Mediterranean AI - Part: 8 Rise of the New Guys

Guten tag gents, it’s time for another part of Mediterranean AI shenanigans! I’m u/porkpot and I’ll be your host, as ever.

The votes are in, and I thank you for voting and encourage those who don’t to do so. Out of 20 votes, Rome received the most with a full quarter of them (5). Personal favourite France received 3 thanks to their clean war with the Iberians and their DoW on Burgundy, while Iberia, Egypt, and the Guanches received 2. Spain, Numidia, Israel, Turkey, Sparta, and the Golden Horde all received 1.

We start this part off with one of u/SeroSedSerio’s great maps. You can really see the progress that Israel has made, the disappearance of Nubia and Portugal, and the consolidation of France’s territory.

Our first slide takes us to the Middle East, where we see the Israelis taking Sarepta and heavily damaging Raqqah. Sidon is taking damage from attacking Hittite forces, and the Kurds are trying to crack the nut that is Umayyad Harran. They’ll need to do better than composite bowmen and pikemen to break through Umayyad musketmen though.

In Tunisia, Carthage has flipped between Vandal and Carthaginian hands. Hannibal had better watch out, as he’s already on the ropes with only two cities. If Utique flips, he’ll be effectively eliminated as his centres of production will have been eliminated.

The Umayyads are counterattacking towards Damascus with their musketmen, which could pose severe problems for the Kurds. Raqqah is still Abbasid, while the Hittites have captured Sidon from them. If I were to give prizes in this game, I’d definitely give most combative or biggest comeback to the Hittites.

The Burgundian capital flips, as French unites take to its streets. There are still forces available to flip the city, but I doubt that it’ll flip multiple times at this rate. In the south, Autun has yet to take any damage and wayward Burgundian military units appear to be regrouping around the city.

Another bloody war in the Balkans breaks out as the Serbians declare war on the Bulgarians. The Serbian army is large for the area and the Bulgarian army is all but absent. The largest army by far of the region however is the Moldovan army, which is quite massive.

In the east, the Hetmanate and Trypillians return to war, and you can already see that the Moldovans and Trypillians have Gatling guns, and the Trypillians already have a rifleman. I’m sure I’ll point out someone else who has them at some time or another, but that’s how post-recording commentary works.

Eager to gain some points with the militarily dominant Israelis, the Rashidun declare war on the Abbasids. I’d be very surprised if it amounted to much, but they can always dream. Also, you can see Israel’s UA in action as they have a huge settler carpet around their capital that they can’t use.

As you may have seen, someone has advanced enough technologically to adopt an ideology. In this game, it is the Iberians, who have adopted Autocracy. This will only help the world fall into a real of fire and brimstone, which for us can only be a good thing.

The Carthaginian capital has fallen to the Vandals again, and it looks like the Carthaginian army will have its hands full defending Utique. At least they’re defending with musketmen, which is more than I can say for certain other nations.

The Iberians aren’t the only ones who have decided to adopt an ideology this part, as Rome adopts Order. I’m using the Civ names by policy mod, so it gets rebranded as communism, and the civs will have great names like the Venetian Fascist Reich or Union of Soviet Portuguese States. I don’t recall seeing any particularly successful freedom following civ, so I can’t give an example for that ideology.

The Rashidun have taken advantage of the lack of Egyptian units near Luxor to capture the city. With the capture of the former Nubian capital, this could put Egypt on the back foot. It could also, conversely, make them more likely to take to the offensive to regain their losses.

The Guanches are still at war with the Ptolemies, and have taken Dvin as a result. Things are looking excessively poor for the Ptolemies, which is bad for them, but the Guanches are looking much better as a result.

We receive another nice list of the most literate civs. The Romans top the list, followed by the Trypillians and Moldovans. The Iberians are down a few techs, which means that they must have beelined industrialisation to get coal for an ideology.

Underdogs of the game, the Hittites, are unsurprisingly last, followed by a few other civs in similar situations. What is surprising is that the Guanches are going on a conquering spree with so few technologies.

The Burgundians have managed to recapture their capital, and have cleared the French from the immediate vicinity of Autun. Dijon may flip once more, but I’d be surprised if it flipped more than that.

The Golden Horde and Trypillia make peace.

Return to the Levant to see that Israel has captured Raqqah at last, and that the Abbasid army is reduced to 5 combat worthy units. I’d switch my allegiance if I was an Abbasid supporter right about now, though it is worth noting that they are no longer at war with the Hittites or Israel.

The Kurds, not content to deal with a technologically superior enemy in the Umayyads have declared war on the Rashidun. That’ll likely be pointless.

Dijon has returned to French hands, and Philip of Burgundy should start thinking about making some sort of peace deal with Napoleon if he wants to remain in power much longer.

Egypt recaptures Luxor, and the fighting looks pretty heated around Petra. I’m of the opinion that as long as the Rashidun control the Red Sea the Egyptians won’t be able to accomplish much offensively apart from clearing them from Egypt itself.

In another pointless war, the Kurds and Alans make peace. The Alans are making good progress against Krasnodar, bringing the city down to yellow. Georgia is having a tougher time of it.

The Umayyads of the west have broken the Moroccan attack on Kufa, and the Cordobans have cleared the Moroccan fleet. Perhaps they’ll land forces near Marrakech in support of their Umayyad allies?

Almost as revenge for eliminating the Hungarians (even though the Serbians were part of the coalition), the Serbians and Bavarians declare war on Croatia. Croatia is already at war with Bulgaria on the other side of their empire, so they’ll have to think things through if they don’t want to get taken advantage of. Croatia has caught an unfortunate case of Bosnian peacekeepers, severely limiting their ability to move units as needed.

Here it is, the fall of Marsa Matruh, and thus the elimination of the Ptolemies by the Guanches.

The Ptolemies (Rank: 44/58) started in a protected area, with the sea on two sides. They settled outwards, and encountered the Guanches to the south and the Ayyubids to the east. Having encountered these neighbours, they attacked the Ayyubids and took some cities, then were eliminated by the ignored Guanches. Such is Civ.

The Serbians have retaken Cluj-Napoca from the Bulgarians, a city that Serbs took from the Cumans in the first great Balkan conflict. The Serbian army is now marching southwards to take on the city of Preslav.

The Rashidun army has effectively cleared the Egyptians from Petra, while the Egyptians have captured Meroe and have encircled Sana’a.

Not much is happening in the Numidians-Umayyad conflict, though Ubari has taken damage. In other news, the Trypillians and Hetmanate are at peace again, as are the Bulgarians and eastern Umayyads.

Would you look at that, Utique has fallen to the Vandals, eliminating Carthage.

Carthage (Rank: 43/58) started off in a tough spot, boxed in to the south by the Vandals and the west by the Numidians. They tried to settle towards the less crowded desert but were boxed in by their neighbours until they felt confident enough to take care of Carthage. A poor showing from a poor location for the Elephant King.

In the Balkans, people are sensing the Bulgarians’ weakness, as they have war declared on them by the Cumans and more importantly the Moldovans. Not that the Serbians needed help, but this all but dooms the Bulgarians. I’m sure it comes as some relief to the Byzantines, who were under attack by the Bulgarians.

We see in the notifications that the Golden Horde has lost their capital, but appear to have regained it. We have more declaration of war in the region, as the Turks and astoundingly Cyprus declare war on the Abbasids. You know things are going wrong for you when Cyprus declares war on you… Also, the Kurds and Umayyads make peace.

Further to the west, the Umayyads make peace with both of their opponents, the Moroccans and the Numidians. The Umayyads have made good gains from this war, taking Ubari and gaining Thugga from the peace deal with the Numidians, and taking Casablanca from the Moroccans last part.

The capital of the Horde flips again, and Egypt captures Sana’a, removing Rashidun territory from Egypt. Petra looks set to fall though, which could cause some problems foe Egypt in the area.

For Pete’s sake, the Horde capital flips again… Our spies report nothing interesting, and the first major damage in the Rome-Sparta war occurs, as the Romans damage Tirana, former capital of Albania. Rome looks firmly on the offense, and Sparta’s forces in the region look surprisingly lacking.

The impressive Moldovan army moves into Bulgarian lands from the north, taking Alba Iulia, a former Romanian city. Remember how they were in the game back in part 1? Yeah, first eliminated. Serbia is invading from the west, and has damaged Preslav

French forces have taken Autun, and next move on to Vezelay. In a move that must amuse Dufour, the Burgundian capital is in a formerly Swiss city. If I was Luxembourgish, I would be worried about becoming part of France sometime soon.

The Rashidun have recaptured Sana’a, which their hold on the Red Sea enables them to do, and have captured Petra. They’re taking the offensive towards Eboda now, though it could take a bit due to tough terrain in the region.

The two great powers have made peace! The winner of the war between Rome and Sparta is Rome! Sparta admits defeat and stops training legs in Tirana and Corinth, which can only lead to wimpy legs and good architecture in those cities. If Leonidas plays his cards intelligently, he’d attack as soon as possible to reclaim the cities before the Romans import a military to the peninsula.

The Asturians push towards Emerita, though progress looks slow as its mainly a naval thrust at the moment.

Timisoara falls to the Moldovans, further reducing Bulgarian territory. The Serbians are having a tough time cracking Preslav, though they have forces moving towards Sofia.

The Bosnians have decided that being friends with the Serbians is a good idea, and declare war on the Bulgarians. The Croatians are damaging Ingolstadt, but not much.

France captures Vezelay, and the Burgundians are trapped behind the southern branch of the Alps. They’re defended by lost Venetian units. If I was the Lombards, I’d try to take them out in an attempt to have 2 cities.

The Rashidun hold on to Sana’a, and capture Eboda. This reduces Egypt to not even their current borders, though they may have a bit of Libyan territory. Spain adopts the Autocratic ideology.

The Hetmanate decides to try to eliminate all Horde holdings bordering the Sea of Azov by declaring war on the Golden Horde. They only have Sygnaq there, so it shouldn’t be too hard to do that. It would appear that I forgot that this corner of the map, but Krasnodar has fallen to the Alans. Georgia hasn’t made much progress, though they may be able to take Sarai Batu if they play their cards right.

Another Great War is declared, as the Guanches invade the Berbers. Both countries have taken out their neighbours, now it’s time to determine who will dominate the middle of Africa. The Guanches look set to make good early progress, but you can see that the Berbers’ army lies deeper into their territory than in captured Garamantean lands.

Serbia makes peace with Bulgaria as they capture Presalv. No such luck from the Moldovans or Bosnians, as Bulgaria looks in trouble. You can also barely see it, but Adrianople is in the red from attacking Spartan forces, and Serbia has adopted the autocracy ideology.

Well, you can see Adrianople better here, as it now flies Spartan colours. Constantinople is also slightly damaged, but Antioch looks undamaged as far as I can tell. Byzantium is on its way out, by the look of things.

The Hetman declaration may have been for naught, as the Alans take Sygnaq. Sarai Batu looks set to fall, but there aren’t many melee units nearby so it may hold out a while longer yet.

Morocco and Cordoba make peace, with Morocco surrendering Marrakech in the peace deal. Algeria and Numidia go to war, which can only solidify one’s hold on the area at the expense of the other.

France has their both of their UU, the Imperial Guard and I think the Chevau-légers (idk, the mod has been removed from the Steam workshop...). They’ve made good progress consolidating their new gains, and have many workers establishing connections to existing infrastructure. If you look to the top left of the image, the Iberians look set for a sneaky settle where Nantes is IRL.

Georgia successfully captures Sarai Batu, and eliminates the Golden Horde. No longer will their garish colours blind us from reading what city they capture! The Georgians and Horde also make peace, which is pointless at this point.

The Golden Horde (Rank: 42/58) should have had it pretty easy in their corner of the map. They settled a few coastal cities, but never expanded inland towards the Alans. This left them exposed to their attacks, to which they eventually succumbed, along with those of the Georgians and Hetmans.

With the effective elimination of the Golden Horde, the Hetmanate sees no reason to continue to fight them for no further gains. Now that their common enemy is gone though, the Trypillians declare war on the Hetmanate once more. The Cordobans build the Porcelain Tower, while the Moldovans and Bulgarians make peace.

France and Burgundy make peace, though that doesn’t stop the Spanish and Moroccans from declaring war on them in France’s stead. The war against Burgyndy has been wildly successful for France, with France gaining 3 extra cities. Unfortunately for Napoleon, the Iberians have ruined this moment of triumph by settling Edeta in what should have been easily French land.

Moldova, Sparta, and Turkey are closing in on Constantinople. From the looks of things, Byzantium’s southern Anatolian holdings are still theirs, but we can’t tell for how long this will continue to be the case. You can see the reduced state of Bulgaria quite clearly in this image.

People aren’t happy with the western Umayyad’s recent expansions, and so the Vandals and Iberians declare war on them. The Vandals appear to have a proven track record of conquest, so if they keep it up it’ll be easy gains for them. The Umayyads make peace with Spain, giving them a city, probably Oran, and the Algerians and Numidians make peace as well, with Numidia surrendering Thamagadi.

The Guanches have conquered Tmassah, former capital of the Garamantes, from the Berbers. The Berbers’ army has yet to truly get into the fight though, so all that’s going on is the loss of some border posts.

Quick, time for another break! We see here who has built wonders. This should be mostly everyone, so we’ll only have this shot of wondrous civs.

In the Caucasus the Kurds and Turks have had enough of Georgia’s crap, so they’re invading. I’m not sure how it’ll go, but it’s another conflict in this world which is good.

The Berbers have recaptured Tmassah, and the Guanches have made peace. A rather disappointing war, this, but there’s only so much you can get people comfortable with what they have to do when they risk losing what makes them comfortable.

Sparta proves that it is still a powerful nation by capturing Constantinople, capital of Byzantium. This exiles the Byzantines to Antioch, a city surrounded by enemies.

Napoleon has apparently sufficiently recovered from his war with Burgundy and declares war on Iberia. If Napoleon was smart, which speaking of a CiV AI is a stretch, he’d try to take over Numantia and damage Bevipo, and make peace for Edeta. The Iberians’ best bet would be to defend Numantia while attempting to take Toulouse.

Unfortunately for the Algerians, Rome and the Berbers have teamed up to attack them. This will require some solid naval planning from both, so odds are the Algerians are fine. We can see that the Umayyad city given to the Spanish for peace is in fact Oran, former capital of the Tuareg.

In the first rifle vs rifle war, both sides slightly damage a city controlled by the other side. Sparta makes peace with the Byzantines after proving that Leg Day still reigns supreme somewhere.

Interesting parallel that Sparta left Byzantium crippled in the Civ V Battle Royale Mk. II, as well as this game. Now to see if the Byzantines suicide into a greater power for their death or if the Turks will kill them before that.

Another ideology is adopted, this time it’s the Bosnians who adopt autocracy. You can see the progress in the Serbia+Bavaria vs Croatia war, as Bavaria takes Esztergom. The Moldovans build the Brandenburg Gate, increasing their future military strength substantially.

Egypt recaptures Eboda and hangs on to Meroe by the skin of their teeth. Egypt’s modern rifleman army should be able to make substantial progress against the Rashidun army comprised mostly of pikes and musketmen.

As if Georgia didn’t have enough problems, the Alans declare war on them as well. They should be able to easily take Sarai Batu, and perhaps funnel a force through the Caucasus Mountains.

Return to the Trypillia-Hetmanate war… Well, now it’s a peace, so border might be a better way to put it. The Hetmanate escapes the war with Nebelivka, so overall it’s a net gain for the Hetmanate.

In Africa, the Vandals have captured Thugga from the Umayyads, as the Berbers and Cordoba declare war on Numidia. You can see the beginnings of a Roman fleet on the right.

Trypillia and Israel declare war on what’s left of Byzantium, though I’d say it’s only an effort to gain favour with Turkey.

Egypt and the Rashidun make peace, the Egyptians losing Petra, and the Rashidun losing Meroe. I’d say that this exchange doesn’t change much for the geopolitical landscape, though it does make defending each country’s territory a bit easier, apart from Sana’a.

France and the Iberians make peace, with nothing changing but army strength values. What a waste of time… In the background, Turkey becomes communist, an American/NATO nightmare (XP).

Morocco is back at it, they declare war on the Umayyads. They’ve chosen a good time to do it, as the Umayyad army is heading east, so they may have some success.

Seeing Croatia in a bit of trouble, the Bosnians declare war on them. They should endeavor to take Zagreb, as it cuts Jajce off from the rest of their territory.

Apparently declaring war on Croatia is what the cool kids are doing, as Sicily gets involved and declares war on them as well… Whatever man, you do you. You can see that Rome has Great War infantry in 1550, which is concerning for countries who aren’t Rome.

Leonidas declares war on Bulgaria, likely to finish them off. Rome’s GWI are even in Peloponnesia, which could spell trouble for Sparta should they go back to war with Rome.

Like I said, the cool kids are doing it. Sparta and the Cumans declare war on Croatia, and I helpfully point out something I wrote about for the past two slides. Good job me, that’s a smaller delay than usual. The Hittites want to garner favour with Sparta, as they declare war on Bulgaria.

Morocco captures Kufa from the Umayyads, which helps them expand a bit as they were trapped against the map border. The Berbers become autocratic.

Egypt also becomes autocratic as Sparta expands their northern front by declaring war on the Bosnians along with Luxembourg of all people. The Romans build Broadway. The Croatians make peace with the Serbians and the Bulgarians with the Cumans, while the Turks declare war on the Bulgarians and the Cordobans declare war on Algeria.

We end this part here on a slide full of action, which should entice you to come back to read some more. Also, vote in this poll to determine who you think will be the winner of the game! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfmWYZSIHqVyaoYU09sa_FiEW-8ETRRkP02UqyL6LgokWevZQ/viewform

Thank you for reading!

Turkey and Rome are jumping ahead in the score, followed by France, Israel, Iberia, and Moldova.

The city-states round off the borrom of the list.

Out of nowhere France takes first in population by a significant amount. Trypillia’s population ranking drops sharply, with the loss of a city to the Hetmanate.

The usual suspects are at the bottom, and so is Croatia for some reason.

Rome leads production by another significant margin, followed by Turkey and France.

There’s only so much I can say about people at the bottom of the rankings.

Moldova takes the lead in the military rankings, though not by too much.

I still can’t say much. I guess it’s mildly depressing to see some of the more warlike powers down here like the Kurds, Georgia, and Croatia.

Serbia takes the lead science outputly, though Cordoba and Rome aren’t far behind.

Croatia doesn’t have much science, which for an empire of their size is a bit weird.
Edit: Croatia, at the end of the part anyway, only has 3 cities, one of 13, one of 7, and one of 3, so I suppose their stats aren’t all that surprising.