The Republic of Athens

[civman2000]

Edit: Please rate this thread. I meant to put up a poll to rate it but forgot.


This was played on a mod I made giving all six advantages to everyone and the ability to build all UUs too. I am the Athenians (Greeks renamed) and I am located at the far north of my continent. On my continent there are:
The strong imperialist power of England to the East, with many colony cities.
THe one-city "power" of Egypt, almost destroyed by Athens awhile ago.
The nation of Germany to the south, who i had a war with earlier in which i gained konigsberg.
CHina to the far SOutheast, with lots of unclaimed land between them and Germany.

On the Eastern COntinent, there are:
THe Persians in the far north.
The very strong Romans south of them.
THe Iroquois to the east of Rome.
The Russians further south.
The Japanese on the southern edge. They are not as imperialist as England, but they have some colonies. They are my number one rival and i recently got into a war with them.

Also: The technologically backward Americans on another island east of Japan, and the somewhat strong Babylonians on two islands east of america.

Note: Each turn is referred to as a month in the story, although at this point in the game they are actually 10 years each.

[civman2000]

Chapter 1: The Cabinet Meeting

Pericles sat in his office in downtown Athens. As Prime Minister of the Republic of Athens, he was the most powerful person in the world. SUddenly, there was a knock on the dorr.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"Me," said the familiar voice of his Trade Advisor, Julian.

"Come in."

"Sir, we cannot afford to continue our alliances any longer."

"Haven't we already had this discussion?"

"But sir--"

"Wait!" The PM stood up and walked to the door. He called out to a staff member, and returned to his office.

"What was that about?"

"Themistocles should be here in a moment." Themistocles was his Foreign Advisor.

"And I'll call Nikolai," said Julian irritatedly. Nikolai was the Domestic Advisor.

"What the hell, let's just call together a full cabinet meeting." Pericles left again and returned a minute later with Themistocles. A few minutes later, Nikolai, the Military Advisor Lykurgos, the Culture Advisor Alkibiades, and the Science Advisor Herod.

"OK, Julian, what's your complaint?" asked ALkibiades, annoyed because he had been in the middle of a nap.

"Our luxury excesses are shrinking. Rome just culturally absorbed Parsus and took Persia's excess incense. Now, because we lack an excess in spices and already gave them ivory for an alliance against Japan, we can't trade them for it."

"Just how important is it that we get this 'incense'?" asked Lykurgos skeptically.

"Very important," said Nikolai. "Our people need luxuries, and we can't afford to take much more from the treasury. Ever since we lost the gems trade with China we've had happiness problems throughout the Republic."

"And we can't afford to decrease science spending to make up for it," chimed in Herod. "We have a very slim technological lead and we must keep it at all costs."

"But we can't just end the alliances," Themistocles protested. "Making peace would end the alliances but make enemies of half the world! Besides, it'll only be about a year until we can end them without upsetting our allies."

"But we can't wait a year!" yelled Julian. "BY then Rome will have traded it all to other nations!"

"Hmmmm...." said Pericles. "Lykurgos, what's the current status of the Russo-Japanese War?"

"Russia is losing. St. Petersburg has fallen, though there is an unconfirmed report that our and the Russians' Iroquois allies are about to liberate it. Novgorod and many other towns have fallen in the Asian Western Desert. Sir, we cannot end our alliances with the rest of the Eastern COntinent. Ties to us are the only thing keeping them all at war with Japan. THey will make peace and Russia will fall if we end the alliances. We cannot allow Japan to get much stronger."

"Alkibiades, you've been awfully quiet," remarked Pericles.

"Uhh, yeah, I'm kinda tired and we really wouldn't be affected much culturally by this decision," he replied, yawning.

"OK, I've made my decision," said the Prime Minister. "Someone, send this to the press: The Republic of--"

"We have not yet developed very advanced printing presses," interrupted Herod.

"Well then just tell the people that stand on the hills and yell out the news: THe REpublic of Athens shall maintain its alliances with the many nations of the Eastern Continent and shall remain at war with Japan for at least 9 more months."

[steelehc]

Interesting, very interesting, but make sure you continue this. I want to keep reading.

Steele

[Sovy Kurosei]

Interesting...

I prefer war mongering and taking over everybody else first though

[civman2000]

I already know that . I've never attacked anyone, but the Germans attacked me, then the Egyptians, then the Japanese..though they all only did it after i refused to pay tribute...but they only gave me one chance!!!

PS: that list is incomplete, but i dont want to give away the story

[godinex]

[civman2000]

Chapter 2: The Declaration of War

Seven months earlier, the PM had held his famous CAbinet meeting prolonging the war sitting in the same chair he sat in now. Nikolai was sitting next to him.

"So, only 2 more months untill we can end the treaties," the advisor said cheerfully.

"I only said nine months so the people wouldn't see it as too big a commitment," came the cold reply. "Our alliances still last four more month, and the one with the Iroquois lasts five more months. The situation in Russia is getting worse. England is building more and more cities, encroaching on our territories. Babylon is expanding onto a third small island." Nikolai could not believe how negative Pericles was being.

"BUt sir, Herod told me that we are on the verge of perfecting a new form of projectile weapons greater than any other known to man."

"Always on the verge, but never there. I give 'em at least 6 months before they ctually finish it. Meanwhile, everyone else catches up technologically and we lose our lead, and then we find out we lack the substance Herod's been calling 'saltpeter'in any large quantities."

"Quit being so negative!" scorned Nikolai, losing his patience.

"Shut up!"

Suddenly, Themistocles barged through the door. Gasping for breath, he said, "The-the G-germans dec-cla..." and fainted of exhaustion.

"What the hell?!" yelled PEricles. He ran outside and called for medical help. Meanwhile, he looked for Lykurgos and after a long search found him.

"Pericles! I've been looking everywhere for you! You weren't in your office, though Nikolai was there and it looked like Themistocles had fainted there. But quick, we don't have much time." He took a deep breath. "Bismarck met with Tokuwaga in Stuttgart yesterday, or at least we think so. Then, just three hours ago, a messenger came to Konigsberg announcing that Germany has allied with Japan and declared war on Athens!"

Pericles was speechless. It was so sudden, so unexpected! Finally, he said, "Come to my office. We must hold an emergency meeting."

Ten minutes later, the cabinet was assembled in the Prime MInister's office. Themistocles had been revived and everyone had found out about the declaration of war.

"May I make a suggestion?" asked Themistocles cautiously.

"Of couse!" replied Pericles as if it were a stupid question, which it may have been.

"Before we do anything, we should send a message to the embassy in Beijing. After all, China was involved and very helpful in the First German War, and they still don't like Germany much."

"Good idea. What about England?"

"So far Elizabeth is staying neutral, though she'd gladly join if we asked."

"Wait a second," interjected Alkibiades. SHould we let England have a piece of Germany? It would be very difficult to absorb their territory down there culturally, with England's rapidly growing culture."

"I definitely agree," said Pericles calmly. "England should be kept out of this."

"But PEricles, we still do control the Isthmus of Eretria. They will not be able to send any troops by land to attack Germany. In fact, they would probaly lose Birmingham and that would slow their imperialist growth."

"No. I will not allow English troops to stomp through our part of this continent attacking the Germans." And that settled it. "Now Nikolai, I want as many cities as possible to begin training immortals or troops with that new cavalry strategy, what's it called Lykurgos?"

"Actually, there are many variants. The basic strategy we call 'knights,' but there is another faster strategy we call 'riders' and yet another based on an ancient Japanese code of war called 'samurai.' We also have designed similar strategies for men on elephants. I suggest we focus most of our energy on training riders."

"OK, Nikolai, build riders in most southern cities and immortals in the low-production cities; The details are up to you," ordered Pericles. "And Herod, put everythin you've got into the new weapon research, so we can use it ASAP. Alkiabades, you'll get a budget cut, sorry. Julian, no changes. Now everyone but Lykurgos leave, we've got a war to plan."


Edit: Minor typo fixed

[civman2000]

it might be awhile till i get up chapter three..i need to play som more (i'm only about 8 turns ahead of the end of chapter 2!)

[easthaven]

Great story civman, I can't wait for the next chapter.

[Sovy Kurosei]

Toosh pah, just wait til you get into a game where 15 other civilizations declared war on you

[civman2000]

Title sneak preview for the next 2 chapters (already have them planned...):
Chapter 3: The War Begins
Chapter 4: The Fall of Berlin

Chapter 4 will probably be very long, the 2 turns it will cover in my game were very very big turns with lots of important stuff!

[civman2000]

let me know if i'm giving away too much...

[civman2000]

Chapter 3: THe War Begins

Five months had passed since the Second German War had begun. Lykurgos had been sent to command the army, and Agamemnon, Assistant Military Advisor, was the temporary new advisor. The first objectives had been Salzburg, Bonn, and Nuremburg, all of which had encroached on Athens for centuries. Pericles was sitting in his office, anxiously waiting for news of success or failure in the first round of attacks. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"It's us," said the voices of Julian and THemistocles.

"Come in."

"Pericles, five months ago you said that in five months, we would be able to end all the alliances against Japan," said Julian nervously

"Hmmm...Yes, I think that's a good idea." Julian was visibly relaxed. "Themistocles, send word to the embassies of the Eastern COntinent that we are bringing an end to our alliances. And try to make peace with Japan."

"Sir, we cannot do that. They will not accept a peace treaty because it would break their alliance with Germany."

"OK, then don't bother with it." He paused.

THe door opened violently and Agamemnon rushed in! "Great news! All three of our objectives have been taken easily!"

"Excellent!" He picked up a map from his desk. "Do we have sufficient troops in the right places to take Frankfurt and Hamburg?"

"Yes, sir. SHould I send the order to Lykurgos?"

"Yes."

At this point a messenger rushed in. "THe Germans have attacked our worker corps near Konigsberg and taken them slaves, probably to Hamburg!"

"Agamemnon, make Hamburg #1 priority. We're setting these guys free! But don't forget, after taking Hamburg, go for Frankfurt before attacking Berlin."

Two months later, word came that Hamburg had fallen, and the slaves had been freed. One month after that, Agamemnon brought some mixed news.

"Sir, the good news is that Frankfurt has fallen."

"The bad news?"

"The Hamburgers have rebelled!"

"What??!!"

"THe Hamburgers have revolted!"

"Huh? I just had a humburger for lunch, and it wasn't revolting!"

"No, the city of Hamburg has revolted back to the Germans! Hoping to advance to Frankfurt quickly, Lykurgos left a small garrison in the city, and the citizens destroyed it!"

"OK then. Just take it back before taking Berlin. But get to Berlin ASAP. The people won't like dragging out this war too long."

Three weeks later, Alkiabades and Themistocles came to Pericles in his office.

"Amazing news!" exclaimed Alkiabades excitedly. "Syracuse has revolted and wants to join the Republic!!"

"Well then, I guess we should let them join."

"Pericles, this may anger Rome," said Themistocles.

"Oh well."

"You've got the final word. But I came to tell you something else. England is demanding that we give them spices for 20 months!"

"Give them the spices."

"Sir?"

"They will most likely declare war on us if we don't, and we can't afford that. Do it, I'm going to bed now."

A week later, on December 21st, the snow was coming down outside the Prime Minister's office. He knew winter would not make a difference in the war; Germany was almost exactly on the equator. An hour ago Agamemnon had told him Hamburg had been retaken, and Herod ahd said it would be less than half a year before the new weapon was perfected. Everything was going so smoothly, and Pericles began to think about the upcoming election, only 18 months away....

[civman2000]

Chapter 4: The Fall of Berlin (and Its Consequences)

It was March 16, and warn weather had returned to Greece (pretty much the rest of the Republic was tropical and always warm, all except the core). Nearly three months had passed since the siege of Berlin had begun, and Pericles was starting to get worried and impatient. No messenger had come to Athens with a message about the war for 5 weeks now. As he sat in his office thinking about this, he began to doodle. After nearly an hour of this, he got up to leave and have lunch. Before he could leave though, there was a knock on the door.

"It's me, Herod."

"Come on in." The science advsior walked in and sat down in a chair by the prime minister's desk.

"Come, sit down," said Herod. "I am proud to announce that my colleagues and I have finally completed designing the new weapon, which we call a musket. The trick was to get just the right mix of a few other minor ingredients with the mysterious new 'saltpeter' to make a good explosion."

"Explosion?"

"Yes, the saltpeter mix, which we are tentatively naming 'gunpowder,' explodes inside the weapon and forces a large metal ball out at tremendous speeds."

"Amazing! Will you show me a sample this afternoon?"

"Sure. It is very loud, but effective. There is, um, one problem."

"What?"

"Obtaining large quantities of saltpeter." He pulled a map out of his pocket and put it down on the old desk. "You see, there are no known easily accessible supplies of saltpeter, although we have found a few sites where we think there may be some. See, here near Thessalonica, and over here pretty close to Argos, although we suspect that one or both of them is just confined to a very small area that will not be usable for long. Another curious thing is that there seems to be some near Hamburg, but unfortunately that will be untappable until the war ends."

"OK then, I'll tell Nikolai to construct large paths out to all three, and if--" and Agamemnon rushed through the door.

"Finally! Berlin has fallen! The messenger just arrived a minute ago! Unfortunately, Bismarck refused to surrender and fled to Leipzig!"

"Great," said Pericles smiling, and walking up to his advisor with what he thought was a map of Germany. "Where should we attack next, in your opinion?"

"What does that weird drawing have to do with the war??"

"Huh? Oops, I was doodling and picked up the wrong paper." He reurnde to his desk and got the actual map.

"I would say Heidelburg and Hannover should be our next targets," suggested Agamemnon.

"Hmmm. I agree. SEnd the order to Lykurgos."

Everything was going smoothly until March 29, when Nikolai met with Pericles.

"Cities are rioting because the people want peace. The most notable rioting--"

"I don't care about which cities, just do the standard entertainment increase."

"BUt Pericles, supporters of the peace movement took control of the Legislature in the last election. They may not approve of--"

"I don't care about them. I'm not ending this war until Germany is reduced to dust and we have Munich!"

"What's so great about Munich?"

"It control the SIno-Germanic Isthmus. With that isthmus in addition to Eretria, we would be able to keep everyone we don't like, absolutely everyone we don't invite in, out of our territory except if they come by ship."

And so the war continued as before until May 13th. On that day, Pericles was talking with Nikolai about the general state of affairs when the domestic advisor brought up a very important issue.

"Oh, did I tell you that we finished the path to the saltpeter sources near Thessalonica and Argos? Only the Thessalonica one seems to give very much, the one near Argos was very small."

"That's the best news I've heard since Berlin fell! Now I want you to create a mass mining and transport system, similar to the iron transport system."

"It'll be done before summer begins," he replied, and left.

As soon as Nikolai had left, Herod and Themistocles entered.

"Horrible news!" said Themistocles. "It seems that most of the world has designed a new, more advanced education system."

"It involves large quantities of academic centers called 'universities.' These universities pull the intellectual center of the world away from the Great Library of Athens, so others nations are no longer dependent on us! THis could have horrible effects on our world scientific leadership."

"THemistocles," began Pericles slowly. "I want you to find out which of the nations with this new system is the richest. Offer them gunpowder for this new system and a whole lot of money. THen, before the knowledge of gunpowder spreads very far, sell it to everyone else. We can then use to money to buy muskets for our military."

Herod looked horrified. "But PEricles, we cannot just give up our lead with gunpowder!"

"Yes we can. Actually, the new education system would benefit your department more than any other so shut up."

There was a knock on the door. "It's Agamemnon."

"Come on in, we were just discussing a new plan to upgrade our defensive forces."

"That's great, but I have something more important to tell you. A historian traveling with the army has sent back stories of atrocities performed by our troops agianst the Germans, and this has fueled the peace movement. But the news is not all bad! A man by the anme of Pyrrhus, a corporal of the 5th Riders Division, was the first to enter Berlin. When the other troops began committing the aforementioned atrocities, he convinced them to stop! We believ this also happened at Hamburg and Nuremburg, and it is said he played a key role in the capture of both cities. He has some support of the peace movement, and he is amazing at getting the people to love him!!"

"So you're suggesting we bring him back and give him power, making him a figurehead for popularity? If you are, the answer is no. However, I may consider giving him some high position, so have him sent to Athens."

The cabinet members left Pericles's office, and he imagined what this Pyrrhus might look like....

[easthaven]

two thumbs up!!