Power Rankings: Episode 43 – S3

Orange:

Rip to a real one, Willy III the OG. The Anglo-Dutch started the game ranked 60th, only behind Timor-Leste, nearly every test saw them get steamrolled by Brandenburg immediately, there was no hope for them. And yet, they stood, Brandenburg fucked up wars against them, multiple times, they were able to expand to most of France, even getting a city on the British Isles. Better than expected, but they also faced troubles there. Ireland took their island city, and they faced attacks from the Castilians in the south. They were on the backfoot most of the early game. Yet at one point, while giving away a major city to Normandy in the south, they also took a city off Ireland, someone who should’ve been by all accounts stronger than A-D, especially after giving away Amsterdam. Yet this saw a period of growth for A-D, they took a few more cities off of Ireland, then after more waiting they took even more, they were the new kings of the Isles. Yet sadly, this would not last forever, as despite the position they were still weak, and when total war hit, amazing for them getting that far in the first place though, Brandenburg, with their massive navy, finally turned towards A-D and started taking (and nuking) the Isles to dust, before long they were back in just France with three cities. But they didn’t go down without a fight, from here saw one of the most incredible plays, an A-D blitz that managed to take Berlin, the oppressors who started number 2 and always steamrolled them had their capital taken by the one they steamrolled. An absolutely stunning sight. Sadly, it was not meant to last, as despite the push they couldn’t face the force of the Turkish army.

The Anglo-Dutch knocked every expectation out of the water, not quite as stunning in display as Timor-Leste, and nowhere near as powerful, but they still did the seemingly impossible nonetheless. Maybe in another timeline they could’ve gotten even further, settling more of the British Isles, not giving away Amsterdam to Normandy, taking Ireland out earlier, getting in on Castile’s or Normandy’s demise. They had options they didn’t go for, and I really wished they would’ve gotten even bigger, but alas, they didn’t, and now their time is up. Rest in peace Willy, you did good, you did damn good.

Leman:

On the bad side, Gokturks lost half their empire! On the good side, Gaochang seems invincible.

Msurdej:  

The Kayapo haven’t died yet, living on their islands. And will probably spend the last bit of this cycle, and probably the start of Cycle 2, in these islands.Where they will probably die as well.

Rosay:

You know after everything Yemen has stood still this entire game being fodder ready for Turkey that they never took. Honestly don’t know how they’re still alive.

Msurdej:  

Castile, a 1 tile city that is only alive because it managed to cheese itself into a city in Antarctica, still lives.

Cloudy:

Mohave has tried its best to hang on during Total War 2, and despite some early losses to Arapaho, they haven’t done too badly. Most of their lands are still intact, the two cities taken by Arapaho could soon fall back under Mohave control, and Afghanistan hasn’t been able to do any damage at all. If they can keep this position, or even expand it a little, this region could end up being very interesting after the map is rebuilt.

Orange:

I can say three things:

1. How they failed to do anything more than slightly damage the Turkish cities in Sweden is beyond me, how are they this bad at war.

2. The fact that they weren’t the ones to kill A-D is an abject failure of Brandenburg, they should’ve killed A-D by the first 100 turns and A-D surviving till now is a travesty for the Brandenburgers in and of itself. (Though hey, they did end up with The Hague and London, even if they didn’t get the final blow, and that Turkey took London from A-D and they just took it from Turkey, so that’s something I guess).3. Brandenburg holds an interesting position, Mohave is much weaker but Mali is much stronger, they have no chance to really grow much but they still have a fairly large amount of land and can hold on for a while. They’re current goal should be to stay as large as possible and wait for the reset to help them out.

Leman:

Every episode I feel like I come away with the exact same conclusion: Mali was impressive. They came into the first round of Total War with stats worse than Han and Tuva, but instead of running out of units and dying Mali has managed to not only hold off the much more powerful Timor-Leste and Turkey, but this episode they have expanded! In the peace time Mali managed to more-or-less finish up the tech tree, closing that gap and eliminating the major weakness they had last total war. They’ve beefed up their army, and production and pushed Turkey almost completely out of Africa, while holding off Timor-Leste to mostly a stalemate. Completely unpredictable a few episodes ago. They’ve got a huge production deficit to make up, but I still believe in Sundiata.

Leman:

A gap has seemed to have opened up between Timor-Leste and the other members of the Elite Four. Timor-Leste is lagging behind in production and military, seeming more comparable to Afghanistan than Turkey, Inca, or Arapaho. Further, Timor-Leste is struggling to push against Mali and struggling to hold against Afghanistan. Things aren’t looking fantastic for our favorite underdog. I mean, things aren’t bad either, nothing is collapsing. Just, Timor-Leste could be doing better.

Cloudy:

Arapaho maintains its #4 position despite struggling to make substantial gains in Total War 2. In the south, they’ve stalemated against the Inca; in the east, they lost a city to Brandenburg; and in the north, they somehow still haven’t killed the Gokturks. In the west in Asia, things are going a bit better, as Pretty Nose was able to capture some cities from the Mohave and Turkey, but their gains have been small and potentially tenuous. Arapaho’s fortunes will most likely ride on their decisions after the rebuild, since I don’t foresee their position changing substantially between now and then.

Leman:

Afghanistan has had a ride this BR. From a stagnant superpower to dark horse underdog to surprise member of the Elite Four (Five?), Afghanistan’s stocks have done nothing but rise in the last few episodes. They’ve managed to almost catch up on military, production, and city count stats, and shave off a reasonable number of cities from both Turkey and Timor-Leste. Yes, Afghanistan is clearly lagging behind the other four in city count, but the gap is all but closed. Since Afghanistan is actively beating Timor-Leste and we all hate Arapaho apparently, it only seems fair that Afghanistan takes the third-place spot.

Leman:

Things were kind of quiet for Inca this episode. Inca seems to be slowly but steadily pushing up Central America into Arapaho territory. Emphasis on the slow. I thiiiiiink Inca are winning here, but I really can’t be sure. They’re up a city, and I’m pretty sure they got it from Arapaho. Honestly, Inca, like the rest of the Elite Four, seems a little bit stuck. There’s no shortage of opportunities (Kayapo can be cleaned up and Mali are right across the Atlantic), but Inca seems content on going into its usual grinds with Arapaho and Timor-Leste instead.

Altima:

While their deviation doesn’t suggest it, Turkey barely squeezes a hold on their 1st place ranking this week. They’re losing ground on many fronts, but their raw stattage, huge territory, and the coming reboot have kept them in 1st for now. The core question is, how much longer will they continue attritioning territory, and how much territory will it be, before the reboot kicks in?