Power Rankings: Episode 23 – S4

NopeCopter:

Here lies Harappa, one of the most silently tragic figures of the CBR. Not only did they serve as a sort of representative of the game’s oldest mods going in, but their reputation as a competent AI and their excellent starting position really did make them seem like they’d end up a worthy successor to X2’s Punjab and X3’s Afghanistan. Their start gave no reason for anyone to doubt that assessment, either - they expanded quickly, seizing northern India and boxing Vijayanagara in while the Khoshuts left all the most fertile land in the area wide open.But then… then they just sort of hit the brakes at exactly the wrong time. Their first attempt at a war with Vijayanagara went nowhere, Vijayanagara grabbed enough land to make themselves look good, the Khoshuts effectively blocked Harappa out of a Ganges-based empire, and most importantly, the Afsharids expanded so violently that Harappa’s continued existence suddenly looked a lot less certain. By the time the Settler machine got back online, North India was completely full, and Harappa was forced to start grabbing land in the Himalayas and random islands (plus a bold city in Oman). They had a monstrous army but tried to use it on Bukhara rather than someone they could actually threaten (like the suddenly-humbled Afsharids or the still-underwhelming Vijayanagara), but between their various disparate colonies, their massive army, their presumed free meal to the south, and the Great Wall, they were at the very least not going anywhere any time soon. In fact, they actually looked really strong - their tech count was high, and they had the positioning to grow with the Hindu Kush mountains blocking the incompetent Afsharids.

Unfortunately, Harappa’s wanton expansion made them more than a few enemies, and they fumbled almost all of their overseas colonies right off the bat. They lost their Omani city in a war they declared on the Qarmatians, and a coalition that kicked off right afterward allowed the presumed irrelevant Vijayanagara to take Sri Lanka, ending hopes of a Harappan naval empire. The war against Vijayanagara in particular was a serious upset, as Harappa’s image of the dominant force in South Asia was shattered by Vijayanagara’s ability to put in serious work with worse stats and less-advanced units - mainly because Vijayanagara built a navy and Harappa didn’t. The real blow came at the end of the war, though, where Harappa’s larger military finally turned the tide and seemed ready to absolutely tear through the ill-defended northern Vijayanagara cities… only for Harappa to declare peace before taking anything. And then, before Harappa could build back up and take another shot, the Afsharids invaded.

The Afsharid invasion, while not nearly as devastating as it could have been, really was the final nail in the coffin for this former powerhouse. The Afsharid war record had been… spotty, to put it nicely, so to see them manage to take two cities off Harappa (one through the Great Wall, no less) was downright shocking. Harappa lived, of course, but the message had been sent - no mountains or wall could save Harappa from the Afsharids when they came back to finish the job, and Vijayanagara’s subsequent humiliation of the Afsharids only served to prove that they weren’t going to be Harappa food, either. The remaining Harappan island cities got picked off by Singapore and Mogadishu of all civs in the resulting opportunistic coalition as Harappa’s final attempt to take a city off Bukhara failed.

At this point, all that was left of Harappa was a four-city rump state, a shell of its former self, albeit a seemingly very safe one. Because of the city positioning (reminiscent of Burgundy’s famed core), neither the Afsharids or Vijayanagara could launch an effective assault, and the Khoshuts were, well, the Khoshuts. Plus, they still had the Great Wall. I’m sure many expected Harappa to be a stubborn long-lasting buffer state for a long time to come, especially with the Afsharids and VIjayanagara distracted, which made the final act of Harappa’s run all the more shocking. In the midst of another pointless war with Bukhara, the Afsharids, Vijayanagara, and even the Khoshuts all joined forces to finally put an end to their shared neighbor. The Afsharids and Vijayanagara even made peace with each other for it. Harappa’s army was eviscerated with shocking speed. The only thing more shocking than their sudden death was who profited. The Khoshuts, written off first as lazy for settling the mountains instead of the fertile Ganges and then as incompetent for giving up cities to the Dzungars and Siam, completely unable to even take a seemingly free Siamese city, managed to capture not one, not two, but ALL FOUR of Harappa’s remaining cities, completely shutting out both the Afsharids and Vijayanagara and almost doubling their size in one fell swoop. Perhaps their demise was fitting - a civilization that even after some initial failures was expected to rise to prominence purely because of the two weaklings they shared a subcontinent with ended up being food for those two weaklings to climb back to prominence.

And so ends the tale of Harappa… or so you’d think. However, the game-runner Lacs has promised that only a run where Harappa wins the game would actually be recorded. Harappa’s death is surely only temporary, and before long they will rise again in the ultimate come-from-behind victory… but even if they don’t, at least their death made for a shocking spectacle. Not a bad run overall, even if they did leave the game early.

Leman:

Kazakhstan was a weird civ to rank at the games start. Historically, starts in Kazakhstan’s region have been fairly powerful, with lots of room to grow and expand before hitting their neighbors, but Kazakhstan had clear and evident flaws that made that strategy seem improbable. Civs in this region tend to be able to then use that early game advantage to catapult themselves into a strong position for the rest of the game. Season One’s Kazakhs were the most famous example of this. Kazakhstan, at first, seemed like they might be able to use this same playbook to have a solid enough game.

They started out settling far and wide, getting up to a fairly respectable double-digit city count. However, this didn’t really amount to much and the cracks were evident early on. Their empire wasn’t really a powerful, cohesive blob, but instead, to quote Altima’s prediction in PR 0,  “a weird snakey strip between giants.” Kazakhstan was clearly shown to be playing second fiddle to Selkups’ much more robust empire. That wasn’t to say there weren’t opportunities for Kazakhstan, but it was clear that Kazakhstan was large, but not strong or defensible.

They did manage to defend well enough early on, holding their own against Selkups for a while. However, Kazakhstan’s terrible defensive position was revealed in the middle of the game, when literally every one of Kazakhstan’s neighbors decided to declare war on them, and unceremoniously carved them up in about a dozen turns. If you don’t remember, Kazakhstan’s big, weird, snakey empire now belongs to: Latvia, the Selkups, the Afsharids, the Dzungars, Bukhara, but most of all Kazan.

While Selkups were the anvil, Kazan was the hammer, mercilessly tearing apart the dying corpse of Kazakhstan, managing to take the lion’s share of cities. They eventually left Nursultan to rot in the worst position a civ can be left in, a single pointless arctic city, waiting to die. Luckily for Kazakhstan, Kazan, after consolidating the old Kazakh empire, was merciful and decided to finish what every civ in Asia started, killing off Kazakhstan on turn 286, in 56th place. RIP, you weird snakey strip.

Leman:

So, Crow is dead. They’re deader than last week. They’re almost out of units, they have two measly cities and a top tier super power bearing down on them. There’s not much else to say about them that hasn’t been said last week, and won’t be said in their eulogy next week.

Leman:

Somehow, Dai Viet has a weaker military than Crow. And Crow’s gonna die.

Leman:

The Mamluks have one terrible city but they aren’t about to die and that is enough to be better than exactly two living civilizations.

Msurdej:Ismail ibn Sharif crawls his way back to 52nd as Sierra Leone decides to attack the Visigoths, splitting their forces and ignoring much of the Alaouites. Coupled with the death of Kazakhstan, and the dying Crow, the Alaouties managed to gain three points. Good for them.

Orange:

Scammin’s hard, but it’s honest work. That’s how MacGregor lives his days, waiting patiently for the next opportunity for a scheme. Who's gonna be next in his sights?

NopeCopter:

Alas, poor Burgundy! Once the most promising civ in western Europe, Burgundy is now a two-city rump state constantly taking chip damage from England’s UA. Their two saving graces are their respectable carpet and the fact that nobody relevant is currently at war with them - these two things alone are enough to put them above five other contenders. Still, make no mistake - barring a miracle, this is the end of the line for Burgundy, and their next relevant war will probably be much less impressive than their previous ones.

Orange:

Will the coalition against Bavaria be enough to finally let Bathory expand once more? No? Well they tried at least. Wonder how long until they are back at peace with their two cities.

Nathanmasse:

Kalmyks are my favorite mini civ.    They're up there with Ikko (no offense) as civs whose influence far exceeds their own capabilities.  They have no hope of winning the game but have an outsized relevance thanks to them controlling a holy city.  I only hope that whoever eliminates them will have the piety policy tree unlocked so they can replace the Kalmyks as the founder.

Reformer:

Makhnovia wages one of the sadder wars on the cylinder. That is to say, the war against Pontus, during which most of the Makhnovian army loitered around in Kazan, or near Alexandrovsk. The war ended with Pontus in control of (the ruins of) Ekaterinoslav, a critical blunder no doubt, as it allows Pontus much easier access to the rest of the Makhnovian cities when the two go to war next time. Additionally, the city was quite central to the anarchist polity, meaning its loss will be felt regardless of who next assaults Makhnovia. But…hey…at least they still got their sizable army intact?

Orange:

Tehuelche are basically just waiting for Bora to attack them at this point. Maybe New Holland or Palawa, but like, probably Bora. Until that happens they’re just gonna sit all nice and pretty in their cone at the bottom of the cylinder.

Nathanmasse:

Not much is new in Finlandia, just quietly waiting to get killed. Speaking of, Ume-Sami dropped a citadel on their border so perhaps relations between this dynamic duo are breaking down?  I’d like them to hurry up and get eliminated to clean up those borders, although it wouldn’t be Finland if there wasn’t bordergore right?

Reformer:

Bukhara was one of the members of the anti-Harappan coalition, but sadly received no reward for their contribution. Bukhara was one of the long-standing rivals of Harappa…to get nothing after all this time is just depressing…oh well, better luck in the next coalition war! Just better hope the barrel of the gun ain’t pointed at you next time!

Rosay:

Eswatini is stuck at the bottom of Africa with hellish mountainous borders to try and cross in order to beat their easiest neighbor. Maybe when Ndongo was struggling Eswatini could’ve maybe broken out a little bit, but now that Ndongo can make a serious bid for “African hegemon” Eswatini is likely stuck with mediocrity.

Reformer:

At this point I have to ask: How is this war still going on? I mean it’s been 50 turns for Latvia and England, and 64 turns for Royal Hungary. None of these civs has gained ANYTHING from Bavaria in that time. England at least has an excuse in that they only just this episode started going at it. But Royal Hungary and Latvia? They’ve been failing for 2, 3 episodes. How does the AI come to the conclusion that this is still a worthwhile war? Or is it Ludwig who’s stubbornly refusing to even consider peace? Could be either, stubborn is still the diagnosis. Regardless, for Bavaria the stubbornness spells doom: most of their cities are hurting, losing improvements and pop, while wasting production on units that immediately die. Bavaria ain’t coming back - truth is, they’ve been losers for a while.

Cloudy:

So far, Seneca  is holding the line against Taino, and none of their cities are under threat—not even Kinngait, which they captured from the Thule last week. Both of their Atlantic coastal cities can only be attacked from one sea tile at a time, so it’s unlikely that the Taino will ever again pose a serious threat.

Rosay:

Just like every NON BUCCANEER civ before it, Taino struggles to break out of the Antilles. Yeah the Caribbean is kinda a death zone to spawn in but at least  is at least kinda interesting with them harassing Seneca’s ships

Orange:

Well, they’re definitely gonna lose that colony, and Rome and Sierra Leone are also battering them, and it’s not like I had any hopes for them anyways I think they’re just gonna fail everything. So I’m glad to see them drop but they should drop further, maybe the Faroese navy will actually do something to help with that.

Nathanmasse:

I’m not sure how to feel about the Qarmatians.  They sure have a lot of units, but none of their neighbors seem like particularly easy targets.  Even the ones with sparsely manned borders have very difficult terrain that we’ve seen the Qarmatians get bogged down in before. On top of that, their tech and science progression is the worst of any of their neighbors so waiting around isn’t likely to improve their situation.  But a second Qarmback can’t be ruled out so we’ll have to see if they can pull it off.

NopeCopter:

Ahh, Mogadishu. The civ that has not done a damn thing in several episodes is, predictably, looking about the same. However, despite this lack of appearance, they’ve actually dropped a sizable amount in the Power Rankings! Part of this is probably noise, but Saba-D’mt no longer being distracted and Vijayanagara surviving the Singaporean invasion probably don’t help. That, and time is not on their side - we’re entering the stage of the game where the gap really starts to widen between major and minor powers, and Mogadishu hasn’t been capitalizing at all on any of their weaker neighbors to turn their just-barely-good-enough empire into something that can actually compete on the wider stage. The countdown has started for Mogadishu, and although they’re probably too well-defended to die any time soon, their fate could well be sealed if they don’t act quick.

JDT: After multiple parts of self-inflicted failure, the Shang have seemingly stabilized into a state of decent equilibrium, symbolized best by the end of the Ikko Ikkis latest (and last) abortive attempt against them. Lucky for them, just enough of their core is intact such that they can actually mount a comeback with their 292 prod and 321 science. Unfortunately for them, their self-inflicted defeat of monumental proportions has set them back so far that they are about 6 techs behind median while having average to slightly above-average stats.  And they are also 3 cities down where they started. And while they were busy killing themselves, Zheng and Goguryeo, their direct neighbours, grew into global superpowers, with another direct neighbour in Mongolia creating a pretty decent empire for themselves. I don’t see a way for the fox to sneak out of this one, unfortunately.

Reformer:

Vijayanagara manages to just about avoid a grim fate in the hands of Singapore - largely thanks to Noongar intervention, of course, but we should still give credit where credit is due, Vijayanagara’s diplomats did a good job here. Avoiding a crippling loss is crucial here. Now, on the flip side, Khoshuts snagged the whole pot in the Harappan coalition war. Vijayanagara, the old rivals of Harappa, got NOTHING, except for a new, somewhat stronger neighbor. Only somewhat, though, and that is why Khoshuts might indeed be Vijayanagara’s way out of their current prison. I don’t necessarily want to conjure up false hope, but a coalition against Khoshuts isn’t impossible here, and once Vijayanagara has recovered a little, they could be a big beneficiary of such a coalition. Just don’t let another civ get there first, this time!

Reformer:

Nivkh unfortunately started to take a bit of a beating from Thule this episode after holding on so admirably. So far this has not translated into a statistically significant loss, but stats can’t always be trusted - the matter of fact is that despite the respectable struggle Nivkh has put on, these losses sting, and further contribute to their getting-cornered value. Speaking of stats, Nivkh remains a strange beast indeed. Their tech count is on par with some much higher-ranking civs, whereas the rest of their stats languish in the middle of the pack. Indeed, at 46 techs, they are exactly on par with Thule. This anomaly is a slight mystery. One speculative theory is that their UB is contributing through the creation of great scientists, but the numbers associated with the UB are not big enough for that to be a realistic answer. I suppose Nivkh is simply built different.

Msurdej:

Moreno was pretty camera shy in this part. But he remains the same old Ecuador we’ve come to know and l-... well, know at least. Middling stats, irrelevant wars, and a laziness in attacking Tiwanaku that will doom them to mediocrity.

Msurdej:

Well would ya look at that folks. The Khoshuts not only managed to take the capital of Harappa, but eliminated them fully from the game. As someone who loves it when a civ is eliminated, I always love to sing the praises of the civs that manage to take a neighbor out. While Harappa wasn’t the strongest civ, it was a former top 10 (in episodes 1 and 2, whereas the Khoshuts were languishing in the 40s). These expansions netted them the Great Wall and could help fuel further conquests, and make Gushi Khan a force to be reckoned with. I mean, they’ll probably stay a middling civ, but I can dream, can’t I?

Leman:

Ikko-Ikko was this week’s most controversial civilization as Zheng bears down on them and the war continues to not look good for them at all. On the one hand, Zheng is a monster fielding frigates, while Ikko-Ikki, despite being an island civ with excellent science, is still running around with Galleasses. With such a tech disparity, there’s little Ikko-Ikki can do but slow Zheng down and hope for a peace treaty. On the other hand, Ikko-Ikki is a civ with excellent science and with any peace treaty that keeps Ikko-Ikki intact will probably leave them poised with a strong economy and a reasonable position to kick off from. On a third, weird hand, it’s unclear what Ikko-Ikki could do with that tech league especially after being weakened by Zheng. Zheng, Wahgi, Goguryeo and Thule are all miles stronger than Ikko, and Nivkh has shown itself to be an excellent defender. Maybe a trans-Pacific invasion of Pueblo? The future is unclear.

Reformer:

Another war, another success. What can be said about the insane grit of Kanem-Bornu that hasn’t already been said? Speculation abounded regarding the nigh-certain spanking that K-B was about to receive from Saba, only for K-B to CONTINUE to humiliate Saba, up until the latter begged for peace. K-B stays winning. Just don’t look at their stats…I mean how does a civ with such mediocre stats manage to do this time after time…at least they’re improving, slowly but surely!

JDT:

Siam’s one appearance in the entire part proudly announced that they were plotting against the eliminated Rozvi. If that doesn’t say enough about their current position, I don’t know what will.

Rosay:

Osage is probably gonna get the short end of the proverbial city capture stick, though it’s honestly nice being able to see them eat at all. Despite their relatively good performance given the position they were in, Osage has been outright STARVING for a proper city capture that they can actually hold, which they finally might get. They’re still a relative minnow in the ocean that is North America but they might be able to snack on the remains of their neighbors if they keep up their current pace.

Msurdej:

England moves to its highest rank ever since it has got Bavaria on its knees, having taken Beaune down to the red. Once again, the power of England’s UU Longbowman is on full display, being able to stay out of retaliation range. However, there is a flaw in all of this. England has few melee troops in the vicinity to actually capture the city. The closest are near their city of York, so if England wants to keep rising in the ranks, they better start making more and moving them west.

NopeCopter:

Tiwanaku continues to do what they do best: not die. New Holland has been fumbling their invasion for who knows how long at this point, and they’re no closer to actually taking something than they were at the start of the episode. Of course, on the other hand, Tiwanaku has been failing to put a dent in the Tehuelche, but not dying is still pretty nice. Their long-term prospects do seem a bit bleak with their middling stats and lack of good expansion opportunities, at least until they manage to fix up their army, but hey, if New Holland can’t break them with top-3 stats, then they’re probably at least sticking around for a while unless their blue neighbors finally figure out how to fight a land war.

CelestialDalek:

Despite fighting against the current 1st place civ, Mongolia is doing… fine? For all their stats, Goguryeo is notably lacking in the army department as well as the “not splitting up your forces between cities” department. Hence, Mongolia gets a mild rise in the power rankings this week despite doing basically nothing. Keep up the good work.

Reformer:

Dzungars used Rest! It’s super effective!

…yeah that’s it. We did get to see their silly core again this episode to confirm that they still have a bunch of warriors and spearmen running around. Wonder what’s the point of that. Maybe they have an immensely strong nobility with a chokehold on the military, and they demand that the “old ways” are maintained? That’s possible. And the only reason this system hasn’t collapsed is because it’s never been challenged.So far.

Stay tuned.

Rosay:

Wow look at that, Pontus, an actual fucking conquest. Now it may only seem like one city but Pontus has now set itself up to easily invade Eastern Europe in the near future for a round two. Since Latvia still has a pretty bad carpet, this could make Pontus, again if they make the right moves, the future European hegemon.

Leman:

Singapore crashes down to earth as their weird struggles against Vijayanagara continue to stall and Noongar takes this opportunity to strike. And it was an extremely effective strike. Singapore is already down two cities and would probably be in danger of losing even more if Palawa didn’t decide to bail them out. Singapore now has to hope Palawa shifts enough of Noongar’s production that they can salvage this war. An early peace treaty would be crippling and embarrassing but if Palawa does well (history says that is unlikely), Singapore could even come out of this war stronger than it started.

NopeCopter:

Rome has a bit of a slow episode this time as their wars with the Visigoths and Royal Hungary both go nowhere (as expected). The big question is, of course, where Rome goes next - their stats are top-notch in both southern Europe and Africa (thanks to Sierra Leone’s recent tumble), but a lot of their neighbors are really well-fortified or just have good-enough stats without the terrain Rome would need to break through with a slim advantage. Despite this, Sierra Leone running into trouble has given Rome another glimmer of hope for an invasion opportunity, and sometimes no news really is good news, so they do get to rise just a bit.

CelestialDalek:

The war against Kanem-Bornu was one thing and one thing only: embarrassing. Forces of cannons, crossbowmen, and muskets failed to make a counteroffensive against composite bowmen. Nkongsamba should not be in Kanem-Bornu hands right now by all means, but somehow they bungled this incredibly easy invasion. But hey, their stats are good (look at the tech that they fucked up the defense with) and their position is… fine. Deserving of 20th but not anyone’s respect.

Cloudy:

Well, this was a wild episode for the Noongar, so where to start? First off, their invasion of SIngapore has been wildly successful, taking full control of Java except for a few stray tiles. Nor does Singapore have anything resembling a counterattack, and the Noongar invasion force is still looking strong enough to keep going. But that’s the good news. The bad news is that Palawa has declared war on Noongar again, and they have a large contingent of musketmen, cannons, skirmishers, and cuirassiers heading for the border. Line infantry won’t be far behind either. This is a major problem for the Noongar, whose tech is at least a generation behind across the board, and in the case of basic melee units, two generations. Palawa’s main focus appears to be Kriwa, which is lightly defended, but the news for Noongar isn’t all bad. Previous attacks on Kriwa have failed in part because the city is protected by a lake and a river, and most of Noongar’s land forces—while outdated—aren’t currently busy. Palawa also has very little navy to speak of. So ideally for Noongar, they’ll hold off this invasion long enough to make peace, which usually comes pretty quickly in this recurring matchup, and then they’ll be able to resume their focus on singapore. But don’t count your chickens before they hatch—this could still end badly.

Cloudy:

After losing ground for four straight episodes, the Ume-Sami have regained two ranks because.... well to be honest with you, I have no idea. Is it just noise? Perhaps. Or maybe it’s because we saw a good shot of their lands this week, and they looked solid. But they still have the same fundamental problem, which is that none of their neighbors look easy to conquer—not even the Finns.

Leman:

The Afsharids either look immensely impressive or extremely embarrassing. Like Afsharids get a lot of the credit for breaking Harappa’s back when they were strong, they easily cleaned up Bukhara, and have had solid stats. Then on the other hand, they’ve dropped cities to Qarmatians, Vijayanagara, and like four lost Selkup units. And now, again, they’ve embarrassed themselves by managing to go 0 and 4 on Harappan cities captured. The Afsharids did not get a single one out of this war, and Khoshuts got them all. Granted, this leaves Afsharids in the exact same position they started with, and Afsharids could absolutely wipe the floor with Khoshuts, but god damn, Nader Shah is so lame sometimes.

Orange:

Ndongo still aren’t the civ with the best stats in Africa, that’d be Rome who are ranked below them for some reason, but they are now once again better than all the other originally African civs. Still need to attack eSwatini again or something and actually take more cities soon before they get eclipsed.

JDT: Sierra Leone drops one as their war against the Alaouites stalls out. This can be attributed primarily to a big mistake they have elected to throw upon themselves - they attacked the Visigoths. There was no reason for an assault on the Visigoths at this point, given that they’re on relatively even footing and there's no easy place for them to actually mount an assault. Instead, all this did was distract troops and result in pickoffs from Visigothic cities and ranged units. There are still tangible paths to taking out the Alaouites, but for no reason at all, Thomas Peters has made taking them out a lot harder than it should’ve been. And this negatively affects their scaling potential and conquest perception.

Cloudy:

After a sharp slide, Pueblo has stabilized after making peace with Goguryeo and holding the line against Mexico. Although Pueblo lost 3/5 of Hawaii, they didn’t lose all of it, which leaves room for a comeback, and it looks very unlikely that they’ll lose any further ground to Mexico either. This turn of events has definitely left Pueblo with permanent damage but we think this is where they’ll level off for a while now that they’ve stemmed the bleeding.

Reformer:

Thule somewhat fixed up their game this episode, taking the upperhand against Nivkh, a significantly weaker foe. Admirable. Their stats also recovered from the slight hit taken last week, and they finished Chemistry while currently going for Humanism. Never mind the fact that Nivkh got both techs 20-30 turns ago. All is coming up milhouse for Thule! After an incredible amount of effort expended on their part. I hate to say it over and over again but Thule really doesn’t deserve to be this high, stats be damned.

Reformer:

Kazan jumps ahead this part because they MURDER Kazakhstan, and we power rankers really hate Kazakhstan! [citation required] Now admittedly, Kazan didn’t go for the kill until the coalition grew great enough, but hey, still did it! In terms of pure stats gained, this snow city in the arctic won’t contribute much, but it’s obviously about the SPIRIT of the act. Kazan has the desire, willingness, and ability to take things to the END. That’s the kind of gumption you need to win Civ Battle Royale. They do have to fix their tech problems somewhere along the way though…

Msurdej:

Puni slips out of the Top 10 this week as other civs regain some of their composure. They’re still as competent and aborable, but have been resting on that giant army they have. They need to put that army to use on someone if they want to be as strong as previous Pacific power Timor-Leste. Perhaps attacking Tehuelche would be good...

CelestialDalek:

Unfortunately, Latvia was unable to take Nuremburg this episode. Their stats are still good and their army is still in position, but they were SO close to getting a foothold in central Europe. Unfortunately, their foot slipped off the rung. A second wave of attack can’t be ruled out though!

Leman:

Zheng proves that as long as they’re not fighting Wahgi, that they are an absolute monster. Ikko-Ikki is getting cut through like hot butter. Zheng wasted no time snapping up Ikko-Ikki’s only beachhead on the mainland and is now making a decisive push onto Ikko-Ikki’s main islands. It’s unclear how far Zheng can push. I, for one, don’t expect Zheng to push too far into Ikko-Ikki’s core but grabbing one or two more cities is excellent for Zheng as they continue to power up.

Rosay:

Palawa is a (debatably) competent civ stuck in southern Oceania with little chance to properly break out. I’m actually relatively skeptical on all of the oceanic civs this cycle due to their current underperforming and/or poor production, but Palawa has now twice failed to make any meaningful headway against Noongar. Now are they still better than Noongar? Yes, I'm not blind, but with Palawa giving us failure after failure, I feel like their admittedly good overall stats can only carry them so far.

Nathanmasse:

I've been a fan of Mexico for a while and admittedly ranked them a little higher than most, but I think they deserve it.  They've secured their place as top 2 in North America with more than enough military units to either continue the fight with Pueblo or pick a new opponent to assail.  There is no shortage of choices with the only concern being whether they will languish too long and allow others to rebuild, or worse, eliminate their weaker neighbors before Mexico gets their cut.  Only time will tell.

CelestialDalek:

Look. New Holland. You have good production and stuff. Very good stats. You’re at war with Tiwanaku, why aren’t you taking any cities? BECAUSE YOU ARE USING SWORDSMEN. STOP DOING THAT. This is getting dangerously close to a Saba situation, except that Kanem-Bornu is ass and New Holland isn’t. Although I think their military strategist is.

JDT: The Wahgi rise one as they leave their war with Zheng the obvious victor, securing Simuay and Lamitan, both excellent cities. With their production now acceptable and all their other stats still being excellent, they are now being seen as a potential challenger for the pinnacle. They still have targets even in a stacked region, given the vulnerability other powers tend to find themselves in. Now, can they simply build a good enough army to win?

Cloudy:

The Selkups have been quiet for too long, so we’ve decided to move them out of their third place position in favor of someone more active (no spoilers!). That’s a significant blow considering that they held onto third place for 6 straight episodes. However, the Selkups continue to occupy a high position in every critical statistic, including 10th in effective science, 6th in production, and 5th in military, so they absolutely remain a powerhouse and if they wake up they could quickly regain their previous ranking.

CelestialDalek:

The Yellowknives are the more active civ mentioned in Cloudy’s writeup. This episode was great for Akaitcho, as he was able to pick off two vital cities from the heart of the Crow’s core, Iaxupish Aashkaate and the capital Baaxawuaashe, with Chichuche seemingly next (although the Osage could take it). Their stats are good and they’re pretty much untouchable by any of their neighbors, even though they don’t have the most stacked core. Thule better look out.

Nathanmasse:

To no one's great surprise, Faroe's siege of Hispalis has gone absolutely nowhere.  They should have swept through the city and descended on the Visigoth mainland with relative ease given the tech and stat disparity.  It's almost impressive just how incompetently the Faroes have waged their wars. That said, their stats are still exceptionally strong so they hang onto the 2nd place position.  But with other civs across the cylinder closing this stat gap and actually making advances and taking cities, I would be surprised if they can hang onto this position much longer.

NopeCopter:

Goguryeo holds their top spot despite a performance last episode that can only be described as “disappointing”. It’s not that they aren’t still really strong, it’s just that there was so much they could’ve done that they just… didn’t do. The war with Zheng ended almost as quickly as it began, and the Mongolian front hasn’t moved an inch - in fact, Mongol troops are actually moving into southern Goguryeo! Even the Nivkh, currently “losing” a war to Thule, have a threatening-looking presence on the border as always. This lack of movement has actually caused a bit of chaos in the PR team, as some have even gone so far as to drop Goguryeo from their first-place spot - not enough to actually make them actually fall a rank, of course, but enough to raise their standard deviation above 0. If they can’t make something work soon, I expect that deviation to rise even higher, even if their stats are still decidedly top-of-the-line.