Axis & Allies - damowords

Eastern Complex
From Perpignan to Rheims & Brittany
Napoleon claimʹd as the new messiah,
Cult of acolytic celebrity
Forever manʹs endeavours to inspire;
& now Egypt!
The Pyramids beckon,
Fabulous pharoe crypt beneath a seering sun.
At first the Tricolours prosper
When Malta shrewdly taken
& ancyent Alexandria
ʹFore fierce French foes foresaken,
But facing the emʹrald terror
Of Admiral Nelson,
Fleet crippled at the Battle of the Nile ‐
Soon into prison boats the bluecoats file.
In youth being no new Pompey,
Nor Alexanderʹs kind,
He reachʹd Marseille in dissarray
Leaving thousands behind,
The oriental question milling still aghast his mind.
France
1799
Imperial Intentions
Needing sharp sabres civil strife to quell,
Gallic resolve promotes a Consulate,
Three lofty men French treasure‐chests to swell
& stretch the Tricolor to Calicut;
Tall in their midst,
Fresh from the sojurn East,
The prime Bonapartist, his eagles are releasʹd.
Brought to war thro forced conscription
Marching by the pretty Po,
His insatiable ambition
Drives them on to Marengo
Lombardy taxed by Austrian
Before this gory show ‐
A field of rampant battle until dusk
When shatterʹd Hapsburg dreams now hurt & husk.
Promising a new world order
Eagle surfs Alpen breeze,
Natʹral border of great Ceasar,
Some Rhine or Pyrynees,
Passes into Cisalpine Gaul with histronic ease.
Italy
1800