Hey everyone, I have a surprise mid-week episode of AI Middle East to relieve that horrible cliffhanger I left you with on Sunday!



Of the 17 of you who voted in last part's poll, 8 chose Byzantium, down slightly from last week but still a decisive lead. Armenia came in second with four votes.



On our opening slide, we can see that the Kurds have recaptured Buraydah from Egypt, while Ramesses and Saif bin Sultan haven't moved yet.

Ramesses briefly captures Riyadh, but his forces in the area are starting to run thin, with enemies closing in from all sides.

Indeed, on the very next turn, Oman recaptures Riyadh and all but expels the Egyptian military presence in central Arabia.

Oman's fight isn't done, however, because they're still at war with Hejaz and the Kurds. As a result, Hussein bin Ali swoops in and captures Amed.

In Anatolia, Byzantium declares war on Armenia, an event that occurs at least once every part. But now Byzantium has artillery—could this time be different?

Oman recaptures Amed, but troops from four civilizations continue to engage in an all-out melee in the desert.

Over in the Nile Valley, Nubia is holding onto Thebes and is on the verge of recapturing Napata as well.

Oman continues its push into Arabia, capturing Buraydah. It will flip back, but no one seems to have very many troops left in this area.

Now assisted by artillery, Byzantium manages to push in and take Istanbul for the first time. But Armenia has modern infantry, which could help them stop Justinian's advance at the Yerevan bottleneck.

The Kurds recapture Buraydah and make peace with Egypt, eliminating one arm of the three-way war triangle. Oman still hasn't gathered a competent army to push hard against the Kurds.

Nubia recaptures Napata, but fronts elsewhere in the war with Egypt remain stuck in a grinding stalemate.

Armenia manages to recapture Istanbul with only a handful of units. This would be a really ironic time for Byzantium to make peace.

Oman brings up a few more troops and takes Buraydah again. The problem with all these flat desert cities is that they're easy to take and hard to defend, resulting in a lot of flips and a lot of changes of ownership.

Byzantium recaptures Istanbul, but more Armenian infantry units and field guns are one again in position above the city. If Justinian can't crush those units with his superior numbers, he is never going to break through here.

Boethius tells us that Byzantium has the largest army. Why am I not surprised?

Armenia suddenly retakes both Istanbul and Yervandashat! Seriously, how is Tigranes pulling this off?

A decent-sized Omani expeditionary force ventures further up the Arabian coast, accompanied by a naval squadron, capturing Uruk in the process. It now seems as though Saif bin Sultan might be going straight for Ur.

He needs to watch out for Hejaz though, because Hussein bin Ali just captured Amed while most of the Omani forces are up fighting the Kurds.

Byzantium retakes Yervandashat but not Istanbul. This defense by Armenia is just incredible.

Four Omani units easily take Taif, which was completely undefended. Large tracts of useless land are now back under Omani control.

Oman sends a much larger army to subdue Hejaz, retaking Amed and possibly building for a larger push on Mecca itself.

Byzantium has retaken Istanbul, but this is a reminder that Armenia is also at war with both the Kurds and Parthia, and someone is beginning to damage Mashhad.

And the Kurds take Mashhad, denying Mithridates a city he has worked for many long years to get. I imagine he won't be pleased.

Meanwhile, the Omani navy sails all the way up the Persian gulf and captures Ur, forcing the Kurds to divert significant resources to its recapture.

That doesn't help Armenia, however, as Byzantium pushes past istanbul and takes Yerevan.

The Kurds retake Ur and move on Uruk. It increasingly appears that Oman's forces are scattered and incoherent.

Without me even noticing, Nubia has pushed all the way up the Nile and taken Cairo! The delta, however, belongs to Byzantium. I can't imagine either of our remaining African civs are too happy about that.

Oman strikes back, recapturing Ur and eliminating some stray Kurdish forces south of Uruk.

Meanwhile, Yerevan is solidly back under Armenian control, and Tigranes is even pushing on Istanbul again. This is insane.

Armenia retakes Istanbul! I don't believe it!

Needless to say, Byzantium quickly retakes the city.

The Kurds, now greatly weakened, make peace with Armenia after losing Silemani and gaining Mashhad. All things considered, probably not a fair trade.

In Africa, Nubia is still trying to finish off Egypt, bombarding Dvin down to red but not orchestrating a very competent siege of any particular city.

And the two sides make peace with no further exchange of cities. Weirdly, Egypt still has more cities than Nubia does.

Justinian is riche. I don't think anyone is surprised.

Ouch, this hurts. Armenia makes peace with Byzantium and gives away Yerevan and Tigranakert, ceding its entire Black Sea coast. In the end, this difficult war is a solid victory for Byzantium.

Ur is back in Kurdish hands, but a large Kurdish force near Uruk has yet to do any damage, and a single melee unit could be enough to send the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates back to Oman. But where is the rest of Oman's army? Surely there's more than this?

Oh, THERE IT IS. Oman finally manages to break through Hussein bin Ali's mountainous defenses and has captured Mecca! Saif bin Sultan himself personally makes a pilgrimage.

Armenia makes peace with Parthia and gives away Armavir. The once mighty Armenian empire has been reduced to just two cities—but Armenia is at least still the only civ with modern infantry.

Hejaz makes peace with Oman without even flipping Mecca. Also, I take back what I just said—Oman now has modern infantry too.

Suddenly, a new coalition forms as Byzantium and Parthia team up on the Kurds! Autocracy vs. Order strikes again, and it looks like Order is in real trouble.

Nubia aligns with the autocratic civilizations, meaning the Communist bloc will continue to consist of only Kurdistan and Armenia.

Byzantium races across the flood plains of the Euphrates, capturing Kerkuk! Hewler itself is taking taking damage!

The Kurds retake Kerkuk but lose Ur to Oman. I don't think they'll be getting it back either—Barzani is utterly exhausted.

Armenia decides to put its advanced army to use invading Azerbaijan. If only they'd done this a few hundred turns ago.

Parthia moves to connect Armavir to the rest of its empire, capturing Mashhad. Mithridates finally has the city he's been trying so hard to get. Additionally, Byzantium has retaken Kerkuk.

A Kurdish backdoor force recaptures Mashhad, but Oman moves in from the south to capture Dihok. I'm just beginning to notice how much bigger Oman has become in this part.

Parthia takes back Mashhad, and three armies converge on the two remaining Kurdish cities. Who will walk away with the prize?

Parthia nabs Assur, cutting Oman out of the running for Hewler. It will end up in the hands of Justinian or Mithridates, and a couple turns from now it might well come down to who moves first.

Piye, having built up his army, re-invades Egypt. This time, Ramesses might not be able to hold them off.

Hewler falls to red! Of all the civs pictured, Justinian moves first, but he doesn't have a nearby melee unit. After that comes Mithridates...

And Parthia takes Hewler! Mustafa Barzani of the Kurds is eliminated in 9th place. The Kurds seemed to dominate the early and mid game, conquering the entire Fertile Crescent and at various points also holding much of the Holy Land and central Arabia. But it all fell apart when Barzani got involved in a series of long wars against all of his neighbours, which ultimately left Kurdistan unable to defend against this final, fateful coalition.

After revealing a bunch of resources, I have two new spies, which I have sent to Constantinople and Nisa. I now have spies monitoring the plots of all three of our frontrunners.

Out of nowhere, Parthia declares war on Oman! Mithridates captures Dihok on the very first turn. Saif bin Sultan has been caught totally off guard, but can he still turn this around?

He pushes back with his powerful infantry and captures Dihok, but the bulk of his army is still on its way.

Parthia quickly goes back on the offensive, taking both Dihok and Ur!

This slide serves as a reminder that Oman is still at war with Egypt, and is simultaneously trying to retake Medina.

And then Saif bin Sultan simultaneously captures Medina and Ur! Still, that Parthian army is pretty scary.

But, just as suddenly as the war started, it ends. Parthia keeps Dihok, but otherwise gains nothing from the war. This is pretty shocking.

Instead, Mithridates teams up with Justinian to attack Armenia again. This could easily end in Tigranes' elimination.

Indeed, Silemani quickly falls to red. At the same time, the world congress embargoes Byzantium with everyone voting yea except for the Byzantine-Parthian alliance.

Justinian takes Silemani, leaving only Artashat. It seems that Byzantium might be in a better position to take that city as well.

Artashat falls to yellow. Both civs have melee units nearby...

And Parthia takes the capital! Mithridates knocks out his second civ of the episode, eliminating Tigranes II of Armenia in 8th place. Armenia always had high production and decent tech, combined with a defensible core, but found it difficult to expand into its neighbours through war. Tigranes slowly lost peripheral cities until two disastrous wars finally knocked him out. On the upside, he led in tech until the end.

Meanwhile by the Red Sea, Oman is sending troops clear across to the African side in a hail mary effort to take Dvin. Unfortunately for Oman, Nubia gets the first move.



Note that Oman has a significant number of planes and has recently unlocked artillery as well.

And Nubia captures Dvin, a city they once held a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Egypt retakes Dvin but loses Helopolis to Nubia instead. Memphis has also fallen to yellow. Ramesses is clearly in dire straits now.

Nubia retakes Dvin and drops Memphis to black...

Holy fuck! All of a sudden, Justinian breaks his alliance with Mithridates and declares war on Parthia! Both sides have large armies, however, and Parthia is actually starting off on the offensive, capturing Kerkuk and damaging Silemani.

Byzantium begins a concerted push to take Artashat, appearing to overpower the Parthian counterattack.

Meanwhile, Nubia captures Memphis, but appears to have lost Heliopolis again somehow.

Byzantium captures Artashat, though the minimap suggests they still haven't retaken Kerkuk.

Indeed, Parthia is still pushing on this front, seriously threatening Laodicea!

Nubia retakes Heliopolis and Oman captures Acre, finally eliminating Ramesses II of Egypt in 7th place. Ramesses was perhaps too slow to expand, capturing Dvin early but taking his sweet time to kill the Ayyubids. To his severe detriment, his southern neighbour Nubia built the Great Wall, preventing him from ever getting a clear advantage over Piye. Instead, Egypt led numerous campaigns into the heart of Arabia, even capturing Riyadh, but these proved disastrous as Nubia twice took Egypt's capital from behind. In the end, it was Nubia—the quiet turtle—that triumphed in Africa.

Parthia continues to push against Byzantium in the Levant, taking Laodicea and damaging Palmyra. Justinian refuses to budge at Artashat, however.

My spy suggests that Oman is planning a surprise attack against an unknown target, and troop movements seem to back this up. Someone is clearly about the feel the heat. But who? We will have to find out later, because now is time for the stats.



(Strawpoll is one the last slide)

In a surprise twist, Oman now has the largest army, and it's not even close! Byzantium also has a significantly larger Army than Parthia, even though Justinian is down 2 for 1 in their war.

Oman has also taken the lead in technologies, edging out both Byzantium and Parthia by one tech. The two warring rivals are tied in second.

The story is different in production, however, where both Byzantium and Parthia have significantly more hammers than Oman. This is the effect of Arabia's terrible land really showing itself.

Byzantium still has the most cities, and has gained 4 since last part, but Oman has gained 7. Parthia has also gained 7 cities. It seems clear that Byzantium is losing its edge here as well.