With all that good land settled (with some little overlap in further cities), My Chili-like country now needed some improvements and tiles needed to be fully improved. Temples had been rush-paid quickly so that I could claim more land immediately. I also needed to become the scientific leader, and so started to research at maximum rate all the time. We had to research or trade for optional sea-related techs immediately, so Navigation, Ironclads and Amphibious Warfare took me some more time, but it was still OK.
In 500AD Lisbon grabbed the Sistine Chapel. Why did I build such a wonder ? Well, I like paintings.
Just kidding, but you just gotta love a wonder which makes cathedrals very attractive improvements : 3 unhappy citizens become REALLY happy in each city. That's when you forget about acquiring more luxuries (except for spices of course !) and building colosseums.
57.68*KB
In 510AD three events happened :
- I was displeased to see Copernicus's lovely Observatory completed in Sumeria (and they had just got the tech, after 2 other AIs completed other wonders) ;
- I had to rebuff rebels in Hastings because it was an inland city, not of my taste ;
- spices became available for trade for the first time, so I had to pay (well... I really wanted to pay) the Spanish to get the precious stuff. I must admit that it took me 5 turns to realize spices were available, so I just reloaded the game. I would now set a new spices deal every 20 turns.
Time passed peacefully, until I reached the Industrial Ages in 960AD. I was fully busy with building improvements in all my cities. I was slowly catching the AIs (the strong and scientific Germans) in science, and was selling some techs from time to time to fuel my research even more. In 1010AD Emerita built Shakespeare's Theater, but didn't fully get advantage of it afterwards.
65.95*KB
Lisbon completed Newton's University in 1030AD ; I had to get this wonder, or it would have taken me a long time to reach the next age. It also had the nice effect to stop the wonder cascade once and for all.
66.55*KB
That was the particular point where Portugal would now only fear a military defeat. But by no way could those brave seamen fail to lose the science leadership. Yes, the Portuguese had been lying to the whole world all along : everyone would know that the Portuguese were supposed to be expansionnist (a mythical memory of the past) and seafearing, but the Portuguese weren't attracted by the sea itself, just the beaches, for the barbecue parties. No ship would ever be built (apart from the 2 curraghs), and the time during which they weren't sunbathing on the beach was used for scientific studies. As for the no-boat policy, Portugal would eventually cry at it someday...