Slitherine

927 BCE (Nearing the End of the Rule of Blathergut II)

Having worked tirelessly towards peaceful relations with my neighbours, I think I can finally pass the crown knowing that the lands are safe (or as safe as this old world ever gets).

We have traded with many, trying to improve our influence. We have turned down requests from Pontus and from the Ardiaei for federations because both were at war with the Celts and our neighbours to the east. We did not want to be dragged into wars. The refusals didn't seem to affect our relationships much.

922 BCE [3rd Year of the Reign of Catullus I]

Disaster struck during the beginning of my reign; a terrible omen and hopefully not an indication of the future. Plague struck our land from somewhere out of the east. Two cities on our eastern borders were completely abandoned.
Most of our other cities were terribly hit by the calamity.

The entire population of the country dropped by more than half!
Shall we survive this? Will our so-called friendly neighbours suddenly pounce, eager for our throats? Thankfully I was spared from the death. My nation truly needs me!

886 BCE (Upon the Death of Catullus the Caring)

(Written by Psedilus, his scribe.)

My master lays upon his bed, in robes of state, while the entire land cries. His reign began with the most devastating plague ever seen by human souls. He encouraged and built and dealt with all his people and neighbours fairly and lived long enough to see not only the blooming of the lands again but the very desire of our neighbours to join in our harvests and songs. In this very year, two of our neighbouring cities to the north, in the lands of the Celts, begged my master to let them join our fair realm. (He was only too keen to do so! "Rather take your enemy by putting gold in a few pockets than swords in a few bodies!" was his favourite expression of late.)

The new lands (Athens and Amphipolis) greatly expanded the area north of the capital. People there are sleeping soundly at night now, not havng to listen to distant Celtic horns and partying!


And the rebuilt lands to the east, that had been so badly ravaged by the plague.

886 BCE (1st Year of the Reign of Blather the Cheap)

My name is Thraspus and I am a scribe in the court of Blather I (known by many of us as "the Cheap."). (Just don't let him hear you say that!)

My lord inherited a kingdom greatly prosperous but poorly managed. As an example, I present the financial situation as my previous lord still rested upon his death bed:
Gold income had dropped drastically. This was in part due to the expense of an army, but also many of our cities, since the plague had ravaged so many, had not established trading systems with each other. That was the first goal of Blather I.

But within 6 years, the situation was vastly improved (hence the nickname for our beloved emperor):
All of this was due to simply establishing trading systems with every city in our lands. Not surprisingly, the newly-joined Celtic cities had already established this!
The only worrisome news at this time was the creation of a federation between the Ardiaei and the Celts. I predict this will cause some sleepless nights and no doubt more coin dropped into foreign pockets!

A leader of a country will receive many offers of trade, treaty, confederation, or even federation. But, as the shoe said to the foot, there are always strings attached. In this case, we would be dragged into wars on almost all fronts.

Sometimes individual cities need specific attention. Each can have it's own birth rate. Early in our ruler's reign, Faerlon's population dropped dramatically, and needed incentives to bring the population back up.

848 BCE (Lost track of whose reign it is )

We have spent the recent decades [don't the years just fly by??] building here and there and slyly upgrading our soldiers with extra defense and attack training. Now we are stockpiling gold to upgrade them to hoplites in the very near future. I never was one for peace, like my ancestor rulers of this land. Time for a few swords in a few bodies I say!

The world is almost completely known. A couple lands are larger than ours, but all in all, we feel confident in our size. Now, if we can JUST get the army upgraded before anything happens...
And amazingly, and I must give credit to my various grandfathers and all, we are at peace with everyone except some unruly mob called the Romans in some distant place.
And just checking in with my various scholars, they assure me we will have the ability to improve our war-making techniques very soon.

The first of our snazzy new hoplites rolls out of the training fields. It will be a bit of a slow process (but then, we have decades if we need them) since it first requires tooling up a city to be able to manufacture the armour and the weapons and the specific training. That takes gold (something like 12) so we won't be upgrading every city! For now, Faerlon and Raelgon will handle the upgrades. We'll see how that goes. I'd rather spend the gold on the upgraded hoplites than upgraded cities.

826 BCE (Can you believe it's been almost 200 years?)

We have completed upgrading the army. We now have 13 Hands of Faerlon. Whether they turn out to be mighty fists of fury or limp wrists of failure remains to be seen!

We have to pick a target. Our natural choice would be the Ardiaei, given our long history with them. Notice that they gobbled up the Celts to the north some time ago (assimilated them). (Then a new Celtic nation popped up.) But they are larger than us in all regards and cover a vast distance. The campaign would be difficult to say the least.
The Celts are the obvious target: small and weak.
The Dacians have been begging us for a federation forever and we have always refused (since they are at war with most of the world). That would be the best target as far as material gains.
Decisions...decisions...

The problems with the northern campaign become obvious once you look at a map.

1. Attacking the Celts gets us no new resources. The Ardiaei have claimed them all.
2. The lands controlled by others, including some land the Gauls refuse to give up near Athens, mean we'd have to drive north and then west, through terrible terrain, for little gain.
3. By the time we get there, the Ardiaei will probably have taken the biggest chunk of the Celtic pie.

So, while we don't like the idea of our derriere hanging out while we charge into Dacian lands, I suspect that is our only real choice. It should give our army some much needed experience and we should gain some resources in the process.

While preparing for war with the Dacians, we receive terrible news:
The Ardiaei are now a vast empire. Luckily, they are still very friendly towards us! And, you never know...federate states can always decide to leave!

817 BCE

Invasion!

We are ready to invade the lands of the Dacians.
Stacks of three hoplites head to each of the indicated cities with the capital force bolstered by two additional hoplites in behind.

Before the sword falls, we offer the Dacians one last chance at a peaceful solution: absorption into our kingdom.

Not unexpectedly, they reject the offer.

Surprisingly, the Dacian capital falls almost instantly!
You can see just how little experience our units have at actual combat!

An advisor rushes in:
We're not quite sure what to review, but okay!

In quick succession, two other cities fall:
and
And while there is literally no Dacian counterattack, bad news arrives about the hated Ardiaei (que the suspenseful music):
They have completely obliterated the Celts. They are truly gigantic now, with forces in every area except ours! Perhaps we should send gifts?

Our conquest continues unabated. Truly, the Dacians seem to have no troops to speak of.

We send some gifts (cheap) to the Ardiaei.

The conquest of Dacia was extremely easy. Our concerns for the size of their forces were unfounded. In something like 3 years, we've taken everything except three of their eastern-most cities, and those will fall once some soldiers have walked that far.

The only real concern was north of our capital. The old Athenian city of Athens, which had been taken by the Celts, then 'convinced with bribes' to join us, formed a new Celt state suddenly and then was promptly taken by, yes, you know the name: the Ardiaei.

Anyway, I think I have shown you a fair chunk of the game. Work now approaches after endless summer holidays. I may get back to this or not. I'll attach the original start file and the most recent one, in case anyone would like to try it out or continue it. Be careful of the Ardiaei. Unlike the Dacians, they have troops! I suspect the Dacians were nibbled at by their neighbours until they had very few resources coming in. Setting was Heroic. I don't remember if I tweaked the fairness buttons up a bit...probably.

Very nice reading! I enjoyed it a lot.
I also looked at your latest save file (in editor) and I can see that there is a huge empire in the east which you havent seen that much yet:) Are you going to continue the game later or you will try something else next time?

I'll keep the files, but will see. I won't have time to continue the AAR now. Maybe add a tiny bit here and there along the way. But nothing more for a while as school starts back up. It's an interesting position.

[Editor's Note: The manuscripts are fragmented from this point on, often without reference to ruler.]

Year 808 BCE

The final moves in the conquest of the Dacian lands continued; only one of their cities remained out of our control. The heartland of Faerlon the Fine in that year:
In the following year, another great plague struck the very core of our lands:

Close to two million people died. The population of the capital dropped from 145, 304 to just 30, 035 people. The gods abandon us. How shall we ever recover when we are surrounded by wolves and thieves on all sides?

Well that may do us in.

There is not enough gold to even do the emergency repairs. Three of the cities cease to exist on the next turn and one goes over to the Ardiaei. Three others remain burning let alone repaired.