Korea is incredibly powerful, even their UUs. I don't know why everyone hates on them, even in MP they get ragged on. You need to think of Korea in terms of your tech order, which has to be specific---the UUs allow you to forgo other techs until absolutely necessary, which gives you a huge jump on your opponents in longer matches.
Turtle Ship: this is the best example. After astronomy (for building observatory) you can just beeline scientific theory for public schools, then to industrialization for coal/factories. Only when you beeline plastics do you need to grab navigation. Korea is a TURTLING civ, not a warmonger. Why do you need frigates? The turtle ships defend your city from others' frigates incredibly well. They can even capture cities just fine if desired! Who cares about privateers/frigate onslaught if you have turtle ship/hwacha/GATLING GUNS!! combo?
Hwacha: just mows down any unit, the ultimate defense. A powerful trebuchet allows you to neglect upgrading to cannons until absolutely necessary. Throw these into forts and you're all set. In fact, when gamed correctly you get to Atomic Theory BEFORE you get cannons. Chemistry is the lowest priority tech with Korea.
Point is that these UU have incredibly long life spans when used properly, not shorts ones as these noobs (who aren't gaming korea correctly) are claiming!
Let's not even start talking about the power of the tech boost. When manually managed you get huge boosts that you can CONTROL. You can't put a price on that. For example, the GL and NC combo. When timed correctly you only need a turn or two at calendar right before you hit the GL to boost all the way through calendar to allow the free philosophy tech and NC. That gives you a lot of flexibility! In MP teams, this is great because it allows your partners to research whatever they'd like, while you spend a few turns on calendar and then boost through the rest. Next you use the national college tech boost to jump through another tech in the bottom of the tree (iron working, or currency...depending on your tile options/gameplan). This is very powerful and can't be overstated.
+2
for specialists and GP improvements? Wow.... I mean, just wow. +2
from acadamies? Throwing a citadel on a hill with a hwacha, +2
and +2
? Yes please! Need cash from a market? Well you get
too!
Point is that Korea is not for noobs. It requires manual management of all phases, at all times. Once you master them, they are far superior to Babylon which is more of a "set it and forget it" science Civ.
