Let me repeat, I was NOT getting beat to the Statue. :)
With the everybody-against-Zulu war raging, demands my way were inevitable. Hammurabi came asking (even he joined in intercontinentally), and I acceded. Obviously the rapidly-losing Zulu could pose no threat to me, so it was strictly a phony war for mutual-struggle diplo merits.
In the espionage department, I pulled a little trick that could be dubbed tag-team research peek. Against one target, I'd spend a few turns accumulating just enough EP to see the research, then switch to another target. All the AIs researched Constitution simultaneously, so I had to scrap my Communism plan and get straight to Democracy. I've already lost too many close calls this game in Sankore, Liberalism, and Taj. All of those are just temporary advantages -- but the Statue of Liberty is colossal on a huge map and NOT to be missed.
I had time myself to research Rep Parts (still got all those watermills) and Astronomy, and predictably traded the latter for Constitution.
Washington finally birthed GP #5 Prophet, who paired with GP #4 Artist to spawn my 2-man Golden Age, and finally let me get into Free Speech / Free Market. Also I needed to make sure to research Democracy by the end of the GA to adopt Emancipation / Universal Suffrage as well.
Let me repeat, I was NOT getting beat to the Statue. :)
I got Democracy and Universal Suffrage, but a funny thing happened: I still had enough Golden Age time to reach Communism after all. The big downside to the Kremlin / Slavery / State Property plan is that I have to either eat two turns of anarchy when I'm done with the civics, or keep them all the way to Cristo Redentor. I'll go for it -- the need for culture infrastructure is great, and enough AIs are slow enough that I can eat the non-Emancipation anger for a little while. I'll beeline Radio and use it to trade for other branches. (Actually, I'd delay Radio for both Biology and Steam Power after trading for Chemistry.)
Yes, that's Elizabeth declaring war on Shaka - the Zulu are now in no fewer than five wars. I'm bandwagoning for mutual-struggle diplo merits although the war is entirely phony.
State Property got my research up to a surprising 80%. Well, if you aren't crashing you aren't expanding enough - I'm really thinking I could have done better? Did anyone else get beyond 25 cities peacefully?
Anyway, here's another reason that I want hammer production:
There is still LAND available on the other continent. I've been busy building about eight galleons full of trebs, longbows, and knights, which would then return to pick up settlers and workers, then missionaries and muskets. The terrain won't really be economically productive for me at that distance, but that's OK. This game isn't about economy, it's about LAND. And as a bonus, I can pick up a few extra corporate resources over here too.
(BTW, those barb cities have TOWNS. I've never seen that before. Even on the one Terra map I played, Mao's Muse.)
A while later, here's what that peninsula looked like. I was feeling cutesy about naming the cities. :)
