Power Rankings: Episode 44 – S1

Technostar

I am genuinely surprised to be writing this obituary at this time. I initially thought Venice was destined for a far earlier demise, maintaining the flavors of its vanilla counterpart but with the ability to produce settlers. A quick death like the Romans that preceded them was to be expected. But something unusual happened. Venice didn't fall. They even took some initiative against a few of their neighbors, growing to control large chunks of formerly HRE and Czech lands. They could never quite usurp the Moors in the region, but Venice could more than hold their own.  But Endgame wasn't kind to the doge. The AI competence that had appeared pre-Endgame had vanished, and combined with a weak start, Venice was left crippled and never managed to recover. Even when they started building settlers, they founded their cities in hard-to-defend locations and were quickly overrun by their many foes. Farewell, Enrico, you did better than expected.

Vihreaa

After a slow and gruesome decline, India finally meets its end, as our beloved Indira Gandhi meets her fated death, doomed to join the rest of the fallen leaders on the sub. Though she may have never risen to be a prominent power, I imagine our India supporters can take solace in knowing that at point they were ranked higher than the Iroquois, and by a significant margin at that.

Altima

The destruction wrought upon the Yup’ik by the Shikoku has proven to be both a cage and a fortress- while they can’t get out, their historic nemesis the Haida can’t get in either. The Corner War was always geographically doomed to wind up a stalemate between the crippled status of the Haida, the geography involved, and the fact that the Yup’ik actually have a larger army than them. And so they sit, trapped and protected in a gilded cage, waiting for either the Metis or Shikoku to finish the job.

Msurdej

Now on a single island off the Pacific Coast, the Haida are living on borrowed time. That time being “How long will it take for the Metis to make a navy on the Pacific Ocean?” While it’s possible for Koyah’s death to come from another source (like the Qin or Venezuela), the most likely cause of Haida elimination will be a Metisian ship, breaking down the doors and putting koyah out of his misery.

LacsiraxNepal continues their unexpected surge through the top 28 with a phenomenal and memorable defence of their homeland against the fierce Parthians (and the Kazakhs). With the horde of attackers gallantly fought off, it won’t be long until Nepalese warriors are streaming through the terrified lands of Parthia and Kazakhstan, ripping through every city that stands in their way and uniting central Asia under one banner. Today, two cities in the Himalayas kept alive through terrain alone - tomorrow, the world!

Cloudberg

And just like that, Prussia is officially a rump state. With only two cities, not including his capital, our beloved Frederick is at last on his way out. His army is still relatively large, and there’s a chance he could retake Berlin from Palmyra, but this is the last gasp of a dying empire. With the Vikings also on the ropes, he could even retake his capital, but time to do so is fast running out, and if someone like the Moors attacked Prussia, they’d fold immediately. It would be great if Frederick could prove me wrong and stage a comeback, but, well, I’m probably right.

Vihreaa

At one point being the 7th strongest civ on the cylinder, the Vikings are on their way out. After losing almost their entire core, their best bet is to play for placement (lol) and hope other empires fall before they do. Unfortunately Endgame was not kind to the Vikings, and they were never able to regain their former glory they once had. Here’s to hoping they can make it to the top 20 maybe?

Altima

A bit of unexpected excitement came from the Isle of Peacekeepers this week, as they joined in the running to snipe Venice with their wayward UU. Unfortunately it was not to be, but that’s still more than they’ve done in the rest of the game thus far. As it stands, Ranavalona is trapped, the far-flung Zimbabwean empire having snagged basically all of his potential settlement locations (and several other people’s ones too), and teched into (and actually produced) advanced boats, and as there’s no other local power strong enough to really take on Invader Zim right now, I see no end in sight to the slow death of the Madagascan people.

Msurdej

Even with the collapse of the Vikings, Nubia fails to gain ground, showing just how insignificant they truly are. Nubia is the weakest civ in Africa, no contest. Between Zimbabwe to the south, Benin to the west, and Palmyra to the north and south, Piye is screwed six ways to Sunday.

Rose

Ok so I ranked Canton the highest of all the power rankers(tied), so I thought I'd justify myself, and perhaps why Canton made a relatively high jump in the rankings this week. First of all, there was the fall of many, let’s face it, mid-tier civs like Prussia and the Vikings, opening the opportunity for increase by proxy. Secondly is their potential to take advantage of all the chaos going on in eastern Asia. Following the Qin containment pact, commenced by the Kazakhs and Australia, they may have an opportunity to expand beyond being Qin’s awkward rash that is just sort of there. This may seem unrealistic, but keep in mind that Canton’s military is a third of Qin’s and considering that Qin is kinda pre-occupied fighting the strongest civ on the map, they may actually cause some damage. There is also option B however, where Canton declares war on Australia and takes one of Qin’s older cities, and just refuses to give it back, which has been done in the past (looking at you Moors). If they play their cards right™ the Canton Pirates may become an even bigger rash that slowly expands across the nation, and it’s sort of painful to move your arm but you swear that it’s fine, but your colleagues still judge it, and make sure to stay 5 feet minimum away.

LonelyRS

And so it was that Operation Become Slightly More Relevant ended in failure, Potsdam traded away to a different nation and turned to ashes right in front of Alaric’s eyes. In truth, he was never going to take the city, not when his only two routes in involved forests, open borders, and circumventing mountains, but it was a chance and at this point it’s well worth it for the Goths to take any they can find. (They might even end up winning the city in the end anyways, if the two settlers in their territory have anything to say about it.) Really, though, the fact that the Goths can so much as entertain the notion of being a world player is a testament to the volatility of their homeland. Any other region, any other continent, and Alaric would be long dead, interesting only to the carrion birds sorting through battlefields craving scraps of meat that reek of the telltale scent of disappointment. In Europe, though, which more closely resembles a high-stakes game of diplomacy with every passing day? The Goths have a legitimate chance of making something out of their horribly bungled stumble off the starting blocks. Not a good chance, mind, but a chance nonetheless.

Lacsirax

For aeons Parthia have been one of those civs that inexorably climbs up the rankings through keeping a solid inertia as other mid-tiers collapse around them. Why is that? To the south their borders are a bit messy, with Palmyra forming the largest portion and leaving tiny frontiers with the unthreatening Maratha and the stillborn Nepal. Zenobia’s truce with Parthia has lasted a decent length, and with ‘killing India’ finally checked off the ol’ bucket list, I wouldn’t be surprised if that conflict sparked off again. But Zenobia’s mainly fielding her unique Clibanarii at the moment - a handy unit, for sure, but one that specialises in flat terrain. I’ve never been to Iran, but I’ve been safely assured it’s pretty hilly.

It’s flat up north though, where the Kazakh unique horseman should be tearing through the Parthian cities with their miserably low defences… but of course, Ablai’s been anywhere but Parthia, ravaging Europe and Siberia alike. It seems odds-on that Mithridates will eventually meet his end on the spiky bit of a Kazakh lance, but Ablai has so many enemies it’s impossible to tell when he’ll get around to it. Until then, Parthia will continue to outrank the rumps with less fortunate neighbours.

Random StrategyShikoku lost the war against Kazakhstan and Qin, something that was pretty much already predicted considering the two were ranked number 1 and number 4 in the stats while Shikoku were nowhere near that level. The good news is that the two have stopped killing Shikoku to instead concentrate on fighting each other. They have still left Shikoku with a very large territory comprising 18 cities. That is a significant amount that can't be ignored (unlike, say, Maratha's pitiful 6 cities). It's true that these cities are mostly shitty snow cities but at the current stage of the game, the minimum pop for a city to be useful is only 2, which means they are all still providing large benefits. The biggest problem with a large snow empire is pitifully low science but Shikoku have their handy UA which gives them free science from exploring which might compensate for that. Qin themselves don't have that much more than Shikoku at 25 cities, and they look to lose some of their power to the Kazakh-Australia alliance. It is perfectly believable that one day in the future, Qin could be weak enough for Shikoku to strike back. But even in this scenario, Kazakhstan is still a very big problem and honestly Shikoku have very little they can do about it apart from hope that Kazakhstan will leave them alone. If that doesn't happen then Shikoku will just become the new Evenks, slowly getting eaten by Kazakhstan over the course of the game but too large to be swallowed in one go.

Technostar

Maratha of Endgame shares one crucial thing in common with its pre-E counterpart: it's geographically locked in. This part highlighted that weakness in full, as despite significant advantages in nearly every stat, they failed to make any real progress against Nepal. Montane terrain really is not conducive to expansion. At least Maratha's current army is far more balanced in composition than their pre-E all-ranged army that doomed their chances of expansion back then. Not that it'll do them any good, mind you. They're still far weaker than their relevant neighbors.

Rose

Manx had one hell of a part this week, doing exactly what the Moors had planned to do, and finally took Stettin. While many civs fall into the same pit-trap of not taking a clearly undefended city while not at war, Manx finally came back into the war with Prussia deciding that after the Moorish bombardment, it was their turn to shine. Manx is also one of the only civs that have clear sights to take out not only Prussia, but also the Vikings that harassed them long ago for some of that sweet sweet karma. Manz surprisingly has a larger military than some of its actually competent neighbors too, surpassing Sami in raw military might. While not quite int the position to be the dominant european civ, they will be able at least to be the “king maker”, a player who can’t win but whose support win affect the outcome for their favorite. Pretty impressive for what once was considered a bottom 5 civ

Knot

I thought Benin was done for in part 20, but then they participated in the killing of Songhai. I thought they were done for when Zimbabwe was king of the continent, but then they took several cities from Zimbabwe in the final Pre-endgame part and gave themselves some excellent endgame bonuses. I thought they were done when they didn’t capitalize on those bonuses early on, but then they settled four cities in one part, and solidified their position.

So when I say that it seems like Benin is kinda stagnating as other civs like the Sami are rising, and it doesn’t look like Benin could put up a fight against neighbors like the Moors and Zimbabwe, it’s very possible they might just turn around and prove me wrong.

Knot

Zenobia finally remembers how to put a melee unit next to a city and finishes off India! Good for her. Small problem: what does she do now? Attacking Nubia doesn’t seem worth it considering Zimbabwe could easily take any cities Zenobia might gain. There’s Parthia, but considering they’re the only thing standing between Palmyra and the Kazakhs, Zenobia might wanna keep them alive a bit longer, so the best route seems to be to build a navy and go after Maratha and maybe the Goths, just to bolster their resources. Not exactly an easy plan for the AI to pull off, but definitely possible. Certainly better than trying to attack Prussia from your three tile city, Zenobia.

Lacsirax

The Sami redemption arc is virtually complete, as they overcome their unjust starting nerf and finally devour their bitter Viking rivals, leaving them just one measly city on the Scanian coast (and their German and Greenlandic holdings, but that’s of no concern to Eadni). But with the Sisyphean cycle of conflicts finally resolved, there’s a bit of a sense of… what now? Their only major remaining land border are the Kazakhs, and while now might be the perfect time for a cheeky backstab, the odds of that are low given the superior Kazakh stats (it’s more likely that Ablai will absentmindedly declare war on the Sami). Then to the west there’s… sea? Oh man, that was always the Vikings’ domain, I don’t know how much Eadni knows about all that stuff. Her last war with the Manx was virtually bloodless, so it will take a significant step up in terms of naval tactics for her to pose a serious threat there. The final answer is perhaps the most promising; follow in Sweden’s footsteps and descend into Europe, tearing through the rump states of Prussia, Gothia and what remains of Ragnar, and forming an actual counter to the Moors. Still, this is the CBR - we know what happens to civs that wind up caught between two greater powers in Europe…

Cloudberg

Taungoo slightly dropped the ball this episode. If you were paying attention, you might have noticed that by the time Taungoo made peace with Australia, they only held one of the Australian cities that they had previously captured. Tha’s right, Taungoo took Cairns and nothing else. Queenbeyan and Gosford still stand. Taungoo is still in a fairly strong position, but they need a better showing against Australia than that if they want to have a future. Instead they’re throwing their elephants at Nepal in what can only be described as a dubious attempt at expansion.

Msurdej

While Chavez takes a bit of a dip, it would be wrong to say he’s been idle.  Not only did Venezuela colonize all of Hawaii, but they are in the process of trying to push further into the Pacific. Of course, this has put them in a collision course with Australia,  While it’s unlikely that Chavez will be able to take any islands off Hawke, it shows that he does have the spunk we like to see in our top 10.

Knot

And Australia goes back up, as Taungoo doesn’t actually do as much damage as expected, and Qin’s poor luck suddenly makes all their islands look like easy expansion opportunities. While Australia’s current prospects look ok, the root of their problem is unchanged. They can’t really leave their collection of islands, and even new islands they could settle are drying up. Making some sort of headway on another continent is going to need to be top priority if Australia wants to make their way back up to the top. Well, that and maybe dealing with their new African neighbors.

LonelyRS

Don’t be fooled by their statis in the ranks: with Venice downed, Prussia crippled, and their core fully operational, the Moors have solidly established themselves as the best of the trailing pack coming into Episode 45. But if they want to be something better than a mere quirky also-ran, the Moors are going to have to move quickly. The main advantage to starting in Europe, in both this BR and the last, is the crop of weak neighbors to absorb if you can get big enough to get started on them. The Moors’ bordermates certainly fit the bill, with both the Manx and Benin just the kinds of juicy targets that propelled them so successfully to the highest highs before Endgame hit. And with the Moors’ seemingly war-favoring biases and their intimidating carpet, it wouldn’t exactly be a surprise to see them discussed as a dark horse victory candidate an episode or two from now. The problem for the Moors, of course, is that everyone else is also a hyper-aggressive warmonger, and they have two hundred more production to their name. If Abd-ar Rahman is content with his current status as the King in Europe, he can easily just coast the rest of the way and never suffer for it. But it’s looking more and more like he wants to win the whole competition, and to do that, he’ll need his foot on the pedal as much as he can spare it.

Technostar

The Qin did a good job this part. They snagged several Shikoku cities, pushing them back all the way to Kochi. Unfortunately, the Qin had two jobs to do, and the second one did not go so well. While warmongering is important, keeping the peace is just as essential, especially during those brief moments of overexpansion as you work to integrate those new cities. The Qin might be good at warmongering, but they did not keep the peace. In a joint DOW, the Kazakhs and Australia forced the Qin into a two-front conflict, and the Qin are losing on both fronts. Swarms of Kazakh knights and Aussie warships surrounding your cities makes for a bad day, and the Qin fall several ranks as a consequence.

LonelyRS

There’s a lot of ways one can become a superpower in the CBR, if only by virtue of how open-ended the game is. Smart wars, lucrative peace deals, or just plain dumb luck can swing the fortunes of smaller civs entirely, and seemingly random factors can turn major wars from grinds to curbstomps and vice versa. Theoretically, any civ, no matter the neighbor, no matter their position, can at least hope to accomplish something, and for a good enough civ improper positioning is easily surmountable. With all that said, though, it can probably be agreed that whether the Metis can make a true bid for victory or not is going to depend pretty heavily on how they compare to everyone’s favorite east coast-based recovering autocrats. And in that respect, it… might just be a tossup. The Metis are outproducing and outsettling the Iroquois, and, in theory, would seem to have the edge when it comes to any further conflicts in North America. In practice, though, their cripplingly bad scientific game might have Hiawatha running circles around them if they don’t make a move soon. Being six techs back with the half the science output of your neighbor has never boded well for anyone, and while the Metis figure to beef their numbers up with their newfound cities in the near future, Louis Riel will have to tread carefully. The Metis may be a powerhouse, but if they want to win the game, they’ll have to start eclipsing their neighbor instead of merely equalling them.

Knot

While other nations are constantly in the news, rising to new heights only for fate to turn this success around into their downfall, Uruguay continues to sit on the bottom of the map. Growing. Improving their resources. Dreaming of a time when they used to be the undisputed giant of the cylinder, and planning for the day they can reclaim that title. Right now though, Venezuela still stands too tall to tackle, so all they can do is wait. For now.

Random StrategyThe Iroquois didn't do much this episode. They built Uffizi I guess, which is just another useless wonder to add to their large pile of terrible wonders. The Iroquois currently have 9 wonders which is a lot, but the average score of Iroquois wonders is 1.8/10 on the wonder score tier list... This is slightly odd as pre-endgame the Iroquois never built any wonders ever; they've certainly had a change in character. Currently the Iroquois's greatest strength is their high tech, still second of the entire cylinder behind only Zimbabwe. This is particularly good for them because their neighbour and biggest rival, the Metis, has terrible tech; it's so bad it's on the same level as Canton. Will Metis's 10 extra snow cities really matter that much when fighting an enemy with TWICE their tech? Probably not. Having higher tech than your opponent is a huge advantage and this gap is particularly large.

Random Strategy

Zimbabwe spends the part settling a bunch of colonies around the world. On top of being large and scary in their own right, Zimbabwe are also first in science and already have a significant tech gap separating them from other civs. What should be worrying to civs around the cylinder is that Zimbabwe has invested this tech in navy. They already have a well-established navy of frigates and privateers have just unlocked ships of the line to make it even stronger! That is REALLY powerful for this stage of the game. Most civs are still on medieval galleases who can't even enter ocean. That's a whole 2 eras behind! Zimbabwe’s navy is so advanced that the second most advanced navy of the cylinder (the Iroquois’s) is still 1 entire era behind! And this navy has so many potential targets it can just obliterate. Madagascar? Barely an inconvenience. Maratha? They'd become the next India. Benin? Hahahaha Benin is still on triremes - they're so bad they'd even lose a war to the Manx; if Zimbabwe attacked them then say goodbye to being important. Australia? They would also lose. Yes: even the mighty Australia an entire ocean away does have to fear from the tiny 1 tile Zimbabwe wart that's grown on them - they just don't have the naval tech required to deal with an enlightenment-era navy! The civs that do have a good enough navy to defend against Zimbabwe's fleet (ie: are only 1 era behind instead of 2 eras) are very few in number, but do include Uruguay, Venezuela, the Moors and the Iroquois, so (unless going for Benin), Zimbabwe should avoid the Atlantic and concentrate more on the Indian ocean.

Altima

Ablai Khan continues his reign as undisputed king of Mount Badass, solidifying his lead over the rest of the world with a ludicrous 35 cities on the back of a back-to-back conquest of East Asia. One need only look at the minimap to see how much of a powerhouse they are, so let’s entertain irrelevant hypotheticals and talk about how one would kill them given the current set of neighbors. The Qin are the most relevant in this regard in that they actually still have a military (even if it’s getting positively devoured for being mostly horsemen because UU prioritization is a pox) so if they can swing chivalry and start upgrading those UUs to something that doesn’t die to a sneeze, they can at least halt some the Kazakh assault. Maybe. From there, the largest power they border is the Sami... who have ~1/3rd the army Kaz has… and 2/3rds the effective science… and half the food…

Welp.