Power Rankings: Episode 33 – S2

Cloudberg:

Going into this season, most of us had low expectations for the Vandals. In past AI games their performance had ranged from mediocre to downright disastrous, and usually the latter. But Genseric defied those expectations from the very beginning. He expanded rapidly, settling numerous cities, including in Spain, and built a respectable navy. Thanks to their strong army and weak neighbors, the Vandals rose to the top ten in episode 3 and stayed there until episode 14, in large part due to their early dominance of the Atlantic. After eliminating the Tuareg in Africa, the Vandals ravaged the east coast of the Americas, settling the Caribbean and Greenland, taking the capital of Palmares, and crippling New Netherland, while advancing on a different front in Europe, capturing Madrid by episode 10. Fueling them throughout this period was a hilarious bug which gave them over 100 trade routes, although whether this bug significantly influenced their success is debatable. From this point until the end of Cycle 1, the Vandals were consistently tied or outright leading in the contest for who controlled the most capitals. At the height of their American Empire, the Vandals ruled nearly the entire coast from Labrador to Hispaniola to Trinidad and Tobago. However, from about episode 14, the Vandals found themselves on the defensive against the ascendant superpowers of Nigeria and the Marajoara, and they slowly lost land from then until the start of Cycle 2, causing them to fall from the top 10 for several episodes.

With the start of Cycle 2, however, the Vandals once again surprised everyone by doing it all a second time, even without the trade route bug helping them. They gambled early on by using their allotment of unique city-founding horsemen, granted to them at the start of the game, to spam cities throughout the Mediterranean. For an episode or so, this left them with barely any military units, and a well-timed attack could have ended them, but no attack ever came, and the gamble paid off. Now fully in control of the Mediterranean, the Vandals rapidly rose back up the ranks, reaching an all-time high of 2nd place in episode 29, by which time they had approximately recreated the borders of the Roman Empire. Their fall from grace came only at the very end, when a double invasion by the Marajoara and the USSR destroyed everything in one massive campaign. In the end, they finished 11th, just missing the top ten—but they were surely top ten in our hearts.

Random Strategy:

Betrayed. Broken. My poor Punjab...

Punjab is perhaps a unique civ in any cbr. Most competent civs start liberty for very fast settles, or honour to take advantage of other's fast poorly defended settles, with a few traditional science turtles. Punjab was different. Punjab opened piety... twice! Now, opening piety isn't unheard of, most 'instant-rumps' who fail right out of the gate opened piety. But Punjab showed what a piety civ could do. And they did it well, as they were systematically in the top 10 at almost all points and were even ranked first for a period! However (if you exclude Bhutan), Punjab was permanently surrounded by powerful civs, such as Uzbekistan or PARG. But their main rival for the whole of cycle 1 was the Chola. Their fights started right from the ancient era and carried on all the way to total war. The Chola were themselves a very powerful civ, often being in the top 10 of the stats: thus, the battles were legendary. Both civs would lose their entire military fighting for just a single city, before rebuilding and repeating the whole process. Eventually, after a lot of slow and steady grinding down, by the start of cycle 2 with much better bonuses, Punjab finally took their capital and the Chola were defeated.

But all was not well, for Punjab's ally, Malacca, decided they wanted all the spoils of the legendary conflict for themselves, and jonged Punjab to get them. Although normally a blow that severe would send a civilisation on a downwards spiral of irrelevance, Punjab was unabashed. Alongside PARG, They conquered the remains of Uzbekistan, who had failed to tech up properly in cycle 1 and were thus now weak. PARG were now also a problem, as they had not been jonged and were therefore more powerful, and eager to send citadel chains into Punjab land. Through shrewd diplomacy (ie: allying with the Chuckhi) Punjab managed to stay out of trouble. Through excellent civ management, they slowly clawed their way back up the stats, at one point even having the most technologically advanced navy of the entire cylinder! Eventually, Malacca's stranglehold was broken by the Chukchi, and Punjab had their revenge, taking back not just the ex-Cholan lands that had been stolen so long ago but also capturing the Malaccan capital to eliminate them. PARG, meanwhile, had not been as competent as Punjab on the economic front, which allowed Punjab to push them all the way back into Siberia. But betrayal befell Punjab once more. Lesotho and the Kulin, who had helped against Malacca, both decided they wanted the Cholan lands. But worst of all was the betrayal of the Chukchi, against whom Punjab could not defend. Although the Chukchi were graceful enough to let them live, Lesotho were not. They finish in 10th place. A fierce fighter until the end.

Altima

And so inevitability comes. The Gauls have been dead for a very long time, but now, barring bizarre resurrections during the Total War, they’ve finally been buried. And what do we have to say of them, a top ten civ? Well, they go to the grave with more of a body count than their performance this Cycle would indicate, having eliminated Wales, Spain, and Finland. Alas, past a certain point in Cycle One, the strength of their German and Vandalii neighbors sapped their confidence, and the success of the insane Vandalii Gambit in Cycle Two crippled their expansion opportunities. Still, they outlive many hated rivals, including both the civs who had halted them so. There’s a victory in that.

Vihreaa

The Dene finally met their end this part, wrapping up the game finishing in 8th place. The Dene were a mid to upper tier power for most of the game, outperforming most of the power rankers’ expectations. With a all time highest ranking of 4th in episode 22, and lowest all time ranking of 52nd in episode 0, it is safe to say that the Dene exceeded our expectations. They found themselves as a solidly powerful regional power in North America, and only started to meet their demise in the face of the force that is the Chukchi. In my opinion, one of the more entertaining North American civs from this royale.

Msurdej  It looked for a second that we’d be pressing the F key for ol’ Kolchak. But by the skin of their teeth, the PARG manage to squeak out of elimination. Sure they’ll almost certainly die in Total War, but for them to make it to this point is an achievement all on its own. Especially since they could have been crushed like so many before them in this part.

Vihreaa

Rio Grande makes it to Total War by just a hair, and will certainly be eliminated almost immediately. Sandwiched between The Chukchi and Maraojara, they will likely be eliminated by whoever takes their turn first. Becoming something of a villain in cycle 1 of the CBRX2, Rio Grande took advantage of a bug in the game that gave their cities extremely high levels of defense, essentially preventing their core from being captured. Many people were concerned that this would lead to them becoming overly dominant in cycle 2, but the gamerunners made sure to take that into account. Their performance in cycle 2 was nothing too out of the ordinary, becoming a regional power without causing really any upsets.

Msurdej  We mock the thing we are to be. Lenin made a big splash two episodes ago when he swallowed Germany whole. Now this part saw him being on the receiving end of such a thrashing. Unlike Wilhelm though, Lenin managed to buy himself a little more time, ending the part with only three paltry cities. If they’re extremely lucky, the USSR might live two turns into Total War. But while they may not be taking home the gold, Lenin can take solace in (probably) getting into the Top 5.

Cloudberg:

Lesotho controls most of Africa, a large chunk of the Middle East, and parts of India, going into total war as the clear third largest civ. So why are they in fourth place, you ask? Well, the problem is that Lesotho barely has an army. Their lands are wide open and there is a wall of Chukchi Nexuses sitting on the border, ready to crush Moshoeshoe into a fine powder the moment total war is declared. That’s not to mention that they share a significant and equally unguarded border with the Marajoara as well. We therefore think Lesotho is going to be steamrolled so quickly that someone else will finish ahead of them...

Cloudberg:

The Kulin reach their second highest rank yet, and highest in cycle 2, joining the big boys—wait, no, hang on. Actually,  we put Kulin third because we think they will be the last to be killed by the Marajoara or the Chukchi. Fortress Australia and all that, you know? But let’s be clear: only the top two have any chance of winning. So let’s get on to them, shall we?

Cloudberg:

After returning to first place for a single episode, P’kuee falls back to second despite conquering large swathes of Europe and Africa. This was an impressive showing, to be sure, but the Chukchi were also on the move this episode, consolidating nearly all of Asia under their control. More importantly, the Marajoara have fewer Nexuses—the most powerful unit in the game—than the Chukchi do. Could Marajoara still win it all? Absolutely. But based on the positioning of units going into total war, we believe the Chukchi will likely take much of Europe and Africa in the initial push, while the Marajoara drive the Chukchi out of North America, leaving the latter in control of the old world and the former in control of the new. Now, we could be totally wrong about that, but that’s the most likely scenario. And if it reaches that point, I’d have to give the odds to the Chukchi, but even so it would be far from a done deal.

Altima

Lawtiliwadlin’s fall from the throne was short-lived. Having wisely used the time remaining to build up a massive Nexus armada and annex most of continental Asia, he has more than fixed his prior weakness of a weak land army. Now he goes into Total War with a massive military on land, sea, and in the sky. Lesotho lands are entirely open to him, as Moshoeshoe has forgotten to build up his own army to any degree, and the Pacific front still favors his massive navy. With such a massive buildup, every power ranker has given him the #1 slot, but take heed- the race is not yet run. P’kuee still stands more than capable of contesting him with her own sprawling, carpeting military. This is a fight that could go either way, but the Chukchi look to have the best odds out of anyone.