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[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Baptism by Fire: The First Egyptian Wars
Turns 301-450

With the rise of the many nations within the mediterranean region came with it years of conflict.  For the beginning of this period of time, it was peaceful, with the first international Great Games being hosted by the Greeks within the city of Byzantium and the founding of Yebu further south along the Nile.  It is noted at this time that Egypt was ranked as having the most influential level of culture within the entirety of the world, likely due to the lasting peace and great wonders they had constructed.  However, this peace for the Egyptians would soon come to an end.

The first conflicts within Egypt was a group of Nubian tribesmen assaulting the city of Yebu with a large group of their Medjays.  They were easily repulsed, but this assault convinced the Egyptians to begin investing in their military to a greater degree.  In a happy coincidence, the highly favorable state of relations between the Egyptians and the Persians led to the latter sending in some blacksmiths to teach Egyptian blacksmiths how to smelt iron into workable weapons, though this was stymied by a complete lack of iron within the lands held by the Egyptians.  The land descended into a short period of Civil War due to a domestic crisis, but order was quickly reestablished by the Pharaohs.

Soon after the war, another came.  This time it was not an internal conflict, but rather with the Greeks.  An exceptionally large invasion force had managed to make their way in from a hidden landing within the western portions of the Egyptian Kingdom.  Soon enough, the cities of Ineb Hedj and Yebu were under siege by the attacking forces of Hoplites and Chariots.  Yebu remained strong, managing to trick an invading force of Nubian Medjays to clash with the Greek forces to reduce the strength of their assailants as well as making sure the majority of the Greek host were unable to cross the Nile.  However, Ineb Hedj was set to fall due to the sheer weight of losses experienced by the defenders there.  If the city fell, a succession crisis was likely and would have resulted within the quick defeats of both Yebu and Amunia.  It was then a remarkable coincidence saved the Egyptians.

A large Persian force, fresh from their conquest of the Carthaginian City-States into vassal states, had been routed through Egypt during this conflict.  A messenger who had narrowly scraped their way through the Greek lands of Heirusalem and Mykenai, a relatively new city to the south of Heirusalem, had alerted this force to the fact that conflict had also broken out between the Greeks and Persians over Anatolia and Mesopotamia.  When this force came across the besiegers of Ineb Hedj, they, at fair cost to themselves, assaulted the besieging force and slew them to a man.  This was followed up with baiting the forces that had Yebu still under siege to follow them out of Egyptian lands into the holdings of Heirusalem and Mykenai territories.  It becomes murky what occurred to the forces, but the revolution of Mykenai into an independent state leads scholars to believe they took up housing there.  When the city was reconquered, it is likely their descendants had marched south with much of the rest of the independents to found the state of Arabia.  It is a great irony that the once saviors of the Egyptians would turn to wage war upon them in a later time, but that is something to be written about at a later time.

As it stands, this act of valor only managed to abate the assault of the Greeks upon the Egyptians.  After the cessation of hostilities between the Greeks and the Persians with the former's conquest of both Anatolia and Mesopotamia, their forces began to march upon the Egyptians in force.  There had not been enough time for the old civilization to recover from the prior invasion, and they would likely have fallen, when a Hindi monk from Egypt that had gone to the Greek lands.  The unknown individual managed to bring an end to the war by teaching meditation to the Greek priests and, through it, slowly convinced the priests to speak out against the war brought on by Alexander.  With the signing of the treaty, peace had come to the Egyptians, but war was not done with them yet.

To the west, the Romans began to expand outwards.  First they had managed to conquer the Carthaginians, then the Gauls.  Seeing this, the Pharoahs began a large expansion of the military in order to ready for potential defense against the Romans.  The war would not come for some time, not until after the Great Cothon of Amunia, and contact was established with the Ethiopians, but it would come during the second expansion of the Romans.  The second expansion of the Empire began with them attempting an assault upon the Greeks.  Despite the vast power held by the Greek League, the legions of Rome managed to rapidly conquer all the cities upon the Greek's home peninsula, as well as Heirusalem, renaming it to Aelia Capitolina, and forced the civilization into becoming a vassal state of their empire.  Emboldened by their success over conquering an empire that had boasted much more power than themselves, the Romans turned their attention south to the 'weak' Egyptians.  There would be no Persians to save the Egyptians this time.

Despite being beset upon by a far more powerful nation, the Egyptians managed to hold their own.  Kebu showed their strength in repelling forces once more.  Though the forces had managed to cross the Nile, the defenders managed to perform a major ploy that caused the Legions assailing their walls to wind up within the deserts of the Sahara.  There is no true recording as to what exactly the ruse they pulled was, but it is believed usage of the Nubian Medjays in some manner.

Within Ineb Hedj, the siege was at much greater cost.  The city suffered through a massive drop in population.  In fact, many records state that only one-third of their population remained intact after the siege was broken, when compared to the population from before.  However, apparently emboldened with the completion of the temple to one of the chief deities of their Hindi pantheon, Artemis, the defenders of the city managed to first break the catapults of their besiegers at great cost.  After this, the chariots of the Exploratory Force that had traveled from the Straits of Gibraltar and the plains of Gaul to the jungles of India hunted down the legions that had assailed the walls and slaughtered them to a man with only minor damage being suffered.  The Romans had suffered their first lost, and the Egyptians had achieved their first repulse of invaders from their lands by their own power.  However, the war with the Romans was not yet over, and both the forces that had conquered Carthage and the forces baited away from Yebu were both just outside the borders of Egypt and were preparing for the next invasion of those that had beaten them back...

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Egypt vs. the World
Turns 451-550

The assault upon the Egyptians was seen as the greatest mistake of the Romans.  While the Persians would fall under their reign as a result of a parallel invasion, the Egyptians repulsing the Romans fractured the mindset that the armies of Rome were unbeatable.  More invasions would come, but all would be repulsed by the Egyptians.  Eventually, the continued defiance of the Egyptians led to massive revolts to spring up across the entirety of the empire, leaving the Romans with only the Italian Peninsula remaining.  Soon that would fall to infighting, and the Roman civilization would be no more.

Egypt would be unable to take advantage of this weakness, however.  With the conquering of Persia, the nation was obligated to join the Roman war upon the Egyptians.  Furthermore, due to bribes of Kedu to Nubian forces being discovered, the Ethiopians also declared war upon the Egyptians.  Egypt was at war with every single neighbor it had.  If Rome had not collapsed, then it is likely that the Egyptians would not have held.  However, the collapse of Rome allowed them to survive.  The Greeks, having broken away from Roman authority before Persia had been fully conquered, agreed to a cessation of hostilities between their two nations.  After the Romans fell, so did the Persians.  As for Ethiopia?  Egypt sacked their capital and quickly took over the rest of their cities.

This move, while glorious, proved disastrous over the long term.  Many centers of learning funded by the Pharaohs had to be shut down due to the sheer cost required in order to maintain the lands they conquered.  Furthermore, the former Roman invaders of Kebu, who had marched west into Nubian lands and would eventually interbred with the natives to create the Mali civilization, had taught the Nubians their strategies.  This resulted in many massive raids into Egypt that destroyed all the ancient improvements that had been constructed in the Nile river valley, as well as those made to replace them.  As well, massive plagues struck that destroyed large portions of the Egyptian population.  Within the new holdings, all but one of the captured Ethiopian cities were either razed or captured by Impi tribesmen.

Egypt had not fallen from this, however.  The Pharaohs still held dominion, in large part thanks to the continual destruction of their enemies by the elite former expeditionary force, and trade was beginning to start up once more.  Furthermore, with the destruction of most of the Ethiopian holdings, they could more effectively administer what remained.  Progress once more began and the Egyptians moved on into the future.


To give a rough idea of just how behind I am, Metal casting and Writing are the furthest along in the tech tree I am at.  It's late 500 AD.

Oh, and to give you an idea of how large the barbarian invasion was, 2 stacks of 7 strength 4 Nubian Medjays (which have +50% vs Melee and 2 first strikes) as well as 4 strength 6 Nubian Berber cavalry that have +50% against melee, a strength 8 cavalry unit, and 3 or 4 strength 5 Impi Warrior units that have +100% against Cavalry.  The twin stacks of 7 spawned in the middle of my territory.  Mod does not fuck around when it wants you to die a 'historic' death.  If you want to live, you must earn it.