Impromptu Native American AI Game, Part 1

So here's the scoop on this one. I started this AI game kind of on a whim a while back, with the intent of posting intermittent screenshots to the Discord. Then partway through I decided to upgrade it to a game I'd actually post on the sub, with proper narration. So forgive if the early portions of the game are haphazardly presented and/or somewhat short on in-depth screenshots, and if the game's long-term balance is... questionable.

That said, let's meet the players! Clockwise from top we've got the Calusa under Caalus (Sukritact); the Chinook under Comcomly (Sukritact); the Blackfoot under Crowfoot (CL); Three Affiliated Tribes under Four Bears (Sukritact); the Apache under Geronimo (Uighur); the Iroquois under Hiawatha (vanilla); the Cherokee under John Ross (ryanjames); the Haida under Koyah (LastSword); the Wampanoag under Massasoit (TopHat); the Crow under Plenty Coups (MayorS); the Anishinaabe under Pontiac (CL); the Cree under Poundmaker (CL); the Choctaw under Pushmataha (Durkle); the Coast Salish under Seattle (CL); the Tlingit under Sheiyksh I (CL); the Sioux under Sitting Bull (Tomatekh); Poverty Point under Tahera (Tomatekh); the Shawnee under Tecumseh (Vivala); the Chickasaw under Tishomingo (Durkle); the Mississippians under Tuskaloosa (Tomatekh); and finally, the Powhatans under Wahunsenecawh (MayorS).

If that bloated paragraph wasn't obvious enough, the theme was native civs of the modern US and Canada.

The first war shows up around turn 53 in the south-central of the map, with the Wampanoag and Shawnee teaming up against the Cherokee. John Ross's settlement of New Echota is the first target...

...which quickly falls to the Shawnee's unique Ohio Raiders.

Meanwhile, in the southwest of the map, the Apache declare war on the Calusa, who were boxed in on all sides and forced to settle well away from their capital (see the minimap).

Only a few turns later, and the Calusa capital falls.

In a war I failed to take a screenshot of the start of, the Iroquois take out the Cree capital of Sipiwininiwak, establishing themselves as a major power in the continent's northwest.

As the Iroquois end their war with the Cree and snag a city in the peace deal, they drag the Three Affiliated Tribes with them in coalitioning against the Choctaw.

The Apache set their sights on the Powhatans next, whose skinny coastal empire is sorely lacking in military.

The Cherokee belatedly make peace with their attackers, giving away Tahlequah to the Shawnee in the process.

Also, there's Muspa, the Calusa holdout away from home.

In the map's southeast, the Chinook push their whole land military inland to attack the Wampanoag. Massasoit's dependence on warriors is concerning.

The Iroquois take Chahta Tamaha from the Choctaw, while the Apache attack on the Powhatans' core has somehow fizzled.

The Apache did manage to take the indefensible Powhatan city of Orapakes, except now they face a coalition led by the Sioux.

The Chinookan invasion of the Wampanoag has stalled.

Sitting Bull quickly snaps up Orapakes and the Apache capital of Jicarilla!

Comcomly and Massasoit make peace.

We take our first good look at the map's northeast corner as the Blackfoot attack the Haida.

Sitting Bull takes Geronimo's surrender and, with it, the ex-Calusa capital of Escampaha. The Sioux's new target is the Powhatans.

Hiawatha has a slight early tech lead.

The Salish somehow committed enough troops to hike through Wampanoag territory and attack the Chinook at Qwatsamts.

The Anishinaabe take Lipan, eliminating the upstart Apache in 21st place after a quick rise and fall.

The main highlight here in the north-central part of the map is the Chickasaw setting their sights on the weakly defended Blackfoot colony of Aapatohsipikani, using their Missipi' Raider UU in large numbers.

Also note the Cherokee attacking the Shawnee...

...since John Ross has retaken Tahlequah, which he'd previously given away. The Shawnee also face an invasion from the north from the Crow.

The Chickasaw take their target and turn northeast to attack the Blackfoot core.

The Crow strike hard and take the Shawnee capital!

The Chickasaw raze Kainaa, only now they're being attacked by the Tlingit from the northwest and the Salish from the southwest.

Crow forces take Chalahgawtha on the Scioto, and some Poverty Point troops arrive to help attack New Echota.

Despite the negligible presence of the Powhatan military, the Sioux are struggling to break through to Werowocomoco.

New Echota falls to the Crow, eliminating the Shawnee in 20th place.

The Chinook gear up for another round against the Wampanoag, featuring a whole lotta pikemen.

The Tlingit pick off Tchitchatala from the Chickasaw, and the Salish are working on taking Etoukouma.

The Wampanoag army is in disarray as their capital falls!

Tishomingo has no shortage of enemies. Much of the map is against the Chickasaw and nobody is on their side.

The Blackfoot are eliminated in 19th place by a surprise capture of their capital by the Iroquois navy. Meanwhile, the Chickasaw continue to lose ground as Aapatohsipikani falls to Poverty Point.

Poverty Point also snags the Chickasaw capital, Pontotoc, while the Haida take Achoukouma. The Crow troops that hiked all the way up here are left without any cities to their name.

The Chickasaw have just one city left, Falatchao.

After a very long and very grindy war, the Iroquois finally finish their conquest of the Choctaw by taking Tuskahoma. They're eliminated in 18th place.

The Salish aim for the weakened Wampanoag, bringing along plenty of their UU, the Sto:mex.

Not to be outdone by Hiawatha, Sitting Bull makes progress in his grindy war by finally taking the Powhatan capital and making peace... for the moment. Also, he builds a cool castle to celebrate.

The Tlingit apparently wanted more of the Chickasaw land, so they declare war on Poverty Point to get at it.

2 turns later, and Pontotoc is taken.

The Salish complete their conquest of the remaining Wampanoag cities, eliminating them in 17th place.

This shot is mostly to show off that the Chinook have the ex-Wampanoag city of Shawmut.

The Tlingit take Aapatohsipikani from Poverty Point, while some Mississippian Falcon Dancers take Achoukouma from the Haida.

The Chinook aim for the Cherokee next. John Ross is definitely a weaker player at this point, but the distance is pretty far for Comcomly to stretch.

The Three Affiliated Tribes were trying for so long to get through to the last Calusa city of Muspa, only for the Anishinaabe to snipe it at the last second. The Calusa are eliminated in 16th place long after they could've been eliminated.

The Haida capital also falls to Tuskaloosa, who's apparently trying to encircle the last Chickasaw city.

The Cherokee lose Tahlequah not to the Chinook, but to the Salish.

Chota also falls to Chief Seattle, exiling John Ross to the frigid Antarctic outpost of Tanasi.

Poverty Point is somehow the first civ to settle on this lovely uninhabited side-continent, despite not having a single city on the coast of the mainland at the moment.

The Iroquois wipe out the last Powhatan city of Matchut, eliminating them in 15th place.

As the Tlingit-Poverty Point front keeps flipping, Tuskaloosa attacks Tahera's exposed border.

The Cree, despite having lost their capital to the Iroquois ages ago, are still around and are boldly attacking the Tlingit (with Mississippian support).

Hiawatha attacks the Three Affiliated Tribes, who've been pretty quiet other than wonderspamming a lot. The Great Wall will help their defense, at least.

But 11 turns later, Like-a-Fishhook is in the black...

...and 2 turns after that, it falls.

That's not the only capital down this turn, as it turns out. The Salish have taken Poverty Point, while Jaketown had fallen to the Mississippians...

Tahera survives for the moment in her colony of Claiborne.

Four Bears decides he's more invested in seeing Shakespeare than defending his capital. Priorities.

The Mississippian forces start pushing through Tlingit territory, and Sheiyksh looks short on troops.

Pontotoc falls next. I think the Tlingit are too distracted defending their capital from the Cree to hold their other border.

Four Bears surrenders his capital, as well as Okos and Sukhutit, for peace, then goes off to watch Twelfth Night.

The Anishinaabe put John Ross out of his misery by taking Tanasi, eliminating the Cherokee in 14th place.

Tchitchatala is captured and razed, while the Tlingit are a shell of their former self.

The Crow decide to put their first colony out west right across from Claiborne. They're the third civ to settle out here (note the Sioux colony to the south on the minimap).

The Iroquois attack the Crow with a substantial army. The Crow navy quickly takes the ex-TAT city of Okos on the lake and razes it.

Tuskaloosa punches through to Chilkat, the Tlingit capital, denying Poundmaker the prize. Kaliakh's in the yellow.

The Cree get the last laugh, however, taking Kaliakh and eliminating the Tlingit in 13th place.

Achepabecha flips as the Iroquois army and Crow navy face off.

The Mississippians attempt to keep pushing westward by attacking the Cree, while the Iroquois raze Achepabecha to keep it from flipping.

Kaliakh falls to the Mississippian riders...

...only to flip back to the Cree navy a few turns later.

The Iroquois resettle Achepabecha's tile with Montreal, which will flip as soon as Plenty Coups wiggles a melee ship in there. Kaliakh flips.

That TAT Black Mouth is trying real hard to be inconspicuous.

What a shocking flip. The Iroquois army is trying to skip straight the Crow capital, with mixed results.

By this point, the Sioux and Iroquois are the standout military powers.

One bit of outright good news for the Crow is that they've taken Sukhutit, which TAT previously gave away to the Iroquois.

Tuskaloosa wants to be done with the Cree front, and sets Kaliakh and Sturgeon Lake on fire...

...only for them both to flip and avoid being burned down. Tuskaloosa doesn't bother trying to burn Sturgeon Lake when he next flips it back.

The Iroquois take Autocracy as the first civ to get an ideology.

The Sioux take Order a few turns later.

Tuskaloosa steals as much land off of the Tishomingo as he can without actually attacking them. Yeesh.

Sitting Bull runs away with the World Fair by a huge margin.

Things start to turn seriously against the Crow as Hiawatha's eliminated most of the Crow lake fleet, has a stable hold on Montreal, and has Ashkuale on the ropes.

It flips!

Plenty Coups is going to struggle to take it back this time, and seems very depleted.

The Salish try to make their way through to the Anishinaabe garrison at Muspa. Even if Seattle flips the city, Pontiac's navy will flip it back.

While working on retaking Sturgeon Lake, the Mississippian navy captures and razes the Cree island city of Totouskak.

The two make peace, leaving Totouskak to burn and Sturgeon Lake still in Cree hands.

Pontiac shrugs and gives away Muspa for free rather than fight over it any longer.

The Sioux have gone all-in on colonizing this island.

A Chinookan settler, bound for these islands, shakes his fist from his escort boat when he sees that Poverty Point had long since settled where he wanted to. This apparently sparks a war.

The settler sails past Claiborne, yelling angrily while getting shot at. Another Chinookan settler who is not so easily riled just settles Seamysty.

Angry settler settles for building Cathlapotle.

Hiawatha has Ashkuale on lockdown, but pushing any further against the Crow would probably necessitate going through TAT territory.

This episode comes to a quiet conclusion as we see that the Sioux are rolling in dough. Look for a follow-up whenever the heck I get around to recording it.

Who do you think will win? Vote in the Strawpoll: https://www.strawpoll.me/18296444