Thanks, I am really impressed with the current stable build. The AI seems much better at building an economy, or at cheating, they have managed to get about 80% of the founding fathers, I am scrapping by with like 8.
Aquiring Founding Fathers may depend to some part on luck (e.g. get Elder Statesman from the docks early) and difficulty level (AI boni), but it may also depend a lot on early focus on liberty bell production.
(For a lucky start, on turn 1 check the dock for an Elder Statesman and if there is none, restart ...)
As Ray mentioned above, get your Exploration started as soon as possible, e.g. by turning one of your two starting colonists into a scout and use early income to get more colonists and horses for more scouts. Number of scouts may depend on map size and map style. The Giant America map for example has more than 1000 goody huts and hundreds of native villages, so on that map scouts and caravels on exploration dominate the early economy. (Use Forced March II and FF Jacques Marquette to give your Scouts a movement range of 4 tiles. Use ships with a colonist/scout on board to get gifts from and establish trade with coastal native settlements.)
Also : Having a seasoned scout in jungle terrain gives a chance for the Lost Tribe random event which grants around 1000 Political Points which can be crucial in the race for the first FFs.
To push early for Founding Fathers, use some of the gold from trading and exploration to buy lumber, tools and stone in Europe and rush buy Village Hall, Town Hall and Printing Press, Lumber Mill, City Hall and Newspaper in one city over time. The newspaper gives +100% on liberty bell production and the City Hall allows more colonists to produce much more bells per turn compared to settlements with only a Village Hall. Use your Elder Statesmen, Noblemen and Governor in this city. The rising Rebel Rate will add another bonus (up to +50%) to all production in that city. (With medical services additionally up to +10% bonus for 10 Health.) (Libertarian Leaders get another +25% bonus on liberty bells production.) With these boni, 4 colonists in the City Hall may produce ca. 40-100 bells per turn (depending on colonist specialty and boni).
Costs for rushing buildings are minimized if at least one or more hammer were already added to the project and if all materials (150% lumber, 100% tools, stone, etc) are stored in the city.
Constructing all these buildings in the normal way by having several lumber jacks and carpenters work full time would take too much time and would probably make you miss your head start on bell / political points production. Lumber Mill and WheelWrights Workshop are much more powerful than the basic carpenter shop, especially with a high Rebel bonus, so once you have completed City Hall and Newspaper, it gets much easier to also construct the other buildings for happiness, economy, etc in that city.
