Episode 12: Echoes of Askia

1: Man like CBR styll

Greetings Babylonians! It’s Arilasqueto, aka /u/aredundantsofa, and I’ll be your captain for today’s flight. Now be sure you buckle up, cuz this one’s gonna be turbulent. Most of you probably know me from the art I’ve done around the community, such as the banner and title cards.

For those of you watching on the 14th, change your name to Brick and guillotine some aristocrats, cuz it’s both Bastille Day and International Non-Binary People’s Day! Alternatively for y’all still in the 13th, it’s… Patrick Stewart’s Birthday and the 36 year anniversary of the Wembley Live-Aid concert. Cool.

Also wanna put in a lil plug for the “Kings of the Wild Frontier” event the modding community has been working on recently, which is adding a bunch of new Native American civs. Plenty of potential candidates for next season in there as well as all-round some qt civs, if you feel like checking it out.

2: Green in Finnish?

Like clockwork, Vihreaa has brought us another of his tile-accurate maps. Take a good look at this and commit it to memory, cuz the cylinder will be looking a helluva lot different by the end of the episode.

3: The sultanate of Malacca in a central position

Here we have another comic from Malacca’s creator and number 1 stan, Orange. This one features some brand new innovative technology, adding a little bit of animation.

4

Coiot: Round of applause to all the donators and subscribers this week. We‘re still needing donations to procced with Season 3 and every amount helps. Ko-Fi allowed us early access to membership tiers which allows us to have subscriptions with rewards for as little as $1. If you're a fan of the show and want to support more content, please do consider making a contribution to our goal.

5: The Boys in Blue

The same civ stays in first, and it’s Malacca, a Malaysian civ! Not sure anyone could have predicted they’d rise this high given the region’s track record. While I’d definitely call them fan favourites, not everyone is entirely happy to see them up here, especially not Taiping supporters. Will they keep bearing the torch, or will another civ knock them off their pedestal to claim the crown this episode? Who can say?

6: Fallout: New Kuravunga

We jump straight into the action with, well, not much of it. Rosillo’s attempt to project his power into the Mojave has been a resounding failure so far. While the early battle of Chowiinga was a big boost for Rio Grande morale, since then the old jingoistic fervour has wilted a bit. Now the slog over the Rockies to the Great Basin is dreaded rather than relished.

Over in Kuravunga, a regiment of Chinook soldiers, out of work after the Chukchi campaign, have come down to sightsee. “Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter” says one of the pikemen, to which the musketman replies “what the hell is a nuclear winter?”

We can also see in the sidebar that Marajoara have adopted Autocracy (expect to see a lot of this). Clearly kicking Bolivar’s ass has inspired the people to rally around the coral flag even more than before.

7: Prepare for trouble...

Meanwhile in Africa, Mobutu goes up against Cleopatra once again, seeking to get revenge for the absolute embarrassment that happened last time. It may look weighted towards the Ptolemies at first glance, but the Zairean army is far better equipped. However, Mobutu had the advantage there last time and still had a fool made of him. It all depends whether Cleopatra has another ace up her sleeve.

08: ...And make it double

Predictably, Mobutu has brought in his old ally Awolowo in his battle against the Ptolemies, showing that friendship can still bloom between ideological opposites. Nigeria looks a lot better prepared for this war, but they lack open borders with Burkina Faso (who obviously aren’t Nigeria fans after getting btfo in episode 2). This creates a relatively small chokepoint for them to go through.

09: Pacific Problems

Despite P’kuee taking the Lion’s Share, Lautaro also signed up to the Bolivar Beatdown, and is making a token effort to assault the Galapagos. Bolivar is probably more distracted by the fact that he’s about to lose the Panama Canal, which would put all his pacific cities at the mercy of the Marajoaran Navy. In the face of that, a few Mapuche galleons is pretty insignificant.

Purea, for the time being, seems to have avoided disaster.

10: Shivaji’s Protege

Barzani is struggling with the concept of moving his army into position. Instead he’s using the interesting tactic of slowly pinging Jerusalem to death with crossbow bolts. It doesn’t help that he has literally 2 melee units in this shot, and neither are anywhere near the front lines. Apparently Kurdish generals developed this strategy from hearing tales of a mythical civilization known as “Maratha”.

11: Hiding in plain sight

While Genseric’s first wave of attack seems to have died back, the New Dutch are nowhere near out of the fire yet. A veritable armada of Vandalic ships has formed outside the island port of Caput Vada, and this time the ships have a land army on board. Clearly Genseric is intent on holding down his new colony.

Marajoara are also mustering a fleet in the area, as well as showcasing some new military tech. Notably, scientists have discovered a way of completely camouflaging buildings, and trialed this in the city of Matinados.

Also where the heck is that Gallic settler headed?

12: Spain without the S

The first German ships start to arrive in the bay of Biscay. Despite Spain’s sharp decline in recent years, their navy is still top of the range, and Carlos is confident he can drive off the invaders. The same can’t be said of Vercingetorix, who is still fielding Galleases. Or maybe oceaning would be a better word?

13: Cuirassier conga line

Look, Hong, I get that you’re Jesus’ brother and everything, but you can’t work miracles, and you sure as shit need a miracle if you ever hope to make anything of this Bhutan war. Well, that or a good peace treaty. There are literally 2 tiles the Taiping army can move through, and they aren’t even next to each other.

14: Vandalism

Genseric probably won’t even need that Armada. The initial troops he sent over seem to have had no trouble grinding the New Dutch beneath their boots. Stuyvesant has moved back behind the safety of the Appilachians, having practically lost hope of ever retaking the eastern seaboard. On a clear day in the mountains you can see the smoke plume rising from the remains of Nieuw Amsterdam, or “Novum Amstelodamum” as the Vandals now call it.

15: Blood in the Amur

It’s pretty clear that Japan isn’t retaking those cities. The republic of Osaka long prided itself with its independence from Tokyo, but when Mandukhai’s Chongzu marched into Kashiwasaki, they realised their solitude had left them no one to turn to.

And of course, we have to wonder what that Neutral warrior is doing. Just standing there… menacingly.

16: Cheers love, the cavalry’s here

Awolowo’s strategy seems to just be “Horse!” and it appears to be working so far. Meanwhile to the east, the Zaire army have successfully reclaimed the outpost of Mwene Ditu, though they’re looking a little thin on the ground already with few reserves in sight. Cleopatra is also looking a bit worse for wear, given that the army she had at the start of the war appears to have been split in two by the hooves of the Nigerian cavalry.

17: She sells Seychelles on the seashore

Meanwhile off the Horn of Africa, things seem to have stabilised. Mogadishu has been properly integrated as a province of Nigeria, and Hejaz have fended off the worst of their attackers for the time being. Zanzibar’s Seychelle territory is also flourishing, but under increasing risk of getting cut off from the African half by Lesotho’s nautical claims.

We have another civ adopting Autocracy. This time it’s the Two Sicilies, as the people rejoice in the strength of their navy and clamour for Ferdinand to use it.

18: Dancing on ice

The once bountiful province of Markland is now a shadow of its former self, as the Icelanders lose control of Staten Eylant for likely the last time. The two remaining cities lack melee units of any description, so each city flip will be unrecoverable for Eldjarn.

Iceland is truly a sad sight to see. While once they were an up and coming underdog, now they’re a grey husk, hemorrhaging cities to their neighbours. For each city they lose in the east, they lose another in the west. Eldjarn’s Icy, he’s clean, but he’s not a bad motherfucker, he’s just bad.

Also hehehe “mound bottom”.

19: I wanna Beaver very best

Stuyvesent’s troops have been so exhausted that even the Neutrals could have a shot at taking a few cities if they declared war. Things might be past their worst for Stuyvesent however, as the Vandals don’t seem to have much interest in the New Dutch heartlands.

I say that about Tsouharissen, but he’s currently at war with the Dene, and the army has just started trickling in. By the look of it they’ll only prove a distraction more than anything.

Also a look at the minimap shows us that Carlos stupidly gave away Barcelona to Wilhelm. So much for germans being bad at humour, cuz that peace deal’s a fucking joke.

20: Hey mum, I’m on TV!

And here’s a look at us, the people of the sub! So far no one appears to be aware of us, but the Malaccans, the current Blue Eyed boys, are getting fairly close. The Indian ocean became an absolute garbage patch last season, but that doesn’t seem to be happening yet.

21: Just touched down in Spanish Town

Things go from bad to worse for Bolivar, as he loses Cumana and Caracas, his second city, to Marajoara. The canal city Magangue looks to follow shortly. Frankly, nothing short of a little diplomatic wizardry is gonna save Bogota at this point, as P’kuee’s army circles in for the kill. Among the remains of the Caracas garrison, a lone musician plays an elegy to the man they once called the liberator.

22: Nazibar

Hejazi caravels skirmish with Punjabi galleons, as our latest Autocrats enter the scene, Zanzibar. Honestly I wouldn’t have pegged Zanzibar as the autocratic type- they strike me as the sort to go freedom- but I guess it takes all sorts.

23: Capsizing in the Caspian

So far, Georgia has done an admirable job fending off the Uzbekistani invasion, likely due to all the units needing to embark into the Caspian in order to attack. However, Tamar’s fate might be changing as Karimov sends a brigade of Cuirassiers the long way round through the persian highlands. This might just be the straw that breaks the Tadzreuli’s back for the Georgians.

24: A man, a Plan, A Canal... Magangue?

The Magangue garrison have managed to hold off the coral fleet for one more turn, but it might be all in vain, as the old walls of Bogota crumble under P’kuee’s onslaught. Bolivar’s had his fair share of fuckups this season, and though he wormed his way out of them previously, I can’t see any way he’ll get past this as more than a rump.

25: 10% pain

Nigeria seems to be doing a far better job than Zaire in this war, snatching Mwene-Ditu from them and taking Berenike to bargain. The two have open borders, so Zaire’s not completely locked out, but it’s not a good sign in the circumstances. Meanwhile the Nigerian Cavalry bumrush charges up to the walls of Kyrene.

26: The Kneecapping of Osaka

And that wraps it up for Northern Yuan vs Japan. Japan began on the offensive, but ended up losing half their Siberian territories to Mandukhai after a reversal of fate. In the circumstances the peace deal came at an opportune time, as Kakuei really has no way of reinforcing Osaka from the rest of his empire.

Yet another Autocrat joins the club. This time it’s Punjab, adopting an ideology surprisingly late for someone of their stature. I mean, come on, Zanzibar beat you to the mark, Singh. *Zanzibar*.

27: Eyes on the Prize

P’kuee immediately takes advantage of her new canal city, sending 3 ships of the line to take Santo Tomas and start mopping up Bolivar’s remains in the pacific. Bogota is still standing, but likely not for much longer. I know we expected Bolivar to come out worse from this war, but no one expected such a sweep.

Also, returning to the theme of “what the fuck are they doing there”, consider the Burkinabe settler across the andes from Lambare.

28: Chukchinook

While interesting things are happening on the sidebar, let’s put them aside for a second and get a rare look at the Dene core. Thanadelthur has been surprisingly militaristic for a leader often known for being passive and unassuming. We also get a look at Chukchi Columbia, recently acquired from former power Chinook. The Chukchi’s (in my opinion hilarious) UA has actually completely severed Seepoosha from the rest of the empire.

29: 20% pain

I have to say, as a Cleopatra supporter this isn’t very fun to see. The Ptolemaic army just simply isn’t advanced enough to hold off both Nigeria and Zaire at the same time. Last time was lucky, but evidently Cleo spent her season’s supply and is now facing the consequences, as more Nigerian Cavalry sweep in.

30: Landships

While Chola’s navy is frankly pretty scary, even when compared to Malacca, it just isn’t worth much when you’re dealing with a landlocked civ, in this case Laos. Sarpang did look like it might go back to being Bhutanese earlier after years of Chola rule, but evidently the two have sued for peace. Meanwhile Laos has the opposite problem. They flipped Pontianak but have no way of stopping the VOC from reinforcing it navally, so it will likely stay with the company for the time being.

Up in the corner we also get a look at Malaccan Yunnan, which they managed to weasel out of Taiping in the peace treaty last episode.

31: Khanflict IV : A New Hope

The Khanflict is back for another hackneyed sequel. Frankly this series went downhill after the first one, and I can already see this being a flipfest. However, there is one spanner in the works: Mandukhai brought Manshur Shah in for a guest appearance. While Yuan lacks many coastal cities, if Malacca can get a few embarked units through they could cause a hell of a lot of trouble for Kublai Khan.

32: Headcannon

Germany is looking awfully sparse at the moment. Contrast that with Gaul, who have a full carpet at this end of the empire. Okay, admittedly it’s entirely composed of cannons, but at least Vercingetorix is doing *something* with his production. Last I checked Wilhelm had the most hammers by a long way, but he doesn’t have much to show for it.

33: Namiberty point

Namibia was always expected to play second chair to Lesotho, but this is just sad. Moshoeshoe has subjected Jacob Morenga to a slow and painful death by citadels, reducing him to 4 land tiles that aren’t even contiguous. Bethanie still has access to the open oceans, but at this point that won’t be much help, given the last of the 1 tile islands have been claimed. While Lesotho is fairly lightly carpeted, they could still easily wipe Namibia off the map in a matter of turns. Maybe Morenga just wanted to pay tribute to Tahera.

34: 15% concentrated power of pain

*Sigh* there goes Kyrene. The Ptolemaic resistance looks feebler every time I see it. Cleopatra has flintlock now, bit it really is too little too late, as the combined forces of Nigeria and Zaire press ever northward.

Also worth noting just how stacked the Twosicilian navy is. If they wanted to they could easily kick the Vandals out of Africa or triumph over any one of their neighbours - other than Germany of course.

35: Kosov-oh dear

Another civ getting slowly citadeled to death is Kosovo, to the point where their capital has shrunk down to a mere 7 citizens (Essen is a pretty appropriate name given it’s eating Kosovo). It also means that the vast majority of their army is separated from it, especially since the Kosovar fleet is locked away in the black sea. If only Rugova settled the Bosporus back in part 1, or he might last a few turns longer when Ferdinand inevitably comes sweeping in.

36: Citadel patrol

A collection of Namibian refugees, angered at the injustices suffered by their people, have sworn themselves to Zanzibar’s cause. They now patrol the borders, warily watching for any Zaire general that dares construct a citadel.

Speaking of Zanzibar, they appear to have caught themselves a pet Trihemiolia.

37: Oooof

With the capture of Bogota, Marajoara have well and truly hammered the final nail into Bolivar’s chances. P’kuee seems to be losing steam in the pacific, but at this point there’s nothing there but Santo Tomas and a few insignificant towns. One last Gran Colombian musketman makes a brave attempt to climb the walls, but it is but a forlorn hope. Honestly I’m a Marajoara supporter, but after he got shafted out of last season, I was kinda hoping Bolivar would get a better showing than what he got, but at the same time, I’m a sucker for a surprise power.

38: 5% pain

The verbosely named “Appolonopolis e Megale” is now green and navy, as the Zairegerian dream team starts damaging Ptolemaic core cities. I can already smell the border gore from here.

39: Yuan’t believe it

Things are, shockingly, at a stalemate between the Yuans. Whoever could have predicted that? I say that, but it looks like Mandukhai might just break through on the northern front. Oh who am I kidding. Nothing between these two is ever gonna amount to anything.

We also get reminded that Kolchak, a once-frontrunner who has sunk into obscurity as of late, still has a fairly sizable army in the area.

40: Malay getting played

An even better look at the Taiping lands ceded to Malacca - I didn’t actually realise how far north these went. Hilariously, Gelephu is totally cut off from any reinforcement, as Mansur Shah failed to check the small print in the treaty about connecting tiles. It’s a small act of pettiness, but that’s all Hong can hope to get away with against the current top dog.

41: Nervous ukelele music

Lili suddenly finds herself in the middle of a war between Japan and Chukchi, who both have navies in the area. Meanwhile, the hawaiian navy now consists of a single Galleas, after the rest was smashed into the walls of Fa’a’a. Even their land army is mainly melee units, so they can’t really hope to defend against the incoming assault.

42: Getting rid-al of Kidal

You forgot this war was even going on, didn’t you. I certainly did, but Kidal might actually be about to fall, probably since Sankara brought some better siege equipment to the frontlines. If it does, there’s a good chance that it’ll be curtains for the Blue Men of the desert, since they only have a pikeman and a scout in terms of melee units.

It just occurred to me that the vandals don’t even have frigates yet.

43: Anti-Makassar

See, I didn’t mention that VOC were part of this war because I didn’t think it would be relevant, but Hilo is surprisingly well defended. In fact, I’d actually wager Coen could lose a city here if Lili moves her armies through the strait. This truly is not stonks for VOC investors.

Camouflaged amongst the Jongs are an increasing number of Ironclads. Whoever next draws Mansur Shah’s wrath is in for a rough time.

44: Wiltedwyck

Just as soon as it was resettled, New Dutch Florida is about to fall again, to the chagrin of Wiltwyck Man. Genseric keeps the majority of his forces around Caput Vada, oddly refusing to move them. At this point though, he hardly needs to. The New Dutch resistance has been so half-hearted that he’s been able to take their eastern seaboard with like 5 ships.

On the topic of ships, Marajoara is fielding some of the first Cruisers, the industrial upgrade of the frigate.

45: What a wonderful world

There are many who consider themselves wonderful on this cylinder, but none are even half as wonderful as Awolowo, according to Ibn Battuta.

46: Heckin Chonk-chi

After only getting glimpses in the corner of slides, we get a full frontal shot of Chukchi’s core. While Lawtiliwadlin’s cities may be small, his navy sure isn’t. With a flick of his wrist, the whole of the north pacific could be flying the Chukchi flag, if he just learns how to move it.

47: 50% pain

What more is there to say at this point. The Ptolemaic army is essentially gone, as even more cities fall to Nigeria.

48: Extremely nervous ukulele music

Honolulu is starting to come under fire from Chukchi ships, and the port is already blockaded. Japan offers a few token ships, but it’s clear that Chukchi will get the lion’s share out of this war. Lawtiliwadlin doesn’t appear to realise that great generals are designed for use on land, and is sending 4 of them down to help with the invasion.

49: Not stonks

VOC is on the backfoot in yet another war, and it’s also one they themselves declared. Chola might not be Malacca, but they’re certainly no pushover navally, as we can see by the ironclad off Sri Lanka

50: All quiet on the Galapagos front

As predicted, the Marajoaran advance has stalled in the pacific, though the arrival of line infantry might be able to score a few more captures, especially as the Magangue canal is secured.

The Burkinabe settler is still there, along with a Malaccan explorer. There appears to be some sort of Olmec salmon reservation off the coast, and a Gallic caravel that somehow got itself trapped in Lake Cocibolca.

51: 100% reason to remember the pain

The core city of Ptolemais Hermiou is crumbling under the Nigerian onslaught, and Awolowo shows no signs of slowing, especially with fresh contingents of troops arriving from the southwest.

52: Eye of the Tiger

That lone Opperhoofd must be quaking in his boots. At last we get a proper look at Chola’s fleet, as well as a bit of a spanner in the works: Pontianak is on the other side of the Malay peninsula, and Palembang is blocked by Malaccan borders, so VOC’s northern holdings will be off limits to Raja Raja. The home island of Java, however, remains open.

But you all know the AI is gonna try and sail their ships through the land regardless.

53: Remove Herring

The Icelandic rule of Markland is about to draw to a close, as the Mississipians bring the walls of Mosfellbaer crashing down. Tuskaloosa has strangely forgone great generals in favour of musicians. Who knows, maybe Cahokia B’s new EP hits so hard it counts as military ordinance.

In addition, we have a new member of #autocraposse in Taiping.

54: You shall not pass

Through gruelling attrition, Taiping have managed to whittle away the troops defending Wangdue, but Bhutan have brought in Northern Yuan scouts and Punjabi cavalry to act as peacekeepers, preventing Hong from mobilizing into the tibetan plateau.

We also see, among many things, a new trial of stealth city technology in Bhera, a very lost Kurdish catapult, and a Neutral warrior, possibly the same one from earlier.

55: Bombastic

Here we get a better look at the Gauls, who’ve done a good job of settling every available tile in their core. While their army is admittedly outdated and staying that way due to lacklustre science, it’s almost a full carpet. Germany on the other hand still hasn’t gotten the hang of building units.

In the corner you can also see the newly German city of Barcelona, which is already being visited by Vandal merchants, never the ones to turn down a new trading partner.

56: The Reckhaning

Northern Yuan’s Chongzu spam appears to be putting pressure on Kublai Khan, as he’s already been forced to draw his troops back to take the defensive. Kaifeng is already in the yellow and dropping fast.

57: Echos of Askia

Holy shit I think we might have a new Songhai event on our hands. Ptolemais Hermiou has fallen to Nigeria, as the rest of the army works on mopping up Nauktratis in the west. Cleopatra has most of her army in the Levant, for whatever reason. Such is the AI.

58: Absolutely terrified ukulele music

Honolulu is in the red, but at this point it could go to either Japan or the Chukchi. Japan goes first in the turn order and has more ships close by, so I’m leaning towards it being them.

59: Gunboat diplomacy

Ooh dear, this is not stonks for any of y’all with shares in VOC. A fleet of ships with a technological edge has just engaged with the Dutch East India Company’s navy off Sumatra. From there Raja Raja has a clear shot at Batavia, and he certainly has the firepower to pull it off, so Coen might be about to get gekoliniseerd. Raja Raja, sick of the company’s isolationist policies, issues an ultimatum: “Open up the country! Stop having it be closed!”

To the north you can see yet another very lost Kurdish catapult sailing around.

60: Mos-fall-baer

Apparently the EP was indeed fire, cuz it burnt Mosfellbaer to the ground. That just leaves Selfoss in terms of Iceland’s canadian holdings, but Mississippi only has embarked units to invade with, so there’s a good chance it will stay standing.

61: Foreign Ops

You know things are bad when the civ you just rumped is carpeting your lands better than you are. Seriously, I count more Hejazi units here than Ptolemaic and the former don’t even have any cities in shot.

Also you can just about see on the map that Genseric has started pushing inland in his war with the New Dutch, taking Beverwyck.

62: Stop, stop, she’s already dead

More flips. More pain.More… South American scouts? Curious.

63: A brief reprieve

The Pacific front remains blessedly uneventful for Gran Colombia, consisting only of a few minor battles with Mapuche ships. It doesn’t help that a confused Malaccan explorer keeps sailing into the middle of them.

64: Sad ukulele music

Well colour me wrong, Honolulu is Chukchi! Japan didn’t have open borders so all their ships have been kicked out, likely meaning Wakiki will also be Chukchi clay. Provided they bring the units for it. Hilo remains out of reach of both, however.

65: I predict a flipfest

Kaifeng flips, and since both sides are fielding basically all melee units, it will likely continue to do so. Meatgrinders- we love to see it. However, I have a feeling things are about to change…

Moshoeshoe grabs Broadway, and is already pioneering the art of the musical, many of which he personally stars in.

66: The White Sea fleet

We take a look at the recently nazbol Soviet Union, and the fact that they appear to have pulled a Kazakhs and teched up their navy, despite lacking any warm water ports. The effort spent on naval dominance in the White Sea didn’t translate to land troops though, leaving Lenin looking rather defenseless compared to Finland and even Georgia.

67: You’ve got to be Kidal-ing me

Ah nevermind, it was too much to ask of Sankara to take Kidal. Despite going up against classical era composite bowmen, he still hasn’t managed to bring the city below the yellow. I get that it’s a very narrow choke point, but come on.

Meanwhile we see some new war declarations against Yuan on the sidebar. The popup says Tongva, but a few more civs might join in soon...

68: Making good company

Raja Raja’s failure to coordinate his navy means the Sunda Strait will remain under company control for the time being. It’s just a wonder they haven’t been invaded by Malacca yet, given how close the two capitals are to each other. I guess Java is just a bit too far away for Chola to invade at this stage of the game.

69: Hilo-cation

Makasser seems to also have escaped capture, though there is still a fairly significant Hawaian naval presence in the region. I guess their sailors are still reeling with the news of Honolulu’s fall. Lili is currently in the process of re-establishing her government in Hilo

70: Castaways

The Indian ocean is slowly becoming a sort of odd-sock drawer for random units (odd-socotra drawer?). In this shot I can see isolated units from the Ptolemies, Zanzibar, Chukchi, Germany, Malacca, Lesotho and Namibia, as well as the Twosicilian Indian Ocean fleet.

The drums of the Dene sound out, as they join #Autocraposse.

71: Oh my goodness...

...It’s Hong Xiuquan with a steel chair! The first shots are fired by Taiping frigates against Yuan ships in the yellow sea, as another round of hostilities begins. Taiping’s army isn’t too threatening by itself, but considering that Yuan is already fighting to the north, Kublai Khan could be a little bit fucked here.

72: TSarpangolin

I honestly didn’t think Chola vs Bhutan was still a thing, but Sarpang just took damage so evidently the two are still at war. Chola is also still at war with Laos, but so far haven’t managed to push into the Burmese highlands

73: Beaver revanchism

And yep, Beverwyck is Vandal! Stuyvesant is actually starting to produce more modern units right now, championing the ever growing Beaver Resistance Front. He might not be able to retake his capital, but things might at least stabalize.

74: Interlude

We take a break from the mindless slaughter and conquest, to see that Wilhelm has actually founded the World Congress. Apparently civs get +1 delegate per city state ally, but I’ve just been informed that the Teutons don’t count.

75: Who’s that?

Only Tanaka Kakuei coming in with the right hook! Kublai Khan is now at war with all his neighbours at once, and it’s starting to look like a free-for-all for any civ that wants a piece of the Yuan pie. The Yokohama division is already marching on Mukden as we speak.

76: Last stand of the blue men

Kidal falls into the red, as the walls of the mountain stronghold are bombarded by field cannons and the incoming brigades of Cuirassiers.Tin Hinan has always had another refuge to escape to, but once the Burkinabe march in, there’ll be nowhere left to flee for her.

77: Progress at last

Islam Karimov has finally managed to coordinate an attack past the Caspian Sea and is on the verge of riding into Sukhumi. This war has been profitless for him so far, but soon he might have something to show for it.

78: Arrr meine Herzen!

Maybe this is where the Germans’ production has gone: an absolute Morganload of privateers. Certainly enough to make them the kings of the North sea given the Gauls’ outdated navy.

79: Attack of the musicians

Santo Tomas has flipped, so apparently P’kuee wasn’t quite done yet. Bolivar can probably flip it back, but P’kuee has plenty of melee units, as well as a Cruiser coming through the canal.

80: How to invade Ethiopia good

Compared to Nigeria’s antics, Zaire doesn’t seem to know how to fight wars good, given Ptolemais is untouched after all this time. Seriously, this is becoming a recurring theme for Mobutu: he can have all the units in the world but he won’t know how to use them.

81: Waikiki’s Delivery Service

Chukchi have finally mustered the navy necessary to take the Hawaiian second city, having cleaned up any remaining resistance in the area. Japan appears to have conceded the capture to Chukchi, demoralized by missing out on Honolulu. Instead they turn to faith, sending Shinto evangelists across the pacific to spread the good word of ancestor worship.

82: Karimov went down to Georgia...

He was looking for a city to steal. Sukhumi falls to Uzbekistan, but the battle is not done yet, for a division of mounted soldiers are determined to retake it. Karimov, in response, sends them a letter telling them to “go Sukhumi [redacted]”. It’s unclear what he meant by this.

83: Chola backdoor squad

I’d wager Lautaro completely forgot he declared this war, but when he sent off the formal declaration to Raja Raja, I don’t think he expected the Chola to actually take him up on it. Consequently he now has a small fleet of enemy ships on his doorstep.

84: Thomas Paine

Awolowo is basically the only relevant assailant in this war at this point - Zaire has at best been moral support. I mean, good grief they already have artillery! No wonder it’s been such a total collapse for the Ptolemies.

85: F

And there goes Kidal, and with it Tin Hinan’s Tuareg are wiped out. Frankly I’m surprised we’ve gotten this far into the episode without and casualties, but I suppose it’s time for a eulogy.

The Tuareg were a competent civ in a terrible location. Sure they tried to expand, but the Sahara was an immediate handicap - one they could never recover from. Another nail was hammered into Tin Hinan’s coffin by the Vandals, who had an unexpectedly good run on top of their trade route bug. Then Burkina Faso, Snubbed by Nigeria, looked to the north for expansion. Consequently the Tuareg saw their empire slowly chipped away until they were reduced to the city of Kidal in the Atlas Mountains. It was only a matter of time before someone broke through the pass and put an end to them. Truly a blue day for the blue men of the desert. F

86: Yaranga Five O

Waikiki falls. Now the Chuckhi just need Fa’a’a and they’ll have the entire archipelago under their control. Hawaii have now been entirely exiled to Papua, where they will no doubt remain for the rest of their days.

87: Pain au Chocolat

The Ptolemies are doing a slightly better job defending now they have so much less to defend, but the Nigerian army really is just too advanced for them to do much more than stall.

88: Burma Shave

Woah, I forgot William Barak never peaced out with Bolivar, cuz he’s shown up at the Galapagos with a fleet in tow. Admittedly half of it was Galleases that couldn’t make it across the Pacific, but the ships that did are more than enough to pose a threat.

Also Chola peaced out with Laos, grabbing multiple cities by the look of it!

89: Kulbai Khan’t

The Yuan’s army has evaporated, and though their navy in the Yellow Sea is making an attempt to retake Guanghzhou, they’re coming under heat from all points of the compass. Kunming has already gone to Taiping, and Kaiping is on track to turn purple. Kublai Khan had better stop constructing a pleasure dome in Xanadu and start work on a mausoleum instead.

90: Comatose Beavers

A look at the eastern seaboard, now much more tan than usual. Genseric’s land force is gradually wiping the last bits of purple off the map, and are currently assailing Rotterdam. The Beaver Resitance Front is nowhere to be seen.

91: Rumble in the Jungle

I believe the Mapuche are still at war with Palmares, but Tabocas is the only city they can access on land without going through Marajoara. Judging by that knight though, Lautaro already has open borders, so it might be more than just Tabocas that Zumbi loses.

92: I simply live with the pain

Alexandria is now a frontline city with the double captures of Memphis and Kleopatris. Awolowo is already filing the paperwork to rename the latter to Awolowis. Evidently Cleopatra panic-researched a few techs, cuz the Ptolemies are now on much more equal footing with the Nigerian army in terms of equipment.

93: Reunion!

After many long years of isolation, the citizens of the Republic of Osaka are finally reunited with their Japanese counterparts. This new wave of solidarity bolsters their reserve, and the combined forces of the two start marching on Mukden. Mansur Shah, confident that his underlings are able to handle Yuan by themselves, peaces out.

94: They never got Thailand

Oh wow, this really wasn’t a great play from Fa Ngum. Giving away half your cities, including your second city, is never a great move, especially when it’s to a naval civ like Chola who struggles with land war. Meanwhile Raja Raja appears to have worked out that Pontianak is inaccessible by sea, and is sending field cannons to take it out.

95: “What is Aleppo?”

Tuareg peacekeepers have halted any progress in Barzani’s anti-crusader campaign. Meanwhile Cleopatra has negotiated peace with Zaire, but it’s not like they were doing much anyway. Moshoeshoe tames the spirits of wrought iron to construct the Eiffel tower, yet another marvel of the Basotho.

96: Guayakulin

Guayaquil goes from purple to a slightly different shade of purple, knocking Bolivar down to 3 cities. Further reinforcements are arriving from Kulin Polynesia, so William Barak can cement his claim on the Galapagos.

97: Let’s see if this Khanflict does anything

Ah. In one fell swoop, Mandukhai takes both Kaiping and Liaoyang. Kublai Khan’s resistance efforts, even in the Yellow Sea, are well and truly crumbling. Yuan really got off to a strong start when they crippled the Manchu, but after that they stagnated, and stagnation is never the path to victory, as seen here.

98: Tabocaptured

With the capture of Tabocas, Mapuche are already doing a better job invading the Amazon than Uruguay ever did. From there on, Palmarista territory is bristling with watchful defenders, so this will likely be as far as they get.

Unrelated, but I just noticed in the corner that X2 is using the old version of Rosillo, from back when his leaderhead was still a cute Mexican dude.

99: I’m running out of pain puns

Cleopatra just managed to flip back Memphis and Kleopatris, but in doing so has left Alexandria wide open to attack. Hey, at least she’s not at war with Tongva anymore!

100: Pacific Coast Punchup

Comcomly declares war on Toypurina, and he brought Malacca along with him! This war could go one of two ways. One way is that Malacca work out how to get around Hawaii and paint California blue, or two: Chinook gets absolutely pasted to the wall due to having a navy of 4 combat strength units. Yeah, those salmon units are a workboat replacement, and the strength doesn’t scale with era.

101: The Scramble for Maracaibo

Kulin loses out on the whole island chain, as Tunja goes to the Marajoara. The two immediately head on to Maracaibo, jostling for who will be the one to claim it.

102: Torn a-Sunda

Now this really is not stonks for the VOC. Their navy is gone and Chola is packing Industrial era ironclads and cruisers! Fort Galle has already fallen to the Tamil Kings, and the Sunda strait is slowly being blockaded by them.

103: The Chola Lake

Pontianak falls! Chola now controls all around the Bay of Bengal and down to the Andaman sea, putting them in a very good position. Malacca’s naval dominance over South Asia could be in contention, if Chola keeps up this performance.

104: Hostile Takeover

Fort Galle flips back to Coen, but now all 3 cities are taking damage, and Batavia is down at half health! The VOC navy is just not able to compete against units from 3 eras ahead.

105: Rotterdamnit

With the capture of Rotterdam, Genseric can truly manifest the power of Florida man. Rio Grande are sending more and more troops to the Eastern cities, though why is a mystery.

106: Purple Rain

Khanbaliq is under siege! Right now it’s a tossup between Northern Yuan and Taiping. The third member of the coalition, Japan, hasn’t really accomplished anything yet.

107: Peace in Papua

Hilo’s army has evaporated, which isn’t ideal given it’s now the last stronghold of the Hawaiians on the cylinder. Chukchi have negotiated peace, but then again they were never gonna take this city anyway.

We’re seeing increasingly more Jongs with iron cladding among Malacca’s navy.

108: Ge-Chola-niseerd

Batavia falls! I’m certainly eating my words after predicting Chola wouldn’t be able to coordinate a navy- Now they’ve taken the VOC capital and the second city soon to follow. This isn’t ideal for Malacca - they left Coen uninvaded for too long and now Chola have gained an advance foothold in Indonesia for future conflict.

109: Second wind

Kulbai Khan is suddenly back on the offensive, holding his capital and flipping Khanbaliq. However, the Yellow Sea is starting to fill with Chukchi ships, ominously. Meanwhile in Kunming, we see some absolutely absurd border gore, and it wasn’t even Chukchi shenanigans.

110: Fiji Freebies

Ahh, this is what the Malaccan declaration against Tongva was for - mopping up those cheeky settles around Fiji. We also see that William Barak, annoyed at missing out on the Bolivar partition, makes peace. I think VOC managed to flip Batavia, but it will likely remain Chola going forward.

111: Clash of Titans

Oh now this is big if true. Kulin and Marajoara have teamed up again to take on Mapuche, the other big contender for South America. However, I don’t think this is going entirely as planned for Barak, as he’s probably gonna lose his Antarctic colonies to Lautaro.Nevertheless, this war will likely decide who comes out on top in the continent that produced civs like Brazil and Uruguay in the past.

112: Pacific Pacification

P’kuee already has a hefty army in the area to deal with Maracaibo, so Lautaro had better send a navy up to Pora Pora in case she decides to go further with it.

113: Rumble in the Jungle

Here’s a front I didn’t really consider: with the fall of Tabocas, the Marajoara-Mapuche land border is significantly bigger. This might actually be profitable for Mapuche, as even though the Marajoara are more advanced, they’re still a bit clapped out from eating Gran Colombia, while Mapuche are relatively fresh and energized from the warmup capture of Tabocas.

114: Oh how the turntables

Punjab’s strategy of ramming individual ships into Ta’if is oddly not working very well. Funny thing, that. Then again, I never expected Punjab to be any good at naval combat so this is unsurprising. Chola flips Batavia again, just to show how it’s supposed to be done.

We also see another two civs join Autocraposse: Gaul and Finland. This is definitely gonna cause some heat in Europe, given the Gauls are Germany’s main rival, and Finland can certainly throw a punch if they need to. It also means that in a twist of fate, Finland and USSR are on the same team.

115: Pequeña Colombia

Gran Colombia, the cylinder’s latest citystate, has now been relegated to the old Peru-Bolivian city of Lima. A combination of peacekeepers and a distracted P’kuee means Bolivar can relax for a bit, given the spotlight is off him for the time being. Meanwhile the Marajoara war machine smashes into Pora Pora.

116: Choccy milk make the pain go away

Despite Nigeria still having the units, this front has actually stagnated, somehow. The two core cities have kept flipping by the look of it. I must have missed it earlier, but Ferdinand researched armour plating, so *all* of his frigates are now cruisers. Scary. If only he’d actually use them for something.

117: Tamil Kings

Chola is running low on ships, but the VOC are running dry too, so I’d say Batavia and Ambon are gone for keeps. The old VOC capital, once a thriving hub of commerce and trade, is now a smoking shadow of its former self.

118: Soerbaja Safehouse

So apparently Raja Raja is aware of these cities in the south Indian Ocean, but doesn’t really care enough to capture them. I mean, other than Shebab’s palace, what’s there worth taking?

119: Cuban Beaver Crisis

Genseric fancies a cigar or two, and moves on to New Dutch Cuba in his Atlantic campaign. Rio Grande’s navy is laughably outdated at this point, but even those carracks could wipe out Swaandael if Rosillo declared war.

120: Northern Yuan best Yuan

Khanbaliq falls to Mandukhai! I guess we can now truly answer the question of who the best Yuan is. I expected this war to just be another Khanflict, but when Kublai Khan’s neighbours jumped in it really went south fast. Almost as fast as the Northern Yuan’s army did.

From this point on I’m not sure what position Mandukhai sits in. The newly acquired Yuan cities will provide some desperately needed non-tundra cities to build infrastructure in, but in such a competitive asia, will she be able to claw her way back to being the contender that the episode 0 PRs predicted? It’s gonna be hard, and there aren’t many options for expansion left without getting lucky in a coalition war.

121: Dolphins vs Salmon

This war seems to be stalemating so far, though Nayxoxar has flipped to the Chinook. Other than that the Great Basin is a meat grinder, with no significant progress from either side. On the naval front, the Tongva have wiped out the Chinook navy, though the actual capital is probably too well defended for them to capture.

122: Hamster Huey and the Rapa Nui Kablooey

The Marajoaran Pacfic navy seems to be running out of steam, though Pora Pora flipped at some point. As for Lima, I can’t see embarked field cannons taking it any time soon, so Bolivar is still safe.

123: Pontianak in Peril

Pontianak has flipped a few times, but the Chola are starting to press on towards Palembang. This war has been absolutely catastrophic for the Dutch East India Company.

Hey, what’s that on the sidebar?

124: Remove beaver

Ah, that must have been what that army was for. Rosillo avoids trying to attack Stuyvesent through the Appalachians by simply being on the other side of them. What a handy trick! We also get a reveal of just how empty the Mississippian core is. They have twice as many naval units in this shot as on land - and they’re practically landlocked! Okay sure they have the cities on Hudson’s Bay, but a conveniently placed ice tile prevents the navy from leaving it.

125: Divers Alarums

And in the final shot of the episode, we see that Rosillo did in fact have naval techs, but was probably just too broke to upgrade his ships, and Swaanendael begins to come under bombardment from them.

What an episode to narrate! It was only 30 turns, but in those turns we had so much happen that it’s easy to forget. For starters:

- The Ptolemies were ripped into by Nigeria, losing half their empire.

- Marajoara reduced Gran Colombia to a city state and moved on to fight Mapuche.

- Chola humiliated Laos and the VOC, rising to become a naval great power to rival Malacca.

- Yuan was partitioned by its neighbours, notably spearheaded by long time rivals Northern Yuan.

- The Vandals solidified their hold on the East Coast of America.

- Hawaii got btfo

And that’s not including all the small things that we saw happen: little saplings that will eventually grow into great drama trees in future episodes.

So there we have it, this has been Arilasqueto writing, and have an acceptable rest of your week!

Episode 12: Echoes of Askia – S2

Abstract