Power Rankings: Episode 10 – S5

Release Date:

March 30, 2026

Narrated by:

Power-Rankers

Abstract

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

Viewing: Vertical

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Ryukyu

1 / 0

1: Ryukyu

Reformer: Welp! Ryukyu! This might be it, for real this time. Yunnan might’ve given up, but Cebu and Tang both have good track records in war. (Admittedly, most of Tang’s track record is making gains in peace deals, but hey, they wage war alright, too.) There can be no doubt that Ryukyu is truly about to kick the bucket. I guess even the resurrected cannot stay around forever. I’ll leave the mourning for the actual obituary. And besides, if they avoid death again, I would look exceedingly silly.

2: Pegu

JDT: Pegu don’t fight no more they just sell clothes

Its making Emmie wanna go and start a line of bathrobes

They wet like a sewer

Ask Siri if they washed and she respond “Like sheets, freshly pressed, hung and folded”

The stone cold degenerate, no vaseline or vicodin

Show up to the party leave 4 cities short again

A blueprint? Illegible

Ass eaten like its Canibus

It show up like a speck on a tele-evangelist

And I have faith they get ass eaten like… (you don’t deserve explanations for Pegu-Yunnan hetslop)

Left with Dagon on the yard, arctic eggs turned to omelets

And she say’s “I’m outta here”

“I’m going right up”

Long Yun wanna send em off, but he nuts bro

She keep all the custos on the front door

But ain’t got fiend hard gusto like Kokang flow

3: Rapa Nui

Orange:

GOING STRAIGHT UP TO THE TOP BABYYYYYYYYYY! SO MUCH EMPTY SPACE, SO MUCH POTENTIAL! THERE’S NO STOPPING THE RISE OF RAPA NUI WOOOOOOOOOO!

4: Ma’in

Cloudy:

Ma’in laughs as Sumer is slowly conquered by Pakistan. Ma’in is eternal.

5: Wassoulou

Caitlyn:

Wassoulou is just a bit away from death, but they haven’t withered away quite yet. They’ve had a more than valiant fight against the ever-ascendent Aures, but they have basically no chance of recovering any of the territory they’ve lost, & have basically only a small chance to survive a bit longer as a rump state. My personal guess is Wassoulou ends up a rump state for up to ten epsiodes before Aures (or somehow some other random power) decides to snipe what is left of them. If you’re reading this, I’m sorry Nope, they are a fun Civ who never got to show how cool they really were.

6: Sumer:

Lumer:

So this isn’t looking great. After getting attacked by Circassia, Sumer has failed to repel the Pakistani invasion and now are actively dropping cities to their eastern neighbor. I’m not sure how much more Sumer is going to lose, but they seem to be more or less out of it. So any defense they mount is going to be because of geography, not because of their own strength.

7: Karankawa

Orange:

Karankawa find themselves stuck as the weakest fighter in the North American Thunderdome, Pomo pulled them in but seemingly did so just to get Susquehannock to jump in on the southerners. The recently settled cities on the other side of Susquehannock are dead for sure, but at least the path to Coapite is gonna be a bit harder for Susquehannock to take, so that should be a bit of relief. But with the way things go, maybe Susq will be able to threaten them some more.

8: Maravi

Reformer:

Maravi is still just a capital and three lousy cities to the south. A pitiful rump, crippled by coalition war. Uhh that’s it. Come again next week, by all means!

9: Ternate

NopeCopter:

Despite being involved in a war against a much, much stronger opponent, Ternate goes up three ranks as they prove once again that they’ve just got that dawg in them. They’ve survived one attack from Lanfang, two from Cebu, and now, thanks to the timely intervention of Lanfang and New South Wales, they’re even reversing their fortunes against the Bunuba. Now, do they have any future? Of course not. Are they even going to be able to recoup all their losses from this war? Not likely. But between their high city defenses, their dedication to the fight, and the relentless bullying of the Bunuba, they can expect to stick around for quite some time.

10: Yunnan

NopeCopter:

The Yunnan might just be one of the most pathetic civs in CBR history. And I don’t just mean that in the sense of being weak or incompetent, either - their decisions have been so baffling, their war record so abysmal, and their reactions to these outcomes so underwhelming, that they truly cannot be called anything else. All this from a civ which really should have had a free ride into regional power status, if not even continental power status. But their most recent action (and really their only relevant action this episode) is what’s really cemented this in my mind. After several straight wars of being bullied by Pegu of all civs (a civ which, based on their test performances, I am convinced is required by the laws of the universe to be mediocre), they’ve finally decided to declare a war of their own against their tormentor. Their tormentor who has one city remaining. This is, on its surface, a good thing for Yunnan! It shows initiative! It shows that they’re not out of fighting spirit just yet, and won’t just let an opportunity slip by! One problem, though: they won’t be able to take Dagon. They will be perpetuating the endless cycle of mediocrity and incompetence even as their opponent is a city-state. Now, this isn’t entirely their fault - Dagon is a defensible city, and Pegu is really the only neighbor Yunnan can threaten. But it’s the optics of the situation. It’s an underperforming rump that can’t even beat their weakest enemy after they’ve been reduced to a city-state. It’s Yunnan. And I wish it wasn’t.

11: Ponca

Msurdej:

Ponce comes down off the highs of getting a city last episode just as North America becomes embroiled in a massive war. While not the weakest civ in the ring, Ponca isn't that much better. Thankfully, their only opponent at the moment is Teotihuacano, and they have a pretty small border away from the Teotihuacano core. But if multiple DoW's come out in the flurry of war, or if Spearthrower Owl gets crafty, that could lead to a collapse of the Ponca country as we know it. But more likely than not, this war will be a snoozefest for Ponca.

12: Wallachia

ECH:

Raise a glass of suspiciously deep red liquid to House Tepes! The economy is actually going up and they have a research intern crying in the castle cellar again! Rising from the nadir of worst science to the lofty peaks of third worst science readily deserves a rank raise, surely…?Weeeeellll, lemme risk being the bearer of bad news before Vlad (and try not to get my hat nailed to my head). This upwards movement really has more to do with other civs falling and ever-vague rank shuffling to my mind, as privately we’ve already crossed Wallachia off the contenders list. Recovering from the tech deficit they’re in will be grueling even if their wealth enters the green, and unfortunately for them the civ of high potential to their Northeast has made good lately; with many PR’s expecting Scythian hordes to turn towards Wallachia any turn now. Sharper your stakes, Vlad.

13: Kipchaks

ECH:

What’s in the sands around Central Asia that keep producing low-potential but high-grit civs? After Bukhara last season, we ought to have known the Kipchaks would do more than just make way for an invasion from Siberia, and for that I salute Togortak. That being said, the thing about boulders is that they don’t just disintegrate after a little rolling, and the Ket literally boast a guy who turned into a crag for leadership. Oh, yeah, and there’s still Tweedle-Greek and Tweedle-Qara, always ready to pounce on the masked men with martial mares. If I was Togortak, I wouldn’t slow my boulder-fleeing pace now, to put it lightly.

14: Xavante

Cloudy:

With almost all their jungle having been cut down, I think Xavante has thrown away their only real advantage. It’s just a matter of time before someone rolls them.

15: Phoenicia

Archimedes :

Oh how the mighty have fallen. I’ve been watching as Phoenicia’s supporters spout nonsense like “My GOAT” and “Phoenicia forever” and “They are so unwashed, forever unwashed”, gobbling up Ma’in and Sumer in mad dashes across the Arabian deserts. And in my mind, I’ve been thinking one thing and one thing only : Phoenicia just keeps digging their grave.

And in a way, I feel vindicated. After an aggressive expansion and various city captures, they have accrued enough political malice that everyone now hates them. And in sweeping motions, their conquests have been captured, their cities have been put to the sword, and their empire grows smaller and smaller, like the Roman Empire under collapse. And now they sit here, at 47, languishing with stats worse than Wallachia, Xavante, and other generally unimportant contenders.

Phoenicia is sparse in the population department, having settled and conquered a variety of desert and mountain focused cities. Their standing army is weak, being worn down by the likes of Bactria, Ethiopia, and the Papal States. And even their production is sub par, enough that it’s a struggle to replace the units that keep getting picked off by their enemies. The constant wars and sieges have certainly kept them kneecapped, and the active combatants have made taking advantage of their trade route focused UA a nightmare. Though extra gold from trade routes could be useful with friendly neighbours, these neighbours are anything but. And their Unique Trireme replacement offers no extra benefits to their active wars, merely generating great merchant points that frankly are most useful with nonexistent city states. With bad lands, bad abilities, and bad neighbours, Phoenicia looks to be in a bad spot.

And so I extend a hand to all of those who were rooting for this Civ. With bad abilities and bad prospects, it was a miracle that they were ever able to achieve any sense of relevance in the region. Rooting for such an underdog brought a fervor that was wonderful to see, but to see it all come crashing down is frankly a sadness I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Perhaps, in some corner of the world, there is hope that Phoenicia could spring back into relevance. But I personally don’t see it.

16: Xaragua

Leman:

I have never believed in Xaragua, and I still don’t, but I want to comment on how they have big cities, sank a bunch of Teotihuacano boats, and still have a few islands left to settle. I also want to point out that Yanomami has started settling these islands and as soon Teotihuacan and Susquehannock are probably gonna start settling them too. I think once two of these civs have a foothold, Xaragua is mostly done. Until then, they have a chance. And at the very least they’re researching Compass and that might help.

17: Portugal

Orange:

João my beloved, oh how I wish you well. Luckily Wassoulou was able to retake Ad Medias somehow giving Portugal the opportunity to take it back themselves. Hopefully they can get one or two cities out of this war, start the slow process of getting back into the game, and then, soon, they can take their revenge against the French…

18: Papal States

JDT: The Cheese Pope drops by 2 after further inspection from the PRs warrants the discovery that he is in fact cheesing. The war with Phoenicia is still ongoing, but it seems unlikely that any future gains are to be had. More horrifyingly, we have discovered that despite their very respectable city count, the Papacy’s stats are decidedly mid. 91 production, 110 food and 76 science isn’t gonna cut it against Scythia, France or the Aures. In fact, its just barely better than Portugal, who recently got lobotomized by France! Needless to say, things don’t look so blessed for our most holy cheesemaker.

19: Zazzau

Shaggy:

Zazzau benefits from Amina’s apparent possession this episode, sending her into a fit of rage against Wassoulou and rises 3 ranks. That possession sauce is really the only tangible difference between the Zazzau of last week and the Zazzau of this week. They entered the war with Wassoulou too late to take any of those isolated eastern cities and do not have enough naval units or know-how to really threaten the coastal cities like Portugal is doing. But at least they’re still trying unlike some other civs in the area (Hyksos *cough cough*).

20: Itelmen

Semi:

Way to go Harchin. You’ve outdone yourself. By completely fumbling yet another war with Green Ukraine - the bad-at-war civ itself - you’ve managed to undo all the goodwill you’ve gained with the PR team over the last two episodes. Because suffice to say, you’ve reminded us why you have no hope. With Green Ukraine taking Chakazhuzh in the north, there’s officially no way out of the box defined by Green Ukraine in the west, Japan to the south, and Tlingit to the east. Sure, Itelmen still has ten cities, but most of them are bad tundra cities - and the one that isn’t, Tarein on northern Honshu, is still being threatened by the Green Ukrainian fleet. It’s not like Itelmen is a science turtle either, with effective science lower than Zazzau. This seven rank drop is thus just a return to normalcy for Itelmen. There will be no Itelback.

21: Hyksos

Reformer:

I don’t know about you, but to me Hyksos are still as good as dead. Just because you’ve improved your stats slightly and nobody cares about your existence doesn’t mean you belong this high! I see through the lies of Set! I will claw you back to the pits of hell myself if I must! By pits of hell, of course, I mean a ranking somewhere in the 50s. I mean, look at the civs residing down there, that’s definitely hell.

22: Estonia

Shaggy:

Estonia holds strong in their wars, though staggers one rank down in the PRs. They have once again weathered the storm of both of their northern neighbors and continue to be a wall preventing each of them from making inroads beyond their frigid holdings. Beyond simple statistical noise, there is some reason to be concerned for Estonia. Well, one major reason. Scythia. Scythia is proving themselves to be quite capable of swinging their weight around. Although Estonia has a great track record with maintaining the Nothing Ever Happens vibes for the Bjarmians, a Scythian army is no drunken Bjarmian army. Time will tell how well they’ll hold, or if they can take advantage of their neighbors’ stagnation, but for now they sit atop the bottom tier.

23: Bactria

Orange:

Bactria has jumped onto the Anti-Phoenicia side of things, like scum, in order to take the now cut off city of Sarepta. In all likelihood they will take it unless Phoenicia pulls a miracle out of nowhere. Though they would get a lot more benefit if they were attacking the Kipchaks or Pakistan again.

24: Guaycuru

Shaggy:

Guaycuru, and really much of South America, was not featured in any significant way this episode, so the 3 rank rise for them is largely based on statistical growth and other civs’ movement. Most significantly, they do have the 8th largest army on the cylinder. Yes, Chono has the 3rd largest but at least Guaycuru is doing well to keep pace with a much more built-up civ. Not only that, but should they take advantage of Chono’s apparent sleepiness there is potential for them to aim northward now that the Amazon is clearing out a bit and there is the potential for a Guaycuran navy.

25: Luba

Msurdej:

There once was a civ called LubaWhose leader could not play the tuba.Built they built a new city,which isn't that shitty,

Now he celebrates in Aruba

26: Bjarmians

JDT:

After the calamity of last weeks Bjappening, the Bjarmians return to a state of Nothing Ever Bjappens, doing literally nothing against the Estonians and ensuring the stability of our universe for eons to come. Truly, the great harbinger of doom feels satisfied.

Oh yeah I’ll be real with you idk how they rose up the ranks.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of Hanseatic League

27: Hanseatic League

ECH:

A quiet episode for the Germanic traders, really defined by two occurrences: the continuation of their squabbles with Estonia, and the ill-founded choice to settle a city in Western Iceland, on a peninsula very vulnerable to melee ship attacks, well after the region has become consolidated as a Scottish v Kalmar future battleground. Marx once wrote that “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”; but what he failed to mention is that when something begins as farce to start, it can only keep going down.

Whatever small hope lingered of the war meaning much of anything died too fast for respect, and for that reason I’ll chalk it up as a technical tie but aura loss for the Hansa, securing them as being of equivalence to their foe in power. As for fair faraway Stralsund, it may sit nearer to the real life center of population but I don’t envision it as much more than a good excuse for Scotland or Kalmar to wake up for a light snack.

28: Cebu

Cloudy:

The longer Cebu goes without facing external attack, the more confident we get that they might somehow pull through. All they need is time to consolidate their gains. It looked for a moment this week like they might through it all away by picking up an elimination penalty on Ryukyu, but now that Tang has joined that war and looks likely to score the elimination for themselves, that danger has lessened. And with Yunnan settling Hainan, and Ternate exhausted from its war with Bunuba, Cebu still has plenty of opportunities to grow bigger before they run into real trouble.

29: Vyatka

ItsTruckMonth:

Shaq with the Celtics. Verlander with the Giants. Rodgers with the Steelers. These are all players who you could tell are far past their prime, aka “Washed”. And fellas, Vyatka is among those ranks.

Once a premier power, Vyatka is now a shell of itself, trapped between the Urals and a frightening Scythia with few routes out of its situation:

Ket or Scythia? That’s suicidal.

The Bjarmians? Near worthless snow cities.

Bactria or Circassia? The borders would make it a meat grinder that would leave them vulnerable.

That said, there is one light in this perpetual darkness: the Kipchaks. The Ket are currently fumbling their war against them, even with the Kipchak’s withering defense. Should Myshkin make haste, they may be able to beat the Washed allegations.

30: Onondaga

JDT: So all of North America is in a giant royal rumble and Onondaga… oops yep I was just informed Onondaga is sitting out. Granted it's probably not the worst idea in the world given that getting involved in the North American Deathwar would mean potentially getting tag teamed by Tlingit and Susquehennock, and their stats are still good. But yeah, this war will lead to giant status quo changes to North America, and Onondaga is not going to like them. -4 ranks.

31: Qara-Khitai

Semi:

A perfectly fine, quiet episode for Qara-Khitai. They settled a couple new cities in the north, showing off that the “three-tile-coastal-city-limit” mod seems to also apply for lakes. Which is probably an unintended glitch, but it’s one that benefits these magnificent mountaineers. They also concluded the war with Mysore - which was a bit of a disappointment to me, as while they did take Salem, Karkar remains in South Indian hands. And it’s not like the Tarim Basin was under threat of capture - a one tile wide pass is the only access between Bangladeshi Mymensingh and the (actually relatively open) access in Kashmir near Pakistani Peshawar.

The other thing QK did this week was boost their stats. For the second week running, they’ve had one of the largest InfoAddict rank rises, +10 this week to be a perfectly middle-of-the-road 31st on the stats sheet…right next to Vyatka. If you told me the two of those would be neighbors two episodes ago, I would’ve laughed you out of the room. But it’s a rising city count, respectable production, and a strong (albeit a little bit outdated) military that means these guys remain the best of the three Central Asian Stooges for this week. All that’s left to be a very respectable middle power is to up that science output. 56 Effective Science is below the likes of Luba and Ponca.

32: Herero

Archimedes :

Take one look at the map and you’ll see a majestic horse ready to feast. A beautiful apple sits at their feet, juicy and shining, succulent and right within reach. Herero looks at Maravi like a hungry diner looks at the steak and potatoes in front of them, ready to take a big mouthful. But will this meal be enough? Or will they need to look past the horizon for their next meal.

While Herero doesn’t look to be too outstanding at the moment, it would be a far cry to say they’re out of the game. They have more production than their immediate neighbours, and more science too. Their army is twice the size of Maravi’s and with their recent citadel placement it’s looking likely that Maravi is their next target. Nabbing those cities on the southeast african coast would be a boon, as the cities are assailable by land, would provide coastal access for or against the Seychelles, and stand as potentially high population centers to drive further scientific advances. Their science, notably, is working through Civil Service, which would provide another boost of population, and leads straight into Guilds and then Chivalry for the juicy mounted Knight units. Their Unique Shrine replacement notably gives them a massive bonus to building mounted units, which would help them crush both Maravi and Luba’s armies beneath their thundering hooves.

Yet a few lame horses are visible within Herero’s ranks. Though they have the chance to grow their cities or nab some from Maravi, their happiness looks tenuous at only 4 excess. And if they were to nab those coastal cities, they would immediately become a threat to one of the regions powerhouses, the entirely coastal Seychelles. They also are in the lower half of the rankings, as other civs in other regions move to outpace their science, growth, production and expansion. The thought of contending with Aures, a civ that’s grown to dominate the African rankings, must make any Herero supporters quake at the knees. Will Herero be able to conquer and grow in time to contend with these regional powerhouses? Or are we looking at this mules last rodeo on the circuit?

33: Green Ukraine

Reformer: After some humiliating experiences against Rouran and Tang, Green Ukraine returns to the one thing that they can do right: beating up Itelmen. So far? It’s not going so bad! Not high praise, obviously, but I doubt GU is expecting high praise at this point. At most, GU can hope to not be humiliated. The bar is definitely low. All the way in the north, GU has snagged a tiny colony on the furthest reach of the Itelmen nation. Further south, on the south-most reach of the Itelmen nation, a great naval battle rages for the fate of Tarein. As of the end of the episode, Itelmen manages to hold the city, but the city could just as well flip again in the blink of an eye. GU isn’t particularly navally oriented, admittedly, only holding two coastal cities in the area. In a more protracted war, we can expect Itelmen to end up holding the city, but who’s to say how protracted the war will end up being– especially if GU advances on land towards the Itelmen core. My prediction though? GU comes out of the war gaining only Chakazhuzh, the city in the far-north. That seems in-character.

34: Kalmar Union

Leman:

Kalmar is back settling again. They donated a city to Scythia and then had Bjarmia flip another. So instead of warfar, Kalmar is trying a new strategy and that is settler spamming. I’m not sure how well this will go, honestly. While Kalmar has proven themselves to be actively awful at both diplomacy and land warfare, maybe they will end up being halfway competent with naval warfare? Maybe these new cities can be a jumping off point to attack Scotland? Or maybe these cities will be conquered by Scotland soon.

35: Umhaill

Semi:

Umhaill had a very quiet episode. Almost too quiet, from a civ who’s been arguably the most bombastic across Europe this season. Their formerly quite good stats are beginning to slip across the board, with their production being a notable point of failure - they’re well below similar upper mid tier civs like the Kalmar Union and Circassia. At the same time, though, they’re above the civs who bring up the rear of the midpack, like Onondaga, Hansa, and (now) Zazzau. And I think that’s a good representation of who Umhaill are. They’re a civ who’s going to spice things up across western Europe (and perhaps across the Atlantic later), but perhaps won’t be the top civ on the block in whatever region they find themselves in. Their science is still pretty good, though - 23 techs is more than Mysore and Teotihuacan.

And plus, they now have as many cities on mainland Europe as Henry V last season. You never know, is all I’m saying.

36: Potiguara

Leman:

So Potiguara used to be pretty good. They have a solid little compact empire, are fairly defensible and have okay enough stats. The problem I have is that they, unlike most of the other civs in their weightclass, have been kind of exactly the god damn same for such a long time. They haven’t been able to conquer or settle anything in half the BR. Which is bad. Maybe that’s a product of the fact that everyone in South America is halfway decent (except Xavante). Maybe that’s a product of the Amazon being impenetrable. Whatever it is, Potiguara is stagnating and they are stagnating hard.

37: France

ECH:

Restlessness must abound through the streets of French cities. Revolutions weren’t made to lie idly. The virtuous know of counterrevolutionaries infiltrating this newborn republic from their sinister foreign realms while swords sit lazily in sheaths. But for now, First Citizen Robespierre demands a time of peace and rebuilding, they say. Peace permits some minds to emerge, he’ll mutter while pacing his war room. The unenlightened tyrants of the Cylinder and their ignorant pawns shall see the righteous justice of Revolutionary France in due time, no worries, no worries at all.

38: Susquehannock

Reformer:

Goddamn! 8 spots up! Let’s examine. Stats? Not it. Quite the opposite: Susq is middling, and critically falling behind in tech. Weak neighbors? Well, not exactly: Onondaga is their main neighbor, they barely border other civs, and Onondaga is highly militarized, far from a soft target. But, there is an asterisk. In spite of barely having a border, Susq has decided to go fight the rump state of Karankawa. The three-tile-wide border might JUST be enough for Susq to bruteforce an army into Karankawa’s core, but I’m not holding my breath. Much easier will be the capture of the very recent Karankawa colonies in Newfoundland, which will support Susq’s ambitions of being a pure East Coast creature. Finally, additionally, Susq is technically involved in the Great West Coast War against Teotihuacan. This, of course, is even less likely to go anywhere, but we might see Teo ships harass Lawi-Saquick, Susq’s city on the Mexican Gulf. So are we going up 8 just on account of a Sorta-Successful war? Well, nah. Probably. The age-old justification is simply probably the most apt: Other civs are just on their way down. Vyatka, Onondaga, Potiguara, You get it. Leave now, quickly, before I start arguing that this rank is too high for them.

39: Circassia

Cloudy:

Although their failure to meaningfully threaten Lagash was a setback, overall Circassia is maintaining, perhaps even improving, their surprisingly good position. They gained 6 spots in the info addict ranks this week, and they’re now above the world average in virtually every category, including military, where they have the 7th largest on the cylinder. And they’re doing it without bankrupting themselves—they have +34 gold per turn and plenty in the bank. The only question is what they will choose to do with this power.

40: Scotland

NopeCopter:

Things continue to heat up for Scotland… very, very slowly… as multiple civs settle cities in the Faroes and Iceland. On the one hand, these are taking away valuable space and travel lanes from Scotland, who really need a strong core in this region to remain competitive. On the other hand, though, these are also free cities whenever Scotland wants to declare war. Beyond that, Scotland continues to look dead even with Umhaill, which is a bit of a problem when both of them would really like a solid core to operate from. Of course, it’s HYPOTHETICALLY possible for them to coexist and each build their own little cores - Scotland in the North Sea, Umhaill in France and Iberia - but realistically, they’re going to come to blows, and an extended stalemate is a loss for both civs in a region where stagnation means death.

41: Pomo

Cloudy:

Let me put this bluntly: Pomo is in trouble.

Facing a two-pronged attack from the powerful Teotihuacan and the terrifying Tlingit, Essie Parish is going to have a hard time weaving her way out of this one. Her northern cities are lightly defended and likely to fall, while the Tlingit navy will harass the whole west coast as far out as Hawaii, and Teotihuacan will probably mount an effort to capture Baja California. Pomo has decent production but their military is much smaller than each of its foes individually, let alone together. Their city populations and science lag badly, and their ability to sustain an all-out war effort on two fronts is questionable at best.

Pomo is not without allies in the Great North American War; Susquehannock, Xaragua, and Ponca are on their side, but they aren’t strong enough or close enough to distract Teotihuacan, and none of them border Tlingit at all, nor are they currently at war with Tlingit either. So Pomo is, for all practical purposes, on its own.

If this war goes very badly, which it easily could, then Pomo will continue to slide over the subsequent episodes. If not, then they might stay here. But to reclaim a spot in the top 10... that would take a miracle.

42: Pakistan

Paige:

43: Bunuba

Msurdej:

Well ain't that a kick in the pants. Bunuba was already fighting multi-front war between Ternate and NSW, but now Lanfang has joined the fray! And Lanfgang is winning, taking Mindi Rardi and Gurang Ngadja, both cities looking like solid holds. Jandamarra's navy is focused on the east, trying to protect their gains from a very real threat of Ternate reconquest. The only saving grace they have this episode is that New South Wales's land invasions seemed to have petered out, though their navy did help Lanfang. Bunuba has fallen to its lowest point bar Episode 0, but will they fall back out of the Top 20 for good next episode? Or can they recover and give NSW a run for their money?

44: Ethiopia

Archimedes :

If you told me an episode or two ago that Ethiopia would be outside the top 10 in stats, I wouldn’t have believed you. If you told me they weren’t even in the top 20, I would have laughed at you. But here we are, dear readers, looking at a civilization who have faced an 11 point drop, all the way down to 27th. And why you may ask, has Ethiopia’s relevance fallen off of a cliff?

I don’t know.

For all intents and purposes, they should be decent. They have all right production, decent crops, fantastic tech and science, and a bang up wonder. But with a somewhat paltry city count of 8, and cities that are generally either situated in dry desert or unworkable mountains, Ethiopia seems to have stalled and faltered. Other, more relevant civs have skyrocketed up the leaderboards, surpassing a civilization that has done something, but not enough. And though they are still at war with Phoenicia and Maravi, their war efforts are leading to little actual advances, acting more as participation ribbons on their path to dominating the region. They’ve even had their land stolen away by Zazzau, a civ that most of the power ranking team thought thoroughly decimated 5 episodes earlier.

Is there really a route for Ethiopia to regain their former strength? Their unique abilities don’t provide any groundbreaking bonuses, focusing more on religious bonuses that they can’t utilize, or writer bonuses that are not particularly geared towards military expansion. They do have one of the best wonders in the game, the Statue of Zeus, but have yet to make much use out of it, besides nabbing a Maravi city to the east. Some of their neighbours do stand weaker than them, such as Phoenicia, Luba, Maravi, Hyksos, and even some of Aures’ less defended eastern cities. But time has perhaps passed Ethiopia by, and what might have been opportune times to conquer weak and defenseless cities has turned into more heavily militarized cores. For Ethiopia to truly regain their strength, they’ll need to make some bold moves. And fast.

45: Rouran

Archimedes :

It’s fair to say that Rouran wasn’t the most consequential this past episode, with their only significant on screen appearance being a few far flung settlements in the northern reaches of Siberia. They’ve maintained their peace with Green Ukraine, keeping to themselves and slowly consolidating their ever expanding empire. That time has been precious though, as they’ve been making their way up the stat lines, and preparing to take on some of their beefier neighbours. But do they even have a chance, when monoliths like Tang, Ket, and debatably Green Ukraine sit on their doorsteps?

Rouran is managing to hold a classic Liberty empire at the moment. With 13 cities spread over a variety of terrains, their production is clearly trending upwards, but their population still remains low and distributed. Unfortunately for them, a handful of their cities lie in harsh terrain, with deserts and hills and tundra and snow all contributing to their wide array of settled biomes. That lack of population has contributed to a lack of science, and though their technology count doesn’t look so bad, they have only managed to pick up a wide array of low science technologies. This bodes poorly for Rouran’s chances, as both neighbouring powerhouses Ket and Tang have been focusing hard on population, and on technological advances.

The sun is beginning to set on the Mongolian Steppes as Rouran may be gearing up to little to late. Though they’ve pushed hard to get a vast array of cities out, their neighbours were quicker to do so, and have become more established in the region. Viable invasion targets are looking fewer and farther between, with only Qara-Khitai looking to be on a similar level. But fighting through rocky terrain and soaring mountains is a poor portent for this horseman focused civ, and with no remarkable unique abilities or stalwart advances in tech, the Rouran seem just about as stuck as a centipede that have fallen in a well.

46: Yanomami

Semi:

Well, well, well, it seems someone wasn’t going to take Caral’s quick rise lying down. Despite not really appearing on screen this episode, our Colombian contender is continuing to improve on the stats sheet, where they’re only one place behind stats darling Caral. Yanomami also has the third-highest food surplus on the entire cylinder (behind only NSW and Mysore), meaning their effective science - already only nine behind Caral - should continue to rise. Their only ding is their production - at a paltry 120, it sits well below that of every other top tier power. Nonetheless, they continue expanding, with another settlement in the Caribbean and a respectable 11 cities.

There’s just one point of failure: Xaragua is researching Compass. Which means Carracks and Galeasses are coming to the Caribbean. Those new settlements may not be safe for long.

47: Bangladesh

Archimedes :

It’s been a long time coming, and Bangladesh has finally done it.

Pegu and Bangladesh have been staring each other down for the entirety of this game. With some of the closest capitals on the cylinder, it was only a matter of time before one conquered the other. And with a coalition war with Lanfang on the eastern front, Bangladesh has swooped in and taken Hongsawatoi in a decisive strike. But is this military victory enough to place them in the top 10? Most rankers don’t seem to think so.

Bangladesh smartly decided to peace out of their war with Pegu after capturing two cities, the small naval settlement of Sadhuim and the grand capital itself, But, most rankers note that the real prize of the war would have been Dagon, a defensive stronghold surrounded by mountains. Notably, Dagon holds the Gate of the Sun, a wonder that provides a +15% growth bonus in all cities, something that would have boosted Bangladesh’s respectable population to astronomical levels. With the dust settled on their war with Pegu, they now find themselves bordering a new, more terrifying threat of Lanfang, a strong contender and a civ with a history of successfully conquering cities. And with Mysore to the west, and a heavily militarized Mysore at that, Bangladesh is beginning to look quite hemmed in.

Bangladesh is however doing quite well from an empire building perspective. Their production is solid, their crop yields are flourishing, and their science is competing well enough with other technological giants. Their religion is decent enough, providing extra faith and culture from specific luxuries and their religious building, but they’ve perplexingly failed to enhance their religion, missing out on those additional bonuses. Their culture actually is surprisingly lacking, with only 8 adopted policies, for a civilization that both has bonus culture from their religion and bonus culture from every population they have during golden ages.

As much as this war was a victory for Bangladesh, their greatest prize sits just out of reach. With militarized or heavily defended neighbours in all directions, there is no longer an easy target for Bangladesh to focus on. Their best hope is to sim fast and sim hard, bolstering the core of their empire until they’re leagues and away better than at least someone next door. And perhaps an opportune war at the right time can be the route to greatness, when Bangladesh can catch someone looking the other way.

48: Japan

ItsTruckMonth:

While the rest of East Asia tears itself apart, Japan is sitting idly by and grabs two spicy wonders.

First off, is that they nabbed Chichen Itza, which extends the duration of Golden Ages by 150%, to a max of 15 days. This is pretty nice, but it pairs amazingly with the second wonder they nabbed, the Temple of Heaven, which provides +15% food and faith during Golden Ages. Essentially, Golden Ages for Japan last longer, and they’ll grow a good amount during that time.

Outside of those wonders, though, Japan is set pretty nicely. Their military and science are second in the region, only behind Tang, all the while Grukraine and Itelmen bleed each other dry in a war, and Cebu keeps refusing to reinforce the former Ryukyuan capital. It’s about time you wake up and smell the gunpowder Hidegoatshi.

49: Anishinaabe

NopeCopter:

The Anishinaabe have a bit of a quiet episode, securing peace with the coalition which attempted to take them down. While they didn’t quite get the insane turnaround they could have with all those undefended Tlingit and Pomo frontier cities, they still did not only survive but win a 3v1 (albeit a 3v1 that their opponents were all rather unprepared for). Now the Pomo are the fun new civ to hate, giving the Anishinaabe a bit of a break at the cost of making the Tlingit much scarier in the future. So… what next? Well, part of why the Anishinaabe are ranked so high is because they have options. Their stats are good enough that they don’t need to act immediately, but of course with the Tlingit nearby, they do need to keep growing. The Ponca are the obvious target - four cities in the fertile heartland of North America, whose conquest exposes the also-weak Karankawa. However, the Onondaga are also a tempting option. Their stats are better and the terrain is harder to move through, but they’re still not very strong, and there’s plenty to take. Either way, the Anishinaabe look well-positioned to become the powerhouse of eastern North America… at least until the Tlingit start getting really scary.

50: Caral

ItsTruckMonth:

Qhapaq is, simply put, chilling. As the continent rips itself apart, they bide their time, focusing on self-improvement. The result? Top 10 in production and the THIRD-best science output on the cylinder (sitting only behind Tlingit and NSW).

While Chono still stands tall as the strongest South American civ, Caral is not far behind. The defining factor between them, though, will be how they fare in a true, bare-knuckle brawl. So far, it's been either dunking on low levels or far-flung expeditions. Only when the gloves are off will we see who rules the South.

51: Seychelles

Cloudy:

The Seychelles fall out of the top 10 this week, on account of the fact that they’ve run out of space to expand. With Madagascar and all the major outlying islands fully settled, they will have to resort to conquest to support further growth, which is unlikely to happen until they research compass and unlock carracks and galleasses. Should that occur, they could easily earn their way back into the top echelon. But in the meantime, there are some positive signs—for example, they may not be researching compass, but they are researching education, which in the long term might be just as good.

52: Mysore

Msurdej:

Rounding out the bottom ten we have Mysore. Tipu Sultan tumbles a little this episode as he gives up his attempts to retake the city of Salem to Qara Khitai for the low low price of... nothing. While this is a loss, it prevents the loss of the sister city Karwar. These cities were always far reaching outposts of Mysore's power, showing that while their stats are still good, they aren't good enough to field an army so rapidly and so far from the base. But an opportunity presents itself to them, should they be bold enough to take it. Pakistan is preoccupied with wars against Sumer at the moment, leaving the eastern flank of his empire sparsely defended. If Mysore can move his army across the border, he could make some serious gains.

53: Scythia

Semi:

You’re telling me Scythia went up HOW MANY ranks?? They were mentioned in the episode exactly once - in the discussion of Orange’s comic. So what happened?

Well, a few things. First of all, we critically reevaluated Scythia’s position after the Vyatka war. And boy, do we like it. Their neighbors are as follows:

1) Vyatka, who they just took the best cities and land off of, who now looks suspiciously like Great Perm from X2. Who were those guys? Precisely.

2) Estonia, who while having good science and unreasonable production, is constantly being assailed with wars. They have fewer troops than noted military powerhouses Phoenicia and Portugal.

3) Hanseatic League, a civ that…exists. Yeah. Not much to say there, because the League isn’t much to begin with.

4) Wallachia, whose military is *still* stuck in the Iron Age. They have science that’s out of the single digits now, but they’re so far behind now that it won’t matter.

5) Circassia

So yeah, Circassia - CIRCASSIA - are the biggest threat to Scythia right now. And even they have an isolated city only defensible by a medium-sized Black Sea fleet.

But it’s not just Scythia’s neighbors. It’s how fast they rebuilt from the Vyatka war. Last PRs, I commented how I thought Wallachia could’ve nabbed a city off Scythia. Just a few turns later, that looks impossible, as Scythia already have the fourth-largest army on the cylinder. And their science is actually on par with other top-tier civs now - heck, it’s higher than Aures and Chono. All in all, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that the horse lords are now the European frontrunners. From boxed-in to powerhouse in just a couple of episodes. Who’d’ve thought it? Not me, that’s for sure.

54: Teotihuacan

Shaggy:

Hello, I’m Archimedes with another week of “What’s Going On With Teotihuacan?” …Wait, I’m not Archimedes? The author's attribution says “Shaggy” up there… what’s up with that? muffled banging noises The PR manual doesn’t say anything about handling a Teotihuacan writeup that doesn’t start with “Archimedes:”… OK, sorry, let’s start over.

Hello, I’m Shaggy with my first ever Teotihuacan writeup! Sorry for the crossed wires in the intro. I am currently more muffled banging noises multitasking between writing Teotihuacan analysis and barricading the door of my cabin on the sub from a very confused Archimedes who is trying to reclaim the Teotihuacan writeup. But once again, the PR gods of thump thump thump randomness and assignments have graced me with the writeup of a civ I am a very big fan of as well and I shan’t be giving it up so easily.

“Shaggy, open this damn door!”

No. Anyway, Teotihuacan have once again achieved a single-digit rank and are matching their previous season-best rank this week at 8. They have very much earned that gain between their thinning of the already scant Xaraguan navy and coordinating with the very capable Tlingit and significantly less capable Karankawa to try and squeeze the orange juice out of Pomo.

Knock knock knock “Tell them about the stats! An enormous production score of 222! They have an absolute engine to pump out units and buildings at an astonishing rate!”

Quiet, you. Actually, yeah, good point. Teotihuacan has the 4th best production output on the cylinder at the moment, well behind Tlingit but quite competitive with the rest of the top tier.

“And the units are going to be better than before! They’ve finally researched writing and can now compete with the top science civs!”

Yes, yes, city growth rates for Teotihuacan have really recovered and their granaries and storehouses are bursting. Now that they actually build science boosting buildings, those effects should further compound. We’ve got a real power brewing here.

“But you’re forgetting the best part! Their coalition with Tlingit against Pomo gives them a unique opportunity to attack what would normally be a horribly stalled out grindfest of a war!”

Hey, who’s on which side of the door here? But yes, again. There is a lot of potential for Teotihuacan to take a chunk or two out of Pomo here as Essie Parrish is beset on all sides by formidable forces. Pomo has a number of vulnerable Pacific coastal cities that Teotihuacan could start threatening, even the far-flung (ish, the map makers took some liberties with the Pacific distances) Hawaiian territory that Pomo has claimed might be a Teotihuacan target. On land Teotihuacan also has a position to threaten Pomo through the Rocky Mountains, however the naval options seem more appealing in my opinion due to the existing penchant Tlingit has for sailing a navy down the Pacific coast into Pomo territory. Should Teotihuacan be strategic enough with their unit placements and timing with Tlingit, they could force Pomo to split their defensive naval forces and start delivering North America’s first real body blows this season.

Archimedes? Buddy? Are you still there? He probably just got confused. Pretty sure he’s doing the next writeup in the rankings this week.

55: Chono

Archimedes :

This has been a good week for Teotihuacan, with rising science, massive production, and a very very relevant war declaration. As the Americas region breaks out into a Thunderdome of epic proportions, I’m glad I can detail to you readers how Teotihuacan is in one of the best positions to-

Sorry what? I don’t have the Teotihuacan writeup this week? They gave it to Shaggy? No no that can’t be right, I’M the writer for Teotihuacan. No, Chono is NOT the Teotihuacan of the south! They told me I'd be getting the 7th ranked civ this week! Teotihuacan IS the rightful 7th place civ this week!

Excuse the mixup dear readers, but Chono DOES happen to be similar to Teotihuacan in some regards. In fact, they just so happen to be better in ways I wish that Teotihuacan could measure up to. With actual wonders built, a very respectable science, neighbours primed to invade, and wonderful land to settle and improve, Chono truly is in a respectable position. And though they’ve been quiet the past two episodes, and were barely featured in the last, their war declaration against NSW may be a portent for a growing thunder within Patagonia.

Looking at Chono’s stats, the first thing that stands out is their ABSURD 15 social policies adopted, plus unrecorded openers. This is four more than the next contender of Caral with 11, and even more striking with a grand total of 12 cities to bump up the policy cost. Their production, science, food, and happiness are all doing very well, keeping them respectably in the top 10 in most regards.What’s even more striking is their high gold and high military scores,

Something that’s risen over the past couple of episodes to keep pace with their neighbour Guaycuru. Even though we didn’t get the chance to see Chono’s lands, one can imagine that they’re sporting a serious carpet, one that may or may not be headed across the Pacific to attack Bunuba. A tricky perspective of course, since both Caral and Rapa Nui stand in their way.

Chono wowed viewers with an aggressive settling pattern, a huge amount of culture from their UA, and a solid core. They have been quite sleepy over these past couple of episodes, but a war declaration and a history of at least some aggressiveness is a good sign for things to come. Guaycuru may not be the weakest neighbour, and Bunuba may not be the closest, but Chono still has the opportunity to show they really are a part of this game, and not a star that’s slowly fading. On the cusp of Civil Service and with the happiness to support it, we’re potentially likely to see Chono’s population explode. And with a plentiful populace and a large standing army, perhaps they’ll even nab a free Bunuba city in a peace deal.

56: Lanfang

Leman:

Lanfang continue their rampage across south east Asia. After completing their butchering of Pegu, Lanfang make an absolutely brilliant play. Noticing that their powerful southern neighbor, Bunuba is busy with New South Wales, Lanfang pounces, snapping up their vulnerable northern island cities. Like I said, this is a fantastic play, they not only help cut down their most powerful neighbor, but they’ve also managed to pick up four cities in the last two episodes (including a fifth, eminently). It's a fantastic, solid jumping off point for regional domination. Personally, I think that’s worth a bit more than just a single point rise, that just goes to show how strong the current top five are.

They also have a foothold in Siberia now. Cause all Indonesian cities need to have one of those.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of New South Wales

57: New South Wales

ItsTruckMonth:

To say the NSW’s war against Bunuba is not going according to plan would be an understatement, though that implies there was ever a plan at all.

Neither land military has been built up to the point where they can actually make progress into each other’s territory, bar the last slide we see of the outback, in which Bunuba are on the offensive against their former settle of Jijidu. They aren’t losing, but they certainly aren’t winning either.

In fact, Lanfang has been the biggest winner of this war, essentially kicking Bunuba out of the Malaysian archipelago. Not an end-of-the-world scenario for MacArthur, but still not good!

58: Ket

JDT:

The Ket fumble a war against the woefully outmatched Kipchaks, failing to scratch Kara somehow despite overwhelming firepower. In spite of that, they find themselves rewarded by the PRs with a 2 spot jump, leapfrogging surging juggernauts Lanfang and NSW. Why would they have been rewarded as such? The answer is simple - stats and circumstances. Their primary stats are fairly strong - top 10 in infoaddict rankings, with a incredible 236 production - 2nd best. In terms of circumstances, they have no truly major roadblocks for the foreseeable future unless Bactria/Pakistan goes on a rampage or Rouran shapes up massively, giving them uncontested time to grow with ample space left in Siberia to do so. And thats not even mentioning their busted religion! Right now, one of their cities is currently at 44 defensive strength, a number that you would have trouble piercing in the early late game, let alone the early game. This all means one thing - even if they aren’t going to soar like Superman, it’ll be damn hard to breach their fortress of solitude.

59: Aures

NopeCopter:

The Aures solidly maintain their spot in the top 3 as their war with Wassoulou continues to go well with no signs of stopping. Sure they only actually took a couple of cities this episode, but their track record of tenacity implies they’re not leaving without at least three more, with even total elimination being on the table. Their stats are as excellent as ever even in the midst of all this, and they really have no weaknesses in that regard. But what really sets the Aures apart is their position. Unlike basically every other top-tier power, even those above them, the Aures are surrounded by a truly ridiculous number of weak civs that they can easily pick off at their leisure. Portugal. The Papal States. Zazzau. Even the Hyksos will be within their grasp before too long. And of course, If they can get a nice foothold in Europe, the rest of the continent is also unable to stand up to them. Their only real rival in the region, Ethiopia, is stagnating so hard that the Onondaga would be jealous, and they barely have a border with the Aures anyways. The Aures, more than any other civ, have a foolproof position right now. Not only are they strong, they have so many easy avenues to increase that strength that it would honestly be more impressive if they DID somehow screw this up. Literally any direction is a safe invasion target, and they have a history of playing bold and aggressive. In all honesty I had the Aures ranked second, and if they keep things up, I expect many more Power Rankers will come to agree with me on that sentiment.

I also hope that many more Power Rankers will soon come to agree with me on the sentiment that the Aures are awful, because holy shit what a cruel, vindictive, insufferable, privileged cock of a civ. They get a buff to their starting terrain THREE TILES DEEP to help their incompetence in the test games (clear instance of smurfing to fish for more benefits), something many, many other civs would have desperately appreciated, and then they proceed to immediately forward-settle Wassoulou (who were actively being cool as hell) instead of using ANY of that land. Then they proceeded to cockblock Wassoulou’s own settling efforts at every turn, cut them in half, deny ANYBODY any settling room in a massive chunk of the Sahara, cut off Wassoulou’s Maghreb settle, and then kick them while they were down with such needless aggression that they singlehandedly killed any potential for an exciting back-and-forth in the region. All while stifling poor Zazzau’s chances at recovery from the war with Wassoulou, not because they’d get any benefit out of it, but purely to be a dick. Literally every one of their neighbors was cooler than them going in, and now none of them get a chance to show off how cool they can be because the Aures decided to screw everybody else over in the most knife-twisting way possible. It’s not even that they got terrain buffs when the other underperformers didn’t - the southern half of the Sahara was buffed, too, albeit less so, so at least their competition also got more of a chance to compensate. It’s the fact that they used that buff to fake being a cool underdog on a miracle run, like an industry plant celebrity. Lacs has said that even after the buffs the Aures were mediocre, but I know the truth. I’ve seen what they were capable of in those later test runs. The Aures may win the CBR. They may win the hearts of the fans. But I know what they are. They’re nasty, rotten scumbags who get to do whatever the hell they want because they got a free great start and then played dirty right out of the gate anyways. I’ve wanted a proper world-class power out of Africa for the last three seasons and I would STILL prefer another mid-tier stalemate than a victory that comes from the AuresI hope that they pull a Wahgi and stagnate in a pile of their own units until somebody cooler can put them out of their misery, but I don’t have much hope, because they are literally surrounded by low-tiers at least a couple layers deep. Curse you, Aures. May you live in infamy. no I’m not biased because I made Wassoulou and Zazzau what are you talking about

60: Tang

Orange:

Tang makes another play for Ryukyu, they really hate this whole zombie thing and the weird nonsense Sho Shin has been spouting. Really this madness has got to stop, I mean “a metallic ship under the water filled with tech of the far future, able to view anywhere on the Cylinder” just makes no sense, and frankly they should be put to rest the way Taizong knows best: Diplomatically. Now just have to convince Sho Shin to give up his only city… Surely there’s a way…

61: Tlingit

Semi:

I think it’s difficult to overstate how good of a short-term position Tlingit finds itself in at the end of this episode. They’ve managed to convince the other neighbor of their single biggest rival into a coalition war on said rival. The same rival who they’ve already taken a city off of in a prior war. Combine that with top-tier stats and you get a real contender. Fun fact - if you compare Tlingit’s stats with those from past CBR seasons (excepting Mk. 2, since those aren’t available), they have the single best stats at this point in the game. Better even than the Faroe Islands. As Leman pointed out in the comments, their science isn’t bonkers, but their production and military size are absurd - they have 25% more production than their nearest competitor. It’s for that reason that we put them number one with zero deviation. Ironic, isn’t it? That the civ we thought would have the Mandate of Heaven is relegated to second while--

I’m here with breaking news. It seems Tlingit has not been placed number one with deviation. A single ranker has placed them third. Ok, fine, I’ll point out some of the negatives with Tlingit. To be fair, they do only have three neighbors. In the far west, they have an Itelmen who despite all their (many) faults are proving to be quite the plucky civ. They’re continuing to settle cities and establish themselves despite all the odds stacked against them. And plus, Itelmen have the built-in “Arctic Teal Civ” bonus (see Thule, Cree, Chukchi, Inuit, and even Yup’ik) that prevents them getting killed before 25th.

To the south, you have the aforementioned Pomo, who are poised to get absolutely hammered by this coalition. But really, are they? Sure, the trans-Rocky cities of Shanel and Ka’tuuli are likely to fall within the next five turns, but the majority of Tlingit’s strength lies in their navy. And Pomo only really has one Californian coastal city. So this war will almost certainly clip Pomo’s wings. But it won’t remove them as a long-term roadblock.

And across the Rockies, you have Anishinaabe. Who beat Tlingit in a war not two episodes ago, taking a city off them. So yeah, Tlingit are a little boxed in.

Ok, now that the negative is out of the way, let’s talk about some more of the many positives. As mentioned, Tlingit is completely in a class of their own when it comes to statistics. They have the second-most cities on the cylinder, behind only the Tang School of City-Based Diplomatic Wizardry. Since Bunuba is currently getting their ass handed to them by Lanfang and New South Wales, Tlingit also now has the highest effective science on the cylinder - without WRITING. Yes, that’s correct. This absolute madman has the best science on the cylinder without the key early science tech, and so possesses no libraries.

How, you may ask? Well, by breaking the game. You see, there’s this already pretty good religious belief that gives +5 Science and Culture in cities with 10 or more followers. There’s just one problem. Despite no ostensible coding errors, this is giving +5 Science and Culture in EVERY CITY to the city’s owner. So uh, yeah. Kinda good for a civ with 16 cities.

That’s not all the good news! Tlingit also went and settled Greenland this episode. So they’ve decided to outflank Anishinaabe and keep their coastal chain up, while simultaneously opening up more city locations for their religion as well as more options for future expansion - have you seen how many civs have cities in the North Sea?

All that on the table, there’s really just one question for Tlingit: How effectively can they outrace their neighbors, or turn those same neighbors into food? Will they be like Thule and have great stats early but be too slow to escape when it matters, or like Chukchi, and roll over all opposition in their path? I think the success of this Pomo war will hint very heavily which path they go down. But if I was a betting man, I’d take Tlingit to perform every time.

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