-90,-90 90,-90
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
... . . Magedo .. .. .
... . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . Katib. . . .
. Crown . . . . . .
. . .
.. . .. rava .. . . . . . . . .
. .. . . . Binary
. . . . Jabga. . . .
. . .. . . . . ..
Hawksbill . . Alaris .. . . . .
.. . . . ... . . .
. . .. . .. .. . . . ..
. . . . . . Granew . .
..Mastodon . Frobozzians . . .
. . . . .. . . . . .. .
CyborgGeneration ... . . . . .. . ..
.. . . . .. . . .. Ducks. . . . .
. . . . . .
.. . . Vogons . . . .
. . . . . .. . . . . . ..
. . . . . .. Jinx . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . .. .. . . .. .
. . . . . . Birdies
Sushi . . . . . . .
.. ... . Kharn . . . . .
. . . . . . . Pixies . ... .
. . .... . . . . . ..
. . . . . . . .. .
. . . . . . ..
Elric . . . . . . . .
. . . sark . . . . . . EmeraldKnights
. Vulcans . . . . .. .
. . .. . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . .. . MicrosoftLawyers .
. GrandMasters
. .. .. . . . ..
. . . . . ... . . Wizards
. . . .. .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-90,90 90,90
Eager to discover and explore, the empire of Jinx searched the heavens. First contact was made with Mastodon as two transports vied to unload their colonists at the same system. The situation was resolved through productive communications that lead to a border agreement, information exchange, and an introduction between rava and Jinx. Together, these three empires set into motion a series of events that would shape the future of Hercules.
Communications with other empires ensued but with different results. The blustery Pixies laid claim to a system both closer to and colonized by Jinx. The Jinx ambassadors worked diligently to resolve the dispute over what was actually a rather insignificant system, but Pixies communications were limited to threats and ultimatums. The arrival to the area of sark forces, which were friendly to Pixies, quickly altered the balance of power in the region and the Jinx ships reluctantly retreated. However, one turn later, the newly formed Jinx Battle fleet struck within a single jump of the Pixies homeworld.
Simultaneously, Mastodon's tolerance of Frobozzian's global war setting and border raids had reached its limit. Mastodon requested the aid of rava and Jinx to exterminate this common nuisance. The ravan empire had just started it's own offensive against Jabga, but contributed nonetheless. And though the Pixies war had just begun, Jinx sent what forces were available into the fray. Favor was with the three allies and the Frobozzians were quickly defeated.
On the subsequent turn, instead of a life-or-death battle over the Pixies' homeworld, the Jinx fleet arrived to find the system defenseless. After bombing the homeworld, the Jinx fleet raced toward the sark border and the last known location of Pixie forces. However instead of finding Pixies, the Jinx fleet stumbled upon a sark battleship. The sark ship was destroyed but the sark colony was not bombed and war with sark was averted. With the Pixies warships still unaccounted for and handfuls of Pixie probes searching out targets for retaliation, the Jinx fleet was split in two with half returning to Jinx space and the other to defend the newly acquired territory.
With rava's successful conquest of Jabga, the empires of rava, Mastodon, and Jinx each shared a border with Ducks. The three empires attempted to establish contact with the isolationists Ducks to no avail; Ducks would only propose a temporary truce. Even this limited truce fell through when Ducks and Mastodon clashed over the remains of the Frobozzians Empire. Again Mastodon, rava, and Jinx found a common cause. After another three-on-one blitz, Ducks was quietly dismissed.
Back on the Pixies front, the Pixies war fleet made a triumphant return by retaking their homeworld. The situation became mired for several turns as neither side could muster the forces to drive off the other. However without an effective industry, Pixies could do little to change the situation, while time was on the side of Jinx. Eventually, with customized warships, Jinx descended once again destroying the Pixies fleet, claiming the homeworld, and finally finishing Pixies.
The sark empire, wrapping up the latter stages of a successful campaign against Sush, indicated they were interested. And the persuasiveness of rava convinced distant Magedo to join the effort. The logistics of a war involving five empires against two were considerable, so the forces were divided: rava took the lead with Mastodon against CyborgGeneration and Jinx coordinated with the forces of sark and Magedo.
In the midst of researching tech, building ships, and cobbling together these loose alliances, a Vogons battle fleet suddenly and unexpectedly struck at a zero-sized rock inside Jinx territory. Diplomatic envoys were quickly dispatched in the hopes of delaying a full Vogons offensive. Vogons offered no explanation or apology, yet the Vogons fleet advanced no further. The Vogons invasions took on a new urgency that could not wait for the full support of sark and Magedo, or even the concurrent strike of rava and Mastodon against CyborgGeneration. Though not fully formed, the newest Jinx fleet departed and struck the Vogons homeworld alone. The battle was devastating. Vogons orbiting shielded flak held off the Jinx artillery while the Vogons heavy flak sweeper took a toll on Jinx battle ships and defensive cover alike. However, in the end, the Jinx forces emerged victorious due to sheer numbers and superior firepower.
With the Vogons homeworld in ruins and arrival of sark and Magedo, the Vogons empire fell still. Jinx left the remains of the fallen empire to sark and Magedo in order to assist rava and Mastodon against the still active threat of CyborgGeneration. With the Jinx fleet severely weakened and communications with Mastodons becoming more and more infrequent, rava bore the weight of the CyborgGeneration war. System by system, the CyborgGeneration empire was slowly dismantled.
A nervous peace followed the war that had involved nearly half the remaining empires in the galaxy. The ravan ambassadors had forged peaceful agreements with all their neighbors who had been wise enough to avoid the attention of the ravan admirals. Mastodon now comfortably buffered on both sides by rava and Jinx, focused on developing gains in the Frobozzians, Vogons, and CyborgGeneration areas. Kharn, though inactive from the start, nevertheless had amassed a defensive fleet at the Kharn homeworld to dissuade even the most ambitious vultures. Sark had all but finished Sush (who then changed names to Sushi) and was in the process of consolidating their own gains. EmeraldKnights either courageously or recklessly fought independent but simultaneous battles with Birdies, MicrosoftLawyers, Grandmasters, and Wizards. Of course there were still more empires lurking on the far side of Hercules whose actions and plans could only be guessed, but with no immediate visible threats, Jinx began to build.
Jinx renewed communications with sark in the hopes of gathering more information on this dangerous alliance. After Jinx supplied information on the location of Birdies systems, sark and Vulcans proposed that Jinx join with them against Birdies. If not already, the sark/Vulcans alliance would soon be a power capable of dominating the rest of the galaxy. In an historic venture, the Jinx ruler traveled to the rava homeworld for a face-to-face meeting with "ravan de baba yaga" himself. Together the two leaders laid plans for what would be the pivotal war in Hercules.
Birdies was alerted to their dire situation and told to prepare for the worst. Mastodon was asked to join in the planning but was unresponsive. After securing the assistance of Crown, Rava approached Magedo for aid. Magedo agreed to assist in return for help against MicrosoftLawyers. At first Jinx protested, but with ratcheting tension and suspicions rising on the part of sark and Vulcans, it was agreed that an attack on MicrosoftLawyers might divert attention. Magedo would wrap up the MicrosoftLawyers on his own and then supply reinforcements for what would surely be a drawn out war.
Magedo, rava, and Jinx overran the MicrosoftLawyers Empire in two short turns with no significant losses. On the following turns, just as sark and Vulcans began the war on Birdies, Jinx fleets struck and defeated four critical sark border colonies, while Jinx raiders blindly swept across the sark domain searching for vulnerable outposts. On the following turn, rava and Crown demolished several Vulcan strongholds, while the Jinx fleets combined to strike at sark's heaviest defended world and Raiders continued their plague. Birdies struggled to withstand the Vulcan assault. Rather than launch the expected counter-attack, sark ordered the retreat of all mobile forces. This move still left the primary colonies with substantial stationary defenses, forts and orbiting flak. Rava turned the tide by defeating the mighty Vulcans war fleet over Birdies largest world while continuing the devastating march over the Vulcan domain. Jinx forces split up once again to crush the remaining defended sark colonies. The war that was expected to last indefinitely, was decided in four turns with only minor losses on the side of the victors. Though the heavy lifting was complete, the Magedo forces arrived as promised to finish off sark colonies in their area. Even Mastodon, when told of the easy pickings, came out of seclusion to bomb a few choice systems.
The war was over, but a dangerous sark armada had vanished into hyperspace and MicrosoftLawyers had not been finished off. Jinx probes scrambling to find the sark armada, caught site of it briefly, before the armada again disappeared into hyperspace. MicrosoftLawyers' few remaining ships harassed what colonies he could, especially those of rava. Magedo, either unwilling or unable to finish off the MicrosoftLawyers annoyance, became silent and eventually abandoned a successful empire. Jinx continued the search for the sark armada and eventually intercepted it with customized warships before sark could retaliate.
The way was now open for rava and Jinx to claim victory. After consolidating their new gains, any that might oppose either individually had no chance against the combined force.
The two allies then divided and conquered.
In the tension preceding the sark/Vulcans war, during the attack on MicrosoftLawyers, Grandmasters had nearly jumped in fray on the side of sark and Vulcans. Had Grandmasters been involved, the outcome could have been very different. But Grandmasters saw the advantage of being neutral in a war that should have left even the victor in poor condition, leaving Grandmasters well positioned for the endgame. Instead, Grandmasters finished EmeraldKnights and turned on Wizards. However, the industry of Jinx had long surpassed all others. With the advantage in force and with the initiative, Jinx reduced Grandmasters to a non-threat in two turns of fighting.
Likewise, Rava launched an offensive against Binary. With some minor assistance from Jinx, the Binary Empire quickly crumbled. However many of Binaries ships escaped destruction and coalesced to form an armada. It is strong evidence to effect of the ravan dignitaries and admirals, that time after time when an empire breathed it's last breath, the final blow was thrust in rava's direction. However even Binaries last best effort was not enough and Rava staved off the attack in a spectacular battle.
Jinx then turned on Birdies, who despite a valiant defense against Vulcans had been considerably weakened. Despite overwhelming odds, the Birdies forces fought well. Birdies were defeated with their dignity and honor intact.
Rava was reluctant to move against his ally, Crown and indicated that Crown would be abandoned shortly. Instead rava moved against the abandoned Magedo Empire.
On turn 62, with the defeat of Birdies, the Magedo industrial centers in flames, and no active empires left to oppose rava and Jinx the call went out to end Hercules with joint winners. But it was not to be. The GM denied the request indicating that there would be one and only one winner. Despite the protest from both rava and Jinx, the decision had been made. The allies would fight.
The truce did not start off well. Since the two sides had agreed not to restrict probes, the allies had set each other to war. In tracking down a few last Grandmasters ships, a Jinx fleet emerged from hyperspace at the former Jabga homeworld and the system was bombed. Rava was rightfully incensed, so Jinx removed the defense from one of his homeworlds to allow rava to settle the score. Jinx also scrapped his own warships to account for those lost by rava. But tensions began to rise.
A few turns later, Jinx discovered Crown fleets stationed at key rava systems. The two sides had agreed not to enlist the aid of others in the final showdown. Rava explained that Crown had gone inactive and on his own accord had sent ships to defend rava with whom Crown had been closely allied. Tensions rose higher.
Meanwhile both sides were redlining their industrial complexes. Jinx, despite the advantage (or perhaps because of it) was uncertain how to proceed. Continue with a proven strategy and depend on sheer numbers, even though rava had the time and resources to design and build a new force to defeat the Jinx designs? Or attempt to anticipate and out guess the crafty rava with new designs? Time was running short.
Turn 70 was announced by the assault of newly designed rava warships, impervious to Jinx's strongest known weapons, striking at all key Jinx systems. Smaller but efficient raiders also swept over the rest of the Jinx domain. With both sides having shown an affinity for aggressive first strikes, it was a good plan: mutual destruction of all industrial capabilities then duke it out 'til the end. Unfortunately for rava, Jinx had decided to play defense.
The rava warships were greeted by either new 369-mass orbiting forts or Jinx fleets with new flagships and immense firepower. The rava raiders encountered smaller forts at all colony worth defending. Though scores of smaller colonies were wiped out, the Jinx defenses held. On turn 71, Jinx counter-punched and eliminated nearly half of the rava industry. Having dedicated so much production to offense, the rava defenses could not withstand the Jinx attack. On turn 72, the Jinx forces claimed two-thirds of the remaining rava industry and the outcome was sealed.
With the surrender of rava, Jinx spent another four turns tracking down the remains of various rouge fleets of long gone empires who refused to surrender but were unwilling to fight. On turn 76, Jinx was proclaimed the victor.
I have taken the liberty of assigning descriptive (sometimes negative) attributes to various empires in this narrative. No offense is intended.
Finally, my hat goes off to rava (Tom Dodd). In addition to being a masterful strategist, rava's diplomacy skills are unmatched and make games he's involved in far more enjoyable. Tom is the greatest ally one could wish for. Hercules could have easily gone to Tom and I have no doubt that other galaxies will.
Feel free to contact me at palazzos@prodigy.net. I'd especially like to hear points of view from any of the participants in Hercules.
Last update: November 5, 1999