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Pisthetaerus
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Worcester, Ma, US
May 2001
time: 05:16
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Warlord, Large Map, I'm Greeks . . . for background info read my post in the "your first game" thread. A story about my latest and hopefully last war against the Germans. I hope you enjoy . . .
The general took off his hat and entered the room. It was rectangular in shape, with a similar table in the middle. The walls were decorated with various paintings of past presidents of the Greek Empire. On one side were large paned windows, partially covered with great big blue curtains. At the moment they were closed for secrecy; it seemed that those curtains were almost always closed. The General came in and saluted the other men at the table and sat down. Opposite him was the current president of the Greek Nation. To each side of him were his most trusted and capable advisers. The president didn’t look very good today. He sported a five o’clock shadow and looked as if he had been woken up against his will. He was still wearing his orange and brown bathrobe to further give evidence to this.
“Good morning, General,” the President said weakly as if it wasn’t really a good morning but he had to say something.
“Morning, Mr. President,” the General responded.
“Don’t suppose you have heard the news have you? Boys, fill him in.”
The clean looking advisor to the President’s left cleared his throat and began to speak as if he was lecturing; in a sense, he was. “General, word has come down that Russia has joined in an alliance with Egypt against Germany. They have expressed their interested in avenging previous slights brought to them by the Germans . . .”
At these statements the General inhaled sharply, drawing a pause and a look from the advisor. But the advisor continued on, “As you are most aware of, Russia, despite any illusions it may have, is in no state to hold itself against the Germans. Even with our gift of Military Tradition, we feel that their Cossacks are no match for the shear numbers of the German army. Without serious intervention, we expect them to be overrun in months.”
“Given our strenuous relationship with the Germans, it is quite possible that they could position themselves practically surrounding our territory on the continent. Any new war in such a situation would give be in their favor.”
At this point, the advisor speaking stopped, gave a look to the other advisor on the presidents right. That adviser continued the quite one sided conversation, “But the situation is quite worse than that General. Our sources have indicated that Russia is the premier holder of most of the world’s oil. It is through our previous wars with the Germans, that we have what oil we have now. That entire area is saturated with it. Since the Russians have not the technology, they cannot use it. But the Germans are more advanced, and though they don’t have the technology now, we expect them to have it soon. If they are to gain more advanced military via this oil, then the Germans will almost certainly conquer back all that we have taken from them.”
Again, the conversation switched back to the first advisor, “The alliance of the other nations has produce little except more German cities and lots of destroyed infrastructure on the coastline. Germany is not a sea power and doesn’t need to be one. As long as the allies are content to patrol the coasts, Germany’s power goes unchecked.”
It was now that the advisors stopped their briefing and let the information seep into the General’s mind. His thoughts were broken by the president taking out a cigarette and lighting it. Taking a deep puff and then exhaling, the president addressed the general with all the authority of his office.
“General, in one hour I will go on national television and declare war against the Germans for the third time in our history. This time however, I pledge you our people’s full support and mine. It is time that we finish the Germans once and for all. We will keep the populace happy and give you all our economic output to do the job right this time. Your primary objective is to cut off the Germans from Russia. I suggest you don’t waste anymore time with me and do your job.”
Understanding a dismissal when he heard one, the General stood up, put his hat back on and left the room.
*****
The General’s plan was simple, but then all plans are simple. Only two German cities needed to be taken in order to cut off Germany from Russia; only two cities needed to the north needed to be taken in order to cut off a significant part of Germany from the greater part. However, the current army only consisted of a little more than a dozen tank divisions. There were also a few mechanized infantry divisions and some cavalry. Most of the army had to stay in cities and act as garrisons though. Reinforcements would arrive soon via airlifting, but the General needed to attack immediately. Most of the army was sent to the eastern front to cut off access to the Russians. Five to six tanks were sent north and a few were sent to hold the western front. Once again the Greek offensive would rely heavily upon the large numbers of bombers it had. Tanks rolled into German territory and Bombers carpet bombed cities and units.
The Germans maneuvered easily around the slow tanks. They took down a few divisions captured a few workers, but most of Germany’s might seemed intent of Russia. Greek bombers would hit anything that was near enough to hit. Tanks and sometimes cavalry would clean up. Still the Germans would come back with more forces. Most of the action happened in the east, the west was mostly quiet. The north had some fighting but Greek tanks captured the first city easily.
Greek bombers concentrated on the strongest units and the biggest cities. The German capital of Heidelberg, though not very near the action, was hit hard. The general noticed that German usage of their road system gave them an advantage. The Greek bombers were ordered to destroy road lines and isolate the eastern front. Eventually the hard fighting started to break down the Germans and the first city on the Eastern front was captured.
During all this, more Greek tanks were being airlifted to the front. A Greek leader appeared and an army was created. It was sent northwesterly towards Heidelberg. More bombers came in and continued to destroy German infrastructure. The general still had the support of his country.
The second city to the north was razed, cutting the Germans in two. Some tanks went west to hassle other cities. Massive carpet-bombing of Heidelberg reduced it to rubble and the Greek army razed it. Finally the last primary objective was captured cutting off the Germans from the Russians (but not before Germany took a key Russian city, though the Germans could no longer support it and were most likely going to lose it). Just when the tide of war was becoming a tidal wave in favor of Greece, the General received a message:
*Message to the Commander in Chief*Stop*Cease all offensive activity at once*Stop*Recall all troops within German borders*Stop*Return to Athens immediately*End*
*****
All too soon, the General found himself once again in the familiar room with the familiar blue curtains. Once again they were closed. Once again the President and his advisors were sitting across from him. Once again they had some explaining to do for this meeting.
This time the President started the briefing, “I have made a peace pack with the Germans.”
“But Sir! You promised me that I could finish the job!” the General protested.
“I did. But you never asked me what I meant by it,” the President responded with a straight face that only a life-long politician could. The President took out a cigarette and lit it. It was clear that his involvement in the conversation was over. One of the advisors took over and gave more information.
“The Germans have been crushed. You have split them up in two. You have destroyed most of their army, and what little they have left is antiquated. As such, the other nations have taken advantage of the situation and have actually landed troops and taken several German cities. In their current state Germany will not be able to continue the fight against her enemies.”
This sounded good to the general’s ears. He thought that this would make the president happy, apparently it didn’t. “What is wrong with that?” he asked.
“Nothing” the advisor paused, “from you vantage point. But from ours, it causes a lot of problems. What would happen if the Germans were conquered entirely by other nations? Who then would they turn their wrath onto? The Egyptians are no friends of ours, and they have many friends of their own. They and their allies are all on the same continent as our home cities. The Egyptians have their own source of oil and are technologically nearly the same.”
The President just smoked his cigarette and stared at the table. The General knew the President was avoiding eye contact with him. The General felt betrayed by the President and his cowardice to look at him only forced the knife deeper. The advisor finished what he had to say with, “The Germans are no longer the threat . . . it’s the Egyptians.
The General couldn’t believe his ears. The German’s weren’t the enemy? The Egyptians were? But Greece had a mutual protection pact with the Egyptians!
It was only going to get worse as he was unprepared for what the other advisor had to say, “We have decided to make Germany a sort of pariah state. They still hold the ire of the other warring nations—Egypt, Russia, Rome, France, and England. As long as Germany is sufficiently strong the other nations will continue to concentrate on it. As such, in addition to signing a peace treaty, we have given them the technology of refining and will shortly begin shipments of oil to them. Our hope is that they can rebuff any further incursions in to their territory and keep the war going. As long as everyone else is occupied with the Germans, we are safe from them.”
What the General heard made him dizzy with disbelief. What had they fought for to protect only to give it away now to the enemy? The General’s world was one of black and white, enemy and friend. The President’s world was one of politics--backstabbing and shifting alliances. The General, upset, distraught, saddened, left the room to wait for another day when things were once again black and white.
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08-11-2001 12:15
Now start on the next episode!
You must of read Macavelli (sp?)
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