Sean, the one thing I disagree with is your emphasis on turtling and staying peaceful. On a water map, you can easily leverage early gold (ruins and CS gold), your UU, and your UA to mount a vicious early attack on your nearest neighbor. The diplomatic consequences are minimal (relatively), as your victim won't have any friends yet. The way I play Polynesia is to attack early, seize a worker, cripple or conquer my nearest neighbor, then look around and see who is building the Colossus and the Great Lighthouse. Once I make that determination, yoink -- thanks for the wonders, suckas. Most of your foes will be busy filling in the top of the tech tree, which gives you an opportunity to shock them with compound bows and later swordsman while they still have warriors and archers. The beauty of the Polynesia UA is that you can delay sailing, etc., until later without hampering exploration and your war abilities.

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