Zenzei, about the luck thing. I completely disagree. Luck makes turmoil a possitive scale
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O3L3 is wonderfull too, lots of markets and forts for free. Test it.
H3/C3, well, I allways take H3/C3 if nation has even 1 degree of H or C in its description, however only if the encumbrance of my main units is not high to avoid fatigue.
I like the NAP trap sentence. Quite true.
Manual site searching is usefull in the early game or to begin a new path, otherwise if you have the gems cast remote searchs.