Part of the campaign:

Welcome back at last to another round of Groundhog Day! Once again, I apologize for the slow pace of releases; I've got somewhat more on my plate than I used to. In order to get this episode out faster, I’ve narrated the first 160 turns myself then handed it over to one of our regulars, 1760s, to carry us through the rest. Anyway, now that it's here, let's get right into the action!

The second cities roll out, but it's been so long since I narrated the previous round that I can't recall if any of these are different from the usual.





A little while later, Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan makes the opening move, declaring war on Ezo.

The Central African Empire joins shortly afterward. Seems to me that Exo frequently becomes an early game punching bag.

The CAE swoops in and steals Uzbekistan's kill, capturing Sapporo and then receiving Asahikawa in a peace treaty.

As usual, the Geats seem to be in trouble, as Thayae Khittaya joins Sonora in their war against Beowulf.

Qin makes peace with Switzerland and gives away Jiangzhou.

Albania declares war on the CAE in an attempt to stop Bokassa from snowballing early.

However, this backfires, and Bokassa captures Durres!

Maurya joins the anti-Geat coalition. Beowulf is now truly fucked.

Lödöse quickly falls; there was nothing Beowulf could do, as he doesn't really have any units left.

Now, the turn 100 stats! Weirdly, the Inca have the largest army, while Sonora and Navarre round out the top three.

The Central African Empire has a decent lead in food, with Navarre and Sonora once again making top three appearances.

And Switzerland has the most production, followed by the CAE. Guess who's in third and fourth???

And one turn after the stats, Thayae Khittaya captures Skara, eliminating Beowulf of the Geats in 21st place... again.

The CAE continues to smash Albania, taking Kruje. Skanderbeg must be really regretting this declaration of war.

Switzerland declares war on Ezo while Takeyaki is already down and out. Still, geography should favour the breakaway republic, even if it only serves to delay the inevitable.

Maurya builds the great wall for what I believe is the second time this mark.

Vietnam attacks Sonora, but this seems certain to backfire, considering that the Trung Sisters still have basic archers and are pitting them against composite bowmen.

Sonora grows even stronger thanks to the addition of Falesa, handed over by Vanuatu in a peace treaty. Note: finally someone settled the canal!

Sonora then proceeds to storm into Hanoi, and Saigon is on the ropes as well. After Sonora's victory in round 2, are we looking at another stellar performance from William Walker?

And with the fall of Saigon (where have I seen this before?), the Trung Sisters of Vietnam are eliminated in 20th place.

Apparently the Aleuts managed to take Barakaldo from Navarre, probably because their unique triremes can go on ice tiles where Navarre's triremes can't attack them.

After a protracted siege, Switzerland takes Hakodate, eliminating Enomoto Takeyaki of the Ezo Republic in 19th place.

Switzerland then attacks Qin, but it doesn't really look like they've done much to fortify Jiangzhou.

Navarre strikes back, retaking Barakaldo and capturing Chaluka.

And now I’ll hand it over to 1760s to pick it up from here.



Hey folks, this is guest narrator Miles (aka 1760s) taking over as of this slide.



Switzerland has taken Nanzheng, reducing the Qin to just their capital.

Numidia, also at war with the Aleuts, takes Adamagan! Agugux is crumbling...

...and now he's gone. The Aleuts are eliminated in 18th place. Numidia gets on the capital scoreboard.

Pachacuti and Dufour team up against Central Africa! The CAE looks strong but is sandwiched between warring powers, so this could go either way.

Xianyang falls to Switzerland, eliminating the Qin in 17th place.



Uzbekistan declares war on Ukraine.

Navarre is not content to leave the Aleut homeland in Numidian hands, and so Sancho declares war and sends in a pile of triremes.

Switzerland takes first blood against the CAE, capturing Sapporo!

But Bokassa strikes back, taking Hakodate! Both cities remain in contention.

Navarre and Numidia make peace, with Massinissa surrendering Adamagan in the peace deal. Numidia gets to keep the capital, but it doesn't seem very defensible.

Dufour retakes Hakodate and makes peace. Overall, a Swiss victory in this war with Sapporo as the prize.

Turn 200 stats show Sonora leading the way in military strength, with rising star Switzerland in number 2.

Sonora's tied with the CAE for the tech lead, just one ahead of Switzerland, Navarre, and Newfoundland.

The front of the pack on production looks about the same as the previous slides.

We return to the action with more good news for Sonora, as Walker's navy takes Boera from Papua!

Indira declares war on Numidia! I have to wonder about this one, as it seems like India's military strength mostly lies in its fleet of Carracks which aren't able to reach Numidia, outside of the ones on the lake.

...Oh.



Uhhh, good luck with this, Numidia.

Ukraine snags Anangula, putting Tymoshenko on the scoreboard.

India punches through to Auzia. Numidia looks immediately, thoroughly, depleted.

Maurya received Mangaas a little while ago in a peace deal with Vanuatu, and has now annexed it. I went back through and checked the minimap, and it seems like it happened around turn 220.

It's the Blackfoot who land the killing blow, taking Cirta. Numidia is eliminated in 16th place.

Also of note is that around when Maurya got Mangaas, Papua regained Boera from Sonora. I can't tell if it's taking damage from a different attacker now, or still recovering from the previous war.

Ukraine attacks Navarre, trying to solidify its control on the northwestern gulf. In the background, Maurya declares war on Vanuatu again.

This time it's Bokassa attacking Dufour, and Walker goes along for the ride. Hakodate and Sapporo will be the frontline yet again.

Ukraine takes Adamagan, connecting its coastal holdings.

Other civs see Navarre's weakness as opportunity, and suddenly Sancho faces declarations of war from the Inca, Uzbekistan, and the Blackfoot. Of the three, only the Inca are really relevant.

The Basque navy takes Anangula, at least for a moment.

Switzerland makes a breakthrough and flips Bimbo, but it doesn't seem like a sustainable conquest.

Anangula flips back to Ukraine, and Navarre is short on ships. So naturally they make peace with... Albania. Sure.

Maurya takes out Teouma, connecting its southern holdings and eliminating Vanuatu in 15th place.

Not content to only connect ex-Vanuatu by water border, Ashoka moves on to attacking Papua next. Thayae Khittaya joins in spirit.

Unsurprisingly, Bokassa retakes his lost city. Dufour definitely doesn't have the troops to push this front at the moment.

India attacks Ukraine, threatening ex-Aleut lands immediately. Can Tymoshenko hold them?

The Inca are beating back Navarre in the west, taking Vitoria!

Anangula is in Indira's hands now, but this front is still up in the air.

Maurya takes out both Hanuabada and Boera in one turn, eliminating Papua in 14th place. At least, assuming none of those one-tile island cities are still Papuan, I can't quite tell.

Indira and Tymoshenko make peace, with Ukraine keeping Anangula but ceding Adamagan to India.

Turn 300 stats are in, with Sonora eking out a lead over the CAE in military strength.

On the other hand, Bokassa has a noticeable 3-tech lead.

Meanwhile Switzerland has the production lead.

Ouch, it looks like Ukraine gave away Kharkiv to Navarre in a peace deal, and Sancho's razing it!

Switzerland, unable to make progress against the CAE, tries to take out Uzbekistan instead.

Uzbekistan, however, was still at war with Navarre and saves Kharkiv from being burned to the ground! Also, Bokassa gets two wonders at once.

On Navarre's other front, Vitoria has been recaptured from the Inca.

Bokassa decides to eat his weakest neighbor, turning his sights on Albania. Sonora approves.

Speaking of Sonora, they just received Bombay from India in a peace deal. That's gotta sting for Indira.

Tirana is swiftly captured, eliminating Albania in 13th place.

Bokassa decides to continue his streak by also attacking the beleaguered Uzbeks.

Maurya attacks Thayae Khittaya! However, they only have a narrow land border and Thayae Khittaya has superior naval tech.

Kharkiv goes a different shade of green, and Samarkand's taking damage already.

Navarre and Ukraine go back to war. I like how Navarre used citadels to get a clean water border around Chaluka Island.

Samarkand falls, giving Bokassa another capital. Bokassa also declares war against Maurya, but they're pretty distant at the moment.



Cloudberg's note: Uzbekistan's capital is Tashkent, which hasn't fallen yet.

Switzerland takes Tashkent before the CAE can, eliminating Uzbekistan in 12th place.

Oof, a rough surrender from Thayae Khittaya as they cede the large city (and former Geatish capital) of Skara to Maurya.

The CAE/Sonora alliance takes aim at its next target, Switzerland! Dufour's military tech is way behind; Musketmen and Trebuchetes aren't gonna cut it against Riflemen and Gatling Guns.



Maurya and Sonora make peace in a war I don't think went anywhere.

The Inca and Navarre made peace at some point, but here they are going to war again.

The first Swiss city to fall the Central Africa is Tashkent, as Bokassa upgrades to GWI.

Unsurprisingly, Sapporo falls on the next turn. This looks like a total slaughter.

Four turns later, Hakodate falls as well.

And four turns after that, Bern is in the red, Zurich is in the yellow, Xianyang is in the yellow, and the Blackfoot have also declared war on Dufour. Yikes.

Bokassa takes both Bern and Zurich, exiling Dufour to ex-Qin lands.

Speaking of which, the Blackfoot snag the former Qin capital, Xianyang. This has the side effect of pushing Sonora's units out of the way of the front.

India and Ukraine go back to war, and Tymoshenko looks like she's in dire straits.

Jiangzhou also falls to the CAE, reducing Switzerland to a lousy snow city.

Apparently this is a pitiful enough place to leave things, and Bokassa and Walker decide to let Dufour suffer in Nanzheng for now and make peace.

India takes Kyiv to the yellow, only to be faced with an invasion from the dominant CAE/Sonora alliance! This is seriously dangerous for Indira.

On the other hand, Sonora faces a declaration of war of its own, with Maurya invading from the east! These two seem fairly evenly matched.

India takes Kyiv, although this immediately puts it in Bokassa's sights.

But first, Navarre gets the killing blow at Anangula, eliminating Ukraine in 11th place.

Kyiv goes to the CAE, and Indira's definitely not getting it back, especially with those Blackfoot troops gumming up the works.

Maurya takes Cabo San Lucas and makes peace with Walker! A small but notable victory for Ashoka.



Navarre and Newfoundland make peace... Right, Newfoundland's still alive. Morris has been trying to keep a low profile, I suppose.

The next Indian city to fall is Adamagan, and Auzia's taking damage already.

Vitoria is once again Incan as Pachacuti and Sancho make peace. Sancho also ends his war with Crowfoot.

Auzia falls as well, pushing India back further still.

Only four turns later, and Indira loses Delhi and Calcutta! Bokassa looks like a runaway leader at this point.

Ashoka, after cutting huge holes in Duttabaung's territory with citadels, declares war again. This looks very one-sided.

Thayae Khittaya falls, and Hanlin's not long for this world.

Indira begs her way into peace with Bokassa, but she still had to give away Hyderabad to get it. I can't believe Bokassa's AI kept it.

Ashoka takes pity on Duttabaung and lets him live on in Hanlin and its handful of remaining tiles.

Maurya then realizes that Newfoundland is in fact still on the map, and decides to take care of that.

Navarre and the Inca are back at war yet again, with Maurya also declaring war on Pachacuti. Sonora declares war on Navarre, for whatever that accomplishes.

More importantly, the CAE join the coalition, threatening Anangula.

The Blackfoot never made peace with Switzerland, and finally managed to take Nanzheng. Switzerland is eliminated in 10th place.

Navarre loses Tudela to the Central African navy, while Pachacuti loses Vitoria to Maurya.

Anangula also falls to Bokassa, whose troops have made landfall on Chaluka Island.

San Sebastian is next to be captured! Sancho's running out of time.

The Chaluka expedition hits its mark!

Navarre flips it back, only to immediately lose it to a stray Sonoran GWI.

Navarre makes peace with Sonora, letting Walker keep his island city. But Walker's got his sights set on Morris already and his glitchily-huge cities.

Sancho retakes San Sebastian but loses his capital!

Three turns later, Sancho surrenders everything but Loyola to Bokassa. What a crushing defeat.

Mount Pearl falls to Sonora, and St. John's is in the red and losing population rapidly.

Sometime between turns 452 and 461, the Blackfoot took out Indira's last city of Bangalore, meaning India was eliminated in 9th place. Now Crowfoot decides to make an ineffectual DoW at Navarre.

Bokassa sneaks into Corner Brook from the west, and St. John's ready to fall.

But first, the Inca cede Machu to Maurya in a peace deal.

Sonora takes St. John's, eliminating Newfoundland in 8th place.

The Blackfoot and what little is left of Thayae Khittaya declare war on Sonora in retaliation! This seems like a risky idea for Crowfoot, as Sonora is quite powerful.

Bokassa's carpeted his lands, mostly with Paratroopers and... Uhlans? That's somewhat atypical.

The CAE/Sonora alliance strikes again, this time attacking Maurya! If nothing else, this shows how unfazed Walker is by Crowfoot.

The Maurya-held city most accessible to Bokassa was Machu, which is quickly captured.

Only two turns later, Vitoria falls as well, kicking Maurya off the west end of the continent.

Crowfoot, undeterred by difficult odds, takes Bombay from Sonora! Walker won't get back to that city easily.

But that's not a big loss, since Sonora just took the Blackfoot capital! It'll almost definitely flip back, but that's a huge blow.

The CAE navy starts to hit the eastern end of the continent, taking Skara from Maurya.

And Taxila after that! Ashoka is getting sandwiched between warfronts.

Down in the south of the continent, Bokassa's Destroyers take Toshali.

After a long while, Sonora reclaims its lost city of Cabo San Lucas!

CAE makes further inroads from the south at Mangaas...

...and in the far north at Thayae Khittaya...

...and on the eastern shore, having taken Hanuabada and now Mathura, too! Ashoka just cannot keep up.

And with this peace deal, everything Ashoka had left except his capital is surrendered to Bokassa.

Bokassa wins the World's Fair by an absurd margin. Given some of the... questionable stories regarding Bokassa, the fact that his production contribution was 6666 is rather ominous.

Ashoka gave away everything for peace, but only made peace with the CAE. This leaves Sonora in position to easily finish off Pataliputra. Maurya is eliminated in 7th place.

Now that Sonora is done in the east, they're free to send more troops to the west to fight the Blackfoot. Kainaa is the next city to fall on this front, and Crowfoot's chances of retaking his capital seem slim to nil.

Bokassa wonders why Duttabaung was left alive, and isn't feeling merciful.

Hanlin falls immediately, eliminating Thayae Khittaya in 6th place.

Sonora also picked up Xianyang, reducing the Blackfoot further.

The remaining Blackfoot cities are getting bombed heavily by the Sonoran airforce, but Bokassa's overflowing carpet is smothering any progress.

The great inevitable betrayal finally comes, with Bokassa backstabbing his longtime ally Walker! St. John's, Kainaa, Siksikawa, Xianyang, and Tecate all fall immediately on the first turn of the war.

Sonora's only about to get hit even more. They have decent troops, but nothing to compare to the CAE carpet.

Two turns later, Bokassa has taken Comondu, Loreto, Falesa, Tijuana, Pataliputra, and Cabo San Lucas! Sonora is getting annihilated! And no, making peace with Crowfoot now won't save you, Walker.

One more CAE turn later, and Hanoi, Mexicali, and Saigon fall...

...followed by Ensenada falling, and La Paz flipping!

And the next turn, the CAE takes all the remaining cities. Sonora is eliminated in 5th place.

World war is declared on the shockingly early turn 570 because, let's be honest... we all know what the result will be.

All remaining Blackfoot and Basque cities are captured immediately, eliminating the Blackfoot and Navarre in a tie for 3rd.

Here you can see Loyola having fallen more clearly. This leaves only one civ for Bokassa to finish off: the Inca.

And having done so, that's game! Central Africa takes the round!

Here's our endgame shot, with Pachachuti barely surviving onto the last slide in Tiwanaku. Cloudberg, back to you.



Thanks 1760s for narrating! The score now stands as follows:



Albania: 1

Sonora: 1

Central African Empire: 1



Thanks for reading and I'll be back again eventually lol