Power Rankings: Episode 8 – S2

LonelyRS

Yikes. Coming into this episode, Manchu were just another rump, fundamentally mediocre but lacking in style, dismally low on panache, and getting picked apart slowly by the twin crows of Yuan and the Chukchi. Coming out of it? Well, those crows have proven themselves to be ravens, slowly has proven itself to be quite fast indeed, and mediocre has rotted to bottom-of-the-barrel levels of awful. Quite the fall, for a civ that rated seventh overall before play started! Quite a shame, that we can’t speculate how much further Nurhaci’s living corpse may drop! Turn order’s vitally important for city-states and animated skeletons desperately trying to keep dancing, and it’s hard to find civs that go later in the turn order than Manchu’s 55th. Notably, Yuan, the last civ still doggedly gnawing on the exhausted bone, are not among them, going 22nd. So, yeah, short a miracle peace deal coming to light in the next, oh, half a turn, the Manchu are an ex-civ. Prime your F keys, Manchu fans, because your civ is already dead.

LonelyRS

The tragedy of all this lies in the stolen spotlight. Vietnam is on the verge of death at the hand of an old rival, two crossbowmen the sole remnants of their armed forces, their enemy having been at the gates so long they have summer homes there - and nobody cares, because just a few scant civs to the north, the Manchu have fallen so hard they practically shattered on impact with the ground. It’s sad, it’s depressing, it’s a fate more fitting for hapless Vietnam, the little stepping stone civ that couldn’t, than for any other. Vietnam lies in limbo, stuck in a truly creative hell, their fate up in the air with nobody around to bet on it. If they survive, keep pulling off the upset, abusing defensive terrain and canny unit placement against their less competent foes, they’ll merely be denied coverage of a sterling defensive stand. If they don’t? It’s likely nobody will even notice at all.

Still, it’s probably better than whatever Wales has been doing.

Rosay:

So the Guals failed to land again........ great. Well at least spain can still finish Wales off right? Wait no Spain only has a single melee unit on land thats cool I guess. To be honest i just want a civ to fall at this point for my own sanity, and Wales has been an utter disappointment this whole season. Its not like Jamaica or the Tauregs who were expected to do bad either, they could've been a solid mid tier if their Ai had the slightest more competency than my dog running across the keyboard

MsurdejWell good news Peru Bolivia, you went up two ranks due to Manchu and Veitnam failing hardThe bad news is that you’re still in the spot you were at the end of last episode, with the failures of other civs being the only way you’ll rise.

Altima

Well, if you have to be a one-city runt, I can think of worse climates for it than the Carribean. Sure, the existential dread of “everyone can kill me and there’s nothing I can do about it,” has to suck, but you take the bad with the good. If nothing else, you formally have no further obligation to give a damn about the rat-race of the wider CBR, and can just chill out and enjoy the beautiful slice of the world you inhabit.

Cloudberg:

This was a grim episode for the Tuareg, as their attack on Burkina Faso backfired as expected, leading to the loss of Aghat. The Tuareg did briefly take Elephantine, a Ptolemy city, after Burkina Faso flipped it, but that city is back in the hands of its original owner. Now Tin Hinan is left only with her mountain fortress city of Kidal, which is unlikely to fall, but is more of a coffin than a refuge. The Tuareg will probably never be relevant again, and Tin Hinan will have to wait in the Atlas Mountains to die, either at the hands of the Vandals, or in a few centuries when Burkina Faso invents artillery.

Random Strategy

Tat are almost identical to last week. The Chinook are still sending them 1 unit at a time through the mountains to die. And Tat are still trying and failing to capture the stranded Chinook cities this side of the mountains. Really the interesting thing is what's happening to their neighbours: the Chinook are getting slaughtered by the Chukchi, while the Dene and Mississippi are duking it out on their front lawn. Though interesting, it isn't very relevant to the Tat because whether the Dene or Mississippi border them that's still a civ that could snuff them out instantly if they wanted.

Msurdej:Somalia was mentioned three times in the last part. One mentioned that Lesotho can’t reach them, and the other two about making peace with two far away civs. A quiet part, but things could change for Siad Barre soon...

Vihreaa

Anangu has come up with the genius strategy to avoid being at the very bottom of the power rankings by... settling a second city! This move has forced the power rankers, though Anangu is in an essentially identical situation to all other rumps in the world, rank Anangu higher than all of the other rumps on deaths door. Funny how that works, isn’t it. Regardless of this, Anangu is without a doubt on deaths door, as they certainly stand no chance of defeating Kulin, who already control most of the continent and are spreading out to Pacific islands. WIth any luck, they will simply be forgotten about like Tibet and live a long and happy life on their reservations.

Rosay:

We are on part eight.

The Teutons are still alive.

Let us just move on.

Cloudberg:

The Olmecs suddenly find themselves third-wheeling a major conflict between New Netherland and Rio Grande, the civ which was attacking them and the civ that took their capital, respectively. It’s debatable whether the Olmecs were ever in danger from the New Netherland invasion or not, but it’s hard to argue that their two biggest threats fighting each other isn’t a good development for U Kix Chan, which definitely prevents him from dropping several places. On the other hand, Gran Colombia could declare war on the Olmecs and kill them before the end of the episode, so if you’re holding Olmec stonks like I am, make sure you know the risk.

Vihreaa

Joining the runts of Africa, Namibia finds themselves at home with the Tuareg, Zanzibar, and Somalia. Squished in between Zaire and Lesotho, Namibia doesn’t particularly have any redeeming traits to help them get out of their sticky situation. Though they still have a few cities to their name, they find themselves ranked below other civs like Jerusalem and Hawaii. Though not there yet, Namibia joins the ever growing list of civs that may be soon to depart from this cylinder.

Vihreaa

Jerusalem, purely for the reason that there are so many rumps still alive in the world, is still outside of the bottom 10. They haven’t done particularly anything of real interest throughout the entire game, and likely will never. Perhaps they will serve as the catalyst for destruction if they are the first civilization to be eliminated, for they certainly have a slew of neighbors that could do the job. The Ptolemies, Kosovo, maybe even Georgia on a lucky day. Nobody else though is likely to be in a position to take down Jerusalem.

Vihreaa

Ah, to be a Pacific island nation. Hawaii, despite being situated near the bottom of the rankings for what really has been the entire game, has actually faced few real threats to their sovereignty. That is both the upside and downside to starting in the middle of the ocean. We have never seen a real power arise from these waves, and it may be a long time until we do. Until then, civilizations like Hawaii will hang on by going unnoticed by the larger powers, until one of them happens to fancy an island getaway on one of their expedition.

Random Strategy:

In the biggest war crime of the cylinder so far, the Kulin burn down 2/3d of Tahiti's cities, including their valuable New Zealand colonies. This is absolutely devastating and sets them back to the 3 cities they had all the way back in part 2. It's a testament to how badly other civs are doing that Tahiti only drop 4 spaces from such a massive disaster. Any dreams of Tahiti being at all relevant are gone.

Random Strategy:Despite being at war with both Iceland and New Netherlands for several parts, the Neutrals are still alive. The main reason for this is the difficult terrain and lakes that the civs have to go through to reach them. However, anachronistic musketmen also have something to do with it as they are so strong they have even allowed the Neutrals to capture cities (though not hold them).

Cloudberg:

Bhutan suffers one of the most brutal drops in the last few power rankings, due to the complete collapse of their core in the Indian subcontinent. Their coastal cities on the Bay of Bengal have fallen to the Chola, and their capital is under attack from Punjab, which is wielding an invasion force replete with muskets, cannons, and other advanced weapons. Thimphu is exposed to the south and will quite likely fall if they don’t make peace soon, but the prospects of peace seem unlikely, and in dropping them to 45th the power rankers are acknowledging that Bhutan is very likely to lose its capital next episode.

Rosay:

The VOC continues to climb up the rankings due to the death of so many other civs. Funny thing is the more I think about it, the VOC actually has a chance to gain cities. Think about it Laos is distracted trying to kill Vietnam, and the VOC is just equal enough to cause some damage. Also Malacca as clearly shown they don't give a fuck about the VOC so you could maybe get some sort of psuedo-empire out of a low tier civ. Also the VOC continues to go up despite doing nothing look at em go.

Random Strategy:Oh no! Uzbelistan is back for more! Fortunately the rest of Georgia is mostly protected by the Caspian sea and a thin strip of Perm land (which Uzbekistan do not currently have open borders with), which only leaves 1 tile through which units can travel. So probably safe for the moment? Though things are certainly dangerous. Not only because of the possibility of open borders being signed with Perm, or simply that their higher tier units are simply too much: Uzbekistan have the largest land army by quite a bit so may inspire others to join in, or could terrify Georgia into giving away free cities

Altima

The utter humiliation of Somalia must feel great for Zanzibar. Having spent so much of their existence under constant aggression from Little Boy Blue, getting to watch said aggression completely screw Somalia over, and ultimately culminate in them being beaten down to one city with abysmal stats must feel real good. It doesn’t actually help Zanzibar with its actual issues, naturally, it has to help the fact that they’ve peaked at useless mediocrity go down better.

Vihreaa

Laos is in the middle ground between being a rump and being a minor power. On one hand, they command more than a few cities in their empire, which eliminates them from the very bottom tier of existence that at this point too many civs find themselves at in this stage of the game. On the other hand, though, they also have achieved virtually zero military victories throughout the entire game, and are struggling to take even Vietnam’s final city. I mean come on, they literally have like no units left. More likely than not, Laos is acting to keep the land warm for when Malacca comes knocking at their front door on they path of conquest.

Rosay:

The way I see it Great Perm has two possible options that I can only describe as low risk low reward and high risk high reward. The low risk low reward option would be to attack Georgia, and due to the split empire not being able to defend both sides, some cities will be taken. The other and more crazy option, and bear with me on this one, would be to attack PARG. PARG is currently fighting a losing effort against Northern Yuan, and their military is space at best. Sure they may lose a lot of units passing the mountains, but damn imagine the hype if GREAT PERM can take a city off of PARG.

Altima

Despite the chaos around, Iceland’s ranking stays in place at a firmly mediocre 39. A fitting performance given the general stagnation of the civ. Germany has resettled the one city Iceland torched and now has a better navy, most of their American holdings are useless, the Gauls have citadel’d flush against their British territories, and they’re just straight out of options. Their best bet would be to try and throw all their triremes at the technologically superior Spanish fleet and hope the numbers advantage works to their favor, and even that’s a longshot.

Altima

Kurdistan, despite what the part would lead you to believe, still exists.

MsurdejSpain continues to try and pull itself out of the funk Vercingetorix put him in several episodes ago. And right now, they might just have a chance. With Two Sicilies fighting the Gauls, Carlos might have a shot at regaining his former territory. But if not, Carlos’s only shot would be at the Vandals....who are the Vandals. All in all, Carlos might be gaining some ranks, but his chances are decreasing each part

LonelyRS

The dawn of a new part for the whipping boy of Europe brings with it… a surprisingly decent turn of events? Sure, not much happened for Sweden this part, but on the other hand, not much happened for Sweden this part! Germany’s occupied themselves gunning after their other Nordic neighbors, Finland’s lead over the Swedes shrinks a little more every minute, the Teutonic Order remains surprisingly receptive to the game of serial fist-shaking Sweden’s been carrying on with them since fish first crawled onto land and began to breathe air - it’s a great time to be a loyal supporter of catboy Karl. Could have been better, if they’d developed into the superpower we’d expected them to become at the game’s opening, but it can’t always be Sabaton marathons and brutal evisceration of neighbors, now can it?

Altima

So the Vandals are unlikely to actually take Macacao. Palm just has too much of a carpet outside of it to not flip it back, even if it gets captured. Just getting that out of the way, because the fact that they’re even vulnerable to a North African civ’s naval invasion is embarrassing enough. That said, if the Marajoara decide to join the war, things will get dicey fast. Marajoara outtechs them with cannons and muskets against trebs and longswords, and the additional pressure will mess them up. Zumbi needs to peace out with the Vandals ASAP before their neighbors get dangerous ideas.

Random Strategy:Guess who is 10th in military? You've probably guessed by the title of the slide, it's Finland; a score that is notably higher than even the USSR right now. This does not mean that Finland would win a war against the USSR - on the contrary, their production doesn't compare - but it does strongly disensentivise the USSR from attacking. Noticing that Finland is also 12th in science, we can recognise the clear signs of a science turtle. Noticing that Sweden has rather low science, the plan should be to wait until Sweden shows a moment of weakness and strike then, or alternatively to beeline a key military tech and get a good timing push, hopefully while the USSR is distracted by something else so they don't take advantage.

Tongva

Altima

So for once, the Tongva have the opportunity to find relevance. Rio Grande (in typical fashion of its IRL counterpart) has bitten off more than it can chew, and its outdated military is being routed by a civ we had no faith in on turn 0. The Tongva actually have a larger military than Rio, and could join in the fighting against them to maybe make some gains and put them out of punchline territory. At the very least, that’s what I would do as the Tongva. We’ll see if they have such initiative.

LonelyRS

Oh, dear. The good news: Yuan were the ones who started this BR off right by tying a declaration of war to the business end of a club and burying it halfway into Manchu’s skull, and now, some seven episodes and what feels like an eternity later, they’re on the verge of finishing the job and delivering to the viewing audience the Royale’s first (!) elimination. The bad: They, ah, might’ve gotten a little too overconfident in the interim. If their Royale-leading deviation wasn’t enough to tip you off to the fact that something very wrong is going on in Yuan, let the plucky civ’s loss of Xian to a civ most consider on the downswing do the speaking in its place. And that’s far from the only hornet’s nest Kublai Khan has kicked - while he managed to yank Bayan Tumen from the Northerners without much difficulty, he also managed to gain the enmity of the behemoth PARG, who have proven strangely non-threatening? Huh.

All conventional wisdom would hold that Yuan are due to get absolutely creamed any second now, but, somehow, throwing themselves into the midst of the North Asian bloodbath with both blades drawn and an unsettling lack of discrimination when it comes to targets has gone fairly well for them. Only fairly, though. They are still getting trampled by Taiping, and do have pretty good odds of joining the Manchu soon after their light is finally snuffed out if they can’t convince Taiping to stop gnawing on their leg soon, but at the very least their hovering around mediocrity has been incredibly entertaining.

MsurdejRounding out the bottom half, we have Japan. Tanaka falls a few spots this week, mostly due not making any gains from the Manchu collapse. But on the plus side, they didn’t lose any territory from the Northern Yuan. So....yay Japan?

Vihreaa

Ah Kosovo. While not the runt of mainland Europe (Spain) or the rump of mainland Europe, (TAT) you certainly aren’t in the top tier. Just about any of their neighbors outmatch them in most ways, whether it be to their north, south, or west. The east is pretty weak though, they’ll probably be fine from there. With a rather uninteresting part this fortnight, they continue to sink into the abyss of irrelevancy. They say that there is a legendarily unknown empire at the bottom of this abyss, but nobody for the life of them can remember their name...

Vihreaa

Hejaz jumps an impressive nine spots in this part, climbing all the way to 29th place. Astonishing as it may seem, they are still at war with the Ptolemies, and this jump in their ranking inevitably reflects their successful efforts in repelling them. What many thought would be a slam dunk for the Ptolemies is turning out to be more than they bargained for. Though still rather behind on tech, the Hejaz are still persevering in this game, controlling most of the Arabian peninsula along with a solid portion of the Horn of Africa.

Random StrategyUh oh. The (former) number one shows why they were up there by attacking the predicted number one. Now PARG do not have much military but don't let that fool you - this attack is backed up by the biggest production of the entire cylinder - PARG can just make units appear whenever they need more. And they will be able to keep pushing and grinding for as long as it takes. A few cities have already fallen, including to southern Yuan (that's embarrassing) and with it Northern Yuan's stats have fallen all the way to South-America-tier. They need to make peace before the rest of the PARG steamroller slowly crushes them.

Rosay:

The less successful Guay has seen a slight drop this part, though I'd argue that’s mostly due to numbers shenanigans and not any overwhelming disasters. To start off the good: Paraguay essentially robbed a city from Mapuche this part as they declared war on Peru Bolivia. The bad: Paraguay is surrounded by the few South American civs worth a damn and would probably lose a war with any of ‘em. Paraguay is no Mapuche for instance, but they can still hold on to be a regional power in a weak region.

Rosay:

Gran Colombia has successfully forced Jamaica into the one city squad, and likely has more room for growth via all of its neighbors. Olmecs are the obvious one of course but there are options after that. Bolivar can decide to Rump cull and take Jamaica and PB.Alternatively could go after Marajoara or Paraguay, or just core up. A lot of options is always good for a civ, and Bolivar has no shortage of em

Cloudberg:

The Dene get a surprise ranking boost despite being attacked by North America’s number one power, the Mississippi. Why? Because as far as we can tell, the Dene are actually winning the war. So far the Mississippian attacks have not translated into city captures, and an advanced Dene army with better units than their enemy can field is surrounding the Mississippian city of Kincaid and looks likely to take it. Thanadelthur’s secret weapons are trebuchets and crossbowmen, neither of which can be seen in the Mississippian invasion force, which is putting Tuskaloosa at a major disadvantage. Whether the Dene make significant gains remains to be seen, but I’d love to believe that this is the start of a Dene world conquest where Thanadelthur takes over North America by getting wars declared against her and then surprising the enemy.

Altima

The Chola are riding high on solid gains against the Bhutan, a war they may still be able to gain ground in. Still, it's hard to get too optimistic- the shadow that has long loomed over the Chola is itself gaining in strength in this war, and they just completely eclipse the Chola in every meaningful field. The Chola need an answer to this problem, and I don’t see a way for them to find one.

Random Strategy: This part, the new netherlands lost the city of Mosfellsbær to, errm... themselves burning it down. On that front the Neutrals continue to be a pointless drain on resources, and the same can be said for the Olmecs. The more exciting news is the war to their south, with Rio Grande! Rio Grande is scary because it has the highest production in north america. However, their tech is awful, so the overall outcome was a gigantic horde of outdated units. And so far things are looking good, with the dutch medieval navy demolishing the trireme fleet in the carribean, while on land longswordsmen push on Ciudad Mier.

Vihreaa

In an already powerful continent, BF is merely one of many. With exploits McGee to their north, and a science nerd to their south, Burkina Faso has few options for their conquests. With mountains blocking their conquests into Tuareg territory, they are currently just spinning their wheels to be honest. The longer that time passes, the more the window the continental domination closes for Burkina Faso closes. Of the remaining powers on the continent, BF’s window is arguably one of the windows that are the least open of those that still are.

Msurdej No news is good news for P’kuee. While their neighbors Palmares are getting attacked by Vandals, Marajoara has so far avoided the Atlantic invasion. For that reason, coupled with their decent for the region stats, gives Marajoara a slight bump this week.

Cloudberg:

The Two Sicilies fall four places back to 20th this episode due to a number of reasons. First off all, they’re fighting off an invasion by the Gauls which is mostly a meat grinder causing both sides to lose units. Second, they still aren’t using their large Mediterranean navy, and the window where it would be truly devastating may have already passed. And three, the Ptolemies now have more advanced ships than they do. Granted, the Ptolemies have fewer ships overall, but it’s not a good sign. Certainly Ferdinand I isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but by waiting so long to act, his dream of becoming the ruler of the Mediterranean is becoming harder to envision.

Altima

Well this is going well. The Chinook stand to lose a lot from this war, as Chukchi raiders burn their islands to the ground and stand ready to threaten actual coastal holdings. You may recognize “Chinook naval holdings,” as like half their empire. This isn’t unsurvivable, they may be able to drag things out enough with flips etc that the Chukchi walk away with just some ashes and a peace deal city that also becomes ash, but even that leaves them significantly weaker as both their Asian and American neighbors grow in power.

Altima

In their never-ending quest to invent the internet, and subsequently, invent online scamming, Nigeria has incidentally also built the most wonders- Nigerian Princes need castles I suppose. While they wait for the internet, they should probably see about warring with Burkina Faso, the neighbor they have the largest tech lead over and who they also have a decent manpower advantage on. They’ve done it before and it went well last time, might as well give it another shot, right?

Msurdej

Rio Grande has taken a grande step towards victory, by declaring war on New Netherlands. With some of the best production in North America, Rosillo could flood the eastern seaboard with units, and bring Stuyvesant to his knees. However, as Random explained earlier, The Rio Grande armed forces are outdated and outnumbered compared to their foes, meaning that step toward victory might just be a grande misstep into an early grave.

Vihreaa

The Mapuche rose 4 places in this part, with an uneventful overall part for them. Uneventful does not equal negative though. They still control the biggest empire in all of South America, controlling the entire southern region of the southern continent. This core of cities gives them a strong jumping off point for any future conquests against other civs in the region, with Paraguay likely being their first target. For now, they threats are few, but larger empires lay across the ocean, who knows when they may see fit to strike.

Altima

The Lesotho have been pretty quiet, but they’ve actually got a decent little empire going. Good production, good effective science, decent city count, all they need is to do something with it. Namibia is, as ever, a viable route, just absolutely ruin their day even harder by opening up an indefensible front from which they cannot recover. The Zanzibar would weirdly be potentially a bad call- their navy is just much better the Lesothan navy, and could pose a problem for Lesothan Madagascar. Either way, they need to act soon- Zaire works tirelessly to close the first option and the second is similarly a nut waiting for a half-decent navy to crack.

Cloudberg:

My decision to buy Taiping stonks, based entirely on an assumption that things weren’t that bad for Taiping and the power rankers were overreacting, has backfired massively. Malacca took even more cities from Taiping this episode, culminating with Hong Xiuquan giving away Hanoi in the peace treaty, leaving Taiping a shadow of its former self. The Heavenly Kingdom still has decent stats, enough to keep it barely in the top 15, but with their homicidal leader burning everything he takes from Yuan, it’s not clear that those stats are going to improve. It might just be a matter of time before another major invasion rips Taiping out of the upper ranks entirely.

Random StrategyDespite a pretty good part all things considered, the Ptolemies drop 6 spaces. Going into this part, the Ptolemies were busy conquering Hejaz when they foolishly declared war on Burkina Faso on the opposite side of their empire where they had no army. Now fighting a war on 2 opposite fronts is never a good thing, but that was last week so should have been reflected in last week's rank... This week they actually fought the 2 front war, and, although Burkina Faso did end up flipping a few border cities, no lasting damage was done and all cities were recaptured - a pretty good result. What it has meant is the war with Hejaz has stalled out due to most of the invading army being reassigned to defence. But now that they've made peace with Burkina Faso, the invasion of Hejaz can resume, albeit 30 turns later.

LonelyRS

“Really,” William Barak seemed to say this part, “Malacca can have Indonesia. I’ve no need for it, when the Pacific is right there.” He then proceeded to cut a bloody swath through old Tahiti lands, ruthlessly crush the few peasant uprisings that sought to stall his progress, and surround and threaten to bring down the lone Japanese outpost of Sanjo, for good measure. Now, with the only civ that could contest him in the Pacific crippled, interlopers in the area thoroughly reminded of their place, and a part to core back up after making peace with the nation that dragged them so low, Kulin is… only benefitting from a rise of two spots, which is nowhere near as good as some of the stonk market speculators may have hoped. Why?

Well, Kulin might have a really awesome seating plan going, but none of that’s changed the fact that their ship’s still set to careen straight into an iceberg. Kulin’s proven to be a truly great Australian civ, yes, but they’re still an Australian civ, and what’s worse they’re one with a clearly superior neighbor rubbing shoulders with them before they can set so much as a single foot off their home island. The Pacific’s nice, yes, but South America’s so far away as to make reinforcing for a push there all but impossible, so the sole path the Kulin have to win the game runs directly through Malacca - a civ that’s thumped them once before, seems set to thump them once again, and is doing the whole naval conquest thing somehow even better than they are. Kulin look set to be in this game for a long, long time, but if they want to prove they can win it, they’re going to need to do something truly magnificent.

MsurdejLenin takes a serious tumble this week, falling out of the top 10 for the first time since Part 1. The main reason for this is simple: The USSR has been silent since their meteoric rise. This has allowed their gains and stats to become not as impressive as others civs begin to match and outpace them Lenin isn’t out though: far from it. With Great Perm, Georgia, and Finland all leagues behind, Lenin has his pick of who to eat. He just has to wake up, start the war, win it, and avoid Germany. Simple right?

Vihreaa

Mississippi falls to 10th place in the power rankings this week, not necessarily from their own failures but more so to other civs amassing power while Mississippi waits. Still considered the most powerful civ in North America, Mississippi commands a vast swath of land from the Great Plains region all the way to the Hudson Bay. This strength though puts a target on their back, though, and being situated in the middle of the continent ever so conveniently allows them to border every other civ in North America. One on one, Mississippi would be favored in just about any conflict, but a well made coalition could cause their lead to crumble.

Cloudberg:

The Gauls hold on to their place in the top 10 for a second episode, although their brief moment where they outranked Germany is over. Vercingetorix falls slightly backward to 9th place due to an ill-advised invasion of the Two Sicilies, which is going nowhere while Germany rapidly rebuilds next door. But the Gauls still have a large army, many cities, good production, and plenty of options for future conquests, most notably Spain. And even a renewed German war machine wouldn’t necessarily do much damage to them, if they’re quick to act.

Cloudberg:

Here at the Power Ranking HQ, we are increasingly confused by the Vandals. Their stats are great, they have cities all over the world, they have 92 trade routes due to a ridiculous bug. But are they actually that good? How good are they really? No one is sure. We just vaguely put them in the lower bit of the top 10 until someone proves otherwise. Will they just implode if someone attacks them and plunders all 92 of their trade routes? Or will they keep building up, bigger and better, without interference? Right now they’re trying to make an intercontinental empire by invading Palmares, and it’s certainly not out of the question that they might take their capital. They’ve also settled random cities on tiny islands and on Greenland, making them the first civ to touch the top and bottom of the map at the same time. But is it real or is it all an illusion? Nobody knows!

LonelyRS

Uhh, Kolchak, you doing alright? Like, it’s nice that you took Vladivostok back, yeah, but… you’ve been at war with Northern Yuan for, what, 25 turns now? A civ in an active state of disarray? And you’ve taken, what, one city in the north, one city in the south, and got what was your ostensible ally on your tail as well in Yuan? You’re still going to win anyways, don’t get me wrong, neither of the Yuans might even exist a hundred turns from now, but… it’s kind of been taking a while? Your strategies have left a lot to be desired? It’s definitely looking like, and correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like you’ve just sort of been starting wars on a whim without much caring where your units are placed? Listen, I’m as happy as the next guy that we managed to wean you off the catapult addiction, but it’s kind of troubling that things somehow haven’t gotten any better even after you started adding variety to your unit composition. Look, Kolchak, you’re a good guy: I’m sure you’ll have both this civs screaming your name into the sky a few episodes from now. But, like, this high up, we have standards. And we can’t have anyone in the top five who can’t pull their own weight. You’ll be back there soon, don’t worry, just, like… Fix whatever the problem is? I don’t know, man. I don’t know. Hey, you tried therapy?

Altima

Despite all reason, against all odds, Georgia holds on through constant Uzbek aggression, purely due to the awful, chokepointy nature of the front line. A bizarre peninsula of Permese border has eaten into the potential front line, leaving one tile for Uzbekistan to move through, and making it hard for them to bring anything except knights to the front- and knights ain’t great at taking cities. Still, solid stats keep them a relevant player.

Altima

The Chukchi appear to enjoy the sensation of runting fools, as they jumped headfirst into war with the Chinook this part despite the initial boots-on-ground advantage the Chinook had. At first, that decision seemed like a bit of a mistake; Chinook forces got some damage in on the Chukchi’s border cities. And then the whales got butchered, as the numerically superior Chukchi forces rallied and slammed into them like the 1850s. Now, they’re categorically unlikely to truly runt the Chinook here- that would require they make a successful landing on one of the rougher coasts in the game. But they still sit ready to ruin every coastal city in their reach, and build an actual multi-continental empire.

LonelyRS

Oh, right, Germany. Well, the USSR’s reign atop Europe sure proved short lived, as after not one part out from their seemingly damning fall to the second tier everyone’s favorite sauerkraut providers have found themselves back in the driver’s seat for the continent, for how little that seems to matter in an increasingly muddled top tier. How to account for their rise back to the fore? It’s simple, really: they’ve got a larger military than almost any of their peers, and it isn’t going to waste getting ground down in a useless stalemate. Couple that with very decent production and science numbers, a position at the center of Europe, and a repaired military record after the thrashing of Iceland and, well, Germany just seems all around good. They might not be as flashy as some of those around, might not make for as good an underdog story as the Gauls, might not be as endearingly sleepy as Lenin’s USSR, but in a field of title contenders littered with obvious flaws, it’s hard to find any holes to poke in Germany’s empire. And sometimes, that’s enough to get you up to fourth.

...Just be sure to ignore the happiness problems, please.

Rosay:

Welp I told y’all you were sleeping on ‘em. Zaire continued its warpath into Namibia this part and continues to be the undoubtedly strongest civ in a stacked continent. I can not stress this enough, Africa is STACKED with like 5 civs that could feasibly go far, but Zaire is nigh undisputedly the strongest. Compare this to the two civs ahead of it Malacca and Punjab (no I won’t tell you the order scroll down) have Kulin and Uzbekistan to worry about. Additionally there still is no dominant power in the Americas (expect for Chukchi but they’re influence in America isn’t that strong yet imo) By being a dominant civ in a dominant continent, Zaire has earned the 3rd place spot and in this rankers opinion is the top player

LonelyRS

Ordinarily, keeping the same rank you had last part wouldn’t be seen as too noteworthy an accomplishment. But these aren’t ordinary times, and the top of the rankings aren’t an ordinary place. Like, have you seen the turnover up there this part and the last? It’s been like a chainsaw fight up there. Russia took a nap and dropped eight spots. It’s scary, scary stuff.

So, if in this environment of intense turnover and chaos, you’re able to not only ride a wave of good feelings and hype to within a hair’s breadth of the summit, and somehow, against all odds, manage to stay there - well, you must be doing something very right indeed. And, well, between kneecapping Taiping, taking potshots at a nation half a world away, and scattering their uniques around the map with as much zeal as the Vandals have devoted to cities, it’s pretty easy to see why. Malacca might not be at the top of the mountain yet, as some might have predicted of them, but they’re definitely not slipping off any time soon. And that’s almost as impressive! Almost.

Vihreaa

Punjab, our sleeping giant, retain their first place spot yet again this part, being minorly disturbed to deal with a war with Bhutan, which they frankly seem to be rather uninterested in. For a civ that has commanded the top of the power rankings for such a long time, it would be a shame for them not to take advantage of this power they have and subjugate their smaller neighbors, would it not? I pray Punjab learns that it can manhandle smaller empires, doing so would most certainly entertain us who watch from afar in the sub.