Field of Glory Empires MP Game New Thread.

[JasonPratt]

Is the aged king
Just a greedy fool?
Kindly to his foe!
Laughing, raise their heel.

[devoncop]

The Papyrus Spysheet........Issue 2


Bringing you all the News..... (that is approved by the Censor)


306 BCE : Turn 4

This second edition of the Spysheet will review what has been an intruiging 4 years of activity (or in the case of the party loving Picts....five years of total inactivity other than attempting to make their barren god forsaken land an economic powerhouse). This project, according to our unfortunate reporter embedded with the clans in some of their recently improved mud huts in the Highlands remains very much a "work in progress".

Special Report : THE EASTERN GORDIAN KNOT

The biggest tinderbox of all with implications for all nations bordering the main protagonists appears to be the situation in and around the sprawling Seleucid Empire.
The apparent diplomatic triumph of the Seleucid leadership in having participated in successful peace talks between the leaders of three Diadochi nations(Egypt,the Antigonids and the Seleucids themselves) now appears to have been overtaken by events.

The scheming of Chandragupta of Maurya, initially done in a covert and clandestine way under the cover of the soon to be expired peace treaty with the Seleucids is now operating in plain sight. Close contacts appear to have been established between Maurya and both the restive subject nation of Bactria and the Antigonids and Mauryan plans for a co-ordinated strike have reportedly received a sympathetic ear in more than one foreign capital.

Surely the prospect of a Bactrian bid for independence simultaneously with a full invasion of the Eastern Seleucid Satrapies by Maurya would cause huge concern given the notoriously ambitious and aggressive Antigonids waiting to feast on the Seleucid corpse from the West once battle was joined.

Latest reports confirm big payments made by Maurya to Armenia whilst Bactria is attempting to secure its northern border with the Saka by also depositing generous payments of gold and jewels to the fierce horsemen of the sprawling Saka lands. Just how large will the coalition prove to be and what will be the Seleucid response ?






LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE

It was often said are only two certainties in life....the rising of the sun in the East and Carthaginian naval dominance in the Mediterranean. Its unrivalled merchant fleet led the way and its navy built on its profits, well led and equipped was more numerous and better trained by far than any rival.
It now seems this dominance is being challenged. Concerns over Carthaginian designs on the territories of southern Europe have led to several nations co-operating to be able to challenge Carthaginian dominance and latest figures now show their fleet has been outmatched in numbers at least.

This development has been warmly welcomed by the leaders of the Iberii, Syracuse and even ambitious Rome.

Whether the merchant oligarchs of Tunes feel the same or wish to respond is for now an open question.


FOR SOME, THERE IS ONLY WAR

While the Antigonids and Ptolemaic Egypt have signed a formal Peace Treaty in 308BCE and the Antigonids and Seleucids have reached at least an un-official non aggression agreement, for the other Diadochi such agreements are evidently considered merely "surrender in another name". Macedon and Lysimakos are now in their fourth year of open warfare. Whilst initially being quietly welcomed by the divided City States and historic centres of power in Greece who were more than happy to see such threatening presences devour each other this complacency now seems misplaced. An Antigonid strike north from their holdings near Athens would seem inevitable ...and yet.....commentators are noting as yet such moves have not occurred.

Maybe there is only one lesson to draw if the Antigonids are passive in Greece and the Satraps of the Seleucid Empire do indeed need to begin raising their levies very soon............


The Elephant in the Room

Finally in this edition we turn to Rome where the ambitious Consuls, egged on by a fractious Senate are already at war with the Senones and the Etrusci and are reportedly raising fresh Legions as fast as they can be trained. It has not gone unnoticed to the south where Tarantum has been strengthening its defences and readying its navy for what seems an intevitable move south later by the young republic.

It is whispered in diplomatic circles in the area that Tarentum may have got herself a secret protector who has pledged to take advantage of Roman naval weakness to sail in to the aid of Tarentum should the Romans reach the city in an attempt to halt the momentum of the aggressors before they become unstoppable and swallow the whole of Italia.

Who is this "guardian angel?"

Would Carthage really move East so soon ?

Can Epirus afford to turn its eyes and focus away from the events in Greece ?

Or is Ptolemy harbouring ambitions for a Summer Palace overlooking the Adriatic ?

All may become clear by the time of our next edition.



EDITORS NOTE :

Following an official complaint made to the Office of the Independent Papyrus Regulator (OIPR) by the fundamentalist High Priests of Judea over alleged pro
Egyptian bias in our first issue the Editor is pleased to announce that in a ruling published from OIPR's office in the Palace of the Great Ptolemy yesterday the allegation was found to be totally without foundation and to have been a scurrillous attack on the free press.

[devoncop]

Breaking News !!

Antigonids apparently at war with Judea with the ink barely dry on the Judea/Palestine Treaty signed between Judea, Ptolemaic Egypt and Antigonus only last year ........Is this confirmation Antigonids have decided to strike East ?

[Sir Slash]

With a name like, 'Anti-Gonads' you'd think they wouldn't have the balls to strike any direction. Perhaps it's a Misdirection Name Tactic? 

[devoncop]

With a name like, 'Anti-Gonads' you'd think they wouldn't have the balls to strike any direction. Perhaps it's a Misdirection Name Tactic? 

Briefing by the diplomats of both Judea and the Antigonids now indicates this is an attempt to get around the provisions of the Judea/Palestine Treaty to benefit the Judean expansion that concerned Egypt originally. The Antigonids have gained a "technical war" which contributes to their ability to restrict their government ageing by being involved in multiple wars whilst the Judeans get a free hand expanding East towards the Seleucids and allows more rapid expansion of their economic and military base.

Urgent ("full and frank")discussions are now underway between Ptolemaic officials and the Judean leadership in particular warning of the dangers of such a move which runs completely contrary to agreed Judean expansion in the treaty which was merely Nabatea Province (outside of Nabatean sovereign territory) before 290BCE.

[al_infierno]

The merchant oligarchs of Carthago awoke from sweat-drenched nightmares of camels and mediocre Bactrian desert rock, and immediately sued for peace with Syracuse.  A knife fight in a telephone booth is not on today's menu.

Reports of Carthage's naval decline and greatly under-exaggerated.  As a matter of fact, we don't even have a navy.  We just decided we don't need one anymore.   :-"

[devoncop]

The merchant oligarchs of Carthago awoke from sweat-drenched nightmares of camels and mediocre Bactrian desert rock, and immediately sued for peace with Syracuse.  A knife fight in a telephone booth is not on today's menu.

Reports of Carthage's naval decline and greatly under-exaggerated.  As a matter of fact, we don't even have a navy.  We just decided we don't need one anymore.   :-"

This must be the fakest of Fake News !

Carthage scuttling its Navy.....I think not.

The Ptolemaic Camel Corps send its regards by the way  :)

[JasonPratt]

Murder Mediocre, Saba stalks
Numinous at night;
Over desert seas
Prayers will be heard.

[Gusington]

Mediocre?? Pfft

[al_infierno]

Mediocre?? Pfft

I was having a prophecy of the post-reunion breakup re-reunion albums: Bactria and ReBactria.  Even the biggest Fleshpot Bitches fans can agree those albums were totally phoned in.   ::)

Of course, anybody who doesn't want their homes pillaged by roving camels would know better than to diss the legendary staple that is Drugged Puddin'   ;)

[Gusington]

You know, genius takes many forms.

[Tripoli]

The year starts on a positive note: The entrails of the bull were nice and pink.  Accordingly, the Roman army marches into the Senonian den of thieves in Picenum, quickly  routing the pathetic little army there and....our intelligence said nothing about a wall here.  Very bad omen.  Have to go find another set of bull entrails to consult.

[Gusington]

 :o

[devoncop]

Murder, Saba stalks
Numinous at night;
Over desert seas
Prayers will be heard.

If the mysterious Sabaeans are seeking allies in their quest to head north they will find a sypathetic ear in the Palace of Ptolemy..........just sayin'  ;)

[JasonPratt]

Oh? Judean bedsheets getting cold?  >:D

I decided to take Gus' advice to improve my poetry for this turn:

Murder Mediocre, Saba stalks
Numinous at night;
Over desert seas
Prayers will be heard.