Power Rankings: Episode 12 – S3

Release Date:

Janurary 2, 2023

Narrated by:

Power-Rankers

Video:

Abstract

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!

Viewing: Vertical

Jump to scene

Qocho

1 / 0

1: Qocho

CelestialDalek:

Oh, Sungulug Khagan. At first, you decided to be a brave explorer, sending your second city up to the Permians as a diplomatic favour. But even though you could have tried to recover from that move, you never did. War after war left you unable to make a shred of recovery, and you were hidden in the mountains, at the mercy of the stupidity of others. Ultimately, this proved to extend your lifespan far longer than it should have. I would say you tried, but unfortunately you did not do that. You ate shit from part 1 and died. Good riddance!

2: Philippines

Rosay:

Out of the alive civs, Philippines has been ranked as the worst and it's more so a matter of when they will die rather than if. In my opinion, the Philippines could actually survive for a couple more parts, provided that none of their neighbors suddenly becomes navally competent. Even if there is a naval landing on Malolos, the island is pretty stacked so it could be just a quick flip.

3: Khazaria

Altima

Khazaria gets bunted into second-last place as Turkey wails upon the walls of Samandar. When it falls, they’ll be a landlocked city state surrounded by actual powers, which is, you know, generally a Bad Thing. Frankly, one could very easily make the case for them being lower than the Philippines, but hey, not much sense in splitting coffin hairs; they’re fucked enough as is.

4: Vermont

Leman:

With Qocho super dead, Vermont finds itself in the bottom three. Honestly, I would have ranked Vermont lower, but it’s not in any potentially game-ending wars, like Khazaria is with Turkey and Philippines is with Indonesia. Who knows, maybe Ireland will sail across the Atlantic and kill them? Vermont’s garbage enough to let that happen.

5: Modoc

Msurdej:

Modoc continues to exist, mostly due to its position in the Rockies. Still they’re as hopeless as the last time I ranked them, which was...*checks the website* three parts ago. But I guess they get two ranks as a holiday present, or something.

6: Egypt

Shaggy:

Being relegated to rump status early basically took Egypt out of the running to win the game unless the Sun God itself can intervene. But hey, at least they aren’t actively getting conquered…

7: Seminole

JDT:

My ass would’ve stayed in the primordial soup if I knew there were days where I’d have to write about the Seminole.

8: Cambodia

Leman:

Cambodia is still alive!

9: Anglo-Norse

Msurdej: While the wars with Castile and Vermont aren’t going anywhere, the Yugoslavia war is important. Tito has moved units into the Norse capital, and if he can stop sending horsemen and start sending in pikemen, Canute will be in real trouble.

10: Brazil

Orange:

Brazil… exists? Still, somehow, they are here. Kayapo is distracted and getting hit hard, RDLP can’t really do much against them right now and is fighting Chile, so Brazil is doing alright. But when either of those wars end, even if they lose, Brazil is still weaker than them. Honestly, their best bet is to move against Kayapo or RDLP right now before those wars end and they can rebuild their militaries (or well, just build a military in Kayapo’s case). They weren’t visible at all really this part so I can’t really say whether they have more fleet or army to know who they should go after, so I’ll just say they can figure it out themselves.

11: Uganda

JDT:

Uganda goes up one, as they continue their holy crusade against the Kilwans to regain Mbabara. At the end of the part, it was looking pretty likely they’d retake that city, for all the little good that’ll give them. Aside from that, they remain a bottom feeder as the terrain remains the sole thing keeping Idi Amin from biting the dust. No other exits here man.

12: Yolngu

Shaggy:

“And here we have a lovely 3 city/3 port with a wide open ocean view. It’s a bit rough around the edges, what with a low diversity of luxury resources and limited production value, but give it a hundred or so turns and we really think this property has a lot of potential and is a great fit for your Timorese tenacity. Oh, I didn’t realize the current occupants were still here, so quiet. But hey, that’s the neighborhood!”

13: Mori

CelestialDalek:

Congratulations to Mori on brokering peace with North Korea. Statistically, there is now a 50% chance that if the two get into another war, they will give away their third city in a peace deal. Either way, they’re still here to wonder what the purpose of life is, and why it is suffering.

14: North Korea

Cloudy:

North Korea is just bouncing around between 40th and 46th like a sine wave—up and down, up and down, up and down. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to it, but it’s how it is. And so North Korea falls 4 places despite barely appearing on screen this episode and doing nothing of note.

15: Massagetae

Orange:

Massagetae still stands stretched as a line in between so many powers. They had some success against the Permians, but only because Tuva was distracting them and once Massagetae were on their own they got wrecked pretty bad, but somehow managed to come out even. Next time, I doubt things will go nearly as well. The clock is ticking for Tomyris, can she manage to somehow succeed?

16: Botswana

Leman:Botswana finally founded a fourth city. Isn’t that neat?

17: Ainu

Leman:

The most interesting thing about Ainu, North Korea, and Mori is how they’re doing in relation to each other. With Ainu’s fourth city coming down, they manage to gain five ranks and overtake North Korea. Yeah, the bar is on the floor.

18: Kyivan Rus’

Altima

The Kyivan Rus continue to be stuck on three cities in the middle of Europe between people way stronger than them. Thus, they continue to stay in the lower forties until something happens to either really screw over rather a lot of people, or more likely, really screw them up.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of Central America

19: Central America

JDT:

At this point I can buy that Morazon is actually in a coma. -1 points for Centroamerica, for having a literal vegetable as a leader.

20: Tetouan

Altima

Well, Tetouan is once more up a city on the backs of Keita’s utter inability to do a war, so they’ve got that going for them. Unless Keita starts getting even more incompetent, they probably won’t get any bigger than this, but by the same token, unless they fuck up a peace treaty, they probably won’t lose any territory for a while, so look forward to Tet ~38-40 for the next bit I guess. It is a little funny that they lost a rank after gaining territory, though. Statistic noise is funny.

21: Castile

Leman:

In a wholly unsurprising turn of events, Castile drops Oviedo to the Irish. It was far from the Castilian navy and like the Spanish Armada in real life, when it arrived it failed to really do very much. Luckily, that city wasn’t integral to the Castilian Empire, so only two spots lost for Isabella.

22: Anglo-Dutch

CelestialDalek:We all know that the Anglo-Dutch was initially placed second-to-last, mainly because Brandenburg was breathing down their neck. The good news is that they are higher. The bad news is that Brandenburg is an omnipresent threat who could kill the Anglo-Dutch if they wanted. William will put up a fight, but that won’t help for long. Thankfully, Brandenburg is sleeping right now and has decided to make amends over their early war. Let’s hope there isn’t a backstab pending, because William can’t get out of his little corner thanks to Castille and Yugoslavia bordering him.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of Rio de la Plata

23: Rio de la Plata

Leman:

So, it turns out there are downsides when you don’t settle for a hundred turns then settle like six cities after all the good territory is taken. Turns out, your stats are shit, your new cities are tiny and shit, and your ability to defend them is also shit.

To be fair RDLP is doing a decent enough job at holding on, they managed to flip Tupiza back, but you and I both know that this isn’t going to last. Chile’s got almost twice the military and over twice the production. This is going to be a route, it’s just a matter of time.

24: Pandya

Shaggy:

Hey, I’ve seen this schtick before. A civ settles a few cities in a part of the cylinder that is relatively isolated (or even not so isolated) from invaders and thinks “you know, that seems like enough” and then works on themselves with the fervor of a new divorcee putting themselves out there again. Unfortunately, the cylinder is not single’s night and there isn’t much to gain from waiting around for the right thing to come along. Pandya has been playing the waiting game for far too long and Chaghcharan is the consequence. It may be conquerable, but at what cost? Afghanistan has a token force at Pandya’s border but also the production to turn it into a sizable invasion force if Pandya has the gall to poke the sleeping Pashtun. Being stuck on their subcontinent will not bode well for Pandya long-term, but they have few options to branch out after waiting for so long.

25: Kwakwaka’wakw

Emu

Kwak continues to get their shit absolutely rocked by the Cree, with their military decimated and every non-tundra city they have in play. They're in a war with the Ainu right now too, and they're not even the superior force, if that gives you any idea of just how dismal their situation really is. I always had high hopes for ol' Quacky, but it looks like they'll just be the guys at the top of the world with a silly name for the rest of this game.

26: Zulu

Cloudy:

Kilwa has researched Compass, so Cetshwayo is going to need to watch out. His empire is not very impressive, and it’s almost entirely coastal, so if Kilwa ever gets tired of grinding against Uganda and beefs up its navy, Zulu could be in trouble, especially with all those cities they built in among Kilwa’s. With this in mind, we’ve now moved the Zulu down to their lowest rank since episode 0.

27: Yemen

Altima

A prison of sand

But the cell is also a gym

They are bulking up

28: Greenland

Orange:

So, Greenland continues to rise as their position looks good, but they are dead broke. 0 gold in the bank and losing 35 a turn, it’s pretty bad. And that gold deficit means that their already weak science is just going to get even worse. So perhaps they are ranked a bit too high, but hey, could be worse. But it could be so much better. C’mon Hans, make those cities useful.

29: Ming

Leman:

Ming’s last five ranks have been 32, 31, 31, 32, and now 31 again. That’s a full house! Congrats, Yongle, you win … nothing because Permians got Yahtzee back in episode 5. Also, because you didn’t do anything interesting last episode.

30: Mali

Altima

None of you understand! Keita isn’t declaring stupid wars and immediately losing territory by accident. It’s on purpose. Keita, see, he has a Feederism fetish, and this is just a mutual thing he has going on with Sayyida. He’s not accidentally throwing through incompetence, it's very much on purpose.

31: Kayapo

Msurdej: Well it finally happened. Kayapo lost the city of Baú to Muisca. Despite the tech and population advantage, Kayapo couldn’t convert enough of that to production and army, letting the city fall. It seems unlikely that Metuktire will be able to take it back, as his army is currently closer in size and power to Uganda’s than Muisca’s. Gorotire, the next closest Kayapo city, is thankfully through a bevy of rainforest tiles, so it seems likely this will be the only loss...hopefully.

32: Ireland

Leman:

Ireland has been waffling between 34 and 28 since episode three. This time, Ireland’s at the top of that range after snagging a city from Castile, which is honestly really great for the Irish! Honestly, there were calls for Ireland to get pushed up a little higher, but Brandenburg has made landfall up north. Last time, when the Gauls landed in Britain, that was the beginning of the end for Wales. Are these new cities from Brandenburg going to be a staging ground for a future invasion too?

Who knows! For now, Irelands looking pretty swell.

33: Kilwa

Leman:

Kilwa has had a quietly interesting part. Yes, on the surface it’s just a boring, and surprisingly difficult, flipfest, but behind the scenes a little more has happened. Kilwa has picked up two technologies this part. They were the first civilization to get Compass, which unlocks Galleasses and Caravels, powerful medieval warships that perfectly play into Kilwa’s naval conquest strategy. They were also the last civilization to unlock Masonry, finally unlocking walls! (Yeah, they really should have gotten this earlier). Furthermore, Kilwa’s been putting a lot of energy in this unsuccessful war against Uganda, and it's starting to show in the stats – they’re kind of stagnating.

Hopefully both of these new techs will help Kilwa finally hold on to Mbarara. Their stats have been flipping, so a decisive end to the war and an episode or two to rebuild and regroup would be great for them.

34: Vladimir

Orange:

Vladimir always feels surprisingly high but they do have some pretty decent stats, as well as a nice position. With the Permians getting weakened it just means more opportunity for Vladimir to stake their claim as the Russian power. Though, they are still right next to Lithuania and another war there would not be good for them, especially all those colonies that haven’t had the chance to grow productive yet. Keep the Lithuanians at bay and Vsevolod will be sitting pretty for a while.

35: Indonesia

JDT:

Slow and steady takes the race, as Suharto’s statline begins to surge as a result of the growth of his existing cities and the settlement of a few new ones. The new cities of Bandung and Semarang are also promising signs of renewed aggression (Remember - Chittagong and Midnapore are still open for the taking) , and his production, food and science remain at very reasonable levels. Of course, land for growth, either through easy expansion or settling, is disappearing, so perhaps staying too slow is detrimental. But until then, coasting through in 25th is Indonesia (going up mostly because everyone else goes down)

36: Normans

Emu

The Normans are shaping up to be little more than a slightly less frustrating Two Sicilies. There isn't really a clear opposition to them in the Mediterranean, but they do have a big land-based threat. They started with strong settles, and managed to actually keep them just fine, but they're having some real trouble solidifying. If they can muster a coherent enough force for just one solid conquest, I think they're golden. But until they can get the ball rolling, they're just another naval power who *could* go somewhere.

37: Wiradjuri

Rosay:

What was once thought impossible has now become a reality on the great cylinder we call earth: a mid Aussie civ. I guess you could make a case for season 1 pre-endgame Australia, but here's the thing: they were actually relatively exciting and clawed their way to regional power, 10 parts in Wiradjuri has had one of the strongest spawn locations in the game and has done NOTHING with it. They can't even take out a free rump state, it's not like a Philippines situation where the terrain makes it hell, Wiradjuri can just roll their way in and call it a day. Hell the only reason that Maori is even considered to be as highly ranked as they are and Timor Leste is the dominant oceanic power is because Wiradjuri is just so incompetent, it's honestly laughable.

38: Maori

Cloudy:

I’m a little disappointed that the Maori didn’t manage to settle Tasmania, but hey, we’re not going to punish it for them yet. In fact, their stats have been improving somewhat (they used to be one of the most overrated civs relative to their info sheet rank), and their navy looks pretty large. It’s still all triremes right now, but if they research Compass, I could see them taking Tasmania by force without too much trouble.

39: Timor-Leste

Leman:

While Indonesia is getting all the screen time in the region, Timor-Leste is still quietly annihilating all our expectations. Their production, military, and population are all within the top 20 and their effective science is fifth! That’s ahead of Lithuania, Mohave, Bengal, and a bunch of other top tier civilizations. Like when we memed about it a few months ago, honestly, I was expecting something like Haiti and Jamaica, where Timor-Leste fell off after a few episodes in the spotlight. That has not been the case. Stats-wise, Timor-Leste is honestly a few good cities away from being a superpower.

40: Muisca

Orange:

My boi Nemequene takes a nice slice out of the Kayapo pie, something many thought wouldn’t happen due to the jungle and Kayapo’s insane science. But look at that, they got taken down a notch, and now Muisca is looking real strong. If they can manage to capture Gorotire then wew, they would likely slip right into the top ten and give the Inca a run for their money. Either way, once this war is over, the Muisca will be in a much stronger place and with a bit of building up will have a nice base of operations to move against Kayapo again, the Caribbean, or Central America.

41: Yugoslavia

Emu

Yugoslavia is a strange little secondary power. Geography helps them hold their own against the two giants at their borders, and they have a decent power base of their own, something not many of the 'saved by geography' type civs have. This is one civ that could very much go either way. They could easily build a solid empire in Southern Europe and have some real chances going into the back half of the game, or they could languish, hovering quietly in the upper-mid tier until someone gets the critical mass to take them out.

42: America

Altima

Despite all the setbacks these Dark Ages throw them, America continues to expand its Caribbean holdings. We’re gonna ignore some of the historicity there, but regardless, it nets them a couple of ranks through labor of adversity.

43: Permians

Leman

The Permians keep moving up as they continue their slow climb back up to their former heights. There was a flash of brilliance this week as the Permians seemed poised to crush Massagetae, but alas, a poorly (or exceptionally, depending on who you’re backing) timed peace treaty keeps Jaxartes out of Permian hands.

Behind the scenes the Permians have rebuilt much of what they lost. The Permian army is back, comprised of 4,524 people (almost the same as Han’s 4,600). They have a solid production, keeping up with those on the lower end of the top ten, and respectable tech and population. They may not be quite what they were 4 or parts ago, but the Permians are still a force to be reckoned with.

44: Bengal

Emu

Bengal is a good civ lost in a sea of great ones. Smushed right between two top 10 civs, their only real land move is south toward Pandya, and given Pandya's military in the region actually outstrips Bengal's, that might not be such a great idea. On the sea, however, they have a real opportunity. They have a fairly large navy for this point in the game, a decent smattering of coastal cities to churn out more, and fairly weak coastal cities to raid in Pandya and Indonesia. At the current moment, they could probably withstand an attack from either Afghanistan or Kokang, but withstanding is pretty much all they'd do. But as we learned from the Chola just a little farther south, withstanding is sometimes a great victory. I'd watch this space: Bengali power is likely to blow up when you'd least expect it.

45: Chile

Leman

Chile makes the fantastic move of declaring war on Rio de la Plata! RDLP has been brazenly settling all along Chile’s border and it’s about time Chile took advantage of its weaker neighbor. Jujuy and Tupiza flipped very quickly, and while the latter has flipped back, I can’t imagine it, or La Plata will be flying blue and white flags for so long. The only question now is, will Chile be able to push for more? Maybe Mendoza?

46: Angola

JDT:

For a civ this big, Angola REALLY doesn't do much. They've blobbed out to become the biggest people in Africa, but Savimbi is surprisingly tactful with his diplomatic plays, and hasn't actually drummed up any action in quite a while. However, his lack of aggression may not be the play. Chad is swiftly proving to be a worthwhile rival, aggressively settling the northeast and bulking up in all their stats. Angola still leads stats-wise in all aspects, but has a vulnerable core that is prone to picking off by their neighbours, and so must be wary. Nevertheless, right now they are doing fairly swimmingly, and thus get a rank increase of 1.

47: Gokturks

Cloudy:

The Gokturks are something of an enigma. They’ve had the largest army on the cylinder for several episodes in a row now, and are 8th overall on the stats sheet, but they still haven’t researched writing, and they have the same number of techs as Egypt, Brazil, North Korea, and Tetouan. Previous write-ups have gone on about this at length, but still. They need to research writing and actually use that army or they’re going to be the Northern Yuan of Season 3.

48: Chad

Emu

The Chadliest civ of them all continues to rise by aura alone. As Angola proves to be the liminal space of civs, and Chad proves ever more dynamic and strong, there seems to be no one to challenge Idriss Deby in his quest to become the swolest in all of Africa. Minus a couple cheeky forward settles, Chad has a nice shape that doesn't really create any weak spots in their defensive line. Not that they need a defensive line, given their military is the strongest on the continent by a country mile. They have some immediate prospects for conquest, but not too many; the jungle lays to the south and the mountains to the east. All in all, very solid civ that I think will definitely end in the top 10 at least.

49: Mohave

CelestialDalek:

Now that North America is jam-packed with cities, the Mohave have taken to the seas in search of greener pastures. Due to their stagnation, they drop a rank. They’re heavily hampered by mountains, which have prevented them from finishing off the Modoc, and are bordered by the Arapaho. Regardless, they’re still in a spot where they have enough power that most civs below them should be scared of them. Time will tell if their stagnation or failure to attack the Modoc continues.

50: Kokang

Cloudy:

Kokang is condemned to eternally vacillate between 10th place and 11th place. This week they’re 10th again, and it doesn’t seem like they’re likely to go anywhere else in the future. Their stats remain decent—11th overall on the sheet—and they have a lot of cities, albeit in tough terrain. Their latest city is probably a questionable move, settled far away from their main empire up near Tuva, and it’s hard to say what will happen to it. Their army is also bigger than I thought, eclipsing even Han, who appears at first glance to have a bigger carpet. So overall they’re doing okay—but where to go from here?

51: Inca

JDT:

The Inca flabber back down to 9th again, a tiny 1 point drop from last PR. They continue to snake down the Pacific, as Tupac intends to prove that his theories and policies on a new world are indeed correct. Of course, in mainland South America, they still retain the largest statline and high power projection from a mighty military, and with the Kayapo getting weaker, their dominance over the locale becomes ever so assured. Yes, their colonial project in the Antilles may have failed, but regardless

52: Cree

Rosay:

Disregarding the city that instantly flipped back and will probably continue to do so for a bit, the Cree-Kwak war really hasn't amounted to much thanks to those dastardly mountains and forests blocking a clean invasion route. The Modoc war also really went nowhere, which is disappointing as I was kinda hoping that would result in a rump removal. This part was not entirely a lost part for Cree though, as they do seem to be preparing an offensive on the northern front to sweep Alaska which if successful would honestly be better than just taking the Kwak capital, because it would allow Cree access to the incredibly squishy three stooges of East Asia, and Cree is desperate for some neighbors that could be reasonably rolled over.

53: Han

Cloudy:

Han continues to rise back up the ranks, riding high on their elimination of Qocho, which brought them into the elite club of civs with more than one capital. They also have excellent stats, visually impressive military, and a penchant for new cities. Overall, things are looking good, and Qocho was not the most well-liked civ, so it’s possible they’ll get away with the elimination too. From here on out, though, it won’t be as easy—most of Han’s other neighbors will be tough to take out with present technology.

54: Arapaho

Rosay:

Ok I've been wanting to talk about this civ for a while now because I have an honest hot take about this civ: Arapaho is kinda overrated. No dont get me wrong they are not bad by any means necessary, they're playing really well, they are actually using their good start to their advantage (unlike SOME civs cough wira cough), they're sure as hell not sleepy, and are an easy top 10 civ, but I feel like they're receiving the Burkina Faso treatment. For those who didn't know, back in CBRX2, Burkina Faso almost completely blocked off Nigeria in the first part and all of the power rankers (myself included) thought Burkina Faso was shoehorned to be the top civ in Africa if not the game. Then the next part hit and Nigeria wiped the floor with Burkina Faso and they dropped, and correct me if I'm wrong, a record breaking 43 spots because Burkina was overextended. Fast forward to present day and Arapaho is in a different yet similar situation. Their military is technically equal to all of their neighbors, but it is split in defending three really strong neighbors. Mohave is a quagmire waiting to happen, Cree has a respectable border defense and America has a nigh-equal military and a lot less ground they need to defend. All it takes is one coalition war to knock Arapaho down the global pecking order. Then again that requires a quick reaction on the other AIs provided Arapaho paces itself correctly, but it is a relevant enough of a red flag to prevent them from being anywhere in the top 5 in my eyes.

55: Lithuania

Emu

Lithuania is still riding high, but as their closest rival resurges, questions are being raised about their ability to stay at the top. They can stand against the major powers near them, sure, but can they make much headway? Their last war with Vladimir went nowhere, but way back then they weren't nearly as strong as they are now. All in all, they look destined to end up a top 10 power with nothing but meatgrinder after meatgrinder once the weaklings near them are gone. That's a far better outlook than most, but their chances to take it all the way aren't good.

56: Turkey

Orange:

Turkey steps into the top 5 with their absolutely killer (literally, cough cough Khazaria) stats and little resistance around them to take them down a notch. Really, their only threat at the moment is Afghanistan, who would have to push through the Iranian mountains in order to reach Turkey, so they are pretty safe. Now they just need to do a bit more conquering to secure a superpower spot, perhaps Yemen would be open to being conquered?

57: Brandenburg

Rosay:

Brandenburg had a bit of a quieter part this time around, and that's not necessarily a bad thing given that they appear to be turtling properly. See, unlike the two civs yet to be revealed, Brandenburg has checks in the form of Lithuania and to a lesser extent Turkey and surprisingly Ireland that prevent them from truly being unstoppable, and Brandenburg has to play carefully as to not expose itself to its neighbors. The Tribe leader of Brandenburg is very much aware of this however and has taken measures for an inevitable war with Lithuania in the near or distant future, as they have taken the time to increase production and science generation to make sure they can defensively outlast Lithuania's comparatively lower production and science generation. The great wall is a great example of how Brandenburg are taking the time to turtle up as well, as in the event of a sudden war, Brandenburg would have more than enough time to mount an defense and essentially turn eastern europe into a meat grinder. Though for the sake of expansion, Brandenburg could take out the Anglo Dutch/Norse with relative ease.

58: Afghanistan

Shaggy:

Kind of funny that I got selected to do the Afghanistan writeup as I was the only Power Ranker to not have Afghanistan competing for one of the top 2 spots this part. I understand the zeal, their stats are more than impressive and they have a variety of invasion options in Massagetae, Pandya, and even Turkey if they really wanted to grab a piece of Turkey. The biggest issue for me is density. Yes they have production, yes they have the military numbers, but the sheer amount of land under their control makes the work of building a formidable carpet that much harder. I’ll be the first to admit that there are definitely worse problems to have, especially in Asia, but I do have to wonder if the stats are not telling the whole story. They are the first civ I’ve seen with carracks (Kilwa also got them this part), and quite a few of them at that. Afghanistan is turning into a threat on land and sea and I’ll be more than happy to be shown I’m wrong about them.

59: Tuva

Shaggy:

Tuva continues to dominate the Power Rankings this part as their stats continue to improve and their potential future invasion strategies emerge. Their eastern front has terrain issues that the technology of the time still struggles to overcome, especially at the numbers needed to mount a true invasion of either Gokturks or Han. That triangle where those civs meet will be especially meatgrindery as the game progresses as a result of the natural funnel created by what seem to be Lake Baikal and edge of the Sayan Mountains. Tuva’s western front, however, is definitely not destined to be a generational stalemate. Any misstep by the Permians could be the opportunity for Tuva to take a bigger chunk out of their core, hell it might even be time now that their invasion of Massagetae has sputtered out. Similarly, should Tuva choose to focus on a smaller morsel Massagetae and… a random Kokang city (and I guess Avi Mota, if they really stretch) are up for grabs. As the intonations of their singing reverberate across the continent, all anyone else can do is watch with bated breath to see if they are next.

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