Since I'm still not finished searching through every single religion for its unbuilt Wonders, I switch over to Voodoo.
Voodoo hasn't done a very good job of spreading itself, so Washington DC hurriedly builds a Voodoo Missionary to spread it to another city.
From Folding Space tech, I can move on to Space Creasing tech.
At this point, there are only 4 technologies left on the Tech Tree. The first is Transverse Euclidean Geometry. The beaker numbers are huge, but keep in mind just how much research a world-spanning civilization can produce. We've had to increase the numbers even more, and on slow game speeds with high enough difficulty settings, the numbers can actually overflow to 1.
The second is Endogenous Euclidean Propulsion.
The third tech is Euclidean 5-Space Geometry. It manages to mess up the geometry of the Tech Tree itself!
The last tech left is Analyze Strings, which is our version of Future Tech.
Great Artist Jules Verne can't really do much to help with the tech costs.
Aachen builds the Technological Capital wonder. I thought this would give me a free tech, but I was wrong. It does kick off a Golden Age, which should last almost to the end of the millennium.
Great Scientist Donald Knuth.
Voodoo has one Wonder available: the Hellsmouth Sanctuary. This allows training of Hell's Mouth Dog units. They are long since obsolete.
Great Scientist Joseph Priestley.
Great Artist Julian Lloyd Webber.
Something I did NOT need to see at this point is a small revolt in Bombay. Something has gone really wrong; maybe I spent too much time switching religions?
Namp'o is asking for a Security Tax. It's a pittance, so I pay it.
It turns out Bombay is pretty unstable. Its revolt index is at 807. Problems can occur at around 500 and are very likely at 1000.
Great Scientist al-Khwarazmi.
The very last religious Wonder I can build is the Freya Sanctuary. This is one of Asatru's four Wonders: the others are Heimdall Sanctuary, Loki Sanctuary, and Thor Sanctuary. All of those went obsolete at Humanism during the Renaissance. Generally, Asatru is one of the religions I switch to first if I'm trying to loot Wonders.
I immediately swap Civics back to Secular as soon as Freya Sanctuary is finished. Maybe it's enough to help Bombay out?
Nope. I get a revolt warning from Bombay. I can't do anything about most of its problems (distant location, colony, Monarch difficulty, Technocracy civic) but that starvation should be something I can fix.
Great Scientist Lawrence Roberts.
Bombay's real problem is that it is starving. Starving cities are quite likely to revolt. I queue up some food-producing buildings, then turn to my secret weapon: HBOC. In full:
If a city isn't too upset with you, you can throw money at it to reduce its instability problems. A city that's really mad will reject any bribe attempts. I haven't tried to use this before now because cities haven't wanted to revolt, and using this option increases the cost to use it the next time.
I select the most expensive option to buy me the most possible time to build some food-producers. A few really cheap ones may take the edge off, then the High-Tech Crane to speed up the production of Farmscraper. This should solve the problem permanently.
A few turns later, I finish Transverse Euclidean Geometry. (I actually have no screenshots for anything that happened on turns 964 or 965.)
About this time, it starts to sink in that I am not going to be able to do what I planned to do with my Great People. In my previous experience with C2C, it was a really good idea to hoard Great People until reaching Analyze Strings, as using 2 Great People for lightbulbing would easily be able to score an Analyze Strings for the points and +1 health/happiness.
The increasing cost of technologies makes this a plan that is not going to work. I'd better do something with all these Great People.
The problem is especially acute with Great Doctors. Using a Great Doctor would provide less than 1% of the science needed for Endogenous Euclidean Propulsion.
So I start sending the Doctors to the cities with the most Science to build Health Spas. This is a unique building for Great Doctors to build. I also use my 4 Great Spies to build Scotland Yard in Chuito and settle the rest. I can get a little Science out of them.
One of the options I started the game with is Realistic Corporations. This option changes Guilds and Corporations (only Corporations now, as Guilds have been converted to National Wonders) from their standard founding pattern (Guilds: build a Guildhall World Wonder, Corporations: spend the appropriate Great Person) to founding on their own.
Up to now, Corporations haven't been founded yet. I discover that Emperors Clothing has been founded when the Emperors Clothing Store building pops up on Vilcas's build list. Every Corporation has an appropriate Store building attached that can offer some nice bonuses.
It turns out that Emperors Clothing founded itself in Chuito a couple turns ago. I guess the chance for realistic corporation founding needs to be increased a little.
To squeeze a little bit more science out of my civilization, I switch civics one last time. I move my religion from Secular to Atheist; becoming openly hostile to all religions allows you to shake off any lingering shackles. I also switch my Military civic from Pacifism to Unmanned Warfare; building robotic forces gives a little bit more science.
Next time: The world's greatest projects.