Power Rankings: Episode 34 – S4

Msurdej:

It's strange to think about death. Sometimes death comes slowly, others quite rapidly. I had two deaths occur in my life the week before Thanksgiving: one that I had been expecting for some time, one that was a sudden shock. Both were losses, and I will miss them.

In the CivBattleRoyale, we've had a lot of deaths recently. The last five parts (30-34), we've had more deaths than in the previous 29 parts. One of these deaths was Tiwanaku, a upset for what was once a top player. It took a bit of struggle, but by the end of part three, they had five cities, and three episodes later, they were in the top 5. But a coalition in episode 14 made them start to falter, leading into a downward spiral they never truly recovered from. Bora-Bora, New Holland, even Ecuador all took a piece of Hyustus's empire, leaving him trapped in the mountains until his death this episode. The star rose too high, and was ultimately unable to survive the haters. Rest in Peace Tiwanaku, you will be missed.F

NopeCopter:

After a brutal war with Mexico, Ecuador finally falls at the hands of New Holland, making them the second-placers of their continent by a margin of only a few turns. Ecuador was a strange civ, one defined by shockingly consistent mediocrity. It was an impressive sort of mediocrity, honestly - not born through a lack of trying, but rather of simply trying and failing at everything, while everything tried on them failed right back. A black hole of coolness. They were never outright bad, never so shit that they could really be counted out, but also never so good that people felt like they had a chance. Maintaining such a delicate balancing act all the way to the grave is legitimately impressive, and I think that deserves some respect.

Initially ranked near the middle of the pack in 36th, Ecuador got off to a fairly quiet start, settling a good few cities and locking down the northwest of their continent as best they could. They locked the Taino out of South America, and then fended off an invasion from top-5 power New Holland without much issue, the first thing that really turned some heads in their direction. They did allow Mexico to settle a small colony on the Venezuelan coast in the process (despite the two civs also being at war), but surely that wouldn’t ever be relevant, right?

By this point, Ecuador had cemented itself as, if not a likely winner on a continent with two other powerhouses, at the very least a stubborn civilization - the third wheel in the power struggle between New Holland and Tiwanaku, and one that was likely to stick around for some time even if they were never going to rule the continent. They momentarily dropped like a rock in the Power Rankings as the coalition against Rio Grande made their already terrifying neighbors even more powerful, only to rise right back up to the mid-20s as several other civs collapsed and their stats started to look really good for a mid-tier power - the story of Ecuador in a nutshell, really. They proceeded to have a few quiet episodes as South America as a whole focused on mauling Rio Grande and then going back to sleep. But Ecuador wasn’t merely sleeping - they were building up an army. And when their forces were sufficient, they turned on the sleepy, Worker-filled Tiwanaku in a move that genuinely seemed like it could result in an upset on the continent.

It was then that everyone would discover the true depths of Ecuador’s greatest flaw: their military incompetence. Sure, they’d failed to take Mexico’s colony, but there was some tricky terrain to navigate there. With their terrible target prioritization, weak unit composition, and general lack of war skills, they managed to fumble the war with Tiwanaku so hard that they barely even damaged any cities by the end of the second episode of war. They did eventually manage to slightly get their act together and flip Lukurmata… only to lose it and immediately sign peace despite Tiwanaku being stretched impossibly thin and at war with two other powerful civilizations. This, frankly, may have been the biggest fumble of a war in the entire game up to this point. They tried to recover by invading Mexico instead, but that war was even more pathetic, and ended in Ecuador just straight-up handing over the Galapagos to Mexico in the peace deal for no reason. While this was happening, New Holland was invading Tiwanaku again. Ecuador took a few episodes to quietly sulk in the corner before finally deciding to try invading Tiwanaku again (by which point they had already turned the tables on New Holland), and this time they looked even more prepared to run over Tiwanaku… with Muskets and Cannons, and even Bora-Bora for support surely they couldn’t fuck this one up.

Amazingly, Ecuador DID manage to not fuck up the war… at least, at first. Lukurmata fells with no issue, and both Pariti and Pucara were taking heavy damage by the end of Episode 27, although Tiwanaku reinforcements kept the cities safe for the moment. But then, Ecuador just… failed to actually take anything else. Their forces split up, stalled, and generally refused to actually take any more cities while Bora-Bora tore through Tiwanaku’s southern holdings. They eventually did manage to capture Pariti, but Bora-Bora got EVERYTHING else, save for Tiwanaku’s capital (which Ecuador subsequently tried and failed to take for themselves). In what was effectively a perfect scenario for Ecuador, they managed to come out of the total collapse of their southern neighbor - largely at their own hand, no less - with a gain of two cities.

As if the humiliation of another botched war wasn’t enough, Ecuador hardly had time to recover or even breathe before suddenly being faced with another war against Mexico. Of course, given the history of not just the conflicts between the two but also of the region throughout all of CBR history, nobody expected the war to go anywhere. But then, somehow, Mexico locked in. Using their tiny beachhead colony, some Caribbean islands, and the Galapagos as beachheads, they managed to move in not one but two entire land armies into Ecuadorian lands, conquering a sizable chunk of Ecuador’s empire (which, again, was almost entirely inland and situated across perhaps the most awkward land border on the map) even despite an influx of New Holland peacekeepers. And then they just. Kept. Going. By the end of Episode 33, Mexico had somehow pushed Ecuador all the way down to their hard-earned capture of Pariti, and while they didn’t elect to finish the job, New Holland was certainly happy to finally earn some payback for the humiliation they’d endured some 30 episodes prior. Ecuador’s final city was crushed without hesitation, just five turns after New Holland did the exact same to Tiwanaku’s final city - the one that Ecuador just could not take.

While recounting their history like this might make them sound terrible, it’s worth noting that they did spend nearly their entire run in the 20-30 range of the ranks. Until being reduced to a city-state, they never rose above 24 or below 37. Of course, 35th started to get pretty unimpressive, but before the war with Mexico they were still ranked in the high 20s. That commitment to sticking in the middle of the pack, always on the fringe of relevance, always threatening to do something meaningful… there’s an art to that. Ecuador was the great disruptor of South America, stopping New Holland from taking an early lead, weakening and distracting Tiwanaku so Bora-Bora could build their empire, and even dying to give Mexico a place in South America. They always got the short end of the stick, and not undeservedly so, but they had a deceptively large impact on the direction of the season given how little they actually did. And now their job is done - South America is a fucked-up continent with two foreign powers controlling massive swaths of land, an outcome nobody could have predicted. Ecuador can finally rest knowing that, although they may have been boring, the world they helped facilitate certainly isn’t. Maybe next time they could try a little harder to actually take cities though. F.

Leman:

Makhnovia, the map’s ugliest nation, are dead. I’ll be honest, I expected a lot more out of Makhnovia. Billed as the funny anarchist civ, they have a powerful UA that should have let them really bully their neighbors. And given how weak some their neighbors were, Royal Hungary and Kalmyks in particular, I had expected Makhnovia to dominate their region and become a local powerhouse. Sort of like what Latvia actually achieved. Instead Makhnovia did little more than have some scrappy back-and-forth with Latvia (they took a Latvian city at one point!). This made them a mild fan favorite for about a minute or two. However, once the spotlight was off they dropped a city  to Pontus and were slowly devoured by citadels. At the time of their death Makhnovia was four completely separate exclaves that were easily conquered. Honestly, I’m glad they were put out of their misery. F

Msurdej:

It's a rare episode when a civ dies, but ends up going up a rank, but here we are. We had high hopes for Siam this season, with an expansive UA and some weaker neighbors, we thought they'd be at least upper 20s. And for a time, it seemed like they were doing well as they expanded to be larger than their neighbors. At their peak, they had a strong command of Southeast Asia, top 10 science. There was even some discussion about putting them in the Top 10 amongst Power Rankers, even though their best placement ended up being 17th.

But it all started to falter with a failed invasion of Dai Viet. This, plus a shockingly competent Singapore, kept Siam in the high 20s. But then a war with pretty much all of Southeast Asia caused them to fall to the lower 20s and even 30s, their science strength evaporating as civs became more powerful and picked them apart.  The choice to go for Order was quickly shown to be a folly as Singapore marched right over them, With Wahgi coming in to finish the job...until Bo'lim gave them peace. But the peace was only a delay as this time, the Wahgi left no survivors. A good effort Rama, but ultimately futile.F

Leman:

Kalmyks have a long, storied history of sucking absolute ass. Don’t expect an essay here. They slowly bled off cities to their enemies, dropping a few to Kazan, handing one over to Bukhara for no reason at all, and finally getting unceremoniously squashed by Afsharids as an afterthought to this episode. Kalmyks do leave behind a legacy though. They founded the largest religion on the cylinder, Vajrayana, which made them the happiest place on Earth. That’s not super great in a domination game, but I’m happy they were happy. Now they are dead. F

Cloudy:

Nivkh has one 4-pop city left and it’s in the red. The fact that we didn’t get Nivkh as the 6th elimination this episode is said, but not that sad when 5 eliminations in one episode is already a record. Anyway, Nivkh has been smashed to smithereens by the full force of Goguryeo, with almost no ability to resist. Technology really is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Prepare your F keys.

Cloudy:

In a slightly less tenuous position than Nivkh, but still arguably on death’s door, is Kanem-Bornu. For a moment it looked like they might even be eliminated this episode, until Sierra Leone peaced out, leaving them with two cities. But then Idris Alauma joined a coalition war against Saba, only for all the other coalition partners to drop out, leaving Kanem-Bornu alone. It remains to be seen whether a battered Saba can muster the forces to eliminate the even more battered Kanem-Bornu, but it’s not out of the question.

Leman:

Visigoths have a city, and rise four ranks because four other civilizations suddenly do not have a city.

Reformer:

The South Indian civ will NEVER prosper! It’s the simple truth. Vijayanagara, despite being full of grit and bloodthirst, has finally been reduced to a city-state. Past failures to expand north ensured their captivity next to the naval giant of Singapore, and the rest was history. Now Vj merely awaits finality, right where it all started.

ECH:

I mean, credit to Henry, he’s not one of those leaders who just give up entirely once their days as a real contender are done, fighting back against an air-powered Roman invasion of their exclave of Nancy. But, to be clear, their days as a contender are clearly done. Any Atlantic naval power could take half their cities, even bloody Taino probably. They’re doomed if they’re declared on in the short term, as their forces have been depleted by this Roman conflict; and they’re doomed also in the long term because the tech advances they’re lagging behind on now are increasingly major, so even a rifleman and artillery carpet will be swept aside by real players in a few episodes. At least they have some good melancholic tunes?

Reformer: I mean, alright, we lived, that’s pretty impressive all things considered. After losing the vast majority of their empire, Kazan manages to squeeze peace out of the Selkups, and though it is a painful peace, it is survival. Three cities remain of the aforementioned empire, a hollow shell of its former self. But in this era of culling, surviving as a rump is an achievement. A doomed existence, sure, but if the intent is to scrape something out of nothing, blood from the stone, then no doubt Kazan got their wish even if they are but a dead man walking, now.

Reformer:

Good news, it was Finnish Independence Day just a few days ago, on the 6th :)

Orange:

So, Seneca does have a bit of danger right now, they are facing a bunch of wars and one of them, New Holland, has a chance to send over a fleet and raid the Seneca coast. Luckily for Cornplanter, New Holland sucks and will probably not be sending any fleets up north. For now, they are safe. At least until Taino or Faroes attack again.

Leman:

We have entered the phase of the game where the mid tiers are collapsing and this weeks biggest collapsed was the Russian power of Kazan, who were unceremoniously crushed by the Selkups over the course of an episode or two. For Bukhara, this really isn’t a big deal, Selkups could have crushed them before and can still crush them now. Their situation has not changed at all. What is nice, is that as mid-tiers fall apart, low-tiers, like Bukhara they can leech off these mid-tier collapses and claw their way back into relevancy. Bukhara tried to do that and did manage to snipe Taraz from Kazan. Good for them. I’m glad they’re trying.

Nathanmasse:

The Qarmatians are quickly running out of options.  Pontus has made peace with Saba and is rebuilding, the Afsharids have moved forces east for their lightning war against the Kalmyks, and even Mogadishu poses a threat now that they’ve consolidated control of east Africa.  Their stats and techs are well behind each of their neighbors so if they can’t catch one unawares, they will have little hope of success.

Leman:

I expect what happened to Kazan or Nivkh will be happening to Mongolia shortly. The only question is which color flag will be flying in Karakorum when the dust has settled. My guess is red.

Cloudy:

It’s starting to dawn on us that Bavaria is surrounded by civs whose military tech is two eras ahead. There’s no one left who wouldn’t crush them. Even Rome, formerly constrained by geography, now has airplanes that might tear Bavaria apart. And Potnus is plotting against them. So good luck, Ludwig.

Orange:

Kennyo just looking at Umu get eviscerated hoping he isn’t next, better start praying harder.

Orange:

Osage stands in a very perilous position, they would get absolutely destroyed by two of their neighbors, and the other two are blocked off by mountains but are much weaker. Maybe they can jump in on Seneca in this big coalition, and maybe get something out of it. But they are in ever danger of getting gobbled.

ECH:

I mean, yeah, they sure do be Taino. That’s them. This civ here matches all the known Taino criteria. Lotta Caribbean, some of the US, 100% Taino. Never stopping that Taino train. Now with added Destroyers!

Orange:

Did the Dzungars do anything? I forget already. But with such a performance last part they go up a total of 0 ranks! Wow! They really gotta figure out someone to target soon since they lost to the Khoshuts. Maybe Mongolia?

NopeCopter:

Saba-D’mt’s rank may not have dropped, but this episode has certainly cemented in my mind at least that they are no longer a player in this game whatsoever. Not only managing to lose multiple cities to Mogadishu but also failing to keep Damietta, and almost losing something to Sierra Leone, as well? Sure, they’re probably going to finish off Kanem-Bornu or at least take a city, but after that they’re genuinely trapped by civs that are significantly better than them in every way and civs that are demonstrably able to beat them. It’s not a fate wholly unique to them, but it’s especially depressing to see them end up like this after that incredible comeback of theirs in the early episodes.

Leman:

Yagan has got to be shaking in its boots as it watches its mid-tier brethren all fall apart around him. England, Kazan, Kanem-Bornu, Khoshuts, etc have all been eviscerated. Perhaps the next time Palawa decides to declare war, the same thing that happened to all those civs will happen to Noongar. Or maybe Singapore will try to make a move. Or worse, Wahgi will decide to look south and Noongar will simply vanish in the blink of an eye. Point is, Noongar is not safe, not safe at all.

Orange:

Ume-Sami have surprisingly good science for their place, and they still aren’t doing anything. Their lasting ally of Latvia is making moves, going after the remnants of Makhnovia, but Ume-Sami remains sleepy. Europe will slowly be taken over while they nap.

Msurdej:

A quiet part for Pontus, but they manage to hold Damietta as they make peace with Saba-D'mt.  But even with this victory and slight rise in ranks, there's still not much more to go for them. I'm with Dalek in the best plan for them is to go out in a blaze of glory fighting Rome. C'mon Mithridates, do it for the meme!

Msurdej:

A solid part for Mogadishu where they take over two cities from Saba-D'mt.  While Hluti and Malkerns aren't much, they will further supply the Mogadishu war machine. A machine that has taken a few hits in the episode as their production slides a little, most likely from Hamar Weyne flipping so many times. But once all the scars of war have faded, Abu Bakr's empire should be stronger than ever before.

Nathanmasse:

Thule is left dumbfounded as Goguryeo accomplishes what they’ve been trying to do for several episodes in just a few short turns: eating Nivkh.   This leaves Thule stuck between a rock and a hard place.  They’re completely outmatched on land by Goguryeo and Yellowknives, but their navy is nothing to sneeze at.  Unfortunately, even a war with their closest likely target, Ikko-Ikki, could prove disastrous if Goguryeo is dragged in due to holy war shenanigans. We will have to see how Thule pivots to this new reality and see whether they have any cards hidden up their sleeves.

Nathanmasse:

Mogadishu seizing Saba’s southern cities is bad news for Ndongo.  They would have been easy enough to take and provide some much-needed coastal cities on the other side of the cape.  Their navy was never Ndongo’s strong suit and as it stands now, I have little faith they will be able to overcome Mogadishu’s navy in their home waters.  They did beeline Combustion and have a few destroyers so perhaps they may yet surprise me.

Reformer:

Rome gets to enter the top 15 for the first time ever, primarily on account of the pack getting thinner and thinner. Well, I guess they did take Nancy, that was pretty neat. But I’d like to posit another reason for Rome to be higher than their statistical equals. And that is proactivity. Take Ume Sami or Noongar for example. Statistically, these civs are almost Rome’s equals (Rome is nominally stronger). Thus SOMETHING must differentiate these civs, and for me proactivity has always been it. Rome’s history of aggression has netted them plenty of spoils of war in the history of the cylinder. The traditionally difficult starting position of Italy does demand such an approach. Realistically, Rome has already outdone past Italian contenders, but I believe they can go even further - assuming they can avoid confrontation with Sierra Leone.

Reformer:

I mean there’s not much to say, I wish they did something, maybe actually kill Ikko. BUT. Everyone knows the Zheng garbage patch I’m sure. Massive age-of-sail navy which is now of course outclassed by all the respectable navies on the cylinder. Well have I got good news for you Zheng fans. They’re finally researching Combustion, meaning they can finally upgrade their obnoxious quantities of privateers into destroyers. Much more respectable. Still not ideal considering the Wahgi next door, but not much they can do about that except keep on teching on. Destroyers are a good start. Next would be building a land army FOR ONCE IN YOUR FUCKING LIFE. Ahem. I like Zheng :)

NopeCopter:

Bora-Bora continues to suffer the agonizing fate of slowly but surely losing cities to a civ that is so unfit for an island-hopping naval war that they made practically no progress last episode, yet is also so overwhelmingly ahead stats-wise that their victory is still inevitable. It’s a tragic situation, almost befitting of some mythological punishment - for the crime of being a scrappy, boisterous underdog, Bora-Bora has been subjected to a grueling, soul-crushing defeat at the hands of the cylinder’s least skilled stats monster. Of course, I am exaggerating here - Bora-Bora isn’t actually going to die because of this war, in fact they’re holding out pretty fine despite several cities being entirely surrounded (and their stats are still looking pretty solid), and the Wahgi haven’t been quite as boring as some other frontrunners in the past, but it does hurt to see such a fun civ take such an L in a way that’s so painful to watch and so needlessly cruel. Hopefully the peace deal is okay, at least. (That, or perhaps Bora can turn the tides… somehow?)

Reformer:

Goddammit, Palawa. Couldn’t you have decisively lost to Noongar one of those times? That’d have been so much more interesting than the permanent stalemate on Australia. At least Palawa is not embarrassingly behind on military tech anymore. Obviously they’re still behind Wahgi like everyone else, but hey, Palawa’s got planes, they’ve got destroyers, they’ve got infantry, that’s all you really need, let’s be real. As the narrator noted, Noongar in turn has rifles and no planes. Though they do have destroyers. A war right now would be laughably easy. Though that’s probably more or less what we said all those other times. This civ really is rather frustrating.

ECH:

Latvia added a hearty 4 cities to their Empire this episode off the backs of Makhno, although with a bit more trouble for one in particular than may have been expected. I will say, as last episode’s narrator, it is a bit embarrassing it had to be pointed out to me Latvia’s issues taking Alexandrovsk probably had more to do with Kazan's citadelling and lack of open borders with Latvia around the city than some amazing tactic from Makhno, but hey ho. Latvia also crosses the 1000 production line for I believe the first time, putting them at 14th overall, solidly within their comfortable second-rung-contender place. The question is, how do they surpass that second rung status? Bavaria? Finns? Kazan? Ume-Sami even? Pontus even more boldly?! A good few options…

NopeCopter:

Mexico has done it! They’ve constructed an empire that spans the Americas, secured a victory over Ecuador (without the warmonger penalty tied to eliminating them, at that), and they’re generally looking pretty solid! So… why have they dropped four ranks? Really, it’s just down to reconsidering their position - after the hype of their invasion of Ecuador died down, it became clear that their stats still just aren’t really all that, and what’s worse, the shape of their empire (while cool) is really vulnerable to attack from either the Yellowknives or New Holland, due to their lack of proper presence on any one continent. They’re still a respectable power, of course - plenty of invasion targets and lots of cities - but with low science, low production, and a military that’s still recovering, Mexico still has some catching up to do before they’re truly top 6 material.

Cloudy:

Singapore rises back into the top 10 after briefly falling back to 11th, mostly because Vijayanagara gave them the extremely generous gift of a free city with 26 population, which has contributed to a noticeable rise in the stats. According to the info sheet, Singapore is now 10th overall, and with 27 cities, their empire is about the same size as Sierra Leone and the Afsharids, who are also in the top 10 if you hadn’t already guessed. The only reason Singapore is below those civs is because their empire is maritime, which is harder to defend, and because they’re next to Wahgi, with Wahgi units spilling into their territory. In fact, anyone who’s next to Wahgi takes a measurable ranking hit. But a further rise isn’t completely out of the question if Singapore manages to find more weak lands to conquer.

NopeCopter:

New Holland picked up two kills this episode, leaving them as the last surviving South American civ and the eliminator of three other civs that started on their continent… but of course, that makes it sound way cooler than it actually was, because really they just finished off two city-states left over by Mexico and Bora-Bora. Yes, despite being the last South American civ left, they still have to share the continent with two other reasonably strong powers, but to be fair, they do seem to be the strongest on the continent for now. Bora-Bora is suffering losses in their Pacific core while still trying to integrate their South American conquests, and Mexico’s holdings are even more new and vulnerable, so New Holland could certainly pose a threat to either if they can stay awake long enough to act. Of course, that’s a big ask, and they’re currently much more interested in North America, but it’s not as if they’re as completely boned as some people like to make them out to be. They’re just boring.

Nathanmasse:

The Afsharids waste no time pivoting from their war in the east to turn north and west to quickly take out the Kamlyks and secure their holy land.  They’ve made quite the comeback recently and while I am pleased with their performance, they had better be careful.  There is no shortage of easy targets for them to incorporate into their empire but all of these elimination penalties could invite a coalition war against them and it may be difficult to defend such a sprawling empire from multiple directions at once.

Nathanmasse:

Sierra Leone rises three ranks this week as they all-but eliminate Kanem-Bornu.  It was a brutal, grueling war for both sides but the writing has been on the wall for a while.   As with the Visigoths, Sierra Leone managed to get what they wanted without also getting stuck with an elimination penalty.  Now they have a chance to rebuild and set their sites on their next target.

Cloudy:

Despite lodging a massive victory against Kazan, picking up numerous cities and greatly expanding their empire, the Selkups remain in 5th place as some of their key stats continue to lag behind the top 4. After the new lands are brought online, we’ll see if that situation improves—it certainly might, although some of those cities are at risk due to being disconnected from the rest of their empire. But at the same time I want to emphasize that the Selkups are clearly well above anyone below them, just as they’re clearly behind those above them, so it’ll take a big upset to move them out of 5th place.

Reformer:

Another quiet episode for everyone’s favorite square-shaped civ. Technically, YK passed Goguryeo in stats this week, but the gap is so tiny that they are functionally equivalent in that sense, and Goguryeo is actively conquering, so they naturally get ranked higher. But enough of that, back to Yellowknives.

…

Let’s check their tech progress, I guess. YK finally finished Radar this week after spending EIGHTEEN turns on the tech. That’s pretty hefty. But that’s finally bombers and fighters for the square civ. More excitement brings the next tech they’ve opted for: Nuclear Fission. This, of course, will allow YK to actually build atomic bombs. An exciting prospect, and a great deterrence. Deterrence against who? Wahgi, I guess. Maybe Goguryeo after YK demolishes Thule. See you next week for the Yellowknives Tech Report.

Leman:

It was a quiet part for Faroes. In my estimation, Faroes, Goguryeo and Yellowknives are all extremely close. Goguryeo gets the nod this week for their quick and dirty annihilation of Nivkh. However, if Faroes decides to clean up England, or take out Bavaria, or, if they’re feeling real spicy, put Ume Sami out of their misery then I can see Faroes hopping right back into the second place spot.

Msurdej:

Goguryeo nabs the silver medal this week, due to their lightning fast absorption of Nivkh. The conquest should be finalized next episode, barring a peace deal that saves the Nivkh. After that, they have a few more options of conquests with relative ease, being the Thule, Mongolia, and the Ikko Ikki. But they're still closer to the Wahgi than any other major power, and Hawaii could quickly become a situation like Bora-Bora.

ECH:

The fact that Wahgi is still here at the top after the display they put on this episode is perhaps the strongest signal of their game dominance at this point you could ever send out. And yet, I also can’t disagree too much with it. Wahgi has an issue select civs have run into across just about every season of CBR, a predilection for non-melee/non-city-capture units, especially by the more advanced eras. By all accounts, the entirety of Pacific Bora-Bora should be Wahgi’s, if only they produced like, 2 melee ships. Their helicopter horde currently deafens the tranquility of these serene islands, fruitlessy milling about as Bora Bora managed to somehow keep sneaking recaptures in. However, the simple fact is, the AI just has to flick one switch in its brain and attack these cities with the right unit and we’d be back to the ‘normal’ scenario of domination. Their science rate is also back on top, they’re the only nuke holders, etc etc. Yeah, no disputing they’re on top.