Power Rankings: Episode 1 – S5

ItsTruckMonth:

Damn we knew Phoenicia was likely cooked coming into this game but we didn’t know they were THIS cooked.

Already being squeezed in due to their TSL, Wallachia and Ma’in decided Phoenicia needed more character development and settled towards the Levant. Pair that with a hard-to-defend settlement in Anatolia, and some awful initial stats across the board (second to last in InfoAddict scores btw) that lands them at the absolute bottom of the rung of civs (even below Rapa Nui and their X3 Comanche Cosplay oh my fucking God bruh)

Cloudy:

Knowing that their chances of victory were nil from the start, Rapa Nui has sent their second settler on a long journey straight to our hearts. After all, why settle the worthless islands of the Pacific when Uluru is only 7,038 miles away? In fact, what if we build the Great Lighthouse to further increase the speed of our embarked settlers as they beeline for Australia? Why not just do it all for the meme?

Unfortunately for Rapa Nui, while this has made them incredibly popular, we power rankers are a tough, mirthless bunch. Straight to 60th you go for this strategic blunder!

Lasqueto:

Circassia didn't have many great options for openers, but it's gotta be said, this was one of the worse ones. Only episode 1 and they're already halfway boxed into the caucasus from the north. That Crimean city is absolutely indefensible by the way. They can’t even access it over land. Scythia looks south, or someone gets a black sea navy, and Bygurqal is donezo. Things are better to the south at least. They have a settler headed that way, and Phoenicia and Sumer have both been slow out the gate, so if Circassia’s willing to cross the mountains they might have a shot. I wouldn't bet on it though

NopeCopter:

Ternate kicks off the game with a pretty bog-standard start based on the various test games. Unfortunately, given their Episode 0 PR ranking, you can probably guess that a “bog-standard start” isn’t exactly inspiring much confidence in the rankers. Making things worse here is a very aggressive Lanfang opening, albeit one that’s thankfully focused a bit further west. Ternate is sitting on only two cities and mediocre stats, and with the Bunuba getting off to a decent opening as well, things are not looking great for our eastern Indonesian contender. Still, though, while their opening turns haven’t been all that inspiring, they also haven’t outright fumbled - as such, they rise three spots pretty much by default. When you start on the very bottom, the only way to go is up - now the only question is whether or not they can keep rising.

Leman:

Luba was sort of universally panned this week for their horrible settling early game which really crushed a lot of confidence in the civ. They’re only on 8 population which is really, really small (Lanfang has hit 20), and are rapidly getting crowded out by Maravi, an expansive, aggressive civ. I don’t think this is a death sentence, but it’s a really, really bad look so far. Luba is going to need to really turn things around next episode to stay away from this.

At least they got that second city out.

Orange:

Absolutely NASTY forward settle by Bangladesh there, easily the most defensible forward settle one could make and really puts the squeeze on Pegu. The terrain between the two civs is awful, mountain passes, rivers, hills only, if Pegu wants to punish Mujib for such a play, they’re gonna need to start surrounding Bangladesh now, and maybe even get some ships in play for a proper attack. But as is, this is just another thorn in Shin’s shin blocking her in from greater expansion.

Orange:

Look, João’s just having some amnesia and a splitting headache preventing him from leading as well as he should. Cut him some slack.

Lasqueto:

The League and the Union are shaping up to become the first proper pair dynamic of the season, and I think it's pretty easy to call Kalmar the junior partner. Not much to say; this is a pretty standard Kalmar early game. Two cities and mediocre stats while their southern rival is on the way to four. They could start settling suddenly but I wouldn't hold your breath. Kalmar's just kinda like this.

NopeCopter:

Cebu is, in a lot of ways, very similar to Ternate, their neighbor in maritime Southeast Asia. Both civs are sitting on two fairly safe cities, with a very impressive Lanfang and another overperforming neighbor (Ryukyu, in Cebu’s case) making things look pretty bleak overall. So, why is Cebu ranked five whole spaces higher? Well, part of it is probably just noise (nobody can predict much of anything at this stage in the game, and no major gaps in power have really solidified yet), but Cebu does have one nice advantage: they’re tied for the highest tech count in the game, at 12. Just ignore the fact that Ryukyu also has 12 techs and has actually landed on the mainland. Cebu still has a fair few places to expand to, but they’re naturally very boxed in, so they’d better act fast if they don’t want to become Maguindanao 2.

Cloudy:

Episode 1 was terrible news for our plucky Irish pirate lass Grace O’Malley, who faces the prospect of being trapped on the Emerald Isle with no clear expansion options, not by any fault of her own, but by the strategic actions of Scotland. Umhaill never had a good start position, but in many tests that didn’t stop them from expanding across the British Isles and into the North Sea. Now, unless O’Malley can quickly capture Dunfermline with her nascent navy, that option will be all but closed to her. She must act now or face near-immediate irrelevance.

Msurdej:  

Don't get too discouraged fans of the Kipchaks, while Togortak drops into the fifties, suffice to say he was one of the more controversial civs this episode. The biggest issues the Kipchaks face, besides their close settlements to Bactria, is the fact they have only four military units. Meanwhile, neighboring Bactria has a massive army and is settling around them aggressively. While war hasn't broken yet, if Togortak doesn't build up his forces to counter this soon, he'll be heading back to the sub in no time.

ECH:

One ought to cherish a second city forward settle as daring and memorable as Rahman’s here. Where other cowardly civs may see the wide expanses of India or the defensive, production-rich Himalayas and foolishly rush settlers there, Rahman saw an opportunity to stick it to a rival above all else and seized the day! Us PR’s honestly aren’t all down on this choice, some think it’s at risk from Pegu but others, me included, think the terrain there is harsh enough to protect it, and it does certainly hobble Pegu’s capital; a hard blow given Pegu’s tall-strategy inclinations. No, the bigger issue is everything else Bangladesh did in the first episode: nothing. Every single stat of theirs is decidedly below average and they remain on two cities, so close together that they eat into each other's tiles to make things worse. Oh, and all that land they haven’t grabbed so far is open to a certain other neighbour far more dangerous than Pegu…

Reformer:

Alarm fucking Red my fellow pope-lovers– you know what, nevermind, I’m not calling it that. Move past it, okay. Aures has settled on the porch of Rome! Sardinia is under foreign control! Rome itself is but a stone’s throw away! At least the pope’s got another settler out and about, blessed be the great Cheesemaker in the sky. And, it has to be said, Europe’s looking non-threatening. At most, I might be concerned about Hansa, but they’re focused on the coastline up north. No impact on Rome’s life for another era. Plenty of time to build up. Ignore their bottom-10 stats . . . it’s too early for that to matter . . . Warrior Pope has not lost hope!

ItsTruckMonth:

Pakistan came off a middling episode, getting the usual two cities down but nothing much. And while they still do have ample space to settle, given Bactria’s northern ambitions and Sumer roadtripping to Riyadh, they have some pretty big issues bubbling under the surface.

Mysore has been off to an impeccable start, and with Pakistan and Bangladesh’s inability to settle the Ganges basin they’ve been given a golden opportunity to break out. Pair that with some incredible starting stats to Pakistan’s dogwater own, its a perfect recipe for disaster. Absolutely clueless mfs.

JMangelo:

Xaragua largely performs exactly as expected. They drop a rank to a rising Estonia, and they settled Puerto Rico. A Caribbean civ in the early game crucially needs to have broad settles that can help lock out coastlines from other civs. Xaragua did not do as they needed to, but the game is early enough that it isn't devastating for them.

Archimedes :

Surprisingly, Estonia has risen 2 ranks since the pre game estimations we’ve done. I say surprisingly because Estonia currently is looking… well, they’re looking pretty mid. Two cities out so far is decent, and at 5 pop each they have something going for them. But their military is bad, and their production is bad, which are two of the more important things to keep up with in a battle royale. Estonia suffers from having dangerous neighbours and flat land, and frankly nothing they could have done this episode would have changed that. Their only saving grace at the moment is that their neighbours seemed occupied with other things, settling in other directions and leaving a big buffer of space between Estonia and their more formidable neighbours. Hopefully their neighbours stay away long enough for their UA to kick in, a +5% great people bonus per opened social policy tree they have.

Leman:

Xavante had about as good of a start as they could have hoped. Three solid cities, great population between them and that’s great. The problem is that Guaycuru and Potiguara also had respectable starts and those two civs have among the largest militaries on the cylinder so far. And Xavante, well Xavante barely has any units at all. So judging from the tests that’s not a great sign.

Shaggy:

Things are lining up for Hyksos. They have a pair of solid cities with a growing population and neighbors who don’t seem all that threatening, though they are quite close. Close enough to be early and easy targets. Kaminahu would be a great rally point for Hyksos once they get their chariot archer UU, allowing them to send units further across the Arabian Peninsula. But Aphophis must still build up a bit before eyeing foreign cities just yet. Another interesting quirk of the early settlements in the region is that both Ma’in and Phoenicia have 2 coastal cities for Hyksos to harass on either side of the Suez, or will it cause too much indecision? Only time will tell.

Orange:

Cujane represents a strong declaration by Karankawa that they *will* contest Mexico, something that is definitely needed given the strength Teo seems prone to. With a solidly defensible position, I think they will be able to do well with this, though it is likely to result in a prolonged early grinding war doing neither a good favor.

They do also have a third settler out, last seen jumping into the water and seemingly looking eastwards. Meanwhile, Ponca settles south to contest Karankawa themselves, should’ve been looking both north and south Joseph. Really, they’re early goal should’ve been to expand north and south asap and then turn their sights to the east or west, once they ensured they had enough space blocked off from their rivals. But as things stand, it doesn’t look like they will be able to prevent that northern growth.

Msurdej:  

Waqah'il Sadiq I makes a bold choice to settle northward, growing closer to Hyksos and Phoenicia. While this could put them in the path of the Set cultists, the Ma'in currently outpace them in both production and military. And even if one city fell, it would not be the complete collapse of the civ.  Just a massive setback for them. Of course, there is still most of the Arabian desert to settle. But that would put them in the path of Sumer, and Ma'in can only afford one enemy at this point.

Shaggy:

What an odd duck. Sumer only rises 3 ranks in episode 1 as they spend their time settling Ur and making Lagash one of the cylinders’ first true metropolises. I wouldn’t be surprised if their concentrated population is a hint that they are working towards a wonder, but whether that’s a good idea right now will depend on the wonder. Frankly, I ranked Sumer higher than their current rank and they had a huge range of ranks proposed this week. Their existing geography and spread of their neighbors has worked out ideally for them, none of their neighbors seems to be settling in their direction (or terribly aggressively at all) and Ur should prove as at least a serviceable coastal city early on. So long as Sumer doesn’t get lost in the desert and decides to settle more fertile lands, they should have greater upside than their rank reflects now.

JMangelo:

France, France, France. What can we say about this civ that had a relatively poor first settle? Well, for one, it wasn't the civ that had the worst happen to it in Europe by any stretch. Scotland is really going to give a thrashing to Umhaill at this rate, and that gives France more room to grow, shockingly. They are also doing very well in Production and Military. These are early game stats, but an early strong lead is nothing to scoff at

ECH:

Kopenawa’s start has been uninspired, I think would be the best adjective. South America has a reputation for messy early games, I sense, but sitting at 6th worst on the stats sheet is not really excusable and honestly prompts more of a question as to why they’re not lower. The fact they have a settler out helps, but it’s heading into ‘foolhardy forward settle’ terrain right now; and I have to hope they’re pumping out more settlers given their low population. They have the land around them to prosper still, they just need to lock in a bit harder fast.

Paige: Sheehays has made a bold decision, exchanging early game settling for a chance to kneecap Onodagawa. Which if it goes well, may be able to prevent them from gaining too much strength. They need to take two cites, in particular x & y, in order for this war to make up for the loss in their 50 turn production not making settlers. Not settling early is a costly gamble for the Susquehannock, but this game has a lot of good trends for them. If this war goes poorly or no cities are flipped or traded, we can consider the Susquehannock out of the running for North America, let alone the Cylinders at large.

Lasqueto:

Bit of a mixed start for the Seychelles, but we only saw them once so it’s hard to say. Their stats are a bit ass (mainly production) but they can afford to be for now. Settling Madagascar is generally pretty good for them, especially if they can fully claim it and build a strong defensible core. Maravi going insane with settlers and beelining up the coast is a problem though. It's not like Seychelles needs settlements on the mainland to do well but it certainly helps. They still have room on the horn and in Arabia at least. The main thing is it looks like Maravi are gonna be a proper regional power at least, and likely gonna be the Seychelles’ main stumbling block on the way to greatness.

Reformer:

Rouran is uhhhh. uh. uh-huh. This is not the Rouran start we were promised! What’s going on babygirl? Look at those bottom-10 stats! Okay. Okay. Let’s see. Second city: poor location. Seemingly no additional settlers– but, one can safely guess, they’re building some, maybe even built one already, and we just didn’t see it. In fact, considering they’re at 7 pop– tied for lowest on the cylinder– I can basically guarantee they were building settlers up in there. And 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘧 they really were shitting the bed over here, they’ve got tons of space to get their act together. Rankers are split, but I trust Rouran to still have their wits about them.

Archimedes :

Herero has done the one thing it needed to do to help maintain some semblance of relevance in this game : Settle a decent city outside of the desert. Unfortunately, they haven’t done all too much more than that. Don’t get me wrong, their start is decent, and their ranking is boosted by the fact that their closest neighbour is doing worse than them. Unfortunately, other civs are doing more and doing better, so Herero is taking a slow slide into mediocrity. Land to their north and south is good and available, but they haven’t settled it yet. Pasture resources are scattered about but they haven’t improved them. The potential is there, but the Herero just didn’t quite get the running start they needed to get a high ranking and a solid start to this game. Hopefully things will kick into higher gear, and a higher than average military score is a good sign for things to come, but Herero currently could do better.

Archimedes :

Wallachia’s biggest achievement this round is what it’s looking to do to its neighbour. A forward settle towards Phoenicia in frankly a bit of an odd spot, Wallachia is less furthering its own game and more doing everything in its power to hamper Phoenicia’s game. Don’t get me wrong, their capital is looking decent and they’re maintaining a military, if not a particularly large one. Wallachia is kind of just existing at the moment unfortunately, perhaps gearing up for a burst of expansion in the coming episodes. Time will tell if their focus on Anatolia lets Scythia and the Hanseatic League fill in their settling space, taking advantage of the fertile grasslands above their protective mountain range. Or perhaps that’s Vlad’s strategy, stay in the protective hills and mountain ranges of Asia Minor while his neighbours duke it out over indefensible land. Production is king after all, and Vlad maybe knows where to spend it wisely.

Lasqueto:

Wow! Gosh! 3 cities and a 4th on the way! Sleepy neighbours! Is this the good Hansa run?

Uhhhh I wish I could say yeah but honestly I'm not totally convinced. Bavaria hit 4 cities in episode one and look what happened to them. Their neighbours might be mid but there's nothing saying Hansa’s actually gonna do anything about that. Settling eastward to fill the gap left by Wallachia is smart, I’ll give them that. By episode one standards this is pretty good and the rest of Europe is shit, so they get a hefty rankings boost, but low key I think this might be their peak.

I'm prepared to be very wrong though.

Shaggy:

Every season needs a few fish themed civ for our viewing pleasure. Unfortunately for the Caralean (Carelese? Caralite?) fishers, they seem few and far between deep in the Andes and, unlike the Selkups of last season, fish fear them and are not a spawnable resource. Fortunately for Caral, they seem to be settling to use their UA well. Their trade routes from Caral will be able to give the base yields from the fish on the coast to the destination cities and any banana (or other) plantations built in the inland cities will give a production boost to the coastal cities, talk about synergy!

Caitlyn: Onodagawa is in an okay spot, relatively speaking. Three cities & another on the way is a solid place to be here. But Sheehay’s gamble might throw a wrench in the works of their unhampered expansion. On the ground, you’ll see archers in their core two cities that will be a source of major attrition for the Susquehannock, but with such low defense in every city, it’s possible that these cities may be overrun. My inclination is that the Susquehannock probably will leave this pest worse than they started, but the Onodagawa will be a bit bruised for some time early on.

JMangelo:

Scotland has a barn burner of a first episode. Effectively locking Umhaill out of Britain if Grace can't reach Cornwall, Scotland moved quickly and effectively to get to this point. Their stats are half decent, and their other neighbors just aren't impressive yet. Could this be the Scotland run?

ECH:

To be entirely frank, I think none of us PR’s felt we saw enough of Japan to make fully accurate assessments of their performance, but the minimap and stats show a Japan doing what Japan civs do best: snapping up any island except Honshu first and acquiring middle-of-the-road stats. At least they’ve hit 3 cities already, if they keep up the expansion I suspect we’ll see them jump up the ranks. If they end the next episode or two with just these same island cities, expect a similarly-sized decline into the 40s.

The other question mark on Japan is their southern neighbor, Ryukyu, who have leaped up the ranks from our Episode 0 predictions. On one hand, left untamed with strong cities growing in China there’s a definite possibility Japan’s prey turns into its predator; but on the other hand Hideyoshi’s south-facing settling would make a naval attack on Ryukyu all the more feasible, especially during this early game buildup period.

Semi:

Well, that was a quiet episode, wasn’t it? We saw Bjarmia exactly once this episode, all the way back on slide 19, and that’s not exactly a good thing for a top 20 civ being marketed as “Ume Sami but THIS time they’ll break out of the box”. Almost reminds me of a certain other purple civ from this area…nah, Lithuania didn’t have this slow of a start. Specifically, Bjarmia’s only got two cities out so far, which given they’re further north than Ket, is not what the Bjarmafans wanted to see. Combine that with a decided lack of military and you get this eight rank drop.

All that being said, Harekr’s civilization is still in the top half. He still has plenty of space to expand, and his two closest neighbors are 46th and 54th. Bjarmia’s production, surprisingly, is actually 13th on the cylinder, so they definitely have the ability to begin greater expansion. So Harekr’s got plenty of time to fix what’s wrong with his solitary, forgotten civilization (read: cities and science).

ItsTruckMonth:

Pretty silent episode on Qara’s end, but they do come off some pretty nice highs: getting one of the first World Wonders with Sargon’s Palace, having the 6th largest military in the game at the moment, AND rough starts by Rouran and the Kipchaks help them out in the short team.

That said, the presence of Bactria means they need to start moving. They have an even larger army, and currently have a third settler ready to cut Qara off from any possible moves on the Kipchaks. Time's a tickin’ Yelu.

Msurdej:

Sho Shin had a solid opening episode, settling two additional cities, most importantly, on the mainland(a fourth city was settled off-screen). This, and the fact that they're tied for the top in the most techs, puts them in the top half of civs. These moves will have major ramifications into the future, and hopefully give Ryukyu an edge in the coming episodes.Because make no mistake, they need that edge. Tang have aggressively forward settled into mainland China, which will exacerbate the chances of the two nations coming to blows. But if Sho Shin can further increase his land holdings in mainland China, it will only work out for him in his favor if he's smart about it.

Cloudy:

The Anishinaabe rise a cautious 16 places into the upper mid-tier off of a decent start that looks set to defy expectations of disaster. In too many tests, the Anishinaabe only settled a few resource-poor tundra cities and then died, but immediately settling south onto the fertile Great Plains is exactly what the biggest Pontiac fans hoped he would do. If Pontiac can follow up this move with further expansion before his aggressive neighbors claim the land for themselves, then I would expect to see the Anishinaabe rise even higher.

ItsTruckMonth:

Not a lot of screentime for the Anti-Bird Birds up north but they do find themselves in illustrious company in the 4-City gang, tied for the most cities on the cylinder. Not only that, but they have quite the space to work with given Tlingit’s southern and Green Ukraine’s western ambitions.

That said, their stats are lookin’ a bit grim at the moment and for some reason they have some fear of settling on the ocean (peep the Mashurin settle). Still, lots of time and space to build up you take your time buddy.

NopeCopter:

The big piece of news this episode for the Tlingit was not a happy one: the Pomo managed to snag a key city spot around the Puget Sound, effectively locking the Tlingit out of the Pacific Northwest and confining them to Alaska. The tragic run of the Thule last season shows just how difficult it can be to break out of this region for civs that don’t act early, so this is unfortunate. The Tlingit are also known to be VERY adamant about only settling coastal cities, so don’t expect them to push inland to counter this, either! Still, despite their mediocre stats, the Tlingit having a third Settler out at all is already pretty good news, and they still have plenty of room to expand, so they maintain a pretty solid ranking. It’s just not as good as it could’ve been.

Leman:

I like what Ponca is doing so far. We’ve got three cities on the map. That’s a great start. The problem is that Pomo’s got a fourth. And that’s a greater start. It's not a nail in the coffin, we’re still pretty bullish on Ponca, keeping them in the top half. They’ve got a lot of room and those east-coasters are already at war, so that leaves a lot of potential for Ponca here. We’ll see how this goes.

Archimedes  :

Who would have thought that one foreign city could make a civ tumble 12 spots down the rankings? Teotihuacan would be looking quite decent right now if not for that one little Karankawa settlement in that one little chokepoint. Otherwise, things are looking all right for the little guy. 3 cities, plenty of hilly terrain nearby for production, a looming wish to build every other wonder in the game. Some rankers are wary of just how well Teotihuacan can do in this situation, but I as a biased ranker know the Mesoamerican region has been calling for their champion the past 6 seasons, and this is surely the time for the greatest breakout this series has ever seen. Even better for Teotihuacan’s prospects, their closest competitor Pomo has decided to exclusively settle north, leaving a swathe of open land to continue expanding unimpeded. And, if Teo plays their cards right, a few more settlements in strategic locations to their north could give them easy enough invasion routes into Karankawa land. Their civ bonus does let them benefit from war, giving a 2% production boost to any wonders they’re building when defeating an enemy unit.

As long as Teotihuacan can keep a steady pace of expansion and growth, and not throw countless units worth of production into the Karankawa’s meat grinder of a chokepoint, it stands to reason they could recover their top placements in future episodes.

Well, well, well, what do we have here? If you’d told me that Bactria would have only two cities at the end of PR1 (while Kipchaks had 3), Qara-Khitai would jump to the mid 20s in PR, Sumer would have the #1 science in the game, and Phoenicia, pretty far away, was looking like the odd man out in the Middle East, I would’ve put Bactria around 30th. Add stats that (outside of military) are mediocre at best, and this civ should be nowhere near the top 20.

So then why are they 20th? Well, those Kipchak cities are really, really underdefended. The same reason QK jumped four spots limited the rough start for Bactria, as we think with a declaration of war that seems incoming, Demetrius would stomp Togortak. Sarai and Sighnaq only have one warrior defending them last we saw, while Bactria has five times that many military units in Demetrias alone.

But if that war declaration doesn’t come, what does Bactria have? Well, they’re still probably not that bad. Sumer settled in Arabia, leaving Persia pretty open. Pakistan is not living up to the very low billing we gave them, leaving an angle into India. Thus, 20th place for Bactria - but don’t be surprised if this goes up or down quickly.

JMangelo:

Oh how the mighty... Stumble. Our number 1 projected civ at episode 0 has tumbled down to 19th. Whilst our original frontrunner is by no means out of the game, it currently has a couple issues. Firstly, it sits on two cities where we'd expect any civ in this high section of the power rankings to have 3 cities by now. On top of this, NSW has a new kid in his backyard. That's right, little Rapa Nui angling for a settling of Uluru or the Barrier Reef can really dampen NSW's expansion opportunities early on if they don't get a decent war in quickly.

Otherwise, NSW deserves a high spot like 19th because their stats and remaining settlement spots are promising.

Orange:

This is a game about war. About conquest. About domination. This is a game about death in its truest sense. The only means a civilization has to survive here is to kill. There is no playing nice. There is no reward for being peaceful. If you can’t ensure that you are the only one who wins, then you were already dead long ago. Might makes Power. Power makes Will. Will makes Victory. Victory is only given to the deserving.

Hmm? What’s that? It’s better to build up a solid base of power first so that you are better equipped to out produce and out advance your rivals? Oh. Hmm. Well then.

Caitlyn: Ket has settled in an interesting location for a second city, but I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised at them wanting to be surrounded by white powder. Ket, like other civs in the cylinder, is in large part in a good position from their neighbors making poor decisions or being messed with in other ways. Regardless, having this many cities this early on never hurts, & likely means they have a decent shot this early in the season. Their overall stats could definitely be better at this point however.

Paige: *sniffles*

Reformer:

Interesting first episode for Tang frankly. It wasn’t that interesting until they settled a fair bit towards Yunnan, the top-rated contender in the area. Yunnan’s reputation alone won’t raise fears: Yunnan also has a visibly stronger army, for the time being, anyway. To mention nothing of the city being difficult to reinforce until it is connected. But the city is surrounded by rough terrain– I would be hard-pressed to see an early invasion work on such a target. Tang’s first 30 turns look alright stats-wise too, as meaningless as that is. With a weak Rouran, there’s additional hope to be had. But Greek Ukraine and Yunnan are still likely to be immense threats. It won’t be easy to build a civilization impervious to incursions on the North China Plain!

Reformer: Oh, hi, welcome back to China. Been a while hasn’t it. No worries, I’ll catch you up to speed. WE’VE BEEN FORWARD-SETTLED. LOOKS LIKE MEAT’S BACK ON THE MENU! Alright. With that out of the way. Yunnan’s in great shape. Top of many stats. But it’s only turn 30, fool! City count is more important. And Yunnan notably has only two. No settlers out either, last we saw them on t28. It’s not perfect. But who is? And who has to play perfectly to win? Nobody, that’s who. We still trust good ol’ reliable Yunnan just fine. That Tang forward-settle is critical, though. If not challenged, that is Tang claiming vast swathes of fairly productive and defensible land. That would not be a great look!

NopeCopter:

Scythia begins the game in a very curious position as Estonia, Vyatka, and even Circassia all forward-settle them. This would normally be very bad, and to be clear it very much isn’t ideal, but Scythia hasn’t exactly been sitting around doing nothing - they’re at three cities with a fourth on the way. Their stats leave a bit to be desired, but they do have Production, and none of their neighbors are particularly threatening just yet - heck, Circassia’s forward-settle is practically theirs for the taking if they want it. Scythia’s still dropped a few ranks (partly because they were overranked in the Episode 0 rankings upon reflection), and they’re vulnerable if Vyatka picks up steam, but they’re doing everything they need to in order to avoid being completely boxed in right off the bat.

Reformer:

In this tumultuous early game period, Chono by miracle manages to stay around the rank we gave them in ep0 PRs. Or, excuse me, not by miracle at all. Let’s look at the details. Chono is near the top in all the stats that matter: the only thing keeping their overall statistical rank down is a small military, which of course means nothing right now. Chono stacks up top 5 production, top 5 population, and top 5 food output. Beyond stats, which are not so meaningful this early on, Chono still has their strong reputation going for them as well. The only thing weakening the rankers’ confidence in Chono is their relative slowness to get more cities going. Expansiveness is what truly makes a civ. Chono’s off to a great start, and we trust them to keep making great decisions. Better start settling though.

Cloudy:

At a whopping 38 places, Aures clocks the biggest rank increase of Episode 1, skyrocketing from 50th to 12th. Why? Well, part of it was because the Aures were underranked in the first place. Most rankers placed them following tests that showed they burned bright then collapsed very quickly, but later in testing their starting area was buffed to have more food and production, which was not reflected in the episode 0 rankings. But while that’s a large part of the story, it’s not the whole story. We also increased their rank because of their extremely bold second city, planted on Sicily right outside the Papal capital, and because they’re one of only five civs to have reached four cities by the end of the Episode, and none of their neighbors have so far settled in their direction. The question is, can the Aures overcome the traditionally poor Maghreb starting location to repeat the legendary performance of the Vandals?

Reformer:

Ethiopia had a pretty nice first 30 turns. Means nothing to me, though! Africa is no kindergarten, having 30 good turns just isn’t enough. Ethiopia is traditionally a tough start– mountains are safe, sure, but they are a prison, just as well. Everyone stays out, you stay in, type of deal. Positioning is critical in these games. You know who had a great first episode last season? Yeah, Bavaria. Being in the middle of Europe is a pain. And so is being in the mountains. To make something happen, Saba-D’mt needed to…ahem, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘵, just use their mechanics well, and that still wasn’t enough. Uganda, Somalia, Beta Israel . . . these civs never truly escaped the horn. I don’t foresee Ethiopia managing it either.

Leman:

Well, here we are. We made it to the top ten. And you’re probably wondering, “What earns you a spot in the top ten?” And, well, dear viewer, I’m here to tell you, it’s a third city. And, like, vibes. Potiguara is a strong civ, with strong uniques and a really good starting location. Three cities this early bodes well for them. And I like that. It's not top five material though. Need a fourth city for that.

Paige: Guaycuru is in a good spot in stats, overall taking the 4th place in them. This is buoyed by their second rank in Military stats, & solid production, but also generally have done well. Lots can still happen to change the direction of how things will go, but it seems that unless nearby neighbors are able to get their acts together, they’ll be in a solid spot for a strong position in South America for the foreseeable future.

Semi:

Listen, as a Herero fan, this is a week of mixed news for me. Luba not settling was nice, but…Maravi looks terrifying. However, this isn’t the Herero slide. This is the Maravi slide, where we’re all in on the color, black. Despite them gambling somewhat by settling the coast, hoping that Seychelles can’t call their bluff and invade, three cities is a great opening hand that everyone else at their table can’t match (Zazzau is the nearest real competitor with more cities). Add to that two settlers, and they may have hit the jackpot at the end of the next episode - five cities would give them the biggest stack on the cylinder. Adding to that, the pot in South Africa is as big as it’s ever been; with a bad Kongo civ, one of the South Africans is poised to take that freeride to the final table of Endgame. The only question is thus: can Maravi convert these pocket rockets? Or will they go bust, leaving behind a take so large that the whales will come calling?

NopeCopter:

Mysore gets an incredible 16-spot boost to their ranking, and at first glance, it’s hard to see exactly why that is. Three cities is good but not great, and they didn’t really show up at all in the episode itself. Their stats are good, and their Science in particular is really high, but they’re still in South Asia, in a geographic position that’s infamous for getting blocked in. But, see, that’s just it: Mysore HASN’T been blocked in. Instead of expanding along the fertile Ganges River to hem Mysore in, Bangladesh has made the baffling decision to place their second city in just about the worst possible spot - the southeast. Pakistan, meanwhile, has settled east, but to the northeast, not directly along the Deccan plain. This is EXACTLY what Mysore wants, because it means more land than ever is open for them if they just choose to expand into it (and they are quite expansive). Obviously future Pakistani or Bangladeshi settlements could wall them in, but neither civ is known to be very expansive, so even if they do move inward from here, it’ll likely be a slow process. Better yet, Pakistan has another threat to worry about: Bactria, who have been getting off to a very worrying start. Obviously this has the potential to be a massive problem for Mysore in the future, but for now it’s one more thing standing in the way of Pakistan being able to grow into an actual threat. This is just about the best opening Mysore could have hoped for to this season, and while it’s far too early to call it a truly successful game, there’s at least some reason to have hope that Mysore can break out of the South Asian prison.

Archimedes :

Jumping up a solid 16 spots, the Bunuba have really put themselves forward with a solid looking first start. A core of cities that don’t look too bad, a pantheon that will pay dividends with a guaranteed religion, decent military and production scores. Even better for their standing, New South Wales hasn’t really done too much of note. Rankings depend heavily on what your neighbours are doing and with NSW being ranked #1 in the speculations, their current piddling action has given the Bunuba an indirect boost as their closest neighbour. Now, to be fair on neighbours, the Lanfang are to the north of the Bunuba and the ranking team have seen their strong start as something to watch out for. And, wouldn’t you know it, Rapa Nui threatens to settle directly next to the Bunuba, which could be both a bane and a boon. Bununba does benefit from war, gaining faith and xp from standing next to enemy units, and a lone Rapa Nui settlement could also be easy pickings if Bunuba decided to pick it up for themselves. Time will tell how their neighbours act though, and for the moment the Bunuba look primed to settle a solid set of cities and establish the first and most widespread religion of the region.

Semi:

Vyatka drops three spots this week because they and their neighbors didn’t do anything unexpected. That’s it. There’s really not that much else to say.

Oh you mean when I signed up for this job I actually have to try with each of my assignments? Fine.

Vyatka’s three rank drop mostly comes because other civs had some really, really good weeks. Our top two are dominating in the stats and on the map, and third and fourth settled a bunch and had others unexpectedly move away from them (or not settle at all). Thus, Vyatka’s very reasonable week looks bad in comparison. They have three cities down and a fourth settler coming. Sure, Scythia came north, but both Estonia and Circassia moved to box the Horse Lords in and so Scythia took the open land. Bjarmia, the western neighbor, is so far away and didn’t settle that much. All in all, it’s a respectable week for the pirates, resulting in a top 5 position again for the Pirates of the Volga.

Cloudy:

Becoming one of the first five civs to reach 4 cities, Zazzau shoots into the top 5, defying the sleepiness induced by the number of Z’s in their name. On top of that expansive start, their scariest neighbor Wassoulou got off to a much slower start, boosting our confidence in Zazzau, while another neighbor, Luba, is poised to crash and burn. All this puts Amina in an enviable position, but many civs in this part of the map have thrown enviable positions in the past. In my opinion, as someone who ranked them 12th, the rise to the top 5 might be premature, and could come crashing down like Burkina Faso’s first place ranking at the end of Season 2 Episode 1. Or maybe the other rankers are right—we shall find out!

Msurdej:  In an odd twist of fate, Green Ukraine is the ONLY civ this episode to maintain its Episode 0 rank, and holds at third place. They still have plenty of land to settle, their last (offscreen) settlement heading north. There's still plenty of land for them to settle, but the major areas they should focus on are the coast. Keeping Japan off the coast will do them great favors against the island nation, and settling north will cut off the Itelmen from southern settling. From there, Yurii Hlushko can move west, dealing with the Tang and other nations once the time is right. And with them leading the way in production, it's only a matter of time.

ECH:

Wow, I get to do the write-up for the first place civ on the first episode, what an hon- Wait, why are they in the second place slot?

In an interesting twist, despite leading the stats sheet points calculation and having the most rankers place them first (8 vs the 6 achieved by the first place civ), one placement in the teens was enough to drag Lanfang down to second place at the last minute. Putting that aside however, Lanfang had about as ideal a first episode showing as one could hope for, with 4 cities deployed across 3 landmasses dominating a high potential region full of hills and resources. Their production is above average, with the potential to skyrocket once they hopefully start converting all their hills into mines, but the real star of the show for them is their food yields, totalling 64, 12 above the next highest and 20 above Zazzau, the next best 4 city civ. Width is nothing without potential and growth, and Lanfang is expertly cultivating all 3 with this starting strategy… although the same can be said of this week's winner.

Shaggy:

POMO NUMBER 1! POMO NUMBER 1! STOP THE COUNT! On behalf of God-Queen Essie Parrish I would like to accept this award and thank… what? What’s that? It’s only the episode 1 ranks? There are scores of episodes yet to come? The number 1 rank in early episodes isn’t a good predictor of season winners? They only made it into first by the skin of their teeth in the ranking formula? What do you mean by ‘I should stop asking questions into my earpiece’? Like now? Says who? Oh, ok. All jokes aside, Pomo is one of the clear frontrunners in this first episode with a core of 4 solid cities, a formidable early army, clear expansion prospects, and high expectations. They were already ranked top 5 before we saw what they could do and they are doing all the right things so far.