Power Rankings: Episode 24 – S4

Rosay:

With Seneca being the biggest disappointment in North America, Crow’s was kinda overlooked, but make no mistake: Crow didn’t just drop the ball, they chucked that shit straight off the Empire State Building. Like seriously those two were destined to dominate North America, and now they’re just lucky they used to share a continent with Shawnee to make themselves look slightly less godawful in the post-battle royale stats, whenever that may be.

Leman:

Dai Viet’s journey comes to an end at the hands of an opportunistic Siam, and not their eternal tormentor, Zheng. Dai Viet didn’t have an exciting journey, but it was an interesting one. They spent their time focusing on culture, first and foremost, stacking up dozens of social policies – in fact, on their death, Dai Viet had the fourth most social policies of any civ. But they did this at the expense of other aspects of their game such as city settling, which Dai Viet did okay at, and production, which Dai Viet did terribly at.

The problem with this whole strategy was twofold. First off, Dai Viet’s next-door neighbor, Siam, just did it better, combining their excellent culture with solid science and reasonable production and military. Second, this game is about conquering, not about culture. While Dai Viet didn’t exactly neglect its military building a surprising number of solid military wonders, they never were able to build a production base or get a technological edge to really play the game the way it needed to be played. So, when Zheng showed up with their advanced fleet of Frigates, Dai Viet and no way to put up a defense. In the course of two wars, Dai Viet dropped four of their seven cities to Zheng, lost another to Singapore, and gave another away to Khoshuts in a desperate attempt to stay alive, before finally being snuffed out by Siam.

Overall Dai Viet played a somewhat unique game, but not a very good one. So there ends another Vietnamese civ that failed to live up to the Trung Sister’s legacy. RIP.

Reformer:

Mamluks are potentially looking down the barrel of a gun. Loaded with bullets with their name on them. Intended for- You get it. One only need look at what happened to Kazakhstan last episode to realize that Mamluks are teetering on the edge. Coalitions can always abruptly include a relevant neighbor, and in the case of city-states and rumps, such incidents are lethal, no questions asked. Time to pray to your gods, Shajar al-Durr.

Reformer:

The existential battle continues…the imperialist bears down upon Marrakech, but our brave soldiers will not surrender so easily. We have weathered worse storms. Sierra Leone can take many things, but they’ll never take our freedom! For Alaouites! For Liberty!

Oh! I almost forgot! Alaouites finished Chivalry this episode, finally unlocking the kasbah. Just in time to celebrate their departure from the game. No, wait, I mean, their coming victory against Sierra Leone. Let’s fucking go.

ECH:

Let’s see MacGregor Speech 100 his way out of this! Agueybana is making a play to finish the job he started with Fort San Carlos and eliminate this honorless hustler, although with -10 happiness we can expect some decent combat underperformance. I have a feeling the second razing of St. Augustine is impending, but honestly, I have my doubts on the demise of Fenandia with it; those three tiles of seas access ought to make it putty in the hands of a Caribbean civ, but Taino naturally has Taino-Syndrome (a civ in a naval environment having land bias) and has a bizarrely small fleet, so that’s invalidated, leaving just Taino’s tech superiority as their main advantage, bringing muskets to a pikeman fight. In any case, Florida certainly seems in their dying days of struggle now.

NopeCopter:

Royal Hungary falls one rank, mostly just due to statistical noise. Still, their position does seem more and more doomed the further things go on - despite finally securing peace with Rome, they’ve lost Gyor, and they don’t even have that unexpectedly large military of theirs to fall back on anymore. Maybe they can attack Bavaria while they’re down - wait, no, they’re already at war and it’s been going horribly for them. Uhhh… yeah, sorry Royal Hungary fans, this might finally be a dead end.

Nathanmasse:

Things are sort of looking up for Burgundy.  For the first time in what feels like ages, they are not facing the imminent threat of annihilation.  Instead, they finally find themselves on the coalition-side of a coalition war against the Visigoths.  There’s no chance of them taking any cities but it’s good to have friends for once.

NopeCopter:

The Kalmyks, like fellow rump state Royal Hungary, fall one rank seemingly just out of pure statistical noise. Still, as far as rump states go, they don’t look too bad - with a carpet so full it’s overflowing their borders, they’re doing their best to continue influencing the game in the ways only an ancient rump can. And don’t forget that their geography should make killing them a real pain, at least over the course of a single war! You’ve gotta take the wins where you can find ‘em.

Nathanmasse:

Maknovia’s war with Pontus doesn’t seem to have changed much; Pontus still controls Ekaterinoslav and Makhno’s army is still hiding in Kazan territory acting as peacekeepers.  I was initially excited when I saw Makhno declare war on the Finns thinking these units would march north, but unfortunately, the open border agreement with Latvia we saw in the last episode seems to have expired. With that avenue closed, perhaps they will march back home to retake Ekaterinoslav?

JDT: The Tehuelche are really never beating Patagonia’s throwing allegations. When every slide you’re on is begging for you to die, you deserve to be 49th. JDT Tehuelche is 46 (this was initially on slide 49)

I don’t care they’re so washed you can put them anywhere low and no one will notice

Leman:

The Finns are not at war with Latvia and Ume-Sami. Therefore the Finns do not matter.

Msurdej:

Bukhara has been at 44 for a while now, making him one of the few civs to have a consistent ranking (the only others like him are the Top 2). But that’s increasingly not a good thing to be. 44 is now in the bottom 10, and no prospect for Shaybani looks good. Clearing war on weaker enemies is a good move, but the Mamluks are too far away for that to matter. It’s all just a matter of when they will die, and who kills them.

Shaggy:

They're still ass but at least the holy wars mod is making them be active. Doubt they'll do much to the Mamluks... or anyone else.

Leman

Seneca was a little island of peace in an otherwise tumultuous part. They didn’t do much, but I’m sure Cornplanter is celebrating that he wasn’t the most disappointing North American civ we ranked in the top 10 and completely failed to perform. He’s the second most disappointing North American civ we ranked in the top 10 and completely failed to perform.

Shaggy:

Bavaria arranges their units like how I organize my apartment: there are empty parts where there shouldn't be and things that are out of your control are preventing you from bringing pieces in from other places. I do find it to be the height of CBR comedy when rumped or dead civs block other civs from putting up effective defenses. Shoutouts to the Rozvi and Mamluk units living it up in and around northern Italy, keep being awesome. Oh, also they rise up a rank because of their amazing diplomatic skills.

Msurdej:

Boy howdy, things are not looking good for Leovigild. Hispalis is a burnt ruin, and England is starting to bear down on them. Though if England does as well as they did against Bavaria, it’s not a major worry. But if England decides to commit to this fight, or the Faroe Islands decide to come down south and put their backs into a fight, then the -1 drop they got this part could grow.

JDT:

The Taino rise by one for two reasons. Firstly, they are attacking Florida. Maybe they can finally humble the disaster artist Gregor MacGregor and use his cities to grow into somewhere with their better positioning. Secondly, the PRs have decided that the Visigoths are completely washed and are at threat for a big old can of whoop ass. With the Taino remaining relatively stable, enough of us decided to put them over the Harry Kane-level choke artist that is Leogivild.

Rosay:

ITS TIME FOR A MOGADISHU UPDATE

A war with Ndongo has gone nowhere.

THIS HAS BEEN A MOGADISHU UPDATE

Orange:

Qarms go up despite not doing much, they have a nice big army that could be put to use against one of their many foes, but other than that not great stats, notably lacking in production and tech still. Really what they need right now is a coalition war against one of their neighbors, preferably the Afsharids because they are weaker than they appear and could easily give way to a coalition if Qarm joined in. Though to be fair, most of their neighbors are pretty weak. Pontus is the strongest and even they aren’t that much stronger, so really Qarm has options, but they need to act quickly.

Msurdej:

You hear that folks? That’s the sound of the floor falling out from underneath Sorghaghtani. They’ve been declared on by ten civs at the moment, with the most relevant wars being the ones with the Selkups and the Shang. Selkups have broken and taken the Siberian exclave, and continue to barrel into the Mongolian army with their larger and more advanced army. The Shang have surprisingly pushed north, wanting to regain some of their former glory with shocking success. Will Sorghaghtani be able to stabilize, or will they keep falling?

Orange:

Well, they had their moment to shine. But now Vijay is knocking on the door, mad that they didn’t get any of the Harappan cities themselves. This is of course a skill issue, but Vijay doesn’t see it that way for some reason. Khoshuts can still put up a defense here, but yeah, at the very least Mohenjo-Daro is probably gonna fall. Whether they can hold these new holdings or whether they will just give them up (in war or in peace) is still up in the air.

Leman:

The war with Thule is kind of grinding to a halt, and given Nivkh is the underdog, that’s pretty good. But it’s clearly, very, very slowly, going towards Thule. Nivkh isn’t contesting any of the Bering Strait cities anymore and Thule is getting closer to core cities. T’s unlikely that this war breaks Nivkh in any way but I’m not really a fan of their spot.

NopeCopter:

Despite escaping the war against Zheng (mostly) intact, the Ikko-Ikki drop a few spots - and some would argue they should have dropped more. This is primarily because of their newfound lack of options, being trapped on all sides between major powers, and having lost their crucial gateway to bullying Shang alongside their best avenues into a future Nivkh invasion (although that might not have gone too well anyways). Goguryeo, Zheng, the Pueblo, and even Thule trap this island empire pretty handily, and especially once they start to build back up, there may not be any hope left for escape. So, why aren’t they any lower? Stats. The Ikko-Ikki still have a massive tech count backed up by solid science and military scores, even if they haven’t proven to exactly be competent at wielding them. It’s possible that the Ikko-Ikki could use a well-timed war declaration on a reeling neighbor to claw their way back into the game… but given their performance history so far, I wouldn’t exactly bet on it.

Orange:

See my Khoshuts write-up 3 slides ago but just imagine it from the other point of view.

Reformer:

Ecuador…hm…Ecuador…Oh, they’re still here! No worries guys, crisis averted. You can go to the next slide now.

Leman:

Shang is back! Well, not really. Not to the same extent as before. But with Goguryeo and Selkups having done all the heavy lifting to break Mongolia, Daji is swooping in to regain their lost cities before she inevitably murders all her own citizens. I think, sadly, the damage has already been done and even if Shang manages to sweep through Mongolia and capture all 10 of their cities (unlikely), I think Shang is too far before technologically and economically to really come back, but hey, I love that Shang hasn’t decided they’re too weak to make moves.

Leman:

Kanem-Bornu is doing okay. They’re sort of solid on the map, but really weak stats-wise. Which makes me really apprehensive about their future prospects, because, like, where do they go? Saba, Sierra Leone, and Ndongo are in some kind of three-way struggle for Africa and Kanem seems stuck in the middle. They’re really going to need to turn something around to change that.

NopeCopter:

The Osage manage to pick up a second kill, taking out the Crow by sniping their final city! This does technically put them in first place, at least in a way, owning three original capitals… so why haven’t they moved? Well, because one extra city isn’t actually worth much. It’s nice to have, of course, but it seems to the PR team that they’ve probably peaked. The Big Three of western North America all remain standing (relatively) tall, the Seneca are as impenetrable as ever, Mexico has a proper land route into Osage lands, and even Florida might end up getting taken out by the Taino. Even worse, the Pueblo have been placing down some pretty nasty Citadels in Osage lands, giving them a DIRECT route to the Osage capital as soon as they bother to declare war. And given the Osage just got a pretty nasty warmonger penalty, that war could come sooner than expected. This kill does at least ensure that the Osage have something to be remembered by, but it probably doesn’t do much to dig them out of the hole they’re slowly getting buried in. It’s actually a remarkably similar story to that of the OTHER civ to pick up a kill this episode…

NopeCopter:

…That civ of course being Siam, who finally put Dai VIet out of their misery this episode. Getting another city is of course nice, but the problem is that, by attacking Dai Viet, they completely ignored their golden opportunity to attack the much more serious threat of Singapore. With their focus almost entirely on the Noongar, Siam could have potentially achieved something with a backstab (although honestly, their military may have been too weak even for that), but now Singapore’s turned things around and might even snag a city or two off the Noongar if things keep up. Couple that with a recovering Zheng and an ascendant Khoshuts, and there truly is no way out for Siam now. Even their formerly excellent Science is now just good, and their tech count is lower than Zheng’s or Singapore’s. At least Siam can say they went out with a kill count, but unless something big happens that’s all they’ll have to their name. I hate to be so negative on a civ that’s still in the mid-range of the Power Rankings, but we’re reaching the stage of the game where opportunities to become a great power are starting to get slim, and Siam isn’t looking like the type of civ to make a surprise breakout unless they’ve got something truly diabolical cooking.

ECH:

Bloody hell, they’re really standing against the dying of the light, huh? It’s an admirable job, as for another episode they’re pushing back, and maybe even winning against, a top 10 civ statistically dominant over them, with fewer units, less production, and theoretically less tech. On that last point, Tiwanaku’s much more rational scientific path for a domination game has served them especially well, as their musketry and cannoneering advancements are serving well to hold back the Hollandaise Horde. Now, this all being said… Tiwanaku Isn't actually improving in any way from this extended war, and in fact may be more vulnerable than ever, if Ecuador or Bora Bora were to hop in. For those who enjoy rooting for the Andean giants, you better pray for peace and rebuilding.

Shaggy:

England continues to climb in the rankings reaching their all-time high this season at 25. Using a consistent strategy of “I'm not touching you!” does seem to be working for them as their UA continues to allow them to clear paths for their units to flow through. Iberia is in their sights and it is condensed enough to be crippled by a committed English invasion.

Nathanmasse:

Noongar can’t catch a break.  Things were looking up last week but now they’ve spent most of the episode going back and forth with Singapore and ultimately being pushed back.  Not to be pessimistic, but this may very well be Noongar’s high watermark.  They’ve shot their shot to carve out a piece of Singapore’s territory and they’re also falling far behind Palawa in techs which won’t help them in that ongoing war either.  They’re running out of space and time; even if they don’t lose much in these current wars, they’re not in a winning position as things stand.

ECH:

Saba at this point leaves me feeling like a fool in the worst way possible, like an unfaithful lover. I trusted in them, in their ability… they were gonna change the world. It could have been such a happy life. And what has Makeda done? Thrown it all away!! On what?! We have no bloody idea, but she’s up over 60 pop, down over 20 happiness where they want to be, and no tangible benefit has been acquired, in fact ,she’s been embarrassingly defeated by Kanem bloody Bornu in spite of her massive production boost! The central theory is that her UA’s immense growth boost has inadvertently destroyed Saba’s capabilities to war well, with the unhappiness debuffs countering the production boost, neutering combat effectiveness, and shifting city priorities, but I reject these as excuses! I’m sorry Saba, but I think I speak for most PR’s when I say, we can’t be with you any longer. It’s not me, it’s you.

Nathanmasse:

The Dzungars are a curious combination of raw potential and inactivity.  Their stats are great with one of the largest armies anywhere in the cylinder, consistently placing them among the top 15.  But their seeming lack of fighting instinct has left many rankers wanting.  There are no shortage of avenues to pursue. Mongolia is crumbling in the east and would be easy to seize a few cities; they could try another war with Bukhara or the Khoshuts who just might give up cities in the peace deal; or even strike at Selkup’s underbelly while they try to finish off Mongolia.  In all likelihood though, they will continue to do nothing…

JDT:

Pontus goes up by two thanks to their success in their war against Makhnovia, and Nestor Makhnov deciding to send his anarchist legions eastwards to recoup for a counter-assault instead of directly defending his cities. The long-term holding of their new black sea holdings gives hope to a new, easier path to expansion for the long inexpansive Turkic giants. Couple that with a 6 rank stat increase that puts them firmly in upper tier category? Maybe we can see the poisonous pals of Anatolia get some action.

Shaggy:

The PR assignment roll this week said “Here Shaggy, have most of Western Europe.” Rome finally breaks into the top 20 this week. Actually the bottom of the top 20 this week is really tight, the difference between being 18 and 20 is tight enough that even one ranker changing their mind between those 3 placements would shake things up. Rome peaced out with the Visigoths this part, though, so I would temper my expectations of their potential naval European gains in the short term. But hey, there are always stat changes to help a civ in the ranks!

Reformer:

Hey Ume-Sami! You hear me? Ume-Sami! They’re building a coalition against the Finns! Ume-Sami, please respond. I showed you, my vulnerable neighbor! …Darn I don’t think they’re awake. Oh well!

ECH:

So, from the outside Nader Shah looks to be in a pretty bad rut right now, between his embarrassments from every angle and the loss of the juicy Harappan rump to the Khoshuts of all civs. However, he has an ace up his majestic sleeves: both his UU’s should be about to come online: his UU line infantry Jazayerchi and, should he correctly choose Imperialism as his next tech, UU cuirassier the Saravan e Sultanati. Together they synergize well and represent an even stronger version of an already pretty good tech lead Nader will have over nearly all his neighbors, he just needs to have the sense to pull the trigger on them (and centrally, I mean Khoshuts in this assessment).

JDT: Singapore strikes up by 5 as they successfully repel the assault by Noongar, having a high probability of successfully ending the war with their only downside being two 20+ pop cities losing a good chunk of their populations. While further progress into both Vijayanagara and Noongar seems unlikely, at the very least, Singapore should remain the Asian tiger it always is, with all its stats still fairly intact, justifying a 5-point increase. Why not more? Firstly, Noongar is not completely out yet and can make some last-second swipes. Secondly, they are still bordering superpowers in Wahgi, Zheng, and Palawa, who all can very easily outscale them in a protracted conflict. Still, you Laksa and Kaya Toast enjoyers should find joy in this comeback.

Msurdej:

Po’Pay’s lost two ranks in this part, but it’s mostly due to their inaction. The Crow have been eliminated, meaning the border between them and the powerful Yellowknives just got bigger. With the southern border still a stalemate between them and Mexico, Pueblo doesn’t want to start getting into more wars. Even if they’re with weaker enemies like the Osage, a multi-front war could be bad for Po’pay.

Nathanmasse:

With Sierra Leone’s distracting war with the Visigoths over, they can now focus entirely on the Alaouites.  Marrakech is cut off and should fall shortly, leaving just the capital Meknes which might hold out thanks to the hills surrounding the city but should also fall to Sierra Leone’s superior army.  All in all, they’re in a pretty good position to finally consolidate Western Africa.  But the question is, what then?  A war with Rome could lose their Mediterranean cities and Kanem’s unique ability could make mincemeat of any invading army.  Their navy is rather advanced compared to the other African civs so perhaps they will go in that direction.

Orange:

Ndongo hops into first in Africa, edging past Sierra Leone likely because Sierra Leone doesn’t know how to take cities and are wasting a ton of time on the Alaouites instead of attacking Kanem-Bornu. Ndongo on the other hand is uh, just doing nothing instead, but that’s better I guess, something about getting to build up and improve oneself Idk. But they have a bit better stats than Sierra Leone at least, though looking at it I think it’s mostly just that Sierra Leone has 0 happiness and a slightly weaker army? But that stuff isn’t important, what is important is that Ndongo is on top in Africa and that means NopeCopter will be happier and that’s good :]

Reformer:

Fighting old enemies, Thule? Remember when you got that freebie city from Crow? And then lost it to Crow ages later? Well, that ol’ Crow is now dead! Yellowknives have once again outclassed you on the battlefield. Good job with keeping ahold of those Nivkh cities this week I guess. It really is hard to believe that this civ has top 10 stats. Where are they? Where are the stats? Damnit. I hope YK beats these guys up sometime soon.

Leman:

Honestly, coming out of a Selkup war down a single horrible Arctic city is nothing short of a miracle for Kazan. That could have gone so, so much worse for Kazan. Kazan is pretty impressive but they are just flatly outclassed by Selkups. They’re down a massive nine techs, 4k real military, and about a hundred production. Kazan is going to need to clean up some of its weaker neighbors  (Kalmyks, Bukhara, Makhnovia) and fix their science before Selkups try again for round two.

Leman:

Not much going on in Latvia this week. Their wars in Eastern Europe have bogged themselves down to an absolute slog and nothing really seems to be decisively happening there. They missed their window to strike at Kazan too. But, Latvia still has great stats! But whenever they do anything it does not look like they do.

Rosay:

Bora’s managed to stabilize itself as a long-lasting top 10 member but due to Wahgi actually using its stats to take cities, Bora has to be a lot more careful now so as to not leave itself open. South America is another story however as Wahgi has a huge opportunity to take cities deep into Tiwa’s exposed core with minimal risk. While yes this does eventually open up a new front with New Holland repeating the current issue Bora has with Wahgi, Bora will at least be able to hold out in the jungle and have access to more squishy but terrain-protected civs. Man fighting in South America is a bitch, huh?

Reformer:

The Zheng remain ever-explosive this week, aggroing on Ikko-Ikki as soon as Wahgi lets up on the war. Pressing on here has a good chance to greatly improve Zheng’s standing. The Japanese cities would be a great boon for Zheng, considering the beating received from Wahgi, and to speak nothing of the ascendance of Gogureyo. Zheng’s positioning will only get more difficult in the future, which makes proactivity and aggression all the more crucial.

Rosay:

Ok, see this part is what I mean by “Palawa should’ve won this war a while ago”. This is the god-knows-how-many-th time Palawa has been to war with their out-tech, out-produced rival Noongar, and they still can’t take Kriwa. I’m not going to go into too much detail just copy and paste my write-up from the last p in here and there you go. If it wasn’t for those massive stats that Palawa doesn’t know how to use, Palawa would be lucky to be in the top 15 let alone the top 10.

ECH:

There is something I find very satisfying about Mexico’s empire, and have for a while: the near total control of their IRL nation plus some natural sphere of influence outreaches into neighboring realms as a show of power, mixed with a consistent carpet unmatched by anyone, that has for many episodes put them in the top of the effective military score. Now yes, the Pueblo war has become an unfortunate quagmire since their early conquest of Walatowa, but with a final peace there Maximilian the Magnanimous will have a few good options to take future aggression: risk his Caribbean holdings on attacking the distracted and generally ineffective Taino to expand his regional core, or (my favored choice) a daring assault into Osage lands as they recover from the Crow campaign. Another episode without major moves won’t hurt them too much, of course, they are ranked 6th in stats overall (although their massive military disguises the good-but-not-astounding nature of some other categories), but the CBR is an arena that bays for blood, and usually rewards action well.

Orange:

New Holland has such good stats and is just so bad at war like seriously what is up with them why can’t they just defeat Tiwanaku? Tiwanaku has a third of the military as New Holland, where is the NH military? Is it entirely boats that they have just sitting around? Tell me Johan, where is your military?!?!

Msurdej:

Don’t let their lack of a rise in the ranks fool you, the Wahgi had a good part. They picked up the Brandenburg Gate, a solid Wonder that will make their troops a little stronger off the bat. Furthermore, they picked up an Ideology in Autocracy, giving them further bonuses many others still don’t have. Sure it’s a small boost, but one that keeps them ahead as they consolidate their gains from the Zheng war. All things considered, it shows just how good the other four Top 5 civs are doing.

JDT: The Selkups remain stable at 4. They made a decent amount of progress in their war with Mongolia, claiming 3 arctic Mongolian cities and en route to taking more. However, they failed to rise further thanks to their inability to take anything of value from an abortive war with Kazan, a war that could’ve propelled them into Europe and established them as an unstoppable juggernaut. Nevertheless, ample targets, a strong army, and good stats across the board retain them in the top 4, even if they haven’t properly proved themselves against a top power.

Reformer:

Yellowknives come out of the Crow collapse as the main beneficiary, gaining four cities as opposed to the one gained by Osage. Despite Osage being slightly ahead of the curve on the war dec timing, YK’s superior positioning allowed them to make the big gains, and STILL let Osage take the warmonger penalty for killing a civ. All around a perfectly executed war from YK, certainly cementing them as the most competent civ in the top 3. Goguryeo and Faroes ain’t got nothing on this. Weeeellll…Goguryeo might have something going for them, but it sure ain’t grit, clutch, or wanting it more, so who cares? Next in line: Maybe Osage gets coalition’d? That’d be fun for YK. Looking forward to it!

Rosay:

I feel like the case for 1st place Faroe is the strongest it’s been in a while just due to the Faroes not having nearly as many military flubs as Goguryeo has had in the last few parts or so. In a bunch of key metrics the Faroes are actually gaining ground, IE production, while maintaining leads in others, IE city count, but there’s one problem that the Faroe just can’t ignore: depression. The Faroe have been stuck in a happiness slump for a couple of parts now, and it has really stopped them from taking easy Ws in places like England and Seneca, in fear of a proper revolution. This is the closest the Faroe have been to taking back the top spot in a while, but if morale doesn’t improve, their ranking will continue to fall.

Reformer:

Still at the top baby. Now UNFORTUNATELY despite their incredibly massive 1086 production (the closest competitor is at 679), they do seem to struggle when it comes to war. This seems to be a recurring issue for the #1 civ. First the Faroes…now Goguryeo. Mongolia proved an impossible obstacle to overcome for no particular reason. But wait, it gets worse. This week, Mongolia finally showed sufficient weakness for Selkups and Shang to pile on, surely dooming Mongolia to be rumped in a 3v1. But no - practically as soon as these war decs came in, Goguryeo made PEACE with Mongolia. For nothing. So ESSENTIALLY, they just softened up Mongolia so other civs could swoop in and enjoy the spoils of war! Already, Selkups and Shang have captured some cities from Mongolia, and the collapse is sure to continue, while Goguryeo themselves got fuckall. Sure, Shang won’t be a threat even if they acquire some new cities, but Selkups is a top 5 power as-is - I don’t think letting them feast on Mongolia is anywhere close to helpful. Now, let’s be fair. Goguryeo does have the aforementioned insurmountable lead in production. But complacency kills, we’ve seen it time and time again. Resting on your laurels while your immediate rivals grow stronger…I mean, even Zheng to the south is doing a good job of recovering from the Wahgi-related beating.

Goguryeo’s recent moves are awful, but their stats allow them some leniency, that’s the short of it.