The Banners of Sab'yn

[BerkeleyBoi]

Looks very promising! I'll have to have a look at your old one first

Hehe, yeah a lot of the things I mention might be difficult to catch without reading the first one...

HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP!

It's back! Gods be praised!

Glad you're excited! I'll try my best to meet your expectations

I just read Spear and Shield. Phenomenal! I've never seen such quick, dramatic delivery that held such pathos. Screenshots, turns of phrase, pacing... all top-notch. I seldom follow AARs, but I've already subscribed to this one. I look forward to its continuation with great anticipation.

你表现力真的很利害哦！我也住在中国，但是我本来是加拿大人.

-Glee

我以前是在中国可是现在来了美国。你在中国哪儿啊？

Heh...maybe you should do this when AtB comes out. Then you can be the Mauryans...that is, if we ever finish it.

Subscribed.

Yeah, I definitely want to play AtB as the Mauryans, but I just couldn't wait that long.

[Lysimachos]

Hehe, yeah a lot of the things I mention might be difficult to catch without reading the first one...

Nothing to worry about, I've read it today It had been finished long before I joined and there was now way to read every existing AAR Gladly I had a reason to make up for it now

[BerkeleyBoi]

The Africa Banner

I stand on small wooden raft surrounded by a sea of black. Swords, spears, and bows rise up from that ocean and shake, followed by a thundering chanting in their native tongue.

“Lord Hayu Il Watar, the people of Ethiopia welcome you”

To the left of me stood a tall man with skin as dark as the night sky. His black hair was curled tight against his head and a fearsome tattoo covered half his face. He is my bodyguard, my translator, and my best friend.

I am not known to be good with people. When I was a boy, I hid behind the skirts of my mother whenever visitors arrived. I never played with the other children at school and even as a grown man, I shunned the company of others.

Demissie was different from the others. He first served as part of my family's household guard and was my teacher in the ways of martial arts. I was wary of him at first because of how strange he looked, but he seemed to understand me in ways that others could not. He was a man of few words, but each word he spoke seemed to be of great importance. Gradually, we became friends and when I was ordered to Africa to form a new banner for the king, I took him with me.

“Good. Get them onto the boats. We leave at dawn” I started to step down from the raised wooden platform when I heard Demissie cough loudly, our secret signal that I was about to commit another social gaffe. I sighed, straightened up, and looked over to my old friend. “Alright. Quiet them down”

Demissie raised a single opened hand in the air and the entire army hushed. “I will translate for you, my lord”

I nodded and began my awkward speech about fighting for the glory of the gods and our empire. I spoke of how they should fight to their best of their abilities as I will lead them to the best of my own. I told them about their own strength before blabbering on about my training, my service in conquering Arabia, and how the sky is blue.

The crowd roared with approval after Demissie translated in his own special way, cutting out all the unnecessary things that I usually say and adding more spice to the words that I used. I knew this because his translation was about three times as long as my own speech.

“Is there anything else you want to say, my lord?”

I nodded and pointed towards the coast. “Yes. Tell them to board the ships for at dawn, we sail for India”

[Olaf Blackeyes]

i LOVE your work man plz keep it up i hope yellow fever doesnt rip u a new !@E#!R!@ED@#like it did last time

[BerkeleyBoi]

i LOVE your work man plz keep it up i hope yellow fever doesnt rip u a new !@E#!R!@ED@#like it did last time

Hehe, I'm already fighting with them but I'm holding them off so far.

And the pace will be a little slow as I introduce the situation, characters, and history, but it'll pick up soon after that.

[Gleemonex]

我以前是在中国可是现在来了美国。你在中国哪儿啊？

（I‘m at work and don't know the Chinese input system of this computer; possibly wubi)

Ah, I was under the impression -- from comments in your Saba and Hai AARs -- that you were between Beijing and Hong Kong. Anyways, I'm in Shanghai.

Alright, back to writing!

-Glee

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Nice to see that you're back.

[BerkeleyBoi]

（I‘m at work and don't know the Chinese input system of this computer; possibly wubi)

Ah, I was under the impression -- from comments in your Saba and Hai AARs -- that you were between Beijing and Hong Kong. Anyways, I'm in Shanghai.

Alright, back to writing!

-Glee

At the time, I was in Guangzhou, but now I'm going to school in America again. Shanghai is a nice place, much better than Beijing in my opinion, but my heart still belongs to Guangzhou despite the high crime rate, excessive pollution, overpopulation, and bad manners.

Nice to see that you're back.

Thanks for the welcome. I can see that your AAR is still going strong, bloody amazing!

[BerkeleyBoi]

American Journal of Archaeology

Excavated Letters of Getachew – Ethiopian Captain of the Horses of the Sab'yn Africa Banner Army

My Love,

Our general does not look like a great man. He is middle aged, bearded, and his eyes shift from right to left as he speaks. The sounds that come out of his mouth could not be heard by anyone, even I who stood two strides from the platform. His clothes are dirty and his beard unkempt, it is hard to believe he is our master and not some poor old man thrown into war. But it is the content of his speech that mattered. His translator told us what he spoke in a loud clear voice about the generals many conquests and glorious victories in the sands of the east. He inspired us with words of our ancestors that we thought only Ethiopians knew of. He described the riches of India, ripe for our plunder, in a such a way that I began to salivate. And now, we are preparing to leave on the ships to sail for glory and wealth! I will bring you back many golden anklets and ornaments to decorate your body so that even the queen will be envious! When I return... [The rest of the letter goes on about love making and other such activities not fit for publication].

My Love,

We have been at sea for many days now. I am desperately homesick and even more sea sick. I have not been able to hold any food in my stomach for longer than an hour since we left Ethiopia. Send me alone to fight an army of Indians with nothing but a twig and I will do so and bring back victory. But the sea is not something that we can fight. It churns and rolls and I can no longer tell what is up or down... [The rest of the letter is covered with some strange substance composed of many different materials].


My Love,

Dry land at last! I never thought I would be so happy to be able to walk steadily with my own two feet again. It took us many days to unload our supplies and prepare the men for battle. My own warriors were quick to suit up and stand ready for march, but many of the levy spears and archers went off on their own to raid the farms and villages that dotted the coast. One of them even came back with a baby in his arms, claiming that he would take him home to be his son! After one week, we finally made off and laid siege to the capital city called Patala and we made camp alongside the river [The rest of the letter goes on describing a little monkey that Getachew found and befriended].

My Love,

I have been a warrior since I was old enough to hold a spear. I have raided our enemies and fought battles for the Arabians for many years. Yet I have never known war such that I have seen today.

We outnumbered the enemy and recruited some local mercenaries to help us fight. We prepared rams and fire arrows to smash their defenses. The general once again gave a rousing speech right before we attacked so that our morale was high. Who would have known that these Indians would fight so savagely and with so much passion as they defended their homes?

The battle began as all battles did. Our archers unloaded volley after volley over the city's small wooden walls while our rams smashed holes in their defenses.

Our spearmen charged in soon afterwards and held the enemy soldiers while the swordsmen circled around to cut the enemy from behind.

But instead, they came face to face with the elephants. I have seen elephants in my life and even rode one as a boy. Yet these elephants were not those of Africa. They were much larger and fiercer. Our mercenaries showered them with javelins and cut at their underbelly, just as we always did when fighting the Egyptians in Africa, but they did not fall. They only became enraged.

What began as a carefully planned siege suddenly became total and utter chaos. Our entire army swarmed around, charging at or running away from the elephants as they threw our men into the air, trampled them into the ground, or gouged them with their tusks. I led my own unit into battle, charging right into the elephants when they had their backs turned to us.

An archer sitting on the tower shot an arrow through the brother next to me and another horse went down as it tripped over a pile of corpses, yet we went on. We slammed into the elephant, but we might as well have charged a brick wall. The monster trumpeted and spun around, slapping a horsemen ten feet into the air with its trunk. Some of my men fled, but the others persisted. They were falling now, slowly but surely, from the many cuts and stab wounds we inflicted on them.

At last there was only one left, the largest elephant I have ever seen in my life. It roared like a lion in defiance as it killed the men that tried to close in on it. The lord of that city stood on that creature, screaming curses at us as his bodyguards shot arrows into our ranks. We must have cut that creature a thousand times before it finally fell. Even as it laid dying, it still killed another man that came to close, squeezing the life out of him with its trunk.

With their general dead, we won the battle, but at what cost? Almost half our men were dead and the citizens of that city looked ready to riot. But I promise you, my sun and moon, I will return to you with a chest full of gold [This was the last letter found at the ancient dig site. Surprisingly enough, it was not buried in India, but on the island of Crete].

[BerkeleyBoi]

So I thought I'd just check out how the rest of the world is doing and I turned off the fog of war for a turn.



I don't think this AAR is going to last very long...

[Cbvani]

So I thought I'd just check out how the rest of the world is doing and I turned off the fog of war for a turn.



I don't think this AAR is going to last very long...

I think this is the definition of "boned."

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Good update.
I like the preview/twist/teaser at the very end.

EDIT: Wow, did the AS just lay down and let Ptl roll over them?

[BerkeleyBoi]

Good update.
I like the preview/twist/teaser at the very end.

EDIT: Wow, did the AS just lay down and let Ptl roll over them?

Well, it's 214 BCE right now because I just did nothing but hit end turn until 230 BCE to catch up to where Spear and Shield left off. I guess AS just got their butts handed to them during that time. I didn't even notice the faction destroyed thing pop up.