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It feels GOOD to be the king
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Over the Holidays I attempted a Warlords game of the fantastic Rhye's and Fall mod as the British. This is a great mod, I love how the cities name is context dependent based upon location and civ. I've never done this sort of story telling before, but I thought this would be a fun one to give it a go at. I’ve actually played the game up through the mid 1800’s. This first installment will take us through the establishment of the foundations of the British Empire. Next up, probably this weekend, I will expand upon the "Era of Exploration" and add some screen shots as well. Feel free to leave any comments.
The in game quests for the British are:
1) Be the first to circumnavigate the globe
2) Found 3 cities on each continent by 1740 AD
3) Be the first to reach the Industrial and Modern eras
The Era of Consolidation
In a dreary year of an era unknown in the southern regions of a small island west of the continental mainland (a smaller island exists west of the main larger island, but it is known to be inhabited by the barbaric Irish tribe. The Irish, as it is well known, are best left to themselves), the burgeoning English culture heavily influenced by Germanic settlers has surpassed that established in these lands first by Celtic tribes, who were at one point Romanized by an ancient Empire. Recently settled by northern Germanic ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon variety, now inhabited by a native blend of Germanic-Celtic-Roman people, most of whom never have set foot on the mainland; a certain absence of culture exists, one that, as time would have it, is ripe to be filled.
Lo and behold, there is a strong Nordic presence in the North of the larger Eastern Island. The first ever cities to be founded on the British Isles, the Viking establishments of Inverness and Cork.
So learning a thing or two from those who have been there before, the Britons quickly establish cultural centers of London and Plymouth, to the south of the capital city of London. As fate would have it, Plymouth would one day become the most important seaport in the world.
Some time later, and not wanting to miss out on the action on the mainland, a few hardy settlers hop on a boat and head for the lower Scandinavian peninsula and found the city of Aarhus. This peninsula is known by the natives as Denmark.
Meanwhile, so splendid was the newfound British culture that the citizenry of Cork and Inverness evicted their Viking lords and pledged their allegiance to the Royal British Monarchy. Not a drop of blood was shed; thus at once, the British presence encompassed the entire Eastern British Island.
Shortly after that, the remaining initial crop of British settlers crossed the narrow channel to the west, and taught the backwards native Irish population a thing or two about culture and established for them protection and the cultural center of Dublin- so long as they would swear their loyalty to the Royal British Monarchy.
At that point, open land was scarce. Tribes known as the French and Germans boxed in British-Denmark…at one point a rather large French war party, consisting of several sword-wielding regiments seemed poised to strike Aarhus, what with its lone garrison of the Longbow. Seeing the writing on the wall, the British Monarchy ordered the Longbow Garrison and a local worker crew to hop on the available Royal Naval Galley and high-tail it out of there for the safe haven of the British homeland. No sooner than the Aarhus military presence had been evacuated, however, in typical French fashion, did the French War Party seemingly monitor the situation to determine it was not in her favor and took a 180 turn back to the French homeland. Perhaps the Denmark Peninsula was meant to be a part of the Commonwealth until the end of time.
To the north, on the other hand, the Viking tribes had quickly established their presence throughout the upper Scandinavian peninsula and then looked to expand eastwards into the Lapplands, as they called it, and beyond. No matter how mighty the British presence on the islands, there would be no cultural wooing on the continent. Any further land grabbing would have to be by force.
But expansion by force is seemingly not the British way. With vast oceans to the west of Dublin and the South of Plymouth, surely there must be more out there than the French, Germans, and Vikings. So the Royal British Monarchy decreed that all scientific funding would be poured into the development of bigger, better and stronger ships, as well as the appropriate technologies to navigate the open seas.
To be continued...
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General
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It feels GOOD to be the king
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Firm Anti-Cynic
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It feels GOOD to be the king
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Not just the Americas...Bismarck...the entire world!!! Mwahahahhahhhaahahahah. :evil grin:
Ok, here is the next installment. A bit longer than I imagined, but getting us up to the dawn of the age of exploration.
The Era of Exploration, Chapter 1.
(Editors Note: Working by dim of candlelight, I have realized that in error, I have mistakenly referred to our most splendid city of York as the wretched Irish village of Cork. Such a mistake is the insult of insults. May a curse fall upon my name for many years to come).
As time would eventually pass--and in such a day and age, one could be no more certain than merely marking the days off on a wall, how much time actually did pass—various elements were realized that would shape the future of the young British tribe for the better.
In the east, contact was made with a cold and distant tribe calling themselves the Russians. It iwas widely speculated that they would not amount to much and definitely would not have much impact on the British way of life or the world in general.
First there was the discovery that a small needle, as if by magic, could hold position in a bowl of water upon being rubbed with metal ore. This apparent tracking device would forever be known as the compass, and it was evident from the start what such a device would do for our seafaring adventurers.
Some time after that, wayward strangers from a land far, far away arrived upon the shores of Britain. Emissaries from a supposed great king and calling themselves Arabs, they brought with them a most mysterious concept known as religion. They called it Islam. Now religion, being foreign to the islands, the Britons did not quite know what to make of it. They had always been somewhat of a spiritual peoples, ever connected to the presence of the natural world. But a creator…called Allah…? This was almost too much. Nonetheless, a small Islamic community was established in London and the rest, as they say…was history.
With these newfound interactions with the Arabs and their newfangled religion (which I might add, spread throughout London like wildfires) came a greater appreciation of the world and the world beyond…the heavens. Certain patterns in the skies were recorded on a seasonal basis, and it became apparent that patterns layered on top of patterns on top of patterns existed as well. Behold- the calendar! A time piece governing not only the passage of days, but governed by the moon and the sun as well. Based upon a standard set by an unknown peoples in an unheard of land, I am told the British calendar was established in the year known as 970 AD. What AD stands for… your guess is as good as mine.
Feeling rather comfortable now with the presence of religion in the British lands, the British people could now not imagine life without it. Much to their surprise then, travelers from afar visited York in 1030AD telling heroic tales of an almost mythical figure, the “son” of Yahweh (seemingly, their version of Allah the creator); A man-god, Christ, who once roamed the deserts of a land called Ægypt. Bearing gifts from their king, these strange looking Ægyptians were a most welcome presence in the Britsh Commonwealth.
Not long after the establishment of Christian communities throughout York, word reached the royal palace of London. Love they neighbours they said. Well the royal family is all about love. Within 10 years, Christianity was most certainly adopted as the “religion-official” of the state of Briton, much to the dismay of the Islamic worshippers of London, Inverness, and their Arab masters.
The year is 1070 AD, and a major scientific breakthrough has been declared. Glassmakers from the British-Danish city of Aarhus discovered, almost accidentally that multiple concave glass lenses, when peered through in tandem would amplify the size of an observed object by an order of magnitude or more. To make a long story short, after much refinement, this known quantity led to the invention of an object known as the telescope. The telescope was immediately put to use allowing great detail at a great distance to be observed. Now obviously, this would allow for precise maps of the stars to be made, and soon thereafter, these telescopes were included mandatory on all Royal British Ships.
This and other advances in the nautical sciences led to the development of a sturdy mast ship called the caravel. With the guiding features of the compass and the telescope, and the sturdiness to withstand the fierce storms of the great open sea, the caravel would revolutionize the world, as it would come to be known.
We now find ourselves at 1270, in the Year of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Life in Britain is splendid. Metalworking shoppes, food markets and book depositories have been constructed and established throughout the kingdom. To coordinate these budding industries rudimentary trade associations have begun to assemble from one city to the next. Royal guilds are on the horizon to coordinate labor, commandeering the resources of the people, and to establish an official stronghold over the flow of goods and services for augmentation of the royal coffers…errrr…moving right along then. The first Royal Caravel has long since been commissioned, with a band of rowdy explorers; it has set a course westward for the great wide open. News has now reached the Commonwealth that there is a new land out there a world away on the other side of the Sea Atlantic. Relatively uninhabited, this new land holds promise, not only the explorers, searching for treasure and whatever they may find but also for the well established, at this point, nation of Britain, and her teeming populace.
To be continued…
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It feels GOOD to be the king
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Boobies
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It feels GOOD to be the king
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It feels GOOD to be the king
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ehhhhhh, maybe not. I was planning on doing an update this weekend up through 1500 AD but when I went to open up the sav, the system crashed and reported a microsoft error at the point where the sav should have loaded to completion. Do not have this problem with singleplayer warlords epic game, only any of my Rhye's game. Might have something to do with the fact that I upgraded the patch on Rhye's for BtS. I have no idea. But I'll just have to do this with a different game, a different Civ.
Here is the cliffnotes version, from what I remember... shortly after "discovering" vast lands to the west, The British Empire sent settlers to found the cities of Philadelphia, Richmond and Toronto.
Meanwhile in other parts of the world, much further south, while exploring a landmass of it's own, seeming connected to the landmass to the north, it was discovered that the Viking peoples had colonized a land the natives called "Mexico". Imagine!!!!
Not wanting to miss out on the fun, a hardy group of explorers, let's call them the "Royal South American Company" took it upon themselves to conquer a tribe calling themselves "The Inca" along the western coast line of this continent.
So with that, the British Empire had established a presence in the Western Hemisphere of the world, in the north and in the south.
But the West was not all there was to be discovered. Interestingly, back in the East, it was soon learnt that below the French, a tribe had established themselves on a rocky peninsula, and they were called the Spanish.
Below the Spanish, however, was an entirely undiscovered "Dark" landmass, the continent of Africa. Rugged barbarians populated this dark continent, when there was actually respite from uninhabital deserts and jungle. Seeing fit to claim a piece of this land for her own, the British Royal Crown, sent settlers on a voyage to the southern most tip of this continent, let us cal it "South Africa"...as far away from the barbarians as possible, to found several colonies to represent the Greater British Commonwealth.
The British Sailors prooved themselves to be quite adept at their trade, traversing the seas and actually realizing that the known world was not indeed a flat entity, but that one could actually travel in one direction from Plymouth, and in a most convoluted way actually make it all the way back to Plymouth without reversing course. The world was indeed round, my friends! 
Along the way, a large Island was found, far removed from any trace of civilized peoples. Again, this was now domain of the emerging British Empire. This land of the south, this land down under was to be called "Australia" and, as with South Africa, several colonies were established, both in the east and in the west, all for the greater glory of their majesties the king and the queen.
North of Australia there was a plethora of smaller islands and peninsulas of jungle and volcanoes, and a civilized tribe calling themselves Japan had established a presence in the area, but they did not claim all for themselves.
A magnificient city-state, Singapura, welcomed British Sailors with open arms, so much so that sworn loyalty to the Empire without so much as a bullet fired. All hail the Glory of Great Britain!!!
Their neighbours to the North where not so inviting however, as the independent cities of Bangkok and Saigon were eventually taken by force of the pride of the British Empire, the Redcoat, along with some cannon fire.
Back in the new world, America, as it was now known, the seeds of discontent were being sown by the colonist. For reasons we cannot quite explain, they were not satisified with all the splendor of the Royal Kingdom, no, they felt they would be better off on their own. What fools these people are in North America.
While back home in London, it was apparent that trouble lurched ahead in America, little could be done to fortify British presence in the American colonies, what with adventures being had in all parts of the known world.
Philadelphia and Richmond jointly declared their independence from the crown, and fought bitterly to establish their own nation to determine their own destiny. Their cousins in Toronto could not be persuaded to free themselves from the Commonwealth... these fine folks new better, so British presence in North America remained, yet. Peace was made with the Americans after the fall Richmond, and the British went on their merry way.
With much habitable land available, and swelling populations back home, settlers again were sent to North America, to colonize the West, a seaport, New Haven, granting a vital link to England for the loyalists of Toronto, as well as a seaport in the west, Vancouver, that was very rich in resources.
So the British faced strife in the New World, but they also had conflict back home. For the Royal Empire was not the only nation with global aspirations. The French had established quite a presence for themselves in the New World, with the outposts of Quebec and Nouvelle-Orléans, among others, as well as a presence in Africa, actually a small Island off the Southeast coast of Africa, and further, a small island to the south of Australia. As much as they tried, the British simply could not get away from the dastardly French.
Seeking to take advantage of strife in the British Colonies of North America, the French declared war, on the British, seeking to limit their sphere of influence. To be sure, the ruthless French managed to attack some offshore fisheries South of Africa, but history would show that warfare was simply not something the French would excel in.
A newfound technology, one that the French were apparently not quick to embrace, that of the Ironclade Steamboat, was used to pummel the French coastal city of Rouen. But the British had no desire to invest in invading the well fortified French Homeland...no, the fight would be taken to a newfound source of French Pride, that in the New World.
With the war against America over, a war in which the French had aligned with Britain, the British generals deftly sought to consolidate their presence in North America, so that the British could one day take the fight to the Americans from a position of strength. With little effort British troops were eventually able to oust the French masters of Quebec and claim the city for the British Empire. France was then convinced to end their folly ways.
Finally, with a well entrenched position in Southeastern Asia, as the worlds most giant landmass was to be called, the British presence in Saigon, Bangkok and Singapura was to come under threat from barbaric, backwards civilizations of China, and their masters the Mongolians. Declaring war against Britain, without much discussion of the matter was the preferred methodology of these savage people, and based upon the size of the Mongolian Hordes, their seemed little hope that the British presence in Asia would remain...
However, one thing that the Mongolians did not account for was the dense jungles of the peninsula. Those damn fools had no way of invading Saigon. It simply could not be done, short of slashing through all the trees, and surely British troops could fortify their position before THAT happened. As such, the Mongolian threat went away, to menace other peoples, as they surely would do...
and that... is all she wrote folks! 
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THE 1BC 5 STAR GENERAL
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