Power Rankings: Episode 7 – S5

Release Date:

March 10, 2026

Narrated by:

Power-Rankers

Abstract

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

Viewing: Vertical

Jump to scene

Ryukyu

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1: Ryukyu

ItsTruckMonth:Prep your F Keys folks, we’re about to experience our first death of CBRX Season 5: Ryukyu. One city, Nanzan, lies in the yellow surrounded by Tang troops by land and Lanfang ships by sea. The other, Naha, sits in the black as Japanese triremes eye it like sharks eyeing a bleeding fish. The end is coming real soon for Ryukyu.

They were never expected to do well right out of the gate, but quickly exceeded expectations through a quick settling campaign that saw them set foot on the Chinese coast. From there, though, they snoozed. Not a single bit of extra effort towards expansion, other than a failed invasion of Japan that culminated in them quickly realising they aren’t built to handle Hidegoatshi. Then, the curtains began to close, as Tang, Lanfang, Cebu, and Japan all joined in to feast on a stagnant island civ.

Bar the genuine act of God that is a last-second peace deal, it's time we start writing eulogies.

1: Ryukyu

Bar the genuine act of God that is a last-second peace deal, it's time we start writing eulogies.

2: Rapa Nui

Msurdej: Good news Rapa Nui, You're not in last place! I mean sure, you barely survived your war with Chono, are stuck on a two-tile island, and have had every settler you've sent out either killed or had the city taken and are surely going to die within a few more turns... But hey! With Ryukyu collapsing hard, and looking to die this coming episode, you have a decent shot of NOT being the first civ eliminated!

3: Ma’in

Shaggy:

And just like that Ma’in proves the haters wrong again. Nashaq falls and the effort Ma’in put forth to retake it was flimsy at best and willfully negligent at worst. They are swirling the drain as their neighbors continue to declare wars against them for easy political points at home (or to get the dashing revolutionary general away from your hot Sumerian wife, apparently) without a care for any potential retaliation from Ma’in. Truly the punching bag of the Middle East.

4: Karankawa

Leman:

Hello everyone. Karankawa sucks. Their UU model is sick though. It’s pretty good. It won’t help.

5: Maravi

Orange:

The Gods of the Cylinder heard my pleas during my episode, and in their great justice, smited Maravi for whatever it is they did. I don’t really know I just like their neighbors more for some reason, plus that settler going so far and then back was annoyingly dumb. But Maravi still have a fair few cities left, just, they suck assssssssssssssssss. Like god damn they are shit cities. And they have no army at all. And have I mentioned that every neighbor is at war with them? Literally all of them. Now they are kind of terrible at attacking Maravi, but it seems inevitable that they will fall completely sooner or later.

6: Pegu

Semi:

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PEGU WEEKLY REPORT

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Pegu Cities: No new cities. The empire remains on solely the great capital Hongsawatoi, forward base Dagon, and port Muttama.

Pegu Statistics: Increase of three ranks relative to the rest of the cylinder, as Kipchaks, Maravi, and Ryukyu fall. Science remains mediocre at 17 techs & 55 effective science.

Pegu Settlers: The Voyaging Settler continues north, now past the ongoing Rouran-Green Ukrainian war. They will settle “when I feel I am ready”. A second settler has ventured out to the Andaman islands, perhaps to settle the great Island Metropolis so dreamed of by Chieftess Shin Sawbu.

Pegu Neighbors: Bangladesh has settled a new city far away in Tibet and declared war on a civilization called “Pakistan.” Yunnan remains a de facto vassal of Great Tang.

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END OF PEGU WEEKLY REPORT

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7: Kipchaks

Leman:

Well, things are just getting worse for Togortak. It seems like not so long ago that the Kipchaks were occupying Marakanda. Now, things are completely flipped. Kanjak-Sangar is firmly in the hands of top-tier Vyatka and former target Bactria has seized the Kipchak’s largest non-capital city of Sarai. Seems like kind of a death blow for Kipchaks. They’re surrounded by blobby powerhouses while bleeding off cities to mid-tiers like Bactria.On the bright side,Torgortak made peace, so they’re not dying today, but it’s only a matter of time before Ket or Vyatka sweep them away.

8: Ponca

Shaggy:

Ponca did literally nothing mentionable this episode other than organizing themselves into a nomadic horde. Honestly, it’s a flavorful look for them. They are disorganized and seem content to wander the Great Plains while other civs more intent on actually competing settle more and more extensively around them. They do have a respectable carpet, but so does every potential target they have available; even Karankawa seems out of reach for them! Though they aren’t fully relegated to the “waiting to die” pile, they are one bad war away from it.

In a bid to say something positive about them for a change, though, I’ll just plant in your mind the tiny chance that we’ll see their UA in action given that they have been largely encircled by their neighbors. As a refresher, Ponca’s UA allows them to settle one city in another civ’s borders while they have an active peace treaty with that civ. Now hear me out on this. Yes, this involves a number of things happening at the same time. Ponca would need to get into a war with Pomo, Karankawa, or Anishinaabe, then both survive the war and be able to negotiate open borders with the opposing civ in the peace deal. Then once that peace deal is in place Ponca would need to decide to send a settler into the other civ’s borders and decide to settle on one of their tiles. Of this laundry list of requirements, our latest reports show that Ponca has… a settler vaguely near Anishinaabe borders and none of the other conditions in place. A Power Ranker can dream though.

9: Yunnan

Cloudy:

*Radio crackles*

Operations to Agent Cloudy, over. Confirm Yunnan is still present?

Cloudy to operations, affirmative. Yunnan sightings reported on scenes 28 and 84, marginal on scenes 11, 49, 53, and 70, over.

Roger, Cloudy. Continue observation.

Roger.

*Radio crackles cease*

10: Ternate

Archimedes :

What a wild episode for Ternate! We’ve watched them officially put their ink on the page as a CBRX5 staple, with a daring capture of Ryukyu’s capital, and even a quick little city nab on Borneo to boot. With an actually tenable holding position now, we’re likely to see Ternate-

what's that…? It was Cebu that did those things? So what did Ternate do this episode…?

Ternate has been fairly sleepy, to say the least. They’ve been slowly building up their core, settling a new city next to the new Oceanic civs on the block with Chono and Caral. With the Lanfang and Bunuba powerhouses on their doorsteps, Ternate has been slowly but surely losing out on options to their west, but frankly I question if they know that there are settleable islands to their east. They should, to be fair, because they settled a single Trireme to harass Rapa Nui’s capital along with Chono, a move that constitutes the most aggressive move they’ve made so far this CBRX.

Ternate isn’t awful, to be clear. They do have a high tech count, a solid population score, and an amount of production that does indeed exist. But the power ranker team has had little hope for Ternate based on their performance, as their inability to settle cities more often than once every 25 turns has left them in a slowly shrinking sphere of influence, and their apparent hesitancy to try for any major conflict. Perhaps Ternate will strive to be one of the first to reach the stronger boat technologies, but with their direct neighbours keeping pace or surpassing them in technology, we expect that to be a milestone too little too late.

11: Zazzau

Orange:

Despite their only war being against a small trickle of Aures units, they have continued to do nothing. And well, I don’t think that’s ever changing at this rate. They have been fully settled around and just don’t have the means to break out. Their best bet is to attack Wassoulou and take Turunku back along with Kabadougou, and somehow play that into a better empire that takes advantage of Aures or Ethiopia being heavily distracted. But they need to make peace with Aures and do that instead of sitting in squalor.

12: Sumer

NopeCopter:

Sumer made a couple of key plays this episode, namely settling another new city and declaring war on Ma’in (the only civ weak enough for them to pick on). Unfortunately, though, that’s far from enough to put them back in contention. Their stats are still almost bottom-ten, with their tech count being their only advantage, and they’re trapped between relatively powerful civs like Phoenicia, the Seychelles, and even Pakistan. Even if they take a city off of Ma’in, it’ll be a fairly worthless desert city.

All that being said, though, there is some hope, a path to becoming a regional power if nothing else. Phoenicia is currently facing an invasion by Circassia, and while it’s not likely to go anywhere, a crippled Phoenicia would be a perfect target to nab a couple of cities off of - in particular, claiming those Persian cities in the area they should have settled to begin with would be a nice win. The Middle East is such a weak region that, with proper buildup and timing, Sumer could hypothetically make a bit of a comeback (even if actually winning from that position is pretty much out of reach). Sumer’s UU is the Vulture, and that’s precisely the animal they’ll need to emulate if they want to claw their way back to even mild relevance. They just need to hope Phoenicia gets owned… but not too hard.

13: Hyksos

Shaggy:

Hyksos should probably tip their underpaid waiter, they could not be served up a better opportunity given their start. Phoenicia looks mighty exposed at the moment and other neighbors have begun sniffing around at their borders to see what might be claimable. Hyksos, on the other hand, has stuffed fingers into both nostrils and is really digging around in there, so they are a bit preoccupied in the sniffing department. Once they pull those fingers out (and ideally wash them, gross), they finally might get a whiff of opportunity to expand across the Sinai Peninsula to help ensure their survivability from the inevitable Ethiopia/Aures invasion.

14: Wallachia

Reformer: Downfall continues. Reasons are much the same. Wallachia STILL needs to declare a relevant war to thin the army, but all they will do is declare war on some fuckoff rump like Ma’in. It seems hopeless for Wallachia now. Even if they recover, they are dead last in tech, and it would be a pipe dream to actually catch up. Tech is a beautiful snowball. Sure, some stagnation is recoverable, but Wallachia has been terribly bankrupt, for, how long, now? Multiple episodes? It’s only been six episodes, for the love of god. To add insult to injury, it is unlikely Wallachia is put out of their misery any time soon. They will limp on for many un-deserved episodes. Truly an affront to the game.

15: Xaragua

Msurdej:

Anacaona made a new wonder this week, The Parthenon! She gets +4 Culture, CBRX S5 Info Sheet, and a Great Work of Art that comes fully installed. It may not be the best use of their production, but that Great Work surely must've made Teotihuacan sue for peace. So kudos to you Anacaona, for trying to win the culture game in a Total Domination game.

16: Itelmen

Archimedes :

It seems like nobody really has that high of hopes for Itelmen. And it’s a shame, with a cool colour scheme, cool raven icon, and an interesting food redistribution ability, the Itelmen had the chance to become a cool and interesting Kamchatka contender, uniquely situated to take advantage of the region. Instead, all anyone can think about is how they’re food for their neighbours.

Yanomami do have two food abilities that have been keeping them at least somewhat relevant in the population department. Their unique ability to have food stored after growth is sent to smaller cities on the same river instead has frankly been wasted by the AI in this game. With only two cities actively settled on rivers in this game, and two cities infuriatingly one tile away from rivers, no food transfer has likely occurred. Their other bonus, the unique building Granary replacement, gives them extra food from salt and fish, an actually slightly relevant bonus. It also enables them to build an additional Kist building if the city was settled on tundra or snow, giving +2 food, +1 culture, and an aqueduct-like ability to store 20% of food after growth. This has kept Itelmen’s population looking somewhat respectable for a frigid north tundra start, but frankly it’s not good enough. Perhaps that’s where the Itelmen’s errant settler is wandering to, some grand river they expect to solve all their problems.

While Japan failed to nab a city in their war, and Green Ukraine peacing out with just one city capture, Itelmen remains a juicy target for any lingering armies in the region. Many of us rankers think (and frankly hope) that Tlingit will be the next nearby empire to attempt to take a chunk out of these Kamchatkan shores, so really the best hope of survival that the Itelmen have is to lay low and attempt to settle more farther flung areas of Russia’s north, before a dark raven descends and decides they’re no longer for this world.

17: Luba

Leman:

Luba slides down the rankings this week because despite their only enemy completely disintegrating, Luba can’t really seem to grab a city off of Maravi. And that’s rough. Herero and Ethiopia both grabbed one, if Luba fails to grab one, I can see them being left in the dust. Luckily for Luba, it seems like they’ve noticed and are trying to address this. Luba picked up Iron Working this episode and is working on Construction. So hopefully they’ll be able to grab Mankhamba next episode.

18: Bjarmians

Archimedes :

The Bjarmians are actually making some headway in this episode, pressuring the strong regional contender of the Kalmar Union with a threatened city capture of Vassa. A city that they, to be fair, have not acquired yet. And with a currently diminished army score, we may not likely actually see the city trade hands. Perhaps, in fact, this war is too little too late.

And the Bjarmians don’t have much going for them otherwise. The frigid land they’ve settled the majority of their cities in is fairly poor, so their stats are looking well under par. Their science is fairly bad, with not a great amount of techs researched. The one thing they have in spades is happiness, with a whopping 40 excess, so if they had settled more cities they could take better advantage and make a nice and wide empire. And their religion does give culture and food from luxury resources, but those advantages happen to be the follower beliefs, so soon their neighbours will begin to gain the same advantages.

The one thing that the Bjarmians have going for them is in fact their excess happiness. While most civs would fail to find a use for it, the Bjarmians actually have a number of golden age benefits. They gain extra food from luxury resources on snow and tundra tiles, and happen to get up to three free fur resources when entering a golden age, depending on the number of trade partners they have. Their Unique Unit Comp Bow also generates golden age points from kills, another potential source to push their luxury count even higher. If anything, the Bjarmians have developed a synergistic suite of abilities, and perhaps if they’re lucky they could begin to claw their way back into this game.

We’ll have to see if the Bjarmians overextended themselves with their two potentially futile wars. With such an excessive amount of happiness, they could use a few extra cities to help bump up their numbers. But as long as powerhouses like Vyatka or Ket keep a stray eye from the Bjarmian lands, we can expect them to hold on at least a little longer, and to be happy while doing it.

19: Cebu

NopeCopter:

In all honesty, I didn’t have much hope for Cebu going into X5 - and given I was one of the people behind the mod’s creation, that should say something. For the longest time, I’ve wanted just one decent performance out of a Filipino civ, and Cebu sure didn’t look like the one to make it happen. Their uniques aren’t all that suited to a Domination game, and their performances outside of the CBR have been… spotty, to say the least. They weren’t exactly built with AI game performance in mind. Nevertheless, they got voted in, and in the test runs… they actually did alright! Not great, for sure, but they were easily the second most competent-looking civ in the region behind Lanfang. So, I had hope. That hope was, of course, quickly dashed, as Cebu refused to settle whatsoever and slowly got boxed in. Many brushed this off as an inevitability, but to me it hurt, because I knew they were capable of more. Cebu had the potential, but they’d squandered it, and now they would go down in history alongside the likes of X3’s Philippines - an infamously terrible civ that never stood a chance to begin with. Even when they did decide to hop on the Ryukyu coalition, their lack of a navy and spineless nature made it all seem pointless, just another body to soften up some cities for Lanfang and Japan.

And then they materialized a navy, took two cities - including the very first capital capture of the game - primarily under their own power, and made peace, all in the span of five turns.

I was told by the other PRs to brag more here, so… YEAH WOOOO CEBU GO CEBU YOU BEAUTIFUL SONS OF GUNS YOU DID IT HELL YEAH SHOW THE HATERS WHAT’S UP THAT’S RIGHT IT WAS NEVER CEBOVER IT’S ONLY CEBEGINNING YEAHHHHHH

So, hype aside… where does this leave Cebu? Well, they’re still not great, being honest. Capturing two cities only brings them up to five, and they don’t seem keen on settling more any time soon. Like all successful underdogs, they also have to worry about warmonger penalties - even if they fought alongside many of their neighbors against Ryukyu, they still took cities, and they’re a juicy target for the likes of Lanfang or Japan. With that being said, though, Cebu’s position is far from hopeless. They’ve demonstrated initiative before, and they still have two other weaklings to invade: Ternate and Yunnan. Attacking Yunnan in particular would give Cebu a better foothold on the mainland, which could open up a route to attack Pegu down the line. Of course, Japan and Lanfang are going to scale much harder, and the Bunuba are eyeing up the region for settlement too, but Cebu has the potential to be a plucky mid-tier underdog, and that’s already more than enough… unless, of course, they immediately get coalitioned to death like Mk. 2’s Philippines or Maguindanao.

20: Qara-Khitai

Orange:

QK puts down another city on the lake just north of their capital, which doesn’t do that much to help them break out. Really they should’ve jumped in on the Kipchaks, or they could attack Mysore’s outposts, or do anything useful. There’s still space, but they are quickly running out of time. They are deeply behind in science and their production sucks. They have settlers still just sitting around. C’mon Yelu, get to it.

21: Estonia

Archimedes :

…

I mean, come on.

Estonia had the chance to be well ranked this episode. But after some truly awful diplomacy, they’ve slid a solid 11 ranks lower than they were last episode.

And I think they honestly deserve their low ranking. Some people are calling Estonia washed, some think that them gifting both all of their war gains AND their newest city in Scandinavia to the Hanseatic League has made them irrelevant in this game. And while I won’t personally go that far, it was truly a baffling move on Estonia’s part, and leaves them in a weaker position than when they started the war.

Another portion of their rank loss comes from an ever expanding Scythian military on their doorstep. And while Scythia and Estonia have not come to blows in the past, Estonia is definitely the weakest of the neighbours for this Aseatic Steppe civ to take a chunk out of. Essentially wasting all of their military for no benefit has left them in a weakened position, and while their cities still continue to do well enough, those cities could soon become someone else's. I personally don’t think Estonia is out of this game yet, but one wrong move and their whole empire could be overrun in an instant.

22: Xavante

ItsTruckMonth:

Xavante finds itself partnering alongside Teotihuacan to jump a common foe in Yanomami. While the war has not really gone anywhere so far, the Xavante have quite an impressive carpet for themselves. With the Yanomami army looking thinned out and split along two fronts, there’s a good chance they could snag a city here, maybe even an illustrious TWO cities!

A potential breakout here would be massive for them, given their nearly landlocked state. It's all up to Apoena and whether or not they have that DAWG in them.

23: Guaycuru

Leman:

I wish Guaycuru had spammed all these settlers like 5 episodes ago so instead of settling cracks between Chono’s empire, they had a solid base of power themselves. Instead they’re emulating Ryukyu and handing cities over to a much more powerful civ. Unlike Ryukyu, at least Guaycuru has some muscle behind it and still has a target (Xavante) to bully.

24: Portugal

Semi:

Ha, ha, ha, oh shit. That was certainly an episode of all time for the Portuguese. At first, the war against France that was declared last episode looked brilliant. Sweep in, grad Amiens and cement control over Iberia, and maybe if you’re lucky grab Nantes through the Pyrenees whether in the peace deal or in the war. At the end of this episode though…yikes. Robespierre, after leasing his local Le Havre-Marat to Umhaill, recruited her into this war, and the blockade of Amiens was completely lifted by the end of the episode with a ten-trireme (!!) fleet descending on Lisbon. It seems like for now Grace has changed her priorities to be more focused on Porto, but the French counterattack on Aveiro seems to also be going swimmingly.

In terms of the consequences of losing this war, it would be catastrophic for Portugal. They already have worse stats than France - not that much worse, but worse across the board, aside from number of cities (where Joao leads Robespierre 9-6). And it’s not like Portugal has that many other places to go. Aures is a serious, top 10 contender that won’t be easily dislodged. Umhaill is looking like one of the top two or three civs in Europe (in my opinion), fighting wars well and developing a good science output. And the Papal States and Wassolou just aren’t that exposed. So it’s do or die, Joao. Will you follow in the Moorish footsteps, or condemn yourselves to the pit of irrelevance that Spain, Castile, and the Visigoths have all ended up in?

25: Papal States

Msurdej:The Holy Train starts a-rollin' as Baalbek falls to the Papal States. While this Phoenician city will be a boon for Julius II, it will take some time to get it online. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that Sidon, the next closest city, will fall. But Julius isn't able to get a rank up this episode. Though if it were me, I'd make peace with Phoenicia and start angling towards a Hyksos invasion. Noph is vulnerable, and Julius could take the city for practically ... Noph'ing.

26: Bactria

Cloudy:

Bactria was threatening to slide down the slippery slope from mediocrity into obscurity, but with the capture of Sarai, they have affirmed their mere mediocrity. Taking cities off the collapsing Kipchaks was the only move for them, and it’s one that will hopefully work again. That said, their long term prospects remain grim.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of Hanseatic League

27: Hanseatic League

NopeCopter:

Things are starting to look pretty much unsalvageable for the Hanseatic League, as Estonia has managed to not only secure Rostock but also capture Bremen, putting them at the very gates of Lubeck. Even if they make peace now, there’s really no saving them - France is outscaling them hard, the Kalmar Union’s navy will only be this pathetic for so long, and most importantly, Estonia is sure to only grow stronger with these gains. A three-city rump state in Europe isn’t an uncommon fate, but it is a bit of a tragedy - at least they’ll go out as a civ who fought hard and fair, and was defeated honorably.

wait what the fuck is a “slide 39”

28: Scotland

Semi:

There were more people with Scotland role icons in their names commenting on the episode than there were mentions of Scotland. Heck, the history dropdown on Xavante’s Great General - who was Roman, not Scottish - had more mentions than Mary’s realm. So what did Scotland do this episode?

*checks minimap* Nope, nothing there. Still in Great Britain with a foothold in the Netherlands.

*checks stats* About the same, with still reasonable science, a mediocre city count, and below-average production.

Do you see why we didn’t move Scotland from their lower mid tier position?

29: Circassia

Shaggy:

Now that right there is Circassia. Let's talk about Circassia. Can we talk about Circassia, please, CBRites? I've been dying to talk about Circassia with you all season, ok? “Ismail Berzeg,” this name keeps coming up over and over again. Every episode Circassia’s assignment keeps getting sent away from me. Ismail Berzeg! Ismail Berzeg I look in the assignment sheet, and every week is never Circassia! So I say to myself, “I gotta find this guy! I gotta go up to his palace and get the Circassia writeup on my goddamn plate! Otherwise, he's never going to get credit for what he’s doing and he's going to keep being underrated.” So I go up to Ismail’s palace and what do I find out, CBRites? What do I find out?! There is no Ismail Berzeg. The man does not exist, okay? So I decide, “Ohhhh shit, buddy, I gotta dig a little deeper.” There's no Ismail Berzeg? You gotta be kidding me! I got boxes full of Ismail! All right. So I start marchin' my way down to Cloudy in HR and I knock on her door and I say, “Clouuuudy! Clouuuudy! I gotta talk to you about Ismail!” And when I open the door what do I find? There's not a single goddamn desk in that office! There is...no...Cloudy in HR. CBRites, half the rankers in this building have been made up. This office is a goddamn ghost town.

“Ok, Shaggy I’m going to have to stop you right there. Not only do all of these people exist, but they have been letting you do the Circassia writeup any week you wanted if you just asked.”

Well just my luck that when I get to write about Circassia they finally start trying to throw their weight around in the Fertile Crescent and Anatolia. Yes, a war against an overextended Phoenicia is exactly what the doctor ordered for Circassia. Since Scythia and Vyatka fully blocked them out of any northern presence, making their way south and into the Middle East has been their best alternative. They successfully settled a core from which to deploy units for a potential war and they are flexing their muscles in the region now for the first time. It’s a good time to attack Phoenicia too, they’re distracted between defending against the Cheddar Crusader from Italy and keep distracting themselves by recreationally bonking Ma’in on the head every hundred years or so. If Circassia can focus their forces they might be able to take a city here but if they fall into the classic trap of splitting along a long border, as it looks like they might be trending towards, they’ll waste a prime opportunity floundering.

30: Phoenicia

Reformer: Tough times man, tough times. Phoenicia is OBVIOUSLY overextended. And the price is being paid. Pope has managed to successfully crusade the city Phoenicia had in Greece, dealing quite the blow to Phoenician dreams of naval dominance. But then, I suppose their success has mostly been on land, so far. Very strange for Phoenicia, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Now let’s ask the question: Is Phoenicia fucked? Broadly speaking, I would say no. Pope cannot threaten Phoenicia much further. Circassia is in the war, but doesn’t seem to care. And the other neighbors…Sumer, Ma’in, Hyksos…what a cavalcade of clowns. What Phoenicia needs is some time to consolidate and build up, and I do foresee them getting a chance for exactly that, soon enough. Could be wrong no doubt. Could be, Pope and Circassia are stubborn, and keep Phoenicia busy, unable to properly consolidate. But no worries. They know better than to try to fetter the winner of the season. It is pointless!

31: Pakistan

JDT:

Pakistan has not had a great time recently. First the government decided to do a big military operation in Afghanistan in retaliation to Taliban attacks, and suffice to say it has not gone well. The Islamists are still in power and have thoroughly humiliated Pakistan’s military. That’s not even to mention the elephant in the room regarding their neighbour Iran and global collapse in commodities. But hey, at least they aren’t in the actual middle east and have a nuclear umbrella to protect…

Wait hold on. What’s that?

Oh I’m sorry, you want me to talk about Pakistan in the CBR! Silly me! Thankfully, everything I just said can still apply. They got into random threatening wars that went nowhere, notably battling in the mountains of Ladakh with Qara Khitai, and are in an unstable geopolitical situation they’re barely stitching together. Their stats look decent though!

32: Onondaga

Cloudy:

Onondaga finally stopped stagnating this week after regaining positive happiness, but a lot of damage has been done. It’s been a while since they founded a city, and Anishinaabe is starting to eat into territory that they could have acquired. Their stats are still middling at best, coming in 32nd overall, and while Susquehannock has dropped off a lot, they still look a bit better. So, has Onondaga’s lengthy period of unhappiness caused them to miss the boat? We shall see next episode. If we knew for sure this week, we’d have ranked them a bit lower than 30th.

33: France

Archimedes :

With Umhaill nabbing a city off of the Brittany coast, and Portugal declaring war to nab Amiens in the Pyrranese, things were not looking good for France at the start of this episode. But by the end of this episode, France really turned things around. A still living and fortified Amiens is already a miracle, but with French troops marching solidly into Aveiro, with swordsmen no less, France looked primed to take at least one city off of this Iberian invasion, especially as a well timed Umhaill attack on the coast of Portuguese shores threatens to divide Portugal's defensive attention, splitting their military and wearing them down.

And France really needs some gains from this war. Their stats have stagnated after losing Le Havre-Marat, boasting frankly middle of the road production, food, and cities. Their science is actually quite decent, but compared to their equally scientific neighbours those tech numbers look less impressive. And don’t even get me started on their abysmal culture, at a paltry 19 per turn and only 5 policies adopted. France never was the strongest contender in an already pretty average looking Europe, but they need to start making some better plays to last until the midgame, when their unique abilities and buildings start to come online. Their coalition war with Umhaill against Portugal might put them on the right track, but really how much can you trust the civ that just moments before took one of your cities?

34: Wassoulou

NopeCopter:

Wassoulou’s position remains as unfortunate ever, being an ambitious, competent civ that just so happened to get immediately forward-settled by one of the best civs in the game. The Aures have been absolutely brutal to Wassoulou, not only cutting them in half but also blocking off just about every single expansion opportunity they have left with frustratingly-placed Sahara cities. Wassoulou has three Settlers and just about nowhere to place any of them, and the Aures are even threatening to cut off their Moroccan city. However, all is not lost - the Aures happen to be just a bit incompetent, throwing away units against Zazzau and building Petra in just about the worst city possible. Odds are still likely that Wassoulou is just a mid-game power boost for Aures in waiting, but if there’s one thing Wassoulou is known for IRL (to the five people who know it existed), it’s their stubborn resistance against a superior force.

35: Herero

Cloudy:

Herero continues its slow climb into the top half this week, with consolidation of its capture of Maano and renewed pressure against Maravi’s poorly defended southern coastal cities. A capture of one or both is on the cards, at which point Herero’s dominance of southern Africa will be all but assured. Our confidence that they’ll get there is reasonably high, hence the rank increase, and I would expect further rank increases if Morenga keeps prosecuting the war to its obvious conclusion.

36: Rouran

Archimedes :

Rouran is certainly feeling like the civ that could have been. In all of the test games before the official run, Rouran tended to spread out well and settle a bunch of cities, arguably even more than Green Ukraine. And to be fair, they still have time to do that. But a slow and wriggling start has not done Rouran any favours, and now with Green Ukraine bearing down on their eastern front, it’s likely that things will get worse for Rouran before they get better.

Rouran to their credit has taken advantage of at least one of their unique abilities so far. Their strikingly iconic Wriggling Rider is a unique horseman replacement that refreshes movement when next to fresh water, an ability that could help quickly reinforce the city of Ulansuhai Nur from the Green Ukraine assault. These horsemen also have the ability to dig wells in plains or desert tiles, something that hasn’t noticeably happened yet, but could in the future. These wells could be beneficial when Rouran finally hits Civil Service, boosting their frankly pitiful food output to respectable levels. Notably lacking from any slides is the Rouran’s great general replacement. The Nönör is a great general that can attack when within 4 tiles of another Nönör , and if capturing an enemy great general or city, can upgrade into a Khan with additional bonuses. You, dear reader, tell me if the AI will likely do that or not.

Rouran looks at least to be doing something, but without any proper momentum in their gameplan seems likely to falter out. With the lowest population per city score, and fourth lowest extrapolated population out of all civs in the cylinder, their cities are undeveloped and in already arid lands, leading to poor science and production output. They have a standing army but are unlikely to be able to rebuild faster than Green Ukraine, an aggressive civ with the Temple of Artemis of all wonders. One can only hope that Rouran is able to stabilize quickly enough, before they end up getting squashed.

37: Kalmar Union

Archimedes :

The Kalmar Union actually took a bit of a tumble this episode, and I’m not sure if they really deserve it. Their stats continue to slowly grow, despite being at war with the Bjarmians. Their cities are established and developing, and they’ve even been gifted a free city by Estonia. Wait sorry, on the map it says the Hanseatic League. Not sure how I could get that mixed up.

The biggest detraction currently affecting the Kalmar Union is indeed their war with the Bjarmians. With Vassa actively in the red and military units pouring in from the north, things are generally not looking stellar for Margarethe’s chances to keep the city. But with some composite bowmen and galleys hanging around, we likely could see a flip fest happening for control, barring an errant peace deal in favour for one of the powers. And despite the war not going ideally, Kalmar continues to have decent production, decent crop yields, decent science, and pretty great gold per turn. They can potentially leverage that to turn the war around, if it doesn’t end quickly, or to take a brief look southwards and tussle with the slightly worse offHanseatic League.

38: Susquehannock

Leman:

So we don’t really talk about Susquehannock as much as other North Americans like Tlingit, Pomo, and Teotihuacan. But look at my chart. I posted this chart. And you can see that Susquehannock is actually just on par with Anishinaabe and Pomo. They’re quiet, yes, but they’re developing nicely while Onondaga stagnates and some of their neighbors, well, are Karankawa. Lots of potential.

39: Scythia

Shaggy:

Scythia did literally nothing in this episode and were only on the margins of any shot in the entire episode. They rise two ranks because stats, I guess.

40: Green Ukraine

Semi:

If you’ll remember, I was the PR assigned to these guys back in episode 4, where I complained about them being a potential civ that might go and do something but hasn’t. Well, here we are in episode 7 and they have done…things. Yeah. Stuff. They have settled another city in Iman, and have nabbed Avacha from Itelmen, locking the Crow Lords into the tundra corner of Kamchatka. They’ve also declared war on Rouran, and are looking to really establish themselves as the Manchurian-Yakutian power of this game.

So why only 22nd? Well, they’re just a bit late to the party. Japan has consolidated Korea with a second city up near Seoul OTL, and their other outpost near the mouth of the Amur River isn’t going away anytime soon. And Japan looks really good in this game - top 5 science and over 100 production will do that. Meanwhile to the south, Tang has fully established themselves as the frontrunner of this game, with back-to-back-to-back PR #1 coming into this episode (I won’t spoil the top rank today, though). Add to that a quite poor science rank (equal to Luba and below the likes of Bjarmians and Wassolou) and they’re in a closing box - which is why this war with Rouran is important. Get moving, Yurii Hlushko. Keep doing things, before it’s too late.

41: Potiguara

Shaggy:

It’s just as the old saying goes: as go the shrimp, so go the shrimp eaters. Potiguara seem to be up on all of the trends this season in South America. They’ve declared a useless war against Yanomami, they’ve done just enough forward settling of Xavante to contain the demons that dwell within the Amazon, and they’ve gotten on board with the hot new thing the kids are doing these days called “peppering Chono with random settlers”. As long as they can keep pace with the changing times, they’ll probably stay right around here in the rankings.

42: Yanomami

Archimedes :

Yanomami on first glance have looked really solid these past few episodes. A good solid amount of land to settle, a very defensible empire against multiple incursions, and a respectable amount of population, happiness, and culture. Their unique building in fact, a granary replacement, lets them get +1 culture on all unimproved jungles, allowing them to churn through policies like there’s no tomorrow. But with a coalition war bearing down on two fronts, and a lacking production score to keep up on units with, their heads are perhaps beginning to slip a little under the waters of the Amazon river.

Slowly but surely both the Xavante and Teotihuacan have been grinding away at Yanomami’s army, and their score is looking a little threadbare at the moment. Both war aggressors have maintained higher military scores, and both happen to be fielding similar units, with Composite Bowman certainly doing the bulk of the damage on both fronts. And, while not actively shown in the slides, Yanomami does have a fairly defenceless front to their north, a constant worry if Teotihuacan decides they want to continue this fight with a proper naval invasion. Their best hope is to peace out of at least one of the wars soon, hopefully as well without giving a city away, so they can focus on the other front with the full bulk of their remaining army.

Yanomami has certainly remained solid throughout these earlier episodes, but this coalition war against them will certainly be a deciding factor in their fate going forward. Their best hope is to white peace out of the conflict, and lick their wounds by properly developing their lands into food and production powerhouses. Perhaps then, with a rebuilt army and a chip on their shoulder, they can swing back and be a proper aggressor.

43: Caral

Cloudy:

Caral sees a big jump into the top 20 this week, due to several factors including an expansion spree that had brought them to a respectable 9 cities (one of which is in New Guinea thanks to Rapa Nui’s generosity), as well as a big spike in effective science that has pushed them into the top 10 in that crucial statistic. Their strongest neighbor, the Yanomami, are also engaged in a two front war with Teotihuacan and Xavante, while Chono failed to take Rapa Nui, leaving that island capital still up for grabs. So while Caral’s army doesn’t crack the top 15 yet, it still looks pretty good next to their neighbors. That being said, Caral will need to focus on its navy if they want to stay up here.

44: Umhaill

Semi:

Grace really just told her fleet “Sail south and I don’t want you to come back,” huh? After the rousing success of the Le Havre-Marat capture last episode, she sent that entire fleet even further south to Portugal. Which is…a choice, for sure. It’s got ten triremes, and a pretty good-sized land military backing it up. And if Grace can pull that off, she’ll be positioned very well to look for further Portugal gains, or to turn on her French ally and seize more cities there. All in all, not a bad position to be in. Well, except one small thing. Why hasn’t the Greenland settler actually founded a city? Why is it in the Labrador Sea? Establish your presence somewhere Grace it’s not like you have bad stats, you just need more cities and claims to expand into!

The 2 rank drop, for anyone wondering, is probably because Umhaill’s once-amazing science is now slightly below Scotland and well below the top-tier civs. So the “science turtle” option is kind of out the window. But 18 is almost certainly too low anyway.

45: Anishinaabe

Archimedes :

We have a bit of a sleeper agent in the CBRX5, as Anishinaabe likely is flying under most people’s radars. The two most notable things they’ve done so far this game is found a religion, and exist on the edges of frame when watching the Tlingit / Pomo war or the Onondaga / Susquehannock war. But they have not fully escaped the prying eyes of the Power Ranker team, and have been slowly but steadily climbing the ranks, inching closer and closer to a top 10 spot every week. Let's get into why exactly.

Their religion, for one, is actually quite a solid one. Their Sacred Groves pantheon gave them a small but powerful boost towards founding their religion, and then picking up Pagodas and Peace gardens have given them a solid happiness base to continue their growth and expansion. Mandatory Tribute is perhaps an odd choice though, as +10 food and production in the capital is powerful, but the long term prospects of -1 faith and culture in all other cities is unfortunate for a game where empires will eventually need to be continent spanning. Speaking of their other cities, the Anishinaabe have managed a decent outfit of 8 settled cities, taking advantage of the relatively open Northern Canadian forests. They are beginning to be contested for this space by Onondaga Pomo and Tlingit, but in a pinch the Anishinaabe can definitely hold their own in a war or two, and probably take some of the more far flung cities, such as Tlingit’s Shgagwei. Their science, production, food and culture are all looking above average, and their happiness currently sits at a boggling 42 excess, something that the Anishinaabe should likely take advantage of with more settled cities.

Anishinaabe unfortunately doesn’t have very many unique bonuses to take advantage of at the moment. They do have their Pontiac’s Conspiracy, which lets them compromise the defences of any enemy cities they’re actively spying on. With a spy recruited with the founding of their religion, they technically could already take advantage of that. But with their currently sleepy demeanor, who’s to say they’d actually be competent in a war with one of their neighbours. Those neighbours in fact are likely the reason the Anishinaabe aren’t rated higher, as North American Powerhouses Tlingit and Pomo are technically within striking range, while the armies of Onondaga and Susquehannock are also nothing to sneeze at. We’ll have to see if Anishinaabe uses their position as the heart of North America to their advantage, picking at their weakened neighbours with opportunistic strikes. As the flip side, being coalition warred and swarmed by the many hungry states that border them, is a scenario they couldn’t afford to be in.

46: Bangladesh

NopeCopter:

Bangladesh had a quiet episode this time around, declaring a mostly symbolic war on Pakistan and settling another city in the Himalayas. Quiet is by no means bad, though - their stats are growing, they have multiple Settlers on the move, and their position is incredibly defensible. The main issue Bangladesh has is their neighbors. Both Tang and Mysore are, in theory, massive threats which hem them and prevent any real further expansion. However, Mysore is a South Indian civ and is therefore effectively locked out of land expansion (to say nothing of how defensible Bangladesh’s city structure is), and Tang will struggle to launch an invasion through the Himalayas until air combat becomes available. On the other hand, Bangladesh has easy access to the weaklings inhabiting Southeast Asia - if they can manage to dislodge Pegu and Yunnan, they have a route towards further expansion. That might be expecting a bit much from a civ that has yet to wage a competent war, though. Still, Bangladesh is looking like an immovable object and their stats are on the upswing, so they should have plenty of time to figure out a path to greater success if they so desire.

47: Seychelles

Semi:

France-Albert Rene, my guy, what happened?? You were top 10 just three episodes ago but then you just kind of stalled out. Which is so weird to say for an island civ - in past CBRs, good island civs have turned into very strong snowballers (Timor-Leste, Wahgi, the Buccaneers). But here, it seems the Seychelles just didn’t have that drive. Losing out on Mbewe sucks, as it means that Somalian colony really is stuck on the desert tip and can’t serve as a way into the Ethiopian heartland. But this is not the way we hoped the war would go for the Seychelles, with Herero also consolidating the south. The Seychelles need to find some way into Africa, and soon - whether that’s Mankhamba or Makawana from Maravi, or a quick attack on another power, they just need a foot in the door. Because they sure as heck aren’t invading a strong South Indian Mysore, or either of the Australian powers. Combine that with stats that are continuing to slip down the leaderboards, and like many other civs these next few episodes hold Seychelles’ fate on a knife’s edge.

48: Japan

Cloudy:

Japan made an excellent move this episode, attacking Ryukyu right as they were falling apart, causing them to sweep into Sh... hang on, I’m receiving a phone call. Hello? Yes. What!? Cebu, really?

Okay, so, Japan has so far gained zero cities from their war against Ryukyu, but that could be about to change. Our analysis has determined that Ryukyu’s northern mainland city is at 0 HP remaining, with Japan next to move (before Ryukyu, Tang, and Lanfang), and multiple triremes in range to snipe... assuming Japan takes the bait. My AI game experience tells me the odds they take it are pretty good. But never count your chickens before they hatch.

49: Ket

Orange

12 cities, good production, great army, and now up to 7 cities following their religion, which is to say +7 city strength. Things will only go up from here. A lot of their cities have city strength in the high twenties, while most others max out in the low twenties. They still have no rivals to bash their heads against this city strength, and plenty more space for cities. I for one believe in the specialist of K’s.

50: Bunuba

JDT:

The Bunuba have a impactful episode. They made a massive stride towards securing their future state - they settled East Java and Bali. With notable footholds in Indonesia, they come one step closer towards what their path to victory should be - taking over Southeast Asia and possibly translating that into a slow and steady takeover of Oceania. There's just one small problem. Bunuba has a pretty small navy, a very exploitable weakness as just demonstrated by New South Wales in their conquest of Jijidu. And with NSW getting further positional advantage through that and a few more settles, winning Australia feels out of the question at this moment in time. And the problem with the northern route is that if Bunuba tries to contest Lanfang, they will get their ass beat. Hell, I wouldn’t even be surprised if Ternate comes down and requisitions their cities! Those two islands are very vulnerable, and their position is very precarious. As such, a -4 drop in the rankings comes in order in spite of amazing stats across the board.

Also wait they settled Jakarta and Bali FUCK THE BOGANS ARE ACTUALLY HERE

51: Pomo

Reformer:Still a top dog. But as the war with Tlingit is decisively declared a defeat, it becomes imperative to look in the mirror and do a little retrospect. Tlingit is on the rise, being nearly powerful enough to challenge Tang for the #1 spot. Certainly, they are comfortable at #2. This spells obvious trouble for Pomo. And then there is still Teotihuacan to the south, still a top dog on par with Pomo themselves. Neither of these two threats have troublesome neighbors of their own besides Pomo. Having more than one rival that is rivalled by nobody else is never a good plan. Only invites disaster. This is only long-term doomerism to be clear. I find Pomo to be set for the midgame, even in light of the defeat against Tlingit. Pomo has the best path to inland North America, where middling weaker civs lie. Pomo must simply pick the right time to strike, to avoid leaving their backside vulnerable for a strike from one or both of the actual rivals. Difficult balancing act, but realistically entirely doable. Faith in Pomo will not falter this easily!

52: Mysore

Semi:

Another nice episode from the emerging South Indian power, as Mysore settles three new cities: one in Tamil Nadu, one in Sri Lanka, and one in…roughly northern Tibet. Still though, three cities is three cities, and this further development, paired with an increased production, gives them the best stats outside of the top 5. Their science is the only thing lacking, which I’m surprised about given their fertile jungle terrain. Perhaps we see that increase in the next few episodes - they’re only now picking up Iron Working, for example, so their already-strong military should be able to grow even larger. And it’s this kind of vibe that’s resulted in us raising Mysore four spots. They can’t seem to set a foot wrong (except for the wars with Pakistan, which in all honesty didn’t mean anything to either side), and they seem to be emerging as the better in their incoming rivalry with Bangladesh. So who else nearby can oppose them? One of the Aussies? Lanfang, all the way from Indonesia? Seychelles?

So yeah, welcome to the top 10, Tipu Sultan. I can imagine you’ll be staying here a while.

53: Lanfang

JDT:

The Chindo kongsis in Lanfang must be fuming, because this episode, Cebu came in and stole their nation's thunder in the city heist of the century. They lost out on the Shuri sweepstakes, and also somehow managed to lose the de-facto city gift of Nakuin. In spite of this, everything still looks fine and dandy for our favourite Chindo bankrollers. While they lost out on the islands, they still have a strong chance of getting an even more glorious prize - a city on Mainland China 100 turns in the game. This glorious angpao will need some luck and some shrewd planning, but even if the Nanzan gambit falls through, everything is still set up right for Lanfang to dominate should the cards fall right. Bunuba’s colonies are free for the taking thanks to their bad navy, Ternate is awful and easily gankable, and even Cebu, for all the aura they farmed this episode, remains susceptible to a sneak attack. The statlines don’t lie either - Lanfang’s 10th on the sheet with 3500 manpower, a very respectable 91 science and very decent production. Well, the manpower is mostly because they also have the Chindo ability to manifest gold out of thin air and have 2500 gold banked up right now, but thats beside the point. Despite minor setbacks, the future remains golden as ever for the Chinese-Indonesian Consortium.

54: Teotihuacan

Archimedes :

Look I know you keep seeing my name popping up on these slides, and that’s for good reason. I’m the only one qualified to tell you how absolutely fantastic Teotihuacan is, and how actually they are definitely better than all of their neighbours, and of course the best in all of the Americas as well. Frankly, I’m kind of shocked that they aren’t ranked #1 by the whole team. It’s all one big bias against Teotihuacan.

But for real, while Teotihuacan definitely has its problems, there are some pretty strong reasons why they’ve been slowly and surely crawling up the ranks. They did manage to settle a strong total of three cities this episode, settlements along the western Mexican coast and one on the sunny Caribbean shores. They’ve filled out their lands well, keeping their borders conservative, to hopefully ward off any unwanted aggression. But wanted aggression? That’s what they live for.

Their war with Yanomami may seem baffling at first glance, and odd for sure at second glance when you see they’ve teamed up with the Xavante to the south, but I think that Teotihuacan really has a solid plan in this. Their Panama Canal city of Cholula is hard to assail from the land, meaning the Yanomami retaliation against them is a difficult hurdle to overcome. And yet, if you look at Yanomami's coastlines, you’ll see that they have two particularly indefensible cities. Both Yehiopateri with 5 coastal tiles and Hawaroweteri with 2 coastal tiles are assailable by Teotihuacan, especially with poor 11 and 14 city defense respectively. While it surely isn’t confirmed that they’ll take these cities, it is a possibility. Or, there is always the possibility they pick up another city for free in a peace deal.

Looking back at Teotihuacan’s core, we can see their slow and steady improvement of their city stats. 130 production and 220 food are in the upper echelons of stats in the cylinder, and 12 cities allow them to pump out units at an alarming rate in any current or future wars. Their culture and faith also look very solid, and while their military is spread out, it is quite strong. The one thing they’re currently struggling with, as noted by many Teotihuacan detractors, is their science is quite a bit below average. Part of this likely comes from their negative GPT, at -12 per turn, but Teotihuacan has just recently picked up the Currency technology to help mitigate the issue. On the other hand, with so many decently populated cities, it’s likely that Teotihuacan has just not prioritized building libraries. With 82 total population on the table, we could be looking at a theoretical 123 science per turn with a cleaned up GPT and a Library in every city, but Teotihuacan seems to prioritize dreaming about wonders over actually researching and building wonders, so we’ll have to see if that number actually rises over the next few episodes.

Teotihuacan has left its mark so far this season as a civ that doesn’t mind getting its hands a little dirty. War after war has left them in a strong enough position, and we’re hopeful that they can begin to make gains off of Yanomami, Xaragua, and Karankawa soon enough. Their core is strong, if a bit lacking in science and gold, though we will likely see those stats shored up soon as well. They may not quite be in the same tier as Tlingit, but I’m personally ready to watch them creep closer and closer to the crown of the Americas.

55: Ethiopia

Shaggy:

Ethiopia snagged a city off of Maravi and peaced out of the Fuck Maravi Coalition. This puts them in the upper echelon of the FMC as only Herero has also successfully taken Maravi territory. Importantly, Ethiopia has also consolidated their border against Seychelles, making their prospects of further land-deployed expansion on the continental mainland significantly delayed without further naval conquests. Their gravity continues to work to their benefit, bringing more cities in their orbit into their control through simple pressure like this is a slow but steady strategy for this region. If they can pace themselves and avoid overextending they may be able to fully consolidate large swaths of the continent with little resistance.

56: Vyatka

Msurdej:

Myshkin decides not to bite off more than they can chew and makes peace with the weakened Kipchaks. Kanjak Sangir has been taken and annexed, putting Vyatka third in the most cities. They have good production and science for a Top 10 civ, but not thrilling in those regards. Whether or not Vyatka will continue to grow via war remains to be seen, as the Urals will make a hard barrier to easier gains from the Kipchaks. But make no mistake, there's still plenty of options on the table.

57: Aures

Archimedes :

I’m in a tough spot writing this week’s slide for Aures, as one of the rankers that doesn’t have as high hopes for them as others. On the one hand, the team generally feels pretty highly about Aures, and their track record has shown to be powerful and expansive right out of the gate. But I and a few other people feel like some cracks are starting to show in this North African contender, so let’s get into it.

Aures maintains a strong production output going into the next episode, at a whopping 130. But honestly, their production has been 130 for the past three episodes, as their cities have either stagnated or transitioned to a more food heavy focus. Their science is very solid, with only 2 technologies off of the current tech leaders. And, they built arguably one of the strongest wonders of this era, with Petra being famous within the Civ 5 community for just how strong it can make desert cities. Where exactly did they build Petra, you may ask?

Their capital, Khenchela. With a total of 3 flatland oasis desert tiles.

Aures has built up a lot of goodwill for their performance so far. But with their scramble against Wassoulou to settle poor performance flatland Sahara cities, there’s a chance that Aures will be stalling out a bit. Now heavy hitter Ethiopia is a nearby contender and could potentially sweep through Aures’ predominantly flatland cities, and the Papal States are looking strong enough to potentially take a few chunks out of their Mediterranean holdings. Hopefully Aures does something more consequential in the next couple of episodes to prove that they deserve this top ranking spot, as there is always the likelihood that they start sliding down the rankings. And Wassoulou is the perfect civ to help them along, as an underdog contender historically known for their power struggle against larger powers in their region. We’re potentially looking at a very story rich region if the two of them start going at each other's throats.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of New South Wales

58: New South Wales

Reformer: WOOO BABY ANOTHER SPOT CLIMBED ON THE PATH TO GLORY! NSW makes it up to 4th, thanks to faltering confidence in Aures. Oh. Yeah, NSW themselves aren’t that much better than last episode. They did take a city this week, proving that their navy is up to the task. On the other hand, it was one city, against a fairly large civ. A civ that is blocking shallow water access into Polynesia and New Zealand. A civ that is, ultimately, still wearing the Great Wall with pride. In essence, NSW has to beat Bunuba at sea multiple times to truly wear them down, and in the meantime, there is nowhere now for NSW to settle. I am pretty alone in doubting NSW at this point, though. The consensus, I believe, is that NSW will whittle through Bunuba pretty quickly, and unlike NSW, Bunuba has another strong neighbor in Lanfang. Odds are certainly not in Bunuba’s favor. I just don’t think the odds are much better for NSW. They would have to be very aggressive and fairly competent to break Bunuba in good time. Certainly not impossible. Far from it. But I’m not betting on it.

59: Chono

Archimedes :

Chono hopefuls may have watched this last episode with a bit of a quizzical eye, as we saw Chono behave more with a focus on Polynesia than a focus on their own shores. The mess of borders that they’ve allowed Guaycuru to produce is unflattering to their performance to say the least, especially losing out on a Malvinas / Falklands settlement. But they’ve maintained their high standing spot and it’s hard not to see why, despite their mainland rival vying for land in the Americas.

Chono continues to have top stats, with a whopping 146 production spread throughout their 10 cities. With 20 techs researched, they’re also trailing the tech leader in this game by only one. And with 39 excess happiness sitting on the table, they can both grow their cities to enormous heights, or settle a vast collection of small islands. And with Quellon, their Papua New Guinea settlement shared with Caral and Ternate, they have a legitimate launching pad to begin to settle the Polynesian triangle. With an already established mainland empire capable of pumping out units and buildings with a strong production base, any settlements they do manage in the South Pacific would help them box in their favourite punching bag Rapa Nui, as well as lock out space for their other potential oceanic threats, like Caral Bunuba and New South Wales. These cities would also likely grow to massive heights, becoming scientific centers to an already scientifically competitive contender.

And I would be silly to not mention Chono’s cultural output. With 11 social policies adopted, not counting any opened policy trees, Chono has had by far the highest cultural output this game so far, beating out fellow runner ups with only 8. This cultural output has mainly come from their Guides of Taitao unique ability, giving them a burst of culture from every owned freshwater tile upon meeting a new civilization. And with 60 other civs to meet and with everyone having scouts that ignore open borders, nabbing a massive policy lead has likely given Chono a massive headstart in establishing strong cities, both wide and tall. That kind of early culture and policy grabbing is the kind of lead that’s likely to snowball advantages, meaning that Chono will stick around for quite a while.

With such a strong base, Chono has the guts, the heart, and the will to stick this game out. Their nearest neighbour Guaycuru is floundering a little, and presents a potential avenue for expansion for Chono to consider. The Pacific Ocean as well, with a far flung city that could start pumping out settlers, presents another avenue to continue snowballing through this game. The one thing they’re missing at this point is a solid religion, and if they keep picking at Rapa Nui like they’ve done this past episode, there’s a strong likelihood they could capture the Holy City for Puata Tupuna. And with one of the mods for this episode allowing civs without a religion to capture and steal the founder beliefs when capturing a holy city, it’s likely that Chono could be putting another jewel in its already illustrious crown.

60: Tlingit

Leman:

This is the first time I got Tlingit, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite civs, if not my favorite. They’re just playing really well and have such a strong location, and I love civs with big numbers and Tlingit has some of the biggest. Here are a few of their big numbers: Military Manpower: 3,167 (2nd)

Production: 164 (1st)

Food: 230 (Tied for 2nd)

City Count: 12 (Tied for 4th)

Population: 81 (Tied for 4th)

Effective Science: 108 (2nd)

Plus, they’ve got a fantastic religion that helps those coastal cities with a bunch of extra production, gives science to cities with more than 10 population, and a solid defensive bonus as well. They’ve got a great new wonder in the Colossus, that is a solid economic buff. A bunch of room to found a bunch of cities, both on islands along the coast and inland in the Yukon. They’ve already shown that they are better and stronger than Pomo. Just a fantastic civ.

Okay maybe they might over extend and have too much of a coastal bias. Some of those cities are kind of far. But other than that, they’re wonderful.

61: Tang

Shaggy:

Another episode, another week of Tang in the number 1 spot in the rankings, another week where I am tantalizingly prevented from declaring that Tang has fully claimed the Mandate of Heaven by being the unanimous top dog. Tang is poised to take at least one of Ryukyu’s final two cities. Whether they can manage to take the other is a bit of a tossup between the damage they can deal and the damage potential of the small but quite present Lanfang fleet. It will be interesting to see who strikes the killing blow on Ryukyu as they will surely incur significant warmonger penalties across the cylinder. Is that a diplomatic crisis that even the Tang diplomats may not be deft enough to talk their way out of? For there to be any material impact, at least one of their sleepier neighbors would have to be shocked enough to really commit to a fight, and even then there’s enough Tang land to cover that it’s doubtful that a large retaliatory force looking for justice for Ryukyu could do much more than tickle the Tang.

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