[Spoilers] Commodore is Kublai Khan of Greece...yeah.

[Commodore]

Swift and deadly, the horses of the Teller came upon the fortifications of the Second Ekdromoi. Two mighty waves of chariots fell upon the spears of the Free Cities. The first wave was slain to a man within the confines of the city, but the second wave overwhelmed the lightly armored ekdromoi, falling amongst their ranks with a great slaughter. Horse archers and vultures joined the remnants of that chariot company, and once more the banners of Summer flew over the walls of Vulture Road.



The mighty men of the Tenth and the Eleventh Phalanx took up their spears and charged into the fresh horsemen in the city. The Tenth was met in the field and slain by the cowardly bows of the horsemen without killing a man, however, the Eleventh flanked the retreating horse and fell to them with a great slaughter.



The First, Ninth, and Bane of Lys Phalanx followed, striking down the remaining defenders.



This time, Vulture Road was put to flame, and ash dominates its fields to this day.

[Commodore]

Belatedly, Turn 75 empire update.

So, let's travel back in time four turns to 1AD. This before the ruckus around Vulture road; nonetheless the demos are still about right. AT's MFG is down a bit but Scooter is still killing on crop yield, and I'm still staving off a dogpile by dent of strong soldier ratings. The GNPs are all very very inflated by culture.




Not that culture is worthless, by any measure, here in the world of Shadow. Norvos owns most of Scooter's third-ring now, and is fighting for those furs. The city has peaked at size four here, but the 14hpt/9cpt net benefit is stronger than a lot of size eights. Expensive, true, but that's life.




South of Norvos there is a silver/sheep/wheat spot that's winnable from Mayan culture. I'd like it as a crumple zone, and also to pressure Scooter's iron, although he's got firm control of half the lake district and the iron therein.




Lys is the newest city, and quite the dozy. Controlling my quarter of the lake district, she's whipping out a couple settlers before swapping to pure growth. 10 cottages to pick up here! She can share out the growth-retarding iron mine and ivory soon.




This shall be the sharing place, lake fish, whales, and a fp farm. Whipping defenders and fighting culture are the twin tasks of this spot, and it ought to do well with those charges, although hoping for more than first ring westward is silly.




Pentos is still battling for its second ring, working on the king of all monuments, the SoZ. It's been painful to grow thus far, but no regrets, it defends my copper and pressures Pindicator IX magnificently.




Pentos' eastern flank will be defended by Braavos here, once Calendar comes along quite the city. VultureRoad needed killing to enable this plant safely...I need this area locked down shortly. Having the best capital in the world means little without quality expansions.




Volantis is a gem, not much more to say about it that hasn't already been said.




And that's the Free Cities, 1AD.

[Merovech]

Why were you working a farm over the crabs? Also, nice updates.

[Commodore]

Why were you working a farm over the crabs? Also, nice updates.

I screenshotted mid-transition, actually. Also, update done.

[Commodore]

The years following the great War of the Phalanx, the Free Cites experienced a time of growth and prosperity, tied closely to live lives of three remarkably great men who came to the capital of Volantis together in the same few years; Louis Strongarm, an artist who was responsibly for making a science out of music; Benjamin Franclyn, an engineer who grew up in the north slums of Volantis being inspired every day by the Pyramids; and finally the Pentoshi intellectual Sun Tzu, a simple man who had only served in the reserves for a few years, but who would be remembered as one of the Free Cities' greatest military minds.




Strongarm arose with his trumpet in hand one evening, and walked within the odeon of Volantis to play. It was the first such performance the city had seen, as he sang not at all, not did anyone else, but his music was so pure and so strong that he was instantly lauded as the greatest in the land. Any city would have welcomed him to settled, and the Academy would have gladly given him a position as master for the development of dramas or anything else he chose, but he Strongarm instead settled after making his fortune in the dry foothills east of Pentos, content in the knowledge that his music would inspire a golden age in the years to come. The Mayans near there whispered of Strongarm's music, and Free City culture spread to the nearby city among the spice lands therein.




Franclyn the engineer was a man ever obsessed with gadgets and machines. It was at his urging that the Academy pursued better methods of metal working, culminating in the first forge systems. But all that was merely to enable Franclyn to his greatest work, the invention of machinery. Examining a captured crossbow from the lands of the Spring people, he reproduced the design effortlessly, although with no archery tradition it took time for the empire to train crossbowmen. Watermills, windmills, all manner of gearing and mechanism fascinated Franclyn, and he worked on newer and better machines until the day he died, never caring about the salvation of the empire that the crossbow represented.




Sun Tzu was born in Pentos and barely missed his chance at joining the great army. He listened avidly to reports of the battles, cheering at the decimation of the ancient vulture soldiers. A childhood fall had left him with a tremendous fear of horses, so the devastating effects of the horse archer's wiping out the Ten Phalanx gripped his mind. After completing his own uneventful term of service he made his way to Volantis. While he made his way there along the Old Road, he collected reports from ongoing skirmishes in the east. It seemed like the best-trained ekdromoi and phalanx who stood in perfect formation did the best against the cavalry charge. Sun Tzu wrote a book upon reaching the Academy and named it War: The Art. The academy was astonished by the insight shown by his book, and it is still yielding great insights to this day.




Sun Tzu, for his part, was content to remain a military instructor, teaching many new battalions of ekdromoi the arts of formation.

[Commodore]

Turns 79-83 In those days the Free Citizens grew numerous and settlers were sent out from the city of Lys. In the east, Tyrosh was founded amidst the farms and pastureland once controlled by Vulture Road. The city stood upon a hill overlooking the river, and was a bulwark against the Spring peoples and the Mayans in the north.




Another fortress city was Myr in the west, contesting India for control of the lake and farming the flood plains below it. Though the Free City had little chance to control much west of the river, it served as a bastion for the people against all comers in the west.




With the defeat of the Teller's people in the east, the wild hill country between Volantis and the great jungle could at last be tamed. Work crews built roads, chopped forests, and mined ores within that fair green country.




The Franclyn's great gift, Machinery, had the forces of the Free Cities training in the use of bows and crossbows, abetted by the locals of the forests in the east. Crossbowmen stood ready to defend the walls of each Free City, able to crush any but the most determined incursion.




One such incursion seemed to be brewing near Pentos, as a mighty host of Mayans assembled to defend the hills nearby. More great phalanx hastened to defend the city.




Elsewhere upon Shadow, great battles were fought a revolutions swept nations, as the other brothers used their wisdom as well.




Indeed, in his own private council Commodore worried, for the only true advantage the Free Cities retained was the strength of their spears.




In this time of national growth and challenge, a man known only as The Poet wrote the great Epic of the Six Free Cities.




This paen to the greatness of the cities inspired and encouraged the two million souls within the cities, promising a golden age to come.

[Commodore]

In the years before the birth of Pasteur, there arose a new way of war upon the world of Shadow. In India, horse archers arose fierce and agressive, ever ready to defend the borders of their land from the Free Cities and the Spring tribe in the north. They were swift and deadly, and the more aggressive among the generals at Norvos tempered their plans of assault.




In those days, however, there also arose the first companies of hippeis from the stables of Volantis and Lys. Citizens all, the horsemen of the Free Cities trained hard in the arts of shock and flanking, so to destroy the siege engines and axemen of any comers upon the border.




Armed with bows and spears, the hippeis were a new breed of warrior upon the land, and Volantis spent its entire military efforts for some years in outfitting these soldiers.



And behold, it was well, for upon the northern borders of Tyrosh axemen of Maya appeared, along with parties of workers. The Bane of Lys Phalanx sortied out to meet them in battle. The solid veterans of the phalanx decimated the axemen and captured the workers without losing a man. A heroic epic would be sung of the mighty phalanx, commissioned by the Commodore himself should the men survive the counterattack.




Into this time of strife and growth was born the great philospher L. Pasteur, who would spend his days in meditation, researching codes of laws, and developing the alphabet these very chronicles are written with before founding the Way of Tao. It was well indeed he was born, for all along the western borders the might of India and of the Spring people waxed.




In those days also the first rumbles of strike were heard among the soldiers of the army, as the fisciary of Volantis was indeed very poor. Pentos gave such aid as she could, but even so, the treasuries of the Citizens were almost gone in those times.

[Commodore]

WOO HOO!


...and...


...give us...

[Merovech]

Love that gif. How are you planning on escaping strike?

[Commodore]

Love that gif. How are you planning on escaping strike?

Right now, building wealth in Volatis. 22hpt means I'm making a cool 7gpt now. I just finished CoL, so I'll be whipping in courthouses to help the insane costs. And finally, invading Scooter a little bit.