It had been one year since the fall of Nunu’e to the Wahgi military. One very long year for Mareva living under the boot of the purple-bearing soldiers. Her husband had died trying to defend ‘Uturoa, her pregnancy preventing her from being able to take the risk to flee. The seas were heavily patrolled by Wahgi ships; it was reported that only 30% of those who fled got past the lines to the nation’s continental holdings. If a baby hadn’t been on the way she would’ve tried to go, nothing left to lose. Yet that wasn’t the case, and here she was, stuck in one of the newly created ghettos in central Nunu’e, child resting in the crook of her arm, stomach yearning to be full.

The Wahgi arrival on the island had been expected, helicopter gunships had been peppering the city in bullets for months, so when the air sirens went off people just accepted that it was the end, even more for those in the neighborhoods leveled overnight. Some welcomed the invasion, it meant an end to the starvation and fighting, most realized the worst was yet to come. When the invaders landed on the shores, Mareva found herself awoken in the night to her door being smashed open, her arm being grabbed, and her body being dragged out of her house while she struggled to stay on her feet to avoid hurting her yet to be born child. Two days later her water broke in one of the cramped holding warehouses they were stuffing people into, one of the first Bora-Borans born on “Wahgi” soil. The Wahgi records would not give him the benefit of citizenship, nor any other Bora-Boran born after the conquest.

It had been one year since the fall of Nunu’e to the Wahgi military. Mareva woke up in her small bed, baby Varua in a small hammock above her, her three other roommates still asleep. She carefully took the hammock cloth and tied it behind her neck so that Varua could be safe against her chest without needing to be held directly. She put on her work boots, grabbed her identification card (and Varua’s) and debit card, and headed out to work. She headed down the stairs of the apartment block that had been hastily constructed to house Bora-Borans, walked twenty minutes to the gates, slowly moved through the worker line, prayed Varua wouldn’t start crying, got through the glaring eyes of the guards checking her ID, and then headed towards her designated workplace.

The print shop was one of the only places she could’ve gotten work, most places prohibited her from bringing her baby along. It was also one of the only places that utilized some amount of Tahitian; sometimes posters had to be made that targeted the native population with inspirational slogans such as “Speak Wahgi, Speak Free” and “King Bol’im Protects All Who Serve Him”. A purple soldier roughed Mareva up a week prior for whispering soothing words to Varua to avoid him crying because the soldier couldn’t make out if she was speaking Wahgi or Tahitian. A bruise she had gotten on her leg still hadn’t gone away. It ached as she lifted and moved ream after ream of paper and poster, a dull reminder to always stay silent.

After work came school, Mareva wished she could stay silent during it. It lasted three hours late at night and was not taught by a proper teacher. She struggled to keep up to the rigid schedule of learning words, particles, grammar, even ideas and thought, it all blurring together in her overworked, tired, and hungry brain. She had been reprimanded multiple times for Varua crying, but it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t afford enough food for him to stay sated throughout the day. As a mother she had also been instructed to speak to him only in Wahgi so that he doesn’t grow up with any Tahitian knowledge, something Mareva couldn’t possibly do. She couldn’t take that away from him too. At a certain point it felt like trying to follow what the empire ordered was self harm. Every word spoken not in her native tongue felt like another scar on her body, another painful reminder of her helplessness.

She came back to her tiny shared apartment at 1 in the morning, 6 hours before she had to get up. She had spent an entire day with Varua yet no time at all, he was merely an accessory she couldn’t bear to leave behind, hoping that it would all be okay as he started to grow. There just wasn’t another way to live, all options had been stripped from him the moment his mother’s water broke in a makeshift warehouse under martial rule. All the humanity had been taken by the rigid demands of the new regime. All hope had been lost.

It had been one year since the fall of Nunu’e to the Wahgi military. Mareva uncomfortably lay in a tattered blanket in a tiny room hoping her child above her would not wake her up in the middle of the night, hoping the tears in her eyes wouldn’t prevent her from falling asleep, and hoping that the dreams she had were once more of her people being victorious and not of the purple soldiers taking Varua as she stood watching, unable to escape the grasp of those trained to oppress. None of her hopes would come true, they never did anymore.

An asterisks in the final categories indicates they technically aren't hitting the penalty limit, but are very much on the brink. I've decided to included civs in the bankrupt category if they're within 3 turns of total bankruptcy or are currently bankrupt. As always, you can peruse the full table at this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dbEll5KbCZnFDrRejZCYmdP93z_91Xz5efwP_fUT0mM/edit?usp=sharing

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• Effective Military W: Wahgi (1,314,467); Goguryeo (567,719); Yellowknives (319,487); Faroe Islands (260,888); and Palawa (169,880)
• Effective Military L: Bukhara (16,496); Seneca (11,493); Finns (10,055); Visigoths (4,136); and Shang (1,480)

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• Production W: Faroe Islands (10,061); Wahgi (4,562); Goguryeo (4,125); Yellowknives (3,446); and Selkups (2,834)
• Production L: Finns (194); Kazan (147); Seneca (116); Visigoths (65); and Shang (19)

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• Production per city W: Faroe Islands (193.5); Yellowknives (98.5); Wahgi (97.1); Rome (86.6); and Selkups (85.9)
• Production per city L: Qarmatians (35.4); Mexico (34.5); Mogadishu (33); Seneca (29); and Shang (19)

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• Effective Science W: Faroe Islands (4,183); Goguryeo (3,409); New Holland (2,295); Yellowknives (2,202); and Ume-Sami (2,184)
• Effective Science L: Dzungars (329); Kazan (257); Osage (254); Visigoths (100); and Shang (23)

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• Currently Unhappy Civs: Everyone's Happy! Lowest is Finns on 6.
• Bankrupt Civs: Palawa (-251); Osage (-312); Dzungars (-504); Thule (-716); Faroes Islands (-731); Zheng (-973); and Wahgi (-6,239)

(THIRTY-six, obviously. Gagh)

On the usual day in the usual way.

The shrieks of bullets, roars of bombs, and the same from those they have wounded fills the remains of Hulaipiole. Below the noise are rivers of blood, broken buildings and bodies, and a bloody Nestor Makhno crouched on the ground. Overhead is a thick shroud of dust, smog, and heat that consumes everything it touches. Above this is a sky blackened by the wings of war machines that fly so thick and frequent that their wings and exhaust block out the sun.

The word aeroplanes still sounds alien to Nestor Makhno. His army wielded muskets, pikes, and a motley collection of knives, pistols, and street fighting weapons popular with the heroes. Fighters, and bombers, though, these words were familiar, and his enemy had innumerably more. Fortified positions blighted former cooperatives farms, and camps, where people had lived kind, collective existances. These bases sent instant transmissions of surveillance data to the technologically miraculous detachments which came steadily, and inevitably, unravelling Makhno's stratgies as fast as he had been able to spin them. He does not know what small cells may still hold out, but he knows it does not matter.

Everyone had died, some one by one, others in grotesque gluts. The recently recruited Marky Ramone had been ripped to pieces by the rapidly repeating rifles of the Latvian infantry. His brothers kept killing. Later Marchenko had shocked all in sight to tears by jumping on an unexploded bomb, saving the lives of many of his comrades, albeit temporarily. His final, and only, act of bravery was so great that it earned him the name of "Marchenko the Mighty" in the brief battle cries of those who fought on after seeing him blown to pieces. His unit were gone half an hour later, his deed dying on their lips.

Later still, Makhno vaguely remembered, a new Ramoneanov had arrived. He must have been a Ramoneanov, his long outlandish black hair, leather jacket and jeans were unmistakable.

"Richie's the name Bat'ko, I'm the new drum..." before the words were out of his mouth he was brought down by a hail of bullets from a strafing fighter's gun, the heavy metal slugs burning holes through the punk, and spaying his brains onto Nestor's face. Still his brothers had fought on.

Piles of bodies had become barricades. His men had fought ferociously despite, or perhaps because of, the certainty of their own deaths. Iggy Popkin dragged his switchblade through heavily armoured bodies of Latvian assailants, hurling skewered corpses under the feet of their compatriots. As invaders stumbled Joey Ramoneanov would kick their helmets from their heads, then smash their skulls with a length of heavy chain. Everything was red. Blood. Fire. Rage.

"Death to the Imperialist Fascists!" Viktor Bilash had Roared as he twisted a man's head clean off of his shoulders.

"Yeah, eat shit you Nazi bastards!" Johnny Ramoneanov had yelled after, tossing a looted grenade towards the advancing hoard. He had whooped and hollered triumphantly as gore splattered his leather jacket, until CJ pushed him to the floor, taking a bullet in the processes. Somehow Thee had still been three Ramonesanovs, another recruit materialised during the melee. Another drummer, this one called Elvis, but soon he too had been caught by a stray bullet from one of the Latvian death machines.

Makhno had not been able to count the dead, nor grieve them, nor even notice them. That was until a bombing raid on the barn where the civilians had been sheltered. An unnamed villager, a smoking, wheezing mass of burned rags and skin had emerged from the rubble and handed him the body of Alexivich. Nestor had taken the young boy in his arms and held him close in a final embrace, felt his own chest start to burn with the heat of his dead ward's corpse. And he had wept. The tears stang through the smoke, sweat, and shrapnel in his eyes. They blinded him to everything, he did not see first Joey, then Johnny Ramoneanov fall beside him. He did not see the first Latvian troops enter his city. He did not hear of the glorious resistance in the outer reaches. How Igor Popkin had not once, but twice cleared entire units from an occupied settlement undercover of dark and stood on the walls, black banner in hand, howling into the night that the whore-son Ulmanis would have to come and get him himself. No, Nestor had seen none of this. He had simply held Alexi's body and wept.

Now he is riddled with bullets, hit by bombs, stabbed, and trampled, but the immortal continues to cover the body of his ward, enduring the pain to preserve the honour of the corpse of a young man who had died in anarchy's service and never once questioned the rightness of doing so.

Nestor feels a strange glow surrounding him, silencing the awful screaming, blowing away the stench of death and impurity, soothing his exhausted body, and mind. It tries to lift him from the battlefield but Nestor holds on to Alexi, whose body is not glowing. He can feel the strange force move against him, but it isn't fighting him, more gently coaxing at his soul, like a cat begging to be fed might do to your leg. Nonetheless he holds on to Alexi. He wonders if perhaps Grigory was right, maybe if they had managed to stop the rise of the fascists in Russia this poor boy would not be dead in his arms. Arms which he feels relax, as he finally starts to let go. He realises that there was nothing he could have done. His body is breaking down into specs of light, he can feel them being drawn elsewhere. He knows now that this was all just a cruel game, that the only way he could have achieved a free world was by enslaving it. Death was the inevitable cost, win or lose.

CBRX Season 4: Episode 35: Double the Fronts, Double the Fun!

Image Album Narrated by QuantumBotany

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Season 4 Megathread

Bad news, episode 35 is really late. Pretty much all of my holiday obligations converged on one weekend.

Good news, if episode 36 drops on time, two audio narrations this week!

Every 5 episodes, I do a brief on the tech count leaders, so strap in folks! An asterisks in the final categories indicates they technically aren't hitting the penalty limit, but are very much on the brink. I've decided to included civs in the bankrupt category if they're within 3 turns of total bankruptcy or are currently bankrupt. As always, you can peruse the full table at this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dbEll5KbCZnFDrRejZCYmdP93z_91Xz5efwP_fUT0mM/edit?usp=sharing

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• Effective Military W: Wahgi (980,058); Goguryeo (321,675); Yellowknives (298,998); Faroe Islands (275,477); and New Holland (152,295)
• Effective Military L: Bukhara (12,332); Finns (11,159); Seneca (4,974); Visigoths (4,105); and Vijayanagara (1,718)

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• Production W: Faroe Islands (4,459); Goguryeo (3,851); Wahgi (3,350); Yellowknives (3,331); and Selkups (2,048)
• Production L: Kazan (201); Finns (198); Seneca (103); Vijayanagara (70); and Visigoths (63)

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• Production per city W: Yellowknives (107.5); Faroe Islands (87.4); Goguryeo and Osage (83.7); Palawa (77.8); and Thule (77.2)
• Production per city L: Finns (39.6); Mogadishu (36.8); Mexico (34.8); Seneca (34.3); and Qarmatians (31.9)

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• Effective Science W: Faroe Islands (3,271); Goguryeo (3,198); New Holland (2,439); Yellowknives (2,167); and Afsharids (2,104)
• Effective Science L: Kazan (350); Bukhara (346); Seneca (310); Visigoths (98); and Vijayanagara (74)

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• Tech Count note: As of Episode 35, the mean tech count is 69.8; the Median 70; and the Mode is also 70
• Tech Count W: Wahgi (90); Goguryeo (88); Faroe Islands (84); Yellowknives (83); and New Holland (82)
• Tech Count L: Dzungars, Bukhara and Vijayanagara (60); Qarmatians and Mongolia (59); Seneca (57); Finns (55); and Visigoths (52)

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• Currently Unhappy Civs: Everyone is happy :) Ignore the sackings and genocides.
• Currently Bankrupt Civs: Seneca (-34); Vijayanagara (-49); Dzungars (-73); Ikko-Ikki (-129); Rome (-287); Thule (-363) and Wahgi (-4,139)

CBRX Season 4: Episode 35: Goliaths Abound

Image Album Narrated by jozzydee

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Season 4 Megathread

An asterisks in the final categories indicates they technically aren't hitting the penalty limit, but are very much on the brink. I've decided to included civs in the bankrupt category if they're within 3 turns of total bankruptcy or are currently bankrupt. As always, you can peruse the full table at this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dbEll5KbCZnFDrRejZCYmdP93z_91Xz5efwP_fUT0mM/edit?usp=sharing

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• Effective Military W: Wahgi (666,643); Faroe Islands (227,704); Yellowknives (194,896); Goguryeo (166,360); and Palawa (129,732)
• Effective Military L: England (6,104); Vijayanagara (5,434); Kanem-Bornu (4,268); Visigoths (3,858); and Nivkh (984)

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• Production W: Faroe Islands (3,565); Wahgi (3,028); Yellowknives (2,670); Goguryeo (1,796); and Selkups (1,701)
• Production L: England (98); Vijayanagara (78); Kanem-Bornu (71); Visigoths (65); and Nivkh (29)

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• Production per city W: Wahgi (91.8); Yellowknives (86.1); Osage (83.8); Vijayanagara (78); and Faroe Islands (75.9)
• Production per city L: Seneca (33); Mogadishu (31.2); Qarmatians (30); England (24.5); and Nivkh (14.5)

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• Effective Science W: Wahgi (3,144); Faroe Islands (2,781); Goguryeo (2,524); New Holland (2,376); and Yellowknives (2,028)
• Effective Science L: England (242); Kanem-Bornu (118); Visigoths (102); Nivkh (26); and Vijayanagara (0)

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• Currently Unhappy Civs: Ume-Sami (-6)
• Bankrupt Civs: Vijayanagara (-213); Bora Bora (-669); and Thule (-897)

Welcome to the future

The rumps, they are a-droppin'

CBRX Season 4: Episode 34: Tales from the Observation Deck

Image Album Narrated by ECH

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Season 4 Megathread

Heya there, ECH here, the stats post weirdo!

I'm narrating the next episode and just felt I should let you know that in spite of my hopes, a mix of hobbyist distractions and unplanned/unexpectantly tiring Christmas family engagements pounced on me this week and have left the episode not ready at this point. Huge apologies, I'm doing my best to get it done ASAP while sticking to a quality I expect of myself. It won't be more than a day late, and hopefully well before that, but if you're waiting for release I'm sorry to disappoint and just wanted to ensure you all know.

Look on the bright side, at least y'all get a chance to read the brilliant PR's and, if you partake in the discord stonks market, make some trades based on them!

https://civilizationbattleroyale.com/albums/pr/s4pr33/

An asterisks in the final categories indicates they technically aren't hitting the penalty limit, but are very much on the brink. I've decided to included civs in the bankrupt category if they're within 3 turns of total bankruptcy or are currently bankrupt. As always, you can peruse the full table at this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dbEll5KbCZnFDrRejZCYmdP93z_91Xz5efwP_fUT0mM/edit?usp=sharing

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• Effective Military W: Wahgi (540,649); Yellowknives (178,198); Goguryeo (153,352); Faroe Islands (133,292); and New Holland (83,789)
• Effective Military L: Siam (3,922); Tiwanaku (3,582); Visigoths (3,150); Vijayanagara (2,560); and Ecuador (854)

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• Production W: Faroe Islands (3,492); Wahgi (2,735); Yellowknives (2,326); Goguryeo (1,863); and Selkups (1,565)
• Production L: Makhnovia (69); Kalmyks (67); Visigoths (65); Tiwanaku (57); and Siam (52)

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• Production per city W: Wahgi (88.2); Yellowknives and Ecuador (75); Faroe Islands (74.3); Nivkh and Vijayanagara (72); and Rome (67.3)
• Production per city L: Singapore (30); Qarmatians (29.9); Mongolia (29.1); England (17.8); and Makhnovia (17.3)

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• Effective Science W: Goguryeo (2,660); Faroe Islands (2,512); New Holland (2,452); Wahgi (2,162); and Yellowknives (1,977)
• Effective Science L: Saba-D'mt (115); Makhnovia and Visigoths (81); Tiwanaku (71); Ecuador (68); and Kalmyks (57)

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• Currently Unhappy Civs: Pontus (-1)
• Bankrupt Civs: Finns (-23); Kalmyks (-90); Ikko Ikki and Makhnovia (-114) and Thule (-986)

Black Friday is a bit more literal for one civ.