Episode 6: It’s Business Time or Everyone Hates Maravi – S5

Hello fellow denizens of the Sub! I am Nirosat, and I will be narrating this week's episode. You might (though probably not) remember me from the last time I narrated in CBRX3 EP21, where I made a funny reference to Monty Python, and wore out everyone with jokes about Vermont. I do not play much Civ5, but I have been following (and lurking) the CBR for over 10 years now. Anyways, enough about me, lets get going!

E_C_H points out to us that everyone hates Maravi. No one likes them. They probably don’t even like themselves. What did they do to deserve the hate of their neighbors? Who knows!

Shout out to Emerald Range who provides a different style of map. While it may lack the pinpoint accuracy of other maps, it adds a bit of fun context to each Civ’s map situation.

Wow! Look at all these gorgeous, beautiful, intelligent donors to the sub! (cept for that Nirosat guy…he’s a dummy). You too can join and become one of the Adonis.

Also, the team has been adding lots of new features to the sites such as reactions and website comments.

Coiot: Pomo so lovely, can now confirm most supporters love them, even our narrator today reps them. Applause!

This week’s PR slide is Maravi. I have yet to see the slide, but I’m sure the subs brightest minds are fighting over how much danger their coalition is. Depending on the outcome this week, they could shift quite a bit.

We start off this episode’s actual slides with the ongoing conflict between the Kipchaks and their enemies, Bactria and Vyatka. Despite a pair of Elephantarch arriving to defend the city, Marakanda is in the red and in danger of falling. The rest of the Bactrian military remains around their other cities. Considering they are bankrupt, maybe they should use those units they are paying so much for. Vyatkan forces muster north of Kanjak Sangir, but have yet to advance upon the city.

Moving south we see the Sumer making moves on a relatively undefended Berytos. I’m not sure what the Phoenicians were thinking settling that city since it’s probably going to get captured…Or never mind. Tematekh gets a sultry call from his bedchambers and cancels the invasion. No sense to keep a missus waiting. Phoenicia shifts their attention to Ma’in who shifts uncomfortably waiting for a repeat beatdown.

It’s an ornate hall, fitting for a large empire. Complex patterns dance their way across the walls, their carvings embossed by the highlights and shadows of natural light. A handful of soldiers stand guard, the color of their standards as varied as the flowers on their flanks. In the room are two diplomats, deeply engaged in the eloquent sparring of their craft.“Please give us your cities,” one said, smiling.

The Bangladeshi diplomat couldn’t believe his ears. There was no reason to give the Tang more cities. But the man in front of him had an undeniable charm that made him want to agree with his terms.

“No,” he said shakily. He was explicitly told to not exchange cities.

“Pretty please?” Sweat broke out across the Bangladeshi’s body. How could this man have such a way with words!  He strained, eyes bulging, veins popping, breath haggard.

The Tang diplomat extended his hand. His opposite started to do the same before catching his wrist with the other arm. Must…resist… His whole form started shaking, his arms fighting one another to resist the deal. After several minutes of anguish, the man collapses onto the ground. With the last of his strength, he whispers… “No cities. Only Peace”.Bangladesh and Tang make peace with no cities exchanged. A Pegu settler explores east of Salem and a Bangladeshi one hikes through the Himilayas.

We get our first city flip of the episode via notification that the Bactrian city of Marakanda is captured by the Kipchaks.

A Ryukyu settler heads towards Taiwan while Cebu and Lanfang build footholds on the mainland. Considering how tough it is to make landfall later in the game, these moves can be crucial for success.An Umhaill Trireme finds itself trapped very far away from home.

The people of Hanga Roa panic as their city is fully surrounded and in the red. They lived a nomadic lifestyle for several millenia, travelled half the world over water and through desert, only to meet their end a few hundred years after settling. Perhaps they should have never settled.

Sorry Rapa Nui, this dog is getting put down (under).

Grace O’Malley has decided the best next step for Umhaill Co. is the acquisition of Le Havre-Mart to break into the European consumer base. They are well positioned to secure this deal with a flood of units in the English channel, though France has their own defense in the area.The hostile takeover of Dunder Mifflin looks to be complete as the companies’ productive capabilities are fully integrated. There is some resistance from disgruntled employees who are alienated by new corporate values regarding piracy. However, Grace assures them that things will be “business as usual” and that they are welcomed new members of the Umhaill family.

Rapa Nui is having a far better time on this side of the cylinder as their capital appears to be in no risk of falling. Once the game matures a bit more, Rapa’s a goner.

The Xavante are building up quite the force around Abelhinha. What could they be planning?

We get a good look at the standoff between Onondaga and the Susquehannock as their borders stretch almost the entirety of this slide. There is a great spot of real estate around Tennessee that has yet to be claimed and a Susquehannock settler is nearby.

Fun fact, the Susquehannock are one of the Civs I root for. But only because there was once a pro Rocket League team called the Susquehannock Soniqs. What’s the most ‘off the cuff’ reason you’ve cheered for a Civ?

The Itelmen come to the realization that the body of water Avacha borders is not, in fact, “a really long and thin lake”, but actually a river! In their disgust the defense of the city is abandoned and it falls to Green Ukraine. Since Chineshisheliu is not on a river, they push back Japan’s advance.

One must wonder what happens when they realize Tigil is on a river… It’s not like they can just take backsies the settle.

We get a good look at Teotihuacan with their solid hold on Mexico, excluding Copano. Though to be honest that’s just a future city for Teo under temporary control. Workers toil to improve the civ’s infrastructure while the war with Xaragua is a formality if anything.

Hanga Roa falls to New South Wales and Australia once again has only two inhabitants. This is quite the matchup as both are top 5 in infoaddict score. NSW has more cities and higher production, Bunubo has the more advanced military and higher effective science. Even these differences are very slight, so in my eyes it's a very even matchup.Uluru is still unclaimed. Will that NSW settler be the first?

Ohhhhh boy! Time for round two of Mysore vs Pakistan. Last time Mysore seemed ill prepared for a war and looks to have prepared a bit better for this one. Unfortunately for him, Pakistan also looks ready to defend. This is gonna get bloody real fast.

Both sides have opted to not defend their northern cities, but with their remoteness it’s not like much will happen to those cities.

Bangladesh looks to take advantage of a distracted Mysore and looks to settle the heart of India and another up in the Himalayas.

Heavy with the loss of Hanga Roa, their sister city mourns. A nation rattled to their nonexistent core, Rapa Nui restructures their government into a principality under Prince Hotu Matu'a. This way they have a central source of authority to bind their scattered people together.

His first act…to spread the teachings of Puata Tupuna throughout Australia and New Guinea. Surely followers of the same faith will be peaceful with one another.

A lone settler sits at the center of New Guinea. “Is this a good place? I sure like it. But maybe I should save up for something better. I’d hate to regret it.”

A long and pointless war finally comes to a close as Lanfang and Ternate peace out. What was the point?  At least make it entertaining or something.

Well now that these two have stopped fighting, maybe they will notice the free city of Tomari just begging for someone to take it.

Having finished claiming Spain, Portugal will need to switch to military action for further expansion. To help with this endeavor, they recruit Nadezhda Durova to lead their armies. Meanwhile, the Umhaill Co. acquisition of Le Havre-Mart hasn’t made much progress. Nadezhda Durova was a Russian cavalry soldier who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. Born female, Nadezhda dressed as a man and went by the name Aleksandr Aleksandrov during their military career. After their service, they continued dressing and living as a man, leading to debate among historians on this historic figure’s gender identity.

The initial action of Operation: Hate Maravi Party begins with Maravi on the offensive as a couple triremes poke Glacis. An Ethiopian settler tucks itself behind a spearman for protection deep within Maravi’s zone of influence.

Maravi is currently at war with all of their neighbors: Ethiopia, Herero, Luba, and Seychelles. The only exception is Ma’in, though they wouldn’t make any difference. It will be a tall ask for them to come out of this unscathed, though natural barriers may assist them as much as their military.

Up north we can see Phoenician ships assault Nashaq. While they will probably fall short of taking the city, I do like Phoenicia’s bold moves in this battle royale.

Turns out Elephantarch are pretty decent as they retake Marakanda from the Kipchaks. Kipchak forces prepare a counter attack as they organize into a Carol Linear Formation. There are plenty of melee units abound so this has the chance to flip again. I believe this might be our first multi-flip city. Vyatka's troops descend upon Kanjak Sangir and decide to forgo the CLF and instead surround the city before commencing the siege.  

Searching for new opportunities for expansion, the Tang and Lanfang declare war on Ryukyu. From the looks of this slide, it looks like the Tang are going for another diplomatic conquest instead of using their military. Lanfang is probably going to grab the isolated Ryukyu city in Indonesia. Rouran troops trickle across Tang’s northern border on a yet to be disclosed mission.  

“Huh, there’s a city right on our border… is that ours?”“No sir!”Like a toddler learning object permanence, Lanfang notices the existence of a far easier conquest than the Ternate. They immediately crash down upon the city which will surely fall in the next turn or two. The Pegu boats a settler to an island now that they missed the boat for settling in their own backyard. Sigh

Ma’in realizes they were missing out on the We Hate Maravi Party and decides to invite themselves. The current members look at each other as though wondering “why is he here?”

Here we get a look at the Ternaten UU, the Arumbai. It is a cargo ship replacement that increases religious pressure from allied city states…how useful. It also produces yield based on the last expended great person when the route expires.

New South Wales takes their name to heart and fills out southern Australia. Uluru remains unclaimed, though a NSW settler is nearby. With space on the continent slowly running out, John Macarthur recruits Fidel Castro to aid in the inevitable conflict. The Bunuba seem content with continuing to build up what they have. They still have the military tech advantage, though that didn’t seem to help them out too much last time.

I believe Porvenir is a new settlement from Coral. Its location helps tie previously far flung Bandurria to the rest of their lands. Yanomami seems a bit sparse on the military front, but at this stage city exchanges are still rare in the Amazon. They have two settlers heading into unclaimed regions of the Caribbean.

The Xavante looks to be an impossible nut to crack with a carpet of military units combined with an already unnavigable jungle. Their settlers, meanwhile, continue to mill about the rainforest, surely regretting their earlier lackadaisical methods for city location appropriation. Now they can only lament their choices, realizing that they would be of more use as a banana.

The Ket discover that grasslands are great for farming at Kangatovo. Discussions run abound throughout the government about how much cereal can be produced from these grains. No longer will cereal be limited to the affluent…

“With these yields… Every man [can eat like] a king”The Ket enhance their religion as they continue to settle their open space in the north with a settler heading east. Considering the shortage of expansion opportunities elsewhere on the cylinder. The Ket truly are living in luxury.

Note the far flung Itelman settler on the right. (Also, I just typo’d them as Intelman. If they survive to the information age…please make that a bit…)

The settles of Gannentaha and Gistswiahna secure a corner of Canada for the Onondaga. To protect their newly established expansion zone, they establish a Military Dictatorship.

Kipchaks and the Wassoulou join in on the We Hate Maravi Party.

As mentioned before, Wassoulou joins the growing coalition against Maravi. Meanwhile, their settlers compete with their neighbors over the less than optimal settlement locations in the Sahara. If some of these take root, Wassoulou's lands will become ever more intertwined with Aures.

The Ket expand their religion, Samanism, with Synagogues and ‘Every Man a King’. Synagogues allows the Ket to purchase Mandir’s with faith. Every Man a King grants +1 Food, production, and gold, but takes -5 Culture, -5 Science, and -5 Faith from the Palace.

Umhaill Triremes engage French warships, allowing their ground troops to cross the English channel. Le-Havre-Mart takes a lick of damage, but Umhaill will need to invest more into this acquisition if they want it to succeed. The French have a large number of troops inland, yet seem to be holding them back for now.

The Hanseatic League and Kalmar Union make peace. The war didn’t result in much beyond decimating their armies and fleets. In fact it may have distracted the Kalmar Union from securing their core area as an Estonian settler sneaks into their backyard.

The waves were endless, stretching as far as the eye could see. Yet he continued to draw and fire his arrows. Their numbers were so great he had no need to aim. If the walls hold, he could hold too. At some point, reinforcements would come. He just had to hold on for a little longer…Kanjak Sangir takes damage as a lone composite bowman defends against a large invasion force from Vyatka. Bactria strengthens their hold on Marakanda.

Qara-Khitai settlers head into the Tarim Basin only to find themselves blocked by the Mysore city of Salem. With six settlers on this slide, it won’t be long until there is no space in this region.

The Ket find themselves in an unfamiliar scenario; there is a direction they are blocked from settling. A trio of Rouran cities put a stop to the eastward expansion of the Ket and give themselves some space to work with. The Itelman settler wonders why they walked through all that open wilderness just to get stuck here.

Thousands of men died, scores of ships sunk, trade routes disrupted…and for what? The war achieved nothing. Anxious and uncertain, the merchant guilds of the Hanseatic League call a Tagfahrt (Hanseatic Diet) to discuss what went wrong and how to fight wars good in the future. They came to the conclusion that a loose league of guilds could not achieve the coordination and responsiveness necessary to deal with foreign threats. As a result, they consolidated into a Monarchy under King Wullenwever. For who knows when they might find themselves at war again…

I guess we know now. Estonia declares war on the Hanseatic League…uh Kingdom. They share borders so who knows what can happen. What we did know was that Tomari would fall to Yanfang. That was a poor settle by Ryukyu and this result should be a surprise to noone.

The settler to the north may indicate that Ryukyu has yet to learn their lesson.

Growing tired of the squawking and cawing, Japan makes peace with the Itelman. If being at war means listening to that raven all the time, then they can keep their cities.After realizing there were no more cities to capture, a confused John Macarthur makes peace with the Rapa Nui. As he watches their diplomats leave he wonders where they are going and where they came from. A city that sprang up from the dirt, with ambassadors that fade into the quiet wind.

The sheer and absolute wide open space available to settle in North America is incredible. Any other region on the cylinder would love to have this.

Tlingit’s and Pomo compete to make the best “C” shaped empire. On the minimap it sort-of looks like a Pomo’s is eating Ponca, which they probably should do at some point.

The scout shifted nervously as he recounted his findings. New South Wales had conquered a city from a so called “Rapa Nui” peoples. This means NSW has captured more cities than Bunuba. Jandamarra did not look pleased, spurring the scout to quickly add that they located another Rapa Nui city on an island off their north coast. Not to be outdone by NSW, Jandamarra decides to capture a ‘Hanga’ city of his own.

Tlingit fleets make another attempt at capturing Behe’pal and get it into the red. The two triremes won’t be enough to take the city by themselves, but others are in the area.

The Kipchaks get a bit ahead of themselves and declare war on Phoenicia while Bactria still separates them. They would have to take Marakanda and embark across the Caspian Sea to even reach Sarepta. This is ignoring the fact they will be fighting Bactria the whole time. Yeah…this declaration is meaningless.

“Have faith brothers! The God-King protects! The heretical Tlingit will break upon us like the water they worship!” Pomo elects to not establish a Monarchy or Principality like many others before it. Instead they break the mold and become a Theocratic State…with a God-King…A Tlingit naval detachment works its way down the Californian coast for a sneaky attack on Po’tol. That or they thought they could reach the Pomo capital despite it being inland. Pomo has yet to rid themselves of the two triremes sieging Behe’pal and their turn has already been processed.

Vlad paces to and fro within his palace. He is in a foul mood, a bloody foul mood. The notion of an even Redder Sea was enough to calm him at first. Then, it escalated to the Circle of Coffins, which abated his bloodlust further. Full blown religious centers dedicated to war continued the effort. But now he needed to do more, something even grander…

Wallachia citizens were a bit confused when the decrees were made. Food was to be distributed among the populace for no cost? But it was true. The carts, laden with meals, were provided. All proclaimed how kind and altruistic their leader was, unaware of the slow uptick in missing peoples. Whispers of something in the night that lingers in the corner of your eye. Freezes the air around you and makes your skin crawl. A black hole that captures happiness and joy on an event horizon and crushes them into the void. And the eternity one sees as they fall in only contains the remaining terror and despair. But few dared speak of it. For it could only be of the imagination…

—

Or if Vlad really wanted blood, he could start a war with all those troops. But nooooooo!

Wallachia enhances their religion with Feed the World and From Giving Hands, both of which increase food production to fatten up…I mean… feed the people.

The race for the cylinder’s northernmost isles have begun with Scotland settling Dundee and Umhaill colonists sailing towards Iceland.

Whereas the Hanseatic League’s fight with the Kalmar Union was across a large front that divided both military’s attention, this war with Estonian focuses around a single city on the wrong side of the river for defense. The Hansa scramble together a small defensive force as Estonia takes the offensive and immediately damages Rostock.

A large contingent of Ethiopian troops trek westward along the Congo. Some of the soldiers wonder why west when the hated Maravi are to the East. Some say it’s to protect settlers on their journey and others believe there is a second, secret objective. For now, it is a mystery. Along the Red Sea, Phoenician ships continue to pepper Nashaq but don’t seem to be making much progress.

In South Africa the We Hate Maravi Party isn’t doing so well. In fact, it seems to have backfired for Herero as Otjikune comes under attack. It seems unlikely to fall…but shouldn't this be a slam dunk? Maravi is fighting every nation they border. There’s no way this will somehow be a win for Maravi.

Pegu to Geiju Two: Electric Boogaloo is performing as well as most sequels… “eh”. Pegu has certainly committed troops to the attack. But Geiju is far better integrated into Yunnan. It seems this one is just going to be the same story as before.

Tired of being trapped in their squeezebox, Scythia attempts to break out by declaring war on Phoenicia. Unfortunately for them, Phoenicia is outside of the box and unreachable. This does give us the excuse to look at the Scythian UU: the Gorytos Archer. It is a chariot archer replacement that is stronger and starts with the first unique trait promotion.

Rapa Nui surprises everyone and goes on the offensive against Caral and attacks its capital. This isn’t going to go anywhere, but it is a statement by our plucky, odd, globe traveling civ.

A couple of uneventful wars end as the Ponca and Teo make peace as well as the Ternate and Cebu. A Ryukyu settler cowers on land as they evade Yanfang Triremes.

Hello Le Havre-Mart employees!

Welcome to Umhaill Co. We hope your first few days have gone well. As part of your onboarding, you’ve been added to Uni-haill, where you will find several assigned training courses to help you get oriented, stay compliant, and feel confident as you begin your journey with us. Be sure to attend one of the three orientation sessions to familiarise yourself with Umhaill’s mission, culture, leadership, key contacts, and much more!

Welcome to the Umhaill Family!

I had completely forgotten that the Bjarmians were at war with the Kalmar Union. Which makes sense because nothing has happened. Triremes fight in the northern reaches of the Ocean over nothing and a large Bjarman force slowly stumbles through frigid forests before splitting up to attack Turku and Vassa. Keeping in mind their record against Estonia, I doubt their chances.

Vyatka forces finally succeed at taking Kanjak Sangir with a convincing push. The Kipchaks have no chance of reclaiming the city and they also have to contend with a Bactrian push towards Sarai. The Ural mountains provide some protection for their northernmost lands, but the fall of Kanjak Sangir opens a path for Vyatka to threaten the Kipchak core.

IMDB score 4.2 out of 10. Same boring plot…same disappointing ending.

Here is a close look at the Wriggling Rider, a horseman replacement that gets extra movement during Golden Ages and refreshed movement on freshwater. They can dig wells on plains and desert that provide freshwater.

I can’t help but imagine these riders constantly wiggling about like an antsy toddler or one of those inflatable car dealership people. Just a big formation of them at attention…but wriggling. The Scythians declare war on France in another attempt to get out of their box. Once again, they are separated by another Civ. This is the third civ they are fighting that has one civ separating them (the others are Phoenicia and the Kalmar Union). Who are they going to attack next? The Kipchaks? Ket? Papal States? Apparently anyone besides their neighbors.

As settleable land grows increasingly scarce, the Japanese recruit Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne as an admiral in their fleet. His mission, to find the Terra Australis, a theorized seventh continent that would balance the land mass in the southern hemisphere with the north. If found, such a land would grant Japan with ample space to expand. Or…they could actually settle Japan itself.

In our world, Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne was a French captain sent on the Terra Australis Expedition to find the fabled continent (not to be confused with Australia, which was called New Holland at the time). He would meet his demise at the hands of the Maori in New Zealand.

Yanfang recruits Artemisia to assist their fleet in hunting down the Ryukyu settler. Sensing an opportunity, the settler sneaks off the far side of what I believe is Palawan and heads further into Indonesia. One must wonder where they are possibly planning to settle.

Queen Artemisia I fought in the Greco-Persian Wars (yes that one) on the side of Persia. She was one of few dissenters at Xerxes war council that disagreed with sending the fleet in after the battle of Thermopylae. Xerxes declined her council and engaged in the Battle of Salamis, a crushing defeat for the Persians. Afterwards, he dismissed all other council members and solely listened to Artemisia’s advice for disengaging from the war.

“You know what…I should settle here. It's a tropical, warm beach, riverside prime real estate. It’ll be great!”

The Chono Settler finally makes up their mind and settles Quellon.

Rapa Nui seems to be doing a fine job defending Hanga Piko as the Bunuba are unwilling to commit a serious force to the invasion.

Brittany - 450 BC - Umhaill Co. has announced that they’ve reached a definitive agreement to acquire Le Havre-Mart, general store. Umhaill Co. senior management and board of directors support and embrace this acquisition. In efforts to streamline its newly acquired organization, Umhaill Co. has performed cuts to unnecessary or redundant employment. “We are proposing a shift in logistical processes in Le Havre-Mart to incorporate Umhaill specialists for vertical integration. As a result, some roles may no longer be required. The reduced overhead will allow Le Havre Mart to perform with better margins while still delivering the quality experience Le Havre Mart consumers expect.”

We have inquired Grace further on the extent of the layoffs, but have yet to receive a response. Reports of Le Havre Mart operating with minimal staff have yet to be confirmed.

With how much the Scythian Squeezebox is mentioned, it’s easy to forget that the Papal States also have it pretty bad. They manage to fit Castel Gandolfo on the toe of Italy, which should ensure that none shall pass through the Strait of Messina.

Phoenicia’s boldness reaches new heights as they settle across the Aegean Sea in Greece. If the Cheesemakers want to eat, this could be a free morsel. Who am I kidding though, this Pope is in a food coma.

In other news the Yanomami make peace with Potiguara. Considering no slides of the conflict were shown, not much happened.

Estonia brings Rostock down to the black with plenty of melee troops to turn the city blue. The Henseatic Kingdom’s governmental restructure appears to be a failure as they have only a weakened Trireme to retake the city when it inevitably changes hands.  Scythia looks onward wondering when all these cities will disappear so they can fight their enemies on the other side.

If you take a look to your left, you will see lazy Portugal settle their 9th city… Portugal settles their 9th city?!?Look, I know Portugal’s stats are pretty rough but 9 cities is nothing to scoff at. There’s also the fact that these cities were all new and they were at war with France. They’ve spent most of this episode in peace, so maybe they’ve made some statistical progress. Aures and Wassalou’s settlers still wander the desert, hoping to find a spot that has some redeeming features.

Did these two start fighting at the beginning of this episode? If they did I don’t think we’ve been back here since the declaration and I don’t think we missed much. This war mostly provided the opportunity for Bangladesh to continue to encroach upon Mysore’s sphere of influence unimpeded.

Well I guess Portugal’s peace is over. After demonstrating his active settling, Joao II intends to show prowess in war too. Considering how nations' past seasons fared at crossing the Pyrenees, I don’t have much hope. That being said, Amiens may be at risk.

Two Biremes continue to poke Nashaq like they have been this entire episode. Perhaps they don’t intend to take the city. Perhaps after taking so much from the Ma’in so far this season, Phoenicia just wants to make them suffer for as long as possible. Just constant attacks and damage for all eternity.

Maravi manages to get Otjikune down to the red but they only have two weakened melee units left. Simultaneously, Herero begins to test the defenses of Maano which is not looking nearly as well defended as before. Tete and Sena are even more vulnerable, but Herero seems uninterested in them at the moment.

Everyone Hates Maravi. They hate our lands. They hate our leader. They hate our culture. They hate our people. They hate you. They want to destroy us. In solitude we face the world. But we have our own. And the pack is strong. For we are children of the hunt. Mother Divine birthed us into our pack and into our life. And in the pack we maintain our life. For by nature the prey outnumber the predator, and those who leave the pack will perish, by their hands or ours.

—

Rejected by the world, the Maravi turn insular, forming cults based on their Goddess of Hunt pantheon.

—

The Maravi Nyau Cultist is a Missionary replacement that is invisible on roads, improvements, or with another unit. They can expend themselves on city ruins to build a city.

Potiguara establishes an exclave within Guaycuru, who have their own exclave within the Chono. More settlers set sail into the Atlantic to see what scraps of land remain to claim.         

The Tlingit manage to take Behe’Pal with the last few troops in the region. Pomo has several melee units nearby so I expect this to flip back.

More settlers from these two civs meander around unclaimed Canada. The Pomo break away from their ‘C’ settling pattern while the Tlingit look like they are going to continue following the ‘C’ pattern religiously.

Estonia succeeds at taking Rostock and it looks like it is going to stay blue. Bremen is far better protected and very unlikely to fall. Estonia should peace out as from this point on they are just going to waste hammers.

Sumer makes a few peace deals and takes stock on their options. They are a rump state, yet still have options. One option would be to go with the time old classic of picking on someone even weaker than you and attack Ma’in. Another is to try again for Berytos as the Phoenicians seem to have even less army than before.

Seriously, where is the Phoenician army? They overcame the overextended accusations before, but they’ve seemed to double down on their bluff. Will anyone call it?

Pomo retakes Behe’Pal with relative ease and looks to hold it for a few turns. If Tlingit wants to flip the city again, they will need to bring that fleet from their capital and some ground forces to establish a foothold.

Cheesus Christ! Looks like the battle Pope finally woke up and decided to take the gift set before. They have more than enough to take the city if they commit to it.

We also get a pretty good look at Wallachia and its sizable army. Perhaps they should put it to use.

We reach game turn 100 which means it’s time for the info addict slides.

First up we have our Science leaders. Lanfang is a step above the rest but only by a single tech. Take note of Xaragua and Sumer in the top 5 and 10 respectively. This is probably their one saving grace in an otherwise uninspired performance.

New South Wales has the largest army on the cylinder, but only barely ahead of Ethiopia who is currently at war.

Scythia finds its military at number five, but refuses to use it on an enemy it can reach.

Anishinaabe has had a quiet episode but is number four on this list.

We switch from top players to bottom for net happiness. The Onondaga find themselves alone at -3 net happiness and New South Wales at -2.

Well Wallachia’s definitely paying for that army we saw. They are currently losing -47 gold a turn. They had a treasury of about 0 at the start of the episode so these guys are absolutely bankrupt now.

The Bunuba tops the chart for science output with their neighbors New South Wales only two spaces down. Considering how close these two are statistically, the inevitable war for Australia is going to have a lot of hype behind it.

Led by General Epaminondas, Bactria goes on the offensive against the Kipchaks. If they focus on Sarai, they may take the city, but it looks like they are splitting towards Sighnaq. The Qara-Khitai core observes from the sidelines for now.

Epaminondas was a Greek General of Thebes who was famous for breaking Spartan military control in Greece.

The Ryukyu settler succeeds in avoiding Yanfang patrols and settles Nakijin…right next to their previous settlement.

I joked about Ryukyu not learning their lesson when I saw this settler, I had no idea they literally were going to make the same mistake again. Yanfang should stop building settlers if Ryukyu is going to feed fresh settles to you.

The Bunuba bring a second, larger fleet to the shores of Hanga Piko. Time will tell if Rapa Nui can hold onto their remaining, far flung, colony.

Herero complete the turn of the tide as they capture Maano from the Maravi. With a single bowman nearby, it will stay in Herero hands for the remainder of the episode. Additionally, Sena and Tete are isolated and weak. If they send troops south, Herero could get an additional couple of cities and solidify their position for the foreseeable future.

Also, the Hansa prove me wrong and recapture Rostock from Estonia. Perhaps their switch to a single authority actually did make them more responsive to external threats.

Behe’pal exchanges hands once again and this time the Tlingit are bringing in an occupation force to defend their gains. I am apparently not good enough at predicting the likelihood of these flips so we will have to wait until next week to see who ends up keeping the city.

We finish off the episode with a look at the Teotihuacan mainland. Spearthrower Owl assigns Stonewall Jackson to hold the northern border as they send settlers to search for far off lands to settle. Perhaps they may become the first to stumble across Hawaii.

Stonewall Jackson was a Confederate general during the United States’ American Civil War. He earned his nickname during the Battle at Bull Run where his troops beat back a Union Assault, standing unflinching “Like a stone wall”. A skilled tactician, he fought until the waning months of the war where he was killed by friendly fire returning to camp.

Anyways thank you all for joining. I hope you enjoyed the read!