*spits out his drink* -- you can have cities 2 away if no different land masses? That... that's been true for a while now I'm guessing, not a ninja patch last night or something?
I... I thought I knew this game. How many Island maps have I played and not realized this?
I'm pretty sure it must have been a ninja patch - I, too, am shocked, stunned, amazed, flabbergasted, and other such sundry synonyms for surprised. I wonder why the game works that way?
Well, now I'm confused...I never knew the thing about being able to have cities two tiles away if on different land masses. Always so much to learn with this game!

I'm pretty sure to remember that if the islands are different, one tile has always been enough. If someone else might confirm for sure either that this is normal or this is weird, it would be very appreciated now!

Tough task. But at least a little chance to bring this game home still there.Hey Yatta, sorry I haven't been on in a while -- been having a busy week. What a treat to come back and see this game in full swing, with the Aztecs still keeping their heads low, building up their modest little island empire and scheming to rule the world through shrewd diplomacy!

Yeah, probably the Maoi would be better than Hermitage. I don't know, I'm quite close to flipping that seafood now, and didn't even take many turns. But it is true that the city production would benefit from Maoi a lot more...Grrrr, I am to late with the advice on Maoi. I am on the same line as Creedakota. Maoi gives you the much needed hammers there. Oh well, lets hope the hermitage does its job correctly. Start investing in the cheap culture stuff. Still it is amazing that you did not get one religion yet now did you?
Religion: finally Buddhism in the capital! Now IIRC a couple of cities have Christianity, one Judaism maybe, and one Buddhism as already said. But yeah, no matter open borders with everybody, not even one religion in capital before scientific method, which means no monasteries at all and no chances to spread a state religion, is kind of uncommon I guess.
This makes sense. Maybe it should be done. But except for the capital and Fisherhill, there is not a huge need for culture, and there are not cottages. Still is true that the bonus of bureaucracy is quite irrelevant while maximizing food, running mercantilism and missing Oxford in capital, as atm in this game... With a free market revolution, things would be different, and the bureaucracy bonus would be stronger IMO.One more thing you can consider. You could go into free speech to speed things up a bit to get that seafood. Your capitol is not building really exciting stuff and you get the most beakers from your scientist so the overall culture boost will help the others cities more then the bonus to your capitol if you ask me.
I've probably done the opposite of what is best: I mean, it would likely make more sense be running free speech now with mercantilism (to maximize the culture output in Fisherhill), and then, once that seafood flips inside Aztecs cultural borders, switch to free market and bureaucracy (to maximize the science output from trading routes in the capital).
I've played another short session (I'm wondering if use the great scientist I got to partially bulb physics): a screen shot and the save attached here, the rest of the images in the signature link.

Thanks all!
