Protective, Financial, nice UB, weird UU, and somewhat confined starting techs.

I rolled a random Fractal with him and I have a lot of land to REX in to (10-12 cities before war), but I have Cyrus on the east, Frederick to the south, and Hannibal way to the west, with Julius mucking around close to Frederick. The land is pretty good (3 Gold + Food sites, a grasslands river area with Cows + Copper + Rice, etc), so I've been settling and crashing my economy. My techpath was pretty bad, TBH, I hit Pottery relatively late then headed for Alphabet to trade around. Thankfully, Hannibal (who's the tech leader at this point) was so far ahead of the pack that when he got alphabet, no one had anything to trade with him, leaving them ripe for me. Religions went wayyyyyy late this game.

That story was somewhat besides the point, but any tips on King Kon? Protective Archers are nice (and I got a Cover for Melee event), but I'm not going to be warring anytime soon (though, Cyrus has been WHEEORN for a bit, so I've fortified my cities with Spears) hopefully. I'm thinking an Education beeline with stops at Machinery and Civil Service for Maces, then assaulting Cyrus or Frederick (who's a bit of a pariah right now). Any other suggestions?

Julius Caesar is the only leader in your game who will DoW at pleased, thus a problem.
Frederick is probably another problem in the AI-AI relations.

Wang kong is definately set up for a liberalism beeline, to take full advantage of financial and the seowon. At that point you really have every option available. You could get printing press/observatories to cement your tech advantage. Your protective though, so drafting/rifles may be the way to go.
Either way, i'd certainly go for seowons/lib first, then war.

In your game, I'd settle peacefully and use the UB/financial.

In some games, a catapult rush makes sense. If you want them fast, go early writing, bulb math (research masonry and any other worker techs you can squeeze in while waiting for the GS), then construction. Should be possible to hit with a good # of cats and melee troops before 1 AD.

Normally you don't want to trade construction but do so if possible. Use the cats to lay down some hurting/open space for 12ish cities and it's probably worthwhile. Depending on the opponent it's often possible to put down most of their cities before they get longbows even on immortal.

Cottage spam is key. And fighting catapult wars is never bad, let alone when you have bonusses to help things along. When it comes down to it, the Hwacha is simply a significantly improved version of a unit that was already top notch to begin with. I don't know if it is known as one of the better UUs in the game, but when I think about it, it probably should be.

I played as Victoria of Korea on unrestricted leaders. Guess who tried to invade me? Boudica of Rome. My Hwacha’s made short work of her prats.

To the OP: It seems like you know what you’re doing honestly.

Expand during the classical era, hopefully to secure 15-20+ cities. Then settle in for a space run.

Catapults are at the top of the list of my favorite units, and the Hwacha has a nice bonus that can be used fairly often.

Despite the strength of the UU, however, there is no need to crash your economy by fighting an early Hwacha war. Give your cities ample time to develop their economy with Cottages, and use the Financial trait to gain an edge for winning the Music race.

Wang Kon is a great leader for delaying economic buildings like Courthouses or Markets. Use the extra hammers to build either wonders, Research, or military units, whichever is appropriate at the time.

Expand during the classical era, hopefully to secure 15-20+ cities. Then settle in for a space run.

:eek: 20+ cities before medieval times? holy $#%$!

Should he just stop playing after that and call it a win?

How many opponents do you guys put on a map? I seem to never have that much room.

You know what threw me when I drew Wang Kong? Full priced everything (excluding a few city walls and a RARE castle.) No cheap libraries. No cheap granaries, barracks, or harbors. You have to earn every bit of every building you want in your cities. This also puts a real dent in the length of time I want to spend in the slavery civic. The next time I draw him, I'll probably move Feudalism up on the list.

As for what to do in your game, I agree with the advice above on maximizing the financial trait, especially with cottages.

Construction is possible by 500BC. Keep the expansion tight, 3 or 4 cities with cottages. It's also possible to get Conf and Tao in the same turn if you can Oracle CoL and then bulb Philo. I have done it before.

:eek: 20+ cities before medieval times? holy $#%$!

Should he just stop playing after that and call it a win?

How many opponents do you guys put on a map? I seem to never have that much room.

Usually, you'd rush out 10+, but have room to backfill.

:eek: 20+ cities before medieval times? holy $#%$!

Should he just stop playing after that and call it a win?

How many opponents do you guys put on a map? I seem to never have that much room.

The man said expand, not settle, there is a small but significant difference :hammer: ;)

Thanks for the tips, guys!

After I DOW'd on Joao II at the behest of my buddy Cyrus, Brennus (his Buddhist lovemaster) DOW'd on me. He apparently marched a small army through Portuguese, then Persian (thanks, Cyrus! :rolleyes:) territory, and attacked. I whipped an Axe and an Archer, and Protective saved the day. This happened twice more, but I've begun to amass a sizable stack (>20 units) of Hwachas (which are beasts, BTW), Spears, Axes, Swords...you name it, we got it. Except Chariots. I hasve 11 cities right now, but I'm trying to decide between attacking Hannibal (who is pleased) or Joao (who is weak).

Hannibal controls 4 (!!!) Holy Cities, for Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism (which is dominant) and Judaism, and he's teching like a maniac given his limited land. I have 1.2x his power, and while he has Construction, I don't think he's building many catapults. His capital is loaded, which is also nice.

On the flip side, restarting my war with Joao II (while losing points with Brennus) combined with my teching towards Feudalism (more Longbowmen = less units that have to be at home for defense, and vassals) may make him an easy target, but Cyrus has already inflicted heavy damage (two cities).

I'm definitely leaning towards Hannibal, but that would take a 10 turn shift of forces towards the west, leaving my east dangerously unguarded given the inevitability of a war with Brennus. Rrrgh.

Edit: So...amassed my army with the whip and chop, and DOW'd on Hanny.

At the same time, he bribed Brennus, then Frederick (who had just gotten out of war with). I got JC to re-declare on Fred (JC razed two German cities, but Freddy took Antium), making the Foreign Advisor look like this:

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0198.jpg

Hanny's military blew. Carthage had 1 Catapult, an Archer, and a Jumbo. Hadrumetum was even weaker. Utica had the 'bulk' of his army, and a Settler/Galley combo (which was destroyed. The campaign netted me these three cities:

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0199.jpg

:eek: Damn.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0200.jpg

No pic of Hadrumetum, but it kept a Forge, Lighthouse, and Granary. No wonder his military blew, he was too busy building wonders for me. :p I made him capitulate, since the giant peninsula was free of his culture, and my army was somewhat isolated up there.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0201.jpg

I think the Power Graph sums this up nicely:

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0202.jpg

I really took off after beating back Brennus and building my Hwachas and Swordsmen. Hwachas are really, really good, and are wayyy better than normal Catapults IMO. They provide excellent defense as offensive pieces. Currently, Brennus has a huge stack (5 Gallic Warriors, 4 Axes, a Chariot, a Spear, and a Catapult or three) heading for my relatively weak western frontier (damn you, Cyrus!) but I have enough gold to convert CG3 Archers to Longbows and I have some Hwachas to whip. Julius is the next target (my second GP, also a Great Spy, is about to inflitrate).


Pretty happy, thanks for the tips guys (again).

The man said expand, not settle, there is a small but significant difference :hammer: ;)

Exactly :lol: