LT31 story from the Finnish Skrolli magazine 4/2013, pages 44-45

[wieder]

Skrolli is a Finnish magazine focusing on stuff about computer related stuff. Stuff that's not truly mainstream today. But maybe was in the 80's and stuff that probably will touch the mainstream users after another 30 years.

That's my explanation of what that magazine is about.

It's a truly great magazine. In printed format. And in Finnish.

There was a 4 page story about LT31, 2 pages of it told from the point of the view of one of the people playing the game. Meton. This story was talked about on the IRC and for some time people were asking what are they actually saying.

Here is the link for the entire magazine in PDF format. http://www.skrolli.fi/2013.4.web.pdf

Months ago I translated 2 pages of that story - Meton's point of view - on an IRC channel people used to talk about LT31. Just because I felt like translating it at the time. No other reason. After doing that I saved it on a file, quickly polished some typos and stuff and then just pretty much forgot it until now.

This is a quickly translated version of the story. That means that it was translated line by line on IRC, relatively quickly and just trying to focus on translating everything as it was in the original story. No idioms were really intentionally replaced and the look and the feel of the Finnish original is supposed to be there.

I don't usually really translate anything. Like ever. Doing this stuff on the fly was quite hard and interesting.


Thanks for Meton and the Skrolli magazine for this story.

***** And the actual story *****



180 turns of longturn Freeciv

This historical tale is based on the dictated memoirs of the Teutonic Grandmaster. Part of the story is interpreted by the scribe Thih, some part of it came directly from the Grandmaster and a part of it may be just a legend...

Everything begins in the year 4000 BC. The Teutonic Order has just established their first settlement, the capital of Wenden. Very quickly the colony grows with two additional villages. Köningsberg and Marienburg are quite modest compared to the pride of the empire, but still significant agrarian centres.

In his wisdom the Grandmaster decides that one of the three settler groups should be added to the inhabitants of the capital. However something goes wrong in the chain of command and the local vassal ruler decides to use the settlers as a slave labor in order to increase the production of the capital. Ten thousand citizens dies on the streets of Wenden, lashed and forced to work until death.

This is just the beginning for the Grandmaster's flames of fury. His career will be filled with pain, wrong decisions, backstabbing allies and following that, some real cowardice.

After some exploring the Grandmaster finds out for his annoyance, that he doesn't rule a too big continent. The explorers however can see a distant land over the shallow waters. This knowledge makes the Grandmaster to command the wise men of the empire to develop even more powerful weapons and to prepare for a possible occupation.

The relations to the surrounding countries however are not immediately as cold as the Grandmaster has originally anticipated.

The first encounter

Very quickly the other countries start to ally and form bigger alliances. Naturally as a leader of a Christian state the Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order is interested in about a membership on the Church, embodying a philosophy of peace. Joining them feels somewhat paradoxical for the Grandmaster who has been pushing his efforts for militaristic armaments.

From relatively close is also found the Raar alliance (Ramaruni-Austria) who has a few members known from even more ancient history. The negotiations for joining the alliance are running quite busy for a moment and the Grandmaster manages to get a preliminary membership as a member candidate. The map of the Raar alliance is given for the Grandmaster.

The Grandmaster assumes too much and thinks that his empire is now a part of the Raar alliance. The production of the empire is rearranged. Building of the boats is forgotten for ten turns while the Grandmaster attempts to fulfill the agrarian needs of the Raar alliance.

After ten more turns the Grandmaster finds out that the Raar alliance has decided to decline the membership of his membership. The loss of ten thousand citizens on the first turn has slowed down the progress of the Teutonic Order. Because of this the Raar alliance has decided that Teutons are not big and significant enough country for becoming a member of their alliance.

The Grandmaster swears revenge for Viznut, Bamskamp and for all other leaders of the Raar for giving all those empty promises. The damned traitors would yet one day feel the cold blade of the justice. The development of the boats is resumed immediately as an assignment with the highest priority. With the boats the messengers blaze their way to the members of the Church. The alliance agreement is made rather quickly. In the negotiations the maps received from the Raar alliance are something very good to bargain with.

The world affairs will however evolve quickly and with unexpected outcome. Soon both Raar and a few other surrounding alliances are joining the Church. The old plans for the revenge are forgotten when the Grandmaster learns about the big picture.

The first moments of the holy war

For ten turns the co-operation with the Church turns into steady and even dull farming. In addition to the mistakes done in the first turns there are to be done a pile of new errors. The impatient Grandmaster is not satisfied on farming but longs for a victorious war.

Finally there comes the time of the endgame and the Grandmaster's first campaign begins. Xercise, the chief warrant officer of the Church sends an order for the shipyards of the Teutonic Order. The great war needs every man, even while the misfortune and incompetence of the Grandmaster on the art of the science and economy means that his troops are technologically not as well equipped as the enemy's.

The order includes three galleons full of the best possible musketeers and cannons. One galleon can take four troops of men. The complete order includes an army of 12 troops consisting of musketeers and cannons of the Teutonic Order. The officers and instructors of the Teutonic Order immediately start to force and train the losers to become the best of the best.

The attack troops are prepared with the Teutonic efficiency and deployed ahead of time towards to the coasts of the allied East Germany. The army is going to land on a bay area in the front lines. There the troops are going to wait for the allied order for the Church forces to attack against the forces of the evil.

The honorless defeat

The troops arrive in time and safely. However the Grandmaster's order to land the troops doesn't reach it's way to the site of the Admiral. The Teutonic elite forces will remain in the ships located next to the coast - ready for the attack. The galleon armada is protected by the destroyer fleets of Hackers, East Germany and France.

However the treacherous enemy is more subtle than anyone and uses submarines for sneaking into the back of the fleet. Those pests appearing from the depths of the sea have no trouble in sinking the entire obsoleted fleet of the Teutonic Order. Lots of the modern destroyers of the allies are sunk in the same scrimmage.

This devastating defeat crushes the moral of the Grandmaster. The deep depression forces him into looking some advice from the bottle. The rest of his regime Meton will remain more or less intoxicated cursing his miserable destiny.

All attempts to help or support the advancing troops of the Church will fail. The obsoleted ships of the Teutonic navy are simply not fast enough to be able to match the speed of the more modern ships. Only in the last few turns some small, but for the big picture, insignificant victories are achieved against the Palatinates with the gracious help of the Syrian.

Planetfall remains as the only trophy of the war and the Grandmaster falls into a conclusive despair. As the farmers of the Peace Alliance march to conquer the world he slowly fades away into a solitaire obscurity. The journey of the Teutonic Order ends with a silent and toothless fury.