Power Rankings: Episode 5 – S2

Lacsirax:Panig! Panig! Panig! O Dduw, sut wnaethon ni golli ein hymerodraeth gyfan mor gyflym? Roeddwn i'n meddwl ein bod ni'n gwneud yn iawn! Pwy oedd yn amddiffyn Caerdydd? Pam nad oedd gennym ni unrhyw longau? A oes unrhyw siawns y byddwn yn dal gafael yn Iwerddon? O dduw, dwi ddim eisiau mynd i'r llong danfor. Mae mor gyfyng yno. Mae'n debyg bod pawb yno yn yfed te aromatig o Moroco. Neu efallai eu bod i gyd yn hoff o garnifal. Neu Mesopotamiaid? Mae'n fath o aneglur. Ta waeth, dwi'n betio na fyddan nhw'n gadael i ni gael corau llais gwrywaidd anhygoel o uchel. Mae'n debyg nad oes ganddyn nhw Eistedfodd hyd yn oed! O dduw, fydd dim lle i chwarae rygbi! Os gwelwch yn dda Vercingetorix, gadewch inni fyw yn Iwerddon! Rydym yn addo peidio â thrafferthu chi byth eto!

Random Strategy:After a terribly costly war against Malacca that cost them Hai Phong and drained their military, Vietnam finally made pace. But immediately the worst thing happened: sensing weakness, a massive coalition all declared war on Vietnam, including their terrifying large neighbour Taiping. Taiping have just captured the Vietnamese capital, leaving Vietnam as but a city state...  Their only chance at survival is a quick peace deal. Place your bets as to whether they, Wales or someone else will be the first eliminated!

Knot:

Shock of all shocks: Anangu lost the war with Kulin! Who could have predicted the civ that sent 90% of their entire army directly into the sea, and then didn’t build anything to replace it would lose to the civ with better production, more cities, and an army that wasn’t sent to go find Atlantis? What an unforeseen outcome.

Anangu was granted a stay of execution as they sued for peace right before their final city was turned into firewood, so they may live as a rump for a while yet. Maybe during that time, their army will return with sea shanties and trinkets that will comfort the people during this trying time.

Lacsirax:

All you wiseguys who bought stocks in the Teutons, trusting they’d rise through the ranks as other civs were devoured as a blissfully peaceful rump state - well, the climb begins. The T-Order rejoined the two city club a couple episodes ago, but now it actually means something, as three civs fell to one city this week. But don’t take this little inflation as a source of false security - von Salza’s beleaguered kingdom is as vulnerable as it was before, especially with Germany and the Soviets only growing in power. Sure, they have two cities - but Wales had four at the start of this episode, and we all saw how that’s going. It would only take one episode, one unlucky war for everything to come crumbling down.

Vihreaa:

Peru Bolivia rise in the ranks purely because other civs are now in worse positions than they are, rising to the 57th position. Not one that is enviable by any means, but there are certainly civs in worse positions. With a relatively weak South America compared to the rest of the world and previous games, Peru-Bolivia may manage to surprise us all and hold on for an unreasonably long amount of time. Lets not forget that Madagascar finished 6th place in terms of elimination in the CBRX 1.

Msurdej:Good news Tuareg fans, the predicted death you expected from last Power Rankings did not come to pass! Sure, you may have momentarily lost your capital, but you got it back! Sure, your army is in shambles, but the Burkina Faso offense seems to have slowed down. Sure the Vandals could wipe you off the map, but they seem more focused on Spain at the moment. So yes Tuaregs, you may be on your last legs, but unlike civs such as Vietnam and Wales, you still have legs.

Altima:

A bad time for the Bears. You could argue that every part thus far has been a bad time for them, but this is especially bad. They’re down to four cities (one of them a front-line settle!), still surrounded by hateful neighbors, still at war with the Mississippi, who have easy access to two of their cities. Once they breach that line, there’s little that can stop them from just punching through to the Affiliate core. If you want to bet on our next kill after the Welsh, The Three Tribes aren’t a bad call.

Knot:

In the war between Hejaz and Somalia, the odds were probably against Somalia doing much of anything, but they actually look poised to come out of this war with a city. That’s kinda interesting just because Hejaz outpaces Somalia in every way. It’s a bit like an underdog taking down a presumed champion except the war is between Somalia, who is terrible; and Hejaz, who is also kinda terrible, so it’s more like a terrible civ taking down a slightly less terrible civ, and that’s not nearly as exciting.

Knot

I am sorry to remind everyone that Jamaica continues to be terrible. If you wanted to live in the world of Part 1 Jamaica when stonks were high, and morale was exploding for them, and not the Part 5 Jamaica where they give away one of their increasingly few cities when they had absolutely no reason to do so, well I’m sorry I shattered the illusion. I guess next time I’ll put a flashy sign before their write-up.

JMAngelo67:Ah hell, I actually have to write about these guys? Whatever. The Neutral Nation jumps up by an astounding FOUR spots! They are still in the bottom 10, but progress is progress! The Neutral Nation’s jump is heavily connected to them doubling their city count from 2 to 4! They did this after settling their third city (which is technically their fourth, but their original third settle was taken by Iceland last Episode. Go figure), and then by attacking Mississippi and taking a city from them. That conquest is shocking, as the PR Team generally agrees that Mississippi is still the top dog in North America.

I wouldn’t put much stock in the Neutrals for riding this high, as they are still the second smallest civilization on the continent. The only reason in my humble opinion that they jumped so high was because they aren’t doing as poorly as the eight civilizations below them.

Reformer:

Hawaii accomplishes another small rise in the ranks as rankers begin to realize they aren’t dying any time soon...oh, you mean there were three civs that fell past Hawaii like sacks of stones? TAT, Wales, Anangu...looks like a fair many bottom-feeders made a small climb on account of the triple fall, though Anangu didn’t have far left to fall. With Hawaii’s rank change mostly accounted for by other civs falling even lower, everything makes a lot more sense: Not much changed in Oceania. Hawaii settled no cities, but neither did Tahiti, at least. On the other hand, powers on the coasts of the Pacific have begun to creep forward. VOC has settled Sulawesi. Gran Colombia has settled Galapagos. Taiping has settled northern Luzon, ready to settle further south. And Japan and Kulin have sent settlers further into Oceania, ready to settle the various islands that Hawaii and Tahiti have left untouched. This spread of influence from the edge of the vast ocean is but the beginning - after settlers, come soldiers, and Hawaii is hardly prepared to fight the likes of Taiping and Japan...

Rosé:

Jerusalem continues to be a rump nation in an area already filled to the brim with rump nations. Unlike other doomed nations however, Jerusalem at the very least has more than one city, which may actually be kind of a detriment. See one of the reasons that some rumps tend to live longer than anyone expected (or wanted) is that rumps provide minimal value for their warmonger penalty. Killing rump states is a real easy way for a nation to ramp up warmonger penalties, so the AI just tries to avoid them until they really have to take a city. However, Jerusalem gives off a smaller warmonger penalty because they have four cities instead of the optimal one. Congratulations Jerusalem, you cant even be a rump properly.

Cloudberg:

The Dutch East India Company breaks out of the 50s for the first time ever! By my calculations, if they continue to rise at their average rate so far, they’ll be first by episode 33, so you should really be quite alarmed.

In all seriousness though, VOC is rising because others are falling. Jan Coen’s modest settlements are good, but he’s rapidly running out of room as Taiping (and others) move to fill in what remains of oceanic Southeast Asia. Even if he does manage to settler more cities, they will be disconnected from the capital due to the big blue blob that is Malacca. So the question is how long VOC can continue to rise before the other shoe drops.

LonelyRS

On the one hand: Yes, Pontianak is probably one of the most horrifyingly defensible settlements on the cylinder for civs without a port city, so it’s not really too much of a surprise that all Laos’ elephants and all Laos’ men couldn’t drag their nation back to relevance again. On the other, though: So disappointing. Laos may seem destined to outlive their crimson-hued neighbors at this point, but their odds of outliving just about anybody else are grim, being a landlocked five city minor state crumbling under the weight of the joint Malacca/Taiping nutcracker. Taking, and more importantly keeping, Pontianak might not have helped much with that goal, given that Chola’s presence renders their current lack of coastal cities have proven more blessing than curse, but it could have at least improved their prospects in the short-term, handing them a forward base they could use to strike back at their scarier neighbors should they start flagging and a boost to their industries should they want to get anything out of Bhutan the next time the two civs come to blows. But instead, they whiffed on the best chance they’ve had in a while to make something of themselves, and are left with no recourse but to wait on their AI’s cooling back down to VOC to try again. Such a waste.

Msurdej:Tahiti continues to be a rather boring civ, despite all attempts to be exciting. War with Hawaii? Goes nowhere. The capacity for settling around the entire Pacific? Only four cities. So why does Purea get a bump this week? The answer is simple:Boring is better than burning

Msurdej:Speaking of boring, check out the Olmecs. Sure they managed to grab the city of Portmore, but with how weak Jamaica is, they could’ve taken UPWARDS of one city. But that’s not the worst of it. Rio Grande has moved in from the north, and Gran Colombia from the south, leaving U Kix Chan basically landlocked. If the Olmecs want to get out now, they’re going to have to fight. And considering how their fight against Jamaica went...the odds don’t look good for them.

LonelyRS

Oh, how the turn tables. Flash back to the start of the mark, if you will: Yuan had just declared the game’s first war, against the noble Manchu, failing to take anything but kicking their neighbors directly into a downward spiral from which they never returned. And then cast your gaze over to now, after a part in which a resurgent Manchu army crossed the Korean Gulf with force, knocking on the castle walls of a penniless Kublai Khan. “Who’s laughing now,” you can almost hear Nurhaci say, as his embarked troops begin to scale Ganzhou’s walls. Just, ah, ignore the fact that Nurhaci failed to take a single city. Or much of anything, really, though the Yuan are still broke, so at least the Manchu have that going for them. Really, this modest rise is more down to the golden opportunity presented to the Manchu than anything else, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to turn the tables on their eternal tormentors and see how Yuan likes being irrelevant, for a change. Just, um, pray they don’t try embarking their entire armed forces again.

LonelyRS

Productive part for Perm! Well, in a vacuum, maybe. Two new city settles are always something to celebrate when your empire’s so small as to be largely inconsequential, even if one seems to have largely been settled to prevent the Georgian Flanking Team from getting an even greater stranglehold on the meager empire and the second marks Perm’s third venture into the inhospitable Siberian wastes. If one didn’t know any better, they might think the Russias’ whipping boys have mistaken themselves for the Inuit. Though, at this point, their fascination with the snow may be more indicative of a lack of options than anything else: as their scarier neighbors blob out at exponential rates in a mad rush to become even more scary, Perm is left with nothing but barren snow and mildly-less-barren tundra in their wakes. Perm might get ten cities, or twelve, or even fifteen - but so long as they only have five that are any good, the difference should remain only academic.

JMAngelo67:Zanzibar is starting to catch up with cities, but it is certainly too little too late. Lesotho has already settled THREE cities on Madagascar to Zanzibar’s one. This is a travesty for a civilization that had the entire island open to them for four whole episodes. Getting a fourth city is nice, but it’s pitiful in the long run.

Zanzibar’s core cities are still strong, though. I won’t count them out just yet in terms of expansion opportunities, as I adamantly believe that Zanzibar could steamroll Somalia if they started putting production towards troops.

We learned this episode that the people of Zanzibar are advanced in Tech compared to most civilizations and are pretty happy all things considered. This doesn’t mean much, but it’s the small victories for Zanzibar at the moment. That minor tech lead above the average is not going to mean much for long, as Zanzibar currently has an empty treasury and are not gaining gold. This means that their tech is stagnating (similar to Hejaz).

Rosé:

Namibia enjoyed another silent part of doing nothing, receiving no mentions this part.This is actually good for the civ as any hostile action will set off alarms in Lesotho and Zaire, aka two actually competent powers. Unlike some civs however cough Zanzibar Namibia can actually take a city off of Lesotho when they need to (which is nice).

JMAngelo67:Oh. My. God Carlos! You are getting your ass kicked! You’re at war with almost all of your major neighbours! The Vandals are at your doorstep and are conquering Iberia! Wales, the last place civilization, almost took Valencia and you only kept it because Vercingetorix blitzed the Isles!

We thought you were disappointing when you failed to take Brittany, but this is a whole other level!

Look at your son Ferdinand! He is doing so much better than you! He is at war with Germany and is attacking you! You are a failure, Carlos! Get your act together, Carlos!(Imagine a mother scolding Carlos. That’s the vibe)

Altima:

Kurdistan still exists, despite the footage arguing otherwise.

Reformer:

I’m going to give it you straight: Gran Colombia isn’t looking too good. Well, actually, they’re looking a lot better than they did at the start, but tell me, is that a real feat? No? Didn’t think so. Gran Colombia’s stats are still god-awful (though, again, slowly improving), and their position isn’t getting much better. Au contraire, With Jamaica slowly falling to the Olmecs of all civs, Gran Colombia is coming closer and closer to losing the only neighbour they could ever dream of attacking. Marajoara, though mediocre at best, is notably four techs above Gran Colombia. Olmecs meanwhile hold naval dominance against Gran Colombia, and Peru-Bolivia is simply too far away to realistically fight, especially with Paraguay beginning to fill out the empty space between the two. Even the Caribbean is starting to fill out, with New Netherlander and Palmarista settlements popping up on the islands. If there ever were possible paths to success for Gran Colombia, they are now gone or about to be.  

Cloudberg:

Tongva has, on average, risen just under 2 places every episode, and this pattern shows no sign of slowing as Toypurina claws her way up to a personal best of 38th. Tongva’s secret for steady, consistent growth? Sleepiness! Tongva didn’t even appear in any scenes this episode, which is a slight positive considering what happened to some of the civs that got a lot of screentime (looking at you, Anangu and Wales). That said, it’s not clear where Tongva goes from here, as they only have two neighbors which are both stronger than them. Maybe rush frigatests and invade Hawaii?

Altima:

The Horn War continues betwixt Hejaz and Somalia, and somehow, despite Somalia being as pathetic as you can be without being the Republic of Amata, the Hejaz are losing a city in it. C’est la vie. While they look to replace the lost city, and may even long term be able to retake it, losing a city to Somalia of all Civs is a pretty sour note for a civ that isn’t even that good to begin with.

Knot:

The higher that the stars of Taping and Northern Yuan rise (spoilers), the more Yuan’s star looks like it’s going to fall. I actually ranked Yuan higher than anyone else because they have decent stats and a little bit of room to expand, but even I can’t ignore that they share a border with two top tier powers, and they can’t even finish off Manchu. I would guess the most likely outcome is that Yuan stays here for a while while the civs around them continue to grow, though I would still keep my eye on them. Their window of opportunity is closing, but it’s not quite closed yet.

LonelyRS

Sweden declared war on the Teutons not too long ago, in an apparent attempt to wipe the runt of the CBRX2 litter off the map for good. In response, apparently emboldened by whatever good was left in their hearts, Germany declared war on their northern neighbors, and proceeded to, using the forward base of Gothenburg, besiege the Scandinavian speak. As we speak, thousands lay dead in the forests outside Gothenburg and the waters outside Malmo, the epicenters of the fighting.

I tell you that to contrast with this: currently, Finland’s only active war is with Northern Yuan, a meaningless declaration that was more likely the result of considerable social pressure than any legitimate bloodlust.

Finland is not without its virtues. It’s got more than enough science to tread water in Europe, for one, and an uncommonly large military for a civ of its prestige, for another. But all of that is meaningless if it never sees any use. And compared to its neighbors and peers, who have gotten embroiled in countless rises and falls and wars and peaces over the mere 150 turns that have passed so far, their playstyle has been startlingly conservative. Maybe, as some say, they’ve the best shot of any civ of taking down Sweden, clear inheritors of their Nordic legacy. Maybe they’re destined to be nothing more than worm food for the powerful USSR. But until we see Finland put its power into practice, until we see Mannerheim backed into a corner and forced to act, all this will remain nothing more than idle speculation.

Reformer:Whether by miracle, or through competence, Kosovo has managed to retain the capital of the realm, Pristina. Though the invaders are gone, the Sack of Pristina is a grave reminder of what has happened. The city is but a husk of its former self, its grandiosity reduced to ashes. Still, to retain the city in the end is a testament to the tenacity of these people, to their persistence, to their unwillingness to surrender. Certainly, it has left the civ wounded, but far from crippled. With some effort, Kosovo could rebuild enough to take a shot at Jerusalem, and from there, the rest of the vulnerable Middle Eastern civs. But it is not an easy path - every other direction has stronger foes, all ready and willing to take cities off of the limping Kosovo. Be careful out there!

Msurdej:Well Sweden, this is your crossroads of destiny. You are at war with germany yet again.Gothenburg is able to be retaken, though Malmo could also be lost. Will Karl XII show himself to the successor to Gustavus Adolphus and become the new Lion of the North? Or will he fail, and be ridiculed as the Catboi who lost the North? While it seems unlikely Sweden will retake Gothenburg, if Karl plays his cards right, he can restore his honor and prove himself.

Cloudberg:

Georgia continues to hover near the middle of the rankings due to our uncertainty over what to make of them. That having been said, they are out of room to found new cities, even in Central Asia, and it’s not clear where they go from here. Most of their neighbors are stronger than them, except Kurdistan, and even then it would be hard to attack the Kurds due to an abundance of mountains. Georgia’s far-flung colonies also mean that they can’t count on being able to turtle in the Caucasus until the end of the game. So is it possible Georgia has peaked? We could still be proven wrong, but I’m inclined to say yes.

JMAngelo67:Another episode rolls around and still Japan haven’t settled all of Japan! Though they jumped two ranks this episode, I theorize that it’s more due to the failures of other middle of the pack civilizations than the successes of Japan. They lost a city to North Yuan, are still constantly threatened by ALL of their neighbours (including the 45th ranked Manchu) and have their empire divided into two barely defensible positions. Unlike other civilizations that could generally thrive with exclaves, Japan does not have a strong enough core to excuse one.

Random Strategy

Bhutan have their edges slightly nibbled on by Taiping and Yuan - a sign they might have overextended slightly in leaving the safety of the mountains. On the plus side, they managed to survive a Punjab right to their core without taking any damage so that's nice. They're a medium sized civ surrounded by massive civs, so pretty midtier. They aren't powerful enough to have much hope of breaking out (peacekeepers excluded), but are large enough to keep up in science reasonably well; this, combined with their mountains, will make them a pretty good turtle that is likely to survive for a long long time - pretty much what we expected of them from the start.

Random Strategy

Iceland drops due to two major blows. The first is the loss of Mosfellsbær, their main american colony, to the new netherlands. This city was their best hope at establishing a transatlantic empire, and with its loss, all that remains are small icy villages of no great importance. The second is the destruction of Wales by the Gauls, as well as the Gauls settling the remainder of britain. Wales was one of the main expansion options for iceland: they could have imitated CBR2 Iceland to take hold of the isles and gained power that way. However, this is not to be; and the Gauls will be much harder to displace. Iceland are left with very few options; and now even Germany and Sweden are grabbing islands that should have been theirs had they continued settling.

Altima

Slight rise for the Chola as the Cylinder shakes and turns, but make no mistake, the Chola are still overshadowed by the domineering Punjab, who block them off at every turn and deny them any land routes out of India. In theory, they could still navally invade Hejaz, who are terrible enough for a trireme invasion to theoretically succeed. To their credit, they’re even working on the Compass, which will give them real boats! It’s still a faint hope, and if the Punjab decide to roll over them in the middle of that invasion, well, I’d look to the Anangu for an example.

Random Strategy

They might not have the biggest empire, or the highest population, or the largest production, or the most science in south america, but Paraguay does have something the other south american civs don't... the biggest army! Hell yeah! Now Solano Lopez just has to use it to murder some fools! I notice Paraguay’s war list is currently empty which is not what you want if your only advantage over your competitors is your gigantic army. And also try not to throw it all away into the jungle or the ocean as *certain* civs are known to have done.

JMAngelo67:

The Dene are pulling a quasi-Somalia esque move right now. They are so worried about their other neighbours that they are allowing their more worrying neighbours to grow. The Dene are at war with Gran Colombia which is… Silly. Meanwhile the Chinook are tearing apart the runt of the North American pack, Three Affiliated Tribes. Thandelathur surprised us early on with a quick conquest on TAT, but they have not capitalized on that victory since. Though the Chinook’s Easternmost city is mostly cut off by mountains and could be an easy target for the Dene and their Westernmost city was stormed by the Frozen Menace, The Dene have yet to press the advantage, and will likely lose that advantage as our favourite fishermen continue to coast ahead of them.

Lacsirax:

Last episode was the kind of super-volatile episode where you could pick up a handful of ranks just for staying out of the way. And that’s what’s happened for Rio Grande, who didn’t even appear on camera this week. Mississippi turned towards the more vulnerable rival of TAT, the Chinook got caught up fighting a fruitless war with the Dene, the Olmecs invaded Jamaica and the Tongva… the Tongva. So Rosillo got a lovely chance to put his feet up, plant a couple more cities down including one very close to the Olmec capital, and bolster his production to a decent level for the continent. But I can’t ignore their tech level, which is lower than all their bordering states, even the Olmecs. That needs urgently improving, because as cool as cowboys are, they’re not going to be much use against tanks.

Vihreaa:

After a rather quiet episode from the Mapuche, they manage to creep up the rankings from 30th to 24th. Certainly not their peak of 8th place, but an improvement nevertheless. There is something concerning that our eagle eyed viewers may be taking into account though, specifically the green colored growth that they are seeing on their eastern border. As an unlicensed and untrained medical unprofessional, I would recommend they look into removing that as soon as possible.

Lacsirax:

You’d be forgiven for thinking P’kuee did very little this episode. Oh, simple viewers! Only the most keen-eyed of viewers would have noticed the huge leaps and bounds the Marajoara took last week, perfectly justifying their leap in the rankings. For example, they constructed the Hagia Sophia - a building so good it’s been a cathedral, a museum and a mosque. That’s three buildings for the price of one, baby!

Okay, so the Marajoara’s increase is probably just statistical noise, but if there’s any logic to it, it’s probably because Palmares had a pretty mediocre week, and that’s still their only major threat. Their only major statistical advantage over their neighbours is in science - neat, but not enough to overcome their production shortcomings and the simple fact that they’re only sitting on five cities. We’ll need to see a lot more from them next episode if they’re to keep climbing.

Random Strategy

With the capture of Mosfellsbær, Iceland's main american colony, New Netherlands have secured the east coast for themselves. Well technically there are still the Neutrals but they hardly count. This is extremely good news because that Icelandic colony could have been a problem as it could have allowed Iceland to conquer the Neutrals and grab the entirety of east canada - a large enough region to pose a threat to new Netherlands. But no longer! This victory did cost New Netherlands the city of Staten Eylant, but Staten Eylant was a small icy city of no great importance, so the trade was well in New Netherlands favour. With the eastern threat from across the sea dealt with, the main one remaining is the Mississippi. Luckily New Netherlands are protected by the Appalanchians and are currently settling down into the Carribean to try and even the city count.

JMAngelo67:

Two Sicilies drops considerably this part. Despite sniping the Kosovar capital for a brief period of time and holding hegemony in the Balkans and Greece, Germany decided enough was enough and blasted Two Sicilies’ Balkan holdings.

Kosovo regained their capital, and although Two Sicilies’ softest neighbour has been crippled, this is a major setback. Combine this with an ongoing war with both their most militaristic neighbour, a tenuous border with the ever growing Gauls, and then a distraction from a war with Spain in the West, this potentially brings Ferdinand’s time as a rival power in Europe to a close… For now.

Cloudberg:

Palmares hold on to their current spot as the highest rated civ in South America (yeah, that’s how bad South America is, their top rated civ is in 20th). But there are signs of a shakeup soon. Palmares’ far-flung colonies are becoming increasingly difficult to defend, and if someone were to take them, Palmares would quickly lose their stats lead over other South American civs. Furthermore, they proved unable to take any cities from Paraguay, and only just barely managed to beat back a Paraguayan counterattack. And with Mapuche filling out their space and Paraguay carpeting their lands with units, it’s easy to imagine that a bit of shuffling could soon occur in the South American hierarchy.

Rosé:

“To the general receiving this message: this is your president Thomas Sankara here, coming to politely ask you why have you not obliterated the Tauregs yet. It has been decades and you haven‘t even managed to to permanently secure the capital. Their army is like one fifth the size of ours, some members of which are not even manning the front line. The neighbors are laughing at us, with Nigeria saying “how the fuck are you losing its a 1 pop city omega lul” and the Vandals’s publicly stating “Burknia Faso, more like Burknia failso. I am giving you 20 more years to take and secure the capital, failure to do so will result in you being released from the army, and executed for your failures.”

Signed: T. Sankara

Knot:

My goodness, Africa is stacked this season. Here we have Lesotho, statistically very solid with a good core of cities, no land borders with any particularly scary civs, and two very tasty neighbors in Namibia and Zanzibar that they can prey upon at any time and yet we still only ranked them the 5th best power in Africa right now. If you were to complain about Lesotho, it would only be in so far as they don’t look quite as scary as the other civs in Africa above them, but a lime colored Africa is absolutely not out of the question.

Vihreaa:

Nigeria settles in a strong 17th place this part, up one place from the last. Being in 17th out of 61 civs is a fortunate place to be in, but what is unfortunate is that they’re still only the 4th strongest civ in Africa with that rank, with both Lesotho and Burkina Faso right on their tail. With such an evenly balanced continent, Africa could be one of the more interesting continents to be watching this game, as it is plausible for almost any of them to come out on top, if they play their cards right.

LonelyRS

Credit where credit’s due: Comcomly made a hell of a stand against numerically superior foes this part. Facing down against all but one of your neighbors, one of whom is a top ten civ, and still getting out of the part having taken as many cities as you’ve lost? Impressive, really. But then, that’s sort of the problem, isn’t it?

The Chinook came out of the gate strong, and looked like a solid contender for the early lead in a fractured North America, a future superpower set to run roughshod over the continent, or at least give its eventual sole survivor a run for their money. But this part’s made explicit what had already been implied - the Chinook are not a superpower in waiting, and certainly not the golden children of North America. Hell, they’re not even particularly close; there’s eleven ranks separating them and the Mississippi, and that distance almost feels too small, given the stark difference between their fortunes at the moment. The Mississippi spent their part turning Four Bears into a mantlepiece. The Chinook spent theirs watching the Chukchi cross the Bering Strait and getting beaten by the likes of the Dene and the aforementioned living room decoration.

There’s still hope for the Chinook, and still time, and most importantly there’s still a lot going for them. Given a brief reprieve and a few canny moves this whole writeup could look very silly in a few parts. But as the limitations of both Comcomly’s empire and his positioning become clear, that hope grows slimmer and slimmer.

Msurdej:Most of the action in Africa this part happened in the Sahara, leaving Mobutu and Central Africa out for most of the part. Only showing up in earnest once (twice if you count a DoW against Spain), Zaire continued to do what they have been since the last part; settle all the cities they can. But it will soon come time to expand beyond settlements. Thankfully, with weaker neighbors like Somalia, Zanzibar and Namibia, there’s still a shot for Mobutu to become a major player in the competitive African continent.

Rosé:

Northern Yuan has successfully kinda beaten PARG in a war. Northern Yuan ended the war by successfully taking one city off of the former top power, before just returning to irrelevancy. While sure, this is an absolute win for the nation, I feel that the efforts were better spent actually killing Yuan. Nonetheless, Northern Yuan is likely going to turtle up for a little bit, before randomly picking a nation to declare war on, achieve minor victory in, then retire again. An endless cycle of inactivity.

Random Strategy

Uzbekistan spent the part consolidating the land they have. As with last part, their stats are much better than their ranking indicates, but they have the big problem of being in possibly the worst location of the entire map: squeezed between the top 2 civs. This part they also beat Malacca's old record for largest city when their capital reached size 24 for a few turns.

Rosé:

Despite a suspiciously pro-Malacca narrator, Malacca falls out of the top ten, arguably to no fault of their own. I mean, they did capture that one vietnamese city recently which is cool, but their neighbors, Kulin and Taiping are doing all that and more. Kulin for example, has more or less unified the continent faster than any other Australian power in CBR history, and Taiping has finally decided to expand and go after Vietnam, which they may take next part. Compare that to Malacca, who has only half the production of either nation, meaning that a drawn out war with either would devastate them. Their ambitions are not yet doomed however, as Malacca can still turtle up production to rival either empire and possibly even cashing in on the Taiping failing a way. However there is unfortunately nothing that can be done about the fully unified Australia to Malacca's south that will continue to be a consistent thorn in the nation's thigh.

Knot:

If anyone stands a chance of matching the Vandal’s aggressive campaigns this part, it would be Cleopatra. She continues to be incredibly solid with tons of weak neighbors to her north. She just needs to actually capitalize on them, although with her recent citadeling on Hejaz, there’s a decent chance she might be planning to do so. I personally expect Cleopatra to climb back into the top ten next part.

Vihreaa:

After an impressive takedown of the not so impressive Wales, the Gauls reach their highest rank yet, 10th place. The Gauls are in a strong position right now, as their western borders are relatively unpressured, as Iceland isn’t able to project much power to Britain and Spain is fractured already from the attacks from the Vandals. If I was Vercingetorix (god how does one even go about pronouncing that) I would prioritize conquering Ireland then Spain, which would then help in a possible future war against Germany or Two Sicilies.

Altima

Pretty solid part for resident underdog Chukchi. They’ve taken a foothold on North America, held to the end of the war, and built up a really solid scientific base- best in Cylinder right now, in fact! If they can hold onto both their recent military and scientific successes, they stand to become a fun darkhorse civ- I for one am interested in the idea of a good civ out of a region that has previously only produced disappointing sleepers.

Vihreaa:

The Kulin reach their highest rank yet at number 8, with their future still looking bright. After managing to successfully annex most of Anangu, the Kulin have almost total control over the Australian continent. The question now is whether or not they will manage to break free of the chains that bind every Australian civ, the great expanse of the ocean. We saw Australia in Mark 2 manage to take lands in Asia for a brief time, along with North America, but they never managed to establish a permanent foothold out of their home continent. It looks to be that the Kulin will be the next to take on this task, and only time will tell if they are able to do what hasn’t been done before.

Reformer:

USSR continues their natural oscillation in the ranks: 3 back, 2 forward...if the trend continues, they’ll be 5th next part. In the meantime, USSR’s situation did not change much, and this is likely the reason for the tiny drop. Inactivity does not breed winners. USSR’s stats remain strong, easily top 10 material, and indeed, USSR’s neighbors remain weak and feeble aside from the potent Germany. Notably, the two worked together against the Teutons, and as neither wished to shoulder the warmonger penalty for a killing blow, the two could stay on amicable or even friendly terms for a while longer. Border friction is sure to bring this budding friendship to a halt eventually, though, and when that time comes, Lenin might find himself desiring a short war, ironically enough, as Soviet production is noticeably outmatched by German production. A long war would be easily in the Germans’ favour, though that is only in a vacuum - Lenin could easily gain allies across Europe to help bring down the beast when the time comes. Before then, all is well - just don’t let PARG get through Great Perm, or you may find yourself between two very strong opponents...

Knot:The Vandals felt like Africa was too crowded and decided to pull a reverse Moors by just taking Spain’s part of Europe. They didn’t even burn any of the cities they took, which is impressive considering how many pies they have their hands in at the moment.

All this, and they still manage to somehow fall a spot although I’d wager that’s more from statistical noise than any real flaw on the Vandal’s part. If you did want to be pessimistic, Europe and Africa are both shaping up to be full of powerhouses that could definitely hold against this wave of Vandal aggression, but after the demolishing of Spain, you would be hard pressed to argue that the Vandals are anything less than a global power at this point.

Cloudberg:

The Mississippi have returned to the top 5 despite losing a city to the Neutral Nation. Why? Well, we really don’t think the loss of this minor colony matters that much. Mississippi’s stats are growing rapidly, they have numerous large cities and a massive army, and they’re in the process of wiping the floor with TAT, potentially gaining several cities in the process. At this point, it’s impossible to point to anyone else who is more likely to win control of North America.

LonelyRS

Welcome to Club Superpower, Taiping! You look rather peckish; want a bite to eat at our on-site luxury restaurant? No, no, you don’t need a reservation at all. Shouldn’t need one, as long as you stay that powerful. Go on, kick back, relax, maybe finish rolling over Vietnam if you get bored. What? Leave? Why would you want to? We have everything you could ever want here: absurd science and production numbers, an unlimited supply of settlers, enough manpower to conquer the world twice over… oh, have you tried the restaurant’s daily specials? They’re filling meals, all of them, and quite tasty, too - I hear the rotisserie Yuan is to die for. What, those? Oh, they’re just some of the minor states we raise here. Keep them in service to us, keeps our strength up, and gives our rowdier patrons something to occupy their time with as well. You’ll probably try digging into one yourself, someday. Oh, sure, you have Vietnam now, but there’s not very much of it left, right? They put up a good fight, I’ll give you that, but they’re right on the verge of rolling over for good, and we all know it. Why not try something new, like Bhutan? You already don’t like them very much, nobody does, so why not amuse yourself by taking your anger out on them a little? Unproductive? Why, there’s nothing that could help you more! Every time you beat up on one of those rabble, you get just a little more powerful, and just a little more status here. Keep pushing, keep showing everyone what you’re made of, and who knows, you might just reach the top of our little hierarchy. But that’s for later. For now, feel free to just sit back, pound the little city-state you brought with you a little, and reminisce. And remember: you earned it.

Knot:

Two Sicilies tripping over themselves a bit is certainly good for Germany, but the Gauls flexing their muscles on the Isles and the Vandals starting to see what it’s like living in Spain, combined with the USSR continuing to improve their solid core, means that it’s not exactly going to be easy for Germany to win the continent, even with their monstrous stats.

That said, they’re definitely not taking the encroachment of these powers sitting down. The war with Sweden was a solid choice. They should be able to gain a fair bit from this war, even if such gains are not quite as premium as the stuff on the main continent. After this war though, who knows? Kosovo and Two Sicilies are appealing snacks, but they might just enrage their neighbors to the east and west, so it might be better to tank up and prepare to take on the big dogs directly.

Lacsirax:

It’s tight at the top. How tight? Tight enough that a single ranking was all it took for PARG to fall short on a return to #1. And you might be asking why, when it seemed Kolchak had a pretty quiet one. Well, it was quiet in the best way - he quit a rather disastrous little conflict with Mandukhai, and used the peacetime to buff up, securing the highest production in Asia and founding the most cities on the whole cylinder - a whopping twenty, and still with room for more.

But there’s one thing that stands between PARG and the top spot, and it’s actually something that’s not really within their control. Unlike some of the other Asian powerhouses directly above and below it in the rankings, PARG has rolled some rather strong neighbours. Well, with one notable exception of course - but we all saw how difficult it was for Kolchak to rightfully steamroll Perm thanks to those pesky Ural Mountains. That means it’ll likely be the USSR who eventually annexes Perm, and at that point Kolchak borders the Soviets, the Uzbeks and the Northern Yuan - none of whom are enviable neighbours. So while peaceful but productive parts like the last one are all well and good, Kolchak will have to use his military might to pounce on one of these neighbours soon, or he could find himself the very strong flavour in the middle of a huge club sandwich.

Altima:

A last minute ranking puts Punjab #1 another time this week, neck and neck with the PARG for the lead. The Punjabi have solid all-around stats, neighbors weaker than they, a predicilation towards bullying said neighbors, and are just doing all the right things right now. Notably, their empire is absolutely massive compared to everyone except the PARG, and unlike those guys they’re actually happy enough to keep some of their potential future captures.

Still, the game’s still young, and if they don’t want to flounder and flop in the long term like certain other Indian civs we got our hopes up for, they still need to actually finish off some of their neighbors, or at the very least, follow the example of the Kulin and just take damn-near everything from them.