Civ4 AI Survivor Season Six

[Zalson]

This is definitely the game for the Hammer to win a time victory.

[Sullla]

Community predictions added to the Game Four preview page: http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/civ4survivor6-4-preview.html






This was the first game of the season where the community lacked a clear favorite. Stalin had the most votes to win this game but not by a dominant margin, with solid support for Catherine and Charlemagne and even a surprising Elizabeth. The Runner Up category was even more split with no one able to capture more than about a quarter of the vote share. Catherine had a narrow lead there over her fellow Russian compatriot. First to Die similarly lacked an overwhelming pick as Elizabeth was tops in the category at only a third of the total entries. This looked to be a wide open game from a picking contest standpoint.

Finally, here are some of the best/craziest written predictions about what would take place during the game. There were many other excellent entries but I had to pick and choose my favorites to keep this from running on too long. Thanks again for the submissions!

Khnud: I'm going for Stalin as the winner simply because no pool one leader has won so far and sooner or later one of 'em will come out on top. Plus, Stalin's tendency to stay out of religious wars and instead pick on his weakest neighbour really works to his advantage on a 7 leader map. Alex will use his elephants to roll over Hammurabi (who arguably has the worst starting position of them all) so Babylon is the first civ to fold. On the other side of the world, Brennus and Charlie will end up in religious conflict possibly dragging Cathy down with them, ruining the game for all three. I hope Lizzie can stay out of the fray long enough to establish a firm grip of the north and secure 2nd place, before Stalin dominates his neighbours (and the world).

delan: This game is impossible to call. The high peace weight civs are bunched together and far from the jackals who will want to maul them. The two Imperialistic leaders are neighbours. The only things I am sure of are that Brennus and Charlemagne will found separate religions and come to blows and that Alexander will maul his northern neighbours. He won't take them over, of course, but he'll certainly throw one of their games off. Elizabeth's start is deceptive because the land is amazing but she doesn't have easy access to metals, so I suspect she will have a hard time mounting a defense when Stalin and/or Alexander come knocking. Charley and Brennus will stifle their development in their crusades and counter-crusades. That leaves Stalin, who has almost a mirror of Elizabeth's quality land and distant metals, and Catherine, who lacks food but has access to a lot of gold and the traits to be successful at the land grab no matter what, and for deity AIs, any land is good land. Timidly calling this one for Russia, one of the two.

ManiaMuse: This one is going to be a mess. No leader is going to run away with it. There will be lotsl of wars that end in stalemates and unlikely alliances thanks to Catherine shenanigans. Eventually it will end up as a space race and Lizzy will have a slight tech edge by that point to just pip it. I expect lots to survive to the wildcard round.

Bobchillingworth: I think this game comes down to two questions. First, can the killers at the bottom of the map avoid dragging each other down and instead unite to crush the outnumbered forces of good (or in Charlie's case, force of moderate neutrality) at the top? Second, who will Cathy inevitably pick to sabotage? For the first, I'm going with "heck no", and for the second, "most likely herself". My prediction is that fan favorite Stalin, surrounded by madmen or leaders inclined to hate him, gets boxed in early and eventually picked apart. Charmin' Charlie wipes out Alex, Brennus, and Cathy, though not necessarily in that order, with the latter two having weakened each other first. I'm going with Spaceship, but could easily see him winning by Domination or even Diplo. Elizabeth does no better than possibly qualifying for the wildcard, despite having no legitimate excuse for not dominating the map. The Hammer gets second by dual virtue of having a rather nice, rush-proof start and being so forgettable the other leaders mostly ignore him.

LinkMarioSamus: While Pool 1 has been an overall disappointment, between Stalin's central position with fellow low-peace weight neighbors and his general ability to do everything well even if he doesn't really excel at anything he probably has the biggest chance to win this. For 2nd place it was tough between Alexander and Brennus, but I went with the former because I think he's considerably stronger and Brennus is kind of cramped on land. The high-peace weight leaders are not in a good diplomatic situation and I still feel like the first two seasons overrated Catherine to a good degree. Any of the four northern leaders are good choices for FTD, but I'll go with Elizabeth for being one of the most overrated leaders in the competition (seriously, the vast majority of leaders she has faced fared horribly last season, and things aren't looking much better this time around TBH) and having the highest peace weight of anyone in this game at 9. I suppose the idea is that Alexander and Stalin will work together to take her down, and then maybe Alex goes and conquers Babylon after that?

OleDavey: Total shot in the dark, but I think Brennus and Stalin will end up best buddies but will ultimately be dragged down by Alexander. Meanwhile, I think Charlie has the best starting and neighbor situation in the north, will roll over Catherine then split Liz with Hammurabi, before teching his way up to space.

BohemianSpoonyBard: [mental_gymnastics] Look, I know that Burger King's situation looks preety dire: no copper and no good food and luxury in the vicinity but he has still his charisma and majestic beard. I am sure he would pull it off! [/mental_gymnastics]

bellarch: I really want Cathy to win, but I don't think I can reasonably pick her - she probably has the worst starting position of anyone on this map between her so-so capital and the way that she'll be penned in by Charlie. No, the winner of this game will be, once again, Stalin (sigh). This looks like a standard high peaceweight vs. low peaceweight game -- and in these sort of games, the most competent low peaceweight AI, or the one with the best starting position, tends to win. Stalin is the best performer on both of these metrics. I do think that Cathy manages to slip into second place, however, as she reaps the benefits of a dogpile on Charlie, and then second-place Alex decides to commit suicide by attacking his more powerful and more competent neighbro. Between the peaceweight differences and Alex being Alex, this game is definitely going to domination. Lizzie is the first to die between her peaceful tech preferences, border tension with Stalin and Alex, and lack of expansion. I think that's everything? This game feels like it'll be very chalky, so I look forward to seeing the Burger King stake his claim to undisputed AI Survivor dominance while carrying resident extreme mediocrity Brennus in his wake

Rev: I went back and forth between Charlie & Cathy to win, since both are good at land grabs and have a lot of potential land to grab. Charlie has the advantage of bordering Elizabeth, who seems marked for death in this field, and could gain a lot when she collapses. On the other hand, a strong early game land grab from him could very well backfire like it did for Saladin in game 2, by cutting off the aggressive civs from the high peace weight leaders and making him the target instead. After all, 6 is a fairly high peace weight compared to 2 and 0, and Charlie's religion won't save him from Stalin and will likely make him Brennus' worst enemy. Cathy on the other hand, with a good land grab and the two gold resources nearby, will be in a prime position to benefit from Charlie's demise and snowball off of that. I could also see this being a strong game for Alex, since he starts next to two promising targets. There's too many variables to bet on a repeat of his season 5 opener, but that combined with starting on the other side of the map from Cathy is enough for me to pick him second. There's a good chance I'm underestimating Stalin in this, but I have too many lingering doubts about whether he's really as strong as he's rated.

Keler: I believe idiot Alexander will attack Stalin without catapults early on to ruin their early game then peace out and attack low peace weight leaders in middle game. I think if Charlemagne dies then elizabeth has no chance to avoid a dogpile coming. I expect trio stalin catherine and brennus to survive at the end. In whatever order that will be. I don't think Charlemagne can take out Catherine 1v1 in time, help must come save blue Russia at some point.

Amicalola: My pick is really weird this time. But the gambles are more fun, no? I have Charlemagne to win, for a couple of reasons. The big one is that I think the South is packed like a sardine can; Brennus, Stalin and Alexander are just as likely to attack each other as they are to attack the northerners, and it only takes one of them to tip the balance. The other big thing is that Catherine's land is nasty (again; poor Cathy!) and I don't think she'll be strong. Or rather, she'll keep up with her traits, but not enough to snowball like she needs to. Most weirdly, I have Stalin first to die. I still think he got lucky in Season 3, and more importantly, he's squished between Alexander and Brennus, plus Charlemagne to the north. I think there are pretty good odds Stalin attacks one of these, and then another attacks him to make it a 2v1 ending in Stalin's death. The beneficiary from all of this is Charlemagne, with a weak Cathy to the east, squabbling enemies to the south, and faithful lackeys to the West. Go Burger King Go!

BigBadBen: There's no Zara for Alex to beat up on this time around (unfortunately). He'll either try to rush Stalin or Hammer but it won't work. Stalin will pick up Brennus's religion keeping that flank safe from attack and allow him to murder the peace-nicks at his leisure. Cathy does her usual good land-grab and an alliance with Stalin makes for a very Russian world. (Of course with my luck so far this year, BurgerKing is somehow going to win this thing).

Bernn: I think Catherine is the only hope for the low peaceweights here. Stalin may be a heavyweight, but his starting lands are pretty anemic and he's uncomfortably close to the tundra. Unless he immediately vies for the center of the map, he's going to be left behind in territory, especially with holy cities to his north and east. And Alexander and Brennus don't have copper nearby while Elizabeth and Hammurabi do, so there's no chance of them getting off to an explosive start from an early conquest. As the only aggressive AI to start in the north, Catherine has the inside track here. If she can expand well and develop a tech edge, she'll be able to systematically chew through the peaceniks up top, ideally with some help from the southern AIs. If she's sluggish to expand or gets caught up in fruitless early warring, we're going to have a game where the warmongers squabble a bunch while Charlemagne or Elizabeth slowly limp to a spaceship victory. It's been a pretty rough season so far for aggressive snowballing types, but I just have to back Cathy here. It's always fun to watch her run wild.

pindicator: There's like 50 different ways this game could go and be believable. I'm going to bet on rivers spreading Charlie's religion far and wide while Brennus puts himself in a corner diplomatically. Alex does something and fails. Liz tries to tech but gets smacked by the crazies to her south. Cathy tries to expand but runs into the HRE wall / not so great land. Stalin has potential crazy to either side. Oh my goodness, Charlie is going to win this isn't he? This really could be another classic Burger King by Default victory. And Hammurabi survives in the corner.

Guanidine: What a map - I have basically no idea who will win. If Cathy doesn't crash her economy, she has a chance to expand well and leverage that to roll over Charlie. The south is too cramped to matter much, and Elizabeth will get killed at some point.

shallow_thought: It's a shame, as I've actually been doing quite well in the contest, but it's time for my annual, quixotic pick of an English leader to actually _do_ something (this has never gone well). Why this game? Because I have no idea how this is going to go otherwise. Liz and Hammer are low peace weight, but are shielded by mid-weight, hard to kill Charlie and by distance from the warmongers. Alex should like Stalin, but when has that ever stopped him wrecking someone's game? And Stalin's start doesn't look too great to me. So it's a complete toss-up that will be decided by religious spread, perhaps giving Liz a window?

Sir Colville of the Dale: "We're here at ringside with the former AI Survivor Champion Stalin discussing his upcoming Elimination Chamber match. Stalin, you're facing multiple Greats and a Good. What do you think of your chances?" "Alex has never won a match that didn't involve a jobber lying in the middle of the ring. Whatever else you want to say about Hammurabi, he won't embarrass himself like Zara. Alex can be eliminated at will." "The Good. You mean 'Good Queen Bess'?" "Maybe if she learns a finishing move. Until then, her part of the Chamber is free real estate. This former champion is ready to 'bring the Steel'." *Interrupted by entrance music* "You're not the only former champion here! I go to space while the only thing you know how to do is stab people in the back!" "Charlie! Does anyone take you seriously? Just be happy Sullla took the air quotes out of your title." "That's Charles the Great to you! Two-time finalist and master of the Impossible Whopp..." *gets shoved off ramp* "Macedonians, Brits, Holy Romans / They are not worthy opponents. / It takes a Russian to take down a Russian / I'm Cat. I'm a cat. You're a rodent."

Game Four Picking Contest Entry Form

Hope to see a bunch of you on the Livestream this upcoming Friday, May 28th!

[Bobchillingworth]

lol @ the number of people who think poor Brennus can win the game; I suspect most simply forgot he was a contender between reviewing the preview video / screencaps and entering their picks.

[Amicalola]

They might not be producing the winners we'd necessarily expect, but these games are unusually good viewing experiences this year. 3 of the 4 games so far have had tight finishes! We must be due for a boring snowball game now, right Willem? Right?

[Sullla]

Game Four is complete! Thanks to everyone who turned out on the Livestream today for our usual Friday livestream session, it was a lot of fun sharing the experience with you. Here's the big list of links as we continue with Season Six:

Main Season Six Webpage

Sullla Twitch Page

Sullla Discord Channel

Current Bracket and Standings

YouTube Playlist of Season Six AI Survivor Games

Civ4 AI Survivor Season Six: Leader Previews

AI Reference Guide from CivFanatics

Complete AI Survivor Archives



Next Game: Opening Round Game Five

Schedule: Scheduled for Friday, 04 June 2021 at Noon EST

Game Five Video Preview

Game Five Written Preview

Game Five Picking Contest Entry Form

Congratulations to Ben Joyce as the winner of Game Four's picking contest with 17 points. Scoring was about average for this game at 7.95 points despite some of the usual wackiness taking place. We're back to our normal Friday schedule for next week's game. This time we have Suryavarman and Willem to shake things up - who do you have this week?

[Commodore]

All I'll say is that thirty minutes in this week, I made this comment to Pindicator:

Commodore: Nobody's deserving a space in the wildcard here.
Sure, playoffs, eh, whatever.
But nobody is worthy for the Real Skillgame.

Pindicator: haha
we already know the Wildcard winner is going to win the Championship

[Fluffball]

I'm super proud of my read on this map.

I figured this map was total chaos but Cathy and Charley would share a religion, and Cathy is the better AI. I had them 1 and 2. It mostly played out, and in this type of game where nothing makes sense I like what I saw.

[Sullla]

Community predictions added to the Game Five preview page: http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/civ4survivor6-5-preview.html






The community was strongly in favor of the two seeded leaders on this map, Willem and Suryavarman. They combined for well over 90% of the votes to win the game (with Willem taking the lion's share) while simultaneously also being the most popular picks to finish in second place. Most of the contest entrants had these two leaders in both of the top two spots in some form. Unsurprisingly, the First to Die category had the two leaders stuck between them as the favorites to exit the game first. There was a modest preference for Ragnar to be eliminated first with Bismarck hot on his heels. Finally, this was our first game of the season where one victory type was an overwhelming favorite as most of the community members were picking Spaceship as the ending condition. Cultural was almost as popular as Domination which was certainly not the case on some of our other maps.

Finally, here are some of the best/craziest written predictions about what would take place during the game. There were many other excellent entries but I had to pick and choose my favorites to keep this from running on too long. Thanks again for the submissions!

Khnud: Oh my, the crystal ball is cloudy on this one. It all depends on where the early religions pop up, and with no leader starting with mysticism - this feels like somewhat of a coin flip. I predict quite varied alternate history matches. Regardless, I like Sury's somewhat isolated start and he's bound to do well if he can stay away from Ragnar in the early/mid game. Washington will have trouble getting to his iron resource, so he's likely to be targeted early by one of his low peace weight neighbours.

NotSpamBot: Okay Willem, it is very simple. You are a smart guy, so I know that you understand me: research Rifling. Do not swing by Laser or something first, you beline Rifling as soon as you have Gunpowder. Oh who am I kidding, who am I betting on this?

delan: My read on this game is that Ragnar stinks. He'll probably go after Bismarck, who has nice land and will pro-actively build military, and will fail at it and die because he's bad at developing his economy and has no river to accidentally get Financial commerce from. Surry, Ragnar's only low peace-weight friend, doesn't have great land, but he'll certainly have a lot of it, given his only competition in the landgrab is Ragnar. He'll also have lots of time to develop, similar to Augustus in Game 3, and can play the aggro game and mount a campaign against the peaceniks when he chooses. I am calling second place for Willem, who is unlikely to get punished for avoiding Rifling in this field, although I'm sure he'll find a way to disappoint me again.

Cyneheard: Willem might not take Rifling early, but he won't have to - the American leaders aren't scary and Willem's got a better start than they do. Bismarck isn't scary either - I'm expecting Sury to vulture Ragnar after Ragnar makes a bad war or two, but it won't do Sury enough good to win against Willem powering through the tech tree and getting Rifling just in time to fight off the Khmer and coast to a space win.

Tristan Cox: I don’t really like Suryavarman’s coastal start in the corner with his scout facing towards his backfill area. I worry he will send his settler to the little peninsula instead of claiming more valuable land. Nonetheless, I just think his traits, civilization, and AI is really solid. I was very tempted to pick Willem with his spawn next to two of the more pacifistic leaders, but Sury’s dominance from previous games I’ve seen prompted me to go with him.

LinkMarioSamus: Willem seems like he should win this, what with having the best diplomatic situation and being arguably undervalued by his current Power Ranking, but after Stalin's early exit I guess you never know. That being said, Willem's closest neighbors are nowhere near as aggressive so the chances of him pulling a Stalin aren't very high and I still feel comfortable picking him to win - at least moreso than anyone else here! Surely Washington won't attack him early right? For 2nd however, I'm going with Washington. It comes down to him vs. Bismarck to me, with Bismarck having the slightly stronger diplomatic situation and Ragnar as a potential next-door neighbor to snack on, while Washington is overall stronger and has gone against a number of leaders in past seasons who have done well this time around like Augustus, Pacal, and Napoleon. Both are fairly rated in terms of their Power Ranking IMO, with Washington maybe being a touch overvalued after his championship run last season but it's purely academic.

Commodore: This time, we have two contenders and four of the worst screw-ups in the competition. I suspect a lot of us will vote for Sury/Willem. I've actually put Willem in first not because he's got amazing land (he doesn't) but because between Washington and Bismarck I don't see how he's ever under serious threat. Ignore your rifles all you want, buddy, just hope that Ragnar slows down Sury's landgrab just enough for you to do that economy thing you do.

bellarch: My picks this time are honestly just hedging a bunch of outcomes, so I'll just generally say some things about my read on this game. I feel like a lot of things are up in the air - I picked Sury to win, which seems pretty chalky, but the fact that I almost picked Bismarck (!) of all people says a lot about this game. Willem has a very good start but seems likely to only end up with a few cities because of Washington's and Bismarck's expansion. Washington and Bismarck both have very good starts, but they haven't been very good in the past and they start next to Ragnar. Bismarck specifically has a gem resource to mitigate the economic impact of his "roads? what roads?" tendencies. Ragnar is, of course, a surprisingly bad AI for someone who has Financial benefits. His overall position is good, but his capital is not great for his starting techs, and his overly-aggressive tendencies make him likely to sabatoge what should be a good game for him. (If Sury was in this position -- or someone like Huayna or Cathy -- they'd be the obvious favorite!). Lincoln has a decent starting position, but he's likely to be cramped and eventually murdered by Sury, and Washington's do-nothing-attitude won't help him. I have him as First to Die, anticipating that whatever wars Ragnar starts in the west will stall out. Sury himself has a bad starting position, but lots of land to expand into and potentially a very good position on this map provided that he doesn't send all his initial settlers into the eastern peninsula. Overall, this game feels like it'll go long no matter what happens - unless WIlly pulls out a repeat of Huayna Capac's Season Two Championship cultural-victory-from-behind from his isolated corner - and Spaceship is probably the most likely outcome between all these leaders. But as I've said on previous games this season, you could tell me any number of outcomes happened on this map and I wouldn't be surprised.

Zigzagzone: How important is your starting land and the space to expand into? Willem and Ragnar are both limited in that, and have every chance to be squeezed by their neighbors also. When they are kicked out of the game, Suryavarman will be the last low peace-weight leader. Unfortunately, all the high peace weights are rather incompetent, so it could be a slow finish to the game.

Greatmefisto: I like Surys isolated start with 2 happiness resources near him. If barb city won't spawn next door I can see him claiming alot of land and emerge as early/mid-game powerhouse. My other fear is that since we don't have a Mysticism AI in the field he'll try to chase after one of the religions and that stone at his capital might be a wonder poison pill. But I like his chances the most. Willem has a little cramped start but we all know that Financial civs don't need that much land. I expect Ragnar and Bismarck go to early warring and the biggest question in this case is: does Bismarck will make an impression of himself from last year when he refused to research wheel till like turn 80. If he does then he's in for a lot of trouble. If he doesn't then he survives and Ragnar is FTD and that's what I am counting on. I don't like Lincolns position with his weak capital and I don't think this map has a setup from last years play-off game for Washington. I even expect some wars between the Dutch and America. Now watch me getting screwed like in any other game this year.

Dagoth Gares: A game of have-nots: Willem has no rifles, Bismarck has no roads, Ragnar has no economy, Lincoln has no military, Washington has no motivation. Willem wins because no one calls him on the inevitable Willem Special, Sury takes second with a much larger empire but far less research.

Slashin': Im really digging Washington’s start here. It’s not too dissimilar from his playoff start last year, and this time, he has a friendlier environment and opportunity to get big with neighbors who will let him build up that critical mass. I’m gonna go with a Washington/Bismarck ticket here, And I think if it comes to blows, Washington will be able to beat back willem. Bismarck isn’t the best ai but that grassland immediately improvable gems resource is tantalizing and his scuffle with Ragnar will hold him back from winning outright, while sury falls later in the game due to a miserable peace weight situation once Ragnar is out.

T K: Okay, so the seeded leaders have had an awful run this season, but here me out. Ragnar's suicidal tendencies see little tolerance on everyone else's part and he kills himself before half the competition even consider going to war. Bismarck stagnates and dies as usual while Suryavarman benefits the most, getting him the high score while America 1 & 2 do nothing to impede Willem as he sends the Dutch Space Macemen to Alpha Centauri. Now, what will probably happen is Bismarck wrecks Ragnar, then Willem, then a Suryavarman that got stuck fighting both Americas, and goes on to win on turn 450 by Diplomacy, but the moment I make that much of an oddball guess is the moment things go back to normal. That's probably a fallacy of some sort but it's the excuse I'm going with for an "obvious" Willem pick.

Keler: If Ragnar ends up first to die, Bismarck will actually have a chance to win by domination. But I'm going to be safe and say space race instead. Washington looks more promising when it comes to expansion than Lincoln but after all he has the middle start and Lincoln always techs faster than him.And there is Willem who sucks with stupid aggressions with aggressive AI on and slow expansion. I don't see him winning culture at all, especially after Ragnar and Suryavarman dies he is the next target and Bismarck techs rifling&military science and also assembly line earlier no matter what.

Bernn: Major props to anyone bold enough to back a leader other than Willem or Suryavarman here. Outside of the seeded two, this may just be the the blandest lineup of the entire season. I'm sure Willem will get an enormous amount of attention here and I've been burned before by not backing him, but I'm betting on the Khmer this time. Sury's awkward tundra village of a capital is far worse than Willem's nice wet corn and plains, but I think his potential to grow is far stronger. Willem has the high peaceweight Americans up top to act as natural rivals, and while Washington is usually pretty inert, Creative Dutch borders could genuinely cause conflict. Willem's also going to be tight on space and mostly has jungle to settle, while Sury has plenty of room to his north and a pathetic copperless Ragnar as his only real neighbor. If Sury gets even one successful conquest off, likely by either pouncing on the backwards Vikings or tearing into Lincoln, he'll be able to neatly roll up the rest of the field or just sit back and build wonders while lapping everyone economically. Willem's amazing teching won't matter if Sury has twice his territory!

Beau: willem dafoe <3

Game Five Picking Contest Entry Form

Hope to see a bunch of you on the Livestream this upcoming Friday, June 4th!

[williams482]

Just an FYI, the video for game four did not make it into your Youtube playlist for the season.

[Eauxps I. Fourgott]

This truly is the year of the irrelevant! I mentioned that in my prediction but still dismissed Bismarck's chances.  

Washington: After a breakout season last year, Washington couldn't make it happen again here. His start was a bit slow in expansion, but he got out to a decent position - at least better than Lincoln's. Unfortunately for him, he then chose to found his own religion and adopt it while Willem was spreading Christianity to the rest of the world. In all fairness, this wasn't a horrible choice, since Christianity hadn't spread that much at the time Washington Oracle'd COL, but in practice it made Washington a global outcast with a central starting position, and his position or military building wasn't anywhere near enough to survive that. Even a Ragnar attack alone would've probably done him in pretty easily, although I imagine the initial Willem attack was quite helpful in pulling off that conquest as well. I think Washington's position was winnable, but tenuous with the central start, and he certainly didn't play it all that well.

Willem: This season Willem gave us a good reminder of why it took him four seasons to prove himself as a strong leader in the first place - he's bad at expansion. This tanked his game in some of the early seasons, and it certainly tanked his game here, as he sat on just four cities spamming cultural pursuits for far, far too long, and thus got a subpar share of the land that left him dead last in production and food. His amazing teching could still have given him a win here, but that gameplan would've required multiple nearby, stronger neighbors to not attack him... and if you're in that position, it's a pretty good sign that you didn't play a great game here, bad luck or no bad luck. I think Willem's poor start made him deserving of his fate here, and again is a good reminder for us all about the big problem that he has as an AI personality (other than the whole Rifling thing).

Ragnar: Oh, Ragnar. Overall quite a strong game for the Viking leader, who fought in many wars but turned all but the final one into at worst a standstill. He stalled Bismarck's original advance, conquered Washington easily, avoided losing territory to Willem after that backstab, nearly conquered Lincoln, half-conquered Sury after that backstab... but a strengthened Bismarck attacking him was the last straw and sent him from a top 2, potentially game-winning position to eliminated. That said, he wasn't just a victim of circumstance and a central starting position. He trod on people's toes the whole game. Weird settling patterns that got him up in everybody's faces, taking the poison pill Holy City and converting to a minority religion, declaring war after war after war... For the backstab of Bis alone, he asked for that later fatal attack. And despite the power of Financial, he wasn't able to keep up even in military tech, as the last of the top four leaders to Rifling, and that also made his position much more precarious than it could have been. Basically, Ragnar played a largely good game with some major flaws, and was in a position for those flaws to be his undoing. The fact that it took all three remaining leaders working together to bring him down was impressive, though.

Lincoln: This is a man who is extremely fortunate to have survived to the Wildcard game. Lincoln had a poor shake in this game, stuck up against the edge of the map and with Washington settling up in his face. From the moment Washington won the settling race, it would have been very unlikely at best for Lincoln to come out on top. But he also didn't do anything to deserve a better fate himself, settling slowly and conservatively for a poor landgrab, then doing absolutely nothing except be attacked for the rest of the game. You can at least give him credit for a spirited defense, stymieing two attacks from Sury and then holding out long enough against both Ragnar and Bismarck to be saved both times and get another chance. But, yeah, on the whole, he certainly didn't deserve any finish better than this.

Suryavarman: I actually think Sury had a similar game here to Willem. Both started their expansion too slowly, lagging behind the others, and their Creative culture only helped them keep pace while they were still behind the stronger leaders in the game. The differences were that Willem went more all-in, founding three religions, building tons of wonders, etc..... and then Willem got attacked, while Sury never did. Like Lincoln, Sury didn't do much to deserve a top 2 spot here, doing nothing after he very meh landgrab except for starting wars that he couldn't make any lasting progress in. He never captured an American city until the final turn of the game, he captured only a single Viking city before that backstab turned very bad for him, and had Bismarck not intervened, or chosen to attack him over Lincoln, that would've been it for him. He and Lincoln were equally undeserving of finishing second in this game, only making it by virtue of having the stronger leaders in the game killed, and ultimately the difference came down to Bismarck's whim. That went against Lincoln, so congrats Sury, you get the lucky unimpressive second place here. A spot in the playoffs is still a spot in the playoffs though.

Bismarck: Another low-power leader with a strong performance! Bismarck's conquest of Willem came to a pretty embarrassing halt midway through, but otherwise this was a great performance from him. He executed a strong opening, took full advantage of Willem's failure to expand properly, was able to put on enough of a show in his initial attack of Ragnar to get a city ceded to him in peace, followed that up with an expertly-timed backstab of Willem, used his tech edge to be able to eventually stymie Ragnar when he backstabbed him, rather than immediately folding, and then was unstoppable once he finished absorbing Willem. Bismarck's best strength here was his teching, which was superior to anybody else's in this field and made up for sometimes subpar play in other areas. He also timed both of his big backstabs well, doing an excellent job of catching his enemies off-guard while they had their forces tied up elsewhere, and that helped ensure that those wars went his way to hand him the win. On the whole, certainly not a flawless performance, but also an overall very good one from Bismarck, giving him a deserved first trip to the playoffs!