Power Rankings: Episode 10 – S4

Rosay:

Well this was awkward. When I wrote “Shawnee gots it rough” two parts ago I was kinda expecting I'd never get them again and was making it count. To be fair theyre still fucked but now they've ended up in last place instead of second to last place so...

Shits not good, and I don't wanna be crass

But this whole game and Shawnee's been ass

Like they've had ten whole parts, haven't made a ripple

Each part were closer to seeing Shawnee's dismissal

Seeing Shawnee's rank bounce up and down, and around

Vigorously shaking and making that clapping sound

NopeCopter:

Despite the fact that the Kalmyks managed to somehow end last episode with all four of the cities they started with (looking at the minimap), the odds of that staying true for much longer are basically zero. Kazan’s military is pointed squarely at Astrakhan with no signs of slowing down, and the Power Rankers all seem to agree that we’re probably going to see the game’s first capital capture in the next episode. So, then, why aren’t they in last place? Simple: the Caucasus. Even if they lose Samara, Astrakhan, and even Saratov, the final Kalmyk city of Lagan is buried too deep in the Cacuasus for Kazan’s forces to have much hope of capturing. In fact, the only civ that could reasonably threaten the city is Pontus, and they’re… rather occupied right now. All in all, the PR team mostly seems to agree that the odds of the growing anti-Shawnee coalition dragging in the Osage or Seneca is higher than the Kalmks actually going down anytime soon, even if their time in the spotlight is now definitely over.

Shaggy:

Well they aren’t dead yet, but I really hope that Saba isn’t the one to kill them off.

Msurdej:  

Well Bento, I got bad news and good news. The bad news is, most of your neighbors are at war with you, you’ve lost Porto Alegre, and Tiwanaku seems to be gunning for Alegrete. The good news is you’ve made a series of Antarctic colonies, so when you inevitably get kicked out of South America, you can probably hide there until Total War happens. I don’t think Rio Grande has hit the bottom just yet, but it is close.

JDT:

Take a ride on my train of thought, fundamentals what I bought

Penniless, I await the emptiness enlightened

Twenty-six years on Earth, my soul fighting

Habits that ain't happen, my body has took a liken

To my lifestyle, battling stress the size of Goliath

Slingshots plus hard rocks, these stones getting thrown

My temptations are amplified when I get alone

Tried to separate the action from the man

I wholeheartedly understand why I need to grow even though I'm grown

If I did you wrong, I vow to make it right

Judge me off appearance, it was said to me, I'm impolite

Eyes remain in freeze mode, I'm stuck in fight-or-flight

I'm deflecting my daily problems within my daily life

Recognize hidden patterns of my own demise

Why I feel like hiding a truth is finding a lie?

Orange:

It seems Rome’s backed off for now, letting the Mamluks survive with their four cities, better than being a complete rump. It’s a bit hard to tell if Rome is gonna be able to make another push, we didn’t get the best image coverage of the area, but last seen there were only a couple ranged units around, two cities on low health, but safe. They really need to peace out, build up again, and try to snipe cities off falling neighbors.

Msurdej:  

The Finns stay at 55  

They continue to stay alive  

They’re now friends with the Sami  

Though their wars are uncanny  

But they probably will not thrive

ECH:Hoo boy, my first civ I get to write an analysis for as PR… and it’s a civ so irrelevant to ongoing affairs they didn’t even get mentioned once in Episode 10. Yippee.We got no proper shots of Maria’s land this episode, and their most dramatic move this episode, resettling that city they needlessly handed over to Mexico to raze, went entirely unnoticed. Their stats remain consistently bottom 20 at best; and it’s been displayed in the past that even in a war against Bora-Bora’s disconnected eastern colony, by far their best hope for expansion; they don’t make a dent. All of this is to say, they may be less immediately vulnerable than most of the civs ranked lower than them, but one could make the case 54th place is a blessing.

 Arilasqueto:

Ismail’s war with Sierra Leone continues to blow up in his face as they continue to shed cities. The closest thing to a W is them finally capturing Kenema… at the cost of most of their army. A real Charge of the Alaouite Brigade kinda deal. Sierra Leone meanwhile managed to snag even more cities on the Alaouite periphery, and now there’s no question about who the champion of West Africa is this season.

JDT:

Eswatini pulled the meme of the part by capturing Safwan from the Qaramatians… and looking fairly likely to hold it. They are also still consistently settling up the little space still available off the African continent, and the Ndongo war has gone nowhere thanks to a little roadbump called the Rozvi. Ultimately, it's almost locked in at this point that they’re doomed, but hey, at least they’re having fun doing it.

JDT:

Trapped towards demise

Appendage to the Pueblo

Forlorn times ahead(Dandy)

Leman:

Makhnovia had its cool upset a few episodes ago and has kind of not really done much since. This episode, to me, felt like a few of their opportunities are starting to slip away with both Royal Hungary and Kalmyks taking major damage. I’m not really sure what Makhnovia’s gonna do if those two civs get completely conquered.

Nathanmasse:

Continuing the Royal Hungarian tradition of two steps forward and one step back, they’ve finally secured Gaziura and Gyor from Pontus at the cost of losing Komarom to Latvia.  Worst of all, Bavaria controls the road between Komarom and the capital Csejte making it difficult if not impossible to retake.

Leman:

I don’t really know why Taino was dropped after successfully fending off the New Holland invasion, but I can’t say I think they deserve to be all that much higher. A mediocre Island civ that’s quickly running out of islands. I’d love to watch them bully Florida some more, so hope that’s coming in the future.

Emu:

Dai Viet.... Is Dai Viet. They just never really got off the ground, and now their window has passed. What matters now is who they get taken out by. Their current territories would make a really nice addition to the empires of Siam or Maguindanao.

ECH:A very quiet part for old bowl-haired Henry this part, so sleepy in fact that a Visigothic settler could sneak into his sphere of influence and plop down a city in the Galway region of Ireland, as revealed in the end of episode minimaps. Oh dear, oh dear. That being said, they remain in the same position they’ve been in since the end of the Hundred-Turns War, and thus stay in the same rank also: a medley of stats hovering above or below mediocre and enough peace time to theoretically build up that leaves them ‘in the game’ technically, if only their immediate northern border wasn’t against a unanimous juggernaut. Their hopes may lie in grabbing Pikeman with their next tech; and their UU’s being likely only a few parts away, especially their iconic Longbowman (a +1 range Crossbowman with extra damage against melee in return for lower defense); but death could strike at any moment…

Rosay:

For the entire game Seneca has missed opportunity after opportunity, with this part culminating in the potential loss of a city, from Mexico of all places. Seneca isn't washed theyre fucking deep-cleaned.

JDT: Bukhara falls by 7 as they enter a war against the Afsharids and the reality has settled in that they ultimately are screwed position-wise. They’re feisty as all hell, sure, but they’re sandwiched between 3 much stronger powers who are capable of slowly chipping away at their hardy core. They don’t have the stats, and while they have the terrain against the Afsharids, everyone else around them has the jump on them both statswise and terrain-wise. It feels like we’ve run into a corner with these bastards. A true shame, such a likable underdog.

Leman:

Mogadishu is an insane civ that decided not to play the game this time around. I don’t really know why, but here we are. The game isn’t over, there are a few more spots to found cities, Eswatini has a lot of cities up and down the East African coast, and Mogadishu has a powerful set of uniques that theoretically could power out a strong economy. They could do that. Or Mogadishu could sit there and make me look stupid for putting them in first in part 0.

Orange:

Khoshuts writeup v2 where I’m reminded that they made peace and that’s why they made no progress: ?????? Well I guess being incompetent in knowing when to make peace is better than being incompetent in actually fighting? Maybe? I guess they joined against Dai Viet to fight on Siam’s side before the holy war triggered Siam to fight them, so they didn’t really want this fight. But, like, my dude, there are too many mountains blocking any progress against Dai Viet while Siam’s Bengal city is still right there, free to take. These guys really are just gonna be stuck in Tibet forever…

NopeCopter:

For a civ with awful stats outside of city count that’s currently facing an ascendant Sierra Leone on one side and an all-out invasion on the other, Kanem-Bornu is ranked shockingly high. The reason mostly comes down to their sheer stubbornness. Despite the war raging on for two full episodes now, Saba-D’mt has inexplicably failed to make any meaningful gains against Kanem-Bornu. (Heck, K-B ended the episode with Bornu in hand!) Meanwhile, while Sierra Leone is looking more impressive than ever, their position is still tenuous - Sahara-based empires are infamously prone to collapse, and the Mediterranean is still quite contested even with the Alaouites reduced to a rump state. Make no mistake, Kanem-Bornu is still in an awful position, but at least in theory they still have the potential to be a player in the African theater.

Nathanmasse:

Burgundy’s doing their best to rebuild and fend off admittedly weak probing attacks by the Faroe Islands.  Just staying alive and unthreatened is enough to gain a few ranks this week.  The downside is they’re in danger of stagnating with their easiest avenues to expand being either against England or the Visigoths and we all know how that went last time.

Nathanmasse:

Bora-Bora is finally filling in their core, and not a moment too soon with at least one Tiwanaku settler scouting out the area. Reaching Compass first may give them a hefty advantage, but that is still for the not too distant future.  As it stands, they slide down a few ranks this week as their South American colonies become increasingly isolated and it seems unlikely they will seize any of Rio Grande’s cities.

Leman:

Bavaria has landed itself in a really interesting little spot. Fundamentally, Bavaria sucks. Bavaria has four measly little cities and a big army and not a lot else. However, unlike a lot of other four-city dorks, Bavaria has two even weaker neighbors right next door. Burgundy has completely exhausted itself fighting England and Visigoths while Royal Hungary has done the same against Pontus and Latvia. If Bavaria takes advantage of this opportunity they definitely can become something, but time will tell if they actually will.

Orange:

The Osage managed to take Kanawagas but were pushed back out of it with the last dregs of the Seneca army before the two made peace, a bit of a shame. But they still go up, probably due to others going down and also having some peace again, ready to just try and build back up, maybe they can have a go at a weaker neighbor like Shawnee or Crow next time.

Msurdej:

Vijayanagara managed to snag a city off of Harappa, giving them control over Sri Lanka. Sadly, this seems to be the best they’ll ever get, as the Great Harappan Wall is stymying their land armies. Those armies are also getting smaller and smaller, making now the best chance for peace. Sure their other neighbors are busy fighting one another, but that won’t last forever.

Arilasqueto:

I wanna see a Japanese civ finally do well as much as the next guy, but come on, that was pretty funny. Ikko’s ill thought out war against Nivkh got turned on its head when they lost their Kamchatkan colony, despite having the edge in stats. Overall this doesn’t change much for Umu; he’s still boxed in by Goguryeo, but at least we know Little Nivkh is capable of punching above its weight.

Nathanmasse:

Maguindanao needs to get its priorities in order and takes a tumble in the ranks because of it. When every extra naval unit counts, they’re hard at work completing the Great Mosque of Djenne.  This might provide some long-term benefit thanks to their UA but they need to make it there first.  If it wasn’t bad enough fighting Siam and Singapore, now their old nemesis Wahgi has joined the fray and is in a good position to retake their lost city and maybe a bit more.

Leman:

Qarmatians are really hard to rank. They’re really fun and really scrappy. They’ve gone toe-to-toe with three civs that are way stronger than them (Afsharids, Harappa, and Pontus) and emerged victorious each time, despite the fact that Qarmatians themselves are really quite weak. It’s hard not to like them after they pull that kind of underdog victory. That being said, I’m still not high on their future prospects. Despite beating those three civs, Qarmatians are still weaker than all three of those. The Arabian peninsula just does not lend itself to powerful empire-building I guess. So expect Qarmatians to waffle a bit around the midpoint of the rankings while we all figure out how we feel about them.

Oh, and they dropped a city to Eswatini, lol.

Orange:

Mongolia continues to ignore doing anything, continuing to fall behind their 4 super strong neighbors, and instead continues playing the fun bordergore game with settling. I’ll admit, I’m not entirely sure how this will help them in the long run but I’m sure Sorghaghtani has a plan here.

ECH:~~ Waterloo, will they be defeated or win the war?~~

~~ Waterloo, promise to rank you forever more! ~~

Ahem, sorry about that. The Visigoths really made two moves of note this episode: a D-day assault on the Sierra Leone city of Waterloo (around IRL Northeast Algeria); and the offscreen and increasingly rare for Europe settling of a new city on Irelands West coast. The former is a bit hard to judge, as we’ve had no visibility on the ground situation since slide 55. Leovigild certainly has (or had) the numbers to accomplish conquest, including plenty of triremes to ram into Waterloo’s one-tile port, troops already landed, and a catapult ready to beach. On the other hand, over the two times we saw the city it remained in the green and had a decent garrison of swordsmen pressing back against the half-damaged landed troops; not to mention the unfortunate Visigothic tendency towards their UU Horseman, the Gardingo, who don’t actually offer any combat benefits and are subpar at best for city captures at this point. I’m going to abstain from making an objective judgment of who the victor will be here, although my gut is leaning Peters for whatever that’s worth. As for this Irish settle, well, England has proven sleepy in the past and more yields are more yields so it could prove a future beachhead at best or a temporary yield boost at worst, in my view.

Reformer:

Singapore spends the episode partaking in fruitless aggression. First, against Maguindanao - certainly, Singapore held a massive numerical advantage on Borneo, but the terrain and T’Bok’s combat strength made the war extremely difficult for Singapore, and they gave up halfway through the episode. Second, against Dai Viet - a strange move which they’ve tried before. In fact, when including that previous war against Dai Viet, you have all the wars that Singapore has waged all game. Twice against Dai Viet, once against Maguindanao. So the recent aggression is fairly uncharacteristic. But I digress. War against Dai Viet STILL will not work out. Southern Dai Viet is not coastal, and Singapore definitely does not have enough land units to do an amphibious invasion. We’ve moved them up a spot anyway because they rose in comparative stats, by a non-insignificant amount.

Emu:

The classic 'semi-strong Italian civ' archetype rears its head yet again, and this time they don't even look as good as Two Sicilies or the Normans did. Italy is just not an easy place to break out of, especially with a non-pushover in Spain and Bavaria crammed with units. No one can really say they're performing poorly, but it takes more than 'not bad' to get anywhere in Italy.

Leman:

Kazakhstan got a little lucky this episode when they made peace with Dzungars and Kazan without dropping a city to them. However, the damage is still done, Kazkahstan’s stats have really suffered with a lot of their production going into military instead of economy, and flipping cities like Taraz, destroying all their population. Further, Kazakhstan isn’t even out of the woods yet. Their most powerful enemy, Selkups, have yet to make peace and while the front looks stable, Kazakhstan’s military is dangerously low and Selkups are still very powerful. Things are still not looking all that great.

Msurdej:

Harappa falls as they lose Sri Lanka to Vijayanagara, a civ much weaker than them. Thankfully, any losses to the core seem unlikely thanks in part due to the Great Harappan Wall, and Vijayanagara starting to run out of units. But losing a city to the likes of Vijayanagara is still a loss of face, even more so with how it puts their stats in a tailspin. A quick recapture of Rakhigarhi and then quickly sue for peace is their best shot, but it’s a lonnnnnnnnnnng one.

Shaggy:

Pontus has done a fantastic job so far of… recreating modern-day Turkiye. They’ve got the stronghold on the Bosporus, they’ve got the latent animosity towards parts of the Balkans, now all they have to do is lose out on their southern holdings to the Qarms and we can give Pontus the “weird that it happened twice” award. Frankly, their entry points into Europe are going to be tough to break through. Maybe they’ll have more luck waiting it out for Europe to continue to eat itself and then it can gobble up some of the scraps.

ECH:The wall of the Urals is in the middle of slamming down against their southern neighbor with astounding efficiency, earning them a 5 rank jump. Now, calling this a sure thing is of course inadvisable. The Kalmyks have shown a tenacity to flip back Kazan captures in this war so far, and aren’t entirely spent - including a small Caspian fleet whose only purpose can really be to flip Astrakhan - but the writing seems to be on the wall in terms of momentum, and it seems likely Möxämmädämin will be able to claim at least Astrakhan and Samara, if not Saratov also, by this wars end, although how flipped to destruction these conquests will be is up in the air. Once somewhat written off, Kazan is rising just as a number of its neighbors have displayed distinct signs of decline, furthering their potential in our PR eyes. Now, that all being said, the failure to make gains out of a war with one such declining neighbor, namely the Taraz flipfest with Kazakhstan, does maybe raise a red flag or two; but with immediate gains in sight we can shove that into the background if it doesn’t repeat elsewhere…

ECH:For declaring a foolhardy war against the Nivkh, who the narrator last episode assured us simply had more ‘grit, heart, clutch, momentum, and wanting it more’ than Kennyo, Ikko-Ikki lose both their Kamchatka outpost and, surely as devastatingly, a single rank. As a new ranker that put Ikko-Ikki higher than anyone else, I feel the need to outline a counterargument against the obvious reasons to rank them lower: they are, on paper, still a huge candidate to pull upsets and undeniably one of the best Japanese civs we’ve seen over the course of the CBR. They boast great stats in proportion to their city count; a tech count of 23 (joint second); a faith / military production UA that should actually be having some effects; are one of the first 9 civs to pikemen; a ‘real’ military score of 3,021 (Faroes have 3,044); a religious war partner that’s a top 5 ranked civ; and, oh yeah, both a longstanding beachhead in China and have actually settled most of their starting island. If they play their cards right, I have no doubt they could be a top contender for Asia; they just really need to invest in a navy and be aggressive with the weak pickings they have in their vicinity. The next parts will be pivotal in this regard: as with so many civs in this stage of the game, stagnation equals elimination.

JDT:

For reasons we do not fully understand, Ecuador is now ranked 23rd. Well, we do have some idea. Primarily its 2 factors. 1. A lot of civs ranked better than them previously are currently shitting the bed. 2.They have leapfrogged in stats to the 16th place. Position’s still pretty shit and they still aren’t super active though, so if you’re asking me, I think we might’ve overrated them a smidge.

Cloudy:

Zheng rises an incredible 12 ranks this week due to a confluence of surprising factors. The biggest one is their stats—out of nowhere, they’ve surged into the top 20 in the info addict rankings. Their powerful new unique unit has given them the world’s fifth highest military score—actually second highest if you include the treasury bonus that the game applies to account for the ability to buy units on short notice. They’re also in the top 20 in effective science. On top of that, they recaptured the city they lost to the Siamese backdoor squad last week.

However, it must be noted that in my personal opinion, their apparent power spike might exist only on paper. It’s not backed up by an increase in production, where they’re in the bottom half, and it remains to be seen whether their UU deserves the military score assigned to it. I also have to note that the median ranker placed Zheng 25th, not 22nd, and their final ranking is due to wider variance on other nearby civs. Still, I have hope that we might yet see something interesting out of Koxinga.

Emu:

Sami losses have been lighter than expected, but it's still not going well for them by any stretch of the imagination. They've lost control of the southern Norwegian coast, and in an era where amphibious invasions aren't easy at all, that says a lot about just how outmatched they are. They may still be stronger than all their other neighbors, but I'm not really sure how much that matters when they're actively losing ground. And on top of all that, their  core is looking mighty empty.....

Emu:

Latvia has been the unexpected star of Eastern Europe this run, and this part is no exception. They're taking advantage of what could be a period of useless turtling to pick off a weak Hungarian city and settle Bornholm. Admittedly, not huge, but two cities in a part isn't a bad show when there's no major wars on. Empires are built from a dozen small victories.

Cloudy:

Sierra Leone is in a precarious but potentially excellent position if they can get out of their current wars and win the peace, so to speak. Although they did finally lose control of Kenema this week, a one-pop desert city that was under siege for ages is no huge loss, and their capture of Tangier more than compensated for it. At the same time, the Visigoths are pushing hard against Waterloo, but they’re making very minimal progress. As long as he keeps the peace on other fronts, Thomas Peters should be able to wipe up the remains of the Alaouite forces with ease, at which point his domination of west Africa will be unquestionable.

Reformer:

Wasn’t exactly a calm part for Mexico. They’re still defending against Pueblo. But very little has changed. The Puebloan war continues to go nowhere thanks to the terrain. But to make up for it, Mexico brought up some excitement by using their eastern navy to attack that Seneca city on the Gulf of Mexico. By the end of the episode, the city hadn’t fallen, but I have full trust that they can take it next part, as long as the AI continues to throw triremes at the problem. Alternatively, Mexico could start bulking up navally, in preparation of fucking up Taino, but that’s probably too smart for the AI.

NopeCopter:

Despite the two massive wars with Dai Viet and the Khoshuts, Siam basically did not appear whatsoever in the last episode outside of a few corner shots - in other words, they’re probably locked in a stalemate. For Siam, no news is both good news and bad news. On the one hand, the war with the Khoshuts actually ended off-screen this episode, which means their valuable Bengali holdings are safe, and one of their fronts is secure. On the other hand, from what little we’ve seen of the other front, Dai Viet seems to have not only fought off Siam but actually taken the offensive as well. They won’t capture anything, of course, but this isn’t a good sign for Siam’s chances of uniting the region. Still, their stats are respectable and they don’t have any immediately threatening neighbors, so they stay in about the same position. (At least their backdoor squadron is faring a bit better - they might even retake Ubon Ratchathani from Maguindanao!)

NopeCopter:

The Dzungars drop just a bit as the question of where the Dzungars go from here becomes more and more pressing. Their stats are as impressive as ever, but being surrounded by other large powers and difficult terrain just makes it all seem kind of pointless sometimes. Sure, they’re invading Bukhara now, but the Tian Shan mountains form a barricade that all but ensures they won’t be seeing any spoils. Shang has survived the war with Goguryeo and the Ikko-Ikki intact, the Selkups are in a better position than ever (once they rebuild their military, which they probably will long before the Dzungars give up on Bukhara), and even Mongolia wouldn’t go down easy. That all being said, of course, in a region full of powerhouses, opportunities for coalition wars come all the time. The path forward for the Dzungars is rocky, but it’s definitely not impossible to climb.

Reformer:

The Afsharids take a gentle plummet in the rankings, as they fail to look particularly impressive against Bukhara. Getting defeated by what is effectively a weaker civ, AGAIN, would certainly tarnish Afsharids’ reputation. We shall wait and see, though. There is reason to believe that Afsharids’ double the production and double the existing military compared to Bukhara SHOULD be able to all but destroy Bukhara, but strange things happen sometimes in CBR. That is the salt of life, after all. Anyway. We didn’t really get a good view of the war - only Elista and Tehran were shown. Of course, further southeast along the front, the terrain only gets worse, so it’s a safe bet to argue that nothing much is happening off-screen. But rather, I figure a sizable portion of the Afsharid army is getting thrown fruitlessly into the rough terrain, and that explains - at least in part - why Bukhara looks to have the upperhand near Tehran. Maybe we’ll see the whole front next episode!

Orange:

Yagan’s had enough of this Australian tomfoolery, he wants to go somewhere better, somewhere more... yellow. This time we see Noongar deciding to attack Maguindanao at the end of the episode, though I think they forgot to build up an invading force beforehand as they look to be sitting on about 5 ships in the area, which I’ve gotta say is not great. At least Maguindanao will be sufficiently distracted with Wahgi to do much about it, so maybe Yagan will be able to sneak a capture of Tamontaka.

Reformer:

In the heart of darkness

…

It’s nice and comfy to sleep. Ignore the fact that they declared war on Eswatini - that war ain’t going anywhere. Not only is Eswatini’s terrain pure hell, but there’s a whole-ass Rozvi in the way! Come on now. Rozvi’s entire army is about the size of the portion of the Ndongo army that looks to be pointed at Nhlagano (westernmost Eswatini city). Meanwhile, the whole of Northern Africa is on fire, it’s a goddamn battle royale out there—wait a minute. Well. Really, it just goes to show what Ndongo is missing out on by continuing to fumble around with the two goobers in Southern Africa. Statistically, they’re still plenty fine in the top 15, though of course I’d love to see them convert the stats into successful wars…and, it is worth pointing out that Saba has also breached the top 15 now (for the first time if excluding the part where they had their golden age boost online). Saba is a preeeetty competent competitor for Ndongo, and Saba has much easier options for conquest. Indeed, they’re slowly eating up Kanem-Bornu right now. Stagnation leads to downfall, Nzinga!

Rosay:

I have mixed feelings on Palawa being a top tier civ. Like they’re an Oceania civ which usually amounts to “lmao camping in Australia” and they still haven’t taken the subcontinent. At the same time, Wahgi is kinda clowning right now and Bora Bora would rather tend to their South American cities. Don’t get me wrong even at my most pessimistic I’d still say that Palawa is 18th at worst just on the basis of “lol they’re doing Australian civ things and being early bloomers” but they’ve already shown that they can at-least somewhat recover from wars that would cripple other civs, which is always a sign of a competent ai. Overall, Palawa is a definitive A tier civ based on positioning alone with S tier arguments being a lot more subjective

Arilasqueto:

Saba saw a slightly slower part than usual as their war with KB started to lose steam. They also sent a small fleet to raid Trapezus, but it doesn’t look likely to fall. Regardless, I reckon Makeda can afford to take a break to consolidate her core and try to jack her stats up even more with her UA. That depends on having a lot of excess happiness though which Saba isn’t great on currently. Shouldn’t be too hard to fix though. She still has plenty of weak neighbors to invade if she wants to expand, and only Ndongo poses any kind of threat to her.

Arilasqeto:

So apparently the Wahgi are scary now? They’re becoming absolute science monsters off their huge population stat - actually scraping past the Faroes in effective science. Didn’t see that coming, but it’s nice to see them have some competition. The Wahgi don’t seem content to rest on their laurels with the tech lead either, given they just declared war on Maguindanao. I can’t see it going well for Mag given they have like, no navy nearby at all - I guess that war with Singapore really took a toll on them. Either way, Kuno’s definitely flipping back to the Wahgi, and I can see them taking a few more cities too.

Rosay:

The Yellowknives are in a bit of a weird place where any expansion will likely draw the ire of their openly scary southern neighbor or their less obviously scary north western neighbor, but they would absolutely clown on Crow given the chance. But make no mistake when I say that they are actually in the best position that they have been in so far, since all their neighbors, weak and strong (minus Thule) , have some form of expansion opportunity. Given that Crow has been nothing but a waste of space I’d put my odds on them being Yellow’s first target, but with Pueblos open core and Osage seemingly distracted, the opportunities right now are endless, earning them a top 10 spot in the rankings.

Cloudy:

Nothing much to report from the Selkups this week. Their position hasn’t changed in any notable way, although it’s worth pointing out that they seem unlikely to push farther into Kazakhstan, especially with the latter having made peace with Kazan. They are the target of a coalition, but it doesn’t involve any of their neighbors... yet.

NopeCopter:

While it wasn’t really discussed during the episode, Shang has finally secured peace with Goguryeo, giving them a chance to catch their breath after what looked like an existentially-threatening war. So… now what? The days of Shang as the top dog of the cylinder, or even as the uncontested powerhouse of their region, are over - their stats are still top-of-the-line, but Goguryeo’s are just as good, if not even better. The Dzungars to the west are no slouches either, and in the south, Zheng’s military has ballooned to an absurd size over the course of this last episode. Even Mongolia and the Ikko-Ikki hardly look like easy prey, given how Shang’s last wars went with either of them. Daji’s going to need to be a bit more clever from here on out, and certainly not any less ruthless, because she can no longer afford to stagnate if she wants to keep her spot at the top… after she rebuilds her military, of course.

Msurdej:

Thule continues its ascent upwards, gaining a few ranks and ending just outside the Top 5. Their stats are great, and  they have exclaves all around Canada. The big issue facing them though, is that those exclaves are vulnerable to people like Yellowknives, Faroe Islands, and even potentially the Crow. Their attack options aren’t great either, with only the strong Yellowknives, or the cross continental Nikivh. Either way, while they are certainly a rival to the Pueblo, it’s going to take more to take their crown as the top banana of North America.

Leman:

Tiwanaku joined New Holland in their invasion of Rio Grande and looks to be gearing up to put the worst South American civ out of its misery. I’m excited to finally see Tiwanaku use all of those stats they’ve been building up  to grab a city or two and assert themselves here against Rio Grande. While technically this war is against Rio, Tiwanaku’s real enemy is New Holland. The goal for this war is to carve out a large enough piece of Rio so that New Holland doesn’t overtake Tiwanaku and keep the two South American titans at parity. If Tiwanaku is lucky, maybe they’ll be able to grab all three continental Riograndense cities and put themselves in a commanding position on the continent.

Shaggy:

Being the uncontested dominant civ in North America is great, but being the uncontested dominant civ in North America and spending the entire part poorly cosplaying as a Texan Hannibal is less great. Pueblo drops 2 ranks this part for overcommitting on the cosplay. There are definitely better targets around that are more easily accessible, just go for those ones!

Shaggy:

Seems that when you take a small hiatus, the PR team gives you 2 of the top 5 as a welcome back present. A quiet part for everyone’s favorite squeeze tube snack, but nobody can deny that Gogurt is massive now. Like full-on “roll through the tundra later” massive. I want them to take Nivkh, I want them to harry the Chinese civs more, and I want them to betray Ikko-Ikki down the line. They have the beginnings of a fantastic villain arc so far but can they deliver? I just don’t want them becoming the new Yakuts.

Cloudy:

New Holland rises back to their all-time high of second place for the first time since episode 2. The reasons are plainly obvious to anyone paying attention. According to the stats, New Holland now has by far the world’s largest army, with over 25% more troops than the next most powerful civ. What’s more, they’re putting those troops to use attacking Rio Grande, and they even captured a city this episode. Although that city was a low-hanging fruit, the war is not over, and with such a large army they’re very likely to receive more in the peace treaty. So all around, New Holland is riding high—but they will need to watch that they don’t fall behind in the arms race with Tiwanaku, who are nearly as strong.

Cloudy:

There was a lot of debate in the power ranker server this week about whether the Faroes “stumbled” in episode 10 or not. There was, however, no debate whatsoever about the merits of continuing to rank them first, as attested by the zero deviation score. The Faroes remain the uncontested leader in most key areas, but happiness is becoming a problem for them as they’ve burned two thirds of their recent conquests in Scandinavia to the ground. While their expansion in Markland/Vinland is going great, failing to make all their Scandinavian conquests permanent could allow for the Ume-Sami or other European civilizations to resettle the conquered areas, forcing the Faroes to do it all over again. However, with their position and stats, they should have no trouble overcoming this minor misstep.