text: [Themes: fantasy, serious]
  
  Before you looms an enormous landscape, with a giant lake, a huge forest, and beyond that, an enormous mountain range. You gaze into the distance, uncertain, yet unafraid. After all, you have just escaped from the dreaded subterranean prisons of Tyrannica.
  
  However, the journey back to your beloved country will be long and arduous. You lost all your weapons in the dungeon, and now you have nothing but the clothes on your back. You will have to spend many days on foot. In addition, the land ahead is full of terrfiying, mysterious creatures. You've heard of many travellers who went through these lands and never came out.
  
  Still, the journey must be made. You must return to your country, where your friends and family live. And you must live to fight another day; so that you can topple the despotic ruler of Tyrannica and free his slaves.
  
  The sun is now high in the sky, and it's very hot. This may not be the best time for walking.
  
  > wait a while
  You have no water, and if you start walking at this time of the day, you'll get dehydrated pretty quickly. So you sit and wait.
  
  A few hours later, it gets cooler as evening begins to set in. Suddenly, you hear a rustle in the bushes. You peer into the bushes, and you see a fox run through the bushes, carrying something in its mouth. However, you accidentally sit on a twig and snap it, and the fox looks up and sees you. Quickly it drops the thing in its mouth and runs off.
  
  You come closer and examine it. It appear to be some kind of vine.
  
  Anyway, now the air is cooler, and it's perfect for traveling. You decide to start off on your journey.
  
  > You're off!
  You start walking off in the direction of your country. You can't yet see it, but you know it isbehind those mountains. You've heard of many nasty creatures that live on the mountain, but perhaps the worst is the horned wolf. These predators travel in packs, and are completely fearless; not only will they try to attack and eat anything, but they are especially fond of attacking and eating unfamiliar things...
  
  WHAM! Suddenly, you trip and fall over. You were so deep in thought, that you didn't notice the large stick in your path until you fell over it. Hmmm... pretty nice stick. Long, thick and powerful. It would make a great club.[Themes: edutainment, historical, war]
  
  Your name is Martin Bertendona and you are one of the Spanish Navy's most experienced and renowned sailors.
  
  It is unsurprising that in the summer of 1588 when the King of Spain conceived a plan to invade his hated rival England by sea, he would choose you to play a major role in the venture. From the beginning you were involved in the planning and organizing of the vast 130 ship fleet carrying some 25,000 men. The plan is for you all to sail from Spain, pick up a Spanish army of 30,000 additional men in Flanders and use them to invade England.
  
  The Spanish Armada, as your enemies call it, is under the overall leadership of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a high-born nobleman, and divided into ten squadrons, of which you command the ten-ship Squadron of Levant from your mighty flagship the 30-gun La Regazona, actually the largest ship in the fleet. After two years of planning everything is now ready to initiate the plan with which you intend to destroy Spain's greatest enemy.
  
  One warm summer's day you order your ship to raise it's sails and lead your Squadron out of the port of Lisbon (like the rest of Portugal under Spanish control since it's conquest eight years ago) to join the rest of the Armada. United the Armada begins its journey towards Flanders and England, with only the inferior English Navy barring your way by sea it seems to you all that nothing can stop Spain's latest and greatest conquest.
  
  [Author's Note: The year is 1588. King Philip II, Catholic head of a vast Spanish Empire that stretches across the Americas and much of Europe, is poised to invade little England with a vast fleet of 130 ships and 55,000 men, only the little English fleet stands in his path... In this story you play the role of Martin Bertendona, one of the ten Squadron commanders in the Fleet. With deadly challenges and difficult decisions you will do well just to survive, let alone avoid the dangers of either capture or imprisonment in these dangerous times... This is my 20th story game, a personal milestone, but one of my shortest yet coming in at around 40 pages. It is not my entry for the 2019 competition, I am still working on that, just a little story I threw together when I had a few days off work combining my twin loves of history and people having unpleasant experiences at sea :D I hope you enjoy it.]
  
  > To Glory!
  For three weeks the Armada struggles laboriously up the western coast of Spain in the face of contrary winds, the journey made even slower by Diego Medrano's little squadron of archaic oar-powered galleys. The supplies are very poor, with worms in the bread and some of the meat already going bad and the Duke of Medina Sidonia decides the fleet will stop at Corunna, the last available port in Spain on your route, before sailing for England.
  
  Corunna is sighted and Juan Recalde, Diego Valdes, his cousin Pedro Valdes, Miguel Oquendo and Hugo Moncada all lead their squadrons into the safety of the port and then it is your turn. Over half the Armada are still scattered outside the port waiting to enter, including Medrano's galleys which wouldn't look out of place in a fleet from Ancient Egypt or Rome. It occurs to you that you can either go into the port as instructed or let them go in first.
  
  > sail into the port
  You order your Squadron of Levant to sail into the safety of Corunna, no sooner is the last of your ships inside the harbor than a storm descends out of nowhere and a fierce gale sweeps in from the south. The rest of the ships waiting outside the harbor and driven far away, some almost as far as the coast of England. The storm plunges your commander, the Duke, into a state of despair and eight days later, with twenty-eight ships of the Armada still missing, he calls a council of war. You, the Duke, Recalde, the two Valdes's, Oquendo and Moncada are the seven men present.
  
  "At any time such a storm would be remarkable," the Duke says, looking troubled, "but since it is the end of June and since this is the cause of our Lord it would appear that was has just happened must be his doing for some just purpose. I really do believe this is a sign that our great Enterprise should be abandoned, if we sail without our missing ships we will be dangerously under-strength when we face the English fleet and if we wait for them we might be still be sailing in the autumn and winter months when the winds and storms are at their most dangerous and unpredictable. I have sent a letter to the King suggesting our voyage be cancelled and I wanted the opinions of you, my Squadron commanders."
  
  Most of the others murmur their agreements but Pedro Valdes springs to his feet. "This voyage should certainly not be cancelled, things could not be better than they are now and might get worse if we don't continue right away. We should strike now, defeat the English fleet and transport the army from Flanders to England. It is foolish to think of doing otherwise."
  
  The Duke listens patiently and orders a vote.
  
  > vote to continue
  You vote to continue but you and Pedro Valdes are the only two men who do, the other five, including the Duke, vote for the Enterprise to be abandoned. The Duke decides to remain in Corunna while waiting for the scattered vessels to return, which one by one they do. For the next month the fleet re-supplies and re-fits; in the interim the Duke receives a strongly worded letter from the King of Spain to continue with the original plan immediately. The Duke calls another council of war, this time with all ten of his Squadron commanders.
  
  At the meeting you are able to get a good look at your fellow commanders, being particularly impressed by Juan Recalde, an old veteran sailor, and Alonse Leiva, the softly-spoken deputy commander of the whole Armada. The topic of discussion is what tactics to use to defeat the English fleet and the Duke favors a crescent or "half-moon" formation, in which targets to your front can be enveloped and surrounded by the two flanks or the center moved forward to also allow the flanks to attack an enemy coming up behind you from three sides.
  
  Pedro Valdes, one of the experienced Valdes cousins who mutually detest each other, has a different idea. "We should divide the fleet into three parts with the weak and slow vessels in the center and the fighting ships divided between the vanguard and rearguard, if we are attacked from the front the rearguard can support the vanguard or if we are attacked from the rear vice versa."
  
  The Duke considers the suggestion and then calls for a vote.
  
  > vote for the Duke's formation
  You and eight of the other Squadron commanders vote for the Duke's formation, only Valdes prefers his three-parts formation. Two days after the discussion the fleet sails out again in the half-moon formation, with a supporting wind it moves steadily up the western coast of France. There are still problems however: Medrano's four galleys, already damaged by the storm, are so slow they are delaying everyone else and the Duke decides to send them away to nearby French ports with a fifth ship for protection. You could join them but it would mean abandoning the great voyage you are on.
  
  > abandon the fleet to help escort the galleys to France
  After consideration the King of Spain declares that you are most to blame among the surviving officers of the Armada for that fleet's failure: for your decisions in councils against the Duke of Medina Sidonia's wishes and your mistakes elsewhere. You are imprisoned for a year and when you emerge from prison, bitter and disillusioned, you find your naval career in ruins. Though you live many more years you can never forget your experiences aboard the Spanish Armada and the shadow it has cast over the rest of your life.
  
  > Conclusion
  King Philip II's attempt to invade Spain with the Spanish Armada in 1588 (placing him alongside Julius Caesar, Philip II of France, Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler as unsuccessful would-be conqueror of England) was the grandest effort of a Spanish Empire that controlled much of South and North America, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands and even the Philippines.
  
  With hindsight it was a great turning point in the two country's history, the beginning of the decline of the Spanish Empire after a century of conquest and success in the Americas and Europe (a decline which would continue for the next four hundred years) while also heralding the beginning of the rise of the British Empire, particularly the British Navy, a rise which had already begun five years before the Spanish Armada with the first significant British expeditions to North America.
  
  If some little things had been different, if the winds had been coming from different directions, if the Spanish soldiers in Flanders had been ready or if the fireship attack had failed, then there is no reason to doubt that Spanish soldiers would have landed in England, perhaps conquered London and perhaps even the entire country.
  
  In the words of the great Russian General Alexander Suvorov "The fate of a battle can be decided in a minute, the fate of a campaign in an hour and the fate of countries in a day."
  
  History is full of tantalizing what-ifs and the Spanish Armada is one of the best.
  
  > To see the fates of the Spanish Commanders click here
  Overall Commander:
  The Duke of Medina Sidonia survived the Spanish Armada and died in 1615.
  
  Squadron Commanders:
  Alonso Leiva drowned off the Irish coast on 28 October 1588.
  Juan Recalde died of exhaustion and sickness in Spain on 23 October 1588.
  Diego Valdes survived the Spanish Armada but was arrested and imprisoned afterwards.
  Pedro Valdes was captured by the English on 31 July 1588, released in 1593 and died in 1614.
  Miguel Oquendo died in an explosion after returning to Spain on 24 September 1588.
  Juan Gomez was captured by the Scottish on 28 October 1588 and released in 1589.
  Hugo Moncada died in battle with the English at Calais on 8 August 1588.
  Antonio Mendoza died of a fall at sea on 27 July 1588.
  Diego Medrano survived the Spanish Armada by leaving it early.
  
  Martin Bertendona [YOU]
  Bertendona survived the Spanish Armada and continued to have a glorious career in the Spanish Navy. In 1589 he successfully defended Corunna against an English fleet led by Francis Drake and in 1591 he helped capture Drake's former flagship Revenge in the naval Battle of Flores. He lived long enough to see the end of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) and died almost immediately afterwards at the age of seventy-four, the best of the Spanish Captains who sailed with the Armada.
  
  Thank you for taking the time to read my story.