Hello, and welcome to CBRecap! This is the first entry in a blog where I hope to update frequently on the topic of the Civ Battle Royale, one of the most active and involved communities on the internet. I hope you enjoy – please comment any feedback! I’d love to hear any suggestions on how I could improve.

In today’s post, I’m going to be looking at the evolution of the last placed Civ in the Power Rankings over time. Why were they there? And where are they now? Let’s find out. It’s a long list, so today, I’ll be looking only at the first 25 parts.

Part 1: Morocco. ALL of the rankers thought Morocco had zero chance in the BR because of bad placement, stating they could easily be cornered by Carthage, Mali or Portugal. Jokes on them really – Morocco may be dead now, but they beat out almost 30 Civs before they finally collapsed, including all the civs the rankers stated they could be beaten by in Northern Africa. Rose out of last by expanding far more than its neighbours, and therefore climbed 17 places in the rankings in one part.

Parts 2-3: Korea. Another civ with an awful start, but did way better than expected was Korea. It was the last civ to found its second city, it had a far smaller military than its neighbours Japan, Vietnam and China and it looked to be completely doomed to failure, with it being said that the rankers couldn’t see Korea ‘climbing out of the bottom tier any time soon, if ever’. Hilariously, at the time this post has been published (part 67), Korea are ranked SIXTH, with its high science output leading to both expansion and an extremely impressive military. Talk about a comeback. Rose out of last because Rome.

Part 4: Rome. And now, the opposite of a success story. Rome, CBR2’s first casualty. Although it took until Part 14 for them to be fully eradicated, by Part 4, they had only 3 cities, and many major powers in Europe had DOW’d them. They were extremely behind in everything important. Rose out of last in Part 5 after an albeit temporary peace deal meant that they had a (small) chance to catch up.

Part 5: Champa. Throughout the CBR, it never looked likely that the Champa had any means of survival. They were at hostilities with Vietnam, a much more powerful civ, and they looked like they had no chance of victory. They survived longer than expected though – until Part 50, to be exact. Rose out of last not on their behalf, just because certain people were much worse than them.

Part 6: Byzantium. In a war against the Spartans, Byzantium underperformed so badly they dropped 12 places in the Power Rankings, being described as doing ‘the worst in any war we’ve seen so far’ in the BR. After surprisingly surviving with only 1 city for a long time, Byzantium were finally destroyed in Part 30. Although they lost the capital in the next part, the first civ to do so, they were not last in Part 7 because they, surprisingly, were not the worst.

Parts 7-11: China. It seems strange to think in Part 2 that China were 2nd place and considered one, if not the, worlds main superpower. China declared war on Vietnam and things quickly went downhill from there. They lost most of their cities to waves of Mongolian, Vietnamese, and later, Korean soldiers and quickly became fairly insignificant. Rose because all the major superpowers in East Asia that were previously thrashing them lost interest in them, giving China time to regroup a little.

Parts 12-13: Rome. This was officially the beginning of the end for the poor Romans. In Part 12, Rome lost Cumae to the Spartans, who were out for blood even while simultaneously fighting Armenia. In Part 13, they lost Ravenna to France. In Part 14, Rome fell to the Spartans. For the official rankings for Part 14, Rome were last, but this was only because they had lost that round. Therefore, I’ll instead be using 60th place for that part. So who takes the burden? Let’s find out.

Parts 14-16: Byzantium. During the conquest of Rome, Sparta had a side-thing just to keep them entertained in case storming Cumae got a little stale. This was to send waves of warriors at the doomed Byzantium city of Adrianople, and when it was finally captured, Byzantium was reduced to only two cities and was behind in every important category. After a couple of parts of complete hell, Alexios got his act together and built up a (tiny, weak, undeveloped) carpet, pulling them up one place.

Part 17: The Ashanti. After making some spectacularly terrible moves for a long time, the Ashanti started to take a beating from all its neighbours that had any power. They were at such a bad point in Part 17 that they were completely swamped by enemy units and by Part 18 their final city had been taken over by Mali. They thus became the second casualty of the Civ Battle Royale.

Parts 18-20: The Philippines. It was unexpected to see a Civ that had recently been at the bottom capture and defeat another Civ so quickly – but the Champa-ions managed to do it. By Part 18, The Philippines were reduced to one city – Manila, with a population of 20. By Part 19, Manila was on 6. By Part 21, The Philippines was nothing more than a treasured memory.

Parts 21-22: The Sioux. By Part 21, the Sioux were almost ready to accept their fate. Hiding up in the North of America, it was strange to see this once global superpower on the brink of death. As we know now, the Sioux weren’t quite done with the BR just yet, but this point marked the beginning of the first end. Stopped being last in Part 23 because they actually managed to succeed more than the civ you’ll see next.

Part 23: England. After being exiled out of Britain by their unfriendly and infinitely better neighbours Ireland, England was reduced to nothing but Hastings, a city residing in land that really should have belonged to Portugal. Although they weren’t exactly in danger of being eradicated, their entire fate completely rested on Portugal, and staying in favour with them. Managed to climb the ranks slightly higher because they were at peace at the time, unlike…

Part 24: The Sioux. Inuit and America declared war on them, so they collapsed back down into last. Climbed back up by managing to negotiate a peace deal with its enemies and really fortify its final city, Kiyaska.

Part 25: Poland. In the first BR, Poland was apparently STRONK. In this BR, they were a 10-pop city, a Pikeman, and a Crossbowman at war with 3 other Civs. Sad, really.