Jump 407: Victoria 2

Jump #407: Victoria 2
>Six of Pentacles (Success): Success and generosity in material things. Power and influence turned to noble pursuits.
>Age: 43
>Location: London, 1836
>Identity: Statesman (-100)
>Drawbacks: (+600) Import Savegame, Africa's Revenge
Technology from 1936 ... wait, that's a full century ahead. That's probably not really good.
>Coordinated Subordinates (700)
So... everyone under my command that is loyal and faithful ot the cause is going to have Jumper-level tactical abilities? Tell me there's any drawback to this at all.
>Iron and Blood (Free, Statesman)
Always helps to be able to give speeches that stick with someone.
>That's Pretty Gross (400, Statesman)
So I'm basically able to take any nation, no matter the size, and govern it effectively? That'll be remarkably handy here considering the size of the Commonwealth. EVen if its member nations are ostensibly independent.
>Decision Trees and Events (0, Statesman)
So this is basically a poor man's path to victory, but it lets me see what I need to do to achieve a given goal and the impact of such decisions along the way. Using the two together sounds like a rather useful combination.

It's the Victorian era! Full of classy gents, lovely ladies, and bringing the light of civilization to the rest of the world in a way that won't obliterate their societies but will make things a much better place. And no, we're not going to drag them kicking and screaming, plus the slave trade was never really much of a big thing in the Anglosphere.

Meanwhile, Arthur M. Pendragon has risen to the seat of prime minister in Great Britain, himself a minor noble of the Line of Arthur Unbroken. He's not in a direct line for the throne itself, of course - he's 58th in the chain of succession - but Arthur took the throne in 770, and his successors have been ruling ever since.

It is, as such, a complete surprise to see that the African continent has gone incommunicado. It is a matter of weeks before the reason why becomes known - technology a century in advance has been granted to them, and some have gone mad with power. Those who did not were quickly subsumed by those who had, international trade has been disrupted at best, and war was being abruptly waged on anyone and everyone who had African colonies as an opening act.

The British navy was decimated by African dreadnoughts. Though cannon fire was not entirely ineffective, the enemy had superior range, superior firepower, and were not so foolish as to sail ships without being a part of a flotilla. When it came to defending Arabia and India on land, things were slightly more even - certainly, their tanks were formidible, but tended to get bogged down outside of urban combat. France's artillery cannons turned Gibraltar into a no man's land and prevented passage there, and as bloody as combat turned in Egypt and Arabia, there were plentiful examples of technology a century ahead being captured for reverse engineering. Sure, their air force was also an issue, but cannonballs being redesigned to work with fuses and detonating at altitude for the purpose of flak was startlingly effective.

The real turning point was a three-stage attack on a military flotilla. British, French, and Russian naval assets attacked and managed to sink the majority of that fleet, and moreover managed to capture two of their ships. The three powers rapidly retrofitted their fleet with newer, more powerful cannons... the first few engagements where these were used, they were shockingly effective. Much less so later, but as the British industrial engine began to change its course, the war stopped being nearly as one-sided and the invaders began to get pushed back into the African continent.

During the course of all of this, as the European powers began to push deeper into Africa and deal with the troubles, Prussia reorganized into the German empire. Russia began hearing rumblings of revolution. No one was really in any state to lend aid quickly enough to have made a difference - the border was forcibly closed, the Tsar's family killed or escaped into exile, and the rumblings of communism began to spread across the globe. A great many political changes happened.

Still, by the early 20th century, the war was in its end stages, but most countries were sick of the war. In time, things calmed, Africa was placated, and the rest of the world caught up to its technologies. Radio. Electricity. Automobiles. All these and more spread across the globe. Africa was effectively carved up between the various European powers by 1920.

And in 1933, an Austrian-born soldier, a veteran of the Great War in Africa, was elected to power in Germany.