Power Rankings: Episode 4 – S5

Archimedes :

Today is NOT a good day to be a Ma’in supporter. Watching the underdog of the Mediterranean not only crush your pitiful armies, capture two of your cities, but also demand a well defended city in the peace deal is a death knell to the now rump state of the cylinder. That’s not to say that there was ever hope that Ma’in would do good of course. They were projected to not last long from the outset of this game, with bad land and bad abilities for a deathmatch such as the CBRX. But when 14 of the 16 Power Rankers have you tagged at 61, and the other two rankers have you at 60, you know that your future is ultimately looking bleak.

And yet, maybe there is a glimmer of hope, a tiny chance that the Ma’in will not be the first eliminated. Their capital Qarnawu is in a really quite defensible position, one tile inland and surrounded by mountains to their north and east, and the Red Sea to their south and west. Both Phoenicia and Sumer would have a hard time traversing those mountain passes with units to besiege the city, and I’m under good authority that Ethiopia’s leader Zara Yaqob is not in fact Moses and able to part the red sea. Ma’in will certainly never recover, and will likely be eliminated soon, but there is the slimmest of chances that they end up not being the first one out of this game.

Leman:

Personally, I think if you find yourself under Rapa Nui, you don’t deserve a whole lot of my brainpower on my write up. You suck. Karankawa sucks. Teotihuacan probably won’t take a city, but even if Karankawa peaces out right now, I’d be shocked if Karankawa made it out of the bottom five. They have no room to settle, a few settlers going out to Canada or the Yucatan that are impossible to defend. I dunno. Hard to find a way out here.

Iris:

Their performance so far has been just so disappointing. On multiple levels. They are not doing the worst but they could be doing so much better. I am not even mad at them, for much of their situation is not their fault.  

However I will be mad until the end of time at, of course, PEOPLE VOTING FOR PHOENICIA RIGHT AFTER HYKSOS WAS VOTED IN! 🙀💢

Orange:

Is that a MOTHER FUCKING THIRD SETLER?!?!?!?! Yeah that’s right everyone, Rapa Nui is about to grow by 50%, never before seen metrics here. Now, what can we expect from this new and improved settling machine that is the modern Rapa Nui? Well, lemme tell you:

Orange:

Generational fumble right here. Not only did they not settle in the space just north of Dagon, instead sending their settler out into the wastes of Asia where they certainly can’t defend anything, but they also made peace just before they were about to take the Yunnan city of Geiju, further limiting the area they can call their own. Lanfang is instead settling up into Malaysia and Cambodia, while Yunnan is settling in Vietnam. Really there is only space for about two more cities just southeast of their capital, and maybe they can get something on the Andamans before it’s too late. But nonetheless, this episode spells the end for Pegu’s chances of being anything other than a rump. RIP.

Cloudy:

Oh, Cebu... why has it come to this... look, let me help. Go into the production menu, select “settler,” and do this a bunch of times. Before it’s too late. Please. God grant me patience.

Shaggy:

YUNNAN, YOU FUCKING DONKEY! Not only did you let Tang settle Zhengzhou right under your nose but now you give them your biggest city in exchange for the privilege of not being able to try and capture Zhengzhou. This is hands-down the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals. I can’t even laugh at the prospect of sending those two settlers out now, it just feels sad. Or maybe funny if Pegu and/or Bangladesh end up fully closing Yunnan off. Also shoutouts to ECH for this absolute gem of a slide edit featuring some of the best PR live reactions to slide 68.

Lasqueto:After two season defining superpowers coming from this region, it’s almost refreshing seeing a civ this dull. That’s the one interesting thing you can say about Ternate. They’re so boring. Even their neverending war with their neighbours is boring. Cebu and Lanfang send ships in but nothing ever happens. I think the sailors just fall asleep at their oars in the presence of such concentrated ennui. They can’t even revel in being truly dogshit though, because their science is actually pretty good. Shame they’re doing absolutely nothing with it. I thought this was meant to be the spice civ? Ternate is so unspicy even the British think they’re bland. Absolute nothingburger of a civ.

JMAn:

Zazzau is riding the struggle bus as they by sheer luck get a bump in the ranks by one place. Though they have managed to grow like just about every civ this episode, they are still nowhere near where they need to be stats wise to contend with any of their neighbors.

As Zazzau continues to stumble in the stats department, the gaps are becoming more evident. They’re two techs behind the best science civs and one tech behind our best contenders (minus Cebu, which is ahead by one tech but still struggling.

The emergence of a Great General is great in regards to their UA, and might help them make up the difference if they survive long enough.

But now they are at war with Aures, Ethiopia, and Luba. Two of these civs are immediate threats. Realistically, I expect Zazzau to only lose one city in this war to Aures whilst Luba and Ethiopia send a few death squads to the eastern border to die. But the point still stands that Zazzau has less than half of Aures’s military. Zazzau has less than a sixth of the military of all of their enemies combined.

I don’t think this is the deathknell, but it is looking grim for Zazzau.

Archimedes :

It’s interesting to watch through Qara-Khitai’s game plan as the episodes tick by. They started off by building the first wonder, and establishing the first government. Then, in a dramatic fashion, they attacked their neighbour Bactria to protect their other neighbour the Kipchaks from an invasion. THEN, they backstab the Kipchaks to try to steal the cities for themselves. And frankly, none of it has worked out for Qara.

Now, Qara-Khitai languishes in the lower half of the statistics, locked away with only four cities in the backbone of the world, with productive yet food poor cities nestled in between defensive mountains. And those defensive mountains are precisely the thing that will likely keep Qara-Khitai in this game. With middling production, middling population, middling science and middling city counts, Qara really needs to step it up a notch and either settle a bunch of cities, or make some actually decisive moves and take some cities off of Bactria or the Kipchaks. They have a military that could be mobilized, and that’s maybe their saving grace, as if they do manage to pick up a city off of their neighbour, their unique ability can come into play. Their Battle of Qatwan ability is nothing to sneeze at, since all cities gain additional happiness, gold, and culture for each city in the empire with a different original owner is the kind of thing that could start a snowball of winning, especially with their fellow neighbours also floundering a bit. Time will tell which civilization will become a regional power, but at the very least Qara-Khitai will continue to stay nestled in the mountains, a real thorn in the side of whoever might decide to attack them.

Msurdej:BREAKING NEWS! XARAGUA HAS SETTLED ITS THIRD FOURTH CITY!

That being said, despite a 33% upgrade in cities, Xaragua didn't make much progress this episode. Still the lowest military? Check. Island locked? Check. Good tech but mediocre production? Check. Even though they remain safe for now, it's only a matter of time before someone like Teotihuacan and Yanomami make a navy and take down Queen Anacaona. Oh yeah, that's right, they're a monarchy now. That's the other big move they did. Yay.

Shaggy:

Well now we know why the Bjarmian invasion of Estonia went nowhere, everyone was too busy partying at their local “Forn-fest” and they couldn’t get out of their banquet chairs the next morning. I really do like the consistent theming of their religion, do we start calling them Bjarm-bros? Bromians? Unfortunately, the CBR is not won on vibes alone. Estonia has successfully repelled the Bjarmian armies this time, Kalmar continues to settle closer and closer, and even Vyatka has started settling north enough that Harekr might start getting jealous. Or not, maybe they’ll just invite them for a feast in the snow.

JDT: When Uruguay was released onto the world in CBRX1, it was a monstrous abomination. Coded with some unique AI triggers to optimize its strength, the Guay proceeded to dominate the game, becoming one of the cylinders most predominant powers and dominating the stat sheet up until the final episode. However, at the last moment, the Guay was sealed by a mystic ritual devised by the Moors and Iroquois, forever trapping them in the confines of the X1 endgame. Since then, though X1 has passed by the sands of time, the vestiges of evil remain, cursing Rio De La Plata for the rest of time. No matter how strong an AI there is theoretically, and in spite of their fertile soil, it seems inevitable that when it comes time for the big game, the RDLP civ will morph into an unrecognizable, laughable monstrosity, cursed to writhe and die in its own cradle.

Anyways, meet Guaycuru, our latest abomination of a catboy to grace the RDLP region. They seem to have forgotten what settling is, and are more than content with sending units to die in the Amazon. Kbity!

Orange:

A bold attack requires a decisive plan of action and a strong backing, Ryukyu only had the first two. A bold attack against the quickly growing power that is Japan, if they succeeded they would position themselves as the preeminent power in the eastern sea. A decisive plan of action by quickly surrounding the city of Momoyama, if they captured it they would cut off Japan’s easiest naval path west and isolate the city of Yonezawa. Yet they lacked in the strong backing, not having nearly enough triremes to send into the Japanese wave which had an archer in the city and their own fleet lurking nearby.

With their best war option down, they will need a hail mary or two to come back from this. Maybe an early Galleass rush with their good science gain, more settlements that are closer to home than right next to Lanfang’s capital, and waiting for when Japan is distracted. They can still claw their way out, but they need to play smart, smarter than they have been

Semi:

Yeah I got no clue why Sumer went up 5 ranks, y’all. Call it statistical noise. Yes, Eannatum settled a fourth city. So what. Phoenicia settled too, and declared war. The effective science output, which early on defined the Sumerian game, is now just two-thirds of  Seychelles’.

Alright, there’s the bad news. What’s the good news? Well, the Seychelles invasion has come to nothing. Who could’ve *possibly* seen that coming. It’s not like every other Ancient/Classical war where the defender actually has an army. Heck, Eannatum even had his unique warrior! So I’d see this week as a correction to where Sumer should hang out for a while yet: fair science, but mostly boxed in and showing no evidence of wanting to break out. Low 40s.

Archimedes :

You really have to think about the long term whenever you consider Estonia. With the modern country re-established in 1987, all of Estonia’s Uniques focus on late era bonuses. With a stadium replacement, a marine replacement, and a unique ability that gives 5% great people generation for every social policy tree they have unlocked, Estonia really really wants to just hold on and survive until the end of the game to be at their full potential. But with Bjarmians taking half of their cities this episode, things are really…

What’s that? Estonia defeated the Bjarmian army?

ESTONIA WILL LAST FOREVER!

Perhaps that’s a little optimistic, but Estonia valiantly defending themselves during the war (or the Bjarmians absolutely fumbling the ball in their attack) has given a new light and a new hope for the supporters of this eastern european nation. They are quite low on the stats line though, with some of the lowest production on the cylinder with their flat land lumbermill-less cities, and they have other much more competent and powerful neighbours potentially knocking at the door for a slice of their blueberry pie, but for the moment a sparkle of hope can be seen that Estonia might end up lasting just long enough for some of their abilities to really kick in.

Archimedes :

It’s been quite the rumble in the jungle, and they’ve lived to tell the tale. Xavante was at one point besieged on two sides, both by the military powerhouses of the Potiguara and the Guaycuru. But, due to their own militarization and to the dense defensible jungle of the Amazon, Xavante has come out the other side of this as a solid core of high population cities. And that is frankly remarkable.

Essentially every test game before the actual run of the CBRX5 has seen Xavante gobbled up by their neighbours early. Almost every one has seen a first elimination out of this South American civ. But this time, Xavante has developed a high population, high science turtle that bears a striking resemblance to the Kayapo of X3. They have settlers at the ready to strike off into the world, and an army to project power and potentially take from their neighbours. And that’s exactly what they need at the moment, because the Xavante’s biggest limiting factor as of yet is their paltry city count of 3. The trees are closing in as Potiguara Caral and Yanomami have settled cities right up against the borders of the Xavante, and with little room to maneuver as of now, they’ll have to make some big moves in the coming episodes to elbow their way out of the confines they find themselves in. Hopefully the army they’ve developed to defend their lands can find a usable outlet, like the weakly defended Yanomami cities to the north.

Xavante holds a lot of ill feelings from the Power Ranker team, based off of their frankly horrific track record in the tests leading up to this season, but episode by episode they shake off the expectations placed upon them by the ghosts of failures past, and perhaps we may end up seeing the Xavante become a powerhouse in the region.

JDT: Pakistan jumps up by 4 thanks to 4 big circumstances. Firstly, their infoaddict scores have jumped up by 14 spots, thanks to improvements in growth and production. Secondly, they settled a 4th city off screen, giving additional cause for growth and scaling. Third, they researched comp bows. Finally, they managed to fend off Mysore’s early attack, ensuring they’ll live another day given how bad their other neighbours are.

Mind you, just because they’re better doesn’t mean they’re good. They’re still very mid with Mysore breathing down their doorstep and a wide open array of cities for them to take.

ECH:

We’ve backtracked our 14 rank jump for Luba last week a little by dropping them 4 ranks now, probably closer to where they belong in the grand scheme of the game right now. They have 4 cities still, are still primarily a target of wars rather than an instigator (low level conflict with Zazzau aside), and are still just about hanging on to cities through these wars. Herero managing to put a few scratches into their capital is a major red flag for their long-term chances in my view; what will happen when someone with genuine power tries in a few episodes with more advanced troops, like Ethiopia lingering to the North perhaps?

ECH:

Oh Bactria… what dreams we had of you… once upon a test game gone…

They may have shuffled around up a rank, but make no mistake, Demetrius is still in dire straits. Their reliable game strategy was meant to be a potent mix of settling fever and early game militarism, the ultimate wide civ that maybe suffers statistically for their starting expansion but ultimately snowballs off their early momentum into the top echelons of civs. That strategy has failed them when it came to the real season however, the pivotal first campaign failing and the settling spree never sparking. They are at 4 cities now, but it’s a touch too late to try the tall game instead, sorry to say.

Are they out completely? Well, as of the final slide they have some (slightly late) settlers ready to deploy and their Unique Unit, an elephant swordsman replacement with extra movement and bonus strength for each movement used before an attack. Qara-Khitai and maybe Pakistan are flopping harder than Bactria in our collective estimations, but the former has harsh terrain on their side while the latter is a more even match that would risk putting them in Mysore’s firing line even if they do succeed, so they better prepare their elephants to run a rocky road.

ItsTruckMonth:

Another day of nothing ever happening for the Herero. Another failed war with Luba. Another episode of mediocre military, production, city count, and techs. And another day of being trapped in Southern Africa.

Nothing. Ever. Happens.

Reformer:

Uhhh…War were declared? Teotihuacan and Onondaga are out for blood, but tf are they gonna do? Teo has like a one tile approach to squeeze between Pomo and Karankawa (not to mention Teo is still at war with the latter). Onondaga meanwhile has to go all the way around Anishinaabe’s recent settlement. Stupid war declarations both. But they are indicative of a grander problem. When civs start to view you as weak enough to throw random war decs at, you’re probably fucked. If not immediately, then soon enough. Mild gradual improvement won’t fix that. Ponca would need some kind of drastic jump. Maybe Anishinaabe gets coalition’d, and Ponca can jump in on that. But I don’t like the odds. I think it’s a slow downward spiral ahead for you, buddy.

Msurdej:  

France drops a few points as they cease military operations against neighbor Portugal. Robespierre has shown that while he may have a military that rivals Portugal and the Papal States, it takes actual military skill to win the game, not just numbers. Furthermore, their production values continue to fall behind their competitors.  If these facts don't change soon, Robespierre may find himself on the chopping block.

Leman:

Look at that rise! Circassia ends this episode with a whole bunch of cities, a playable religion, and a real foothold in the middle east. Does that mean Circassia is a powerhouse now? Absolutely not, Vyatka and Scythia are still keeping Circassia down, and they are still struggling to break out of a boxed-in start. BUT. It does mean that there is hope for this civ. Instead of what I thought a few weeks ago, when I expected Circassia would languish in these mountains for 30 episodes and vanish as Vyatkan planes swept through the region. Now I expect Circassia to do something fun and THEN get swept up by Vyatka. Maybe bully Phoenecia or something.

Reformer:

This seems kinda high for Portugal. Yeah I’m opening with that, fuck you gonna do about it. Okay let’s see. Stats equal for 48th on the sheet. Are we far enough to say that means something? Eh. You know what does mean something? Continuing to stagnate in Europe. Aures, a top 3 power, is right there. What good can Portugal do? Ain’t much. At least they have some new settlers out now, but good luck putting them anywhere good. Maybe the centre of Iberia. Silver lining? They’ll look nicer than Visigoths.

Archimedes :

Pope Julius the 2nd is beginning to feel a bit like a Caligula past their prime, as their most stunning achievement this episode is declaring war on a far off Phoenicia, a civ that has two coastal cities that frankly are hard to besiege at this point in the game from the sea, and from land are nearly impossible to tackle with a foreboding Wallachia in the way. The Papal States have been regrettably locked into the Italian peninsula, something that everyone was hoping wouldn’t happen. A settlement on the Greek peninsula is at least a minor respite from their Italian roots, but truly the better move would have been expansions north, into the fertile Germanic basin that the Hanseatic League have yet to take advantage of. But the Mediterranean is feeling crowded, and rather than attack the forward settlements of the Aures, lightly defended by sea, the Pope has decided a punitive war is the better move, while their food and production lay squandered, and their options slowly closing in. With no route to the east, to the north, to the west or even to the south, the Papal States seem locked out of being able to make any significant moves in this game. They even missed out on nabbing a religion, a key part that their unique abilities thrive off of. Their only chance at this point is to make a bold and daring move, to potentially launch an attack against a civ with an established religion, such as the Hyksos, which in the modset that the CBRX is using would allow them to gain control of the Founder benefits for themselves. Otherwise, we would be best to elect a new pope, as this one is looking rather pallor in appearance and condition.

JMAn:

The Hansa stumbles a bit, but they are by no means struggling at this time. The Kalmar Union to the north has expanded significantly, but the Hanseatic League is still able to solidify all of Central Europe with no resistance.

Hansa’s opponents are also not all that more impressive than them. France and Wallachia are currently the Hanseatic League’s biggest immediate threats, but they all have roughly the same military strength. I expect in a war with the Hansa, it would result in a null-result. Mainly that it would be pointless. Europe is currently in a situation where each civ needs to expand significantly before they can start making headway with each other. Hansa is no exception.

Reformer:

Hm. 3 settlers running around, peace made with neighbors. Seems like things are looking up for Kipchaks. I’m not the most hopeful, personally. Their stats look middling, but they are carried by an alright military. Which means, you know, garbage. Makes sense, of course. It’s not been a jolly ol’ time for good ol’ Kipchaks. One more positive note, though. They have their awesome unique unit! This bad boy is great for sieges. We love to see a UU dedicated to sieging better. AI bows and thanks you for your service. And even better: thanks to the Kipchak UA, we don’t even need the Kipchaks themselves to get good use out of the UU. Some other civ can put it to good use! How wonderful is that?

ItsTruckMonth:

Vlad comes out of his war with the Phoenicians with nothing to show for it and finds himself in quite a predicament. He’s boxed in with a rising power to his south in Phoenicia, and a power to his north in Scythia.

The worst news, though? Vlad got NO bands, with the coffers dry and dropping at a steady -20 GPT. As a result, he has not just one of, but THE worst science output in the game right now. Vlad better get his shit together, because right now, the stakes are high (ahhhhhhhh get it?).

Orange:

Last episode we saw Mazula send their fifth settler north towards Eritrea/Djibouti to further their goals of being “The African Line”, yet this episode the only thing they did was send that settler all the way back down to around Kilwa. What was the point of this? What did they gain? Nothing, nothing at all.

Leman:

You know what's bad? Giving Taizong a city. It's weird it happened twice. Rouran, at least, has a bunch of room and a few settles to make up for that, hence the small drop. But it's still not good really. Rouran’s gonna have to spend quite a few episodes just quietly settling and building up its economy after pulling off this move.

JMAn:

Have I ever mentioned that I am a descendant of Mary, Queen of Scots?

Anyways, Scotland has another decent enough episode. Mary has performed admirably thus far despite losing a city to the dreaded Boar. But this is the first time where my Unicorn Queen has fallen below Umhaill since episode 0. The bright side is that Scotland’s military is technically outclassing Umhaill’s at this time.

Scotland’s biggest weakness is starting to show, though. And that is that their borders are fragile. Their mainland landing is nothing more than a guardpost that will collapse upon a significant assault by the French, and if Umhaill decides to cluster in Wales, then Scotland will have little to say about it.

I assume this will be a consistent problem for Scotland until the Arctic gets settled or until Scotland produces something miraculous. Either way.

Leman:

So, I wanna talk about Tangoaen. I think this city is the most impactful city settled in North America. It does so much. First off, it gives Anishinaabe a foothold in the plains region, either to settle more or conquer off of. They now have close enough borders with all three of Ponca, Susquehannock, and Onondaga and can go after any of them. Tangoaen is a little out there, but its not so far that it can’t be reinforced.

Second, it kind of kills off Ponca’s chances in my opinion. You can see a sad little settler denied its spot in the slide. Ponca is now kind of locked into three silly little cities, unless they can organize their forces and attack Tangoaen. Which I doubt.

And finally I think this kind of blocks Onondaga and Susquehannock off from their easiest target of Ponca. Meaning they’re either going to have to go through Anishinaabe, or they’re going to be locked in a cage match with each other until they die.  Point is, I think this city is great, has really fun implications for the game and if Anishinaabe can keep it secure (which remains to be seen), they’re throwing themselves into the top tier of North America.

Cloudy:

The Itelmen remain stuck in the middle. They have an okay number of cities, a decent number of settlers, they beat off Green Ukraine’s half-hearted assault... but their stats are still ass, and they haven’t built a single naval unit. I’m sure last week we talked about how they squandered the Banaue Rice Terraces, but I can’t remember. Yeah, in short, still not seeing a Chukchi successor here.

Lasqueto:

Wassoulou are still in this. Might be a hot take, and I know their author disagrees, but I think they could be going somewhere. I mean, they made some good steps this episode. For one, they settled three new cities, doubling their count. Granted, one of those was on the wrong side of Aures, but hey it’s a start. Also the rest of their stats are still kinda terrible. Overall, they’re also still very much the David to Aures’ Goliath, but hey, remember how that story ended? I’m just saying, I think Wassoulou could still surprise us.

Oh who am I kidding, they’re probably destined to be a one episode wonder. It’d be cool if they weren’t though.

ItsTruckMonth:

Despite their ongoing war with Yanomami, Caral has honestly had quite the quiet episode. Their situation hasn’t changed much, sitting at basically the average for most of their stats. The real questions lie in the rest of the region at large.

Rapa Nui has an unhealthy obsession with shrimps on the barbie and Vegemite, Xavante is basically boxed into the Amazon, and Guaycuru is currently filling out their application as a Potential Man. Immediately, there’s not much room for concern, but with the Chono exploding in stats and cities down south, Qhapaq’s gotta get moving.

Msurdej:  

A quiet episode for Grace O' Malley this time around. They got one slide focused on them, became a Principality and... that's it. They're still in a rivalry with Scotland, and while they won the first battle, they could still lose the war if Scotland continues to grow. Umhaill needs to establish control of the British Isles, then get herself on a mainland to give them a chance to win.

JDT: Not much to note for Onondaga this episode. They got featured on one slide and are continuing to settle westwards in an attempt to catch up with the runaway train of Susquehennock. They also attacked the Ponca, but none of us are expecting that to go anywhere. Notably, they have a big military and -1 unhappiness for some reason. Could this perhaps point to future action against the Anishinaabe or Susquehennock?

Leman:

After gutting Ma’in last episode, Hiram spends this episode fending off the vultures who hoped he over extended. Unfortunately for Wallachia, Hyksos, and Sumer, Hiram did not overextend. Two of the three went home with their tails between their legs, and Sumer got a city settled on their doorstep. Phoenicia is looking absolutely solid today.

JMAn:

Yanomami is still performing well enough. What sets apart Yanomami from the rest of the northern half of South America is their thick borders. Each city is settled close enough together and are near enough rivers (and in one city’s case, mountains) that I expect it to be hard for anyone to crack the Yanomami nut. Xavante, too, are a nut that needs to be cracked for any of the civs in South America to have a chance to move on, but Yanomami have the benefit of unrestricted access to Xaragua and having the Xavante be an excellent buffer between themselves and the rest of the continent’s hopefuls.

Yanomami is still in the game, and they just need to capitalize on naval growth and maybe tear a city off of Caral to really have a clear path to victory.

Semi:

So that whole Potential Civ bit from last week? Still entirely true. How do you have the largest military by unit count (not actual manpower, because that takes into account gold too) and you can’t even take a city off of the ITELMEN, and then they settle towards you? No shame to Itelmen, but, come on y’all, they start in Kamchatka. Half the rankers seem to think that you’re still worth ranking highly because you might break out and go take cities from Japan (Hiroshima) or Tang (Kaifeng). I’ll believe that when I see it. They even have nice production at 69! So please for the love of god build settlers conquer cities do ANYTHING and then I’ll consider moving them back up. Man, what a waste of a civ. We could’ve had Silla or Liao here but nooo we have to have a man who’s still compensating for the fact he’s not in actual Ukraine. Get out of the Top 20, and don’t come back until you have something to show for your performance.

Msurdej:  

Mysore tumbles down the rankings to round out the Top 20 this episode. If you take a look between this slide and last week's Mysore slide, you'll find a few glaring issues. No new cities in the early game? Bad. A loss of production? That's even worse. Sure, they gained minimal tech and population, but it's not enough to move the needle. And while they did massively increase their army, their previous war and subsequent peace with Pakistan doesn't give most Power Rankers confidence.

Lasqueto:Soooo, Scythia are.essentially fully boxed in now. They were looking a little crowded out in episode 3, but after this latest they’re pretty much totally surrounded. There’s a few settle spots left, but for the time being Scythia’s core is gonna be all they have to work with. Five cities isn’t unworkable at this point but when the top tiers like Tang are at 10, it starts looking a bit puny. They’re looking a bit like Xavante in that regard. However, unlike Xavante they actually have decent stats, and more importantly, some options. For one, their neighbours are pretty squishy. Estonia and Circassia are obvious targets, but I reckon Ateas could do well off jumping on Vyatka too. Their army’s looking a bit sparse currently, especially spread across such a long empire. Regardless, the time is now because Scythia has their UU out, and they’d do well to capitalise on it. This window of opportunity won’t last forever though, and if Scythia does nothing they look dangerously close to being boxed into irrelevancy.

NopeCopter:

After a fairly disappointing opening war, the Susquehannock have made a shockingly speedy recovery, rocketing up 16 full places in the Power Rankings and landing above even their perennial rivals the Onondaga. What happened? Well, it’s primarily down to their fundamentals. The Susquehannock have been settling a ton, reaching 7 cities by the end of the episode, and they’ve even begun to bypass the Onondaga entirely in order to grab territory in eastern Canada. Their military is also solid, meaning they aren’t likely to be punished for this expansionism. But the Eastern Seaboard is also a fairly infamous starting location that lends itself to being boxed in, so the real difference-maker for the Susquehannock here is the fact that their neighbors are all fumbling. The Ponca are the most notable example, still sitting on a dire three cities, but even the Onondaga are underperforming at the moment. Their success is far from guaranteed, but the Susquehannock look to have plenty of room left to expand into and at least a couple of weaker neighbors to pick off, which is a good sign for their future prospects.

Reformer:

Kalmar is in an amazing position this week. Up to 8 cities– one of the highest on the cylinder– and with room for more, thanks to Bjarmia being a bum. For a European civ, it’s a strong start. Actually, it’s a great start in the grand scheme of things, let’s be real. It’ll still be a pain to get out and become a more substantial power, but this is the start you need. Considering Hansa/Bjarmia/Estonia are mid at best, how hard can it be?

Semi:

Here’s a little behind the scenes for those of us at the PR team. Every week, the assignments are randomly handed out, and normally there’s about one or two that are given to people who ranked that civ nowhere near the spot that they ended up. Well, good news, that’s just what happened this week to Potiguara: I have them 27th. Here’s my case why.

Civs that begin on the tip of Brazil normally have one of three places to go: north, south or seafaring. Let’s take a look at all three options. South of them is Guaycuru and then Chono. As much as I don’t like saying this, Guaycuru is not going to be an easy place to conquer, given the sheer size of that military force wandering back from the Amazon. And even if you do, Chono is shaping up to be a world powerhouse that, I’m sorry, I don’t believe Potiguara can break.

To the north, you have Yanomami. We saw how well that war went. Finally, inland you have Xavante. This is why we originally moved Potiguara so high: because Xavante seemed like they had no military and would get crushed as they did in every test game (see Arch’s writeup earlier on our feelings on them). However, it seems like Xavante may have actually bucked that trend in the main game. They have only three cities, but all are 10+ pop and they actually have more science than Potiguara. A Kuikoro-like run is not out of the realm of possibility.

So that only really leaves the sea. And well…Felipe Camarao has three total triremes.

That’s why I put them so low. They have fine stats, yes, but compared to their neighbors they aren’t particularly special. They aren’t a science turtle like Marajoara from X2. They have shown no willingness to conquer via the ocean like New Holland or the Vandals. So I see them as boxed in, soon to be struggling, and about to enter a period of stagnation. Maybe I’m wrong. But we’ll see.

ECH:

If we thought Bangladesh was heading the right way last week, we’re now even more certain they know where their destination is as they double down on the expansion that propelled them upwards, hitting lucky 7 on their city count. As if that wasn’t enough, both their rivals to the East committed grand gestures of incompetence, furthering hopes amongst some rankers that Bangladesh could end up well positioned to slash their way east and become a champion of mainland Southeast Asia, a powerful position to claim.

I and other rankers do reserve some doubts, however. The two major points of division around Mujibar’s chances are firstly our estimations from testing of Bangladesh's capability to build an army and use it - as them being good at settling isn’t surprising but we often saw them unable to do more than that - and secondly our estimations of Mysore; with some viewing them as clearly the favorite to conquer all of India and others seeing them as equal or below Bangladesh at this point. Ultimately, we need to see evidence of these civs converting ploughs to swords, as this is the Civ Battle Royale, not the Civ Settling Royale, so lets see that army grow and deploy, Rahman!

Orange:

Teo adopted the pantheon of “Just War”, while some might say this means a morally correct and good war, this actually seems to mean “we just care about war”. Their obvious target, Karankawa, had forward settled them at the start with a shockingly naturally well defended city, as such they have just been wasting away men against the mountains and hills and lakes. They’ve also now attacked Ponca as well, which will go nowhere cause they are even more of a pain to get to and have an even larger army.

Meanwhile, Teo’s biggest benefits right now are the fact that they are still settling cities and that they have good production, cause their tech ain’t notably good and their army is, well, depleted, cause they keep sending it to die. Really the best thing right now is that they are keeping their most immediate neighbor in deep check. But they should probably try to be more productive instead of sticking to just war.

Leman:

Ket is doing great. Settling cities, spreading their wonderful religion, growing and doing well. Their closest neighbors are still a million miles away meaning Ket has so much more time to just vibe and grow and settle and that’s exactly what Ket needs to do. Not a whole lot to say, it's a boring but solid strategy.

Iris:

Now, Japan is not doing the best job of settling its given land, much like some other irritants I could name *cough* Rapa Nui *cough* Cebu *cough* Ternate *cough*,  which has suitably irked me as someone who spent months on the task of getting island civs to behave more normally; however that has not meant they have been slacking in settling. They have seven cities, including two on the mainland and two in spots that Ryukyu would be more expected to settle. Speaking of Ryukyu, Hideyoshi had his mettle tested by a war with Ryukyu that went from almost losing a city, to matching Ryukyu's forces and ending the war with the Ryukyuan capital having started to be attacked. Ryukyu is their only threat at the moment and they met that challenge and they have quite open space to settle more, with Itelmen and Green Ukraine both settling in the opposite directions. It remains to be seen if they will leap on the opportunity provided to them by their circumstances, and bordering greater threats than Ryukyu is a foregone conclusion to the area, but for now they are doing well and have quite a lot of potential.

Lasqueto:

Lanfang’s doing pretty well I suppose. They finally started expanding again, grabbing some extra cities on the mainland but curiously leaving Java empty. Bunuba’s still looming on the horizon but isn’t worth worrying about yet. It’s probably worth calling off that meatgrinder war against Ternate though. Past a little extra xp for their navy it’s just a waste of production they could be spending on infrastructure. Or more units, because Ryukyu dropped a city on their doorstep. I don’t see it lasting long, obviously, but a free city’s a free city, and the sooner Lanfang picks it up the better.

Overall, nothing flashy so far, just a decent civ making decent moves.

Semi:

Well that sucked. An invasion we thought would net them a Sumer city has instead netted them a Sumerian city being settled in Oman, locking off more of Arabia from islander settlement. Mayyyybe they can take Eridu, but given how massive of an army that was that stared down Ur and lost, I doubt it. Still though, this was without a doubt a perfectly fine episode for France-Albert Rene. After all, Seychelles are now sitting on the most effective science in the game, full stop. They have the highest food on the cylinder, and the second-highest total population. At 67, it’s decidedly in the top tier, just behind the likes of Bunuba and 9 behind Ethiopia. So even despite the drop, and the failed attack, I think I can officially say now:

We have a good Seychelles game.

Archimedes :

So I’m known traditionally as an ardent and vocal supporter of Teotihuacan. To be doing the writeup for Pomo, the greatest threat Teotihuacan has in the surrounding area, is painful. But, reluctantly, I have to admit that Pomo is doing better. Noticeably better.

They are in contention for one of the most powerful in North America, and just proved that they can adequately and competently defend themselves from the other greatest power in the region, the Tlingit. Pomo has a wide swathe of settled cities, composing the very well defendable region of Washington Oregon and California on the Western United States seaboard. And this land is good, with resources, production, food; anything a fledgeling regional power could want. Pomo continues to expand north and south, taking land that their neighbours have not yet even considered settling. Their stats currently are solid, and that’s not accounting for their most recently settled low population cities that are gearing up to also become powerhouses. And, notably, Pomo has the happiness to support this growth, sitting at a solid 14, meaning they could either settle some more productive lands or beef up their current cities to churn out science, production, or units.

That’s not to say that things are going perfectly well for Pomo. They have fumbled a bit when it came to their war with Ponca earlier, and now they’re sitting on some money troubles, with 8 gold in the bank and a -2GPT inching them towards bankruptcy. But Tlingit to their north faced a similar issue, and solved it by throwing their units at Pomo. Pomo easily could do the same, either back north at Tlingit, once again launching an assault against Ponca, or potentially even sneaking in and nabbing Karankawa, much to Teotihuacan’s chagrin.

Pomo has a solid base and a high potential at the moment. They should be gearing up into some of their unique benefits soon, with a temple replacement that boosts faith, religious pressure, and can hold their unique great artist works that give permanent food gold culture or faith to the Pomo capital. They even have their ever changing Unique Ability coming into play, gaining powerful bonuses depending on which direction they convert a city. It’s painful to say as a Teotihuacan (and a Tlingit) supporter, but Pomo has certainly created a solid base, and will only get stronger from here. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see a Hawaii settle in the near future.

ECH:

Turns out an avalanche of swordsmen are a lot more survivable than we thought, as Macarthur comes out of the Bunuba war essentially unscratched; even managing to get in a bit more settling. This was a pivotal war for the wider war to control Fortress Australia, and it’s looking much more like we may see a two-power continent for the rest of the game now, following in the footsteps of seasons past. NSW has also risen to 3rd in the infoaddict stats, just over Bunuba, boasting fantastic food production and joint-fourth highest production on the cylinder.

Finally, New South Wales has one more trick up their sleeve justifying their jump this week, as the Sheep Station UB deploys starting next episode, a stables replacement which gives pastures an extra gold, turns improved sheep into a luxury, and oh yeah, makes pastures damage enemies like citadels. Bunuba will regret not making the most of an invasion before this hurdle existed, of that I’m sure.

Shaggy:

*sigh* OK, Jandamarra, it wasn’t your day. Despite the Power Rankers largely expecting Bunuba to take at least one city off of New South Wales in their surprise attack, the attack completely evaporated within the borders of Launceston and New South Wales ended up with more cities by the end of the episode than at the beginning. I did enjoy watching the settler rivalry on the coast, and I do think both civs can be happy with their new cities. That being said, Bunuba is no longer the obvious frontrunner in Oceania. But, you know, it’s still an Australian civ. They fall 5 ranks for their inability to competently use swordsmen but generally are keeping pace with the big boys.

ItsTruckMonth:

Vyatka jumps into the top 10 as its empire greatly expands despite the sluggish war with the Scythians, bringing its city total up to 9 (tied for second for all civs), with some extra settlers in tow. Pencil in a neighborhood filled with middling civs and they have arguably risen into the top tier of civs this season.

That said, all is not so shiny under the hood. Their military and effective science are more average, and the vault is running dry with them running -8 GPT with 5 gold left in the treasury. Best move for them would be to make peace with Scythia, build up those new cities, and prey on some smaller fry for now.

Shaggy:

I’m noticing a trend this week with the civs I’ve been given. Each of them have had their attacks largely peter out after the Power Rankers have been largely optimistic at their initiations (except Yunnan, we don’t talk about Yunnan). Tlingit is no exception, with their initial assault on Behe’pal being largely repelled by the initial Pomo defense forces. Yes, they can still bombard the walls with archers. Yes, they just unlocked composite bowmen to make those bombardments more effective. Yes, they still have some naval melee units to try to capture Behe’pal. But they may not have enough sauce to take the city yet, especially if Pomo is given enough time to reinforce the front lines. As long as they don’t give away any cities in a peace deal I don’t see a way for Tlingit to really lose much more than time with this war but if they are able to take even one Pomo city (especially a coastal city) it would be a major signal to the cylinder that there is a real force this season coming down from the ice. To aid this expansion, Sheiyksh is very much taking advantage of his UA with these further coastal settles being able to potentially ramp up quite quickly. Also they enhanced their religion this week to now believe in the power of both televangelists and torii gates, a very interesting combo flavor-wise when paired with their existing beliefs of faith healers and god of the sea. I expect to see some of their more enterprising clergy start attempting healing water walks under their holy arches for donations as soon as they figure out what a TV is.

Cloudy:

Although Ethiopia failed to put a dent in Zazzau this episode, largely due to rough terrain, they maintain a position on the top 5 thanks to their excellent position and excellent stats. With a solid seven cities and top 10 positions in production and science, they hold 6th place on the info sheet with room still to expand. Many of their neighbors, such as Hyksos, Zazzau, and Luba, are clearly on the weaker side and could eventually succumb to Ethiopia’s industrial might. Plus, they managed to grab the Statue of Zeus, one of the most important military wonders in the game. So for now, I would expect Ethiopia to remain in this part of the rankings for a while even if they aren’t an active participant in many wars.

Shaggy:

There are no two ways about it, Chono looks really really good. The strategic placements of Llauquil, Aysén, and Puyuhuapi have effectively locked Guaycuru and Caral out from settling any further south than their existing cities and secured Chono all of their potential core settlement spots so they can expand at their leisure. Not only that, but Chono has also just unlocked their unique unit, the Walt. In addition to starting with the first level of the Survivalism promotion, it also drains movement and experience from adjacent enemy units. This should be one hell of a power spike that they can use to start taking chunks out of Guaycuru, they just need the will to try.

JDT: The Aures rise to the heights of 2nd place after their brief buttfumble of a campaign in Zazzau. The reasoning is simple - no one immediately by them can actually challenge them, and they have absurdly good stats whilst remaining active with settling. They are no.1 on the infoaddict sheet, lapping the cylinder with 106 production alongside strong growth and science stats of 128 and 45 respectively. And this episode, after their brief campaign to bisect Wassalou, they proceeded to continue making the right moves by settling Algeria and eastern Morocco, cutting off Portugal from any southwards expansion and giving even more good cities for future scaling.

Despite these advantages, the Aures still aren’t completely insulated. The Wassalou aren’t completely out of it yet, and in theory their long empire means they are vulnerable to a joint assault from multiple powers. However, lets be real here, can we really trust the civ AI to make a OCP or proper dogpile in the first 100 turns of the game? And even if they can, no one relevant aside from Wassalou can actually do anything due to position and military might. Ok, maybe Ethiopia if they eat Hyksos. But that's about it. Some people also have valid doubts on if they can actually break out of Africa, given their lack of settlements on mainland Europe and the fact that though they’re not exactly powerful, the Papacy and Portugal are both still capable of putting up a fight, especially if naval crossings must be completed. But that's a concern for far, far later in the game than now.

However, there has been one civ who outmatched them this episode. One who holds a stronger grasp over their region, and even more potentially to be brought forth…

NopeCopter:

Tang was a bit of a cautious first-place pick last episode, with Power Rankers applauding their expansionism and fertile terrain but noting concerns about a two-front invasion from two of the most militarized civs on the cylinder. Suffice to say, this week people were a lot less hesitant about ranking Tang first. As both of their would-be invaders not only failed to make a dent in the Tang defenses but actively GAVE AWAY CITIES for peace in wars THEY started, Tang’s status as regional hegemon has been all but guaranteed. Even if these two powers do recover, they’ll have a much harder time breaking Tang after this, and if they don’t, then that’s just more easy room for Tang to expand into. Tang’s stats are top-of-the-line, particularly their Food production, and this is still taking into account the Resistance in their two free new cities tanking their Happiness. After that Resistance dies down? Odds are Tang will be able to contest the first-place spot in the InfoAddict rankings once again. Tang’s victory is still far from guaranteed, but as things stand, they’re all but certain to at least make it to the midgame as a contender (and if civs keep rolling over and surrendering to them for no reason, then key, world domination might come easier than expected).