[spoilers]Commodore is Tokugawa of Zulu, or, playing for second place.

[Merovech]

Very nice updates! Do you have an eta for the final victory over Cyneheard?

[Mardoc]

:D Have a :cake: And some

[DaveV]

And so still the Forever War ground forward.

As in the Joe Haldeman book? If so, I admire your taste in literature!

[Commodore]

Very nice updates! Do you have an eta for the final victory over Cyneheard?

Still a long long time, just need a crapton of units to kill him here. I'll show from this turn; I logged on to find most of Lafayette's garrison AWOL.


He was finally smart and moved his stack of catapults and ([SIZE="1"]damn you Scooter[/SIZE]) muskets behind Springfield. I can play attrition games long-term but right now I've got a compact, highly experienced army. I need to just grit my teeth and whip/build another two dozen knights, so I can fork properly here. Meanwhile, I'll draw down his forces, bombard his defenses, and keep playing tactics.


So it's gonna be a long long time...

[Commodore]

The Throughway Sea is the warm, shallow region of the Great Ocean just a little to the west of the province of Jubjub. The mighty island of Wiffling protects the sea from the worst of the Great Westerlies, joined by the smaller island of Frumious in the south. In the year 1541, the Zulu empire laid claim to the islands with the city of Came Wiffling.


Located on the sheltered northeastern coast of the great island, Came Wiffling was an excellent natural port and a popular trade station for Egyptian and Viking merchants sailing across the Great Ocean. The Torrent Highland near the city was the highest area on the island, rough and hard to cross. Workshops and lumbermills dominated the interior, with the once-vast Songbird Wilds a small remnant forest in the middle of the island. To the south, the thick and marshy Nightfall Jungle was left largely save a few small fisheries in the southernmost areas. Further south, the rugged island of Frumious stood vacant and untamed for decades still, before a second city was founded there for trade and fishing.


The city of Came Wiffling was one of the most popular rest and holiday locations in the world within a few short decades of its founding, the expenses of the far-flung colony more than paid for by the incoming from tourism and trade.


To this day, Wiffling and Frumious are jewels of the world, renowned throughout the Aztec World State as a beautiful playground for the rich and famous and the middle classes alike.

[Commodore]

So how is it that such a tiny little empire can be so problematic?


Targets: Columbus by sea (amphibious muskets) and Lafayette by land (cat stack attack). Unless some jerk gifts Cyneheard rifles.

[Commodore]

From The Adventures of Cook James

Winter sea ice blocked us off from Aryan early that year, enclosing the passage by early September. Rather than poke around to the southwest and risk being trapped, we found a relatively sheltered bay upon an island and there stayed the long, dark winter. If that was not th most miserable nine months of my life, I should eat my own hat unsalted. We should have taken our chances moving south.



The Captain spoke enthusiastically about the island, about how a colony upon the bay would be excellent for fishing the grand banks to the west and for crabs south of the island. I think he is right crocked, the natives are welcome to keep this worthless snowy desolation, with mountains that look like they are trying to eat the sky and a ground that makes even Brilig look fecund.


The natives appeared to me to be the same sort as the fisherfolk we saw on the northern coasts of Aryan, but Monday laughed at this and called these people the door-sitters for their peaceful ways. They are a tall, fair, and shy people, makers of long stone houses and carvers of strange masks. They are fishers and hunters of whales and seals, I scincerely doubt they they have ever considered eating a plant. I aked them through Monday how it was they never dealt with tooth-rot, and they said that eating the meat raw was just the cure. I think I'd rather have tooth-rot. Sill, they are great story-tellers these door-sitters, and our stores were well-stocked with traded meat.


During the long winter nights, the sky glows with witch-lights more intense and fey than anything I have seen growing up. Most of us among the crew are from Brilig, Jaws Bite, and Claws Catch, so we at least have seen witch-light before. One poor fellow from balmy Jubjub Bird, though, grew so fearful at the sight of them he had to be restrained lest he jump himself overboard.


There is no little beauty in this land, but if indeed the Zulu Empire has come to look at even wastes like this as potential places of grow, we are indeed doomed.
-James Mardoc

[Mardoc]

DOOOOM!

[Commodore]

In the last days of the Byzantine Empire, the Grey Emperor grew paranoid, withdrawing most of the Byzantine army back to the Palace of Springfield. A small force had be bombarding the defenses there, and the fresh muskets from Lafayette wiped out the Zulus, at the price of nearly all the Byzantine catapults. Joan of Arc, a favored niece of the Grey Emperor, commanded the battle. She was then sent to Lafayette to command a rank of spearmen, for the Grey Emperor feared coup as much as conquest.


The poorly-equipped defenders of Lafayette destroyed the inital runs of catapults sent to crush their walls, but the sortie forces were wiped out in turn by ruthless musketmen of the Jabberwock Clan.


The Zulu commanders were cautious and canny sending in flankers to cut the few musket formations in the city to pieces. The bulk of the army, then, had little to fear from the remaining shaken defenders.


The last stand with the Citadel of Lafayette pitted the tiny remnants of the Byzantine forces, led by the wounded Princess Joan, against the fearsome elephants of the Zulu reserves. The slaughter was great indeed, and it is said that downriver the people of Springfield saw red waters for many days after.


The Grey Emperor, moved at last by the news of his niece's brutal death trampled by the elephants of Zululand, promised to recapture the city. But the ruthless Zulus, knowing that holding the city would be dicey at best, set the whole place to the torch. Scouts from Springfield reported the ashen color of dawn to the Emperor and were all killed where they stood for bearing such news.


The generals of Byzantium shook their heads and looked northward, urging the mad Grey Emperor to send out forces past the northern hills...for the only remaining other city of Byzantium, Columbus, knew the shadow of war too.


And the mad Grey Emperor fretted, and gibbered, and sought auguries from the stars. But it is said that the Aztec Monks were silent, and shrugged, and returned then to their own lands to let the burning empire rest.

[Mardoc]

Why raze? Lafayette looked like a fairly strong city. And I'd think you'd prefer to fight Cyneheard in the open at this point.


[SIZE="1"]
And it's also the home of the Fighting Boilermakers![/SIZE]