Shortly after the previous update, I sent a galley and my free scout northeast and made contact with my neighbors. The Incas first, then the Aztecs, then the Americans (not shown in this update), as you'd probably expect.
In the middle of this exploration, I got another random event that was pretty unambiguously good news: more food for the Rapanui islanders!
Sadly, my whalers can't reach their full potential until Optics, but at least the bonus food is there...
I recalled my galley, put my extra warrior (the one you saw me start to build in the second screenshot) in it, and sailed around to the other Pacific islands within reach. They found more fish out there, but otherwise nothing of note.
The Rapanui were beginning to outgrow their tiny island home and wanted to expand. The resources and plentiful land of South America seemed more worthwhile to colonize than did the other Polynesian Islands, but they didn't realize at first when their warriors arrived to claim Panama that this continent was also more dangerous.
This is why you shouldn't tell ships to disembark the units they're carrying onto land that's in Fog of War when you give the order... Or really send units blind multiple turns into Fog of War at all. But I get into these accidental battles so rarely that I forget how much of a fail they can be when they do happen.
Oh, and the scouts were killed by barbarians at some point, too. I don't remember when because I didn't take a screenshot of that.
Anyway, the good news is, my tech plan worked out pretty well. A forge will be in the production queue soon...
...right after I finish this masterpiece of Rapanui architecture:
Thus ends the second chapter in the story of How Easter Island Became* a Major Economic Power.
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*I hope it will, anyway. I've only played up to the 1400s so far, so lots more could happen, and so far I'm not even in the top half of scores. At least I'm surviving and expanding, unlike the last game...