Trajan Battle Royale: Part 1 – T1

Salvete! Welcome all, patricians and plebs alike, to the Trajan Royale. In this Civ V AI game, we’ll watch 22 AI-controlled civilizations duke it out on a map of the Mediterranean. And just to even the playing field, every single nation will be a Roman Empire, ruled under different manifestations of Trajan, a mod developed by Urdnot_Scott. Imperia will rise and fall, but only one Trajan can ultimately rule them all. My name is LacsiraxAriscal. Let’s dive in.

Of course, we need a way to distinguish between all the Romes we’re watching. Thankfully, each one has a handy nickname attached to them. Some of these sound doomed from the off, though - Forgotten Rome? Punished Rome? I wouldn’t hold high hopes for those ones. Other ones have simpler identifiers, like cardinal directions. Though, er, these don’t actually correspond to their starting locations - it looks like West Rome starts all the way up in Hungary.

Of course only one Rome gets to start in Latium, the homeland of the Romans. And fittingly, it’s the glitteringly named Golden Rome, although they’ve neglected to settle Rome directly, preferring a spot a little further down the coast around the old Roman city of Antium. As you can see each nation starts with the standard deity bonuses - two settlers, two workers, three warriors and a scout.

It’s been a long time since I’ve studied Latin. Hopefully I don't’ bungle up these headings too much. Anyway, we’ll take a look at the names of our competitors here. Battling Golden Rome for the glittering prize is Shiny Rome, while one poor old civ just has to make do with being boring old “Rome”. We can just about make out “Chad Rome” too. Expect high things. You may have seen too that we get bonus information on these pages - details on these nations’ happiness, religions, land size, military size and more. Most of these stats are identical currently, given it’s only turn 1 - any differences must be due to ancient ruins that have already been popped, like Neo-Rome’s slight military increase (probably a bonus warrior).

Another swathe of Romes - Free Rome in particular is intriguing, let’s hope they stay true to their morals. And oh dear, that Explosive Rome has very similar colours to Golden Rome, but fortunately on the minimap it appears they’re all the way over in Egypt. They also appear to have hit 2 population in their capital, meaning their people now make up almost a tenth of the population of the Mediterranean. Lower Rome meanwhile got a culture boost to secure their first policy, the Honor opener.

Our last set of Romes. Supreme Rome carving out a stake early; we’ll see if that arrogance pays off. West Rome has a slightly smaller military boost than Neo-Rome, so they likely found a spare scout. You may also have noticed another little detail - each nation is thus far a “tribe”. We are using some of the Rise to Power mods from JFD, including some of the extensive policy and government overhauls. This means each Trajan will have a lot more options open to them about how to organise their government and society. We’ll see how that develops as we go on!

Our first second city on the map goes to Free Rome, who have started up in the Roman province of Gallaecia. Their second city Ravenna is settled fairly conservatively, but we can see the dramatically named Broken Rome creeping up the Iberian peninsula to meet them. An Upper Rome scout peeks over the Pyrenees.

The suitably named Far Rome starts in the Roman province of Arabia, which is a bit further north than what we call Arabia today, being more around modern Jordan and Syria. Their capital of Babylon is pretty near the Roman city of Bostra, where a gargantuan theatre remains today. But their second city has been built in a very lacklustre spot in the middle of the Syrian desert. Fortunately it looks like Far Rome has a fair bit of space to expand in, so hopefully this will only be a minor setback.

Well, I know who I’m supporting then. Not only has Chad Rome won the epithet sweepstakes, they’ve also founded Eboracum - the Roman name for York, my home city. Granted, this Eboracum is instead placed on the north Algerian coast around the real Roman city of Icosium - or Algiers, to us moderns. They are being very slow to a second city though - it doesn’t look like their settler has even moved yet.In contrast plain old “Rome” to the south are up to two cities already, though it remains to see if a food-starved Sahara start will neuter them before they really get going. Both these civs start in the Roman province of Mauretania - another province whose name has nothing to do with the modern country named for it.

A little further east along the African coast, we see Explosive Rome, who are certainly exploding in population - 5 pop in 9 turns is nothing to shake a stick at! They start in the Nile Valley, near Oxyrhynchus, one of the most important Roman cities in Egypt. To their west, Lower Rome starts on the borders of Egypt and Cyrenaica, in an area sometimes called Libya Inferior. Nothing inferior about their start though, with two well-placed, resource-rich cities. These resources are random, by the way - you didn’t really find bison roaming the North African plains.

Anatolia is sure to be an early battleground, with three civs in close quarters. Most impressive is Old Rome to the west - because they’ve only gone and founded Nicomedia in its historically accurate location! Very impressive showing. They’re also the only ones here with a second city, spreading across the province of Bithynia. To the north, in Paphlagonia, is the bitterly-named Punished Rome. Heaven knows what they did to deserve such a fate. Their capital is close to the Roman city of Amisus, modern Samsun. To the south, around the city of Seleucia in Isauria, is the mythical Shiny Rome. Hopefully their odds of winning are greater than 1/8192.

As Golden Rome expand into Tuscany, West Rome expand to, er, the east. Their capital is in the plain of Pannonia, roughly around the old Roman city of Aquincum, just north of Budapest - but they’ve given it the more notorious name of Carthago. Fitting, as they’ll probably be the Roman Rome’s first major enemy. Meanwhile we have two wonders being built. You should know of the Temple of Artemis, which is built in South Rome, who’s actually situated in the far east around Armenia. The other wonder is one included with JFD’s Rise to Power mods, the Palace of Sargon. This allows the builder to immediately form a government.

And it’s been built by our good friend Old Rome! They really are off to a flying start. This Trajan declares himself king, making Old Rome our first monarchy. This means they can pass reforms quicker - essentially buffed social policies that will help flesh out the government further. The ruling faction in this monarchy are the nobility, though this probably won’t affect the AI too much, so don’t worry too much about it for now.

Of all the compass direction civs, this is the most confusing - North Rome. What are they north of, exactly? The Mediterranean? In any case, they’re based in Greece, their capital of Neapolis being close to IRL Corinth. We can see they’re focussing on military early, building an archer and unlocking a Great General as part of the Honor policy tree. Burnaburiash I was a Kassite king, a people who conquered Babylon around 1500 BC. But it’ll be a while before he’s conquering anything here - North Rome starts miles away from anyone, which means it’s not too bad that they’re yet to found a second city.

Two cities are easy - everyone starts with a second settler after all. The real sign of the clinical player is the first third city, and suitably, Explosive Rome have been the first to spread across the map, settling a third city close to IRL Alexandria while not slacking on the population growth either. Compared to some of the other civs on the map, they’re pretty hemmed in, so it’s important that they’ve managed to take a lead here early.

South Rome is the first wonder-whores of the map, taking a second wonder. This one is Göbekli Tepe, a wonder made by Pouakai - we’ll be seeing a few more of his wonders sprinkled throughout the game, though not all of them have the same bonuses as they do in the official release. This one does though - extra faith from stone and marble, which will probably ensure South Rome picks up an early religion. The real life Göbekli Tepe, one of the earliest Neolithic sites, isn’t found too far from here either, in Southern Turkey.

Punished Rome actually found our first pantheon though, choosing to worship Mars, the Roman God of War. And that could be very useful, as this area has gotten a whole lot more crowded than when we last saw it, with Punished Rome expanding south into Cappadocia, while Shiny Rome settles right in Anatolia’s heart, Lycaonia. A lot of bold settles here, and I’m sure at least one of these Romes will regret it.

Meanwhile, “Rome”, who I think I’ll call Just Rome from now on, takes the second pantheon. And I’d have been annoyed if it had been anything other than Desert Folklore, so good job. The Romans didn’t have a desert god per se, so let’s use the Egyptian one - Set. Egyptian cults were still very prominent within the Roman Empire, so it still fits, okay? We also get our first glance of the aptly-named Forgotten Rome, who are hiding right in the corner of the map in the province of Tingitana, modern Morocco. I don’t have high hopes for them, to be honest - with very little fertile land accessible to them, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were one of the first victims in the bloodbath to come.

West Rome grabs the next wonder, the Banaue Rice Terraces. I took the bonus from Pouakai’s Amer Fort for this wonder, granting the holder +1 food for every hill tile in the city it’s built in. A very powerful wonder… that’s been built in the middle of the Pannonian Plains, of all places. I’m guessing their pantheon isn’t the Goddess of Wisdom.

Mind you, if it’s idiocy you’re after, the so-called Eminent Rome has elected to worship Sacred Waters, despite not having a single riverside city. Well, maybe that’s what makes them so holy - they’re mythical to these dry fellas. Eminent Rome starts just northeast of the Black Sea. The Romans did settle the Black Sea coast, forming the province of Taurica, though they didn’t expand inland.

The Pharos of Alexandria is built by Golden Rome, illuminating the Tyrrhenian Sea in a suitably yellowy light. The Italian peninsula is still pretty isolated, with only one other scout making it onto the landmass, Neo-Rome of Gaul. Meanwhile, Just Rome builds a Mausoleum for their favourite desert spirit. And we viewers celebrate a golden age! Huzzah. In Roman studies, the “Golden Age” usually refers to a period of literature that coincided with the end of the Republic and the start of the Empire. So expect my writing to get a lot more flowery, I suppose.

I’m assuming that Templo Mayor has been built here, in Lost Rome, although I can’t actually see past the notification message. This wonder gives a boost to the construction of other wonders, so we’ll see if this is the start of a wonder avalanche for the mislaid Romans. They might not know where they are, but I do - the Roman province of Africa, which only covered modern Tunisia and a bit of Libya. They have a decent little army, but no one to use it on yet.

South Rome does indeed get the first religion, opting for Catholicism. It’s pretty apt that the Armenian region is turning Christian early, given they were the first nation to adopt Christianity as an official religion. South Rome have also unlocked composite bowmen, but haven’t got too much of a military to their name - no matter though, neither do Punished Rome next door.

And the second first religion (does that make sense?) is Arianism! We’re using Tomatekh’s Historical Religions mod, which greatly expands the amount of available religions. Arianism was a Christian heresy, once the dominant religion of Western Europe. Apparently the closest thing we have to Arianism today are Jehovah’s Witnesses, so… yeah… I’ve got to say, as much as I’m willing on Chad Rome, Just Rome is outclassing them so far, with a religion and a bigger army under their belt. Still, very early doors.

Free Rome adds another city to their liberal holdings, Gordion - located roughly around Portus Cale, or the modern city of Porto. It’s from that Roman city where the name Portugal actually originates. Broken Rome only has the two cities, with their capital Tyrus located on the mouth of the Guadalquivir. Meanwhile, West Rome hordes yet another wonder, the Terracotta Army, and our Golden Age finishes. I guess this means we’re in the Silver Age of Latin now - that’s the one that Tacitus was writing in.

It’s a big year for Forgotten Rome. In an effort to remember who they are, they build a huge library full of tomes. After scouring through the scrolls they discover the truth: they’re a Dionysian Cult! They worship the Goddess of Festivals (Dionysus is in drag I suppose), celebrating their abundant wine and incense… well, they’ll celebrate their wine and incense when they find any. Right now they can’t remember where they put them.

What’s worse, being forgotten or lost? Well both nations are doing decent, with Lost Rome also taking a wonder - a natty one too, Petra! And Arretium isn’t a bad city for it either. They also land a coastal city in Agrippina, on the Gulf of Gabes. Not too shabby. We can also see from the notification that this Trajan is now “Prince Trajan”. Presumably he too is ruling a principality now - seems a bit pithy compared to the other kingdoms of the area.

We get a nice look at a region we’ve not seen yet - Gaul! Or France, if you want to be all 21st century about it. Upper Rome has made their home on the Garonne, with their two cities corresponding nicely to the two largest Roman cities of real life Aquitaine - Tolosa and Burdigala (or Toulouse and Bordeaux). They’ve also built the Great Wall, which I’d say would serve them well defensively - but it already looks like they’re on the offensive, an army pointed towards their neighbours and a Great General on the field. That’s Devapala, one of the greatest leaders of the Pala Empire of medieval India.

As for their neighbours, Neo-Rome starts in the city of Palmyra, which looks to be on the Rhine near the Roman city of Augusta Raurica - that’s near Basel in Switzerland. Even though Upper Rome is pointing an army at them, they look to have the defence force in place to bat away an early invasion. Meanwhile, West Rome builds ANOTHER wonder, the Forum Magnum. This will help them produce Great Magistrates, a Rise to Power unit that have a few purposes, including reclaiming occupied cities in peace-time!

Another look at Arabia, with Far Rome to the north having founded a coastal city around the old Phoenician capital of Tyre. But they’ve also been forward-settled by the oddly-named Capital Rome, who have found a home in Nabatea, the area around the IRL Petra. In their new city of Eburacum (another spelling of my home town), they have their UU - which is, er, everyone’s UU. So not that unique. It’s the Singulares, which can be dispatched to the furthest part of the empire from the capital in a single turn. They also build Apadana… I’ll be straight with you, I don’t know what this wonder does. It’s likely a new mod in Rise to Power, though it’s not included in the wiki page, so your guess is as good as mine! This Trajan has adopted the epithet Lawmaker, meaning he’s probably chosen a republic, rather than a monarchy.

The first Roman Civil War breaks out! Old Rome feels Punished Rome isn’t punished enough, and sends a decent sized army straight into their core. That said, their capital of Messalia boasts a defence of 31, which is a very high score for this stage of the game - I’m not sure two catapults will cut it. Shiny Rome sits and watches, shinily. Broken Rome over in Spain adopts the monarchical life.

Forgotten Rome shapes their Dionysian Cult into a more concrete religion, Nestorianism. This was another sect of Christianity that was commonly practised in Asia throughout much of history - primarily Persia and Mesopotamia, but as far east as China too. Their new city of Artaxata has finally given them some access to incense too - let the parties commence, eh? To the east, the Chad Rome-Just Rome border looks tense, and Explosive Rome opts for a rather inward-looking government.

But what’s exploding now is that Chad-Just border! This is an ideological battle, with the Republic of Just Rome looking to liberate the tyrannical despots of Chad Rome. The former definitely have the larger army, though it remains to be seen if it’s big enough to overrun cities. In the top right corner, we can see Just Rome has also fled the hot Sahara for a cooler Mediterranean port, Sirmium, right in the north of Tunisia.

Despite the best efforts of the Hero of Kursk, Georgy Zhukov, the Old Roman invasion has fizzled out. They do have three settlers sitting near their capital Nicomedia, so perhaps conquering cities isn’t the way forward here. Meanwhile, energised by their successful defence, Punished Romans turn to God, founding their own Christian branch: Oriental Orthodoxy. That’s the branch of Churches that include the Armenian, Ethiopian and Egyptian Coptic Churches, among others.

Forgotten Rome builds the forgotten Inca city, Machu Picchu. Did you know that Machu Picchu actually wasn’t a lost city, after all? It was likely a palace/temple, with a few servants’ houses attached, and not a normal civilian settlement. Anyway, Forgotten Rome seems to have forgotten that you usually build wonders inside your borders, opting to construct it on a neutral part of the Atlas Mountains instead.

We finally get to check in on how the so-called “Supreme” Rome are doing. And the answer is: wow, not bad - they have the game’s first pikeman, and a new religion to their name, Eastern Orthodoxy. This one’s regionally accurate - that’s the branch of Christianity celebrated in Russia, Greece and indeed Ukraine, where these fellows are based. Their capital of Alexandria isn’t far from the Roman city of Niconium, near the Ukrainian city of Ovidiopol. In turn that Ukrainian city was named for the Roman poet Ovid, who was exiled to the shores of the Black Sea because his love poetry was just too darn raunchy (well, that and he was probably having an affair with Augustus’ daughter).

Elsewhere, Chad Rome found Bogomilism in Eboracum - oh, guess I’m a Bogomilist now. This was another Christian heresy, founded in 10th century Bulgaria, that was a lot more fun-loving than your average Christian sect. A lot less churches, a lot more dancing. Capital Rome, down in Arabia, builds Cheomseongdae, which gives +1 science for every 3 citizens in a city.

Explosive Rome explodes all over Lower Rome (oo-er), sending a huge army towards Mediolanum, though it’s not clear if an army of this size can take the city without catapults. Despite being early to three cities, they’ve not expanded since, while Lower Rome is already on four cities. Two of those are called “Londonium” and “Londinium”, the former being a misspelling of the latter. South Rome may not have a government yet, but they do have Shwedagon Paya, which gives extra science on religious buildings.

One war, one peace. The latter first: Chad Rome and Just Rome declare white peace, unsurprisingly. As for the war, Upper Rome declares war on Neo-Rome! But unless cities count as soldiers, they haven’t really sent many weapons to back up their words. Both nations are now on three cities, with Teurnia placed close to the Roman city of Arausio (Orange), and Augustadorum settled close to Genoa. Down in Andalusia, Broken Rome found Hussitism. I’m beginning to think we only have Christian sects enabled! Hussitism was an early Protestant sect based in Czechia, which led to maybe the first Protestant-Catholic war, the aptly named Hussite Wars. We’ll see what effect they have on the thus-far peaceful Iberian peninsula, I’m sure.

Predictably, Capital Rome invades Far Rome - could’ve seen this one coming from a mile off, frankly. But Far Rome’s capital of Babylon is well-defended, and a settler for an invasion force isn’t going to cut it. Capital Rome has founded a city right on the other side of their rivals, completely unprotected, though it doesn’t look like Far Rome has the forces to threaten it. Treveri is built not far from the Roman city of Hierapolis Bambyce, today the Syrian city of Manbij. We can also see a city from Shiny Rome, who are actually the first civ to five cities, with Bagacum also built in Syria, near the city of Laodicea/Latakia.

Golden Rome, the true Rome, declares their first war - and it’s against Neo-Rome, who already faces invasions on their western border from Upper Rome! In fact, Augustadorum might well be the first city to fall in this game, because this Trajan really has brought the heat, a balanced army led by General Montgomery. But all’s not unwell for Neo-Rome, as they’ve actually turned the tide in their other war, bringing a big force to bear down on Teurnia.

Three turns later, and both Teurnia and Augustadorum take damage. The former city may yet hold, while the latter is a lost cause. In all this turmoil, Neo-Rome do appear to have sourced the game’s first Great Merchant. Ah well, if you can’t beat ‘em in battle, beat ‘em on the exchange.

The two Egyptian combatants make peace. Last slide showed that one of them appears to have taken the epithet “Warrior” - I guess we’ll have to see what that means for their government later. Explosive Rome also has a Great Merchant, but what they could really do with are settlers - four-city Lower Rome has another one out already. Look at that fertile Nile Delta that’s just waiting to be settled!

Well, those Hussite Wars kick off in style as Broken Rome sends almost every soldier they control to invade Gordion. Both sides are technologically matched, fielding pikemen but not composite bowmen, so this could be an interesting one to watch. The Broken Romans are commanded by John Monash, the legendary Australian WW1 commander. (Insert stereotypical Australian joke here)

We have our first city capture of the game, as Augustadorum predictably falls to the forces of Montgomery and Golden Rome. They’re consolidating a firm hold on the legendary Italian peninsula, but it’s hard to see them pushing any further, those pesky Alps forming the backbone of Neo-Rome’s defences. It’s not all doom and gloom for Neo-Trajan, as he has almost taken Teurnia and founded another city, Luceria, right up in Upper Rome’s noses.

Punished Rome defended valiantly against Old Rome, but it looks they’ve been caught with their trousers round their ankles here as both South and Shiny Rome declare war. But Punished Rome’s army is caught in no-man's-land - it looks like they were on their way to Treveri, possibly to declare a sneak attack on Capital Rome. That plan has to be abandoned now - Clusium looks very vulnerable indeed. We’ve also hit 1 AD, though it looks like Christ has been born quite a few times over by now.

Another slide of mixed blessings for Neo-Rome- they indeed secure Teurnia, which looks safe for the time being, but out of nowhere their new city of Luceria has fallen to Upper Rome! A tit-for-tat exchange isn’t really good enough for Neo-Rome here - after being bruised by Golden Rome, they need to come out of this war a city up. Alas I think it’s Upper Rome’s pikemen that are swaying the war here, a significant upgrade from the Neo-Roman spearmen and powerful enough to do significant damage against cities with a measly 10 defence.

What’s better than taking a city? Taking a capital of course. Babylon begins to take damage as the very aptly-named Capital Rome goes straight for the jugular. With a decent balance of pikemen, catapults and bowmen, they just might manage to wear the city’s defences down too. Lost Rome builds a useful wonder, the Itsukushima Shrine. It provides bonus XP for land and naval units in the city it’s built in, as well as the free Amphibious promotion for land units. And some faith on sea resources too. Not too shabby.

Shiny Rome has been expanding rapidly, settling Aurelianorum in Lycia and Corfinium in Caria. They’ve also nabbed themselves the Notre Dame, but their successes on the battlefield are less noteworthy right now - it looks like Punished Rome got home in time, and pushing any further might be a tough ask. Especially if that mysterious Old Roman army hovering in the centre of Turkey is heading where it looks like it’s headed...

The flag of Far Rome is hoisted down, with the new golden-brown colours raised up in their stead. Capital Rome have lived up to their name, taking the first foreign capital of the game. It’s absolutely unrecoverable for Far Rome, whose army is currently led by Aretas III. In real life he was a Nabatean king who did manage to conquer Damascus - not far from where Babylon is located on this map, actually - but in this game he’s a Great Merchant, so I’m not sure he’ll inspire his forces to do the same here. Meanwhile Far Trajan has fled to his desert hideout of Antium. By Bagacum, an Old Roman settler is travelling a long way from home. And in the sidebar, two familiar wonders are built, neither too valuable - Borobudur in beleaguered Upper Rome, and the Hagia Sophia in Broken Rome.

Not much beleaguered about them now, eh? Using the universal unique unit, Upper Rome has reclaimed Teurnia. That’s desperate news for Neo-Rome, now reduced to two measly cities. It seems unlikely Upper Rome will push further for now, though I notice Explosive Rome has redeclared war too (along with Shiny Rome, though not too much to fear there). It’s gonna be a long way back for Neo-Rome, but not unthinkable. We can also see Upper Rome’s religion - and that’s a very geographically appropriate religion, Catharism! This was another Christian heresy that evolved from Bogomilism, commonly practised in the south of France. Unfortunately, a lot of them were murdered by the Catholic northern French during the Albigensian Crusade - but luckily for Upper Rome, there is no northern France on this map.

We’ve been granted a spy! Let’s send them to the most mysterious of Romes, Forgotten Rome, right on the edge of the map. Hopefully the endemic amnesia doesn’t spread to poor Flavius. We need intel.

Clusium is thus far untouched by the Shiniest Roman army. I’m not sure how long that will last, especially if those brand new trebuchets get into position. It looks like part of the Punished Roman army has been battling South Rome, as the few soldiers between the two nations have a fair bit of wear and tear on them. But South Rome doesn’t seem concerned with pushing much further, content to sit back in their brand new Himeji Castle. If you look closely at Athens, you can see they’ve also built themselves the Hanging Gardens. Not quite the wonderwhores of West Rome, but not far off.

Ooooooh, the Just Chad War has kicked off again, and this time it’s Chad Rome who’s on the offensive! Even better, they’ve completely bypassed the cities of Cumae and Saticula, heading straight to Just Rome’s capital of Gades. Jeanne d’Arc leads the powerful force, which looks strong in numbers but unfortunately low siege units, which would make the whole operation a lot smoother. Meanwhile Free Rome builds the Churches of Lalibela, giving them extra faith for each specialist they have.

Somehow Shiny Rome is really botching this invasion; you’d expect them to have landed a hit on Clusium at least, but the city still lies completely unperturbed. Old Rome has yet to pull the trigger on Shiny Rome, but now would be an excellent time. They have a settler negotiating the gap between Utica and Aquileia; I notice their other settler we saw earlier has settled down in Judea, in a completely undefendable location. Nothing ventured, nothing gained?

Well, this is sad to see. If Neo-Rome wasn’t out of the running already, they’re definitely DNFing now. Upper Rome has besieged Caesarea, and only some Metternich-level negotiating will keep the city in Neo-Roman hands now. The Upper Romans celebrate their forthcoming victory with a new Cathar temple, the Dome of the Rock. That’ll give them a free Great Prophet, which is probably why they’ve just enhanced their religion. Shiny Rome meanwhile constructs Nan Madol, which offers +1 food, prod and gold to all sea tiles in the city, and can be incredibly useful if built in the right place.

With two religions yet to-be-founded, let’s have a look at the current roster. We’ve seen most of these, the only new one being Anglicanism, founded in the truly wonderful West Roman city of Carthago. They’re definitely going for a culture victory here, aren’t they? Anglicanism is the branch of Protestantism descended from the Church of England, generally called the Episcopal Church in the US.

Most religions have kept pretty tight to their homeland so far, but that will change. Only Catharism is being spread more significantly, crossing the border into Golden Rome. The southeast of the map is a godless wasteland.

And now we’ll briefly go through the religions and their implications. Nestorianism is pretty culture-heavy, and suits the closed-off Forgotten Romans pretty well. Hussitism is very diverse, with bonuses to happiness, growth, production and money - not a bad little set of beliefs, I’m sure it’ll help out Broken Rome down in Andalusia. Their patron goddess appears to Venus, while North Rome, down in Greece, is understandably Neptune. The Golden Romans of Italy have chosen to worship Mercury. All the planets!

The Supreme Romans aren’t supreme enough to get a proper look-in on this screenshot - we only know they’ve taken Guruship, a pretty ‘eh’ belief. South Roman Catholicism is pretty militant, though with a nice growth bonus for when they’re not at war for once. The goddess they’ve chosen to venerate is the little-known Salus. We see why Upper Rome is spreading their religion far and wide - they’ll get a lovely bonus to defending them once they’re under their control. Shame the rest of the Cathar beliefs are incredibly underwhelming. Meanwhile it’s hardly a surprise that Capital Rome is worshipping Diana - their military prowess so far has been as incisive as the sacred huntress.

Chad Rome’s Bogomilist faith has a very handy pantheon, one which should help them in their constant struggles against Just Rome. But Just Rome’s Arianism has one of the most useful beliefs of all - Holy Warriors, allowing the purchase of military units with faith. Well, it would be useful if the AI purchased units much - as it happens they’re pretty ambivalent on doing so. Amusingly, they also proclaim to be peace-loving. Meanwhile the West Romans, followers of the sky god Caelus, have decided there aren’t enough wonders in the game for them to build so have picked Cathedrals, which gives them even more huge shiny buildings to build.

Oh dear. Well, we always see at least a few of these in a game, but it doesn’t make them any more painful to watch. The huge city of Caesarea is put to the torch by Upper Rome, centuries of history and culture going up in smoke with it. Neo-Rome only has two military units left, and I don’t think that warrior’s long for the world. Meanwhile Flavius remembers that Forgotten Rome is building Paro Taktsang, a Bhutanese wonder, which gives culture and faith on mountains - kind of useful for the Moroccans - as well as a free monastery.

This is a gambit and a half, from both sides. Just and Chad Rome both neglect defence and instead head straight for each other’s heartlands. Gades is the more mouthwatering prize, being a capital, but I think both cities falling would ultimately do both sides more harm than good, with Just Rome losing their capital and Chad Rome’s empire being split in two. Just Rome has procured their own rival to Jeanne d’Arc, Stonewall Jackson. Chad Rome meanwhile has crossed the Med and settled Hippo Regius in Spain. I notice Broken Rome has already settled Morocco, so this part of the map is already getting smaller and smaller.

Capital Rome is still at war with Far Rome, but they seem fairly content with just the capital, sending a few forces to the new capital of Antium, but only very speculatively. Perhaps Jason of Pherae can muster the forces into urgency. If he doesn’t get assassinated, that is - the real life Jason was King of Thessaly shortly before Philip II and Alexander swept through the known world with Macedon. It’s thought that if he hadn’t died so young, he could’ve been the king to unite Greece instead. On the coast of Judea we see Old Rome’s colony of Qart Hadasht, close to the IRL Roman city of Caesarea Maritima. Qart Hadasht is actually just the local name for Carthage.

Forgotten Rome may not remember much, but they’re very good at learning new things. Indeed, they’re the first nation to have built both Longswordsmen - but even better, they’ve invented the trusty boomstick! That’s the first musketmen we’ve seen in this game. That’ll really help them fend off their encroaching rivals, seen right at the top of this screenshot. They do indeed manage to finish Paro Taktsang, too.

The most navally advanced nation we’ve seen so far are Free Rome. They’ve secured caravels, carracks and galleons - the latter two of these are a feature in Pouakai’s Enlightenment Era mod, which adds a whole other era to the game between the Renaissance and the Industrial era. The two units added here though actually appear earlier in the game, with other units moved later. Right now, the only battle they’re fighting is a religious one. In order to hold back the waves of Catharism, they’ve enlisted Hindu scholar Adi Shankara to perhaps bring a new faith to the Free Imperium. Old Rome builds one of the game’s least useful wonders, Angkor Wat.

Oh my! I really thought Neo-Rome would kick the bucket first, but Far Rome is giving them a run for their money. Jason must have really the Capital Roman troops (though it looks like the poor fellow’s been killed too soon again), as they sweep through Antium. And now the only remaining Far Roman city, Hispalis, is being blockaded by a fleet of Shiny Roman triremes! Fortunately, with only one tile available to attack from, I don’t think this alone will be enough to take the city - but if Shiny Trajan gives up on his ill-fated battle with Punished Rome and takes some land troops down south, it could be curtains. Chinese heroine Yuenü can’t save you now.

Punished Rome might have started their impressive defence on the back foot, but they’ve built an impenetrable fortress now - a sea of pikemen and bowmen that no army is getting through any time soon. A South Roman bowman on a little scouting mission sees this, alerts his leader and soon a hasty peace between the two nations is brokered. No such luck on the Shiny front, though neither nation is really engaging each other with any vim.

As I predicted, North Rome hasn’t really had to deal with any threats so far, which is lucky for them - archers and warriors wouldn’t take them very far in a modern war. They’ve built a very oceanic kingdom, with all their cities coastal and two being on islands, Naxos and Crete. But they’ve barely a navy to protect it, and even that small fleet up near Nicomedia would decimate these lands pretty quickly. Instead though, they build the Great Mosque of Djenne - very useful when you don’t even have a religion.

And that’s turn 100, so let’s leave it there for today. But don’t go anywhere just yet, as we’ve a few meaty stats pages to look at. First, some simple demographics information, and we can see Capital Rome is a clear frontrunner, dominating food, production and land area. But the largest army belongs to Old Rome, who are also the science leaders - perhaps they can afford to keep those far flung colonies after all. Somehow, Upper Rome isn’t making any science at all. They’re also the most populous state, leading me to think there might be some discontent among their populace.

Now a look at the world governments. There’s a lot of customisation in JFD’s Rise to Power mods, so I’m not going to go through what every one of these variants means for the nations in question - if you want to learn more, check out the mods! Instead let’s look at some of the more unique governments. South Rome in Armenia is a military dictatorship, lead by Polemarch Trajan - this was a Greek term for a warlord. A far more peaceful place is North Rome, who as we’ve just seen are more content to roll with the waves - not surprising, seen as though it’s the commoners who dominate politics in that kingdom. Not as much as in the doomed Neo-Roman state though - the peasants are running that place! No wonder they’re doomed, eh?

Not too much of interest here - you can see that we, the East Romans, are a tribe-in-exile, doomed to wander the Earth recording what we see. I’m quite surprised that Eminent Rome - the one’s right up in the top right corner, if you remember - haven’t actually formed a formal government yet! Come on guys, you’ve had ages now! Free Rome has also advanced their republic into a merchant republic… oh no, I didn’t realise Free Rome meant libertarian!

We see the last two governments for completion’s sake. Interesting that clear leaders Capital Rome are a republic - something about their incisiveness seemed to come from the command of a cruel God-King to me, but I guess the people can be just as wicked.

It doesn’t look like Free Rome founded a religion after all, with the map being much unchanged from when we last saw it, except that Catharism has spread yet further. It could be that despite there being two religion slots left, we’ve actually run out of available beliefs, which inhibits the creation of further religions.

Finally we come to some more in-depth stats. I’ll let you comb these further if you want, but I’ll just add a few observations here and there. Like that Shiny Rome’s army is about 26 times bigger than their current combatants Far Rome! If they can’t finish this job off, I’ll be disappointed.

We see some very unhappy nations on this slide. Chad Rome, who are probably just annoyed they haven’t taken Gades yet; Free Rome, because libertarianism is the worst; and Explosive Rome, probably because things keep exploding everywhere. Rise to Power also adds three new policy trees: Conservation, Industry and Intrigue, which focuses on espionage and is being carefully studied by Free Rome. Finally, one leader has picked up an epithet, the North Roman King Trajan the… Conqueror? What exactly has North Rome conquered? I don’t recall deserted islands putting up much of a fight!

Old Rome has a whopping 8.8 percent of the world’s military, which is humongous. Despite being a kingdom dominated by the aristocracy, they’ve also focused mostly on liberty. Might not be a kingdom for long, eh? Eminent Rome are unhappy, likely because they currently live in anarchy, and Punished Rome are unhappy because… well, I guess it wasn’t a BDSM thing after all. The West Roman Trajan adopts the epithet Victorious. He hasn’t really won many battles, but he’s certainly getting gold in the competition to see who can make the most pretty buildings.

Finally, we see a discontented Supreme Rome who aren’t being nearly as supreme as they were promised. The Lost Romans are so discontent, they’ve fallen into a Dark Age! Another Rise to Power feature, this inhibits city growth but actually does increase the appearance of Great People, so it’s not all doom and gloom. It being so dark probably explains why they’re lost, though.

That’s all from me today. I’ve been LacsiraxAriscal; thanks to Coiot for enlisting me to narrate this episode. If you’ve enjoyed it, stay tuned for future episodes and check out /r/civbattleroyale for more Civ AI game content - that’s a gigantic AI game where several civs are battling it out on a huge world map. For now though, thank you for lending me your ears and see you next time!