Distant Worlds Part #12 - 1060-1079, An embarressing series of wars.

Part 12: 1060-1079, An embarressing series of wars.

The Umayyads finally have another civil war, and Zakoi strikes.

The first battle does not go well.

in fact, neither do the next two, as two similar sized armies are fed into the grinder one at a time – each time the Umayyads defeat an army the same size as their own!

In the end, the sheer numbers of the enemy mean that the Ghanan's cannot prevail. Zakoi is forced to concede defeat and pay his enemy nearly 700 gold, once more plunging the country into debt.

Bada of Goa takes over the lands of his cousin, this gives him a huge chunk of Ghana under his command.

Weeks later he dies a natural death, and his lands are split between his two daughters. Gavilkind is usefull for preventing ones vassals from getting to big.

Zakoi may be known to many as “The Clueless”, but in reality he loves his books.

With nothing much to do but wait for the debt to be paid off, Zakoi works on his family.

He has the normal sized Ogoona family.

Even his son, who prefers the company of men, has a decent sized family.

A short illness steals Zakoi away.

Mamoudou I takes the throne. This solves the countries money problems and puts the thrifty clerk on the throne. He is craven, but he is also honest, diligent and charitable.

One of the Mansa's sons dies days after he takes the throne. Mamoudou also takes over the education of his son Zakoi.

He is immediately challenged by his son's violent temper, he tries to beat some patience into him, but that only makes him angry.

One of Mamoudou's vassals rises up against him, calling it the war against tyranny may be a little extreme, seeing as the Mansa has only been on the throne for a year.

To the north, on of the Muslim vassals joins this rebellion, but the Retinue is sitting in that province, so there is little chance of them joining the war proper.

Zakoi is becoming more temperate.

With his character better under control, the Mansa sends him to one of his vassals for schooling in the art of war.

The war ends.

Mamoudou has both the chiefs in prison. He lets his kinsman go free, being a charitable sort.

For Chief Sami, who neither worships the Well Snake nor is a Ogoona, the fate is much worse.

With the province under his direct command, he orders another city built. He also sends his High Priest in to teach the population the joys of the Snake.

It is now two hundred years since the rise of the Ogoonu, the house has gone from one member to a hundred and fifty seven in that time. Thirteen of the Mansa's twenty four direct vassals are Ogoonu.

Off the coast lies the Canarias islands, this once was ruled by an Ogoonu, but is no longer. Using this claim Mamoudou declares his intent.

While waiting for his troops to march into position, the Mansa fathers another son.

when he declares war, he finds an unexpected problem – most of his vassals along the coast do not in fact recognise the fact that they need to build ships! The entire Ghanan fleet comprises of eight vessels.

This means he can only move eight hundred men across in one go, and there are no mercenaries available with ships. The war becomes an embarrassing stand-off.