 10.3 kevin@insane.apana.org.au on Internet
34 Naipon-Seahold 94.9 38 Open For A Player! None 6.4
35 Empire of Afriqa 91.5 5 (Rob Pierce) 01-410-679-5311 28.3 71712,2265 on CompuServe
36 The Javan Empire 86.9 30 Richard Kunz None 8.3
37 Azuchi Nisei Shogunate 85.7 36 David Nardone 01-302-322-5342 9.6 76077,1251 on CompuServe
38 Duchy of the Three Isles 83.6 33 John Schmid 01-412-441-6159 7.9 magus@netcom.com on InterNet
39 Zulu Natal 79.2 27 (Robert Orman) None 13.4 giffords@hacks.arizona.edu on Internet
40 The Grand Duchy of Burgundy 76.7 44 (Brian Schmidt) 01-602-884-4723 2.5
41 Holy Kingdom of Prester John 67.0 47 Robert Ervin None 3.3
42 Huron Confederacy 65.4 46 (Scott Murrell) 01-505-835-4583 7.0
43 Kingdom of Noquet 61.6 45 (Greg Passidomo) 01-602-792-0080 4.8
44 The Pure Realm on Earth 57.8 32 Michael Stafford 01-602-795-0834 6.2 mstafford@pima.gov on Internet
45 Kingdom of Sarawak 48.1 40 David Salter 01-714-726-6032 8.0
46 Grand Duchy of Wallachia 38.1 42 (Matt Weber) 01-602-795-2937 2.8 matweber@aol.com on Internet
47 Sultanate of Maròc 25.0 35 (John Quarto) 01-401-884-2871 3.3 tivadar@interaccess.com on Internet
Note: Players whose name are in parentheses owe me money, so pay up! NOW!