Power Rankings: Episode 40 – S4

Lasqueto:

Good night sweet prince. I know basically everyone wrote you off due to your dead-end position, but I always believed.

The expression “stuck between a rock and a hard place” comes to mind. For the entire game Thule had to contend with the might of Goguryeo on one side and the bulk of the Yellowknives on the other. This meant that despite having commendable stats they were almost completely unable to do anything with them. Past a couple grindy wars with Nivkh, there was nothing to do but bide their time and hope for a coalition that never came. Their only remaining option was Ikko and that spectacularly backfired. No matter how you slice it, Thule would have died to one of their neighbours. At least it was a memorable death and not just a footnote in total war. That's just round the corner by the way. Stay tuned…

Anyways,

RIP Thule, you could've been cool. Maybe if you'd spawned anywhere else on the cylinder.

ECH:

I’m going to apologise here and now for not giving Kazan a better eulogy: I’m a tad sick and also, to be frank, I was never inspired by Kazan. That’s odd, because I can readily see the appeal of their story; they certainly made moves and did exciting things in their life. However, I’d make the case they never quite fully escaped the expectations ‘the west of Urals’ civ has every season.

An overview of their ranks over this season highlight them as having one of the most ‘rollercoaster’ journeys of any civ, from 15th in Episode 1 to 51st in Episode 5, as their early aggression to neuter the Kalmyks was met in kind by Bukhara taking Elista and a growing sense that they were being outplayed by every neighbour, from Latvia to Kazakhstan. After another 5 episodes they were back up to the top half at 25th, developing a reputation for choosing the military path in attacking Kazakhstan and flipping cities off the Kalmyks once more. The cycle repeated as they stagnated after this, dropping back to the mid-30’s by Episode 13; only to begin a gradual rise through the ranks, continually improving without any drops between Episode 14 to 24, the Golden Age of Kazan during which they critically contributed to the demise of Kazakhstan, eventually being the one to eliminate them. A shot of Kazan during this period shows a sturdy rectangular Uralic empire full of their UU, boasting stats in the top quarter of the cast.

The silver Kazan faced was always their position next to another steppe power; one they were never able to outshine in the end. If their rank journey is a rollercoaster, then we can pretty easily identify the 11-rank drop in Episode 33 as the headline big dip, as their Selkup rivals wielded the power of an early air force to surpass the rough terrain and reduce Möxämmädämin’s empire to a mere 3 city rump. I don’t think I have to go in depth on their final centuries, except to perhaps highlight the fun of their final wars, getting declared on by Latvia only to achieve one final conquest (oh, and to lose to Bukhara one last time). Finally, the Selkups came to finish the job amidst a regional clear-up. Ultimately, Kazan made a good attempt to break the cycle of their voting region, a locale characterised by vast expanses to use but also surrounded by enemies and lacking the open freedom of the Steppe civs to the east, boxed in by the Urals. I struggle to think of a better effort here off the top of my head, truthfully. Let’s see what the next season offers here, eh?

Nathanmasse:

Saba-Dm’t started this season with everyone expecting relatively little from them, and boy they almost didn’t even meet those lofty expectations, dropping to rank 60 after episode 1.  But then things sorta started looking up.  They settled their second city, then a third, and a fourth.  Some other African civs rumped each other, making Saba look better by comparison. They even fought a few relevant wars which showed they may yet have that fighting spirit needed to win.  Finally, their golden-age UA looked extremely powerful and pushed them into the ranks of the top 10, topping out at top 6 in episode 16 and 18.

So where did it all go wrong?  Well, despite their incredible stats during their golden ages, it proved very difficult for Saba to capitalize on that excess food and production for meaningful and lasting benefits.  Their production was so great that it was literally beyond what they could build in any given turn.  They were finishing units and buildings in single turns and still production was going unused and being wasted.  Their massive food bonus would quickly grow their cities to rival those of Faroe and Wahgi at the time, but they would then starve back down to their pre-golden-age levels without being able to convert into long-term city or production growth.  

That’s not to say they were completely out of the running, but they were never again as impressive as they were during those first golden ages.  For the next 400 turns they remained largely unchanged.  They fought a few wars between Kanem and Ndongo in the west, with Eswatini, Mogadishu, and even Singapore in the east, and either came out ahead or at least no worse for wear.

The doom came shortly after Saba completed the Manhattan Project.  This was evidently too much of a threat for Sierra Leone to ignore it. A full-scale invasion was launched, pushing across the Sahel, into the foothills of Ethiopia, and ultimately leading to Saba suing for peace.  With just two cities left, they made a desperate attempt to restart the war with Mogadishu, but it was too little too late.  By the time Sierra Leone returned, there was little left for Saba to do.  They fought fiercely but were no longer up to the task of defending their empire.  

In the end, they finished in 25th place, well above their Part 0 expectations, and still it feels like a disappointment because they looked so close to being so much more.

NopeCopter:

Well, it finally happened - Bukhara’s scariest neighbors finally turned their attention toward Central Asia, and this little orange rump state was wiped off the map. In a vacuum, watching another minor power get conquered isn’t really anything of note. But this wasn’t just “another minor power” - it was Bukhara, perhaps the pluckiest, scrappiest, and all-around most fun to watch little rump state in the game. Civs in Central Asia rarely do well - outside of Uzbekistan, we’ve seen the Timurids, Parthia, and especially the Massagetae dramatically underperform. But they also tend to be quite tough despite their small sizes, with Parthia making it to the top 10 and the Massagetae decidedly putting up a fight as well. Bukhara has honored that tradition and then some, and if it wasn’t for the likes of Bora-Bora and England sharing the spotlight I think they might have genuinely become the stars of the show.

Bukhara was not at all expected to do well, unlike their predecessors in the region - in fact, they were ranked in the bottom 10. This was not for no reason, as unlike previous seasons’ Central Asian civs, Bukhara was solidly boxed in from all sides by the likes of Kazakhstan, the Afsharids, and the Dzungars. Granted, many believed this ranking to be unfairly low, but it did hold. And this low ranking seemed justified at first - the Afsharids and Kazakhstan both expanded rapidly while Bukhara sat around outside of the spotlight with few cities to their name, and even Kazan seemed like a threat with their early conquests. But things picked up for Bukhara as they started to get their bearings, building a nice five-city core and eventually wielding one of the cylinder’s largest militaries by Episode 4, coinciding with a nearly 10-place jump in the rankings to 35th. A well-timed and well-executed war against Kazan also helped, securing the former Kalmyk city of Elista, and a war with Harappa didn’t stop them from settling the Hindu Kush mountains, so faith in Bukhara was starting to rise.

However, the fact of the matter was still that Bukhara was solidly trapped between two of the cylinder’s largest empires, and readers were quickly reminded of this fact as Kazakhstan turned their spears southward in a war that seemed sure to rend Bukhara asunder. The land was too flat, and Kazakhstan’s empire too mighty. But then… Bukhara revealed just what kind of civ they were. (Or maybe it was just that Kazakhstan revealed what kind of civ they were.) The assault on Herat was soundly repulsed, and as other neighbors of Kazakhstan took the opportunity to knock the giant down a peg, Bukhara mobilized an assault on the Kazakh city of Taraz! It didn’t work, but it was hype as hell, and it really got people rooting for Bukhara.

…And then Kazakhstan regrouped, took Herat anyways, and peaced out, leaving Bukhara looking like a long, thin mess of a civ only fit as a buffer state. Maybe it’s unfair to paint it like that - Bukhara really should have died in this war, after all, so only losing one city was kind of incredible - but it was still a loss that they almost avoided. Losing Herat was a pretty rough blow, especially as Kazakhstan’s other neighbors continued to wear them down, leaving people to wonder if maybe Bukhara could have turned things around. Bukhara did not have time to sit and ponder this, however, because not long afterwards their OTHER superpower neighbor invaded. Again, Bukhara started off looking good, destroying the Afsharid Caspian fleet and momentarily capturing Tehran, but then their carpet ran out and the Afsharids started to REALLY get their shit together. Samarkand fell, and the Bukharan capital was all but surrounded, the Afsharids ready to condemn Bukhara to an early grave or at least total rump status… but apparently, Muhammad Shaybani was an expert negotiator, because at the last minute he secured peace and saved his capital from falling into enemy hands. I’m still not sure how he did it, Bukhara didn’t even give up anything in the peace deal.

Still, Bukhara had been split in half, and by now they were considered bottom-10 material by the PRs. Sure they were alive and still held their capital, but they were out of units, while the Afsharids had plenty of units ready to finish the job at any time - and now Kazakhstan was launching another invasion, too! Elista quickly fell to the blue horde (pissing off the Kalmyks, who were also trying for the city), and it all seemed to be going oh so wrong… until everything started going even more wrong for Kazakhstan. Facing invasions from all sides once more, Kazakhstan was weak enough that Bukhara ended up being able to retake Herat. It wasn’t much, but they had grown, and for a now five-city rump state that’s really all they could ask for.

And then Kazakhstan handed Pavlodar to Bukhara in the peace deal, and people REALLY started to take notice.

Yes, by this point Bukhara had narrowly avoided death by both of their once-great rivals and even scored a peace deal city in a war somebody else had declared, and they’d begun to pick up a bit of a following. “Bukhara can still win”, they’d say. Of course, Bukhara was solidly a bottom-half civ in the PRs - realistically, they were out of the running - but the thing about not being a contender for the crown is that any victories you DO score end up being that much sweeter, no matter how small.

At this point, it became harder for a minor civ like Bukhara to really make an impact, though, so they had a few quiet episodes mostly spent on a couple of ineffectual wars with Harappa. At one point a coalition formed against the rump state, but all this resulted in was the capture of Pavlodar (a city Bukhara couldn’t defend in the first place) by the Selkups. (It wasn’t a huge deal, though, because the Kalmyks gave them a new goofy wacky exclave to make up for it.) An attempted invasion of the Khoshuts alongside the Afsharids went nowhere, and a second attempt also failed to see Bukhara make any gains as the Afsharids took all the spoils. It seemed the glory days of Bukhara were over. And then, in episode 33, a new coalition formed against Bukhara, with Kazan on the front lines. The former Kalmyk city-gift of Elista fell, and that was presumed to be it - just one more chunk broken off the one-kinda-sorta-mighty Bukhara - until, in the midst of the much larger Kazan-Selkup conflict, Bukhara captured Taraz. And they KEPT it. It was a beautiful little swan song for the stubborn and plucky Bukhara, but it was also the last cool thing they really COULD do - the Selkups and Afsharids now mostly surrounded them, with only the mountainous border to the east with the still-stronger Dzungars and a one-tile border to the west with the Kazan rump state left. They would need a miracle to make any more gains. Fortunately, the CBR is a game of miracles, as long as those miracles are funny enough. Bukhara declared another war on Kazan, and although they couldn’t quite fit any units through their tiny border, they launched enough bombing runs that Kazan just handed over the city of Bolgar anyways.

Unfortunately, after this it was finally time for Bukhara to go. The Selkups, fresh off their destruction of Kazan, decided Bukhara would be their next meal, and between a massive tech disparity and millennia of Afsharid Citadels, Bukhara stood no chance. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t try, though - they made the Selkups pay for every tile they took in blood, and with the help of some Dzungar and Wahgi peacekeepers they even seemed to have reached a stalemate at one point… until the Afsharids finally returned to finish what they’d started all those episodes ago. The Selkups made peace, but it hardly mattered - within a few turns, the Afshairds had cleaned up the last remains of Bukhara, finally putting an end to their fun.

Bukhara was not a civ that was expected to do well, and, well, they didn’t. Not in a traditional sense, at least. But holding the line remarkably well against Kazakhstan not once but twice, somehow surviving an all-out Afsharid invasion, and scoring not one but TWO cities off Kazan in the most unlikely of circumstances made them a treat to watch regardless, and I think that’s what really matters. While they spent most of the game hovering around the mid-40s in the PRs, Bukhara ended up placing 25th, and unlike with most high-ranking minor civs I don’t think I can really dispute this placement. Bukhara had grit, they fought to survive and they never really stopped acting even after they were by all accounts irrelevant. And really, I think that’s all we can really ask for out of a rump state. I know I was entertained, at least. F.

Orange:

The Visigoths didn’t deserve to live this long, they sucked, bad, easily one of the worst civs of the mk, yet somehow they end up in 24th. Yeah nah, fuck that, send ‘em to the bottom, give this spot to someone who actually deserves it.

Cloudy:

Welp, this is it, folks. The Dzungars are falling, their cavalry watching helplessly as Goguryeo nexuses rain devastation upon their cities, their monstrous outlines blotting out the harsh sun of the Taklimakan and bringing halt to the great winds of the steppe. Like a scene from a Simon Stalenhag painting, all they can do is stare.

Oh yeah, the Selkups are there too. But they’re less cool, sorry.

Cloudy:

Shang almost died to the Dzungars, but Wahgi blocked them for long enough that they made peace right before opening up the last remaining gap. So Zombie Shang lives on. Shame.

Nathanmasse:

Rome had quite an eventful episode.  They managed to snipe Samara with a few wayward paratroopers and steal an elimination from the Selkups.  That elimination penalty might have worked against them however as it drew the ire of both the Faroe Islands and Ikko-Ikki.  While Ikko seems too far away to be of any importance, their expeditionary force in Latvian territory proved more than a match for the garrison defending Samara.  

But the real danger was from the Faroe Islands.  Having failed to break Rome’s spirit in the earlier conflict, Faroe returned with the latest in future era units, XCOMs.  Rome itself was sacked no less than three times before the defenders could secure the city but there was little hope they could hold out forever.  With few other options, Trajan abandoned the cities of Messalia and Gyor to Faroe Islands in exchange for peace.  A heavy price to be sure, but none is too great to ensure the eternal city lives on.

Leman:

Oof. Well, Ikko-Alaska was very short lived. Fresh off of Ikko-Ikki’s kill of Thule, Yellowknives and Osage managed to dismantle Ikko-Ikki’s new colonies. It was rough. Unsurprisingly Ikko-Ikki really stood no chance, and lost everything they gained in the last two episodes and then some. It was a little more surprising that Osage managed to pick up so many cities, but that’s really not of consequence for Ikko. I think what really hurts is that this time around, big brother Goguryeo was nowhere to be found. Ikko had to fend for themselves and it was not pretty.

I also need to mention that Ikko-Ikki does have a few hundred thousand troops across the world engaged in weird wars with Osage over ex-Kazan cities taken from Rome, but sadly, that also bore no fruit this episode.

Cloudy:

Bavaria helped stand in the way of the Faroese invasion of Rome, keeping a former enemy alive, but other than that they didn’t do much. There wasn’t much they COULD do. They just have to hope nobody notices them for as long as possible.

NopeCopter:

Mogadishu, the ever-lovable scrappy underdog of the Indian Ocean (one of the last scrappy Indian Ocean underdogs remaining, actually), is running into some trouble as their outdated navy gets busted up by a Ndongo invasion. Frankly I expected a lot better from mogadishu, and admittedly they could totally turn this around (not like there’s a ton of Ndongo units around yet), but it’s really not pretty, and it’s a pretty decisive final nail in the coffin for Mogadishu’s odds of getting much bigger now that Saba-D’mt is gone. The only question now is whether they can pull a Yemen during Total War - probably not, considering their rather poor tech. At least they re-eliminated the Qarmatians.

Leman:

Not a whole lot to say. They didn’t get disappeared by Wahgi, nor did they start another pointless slogfest with Palawa. As the mid tiers of the cylinder rapidly collapse, Noongar is one of the final few left standing, and I wish they would at least do something fun with their time like Osage or Ikko-Ikki.

Leman:

Osage has decided they are going to be the Wahgi of North America. No technology, no money, no science, but 600,000 troops all across the globe sniping random cities all over the place. This time they managed to take Samara, a city from Ikko-Ikki, who themselves took from Rome, who took from Kazan that was originally Kalmyk. They also took a few cities in Alaska from Ikko-Ikki, and one from Dzungars. It’s wild. It’s a little too late to make much of a difference but boy am I happy Osage is really making things entertaining.

Lasqueto:

As total war draws near, so too does Zheng’s inevitable death. It's kinda sad really. I remember when these guys were wowing everyone with their clever strategy and naval antics. Then they lost the war with Wahgi and fell into irrelevance. As it stands they'll probably be one of Goguryeo’s first targets going into total war. Wahgi may be weakened but they still have the force of numbers and the production to keep it up, so Zheng's odds aren't much better on that front. They might yet surprise us and pull an Afghanistan, but I wouldn't count on it.

Orange:

Time’s tickin’ before total war and Rijkuo-maja is still sitting doing nothing. They had a real good chance to jump on the Latvia pain train but nah, sleeping is better. They still have only had two relevant wars, super early on against the Finns and Faroes. What are they waiting for? The clock continues to tick down, and they remain a rump in comparison to their western neighbor.

ECH:

Episode 40 began with pretty good news for Ulmanis; instead of the grinding war with the Selkups that some of us feared was going to endure and risk elimination for Latvia, peace arrived instead. Obviously, the loss of 4 cities is hardly a victory, and I think Latvia are pretty much off the list of true contenders for good, but they ought to be commended for even being in with any shot at this point, spending the rest of this episode restocking their small but pretty advanced armed forces. If they were to declare on Bavaria at this point, they’re still in a position to probably wipe them out, which I was not expecting after last episode. That being said, they have open borders with Ludwig right now, so relations may not be too strained (although it does make their war with Rome less of a trivial non-event for sure).

ECH:

Pontus were barely seen in the last episode, let alone mentioned for doing anything. Which, given we’re very much in the last throes of the game before total war, is not great, but is also entirely in character for them. Let me predict a major theme of Mithradates eulogy well in advance: ‘They had so much potential and so many options throughout the game but rarely woke up and pulled the trigger on one’. When so many have commented so much throughout the game, it becomes a bit less forgivable, in my opinion.

CelestialDalek:

Palawa is basically just a sitting duck for Wahgi once Total War rolls around. Most PRs aren’t optimistic for Wahgi’s long-term prospects, given their crippling Rudy Guiliani-tier debt, but Palawa and Noongar? They’re goners to the horde of broke paratroopers. Their land is getting covered with Osage units. Come on now. You can do better than that.

NopeCopter:

Ndongo, after a long ride, finally makes it back into the top ten, regaining the second half of their name in the process (because yes, Nzinga ruled Ndongo AND Matamba, not just Ndongo, blah blah pedantry). Of course, top 10 isn’t really what it used to be now that almost two-thirds of the game’s original competitors are dead, and there isn’t a universe where Ndongo-Matamba wins X4 at this point, but they could still pull a Mali or a Lesotho and put up a damn good fight in Total War - their positioning is pretty strong, for one, their tech count is surprisingly competitive, they’re taking some cities off Mogadishu, and Sierra Leone is infamously inconsistent. They do desperately need more units and more cities to properly hold their own, but hey - they’ve already done LEAGUES better here than in their first and second attempts. Still a bit disappointing, but I do have a soft spot for Ndongo-Matamba regardless. (I also see now why people dropped the Matamba, this name is kind of a pain to write out.)

Reformer:

Afsharids spent the episode mostly improving conditions domestically. But before we get any further into that, I ought to mention the destruction of Bukhara by Nader Shah - long have we waited, certainly. The handful of cities might even contribute to the war effort, come Total War. One would certainly hope so. But let’s move on to domestic affairs now. Afsharids’ numbers grew nicely this ep. Firstly, their tech - they join the prestigious group of civs with a better tech count than Wahgi, which is exceptionally good news, considering Wahgi units still carpet the Afsharid empire. Next is production - Afsharids nearly doubled their production output this ep. A valuable upgrade as we approach annihilation. But these upgrades still feel insufficient. Compared to other top nine powers, Afsharids only have more cities compared to Singapore, and the other great powers are far above. City count is crucial for putting out units, even if Afsharid production is competitive for their tier. Altogether, winning Total War will be difficult, especially considering the central position and the presence of Wahgi units. But the situation is not hopeless for Afsharids and their fans. Stranger things have happened. …okay, maybe that doesn’t really inspire hope. I just want to argue that with their prod and lack of bankruptcy, they are still in this, unlike 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 top nine civs, even if their odds are slim.

Reformer:

Despite the radio silence, Singapore had a spectacular episode. Let me tell you why. During the 90 turns this episode ran for, Singapore gained TWENTY-THREE TECHS. That’s about four turns per tech! Disregarding 𝘩𝘰𝘸 this even happened, the impact is palpable. +23 techs catapults them to THIRD in tech, only behind Goguryeo and Faroes. Only 10 Future Worlds techs remain for them, which I’m 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 confident they will get through before Total War breaks out. Tech is immensely important - it’s the same reason I argue Wahgi lost their chance at victory many episodes ago. But ultimately, Singapore has problems similar to the Afsharids: Wahgi units covering every inch of their land…and city count. 28 cities is very poor for a top nine power, and even if their production is competitive for their tier (where have I heard that before), they will not be able to compete with other great powers in terms of unit output. Still, just as I argued with the Afsharids, I do not think Singapore is completely out of hope. Strange things happen, etc etc. And Singapore has an ace in the sleeve with their tech, which propels them above Afsharids, to 8th, this episode.  

Nathanmasse:

The Selkups did their best to check off all the boxes people have been shouting for them to do for about 10 episodes.  

Finish off Kazan…almost.  

Wipe out Bukhara…almost again.  

How about Dzungars?...well we’ll just have to see.  

But no doubt this was one of the better showings for their military so far, adding 12 cities to their empire.  There’s just one big glaring issue with the Selkups: they’re broke.  Worse yet, they’re well behind Wahgi, Afsharids, and even Ume Sami in terms of tech level with no real prospect of closing that gap.  With over 50 cities, they are still one of the largest civs and shouldn’t be discounted out of hand, but a tech disparity of this level has been the downfall of civs before and should at least cause some concern.

Msurdej:  

Sierra Leone had a quieter part than most this episode, still incorporating the former Roman territories into their lands. This has caused a bit of a pickle for Thomas Peters, as he is starting to struggle with technology. Nearby Ndongo has outclassed them now in terms of tech, but Sierra Leone does still maintain advantages in armies, production, and gold reserves. And while Sierra Leone is losing GPT, it's not as bad as some other civs. Civs like...

Msurdej:  

Bo'lim has a big problem: Thanks in part to their massively ballooned military, and massively ballooning debt (now at a staggering -65k a turn), their effective science is still 0. This has caused many of the major power players to pass them techwise, and once those Future worlds improvements  start coming online, it will be harder for them to keep up in terms of production too. My advice for Wahgi: take out someone, use those weaker units up, and for goodness sake, stop spending money!

Reformer:

Yellowknives, together with Osage, spent the episode ravaging Ikko Alaska. The peace deal ended up being beneficial to YK as well, netting them two large cities. Unfortunately, both are essentially behind enemy lines as soon as Total War breaks out, making those cities mere fodder for Goguryeo. Speaking of Goguryeo vs YK in Total War. Predicting Total War is never easy. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try. Goguryeo and YK respectively are likely to have minimal struggle on other fronts (until they have to start dealing with the Wahgi garbage patch, anyway), meaning they will be one another’s worst enemy during Total War. Firstly, Goguryeo’s existing standing army far outstrips YK’s. That’s a pretty significant problem. However, this does not consider nuclear capacities, where YK is far superior. (I will note, YK had the most nukes last ep, but this ep, Sierra Leone passed them. Very sad.) YK’s nuclear warheads will surely fly eventually as Goguryeo units begin to ravage YK’s hinterlands. Goguryeo will return fire in kind. Alaska will burn, leaving nothing but ash and dust…and then we get to the next numbers comparison. Eventually, Goguryeo’s superior production will start to break through. Goguryeo further has a massive edge in terms of city count. And finally, YK is likely to end up clashing with Faroes in the east, meaning our North American contender will end up squished between two of the top 3 powers. A sad fate for a civ that played such a good game, but that’s not to say it is guaranteed to happen. In Total War, both Goguryeo and Faroes will have many, many distractions. Well, Goguryeo moreso. Faroes will probably be pretty comfortable. But YK comparatively is pretty dominant in North America, meaning YK will be able to focus on pushing back the superpowers. And nukes will help, as mentioned! We can very confidently say that YK will survive Total War for a long, long time, even if victory is ultimately quite unlikely.

Orange:

I don’t really know why New Holland is above YK tbh, they have very similar stats but YK just edges them out. Either way, hey, top three! Last time they were here it was part 10. Now, it does have to be said that their North American holdings are pretty easy meat for YK, but at the same time if they can just build any semblance of a land army then Wahgi South America should be a sweep with their advanced tech. But you know what I want to see? An invasion of Africa. They seem to have the balls to do it, and while I like Sierra Leone and Ndongo much more, I am an avid NH hater afterall, I will say it would be fun to see. Just get a big ol’ spread out empire before the dawn of the endless fight.

Msurdej:  

Gwanggaeto takes a small dip this time around, as opinions are split amongst the Power Rankers. I think the opinions are split due to the war with the Dzungars. While they have made some gains, it's still not enough for what should be a top power. The top spot is very much a neck and neck situation, and this time, the ol' Gogurt fell on the lower half of things.

CelestialDalek:Guess who’s back, back again?

Faroes [are] back, tell a friend! For the first time in 20 PRs, the Faroes have finally reclaimed their #1 spot, but only narrowly. The main reason? They’ve finished the tech tree. All 125 techs. Gogurt is just lagging behind with 123, though. The other reason? They have a lot more production: even though Gogurt has 10 more cities, the Faroes have a lead of 10k production. Buttt they still lag a bit in the army department. If they get their factories moving, though, they could soar past Goguryeo’s troop count. Be scared.