Again take a few moments to read this introduction carefully to make certain you DO NOT run afoul of the new spoiler rules.

This is the second spoiler thread to support discussion of the Gotm24-Korea. If possible, you should have already summarized your ancient age and Middle ages progress in short reports in the earlier discussion threads for this game.

Every player must pass two tests in order to be able to view or participate this spoiler thread. These two tests define a dividing line where knowledge and events prior to the line may be discussed but knowledge that you may have from later in the game may not be included.

For Gotm24-Korea:

you must have the full world map and contact with all 10 rivals or their remains AND
you must have researched Mass Production to enable the ability to build Battleship and/or Aircraft Carrier units in the game (or already submitted your game) but you may not discuss Tank Warfare. (If you discuss or hint about locations of Uranium or Aluminum we will ram slivers of bamboo under your fingernails.)

Information in this thread must be from BEFORE BOTH OF THESE EVENTS.

You may discuss "Aircraft" if you choose to do so.

Do not mention any modern age wonders except as future goals.

What were your impressions of the behavior of the other Civilizations during this phase of the game? Try to touch on all the surviving civs and what you thought they were doing.

Pay particular attention to trying to describe how you chose to navigate through the tech tree in the industrial age. What path di you chose an how long it take you to get from the Cavalry at the beginning of the era to the next major stages and changes?

Have fun!! Meet new players, make new friends, and share ideas. Again that's what this game is all about

At the end of the last spoiler myself and my Olive allies were involved in a death struggle with the Han.

It was rough going with my knights vs. the Han cavalry. If it wasn't for the Olives I would lost all of my gains. Despite making a beeline for military tradition the Olives got it before me and started to take out Han cavalry. When I got MT I was able to upgrade my knights and continue the offensive.

The first target for my cavalry was the Han SP. The Olives beat me to that city. Fortunately for me I was able to limit the olives to only gaining two Han cities. The fact that the AI makes peacemeal attacks really helps.

Eventually the Han were destroyed. I was worried the entire war that they would drag some Japanese clans in on their side. But the best they could muster was a couple of embargos.

After the war with the Han I thought hard about overunning my Olives allies and uniting Korean peninsula. But I decided not to because I could use their vote in the UN.

The rest of the time of this spoiler I concentrated on building a FP in Beijing and building infastructure. I got into one war because of my MPP with the Olives, but saw no combat. I was starting to catch up in tech (the Oda were the tech leader) by getting my FP built and trading SRs and luxuries.

I was catching up in tech, but I was worried that I wouldn't catch up fast enough...

Conquest, Civ1.29f
So it's my privilege to post the first reply here:crazyeye: (the funny thing is that I'm not comletely up to massprod., but since this will be the first reply (and since I won't view other replies yet) I don't see any reason why I shouldn't have opened the thread).

Don't make this a habit. You should not have posted here until you meet the conditions of participation. This is not a hard concept to grasp and is meant to provide a little bit of respectability to the process. Being the first person to post and deliberately violate the boundary conditions does not portend well. - cracker

PS. I still hope you are enjoying the game, just don't deliberately create conflict. ;)

EDIT: @cracker: sorry & acknowledged

What can I say? It's my first gotm, and I'm indeed fascinated by the intensity of gameplay and the changes, ups and downs, experienced throughout the ages.

Ancient era saw Korea as bold, powerful and warmongering nation, luckily topped with 3(!) great leaders in early MA resulting in SunTzu, Sistine and PalaceJump. Nonetheless we soon fell back in all areas, thus centuries were filled exclusively with the constant fears of
1. missing the best time of buying cheap techs vs. selling them to others (the latter was more or less impossible)
2. not annoying other nations too much and
3. securing the southern border, both with (outdated) military and aggressive culture rushing - which of course decimated Koreas highly needed gold reserves and income...

The new palace btw was located in the second city north of the southern border (western part), but not before building the Forbidden One some five squares northeast of Seoul (right above the iron).

The years just before and just after entering IA were the most fascinating up to now. It began with three Korean cities of the quite advanced northern realm entering the race for Newton's, Smith's and Shakespeare's...
At about half way, Korean diplomats succeeded in buying every MA tech left, except for Gravity and Magnetism. This was the time when our physicians had assembled enough knowledge, books and universities throughout the country to boldly form the global spearhead of magnetism research :scan: .
And indeed, (with the help of the still respectable treasury and the world famous Korean entertainment infrastructure) only four turns later our physicians succeeded!
The plan had been to trade magnetism for both much gold and the Theory of Gravity - but what did our diplomats find? Most other nations had already discovered BOTH :mad:
Nonetheless Oda (or Takeda?) was so kind to trade ToG for Salpeter plus a couple of coins.

And then the scientist trait came forth and the fun began :D .

We sold Nationalism for about 300 gpt to Oda, and for some 200 gpt to Chsokabe - giving our scientist the opportunity to research at 100% for the next couple of techs, going for Steam Power first.

At the same time, the three late MA GWs were nearing completion...
860 AD: Lost Newton's (guess to whom...:HAN:mad: :mad: )
870 AD: Lost Shakespeare's - and still 3 long tuns to go for Adam Smith in Seoul...
890 AD: With desperate effort our lazy workers build two coal mines
900 AD: Adam Smith saves the Day for Korea! :king:
Our civilization has entered a Golden Age!

(And btw it was the first Industrial GA I've ever seen in Civ3!)
Well, after the first celebrations I realized that this wasn't the perfect moment for a GA. The extensive tech-trade- and culture-rush have left their marks in Korea's infrastructure. We have neither established a large army of workers, nor a complete road-mine-irrigation net, nor are more than about 30-40% of our cities at full(12) pop.
And to make things worse, one of our coal mines collapses immediately after discovery.
Nonetheless, an Industrial GA is a great experience. Our scientists spared the Industrialization tree for the moment, and headed straight for Scientific Methods (after picking up Hospitals on their way - which actually came too soon, as we are still needing new workers to get the railways done!).

Korea's rivals weren't idle in early IA. Despite GA and 100% research, most nations kept track, only one or two steps behind us. We were able to get one further 300gpt from Oda for Eletricity (of course after our first deal expired). We bought Communism for SteamPower and Saltpeter.

Things are getting hot here again...to soon perhaps...Takeda just declared war on me, and allied with Oda. Funnily, I managed to ally Oda (and 2 other) AND force them into war with Takeda.
But Han gives me sleepless nights once again. Their scientists are always up to date, and their power equal mine and Takeda's... and their riders are massing within sight of our mountain patrols...

To be contiued...

PTW, Predator 1.27f

previous post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1283663#post1283663)

Like Karmina, I got an early industrial GA - my favourite. I did go for Industrialization after researching steam power (got nationalism too as the free tech too, which was a pity as I was going for the UN and I'd rather have sped up towards ToE). Since I was making ungodly amounts of money from selling off my techs which came in every 4 turns throughout most of the IA, I could afford to rush factories in Seoul and Pyongyang (slightly to the NE of Seoul) with Seoul building Suffrage and Pyongyang on a palace prebuild for ToE. The nice thing was Sci Meth came in just in time to change Seoul to Hoover, and the AIs only discovered Industrialization on the turn Hoover was built, so with Seoul railed and MM'd for max production I was able to beat the AIs to Suffrage too. They had of course gone for Communism first :rolleyes:.

Since my empire at this point still only consisted of my own and former Baekje lands, I invaded the Goguryeo after getting Rep Parts and chased them off our continent - they kept two cities on the Japanese one (about 900-1000AD this was). Artillery vs rifles was no contest. This war gave me 2 leaders - one was used to move the Palace south into Goguryeo lands, a second one was used for an army. The Goguryeo allied with the Baekje, who still had three cities on the former barb island. These fell quickly too, and even got me another leader from an elite guerilla. This one would be saved for the UN.

The Goguryeo and the Tokugawa had tons of ships, mostly frigates, but these started to disappear at an alarming rate after I had rushed a few Destroyers. Korea ruled the seas (and not even with battleships either - I never got around to building those or carriers). On land she was all-powerful too and if I'd played more for score the logical next target would have been the Han, who I suspect would have succumbed fairly easily to the 2 40+ gun stacks I kept around. For speed it would also have been better to just gift all the techs I was ahead to the AIs (about 5-6 throughout the IA) as they didn't contribute anything to the tech pace themselves other than the optional communism & sanitation.

On the other continent, Tokugawa was easily the biggest; as such, I decided to remain at war with them while trading with the other civs who I figured might eventually become my pets in the UN vote. There was a good number of wars going on, one of which ended with the destruction of the SW Japanese civ.

Middle Age Thread. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1282937#post1282937)

Searching as fast as possible

AI no help so I live them behind trading some techs more money and keeping deals active so that their GPT helps my research.

620 AD I enter Industrial Ages searching Steam Power at 3.7.0 due to deal for Metallurgy ... in 8 turns :( I received Nationalism as free tech.
I received Spices vs Metallurgy & 111 GP from Tokugawa so that I max my luxs for happiness.
660 AD : Han : WM &Typography &106 GPT & 167 GP vs Physics
Shimazu : WM & 1 GP vs WM
Takeda : 12 GPT & 108 GP vs Physics then WM & 1 GPT & 5 GP vs WM
Oda : 1 GP vs WM
Kuroda : 10 GP vs Typography
Mori : I offer Typography / 2 GP vs WM
Chosogabe : WM & 22 GPT & 26 GP vs Physics. Move research to 2.8.0…
Shimazu : I offers Physics
Every body is Polite (except Han) & no Gold
Industry in 6 turns

740 AD : Han : Democracy & 856 GP & 9 GPT & TM vs Magnetism
Takeda : MT & 12 GP & 2 GPT & WM vs Magnetism
Chosogabe : WM & 86 GP & 39 GPT vs Magnetism
750 AD : Medecine @ 100% in 4 turns –63GPT
790 AD : Newton’s Gives a GA …
820 AD : Tokugawa : Spices & WM & 9 GP vs Magnetism
Takeda : Gems & WM vs Theory of Gravity & Wines
Han : WM & 9 GPT & 34 GP vs Dyes
Chosogabe : Enlightment vs Ivory & Wines & 78 GP
Place left from dying Kuroda has lot of potential luxs. So I produce some settler in order to take advantage of this spaces and luxs.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/GOTM24_850ad.jpg
850 AD I did not pursue in my deals with Kuroda. They are dead. I settled 2 towns for dyes and gems. I will try to grab also incense… and bring some Riflemen to defend these towns. I rush Harbor & Barracks & Library for the first town & Libraries for all (to avoid some culture flips). Therefore, I am at max luxs and can trade the extras.

880 AD: AI have some money. I have just grabbed ToE (prebuilt as a Palace).
Han : Furs & WM & 139 GPT & 412 GP vs Medicine
Takeda : WM & 32 GPT & 131 GP vs Medicine
Chosogabe : WM & 17 GPT & 369 GP vs Medicine
Mori : 12 GP vs WM
Oda : 27 GP vs WM
I am 4710 GP & 601 GPT (4.6.0). I could Commercially win in few turns turning all Science and putting all cities at Wealth. (With the save, I did a replay for Commercial Victory - Science to zero and cities to wealth, I manage a Commercial Win in 950 AD)

940 AD … cruising with some more deals. Shimazu : WM & 7 GPT & 36 GP vs Medicine
990 AD – End of GA – Switch to Democracy after Refining … Miss it by one turn anyway switch to Dem in 1000 AD
Tokugawa – WM & 40 GP & 9 GPT & Wo vs Medicine
Chosugabe – 180 GP & 12 GPT vs Incense
Takeda – 10 GP vs WM
Shimazu – 29 GP vs WM
1040 AD , I am in Dem …
Chosogabe : Communism & WM & 23 GPT & 55 GP vs Electricity
Han : Sanitation & 5 GPT & 92 GP vs Electricity & Ivory
1100 AD : Bring Han to Polite giving them some wines
… pressing return and monitoring the research …

1240 AD : Sneak Attack of Tokugawa, grabbing one town the next turn with dyes. With all the MPP around, I should have been more cautious on defense :mad:. My army consists of 5 Cavs & 25 Infantries & 1 Rifleman & 2 Transports & 1 siege cannon & 12 Kensai. I am so dumb :cry: that I forget to upgrade outdated units despite sitting on GP. I gather every-body against Tokugawa. He is #2 on the list so it is not that bad to have this global war. But I am not ready for it …
I have also marauding Han forces in my territory this does not look good at all.

To be continued later as tanks are involved ... Tough part of the game.

Japan tribes were backwards and mostly polite to me linked to multiple trades ... Han was ahead of the AI pack but many techs behind me ...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/smilies/ptw.gif 1.27f
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif Predator

Link to my Ancient Age Post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1275209#post1275209)

Link to my Middle Ages Post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1285759#post1285759)

Han Cavalry vs. Korean Hwach’a

At the end of the last spoiler, 440AD, I was in the midst of my “Limited War” against the Han, having taken my first two objectives, Hangchow and Nanking, and just purchased Metallurgy to start upgrading my catapults. Unfortunately, Han Riders had morphed into Cavalry, and I knew this war was going to be even more difficult than I thought. I rushed a wall in Hangchow, and pulled my forces back from the mountain pass, as his cavalry were starting to bypass the road, and could ride out of the mountains to the town in one turn. I was still struggling for cash, and only able to upgrade a couple Hwach’a per turn. But I hunkered down to defend, using the Hwach’a to weaken his cav before they attacked, and slowly held him off there. In the east, I continued to push south, using a couple Hwach’a and defenders along the mountains to block his cav there. I still lost several units, especially wounded ones trying to go back and heal, to his cavalry raiding behind me, but usually if they entered my territory, I could send knights or Kensai to finish them off in the open. Shantung fell in 480AD, and by now I had several Hwach’a on that front, and was able to concentrate near Tatung, the fur city. Tatung fell in 510AD. With the completion of my objectives, I sought peace from the Han. I wasn’t able to get much in peace, but afterward, I sold him back his fur and silks for 200g and 1gpt (thanks to Bamspeedy’s attitude article, I didn’t settle for a lump sum, and it would prove to be worthwhile later).

My New Luxury Cities
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/G24_520Han.jpg

Playing catch-up in the Tech Race
Meanwhile the tech pace had continued from Japan. In 470 Banking was available, and Navigation in 480. The Kuroda and Tokugowa did not have Banking, so I could do a 2 for 1 deal. I bought Banking (on credit), traded for Navigation, and then opened a new era of trading luxuries and resources. Several of the Japanese civs did not have Saltpeter, which was worth a lot in trade. I wasn’t quite rich, but it helped to offset some of the tech payments I was making. By 520AD I had 897 gold and 123gpt with no science. I also saved a couple of luxuries and a salt, so when the next tech round came out, I would have something to offer. It didn’t take long. In 540 Democracy became available, and although I didn’t really need it, I bought it to sell to some of the other civs. (My last anarchy had taken too many turns, I couldn’t afford to go through that again). I overpaid for it though, paying out 80gpt, and was only able to get 30gpt from sales. But it did help in 560, when Music Theory came out, I was able to trade Democracy to get it for free (and Bachs as a useful pre-build). Finally in 580 Physics was available, which I bought, paying for part of it with Saltpeter. I also established more embassies, and began to plan some wonders to get my Golden Age. The next two available would be Magellan’s (Commercial) and Newton’s (Scientific). If I missed on either of those, I would have to get Smith’s and ToE, which I had planned on anyway.

The Oda Expedition / Return of the Han
In spite of many elite victories, I still had no great leader. I never had enough elite troops, I was throwing everything I had into the fray, so there were plenty of regulars out there too. I looked at the options of building the FP myself, when an idea came to me. The Han had brought the Oda into the war somewhere along the way, and they were still at war with me. They also had the Colossus, which with it’s commercial trait might help trigger my GA. So I spent the next 10 turns preparing for an expedition to their land, thinking I could take all my elite troops, capture the Colossus, maybe get a leader, then sue for peace. I knew I couldn’t count on a GL, though, so I switched Kangyang from University to FP just in case. It wasn’t my ideal choice, but only 12 from Seoul and with a Courthouse and Market already in place, it would still take almost 20 turns. I built and upgraded several junks, and moved all of my elite troops to the northern corner of my peninsula as a jump-off point. Unfortunately, in 610AD the Oda allied with the Han again, and the Han declared war! There was some slight panic as I realized most of my best troops were on the opposite side of my land. I rushed a few Odas in the south, sent the cav galloping along the roads, and took my slower troops in my new Kublai Junks to sail south to reinforce. This was a pure defensive war, again using the mountains and Hwach’a to blunt his initial offensive. However, I also rushed/switched production to crank out 6 explorers, who swarmed into his territory and pillaged both his Iron sources, his Saltpeter, and cut several roads through the mountains, isolating the eastern half of his empire. I also made a separate peace with the Oda (just to sow some discord for later). The WW kicked in fast, I think because of all the turns we had been at war with the Oda, but with no fighting, it was sort of latent. Without the resources, his attacks slowed quickly, and I was able to get peace with the Han in 650, and got 4 workers out of the deal. These would be useful later this turn!

The “Asian Economic Miracle”
In 640AD I bought Theory of Gravity from the Kuroda, for Wool, Dye, and 15gpt. The next turn, 650AD, I saw that Economics and Magnetism were available. I bought Magnetism for 60gpt, and it was time to start my Tech Slingshot. I got Steam Power for my free tech, which was good luck, as Nationalism was an optional tech, that I wasn’t necessarily in a hurry for anyway. After checking to see that I had coal, I began to sell Steam around and bankrupt most of the other civs. Overall I raked in over 1,000g and +427gpt for Steam, not to mention getting Economics and 2 more workers from the Han. I could now afford to go to max science, and at 100% I could see Medicine in 7 turns, still pulling in a net gain of 100gpt. The next 100 years witnessed the continuing explosion of my economy, as I completed the FP in 700AD, Medicine in 710AD, Newton’s (at Seoul) in 720AD, and Magellan’s in Pusan in 750AD, triggering my golden age. What a difference a century can make:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/JustusII_G24_Century.jpg

During this time I also rushed a few courthouses and marketplaces, which went into high gear with the Golden Age. From this point on through the rest of the Industrial Age, research was 4 turns per, and I skipped all the optional techs (Nationalism, Sanitation, Espionage, etc.), picking them up from the AI for my techs. I missed out on Smith’s, but my main focus was getting ToE, and the GA would help me get there. I thought I could count on the AI for Sanitation, although it took a while, but by then I had several more cities at 12, so it was worth the wait. My tech timeline was as follows: Electricity (770), Scientific Method (810), Replaceable Parts (850), Industrialization (890). I waited until Industrialization to sell again, as I didn’t want the Wonder Cascade to get to ToE. Also, I knew once I started on Industrialization, there would be no more help from the AI, because I would be leading that tech branch. The Chosogabe got Shakespeare and Bach’s, the Oda got Smith’s, but in 900 I got ToE. For my free techs I took Electronics and Atomic, and started on Corporation. By selling Electricity now, I brought in another 280gpt. Finally in 930 someone researched Sanitation, which I traded Industrialization for, and was able to build hospitals with the last few turns of my GA. In 940 I got Corporation, and the GA ended in 950. I was still able to get 4-turn techs, but with less gold left over (science at 90-100%) because I had built lots of universities during the GA.

Staying Above the Fray
From here on, it was a pretty predictable plan of getting techs every 4 turns, building up my population, and working on a Palace pre-build (in my FP city) so I would be ready for the UN when I got to Fission. Diplomatically, most of the Japanese civs were already polite to me, and I was careful to continue luxury or resource deals, ROPs etc. with all of them, even if I couldn’t get much for it. I even gifted a couple of luxuries, until all Japanese civs were polite (The Han would always be furious). Meanwhile, they were declaring war on one another constantly, but I stayed out of it. I thought about getting tricky, and trying to buy several of them into an alliance against my likely rival, but I wasn’t sure if it would be Takeda or Tokugawa, and didn’t want to take the chance of it going the wrong way. I even gave in to a tribute demand along the way, rather than get involved in a war. I also gave Refining away to everyone around 1100, figuring that would be enough value to maximize my gift bonus through the end. It also had the desired effect of sparking more wars, as the AI fought over the limited Oil supplies! I had spent a bunch of Gold upgrading infantry, guerrillas, and artillery after Replaceable Parts, but that was the last of my military build. A couple of destroyers, just to patrol, no planes, tanks, etc. (I did build one tank by mistake, a smaller town that I didn’t switch to wealth). I was getting all the luxuries I needed (actually getting 9, which gave me some flexibility when renegotiating, I could afford to say no in the interturn and deal on my turn. This was pretty important when I wanted to trade techs, as if I did it on the interturn, the AI would trade it to everyone else before I could!)

I hit Mass Production in 1150AD, IIRC, so I will have to stop here. To be continued . . .

Conquest, Civ1.29f
Industrial Age Part II:

My worries were unnecessary. The GA and the first big tech-sellings did the trick. Thence I managed to stay about 2 techs ahead, while constantly getting between 400 and 1100 gpt from my rivals. This enabled me to quickly enhance the outer cities, while still keeping enough money to rush the occasional factory, hospital and stock exchange in my core lands. Although I spent quite a lot of the precious GA on building up my worker army, my first factory kicked in the very turn after the end of our GA.
This was in Forbidden City, which started working on Univ.Suff.; One turn later Seoul started on Hoover Dam (ToE had already been established during GA). By that time all other civs had already begun on Univ.Suff., but obviously they all were far too slow:).
BTW, Takeda's 23-turn war on Korea was quite idiotic: They managed to unload a single samurai on our homelands, but theirselves became quite decimated in power by our allies (Tokugawa, Oda, Shamiz?a, later on even Han).

In 1280 AD Korea discovers Mass Production.
By this time the railway net is practically complete, more than half a dozend cities can produce Infantry at 1/2 rate (got Hoover of course), and everyone except Takeda is both polite and pays a LOT of gpts to us. I don't see any chance of loosing this game yet.

BTW I noticed three quite queer things, and I do wonder if they changed the corresponding rules in gotm24:
1. Despite the absence of Police and UnivSuff we had not a single war-weary pop in 23 turns of war.
2. Despite two cities producing >90 shields, about a dozend >40 while >14 pop, we still encounter less than one polluted square per turn. In most other games I'm used to spend two workers per city exclusively on pollution cleanup until recycling.
3. Two of our three coal mines expired before researching Refining (can be bad luck of course).

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gifPREDATOR [civ3mac] 1.29

Ancient Times (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1277725#post1277725) 4000bc - 370bc (5 turns of anarchy to become a republic :( )
Middle Ages 370bc - 670ad (8 turns of anarchy to become a democracy :( :( )
Industrial Times 670ad - 1220ad (forecast)

The goal was set: peace, balance, and harmony meaning eternal peace to Gogury (170ad), Han (440ad), and Baekje (810ad). Having the entire continent was a nice balance against the other clans. We were peaceful and did not start any other war.

The goal was to research as fast as possible, while donating techs to the other civs in hope of them contributing to the research. Nationalism was free, steam took 7 turns, all others 4 (medicine, sanitation, electricity, rep parts to speed workers, scie method, atomics and electricity from ToE, corporation, refining, steel, combustion, mass production in 1140, next mt and flight). Because we needed very little military, our economy was extremely healthy and we often gave resources for free to the AIs keeping everybody happy.

The AIs contributed communism (of course), industrialization, and surprisingly radio. I did not expect them to research this expensive tech, but happily took it. My mistake: I researched the optional sanitation. ToE gave the usual atomics, electricity, and Korea also built Hoover.

The AIs started to fight each other, mostly reducing Tokugawa. Korea stayed out of trouble and when Takeda demanded oil, we conceded to avoid any spot on our reputation as a peaceful nation.

We trained a lot of elites on the barb island, but regrettably, the final war against the last 3 Baekje cities (they were first reduced in Ancient Times) did not give the much coveted Great Leader for UN. Thus the issue was "How to time the UN pre-build?" We might get fission as our free tech, or most likely, we might not get it. I settled for a Palace pre-build starting 1130 timed to complete one turn after entering Modern Times. Thus victory will be delayed one turn till 1230 (if we get fission), or the city production will be reduced to time the completion with learning fission in 1255.

I got Newton's univ. IIRC. I tried to get the rest of olive through cavalry attacks, which partly failed because the cities culture flipped and I didn't have the ressources to attack again. Also the Han partly took the cities, and I didn't want a war with Han. Especially since I had changed to Republic during the war against olive.

So I tried to improve my science rate by rushing city improvements. I traded as much as I could, staying out of the wars going on on the main continent and micromanaging mines and irrigation. I expanded my worker contingent until I got Railroad and quickly connected my cities.

Tech-wise I went for Scientific Method, but unfortunately passed on Theory of Evolution. I tried to get Hoover Dam, which I really managed and rushed some factories. Since the AI went different paths in tech I managed to trade a lot, especially Atomic Theory for Replaceable parts. This turned out to be a good trade.

A Han city culture flipped back to my side. They were not amused. So I got what I did not want: A war with Han in an unprepared Republic. I had upgraded my defensive units to Infantry when I got RepPts and I still had a stack of Cavalry around from my war against olive. Also the rail connections proved usefull. I moved all my defensive units to the cities Han could reach from his territory and sneak attacked his weaker units. I knew I would not gain anything from this war and could only hope to defend the cities I had. My top tech priority was to get to Motorized Transportation, but I had started Radio since some turns to get a good trade from AI. I hoped they would get MT at about the time I got Radio. I changed production to defensive units and raised luxury rate to prevent disorders.

This was a crucial moment in my game, since most of my cities were undefended and all my forces were positioned in the three southernmost cities. What I wanted to do was to attack his units when they were weak and in my territory without loosing too many of mine. I lost one city due to his initial attack force, but not without a fight. My defensive production started to kick in and all three cities in danger were more or less well defended. Han got pink to declare war on me as well, which was of no importance at that time, because he was restricted to barb island and technologically totally backwards.

The fight went on, Radio was about to be discovered, pink was about to send a ship. Waiting for next spoiler.

After a ridiculous absence of 8 months or so (what can I say...baseball had my attention), I was finally able to play a GOTM again. All I have to say is: Wow. So many changes and great fun. Kudos to all those who put work into the scenario.

I don't really have any spoiler info and never keep notes. Let me just say that these Asian civs are a pretty damn aggresive bunch, especially during the IA, and it was all I could do last the entire game without losing a city.

The map setup was really condusive to peaceful victory strategies. Anyone going for a conquest must be shaking their head.

One question: I used PTW. What happened to all of the automated worker buttons?

Originally posted by Vedder
One question: I used PTW. What happened to all of the automated worker buttons?

Open the Preferences menu, under Game activate the 'Show advanced unit actions buttons'.

The map and the civ (Korea with sterile hwachas) settings were definitely biased for a peaceful victory.

For the sake of clarity, I intend to post my game in the last spoiler, so I can share my unusual Gotm24 experience with the other players. ;)

Originally posted by keiselhorn
...For the sake of clarity, I intend to post my game in the last spoiler, so I can share my unusual Gotm24 experience with the other players. ;)

Just an FYI, that saving up your sharing experience so that you can post the whole game in the last spoiler may not indicate that you have a grasp of what we are trying to accomplish here. By dividing up the game into logical blocks that fit the outlined timeperiods, you can either share your game as you go or at least share it in a way that is organized and courteous to all other players who are both currently playing the game or who might play the game in future months.

Each person is free to be their own kind of player but I sincerely hope you will be able to make the transition to joining us and following the simple outline of participation that has served us so well in the past.

There is no need to be different at every stage just for the sake of trying to do things in the way that is most unlike all the other participants. We are interested in hearing about your game progress. Unless you developed the magical ability to only play the modern age then certainly you must have at least 3/4s of your game story that does not rightly belong in the final spoiler thread except as a summary.

Open [ptw] 1.27, Medal 6-1

In all means this was one of my best Civ experiences ever. Both for my performance in the game and for what the scenario offered. The map and all the Asian features were compentently elaborated. I particularly loved the flags, they were really cool. Congratulations to cracker, kinboat and the Gotm staff for making it possible.

I decided to post everything together this time to avoid posts which would only talk about my wonders and technology advances. Also, I don't record deals in the game, although I was a very active negociator.

Unfourtunately I couldn't start my Gotm24 till Oct 10 because I have some technical problems with crashing. After solved, I could put my strategy into action.

Plan: Game as peaceful as possible. No wars at all. Establish an inner and an outer ring and stop expanding. With my region explored, decided to set the inner in 4-4.5 distance and outer in 7-7.5 dist. After that stop expansion.

Almost everything ran as planned till Industrial:
- 15-16 cities producing well (Kangyang was flipped by Baekje in MA and reflipped back to me in IA)
- Early FP close to capital
- Total Commerce + Science
- ROP for all at all times. Total peace, rivals must be happy throughout all game.
- Minimum military (which would almost doomed me in Industrial)
- Not caring about exploration beyond my continent. Made only 1 junk all the game. I really hate suicide galleys.

Everything ran well in Ancient Ages. My intention was to trigger GA through Colossus+GL. But I missed the GL for 2t, having to afford the most expensive Small Library in Eastern Asia. Then I saw it wouldn't be a fruitful GA anyway... too early and I was avoiding wars, wouldn't help much (though the Colossus would help, but I missed it too).

130bc - Hanging Gardens in Seoul. My only Ancient wonder. And actually the best possible for my peacemonger approach. Helped a lot since I held few luxuries.

I don't remember when I reached MA (I don't keep logs or timelines), but by 210ad I had all contacts and always going for Education. I wanted unis around asap. ROP with everybody in the world, no exception, until the end of the game (the exceptions would be one or another very expensive ROP offer that I would
wait to eventually low the price).

The gpt from tech sales like Education financed my further research. I was aiming for Smith + Newton to trigger the GA, and then assure the Industrial wonders and go smooth to Fission.

During all the game, there were 2 tech leaders: Han and Oda. I was close, sometimes leading, but my pace was alright. Since both (especially the evil Han) were not trading much from mid-MA, I was a great tech exporter. My interest was to equalise the world in techs so it would avoid disparties and possible domination from some parties, such as Oda, Han e Tokugawa. Also, it would assure the tech pace would be fast, AND my reputation would be always high, by frequently selling stuff and sometimes even giving it away.

By giving away to extremely poor civs, and selling for nice prices such as 60-100g/t in MA and IA, I was withdrawing powerful tools of negotiation from the superpowers Oda and Han, which were the techs. In other words, I came close to monopoly in tech exchanges. Rarely other civs were trading between them, because I was faster and sold to everybody. Reminding that Oda and Han were even faster than me but were not willing to exchange.

By the 400s, Han attacked Gogureyo. Below the situation in 470ad. My military was minimum, and stayed like that until the rise of riflemen.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/gotm24_foto1_keisel.jpg
Larger version: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/gotm24_foto1.JPG

By pre-building other wonders in MA, Seoul was able to get Smith in 520ad. If I had a leader it would come much much before. But since I was not involved in wars, I had a terrible disadvantage
to civs like Han, who were producing leaders in the game. FINALLY FIRAXIS CREATED THE SCIENTIFIC LEADERS! Diplo victory will come much faster in Conquests.

~700ad - Industrial Age
800ad - Newton in Seoul. GA triggered. :beer:

The GA was great because shortned considerably the way between Suffrage and ToE. And my diplomacy followed respectable, with ROPs and all the deals. I could notice the Han were getting consistenly angry with me without clear reason. No wonder, they were losing all the wonders. :D

1010ad - GA over. After building and hurrying many banks, unis and some factories, some minor cities (all cities were productive) start building rifleman. It was time to finally dispatch my 15 warriors and set real defences in Korea.

1020 - Suffrage in Pusan. No more easy democratic wars for Han's stupid AI. Scientific Method (1st in the world) discovered at same turn.

1100 - ToE in Seoul --- Chose Atomic Theory (Han and Oda already had it for a long time) and Electronics (1st in the world).

1240 - Hoover Dam in Seoul. Beauty. Now it was straight to UN.
In the same turn, Intelligence Agency in Puhang.

1265 - Wall Street (Pyongyang).

By 1250 my defences were mostly infantaries and guerrilas. I really avoided to spend much production turns in units because I wanted to set my productive rings to wealth, thus bringing the techs faster.

About 1270 the unpredictable happened.:satan:

Han invades my territory, violates the milenar ROP we had and declares war. Detail: Han was gracious with me! TREASON! :arrow:

Below a picture showing Han diplomatic status by 1250, few turns before the war (I don't have the save from the beginning of the war).

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/gotm24_foto2.JPG

At that moment I just started researching Flight and was expecting the UN for about 1320-1350. After Flight, the only remaining tech separating me from Modern Ages would be Motorised Transportation, which I was intending to
trade for my Flight with Oda or Han... until they declared war.

(to be continued in the Modern Age post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1301765#post1301765))

[ptw] 1.27 Open

As my nation entered the Industrial Age in 700 AD, I was researching easily at a 4-turn pace. I was concerned that without my GA to boost my income, I might not be able to maintain such high research. That, however, turned out to be false. Starting with my free tech of Nationalism, I used tech gpt deals from all of the AI to fund my research, and run at 100% science for most of the rest of the game. I managed to snag all of the IA wonders, but made a rather :smoke: move when I mistimed the TOE and got Steel when I had one turn of research left. So, in effect I only got one free tech. A free tech is nice, but not having the second one cost me around 20 years.

Despite that minor setback, I was on cruise control on my way to a Diplomatic victory.

PTW Conquest.

By the IA I had wiped out Pinky and Olive. Made sure everyone else loved me by passing around ROPs to everyone and also giving people luxaries or saltpeter so they wouldn't attack. Thus my military stayed at around 5 units (obviously not counting workers). People were actually Gracious with me. I had never had that outside of war.

I got Nationalism for free so the RNG still hates me. My leader is sitting home waiting for Fission to come around in the next age but I just know that I the RNG won't be nice in that age either.

I make a bee-line towards ToG however I don't finish it. I sit on it for a while until I have a 5+ turn research path. The moment I have my first one I use it.

The game pretty much boiles down to the civs all contacting me with the ROP and/or luxary gifts disapear and me buying all improvements in this order:
Library, Courthouse (for cities with more than 25% corruption), University, Marketplace, Bank, Harbor (when available) Stock Exchange, workers to simply fill out every city to 12 pop. If you take away the diplo screens 90% of my turns were hitting the space bar.

From the beginning of the IA to the point where we are to stop I literally only had about 5 military units. I'm never a war demon, but this even surprised me. The only thing I could figure is that there were so many people Gracious with me that no one dared threaten me. Heck no one even asked for a tribute and the Had were always at least polite with me. I thought about waging a little war on the Han, but then decided why? This is Civilization, lets be civil like the real world and just ride it out. I kept all the civs at the same tech level, 2 behind me, even though some of them couldn't have researched anything in less than 40 turns.

So I'm headed for a diplo victory and I haven't had a war with any surviving civs and they all are either Gracious or Polite to me up to the cut off for this spoiler.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif PTW1.27

* Discovered Mass production in 1120 AD. There are 8 civs left; I would have preferred an odd number but there’s no point in changing that now. The eliminated civs are: pink, olive and orange (the one that was, if we think Indo-European, appropriately named “Mori”).

* Plans for a diplo win: Three Japanese peoples are at war with Han Dynasty. But they have not established themselves on our continent. Their naval attacks are probably too scattered. Up to 1100 AD I had not had a single MPP, but then I signed with everyone except Han Dynasty. I will try to win as many fights as possible against Han to make the others like me. As a precaution, I have given Han a worthless town on a small island. (See screenshot) because I don’t want them wiped out even though they will not vote for me.

* It’s not yet clear who will be my opponent in the voting because the population count is tight. But it will probably be Shimazu. Funnily, I had them picked as my opponent from the beginning. However, the original plan was to wipe out everyone except the islanders Shimazu and Chosogabe, which I could hardly have managed because of a poor start.

* Two uncertainties:
1) Will someone research amphibious warfare and capture the Han Island city? (See screenshot.) It might not make a difference because there might not be time to capture all the other Han cities.
2) Is it a mistake to drag Shimazu into the war? It might be, but they don’t have any MPPs or alliances.

* IA Tech race: Got free Steem Power, then went straight for Scientific Method.

Traded for Industrialization, Refining and possibly Medicine (can’t remember) + all the optional techs. Researching Steel before Refining is a must when you have a tech lead. Right now I’m hoping to trade Flight, debating with myself if I should give Radio away to prevent the top 3 AI from researching it rather than Flight.

* I’m still in Monarchy! The plan to switch to Democracy was stopped by the Golden Age I got from Newton’s College. The research rate has been 100% since the early Middle Ages. Free units= about 170. No banks, no cathedrals, marketplaces everywhere. Cash is around 3500g.

I will certainly reload when I’ve submitted to check out what a switch to Democracy would have yielded. Most players seem to have chosen Republic over Monarchy, but I felt that war weariness was not my cup of tea this time. With monarchy you can stay at war longer and also get a bit of extra happiness for WLTKD.

Here's the screenshot

[ptw] 1.27f OPEN

Continuing from my previous (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1303057#post1303057) post, I entered the Industrial Ages in 480AD after buying Metallurgy from Tokugawa. I get Nationalism free (wanted Steam), so start Steam Power, and even with GA I need 100% science to get it in 4 turns. I'm starting to feel the effects of the Palace and FP being one city apart. I really need to prepare for a palace jump in case I get no leaders. (Not enough time for this game.)

The rest of the Industrial Age consists of fastest possible tech progression, combined with gifting to all other civs to try and get some help. I end up getting only one Industrial tech from the AI (Replaceable Parts). I have a TOE prebuild going in Pyongyang and will try to get some kind of prebuild going for Hoover in Seoul.

Highlights:

530AD Steam Power

590AD Electricity

610AD Newton's in Seoul (Lib, Univ, Copernicus and Newton's for 300% research bonus)

630AD Someone finishes JS Bach, the last available wonder, ending any further cascades! This is a good thing.

670AD Scientific Method. Switch to TOE in Pyongyang, due in 3. This means I'll lose 3 turns of research. Industrialization is 5 turns at 100%, but would give me Suffrage as a prebuild for Hoover. MM Pyongyang to slow down TOE to 5 turns and then switch to Palace. Switch Seoul to TOE to prebuild Hoover.

720AD Industrialization, big picture: switch Seoul to Suffrage, Pyongyang to TOE, tech to Atomic Theory. Before letting it continue I do some calculations on Seoul. It's 16 turns to Suffrage (same as Hoover), OR I can switch to factory which will finish this turn. The shield boost from factory will let me do Suffrage in 15 turns meaning it will finish the same turn either way. Switch Seoul to factory. Exit big picture, TOE finishes, get Atomic Theory, Electronics and start Radio. Seoul builds factory and starts Hoover, due in 15 as calculated. Take some workers away from railroading to beef up Samchok in the mountains to prep it for UN prebuild. Also realize I should have been improving the barb island a long time ago, start shuffling a couple dozen workers over there to beef it up.

750AD Get Replaceable Parts from Takeda. At this point I'm gifting tech for free to try and keep their science rates up.

790AD Radio

820AD Island is fully developed and cities at size 12 after rushings lib, univ, aqueduct and marketplaces and joining workers.

830AD Corporation

870AD Steel, Hoover done in Seoul. Get Sanitation for Steel.

910AD Rush Hospital in Seoul and add workers to increase research rate.

920AD Refining. Combustion due in 5, shuffle tiles, add workers to Seoul so they are using every tile available and get it down to 4 turns. Sell Refining to Han for 110gpt to keep my net positive and then gift as usual to everyone.

960AD Combustion, trade around and get Espionage and Elightenment. Gift everyone EVERYTHING since I'm on the top tree and bottom is done. Would like to get some help with flight if I can.

1000AD Mass Production. Palace prebuild for UN is 7 turns from done, need to slow it down.

1030AD Use Mass Prod to renew lux deals.

Will continue in last spoiler.

At the end of the Middle Ages I got a monopoly on Economics and traded it for several techs I was missing, and a lot of gold. I was prebuilding for Smith's and got it 9 turns later. I expected it to trigger my Golden Age but it did not. At that point I was still a Republic and could have used the GA boost.

A few turns later I was able to trade with all of the civs on the other continent. This did wonders for my treasury as I was able to get lots of gold per turn. This finally got my tech rate down to 4 turns for Physics and Magnetism.

I was also prebuilding for Newton's or Magellan's. However, I got a late start and lost Newton's by 4 turns and Magellan in the cascade.

Entered the Industrial Age at 760. Got Nationalism when I wanted Steam Power. But it turned out fine. The AI values Nationalism very highly and I was able to trade it for a forturne.

I switched to Democracy shortly after entering the IA and got a 7 turn anarchy. I got the same 7 turns when I went from Despotism to Republic.

In 830 the Oda declare war and the Gogurys ally with them. That was pretty stupid of the Gogs because they only had one city left to them after my previous war with them. They lasted one turn. The Oda landed one Rifleman during the entire war and his remains were sent back in a floating bottle. I never worry when a civ on another continent declares war because the AI can't mount an amphibious invasion. I just use it as a time to get allies and weaken the opposition on the tech front.

In 1150 I discover Scientific Method and get Theory of Evolution from a prebuild. Choose Atomic Theory and Electronics so that I can build Hoover Dam. The TOE finally triggers my Golden Age and it was wonderful to have it in a Democracy. I spent the rest of the IA gifting techs to the other civs in the hope that they would research some techs for me. I did manage to get Combustion and Mass Production that way.

My GA ended in 1300 and I got Mass Production 4 turns later.

One curious thing that happened in my game had to do with the Gogurys. As I said above, I eliminated their last city in about 840 AD. However, they remained in the game. I carefully examined all of the terrain and could find no other Gogury city. All I could see was one Gogury Junk. Is it possible for a civ to survive with just a Junk? Sounds like a lot of junk to me.

Originally posted by zagnut

One curious thing that happened in my game had to do with the Gogurys. As I said above, I eliminated their last city in about 840 AD. However, they remained in the game. I carefully examined all of the terrain and could find no other Gogury city. All I could see was one Gogury Junk. Is it possible for a civ to survive with just a Junk? Sounds like a lot of junk to me.

If that Junk was carrying a settler, the civ is still "alive", waiting to found a new city. However, if all coastal areas had been settled by then, there was nowhere to land, and they were the 'Man without a country', just living in exile. It does happen on occasion.

Thanks, Justus, I suspected it was something like that.

True thing. A civ is only "officially" destroyed when not only all cities but also all settlers are eliminated.

I've already seen the case of a Brazilian player who had his Conquest victory delayed because of a missing Indian galley with a settler. :D

I'm playing an SG ATM where one civ has been a settler on a boat for about 4000 years. They are very difficult to find.

In this GOTM, in the confines of this spoiler I had the same "problem". The Han had a settler on a boat which they parked off the barb island. Eventually a tile on the island became free and they were able to disembark said settler who was promptly dispatched. That's how the Han left my game. I put it down to pre-meditated suicide. Not even the AI could be that stupid.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif[ptw] 1.21f

Middle Age Post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1284690#post1284690)

700AD, left off Middle Ages struggling for victories, two cities lost as we work through Anarchy looking for a Democratic civilization. With Democracy formed significant trades are made and Korea gain Military Tradition, after a series of upgrades Cavalry arrive. The game turns as the Gogourian Muskets don't look so strong. Soon the Muskets are gone, only pikes and spears left, more Cavalry arrive and Gogourian are defeated. Flush with success, Baekje are quickly finished and the forces of Korea halt at the borders of the Han dynasty.

900AD dawns with a new peaceful Korean empire. No more wars will be fought, reputation remains intact.

Trading in earnest now started with the Japanese and Chinese civilisatiions. Large GPT deals were written for various resources and luxuries particularly Saltpeter. Then I was introduced to a new CivIII concept, a per turn deal for a luxury (Saltpeter) in exchance for a technology. All that warring had left Korea behind in tech, but the trading helped to close the gap. Still there was a gap and victory was far from assured. The goal now was Scientific Method and a big pre-build for TOE.

1210AD With SM researched the palace build is switched to TOE and Korea jump into a tech lead. Taking all the techs and gold that the AI has, with RADIO spare the tech lead was never to be lost.

Perfect reputation, no more wars needed thankyou. Two cores setup, strong border guards with Han.

[edit] What I forgot to mention was that TOE was the first Wonder built, I never really got close to any others.

Next spoiler please.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gifhttp://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/ptw.jpg1.27

Link to spoiler1, Ancient Times (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1301965#post1301965)
Link to spoiler2, Metallurgy (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1312643#post1312643)

Warfare

I continued with slow warfare. My top priority was fast research. That required so much effort in building infrastructure that I had only a bit left over for military efforts. The other Civs were not much help. I didn't take much from the strongest three of them (wanted to boost their research efforts instead) and the rest had surprisingly little gold available.

My war on Han Dynasty ended in 410AD when I took their last town. The Japanese clans never made contact with Han Dynasty, so they never knew Korea as anything but a single united Civ :)

I then eyed the Japanese lands. I wanted more land, and I very much wanted two more luxuries. In 540AD I sent a first wave of 22 Cavalry from the east coast to invade Takeda. With the assistance of some reinforcements in the following turns these Cavalry took over all the Takeda lands by 690AD. The Takeda resistance wasn't very strong.

After the Takeda I didn't invade any further Japanese clans - I was close enough to a Diplomatic victory by then that it didn't seem worthwhile to continue warfare.

I did however send a small force to take the barbarian island. I had Infantry by this time and expected that a few of them could quell the barbarians to gain a bit more land.

When I learned Mass Production in 790AD my world looked like this:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/sirpleb24-3a.jpg

Research

After learning Metallurgy and trading for Astronomy in 210AD I didn't expect my rivals to be any further help in the Middle Ages. I researched Physics, Theory Of Gravity, and Magnetism, entering the Industrial Age in 350AD. My rivals picked up some branch techs during this interval.

In total I'd gained 3 useful Middle Ages techs from my rivals - Feudal Warlords, Invention, Astronomy.

I used a leader to rush Newton's (had a prebuild going but the leader came at a convenient time) and began a Golden Age in 320AD. This was good timing for a Golden Age. It allowed me to continue research at the four turn pace in the early Industrial Age, while quickly building more infrastructure to support ongoing four turn research later on.

I gifted my three chosen research partners into the Industrial Age.

My free tech was Medicine. My partners would definitely be working on Nationalism first. So I researched Steam Power and then Electricity in 430AD. I gifted these to my partners - this would ensure they'd go for Replaceable Parts once they learned Nationalism.

After setting up my partners to go for Replaceable Parts I researched Industrialization, Corporation, Steel, and Refining.

While I was working on these, Shimazu learned Nationalism in 500AD. I traded for it and gifted it to my other helpers.

When I learned Refining in 590AD I gifted it and Steel to my partners, hoping one of them would go for Combustion after learning Replaceable Parts. This was not a sure thing but seemed my best bet - the AIs would rate Combustion almost twice as high as any of the other techs available to them at that time.

I then researched Scientific Method, Atomic Theory, Electronics, and Radio. At 630AD, when I learned Scientific Method, a rival learned Replaceable Parts. I traded for it when a second rival had it a turn later and gifted it to my third helper. Atomic Theory was quite a challenge for me, I barely learned it in four turns, with a fair bit of fine tuning of citizen assignments.

In 740AD, one turn before I learned Radio, Shimazu learned Combustion. I traded for it of course. And that was it for assistance I could hope for from my helpers, I'd have to learn the rest myself.

In 790AD I learned Mass Production, ending my notes for this spoiler.

In total I'd gained 3 useful Industrial Age techs from my rivals - Nationalism (I count this as useful because either I get it as my free tech and get the AIs to work on something else, or I get something else free and the AIs will work on this one), Replaceable Parts, and Combustion.

Throughout this period I supported my three research partners a lot. As well as gifting them techs I gave them luxuries and gave two of them coal. The only gpt I took from them I used to even their capacity a bit - when one of them sold ReplaceableParts to another, I took some gpt from the first one and gifted it back to the second :)

PTW 1.27 Open class game

Link to Ancient Age AAR (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1278445#post1278445)

Link to Middle Ages AAR (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1313992#post1313992)

970 AD - At this time the peacetime building programs are proving very successful. Still, I find myself behind in the tech race. Most of the world, with two exceptions, is in the Industrial Age. Those two civs are the Mori and my neighbors, the Baekje. At the start of this turn I finished Physics and started on Magnetism. I still need Theory of Gravity as well to enter the Industrial Ages myself. I've not even attempted to build any wonders yet, I'm too bloody far behind with the Han just sitting there, waiting for an excuse, and the Baekje just sitting there, looking more and more tempting, even though we are trading partners - they provide me with my saltpeter. The Baekje lack ToG and Magnetism also, but they have Democracy, which I want! Too bad I have nothing to trade for it. I have to do something though, so I trade with the Mori (the only civ that is sadder than mine) Physics, Wine and 8gpt for Military Tradition. (Got Cav?? - An important question when the Han that are your neighbors do...) I decide to cut Research funding to help my cash flow crisis, figuring to work a couple of turns on Magnetism to lower the price and then trade for it. Then I can trade it to Baekje for Democracy and change governments.

980 AD - I check in with the Baekje and see that they now have Magnetism!! So I trade with Shimasu, giving them 49gpt for Theory of Gravity. Baekje doesn't have any cash, so we trade straight up, ToG for Magnetism. Bang! I'm in the Industrial Age and the freebie is Medicine. This rocks because nobody has it yet!! All the other Industrial civs already have Nationalism. Trading off Medicine allows me to pull even in the Tech race again and gives me 500g on hand and 230gpt income. I start a revolution for a Democracy.

1030 AD - Revolution ends and I select Democracy. Time to go into high gear in R&D.

1100 AD - I research Steam Power and begin planning the attack on Baekje. Research path now is towards the Theory of Evolution, then Hoover Dam. I start looking to improve cities to build wonders.

1200 AD - My second war. This time I start it, forming a mpp with the Han and dowing the Baekje. I capture my first city from them, Chin-do.

1220 AD - I capture my second city, Yosu.
1250 AD - I capture my third city, Kwangju.
1270 AD - I capture my fourth city, Kunsan.
1285 AD - I capture my fifth city, Taejon.
1295 AD - I capture my sixth city, Mokp'o.
1300 AD - Chin-do flips back to the Baekje.
1305 AD - I re-capture my Chin-do.
1310 AD - I capture my seventh city, Ch'onam. This was a bad year for the Baekje. They lost two more cities this year to two other combatants, leaving them with only two remaining.
1315 AD - I capture my eighth city, Ch'ongju. This leaves Baekje with only one city.

1320 AD - The Mori capture Baekje's remaining city and thus ending my second war. (Well, there are several remaining Japanese combatants, but I buy them off pretty cheaply over the next several turns. This is helped enormously by my small navy of Ironclads sinking any wooden ships they find!)

1340 AD - I complete the Theory of Evolution wonder and research Atomic Theory and Electronics, switching my other pre-build to Hoover Dam.

1380 AD - I complete Hoover Dam. I'm now well on my way. I should be able to pull off a diplo win now without a problem. I'm ahead in the tech race and running at 100% research as much as possible. Nothing left do now but research and grow population.

~ Fin

Originally posted by SirPleb

I continued with slow warfare. My top priority was fast research. That required so much effort in building infrastructure that I had only a bit left over for military efforts. [/B]

I also attempted the same thing, however much less successfully than you. But I wonder why you took the time to invade the other continent. You mention obtaining 2 other luxuries. Was that the main reason and did it make that much of a difference that it was worth the time and effort to invade?

I did however send a small force to take the barbarian island. I had Infantry by this time and expected that a few of them could quell the barbarians to gain a bit more land.[/B]

I thought it would be unproductive in a game where I was going for a diplomatic win to invade the barb island. Knowing cracker's prior plans for barb islands I thought I could bypass it without any harm. The fact that I made no move at all against it didn't seem to have any effect on the game.

The barb island also lead me to explore for the other continent by sending suicide Galleys to the east. When I first saw the barb island there were many barb Galleys in the vicinity. I guessed that cracker was trying to sucker us into exploring in that direction. At the time I didn't know it was a small island, but I decided that it might be better to go around the north end of our continent and then send a Galley either north or east. I tossed a coin and it came up east. My first Galley set out to the east and at the end of the first turn it could see the other continent's coastal waters. On the second turn it made it to safety.

While I was working on these, Shimazu learned Nationalism in 500AD. I traded for it and gifted it to my other helpers.

When I learned Refining in 590AD I gifted it and Steel to my partners, hoping one of them would go for Combustion after learning Replaceable Parts. This was not a sure thing but seemed my best bet - the AIs would rate Combustion almost twice as high as any of the other techs available to them at that time.[/B]

This concept of gifting techs to the other civs and having them discover techs that you can then trade for is such an important part of the game on the higher levels. Once you are no longer behind in techs it is such a terrific strategy. However, I seriously doubt if any casual player would ever think of it. Have you ever thought of writing an article about it?

Throughout this period I supported my three research partners a lot. As well as gifting them techs I gave them luxuries and gave two of them coal. The only gpt I took from them I used to even their capacity a bit - when one of them sold ReplaceableParts to another, I took some gpt from the first one and gifted it back to the second :) [/B]

That is a clever idea.

Originally posted by zagnut
But I wonder why you took the time to invade the other continent. You mention obtaining 2 other luxuries. Was that the main reason and did it make that much of a difference that it was worth the time and effort to invade?
It was the combination of two more luxuries and a fair bit more land which I couldn't resist :) I don't know how much difference it made but I'm fairly sure that the combination of those two things increased my score significantly. I didn't compromise speed of the Diplomatic victory though, just used what resources I could spare from that goal.

Invading the barbarian island probably made very little difference to my score, at most a few points. I did it more for a bit of fun. I'd ignored the barbarian island till near the end and it was still teeming with barbarians from the two uprisings. One of the Japanese clans had recently settled a town there which had soaked up perhaps half of the barbarians but there were still a lot left. I was curious to see how they'd react to a few (three) Infantry and how the Infantry would fare. The lowest the Infantry went was one of them down to 2HP. The PTW barbarians took quite a few turns to finish throwing themselves against the invaders - they're quite a bit more random than the barbarians in earlier versions of the game.

Originally posted by zagnut
I guessed that cracker was trying to sucker us into exploring in that direction.
Nice deduction :goodjob: !

Originally posted by zagnut
This concept of gifting techs to the other civs and having them discover techs that you can then trade ... Have you ever thought of writing an article about it?
No, but now it is on my list to consider when the urge to write next strikes! :)

I'm condensing spoiler 2 and spoiler 3 posts into one short post as most of what happened was boring.

Circa 400 AD the Koreans had changed to republic (very late) after a reasonable 5 turns of anarchy, where they were to stay for the rest of the game. The Han were reduced to a settler on a boat and a few turns later committed suicide by trying to settle on the barb island.

Korea was conducting 4 turn research from chemistry onward but there were still a number of techs that would require 5 turns. We gifted all the techs to the AI at all times, and they were at peace at all times but still felt unable to contribute to tech research. Once out of the AA I never managed to get a single tech from the AI.

Korea received steam as their free tech for the industrial era, and researched to scientific method. The AI researched the government techs which were a chocolate teapot as far as I was concerned, absolutely useless.

We didn't build TOE immediately, as we were going to try to time it to get flight and fission a bit later. Unfortunately the Takeda got Scientific method as I was researching replaceble parts. In itself this wasn't a problem, but a couple of things happened that forced me to build TOE early.

Around 600 AD the Mori landed a couple of units on my Eastern coast. Beautiful units. I had no military whatsoever, only 25 fighting units, 6 of which were warriors. Still, most of the land had been railed and I got my 5th leader killing them. A few turns later we made peace.

Again, as I was researching Replaceable parts around 880AD, Tokugawa landed a couple of Cav on my western coast. The war that followed was of little concern, but for the fact that it triggered other wars, and a very complicated set of MPPs and military alliances were formed. I couldn't risk the Takeda getting a leader and building TOE so I used my Hoover pre-build for it (saving the leader for a rainy day and taking Mass Prod and Radio). I then had to change tack a little and set up 2 UN pre-builds, 4 turns apart on the off chance I got fission as my free tech.

So it was that in 1020AD that Korea built TOE, learned MP and Radio, leaving flight and Mech transport to discover in the Industrial age. The Tokugawa were second in power, but it was close between them and the Takeda. Tokugawa were at war with Korea nad a couple of lesser civs. If the Takeda were ever to overtake them on the power graph then when it came to the vote, Wang Kong would be up to his elbows in it, but his hands would be above his head.....

Civ 1.29 on Mac

Korea scratchs and claws it’s way into the industrial age. Korea is the 5th civ into the industrial age and at least 2 techs behind.

Nationalism was the free tech. Some already had it so I sold it for whatever I could get. I set research to scientific method as the priority and maxed out research. The saved great leader is used for TOE. I sell scientific method and then atomic theory and Korea is now rich and advanced. Electronics is sold just before Hoovers completes. This gives me a massive cash flow. At one point I’m getting 650gpt from the Japanese civs. This lets me research at 90% (100% doesn’t actually save me turns so I don’t do it) with lots of cash to rush things.

I have captured lots of workers but I still need more. So I build more. With Steam power I see that I have excess coal so I sell that too.

Then I note that the Goguyreo are still alive despite having no cities. I gift them one on the former barb island. I also give them back one of their workers. They will be good for a vote at the UN. I also give the Mori and the Gogs lots of techs.

The major action of the age is the destruction of the Kuroda at the hands of the Oda and Takewa? (red anyway). Oda’s a monster and a threat to win a 100k victory. Then these two allies start fighting amongst themselves. I support Takewa because Oda is too big. I give the Takewa cheap techs, resources etc.

My core lands are improved and I start building a modern army and navy and airforce. Mass Production is the 2nd last required tech to enter the next age and I skip all non required techs. I start a UN prebuild as well.

[ptw] 1.27f (Euro) Open

Spoiler 1 : Ancient Ages (4000BC to 350BC) (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1327014#post1327014)
Spoiler 2 : Middle Ages to Metallurgy (350BC to 500AD) (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1327124#post1327124)
Spoiler 3 : Industrial Ages to Mass Production (500AD to 1285AD)

Baekje War (660AD to 730AD)
Heres my minimap at 500AD :
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Dianthus_GOTM24_AD0500MiniMap.png

I did a little Horseman/Cavalry building (remember I mentioned last spoiler that the Han war left me with only 3 Horsemen?), then started war on the Baekje. Progress was quite quick, though there were some strange (I.e. bad from my point of view!) RNG experiences where Cavalry lost to Otomo Spearmen. By 720AD the Baekje were down to 4 cities (1 of which is on the other side of the Han in the far South West). Nearly all of my military was in the North East. Most of my cities were undefended, with only the cities along the Han border defended with a low number of units. This is the point the Han started war again! I took two more Baekje cities and made peace for their penultimate city in the South West. I immediately gave this city to the Ch'unch'on as I couldn't defend it.

Here's a minimap at 730AD:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Dianthus_GOTM24_AD0740MiniMap.png

Yet Another Han War (730AD to 810AD)
The Han took a border city enabling them to reach a couple of my unguarded inner cities. My Cavalry soon covered the ground to take those cities back. The Han requested peace, but I was having fun now and saw no reason to give it to them yet. War weariness was starting to be annoying though. I had been holding off changing from The Republic to Democracy and started the change in 760AD. In 780AD I got my 1st great leader and saved him for the Theory of Evolution (still need another 3 techs). My citizens were a lot happier when in Anarchy. 6 turns later the government change was complete so I made peace with the Han and they gave us New Shanghai (on barb island).

Give me another leader! (810AD to 950AD)
I had a change of heart about the leader. I wanted to finish off the Baekje and Goguryeo so they couldn't vote against me later. I had 7 or 8 elite Cavalry and thought there was a good chance to fish for another leader, so I used my 1st one to move my palace to very East of the Korea-Han border. This made quite a difference to my rank based corruption :

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Dianthus_GOTM24_PalaceMove.jpg

I then attacked the Baekje and Goguryeo and fished for leaders. I managed to drag it out to 950AD before accidentally :) wiping out the Goguryeo. I had 19 Elite wins and still didn't get another leader!

Research and Trade (950AD to 1285AD)
During this period I remained peaceful while keeping a strong defensive military to disuade the Han from yet another sneak attack. Having failed to gain a leader I built the Theory of Evolution by hand, completing it in 1070AD. In 1240AD I completed the Hoover Dam. I managed to trade for 2 or 3 techs, but had to research the rest. I left Mass Production for as long as possible in the hope that the AI would research it, researching everything else until Mass Production was the only thing left. I completed research of Mass Production in 1285AD and finally started a UN prebuild (oops, left that a bit late!).

Here's a minimap at 1285 AD :
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Dianthus_GOTM24_AD1285MiniMap.png

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/ptw.jpg v1.21f http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif


Middle Ages Post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1325770#post1325770)

I learned Metallurgy and entered the Industrial Ages at the same time, in 500 AD. My free Tech was Steam Power :D , and I started on Electricity (8 turns, ouch). In 510 AD I finished Newton's, and in 550 AD I completed Smith's triggering my GA :D :D . This only shaved a turn off the research of electricity, but was otherwise quite timely, enabling me to get all my Universities and Banks built, Factories when available, and the extra commerce kept the research times short while doing the building. I had Jumped my Palace much earlier, and Inchon (the replacement to Seoul) was successfully converted to a 1 Turn Worker Factory (in fact, was one during the later part of the MidAges), so I had lots of workers available to build railroads and bulk up my cities to size 12.

I learned Electricity, and traded around, getting Nationalism, and some gpt. I wanted to get some income to maintain 90-100% research, but I didn't want to bankrupt the AI (I wanted to benefit from their research). So I made sure that the other leaders (Han, Oda, Takeda, Tokunaga and Shimazu) had Steam Power, Electricity and Nationalism. I’d trade with the followers (Mori, Chosogabe and Kuroda) when beneficial. I then researched Industrialism and Corporation and got those techs in the leader’s hands. This made Replaceable Parts and Refining available for them to research while I learned Medicine, Scientific Method, Atomic Theory, Electronics, Radio and perhaps Steel; hopefully I could get those other two techs out of them. Of course I planned to build Theory of Evolution, but after the other techs were learned (ideally, just at the end of the IA so I could choose Fission as one of the Techs.)

So here I was, merrily charging through the IA, my GA is going great, everything looks good, when in 660 AD the Han ROP raped me! (Okay, more of a ROP grope, but still …) My railroad network was developing, and the Han sent a Rider up to take an undefended city. (I’ve not made a habit of ROP agreements before this game; next time I’ll be sure to block the raillines!!) We’d finished off the Baekje, so this gave me a very good excuse to take the 3 former Baekjan cities that the Han had, in addition to retaking my own city, of course. (It looked like I took a severe War-Weariness hit when I lost the city, but it reversed when I took it back on my turn.) This also gave me the opportunity to get MA’s with everyone against the Han, which can only help when the UN count is eventually taken. I blunted the additional Han attacks with Riflemen, supported by Hwaacha, until RepParts was learned; I traded Medicine for RepParts, and started taking the war to the Han with my Infantry/Artillery stacks, backed up by small cav operations.

The Japan Clans had been very peaceful in the MidAges. Their island heated up a bit when Tokunaga declared war on Takeda, and later Mori. Then Kuroda and Shimazu declared war. I saw a few border towns switch back and forth, but no dominant warfare appeared to occur. Gradually some of the Japan civs dropped their MA’s against the Han. Tokunaga appears to be the leader; I plan to start a war against Tokunaga just before Fission is learned, and get MA’s against him to help assure a UN victory. To that end, I’ve started dropping any long term agreements I have with the Tokunaga.

The Oda have provided my second major surprise. They researched RepParts for me, and then researched ScientificMethod before Refining. Then they started on TofE. I had a pre-build for TofE going, and had timed it to finish just after I learned Steel so I could give the AI the maximum time to learn Refining for me. Two turns before I finished Steel, the Oda finished TofE. Disaster, right? Well, turns out not too bad. He’d learned Refining and taken Steel and Combustion as his techs. The only unique tech I had was Radio (other Trades had transpired involving Atomic Theory and Electronics), so I traded Radio for Refining and Steel (saving 6 turns), did 3 turns on Combustion and bought it, did 3 turns on Mass-Production and bough it, saving 2 more turns. So far, the Oda have saved me 8 turns of research; if I’d built TofE before, I’d have saved the same 8 turns. We’ll see if he can save me any more time to make it really worth while to have a 2nd competitive research civ.

Anyway, I’ve just gotten Mass Production, in 960 AD, I did build Hoover’s Dam and my main cities are at 12 or higher, I should sustain my 4 turn research and I’ve got a Leader from the Han wars saved for the UN. I might even be able to finish the Han off before the UN vote, to have one less vote against me. Should be done by 1100 AD.

Predator[ptw]1.21

Part 2 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/editpost.php?s=&action=editpost&postid=1328774)

Part 3 : Industrial up to MassProd (770AD to 1400AD)

GL7 = Yi Song-dye (990AD);
GL8 = Chu-Mong (1270AD);

MassProd = 1400AD;

Great Wonders = Part2+NewtUniv(780AD)+ToE(1210AD)+IntAgen(1345AD).

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Yurian_GOTM24_OCC_1400AD.jpg