Power Rankings: Episode 21 – S5

Release Date:

June 29, 2026

Narrated by:

Power-Rankers

Abstract

Power Rankings! Things are going hard! Dun dun dunnnn!

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Ternate

1 / 0

1: Ternate

JDT:

There has been a curse or pattern that has emerged across every single CBR installment - the 61st seeded civ in the episode 0 rankings will never finish 61st. Of course, due to the statistical variability present in any CBR since Civ and the Civ AI are such fickle things with many confounding factors, alongside the fact that the PRs are a statistical average, this is not exactly uncommon or unexpected. What is unexpected is how often the supposed bottom feeders are actually pretty good.

Since Mk2, the only time a 61st seed actually ended up behaving about as expected was Jamaica in X2, who died in 51st or 50th having done very little aside from forward settling Gran Colombia, who also weren’t great. Morocco survived into the 40s, famously creating a bizarre colonial empire off the Ashanti and having good scraps with Portugal and Mali. Haiti survived into the 30s despite not really doing much after almost sniping Caracas from Venezuela. Timor Leste needs no introduction, being arguably the greatest story this wild medium ever told. And Singapore threatened to almost do a Timor Leste, becoming arguably the best civ from their region ever (challenging only X2 Malacca) and becoming a polarizing but ruthlessly efficient powerhouse. In comparison, Ternate… lets just say didn’t tern-ate great.

Ternate started out fulfilling their low expectations in a swell manner, settling around their historical region and getting their cities fat. Then in episode 3, they were assaulted by Lanfang. What people thought could be a quick execution however, quickly turned into a nothingburger war. It was here where people realized that Ternate simply cannot die.

For some reason, Ternate were able to stack really high city defense on a bunch of their cities, most notably Sidangoli and Ternate proper. What this means is that while they were inferior statistically to Lanfang, Bunuba and later Cebu, nobody can actually pierce them. Time and time again people tried to attack them. Every time they would fail. Lanfang, Cebu, Bunuba, Caral, Chono, Japan, Ryukyu, none were able to properly break them in a decisive military conflict. Hell, they even were arguably winning against Bunuba. However, herein came the straw that broke Ternate’s back - in episode 13 they gave away Dodinga to Caral, a civ who didn’t border them and were more than happy to accept the trade, promptly getting the city placed in Bunuba hands once again

From this point onwards, it was a downward spiral. Sampalu and their Polynesian exclaves were seized by Japan and Caral. And then, the chaser happened. Cebu decided to attack them while they were battered and exhausted. At first, it was thought to potentially be a nothingburger war. However, city defense had decayed quite a bit and Cebu was statistically superior whilst being, well, Cebu. And so, Ternate would get completely eviscerated, having every city of theirs taken in one fell swoop, before ignominiously getting eliminated by a Chono expeditionary force sweeping through from Quellon.

Ternate will not be remembered in these halls. Too good to be remembered as a loser, too bad to be remembered as an actual contender. If they were remembered for anything it would be their downfall starting Cebu’s own and Lanfang’s rise, an outcome that is dubious to speculate about. But I’ll be real here - it's kind of refreshing to have the bottom rank civ actually perform pretty poorly for once. F.

1: Ternate

JDT:

2: Ma’in

Cloudy:

YOU CAN’T RANK ME LAST! I’M THE MA’IN CHARACTER!!!! YOU’LL ANSWER FOR THIS!

3: Pegu

JDT:

4: Maravi

ItsTruckMonth:

As the guillotine came down on Ternate in the last episode, it may now have its eyes on Maravi next, as Herero decides to swipe East. Maravi already sits at a massive stats disadvantage, given they’re the 4th worst in terms of overall stats, and the city of Sena has already flipped, so things aren’t looking good for Maravi as it stands.

That said, looks can deceive. Herero’s stats aren’t exactly great either (sitting just below average), they’ve beefed up their city defenses quite a bit, and given that 3 of their 4 cities lie on the coast, the Maravi navy could give Morenga and his generals some headaches. Maravi’s still absolutely fucked in the long run, but they could juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust eek out of this war alive.

5: Ponca

Archimedes :

Unfortunately, Ponca is a small fish in the big sea that is North America, and with two of the strongest civs in the game bearing down on their borders, their luck is just not there. Anishinaabe has two direct paths to both of their cities, and although their mountain fortress is defensible, we’re starting to get to the point where the AI has a chance of brute forcing the city down. It may still be a while until they are eliminated, but Ponca is in a position where luck is not on their side.

There’s not much else to say unfortunately. We’re likely looking at the new Ma’in or Pegu.

6: Karankawa

Orange:

I was gonna start this talking about how despite being a one city rump they are climbing above those with more cities, apparently they have a second. Up in the frigid north, blocked behind ice, like some sort of sick freak. You can’t run forever Joseph Maria, YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER.

7: Phoenicia

Semi:

It can’t just be me who’s drawing comparisons to Chad, right? A civ who conducts effective early wars before conquering too many desert territories and stagnating hard, leaving them in only the conquered lands?

Well, Chad finished 22nd. Phoenicia can only dream of that, with geography being the only thing defending them now - as it once did Ma’in.

In all honesty, though, there’s a pretty massive tier break in my opinion between Phoenicia and the civs below them - in terms of cities, science, military, and overall board position they’re far closer to Xavante in 43rd than Karankawa in 52nd.

8: Xaragua

Msurdej: Remember that 1up you got Xaragua? Well you just lost it, and another point. Here's hoping you and the rest of your rump state friends get finished off soon.

9: Papal States

Orange:

Sad that Wallachia resettled that burnt city instead of the Pope being able to nab another spot again. Such is the life of the Cheese Pope.

10: Green Ukraine

Caitlyn (LynnWinn):

In a region dominated by giants, even a mid tier civ looks like a dwarf from D&D. Grukraine isn’t even mid tier in any classification, they are a rump state waiting to be finished for dinner. Every civilization around them could take them out & make the game more interesting. Their stats are shit. Their location is even more so. They have no ambition or desire to do anything even remotely interesting. For one of the most hyped civilizations in the game, being third in PRs in episode 0, they have been the biggest flop we’ve seen this season. Rest in piss posers.

11: Ethiopia

Orange:

Ethiopia quite honestly saved by the bell. and by “bell”, haha, well. let’s justr say. My Loubha

12: Sumer

Leman:Sumer is riding high after not getting absolutely blended by Seychelles this week. That makes them statistically, factually better than Ethiopia, a civ that spent a considerable amount of time at the top of the rankings. I can’t promise more good things from Sumer, but this is genuinely impressive.

13: Wallachia

Cloudy:

I fully called Wallachia resettling the ruins of their own city in last week’s Papal States write-up... so that happened. What a waste of life and treasure, of which Wallachia has precious little to begin with!

14: Yunnan

Cloudy:

Why did Yunnan go up five places? To be honest, we don’t really know. Their 99-defense-strength capital helps but long-term it won’t stop Tang from rolling them. Or maybe rankers are riding high off Yunnan’s “””invasion””” of Lanfang? Not that anything was ever going to come of that...

15: Xavante

Archimedes :

I really cannot believe that Xavante, over all civs in South America, is having military success. It’s really unbelievable that Xavante, a civ that was often eliminated first in the test games, is capturing not one but two cities off of Caral, as well as throughout this game defending themselves from other aggressors. An incredible turn around in fortunes, we are living in a world where we might see Xavante live to the industrial era, as their science continues to be decent despite living on merely 6 cities at the moment.

And yet, things don’t seem particularly peachy. Despite surviving for so long, Xavante has a scarily low amount of science,and their overall technology count is awful at 37. Their neighbors the Yanomami are featuring cannons, something that could absolutely wear through their cities if an invasion were to occur. The more cities they capture, the more military ire they are likely to bring, and ultimately the Chono still exist to the far south, ready at some point to march north and claim all of South America for themselves.

Despite exceeding all expectations, Xavante is still in a mightily tenuous position. Their empire is fragile, their armies are weak, and they lack the production to rebuild or improve their core. I feel that ultimately, Xavante have been exciting, but are on the cusp of being eliminated in one good war against them. It will just be a matter of seeing who will strike that final killing blow.

16: Potiguara

Orange:

Potiguara, shockingly, has found out that just staring at a city does not capture it, and now Guaycuru’s more advanced guns are coming to turn things around. Will they be more successful? Maybe. Hopefully. Please just put Potiguara out of their misery.

17: Bactria

Semi:

Qara-Khitai declared war on Bactria this week, causing Bactria to roll over in their sleep. In other news, Bactria crawls up a spot over a Potiguara faced with sudden reversals. Wake me up when the Kipchaks or Pakistan declare war. Or maybe Circassia. That could be interesting.

18: Vyatka

ItsTruckMonth:

Vyatkas war with Bjarmia has resulted in nothing.

Nothing. Ever. Bjappens.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of Hanseatic League

19: Hanseatic League

ItsTruckMonth:

Hansa finds itself in a true test of strength as both Scythia and Estonia descend on their Baltic (and in Estonia’s case, also Swedish) holdings (though the Scythian declaration was on their own end, Jurgen what the fuck are you thinking). Thanks to Wallachia and Kalmar’s borders, the only cities in true danger are their eastern holdings of Bremen and Rostock, as well as the former Estonian city of Rakvere, so Hansa’s core is largely safe. That said, it would still be the blow that will knock Jurgen from mid-tier to garbage tier, so he needs to lock in.

Looking at the stats and yeaaaaaah it's pretty bleak: the Estonia-Scythia alliance possesses nearly 3x the military manpower and production of Hansa, so they can keep this pressure on. Hansa basically needs to harness the energy of prime Prussia, and with a little luck, they may be able to get out of this.

20: Caral

ItsTruckMonth:

Oh Caral, what a downfall you have on your hands. The world has jumped you, and now you are left as a shell of what you once were.

The great Caral Containment operation has left Qhapaq’s empire in tatters, suffering a whopping 14 rank drop this week, and for good reason. The empire is being picked off on all sides: Xavante has taken their last inland city, with Caral basically powerless to reclaim it, while the navies of Tang, NSW, and Japan are striking at their Pacific colonies like sharks in a bait bubble. Their stats have also cratered, given that their military has dropped to the fifth-worst on the cylinder (the WORST of anyone who basically isn’t a rump state right now), and their production has dipped below 200. Their only redeeming quality here is that they’re still tied with Ket for the 5th-most techs and still have some respectable science output.

That being said, I think we’ve seen the best days of Caral’s run this season, as they stand on nine cities and dropping. Now just pray that Chono doesn’t decide to finish them off once and for all.

21: Hyksos

Semi:

At this point in the season, you’re either in the “being eaten”, “waiting to be eaten”, or “consumers” camp. Hyksos is pretty solidly in that second camp. Maybe they can take the remains of Phoenicia, but that didn’t go so well last time. They’ve also been pretty solidly passed up by Zazzau, even despite the coalition on the latter. Nonetheless, since they aren’t actively being eaten, a 2 rank jump for them is in order.

22: France

Leman:

France has been guillotining so many people and we haven’t even seen them since they started, I’m upset.

23: Bjarmians

JDT:

“Harekr, the Bjarbarians are at the gates!”

“Let them be.”

“But why?”

“Because Nothing Ever Bjappens.”

24: Guaycuru

NopeCopter:

The Guaycuru, despite looking just as precarious as ever, continue to hold on in the face of… whatever the Potiguara are doing. Not much has really changed for them, and odds are not much will for some time. They’re still screwed when the Chono invade (though they should at least be able to hold out for a few turns), they’re still apparently not in any danger from the Potiguara, and while the Xavante just got their big W, they still pose no real threat. The Guaycuru are a solid mid-tier, but it’s hard to imagine them going much further at this point.

25: Kipchaks

Archimedes :

I have to give them props, the Kipchaks have made a wonderful strategic move. Just after Scythia has worn away their military against Circassia, Torgortak decides it’s time to jump in and recapture those cities that Scythia took oh so long ago. And, looking at the map, it’s going really well right?

Right?

Well maybe not. Scythia has reinforced themselves exceptionally quickly, and Uniquely Promoted Knights and Musketmen are doing a good job of holding Kipchaks knights and crossbowmen back. Plus, the Kipchaks now have to contend with Lancers, a premium upgrade for making sure the Kipchaks can’t use their primarily mounted forces to full effectiveness.

So where does that leave the Kipchaks? Well, with only 9 cities, and only 266 production, their stats aren’t looking that great. Their science is relatively poor, and their military seems to already have been worn down. They do have Chemistry, and are already fielding cannons, but with no way to bring them into position, it seems those cannons won’t be doing much against cities in this war. And their war allies?

Sleepy Hansa and Sleepy Ket, two civs that like to sit defensively, and the Ket don’t even share a border.

So, I wish all the best for the Kipchaks here, but I’d be shocked if they made many, if any, military gains. At least they’re distracting Scythia away from other targets, like Circassia and Estonia. That’s at least worth something.

26: Umhaill

Semi:

Remember when we thought Umhaill would be the cool, active Western European civ?

Yeah, me neither.

27: Onondaga

Shaggy:

Onondaga finally, FINALLY, drops into the bottom half once again. They have been coasting on their inflated stats and their languishing neighbors looking elsewhere for conquest. The neighbors are still focusing on other civs, but the Power Ranking team is finally getting on board with the idea that Onondaga is a paper tiger on the stat sheet. Almost 1/3 of their cities are icy Greenlandic settlements and their mainland army is largely composed of mounted units that will struggle to take any of the well-fortified Susquehannock cities. I had them much lower than their final rank this week, perhaps I can continue to convince the rest of the team to follow my thinking.

28: Estonia

JDT:

Estonia rises up by 5 due to several large changes in circumstances backed by consistent growth in stats. The big change is that they are ganking the Hansa. While nothing seems to be happening right now, and we all remember the Rostock incidents, this is a strong move and possibly the only really good move they can make. Buoyed by good technology and assistance from Scythia, Rakvere and Rostock look in sight, and perhaps the balance of power in Europe will finally change. Beyond that, they have fine stats and surprisingly good science for a mid tier. That can possibly lead to big things in the future.

29: Luba

Paige (LynnWinn):

I think most people were shocked by Luba throwing such a good punch at Zazzau last episode, but it isn’t the first time wars have been calculated well by Luba, it’s just they don’t have a good track record of winning those wars. Luba is about as middle-of-the-road as they come, & don’t really have much going for them. They don’t have a particularly good or up-to-date military, but enough that Zazzau struggles in a two front war. Their production is fine. It’s fine. They are in a major food shortage at the moment. If they take any cities in this war, it could be a good reprieve from them, but more just leaves them with a depleted military & weaker afterwards. The real winner of this situation is Aurès, whose biggest up-and-coming competitor in North Africa just got put in a bad situation & prevented from gaining more strength in the region. I hate Aurès so I am big mad at Luba & they should feel bad about themselves. Zazzau was the cool underdog in Africa that became an actual contender like Cebu in SEA, but Luba just had to go & ruin our fun. Fuck you .

30: Kalmar Union

Semi:

The Kalmar Union jumps 3 spots this week, over the tumbling Caral and as we see that food in the dictionary is defined as Onondaga and Guaycuru. And I think that’s what separates Kalmar (and most of this Euro-African pack in the low 20s/high 30s) from the Americans and Asians. They’re not really food for anyone. Scotland, despite their on-paper victory in the previous war, haven’t really capitalized. Bjarmians…yeah no they struggled to take Linlithgow, an isolated Scottish city. They aren’t invading Margarethe’s realm anytime soon. And Hansa are being coalitioned. So while Kalmar aren’t prospective winners of this CBR by any means, a mediocre Europe elevates them to the top half.

31: Portugal

Semi:

A quiet episode for Joao belies the stabilization of his position in the low 20s. The rise that we thought may have been due to an ‘elimination bump’ seems to be solidifying. And this solidification is for a few reasons. First of all, his stats are actually…respectable now? As the island cities in Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, and the South Atlantic start paying off, the only thing holding Joao back is an (admittedly pitiful) 155 production.

But more importantly, the stagnation of France has opened a door that many (including myself) thought was closed. In fact, French and Portuguese science is just about equal - at 39 (282) to 43 (286) respectively. Suddenly, Portugal seems like they could be an actual player in Europe, especially if an actual coalition forms against Robespierre.

Finally, the Aures-shaped Sword of Damocles is looking a lot weaker. Obviously, it’s hard to not pick the top-15 civ with a five-tech lead, but the war is probably not an immediate, massive loss like we thought it could be as recently as 5 episodes ago. Thus, things are looking up for this version of the Lazy Portugal Show.

32: Herero

JDT:

The Herero go up by 3 as they invade Maravi, a war that should in theory net them quite a few benefits and allow them to start consolidating more of their position. But we all know how this tango ends. At best, they take one city then peace out. And even if they kill Maravi or do something more ambitious there's still the omnipresent elephants in the room of not being able to beat Luba and being statchecked by Seychelles. Yeah things are kinda bleak since they are top half.

33: Zazzau

Msurdej:

Zazzau manages to grow its holding in this episode, adding another two cities from the war with Ethiopia. All well and good, but there is bad news on the horizon. Luba has sent its navy crashing into the coastline of Zazzau, meaning to take cities like Kushaka and Kufena. The troops are holding off the advance, as well as attacks by Ethiopia, but it doesn't seem like a winning battle. If I were you Zazzau, I'd make peace with Ethiopia before handling the Luba situation, before continuing to solidify those gains and focus on your next attack.

34: Bunuba

Shaggy:

Bunuba continues to wall off New South Wales despite their widening statistical gap. They also continue to flounder into irrelevance as even their attempts at bullying a weak neighbor, Ternate, while they’re down fail to yield even a single city. With no real expansion prospects, there is not much hope for them long-term. Once the Wall falls, their dreams and ranking should follow quickly. Plus one rank to them for reasons unbeknownst to me, I put them much lower.

35: Cebu

Archimedes :

I’m going to come out and say it at the start : I am a Cebu Hater.

I want to be frank with you, dear reader, because there’s a lot of love for this civ and how exciting they’ve been during this game. Unfortunately however, I am a contrarian and I dislike things that people like. Bora Bora last season was a prime example of lots of people being hyped up for a civ in the Pacific, all for the house of cards to collapse in a grand fashion. And once before, again today, this is what will happen with Cebu.

You can see the cracks beginning to show already. With such a spread out empire, and a path of war and destruction left in their wake, Cebu has been exciting for readers of season 5, but have been quickly growing a reputation for brutal and bloody conquest, and the civs around them have taken note. Japan has burned one of their cities to the ground, Lanfang one as well, all fighting back against the tyranny that Humabon has been enacting. For to us, Cebu is a scrappy underdog that has clawed their way to the top, despite the deck being stacked against them. To their neighbours, they are an imperialistic conqueror that has nearly eliminated two civs, and has painted a picture of wrath upon any that stand in their way.

If you look at their raw stats, Cebu is pretty middle of the road for such a plucky underdog. 347 effective science and 41 techs researched is respectable, if a little underwhelming, and their recent pickup of Navigation proves they finally are up to snuff when it comes to naval technologies. But Cebu has only just grabbed gunpowder, and is also lacking key economic technologies that would help them keep pace with a lot of their closest neighbours. Their 286 production is frankly paltry compared to Tang’s 977, and their empire is actively starving. What was once an excess of 50 happiness has dwindled to merely 19, and they are likely to reach a point where their conquering sends them into negative territories. Plus, Cebu is fairly on the lower end of culture, with only 13 policies to their name.

Cebu’s stats just don’t compete when compared to the grander scale of civs on the cylinder. Though Cebu has been able to pick fights with weaker civs, or nab a city or two off of an unsuspecting foe, their wanton destruction is making them more and more enemies. And, with both Tang and Tlingit being within sailing distance, one wrong move will bring the massive hammer down on this little anvil. Tang in particular is an ever present and ever growing threat to Cebu, sharing a sea border that stretches thousands of kilometers in real life. Tang dwarfs Cebu in both production and science, being over three times more powerful in both regards. And, with Cebu straddling both sides of the Pacific, they now share a border with even more impressive Tlingit, an empire that has shown they are not above spilling blood themselves.

Ultimately, though Cebu has been capturing the hearts and minds of readers with their absurd plays and their aggressive actions, Humabon has eaten too fast and too greedily, putting himself and his civilization in a perilous position. They are no Timor Leste, and unfortunately their reckoning is just past the horizon. As their empire even now falls one domino at a time, I expect the big dogs to finally notice just how much trouble this little pup is causing. And if Cebu of all things is the one that unites Tang and Tlingit under one war banner, you better believe I’ll be laughing away until the Timawas come home.

36: Mysore

Cloudy:

Mysore has now fallen to the lowest rank they’ve reached since episode 0, but to be honest, they should probably be a lot lower. New South Wales is actively dismantling their maritime empire, including areas as close to their homeland as Sri Lanka, and Pakistan’s tile grabbing abilities have stripped their northern cities to only a handful of tiles, cut off from the rest of their empire. Mysore’s bugged ability that gives them lots of food every few turns, creating population spikes, continues to boost their stats, but let’s be honest, they’re totally screwed. Expect a major drop soon, and if it doesn’t happen, blame my fellow rankers, not me.

37: Bangladesh

Semi:

Bangladesh…what to say about Bangladesh that hasn’t been said already? They’re an objectively solid civ who might be in the worst possible area to be “solid”. India this season is proving to be a beast of a region, on par with X3’s Afghanistan and Bengal - though now with a viable third power in Mysore.

On that front, though…New South Wales showing up to break legs and take names from Mysore might be an opportunity for Bangladesh. Perhaps a repeat of the Andaman War could be in order…?

38: Qara-Khitai

Orange:

You got us good Yelu, you got us good. We were overjoyed to see you declare war on a neighbor but you sly dog figured out a loophole to continue doing nothing, attacking a neighbor you have a one tile border in the Himalayas with. Always one step away aren’t you.

39: Circassia

Shaggy:

If anything, these wars of nothing with Scythia that Circassia keeps finding themselves in are distracting Scythia from outscaling Circassia. So long as Ateas keeps wasting mounted units on Circassian walls, Ismail Berzeg will be able to use the time to reinforce further south to continue his expansion into the Middle East. The slow but sure accumulation of tiles in Anatolia is priming the stage for another attempt at Wallachia while the concentration of reinforcements around Tyre and other nearby cities indicates a willingness to take another bite out of Phoenicia. Circassia really does keep finding opportunities wherever they may be.

40: Scythia

Orange:

Will Scythia be the next to fall to Hansa’s curse of “people sucking ass at attacking them”? Maybe, but it has re-energized Scythia’s military production a bit, and if they can get a city or two that’d be pretty great. I’m still a big Scythia believer, but they do need to build up some weight and go after Estonia, or get enough to clear the rest of Vyatka, until then they will continue to be a lil bit stuck.

41: Scotland

NopeCopter:

Scotland! Scotland, Scotland, Scotland. There is not much to say about Scotland. They finally unlocked deep ocean sailing and Caravels! They have Cannons! They do not have any sort of decisive advantage over any of their neighbors that would allow them to make any easy conquests in the short term. This is honestly really, really concerning, Scotland needs to be making big gains if they want to keep standing even a bit of a chance and they are decidedly not doing that right now. They’re this high mainly off their rock-solid stat line (apparently) and the fact that there really aren’t that many civs that look decent right now.

42: Yanomami

Shaggy:

Yanomami was mentioned 10 times this episode but the vast majority of that commentary was just waxing about potential war declarations that Yanomami could make and how good it would be for them if they did. That really is the story of their game: sit around for a while, generate some latent hype, then do a random war with questionable results and rebuild faster than their neighbors. Or, you know, just declare war on Vyatka and beef up their stats, that’s a hard episode’s work.

43: Japan

Shaggy:

Japan traded a war with good prospects for a war with… pretty meh prospects. Caral is already getting picked apart in the Pacific by Chono and Japan does not seem to be fully committing to the long-range naval campaign that would be necessary to make any meaningful gains in this war. It would have been far safer for them to try sniping out Shuri while Cebu is feeling the pressure elsewhere. Alas, Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s penchant for naval battles planned more with the heart than the head shines through and his people’s futures suffer. No rank change, they are situated well statistically and have much better options than other civs still.

44: Susquehannock

NopeCopter:

The Susquehannock are a solid civ trapped in a rather unfortunate position. They have a solid city count, a couple of weak neighbors to pick on, reasonable stats, and they’re even upgrading their navy to Galleons. The only issue is they’re in North America, a continent with 2-3 other top tiers. They can definitely still expand into the Atlantic, but this definitely isn’t an ideal place to be right now. To make things worse, they’re currently unhappy, so any gains they do make would almost certainly be razed.

45: Aures

ItsTruckMonth:

So, flashback to the last PRs’ drop. We’ve looked at some empirical evidence that Aures may be washed, citing their drop in stats overall, lack of quality cities due to terrain, and their overall lackadaisical nature, as the rest of Africa has begun consolidating power through slaughtering their rivals.

Jump forward to another episode, and things have not changed. They continue to stagnate in stats overall, dropping from 12th overall to 17th overall, with no change in military manpower and even losing production (though still maintaining very respectable science yields). Signs are absolutely pointing to the Aures being washed, but a new development has emerged that gives them a golden opportunity: Luba has declared war on Zazzau.

Zazzau has already been drained militarily by the war with Ethiopia, seeing its military drop to below average. Better yet for Aures, Luba’s military is basically tied with Zazzau’s, ensuring that it’ll be a slogfest between both with minimal gains.

This is Dihya’s Holy Grail, their Golden SCAR. If they want any chance of reversing their stagnation and reclaiming the title of the king of Africa, this is their shot. But they need to act fast, should Zazzau peace out with both while maintaining their gains, then the Aures have a massive problem on their southern border, one that may slam their door of contention shut.

46: Itelmen

Archimedes :

Despite many assertions that the Itelmen are sailing on the coattails of Tlingit and their broken religion, Harchin has made an effort to shake their reputation and actually do something in this game. And do something they have done, capturing the Caral / Ternate city of Sampalu with Triremes of all things. Quite the feat I must say.

But is this perhaps indicative of internal issues that the Itelmen have? Their empire, despite being propped up by Sgáanaang, has remained fairly sleepy, generally refusing to attack any of their close neighbours. A small nabbing of an outpost is not much compared to the continued survival of Japan and Green Ukraine on their borders, and despite having access to line infantry and cannons, the Itelmen haven’t really shown much aggression.

Don’t get it twisted however, the Itelmen are a powerhouse. 11th in stats, they hold a respectable 500 production now, 23 cities to their name, and 630 effective science. Those line infantry and cannons show they’ve grabbed both flintlock and chemistry, and if my sources are correct they’ve also beelined for Fortification, granting them access to powerful Field Guns. If they were to decide to get into a land war, there’s a very solid chance that Itelmen could conquer one of their (weaker) neighbours in short order.

The phantom forever circles however, as the Tlingit still are their most prominent neighbour. With only half the science and half the production, any war against the Tlingit should ultimately result in Itelmen devastation. Though they’re in a much better place to defend compared to 10 episodes ago, I fear that the Itelmen just can’t quite scale fast enough to catch up. Perhaps if a coalition war was called, Itelmen may have a chance to nibble at the crumbs of the Tlingit pantry. But I fear that chance may never come.

47: Teotihuacan

Archimedes :

I’m here to tell it to you straight, dear readers. I think Teotihuacan might be boned.

Everything I said about how weak Pomo was compared to the absolute machine that was Tlingit? It’s the same case for Teotihuacan.

Now, understand that the cases are indeed different, and that Pomo was in a much worse, much more drawn out position than Teotihuacan when Tlingit finally invaded and swept through their lands. But, Tlingit is still an absolute powerhouse, and as much as I love to glaze Teotihuacan, I think it’s fair to say that Spearthrower Owl will only be able to put up so much of a defense before Tlingit begins sweeping into their core. Teotihuacan has 6 less techs than Tlingit, 230 less effective science, and 350 less production. And, since Teotihuacan has half of the overall military score, I don’t think they’re catching up any time soon.

All of course is not lost for Teotihuacan. Despite being at war with the strongest competitor in this game, they still are 9th in stats, boasting a beefy military, above average production, and still quite decent science. They’re on the cusp of researching Scientific Theory, something that Tlingit only picked up themselves last episode. They have cannons on the frontlines to defend their positions, and the rough terrain of the Rockies and the Sierra Madres will make attacking into Teotihuacan a slow and arduous process. Teotihuacan at least has a better fighting chance then Pomo, and if the going is tough enough, Tlingit could decide to cut their losses after perhaps one city or two, and instead decide to attack Anishinaabe.

I won’t lie to you, things ultimately for Teotihuacan are not looking good. But, I think there is a route where they can survive longer than at least some of their neighbours, and perhaps stabilize into a relevant position. I hope that Tlingit just goes easy on them, and Spearthrower Owl is able to mount an acceptable defense. Because a Teotihuacan elimination in the 50s would be an absolutely devastating thing to see.

48: Lanfang

Leman:

Lanfang earns the ire of just about everyone this week as they decide to burn fan-favorite Cebu to the ground. Kicking Cebu while they finally look like they're breaking the curse of shitty Phillipine civs. Poor Nope is shaking in a corner with all those Maguindanao flashbacks.And honestly guys, I’ve gotta say things are looking good for Lanfang. But not great. They have a bunch of troops in reserve, a strong production base raring to go, at tech advantage on land, and a proven track record of fucking Cebu’s shit up. On the other hand, Cebu is fielding (Waving? Oceaning?) Frigates compared to Lanfang’s Galleasses and Galleons, and that's a big deal. So Cebu is not down and out.

Plus, and honestly most importantly, Lanfang has happiness problems. They’ve burnt like four cities to the ground. All the islands they’ve pushed Cebu out of they haven’t even kept. It looks like they’re all quietly being settled by Bunuba! So while this war is a loss for Cebu, I’m not sure how much of a win it is for Lanfang. I think best case scenario, next episode they turn that 1 happiness into any larger number, snap up Najikin, resettle a few of those burnt spots, and take a tech break. Maybe research Navigation.

49: Seychelles

Archimedes :

Look, last week I wrote a whole writeup about how the age of Aures is over, and the age of Seychelles is upon us. And, with this episode, have I amended my opinion?

NOPE

Aures continues to do jack, and Seychelles makes some at least relevant military moves, if not actively capturing anything this episode. And that’s the biggest indicator to their overall success at the moment ; Aures has gone to sleep after a big period of military activity, but Seychelles continues their grind, honing their modern military strategy against Ma’in and Sumer, slowly learning strategies and working out the kinks in their military machine. As their forces press closer and closer on Sumer’s core, we might see a city or two or three flipping to the new might of the gunpowder age.

Now, Seychelles isn’t in the real meat of the Gunpowder Age to be clear. They have Gunpowder, but have not yet managed to pick up Flintlock, instead beelining through the economic technologies to pick up Economics, Chemistry, and soon to grab Manufacturing. Those Cloth Mills will give a decent boost to Seychelles somewhat paltry 390 production, which is more than Aures but close to a third of Tlingits. Their science, once impressive, has actually slipped a bit, and Seychelles are looking a bit effectively sparse compared to other top science contenders.

But with so many potential targets in Africa to attack, and a naval fleet that allows them to compete on sea, Seychelles has the benefit of opportunity at the moment. And if they can continue to push inland and pick up key strategic and production centers for their empire, they will surely become the top dog in Africa. That’s why, despite some pretty crazy looks from the rest of the PR team, I’ve elected to put Seychelles 6th in my ranks. Their current ranking doesn’t quite reflect that, I think they’ll get there soon enough.

50: Pakistan

NopeCopter:

The fact that Pakistan is still 8th place after our most recent look at that core really is a testament to just how weak the pool of civs is right now, because what do you mean a civ with 14 cities and a fleet of Carracks is in the top 10? Obviously the reason they’re this high isn’t just a lack of better options, their Population score is so far above everyone else it’s actually kind of comical and their Science is the second best in the game, but it is still kind of shocking. Their position on the map is very, very slowly being very mildly threatened by the (attempted) expansion of the Seychelles and New South Wales, but they still have time to invade, say, Bactria, and Mysore is starting to look squishier than ever. They just really, really need to modernize their army.

51: Rouran

NopeCopter:

Rouran’s status as one of the big dogs has become truly undeniable as their stats have soared from their unimpressive start to the modern day. They have a top-three military, their stats are impressive across the board, and they have no obvious internal problems like low Happiness. They’ve very much earned their position here. The only problem is… they’re also kind of screwed. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, with the unbreakable Ket on one side and the Science and Production leader Tang on another, plus the dark-horse Itelmen and the jacked-up Qara Khitai also around their borders. Rouran just doesn’t really have anywhere to go! They’re sort of like the Thule of this season: a really respectable civ stats-wise that just doesn’t have any expansion opportunities (save for Green Ukraine). Tang has been slacking a bit on their military for the past few episodes, but now they’ve started to build up again, so Rouran may have missed their opportunity. It feels downright bizarre to consider writing off the 7th-place civ as a potential winner this early in the game, but barring some crazy twist of fate… it’s hard to see what Rouran’s play is.

52: Ket

Msurdej:

The Ket didn't have much happening in this episode. Just some war declarations with civs they barely border (though the war with Scythia probably means no war vs the Kipchaks any time soon), and some quiet building up of technology. But that isn't good enough at this part of the game. Especially for the top 5. Meaning the Ket take a tumble down to the sixth spot.

53: Anishinaabe

Caitlyn (LynnWinn):

Anishinaabe had a largely quiet episode, heavily overshadowed by the most deserving of this season’s current hotshot (Tlingit) deciding to take out another top 10 deserving civilization (Teotihuacan, Seychelles deserves to be in the lower top 20). Anishinaabe is running out of time & is a much more vulnerable Tang. They still have a decent chance if they can capitalize on the war & possibly try to take out some of their neighbors & just build a military force. Onondaga & especially Ponca are very vulnerable at this point & could be easy snacks to take. Without immediate change, they will end up either completely outpaced, or be a less defensible Teotihuacan. We’ve seen larger upsets in the past, & not all of my posting this episode will be oddly personal hatemail. Their states are pretty solid, albeit mostly lower than even Pakistan in most areas. Just do something interesting & I’ll not spend the next episode hatemail posting again.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of New South Wales

54: New South Wales

Msurdej: I'm going to level with you folks, I don't like New South Wales's chances of winning.Sure they have great stats and techs, and they've been pretty consistently in the top 10, if not top 5, nearly every episode. But that's been true of one civ that started out in Australia for as long as I can remember. And none of them have ever won the CBRX. They've always been big fish in small ponds, never able to make an effective foothold on the continent until it is too late. And Macarthur seems to be doing that to a t. Sure the Bunuba wars are fun to watch, and picking off cities of Mysore is good (though their only city pick up this episode was off Caral), but it's not enough. NSW needs to establish/conquer a good foot hold on the continent. If they can't do that, I fear NSW will continue to do good, but never win the top spot.

55: Chono

Shaggy:

Who else but Chono? Dialing in at the third spot this week for the fifth time in a row further cements Chono in the upper echelon of the game. Killing off Ternate is the cherry on top of what has been a true awakening for Chono. They are now the only civ other than Tlingit in the top 20 to have a civ kill to their name. Granted, this will come with an obvious target painted on their backs from the warmonger penalty but in my opinion that can only be a good thing for Chono. Anything to stop them from going back to sleep is a good thing. Other than that, everything seems to be looking great for Chono. They are playing competently, they are going after key enemies, they are actually arming their cities well and using them as bases for further conquest, there is a lot that Chono is doing right.

56: Tang

Cloudy:

Tang has achieved a major milestone, becoming the first civ to build three factories and adopt an ideology, selecting the domination-only favorite, Autocracy. This isn’t enough to lift them into first because Tlingit is about to do the same, but it is enough to remove any doubt, if there ever was any, about Tang’s second place position. Tang’s stats are exploding—production, military, the works—and the threats once posed by mounted hordes like Rouran are rapidly receding. The only question is what Tang will do with it, because recently they haven’t actually done much of anything except bulk up their stats playing city sim.

57: Tlingit

ItsTruckMonth:

Tlingit remains the top dog for yet another episode, and once again, it's just not even close. They have now boosted themselves to a whopping 45 cities, 8 more than second-place NSW; they possess by far the largest military in the region, with their closest match in the region, Teo, having just half of that, and production wise it's just as disgusting an advantage.

And how does Tlingit celebrate another episode of being at the top and their successful butchering of the Pomo? Simple: satiating their unprecedented gluttony by licking their chops at Teo’s gains from said conflict. E’lem has already fallen, and the military tech advantage that Sheiyksh’s forces possess is massive (Curaissers vs Knights, Linesmen vs Musketmen, etc). Terrain and borders may make the campaign a little bit of a headache, but we should see another city or two in Teo’s north fall I’d guess.

Now, is Tlingit so far ahead of the pack that they’re the shoo-in to win it all? Well, no. While they hold the overall best stats, they’re not the best in every stat (in fact, their effective science output has dropped considerably, down to 6th place). Not only that, but we’ve seen bigger leads blown by top powers before in previous seasons. Sheiyksh needs to remember that if he wants to win this game of dominance, conquest, and bloodshed, he can’t forget that this isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon.

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