When we last visited our Dutch protagonist, he was busy teching like crazy trying to decide what to take for the Liberalism race. I've given up on the idea of setting a goal. Rather I'm just going to keep an eye on the AI research and grab Liberalism when I see someone getting too close. For the time being, nobody is even close to researching Liberalism.
I managed to pick up the circumnav bonus on my first turn. I'm not really sure how, though ... seems to me that my maps were a mite lacking.
I went ahead and closed the gap anyway.
I had started training some Settlers at the end of the last turnset. That continued during this set of turns. Two of the cities were placed on the mainland. The first was a city placed north of the choke city.
Alas, I forgot one very important detail when planning this city. I'm Dutch!
The city is not on a river, nor coastal. The city was unable to build the Dutch Dike UB. Especially frustrating, since I had hoped this would be a production city, despite the gold and floodplains.
But alas, I would eventually find another use for this city. The other mainland city was a coastal fish village NW of the capital. It picked up the sheep and deer.
The remaining city was built over on the marble island. It picked up the sheep and iron. It should be a fair production city once the Dike is built. I did note something rather odd, though. Prior to founding a second city on this island, the marble city's city maintenance did not include any of the new overseas expenses. One of the new
features that was added in BTS was the increased city maintenance expenses of cities on a different continent. After I built the second city, though, the costs were included in
both cities. Odd ...
I also noticed that at the beginning of this turn set that I was 3 turns away from popping a Great Scientist from my copper city. And, my capital was 4 turns away from a Great Spy. I decided that I preferred a Great Spy, so with a touch of MM, a Spy Academy was built in the capital to go along with the earlier settled Great Spy.
Meanwhile ... A Great Merchant trade mission to the Temple of Artemis did wonders last turnset for my research slider. That worked so well, I decided to do it again.
Last time the GM was compliments of Colossus and the Great Lighthouse. This time it was the free GM that comes with Economics. Once again, he went to the Temple of Artemis city of Delhi.
But before that GM could reach the city of Delhi, Colossus and the Great Library would give birth to another Great Merchant. Frankly, I was hoping for a Great Scientist. A GS had a 60% chance. The GM was only a 25% chance. Needless to say, two trade missions later and the research slider didn't drop for ... Well, I'm not exactly sure when it came off of 100%. It was at 100% for at least 40 turns. With about 6 turns to go, I noticed the slider was at 60% and I was out of cash. Frankly I had just stopped paying attention to it.
With BTS's new random events, being broke isn't something I like to be. I prefer to have a little cash in the bank should something arise ...
After completing Economics, it was time to have a look at the Dutch UB: the Dike! Research was set to beeline Steam Power. All other builds were put on hold until Dikes were completed.
The Taj Majal, which was started last turnset, was completed in the capital. Some readers may recall that I lost my bid to build the Mausoleum, thus it was only an 8 turn golden age. And of course, golden ages mean no anarchy. So a quick switch to Pacifism and Caste System ... and 6 turns later ... with an 80% chance of a Great Scientist ... my GS was finally born! He was sent off to the flood plains city to build an Academy. The city has been fully cottaged. Even the ivory and one of the wine are cottaged. Eventually that riverside wine tile will produce 10 commerce on its own. A shame the ivory plains tile isn't riverside. With a Dike and US it could have been a 4 hammer cottage. Still, 3 hammers ain't bad for a cottage ...
I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the message that Khan had switched to Free Religion.
I'd been watching so closely! I hadn't seen anyone research Liberalism! Had he lightbulbed it? What went wrong? A check of the F4 screen, though, shows no techs available for trade.
And then it occurred to me ... Khan must've been the one that built that new wonder that allows all of the religious civics. Phew! And after putting on a clean pair of shorts ...
This
close call really got me to thinking about how I was risking losing the Liberalism race to a random lightbulb. And even though I didn't appear to be in any danger at the moment, it was probably better to just go ahead and take my free tech. I'd kinda been putting it off because all of the expensive techs require me to obsolete one or more of my wonders.
Not really a good reason. So, I decided that the Great Lighthouse would be the first. This would allow me to research Corporation and take Assembly Line. Infantry would be handy ... I'd been annoying the AI lately, as I refused to join them in their petty wars and declined the demands for free techs. Sorry folks, techs are for sale.
Ahhhh, but when the time finally came ... Liberalism was but a 1 turn tech. I just couldn't do it.
None of the AI had Education. In fact, every AI lacked either Paper or Philosophy or both. I decided to research Scientific Method next, instead of Astronomy. To obsolete the Great Library rather than the Colossus. But, the big guy's turn would be coming soon.
Well, next in fact. Astronomy would open many doors for the Dutch. Not only Observatories, but also the East Indiaman UU and the Privateer. The Observatories were put up almost everywhere. And I even managed to churn out four Privateers, as well. More on them later ...
After Astronomy would come Physics. The free Great Scientist would be used to lightbulb Electricity. From there, Assembly Line and ... Liberalism? Well, that is the plan at least: to take Industrialism from Liberalism. But I ran out of time. I've still got 3 turns left on Assembly Line after playing my 50 turns. I'll probably go ahead and do it this time. Churchill has just started researching Education. Frankly I was expecting Gandhi to be my competition.
On the very last turn, Khan came to me with a demand that ... frankly, it made me laugh.
"
Peace comes with a price" he says?
He's fighting a war with Keshiks and I'm 3 turns away from Infantry ... and peace comes with a price?
If he had asked for a tech or cash, I would have responded with "
bring it on, baby!" but a resource is a small price to pay to avoid the annoyance of a war. All the same ... I'm starting to lean towards researching Flight and building a few Bombers.
P, lib, demo, gunpowder, theo (trade), chemistry, steel, milsci, RP, miltrad, steam, rifling, railroad, 4 turns from AL. Been avoiding astronomy (Colosuss) and scimeth (Glib, monasteries).
Also notice the hammers on those riverside cottages. This is not Universal Suffrage! 
No civics nor no wonders, just the Dutch Dike. 
(decide to keep it, the mongols are my next target)
in not properly garrisonning the Apostolic Palace city once I took it, and Gandhi was able to retake it and still owns it; the second was the forced 10 turn peace treaty between Gandhi and myself due to a vote to cease hostilities. 
