Power Rankings: Episode 30 – S2

Random Strategy:

Finland have gone missing again; I cant seem to find them anywhere. Oh well, they tend to do that; I'm sure they'll show up later. Sadly, Finland are actually dead this time. They were most famous for doing absolutely nothing in cycle 1. Not just doing nothing interesting: actually nothing full stop. They declared 1 war in the ancient era and that was it, and after that it was staying so completely still that nobody would notice them. During total war, they were teched up enough that they could defeat the Uzbek colony that used to be Sweden and this allowed them to survive to cycle 2. This time round they did try to expand and be good but were immediately slaughtered by the USSR; slaughtered all the way down to just the city of Turku, which then got citadelled down to a 2 pop 1 tile village that didn't even show up on the map. But the Gauls noticed it anyway and this part they simply took it without much trouble.

Lacsirax:Death has been a long time coming for Nigeria, and they’ve already essentially been eulogized both in these rankings and in the episode itself, so I won’t spend hours repeating everything you already know about them. They grew big and now they’re dead. More interesting is the void of power they leave in central Africa, already a hotspot of conflict between the established Vandals and sudden threat Lesotho. Really though, it felt like Nigeria was the African nation that had a shot at victory. Their sudden demise might have rendered the whole continent as a mere stepping stone for another nearby superpower.

Vihreaa:

The Gauls have an absolutely massive episode in terms of gain, increasing their total city count by 50% in a single part! If they continue increasing their city count at this rate, they’ll be a shoe in for the win! I would say unfortunately for them, though, that there are actually no other single tile empires left to conquer, which may make taking cities that actually have defenses a bit more difficult…

Rosé:

Dene has flown under the radar for the past couple parts, and given the fact that the global superpower is on their border, that’s kinda a good thing. The one thing that I could see that Dene maybe could do is push the relatively empty North American front back to the mounts but other than that, Dene is basically just a flimsy wall.

Random Strategy

Germany is extremely outmatched in its fight against the USSR and the Vandals. Decades of poor tech has left them severely outmatched, and there aren't any more random rumps scattered around to declare war on to obtain their trademark crazy production boost. Germany could easily have lost everything this war but by some miracle, the USSR had mercy and made peace. Now what's next? Well nothing much has changed really, so the most likely outcome for Germany is still for the USSR to wake up (again) and actually finish the job this time.

Random Strategy:

This part, the Kulin finally declare war on the Vandals to take out all their unprotected Pacific colonies. This should have been done ages ago: there are so many cities there that are so easy to capture; you only need about 2 units to do so. There's just 1 tiny little problem: they declared war alongside Marajoara, and Marajoara ended up taking ALL the cities. Not even 1 was left over for the poor Kulin. This is bad: those cities were an excellent expansion opportunity and now they're not. Though Kulin do have an alternate plan going for them: tech, in which they are now second. What's more the techs they have chosen are heavily naval focussed, meaning that the Kulin can build the cylinder's most advanced navy wth submarines, marines and carriers with actual planes on them, mass produced using brand new solar and tidal plants. With such a navy, they could rampage around the pacific and defeat much larger civs. Though to do so, that does require them to actually BUILD the navy, something which they are currently procrastinating.

Lacsirax: Mmm, not a busy part for PARG - one last minute war against a Vandal nation that you only share a tiny land border with doesn’t really constitute getting involved. On the face of it, that’s great for All-Russia, because heaven knows with their current core a war with the Soviets or the Chukchi wouldn’t last long. And a long period of peace is a great opportunity to rebuild… but Kolchak’s having none of that, and his core stays as empty and underteched as it appeared last episode. He’s skating on the thinnest layer of ice imaginable.

Msurdej  

Things are starting to look grim for ol’ Antonio.  While they’ve lost a few cities in the war with Marajoara, the cracks are starting to show. Rio Grande’s army is falling apart, having fallen out of the Top 10 military powers and lagging behind in tech. Meanwhile their opponent has the largest army and has reached the Information age. Rosillo needs to make peace ASAP so he can recuperate as he’s in no position to fight Marajoara. And if the Chukchi were to join in...

Msurdej  

Punjab had a relatively successful part this week, despite not gaining any ranks.  The capture of Andijan was a quick an easy victory, thanks to their UU rifleman and artillery. But what lies in store for the folks in orange is anyone’s guess, with how weak the Vandals have become, how naval focus Malacca is, and the mountains between Punjab and PARG.

Vihreaa:

The Vandals this episode have reminded us that they are disproportionately a naval empire. With wresting control of the Mediterranean, they no doubt have a strong navy, and their takeover of Nigeria last episode could fool some into thinking their army is just as strong, but most of their gains acquired from Nigeria being captured by Lesotho just this part shows that the Vandals still have some gaping holes in their road to victory in the CBRX.

Cloudberg:

Lesotho surges three ranks upward, a huge gain at this stage of the game, on the heels of their extraordinary blitz of Africa. Nigeria has fallen already and the Vandals’ inland cities are crumbling, unable to halt Lesotho’s advance. Where will it stop? Nobody knows. All we know is that we’re witnessing the rise of a dark horse in Africa, and at this point we like their chances more than those of the Vandals.

Vihreaa:

What should have been an easy war against a much weaker empire turned into a meat grinder for our beloved USSR. While having a bigger base of production, the Soviets were unable to push into German territory this part, but at least were able to prevent that much German gains. With a re-carpeted empire, the USSR should be able to conquer Germany with superior teched units.

Cloudberg:

After another episode of mixed results in their war against Lesotho, we’re really not sure what to do with Malacca. They have a huge navy, but so do the Chukchi, and if Mansur Shah sends too much of his fleet elsewhere, he could suddenly find a lot of his cities changing color. On the other hand, Kulin is weaker now than it has ever been, and all of Australia could belong to Malacca whenever Mansur Shah decides it’s time. So Malacca’s future depends heavily on what they do in this upcoming episode—will they keep expanding against their weak neighbors, or continue to sit by as other civs become stronger?

Lacsirax: The Marajoara are gradually closing in on the top spot. By any statistical metric, they’d already be there - they’re a whole five techs ahead of second-placed Punjab, and their military score is absolutely ballooning as a result of that technological advantage. Their core is full of paratroopers, arguably the greatest unit class to build en masse. The issue is this isn’t converting into any meaningful gains, and that’s not for lack of trying. P’kuee has been throwing everything at Rio Grande for two whole episodes, and has also tried to bite at the Vandals (remember Brazil’s dominance in Mk. 2 started with a paradropped invasion of Africa). Yet they’ve very little to show for their efforts. Part of that is down to their consistently neglected navy, which did manage to sweep up the Pacific Ocean of Vandal outliers, but has achieved very little on the fronts that matter. When their main rivals Malacca and the Chukchi boast naval fleets that resemble waterborne Mongol hordes, that’s a concern. Still, statistical leads can sometimes take a while to properly manifest on the battlefield, so we’ll cut the Marajoara some slack here and give them a tentative thumbs up.

Rosé:

Chukchi had a relatively slow part this time around, and that’s on given how far ahead of the competition they are. The most notable thing was definitely the naval spam between them and Malacca. Which actually screws both them and anyone on the pacific over (damn must suck to be Kulin). When war eventually does break out, I entirely expect Chukchi to kick Malacca off the mainland, then proceed in failing to dock in Indonesia.