Welcome back to Part 6! Rome are marching ahead with their conquest of Iberia, with the capture of Barcelona and Santiago. They've got French Spain to worry about too though.

Greece and the Ottomans have been battling recently. Both sides have infantry, a great defensive unit and an okay attacker so progress will be slow.

Geneva last part beat off Industrial-era troops with just a pikeman and looks stable, except for the starvation and lack of production and the Swedish troops lounging around in the south.

Denmark is under the grips of a vicious famine - every single city except Rotterdam is starving. They face strong neighbours to the south and north and sea to the east and west.

Hastings, the eternal flip city (having been settled by England, captured by Portugal, France, Spain) is now Roman. The Italian cavalry approach Paris.

Valencia is taken after a naval campaign destroys the defenses.

More inaction in the southeast of the map. Ottoman troops have advanced as far as the Pharsalos-Sparta ridge but Greek infantry are right against Edrine's boundaries.

Troops surround Salamanca, approaching from Roman Provence and Roman Canterbury.

It falls, a worker army hiding behind readying to build an on-time railroad system.

Geneva falls, its citizens told to build flaks to protect against aircraft that only Rome can build. Don't trust central government, I guess!

Swedish Baltic States (SBS) are seriously contaminated, stat (SCS). Russia laughs from their rural towns at the advanced Swedes.

Paris falls, the Greeks connecting French spices to their network. Ireland expand culturally and establish a connection in Calais, hoping to start cross-channel ferry services and usher in a new period of peace and tourism. Only kidding, war will erupt soon.

Orleans in central France is Italian too!

Seville falls too. The Italians are trying the pincer movement on the Spanish capital just like the Spanish tried on the French.

Not totally sure what's going here but Russian troops (including their amazing Cossack unit) are on the move.

More troops, some damaged. I'm thinking Denmark maybe, but there's an Ottoman stack below Berlin that could be menacing them.

Spain is reduced to just Portugal as Madrid falls.

Fewer Ottoman units now, and the Greeks are sporting an amphibious marine squad that is naturally in the middle of inland Greece. My Domestic Advisor tells me Rome has completed the Hoover Dam, a damning wonder that gives the effects of a hydroelectric plant (+25% production) to EVERY city they own, whether they have a river or not. It's a major wonder in lategame, and will only make Rome run away with this more unless people step in a stop them.

This is where the Ottoman troops went.

Leipzig falls to them.

Slightly further over we get some clarification - Ottomans and Greeks are still at war, but a completely separate war is raging in the same place, Rome vs Russia. The two R-Powers have a small tech difference but Russia has good production and a big empire.

They're also at war with Denmark, but I was too unsure to state that earlier with any certainty. Hamburg falls quick, but Italian tanks are coming through the Belgian motorway system.

The Ottomans settle a new city in Basque territory, named Kafa.

Oporto's troops are all bombed out.

As were Lagos' - both cities fall! This has been a great elimination of Spain, a previously adequate civ.

More cities change ownership.

More tanks threaten Russian Europe. We're also told rather merrily by this heartless guy that the Spanish have been destroyed. They did start very well, cutting the Portuguese back to size by some cunning settling and the eventual war, then invading France with aplomb. They were simply out-teched by Rome, which is an easy thing to do in Civ 3 sadly. (9/18)

Half of the civs are gone, half remain. Rome should really rebuild but they're pressing their new cities into military service already.

A big Ottoman navy wreaks havoc in the Aegean sea, but on land it's all quiet.

Tanks roll into Berlin, 1450AD. Seems about right. A stray Irish knight is puzzled by all the guns in Hamburg.

More guns arrive and the Italians conquer Hamburg. Russian ships are ready to bombard it to shreds though.

Old Polish cities are falling quickly now. Rome are really expanding fast.

Our first set of stats. Italy have overtaken Russia this part. Ireland and Denmark are behind the dead Spain.

All dead civs here, plus Ukraine.

Power is starting to become quite obvious. The big buildup Greece had has fizzled out in a terribly attritional war.

Greek culture is standing up tall, but that won't really help much.

A good shot of Iberia and Africa. All Roman. Ottoman exclaves in Rheims and Kafa are the only other presence in this corner of the world.

It's still undecided who will better the other in Greece vs Ottomans. Will they patch up and gang up on Rome? Nah.

Ireland and Denmark aren't doing too great. One is on an island and refuses to leave, the other wishes it had some water between them and Rome.

Russia is big and strong, but they cannot defend against tanks until they have some of their own.

Here are said tanks, racing up the plains of East Europe. Apparently in the Cold War Russia was a bit freaked at how flat this part of Europe was, simply because it would only take a few hours to cross from NATO-controlled areas to Moscow. That's why they sought to expand their influence across the Baltic and Poland - for a buffer with Germany and NATO. It's being undone now by a North Atlantic nation.

Swedish Switzerland sits merrily in Roman Europe.

Ireland sends a musketman from 1000AD across to do something. Rome sends big troops.

They're razing everything in their path! It's an interesting tactic that I've never used before, partially because once a city is captured I like to be able to move my units around freely...

Poznan falls.

Sparta has fallen to the Ottomans! I didn't expect this. The Greek navy has pushed back though.

Oh no, Sweden and Rome are at war. Zurichians are no longer happy.

SWZ is now completely controlled by one country.

Delphi falls - how far can they get? Athens contains a lot of great wonders from the past eras.

Damaged troops are healing. Rome will have built the Battlefield Medicine, a 'small wonder' available to be built by everyone once they construct five hospitals. Before this troops in foreign lands cannot heal, but this makes warfare much easier to do.

The Greeks have tanks and are building F-15s, but they don't have many resources left so they might be reduced to simple units soon.

Still razing, the Romans are slowly but surely pushing up.

They're also invading Ukraine, taking their capital.

They're running out of troops here a little though! I don't think there's any peace with the Russians yet though.

Clearly not, more Russian cities fall. These ones were Polish once upon a time.

Ottoman forces look to have Knossos in their sights.

They take it, ridding the region of Greeks.

Athens is dramatically reduced in size - not quite sure why, but probably from bombing runs and that small siege they were under. Greek tanks are patrolling their lands now, desperate for an end to the fighting.

Athens is still the top city, their tourist board carefully glossing over the smouldering ruins in the city and focusing on the five Great Wonders. It's rare for a non-capital to make the list, but both Greece and Rome have one. Odense is also a non-capital, but having built the Great Lighthouse early on has a lot of culture from that.

The Ottomans are creeping up the tables! Giving up on showing the bottom end of the table because there's not really anything to show with only 9 civs left.

Rome nearly has half of the troops in the world from the looks of it. Only the Ottomans are growing, which is worrying for everyone else. This concludes this part. It's nearly a given who'll win, but I guess it's worth finding out who'll come second. The next part is probably the longest but is also the final part. Then I can bring on the next game!!