Welcome back to AI Middle East! After part 1, four of the 13 people who voted in the strawpoll thought Oman would win. 2 each voted for Armenia and Hejaz. When we left off, out of those three frontrunners, only Armenia was actually doing particularly well. So let's see what this part has in store for us!



We return with our first pic being the aftermath of Hejaz's ignominious retreat from Saudi Arabia.

Palmyra is down to black, and Turkey has a melee unit nearby! But Jerusalem also has one in range. Who gets the city may well depend on turn order!

Ptolemy tells us that the people of Azerbaijan are quite pleased with their lot. Oddly, so is Saudi Arabia.

After assembling an army again, Oman has retaken Abu Dhabi. Surely this is the last time it will flip?

And Turkey captures Palmyra, eliminating Zenobia of Palmyra in 19th place. Palmyra participated in some early wars but was never able to capture anything, and all its neighbours declared war and carved bits off until there was nothing left.



However, this battle isn't done yet. Jerusalem and Aremenia immediately declare war on Turkey! It seems as though Baldwin wants revenge for Ataturk sniping his kill.

Jerusalem immediately takes Palmyra. Given the geography, however, this may be the last we see of this particular conflict.

All of a sudden, Egypt attacks Nubia! Ramesses finally seems to have realized that Nubia captured Dvin, a city that should have been his by right.

Meanwhile, Oman is laying siege to Dubai with six units. The city's defense strength is pathetic, however, so this may be enough.

Oh my! Byzantium has joined the war against Turkey, and there's quite a force piling up west of Ankara.

Dubai falls to red, but Oman seems to lack melee units. Fortunately, I can see a couple on their way from near Abu Dhabi, so this may be over soon.



Also on this slide: Hejaz ends its Saudi Arabian campaign in defeat.

And Oman captures Dubai! Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates is eliminated in 18th place. This is definitely uncharacteristic for Oman, but keep in mind that their land is still shit.

Egypt surrounds Dvin with spearmen and war chariots. Its capture seems inevitable; all the Nubian units are much too far away to prevent it.



Offscreen, Turkey and Byzantium make peace.

And indeed, Egypt captures Dvin and secures the city.

Saudi Arabia ends another war, this one with the Rashidun. Umar has a surprisingly large army, despite owning only one city.

Having secured his objective, Ramesses makes peace with Piye. Also, I can't believe no one has settled that one stretch of the nile along the map edge over there.

Oh my! Oman is not done with its conquests yet! Saif bin Sultan has declared war on Saudi Arabia and is marching a large army toward Riyadh. Can Oman succeed where Hejaz failed?

Riyadh begins to take damage, but now Saudi Arabia has composite bowmen, which Oman lacks. I think Saif's army is about to be torn apart.

Indeed, Oman is forced to retreat from Riyadh, having accomplished nothing. But now Hejaz is at war with Saudi Arabia again! Abdulaziz ibn Saud has done a great job holding the line so far, but how long can he keep this up?

Byzantium declares war on Turkey... what is this, the third time? Justinian, you can do better than this.

Oman makes peace with Saudi Arabia, having learned the same lesson that Hejaz did. Meanwhile, Kurdistan enhances Confucianism.

Nubia builds the great wall, ensuring that even if they never break out of their corner, they'll still be among the last to die.

In an embarrassing turn of events for Byzantium, Turkey has bombarded Hadrianople into the yellow. This would be a lot easier if Justinian had composite bowmen.

Oh hey, Nubia isn't just going to sleep! Piye catches himself just as his eyes were closing and attacks Egypt. The terrain isn't easy, however, so it's not clear that Nubia will get anywhere.

Ramesses decides to shift his focus to Nubia by making peace with the Ayyubids.

Hejaz has been completely repulsed once again, and Hussein bin Ali signs a second peace treaty with Saudi Arabia. I'm frankly shocked that ibn Saud hasn't been done in yet.

Ibn Saud wavers for the first time, however, in concluding a peace treaty with the Achaemenids, in which he gives away Uruk to Cyrus. The city probably won't be missed, however. In the background, Nubia and Egypt sign another white peace agreement.

Byzantium builds Petra in what is possibly the city with the least desert on this entire map. This is a fucking disgrace.

Parthia awakes from its slumber and attacks Iran. Tehran has great natural defenses, but can it hold against Parthia's superior numbers?

Oman builds up and attacks Saudi Arabia again, now with more catapults. But Saif bin Sultan still doesn't have composite bowmen, which is going to seriously drag him down.

Somehow, Byzantium has dropped Ankara into the green while Jerusalem and Armenia have Istanbul in the yellow. No one has that many units near any Turkish cities though.

After spending a little time building up after the second Nubia war, Ramesses attacks the Ayyubids again. If nothing else, his sheer number of war chariots should help him out.

Ankara falls to black, but Turkey keeps killing Byzantium's melee units.

In a concerning turn of events for our many Oman fans, Hejaz and the Achaemenids have teamed up to take on Saif bin Sultan! The Saudi Arabian campaign is once again put on back burner, this time in order to defend the homeland.

Six turns after Ankara fell to black, Byzantium finally takes the city. Istanbul, however, still stands strong. This same timeline in the test round led to Armenia eliminating Turkey; could we see this again?

Byzantium and Jerusalem both make peace with Turkey, leaving it up to Armenia to settle its grievances on its own.

Later that same turn, Egypt makes peace with the Ayyubids, ending one of the most disappointing wars so far this game.

But don't worry, there will be more disappointing wars! Case in point: Nubia has declared war on Egypt again.

Six turns later, they make peace. Pathetic.

29 turns after declaring war, Parthia has finally broken through Iran's defenses and is laying siege to Tehran!

And Tehran falls! Mohammed Reza Pahlavi is eliminated in 17th place. Iran never did much of anything; it participated in the partition of the Safavids, but failed to do more than damage the enemy cities.

Hejaz makes peace with Oman after a devastating defeat outside Dubai and Salalah. The shattered remnants of Hussein bin Ali's attack force stagger home, utterly dejected.

Having finished off Iran, Parthia turns against the only remaining Persian civ: the Achaemenids. But Cyrus will be a much tougher target, whether Mithridates realizes it or not.

Jerusalem declares war on Saudi Arabia and appears to be sending a decent army toward Buraydah, but given other civs' history with invading Saudi Arabia, I don't expect anything short of a complete Jerusalemite defeat.

Mithridates realizes his mistake and quickly makes peace with the Achaemenids. The Rashidun reform Hinduism.

Four turns later, Kurdistan reforms Confucianism. Seems reforming religions is in vogue lately.

Byzantium has built a city next to Yervandashat, which is one of the first thefts of land so far this game.

Suddenly, the period of peace ends with a joint DOW by Byzantium and Kurdistan against Jerusalem! In the test round, Jerusalem was conquered by the Rashidun, and Byzantium launched a crusade to retake it, eventually capturing the city with an embarked attack and restoring Christian rule of the Holy Land. It seems that in this game, their motives are not so godly.

Just as Oman backs out of its second Saudi Arabian war, Hejaz attacks again, bringing along Cyrus to boot. In the upper left, Kurdistan appears to be attacking Taif.

Kurdistan is beginning to eat into Jerusalem, taking Palmyra!

Saudi Arabia may actually be fucked this time. Riyadh is in the yellow and surrounded by enemies, and Buraydah is taking damage as well.

The Achaemenids capture Buraydah! Riyadh is still in the yellow and totally up for grabs. Oman ends its war against the Achaemenids, having successfully defended all its cities.

Surprise snipe! The Achaemenids take Riyadh as well! Frankly, I don't see how Cyrus hopes to hold these cities.



Abdulaziz ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia is eliminated in 16th place. Saudi Arabia had a terrible start and was probably doomed from the moment I decided to include them, but they did a remarkable job holding off wave after wave of attackers trying to penetrate their desert stronghold.

On the very next turn, Parthia and Kurdistan declare war on the Achaemenids, presumably in retribution for eliminating Saudi Arabia.

Parthia brings Isfahan down to red, and it looks like the city will fall to the huge purple horde!

Isfahan flips, and I doubt it will be the last time the former Safavid capital changes hands during this war.

Jerusalem makes peace with the Kurds, forestalling any further incursions, but Byzntium is still at large and is harassing Aleppo with its triremes.

Isfahan flips to Parthia again, and Cyrus is running out of melee units...

Jerusalem makes peace with Byzantium and gives away the Aleppo canal. Absolutely brutal.

All of a sudden, Sumer and Jerusalem join the coalition against the Achaemenids! Kurdistan pulls out, but it wasn't helping anyway.

Egypt declares what I believe is its third war against the Ayyubids. I'm not sure if this will go any better than the other wars, but Egypt does somehow have even more war chariots than it did last time.



In the background, Parthia and Armenia make peace with the Achaemenids.

Pythagoras lets us know that the Kurds are two techs ahead of anyone else. Byzantium, Armenia, and Oman are tied for second.

Sumer retakes its long-lost city of Uruk! Now that Eannatum has some hill tiles and therefore has a non-zero amount of hammers, maybe he can produce enough troops to hold it.

Hejaz joins the war against the Achaemenids, while Oman builds several citadels against Riyadh. Strangely, Sumer seems to be attack Riyadh... from the south.

Cyrus flips back Uruk, but this is definitely going to go back and forth for a little while.

Indeed, Sumer soon retakes Uruk.

Things then turn south for Eannatum as he loses Uruk again and faces an incoming invasion from Parthia.

Sumer retakes Uruk again, somehow, while Hejaz quits the anti-Cyrus coalition after completely failing to dent Riyadh.

Someone has entered the renaissance era, giving me a spy. I decide to send it to Muscat.

Nubia attacks Egypt for what must be the fourth time this part. Ramesses says, "Fuck it, might as well declare war on Kurdistan for good measure."

After an extremely long and unproductive siege, Armenia appears to finally be damaging Istanbul again.

Meanwhile, Egypt and Byzantium have used a pair of well-placed citadels to steal most of the useful tiles near Acre.

The Nubia-Egypt conflict ends with no cities taken. Again.

Ur begins to take damage as both the Achaemenids and Parthia sweep toward the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates. To be honest, I'm surprised no one killed Sumer earlier.

And the Achaemenids capture Ur, eliminating Eannatum of Sumer in 15th place! Sumer always struggled with production and never really did anything, and ultimately Eannatum declared war on the civ that killed him.

This ingratiates no one to the Achaemenids, however. Azerbaijan, and more importantly Kurdistan, both declare war on Cyrus. In the background, Jerusalem and Hejaz form a pointless coalition against the Ayyubids.

And with that it's time for the end-of-part info addict slides. Parthia has the largest army, but Byzantium is very close behind. Oman finishes in a strong third place.

The Kurds still have the most techs, but their lead hasn't changed since we last saw the tech counts.

Byzantium is developing a decent lead in production, while it's a much slower decline from second place Parthia to 7th place Egypt.

Byzantium also has a large lead in crop yield. Amazingly, Oman is third, possibly due to sea resources alone.