Civ Battle Royale May 29, 2024
Poblano
My name is Pobby
I’m narratin’ the episode
Thanks for support
But this is how we start
Hello all, I’m Argyle/Poblano/something else. I’ve been on hiatus from CBR watchin’ since Mk.2 Traumatized longtime viewers might remember me from such specialties as “The haiku episode.” I’ll forgive you if you repressed the memory.
Moving on from the horrible depths of your subconscious memory of past civ battle royale episodes, here’s some lovely OC that may be present in your conscious memory. The Pacific pals by Tina, featuring colorful language that may not be suitable for children and the elderly.
The cylinder has turned and left me here
Just where I was before
Thank you u/Sonicfan0511 for the map!!
I'm pretty sure this is where you give the people who run the Royale money. i like those people, give them money.
These power rankings are from last week, meaning they're about as informative about the current episode as my narration will be.
We start with a shot of Sierra Leone, the silliest and greatest of civs. They've taken Fez from that civ in the northwest. You know them, the um, alloyites? Aleutians? doesn't matter, Sierra Leone will beat them.
Here in calm Siberia, things are not as calm as the seem. The Koreans have hardly any units here, and why should they? The Nivkh land military is quite small, consisting of chariot archers pulled by reindeer. That lack of a military is probably why two civs just declared war on them. Their enemies should be wary though: they have a decent navy, with their UU that can switch between land and sea. Wait, nevermind its the Kazakhs and Mongols declaring war. I love relevant wars.
We pop into the Pontus-Hungarian war, where the cheeky pontus have sniped Gyor and are razing it. Will this save them? No. But it’s going to be very difficult for Hungary to retake Gyor before it burns, and there are plenty of eager civs who might settle in its place if it does. It also forces Elizabeth to divert her forces to retake the city. Jokes on Mithridates though, she likes it when her citizens die.
The South China Sea is just as disputed as it is in real life, with a confusing war taking place here. Much like real life, none of the civs in the dispute are actually doing anything about it.
The Taino(shown here in light blue) fight skirmishes against New Holland(shown here in darker blue, but not the darkest blue) off the coast of Ayiti, while a horseman from Ecuador(shown here in even darker blue) watches on. Everybody got that?
After many years of fighting, Sierra Leone’s Kinema falls to the Alouites, after they already lost Salé and Fez to Sierra Leone. I think Sierra Leone takes that trade. Fortunately for the alous they far outnumber Sierra Leone outside Kinema, and should hold the city easily. However, we should keep an eye on Tangier. The Sierra Leone navy harasses the city, and more importantly there are three Sierra Leone swordsmen nearby and relatively few Alouites units nearby. As Tangier only has 10 strength, swordsmen could do massive amounts of damage to the city quickly.
The Nivkh navy begins to harass the eeky-eeky city of Honsho jr. The city has full health, but a defense equivalent to the strength of a trireme. With the eeky navy nowhere to be seen, this could be dangerous.
The Faroes continue to grow in Vinland. However, we should note their near total lack of land forces here. A concerted effort by the Seneca to move their armies north could wreak a devastating, but non-fatal blow against the Faroes. They could lose all these cities and still arguably be the top civ in the game. Eagle eyed viewers may spot sheep outside some of these Faroe cities- likely spawned in by their unique building. That makes these tundra cities better than they might appear at a glance. They’ll make a strong asset for the Faroes if they are kept, or an even greater prize for whoever takes them.
Porto Allegre is going to fall nearly immediately to New Holland. I’m pretty sure I missed this war starting because I was distracted by England doing nothing last episode. Regardless, this will fulfill the prophecy everyone made when they first saw this city being settled.
Chaozhou is retaken by Zheng. It’s embarrassing that this city ever fell, and I wish it was razed. Why wouldn’t they just settle on Taiwan? That’s like, the entire thing Zheng is known for historically. Hopefully someone will eventually raze this city so new holland can settle on Taiwan. Maybe then Zheng will activate his historical persona.
The Daoist philosopher Wei Huacun works among the Faroe. Somewhat amazingly, this period of time in the game (275 AD) is actually right in the middle of her lifetime, though she would not have been an active philosopher at this period.Anyway, she’s probably making a prediction that the Faroe’s will win the war against the Sami. Thanks Wei, I could have told you that.
Zheng and Siam make peace, ending this pointless feud. At least Zheng got a great admiral out of it? Getting a great admiral spawns a corresponding great general in his capital thanks to his UA, so really this is a great victory for zheng.
Wei’s prophecy comes true… but it’s undercut by the fact that the Faroes are razing the city for no reason. Perhaps they will succeed in burning it, and some random civ will settle there. Speaking of randomly settled Scandinavian cities, Arras comes under fire from the Sami, and they may retake it, as well.
What can I say? We all saw this coming. Now that the city has fallen, Rio Grande has to worry about the now undivided Hollander forces coming south.
Speaking of indefensible cities that people predicted would fall long ago, Osage takes the Seneca city Kanawa-18s. However, the city is so low health that it might flip once again. In the long run, there are so many Osage spearmen that it should stay an Osage city barring any silly peace deals.
In the part of the map which reminds everyone of the meaninglessness of life, eSwatini and Rosvi battle it out. There are no victors here.
eSwatini looks to settle a third city on Madagascar. Perhaps a new core on Madagascar could bring hope to these dreadful wastes. Or, more likely, Mogadishu will just take these cities. The Qarmatians look like they wanted to settle where eSwatini is now. That would have been funny. Instead they’ll have to settle for one of the outlying islands, or perhaps journey back home. Shoutout to the Vijayanagara city north of Madagascar. Really keeping the Indian ocean migrations alive.
The Kazakhs are beaten and battered. Taraz is on no health and destined to fall any minute now. Half their farms are pillaged. They’ve fought some great battles, but the engine on the war machine is dying out.Come on Bukhara, go back in! Retake Herat!
Remember how i said nothing was happening here? I was wrong. Singapore advances land and sea forces on Borneo, surround T-bok. It doesn’t look good for the city, but take note of the city defense strength. I’ve been sure to note cities with low strength earlier in the episode, and this is absolutely not the case here. T-bok has 27 strength, nearly three times that of triremes, and roughly 2.5 times as strong as the composite bowmen which beset the city. The swordsmen which stand adjacent to the city are only half as strong as it. The jungles and hills of Borneo make assaulting it with ranged units difficult. This city is a force to be reckoned with. Doukas should count his blessings that he is holding the city instead of trying to siege it.
The terrain makes the Pueblo-Mexican war a total stalemate. Both these civs are quite strong, and they may not break each other until the very late game, even if Pueblo has a roman general on their side.
While Pontus stands to lose a city in the north to the Qarmatians, Eupatoria sits at 0 health. A cheeky horseman could easily snipe the city and set the Qarmatian assault back significantly.However, Pontus also is in danger of losing Trapezoid. The nature of the city’s one tile harbor will make the assault difficult for Saba.
Harappa has one of the strongest cores in the region, but they continue to suffer losses at the periphery. They’ve already lost their Arabian peninsula city, and now their relatively recent city of Mehrgarh is under heavy fire. They might find it difficult to retake if they lose it, given they are also fighting on land in the east, and they have no navy of their own to contest the waters.
Speaking of things i said would happen, Seneca retakes their city with a couple triremes. They’ve decided to change the name to Kanawagas.And unfortunately for Osage fans, this is when Osage inexplicably decided to make peace. This is what we in the England fandom call “pulling a Burgundy.”
Elizabeth just barely manages to retake Gyor in time to prevent it from burning, and now the Pontus navy in the region is spent. I hope none of you got your hopes up for a cheeky Bavarian adriatic settle.
Just as I predicted, T’bok holds without even a speck of damage on it. An uneasy peace takes hold over the island of Borneo.
I’m pretty sure this screenshot is mainly here to show how lovely Taino is this time of year. The fact that the Taino have the same number of cities in this shot as Mexico is really quite embarrasing, however. Many people have been arguing that Mexico, despite its strength, is doomed, suffering from Blackfoot syndrome. But this shot shows their potential is not yet exhausted. If left alone, these cities could grow into a core to rival metal gear.
At some point, the faroes decided to stop razing the former Sami city, possibly out of pity, jeez. (please laugh) Arras is retaken by the Sami, though the size of the Faroe navy makes me suspect this won’t last.
Remember way back in the day when Bukhara settled a city on the frontline of a war. Well, they suffered no consequences for that and the war has finally ended. Unfortunately for both sides, these cities will probably suck for a long time. Eventually, they may become production powerhouses, but right now there is just too little food nearby.
Taraz finally falls to Kazan. There is hardly any Kazan fighters left to hold the city, but there is also hardly any Kazakh units left to retake it. This may hold in a sad status quo.Kazan is nearly as war-torn as the Kazakhs at this point, and the Kalmyks may retake Samara from them.
After a recent golden age vaulted Saba-dmt’s stats, this situation looks very precarious for Mogadishu. However, they do have quite the overseas empire. The terrain favors the defensive for Mogadishu if, nay when, Saba declares war on them. I wouldn’t write off Mogadishu yet, but they walk a very difficult path.
As I mentioned earlier, a swordsman can really wreak havoc on a low defense city. Just a single Sierra Leone swordsman and a trireme was enough to take Tangier off of the alouettes' hands. If the nearby spearman falls, it may stay in Sierra Leone’s hands for the rest of the war. Also in this shot, the Visigoths try to assault Waterloo.
Hons-17! seems doomed to fall to the Nivkh. The Nivkh aren’t that strong based on the statsheet, but stats nerds can shove it. Stat nerds dont understand grit, heart, clutch, momentum, and wanting it more. That’s why the Nivkh stay winning and stats nerds stay in lockers. Ikko-Ikko should have wanted it more.
Mehgahr didn’t go well for the Vijayanagara, but they’ll give Harappa’s southern cities a try as well. They might pull it off, but a 14 strength city is probably a bit too much for three damaged triremes to take.
This front may seem irrelevant to some, but these periphery cities are central to Harappa’s potential success. Without them, Harappa has almost no naval potential, and they are forced to fight their greatest rival entirely on land. For Vijayanagara, these cities trap them in and limit their potential. This is a critical front, and they would be wise to commit more resources to it while the cities are essentially defenseless. I wouldn’t want to try attacking these once they are twenty pop and every land tile on Sri Lanka has a Harappan ranged unit filling the space.
I was very optimistic about Bora-Bora’s potential early on. But their Patagonian cities are now completely cut off from the west coast of South America. There’s still hope here, but I’d really like to see them start to fill out polynesia more. That might give them a chance to eventually fight in Chile and reconnect their empire. Then I might start being optimistic again.
Pontus declares war on Mahkno. Does Mithridates know he’s losing on two fronts already? I think he misunderstood the meaning of Ukrainian “Free Territory.”Samara still hasn’t fallen.
Trapezoid didn’t fall, Eupatoria stayed on almost no health but Mithridates never finished the job. At least the Qarmathians came through and took Bandar-E-+21/-24hehr. The Qarmatians continue to impress after their extremely slow start.
The Wahgi make the Temple of Heaven. I don’t know what this wonder does, but it sounds faith based, and that sounds not very important in a battle royale… especially when you don’t actually have a religion.
It appears that the Faroes did retake Arras, but they burned it. Since it was on 1 pop, we have no footage of the city being taken. Please fill in the devastation with your imagination.This does open up a city spot in Europe. Who will fill the void? Perhaps that English settler that has sat in the north sea for 200 years?
The Dzungars and the Kazakhs make peace. This is the first ray of hope the beleaguered Central Asian peoples have seen in a long time. Unfortunately, they still have several more foes, and they do not seem likely to retake Taraz with horsemen, who have a penalty against cities.
A rare peace has taken this area of North America. It’s an uneasy peace: every civ here is armed to the teeth. Elsewhere on the cylinder, you might see civs with lots of empty space in their borders. Not here. The Thule enclave is the only exception, and its a juicy prize that both the Crow and the Yellowknives are eyeing, even if one of them gave it away earlier.
Finally, both contested cities are in the hands of the serial killer hungary. It’s a good prize for Elizabeth, but she’ll never be satisfied with just this. Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for Pontus, Amastris is a fortress much like OTL Constantinople.
Tangier is under heavy assault from alloy forces, but they have lost their last melee unit. It seems Sierra Leone will hold onto her gains. Waterloo continues to stay in the green. It has a high city strength, which makes the naval assault almost certainly pointless.
Every civ in the game declares war on the Shawnee except the ones who might actually threaten prophetstown. Great job everyone.
Samara falls to the Kalmyks, rocking central asia.
This is a real thunderdome feeling. Only in Central Asia do civs lose wars while winning other wars. Wait, what do you mean the only interesting thing in this shot isn’t on screen?Oh ffs, I confused the Shawnee and the Bukhara civ icons. Yeah, this might be bad for Bukhara. I don’t think the Dzungars can really threaten them due to the terrain and high numbers of mounted units, but they might make a big distraction from the massive threat of the Afsharids. Hold on tight Bukhara fans, this does not look good.
Well, now that I spent half of last slide explaining what happened in this slide because I couldn’t read civ icons, I’ve got very little to say here. That Kazan swordsman could be a big problem for the Kalymks. A low health, low strength city is prime prey for a swordsman flip. If they lose their only melee unit when it does flip, that’s some tough luck.
Honsomething falls to the Nivkh forces finally. That’s some real grit right there. A stats nerd might say their offensive will end here, but the Nivkh don’t give up. They’re built different.They got that xDAWG in em. That’s why they’re sending their forces against Yamashita and continuing the attack. That’s why games are played on the field and not on a spreadsheet.
The Qarmatians declare war on… eSwatini? I’d say they’re mad about eSwatini stealing their settle spot but… eSwatini didn’t even settle there! Where did any of these settlers go, because they aren’t in the shot. Unless that Qarmatian settler in the far north… turned around for some reason? I do think this shot illustrates Mogadishu’s potential though. The Qarmatians are just trying to do what they should be doing. All of these random ass indian ocean cities would fall to Mogadishu in like 2 turns if they just declared war.
Rio Grande is trying to hide in the Antarctic from the embarrassment of a game they’re having. I hope they get exiled here.
I swear I’m going to stop being an England fan if they let the VISIGOTHS settle Ireland. what on earth are you doing Henry?
The pointless assault of Waterloo continues, with results as predicted. Rome has filled yet even more gaps in their empire, settling the island which is definitely supposed to be Sardinia but looks nothing like it since its the same size as Sicily, as well as settling the spot formerly occupied by a Sierra Leone city razed by Pontus.
Ndongo declares war on eSwatini. Unfortunately, due to terrain this war will go nowhere. The era of effective trireme usage is very narrow, and when cities have strengths in the high teens they become nearly useless. The land terrain is highly unfavorable as well. RIP fans of something happening in southern africa.
The Qarmatians are settling so many cities these days that it feels kind of unbelievable that they stayed on 2 cities for so long. Two new cities can be seen in this screenshot.Remember what I said about triremes having a limited window of use? Well, a new settled 8 strength one tile island city is squarely in that use. I would not be shocked to see eSwatini snipe Safwan. However, I also wouldn’t be surprised to have the attack fizzle out thanks to the Ndongo war.
People will often say that the deity AI can make any city build worthwhile, but this really isn’t the case. The amount of food required for growth is significantly lower for a deity AI, but that doesn’t help you if the city has no food in the first place. These new cities probably aren’t hurting the mongols too much, but they probably aren’t helping them either.That Shang city is still hilarious though and I support all ridiculous snow settles like this.
Zheng has their first unique unit, a unique pikeman that has amphibious, is slightly stronger against cities, and is stronger when near a great general: +20% more, even. When combined with the regular effects of a great general, that means these could be potent siege weapons. They’re also really good against mounted units, but mounted units kind of suck for the AI anyway.
Things seem about the same as the last time we checked in on this front. Are we sure this isn’t a repeat?
The land war in Asia has stalled. Vijayanagara doesn’t have enough units to best the great wall’s heavy defensive bonus, and Harappa doesn’t seem very interested in using its army offensively. Went-Antu, your enemy has one spearman in their entire army while you have swordsmen!
Apparently, that wayward Swazi settler from before decided that Madagascar wasn’t worth settling on, and opted for Mauritius. I’m only now realizing that there might not be room for another city on Madagascar. This is why I play with the hex grid on.It seems likely then that, if it isn’t killed first, that Qarmatian settler will take Reunion. That could be another free city for eSwatini if the war drags on. Though these island cities may seem bad, there’s a lot of fish and atolls around them. They may never be production powerhouses, but they can grow quite quickly and be a base for science output.
eSwatini seems to be properly using its triremes against the Qarmatians. This might look a bit dicey given how the triremes are already on low health, but we should remember it is still the early game. It is a solid possibility that these triremes started with 0 xp. A couple city attacks may thus give them a free 50 health, enough to win the fight.There’s also a number of triremes that we saw in the previous shot.
Singapore declares war on Vietnam. Singapore has a great navy, while Vietnam’s navy is nearly nonexistent. There’s just one problem: the only actually coastal Vietnamese cities are in the north.
In a war that I definitely remembered was happening, Mexico is fighting the Seneca. Kanawagas is practically free for the taking. This again showcases how Mexico shouldn’t be counted out just because they can’t beat their immediate neighbors.Meanwhile, the Taino fleet harasses Florida. Triremes vs a 22 strength city? I think the city will hold. But the blockade and pillaged tiles still are a significant setback for Florida.
The Shawnee and the Yellowknives make peace. I’m not sure what the Shawnee had to offer the Yellowknives for peace, but it probably wasn’t worth very much.
Vijayanagara listened to my strategic assessment earlier and managed to take Sri Lanka. Harappa has no hope of retaking the city.While the naval offensive almost certainly ends here, Sri Lanka is much more valuable than the Maldives. Rakhigarhi had the potential to be a naval production powerhouse in the longrun for Harappa, and without it they may never be a serious naval power. For Vijayanagara, their southern cities are now significantly safer. They’d do well to peace out now and start building up their forces.
Latvia’s assault on Hungary takes shape around Komarom. With multiple catapults in range of the city, and a number of swordsmen, this city is destined to fall barring an untimely peace deal. We can never fully rule out the incompetence of the AI, can we?
Faroe, I don’t know how many times I can mention it this episode, but city strength is what decides whether trireme assaults succeed or fail. Amiens is over twice as strong as a trireme. If you only commit triremes to the assault, you won’t succeed. And unfortunately for sheep herding fans, Faroe only feels like committing triremes.
Maguindanao gets stronger based on its faith production. The Great Mosque of Djenne makes it easier to spread religion and boosts faith slightly. That’s a good combination. Not much else to say here, really. It’s a bit awkward that the wonder has the name of its city in the wonder. The Los Angeles Great Mosque of Djenne of Simuay of Anaheim.
A larger look at Maguindanao reveals how necessary this wonder is for them. Not all of their own cities are of their religion, and most of their neighbors are not their religion, either. They need all the religion spreading help they can get.
Even after taking Honsho jr., the Nivkh are dwarfed by the peaceful expansion of the Thule. The Thule navy is significantly larger, and it’s hard to see how they can compete with them in the longterm..
Kanawagas is on a knife’s edge. It’s possible that this current Mexico assault will fail, though it seems just as likely that they will manage to take it. You might be tempted to say that the large Mexican navy will eventually take it regardless, but we can’t trust Mexico to properly allocate troops quickly enough to continue the assault. Seneca fans, and maybe CBR fans in general, might be tempted to disregard this fight. After all, this city is a periphery, indefensible city. But as long as this city is in Seneca hands, Osage would be forced to divide its attention in a Seneca-Osage war. That could provide an opportunity for Seneca success in a future war.
Ok, let’s put a pin in the Caspian naval war for a sec. The important thing here is the Kazan-Kalmyks war. As I predicted earlier, that Kazan swordsman caused havoc and retook Samara for Kazan. At the same time, the Kazakhs reclaimed Taraz from Kazan. And somehow, in the midst of these two flips, Kazan has mounted a serious offensive on the Kalmyk capital, bringing it to half health. Now what should we make of this? The Kalmyks are pretty light on units, so I could definitely see Astrakhan falling to a Kazan assault. However, Samara is on 0 health with a melee unit next to it. Flipping Samara would force Kazan to split their forces again, and splitting forces is a death knell for the AI.
Moving on to the CASPIAN NAVAL WAR, I think Eusta will hold. At the same time as the Afsharid naval assault, Bukhara has brought Tehran to the red. This would be a great prize for battered Bukhara. Whether or not they keep that prize would be dependent on how much the Afsharids deplete their naval forces in the attack on Eusta- Bukhara probably can’t win a flipfest.
Rio Grande is in a tight spot, with Tiwanaku starting an offensive on Alegrete. However, Tiwanaku is pretty light on ranged units and pretty high on mounted units. This is a recipe for failure.It smells like broke in here. New Holland has a ton of unupgraded archers, even as they composite bowmen and pikemen. They aren’t going to mount a serious offensive against the Rio Grande capital until they fix that.
I don’t really know how governments work. I really like the sound of King Thomas Peters.
Hegel explains in his philosophy of history that in the earliest era of human history, the concept of freedom exists for one person- the king. Only the king is conscious of his own independent existence; all others are subordinate and define themselves by their relationship to him. That is why we have so many kings in this civ game, obviously.
CORNPLANTER WARLORDCORNPLANTER WARLORDLove this name. It rocks.
Isn’t Singapore Republic like, the actual name of the OTL country? Good job everyone. Although I think Lee Kuan Yew was a president instead of a lawmaker.
One interesting fact about history is that Europeans changed how they described African peoples and kingdoms once it became possible to colonize them. At one point, it was common to speak of African kingdoms and empires. Their leaders were written of as kings. But when Europeans began to think of themselves as civilized, African kingdoms became tribes and kings became chiefs. So really, is there any difference between the chieftains and tribes in this slide and the kingdoms of the previous slides? Or is it just an arbitrary divide? Well, there is a gameplay difference, but I have no clue what it is.
Royal Hungarian Tribe.
Babylon is a tribe in exile? Famously Babylon usually hosts tribes in exile, not the reverse.
There are so many fun shapes in this map. Best civ shapes: Sierra Leone, Finns, Bora-Bora, Dzungars
I’m struggling to parse this map. My first guess was that the darker green is the “booming”, section, which means most of the cylinder is stagnant. But the only booming area in that case is in… northwest africa and the caribbean? What we can be certain of is that the faroe are growing. I think. So either almost all the cylinder is stagnant or almost all the cylinder is booming. Very informative.
The Faroe and the Taino are unhappy. I think. That’s a problem, because that’s going to severely limit their population growth and production output.There’s hope yet for Henry(cope)
All the civs that aren’t yellow on this map are struggling with money. I mentioned earlier that I didn’t see how Nivkh could compete with Thule in the long run; well there’s your hope, Nivkh fans. Nivkh has money, Thule doesn’t. If the Thule treasury goes negative, it will start eating into their science output, letting them be outscaled. This is true for all civs with a negative treasury, so you might want to start counting out civs who look bad on this map. If they can’t achieve success at this current tech level, they’re running out of time, quickly.
Elizabeth loses her indefensible northernmost city. I think Hungary fans will be content with her gains in the south this episode, but this loss will make fighting Bavaria more difficult in the future. The inevitable rematch tilts a little bit towards Bavaria with this swap. At the same time, this opens up a new, previously inaccessible route of expansion for Bavaria. If Latvia ever looks weak, Bavaria has a new land neighbor.
Siam declares war on Vietnam, but from this shot it looks like Vietnam is on the offensive. Meanwhile, Siam tries to retake Ubon Ratchathani from Maguindanao. It seems destined to fail, from my perspective.
Palawa continues to settle New Zealand further. Though they suffered a serious setback against Noongar earlier, they haven’t lost the Australia royale yet. They lost the war, but they can win the peace.
Noongar is trying to win the peace as well, but they face a tough battle in trying to compete with Palawa in scaling. There’s a whole lot of useless desert in these lands. But if winning with peace is impossible, Noongar can fall back to war. They declare on Maguindanao, and Tamontaka looks like a juicy target. It’s got a ton of coastal tiles bordering it, making it easy to attack with triremes. Once again though, city strength is a huge problem for trireme attacks. Unless Noongar lands units on the island, it’s going to be extremely difficult to take the city.
Noongar will have the help of the Wahgi on their side. Kuno seems extremely vulnerable, and should fall if Wahgi actually uses their navy. Wahgi also has a serious army of UU pikemen embarked, and it’s not totally unreasonable to suggest that they could use that army to move on Simuay next. Wahgi fans have to hope they don’t commit the fatal flaw of splitting forces, however.
I’m a big fan of this total mess in the frozen north of North America. Will any of this have a long term effect on the prospects of civs in the area? Probably not. But its great fun.
eSafwan falls to Swazi forces. Unlike other island cities in the Swazi empire, there are very few resources around eSafwan. Regardless, eSwatini needs all the expansion it can get. Beggars can’t be choosers.For the Qarmatians, this isn’t a huge loss, but they have no way to immediately take the city back. eSwatini isn’t really a threat to the Qarmatians, but that’s not what’s really dangerous about this city. The real danger is the eSafwan falls to Mogadishu in a future war, and then Mogadishu uses it as a launching pad fora full scale naval invasion of the Qarmatians.
Somehow, Samara holds, and Astrakhan falls deep into the red. Will we see the loss of the Kalmyk capital in this episode? The Afsharid assault on Elista falters, as predicted, and they seem to have lost quite a number of their triremes. That might be a real problem for them, because Tehran is even deeper in the red than Astrakhan, with a Bukharan melee unit nearby. Believe, Bukhara fans, believe!
Joe Medicine Crow decides to use his citadel to take land from the Thule. You know, Joe, you could have skipped this step entirely by not giving away the city for free.
The war between Pontus and Hungary continues to rage on, but the two sides are merely playing at war at this point. Elizabeth isn’t mounting a serious assault on Amestris, and Pontus doesn’t really stand a chance of taking Gyor immediately. It’s not inconceivable that Gyor falls eventually, especially if Pontus continues to renew its naval forces. There’s hope yet of burning Gyor and opening up a new settle spot in Europe.
Goguryeo and Ikko-Ikko, long rivals, decide to make amends and begin an alliance. Their first target? The Selkups… d’oh!
The Samí and the Finns, long rivals, decide to make amends and begin an alliance. Their first target? The Selkups… d’oh!
Wait, didn’t I do this already?
Y’know, if the Sami and the Finns hadn’t just allied with each other, I might say the Sami need to start worrying about the Finns. The Samí military looks depleted, while the Finns have a lot of their UU. I suspect a war would still end quite badly for the Finns, but perhaps we shouldn’t write them off just yet.
We end our episode with a shot of the Faroe capital. They’ve just finished yet another wond- wait holy shit. Look to the right of Tórshavn. That ship plus atoll is literally forming a perfect arrow. That;s so cool. I wonder what it means.Anyway, thank you for reading the CBR and putting up with my narration! I’m sorry I made you all wait a day,but hey, CBR fans are famously very patient. It’s been a joy to return to regular CBR viewing after a long hiatus, and I hope to stick around!P.S. I was going to do a bit where I edited a weezer song lyric to fit every slide but ran out of time. You’re welcome..