Power Rankings: Episode 9 – S5

Release Date:

March 23, 2026

Narrated by:

Power-Rankers

Abstract

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

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Ryukyu

1 / 0

1: Ryukyu

Msurdej:

The shambling zombie of Ryukyu continues to shamble onwards, in spite of all chances of them getting a second city, let alone winning, being effectively 0. Sensing this abomination against all life on the cylinder, Japan, Yunnan and Rouran have all assembled in an attempt to defeat the undead horror once and for all. But alas, none of them have an army near enough to make a good shot at the ruined city of Nanzan. Tang on the other hand, could take them down, but seems in no rush to finish off the shambling corpse of Sho Shin.

2: Rapa Nui

Archimedes :

Rapa Nui unfortunately isn’t most well known by what they are or what they’ve done, but rather by the position of their neighbours and how well they're doing. As a one city rump state with a known streak of not settling the wide open islands that exist right next to them, their hold in this game has been tenuous at best and disastrous at worst.

Already losing two settlements to bad wars, bad planning, and bad diplomacy, their capital has stagnated after repeated wars and triremes that have devastated their fishing boats and starved their people. Their two closest neighbours, Caral and Chono, are both top contenders in this game, with high stats, established coastal empires, and a proven track record of assaulting their cities. They both also have settlements in the wider pacific islands, acting as potential contestants for settler spots. Caral, in particular, has their own route into the polynesian triangle, with a Galapagos island settlement guarding the way from any Teotihuacan settlers, and numerous navigational charts mapped out by religious missionaries sent along the open waves. Rapa Nui is in a race to settle those islands before Caral in particular can, and Rapa has already proved that they’re the slowest turtle of them all in that regard.

The other most threatening point to Rapa Nui’s existence is Caral and their burgeoning stats. With Caral’s burgeoning science through their religious beliefs, Compass is soon enough on the horizon, and with Compass comes the requisite Galleases that will make actually capturing Rapa Nui’s capital a legitimate possibility. So far Rapa has been able to hold off fleets of triremes with walls and stout defenders, but the moment that ranged ships begin to field these waters, Rapa Nui’s days are literally numbered.

Rapa Nui has decided that they value being a meme over anything else in this game. They had potential, but rather decided to grab the community by storm with their wacky antics. And those wacky antics have finally caught up to them, leaving them with one city, no hopes, no dreams, and the potential title of ‘First Civ to Properly be Eliminated’. Ryukyu could still try to steal that title from them, but it certainly will be a nailbiter of a race.

3: Pegu:

Semi:

Well, this is a rough turn for Pegu. The war went fairly well in Episode 8, when it first began, but then Pegu began running out of military units. And when that happened, well, just take a look at the damage Hongsawatoi and Muttama both have.

Suffice to say, we think this war is really, really bad for Pegu. There’s no reason to suggest Bangladesh or Lanfang will stop this attack anytime soon, and both have an overwhelming science, production, and manpower advantage over our Burmese contestant.

If that’s the case, though, then why isn’t Pegu 61? They still have a few advantages over Rapa Nui and Ryukyu. For one, as of this moment, Shin Sawbu controls more than one city. Pegu’s stats are also not as bad as you might expect, as they’re above Maravi and Ma’in and just about on par with Karankawa - with a production number (at 54) above even Yunnan. Also, sentiment from us PRs is that, for all the harm this war could do, Dagon is still extremely defensible and will probably manage to survive even this coalition. Now, Dagon does not a good empire make, but at least it’s something. So a 3 rank drop for Pegu, but not quite to the bottom two yet.

4: Ma’in

Orange:

The main character of this royale is still at war with a ton of civs, but none can really threaten them right now. Their capital being in the hills and mountains of Yemen but not on the coast is a great boon in the whole “not dying” thing that’s kind of important. So good job on that TSL.

5: Karankawa

Msurdej:

Once again, Karankawa finds itself in 57th place despite a truly awful episode. The episode started off promising, with Joseph María declaring on the almost equally weak Ponco. A war which surprisingly, they seemed to be winning. But then Joseph pulled an objectively braindead move by not only suing for peace, but giving up the city of Coco in the peace deal.This puts the already beleaguered Karankawa on just three measly cities. Though they aren't in any immediate danger, an attack from Teotihuacan could have folks priming their F keys.

6: Ternate

Reformer:

Uh oh, stinky! Bunuba is beating your lazy ass! Should’ve expanded sooner, huh? At least you get one saving grace: NSW! Not much of a saving grace in the long-term, since you’re fucked anyway, but at least it should staunch the bleeding for now. Down to three cities is a death sentence anyway, and this region isn’t exactly defensible– especially with carracks and galleasses right around the corner. The end is nigh!

7: Maravi

Reformer:

Yeaaah so. Maravi huh. Looked so good at the start, now worse than even Luba. Worse than Luba! Christ almighty. Tragic. Speaking of Luba, Maravi is still at war with them. And Ethiopia, but they can’t reach Maravi. Luba’s not really in a position to further bother Maravi either, though. Especially after that brief Herero attack serving as a distraction. Truly, Maravi continues to exist on the whims of Herero and Seychelles. And the terrain. Mostly the terrain, come to think of it. It’s pretty rough out there. You can expect Maravi to wobble forward for quite some time!

8: Kipchaks

Semi:

Out of the frying pan…and into the fire. Just as it seemed like the Kipchaks had managed to escape the Vyatka war safely, the leviathan known as Ket finally woke up. Y’know, it was probably that random snow city that Togortak decided would be “funny” and “a good joke”. It turned out Olgit did not find the joke very funny, and Gerey fell before the end of the episode. Unfortunately for the rest of the Kipchak realm, this meant Ket actually Did Something. So now the other half of the Ket army is descending on the wide open Kipchak plains. And they already have Kara in the red. Man, this is a trend with my lower ranked assignments for the week. “Civ We Thought Was Fine Gets Attacked By Neighbors; We Realize They’re Not Fine.”

But like Pegu, Kipchaks have some silver lining. Vyatka won’t be a threat anymore after getting their ass handed to them by Scythia, and Qara Khitai and Bactria still make up the other two thirds of this season’s Three Stooges quota. So we don't necessarily think Kipchaks will die. They’re just in for a Kellogg-branded wild ride.

9: Sumer

Reformer:

This looks pretty bad, no? Sumer capital is literally surrounded by Circassia, and Pakistan is slowly advancing from the east. There are some silver linings, though: Sumer’s capital is very well off, strength-wise, and Pakistan’s approach towards Sumer is pretty rough, terrain-wise. Further, Circassia’s invasion force is largely mounted, which will fare poorly in a siege. Circassia also doesn’t seem to be sending reinforcements, whereas Sumer will have a fairly easy time reinforcing the capital from the south– in lieu of sending more units to die in Ma’in lands. Frankly, I’d consider Pakistan a more pressing concern. Circassia is clearly exhausted from the war against Phoenicia, and should definitely be consolidating and recovering instead of wasting their breath like this. All this blabbing, and in the end, we have to admit that Sumer is definitely unrecoverable now. Even if they lose none cities, they are immensely hated by all their neighbors, have no prospects, and incredibly insufficient stats. It’s a death spiral from here, and the only consolation is that there’s not that far to fall.

10: Yunnan

Reformer:

Okay, so we make peace with Pegu, for, what, the third time? Previously, it was laughable on Pegu’s part, considering they held the advantage. This time, it’s laughable on Yunnan’s part, considering Pegu is about to get shredded. I guess neither of these guys really ever wanted to fight, huh? Were all those war decs just for looks? Make it seem like you were big boys who know how to fight? Well, too bad, I guess. You’re going to lose your buddy. Pegu is as good as gone. And then you’re all alone between stronger powers. I guess, Yunnan will at least get to take their city back from Cebu when they inevitably get hit by a coalition. If Yunnan has ANY initiative, that is.

11: Wallachia

Leman:

Wallachia researched no techs at all this episode because they have 0 science. This means they have less science than Ryukyu, a civ that fully died this episode, and are at the bottom of the ranks in technologies. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen a civ go this broke this early on in the game ever.

And yet they gained a rank. Probably because they founded a city, and that is always good. And probably also because they’ve been spending all that money on a massive military. If they’d just use it, we’d be in such good shape. Perhaps attack a mildly over extended Scythia?

12: Ponca

JMAn:

Ponca is somehow doing so poorly that, while they are not the last placed civ in North America, they are in clear contention for the last spot for their region. The only thing keeping Ponca afloat is their decent Production stat, which is sitting at a surprising 72 despite their capital being surrounded by mountains; however, their neighbor Pomo is at almost double their Production at 120.

This is not a great showing for Ponca, and it’s sad that we have yet to see much mileage from their uniques. We have reached the point where most of our bottom 11 civs are out of contention. Ponca may be one of those civs, and only through a pretty daring war against Karankawa (that would have to not totally flounder) can Ponca somewhat survive. But they failed that war.

Because Ponca is out of contention.

13: Wassoulou

Shaggy:

Wassoulou falls a whopping 16 places in the most active episode for Wassoulou since their early war with Zazzau at the dawn of time. Aures has initiated the Sahara Plan at the behest of both their more border gore-averse advisors and their regular tacticians and Wassoulou has no excuse being caught as flat-footed as they have been. Kabadougou and Turunku began this war with the civ equivalent of mall cops as their only defensive force despite being obviously isolated and having a neutral path to funnel defensive units through from the core (or, you know, actually building them in place, Turunku reached as high as 10 population). Sure, they’ve taken Ad Medias from Aures and now have nice neat borders along the Atlantic coast, but certain generals in the Wassoulou army are suspicious that that may have been accounted for in the Sahara Plan. I’m loath to say that this is a terminal rumping just because of the possibility that Wassoulou could still invade Portugal sometime in the future but it definitely is a rumping nonetheless.

14: Xavante

ECH:

Apoena saw through to the end of another grueling war with a stronger contender this episode, which is survivable with their terrain at present for sure, and is quite fitting with their metal theming… but one has to ask how many times this routine can play out before the setlist gets stale, so to speak. That defensive terrain advantage declines with every farm they decide to tear down the jungle for; and the troops the 4 city statelet is facing will outpace them in power more and more. Already the end result of this latest bloodfest, while a stalemate in terms of cities, does leave them looking a fair bit more threadbare than Potiguara. Not to mention having a bite taken out of them by Yanomami’s citadel, a bad portent of the future. Billie Holiday can’t save you forever!

15: Portugal

NopeCopter:

Portugal’s fate is effectively sealed this episode as the last traces of hope slip away from them. First, the obvious: the war with France. What a disaster! Even if they’d won, of course, they would have effectively just found themselves in the same situation as the Visigoths last season, pushing against the immovable wall that is the Pyrenees. But they didn’t win. They didn’t take Amiens and cement the border at the Pyrenees. Instead, they managed to lose two cities in the war (one was a city gift, technically, but it was flipping anyways). This gives France a massive foothold across the mountains that they could feasibly use to finish the job at any time from here on out. Portugal has managed to actually make their position in Iberia indefensible, which is no small feat.

Less impactful but still very concerning is the Aures-Wassoulou war. This is still ongoing, but the way things are looking, it’s basically a death sentence for Portugal’s African expansion prospects. Wassoulou is looking ready to be completely stomped, or at the very least lose their Maghreb colony, which was the only easily-accessible target Portugal had. Meanwhile, the Aures are going to just get that much more powerful off the conquest of Wassoulou, meaning a successful Portuguese war against them is now even more of a pipe dream.

So… are there any outs remaining? Well, just one. The Papal States are about equal to Portugal in city count and stats (immediately after Portugal’s gotten out of a war, no less), several of their cities are vulnerable to a Portuguese naval incursion, and Portugal has near-uncontested control over the Strait of Gibraltar to concentrate their forces on such a war. Would this be enough to save them? No, not really. But it would be a pretty cool redemption arc. Just saying. Until and unless that happens, though, Portugal is looking dead in the water.

16: Zazzau

NopeCopter:

Starting with the good news: Zazzau is no longer bottom 10 in stats! Woohoo! It only took like a hundred turns, but they’re finally recovering from their first war with Wassoulou! They’re also no longer at war with the Aures, and they didn’t even give any cities away for peace! They have a… tolerable six cities with room for at least one more (if they’d just SETTLE, already), and they have at least one weak neighbor.

Now for the bad news: Zazzau is still completely, overwhelmingly screwed. In fact, they’re now even more screwed than they were before. The Aures declaring war on Wassoulou has not only stripped them of their only potential easy conquest, but it also means that they will not survive another war with the Aures. The border is too large, and the Aures have too solid of a core. The terrain is indefensible, Zazzau’s stats are abysmal compared to the Aures’ top-class stats across the board, and there’s not really any way they can change that. On the other side of things, Ethiopia is ALSO a top-tier civ that’s been doing a bit of expansion, and while Lake Chad saved them last time the two went to war, it probably won’t save them again. Oh, and Ethiopia might steal their last valid city location, too. Luba is a hypothetical out, but even then, their border is difficult to navigate, and Luba has the bigger military regardless. Zazzau had promise, but it’s gone now - and, with their stats and uniques, I kind of doubt they’ll be able to repeat Kanem-Bornu’s underdog run.

17: Xaragua

Msurdej:

Xaragua harassed Uaxactun a little this episode, but ultimately this war is proving to be bad for them. Sure Science is great, but Production is down, and the war has stunted the growth of their few cities. Can they take a city off Teotihuacan? probably not at this point. I'd say make peace from a position of strength before Anacoana finds her shores being invaded.

18: Hyksos

Leman:

You know, I think Hyksos are solid. Like actually solid, not just good for a shitty civ solid. They have some shitty neighbors in Phoenicia and the Papacy, that can absolutely be taken advantage of. Maybe not now, but at some point in the future, especially if Phoenicia keeps bleeding off cities to Circassia and the Papal States.

They’ve got a decent core of tall cities and are in third place in a brand new stat: Food Surplus per City (9.8 Food). What that basically means is that Hyksos is one of the fastest growing civs on the cylinder right now, trailing only Xaragua and Rapa Nui, and Xaragua sucks and Rapa Nui doesn’t even know they’re playing the game.

And finally they are the founders of the largest religion on the cylinder too. And while Pesedjet isn’t quite as powerful as Pachaism, Sgáanaang, or Samanism, it does give Hyksos a strong happiness bonus, diplomatic boosts with its neighbors, and a solid science building. So, honestly I think Hyksos is in a solid little place to be a breakout science turtle. If they get a little lucky.

19: Phoenicia

Orange:

Phoenicia my beloved… The war with Circassia has hurt, and it’s split the empire, but we will stand strong! Phoenicia still has 8 cities, but the split nature and the lack of units will make it hard to defend them. But 8 cities is still 8 cities, it’s still more than Circassia, it’s still more than Sumer, than Ma’in, than the Papacy, than Hyksos. Now, they are kinda shit cities, but still. They can be great, they can still grow great. Glory to Phoenicia!

20: Papal State

JMAn:

Papacy gets a stumble this episode, and whilst we didn’t get a shot of them (outside of some periphery look at their front with Phoenicia), we do know a few things.

They’re losing resources. They are not actively growing, and this is a bad thing. Their population is miserable, their production is worse than some civs in the bottom 11, and their science isn’t really amazing anyone; also, their units are dying trying to get into Anatolia very unsuccessfully.

This is just not great for the Papacy. At this time, the best shot the Pope has at maintaining relevancy is by attacking Wallachia with good timing or by taking cities off of the Hansa. Both are very hard and difficult tasks, and may draw the ire of neighboring Aures through warmonger penalties.

I guess we have to wait and see if the Pope continues to suck in this BR, but they’re not out of things yet. In the meantime, let’s enjoy watching them dogpile Wassoulou diplomatically.

21: Guaycuru

ECH:

You know, Guaycuru’s infoaddict score is actually 31st on the Cylinder, a whole 10 ranks higher than we’ve placed them. 8 cities isn’t actually all that bad, Ethiopia’s nearly 30 ranks higher with that many! Their army is like, double Xavante’s and even larger than Caral’s. They shouldn’t be in the bottom 20!

Points like the above are precisely why Power Ranking is classified as an art, not a science, and certainly not a field that tolerates the foolish opinions of foolish fools like the fools that would state those foolish points.Guaycuru has theoretical upsides that will never amount to anything because they just don’t have the position, and they just don’t have the soul. Those 8 cities are really a modest core and 4 freebies for other civs in waiting, principally the sleeping giant of Chono (and even then, their core is not the most secure from Chono either). Their army is far too composed of UU horsemen that in the CBR lack any mechanical difference from standard, meaning they’re just being incentivized to pump out a notably awful unit for attacking cities. They weren’t even actually mentioned or particularly highlighted in this episode, they were just visible on Xavante frames. That’s a depressing state to be in.

22: Cebu

Shaggy:

Something has awoken within Cebu where they now feel a need to just slap anyone in their vicinity at least once per episode. I won’t knock them for their target, a Cebu-Ternate war seems inevitable. It just seems like they might want to build up their military a bit more if they are going to actually commit to an invasion. A single rank drop this week for this season’s most rabid naval fighters as they seem to be looking beyond their own shores more than rebuilding and rearming at a time when they need more of the latter.

23: Estonia

Msurdej:

Well holy hell! With a whopping ELEVEN foes in a coalition against them, Estonia is the number 1 enemy of the cylinder. Worse still, some of these enemies are their neighbors. The Bjarmians, Hansa and the Kalmar Union all have a good shot at taking a few cities off Lennart, and this could well lead to a partition of the civ.So why the three point bump? Well, first off, none of it has happened yet. Secondly, failures by the Papal States and Wassoulou were far more noticeable. So this Power Rankers advice? If you're holding the bag on Estonia stocks, sell now!

24: Bjarmians

JDT: This week outside the cylinder, it has become apparent that things are falling apart. The global energy market stands at the precipice of total collapse, and with it the global economy. The US is threatening to invade a country with over 100 million people for greed and imperialism, spiraling the nation into further chaos, destruction and death. The obvious answer to why hell is about to break loose is down to one vindictive idiot in a very important position of power and the cabal of fascistic oligarchs that have been entrenched by a very long and complex series of historical, sociological, economic, political and legal matters that I will not even pretend to begin breaking down. However, I personally believe there's a bigger reason behind this. That reason is the Bjarmians finally escaping from the moniker of Nothing Ever Happens.

In a stunning twist, this episode, the Bjarmians managed to secure the city of Shabalinskoe from the Vyatka. They then followed up this escape from the Mannerheim-Finns horizon by declaring war on Estonia, a war that is currently going nowhere but which theoretically can net them benefits if Parnu is undefended for long enough thanks to the giant hugbox on Estonia. These events happened to coincide with more strikes on Iran and the announcement of a potential naval invasion of Kharg island. Therefore, the correlation is clear. The more that things Bjappen, the more that reality will collapse in on itself and disasters and evil happenstances will come our way. It is the most terrible truth and omen. We are entirely at the mercy of random lines of code within the facsimile of a game that Lacs isn’t even watching. Like Azathoth and its endless slumber on which our entire plane of reality resides, the Bjarmians stand as a totem of our fraught reality, and all we can hope for to prevent the total collapse of reality is that they continue to sleep.

But at least Bjarmians went up by 5 ranks!

25: Luba

Reformer:

Oh, Herero is attacking! Oh, they gave up. Damn. All that excitement, lost to the winds. There’s no way Luba is taking the fight to Maravi’s well-defended capital, so this is probably the end of Luba-hype for a while. 37th seems a bit high for a civ so violently stuck, but almost everyone nearby is stuck and mediocre or outright garbage, so I get it, I get it.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of Hanseatic League

26: Hanseatic League

Semi:

I had these guys last week and I’m 90% sure you could just copy-paste that same writeup. Let’s see:

“

You awake in there, Jurgen? A whole lot of nothing this week for the Hanseatic League as Europe continues erupting around them. And in all honesty, that’s probably not a good thing. They have failed to take advantage of any of the opportunities around them - stabbing France in the back while they’re distracted in Portugal, going after a weakened Kalmar again with Bjarmia, or going after a Wallachia who thinks the most advanced weapon any human can create is a long stick. And it’s not like they’re simming and turtling either - their military is subpar, their science is fine but not spectacular (it’s below Estonia, but at least above Kalmar), and their production is pretty bad. Maybe this newfound Scythian Bergen gives them an opportunity to connect up Rakvere and break the Kalmar Union in a future war. But who am I kidding, Jurgen doesn’t play the game, the game plays him. Welcome to Bavaria 2.0 everyone: Northern Germany Edition.

”

Yep, looks good to me. I guess they’re attacking Tren In (should be Trenčín, but the game doesn’t like the character č) but that won’t actually change anything. No rank change, no status change for Hansa. Another week of nothing.

27: Itelmen

Archimedes :

Itelmen sits in an awkward spot as these episodes tick slowly but surely by. They, as a whole, don’t look to be in an absolutely awful position. They’ve been taking advantage of the space they have, settling cities and producing units, generating science and keeping a wary eye on their neighbours. In any other situation, they would have a very solid chance at this game. But there are wolves circling in the darkness, and Itelmen looks like juicy prey.

One of the best advantages Itelmen has managed to hold onto is their city count. They have been slowly but surely capturing land and expanding their empire, and their stats have continued on pace with this. Despite their baffling aversion to rivers, something their Unique Ability directly benefits from in food, faith, and culture, they have spread out and grabbed some notable spots on the map. Japan fans have certainly been keeping a wary eye on the two Itelmen cities in northern Japan. And even though they’ve lost one city to their direct neighbour, Green Ukraine, the Itelmen still look to be in a solid enough position, and in an area where they still could grow their empire a bit.

But their direct neighbours are, of course, their biggest weakness. With two top dogs being in the near vicinity, Diplomatic Master Tang and absolute Production Monster Tlingit, the Itelmen look like one of the nearest and one of the easiest targets to nab. And even putting those two out of mind, Green Ukraine and Japan both also directly border Itelmen, and have established a history of conflict to show. While Itelmen has some production and some science to help try to keep pace, such hungry and powerful empires completely outclass what they currently have, and what they could hope to achieve. It’s no secret that Tlingit could swoop in at almost any time from the East and take their capital, it’s more of a matter of when instead of if.

As fun as it has been to see Itelmen continue to fend off their western neighbours, build food focused wonders, and settle one tile off of nearly every river they see, I have little hope for the future of this civ. As the most obvious point of expansion for the Tlingit, they stand little hope in surviving long, especially against such a Raven headed adversary. We’ll have to see just how long they stick it out, and if the ending is swift, or a drawn out mess.

28: Bactria

ItsTruckMonth:

Bactria finds itself just shy of the middle of the pack. Stats are middling, though it's largely carried by their somewhat respectable military size, while their production and science output remain mediocre. That said, they’re beginning to run out of opportunities: the Kipchaks are at the uninviting end of a Ket invasion force, Vyatka is down, but still a respectable power, Pakistan are surging through the ranks (more on that later), and Qara Khitai would be a meat grinder that would leave them even more vulnerable.

Demetrius is gonna need some ambition to pop out soon, lest he’s left in the dust.

29: Qara-Khitai

ECH:

If conquering a risky colony near your core in the middle of the flat Tarim Basin is the height of your civs glory within the early game, you may not be off to a glorious start. If that one moment of victory is enough to reach 33rd, you maybe ought to be thankful that being stagnant is better than being in freefall.

30: Susquehannock

ECH / Archimedes :

Susquehannock and Onondaga are really perpetually stuck as each other's Yin and Yang this season. Starting so close to each other, being so similar in colour (at least for someone who’s colourblind like I am), and staying relatively close in terms of statistics and city counts. When one goes up, the other goes down, neverending and eternal. So let’s talk a bit about the Yin in this case.

Susquehannock has dropped off a bit this episode, in large part because of their failed attempt at an invasion of Northern Quebec. Their army score has been reduced, something that dropped even further with the slight change to how we calculate the score in relation to happiness on the back end. They’ve been doing all right of course, but with no religion, no wonders, and a position slightly closer to Teotihuacan, they are the lower ranked of the duo this week. One could say that Susquehannock has better opportunities, that being a solid route to attack and conquer the Caribbean, but they haven’t shown any will to do so, and rankers don’t value ‘could’ as much as they value ‘have’.

Susquehannock likely has access to some of their unique abilities already. Each international trade route provides them a +1% combat bonus to their units, up to a grand total of 20%. They also have a Palisade Village UI, which yields production and bonus food depending on researched technologies. And while they haven’t researched the first of those technologies that would give them a food bonus, Civil Service, they are currently working on picking up Metal Casting. Workshops could be good in boosting their production and rebuilding their military, but for now they sit slightly below Onondaga, the saw to the current see.

Up one week, down the next, Susquehannock and Onondaga continue to leapfrog over each other. Will either be able to make material gains against the other? They still have plenty of options, but seem content to lean on each other, with no real plans of true domination.

31: Green Ukraine

NopeCopter:

Green Ukraine may have been the only civ I actively disliked immediately after X5’s roster was decided - not for any issues with the civ itself, mind you, it’s just not my ideal flavor of civ. And, going into the test runs, Green Ukraine seemed poised to be a dangerous competitor. With all their free space and their expansionist playstyle, a rerun of Goguryeo’s victory seemed all too likely. When the game began and Green Ukraine got off to a slow start, many believed they were frauds. Not me. I continued to insist that, because of all their free space, they could do literally nothing for half a dozen episodes and still come back to become a major power. I seemed to be vindicated in this belief as time went on - Green Ukraine started settling and building up a massive army, Rouran crippled themselves, and then Green Ukraine even took a key city from the Itelmen which almost completely blocked them in. Green Ukraine’s comeback seemed inevitable, and their war declaration against Rouran seemed to cement that, with at least one city looking guaranteed to fall.

And then they completely fumbled that war. And then they abandoned the front halfway through to declare an even easier-looking war against Tang. And then they fumbled THAT war, too, barely managing to even scratch two undefended cities. And THEN they surrendered control over half a dozen luxuries for peace in a war they started, single-handedly fixing their main rival’s Happiness issues in one fell swoop.

I think I’m ready to admit it: Green Ukraine is a fraud. They have fewer cities and worse stats than not just Tang but even Rouran, their military has been gutted, and they just wasted the best opportunity possible to cripple EITHER of their two most dangerous enemies. Even the Itelmen are starting to settle around them! They’re not out of the game or anything, their stats are still respectable and they have a couple of weaker targets to pick on. But if these past couple of episodes are any indication, they have no sauce whatsoever, and sauce is what wins games. I can’t even be happy about this - I’ve honestly come to tolerate Green Ukraine over the course of the game, their colors are nice and their history is pretty neat. They’re just a disappointment, a disappointment that dared to look respectable. I guess they really were… a paper tiger.

32: Kalmar Union

Shaggy:

A minor 2 rank bump for the Kalmar Union this episode as they have a relatively quiet week of declaring wars on enemies that they are unlikely to do any damage to. The war declaration against the Kipchaks seems to be largely for diplomatic reasons as they try to stay on the more powerful Ket’s side in what the Power Ranking team Shaggy alone is dubbing The War of 1000 Ks. The war declaration against Estonia has more potential but once again the focus of the war seems to be in and around Vassa, and we know how that’s gone for Kalmar before. There aren’t a lot of great options for Kalmar but frankly there aren’t a lot of terrible ones either, it isn’t like their neighbors are terribly competent either. Riiiiiiight down the middle. At least they are playing the coalition and diplomacy game better than they are the military game.

33: Herero

Leman:

Herero is entering an integration and consolidation and growth phase after making peace with Maravi. To be honest, while they are looking solid and they are really decent, I’m a little disappointed that they weren’t able to pick up those little cities in the south. And that war with Luba ended up being a nothing burger also. Oh well, it's unlikely Maravi will be able to build them up and it's unlikely Seychelles or any other civ will be able to take those anyways.

34: Onondaga

ECH / Archimedes :

Onondaga has crept forward a bit in this episode, in large part because of their neighbours' failed attempt at an invasion of Northern Quebec. Their army score has stayed stable, something that has actually been given a slight boost due to a slight change in how we calculate the score in relation to happiness on the back end. They’ve been doing all right of course, with a religion, a wonder, and a slightly more isolated location than their southern neighbour. One could say that Onondaga is in a more defensive spot, but their Eastern Canada location has left them with less than stellar avenues for expansion. And, less than stellar land to settle.

Onondaga likely has access to some of their unique abilities already. Both their Temple and their Great General replacements are reliant on city states, something that has been woefully missing from this game so far. But with a flat bonus to unit xp, and an additional melee strength boost to units in hills, Onondaga has a decent bonus when it comes to fighting. The fighting, of course, that they have been refusing to actually partake in. Their religion as well has some minor bonuses to culture, faith, and gold, but they have yet to truly take advantage of their bonus to building wonders, with the only wonder they’ve actually nabbed only giving a boost to building more wonders. It seems that Onondaga’s lost in life is generally pretty subpar, but at least for now they sit slightly above Susquehannock, the see to the current saw/

35: Scotland

Archimedes :

Unfortunately, this has been a pretty uneventful episode for Scotland. With only one featured slide, a shot at their core, we’ve been able to see Scotland plod along at a slow and steady pace, continuing to grow their cities and settle the North Sea. But, there is a breath constantly heaving in their ears, as the Umhaill menace always lurks as a looming threat to Scottish sovereignty.

Scotland hasn’t done anything particularly unremarkable when it comes to their stats. They’re high enough on science, have a decent city spread, and are at least keeping well enough on pace when it comes to food and production. They’ve remained rather sleepy, keeping their wars to a minimum and staying generally isolated. Scotland has notably avoided researching Construction, meaning their ranged defense is lacking the oomph provided by composite bowmen, something that would help well in defending a naval invasion from their western neighbour. But with their recent acquisition of Civil Service, their food production will continue to climb, and access to pikemen will work wonders in providing any land based defenses and recapturing any cities that may happen to flip on the mainland of their empire.

The biggest concern to Scotland right now, besides their notably war happy neighbour, is utilizing their Unique Abilities. As a religious focused civ, they were unable to pick up a religion of their own, and the closest existing religion is on continental Europe. As the Bjarmians and Scythia slowly but surely spread their beliefs to the west, Scotland might be able to take advantage of the happiness bonus from their Temple replacement, or begin to spawn rebels in the holy cities of anyone who dares to convert them. But any religious conversions look a decent amount of time away, as Kalmar Hansa and France seem to gate any progress with their well developed and high population cities.

Scotland exists in a limbo state at the moment, where they haven’t made any grand gestures or exciting plays, but merely exist in their section of the cylinder. With Civil Service now unlocked, we could see a boost of growth and defensive capability in the near future. But the going state of this side of the world seems to be Keep Calm and Carry On, a sentiment I’m sure many Scottish supporters would hate to hear.

36: Vyatka

Cloudy:

Oh dear. Oh dearie dearie me.

Last episode, the cracks started showing, but it was in episode 9 that Vyatka utterly collapsed, losing three cities—nearly four—and dropping 21 ranks on the info addict sheet. The Scythians cut through them like butter, and even the Bjarmians snagged a piece of the pie. If peace hadn’t been made, there’s no doubt that Vyatka would have kept losing cities until there was nothing left. It was about as much of a catastrophe as a former top 10 civ can experience at this point in the game.

Why did it happen? Vyatka didn’t have an effective counter for Scythia’s unique mounted units and bonuses to mounted assaults; their army was too widely scattered through their vast empire, and too many of their cities were useless dead weight, barely subsisting in yield-poor snow and tundra. Now those cities comprise the bulk of their remaining empire. They have 12 cities left, which is more than most civs, but they have the worst production-per-city ratio on the cylinder, below average effective science, below average crop yield, one of the lowest food surpluses on the cylinder, and the lowest food-per-city ratio on the cylinder. That is dead last, 61st place, less than Ma’in or Ryukyu.

In short, there is no reason to believe that Vyatka is going to bounce back from this—the fundamentals just aren’t there. In fact, I ranked them 37th, far below where they ended up this week, because of that lack of hope. I would be happy to be proved wrong, that they deserve to remain in the top half after all. But I’m definitely not counting on it.

37: Umhaill

Archimedes :

Umhaill was decidedly quiet this episode, after weeks and weeks of boisterous, visible action. Sailing the high seas and plundering coastlines must have taken a toll on {civ leader name}’s health, as she’s settled in for a warm drink and a re-evaluation of her prospects. Scotland has focused on the immediate area, and though a far flung colony in a New Found Land may seem prosperous, maybe it’s time Umhaill properly took a stab at the status quo in the British Isles.

Umhaill at least has been maintaining their position well enough in the stats page. Their science and production has kept pace with their neighbours, and good coastal food production has kept their cities well fed. Their solid population has impacted their happiness though, which is positive but skirting the line at a paltry 5. This happiness is a bad omen for any conquests they might consider, as capturing cities could plunge them into the deep negatives. Scotland may have some errant unique luxuries in their newly settled Icelandic areas, but any attacks Umhaill will do must take their low happiness into consideration.

Umhaill is on the path to picking up one of its unique buildings however. Only two technologies away from researching Chivalry, Umhaill’s unique castle replacement the Tower House could be a fair boost to their power regarding controlling the British Isles. It is cheaper to construct in conquered cities, something they’ve already achieved a few times over, and when units die within a close proximity to a Tower House, the city gets a burst of production in building new units to replace them. A solid bonus in regards to defending, and also a great kickstart when conquering local lands, the Tower House could be the final domino in pushing Scotland fully out of Umhaill’s neighbourhood.

38: France

Semi:

Another solid episode from Robespierre, with the successful conclusion of the war against Portugal. I’m 90% sure they got Aveiro in the peace deal too, which is a pretty nice win in terms of getting the rest of Iberia later. A one rank drop for them is solely because Pakistan and Circassia have been rocketing up the stats boards as they consolidate their reasonable empires, while France…yeah ngl their stats are still mediocre. They aren’t growing that quickly, and their once above-average science has begun to slip. I think it’s also fair to say that conquering only Porto and getting Aveiro in the peace deal is kind of a disappointment given the force disposition we saw at the end of the last episode, but still - two cities is two cities, and Portugal now looks crippled with the Pyrenees no longer effectively protecting them. Now it’s just a matter of seeing if Robespierre, like he did in reality, will see France invade the Low Countries (with Scotland’s isolated settlement there) or Germany (where the Hanseatic League…still exist I guess). Or maybe it’s time to stop fighting and actually develop the empire. Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Robespierre sneak back into the top 20 in a couple of episodes.

39: Circassia

Shaggy:

ISMAIL BERZEG! ISMAIL BERZEG! The luck of the Power Ranking assignments draw has once again gifted me with the Circassia writeup this week. I swear I’m not poaching or trading for these (guess who has the Teotihuacan writeup this week). They rise 4 ranks this episode and continue their quest up the Power Rankings. After attempting to recreate the Siege of Tyre in the style of the Great Observer, Nebuchadnezzar, Circassia was instead relegated to recreating the Siege of Tyre in the style of CBR Mark 2 competitor Saladin. For those of you who may get your historical Sieges of Tyre mixed up, that was one of the unsuccessful ones. Though their capture of Byblos in their war with the Phoenicians did bring news from and new borders with Sumer. Ismail Berzeg, ever envious, heard rumors of Eannatum’s hot Sumerian wife from Sumerian traders in Byblos and decided to go to war for love. It must be for love given that Circassia has only sent a token invasion force that is poorly equipped to capture the 25 strength city of Lagash. Only a love-besotted leader could send such ill-suited units to their deaths so irrationally, right?

40: Pakistan

ItsTruckMonth:

Pakistan continues its rapid ascent, as it continues its explosive growth stats-wise. Most notably is their population, which has taken an absolutely massive lead at 1st place with over 22 million citizens (for reference, Seychelles are the closest at over 13 million).

To celebrate this, Pakistan has chosen a very reasonable method: invading Sumer. While they do look poised to take at least Uruk, they should be wary of overcommitting: the largest military on the cylinder sleeps to their east after all…

41: Potiguara

NopeCopter:

The Potiguara are an objectively solid-looking civ. Sure they only have seven cities, but they have plenty of food, a solid military, nice bonuses for their start, and two weak neighbors to pick on. The issue is that this is South America, and being “a solid-looking civ” is an excellent descriptor of three other civs on the continent, all with significantly more potential. Potiguara has high stats, sure, but their Production and Techs are both middling. They have two weak neighbors and a strong military, but they’re in South America, maybe the most unfriendly region in the game towards early-game conquest. With all of this in mind, then, how are they supposed to stack up against the Chono, who have a dozen cities and plenty more room on top of being able to demolish the Guaycuru at their leisure? Or Caral, who have some INSANE Science bonuses owing to their religion as well as easy access to Polynesia? Or even the Yanomami, who now control the Panama Canal and could easily expand further into the Caribbean? Their stats are too good to write off, and their position is defensible enough that they won’t be dying any time soon, but the Potiguara are a modest shrimp in a big pond.

42: Rouran

ItsTruckMonth:

Rouran continues its slow and steady rise through the ranks as they essentially race Ket for arctic land to settle, with the race favoring Rouran by two settlers to one.

That said, Rouran seems to have formed quite the rivalry with Green Ukraine if anything: both have gone to war with each other, they loom over familiar territories, and lie practically dead even in stats (Rouran holding a slightly higher infoaddict score: 54.3 vs 53.8). Should be a fun regional rivalry to watch.

43: Yanomami

Orange:

Yanomami have managed to secure the canal, what an incredible catch. For this they go up a whole one (1) rank! Well, it’s cause while they have good stats in general, they still feel kinda weak. Not great production, and like average stats elsewhere, at least comparatively to others around this standing. Personally, I think they should probably focus on going after Xaragua or maybe Potiguara next, something where they can nab a city or two and keep up the momentum.

44: Bangladesh

Semi:

Honestly, not a lot bad to say about Bangladesh this episode. They got their piece of the Pegu pie in the form of Sadhuim, and are actually well-poised to grab the capital of Hongsawatoi, if Bangladesh and Lanfang are able to reduce the city. Even without that, though, it’s hard not to see this episode as a win for Bangladesh. A nice city pickup with the ability to power-project against either Mysorean South India or Dharwad in Indonesia, or Lanfang if negotiations break down in the future. Their religion is also expanding well across Asia, going as far as the northeastern Tang city and the Rouran border, with no other religions east of Ket and north of Cebu to contest the spread of Shaktism. There was also a nice 2-rank rise in the stats for our East Indian competitor, as they hang on to the back end of the second-tier stats group (Caral, Japan, et. al). For that reason, they…went down a rank this week?

Huh.

Guess I’ll have to present the negative side for Bangladesh, too. The problem is, once Pegu is gone, they have no easy targets. Mysore is ranked above them, and although the South Indians have a lower science output, they have more cities and military than the Bangladeshis. The only way to take them down might be an alliance with Pakist-hahahahaha that’ll never happen. To the north, Bangladesh would be navigating a difficult mountain range to go after…Tang? Who’s also higher in the PRs with a diplomacy corps the likes of which the cylinder has never seen? They could also go after Yunnan, but the city Sheikh Mujbur Rahman would have the best attack on would be the capital - which gets defensive bonuses from Yunnan’s UA, to speak nothing of the geography. And to the east, once Pegu is gone, it’s just Lanfang. Who, like every West Indonesian contender for the last three CBRs, is looking like a good science civ and is still expanding well. So the walls are closing in just a little bit on the 50-year-old country. A little bit of sim-city play, or a well fought, won war with a better neighbor, would do wonders and might even catapult Bangladesh to the top 10.

45: Japan

Cloudy:

This episode, Japan did the unthinkable: they settled northern Honshu. Yes, the Itelmen also got a city there, but SO DID JAPAN. No Japanese civ has ever accomplished this feat. So why did they fall by a rank? Well, you see, this just isn’t that impressive. You did the bare minimum, congrats, you expect us to reward you for it?

46: Scythia

JMAn:

Scythia enjoys a minor bump this week, and it’s all thanks to a floundering Vyatka. The thing is, Scythia is much better than Vyatka in every way aside from total number of cities (9 v 12) and total techs (20 v 21). This is likely the sign that Scythia’s star is in the ascendant and they will be the most major player in Europe.

Europe is still a Royal Rumble in BRs, and we don’t know for sure if it will be Scythia, Bjarmia, France, or even Wallachia. But what we do know is that Vyatka is going to have to make up a lot of ground to recover against a solid showing by Scythia.

Scythia can still keep climbing if they decide to take cities off of their smaller neighbors, and they have the military to be aggressive in that regard. It is yet to be seen if they will actually be aggressive to the degree that they absolutely need to be to keep riding this high. Pun intended.

47: Anishinaabe

Archimedes :

Anishinaabe has finally woken up, and it truly is a sight to behold. A slow and steady climb has propped them right in the top 20 in regards to stats, and even a coalition war from Tlingit, Pomo, and Susquehannock hasn’t slowed them down. With no cities lost and one city gained, things are truly looking up for this central plains civ. But is all well in the world? Or are some weak points showing in the exterior of Pontiacs’ empire?

With the acquisition of Shgagwei, Anishinaabe has come out well from this war. They’ve maintained control of their eastern conflict with Susquehannock, as the triremes assaulting Mooniyaang have evaporated, and continue to push forward on their western side, peppering Pomo’s cities and units with ranged attacks. With a carpet slowly moving westward, there is a chance that Anishinaabe could make a real attempt at capturing some of Pomo’s cities, as Kadi’u sits well within striking distance, and Ka’tuuu sits at a paltry 11 city defense. One thing to note though is that Tlingit is slowly but surely moving a contingent of swordsmen in the direction of their former city, and with some composite bowmen already standing nearby, there is a possibility that the city could be contested once more.

Anishinaabe is also still doing well from a stats perspective, maintaining a solid position within the top 20. Decent cities, military, production, science, and food, nothing about their stat line is lacking in any way. And with 46 excess happiness, they have plenty of space for expansion, population growth, or conquest. A few of their neighbours are juicy targets, with Pomo actively under threat of ceding a couple cities, and Ponca and Onondaga as potential future options. The biggest issue with their current stats is that they don’t quite measure up to one of their neighbours, Tlingit. Their science and production is dwarfed by this Pacific Northwest behemoth, and with established beef now between the two civs, we’re likely to see further conflicts down the road. Tlingit seems poised to far and away outscale Anishinaabe if nothing changes, so we’ll have to see if Anishinaabe is able to leverage their central position to take bits and pieces off of their other neighbours to help bolster their stats.

48: Pomo

Orange:

Despite what certain Teotihuacan fanatic individuals may make you seem, Pomo are still like, doing pretty fuckin’ great. But hey, as the most ardent defender of the great state of Pomo, and the co-creator of the mod, I can admit they have some rough stats. Namely, they do not have good production or food. For having 12 cities their food and production per city is pretty low, and they really need to improve these areas in order to stand as tall as they should. Luckily they are still quite protected for now, and have more settlers out to hopefully go settle the rest of Hawaii (and to settle that spot between them and Ponca on their side of the Rockies). Still having the space to expand like that is pretty huge for them in terms of being able to still grow despite their weak production and food.

But on that note, technology! Despite having a fair bit less science than Tlingit, they are tied in number of techs, (though the Tlingit somehow still don’t have writing… So that will grow more soon), and they have more than Teo and Anishinaabe. They need more pop to boost their science to keep this up, but it’s helpful for now. With that, they are currently researching Iron Working, which gives access to Swordsmen, after which the only Ancient Era (the tree is a fair bit modified so the Ancient Era is quite long for some reason.) tech left will be Philosophy (and it’s National College), and they will be able to research Metal Casting to get workshops to boost up that production finally, which I hope they do, but they might go for Philosophy to get Theology next because religion.

Anyways, Pomo are still doing well, their main struggle for now will be Tlingit’s incredible strength, hopefully the mountains can protect them well until their many cities really come online. Get those improvements down Essie!

49: Ethiopia

Msurdej:

Ethiopia continues to descend, falling to its lowest point in the rankings since the game started in earnest. They didn't do much this episode besides a declaration on Wassoulou, and when other civs like Caral and Seychelles are making more moves, that doesn't look good for Zara. They may be safe for now, but unless they make some major gains on a neighbor (which is very doable considering they have the Statue of Zeus), they'll continue to stagnate. and stagnation in a game like this is always a losing move.

50: Caral

Leman:

Caral is absolutely surging up the rankings as their stats really coalesce into something really powerful. This is mostly powered by their very powerful religion, that's giving them top tier science and production. However, I do wanna point out that on top of a bunch of solid, early game bonuses that are contributing to Caral’s massive powerspike. They’ve not really used those stats just yet but they have been throwing a lot of boats around. A bunch have sunk off the coast of Anakena in episodes prior, and a bunch are sinking off the coast of Teotihuacan now. We’re gonna need a better use of production than that before Caral breaks the top 10.

51: Bunuba

ItsTruckMonth:

Good News? Bunuba’s making good progress on the Ternate front, taking Galela and Doninga, and are poised to take possibly even more.

Bad News? NSW wants that runback, and they clear Bunuba in nearly every meaningful stat.

Good News? NSW barely has a land army on the front line, with most of the fighting likely coming from the galley fleet to the West.

Bad News? Bunuba doesn’t have a land army either.

Nothingburger? For Jandamarra: hopefully.

52: Teotihuacan

Archimedes :

I’ll admit, things certainly could have gone better for Teotihuacan this episode. Cholula finally and officially in the hands of Yanomami brings a tear to my eye, and not the kind that accompanies joy, happiness, or overall pleasant feelings. But with Yanomami off their back with a disappointing peace deal, Teotihuacan actually looks better than ever, even though they’re in the active conflict of a two front war. Let’s break it down.

One of Teotihuacan’s strongest strengths right now is their production. Sitting in third place, nestled just in between New South Wales and Bunuba, has allowed them to create and maintain a large standing army, despite their drawn out wars against Yanomami, Caral, and Xaragua. This production has been well utilized in fending off generally most of the aggression they’ve found at their borders, as evident to Xaragua’s navy melting over the course of this episode. With well defended coastal cities and a swarm of composite bowmen to continually pepper any approaching triremes, the chance of either Caral or Xaragua taking cities by force looks slim to none. Yanomami obviously was able to secure the far reaching city of Cholula, a juicily strategic point to connect the Atlantic to the Pacific, but with such a military might it’s likely that this will be the only city Teotihuacan is losing in the near future.

Teotihuacan has continued, with this abundance of production, to facilitate the growth of their core empire. Crop yield, gold, culture, faith, and happiness have all either grown or maintained a steady level, feeding into a strong base for Teotihuacan to continue existing on. Their city count has grown to an impressive 13 despite the recent loss, taking full advantage of the 2 tile limit on coastal settlements mod that was added to CBRX5. Mesoamerica looks almost entirely filled out, excluding that one pesky Karankawa city on the Yucatan Peninsula, a likely target for a future war when Teotihuacan feels stabilized and other wars have subsided. And we can only guess that many of their Unique Building replacement, the Obsidian Workshop, have been built. As a Caravanasary replacement, it gives copies of the luxury resource Obsidian, a powerful trading tool to facilitate diplomacy, and when a trade route is completed in the city, spawns a worker that can be used to further develop their fertile and productive core.

I do have one complaint about Teotihuacan’s performance however. As a civilization focused around building wonders, I was very much looking forward to just how many they could nab over the course of the game. And with picking up a religion focused on gaining faith from wonders, I had some truly high hopes. But, with such a piddling science over the course of this game, Teotihuacan has managed to nab a grand total of 0 wonders. They have been so uncompetitive science wise that even with a top 3 production and a bonus towards building wonders specifically, they haven’t managed to reach a wonder before someone else has built it. Looking under the hood, we can see exactly why that is.

Out of the 61 civilizations on this cylinder, 42 have researched Writing. And Teotihuacan is NOT one of them. With such a sprawling empire, with massive production, and with a grand total of 101 population spread out throughout their cities, there is 50 science that Teotihuacan could be taking advantage of with Libraries. Enough science to bring them on par with the second highest raw science civilization on the cylinder, the Tlingit. And yet they have not thought to spend a turn or two researching this simple, basic, empire defining technology. An absolutely baffling decision in a game where keeping ahead of the curve technology wise is the premier strategy.

With Workshops very close at hand, and two fighting empires that have a zero to none chance of capturing a city, Teotihuacan looks to be a grand contender in this game. The only things bringing them down are their aversion to anything on the top of the tech tree, and the fact that the Americas as a whole are stacked when it comes to contenders. We’ll likely see many wars break out over the next few episodes, and it’s my hope that Teotihuacan of all the contenders will come out on top.

53: Mysore

Cloudy:

Mysore slips a couple ranks as we become increasingly concerned about their path forward. They’re clearly the strongest civ on the Indian subcontinent, but Pakistan and Bangladesh are both looking too tough for them to take at the moment. So who are they supposed to conquer? At the moment, they just have to keep settling infill cities and wait for the geopolitical situation to change.

54: Seychelles

Orange:

Seychelles jumps like 5 slots for uh, I don’t know??? They have maintained real good stats I guess, but like they kinda did terribly in that Maravi war. So maybe it’s just that their stats continue to be real good and they’re still dropping more and more cities on the various islands of the western Indian Ocean.

55: Lanfang

ItsTruckMonth:

Lanfang sees a nice rise in the PR’s this week as they look to cuck Bangladesh out of any further gains in the Pegu war. So far, the scoreboard says 1-1 as Lanfang pushes on Muttama while Bangladesh pushes on the capital.

Outside of the war, Lanfang finds itself in a pretty nice position, despite the absolute thunderdome that the Indo-Pacific is proving to be this season. They have good stats across the board (especially techs, being 2nd overall), and are surrounded by mediocre players in Pegu, Yunnan, Ternate and Cebu (despite their recent showings of that dawg in them).

Overall, things are coming up Fangbo.

56: Ket

Leman:

Ket is great. They’re a big Siberian blob doing all the fun things we expect out of a big Siberian blob. I’m not really gonna rehash that. I want to complain for a second.

Why did Ket send its whole ass military to take Gerey in the snow when Ak and Kara are right there for the taking? Look at the image in the slide there are so many units up there and the south has this thin line of half dead Composite Bowman. The AI has the weirdest decisions I swear.

I assume Ket’s gonna turn around and drop the hammer on those two cities, but honestly Kipchak’s defense is looking decent now.

57: Chono

JMAn:

I get the honor of writing the writeup for a very high ranking civ for the first time, I believe, in a long while. And Chono is one of those civs that seem to be in it for the long haul. Chono’s stats may be slightly inflated by their far off city in Papua; however, their production is solid and they have 22 techs, which is even more than our number 1 ranked civ this week. Their military is massive, and Chono has very few threats near them. Right now, if they are able to take on a civilization like Guaycuru, they can start snowballing into the other South American civilizations. Caral is their surprisingly strong rival, but Potiguara and Xavante are some civilizations that they can start eating up if they can roll over Guaycuru.

Chono also has the benefit of being the Patagonia civ, and as we all should know historically the Patagonia civ does extremely well. Tundra tiles are not good tiles by any means, but the geography has always been favorable for the civ starting there. Having a strong naval bias is also a huge bonus as Chono keeps digging their heels into their power base.

CBR In-Game Screenshot of New South Wales

58: New South Wales

Cloudy:

New South Wales goes back up a rank with their invasion of Bunuba, because it’s what they need to do to break out, but we’re not all that confident that they’ll succeed. The war seemed to have been initiated by Chono, with NSW dragged along for the ride, and MacArthur clearly hasn’t prepared an invasion force to catch Bunuba by surprise. This will give Jandamarra time to rally his forces to defend the border. Any land invasion will also be hampered by Bunuba’s Great Wall. The wall doesn’t affect naval units, which is how NSW took Jijidu last time, but the next Bunuba cities along the coast are not nearly as easy to capture, with fewer exposed water tiles and more difficult approaches. Of course, Bunuba is distracted by their war with Ternate, and there is a significant difference in military manpower between these two civs, so a city capture isn’t out of the question. But MacArthur has certainly not optimized his chances of success.

59: Aures

JDT: The Aures continue their steady climb up the ranks this episode by taking the initiative and invading Wassalou, whom the entire cylinder seems to despise for some reason. While they lose their newly settled city of Ad Medias, they are more than happy to take the trade by conquering the entirety of East Wassalou in one fell swoop, dashing any hope the Wassalou had of clawing their way out of Aures’ insanely hot start and their sluggish gambit against Zazzau.

I’ll be transparent with you - I ranked Aures first, the only PR to do so. Not a single other PR had them higher than third. The reason I believe they are top dog this episode despite Tlingit having far superior stats is very very simple - nobody can effectively contest them in their region aside from Ethiopia. When you’re a whale in a region of minnows, it's incredibly easy to grow and scale big. It’s effectively the Tang argument, even down to competency and efficiency, except replace inherent insane stats and growth potential with even weaker opposition. Of course, the Aures must still connect sea to sea to prevent the future low yields of the Sahara biting them in the ass. But for now? They are uncontestable locally, and definitely one of the top civs.

60: Tang

Cloudy:

Tang has slipped to 2nd place, and a lot of it has to do with our analysis of the new #1, which I’ll leave to NopeCopter on the next slide. In fact, Tang had a pretty good episode—they made peace with Green Ukraine without losing any cities, even though a capture had looked inevitable, and in fact Tang’s notoriously competent diplomats managed to convince their northern neighbor to give up seven luxury resources in the treaty, reversing their happiness from -14 to +14 in the space of a turn. Tang’s stats remain really good, they have a ton of cities, so much food, so much production... but you know who’s unambiguously better? Next slide please...

61: Tlingit

NopeCopter:

After a couple of episodes of confused, uncertain, and reluctant Tang supremacy in absence of any one civ that actually looked all that dominant, we now have a new civ that has decisively won over the PRs’ minds: the Tlingit. Now, many were initially hesitant to place the Tlingit in first, what with the Pomo looking like solid rivals and memories of X4’s Thule (not to mention the Anishinaabe taking one of their cities). But after this episode, despite not a whole lot visibly changing, the attitude has shifted almost entirely. Let’s talk about why.

Firstly, there’s the most obvious: the stats. The Tlingit are now head and shoulders above any other civ in the InfoAddict rankings, dwarfing second-place New South Wales in almost every category while also not being unhappy. In particular, their military is the largest on the cylinder, their Production is head and shoulders above anybody else, and their Science output almost matches that of the Bunuba. That last one is particularly scary because the Tlingit are managing all of this… without Writing. When they DO unlock the ability to build Libraries, their Science can be expected to absolutely skyrocket.

Second, there’s their neighbors. The Anishinaabe war wasn’t expected to go much further, and indeed, it hasn’t, leaving the Tlingit looking pretty much safe from any further city losses for the time being. The Pomo, meanwhile, are as large as ever, but their stats are looking incredibly stagnant at the moment - in particular, their population is abysmal, and they don’t have nearly enough military forces to threaten the Tlingit or even really defend their more northerly settlements. And then there’s the Itelmen, who are looking… better, now, but could still be open to a naval assault, especially if the Tlingit can upgrade past Triremes. Despite looking just as trapped as the Thule in theory, in practice the Tlingit actually look pretty prepared to muscle their way out if they so desire.

Then there’s the most subtle change: their settlements. Because the Ponca utterly failed to settle north like they did in nearly every test game, a massive chunk of Canada has been left open for the Tlingit, Pomo, and Anishinaabe. The Tlingit got a solid cut of this, but their settlement strategy (while very funny) has been the cause for some concern. Focusing on only the coast and ignoring any inland settlements left their core open to being compromised by a line of Pomo cities in the same vein as what the Aures did to Wassoulou (albeit not nearly as pressing. Of course, with the Pomo being as weak as they are now, this may not have made much of a difference in the end, but ignoring all this free land would have still held them back. However, in this episode, the Tlingit actually settled (off-screen) a new city, not on the coast, but next to a lake. This one city has significantly limited the Pomo’s ability to in-fill the Tlingit coastal core. It doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of the Pomo settling in the middle of the Tlingit core, but it does mean there’s just one more direction the Tlingit can attack those cities and cut them off in the event of a war.

Taking all of this together, the Tlingit look to be in a very strong position for at least the next couple hundred turns, and if they take the opportunity to knock the Pomo or even the Itelmen down a peg, they could easily cement themselves as a top player for a long time to come. That being said, the Pomo could easily come back, and the Tlingit do admittedly still suffer from having only a few potential targets, all of whom are at least middling powers. But if the Tlingit continue to play aggressively and consolidate all their land well, they could very easily win the game, and that’s a much clearer path to victory than anybody else has at the moment. (Oh, and they might be about to settle Greenland! I don’t know how they plan to DEFEND it, but it would be VERY funny.)

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