Part 37: 1540-1559, The Abbasids Strike Back.
The councillors suggest we need a mighty fleet of galleys to rule the Mediterranean. We order the construction to begin.
We also begin to export slaves from the gold coast. The natives are up in arms over this, but are rapidly put down in chains.
We continue the steady pace of technological advance.
This includes some much needed naval upgrades.
Kukury finally takes to the throne, but looking at him, we may well have been better off continuing with the regency. The deformed Emperor seems to be sterile, so his seven year old brother is the heir.
We prop the Emperor up in his horse, give him his favourite stuffed snake, and send him off to conquer some of the lesser tribes.
The Ivory Coast is now part of Ghana proper now, and the colonists are sent to their next stop, Whydah.
While we are cleaning up the Kanem Bornu, The Romans say they are expanding their Empire. Into our territory!
They land troops, and we attack them with all the forces we have in the area, lead by our best General.
We win! Its a brutal battle, but the Romans are sent into retreat with our army following.
We butcher every last Byzantine solider as a lesson to their Empress Gregoria Gerontas.
A second army is landed, we meet it as well.
They to are defeated and hunted down.
We finally get the diplomatic points together to end our southern war.
We also catch and destroy a small Byzantine fleet.
A third Roman legion lands.
The results are predicable. The Romans are not as good fighters as the Italians it seems.
This leads to a rise in the morale of the men, and we begin to learn how far we can push them. They can now run fifty miles AND fight a battle!
We cannot cross the Mediterranean, and the Romans cannot defeat us on land. So both sides decide to end the war.
Meanwhile Abyssinia attacks Ethiopia.
The Gold Coast is now self sufficient. Worodugu is next, to keep the pretty borders faction happy.
The victories over the Romans have boosted our army in their own eyes and in the eyes of the world.
The southern lands are now considered a core part of Ghana.
A quick look around the world shows Andalusia shrinking in the face of a rapidly expanding Portugal.
The rest of Europe is the same old empires with slightly changed borders.
Lancaster continues to expand into Britain, with Scotland coming down from the north.
Abyssinia is growing, she is protecting Funj, and is now attacking Kilwa.
Our heir dies, we dedicate a temple to the snake to him.
Whydah is now producing Slaves. And you can see our army is moving on Hausa, the last independent West-African country.
We attack, but that and the peoples inherant hatred of autocratic rule are causing some problems.
The war goes well, and a new heir is born.
Hausa soon becomes part of Ghana.
Italy attacks Sicily once more, and as much as it shames us, we cannot go against the Italians so soon. We must abandon our brothers here.
It seems we must teach the Romans another lesson.
They land troops, and this time they have arqubuses! Their military tech is now level 12 to our own 9!
We win, but it costs us a large number of men.
We lose the next battle, our men cannot do anything against these brutal attacks.
We reach Tech level 10, and get some better units to send into battle.
Then the Abbasids pile in. Figures.
We first throw ourselves at the Byzantine army. We need massive odds to try and achieve a victory.
the battle is long and hard, but we win. The win comes at a good time, and brings us back to zero stability.
Before we can chase them down however, the Abbasid army is on us, and they are rested.
We raise more troops, replace our losses and go in again.
The battle is close, but we win. Hal of our men die in the battle however.
The enemy is to numerous however, and we are soon in retreat, our army a shell of its former self.
Of course, this is when Abyssinia joins the war.
Ghana is in flames once more....
