Impromptu Native American AI Game, Part 4: Thunderbird Takes Flight (Finale)

Welcome back to Impromptu Native American AI Game! Last part ended on this dramatic cliffhanger, as long-time allies Hiawatha and Comcomly go to war! Now, to see what happens next!

These two share a rather long border, with this section in the center of the map being just one of several fronts.

To the north, several Chinookan border cities are quickly bombed to the red.

A cheeky Iroquois Privateer, stranded amidst the Chinookan navy... captures some canoes. Well, it's the thought that counts.

The next turn, nothing has flipped yet, but several cities teeter on the edge.

Iroquois forces converge on Aapatohsipikani while Chinookan troops regroup near Jaketown.

Comcomly pushes in the south towards Tahlequah.

The first city flip of this war is in the Chinook's favor!

But within the turn, Hiawatha evens the score by taking Aapatohsipikani, and Chinookan troops in the north seem sparse.

Comcomly boldly pushes forward to Ninstints, the former Haida capital!

...But he can't hold it, as Hiawatha has plenty more troops approaching.

War takes its toll in the islands as Claiborne is bombarded to black.

Chinookan forces capture the Iroquois space-filling city of Kanonwalohale!

The Iroquois navy responds by taking Claiborne!

Jaketown is on the brink of collapse as Iroquois reinforcements continue to flow towards the front lines.

The Chinook squeeze a Missile Destroyer into Angel Mounds.

Hiawatha reclaims Kanonwalohale!

Iroquois troops flood the northern front as Jaketown falls!

Comcomly manages a flip...

...only to lose Falatchao instead.

Undeterred, the Chinookan navy gets a ship back in there...

...and even retakes Ninstints! The push-and-pull is real here.

Aapatohsipikani is retaken!

Hiawatha's invasion is unrelenting, though, and Jaketown and Ninstints flip once again.

Then Ninstints flips back to the Chinook, yet again...

...and so does Jaketown...

...only for Hiawatha to keep things in contention.

I'm not highlighting every wonder, but Comcomly builds the first FW wonder, the Enrichment Center, in Potumtuk. The Chinook's tech advantage is helping keep them in the game.

Yep, more flips up here.

Comcomly drops the game's first nuke, hitting New Echota!

Hiawatha responds by nuking Cahokia...

...as well as Poverty Point.

Yep, still flipping.

Hiawatha is going full ham with nukes at this point, severely damaging Chinookan cities and forces.

Comcomly's doing an admirable job defending, but these numbers show just how far above his weight he's being forced to fight.

The whole of the old Mississippian core is radioactive at this point, and Poverty Point has fallen!

Falatchao is down now too as Comcomly scrambles to hold together any kind of defensive line.

Flip...

...and flip back. The Chinook's whole northern front has collapsed back to Moundville.

The southwest front holds steady for now, in part due to Hiawatha sending primarily ranged units.

Comcomly's ice sheet fleet (tm) is just... idling. The poor AI can't figure out how to get these ships somewhere useful.

Angel Mounds is temporarily flipped, but Comcomly's hold on this area is weakening. That Crow general is probably taking notes on Hiawatha's attack strategies.

Angel Mounds flips back. Also, good lord look at that fallout.

Sitting Bull: "You guys have fun over there, I'm gonna build up my economy."

Plenty Coups feels a chill down his spine, but is unsure why.

Spahbahdeed is nuked as Hiawatha sends more troops to the southwest front.

Pokanoket is nuked too. The Chinookan army has also started to depend heavily on Special Forces.

An Iroquois tank makes it as far as Chota!

It flips, but it's a bad sign for the Chinook.

Seamysty, another island city, is taken as well.

Moundville falls! Chinookan reinforcements are attempting to regroup near the irradiated wreck of Cahokia.

Chota and Spahbahdeed both fall over here, The Iroquois are pulling no punches.

Comcomly reverses all 3 captures, at least temporarily.

That said, it seems to have taken nearly all of his troops to do so.

And it's not long before Hiawatha retakes them.

Chinookan forces desperately fight through the fallout...

...but in vain.

Cahokia is captured as Iroquois troops bear down on the Chinookan homelands from the north!

A captured Esquai-ah is sent back towards the Iroquois capital. A war prize of some kind?

A line of special forces is formed in old Wampanoag lands...

...but it can't stop another Iroquois push!

In-universe, I have to assume the Chinook know this is a losing war, but damn they're trying their best.

Clatsop, a core Chinookan city, is nuked and bombarded!

Cahokia briefly flips...

...as do cities in the west...

...but Hiawatha goes on a rampage in response, taking 5 cities in one turn!

This includes Clatsop, putting the Chinookan capital right on the front lines!

A view of the re-flipped western front...

Cathlapotle is also taken in the islands.

The last Chinookan colony in this part of the islands, Willamette Falls, is nuked.

Flip...

Oh. That's not how I expected that to go.

In the middle of still fighting the Chinook, the Iroquois boldly declare war on their last real rival, the Sioux! Is this the beginning of the end?

...oh yeah, some flips back to Hiawatha over here. But that's not really what we're worried about now, is it?

Turn 1 of the Iroquois/Sioux war and Sitting Bull has already taken Muspa and started to surround Sukhutit.

Like-a-Fishhook, Four Bears's old capital, is nuked as Sitting Bull's tanks and helicopters descend on Matchut. Has Hiawatha bitten off more than he can chew?

The tenacious Chinook retake several cities, attempting hold the line as best they can.

But for how long can they keep up this defense?

The western front collapses back to Pokanoket.

Clatsop falls again as Iroquois ships round the bend towards Chinook itself.

Sitting Bull is taking no risks and drops nukes across Iroquois territory.

These Iroquois-held cities in the islands suddenly are under threat from the Sioux's highly-developed colony. Cathlapotle has already been captured.

As has Kanesatake! Hiawatha responds by nuking Itazipcho.

Sukhutit is the black and the Sioux seem to have a major numerical advantage!

One more flip of Chota? Why not at this point.

Montaup flips for the first time in this war.

Cathlapotle flips back to the Iroquois, but this front looks to be decisively in the Sioux's favor.

Sure enough, the same turn costs the Iroquois 3 cities right here!

Sukhutit also goes to the Sioux as Sitting Bull's troops approach the old TAT homelands.

Matchut is utterly surrounded!

Hiawatha's troops are still bogged down dealing with the Chinookan defenders...

...who are proving to be extremely resilient.

Still, they're slowly being whittled down...

...and the Iroquois war machine is still dangerously effective.

Okay, this one... this one I can't say I really understand. Sitting Bull attacks the Crow rump state because... why? I would've thought they'd be useful as a buffer, but AI does as AI does, I suppose.

Matchut is captured as Sioux tanks pass the mountains!

Seamysty goes to the Sioux as well, kicking the Iroquois out of this part of the islands.

A round of applause for Comcomly, the tenacious...

...as he continues to fight on against the odds!

Hiawatha retakes Kanesatake at sea...

...but on land, he's lost Seepoosha! Lipan's been nuked.

Sioux forces from the island colony take Emerald Mound...

...and Mohawk Valley! Because of course Hiawatha settled all these islands.

Hiawatha's power is such that he's at least holding his own on two very long war fronts.

The Iroquois even capture Werowocomoco, the old Powhatan capital.

Sitting Bull responds by taking Like-a-Fishhook, the old TAT capital!

Syracuse also falls as the Sioux navy creates a major diversion in the northeast!

Flipping to the Chinook...

Flipping to the Iroquois...

Nechacolee falls for the first time!

Hiawatha pushes back in the northeast as Mohawk Valley is retaken.

Like-a-Fishhook falls again! Where are the Iroquois troops?

Mohawk Valley keeps flipping as the Sioux keep the Iroquois distracted.

Yep, still flipping. Comcomly lives by the Galaxy Quest line: "Never give up, never surrender!"

Hiawatha's counterattacks in the northeast...

...center...

...and the west.

Sitting Bull evicts Iroquois troops from the old Powhatan coast.

Prophetstown is bombed to the red as Plenty Coups tries real hard to pretend he can still survive this.

Comcomly pushes still in the map's center...

...but Spiro falls for the first time, as Iroquois troops are 3 tiles from Chinook itself.

Sitting Bull takes Prophetstown, eliminating the Crow in 4th place. Plenty Coups endured, but only so far.

Iroquois troops swoop in and flip Prophetstown now that it's open to do so.

It flips back...

...but more importantly, Tuskahoma, the old Choctaw capital, is captured too!

The great war of betrayal is ended as the Chinook are forced to surrender to the Iroquois. 50+ turns of intense war have finally ended. The Iroquois keep the whole western front, plus Shawmut, in the surrender...

...as well as Nechacolee and Spiro. But the Chinook live on.

Oh yeah, Willamette Falls was given away too...

...and even the polar city of Neacoxie.

Now only the Sioux stand a real threat to Iroquois victory, as Hiawatha re-flips several cities he'd lost.

Here's the thing though. This front isn't going to be easy for the Iroquois to win.

Because, yeah, cities will flip.

But they inevitably flip back.

The Iroquois have a huge war machine and production base.

But the Sioux have a safe and substantial colony well away from the war front...

...and superior tech by a noticeable margin.

Combine that with the mountainous border by land...

...and a gap between cities at sea...

...and what you get is a war front where neither side has a decisive advantage.

The whole front is blasted to smithereens, by nukes and conventional arms.

Individual city flips are fleeting.

Lines of battle, temporary.

Surprise victories and successes are few.

Just a series of flips and flipbacks.

Going on for turn after turn.

Ideally I would've left these two at it indefinitely, but here's the thing.

My laptop is pretty weak, and this game was starting to strain it.

I would've liked to let them at least reach the end of the FW tech tree.

But increasingly, that was proving to be an impractical idea.

So even though there's not the usual kind of end-game stalemate state...

I do have to be willing to call it eventually.

And I do.

So unfortunately, you won't get to see a decisive victory for anyone this game.

But such is the way of things.

Seriously you guys it would just be another 200 slides of these cities flipping and you wouldn't have wanted to read it good lord

It just keeps going like this.

And it wouldn't have been fun to narrate or to read.

So. Endgame recap. I'm officially declaring the Chinook to have achieved 3rd place. Comcomly put on a great showing, conquering surprisingly well and putting on one hell of a defense against his more-powerful ally backstabbing him. Kudos.

The Sioux did excellently as well. They were a bit lazy here and there, but when the time came they proved their mettle. Their huge island colony kept them competitive despite their relative lack of mainland conquests. And in a war with the biggest power on the map, they stalemated. So I'm giving them a tie for first.

A tie rightfully shared with the civ they stalemated, the Iroquois. Hiawatha proved to be extremely competent this game, and easily could've won if he'd been able to overcome the Sioux. He couldn't quite pull ahead enough for a full on solo victory, but he came damn close.

That's all, folks. Thanks for reading.