I’m just playing a game on earth map, which you can download at Civfanatics.com, where all civs are enabled. Im playing the standard version of civ 4 (not warlords), with the actual patch.
I never before played on a huge map an with marathon speed (so now you know allready some of my settings) an i must say, I’m quite impressed with this game-settings.
The difficulty level i tried this game was emperor, which i could in previous games quite good handle on standard or large maps with normal gamespeed.
I play the persians, because somehow i like them (always used to play most often with persians or babylonians in previous civ games (1-3)).
Why i decided to write about this game, is, because it is by far the best civ game i ever played and I’m heavily into the storyline of an alternative world history.
Im already about the time of ca. 100 a.d., so i will present the first part of the game as a review to bring you up to date and then will jump into the "real (game) live".
I decided to write the story from the perspective of the Persian emperor, involving some other characters.

The story is starring (in order of appearance):

The emperor:
Who in general is more interested in picking flowers, singing and dancing then in ruling his kingdom

The bunch of old truth-sayers:
The Persian wise men, who always try and do their best to convince the emperor to actually rule his kingdom

The general:
A surprisingly long lasting version of the Persian special unit who serves the kingdom since the very first battle (except of the early battle at the bear-eat-scout-ha-ha-they-deserved-it-river; that river should be later known as the Pasargarde-River). With his skills in battle and his intuition the general saved the Persian Empire more then once.
The Beginning
When i stepped out of my tent this morning, (in fact, it was a clear blue morning on early march 4000 b.c., but my truth-sayers didn’t know that up to much later), my back was hurting and I hadn’t slept half the night, I knew on thing:

I hate tents…

So (and because I was in the lucky position to be some god-like leader of my little tribe) I decided that it was time for us to settle down and to invent houses with beds.

When I contacted my truth-sayers, they proposed to settle on the desert-hill that lay north of us. As you can see, there were plenty of animals and other things around, which my truth-sayers deemed a good omen. Our scout was send west, to explore the surrounding area, and the city of – Persepolis – was found. (A stupid name in my opinion, because I voted for Snaatburg).

The exploration of the surrounding lands took us exactly 879 years, 9 month and 17 days, which, when you consider it by sheer number, seemed a little disappointing to me.

Our truth-sayers told me meanwhile (those old little buggers), that we should invent technology. I didn’t care much about technology in this situation, because I still tried to find out what the scouts where doing the last few decades, so they told me, that we were inventing things to work the surrounding lands, build roads and mines and alike.

We also made a huge development in military. We build one (yes, one) group of warriors, and for the last 200 years or so the truth-sayers were trying to train a group of peoples to work the land (and I must confess, that I admired their patience in this matter very much).

We also found out that there were other nations in the word, and met them all with pure peace and love (mainly because the truth-sayers said, that we couldn’t trade, sell or conquer anything).

In order of appearance we met:

Indians
Arabs
French

Also, the truth-sayers found an ideal location for our second settlement:

- on the wooded hills west of the stones, in the north west of our capital.

Another 1000 years (more or less) later, our scouts discovered one more good location for a city:

- in the river-forest west of the bears, that would eat them up next round (they deserved it!)

But, as you can see in the next picture, things never turn out the way we plan:

- the Arabs (green) have dared to settle in the land we claimed for us! They even missed the ideal spot for the city and placed it totally wrong (said the truth-sayers)!

With only one warrior guarding our poor settler we had no other choice then to move on to the so called bear-eat-scout-ha-ha-they-deserved-it-river (which was later renamed to Pasargarde-River by the truth-sayers) and hopefully find the location to settle still there.

They did find the place free for settlement, and also plenty of resources nearby. We also came in contact with more other nations, called

Egypt
Greece
Germany
Rome
Russia
Mongols
(again in order of appearance).

With so many neighbors the truth-sayers decided that we want to trade something (I voted for carpets, but my truth-sayers said alphabet). We then set our research for alphabet because I was told that carpets were out.
The truth-sayers told me, that, to connect our cities, we must get rid of the Arabic intruders in our land

I didn’t like the idea of war very much at first, because you always should try to live in peace and harmony (and also, I thought that I don’t look to good in my army cloth). But they could convince me, when they brought up the thing with the famous beach parties.

The truth-sayers therefore set the production in our capital to the Persian special unit and decided to produce 4 of them. They said that this should be enough to “convince” the Arabs to leave our country. The leader of the first group of riders was a young man everybody just called “General”. The truth-sayers said, that he will be very important for our empire. I wondered a little about that. Then we trained an additional setter to claim the land and to bring home the stones that can be found there (I also wondered a little about that, because there already was a city). With this stones, my truth-sayers said, we could build something called the pyramids which should be important for some reason.

Our second city is working on a builder, to build a connecting road to our capital.

After we produced our 4 war-units, we tried to convince the Arabs again peacefully to leave our country. Soon the truth-sayers found out, that the Arabic people living there admired our culture and were quite willing to join our course. But they were heavily oppressed by their garrison force of 2 bowman, which were loyal supporters of their crazy ruler, Saladin the mad. So I was forced to make my move and declared war to Saladin. We defeated the garrison force without any losses and the Arabic People held there promise and “donated” 2 additional builders to the Persian Empire. Sadly, the Arabic city was lost during the battle, because it burned down somehow (after the battle). I thing someone must have played with matches. It was pure luck, that there was a Persian settler nearby to build the new city of Susa on the ideal location (one hex north-east of the former Arabic city). Later, when I asked the new mayor about the famous beach parties, he just stared at me and said that his city wasn’t even near the coastline. To protect the truth-sayers, I kept the secret that they had absolutely no knowledge in geography to myself.

But Saladin tried again to invade our country and founded another settlement next to our capital. After our heroic troops where healed, they moved on directly to this new Arabic settlement and managed again to take it without any losses (and without burning it down. Some say, it was only because this city was on an ideal location.)

Again, our troops healed. 3 out of 4 even got there second promotion and the General advanced to our military leader. Then the truth-sayers and I made a fatal decision. We set the troops to march on the Arabic capital. In this short attack, the Persian people (and I) had to learn a bitter truth:

- The Persian special unit is perfect for fighting archers on the field or in new and small cities on flat land. Fighting grown and fortified cities on hills is deadly. 2 of the riders with there second promotion died, the General fled heavily injured and the forth decided not to attack…

The truth-sayers then decided to cancel the ongoing building of a library in my capital and to build barracks and then 4 more riders, so we had a total number of 6 to defend the Persian Empire. The pyramids we were trying to build in our second town were also cancelled, because some other nation was a little bit faster (we got 6 gold for our efforts of 3 rounds building…) and we decided to build barracks there also to help in the military efforts.

The truth-sayers meanwhile negotiated a peace treaty with the Arabs and later with the Egypt, because the Egypt sided with them and joined the war against us. I think they deemed it to risky to continue the war against two enemies. The General was still quite pleased with our war, because the Egypt only sent a stack of 3 suicide bowmen and a warrior during our short war-period that could easily be fought off by our riders (but to me, the really bad thing was that Hatschie cancelled our candlelight dinner I was looking forward since 600 years).

After we strengthened our army again to 6 units we went on with building libraries in our first 2 cities and a warrior each in our third and fourth city. But, as you can see, poor Persia is 1225 b.c. still the last one in the score list and we have 53 more rounds to go until we reach alphabet, which is our next big project. The truth-sayers hope, that we can trade it for bronze- and iron-working (and other useful stuff).

The peace that was granted to the Persian Emperor (=me) only lasted for 200 years. In comparison to the 2000 years of scouting next to nothing, only to end as bear-food, it occurred in fact as a very short period to me.

Then, the news reached me in my palace, when I was just having a delicious coup of Danish coffee and a banana cake in my office:

Mighty Egypt, which was on the top of the score list, has entered the Arabic half continent with two bowman, a warrior and a settler. The truth-sayers were upset. I tried to explain to them that Hatschie (I still think she looks nice) may settle anywhere, as long as I can have my well earned coffee with cake but they just refused to leave my bedroom (which I also used as office).

When the General and his leading officers were joining the party, my bedroom was finally bursting with people. To get rid of them, I signed the paper they had prepared and the General left with his 6 riders to meet the Egyptian party.

Later, they explained to me, that nobody can really say who started the initial attack, but the result was that the Egyptian party was completely destroyed and we found ourselves in another war, again with mighty Egypt (and I could throw my plans of dating Hatschi again to the dustbin).

As the General already had to find out in the horrible attack on Mekka (the Arabic capital) he and his riders weren’t able to take the fortified enemy cities. But on the field, they only had to fear the Egypt chariot.

The truth-sayers told me later on, that the General did a great job in breaking the Egypt military power by taking their horses. He and his men kept together and the more experienced ones managed to fight of 2 chariots, while the others defended them. They conquered the Egyptian horses and pillaged all improvements there. There was only one more chariot, that went after them and sadly, one rider was lost. In their anger, they started to pillage all city improvements, roads, just everything in the Egyptian empire and every bowman or warrior that crossed their path was killed. That brought mighty Egypt finally to his knees.

For almost 300 years, the Persian army patrolled and controlled the Egyptian lands, what brought them way down in the score list and crippled their research. Then it happened. The Arabs did it again. They founded a city in the lands the Persian claimed!

My truth-sayers said, that this time we should ignore that and that it was time to produce another settler and to let him wait in our capital (I will never understand their way of thinking).

Meanwhile, we finished the libraries in Persepolis and Pasargarde and managed to build another one in Susa. In Susa, we immediately switched to barracks and Persepolis and Pasargarde were building as many riders as possible.

Then my truth-sayers told me something that struck me hard:

- I have to pay for my empire!!!!

I really didn’t care much where my money came from. The truth-sayers told me then, that the money the scouts could raise (ah, the 2000 years), plunder from the Arabic cities and the money for pillaging the city improvements in Egypt was finally used up. Then they explained me, that our people pay taxes and that the taxes were used to finance our scientific research. Cities that are further away from our capital cost more upkeep for distance, and the more cities we have, the more basic upkeep we have to pay per city. (blabla, come to the point…).

So the result is that we have to lower our research rate from 100% to 50% and we neither can conquer nor found any new city or we would go bankrupt (then, sudden silence was waking me up from my daydream, and as I looked in the expecting faces of my truth-sayers I felt it was right to nod my head slowly and understanding).

Then they continued, that the plan to solve this crisis is, (I was shocked, there really is more input to come and fled back to daydreaming) to trade the newly found technology named alphabet for any technology we can get and to always ad up a little additional payment for us. We should take care of the trading order so we really get every technology that is actually available, and that we should continue trading for 2 or 3 rounds, because we have always to wait one round until we really master a new technology and can advance in the tech-tree (what ever this may be). In this period, we should put the research rate to 0. Then we should bring research up to 100% again and go directly for codes of law, because this would reduce upkeep somehow. Parallel we would adopt the most spread religion, Buddhism, as state religion and spread it with missionaries to all our cities because our people will be even happier then and the other nations with the same religion would even like us more (silence again).

This time, I didn’t dare nodding my head and asked timidly if they have some paper for me ready to sign. As I looked in the brightening faces of my truth-sayers I knew it: right answer.

I quickly singed some papers and because I felt that I hade done an important and also a very good job, I took the rest of the week of.

A week later, when I had dinner with the General, he told me in a proud voice, that it was very wise from me, to have all workers work on the newly found resources of copper and iron, that he will begin the production of swordsmen and one or to axmen as backup as soon as possible (I knew it, a very good job…) and that he will lead the rider suicide attack on Theben (the Egyptian capital) himself. On this point, I became a little insecure and ordered him, only to test if he got my plan right, to explain it to me once again.

He said, that we have gathered 10 riders so far, 2 more in production, and when we update our main army to swordsmen, we will only need 4 of them. The rest is too expensive in upkeep. Additionally we are again running out of money, and we will need the money we get when we conquer Theben to keep the research rate up to 100%.

When we attacked Theben, we had even more losses then calculated. Only 3 of 12 riders survived the attack, but we were able to conquer Theben and gained 221 gold peaces. Again the General somehow managed to survive. A new rider got produced in addition to our sword- and axmen, and when we finally managed to advance technologically to cods of law, the settler the truth-sayers had kept in our capital founded the city of Arbela and our troops marched first against the Arabs and then against the Egypt. Because of the ongoing raids of their lands, both weren’t able to put up a real defence and were overrun completely 100 a.d.

I’m not very much into politics, I must admit, but I was told, that there were 2 main political factions:

Europe was mainly siding with Egypt, while Asia was on our side. I was given a detailed list, which could be summarized the following:

Ashoka, Qin…, Kathy, Ludwig:
- friendly

Isabella:
- neutral

Friedrich, Alex, Julius:
- angry

Mansa:
- angry
(I was told, that Mansa is a little bit of a problem, because we still don’t know where exactly his cities are)

One day after Memphis had finally fallen to our troops, the whole bunch of truth-sayers again appeared in my office. Nevertheless I finished my cake, and had my bed rearranged, before I would listen to them.

They told me, that they had ongoing visions of the Pasagarde river running red with the blood of dying soldiers and that the fate of the whole Persian people could lie in that river.

I reacted quickly. After having them removed from my bedroom, I had their quarters immediately searched for any drugs or alike.

But when the General also came to me and begged me to give him control of a small handpicked stack of units to be send up to Pasagarde, and to have some city walls build, I just couldn’t refuse. So he had the warrior there upgraded to a spearman, and sent there additionally 2 experienced swordsmen, 1 axeman and 1 rider with a healing promotion.
Theben, 380 a.d. 9:30 a.m.:

The General was sitting in his office in the newly build military complex in Theben, with his head deep down in the papers, that lay spread on the table before him.

Among the papers was a diplomatic report that was sent to him directly from the truth-sayers that summarized the diplomatic investigation about Mansa the following:

Technology:
very advanced

Resources:
no horses, no iron, no copper, and lots of other things, they were missing

Army strength:
minimal to non, consisting only of warriors and bowmen (because of resource-problems)

Cities:
5

Additionally, he had the information of his scouts that the city defense of the 3 cities they had found so far was only 2-3 units per city.

Another letter from the truth-sayers said that it is up to him to decide if the African quest should be continued against Mansa, who still seems to be considered a thread by the truth-sayers. Only problem was, that no more troops from Persia and Arabia would be sent to help his quest in Africa, because whole Persia was trying to bring economy up by building courthouses in every single city.

With his standing army of heavily promoted 9 swordsmen, 2 axmen an 4 riders, he should be able to take all the cities from Mansa with very few casualties, but still he felt insecure because of the rumors, that were spread by one of his scouts:
It was said, that Mansa has found a way of replacing bowmen with a special unit that is fit perfectly for fighting in the jungle and for defending cities. That unit should even be able to face a promoted swordsman with equal odds!

Additionally, there was the thing with Egypt that troubled his mind:
How could the emperor sign a peace-treaty, when his troops were just about to take their last city and all their defenders were already down or heavily wounded!

With a heavy sight, he finally stood up and decided that he would first visit the celebrations for the beginning of the construction of the forbidden palace in Theben, before coming to a final decision on that matter...

Persepolis, one week earlier, 8:00 p.m.:

I (the emperor) was again very pleased with my work. Not only that Hatschie had come to my place yesterday evening to finally have that long promised candlelight dinner, I even managed to trade out a peace treaty. When she left my office next morning with all papers already signed, I decided to do more or less nothing for the rest of the day.

Persepolis, same day, six minutes later, emergency meeting at the headquarters of the truth-sayers:

“And there is really no way of getting rid of him?”
“No, oldest one, I checked the books again, and somehow his fate is connected with whole Persia”
“And if we lock him away, let’s say for the next 2000 years or so?”
“As you know yourself oldest one, this also won’t work, because he is the only one, the other leaders would talk to”

After a very short period of feeling very depressed, the face of the oldest one brightened visibly. Finally he wasn’t afraid any more of his approaching death, he just was lucky, that the whole stress would be soon over, and his business would be passed onto the next unlucky soul… (the concept of retirement wasn’t very popular in early Persia).

Pasagarde River, watchout post 12, at about the same time:

The guards were woken up by a loud noise. When they decided to get up and to work, they saw movement at the opposite side of the river:
There was a small band of Greek soldiers cutting wood and preparing to build boats to cross the river.
But what shocked them most, was, that the Greeks seemed to have somehow invented a new military unit that looked like a bowman on a horse that could be seen sometimes through the woods.

When they send the bad news to the Governor of Pasagarde, he reacted quickly:
He ordered the bridge over the Pasagarde river to be destroyed immediately, and commanded all his troops to the watchout post 12, to try and hold the river their.
He then sent at once his 5 best pigeons with the news of the Greeks trying to cross the river to Persepolis.

When the news finally reached Persepolis, 5 days later, the Greeks already had launched their first open attack on watchout post 12, and any help was still far away (and drunk, because of the celebrations going on in Theben since 12 days, because the General was prolonging the celebrations day by day, to avoid making a decision).
Again, my plans of peace, love and harmony were scattered, and Persia was in war. So I simply decided to ignore this and took a trip to Africa and to visit Hatschie. You couldn’t imagine how sad I was, that she didn’t want to see me when I arrived in her new hometown. The messenger who met me, only said something about killing us all, when she could and so I decided to go to Theben and to test my new Palace (and to write some letters to Kathy).

Of course, there was lots of work to do, because I had to sing many papers for the truth-sayers. Additionally, a new oldest one had to be elected, because the old one (he was a very, very, very old one) died. Only thing that was strange about that, was, that he was actually looking as if smiling, when they buried him…

Of the little Pasagarde problem, we didn’t take much notice in Africa. No troops were raised here, and all cities were going for economics.

Only thing I heard, was, that shortly before the General arrived in Pasagarde, the first two waves of Greek attacks had already been thrown back. The Greeks seemed desperately trying to take outpost 12 on the wooded hill in the valley oft the Pasagarde River, before our reinforcement would arrive, and their losses were huge.

When the General finally arrived, the last attackers were thrown back into the river, and I received the following letter:

“
Dear emperor, the Greek fought bravely, but they are defeated. If I may ad Sir, my opinion is that their cruel and also very stupid leader, Alex, is responsible for the death of many good Greek soldiers. Although way superior in number, they didn’t have any chance in taking outpost 12, because our men sunk all boats that tried to cross the river.
So Alex forced them to swim through the river and to attack the wooded hill, outpost 12 is build on, directly after landing on our side.

In the end, we fought off 8 horse archers, 6 swordsmen, 2 archers and 1 axeman, with our little band of 2 swordsmen, 1 axeman, 1 spearman and a rider. Only 1 swordsman and the spearman didn’t make it until the reinforcement arrived.

The Pasagarde River was running red with the blood of the dying Greek soldiers.

Sincerely yours
The General
“

The last bit seemed in a strange way familiar to me, but what should I say, I safe the day again. The truth-sayers would surely thank me later for wisely leaving some additional defenders in Pasagarde.

And the Persian people loved me.

I still remember, like yesterday, when a wise man from Theben came to me (oh it was yesterday) and told me, how proud he is to have an emperor as me. He said something about a good research strategy, and only to be sure, that he fully understood my wisdom, I had him repeat to me, what he knew:

- First Alphabet (to trade),
- then codes of law (to reduce city-upkeep),
- then calendar (happiness and health),
- then metal casting (to build a blacksmith ASAP and to specialize one citizen as blacksmith for getting a great engineer (GE) later),
- then construction (catapults and, if possible, war elephants) and
- on to divine right (to build the Versailles with the GE, and if lucky, to found Judaism)

After that input, I decided to stay another 100 years in Theben, and simply not to talk anymore to any wise men…

When I finally arrived back in Persepolis about 700 a.d. the war with the Greek was luckily over. What I heard about it was only, that, when the General struck back, he struck real hard, as you can see in the following picture.

In 560 he took Antium without any losses. Sadly, 2 riders were killed, after they went for the Greek horses at the Russian border (orange).

The Greek army was destroyed completely in the year 590, when their last offensive party tried to take back Antium. Our losses were again minimal.

Athen, the Greek capital fell in 640 and in 690 finally, we took the last Greek city.

All the Persian people agreed that the destruction of the Greek civilisation was just a fair payment for their treason.

Meanwhile, the truth-sayers bribed Russia into a war with Germany, by giving them theology (hey, I have just written about 150 letters to Kathy, hope they don’t spoil that also).

They seemed a little disappointed, because France didn’t want to accept their gift of theology for marching against the Romans. The General seems to fear specially the Romans, although they have only two cities in Europe, because of some mysterious unit called praetorians. Another problem was that they cut of culturally the land-passage to Athen, as you can see in the picture above.
When we left Rome in the year 710 a.d., the truth-sayers were upset. Neither trade, nor pass their territory would Julius allow us.

We had to do something, because the poor people in Athen were beginning to starve, because every land trade was blocked by the Romans. The situation got even worse, because the mood in Athen was growing towards a revolution, because the bowman, the General had sent there to defend the poor people, was blocked by the Romans.

So I decided to head again for Rome (this time alone, without the truth-sayers and the General) to do some more emperor-work. OK, things could have ended better, but I still thing I did a great job (yes, I admit, I accidentally declared war on them, but hey, we have the General…). And how could I know, that Spain would join the Romans in their war against us (only because they were closest friends, traded everything, had a common trade-embargo against us and Isa somehow hates me (should have sent her some letters also…). And that Friedrich closed his borders to Persia one turn later is a completely different story.

Finally, after they refused to talk to me for 2 days, the truth-sayers realized the good work I was doing, and rewarded me with a prolonged holiday trip to Memphis, a beautiful city deep down in Africa. I only had so sign some additional papers for them.

I later read in a Persian stone-carved newspaper (we hadn’t invented paper jet), that the truth-sayers somehow managed to convince France to help against Spain (we gave them also theology) and that things would look better now.

Also, some boring military reports reached me, which said, that the general sent out one rider on a suicide mission, to do some investigations of the Roman troops.

The good news seemed to be, that the rider somehow managed to come back alive, but the reports he gave seemed to be the bad news:

The forces the Romans had massed in Rome were:

8 praetorians,
4 axmen,
3 spearmen,
2 catapults and
11 super bowmen (a bowman with a huge bow, which looked dangerous, but couldn’t be identify exactly)

The General seemed to be shocked by this report, because he ordered all his troops (consisting mainly of wounded swordsmen) to reassemble in Sparta and to give up Athen and Antium.

Additionally all defenders from Pasagarde were ordered to Sparta. If the Romans would try to go around Sparta and to head directly for Pasagarde, Sparta would also be given up, and our troops would again fortify on the famous watchout post 12. I didn’t worry too much about the whole situation, because in any case of real emergency, they would ask me to abort my holiday and come up there for help…
Note from the Author:
Ingredients:

1. your army (the stronger the better)
2. golden rule (never ever take catapults with you)
3. enemy target (best suited is a heavily fortified city (city walls are always a good option), on a hill, behind a river)
4. defenders (go for heavily promoted elephants)
5. attack order (best is, to start the attack with your defenders)
6. reinforcement (if you still have troops left, repeat step 1-5 until answer is no)

Field tests: Attack of Sparta

Take 6 praetorians, 4 axmen, 2 spearmen and 2 longbow men. Carefully place them in front of the river near the hill city of Sparta. Check the defenders for the required elephants. When you find 4-5 of them, check for their promotions. When all of them have at least one strength and the shock promo, start the attack. Don’t forget to attack with every single unit (also the longbow men)

Before the attack (730 a.d.) …

And after (740 a.d.)…

I don’t like saving and reloading to change the outcome of any battle, because I think it destroys somehow the game atmosphere, but this incident was an exception. I tried and tested 4 times (even moved some defenders out of the town) and so I can guaranty a success rate of 100% of this unbeatable suicide-tactics. None of the attackers will ever win a single fight. 3 times out of 4, one of the 5 elephants even got his full health back after the promo he received the next round.

As reinforcement, Julius took the remaining 2 praetorians, 4 of the longbow men and the 2 catapults, and tried to repeat the attack in the next round. This time, the Persian troops charged (after soften them up with 2 catapults), and all Roman attack forces were destroyed 740 a.d.. As you can see in the picture above, the defenders left in Rome seemed quit easy prey now, so the Persian army prepared to advanced.
End Note
In the year 840 a.d., a letter from Sparta arrived at Memphis. It was from the General:

“
Dear emperor,

We all hope, that you are doing well in Memphis, have good weather and find some time to enjoy the beautiful beaches there.

We had reports from France exchange soldiers about Caesar not being very skilled, when it comes to military warfare, but this was such a perfect failure that it was even a little impressive.

Here in Sparta, we all agreed upon, that to destroy your whole army within one turn, it takes quite a lot of planning and careful preparations…

But, never the less, we now have conquered Rome in 790 a.d. and Cumae followed in 840 a.d.. After Rome is no longer present in Europe, the truth-sayers agreed upon a peace treaty with them and with Spain.

Bad news is that France, Spain, Russia and Germany also signed all a peace treaty, and the further expansion into Europe will now be a little more difficult than you have planed.

Additionally, Russia at once has launched an attack at Mansa, what also worries us, because Mansa is in Africa and our territory is in between them. We only can hope that we aren’t involved in this war.

Sincerely yours

The General
“

Europe 840 a.d.:

Politics in 840 a.d.:

My answer came quickly (except of the 3 weeks delay because of the slow working pigeon network):

“
Yes, I do enjoy beaches and everything here, but after 250 years, it grows a little boring. Nice that everything is fine with you. How’s the research of the new and faster pigeon breed going along?

And by the way, please explain again my expansion plans in Europe.”
“

Another 3 weeks later:

“
Dear emperor,

We are again in trouble. Rome and Cumae are blocked by German territory, and they wouldn’t allow us to pass. Most of our troops are stuck in Rome, and the food supplies are running low.

By the way, Persia didn’t make it in founding Islam. India was one (yes, one whole round) round faster.

Like you planned, we are about to build the Versailles in Sparta now. But to secure the city from enemy influence, we have to clear the nearest surrounding areas (= also known as Central-Europe), what could get a little difficult now, with peace all over between our neighbors their.

But I have good news from the head of the pigeon association. They will have new pigeons ready soon.

Sincerely yours

The General
“

Our troops blocked by German territory in 860 a.d.:

Russian troops approaching Mansa, who is already waiting at our African border:

“
Hello there,

I don’t care for your unimportant military and political problems. I want to have those new pigeons, and I want to have them right now.
“

“
Dear emperor,

Four of the truth-sayers committed suicide last week (after reading your message). Never the less, we had to declare war against Germany in 860 a.d., to free the troops and to bring food to the poor people of Rome and Cumae.

Also, Persepolis managed to build Heroic Epic the same year, and we are sending out a last wave of Swordsmen (one per turn for the next 10 turns).

To speed up the GE in Susa, which we need to speed up the Versailles in Sparta, we have built the National Epic there and also plan to hire a scientist for 10 turns.

We had to sent some troops to Sparta, because a German revolt was feared (from 9,67% likely to revolt down to 5,81%). We cannot afford to loose some turns in the production of the Versailles there, shortly before our Great Engineer will arrive. We will station even more troops there, to reduce the risk of a revolt to something below 2,00%.

How’s the work of the spiral minaret in Memphis going along?

Sincerely yours

The General
“

The following pictures are all taken 860 a.d.:

Persepolis (Heroic Epic: +100% troop production):

Susa (National Epic: GP + 100%, GE ready next round):

Sparta (Versailles in progress, risk of revolution down to 5,81%):

Memphis (Spiral Minaret is being build):

“
Where are my pigeons!!!
“

“
Dear emperor,

Sorry that I forgot to mention, that the first test-pigeons are on the way to Memphis. Please do not respond to this message, because we are running out of truth-sayers.

Sincerely yours

The General
“

After the few surviving truth-sayeres finally succeeded in their experiment in putting armored men on big horses (=knights) in 910 a.d., the Persian research was put down to 0 to raise funds to upgrade the remaining (heavily promoted) 3 riders and 4 horse archers ASAP.

Our historians much later will disclaim, that the year 910 was another milestone in Persian history, because not only were we dominating now the battlefield with our knights (no one else seemed to have those), we also captured Berlin from the Germans and removed most of the cultural pressure from Sparta.

Then there came 920 a.d. which wasn’t such a good year for Persia, because Russian mood towards us went down to cautious; those stupid truth-sayers refused Kathy’s request to declare war to Mansa. Hearing this, I decided to cancel my holiday at once and headed to Europe myself (I’m coming Kathy, I’m coming…).

It was then, when the message reached me, that the new breed of pigeons was finally released as an early beta version. The pigeon association was very proud of those animals. Not only should they fly faster, additionally they should be able apply other variants of traveling. I wondered a little about that, and then decided spontaneously to give the Top Secret Pigeon Trainings Site (TSPTS) near Persepolis a quick visit.

I was so impressed with what I saw that I decided to double their funds.

This was also the year, when Quin got knights, too (who cares). Hm, ok I think the truth-sayers cared a lot, because the General was faced with another suicide-wave. To make the best of this situation, the General sold Guilds in the same year to Ashoka for 820 Gold. (Ashoka seemed to be incredible rich; rumors said that this is connected somehow to Buddhism spreading all over the land and some mysterious holy city named Delhi, in India…)

In 960 a.d. Hamburg was finally brought down by the General himself, leading our new battalion of knights, and Germany was driven out of central Europe.

The General had achieved the goal, the I (???) had put up, to secure the lands around Sparta (= still Europe), where the Versailles was finally build (with the help of a GE and some chopping). The Germans still had 3 cities left in Scandinavia, but were no longer considered a military thread by the truth-sayers. They now had the stupid idea, that Russia was a thread (that bunch of losers).

World-Map (known to Persia in 960 a.d.):

When I arrived in Sparta, to meet the truth-sayers and the General, I was in a very good mood. After I’ve seen those magnificent Persian achievements at the TSPTS I felt even prepared for a lecture of the truth-sayers.

After listening to them for something like 2 hours (ok, it was more like 10 minutes or so), I changed my mind and wished I had never left Memphis, but now it was to late…

They kept going on like:
After we have now our first GE in Susa, we must try now to attract a Great Scientist (GS) in Susa. This is very important, because we have to maintain a technological lead in military. We even consider trying to attract a GS also Damaskus.

Susa, 960 a.d.:

Damaskus, 960 a.d.:

The Plan behind this is to use one of those GS to build an academy in Damaskus and to transfer Damaskus into our main scientific centre. The other GS would then settle in Damaskus as the head of the academy and increase science even more. With the 3 academies we already have conquered in Athen, Hamburg and Berlin, we should then be able to keep up in technology with the other nations except of India. When we specialize in military technology only, we should even be able to stay ahead of our great rivals in military, the Russians and the Chinese (I always thought they were our friends???). With India, we cannot compete, because the huge income they get from the holy city of Delhi, but they tend to direct their research more into economical… (at this point I fell asleep).

When I woke up again, they still were talking:

… achieved, and we control now the following Great Wonders:

Versailles (built in Sparta)
Chichen Itza (conquered in Berlin)
Great Lighthouse (conquered in Rome)

Especially the Versailles and the Great Lighthouse will help us to increase science even more. The Versailles reduces our city upkeep in Europe and the Great Lighthouse increases our costal trade and therefore our income. We are building harbours in all our costal cities, to max out this benefit. With this, we will try to maintain a researches rate of 70 %.

The cities that aren’t building harbors are going directly for science by building libraries or are producing knights to strengthen our army.

We have decided, that our army should contain mainly of knights and that we wont upgrade our swordsmen to mace men to safe the money. Even if mace men are slightly better in attacking enemy cities, we go for knights, because of the following reasons:

- knights have basic strength 10 compared to basic strength 8 of mace men
- knights move faster (double speed)
- knights can be upgraded to cavalry (whatever this may be)
- knights have a chance to withdraw from a fight when loosing

The result of this is, that knights are better when fighting in the open field, can do quick pillaging missions, can attack and retreat to a safe(er) place and most important, while our slow catapults approach an enemy city (protected by knights not wounded), wounded knights can retreat to friendly territory and heal their wounds while preparing for the next attack. With their speed, they then catch up easily with the catapult stack. This helps reducing losses dramatically.

Additionally, we are already conducting secret tests with something our scientists call powder that goes booom (and usually kills some scientists while boooming) and we hope, that our knights can somehow profit from this invention in the end.
It was still quite dark when the General stepped out of his tent this rainy morning. Clouds hung low all around the hilltop, they called their base now since almost two month. He had called this early meeting with his leading officers, to discuss strategy for the last time. Several hours later, he expected most of them being dead.

When he looked in their eyes, he saw that they knew it, too. But there was something else, a certain kind of pride in their eyes that he had picked them for this task. Seeing this, he felt a little bit of hope rise that things wouldn’t be as bad as he expected…

Far down the hill, already in the outskirts of Paris, six battalions of Persian swordsmen were regrouping. The French had made a last effort to break though the Persian lines. The Persian forces had losses but their lines held. The French goal has been, like all the days before, to bring down the massive batteries of catapults the Persian had installed. This time, two French battalions of horse archers, one of swordsmen and one of axmen had been destroyed. They had been backed by 2 groups of mobile French catapults that both somehow managed to retreat into the city.

Up the hill, the Persian catapults were still at work. During the last week, the Persian forces even had started to break the stones out of the very hill they were standing upon, to keep them running. When the catapults finally stood still, after 7 weeks of bombardment, a third of Paris was burning and the city wall was broken in several places.

The remaining French troops had decided to make their stand in the Bastille. This mighty fortress, although heavily damaged, still looked like a hell of a problem to conquer. To make things worse, reports of Persian scouts said, that the French support in the city population was still quite strong and that ambushes on any advancing Persian troops were very likely…

Closing his papers, the General considered for a last time his decision, and then he nodded to the officers standing next to him. Fifteen minutes later, the whole Persian army marched down the hill and approached Paris. Standing in front of his tent, overlooking the city, the General looked again in the troop reports on his table. In the end, he thought, all comes down to sheer number, and the numbers were clearly in favor of Persia:

Persian troops:

6 knight (two lightly wounded)
5 elephants (one heavily wounded, one injured)
16 swordsmen (one heavily wounded, two injured, 4 lightly wounded)
4 catapults (all damaged)

French defenders:

11 longbow men
2 catapults (heavily damaged)
1 spearman

In the end, the final battle lasted only 3 hours, then the Bastille was down and the French troops finally surrendered in Paris.

Paris before the attack:

When the General finally arrived in Paris himself, the officers in charge returned to him to report. Altogether, 27 officers had been at the meeting this morning, each leading a Persian battalion. Now, 3 hours later, there were only 14 pairs of eyes left to look at him. It was then, the General decided to lead the next big battle himself.

Paris after the attack:

The truthsayers were happy. Finally they were in control of Paris. And Paris was more than a city; Paris itself was a wonder, build around other wonders.

The French had managed to build in Paris:

- an academy
- the Pyramids
- the great Library
- the hanging Gardens
- the Colossus
- the Pantheon
- lots of other stuff…

City screen of Paris:

The same year in which Paris was captured, a great revolution swept all over the Persian Empire. The government changed to something the people called Representation. When I (the emperor) returned much later to Persepolis, I strongly suspected the truthsayers to be behind this all, but who could really say…

To be honest, I have to admit that also off all the things going on in Europe I new nothing because I still was in Delhi, at Ashokas big millennium party (together with Ludwig who new as much as I did).
There was a great Party in Delhi to celebrate the coming of the new millennium 1000 a.d.. Ashoka had invited most of the famous people that were around, like Kathy, Dschingis, Qin, Ludwing, Liza, Hatschi and of course me. The others he didn’t bother to invite, because he said they were of the wrong religion (not Buddhist) and the investment of inviting them wasn’t worth it (what ever he meant with that).

Like you can see in the following picture, being not Buddhist wasn`t very popular...

Delhi & Religion 1000 a.d.:

The Party was in some huge holy temple in the centre of Delhi. The temple seemed to be painted in some gold-color. Qin even said to me, that the temple actually is build of gold…

At a hidden back-door, I could get a glimpse at some people shovelling actually money in. Qin just smiled knowingly and said that Ashoka is running science at 100 % and is still making 50 Gold per round.

The party seemed to last for ages. I was so glad, that I had signed all the papers the truthsayers wanted me to sign already in advance, before I left for Delhi. So I just could enjoy my time here.

Then suddenly, the mood went down dramatically. Qin left Delhi with all his staff. Before leaving, he passed over to my suite and said I was right about Ashoka, that he in fact would be a threat in the long run. And with the nice gift of Civil Service and Divine Right he will send now his warriors after Ashoka.

Only an hour later, Dschingis came to my room, holding a letter in his hands. With a quick look, I saw my signature on the last page. He said that after we shared the secret of knight with him and gave him Civil Service and Divine Right, he will do as I begged…

Next thing I heard was Kathy shouting at Dschingis (she had her suite next to mine…), that he is mad to do such things, after the long period of peace and harmony between Russia and Mongolia…

Then Ludwig came to my place, and I already expected the worst. But it turned out that he was quite happy to meet me and he just said he already prepared everything for our departure, like I had written to him. When we left together, direction Persepolis, I asked him a little what I actually had written him. He said that I proposed to continue the party in Persepolis with all the political tensions arising in Delhi. And that he thinks that I am right to get out off the way of all this war stuff.

When we arrived at my palace in Persepolis, all my palace guards were running out to greet us. I have to say that i was a little surprised when they stared immediately to massacre Ludwig´s staff and dragged Ludwig out of the coach, direction prison...

In fact, I was so amazed with what was going on, that I decided to do nothing and just watched a little. When all was over, the truthsayers came to greet me. They said that everything worked out exactly as I had planned and that now, with all the wars in Asia, nobody would care for our troops already laying siege to Paris. Additionally, with Ludwig as our prisoner, the French resistance wouldn´t last very long.

Relations 1000 a.d.:

When the Spiral Minaret was build in Memphis in 1035 a.d., the truthsayers explained to me, that now we should send out missionaries and spread Buddhism to all our cities. Additionally, we should build temples and the like. Not only would this improve the happiness of our citizens, we would also improve relations with our brothers in believe.

Ashoka would profit from this also, because of his holy city in Delhi, but the truthsayers already seemed to have a plan concerning this matter…

When Orleans was finally captured, France was destroyed 1040 a.d.. Our troops immediately headed towards the Spanish territory, because the truthsayers said that now is the time to spread our religion to there. If this has to be done with our military, then it must be. In the beginning, I had the strong feeling that this story about spreading religion and liberating the poor Spanish people was just a cover for a long planned military assault on their territory, but when I found out, that there were actually missionaries going along with our troops, I dispelled such thoughts and turned to more important matters....

Persian-France 1040 a.d.:

It turned out, that Spain rejected all our peaceful begs and pleas to cooperate in peace, and our troops had to attack them in 1050 a.d..

It was in the year 1065 a.d., when Barcelona, a Spanish colony in Africa was captured by some Persian troops there. It was great luck that some troops were just waiting nearby this colony when the unexpected war against Spain began.

In the same year, an Academy was built in Damaskus. The truthsayers were very pleased, because the Persian research was booming; they said that something called military traditions will be researched in altogether 8 rounds.

Persian-Africa 1065 a.d.:

When the General ordered the attack of the Spanish capital, he rode ahead of his men. With Madrid being bombed since weeks by his catapults and all the fortifications in ruins, he judged the chances of having losses in this battle minimal. Later, when the battle was over and the highest officers were carrying the dead body of the General back to his tent, nobody could really say what actually happened. Some said that his horse stumbled and that he got ridden down by his own men, some said that he was hit by a rock falling down the broken city walls and then simply fell dead of his horse… (Authors note: bad luck I have no exact numbers of the fight chances or a screenshot of this uber-unit (I think it had over 65 xp and about 6 or 7 promotions) but I didn’t think this possible to happen).

Never the less, the Persian troops broke the Spanish resistance without any more losses and Spain was destroyed.

Persian-Spain 1070 a.d.:

When the truthsayers came to me with the news of the General dead, I could see the terror in their faces. The question was, what the mighty Persian army would be without a strong leader. When I came up with the solution of this problem, they stared at me wide-eyed. One even fainted…

I think it was because they were again so proud of their brave emperor.

The new military leader of the mighty Persian army would be … ME … .
The world map in 1070 a.d.:

Since I was now the new head of the Persian Army, I was invited to a military presentation by the truthsayers. I was told that some scientists would show the latest research in military technology. So I was guided to some military training yard. A proud young officer came to greet me and told me something about the great thing he would be allowed to show me. At my side were two scientists, which seemed quite nervous.

Then the officer mounted on a horse and took some sort of strange looking stick in his hand. He rode towards a small hill, behind which a funny looking thing with red and white circles was installed. As soon as he reached the hilltop, last thing I remember was a great explosion. When I took my hand of my face and dared to glace around, the horse, the officer and the hill were gone. Left was a black smoldering crater with the red and white thing standing directly behind it…

I just wanted to tell the two scientists that I really was impressed (although I couldn’t see directly the military profit in blowing up this hill…), when they started to shout at each other:

“I told you to take less of the powder!”
“No, it is all your fault, the shell wasn’t strong enough”

Before I could ask them what they were talking about, the head scientist came over to us and told me that the cold buffet is open now. Of course I skipped the questioning and went over immediately, because everybody knows, that it is most important to be the first at any buffet.

Later I got explained by one of the truthsayers, that the red and white thing is quite commonly used as some Targeting Trainings Device (TTD)…

When I was asked to see the same presentation two weeks later, I immediately said yes, because last time it was quite impressive. This time, a pale and shaking officer came to greed me, mounted on the horse, took the stick (the scientists called shooting-stick), rode towards the crater (which somebody had filled up with earth) a small banging sound could be heard, the TTD shook a little and that was it.

I was quite disappointed, but since the two scientists where actually jumping up and down and seemed very pleased with what was going on, I kept I to myself (and decided that scientists must be somehow related to wise men and that it would be best to avoid contact with both groups).

Some time later, one of the truthsayers told me that Dschingis is waiting in my office. He also informed me, that Dschingis wants me to help him in his war against Russia, which wasn’t going very well. Dschingis so far had already lost 4 or 5 cities to Kathy and his empire was reduced to 4 cities in 1100 a.d.

1100 a.d. North-East Asia

The truthsayers advised me to refuse this plea for help, because we shouldn’t attack Kathy (besides, I would never attack Kathy) and Dschingis left Persepolis quite annoyed…

Only two days later, I received a letter from Kathy, that she is very very angry, because I refused to give her some Persian sheep. When I asked the truthsayers about it, they said to me, that it was in one of the papers I signed last week and that I did well and that Persia is no subject for blackmailing…

I still didn’t know why the truthsayers told me only some weeks later to accept Qin`s plea to help in his war against India, because I always thought that Qin was actually winning this war. He had already taken the first Indian city and was conducting raids all over the Indian subcontinent. But the truthsayers explained to me, that this is all a trick by Ashoka and that the Chinese are in great danger and that we must help them. So I accepted Qins plea in 1085 a.d. and directed most of our troops towards India. Only the remaining swordsmen and elephants were left in East Europe because the truthsayers said they would be to slow to travel to India (additionally they kept babbling about something like securing our border to Russia).

When Ashoka founded Liberalism in 1100 a.d., the truthsayers told me, that now I have the proof of how dangerous Ashoka really was. Althoug I didn`t know what Liberalism exactly was, I never the less ordered the troops to advance in Indian territory in 1115 a.d., and, thanks to my superior warfare tactics, we encountered absolutely no resistance (even no enemy troops...). Kalkutta, an Indian borderland city towards Persia, with two lonely groups of longbow men as defenders, was taken without any losses. In fact, only troops that were encountered in India were some Chinese troops (in great danger…) pillaging the land. In the year 1130 a.d. we finally equipped some of our knights with the shooting-sticks and I ordered the advance on Delhi.

This was also the year, when we met Monty. He seemed quite powerful, but hopelessly outdated in technology, so the truthsayers advised me to just ignore him (what was quite difficult to me, because I alwas had the feeling that his impressive skull-hat was staring at me..).

India, 1130 a.d. :

It took us 10 years to actually conquer Delhi, but thanks to my superior warfare tactics (still the truthsayers said it was only because of the shooting-sticks), our losses were minimal. There were only 2 long bowmen and one pike man defending the city, and one longbow men and the pike man were already injured from fighting against the Chinese. When our troops marched through Delhi in 1140 a.d., on our way to Bombay, we actually could really see how rich this city was. The holy temple made 74 gold per turn!!!

When we were advancing further into India, we saw more Chinese troops pillaging the land. I started to wonder, if the truthsayers could have mad a mistake. India had no resources, no army and no infrastructure left, so perhaps they weren’t as dangerous as we had suspected…

As you can see in the following picture, there are about 5-10 Chinese battalions patrolling Indian territory, while we were advancing on Bombay. The cooperation with the Chinese troops worked quite good so far, we took the cities, they took the losses…

India in 1140 a.d.:

In 1140 a.d., while I was doing my first warfare campaign, another revolution swept over Persia. The people were demanding something called “Nationhood”. The truthsayers told me, that this was good, because the people would become even happier with our strong army, as long as they had barracks in their home-cities.

Then in 1145 a.d., after Kathy has taken another city from Dschingis, Mongolia surrendered to Russia by giving them all their technology and their money. Then they agreed upon a peace treaty. I thought that it was a good thing, because peace is good, but the truthsayers told me, that this wasn’t a real peace treaty and that now Russia not only has about the same land size then Persia, they even got the money and the technology to upgrade their horse archers (of which they seemed to have about one billion) to knights.

And, as to prove this, Russia started immediately to mass troops near our boarder in East Europe. Thanks to my great knowledge in military strategy I had left some troops in Europe before heading for India. I allowed the truthsayers to take command of these troops while I was still touring around in India and they used this opportunity to show Russia some of their own troops. They said that this strategy they mad up themselves and they called it arms race. And they said that this strategy would surely prevent a war against Russia…

arms race in 1145 a.d.

They even dropped down the research rate to 0, to have enough money to carve horses out of our elephants (I thought this a bloody and quite cruel thing to do, but it actually seemed to work…) and to equip them with shooting sticks.

All worked good for about 10 years, and then Katharina declared war on us (so much for the arms race tactics…). The truthsayers had managed so far to transform 2 elephants in cavalry, 2 frightened elephants were still waiting to be transformed. The same year, to raise the funds for the remaining transformations, the truthsayers sold maps and everything they could sell (without asking me!!!). So they ended up with having 4 cavalry in 1155 a.d. when the first Russian raiding parties entered Persian-Europe.

Russian advance in 1155 a.d.

The truthsayers were very frightened with this development, but when they sent me some statistics about our troops in Europe, it was quite easy for me to calm them:

Our troops in Europe:

4 cavalry
8 swordsmen
4 catapults

Advancing Russian troops (visible to us on the map)

6 knights
3 pike men
4 mace men
4 catapults

After I had gathered so much experience with my war in India, I knew the right strategy to win a war. Just advance, leave no defenders, and take one city after the other. So I told them, to move all their troops directly to Sankt Petersburg, take the city, move on to the next city and so on…
The truthsayers did as I told them and advanced on Sankt Petersburg. Still they left 2 cavalry, 2 swordsmen and 2 longbow men in Hamburg for defence. I didn’t think this would be necessary, but they were in fact attacked in Hamburg quite fiercely buy the Russians. They managed to bring down so far:

4 knights
2 pikemen
3 catapults and
2 mace men

One cavalry was lost on our side…

The advance on Sankt Petersburg didn’t meet any resistance (as I had told them), but just when they wanted to attack the city, Russian reinforcement arrived (hey, that unfair, India didn’t do that)…

Two Russian stacks, containing altogether the following units headed for Sankt Petersburg:

5 knights
3 elephants
3 mace men
5 pike men
11 catapults (yes 11, and in letters: eleven)

Our advancing troops contained:

2 cavalry
6 swordsmen
4 catapults
(the rest was defending Hamburg)

Russian reinforcement, stack 1 (stack 2 just entered Moscow):

And then, additional bad news reached me 1165 a.d. in India via one of the new fast pigeons (on a bike). England had teamed up with Russia and declared war on us! There were already 2 English gallons and 3 English caravels pillaging our sea resources near the West-European shores. The truthsayers suspected that Kathy bribed them into this war…

So research was dropped down again by the truthsayers to 0 and they begged me to send them support from India. Since Indian troops couldn’t be found so far, I agreed to send them the remaining 5 knights that weren’t upgraded to cavalry. I still had 8 cavalry and 3 catapults left in India to take the last Indian city remaining in the Indian subcontinent.

So I wrote the truthsayers that everything is fine in India and that I did a very good job (as expected). Still they seemed not very pleased with me, because one of the truthsayers that accompanied me in India wrote them, that we were missing 2 cavalry and one catapult (I still don’t know where they have been lost, they just disappeared somehow…). So they went to Ashoka and traded out a peace treaty. I think it was because of the lack of time, that they couldn’t inform me of that. At that time, the Indian subcontinent was already under Persian control but India still held 3 or 4 cities in central Asia and one colony in Madagascar.

Persian India 1165 a.d.:

It was then the truthsayers announced a complete change in the Persian trading policy. The new concept was more like a non trading policy (don’t trade any technologies to anybody). This was because Russia had made friends with most of the world (and, according to them, the whole world had to be considered now as terrorists and traitors against Persia). The thought behind this was, that Persia had to prevent by all means that the Russian get something called “Military tradition” which so far only Persia had. The truthsayers explained to me, that this is because they heard rumours of Russian scientists researching something they called “Cossacks” and that this must be prevented by all means (this I understood, because I knew, all scientists (and also all wise men) are evil somehow)…

To make things worse, Persian spies brought reports to Paris, that the English prepared an invasion force. They already had stationed three galleons in the harbour of York and started gathering an invasion army:

English invasion army:

Hearing this, the truthsayers had to make a hard decision. Ether they had to give up Hamburg to the Russian and move the troops there to West-Europe for protection, or they had to split the reinforcements coming from India (the 5 knights). But this also seemed a problem to them, because they thought of needing them all (after upgrading them) for maintaining the position near Sankt Petersburg (11 Russian catapults and backup were approaching).
The truthsayers decided that 3 cavalry had to be enough support for the troops that laid siege to Sankt Petersburg. The remaining 2 cavalry were directed to Paris, to form the core of the defensive line against the approaching English invasion army. Two longbow men from towns in South Europe and two mace men (Paris and Madrid were building one each) should back them up. This surely wasn’t enough to destroy any bigger invasion army, but it should be enough to protect the city of Paris from the English. Pillaged land improvements were a loss that had to be calculated.

The cavalry that were sent to Sankt Petersburg managed to arrive just in time. Wave after wave of attacker’s crashed upon them, but they held their position in the forest near Sankt Petersburg, where the European Division of the Great Persian Army (EDGPA) was fighting for surviving. When the Russian catapults arrived, our losses were huge, but the truthsayers held their position. Additionally, the truthsayers announced throughout the whole Persian nation, that the position near Sankt Petersburg and the city of Hamburg hat to be held by all means.

The production and the commerce all over Persia began to stagnate from the year 1175 a.d. on, because all efforts and money had to be directed to the war against our mighty (and many…) foes. Troops were raised in all cities that were able to do so within less then 8 turns.

To back up our EDGPA even more, all available troops from India were directed to Europe. There were altogether 8 cavalry and 3 catapults that I had still left under my command. Just as we passed Persepolis, we got the news that a Russian invasion army has entered our territory via India. Since it only contained of 4 knights, 2 mace men and 2 pike men, they were fought of easily, without any losses from our side.

Bad news in this was that now we knew that India was also helping Russia in their war against us. Even Qin signed a peace treaty with India and refused to help us against Russia. He also refused to cancel his open border agreement with Russia. Nevertheless, I still kept to my decision and directed all my troops to Sankt Petersburg (worked for India, will work for Russia…). Just when we reached Pasagarde, we met one of the truthsayers there. He informed me, that I must leave at least 2 cavalry behind to be able to defend Persepolis. Since I didn’t want to quarrel with him (they new nothing of strategic warfare), I did as he begged and sent 2 of them back…

On our way to the Russian border, more Persian reinforcements arrived and we were able to form another 3 battalions of cavalry. Then, on the 11 of June in 1185, when I just entered Russian territory, the news reached me that the Russian had broken through the lines of the EDGPA. With my army still two days march away from Sankt Petersburg we could do nothing but to hurry. It was the 12 of June 1185, at about noon, after more then 30 years of fighting in the forests near Sankt Petersburg, when the EDGPA was finally utterly defeated (sad but true, my reinforcements should arrive to late by one whole turn…).

I was told later, that two battalions of our catapults held out until the very end, but they had no chance, as you can see in the following picture (before the Russian attack)…

Pic 46: last stand of EDGPA 1180 a.d.:

In the end, we had lost in the fight for Sankt Petersburg 6 cavalry, 8 swordsmen, 3 catapults and most of the truthsayers (and still weren’t able to take the city...). At least, most of the cities the fortifications had been destroyed during the fight.

When some of the surviving truthsayers joined my army, they dared to blame me for this failure. I had given them the command of the EDGPA, they get it destroyed and then they blame me (OK, I ordered the advance on Sankt Petersburg but how could I know that Russia had about one million of troops… … ups, I had forgotten about the one billion of horse archers only waiting to be upgraded…).

When they stopped shouting at me after several hours, they told me, that they had destroyed about 30 to 40 Russian battalions before they got defeated, mainly containing of catapults and knights and that scouts have just reported that more Russian troops are heading south from Moscow. It seemed like Kathy was about to transfer all troops from her eastern border cities (the ones she had captured from Dschingis) towards Sankt Petersburg.

Then we went together through my troop records which said:

9 battalions of cavalry (2 lightly injured, 2 injured)
nothing else (the catapults weren’t able to keep up in the rush towards Sankt Petersburg)

With 3 more battalion of cavalry arriving from Europe (thanks to slavery) and one stationed in Hamburg (lightly injured), the count was 13 cavalry for us, against the remaining defenders in Sankt Petersburg (see picture above, altogether 12 Russian units, most more or less injured).

With some of the cities fortification still intact and with no catapults left on our side, the chances to win this battle were about equal (with enormous losses on both sides, no matter who would win...). Still the truthsayers told me, that we must attack now, because we had no reinforcements left and that we would surely loose this battle, if we would allow the Russian reinforcements to arrive.

Just when the truthsayers and I were about to order the attack on Sankt Petersburg, more bad news arrived:

Mansa had declared war on us and was advancing with 4 mace men, two pike men and two catapults on Tarsus or Barcelona. We had no troops there, no money to upgrade our bowmen to longbow men and Barcelona was directly near Mansas cultural border (only thing we had, and only to use in case of emergency, was a big big ugly guy with a huge whip) …

Pic 47: Mansa advances 1185 a.d.:

Hearing this, the truthsayers decided that the attack of Sankt Petersburg had to be delayed (or even cancelled) and we sat to council once more. I must admit, that this was the time, when the feeling was growing stronger and stronger in me, that we got driven more and more in a mainly defensive role in this war.
Secret truthsayers meeting (near Sankt Petersburg):

“Umh, oldest one, tell me again, why we can’t get rid of him”

“Because the books say that the ancient truthsayers already discussed this matter about 1000 years ago and concluded that there is no way and that it is our fate to live with him…”

“Yea, but the trick with the holidays, couldn’t we try this one again?”

“No chance, since generations of truthsayers have used trick, we now have to face the fact that he has been already everywhere, sometimes even twice…”

“Any ideas?”

“Perhaps, I have been at a barbeque party with some foreign truthsayers, and one from England told me, that their live is much easier now, since their Queen does something they call -hobby-.”

“Aren’t we at war with the English?”

“Yea, but since the forming of the worldwide truthsayers association, we all take great profit from the worldwide truthsayers immunity status.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“Yes, indeed”

“But oldest one, when we are cooperating so closely with all the foreign truthsayers, why are we telling our people, that all the other countries are evil?”

“That’s a good question son, and I know a very good answer, but let’s first go back to the -hobby- thing.”

“If I got it right, a -hobby- is a completely non productive sort of work that you do on a regular basis with the intention of getting better every day.”

“But why should anybody do such a thing?”

“We don’t know, but when it works in England, it will surely work in Pesia”

“How exactly is it called?”

“Golf”

“Ok, then lets give it a try”

“Sorry for my question, but didn’t the emperor actually do a quite good job with the war in India?”

“No, he didn’t. The Indian had altogether 9 longbow men and 2 pike men defending all their cities, all wounded after numerous Chinese raids and still he managed to loose 2 cavalry and 1 catapult. With 10 cavalry, 5 knights and 4 catapults, even one of our new pigeons would have done a better job.”

Yea, I also agree. We will all die here, when we continue like he planed…”

“Oh”

“Do we actually know where our troops in India died then?”

“Nobody knows, they just seemed to disappear”

In the jungle, somewhere near Delhi:

“Hey seargeant, lets make something to eat”

“We have only 2 catapults left, so we will be running out of firewood soon”

“How many horses do we have left?”

“4 and a half”

“That’s OK to me”

“Does anybody know why the emperor said we should wait here?”

“No”

“Nop”

“No”

“Who cares…?”

“Then get the catapults and the horses, I get the grill”

We continued our emergency meeting near Sankt Petersburg shortly after the truthsayers finished their internal discussion. I was surprised a little by the friendly atmosphere in which the talking continued. When one of the truthsayers suddenly brought up the thing with building a “Golf Course” near Persepolis, I wondered a little, but since Elisabeth seemed to have such an important thing (what ever it was) I agreed at once to supervise this priority one project and then to test it myself. I left for Persepolis the same day. I only had to sign some papers to turn the command of the army to the truthsayers (the strange thing was that they already had prepared all the papers in advance (how could they know???)).

First good news I heard when I reached Persepolis was that thanks to 2 cavalry heading for Africa and some whipping (2 cavalry more), the advance from Mansa could be stopped. After he lost his initial attacking force, he never again sent any troops near our territory…

Some time later the news reached me that English forces had indeed landed near Paris in 1185 a.d..

English invasion:

But with our defending army of 2 cavalry, 2 mace men, and 2 longbow men, the truthsayers were able to drive them back.

I also heard, that Kathy had mad a fatal mistake. The truthsayers, who foolishly divided our army in several stacks and used 2 workers as bait (what a stupid idea), had managed somehow to drag half of the defenders out of Sankt Petersburg and to take the city with only a few losses.

Sankt Petersburg captured 1185 a.d.:

All Kathy’s attempts to retake the city failed, two stacks of her reinforcements were completely destroyed (altogether 15 Russian units; the truthsayers lost only 4 battalions of cavalry).

Shortly after this, the news reached me, that Persia was now worldwide in the third place concerning army strength. The truthsyers told me that they thought Persia had overtaken Kathy in army strength after the massacre of her troops near Sankt Petersburg. They also told me, that now only Qin and Monty had more military then Persia.

Elisabeth also seemed to have read this report, because she offered a peace treaty the same year…

So the truthsayers decided to use the whip a little more, filled our cavalry up again to 15 battalions and when the 3 battalions of catapults from India finally arrived, they advanced further into Russian territory.

Jekaterinburg and Rostow taken in 1220 a.d.:

1225 a.d. the truthsayers finally fought of Kathy’s last effort to launch a counterattack. 6 Russian battalions of knights were brought down by 4 Persian battalions of cavalry near Pasagarde. Some land improvements got pillaged and the truthsayers lost 3 battalions of cavalry, but still it seemed a great victory to them.

When the truthsayers took Moscow, the last resistance of Kathy was broken.

Moscow captured 1240 a.d.:

They agreed finally to a peace treaty with Kathy in 1260 a.d., after they had taken all her European and West-Asian cities. Instead of all the faults that they were making during their war campaign, it seemed that finally my good preparations and my tactical advices had helped them to win this war in the end (as I told them).

Europe and West-Asian 1260 a.d.:

Another revolution swept through Persia about the time the Russian war approached the end and our civics changed to Free Speech and Emancipation.

Author Note:
Revenge…

After conquering the Indian subcontinent and taking about a third of Kathy’s cities, I thought that Persia could now only be threatened by the Chinese and/or the Aztec, or again by a large coalition of minor foes. To prevent this, I decided that an example had to be made, concerning all who joined in the previous war against Persia.

This directly led to thee major tasks:

1. Securing our borders in Europe (England and Germany)

2. Securing our borders in Africa (Malines and Egypt)

3.Elimination of some minor countries that are hostile towards us as soon as possible to prevent being sucked into a world war via alliances (Rome and India)

Having played some more turns, I can therefore already tell you that the next 5 threads will be:

- What to do about Frederick?
- Inflicting some wars
- Visiting the Island (and playing some golf)
- Going to Madagascar
- Uniting Africa

Things were going quite good in the beginning for Persia and I thought of this game already more or less won…

But towards the end of this turn set, it became quite clear that I mad a big mistake. China, Russia, Mongolia and Japan had formed a secret alliance against me (I had completely forgotten to check on this in time…).

Since I felt superior I hadn’t produced any additional units. Still our army contained only of 15 cavalry and 4 catapults and our borderland cities were only defended by 2 units each (and 2 additional mobile units for every 2 borderland cities station between them).

When I finally checked the army statistics again, I found myself suddenly severely outnumbered. We had dropped back on the 5th place in army strength.

When Japan, China and Mongolia all cancelled their open border agreements with Persia (Russia never had one) within 2 turns I finally realised the trouble ahead (hope it is not to late…). At this point, China alone had about 4 or 5 stacks of 10+ units patrolling our border, and, taking a closer look, I see, guess what, yea, TANKS within these stacks.

How the hell did they get tanks when I still don’t have the technology for tanks yet (hm, maybe because I thought I was far ahead in technology, never checked the other nations and focused a little too much on expansion and economy)…

But on the other side, no matter if Persia should win or not, I think that this could lead to a great ending for a great game. It seems that all goes down to a big world war, were Persia will have to take on all the remaining nations…
end note
It were good and peaceful times for Persia, once the Russian was had ended. My emperor duty was once more reduced to have a banquet here and there and to meet with this and those important people. I really enjoyed this.

When the truthsayers came to me one day to discuss urgent foreign matters, I dismissed them without even looking at the papers they wanted to show me. How could the dare to spoil the peace and harmony that lay especially around Persepolis, which had grown into the main centre of the known world. Still I knew that they would come again to bother me, so I just signed the papers they left and had them sent to their secret headquarter via 5 pigeons (there were lots of papers).

Seems I had done the right thing, since prosperity and wealth continued to grow for some more years. We needed no army, no troops, simply nothing that could spoil the peace. I wondered a little where our army had gone since rumours started to spread that we were hunting down some minor tribes deep up in the north, but I didn’t count on them to be true.

Secret Truthsayer meeting:

“Oldest one, do you think it was a good decision to declare war to Frederick without telling the emperor?”

“Yes”

“Ahem, OK, but he must have signed some permission to do so”

“Yes”

“Just wondering, but you don’t seem to be in the mood to talk much lately, aren’t you?

“No”

Going for Frederick 1310 a.d.:

But when additional rumours started to spread, that some divisions of our army had been spotted somewhere in East-Africa, for unknown purpose, I decided that it’s time to investigate this more closely. So I went to the truthsayers headquarters and confronted the oldest one with what I had found out so far.

But in the end, everything just turned out to be a misunderstanding. I learned that our troops weren’t on a military mission, but they were helping Julius to move his palace to Madagascar. They even helped in moving one of his African towns to a better location from.

Clearing Africa 1322 a.d.:

Next Secret Truthsayer meeting:

“And you really don’t want to tell him that we are just about to eliminate all our smaller neighbours?

“No”

“Then I think, we have a signed permission to do so”

“Yes”

Would you mind explaining the rest of us in more detail why we are doing this?”

“Yes”

“OK, you’re the oldest one and can do as you whish, but I must insist that you tell us what you…”

“Leave now”

“Uhm, OK”

When the issue with our army was solved, we had even more peaceful and happy years. In addition, we built something called Taj Mahal in 1360 a.d. what made us even happier. But then, 1364 a.d. the truthsayers informed me, that Monty stands before my palace and wants to see me. So we invited him in and listened what he had to tell:

He asked us to help him in his quest against the English.

Since this would oppose directly our peace strategy, I wanted to decline this request politely. But when the truthsayers informed me, that England still wants to capture Paris and that we never will be save from them I finally agreed to accepted Monty plea.

So we decided to ship in some soldiers from Norway so we could fight the English on their own ground. When I asked why we are shipping our troops from German territory, the truthsayers told me sad news. The German nation is no more, their government has simply disappeared in 1388 a.d. To help the poor citizens there we had allowed them to join Persia…

Persian-Scandinavia 1388 a.d.:

The plan was that more troops would be shipped to England from central Europe via Paris once our fleet would be completed.
When the truthsayers asked for another audience shortly after, I had a bad feeling about that from the beginning on. Additionally I started to believe, that I had seen the actual oldest one before, but I couldn’t remember when and where. But it seemed strange to me, since he was elected oldest one not long ago…

The meeting seemed to drag on endlessly. All the truthsayers were trying convince me, that we should raise additional troops before we could ship our main army (containing of 4 catapults and 15 cavalry) over to England. They kept saying that we cant sent our army of without leaving a descent defensive force on the mainland.

But since we didn’t want any wars with our neighbours and were getting along with them very well at the moment (at least in my opinion) I wouldn’t allow that. In my opinion we did profit more from this peace period then from all the war in the past. Our economy was great, all our scientist were busy researching something (which was the best; like that they just hadn’t any time to bother me…) and our culture was adored in all the surrounding countries.

When the oldest one then sided with me and told the other that I was right, I immediately liked that guy (and dropped the thoughts I had before). He even came up with a plan to keep all our neighbours busy, while our troops were ashore.

He said, that he already talked to one of Quin`s truthsayers and that they would happily go to war against Mansa for the small gift of liberalism. Since nobody liked Mansa anyway, that would do us no harm. Then he came up with the additional plan to bribe Monty to go to war against Kathy for sheep (nobody knew why Monty would declare war to somebody over sheep, but he´s Monty…). Here, most of the other thrutsayers objected, because they thought, that bribing Monty to war against Kathy (everybody seemed to love Kathy but nobody really liked Monty) could spoil our relations to the other Asia countries. Also it would bring us even closer to Monty (after we already accepted his plea to attack Elisabeth) and that also wasn´t good (Monty was quite commonly considered as plain mad already at that time…). But since the oldest one had supported me with the troops and since I liked him now, I decided to support that decision and granted him full permission to do as he thought concerning foreign policies.

So that is what the relations looked shortly before Qin declared on mansa on our behalf in 1424 a.d.

Additionally, after another consultation with the oldest one, I agreed to set our research purely to economics. So we planded to research the following techs one after the other:

- Education
- Liberalism
- Economics
- Corporation
- Constitution
- Democracy
- Scientific Method
- Communism

While doing so, we had to face 2 more revolutions and our civics ended as follows:

- representation
- free speech
- emancipation
- state property
- free religion

When we had finally researched communism, we started immediately to work on something called “Kremlin”, because the oldest one said this would be good for our common course of boosting our economy. Since I didn’t want to raise the impression that I hadn’t the slightest idea what he was talking about I simply said yes, great, do so and signed some permissions.

As a result of our economic efforts, our cities started to grow and prosper and everything was fine.

You couldn’t imagine how shocked I was after all those years of peace (and banquets and cocktail parties…) when Qin suddenly burst into my office in the summer of 1428 a.d. and started to shout at me:

“Do you think I’m stupid and don’t know that you are the brain behind this all? Do you really think I don’t know that it was you who talked Monty into attacking me?”

“Umh, sorry, no, I don’t know what you are talking…”

“Oh, shut up you liar. We both know that Monty is a lunatic and that he will betray you at the first occasion. But when you still prefer him over me, you will have your reasons. And you will pay for that…”