France IA - Part 17 Peace in Our Time

Bonjour! You're looking at part 17 of the France IA game, which at this point is pretty much the Gallia + Future Victims IA game. *shrugs* We could stop it now, but my computer can still handle it and I like to watch the world burn. If you're here, so do you! Strawpoll results are the same as last time, Vercingetorix with 10, Alfred and Viriato with 2, and Alaric with 0.

We start this part with the Attack on Blois, part 2: Mes Choux! In the past Alaric has sent a series of XCOMs to attack Blois, bringing the city to almost 1 population before it was recaptured by the Gauls and regrown to its current 25. Alaric doesn't want to let Blois go quietly into the night apparently.

Bergerac is either nuked or flipped. Probably nuked, judging from the units around the city. Cahors is starting to take damage, Trebas is down in population and health, and Agde, last bastion of Andorran freedom, is still somehow Gallic.

Blois is brought to half health, and the airforce there could be lost if the city falls. Vercingetorix appears to have ordered his army of workers to fix all the pillaged and fallout-covered tiles along the front.

Burgos, ex-capital to the Iberians is rather large, and Alaric's reinforcements aren't. If this war lasts for much longer even these forces could be drained. Maybe the Iberians would invade, wouldn't that be karma being unpleasant.

Blois falls to the Visigoths, and so does the Gallic airforce. Well, the Blois wars are starting up again, and the only ones to suffer are those living in the city.

Blois flips back, and judging by the limited population loss, I'd say that the Gauls are almost culturally dominant over the Visigoths.

Down here the front is the same as last time, though the damaged cities have healed quite a bit, apart from Trebas, which is still tres bas.

That would be the only way that Gallia could lose, but I'd be surprised if it happened. It would be nice if it did though.

Blois goes back to the Visigoths, though the forces sent to secure the city have fallen back to Bourgueil.

Yup, Blois is back in the hands of the Gauls. I could have sworn I took pictures between all these Blois slides, but I probably deleted them as part of the album cleanup. Oops.

Now would be the time to strike, Alfred. In actual news, the Gauls have taken Limoges.

Poitiers falls to red and Brive to yellow as the Visigoths flip Limoges. You'd think Vercingetorix would annex Bourges, the capital of the Centre.

This list is the same as last time: full of useless information.

The Gauls take Poitiers, while the Visigoths attack Sarzeau. Meanwhile, Gallic XCOMs attack(?) St.-Hilaire and a force of Visigothic XCOMs reappears by Blois. Give it up, Blois is a waste of resources Alaric!

Brive wasn't captured by the Gauls, and Trebas is recaptured by the Visigoths, though Ille looks to be surrounded by the enemy. Its defenses seem weak, so maybe it could be a new avenue of attack for the Gauls.

Blois is back in Visigothic hands, and seems to be more of a pancake than cities on the front lines *cough Brive cough*

Trebas is in the yellow for the upteenth time and Ille is taking lots of damage. Luckily for them, a sort of defensive wall has formed behind the city just for flipping.

Blois and Poitiers are still Gallic, somehow in Poitiers' case, and Bourgueil is now under attack. Maybe this will mark the end of fruitless campaigns against Blois, a city which has no tactical value.

The Ille distraction turns into more of a conquest, while the meat grinders around Trebase and Premian are still operating at full capacity.

Well... Maybe. Ille flips, but now the L'Escala distraction will come into its own, probably. Just take Premian, Vercingetorix...

Poitiers has flipped, yet again, and looking at the state of military units in this area is sad if you are a supporter of the Visigoths.

Ille falls to the Visigoths while Brive takes more damage that probably won't amount to anything. Trebas, however, has grown in population to 2, which is twice as many as it has had for the past few parts.

Do it Alfred, do it! I don't care who its against, just do it! Anyway, instead of wasting resources at Blois, Alaric has decided that Sarzeau is worth sending his forces to die.

Poitiers and Limoges are Visigothic, though it looks like they could fall shortly. Bourgueil should have fallen a few turns ago, but whatever, you do you Vercingetorix.

If you look closely, Brive has fallen! Trebas and Ille as well! Wow, lots of progress down here. Cahors may even fall. That would be amazing.
It almost feels like I'm a reporter during WWI attempting to make the trenches interesting... But soon, oh so soon.

With Chouppes, Cahors ,and Poitiers in the yellow, Gallic troops could make major progress if they used more than 10% of their total armed forces...

Sarzeau has fallen, which seems great until you realise that the actually useful city of Bourgueil is about to fall under the Gallic onslaught. Blois seems secure now, finally.

Premian has fallen to the Gauls, and the major airforce base that was there with it. The loss of those 9 aircraft will really hinder Alaric's defense of the region. What are those Gallic XCOMs doing near Vielha?

Loudeac and Bourgueil switch owners, which is unfortunate for Alaric.

Dying. That is what those Gallic XCOMs were doing near Vielha. The Gauls appear to have a new front line after Nant and Agde, which means that progress has happened. Good.

Vercingetorix finally uses his XCOMs as XCOMs, and sends them in around Bergerac. Poitiers could fall next turn for the xth time, and the Gallic second line of troops is noticeably absent, which is strange.

How wonderful.

Marmande is nuked for probably the first time, as Ille flips, and many other cities take damage.

Including Nantes, which was at one point the capital of the Bretons.

Toulouse, current capital of the Visigoths, is taken way low in an attack that happened over 3 slides that were deleted. Cahors is Gallic, and XCOMs continue to do their thing, this time around Biscarrosse.

Nantes was too good for the Gauls, as they ignore it and go for St.-Hilaire. Wut?

Bram version 2 takes damage as predictably nothing happens to Toulouse. Or Biscarrosse.

And then Bram falls, leaving the way to Toulouse (and Andorra) wide open, though to Vercingetorix's AI its closed. Like an oyster, or a clam. Also, L'Escala has fallen.

This is the most damage Turin has ever taken, and will probably take. I could see this as the last stronghold of the Visigoths.

Nevermind, Nantes is in the yellow. It looks like that unit-cluster around Poitiers/La Rochelle is the last army group in the Visigothic empire.

Except for these lads around Burgos. Not really helping, are they. I'd like for Alaric to attack the Iberians, as they might actually take their capital back, but that would be good.

Here's a general overview of the northern Visigothic Empire. It doesn't look too good.

And here's the south, where it looks just as bad. Toulouse is in the red and even Andorra is taking damage.

Can we just take Nantes and Chouppes and keep them for once?

Chouppes yes, Nantes no.

And all of a sudden XCOMs. XCOMs everywhere in southern Visigothia. This could easily be the end of the Visigoths if they don't make peace really quickly.

Up here, not so much. Maybe they'll still live on in this region and Turin.

Two cities in the red, one in the yellow, two in green, and one sick looking Alaric. Hold the line!

Fine, Vercingetorix, ignore Burgos. One of the cities you need to win... Somehow we're run out of great engineer names, which I haven't seen before.

Pamplona and Marmande fall, while Monzon and Logrono take a lot of damage, and Biscarrosse takes enough to fall to yellow.

Logrono falls, Zarautz takes damage, and this feels reminiscent of a certain Visigothic campaign in Iberia.

Sarzeau and Nantes appear to be next on the hit list in the north, though Chouppes is taking damage from a small Visigothic counterattack.

But no! Peace has been declared by the Visigoths and the Gauls! All that's left of the northern area of the Visigothic empire is Loudeac, Sarzeau, Nantes (somehow), and St.-Hilaire.

In the south there is bordergore, which is unpleasant. Biscarrosse is still Visigothic, as is Monzon, but Agen, Andorra, and Vielha have been given away to create such gory borders.

Down here, things are as they were during the conquest.

The Visigoths lost many cities, millions of civilians and military personnel, but somehow escaped with 3 capitals: Toulouse, Burgos, and Nantes. The Anglo-Saxons control Winchester and Caen, while the Gauls control the rest. Iberia has none.

The Anglo-Saxons are stupidly touristic, probably how they've remained the only Order/Communism civ in the game.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! The proposed last bastion of the Visigoths was given away!

Heh, good one. Visigothic army. Hah.

These colonies are already filled up, which is surprising, kind of.

Somehow everyone but Viriato have some cash. Interesting.

Uh... Gallic forces are already back to full strength... At least, they are by the border.

Alfred, now is your chance to take out the northern Visigoths. I'd be surprised though.

As of now, everyone is at the same point, as I have no more parts to show... We'll see when the next one comes out, probably next week or the week after. Strawpoll: http://strawpoll.me/6912474

That's what a war of annihilation will do to you when you win. And when you lose. And when you don't participate.

Quite a military hit there Vercingetorix, not like it matters...

Eh.

That's almost one billion, which is a lot.

Welp, good luck.

Pfft, ok, whatever. Diety AI for a reason.

Hah, Diety AI for a reason.