Part of the campaign:

In the timeless words of Bill Murray, it's Groundhog Day again! Last time our favourite beeliners, the Tlingit, beelined to victory instead of trying to get musketmen before composite bowmen. But who will rise to fame and glory this time?

The second cities go out with few major changes. Some civs have returned to positions they tried earlier; I think the only entirely new one is Phoenicia.

The first war starts on turn 35 with a DOW against Taungoo by Greenland and Carthage. I don't expect anything to come of it, but I have to show it because it's the first war.

The second war breaks out between Peru and the UK. London is almost impossible to take without a navy though, especially at this tech level, so Ramon Castilla had better have an ace up his sleeve if he wants the city.

10 turns after the coalition against Taungoo, the Iceni attack Greenland! Erik Thorvaldsson looks completely unprepared; I think we might be seeing our first elimination soon.

The Wabanaki and Sabaeans join the fight against the United Kingdom! But once again, Makeda really needs a navy if she wants to take anything.

The Iceni take Garedhar, and Han declares war on Greenland! Boudicca makes peace on the next turn too, ensuring that Gaozu will get Erik's capital.

Macedon joins the war against the UK! Now this could finally turn the tide against George!

Back up on the north coast, Han has captured Brattahlid, eliminating Erik Thorvaldsson of Greenland in 21st place. Although this elimination isn't particularly early compared to many eliminations in earlier marks, it's the earliest one in this mark so far.

Phoenicia declares war on Iceland, but once again the aggressor would be much better off with a navy. Also on this screen, the first Austro-Ottoman war begins.

The Gauls attack Finland! As we all know, Finland wins this war every time and will eliminate the Gauls. Right?

Saba, meanwhile, has taken my advice and built a navy, which they've used to take Birmingham. In the background, the first Austro-Ottoman war ends.

Iceland makes peace with Phoenicia and gives away Vatnafjorður, which Hiram decides to raze.

Finland makes peace with the Gauls and gives away Espoo, even though it wasn't in great danger of being captured. Nice.

The Tlingit attack Phoenicia, damaging Byblos with an enormous navy of two triremes. Meanwhile, the second Austro-Ottoman war begins.

Time for the turn 100 stats! Somehow the Beothuk have the largest army. This must be a bug.

The Mississippi lead by one technology, while 10 civs are tied for second.

The Gauls have the most production, but several civs are close behind. It's anyone's game!

As usual, Peru builds the great wall. Just a reminder that we're four rounds in and nobody else has built it yet.

The Mississippi are at war with Finland, and I didn't screenshot the DOW because it was going nowhere—until Finland settled Tampere right in the middle of the battlefield, that is.

As Finland retakes Tampere, the Gauls declare war on Urho Kekkonen again!

Vercingetorix sweeps in and takes Tampere right out from under Tuskaloosa's nose.

And he goes straight on to take Helsinki, eliminating Finland in 20th place. Come on Kekkonen, that's three rounds out of four now that you've finished in the bottom two.

The third, possibly fourth, Austro-Ottoman war begins and this time I decided to take a picture for some reason.

Meanwhile, Iceni attacks Taungoo! I don't expect this to go anywhere unless other civs join though.

Phoenicia attacks Iceland again. Ingolfur Arnarson has rebuilt Vatnafjorður in the same spot—can he keep it this time?

Taungoo makes peace with Iceni and gives away Hanthawaddy. I guess that's one way for Boudicca to gain cities from this war.

But then the Iroquois and Han declare war on Iceni! Can Boudicca hold the line?

Meanwhile, Macedon attacks the UK again, opting to go for the difficult overland invasion of London.

Phoenicia takes Vatnafjorður, and this time they don't raze it! Woo!

Iceland then makes peace with Phoenicia and gives away Þingvellir. Ouch.

Syracuse then makes peace with Hiram and gives away Adranon! Phoenicia is on a roll!

And then they join a coalition with four other civs against the Gauls! Now if only any of those other civs actually shared a border with Vercingetorix...



Also, in the background the wars against Iceni both end. Boudicca has indeed held the line.

Meanwhile, Macedon has managed to capture London, eliminating George V of the United Kingdom in 19th place.

Iceni declares war on Taungoo again, while in the background Macedon attacks Peru.

Peru responds by capturing London. Nice.

Anyway, now it's time for the turn 200 stats. The Sabaeans have the largest army now, while it's a tight race all the way down after them.

It's a three-way tie in technologies; this area is still open to anyone.

However the Gauls are developing a significant lead in production. They seem to do this a lot.

It's another 38 turns before something relevant happens, but when it does, it's big. Iceni has captured Bago!

But then Carthage attacks Iceni! And in the background, Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans go to war for what I believe is the fifth time now (one was offscreen IIRC).

Finally, that recurring war goes somewhere, and Franz Joseph takes Bursa!

But then Mahmud captures is back and they make peace.

Han and the Iroquois join Carthage's attack on Iceni! Boudicca might be in serious trouble here.

The Ottomans give away Edirne to Han in a peace treaty. Classy.

The Iroquois make peace with Iceni and give away Grand River. So much for that coalition to stop Boudicca.

Phoenicia attacks the Gauls again! It's a bold move from Hiram, but will it pay off?

We'll find out shortly after this brief interruption. Incredibly, Phoenicia now has the largest army by a large margin, and Vercingetorix is all the way down in eighth!

The Sabaeans continue to lead in tech, but the race remains close.

And the Gauls still lead in production, but the gap has shrunk, and now their rival Phoenicia has moved into second.

The Tlingit make peace with the Gauls and hand over Kaliakh. Really, Sheiyksh could have saved everyone some trouble and given it straight to Phoenicia.

Sure enough, Hiram takes Haliakh after just three turns.

Meanwhile, a huge coalition has formed against Han, including DOWs from the Sabaeans and iceni.

Carthage founds the world congress. I didn't expect that one.

Carthage also captures Edirne from Han, although the Sabaeans did a lot of the work.

Phoenicia captures Vienne! This is a major blow to the Gauls, but Vercingetorix should be able to easily take it back since Hiram hasn't committed any troops to holding it.

Up north, Han loses Brattahlid to Iceni. The coalition against Gaozu is doing some real damage.

Back in our other major war, Phoenicia has flipped back Vienne and then agreed to a peace treaty in which Vercingetorix gives away Espoo. I think it's official: Phoenicia has supplanted the Gauls as the leading civilization!

Menwhile, the sixth Austro-Ottoman war begins.

And Iceni captures Luoyang from Han, while Chang'an takes damage!

Austria-Hungary captures Bursa again! Maybe they can hold it this time?

Meanwhile, Macedon, the Iroquois, and the Tlingit team up against the Gauls.

And Austria-Hungary finally takes Istanbul, eliminating Mahmud II of the Ottomans in 18th place.

After a VERY long battle, the Mississippi finally capture Syracuse, banishing Dionysius to his colony on the island.

Some turns later, Carthage manages to capture Chang'an, eliminating Gaozu of Han in 17th place. Fort the record, the Beothuk came very close to taking it before their last ship was killed.

Phoenicia attacks the Gauls again! And now the tech gap is so significant that Phoenicia is likely to steamroll Vercingetorix with ease.

But first, more stats. Phoenicia still has the most soldiers, but Iceni has almost closed the gap.

Phoenicia now leads by two techs, while former leader Saba is now tied with Carthage and the Wabanaki for second.

And Phoenicia now has an enormous lead in production. Also, how the fuck are the Wabanaki tied for third?

Anyway, we return to the action to see... what? The Tlingit have captured Bibracte? No way!

But the Gauls capture it back, giving Phoenicia another chance.

And Hiram takes it! Bibracte is firmly in Phoenician hands!

And the Iroquois capture Helsinki! The Gauls are down to one city...

And Phoenicia captures Tampere, eliminating Vercingetorix of the Gauls in 16th place. That's their lowest finish by far, I believe.

Carthage declares war on Austria-Hungary! This will be a tough fight, but can Dido break through?

Perhaps she can, because it's now a coalition! Iceni, who joined in a turn or two earlier, have captured Prague.

And Boudicca takes Bursa as well! I sense a lot of flipping in the future for both of these cities.

Austria-Hungary retakes both cities but then loses Bursa again, this time to Carthage.

And while Franz Joseph recaptures Bursa, Iceni takes Istanbul!

Carthage takes Bursa again, and the Iroquois capture Prague! Austria-Hungary is crumbling!

Franz Joseph retakes Prague, only to lose it to Peru. Vienna itself begins to take damage.

The Iceni snipe Budapest from Saba, while Prague is back in Iroquois hands.

It's a race to Vienna now, and the Iroquois, Iceni, and Saba all have their hats in the ring!

And the Sabaeans take it! Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary is eliminated in 15th place!

That same turn, the Beothuk attack Taungoo. I sense another elimination on its way...

And just like that, Bayinnaung of Taungoo is eliminated in 14th place.

Suddenly, a massive new war breaks out as Iceni declares war on Carthage! The scale of this battle is unprecedented so far in this round.

Somehow the Mississippi contribute the most production at the world's fair. Wow.

Now, the turn 500 stats. Phoenicia's lead in military has expanded slightly, but the Iceni army is not to be trifled with either.

And now Carthage leads in technologies, while Phoenicia is tied for second with the Wabanaki and Peru.

And the biggest change in the past 100 turns is that Iceni has far and away surpassed Phoenicia in production! Hiram will have to take action soon if he still wants to win this!

The first casualty of the Iceno-Carthaginian war is Utique, which never really stood much of a chance, since it's only three tiles from Boudicca's capital.

Boudicca also takes Bursa, which was cut off from the rest of Dido's empire.

And Chang'an falls as well. Boudicca is just dragging Dido through the dirt here!

Carthage flips back Utique, only to lose it to the Beothuk. Incredible.

The Wabanaki join the war against Carthage! Also, it looks like Nonosbawsut will get to keep Utique.

The Sabaeans join the war as well! Who gets the last three Carthaginian cities is anyone's bet.

And Makeda takes the main prize, Qart-Hadasht! Iceni has made peace, I think.

The last of Carthage's many colonies falls to the Iroquois. Don't be fooled into thinking Syracuse had a shot at it—the city's defensive strength was so high that their units barely did any damage to it. It was all Hiawatha's doing.

And the Sabaeans take Edirne, eliminating Dido of Carthage in 13th place.

Turn 600 rolls around, and Phoenicia's military lead has grown considerably. Interestingly, the Iroquois now have more troops than Iceni.

The Wabanaki, Phoenicia, and Peru are all now tied for the lead in technologies.

And finally Iceni continues to lead in production. I'm surprised at how high Makeda's hammer count is though.

19 turns later, I'm going to guess Boudicca has surpassed the Iroquois in troop count, because she just declared war on Hiawatha.

And Phoenicia attacks the Iroquois as well! It's showdown time!

Phoenicia immediately captures Helsinki, but due to the Iroquois navy, it'll flip a lot.

Elsewhere, Hiawatha is actually pushing back against the Iceni, recapturing Grand River, which they gave away ages ago.

But Boudicca takes Hiawatha's far-flung colony of Prague without too much trouble.

And Phoenicia takes Hippo Regius as well.

And Akwesasme...

And Boudicca retakes Grand River. Don't be fooled by the quick succession of slides; the war has been going for 26 turns now.

Onondaga falls to Iceni! The end is near now for the Iroquois!

The Tlingit join in at the last minute, because why the fuck not.

But then Phoenicia makes peace (as has Iceni), leaving only the heavily citadelled Tlingit to finish off the Iroquois.

And sure enough, they do it. With the fall of Osininka, Hiawatha of the Iroquois is eliminated in 12th place.

19 turns later, a massive war unexpectedly breaks out between Phoenicia an the Mississippi! Phoenicia is well on its way to a full paratrooper carpet, so this should be over pretty quick.

But first, the turn 700 stats. Boudicca now has a significant lead in military manpower, but both civs have a shit ton of troops.

Iceni has finished the tech tree, and the Wabanaki are close. Everyone else has a ways to go, including Phoenicia, which is still 7 techs short of the finish line.

Iceni also now has more hammers by a smallish margin.

Phoenicia takes Syracuse! Speaking of which, I can't believe Dionysius is still alive.

In an unexpected turn of events, Iceni takes Alexander's capital with a swarm of XCOMs!

Meanwhile, Phoenicia is running into a major problem: neutral units are preventing them from capturing Moundvill and Cahokia.

19 turns after the war started, Hiram finally spots an opening and captures Mounville!

And six turns after that, he takes Cahokia as well, eliminating Tuskaloose of the Mississippi in 11th place.

Some time later, Phoenicia and Iceni team up against Macedon. This should be over fast.

A hail of Iceni XCOMs descends on Veroia while Thessalonica is bombarded into the black.

And Iceni takes Thessalonica as well, denying Phoenicia its share of the prize. Alexander of Macedon is eliminated in 10th place.

Turn 800 arrives, and before I declare world war, we have one last round of stats. Boudicca has the largest army, but both she and Hiram have over 2 million troops. In fact, every land tile has a unit on it, and the only civ without its own full carpet is the Beothuk (whose territory is mostly filled with Iceni units).

Everyone except the Tlingit, Syracuse, and Iceland has finished the tech tree.

And Iceni still has a decent but not insurmountable lead in production.

And the world war begins! Iceni and Phoenicia are our two big competitors here, and on paper Iceni holds a small advantage. It remains to be seen who will triumph, however.

On the very first turn, Phoenicia captures Reykjavik, eliminating Ingolfur Arnarson of Iceland in 9th place.

Peru starts off on the offensive, taking Thessalonica from Iceni! Lima has already been nuked, however.

Iceni takes Utique from the Beothuk two turns into the war. Honestly, I'm surprised it took even that long.

On turn 803, Phoenicia captures Zancle, eliminating Dionysius of Syracuse in 8th place. Two of the three cities on the island have already been nuked.

The pushback begins against Peru as Phoenicia takes Thessalonica and Iceni captures London. Pella and London both appear to have been nuked.

Iceni captures Vienna from the Sabaeans, but so far Makeda's core still holds.

Boudicca begins to roll over the Wabanaki, taking Kespukwitk.

Phoenicia takes Taku from the Tlingit, and Chilkat is down to black.

Saba strikes back, taking Arequipa and Prague, while the Wabanaki appear to have recovered their capital.

Chilkat falls to Phoenicia, leaving Sheiyksh on the brink of elimination.

Saba strikes out even harder, retaking Vienna and Capturing Lima from Peru! Ramon Castilla isn't out quite yet though, because he recaptured Arequipa earlier this same turn.

Phoenicia takes Osininka and Onondaga in one fell swoop! Sheiyksh of the Tlingit is eliminated in 7th place. (Don't worry about all the peace treaties; I immediately restarted all the wars.)

On that same turn, Phoenicia captured both Vienna and London.

Phoenicia continues its bloody offensive, taking Lima, Veroia, and Kespukwitk. It's kinda hard to tell her because the fallout isn't rendering, but practically every city outside the cores of Iceni and Phoenicia has been nuked, along with Tyre itself. I'm not sure about Venta Icenorum.

Iceni and the Beothuk strike back against Phoenicia, taking Osininka and Onondaga respectively.

Phoenicia also suffers losses on the southeastern front, where Saba has taken London and Iceni has recaptured Veroia.

The Beothuk take Osininka! What is this madness?

Phoenicia strikes back, retaking London and Onondaga!

Hiram then finally takes Arequipa, eliminating Ramon Castilla of Peru in 6th place.

Iceni takes Edirne from Saba and retakes Veroia from Phoenicia.

Phoenicia begins to advance farther, retaking Osininka from the Beothuk and capturing Potlotek from the Wabanaki!

Then they capture Pella and Gwitn Tewje'g! Hiram definitely has the advantage now! Note once again that basically everything has been nuked.

Iceni momentarily retakes Vienna.

But Phoenicia is making up for it elsewhere, capturing Melgita't!

And Birmingham, and Utique...

And Sirwah... and Pannaqambskek, eliminating Henri Membertou of the Wabanaki in 5th place.

The Iceni make some gains now, retaking Utique and capturing Qart-Hadasht.

Boudicca then takes Sirwah but loses Hanthawaddy and Taungoo.

And Phoenicia continues to push forward, capturing Sirwah and Qart Hadasht! By the way, part of what's allowing Hiram to do this is that he's still building XCOMs and Boudicca isn't.

Vienna falls, along with Ma'rib, eliminating Makeda of the Sabaeans in fourth place.

Sometime within the next three turns, Megwe'saqsit Lnu is captured, eliminating Nonosbawsut of the Beothuk in third place. If I had to guess, I'd say they died on turn 837.

Phoenicia then goes absolutely ham, taking Budapest, Prague, and Edirne. The end is near, folks!

Istanbul falls, leaving Boudicca with only her core peninsula!

And then even that begins to crumble as Phoenicia storms into Venta Icenorum!

Bago falls as well! Everything has been nuked to shit, but Phoenicia is still pushing forward!

And then Luoyang!

And Caister!

And Chang'an!

And finally it's all over. Hiram I of Phoenicia has won! And what a round it was, too!

As usual, the aftermath. Boudicca just survives the round by the skin of her teeth. Anyway, the score now stands as follows:



The Gauls: 1

Peru: 1

The Tlingit: 1

Phoenicia: 1



Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you all next time!