Eurovision Song Contest Semi Final 1, Part 2

Welcome back, and we start off with a brilliant peace deal by Poland, saving Tallinn from certain Portuguese conquest! Conan Osiris is thwarted once more.

Montenegro wants Gomel. Serbia has cannons.

Estonia has managed to sneak out of containment and settle Pärnu in the background. Soon it will be Portuguese.

Slovenia eyes Bruges, a tasty treat on the edge of Ljubljana.

Greece returns to the battlefield in an effort to take Tallinn, which is still damaged. A few turns late for optimal effect, but still a good chance to take the city while it's still damaged.

The Cypriots continue on to Akureyri. Tamta got her invasion moves on "Replay".

Will she continue on to Kópavogur?

Taking advantage of Serbia's distraction with Montenegro, Georgia aims for Prishtina, defended by a single cavalry unit.

Pärnu falls, returning Estonia to a city state. You can see Victor Crone escaping by sea. Oh and yeah a discord notification that snuck by before I turned Do Not Disturb on.

Finland takes Belgium's side and fights Slovenia. The two fashion disasters united. One of my Discord friends has something to say about this situation.

Belgium's special ability earns it one of its very own Jääkäri.

Petar's plan backfires and Serbian troops flood Cetinje

It's a bit past turn 200, so here are the stats: Hungary and Georgia lead population by quite a margin.

Hungary and Georgia are tied for the production lead, with Portugal behind.

Hungary, Georgia, and Portugal lead in military. I sense a pattern

Georgia and Hungary lead in technologies, with Serbia and Australia behind!

And here I mixed up Great Works with Tourism so we can see that Greece leads the world in Great Works, followed by Serbia and Australia.

If that rifleman makes it, Montenegro's capital will fall to Serbia.

Jealous of all the Greek Great Works, Conan lunges at Katerine. Nothing much is expected to be achieved.

Cetinje falls, and Serbia joins the 2-capital club

The Greek navy deals damage to Leiria, a front no one saw coming.

Satisfied by the capture of Cetinje, Peter accepts peace with Petar. On a side note, this splits Montenegro in half, with the larger half connected by a 2 tile wide passage.

Cyprus peaces out with Iceland, letting the Hungarian navy attack Kópavogur on its own.

Clearly the Greeks failed to capture Tallinn, as a Polish force sets out to eliminate the "Storm" with the Fire of Love.

Serbia declares war on Belarus but doesn't seem terribly committed.

Hungary has no melee to eliminate Iceland.

Íslandið mun sigra!

I did not see this coming.

UNVERJALAND HEFUR SIGRAÐ

excuse my amateur icelandic

Georgia has another go at Serbia. You do you, Oto.

Hungary and Slovenia team up on Australia, to purge the foreign influence from this European Contest.

Amidst the war with Serbia, Tamar makes the wonderful choice of founding Gori on the Serbian side of the inland sea. Dobrovoljacs and Mountain Guns, both more effective in rough terrain, pound at the city.

In a surprise twist, Portugal eliminates Estonia, pushing the Polish back west. Estonia and Victor Crone follow San Marino and Serhat in certain non-qualification.

Australia eyes Podgorica, but the forces on both sides don't seem particularly strong.

The World's Fair ends with Georgia sweeping the floor with the other nations.

Melbourne falls to Hungary and Joci Papai's beautiful voice.

Belarus declared war on Montenegro when I wasn't paying attention. ZENA eliminates D mol's members one by one. The Belarusian army begins to encircle Nikšić.

Nikšić falls. Two members of D mol will work together to flip the city, but it is certain that they will go to "Heaven" today.

The International Games conclude, and Tamar and Peter of Serbia jockey for top spot. Georgia hasn't had the chance to host much in terms of international events, has it

The Australian colonies fall as Hobart becomes Hungarian. I suppose Kate's big bounce arc is complete, with her power now all back in her core.

The fashion pariahs turn on each other, with Belgium caught in a sandwich between two halves of Finland. South Finland looks a bit sparse aside from its aircraft, while North Finland looks loaded with troops. Not looking good for Eliot.

Slovenia surprisingly backs Finland in a bid to finally take Bruges. Oh and those military units with the settler and elephant icons are presumably Mountaineer Regiments, able to cross mountains that happen to not exist in this area of the map.

Antwerp falls to Finland. Darude moves his DJ booth there.

The Portuguese are hell-bent on going somewhere.

Bruges should fall soon as well. In the meantime, Tamar launches an SS Booster on her way to victory.

Bruges is now Slovenian, as the Finnish blast Sandstorm by Darude. Sebastian decides to begin singing again.

Sebastian's vocals are successful in getting the Belgians to capitulate out of attrition. Eliot was seen catatonic before being sent home. Home now being underneath Darude's turntable.

Belarus and Montenegro peace out and... all of 14-population Bijelo Polje is given to Belarus as a gift. With this, Montenegro's chances of qualifying are as low as their real-life betting odds.

The Greeks attempt to take Prishtina from the Serbs, but the city is heavily guarded. Everyone wants Prishtina, it seems.

Turn 300 comes around, and we see Hungary, Georgia, and Slovenia topping the population chart. What a surprise

Portugal, Georgia, and Hungary are tops in production- looks like this trio that DNQ'd in real life will qualify here!

Portugal, Hungary, and Serbia top the military list.

Hungary, Georgia, and Serbia top the tech list. Serbia seems to be hitting above its level.

In tourism, Hungary and Georgia are followed by Australia. Clearly we have a top tier of nations that will most likely qualify.. but that still leaves about 3 or so other nations to qualify to the final.

Czechia, and its friends of friends, declare war on Finland. A sizeable army is ready to march on Ghent.

The battle of Green and Orange commences. The conflict is probably going to focus on the Portuguese island colonies, but Hungarian Kópavogur looks to be the most likely to fall.

But our first casualty in the area is actually the city state of Avignon! The first city state to be conquered here.

But the war is ended. How??? HUNGARY has completed the science victory, allowing me to rank the competitors and determine the finalists. Here's a look at the Hungarian core. Congrats, Joci Papai!!!

Who was closest to a cultural victory? Georgia, with Hungary close behind. Georgia is still very strong, so we'll see them in the final. Congrats Oto Nemsadze!

Who had the most tourism? Slovenia. Similar to Georgia, still a very strong civ. Congrats Zala and Gašper!

A look at the Georgian core.

A look at the Slovenian core.

Our next qualifiers are in no particular order. And so... we have Portugal! Congrats Conan Osiris! Your non-qualification in real life has been avenged.

And let's welcome Greece to the final! Congratulations Katerine Duska! "Better Love" indeed.

Here's Serbia! Congratulations Nevena Božović! You now have another chance at the "Kruuna"!

Our 7th qualifier is... Finland! An exciting competitor all the way through, congrats Darude and Sebastian Rejmann!

Qualifying for contention into the final (depending on the performance of the 8th placing civ in Semi 2), is Australia! Good luck, Kate Miller-Heidke! May the numbers be on your side.

Now let's look at the notable non-qualifiers. In 9th place is Cyprus. Sorry, Tamta, you were almost there.

In 10th place we have Belarus. Your performance was great, ZENA, but sadly you just didn't make the cut.

In 11th place it's Poland. Started out strong, but was soon split in half and just didn't really recover. Sorry, Tulia.

[Pictured: Greece sweeps the religion game]
In 12th is Czechia, visible if you bop a few slides back to the Serbia slide. Sorry, Lake Malawi.
In 13th is Montenegro, visible in the Belarus slide. Commiserations, D mol.
Places 14th-17th were all eliminated:
14th: Belgium, Eliot
15th: Estonia, Victor Crone
16th: Iceland, Hatari
17th: San Marino, Serhat

A look at the Portuguese Islands

The canal city of Espoo

The one unclaimed desert hill in between Serbia, Australia, Belarus, and Jerusalem.

Thank you for watching! Semi Final 2 will be released later this week, most likely.