Songhai AAr 'An Empire at last!'

[deadmeat1471]

I shall play The Songhai! with the unenviable task of simply trying not to die. Too quickly.

The Songhai are, and were one of the greatest Islamic empires in history. Based around the Niger river, they were a small vassal state of Mali before becoming independant. Their history is about to begin, but how will it unfold? in ultimate glory or ignominious defeat?

First things first; the King takes the Reigns!

After a quick google talk with the heralds, little is known about this king. I guess his obscurity or obscurity memory will be based on his forthcoming actions.
As for the actions,

Why not? one more land can't hurt. Not on land anyway.

As for our great and mighty empire! ... it's more of a fledgling state but, one step out the door of independance.

Introduction:
An 'empire' at last.

'We have a country, at last. To live for, to fight for and if needs be die for.' The king states resolutely.
'I am sure I have heard that said before, my lord.' the advisor said hesitatingly, hoping that the comment would fall on deaf ears, as opposed to his ears falling to the floor.
'No, you havent.' the king commanded.
'As I recall, it didnt end well for them either.' the advisor continued.
The king waved his hand, dismissing the comments.

Looking over his lands, the king is dismayed that he is able to do so. That his lands be so insignificant he can look over them with the mere human eye, and behold it in all its glory and size. The size being small, the glory being nonexistant. 'This has to change.' the king said pensively.
'We must stop using these boats by the river, its silly, we need to use more land based methods. I will import some horses from the Moroccans. Raising the cavalry might be a good idea too, about 6000 of them, prepared for any invader or, more likely, invadee.
'We would need allies for this my lord, Timbuktu is indeed ripe for the picking, but not if some border tribe decides to pluck us while were out foraging. We need to foster some alliances, or friendships at least. Marry off a few of your daughters, all they do is laze about and do their nails anyway.' the advisor gestured clandestinely at the daughters, whom waved back innocently, ever careful not to smudge their nails.
'Indeed advisor, indeed. Make it so.'








*I will try to keep large pictures to a minimum for our bandwidth impaired comrades! Though, of course, there will necessarily have to be some

 

[deadmeat1471]

Diplomacy of Gold
'My lord, the Mossi have accepted your daughter, we now have strong ties with them. They are a close and now trustworthy ally.'
'I hope so, they arent very powerful amongst our neighbours though. We will need more than just this.'
'Yes sire, I will send messengers to all tribes close by and see if we can gather some friendly support against the Mali'.
The advisor left. It is sadly unsurprising how often 'trustworthy ally' can, behind closed doors, become 'backstabbing traitor'. Reflecting upon this notion the king decided that finding more allies, was indeed the answer. The further away they are, the more likely they aren't currently interested in pilfering our women and raping our cattle. One should hope.
One should keep his friends close and his enemys dead, as the maxim goes.

'An envoy has arrived from the Mossi, he bares gifts.' said the advisor. 'We must never hit a gift Mossi in th mouth, let him pass'.
The envoy entered the hut, he then lay prostrate on the floor holding a golden idol. *
The kings eyes glowed uncontrolably. 'up, up man! A friend baring gifts has no need to prostrate himself, and you are an envoy of a great leader and friend.' The man rose to his feet and the gift was removed by the kings guards. 'The king of Mossi brings you a message of friendship, and wishes to inform him that his army has been severely weakend by rebels from Timbuktu. Assistance would be very welcome, if it is offered that is.'. The king paused, for effect, 'Of course we will help'.
The envoy allowed a smile to show, and departed the hut.

*Unknown to the Mossi, the Songhai kingdom, or more accuratly, his lordship, is very fond of gold in all its forms. The Mossi have inadvertantly hit th sweet spot of diplomatic excellence as far as the Songhai are concerned. Gold, gold in all its forms.

Diplomatic fruits were particularily ripe that year, the Ashante agreed to an alliance with us, as did the Mossi. This places our enemies the Mali in the unenviable position of being surrounded by a tribal alliance.

Shortly after the alliances were concluded, the rebels in Timbuktu declared themselves a new kingdom, the Mali will not be pleased. However the king was, as the troops began marching on them.

What came next was a blow to the king he would ill forget...

 

[deadmeat1471]

The horseman galloped over to the dashing young girl and in one swipe lopped off her head. The band gathered their loot and made off for the border at haste, leaving the town in ruins.

'Allah damn them! those Mossi Pigdogs. We honor them, we assist them and they backstab us with these raids!' The advisor frothed at the mouth.
'They have made a silly mistake, and they will pay. We have just Annexed Timbuktu from the rebels and now we have a free hand to deal with the treachery of the Mossi.' The king nodded to his Military chief, clear what must be done.

Within a week the Mossi were annexed into the new Songhai Empire, having lost the majority of their army the Mossi barely put up a fight before sucumbing. The Chiefs head was of course liberated from his body in reward for his actions.
Unfortunately, the day after the Mossi were defeated the king was taken from this world by old age. The new king Karbifo, young and raring to go, begins his rule.

 

[unmerged(94521)]

Nice a new AAR!

I tried playing Songhai a few times but i always give up during the massive event rebellions that are bound to happen. With the new beefed up rebels it's quite difficult to hold the realm together. Not to mention that all the tax values of the provinces take a massive hit reducing them to a base tax level of 3 or below. Such low values makes it hard to even have armies around because of the increased attrition.

That said once you have conquered and converted all the West African nations (which is fairly straightforward) you should have a secure base from which to strike into North or South Africa. Just be careful about Europeans gaining a foothold near you when they start to leap ahead in tech later in the game.