Civ Battle Royale October 10, 2022
Power-Rankers
Power Rankings! They’re rankings of power! (But only as of the instant of the end of the previous episode, as these are not meant to be future predictions!) Power Rankings!
CelestialDalek
Mistakes were made. All of them were made by Qocho. The problems started when they decided to send their starting settler over to the far North. The second problem was that they forgot that this game is about domination and decided to build around 3 warriors. The third problem was that they got on Han’s bad side. Don’t expect to see them pull a Xia: Han may have a good military, but not enough to knock them out. Do expect them to be crippled for a long time.
Msurdej Well this is certainly a dip. In fact, the Comanche are the biggest single losers in Part 1. And it’s pretty obvious why. Where most civs have two cities (some even have three), Iron jacket sent his settler far into the east of America, still having not settled another city. While this isn’t a death sentence (Korea in Mk2 had only one city in Part 1, and managed to do well) it certainly doesn’t instill confidence in the Comanche.
Cloudberg
We had low expectations for the Anglo-Norse going into this season, and with the game underway, their first move was to... immediately confirm those expectations. Despite having all of Scandinavia free for them to settle, they chose to found Lundenburgh on the continent right next to Brandenburg, all but ensuring that Frederick’s wrath will be brought down upon them sooner rather than later. Is Canute playing 5-D chess or is he just a moron? We’ll find out soon enough, but I suspect the latter.
Zanthor
This part went about as well as we could have hoped for the Anglo-Dutch, with them even moving above their Norse rivals. The problem being of course, they’re still the Anglo-Dutch. Their second settle was ok, but Brandenburg is looking just as angry and active as we all thought. On the upside though, that anger is probably going to be directed at someone else first. Anglo-Norse and Yugoslavia both gifted Brandenburg with near-free cities, and they’ll probably eat those first, before turning on the Anglo-Dutch. So enjoy your Gaellic vacation King Billy, who knows how long it will last.
Cloudberg
Intrigued by Emilio Aguinaldo’s bold decision to found his second city on the mainland next to Cambodia, we’ve decided to bump the Philippines up a few spots, but don’t take this to be a glowing endorsement of their chances. In fact, I’m not sure the Philippines would have risen at all had other civs not performed even worse and thus fallen below them. If anything, their choice of second city may be more of a negative for Cambodia than a positive for the Philippines.
Leman
Not last!! Timor-Leste did the absolute bare minimum by founding its second city in a reasonable spot and not getting invaded, and that’s worth a couple spots for sure. And he grabbed a religion! I’m not sure what beliefs he picked but with Arianism founded, things are looking up for Xanana! (But only like four places up.
Shaggy
Botswana continues their struggle up the ladder of mediocrity as their neighbors begin to box them out. The desert start is doing them no favors and Zulu and Angola are looking like they could jump at the first sign of weakness. It’s a hard cylinder out there.
Altima
Well, Yugoslavia has had a Good Idea. Joining alongside Brandenburg’s other neighbors, they have almost completely squeezed all the space from the Germanic Giant, potentially nipping that problem in the bud. If they can all but hold out long enough for Brandenburg to feel the side effects of that, for their current impressive military to fade out of relevance, this might be a good game for Yugoslavia. But we still have plenty of turns left to see if this move pans out- and given the historic danger of Brandenburg, most don’t think it will.
Cloudberg
Yolngu drops into the bottom tier this episode because of a more aggressive start from their biggest rival, Wiradjuri. Don’t be fooled into thinking this has anything to do with Timor-Leste—they’re still screwed too. Obviously, Yolngu could turn this around with a settling spree or a successful attack on a neighbor, but right now they look to be in the worse position of the two Australian civs.
Shaggy
The Normans decide that settling across the Aegean Sea is their path to becoming a major Mediterranean power. They may want to consider locking down their starting peninsula and gaining a better foothold on the European mainland. Yugoslavia may be distracted by Brandenburg for the moment, but the Normans can’t rely on that forever.
Emu
Everything's exactly as expected for Micanopy, as FDR goes for the forward settle, proving his mettle by putting the Seminole in one hell of a spot right off. They were forced to settle Apopka in the vicinity of Gadsden, Alabama, and having been through there a couple times I can tell you that's not a place you ever want to be, especially with someone much stronger taking up all your space. Their other expansion opportunities aren't looking so hot either. Both the other Caribbean civs have already settled ports, and even if the islands themselves are still unclaimed, that's not a good sign for any war the Seminole may end up in for them. Hey, at least their already dismal position means they don't lose any ranks.
Leman
Mohave had a fine if unambitious part, that didn’t really net them much change from our initial impressions. They settled a second city on the Pacific Ocean, with hopefully more to come to the south. There isn’t really too much to point out of the Mohave other than it’s kind of concerning that they have three total units and Modoc has a dozen.
JDT
Welp, looks like things aren’t exactly off to the greatest start for good ole’ Kim Il Sung. They didn’t do anything wrong per say, giving a fairly conventional northward settle into Manchuria. No, the issue is that the Mori have forward settled them, with the city of Tahiji-Sarukage right on the doorstep of Pyongyang. With one of their biggest rivals now firmly at their doorstep, and with a fairly advanced 3 city empire to back them up, the dangers and opportunities for our favourite dictator have noticeably increased and decreased respectively.
JDT
Cambodia fact: Did you know Norodom Sihanouk was a film director? He was said to have directed 50 films, all of which were described to be of “low quality” and to contain nationalistic elements. This is to be expected, of course, when you’re also the king of a certain nation.
What, you expected an actual writeup? Ok fine. They settled a second city in a conservative, not uber good spot. Kokang is right above them. Oh wait, I somehow missed the big one. The Philippines, in the most exciting move they probably have ever done, forward settled them in Vietnam. The mountains and jungles will prove a persistent thorn in their side as they get squashed in on their own home turf.
Leman:
Sayyida-al Hurra had the honor of getting her second city down before every other civ in the cylinder. In reality that’s not really all that important, and the rest of her part was average, but to me, it represents a glimmer of competence that I hope will continue throughout the game.
Shaggy
Settling a second city isn’t bad when you’re trying to keep pace in this region, where early land is a premium, but with their future settlement sites getting snapped up by their neighbors Kilwa will need to really pull it together to be more competitive. Their drop in the rankings reflects an incredibly split perception of their odds of doing so among the Power Rankers. The region is still anyone’s game, even Kilwa’s.
Emu
Ainu's recent forward-ish settle against North Korea definitely helps them, but is it enough to escape their terrible, terrible start? Japanese civs usually crash and burn, and this time around they're not even the only ones on the islands. Add that to the fact there's a Korean civ and a strong Siberia, and they look completely hemmed in from all sides already. But they're not quite as cramped as it may seem, though. Kamchatka and Chukotka are still wide open, Mori has yet to secure northern Honshu, North Korea has yet to secure..... well, anything. All this while ol' Quacky creeps slowly up through Alaska, upping the sense of urgency that much more. Of course, there's the everpresent threat of the Siberian civs, but that'll only really matter if they manage to not get crushed by their immediate neighbors. All in all, they did alright this episode, but sometimes geography is destiny. Ainu’s ranking stays the same.
Emu
It's kind of tough to say what's going on with Khazaria right now, but it’s clear it’s not good. They look hemmed in by civs we think are strong, but more or less every civ in this region is hemmed in by every other civ at this point. They have expansion opportunities to the west for sure, but their eastern neighbors are a huge threat, even if they haven't leapt in Khazaria's direction immediately. They have both our new number 1 and another top 10 civ to contend with, which is an unenviable position and a half. There’s a route to victory for Bulan in Kyiv and Vladimir, but if they don’t seize it while they have it..... Well, sometimes you're just plain outmatched.
Leman:
Poor Modoc sort of already started in a horrible spot with next to no space and that seems to still be the case twenty-seven turns later. Kwakwaka’wakw moved south and Mohave cut off their access to the Pacific. I haven’t thoroughly looked at the map but I’m pretty sure Modoc only has 5 more cities they can settle (assuming Mohave, Arapaho, or Kwakwaka’wakw don’t get there first). Their second city is pretty small too, at only three measly population. Not a great opening for Modoc. At least they’ve got an army!
JDT
Ah Indonesia, tanah airku. It's looking like they’re gonna be as sleepy as the police when it comes to corruption cases, because they have settled two cities in Java thus far and… thats it. Yeah. While you shouldn’t count them out just yet, something in my gut tells me they’re gonna try to emulate their real life foreign policy of “Bebas-Aktif,” which translates to “We’ll do jack.” Who am I to say though.
Leman:
Vermont is a little nervous from the American and Greenland cities getting so close, but I think they’re fine. There’s a wide deviation for Vermont this week, meaning we’re not exactly sure how things are going. They snagged a pantheon that generates a reasonable amount of Faith, so perhaps we’ll see a religion out of Vermont next part.
Shaggy
The impending showdown with Turkey is going to have traders on the stonk market taking big bets for or against $ASS as these rivals’ ranks begin to even up. Unfortunately Assyria doesn’t exactly have the army to strike fear in the hearts of the Turks at the moment. Please try attacking later once Roman von Ungern Sternberg trains more troops.
Leman:
Not too much going on down here in South India – which kind of tends to be the norm for this region I feel. Pandya didn’t show up on screen after being introduced, so I think that sort of tells ya what happened with them.
Leman:
Muisca leaps out of the bottom tier, gaining sixteen spots in week one! Why? Can’t really tell ya. I think we sort of just realized how much space Muisca actually has. We’ll see if this was a good idea or not later.
Leman:
As Arwa al-Sulayhi’s biggest fan, this part, and this side, really hurt. Yemen’s second city was really delayed. While Yemen didn’t pull a Comanche, and Aden was eventually founded, it isn’t in the greatest spot. This isn’t the end of the world, Yemen’s still got a lot of space, great economic abilities that will let Arwa play catch up and mitigate the poor terrain. Everything’s gonna be fine!
Cloudberg
Ireland shoots up into the mid-tier for... reasons? Almost every ranker increased Ireland’s rank, but no one is really quite sure why. Granted, they did build the first wonder, and maybe there’s some psychological effect from seeing the actual size of the Irish Isles in person. But whatever the reason, we like Ireland. Tiocfaidh ar la!
Altima
Mid-tier civs can be fun to rank, because you get some wild ranges in terms of how mid people think they are. Vladimir has space (good), but also has neighbors aplenty to contest that space (bad) including ones who have settled more than they have thus far (not ideal, but it’s early yet). And so Vladimir winds up with a 40 rank range, depending entirely on how you evaluate their position.
Zanthor
The Maori didn’t really do a lot to deserve a 10 rank drop, but the Wiradjuri did something to them for it. Three cities this early is a good sign, and if the Wiradjuri go straight for the jugular and wipe Yolngu out early, it gives them a lot more space to work with. If their enemies move fast, the Maori must as well, and while they did settle a city offscreen, it unfortunately was a tame colony on the North Island. That’s ok for a second settle, but if their third settle isn’t at least threatening the mainland, they may fall into the classic Polynesian trap of playing on their islands alone until someone comes over and wipes them. That someone being Windradyne.
Msurdej:The Inca slip a bit, but that’s mostly due to the strong start by their southern neighbors. Chile did well this part, and an alliance with Rio DLP Could make a united front. Better for Tupac to join this alliance, and focus his efforts north towards the less threatening Muisca
Emu
And it seems we can just completely throw out my writeup for these guys from last time. Cetshwayo looks out to prove that he's not trapped in Southern Africa, Southern Africa is trapped with him. Far from the instant elimination I'd first assumed, in just one episode the Zulu have become the favorite to win the region. They're making good settles, and they have space to take advantage of Botswana's bad ones. But this is still far, far from a decided region. They're still cramped, and the competition in the north is still nearly as stiff as ever, with the possible exception of Uganda. The ball is very much in Cetshwayo's court; this is a critical moment, and what he does next will determine who makes it out of the old realm of the Boers and the Basotho, and who becomes the next Shaka or Namibia.
Leman:
Egypt went from “below average” to “average.” This is mostly due to their neighbors facing little speedbumps. Yugoslavia and Turkey are just about out of room. Yemen and Uganda have to settle in inopportune spots. Normans have delayed landing on North Africa. A few little wins that add up to eight ranks.
Shaggy
Kyivan Rus sink to the middle of the pack as the land race for Central Asia begins and these Rus aren’t rushing. Building the Great Library may be more important to Olga, but it may be too much of a gamble with the Permians looming over them. Their neighborhood is cramped, but manageable for now.
Leman:
A bit of a surprise to me personally, Turkey took a tumble this week. It had a high deviation, so we were absolutely not in agreement on this civ. The Turn 1 religion is undoubtedly strong (and had I known that this was a thing, I would have ranked Turkey higher last week). However, that northern settle from Assyria is really annoying for Ataturk. He’s just about boxed into Anatolia, which is not a great look.
Zanthor
I don’t think Brazil did a bad job with their first settle, but it may have been a little too safe. With the Kayapo right to their north, it makes sense for Brazil to put the city in a defensible position. However it will quickly overlap yields with the capital, and does nothing to slow down their northern neighbor. While it beats clinging to the coast like Palmares did last season, I can’t help but feel like they got the short end of the Amazonian stick. With the Inca expanding west and Rio de la Plata expanding north, those might become problems sooner than we thought. If Brazil wants to take some initiative they’ll have to settle a little more creatively than that.
Msurdej: Central America’s rise in the ranks mostly comes from the relative quiet of the area. Mohave and Muisca both settled away from them, giving Morazon time to grow. If he can make a few more outposts across the region, then Central America might just gain control of...Central America. But only time will tell if this is enough to break out of the region and expand to more than a regional power.
Leman:
I like Greenland. I like their strong economic bonuses. I like their forward settle towards Vermont. I like that it’ll be a nice beachhead for further expansion. Greenland is a sort of turtle first, invade later type civilization so expect a few more quiet settlements as they build up their economy and army from here on out.
CelestialDalek
Castile is certainly in this game. That’s basically it. They settled a city with their second starting settler. They were not the focal point of any slide since the first turn. They are ranked 25th because some civs are actively doing poorly. They did so little that Vihreaa’s map did not include them.
Msurdej Ming was the quiet civ in Asia in this part. With the Han moving to take out the Qocho, Kokang making three cities, and Ming... didn’t do much in comparison. They still have a decent amount of land to settle though, so it’s not the worst possible outcome for Yongle. But for now, he seems content to not rush things, and take it easy.
JDT
Uganda drops several spots after a fairly sleepy part. They initiated a settle northwards into inland Tanzania, right next to Yemeni Eritrea. It's safe, will probably grow decently, and gives a base of operations against Yemen. The issue? Heading north is distinctly less lucrative than heading south, even if Yemen seems like easy bait.
Orange
So Angola went up from 29 to 22. Why? I’m not really sure. I checked through the slides again to see if I could figure it out and I found out that they appeared in two slides, one was the introduction slide for the southern Africans, and one was slide 38. Seems like much of it is a lot of space, still strong uniques that people think will pay off, and Botswana probably not being an issue.
Cloudberg
Afghanistan rises by virtue of having a lot of space and no clear threats. That said, Afghanistan is one of the most polarizing civs, with various rankers placing them everywhere from 7th to 51st. This variance is because of one simple fact: it’s too early to say whether Durrani will do anything with the space which has been given to him, and while some among us think that he’ll blow it, the majority believe Afghanistan will become the graveyard of empires, at least for a while.
Leman:
There wasn’t really all that much going on with Mali this part. Two cities is the baseline of competence you can ask for this early in the game. Sundiata slides down a few spots because most of the civs above him got a third.
Emu
The slickest move of the season so far comes from Allende, forward settling the notoriously aggressive Rio de la Plata and then immediately declaring friendship to ensure they couldn't declare war. That took some real guts, and it looks like it's securing them everything south of Buenos Aires. So have they hemmed in the mighty beast already, or are they still set to be washed away by the great silvery river to their north? I think it's the former for sure; we've been told to expect the unexpected this game, and past performance is hardly everything when you have the AI pulling moves like this right in front of you. The other rankers tend to be a little more bearish, giving them large rises still, but keeping them below RDLP for the time being. I see the argument for this: both AIs have strong reputations, and it might be too early to say for sure they're not going to stick to them. There's one thing everyone agrees on, though: they deserve to rise at least 15 ranks for this.
Orange
Mori makes a nice climb despite not much action as we can see in the minimap that they have founded a third city on the Korean peninsula. This is pretty big for them in giving them a beachhead for when they fight with NK, as well as further blocking off of the big island for themselves. The Ainu continue to not be an issue so as long as our big boi in red maintains an army things are pretty smooth sailing from here.
JDT
Rio De La Plata drops a massive 16 spots to 17th after a mediocre start. Though you can never count the blue libertadors out, their start certainly isn’t very good. They have only two cities settled, fairly close together, in fairly decent terrain. However, not only are they not currently intending to settle more, in the meantime, Chile has managed to stake their claim to the southern cone with the settlement of Concepcion smack dab in the middle of the Argentine plain. While the city is fairly vulnerable, withheld from Chile’s traditional mountainous core, the two southern powers have signed a declaration of friendship, showing that assault may take a bit to realize. So yeah, don’t get your hopes too high in the sky.
Altima
Fairly slow start for Chad, who end the part on two cities. But hey, it's early yet. They’ve got space, they’ve got time.
Leman
We didn’t see a lot from Bengal, the greatest and coolest civ in the cylinder, but there wasn’t that much really going on at all. (Unless you’re Qocho). Bengal settled off the coast and on a river (so a city that’s probably going to end up gigantic). Probably a good move on Shuja’s part as Olive Yang already has her third city out, so avoiding conflict with Kokang is probably in Bengal’s best interests.
Altima
Kwak has settled three cities into a fairly open area contested mostly by few other civs, and so, they start in a solid enough ranking position. We’ll see how well they can go from here.
Cloudberg
The Cree plunge out of the top 10 due to a slow start in the opening turns. America, the Arapaho, and Kwakwaka’wakw all started strong by founding three cities, while the famously expansive Cree are still sitting at one. It could be an indication of a poorer performance than expected, or it could simply be a red herring—after all, Poundmaker has another settler ready. The drop in the ranks is not big enough to be a verdict; rather, it’s a mere manifestation of doubt.
CelestialDalek
Lithuania is one of the elite 14 civs that has 3 cities. Their capital is well-placed, one city blocks off the Anglo-Norse, the other is a fine move up north. Lithuania’s problem is the fact that they are in Europe and that Brandenburg is also in Europe.
Msurdej
Don’t let the slight dip in rank fool you, FDR had a great part. Getting three cities and forward settling Seminole is a great start for America, one of the best the USA has ever had in the CBR. There’s still a possibility of them getting boxed in, but if America can get a few more settlers down (hopefully without pissing off the Cree or Arapho), they’ll be the masters of Eastern North America for sure.
JDT
The Han have decided to go on an early expedition to deal with the pesky barbarians ever-so-present on the Chinese border. Though this will probably be more akin to the Bitter Springs massacre than an actual fight, this more than certainly primes the Han into an early advantageous position. Three cities and a strong army? Count me on the top tier baby. Of course, such an early capture if it were to happen would concur consequences, but the Han will be more than ready for them!
Orange
Tuva steps their way into the top ten! Settling three cities, having wide open plains in their west, and neighbors already fighting in their east. Things are certainly looking up for Tuva and past experience suggests they will do well with it.
Now if only I could get around to doing that Tannu Tuva world conquest in Hearts of Iron 4 that I’ve been meaning to do…
Orange
We don’t see much of Massagetae at all in this part but they still leap forward 7 places. Another three city civ they have zero enemies and the vast expanse of Central Asia at their fingertips. As long as they keep settling they are guaranteed to do well.
Leman:
I know, I know, another top ten Australian power, but what can I say? Wiradjuri had a good part. They settled their third early, an aggressive forward of Yolngu, have a solid population and are making the correct early moves to consolidate the continent.
Altima
Kokang starts off on a good enough footing, settling three reasonable cities while their neighbors flail a bit. Its still a bit early to tell, but thus far, they’re in a good position to see about thinning their neighborhood soon.
Leman:
So, let me give you a few quick stats. The average capital on turn 27 has 4-6 population. 4 population for the slackers that have spent too much time pumping settlers (Arapaho and America, looking at you), 5 for the boring average nerds, and 6 for the overachievers. The Kayapo capital, Kremoro has 10! That’s more than the entire population of Arapaho, a civ ranked higher than Kayapo! Gorotire, Kayapo's second city, has 6! That UB is nuts, guys.
Leman:
Gokturks are living up to their expansive reputation, grabbing three cities early on. Nothing flashy but it's more than enough to keep their excellent fourth place rank, with honestly, a pretty low deviation from us. Unfortunately, Tuva also got their third city out and Han looks like they might also get a third city, so it doesn’t seem like Gokturks’ neighbors will be pushovers. That being said, this was an excellent start for the civ and I’m excited to see what they’ll get up to.
Orange
The last shot of the part lies on the West and Arapaho with their nationalized animals. Comanche and the Cree are the two major issues for Arapaho and one of those just fucked themselves. A religion set up, a good AI, the American plains, all of what should have been Comanche’s land, there’s no stopping these guys. All they have to do is cut off the Cree and they’ll be set to be a super power for years to come.
Zanthor
Brandenburg had such a good start, I’m wondering if there’s a human playing this game. Not on Brandenburg’s part, but someone playing their neighbors, running settlers right on their doorstep, gifting them free cities to take. You might as well color those Anglo-Norse and Yugoslavian cities Brandeburg’s ugly shade of tan brown, since the foolish brave pioneers have little intention of defending their new clay. Let alone proving any obstacle to the Central European titan, who can seemingly make whatever move it wants and come out on top. Invading any one of its neighbors, or just building more units and settling quickly, either plan works in their favor.
Leman:
Permians crash into first place after an excellent opening. Three cities, a large population, and tons of space is the gold standard for civs by the end of the first part. Azykay received a gift on top of that in the form of Beshbaliq. The Permians aren’t at war with Qocho just yet but if they ever wanted a free city, it's right there for the taking!
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