Power Rankings: Episode 9 – S4

Release Date:

May 27, 2024

Narrated by:

Power-Rankers

Abstract

Power Rankings! The rankings…of power! Dun dun dunnnn!

Viewing: Vertical

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Shawnee

1 / 0

1: Shawnee

Reformer:

…And we’re back in 61st. Turns out Eswatini didn’t actually want to kill their Rozvi bros, and nothing happened. So we’re deeming Shawnee to be the worst civ again. Shawnee had built a settler, but it got eaten - probably by Thule, who the Shawnee are trying to attack amphibiously over the Great Lakes. I don’t foresee such an attempt ending well. Already on turn 122 it looked like Tecumseh would quickly run out of melee units, meanwhile leaving Prophetstown undefended. Truly a sad story.

2: Rozvi

JDT:

Right, here's the deal, tried to steal, but then got stared down with steel

Tear down the land and burned em all for hides and feels

You ain’t got no culture, no men, no food nor scientists

Sitting around in that sad excuse for a empire, bitchAs scraggly as the words left round down to hang

A cliffhanger to admit you really ain’t a kang

Kang the Conqueror, the pathetic brute with two steel toes and zero flow, that little bitch? He would be choking like the flu ready now to murder you

Thank the lord for neighbours, especially that guy there in the blue

You two made for each other, a brain rotted power of two

Not thinking through or strategizing to stay alive

Just waiting for the fire up north now to realize

That you exist, and there and that you no longer live

You ain’t a livewire, you’re just a paperweight on the skiff

3: Mamluks

JDT:

The Mamluks might’ve only gone down by one, but make no mistake - we are less confident in them than we ever were. Their situation has gone from “dire” to “taking field bets for first elimination.” Rome has been throttling them, surrounding Cairo and flipping Damanhur whilst firmly consolidating Rashid and Mansoura. Kanem-Bornu has even come along to help in the beating, and the Mamluk stats and military are not looking promising, with the 3rd smallest military in the world and joint 2nd lowest production globally. Yes, Rome is running out of steam, but if Saba comes in with the steel chair or Rome successfully rallies a new assault, it can be over very quickly for the Memeluks. Shajar al-Durr needs to pray and turtle, because that's all she can do now to hope for survival.

4: Florida

CelestialDalek:

Gregor MacGregor can still win, and here’s how. First step: build up a lot of navy and land troops. They can do this. Second step, take back the tip of Florida and murder the Taino. This launches them into being a mid-tier power. Then, wait until the Osage are engaged in another war, run in, and completely obliterate them. Conquer all their undefended cities. Finally, take down Seneca, Shawnee, and the eastern Thule holdings. From here, they can go toe-to-toe with Pueblo or even pick off the Faroes’ holdings up north. Either way, one thing is clear: Gregor MacGregor does not deserve 58th place. He is an S-tier leader and I personally believe every other PR should rank him 1st next week. $FLO TO THE MOON!

5: Kalmyks

Rosay:

The war is going awful for the Kalmyks, with Kazan looking to take two cities one of which being the Kalmyk capital. Now I’m not quite ready to say that the Kalmyks have reached Rump status just yet, the Kazan AI may just have a bruh moment and peace out early, but the situation is so bad that they might as well be once the new part drops. Keep in mind I tied for highest Kalmyk placement at 55, but that’s only because there is still the possibility of the Kalmyks leaving the war with only their developed tiles burned down, but with Kazan leading a seemingly competent offensive and already heavily damaging two cities, I still believe the most likely outcome is the Kalmyks coming out butchered.

6: Big River:

Orange:

Oof

7: Finns

Msurdej:

The Finns are still the stanks

They haven’t unlocked banks

But they made a new city

And Sami’s going shitty

So they end up gaining two ranks

8: Alaouites

Leman:

I told you guys Alaouites were big frauds. They have a solid capital but every other city they settled was a dumb little desert city. For Alaouites, this isn’t actually so bad. The Alaouites have a very powerful UI that converts desert into real, workable tiles. Problem is this UI is unlocked at Chivalry and we’re still a ways out from Chivalry. The Alaouites needed to turtle up until Chivalry, defend against their opponents, spam the UI, and make an economic comeback. Instead they decided to drop a bunch of cities to Sierra Leone and Kanem Bornu while completely failing to conquer a city. 0/10, I told you they sucked and I regret ranking them highly in part 0.

9: Eswatini

Msurdej: Remember how pumped we all were when the war with the Rozvi started in the last part? Or at least full of hope that anything would happen? Well so far, nothing of value. Labotsibeni has been quiet on the warfront, and has been far more focused on settling Madagascar. But this could raise tensions with Mogadishu, who have just enough boats near Eswatini waters for it to be a problem.

10: Crow

Emu:

Joe Medicine Crow continues his reign as head war chief of the land of missed potential. They could have been so cool. I'm not sure if it's endearing or sad that they're still trying to send out settlers. I mean I like Yellowknives and Thule, so it's nice that they won't be limited to slugging it out in the tundra, but still. Also they're somehow bankrupt. They have like 3 cities what could they possibly be spending all this money on.

11: Tehuelche

Orange:

They fucking gave up their most northern settle to MEXICO WHO THEN FUCKING RAZED IT. Well, as a certified Bora-Bora fan that’s real good for me, maybe Bora can fill the gap now. But yeah, Maria, you fucked up like you often do. Somehow you gained a rank from others falling.

12: Makhnovia

Leman:

The Kalmyks were looking kind of scary last episode but Makhnovia shrugged that invasion off pretty well. Well, actually Kazan came in and distracted the Kalmyks, but for Makhnovia the result is all the same.

13: Dai Viet

Msurdej:

Dai Viet had a whirlwind part this time around, and not for the better. Thai Nguyen was captured by Maguindanao, sniped by Singapore, then recaptured by Maguindanao before burning it to the ground. Then they entered into a three way war with the Khoshuts and Siam. This war has the capacity to change the landscape of Southeast Asia, but with the lowest stats of the three fighters, it doesn’t look good for Dai Viet.

14: Vijayanagara

Rosay:

Holy shit something interesting happened for Vijayanagara, as war has begun on the subcontinent between them and Harappa. Now don’t get too excited the front is mostly barren but hey it’s something.

15: Royal Hungary

Emu:

Lizzie Baths is stuck between a soft rock and another soft thing. So like, talc and a pillow. Or something like that. Even still she's not doing too great. Just failed a war with a weak Makhnovia, and *Bavaria* looks too strong right now. Let alone Latvia. I'm not really entirely sure how to characterize Europe this season, but it's nothing involving any good adjectives.

16: England

Cloudy:

England somehow managed to escape the Burgundy war with all the same cities they started with. However, the war has left them in a dismal state, with Norwich and York reduced to shells of their former selves, while the Faroe Islands continued to brutalize their neighbors and steal what little land remains for them to expand into. Overall things are not looking great for England, but we’ll see how the situation changes after they’ve had time to lick their wounds.

17: Seneca

Leman:

Looks like Seneca is going to hold all their cities against Osage. Good for them. Maybe they can grab some of those weird Thule settles and mount something that looks like a comeback? I doubt it, but I can dream.

18: Taino

CelestialDalek:

New Holland went to war with Taino this episode. Surprisingly, the impact on Taino’s rank has been positive. This is probably because nothing happened in the war: New Holland got the Taino city of Ayiti into the yellow before getting burnt out and having all their navy die. The Taino prospects still aren’t good, and as I said in my Florida comments, they better watch out for MacGregor’s inevitable comeback. Proximity to Florida makes them an easy 61st next week.

19: Burgundy

Msurdej:

Burgundy’s war with England finally ended with...0 change in the maps. This war has devastated both countries, but since England was able to recapture its cities on the mainland coast, Burgundy finds itself down from where it was last part. Sure they needed to stave off the Visigoth invasion, but it’s still a bad look for Burgundy. While the Faroes invasion has been pushed off for now, Charles needs to focus on getting his army back together. Because if Bavaria decides to attack, they’ll be on the back foot.

20: Kanem-Bornu

Orange:

Well, K-B is back to dropping as they lose another city to Saba-D’mt. They couldn’t even get Fez, Sierra Leone grabbed that one. And really, it’s all downhill from here with that. Only a matter of time before Sierra Leone builds up and takes them out too.

21: Osage

Emu:

Osage isn't looking so bad. North America is a pretty big question mark right now, and I could reasonably see them coming out on top. Kanawagas isn't going as fast as it could, but I'm sure they'll still manage it. The city is undefended, after all. As for northern gains? Not this war, probably. But I see some real potential here.

22: Bavaria

Reformer:

All quiet in the Central Europe ruled by Bavaria this episode. To Ludwig’s east, Royal Hungary is pulling all the stops to take one mostly undefended city from Pontus. To his west, Burgundy has come out relatively unscathed from a two-front war. Realistically, Ludwig could turn his attention to either, and win big. Neither have the production output to quickly replace losses. Bavaria has no real threats from other directions, either, so the timing would be excellent. If I had to guess, I’d probably say they’re more likely to attack RH out of the two. The problem would probably be the splitting of troops - there’s three possible targets, and Bavaria could easily fail through chasing all of them.

23: Mogadishu

Rosay:

Mogadishu is honestly irrelevant to the point where it’s become kinda a meme where they’re the ones getting mogged by their neighbors in every direction excluding south (hell that even may change). And they’re losing ground in Madagascar to fucking Eswatini, I don’t know how they messed that one up.

24: Nivkh

Lasqueto:

Nivkh continues to slide down the rankings as they keep showing how outclassed they are by Goguryeo. Gwanggaeto’s war with Shang hasn’t stopped him expanding like crazy, and now Nivkh is properly blocked into their corner of the map. Geonan being settled right next to their capital is a particularly big fuck you. There was a time where they could’ve pushed into Pyongyang and carved out a decent foothold in the north, but I reckon that window’s gone now.

25: Bukhara

Cloudy:

Bukhara wasn’t mentioned this episode, which is probably a good thing considering that their position is pretty precarious. Their empire is thin and stretched out with bad terrain, making them quite vulnerable, but for now they have no credible enemies. Their best bet is probably to build up their army and declare war on Kazakhstan again, to try to take back the city they lost earlier.

26: Khoshuts

Leman:

Khoshuts’ timely declaration of war against Siam has generated a lot of buzz. Siam seems overstretched with wars against Dai Viet, Zheng and Maguindanao. So, despite Siam being quite a bit stronger than Khoshuts, the Khoshuts have an exciting opportunity to snipe a large city from a regional power.

27: Bora-Bora

Rosay:

Bora Bora could get a chance to prove their relevance next part as all their neighbors have joined them in a grand coalition against the biggest threat to South America: Rio Grande. Now I don’t think that Bora will be the biggest beneficiary of this war, New Holland obviously takes that role. But I do believe that Bora is in a really good position to just swipe a city and call it there. Worst case scenario if that fails they can just settle further into Oceania.

28: Zheng

CelestialDalek:

I’m going to be real, I’ve never figured out how to rank Zheng. Their position doesn’t look BAD. It doesn’t feel like they should be around the middle of the pack. Now that I’m looking at them closely for the purposes of a writeup though, yeah they probably deserve it. They lost a random city to Siam, who had to crawl all away around the Malay Peninsula to reach it. Their military composition is ass, and they’ve got a lot of competent civs to the north as well as a bunch of incompetent civs that they can’t actually beat to the south. They are truly mediocre.

29: Visigoths

Emu:

Okay hear me out: the Visigoths have a chance here. It looks bad, yes. Pyrenees on one side, Med on the other. But, but but, everyone around them is doing even worse. Burgundy? Just lost a war against *England*. Rome? What are they going to do? Alaouites? Don't make me laugh. Here's their shot to become the biggest power anywhere around them. Besides, it's not like any of their current neighbors is ever going to be able to walk into Spain.

30: Ecuador

Rosay:

Ecuador is stuck dealing with two of their neighbors being expanding top powers, one being a dark house, and Taino, who’s only living because their neighbors don’t have a viable navy. Maybe if I was in Gabriel’s shoes I’d try to take a city off of Mexico but that’s not really a guaranteed win just due to terrain. Yeah I think it’s safe to say Ecuadors lost in the shuffle at least for a while.

31: Singapore

Lasqueto:

Singapore reaches their highest rank yet at 31 - almost in the top half. Not bad for a civ people had absolutely no hope for coming into this game. As for how they’re doing right now, “fine” is about all you can really say. They’ve been scuffling a bit with Maguindanao, but apart from flipping Thai Nguyen, not much has happened. They’ve been fielding a land army in Borneo to try and take T’Bok, but with the terrain how it is there I don’t think it’ll go anywhere.

32: Kazan

JDT:

Käzän stärts tö cönsölidätë thëir cömëback by rising 5 öff prësciënt wärs ägäinst thë Kälmyks änd Käzäkhstän. Täräz, thë gätëẅay to the Üräls, is thëirs, änd ön thë flipsidë Sämärä änd Ästräkhän are ünder fäirly seriöus threät. Thëir stäts, thöügh still ä bit ündërwhëlming, äre finälly cätching üp, änd aröund thëm äre nöthing but ẅeäk ör stägnänt ëmpirës. Thë skiës äre äs blue äs thëy cömë för thësë nömäd süccëssörs, änd it lööks likëly thëy cän gö ön ä dëëp rün.

33: Qarmatians

Cloudy:

This was a chaotic episode for the Qarmatians by any measure. At war with numerous other civs, they captured Sutkagan-dor from Harappa, then took Dioscurias and Eupatoria from Pontus, but Pontus pushed back and captured the fertile crescent breadbasket city of Bandar-e-Bushehr, dealing damage that al-Jannabi would have preferred to avoid. Currently, the balance of power suggests that the Qarmatians will retake the city, but they should be worried about overstretching. Their army is not that big and some of their neighbors are pretty scary. I'd watch my back if I were them.

34: Rome

JDT: Ave, true to Caesar! The Romans have blitzed their way through Egypt, holding on to their recent gains, flipping Damanhur and even briefly besieging Cairo. Their military has all the momentum in the world, and though it has stalled a bit and the Mamluks are holding like a stone wall, it's quite clear that Rome is not going to be a stepping stone to someone else's success. If they can flip Damanhur and consolidate their holdings a bit, they will be in a prime position to rule the Mediterranean in the future, even if it may take a good long while.

35: Mongolia

Reformer:

Mongolia continues to look underwhelming. There’s not much to say this episode. Their most dramatic event so far in the whole game was defending against Shang for a while. After that they’ve done a whole lot of nothing, just about keeping up in stats to remain slightly above average. It’s just sad, really. I was looking forward to this civ…

36: Maguindanao

Orange:

We’re magging so hard right now as they take a city off Siam and that other one but it got razed. Though honestly, at this point it's looking a little bit dicey, Singapore has more units around so Maguindanao needs to get some more ships to fight them, or just peace out and try to put more settlers to build up more. Also, they need to peace out with Wahgi since I don’t think they are gonna be able to get any more benefit from that one.

37: Latvia

Msurdej:

Latvia stays at 25 this episode, as they did basically nothing. Still licking their wounds from their defeat by Makhnovia, Karlis sent some raiding parties to Royal Hungary. Which probably will amount to nothing in the long run.

38: Kazakhstan

Cloudy:

Kazakhstan takes a hard drop as they start to hemorrhage cities, losing Aktobe to the Selkups and Taraz to Kazan. They’re still founding arctic cities like crazy, and their stats aren’t terrible, but they’re looking thin, sort of stretched, like butter spread over too much bread... if I were Nazarbayev, I’d be worried that Bukhara might jump back in this, too.

39: Ikko-ikki

Cloudy:

Breaking news, northern Honshu was actually settled by the Japanese civ! Hooray! Let’s just ignore that Ikko-ikki stupidly made peace with Shang without taking either Yanshi or Anyang, despite being extremely close to doing so!

40: Harappa

Lasqueto:Harappa got caught up in a coalition war last episode, but it’s only really Vijayanagara that matters. This early on I’d give Vijay the advantage, given their army’s actually in the right place, and they’ve got a navy heading for Mehrgarh. However, Harappa outproduces them by nearly double, so unless they make gains early on I don’t think their chances are that good. This war could even be an opportunity for Harappa to finally expand - their stats are good but their core is tiny, and they’ll need to take out one of their neighbours to stand a chance, especially now they’ve lost their Omani holdings.

41: Sierra Leone

Leman:

Sierra Leone had a fantastic part as they continued the butchering of the Alaouites, rising double-digit ranks this week. Sadly they lost a city to Pontus, but that can be refounded soon. Sierra Leone has now picked up just enough Alaouite cities that their Tunisian exclave is almost connected to their main empire, which I didn’t think was going to happen for a while. There’s a Burgundian city in the way, but Sierra Leone can pick that up whenever they need.

42: Pontus

CelestialDalek:

Well, Pontus has certainly had a part. Royal Hungary is being absolutely incompetent, which has allowed Mithridates to retain Gaziura. That’s good. But on the other side of their empire, Pontus is desperately trying to fend off the Qarmatians and also a bit of Saba. One thing to note, that explains the drop in ratings a bit more, is that Pontus is outteched by the Qarmatians. “Hordes” of archers are trying to fend off composite bowmen, which won’t work out well in the long run. But don’t count the plucky purple Pontus out as players yet.

43: Ume-Sami

Leman:

The giant has awoken and sadly Ume Sami is taking the brunt of their wrath. Faroes declared war last part and while Ume Sami hasn’t really suffered any devastating losses, things are not looking great for them. They’ve lost a colony and the Faroese navy looks like they’re about to grab a mainland Scandinavian city. This is still holdable, so I won’t count Sami out entirely, but this is a pretty major setback for a civ that was top ten last episode and are very much not anymore.

44: Siam

Lasqueto

Siam had a bit of a chaotic one last part. They lost their colony in the Philippines and sniped a random city off Zheng that they have surprisingly held. However, the big story is obviously them getting caught up in the big threeway Southeast Asian shitstorm with the Khoshuts and Dai Viet. On first glance the latter looks like it might be fruitful, but Rama’s mainly fielding horseman which aren’t famous for being able to take cities. Meanwhile it looks possible that the Khoshuts might flip Nakhon Ratchasima despite having an underteched army. Overall, the region is in flux, and this war might decide whether Siam truly has a shot at being a proper power.

45: Mexico

Emu:

Maxi is stuck in a bit of a weird situation that we don't normally see civs in until later in the game. They're very strong themselves, but they're kind of sandwiched between even stronger powers at the moment. Now the power difference isn't insurmountable, I could absolutely see a situation where they take cities off anyone bordering them (not that the Pueblo war seems to be going anywhere), and Taino still exists, so I wouldn't call them quite boxed in, but still this isn't a good sign.

46: Noongar

CelestialDalek:

It’s time for the second round of the Palawa-Noongar wars, and they’re shaping up to be a lot less exciting than the first! In fact, Noongar is probably in a bit of a worse position. Palawa has a navy and they don’t, which has led to their cities of Pinjarra and Ballardong falling under naval attack. On the ground, things are looking better for them with their attack on Nipaluna, but it’s important to note they are facing archers off against composite bowmen, and Nipaluna could fall into a grindy flipfest. It looks like Palawa is going to have their redemption arc this war.

Just kidding, fuck you. They took a white peace.

47: Wahgi

Leman:

Man I think Wahgi deserves better. I get it. Wahgi’s lost a few wars to much weaker civs, they have stats that are good but not incredible, they have powerful neighbors, and they haven’t really looked all that great against Noongar and Maguindanao.

But hear me out. They have Gate of the Sun which is one of the best wonders in the game. They have a busted UB. They’ve got the second highest science, tech count, and population and the highest food per turn. Naval invasions before Frigates are really rough. Wahgi is going to turtle up and use these fantastic stats to quietly power up and then 5-10 episodes from now we’re all gonna be like “wow I can’t believe Wahgi just erased Maguindanao like that.”

48: Dzungars

JDT:

They’re still Dzunging. Good stats, good land, some good places to expand into. Just… haven’t really done anything with their military in a while. They can try to blitz Astana given their current war with Kazakhstan, but it might take a while given the terrain and the fact that's the enemy capital. Really, they should’ve tried attacking Mongolia instead, with their 3+ open cities.

49: Ndongo

Orange:

Ndongo tumble a bit as all us PRs realize “hey wait, Saba is now looking to have a much better position” so Nzinga’s bonus rank from just being the top of the weakest continent has been taken and given to Saba-D’mt. She really needs to get another conquest going if she wants to retake top spot.

50: Yellowknives

Reformer:

We overthrow the natural order this week with a big boost to the Yellowknife rank. (That’s the correct adjective, probably.) Despite the rise of Thule into the top three, statistically speaking, Yellowknives have certainly remained competitive in the frigid north. In fact, Thule only triumphs over Yellowknives in a few categories…but, of course, they are important categories. Firstly, Yellowknives are nominally ahead in pop, science, and food. Thule has a few more cities, but Yellowknives have a few settlers out and places to plop them down. Then we get into the problems: Production and military. Thule has the third biggest military, and it is noticeably larger than Yellowknives’. Thule leads in production similarly, by about 40 hammers - a significant lead at this point in the game. Now, in spite of all this, we have come to the conclusion that Yellowknives are fine, as long as they continue on their current path. To slow down will be lethal. A moment of weakness will be brutally exploited.

51: Palawa

Leman:

My second-favorite island monster is doing okay. The war with Noongar was a quick, sort of pointless affair, and I honestly am not too sure if that was good or bad for Palawa. On the one hand, the defense of the Palawa in-land cities seemed tenuous at best. On the other hand, Palawa looked very close to flipping some of the cities on the coast. Unfortunately, neither ended up happening. That’s also probably good for Palawa because they’re leading in stats. And it's good for us because I like having a contested Australia for once!

52: Saba-D’mt

Cloudy:

Saba’s rise has been astonishing—meteoric, even—and it’s not over. After being ranked 60th in episode 1, Makeda has now broken into the top 10 as the majority of power rankers conclude that they’ve displaced Ndongo as the top civ in Africa. Saba is continuing to settle numerous new cities, including one on the east coast claiming Kilimanjaro, and their armies are still on the offensive against Kanem-Bornu in the west, where more cities could soon fall into their hands. Their immediate neighbors are Mogadishu, the Mamluks, and Kanem-Bornu, all of which are much weaker, and terrain neutralizes any threat from Ndongo. All of this means that Makeda’s time is now—and we will be closely watching to see whether she takes full advantage of it.

53: Thule

Reformer:

Everyone’s favorite blue civ from the northern reaches of North America rises to the top 10 for the first time this game, and it is for good reason. Their positioning in the corner of North America is good, with very few competitors to contend with - but, of course, the one primary competitor they have, the Yellowknives, is nothing to sneeze at. A war here would likely be bloody and fruitless. But the second reason for Thule’s ascendancy is of course statistical proficiency. Thule has climbed all the way to third in the infoaddict ranking. Between Pueblo and Gogureyo, they are in good company up there. Thule has no statistical weak points at this time. But the aforementioned strength of the Yellowknives will make it difficult to convert these stats into growth, funny enough. It may instead prove to be a worthy idea to head west into Asia, and beat up on the likes of Nivkh and Ikko-Ikki. The alternative is waiting for Yellowknives to be spent militarily in some war to the south - perhaps against Pueblo. Time will tell.

54: Afsharids

JDT:

The Afsharids rise by 5 as our confidence in several other stalwart top 10 members declines and their stats rise. They still have an excellent core with a massive military and production, but still remain boxed in and a bit behind other top tiers in terms of science and tech. Thankfully, Bukhara still exists as an easy expansion option, and with effort this army can probably overcome any military (that loss of Mesopotamia to Qarm was due to them being built different and lack of preparedness), thus justifying their rising in the ranks.

55: Selkups

Cloudy:

The Selkups continue to look fairly impressive, with rapidly rising stats (+7 info addict ranks this week) and success on the battlefield as they finally captured Aktobe from Kazakhstan. They’re also still continuing to expand, with new cities popping up all the time, putting them at 14 total—tied for the most of any civ. So overall, the Selkup star is rising and the fish are plentiful.

56: Goguryeo

Cloudy:

Goguryeo falls four ranks, out of the top 5, due to a combination of factors. For one, with Ikko-ikki bowing out of the war, Shang has put Goguryeo on the defensive and appears likely to reverse any gains that Gwanggaeto made earlier in the war. And second, there are some worrying signals coming from their stats, including a well below average number of techs, which if they continue to lag in that area could spell doom in the long term. It’s possible that this is a temporary issue due to founding a large number of cities very quickly, in which case things might turn around when they start gaining population and science buildings in those cities, but for the moment we’re dropping their prospects a little on the off chance they don’t improve.

57: Shang

Msurdej:

Daji gains a rank as they make peace with Ikko-Ikki, making their fight solely against Goguryeo (and Dai Viet, but that probably won’t amount to anything). They recaptured Xinxiang, and the city looks to be in good hands for the moment. Making Shang’s only goal the weak Yanshi. Furthermore, Daji has the most cities (well, is in a four-way tie for the most cities), and the 4th most production. While they still have a fight going on, Shang seems to be on the upswing.

58: Tiwanaku

Cloudy:

Tiwanaku is finally on the offensive, sending a large army into Rio Grande in a move that seems very likely to capture at least one city and possibly more. However, Tiwanaku falls one rank because we think their neighbor New Holland is likely to take a greater share of the spoils, catapulting them ahead. Don’t take this as a sign that we have low confidence in Tiwanaku, though—make no mistake, they’re a powerhouse with well-rounded stats and troops on the move.

59: New Holland

Rosay:

Yes, finally New Holland is acting like the South American super power and is going to take some cities from Rio Grande. This is basically the one part of South America where conflict can actually take place without being bogged down in the mountains or jungle, so New Holland is probably going to swipe the majority of cities off Rio Grande, and honestly I really hope they wipe Rio off the map because I really want an excuse to do less write ups on D tier civs.

60: Pueblo

Orange:

New high reached at second for our great Puebros as Santa Fe falls. Mexico really got a slap of reality cause they are absolutely stuck and can’t do shit against the might of Pueblo. And really Pueblo is just doing fantastic, they have great stats and still a couple spots within their lands they can get more cities in, this ain’t even the top. Next, they need to go after Osage again but with a larger and more directed army.

61: Faroe Islands

Reformer:

Faroes continue to be the undisputed #1 this week too. But as a treat to the Faroes fans, they’ve finally entered their first really major war, against the Ume Sami. They were some of the last to enter a relevant war (or a war at all), and that time spent turtling definitely worked out for them. A massive Faroe armada has descended upon the largely undefended Sami coastline, and there seems to be very little the Sami can do to stop the Faroes from returning to their homeland in Scandinavia. Of course, breaking through into the inland cities is nigh-impossible right now, but the few coastal cities they’ll come away with will be MORE than enough. From here, Faroes would do well to head south - through England would be the most effective, of course, but it seems the two are on friendly enough terms, having fought Burgundy together…but the AI is a fickle thing, and hostilities could open at any moment, realistically. When that does happen, expect England to fold rather quickly.

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