I hope this gets others writing again. I miss the stories...
We were losing.
From time immemorial, the Roman Empire had been our dearest neighbour, located as it was directly between Western and Eastern Canada. Lucrative trade agreements and open borders had assured both countries would grow strong and wealthy, ensuring a high standard of living for their residents. Despite the close borders, which always were an issue in any sort of negotiations, the Roman and Canadian people shared similar religions and the challenges of living in an arid and desert environment.
So when the Romans made threatening overtures regarding our newest sciences and even demanded gold, we foolishly rebuffed them. We knew they would be upset so we sent our polite response with an annual shipment of rice to aid them in their frequent famines and overpopulated cities. Our concerns lay in other areas. We were having issues with both the Japanese directly to the west of Sudbury, near the great dye plantations, and the Aztecs to the south. Although the Malinese were situated between ourselves and the Aztecs, the Aztecs had open border agreements with the Malinese and frequented our border areas with large mixed armies.
Fortunately or unfortunately, dependant on your point of view, Canada had always been a country at war. Though we had never fought with our neighbours, we had battled barbarians for thousands of years. A standing army, although expensive, was a necessity to maintain the state in its fledgling years. Even the great Christian centre of Olmec was once a barbarian city, captured by the legendary 1st Quebec Division (“The Hewers”) in 200 BC. Many units had achieved, and maintained, their elite status through frequent battles with desert nomads and warriors from the Southern Jungle. It wasn’t until we were able to link up with the Egyptian empire that we finally found peace from the Barbarian aggressors to the south and east.
That was over 200 years ago, although it only seems like yesterday, and allowed Canada to begin its renaissance. Expenditures on education and research reached its zenith, ensuring we would gain a lead over our neighbours that would never be challenged. Despite the discovery of economics by the Egyptians and their successful trade mission to Delhi, we were quickly becoming the wealthiest nation in the known world. Our military was small but efficient. Continual training ensured existing units maintained their elite status and new units effectively gained defacto veteran status.
Canada was rich, ripe with resources and not afraid to share. Most of our trade agreements were not to our benefit. As rice, fruits and luxuries flowed to other less fortunate countries, the grand total of revenue from this was less than that generated by two of our smallest cities. We were fortunate but not greedy. War with barbarians demonstrated to us the value of having friends and peace.
Thus when the onslaught came, we were not prepared for the ferocity nor intensity of the invasions.
When 12 mixed Roman divisions poured across the western border of Eastern Canada, they were faced with only two divisions of troops. The Romans divisions were armed with longbows, axes, elephants and catapults. They faced only Canadian pikemen. The 3rd Petawawa Pikes positioned themselves in the hills west of Petawawa, protecting the gold mines, while the 5th Pikes prepared positions in Petawawa itself. The ball-loaded musket was still in the testing phase and had not been issued to line units, so the pikemen would be forced to endured volleys of arrows and continual barrages from the catapults. As we know, the 3rd Pikes paid in blood but exacted a tremendous toll on the Romans.
The pikes destroyed both elephant divisions, the lone catapult support division, and a full division of axemen, before succumbing to the volleys of the Roman longbowmen, who also suffered tremendous casualties. The remaining Roman divisions positioned themselves in the hills west of Petawawa. Fortunately, all workers had been evacuated from the gold mines. The Romans satisfied themselves with plundering the gold mines while they waited for artillery support to arise.
At the time, we did not know why the Romans only attacked towards the single city. We assumed it was to concentrate forces and keep supply lines short. In retrospect, attacking south and west would have had the potential of more plunder and less prospect for Canadian reinforcements relieving beleaguered garrisons. Now we know why – Tokugawa’s Imperial Japanese forces were on the move.
The terrible border skirmishes of Sudbury, the destruction wreaked by Japanese marauders and the ensuing famine were offset by the valiant defense and indomitable spirit of her people. The near destruction of the 1st Canadian Knights, the 7th Sudbury Pikes, 9th Winnipeg Pikes and the 4th Support Division (Catapult) gave the Japanese a tremendous morale boost that enabled them to surround Sudbury and attempt to starve it into submission. The fact that Sudbury held was due to the raids (if full divisional assaults can be considered a raid) by the French River troops and the refusal of the decimated troops and population of Sudbury to admit defeat. As it was, the 1st Knights and 4th Support continued raiding (and devastating) Japanese forces marching against French River.
The relief of Petawawa and the re-equipment of troops with the new muskets enabled Eastern Canada to make inroads against the Romans. In fact, the 1st Toronto Musketeers set the doctrine (and the standard) for the speed unique Canadian Musket divisions.
The ability to re-equip (the Torontonians had been a pike unit) and re-arm on the move, the manoeurability of heavily armed yet unarmored troops, and rigid physical fitness regimens undertaken by the Torontonians set the standard for all musketeer units, ensuring Canadian Musketeers would be faster (twice as fast in fact) and thus more combat capable then normal musket units. This speed, coupled with the outrage over the devastation and famine wrought upon the Sudburians, ensured the Romans were kept off balance. Soon, Ravenna fell and Cumae was under siege. When the 1st Quebec Maces became the 1st Quebec Elite Musketeers, they quickly decimated the two Longbow Divisions and single Mace-equipped division of the Cumae garrison. Their tactics (night fighting, thin skirmish/firing lines, aimed shots) formed the base curriculum to be taught at West Point being constructed in Winnipeg (the home of the Heroic Epic was deemed to be the logical location for training of officers for new elite units – Winnipeg has a proud history of military servitude.)
The war for survival seemed to be favouring the Canadians, although at a terrible cost.
Eastern Canadian Musketeers were raiding throughout Roman territory, suffering horrific losses but inflicting far greater damage on the enemy. It was during this time that the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th Musketeers were destroyed while decimating 3 to 4 times their numbers of pikes, longbowmen and macemen. Their skillful use of terrain will be taught at West Point while their honour rolls will adorn the Halls of Remembrance in the main building. Roman longbowmen frequently fled the battlefield when faced with Canadian muskets.
Japanese forces were streaming into the meat grinder that was the western Sudbury Plains. Few would return to their homeland, choosing to die for their Emperor vice facing surrender. Units from French River were able to finally open up a corridor to Eastern Canada and Sudbury, allowing the flow of food to Sudbury to stop the starvation. Sudbury gems and stone soon filtered back into Canadian cities, much to the relief of the people. The ample supplies of stone allowed the developers of West Point to double the amount of work crews building the great halls. Canadian knights and musketeers were finally fighting at the edges of Japanese territory.
When Edo fell to the proud 1st Canadian Cavalry (the newly refurbished and equipped 1st Knights) and the 7th Sudbury Musketeers, joy erupted throughout Canada! We had taken the first Japanese city! And only two Roman cities remained. Rome itself was facing the siege units, musketeers and the cavalry of Petawawa, Toronto and Ottawa (PT&O). Winnipeg and Hull forces had captured the southern Roman cities and were re-positioning to aid the PT&O forces.
That’s when Mali and the Aztec empire slammed into Winnipeg and Sudbury.
Mali sent more knights into the hills and prairies of Winnipeg then the combined total of all Knight units Canadian forces had faced at any point in history. Malinese knights did not take the opportunity to pillage, although this was attributed to the desire to take Winnipeg quickly then to any code of chivalry.
When Winnipeg was built, the forefathers saw the benefits of building in hills. Leaving plains and grasslands for the farmers may have been the primary reason for settling in hills, but the better defensive positions saved Winnipeg 27 centuries later. The 12th and 14th Winnipeg Musketeers held against the onslaught of the Royal Malinese Brigades (combined Knight, Longbow and Catapult regiments) despite a four to one advantage enjoyed by the Malinese. Stories of the near invincibility and stoicism of the two Winnipeg divisions are recorded at the Great Library and in the Halls of Remembrance. Although reduced to handfuls of men and women, the Musketeers finally disrupted the onslaught by executing a counter attack against the siege weaponry. Without catapult support, the knights became typical aggressors, pillaging and destroying instead of breaking against the defenders of Winnipeg.
Sudbury again faced starvation, as the Aztecs quickly cut the lines of supply to that great city. Despite sickness running rampant and fifth columnists attacking production sites, Sudbury was determined to hold. The garrison of Sudbury only consisted of two divisions of musketeers and a single siege brigade, but they were expert city defenders. Again, the Sudbury plains were a sea of fire, as hamlet, farm and pasture were put to torch. Aztec forces managed to gain the Sudbury Forest and commenced bombarding the defensive positions of the musketeers.
Canada was facing the forces of four great empires. The Aztec and the Japanese were attacking in the West, the Malinese attacking in the south and east, and the Romans raiding the northern border cities. Additionally, the Romans had been able to reverse engineer captured Canadian muskets and were placing musketmen in their cities. Owever, they were not able to duplicate the training and esprit de corps of Canadian units, resulting in the slow version typical of other countries. There were also rumours that the other aggressors had captured muskets and were doing their own developing.
We were losing.
From time immemorial, the Roman Empire had been our dearest neighbour, located as it was directly between Western and Eastern Canada. Lucrative trade agreements and open borders had assured both countries would grow strong and wealthy, ensuring a high standard of living for their residents. Despite the close borders, which always were an issue in any sort of negotiations, the Roman and Canadian people shared similar religions and the challenges of living in an arid and desert environment.
So when the Romans made threatening overtures regarding our newest sciences and even demanded gold, we foolishly rebuffed them. We knew they would be upset so we sent our polite response with an annual shipment of rice to aid them in their frequent famines and overpopulated cities. Our concerns lay in other areas. We were having issues with both the Japanese directly to the west of Sudbury, near the great dye plantations, and the Aztecs to the south. Although the Malinese were situated between ourselves and the Aztecs, the Aztecs had open border agreements with the Malinese and frequented our border areas with large mixed armies.
Fortunately or unfortunately, dependant on your point of view, Canada had always been a country at war. Though we had never fought with our neighbours, we had battled barbarians for thousands of years. A standing army, although expensive, was a necessity to maintain the state in its fledgling years. Even the great Christian centre of Olmec was once a barbarian city, captured by the legendary 1st Quebec Division (“The Hewers”) in 200 BC. Many units had achieved, and maintained, their elite status through frequent battles with desert nomads and warriors from the Southern Jungle. It wasn’t until we were able to link up with the Egyptian empire that we finally found peace from the Barbarian aggressors to the south and east.
That was over 200 years ago, although it only seems like yesterday, and allowed Canada to begin its renaissance. Expenditures on education and research reached its zenith, ensuring we would gain a lead over our neighbours that would never be challenged. Despite the discovery of economics by the Egyptians and their successful trade mission to Delhi, we were quickly becoming the wealthiest nation in the known world. Our military was small but efficient. Continual training ensured existing units maintained their elite status and new units effectively gained defacto veteran status.
Canada was rich, ripe with resources and not afraid to share. Most of our trade agreements were not to our benefit. As rice, fruits and luxuries flowed to other less fortunate countries, the grand total of revenue from this was less than that generated by two of our smallest cities. We were fortunate but not greedy. War with barbarians demonstrated to us the value of having friends and peace.
Thus when the onslaught came, we were not prepared for the ferocity nor intensity of the invasions.
When 12 mixed Roman divisions poured across the western border of Eastern Canada, they were faced with only two divisions of troops. The Romans divisions were armed with longbows, axes, elephants and catapults. They faced only Canadian pikemen. The 3rd Petawawa Pikes positioned themselves in the hills west of Petawawa, protecting the gold mines, while the 5th Pikes prepared positions in Petawawa itself. The ball-loaded musket was still in the testing phase and had not been issued to line units, so the pikemen would be forced to endured volleys of arrows and continual barrages from the catapults. As we know, the 3rd Pikes paid in blood but exacted a tremendous toll on the Romans.
The pikes destroyed both elephant divisions, the lone catapult support division, and a full division of axemen, before succumbing to the volleys of the Roman longbowmen, who also suffered tremendous casualties. The remaining Roman divisions positioned themselves in the hills west of Petawawa. Fortunately, all workers had been evacuated from the gold mines. The Romans satisfied themselves with plundering the gold mines while they waited for artillery support to arise.
At the time, we did not know why the Romans only attacked towards the single city. We assumed it was to concentrate forces and keep supply lines short. In retrospect, attacking south and west would have had the potential of more plunder and less prospect for Canadian reinforcements relieving beleaguered garrisons. Now we know why – Tokugawa’s Imperial Japanese forces were on the move.
The terrible border skirmishes of Sudbury, the destruction wreaked by Japanese marauders and the ensuing famine were offset by the valiant defense and indomitable spirit of her people. The near destruction of the 1st Canadian Knights, the 7th Sudbury Pikes, 9th Winnipeg Pikes and the 4th Support Division (Catapult) gave the Japanese a tremendous morale boost that enabled them to surround Sudbury and attempt to starve it into submission. The fact that Sudbury held was due to the raids (if full divisional assaults can be considered a raid) by the French River troops and the refusal of the decimated troops and population of Sudbury to admit defeat. As it was, the 1st Knights and 4th Support continued raiding (and devastating) Japanese forces marching against French River.
The relief of Petawawa and the re-equipment of troops with the new muskets enabled Eastern Canada to make inroads against the Romans. In fact, the 1st Toronto Musketeers set the doctrine (and the standard) for the speed unique Canadian Musket divisions.
The ability to re-equip (the Torontonians had been a pike unit) and re-arm on the move, the manoeurability of heavily armed yet unarmored troops, and rigid physical fitness regimens undertaken by the Torontonians set the standard for all musketeer units, ensuring Canadian Musketeers would be faster (twice as fast in fact) and thus more combat capable then normal musket units. This speed, coupled with the outrage over the devastation and famine wrought upon the Sudburians, ensured the Romans were kept off balance. Soon, Ravenna fell and Cumae was under siege. When the 1st Quebec Maces became the 1st Quebec Elite Musketeers, they quickly decimated the two Longbow Divisions and single Mace-equipped division of the Cumae garrison. Their tactics (night fighting, thin skirmish/firing lines, aimed shots) formed the base curriculum to be taught at West Point being constructed in Winnipeg (the home of the Heroic Epic was deemed to be the logical location for training of officers for new elite units – Winnipeg has a proud history of military servitude.)
The war for survival seemed to be favouring the Canadians, although at a terrible cost.
Eastern Canadian Musketeers were raiding throughout Roman territory, suffering horrific losses but inflicting far greater damage on the enemy. It was during this time that the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th Musketeers were destroyed while decimating 3 to 4 times their numbers of pikes, longbowmen and macemen. Their skillful use of terrain will be taught at West Point while their honour rolls will adorn the Halls of Remembrance in the main building. Roman longbowmen frequently fled the battlefield when faced with Canadian muskets.
Japanese forces were streaming into the meat grinder that was the western Sudbury Plains. Few would return to their homeland, choosing to die for their Emperor vice facing surrender. Units from French River were able to finally open up a corridor to Eastern Canada and Sudbury, allowing the flow of food to Sudbury to stop the starvation. Sudbury gems and stone soon filtered back into Canadian cities, much to the relief of the people. The ample supplies of stone allowed the developers of West Point to double the amount of work crews building the great halls. Canadian knights and musketeers were finally fighting at the edges of Japanese territory.
When Edo fell to the proud 1st Canadian Cavalry (the newly refurbished and equipped 1st Knights) and the 7th Sudbury Musketeers, joy erupted throughout Canada! We had taken the first Japanese city! And only two Roman cities remained. Rome itself was facing the siege units, musketeers and the cavalry of Petawawa, Toronto and Ottawa (PT&O). Winnipeg and Hull forces had captured the southern Roman cities and were re-positioning to aid the PT&O forces.
That’s when Mali and the Aztec empire slammed into Winnipeg and Sudbury.
Mali sent more knights into the hills and prairies of Winnipeg then the combined total of all Knight units Canadian forces had faced at any point in history. Malinese knights did not take the opportunity to pillage, although this was attributed to the desire to take Winnipeg quickly then to any code of chivalry.
When Winnipeg was built, the forefathers saw the benefits of building in hills. Leaving plains and grasslands for the farmers may have been the primary reason for settling in hills, but the better defensive positions saved Winnipeg 27 centuries later. The 12th and 14th Winnipeg Musketeers held against the onslaught of the Royal Malinese Brigades (combined Knight, Longbow and Catapult regiments) despite a four to one advantage enjoyed by the Malinese. Stories of the near invincibility and stoicism of the two Winnipeg divisions are recorded at the Great Library and in the Halls of Remembrance. Although reduced to handfuls of men and women, the Musketeers finally disrupted the onslaught by executing a counter attack against the siege weaponry. Without catapult support, the knights became typical aggressors, pillaging and destroying instead of breaking against the defenders of Winnipeg.
Sudbury again faced starvation, as the Aztecs quickly cut the lines of supply to that great city. Despite sickness running rampant and fifth columnists attacking production sites, Sudbury was determined to hold. The garrison of Sudbury only consisted of two divisions of musketeers and a single siege brigade, but they were expert city defenders. Again, the Sudbury plains were a sea of fire, as hamlet, farm and pasture were put to torch. Aztec forces managed to gain the Sudbury Forest and commenced bombarding the defensive positions of the musketeers.
Canada was facing the forces of four great empires. The Aztec and the Japanese were attacking in the West, the Malinese attacking in the south and east, and the Romans raiding the northern border cities. Additionally, the Romans had been able to reverse engineer captured Canadian muskets and were placing musketmen in their cities. Owever, they were not able to duplicate the training and esprit de corps of Canadian units, resulting in the slow version typical of other countries. There were also rumours that the other aggressors had captured muskets and were doing their own developing.
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