THE OFFICIAL CIVILIZATION BATTLE ROYALE X POWER RANKINGS: EPISODE 28

I am aware that the Kuikuro are missing. I'll, uh, ask management about that.

Wait, I am management. Shit.

Msurdej: "Will it collapse when one of his nieghbors decide to take over? Almost certainly. But for now,Toussaint is alive, and thanks due to the failings of other civs, doing the best he's ever done."
That was me, in the previous Power Rankings episode talking about Haiti. And since then, Chavez and Hiawatha decided to take my advice, eliminating Haiti in just a few short turns, leaving Toussaint at 45th place.

To be fair, Haiti had a rough game. Starting on a Carribean island and with a less than stellar set of Uniques, Haiti was a pale shade of his predecessor Henry Morgan, starting the game at 61th in the Power Rankings. An early settle next to Venezuela seemed to many to be the beginning of the end for Haiti. But in the coming war with Chavez, Haiti managed to not only keep Gonayiv, but nearly managed to capture the capital of Venezuela. But the capture never came, and Haiti sunk back down into the 40s. It had a brief measure of the limelight when Toussaint managed to capture Teiaiagon off the Iroquois, but afterwards fall into obscurity, small but not failing like the Murri or Songhai.
But in the end, doing nothing wins you nothing. Chavez and Hiawatha had been building their empires, and soon their eyes were upon Haiti. In a matter of minutes, Haiti went from quiet mediocrity to complete elimination before the part's end, in one of the quickest eliminations so far. It was never really in the cards for Haiti to win, but they did as good as I expected them to, if not slightly better.

F

Gragg: Another season another dead Korea. They had flashes of hope but ultimately spent their stay being kicked around. Most of the kicking came from Shikoku but it was Haida that ultimately got the elimination. Korea showed resilience by settling Kamtchatka and Northern Japan after their homeland was taken from them. In the end it seems the first war with Shikoku was enough to permanently keep them on the back foot. See you on the sub Seonjo!

Cloudberg: Tokhtamysh owes his life to Zimbabwe right now. Under attack from Parthia, with his last city down to black, you'd think he would be good as dead—but actually, that Parthian melee unit will never be able to enter Merv and sent him back to the sub. You see, Merv is already occupied by a Zimbabwean paratrooper, making it impossible for Parthia to enter the city without also being at war with Zimbabwe. This is not a problem that's unique to CBRX. It happens fairly often when units are forced out of an area due to lack of space, because the came considers ungarrisoned friendly cities to be valid locations to teleport the units to. This even happened to me in single player once. The problem is the AI won't move its unit out of the city unless there are enemies nearby. Either way, if Zimbabwe ever attacks Parthia, the Tokhtamysh is a goner.

Cloudberg: Seljuqs update: still alive!

Aaron: The Aztecs are actually interesting this week. No it's not something they did, it's Tonga who are launching an attack on them. Most of the PR believe it will do nothing, but I believe there is a significant chance that this does actually eliminate Aztecs. The key point is that there are 4 Tongan destroyers, and the fact that they are Tongan is important because Tonga melee ships are 50% stronger against cities. That puts them at a staggering 83 combat strength! Uruguay is the only civ in the entire cylinder with better destroyers! And 83 is significantly more powerful than the city's 58 combat strength so the destroyers can deal some serious damage to it and probably capture it. We'll see I guess

Aaron: Muscovite (also known as common mica, isinglass, or potash mica) is a hydrated phyllosilicate mineral of aluminium and potassium with formula KAl2(AlSi3O10)(FOH)2, or (KF)2(Al2O3)3(SiO2)6(H2O). It has a highly perfect basal cleavage yielding remarkably thin laminae (sheets) which are often highly elastic. It is named after Muscovy, which in this part was less interesting than the rock.

Aaron: A great part for the Turks as Haiti and Korea die, allowing them to rise 2 spaces! And what's more, the fact that Venice is failing to capture Bursa due to peacekeepers has moved them back above Muscovy (because 2 cities are better than 1). In other news, the Turks have upgraded their military to the enlightenment era and are on the verge of discovering coal which will be a total gamechanger (no it won't).

Gragg: HRE is still alive too. It's tough to say if the peacekeepers will help of hurt HRE in the long run. Their usual neighbors will have a tougher time getting to them, but far away civs like Zimbabwe and Parthia have a shot at them now. Parthia and HRE are still at war but no damaged units are seen yet. The possibility for Parthian conquest is certainly still there though.

Gragg: Qing find themselves the target of the next cylinder-wide coalition. Oddly enough they still move up two ranks thanks to the sudden death of Korea and Haiti. At first glance no relevant neighbors are at war with Qing so the coalition shouldn’t be a threat. However, Shikoku is pumping and paratroopers and may just be able to spam them into Qing borders. If that happens there is a high chance Qing will lose cities or even be eliminated. If Haida jumps in on the coalition their elimination is all but assured.

Lonely: The Nenets are on the warpath (for a very, very liberal definition of both parts of the compound word), having decided that they’re above enough civs to reasonably dream once more of conquest, glory, and not being completely and utterly annihilated the instant someone so much as sneezes in their direction and wipes them out like the fragile dandelion of the world they are. Of course, the Qing will never in a million years fall to an enemy on the other side of the Evenks light-years off from paratroopers and planes, but it’s fun to dream. A little. Somewhat. If your spirit hasn’t been completely crushed by the glacial pace of play the Nenets have held to so far, in which case, wow, good on you for keeping your faith in the lavender layabouts for this long. Aside from that, though, the advent of the peacekeeper apocalypse is the closest thing the Nenets will get to excitement: a full carpet and a pitifully empty Kazakhs to their south begging to be filled with another nation’s troops could allow them to last… oh, about one part longer than they would have before. That could almost jump them above more than our most recent casualties, if every other rump in the game wasn’t getting the same bonuses as they were.

Gragg: Beta Israel is doing the best it can to survive by allying itself with Zimbabwe and Uruguay. Staying at peace will be Israel's only shot at making it to Endgame. In the age of bombers and paratroopers, the terrain won’t be enough protection. Of course Zimbabwe and Palmyra are the main concerns but India and Nubia could actually be threats as well.

Msurdej: Nepal continues to have the tar beaten out of it from the sky, while no cities are actually lost. This coupled with Haiti's elimination, means only a slight rise for Nepal this time around.

Gragg: Same ol’ story for Canton. Inferior tech navy next to the monstrous ‘Goo and Qin. Oddly enough their war with the Nenets is actually relevant as the Nenets have a navy of 6-7 units to the East of this shot. While we’re not going to see any Nenets conquests here it does drain Canton of a few units. Until something really exciting happens, it’s just a waiting game until someone finishes the job started on episode 4 and wipes out Canton. Or perhaps they hang on till endgame?

Gragg: Manx’s situation is very similar to Canton. Too far behind to ever catch up with their neighbors. The Manx have a bit better stats though so they stay ahead of them. Their neighbors are fragmented but there are more of them. Venice, Vikings, Iroquois, Moors, etc. Time will tell if they can turtle up and stand the test of time.

Gragg: While the coalition against them may be cooling down, Selk’nam is still in a world of hurt. New Zealand continues to barrage the Western shore and Australian peacekeepers aren’t likely to slow down progress here. To make matters worse is the defense in may of Selk’nams island and coastal cities is very low. If I had to guess I’d say 2 more cities to New Zealand in the next part. There’s potential for much worse.

Msurdej: Another part, another quiet time for Nubia. They stay within their deviation over the last few parts, as Africa continues to be filled with peacekeepers. Nubia however, is primarily filled by its own troops. But it seems unlikely that those troops will get used to fight anything anytime soon, as most of Africa keeps filling up with peacekeepers, while Venice and Palmyra is stacked with stronger units (and peacekeepers). Beta Israel might be a possible conquer, but it might also be better for Piye to have a buffer state between Nubia and Zimbabwe.

Gragg: A fairly quiet part for the Yup’ik. They have one war the the Qing but they are fighting in a one-tile gap and not likely to make any progress. At best they’ll get a city in the peace deal. A look at the stats show they increase their military and production by 30% each though. That’s roughly average but hey, they aren’t dying. In other news they have a good number of planes in Asia and the Shikoku peacekeepers are hanging around for a while longer

Gragg: We’ve been sleeping on Tonga. Not in their ability to win. But we were so focused on the meme power rivalry of Aztecs vs New Zealand that we didn’t see the real contender. Tonga. Forget the science, production, and military stats. Tonga leads in the most important category. Memability. Using this magical power they have already defied the odds. Now they are on the doorstep of yesteryear's meme champions, the Aztecs. Behind them New Zealand is growing weaker. Despite all the good news in the great meme wars, their power rank drop by 1. I credit this mostly to Venezuela, Australia, and Nazca growing stronger and Tonga still not making significant landfall.

Cloudberg: At this point, Parthia could probably steamroll India. Indira is still fielding industrial era units, while Parthia has a massive carpet of machine guns and tanks that would be difficult to repel. Not even the rough terrain of the Himalayas would protect them. The force imbalance between Indira and her neighbours is significant enough to make me question whether India will make it to Endgame—however, there's always a chance that no one ever declares war. Maybe they'll get lucky.

Gragg: The big news for Madagascar this episode is aircraft carriers. Carriers will be the tool they need to make landfall. Unfortunately Zimbabwe has the largest military in the cylinder. Arabia is still ripe for conquest, though I’m not confident we’ll see it. The OG peacekeepers are in all likelihood still trapped in the island. The carriers to give them a shred of hope though. In case you’re wondering Benin is still carpeted by Madagascan UU’s. Don’t forget those are pikeman replacements though, so they won’t be conquering anything.

Lonely: Remember when the greatest thing about the Evenks was their army? Ahah, yeah, good times, weren’t they? One little-focused on aspect of the peacekeeping crisis: when a nation is fully carpeted, it isn’t just a passive participant. Every unit that nation now contributes will only excaberate the worldwide problem, and be added to the teeming mass of units grinding the gears of life to a halt like condensation on a rainy May day wreaking havoc on a bicycle chain. On a related note, the Evenks have been fucked over by Venice, of all civs. Certainly couldn’t have forecasted that a few weeks ago! Any hope of the Evenks throwing their hat into the ring in Asia is gone now, trampled by the Kazakhs then consigned to oblivion by overeagerness in open borders treaties. Certainly doesn’t help that the two largest military presences near them now are the Khamugs and Shikoku’s overseas army, which, judging by how quickly the eliminations have been coming near Japan… yeah. It’s just a matter of time before the Evenks are destroyed, now. A shame. They could have been so much more than just the world’s biggest rump state.

Gragg: While their rank doesn’t reflect it, Parthia has a golden heh opportunity ahead of them. First of all they have melee units near Golden Horde, who we fight see finally be eliminated. Not only that but they have a small army near HRE who they are also still at war with. With the right units they have a very real shot of eliminating them as well. But it gets better! Take a look at India’s units. Most are civilians and very few capable of defending from invasion. Should Parthia declare they should take several cities from them next episode. In other words, team +Parthia.

Aaron: Excitement! War has come to Benin at last! No it's not Benin doing the fighting, that would be a little too exciting, it's Prussia and it's a peacekeeper war. So yeah, Benin has diversified its portfolio of peacekeepers; instead of just being carpeted by Madagascar, they are now being joint carpeted by Madagascar, Prussia and Venice. So that's nice, it means that if one set of peacekeepers does a Brazil and attacks them, they'll still have enough peacekeepers from the other two in order to survive. The strategy is genius. No one can harm them now. However, the Power Rankers are not impressed with this brilliant but lazy strategy and have moved them down below the civs that are currently carpeting them. Apparently not having your own military and instead relying on other civs is a bad thing. Who knew?

Gragg: The Apache were mentioned a whopping 23 times this part. As far as I know that’s a record for one civ in one episode. They have certainly been interesting the past 50 or so turns. Even if they’ve mostly been a punching bag. You gotta respect the resilience though. In a season of Songhais and Haitis, Apache is holding on versus a top civ. Right now the Nazca peacekeepers are making that much easier as they block both Venezuela and Iroquois for the most part. That help has allowed the Apache to grow their military strength by 80% this episode.

Gragg: Prussia’s situation is much the same as last week. They are still at war with the Goths but are being protected by a large number of very effective peacekeepers. No neighbors made big moves either. Under the seemingly quiet part Prussia increased their military strength by a whopping 279%. Unfortunately the Goths increased theirs by a similar amount. All this makes me wonder though. Will Prussia’s legacy be centered around peacekeepers?

Gragg: As with most European civs Venice is carpeted with peacekeepers. I expect this to be a temporary issue for now as deals expire with Zimbabwe. The big question is if that will happen in time for Venice to take Bursa from the Ottomans. Currently the only thing stopping them are troops from Uruguay, Zimbabwe, and a couple other allies. In other news Moors continue to stagnate, though are still far ahead of Venice, and Prussia took serious losses. Overall good news for Venice.

Msurdej: Seddon continues to slide down the rankings this part. His war against the Selk'nam is going badly, having been kicked off the South American main continent by Xo'on. While they have continued to grab more of the islands off the Chilean coast, their army is starting to suffer. Thankfully though they seem to have cordial relations with the Australians, which means thats just one less enemy to worry about for the time being.

Lonely: Wait, hold on, pretty sure you’re supposed to be a little weaker than that. Yes, Korea’s finally fallen… to the Haida, who they were supposed to have kicked out of Asia years ago, mere moments after somehow stalemating the Metis again in what was meant to be an open and shut annihilation. Huh. Maybe the Haida aren’t as doomed as we all thought they were after all. They certainly are in a safer position on land now than ever before, at least, with the Metis clearly incapable of achieving much of anything against the salmon sailors and the Apache just plain fucked, and at sea, their massive naval carpet has given them nothing to worry about there either. Really, the Haida might just be in the best position they’ve been in for a while. Only issue for them right now is that their vectors of expansion aren’t exactly what one would call enticing. The Apache may be fucked on land, but at sea they have at least a token fleet to hold off potential invasions from the north. The Shikoku, meanwhile, have always been ever so slightly superior to Haida in most respects, and with a modern defense system in place may be a tough nut to crack even with a relatively barren ocean around them. Still, the Haida might be the best placed civ defensively in all North America right now. A far cry from their glass cannon roots, certainly.

Lonely: The timing, for Alaric, couldn’t be worse. Of fucking course the tides of the game would shift towards peacekeeping and plugging up other civs’ carpets when he was right in the middle of a goddamn war. Admittedly, having his core be empty for so long basically begged for this sort of situation to happen eventually, but still, being essentially occupied by Zimbabwe was not how he could have wanted to spend his morning. It might have been almost survivable if he’d, say, had any core strength to speak of beforehand, but now his meager army’s kept cryogenically preserved in a state of other weakness, and with the Kazakhs utterly eclipsing him in strength and the Prussians paratrooping up lands of their own, the only option for him in any future wars is now failure. It’s a bitter pill to swallow for what could have easily been one of the preeminent civs in both Europe and Asia, who instead find themselves with little more than wasted opportunities and broken dreams. Alaric’s only option now is to cancel open borders with the lean green menace, and soon. He needs his army back if he wants his nation to keep its monochrome colors.

Cloudberg: Apparently Cahuachi took a look at Zimbabwe and said, "What if I did that?" And now the Nazca have single-handedly stopped a war on another continent by filling half the Apache empire with paratroopers. Now, if Cahuachi wanted to betray Geronimo and attack from within, that would be hilarious. Please make Nazca the new Finland. I want to see that glorious brown all over the map!
As a side note of course, don't forget that the Nazca displayed their military prowess this episode by taking Easter Island from New Zealand. Every city counts!

Aaron: What is this? Venezuela has BETRAYED the great South American alliance? So it would seem, as they not only made peace with the Iroquois, arch-enemy of the Great South American alliance, but they also teamed up with them... TWICE! And it has been a very succesful betrayal, as they managed to obliterate their long-time rival of Haiti. To think that the opposite nearly happened in the early-game. But since that time Venezuela have actually been playing well, settling cities and conquering weak neighbours while Haiti... didn't. No longer shall the people of Caracas have to live in fear of being captured; now they are the ones doing the capturing of enemy capitals! The second team up with the Iroquois is to help them against the Apache, which has mostly stalled out due to peacekeepers. Over the past few parts, Venezuela's situation has improved substantially in that they have conquered the weak neighbours that everyone has been predicting they'd conquer for many parts now. Now, however, they have run out of weak neighbours so will have difficulty moving forwards. The predicted fate for Venezuela is still death by Uruguay as it has been for many parts, but now at least Uruguay will have to put some actual effort in if they want it.

Cloudberg: Metis is the latest civilization to find itself carpeted with Zimbabwean paratroopers. You know what would be hilarious? If Zimbabwe is the civ that finally crushes the big, empty Metis blob. Unfortunately, the density of foreign units is probably not high enough to result in actual conquests, while still being significant enough to hinder outside invaders. Not that the Apache would manage to push through their own wall of Nazca peacekeepers either.

Gragg: Maratha’s rank of 14 is appropriate given their production and military ranks are both 14th. They are also 7th in number of cities but that is countered by their still mediocre army composition. We do see a few melee units though. As the game goes on I think masses of melee units become less important, as contested cities are brought down to low hp by bombers and nukes. I'm eager to see if their aversion to melee units extends to paratroopers though. If so, that will be a major problem for them.

Gragg: Palmyra continues to build up towards something but exactly what is unclear. Their military strength increased by an impressive 185%. That’s sorely needed though as their military rank is only 16th, dragging them down in the power rankings. Bombers are well positioned in Europe to take some cities straight to 0 health as soon as the peacekeepers clear out. Nubia, Beta Israel, and Parthia are always good war options as well.

Aaron: Qin overtake Palmyra and Maratha as they completely carpet their lands with paratroopers, as well as a few neighbours. Paratroopers aren't very useful when your neighbours are also carpetted because then they have nowhere to land but at least they're melee troops. And their neighbours are the problem. Khamugs, Taungoo and Shikoku. Khamugs might be every so slightly behind in tech with a slightly outdated army but their really high production should be able to carry them through any war. Taungoo have slightly lower production and slightly higher tech than the Khamugs but are essentially about as scary at the moment. The more interesting thing about them is that they have more than double Qin's cities, and though they are mostly small terrible cities now that are doing nothing but weighing Taungoo down, they will eventually grow to become powerful. Even though this means that Taungoo has slightly worse tech and army than Qin, their production is still far higher and should also be able to carry them through any war. The third civ I mentioned, Shikoku, is the complete opposite: they have even less production than Qin, but compensate by having ridiculously high tech and an even larger more up to date military. I don't know how Qin will manage to navigate being surrounded by 3 civs that are all arguably more powerful than them on average, but good luck to them. I forgot a neighbour didn't I? Ah yes: Canton. They're just tasty junk food; Qin should eat them before someone else does.

Gragg: This was essentially a bulking up part for the Khamugs. While they are at war with India, so little units are expended that its not affecting their economy much at all. Unfortunately many more gains are also doubtful. During this episode the Khamugs have nearly doubled their military strength, and more importantly, increased their production by 40%. Both gains were well above the average for the cylinder. A look at their core shows a somewhat out of date army though. There are paratroopers so its not like they don’t have the tech. I suspect this will be similar to Taungoo before it consumed North Oceania. Khamugs will sit on their old units for a while then suddenly upgrade them all when the need arises. Or maybe they’ll just declare on Venezuela or something. Who's to say.

Aaron: We are in the top 10! With an overflowing carpet of SASRs forming the 3rd largest military of the entire world, and 8th place in both tech and production, they have definitely earned it. What's next for Australia? Well at this point, they could think about invading New Zealand; the Kiwis only have about half Australia's production, a quarter the military and worse tech than Australia. A large portion of that military is also distracted in South America; Australia does need to upgrade its navy first but can probably compensate with air superiority and paratroopers to capture cities. Alternatively, Maratha has a few Antarctic colonies that would be pretty easy to take. The big long-term concern is making sure that Australia is strong enough to face the brown goo down the line. Currently Australia is only slightly weaker than Taungoo so they're safe at the moment, but that's more because of Taungoo's obesity problem of having a ton of small shitty cities weighing them down. Once those small cities grow to become useful, Taungoo will be a very scary force to be reckoned with. Australia have probably secured their number 2 overall at this point, but should still be putting in some effort as it can still be taken away from them.

Msurdej: Eadni continues her descent downward as her irrelevancy continues. Her only two mentions this part were when she declared war on the Manx (likely to come to nothing) and another shot of her southern empire. Now with Parthian troops joining the Taungoo peacekeepers, the Sami forces, though still "modern", will have much less room to spread out in and strike out at their neighbors. At least, those who aren't swamped with peacekeepers.

Lonely: Another one spot drop for Ragnar, as ridiculously unsustainable Selk’nam conquests aside, he has another slow part. Not that parts this quiet are part of the plan for him, though. With his scientific edge over much of the cylinder, a nigh-full carpet even with plane padding, and the best seat in Europe, Ragnar should be doing as much kneecapping of other civs as he has been doing so far if he wants a chance to be considered a legitimate superpower. With the gap between the rich and poor of the CBRX widening, however, and many of his own potential conquests subsumed by other nations’ militaries, Ragnar could find the gap between the top of the board and himself impossible to make up without an exceedingly effective campaign in the near future. Hell, he’s having trouble proving himself above the Sami, a neighbor he should, at this point, be easily able to outpace. Ragnar might just be losing his touch. He’s still among the best in Europe, and very likely to capture first overall in the continent, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from past battles there, it’s that first in Europe translates to a disappointingly low rank overall. He needs to do more to curry favor with the rankers, and right now, it looks like that’s never going to happen.

Gragg: Ok, we’re starting to worry about Moors unit composition. Not only are they fielding an out-of-date navy but their land army is largely siege.They remain top 10 due to weak neighbors and good stats but until they improve their army and declare a war they won’t be top 5. With peacekeepers filling up Europe right now they need to look at naval conquests. Manx are a good option here. Uruguay and Iroquois are not. Unfortunately that’s about it for the Moors in the Atlantic. In Africa they need to carpet up a lot more to consider any expansions there.

Cloudberg: The Kazakhs are an enigma right now. On the one hand, their population is enormous (check out 72-pop Turkistan!), they have a crap ton of nukes, and they probably have the most rocket artillery of any civilization. On the other hand, their empty plains are becoming a parking lot for foreign units. The Marathan overflow is not particularly worrying because it's extremely outdated, but an increasing concentration of Shikokuan paratroopers and drones in the east should be concerning for Ablai Khan. Nevertheless, he still has space to make some moves against various neighbours if he cares to wake up from his slumber.

Lonely: Mayhaps a new power has been born in Asia. Shikoku takes a magnificent four spot rise (!) this part, and, while albeit more out of sheer confusion at exactly who we’re supposed to slot behind the top four than anything else, it’s hard to disagree with the summation. The Japanese raiders have been on a roll lately, knocking off Korea with a flick of their wrist and setting their paratrooper fleet’s sights on Qing with similar focus on separating the wheat of the world from the chaff. Ordinarily, such moves would be seen as folly, accumulating warmonger penalties for little reason and all but ensuring misfortune when it comes to enemy wars. Here, though? It actually works in Shikoku’s favor. Asia is hilariously fractured, with five or six different civs all vying for control of the cylinder’s largest continent. Shikoku’s edge in tech, near-full carpet, and defensible configuration of holdings ensures that, at the moment, causing a stir there would only work in their favor. Racking up warmonger penalties by squashing rumps under a grey boot, then, serves them well. It’s far easier to take advantage of chaos, after all, when such is happening on your own terms. And given how quickly other powers have caught up in what was once Shikoku’s greatest blessing, they’d be better suited to win a war now than they would at any other time.

Gragg: Taungoo is the highest ranked civ that has never been #1. Will they ever get their turn? They still have the highest city count but are down at 7th in production and military. Their lands are carpeted and thus secure from peacekeepers. The only really good expansion prospect is Canton though. Other options are Australia, Qing, and Maratha. All three of those would likely turn into meatgrinders. Have we witnessed the peak of the Taungoo empire? Or can they eventually climb to the top spot?

Aaron: This week, the Iroquois get declared on by Uruguay and drop back down below them. Currently there doesn't seem to be much risk as Uruguay are only spamming embarked units and mech artillery, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way. Uruguay has unlocked endgame units such as Xcoms, orbital bombardment and the mighty Nexus, all of which could do untold damage to the Iroquois, who are still stuck in the information era. The Iroquois had best hope that Uruguay continues to ignore these ultrapowerful units and instead continues to build the worst one. But still, having to rely on your opponent playing badly is not the situation you want to be in. Meanwhile, the war against the Apache continues to stall out, and with the introduction of Nazca peacekeepers it looks to stay that way for the foreseeable future. One final point to mention is that although the Iroquois have been ignoring their northern border and not stationed any units there, the Metis haven't. They have fully carpeted their entire lands and could do some damage if they launched a surprise attack against the undefended Iroquois cities while the entire Iroquois forces are fighting down south. But this is the Metis: they declare wars only when it is advantageous for the enemy, so probably won't try anything.

Cloudberg: Uruguay climbs back to second place as Lavalleja launches a successful invasion of the Iroquois holdings in the Caribbean. These aren't key cities for Hiawatha, since he just took most of them from Haiti, but they're still useful gains for Uruguay. The only question is, how far can Lavalleja push before Hiawatha mobilizes enough troops to halt his advance? Personally, I expect Uruguay to conquer as far as Teiaiagon before running into some serious resistance.

Cloudberg: Zimbabwe stays number one this part as the influence of their peacekeeping forces grows. Having far surpassed even Uruguay's military might, Zimbabwe is in a good position to pull a Brazil on half the civs in Afro-Eurasia. We're all waiting with bated breath to see whether they will do anything with this extraordinary power. Can Nyatsimba Mutota succeed where the Boers failed? Paul Kruger watches from the submarine, silently hoping.