Beyond Earth - a flawed, underrated gem

I just realized something last night while playing. I usually select the map view option so that it shows me where potential expedition sites are. This option also shows the marvel quest items, with a little black-n-white symbol by the hex.

What I didn't realize until yesterday is that the symbol *changes color* when you have mined/explored/excavated the marvel quest. It is black with a white outline when you have not visited it yet, that changes to all white when you *have*. <mind blown> I know this because the last site is a land-based crater on the coast of Kozlov's land, so I can't get to it unless we're at war; he hates me, so getting him to "Cooperating" for open borders is unlikely. Making matters worse, it's on the other side of the world so it would take dozens of turns to get a land unit over there. Sigh. Guess I'm not getting that one.

In this game, Lena has researched all the techs for Transcendence, but hasn't started building the Mind Flower yet. Not sure why, but my hypothesis comes from @legalizefreedom 's observation that the AI in BERT tend to think this way: survive, thrive, and then win. Lena has been warring off and on with Elodie, finally finishing her off. Kozlov is her direct neighbor, with troops lurking by her cities. With "Survive" as the top priority, I believe that she's still building troops to fend off an attack, rather than finishing the victory wonder.
Also, Hutama is my direct neighbor and has been fighting skirmishes with Arshia and Duncan across the sea. He's bringing his ships back to get ready to make a run at my aquatic cities, but I'm ready for him. I started building the Beacon, to try to win before Lena does. Of course, INTEGR and Polystralia were the two AI who objected to my victory wonder.
 
Further support of the "survive, thrive, win" hypothesis from this game: INTEGR continues to build units, either to attack my Beacon or attack Kozlov. Kozlov took a break from warring to start building *his* Beacon after I had already activated mine.

I DOWed on Hutama, as his ships were out of position. Gobbled up his entire main colony before he would talk peace. "What's mine is yours ... for a price."
 
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