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[Haspen]

I'm going to play the timid minority that says we should not get involved

[birdy51]

Prepare a token force that will allow you to curry favor with India, but also not dedicate your entire production.

If we are currently defenseless, this would provide a capable situation to both gain an ally and shore up our domestic defenses. It is as you have said, they can't fight back. Send a battalion of Crossbowman, kill a few people, make them pay for peace and celebrate the winnings.

[Iituem]

Prepare a token force that will allow you to curry favor with India, but also not dedicate your entire production.

If we are currently defenseless, this would provide a capable situation to both gain an ally and shore up our domestic defenses. It is as you have said, they can't fight back. Send a battalion of Crossbowman, kill a few people, make them pay for peace and celebrate the winnings.

A fine plan!  We've declared war, but we're not rushing to get ready.  Of course, they have lost a city from our dilly-dallying, but they do still have one left!  All we want is what used to be India and maybe one of their cities and we'll peace out!

Edit:  Goodness we've had some interesting battles.

[Sheb]

Do you know when we can hope for an update?

[Iituem]

Do you know when we can hope for an update?

Most likely today, it's 280CE and we're still in the (Second, Third?) Punic War.  I think there's a strong likelihood I'll call a halt in ten turns, though, because certain researches are going to happen then.

[Iituem]

170 BCE - 382CE: The Punic Wars

In 163BCE, the Prince of Ethiopia converted from Confucianism to Hinduism, spelling an end to centuries of peaceful religious co-existence with the Britons.



Four years later, the Prince of Bombay made a journey to Trinovantum, one which is well recorded in the works of Cunobelinus.  The Prince requested the aid of the foremost trading partners of the Indian kingdoms, the Britons, in repelling the war machine that was Carthage.  Seeing wealth to be gained and a rival of the sea trade to be opposed, High King Adminius accepted and sent heralds to declare a formal state of enmity with Carthage.  This would result in the involvement of the Britons in a series of conflicts spanning five centuries with the people of Carthage, the Poeni - what would come to be known as the Punic Wars.

The only immediate effect for the Britons was the loss of bacon on the tables of the upper castes, but this was soon replaced with Indian cod.  For the Indians, a new war was declared that resulted in the loss of Vijayanagara to the Carthaginians in 148BCE.  Only Bombay and its satellite town of Vayanasi survived of the Indian kingdoms.  The same year saw the initiation of the Blades of the Ambiani clan, a younger guard equipped with Trinovantes-forged steel longswords.

The Academy at Trinovantum continued its long tradition of hosting foreign students amongst its ranks, and it was between 143-140BCE that several Malinese nobles attended the Academy and were impressed by the code of laws upon which the High Kingdom ran and the efficiency of its caste system.  They returned to Mali with a full understanding of said laws and customs, as well as making further bonds of friendship between the two realms.



Until the latter half of the first century BCE, the High Kingdom remained quiet, building up forces over generations in preparation for a king who would one day bring war to Indo-Africa.  With the exception of a fine hunting season during 62BCE, little is worthy of note during this period.  It was during 57BCE that the Ambiani blades, under their captain Cadiomarus, stormed the Pictish town of Bactrian in an effort to drive off raiders and secure the northern coast of Britain.  Between 57-54BCE Cadiomarus carried out an extended siege and perfected the Ambiani techniques of wall-storming.

During this period the Votadini saw a rise to power, having perfected the creation of the crossbow in line with their traditions of archery.  Two Votadini battalions joined the ranks of the High Kingdom's armies.



Captain Cadiomarus, in carrying out the siege and assault of Bactrian, is credited for writing a treatise on siege warfare, in particular focusing on the need for equipment capable of besieging walls and the ability to build higher and stronger walls.  The Lofty Tower by Cadiomarus remains an inspiration to architects even today and it was from his work that some of the greatest construction techniques of the middle ages sprung.  In particular the design of the flying buttress as a way of supporting high walls was invaluable to construction efforts for centuries to come.

When Cadiomarus finally took Bactrian in 54BCE he consulted with his best advisors and scholars, men skilled in the art of construction and development as much as in the art of war.  Cadiomarus decided that, given the small surviving population of the town it would be better placed several miles east of its location, to take better advantage of the surrounding resources.  He therefore pillaged the town of anything of value and razed it to the ground with instructions for the Ambiani to eventually re-settle the site in their name.

It is in fact the death of Cadiomarus that marks the entry from Before the Common Era (BCE) to the Common Era (CE) of dating.  So influential in both mundane and spiritual life was he that many considered him a saint of Victory, sent to cleanse Scotland of the Picts.



In the latter half of the first century of the Common Era, a tide of revitalisation settled upon the Britons.  Making use of the techniques pioneered by St Cadiomarus, a new philosophy of aesthetics appeared; a belief that form was indeed as important as function.  Newly constructed buildings were designed along clear, attractive lines and ratios, a greater emphasis was placed on style of dress and a demand began for art for its own sake.



Nearly 130 years after the sacking of Bactrian, Ambiani settlers re-established the town as per Cadiomarus' directions.  Sifting through the ruins of the old Bactrian, the settlers discovered left-over examples of the engineering of the time, not to mention various tools and engine parts mentioned in Cadiomarus' "Lofty Tower".  The Ambiani of Ambianum were especially interested in the opportunity to find new works by their favoured son and it is known that the petty king of the Ambiani spent an exceeding amount of silver on sifting through the ruins.  Sadly, no further artefacts of the time were recovered.

In 92CE we see the reign of High King Adminius II "the Braggart" begin.  A poor sense of diplomacy leads to progressive alienation of the Sumerians (in particular the Britons continue to trade with the Malinese, their enemy), but Adminius does ensure that further aid is given to the surviving principality of Bombay in the form of experts on metalworking; it is around this time that the Indians truly begin to embrace metallurgy as an art.  Indeed, Adminius married an Indian princess to seal the union and in the process (along with paying a hefty dowry of 70 pounds of silver) managed to convert the elite of Bombay to Confucianism.  In 98CE, after centuries of brutal warfare, the Indians finally negotiated a standing peace with Carthage, accepting their losses.  Adminius the Braggart did not necessarily feel the same way and spent the rest of his life continuing to prepare for a war that he would never himself see.



By 130CE the burgeoning love of aesthetics amongst the Britons had developed into a long and abiding love of literature in all its forms.  Scrolls were written in great numbers to be consumed by the middle and upper castes and during this time great works of literature were collected together for consumption.



In 209CE the war that had been little more than a formal state of hostilities for centuries was declared.  A force of three batallions of Votadini marksmen, Belgae and Atrebates axemen and the Ambiani Blades advanced upon the holy city of Delhi, led by the Belgae commander Cunobelinus - the same Cunobelinus who in his later years would pen the histories of the ancient Britons.  At first, the enemy sallied forth from their walls to strike, losing a division of swordsmen and chariots whilst failing to properly rout the forces of the Britons.

Time was against Cunobelinus.  Although his forces could eventually starve out the defenders of Delhi, the Carthaginians had a force of four sword divisions and five cavalry divisions on their way, ready to arrive within months.  A prolonged siege was not in his interests, so he went around the city and camped out in the forested high hills north of Delhi, ready to take on the relief forces that the Carthaginians would be sending.

Yet to Cunobelinus' great surprise the Carthaginians pulled back to Leptis, unwilling to face the odds of his heavily fortified encampment.  This gave him the luxury of time, so Cunobelinus set about a campaign of harrassment and attrition using the Blades, who were especially well suited to besieging cities thanks to the legacy of Cadiomarus.



After several years of skirmishing, the Blades formed the vanguard of the soldiers heading south to capture Delhi.  They crushed the initial ranks of experienced archers, opening up the way for a volley from the Votadini marksmen who after a prolonged exchange with heavy losses on both sides emerged victorious.  A second set of marksmen moved in as the first division's survivors fell back, firing volleys at the charging defender swordsmen and then finishing them off with their handaxes.  Finally the Belgae moved into close combat with the last defenders of the city, green troops with iron-tipped spears.  With that final slaughter, the Britons raised Cunobelinus' banner over the holy city - Delhi had been captured.

It is worth noting that throughout the campaign, Cunobelinus' own works confirm the extensive use of the near-mythical Ordovici, both the clan at large and two notable spymasters; Orthobelinus and Viderix.  Although they rarely engaged in any direct sabotage, the Ordovici were irreplacable in mapping out enemy territory, gaining information on troop movements and otherwise keeping Cunobelinus appraised of his enemy's intent.

Cunobelinus himself retired from service as a general three years after the conquest of Delhi and spent the remainder of his life composing poetry, writing his autbiography and compiling a history of the Britons that despite its ranging into romanticism, hero worship and occasional outright invention is still our most cohesive source for British history before and during the early years of the Common Era.

[This was an entertaining war to fight because it is, amongst other things, the first time I have really used spies in any great capacity.  As sexy as their direct sabotage abilities seem, however, the real advantage for me was their ability to just sit in enemy territory and let me know which forces were where.  As an exercise in trying to do things right, every turn of active warfare I took note of what enemy units were where, how many and where they appeared to be going.  This actually managed to inform my strategy (I'm not a complete moron, whoo!) enough to position my troops on a hill and thus scare off the AI.]



In 252CE, the Angles of Zululand were conquered and driven out by the Zulus.  This resulted in a heavily armed noble class of seafarers suddenly bereft of a people to rule.  As one might expect, this would have lasting consequences.

In 254CE, the army that Cunobelinus had commanded thirty years before still maintained a strong presence on the hills north of Delhi, residing in a semi-permanent encampment.  The commander of the combined forces was a chief known as Vosenius, of the Votadini.  Although Ordovici reports (according to Vosenius' biographer at the time, one Dubnovellaunus of the Trinovantes) had made it clear that a force of six divisions was making its way westward to the north of the hill camp, Vosenius' commanders had sensibly assumed that as before the Carthaginians would not dare to assault their hill camp but most likely pass on to reinforce Vijayanaga to the west.  Vosenius was a little more canny and, although not entirely expecting an attack, still had the men ready for drills each day for the full week the Carthaginians were passing.  His preparations saved the lives of most of the men in the camp.

All six divisions of the Carthaginian army, three divisions of swordsmen, three of charioteers, charged or drove up the hill to destroy the British army and clear the path to Delhi.  The fighting raged for three days and nights, Vosenius cycling men to and from the palisades of the camp as they were wounded or simply ran out of ammunition.  The camp's flocks of geese were slaughtered as much for their feathers as fletching as for their meat.  Yet the fortifications were well-built, the hill was steep and the Votdini skirmishers made use of mantraps and other defenses set up in the thick woods beneath the camp to inflict further casualties.  By the time the sun set on the third day every man still alive in the camp was wounded, exhausted and hungry.  Every man outside the camp was dead.

For his victory, Vosenius was made the next king of the Votadini when the old king died, and the marksmen who had fought with him began calling themselves Vosenius' Guard, passing on traditions of defensive fighting for generations to come.  The hill north of Delhi became known as Vosenius Mont, in honour of the general who had so successfully defended it.  Vosenius spent the next three months hunting down and routing or killing the rest of the Punic force that had come to restore control of Delhi.  In a quarter of a year eight whole divisions had been butchered by the Britons.

[This is why I put my men on a forested (+50% def) hill (+25% def).  After three turns of fortification, their defensive bonus rose to +90%.  Two units of marksmen ended up in the fray, which with a base strength of 6, +50% against melee units, meant that chariots (strength 4) were attacking a defender with an effective strength of 11.4 and swordsmen (strength 6) were attacking a defender with an effective strength of 14.4.  Nevertheless, I am surprised that I didn't lose any units from this.  One of the crossbowmen actually gained two levels from defending!  The good news is, it neatly frees me up to go on the offensive again.]




Vosenius' aide was an Ordovici by the name of Erwin Rommel.  Chiefly concerned with logistics and supply, Vosenius' biographer implies that Rommel was also the chief co-ordinator of Ordovici reports with Vosenius' army.  (It is almost certainly the case that Rommel himself was the unknown biographer, based on literary similarities with his other works.)  Rommel concerned himself with re-supplying and reinforcing divisions that had suffered losses, and working beneath Vosenius was nothing less than a masterclass in surviving attrition warfare.

In his later career, Rommel turned his experience in logistics towards the refinement of the near-obsolete old guard of the Belgae to serve as a unit for resupply in the field.  The Belgae classically had experience in basic battlefield surgery as a result of their fighting in the past, but Rommel revolutionised their techniques and instituted well-organised, well-defended supply trains into the division including field hospital tents, emergency rations and arms, a travelling team of armourers plus portable forges for equipment repair, chariot messengers and a reserve force of general infantry to be slotted into whatever back-up roles needed to be filled in other divisions.  With Rommel's Relief, as the division came to be known, an army could resupply as well in the field as it could in Trinovantes itself.

[Great General!  Turns up when you get enough experience points in battle with another Civ (not with barbarians).  You can settle him in a city for bonus XP to all produced units or you can attach him to a unit for a one-off XP boost and special unit upgrades, such as Medic III, which in addition to Medic I and II heals any units in the unit's square or adjacent to it for 25% of health per turn.  Perhaps I should have stuck it on a chariot, or perhaps a scout or explorer for best effect, but I'm letting roleplay take over tactics here for a minute.  After all, I suspect we'll see another Great General in due time, given the apparently inexhaustible armies of Carthage...]



The Academy in Trinovantes had by 340CE stood for nearly twelve hundred years and presided over just as many years of the rigid caste system of the Britons, alleviated by frequent scholars and students from other lands.  The Mansa of Mali's grandson, Musa, attended the Academy shortly before the strife that was to follow in ensuing decades, and it is recorded in Malinese histories that Musa taught the Britons the skill of riding horseback without the need for cart or wheel, and that he brought back to his people a love for aesthetics and the finer things in life, as well as a keen understanding of the monotheistic doctrine of Confucianism and how it might be applied to organising a religion.



In 352CE, eighty six Angle noblemen were invited to the court of the High King Imanuentis V at Trinovantum for a feast in their honour.  The Angles had been adrift, little more than pirates for a century, but ten years before they had arrived in British society and integrated themselves into it as only caste-less foreigners could do, helping out with the military, with politics and economics, engaging in all affairs of state with skill and care.  They also made pacts and alliances with those of the middle and lower castes, particularly those who sought more freedom and power than their castes permitted.  On the night of the feast they struck.  Soldiers loyal not to their clan chiefs but to the Angle outsiders invaded the High King's palace and put every clan chief, petty king and loyal soldier to death, including the High King himself.  They swore a new allegiance based not on kinship but on service.

Ultimately it was not the old order that caused the thirty years of civil war that followed but the new.  Whilst the Angles successfully replaced the petty kings of old Britain, they quickly formed into three splinter groups of barons.  It was not until 383CE that the wars fizzled out, leaving three new kingdoms; England, Scotland and Wales.

[We have adopted Serfdom in lieu of the Caste System; we lose our infinite specialists but gain 50% worker improvement speed, which is good because we are entering an expansion phase where tile improvements are going to be rather useful.  We have also adopted Vassalage as a legal system, which grants +2 experience to all newly created units and permits free maintenance for 9 of our units.  Since we're going to need a larger army, this fits nicely as well.  Also thematically it's really rather necessary.]

[birdy51]

A successful war. Good! Keep up the good work on that front! It'll all be over for them by metaphorical Christmas.

[Iituem]

A successful war. Good! Keep up the good work on that front! It'll all be over for them by metaphorical Christmas.

Lack of forward preparation plus anarchy & defence time means I don't actually take another city until 390BCE, but on the flip side I've now destroyed about 20 Carthaginian units and we haven't taken any serious losses - we did lose 3 scouts during the initial turns of war (caught near the borders) but we haven't actually lost any units since.  It won't last, but goodness is Rommel's Relief useful.

[birdy51]

Indeed. I call that a success, even if you don't end up having to take another city. You're forces are becoming trained, and theirs are becoming annihilated. India will be happy as a consequence.

[Iituem]

383CE - 702CE: The Late Punic Wars and the Godwin Doctrine



It is worth reminding any student of the Punic Wars (which may be delineated as the Early and Late Punic Wars by the Saxon Conquest of Britain) that they did not represent a single, extended conflict but rather a number of small wars conducted by individual Earls seeking expansion of their own demesne.  Even the most successful of generals, such as Earl Godwin, never took more than two cities in their lifetime.  To a modern student this may seem a ridiculous amount of time to waste, but one must understand that even with the support of Rommel's Relief logistics during the Middle Ages were nothing compared to what we have today.  A man can march twenty miles in a day, certainly, but what about the baggage wagons that follow behind him?  How fast can an ox, laden down with food, water, tents and arms be expected to walk without collapsing from exhaustion?  How long does it take to pack up a camp of thousands in the morning, then set it up again at night?  In our modern day of diesel trucks and motorised supply vehicles we can forget that the actual pace of an army was not as fast as a man, but as fast as an ox.

Before we continue with the study of the Punic wars, students, a word on England, which comprised of the lands that belonged to Cantiacum, Trinovantum and Dumnonium.  Whilst less concerned with the border cities, Trinovantum's name bore that of the former ruling class, something which the Saxon kings of England (Saxony was the province from which the Angles came, giving rise to the idea of the Anglo-Saxons today) could not stand.  The short-lived king Lunn (succeeded by two other kings during the Conquest) attempted to build a castle, or dun, re-naming the town Lunn's Dun.  He was killed before he could ever complete his castle, of course, but the name London stuck.

The new king of England, William of the House of Pendragon, achieved his position with the tacit support of the Ordovici and continued to employ them in an effort to complete the wars his predecessors had failed to conclude.  The private records of the Ordovici (who were keen to retain blackmail material, judging from the extreme fidelity of such heavily guarded records) indicate that the armies of King William's son, Earl Harold, had advanced upon the Punic city of Leptis.  Leptis, however, was noted for the high stone walls that guarded it from all attackers.  With a defensive garrison of swordsmen, axemen, catapults and two divisions of archers, Leptis was impenetrable by anything short of the most potent of siege weapons, which Harold lacked.

So instead he employed treachery.  A spymaster taking the name Orthobelinus (presumably a title, as a spy by the name of Orthobelinus appears in our histories centuries earlier) had spent years bribing the guards of Leptis and for a prince's ransom he arranged the garrison to throw open the gates to the besiegers.

[You may recall I mentioned those sexy espionage abilities I wasnt going to use?  For the princely sum of 450-odd espionage points (depending on civ and investment) you can throw a city into revolt for a single turn.  The city won't flip like a cultural revolt, but it negates any and all artificial and cultural defences it might have.  Since the walls of Leptis granted the defenders a +50% strength bonus, we couldn't be having that.]



Harold led with the Blades, who were still arranged along clan lines despite their new English commanders.  A division of newly trained axemen with freshly forged blades marched out to meet them - but the Blades had long since perfected city warfare and ambushed them over and over again in the tight streets of Leptis.  Vosenius' Guard (who would not surrender their name for any title or gold offered) followed suit with barrages up to the defenders on the walls - from within the walls themselves where they were vulnerable.  The Guard, although not wielding any crossbows more deadly than normal, were so disciplined that they could fire up to seven volleys of bolts before their enemies could even begin to react.  The remaining Votadini marksmen took up positions on the towers, firing down on the remaining archers and sniping the crews of the catapults on the walls before they could get a single shot off.  The Atrebates, still clinging to their traditions of axe-fighting, fought their way into the city's keep and put the local Punic lord's swordsmen to the axe.

Harold took Leptis, despite the ravages it had suffered in the siege, and claimed it in the name of England.

It is worth noting that Carthage at this point was still large enough and powerful enough that despite losing two cities to the (newly) English forces, they were still able to carry on offensives on other fronts; in 394CE they successfully captured the independent city of Circassian in northern Africa and subjugated their inhabitants; the Numidians.



The Numidians proved an exceptionally welcome client race to the Carthaginians.  Brilliant horsemen, the Numidians practiced a style of missile cavalry fighting using javelins that proved deadly to melee fighters and siege weapons, lent itself well to hit-and-run tactics and would prove a nasty thorn in the side of the English attackers.  Nevertheless, such a force did not engage directly with the attacking army but joined a strike force heading south, no doubt with the intent of striking at Delhi.

As part of the extremely detailed recovered records of the Ordovici, we find this tantalising report on parchment:

3. 1. 32 - Utica

Infil. Ring reports: Large detachment of siege engineers has left, headed south.  Numid. cav. has joined w/ city chariots.  Utica garrison now two divisions axe, one division bows.  Additional time required to infiltrate guard structure, gates not ready for opening.

Major mining works to west, axe, chariot guarding.  Spears transitioning south.  Older reports suggest may be joining force to Delhi [swords, cata] w/ numid, cata, char.

Viderix reports: Thapsus walls strong, Carthage walls still incomplete but populace motivated.  2 bow, 1 axe in each city.

Do not recommend strike on Carthage, cannot reach without bypassing Utica.  Carry on as before.

- Orthobelinus

In 442CE, a terrible famine struck Ambianum in Wales, but citizens from the Ethiopian town of Aksum provided grain to support them - this act created goodwill between the Welsh and Ethiopians that lasted for many years thereafter.



By 463CE the long-prepared counter-offensive by the Carthaginians had reached the outskirts of Delhi, the town guarded by a defensive force of West Anglian Longbowmen and Marksmen.  In a bold move, trusting that the Numidians would not risk moving to the lowlands where they would be easily attacked (but also be able to simply move into the undefended city), the West Anglian defenders moved up to Vosenius Mont and occupied the long-abandoned camp.  In a siege strongly reminiscent of the original Vosenian defence, the Punic forces drove or rode their force (not comprised of a single infantryman if you discount the siege engineers!) uphill to take on the archers and marksmen in defence.  Three divisions of catapults, a division of charioteers and the dreaded Numidian cavalry were slaughtered in the uphill fight.  Once again the defenders gave thanks to Vosenius - at least in spirit.



And indeed, four years later, the descendants of Vosenius' original Guard struck back at the Carthaginians in Vijayanagara.  The army of Earl Godwin of Cantiaci, originally intended to besiege Utica, had on his orders marched south to Vijayanagara on intelligence that most of the city's defenders had been depleted in the ill-fated attack on Vosenius Mont.  Their intelligence proved correct and the town was defended solely by their garrison of archers and a detachment of Numidian mercenaries.  Despite the excellent training and threat the Numidians presented to siege weapons and melee troops alike, the Guard could fire on them no matter where they rode - and swiftly shot their mounts from under them.  With the path clear, the Ambiani Blades moved in and butchered the defending archers.



The Academy in London was still intact and had survived largely untroubled through the conquest a century prior.  With the abolition of the caste system, the Academy was technically open to all.  In practice the need to support oneself at the Academy, not to mention the fees the Academy needed to charge, meant that only the very wealthy could attend - which meant the new feudal overclass and wealthy foreigners.  It was only at the intervention of wealthy individuals that trusts were set up to arrange scholarships - such as the al-Walid military scholarship, as it came to be known.

Amongst these foreigners was Priya of Varanasi, a Hindu scholar who in her childhood had been educated in the Kashi Vishwanath in Delhi (which it is worth noting was a wealthy source of tithes for the English Earl of Delhi) and had long sought to attend the Academy.  Priya was a devout Hindu but very willing to debate matters of the soul with her fellow students, chiefly Confucian.  In the course of her long studies at the Academy she is known for bringing back a deep understanding of the feudal system under which England, Scotland and Wales operated, as well as a life-long love of books.  Priya would eventually become known as one of the greatest poets of her time, inspiring a love of literature amongst the Indians for centuries to come.



In 502CE, in battle with swordsmen moving to reinforce Utica, the cavalier Khali ibn al-Walid came to prominence - a Malinese soldier, his job was that of a messenger or general's aide, but he displayed an impressive grasp of tactics and a way with the men under his command.  Earl Brandon, his commander, saw a glimmer of true ability in his aide's skills and arranged for him to be sent to the Academy at London to be formally educated in tactics and strategy.  al-Walid proved to be a brilliant student and in a few short years took command of the first English cavalry unit, a division of horse archers under his personal command.  The Crimson Dragons were so named because of their chiefly Welsh riders, descendants of the Dumnonii who had pioneered charioteering.  They held a tradition of high morale and higher speed, able to outpace any cavalry division in the world; they were excellent at withdrawing from combat where problematic and they maintained strict traditions of leadership, inspiring men to greater deeds.

[We have hit 500AD, which means that turn increments go down to five years per turn instead of ten.  Little technological advancements speed everything up.]



By 523CE, Earl Brandon's men had reached Utica and begun the long process of siege when they were greeted by great and terrible beasts, more vast and frightening than any they had encountered before.  Brandon's own journal described

These monsters, frightful in their wrinkled visage, towered over the battlefield.  With great and terrible teeth I watched them impale those men who stood too close, but not so close as to be crushed by its enormous feet.  Atop the horror sat archers, raining fire down upon any in their midst.

The "monsters" were of course elephants, and this was the first encounter any Briton had with elephants in warfare.  The beasts reduced even the mighty Vosenius' Guard to a handful of ragged survivors (who rebuilt their division in time with the aid of Rommel's Relief).  This, more than anything else, finally impressed upon the English their weakness in not employing spearmen amongst the archers and axemen of their armies.



By 537CE, the needs of government had outgrown the ad-hoc method of assigning work directly to one's ministers (who then assigned to their toadies based on skill, favouritism and bribes).  The English Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Donne, instituted several reforms on an internal level, creating a plethora of merit-based bureaucratic positions within his government that improved tax collection, farming techniques and standardised weaponry in the form of regulation-weight maces for cheap mass supply of armies.



In 557CE, the maces instituted by Donne saw their first use, to devastating effect.  The young Earl Godwin of Dumnonium brought his armies to the base of the hill upon which stood the city of Utica - mighty city walls rose up even further than the forbidding slopes of the hill, and those of Vosenius' Guard knew well the histories of those who attacked fortified positions uphill.  The army set up camp in preparation for what seemed to be a lengthy siege, but on the third day of waiting plumes of smoke went up from Utica.  Traitors within the city had set fire to the watchtowers on the walls, opened the gates and started fires within the city, forcing the garrison to divide their attention between putting out fires and defending the town.  Holding back his strongest troops, Earl Godwin sent the Guard on ahead, firing barrage after barrage of arrows at the Numidian mercenaries riding out to meet the attacking force.  Then, with the elite axemen of Utica holding the gate, Godwin sent forth the Blades.  The Ambiani Blades now held something of a vestigial name, as they had traded in their swords for heavy shields and maces, as it permitted a denser style of fighting.  As such, three Blades could strike at each axeman, who had to swing his axe wide for effect.  Even despite the uphill climb, this was enough for the Blades to take the city gate.  With the gate held, it was a simple matter to advance a combined force of marksmen and macemen until the last garrison fell.  By the very end, ancient and largely ceremonial chariots were all that were left to fight with.

At Earl Godwin's insistence, the Hindu Academy at Utica was spared from fire and the sword; its buildings preserved, its scholars and tutors spared.  It would be decades before the city calmed down enough for the Academy to function once again, but hope sprung that Utica could become a place of learning once again.



After the fall of Utica, Earl Godwin held several weeks of celebration.  During his festivities he became close with a young Indian man by the name of Krishna of Bombay (exactly how close is for speculative authors and romantic penny dreadfuls to decide) and discovered a lifelong passion for philosophical discussion.  Krishna was a Hindu of great faith and would happily discuss matters of morality, philosophy and right action with Godwin.  In turn, Godwin was a capable engineer and taught Krishna much in the ways of mathematics, which he had no education in, and on the operation of complex machinery, such as the crossbows Godwin's men used.  When they parted ways, years later, Krishna would go on to become one of the Prince of Bombay's chief advisors, spreading what he had learned to all India.  Similarly, Earl Godwin established a scholarship at the Academy in London for those seeking to deepen their love of knowledge.



Between 571-579CE there came a flurry of interest in plays and dramatic performances throughout the Disunited Kingdoms of Britain, spurred on by romanticised interpretations of the Punic Wars and the influence of the philosophers at the Academy in Utica.  A desperate need for entertainment, or at least a sense of identity, in the African cities created a great demand for distraction across the sea.  In such plays came art, music and subtle political commentary on the players' masters.



In 582CE the elderly Earl Godwin led his army to battle against Carthage itself.  Although its defenders were fierce in their fighting, the Carthaginians were under-manned and without walls.  Under hail of crossbow bolt and the heavy weight of skilled macemen Carthage fell.  No skilled tactics were needed, for with the fall of Utica had come the fall of some of the greatest Punic defences.




George Washington Goethals, a Scottish boy from a cattle herding family near Ambianum, entered the Academy at London under the al-Walid scholarship for those with promising careers in the military.  Although Goethals never achieved any great success in his study of tactics and strategy (unlike his fellow student and life-long friend/rival Hernan Cortez, who would go on to found a school of infantry training in Cantiaci), he proved to be a natural architect and have an excellent appreciation for siege warfare, something which the English to date had ignored in favour of employing traitors in walled cities.  Unsatisfied with the classical design of the catapult, Goethals is credited for the invention of the trebuchet, in an effort to find a more effective way of breaking walled defences.  Then, in order to guard against his own creation, Geothals developed and refined the design of the Star Castle, a major improvement over previous motte-and-bailey designs.

Goethals found that the library of the Academy, whilst useful, was sorely lacking in any texts he required and indeed was far from comprehensive.  Cortez, similarly, found a paucity of information on tactics and strategy beyond that which was passed down orally by the Academy's tutors.  Together, Goethals and Cortez began a seven-year quest between 601-608CE to collect all the scrolls they could find on military history, architecture and engineering from across the Disunited Kingdoms and then from Indo-Africa as well.  Along the way they collected knowledge of other sciences, of philosophy (from the still crumbling Academy at Utica) and of the arts.  They ended up collecting a competent staff of scholars and librarians to organise and employ the scrolls they collected and by the time they had gathered sufficient information for their purposes they had amassed a library the likes of which had never been seen.  Due to the simple expedient of not having anywhere to permanently store the vast collection of scrolls they had acquired, Goethals and Cortez donated their research to the Academy, and the building in which it was based became known as the Academy's Great Library.



Included amongst the scrolls collected by the Library were a defined calendar based upon seasons, moon phases and astronomical events.  The Sumerian calendar proved to be far more accurate than the calendar the English had been using to date and so was adopted in lieu.  In return, Sumerian scholars were permitted to return to Uruk with copies of plays and literature from Britain's greatest authors and playwrights.  Additionally, inferences about the movements of the stars and the seasons informed the English scholars at the Academy that the world was not only round (as they had known for centuries) but much larger than they had anticipated.  The known world of Britain and Indo-Africa consisted of barely a quarter of the world's landmass.



In 617CE, Goethals completed the design for the Star Castle, along with an improved trebuchet design and some improved techniques for lengthening usable spears for additional reach.  As a final touch before his untimely death, Goethals devised a simple but wide-ranging invention in the form of an improved axle and suspension design for wagons, permitting them to travel much further and faster along paved roads without breaking down.



By 622CE, Earl Donald of Utica had reached the hills of Thapsus, on the edge of the Carthaginian Basin.  The trebuchets of Goethals' design had not yet reached Africa, so once again the tried and tested method of employing the Ordovici was put to use.  In the course of their investigations the Earl came to a troubling revelation; King Hasdrubal of the Carthaginians had been forcibly drafting his people into defensive armies, working them to death manufacturing weapons for his soldiers and actively killing any who resisted.  The once prosperous city of Thapsus had been reduced to a meagre village amidst the echoing, empty houses of its outskirts.  Earl Donald felt compelled for Victory's sake to intervene.  His spies arranged for the oppressed majority to rise up against their masters, and whilst this did not take the city for him it so utterly debilitated the defending soldiers (who were demoralised in any case by being press-ganged into service) that his men could march through the walls uncontested.

By this point, the technique for capturing Carthaginian cities was so well established that it had become known as the Godwin Doctrine - marksmen to eliminate Numidians and archers, macemen to mop up.

[Seriously, Hannibal butchered the hell out of his own people here.  Thapsus was a Pop 8 city when I arrived in Africa, but he whipped it down to Pop 2 by the time I got my stack there.  It's now a Pop 1 village, of course.  I daresay he was pulling off a concerted scorched earth denial strategy.]



In 643AD, Earl Donald marched north to Hadrumetum.  Without even so much as walls, Donald simply employed the Godwin Doctrine and took the city with minimal casualties.  Hadrumetum, whilst surrounded by sweltering jungle and generally quite an unpleasant place to live, was also possessed of the finest (and largest) cinnamon plantations in all of Africa, to say nothing of native African elephants.  The real bonus for Earl Donald, however, was the large slave population.  King Hasdrubal had been driving the many slaves of his empire north to the jungle, to cut down rainforest for farmland.  With their defenders slain, it was a simple matter to "repatriate" them as serfs, tied to the new Earldom of Hadrumetum.  Three thousand 'serfs' were captured in the first six months.




The cultural revolution of Indo-Africa, particularly in the Carthaginian Basic, continued to grow.  A new appreciation for music blossomed, with schools of music emerging amongst the wealthy and a renewed interest in music as the language of the soul.  In particular the appreciation of music led the church of Confucius to begin commissioning works of music in particular to Victoria's glory.  One of the foremost artists of the age was a polymath musician, artist and engineer by the name of Pablo Picasso.  He joined King Henry III's court in London in 657CE and would serve as advisor, minister and court musician for the rest of his days, helping the king make wise and prosperous decisions for the good of all of his people.  In fact, many consider Henry's reign to be a Golden Age for the English.

[Golden Age time!  Golden Ages can be started by spending Great People and last for several turns.  During a Golden Age, any hammer squares produce 1 more hammer and any commerce squares produce1 more commerce.  More importantly, though, we don't suffer anarchy for changing civics.  As a nice bonus, with Music I can just build Culture directly, which is essential for getting those conquered town borders to expand.  Before this I was having to laboriously manage with building monuments and theatres.  Now we can just speed through the early stages in a few turns and get into productive time.]

Henry, under Picasso's guidance, steadily increased the power of the merchant and professional classes whilst simultaneously introducing barriers and checks to prevent social mobility.  He abolished serfdom tying serfs to the land, but raised taxes on the poor to keep them from too much prosperity and encourage them to serve as cheap labour to the professional classes.  It was in all but name a return to the caste system of the early Britons and a great deal more productive for England - and Scotland and Wales, who adopted similar laws and customs.



In 674CE, Prince George, son of King Henry, led a force against the fortified hill town of Hippo, the last well-guarded stop on the road to Kerkouane.  Kerkouane was the only large city still remaining to the Carthaginians, and Prince George saw its capture as a chapter by which history would remember him.  As ever, the Ordovici had placed agents within the town and by the time George's army arrived the commander of the garrison was an Ordovici himself.  He simply opened the gates and walked over to George's side.  Unlike previous generals, Prince George had no interest in maintaining Hippo - despite strategic value in the hills, the difficulties involved in maintaining control, to say nothing of the monetary costs of maintaining such a minor settlement dissuaded him.  When he had butchered all opposition, George simply ordered the fort looted for anything of value and razed to the ground.  He took several months to rest and resupply and then continued east towards Kerkouane.

In 694CE, King Henry developed a wasting sickness and was often bedridden, leaving more of the realm's command to his Chancellor, Picasso.  Picasso largely ruled well, but with the predictable result that any bad decisions were attributed to him and any good decisions to the ailing king.  In particular, Picasso was resoundly rebuked by the Earls for giving the secrets of reliable mace manufacture and irrigation to the Ethiopians, but King Henry was praised for swindling the Ethiopians out of a large sum of silver.  Historical records of the time suggest that the Ethiopians were only thirty years away from developing their own techniques for crafting the mace, and all Picasso did was extort as much gain for the nation as he could.



The turn of the eighth century CE brought with it the breath of innovation.  Some of these innovations were simple; in Hadrumetum an enterprising scribe had successfully devised a technique for producing a cheap, reliable medium for writing; paper.  Maharbal of Hadrumetum had been experimenting with different techniques for years, attempting combinations of reeds, parchment from goat's skin and many efforts with dried wood pulp, but each time his results were either too fragile, too brittle, too expensive or simply unable to reliably take ink.  He finally succeeded with the discovery that by combining strands of cotton with his pulp he could produce sheets that were light, moderately durable and very importantly took ink without running.  With paper, book-binding and book-making became cheap and affordable and would in time lead to a cheap and affordable way to write books as well.  For now, however, it was if nothing else an excellent way of copying maps.



In 702CE Prince George finally made his march on Kerkouane.  With the aid of a complement of West Anglian engineers using the Goethals Trebuchet he ensured that the garrison buildings surrounding the city were demolished prior to his advance.  The defenders of Kerkouane fought nobly, they fought well, but they perished beneath the crippling blows of the Godwin Doctrine.  Prince George claimed the town in the name of England and managed three days of feasting before news reached him - his father had passed away in his sleep.  "Long live the King."

The fall of Kerkouane marked the last real resistance the Carthaginians had to offer, and whilst further battles were fought the loss of their last great city was the end of Carthage as a power and the end of the Punic Wars.  Once the dominant force of Indo-Africa, five hundred years of warfare had reduced them to a minor power in a handful of lesser towns, trapped in disease-ridden jungles - a backwater of the world.  But what price had their conquerers paid for victory?


The known world in 702CE.  Northern Africa and Zululand had not been explored by the British but were in fact a result of maps traded from the Malinese.


Llloooong update.

[A Thing]

These monsters, frightful in their wrinkled visage, towered over the battlefield.  With great and terrible teeth I watched them impale those men who stood too close, but not so close as to be crushed by its enormous feet.  Atop the horror sat archers, raining fire down upon any in their midst.

The "monsters" were of course elephants, and this was the first encounter any Briton had with elephants in warfare.

I dunno those sound like demons to me. The Carthaginians clearly crafted them with their vile magics; only vicious men can make vicious beasts! 

[Sheb]

That's really nice. I didn't expect you to do that well against the Carthaginians.

How are we standing vs. the other nations? I hope all this tech trading means we're not too far behind on the domestic front, despite the army investment?

[Iituem]

That's really nice. I didn't expect you to do that well against the Carthaginians.

How are we standing vs. the other nations? I hope all this tech trading means we're not too far behind on the domestic front, despite the army investment?

It's not the tech trading, it's the overexpansion that's killing our domestic front, but for roleplay reasons I didn't want to halt at Viyasanagara Vijayanagara (which would have been the better strategic stopping point, as I had three new cities and Hannibal was willing to make peace).  The upkeep costs have murdered our science production and come the end of the Golden Age I'll be making the shift to Universal Suffrage so that I can start rush-buying Courthouses to bring Maintenance down (albeit that this will ruin my Happiness and beaker production, but we needed to shift someday and we recently got a bunch of luxury resources).  I'd be strongly tempted to run Bureaucracy when I do the revolution as well, but it would mean a net increase in maintenance over Vassalage because I'd lose the free unit support - and for a large empire the costs might well be too punishing to be worth +50% commerce and hammers just in my capital.

During the next session I need to:
a) take 1-2 more cities from Hannibal (he has a port city and a city that mines gemstones, both lightly defended) so that I can peace out with him,
b) mass-build courthouses and probably the Forbidden City to ease off distance costs,
c) re-stabilise my economy, especially as I am making the transition from SE (Specialist Economy) to CE (Cottage Economy), and
d) heavily re-infrastructure Africa and start building workshops in the useless desert tiles in Britain.

In short, we're still in the tech lead, but other nations are catching up and sometimes they research other branches of tech that make them worth trading for.  From this point on, my chief opponent is likely to be Zara Yaqob, who has already sent Ethiopian spies into Wales to screw up my infrastructure.  I'll need to build some new spies (lost a lot during the war) and have them do counter-intelligence on him.

[Iituem]

Decision time again!  Shaka has declared war on Ethiopia and Mali (we share a border with Ethiopia and are on so-so terms with them).  Ethiopia wants us to join, and we do have a kill-stack left over from taking on Carthage.  We absolutely cannot afford to take any more land, so city-capture is out of the question, but we could conceivably do some damage for our own amusement.

So, do we:

A) Not join the war, because we have enough problems, thank you very much.

B) "Join" the war in a token sense.  We don't trade with Shaka, we won't lose out, and are they really going to try and move their galleys all the way along the coast to give me trouble?  Really?

C) Actually join the war, but just for the sake of doing damage.  We could maybe raze some cities, but that would screw over future relations and the chance to capture said cities once our economy stabilises.

[Moron]

How many cities does Hannibal have left? Is he close to capitulating?