[Spoilers] Old Human Tourist: Empress of Azteca

[Old Harry]

I like Izzy, this is the rest of the list as far as Z. You should bookmark this post .

Indigo Izzy
Jelly Bean
Kirby
Lucky
Marmalade
Nina
Ophelia
Pickle
Quentin
Rocky
Snowdrop
Twinkle
Uncle Herbert
Velvet
Wilbur
Xander
Yummy
Ziggy

Alphabet by EOT86 is excellent. We need to log in first on t87 so that we can offer OBs to Cyneheard, Barry and Cheater Hater and get it accepted that turn...

I guess we'd want Masonry straight after Alphabet for stone for Moai, so on t89 we'd need to decide:
- Construction->HBR,
- Currency,
- Calendar or
- Aesthetics->Lit/Drama->Music?

So many attractive options! CoL can also be added to that list.. I liked your top-tree analysis, Gertie with Moai+Globe is a great idea! I think potential music artist and those wonders are probably not big enough attraction that we would like to immediately prioritize the top of the tree though?

CoL needs to be on the list - it requires Currency though, and we could delay that for the other options... so:

. . . . . . . . +---> Aesthetics -> Lit/Drama -> Music (First-to route)
Alphabet --+---> Construction -> HBR -> Currency -> CoL (Conquest route)
. . . . . . . . +---> Currency -> CoL -> Calendar (Economic route)
. . . . . . . . +---> Calendar -> Currency -> CoL (Happy Economic route)

Our choices are to try for first-to bonii (specifically SoZ in Hazelnut and music artist) and a way to pop borders, short term conquest, or the economic route (depending on the food and growth situation Calendar first might be better). I assume that the economic techs are needed straight after first-to or conquest. But if we go economic first then conquest and first-to are probably out. I agree that the music artist isn't quite enough to justify the top of the tree just yet, but being able to build culture is magical and we could get there pretty quick... Actually, could we time Aesthetics to come in in one turn just when we pop borders in Hazelnut and get a bunch of overflow and chops coming in? SoZ for Amphibious attacks is going to be strong later on. We need 10XP so Barracks, stable/Theocracy and West Point will do it, but with SoZ we could attack earlier...

Btw, Alphabet is 430 adjusted beakers, but maybe you ment that it is close to 250 raw beakers (although that's a bit too little as well so I'm probably missing something)? Pre-req bonus to Currency should save something like 60-70 raw beakers (so in essence 1-2 turns of research).

Ooops, I was going from the changelog, but that'll be for a Standard size world...

A part of me also likes early Alphabet, because it differs from the usual Currency-beeline mantra and it's more of a use-your-own-brains choice

Also it made us a bit of cash in PB13 ...