THE OFFICIAL CIVILIZATION BATTLE ROYALE X POWER RANKINGS: PART 3

Timrtabor: After hearing about the Xia design during MK3 elections I was really excited about the civ's potential in a royale setting due to the UA's snowball nature. I even went as far as to moderate the subreddit /r/xiagonnagiveittoyou (the Xia fan sub). When they underperformed in my Mini Royale I suspected they might have a hard time dealing with a crowded start in the full game. I never expected a Qin/Qing blitz and later a Cantonese snipe to doom them to the dishonor of ranking BELOW HAITI though. At least they have another shot on another cylinder...whenever that battle may begin. For now we will honor the great leader Yu with a film. The first CBRX Movie Night will focus on the film "The Forbidden Kingdom" a film about Chinese Mythology. A poll about showtime (day specifically) is pinned on #cbr-discussion on the CBR.

Lordie: God, it just gets worse and worse for the Papuans. First they fail to expand, then settle a terrible city, then get forward settled by Sulu, and now they're trying their utmost to emulate Tonga by settling small islands. It's a well-deserved last place, as Rajapapua's incompetent people do all but the opposite of all the advice the sub gave them. It's just really not what you want to see from a civ for which we had very high hopes early in the cycle.

Reformer: The Minoans did not do much this part. No new cities, no settlers running around, and not really an army, either. Pedro alone knows what they are doing at this point. If there's a silver lining to be found, it would be that their cities are in very defensible terrain - all of their three cities are best approached from sea, and as it stands, their enemies don't have navies. Their greatest threat thus become the Turks, as the only civ nearby with both easy access to Minoa, and a core that can actually produce naval units. Fortunately for Minoa, of course, it looks like the Turks don't have Sailing yet, and this may very well be what has allowed Minos to be confident enough to forgo units. This window of opportunity will close soon, however, and it is unlikely that Minoa will be ready once an actual navy comes knockin'.

Homusubi: Is it UTC+13? I think it's UTC+13.
It looks idyllic, doesn't it? Three city islands and scattered rural ones surrounded by atolls and fish, in a sea of tranquil bliss with no other city in sight. Pity Tonga doesn't seem to be going anywhere else. It's part three and still no more settlers, and while the Tongan military does exist, it doesn't say much for its might that the five or six Kiwi triremes idly floating around would pose a very serious threat if they found themselves at war and focused their efforts on Mu'a. Tonga, as mentioned before, is a good AI on land and has good island-orientated abilities, but looking at this performance, it remains very doubtful that they will find it in them to escape the fate doled out for them by a Polynesian TSL.

Techno: Oh Canada. I played a part in making this civ, but I swear I should have left in the bug where Canada could get infinite production, as opposed to the depressing 14 production they currently possess. Granted, that bug required access to their factory UB, so they wouldn't even have a chance to exploit it even if it were still in the game. Canada's only saving grace is the unforgiving Great Lakes topography in between their core and the Iroquois and the fact that Hiawatha forgot to bring melee units. At least they have 3 cities for now, which is more than some civs can say.

Aaron: This week, a few purple units were spotted: I think I saw 1 warrior, 1 scout, 1 worker and 1 Shaman Tadibya in the entire part. This has led a few to speculate that there might be some lost civ called the "Nenets" hidden away in the frozen north, though this is still just speculation. The people of Kazakhstan claim to be at war with these Nenets, but have yet to discover the location of any Nenet city. Whereever these hypothetical Nenet cities are, they will probably stay safe and hidden for the forseeable future. And hiding in the snow does indeed appear to be the current Nenet grand plan. They are the only civ in the entire game to have not built a single settler. They are also 58th on the stats page, ensuring they will be continue to be ignored by almost everyone.

Reformer: Seeing the sight that is Scotland makes a ranker weep. They continue to avoid the very bottom of the rankings, if only by virtue of not losing core cities. Not yet, that is. At their current rate of progress, elimination might be heading their way sooner than anyone could anticipate. Meager stats at best, still only two cities, and a bad excuse of a war with the Manx, Scotland would need a miracle. And as we know, in CBR, miracles sometimes happen...

LacsiraxAriscal: It's looking less and less likely that Korea will replicate Mk. 2's surprise success. The most obvious headline is the loss of Pyongyang, which is definitely a huge blow - though one would hope that in a future war once they've recovered Korea wouldn't have much trouble taking it back. A far more subtle knock is the Qing settle of Baoding just to the northwest of the peninsula. We expected Qing to settle here even earlier than she did, but Korea failed to take advantage of Cixi's slow expansion and are instead finding their capital surrounded on both sides by nations superior to them in every noteworthy metric. Still, their other two cities, Daegu and Busan, are scattered and distant enough that we don't see Korea facing imminent elimination - but make no bones about it, when Hanseong falls they won't be taking it back.

Andy: How the part went for Murri depends on what kind of person you are. If you believe the glass is half full, then at least they didn't die. If it's half empty, then they're stuck at three cities, are making no headway against Australia in a war they started, and had two of their cities reduced to half health by the Kiwi forces. It's hard to say which type we PRs are - despite all of this, the Murri rose a rank. Then again, there are many civs who are faring worse.

The part for the Murri can really be summarized as "how the hell are we alive?". Had Seddon focused on Cavanbah, and then shifted his attentions over to Gunnedah, the Murri would have been effectively exiled from Southeastern Australia. Fortunately, AI will be AI, and the Murri shall survive. A fourth settler awaits to the north, but in the long game of Australian dominance, it's clear that the Murri, with their three cities and two wars, have already lost.

Aaron: The Seljuqs lose another city and drop to 59th on the stats page - not a good position for any civ. They are now just a thin line of 3 desert cities stretching from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf. Their enemies have completely boxed them in and there is nowhere else to go. The only advantages the Seljuqs do have at the moment is a relatively large army and good defensible terrain for their final cities, which should allow them to withstand the coalition against them. They could plausibly flip back Rey since they have larger military than Oman, but even so, it won't be enough long term.

Msurdej: Omar falls down the totem pole a bit, as he splits forces between the defense in the west, and the attacks on Nubia in the East. And while the Nubian front shows no progress, the Algerians have brough Benghazi down nearly to its knees. And while Abdelkader has no melee troops nearby, Libya's troop supply, population, and production are all lower than their rivals, making it highly unlikely Libya continues to succeed.

Timrtabor: These guys only have two cities and are basically asleep at the wheel. They also have a religion I think? So little interesting stuff is happening to them I am just gonna spend the rest of this line up to shill a civ for CBRXS2: BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA BORA

Techno: While not the worst civ in Africa, it's hard to deny that Algeria had a terrible part. The loss of both Constantine and Tlemcen has set Algeria back to 3 cities and has lost them their entire Sahara foothold. But the remaining 3 cities, despite being assailed by both Libya and Songhai, seem relatively secure, kept safe by the harsh topography of the region and the fact that Algeria actually has units nearby. Nonetheless, Algeria has a long way to go to recover from this major setback.

Aaron: The Kuikuro's unconventional military strategy of sending their invincible cities to the front line seems to have paid off. Venezuela are being forced to retreat. That is more because of Haiti's surprise assault on their capital, but is still a victory for the Kuikuro. Despite this, Anetü still moves down in the rankings slightly. This is because 1 settler is simply not enough: the Kuikuro have a huge Amazon territory but are allowing settlers from Venezuela and Nazca to entrude on it. And the Kuikuro don't even seem to mind! Their abismal production has somehow managed to go down since last week (probably in favour of even more food to build up his invincible megacities), meaning they won't be getting out many settlers or soldiers to contest the forward settles.

Lordie: As a Scot, it really, really hurts me to have to praise the Isle of Man- they used to belong to us, come on! But despite any controversy regarding the tech disparity which I won't go into, the Manx do have a solid position: four decent cities, resistance to the Scottish onslaught, and managing to hopefully keep the Moors out of Ireland makes this one of their best runs. Hopefully, even if they do vanquish their neighbours, they'll remain a strong British icon throughout the BR.

JMan: Ranavalona I continues to face endless obscurity this Battle Royale. Though she has managed to get a fifth city out, it is far out in the Indian Ocean. Without a mainland settle, she is doomed to never make any headway in Africa. Her military is also quite weak and, even though she is safe enough to start building slowly and focus on other projects, Madagascar is showing a troubling start.

Homusubi: It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the... um, ordinary Turks!

The Turks have run out of space for any more than one, maximum two, extra cities, as Palmyra looks to settle a new city in Anatolia and the Eastern European trio has blocked off the northern route. Oh, and Minoa – yes, Minoa – have managed to block the Turks from settling south. Mehmed's best chance lies in his army and production base, just that little bit stronger than either Czechia's or Palmyra's, and potentially with the ability to get second time lucky on Ostrava. He could certainly take a somewhat risky (due to the Czech threat) stab at Malia, thus giving him effectively a free fourth city when he really does need one. The Turks' biggest weakness lies in their fragility: although stronger than their neighbours, it wouldn't take much for that to change, be that a bad Turkish war or just more Palmyrene expansion. Hence the mid-forties, an almost traditional spot to be in for any European civ. The Turks have a decent chance at getting out of their hole, but there's definitely no guarantee that they will.

JMan: Venice continue to slowly push the invisible hand of the market up the rankings, and rightfully so! They have a settler moving south along the peninsula, whilst they were able to hold Murano. It is by no means the best game of any civilization in Europe, but they're doing better than Scotland! If they continue to lock down on any northern movements whilst capitalizing on their peninsula's openness before the Libyans research sailing and start settling the peninsula, the Venetians may become a contender!

Lordie: Muscovy rise in our collective esteem after a strange turn of events where they started to beat on Prussia a little bit. Now, we're not entirely sure how, or why, this has happened, but we're still confident enough in the others to keep Muscovy relatively low. That said, the Goths are occupied, and Ninja Gran Eadni is on Ivan's side, so maybe the aggression will pay off? Hopefully? We really don't know yet, but things are looking up for Ivan right now. Just about. He has a religion too, so the Orthodoxy-Off could be a thing!

LacsiraxAriscal: Oh, we know what this write-up's going to say, don't we? Yawn yawn Yup'ik are still sitting tight, there's nothing new to report here... WRONG! Firstly, we've seen two settlers on the roam in the Canadian arctic, one already some distance from the homelands. We're split as to where they might settle down and start families; one PR reckons they'll wind up gifting two free cities to the Apache, but I think they might settle north of the Métis, and given how unmilitarized their lands are currently, it wouldn't be a bad place to start setting up a secondary core. Now that said, the Yup'ik military is still significantly smaller, one of the smallest on the Cylinder in fact - but that could change at a moment's notice, as surprisingly they also boast the highest production on the continent. We're still wary on the odds of them moving forth and conquering as their AI is still fairly unreliable, but faith in them is cautiously growing.

Msurdej: Koyah continues to slide back down in the rankings as his neighbors continue to climb. The Apache are going to war, The Metis empire keeps growing, even the Yu'pik are putting out settlers. But for all of that, Koyah seems content to paddle down the Northwest coast of America, failing to capture that sweet, sweet California beaches.

Scissor: Benin have a new city and as a result rise up in the rankings, but not by much. They are still right next to perhaps the most powerful civ on the cylinder, Songhai. Benin has pretty much missed the train on containing Songhai and all they can hope to do now is to play catch up. To their south, Ndongo seems distracted by Nubia and in danger of a Zimbabwean attack, so Benin could make some headway if it started pressuring its way down south!

Andy: The Czechs rise six places, to thirty-ninth. Part of what's helping them is no doubt that both of their German neighbours have decided to lay off on the Sudeten, and focus on each other. That being said, that doesn't change the fact that Vaclav has three cities, and four neighbours, all but one of them angry. The Turks were stopped at Ostrava by nothing short of a miracle, Plzen is firmly under Prussian control, and the HRE has a solid core from which to try at the Czechs again.

That being said, things aren't half as bad as they look. Not only is Prussia, the regional #1, fighting a coalition war against the Sami, Goths, Muscovites, and other Germans, but the HRE is weak. With a military score of 569, Havel's military score of 812 seems massive. Furthermore, the Venetians are as quiet as ever, with a military score of 461. Whether Havel decides to go after the HRE in a round two, dogpile onto the Prussians in an effort to retake Plzen, or go after Venice and move south, the Czechs have a lot of options.

Msurdej: Nubia stocks tank as the majority of Africa decides to declare war on them. Libya, Songhai, Benin, even Zimbabwe and Ndongo , have decided to take up issue with Piye after he took over Phaistos. Will anything come of this? Probably not in terms of city loss, but it will make Nubia the person everyone hates on Africa.

Homusubi: I find it hard to look at the Aztecs and not think of Taungoo. They both have entire regions of the world practically to themselves, and have decent AI records and so far have not hugely disappointed in the army department. However, neither seems to be any good at consistently expanding so far. Taungoo's settling patterns amounted to nothing, then three cities in one go, then nothing again, and as for the Aztecs, they stagnated with three cities for ages, but now have finally plopped a fourth down and have an extra settler to boot.

Having said that, that means they're still behind, and have Apache as a neighbour, perhaps more fearsome than anything Taungoo will have to contend with early game. Hence, presumably, the big ranking difference. At this point the Aztecs' best bet is to just keep settling and not end up in a true Taungoo pattern: if they can claim all of Mexico for themselves, they will be automatically at least upper-mid tier, and stand a decent chance of striking at the space left by an unexpansive Apache and Haida.

Timrtabor: Ok, I’ll feast on crow. I was wrong about Haiti. They’ve settled well and apparently rolled good expansion,military, and naval biases. The “Thunder King’s” capital looks likely to fall and the harsh terrain of the region and offensive front’s unit composition means it’s unlikely to flip back. We live in the glorious Haiti wank timeline. Shitty alt history forum writers will be proud.

Reformer: As miserable as it is, Golden Horde's most defining feature so far seems to be his relationship with the Goths. With the Goths enveloping the Horde's capital on one side, and what with the Goth military being literal top of the world, any competent move from the Horde will require dealing with the Goth menace on their doorstep. Of course, there's good news too: Tokhtamysh has done a great job of keeping up with the Goth army, to the point where the Horde could at least defend if the Goths came knocking again. More importantly, however, the military buildup will be at its most useful when - not if - the Goths grind their units away in the west. And when that time comes, Tokhtamysh has a decision to make: Kill or be killed?

LacsiraxAriscal: It's been a busy week so far for NASCAR, with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 hitting Daytona on Saturday night. Jeffrey Earnhardt pulled out earlier this week, but the race is still wide open, with three-time winner Jimmie Johnson as well as last year's winner Erik Jones all slated to appear - but it's Joey Logano who NBC favour, taking the lead in their power rankings from last week's Martin Truex Jr. Last race saw Alex Bowman emerge victorious at Chicagoland, a fitting way to complete the 'All 40 Challenge', having now secured every possible position in a race. In other news, NBC Sports have launched a NASCAR Pick 'Em game, offering wily fans the chance to win $10,000! Truly, it's never been such an exciting time to be a fan of NASCAR.

Lordie: Damn, sadly not much coming from our twitch-emote-in-the-making this week, with JamaLUL continuing his steady growth as he looks to continue his steady growth and nurture the "neo-Gnosticism" of Bogomilism. Unfortunately, Taungoo have expanded and Canton have woken, so maybe the initial estimate of them rolling and smoking SEAsia has diminished, but Papua still look mighty tasty. Hopefully they're more active next episode.

Aaron: A botched invasion of the Murri moves New Zealand down a bit. In theory it is quite a good idea: if they can get a foothold on the continent, especially a nice defensible one like the Murri's have, then they are in a far better position for beating Australia down the line. In practice, Seddon made the mistake of attacking two cities at the same time instead of just concentrating on one, and as a result they have lost most of their fleet with nothing to show for it. New Zealand still has 4 good cities and can easily expand to more, but if they can't even beat the Murri, what hope can they have of ever beating Australia?

LacsiraxAriscal: This week was a quiet part for the Evenks. So quiet in fact that we forgot to do their write up. I'm literally writing this moments before the PRs go live while podcasting. Oops! But while they didn't settle any new cities, they did show their teeth by declaring war on international punching bag Prussia. Our confidence in the Evenks is steadily building as the Khamugs focus their attentions on China, so hopefully this part we see them take advantage of a quiet moment and secure as much of their acres of free space as they can.

Glycolysis: Ndongo sees a moderate drop in their rank this week, and this primarily comes from the green-and-red army right to their east. While not officially at war, Zimbabwe is looking excessively terrifying, shaking quite a lot of confidence the rankers had in Ndongo. Further, Nzinga has sent her army northwards towards Semien, leaving the capital exposed to a potential Zimbabwean invasion (I tried to avoid using “Zimbabwean” in this writeup because jeez that word irks me for some reason, but oh well. Get a better adjective, nerds). The Ndongo UA could be useful here to retreat in case of defense, but regardless it puts Ndongo in a precarious situation.

Andy: Ching Shih has remarkably managed to evade all diplomatic consequences thus far for eliminating Yu the Frankly Atrocious off the face of the Cylinder. The city of Qiongshi remains untouched, even as the Qin begin settling more and more, and rebuilding their forces from the Xia war. However, Qiongshi doesn't hold much strategic value, except as a forward base. As it stands, a thick forest lies between the Cantonese core, and their northern settlement, with the Qin looking to fill up holes. That being said, their settlement also gives them the opportunity to squeeze a vise around the city of Ba'arin, an ill-advised Khamug forward settle near IRL Shanghai. The conquest of Ba'arin would give Canton effective control over the entire southern coast of China, even if it drew it closer to the north.

Scissor: The Vikings are a civ that continues to live in the Sami's shadow. No matter what they do, it wont measure up to their northern neigbors. Thankfully Ragnar has decided that his situation isnt hopeless and contnues to forge on ahead trying a new effort at expansion, trying his best to ignore the fact that one day the peaceful Grandma up north will decide its his time

Msurdej: Normally, an attack from Haiti would be of little concern, especially for a Top 10 civ like Venezuela. But it seems this time around Haiti has a competent AI, and much of Chavez's forces are still trying to take down the Kuikoro, with Urugauian scouts blocking reinforcements. While Hugo isn't out yet, Haiti continued assault on Caracas means that he'll have to move fast if he wants to keep his capital.

Andy: Their fairly mediocre performance this part is matched up with a drop in their rankings, as Palmyra slides down 7 places. While Palmyrene settlers remain extant, with two wandering Eastern Anatolia, their military has thinned out somewhat from the region, withdrawing. No effort was made during the Turco-Palmyrene war to settle the Anatolian region, and Palmyra has remained silent while Oman pushes into the Seljuks. With a military larger than that of the Parthians, there's no reason to believe that Palmyra will be invaded by its neighbours soon, but a show of force is never enough in CHG.

JMan: The German Kaiser Bismarck has been replaced! The newly elected Kaiser is... Ashurbanipal??? Although we are unsure what special ability this will incur, if it does grant the vanilla ability of the Assyrians, then the Holy Roman Empire is up for a wild ride if they can conquer anything! Still, settles in Denmark and a strong sphere of influence around the capital keep the civilization high up, but they fall due to being unable to take anything off of Venice or Czechia. It is certainly not the worst place to be in so early on, and they are still a tough contender for European dominance.

Reformer: Wait, what? An ideology? What era are we in again? Early classical at best? Well, that's it, I guess. Jokes aside, Blue Cassette has confirmed that the ideology bug has had minimal effect on the game, if any impact at all. What that means is up to interpretation, but what we do know is that Iroquois are one of the better civs in North America now, and their rank reflects that. With Canada's Vancouver doomed to fall, Poverty Point still too lazy to build settlers of their own, and Haiti focusing on South America, Iroquois have all the time in the world - and more importantly, a bunch of fertile land on the Eastern Seaboard. Time will tell if they squander it or not, though.

Scissor: Parthia takes a dip in the rankings, but fear not! Parthia is still a civ with plenty of potential. Right now pressuring the Seljuqs would be nice but the terrain looks like it would be very costly. And you can forget about challenging India right now with their huge military and immensely advantageous position at Allahabad, an almost unassailable city. So what seems in the cards for Parthian expansion? Surprisingly, a good argument can be made for Parthia to invade the Kazakhs. The Kazakhs are fighting their own ineffectual war to the north and are sufficiently distracted. A quick Parthian offensive to capture the southern Kazakh cities could be a very bold and effective move to ensure that Parthia does not quickly become trapped and forced to turtle.

Timrtabor: Fredrick is in an interesting position. He's at war with a fare chuck of the goddamn world yet most struggle to send an army much less reach his core land. I guess this is a fitting status quo for the civ that currently has a UA entitled "army with a state"

Andy: The PR team has certainly become less bullish on Nepal, with its slide down six ranks to the twenty-first. Simply put, Nepal's conduct of the Greater Indian War (and Lesser Indian War, before that was resolved) was less than stellar. Nepalese troops did not take Delhi in the Lesser Indian War, with the war proving to be a fruitless waste of troops and time. Unlike India, however, who took the time to start really sending out cities everywhere, Nepal remained with its three cities, one of them a short distance from the would-be battlefield.

Really, it boils down to that we're just not seeing Nepal make gains. Gingee's terrain doesn't lend itself to capture, and that's where the Nepalese force is heading. To the West, the Indians are using settlers against Maratha. Satara and Pune, both of which would be fairly decent targets, are on the other side of the battleground city of Pokhara, and more importantly on the other side of some forest and jungle. Nepal's shown the aggressiveness needed to win in its region, but it's not backing the aggro up with a solid military record.

JMan: Oman continues to fly through the rankings, and the annexation of Rey is a good reason why for this part. Taking the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates was an excellent move in fortifying the Persian Gulf. In spite of this, Saif bin Sultan has yet to research Sailing. Although he has a relatively strong position on the Gulf, India is treading on that coastline through Persia. Should Oman continue to create units through its useless proxy wars or, indeed, its war with the Seljuqs, it can sport a relatively defensible military until it can finally show off that naval bias we all have been waiting to see.

Techno: With the Apache threat warded off, Poverty Point can get back to focusing on more important things, such as maybe capturing more of Canada or, at the very least, settling their fourth city. As things currently stand, Poverty Point definitely doesn't have a bad position, but they will need to work harder to take advantage of the opening they have available. And with the Iroquois settling the East Coast, the time to act is now.

Andy: Shikokoof is certainly outperforming expectations. In the face of Qing slow-settling and general weakness, it is they who have seized the situation to capture Pyongyang, on the Korean Peninsula. As it stands, Shikoku has four cities, three of them relatively safe from any invasions, attacks, or other damage. Indeed, the Koreans are effectively a non-entity, as all of their troops south of Hanseong are ranged units, and of the units north, all but one are too far away to do anything. In short, Shikoku has successfully exploited their neighbours' weaknesses in order to secure a continental foothold.


This success is matched by an appropriate boost in the rankings, as Shikoku jumps up six places to eighteenth, placing them within the top twenty. However, with their non-Korean neighbours all being top ten (with the exception of Canton, if we consider them neighbours to Shikoku), it may be difficult for the Bidoof of the Four Provinces to advance past the Korean peninsula.

Techno: In a stunning turn of events, India secures a T20 spot! Granted, this spot is not so much a reflection of India's prowess as it is a reflection on their neighbors' struggles. Maratha is a potent force with 6 cities but has the military of a much weaker power. Nepal's military is fine, but they've been limited to 3 cities so far and are at risk of being hemmed in by the very mountains they call home. As things stand, India's position is one of the better ones in the subcontinent, and their rankings reflect this shift in attitudes. However, this doesn't discount India's main strength: They have 2 extra settlers searching for a spot to call home, which would bring their empire in line with Maratha but with a military twice the size.

Timrtabor: Southern India is an enigma in CBR and the affiliated communities. It inhabitants have a vast history and yet it currently has less mods than Siberia. The land of the Tamil kingdoms should in theory be fertile land for a growing empire and yet Maratha at one point had a low population capital. Likewise Maratha has a strong core but in reality it won't amount to much when its neighbors are just as willing (if not more so) to build a large carpet. This effectively traps them in the south unless they can jump in on a coalition war of some sort.

Andy: With relative inaction comes a price. AN̗͚̣D̷̳ ̯̝͖T͘H͙̪̦E̝͡ ̼̻͜P̲͓͕R̜͔͘I͈͈͕C͉̥̮E̟̬͟ ҉͍M̱̼̤Ù͎̯S͓̯͘T ̟͉͘B͎̮͓E҉ ̜̬̠P̭͙ͅÀ̲̬I̪͎̦D̸͎͙! Selk'nam, despite having settled a city, drops two rankings. The reasoning for this is rather simple. Uruguay, its northern neighbour, is building up a massive force at the city of Paysandu, a forward base for the invasion of Selk'nam. While Selk'nam's stats are strong, their military is at least on paper weaker than that of the Uruguyans, and the Uruguayans have more of it at the border. Furthermore, their new settlement is isolated. rendering it prey for foreign civs in due time. H̩̻͎O̵̱̤W̬͕͟ÈV̞͢E̺̯͞R͕̭̟,͔͍͉ ̣͚͜S̵͙̬E̱͉̹L̹̭ͅK͍͍̝'͙̟͟N̴͚̣A͔͓͇M̥ ̝̻͔M͉̥͕Á̩̖Y̬ ̳̠́V͇̱͞E̻̖̘R̹͓Y̖ ͏͚̞Ẁ̙̼E̯̙L͈͞L͘ ̶͍͇O̶̲̮U̢TNUMBER҉ ITS FO҉ESTHROUGH PR҉ODUCTION - A LONG TERM WAR WOULD BE VICTORY, ҉A SHORT҉ TERM WAR DEFE҉AT.

Aaron: The Moors continue doing well, settling Tulaytulah where Bordeaux is IRL and continuing to do well in the stats. They have another settler in position to grab Brittany next turn, and (unless the AI does something stupid like not settle) it should just beat the HRE settler that is only a few turn away from the same spot. On top of good cities and a very easily-defendable core, the Moors have very good science and are the second civ to reach the classical era, excluding the island civs who started the game on turn 0 in the classical era. Their basic gameplan, is that once they have their solid core of around 10 cities, they should turtle for a while and tech up fast, while declaring only a few opportunistic wars. Once they reach medieval/enlightenment, they should be far enough ahead that they can conquer either the HRE (who don't even have writing yet), Venice or Algeria (who are both just weak in general)

JMan: You WOULD think that the Goths would fall a few places with them getting so squooshed inbetween other powers, but just the opposite! Despite the Muscovite forward settle, the Goths continue to have one of the largest militaries on the cylinder! This along with how their cities are positioned in such a way that they can directly knock over the Golden Horde during wartime OR encircle the Muscovites is a big bonus for this unassuming, yet powerful civilization!

Reformer: Still comfortably in the top 20 of the rankings, Apache lurch forward simply by virtue of their imminent war declaration against Metis. While their 6-turn war against Poverty Point led nowhere, Metis' southern holdings look nowhere near prepared for an Apache invasion. With the Apache military being notably larger than the Metis one, this may be Geronimo's chance at ensuring his legacy is a permanent one. A few more settlers would nice, though...

Reformer: In contrast to last part, Taungoo settle no new cities this part. Their stats, mediocre at best, don't give off a good impression. Perhaps the best news for them is that the large militaries in both India and China, the powder kegs of Asia, are mostly pointed at each other. Add to that a lazy Sulu, and you've got a Taungoo with potential to turtle and turtle - but make sure to not turtle for too long. While this is no Europe, death is always behind a corner

LacsiraxAriscal: Slipping to their lowest ever rank, only just in the top 10, the Kazakhs continue to underwhelm. It's actually the high deviation telling the real story, with more sceptical rankers dropping the previous #1s to a midtable position, even as others continue to rank them in their top 3. Indeed it's indisputable that the Kazakhs have unbelievable amounts of potential, with buckets of free space still to settle, and world-beating stats in military, production, population and food. But last part we saw them squander that potential, with a war so forgettable that Mr Swinburne didn't even bother to visit the area; the video shows they've barely committed a soldier to the Nenets conflict. It's still early, and maybe vast potential is still enough for a high rank, but it's harder and harder to justify as other civs conduct successful invasions of their neighbours and exert their influence much further afield than Ablai Khan has.

Timrtabor: Qing has been having rough start relative to their usual aggressive performance in AI games. They were slow to expand into the Manchurian area and as a result gave Korea a chance to find its footing. They were slow to pounce on incompetent Xia and thus didn't get optimal returns on investment from that war (they got one city when arguably they could have easily gotten the whole damn nation with quicker reaction times and troop placement). Thankfully for Cixi the universe seems to be leaving the mistakes debatably unpunished as Qin are still a tad battered from the war in part 2, Jamuka isn't going for the obvious war and Korea is both slightly war torn from the Shikoku war and slow to expand its manchurian holdings.

Homusubi: After a brief stint as North America's number one, Louis Riel seems to be on track to lose the title again, with Geronimo catching up in the rankings after a brief Poverty Point-related scare. Helpfully for us confused power rankers, however, it looks as if they're just about to go to war, and oddly enough, it seems as if the lack of roads in Métis territory might be the deciding factor. The entire Métis army is roughly the same strength as the section of the Apache army currently heading north, but unfortunately for the inhabitants of Fish Creek, it's all at the wrong end of Riel's sizeable empire. If Geronimo is even half intelligent he should be able to snag Fish Creek before it becomes a more evenly matched war, and will thus likely become North America's premier power. If Riel holds off the Apache, that'll be the first military achievement notched up by the Badland Badasses, and will cement his position as the local number one. But as of now, let's hope the fish in that creek are fine with a bit of blood in the water.

Reformer: Everything is going according to plan for Australia. While their stats are mediocre for the time being, they are setting themselves up to at least dominate their home continent. With Murri situated between a rock and a hard place - as proven by the New Zealand war - the Murri are unlikely to pose much of a challenge, going forward. In fact, the greatest threat to Australian domination of, well, Australia, comes instead from New Zealand itself. Should NZ be able to properly coordinate an attack, Murri could fall to the kiwis before Hawke is ready. While this scenario is not impossible, one will find that Australia is nevertheless in a strong position right now. With 5 cities and 3 settlers out, Australia will be competing with the top dogs in city count come next part.

Timrtabor: Qin had a quiet part. Considering how the behind the scenes stats like gold (for army maintenance), production, and culture (for rushing social policies) were rather meh after the Xia war that is probably for the best. Canton sniping the last Xia city could also arguably be seen as a good thing since it means the pirates effectively ate the negative diplomacy linked to eliminating civs. for the Qin. This will likely slow down the rise of tensions with Qing until they repair infrastructure.

LacsiraxAriscal: The Sámi just cling onto their top 5 spot this week, though their slight fall may be down to an increase in perceived confidence for the civs above them, rather than anything the Sámi are doing wrong. Indeed, they placed another decent city in Finland, further connecting their forward settle of Divtasvuodna with the rest of their empire. They also declared their first war, though it's only to kick the same dog that all the cool civs are kicking, Prussia. It might not be time to pounce just yet - with an underperforming Vikings the Sámi have ample time to grow peacefully and build their core naturally - in other words, keep on doing what they're doing. Still, it's worth keeping an eye on both Muscovy and the Goths, who are staking an unlikely claim on northern Russia themselves.

Aaron: Not much has changed for Uruguay this part, and their ranking stays where it is. The main threat to a blue south america, Venezuela, is currently having a wee bit of trouble, which is good for Uruguay. The secondary threat: their southern neighbours, Selk'nam, are still looking strong. Lavalleja does have a large military stationed near their southern border so will be able to fight if it comes to war. In the meantime, I would like to see Uruguay expand a bit more - 5 cities is fine at the moment, but their main advantage over the Selk'nam is space, an advantage which they would be wise to use.

JMan: The Songhai are now considered the second best civ in Africa! They have conquered Constantine AND Tlemcen! Although Tlemcen is being razed and will no longer exist, Songhai have solidified themselves as the top dog of the Sahara. With Benin preoccupied with a war in Nubia, that pocket of danger is likely to subside very quickly! Askia has been handed his own half of Africa, now all he needs to do is take it!

LacsiraxAriscal: Missing out on a second week at the top spot by a whisker, it's the Khamugs. If there's anything to attribute that slight dip to, it's their failure to start a war with Qing; many of the PRs, myself included, thought it was a sure bet given the movement of their troops. No biggy, there's no hurry - Qing's army is concentrated around their border at the moment, so maybe it's wiser to wait for Cixi to pick off Korea or start a futile war with Qin before launching into a full-force invasion. And with the Evenks still zero threat, Jamukha's had plenty of energy to focus on his core cities. And the stats speak for themselves, with the Khamugs ranked second in both production and military score (to Prussia and the Goths, respectively). While they may not have taken #1 today, they're still looking like winners.

Timrtabor: Nyatsimba Mutota may look like he has the upperhand in a hypothetical Zimbabwe/Ndongo war due to his vast quantity of troops but this analysis has two major flaws: First of all, Nzinga is no slouch herself in terms of troop count. Second of all, Nzinga unique ability ("Heart Of Africa") allows her to effectively teleport her stretched out carpet back to the homeland quickly due to her core's vast river network.