Power Rankings: Episode 18 – S4

Nathanmasse:

Poor Mamluks stay at the very bottom of the rankings.  Even though their war with Rome has ended, they get no respect... and rightfully so.  Though I could be mistaken, it feels like they could linger on for a long time here on the Red Sea coast.

Leman:

There was actually a bit of debate on who should be last this week. One-city-dork Mamluks? They seemed relatively safe from invaders. Or two-city-dork Kazakhstan. Kazan has a much easier path to take them out. In the end, two cities is more than one, so here we are.

Orange:

At this rate Rozvi will be number 1 by part 76!

ECH:

In the aftermath of the episode with their most critical defeat yet, what do we see of Ismail Ibn Sharif?

…

A singular 11-word mention dumping on them, the slide highlighting a Visigothic Citadel cutting their ‘empire’ in half. Yeah, that sounds about right. But hey, they’re only 1.5 techs away from Kasbah tile improvements y’all! Gonna boost the hell out of all those Saharan tiles they control… oh…

Nathanmasse:

Dai Viet has put up a stoic defense, but I fear the end is approaching.  They managed to hang onto their capital but surely it cannot hold for much longer.  Dai may still live on as a landlocked nation but anything on or near the coast will succumb to Zheng’s superior navy.

Reformer:

…

…

At this point I fully expect Faroes to kill these guys at random. Just a fleet of frigates and privateers show up and murk poor ol’ Florida within an episode. That’s the future we’re headed towards.

Msurdej:  

Royal Hungary is royally screwed as the walls continue to close in. Makhnovia has walked away with Kassa, Bavaria is attacking from the west, and the Romans continue to hold Gyor despite heavy fighting. All in all, just another cut out of the dying kingdom of Elizabeth.

Msurdej:  

Burgundy stabilizes at 51 as they no longer have to deal with Bavaria breathing down their neck. Still bad, but not getting worse.

Leman:

Kalmyks are bad. But they are not as bad as eight other civs.

Msurdej:  

The Crow continue to hold out, turtling to keep themselves alive. There’s little else to speak of for them.

ECH:

Seneca are proving themselves to be a real pebble in the shoes of the powers hoping to expand their influence in the region, fighting with a stubbornness I can respect. The frontline with the Osage barely moved throughout this part, even as a decent experience-boosted UU was sicked on them. Maybe the Floridian intervention helped, but I honestly have my doubts, it seems to me more that Seneca have the fortunate convergence of rough terrain, sufficient production per city from that terrain, and a great sense of prioritization to keep pumping out units and throw them to the frontline, as we saw with the imposing Faroes also. No one’s having the illusion they’re heading anywhere, but equally more and more people are getting the sense they’re not going anywhere also.

Leman:

I’m happy to report that some of Shang’s cities are finally out of resistance. I am unhappy to report that Shang is still completely fucked and still plummeted five more spots. The combination of dozens of turns of resistance and the disastrous coalition wars have left Shang completely crippled. I’m not sure what Shang can do to recapture its old glory, but at least they had their first part that wasn’t a complete disaster in weeks. Just a partial disaster. Disaster by circumstance.

Nathanmasse:

The Finns continue their slow rise due to attrition.  That’s all, carry on.

Msurdej:  

Harappa was able to end most of the wars against them, including Bukhara who had managed to push into and threaten enemy territory. However, they did end up losing Kalibangan to Singapore of all people, so they ended up losing a few ranks.

NopeCopter:

Despite ending up in a war with Africa’s top power, Eswatini’s rank hasn’t budged primarily because of the simple fact that most of Saba-D’mt’s navy can’t reach them. The sea borders around the Gulf of Aden mean that the mighty Red Sea Fleet of Saba-D’mt is trapped for the foreseeable future, forcing any Saba assault on Eswatini to come from their one other coastal city (where they do at least have open borders with Mogadishu to launch an attack). Still, it’s possible that Saba-D’mt with their gargantuan production score could take a couple of cities off Eswatini, and of course the odds of an unfair peace treaty are high, so Eswatini’s not quite out of the woods just yet - keep your eyes on the Swahili Coast for now.

Rosay:

Okay Khoshuts, you're at war with Dai Viet right now. This will probably go nowhere so there is no need to blunder another city in the peace deal. You will at best gain a city, at worst tie, so DO NOT I repeat DO NOT blunder another city to your neighbor, you do not need to in order to stop the war, which you will not lose a city in. Got it?

Orange:

Despite the discord across the rest of the continent the last few parts, Tehuelche has just been chilling in the south. They’re at a whole 8 cities! That’s the same amount as Ecuador! If only they had the same stats…

ECH:

Look, Bukhara may not have actually had much success this episode; fighting a difficult mountain war with Harappa before peacing and being a pathway for the Selkups into the Afsharids mostly. But the important thing is that they’re persisting, and unlike certain near-rump civs have shown a tendency to actually do things on occasion! For this they’ve been awarded a two-rank jump, likely helped by some churn and the continued downfall of Harappa, which they arguably made a small dent towards. Keep on fighting, Shaybani!

Orange:

You guys don’t understand how badly I want Taino to attack Mexico, like, I NEED IT. Think about how great it would be, finally Taino expanding and becoming a minor power. The New Buccs they’ll be called, it would be the best.

Anyways Taino still haven’t done anything.

ECH:

Those who’ve been following the OC loreposts will maybe have the sense that things are not all sunshine and rainbows in the Anarchist lands, but hey, one can take comfort in their conquest of Kassa at least, unifying the majority of Ukraine’s tiles at long last! They still have a mid-intensity conflict ongoing with the statistically-confounding Latvians, but that’s going a whole load of nowhere, so hopefully they’ll peace out before long and Makhno can restock and reconsider his pathways to advance his cause from here.

ECH:

In a very Wise-Martial-Artist-Elder way, Saba-D’mt has seemingly taken Mogadishu’s strengths and thrown it back around to their detriment, as their trading boosts have helped their biggest threat awaken as a monster for at least 10 turns. The good news for them is is that Makeda immediately threw herself in a war with Ndongo, not Mogadishu, so they’ll probably stay out of the crosshairs while the Queen of Sheba has her insane boosts, but the troop carpet, city growth, and wealth of buildings she invests in now will remain afterwards, existentially threatening the Indian Ocean experts. For this reason, I imagine, they take a small dip this week.

Reformer:

Qarmatians’ third of the Middle East was quiet this week. The war with Vijayanagara has dried up on account of the Indians now fighting Afsharids. Middle Eastern bros working together even though really Qarms are just using Afsharids as a meat shield. Very effective strategy really. And quite beneficial for Qarms too, seeing as Afsharids are struggling in stats now. Qarms’ paths of expansion have been tough for a while, and this might be the break they need. All they need to do is to backstab the meat shield…

Leman:

Nivkh takes a slight dip in the rankings but they’ve been remarkably consistent in the BR. Since episode 7, they’ve always been ranked between 32-38, which is quite neat. It really sucks that their only land neighbor has spent that time waffling between third and first, but hey, Nivkh will take their wins where they can get them.

Cloudy:

Bavaria made an interesting move this week, abandoning its war against Burgundy to attack Royal Hungary instead. The thing is, Royal Hungary has made peace with Latvia and Makhnovia, so their only other foe is Rome, and their units actually look pretty thick on the ground. So our initial reaction is that Bavaria is probably too late to catch Hungary off guard and make any real gains. We’re betting on another stalemate and that 3-rank drop reflects it.

Rosay:

Hey England, that Burgundussy is looking mighty fine right now, busy fighting on two fronts all exposed. You wanna, make it a war on three fronts? Jk jk, unless... ?

Look I'm sorry I wrote that but that's England's only option for expansion right now.

Cloudy:

Kanem-Bornu has got to be sweating buckets with a massive Sierra Leone army hovering on its borders and almost no defenses in place. But no war declaration has come yet, and there’s still time to prepare, if they don’t focus too much on flooding Saba with great prophets... On the other hand, it’s possible they get away unscathed, because I have a theory that Sierra Leone is actually trying to move its units through Roman territory to attack the Mamluks, but that could be just my crackpot idea. If I were Idris Alauma I certainly wouldn’t rely on that assumption.

Cloudy:

Have the Visigoths captured Asturica?

*Checks notes*

No.

Nathanmasse:

The Osage find themselves on the receiving end of a number of declarations of war but fortunately none of them appear to pose a real threat.  The downside of these wars, particularly with Thule and Florida, is that it’s pulling their strength away from the war with Seneca where there is the actual possibility of making progress.  A stalemate with Seneca is the last thing they need if they ever hope to become strong enough to withstand or usurp the Pueblo.

Leman:

In a completely unexpected turn, Vijayanagara manages to snag a city from Afsharids. Don’t get me wrong, Vijayanagara still sucks, but embarrassing a (former?) top-ten civilization is a feat that not many civilizations down here get to achieve. And you know, more cities are always great. I will say that things are not all rosy for Vijayanagara. Singapore managed to snap up that Harappan Island city. I don’t really think that’s going to go anywhere, it’s just kind of awkward, really.

Orange:

Given that Mexico went up and Ecuador didn’t move, you can tell us rankers think Ecuador is probably not winning this war. Idk maybe they will get that one city in Venezuela out of it, but that is the max this war might go. And even then it's still quite questionable if they can even do it. Ecuador needed that win against Tiwanaku, and their failure to get it is definitely ensuring they will be trapped for a while longer.

Rosay:

Welp it was going well for you Ndongo, until you Saba declared war on you. Golden Age Saba. The Saba that doubles its production bonus during golden ages while still maintaining all other metrics over you naturally. Yeah the only thing protecting north Ndongo right now is terrain, minions for fodder, and Saba's weird unit placement. but calling this anything other than a bad look is laughable.

Rosay:

I used to be hyping Pontus top 5 ten or so parts ago. Now they're not even the top contender in a weak region. Pontus being up is likely noise but I would like to point out, they do have some openings to take on their neighbors. Royal Hungary and the Afsharids are looking exposed right now but both aren't easy civs to fight. The Afsharids actually have a noteworthy military, while fighting in the Balkans is probably hell. Still not a great position for Pontus to be in, but there are openings.

Nathanmasse:

It was a quiet episode for Ikko-Ikki.  The war with Shang is going nowhere fast, especially as a few of their cities start coming back to life.  With that stalemate they’re left in a position with little room for expansion.  Perhaps the best option would be to fight Nivkh again but that’s too obvious.  The bolder move would be against Pueblo; take the city on Honshu and sweep the Hawaiian Islands with their ocean-going vessels before Pueblo can rush to their defense through the narrow coast.  We all know it won’t happen but I’d be pretty cool.

Cloudy:

To be honest I’m not entirely sure why Mongolia has dropped 7 ranks in an episode where they didn’t even get mentioned, but maybe that’s the reason. On the other hand, a rank of 25th is much more consistent with their very middling stats, which were never actually that good and have trailed well behind their rank for a little while now. Mongolia has a straightforward way to turn this around though, which would be to invade Shang again.

Msurdej:  

Noongar managed to push back the Palawa invasion of Mulka in the nick of time, preventing their neighbor from having a colony on their northern flank. Furthermore, it seems Yagan is back on the offensive, going after the city of Nipaluna. If they can take the city, it will make it all the easier to decide the true ruler of the Australian subcontinent.

Nathanmasse:

Now that the war with Latvia has concluded, Kazan’s attention returns to their old enemy, Kazakhstan. They have taken Atyrau and secured open borders with Selkups and Bukhara so it should be easy to surround and seize Semey.   That will leave just Kostanay, defended by a lone composite bowman and great general.  Without an active port in the arctic to produce a navy (puppeted cities can’t) it will be a long slog to get enough land units sailing north but they may yet manage to pull it off.

NopeCopter:

Rome takes a slight dip (but only a slight one) as they struggle to hold Gyor while Pontus secures an even bigger lead on naval tech in the Mediterranean. That being said, with Bavaria as an ally Rome might still be able to retake their Hungarian conquest… although I’m sure just about everyone not actively rooting for Bavaria wishes Rome was trying to take Ingolstadt. At least they took Nevers! That was pretty funny. A war with Sierra Leone probably wouldn’t be a terrible idea for Rome either (once they’ve upgraded their navy, of course), they just need to steer clear of Pontus until they’ve dominated the rest of the Mediterranean.

Rosay:

Siam, after celebrating winning a free city last part, spent this part spamming wonders. To get on Zheng's good side, they could start a war with Dai Vet, because even if they don't get anything out of it, they might make a friend out of Zheng for a while. Even with Zheng's successful invasion of Dai Vet, the one point drop is mostly noise but expect a drop when the borders touch and Siam gets nothing out of it.

Leman:

Dzungars went back to their eternal slumber after taking a single city from Kazakhstan and that’s where they remain today.

Nathanmasse:

Sierra Leone sees a sharp rise in stats and an accompanying rise in the ranks.  They’re currently the first African civ to be researching gunpowder which will give them their UU, the Black Loyalist. Even better, they’ve driven a deep wedge of citadels into Kanem-Bornu and could be primed for a sneak attack.  Even if a declaration is not imminent, the loss of these tiles may well cripple Kanem’s western cities, making them easy pickings when a war does arise.

ECH:

A trusty focus of analysis more pronounced in Singapore’s writeups than any other civ is to note a new record being reached, likely a product of their dismal expectations at the season's start. Well folks, I’m not bucking the trend now as Lee Kuan Yew steers his ship of state (and many actual ships in war) to a rank in the top 20 for the first time at 18th! We’re over 40 ranks from their expected 61st place grave now, driven by an unexpected propensity to settle, including the new city of Tanjong Pagar on what I think is Nias Island(?); building up those cities with great growth; and critically, a good ability to prioritize the naval tech they desperately need to win with the geography they have, snatching Harappa’s final coastal city and now joining those early to grab Frigates. There is need for caution however, they continue to lag in production as many archipelago civs do and unfortunately find themselves with 2 neighbors in the top 10, and with naval cities the risk of a sudden turnaround is historically much higher, so Lee better keep that navy on guard and stats heading up.

Leman:

Last week I talked about how weirdly poorly Latvia was doing against Makhnovia, and honestly it still remains true this week. Yes, Latvia hasn’t dropped any cities, and that’s good news. However, that shouldn’t really be the conversation, should it? We should be talking about how fucked Makhnovia looks and how Latvia’s about to use all of their stats to smash the weaker civ, right? Like Latvia only has one front, and double the military and production? I know Makhnovia is putting some of Latvia’s cities into resistance, so perhaps that’s preventing Latvia from crushing? Anyways, my point is, Latvia is weird.

NopeCopter:

Tiwanaku manages to fumble the coalition war at the last moment by giving up a perfectly safe city to New Holland, dipping their stats below what most Power Rankers would consider comfortable. Tiwanaku still has great production, but their science output is low enough that many are starting to consider New Holland (despite their failures) the likely winner of South America, or even suggesting that South America will end up conquered by some outside force before it’s ever united. Personally, I think Tiwanaku isn’t out of the running just yet, but they definitely have some catching up to do - we’ll see how they look once they’ve repaired their pillaged lands and rebuilt their army.

Reformer:

Well this sucks. A lot. Afsharids find themselves between two wars - and, despite the fact that these wars should be meaningless, they have had a significant impact on the Afsharid empire. Firstly, the Vijayanagara war, fought across water primarily, should have been a stalemate, and yet, Vijayanagara is winning, dictating the tempo of the war. At least there’s no reason to expect Vijayanagara to make it any further…right? Secondly, the Selkup war, only made relevant by the Selkups having open borders through Kazan AND Bukhara. Now frankly there’s no reason to expect a cityflip here. Afsharids have plenty of defenders to prevent that. But the Selkup troops will still pillage the land and cause general havoc, distracting Afsharid troops that could be beating back the Vijayanagara invaders. Honestly I’m not sure how these wars caused the massive dip in Afsharid stats. I mean sure, they also had a golden age end somewhere in there. But this is just silly. Maybe part of the ‘collapse’ is temporary and they pull themselves back together next part. Or maybe Qarmatians return again as theorized, and Afsharids get crippled. That’d be fun.

Orange:

Well, Ecuador isn’t much to worry about. Mexico is just overall doing quite well, and this war isn’t gonna stop that. Who knows, maybe they’ll even manage to use their superior army to take an Ecuadorian city? Maybe? Perhaps? Probably not… unless?

Leman:

New Holland is struggling to get back on top, mostly due to their middling stats and weak performance in their coalition war against Tiwanaku. However, I would argue that New Holland is more than deserving of a higher ranking, and will be obtaining that high ranking in no time. Here’s why:

1. New Holland’s stats, mainly production, are not great for a top tier civilization, and haven’t been for a little while. That being said, they are steadily improving. New Holland rebuilt its military and has increased its production by 40% putting itself above civilizations like Bora-Bora, Mexico, and Palawa. Their Science is excellent and has always been so.

2. New Holland has been racking up wins this whole time. They killed off Rio and were gifted a city. And yes, city gifts are lame, but that doesn’t mean they’re not good for the civ receiving the gift. It's arguably better than a conquest because no citizens died!

3. New Holland is clearly the best civilization from South America. Tiwanaku is crippled and has stats closer to Osage than New Holland. Tehuelche has never been a real civilization. Ecuador, lol. Bora-Bora is the only real threat and they’ve got a tiny exclave that they struggle to reinforce.

Tldr, New Holland’s the best civ in South America and they’ll be rising up soon enough.

Reformer:

Polynesia gets a bit quiet this week. Bora spends the episode doing fuck all, but we love them anyway and move them up a spot because…oh, right, Afsharids are fumbling the bag. That makes sense. Well not much to say all the same. They’re backfilling techs now that they got done with beelining Navigation. Which, I’m sure it was noted last week already, but that’s an insane advantage. Can’t wait for Bora frigates to terrorize the whole Pacific Ocean.

Reformer:

Another quiet top 15 civ? Good golly. And Ume-Sámi of course are far worse because they’ve been sleepy for a lot longer. Bora’s just taking an episode off to recuperate. All Ume-Sámi does is recuperate. Running an empire is so exhausting. How much effort can it take to beat up the Finns?? I mean really. Can’t believe we have these guys in the top 15. Well I can. There’s not much better options. That’s just how it goes sometimes. Pray for Ume-Sámi’s swift awakening.

Nathanmasse:

Thule’s rise this week is thanks to Afsharids’ star waning rather than their own doing.  Ever since their failed war against Pueblo I’ve felt they are a paper tiger (or I guess, paper polar bear).  By any measure, their stats are quite strong but they seem to be missing that certain something that would lead to victory.  Perhaps I am mistaken and they have more surprises in store, but I’m not holding my breath.

ECH:

Oh Palawa, what to think of you? As ever, on paper your stats are well up there, with a stronger base and military than your rival , but also as ever, that’s a tad meaningless when their outback army is on the precipice of damaging, maybe even taking, your few key inland cities. Your backdoor squad was something of a gimmick in the end, but we’ve also seen these sort of Noongar sieges appear off-screen before next to and then away from your cities, so who knows if this new siege represents anything?! In any case, this drawn-out brawl is more than enough to see the civ get a meaningful drop for a top 10 civ.

Leman:

Yellowknives didn’t really get up to much this episode. They had a small rise as the Afsharids embarrassed themselves, but other than that not much has changed for them. They’re still very strong, but kind of not quite as good as Pueblo, and about on par with Thule. Akaitcho needs to get up and clean up the Crow and maybe move on the Osage. They need to get as bulky as possible to have a chance in the inevitable two front war that is coming.

Cloudy:

Zheng slips one rank as they get bogged down in a flip-fest over the Dai Viet capital, but make no mistake, bar a catastrophe they’re here to stay in the top 10. This week Zheng was one of the first civs to unlock frigates and the first to use them in battle, bringing the fight to Dai Viet’s southern city of Bac Giang, which is cut off and could fall. The war isn’t going as well as it ideally should, but make no mistake, Zheng will eventually win, and then they will start eyeing whoever’s next.

Cloudy:

For weeks we’ve been wondering when the next Saba golden age would hit. That wait is over.

On turn 216, the golden age started and oh my god the bonuses my eyes are melting. Thanks to their UA, Saba currently has over 1,500 hammers, almost three times the #2 Faroes; over 1,100 food, 400 more than the Faroes; and over 650 effective science, over 100 more than second place Wahgi. Their cities have been growing rapidly and they’ve risen to 4th in total population. However, by this point the golden age is probably mostly over, and there are questions that need to be asked. Saba has not used this incredible production to build units, even though their average production per city per turn exceeds the cost of any medieval era unit and then some. In fact they have fewer troops than England, Mogadishu, or the Qarmatians, all while attempting to invade Ndongo. At least they might be navally competitive against Eswatini? And that’s not all: they also have only 2 happiness left, and with so much food, they won’t be able to stop their cities from growing until that happiness is gone. If the golden age lasts too much longer, they could fall deep into the red—and remember, each point of unhappiness is -2% combat strength for all units. So after crunching the numbers, we’re not entirely sure that Saba has benefited from this explosion of food and production, but at least they might have a little?

NopeCopter:

The Wahgi remain in 5th place, which makes enough sense considering they didn’t really do much last episode. They’re still a dominant force in the Pacific with no obvious threats and monstrous stats. The only problem, of course, is where to go next - west through the new Zheng colonies, east to rekindle the war against Bora-Bora, or south to try and break through the Noongar - but they have time to think. They just can’t rest on their laurels, because the top 10 is a volatile place, and any number of civs could sneak up and surpass the gentle(ish) giant of Southeast Asia if they don’t keep the action coming.

NopeCopter:

The Pueblo remain in fourth as they fail to capitalize on the Osage-Seneca stalemate to their east… or do much of anything, really. Granted, they don’t NEED to do anything at this point to maintain their status, but they really should try and expand more while there are still easy options left. Absorbing the Crow would also probably be fine at this point (even just denying the Yellowknives an expansion opportunity is probably enough reason to do it). Sentiment among the Power Rankers is shifting more and more towards the idea that the Pueblo aren’t all they're cracked up to be, so I know I’d love to see them wake up and prove their worthiness in this increasingly competitive and uncertain top 10 roster, at least.

Cloudy:

Although this was mostly a rest and rebuilding episode for the Selkups, they are taking potshots at the Afsharids through Bukharan territory, with more success than we anticipated. They’re also hanging onto their very solid stats, 5th in military and 4th in production. Their science isn’t top tier but they are researching gunpowder, so there’s that. Safe to say they’ve already escaped the fate of the Permians.

Reformer:

Alright. Still in second. That’s good. In peacetime Goguryeo has been working hard to catch up to Faroes. Getting important techs like Machinery. Crossbows and Taverns. Love to see it. Catch up won’t be easy. But they’re doing their best. That’s about it. Next step will be to use those fancy crossbows. Shang is a sitting duck. Please, you've declared so many wars on them in this game. Start a war that actually lasts long enough to take a substantial amount of cities. That’ll help a lot. Or maybe go for Nivkh, I don’t care. This is your opportunity all the same.

Nathanmasse:

The Faroe Islands spent one episode with positive happiness, settled three cities, and immediately dropped back into unhappiness.  They just can’t help themselves.  At least in the meantime their cities started growing again which gave a nice little boost to their science output.  As for their military, they and the Crow seem to have forgotten they’re at war, which is honestly best for both of them.  The Faroes are in no rush and are quite content to troll the waters of the Atlantic waiting for an unwitting opponent to fall into their net.