Hour of Power: 1421-1460
[A commercial jingle plays loudly in the background and fades away]
SEDUCTIVE VOICE: Welcome to.... the Hour of Power!
MEPHISTOPHELES: Greeting ungentles, here's the latest news on the jailbreak in sector #5. The three ancient evils, Elderan, Morba, and Karmulek, had barely settled in before war broke out all over the place.
[canned 'OOOOH']
MEPHISTOPHELES: Initially, the most succesful was Karmulek the slayer, who annexed three Chinese provinces.
Then an unexpected development took place. Over to you, Asmodeus.
ASMODEUS: A second jailbreak took place in the sector #5 top security prison. Blasting the security guards, one of the few remaining Eldar broke loose of his chains, sacrificing thousands of lesser brethren to facilitate his escape. He too made his way to Earth #5.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Wow. Sounds like a dangerous customer. What's the deal?
ASMODEUS: Unfortunately, some of my sources were killed during his escape, and I've been unable to identify him. His actions, however, may yet betray him.
MEPHISTOPHELES: And we all love betrayal. Tell us more...
ASMODEUS: Well, immediately upon his arrival a scream of rage filled the heavens, as he screamed "Hey, the AI has built Tax collectors for me! The dream of Nippon...." and a month later "wow! The AI has taken a loan for me during the first two years! how unusual"
MEPHISTOPHELES: Well, I'll be dipped in shit.
ASMODEUS: Probably. Unfortunately, that isn't sufficient for a full id, though it is indicative, but don't worry, I've got my best imps on the case. Additionally,
another Eldar has turned up.
MEPHISTOPHELES: A real gathering of powers, i see. You said 'turned up' and not 'escaped'. Care to elaborate?
ASMODEUS: Yes. An unknown Eldar took power in Atjeh, moved on to Arakan within a month or two, after which he switched his base of operations to Mysore. At approximately this time we lost track of Morba. So the question remains. Is this new Eldar Morba in disguise, or is he, in fact, a different Eldar - and if so, which? And how did he escape imprisonment? Zoryan imprisoned every single other Eldar following his victory, after all. There is something awfully
deceptive going on, I tell you.
MEPHISTOPHLELES: Thank you, Asmodeus. So we've got four mean Eldar on the loose raising havoc, and slaughtering all who would oppose them?
ASMODEUS: A fair approximation. Elderan managed to secure the wealthiest Persian provinces early on
MEPHISTOPHELES: A bold move!
ASMODEUS: Yes, it sure helped his manpower situation! The Eldar in Mysore began conquering Vijayanagar, Karmulek made mincemeat out of Indochina, and the Eldar in Nippon began carving out chunks of China.
MEPHISTOPHELES: So, some fairly standard opening moves, really?
ASMODEUS: Yes. Fortunately matters picked up. The laughter of the Eastern Eldar rang loud in the ether as Gujarat and Mysore began a campaign of mutual elimination around 44-45 rather than ganging up on their mutual enemies in Hyderabad and Delhi. Unfortunately, something terrible happened that broke their concentration after the initial skirmishes had killed most of their armies.
MEPHISTOPHELES: An act of God?
ASMODEUS: Apparently. Damn him for interfering. When things looked up a moment later, the Western Eldar had resolved their differences diplomatically and were talking about dividing Delhi as they should have been doing from the very beginning.
[canned 'BOOOOOOH's blast the studio]
ASMODEUS: Meanwhile, Karmulek was suffering from a bit of post-conquest trauma, as every single nation in Asia not controlled by an Eldar noticed his aggressive behaviour coupled with a low standing army. The result was not pretty. Constantly attacked by all sides, parts of his realm even managed to regain their independence, if only temporarily.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Overstreched himself, did he?
ASMODEUS: You can say that again! Whereas the Nipponese Eldar kept chipping away at China ever so slowly, Karmulek actually managed to lose a province to China to cut his losses. Outrageous behaviour. However, it should be noted that this
did lead to ever more misery and suffering, so I'll give him a 6/10 for execution but 8/10 for style.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Why didn't any of the other Eldar take advantage of his weak position? Are they absolute losers?
ASMODEUS: Hardly! The western Eldar were busy consolidating after their unfortunate wars, and Elderan was taking a quick stab at Delhi. Meanwhile the unknown Nipponese Eldar was fighting a vicious war, that will be known amongst surviving historians as the Onin War. Actually, he was fighting the Kyutoku war at the same time, due to an earlier miscalculation. However, this led to a devastated economy and mountains of skulls, so 5/10 for execution and... Dare I say it...
MEPHISTOPHELES: Come on!
ASMODEUS: 10/10 for style! But only because he managed to lose Taiwan to China via defection. That always brings a laugh from the audience.
[canned laughter]
MEPHISTOPHELES: So, in conclusion, what is the current situation, Asmodeus:
ASMODEUS: Let me put it like this, Mephistopheles. It is explosive. Elderan controls 13 rich provinces, and has just received his first defector from the Timurid Empire, Awaz, which joined his Tabriz, Isfahan, Fars enclave. He is also slowly eating the remnant of the Sultanate of Delhi. Fairly rich with a generous manpower base, if the Timurids defect en masse his Empire will shortly be a force to be reckoned with.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Cool. What about the Eldar in Mysore? One would assume this would impact his plans?
ASMODEUS: Indeed one would. Mysore now boasts 10 provinces, the Southern tip of India, of which several are colonies. While they are uniformly rich, it will take time to develop their economic potential. He really needs to get his shit together. I wouldn't be surprised to see three quick wars in succession, against Hyderabad, then Delhi, then Bengal. He should be capable of taking 9 hindu provinces (same as his state religion, you know) and be a potential counterweight to Gujarat. But it will be bloody expensive!
MEPHISTOPHELES: In that case he could for a temporary alliance of convenience with one of the Eastern Eldar, couldn't he?
ASMODEUS: He could certainly try. Karmulek now controls almost all of Indochina, 26 provinces
[canned 'OOOOH']
ASMODEUS: of which most are Buddhist, the state religion of Dai Viet. He has been a really bad boy indeed, at 98 BB and counting - far ahead of his nearest competitor Mysore which has 24 BB. It seems likely that he will spend some time consolidating following his impressive conquests with a bit of colonising on the side. But who knows? While he will certainly like some more of China, it wouldn't do to upset the Nipponese Eldar for now, so might he not help the Eldar of Mysore financially in return for... The Ganges centre of Trade? I wouldn't rule it out.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Yes, our late arrival, how did he do?
ASMODEUS: Well, despite wars, floods, assassinations, plagues, &etc he now controls 14 provinces and has two colonies. Used to be three until he lost Taiwan. His Chinese acquisitions follow the coast from Jiangsu to Kowloon and then strike inland for Guangzhou and Hunan along the river pearl forming a border with Dai Viet. As so often, geography may end up being the decisive element in determining the border. While he has fewer provinces than Karmulek, his island home of Nippon is currently unassailable and very, very rich, allowing him to recruit troops as needed in case of a war. Then again, he probably can't afford to wage the longer war needed to crush Karmulek, since this would weaken him fatally compared to the ascendant Western Eldar, and that is without considering the very unstable elements within Nippon itself. So the Eastern Eldar will probably stay amiable and keep
very watchful eyes on each other.... For a while, at least. Say a century or so.
MEPHISTOPHELES: A shame.
ASMODEUS: Quite. Finally, we have just received the annual condemnation from the
Human Rights Watch: Gujarat: 8, Mysore 7, Dai Viet: 7, and... Nippon 10! Yes, our unknown Eldar in Nippon is in the lead with
complete serfdom! Congratulations!
[canned applause]
ASMODEUS: And the biggest battle reported was the destruction of 60,000 Chinese by 40,000 Nipponese defending Shanghai during one of the Chinese-Nipponese wars. That's it from me for now, Mephistopheles.
MEPHISTOPHELES: Thanks, Asmodeus. Next up is an interview with Pussy the Mistress of the Dark, who seduced no fewer than seventy-two tomcats into a private kennel. Watch! the blood and gore as she lets the bloodhounds free. Thrill! As she deserts her lovers to their gruesome fate. Exclusively in the
Hour of Power, right after this break.
Western Asia, 1460
Eastern Asia, 1460
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We're playing GC 1419, Hard/Normal, with the following house rules: (updated 5/9/2002)
- No territorial acquisition within Europe. (The European border eastwards is Orenburg, Astrakhan, Daghestan, Kurdistan, Sivas, Adana)
- Colonisation allowed everywhere
- 3 provinces max per war with the AI. In case of turboannexation territory must immediately be set free as vassals to limit the gains to three provinces, if at all possible.
- No trucebreaking allowed. Period.
- If vassalised by another player, 5 years must pass before you break vassalisation
- Peace offers must be answered within a month
- NEW! No loans to the AI
- NEW! No maptrading outside Asia (I.e. If you want to visit America, you'll have to find it yourself!)
The players for this 1421-1460 were:
Dai Viet: Karmulek (Thanak) the Slayer, the wannabe-deity
Gujarat: Elderan (Wyvern) the Lord of Lightning, Drainer of Life, Possessor
Atjeh, Arakan, Mysore: Pi-Low (Eochaid) the lazy, mean, and twisted coward (his own description
)
Nippon: Gothmog (Peter Ebbesen) the Flamebringer, Lord of Chaos
- dropped out due to lag:
Vijayanagar: Morba (natt och dag) the Shadow of Doom
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For these
Hour of Power reports, I am using Jos Theelen's EUreader to gain information that should be widely available to all powers, such as relative tech, inflation, and dp-policies. I'll most definitely
not be loading up the save file as other nations, so your manpower estimates and size of armies are safe from my prying eyes. For screenshots I'll be using the fairly complete maps of Nippon. If they tell you anything you didn't already know, consider yourself fortunate