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Emperor
Local Time: 16:24
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
Posts: 6,676
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The Greatest Voyage
Spoiler Alert:
This story is based on my playing of the March CivFanatics Game of the Month. If you plan to compete in that game officially, you should not read this story until, at a minimum, you have knowledge of the entire map.
The Greatest Voyage
Abe Lincoln looked around and was not happy. There was no cattle or wheat. The only grasslands around were of the dull, ordinary variety. There was water that could be used to irrigate plains, but there wasn’t all that much plains to irrigate on the narrow peninsula the American tribe was wandering. Nor was there much grassland either. It was definitely not the place of Lincoln’s dreams for transforming America from a tribe of wanderers into a nation of farmers and town-dwellers.
On the other hand, the area did have one thing going for it: there was incense to help make the people happy. And after fifty years of wandering into the Incense Hills, and seeing nothing but mountains, hills, and a small patch of desert beyond, the tribe was in a poor mood to travel farther. The area would have to do, and the city of Washington was founded.
Heroic scouts explored beyond America’s borders, discovering France to the north in an area that could only make America envious. The French had richer lands and more room to grow. America wanted that land, and intended someday to have it.
America’s first move toward France was an effort to gain control of some land with cattle south and a little west of Paris. Unfortunately, by the time America’s settlers got there, French settlers were also seeking control of the land. Rather than risk losing the race to the French, America founded the town of New York on top of the cattle. Unfortunately, contrary to America’s expectations, having cattle within the city did not help to feed the city.
Time marched on slowly until, in 1325 BC, Russia decided to demand gold from the Americans. America refused as a matter of principle, and the Unwanted War started. Nothing happened immediately, and in 1300, American settlers founded Boston south of Washington near the southern tip of the Eastern Peninsula. About that time, Washington went into full production of spearmen and archers, and the other cities would follow as quickly as they could build barracks.
France joined Russia in the Unwanted War in 1175 BC after America refused a demand it made, and they proved to be a much more immediate threat than Russia. French troops pillaged improvements around New York, although America did at least manage a favorable casualty ratio. Finally, a few centuries later, Russian forces joined the fighting. America decided it needed peace even if it would have to pay for it. Fortunately, after America bought peace from Russia for 160 talents of gold, France was willing to give America its knowledge of Mysticism rather than face America’s armies alone.
During the peace that followed the Unwanted War, America founded Pittsburgh to take advantage of an iron deposit between Washington and New York. Swordsmen supplanted archers as America’s top offensive troops, and America built them in large numbers, fully intending to have its revenge on its enemies. By the year 210, everything was ready. American troops captured a group of French settlers moving along America’s border and started moving into position to strike at Paris. Paris fell twenty years later, and then the rest of France’s cities succumbed to American power one by one. By 30 BC, there was no more French nation.
A century of peace followed the French Annexation, and then Russia once again demanded tribute. Once again, America refused and Russia declared war.
But this time would be different. This time, America would not be content with simply holding its own territory in a defensive struggle. This time, America would take the war to Russia and make Russia pay in sweat and blood for its arrogance.
American swordsmen and archers, covered by a small number of spearmen, immediately headed southwest down the roads previously put in by French workers. Settlers also headed south and, in 130 AD, founded Philadelphia near some rich gem deposits. Twenty years later, America seized Yakutsk from the Russians, the first conquest of the new war.
American and Russian troops skirmished for a while in the field, and then in 210, American forces captured Tblisi. Twenty years later, a combination of carelessness and bad luck allowed a small band of Russian spearmen to capture New York, but America retook the city in the year 270. The war continued to drag on, and American troops continued their drive westward, capturing Minsk in 300 AD. Forty years later, after some more inconclusive fighting, Russia surrendered its knowledge of Literature and Monarchy and 160 talents of gold in order to gain peace.
With peace once again established, America’s people demanded a voice in government. Anarchy erupted, and then the great American Republic was born. A time of peace followed until, in 520 AD, Japan demanded free furs and declared war when America refused. Not that America was too concerned, since America and Japan were not connected by land.
Indeed, America was so unconcerned about Japan that in the year 550, after the peace treaty with Russia expired, America attacked again. Unfortunately, as American troops marched on Moscow, the citizens of Minsk staged a successful revolt. Still, in 580, a mere decade after the revolt, American forces marched into Moscow and gained control of the recently completed Pyramids.
The years that followed were perhaps the most stressful in America’s history. If America could hold Moscow, Russia would surely be defeated. But if Moscow could stage a successful revolt and rejoin Russia, the results could be disastrous for the Americans. Each year that passed seemed almost like a century as America retook Minsk and then went on to capture Odessa and St. Petersburg. Finally, with the fall of St. Petersburg in 750, America felt comfortable enough with its hold on the area to establish its Forbidden Palace in Minsk.
By that time, Japan had already agreed to peace in the year 610 after being wholly unsuccessful in its attempts to establish a beachhead. The war in Russia lasted until the year 760, when America captured Smolensk and Kiev and forced Russia to give up Vladivostok in peace negotiations. Russia still had a number of cities left, but nothing America regarded as worth the trouble of conquering.
Greece had also declared war on America over a refusal to accede to its demands, not that America was particularly concerned. Still, in 780, America put an end to the technical state of war with an exchange of maps and a “gift” of 25 talents of gold.
The end of the Japanese, Russian, and Greek wars led to a period of over five centuries of peace. During that time, the nation transitioned from an old-style republic to a more modern form of democracy. It also caught up on many of the city improvements that had been neglected during centuries of warfare (a neglect that made America’s culture a laughingstock in the eyes of Greece and Egypt). But nothing good lasts forever, and in 1335, Japan made another attempt at extortion. Yet another war with Japan started.
Fifteen years later, the great leader Lee emerged from the conquest of the small Japanese city of Hakodate. Thirty years after that, America upgraded some recently built horse units into cavalry and Lee was given a large army of those powerful new units to command. With the most modern attack force in the world, America had little trouble taking the small towns of Sapporo and Matsuyama from the Japanese and thereby evicting them from the American continent. Japan paid fifty chests of gold for a peace treaty.
As that war wound down, America discovered that it was unable to build railroads because its iron deposits were played out. Unfortunately (for the Russians, that is), the only remaining iron deposits on the continent were in areas still dominated by Russia. So America’s armies wheeled west, with even America’s antiquated sword units a match for most of Russia’s forces. Russia’s cities fell one by one like dominoes, albeit not nearly as quickly due to the distances involved, until there was nothing left of that nation.
But warfare was not the only thing on America’s mind during that period. Exchanges of maps had revealed an island with large supplies of spice, the southwest corner of which was still available for the taking. American settlers with a pikeman escort landed and claimed an area with three spice patches in the southwest corner of the island, giving America a native source of that luxury and eventually a valuable export. The rushed building of a harbor completed the project.
Another period of peace followed the conquest of Russia. American scientific research was booming, and discovery of the Theory of Evolution took America from a small scientific lead to a large one. America entered the modern age in 1660 and quickly researched computers. Not long after, it started work on the SETI Project, which it finished putting into effect just as the last of the nation’s key cities were completing work on their new offshore platforms – exactly as America’s leaders had planned.
The completion of the SETI Project in 1756, coupled with the previous construction of the Hoover Dam, brought America into its Golden Age. At almost exactly the same time, American scientists discovered the wonders of synthetic fibers. America had already been building large numbers of tanks, and most of those were quickly upgraded to modern armor. The time for Japan to pay for its previous aggression and insults was long overdue. That price would be exacted in full measure, with centuries of compound interest tacked on.
What would later be known as the Final War began in earnest in 1766 with the capture of five Japanese cities, including Kyoto. Resistance was a little heavier than expected, with a handful of conscripted mechanized infantry assisting Japan’s older, better-trained, regular infantry, but the outcome was never in doubt. Three more cities fell shortly after that, and then America’s leaders found themselves in a quandary.
Greece had already been fighting Japan for a while, and had taken Satsuma away from Japan. Unfortunately, Satsuma lay squarely along the best path to capture Nagoya before it could conscript any more of its citizens to die needlessly. American leaders remembered Greece’s earlier declaration of war on America, and noted that since Greece lacked oil, the most modern forces it could field would be badly outdated infantry.
Greece’s fate was sealed. American modern armor swarmed through Satsuma and into Nagoya, crushing all opposition. Still more modern armor flooded down and captured Argos and Sparta, the latter bringing Universal Suffrage to America. And Greek cavalry who had been sent north to fight the Japanese suddenly found themselves completely overwhelmed in assaults by mechanized infantry.
But even that was not enough to satisfy America’s leaders. As a precautionary measure, America paid Egypt to join it in the war against Greece and Japan. America neither needed nor particularly wanted military help, although it would be nice if Egypt could take care of some or all of Japan’s cities on a large island the two nations shared. But enlisting Egypt as an ally would cut Greece and Japan off from Egyptian strategic and luxury resources, and would eliminate the risk of Egypt’s coming into the war on the other side and cutting off America’s access to Egyptian luxuries.
After the initial conflicts, America had to reposition its forces before it could strike into the Greek heartland. In the meantime, other forces moved north and captured Japan’s last two cities on its home continent, and also took Phocaea on Spice Island.
Then America suffered a setback as Sparta rebelled and rejoined the Greek nation. The rebellion was immediately reversed, but not before it destroyed about four injured modern armor battalions, a number of older units added to help try to maintain order, and an army with four mechanized infantry battalions. The losses were only a small fraction of America’s total striking power, and America’s production of reinforcements was truly phenomenal, but the loss was still irritating.
While the recapture of Sparta was in progress, other American units were at work as well. Besides Sparta, nine other Greek cities fell almost as one, including the capital and the two cities controlling Greece’s only source of rubber. Not long after, American forces crossed rugged terrain and took Herakleia and Pergamon, with the great leader Sherman emerging from the latter battle.
At that point, America still had one city to conquer on the Greek mainland, but terrain was a far greater obstacle to capturing that city than Greek defenders could ever be. It was time to start transporting the main body of American forces to Spice Island. Indeed, America had already airlifted in a few reinforcements.
So as Artemisium, the last mainland Greek city, fell, American forces were capturing Rhodes and Eretrium on the island, and other island forces destroyed Sicyon practically as its settlers finished laying their foundations. And while that was happening, two transports full of heavy forces landed on the island and started preparing for America’s final push.
In a last gasp for Greek survival, three ungarrisoned cities on the Greek mainland rebelled. But the rebellion was put down immediately, and the last three Greek cities on Spice Island fell into American hands as well. In the year 1780, the once-mighty Greek nation took its rightful place on the ash-heap of history where all of America’s enemies belong.
Sherman commemorated that event by moving America’s capital from Washington to the captured Greek city of Pharsalos. In the short term, that move would be costly, but in the longer view, it was the only way to make America’s vast new territories worth anything.
The end of the war with Greece still left a small remnant of Japan to settle with. Egypt had not captured any cities, but Egyptian ironclads had been pounding Japan’s cities quite heavily. Four years after Greece’s final collapse, American forces captured Ise and leveled Fukushima and Toyama. And two years after that, in 1786, America leveled Japan’s final city after Egypt destroyed Japan’s only other remnant. (Shortly after, America gave Ise to Egypt to defuse any tension that might have arisen had the nations attempted to share an island.)
But American’s golden age was about more than just armies and warfare. It was about research at a rate that discovered the newest and most complex of technologies as quickly as any technologies had ever been discovered in the history of man. It was about an Apollo program that put men on the moon and paved the way for construction of a ship to reach for the very stars themselves. It was about construction of pieces of that ship, and construction of new nuclear power plants in a few cities to help speed such construction along.
Finally, the golden age ended, and America’s research slowed down a little as the influx of gold faded to more normal levels. But by then, the work was almost finished. In 1810, the Planetary Party Lounge was fitted into place on the first ship ever designed to leave our solar system. Then the ship took off on what any expansionist civilization must view as the greatest voyage of all.
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Sorry if anyone considers the result a waste of time.
