Power Rankings: Episode 0 – S4

Release Date:

March 18, 2024

Narrated by:

Power-Rankers

Abstract

Power Rankings! The rankings…of power! Dun dun dunnnn!

Viewing: Vertical

Jump to scene

Singapore

1 / 0

1: Singapore

JDT:

Widdis, Singapore is last lah! Kiasu bener, these PRs!Alright, we all know better than to count out bottom seeds. After all, a bottom seed just won the CBR. However, lets be real here, Singapore is a bottom seed. Nobody ranked them above 59th, for good reason. Their starting position is very distinctly un-strategic in the CBR. Yes, Malacca made it work 3 years back, but Malacca also didn’t have to deal with Filipino and Australian civs breathing down Indonesia’s neck. Malacca also has distinctly more competent AI than Singapore, a civ that, true to life, focuses more on personal development and trades than expansion and military. This usually means Singapore will be completely outgunned by the early-midgame, if not earlier. This doesn’t even account for the relative lack of resources in their start. While not barren by any means, Singapore’s terrain is relatively poor and fairly exposed, preventing tall strats from working as well as they could. If any civ seems a lock for death, its Singapore.

Well… to their credit, they have held out for a surprisingly long time in many tests. And there is at least one universe where they actually pulled the Timor-Leste and became a strong regional power. Though winning it all is all but impossible, don’t be surprised if conscription, diplomacy and luck all converge to ensure a tiny little slice of heaven all the way to the midgame.

1: Singapore

JDT:

2: Zheng

Rosay:

A lot of the Chinese civs in the test runs were pretty hit or miss, either they’d dominate a large portion of China and be a solid mid to high mid-tier civ, or they would die in an instant. Some of the civ’s peaks were smaller than others, about 5 cities then just chilling but the lowest peak was without a doubt Zheng. Zheng’s largest peak from the runs I saw was taking Taiwan, just Taiwan, that’s it. They don’t really have any strong uniques either that they can use to pull off a surprise win, or even do decently. Before anyone pulls the Timor Leste card, Timor needed to perform well and to have Wira/Indonesia do bad to even be in contention to win, Zheng needs to rely on both Dai Veit, Siam, Mongolia, Goguryeo, and Shang underperforming to at least be considered a decent threat. If it were up to me they’d be below Singapore because at least Singapore’s peak in the test runs was more than settling one city.

3: Bavaria

Reformer:

Bavaria is one of the “Three Shields of Europe”, situated in the heart of Europe, consisting of Burgundy and Royal Hungary alongside Bavaria. All three are on the weaker side for various reasons, but of them, Bavaria is worst off…as you can tell by their placement in the bottom three. The Three Shields as a whole are stuck between civs that are mostly more competent and with better overall opportunities. Bavaria takes this to the extreme, however. Ludwig has a bad habit of expanding to at most five cities, and instead of taking charge, he holes up doing god-knows-what. Probably building castles, if I had to guess. But who knows? Maybe we’ll luck out and get a proactive, expansive Ludwig. Wouldn’t that be a dream…

4: Shawnee

Reformer:

Shawnee is another civ in a rough spot. Situated near Seneca and Crow, both known strong lads, Shawnee will struggle to stake out a good swathe of land. Even Osage usually does a fairly good job. An acceptable job, I would say. Meanwhile, I’d use neither description for Shawnee. The area they spawn in is traditionally not among the best, squeezed out between better TSLs. They’ll need a risky plan to make it work. I don’t really mind…I prefer all their neighbours.

5: Taino

Dalek:

Well, this is awkward. Nobody really wanted Taino to be in this position, since it gives a huge advantage to the other SA civs, and leaves Taino rather in the dust. New Holland, Tiwanaku, and Ecuador all have a massive amount of space in the Amazon to fight over, and while Taino could grab it, they start off in the unenviable position of the Caribbean. Remember Jamaica or Haiti? Of course you don’t, unless you went all-in on Jamaica in part 0 stocks. As it stands, Taino is in the worst position to capitalize on the wide-open Amazon, by way of not starting anywhere in it. Stalling and settling cities in Hispanola would lead to a weak position, and settling on the mainland away from their capital would leave them weak to early wars. If they can come out of the early game fine with a South American core, then they are decently middle of the pack. Otherwise, they will probably not do well. Speaking of weakness, their capital, like anywhere in the Caribbean, is hopelessly exposed to the open seas and runs the risk of being taken out in a naval battle. So, should you put your bets on this plucky island civ? Tai-NO!

6: Latvia

Cloudy:

Oh, Latvia, Latvia, Latvia... you’re everything we thought Prussia was going to be in season 1, and no that’s not a compliment. In most, though not all tests Latvia was among the first civs to die, torn apart variously by Makhnovia, the Finns, the Ume-Sami, and whoever else managed to get some of their fingers into the pie. In general, the Baltics are just not a good place to start—there isn’t much production, there are usually a lot of neighbors, and there are no natural defenses. Best case scenario, people ignore Latvia for long enough to let them bulk up and they survive for a while. But in the worst case scenario... let’s just say a potato joke might be a disservice to potatoes.

7: Finns

Dalek:The Finns just haven’t done well in tests. They have very similar problems to 56th placer Latvia: Ume Sami wrecks them, and the lakes cramp them in a bit. If Ume Sami settles northwards, the Finns are basically just confined to Finland or expanding outwards into the open plains of Russia, where Kazan and Makhnovia lie in wait. If they pull off one of their good games, they become mid-tier at best. There’s just not much to say here, they suck ass and not really in a funny way. But really don’t hold out your hopes, unless you are Finnish, in which case SUOMI ILOKAASU PERKELE VITTU KOLLEKTIIVIJOHTIMET PYYKKIPOIKA!!!!!!

8: Bukhara

Vihreaa:

Surrounded on all sides, huh? Such is the fate of many of our central Asian civs, and because of the influence that the other civs in the region hold over us rankers, Bukhara has been ranked at best middle of the pack, at worst one of the first civs outta here. For an Emirate, it may be surprising that what came after it was a Soviet Republic. Sure did surprise me! With a neighbor like Kazakhstan to their north, most of us believe that Bukhara will primarily serve as a road bump in this royale.

9: Burgundy

JMAn:

Burgundy has a handful of issues coming into CBRX4, and we should start firstly with its expansion prospects. Strictly speaking, Burgundy should be able to settle the coast as most civs are wont to do; however, an early start so far removed from the coast is not ideal in Europe, and is arguably an area that heavily affects the civ that is usually in the France region in most BRs. The English Channel is very crowded with the inclusion of England in this BR, and the Visigoths can capitalize on the free space in Aquitaine to make it extremely difficult to expand into the water.

Burgundy’s second major issue comes from its UA: Guns of Odruik. The first half of the UA gives a major siege damage boost to gunpowder units; however, those do not come into play till the Enlightenment/Renaissance Era, meaning that for a critical early game Burgundy’s UA will be partially useless. The other half of the UA makes it so that siege units are 50% cheaper to buy with gold; however, AI historically rarely uses its gold to buy units and even if it did, the AI always has gold aplenty in any given circumstance. Many doubt that Burgundy will make it out of the bottom 10, though some have bullishly shown that they are supportive of the concept of a strong Burgundy. As with any BR, only time will tell if Burgundy will be capable of taking on its adversaries in surviving by mounting an early lead.

10: Ikko Ikki

Leman:

Japanese civilizations historically do not do well. Something about this mid-large islands and civ AI do not mix (see the British Isles). Ikko Ikki does not break the mold. A lack of any economic bonuses, a weird tendency to settle difficult-to-defend cities on the mainland, and a number of powerful neighbors like Nivkh and Gogureyeo, come together to make a civilization that often stagnates in its best games. In tests we’d see the isles get gobbled up by Nivkh or Thule and their bold mainland settles get picked off by Goguryeo or Shang. I don’t have high hopes for our Japanese contender this time around.

11: Saba

Vihreaa:

Saba has an interesting start that we haven’t really seen in this region before, around the location of modern Djibouti. Unlike previous civs in the region, Saba is settled on the Red Sea on the African continent. Most rankers are relatively unconvinced about Saba’s eminence, but I on the other hand… completely agreed with them. All of Saba’s unique units and buildings are focused in the early game, meaning that they will need to take advantage of them quickly to be able to use them to their fullest. Fun fact! TPang actually contributed to making this civ, a name you may recognize if you’ve been around long enough. I happened to come across this while researching the wiki for this civ.

Coiot's Note: Vihreaa got Saba in Yemen mixed up with Saba-Da'amat in Ethopia. The two civs do have a connection but the competitor this season is Saba-Dm't, which is often referred to simply as Saba for simplicity.

12: Florida

JDT:

Florida, ah, the land of madness, rabid conservatism, wildlife convergences and scorching hot sands and swamps. In theory, Gregor MacGregor has his hands on a decent chunk of land across the Southeast, with ample floodplains and resources across the deep south ready to use for empire building. Unfortunately, like the great thief he is, he had managed to swindle my expectations and scam us into his true form: a hack.

Florida is considered by some to be the true weakest civ in North America, though consensus has ruled that Shawnee are less powerful and impactful on average. While they have good resources for growth, they’re also often hemmed in at the end of a peninsula, bottlenecked between Taino (or their conquerors) and the winners of the northern thunderdome. Even worse, swampland ain’t very good for shootouts or expansion, ain’t they? Finally, Macgregor, the crook that he is, prefers to simply not show up to work most of the time and lets his country die, settling small parcels of land in the deep south, failing to defend against land and naval invasion and then taking off with the cash, not bothering to use the sea to his advantage. However, the start is not unworkable, and every once in a while, Macgregor mans up and actually decides to take the reins. We’ve seen runs where Florida wreaks mayhem across North America like the GTA characters we know Florida Men to be, sweeping the Caribbean and eastern seaboard in a destructive campaign. Don’t count your chickens on it though, I think they may be but a mirage, like the fake state that they are.

13: Qarmatians

Lasqueto:

Oh Qarmatians Qarmatians, we had such high hopes for you, but you promised fire and delivered mediocrity. Okay, maybe I’m being a bit harsh. Since we buffed the Gulf of Persia, the Qarms are actually not that bad. They just suffer from the same thing as all middle eastern civs, which is that the Arabian Desert is about as defensible as a TERF talking point. They can carve out a decent empire around the gulf but often risk getting zerg rushed by Pontus or one of their other neighbours. Even when left alone they often get boxed into a corner. A shame really, because everything about the mod is badass, from the design to the colours. If you’re into playing domination I can’t recommend it enough.

14: Eswatini

Reformer:

Eswatini is our second-lowest rated African civ, only below Saba-D’mt. And the reason for this is simple (though their AI’s tendencies do amplify the problem): geography. Though South Africa is overall less cramped than last season, Eswatini starts with Rozvi basically hugging them, and Eswatini gets the shorter end of the stick, with expansion northward limited greatly by Rozvi. The two are VERY likely to end up butting heads sooner rather than later, and Rozvi are poised to have more land when the confrontation comes. Though, oddly enough, I’ve seen the two coexist surprisingly often…in case the two do end up simply sharing South Africa, Rozvi is likely to face trouble from Ndongo or even Mogadishu, both of whom are top 10 contenders in our books. Outliving Rozvi would be only slightly impressive, as Eswatini’s own downfall would likely follow soon. Let’s hope they end up fighting before a third party swoops in and takes it all!

15: Shang

Lasqueto

You’ve probably heard about the leader’s penchant for lakes of wine and casual murder, but how do Shang actually do in game? A frequent concern for civs on this end of the rankings is that they play too passively. Shang doesn’t have this problem - in fact they’re so aggressive they often end up pissing off all their neighbours and getting Xia’d before turn 100. Pretty fitting for a civ led by a serial killer. Compared to CGR their odds are actually pretty decent though. South China lacks a consistent strong power, so their main worry will likely be to the north. Goguryeo and Mongolia can be scary, but they themselves have strong neighbours. An early coalition war can often spring Shang to the forefront of East Asia. They also have happiness in the bag with their UA that lets them sacrifice citizens to spawn luxes. Overall, Shang is a civ worth watching even if they get eliminated in 61st.

16: England

JDT:

A curse lies upon the misty isle of Albion in CBRX. A malaise, a dreaded manacle, chaining its competitors forever to irrelevance and mediocrity. Every CBR, a new fool arises, hoping to bring the start to the glory it could potentially have. Every time, they fail. Elizabeth, Malachy II, James VI, Llywellyn, Iliam Dhone, Michael Collins, all hath attempted to tame England and promised to beckon the great age of Britannia. All hath fallen to rot.

Henry V might just be the best chance at breaking that curse, though given his direct competition, the historicity of the curse and the current position in the PRs, we don’t have high hopes that he will. Like many civs in Britain, Henry has very high volatility. Some games, he will command a decisive lead and steamroll across the continent. Other times, he will be trounced and defeated incredibly swiftly, usually by his superior northern neighbour, the Faroes, a similarly expansive civ that has the advantage of not being as centralized or hemmed in as Henry. Oftentimes, he’ll settle into quiet mediocrity. While recent changes to island civ AI will hopefully ensure that Henry will settle well and remain expansive, and should allow him to consistently escape Britannia, the fact remains that England is open terrain that is highly exposed and which, while not terrible as a start, is fairly mediocre. This also doesn’t fix the inherent AI biases and cursed roll of the die that seems inherent to England. Will he break destiny and flower the Rose of Lancaster across Europe? Or will he falter and fumble into the hands of the curse?

17: Royal Hungary

Shaggy:

Hi, Shaggy here! Back in the saddle for another exciting CBRX season. I guess I'll jump right in with Royal Hungary who are opening up this season in 45th. Technically not in the bottom quartile, you go, Elizabeth Báthory! Seriously though, Europe is never an enviable start and Royal Hungary have their work cut out for them to establish a foothold on the continent with so many neighbors and so little time to settle. Once they get a few cities out, however, they may be a tougher nut to crack than your run-of-the-mill continental European civ. Their UA makes sieging less effective in a prolonged war by ensuring food stability when their empire is unhappy and their UU is a potentially spammable Musketman replacement that likes being outnumbered. Only time will tell on the cylinder, to arms!

18: Rome

Rosay:

Rome is.. tricky to rank. Like don’t get me wrong I don’t see them winning the game, or even Europe for that matter, but they’ve reliably done decently well even if they’re kind of overpowered by the stronger European powers. They are almost certain to perform better than their mk2 counterpart though due to their UB, the victory column being easily spammable. Additionally “all roads lead to Rome” really helps them wonder farm by not only boosting production for founding new cities, but also conquering new cities from rivals. Actually now that I think about it Rome is probably a potential top 20 trapped in the Italian peninsula not really being able to expand outside of it easily

19: Rozvi

Cloudy:

Rozvi has a cramped and difficult start, beginning only a few tiles away from Eswatini, who have no choice but to expand in their direction. To make matters worse, Rozvi’s western neighbor is the highly regarded Ndongo, who are usually much more aggressive and expansive. In order to succeed, Rozvi will have to find some way to weasel out from between these two powerful competitors. In other words, Rozvi is between a rock and a hard place—and as for which neighbor is the rock and which is the hard place, vote now on your phones.

20: Kazakhstan

Altima:

Let’s just say we ain’t expecting S1 Kaz out of this one. Spawning in a much more crowded space than their predecessors and facing down a much better regarded civ as one of those specific neighbors, their best legacy in the tests is generally just being a weird snakey strip surviving between giants. This isn’t to say that Nonsense couldn’t still happen- but it is more likely to be to the tune of “Chile somehow completely diplomatically defangs Rio like turn two and thus Rio never pops off” than Timor-Leste’s underdog story.

21: Kanem-Bornu

Dalek:

Is the great civilization of Kanem-Bornu on track to be Kanem-Boresnooze? Perhaps. Also, fuck me, this is the highest-ranking civ I got assigned in part 0. Anyways. Kanem-Bornu is in the bottom of the middle of the pack, and you might be able to see why when you look at them on a map. They are in the Sahara, surrounded by more competent civs (and also Saba). Sierra Leone likes to build up the coast near them, but they have Lake Chad! Their entire game plan is going to revolve around more consistent civs underperforming, which is a strategy that inherently relies on luck. Well, it’s an AI game, so every strategy relies on luck. The likeliest scenario is them becoming much like Chad last season and petering out, eventually dying. Their best-case scenario is becoming Nigeria 2.0, but that won’t happen, will it?

22: Dzungars

Leman:

With the middle-of-the-pack civs it’s hard to find anything truly noteworthy to say. Dzungars seem to kind of just make a little blob in the middle of Asia.They have their moments, don’t get me wrong, but more often than not get overshadowed by the powerful civs to their north, like Selkups and Mongolia, and it’s hard to remember what memorable things they did in tests, besides eventually getting run over. I hope that they do get to put some work in the actual game. Maybe bully Shang or Bukhara?

23: Visigoths

JMAn:

We often write off civilizations that have abilities uniquely situated towards Culture and Tourism specifically. Culture is not the weakest yield by far, but often Tourism yields only a minor benefit to a civilization in times of war. What the Visigoths do that puts them a cut above most Tourism based civilizations is the ability to convert that Tourism into a Production boost.

The Visigoths also have the Ashlar Church UB, which will give immediate boosts to production should the Visigoths make any Faith purchases.

All of these abilities are surprisingly good, but being in Iberia is not an enviable position. On the plus side, Aquitaine is wide open to Visigoth settlers. But at the end of the day, the Visigoth capital is not on the coast and Europe is always a bloodbath; further, the presence of the Alaouites in the Maghreb, which usually is the home to the civ that plays second fiddle to the Iberian civ, is uniquely suited to tear the Visigoths apart.

The Visigoths are a definite underdog going into this BR, but their chances of overcoming the “bit player” moniker are decent enough that this particular PR is confident enough to write an optimistic premise for the civ.

24: BORA-BORA

Altima

Bora-Bora bizarrely boasts a big controversiality in its ranking. You have three main camps: The absolute lunatics who think a Pacific civ is gonna die second, the people who think they’ll be aggressively mid, and the people who gave them teens because they’re a pacific civ and probably won’t die soon and they’ve also at least Done Things in most of the tests. They prolly aren’t gonna be powerful, but between the buffer boasted by their otherwise broadly bad beginning base and the spirit of chaos that lives within their heart, they at least should have time to be interesting. And hey, at least their name is notably chantable. BORA-BORA, motherfucka’.

25: Wahgi

Orange:

Wahluigi number one! Wa-ha! Oh wait they aren’t number one they’re like 37th… eh close enough. Wahgi’s got an interesting place due to how Australia is in this mk. Maguindanao is gonna be going west, Bora-Bora is largely too far away and likely to go east, and the two Australian civs are both far to the south. So Wahgi has part of Australia well in their domain, all that matters is if they take advantage of it.

Wahgi is a civ that’s either gonna fail miserably or they’re gonna be the one dominating Oceania, likely dependent on how much of Australia they are able to snag before Noongar and Palawa are able to cover the continent. May the Phantom give them the power they need to do well. Wah!

26: Ecuador

JMAn:

Ecuador has as many pros as it does cons going into this competition.

Pro: With a great amount of space to expand into the Gran Colombia region and no major adversaries outside of Tiwanaku to start, Ecuador should enjoy a strong Battle Royale.

Con: However, Ecuador will not enjoy the fact that it will have a slog through the Amazon Rainforest for the rest of its expansion to shore up the capital of Quito.

Pro: Ecuador’s unique abilities allow for it to play catch up in all of its cities at any given time with a given yield of either Production or Food

Con: This same unique ability can cause Gold to take the front seat, which is not ideal in an AI competition

Pro: The Lasallian School UB, once built, will be a mainstay and integral to the Science race for Ecuador.

Con: Tiwanaku, a civilization that we expect to be extremely strong, neighbors Ecuador whilst New Holland is not that much further away.

I can go for about another six points; however, to save us all some reading time, I think what is important to share is that Ecuador is technically on the backfoot so long as they come into contact with New Holland or Tiwanaku. Ecuador is capable of making waves, but with two very strong AI near them so early on, I doubt that they will make any major moves going into this.

27: Osage

Vihreaa:

After reading through the Civilization V Customization Wiki article for Osage, these guys are cracked? Apparently the average height of those in the tribe were over 6 feet, with some of them being 7 feet tall! (Get one of these guys on the Lakers…) Osage, like most other civs, have a wide range in which they were ranked, from top 15 to bottom 15. Starting the center of North America, Osage will have to defend themselves from both the east and west. Because the land surrounding Osage is primarily flat open terrain, they may face difficulty with this task. Perhaps it is for this reason that the great equalizer of power ranking placed them in the middle of the pack.

28: Mexico

Rosay:

Mexico is honestly kind of a dark horse this cycle that I could honestly see as a potential game winner if the stars align. See, they usually performed really well in all of the tests that we saw and their uniques really help them out during a war, which is weird because a lot of Mexico’s strengths come from exploiting culture. Now seeing culture civs dominate their region is not abnormal, after all just look at firaxis Brazil, but Mexico’s culture bonuses actually help their military through giving them free and current units for every social policy when they are at war, and a “we love the king day” when they aren’t. Hell the only thing holding them back in my eyes is that Seneca exists, which trust me we’ll get to.

29: Vijayanagara

Rosay:

Vijayanagara is one of the lower end civs mainly due to their poor positioning rather than any major flaw in their AI or anything else. The Indian subcontinent is just too hard to break out of when there are mountains at every corner, and it doesn’t help that those mountains are likely to be occupied by some very competent civs. Honestly their only realistic bet to become a regional power would be a swift naval invasion on Arabia, but I expect them to rump in the subcontinent for a while.

30: Rio Grande

JDT:

Rio Grande is in a strange spot. Traditionally, their locale has been a home run of a starting spot. High growth potential, open terrain to move and settle things, and they even have an expansionist AI and uniques to match that can snowball their growth. Hell, they don’t even have those pesky Brazilians that plagued RDLP! Whats not to love?

The neighbours. That's what.

The Tehuelche, Tiwanaku and New Holland often manage to lay claim to most of the prime real estate around the region due to their positions around the map. And unlike Rio Grande, they don’t have the double edged sword of open terrain (well, the Tehuelche do, but they also often have a lot more land to work with) and spam more settlers quickly. This means that Rio Grande are often hemmed in with fewer cities than their neighbours, at best resulting in a mediocre, boring run and at worst heralding instant death. Nevertheless, they have proven at times to be able to break out, destroying New Holland and securing a powerful position amongst a strong continent. The mountain to the river of promise is steep, but it is not insurmountable. Let's hope they can lead cows to water and get them to drink.

31: Mamluks

Shaggy:

Mamluuuuuuuuuuuuuuks! Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Topping the bottom half of the initial rankings, the Mamluks are our Nile civ this season. Their UU is a knight replacement with a combat bonus on their starting continent. Additionally, their UA will heal all units when they spawn a Great Prophet. In my opinion, the fate of the Mamluks will come down to which direction they decide is important to settle. Should they try to be competitive across the Mediterranean or go head to head with the Qarmatians, they will likely be stuck in desert purgatory for a while. If, however, they decide to scramble for Africa, they should prove to be a competitor.

32: Palawa

JMAn:

Palawa is in a unique situation compared to most island civilizations. Most island civilizations have one of two obstacles:

1) They have a lot of room, but not a lot of land to capitalize on

2) They have a lot of land to capitalize on, but there are too many civs ready to crowd them out.

Palawa has both a lot of land to capitalize on and very few civs that can feasibly crowd them out. Even CBRX3 winning underdog darling Timor-Leste had a hard start, where Palawa has the fertile east coast of Australia and all of Aotearoa available to them.

What makes Palawa especially interesting in the early game is the ability to gain research towards technologies that they are behind on when pillaging tile improvements and trade routes. Glazing over the fact that this also makes the pillaging unit stronger, being able to reliably play catch up when on the offensive is extremely powerful. The Noongar will likely be building many tile improvements in the Outback, as desert civs are wont to build farms in such environments. Although the Noongar UTI will likely slow down Palawa’s utilization of their unique ability, we can expect Palawa to at the very least to be a dark horse in this Battle Royale. Despite being widely disagreed upon in the PR team, keeping an eye on this civ is a good idea.

33: Kalmyks

Reformer:

Kalmyks is one of those civs that is hard to judge. And they thus get a very appropriate Part 0 ranking. I’ve seen them amount to nothing…I’ve seen them balloon out of control. And something in-between too. This is a common story for A LOT of civs this season - almost everyone has a chance. It’s very refreshing. But let’s return to Kalmyks. To the south lie the fairly competent duo of Pontus and Afsharids - that’s a no-go zone, unless Kalmyks want to settle free cities for the duo. Back north of the Caucasus, their start is very open, vulnerable to the likes of Kazan, Bukhara, Kazakhstan, and Makhno. But that vulnerability goes both ways: if Kalmyks get going, they have easy access to a number of civs. And it is worth noting that all but Kazan of the aforementioned four are more inconsistent than most. Bukhara and Kazakhstan have the capability to do well, but do not take full advantage of their opportunities. Makhno to the west only steamrolled when he had the advantage of edge bias, and never thereafter has he been successful to a significant degree. (Now, I say that, but my fellows ranked him all the way up at 19th…) As a whole, this unstable, unpredictable neighborhood is what causes Kalmyks themselves to be unpredictable.

34: Maguindanao

Orange:

The last civ to make it into the royale to actually get released (got released just after Ndongo about a week ago, wew), Maguindanao isn’t a massive contender in any way. But they do have one thing that’s great about them: They don’t go down. For some reason, in a lot of tests I’ve seen (though I’m not on the dev team so don’t know nearly as much as some others), and just from some smaller AI games, they frequently get knocked down and then come right back up, fighting the whole time to ensure that they can get an empire engraved into people’s minds. No doubt, they will do similarly here and likely take over much of Indonesia. Now, it’s all just a matter if they can take that and go somewhere with it or not…

35: Dai Viet

JDT:

Dai Viet lands in 27th place, distinctly in the middle of the pack. They tend to be a pretty consistent mid-tier, utilizing the jungles, rivers, mountains and wide open plains of South China to create a sizable empire, all whilst commonly marching southwards into Southeast Asia. Sometimes (well, quite a few times), they exploit the weakness of this mark’s Chinese contenders and dominate China, enabling them to grow into a powerful empire. So, what's the catch?

Well, the double dragons tend to get double dragonned themselves. Siam and Vietnam often find themselves butting heads very early, because there's only room for one alpha in Southeast Asia. Oftentimes, due to their proximity, expansionism and terrain, Siam wins this battle, leaving Dai Viet exposed to the south at best and, at worst, dead. In the west, the Himalayas and the Khoshuts await, often carving their own sizable slices of land and limiting expansion. To the east there's ocean and more ocean. And Maguindanao, if they choose to go there. Finally, the north is no cakewalk. While Zheng and Shang often falter, the few times they don’t can have disastrous ramifications on Dai Viet’s expansion, and this doesn’t even consider the northern cordons of Goguryeo, Mongolia and the Selkups. So yeah, the dragon better figure out some cool combos and stunlocks against the endless hordes, lest they be cut down mid-flight.

36: Thule

Vihreaa:

Absolutely absurd that the power rankers have collectively ranked Thule 26th. As a supporter of the North American blue arctic Civ since the Inuit in Mk2, I know that you never sleep on these guys. I know nothing about this civ, but what I do know is that they are part of the brotherhood of the blue arctic civs, destined for greatness. I mean, look at the Inuit, look at the Chukchi. Rest assured, fellow blue civ believers, Thule will undoubtedly shoot up in the rankings in due time.

37: Tehuelche

Emu:

Tehuelche find themselves at the end of the earth, way down in the Southern Cone, remote from the concerns of Dutchmen and Incans, Ecuadorians and Taino. Unfortunately, that's all they really have going for them. They're not particularly aggressive, their uniques are decent but not amazing, their neighbors tend to ignore them, but not enough to wind up turtling into greatness. Overall a middle-of-the-road civ that deserves a middle of the road continent. Which is a real shame, since we've never had anyone from south of the Rio de la Plata go on to win South America, let alone the whole shebang.

38: Khoshuts

Emu:

Our southernmost Oirat isn't a *bad* civ per se, but....... well, just look at where they are. Himalayas blocking the way south, and both Harappa and Dai Viet when they get there. What's left? China? Might work considering the Shang are the Shang, but my instinct says the geography just isn't too conducive to the Khoshuts doing well. Don't get me wrong, stranger things have happened (and do happen in tests, hence their rank here), but Güshi has something a little harder than recovering a stray time traveler to worry about this time.

39: Siam

Shaggy:

I'll be honest, I lowkey love Siam this season. Coming in at rank 23, Siam is set to explode onto the scene in Southeast Asia with their explosive borders. Once they get a couple cities up with roads to the capital and some semblance of culture generation, I hope their UA will allow them to have some rapid border growth. Also, they have some of the most prime real estate in Asia with a relatively large, fertile area to settle with only lowly Singapore (unless LKY surprises everybody) to go up against for a regional foothold.

40: Goguryeo

Lasqueto:

It’s pretty easy to underestimate a civ with a Korean TSL given the last few competitors, but Goguryeo are a powerhouse. I had them top 4, and still stand by that. They start north of the mountains which lets them easily fan out across Manchuria without getting bogged down in rough terrain. No civ is an island though (okay except the island civs, but you get my point). While Goguryeo has a fairly straightforward path to power, having Nivkh and Mongolia as neighbours often takes the wind out of their sails. There are even games where they get kneecapped by Ikko Ikki early on, a civ usually so much weaker than them. Not a good look. Regardless a lot of us have high expectations, and it’s easy to see why.

41: Yellowknives

Msurdej:

The arctic might not be the best spot for many a civilization, but copper loving Yellowknives can make it work. Their first UU, a scout replacement, will help them explore the map in the early game, with a Musketman UU that can keep up the aggression in the mid game thanks to its ability to move more and heal on resources. My only concern (besides the pretty powerful Crow to their south) is that Akaitcho will go too hard on the Scout UU early, leaving himself open as his units attend ScoutCon. If they can hold off on scout spamming though, they just might be able to claim the farthest reaches of North America from the Thule. And from there is anyone’s guess.

42: Pueblo

Reformer:

Pueblo is a fairly reliable civ in a fairly reliable starting location. You rarely see them flounder outright. The start is plenty defensive with rough terrain - including mountains - allowing for a safe early game. Of course, those mountains could just as well become Pueblo’s prison, if they are not careful. But this is where their neighbourhood comes in. Mexico and Osage are both…somewhat less reliable in their performance. Osage, especially, is stuck in flat terrain between multiple other civs, and will require a great deal of skill and fortune to get out alive. Mexico, meanwhile, is less threatened by their neighbours, and more so bogged down by the starting location, which traditionally has not been favourable for the AI. Still, either could prove to be a threat to Pueblo - count neither of them out. Pueblo’s third neighbour is the most concerning one for Pueblo, however…Crow has impressed the power rankers with consistent strong showings. At the very least, Pueblo is not a particularly obvious target for Crow, again, thanks to the terrain.

43: Makhnovia

Emu:

Makhnovia is easily the fan favorite of Eastern Europe. More due to the popularity of the real-life Nestor Makhno among the CBR crowd than anything else, but popularity is popularity, at least until the civs really start doing some interesting things. Makhnovia smashed the competition in early tests thanks to their positively broken UA, but this took them far too close to the sun and earned them a pretty brutal nerf. Clearly it wasn't all UA, though, because in tests since then they still seem to be pretty strong against fairly mediocre neighbors.

44: Alaouites

Emu:

After losing to Tetouan by literally one vote last time around, Alaouites come storming in at 18th place, way higher than anyone had Tetouan at any point. Most of their neighbors are reckoned to have pretty bad chances, too, with one glaring exception: Sierra Leone across the Sahara. Their UA gives them bonuses to unit production for each defensive building while at war, which is absolutely huge for maintaining a carpet. They have one very crucial choice here: they can either go naval and try for a Mare Nostrum and/or West African coastal empire, or they can focus on land and blitz through the Sahara. Personally I think either would turn out very interesting, so as long as they do *something*, they're bound to be powerful.

45: Pontus

Altima

As with any Middle Eastern Civ, Pontus is harried by a horrible TSL that puts them right in the middle of everything from the word go. Now, we are just coming from a run that showed how a civ could still do Very Well despite that- but that took the minor miracle of two separate civs fucking up and the Turks actually capitalizing on the fuckup while they had the chance, and also having a solid UA/UB setup that the AI could realistically use. On that same token, Pontus is a fairly aggressive Civ; should a similar opportunity present itself, they may well take it. And it might present itself, they do have weak neighbors in Qarm and the Mamluks. But they could still instead choose to wallow in that kind of mediocrity that dresses itself up as a “regional power” like Palmyra did. Who could say; they have options, and the AI is historically bad with those.

46: Mongolia

Orange:

Ol’ Sorghaghtani is gonna be causing a ruckus in northern Asia. On one side is the Selkups, one of the top picks, the powerful Siberian civ ready to wreak havoc, but on all the other sides are much weaker civs ready to get gobbled up by the Mongolian war machine. Sorgh’s got strong uniques, a pretty safe location, and is known to do quite well. As long as she keeps pace with the Selkups, Sorgh’s probably gonna go far.

47: Sierra Leone

Cloudy:

Sierra Leone is a wildcard, known for widely variable performances that might include bizarre settling patterns, swift death, or regional domination, depending which side of the bed they woke up on. Unlike some previous West African civs, their northern neighbors are not pushovers and the Alaouites could present a significant challenge. On the other hand, Sierra Leone prefers to stick to the coast and not the desert, potentially avoiding some of the pitfalls experienced by civs like Songhai and Mali. In fact, that’s how we got the infamous Chile Leone test run, which I can only hope happens again in the real deal.

48: Harappa

Leman:

Harappa is a mixed bag in a lot of ways. They’ve got a solid AI and a set of powerful early-game economic bonuses, like the Sewer and Ox Cart that can make some strong, tall cities. Expect to see Harappa leading in food, population, and science, and try to turtle its way into the midgame.

On the other hand, Harappa is a bit constrained geographically as both their closest neighbors, Vijayanagara and Afsharids are quite expansive and strong in their own right. Harappa is probably going to find itself running out of room quite quickly, and under serious pressure at the outset of the game. In my opinion, the civ is more than strong enough to weather the early game, but its not going to be smooth sailing.

49: Afsharids

JMAn:

Funnily, I am tied for second place on highest ranking for the Afsharids, so I am certainly not going to best be able to represent the average opinion of the PRs on this civilization.

The Afsharids in terms of geography don’t have anything special going on in this BR; indeed, most Persian civs either fall flat or are middling throughout the BR that they are in. We expect that the Afsharids will perform far better than usual Persian civs due to their neighbors and relatively strong UA. All Afsharid units receive a movement boost temporarily upon the outbreak of war or after the capture of a city. This means that replenishing the frontline will be relatively easy and blitzing an enemy civilization at wartime that isn’t carpeted in units will be a breeze.

The Afsharids also present a unique situation where they do not have to worry about the militaristic capabilities of most of their neighbors. Bukhara, Kazakhstan, and the Qarmatians in particular have shown to be very weak in tests and are weak overall compared to most of the civs in this BR. With the ability to snowball in a difficult and untenable position that most Middle East civs are faced with, we expect the Afsharids to be the exception and prove that a Middle East civ is capable of winning a BR.

50: Noongar

Rosay:

Noongar has a pretty good chance to be the hegemon of Oceania. In the majority of the test runs that I saw Noongar ends up controlling most of, if not all, of Oceania which is usually a sign of a really strong civ. Now being the Oceania leader comes with its pros and cons, for one they are almost certainly going to be a top tier civ with a huge population and production pool, but they are presumably going to have a really hard time actually breaking out of Australia. What’s also important to note is that they don’t always win Australia which is a pretty far cry from other past continent winners like Parkes’ Australia and Kulin. While it does sound like I’m being negative on Noongar, I’m definitely not doubting that they will be a major player this game, after all I did rank them 11th in my personal rankings, and I can almost guarantee that they’ll have top 10 stats early game, they just need to do a lot more that the other top tier civs to close the gap between major power and game winner.

Disclaimer: Palawa could also be the Australia civ in which case Noongar is rumped.

51: Kazan

Shaggy:

Möxämmädämin leäds Käzän this seäsön, cöming in just öutside the töp 10 in the initiäl ränkings. When he isn't thröwing umläuts ön literälly every pössible “ä” and “ö” ön the cylinder, Möxämmädämin cän be föund träining his Därughär Cönscripts, ä UU thät cän ättäck twice when ön ä tile next to änöther Därughär Cönscript älöng with the ädded bönus öf nöt häving än irön requirement. Käzän häs ä tön öf späce tö settle initiälly withöut mäny öther civs thät will be göing för eventuäl Käzän länd. Gööd luck, Mäster öf Umläuts Möxämmädämin, mäy yöur gäme be less spötty thän this writeup.

52: Nivkh

Emu:

Nivkh is this season's Chukchi. Isolated, east Siberian, surrounded by civs that have other things to focus on than them. Until suddenly they don't. There's a world of potential for our only top 10 contender in the region here, and nothing to do but reach out and take it. Or don't, I personally like Thule more. That color scheme, mmm. Anyway, it's impossible to not draw parallels with X2's winner. They even look about the same if you really squint. No one expects a guy named after an emoticon umu.

53: Mogadishu

Orange:

:Mogchamp: You may be wondering why a civ in fuckin Somalia is ranked so high despite civs in the region doing so shit every time, for which the answer is: :Mogchamp:

For real though it’s cause Mogadishu is primed to do well, their uniques help them shine in their desert-y start and get a huge amount of food while doing so, keeping their pop, and tech, high. They’re also quite expansionist and their only neighbor who can contest them is Saba D’mt, who is 51st, for a reason. With no one strong nearby, and being the kings of western Indian Ocean, they’re gonna be mogging all over the place.

54: Ndongo

Lasqueto:

This is the highest rank Nzinga’s ever gotten in part 0, because yep, this is her 3rd time competing in the CBR. But don’t write them off yet - this is the entirely new Ndongo made by community member Nopecopter, and they bring more to the table than just a snazzy colour scheme. Ndongo start primed to claim vast swathes of land in Central Africa that their weaker neighbours like Mogadishu, Saba and Rozvi often struggle to hold down. Ndongo’s biggest risk is getting walled into the Congo Basin and stagnating, but they usually have the initiative and military strength to avoid that happening. Africa this season is a continent with very few constants, but Nzinga seems the most likely to dominate.

55: Faroe Islands

Cloudy:

The Faroe Islands are a monster of a civ, whose reputation precedes them. They’re expansive, they’re aggressive, they’re ruthless, they like science, and most of all, they like overwhelming quantities of boats. Their bizarre starting location, on a small tundra island in the north atlantic, is no hindrance—in fact, the ample space for fishing boats feeds right into their uniques. They’re also not shy about sending settlers to the lands around the North Sea, and sometimes even North America, overwhelming local competitors before they can get off their feet. Although the Faroes aren’t perfect—they had a few bad test runs—they also had runs where they conquered Europe, and even parts of Africa. In short: British, beware! British, beware! He’s coming! He’s coming!

56: Crow

Altima:

So the Crow are in a Fun position. There’s a solid duopoly between them and the Seneca for North America’s Top Bird. Both are strong, aggressive civs who fight hard and have neighbors who… aren’t that thing. They’re here to fight hard, fight well, and eventually fight each other—and when that happens, the fate of North America will be determined. Funniest scenario: the two just punch through enough civs fast enough that they establish a functional border early and just go ham on each other such that the loser randomly eats an ignominious 37th place finish or something. Most likely scenario: heavy buildup between the two that gets resolved through repeated Iroquois v. Metis style slugfests. Either way, there will be blood across the north.

57: Tiwanaku

Msurdej:

Now, Tiwanaku may not seem like the strongest of contenders at first glance, especially with Uniques that focus more on religion and tile improvements. But make no mistake, the Tiwanaku have a strong AI that can make the best of their mountainous start. Tests have shown them to be one of South America’s regional powers most of the time. And while there’s a lot of potential for other civs, their biggest threat will probably be New Holland. Speaking of which...

58: New Holland

Msurdej: New Holland combines a powerful coast raiding UU, Increased jungle gains, and a good AI all inside a snazzy color set. Best of all, these boys in blue have a lot of room to expand northwest, their closest neighbor being Rio Grande to their south. While they might have a hard time once the competition starts to winnow away, Johan should provide a strong regional power in South America (and who know, maybe even team up with Ndongo like they did in real life).

59: Ume-Sámi

Leman:

Ume-Sámi are a powerhouse. They have powerful bonuses that provide food and science. They have a ton of space and a strong start, with the whole of the Scandinavian Peninsula to themselves. They have a whole bunch of weak neighbors they can exploit and overpower, like Latvia, the Finns, Bavaria, and England. All of that wraps up nicely to give us a civ that consistently performs well and often comes out on top in Europe.

As long as the Faroes don’t come knocking of course.

60: Seneca

Cloudy:

The Seneca are the unquestioned leaders of North America, with some of the most room to expand of any civ and an AI well tuned to take advantage of it. In testing, the Seneca almost invariably rose to the top tier, and even in those runs where they didn’t top the continent, they were usually second. They like to build cities, they aren’t terrible at war, and the notoriously incompetent Shawnee and Florida are among their closest neighbors. Ironically their most immediate threat could be the Faroe Islands, which would be quite something to see. But you know, never count your chickens before they hatch—we’re pretty damn sure Cornplanter will do well, but there’s always that 1%.

61: Selkups

Msurdej: And at the top of our list, we have the Selkups. Vonya has an interesting love of fish, being able to spawn them in places near fresh water. But don’t let the smell of sturgeon fool you. There’s a lot of space to build a powerful empire up in Siberia, and tests have shown them to be competent most of the time. But Selkups fans have an uneasy position. No civ ranked first the Part 0 has ever won the game. Once you’ve reached the pinnacle, the only way to go is down. Can Vonya turn this truth around, and win it all?Find out when the Civ Battle Royale X4 starts on Wednesday, March 20th!

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