Impromptu Native American AI Game, Part 2: The Belt and the Fish

Welcome back to Impromptu Native American AI! To start off this part, I wanted to take a look at each of the remaining civs. We start out here with a look at the homeland of the Sioux, who took the fan strawpoll vote after the last part. In addition to this core area, Sitting Bull has a substantial, well-developed colony to the west.

The Anishinaabe are mostly stuck, sandwiched against the coast by the much more powerful Sioux. Pontiac has little military power outside of a bunch of increasingly-dated privateers.

The Iroquois are the dominant power of the map's northwest, and Hiawatha had been putting in serious work towards warfare this game. Probably the most successful I've ever seen the vanilla Iroquois be, honestly.

The Cree, well... they're hanging on. When the best that can be said for Poundmaker is "hey, at least he's not dead!", then... that's not the best sign.

The Crow were doing an impressive job for a while, but despite putting up a damn good fight, the Iroquois have been overpowering them. Plenty Coups has lost his capital and is fighting to survive.

The Three Affiliated Tribes continue to survive by virtue of nobody having bothered to finish them off yet. Four Bears isn't exactly doing much of importance.

The Coast Salish have a moderately sized empire in the continent's center. Seattle's doing alright for himself.

The Chinook are an odd case, as they possess a weirdly-shaped territory and a navy that mixes their never-obsolete early-game UU with a much more modernized fleet. Comcomly's been relatively idle for a while, though.

The Mississippians are in a powerful but stretched position in the map's northeast, with Tuskaloosa having made several impressive conquests. The Chickasaw are holed up in Falatchao.

The Haida are still around, nominally, as well. That's... all you can really say for them, at this point.

Speaking of "I guess they're still alive", say hi to Poverty Point-in-exile, everyone!

Alright, enough overview; time to get into the new stuff. The Iroquois broke through to Binneessiippeele, which prompted an immediate Crow surrender of everything but the old Shawnee capital of Prophetstown. This is pretty much game over for Plenty Coups.

The Iroquois also resettle the lake island with Cayuga Castle.

Even the Crow colony of Esekepkabuk was ceded in the peace deal, and... hang on, what's that notification?

That's right, the Iroquois and Chinook are teaming up against the Mississippians! The first clash between Hiawatha and Tuskaloosa looks to be naval in the north.

Meanwhile, in the southeast, Comcomly's got the vulnerable target of Spiro in his sights.

The captain of this Iroquois frigate probably wonders what the hell that thing is floating in the sky up here in the arctic. Don't worry about it. It's nothing important.

Spiro is quickly knocked to yellow. The Chinookan navy's weak ships have been mopped up, but Comcomly rolls out his first battleships and carriers.

Spiro falls, but Tuskaloosa won't give it up without a fight.

In the north, the Iroquois navy is giving Kaliakh a pounding while Mississippian troops attempt to attack the old Blackfoot capital of Siksikawa.

On both fronts, though, the Iroquois seem to have the advantage.

The Mississippian army has failed to retake Spiro and their navy has been severely depleted.

Kaliakh flips...

...and flips back. This will keep going for a while, by the looks of things.

Cahokia starts to take serious damage from the Chinookan air force, something which Tuskaloosa doesn't seem prepared to counter.

Tired of flipping it over and over, Hiawatha razes Kaliakh to keep it out of Mississippian hands.

The next turn, it's gone, and the Iroquois navy has moved on to Pontotoc. Siksikawa is not being seriously threatened.

Remember the angry Chinookan settler declaring war on Poverty Point last part? They're still at it... only Comcomly forgot to pack a melee unit. Whoops.

Cahokia flips, in a major blow!

It flips back, but that's going to be hard for Tuskaloosa to recover from.

The Iroquois navy has gone the long way around to capture Ninstints, while Pontotoc's in the black and will flip as soon as a melee ship gets in range.

That happens three turns later. (Note Cahokia continuing to flip in the background.)

Pontotoc flips back, but for how long can the Mississippian army keep this up?

Seattle is the first civ to hit the atomic era, and the first to the Manhattan Project as well.

By this point, the Chinookan military has Cahokia on lockdown and is threatening Moundville and Angel Mounds.

Note that Comcomly is still at war with the Chickasaw from a while back, and I point this out because I'd started to see Chickasaw units taking damage as Chinookan forces came in range of them.

The Mississippian arctic colony of Etowah falls to Hiawatha. It wouldn't be vanilla Hiawatha if he wasn't trying to get ahold of every one-tile island, now would it?

Pontotoc continues to flip as Moundville falls to red...

Achoukouma falls to the Iroquois as the Chinookan air force starts to pick on Falatchao.

Pontotoc flips, Falatchao is in the red...

Comcomly takes Moundville!

And with the fall of Falatchao, the Chickasaw are eliminated in 12th place. Tishomingo lasted a lot longer than he could've, at least.

The Iroquois navy has continued onwards to capture Atahachi.

Pontotoc flips again as Angel Mounds falls to the red...

The Iroquois navy snaps it up and moves on towards Emerald Mound.

The Chinook take Jaketown, reducing Tuskaloosa even further.

These last few cities are all the remains on the mainland of the Mississippian empire of the episode's start.

And as Hiawatha grabs Emerald Mound, Tuskaloosa's run out of island holdings.

Comcomly finagles a cavalry unit into Claiborne, eliminating Poverty Point in 11th place. Alas, Tahera's colony wasn't enough to survive into the top 10.

With the Iroquois having a more definite hold on Pontotoc and the Chinook having taken Aapatohsipikani, Tuskaloosa is reduced to just Chilkat, the former Tlingit capital.

Not to be outdone, Seattle declares war on the Anishinaabe. Problem is, this requires going through the furthest extreme of his territory and this looks like a great place to stalemate.

The Chinook, unable to reasonably get to Chilkat, make peace with the Mississippians. This war was a huge windfall for Comcomly, leaving him as a major force in the map's east.

Weaker and distant powers declare war against Tuskaloosa. The rump state Cree are actually in a position to maybe take Chilkat, so that's not to be overlooked.

Even the weakest surviving civs like the Three Affiliated Tribes and Haida think they have something to gain by declaring war. Insult to injury at this point.

Hiawatha backs off, figuring he'll let someone else get the elimination warmonger penalty. He's gained enough from this war already.

Comcomly decides to press his advantage by attacking the Coast Salish! Chinookan forces approach Montaup, while Salish forces aim for Shawmut.

1 turn later, Montaup has flipped and the Chinook have Stahlahl surrounded.

Seattle's situation gets much more dire as Comcomly and Hiawatha are once again in alliance. The Salish air force out of Muspa (off-screen) hits Chalahgawtha in an attempt to scare off the Iroquois, who don't have many troops in the area just yet.

Stahlahl and Montaup are quickly captured, and there's little way for the Salish to get back to them. Shawmut, however, looks surrounded.

Knowing he's got bigger things to worry about, Seattle makes peace with the Anishinaabe, who look very depleted.

Despite seeing little military action so far this part, the Sioux have the biggest military at the moment - partially a testament to the Sioux's impressive production base. The Iroquois aren't far behind, however.

Potumtuk and Shawmut both take damage, as the Salish try to push back.

On the other hand, the Salish forces in the northeast are lacking as the Chinookan air force makes bombing runs over Poverty Point.

Iroquois troops suddenly flood the Salish core, with Old-Man House in dire straits.

Seattle seems to have a problem with priorities, declaring a new war while his capital is under heavy siege. It's not like the Crow are in any immediate danger. Also, Hiawatha's got the bomb.

Old-Man House falls, and there's no Salish troops nearby to even flip it! The Iroquois military continues to be lethally effective.

The Iroquois-Chinook alliance takes on a new target, and... well... I'm sorry, Poundmaker. This is gonna hurt.

Etoukouma falls to the Iroquois, Spahbahdeed falls to the Chinook, and Poverty Point is in the red. The Salish are crumbling quickly!

Sitting Bull puts his production to use and hosts the Olympics. Other civs at least made a good effort.

The Chinook pick up Poverty Point, adding another capital to Comcomly's holdings.

Can I get an F for the Cree?

F. There wasn't much Poundmaker could do after he lost his capital to Hiawatha so early in the game, but making it to this point in the game despite that is no small feat. The Cree are eliminated in 10th place.

The Iroquois capture Tahlequah as well, and the two allies' forces start to converge near Chota, the old Cherokee capital.

Having reached turn 450, that's all for this part. Thanks for reading, and be sure to vote in the strawpoll on who you think will win! https://www.strawpoll.me/18350772