Power Rankings: Final Community Rankings – S1

Welcome to the Civ Battle Royale X season 1 final community rank! This final ranking was determined by the community voting on what their favorite civs were across the whole game. Before we begin, the PR team wants to thank Blue Cassette for continuing to run this shindig, and anyone that’s contributed to CBRX1 over it’s long run. Whether you narrated a part, made a piece of OC, contribute to the subreddit, or even just silently watch each part, there isn’t a CBRX without you, and we appreciate it! Who else is gonna listen to us ramble on civilization AI?

Now, before we close the book on season 1, let’s look back on the highs, the lows, the disappointments, and the surprises! Let’s say goodbye to our cast of characters for this past season!

LonelyRS

Xia [ʃɑː] verb. 1. The sixty-first ranked nation in the CBRX. 2. To collapse through no fault of your own.

For a civilization whose history is so easy to document, (going in and out the door in fifty-seven turns does that to you) the answer to the question of what the Xia did wrong is curiously elusive. The facts of their demise are pretty clear - a forward settle by the Qin leading to a war of opportunity on their end, then one on the Qing’s end, then one on Canton’s - but the reasoning behind it, well, isn’t, really. For a civ to end up so solidly in last place, one would generally expect there to be some reasoning behind the placing, some clear sign of incompetence that got them there. Not all losers are bred the same, of course, but to end up in such a horrid position one usually has to have helped themselves along somehow.

For the Xia, though? There aren’t really any flaws to point to. Sometimes things really are as simple as they seem. The Xia, for instance, were terribly, terribly unlucky, and that’s all. In a region as crowded as theirs, someone was going to have to draw the short straw, and that ended up being them. So if ever you find yourself drinking to tales of the CBRX, pour one out for the Xia, the civ equivalent of that guy in your campaign who rolled three ones in a row and died in the first dungeon. Just be sure to remember that it’s not their fault they ended up as the punchline they became. Well, not completely.

Rosé

Despite Kazakhs, Guay, and Zimbabwe doing as well as the PR’s had predicted, there were a few civs that really did well despite the odds being against them. Prussia, Taungoo, Shikoku all did really well despite not having much expected of them, hell even some “rumps” defied expectations like tonga not dying by part 20. Minoa however, was not one of those nations, and got 60th out of 61 just as predicted. To be honest, Minoa’s start was beyond your traditionally god awful starting position, given that they had the Turks, Nubia, and Palmyra all at their doorstep. The rump did have some good moments however. The snip of that Lybian city comes to mind, which meant they technically had the highest kill count of all civs for a brief time being, that was radical.

Vihreaa

Many people had high hopes for Libya back when the great tale of CBRX began. As another faith-based civ positioned next to Algeria, the two were fated to rival each other from the beginning. Little did we know that in their infighting their true threat would arise from outside their sphere, in Songhai, and to a degree, the Moors. Libya did not have to die like this. There are alternate timelines where Libya came out on top in Northern Africa, and dominated the Mediterreanean. Unfortunately for all Libya fans, that instance was not the CBRX.

Gragg

Before I was a power ranker, before I started Predcon, before I made my first post on the sub, I was a Scottish fan. That lasted a couple whole episodes as they quickly demonstrated that their stay on the cylinder would be short. In what is probably their only memorable moment, they gifted Glasgow to Manx in a legendary peace deal. In my mind this is the most damaging peace deal in the entirety of CBRX. Certainly the most damaging 1 city peace deal at the least. Why did they make such an awful exchange? Well, at the time they were quite behind on technology and had not yet discovered writing. When presented with the peace treaty they didn’t want to let on and seem stupid, so they agreed without understanding what was written. At that moment the legacy of Scotland was decided. Everything that happened after was a gradual struggle to survive.

Knot

Oman was not presumed to do well. It was expected for them not to settle very much, for their desert position to cripple them, and for them to die early on to a random civ. However, when the game started, Oman showed a glimmer of promise. They actually settled three cities in part 0 which is more than some civ managed to get out, and they were good settles next to water and resources. It looked like Oman had potential, and they used this potential to… Not settle very much, get crippled by their desert position and die to a random civ. Sigh. Well, at least they were consistent.

Altima

Algeria is a civ that existed. This is all most remember about them, but I respect the spiteful, and Algeria was certainly that- despite their unambiguously awful starting spot (so awful that BC is changing the geography of the region for X2), they just kept nettling the Songhai, the then-top-dog of Saharan Africa, with hyper-aggressive forward settles they could never hope to keep in terrain so awful as to be useless for the Songhai themselves. They had a persistent rivalry with the Libyans that made both entertaining to watch despite them being useless rumps. And in a very real way, the Songhai conquest of Algeria would eventually go on to damn them to conquest in turn- the useless terrain of North Africa meant that every city Songhai gained from the war was just dead weight on their empire, and unlike their Moorish conquerors they lacked a solid external core to compensate with.

Mind, none of this helped them survive when their Deys, a unique Great General replacement, outnumbered their actual military units for several parts straight, a fact that has gone on to become their actual legacy in the eyes of most who even remember their existence. A sorry state to me. Let their legacy be one of the idiots who were so bad the guys who ate them retroactively became worse and died for doing so. Let them be the pufferfish of Africa.

Gragg

O Canada, the runt that shall forever hold my heart. Around the time I applied to be a power ranker I was telling everyone within hearing distance that Canada should not be bottom 5, despite being currently ranked last (60th at the time). I was called a fool. After that they put up a valiant defence (they were ignored) and finally died a noble death at rank 55. Nearly the entire time they were alive however, they were by far the weakest civ. If lucky, they had a single unit to defend from an oncoming invasion. Fortunately, no one was terribly excited about owning that particular corner of nowhere. Canada survived flying under the radar until they temporarily halted their policy of isolationism to help their old frenemies the Iroquois in a war against the Metis. The Iroquois promptly peaced out, leaving the last ranked civ to fight a top 10 juggernaut. Thus the beloved King was laid to rest.

LonelyRS

All told? Things could have been so much worse. Fun fact: Tahera’s impromptu seizure of Montreal was one of the first city captures in the entire CBRX. Less fun fact: It was the only city she ever conquered. Fact that makes any fan of the PP reach for the vodka: With that capture, Poverty Point had three cities all time… and zero that they settled with a settler they built. To say Poverty Point was a civ of contradictions would be a vast, vast understatement. At times, it felt more like one designed to emulate nonsense. (The craze among rump states of unveiling slimmer and slimmer city-state empires did, after all, start with them.) Poverty Point was probably one of the most pivotal civs in early North America. It was also the smallest at its height. Both of these can be true, because, well, that’s just how delicately balanced North America was. Finding Tahera on a map may have been like finding a needle in a haystack, but throw that needle right and it can grind a machine to a halt. Or, in this case, turn what should have been an underwhelming start for the Iroquois into a springboard for autocracy-assisted domination. No one, not even the smallest of civs, is truly inconsequential. If there’s some sort of twisted moral that can be gleaned from Poverty Point’s play in this BR, it’s probably that one.

Vihreaa

It isn’t particularly difficult to be forgettable in the vast ocean of civilizations that graced the CBRX, but Ndongo managed to excel in this regard. Prior to the start of this great saga, many debated on who would take power in the region of South Africa, whether it would be Zimbabwe or Ndongo. As we quickly found out, Ndongo would be fighting an uphill battle for dominance in the subcontinent. Unfortunately, the pressure put against them was too great, and Zimbabwean forces overran them. Long will the history books remember you, but alas, for the general population will forget.

Knot

It’s the Seljuk turks! And that’s about the best thing that can be said: they certainly existed. Being stuck in the crowded middle east didn’t exactly put them in a prime position, yet the Seljuqs were determined to be the least impressive civ in that region, settling a grand total of four cities. I’m sorry, four cities and a getaway resort in India on a one tile island. With these lackluster expansions, it’s not very surprising they were quickly squished between India, Parthia, Palmyra, and the Golden Horde. You know you’re not a great civ when the freaking Golden Horde lives out the rest of its days in a city they took from you. The Seljuqs were quickly annexed, citadeled and pillaged out of most of their cities. Even Maratha took a shot at them by taking away their retirement plan in India. Eventually, the Seljuqs were pushed back to one city in the middle east in part 16, where they were then quickly killed by their neig-What’s that? They actually survived for another 15 parts as their neighbors just kept citadeling them until they only had two tiles? Hm. I can’t tell if that’s actually the best or worst ending for the Seljuqs.

Shaggy

The Czechs were underwhelming, there’s no way around it. They started out as a real contender for Europe, but then very quickly fell to the bottom tier as they were hewn in from settling while also having an onslaught of Turks pounding on the walls of Ostrava, but never going further than the perimeter. Vaclav Havel may have started the Velvet Revolution, but the Velvet Defense? Chalk it up to good statesmanship or Turkish incompetence, either way it was certainly impressive. But lighting rarely strikes twice and the Czechs had their lands famously split down the middle, leaving them with nothing but a slow descent into obscurity. Both the community and PRs ranked the Czechs lower than their death order. A sure sign of their meaningful elimination occurring well before their final elimination.

Msurdej  

The Golden Horde had an unfortunate starting position, caught between the Black and the Caspian Sea, which had them focus just an itty bitty bit too much on a navy when dealing with terrors such as The Goths, The Kazahks, and Palmyra. Battered and beaten throughout their lives, the Horde never managed to be the scourge of Europe it was in the real world, instead flipping a few Goth and Seljuq cities. In the end, The Golden Horde was only alive for the amusement of other steppe civs, and that amusement eventually ran out. Could they have done better? Absolutely. Would they have done better given another chance? Probably not.

Gragg

There are only a couple of civs that people forget more than Korea (quiz here https://www.sporcle.com/games/nicholasgragg/cbrx-s1-civs). Their legacy lies mostly in being a stumbling block early on for the more memorable Shikoku. They were once kicked out of their homeland and existed solely in Japan, and later Kamtchatka. Perhaps a bit of a disappointment for the repeat contender, who many hoped would top their CBR Mk2 performance.

Altima

Muscovy was never going to be a major player in Europe, let alone the cylinder at large. Prussians to their west, Sami to the north, Goths to the east. Even with the Goths being complete incompetents for most of the game, they still ate space Muscovy would have needed to do anything with. Still, they persisted far longer than I thought they would, because Ivan was a practitioner of what I have taken to calling the, “anaconda defence,” of settling your cities in a contiguous line that your adversaries can split their forces along to attack everything at once. Those of you with an ounce of strategic sense may question the anaconda defence, but I think its proven its validity against the AI time and time again across MkX. The Goths just kept failing to take Muscovy down despite Ivan’s pathetic armies time and time again because the Goths just kept splitting their armies across more-or-less the entirety of the Muscovite line, where they were divided and conquered. It took the Prussians actually focusing down on single cities at a time to bring Ivan down, and even then Ivan lingered a bit longer. While that may sound pretty damning, in a way, every turn Ivan survived was a victory.

Side note, I desire a CBRMkX1 Scenario that lets me play as the runts and see how long I survive.

Msurdej  

If there was a biggest disappointment in terms of a civ, I think the Aztecs would take that cake. Sure they were a vanilla civ, but hey, Brazil won the Mk 2.1, and Montezuma was supposed to be an aggressive civ. But sadly, the dice rolled low on Aztec aggression, leaving them quiet for most of the royale. The few times the Aztecs were at war, they ended up banging their troops against the better prepared Apache and Venezuela, losing more and more ground as time went on. In the end, perhaps the most memorable thing about the Aztecs wasn’t their armies of Jaguar Warriors, or their shitposting, but their death: being brought down in an impressive snipe by the Yup’ik.

Random StrategyThe Ottomans were a rump. The problems all started when Palmyra claimed all of Anatolia for themselves and declared war on the Ottomans with a big army to reinforce those claims. And unlike most AIs, Palmyra was smart enough to not suicide their army into the Ottomans cities, but instead merely used them to scare Turkish settlers away, a brilliant move which allowed Palmyran settlers to grab all the land while leaving the Turks with nothing. Still, despite being a rump, the Turks were one of the most powerful rumps and were still active in the early game. They even managed to kill an even weaker rump, Minoa, with the help of Nubia!  But yeah, being one of the most powerful rumps is still not that good overall.

Vihreaa

The Sulu were a civ that interested me in Oceania from the beginning. With an alluring color palette, the Sulu no doubt attracted the attention of many other viewers from the sub as well. Known for you exceptional skills in the sciences, you brought your citizens advanced technologies that the rest of the world was yet to dream of. Unfortunately, this world was too cruel for you, and the great Sulu Empire met their end. Long will ancient historians remember the Sulu Empire of old, famed for the great technology and strong faith.

Knot

I don’t really know what I was expecting from the HRE, but it was something more than we got. The Elected leader mechanic was really awesome. It lent itself well to CBR Lore, and it gave HRE a uniqueness that other civs didn’t have. In general, they were kind of a wild card. They weren’t expected to do very well at first, but they managed to cut out a little spot for themselves in Europe. They had decent stats and were in an ok position to expand against Prussia or prey on the Ottomans. They always had potential to flip a war a certain way, or steal a strategic city, or do…  something. It always felt like the HRE should have been more interesting, but they just weren’t. They just sat there until Venice and the Vikings pushed them into a former Czech city, and then they waited to die. The HRE were fine. They didn’t commit any egregious mistakes, and their death was mainly from Europe just having bigger fish, but I still can’t help feeling like we could have had more. Oh well.

Altima

At the start of the game, it was known that one of the three Chinas would go on to be the Real Deal. You’d be forgiven at the start for thinking it would be Qing- Xia had a CBR record speedrun to death, the Qin spent a lot of time not building units and not killing that crimson tumor on their underbelly, and the Qing were building a second core to expand further East with. And then they never connected that second core to their first. And then they stagnated for a long time and got killed by the Yup’ik of all people. A promising start turned into a legacy of failure. While civs like the Songhai overachieved before their fall, and civs like Kuikuro and Prussia likewise overmeme’d, the Qing ended up doing nothing but causing a crapton of confusion as to which Chinese civ was which, to the point where people had to start differentiating them by color. They had a solid enough start to work with, but they just did nothing with it, which is the saddest possible fate in the CBR.

Knot

Oh Murri, you tried so hard. Against another game of a boring Australia that didn’t earn their continent all to themselves, you were a beacon of hope. A possibility of a new, exciting challenger that could fight against the presumed winner. You were the plucky underdog leading the coalition against Australia with allies Papua, and New Zealand. You managed to push Australia to her southern shores, and hold several of their cities. For a brief moment, you stood a chance to be the dominant power in Australia. Perhaps here is where you should have stopped, and made peace to hold onto your gains, but you were ambitious and wanted to push for Australia’s capital. This was your downfall. The prolonged war let Australia push back and regain most of their cities. You might have recovered from this, but in a heart breaking move, New Zealand backstabbed you, taking your capital and leaving you for dead. You were pushed back to a single city, with nothing to do but wait for Australia to eat you. You died a rump, Murri, as some expected, but your efforts were more interesting than many civs that died after, and from your grave, two oceanic powers would rise. Both of which would fight tooth and nail for the continent. Though you didn’t succeed at conquering Australia, you did still make Oceania interesting. May your legacy live on, Murri!

Lacsirax Ariscal

The early sweetheart of the PRs, the underdog we all unashamedly backed. After a series of tests in which Venezuela routinely removed L’Ouverture’s republic from the game before democracy was even invented, we felt pretty confident with our last place ranking in Part 0. And while Haiti still finished solidly in the bottom 20, I still feel we may have got the best possible game out of them. Refusing to roll over and die, Haiti managed to overcome their tragic allergy to settling long enough to plonk a city right on Venezuela’s doorstep. I narrated that episode, and I’m pretty sure predicted it’d be sporting yellow colours before the end of next part.  But that didn’t happen. Instead, Haiti did the unthinkable: they held onto Gonayiv, and held Venezuela’s navy at bay. At one point, Caracas was only a turn or two from falling... and of course, because We Can’t Have Nice Things, peace was declared just in time for Chavez to keep his job and his palace. Were Haiti ever an impressive civ, a nation that could’ve turned their good defence (as well as the weakness of their immediate neighbours to the north and west) into a decent game? God no. It was Haiti’s AI we’re talking about. But goddammit, if I wasn’t still dreaming of it every single episode they graced us with.

Random StrategyGoing into the game, I had higher hopes than most for the Evenks, because I expected them to be able to settle a large amount of territory, and although this territory was snow tundra, the Evenks do have the bonuses for dealing with it. And this did happen: the Evenks did indeed settle a large amount of land. The mistake was assuming this would allow them to become powerful. For indeed, instead of developing their empire, the Evenks chose to undevelop it, by choosing a truly abysmal religion with negative science bonuses. This horrendous blunder caused them to be near the bottom in terms of science and consigned them to perpetual mediocrity. By the midgame, they still had carpet of reindeer, their ancient-era UU, which are about as powerful as having no carpet at all. This allowed Kazakhstan several military victories as they lazily slaughtered hundreds of reindeer just to capture a few cities. But the Evenks were fine, they had so many cities that what’s a few lost ones? Their great weakness: their terrible religion, briefly became a strength when they chose Ragnarok and acquired top tier production, though they were still using that production on horribly outdated units. But then Shikoku attacked from the west with paratroopers! Oh no! Well actually that didn’t matter either because the Evenks still had so many cities that they could afford to just bleed so many more away and not even care. When endgame happened and they did lose their cities, their  strategy of slowly bleeding out could no longer work and Ragnarok finally arrived.

Random StrategyLet’s get the most obvious out of the way first: the civilization based around nukes never fired a nuke during the entire game. Boo! Instead, they spent most of the game fighting Nepal, a conflict which was an extremely even stalemate for a very long time. But while they were fighting each other, other civs were growing stronger. And so it was that Maratha became the best civ of the subcontinent. Though Maratha did not end up being a problem for India as they were too lazy. And thus the entire indian subcontinent was the most boring place of the cylinder. To India’s credit, they did 1 thing successfully, which was team up with Madagascar to kill Oman (that’s 1 thing more than Nepal or Maratha did). India’s demise had to wait for Endgame, when Maratha FINALLY conquered them. But wait... sike! India wasn’t dead! India survived for a distressingly long time as a lone city with no health and almost no tiles!

Lacsirax Ariscal

It only seems fair I try to summarise Papua’s chaotic few centuries in CBRX. After all, I had them 5th in my Part 0 rankings. I’m as amazed as you that I’m still allowed to be here.

Papua shot from a respectable 18th in Part 0 right down to the bottom of the leaderboard almost instantaneously. A terrible second settle in an indefensible position, alongside an abject refusal to settle more cities (leaving Sulu to annex the western half of the island), left Papua one of the most obvious no hopers on the cylinder. And then, in the space of one episode, everything changed. The hitherto unchallenged Australia lost two cities to Rajapapua seemingly overnight, and a huge (for the time) navy materialised out of nowhere. There were a solid few centuries where Papua were the most threatening civ in the region, as Australia appeared unable to counter them while Sulu were having their own distinct collapse. Oh wait, there was that other civ...

As it turned out, there was a place for an Oceanian civ to rule the Pacific, challenge Australia and punch above their weight for a good half of the game. That civ was New Zealand, and Papua’s brief ascent to glory was cut short by their conflicts with Seddon, which were one-sided and definitive. In Episode 18 they were riding high at 23rd, a very respectable rank for a civ in the traditionally uncompetitive Oceania region, and had comfortably kept a similar ranking since Episode 10. By Ep 23 they were dead. That’s how it is sometimes.

Knot

When we look back on CBRX1, I think one of the biggest moments that will stick out in everyone’s minds will be the complete evisceration of Songhai. Songhai was not presumed prey for most of their run. They weren’t like the Evenks, or Parthia where the civ was large, but known to be weak. Songhai was not only an active civ that did a lot of damage to Algeria, and finished off Lybia, they were a stats monster. They had excellent Military and production scores for a good chunk of the early game. They had neighbors they could easily have taken advantage of. They could have been a definite threat to Zimbabwe. But instead they just... stagnate. They didn’t take advantage of these stats to push ahead, they had huge swaths of land with no units in them, and what few units they had were outdated ranged units that could not defend themselves. Other civs took advantage of this stagnation. When the Moors and Benin declared war, most predicted it would be bad for Songhai, some predicted that it would make them obsolete. No one predicted that Songhai would be completely dead in two parts. An empire that held almost all of North Africa partitioned between two powers. Songhai died pretty pathetically, and some might say that makes them a bad civ, but they were a giant in the early game, and their death was a huge moment. Much like MK2 has given us archetypes like a Boers, or a Blackfoot, I expect any paper tiger giant in future CBR’s to now be called “a Songhai”

Msurdej

For the final folks, it is Tonga Time.Tonga was a dark horse amongst dark horses, starting out in Oceania on a two tile island, a bill wurtz reference, and a sack full of dreams. But while they certainly had an expansive empire, they didn’t have the production to truly back it up.This production lack would inevitably lead to their demise, as civs like New Zealand, Australia, and even the Nazca and Venezuela were able to repel or invade the waters of Tonga. Never owning a larger island than three tiles, Tonga was swept beneath the waves of Australia, shortly before the end of the Pregame. While their fans were few, they will always be remembered for the grit, bill wurtz reference, and that movie about Mormons on Tonga.

Altima

Time and distance have been unkind to Gudit, but let us remember the good times, the days when she built a production base to rival the world at large on the ashes of pillaged tiles, the days when her empire extended into Arabia, the days when she held off a top-ten power through raw tenacity. While she was more-or-less doomed to never stand among the greats- mountain basins and an archer bias do not incline one well to conquest- he did damn well for his baleful start. We called her nation Chad Israel, we marveled as they fought titans and wept as they died to those same titans. Few others have so well earned their Fs.

Rosé

Let’s give a round of applause to our god damn LEGEND of a civ in Kuikoro. After the first few parts when war was raging between the guay and kui, there was one objective: Survive for just enough time to slow down the growth of Uruguay so that they wouldn’t sweep the cylinder. Did they do that? Oh hell ya! For reference, Kuikoro turtled for hundreds of turns, surviving from the medieval era all the way into the future era, you know when Guay had nukes and a technology that humanity could only dream of? Of course like all rumps, Kui did fall eventually, but that was ironically because of Nazca of all civs. Kuikoro, you were one hell of a rump state and we thank you for your sacrifice, F

Gragg

Did you know that the Selks were once top 10? Yup, before we realized how unholy Uruguay was, many believed it would be the Selk’nam to clean up the continent. The cthulhu mythos that they gained leading up to the season would have made a lot more sense if that had been the case. Instead, they were properly boxed in by the cylinder scariest power for hundreds of turns. For a few brief moments it looked like the Selk’nam could do some serious damage to them, but that dream never materialized. In the end though they weren’t defeated by their northern neighbor, but by the eventual victor, the Moors (though Venice promptly took the city from them). I dream that in another season we’ll see Selk’nam again. Such wonderful characterization ruined by the monstrous ‘guay

Altima

Nepal is a civ that entered pre-E with mild hopes (and some anti-hopes from India stans who wanted to see Nuclear India for once) before the subcontinent devolved into a complete and utter stalemate due to all of the goddamn mountains. They ended pre-E on the brink of utter annihilation, and entered Endgame in much the same state- no Endgame bonuses and surrounded by much stronger powers. Yet they not only persisted for far longer than anyone could have guessed, they actually dealt some damage to a Taungoo city. For a hot second it looked like they might even flip that city. They would never have held it, and with their weak units even then it’s unlikely that they’d have swung the flip, but still, even the chance was more than most gave them. They still died among the first of the Endgame corpses, but they did so far more entertainingly than certain elder god worshippers and former-top-tens I could name.

Lacsirax Ariscal

Around the first or second part Nubia built a city that prevented the Suez Canal being settled, and that set the tone for Nubia’s entire game, right up to doing the exact same thing in Endgame. A civ of blustering middling performances and missed opportunities, Nubia were one of the few civs to make it to the top 20 without ever eliminating another civ - no, not even Minoa. This is despite having such illustrious neighbours as the aforementioned Minoa, Libya, the Ottomans and Beta Israel. In their defence, Piye was beset by some of the earliest coalition wars, with civs both near and far eager to declare war on them for cheap diplomatic points. And speaking of defence, well, there they can’t really be faulted. They remained unfazed by big armies from Palmyra and Ndongo, and reversed any attempts at an attack from Libya (who at the time weren’t a punchline). But such a necessary focus on defending meant that by the time the war declarations had dried up, so had their easy targets.

In Endgame they had a decent couple of wars against local bullies Benin and Zimbabwe, but there was never really a place for them in the real endgame, and the Moors quietly took them out in a moment so anticlimactic that I don’t remember it happening. Anyone? Hm. Regardless, as the person who campaigned to have Nubia make it into CBRX, I only have one parting thought: Why didn’t you build more pyramids? I just wanted cool pyramids. That’s literally the only reason I tried to get you in.

Lacsirax Ariscal

Beating their actual rank by just a handful of places, we have one of the most agonising and ultimately disappointing civs to watch in this season of CBRX. It’s not hard to see why the rank is so divided between the community and PRs; objectively this civ had a very good run - well, right up until they didn’t. And yet even in the so-called glory days, when the Khamugs had enough territory and a terrifying enough army to seriously challenge the #1 spot, they were still a civ of perennial promise that they only occasionally made good on. The highlights: watching an overstretched Qin sacrifice their armies in Qing territory and refusing to strike while the iron was glowing white. Spending countless years and resources focusing on an unwinnable war against the Himalayas- sorry, Nepal. Losing a land war to *Shikoku*. Honestly, with this one I’m inclined to agree with the community over my fellow PRs. The Khamugs certainly had a few military successes, but a lack of ambition (crossed with a pretty crippling lack of tech towards the end) meant their eventual stagnation and subsequent demolition was inevitable. In that sense, they’re the true successor to Yakutia; the Evenks were never even close to being as genuinely scary as the sleeping bear was towards the start of Mk. II, but the Khamugs were the perfect analogue.

Knot

Well, South American was a tough division to be in, as Uruguay pulled far ahead of the rest of the racers, with Venezuela not far behind. Nazca was definitely in the back of the pack for most of the race, but while other drivers might have given up, Nazca was always right behind the top tier contenders, and wasn’t out of the race completely until the end. While they didn’t have the blisteringly fast engine that was Uruguay’s tech, they still managed to get through each part ahead of most of the other racers, and never strayed too far away from the commanding leaders. While Uruguay was stumped by legendary underdog The Kuikuro, Nazca managed to finally push them off the course, and secure their prominent position to try and get ahead of Uruguay. Even Venezuela could not shake Nazca off their tail. By the time all three racers reached the turn of Endgame, it seemed as though Nazca might be able to finally pass these contenders and make a run for the championship, but unfortunately, Endgame caused Nazca to stumble at the last minute, as their neighbors ran them over, and left Nazca firmly in the dust. Nazca did not crash and burn like other racers did, and while they didn’t have a firm memorable moment in this race, they still were a prominent player in their division. Nazca has definitely earned a pit stop.

Msurdej  

Canton had a lesser time than many, and a greater time than many. They made the first elimination in the game, taking out Xia in part 2. However, this gained them the ire of both the Qin and the Taungoo, who proceeded to bring Ching Shih’s nation to its knees, where it would remain for much of the game. It would, however, make it to Endgame, outlasting the Qing, but still in the shadow of the Qin. In Endgame, Canton would never be a great empire, the bonuses that its neighbors had were too much for the civ to compete, and inevitably lead to Canton being made a city state by the Taungoo. But when Canton died, it got one last laugh; outlasting the Qin to become the last, and greatest, China.

Shaggy

Yup’ik was a civ that survived. That’s most of what they were known to do. Relegated to an icy start on the ass-end of North America, they were quickly shut out of more temperate lands by the Haida. With nowhere to go, they went on with one purpose: survive. They were never destined to win it all, but they sure as hell did a good job of keeping themselves out of danger and into the final 20 civs. And who could forget their famous sniping ability! A Battle Royale wouldn’t be complete without dramatic city snipes, so for that we thank you, Yup’ik. But much like a good sniper, they really only had one or two good shots before packing it up and going home. When a butcher is needed, you don’t tend to be successful when a surgeon shows up.

Knot

Ok, time to talk about Parthia. Hmmmmmmmm? Parthia. Parthia. Parthia. What the crap do you say about Parthia?

Oh! They had an impressive start against the Kazakhs. The war where they took several cities off of the presumed number one power was really a great moment. I mean, they didn’t really capitalize on that at all, but it was still awesome to see...

Let’s see. What else? They fell asleep. They fought in pointless wars. They built a lot of horse units? That’s neat. I guess. They, uh, they killed the Golden Horde... after many parts of being stuck in the mountains unable to even reach the Horde’s last city, but they did it eventually!

Uhhhhhhhh... They survived to endgame! Barely. Palmyra wrecked them pretty hard right before Endgame, but they certainly made it! And then, they waited around... Doing nothing... And uh, that was about it until they died. Oh, wait! I forgot! Before they died, the India Pikeman in their last city kept Parthia alive against the Kazakh Horde. That was Hilarious.

Hm. Honestly, that might have been my favorite moment of Parthia’s... and they didn’t really have anything to do with it. You know, early game, I actually supported Parthia, but their overall game was so lackluster that I feel nothing now. They just sorta wasted their good start and a year from now, I doubt most of us will remember they existed. Let’s move on.

Rosé

I honestly feel like I’m the one of the only people alive who can say with confidence “The Apache were my favorite civ in the earlier days of the civ battle royale”. While it was disappointing to see them go so early, I’m proud of them nonetheless. Throughout the game we got to see Geromino completely destroy the Aztec and doom Poverty Point. However one thing that really made me love the Apache was their ability to punch up at the other powers that were clearly stronger. When Geromino went to war with Metis, they took a good set of cities. Additionally during this time, the Apache properly defended numerous waves of Iroquois hoards, and eventually setting up a potential comeback by endgame with an open area for settling. Unfortunately, fate did not treat Geromino kindly, and the nation was quickly swept away by Metis and Iroquois. Geromino you may have not been the most memorable nation on the cylinder, but you made me proud. F

Random StrategyHaida started the game in the usual tradition style, by getting a small powerful core and growing their capital extremely large. They then used their powerful core to fuel their expansion out across the west coast of North America. They saw success in killing Korea and became the trans-Pacific power rival to Shikoku. Sadly their power was almost entirely naval and their land forces were very seriously lacking. They did team up with the Iroquois several times to fight the Metis, but every time they fought, the Metis just captured Haidan cities, despite also facing the wrath of the Iroquois at the same time on the opposite front. This continued until Haida was entirely coastal, and they were finally crushed by their old rival Shikoku before endgame. Endgame was just a repeat of what came before, except this time they started so weak that Shikoku ended up killing them for good.

LonelyRS

Alright, picture this. Your name is Enrico Dandolo. Your AI is well-known for two things: not settling cities, and being laughably incompetent when you do. You’re stuck in Europe, staring down the barrel of a start position which leaves you nothing but Italy and broken dreams if you do manage to get your cities down right. You’ve got few hopes, fewer options, and the prognosis of a koi fish in a barrel fired upon by machine guns. Basically, you’re screwed.

And yet you start winning anyways. Your neighbors focus on each other rather than you, everybody you thought would put your head on a pike is dead by part 30 or busy somewhere else, and meanwhile everything’s clicking for you. Your settling game’s up to snuff, your internals are working perfectly, and you’ve got a navy perfectly suited for steamrolling your suddenly vulnerable would-be conquerors. You branch out afterwards, use the changing tides of the game to your advantage, lay waste to weakness where you see it, and you’re on fire coming into the big reset, with the snipe of the century, an argument for the third-strongest position in Europe, and one of the best fanbases in the game under your belt. And now you’ve got space, options, and if you keep it up you’ll be able to add the heartlands of Europe to your empire this time around. Pole position in the region is yours for the taking. You’ve got this.

And then your AI’s curse finally hits you, you’re behind all your neighbors from the word go, and you’re put out of your misery before you can even raise a finger in protest. And that? That’s the Venice experience. You can get as caught up in their game as you like, things can go so well it seems almost unbelievable, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re sitting on a ticking time bomb. Someday, it will go off. Someday, everything that’s happened will be for naught. In the end, you always end up second best. Michael Chricton once said that life finds a way. So, unfortunately, does AI incompetence.

Lacsirax Ariscal

Falling way below their actual rank, and yet a solid 11 ranks ahead of the PR ranking, Madagascar just misses out on a top 20 placement with their “impressive” feat of staying alive so goddamn long. Sure, they eliminated an already braindead Oman. That’s their only remarkable achievement - unless you count a couple of abortive conflicts with Beta Israel or their one memorable early war with Zimbabwe which, after shots were fired from either side, ended with a total white peace. Hell, given Zimbabwe’s relative weakness at that point in the game, I wouldn’t have doubted Madagascar could’ve emerged victorious had they settled mainland Africa earlier. But their settling both pre and post Endgame was atrocious; they only just remembered to settle their home islands in Endgame.

And that’s all there is to it. Except... for a civ who remained so consistently boring, they sure weren’t invisible. In a game that was, for better or worse, defined by peacekeepers, there was no civ who flew that banner quite like Madagascar. The ubiquitous Voromahery, a pikeman replacement that survived long after its obsolescence, was a fixture of every album; sometimes it felt like every other shot would have one or two poking their heads in, just trying to remind y’all Madagascar were still there, seemingly begging to be put out of their misery. In the end, the civ we long said would do that very deed - Zimbabwe - maintained a centuries long truce and it was up to Uruguay to finish them off. But the legacy they initiated, the one that changed the entire game and even forced it to restart, is one that can’t easily be wiped out. It remains to be seen if peacekeepers will be as problematic in Season 2. But scatterings of them are inevitable - and you can bet it’ll probably be initiated by another modest island nation, just looking for a little more room for their small but proud army.

Shaggy

Oh, the Manx! Winner of Season 1’s The Little Civ That Could Award and the tri-legged champion of the British Isles. There’s a soft spot in my heart for the Manx. Starting this season relegated to the bottom of the barrel at rank 59 with only Minoa (who?) and Haiti (the other lil’ scamp this season) below them, the Manx rose above all the other low ranked civs to not only win their initial fight with their neighbor in a do-or-die matchup, but also remain competitive on their continent well into the season. It wasn’t until about halfway through Endgame that the Manx faltered and weren’t able to truly elevate their civ to a superpower level. For a rank 59 civ? I’ll take watching them be an Endgame competitor and I’m proud to see them have a final community rank of 20. Illiam Dhone, you have fought bravely. You stomped and were stomped in a seemingly endless wheel of feet. Hey… wait a minute.

Shaggy

Let the drums beat, let the cymbals ring, let the songs of happiness be played. Maratha was the winner of the Indian subcontinent, much like their real-life counterparts during their prime. Unlike their real-life counterparts, however, they were not so quick to build a navy to do much conquering outside of the subcontinent. Actually, they really just wanted to build ranged units and harry anything they could shoot at. They remind me a bit of a micro-Zimbabwe in that once they solidified their status as a regional power, they never seemed to want to invade northward despite ample targets, opportunity, and units. The main difference, of course, is that Maratha is in Asia, which makes turtling a significantly less viable strategy. They did very well, I’ll definitely give them that, but very well is shy of great, and a civ needs to be great to survive in Asia in the endgame.

LonelyRS

Some civs live their lives in seconds, burning up brighter than any other before dying in a flash, barely leaving any time to be remembered. Some civs have the lifespans of glaciers, large and looming, a consistent threat throughout the entire game. And some civs are like the Goths: fairly blobby, ostensibly good, a major player at times, and yet still utterly bland and disappointing. To be fair to Alaric, it’s not like he didn’t have a pedigree of being underwhelming; most every performance he’s had in an AI game has been similar to this one in some form or another. Starting strong, doing just enough to get by, and dying in hilarious fashion are practically his hallmarks by this point. However, given how weak everyone else in his region was, and how strong he looked coming out of the gate, it still feels like he kind of took the collective hopes of the sub and slowly strangled them to death over the course of forty-nine parts or so.

Still, last as long as the Goths did, and you’re going to find yourself part of some memorable moments, whether you like it or not. Put yourself back in the shoes of a viewer circa Endgame’s release for a minute. Over the past few parts, the Goths had performed perhaps the game’s only Finn-style conquest to date, nearly picking off Nepal from a world away. Over the next few, given an immensely favorable start and wide-open plains to the east, it looked almost like Alaric could become the premiere power in North Asia. Of course, he didn’t, whiling away his time in the south as Prussia forward settled him into oblivion and the Kazakhs took the land he vacated to help build their empire, but the point yet remains: for a brief moment, even Alaric was interesting.

Rosé

People on this subreddit hate New Zealand

The first question to ask: why? Why do you all hate them? The obvious answer: you didn’t watch them in their prime. Likely explanation: I know that most of you are around 14 to 16 years old. That means you only started watching civ in the last couple months. So you never watched NZ in their prime. And because you didn’t watch him in his prime, you try to compensate for that by diving into stat sheets and analyzing PR history. But here’s the thing: civ isn’t played on Excel spreadsheets. The moment somebody brings up “true tile coverage” or “war victories” I know they know nothing about civ

Ok but really though New Zealand was actually a huge player in the early and the middle of the game hitting top ten at one point. Hell they were potentially going to take all of Oceania at some point,(over TAUNGOO and AUSTRALIA) and was one of the few mid game transcontinental empires, having one hell of a body count. New Zealand was sort of a “prussia of oceania” in a sense, where they were a non-stop bringer of war and would always leave us entertained, even though we knew deep down they had no chance at winning it well. Given the position that New Zealand was in, they fought their god damn hardest to make themselves known. Seddon, you’re a goddamn madlad and you’ve earned our utmost respect

Altima

The Meme Kings themselves, Prussia is a civ that never stopped entertaining us with their pluck and spite. From countless wars they should have absolutely lost that they managed to swing a white peace out of, to the Manifold Citadels all the way along Norway, Prussia is the civ we needed but apparently didn’t deserve given how much the entire rest of the cylinder hated them. A large part of that comes down to the simple fact that being a central European civ is suffering- you’re surrounded by everyone, which rather increases your list of neighbors who can kill you and also denies you any real safe angles, especially given how crowded it was this time around.

And then Endgame happened and everything got worse.

While Prussia was able to exploit the error that capped everyone’s bonuses at Benin’s level and scattered the extra units to the winds, settling large amounts of cities while everyone was scrambling to recover, their loss of starting units and stats meant that the AI’s rules would not allow them to keep making the insane white peaces they were known for, so they just kept attritioning cities in Maria-the-Mad tier peace treaties (although Palmyrean Berlin at least went on to help in some of the great coalition wars by screwing with the Goths) which kept them from effectually building up against their neighbors. Still, they fought just as hard as they ever had, holding off multiple wars against stronger powers until finally they inevitably collapsed. Mega F to our Prussian Meme Kings, and may flights of citadels guide Freddy to his rest.

Gragg

Gosh, I feel like I should make a lot of references to Grandma Eadni’s cookies but I never understood that meme. So let’s just carry on, eh? From the very start we had Sami and the Vikings pegged as a rivalry. The mountains and water surrounding their start locations meant that the two would play out said rivalry into the Endgame. Sami got off to a quick lead, starting at rank 4 and making their way up to 3rd. What followed was one of the biggest periods of stagnation in CBRX. In fairness, the surrounding terrain really did lend itself to a turtle so perhaps that should have been expected. Even then, the Sami did not fall out of the top ten until episode 29.

Vihreaa

Venezuela is a civ that is somewhat personal to me, and I have nothing but praise for their performance in the CBRX. From day one, I supported Venezuela, creating their civball that is still used today, voicing my support in the sub. Whilst many may have doubted your ability, especially given your positioning toward Uruguay before Endgame, you survived and flourished. There may have been close calls, specifically with Haiti, but you continued to succeed. Settling a beautiful Carribean empire, you also reached lands that many from South America would only dream of. From settling Hawaii to conquering land in Canada, your tale is nothing short of one to revere with great respect.

Knot

VIKINGS!!!! Ragnar best leader of CBRX. Power rankers think Vikings not start off well when stats not as good as Puny Grandma, but Vikings prove them wrong by crushing Scotland and taking capital city. Vikings burn all other cities because stupid Scotland have only stupid cities Ragnar no need. Vikings not stupid like Scotland. Vikings surprisingly scientifically minded, taking huge scientific lead over Europe, following civs like Cursed Sun and Japanese Karen, because Ragnar understand that thermonuclear fusion and quantum mechanics help make civs go boom! Vikings crush all opposition. Puny feet island civ. Gone! Fancy pants empire with stupid democracy. Meet Ragnar’s fist! Vikings kick Fredrick the Great into the dirt and take his lunch money many times, then laugh at his citadels. His many, many, many citadels. At one time, Vikings even surpass puny Grandma, as power rankers realize Vikings are greatest empire in Europe, (Other than Moops. They don’t count)

Endgame... no go very well for Ragnar. Ragnar not have best bonuses from sitting around too long, and not settle very well. Feet island, and Stupid Fredrick punch Ragnar while he distracted. Grandma came back from Russia and took cities while he not looking. Ragnar have plan though! To make new Vikings homeland in arctic! It only one city, but it survive long past other civs. Even stupid Grandma! Vikings were expected to crush puny civs around them, and Vikings definitely deliver! Vikings not win, but Vikings do pretty good job!

LonelyRS

Normally, early-game firecrackers tend to die about as messily as they lived. Take last mark’s Sparta, for instance, the leg-day-participating titans who made Eastern Europe and the Middle East their oyster before Rome had even finished falling, before being ground down by stalemates in the East before packing up and leaving one canal for another. They may rarely ever have much of a chance to win, sure, but they at the very least do guarantee entertainment from birth to death. In that respect, then, Palmyra’s turn from devourer of the Middle East to footstool of empires was rather atypical. It’s a rare day that the darling of the sub triumphs over the stone-faced supers, yes, but it’s an even rarer day that they become one.

Zenobia’s reign started out about as auspiciously as anyone could hope for, with the brutal gutting of Oman and the complete control of almost an entire region. Aggression was the order of the day, and Zenobia was nothing if not a good cook. Even with natural barriers all around her, it looked like only a matter of time before even the mightiest cities in the region were to turn a lovely shade of purple and gold. Then, next thing one knew, it was thirty parts later and all Palmyra had to show for the passage of time was a few cities in Europe and weak neighbors that, for some reason or another, they just couldn’t quite manage to kill off. Their greatest strength, complete control over the Middle East, had morphed into their greatest weakness, keeping them pinned behind natural borders they’d never quite manage to escape. Could Palmyra have created a superpower in the Fertile Crescent? Without question. Did they? No. And given how high they peaked, how well things seemed to be going for them, it’s a question as to whether anyone ever will.

Shaggy

MY BOY! I’m so proud of Benin this season. They really overperformed and played a perfect defensive civ’s game. They had the defense, the defense that they turned into offense, and the memes to wrap it all up into one lovable, nutty package. After some reluctance to settling and the appearance of a crowded Africa, Benin was initially thought of as a poor man’s Kuikuro: less iconic turtley-ness, a less imposing BBEG on their continent in Zimbabwe, and a UI that made Africa look like it had geometric turds criss-crossing the Sahara to top it off. But they made a name for themselves in the late Medival-early Renaissance era by effectively trading in their northern African cities for a large chunk of Ndongo’s lands and turning a 3-front war against stronger civs into a victory. That victory was compounded by their help in dismantling Songhai a couple parts later. Once they did their part in upending the balance of power in Africa not once, but twice, Benin did what Benin does best and ossified their borders into an impervious nut that wouldn’t crack until the sci-fi horrors of the 6th Millennium came knocking towards the end of Endgame. Give them a hand, everyone, they played a fantastic defensive game, ended up in the top 10 civs (though they ended up just shy of it in the community rankings) and came out of the game as, at least, one of my favorite civs this season.

Gragg

Will the Metis forever go down in history as the blobbiest of all blobs? Settling a metric ton of cities was certainly part of their identity. They never cracked into the top 2, but for much of the game they held the lead in raw city count. In case anyone thought it was a fluke, they promptly bulked back up in Endgame. What we don’t talk about enough is that Metis also held the top military on more than one occasion, including near the end of the main run. If it wasn’t for their eventual conqueror, the Iroquois, being next door, the Metis could have been a contender for the win this season.

Rosé

This civ’s story is just shocking and tragic given how well everything was going. Of course i cannot cover the entire history of this civ but i will do my damnest to give it the justice it deserves. Qin’s story started out with a bang, when the nation instantly destroyed Xia, hard pushed canton away, where they instantly became the ultimate dragon of china. After a while Qin just sort of stagnated reaching the point where every civ must ask the question “where the hell do I go?” Taungoo was armed to the teeth so they were an obvious no go. Nepal and the Khamugs to a lesser extent had some god awful terrain to work around, and Shikoku and Korea would mostly have to be invaded overseas and good luck getting an AI competent enough to do that. Of course there was Qing, but even that took its bloody time to do. Yet around the end of the pre-endgame era, something magical happened: Qin got competent. Within a matter of turns, Qin took out a huge portion of the Khamug core, and pushed Shikoku off the mainland like nothing happened. When endgame rolled around Qin had carved itself a path of success, and boy did they hit the ground running, quickly regaining their core and bullying Shikoku even more, but then... a disaster happened. Over the course of just one part, Qin went from the 2nd place power, to a rump state and shortly after, they vanished. Everyone was shocked at the time, especially considering that Qin was supposed to be the one to curb the power of their murderers in the Kazakhs, who sequentially took the mantel of undisputed 1st place, and we all know where that went. Qin was honestly forgotten overtime as some sort of blur that was “just another civ”(think Songhai or the Goths) except do you know what seperated Qin from the other civs that didn’t stand the test of time? They actually fought the good fight. Qin’s Legacy should be celebrated for how much it brought to the table, and remembered for what happened when Zheng flew too close to the sun.

Knot

Australia in MK2 was one of the worst civs in CBR history, so it’s easy to see why many people were unhappy to see them again in CBRX. People were expecting another boring oceania, where Australia would effortlessly eat all their neighbors, then fall into a coma while securing a spot in the final part that they didn’t deserve.

Except then something weird happened, Australia was under threat. Papua, and Murri managed to take a bunch of mainland Australia. Sea threats like Sulu, and Taungoo held dominion over the seas, and New Zealand was a giant threat just across the shore that would continue to be a thorn in Australia for most of the game. Suddenly, the assumed victor was on the back foot, and could very easily have been ended by the emerging powers surrounding them. Here, Australia defied expectation by actually fighting for their position. They pushed the Murri back, and regained their former cities. They fought for dominion over their seas. They held the line against New Zealand time and time again, and eventually pushed them all the way to South America. By the time they finally were the king of Oceania, Australia was a fan favorite. While their endgame exploits did not go as well as Taungoo kept them contained in Oceania, even in death they were still entertaining, dying to freaking Benin of all civs. In my eyes, Australia has more than made up for their paltry MK2 showing by making pre-endgame Oceania the best continent in all of CBRX. This time, Australia is worthy of a top ten finish.

Rosé

This civ was NEVER meant to do as good as it did, being stranded on the island, which was a part of a bunch of larger islands. Things were honestly not looking good for the Shikoku in the early game. Sure the civ expanded well initially and was turtling quite nicely, but they were honestly “going nowhere quickly”. That was until Shikoku annexed Korea of course and consolidated its new territory quickly, which is when things went crazy. The island nation was able to push successfully into Siberia, while also matching the naval strength of Taungoo and surpassing Hadia and for a while was looking to be a top five power, with a story very similar to their destructors in the Qin when you analyze it in all honesty (oh we will get to them). Like their destructors, Shikoku was destroyed in within a part to never return. Unlike Qin however, Shikoku barely made it to endgame, with their capital in Siberia instead of the mainland. This meant that the nation had to fight two other nations for space while Qin and the Kazakhs would expand and eventually take everything in sight. This meant that Shikoku unfortunately didn’t go out with a bang, but with a whimper. Shikoku went from being Shidoofku, to Shigoku, to Shidoofku all over again and they honestly deserved better. Good bye shikoku you will always be remembered as a fan favorite and the unthinkable underdog

Random Strategy

Taungoo rose to power during the Great Pacific War, with the complete annihilation of the glass cannon Sulu. This was a truly brilliant move because the glass cannon had just been fired upon Australia which meant 2 things. First, the cannon still needed to be reloaded which meant the high science Sulu cities were extremely vulnerable and easy to conquer. Secondly it also gave them all the Australian-settled cities in Indonesia! Such amazingly good timing! But Taungoo wasn’t done, for the other big winner of the Pacific War, New Zealand was ascendant. And Taungoo beat them at the height of their power, crushing their spirit and condemning them to an eventual defeat. Such an awesome display of power put them firmly in the 5 Great Powers of the pre-endgame world! These two incredibly significant events one after the other were not the only things Taungoo did, but they were the most important. Less important moves include Taungoo’s brutal citadelling of Nepal, then eventual eating of them post-endgame, and also a successful conquest across the Pacific. They do not end in the top 5 overall entirely because of endgame and Kazakhstan’s incredible ascendancy, while Taungoo themselves struggled to fight Australia over lands they should have owned. Though they eventually beat Australia, it was too late for them to become a superpower. Zimbabwe was their eventual doom.

Msurdej

Zimbabwe. The Big Z. The Boers Legacy. There were many names for the African civ, but winner, sadly, wasn’t one of them. Starting in southern Africa, the parallels between them and Mk2’s Boers were immediately seen, and with the conquest of Ndongo, it seemed like history would repeat itself. But in the aftermath, Zimbabwe would do very little, being a powerhouse, but never eliminating its neighbors. It took until the part before Endgame for Zimbabwe to get a kill (on Beta Israel), and they ended up losing ground to Benin at the same time. In Endgame though, they were far more  on the warpath, gaining a few kills on Maratha and perennial dark horse Taungoo. But in the end, like Kruger, it was not enough. Between the Moors and Uruguay, Mutota was pulled apart, and brought down before the end of the game. All in all, a solid game out of Zimbabwe that brings them and Africa into the Top 5.

Altima

It is hard to find a civ that benefited more from Endgame’s reset than Kaz. All of their original neighbors were suddenly nonexistent. Goths tripped over their own uselessness and thus didn’t expand, Khamungs were significantly weakened and had a very murdery Shikoku to contend with, and the Qin were just far enough away to not matter. This combined with Kaz already having a very good Voronoi from the very start of pre-E gave them the most space of any civ, which they used to snowball as hard as possible in Endgame, going from a mediocre high-tier who didn’t do anything ever to the undisputed #1 for most of Endgame. And yet they only finished fourth, slain by a civ who lost most of their more crucial (cheating-based) advantages on the reset and a civ whose Endgame bonuses teleported to the wrong side of Eurasia.

There are a dozen major mistakes that led to this. The AI randomly forgot how to Annex cities when they took over the Iroquois heartland which made it super-easy for Hiawatha to just steamroll over and reconquer their doorstep. Kaz just never rebuilt their nuclear stockpile after they spent it all on the first conquest of the Iroquois. Then there’s their overreliance on hovertanks, which was fine at first when they had the air superiority and nuclear stockpile to support it but suddenly became crippling when those two factors stopped being true. All of this and more caught defeat from the jaws of victory. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how long you sit on the throne but who sits on it when the game’s over, and it wasn’t Ablai Khan.

Knot

Uruguay was a fantastic villain in almost everything they did. Their monstrous science lead for most of Pre-Endgame made them a threat to anyone on the cylinder and naturally led to many rooting against them. This gave all their actions this menacing overtone. From their endless war against plucky underdogs the Kuikuro, to the sheer panic they instilled when they took a Ndongo city in Africa, to the wars in North America showing the expansionism of Uruguay being curbed by their rivals, the Iroquois. Uruguay played the role of archenemy well. As the game proceeded, and Endgame began, other civs caught up to Uruguay, and new villains like the Kazakhs seemed to make Uruguay feel small. Some even began to foolishly root for Uruguay to turn face and end the Kazakhs as an Anti-Hero, but the cursed sun has no morals. At the very end, they waged war against their old enemy the Iroquois, trying desperately to finally end this menace and take over NA, but failing to the heroic last stand Hiawatha made against them, and delivering Uruguay their only major loss when they took Guay’s capital. Eventually, having to recover from this, and being unable to finally crush Iroquois, among other factors, would leave the door open for the Moors to take the crown. Uruguay was one of my favorite civs across the whole game, because they were the textbook definition of memorable. If we ever see the cursed sun again, I hope it strikes the same fear in others that it struck in fans of CRBX1.

Vihreaa

Hiawatha, you madlad. The Iroquois managed to surprise us at every turn, accomplishing feats that shouldn’t be possible for a mere Civ V AI. You really shined brightest at the tail end of the CBRX saga, when your back was against the wall and you seemed to be out of options. But nevertheless, you persisted. After fighting against Kazakhstan, you peaced out for half of your empire, and seemingly everyone regarded your run as finished, but somehow you reconquered your home continent. Multiple times, and more. Let it be known that the Iroquois are the only civ to ever have flipped the Uruguayan capital, delving deep into territory that had never seen war in the several thousand years of CBRX history. It is because of this undreamt valor that the Iroquois take their seat at second on the podium, having captured not only capital cities but also the hearts of many in the sub.

Shaggy

And finally we have El Numero Uno themselves, the Iberian Instigator, and your CBRX Season 1 winners, the Moors! In a shocking finish, the Moors stood down the Kazakh Empire and picked them apart city by city until there was nary a Kazakh hovertank left. But the Moors are the true winners as a result of their fantastic play throughout the season, not just for killing CBRX S1’s final boss. Back in the Part 0 rankings before any cities had been settled, the Moors were described as “another vaguely unexpected force in the area” with a location that yielded plentiful pickings for a core, but were faulted as being “not the most warlike of civs” with concerns that the Moors wouldn’t be able to hold their own come later in the game when they would need to propel themselves into superpower status. That being said, the PRs worst fears of the Moors did not come to pass and Abd ar-Rahman III was deftly able to consume western Europe and northern Africa methodically and deliberately. Gobbling up Algeria and spearheading the fall of Songhai (which included the shell of Libya too), the Moors were able to transition from a European hopeful to a regional power. From there their kill chart grew and grew and by the end of the game included almost every European civ in the first or second tier. Come Endgame, they were the favorites to win Europe with their amazing bonuses and became the community’s last great hope to stop the seemingly unstoppable blue tide from wrapping around the cylinder. For weeks (centuries?) we watched the Kazakhs flick away civs as if they were flies while the Moors bided their time, waiting for a moment (decade?) of weakness. Nexuses in flight, they tore through Kazakh cities like paper and when the dust (and the bytes) settled, the Moors emerged as the preeminent world power with only the failures of the system they operated in to tell them that they couldn’t have the world. Congratulations Moors! You’ve earned your top spot this season and captainship of the sub for the next few millennia.