Eurovision Semi Final 1, Part 1

Hello and welcome to the Eurovision Song Contest AI Game! We're kicking off this extravaganza with the game for the first Semi Final. Science, Domination, and Cultural victories are all allowed for the semis, while the final will be a Domination only bloodbath. All mods used are the most modern leaders for their nations (excluding the 2014 civ pack and truly terrible mods). Only 7 nations from each semi will qualify to the final, + 1 extra, due to game limitations.
Here we see Salazar's Portugal for Conan Osiris, Lennart's Estonia for Victor Crone, and Venizelos's Greece for Katerine Duska.

Duda's Poland reps Tulia. A bit of a satirical mod but it doesn't seem terrible. Next we have Tamar's Georgia, (I reskinned the mod a while ago to match Civ VI) for Oto Nemsadze, Marinus's San Marino for Serhat, Havel's Czechia for Lake Malawi, and Peter I's Serbia (by MC) repping Nevena Božović. Sadly no Lake Victoria for Lake Malawi.

From top to bottom we have Hawke's Australia for Kate Miller-Heidke (you didn't know Australia was European???), Petar II's Montenegro for D mol, and Lukashenko's Belarus for ZENA. Oh and yeah, I leave the map unexplored for 10 turns for fun barbarian action, hopefully spurring some militarism from the AI.

Moving on, we have Albert's Belgium for Eliot, Kekkonen's Finland for Darude and Sebastian Rejmann, and Kučan's Slovenia for Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl. Finland's on an interesting tundra peninsula- defensible if nothing else.

Farther east we have Corvinus's Hungary for Joci Pápai, Sigurðsson's Iceland for Hatari, and Peter I's Cyprus for Tamta. So yeah, we have a Peter I, another Peter I, and a Petar II.

The world is revealed some turns later and Estonia is taking its sweet sweet time to settle. Kerli lived for some time in the woods, maybe Victor Crone's been inspired by her?

Georgia and Serbia both settle toward San Marino, attracted to Serhat. Who wouldn't be?

Brno is settled near Canberra, but Montenegro and Belarus have plenty of space to work with.

Same story here, but Finland drops Espoo and makes a canal!

Hungary sits alone while Cyprus settles toward Iceland, which is yet to settle. This does not bode well for Hatari.

Iceland finally settles Akureyri.

Estonia finally settles Kohtla-Järve.

Portugal somehow manages 4 cities by turn 25, with one more on the way, when most civs are only starting to settle their third city. It must be the Telemóveis fanbase.

Montenegro, why? Granted, this is the same question I asked when D mol won Montevizija instead of Ivana.

Finland and Belgium settle ever closer together. Breaking out of the peninsula is a strong move for Finland, at least.

Cyprus unlocks the Buyuk Han, a naval=oriented caranvansary replacement.

The first war is between Poland and Estonia, and Poland certainly has the upper hand. We also see Setúbal founded threateningly close to Tallinn. Is "Storm" *that* bad?? Or perhaps the Portuguese and the Polish just love listening to it so they come ever closer.

Georgia comes for San Marino. Hill-specialized Khevsur Warriors aim to prevent Serhat from making it to the final.

Oh Belarus, no, Belarus. I don't "Like It".

Perhaps having Belarus in this game was a mistake.

Tallinn falls! Tulia are working hard to make sure they can make it to the final. The fire of their love will burn down their enemies.

Oto Nemsadze is SICK of the odds predicting his NQ and takes aim at Serhat's vocals, taking down San Marino's capital. Luckily Serhat has backing singers, in this case we see the third city of Faetano.

Czechia unlocks the Pivovar, increasing food and Great Person generation.

Lake Malawi's chorus kicks in and Serhat cannot compete.

"She's only a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend.."

Poland is really expanding here. Georgia and Greece are annoyed at this.

Iceland unlocks the Althing, a National Epic that gives happiness.

Polish Priests can use themselves up to establish a number of different improvements. A bit OP, yes. Now that I'm looking at it again, I probably won't use this particular mod in the future.

Hungary unlocks the Gyogyfurdo, a free garden that gives happiness and triggers a City state contest. Luckily we have some here. Unluckily none are terribly close to Hungary.

Georgia builds Petra! Serbia sees Czechia fail to conquer Borgo Maggiore, so it looks like San Marino je Srbija.

San Marino je Srbija. "Say Kru-u-na!" sings Nevena to the tune of "Say Na Na Na".

Portugal attacks Poland. Telemóveis > Pali się.

Georgia unlocks the Svaneti Tower, a castle giving faith and aiding growth. Georgia also now consists of Kutaisi and Rustavi.

Bordergore? Nevena does not "Like It" either. She has an army to back her.

Pali się > Telemóveis???

Upon making peace, Poland vows to convert Georgia.

Gomel could fall if that spearman or warrior makes it in.

It's time for round two for Poland!

Bordergore eliminated! Sort of. Montenegro next??

Lukashenko unlocks a library for ZENA to peruse, instead of troops.

Czechia goes for Australia's exposed capital. "Zero Gravity"? More like "Zero Military"

Turn 100 stats reveal Hungary, Georgia, and Montenegro lead in population

Hungary, Portugal, and Poland lead in production

Portugal, Serbia, and Greece lead in military

Hungary and Montenegro lead in tech

mighty Belarus leads in tourism though!

Canberra falls to Czechia! Kate flings herself away on her bouncy stick.

And lands an ocean away. Meanwhile Kekkonen tries to live up to his CBR fame by founding Turku far, far away from his core.

While I wasn't paying attention, Tamta tired of all the hype for Hatari and snatched Reykjavík before the band could cause any drama.

Pali się > Telemóveis confirmed?

Nevena tries to squeeze into Grodna. It's not going to happen.

Estonia's an easy target now, if it weren't for all the forest. Maybe Victor had the right idea.

The Fire of Love conquers Setúbal.

Poland is untouched by all the hate.

Nevena wrangles Grodna to her via diplomacy. And promptly burns it down like a "Kruuna"-less queen. No dragons though.

Kekkonen.

Let's "Look Away" and focus on Czechia's attack on Ghent, which seems to be going along decently well.

Poland declares war on Georgia for once. Oto sings behind the troops to Keep them Going through the hilly terrain.

Ghent falls! Finnish peacekeepers cover Belgian land. Belgium really needs to "Wake Up".

Portugal settles more cities as Katerine shouts, "Better Love" in response to Tulia's fiery love.

Plenty of fire in Lódz but not much in the way of melee troops.

All current and former members of D mol march on Czechia.

Belgium unlocks the Chocolaterie, giving the Praline resource.

So that's what the Finnish "peacekeeping" force was doing! Imagine if Ghent falls to Finland.

I have very low faith that Greece will take Lódz, and if it does, Lódz will flip

Oh.

Told you so.

Finland of all nations founds the World Congress.

I enact Arts Funding, because music! Peace and love! "Love Love Peace Peace"!

And then Portugal starts attacking Iceland.

Oh I did not see this coming.

Kópavogur stays Icelandic for now.

But Hungary declares war! Perhaps green and orange is the color scheme of Kópavogur's future nonetheless?

The Montenegrins head straight for Canberra.

The Georgians head straight for Kraków.

And Canberra returns to Australian sovereignty! Honestly thought Australia wouldn't pull it off. Kate's bendy pole has indeed swung her right back to where she started.

Georgia splits Poland in half.

Telemóveis fans pour into Poland as Lódz is destined to stay Greek. Is it over for Poland? Were Tulia's efforts all for naught?

Finland DOES manage to take Ghent, as faraway powers declare war on Sebastian's thigh high boots. They're just jealous.

In massive twist of fate, Czechia gives up its second biggest city to Australia. Kate bounced back *hard*. She also burns it down in contempt.


one could say she brnos it down, you're welcome sforza

Kekkonen unlocks the Paper Mill, which gives production per forest tile. Not much forest up in the tundra.

Slovenia declares war on Finland! Turku seems to be the main target; Zala and Gašper seem to share Nevena's thoughts on bordergore

Belgium's first Chasseurs show up, Gatling guns that heal every turn when fighting in wars involving friends.

Portugal reconquers Setúbal!

Turku is almost certainly going to fall. Darude and Sebastian "Look Away" as there is no Finnish help coming.

The Georgians appear at the gates of Warsaw.

Cyprus takes Hafnarfjordur. I should take this as an opportunity to note that I have a mod on that prevents cities from being founded on waterless desert tiles (anyplace not adjacent to an oasis, river, or coast), which partially explains the lack of settlement in the desert.

Turku falls. Gašper says he's bored of this war and wants to go home, so he makes peace. I kid you not he said that in a press conference. That the questions were boring him and that they made him and Zala want to go home.

Telemóveis > Pali się

Finnish Jääkäris gain experience on foreign soil, explaining Kekkonen's peacekeeper agenda.

The Portuguese wear down Tallinn's defenses- will Poland lose all its cities north of Warsaw? Find out in the next part!