Well folks welcome to the penultimate part of the mark, its your humble and totally unbiased scribe Bobsss fresh from the papal head offices to spread faith and persecute heresy. Also gotta say this part looked like an absolute kicker.

To start us off we have a juicy slide full of Celts, franks and barbarians. Klo had it coming if you ask me



Big F for Supe’s empire. You can also see that almost all the cities in the region are majorly depopulated as a result of the constant fighting.



Here we have the remnants of the once powerful vandal empire, its forces having since headed elsewhere to be replaced by a carpet of Egyptian and barbarian units.



Here we have the glorious papacy, yet it is obvious much of its weight is with its words and not its ‘mighty’ army. Also of note is the absolute piles of different factions now present in the region after successive coups and civil wars.



Oh look, I found where the vandals went. Apparently they all decided it was time for a vacation and just popped over to visit Greece, however something tells me they intend to be there a while.



This is what large scale roman infighting does, open the way to lose your capital to the marauding vandals. Guess the vandal tradition of occupying roman capitals is going to continue.



Hey look, some minor factions are amassing some troops to beat up each other, best grab some popcorn and watch the civ 5 ai attempt to fight in a pass.



Something something Islam something something heathens. Got to say there really is a lot of barbarians spawning this part, there seems to be quite a few factions that could actually lose clay to them.



ISLAM INTENSIFIES. This is the price the romans pay for their infighting. Smh tef and lego.



I'm not sure I see the point. It’s a nice defensive ring of troops I guess.



And to nobody's surprise the low health vandal cities in Africa get absolutely munched, looks like the Egyptians are best positioned to capitalise upon the feeding frenzy.



The vandals capture thessalonica, but they seem to be running out of troops quickly, the mass of barbarians in the area likely hindering them more than the romans in this fight so im sceptical about how much progress they will make. Also note Constantinople survived the first vandal turn.



Removing barbarians.exe



With the Egyptian forces elsewhere or dead, the Islamic blob pours in, easily capping Theodora and looking for more.



Less barbarians, not much else.



The vandal swarm is still impressive, but also looking much thinner than before without capturing any new cities by the looks of it. Constantinople also flips to the other Roman faction.



Looks like I was wrong, the vandals capture Korinthos, giving them a much more stable foothold in Greece, it remains to be seen if they can get much more.



Apparently yes, Adrianople gets added to the list as does Parium. Is this the birth of a new Vandalic empire?



Egypt continues to make headway in Africa, hard pushing towards the other cities and keeping them at low health. This should be an easy clean-up for them.



Medina gets pressured by the forces of Islam, soon another city will join their swelling empire. They also seem to have quite a sizable army remaining as well, so we should see more action before the parts end.



Looks like Constantinople might remain out of Vandal hands but im not seeing any troops that might make a counterpush.



And Carthage goes yellow to no ones surprise. Thevistis has a catapult garrison and has regained some health but in the absence of reinforcements its days are probably numbered.



Aelia Capitolina falls to the Islamic forces but with plenty of good Christian troops in the area it will be a tough fight for them to capture any more ground.



Well this seems surprisingly devoid of units, other than some vandals and the like over in Greece but it looks like the Soissons faction will get to be up to its old defensive tricks so they probably won’t make much meaningful progress from this point, but then again they do still have a lot of troops around comparatively. Tarentum also managed to retake their city with their last damaged Pikeman.



Well the barbarians have been yote from existence, but France seems to be fairly static compared to the Mediterranean this part.



Egypt + Old Vandal territory, name a more iconic duo



Obviously islam and Egypt is actually a more iconic duo as they hack into Alexandria, but there is a few more Egyptian units lurking around so they might save it yet.



Some Egyptians units repositioned and Hippo Regius falls.



Finally we see some Roman units actually moving to counter the vandals, it remains to be seen how effective they end up being.



Well the Vandals just go and capture it anyway, but this won’t be fore long with the roman units around.



And medina has fallen to the Islamic troops.



Again France remains the most static part of the map. Other than Spain that is. Nothing happens in spain apparently.



As predicted Constantinople is retaken, and thus the fighting I the region continues.



Well Aurelianum actually flips, so the borders have altered slightly.



Well Tarentum is apparently a higher priority than removing vandals from Greece. God work ai.



Static France is static



Constantinople again goes very low, can the Roman troops in the distance arrive in time to reinforce it.



Looks like that’s a no. Now stands Istanbul.



Well Cantubury just flipped into a minor civ, and there are notably less troops hanging around now.



The Romans and the vandals begin to have at it in force, with Istanbul again going very low.How many times can a single city flip in a part guys sheesh.



And Canterbury is recaptured



Augustobona is captured now, and Klo really is starting to look like he is sitting on the back foot here



Aha, the glorious Papacy has captured Adiacium and returned it to the fold, truly this is the might of the Holy warriors.



Suparia is added to the tally, looks like some peace deals between the ais keep pushing klos troops back.



Not that it proves to a hindrance as Klo instantly takes Suparia back with his massed localised forces.



Canterbury again flips. This is getting repetitive.







Chariot munch time comrence as Egypt seeks to regain its land.



Again the roman vandal grudge match drags on, but the vandals are starting to look really light on the land units there.



Well the Islamic blobs seems to be significantly slimmer than before, so this front might calm down for the part it seems



Canterbury again flips back and here also ends the parts actions, and now rolls the final position screens.



The franks traded Bononia for Augustobona, but there’s a lot of troops from both sides there now so more blood shall be spilt before this is decided, well if it was continuing anyway.



The papal troops return Mediolanum to the fold as we get a lovely shot of southern France here in all its puppeted glory.



The legendary Iberian Blob



North Africa’s final places, note that Egypt never managed to get past Carthage.



The Glory of the papal faction. Since a Roman faction controls Rome at games end, that a win right.



Right?



Here resides the sizable empire of the Ostrogeats



The new vandal empire in Greece, along with the ruins of Constantinople which remain occupied.



The Eastern Eastern Roman Empire.



The Sassynids



Other Sassynids



Islamic territory



Lower Egypt

Upper Egypt



Those dinky fellows who didn’t manage to make invasions through a mountain pass work.

And this is the final slide before the statistics screens, thus bringing the part and the mark to an end.

Until next time, stay faithful.

Signed Bobsss, Papal secretary