Tides of Conquest Bronze Age campaign - First era completed at 1182 BC

[Indibil]

The challenge for Karvon is out.
pw: indibil


Sherden-allied horde try to settle in Assyrian-ruled Babylon
Map: Middle Eastern Agricultural
Side 1: Zagros Highlander (2500BC to 827BC) Rise of Persia (Indibil)
Side 2: Assyrian (1365BC to 891BC) Swifter than Eagles (Karvon)

[Nijis]

Challenge issued to Karvon. I threw in some Mitanni allies for a little variation...

Hittites try to pacify Assyrian allies in Kizzuwatna
Map: Mediterranean Agricultural
Side 1: Hittite (1275BC to 1180BC) Swifter than Eagles (Nijis)
Side 2: Hittite (1275BC to 1180BC) Swifter than Eagles (Karvon)

PW Karvon

Good luck!

[SpeedyCM]

Gasgans attack Mycenaean-ruled Achaea
Map: Mediterranean Agricultural
Side 1: Trojan (1250BC to 1180BC) Swifter than Eagles (SpeedyCM)
Side 2: Mycenaean (1250BC to 1180BC) Swifter than Eagles (Kronenblatt)

Match set up.

PW- 1234
PM sent.

[anderarcos11]

Egyptian-allied Libya beat Gasgan-allied Cyrenaica, 46 to 18

Egyptian-allied Libya attack Gasgan-allied Cyrenaica
Map: Middle Eastern Agricultural
Side 1: Libyan (1261BC to 651BC) Swifter than Eagles (anderarcos11)
Side 2: Libyan (1261BC to 651BC) Swifter than Eagles (Nijis)

[Karvon]

Egyptians attack Assyrian-allied Syria

Karvon's - Syro-Canaanite repulsed anderarcos11's Egyptians in a bloody swirling fight which saw both sides nearly broken 60-56.

[Nijis]

Hittites defeat Assyrian allies, 62 to 44.

The rebels of Kizzuwatna attempted an unorthodox strategy to beat the imperial Hittite forces, making a wide flanking maneuver around a cluster of olive groves. Both armies almost completely exchanged places before the battle ended. Chariots chased each other amid the trees. The javelin-pierced body of a proud Maryanna rebel nobleman, dangling by long tresses of hair that had become tangled with a branch, made a great impression on one of the poets who had accompanied the Hittite expedition. Ultimately an infantry slugfest in the orchards between the king's Gasgan and Mitanni mercenaries and the southern hill tribes decided the battle.

[Karvon]

Sherden-allied horde try to settle in Assyrian-ruled Babylon was beaten back 45-16

A deep steam wound across the middle the field along the foot of a long gentle ridge behind which lay a farming community in the central sector on the Assyrian side.

We initially deployed our Assyrian foot in this large farming complex, safely behind enclosures, screened by our light foot with our two light chariot divisions hidden behind hills on our left.

The barbarian hordes swarmed towards the farm, doubtlessly drawn by the lure of potential loot. Our light chariot divisions raced up the ridge and crossed the stream, flanking the oncoming sea of Zagros foot. Our light foot screen, shielded our own foot and shot up a few of the leading bunches of the horde. Our own foot, shifted left to the slopes and unleashed barrage after barrage of arrows into the oncoming masses, further disrupting and fragmenting some.

The Zagros foot finally drove off our light foot and began to close with our foot along the slopes, but were unable to bring all their masses to bear due to our shift. Our chariots poured fire into the flanks of the mass and then charged in to exploit the disrupted and fragmented barbarians. Our foot flanked and broke a few of the more aggressively advanced horde and the remainder lost heart and fled the field, leaving Babylon safe and secure.

Regards,

Karvon

[SpeedyCM]

Mycenaean-allied Crete attack Gasgan-allied Cyrenaica
Map: Middle Eastern Agricultural
Side 1: Mycenaean (1250BC to 1180BC). Alternately use Minoans. Swifter than Eagles (Kronenblatt)
Side 2: Libyan (1261BC to 651BC) Swifter than Eagles (SpeedyCM)

Kronenblatt and myself have agreed to auto resolve this battle.

[kronenblatt]

Gasgans attack Mycenaean-ruled Achaea
Map: Mediterranean Agricultural
Side 1: Trojan (1250BC to 1180BC) Swifter than Eagles (SpeedyCM)
Side 2: Mycenaean (1250BC to 1180BC) Swifter than Eagles (Kronenblatt)

=> Side 2 (Mycenaean, kronenblatt) wins 56-25.

[anderarcos11]

How many battles are left to play?

[Nijis]

They're all resolved! Sorry I did not catch that earlier. I shall process results, tabulate scores for this era, and fast-forward the world to a new era for anyone who wants to continue.

[anderarcos11]

They're all resolved! Sorry I did not catch that earlier. I shall process results, tabulate scores for this era, and fast-forward the world to a new era for anyone who wants to continue.

We could invite new participants. What era are you going to put it in?

[Nijis]

By 800 BC we'll start to get some very different lists. The map will be very different though. We could try three turns there, then move if there's still interest. I can advertise for new players.

Alternately I could even go another 200 years to 600 BC, where there will be some early hoplites.

[Nijis]

Okay - results and scores!

Here is the map...

Bronze Age 1184.jpg (102.18 KiB) Viewed 836 times

Realm sizes (2 points for owned province, 1 for ally without unrest)
Egypt - 12 (from 10)
Assyria - 12 (from 6)
Mycenaeans - 8 (from 4)
Hittites - 7 (from 8 )
Gasgans - 3 (from 0)
Sherden 2 (from 0)

Battle W/L (this includes auto-resolved battles)
Egypt 7/4
Assyrians 8/5
Hittites 2/5
Mycenaeans 5/4
Sherden 2/5
Gasgans 5/6

Leading rulers (this is affected by battle scores, realm events, and how long they live)
Baryoom the Grim of the Assyrians (52 stature)
Glados the Mad of the Spartans (45 stature)
Ra-en-kau the Pious of the Egyptians (42)
Aspunazites the Bold of the Gasgans (41)
Rhotamenti the Cruel of the Egyptians (40)
Uassurme the Conservative of the Hittites (39)
Warati the Cruel of the Sherden (33)
Aiguptios of the Mycenaeans (30)

[Nijis]

The Hittite victory over the rebel chieftains of the south in the woods of Kizzuwatna appears to have checked the empire's decline. King Uassurme's write now runs from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. But it is challenged in the east by the Assyrians, and to the west by the Gasgans. Will it break out of its strongholds in central Anatolia, or will fall victim to one of its neighbors or to a new migration from the steppe?

The Spartans and the Gasgan kingdom in Troy battle each other to a standstill in Epirus and the Peloponnese, while a horde of Libyan sea raiders fails to subdue Crete. These two kingdoms glare at each other across the Aegean. In the continuing struggle, the wealthier and more established Spartans will have the advantage over their upstart rivals, although the Gasgan lords can be proud of having transformed themselves in less than a generation from a horde of starving migrants to one of the leading contenders for power in the Mediterranean.

Egypt's offensive into Syria was checked, but Pharaoh is as might as ever. A shield of tributaries and satellites guard the Saharan and Nubian frontiers, and its alliance with the Arabian kingdom of Thamud gives it a foothold on both coasts of the Red Sea. Still it is challenged by Assyrian allies and the newly established kingdom of Nabatea for control over the incense trade, and the Red Lands to the west are as always in turmoil.

The migration of the Sea Peoples took them from Crete, to the Nile Delta, to the rocky hills of northwestern Arabia. There, they conquered the cities of the Nabateans and won themselves a new homeland. But it will be some time before the intricate systems used by the Nabateans to capture water and grow grain in this forbidding land will be repaired, and this impoverished kingdom is pinched between the Egyptians, the desert and the sea and may find it difficult to expand.

Assyrian arms have brought the wandering Zagros mountaineers to grief on the shores of the Tigris, while its allies in Syria blocked Egypt's latest attempt to expand northward. The empire is now unchallenged in Mesopotamia and a worthy rival to the Egyptians for hegemony over the Fertile Crescent. In the long run, though, its success may throw up new challenges, as the Iranian chiefs to the east have begun aspiring to kingship themselves, and their trade with the river-valley cities may soon give them the wealth they would need to consolidate into new kingdoms that could one day compete with Nineveh.

[Nijis]

Next will do the fast-forwarding, and see who wants to continue...

Bronze Age 1100BC.jpg (82.45 KiB) Viewed 819 times

The first 100 years of fast-forwarding...

The Gasgan kingdom extended its influence throughout the Balkans and the Black Sea region, crowding out their Mycenaean competitors. Still, their capital Troy never regained its ancestral pre-invasion splendor.

Assyria's golden age was all to short. In 1172, another Zagros horde descended on Babylon, and this one succeeded where the other had failed. For two generations the ruins of the city were squabbled over by various Egyptian- or Nabatean-allied petty kings, and in that time the Assyrian empire also lost its hold on the southern Mesopotamian marshes and the western Euphrates valley.

The kingdom of the Pharaohs suffered internal decline, as the gap between rich and poor grew and as its landowning families grew increasingly alienated from the court in Thebes. Still, so did all its competitors, and its armies remained strong, although its influence in the Near East, in Nubia and in Arabia waxed and waned.

The Hittite empire's center of gravity was pushed eastward by the Gasgans. Still, they maintained a solid presence, especially as the Assyrians failed to put up much resistance.

The Nabateans flourished in the mid-century, dominating the south Arabian incense trade routes and collecting tribute from as far north as Syria and as far south as Punt. The desert however contained their physical expansion, so their influence was always transient, subject to local intrigues and the machinations of Egypt and Assyria.

Will do 300 more years.

[Nijis]

Bronze Age 1000BC.png (515.54 KiB) Viewed 817 times

Here's the world in 1000 BC. Nabatea suffered a sudden collapse and was absorbed by Egypt. (All defeated factions "reincarnate" as different realms, and ex-Nabatean faction is now the Shen, the first Chinese dynasty in the game). Troy has been rebuilt and is again gloriously rich, but the internal institutions of all the kingdoms of the Near East have decayed and may soon be replaced by internal rebels, foreign hordes, or others.

[Nijis]

900 BC.jpg (117.04 KiB) Viewed 815 times

900 BC: The next of the old empires to fall were the Hittites, who were vanquished in a sudden surge of Assyrian power that saw much of Anatolia pledge nominal loyalty to Nineveh. No sooner did the Hittites collapse, however, then a new power emerged - the Nubians of Kush - who swept northwards into the lands of Egypt, so long untroubled by invaders that fortifications had decayed and army musters were populated by fictitious units. Mycenae suffered a brutal succession struggle that saw the capital engulfed in flames, so its former vassal Athens rose to claim the leadership of Achaea.

[Nijis]

Bronze Age 800 BC.png (843.64 KiB) Viewed 812 times

The world in 800 BC:

A dark age for the Middle East, but a time of glory for Greece and eastern Africa. Assyria collapsed, as did Gasgan Troy. The blue Assyrian faction has now relocated to western China as the Shu state, battling with the Jin for the remnants of the Shen dynasty. The Gasgans have reincarnated as the Kurus in India, so far without any major competitor. Only three empires contest the Middle East - the Nubians, the Athenians, and a small rump of the old Pharaonic kingdom that holds the Delta ports and dominates trade in Anatolia and Syria.

If anyone is interested we can play this with as few as three players, or I can do another 200-300 years and see what emerges in the early classical era. More realms will pop up (first an Iranian-based one, then Rome and Carthage) so it might be more complicated but also offer more choice.

[Karvon]

I'm not interested in the current options; if you roll it forward a bit more maybe I would be. I have no interest in playing SE Asian or Asian positions.

Karvon