Re: Colonize and Conquer III.2: Imperial Dream

[Sirius Lupin]

Upon hearing about one of Russia's ships being captured, Czarina Ariadne sends Captain Aramis d'Erath to lead a strike force to join the Atzlan in Tripoli in an attempt to free the ships.

Meanwhile, Czarina Ariadne begins to plan reforming the autocracy into a constitutional monarchy.

Czarina Ariadne aslo sends ambassadors to the Tartars, telling them that if they want to settle in Russia, they must submit to Russian rule.

[99luftballons]

The Tartars return the ambassador, looking like a porcupine, but with arrows.

[Sirius Lupin]

Czarina Ariadne sends the army out to remove the Tartars from their land.

[99luftballons]

The Tatars use the flat terrain in Central Asia to harass the Russian soldiers so far from home. Persian soldiers are not exempt, but Persia is busy focusing on Persia proper as not to bother with its Central Asian possessions. The Tatars do have rifles probably smuggled in illegally by bandits and/or supplied by someone.

[Helsing]

The pirates return to there home base to gather there supplies

[Flagmauth]

Unfortunately the Ilhuitl Caate was still largely camped outside Tripoli after losing the pirates initially. Isolfui and some assorted runner-ships had gone out to try and cut off the pirates, but that left most of the fleet powerhouses to catch the pirates coming home.. The (literal) bulk of the flotilla was terribly pleased when the pirates returned to them. While they had waited, boats had been sent out to sound the coastline and determine the location of sandbars, with the result that schooners were blocking the pirates' approach along the coastline as the ships-of-the-line maneuvered for a broadside on the approaching Tripolitan ships.

[Helsing]

The pirates did what they could to try to get away from the ships. But they do attack the ships in a bid to get away

[Sirius Lupin]

The Russian people are still war-weary and don't want to get into another war.

The army has a little more success, but still has trouble removing the Tartars from their land.

However, the small Russian Fleet- under the leadership of Captain Aramis d'Erath- sent to help the Atzlan had managed to surprise the pirates and destroy most of the ships who looked like they managed to sneak past the Atzlan.

[Flagmauth]

With the surprise arrival of the Russian fleet, the Aztecs are able to clean right up. After combined broadsides from the Russians and Aztecs wrecking their stuff, any pirate ships that surrender are made to accept Aztec boarders. An officer then reads charges (usually piracy against the sovereign ships of the Hegemony) and marines perform an execution; the pirates are lined up on the side of the deck, a marine slits each one's throat and another marine bayonets them from behind, shoving them into the water. The Aztec admiral, Ochtli Mazuma, then offers the remaining mostly-intact ships to the Russians as prizes.

[99luftballons]

The Ottomans demand to know why there is a army camped off of Tripoli. Ottoman ships (obviously allied with the pirates) appear on the horizon, demanding that the ships back into international waters.

[Flagmauth]

Mazuma sends an envoy back demanding to know why the Ottomans can't keep better control of their territorial waters.

[99luftballons]

The Ottomans point out that no piracy has been done in their territorial waters, but in the international bodies of water. Ottoman law doesn't allow for them to try for crimes committed outside Ottoman territory.

[Flagmauth]

Mazuma asks if it allows for them to try for firing on a foreign power's ships.

[99luftballons]

Pirates caught in international waters are fair game for Aztlan to catch. Otherwise, the Ottomans don't have the jurisdiction to go after the pirates.

[Sirius Lupin]

Captain d'Erath happily accepts the offer Mazuma made to him, although he and the rest of the Russian sailors are a little creeped out by the executions they just witnessed.

Back in Russia, the Russian army is having terrible luck with the Tartars.

[Flagmauth]

Mazuma tells the Ottoman admiral that they pursued the pirates from international waters. This is of course a lie, but since the IC ships combined with the Russians outnumber and outgun the Turks they'll have a devil of a time proving it.

[Sirius Lupin]

After some settlers in Central Asia were killed by the Tartars, Czarina Ariadne has finally decided that she has had enough. She orders the Cossacks to ride through the Tartar-claimed territory and drive the Tartars away.

The Cossacks were successful.

[99luftballons]

The Cossacks manage to sack and burn Tatar villages, capture Tatar troops, and to show Russia means business. However, the Tatars have gotten support from regional tribes who support the Tatars. They don't like the Russian interference. The Tatars have also gained strength in Persian territory, the few Persian soldiers trying to contain the savage Tatar menace are quite the laughing-stock.

The Ottomans will look into the matter.

The Italians have made good headway digging the Roman Canal [Suez Canal]. It will however take a while.

France flares suddenly back into revolution, this time more serious. People demanding bread rally outside the Bastillé. They try to storm it, but the French soldiers shoot at them resulting in a bloody massacre. In Paris, intelligence (countries with spies in Paris) reports that the revolts are rallied by a certain Robes Pierre.

[Flagmauth]

In China, the most powerful officials in the gov't (not that that says much) have had it with European influence. This is China, dammit, not Austria or God only knows where else. Led by one Bei Zhefu, the Chinese officials (taking the unofficial name for their "organization" of The Resurgence) form small, private armies and storm the Emperor's palace, demanding reform.

The Emperor refuses, citing the Mandate of heaven.

Zhefu personally shoots him, more or less on impulse. He declares the Resurgence to be the new government of China, that the Emperor had failed them and they would now set up a new government modeled off of Aztlan, since the Aztecs had already achieved the goal of sending a giant "up yours" at European methods of government.

[Sirius Lupin]

The people of Greece have had it with the heavy taxes, unjust court systems, massacres, and repressive laws committed by the Ottomans. (Looked it up on Wikipedia.)

In Athens, a group of revolutionaries- the majority of them university students (or around that age, at least)- interrupt the execution of an outspoken writer who criticized the Ottomans. After freeing him and killing the executioner as well as any guards who came close, they call for a revolution, promising to bring a bright future to this dark age to the people of Greece.

At the end of the spokesman's speech, he shouts, "Down with the Sultan! Down with his Greed! Down with his repression! Freedom, we need!"

[99luftballons]

Europeans don't like China's stance.

As expected Ottoman soldiers come in to silence the revolutionaries. The Ottomans reason that the Greeks can't do anything but think about philosophy and therefore need to be ruled by a gentle guiding force.

[Sirius Lupin]

(Greece)
Upon seeing the Ottoman soldiers, the revolutionaries- knowing they couldn't hold off an entire army- flee the city, taking the writer with them.

About a dozen of the rebels stay behind to make sure their comrades escape by holding off the soldiers in an area of the city where they could make a somewhat effective stand. They were all killed, of course, but they bought enough time for their colleagues to successfully escape.

(Russia)
The Cossacks make another successful attack, demonstrating they mean business.

[99luftballons]

The Ottomans station their troops around Athens and of course ask for writer. Surely a traitor must be amongst the crowd, because gold is such a tempting offer.

Austria finds its neighboring countries dilemma interesting. An Austrian government official [on vacation] tells the rebels after running across them.

[Sirius Lupin]

The rebels accept the Austrian's offer and tell them they are heading for Thermopylae before they continue their journey.

[99luftballons]

The Austrians can better supply the Greeks if they are on the south side of the peninsula [the one above Peloponnese]. Of course there is a matter of a fee with weapon shipments, which can be paid back once Greece is established.

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