The Glory of Egypt

[Jumping Choya]

Hello, and welcome. My name is Mattoles, and I am from the glorious Empire of Egypt, under the service of Queen Cleopatra. I wish to share with you the history of our empire. Now if you will, please make yourself comfortable while I recollect the early days...

The fine city of Thebes is said to have been founded around 4,000 BC - but that was well before my time, and times were simple back then. Our nation grew from the banks of the Nile River, and we felt no threats except from barbarians. We made sure to be friendly with our neighbors, as we were more interested in building our cities than destroying others. But once again, that was before my time, and the Queen is one of the few people you could get a first hand story from.

I was born in the fine city of Heliopolis in 530 BC. Heliopolis was near the border between our nations and the Greeks'. Our continent is shaped like a large wedge. Egypt occupies the southern half, while the Greeks took the middle-western portion, the Romans to the east up to the northern coast, and the Aztecs took the remaing north-west corner. The Chinese have a small subcontinent off of our western coast to themselves.

Growing up in Heliopolis, I always planned on being a stone mason when I grew up. There were many building proposals coming from Thebes and they needed people to make them realities.

The course of my life, however, would change dramatically when Egypt and Greece went to war in 550 BC.

The Great Greek War

I didn't know who declared war, or what the reasons were, but soon the swordsmen were marching out of their banners, waving the glorious Egyptian flag, armor glittering in the sun. Like many teenagers in Heliopolis, and indeed probably most of Egypt, I gazed with envy at them but still wished to be a stone mason.

My resolve would break, however, when stories came back to our city. Egyptian troops had liberated Corinth! But the news didn't stop there. Upon seizing Sparta, Egyptian troops had feasted and celebrated with wine from the two vineyards just outside of the former Greek town. I couldn't bear sitting this out anymore; I was missing too much!

So I bid my parents goodbye and walked down to the barracks to receive my armor and some basic training. And then my battalion went off to the Greek capitol of Athens.

The glory soon faded. We sat outside of Athens for months, waiting for a few more battalions to arrive for the assault. It rained frequently and the ground became muddy, the air cold, and the moods soured. Our leaders were barely trained more than we were. And to top it off, our foes were no slouches as I had believed when hearing the news back in Heliopolis. The most common Greek soldier - they called themselves Hoplites - hid behind large shields and lashed out with a sharp spear. Our swords could eventually gash through their armor, but would we be able to evade those prongs of death? The armor didn't seem so shiny anymore.

Nevertheless, I soon found myself marching forward towards the Greek capitol, along with several other battalions. We were all apprehensive, but none of us would admit it. Wasn't necessary to, anyway.

Within an hour we would be at the edge of the town, and the fighting was the most brutal thing I could ever think of. Colums of yellow (the color of Egypt's soldiers' banners) would clash with columns of green. Egytpian archers, led by men no smarter than cows, rushed too close to the enemy and were swiftly slaughtered, serving no purpose other than to train the enemy in a game. Our swordsmen fared better, but that does not say much. If we were gaining any ground, it wasn't obvious. The fighting took months, but soon Egypt prevailed. Athens had been taken!

At this point, I had seen enough war. I took off my armor and sent a letter home to my family, telling them I was okay, and that I planned to spend a few years in Athens. Greek architecture was most fascinating - at least, what hadn't been damaged by the riots ensuing our takeover.

However, the fight for Athens was nothing compared to the fight for Thermopylae, the next Greek city down the road. For years Egyptian swordsmen would be repulsed at the gates of the city. I became a little more keen to the military situation than I had been back in my reckless teens, and was rather shocked at the lack of care the Egyptian hierarchy had for the troops under their command. We had the capability to launch large rocks from a thing called a catapult, which would surely damage a city and its defenders. Why none were used, I don't know. I assumed that the Queen or some General in Thebes, far from the danger, was impatient and didn't want to bother with tactics or any such thing.

One night I received a knock at my door. I grabbed my dagger, fearful that it could be a Greek citizen out for Egyptian blood - such murders had been happening as tensions between the cultures were still high. However, it was a man wearing the uniform of an Egyptian officer. I ushered him in and offered him something to drink.

"I understand that you have seen battle before," he said to me. I nodded.

"Yes, I was in the final battle to take this city. But you wouldn't want to say that to anybody who lives here!" I mused with a laugh. But the laugh wasn't returned; it became clear that this was a business meeting.

"We need soldiers. Get your armor and meet at the north encampment tomorrow before afternoon. We need your experience," and with that, he got up and left.

Reluctant to fight again, but unwilling to let down the empire and the Queen, I did as I was told. And once again I saw hell on earth.

Three times I was in a battalion that assaulted Thermopylae - and three times we were rejected, barely bringing back any survivors. I made a name as a fierce fighter, however, and soon I was a seargant and commanding the remnants of a battalion. Sad it was that I was one of the most experienced on the battlefield - all the Generals were still in Thebes, sending hasty orders to "take the town and do it now!" because the Queen was beginning to get worried.

One cold morning we were woken up by a colonel and told to get on our armor. There was no question about it. Today was the day.

Once again I charged to a line of Greek Hoplites and once again there was blood running through the streets, with men collapsed in uncomfortable looking postions while others did all they could to make sure they would not end up like them. But the battle was in our favor.

Finally, many years after the war had began, we took the city and everybody had finally had enough war. We had instructions to negotiate for peace once we took the city.

Given my position, I sat in on the negotiations, and true to the rumors, Alexander of the Greeks did indeed have the look of a man with intestinal problems. His face was even more dark than usual, with his mouth twisted into an ugly scowl and his furry was evident. He was quite insistant that the Greeks had no interest in giving in to the Egyptians and our "ugly, wretched, excuse for a queen", but I was equally insistant that Egypt would get what it wanted. Alexander was a paper tiger - under my guidance, our delegation was able to obtain his world map, the Greek city of Pharsalos on the Chinese subcontinent, and most of what little gold the Greeks still had left. At the end of negotiations, the Greeks were left only with Delphi - a miserable city along disease-ridden floodbanks in the middle of the desert. Greece would not be a problem again. With another snarl, Alexander signed the peace treaty and the war was over.

[Jumping Choya]

The Egyptian Golden Age

My bravery in the battlefield and craftiness at the negotiations did not go unnoticed. Once again I received a message from an Egyptian official. This one was more surprising, and more pleasant.

I was now a colonel, and I was now in control of all military forces in the captured Greek cities, with a seat on the Egyptian Council.

Another pleasant surprise was my everlasting youth. Those in the Temples swore that I was blessed by Osiris with immortality. As long as I stayed out of danger, I could live for quite a long time. Not bad.

As I soon found out, my duties as Commander of the Greek Garrision extended beyond telling men to train here, and be there. Due to the rather inorganized fashion of these newly aquired towns, I found myself managing build orders for towns as well. Oh well, it made me feel distantly connected to my pre-war plans. Whenever possible, I instructed the architects to build temples and such to keep the people happy - high morale is important during war time.

However, despite my grand dreams, I found that there was too much waste and corruption by low-level officials to accomplish much beyond a few basic buildings. Only Athens and Sparta were able to keep up with my ambitious plans. I hoped to alleviate the situation by transferring the population of Corinth into other cities until there were no more people there. The Greek planners had been fools and built it too close to another city - they were already squabbling over who would get what from the fruitful land surrounding them. For the rest of the cities, I assigned them to send what little money they could recover to Thebes for the good of the empire.

While my corner of the empire dozed on, the rest of Egypt was prospering. That's not to say we didn't feel the effects of it.

One day sometime in 300 A.D., looking over an endless stack of scrolls in my office, my chief advisor, Lieutenant Ahmed, came in dressed in some silly garb.

"What are you wearing?" I exclaimed. They were clothes, but a totally different style. Not Greek, vaguely Egyptian...

"You must get out more often, sir. Everyone in the core of the empire is dressed this way. But that's not the least of it. Our historians say that due to our technological prowess, we're heading into new times! They're calling it the Middle Ages!"

"And the clothes have something to do with it?" I asked, concealing my interest. And just what were we in the middle of?

"Well, it's part of it, I guess."

Through the next few years I looked out my windows, and more people began wearing the silly clothes as the buildings began to change as well. New times were indeed upon Glorious Egypt.

Elsewhere in the empire, the Roman citizens in their town of Lugdunum revolted one night, overthrowing the Roman governor in the town and pledged their allegiance to us. In a council meeting the next week, we officially decided to welcome them to our empire.

Soon, a city far from my concerns built an amazing thing in 620 AD - the Hanging Gardens. The wonderful gardens perfectly symbolized the high culture of our empire - and thus began our Golden Age.

Soon we were making technological breakthroughs every few years, and even the cities in my control became moderately productive. Another Great Wonder was built, this one attracting a bit more of my attention. Some clever general in Thebes had caught the attention of a foreign general by the name of Sun Tzu. He set up an office in the palace and soon commisioned barracks to be built in every Egyptian city, save for our off-continet holdings. I was quite pleased that even my cities were granted this gift. Perhaps my soldiers could be well trained and equipped with new weapons after all.

Our empire continued to grow, as a small Aztec town also pledged allegiance to us.

Like all good things, however, the Golden Age couldn't last. In 820 AD, 200 years after it began, our Golden Age ended. My heart sank a bit as the workers in my cities began to slack off to their pre-Age productivity levels.

Soon, however, I would again to have reason to celebrate.

[Jumping Choya]

The Invention of Gunpowder

***I meant to continue this story a few days back, but you know how people have a way of getting busy and forgetting about things***

Our Golden Age was over, but Egypt was still bustling. In 830, a Roman city that was surrounded by our borders could no longer bear being so neglected by its parent country, and like Lugdunum before it, the citizens rose up and declared the city Egyptian. Once again, we welcomed them and immediately set to bringing the city infrastructure up to Egyptian standards.

I had always had a distant interest in the scientific research our soothsayers and other wise men were conducting, but none of their discoveries were as marvelous as the one Ahmed told me about one morning.

"Come, sir, the military advisor has recommended that we travel to Thebes," he told me after walking into my chamber, with scarcely a knock as always.

"What is it? Not a war, is it?"

"Oh, no. His messenger didn't say, really, but it has something to do with a new invention."

"Alright. Have the servants pack our bags and ready our horses. We'll leave first thing tomorrow."

The journey to Thebes took a few days. When we arrived, an aide of the head military advisor greeted us.

"Ah, you are Colonel Mattoles. Welcome to Thebes, and I see you have brought along Lieutenant Ahmed. Osiris blesses your presence. I assume your journey went well?"

The usual chit-chat ensued as he led us just outside of the city to an open field. There, a small crowd of military council members such as myself were already assembled. They stood around a man holding...well, I wasn't sure what it was. A weapon, definitely, but it lacked the cutting or piercing parts I would have expected.

The military advisor stood next to him. He spoke in a deep, loud voice when he addressed us.

"This is a musket. As you can see, it is unlike any previous design. It works by propelling a small metal ball," he paused and held one up, "at a very high speed, which punctures the skin upon impact." He stopped to let us reflect on this. I personally couldn't see how you could get a small, blunt object such as that moving fast enough to puncture skin. My opinion would change when I saw the demonstration.

A length down the field a target had been set up. I drew my eyes to the man with the "musket". He was ready to use this. First he poured some white powder, similar to flour, down the metal tube extending down the wooden part of the weapon. He then put a piece of fabric down the tube, dropped the metal ball down the tube, and tamped it all in with a metal rod. He then raised the weapon and aligned his eye with the metal tube. I saw his finger pull back a little piece of metal underneath the gun.

BAM!

The sound echoed and surely stunned some people in the city. I had never heard such a loud noise in my life and my ears would ring for several minutes. In addition to the smoke, there was a bright flash near a little hammer and a spout of flame at the end of the barrel. The man holding the gun was pushed back during this process.

As impressive as the display was, I feared it hadn't worked. I did not see the metal ball come out of the musket, and I had been watching closely. But sure enough, there was a small hole in the target, and the musket, if not exactly accurate, seemed to work as promised. I was further convinced when he used this weapon to kill a cow in the pasture. Ahmed was equally impressed.

I needed to acquire these muskets for my garrisons, and I couldn't get it off my mind on our reckless ride back to Athens.

[Jumping Choya]

The Saltpeter War

By the time I returned to the regional capitol of Athens, it was too late in the day to fill out any purchase orders for these new muskets. It would have to wait until morning. That night I had a dream that I was the lone defender of a city, facing thousands of barbarians, and using the musket I defeated all of them. Probably not within the realm of possibility, but it made for a good dream.

The next morning I woke up and skipped breakfast. Ahmed came into my little office early with a scroll in his hand.

"Ah, Ahmed. Are we ready to purchase these muskets and render our forces invincible? How much does it cost to purchase one of these? And be sure to order one for me, too, I certainly want to use this to hunt game instead of my old longbow..." I rambled on gleefully, dipping my quill in some ink in preparation.

"Ah, excuse me sir. There is a problem," he said, slightly meekly.

"What? They don't have enough muskets made yet to supply our defenders? That's okay, we can wait for just a bit," I said, a tad impatiently. Ahmed should have known this.

"Well, as you will recall from the demonstration, the soldier poured a white powder down the musket barrel, yes?" he asked me.

"Yes, yes, of course. What about it?"

"Well, it, called saltpeter, is a crucial component in getting the musket to move that little metal ball. Our scientists in the city tell me that few other materials expand rapidly enough when ignited to move the metal ball," he explained to me.

"So...what does this mean?" My fingers tensed up on the quill, with a feeling of dread coming over me...

"Preliminary reports suggest that we don't have enough saltpeter in our territory to supply even one battalion for even one significant battle." Ahmed knew what was coming.

"WHAT?" I slammed my fist onto by desk, shattering the tip of the top-quality quill and sending the ink bottle askew.

I slept a lot worse that night. What would we do? Our current defenders were merely antiquated spearmen. True, we could outfit them with metal suits and give them some pikes, but what would we do if a rival civilization discovered gunpowder and was able to equip their soldiers with muskets? We would be doomed.

The next day I learned a little more about this saltpeter.

"Yes, sir, as yesterday, we don't have enough. Our scientists say that it is most likely to be found in hills, deserts..." Ahmed proceeded to give me little details about the saltpeter.

I, however, was not listening. Something had clicked in my head when he said deserts. And then it hit me.

"Ahmed!" I nearly shouted, interrupting him, "the last Greek city of Delphi is in a desert, is it not?"

"Yes sir, it is in a desert. Remember, the last miserable city along disease-ridden floodbanks?" he chuckled a bit at that.

"Well, it may not be so miserable anymore. I want you to find out if the Greek deserts contain any of this saltpeter," I commanded, and with that Ahmed left my office to relay my order.

It would be an antagonizing week before I would get any results.

"Wonderful news, sir! Osiris smiles upon us!" Ahmed exclaimed gleefully.

As it turned out, there were two possible major deposits in the pitiful Greek nation. As it would turn out, there were also several deposits on the Chinese subcontinent, and some in a small Aztec city called Tzintzuntzen surrounded by our borders. But nevermind those strong nations. A plan was forming in my mind, involving Greece.

A few days later I would present my plan to the military council in Thebes. We unanimously voted to carry the plan out, and I, being in control of all military in the former Greek cities, was put in charge of the operation.

Determined to avoid the bloodbath that had been taking Thermopylae in our last conflict with the Greeks, I commisioned three catapult battalions and a knight battalion to accompany three swordsmen battalions. Intelligence reports indicated that the cash-poor Greeks only had two Hoplite battalions defending their capitol, but I was going to take no chances.

Then one morning in 860, our units crossed the border into Greece. Along the way our army encountered a group of workers, who were swiftly captured and sent to Egypt as slaves. They surely had no idea what the hell Egyptian soldiers were doing in Greece, and had probably never heard of saltpeter, either. And so began the Second Greek War, also known as the Saltpeter War.

Our swordsmen, knights, and catapults were soon at the gates of Delphi. In eleven seasons, Delphi was ours and the Greek nation was no more. Upon investigation, we confirmed that there were indeed two saltpeter deposits near Delphi, one in the mountains and another in the desert. Together, they would be able to supply our musketman for all the forseeable future.

Alexander, who we couldn't fault for being in posession of two saltpeter deposits he didn't know about, was put on a galley and shipped to the old Greek city of Pharsalos on the Chinese subcontinent that we had aquired after the Great Greek War. Ten years later the city revolted to Chinese control and we lost track of Alexander, but that's irrelevant in any case. Last we knew of him, he would grab anybody on the streets and tell them that he was once the ruler of a great and powerful nation, and that he would make them all princes if they would unite behind him and conquer the world...

So, at the war's end, I once again took up my quill, and this time I completed the order for muskets to replace the old spears. And I made sure that Ahmed and I got some too.

[Jumping Choya]

Growth in Egypt

At the end of the Saltpeter/Second Greek War, I expected my life and Ahmed's to descend into the duldrums again. For the most part, they did, until an army officer from Thebes came to Athens one day.

"Ah, Mattoles, the Queen wishes to commend you on a job well done. The Greek operation was marvelous, simply marvelous! Thanks to you, we can now supply all of our garrisions across all of Great Egypt with muskets!" he said enthusiastically, embracing me. I was a bit taken aback.

"Uhm, thank you. But I can't take all the credit. My assistan, Lieutenant Ahmed, did an equally good job as a field commander. He did exactly what I wanted done," I told him. I'm a modest person.

"Well, I shall make sure that he receives a promotion as well."

As well?

The man, who was a General and apparantely held a lot of influence with the chief military advisor, noted the interest in my face and decided it would be a good idea to tell me just what he had in mind.

"You, sir, are now a General," he started. Wow, all these rapid promotions I always seemed to be getting..."and you get to move your office to Thebes. You now have say in what we do with all military units in the Egyptian empire."

What this meant was I now had a big-shot role in the Egyptian military council, and the Egyptian Council as well. My voice would be heard all over...

A week later, Ahmed, now a colonel, and I were settled into the west wing of the Queen's Palace in Thebes. A fine city.

As I noted earlier, Pharsalos revolted to the Chinese. While it was a bit sad to see a city leave our control instead of come under it, it was no big loss; the only things we had put into the city were a temple and a deposed leader.

I was a bit more cheery when the Aztec city of Tzintzuntzen came to us - bringing the last saltpeter resources on the continent under our control. Sure, the Chinese had several deposits on their island (two spares, in fact, so they could theoretically supply both the Romans and Aztecs), but at least there would be no freebies to our neighbors.

In 1090, the world grew larger. I refer to the contact between the Chinese and the Russians. I pressured the Foreign Relations and Trade Departments to shell out some gold to the Chinese so we could contact the Russians as well. From the Russians we contacted the French, and from the French we contacted the Germans. It cost us a bit of money, but it also unveiled another continent - our map makers called it Europe.

In Memphis, a giant cathedral was constructed, bringing joy not only to the Egyptian Council, but to all citizens of Egypt.

Due to our expansion to the north-west and south, our Palace was no longer the center of the empire. In a council meeting, the Domestic Advisor suggested that we could alleviate the corruption and waste problems in our fringe cities by moving the Palace and constructed a second palace in another city. The plan was voted upon and passed. To my pleasure, Heliopolis was to become our new capitol city. I would be working in my home town once more.

Elephantine was hard at work, meanwhile, constructing a monument to honor Magellan's voyage around the world. So pleased was he by this that he settled in the city and gave advice to our shipbuilders. Apparently it had something to do with hull shape or some other detail; in any case, the design improvements promised to increase the speed our ships could sail at.

Life was not to be so peaceful in Europe, however. In 1405, Germany, for some reason I do not know, declared war on France. This quickly blew up in Germany's face, however. The French persuaded the Chinese to declare war on Germany, and the Chinese in turn got the Romans to declare war on Germany. All of these countries approached us at one time or another to get us involved in the war, but we refused to take part in their war. True, the Germans had some appealing gem mines in his territory that could please our citizens and probably bring in some handsome revenue, but Bismarck had done us no wrong.

While the war raged on in Europe (with the Germans holding out quite well, only losing one city which they promptly retrieved), there was once again a empire-wide change in Egypt. The clothes changed again, as did the buildings. The historians named this age the Industrial Age, which was quite a fitting name. In the proceeding years we would discover ways to keep cities cleaner and citizens healthier. Our cities grew even more when we built hospitals in them. Travel became a less tedious process when our scientists discovered the secrets of a coal powered contraption that involved boiling water to make steam which would spin some turbines. Whatever that meant, we soon were building railroads which could transport people across the empire much faster than the old method, horseback, could.

Pharsalos, confused, decided that they didn't like Chinese life so much after all, and they returned to our control. No sign of Alexander, though. Not long afterwards, its neighbor, Chengdu, also decided to become an Egyptian city. Not bad.

Egypt was happy. Our military was not large, somewhat to my chagrine, but we tried to keep on good terms with everybody. Little attention was given to the rather hostile attitude Catherine of Russia displayed to us.

[Jumping Choya]

The Russia War

I was awoken one night by a rapping at my bedroom door, accompanied by the calling of a young man.

"Sir? Sir? Are you awake, General Mattoles?"

Good Osiris, what could it be? It must've been...very late or very early.

"Yes, I think I am getting awake. What is it?"

The young military officer opened the door to my room as I was slipping my shoes on. It might raise some eyebrows in the Military Council room if I showed up in my snug pajamas, but that shouldn't matter if this was important.

We walked down the palace, from the east wing where important people slept to the west wing where important people worked. The aide opened the door to the Military Council room. I took my seat next to Ahmed, who was already there.

"What's going on? Why was I woken up so damn early?" I asked him.

"Well sir, the information is still a bit sketchy, but the foreign relations people told us that a Russian envoy met our diplomats in Moscow. They said that the Russians were interested in espionage techniques, and wanted Egypt to give them the appropriate training manuals - or else. Our diplomats told Catherine's envoy that that information was not for sale. And then, the Russians declared war," Ahmed concluded.

"What? Who the hell does she think she is? We would not ever give out our top secret espionage training manuals, and especially not to some fat old woman who threatens us!" I said, quite loudly. Not surprisingly, my feelings were also the general sentiment of the rest of the Military Council. And those of the Queen, who also was in the Military Council room.

"I have taken enough grief from that ugly, excuse for a leader. Personally, I belive Catherine is quite jealous of my inherent beauty and power. She wishes to take that from me, but I will not let her. I authorize the military to use whatever force is necessary to turn Russia into a third-world country," and with those words, the Queen, escorted by her servants, left the room to catch a few more hours of sleep.

Because we had never planned to fight a war on foreign shores, our navy was quite lacking. We had some stray ironclads chugging around, already in visual contact with their Russian counterparts. We were not sure if we would be able to stop all inbound ships, and it would take several years for sufficient Galleons to be built so we could invade Russia and make them pay for their insolence.

Given our shortcomings, the Military Council decided that alliances needed to be made. We approached the French - a powerful country in Europe, and not tied up with multiple fronts like the Germans were - and offered them coal. They agreed to the terms and they declared war on Russia in 1585. Next, we went to the Chinese, who had the most powerful navy on Earth's seas. The principles of Communism were enough to sway them from our side. With those two strategic alliances set, we would be able to go about building up our military.

Although we made just two alliances, it quickly snowballed. Russia found themselves to be like the Germans, at war with most of the world, except worse. The Chinese had the Romans declare war on Russia. Catherine must have been shocked, as our ironclads were soon reporting that Russian ships were actually retreating. From there, France signed a peace treaty with Germany - to better focus their efforts on Russia, I supposed. The Chinese kept busy, meanwhile, signing an alliance with the Aztecs to oppose the Russian menace. Soon Germany and Rome signed a peace treaty, and Germany signed an alliance with the Aztecs to fight the Russians. In a few short years, we had spurred the whole world into action against the miserable Russians. This was better luck than we had expected.

We soon saw fit to sign Right of Passage agreements with Russia's neighbors (France and Germany, for those who are having trouble following complex world politics) so we could set up attacks in their territory and move swiftly over roads while the Russians floundered about.

Our last major action before setting troops into the ships was to complete research replaceable parts. Using the recently discovered material called rubber, our rifleman were equipped with newer, more powerful guns, while our cannons were upgraded to artillery with twice their predacessor's range. It was time to teach Catherine a harsh lesson she would never, ever forget.

Hell was unleashed on a small Russian island with two cities on it several months later. Our forces were succesful in capturing Riga, but the Romans edged us out to get Rostov. We would use the city as a rendezvous point until we had a foothold on mainland Europe.

During our frequent meetings, the generals of Egypt fretted over every detail and where troops would go. It was decided that we would have the bulk of our forces sail to the south coast of Russia to take the city of Minsk, while a small group would sail into the long bay between France and Germany, and deploy at the southern tip of that bay into Russian territory. These troops would focus on Smolensk. Meanwhile, our ironclads would join the Chinese in bombarding everything on the coasts within range of our guns.

To strengthen our relationship with Germany, we traded them iron in return for their valuable gems, world map, and 4,100 (410) gold.

The Russians were swiftly screwed. In one year, they lost Minsk to us, Sverdlovsk to the Aztecs, and Smolensk to the French. They also lost Astrakhan to the French, but the island that city was on was so small and pitiful it couldn't possibly have hurt the Russians very dearly.

The Russians came back with a rather feeble reply, as far as Minsk was concerned. The Russians and French would exchange Smolensk for several years. This was fine with us, since it meant the Russians had to split their forces between the north and the south. To our pleasure, they did not allocate very many forces to the south. In the year after we took Minsk, our espionage experts organized a brilliant propaganda campaign to unleash upon the Russian city of St. Petersburg. The citizens of the city, tired of our artillery bombardment and the lies that their communist government fed them, revolted and let our troops into the city, mainly unopposed. In the same year, we decided it was our turn to take Smolensk from the Russians, and unlike the French, we held onto it.

Meanwhile, on the home front, the Theory of Evolution was conceived and generated a spur of scientific research. Our scientists would soon have an atomic theory as well as a basic understanding of electronics.

Russia continued to take hell on their turf when the Chinese, aided largely by our continual artillery bombardment, took Moscow. Politicians that were not shot by the Chinese invaders fled to Novograd to establish the new capitol there. The Russians would keep the capitol there even though they managed to take Moscow back within the year - just to lose it to us mere months later. The only attractive thing left in the city by this time was the Great Lighthouse, a largely useless relic from the early days of navigation. The Russian borders would shrink still more when the Germans made their first conquest of the war, taking Sevestapol.

Russia had taken enough. After a few years of her war, Catherine wished to meet personally with the Queen - as if that would impress Cleopatra in any way. I attended the peace proceedings, of course, and we came away with Russia's last city with spice reserves, Kiev. And I left the negotiating room with a great big smile on my face - eight lost cities later, Catherine still had yet to learn the secrets of espionage.

[Jumping Choya]

Russia's Demise

Our troops continued to pour into captured Russian cities after the war ended. In fact, the bulk of our invasion force arrived around the time the peace treaty was signed.

A couple of months later, Bismarck contacted us offering a military alliance against the Russians. At first we declined, but when he offered us 150 (15) gold per year for our trouble, we couldn't resist. The Second Russian War, often clumped into history books with the first Russian War, would be a snap.

Within months, our cavalry rode into Vladivostok just hours after the field commander ordered the artillery barage to begin. The city was garrisioned with infantry units and the remaining free troops were sent to the next city, changing route when the Aztecs took Yakutsk.

Russia would find its situation slightly better when Rome signed a peace treaty with them, but the rest of the world was still at war against Catherine.

Catherine's fate was sealed when the Germans took over a city and razed it. Novogrod was the last city on earth bearing the Russian flag, and five countries were swarming towards it.

I saw it fitting that Egypt was the country to defeat the last Russian soldiers and burn the last Russian flag as Catherine was arrested and sent off to Heliopolis, where she would spend the rest of her life in a dank prison.

Once again, Egypt was at peace with the world, and all countries on earth were at peace with eachother.

It would last less than a year.

[Gamer at heart]

keep it up!

GaH

[Jumping Choya]

After our victory over the Russians, all of Egypt celebrated. I, personally, was planning a vacation to the sunny island city of Riga we had taken from the afformentioned country. I was tired of looking over maps with troop positions and analyzing enemy logistics and such. Most of the other generals had already left to various locations.

I had just packed my last bag and was ready to head out to the train station to go to one of our port cities when a nameless military office came rushing up the stairs at the end of the corridor and stopped, panting, at my door. This seemed familiar.

"Sir, come to the situation room immediately! We have a, uh, situation!" and he ran down the hallway to alert other important people before I could ask him just what was so important to prevent me from escaping my office.

Half an hour later, when all generals present in Heliopolis were assembled, I learned what the problem was. The military advisor, who never seemed to go anywhere, filled us in.

"At noon today, the Aztec ambassador requested an audiance with the Queen. She attended, and he simply handed her a sheet of paper. This piece," he held it up," and left before the Queen could get a translation. The paper," he explained for those of us who were too far away to read it, or just couldn't read the Aztecs' language, "is a formal declaration of war. No reason is given, nor were any demands stated."

There was the usual murmurings and "what the hells?" until the military advisor quieted them down.

"So far there have been no reports from our border towns of incoming Aztec troops. To be on the safe side, we have sent infantry to defend the cities, and we have signed a military alliance with Rome to handle this menace. We are exporting coal to them in exchange for their help. Our espionage department is currently trying to establish a spy so we can determine what forces the Aztecs have available to attack us with. And there is one more thing: our scientists say that the Aztecs will have quite a surprise, and that they could not have picked a worse time (for them) to attack us."

Great. Back to work. I could already feel the sleep-deprived headaches coming on.

I was in the dark about what this surprise was until I was summoned, the next day, to the same field where I had seen the musket.

"Our scientists have learned to fly, or more precisely, get machines to fly," the General told us. And a few minutes later, a big chunk of metal with a few propellors went buzzing over our heads at a high speed.

So began the first week of the Aztec War. Since the majority of our offensive forces has been sent to Europe, there was little we could do except change build orders in our most industrious cities to begin cranking out these new bombers, and our other, slightly less industrious cities began training cavalry men.

The first actions of the war took place in Europe, strangely enough. Aztec forces, left over from the war with Russia, emerged from their two cities on the continent and began making their way towards our cities. In addition, a rather large fleet of ironclads chugged to the shores. Once again faced with a large navy, we signed an alliance with the China in exchange for steel. The Chinese swiftly set their slightly obsolete ships out to bravely combat the Aztecs' ironclads.

The next year, I began to wonder if our alliance with China was really necessary, for we produced our first Destroyer. A fleet of these would have no problem handling ironclads.

Our initial report from our spies was good news and bad news. The good news was that the Aztecs had no cavalry due to their lack of saltpeter. The bad news was that they had plenty of infantry, which they were producing despite never possessing any saltpeter while they knew it existed. I was baffled by it, but in any case it meant that the cities would be well-fortified, but we wouldn't need to worry about attack.

At least, we didn't. Perhaps the Aztecs saw the foolishness in declaring war on us, because few forces ended up crossing into our borders. Instead, we learned that Aztec infantry had invaded Rome and began to pillage their farms, roads, and mines.

On the European front, our forces were destroying all the Aztecs that had ventured from the protection of their cities. Our artillery companies would open a barrage of fire upon them, followed shortly by an attack from our cavalry. In one year, the Aztec Offensive in Europe had been decimated. All that was left now was to take the cities there.

As soon as our first bombers were produced, they were ordered to our border cities, which would hopefully be close enough for the bombers to target Tlacopan and Malinco. They were. In the years after that, the people in those two cities, as well as the troops unfortunate enough to be spotted in the open, would experience a horror that had been unknown up until that point: destruction from the skies. The Aztecs soon learned to run for their lives when they saw the bomb bay doors open on the fearsome flying machines.

A few months afterwards, Yakutsk had been taken from the Aztecs, and with it a sizeable portion of their navy was scuttled in the port. Sverdlovsk would be secured not long afterwards, an the war in Europe was over, save for a few stray confused Aztec soldiers.

That year the French and Germans decided to have at it again, but their war was not a concern to us. We kept trade relationships with both of them.

Our plan of action was to destroy all access the Aztecs had to rubber resources. Without that, the Aztecs would be incapable of producing equipment for their infantry and would be forced to go back to using rifles. The first step was made when our destroyer bombarded a railroad and road near Texoco. Aztec workers rushed in to repair the damage, but as soon as they fixed the road, we bombarded it again. Finally, the governor at Texoco either gave up or lost all his workers to a company of Roman soliders, because the road leading to the rubber there eventually remained unrepaired. There were still two other sources, though.

The Aztecs would once again be at a severe disadvantage when we produced our first tanks. We decided it was time to take some Aztec cities. On my orders, companies of tanks began rolling to the front.

Our military was unstoppable. Our bombers had reduced the city of Tlacopan to mere rubble, and the defenders were fatigued and had suffered heavy casualties. Our tanks took Tlacopan without much trouble, and we quickly fortified it with several infantry companies and moved our bombers to the city to extend their reach further into the Aztec heartland. Malinco suffered the same fate. It was clear that the Aztecs were now broken. Their rail lines had been destroyed where ever our bombers could fly, thus crippling their abilities to move infantry into cities to defend. We found the survivors in the cities unresistive. The years of bombing had taken all of the fight out of them.

The Aztecs had active trading with France and Germany, and one of them was finally supplying them with saltpeter. Their cavalry, however, had high fatality rates at the hands of our bombers and tanks. Our bombers would do their job, and then our tanks would sweep in and crush the cavalry like a scarab beetle under foot.

"Jeez, you would think that somebody would give us a run for our money one of these days," Ahmed commented after reading a report from a field commander who had recently destroyed two Aztec infantry divisions. At this point the Aztecs had lost all sources of rubber, and their number of infantry men was shrinking with every loss on the field. The Romans had since moved into Aztec territory and began to raise hell.

Tlatelolco came next. Then, to further the nightmares of the Aztec military, we landed a force of two infantry companies, three tank companies, and three artillery companies near Xochicalco (this splitting of forces was my clever idea, of course). It came under our grasp soon, and just down the road was Calixtlahuaca. The Aztecs were now landlocked except for Texoco, which was blockaded by our destroyers and battleships.

The stake was driven into the heart when we captured their capital, Tlaxcala, and found 7,000 workers prime to be enslaved. They were set to building railroads to the front so our tanks could quickly capture the remaining Aztec cities.

Tlaxcala and Atzcapotzalco soon fell, and at that point it was time to call it quits. Despite having very low casualties, the people back home were quite tired of the war. Our science budget suffered as we diverted more and more money to entertainment. Riots put a halt to production. We made peace with a furious Aztec leader, and even though we gave him back his former capitol and island city of Tula, he remained furious with us. We were content to let the Romans, Chinese, and now the Germans (having signed a mutual protection pact with the Chinese, which drew the Chinese into war with the French) carve out the remains of the Aztec Empire.

[Jumping Choya]

In the years following the Aztec war, we were determined to build our military might. We projected power to other countries by parking aircraft carriers just outside their borders, with an entourage of battleships, destroyers, and submarines, just in case they started to act up and needed to be put down. We had been betrayed twice now, and I personally was sick of it.

Europe calmed down again in a few years, with the Chinese ending their war with the French, and then the Germans making peace.

At this point, the Aztecs had lost all of their cities on the continent and surely would have been eliminated had we not given them the small island of Tula a few years ago. Montezuma remained furious with us, however. As long as he didn't get uppity, his shattered empire would remain on earth. Peace was made between them, Rome, Germany, and China.

Our empire grew a bit more when the fairly large city of Tientsin, a Chinese city in the south, joined our empire. No hard feelings from the Chinese, fortunately. I suppose they didn't like the city very much. This left them with one more enveloped city and a few others on the continent they had taken from the Aztecs.

Our military forces were bolstered with the invention of efficient computing technology. Infantry now were placed in tank-like mech infantry, which would render our cities practically invincible. Science would also get a shot in the arm with this invention, and soon research labs were popping up in every major city of ours. Heliopolis began work on a large satellite dish in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Fission was soon discovered, and our head Navy Admiral asked for uranium to build nuclear submarines. We approved. What we did not approve was the Manhatten Project, which would make possible the construction of nuclear weapons with catastrophic destructive capabilities. If a rival nation constructed nuclear weapons, we would follow suit for our own protection. But Egypt would not initiate such a cruel project.

We were enjoying relative peace and I began to think that the other nations had learned from the examples we made of Russia and the Aztecs. Rome and China remained peaceful trading partners towards us, as did France and Germany (with the Aztecs being completely irrelevant).

Germany would yet again declare war on France, and it looked like they meant it this time. Within a year they would control Rheims, Bescanon, and Astrakhan.

Now, this was somewhat alarming to us. If Germany succeeded in conquering France, it would definitely upset the balance of power in the world (namely, be a competitor for us). They would essentially have full control over Europe, with our forces there being too meager to stop a complete takeover should the Germans wish to take our European cities as a dessert.

Germany had to be kept at bay - through subtle methods. Under permission from the Military Advisor, Foreign Advisor, the Queen, and several bearucrats, I quietly traveled to Paris and met with Joan. There I agreed to give France the secrets of manufacturing steel, and gave them 1,000 gold (100) to begin preliminary upgrades on some of their obsolete forces. They were more or less even with the Germans as far as technology was concerned, but the issue was the numerical superiority that the Germans had. In order to slow the Germans down, we casually cancelled our right of passage agreements with them. Now they would have to slow down some when going through our European holdings, which acted as a buffer zone between the two countries. There were a few holes that the Germans could pass through, but it was the best we could do.

"Merci beacoups, Monsier Mottoles! Nous sommes..." she trailed off when she saw the blank expression on my face. She gave her message to the translator, who told me that France was very grateful towards us.

Back at home, I was somewhat disappointed to see that we had lost our monopoly on Flight. China, the only other Democratic nation, had since discovered it and had built a carrier, five bomber squadrons, and three fighter squadrons. Meager, compared to our eight carriers and numerous flying craft, but it was still something to be concerned about. I sent orders to all coastal cities to construct anti-air defenses. Just in case.

The German advance, meanwhile, continued to charge through the France countryside. Their numbers of cavalry could simply not be overcome by the drafted French infantry. The French lost Grenoble soon.

Once again I met with Joan. This time we gave them coal (the Germans destroyed the roads leading to their sources), combustion technology, and another 1,000 gold. This time we asked for Incense in return, which the French eagerly gave in return for our offerings.

The French then proceeded to lose Orleans to the Germans. True, they did liberate it within a couple of months, but it would again be conquered by the Germans shortly after. This time they kept it.

In desperation, we cancelled our rubber export deal with the Germans. Eventually their infantry numbers would dwindle, but it would take time. There was nothing we could do to help the situation now save for declaring war on the Germans. We were not planning to do that, however.

We hoped to remain at peace.

***HINT: Something's gonna happen! ***

[Jumping Choya]

The Roman War

Another year, another fool.

I was sitting in my recently upgraded office when the phone rang. I pressed the button the speaker phone and said, "General Mattoles. What do you need?"

I became more interested when I heard Ahmed tell me what was happening.

"We have reports from those northern Aztec cities," he began, not giving names since we had long since given up trying to pronounce the damn things. I looked up at the large world map on the wall and saw what he was talking about, "that they are being bombarded by enemy frigates."

"What? Who is it?"

"They say they are flying the Roman flag."

"The Romans? What could they possibly want?"

"We don't know. There's a council meeting in half an hour."

We took the usual course of action. We moved our bombers from their base in Athens up to Byblos, where they would naturally wreak havoc for the Romans.

We wasted no time destroying their roads to rubber sources and their vineyards. Our aging cavalry swept into Texcoco and Teotithiacun, defeating the light Roman garrisions in the cities. We were winning already.

Our advance would be further sped when we upgraded our tanks to Modern Armor. The Roman infantry companies didn't stand a chance...for that matter, they hadn't before modern armor either.

The only attacks we received from them were frigates bombarding the cities, which was a minor nuisance at worst.

In a few months, our upgraded tanks seized Ravenna, and more importantly, the Roman capitol of Rome! From then on, we would chase Caesar from every city he had established a capitol in.

Antium was our next capture, and then Veii, and in the battle of Pompeii, a young brigadier general named Ramses made himself known and emerged as an obvious leader. We brought him back to Heliopolis where his arrival was celebrated as a sign of Egypt's might and success.

Meanwhile, Germany and France went to peace again. Joan remained gracious for our favors to her.

In Heliopolis, the science community began to take great interest in the idea of sending craft into deep space. At first they had the plan of sending ships to the moon. It soon blossomed into a grand plan: send humans to the planet orbitting Alpha Centauri. Seeing that we were handling the Romans with ease, we granted the scientific community to began using the facilities in our major cities to construct parts of the planned spaceship.

We soon had secured Neapolis under our control, and then Pisae after flying two modern armor companies to Riga, and then Rostov. There was one more Roman city left on earth, Cumae.

Our tanks captured Cumae, hardly lifting a finger. Caesar was shot in public as an example to Roman citizens that any resistance would be futile, and more importantly, an example to the three remaining world powers that we would slaughter any of them if they opposed us.

Had we finally rid the world of fools?

It would soon be apparant that we hadn't.

[Jumping Choya]

Wrapping it up

Well, I'm kindof tired of the first-person perspective, and it seemed rather boring, so I'll just say what happened later.

In 1950, the French (the fomerly Gracious French I might add!) declared war on me! I couldn't believe it! After all the gifts I had given them to save their arrogant rears from the Germans! I was tipped off that something fishy was going on when they quietly cancelled their incense export to me the previous turn...I didn't contact Joan and ask what was going on...next turn, the French had captured and razed my poorly defended European cities of Novograd and Yakutsk. I was enraged!

So, I hurried an airport at Minsk and began airlifting modern armor and mech infantry in like mad. 10 modern armor units were originally brought in. Additionally, the three carriers off the coast and the bombers in a city began pounding French territory.

1954-captured Poiters
1956- captured Marseilles (got the incense back again ), Orleans
1957-Grenoble

Also that year, the Germans demanded Iron from me. Not wanting to be distracted from my anihilation of the French, I cave in and give it to them...besides, what's the worst they could do to me with iron?
1958- captured Paris (got Coppernicus's Observatory and the Pyramids)

Germany and China signed a MPP, which could possibly hamper my plans for the Germans.
1959- Captured Tours
1960- Chatres, Lyons are mine
1962- Marseilles, Rouen, Avignon (I wonder if the French were regretting their decision at this point...)
1963- Krasnoyarsk
1964- at this point the French were not a bother, so I began shifting the carriers to the coasts of Germany and China, just in case they wanted to mess
1965- Captured Dijon, thus eliminating the French from the face of the planet
1967- The Chinese and Germans are shifting around a bunch
1969-I sign an MPP with the Chinese, and then I ask the Germans to bug off my territory. They declare war, as I expected. I moved tanks and such into position, making sure not to conduct any attacks on German territory (as that would cause the Chinese to side with them). Got a great leader, Cheops, in just a few border skirmishes. I built my unstoppable Modern Armor army with him.
Germans attack me, and the Chinese do their part by declaring war on them.
1970- Earlier, the Germans had a full three armies. Now they were all gone, which didn't particularly concern me. I captured Sevastopal while the Chinese took Rheims.
1971- The Germans had moved some cavalry into the mountains near some of my recently captured French cities. Next thing they know, they're surrounded by mech infantry and modern armor, getting the crap bombarded out of them from my infantry. Down to one HP, they were swiftly eliminated. Also captured Hannover this turn.
1972- Got Khufu, the leader. Began building the Heroic Epic.
1973- Captured Bescanon, and began building the Military Acadamy.
1974- Couldn't believe my luck! Got Mentuhotep when capturing Hamburg (Sistine Chapel there)
1975- Konisberg and Frankfurt were taken, and I made a landing of troops off of Cologne.
1976- Captured Munich, and Cologne of course.
1977- My first bomber casualty, lost to a German fighter. I consoled myself with the capture of Berlin.
1978- Captured Leipzig and Heidelburg.
1979- Domination Victory! Oops...I was aiming for cultural or space race...guess I got a bit carried away with the Germans.

[Jumping Choya]

Random Comments

About my story - next time I'll do better! At first it started off okay, but I could tell it was beginning to drag - "We did this, then we conquered this, and then they declared war on us, and then I..." - bah. Gets boring. Next story I write will probably be in third person (a broader scope, and frees me up some) and it'll probably focus on a certain part of history, instead of the whole darn empire.

About the other civs - I could not believe how many times I was forced into war! It's as if Alexander was shifting from civ to civ, persuading the leaders to exact his revenge on me or something. The French declaring war was the kicker. In just three turns, they went from Gracious to war (this part was post patch). In the end, the only civ I hadn't decimated because they declared war on me was the Chinese, and I have little doubt they would have done it if I had kept on playing after the victory.

As far as the battles go, I didn't notice any of the feared spearman beats tank battles. The only times I lost modern armor against inferior units were when I shouldn't have attacked - 1 HP left, and I would attack in hopes of getting a leader from it. Other than that, things went fine.

In the end, it was a fun game. I like the Egyptians quite a bit.

[American Guy]

The easy way...

You could've just nuke em ya know...

[Jumping Choya]

Nah, never got around to building the Manhatten Project since I was doing fine without it. I was content to let some other civ do the work for me and then I would rapidly build up my nuclear arsenal to stay competitive (even though the project would have only taken 10 turns in Heliopolis, which was producing 97 shields per turn).