As we find ourselves fast approaching he beginning of the campaign season across the far-flung plains and mountains of Epicurea it is instructive to reconsider the events of the past year and the plans of the manifold antagonists. What had started as a family squabble of succession has turned into a continent-wide struggle that has engulfed the fertile land of Gluttonia and exposed it to the predatory machinations of it's two largest neighbors. Further afield, revolt, invasion, heresy, piracy and revenge have all added to the inferno that afflicts the continent.
In addition to the overarching Small Plater/Proper Mealer divide the Hamburger Heresy has been making inroads upon both sects and has almost become the state religion of the Burguignonnese. This area had been cut off from the rest of the Proper-Mealers by the Small-Plater seizure of south central Gluttonia and was left to defend itself. They have the finest infantry in all of Epicurea but are poor in cavalry and cannons. Finding themselves isolated they turned to repairing the damages of the battles of the past year and were well under way training replacement infantry when a series of punishing Mindoran pirate attacks in and around Nantua blocked their last access point to the outside world. Threatened from all sides they blockaded the passes into the land and began an almost Spartan regime of drilling and rearming.
The Mindorans, finding that the Freedonian and Ferndalian fleets were busy bashing the daylights out of each other, took to piracy in a grand manner. The Pirate Brotherhood provided the ships and seafaring skills while the Mindorans provided the shock troops for land operations. Barely anything could be shipped in the Middle Sea without risk of capture and plunder, only well-fortified coastal cities were safe from extortion and looting. The Mindorans made a half-hearted attempt at securing Nantua as a base of operations but realized that raiding was more profitable. This raiding plagued the entire southern coast of Epicurea and extended as far as a foray into the Nylian lands on the northern coast of Africa. The Mindoran Shogun has grown rich and his ambitions have grown to match his wealth. several ambassadors have been sent the the Fabled East to recruit further soldiers and to coax the Chinese Emperor to send troops west across the steppe against the Frendalian Emperor.
In the sleepy south the Nylian Emperor has taken notice of the destructive warfare to the north and is quietly refitting his fleet and training his soldiers. He covets the recovery of the cities of Gigondas, Guigal and Brouilly which were stolen from his grandfather by the Freedonians. The annoying pin-pricks of the Mindoran raiders have hurt his pride more than his pocketbook but he still has decided to put an end to their provocations. His engineers have been building a proper port in Liberica to allow the Nylian fleet to impose on the Mindoran homeland directly.
In the West we find Freedonia quietly digesting the areas of Gluttonia that they have helped "liberate". From Marinara through Buerre Noir and Ravigotte to Soubise the garrisons are largely Freedonian troops supported by Freedonian "advisors" and "tax collecters". While the Gluttonian Proper-Mealer's troops do most of the fighting their Freedonian allies are enjoying the fruits of an almost peaceful garrison life at the expense of the local economy. But all is not a bed of roses for Louis the Ravenous; his fleets in the Middle Sea have proved to be an expensive fiasco, losing battle after battle to the Ferndalians while the Great Northern March (which cost a very large amount of money in bribes to execute) had gotten bogged down besieging the small coastal town of Gruyere and is now surrounded within its walls. All the while the Maritime Provinces are making very rebellious sounds as more and more of the troops are drawn away to the east to battle the Ferndalians. One shining star is that the Grand Canal is proceeding apace and is both on schedule and under budget; Louis soon will be able to move his ships between the Western Sea and the Middle Sea without the arduous voyage around Africa.
Away to the north the Nordlanderz are engaged in a vile civil war over some sort of obscure legal disagreement about whether the king is allowed to wear his crown in public or only when being admonished by Parliament. The food in Nordland is uniformly bad and thus nobody in the rest of Epicurea really cares what is going on there. Even their beer is warm.
Boozonia has played a very careful balancing game this past year. They protested loudly over the Freedonian violation of their sovereignty at the time of the Great Northern March and collected vast sums of money in damages (some say bribes) as a settlement for that action. They have carefully been fortifying their borders to resist the attention of their three larger neighbors while reorganizing their militia system to provide a faster, more powerful response to any incursion.
Far away to the northeast the Frozonians have (once again) revolted to re-establish their freedom from Ferndalia. This got off to a surprisingly good start but suffered some missteps and the Frozonians were unable to join forces with the Freedonians at the siege of Gruyere. They had spent the rest of the summer training up a new class of heavy cavalry and drilling their infantry.
Occupying the balance of the east is the vast and prosperous land of Ferndalia; it's ruler. Peter II "The Famished" is as busy as a one-armed man in a juggling contest. He has to keep an eye to east in the event some random horse-tribe decides to invade, his unruly Frozonian subjects are once more in rebellion, the Boozonians (clearly complicity) have allowed the Freedonians to invade his northern provinces thus endangering his Great Northern Canal project, Pirates and Mindorans are raiding his southern coastline and he has half his total armed forces deep in northern Gluttonia besieging the Vienee. His situation is rife with promise but he is very badly over-extended and one setback could very well bring the entire project to collapse. Peter is ably assisted by his hugely talented and equally ambitious Minister of War Igor Mankowski. One particular bright spot has been the surprisingly impressive performance of the navy which has nearly swept the Middle sea clean of Freedonian ships.
And at last we come to the source and seat of this trouble, the battered land of Gluttonia. Deprived of a vastly popular king and thrown into a succession crisis that is being exploited by their avaricious neighbors Gluttonia is a sad and troubled land. The capital is divided into three parts by the rivers and the central portion is held by the Small-Platers, the northern quarter and the New Town on the south shore are held by the Proper-Mealers. As such a siege within a siege is occurring; the central portion is isolated by the control the Proper-Mealers have over the bridges that connect it to the rest of the city while the northern quarter has been surrounded by a Small-Plater army that repeated efforts (Freedonian and Gluttonian) have failed to drive away. The lands to the north and east are under the control of the Ferndalian "allies" while the lands bordering on Freedonia to the west are being absorbed by Louis the Ravenous. In the south central area Gluttonians battle their brothers for the small part of the country that isn't being taken over by neighboring states. Dark rumors circulate about the events in Burguignonne.
What does Anno Domini 1621 have in store? Only time and the dice will tell.
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