Power Rankings: Episode 3 – S5

Cloudy:

Every season, there’s a civ that we ranked near the bottom, who, through no fault of their own, proves us right. Ma’in is one of those civs. They had a poor position to start with, very bad stats, then the Seychelles forward settled them, and now they lost half of their cities to former 61st civ Phoenicia. There’s just no way to sugar coat it. Waqah’il Sadiq has already lost, and now we’re just waiting to find out if someone else somehow sneaks across the line before Ma’in is finished off.

ECH:

Fighting a defensive war against a far more powerful civ but through harsh terrain? Bad but manageable.

Settlers dead or unreasonably far beyond your ability to protect? Awful.

A city count of two by the end of episode 3? Dismal.

Absolute bottom tier stats in every category relevant to the CBR and no sign of turnaround while fighting a war and surrounded by better civs? Abysmal.

ItsTruckMonth:

Those bastards have finally done it. After 50 turns of wandering the barren Australian outback, they have finally have their second city down. Granted, it's basically free eats for either NSW or Bunuba, but I guess it's progress?

The only reason they’re spared from the abyss of 61st is that, by some miracle, Caral and the Chono have spared them by settling inwards in South America instead of going island hopping. But that luxury isn’t gonna last, Hotu.

JMAn:

Hyksos has a small stumble in the worst performers group. Hyksos didn't have the worst results this episode. Notable is that their civ is officially the only African civ with a religion going into X5. Their faith isn't the best by a long shot, but War Memorial and Daoguan are both salvageable beliefs that can do something for the Hyksos, as can assured permanence (funnily, the same belief buff that kept the Ayyubids faith from ever going extinct in Mk 2).

The real reason for a Hyksos stumble in the ranks is that Phoenicia, the one civ we all thought the Hyksos had a reasonable chance to beat, is proving to be competent whilst the Hyksos still sits on only two cities while surrounded by four civs with 5 cities.

Probably will die in a war against any civ near it. Party Pope 2.0, baby!

Leman:

Weirdly, it’s turn 60 and Circassia is already kinda boxed in. Scythia and Vyatka have completely settled the Russian plain. Their Crimean city is already almost cut off from their capital. Which is so, so rough for this early in the game. Especially when you look at civs like Green Ukraine, who can do whatever they want.

Circassia still has some room. They have the Caucuses that they can settle and have started to enter the wonderful arena that is the Middle East. (It’s not wonderful, it’s already cramped and full of war.) Saving grace is at least everyone in the middle east sucks, so maybe Circassia can make something of it.

NopeCopter:

Well, well, well. After disrupting Bactria’s invasion force and saving the KIpchaks from certain destruction, Qara Khitai decided to go for a SECOND backstab and launched their own invasion of the Kipchaks… only for them to achieve literally nothing, because they’d wasted all their units on fighting Bactria. Chronic Backstabbing Syndrome is a serious issue, Qara Khitai. There is help. Well, there’s probably no helping their current situation - their stats outside of their military (which, again, is currently failing to beat the Kipchaks) are abysmal across the board, and there are some pretty scary civs building up nearby. But maybe Yalu Dashi can get some support in overcoming this once he’s back on the sub.

Archimedes :

BREAKING NEWS! XARAGUA HAS SETTLED ITS THIRD CITY!

When you’re writing about Xaragua, you have to take the little victories. Joining a long list of “sleepy civilizations that started on small islands”, Xaragua probably takes the cake for how little people have thought or heard about them. Rapa Nui has their far flung settler, Cebu and Ternate have a couple wars under their belt, Seychelles and Lanfang aren’t even that sleepy. Xaragua’s claim to fame however is the absolute lowest military on the cylinder, some of the lowest production we’ve seen, and some passable science which is to be expected from an island civ. Their biggest saving grace from being in top contention for an elimination is that their close neighbours, powerful Teotihuacan and Yanomami, don’t seem particularly interested in building a navy. With no active imminent threats to their sovereignty, Xaragua can continue their slow and drifting swim through the warm Caribbean waters, but if they don’t step it up a notch and settle more cities, there’s a good chance that one of their neighbours figures out just how soft of a target they actually are.

Archimedes :

It’s unfair to say that Cebu is entirely unredeemable. Episode after episode they’ve sat in the 50s rank, sitting quite languidly in the Philippine archipelago with two cities. But they’re not sleepy like some of the other island civilizations in this run. They HAVE attacked Ternate, which is by definition some form of action. But there’s certainly a lot more they could be doing. Two cities in a region with plenty of islands to settle is definitely under-doing it, and mainland South East Asia is technically open since Pegu and Lanfang haven’t capitalized on the space yet. Ryukyu could even be a nicer military target than Ternate, as their capital has 6 available sea tiles to attack from. Time will tell if Cebu manages to settle the mainland, or send out some trade routes from its capital to get some extra luxuries, or even manage to get some improvements that they could pillage for culture benefits.

Msurdej:  

Remember the Kuikuro? From X1? Well if you don't remember them, they were a civ in the Amazon that survived for a long time against #1 civ Uruguay and had a great population score despite being quite weak in other areas. How did they survive? Well it turns out the Amazon Rainforest is a REALLY good defensive bulwark for civs until the Modern age. Why are we talking about this? Well, because Xavante is looking like they'll follow in Kuikuro's footsteps. Their only good stat is population and crop yield, whereas most other stats are either middling or poor. The war with Potiguara was one sided, but Xavante came out unphased largely due to the defenses of the Amazon. They might not ever win a war, but they'll probably live until the middle of the game just from the defensive edge they have.

Reformer:

Well, joining the war against Ma’in looked like an alright idea on paper, but in the end, it was only a drain of resources that seems to have attracted the wrath of the international community. At the head of this COALITION is of course Seychelles, as we know. They are (currently) the only one in range to actually fight Sumer. Now, let’s take a looksie. Do we think Ur is fucked? Inconclusive. My own opinion is that Seychelles’ production base is too distant to support a protracted war, and Sumer has enough units to withstand the initial offensive. Even if Seychelles make it to the gates of Ur, they won’t have the gas to keep going. Look, that’s just my analysis. Obviously Sumer’s drop in rank speaks for itself. It’s not just Seychelles they need to worry about– a rampant coalition like this is often a poor omen for a civ. But it could also amount to nothing. Wow. Such conclusive. Even in the absence of coalitions, Sumer doesn’t have the best reputation, so a low-ish rank is easy to justify. I’ll re-state though, I think they’ll be fine.

Semi:

Excitement! Estonia finally actually has to face some hardship in the CBR, as a joint DOW from the two Scandinavian civs brings conflict to Lennart Meri’s doorstep in Narva. We saw them try to gain some benefits out of this war, but unfortunately the Bothnian Trireme simply was not strong enough to batter down the gates. With a Bjarmian invasion that was steadily progressing over the course of the episode, it doesn’t seem like Estonia will gain anything from these two wars, though. And they risk losing both of their Finnish cities. I, personally, am of the belief that the Bjarmian AI will fall victim to the Classic Blunder and split their forces to be torn apart by the two garrisoned archers, but as you can see by the red -3, others are not of that opinion. There’s enough optimism to keep them out of the bottom 10, at least, and the split opinion leads to the pretty big 8.4 deviation.

Either way, though, it’s hard to say Estonia’s long term outlook is good. They are on four cities between a really good looking Scythia and a slowly rising Bjarmians, with no real way to expand outwards. And their stats…woosh. They’ve got okay enough science for being in Europe, but their production is third worst on the cylinder and their military isn’t that much better. In other words, Latvia they are not. So to the 50s they go.

JDT: After suffering the largest drop in the PR rankings in CBR history, Zazzau claws their way back up by 4 ranks in spite of more declarations against them. Part of this is an overreaction - while their stats were awful and their military spent, realistically there was little Wassalou could do to progress further and Ethiopia was a bit of an outside player. Furthermore, this episode, Zazzau managed to keep on settling southwards like nothing happened, while the Aures forward settled Wassalou, cutting off their new gain, and then proceeded to throw their army away in an overextended war against both Zazzau and Wassalou. So, while they aren’t in a great spot per say, still squashed between a host of stronger powers with horrible stats, Zazzau has managed to hang on to a sliver of life that may just be enough for them to scrap into relevance.

Leman:

Yunnan is not at all looking like the powerhouse we hoped they would be. They only just got their third city out, and it is already under serious fire. The terrain is rough, but Pegu is already knocking on Geiju’s front door. Furthermore, Bangladesh has settled a slew of new cities along Yunnan’s border, blocking Yunnan from eastern settling. And finally, worst of all. Tang is a monster. A seven-city behemoth that looks to be able to completely dominate Yunnan. I’m not one to write civs off early, but right now it doesn’t seem like those two neighbors are in the same weight class at all.

Orange:

Well Mysore didn’t turn out to be much of a threat, yet at least. But Pakistan is still pretty trapped without much place to go. Sumer is sending settlers into Persia, Bactria’s got another settler that they could send south, and Mysore obviously settled Keladi to block them from going east. They are blocked in, not building settlers to expand themselves, and need a bit of a stronger religion nearby to make use of their UA to take the land for themselves that way. At least their religion gives them faith but man they really need some production.

Leman:

Ternate sucks. They’ve been really struggling against the early attacks from Lanfang and Cebu, losing a lot of population to starvation and blockades, which in this early stage is really, really bad. The only reason they’re not languishing in the bottom five is that their main antagonist, Cebu, hasn’t bothered to build a settler yet, and they are, somehow, the most advanced civilization on the cylinder. No, I do not know how to make that make sense.

Semi:

My first writeup about Herero! Yay! *checks map and stats to see how they’re doing*Ok come on. This was my pre-season favorite civ, with a great logo and colours and the triumphant return of Jacob Morenga. And now they’re below the likes of Luba and Seychelles. Yeowch. In all actuality, though, it’s kind of crazy to see how much Morenga has blundered since that first episode. The war with Luba, like every early game jungle war ever, was a complete disaster that solely wasted valuable troops. To come out of that and see Kabongo settled basically at the gates of Okahandja is a slap in the face. And yet, it’s been par for the course for Herero’s game so far. Sure, there’s still space south of Otjimbingwe, down on the Cape, but do we really think Morenga will be the one to settle it? And even if he does, will it get him out of the situation he’s put himself in? I don’t really think so. The time to get ahead of Maravi and Luba has passed. So despite waking up a little, it’s nonetheless a 1 rank drop for Herero.

Archimedes :

Pegu is actually working towards climbing out of mediocrity, based on their past few episode rankings, but their neighbours are NOT making it easy. Well, other than Yunnan of course, who happened to place down a nice city for the Pegu to grab. But with the ever growing threat of Bangladesh moving to envelop all of the South East Asian settling lands, Pegu has a growing threat on their doorstep that they’ll theoretically have to worry about very soon. The one saving grace for Pegu is that their unique ability is actually quite solid. +5% science and +5% faith EMPIRE wide per foreign civilization sending you a trade route could ultimately be a powerful ability, and with two high population cities already, they’re poised to have high value science in the mid to late game. But at the moment Pegu finds itself in between a rock and a hard place, with their game fairly dependent on how meteoric Bangladesh’s rise ends up being, and how hard they might crash down and wash them away.

Shaggy:

Guaycuru continues to put all of their eggs hammers into the military units basket, being one of the few civs not named Rapa Nui to still only have 2 cities. They do have a settler out and it is making its way south, but I fear that they will choose to simply plop a city down in the Paraná River Basin and continue building units without any silly little distractions like “infrastructure” or “buildings”. Their war with Xavante is going nowhere fast as the jungle strongholds of Xavante are themselves protected by further hilly forest growth that Guaycuru units must overcome to even sniff Xavante’s borders. It doesn't help that the majority of the Guaycuru army is composed of chariot archers and spearmen. Chono’s recent affinity for building settlers may start to put the pressure on Guaycuru earlier than they’d like as well. It’s a tough cylinder out there and a foothold is just the start.

NopeCopter:

Bactria’s grand plan to rush an invasion of the Kipchaks has failed utterly thanks to the intervention of Qara Khitai, who basically just roughed up their military and left to go try and attack the Kipchaks themselves. So, where does this leave Bactria? Nowhere good, unfortunately. While they were distracted, Pakistan managed to carve out a pretty decent chunk of Persia, which will make it a lot harder for Bactria to make up for this waste of production. They do have a Settler out and about, and none of their neighbors are particularly threatening, but with stats hovering just outside the bottom 10, Bactria has a lot of catching up to do if they want to be considered a contender again.

NopeCopter:

Despite the war against the Pomo going about how everybody expected (nowhere), the Ponca take a MASSIVE tumble in the rankings as it becomes clear that time is running out for them to be a real contender. Three cities is not enough in North America, and Ponca has ABYSMAL Food production on top of that… which is bizarre, because this is the exact opposite of their expected performance. Are the Ponca doomed to be this season’s Seneca? Well, they’re not TOTALLY boxed in yet, so there is a bit of hope left, but the PRs aren’t confident that they even want to turn this around. If they don’t act fast and settle north to avoid getting cut off by the Anishinaabe, then, well, they’d better hope they can figure out how to use that UA of theirs.

Shaggy:

Northern Europe perks up its collective ears as a rumbling rolls down from the north further north than north. The Bjarmians and Kalmar have teamed up in a sympathetic Scandinavian strike, both determined to put pressure on Estonia and ideally control more land that doesn’t crunch beneath their feet. Fortunately for the Bjarmians, they have been able to take advantage of Estonia’s reaction to the news, as Vassa draws the attention of Estonian high command, to advance an army southward that dwarfs the remaining Estonian forces. With a good mix of ranged and melee units, I expect the Bjarmians to be able to assert full control over IRL Finland if they keep at it.

Reformer:

Is it lazy Portugal time yet? Might be a bit premature. But it is a European civ, and an Iberian civ at that, and the successor to the original lazy portugal . . . These arguments are mighty persuasive! Yeah, you got me, I’m just stalling. France is still sending units in to die, nothing has changed. I got nothin’! You’ll have to imagine an interesting plotline for Portugal. Them’s the breaks.

NopeCopter:

Luba’s last episode was spent just trying to survive as they juggled wars with the Herero, Maravi, and Zazzau. Thankfully for them, both the Herero and Maravi fumbled their invasions, and Luba could very easily deal a killing blow to the vulnerable Zazzau if they wanted to. Their stats are also starting to recover, and they’re even settling pretty nicely. Unfortunately, however, Luba still needs to contend with the undeniable fact that they’re pretty boxed in, while their neighbors (mostly) have plenty of room left to expand. Luba will need to fight and conquer to stand a chance, and while the war on Zazzau is a decent start, the odds of any major gains happening in this region seem low for the time being.

Reformer:

Aiyee . . . I sure don’t like this. Another stagnant civ. Though, the episode was very short, only 13 turns. Hard to draw conclusions from. We were mostly watching the early wars happen. And Ryukyu isn’t doing literally nothing. Just close to it. They have a settler out and about. And– oh, it’s taking the long way. Southward it goes. That seems unfortunate. Some farflung colony, I don’t give that good odds of living very long. Besides the settler, not much to report. Come back next week!

Msurdej:  Well Togortak, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Bactria has made peace with you. The bad news is that Qara-Khitai has gotten sick of your alliance and has declared war on you. And for more bad news, the Ket have joined in. Oh, you want more good news? Well your production is up 50% of what it was last episode, and units are getting made now. Now if you could just make some more cities, you might actually have a shot!

Archimedes :

Extra extra, read all about it! FOREIGN INTERVENTION on the frontlines as Bully Aures cleaves military advance in two! Victories on the frontlines held tenably as untoward land grab for the gulf of Guinea has left new acquisition of Turunku separated from supply lines!

Wassoulou has had a bit of a tumble this episode, as Aures decides that they’re going to try to be the Hegemon of the region. With a sneaky but ill equipped army knocking at the Wassoulou capital of Bissandugu, and a frankly rude Aures settlement smack dab in between the Wassoulou core and their new Zazzau acquisition, any momentum that Wassoulou had has come to a screeching halt. That’s not to say that we’re in rump state territory, as Wassoulou still has manageable stats and room to settle. And, luckily for them, the Wassoulou’s primary ability is war focused, letting them gain permanent extra trade route slots when capturing an enemy city with two outgoing trade routes. Aures opening up their soft belly as a route of invasion COULD potentially be good in the future, but at the moment Wassoulou is going to need to lick their wounds and consolidate their core as best they can. And of course hope that Zazzau doesn’t wake up from their nap and actually take their city back. They are still currently at war, and the chances Wassoulou can reinforce their city are slim to none.  

Leman:

France picked up a fourth city this time around, putting them on par with their continental European neighbors – Portugal, Hansa, and the Papal States. It’s not great, as there are other civs on six and even seven cities, but for a European civ, keeping up is the best we can hope for. If a fifth and a six come out next episode, I’ll be over the moon.

Archimedes :

You know things aren’t looking great when, in a continent where basically every single civilization picks up a religion, you’re one of the three that doesn’t. Susquehannock could potentially be in a decent position, as its three western and southern neighbours have been looking quite sleepy, but the unfortunate reality of starting on Onondaga’s doorstep has thrust them into inevitable and permanent conflict. A slow start with a military campaign that fizzled spectacularly, Susquehannock still has a chance of rebounding in this game, but at the present moment they look sleepy and subdued on the eastern seaboard.

I do think the Susquehannock have potentially been underrated by the ranking team. Looking at the minimap of the end of the episode, they did manage to sneak in a last minute settle in the New England region. Their production and population per city is looking subpar, but that could be due to their two fresh settles. Their science is bad but they are along the coast, and a few lighthouses could really bump up those population numbers. The unfortunate reality of a failed war might be bringing the perception of the Susquehannock down, but in reality, this turbid turtle could be biding its time to burst out in the southeastern United States. We could be watching the breakout North American civ, just ahead of their time. Or, we could be watching a turtle on its back, floundering its legs as it stays stuck in the Thirteen Colonies, easy prey on a future date for towering Onondaga or perhaps the breakout Teotihuacan.

JMAn:

While Phoenicia enjoys an insanely good episode that sees them catapult to the head of the bottom half after taking two cities, it's not necessarily indicative of Phoenicia becoming a contender, much less winning it all.

From the start, we knew that Ma’in was going to have a tough time. Arabia for most civs (Yemen not withstanding) is hard to defend and a resource dead zone. Phoenicia benefits by getting two cities it normally wouldn't have been allocated, but two bad cities added to your borders are still two bad cities.

What this does mean is that Phoenicia rolled somewhat competent biases. I think Phoenicia has gone from being a lost cause to a regional dark horse, but they still have a long way to go if they want to actually be little more than a speed bump in the midgame.

Reformer:

All quiet in Northern Germany. Pretty literally. No war, no nothing. Stats taking a nosedive, on account of the stagnation. Well. At least this is a very straight-forward write-up. Nothing much else happened with their neighbors either. Kalmar is in a war, but it’s not an exhausting war. Oh, but Papal armies are crossing the Alps! Probably headed for France. Ah, here, finally. Hansa has a settler. That’s our breaking news of the Hansa this week. Until next time.

ECH:

Hitting the classic Civ 5 citycount of 4 of course helps explain this rise up 9 ranks, with the Greek colony of Ascoli being a smart choice to place it, but it’s definitely not the full picture. In fact, given the Papal States barely showed up in this episode, it might seem a bit odd, but the answer, as so often, lies in the stats. Pope Julius II can boast of the joint-9th best production on the Cylinder alongside the joint-10th best science, which are crucial metrics for long term success in the cramped continent of Europe. That being said, they remain just on the lower half of ranks given they haven’t achieved too much to impress yet, and look to be sending a doomed army across the Alps to attack some yet-unknown foe.

NopeCopter:

After the brilliantly decisive capture of Dunfermline from the Scottish last episode, Umhaill spent this episode just recovering their strength and consolidating their hold on Great Britain with the new city of Belclare. It’s a pretty solid start, and expectations for Umhaill have begun to recover, but there is still an obvious question to ask: what now? France, for better or worse, has decided to completely forgo settling the coast, and Portugal is mostly based in southern Iberia, so there aren’t any easy targets to invade by sea. Perhaps the next step is to rebuild and launch another invasion of Scotland, then? Or perhaps even to try settling further - mainly in the North Sea or northern Iberia? It’s hard to say, but Umhaill’s stats are alright, so they might be able to make something happen.

JDT:

The Itelmen continue doing Itelmen things. They’re still on 5 cities with mid growth thanks to refusing to settle rivers, alongside having a mid army and mid production, but they have 2 settlers on the way westwards to bolster them a bit. What changed is the circumstances around them. The Japanese are aggressively settling up the Kamchadal coast, a potential boon should they choose to go for early aggression on their borders, or the early sign of a future sword up their neck. Meanwhile, Green Ukraine has decided to invade them, a very poor sighted decision on the Ukranian’s part that hampers them, but also may hamper the Itelmen’s growth. Really this is a tale of double edged swords. The question is simply which side Itelmen will fall on.

Semi:

Caral did three things of note this episode. I’ll talk about them in increasing order of importance.

First, they settled an actual coastal city! Woohoo! It took Capac way, way too long to do this, and means any navy to go out and conquer Rapa Nui will likely be small and impotent. But hey, this was Tiwanaku’s strategy last time around too, and they did just fine until the coalition. We haven’t actually seen any shots of this city yet, so it’s hard to tell how good of a city it is. Overall, definitely a plus for Caral, but a minor one.

Secondly, they’ve sent a second settler up towards the Panama Canal (not sure if it’s mentioned in the episode, but we PRs got a snapshot of Yanomami with it in the corner). This could be really, really interesting if it settles the canal. Firstly, because woo Panama Canal, but secondly, because it opens up more room for the ongoing conflict with Yanomami. Since Yanomami hasn’t actually settled the west coast, there’s an angle where Caral can just become the Andean power from the Atacama to the Atlantic. Something to look forward to, perhaps.

But most importantly, they picked up the second-best Ancient Era wonder, and the third best one of the first three ages, in Cheomsogondae. This tells us a few things. First of all, Caral are actually putting their relatively small production to good use. So that’s nice. But Cheomsogondae is a great wonder because it enables some silly science stats, granting a third of a science point per citizen in that city, as well as a base +3 science and one scientist point. Now I’m no Civ 5 expert, but by my math that’s 5 total science right now, which is 1/6th of their total science, and could be more soon. So a pretty good wonder to pick up, and +3 ranks for Caral.

Archimedes :

You know, sometimes it’s good to slow down, take a breather, and just live in the moment. That’s what the Anishinaabe seem to be doing right now. They have lots of space around them, but no need to rush and settle all of that. Three cities is good for now, just take a breather. There are a few civilizations near them they could pop in and invade, but no need to rush and war like that. Staying peaceful is good for now, just take a breather. Anishinaabe is staying perfectly middle of the pack, with average stats and average cities, and for North American standards, an average religion to boot. Methodism isn’t bad, mind you. They have a boost to gold, faith, science, culture, even artists. It’s just that Anishinaabe is more interested in cruising around the Midwest in his Pontiac, popping by Milwaukee, Saul St Marie, and driving along the Hudson Bay. It’s all breezy for now, and maybe they’ll kick it up into high gear later. When they feel like it

Semi:

Yanomami certainly is a civ that exists on the cylinder. They had a grand total of zero mentions in the episode this week, which by all rights *should* be a good thing. They settled two forward cities back in Episode 2, and were in two somewhat relevant wars. Well, I have bad news. They didn’t really do anything. Their military is still top 10 worst, ahead of only Chono, Ternate, Xaragua, and bottom 5 dwellers Zazzau, Rapa Nui, and Ma’in. Their production is still pretty bad. Their science is just about average, but for a civ with five 4+ pop cities, that’s not great. All of that means that they’re still bottom 20 in stats. The 3 rank drop is likely just statistical noise, but still. Another episode of no development from Davi Kopenawa would result in real questions being asked about our Colombian contender.

Orange:

Despite losing a city and now Umhaill getting a second city onto the main island, Scotland still has 5 cities and solid chances. They can easily turn it around if they build up an army and retake what is meant to be theirs. Or they can settle north and block Umhaill that way, there’s even still a spot or two on the island to ensure is theirs too! But right now they are looking weak, one such as O’Malley might even say submissive and breedable, and sister, lemme tell you, toxic yuri loves some passionate enemies.

ItsTruckMonth:

Rouran dips a fair bit this week as their war with Tang has gone seemingly nowhere, given not a single mention of the war nor an appearance in any slides this week. They still have the strong army and plenty of space to work with for settling, but the mediocre production and low science stats should be a wee bit worrisome.

Best case they drop this war and start pumping out settlers. Take advantage of some eepiness out of Green Ukraine and Qara Khitai.

Lasqueto:So uhhh, Kalmar is actually pretty good now? They’re certainly one of the better off civs in Europe. Hanse are flagging behind, Estonia are mediocre and the Bjarmians barely know what game they’re playing. Meanwhile Kalmar has 5 cities, another 2 settlers out, and fairly solid stats. Filling up Scandinavia could put them in a great position to project power into Europe or the North Sea, providing they don’t just sleep the season away.

Shaggy:

Onondaga has effectively protected the northern prospects that it hasn’t settled yet. That being said… they haven’t settled there yet. Susquehannock is making its way down the coast and for some reason Karankawa has decided to potentially put a city down around rightful Onondagan land. Many neighbors means many problems if you don’t use the tools at your disposal. Time isn’t a factor for them yet, but they need to capitalize.

Shaggy:

Much like their war with Scythia, Wallachia’s rank doesn’t move at all this week. Circassia has one tile that makes deploying the Wallachian armies into Scythian lands difficult, forcing their units to march through forests rather than fields. Unfortunately for the Wallachian military aims, their troops seem to have developed a case of mass dendrophobia and are refusing to enter the forests. At least at home, workers are more able to clear those spooky scary trees to help their cities keep pace in stats.

Reformer:

Maravi spends much of the episode this week throwing away units at the Luban jungle cities. And nothing else! Naturally, this has led to some . . . stagnation. It is not a pretty sight. I considered, and consider, Maravi the likely winner of the continent. But with Seychelles jumping ahead, and Maravi themselves fighting foolish wars, the early game has undoubtedly taken a nosedive. Obviously it’s not hopeless. I mean, we still rank them 20th. It’s a little generous, but that’s because we think the generosity is warranted. They have time! They have time. You can find comfort in that.

JMAn:

After an internal PR poll, Potiguara is the consensus candidate for most likely to win the South American continent amongst the South American civs. The ranks just… don't reflect that at this time.

Potiguara is experiencing a double edged sword. Xavante is a great neighbor to have because it is generally weak and an easy conquest; however, the Xavante have what I call the “Kuikuro Effect™”. That means that at any time the Xavante are under attack, they'll survive strictly because they're totally insulated by the Amazon rainforest and will slow down any civ that attacks them till the jungle tiles are gone.

Why is it named after the Kuikuro? Because the X1 favorite, Uruguay, was so stuck on Kuikuro for so long that it potentially cost them the entire game.

Will the Xavante do the same to our South American hopefuls?

ItsTruckMonth:

Green Ukraine are starting to fumble this bag hard. While they do have the second largest army in East Asia and some good production to boot, they’re wasting both on standing pat with three cities, and an inevitable fluke of a war with the Itelmen.

Meanwhile, Tang to the south has arguably become the strongest civ on the cylinder right now, and Japan is marching to the same tune with some bold mainland settlements. If Green Ukraine wants any chance of avoiding a Potential Civ label they’re gonna need to act fast.

ECH:

Wowie, the early episodes of a CBR season are always turbulent but a 30 rank jump for episode 3 is always worth some applause, and even I as a bit of a Rahman doubter have to tip my figurative hat to his actions this episode. Three new well placed cities, pushing both into India and the Himalayas to secure land that could have been taken by major rivals, most of which are very defensive also. Said rivals are fumbling for the most part, or are still distant, so threats are minimal at this point. Oh, and they even grabbed themselves a religion in Shaktism, although it doesn’t have any especially powerful tenets at this point. All in all, Bangladesh has undeniably catapulted their prospects over the episode into a civ worthy of regional victory.

Now, that being said, allow me to note a few areas of concern that linger. For one, while their stats have improved considerably, their production and population growth numbers remain a touch mediocre, and although these new cities growing will likely alleviate these a bit, smaller civs have managed to achieve grander figures. The bigger elephant (of the Indian variety) in the room is Mysore, a rival that’s actually living up to our expectations but remains a tad distant… for now. Once they inevitably start settling into each other more fully, we’ll have to start incorporating the matchup of the two into our ranks more, and I suspect Bangladesh will suffer a bit of a fall.

JDT: Ooooooohhh this is gonna be goood…

New South Wales topples down a notable 13 ranks as Jandamarra opts not to repeat the mistakes of MK2 and is going straight for the jugular on NSW. While most early game wars don’t tend to flip too many cities or be too impactful, the Bunuba have managed to parlay their Great Library pickup into a very early Ironworking, conferring them swordsmen way before anyone else can even enter the Classical Era. Backed with a strong, concentrated force of spearmen and archers, it’s seeming quite likely that Launceston, Kingston and possibly even whatever new city gets settled up in northeast Queensland will become Bunuba clay by the end of the next episode. With NSW’s army mostly being warriors, and out of position ones at that, we can predict that the NSFW things that shall be done to them next episode will all but contain them to the eastern half of Australia, with little hope of breaking through to Asia.So why are they still top 20?

Firstly, their current stats are still very good, and east Aussie has always been the better half of the continent resource wise and yields wise, conferring better production and growth than Bunuba’s neck of the woods. Secondly, they have a secret weapon out their sleeve - Polynesia. Rapa Nui’s decision to compete for the title of LVP of the CBR series has left the literal entirety of the rich Polynesian isles open, a gamechanging potential growth outlet for any aspiring civ. And since Ternate and Cebu are bad and Japan and Bunuba are blocked by the open ocean and NSW respectively, this basically means the only civs that can potentially exploit this area are NSW, Caral and maybe Chono or Pomo. And just by geography, NSW is going to get the lions share of the good islands, including having all of New Zealand for free. And so, they merely go down an unlucky number 13, with enough land to regroup and recoup.

ItsTruckMonth:

Things are going pretty smoothly for Japan so far. They are tied for the 2nd most cities in the cylinder, and have just pumped out two more settlers. Not only that, but they’re starting to break the curse that plagues most Japanese runs: not settling Honshu, as they settle Odawara on Tokyo Bay.

Pair this with good production and science output, plus Ryukyu and Green Ukraine doing fuckall, and we could be poised for a special Hideyoshi run.

JMAn:

Vyatka takes a tumble this week, and it's not entirely because they are doing poorly; rather, so many civs are doing so much better than they are that Vyatka’s early turn dominance is wearing off.

Vyatka does still have the benefit of surrounding Scythia, which is also just now starting to get hemmed in on all sides. Vyatka still has room to grow north and east; however, Ket’s star is ascending and the Kipchaks are still untouched by Vyatka’s troops.

Vyatka can retake the number one spot pretty easily, but it needs to act quickly to make that happen.

JDT: Scythia drops by 3 because they are in a strange predicament. On one hand, they are a bona fide superpower, with strong stats across the board and a fertile and productive temperate region to scale those stats even further. On the other hand, they are surrounded on all sides by powers who hate them and are clamouring to take a chunk out of them, something Vyatka and Wallachia have decided to do in the face of mediocre manpower. On the other other hand, all of the powers who can actually do anything are fairly weak, impeded by geography or complete buttfumbles who have zero clutch or effort. So, where does this leave Scythia? What will come of them? That will depend on if Vyatka remembers how to war and how well Wallachia’s units can trickle through. If they fight properly, Scythia is kinda boned. But otherwise? Kush is gonna get Ateas higher than the Andes.

ECH:

Mysore leaps seven ranks up to 12th in spite of a seemingly definitively failed war with Pakistan, which in a way just confirms how certain we collectively feel about their ‘fundementals’ so to speak. Prior AI games and pre-season tests gave us a lot of faith in Tipu Sultan's potential, and so far they’ve steadily confirmed our preconceptions more and more: maintaining a constant output of settlers and military strength that a winner needs in the CBR, and now moving beyond the Deccan into North India proper puts them in a position to project land power East, North or West as they please in time. This was really what we needed to see to feel secure in their status as a regional power, and of course settling the East coast with Calicut was a pleasant bonus also.

That being said, the last writeup of mine you read before this one was me extolling the rise of Bangladesh, and it is there debate exists in the PR’s in regards to judging Mysore’s trajectory. Simply put, there seems to exist an axis from ‘Bangladesh is all settlers and no steal, Mysore will tear through them eventually’ to ‘Bangladesh is a major rival to Mysore and could end up even beating them if they continue to rise like they have’, with PR’s siding across the spectrum. To be frank, I lean towards the first statement, so I possess a lot of expectations for Mysore to keep this status or even head into the top 10, but we’ll see in time the truth, won’t we?

ItsTruckMonth:

The Ket had a pretty modest and quiet episode overall, boosting their city count to 6 and overall just chilling. Yet despite this, and some mediocre science output, they still take a good leap up in the PR’s? Why?

Guardian Spirits, my good friend. This founder’s belief gives +1 city strength in cities for every city following this religion. It’s pretty strong already, but given that the closest neighbor with a religion is Scythia/Circassia, they got a lot of room to spread the good word, and in turn, get absolutely stacked in city defenses.

Orange:

Lanfang drops a fair bit as they forgot to make more cities and also absolutely fucked up that Ternate attack. Like come on my guy, that was such a terrible invasion. Is this enough to say that Lanfang doesn’t have grit and momentum? Maybe. But they certainly are lacking in clutch that’s for sure. Gotta pump up those metrics buddy you know the stats don’t mean shit.

Archimedes :

It’s been a big episode for Teotihuacan as they look to shift their game plan into “Phase Two”. A war declaration against Karankawa in the earlier part of the episode is an expected boon to Teotihuacan’s gameplan, and with a little luck and a little grit, they could manage to navigate the mountain gap and take a city or two as spoils of war. A city however isn’t the greatest advantage however, as Teotihuacan does have a Unique Ability where every enemy unit killed adds an extra 2% production to a wonder they’re building, up to a maximum of 14%. Teotihuacan is a Civ that’s absolutely RABID for Wonders, with a religion that gains faith for every wonder they own, and the highest AI bias towards building wonders and competing for wonders out of any other civilization on the cylinder. Each Karankawa unit that falls is a potential boost in production to some pretty powerful bonuses Teo could be gaining. Plus, the war declaration with Karankawa did also secure them a free trader slot, which they can use with their Unique Building the Obsidian Workshop to generate free builders whenever trade routes are completed.

Teotihuacan isn’t defined only by its current war of course. Their production is among the top 5 out of all on the cylinder, and a decent amount of population spread amongst their cities.  Those 6 cities set them solidly as an expansionist empire for this point of the game, and they still have a decent amount of room to expand, both north south and potentially into the Caribbean as well. Their science is actually surprisingly awful though, and their gold is right on the margin with 0 GPT. This is probably explained by Teotihuacan picking up a Liberty opener, as evident by the Great Engineer hanging around their capital that confirms they’ve finished the Liberty tree to pick up a free great person, as Liberty civilizations tend to start out short on science and gold. There’s a lot of potential sitting here though, with cities that could soon become production powerhouses as their land is developed, and a chance to pick up some juicy wonders in the near future. As long as they don’t squander the bonuses afforded to them at the present moment, they seem set to become a true top contender in the near future.

MSurdej:  Pomo had a simple episode at this point. They weren't able to get over the mountains to conquer Ponca, and so decided to just call the whole war off. Which is good for them, that means they can focus more on their new religion; Bole Maru. It might hurt them in food a bit, but in the long run the cultural benefits should be worth it. So why has Pomo gone down a rank? Well, in addition to not being able to take a city off Ponca, they have some stiff competition in the Tlingit who continue to build a solid empire. The other reason is a civ has shot out of the water right past them. And that civ is...

Msurdej:  

Holy swordfish! Seychelles has burst into the top 10 in a flurry of activity. The first was their settler spam that led to them having seven cities, the most in the game tied with Tang. And these aren't just island cities, they managed to get onto the mainland in Africa and the Middle East. They also have a massive population, with the highest crop yield, and a population only behind... Sumer?! Well it seems France-Albert took umbrage with that, and declared war against his northern neighbors. A sizable army has shown up outside Sumer's doorstep, hoping to take Ur. While opinions are mixed that this will be successful, it's clear that Seychelles is one civ we're going to want to keep an eye on next episode.

Leman:

Well Aures slips a rank after their war with Wassoulou and Zazzau goes nowhere, and they lose their perch atop the stats ranking. But, I’d like to reframe that a little. Instead, I’d like to say, Aures manages to defend their wild forward settling bifurcating West Africa and completely cut off Wassoulou from their newest conquest. I don’t think the Aures line is a very defensible play but honestly, if Aures manages to continue to statistically outclass its West African neighbors like it is doing, I’m a huge fan of the long-term implications of this as long as Dihya doesn’t get overwhelmed and drop Thamugadi any time soon.

Cloudy:

The Chono have realized that they have the whole southern cone available to settle, including some really fertile lands, and no one is contesting them for it. They’re now up to six cities, the most in South America, with another settler heading out, while their chief rivals Guaycuru are still sitting on two. This has been the result of a minmaxing strategy by Martin Olleta: while putting all his production into settlers, he has ignored military units, and currently maintains the third weakest military on the cylinder, beating out only Ternate and Xaragua. But that’s the catch: Chono doesn’t need troops. Nobody else is anywhere near them, and while their nearest neighbors, the Guaycuru, have a very large army, that army is currently throwing itself uselessly against the Xavante while Chono claims all the good lands. By the time Guaycuru realizes they have to do something, it will be too late. So while there’s a small chance this backfires, we think it’s probably a brilliant play that puts Chono in pole position as the clear leader of South America.

Archimedes :

Tlingit slid under the radar last episode, with not a single slide showing us their core, and a brief mention in the map screen pointing out just how straight and long their empire is. There were no wars, no wonders, no great people, absolutely no notable events to speak of. But, to say Tlingit did nothing last episode would be a false statement. Because if you look under the hood a bit, look at their growing production, population, science, faith and culture, you’ll see that they’re topping the stats in nearly every category there is. Sheiyksh is slowly turning his civilization into an absolute monster, and that hasn’t been missed by the power rankers. Tlingit is indeed ranked #1 in production, tied with the other monster coastal civ Chono at a monstrous 61 hammers at this stage of the game. And that production has been put to good use, churning out the 6th largest military on the cylinder. One could say that the Itelmen would make a tasty target, or even the more robust Pomo to their south, but from what little we’ve seen of the Tlingit, it doesn’t seem like they’ve been focusing much on a navy. In fact, this army of theirs might actually be more of a hindrance than a boon.

If there’s one thing that Tlingit doesn’t have, it’s gold. They’re sitting on a paltry 49 gold stored, and with a -11 GPT they are the single largest negative gold per turn we’ve seen. If that treasury dries up, their currently decent science could tank, starting a spiral into mediocrity that their neighbors could take advantage of. That of course could be solved, through going to war or building some markets or even picking up a gold focused enhancer belief. But we’ll be keeping a close eye on just how Tlingit ends up solving this one problem of theirs, as otherwise they’re looking to be the top contender in North America.

JDT: Ethiopia had a bit of a quieter episode this go about, not really doing too much of note. What they are though, are big. They’re no.2 on the infoaddict sheet, and while most of that is pure military, they have very good production and decent science and growth. Their neighbours are notably very weak or showing themselves to be paper tigers. Really, all they need to do to become incredibly powerful is show some aggression towards Hyksos or southwards, converting those powerful military units into cities to scale furthermore. Their current poor growth is also a cause for concern, given they are behind most other top tiers in terms of food and population. But it doesn’t matter, because as long as they lurk, nothing in Africa is safe…

Orange:

Bunuba jumps up to second, despite my wishes. Don’t get me wrong, I am rooting for them so hard here. But I also have a personal policy: Australian civs can’t win. Which is to say, unless they can prove themselves able to break out of the region, I will not rank an Australian civ in the top 5, no matter how good they are. They gotta prove themselves first. But I don’t control the rankings, I’m a wildcard, a lone rogue, and everyone else? Well there are quite a few 1’s marked for Bunuba…

Anyways here’s the real analysis: NSW is fucked and will lose at least two cities, Bunuba used their Great Library to get Iron Working (Swordsman) and NSW doesn’t even have comp bows yet, they are gonna get walked over, it’s just a matter of how far will Bunuba go before the terrain and some unit spam slows them enough to call it quits. I’m predicting Launceston and Kingston are falling quickly with a chance for Hobart to go down too.

Leman:

Tang is looking like a monster this episode. Along with Seychelles, they are the first civs to seven cities! In this early stage, city count is by far the most important metric, and Tang is cleaning up in that department. Their other stats are looking fine, with a large military and decent production. Tang is also cleanly outclassing their closest neighbors Ryukyu and Yunnan, as they have more cities than both of those civs combined, and are far less boxed in than either of those civs are too. Their wars that are going on with Rouran and Yunnan have no chance of going south. Their tech could be better, but other than that, Tang seemed to be kind of dominant here and now.