Completing The Second Cycle - Turn Nine (270-260 BC)

Situation after turn eight

The revolt dice land 2-6, meaning the province of Persia throws off Macedonian rule, presumably hoping to be taken over by the newly emergent Parthians.

Andy is drawn first, and his Carthaginians attack Magna Graecia, but a 4 is not enough as there are -1 modifiers for attacking a controlled province and for attacking outside of the original Carthaginian empire.

I am next, and I would like to try to retake Persia before the Parthians get there. But I do not have the necessary block of four connected provinces to launch such an attack, and so I settle for invading (successfully) 'Asia', which means all my provinces are connected to the homeland, except for Bactria and 'INDIA' in the Far East.

Richard's Parthians attack Persia, but fail with a 2.

Finally, Reg's Romans conquer Sicilia, meaning the Carthaginians are reduced to their starting empire.

There is suddenly a lot of uncertainty about the state of affairs ahead of the turn that marks the halfway point of the game, which is when the first set of victory points are added to the peoples' starting scores