THE OFFICIAL CIVILIZATION BATTLE ROYALE X POWER RANKINGS: EPISODE 34

Lacs: One of the great oversights of the Civ Battle Royale X was not including another Siberian civ. With only the Evenks, civs like the Sámi and the Kazakhs were allowed to grow humongous almost completely unchecked, and bizarre far-off civs like Prussia even managed to settle exclaves here. We can only imagine how differently the game would have played out if there had been a contender here.

Instead, no civ settled an ambitious second city in the direction of their nearest foe, the Kazakhs, but lagged behind in stats and time spent creating more settlers. There was no Kazakh campaign to destroy an Arctic neighbour that ended in a baffling stalemate given the military disparity between the two, with the Kazakh military at no point getting stuck behind the Ural Mountains. The taigas of Siberia were not forever trampled by reindeer hooves, as the Evenks did not attempt to invade a snowy neighbour with little to no success. Indeed, there was no civ here to continue to subvert expectations and pose a question: could a theoretical Arctic civ actually survive long enough to rebound? Those questions weren't compounded by another Kazakh war in which Ablai Khan actually ceded cities before finally turning the tide and taking a nonexistent civ's second city. And they didn't justify Prussia founding an exclave in the snowy north, as Prussia had no weak neighbours with which they could candidly take a city from. Finally, no civ was finally put to rest by an Arctic Conditions Training Exercise from the Qin special forces. Still, it's fun to imagine, right?

Aaron: The Order of Order's weakest member is no longer Beta Israel; now Selk'nam holds that badge. Despite getting obliterated themselves, New Zealand teamed up with Nazca in order to push Selk'nam off the continent. Though they have since made peace with New Zealand, Nazca remain at war. Selk'nam have lost their capital (and its statue of C'Thulhu) are down to just 2 island cities, one of which is on the brink of capture. Worse: a bunch of other civs from around the cylinder have also decided to join in in the hopes of snagging an antarctic colony. Island cities are a lot easier to capture than land cities due to the lack of natural defences or peacekeepers, so next week, we may very well be reading a eulogy in this space. One question remains: will Uruguay step in to protect its oldest and most loyal ally?

Lacs: Wow, assignment daddy gave me some real bottom-of-the-barrel civs this week, huh? Alright, fuck it, HERE'S HOW THE OTTOMANS CAN STILL WIN. First declare war on the Sámi, use those three privateers to take that one Destroyer and take it hostage. Ransom it back to the Sámi in exchange for a coalition war against the Goths (Eadni is just waiting for the excuse, to be honest). As the Goths are distracted taking on the Sámi, sneak in and capture Ostrava. Then, liberate Ostrava for the Czechs - who will love you and remain at peace with you for the rest of the game. Use the goodwill from that liberation bonus to encourage civs to declare war on Venice, who are bullying good guy Mehmed. Wait for the Moors to completely subsume Venice, removing them from the game. Next, with the Sámi having eaten a fair bit of the Goths, they'll be perfectly staged to declare war on Prussia, which you'll encourage by bribing Prussia to invade poor innocent Ostrava. Let the Sámi eliminate Prussia, but not before sneaking in at the last minute and taking Ostrava back, liberating it once again. By then it's time for endgame. Poor Czechia will be eras behind, starting with the lowest stats in the game, so you can immediately take their capital and start with an extra city advantage. Furthermore, the entirety of mainland Europe is yours with Venice and Prussia gone: you've only got to hem in the Moors, which you can do with some canny defensive settles by the Pyrenees. From there stockpile up with your amazing resource rich core until you're on tech parity with the rest of the world and bam: world domination is within your grasp.

Gragg: Among the absurdity of the New Zealand collapse, Tonga losing half of its cities is easy to overlook. They lost 2 and are left with 2 remaining. Not a safe 2 either. Peacekeepers aren’t as widespread in this area yet so a number of enemies could still strike at Tonga. While it might be nice to see one less civ make it to endgame, I really want to see New Zealand and Tonga start on neighboring one tile islands in Endgame.

Lacs: The cowardly Maratha chickened out of their war with the brave Beta Israeli patriots, so it's back to peace and tranquillity for the Gulf of Aden state. While they run the risk of being eliminated by every single one of their bordering states, all three have rather switched off as of late, so we might see Gudit launch her people into Endgame yet... only to be one of the first to be eliminated due to abysmal stats and a probable lack of interest in growing (remember how long it took for them to found even a third city?) Beta Israel? More like, Beta is Fail. You're welcome.

Cloudberg: Nepal miraculously gained two places this episode for... some reason. The fall of Selk'nam accounts for one point of increase, but the other one is a mystery. Anyway, since Nepal is either going to die or crawl its way into endgame and then died due to having shit bonuses, I'd prefer they die now, and in spectacular fashion. Right now, the Goths are in a decent position to take out two of Prithvi Narayan's three cities. That would be pretty fucking hilarious.

Cloudberg: Calling it now: Canton wins endgame. Ching Shih is playing the long game here, waiting it out, refusing to die, until it comes time for her to exact revenge. The Cantonese thalassocracy shall rise again.

LonelyRollingStar: It’s gone unnoticed so far in the Royale, what with them being obscured by the mists of Nenet-tier irrelevance half the time and them playing spanner in the works for someone else’s plan the other half, but the Yup’ik might just be the most incomprehensible civ that’s made it this far into the game. They’ve spent the entire game among the dregs of North America, yet have never quite deviated from their perch midway through the bottom half of the table, despite the dramatic winnowing of civs that’s gone on and the calamitous falls of those both above and below them. They’ve taken cities from the Metis with ease, yet have all the power and force of approximately one Canton. They’ve pulled off some of the most memetic moves in the CBRX to date - does the sniping of the Aztecs need a reintroduction? – yet have folded up like a paper bag whenever the Haida come calling. The Yup’ik vary wildly between competence and incompetence, with little in-between, yet they remain consistent and stable through it all, able to lose half their empire with nary any side-effects. They might just be the most interesting civ in the game. Shame we won’t get to know much about them before they get stomped into the ice sheets from whence they came once their luck runs out and they start playing to their rank.

Lacs: As is often the case, this was a quiet ol' part for Evenkia, which given their current state is probably how they like it. And yet... there's a feeling that no Evenk can quite shake today. A feeling of... relief? Satisfaction? A small, but oh-so-pure thrill? It's unmistakable: every single resident of the Evenk tundra feels just a little brighter today. But no one can quite say why. It feels almost as if something has finally been completed... something of great historical value, some ancient legend finally coming to a sweet conclusion. But who remembers those ancient legends nowadays?

Lacs: I get to write two eulogies this week! The second is for the hopes and dreams of Richard Seddon, which were sunk to the bottom of the Marianas Trench by the unyielding fleets of Australia. Once the pre-eminent power of the Pacific, the Kiwis will have to make do with their new lot in life: almost entirely replacing the Selk'nam. And just like the Selk'nam, their continued lives will from hereon out be at the mercy of Uruguay, who would squish them like a beetle. That said, if status quo is held until Project Endgame, New Zealand will actually spawn in Samoa, with their long-ago founded colony of Palmerston North only tiles away from the Tongan capital. Honestly, I don't mind where they end up - I just hope they stick around until then. New Zealand have been too fun a wildcard to wave goodbye to just yet.

LonelyRollingStar: It’s really a shame there’s no games on the subreddit that predict the next target of a major coalition; recently, they seem to be the only way any relevant wars ever get started, and they’re nothing if not deliciously fun to witness. The Turks and Prussia would doubtless be leading the betting what with their prickly diplomatic situations, but elsewhere in Europe, a dark horse lurks in the shadows, waiting for the day when they can finally one-up their peers and prove to all who care to listen that their death was the most visceral of them all. In case you haven’t cottoned on to it by now given the name of the civ featured on this slide, yes, it’s the Manx. Wars with Uruguay and Venice aren’t about to rock the world, of course, but odds are those two battles will be only the beginning. The Manx’s adventures in stalling a heavyweight bout in Asia aren’t doing them any favors with their armies so close to the ever-moving borders there, for one, but the real show-stealer lays slightly to the north. We don’t know if the V & V alliance is still on, but if it is, then it’s likely that at some point Ragnar’s going to get a hankering to form Britannia under his banner. The war with the Iroquois has kept the Vikings from engaging in hostilities with the Manx for now, but if it stops…

LonelyRollingStar: In a shocking twist, Nubia remains utterly uninspiring. But, of course, that may just be for the best. Nubia is utterly eclipsed by all of their neighbors at this point, liable to lose a war to the majority of them even with all the chaos and uncertainty the age of peacekeepers has brought with it. All their avenues of expansion are closed off, if they could even reach them: a carpet of planes has vast destructive potential, yes, but it’s marginally better than no carpet at all what with the lack of melee units it tends to bring with it. And as time goes on and Nubia’s wars look more and more likely to be defensive in nature, it gets harder and harder to imagine that army composition ever doing them any favors at all. Lucky, then, that Nubia’s got a decent chance at making it all the way to the dreaded turn 1024 without ever being the recipient of another declaration. Their neighbors all could crush them, yes, but they’re all otherwise engaged or have even tastier pieces of flesh to sink their claws into. Nubia’s strategy, for years, has been simple – don’t raise a fuss, slip into Endgame, then take advantage of the chaos in the early goings there to vault back into relevance. In that respect, Nubia’s been quite successful.

Msurdej: Can I get an OOF for our boy Fritz?
Things go from bad to worse to slightly better but still pretty bad in the battle against Alaric. While he managed to make peace this week, he still comes out losing a few cities all in all, giving him a noticeable loss of Military and slowed his Production down. On top of all that, Prussia now needs to move forces west, in order to deal with a war against Venice. That war will be rather difficult for anyone to make gains though, as peacekeepers are currently gumming up the entire war front. But if more neighbors, like the Sami, the Vikings, or even the Goths again, join in the war, it could spell doom for Frederick.

Shaggy: Madagascar is doing what they’ve done the entire game. The originator of the peacekeeper strategy (depending on which historians you ask) is doing what they do best and clogging up a large portion of the Goth-Prussia front. On paper, Madagascar looks like they have a good shot at sticking around til Endgame. Million Military Mark, good production for never having gotten a foothold on the mainland, but then you run into the cities question. In my opinion, a solid navy from most any of the civs they share nautical borders with would be able to do some serious damage. In the meantime, they’ll keep spamming outdated units into far-flung empty lands to try and hasten the Endgame’s arrival. Wait, what a meta strategy…

Msurdej: Welcome to another episode of India Nuke Watch! Total Nukes: 6 Nukes Used: 0. Tune in next week for another episode of India Nuke Watch!

Parthia: Mithridates gets a small rise in the ranks due to Seddon falling so hard, but that's basically it. Will he sleep in until Endgame, or will Parthia wake up and try to eliminate someone. If I was a betting man, I'd go with the former.

Cloudberg: The Apache gained a rank this week thanks to New Zealand's collapse. Of course, so did like half the civs, so Geronimo is not exactly special. There's also not a lot of room for him to improve, since all of his neighbors are stronger than him, and his lands are full of Australian and Nazca units. At this point, the Apache are among those civs that are best off just waiting for endgame, where they'll get a second chance.

Cloudberg: Enrico Dandolo went full Hitler this episode by simultaneously declaring war on both Prussia and the Manx. The only result of this folly so far is a volley of bombing runs from both sides that have brought all the front line cities to 0HP. However, peacekeepers ensure that any actual exchange of territory is unlikely. Could we still see some cities flip? Sure. But which cities and to whom will probably be random, as the actual military might of the two sides probably won't come into play.

LonelyRollingStar: I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve kept up with the prediction contest as little as possible. That said, if I were to join, there’s one civ who I’d immediately name in my comment: Benin. Though, I’m afraid that when it comes to choosing whether their name will be prefaced with a + or a -, I’ll be at a loss. Benin’s future is probably the cloudiest of all the civs left on the cylinder. On the one hand, Zimbabwe and the Moors nip away hungrily at their territory, dreaming of the day when they can take it for themselves and bring the majority of Africa under their banner. On the other, Nubia lies to the north, a turtle without a shell, exposed and ready for the taking. Benin, of course, is too clogged with peacekeepers to make either path a reality. But if Madagascar grows tired of the Gulf of Guinea, Ewuare will find his civ’s hopes balanced on a knife’s edge. If he can go after Nubia with ease, and incorporate the nation into his territory, he’ll crash the major powers’ party like a randy and alcoholic teenager. If he finds himself getting annexed, it’s unlikely that he’ll live to see his conquerors dismantled. Either way, it should be fun to watch – unless you’ve bet your life in the prediction contest on the spectacle, of course.

Shaggy: Once again, a sleepy week for Haida. That being said, IS THAT A DAMN WAR CANOE I STILL SEE? In newly Kiwi South America, there’s definitely a war canoe off the coast of Chile. I have no idea what Haida thinks they’re doing with that other than ceremonially mourning the Selk’nam.

Aaron: This week, the Nazca finally end the war with Tonga, having grabbed most of the islands. Instead, they will continue in their efforts to sabotage the Order of Order, this time by teaming up with New Zealand to eliminate Selk'nam. It's going well as they have picked up the capital including its Statue of C'Thulhu, while Selk'nam might just be the next death. To think the two civs were once very close friends, both in the Order, fighting together against the Kiwi and Tongan menace... I guess this is what autocracy does to civs... I do continue to question the wisdom of betraying Uruguay while living on the same continent as them. Nazca are only alive because Uruguay has allowed them to live up till now because they were close allies. I especially question the decision when the civ they have chosen as a replacement ally is... New Zealand... who are not exactly going to be much use in a war. I guess we'll see whether the invasion of their closest ally is enough to convince Uruguay to actually do something about it.

Aaron: Based on their recent behavious, I'm beginning to think that Zenobia is a drama queen and complete coward. The good news for them is that the evil Qin decided to cancel their war on Palmyra, which is a huge relief for Zenobia. After all, this declaration was so scary that she got the entire Order of Order to declare war on the Qin to protect her. Can't have a few scattered paratroopers landing and pillaging 1 tile now can we? That would be awful and definitely worth bothering the entire alliance about. Once Palmyra was finally safe from nasty Qin, the rest of the Order all immediately made peace with too (1 turn later), with the exception of the Khamugs who wanted to stay in, and the Selk'nam, who forgot the paperwork in their capital as it was captured.

Now Palmyra has another problem they want dealing with. You remember how Prussia had the gall to declare war on and capture Ostrava from Palmyra? Well that is a serious crime against the Order and definitely deserves to be punished. As such, the entire Order of Order (minus Selk'nam) organised a mass attack on "that awful european civ". Unfortunately there was some miscommunication and Uruguay ended up attacking the wrong civ, while Venice declared war on both 1 turn late in the confusion. Oh and Palmyra didn't join the war either, because Palmyra are too weak and terrified of big scary Prussia and definitely need Beta Israel to protect them. Last time they were at war Prussia captured Ostrava! What if Prussia sends in one airborne trooper to pillage a Palmyran tile? That is too awful to contemplate; Zenobia is sorry, but the rest of the Order will have to deal with this themselves. Zenobia is a pretty princess who needs protecting and will definitely not get their hands dirty in any way or risk getting even slightly hurt.

Aaron: Great success for the Goths as the Prussian war ends in a solidly Goth victory. This is good, but it hasn't fixed the Goth's main problem which is their terrible economy. Their production is currently in 19th place of the entire cylinder, but that rank could be a lot lower considering the large gap to 18th place Nazca: a whole 60% higher. Meanwhile their science is abysmal for their number of cities. They are getting out-teched by civs such as Benin, Madagascar, Parthia. Even Prussia - who they just took cities off - is still generating more science than the Goths on top of having higher tech. If the Goths ever want to be competitive with their Sami and Kazakh neighbours, they really need to focus on internal affairs. If the Sami or Kazakhs ever decide to attack them, they will do so with giant death robots and biodrones - units the Goths cannot deal with. It is true that grabbing enough lands to be competitive in the lategame is pretty important (and therefore attacking Prussia as soon as the peace deal wears off is reasonable) but you do also need to actually reach the lategame too, and preferably before generating too many warmonger penalties.

Aaron: The Khamugs lose 4 ranks as Qin deal a great blow to them, capturing Margadai, one of the Khamugs core cities, as well as a few other minor cities. This has caused Khamug stats to plummet; they are at 575 population down from 752 and their production is down to 4.5k from 5.5k. This alone will cause the Khamugs to come out of this war a loser (even if they capture it back). But worse than that it gives the Qin the production advantage in the war which just makes them even MORE likely to win and capture ore cities. How did such a disaster happen in a war that they should have been winning? The answer lies with peacekeepers. You see, the Khamugs kept a full carpet of their own troops and had very few peacekeepers, which means that when the Qin killed Khamug troops, the Qin were free to send in their own hovertanks into the empty space. Those hovertanks could then capture one of the 0 health cities. In contrast, the Qin are full of peacekeepers, which means that the Khamugs are incapable of getting their units in close enough to the 0 health cities to capture them, no matter how much they bomb to try to push into them. Thus, the Qin are ending up the winners of this war. The moral of the story is: having a full carpet of your own troops is actually bad for you; having peacekeepers is far better; the only thing you need to build for yourself is an air force and the odd capture unit.

Aaron: A quiet part for Venezuela. Their military, production, science and population are all fairly average for their rank. What can they do to improve their situation? Well they are currently acting as vassals to the Iroquois, and so in light of that they can maybe try attacking the Apache again? That sounds like a fine plan, though it is nice to have a buffer between them and the Iroquois. The other option is to try and get back with their old protector of Uruguay. Doing so would mean attacking Nazca (who should be gathering up lots of warmonger penalties specificially against Uruguay due to invading Uruguay's friends). Although this would improve Venezuela's position short term, it might not be wise to give Uruguay the entire continent to themselves in endgame, so I'm overly fond of this option. On a geopolitical level, the civ that Venezuela most needs eliminated for endgame is actually Haida I think, rather surprisingly. This would allow for a strong Metis capable of checking Iroquois expansion and giving Venezuela the time it needs to get strong and prevent Uruguay from taking over everything. Venezuela can't really attack Haida at the moment, but they should consider trying to ally up with Metis and Shikoku (without losing vassalage to the Iroquois of course) in order to get this done. Of course the AI won't think of this and will just pick someone at random to attack but it's still interesting to think which are the best options.

Shaggy: Not much going on with Maratha this week. Only mention is a peace deal with the limping Chad. They drop a rank due to the rise of the Qin, but otherwise don’t seem to be in much danger of dropping much more of their own volition. They hit the Million Military Mark a little bit ago, so don’t expect them to go anywhere anytime soon. If anything, they seem to be hemmed in by the peacekeepers of other civs populating their neighbors’ tiles. Also, they are definitely on the low end of cities for being in the top 15. With the Future Worlds mod, more cities is definitely better, so hopefully Maratha is able to pick them up somewhere.

Gragg: The war we all assumed would end in a stalemate has tipped firmly in Qin’s favour. They ended the part up a net 3 cities. Along with that comes a 48% increase in production. That puts them ahead of the Khamugs in that stat for the first time in recent history. Many of those new conquests could be tough to hold on too though, as there are still plenty of Khamug units nearby. Unfortunately the peacekeeper of choice at the moment is Indian. Hope you like the color purple.

Msurdej: Ragnar is able to make peace with his eastern neighbors, and doesn't lose anything except a few ranks. While he jumps back up from last part, he's still a ways away from making it back into the top 10. His army and production are still lacking behind the Sami, but he does have the edge in another department: technology. Finishing out the tech tree, Ragnar can now use the best of the best to get those numbers back up. He could also go after the Manx, and use his tech and military advantage to fully conquer the British isles, but that might also enrage Eadni, and bring war back to Scandinavia.

LonelyRollingStar: It wasn’t long ago that the Sami were the white walkers of Europe. Polling high from the word go and capitalizing on a favorable start position with rapid-fire settling, the Sami looked like they could just stay atop the heap there forever, buoyed by their start alone, occasionally picking off a civ or two that strayed too close to their treacherous maw but generally just lurking in the background, menacingly. Well, they did just that, and, uh, it isn’t working. The Moors have taken the more fun path to victory and find themselves first in the region barring any more surprise peacekeeper spam. The Vikings have taken the most fun path to victory and find themselves a shaky second. And the Sami? Unable to take a single city off those selfsame Viking neighbors of theirs, even with them locked in a two-front war with two ostensible superpowers. Sure, you could blame the mountains, or peacekeepers, or countless other convenient scapegoats, but the real cause of this calamity is clear. The blame, along with Ragnar’s axe in twenty or so parts, falls directly on Eadni’s neck. The sleeping giant strategies employed by the Inuit, Aussies, and Boers in Mark Two all got them to the superpower tier, yes, but it’s important to note that they all lost. At a certain point, you can’t just coast by off advantages given to you at birth. If you want to win, you have to do more than declare a war once every ice age and otherwise rest on your laurels. The Sami have reached that point, and unless they do something to stop their gradual decline fast, they’ll find themselves in a hole only a very favorable Endgame can get them out of.

Aaron: The Metis lose 1 rank because of Australia's rise, but their position is still the same as last week's. They continue to maintain the largest army of the entire cylinder by a small margin, and as the Metis reach the end of the tech tree, we should see their production grow to match the great powers. But they are currently still very far behind the Iroquois in production. Make no mistake - the Iroquois would win a war against them despite fewer troops. And one thing that is particularly worrying is that the Iroquois population and production is continuing to grow at an alarmingly high rate well passed the point where other civs stopped. I believe the issue is the Iroquois pantheon (which is a food multiplier) is multiplying the ridiculously large amount of food given to civs by the food bug, which is causing Iroquois cities to grow exponentially in a situation where other civs only grow lineally. If true that is an insanely unfair advantage which definitely merits Endgame happening to remove it. In the meantime while waiting for Endgame, the Metis can still do some useful things to set them up well, such as attacking Yup'ik or Haida. If they can take the western coast in endgame they'll be in a fine position to fight against a less-cheaty version of the Iroquois.

Doom: Another stagnant part for the Kazakhs as they continue their slow decline in the rankings. This is their lowest rank since part 26. If they continue renting out their lands to Louis Riel it will only continue. As one of the most landlocked civs on the cylinder they've been particularly hard hit by the peacekeepers and it's not clear that they're going to break out

Cloudberg: We have a fun joke around the PR server where we write "Moops" instead of "Moors." You should join us. Seriously, it's a lot more fun than trying to find something to say about the Moops, who haven't done anything in several hundred turns.

[Shaggy's note: The Moops joke is from Seinfeld, the bubble boy episode, also this makes searching for quotes about the Moops a lot harder]

Msurdej: First off, I would like to apologize. Last part, I incorrectly called the Sniper from TF2 an Australian. As u/YellowishCheese pointed out, the Sniper is in fact from New Zealand, which is definitely not Austr-wait what..... Breaking news folks! Bob Hawke has battered down the doors of Wellington. capturing the capital and the entire island of New Zealand for Australia! I repeat, New Zealand is now Australia.
But with Seddon now banished to a few scattered islands in the Pacific and the barren wastes of South America, Hawke has positioned himself to be undisputed master of Oceania. What must be remembered though, is that Hawke still needs to get onto the mainland if he wants to be relevant. Parkes was a good example of strong isolated civ that eventually gets bodied, but if Hawke doesn't want to repeat this mistake, he'll have to get onto someone else's coast. But make no mistake, landing on Seddon's coast was a great test run.

Gragg: Shikoku continues to climb tantalizingly close to passing Uruguay in the stats. Other than that they have not seen much action this episode. The outcome of the two majors wars, Qin/Khamugs and Australia/New Zealand, will probably have a major effect on them going forward though.

Shaggy: If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Go Goo, Before The Goo Runs Out! To be honest, I’ve probably never said that before, but I stand by it. GO GOO, GO! I just want to see Taungoo roll over the Pacific rim. SEE GOO GO! The AI just seems to be letting me down when I want to cover Asia with Goo. GOO, GIT GUD!

Gragg: Zimbabwe continues to inexplicably slip in the stats. Luckily the lead the built up several episodes ago was huge enough that they remain near the top. Don’t expect significant conquests from Zimbabwe anytime soon though, as Benin will forever be one of the toughest nuts to crack.

Shaggy: I feel like every writeup I’ve done this week is talking about “another quiet/sleepy/boring part for ” AND BOY HOWDY IS THIS ONE GONNA BE LIKE THAT TOO! Literally nothing done by Uruguay this part other than Kasen Kiwi, seemingly by accident. They keep their top 2 spot as they are still one of the most statistically menacing civs on the cylinder, but also apparently one of the few civs that seems to be able to maneuver around what with all the peacekeepers. Having an open southern hemisphere ocean does that, I guess.

Gragg: This week I looked back at all the civs that have led in military strength throughout the game. One of the most notable takeaways is that Iroquois hardly ever crossed above 5th in military manpower. With that in mind their current military rank of 8th is not that unusual. They maintain the top spot in production with a relatively safe position. Even the top ranked Metis military is holed up in Asia and/or blocked by peacekeepers. I think the only movement we’ll see out of Iroquois until Endgame will be in Greenland and towards Apache.