Civ Battle Royale April 10, 2024
BV
Civilizations wage wars and enhance religions, as settlers and scouts continue to fan out. In this still young world of opportunity and misfortune, what does the Babylonian observer see?
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Civ Battle Royale X Season 4, featuring episode 4. Your narrator for today is BV (anarcho-balkan on reddit), for the 5th time. Considering my tendency to write long narrations, I think it’d behoove me to keep these first few slides short and save my long-ass sentences for the action, so let’s get a move-on.
The first OC we have this week is the comic “South African Statistics” by one of last week’s narrators, NopeCopter (daXfactorz on reddit), giving us a brief and simplified version of the events of Southern Africa thus far. Let’s see how long that girlboss solidarity lasts.
The other OC of the week is the 3rd episode of the comic series “Pacific Pals” by next week’s narrator, Orange (Orangchrisy on reddit), showing us the state of the Pacific Ocean and its rim. Bora-Bora is off to South America, Palawa and Wahgi continue their settling spree, while Shang is fighting wars, leaving Ikko-Ikki rather unenthused.
A big thanks to our ko-fi donors. Without you, the CBRX wouldn’t be possible.
Shang retains the number 1 spot this episode. With good stats, a growing empire of still settling cities, and the successful offensive against Mongolia... I don’t think I can argue with that. Will Daji retain the top spot this episode? We shall see.
Into the action we go!
And our first action slide features a stupid peace deal... God dammit Leovigild. You don’t even border Bavaria, and your troops were closer to Ludwig’s cities than his were to yours. Why give Asturica away? *sigh* AI gonna AI.
Elsewhere on this slide, we see the Roman navy approaching Narbo. Last episode, despite what the narrators said, and despite the one-tile naval approach, I maybe would’ve actually given them middling chances of capturing and holding the city provided they could properly reinforce it, as the city’s only defence at the time was a lone archer, while Rome was bringing both ships and embarked land troops. Although this is still the case, it doesn’t seem like it’d stay so for long, as archers and warriors are returning from beyond the Pyrenees to bolster the defenses.
After their initial successes against the Shawnee, the Osage found themselves in a tough two-front war. From the west, the Pueblo are advancing. Their invading force had thinned out from last we’ve seen it, but Mo-he-ag-gra seems set to fall nonetheless.
From the east, a combined force of the remaining Shawnee defenders and Seneca and Floridian reinforcements are pushing the Osage attack back, saving Prophetstown (well... the Floridians not so much, they’re yet to reach the frontlines, but the intent is there).
With their tail between their legs, the Osage choose to at least reduce the number of enemies they have to deal with, making peace with the Shawnee and getting to keep Chillicothe. It remains uncertain whether they’ll get to keep it, as a Seneca army is approaching its borders, with two archers the only defense. In fact, most of the Osage army seems concentrated around their capital. A strategic reserve to apply when and where most needed? Or a holding force to stop the Pueblo, Seneca and Floridas from getting any ideas? Or maybe even a cynical, perhaps even defeatist, resignation to the inevitable loss of at least one, maybe both of their outlying cities? We shall see.
Last season, the testruns promised us some shitposty borders from Kilwa and Egypt, and yet the official run... kinda disappointed us on that one. This season, we may actually see a promise of the sort fulfilled by the Alaouites and Sierra Leone.
Speaking of, it seems both civs have decided to act as allies in a common cause instead of waging war for each other’s distant outposts. Both of them DOW’d Rome, presumably to boost diplomacy with each other and the Visigoths.
And speaking of the Visigoths, a large Roman fleet has anchored itself outside of Narbo, and the sole warrior to join the expedition has disembarked. Narbo is beginning to suffer damage, but I’m not too enthusiastic about Trajan’s prospects here. In fact, with the incoming 3 archers and 2 warriors, the Roman warrior may have signed up for a suicide mission.
More irrelevantly, the Alaouites also DOW’d the Rozvi, because why not at this point.
The Pueblo capture Mo-he-ag-gra. The city isn’t really all that secure just yet - one barely damaged spearman is nearby, but it is also direly outnumbered by the Pueblos’ technologically inferior invasion force. I’d give the edge to Pueblo here, but nothing’s set in stone, especially if Pawhuska decided to engage some of his reserves.
On the eastern front, the Seneca and Floridians have barely moved. Only a Seneca vanguard of two warriors had crossed the Ohio river, but unless the units behind them make a move too, I can’t see that taking Chillicothe. Heck, one of those warriors is near dead already.
The long-standing peace in southeast Asia finally ends, as Koxinga declares war on Tran Thanh Tong. Dai Viet had just settled Thanh Dong near IRL Vientiane, so I would’ve understood a Siam DOW more likely, but apparently not. Oh well.
Of the two civs now at war, Koxinga certainly has the military edge here. The frontline units alone outnumber the entire warrior-archer garrison of Thang Long. The difficult part will be navigating the terrain, as two rivers, a small mountain range, jungles and marshlands all permeate the terrain between Zheng and the Viet capital. Making things even more advantageous to our defenders here is the random Harappan scout, occupying one of the tiles between the mountains and the Gulf of Tonkin. Still, if Zheng commits to this invasion, they will probably overpower the Viets.
Shang, having secured Old Sarai last episode, doesn’t seem satiated, and is trying to fight its way north. However, the bulk of Shang forces is back in their territory, and the forces in Old Sarai are... rather small in number. With just two yue axemen and 2 archers, one of which seems more focused on garrisoning the city rather than contributing to the advance anyway, I don’t see Shang breaking through to either Beshbalik or Karakorum anytime soon. If I was Daji, I’d send the forces around Nanbo as either reinforcements or a second prong - striking from the southeast while the Mongolians are preoccupied by the forces attacking from the south. I have a hunch that won’t happen though.
Elsewhere, Bukhara has entered the classical era
Here we see the southern half of Australia, with the many cities of the Palawa and Noongar. I don’t really see much happening on this slide tbh. It seems that the Wahgi and Bora-Bora have come to pay a visit to these two civs. Also, nearby the Palawa capital of Mutawaynatji, we see a great general, Gertrudis Bocanegra.
In our history, Gertrudis Bocanegra was a hero of the Mexican War of Independence. When the war began, she and her family were quick to join the insurgents. When rebel leader Miguel Hidalgo passed through what is now the city of Morelia in the state of Michoacán in October 1810, Bocanegra’s husband and eldest son joined him. Just 4 months later, they would both die fighting the Spaniards at the battle of Calderón Bridge. From then on, Bocanegra served as an important messenger between insurgent guerrillas active in the areas around the Michoacán cities of Pátzcuaro and Tacámbaro. In 1817, she was sent to the former to help the local rebels capture the city. However, she was betrayed and sent into Spanish custody. Tortured for information, she refused to budge, and she and another rebel captured by the Spanish were executed by firing squad on 11th October 1817, at 52 years old.
Here we see a short of the western half of Australia, with a better focus on the Noongar. Not much to say here, especially since last episode’s narrators already explained the Gidjiboryl UU. Singaporean and Maguindanao ships are exploring the Australian coasts.
Here we see a shot of central South America, with every civ apparently just vibing. I guess of note here are the I believe new settles of Pajchri (Tiwanaku) and São Cristóvão (New Holland), the random Tehuelche scouts up north, New Hollander and Riograndense settlers that are trekking out, and more Bora-Boran workers coming to develop their Pampas colonies.
Also, pronunciation note: Pajchri - j = h ; ch = the English ch, not the German ch. Same for the ch in Pachaism, actually.
Yes, NopeCopter, I did make that slide title for you. (god, those demographic anomalies discussions we had on the discord months ago)
Anyway, the Kalmyks have just founded the religion of Vajrayana, which, if I’m being honest, I expected their cousins, the Khoshuts to nab that one.
Also visible here is the reminder of the self-neutering from last episode and the attempts to bounce back from it.
Also also, where is that Bukharan army going?
The Seneca and Floridians have moved, but so have the Osage. Fighting along the Ohio and Illinois rivers is going between the forces at Chillicothe and incoming Seneca units. All sides’ armies seem more sparse than last time we’ve seen them. Nearby Fernandina meanwhile, Florida just got its first great general, Alexandros Papagos.
In our history, Papagos was a 20th century Greek general and later politician. His baptism of fire happened during the First Balkan War. Notably, he participated in the war’s final battle at Bizani. He also saw fighting in the Second Balkan War and the War of Turkish Independence. He’s perhaps most notable for his role in World War 2, where he was the commander-in-chief of the Greek Armed Forces during the Italo-Greek War and the Battle of Greece. His service would be put on hold after that, as he remained under de facto house arrest in occupied Greece, until 1943, when he and other officers founded the Military Hierarchy resistance organization, only for him to be captured by the Germans in July. He would spend the rest of the war in Germany in concentration camps, including the infamous Dachau, before the SS transferred him to Tyrol in April 1945, where he was freed by the Americans on 5th May. He returned to Greece later that month, and remained in semi-retirement for the next 4 years, before being appointed commander-in-chief of the Greek Armed Forces once again, ending the Greek Civil War (though, that was already on its way to ending before his appointment), notably employing the air force and veterans of the WW2 North Africa campaign to root out the last communist remnants at the Albanian border. Two years later, in 1951, he retired from the army, being the only Greek officer to ever reach the rank of field marshal. He went on to start a political career, founding the right-wing Greek Rally party and winning next year’s parliamentary elections, becoming prime minister, a post he held until he died of a lung hemorrhage on 4th October 1955.
Here we have come, I presume, to see the beliefs of Vajrayana. We’re already familiar with the Kalmyks’ God of War pantheon belief that predated the creation of Vajrayana, but here we also see the two new beliefs of the Kalmyks. The founder belief seems almost antithetical to their pantheon belief - Peace Loving. It is still a useful belief though, adding +1 happiness civ-wide for every 8 followers of the religion. A follower belief is also added here, Liturgical Drama, which allows them to purchase monuments, amphitheaters, opera houses and other cultural buildings using faith.
Yes, I know the sidebar for the next few slides shows a civ advancing into a new age, but none of the screenshots show me who did, so since I don’t know, neither will you.
Anyways, our focus for this slide are the Ikko-Ikki, who have just enhanced Jodo Shinshu with new beliefs. They have also founded another mainland-Asian city, Nagashima, at the southwestern tip of Korea.
Disappointing, honestly. No changes from this war. The Ume Sámi and the Finns make peace. The war only served to kill units and give the surviving units XP points.
A nice shot of Siam’s 5-city, barely-defended empire. Oh look, there’s even 2 more settlers preparing to head out.
Over northeast, Zheng is trying but not quite managing to invade Dai Viet. Dai Viet, for its part, has just got its first spearman.
The Nivkh and Harappan scouts are enjoying a nice view of Thanh Dong.
I’m not completely sure if we’ve seen Jodo Shinshu’s follower belief of Ramadan before, but if we haven’t, it grants more faith and culture, but reduces food yield, from grasslands, but our focus here is the enhancer belief of Medicine Bundles, granting extra healing to units next to friendly cities.
Bavaria DOWs Burgundy to decide who is the better B-civ in Europe. This just looks to me like Ludwig gifting Asturica to Charles, but if he plays his cards right, he could make up for it with Beaune. Appointed by Charles to hold the line is Kittur Chennamma.
Kittur Chennamma is a great general whose IRL history I’ve actually already recounted once, last season. But, in case you need a refresher, she was a queen from the modern-day Indian state of Karnataka who fought two wars with the British in the 1820s, actually finding some success in the first war, before being captured in the second war, eventually dying, likely of disease, five years after her imprisonment.
The Selkups are expanding, having recently settled the city of Kuchuk, and with another settler advancing down the Yenisey. Their army is sparse though, the largest concentration being between Kargasok and Al’myak.
Also having a settler out north is Kazakhstan. They also have a large concentration of units around Astana and Aktobe.
The Wahgi settle Minj on the Top End peninsula, thus breaking the aboriginal duopoly on Australia. Now the question is: Will they be able to keep this and future colonies on the continent?
Maguindanao had just settled Kuta Watu in the Visayas, expanding its realm in the Philippines for the first time since the civ’s founding. Nearby, a Wahgi archer is watching.
At the very edge of the screen, we can barely see the Zheng-Viet frontline. Not much of note seems to have happened.
In what’s probably the first relevant North American war to not involve the Osage, the Yellowknives declare on the Crow. The situation is, I dare say, a mixed bag. The Yellowknife mainforce is descending on an undefended Báhkisee, which is near certain to fall. However, outside of this mainforce, the Yellowknives don’t have much of an army. Should the Crow endeavour to cross the Rockies, they’d only be met with a weakly-defended Kwe Ka Tszoa and an undefended Weledeh-Cheh. However, even with that, if I was Joe Medicine Crow, I’d still focus a majority of my army into, if not defending Báhkisee, then at least preventing the Yellowknives from heading even further south from there, balancing the need for that with smaller contingents ranging beyond the mountains.
On this slide, we have a highlight of the Ume-Sámi UU, the Nåjjde, a replacement for the great merchant that, when expended, provides extra gold and faith from lakes and mountains, and customs houses built by them provide extra food and faith.
Elsewhere, we have some rather out of place visitors here. Last episode featured the narrators making note of the Mongolian scout, now trekking towards the Arctic, but Nope and Siege completely neglected the slightly less but still very out of place Selkup scout that came after it. The Selkup scout is now on the Kola peninsula beyond Kalliomaki. Joining them here is a Harappan scout, who has just now met an Ume-Sámi counterpart outside the Finnic capital of Kirmukarmun. I wonder if the two are hoping to organize a scoutcon, starting with those two derps up north. If they are, then I think they’re probably in the wrong place - historically, in Civ Battle Royale iterations, if there ever were scoutcons, they happened in Siberia, not Fennoscandia.
Goguryeo has just entered the Classical Era, so, logically, we now pan to a West African slide, focusing on Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone, I feel, has the weakest army in the region - Bo is literally ungarrisoned - so I don’t know how well that bodes for them. At least they got a new great general.
IRL, Samori Touré was a Maliki Sunni cleric from the Mandinka people. He would enter the service of Omar Saidou Tall as a cleric and general, though when he did so and how much he contributed to Omar’s Toucouleur Empire’s expansion is unknown. What is known is that after Omar died in 1864, his empire entered a period of decline and division between his sons, generals and local leaders. Samori became the leader of a warband, which he used to conquer a number of villages and towns, eventually expanding his realm enough to proclaim what is today called the Wassoulou Empire in 1878. Only 4 years later, his first conflict with the French began, and the two empires would be going back and forth between war and peace for the next 15 years, with Samori even managing several victories and winning his first war against the French. Samori also had friendly relations with the British, who were kind of using him as a proxy to slow down French expansion in West Africa, and thus supplying him with modern weapons. At the height of his power, Samori’s empire stretched from the northernmost tip of modern Sierra Leone all the way to the Volta river in modern Ghana. However, just two years later, in 1898, he was captured by the French and his empire immediately collapsed, most but not all of it falling to them. Samori himself would die in captivity in Gabon in 1900. His great-grandson, however, would go on to become the first president of the modern nation of Guinea, and, ironically enough, one of the biggest names in African Socialism - Ahmed Sékou Touré.
Oh, so that’s what slide 23 was for.
Kazakhstan, with moral support from Bukhara, DOWs the Selkups. And, honestly, I like their chances. Tech-wise, the two civs’ armies are in parity, but the Kazakhs have probably the larger and definitely the better concentrated army. Kargasok isn’t gonna be an easy conquest, but with the balance of the forces as it is, it might yet fall to Nazarbayev.
Honestly, just putting Airyanam Vaejah as the title of this slide immediately made me go seek a song of the same name on Farya Faraji’s yt channel.
Anyway, here we see a good look of the Middle East, our main focus being the new Afsharid settles of Kermanshah and Shiraz, locking down Fars and Arabistan respectively for the Empire of Iran.
Nextdoor, the Qarmatians sit with two cities, but a decent army by the standards of a civ their size. If they showed their mettle now, they could take the Afsharids’ new settles before the similarly-sized Afsharid army can reinforce.
I’ll ignore Pontus until a later slide.
That slide being this one.
Mithridates VI has built himself a respectable 4-city empire with a decent army. However, instead of using it to box in the Kalmyks or nab Antioch or bully the Mamluks, he decided to use it to declare an irrelevant war on the Visigoths. Classic
Probably too busy experimenting with poisons and doing party tricks with said poisons.
Also declaring an irrelevant war on the Visigoths is Elizabeth Bathory, who also declared on the Rozvi for good measure.
She has a decent Central European empire and a large army, but Kassa is almost entirely undefended... Come on Makhno, this is your chance to redeem yourself for Rezekne and Ekaterinoslav.
Meanwhile, the War of the B-powers continues as Bavaria repeats the mistake of England, splitting its attention between multiple cities, whose defenses are augmented by the rivers Weser and Rhine.
Also, pronunciation notes for Hungarian:
- “cs” is like the “ch” in “church”
- “j” is like the “y” in “yes”
- “s” is like the “sh” in “shoot”
- “sz” is like the “s” in “sock”
- “zs” is like the “s” in “measure”
- “gy” is like the... actually, I don’t think it has an English equivalent, but I guess google how the “đ” letter is pronounced in Serbocroatian, and you’d get a good idea
The Palawa founded the religion of Tjukurpa. That Uluru boon is serving them well.
In addition to the God of the Open Sky pantheon belief, the Palawa now add two more beliefs to Tjukurpa. The Peace Loving founder belief, adding 10 happiness for every 10 followers, and the Peace Gardens follower belief, with production and happiness bonuses.
England DOWs the Visigoths, giving us an excuse to look at the Visigoths. Predictably, Narbo is holding strong against the Romans, with the city even healing from last time we saw it, with no Roman land units nearby.
The English seem to have gotten tired of the Visigothic expeditionaries that found refuge with them following the Burgundian war, and have elected to massacre them. Thankless bitches, as a Visigothic warrior had even joined them in England’s own war with Burgundy last episode.
The main English goal may actually lie in Iberia too, though, as 6 triremes were sent, presumably to attack Emerita and/or Barcino. Without land units, Emerita will be harder to capture than Barcino, and both would be equally as difficult to hold.
Elsewhere, unsurprisingly, the Burgundians are easily knocking down the defences of Asturica. With no way of reinforcing the city and with the city being puppeted, therefore unable to produce its own units to defend itself, only a peace treaty can save it now.
Also, obscured by the sidebar (which also features Harappa and Vijayanagara making peace), we can see a Roman trireme committing suicide by means of Waterloo.
Kanem-Bornu also founds a religion, Mu’tazila, an Islamic sect that I first learned of watching al-Muqaddimah’s Abbasid Caliphate series (highly recommended btw), specifically the episode focusing on caliph al-Ma’mun, who propagated this sect above all others. How similar or different will Mu’tazila tenets in the CBRX be to or from their IRL counterparts.
Half-way across the World, Mag enhances its own religion Anito.
Elsewhere, Makhnovia enters the classical era.
Back to Africa, and another religion has been enhanced, this being Mogadishu’s Sunni.
Also, Saba-D’mt settles Sana’a on the shores of lake Tanganyika.
The Osage seem militarily largely spent, but they also seem to have halted most enemy advances.
The Seneca push on Chillicothe has not just failed, but the Osage even found an opening to settle Pa-hiu-cka somewhere on the Illinois-Wisconsin border (I can’t tell which side).
Further south, the Floridians and Seneca have reached the mighty Mississippi river, and, at least as far as this screenshot shows us, the crossings are undefended. Although it may well be that there’s Osage troops offscreen, if it turns out that the impression in the previous sentence is correct, then the allied easterner forces have a free shot at the Osage capital itself.
To the west, the Osage sent what I believe is our first horseman unit this season onto a raiding expedition into the outskirts of Háák’u, but it seems like it’ll have to contend with some nearby Pueblo and Crow forces.
At the Osage capital of Ni-o-sho-de, general Amina stands sentinel, looking out for any enemies that might lurk nearby.
There were/are so many figures named Amina in our history that I’m not sure who this is referring to, but I believe this Amina was a queen of the Hausa city-state of Zazzau in modern-day northern Nigeria during the late 16th and early 17th century. As soon as she ascended the throne in 1576, at 43 years old, she ordered her people to resharpen their weapons. From there, she raised an army of 20000 infantry and 1000 cavalry, and waged a 34-year-long campaign of conquest against her neighbours, conquering lands as far away as Kwararafa and Nupe. She died under unknown circumstances in 1610, with most sources putting her place of death at present-day Idah, in southeastern Nigeria. (Note that my division of Nigeria into southeast, southwest and north mostly follows the Niger and Benue rivers).
To the edge of the screen, the Yellowknives increase pressure on Báhkisee, starting to deal damage to the undefended city. Crow reinforcements haven’t yet arrived, but they are coming, while the continental divide sees the first clash between Yellowknife and Crow troops. Scattered Crow troops even seem to have decided to use the war to go through the Rocky mountain passes.
Not much has changed in the western Med since we’ve last taken a glance at it. Only really noteworthy change is that Rome peaced out with the Visigoths. Trajan may have been optimus princeps (
Kazakhstan is beating the Selkups’ main army in the no-man’s land between them. The going is slow, but the Kazakhs retain the initiative.
Down south... Bukharan settler. What will he do?
Also, the Latvian scout escaped the... Kazan? Kazanian? Kazanite?... Volga Tatar! city of Archa
The Afsharids settle Qazvin in southern Afghanistan, right on the doorstep of Harappa.
Not much to note here, tbh.
Look at those scouts. Two Pontic ones, which ain’t too surprising, but also a Kanem-Bornu one!
Uh, let’s see, what else can I do to make sure the slide is longer than its title...
2 Afsharid settlers, a Bukharan settler... nothing of the sort from Harappa, Qarm and the Khoshuts, though.
Our first look at southern Africa this episode. Considering it took this long to get to this region this episode, I assume the Ndongo-Rozvi war ended late last episode and that I simply forgot. But yeah, the balance of power has irrevocably changed last episode.
The Rozvi’s victories over Eswatini made them briefly look like the top dogs of the region, however, they then chose to waste their troops at Mbabane instead of taking the trophy of Lobamba home while they were still ahead. This weakened them enough that when Ndongo came by knocking, they lost Khami, while a now neutral Eswatini’s settles further boxed Rozvi in. Now, the empire which IRL created the heavy militarization of early-modern-to-colonial-era southern Africa sits sandwiched between a recovering formerly vanquished opponent and the new top dog of the region.
Eswatini, for its part is rebuilding its army, which I believe is actually stronger than Rozvi’s now, and are sending a settler towards the Cape rn.
Ndongo’s army had become more sparse following the war with Rozvi, but they have large enough of an empire to form a stronger production base than their two regional rivals, so in the long run, I can see them dominating.
Another look at southeast Asia, this time focused on Singapore. The cities are looking very good, but please invest into a bigger army and navy.
Let’s take a look at Mogadishu’s enhancement of Sunni, shall we. They have added a new follower belief, Cathedrals, which allows them to use faith to purchase, well, cathedrals, which provide culture, gold and faith bonuses. They also adopted the Fors Fortuna enhancer belief, earning extra gold and culture from farms and hydroponics.
Maguindanao, meanwhile, has added the Ital follower belief, which grants extra faith, food and culture from granaries, to Anito, and now also has the enhancer belief Televangelism, with which they can purchase broadcast towers which provide extra gold.
Kanem-Bornu, meanwhile, added to their existing pantheon belief Blessed Be The Cheesemakers the founder belief of Church Property and follower belief of Religious Center, the former adding +2 gold for each city following, in this case, Mu’tazila, and the latter adding +1 production, gold and tourism.
The South American civs keep spreading into the Amazon. I believe this is our first proper view of the Ecuadorian city of Loja, settled I believe last episode, as well as of the newly-settled New Hollander city of Sirinhaém. Both civs also have more settlers out.
A Riograndense settler also seems like it wants to head out north. The best places I see are where those two warriors and one spearman are, or up near the Orinoco river delta.
Also note the appearance of Bora-Boran and Taíno triremes and Mexican and Pueblo scouts.
Speaking of the Taíno, here they are... still yet to make another settler to expand into more of the Caribbean and into the continent.
Come on, I’ve seen the North America game NopeCopter ran months ago, you’ve done really well there. DO SOMETHING.
The Osage have successfully retaken Mo-he-ag-gra.
Also, I can’t help but notice how literally every civ on screen has a sparse army. The closest thing this screen has to a strong concentrated force is the Pueblo force around Taos and, of all things, the Shawnee army at their sole remaining city.
The Crow appear to have mostly abandoned their contribution to the Osage war and focused up north against the Yellowknives. Seneca and Florida haven’t penetrated Chillicothe or forced the Mississippi. Pueblo seems to wanna settle a city along the Rio Grande. They could probably capture Mo-he-ag-gra again. There’s a Tiwanaku scout and a Nivkh trireme.
The Yellowknives, surprisingly, have only put a sliver of damage to Báhkisee. The Crow also seem to have given up on crossing the Rockies. The more distant Weledeh-Cheh is defenseless, but with the closer Kwe Ka Tszoa being better fortified than before, I don’t blame them. Better focus on the currently attacked city I guess. The numbers do appear to be on the Yellowknives’ side right now.
Also, where’s that Thule army going?
The Mongols have successfully retaken Old Sarai. The fighting doesn’t appear to be over, though, as Daji has a large concentration of troops near Banpo. Some seem to have elected to go north instead of west, however, becoming target practice for the Gobi archer corps.
Also, a Makhnovist and a Vijayanagaran scout have met.
Also also, the Dzungars settled Urumqi, extending their border with their cousins, the Khoshuts.
Mogadishu DOWs Ndongo, which gives us an excuse to look at the latter. Ndongo has settled Kindonga up north last episode, and also have another settler near Matamba. Most of their army is concentrated in a line stretching from just north of Matamba southeastwards, ending nearby Danji. Their other forces are mostly scattered in garrisons around their other cities and patrols near their borders or with the aforementioned settler, as well as a small fleet out of Kabasa.
Mogadishu’s military is much harder to gauge from here, but they do have a major concentration around Shangani. I don’t think this war will achieve much, though - there’s a lot of distance to cover between Shangani and the outlying Ndongo cities, covered in lakes, rivers, jungles, hills and even the occasional mountain. I do expect some fighting to happen, but no city-captures.
While Waterloo is busy fighting off Roman triremes, Ismail ibn Sharif has decided to go and invade the Visigoths. I’m... not sure how much I would recommend that, as, while the Visigothic army isn’t exactly well positioned to challenge them properly, the Alaouites will need to do a bunch of amphibious landings to achieve anything, and, at this stage in the game, especially without a supporting fleet, it’s gonna be difficult at best to do it successfully.
Tiwanaku enhanced their religion, Pachaism, giving as an excuse to look at them and their neighbours again. Rio Grande in fact has 3 settlers around Alegrete. They better find their way out quick, before the other South Americans civs or Bora-Bora gobble all the land up. Bora-Bora also keeps sending more warriors to defend and workers to develop their South American colonies.
So, in addition to their previously existing Open Sky pantheon belief, Burial Rites founder belief, Faith Healers follower belief and Society of the Faithful reformation belief, Tiwanaku now also added two more to their roster, the Sacella Society follower belief, which adds +2 faith and gold from shrines, and the Mandatory Tribute enhancer belief, which increases food and production yield in the capital, but reduces faith and other stuff.
Last episode, the Faroes settled Skúvoy in western Scotland, and this episode, England settled Coventry in their direction.
To the south, the English seem to have killed the Visigothic chariot in the Seine valley, and 3 English warriors have now cornered their Visigothic counterpart in Brittany. Directing these operations from York is Abd al-Rahman.
In all honesty, I’m not 100% sure if this Abd al-Rahman is the winner of CBRX S1, or, as I think it more likely, his great-great-great-great-great-grandpa, the Umayyad prince who founded the Emirate of Cordoba. But yeah, both are really interesting figures, I’d encourage you to look up Jack Rackham’s video on Abd al-Rahman I and al-Muqaddimah’s series on al-Andalus.
Also of note here is that Faroese trireme-settler duo apparently scouting out the Norwegian coast.
Over here we see Makhnovia, Latvia, the Kalmyks and parts of their neighbours just kinda chilling. Well, maybe.
I already forgot if Kazan and Latvia were still at war, but there is a Latvian army between the Don and the Volga now, and two warriors have sustained a great deal of damage, so I can assume they either are, or they only recently peaced out. But since I probably would’ve noticed the notif, I’d say they probably are.
Highlighted for us here is the new Makhnovist general, Ike Eisenhower, which is just... lmao levels of irony.
IRL, Ike, or, as he’s called when his nickname ain’t used, Dwight D., had a career in both army and politics. His first military experience was in American interventions in the Mexican Revolution and the American expedition to World War 1, but he’s probably most well known for being one of the main generals of the allies during World War 2, even being appointed Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces in Europe. After that, he governed the US occupation zone in Germany for half a year, before being transferred to the post of Chief of Staff of the US Army until 1948. He served as president of Columbia University from 1948 to 1953, but also somehow found the time to get involved in the Korean War. Throughout 1951 and 1952, he was once again Allied Commander in Europe, but he retired from that office and from Columbia University to pursue a political career, winning the US presidency, serving two terms (1953-1961), which most notably saw him fighting against the military-industrial complex at home and being rather militantly anti-communist abroad. He died in 1969.
Also, more Latvian, Kalmyk, Kazan Tatar and Pontic settlers.
Not sure what can be said here. I guess I ignored Tangier last time it was on screen. More Sierraleonean and Alaouite settlers. Not much of note here. OK, maybe that English warrior.
Eswatini DOWs Ndongo, in what could’ve been a stupid move, had Rozvi not been in the way. I would worry about that Cape-bound settler, but the Ndongoans don’t exactly have the capacity for capturing it soon, so it may become a city before long. I’m not quite sure what Mdluli is trying to achieve here, if anything. Maybe she wants Kabasa? But the concentration of units isn’t exactly conducive for such an attack. Perhaps Khami? But Rozvi is in the way, partially with borders, and partially by that spearman blocking the road for both sides’ own spearmen.
Elsewhere, Harappa and Makhnovia make peace, while Kazakhstan goes classical.
Harappa has a settler out, and... huh... I knew Harappa was at war with Vijayanagar until just some slides back, but I didn’t know they were at war with the Afsharids. Neither of the belligerents seem to be really committing to the war, though.
Bukhara has settled Herat and Merv.
To the far north of the slide, Kazakhstan is still fighting the Selkups over the approach to Kargasok. I guess I overestimated the Kazakh warmachine.
Mongol-Shang skirmishes keep going in the Gobi, but the main focus on this slide is the suddenly very active Goguryeo-Shang war. Long dormant, this war now sees a lone yue axeman attacking Jolbon... with no success. More surprisingly still, the Goguryeo army, supported by a single suicidal trireme, is crossing the Bo Hai bay to attack Yanshi, and... IDK, if they commit enough troops to it, they might actually capture it. If they do, it might not be the only addition to the Goguryeo Empire, as three settlers have headed or are heading out to settle new cities.
Mexico DOW’d Rio Grande, giving us an excuse to look at the former. And uh... Well, I guess we can see why the DOW happened... Max apparently decided that this random Riograndense scout passing through has failed the vibe check. That aside, Mexico has built itself a healthy empire in Mesoamerica and that archer and spearman up north may be an indication of Mexico even making good on their DOW on the Osage last episode. I don’t think it’ll amount to anything, but at least their coalition allies are gonna give them a participation award.
The Pueblo have once again captured Mo-he-ag-gra, but both civs’ armies in the area appear spent. The Osage don’t seem capable of building enough reinforcements to send, and the Pueblo appear unwilling to send reinforcements out of Taos. With two spearmen and an archer fighting against three warriors and an archer, the Osage can definitely retake the city, but it will remain contested.
The Mississippi valley campaign appears to be a defensive Osage victory, a definite surprise given Seneca and Floridian numbers. I guess Gregor McGregor is back to scamming us again, by making us think he’s committing to the Osage War and then, just... not doing that.
Vijayanagara has founded a religion, Vaishnavism, a form of Hinduism focused on the worship of Vishnu, one of the major deities in the pantheon. Vijayanagara also settled Vellore in the northern tip of Tamil Nadu.
Elsewhere, Siam seems to have designs on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Having already had the Goddess of Festivals pantheon belief, Vijayanagara now adds the Axis Mundi founder belief, adding 40% religious pressure from the Holy City, and the Groundations follower belief, boosting food yields from luxury resources.
Bora-Bora DOWs Rio Grande. In the short term, both civs seem utterly unprepared, but in the long term, Rio Grande seems more ready, having a larger army on screen, even if it’s far away from the possible frontline.
Fa’anui does have a warrior and archer present, while Patio is undefended, however more warriors, a trireme and an archer are approaching from the Pacific (though the trireme will probably need to circle cape Horn to become relevant, and that’s assuming Tehuelche hasn’t blocked off that passage).
On the other hand, Caçapava do Sul only got one archer present, and the Riograndense capital of Piratini has just two chariot archers to offer as reinforcements. However, a sizable Riograndense army of spearmen, warriors and a chariot archer is concentrated around Alegrete, and if they move south, the Bora-Boran colonies might be in danger. In fact, it seems like some warriors in this group are already in the process of killing a very unfortunate Bora-Boran scout.
Down south, we see the Tehuelche settling their first Pacific city, Koluel Kayke
The Faroe Islands just built the Apadana, a wonder that must be built in a capital which grants them an extra two social policies.
The historical Apadana was built by Cyrus II (or Kuruš II, if you find the Old Persian names of Achaemenid or Haxamanišya dynasts cooler), founder of the Achaemenid Empire, in Persepolis (or Parsa), in the first half of the 6th century BCE.
In latinization of Old Persian, the š is the same as the one in Serbocroatian, which is to say the “sh” in shoe, while the y the same as the “y” in yes, the h is the soft, barely audible, glottal h, while the x is the hard velar h we’ve been hearing through most of the audio-narrations.
Royal Hungary DOW’d Saba-D’mt, giving us an excuse to look at central Europe. Royal Hungary itself seems to just be sitting around with its large army. Bavaria is still failing to invade Burgundy. Pontus may be on the verge of creating this cylinder’s Constantinistanbul analogue.
Osage has retaken Mo-he-ag-gra again, and this time it actually looks more secure. A Seneca spearman is on the Mississippi again. A trio of Pueblo-Crow units is approaching Ni-o-sho-de, but I’m not expecting much from it. Pueblo is yet to settle along the Rio Grande and has sent another settler into the Mojave desert. Pueblo has also enhanced their religion, Kachina.
After failing to invade Dai Viet the whole episode, Koxinga finally offered white peace to Tran Thanh Tong, who accepted, to peace out with the Zheng. The war was so boring, that the only real slides where we were graced with it being the center of the attention was its beginning and its end. A long, presumably bloody nothingburger.
In addition to their previous Stone Circles pantheon belief, Treasury Mandate founder belief and Madrassas follower belief (and, yes, previous episode’s narrators, the madrassa is a kind of religious building - specifically, historically an Islamic educational institution or school, with many even growing to become universities, such as al-Azhar in Cairo), they now have two new beliefs - Altars, a follower belief whose name and explanation got muddled/bugged, but I assume just allows purchase of altars or something, and Populous Piety, an enhancer belief that grants 10 extra faith in cities with 10 followers.
Just as he had managed to push the Latvians back from the border, a few stragglers notwithstanding, Möxämmädämin receives bad news - Bukhara went on the warpath, and he happens to be on that very path. His defenses at Elista are minimal, just an archer and general, with only one archer available for reinforcements. The Bukharan approach is gonna be frustrated by the narrow approach between the Caspian and Aral seas, but I do believe that Bukhara has what it takes to get the city.
Also, damn, look at that Makhnovist army. If they want round two against Latvia, now might be a good chance.
Charles receives news of the successful capture of Asturica, and celebrates by declaring war on Makeda. The eastern front is also looking fine, as Bavarian attacks against Nancy and Beaune keep floundering. For now, at least, Burgundy stands as the better B-civ.
Also, remind me, did Burgundy and Rome ever declare peace? There’s a damaged Roman archer near Carthago, so I was wondering if he might be trying to help Bavaria against Burgundy.
The English have finally cleared out the last of the Visigothic refugees in northern France.
Here we see the Nivkh Empire in all its glory. Five cities, a large army, and an ok-I-guess geography. I don’t think we’ve gotten a glance at Visk’vo last episode, but we also get to see the new Nivkh settle of Miyoo Gaxan.
Oh shit! Someone ping NopeCopter rn! Mag just declared on Wah, and Kuno is immediately coming under pressure from the Danao trireme fleet. Overambitious pirate parties are ranging as far as the isle of Papua itself. I really hope my hype for this war is warranted.
We got our Constantinistanbul analogue in the form of the newly settled Pontic city of Amastris, now connecting the Euxinios Pontos with the Aegean.
In a sign of solidarity with Muhammad Shaybani, Nader Shah also declares war on Kazan. This is almost entirely symbolic, as there’s a Kalmyk Khanate in the way, but still. The Afsharid army isn’t big enough to cover the entirety of the empire, but it does look pretty strong still. The Iranians even have a settler going out west to secure their border there. They also already settled Tabriz in Balochistan, extending their border with Harappa.
The Selkups also pile on the irrelevant Kazan DOWs, but our main action here is the continuing slogging match for Báhkisee, where... very little progress is going on. The Yellowknives are certainly not getting the fight to Baaxawuaashé anytime soon. On the contrary, a Crow scout has brought the war to Dettah! How’d he get there? If at the beginning of the episode you told me that this episode would involve one of the Crow or the Yellowknives sending a single unit suicidally fighting at the doorstep of the others’ capital, I would’ve assumed it would be the Yellowknives who did that, given the distances involved. But no.
Here, we see the war and peace map. The only civs currently at peace are the Faroe Islands, the Ume Sámi, Makhnovia, Kanem-Bornu, the Dzungars, Harappa, the Khoshuts, Vijayanagara, the Nivkh, the Ikko-Ikki, the Zheng, Dai Viet, Siam, Singapore, the Noongar, the Palawa, New Holland and the Tehuelche. Huh... I guess the reason the Afsharids and Harappa weren’t committing to the war in a previous slide was because they weren’t at war... Why were those Afsharids units damaged then? Whatever. Over two thirds of all civs are at war right now. Most of those wars are irrelevant though.
Here we see a civilizations map, which is very likely gonna prove of some use to community mapmakers.
Here we see the military rankings, with the Faroe Islands, the Ikko-Ikki and the Thule at ca. 67k soldiers, the Afsharids at ca. 68k, Kazakhstan and Latvia at ca. 69k, Mogadishu and Bukhara at ca. 70k, Mexico at ca. 71k, the Shang, Pontus and Bavaria at ca. 74k, and Royal Hungary topping the list off at ca. 77k.
Here we see the technology rankings. Faroe Islands is in lead with 17 techs, followed by Mag with 16, a 5-way tie for 3rd, and then a sea of 14-tech civs as far as the eye can see.
Here we see our current tech leaders, the Faroese, with their many grindadráp UUs, and most of their cities, including the newly settled Fuglafjørður. Visiting the new settlement is a Seneca scout.
I forgot how the ø is pronounced, but the ð is like... it’s to the d what the thorn is to t. Basically it’s the voiced dental fricative
Another nice shot of Ndongo, showing the continuing settlement program, the trade with Saba-D’mt, the unsurprisingly still uneventful war with Mogadishu, and general Winfield Scott.
IRL, Winfield Scott was a general of the US army, starting his career in an 1807 peacetime skirmish between two ships, one American, the other British, and then the subsequent 1812-1815 war. He also played a part in the USA’s story of Indian Removal, including being one of the officers in charge of the Trail of Tears and a commander in both the Black Hawk and Second Seminole wars. He also participated in the war against Mexico, helped prevent the so-called Pig War from escalating into a full scale war between Britain and America, until eventually retiring during the first year of the American Civil War (though he is credited with coming up with what became known as the Anaconda Plan, which effectively choked the Confederate economy).
Shang has rebuffed the Goguryeo amphibious invasion of Yanshi, and has restarted an offensive against Mongolia. Unfortunately, Daji did the classic AI mistake of splitting her attention on multiple target cities, preventing her from capturing Old Sarai. If it’s any consolation, she had just settled Dawenkou... Also I think this is the first time we see Machang?
For our final slide, we have a nice view of the Khoshut Khanate, and with it a look at their new general, Nguyen Hue, near Lhasa.
In our history, Hue was one of the three Tay Son brothers that rebelled in the late 18th century against the rule of the Trinh and Nguyen lords, who ruled over the northern and southern lands of Vietnam respectively, officially on behalf of the Le dynasty, which had by then been reduced to mere figureheads. Hue and his brothers overthrew the rule of both lord families and deposed the imperial Le dynasty, establishing their own dynasty and taking imperial titles in their respective parts of Vietnam. Hue had by far the most success, taking all of the north and much of the center of Vietnam. In addition to participating in the overthrow of the Nguyen lords and leading the overthrow of the Trinh lords, he also fought off a Siamese-led coalition in the south, and campaigned in the north, ending the Le dynasty, later claiming the imperial title and the regnal name Quang Trung. He also warred with his own brother, Nguyen Nhac, over control of central Vietnam, and fought off a Qing invasion, before submitting to them to legitimize his dynasty and prevent the Siamese from forming an alliance with the Qing against him. He used his remaining years of rule to pass a series of reforms, mainly concerning the administration, the modernization of the army, and taxation. However, in 1792, just 18 years after he and his brothers rebelled, and just 4 years after he claimed the imperial title, he died, before his reforms could be fully implemented and before he could properly instruct his heirs. This came at a very bad time, as the heir of the Nguyen lords, Nguyen Anh, had defeated Hue’s brother, Nguyen Lu, in 1789, re-establishing Nguyen control over the southernmost part of the country. The Tay Son dynasty would collapse just a decade after Hue’s death, with Nguyen Anh becoming the emperor of the new Nguyen dynasty in 1802.
And, that’s all folks. Thank you for reading, or watching, this episode of the CBRX Season 4. Tune in next time for episode 5, which, as is tradition by now, will be narrated by our resident cute transbian catgirl, Orange.
Also, make sure to subscribe to our wonderful audio-narrator, Doc Ido, on Youtube
In the meantime, enjoy your [insert time period of your choice] here. Ciao ciao.