I was a warrior. It was in my blood to fight. So when our great nation's first and capital city, London, was built, I swore to defend its people.
I joined the army, and due to a wealthy father and a good education, rose to command one of the three regiments that England built in those early years. One was a warrior regiment(The Queen's Own), scorned by all for being jacks of all trades, masters of none, only having got their prestigious name from being the first regiment to deploy. Then there were the spearmen in the Protectors of London Regiment.
Then there was my regiment. My archers formed the Avengers, a deadly unit feared by the barbarians who inhabited Wales and Scotland.
I was leading my regiment into Wales after there had been reports of yet another raid on the village of Bristol near the Welsh border. This was unacceptable, as we were planning to build a second city soon, and could not have barbarians running all over the place.
We headed into the Welsh mountains, and there found the barbarians.
Five regiments of them.
***********************************************
'Damn Englishmen! How dare they invade our sacred soil!' thought the Celt leader of Wales.
His aide saw the look on his leader's face, and smiled.
"Sir, we have nothing to fear. We have five regiments in the field, and three defending our towns, including Cardiff. They cannot escape from Wales alive." he reassured the leader.
***********************************************
The barbarians poured down upon us. Two regiments attacked us first, and were driven back simply due to our better training, with us taking up positions on a mountain opposite their hill and fighting off wave after wave of attack.
Those two regiments now lay dead at our feet. The other three were up in the mountain of Snowdon. And now we were going to do what the Avengers did best.
Attack with all the fury of England.
*********************************************
The Celt leader told his men to hold Snowdon at any cost. They were determined to do so, and many thought it was suicidal for them to attack up a mountain, but a few were wiser, veterans of raids into England.
*******************************************
"FORWARD!" I yelled, drawing my sword and leading them forward. This time only a third of the regiment would actually use their bows, and that was only for covering fire. The rest would do something the barbarians wouldn't expect. They drew their shortswords, and charged up the mountain behind me.
As we neared the top, we could see the barbarians ready to charge as soon as most of us reached the summit and were vulnerable. I decided not to give them a chance.
I launched myself at their centre, and quickly found myself one on one with the Celt leader. He stabbed at me with his blade, but I parried and kicked his shin. This unbalanced him, and his next attack went straight past me. I grabbed his sword arm with my free arm, and plunged my sword into his throat.
Now there was no leader to order them to attack, and the barbarians waited anxiously for battle to begin.
Most of my regiment had reached the top, and I formed them up into line. The first row kept their swords drawn, while the back two used their bows to fire arrows at the enemy.
This made the Celts attack, and I led my front rank in a charge against them, quickly followed by my entire regiment, all now carrying their swords, bows lying forgotten on the floor until after the battle.
The sledgehammer effect of our attack drove them back towards the other edge of Snowdon, and many surrendered. Those who didn't were slaughtered.
At the end of it all, I ordered the massacre of every barbarian prisoner. It was horrific, but I was determined to show that England would not tolerate barbarians.
******************************************
The rest of Wales quickly fell under English control as well, and I was given control of two extra archer regiments when I returned to London. My job was to lead my Avengers Brigade, as the three archer regiments were known, in an attack on Scotland's Celts. It worked like a dream, and I became the overall commander of the English Army.
********************************************
As the sword of immortality tapped each shoulder, Queen Elizabeth spoke the words I still couldn't believe:
"Arise, Sir Arthur Wellsley."
I was now a knight of the realm, and to top it all off, Duke of Wellington, leader of the English Armed Forces. Plus, the sword she used was the only one of its kind in the world, which could give immortality to one person before becoming useless, and she had chosen me. I was now like her and the other rulers of the world, immortal to all illnesses and diseases, the only thing which could kill us was injuries inflicted by another person.
Not the best kind of immortality for a warrior!
I was rushed off to a meeting with the Queen herself soon after. She wanted my advice!
"It comes to our attention that Ireland remains Celtic. I want to establish the fifth city of the Empire there and name it Dublin." she spoke calmly. Her nation was one of the strongest in the world with four cities already, London itself, York in northern England, Edinburgh in Scotland and Cardiff in Wales.
"My swordsmen regiments can accomplish that." I smiled. Our warrior regiments had recently been equipped with new iron weapons, making them stronger than any other unit. All of our other forces had been disbanded, and reformed as swordsmen units. Those units were now the entire English Army.
The English Navy also consisted of three galleys, the largest fleet afloat.
And I was in command of them, and about to invade the small island west of Wales.
********************************************
The French landed on Ireland first, much to my dismay. I had sent over my swordsmen regiments to quell the barbarians before sending over the settlers who were to found Dublin.
But when I arrived in Ireland at the head of five swordsmen regiments, I saw the French.
Damn them. I sent a message to Elizabeth requesting that she meet Joan of Arc immediately.
This she did, with them meeting on neutral ground in Bismarck's Palace in Berlin.
***********************************************
"Either you hand over your new city of Lyons built in Ireland or my army will take it, and my navy will enforce a blockade against you. Your choice. If you decide to hand it over, I'm sure we could come to some kind of agreement beneficial to both of us, as England is a country rich enough to pay its way." Elizabeth put all her cards on the table at once. She wanted to show the French ruler(what kind of idiot made her French ruler anyway?! Hadn't those French morons heard of Charlemagne?!) that she wasn't joking about this, she would get Lyons and rename it Dublin one way or another.
"Never! France will never surrender its people to the tyranny of England!" Joan of Arc was in her usual patriot-of-France character.
Stupid cow. When would she learn that diplomacy wasn't telling the truth? Diplomacy was lying to someone's face, and them knowing you're lying, and lying back to you.
Elizabeth smiled at this thought. She hadn't been lying.
"Lyons will fall within the day, and your navy will be destroyed and blockaded by the end of the week." Elizabeth growled, then stormed out of the room.
Bismarck smiled on his throne. That little war would allow him time to expand his army and empire, and no one would even notice...
**********************************************
I led the assault on Lyon's gates myself. The three French spearmen regiments put up a spirited defence, injuring quite a few of my men, and destroying one swordsman regiment, but in the end we were victorious. Our galleys sunk the two galleys that brought the French over, and we renamed Lyons to Dublin, as Her Majesty had requested.
She was now making a speech on the balcony of Buckingham Palace:
"People of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, a new era has begun in our nation. Our nation is to be renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and our Empire will last for a thousand years!"
The people cheered. I clapped, but I hoped that it would last for more than that. 1000 years more would only just take us over 1AD!
Mind you, this BC stuff I never can understand. Why are we counting downwards?! How do we know this Christ guy is coming?!
I wish someone would explain why we have our years as Before Christ, some guy who apparently is the son of God. Stupid priests, what do they know?! They said the world was going to end at 2000BC, then 1000BC, and now 999BC! Idiots!
Yeah right, I'll believe it when I see it. Anyway, with those damn Romans and Greeks and Egyptians all vying for the Jerusalem area, I don't think even God could save the poor guy from getting killed in all the fighting!
****************************************
The French landed at Cardiff and took the city whilst only garrison forces remained on the English homeland. My regiments were still in Ireland, and I decided to lead them in a daring attack on Paris itself to stop the French attacking us and bring them to peace terms. Meanwhile, a swordsman regiment just being created in London would march to Cardiff and try and beat the two spearmen regiments holding it, and the navy would finally put to sea with five galleys and hold the Channel against any French invasion or re-inforcements.
The seige of Cardiff lasted for three days, with one of their regiments being destroyed in the first day's fighting, and the second holding on only for two days more against the superior swordsmen, a veteran unit when it left London, and now elite, compared to the French regiment's regular status.
And now we finally had landed at Paris.
I led the assault once more, only to find three spearmen and one warrior regiment holding Paris. The fighitng was fierce on both sides.
I led my swordsmen up the hill once more, determined to dislodge the spearmen holding position there. I swung my sword at one man, decapitating him, and pushed it into the gut of another. Well, no one ever said war was nice.
I felt a sharp pain in my side, and realised one spear had pierced my armour. I hoped it wasn't bad, remembering the immortality didn't extend to mortal wounds.
I swung at the man who stabbed me, chopping off his hand from the rest of his body, and making the spear drop to the floor.
He had been their leader, and with his defeat, his men began to fall back. One of my men stabbed the leader again to make sure he was dead, and we chased the routed spearmen into Paris, the warriors having died long ago. I marched into the Palace to meet Joan of Arc herself once more, this time with her as my prisoner.
A peace deal was quickly sorted, with us handing back Paris in return for the map, some money and two technologies.
Sounded like a fair deal to me, because the French still didn't have an iron deposit with which to make swordsmen, and thus were an impotent target.
**********************************************
Germany was becoming a major threat. Elizabeth travelled to Washington to meet Lincoln to discuss a mutual protection pact.
I was her bodyguard, and realised that the two liked each other.
They disappeared into the Oval Office for one hour, and finally returned having sorted out the pact. We could now face Germany with someone to back us up.
"Have a nice time?" I smiled at the Queen, winking to make it obvious I knew what had happened.
"That man is like an animal." she said with indignation. "I will have to come here again more often!". She winked and grinned.
I laughed. The Queen was only human after all!
***********************************************
Germany declared war one week later, invading our now allies France, in co-operation with Rome. Greece stayed neutral, and the Americans declared war on Germany to stand side by side with Britain.
But then the Iroquois signed a deal with Bismarck. They would fight the Americans and keep them occupied. Even the Aztecs agreed to this.
I managed to secure the friendship of Russia, and Catherine's help in the war, but then Egypt joined the war on the Axis side. China entered the war on my side, only to be countered by Japan. America quickly arranged for the Indians to fight alongside us, as would the Zulus. Persia then declared war on the Allies, as did the Babylonians.
But then the Greeks declared for the Axis.
The sides were drawn up:
Allies
Britain
France
America
Russia
India
China
Zulu
Axis
Germany
Egypt
Rome
Japan
Iroquois
Aztec
Greece
Babylon
Persia
Europe was pretty evenly matched, with Russia, Britain and France against Germany, Rome and Greece, but the Middle East was ruled by the Axis, with Egypt, Persia and Babylon holding it for them. The Zulus were too far south to help anyone.
In America, the USA was outnumbered two to one, and China was lagging far behind the Japanese.
The Indians to make any true contribution had to come through the Middle East, meaning fighting Egypt, Persia and Babylon.
This was going to be one hell of a war for the Allies!
Stay tuned for Part Two.
Feedback is appreciated!
Chris(posted as uknemesis on Civ Fanatics forum)
PS: This was on a world map, and this is how it really started, although later on I will have to veer off course, as that game ended quickly for me!
Anyway, a map will be provided in the next installment, but for now, the countries are basically mostly around where they start, no true empires emerging yet. Only when we get to colonisation will I produce maps.
I joined the army, and due to a wealthy father and a good education, rose to command one of the three regiments that England built in those early years. One was a warrior regiment(The Queen's Own), scorned by all for being jacks of all trades, masters of none, only having got their prestigious name from being the first regiment to deploy. Then there were the spearmen in the Protectors of London Regiment.
Then there was my regiment. My archers formed the Avengers, a deadly unit feared by the barbarians who inhabited Wales and Scotland.
I was leading my regiment into Wales after there had been reports of yet another raid on the village of Bristol near the Welsh border. This was unacceptable, as we were planning to build a second city soon, and could not have barbarians running all over the place.
We headed into the Welsh mountains, and there found the barbarians.
Five regiments of them.
***********************************************
'Damn Englishmen! How dare they invade our sacred soil!' thought the Celt leader of Wales.
His aide saw the look on his leader's face, and smiled.
"Sir, we have nothing to fear. We have five regiments in the field, and three defending our towns, including Cardiff. They cannot escape from Wales alive." he reassured the leader.
***********************************************
The barbarians poured down upon us. Two regiments attacked us first, and were driven back simply due to our better training, with us taking up positions on a mountain opposite their hill and fighting off wave after wave of attack.
Those two regiments now lay dead at our feet. The other three were up in the mountain of Snowdon. And now we were going to do what the Avengers did best.
Attack with all the fury of England.
*********************************************
The Celt leader told his men to hold Snowdon at any cost. They were determined to do so, and many thought it was suicidal for them to attack up a mountain, but a few were wiser, veterans of raids into England.
*******************************************
"FORWARD!" I yelled, drawing my sword and leading them forward. This time only a third of the regiment would actually use their bows, and that was only for covering fire. The rest would do something the barbarians wouldn't expect. They drew their shortswords, and charged up the mountain behind me.
As we neared the top, we could see the barbarians ready to charge as soon as most of us reached the summit and were vulnerable. I decided not to give them a chance.
I launched myself at their centre, and quickly found myself one on one with the Celt leader. He stabbed at me with his blade, but I parried and kicked his shin. This unbalanced him, and his next attack went straight past me. I grabbed his sword arm with my free arm, and plunged my sword into his throat.
Now there was no leader to order them to attack, and the barbarians waited anxiously for battle to begin.
Most of my regiment had reached the top, and I formed them up into line. The first row kept their swords drawn, while the back two used their bows to fire arrows at the enemy.
This made the Celts attack, and I led my front rank in a charge against them, quickly followed by my entire regiment, all now carrying their swords, bows lying forgotten on the floor until after the battle.
The sledgehammer effect of our attack drove them back towards the other edge of Snowdon, and many surrendered. Those who didn't were slaughtered.
At the end of it all, I ordered the massacre of every barbarian prisoner. It was horrific, but I was determined to show that England would not tolerate barbarians.
******************************************
The rest of Wales quickly fell under English control as well, and I was given control of two extra archer regiments when I returned to London. My job was to lead my Avengers Brigade, as the three archer regiments were known, in an attack on Scotland's Celts. It worked like a dream, and I became the overall commander of the English Army.
********************************************
As the sword of immortality tapped each shoulder, Queen Elizabeth spoke the words I still couldn't believe:
"Arise, Sir Arthur Wellsley."
I was now a knight of the realm, and to top it all off, Duke of Wellington, leader of the English Armed Forces. Plus, the sword she used was the only one of its kind in the world, which could give immortality to one person before becoming useless, and she had chosen me. I was now like her and the other rulers of the world, immortal to all illnesses and diseases, the only thing which could kill us was injuries inflicted by another person.
Not the best kind of immortality for a warrior!
I was rushed off to a meeting with the Queen herself soon after. She wanted my advice!
"It comes to our attention that Ireland remains Celtic. I want to establish the fifth city of the Empire there and name it Dublin." she spoke calmly. Her nation was one of the strongest in the world with four cities already, London itself, York in northern England, Edinburgh in Scotland and Cardiff in Wales.
"My swordsmen regiments can accomplish that." I smiled. Our warrior regiments had recently been equipped with new iron weapons, making them stronger than any other unit. All of our other forces had been disbanded, and reformed as swordsmen units. Those units were now the entire English Army.
The English Navy also consisted of three galleys, the largest fleet afloat.
And I was in command of them, and about to invade the small island west of Wales.
********************************************
The French landed on Ireland first, much to my dismay. I had sent over my swordsmen regiments to quell the barbarians before sending over the settlers who were to found Dublin.
But when I arrived in Ireland at the head of five swordsmen regiments, I saw the French.
Damn them. I sent a message to Elizabeth requesting that she meet Joan of Arc immediately.
This she did, with them meeting on neutral ground in Bismarck's Palace in Berlin.
***********************************************
"Either you hand over your new city of Lyons built in Ireland or my army will take it, and my navy will enforce a blockade against you. Your choice. If you decide to hand it over, I'm sure we could come to some kind of agreement beneficial to both of us, as England is a country rich enough to pay its way." Elizabeth put all her cards on the table at once. She wanted to show the French ruler(what kind of idiot made her French ruler anyway?! Hadn't those French morons heard of Charlemagne?!) that she wasn't joking about this, she would get Lyons and rename it Dublin one way or another.
"Never! France will never surrender its people to the tyranny of England!" Joan of Arc was in her usual patriot-of-France character.
Stupid cow. When would she learn that diplomacy wasn't telling the truth? Diplomacy was lying to someone's face, and them knowing you're lying, and lying back to you.
Elizabeth smiled at this thought. She hadn't been lying.
"Lyons will fall within the day, and your navy will be destroyed and blockaded by the end of the week." Elizabeth growled, then stormed out of the room.
Bismarck smiled on his throne. That little war would allow him time to expand his army and empire, and no one would even notice...
**********************************************
I led the assault on Lyon's gates myself. The three French spearmen regiments put up a spirited defence, injuring quite a few of my men, and destroying one swordsman regiment, but in the end we were victorious. Our galleys sunk the two galleys that brought the French over, and we renamed Lyons to Dublin, as Her Majesty had requested.
She was now making a speech on the balcony of Buckingham Palace:
"People of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, a new era has begun in our nation. Our nation is to be renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and our Empire will last for a thousand years!"
The people cheered. I clapped, but I hoped that it would last for more than that. 1000 years more would only just take us over 1AD!
Mind you, this BC stuff I never can understand. Why are we counting downwards?! How do we know this Christ guy is coming?!
I wish someone would explain why we have our years as Before Christ, some guy who apparently is the son of God. Stupid priests, what do they know?! They said the world was going to end at 2000BC, then 1000BC, and now 999BC! Idiots!
Yeah right, I'll believe it when I see it. Anyway, with those damn Romans and Greeks and Egyptians all vying for the Jerusalem area, I don't think even God could save the poor guy from getting killed in all the fighting!
****************************************
The French landed at Cardiff and took the city whilst only garrison forces remained on the English homeland. My regiments were still in Ireland, and I decided to lead them in a daring attack on Paris itself to stop the French attacking us and bring them to peace terms. Meanwhile, a swordsman regiment just being created in London would march to Cardiff and try and beat the two spearmen regiments holding it, and the navy would finally put to sea with five galleys and hold the Channel against any French invasion or re-inforcements.
The seige of Cardiff lasted for three days, with one of their regiments being destroyed in the first day's fighting, and the second holding on only for two days more against the superior swordsmen, a veteran unit when it left London, and now elite, compared to the French regiment's regular status.
And now we finally had landed at Paris.
I led the assault once more, only to find three spearmen and one warrior regiment holding Paris. The fighitng was fierce on both sides.
I led my swordsmen up the hill once more, determined to dislodge the spearmen holding position there. I swung my sword at one man, decapitating him, and pushed it into the gut of another. Well, no one ever said war was nice.
I felt a sharp pain in my side, and realised one spear had pierced my armour. I hoped it wasn't bad, remembering the immortality didn't extend to mortal wounds.
I swung at the man who stabbed me, chopping off his hand from the rest of his body, and making the spear drop to the floor.
He had been their leader, and with his defeat, his men began to fall back. One of my men stabbed the leader again to make sure he was dead, and we chased the routed spearmen into Paris, the warriors having died long ago. I marched into the Palace to meet Joan of Arc herself once more, this time with her as my prisoner.
A peace deal was quickly sorted, with us handing back Paris in return for the map, some money and two technologies.
Sounded like a fair deal to me, because the French still didn't have an iron deposit with which to make swordsmen, and thus were an impotent target.
**********************************************
Germany was becoming a major threat. Elizabeth travelled to Washington to meet Lincoln to discuss a mutual protection pact.
I was her bodyguard, and realised that the two liked each other.
They disappeared into the Oval Office for one hour, and finally returned having sorted out the pact. We could now face Germany with someone to back us up.
"Have a nice time?" I smiled at the Queen, winking to make it obvious I knew what had happened.
"That man is like an animal." she said with indignation. "I will have to come here again more often!". She winked and grinned.
I laughed. The Queen was only human after all!
***********************************************
Germany declared war one week later, invading our now allies France, in co-operation with Rome. Greece stayed neutral, and the Americans declared war on Germany to stand side by side with Britain.
But then the Iroquois signed a deal with Bismarck. They would fight the Americans and keep them occupied. Even the Aztecs agreed to this.
I managed to secure the friendship of Russia, and Catherine's help in the war, but then Egypt joined the war on the Axis side. China entered the war on my side, only to be countered by Japan. America quickly arranged for the Indians to fight alongside us, as would the Zulus. Persia then declared war on the Allies, as did the Babylonians.
But then the Greeks declared for the Axis.
The sides were drawn up:
Allies
Britain
France
America
Russia
India
China
Zulu
Axis
Germany
Egypt
Rome
Japan
Iroquois
Aztec
Greece
Babylon
Persia
Europe was pretty evenly matched, with Russia, Britain and France against Germany, Rome and Greece, but the Middle East was ruled by the Axis, with Egypt, Persia and Babylon holding it for them. The Zulus were too far south to help anyone.
In America, the USA was outnumbered two to one, and China was lagging far behind the Japanese.
The Indians to make any true contribution had to come through the Middle East, meaning fighting Egypt, Persia and Babylon.
This was going to be one hell of a war for the Allies!
Stay tuned for Part Two.
Feedback is appreciated!
Chris(posted as uknemesis on Civ Fanatics forum)
PS: This was on a world map, and this is how it really started, although later on I will have to veer off course, as that game ended quickly for me!
Anyway, a map will be provided in the next installment, but for now, the countries are basically mostly around where they start, no true empires emerging yet. Only when we get to colonisation will I produce maps.
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