Power Rankings: Episode 5 – S3

JDT:

Ah Sammuramat… how we hardly knew ye. We thought you had the potential to dominate the middle east, with the repute of your empire, and the early game rivalry with Turkey. Unfortunately, you just never got anything going, and the Egyptians decided to teach you how to walk like them. In rapid succession, each of your cities fell, until…

Wait, you’re telling me that they’re not dead yet? What the…

TO BE CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PART OF CIVILIZATION BATTLE ROYALE X-3 KAI

Cloudberg:

oWo what’s this? Qocho isn’t last? Granted, a massive Tuvan army is currently bearing down on their only remaining city, but there’s a saying in Qocho lands: “Thank God for Mississippi Assyria!”

Shaggy:

One city, three composite bowman, one half-health trireme, a worker, a great general, and a dream. We aren’t pouring one out yet, but we are making reservations at the sub’s bar for Micanopy.

Leman:

Honestly, if you told me before this whole thing started that Cambodia was gonna lose a city to Timor-Leste, I would have told you that that was really embarrassing for Cambodia. But now, watching it happen, it would have been embarrassing for Timor-Leste if they didn’t capture Battambang. How times have changed.

Regardless, it's back to the city state crew for Cambodia.

Msurdej:

Well Iron Jacket, ya blew it. Not only did your army, the only thing you have that’s halfway decent, fail to capture Apopka, you also lost your settler. The settler that had been durdling around the Atlantic for the past few episodes. Say what you will about Qocho and Cambodia, at least they are trying to settle more cities. Iron Jacket might be able to squeeze out a second settler, but if they won’t use it to make a second city, what good is it?

Leman:

On the one hand, oof. Sarkel fell without any serious pushback from Bulan. On the other hand, Khazaria founded a city and has a settler out (I think). Overall, they ended up staying even on city count this week, which is pretty good for a civ actively collapsing. That being said, they are actively collapsing and Vslevod’s army is on Balanjar’s doorstep, so, you know. Here we are.

Emu

Aguinaldo fails to seize his chance. I have to hand it to him though, this man knows what he wants and isn't about to compromise that for something so petty as “winning” or “having a defensible civ” or “sensible city placement of any sort.” Nice to see someone with some integrity in this game. I respect a man who will throw his third settler away in Malaya just to commit to the bit. And horrible stats, too! Emilio isn't a man for half measures, I can tell you that much. He took one look at his situation and thought if he couldn't be the best in the region, he sure as hell could be the worst. Honestly? Who of us would have the bravery to do such a thing? Aguinaldo knows our game, and he's not playing. He's decided that he's going to do what he wants instead of what we tell him, and you can't begrudge a man for that. Shine on, you glorious bastard you.

Leman:

This episode, Uganda dropped a city to Kilwa. That’s not too surprising, if you ask me. Uganda had no way to reinforce, had already thrown away most of their military against Yemen, and has actively zero navy. Still, it’s really bad. Uganda has basically no room to found more cities and a pile of very pathetic stats. Good luck.

Emu

Anglo-Dutch dodge their doom yet again this part. Castile keeps on splitting their army and not really being terribly effective, eventually ending with an advantageous peace deal. But right as William puts out one fire, another starts. Brandenburg has declared war. They deftly ignore the irrelevant war declarations from the Normans and Yugoslavia, and take advantage of Irish sluggishness to settle Essex. It seems like Willy might just be able to survive long enough for his midgame bump to kick in. But the question is, where will he be by then? You don't win games by doing effectively nothing until the Industrial era. What chance does a civ that only holds France at that point really have? Their chances of survival aren’t gone, but things still look pretty bleak for the Anglo-Dutch, so their ranking stays way down here.

Cloudberg:

Ah, it finally happened! The Wiradjuri have declared war on the Yolngu! Not that we think the Wiradjuri have enough units to take any cities, but at the very least it’s going to distract the Yolngu from settling new cities, if they were planning to, which there’s no evidence they were. In fact, their lack of cities or any desire to build them is the reason they’re down here in the bottom ten.

Cloudberg:

Vermont slips back into the 50s after an episode which did not give us great confidence in the Green Mountain Boys. Their attack on America failed, which was expected, but they also have to contend with a declaration of war by Greenland, which could result in the capture of Vermont’s colony on Iceland. If Ethan Allen wants to save his chances, he’ll need to sue for peace with his enemies, then settle as many cities in Quebec and Newfoundland as he can—but so far it doesn’t seem like he will.

Shaggy:

“Hey Shaggy, why do you keep getting the Anglo-Norse writeup?” I don’t know, constructed interrogator, but the PR gods have once again graced me with the duty of giving an Anglo-Norse writeup. In short, they’re a bit fucked. Canute has completely ignored both his Anglo and Norse factions to settle in their respective European regions, instead opting to be entirely encircled by Brandenburg and Lithuania. Hell, Brandenburg even has another settler ready to fully cut off the Anglo-Norse from the Gulf of Bothnia and by extension kill any last vestiges of hope for Anglo-Norse expansion. The only reason they aren’t lower is because their neighbors haven’t really invested in navies.

Msurdej:

Modoc was a no show for this part, and honestly, I forgot they existed myself. It makes a lot of sense, as they’re one of the smallest civs in North America, and don’t have the stench of failure like the Comanche and Seminole. No, Kintpaush’s crime is more of mediocrity, though they did share the “send out a settler into the void” shtick as well, though they were mistaken for Greenland. Regardless, they also lost their settler to a war, making it all the more likely that Modoc is just a less interesting Comanche.

Orange:

Massagetae started off really strong, with a lot of room and quickly getting to 3 cities. But that’s kind of all they did. Rankers had hopes that they would use the vast space given to them but it was quickly shown that they wouldn’t. The Permians’ war is just another drop in the bucket of ineptitude from Tomyris. The Permians have shown themselves to be an absolute powerhouse and Massagetae better hope that powerhouse decides to fight others for a lot longer.

Reformer:

Honestly if you’re lost, how about you start by finding some bit- settlers. Stupid glasses-wearing ass. When’s the last time you built a useful unit with your dirty dictator ass, with your weird-ass blue and red your mama gave you. Look, what I’m trying to say is, your civ is mid, and you get zero bit- settlers. Get the fuck outta my sight before I gotta look at those stank-ass cities again.

Emu

Tetouan...... doesn't get destroyed by Mali? And this low, that's enough to bump them up 7 ranks. Good for my portfolio at least, that's the exact point at which a stonk doubles in value. The civ that settled the first second city *still* hasn't done much of anything except a weak forward settle on Castile, and that's the main reason they're still this low. They have the space, the Normans don't really have an African force yet, all they have to do is reach out and seize the opportunity for a second Maghreb Miracle. It really is a shame the new Tetouan AI came out just days after this run started, they'd be making much better use of this scenario for sure. As is though, Tetouan stay in the bottom tier.

Msurdej:

Mori’s biggest accomplishment in this part was losing their settler to the Ainu. They’re still a mediocre island civ otherwise. This has been a Mori update.

Msurdej:

Have you ever just seen a decision you’re sure will be regretted later? Well that’s how I feel about the Botswana declaration against Angola. Sure the capital of Huambo is lightly guarded for now, but if Angola decides to, they could wipe Botswana off of the map.

Emu

Vladimir's slick DoW from last part might just blow up in their faces. Khazaria still hasn't mustered up an army, but Lithuania has, and they're currently pointing it right at Vsevolod's currently sparsely defended core. Given the fact that the Vladimir army really isn't all that far away and the Lituanian strike force is made of only a few units (even if they are strong ones), it's not likely Gediminas will get far, but nevertheless this certainly puts a damper on Vsevolod's ambitions. Khazaria is a critical conquest for Vladimir; if they don't make it, they'll end up in the dust. They're losing critical time, but as of right now it still looks likely they'll walk away with a significant chunk of Khazaria. All in all, it's mostly the same situation as last week with one added problem, so they suffer a slight dip in the ranks.

Emu

They are not coming to Brazil. Honestly, if they'd kept at it Sao Salvador would be under serious threat ight now. South America is in a bit of a weird spot right now lately, every civ except Inca is boxed in by every other civ, so they're just kind of.... sitting there in the south, being cramped. It probably wouldn't be too hard for one to change the balance of power and snowball to control all of Southern South America. As of right now, Brazil looks least likely to do that. They're bearing the brunt of the Inca, they don't have the military acumen of Silver River, the space of Chile, or even good stats. It'd be a huge stretch to call them down and out at this point, but they certainly look outmatched by literally everyone else.

Leman:

Ainu has three cities and a lot of room for more. That room for more is why they are the highest ranked of the North-East Asian civs (Mori, North Korea and Ainu). However, given that Ainu’s rank isn’t all that impressive, we don’t think very highly of this region in general.

Rosé:

A lot of the reasoning behind putting Rio in the top ten was due to their notoriously strong AI despite being pretty boxed in at the start, the main reason why they are this low now is that they are basically completely boxed in, except they don't really have a way to counter it. Sure Brazil isn't too much to write home about, but Inca is a top tier powerhouse, and if Chile expands south then Rio is essentially doomed. Now the situation isn't impossible to come back from, look at Bradenburg, who literally just ignored the Anglo-Norse to go into Scandinavia, except unlike Brandenburg, La Plata does not seem to be in an expansion type of mood. To be fair the expectations we put on them were probably too high, as we expected them to be a Uruguay but they ended up like a Paraguay.

Emu

Indonesia wakes up, just like their eastern neighbor, but their target is just a tile too far away to be relevant. If Phnom Penh was only on the coast, this would be a very good move from Indonesia, but as is? They have no chance. This doesn't particularly hurt them though, so their continuing mediocrity means they stay right where they were at 39th. Bengal is slowly encroaching, with a city in the middle of their core and another settler moving onto the Malay peninsula, but seeing as Bengal doesn't really have a navy yet, that's only really a big problem for future Indonesia if they don't deal with it soonish. Right now, they could steamroll over those cities (and also Aguinaldo's errant settles) if they felt like it, but this is the AI, so the jury's out on whether they actually will.

Emu

Olga has a reputation of being hardy but not really expanding, and it looks like the beginnings of that are starting to show here. They have a solid carpet for this stage in the game, and on defensible terrain too. They'll surely need it, but will it be enough? Their stats are mediocre, and their neighbors are strong. They do have a couple neighbors weak enough to take on, but ultimately they're near strong powers, so if they want any chance of doing more than just surviving they need to leverage their position soon. Olga's path right now either leads mildly down or very far up.

Orange:

Isabella, Isabella, Isabella… Almost had the Anglo-Dutch crushed under her hand, and then just gave up. Splitting up their army, bringing two cities to low health and then not taking either, and even allowing Tetuoan to settle in Valencia. Isabella now has few armies and no room. If anything at least they might be able to fulfill the destiny given to them by the map god Vihreaa and truly become empty and gone.

Orange:

Ming continues to not really do much, the only thing of note being a new city in the Gobi desert that would be all too enticing for the much stronger Han. They are running out of options as both Han and Kokang show themselves to be strong expansive empires, but at least there’s still Mori not learning how to settle so they might be able to snag some islands before they get too shut out.

Leman:

It seems as though Central America has all but ceded Mexico to the Mohave. Well, they could still contest it in the near future, but they don’t seem incredibly interested in that right now. As such, they’ve dropped in their ranking.

JDT:

The Maori take a massive tumble down the rankings. And its not too hard to see why - they are broke. And that is greatly affecting them on every single front. They have not been able to settle additional cities because that will cause them to lose even more happiness and money. Their science output has slowed down to a crawl. Their military is kinda pointless because they’re on an isolated island with little initiative or position to attack. And to make things worse, they are currently positioned in a dark age that ruins their stats until they snap out of it. If they want to have a chance, they really should hire an economist instead of continually sacrificing goats.

Leman:

Quiet part for Greenland. No cities came out this week, and stats revealed Greenland is tied for last in techs with Seminole, with only 11 researched! That’s bad to begin with but it turns out Greenland is absolutely hemorrhaging money. They’re at -20 GPT a turn with 216 g in the bank, meaning they have 11 turns to turn their economy around before that science problem gets even worse. The gold problem is not quite as bad as some civs (Maori, I’m looking at you) because Greenland has time to fix it, but it's not a good look at all.

Rosé:

Yemen has all the tools needed to make a high tier civ, nice expansion opportunities, good resources, nearby civs underperforming, etc. they’re just not using them. Like a lot of the useful parts of arable Arabia are still open, Iran is still up for grabs, and Uganda is technically possible to take if you are willing to chart though mountains. Assyria was also looking pretty squishy until Egypt came in and is seemingly trying to kill-swipe Yemen’s kill-swipe opportunity. Honestly their rating spike is more attributable to mid tier shuffling shenanigans than anything else really, they’re just a mid tier civ with the opportunity but not the (current) drive to deliver.

Reformer:

The Miracle of Pandya in action! Against overwhelming odds, Alli Rani has managed to keep her cities almost entirely unscathed, a remarkable showing that proves she is here to stay. It’ll take more than this to knock her down - and considering the two civs facing her are no pushovers themselves, I think we can say Pandya’s position to be secure. Breaking out of South India will be the tough part, though. In my eyes there are two paths for Pandya in the midgame: either turn Bengal and Afghanistan against one another and take advantage of opportunities where you can, or become a maritime empire. Personally, I favor the latter…

Leman:

It’s hard to come up with much to say about Zulu because they spent the whole episode moving all their troops aimlessly back and forth. Kilwa to the north is becoming a bit scarier, and that’s kinda bad, but Botswana to the west has decided they’re not going to be settling much more either and that leaves an opportunity on the table. He’s got a settler out, so hopefully Cetshwayo can finish settling southern Africa before Seretse changes his mind.

JDT:IRELANDDDDD…. Sleep. Collins has decided to float on by and he seems entirely content to be sitting about chugging ale this round. He still has decent stats in just about everything, and a decent bit of land to settle (despite recent English intervention), but better get going soon lest he get left behind.

Leman:

Chad jumps on the anti-Egypt dogpile and sends troops after Gempaten, and Egypt has nothing to spare for its defense. Honestly by the end of the episode it seems like Gempaten is about to fall. It was down in the red, it was surrounded by Chadian troops, and Egypt still had pretty much nothing. Plus, Chad has a settler out! Good for you, Chad.

Reformer:

Whenever I look at Chile I just feel nostalgia for Selk’nam. Now THAT was a cool civ with cool colors, all the while Chile just has red/blue. ANYWAY, since Chile actually did something this part…hold on...let’s see here…ah! “Settled Haiti.” Hm. Well. I definitely did not have that on my bingo card. Cool as it is (and popular, apparently), it’s unfortunately in the same category as most of the other distant settles, like those of Qocho, Massagetae, and Vermont. That is, the “wasted settler” category. Unless…second Chilean core in the Caribbean when?

Emu

Kayapo's rank holds this week. Their Granary UB continues to be absolutely broken, and they even built the Hanging Gardens, so their population continues to soar. The Muisca, who just declared war on them, have a much, *much* larger army, but between the jungle, the Amazon, and the fact that high pop means high city defense, it doesn't look like that'll go much of anywhere except maybe Bau. Still, it's not a good look at all to be invaded by a civ with garbage stats when it was assumed from the get-go that you'd conquer them easily. It's a reminder of the weaknesses of a complete turtle strat like this. But, it's not really enough to push them down, as their material situation hasn't really changed at all.

Emu

We have our first real coalition against a major power! I suppose you could say the one against America counts too, but only one of those armies was a real threat to any American city, and it evaporated quickly. By contrast, the Normans have settlements all around the Mediterranean and a navy currently dealing significant damage to Thebes, and Chad has an army currently about to take Gempaaten and move on to Akhetaten itself. Given Egypt goes before Turkey, it looks very much like Akhenaten is about to score the first elimination of the game while watching his empire collapse from the other side.

Leman:

I think the most notable thing Kwakwaka’wakw did this week was kill off that Modoc settler heading up to Alaska. On the actual front, I’m not sure anything really happened because neither Modoc, nor Kwakwaka’wakw were mentioned this part. I’m assuming Kwakwaka’wakw is winning but can’t be by much.

Orange:

Turkey is doing well, it has to be said. They are sending out a lot of settlers and have some weak neighbors to prey upon. However, they have kind of failed in their war against Assyria, allowing Egypt to have all the spoils including, probably, the capital and last city of the queen of Ass. Now maybe Turkey can capitalize off of Egypt being double teamed to take Assyria’s cities while Akhenaten isn’t looking, maybe.

Rosé:

Muisca is a decent civ trapped in an area where expansion is just impossible. Fundamentally, Muisca is pretty sound, their stats are decent enough, they can defend off most of their neighbors and they seemingly have a sound core and even some invasion opportunities. Only problem is that they are fighting in South America, and as anyone who has played a war game can tell you, fighting in South America is absolute hell. So Muisca declared a war on the armyless, civ of Kayapo which normally would be an easy dub, but Kayapo is protected by jungles and rivers, making movement basically impossible. This churning meat-grinder is wasting resources that could be spent on buildings, improvements, and alike. If Muisca does end up taking Gorotire however (implying they don't raze it) it would result in a double digit city being added to the empire, but that seems unlikely with the technology of our time. In my opinion, Central America or turtling might be the better option IMO.

Shaggy:

It’s tough not being a big bruiser in northern Asia when you’re competing in the CBR. Between the Gokturks, Tuva, Han, and the Permians, the Gokturks are definitely the bottom of the bunch. But don’t let that discourage any Gokturk fans, the region is still anyone’s game. Bumin Qaghan is still settling cities, growing their military, and seemingly paying attention to their neighbors’ movements and responding. If they can get a little reprieve from Han pressure and can expand eastward more, they’ll still maintain their place as a regional contender. Who knows, maybe they’ll even snipe out Qocho from the collective jaws of Tuva and Han.

Orange:

Mali makes a big leap to barely make it into the top 20, this is mostly due to the vast amount of space they have and the lack of any real enemies. Though it must be said, they don’t have very good stats and they need to actually settle the land to make use of it instead of just looking at it and feeling good about themselves. Also Angola is starting to send settlers to the West African coast so we may see an actual rival for the golden kings.

Msurdej:

Here we go! Timor-Leste had the stats, but they were struggling to improve their situation from the island start they had. But now Xanana has used his army to conquer another civ’s city, something many in the PRs never expected. Sure it was a Cambodian city on Borneo, and Timor-Leste still has to settle more and get onto the mainland. But this is a great step in the right direction for them.

Reformer:

This part, as Egypt accrues warmonger penalties, Normans become one of the two civs alongside Chad to try and punish Akhenaten for his aggression. The Norman naval invasion of Thebes hasn’t been easy, though, as the small fleet of triremes hasn’t made much of a dent even despite the absence of defensive units on Egypt’s side (bar one chariot archer). Thebes being approachable by sea through only one tile means the Normans would need to complement the naval offensive with land units to have a chance here, but if nothing else this is all very unlikely to backfire on Guiscard. He still has a very comfortable Mediterranean empire, and once galleasses come online, he can think about actually applying his strength.

Leman:

Arapaho is a weird case. On the board, I think they look really strong. They’ve got six cities down, a couple weak neighbors in Modoc and Comanche, and quite a bit of space left to settle. Really looking like a titan of North America, rivaling America, the Cree, and Mohave. On the stats sheet, however, they’re not all that exciting. None of their stats are bad, or even below average, but they definitely look a lot more like a mid-tier than anything else. I guess we split the difference and placed them at 17th.

Cloudberg:

Kilwa rises into the top 20 for the first time following their victory in the war with Uganda. Ali captured one Ugandan city, bringing him to five total. Kilwa is also rising in terms of stats, coming in 10th in production. The rise of Angola in the west is concerning, but Kilwa is not directly threatened, and it looks increasingly likely that they could position themselves as a maritime power on the Indian Ocean.

JDT:

Slow and steady wins the race, they say. The Wiradjuri certainly are playing the long con to an extent. Recently, they have decided to approach with that long-awaited assault on their northern brethren the Yolngu, though they don’t seem capable of amassing a relevant enough force to prompt a proper threat. Nevertheless, their statline remains very competent and there is still plenty of land to settle down under. Keep on dreaming and moving on.

Leman:

Mohave enters the top quartile this week after picking up a fifth city, a powerful wonder, and continuing to improve its stats. As the game goes on longer and longer the more it seems as though Mohave are going to be securing Mexico instead of Comanche or Central America, which is absolutely not what we thought was going to happen. That being said, Mohave is not quite in top-tier shape just yet. In my opinion, they still have a way to go before they’re rivaling the big three of North America (America, Arapaho, and Cree), but if the game keeps going the way its going, Mohave will absolutely be getting there.

Plus they’ve got a settler in the middle of Asia and that’s fun.

Cloudberg:

There have been a lot of arguments about Afghanistan in the Power Rankers’ server, most of them started by me. On average, though, Afghanistan’s star is continuing to rise, as they continue to maintain good stats and a large army with plenty of room to expand. There were some concerns that Afghanistan wasn’t going to actually fill that space, and by settling another city this episode, they may not have eliminated those concerns but they have at least kicked the can down the road.

Emu

Tito spent this part not doing much. He declared war on the Anglo-Dutch, but that looks pretty unlikely to go much of anywhere. So he's still just kind of sitting there, existing as the fourth European high-tier. Nothing really happened to push Yugoslavia down any, so they stay pretty close to where they were more or less by default. Oh wait, he settled a city in a pretty good spot to cut off Kyiv's expansion, that's something. It's pretty defensible too, so even if that's all they did this part (which it was), it still puts them a bit ahead of where they were. Yugoslavia's really set themselves up in such a way that a nothing part doesn't really hurt them too much. If Tito has one thing, it's time. And land. So his two chief weapons here are time and land. Oh, and the army. His THREE chief weapons are.....

Msurdej:

Bengal slips out of the Top 10 this week as their war with Pandya comes to a screeching halt. Tirunelveli has barely taken any damage despite the massive army Bengal has. If Shuja-ud-Din wants to get back into the Top 10, he’d better assault those cities with some stronger units. But he settled a city near Malay, so he’s got that going for him, which is nice.

Shaggy:

America has the makings of an anti-hero to me this season. North America will inevitably have some sort of East/West rivalry given the distribution of cities and America does seem to be the lead contender for champion of the East. They are currently beset on all sides by tiny needles pricking them in the form of Vermonter, Comanche, and Central American assaults with a new war with the Cree beginning to the west of Philadelphia (go birds). It’s both a testament to their opponents’ collective ineptness and America’s strength that they have been able to turn their military situation into a Caribbean outpost with little loss of units. But why oh why did they have to kill that poor defenseless (almost) Comanche warrior. Props to u/Orangechrisy for making me cry about the Comanche with a beautiful slide 40 caption.

Cloudberg:

If you told me in episode one that the Inca would be ranked 9th in episode five, I would’ve been pretty surprised. But they’re proving to be the most expansionist civ in South America, while most of their neighbors continue to look extremely mediocre, so it would be difficult to argue that they’re not the best on the continent. Granted, the terrain is difficult, so it’s unlikely that they’ll see success in early wars, but given that the info sheet says they have the second best stats of any civ, I’d say their current rank already accounts for that.

Shaggy:

OK, maybe top 3 was a bit overzealous for a European civ that hasn’t really had a major war expansion yet. Lithuania is still a major contender, but they aren’t, like, god-tier yet. That being said, they seem to have caught Vladimir with their pants down. I count only 4 or 5 units that are within range to defend the Vladimir core. This would be a huge win for Lithuania and would allow them to crack into further Asian expansion efforts. I also have to mention that Lithuania has received enough donations to the Let’s Fuck Over Canute Fund and has continued their settling northward to cut them off. Things are turning up Gediminas, even if their rank is dropped.

CelestialDalek:

Angola rises up into 7th place after a strong settling spree. With Egypt facing a coalition of basically every neighbor they seem to have, Angola has clearly secured its spot as the strongest civ in Africa, at least for now. They’re not without rivals though. Kilwa’s empire along the eastern coast isn’t looking too shabby, Mali is finally settling all the space that they have and Chad is about to snag a city off of Egypt. As long as Angola continues settling well and keeping its stats up, however, I think it’ll be able to keep its spot at the top here.

JDT:

The Han continue to cruise along after getting into the limelight with their incredible bevy of settles. 6 cities, very decent production, a fairly competent army, decent tech and science and all around just very well rounded. They are supposed to invade North Korea but little is developing on that front. With all future neighbours bar the Tuvans looking somewhat exploitable, expect continued competence.

Emu

$KOK keeps it up just as well as the last few parts, with a one-rank rise due to Han falling a bit. It's clear they're expansionist and well-positioned, but how are they doing beyond that? Most of their stats are fairly good, not top 10 level but good, and they're working to fill the empty space they have. Now on to the bad. They're one of the few civs with negative happiness right now, meaning if they make any further conquests razing is likely. Their army isn't necessarily small, but it is spread out pretty far, making any defense a bit difficult before good roads. All in all though, they conquer when they need to, and they don't let anyone else encroach on their borders. Top 10 material for sure.

Orange:

Brandenburg steps into the top 5 once again after a bit of slowness, this time with Scandinavia all to themself. The Anglo-Norse really fucked up by just leaving all that land empty which Brandenburg has decided they want, and thus A-N is surrounded and Brandenburg is set to once again conquer Europe as they did in the test games. Though as the only person to rank them below 10 I have to say, they really aren’t showing themselves to be good at the conquering part of “conquer Europe” given how horribly they are doing fighting against the Anglo-Dutch who are barely holding on.

Rosé:

North America right now is pretty stacked, but Cree is the greatest within the group. Honestly if Cree was put in a weaker region, they’d probably be able to be a serious contender for number one. While their war with America is likely going to go nowhere, there’s really no investment on that front so it’s basically a non issue, hell the weakening of America is kinda a benefit on its own here. All of Crees stats are relatively high too, with land to expand into and America as a target to fall back on. Their temporary alliance with Arapaho is great too, as it essentially blocks off the one immediate threat to the Cree. All in all, Cree is a civ with so much going for it and so little going against it.

Emu:

Tuva spends another week playing second fiddle to the mildly-disputed #1, (two dissenters, one Tuva, one Cree) and though they didn't really do a ton beyond founding a city, they continue to wait in the wings. Watching. Building up stats, filling out their carpet, and gaining land and resources settle by settle. Biding their time until their slightly stronger neighbor makes a mistake, giving them a chance to strike and steal the throne for themselves. I wasn't the one who put Tuva first, but I can't say I don't want them to succeed. If these guys were literally anywhere else, they'd be faring much better, but as is, they stand slightly overshadowed by the great bear. Best watch your back, Azykay. The steppes have eyes, and they're watching. Waiting.

Shaggy:

This part for the Permians can be summed up in one word: dominant. Keeping Oxus from Massagetae is simply a crippling move. The Permian army pointing directly at a half-health Balanjar (being led by Marc Antony of all people lol) looks to be a falling Sword of Damocles for the Khazars. And on top of that, no other neighbors seem to be able to put any pressure on them at all in the expansion game. They have the most cities on the cylinder and could probably double that count through a combination of successful conquests to the west and aggressive settling more of the unclaimed north. Bravo, Azykay, keep it coming!