Power Rankings: Episode 2 – S3

CelestialDalek:The most controversial ranking on the sheet is mine. It is Qocho in 59th, literally every other ranker put them in last. Sungulug Khagan is going to lose his 2nd city the first turn or two of the next episode, and continual assaults on his capital have staggered his settlement. It looks like Qocho is going to have to start from scratch if they want to expand. However, knowing how they started the game, I don’t think they want to.

Cloudberg:

Another episode passes, and Iron Jacket still hasn’t founded a second city. His settler is somewhere in Europe and he has barely built any military units. How is it possible to throw a game this badly? I don’t even know, and honestly maybe nobody does. Now all that remains is who decides to pick up a free capital by attacking them (just kidding, we all know it’ll be the Arapaho).

JDT:

Seretse Khama has managed to get into an existentially threatening war, making him tonight's big loser. The miracle of Africa probably won’t be pulling any miracles here tonight, as they are between a rock and a hard place, being the target of a joint DOW between the Zulu and Angola. What's worse is that they have nothing to defend themselves with. Sure, their capital and second city have pretty high defensive capabilities for this stage of the game, but that won’t matter when you’re getting surrounded by 20 military units. Though 2 civs are below them, I won’t be remiss if we saw the first elimination of the game come next part courtesy of Savimbi or Cestwahyo.

Msurdej:Things are not looking good for Micanopy. America is breathing down his neck, looking to nab his second city. Worse still, a look at the stats shows the Semiole having the least Military Manpower, and a production languishing in the bottom five. Micanopy will have to make peace fast, or else lose whatever chance he might have at winning this CBR.

Emu

Their chief rival looks to have been boxed in for the time being. So why are the Anglo-Dutch still so low? Well, good old Anglo-Dutch aren't shaping up to be Anglo-Much. Even with (still formidable!) Brandenburg boxed in, they're keeping up their reputation as an AI that doesn't really get started until midgame. Midgame comebacks aren't easy to come by in a game like this, especially with a start like this, and no one has any faith in them to pull it off. If they made some bold moves to their west, maybe, but nothing even remotely resembling that has materialized, and these rankings aren't projections of future power. (Not that that looks likely either.) Sure, Ireland is equally sluggish, but does that really mean much when William III is taking absolutely zero advantage of it? They're not nearly as hard up as the bottom four civs, but things don't look rosy for the tulip king.  

JDT:

Wait? Filipinos are real people? I thought they were just an elaborate internet scam!

Ok real talk. They have that city in Vietnam. They may or may not be able to exploit a joint invasion of Cambodia. They’re getting outpaced by basically all their neighbours. They might as well not exist.

Orange:

Timor-Leste rises one (1) rank as their neighbors continue to do nothing, other civs dropping, and their stats actually not being half bad. Though we only got stats available pretty late so I don’t think everyone used them, but TL had some impressive numbers for such a terrible starting position. If they were ranked solely on the info addict scores (a weighted ranking of the various stats info addict provides), then TL would be in 13th. 13th! They have solid production, manpower, and effective science. Yolngu is ranked 54th on the info addict scores. Seriously what the heck is going on with these guys, maybe they really will do the impossible and do well, but most people still seem to think otherwise.

Orange:

:(

They have real good manpower but that’s kinda it, and even with that manpower it’s only useful if you actually take cities with it. Modoc peacing out with Mohave just before taking Hokusave is going to basically cut off their chances. I really hope they can somehow claw their way out of this, but to do so they either need to get some settlers out already and fill in whatever gaps they can, or to actually use their manpower well by taking cities before peacing out instead of the other way around.

Cloudberg:

The Yolngu did nothing to improve their situation this episode, but it also didn’t get worse, so we didn’t move ‘em. The real question right now is whether Oceania goes to the Wiradjuri or the Maori.

Leman:

The war with Turkey seems to be going okay, but I will say that Assyria definitely feels like the underdog in this fight. Though both civs are still on two cities, Turkey’s are larger and have more production. Turkey has 37 overall production, top five. Assyria has 9. Dead last.

Altima

The Kyivan Rus’ staggers a bit, only readying their third settler in the final slides of the part. It’s not a great look to only be hitting city par for this part in the next part, and neither is their low crop yield and pop. Or the increasing crowding of their chunk of Europe. Or the fact that they’re making negative gold. But hey, they’ve got an alright military for this part of the game. That’s something.

Orange:

There was a single slide with Cambodia in it, and it was just a shot of SEA mentioning that all the cities around there have high pop. This should tell you all you need to know about Cambodia: They’ve done nothing, settled nothing, and built nothing. But hey at least they have a somewhat alright crop yield.

Emu:

Vladimir, why must you be so badimir? We thought you'd be chadimir, but instead you're just sadimir. You hadimir our hearts, but you quickly fell flatimir. Lithuania fans are gladimir, but at what cost? You've generated plenty of chatimir, but no one's saying you're all thatimir. With so many neighbors, it's clear you're about to go splatimir, Vladimir.

Shaggy

An ascendant Lithuania makes Canute have to come up with a backup plan to try to have a fallback for the inevitable Great European Kerfuffle. So he packed up and took the Anglo-Norse to the northern north, settling the first city in Scandinavia. This alone seems to be enough for the Power Rankers this week to finally find some daylight between Anglo- civs and their short-term potential. But hey, it’s Europe, and their mainland cities still look mighty vulnerable.

Altima

“Thank god for Quocho,” says Tetouan as they ride the failures of a bunch of other civs out of the 50s. They’re still boned long term- their tech is low even as early as it is, their pop is tiny, they haven’t hit 3 cities yet, and they’re still North African. But hey, at least they’ve got twice as many cities as the Comanche.

Msurdej:Shakushain has little change from Part 1. Still at two cities, still an island civ. The war between North Korea and the Mori could distract the two nations, and allow the Ainu to settle more territory around its two biggest neighbors. But he’ll have to act fast, not to mention keep the Gokturks at bay if he goes into Siberia.

Cloudberg:

Vermont continues to look kind of small and pathetic with its two little cities, while the big bois to the west swallow up the continent. Would like to see some action from them or they’re never going to get out of the 40s, where they’ve been since the beginning.

Lasqueto

This week Khazaria totally failed to cop an early invasion on Vladimir, which even given the flat terrain wasn’t likely to work. Early invasions are always risky as they tend to be a waste of production that could be spent on infrastructure or settling. Regardless, Khazaria aren’t totally screwed yet, as the Permians are currently distracted by helping Qocho throw the game away, but they’re likely to be next on the chopping block if Azykay wants further expansion.

Lasqueto

Indonesia continues to do not much, making it increasingly likely this is gonna be one of their dud runs and we won’t be seeing any of the malacca-esque boat-dropping antics from some of the test runs. Obviously they still have a lot of space due to sleepy neighbours, so there’s still time to pull things back into check, but I’m not overly hopeful.

Shaggy

Ireland gets knocked down further into the bottom half this week after a rather uneventful episode for them. They are seemingly playing Greenland’s game of settling a couple cities that nobody will look at for a thousand years and then sitting pretty on them without much thought of further expansion.

CelestialDalek:

Well, Inca is certainly in this game. They built a wonder. Their position is defensible, and they put their second city in a spot that makes sense, so we can rest knowing that they will do better than Peru-Bolivia. They are in a worse position than all other South American civs as they don’t have insanely suited uniques (Kayapo) or lots of space to expand (all the other civs). Maybe they’ll pull something off.

Orange:

North Korea decided to try and take the one city they can not take. Mori’s forward settle of the Korean peninsula can be attacked through a one tile wide hill covered area and the sea, North Korea does not have a city on the coast. There’s just nothing they can do other than hope Mori feels scared of their manpower. At least their stats are decent, not good enough to be considered in a better position then any of them sans Ainu, but decent.

Arilasqueto

Honestly I’m not sure why this civ is in the PRs. I don’t think they’re in the game. I see a civ with the same name listed in the info sheet, and they have fairly passable stats. On the other hand there’s just a huge void of space sitting there in southwest europe which this civ would be totally failing to capitalise on if they were in the game. Thankfully they’re not so at least they have an excuse, right?

Shaggy

Greenland gets knocked out of the top half this week after a rather uneventful episode for them. They are seemingly playing Ireland’s game of settling a couple cities that nobody will look at for a thousand years and then sitting pretty on them without much thought of further expansion.

Shaggy

With the Royal Danadian Lounted Police’s army not able to see either their target or their origin city clearly due to annoying things like hills, forests, and jungles in the way, Brazil looks relatively stable defending in this war. They fall out of the top half anyway, though. The need to commit significant production to defending their territory isn’t the best thing this early in the game.

Msurdej:  Uganda takes a tumble in the ranks, as their war with Kilwa ends in failure for Idi Amin. Worse still, while most of their neighbors have managed to get out a third city, Uganda still sits on two cities. If they can’t settle more cities, they’ll be boxed in. And that is not the way.

Lasqueto

Turkey takes another dip in the rankings due to failing to expand and fumbling an easy war against Assyria. We also saw the Normans starting to encroach on their core with the city in Thrace, meaning Ataturk really has to start picking up the pace. Despite this, his stats remain excellent, so I wouldn’t say he’s in any serious trouble yet.

Cloudberg:

Egypt continues to wander about the middle of the rankings, since we’re unsure what to make of them. Settling their third city on Cyprus is certainly an interesting move, but is it good or bad? Will Egypt pile on the Normans to take out their settlements in North Africa? Nobody knows; only time will tell.

Leman:

Ming yawns its way down the ranking as it joins the two dozen or so civs that failed to get a third on the board this part. Without a 16-pop capital, two cities is just not going to cut it. Let’s hope Yongle gets a few settlers out next part.

CelestialDalek:Right around the middle, Mohave has jumped quite a few places this week as a result of managing to ignore the Modoc and somehow lose no cities and settle an extra. Sure, they’re stuck between a rock-paho and a hard place, but their primary enemy now looks as soft as a teddy bear. Mohave is currently managing to be more competent than Modoc, Seminole, and Comanche, so they’re solidly in the middle of North America. It’ll be an uphill path to success.

Msurdej:Han drops like a rock this part as their invasion of the Qocho capital peters out. Not only that, but they fail to settle a third city, leaving them stuck at two. Their only consolation is that there’s still quite a lot of room to settle in China, and the Ming are doing worse than them.

Altima

The Muisca land straight in the middle and they settle straight into the middle of the jungle with their middle stats. They’re aight enough.

Emu

Sayyida al-Hurra has distracted opponents, open land, and good AI. This earns her a sizable rise in rank this part. But why isn't it higher? Well, go back to the first sentence. Open land. That means they haven't settled it either. Open is right, too. It's almost completely barren desert, and while a Deity AI can grow a respectable city in open desert, it's still not nearly as good as a city with a little more foliage around. Sluggishness is a huge detractor from even the most advantageously positioned civ's rank, and Yemen is not the most advantageously positioned civ. But still, their advantages cannot be denied, and their boxing-in of Uganda's northern expansion is still a pretty slick move. This lands them a solid spot among the mid-tiers, but honestly I think they don't have much further up to go from here.

Emu

Ah, Silver River. Our old first place. Nowadays they're taking silver (how appropriate) next to their neighbor Chile, and by six ranks no less! So what went wrong for our blue friends in the south? Well, of course there's the obvious reason, the move by Allende. More important his part, however, is their failure to capitalize on any other available opportunity. Being cut off in the South alone would hardly justify this far a fall, but they just aren't going any other direction right now. They're even getting boxed in by Brazil! It looks like for much expansion beyond just a couple cities, they'll have to turn to conquest, and even for a civ so well versed in doing just that, that's not a good sign this early in the game. All this isn't to say they don't have a shot at conquering the continent, they very much do, it just looks like a lot less of a sure thing than it used to.

JDT:

Angola suffers a touch from a bit of power creep and some other powers just being slightly better than them. Savimbi has made a gambit against Botswana that can potentially pay dividends. However, right now their troops are positioned towards Gabrone, a hard-to-take capital that is also actively under siege by Cestwahyo and his grand Zulu swarm. Francistown is wide open for the taking should he wish to mosey on over, but unless Savimbi actually commits to a strike, what seems a little more likely is that his troops are gonna get seperated and die, destroying his army with little actual gain. Of course, he still has all of the Kongo to settle in order to compensate, but a strategic loss would not be ideal at all, and the PRs reflect that.

Msurdej:  Bad news Chad, you haven't settled on a third city, lumping you in the “two city chumps” with Ming, Seminole, and Vladimir. On the good news... Chad is currently leading on the tech tree with a total of 12! Sure, they may lose that lead soon, but Chad has some level of power that is lacking in Africa.

JDT:

Centroamerica continues to slowly but surely build up their position. After part 1, Morazon decides that it is surely a positive for society if they segregate the atheists, and thus decided to exile them to the westernmost bank of Cuba whilst still refusing to move north into Mexico. While this can potentially create conflict with the USA in the future, and most certainly isn’t the optimal play given how much of Mexico remains, they still have plenty of land and plenty of time to grow.

Leman:

Kilwa brushes off a few invasions while making landfall on Madagascar this part, but otherwise remains quiet. Three is the average number of cities which is nice for an average civ like Kilwa.

JDT:

Not much to bring home for Afghanistan, but they remain about the same rank for the same reasons as last week. They are settling at a reasonable pace, reaching 3 cities, and still have swathes of Iran to settle. They ought to settle a little more aggressively if they want to really contend with the top though.

Shaggy

Chile continues to take advantage of the Royal Danadian Lounted Police being distracted by Brazil and uses this part to build out their infrastructure more. Or, at least I hope they’re building infrastructure. Doesn’t look like they have too much of a military presence at their border so hopefully they aren’t throwing away production on a useless wonder or something.

Leman

North Korea declares war on Mori! Quick look at the slides show that this war isn’t looking excellent for Mori. They’ve got one of the smallest militaries and a whole sea to ferry their units across. However, the hills and mountains should be able keep the city safe for the time being.

That being said, three cities are three cities, which means Mori is ranked fairly highly.

CelestialDalek:Kayapo is almost at the point where they can take off. They have tons of population, and their granaries are going to boost them up high. They would be a lot higher if it weren’t for a few really low ranks based on their place in the Amazon, which is both beneficial (their uniques go nuts) and detrimental (wars are meatgrinders). All they need to do is build some settlers and get up to par, but once they do that they have a strong chance to be the top dog of South America.

Lasqueto:

Mali continues to settle conservatively, ending the part at 3 cities, which would normally be concerning, but as Africa this game seems to be more of a slumber party than anything, that’s not too much of an issue. They might want to watch out for the normans though who started expanding into Libya this episode, and though I’m generally skeptical of Songhai Syndrome being a given for Sahel civs, they might be worth watching out for.

Leman:

Rocky part for Freddy-W if we’re being honest, but let’s be real for a second. Archer pushes rarely ever work. We shouldn’t really be surprised that Bradenburg’s invasion of Anglo-Dutch didn’t go so well, and, while I can’t speak for the other Power Rankers, I didn’t rank them highly in part 0 with the expectation they’d be crushing Europe by turn 45. No, I expected a strong core, a large army and aggressive behavior that leads to success – all of which Brandenburg still has. We should absolutely not count Brandenburg out just yet. They still have a large population, three cities, and a decent military, and more than enough time to consolidate, and be the superpower we expect them to be.

Emu

The Maori go up significantly as the Wiradjuri prove relatively sluggish and distracted and Potatau makes strides to ensure he's anything but. Despite Wiradjuri having a far superior start, the underdogs in Aotearoa are only two ranks below their continental rivals. As their settler-churning UA kicks in in force, they have the opportunity to grab up as much land as they want, building strength for the inevitable attempt at conquest of Australia. And they're taking it for all it's worth. Defying past performances, they seem to be settling just as quickly as they can, up to a staggering five cities, a number bested by none and equaled only by the steppe dwellers in Tuva and the zealous Guiscard in Italy. If they can just keep this up, everything from Polynesia to Sulawesi is theirs hands down.

Cloudberg:

Bengal holds mostly steady after an uneventful part. They’re on three cities with a fourth on the way, but their neighbor Pandya is also expanding fast. Remains to be seen how they will utilize the space available to them.

Altima

Australia is ever quiet in the early game. Wiradjuri’s only real showing was on Maori slides, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to say about them. While their production is solid enough and they’re on par for tech and cities, their pop is actually kinda abysmal, which is liable to catch up to them with time. Still, they have time to correct that, and as the Eastern Aussies, they don’t exactly have a lot of pressure on them to do so quickly.

Leman:

FDR forgoes settlers this part and instead goes aggro, invading the Seminole. So far, the invasion is looking pretty lackluster, as most invasions this early are. While I like the initiative, I think I would have preferred a few more cities. It seems like Arapaho is going to grab the majority of the interior of the continent.

Leman:

If last part’s settling of Zagreb was Yugoslavia throwing its hat into the ring, telling Brandenburg that Europe wasn’t going to be consolidated without a fight, this part Tito leapt straight into the fray. He settled a solid Northern Italian city of Sarajevo, is sending another settler further west, and might be grabbing another city from the Normans.

Personally, I think Messina will hold – Yugoslavia doesn’t have too many melee units and the terrain makes getting the units into the gates of the city a little difficult. Regardless, even if Tito doesn’t manage to snag Messina, this is a show of force that proves Tito is not messing around, and provides cover to get a few cities out.

CelestialDalek:

What happened? Wasn’t Pandya just so low? Yes, and you know what happened: they settled 2 cities in one turn and got into the elite club of 4 cities, with another settler going southwards. Their future hinges on whether or not Afghanistan and Bengal decide to go deeper into India. If they don’t, Pandya will improve even more. Continuing this crazy hypothetical, if either Afghanistan or Bengal wages a war on the other side of their country, Pandya can exploit their backdoor. However, if they both decide to settle in there, Pandya is cooped in. It’s a question of luck, but good luck comes to those who work hard.

Altima

All’s quiet in the jungle tonight. Kokang sits at the top of the pile there, but mostly just on the merits of being in the best geographical position. Statistically, they’re merely alright; like most civs, we’ll have to see where they go from here, if they can pull ahead of their peers or if they’ll merely stagnate.

Orange:

The Normans jumped 42 ranks as they aggressively settle to become one of three civs at 5 cities. Sadly one of those cities is in quite a bit of danger, but the final turn didn’t see what should have been a capture so maybe they are holding on okay. The other war declarations will probably be meaningless, so the Normans just have to focus on pushing back Yugoslavia to give them the freedom they need to rule over the Mediterranean.

JDT

The Massagetae continue to exist. They remain at 3 cities. They may face future threats from the Permians and Afghanistan very slowly encroaching on them, but that isn’t a massive problem at the moment. There isn’t much more to say.

Shaggy

“If you ain’t first, you’re last” never rang true for Cetshwayo as he takes the initiative to invade Botswana after Angola took out the bulk of their military. The biggest defensive assets for Gaborone are *checks notes* one half health spearman and a couple river tiles. Other than pissing off Angola by taking Gaborone before they’re done with Francistown, I don’t see any downsides for the Zulu entering this war.

Orange:

Kwak cuts their rank in half as they hop into the top 10 in a respectable 7th. And it’s clear why, they have a lot going for them: A strong army, very defensible terrain, another settler out heading north to keep the Cree out of their lands, and the Cree attacking Arapaho meaning their army is leaving their Kwak front open. Things are only looking up from here and I can’t wait to see someone from the Pacific coast dominate.

Altima

Well, that’s a pretty big gang flying at Qarakhoja. Pity warriors are bad at everything. While there’s a non-zero chance of the Gokturks taking the city, we’ve seen how well that’s gone thus far. Still, their massive pre-built military, abundance of space, and aight production get the Gokturks into the top ten in the early rounds. We’ll just have to see if they can hold it.

Msurdej:  Eeking into the top 5, Poundmaker has a lot of things going for him. In a world where having 3 cities is a sign of competence, Pundemaker has 4. He’s also sporting the highest production, and a strong army to boot. The only issue is they aren’t sending that army to their war with the Arapaho. So while Poundmaker is doing very good, he could be doing better.

Cloudberg:

Lithuania catapults itself into the top five this episode as confidence in Brandenburg falls and Gedeminas’s neighbors continue to stagnate. Lithuania now has four cities, while the Kyivan Rus’ and Vladimir still only have two, and with plenty of space in Scandinavia and northern Russia, the sky’s the limit in terms of expansion. Lithuania also has a decent military to back it up. So for the moment, the rankers think that Lithuania is now the favorite to win Europe.

CelestialDalek:Arapaho gets the 3rd spot for one reason: Pretty Nose has a pretty nice amount of 5 cities. She is at war with the Cree to the north of her, but luckily they haven’t sent much military to attack. Arapaho also has a free 6th city in the form of the Comanche capital, and a weakened Modoc to her west. They just need to not stagnate.

Lasqueto

Tuva jumps up in the rankings after a productive if quiet part. They got up to 5 cities, tied with Arapaho and the Normans, and due to their mountainous surroundings they won’t have much trouble defending them. They also have excellent stats. Donduk’s best bet is to start expanding westward before the Permians start expanding again. The gokturks look more concerned with the east and south, so as it stands Tuva looks set for a long and successful season

Emu

Perm stays on top by a narrow margin as their eastern neighbors climb in city count. They will take out that foolish Qocho settlement just after the end of the part, and their army looks just as strong and ready as ever. Their space advantage has hardly diminished, the Tuvans are their only threatening neighbor, their stats are good...... Azykay has the confidence of the Power Rankers this time around, but he's not far from being knocked down to second place.