Part of the campaign:

Welcome back again to Groundhog Day! We seem to be back on a reasonable schedule for the moment, which is nice. Anyway, last round we saw Switzerland sweep its way to a second victory, putting them decisively in the lead. Four rounds remain for someone else to tie it up or take the lead!

The civs all settle their second cities, with some questionable choices from India and Vietnam.

The first war begins as Uzbekistan declares war on Ukraine!

As usual, the Geats are also an early target for declarations of war. Also as usual, the aggressors are Maurya and Thayae Khittaya.

Thayae Khittaya takes Lödöse. Please, Beowulf, why do you always do so badly? It's getting old!

Of course, the Geats continue to to terribly, losing Hrefenesholt to Maurya.

And Thayae Khittaya takes Skara, eliminating Beowulf of the Geats in 21st place. I believe this is the earliest elimination so far this mark.

However, this immediately arouses the ire of nearby civilizations, and Sonora declares war on Thayae Khittaya.

Sonora takes Lödöse and is in turn declared war upon by Vietnam.

Maurya joins the fun too, because fuck Sonora.

And Maurya takes Lödöse now. There have only been five city captures so far, and three of them have been Lödöse.

Meanwhile in a war I didn't think would go anywhere, Vanuatu has captured Boera from Papua and is razing it.

It flips a couple times, and now Roymata is keeping it! Very nice!

After a brief period of peace, Thayae Khittaya declares war on Maurya to regain Lödöse once again.

Finally, something happens in a different part of the world as the Inca move to take out a forward settle from the Central African Empire.

But Thayae Khittaya gets a total slap in the face as Sonora retakes Lödöse from Maurya instead.

The Numidians attack India, and unfortunately for Indira, they're probably the only civ that can capture Bombay.

The Inca easily capture Bimbo, and Bokassa has no hope of taking it back.

The Numidians capture Bombay while the Aleuts join the attack against India!

That same turn, Ukraine gave away Kharkiv to the Numidians. Where have I seen this before??? At least they're not razing it this time around.

Albania declares war on the CAE, in what might be the death blow for Bokassa.

India gets absolutely destroyed as the Numidians take Delhi and the Blackfoot capture Bangalore on the same turn! Holy shit!

And now it's time for the turn 100 stats. The inca, the Blackfoot, and Thayae Khittaya hold the top three spots in military power—definitely an unorthodox set of leaders.

Albania has the most food, followed by a near-tie between Newfoundland and the Blackfoot.

And Uzbekistan has the most production, followed once again by the Blackfoot. If these sorts of stats continue to hold, we'll be looking at a very unusual game.

Uzbekistan apparently is at war with the Numidians, because Islam Karimov just captured Kharkiv.

Sonora declares war on Maurya, in the latest bout of violence to shake this war-torn part of the world.

The CAE makes peace with Albania and hands over Mbaiki.

Maurya makes peace with Thayae Khittaya and gives away Hrefnesholt, which Duttabaung decides to raze.

The Aleuts declare war on India again—can Agugux actually get his army across the mountains this time?

Massinissa makes peace with Islam Karimov and gives away Bombay.

Maurya manages to make peace with Sonora just before losing Pataliputra, at the cost of Mathura, which William Walker will probably struggle to defend.

Sonora promptly faces declarations of war from Vietnam and Vanuatu. This probably won't end well.

Thayae Khittaya joins the fun too! Gotta get Lödöse back!

Vanuatu easily captures Mathura, which was completely undefended.

Uzbekistan (which has the great wall now, by the way) declares war on Albania! This should be exciting and bloody.

Islam Karimov takes Elbasan almost immediately, after Switzerland did most of the damage.

Thayae Khittaya takes Lödöse in the next major loss for Sonora.

Uzbekistan continues its conquest of Albania, taking Durres.

The Blackfoot declare war on Vietnam and send a massive army toward Hanoi! Could this result in an upset result of the usual struggle between these neighbours?

The Aleuts finally manage to capture Hyderabad, eliminating Indira Gandhi of India in 20th place. It seems that while the first elimination was the earliest so far, the second elimination was one of the latest.

The Blackfoot make their first gain against Vietnam, taking Hai Phong.

Five turns later, Crowfoot drops the hammer in a big way, taking Hanoi itself! Who knows where this could go now; we've never seen the Blackfoot get this strong before.

Thayae Khittaya strikes deep into the heart of Sonora, taking La Paz!

Meanwhile in the war between Uzbekistan and Albania, Islam Karimov has taken Krujë and is threatening Tirana.

And Tirana falls, leaving Albania with a single 1-pop city.

Before Albania is even finished off, Uzbekistan turns and declares war on the Numidians again.

Massinissa easily retakes Bombay, which Karimov really should have seen coming.

Uzbekistan gives up on killing Albania, so the Inca immediately swoop in and take Mbaiki. Skanderbeg of Albania is eliminated in 19th place.

Maurya and the Blackfoot declare war on Sonora! Looks like we'll see another elimination soon!

Maurya takes Cabo San Lucas as Thayae Khittaya surrounds Ensenada.

Meanwhile, Ezo captures Bangui, eliminating Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Empire in 18th place.

And then Thayae Khittaya captures Ensenada, eliminating William Walker of Sonora in 17th place.

Vanuatu decides that now would be a great time to finish off Papua as well.

The Numidians save their capital by making peace with Uzbekistan and giving away Bombay again.

After a ten-turn siege, Vanuatu captures Hanuabada, eliminating Papua in 16th place.

Vanuatu and Thayae Khittaya then team up on Maurya, the last weak civilization left in the east.

The Blackfoot and the Numidians end a brief war in which Massinissa flipped Bangalore but failed to keep it.

Turn 200 arrives, and the stats show that Vanuatu, Uzbekistan, and the Blackfoot top the charts in military manpower.

The Blackfoot and Newfoundland have a slight lead in tech, followed closely by Vanuatu and Thayae Khittaya.

And Uzbekistan is developing a solid lead in production. Unsurprisingly, the Blackfoot and Vanuatu take second and third.

Thayae Khittaya captures Cabo San Lucas; it's now a race to see who can get Maurya's capital first. In the background, the Blackfoot declare war on Newfoundland.

That declaration of war backfires as Newfoundland captures Bangalore.

And Vanuatu takes Pataliputra, eliminating Ashoka of Maurya in 15th place.

The Aleuts make peace with Navarre and gives way Adamagan. Alright then...

Newfoundland makes peace with the Blackfoot and give away Corner Brook. This could have been a win for Crowfoot, but he's razing the city, so really both sides end up losing.

Vietnam declares war on the Blackfoot, although what the Trung Sisters are trying to do here isn't clear.

Ah, I see: they have an ally. Vanuatu has also declared war on the Blackfoot.

Meanwhile, Thayae Khittaya declares war on Newfoundland to take the now-isolated city of Mount Pearl.

Uzbekistan and the Inca declare war on Navarre! This will be a very large scale war, but it doesn't seem likely that any cities will change hands permanently.

Thayae Khittaya captures and razes Mount Pearl. I don't blame them really, seeing as Newfoundland settled it one tile away from the coast.

After eliminating Uzbekistan's navy, Navarre captures Kharkiv. Let the flipping commence.

Meanwhile, the Blackfoot capture Saigon, eliminating the Trung Sisters of Vietnam in 14th place.

Uzbekistan retakes Kharkiv and makes peace with Navarre.

The Numidians and the Inca then declare war on Navarre to see if they can do any better this time.

Uzbekistan, meanwhile, sticks to its strength: land warfare. Switzerland should be very afraid.

The Numidians manage to capture Adamagan, because Navarre had no good way to reinforce it.

Vanuatu and the Blackfoot team up against Thayae Khittaya! This truly will be the war that decides who takes control of the eastern half of the map!

Meanwhile, who controls the west is pretty clear as Uzbekistan easily takes Zurich.

Bern soon follows. There's just no stopping Karimov right now.

Vanuatu takes Cabo San Lucas as Bern flips in the background.

Lödöse also falls as Vanuatu tries to cut deep into the heart of Thayae Khittaya.

Uzbekistan now turns against the Inca, since Pachacuti can't easily defend Mbaiki.

Meanwhile, the Numidians attack the Aleuts.

The turn 300 stats reveal that Vanuatu still has the most soldiers and Uzbekistan is still right behind them.

Vanuatu is also pulling ahead in technologies, with two more than second place Thayae Khittaya.

And Uzbekistan still has its significant lead in production.

The Numidians take Hyderabad after a protracted sea battle.

Uzbekistan takes Mbaiki as well.

And Vanuatu kicks Thayae Khittaya off the inland sea with the capture of Ensenada.

The Numidians also take Anangula, eliminating Agugux of the Aleuts in 13th place.

Uzbekistan tries to invade Numidia a third time. They've got the Blackfoot on their side again, but will it be enough?

As usual, the Numidians immediately recapture Bombay.

But this time the Blackfoot take it. Didn't see that coming.

The Numidians regain Bombay but Uzbekistan takes their capital.

Surprise! Qin has captured Geneva, eliminating Henri Dufour of Switzerland in 12th place.

Uzbekistan continues its push into the Numidian core, taking Auzia.

Islam Karimov also captures Machu then makes peace with the Inca in exchange for Bimbo.

Uzbekistan takes Adamagan. Islam Karimov is on a roll here.

Uzbekistan captures Delhi...

The Inca give away Tiwanaku to Ezo. Fabulous.

Navarre captures Anangula, bringing the Numidians down to one city.

Remember this war? It's still going on, and Thayae Khittaya has recaptured Lödöse and Cabo San Lucas.

Nine turns later and Vanuatu has not only recaptured both of those cities, but they've taken Skara as well.

Thayae Khittaya then makes peace with Vanuatu ad gives away La Paz and Beikthano.

Roymata soon turns his wrath against the Blackfoot! Vanuatu is determined to rise to the challenge of Uzbekistan. This game certainly hasn't been decided yet!

Navarre attacks Ezo to get Tiwanaku basically for free.

Vanuatu begins to eat into the Blackfoot, capturing Aamskáápipikani.

Hai Phong is the next to fall!

Uzbekistan declares war on Ezo right as Qin gets their capital down to red. Enomoto Takeaki is completely fucked.

Navarre takes Tiwanaku, no surprise there.

Uzbekistan takes Both Hakodate and Sapporo, locking Qin out of the conquest.

Bangui falls...

We pause momentarily to examine the turn 400 stats. Vanuatu and Uzbekistan still top the charts in soldiers, while Navarre has risen into third.

Vanuatu's tech lead has grown to seven techs, with Uzbekistan now in second place.

And Vanuatu is now just 30 hammers behind Uzbekistan. No one else is even close. Islam Karimov had better watch out, because Roymata is making all the right moves to overtake him and win the round.

Uzbekistan tries again to invade Navarre. I don't really see this one going any better than the first.

Karimov does at least manage to take San Sebastian.

10/10 citadel, absolutely magnificent.

Uzbekistan makes peace with Navarre and receives Vitoria. That's one way to do it I guess.

Karimov then turns his steely gaze against Qin. Looks like Ying Zheng's attempt to kill Ezo will be cut short.

It takes ten turns for Uzbekistan to take Jiangzhou, but the rest should fall pretty quickly from here on out.

Geneva is captured...

And Xianyang falls. Only one city remains.

Turn 500 arrives, and the military stats haven't really changed, except for the numbers getting larger.

Uzbekistan has nearly closed the tech gap and is now only two technologies behind Vanuatu.

And Uzbekistan has widened the production gap again, and now has more than 400 more hammers than Vanuatu.

Uzvbekistan now moves to finish off Ukraine.

But first, Vanuatu makes progress in its long stalemate wit the Blackfoot, taking Hanoi.

And Uzbekistan captures Kyiv, eliminating Yulya Tymoshenko of Ukraine in 11th place.

The Blackfoot make peace with Vanuatu, giving away Saigon and Káínaa.

Vanuatu then moves to finish off Thayae Khittaya.

Thayae Khittaya falls...

And Hanlin is captures, eliminating Duttabaung of Thayae Khittaya in 10th place.

Roymata then declares war on the Blackfoot a second time!

Aapátohspipikáni is captured...

Siksikáwa falls...

...And Vanuatu captures Bombay, eliminating Crowfoot of the Blackfoot in 9th place.

Uzbekistan wins the International games by a pretty large margin, but Vanuatu also contributed a nontrivial chunk of production.

Vanuatu now moves to absorb Newfoundland.

St. Johns is captured...

...And Bangalore falls, eliminating Edward Morris of Newfoundland in 8th place.

23 turns later, there haven't been any new wars, but Uzbekistan is rocking this badass carpet.

And Vanuatu has a fetish for destroyers apparently.

By the turn 600 stats, both Uzbekistan and Vanuatu have incredibly stacked militaries, with Uzbekistan fielding a slightly larger force.

Vanuatu has the science lead with three more techs than Uzbekistan.

And Vanuatu closed a big chunk of the production gap, with both civs over 2,000 hammers and Uzbekistan leading by just 156.

On turn 650, after no wars for almost 80 turns, I declare world war!

On the first turn of the war (turn 650, the turn before this screenshot), Uzbekistan simultaneously captured both Nanzheng and Asahikawa, eliminating Enomoto Takeaki of Ezo and Ying Zheng of Qin in 6th/7th place.

The turn after that, Uzbekistan took Cusco, eliminating Pachacuti of the Inca in 5th place.

Uzbekistan has taken Bombay and Siksikáwa is on the ropes, but Vanuatu is bringing many advanced units to the front.

Siksikáwa falls and now Bangalore and Káínaa are in trouble.

Uzbekistan takes Anangula from Navarre.

And Karimov also captures Hyderabad, eliminating Massinissa of the Numidians in 4th place.

Káínaa and Bangalore are both captured.

Tiwanaku falls...

Navarre loses its capital to Uzbekistan...

Vanuatu captures Getxo...

Getxo flips to Uzbekistan, along with Bilbao.

This front appears to have stabilized after Uzbekistan took Aapátohsipikáni. It'll be hard for either side to push past this geographic bottleneck.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan has taken Barakaldo, Irun, Loyola, and Zizur Mayor.

Vanuatu arrives with some destroyers to fight over the scraps, taking Barakaldo and Irun.

Uzbekistan eventually captures Tudela, eliminating Sancho III of Navarre in third place. Karimov also appears to have retaken Barakaldo and Irun from Vanuatu.

The world's fair is held under very hostile conditions. Uzbekistan wins.

In the 23 turns since we last saw this front, nothing has changed, except Vanuatu is occasionally flipping Siksikáwa, and both sides have way more units than they did before.

Fast forward seven turns and suddenly Uzbekistan is flooding the place with XCOMs. Could this be the turning point?

Saigon falls to the massive XCOM assault.

St. Johns soon follows.

The turn 700 stats show that the two sides have almost exactly the same number of soldiers. However, a good chunk of Vanuatu's numbers are locked up in destroyers that they aren't using, especially the ones trapped in the inland sea.

Both civs have finished the tech tree.

But Uzbekistan has really been cranking up the production, and now they have a lead so large it could decide the game.

On turn 705, I have to restart the war after the two sides tried to make peace. This was the second time I did this; I just didn't take a picture the first time.

13 turns later, Uzbekistan is making progress, taking Hanoi.

Five turns after that, Vanuatu retakes Saigon and St. John's. No progress will be made here until someone starts using nukes, I think.

Another six turns and Uzbekistan has recaptured Saigon and St. John's.

Seven more turns and Vanuatu has retaken Siksikáwa and Saigon.

Roymata then strikes hard with a wave of XCOMs, taking Káínaa and St. John's as well.

Uzbekistan retakes Siksikáwa, St. John's, and Káínaa but Vanuatu captures Xianyang.

Once again, Uzbekistan contributes about twice as much production as Vanuatu to an international project.

Uzbekistan retakes Xianyang and Saigon and appears to have flipped Hai Phong.

Vanuatu retakes Saigon and Hanoi.

15 more turns pass, the only change is Uzbekistan has retaken Saigon and Hanoi again. Note that most cities near the front lines have been nuked now, and no one has broken out as a result.

Uzbekistan momentarily takes Aamskáápipikani.

Hai Phonf also falls.

Vanuatu retakes Hai Phong and Aamskáápipikani but loses Tanoliu.

Vanuatu then makes a major push and retakes Tanoliu, Hanoi, Saigon, and Siksikáwa.

Seven more turns and all that's happened is Uzbekistan has retaken Siksikáwa and Vanuatu has captured St. John's. That, and a lot of nukes have been launched.

Another seven turns and Uzbekistan retakes St. John's but loses Káínaa.

The turn 800 stats reveal that Uzbekistan still hasn't managed to develop a large military lead over Vanuatu.

This is despite the fact that Karimov has 2,000 more hammers than Roymata. Pathetic.

And so, on turn 800, after 150 turns of world war, I call it a draw. It's the first draw of Mk. 10, and I was beginning to suspect we wouldn't have any, but there we are. The score now stands as follows:



Switzerland: 2

Sonora: 1

Albania: 1

CAE: 1

Vietnam: 1

Uzbekistan: 0.5

Vanuatu 0.5



Thanks for reading, and I'll try to film another one soon!