As far as I am aware the American route doesn't need the shipyard perse, also for the other ages the bonus buildings are optional and take you longer in total because they cost more money so it is possible to skip them. I also discovered that you can save a lot of time by not building the special buildings and presents, but you could technically build them if you want the higher land value. Schools don't seem to be verry important for the speedrun and you will only need 5 schools in the third age because that gives you the quiz at 40%. So in order to get the quiz you need to build at least 5 schools before the 40% as you can see here: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxje04uMd58V22eSM0KXaVXM2dehd2Rfkj means that you don't even need to build schools in the second age at all. Even with 0 funding in education you will get the quiz.

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