Power Rankings: Episode 16 – S4

NopeCopter:

After a long and brutal coalition war, Maguindanao has finally fallen and been eliminated in 60th place, a position that they realistically didn’t deserve. Initially given a staggering 28th place in the Episode 0 Power Rankings, Maguindanao certainly played an interesting game - while they did settle, they did so slower than usual, which was a problem as both Singapore and the Wahgi decided to settle much more than normal. Maguindanao then also decided to spend most of their production building wonders rather than units, a decision that (despite netting Maguindanao a few big wins) made a lot of people cast their doubts on the Filipino civ.

However, Maguindanao seemingly turned all that around when they dropped their one-two punch of an EXCELLENT religion for their uniques and a war on Wahgi that looked to even the odds in the region. Unfortunately, Maguindanao’s critical lack of Production saw the war stall after only one city capture, and before long the war was a drain on Maguindanao that only left them more vulnerable to invasion. Unlike some other civs I could name, however (cough cough Rozvi), Maguindanao did eventually secure peace (presumably) and began to build up a military. Despite looking like more of an equal to presumed bottom-feeder Singapore than expected, Maguindanao looked to be in a good position to turn things around… outside of their abysmal Production score, at least.

This all came tragically crashing down, however, with a series of major wars one after the other. A holy war against Siam and Dai Viet saw Maguindanao secure a couple of cities but wore down their fleet, the war with Singapore right afterward took out the rest of their navy and almost lost them multiple cities, and then with their abysmal Production score, this left them completely defenseless when Zheng, the Wahgi, and the Noongar all struck at once. Maguindanao was torn to bits, although in the end it was rival pirate civ Zheng that took basically all of the spoils, and the relentless nature of their enemies and a near-total lack of units saw Maguindanao wiped entirely off the map long before their time.

In a funny way, Maguindanao’s journey mimicked that of the very first Filipino civ, Mk. 2’s Philippines, with a fairly impressive albeit shaky empire that was torn to shreds by an invasion from all sides. When it comes to Mk. 2 Philippines, one thing that’s always stuck with me was a quote someone chose to attach to them, from Star Trek of all places: “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.” While I don’t think Maguindanao made no mistakes (in fact they made several), I do think that their early demise came down far more to unfortunate circumstances than their own incompetence. But that’s how things go in the CBR. At least they burned bright and went down fighting. So long, my idiot child, and may the next Filipino civ rank above the bottom 10.

Leman:

Chased to the ends of the Earth by New Holland, Rio Grande finds themselves eliminated in 59th place. A far cry from the 32nd place that the PRs had predicted. Rio Grande wasn’t on paper a bad civilization, but it had a slew of fundamental problems that most other civs don’t really have to face. The most glaringly obvious, and what ultimately ended up being the problem that ended their game, was their obscenely powerful neighbors. Tiwanaku and New Holland (though both not looking very powerful today) are both top tier civilizations that have spent most of the game comfortably within the top ten. Any civ, no matter how powerful, is going to struggle when pitted against neighbors of that caliber. Matters were not helped when Rio Grande found itself forward settled by Bora-Bora of all civilizations. Cramped and backed into a corner, it was only a matter of time before the two South American titans tore Rio Grande limb from limb. Rio Grande prolonged their elimination by hiding down south, but New Holland was able to hunt them down.  

And there we have it. The story of Rio Grande. Dead before cow boats. RIP.

Shaggy:

With 2 deaths this week, the Mamluks are now on the bubble. Their defense of Damietta is currently holding, unlike anybody's breath as they watch them slide into oblivion.

JDT:

Kazakhstan stuck in the middle of the arctic, not nice. War was not great success. Got pounded by stupid cowardly neighbours. And still get fucked! Very bad times to be Kazakh! Better go to America! Or *gulp* Uzbekistan!

Cloudy:

Rozvi creeps up another rank as more civs around them collapse. Slow and steady does the trick or something.

Shaggy:

Florida is on summer vacation and will (hopefully) return in the upcoming episode of Civilization Battle Royale X, Season 4.

Rosay:

The Alaouites are getting boxed in by Sierra Leone and the Visigoths to a lesser extent, and while they aren’t quite on death's door right now, the casket is currently being constructed and space is being made in the morgue.

CelestialDalek:

The Kalmyks sure are alive. Makhno is overextended and can’t do anything by funneling troops into a one-tile gap anyways. Bukhara does not border them. A war from any of their neighbors would probably mean their quick elimination, but luckily they aren’t at war with any other neighbors! Yippee!

Orange:

Kayahsuto’ke continues to barely hold on against the Faroe hordes. Wait I mean, uh, it’s barely taken damage. Well at least this means they are pretty safe for the foreseeable future. Also Sandur could be taken back, that’d be neat.

Msurdej:

Big news from the Crow, they are now at war with the Faroe Islands and Mexico! Sure this barely counts as news (even if you think the Faroe Islands could take the Arctic city of Crow), but considering the interesting times we live in IRL, I’d kill for some boring news.

Msurdej:

Burgundy gets a small bump as England makes peace. Last we saw, Asturica was holding together with some good troops around the city. But that was five turns ago, and while we didn’t see the city fall on or off screen, it was in the red. It’s possible the city could fall next episode, which would hurt the healing stats of Burgundy, and open them to more attacks from the Visigoths.

JDT:

Royal Hungary faces some bad news as they now find themselves coalitioned by Rome, Latvia and some more distant foes in addition to Makhnovia. While they might have Gyor threatened a bit, let's be real here - Bathory’s no vampire. She’s a mosquito, pesting around and sucking shit around her without much gain. No movement for her.

Leman:

Bukhara takes a small slide as the opportunity to nab cities from Kazakhstan rapidly closes. Herat was already retaken and that honestly is more than enough for at Bukhara’s level to be happy with, given their previous position. But if Bukhara wanted to be a surprise contender they really needed more.

Shaggy:

Kirmukarmu: “Hey Daji, looks like you've taken a tumble. We haven't done much of anything to you since declaring war, want to just call it square?”

Daji, in the middle of sacrificing yet another of her people: “What? Oh, sure, we're way better at picking off our own population anyway.”

Rosay:

you know with Bora Bora distracted tehuelche could easily become relevant by taking on Bora. Now would Tehuelche get anything out of a war with Bora? Probably not. Would the attempt be worth it for content at least? Yeah.

Cloudy:

Dai Viet has made peace with Singapore, but now they’re in another existential crisis as Zheng declares war. Or at least, you’d think they’re in a crisis. The issue is, the war was declared on turn 193, and the episode ended on turn 200, and we never saw a single shot of it. So is Zheng actually going to mount an invasion? After wild back-to-back wars against Maguindanao and Shang, it’s unclear that Zheng actually has any troops to commit. So we'll just have to wait and see before we drop Dai Viet from where they are currently.

Cloudy:

Eswatini rises two more ranks after capturing the island outpost of Zahran from the Qarmatians. Way to go guys! Just don’t think about the fact that if Mogadishu declared war on you, you’d be destroyed!

Leman:

Makhnovia takes this episode to start making cheeky opportunistic swipes at their enemies. While the war with Kalmyks isn’t going anywhere at all, the other two wars – with Royal Hungary and Latvia, are much, much more interesting. Latvia is an ambitious target to say the least but Makhnovia already has captured a Latvian city, and has a solid ally on its side, in Kazan. The Royal Hungary war also has an ally in Rome and is a much weaker and easier target. Or maybe Makhnovia’s spread themselves way too thin and we are in for another spectacular collapse next Tuesday. I guess we’ll see.

Nathanmasse:

Despite losing a city this episode—albeit a fairly insignificant one—Harappa’s rank remains unchanged.  There are not many options left to them at this point.  Their island colony in the Maldives is cut off and just waiting for Vijayanagara or some ocean-going civ to pick it off.  Even their weakest neighbor, Bukhara, protected by the rugged hills and mountains would be a tough nut to crack.  All in all, Harappa is probably quite happy that Afsharids and Vijayanagara have decided to duke it out and leave them alone for a little while.

CelestialDalek:

Taino has a huge naval carpet, but unfortunately they don’t have a war to actually put it to use. At the rate the cylinder is advancing, it’s also going to be outdated pretty soon. Because they’re not actually looking too bad, they rise a couple places in the ranks, but their stats still don’t warrant a higher placement. We’ll see if they continue to just rot away in tech.

ECH:

I mean, what can the Khan of the Himalayas really do at this point? If there was any chance of expansion, a revolting city on their border devoid of units protecting it was about as good as they could have hoped for, and in the end the Khoshuts got nothing out of Shang. They have a demonstrably unhealthy dependency on chariots, many eras past their prime, and are boxed in doubly between mountains and stronger neighbors. As of this episode’s end they’ve joined the triangular war against Siam and Dai Viet, and I suppose there’s a reality where Siam collapses and they successfully siege the Bengali city that many feel ought to have been theirs in the first place, but I’m not feeling it, even Siams token defense there trumps Khoshuts record of incompetence in my mind.

Reformer:

The Qarmatians are still fighting Vijayanagara, doing their best to hold Sutkagan-Dor against Vijayanagara’s flailing. I mean, that’s definitely what the random jengaline of troops looks like. So poor is Vijayanagara’s flailing that the last we saw the state of the war, the city had healed a fair bit, up to about 66% health. So we can pretty safely say Qarms held off the coalition war, if you could call it that. I mean, it kind of was that. Nominally at least. But no losses, and minimal actual power projected onto Qarmatian soil. All good. Onwards and upwards!

JDT:

England drops by one as they decide to cut their losses and put the 100 Years War on ice again. While the war is a good path forward for England, condemning one of their primary enemies to eternal irrelevance and giving a better pathway towards relevance, the truth of the matter is that they still are in about the same position in the grand scale of things. The Burgundian core is really tricky for the AI to penetrate. The Faroes are still breathing over them. All their stats are still about the same. Combined with some statistical noise and ups and downs from other civs, and you got a small drop.

Leman:

Mogadishu made a small quiet gain this episode poaching a single city from Harappa. Safwan was never going to be held by Harappa, especially after Afsharids conquered their only coastal city, but it’s a little weird that Qarmatians never got it. Regardless, Mogadishu has it now and a win’s a win.

ECH:

The immensity of Shang’s decline should not be understated. I fear due to Faroes’ later dominance of the lead position that we’ve allowed ourselves to forget how discussed and predicted Daji’s forefront role in this game was amidst the early game: they founded cities at a record pace for the CBR; showed successful aggression against Mongolia and took a city to hobble their development, had top tier stats across the board, and a variety of neighbors - some weaker than others, as perceived at the time - to prey upon. Diagnosing the roots of this dramatic turnaround seem to be attributed to two main diverging points: the first Ikko-Ikki/Goguryeo joint assault, which halted Shang’s uncontested superiority and arrested their development, allowing Goguryeo to ascend over them and other civs to regain a footing (most notably Zheng) and become credible opposition; and Daji’s UA citizen murder spree, which utterly destroyed their ability to persecute war right as everyone took note. So, what now? The coalition is effectively over, only Ikko Ikki still in as a neighbor, and unless they shake their assault on Anyang up dramatically I doubt that’s going anywhere. 9 cities isn’t grand, and they’ll need to rebuild fast to maintain credibility, but 36th is far from rump status and with a production total of 258 rebuilding is certainly in their wheelhouse. They’re fighting momentum, but don’t count out a fox deity!

Nathanmasse:

Bavaria finds itself in a hurry-up-and-wait situation.  Even with Latvia and Royal Hungary units being pulled far from Bavaria’s border, I’m not confident a declaration of war would be successful.  Their military is still depleted from their war with Burgundy and it will take time before it is battle ready again.  They have some of the best production per city in the cylinder so it shouldn’t be too difficult to rebuild their armies if they put their mind to it.

Reformer:

:clueless:

Nivkh is very cool, and totally not stuck between two far stronger powers.

…I guess the match-up with Ikko-Ikki is competitive, in theory. If only Ikko-Ikki didn’t have double Nivkh’s military.

ECH:

Vijayanagara’s journey as a civ throughout this season has been… awkward? I can’t help but feel at an early point we collectively decided to unconsciously write them off, yet another contender from the Southern India region that got out-settled and trapped in by stronger civs - Harappa and Siam in this case - and were doomed to be picked at by them until a mediocre death arrived. However, of late the narrative has turned, and Krishnadevaraya has, without really surging in any way, achieved a new record hitting the part 0 ranking expectation of 33rd for the first time! I view this as a readjustment to in-game realities mostly: their stats belong more around 30 than 40 for sure, with 168 total production with 8 cities not jumping out at anyone but hitting the average well and even comparing favorably to some much higher ranked civs (see Siam’s 170 production over 9 cities or for an extreme Bora Bora’s 127 production over 19 cities); their rivals are disinterested or crumbling; the Harappa war worked out in their favour overall, and they’ve shown some ability to declare wars, even if they fail, with Qarmatians. It’s a shame they did that last decision though, and the main event for them this episode, Nader Shah’s foolish choice to declare war on them of all civs they technically border, would be far easier to deal with and maybe even keep flipping Mehrgarh if they had all those triremes still…

JDT:

Kanem Bornu rises to 32 off… lets be real here statistical noise and some other civs collapsing. Not much to say about them, same as it ever was with their mediocre army and decent stats that pale due to their adjacency with the African Big 3 and poor positioning.

Nathanmasse:

It was a quiet episode for Ikko-Ikki.  They’re still at war with Shang, but from the little we saw of them there’s no chance of making any progress on that front. Their religion continues to spread in the north, reaching a few new Thule cities but Pueblo missionaries traveling from Hawaii are pushing it out of some Pacific islands. Also, now with Astronomy, they should be able to explore around and perhaps even found a few more far-flung colonies if Zheng and Pueblo don’t beat them to it.

Orange:

The Visigoths somehow gain a rank, I blame the person who put them 17th. Cause see, that ranker doesn’t truly understand the Visigoths, they see them being 15th in stats, they see them almost taking Asturica and think they will pull it off next part, but they don’t truly understand. See, lemme lay out the actual Visigoth stats:

Grit: 3

Heart: 1

Clutch: 0

Momentum: 1

Wanting it more: 1

As you can see, these are pretty shit stats. Grit is their best stat by far but that’s not enough to keep them anywhere near the 30s in rank. Though what they really need at this point is clutch, no clutch and they will never get better.

Shaggy:

How the hell are all of my writeups this week for civs with no rank change except for Osage? And Osage didn't even do anything this episode! They literally are only moving because Ikko Ikki's window is slightly smaller with a surging Goguryeo. How long do I need to vamp here, Cloudy?

[Editor’s note: I didn’t assign write-ups  this week bucko i was on vacation]

Shaggy:

Well at least Ecuador has something to show from their war with Tiwanaku. Bora-Bora has really been stealing the show (and the cities) in that coalition but Ecuador can proudly point to the actively burning city of Lukurmata as evidence of their apparent competence. Not that that's enough to really prove it to anyone. They may also take Pajshiri and if their resident arsonists aren't too gung-ho then that will be an actual prize for Ecuador.

NopeCopter:

Sierra Leone takes a significant dip in the rankings this episode, not for anything they did, but rather for what they didn’t do. The Alaouites are continuing to be a thorn in the side of Sierra Leone, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that no more can be gained from this war. Meanwhile, Kanem-Bornu is slowly but surely building up, and Rome is also looking better than ever - in other words, Sierra Leone’s lead is starting to wane. Given that Sierra Leone’s stats were around this part of the rankings to begin with, the only thing keeping them in the high 20s of the Power Rankings was their relative strength compared to their neighbors, and as their dominance over West Africa seems less assured their rank has dropped to reflect their stats better. They’re still the strongest civ in the area, they’re just focusing on all the wrong things.

Reformer:

Here comes Singapore with an un-exciting episode. But time of recovery and build-up is oft needed between wars. And it shows: Singapore has risen a noticeable bit in terms of stats. That’s great to see. If you’re a Singapore fan, anyway. They’ll be well prepared for whatever war comes next.

Msurdej:  

Mithridates VI was a sleeper in this part, but perhaps he was just resting before he went to- wait a minute, this is the same write up as last time! Well, Pontus hasn’t joined the big Royal Hungary war yet, so he may lose out on a weak neighbor if ol’ Elizabeth goes belly up. Still, there’s plenty of time to actually join up and gain a city or two.

Nathanmasse:

To be honest, I expected a bit more out of Kazan this episode.  With Makhnovia tying up Latvia’s unit in the south I thought Kazan would be able to make more progress in the north.  With hindsight it makes a bit of sense.  Latvia is able to hold back Kazan advances with their northern navy meanwhile Kazan forces are being diverted to the Kazakh’s remaining cities.  They did manage to take that one isolated Kazakh city and flip Kyzylorda a few times but that’s about all I expect from them going forward.

Orange:

Siam has mostly been chilling, despite the Khoshuts war but really does anyone actually think that war is going anywhere? Probably not. So for now they are just chilling getting science and not much else. They really should take on Singapore or something soon or else their neighbors will eventually make it too hard for them to expand.

NopeCopter:

The Noongar catapult back up the rankings as they once again show they’re still capable of doing what they do best: beating up the Palawa. Despite losing a couple of cites here and there and being way behind in the stats, with Singapore and the Wahgi out of the way, the Noongar have managed to turn the tables on the Palawa and actually take the offensive in yet another war. It’s hard to say whether they’ll be able to take any cities, but this at least proves they’re not just a rump state waiting to die. (It helps that they’ve also settled a ton of new cities lately.) The problem that’s keeping the Noongar down, however, is more about what they can do BESIDES fight off the Palawa. The Noongar have proven time and time again to be incompetent at naval warfare, and given that’s where most of their potential targets lie (not that Singapore, Zheng, or the Wahgi would be easy conquests anyways mind you), many rankers still have their doubts about whether the Noongar can do more than be a thorn in the Palawa’s side.

CelestialDalek:

Rome moves up a few places in the ranking mainly because other civs are doing worse. They have declared war on Royal Hungary and are bent on taking Gyor, but that war has immediately turned into a slog and isn’t going to go anywhere. They’ve successfully reaped? reapt? the rewards of the war against the Mamluks, but haven’t gone on to eliminate them yet. Yet another casualty of the Boring European Civ syndrome that has been striking the continent.

NopeCopter:

It’s been a quiet part for Ndongo as they stop to rebuild after the war with Eswatini. While they do lose a rank this episode (most likely to statistical noise and the shifts of other civs more than anything), their stats have improved to match their rank, which is a good sign for their future prospects. Of course, it’s still far from all sunshine and rainbows for Ndongo - with their failure to decisively defeat Eswatini, many still doubt their ability to actually make any more gains on the continent, something that’s even more dire with both Saba-D’mt and Kanem-Bornu looking more and more impressive. Still, Ndongo isn’t out of the game just yet - but they really, really need to get their priorities in order.

Reformer:

Tiwanaku is STRUGGLING. The coalition war is dragging on, somewhat against expectations. Stats are in a downspin, and it’s awfully looking like a death spiral now. Bora-Bora has made landfall on the continent, even. Ecuador somehow flipped a city. Good tiles are getting pillaged, cities are starving - it will take a long time to recover. Peace SHOULD be on the horizon, at the very least, but the damage is obviously done. The good news, though, is that Ecuador and New Holland are struggling too (for some reason). Both are falling in the stats, and are so far getting very little actual benefit out of the war. So much so that Tiwanaku, despite faltering statistically, is still well above the other two South American contenders. Bora-Bora’s poor production keeps them well out of the top 20 in stats as well. So, you know…despite the doom and gloom…Tiwanaku is still the best civ in the neighborhood? That’s a weird thing to say. They stand to lose a fair bit more if the war does keep going, though, so hard to see that staying the case.

Leman:

Mongolia somehow ends up as the biggest winner from the Shang coalition. Sorghagtani ends up getting a total of three former Shang cities, including Old Sarai, the city they lost way back when Shang was a scary power. Mongolia is still stuck in the same overall rut that they’ve been in, smack dab in between powerful Selkups and powerful Goguryeo, but they are looking quite a bit better after that last episode for sure.

Orange:

Only getting one city out of the Kazakh coalition ain’t the best, and now their neighbors are expanding more. Both the Selkups and Mongolia had some big wins last part, while the Dzungars stagnated a bit more. Put that army to use Galdan, time’s a-tickin’.

Cloudy:

Latvia is at war with three of its neighbors, but so far they don’t appear particularly troubled. Kazan did flip a small formerly Kazakh snow city, but it’s hard to be too broken up about that. Makhnovia and Royal Hungary have done nothing whatsoever. But given Latvia’s stats, if they could peace out with Kazan, then they could potentially make gains against their other two foes, which would only further enhance their position as the leading power in Eastern Europe. It’s obviously not great that so many civs have attacked them, but ironically I’d only begin to worry if the Finns got involved.

Rosay:

If you told me Zheng was going to go from one of my most hated to favorite civs id call you a liar but, Zheng really deserves it. Not only have they received basically all of the rewards from the  Maguindano coalition but they’ve also have balanced their stats out to place their total stat avg above two thirds of the alive roster. They’re not exactly stonewalled either, since Wahgi sucks at life they can go after them, a second Shang war is always on the table, and if they can position their navy (which this part proved is possible) then they could easily win this Dai Viet war. Zheng I was not familiar with your game go get ‘em champ!

NopeCopter:

Mexico’s slow, steady slide down the rankings continues this episode as they just… don’t really do much. War with the Faroes is all but irrelevant, and while Ecuador weakening itself against Tiwanaku is nice and all, it’s not like Mexico has the presence in South America to take advantage with the geography being set up the way it is. The best next steps for Mexico are the same as they’ve always been - conquer the Taino, conquer Florida, maybe conquer the Osage and Seneca if possible - but the Taino navy would put up a good fight as-is, and despite their massive military score and myriad impressive other stats, Mexico still needs to figure out a way to put those into action before they can really prove they’re top of the pack.

Leman:

With Eastern Europe in chaos, Sami might have the best opening on Latvia they’ve ever had. Latvia’s army is pretty mediocre compared to Sami’s so a naval invasion is entirely possible while Latvia throws its the little units it does have into a meat grinder.

Orange:

Y’ALL DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW BORA BORA’D I AM RIGHT NOW. LIKE HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THAT DEFENSE OF PIRATINI?!?!?! DID YOU SEE HOW THEY TOOK CACAPAVA DO SUL AND THEN STARTED PUSHING TIWANAKU BACK LIKE IT WAS NOBODY'S BUSINESS?!?! DID YOU SEE THEM CARRY THE COALITION ON THEIR BACK WITHOUT EVEN BREAKING A SWEAT?!?!?! DID YOU SEE HOW WAHGI ATTACKED THEM AND THEY JUST SAID “LMAO TRY ME BITCH” AND THEN TOOK TOLU LIKE THE BADASSES THEY ARE?!?!?!

This is only the start. Bora will take over the world. You just have to Boralieve. But you already do. We all do. Bora will rule. Bora will be our life. We can not be stopped.

Boraboraboraboraboraboraboraboraborabora.

ECH:

 With New Holland two conflicting narratives have emerged: New Holland as fairly clear game frontrunners with the best odds to unite their continent via a scientific edge and the ongoing collapse of their key rival; versus New Holland as dismissable gritless turtles who lack production and just don’t have the chops to win a domination game if you look at the evidence so far. Where you stand on this cleavage tints your perspective on the two notable conflicts Maurits handled this episode. The elimination of Rio Grande is one, of course: senseless distraction they seemed to care more about than taking down their central rival and protecting their cities, or proof that they have the tenacity to keep pursuing a war past an early stage and of naval potential going forward?

Meanwhile, I think most would agree the coalition against Tiwanaku so far has, let’s say, been a missed opportunity to say the least. The extent to which it will be whiffed can be debated though. New Holland supporters will say that Tiwanaku is being worn down and will likely lose more cities next part, likely to all 3 aggressors with New Holland having the chance to bag multiple cities. New Holland’s detractors will opine that New Holland has been hopeless in land wars, including retreating senselessly from sieges, making it unclear if Pajchiri will even fall to them, while their low production means restocking their forces will take even longer. Choose your side now and make your bets, folks…

JDT:

The Wahgi drop by 3 to 10th place as they feel the full effects of getting BORA BORA’d, having their entire pacific core threatened, whilst losing out on the partition of Maguindanao and failing to convert on the Noongar war. Make no mistake - the Wahgi are a monster, hosting the best tech in the world and some of the highest science and growth values around. However, their mediocre military, inability to gain much from the partition of Maguindanao and, most worrying of all, high mid-tier production are all notable issues that are hampering them greatly. If they don’t work to fix those issues soon, they may not hang around in the top 10 for much longer.

NopeCopter:

The Yellowknives are the same as they’ve always been, quietly hanging out in the north between two other major powers. There is some excitement in the stats, however, as the Thule stat ranking has plummeted for unknown reasons and placed the Yellowknives above their arctic rival at least in theory. However, this may be temporary, and with fewer places to expand into and two neighbors to worry about instead of one, the Power Rankers have decided to keep the Yellowknives below the Thule at least for the time being.

Nathanmasse:

These Noongar-Palawa wars seem to follow a similar trend; Palawa rules the seas while Noongar rules the interior.  Now that Singapore and Wahgi have dropped out, Noongar is able to put their whole weight against Nipaluna.  While Palawa seems to have plenty of reserves to hold it, the reversal from last episode is enough for Palawa to go down a few ranks.  I also have to point out that there are no roads between the city and the coast so actually getting those reserves to the city might become an issue.  Perhaps it’s time to call it quits for this war and start planning for the next.

Msurdej:

Thule falls two spots as the lack of news and occasional bandit attacks makes them fall out of favor. They have been upgrading into carracks though, which may prove useful when they begin to attack the Nivkh. Whenever that happens.

CelestialDalek:

Is it Saba time? It’s Saba time. Makeda rises 6 spots due to… uh… probably discovering Physics. They don’t even have Education yet, which means that their science will kick into overdrive soon, especially if they get another golden age boom. The worst thing I can say about them is that they don’t have much of a military, but they have 19000 gold in their coffers in case they need to summon one out of thin air.

Msurdej:

Taking a spot back in the top 5 since episode 2, Afsharids have been making continued moves to secure their dominance. Having fought back Harappa, the Afsharids make their next move against Vijayanagara, trying to clear out the Gulf of Persia of enemy ships. It’s unlikely that this will result in a gain of territory for Nader Shah (unless they pull a massive diplomatic score), but it is still a flex of their power.

Cloudy:

The Selkups hold steady in 4th, but they’re actually in a pretty serious situation. Yes, they’re capturing more and more cities from Kazakhstan, but that’s exactly the problem. According to the info sheet, they currently have a mind-boggling -30 happiness, which has caused them to fall 12 info addict ranks due to the enormous penalties that are being applied to production, food, and combat strength. With those penalties in place, the Selkups have noticeably less production than Osage. Will the AI be able to conjure 30 happiness out of nowhere? The Deity is famously good and finding happiness but 30 is a tall order. And if they take Semey from Kazakhstan, they’ll need even more than that. So in the end, we’re waiting to see what happens next episode before we decide whether this situation is going to hold them back, but don’t be shocked to see them drop if this persists.

ECH:

Pueblo, Pueblo, Pueblo, in the top 5 for 14 out of 16 rankings, and exactly 3rd place for 7 of those (this being their third in a row funnily enough). Top tier? Indisputably! I even placed them first one episode, around Faroes first rank wobbliness period. However, are they winning material, there’s the question, and every episode they don’t make a move the question only grows. As the slide comments note, some see Pueblo and the two higher ranked civs as fundamentally different contenders, and not in Po’pay’s favor. It’s even worse now as by the time they move, their situationally great UU may already be obsolete, throwing away opportunity. What have they done then, to keep this high rank? Well, they’ve cultivated great yields across the board, including the second highest production total at this point, and built a grand carpet. And, of course, they’ve won the race for the Hawaiian Islands, securing a base for Trans-Pacific operations and vital cool points. All great building-blocks for certain… now complete the CBR Lego set!

Rosay:

Goguryeo falls from first place this part for a few reasons. 1: The Faroes’ stats increased faster than Goguryeo, allowing the former to surpass the latter statistically. 2: Goguryeo fumbled the Shang war by not taking anything due to Goguryeo positioning their military incorrectly. 3: The Faroes are beginning to gain ground in North America, which has a lot more easy pickings than East Asia. Despite all of this, Goguryeo dramatically outperforms everyone else on the cylinder and even though ol Gogurt fumbled the first go, they still have Nivkh, Ikko Ikki, and a second round with Shang still on the table. There’s a large gap between first and second but the gap between second and third makes Goguryeo and the Faroes look like equal competitors.

Reformer:

Guess who’s back? Tell a friend. Faroes return to their rightful place at the very top. It’s very simple: Their stats are far above Gogureyo’s again. Even though Faroes are still painfully unhappy, they’ve clambered above. It must be noted, though, that more than half of the gap in stats score is from Faroes’ bulky military score, which is not getting much use. But hey, Gogureyo’s military isn’t being useful either, as we could see during the most recent Shang war. Still, it’s not difficult to see this position remaining somewhat controversial (even if it really wasn’t this episode). The two giants are in direct competition now, and will be for the foreseeable future…