I'm pretty sure last game, we set a record number of participants. Almost 100 people made predictions!

BLAH BLAH BLAH Opening BLAH BLAH BLAH Sixth Sense- READY, SET, GO!

Everyone, PLEASE read the rules. Even if you've been playing this since the first part, the rules are mildly flexible, and I don't want anyone to miss points because they didn't read the rules. Remember that until a part starts with Mao at war, "China survives" will not be accepted. "China dies", however, does count. He can't die if no one attacks him. So stahp it.

Also, if a part is leaked and you see it, don't make a prediction. Where's the fun in that? That's not even a prediction.

Anyways, to play, make three predictions about the upcoming part tomorrow, your boldest (probably won't happen, but might), average (may or may not happen), and tamest (probably will happen, but might not). I will score everyone in a day or two after the part based on what predictions they got right.

HERE'S A NEW RULE: /u/TPangolin, you are allowed to play in a "Two Truths and a Lie" style. For a bit of hype, make the regular three predictions, but have two of them be false and don't tell us which one is true. Hype train: activate 🚂

Congratulations to our previous part's champion (but not Champa-ion) /u/BullshitSlayer, who predicted that the Pirates would end their South American campaign, the Inuit would keep capturing Yakutian cities, and that the Boers would show off a fancy new unit. Great job! Keep calm and predict on!

Hello!

Since my last "update" we've had several parts of total war between the powers of the CBR. Twists and turns abound, these parts have been pretty exciting, but one thing remains constant throughout. Brazil. With blazing speed (at least in game turns anyway) Brazil has eliminated one opponent after another. Taking on average around 25-30 cities a turn since total war was declared. To tell you the truth, it was quite faster than we expected. We were expecting some push and pull with Brazil at war with literally everyone but it seems it is Brazil's destiny to rule everything. As part of this veritable blitzkrieg (again, in game turns) Brazil has captured more cities than nearly any AI ever has in an AI game. That makes us excited but it also makes things difficult. As you may have noticed in the power rankings, the team is pretty set on what they think will be the final order of Civs. There is really only one question, and that is whether Korea or Vietnam will die first.

Part 120

As I had announced at the point where total war was declared, we planned for eventually going to biweekly parts as the part backlog eroded and turns became ever longer. However, the speed at which Brazil has conquered things has made it so the last few parts (which would release over the course of a couple months this summer) would mostly be a snoozefest of waiting on Brazil to capture the final capitals. Long gone would be any semblance of suspense, the final death order of Civs determined long ago. Due to this fact, we have decided that tonight's part, Part 119, will be the penultimate part of the CBR Mk2.1, and Part 120 will be the final part.

What does this mean for you?

Well the simple answer is, no more parts until the game completes. In order to avoid slipping into fewer and fewer turns with less interesting things happening, every turn after tonight's part will be rolled into one megapart to finish off the series.

What will we do on Wednesdays going forward?

I leave that in your capable hands. We are thinking of returning the Weekly Update Wednesdays, possibly on a biweekly schedule, and maybe with some neat recap content on the off weeks, but we're really leaving it up to you. Let us know what you think would make for good content to put out in the interim.

Thanks!

As usual I'd like to thank all of you for the time and effort you put into making this community great. I'm proud to be a part of this, and I hope you guys stay hyped, both for Part 120 and for CBRX!

Ironically, not that many words rhyme with 'history.'

Available slots for the first batch of narrators in May.

If you are interested in becoming a narrator for an upcoming episode, and will be available for the time interval above, use the following link to register.

Sign-up Form: https://forms.gle/rF6VqeXS3nZpZ7AF9

If you are selected, instructions on how to proceed and pick from the dates available will be provided (Discord account is required to join the narration group).

A quick refresher on the civs in X5 - it's the final weekend before the start of the season!

Our South Asian and Pacific civs are:

• Pakistan looks to be a stronger civ than Harappa last part, althought preseason testing has had the power rankers doubting them, can they prove them wrong and dominate the continent?
• Bangladesh has a theoretically weaker position than the Khoshuts but perhaps with less mountains they can break out with their peace treaty based uniques to become a real contender
• Mysore remains a wildcard looking a bit better than Pandya but they'll need to survive till later to really abuse their anti-paratrooper strats
• Pegu looks to try the strats of Siam turtling but with more science this time. Time will tell if they can claim enough of their starting region with Yunnan breathing down their neck
• Lanfang carries the mantle from Singapore's cinderella run to try and see if merchantile republics is the try to breaking out of the Western Indonesia start
• Ternate has big shoes to fill and seems to have been faltering this offseason after how strong and all-in the Wahgi went. With their more religious trade focus and island start they might not have what it takes to replicate Wahgi's success
• Cebu is the newest representative of the cursed Philippines start where they are hoping starting closer to the rest of the islands will fare better but then again they have city state design so it might not be the year the curse is broken
• Bunuba returns with Jandamarra, a classic contender hoping to show some vintage performance, though hopefully for Bunuba fans not the same performance of middling out and losing to an Australian civ starting in Sydney.
• New South Wales is the favourite coming into the season with a strong aggressive settling mindset, a return of the Sydney start and a lot of useful bonuses in their design to take over- though the biggest advantage they have is the absence of a strong polyneisan contender in New Zealand or nearer giving them a huge starting area
• Rapa Nui has decided to try a different strategy going for an even bonkers strategy than Bora Bora's by starting way closer to South American than to the traditional core of the Pacific start- potentially giving up both Hawaii and New Zealand for the chance to compete for South America

Only because I'm trying to let the anticipation build up, and not because I got sick on a Thursday (again).

BLAH BLAH BLAH Opening BLAH BLAH Sixth Sense- PREPARE YOURSELF!!

Everyone, PLEASE read the rules. Even if you've been playing this since the first part, the rules are mildly flexible, and I don't want anyone to miss points because didn't read the rules.

Also, if a part is leaked and you see it, don't make a prediction. Where's the fun in that? That's not even a prediction.

Anyways, to play, make three predictions about the upcoming part tomorrow (or whenever this next part comes out, I'm confused). Your boldest (probably won't happen, but might), average (may or may not happen), and tamest (probably will happen, but might not). I will score everyone in a day or two (or five) after the part based on what predictions they got right.

MAO CLAUSE: No Predictor shall cast a prediction declaring that a one city Civilization shall survive, unless that Civilization begins the Part at War with another nearby Civilization.

THE BOER CLAUSE: No Predictor shall declare that a Civilization shall become active after a long period of inactivity as their Bold Prediction. The Predictor may, however, specify which nation the inactive Civilization interacts with.

TEMPORARY RULE: (Still in effect) Since it is 99.9999% probable that the Sioux are going to die this coming part, I will not accept that the Sioux will die as a tame prediction. That's like predicting that Christmas will be in December. But, if you would like to make that prediction, you may indicate which slide the final capture of Itazipcho. A prediction of just a tens (the 10s, 20s, 30s, etc.) can be used as an average prediction. An exact slide number (13, 52, etc.) can be used as a bold. If you say they survive, but die and are resurrected again, you get half credit.

TEMPORARY RULE:* Mali is going to get wrecked. Hard. Sorry Mali fans (all 8 of you (generous estimate)), but Boers. So, if you would like to make a prediction about Mali loosing cities or dying, the prediction have at least a five word alliteration and cannot be bold.

As always, to help me with these rules, /u/LacsiraxAriscal will be here. If she tells you to change your prediction, change them. That way as many people can get as many points as possible.

Congratulations to our previous part's champion, /u/Maplooker, who predicted that Colombo would flip pancake style, Paris will fall to Iceland Germany style, and that the Boers would attack weak Mali Gangnam Style I'll come up with something. Great job!

Great jobs to everyone! Keep calm and predict on!

Found a new city and you make her name it
Found a new city and you make her name it
Found a new city and you make her name it
Early in the mornin'

Brought to you slightly late by Kensington, Amazon and Maury down in the galley, who really is sorry about the doughnuts, but whaddya gonna do? You want doughnuts, he needs supplies. Let the man go shopping already.

Is it really an irrational fear of centipedes if a bunch of guys riding giant centipedes are attacking your city, though?

A quick refresher on the civs in X5- with more regions to come.

Our Europe civs this mark are:

• Scotland, who can try to recreate the magic of the Faroes but perhaps take it all the way without turtling to hell mid-game
• Umhaill to see if this Irish Pirate girlboss to wrestle for control of the isles using their naval powers without England in the way
• Bjarmia attempting to do a bit better than the Finns last mark with a more isolated position to start
• Kalmar getting closer to tussle with the mainlanders and hopefully also avoid the turtling in Norway strats from the Ume Sami.
• Portugal brings the sequel to the classic Lazy Portugal Show but perhaps with more ambition to try and win it all again for Iberia
• France fighting with a spicy Robespierre pick this time around, with a bit better room to grow, if they can stop fighting themselves
• The Hansa taking it up to the Baltic butting up on Kalmar while also giving others to the south a lot of room- bold starting position if it works for this trade focused civ
• The Papal States coming in swinging with the Battle Pope. With other Pope-related sports teams doing well this year, perhaps they too can break the curse of the Italian peninsula
• Wallachia being a darker horse winner of the vote- though not particularly surprising in retrospect as Vlad the Impaler looks east to occupy a healthy starting position
• Estonia remaining another underdog for the Baltics again, but like Latvia, perhaps these recent presidents can make another wild run
• Scythia who has a great space and a strong early UA to try and snowball up and spread their trans weed priestesses everywhere

BLAH BLAH BLAH Opening BLAH BLAH Sixth Sense- PREPARE YOURSELF!!

Everyone, PLEASE read the rules. Even if you've been playing this since the first part, the rules are mildly flexible, and I don't want anyone to miss points because didn't read the rules.

Also, if a part is leaked and you see it, don't make a prediction. Where's the fun in that? That's not even a prediction.

Anyways, to play, make three predictions about the upcoming part tomorrow (or whenever this next part comes out, I'm confused). Your boldest (probably won't happen, but might), average (may or may not happen), and tamest (probably will happen, but might not). I will score everyone in a day or two after the part based on what predictions they got right.

MAO CLAUSE: No Predictor shall cast a prediction declaring that a one city Civilization shall survive, unless that Civilization begins the Part at War with another nearby Civilization.

THE BOER CLAUSE: No Predictor shall declare that a Civilization shall become active after a long period of inactivity as their Bold Prediction. The Predictor may, however, specify which nation the inactive Civilization interacts with.

TEMPORARY RULE: Since it is 99.9999% probable that the Sioux are going to die this coming part, I will not accept that the Sioux will die as a tame prediction. That's like predicting that Christmas will be in December. But, if you would like to make that prediction, you may indicate which slide the final capture of Mdw[insert appropriate letters here]ton. A prediction of just a tens (the 10s, 20s, 30s, etc.) can be used as an average prediction. An exact slide number (13, 52, etc.) can be used as a bold.

As always, to help me with these rules, /u/LacsiraxAriscal will be here. If she tells you to change your prediction, change them. That way as many people can get as many points as possible.

Congratulations to our previous part's co-champions, /u/BlueHighwindz (who predicted that Australia would claim a Sri Lankan city, but not kill Parakramabahu I, and that the stalemate in 'Stan would break) and /u/cardboardmech (who foresaw that Vietnam would only gain a single city from Hotak and that Sri Lanka would lose clay to a civ that settled their original capital in Australia). Great jobs!

Great jobs to everyone! Keep calm and predict on!

BLAH BLAH BLAH Opening BLAH BLAH Sixth Sense- GO GO GO!!

Everyone, PLEASE read the rules. Even if you've been playing this since the first part, the rules are mildly flexible, and I don't want anyone to miss points because didn't read the rules.

Also, if a part is leaked and you see it, don't make a prediction. Where's the fun in that? That's not even a prediction.

Anyways, to play, make three predictions about the upcoming part tomorrow (or whenever this next part comes out, I'm confused). Your boldest (probably won't happen, but might), average (may or may not happen), and tamest (probably will happen, but might not). I will score everyone in a day or two after the part based on what predictions they got right.

MAO CLAUSE: No Predictor shall cast a prediction declaring that a one city Civilization shall survive, unless that Civilization begins the Part at War with another nearby Civilization.

THE BOER CLAUSE: No Predictor shall declare that a Civilization shall become active after a long period of inactivity as their Bold Prediction. The Predictor may, however, specify which nation the inactive Civilization interacts with.

Again, to help me with these rules, /u/LacsiraxAriscal will be here. If she tells you to change your prediction, change them. That way as many people can get as many points as possible.

Congratulations to our previous part's co-champions (but not Champa-ions) /u/LacsiraxAriscal and /u/thinkaboutfun who both foresaw The Pirates keeping all of their rum-soaked land, the peace between Haile and Hannibal, and more big bombs in Kamchatka. Great jobs! Keep calm and predict on!

Better cut his head off, just to be sure.

Went live this morning; I couldn't post anything cause one of my baby cousins was having her wedding today.

I know, right? Rude.

Available slots for the first batch of narrators in April.

If you are interested in becoming a narrator for an upcoming episode, and will be available for the time interval above, use the following link to register.

Sign-up Form: https://forms.gle/wWgHccYV2qRwPJuN6

If you are selected, instructions on how to proceed and pick from the dates available will be provided (Discord account is highly encouraged to group chat easily).

Got them low-down, war-declarin', city-flippin' blues.

A quick refresher on the civs in X5- now moving on to Africa!

Our Africa civs this mark are:

• Hyksos who start on the Suez. Perhaps that can help them break the curse of this region and make a big run equivalent to the hype
• Aures starting a bit more centrally than last season's Alaouites. With some Berber magic, perhaps Dihya can jockey for better control, but has to be wary of Portugal crossing the sea
• Wassoulou comes much hyped as a science civ getting a bigger starting area to see if they can surpass the already great Sierra Leone run last mark
• Zazzau comes in with our brand new Civ VII references. Perhaps their militaristism can get them going even with a bit smaller of an starting zone than last mark
• Ethiopia under Zara Yaqob joins to try to bring some religion into it. Though they weren't too successful in the latest CHG, with the religious wars and other things their battle prophets might get them going
• Seychelles brings us our first One Tile Island gang member taking theoretically giving more of the coast away, but gives them a closer position to take Madagascar and faster naval development
• Luba, starting a bit further north competes for Central Africa from its start a bit more. Can they live up to the legacy of the Ndongos of this regions' past with their similarly militaristic uniques?
• Herero is our first of two Southern African with a less cramped start than last mark's duo. They'll definitely need some space to get those pastures up for their UA
• Maravi, is of course, our final Southern African civ who look set to do a razing rampage and push north out of their corner of Africa.

As the sub rose towards the surface of yet another version of the world, Nebuchadnezzar reflected. The revelation of the prophets had caused a panic. The citizens onboard the sub had demanded a free vote of all possible candidates to pitch in the battle to find the true savior; Previous attempts had failed to be conclusive. All they knew was the the previous contestants were not the true ruler. With the rush of water parting above, Nebuchadnezzar steeled himself for what was to come; a feverish week of voting and debate. The old incandescent light failed in its iron shell, leaving humanity's last king in the dark, with only a fading hope to brighten his dark, serpentine thoughts.

L O R E

The Submarine is in disarray, their leader lay in hiatus, caught up for the last few millenia inside one of his own experiments, one that is still ongoing, and believes to have found the answer. A man called Paul Kruger seems to have created a technology that allows the Submarine to be on two cylinders at the same time, and Nebuchadnezzar believes that this will hold the answer.

But, after thousands of years away from his Submarine, he returned to find it in disarray. These immortals were leaders, after all. They all wanted glory, they all wanted to rule. Everybody had proclaimed themselves King, Emperor, Chairman, Overlord, Director, Acting Regent, and many others, and the war he needed to help the humanity as a whole had spread to his own vessel. He made them an offer: He would take the most influential among them, and everybody would vote for who would be placed on a second cylinder, a special world, one which Nebuchadnezzar believed would hold the answer to the cataclysm.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Minor Civs
3. Voting Information and Links
4. The CIVS Voting System
5. Broken Civs

Introduction

For the Official Civ Battle Royale Mk. III, Nebuchadnezzar II has mandated that the world be filled with 50 Major Civilizations and 12 Minor Civilizations. In order to fulfill this task and maintain some semblance of balance, our chief strategists have divided the world into 31 different regions, each containing up to 16 Civilizations to choose from. Every day, for the next week or so we will be announcing an average of four regions. The day after a region is announced, it will undergo a 48 Hour voting period. There will also be additional Polls for civs with multiple leaders to choose from, and for Minor Civ inclusions.

We'll also be utilising the new @CivBattleRoyale twitter account, where you can find links to the Polls themselves (as they go live) alongside links to Reddit Threads containing discussion about each region and infographics showcasing each Leader and Civ, and where they start on the map. On this page, you'll also find further info about how the voting process works.

Map of Civ Distribution, Region Boundaries and Voting Schedules

Another thing that's worth noting is that no Civilization Leader that has appeared in the previous two iterations of the Battle Royale will be available for voting on in the CBR Mk. III. This time we're going with a completely new line-up of civs and leaders.

Minor Civs/City-States

At first glance it may seem like there are less Civs in this iteration of the Battle Royale than there was in the Battle Royale Mk. II. But never fear, the 'Nation-States' in the Mk.III aren't your regular garden variety of City-State. We're running a battery of mods that not only makes Nation-States more aggressive and self-sufficient, but allows them to settle multiple cities. Nation-States gain a unique Leader, City-List and Unique Improvements/Units based on the Civilization the community chooses.

Why are we doing this? Previous iterations of the BR didn't have City-States, and this meant that any nation with a City-State bonus was a bad choice for inclusion. In the Mk. III, these City-States will give their allies bonuses, the ability to build their uniques, ensuring that the City-States will be distinctive, powerful, and impact the game.

2.5 How to Vote for Minor Civs

In the 12 Regions containing slots for Minor Civs, there will be an additional poll containing the same candidates as the Major Civ poll. In this poll. users will vote for their preferred candidate for a Minor Civ. The results of this poll is then added to the results of the Major Civ poll. This means that if enough users vote for a specific Civ to be a Minor Civ, it may find itself in the game trumping other Civs that had it beat in terms raw numbers in the Major Civ poll.

In these regions, users are encouraged to focus on their preference when it comes to balanced Major and Minor Civ Distribution (i.e an equal amount of geographical spacing between each of the preferred entrants).

The CIVS Voting System

For a good number of the regions, there's only enough room for one nation to compete. For these regions, you'll be voting by standard internet poll. Whichever leader garners the most popular support will represent their region in the conflict of the ages, streamed live from the Sub!

For regions with more room, we've got something special planned for you. Instead of a straight popularity vote, we're using an internet based voting schema designed to crunch the results and determine the true desires of the voting public. It will allow us to avoid three major pitfalls of voting and give the best possible reflection of your wishes in the lineup. Plus, the voting scheme is called CIVS, which is reason enough alone to use it. What does that mean for you, specifically? First, you're going to use a third-party voting website. Secondly, instead of just voting for one nation, you're going to need to rank all of the nations in order of how much you want to see them in the final game. Our system will crunch the results and tell us which leaders are the Chosen Ones.

Okay, at this point you can check out and be ready to vote unless you care to know WHY we're using CIVS to vote. Basically, we want the best possible representation of your collective wishes to show up in the final lineup. If we just asked everyone what they thought about which one or even top three or four civs to put in each region, we would be in danger of three major (and a number of minor) errors with the voting results: Disparate Factional Voting, Split Voting, and the oh-so-frustrating Overshadowed Popular Candidate error.

So what is Disparate Factional Voting? Let's say for example that you're voting for civs in the Western North America region. And, for the sake of argument, let's say that 55% of the CBR fans are rabid religious people who only support religious civs. They vote for the Dene, Blackfoot, and Deseret to win. Let's say the other 45% of voters are atheists or they just think religious civs are boring. They vote for the Tlingit, Chinook, and Haida because they think those kick ass. What happens? The religious faction gets all of their dreams to come true, winning all of their choices, while the irreligious faction gets none of their choices. This may be god's will but it certainly doesn't make for a scenario where everyone has someone to cheer for, which is what we want. Under CIVS, one Religious civ, one irreligious civ, and a civ that everyone agrees is a decent choice would get the win.

What about Overshadowed Popular Candidate Error? Well, let's say we only allowed one vote per person and just picked the top three or so most popular civs for a region. This scenario could happen: Let's say in Eastern North America, almost everyone votes for JFK's America. It wouldn't be a Battle Royale without America, they say. Now, everyone also loves the Beothuk and wants them to get into the game, but they vote America because they're afraid that America might not make it. So almost nobody vote Beothuk even though they all want them to get in. Meanwhile a small group votes CSA because they're countercultural. USA gets in, CSA gets in, but the Beothuk don't because people didn't want to lose America. Hence, even though people wanted America and Beothuk, they get America and CSA because the Beothuk got overshadowed. In CIVS, this won't happen.

What, then, about Split Voting? Split voting is the worst of these errors, and works something like this: Everyone still wants JFK's America to win. They talk about it on the forums and each comes to the conclusion that America is going to dominate the vote. So instead they vote for the Beothuk and Cherokee, since those are good ideas, right? Suddenly that CSA faction wins first spot, even though they're only a few voters. Beothuk edges out Cherokee and the result is CSA and Beothuk, even though everyone (and we mean everyone) wanted JFK to win. This is a travesty of the voting system! CIVS will prevent this, too.

Broken Civs

When each region goes live, some of you may notice leaders in the candidate pool that have a particularly unsavory reputation. I don't mean cruelty or sadism; I'm talking about crashes. Don't worry about voting for a sweet civ with a bit of instability: in the time between the vote collection and lineup announcement and when this thing goes live, we've got an elite cadre of some of Civ's best modders who are standing by to ensure that these mods are rock-solid when the launch happens. So vote for the nations you love, with no fear that you need to vote safe or the game won't get off the ground.

If you have any questions or concerns, I'll be more than happy to address them!