Mediterranean AI - Part: 16 War is Hell (and Dumb)

Hello, welcome all to this penultimate part of the Mediterranean AI game! No sweet map this time, but that's fine.

From last part, 28 votes were cast, with an amazing 24 going to Israel. France has 3, and the Berbers have the remaining 1. Pretty high confidence in Israel.

We start this smaller than usual part with Israel continuing to attack the Berbers in eastern Libya. Israel has a slight advantage, but the Berbers are holding the line pretty well for now.

Or not. They lose Alexandria and Tazirbu, as well as most of their units in teh area. The new defensive line is at Guimar and Agana I suppose.

In Morocco, things look bad as France captures Taza and Mecca. Morocco should be able to recapture those cities quickly, but the fact that it happened shows Morocco's weakness.

Moldavia is having a rough time of it as well, as they are reduced to foreign lands. France's push into the Balkans is slower than Israel's, likely due Moldavia using more resources to hold the French back.

Israeli forces push further into what was Moldavia while Moldavia concentrates its forces to remove France from the Balkans. An interesting strategy, as the cities Moldavia recovers from France are relatively useless, whereas if they defended against Israel they'd keep some larger cities.

In southern Italy the Berbers have a concentration of forces, but they don't appear to be using them very efficiently. Also, you would not believe how many times Moldavia flipped Tirana, you'd think their entire defensive strategy depended on that city for some reason.

Israel captures Guimar and Acero, and looks set to capture Agana next turn. So much for the Guimar-Agana defensive line.

The fall of Bgayet should be the end of Moldavia's Italian empire.

Moldavia is essentially doomed, and has been for some time. They may have recaptured Budapest, but I'd be surprised if they kept it for long.

Tmassah falls to the Israelis in the desert, and Garama looks set to follow.

Oh man, two turns since we were last here and Moldavia has been reduced to 3 cities.

Just one now. This puts France and Israel in direct conflict with each other as they fight over the remains of Moldavia's western conquests.

Oh great, now the Berbers are going after Tirana... That city really isn't worth it but everyone seems to think it is.

And that's the Moldavians eliminated.

Moldavia (Rank: 5/58) played dangerously early game, taking part in the dismantlement of Romania, then slowly expanded their empire in the eastern Balkans until they became a major player. They took over the rest of the Balkans over time, and after a long period of stagnation during which no one did anything, they blitzed Rome and took them over in a few turns. During total war they pressed west and were pushed back by the French, while pushing east and taking over large portions of the Turkish empire, but were then conquered in turn by Israel.

France captures Bagdad and Marrakech, and Morocco looks a bit empty of military units.

The line at Garama holds, somehow, but I don't think pushing Israel back will be possible.

The Berbers push into Greece, capturing Corinth.

Israel pushes France back to the smallest land boundary they could have. I foresee not a lot of progress in this area for some reason... /s

France pushes further into Morocco, forcing Morocco to use up all of their units recapturing weaker and weaker cities.

All of a sudden Israel pushes into southern Italy, and the world unbans nukes.

France captures the entirety of Morocco's coast, making them the newest landlocked country.

Morocco recaptures their capital, but France captures the population and production hub of Fes, crippling Morocco.

A counter attack in Italy reduces Israeli Italy to Neapolis.

The Berber form a line before Garama and Tmassah. Something about Spartans holding a mountain pass comes to mind.

The Berbers gather up their military for a push into former Moroccan lands in an attempt to rid Africa of the French maybe?

Morocco is reduced to Tangier and Bagdad, though Kufa and Kidal could flip. Spoiler alert: They won't.

There goes Morocco, eliminated by France.

Morocco (Rank: 4/58) was a bit of a weird nation, starting off backed into a corner, they could have been quickly eliminated but instead formed an ok empire. They should have taken advantage of their lack of neighbours to conquer northern Africa, but were content to expand a bit and then turtle.

Israel temporarily captures Venice. I thought I'd show it for fun, though it is ephemeral.

France, now finished with Morocco, pushes eastwards into the Berber's territories. Zuwarah and Imtgheren fall, as well as Cirta.

Thamugadi falls next, as France settles Montpellier in the desert.

Carthage has been flipping for a while, but Utique falls for the first time.

Gabes and Leptus Magna fall to France, and you can see the edge of Israeli territory.

Blida and Annaba are temporarily French.

A few flips later, and France has captured Cartenna and Benghazi as well.

France captures Miskolc for the first time, somehow not capturing it from the Moldavians. That's the only notable thing on this slide.

Ghardaia falls, as do Ghadames, Tripoli, Garama, and Tmassah.

The only Berber cities left in Africa are Batna and Tizi Wezzu (best city name, don't care what you say).

Palermo falls to France, and the Berbers recapture their capital temporarily.

Not only Palermo, but the rest of Sicily/Malta is captured by France as well.

The Berbers are reduced to Batna. Good show lads, but not good enough.

The Berbers (Rank: 3/58) fell next slide. They started off well, crippling some of their neighbours early in the game, then went on to clean up shop in the west. They fought a major war with the Guanches to control the desert and won, then pushed towards Algeria. They stopped at the Moroccans, then conquered Egypt. They were pushed back by Israel in the east in the total war, and managed to hold the line until France swept in from the west.

We start to conclude this part by showing the Franco-Israeli border in the north. Looks pretty even for both sides.

France managed to capture Sarajevo, but it won't hold. Here's the border in Italy/southern Balkans.

France pushes the border to Guimar, establishing a front line where so many Israeli troops died against the Berbers.

Here's the end of this shorter part building up to the final confrontation. Thanks for reading, and here's the final Mediterranean AI game poll: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScIGV27b2VoI3zilpFE6M0TYJrDswlb6WTjhfNeE8pXxxwy_Q/viewform

You can see that Israel holds the highest score, but almost double what the French have.

You'd think this would be the same, but you'd be wrong, the French control the larger military.

Israel does have a truly massive population though, over 2 billion.

And a significant production advantage.

And happiness, just for shiggles.

The total number of cities however isn't that different, only by 20.

Israel leads in everything though.

Au revoir!