Power Rankings: Episode 38 – S1

Lonely: Well. That’s certainly one way to start the second half of the game. New Zealand, making their first move as a South American civ, took a bold, confident step towards Cerro de Potosi… Only to immediately be assaulted by Uruguayans who wanted the mountain for themselves. Now Auckland’s long since fallen, and Seddon has just enough time to reflect on the peculiarity of the founder of L.O.V.E.C.R.A.F.T. being killed in ancestral Selk’nam lands before his head ends up gracing one end of a swordsman’s blade. It’s hard, really, to say what, if anything, he did to end up in this situation. He expanded upward, as he should have, and grabbed a wonder in the process. It wasn’t like Uruguay was some sort of untouchable monster out of the gate — hell, if anything, they’ve gotten off to a slow start. The only thing that went wrong for New Zealand was the way Uruguay reacted. Then again, when you’re facing Uruguay, failing to take into account how they’ll feel about your settlements is a good way to be eliminated first. So, in a way, you could argue that New Zealand should have seen this coming.

It still feels a little odd, though, seeing a civ that had so much life in them relegated to mere cannon fodder. Perhaps it always will.

Msurdej: Just when it looked over for Nepal, they somehow stay alive.  An army of swordsmen and Catapults lay outside KAthmandu, but before the final blow was struck, Maratha decided to attack India. This lead to forces pulling back, letting Nepal live another day. But now Maratha is out for blood, and while they are farther away, it looks likely they could curb Nepal expansion by taking that settler. At this point, Nepal's death is not a when, but a

Aaron: Oh no! What a disaster! We all knew that Shikoku starting bonuses eclipsed the Khamug ones in a serious way, but it's still a shock to see Shikoku actually use their advantages so quick out the gate and capture the Khamug capital. Worse: the Khamugs have even bigger problems in the form of the Qin, Kazakhstan and even the Evenks joining in (well, that last one isn't that big a problem but it can still distract the defenders or snipe a city). This has made the Khamugs the biggest drop of this part. One of the issues that led to such a quick Khamug loss was the fact that their free starting units were their UU scout replacement. That's great for meeting lots of people fast, but to actually defend cities I would have rather had basic warriors. With only small recently settled cities left, the Khamugs currently have the second worst stats in the entire game (Evenks are last) with only 4 population, which means they will not be able to build anything significant for defence. And with the number of units their enemies possess, they might even be the next ones out...

Cloudberg: India plummets into the bottom tier in the opening episode of Endgame after Indira became the punching bag of the subcontinent. She started the episode off strong, attacking Nepal and making decent progress against Kathmandu, but when Maratha declared war, she completely fell apart. Bombay was lost and India was reduced to a city-state. Nor are they out of the woods yet, as they're still at war with Maratha, who could decide to mount an assault on Delhi at any time. It's difficult to see India ever recovering from this awful start, and the only reason they're not lower is because several other civs are in even more imminent danger of elimination.

Cloudberg: Despite being all around awful, the Evenks gain three ranks this part because nobody declared war on them, something several other bottom tier civs couldn't manage. Their capital has only three pop, their land is crap, their bonuses are non-existent, and their close neighbor Shikoku has just finished eviscerating the Khamugs and will probably come for them next. But hey, at least they're not dead!

Lonely: Let’s be honest: a comeback was never in the cards for Ching Shih. Not when both Qin and Taungoo skirted through the main game basically untouched, and with settles galore. Canton was screwed from the moment the Qin started bombarding Shikoku’s capital, and with that utter failure of an invasion their chances of making an impact on Endgame faded into the mist. So, really, this part was perfect for them. They didn’t draw attention to themselves, they aren’t at war, and there’s even a chance they could get a second mainland city out! Sure, this doesn’t seem like much on its own, but when you compare their situation to that of Nepal’s or New Zealand’s, it’s pretty clear that they’ve gotten one of the best starting hands of any of the decaying husks passing off as civilizations at the main game’s end. All they have to do now is keep this up, continuing to fade into obscurity, ensuring a place near the top of the table by making themselves invisible to readers and AIs alike. Going to make for incredibly boring television, unfortunately, but such is a small price to pay for participation awards.

Cloudberg: Venice takes a hard fall in the opening episode of Endgame, although two civs fell even more. Part of this is due to the bug with the automated script that robbed them of their extra settler, but a big chunk of it also comes from the fact that Venice has done very little to help itself. In fact, they kind of look like... Venice. Was their great run prior to Endgame a fluke? Well, maybe. Venice does have a settler heading out finally, so we might soon find out whether they have what it takes to claw their way back up out of the bottom tier—and whether they have what it takes to capture Danzing, the city that is currently blocking one of their best paths toward success.

Techno: Free gifts! Free gifts for everyone! Parthia was given a chance to reestablish themselves, and they quickly squandered any hope of this by giving away a city to the Goths that wasn't even at risk of conquest. It's nice to see some civs being generous after the bloodbaths witnessed shortly before endgame, but if Parthia actually wanted to stand the test of time, this does not help their case.

Techno: Madagascar's main accomplishment so far is that they settled a significant portion of their home island. Given that Madagascar only has one city, this is a very slow start. Madagascar's one hope is to settle the lands once occupied by Beta Israel and establish themselves on the mainland, but Madagascar seems reluctant to settle at all. This is only good news if you like peacekeepers, as if Madagascar is low on land, then they can start spilling units into other lands relatively quickly.

Gragg: A week ago many people were discussing who would win in an early war between Metis and Apache. It seems obvious now but many hoped Apache would have enough land to be unfettered for the first couple episodes. As we’ve seen this smaller map makes bloodshed inevitable. The siege seems to be slowing down though as Metis runs out of steam. The Iroquois are now looking heavily militarized though. Will they strike the Apache while they’re down or the Metis while distracted (ala Maratha v India).

Lonely: Asia? Free real estate, as far as the Yup’ik are concerned. In a stark reversal from their previous go at this sort of thing, where they just milled around in North America gaining or losing cities at a whim, the Yup’ik have elected to make a serious effort this time around and have made landfall in rightful Qing/Korean/Haida/Shikoku lands. Huzzah! The free settler certainly helped, but there’s still a rather large degree of difficulty here. For one, they don’t have optics. Mildly concerning when your capital is, you know, on a one-tile island, but goddamn have their unique warriors bailed them out, essentially taking over for their settlers and doing the job of actually settling cities themselves. Desperate times, I suppose. It’s not like all of the Boreal Bros’ problems have dissolved as a result of their bolting off the starting blocks, not when Shikoku’s wrested control of their side of Asia as the Metis have done the same closer to home. But the door’s more wide open than ever for a civ that before this stage of the game was little more than a footnote. The Yup’ik’s fate, for the first time, may be entirely up to them. The potential’s there for a transcontinental powerhouse to rival what Shikoku were in their heyday. More likely, they’ll hew closer to the likes of the Qing than the belles of the main game’s ball, but at least there’s hope. And for a civ like this, that’s more than they could ever ask for.

Lonely: The casual reader of the part might at first be cautiously optimistic when it comes to Haida’s chances. After all, they did manage to snatch a wonder, which even in a field as culled as this is quite impressive. Then they might do a little bit of research into what the Gobekli Tepe actually does, and sigh a deep, deep sigh. For, you see, the Gobekli Tepe provides faith… and only faith. That’s it. Nothing else. That could be nice, potentially, if only the Haida had, oh, a religion. In essence: the Haida got a wonder which will not help them in any way, shape, or form, and, given its nonexistent tech requirements and the turn they completed it on, they probably spent a pretty large chunk of time better spent coring up and getting on one’s feet building a giant stone structure that does nothing. Great job! It’s hard to view this as anything but an omen of their future, an existence of loafing around and working toward disabled victories while their larger and more competent neighbors lurk with ill intent, waiting for the right time to strike and shatter Haida’s dreams. But hey, at least the temple looks pretty.

Msurdej: Ah, a new map, a new day, a new chance for Nubia to show us what they can do. And as it turns out, what Nubia can do, is continue to disappoint us. They had a chance to rectify their mistake of the first game, and make a city on the Suez Canal. But whether  by their own incompetence or by Zenobia's interference, Meroe ends up just shy of being a Canal city, much to the chagrin of many. And with the 2nd worst stats in Africa (barely ahead of Madagascar), its only a matter of time before Nubia crumbles into the Nile.

Gragg: Welp. That’s just unfortunate. As many of you know by now many of Sami’s units were spawned near Shikoku/Evenks/Khamugs for some reason. Due to this the Sami have gotten off to a very slow start. This is by no means a death sentence to them, but it does deliver the second largest rank drop, after the Khamugs. If the Sami can get things moving when their units return home and the VIkings stall, they could still dominate Scandinavia.

Aaron: The Nazca... started the game I guess? They didn't really do much of any interest compared to Venezuela with their great settling and economy, or Uruguay and what might be the first kill of Endgame. Funnily enough nazca actually have slightly better stats that Uruguay right now, though I expect pretty that will change pretty quick once Uruguay starts settling. The Nazca look like they're going to be boxed into a corner between two larger powers pretty quickly. They do have some points in their favour though. Chiefly is the Andes which protect them and will make it extremely difficult for anyone to kill them. The second point is the Pacific islands. Nazca are in a good geographical position where they will be able to settle the Pacific islands using only optics tech - astronomy is not needed. The nearest civ in that direction is Australia and Australia have so much land they need to cover that the Nazca can easily grab a bunch of islands before Australia shows up. And from how things have gone so far in South America, becoming a naval Pacific power seems like the only route for Nazca to be relevant this game.

Aaron: The Manx are off to a great start, having 3 cities already and rising to their highest rank EVER. They also have the second highest stats of Europe behind only the Moors. However, it should be known that a lot of these high stats are simply the free optics that all island civs got (except Yup'ik, but including New Zealand for some reason). Remember that in the main game all island civs started off incredibly strong thanks to quick lighthouses but then dropped back down once other civs started researching their own lighthouses. That will happen this game and make Manx stats drop back down. Still, they got their settlers out pretty quick which is exactly what they have to do if they want to remain strong. They have quite a lot of space to expand, including the entirety of Greenland so if they keep the settling up they should be fine.

Techno: It seems like the dice rolls of the early game have once again favored Frederick. Prussia is the talk of Europe, as Frederick, in his tactical brilliance, realized that relying solely on the settlers donated by the Endgame script would not serve his country well. Prussia's one of only a select few civs to have actually built new settlers, and they have reaped the rewards of this in our power rankings. That being said, while Prussia has an edge over important European rivals such as Venice and the Sami, they still have the Goths and the large Gothic army right next door to worry about. Remain vigilant, Frederick!

Lonely: The Vikings see a small rise in their fortunes this part, primarily due to the crippling of what we all assumed would be the elephant in the room for them. You see, the Sami, thought to have a good chance of strangling the infant Vikings in the cradle, have been perhaps the civ hardest hit by the various disappearances at Endgame’s beginning, losing several settlers and seeing their military scattered to the wind. That’s hamstrung could have otherwise been a debilitating assault on Ragnar, which combined with a rather strong start for the Viking leader has allowed the tables to turn completely in Scandinavia. It’s not like the Vikings are suddenly a top contender, though. If anything, Eadni’s setback has only opened the door for the chance that neither nation will become a superpower, with both civilizations likely to be stuck in the area futilely throwing units against their neighbor for the foreseeable future. Sure, there’s a path for Viking domination of Europe, and they’ve rebounded from worse situations before, as the main game can attest. But in a Europe like this and with their route of northward expansion blocked off for the foreseeable future, there’s hardly reason to be optimistic about their chances.

Shaggy: Breaking news! Benin breaks out of the bottom bisection of the ballot! B’s aside, if someone was making a list of civs that are going to be benefiting from the Endgame reset, Benin would definitely be high on that list. This time around, they don’t have to worry about Libya, Algeria, or Songhai at all when planning settlements. They’ve got basically a third of Africa to themselves at the moment. The rub is that they have to settle quickly. Nubia is looking a smidge intimidating right now and are surely chomping at the bit to expand further than their Nile floodplains and Benin must settle north before the Moors realize that there’s more space in Africa than Europe and colonize their former lands. Benin’s defensive bonuses are still around, so don’t expect them to lose much of the lands they claim as their own. If Ewuare can get a few good cities out over the next couple parts, they’ll be in contention for top 10 (at least for this Power Ranker).

Cloudberg: Palmyra basically holds steady this episode as Zenobia avoids making any early game blunders. So far she's settling well, filling out the Middle East at a healthy rate, and she has a massive army of her unique horsemen. The rest of the Arabian Peninsula remains open for her to expand into. Parthia and Nubia are weak. But will Zenobia take advantage of these opportunities? Until she does, we're keeping her down here in the middle of the pack. Yes, 14th is now considered the middle of the pack.

Gragg: We expected the Goths to take some fairly early city conquests. I don’t think anyone was betting on their first being from Parthia in a peace deal. All-in-all a pretty strong start for the Goths. Unfortunately it has also been a pretty good part for most of their neighbors. I’ll be eager to see which direction they plan to focus in. That will determine much of their early game success.

Aaron: While the Moors are certainly not the worst-off European civ, it can't be denied that they were hurt by Endgame's script spawning some of their units in Russia. Beyond that, the Moorish start was relatively slow in general. For a civ that was supposed to start with some of the strongest bonuses, the Moorish performance is not quite what we were hoping for. It's no lost cause - the Moors still boast potent stats - but we can't help but wonder what could have been. That being said, Venice is playing the game as if they were unmodded and West Africa is free for the taking, so while the Moors might be underperforming now, there is still hope for them in the future.Venezuela started off strong, with 4 cities down already and the highest food and population in the game right now. Those are exactly the things you want in the early game since everything else scales off population. Being number 1 in the two most relevant early-game stats is certainly great. However, it doesn't mean they'll stay great forever. Venezuela have completed expended starting deity happiness - they will have to improve some of their luxuries if they want to continue expanding or growing. Furthermore, there is the future threat of Uruguay from the south and the Iroquois from the North. Ideally when there are 3 powerful civs, you do not want to be the one in the middle because that means the other two can coalition you, but you can't coalition them back. Moreover, while the amazonian jungle is certainly good for food, but does lack in production, as the Kuikuro showed, so that might cause some economy problems in the midgame. Also before I forget them: the Nazca exist but do not appear to be very relevant.

Shaggy: It’s almost like Maratha was just waiting for a reset to get interesting. I’ve been pretty meh on Maratha for a while, but they’re looking really good right now. The political intrigue that’s somehow keeping Nepal alive (for now) is only benefitting Maratha as it allows them to capture Bombay in an early blow to India. With total control of the peninsular part of the subcontinent and the new settlement of Pune to the west, Maratha is the best positioned to dominate south Asia. In the last shot of them from this part, I also count 5 settlers! Damn, Maratha! Provided Taungoo doesn’t start spamming swordsmen and composite bows at the subcontinent, I think Maratha could simultaneously forward settle Taungoo and stake a claim on the Arabian Peninsula. They might even try to claim lands in central Asia, more towards Parthia and Palmyra. Shivaji is showing a ton of potential right now, keep an eye on Maratha in the coming parts.

SHAGGY’S NOTE: So I’ve been corrected on what I’m looking at with Maratha here. Those units are, in fact, not settlers and this is a visual bug. They are military units, but I’ll keep my writeup as it was with this addendum because I do think that the settlement potential of Maratha is still there even if the settlers aren’t built yet.

Techno: While the Moors are certainly not the worst-off European civ, it can't be denied that they were hurt by Endgame's script spawning some of their units in Russia. Beyond that, the Moorish start was relatively slow in general. For a civ that was supposed to start with some of the strongest bonuses, the Moorish performance is not quite what we were hoping for. It's no lost cause - the Moors still boast potent stats - but we can't help but wonder what could have been. That being said, Venice is playing the game as if they were unmodded and West Africa is free for the taking, so while the Moors might be underperforming now, there is still hope for them in the future.

Msurdej: Behold, and tremble at the sight of it: the lowest ranking Uruguay has ever received! This is mostly due to a slow start by Lavalleja, but make no mistake, this is merely a setback. With a settler out, and their armies set to make the first elimination of the new game against Seddon, Uruguay is set to bounce back next part. And with Seddon gone, the whole southern half of South America will be an easy hold, giving Uruguay a great start to controlling the continent, and then, the cylinder.

Gragg: Metis servers as the perfect reminder of how a fresh start can change a civ. In the original season they had plenty of land and an even military with their neighbors. Now things are much more cramped and lopsided, so they decided to murder someone (naturally). At first glimpse it seems like this was a good choice. The invasion seems to have stalled out though, leaving the Metis hollow and with relatively few cities. Time will tell how smart this opening strategy was.

Aaron: The Qin got off to a fairly standard start. They got their starting cities down. They have good stats - but that's pretty much it. One thing of interest is that Qin have been building a lot of military, which is remiscant of the real game where they also built a lot of military early. However, there is no Xia to conquer this time, just lots and lot of empty land, so I would have rather seen the Qin build settlers instead. It's true they have declared war on the Khamugs, but they don't appear to be interested in actually attacking them and without an attack it's not really that relevant. The biggest pitfalls of civs that start out strong is to do a Qing and fail to settle. There is still plenty of time before that becomes an issue so nothing to worry about yet but they should be aiming to grab the land before Shikoku or Taungoo grab it first and building and army doesn't usually help with that. Perhaps they are planning on someone else forward settling them so they can grab a city that way? Or perhaps the settlers will be arriving shortly and the Qin are just making sure they will be very well protected when they travel out so they don't get stolen.

Cloudberg: Taungoo is off to an okay start so far. they've got a good core already and they're making an attempt to kill Nepal, with some sign that it could be successful if they put in a little effort. Qin to their north is looking very scary, but terrain protects them somewhat, and Canton could also serve as a useful buffer. It'll be a little while before Australia starts settling the islands too, so for now Taungoo has nothing to worry about there. Perhaps their biggest threat is Maratha, who so far seem to be playing better than in the previous iteration. Anyway, so far we have good confidence in Taungoo, but we don't know whether they'll sleep on what they've got or continue on the path to becoming a powerhouse.

Msurdej: Ryoma had a rough last few parts; between getting curbstomped by the Qin and losing their capital, they were in a rough spot. But make no mistake; the Shikoku are out for blood.  Their blitzkrieg of Jadaran has paid off, getting them the first capital of the game. With this(and a fair bit of distance between them and the Qin), Shikoku skyrockets back into the Top 5, and looks poised to take Northeast Asia by storm. But with production scores half of what other top tier civs are pulling,  one must wonder if they can keep up...

Msurdej: Thirtyfive turns into the Endgame, we're starting to see Mutota claw his way back up. He's built a fairly strong core, and has the strongest production in the game currently.  And while their army isn't the strongest it could be, who's gonna attack them, Madagascar?  No, at this time, Zimbabwe should focus on shutting Madagascar out of the continent, building cities along the coast, and increasing their production so that the next time they come to blows with Benin, Zimbabwe comes out on top.

Gragg: To no surprise Australia is off to a nice quiet start. They’re spreading settlers across the continent and spending their precious time building very important wonders. That great wall will come in handy when… ya, nevermind, that was a waste of production. Anyway, expect a consistent top 5 from Australia for a good few episodes.

Gragg: The Kazakhs are doing exactly what they need to to take advantage of their roomy start. Combine that with a terrible part for both Parthia and the Khamugs and you get a rank increase of +4. Now they’ll need to be careful with the Goths and Shikoku. The space between them gives the Kazakhs plenty of time to prepare though. That settler headed to the West is a great move as well. If this kind of competency continues we may see Kazakhs reclaim their top spot.

Shaggy: Hiawatha, aka the Honey Badger of North America, don’t care. Hiawatha don’t give a shit. If Pedro wants to nuke the world into the Classical Age, Hiawatha’s going to just up and be the best anyway. Look at all those cities and units. The Iroquois don’t care about the Metis up north, or being stung by bees, or a full reset of the CBRX map. They’ll just start controlling North America. “Get away from me” says the Apache. Hiawatha don’t care. Hiawatha don’t give a shit. Hiawatha gonna smack the shit out of them.