This summary for Game Three was written by TheOneAndOnlyAtesh with some assistance from Eauxps I. Fourgott. Many thanks for volunteering to put this report together! 
Game Three might have been one of the most highly anticipated matchups of the Opening Round of Season Eight. Every leader is notable in some way. There was fan favorite warmonger Shaka, highest scoring leader Huayna Capac, two leaders in Baby Sullla's namesake Willem and Henrik's second favorite GigaChad Hannibal who are the embodiment of Financial/Alive, and two leaders in Sitting (Duck) Bull and Frederick who have historically been so incompetent that they have acquired legendary meme status... despite having together become a playoff ticket in a previous season.
To add to the intrigue, the Financial leaders were all given tough starting positions, with all of them cramped in the South, while the crazy and/or incompetent leaders in the North had dreamlike starting positions, both regarding quality and quantity of land. This was especially so for Shaka, who had the perfect starting position for his starting techs, ample room to expand (with Ikhandas to keep his economy afloat), and two potentially weak neighbors to pick on, whether it was Frederick due to, well, being Freddy, or Willem, who seemed destined to be squeezed by the combination of Shaka's expansion and Huayna's culture. This is not to say that Freddie and Sitting Bull did not have good starts themselves, as they had lots of land as well as the ability to shield each other from low peaceweight aggression.
The major questions of the game were:
1) Could a strong AI personality overcome bad land, and conversely, how likely were the historically dud AIs to blow their dream starts?
2) Would Shaka be able to kill someone early enough to snowball, or would he have trouble keeping up with the strongest Financial leader even despite an early conquest?
3) How much of a hurdle would the tough-to-crack Sitting Bull be for the Financial/Alive bloc?
The first few turns of the game would have massive implications for the rest of the game. To start, Willem would get a reprieve when both of his neighbors, Shaka and Huayna, ended up settling their 2nd cities away from him. A Willem First To Die prediction had already become dicey, especially considering that Shaka was not going to declare war super early due to his lack of copper. Shaka and Freddie's bad tech preferences would rear their ugly heads, with Shaka unsurprisingly going Archery first and Freddie going MASONRY. Oh Freddie. 
At least it was not completely nonsensical, as he had Marble in his capital. The biggest loser of the initial settling period, however, would be Hannibal. Huayna's Taoist holy city was settled towards Hannibal (that city would later get Stonehenge), and to compound matters, Sitting Bull's Poverty Point (a city that would prove to be more of an "Affluence Infinite Set") would ALREADY BORDER CARTHAGE, giving flashbacks to human Deity players. Poor Hannibal - he might have already become irrelevant by Turn 10. He did not help his case anyways, settling a low production spot in the East Coast instead of claiming central land. Let's keep kicking the man while he's down - Sitting Bull would eventually found the 2nd religion in Poverty Point, rendering Hannibal utterly crushed culture wise. Like Mao's Shanghai in Game One, Hannibal's 3rd city was destined to be swallowed by Incan Holy City+Stonehenge culture, and the first barb city would also pop in the Carthaginian leader's face.
Other than Hannibal rolling snake eyes, there were two other notable events going on in the first 50 turns. First, Shaka and Sitting Bull were expanding like madmen. Sitting Bull in particular was making bold and provocative expansion choices, claiming hotly contested land right under the noses of the Financial leaders. I was especially intrigued by Mound City, an aggressive but extremely defensible plant, surrounded by forests, hills, and mountains, the perfect city to deal with the likely future dogpile. Sitting Bull was having a legitimately strong opening. The other key factor was the amount of breathing room Willem had. Shaka preferred to settle North and East, and Huayna was more interested in settling tundra cities and building wonders. The picking contest may have underestimated Willem, who is as capable of economic dominance as any other AI. Speaking of expansion, Freddie was showing his typical incompetence; the BARBARIANS were expanding better than him.
By Turn 50, it was unclear who the frontrunners were, although Hannibal was obviously the bottomfeeder. Freddie was very slow, but he was isolated enough to potentially recover, and he was well positioned to, in a real world parallel, incorporate the barbarians into his empire with an Iron Working beeline. Shaka and Sitting Bull had expanded well, but Shaka's refusal to research Mysticism and The Wheel was greatly hampering his economy, which was barely hovering above Observer Civ levels, while Sitting Bull's diplomatic situation was precarious. Huayna is Huayna, but much of his empire was tundra garbage. Willem was in the best position to do Fin/Alive things, but there was a Shaka sitting directly to his North.
Eventually, the Incan leader showed signs of waking up, using his Pool 1 status to beat Willem to a nice Gold spot, one that Huayna desperately needed as he had almost no happiness resources. In fact, Huayna's happiness troubles would be a defining feature of his game. Losing the settling race was not much of a blow to Willem, as he would "settle" (pun intended) for a very nice fish and gold spot, taking advantage of being Creative. The contrast between the North and the South were extremely obvious at this point, with the South completely filled save for Antarctic fishing villages while the North still had endless amounts of untouched land, despite Shaka's ballooning city count.
It appears that Willem took losing the settling race very seriously, as he launched the first war of the game, a surprise attack on Inca, immediately rolling over the city that he had "lost". This would turn out to be a turning point of the game, as it would permanently cripple Huayna Capac while leaving the low peaceweights fractured, in contrast to Freddie and Sitting Bull who would never fight in this game. Making matters worse, Sitting Bull would pile on two turns after Willem's war declaration, announcing to the world the arrival of Standing Bull. Sitting Bull's circumstances had improved drastically, due to the weakening of his Southern neighbors. A good sign of the disparity between him and Huayna is that Sitting Bull was far more effective at spreading his religion than Huayna was, despite having founded it nearly 40 turns later. It would be premature to say that Huayna was completely toast, even though he was foolishly building Temple of Artemis while being attacked on both sides by two of the strongest leaders. Catapults had not yet arrived on the scene, and both of the Incan invaders had enemies of their own to contend with. Hannibal, having cast his lot with Huayna by adopting his religion and gifting his culturally crushed 3rd city over, declared war on Sitting Bull, while Willem, to no one's surprise, was first on the Shakanator list.
Shaka's invasion of The Netherlands was his breakout opportunity. If he could conquer Willem, he would be in a great position to make the playoffs, as the rest of the South would surely crumble if the only really relevant Financial leader fell. In fact, his war got off to a successful start, as the mass of Aggressive Swords would be enough to break through the walls of two core Dutch cities. If only Willem had settled The Hague one tile North of where he had settled it - it would have been on a hill! Meanwhile, Hannibal's attack on Sitting Bull was not nearly as successful. As it turns out, it's not very easy to fight a leader that spams units and has Totem Pole Protective Archers. It did not matter much that was Sitting Bull was in a 2v1 (as Willem would make peace with Huayna soon after getting Shakad). The Native Americans quickly conquered one of Hannibal's only good cities, while Huayna did not have any Iron and thus was building way too many Chariots and Catapults (while still being stuck in wonder la la land). Soon enough, Hannibal would peace out. The world appeared to be in a global stalemate, unless...
Uh oh. The Native American horde had set its sights on Tiwanaku, and Huayna's paltry defense consisted of one Spear and a few Archers and Catapults. In one fell swoop, Huayna lost his Stonehenge Taoist holy city, and it was the beginning of the end for the Incas. Maybe he should have prioritized more units over Chicken Pizza. The shocking outcome of HUAYNA CAPAC being first to die to SITTING BULL was now a possibility. How the turn tables! The Native American had somehow transformed into a Kublai Khan-Huayna hybrid, expanding well, spreading his religion, and executing decisive wars, whilst Huayna decided that building Temple of Artemis on five tundra-esque cities was a winning strategy. It did not help that the Financial leaders had gimped each other's games, whether it was from Willem's early war declaration or Huayna settling his holy city in Hannibal's face. There was one potential lifeline for the Financial bloc - Shaka's early success on Willem had turned out to be fool's gold. One can only throw so many Impis at someone, and Shaka's poor economic execution was starting to rear its ugly head. Willem had War Elephants and Longbows, and at worst, it seemed that this iteration of the Boer War was going to stalemate.
As is often the case, the biggest winner of this global conflict was the one leader to not participate: Freddy, who had recovered so well from his bad start that he had become the leader in tech, land, and score. To everyone's shock, Frederick and Sitting Bull were in the driver's seat to be the playoff ticket from this game, Sitting Bull through his dismantling of the Incas (the Incan capital would fall on Turn 142) and Frederick from his peaceful building and being the only player to not be mired in conflict; all 11 of his cities were settled or taken from the barbarians. Now he was able to gear up to cash in on his advantage, and his target was obvious: Shaka.
Willem was saved, and Shaka was in major trouble. Freddy quickly ran over a border city, while the Dutch leader regained his lost territory. The Zulu leader had overextended and exhausted himself, and as a wise man once said, "Shaka is getting Shakad!" Willem would make what would be his most significant error of the game by signing peace with Shaka, but that was no reprieve for the Zulu, whose Impis and Swords were no match for the technologically superior German forces, which were about to incorporate Knights. Willem still had a chance to win, albeit a small one, if he could econ well and maybe sneak his way into a backdoor Culture victory.
Huayna seemed destined to be First To Die, until in a desperate attempt to save his ally, Hannibal attacked Sitting Bull. This was a suicidal war declaration, far too little too late, as Huayna had two cities remaining with one of them about to fall. Hannibal's stack immediately disintegrated at "Poverty" Point, and Sitting Bull quickly began to overrun Carthage. First To Die had become a race - would Sitting Bull choose to delenda Carthage before finishing off Inca? How quickly would Freddy's Knights conquer Zululand?
A Willem backstab of Sitting Bull answered those questions. The Native Americans were more than strong enough to withstand the 2v1 - we are definitely not counting Huayna - but this conflict, combined with Hannibal's Castle defenses, was enough to slow Sitting Bull down a tad. Although this was a risky move from Willem since Sitting Bull was pleased with him, it may have been his best shot at victory, for although he was unlikely to really hurt Sitting Bull, if he grabbed a couple of cities, the aforementioned Culture victory was in play, especially noting his construction of the essential Culture wonder Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately, Sitting Bull's military strength was so dominant that Willem ended up getting nothing from the war. The only real effect this war had was in sealing Shaka as First To Die on Turn 210, quite a late date for a first elimination.
Shaka had the perfect setup. He had a great capital, plenty of space, good neighbors to kill, and he did NOT have Copper so he was not at too much risk of getting bogged down too early. Unfortunately, his timing was just not quite right, as Willem was stronger than expected and Freddy had all the time in the world to build up. However, Shaka's demise cannot only be chalked up to bad luck. He initially settled away from his neighbors, giving them the opportunity to become strong, and while his tech choices were not quite to the level of a Bismarck gambit, they still exposed Shaka's weaknesses. He researched Wheel and Mysticism far later than he should have, and as a result, he slid into technological irrelevance despite having a double digit city count. Contrast this with Freddy, who actually leveraged his spacious start into a dominating position. Shaka's performance demonstrated once again why the community is often wary of trusting pure warmongers.
Freddy was the undisputed King of the North, and he was the clear frontrunner, with 20+ cities and the tech lead. His victory was not a certainty, however, as Sitting Bull was continuing his rampage against Hannibal. The Carthaginian leader owned the Hindu Holy City, which meant that Sitting Bull had a chance to have five holy cities, which, combined with his Philosophical trait, meant that a Sitting Bull Culture victory was also in play, as the likelihood that the Germans and Native Americans would come to blows was very low, unless perhaps Sitting Bull did his usual spy shenanigans. This likelihood got even lower when Frederick declared war on Hannibal, and it was actually the Germans who brought an end to the Punic Wars for once and for all.
It is safe to say that Hannibal in general has been quite unlucky in AI Survivor, and it is a testament to his true strength as a leader that he still ended up a Pool 2 leader despite some of the horrific situations he has had to endure. In this game, he ended up stuck in an iceball corner from the get go, due to having two holy cities settled right next to his capital, although his initial settling choices did exacerbate those problems. His natural ally Huayna also churned out a pathetic performance, which did not help matters. Hannibal did make the best of his situation - he was 2nd in tech at one point - but at the end of the day, you can't throw snowballs at War Elephants and Cuirassiers.
With Hannibal out of the way, Sitting Bull had the all clear to finish off Huayna Capac. One thing that I greatly appreciate about AI Survivor is how even the titans have weaknesses of their own. Mansa Musa is too much of a high peaceweight outlier sometimes. Justinian is overly reliant on religion. Kublai Khan is an average at best techer. Now, Huayna's biggest weakness has been exposed: he is too susceptible to wonderitis, sacrificing expansion opportunities to build unnecessary wonders like Stonehenge and Temple of Artemis. His disappointing performances from the Season Six Championship Game and on have made this evident. I do not think that the Alternate Histories will be kind to the Incan leader; in addition to his double wonder resources, his land was just flat out awful. Too much tundra, and almost zero happiness - Huayna was really choked by his lack of luxuries in this game. Combine that with a surprise betrayal from Willem and a strong Sitting Bull, and all the ingredients were there for a disappointing performance from the all-time leaderboard #1.
The remainder of the game seemed destined for Sullla to click Next Turn 100 times while Freddy went to space. Willem was too scared of his opponent's military might to do anything of note, and he was researching Combustion before Rifling. Sitting Bull preferred to focus on a Cultural victory, one that seemed quite unlikely - when he started maxing out the Culture slider, his 3rd closest city had not yet reached even 5000 Culture, let alone 50000. To the amusement of the community, Sitting Bull was doing typical Sitting Bull stuff, eschewing Artist slots and 7 Commerce tiles in order to run SPY specialists. I presume that this strange Espionage obsession has to be some reference to the Navajo Code Talkers. However, Freddy still had a lot of the tech tree to research, while Sitting Bull was able to close the gap, spreading his religions and building the requisite culture buildings. He had quickly halved the countdown to victory. However, he suddenly switched off the culture slider. What did this entail?
The Bullied had become the Bully. After years and years of being oppressed by low peaceweights, he was finally out for blood. He turned his horde of highly promoted former Elephant Cavalry towards the Dutch, and Willem's backstab had become a strategic error. This did not delay the Cultural countdown by any significant amount, as Sitting Bull immediately turned the slider back on upon launching his war. In fact, this was actually an extremely shrewd move on the part of the Native Americans, as he would capture Sistine Chapel from the Dutch. This war all but sealed a Sitting Bull Cultural victory, as Freddy was unlikely to be able to research all the spaceship techs, build the spaceship, and have the 10-12 turns needed for the spaceship arrive at Alpha Centauri in time, and he was Pleased with both of the other leaders and thus would never intervene in their conflict. Willem had only seven cities, and it appeared that Cathy would still be alone in the Wildcard match.
But... not so fast. Sitting Bull's 3rd city would go Legendary on Turn 339, and Willem was still standing. Two things saved the Dutch leader. First, he would finally discover his sanity and research military techs, and despite Sitting Bull's overwhelming numbers, Tanks proved enough to delay Willem's elimination. More importantly, however, Sitting Bull did not bring enough siege to his invasion, and Willem would often damage the few Cannons he did bring with flank attacks. Thus, Willem becomes the second survivor to the Wildcard match. To boot, this was a gutsy performance from Willem. Despite his squeezed position, he was able to expand decently well, and his teching was on point, enough so that his typical "what's a rifle" gambit was of little consequence this game, and enabling him to muster tough defenses against both Shaka and Sitting Bull. However, some of his weaknesses were on full display. Willem just sometimes lacks a killer instinct, and is not the best at picking fights. His biggest blunder was making peace with Shaka and allowing Freddy to take all of Zululand. Imagine if Willem was able to take a few of Shaka's cities - he would have likely won the game. His betrayal of Sitting Bull likely set the stage for the Native Americans to turn their aggression towards him in the lategame. His attack on his natural ally Huayna was also slightly questionable, but in all fairness, Huayna was extremely weak and Willem did gain some sorely needed territory from that war.
Although Freddy took the silver here, this game was the exception that proves the rule that Freddy is a low. It is beyond pathetic that despite a solo kill and owning 20+ cities, he was still only on pace for a near Turn 400 Spaceship victory. Part of that was from his poorly managed start, in which he made bad tech choices and got bogged down by the barbarians. He was completely carried by his territory; imagine Huayna or Hannibal with that land. They would probably win 15 games in Alternate Histories.
On the other hand, the much maligned Sitting Bull actually managed to churn out one of the more impressive performances in AI Survivor history. His slow tech pace could be forgiven by the fact that from Turn 70ish and on, he was pretty much always at war. Of course, he was aided by his docile neighbor Freddy and the very weak Financial bloc, but Sitting Bull took advantage and was extremely timely with his aggression. One could say he played like a human, Horse Archering Huayna, Cuirassing Hannibal, and finally siccing Cavs on Willem. Sitting Bull is usually known for crashing his economy by building a large army but never using it, but this time, he showcased his potential, and when an opportunity for victory arose, he seized it. This game also served as a demonstration of why Protective may actually be a decent AI Survivor trait, as a major part of Sitting Bull's success came from him wrecking his opponent's armies with super Protective (+Totem Pole boosted) Archery units.
Considering that the three consensus strongest leaders turned out to be the weakest, while the opposite was true for the three leaders voted most likely to be First To Die, this was not a high scoring game for the picking contest. Chaplain is in the lead with 44 points, followed by a tie for 2nd between random.org 
and Dark Savant.
Fantasy wise, things have not been kind to JDP El Grillo, who saw only 2 points from his 64 cost Shaka bid. He really needs Hammurabi to carry him. At least he was not Bellomorphe, whose 64 cost bid on Huayna Capac laid an egg. Henrik has also had some tough luck, with his highest bid on Hannibal falling short. J_mie6 and Eauxps are big winners here, as they had respective bids on Sitting Bull and Freddie while still having most of their team intact. J_mie6 in particular already has three leaders in the Wildcard or the Playoffs. The next game will be crucial for antisocialmunky, who will surely hope his 86 cost Mansa Musa bid is not too much of a gamble and that his cheap bid on Pericles will payoff with the more peaceful Greek leader unable to deal with his aggressive neighbors.
