*Spoiler2* Gotm24-Korea - Full world Map + Hwach'a/Cannons

This is the First Mid Game spoiler discussion thread for the Gotm24-Korea

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 progress in a short report in the Early Discussion thread 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 Metallurgy to enable the Hwach'a/Seige Cannon/Cannon units in the game (or already submitted your game) but you may not discuss Cavalry or any feature of the industrial age with respect to technologies, wonders, or resources. (If you discuss or hint about locations of Coal, Oil or Rubber we will ram slivers of bamboo under your fingernails.)

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

Do not mention industrial age or modern age wonders except as future goals.

We are particularly interested in screenshots, maps, and stories of what you discovered as you encountered new civs and new units in the game. For many players this will be the first time you may have seen some units like the Mounted Samurais of the Kensai Martial Arts Swordsman.



We owe a particular debt of gratitude to Civfanatics member Kinboat for making the extra effort to make so many great Asian/Korean/Japanese style units available to us to include in the game to fill in the gaps or substitute for the missing PTW units.

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.

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

Computer using RCP?
I saw that in GOTM24 when researching AI city placement. What a hell? Computer using RCP with a distance 5.5?

Ancient Age Thread.

Building, Trades and more trades
After failing the initial expansion, I considered conquering the starting landmass but I am now convince it will not work and will hamper my diplomatic victory. So I will switch to build mode and be ready to grab spare land where available. My search path is to go directly at Economics trading to AI with techs on the Invention tree. I will give as soon as possible Education to Han so that the Great Lib effect dies ASAP. The good thing is that I still have separated contacts that limits greatly the effect of the Great Lib.
I want to build lots of Wonders in order to deprive AI from them. I missed all ancient ages ones, I will not miss MA. Due to my long Palace pre-built, I will have Hanging Gardens in 2 turns

In 10 BC, I got Peace with Corgureyo giving Construction & Bajuscu & Nam’po & 40 GP & WM
Han : Shamanism & Currency vs Ivory & Dyes & 10 GPT & 10 GP
Enter Middle Ages with Monotheism as free tech
Tokugawa : Takeda & Shimazu & WM & 23 GP vs Monotheism
Shimazu : WM & all contacts & 3 GP vs Monotheism
Takeda : Monarchy & 7 GP & WM vs Republic
Oda : WM & 22 GP vs WM. Notice my WM is worth 22 GP more than the rest, it never happened to me before
Mori : WM & 31 GP vs WM
Chosugabe : 20 GP vs TM
Toku : 9 GPT & 2 GP vs WM
Han : Silks & WM & 33 GP vs WM
Great Map with Korean Peninsula & Japan well designed. Cracker this is VERY Impressive I go building mode, Libraries / MarketPlace / University / Bank to maximize research & happiness.

110 AD : My first attempt to Palace Jump, Go to Kaeson –. Seoul is rebuilt at the same spot with last produced settler and will produce workers ... and I enter building mode with trades and trying to keep GP of the others AI to a minimum. I basically monitor the AI quite closely in order to be sure to force them to search the lower tree of MA while I will search the upper tree.

170 AD : Han : Monotheism vs Feudal Warlords & 7 GP & WM. Contact are still separated and I gain Feudal Warlords at minimum cost.
Shimazu : TM & 7 GP vs WM
Chosogabe : WM & 7 GP vs TM
Oda : WM & 12 GP vs WM
Takeda : 11 GP vs WM


Ulsan is going to grab Silks in 260 AD. I will after rush buildings (Library / Temple / University / Cathedral) to avoid any flip due to culture. This is one of my best move. I love that one

190 AD: 2 nd Galley lost with a Settler I was trying to settle on the island north of my territory and south of Hokkaido (Shimazu territory). Finally Togukawa meets Han with a marauding galley. I did memorized when.

280 AD: Tokugawa – Samurai Code & Engineering & WM & 16 GPT vs Son buddishm. I get 2 techs and will plunder the AI for all their GP.
Shimazu WM & 37 GPT & 79 GP vs Son buddishm
Oda WM & 37 vs Son buddishm
Takeda : 28 GPT & 31 GP vs Son Buddhism
Give to Han for 3 GP& WM (since they will get it through Great Lib …)
Mori : WM & 6 GP vs WM

380 AD Takeda : Invention & WM & 120 GP & 39 GPT vs Education – More techs, these good AI are searching the desired path
Mori : 11 GP vs WM and gives Son Buddhism
Han : WM & Furs & 20 GPT & 23 G vs Education
Shimazu : WM & 11 GPT & 31 GP vs Education
Chosogabe : I give away Education (no Gold !) to have good & polite neighbor.
Kuroda : 67 GP & 17 GPT & WM vs Education
Goro : Monotheism vs 31 GP

460 AD : Han - GunPowder & WM & 207 GP & 69 GPT vs Astronomy
Toku : 5 GP vs WM
Choso : WM & 3 GPT & 25 GP vs Astronomy
Mori : 2 GP vs WM & gives Education
Kuroda : WM & 10 GP vs Gunpowder
Oda : Offers Astronomy to keep all AI at parity.
Corg : WM & 27 GP vs Sun bud

540 AD : Cor declares War on Han , I join in the fight. Cor are destroyed the following year and I manage to grab Haeju to complete my RCP 5 on the Palace. Maybe I should have removed Ham’po at distance 3 of Palace and on the East shores… but I did not

560 AD : Shimazu Music Theory & WM vs Chemistry
Offers Chemistry to Tokugawa …
Mori : 13 GP vs Invention
580 AD : Oda Navigation & 1 GP & WM vs Salpeter & Horses & Ivory. They are at war against two biggies might help them and give them 100 GP to keep them alive.
Chosogabe : WM & 7 GPT & 26 GP vs Wool
Han : Furs vs Wines & Dyes & 15 GPT
I resist to give Salpeter to Takeda (1st in rankings ...). Search at fast rate (4 per turn since Banking & Chemistry). Tech leaders are at parity I am leading by 2 techs (Economy & Physics). I am building Magellan’s / JS Bach / Newton / Smith


Status at 590 AD. I have 54 Workers & 1 eqWorker & 6 Warriors (Reg) & 7 Musketmen & 5 Knights & 1 Catapult (captured) & 5 Bushi & 2 Kensai & 1 Junk & 1 Pikeman... Producing a worker every two turns in Seoul ...

610 AD: Kuroda has a World War against him, I trade Horses / Iron / Salpeter vs Incense & WM & 3 GPT & 19 GP to keep him alive. I buy Metallurgy from Takeda for Wines & 41 GPT & 25 GP and I enter Industrial Ages.

Units are very impressive and nice Unfortunately as my aim is diplomacy (i.e. peaceful game), I did not have much to time to appreciate their usage.

Started off the Middle ages with a small war with Han. He was polite at the time but declared on me anyways. I signed a alliaance with Gogu against Han so I could focus on other things. This might not have been a good idea because Han rather easily took a couple of Gogu's cities before Gogu could get peace, hence only making Han stronger (from the get go of the game, Han put up a strong showing to this point in the game.) Only good thing I got out of the war was a Gogu city on my boarder that Han had taken and then I took if from him. Other then this city and a handful of Swordsmen, thats all I delt with in this war with Han. Peace was soon made which netted me a couple techs and some gold.

Takeda build the Great Lighthouse so he came to our land mass before we made it to his. Luckily I met him first which gave me the opportunity to trade of his contact for some techs. After gaining all the contacts from him, i was able to trade them off for some techs, which I was starting to fall behind in. I got back to parity but just as fast I started to fall behind ago. I got beat to Gun Powder by 2 or 3 turns so I was not able to make but bucks off of it. I trade for just about everything in the upper part of the tech tree after Educations (I had the Great Library, and at this point I didn't have Metallurgy yet, was in the process.) I then did finished Metallurby first, which is where this story finishes.

Other than this early war, nothing else really happened in this time frame of my game other then me struggling to stay close in the tech race.

Riccett

while i was sending out suicide junks, suddenly han, baekje and even guguryeo (which i cut down to 2 cities in ancient age) all had all contacts, world map and they were even more techs ahead than before my poor attempts to keep up with them.

i saw only one chance: baekje had the great library in a city two tiles away from our border! from 560ad to 670ad i was deliberately building up my troops and blitzed baekje with most of my knights - luckily i was able to buy samurai code before. i conquered the baekjian great library and got almost all the medieval techs including metallurgy, only two left to be researched.
i could even sell some of the techs to some smaller opponents for contacts and money and world map - i was one of them the turn before. now i am a civ to count with.

is this an exploit? i couldn't find anything about the GL-exploit in the "allowed exploits" page.

i might submit more details and screenshots later. i'm a little bit in a hurry now.

Originally posted by bluebox
is this an exploit? i couldn't find anything about the GL-exploit in the "allowed exploits" page.

Click to expand...

I do not think this is an exploit. This is just an opportunity of using AI wonders by conquest.

Personally, Baekje had the Pyramids so I got that from them.

After looking at the map I decided to go after the Han. I'm guessing that the they were still militaristic and their Riders really worried me.

I started to upgrade my horsemen to knights. I was always strapped for cash to do this. I had to reduce my research rate, and I was already behind in tech. I started to fall further behind.

After accumulating a large army of knights and getting the olives to ally with me I attacked. My initial assaults went well, and I captured several cities. But I was losing too many knights to musketmen and I started to bog down. I started researching as fast as I could to get to military tradition and fought on. If it wasn't for my olive allies I would have lost all of my gains.

It was tough enough against their Riders. Then their cavalry appeared and I still had knights. So now I have to wait for the next spoiler...

In 590 I enter the Middle Ages.

Well I entered the MA in 590. I had met all the other players in 650 BC.

After clearing Barb island I sent the elite swordsman I had over to Baekjle and attacked them. I gave Han and Gorguryeo and luxuary each for coming in with me so I wouldn't take a rep hit by the Baekjile bringing one in. I get real pissed the next turn because the Baekjle finish the Great Library and there is no way I want it. However I have to finish them off since I declared on them. So I take all their towns in the next 10 or so turns. And my last attack creates a Great Leader and I make the FP in the middle of their territory right away. I now have all the territory from the middle of the continent North. The one negative about that war is the fact I got the GL. I now have to stop building Hanging Guardens and my Sistine Pre-build so I don't enter my GA before I want to.
I got Engineering for free which again ticked me off because I wanted to make a bee line to Astronomy, Economics, and Democracy. I wanted to let the AIs start learning the other two branches. From this point out I never have research less than 100% unless I could do so and maintain a 4 turn research rate. At least until the IA. I start a war with Gorguryeo to get a few more cities and an extra wine. Bring in the Han and we kill of the G boys. Oh, and at the start of the MA I created ROP agrements with everybody and would never drop those in the MA. Everyone was polite or Gracious with me. I timed the completion of Cops Observatory so that I would be starting Theory of Gravity (which would have taken 5 turns) so I hit my golden age taking me down to 4 turns of research and easily get Newtons College too because of the GA. It pushed me into the IA very easily. I don't have the date but there were only 3 techs that took me more than 4 turns to research so it was fairly quick.

I would not fight in another war after taking out the Gorguryeo. No one ever made demands of me up to this point. I was making tons of money and still giving techs away left and right. Oh, and I got a leader in the Gorguryeo war and will be saving him for the UN build so that I can know off a few turns.

having never played korea before, i am having trouble using the h'wacha to get me into a golden age. This is the UU right? Am i missing something? thanks

You can't trigger a GA with the H'wacha - you'll have to get your GA by building Wonders instead.

My Middle Ages were really quiet - I had gotten there by trading with the other continent, and after that rode the GL for a bit until theology, at which point I started to research Printing Press @max, trading it around for post-education techs Seoul grabbed Sistine & , Smith's and Shakespeare's (ever mindful of the 20K backup pla) while my FP city slightly to the North of Seoul grabbed Bach's ( I wanted Leo, but culturewise Sistine was a better wonder to build in Seoul and the cascade beat me to it).

Since I already had TGL, building Smith's triggered my GA and from there on, all the AIs would be left in the dust techwise. Economics (which I had to research myself and was able to trade for Magnetism after ensuring the cascade didn't eat Smith's) was one of the last MA techs to be researched so the GA was just like I like it - early-industrial (and thus outside of the scope of this thread).
I also grabbed Magellan's and Newton's, just because I could .

I didn't get involved with the other continent much, only to sell off my techs every now and then. My free tech (engineering) brought me a fortune and so did every other tech I chose to go all-out for. I did end up in wars with the Oda, Takeda and Tokugawa (repeatedly) due to rejected tribute demands, but I made peace each time without a shot being fired in anger. It's an agressive bunch over there, with Tokugawa being the most agressive of all (and shaping up to be a monster - they virtually wiped out the Oda by the end of the MA).

v1.27f

50 AD - The recovery journey begins. I need to start expanding territory, or I will stay in trouble. I also need to find Japan. Based on the upside down Korea I expect Japan to my west.

50 AD to 350 AD -
The first Baekje war begins. I have decided to go on pure raze and replace plan. The Baekje provide us 4 new city sites, 10 workers, our third luxury of ivory, a second iron source, and a source of horses. I made peace after their capitol was defended by units that were doing a superhero imitation leaving me almost no offensive troops.

210 AD to 550 AD
Despite the fact that I gave the Han a dirt cheap luxury deal, the second war starts with them. I get the Goguryeo to join me in an alliance against them. This backfires as the Han take several of their cities. This was a complete waste of time, as I made almost no progress against them.

280 AD - The bad news continues as Sun Tzu is built on a different land mass. The bad news gets worse in 390 when Sistine Chapel is completed overseas. I badly need to find the other continent.

460 AD - We finally make contact with another clan - the Shimzam. What sucks is it the AI must have made contact during the inter-turn. I missed first contact trading by just 1/2 a turn. On the other hand, the GL really saved me big time. The GL takes me all the way to Navigation. What is bad is that I am second from last for score.

580 AD to 620 AD
The second Baekje war begins. I gain three cities from the deal, but the Han beat me to the fourth city by just one turn. This increases the size of the Korean clan to 13 cities. I still am a long way from being able to deal with the Han effectively.

750 AD - I don't know why I am struggling so badly for tech in the game. I see smokestacks even though I still need several techs to leave. I still haven't gotten cavalry, and haven't seen any of the new units.

My biggest challenges will be too small of size, and that real life just got extremely busy. I hit this timeframe on Oct 5 and have no idea when I can play again.

Naboo/Gotm24/Spoiler2/Open/V1.29/Mac/

Chronicles of Wang Kong the Ruthless in the Middle Ages

We left the Ancient Age with the spoils of the 1st Baekje War. A war in which we blatantly broke peace and trade deals in a sneak attack. The goal remains a diplomatic victory, but there are more war clouds on the horizon. Having took that first step, there is no reason now not to procure a territory large enough to yield sufficient resources and luxuries. In fact, since we did take the warrior's path those items will be essential. Trade will likely be difficult for some time. We'll get no credit so we will need commodities.

At least initially, we have some hope to completely clear our island before the remote civs get contact, but this would turn out to be overly ambitious. The Han became strong and more importantly, the role of Tech Broker could not be achieved by Korea.

Soon after ending the war, we sent out junks to find other civs. We meet the Mori in 250AD. Continuing along the coast of that land we soon get contacts to all the protoJapanese civs. None of my near neighbors are able to make contacts and it appears we are in a tremendously strong position to become brokers until Astronomy and Navigation.

Unfortunately, we don't have enough cash to get the sting running. Eventually it became clear that the best way to extract value from this situation was to trade contacts and maps for as much as we could get. It helped, but wasn't the game-buster we'd been hoping for when we made those first contacts.

This was very frustrating and we ended up taking it out on the Baekje, conquering them in 680AD and procuring the Pyramids from them, as well as a Great Leader who rushed the forbidden palace in Chin-do.

The procurement of extra saltpeter allows us to trade to the Oda for 31gpt, the first decent economic news in some time. The Oda appear to be the most vigorous of the Japan7. And now we've helped them…. Oops?

Conquest of Goguryeo is deemed essential, especially for the 3 wine they have. We declare war around 790AD. A couple of cities are taken but we realize our knights will have a hard time finishing the job against their muskets. We'll need to get to Cavalry somehow (discussed here only as a future goal ). We settle the war with Goguryeo and get Metallurgy for a hefty discount. This will save us just enough cash to procure the needed tech. Umm, does it sound like we're prepared to renege on our Goguryeo peace deal? Gosh we're near the Industrial Age and not done being despicable yet??

Mac 1.29

Ancient Age Thread.

My overall plan since 1225 BC was to research as quickly as possible to fission, while expanding as much as possible in the meantime, all the while maintaining good relations with the civs who would vote for UN head. Given that, entering the Middle Ages in 310 BC was pretty average, presumably a result of my crippling the Baekje early, so that they barely contributed to the research race in the ancient era.

PEACE

I switched to Republic in 230 BC, and completed the FP east of Seoul in 90 BC. The Korean cities were mainly building marketplaces, libraries and aqueducts; a minority built bushi. (I decided to build bushi rather than upgrade warriors because I couldn’t afford the gold drain while maintaining a fast research rate.)

After the free monotheism tech, I researched son buddhism in about eight turns, and went for education. Each tech was researched more quickly than the prior one, and by the time I reached astronomy, I was in a 4-5 turn rhythm.

In the meantime, my decision to trade or gift all my tech to the seven offshore civs looked really good. My approach was to take every bit of gold available, but keep everyone perfectly even. Perhaps as a result, there has yet to be a war in the other hemisphere since I met them in 570 BC, and almost every civ has taken a turn contributing to my gpt. While researching the top half of the tech tree, I traded for feudal warlords, engineering, invention, gunpowder, and chemistry, as well as military tradition, economics, and navigation. In effect, this meant I worked my way through the Middle Ages as fast as I possibly could have (510 AD) because had I researched my own techs any faster, I would have left the other civs behind.

My one mistake was to research music theory, as a way to lower my luxury rate. I wasted those four turns, as I was beaten out to the wonder by a few turns – ironically, it was the one tech I didn’t trade. When the AI reseached navigation, I was able to pick up enough luxuries to put the slider at zero. The Bach prebuild shifted over to Newton’s, and my GA kicked in about 480 AD.

Note the long sail to the western hemisphere, and the seven balanced civs:


WAR

After eliminating the Baekje in 300 BC with a half dozen swords, I waited until I could upgrade 30 bushi to kensai to invade the Goguryo in 10 BC. They Goguryo lost their iron almost immediately, and defended themselves almost exclusively with spears and arrows. The Kensai made quick work of them, picking up a Leader (#2) in 110 AD en route to finishing off the Goguryo at their capital in 270 AD.

The Leader allowed me to spare Seoul, rushing a new palace instead on the SE side of my new border with the Han, in 300 AD. This was about 2/3 of the way down the map, wth the FP 1/3 of the map north from there. I now had the two palaces lined up as well as I could to govern the entire continent. Again, the second core should have been created sooner in an ideal world, but I chose to build it for maximum longterm effect, and it took me this long to conquer this far south, due to my primary focus on infrastructure.

I was in a hurry to declared war on the Han, and had already missed the chivalry window with them. I had kept my local rep intact so as to nail the Han as hard as possible. I attacked in 370 AD with 18 kensai, taking three border cities and taking Canton, their iron source. Unfortunately, five of my six kensai died taking Canton, which means I was forced to raze it, leaving the iron in open territory, fully roaded.

It didn’t take long for the Han to rebuild Canton, and I continued to encounter catapults, pikemen and kensai, followed by riders and, a little later, musketmen. The first of a moderate stream of knights arrived to support the kensai, but I felt I had bitten off more than I could chew. What I did is to draw out the Han counteratack into open ground, where captured catapults and knights destroyed them. In the meantime, the few cities I had building knights kept up a steady southward stream, and the 480 AD GA helped even more. Several turns later, I had the feeling that the Han’s back had been broken, and their cities started to fall… slowly. Musketmen hold up well against knights.

open

Entered MA 420 AD and make a major mistake right off. Since I got monarchy & republic from the GL and didn't have a screen pop up to ask about a revolution, I remained in depotism all throughout the MA You can probably predict the final result.

550AD, we trade for WM

860AD someone else entered IA as we suddenly see a lot of barbarian activity on the island to our west, but we are so far behind in tech, I don't know who it was.

EVIL HAN declared war on us and broke treaties to do it. They have military units that are unknown to us

980 AD Traded a tech with one of the civs across the ocean for the last 2 required MA techs to enter IA, then do a lot of tech trading in the same turn, but that's past this spoiler. (Yes, I'm STILL in depotism, and this is the turn that I FINALLY notice it as my research rate REALLY dropped off after I traded for the last 2 MA techs.)

Open Class 1.27f

As I finally left the Ancient age in 300 AD, I had just used my second leader to rush the FP in the old Goguryeo capitol, and had a thrid leader saved up for a wonder. I revolted ASAP and had a managable 4 turn anarchy and emerged as a Republic.

I decided around this point that I was finished with war for the game. With my two cores, I was certain that I could now research at a 4-turn pace all the way to Fission. This was, however, if I could get back ahead in techs. My warring had left me behind the Han, and much further behind the other continent, which I contacted while still in the Ancient Age through a suicide Junk.

That contact monopoly was my ticket to tech leadership. I started by trading my territory map, and then my world map. This got me right back around even. I managed to hold off on contact trading until the last possible second when I moticed an Odan ship approaching the Han. This netter me mostly money, as I was already even.

As far as my research path, I beelined for Education, as to get Universities set up everywhere. I used extra money to rush them wherever possible. The only non required tech I researched was Economics, in a vain attempt to have a GA through Newton's and Smith's. I ended up getting beat to both through a particularily nasty cascade that wiped out every wonder from Bach's to Newton's. My 3rd leader, who I used to get Sistine, should have been saved for Smith's. Even if I didn't grab Newton's, I could have still fulfilled the scientific responsibility through TOE. Oh well....GA's are overrated anyways

Overall, once my infrastucture was up to par, my Korean Republic began to zip along the tech tree quite quickly, 4-turning it all the way. All said, I was an Industrial nation by 700 AD.

1.21f

Left the Ancient age in 50AD, a little late but on track to take over the other Korean tribes. Baekje still had one city left and Gogoureo were strong.

Ancient Age Post

In 290AD We were ready for War with Gogoureo and launched a strong group of well trained Bushi, same turn found that we had met all the Japenese tribes, they must have traded contacts for Korea, all of them.

This war starts off ok with one city taken, but our two pronged attack then stalls. Time is taken to allow Gogoureo to counter attack to weaken them a little then the war is taken back to them, but the Bushi keep dying on the end of Gogoureo pikes. During this time, all the elites died, it was guaranteed that if we attack with the elite they would die, and if we attack with the regular they would win, guaranteed. Whatever god overlooks Korea was not looking their way in this war. Now the Korean Knights joined the fray, with fresh confidence the combined Bushi, Knight attacks start to cripple the Gogoureo defence and at last some ground is made.
Then the game turns, a glorious Korean leader emerges from the ruins of a battle for Kaesong. [dance]

The war however is far from won, with war wearines kicking in peace is declared. Now what to do with our glorious leader. The best place for the FP (which is clearly what he'll be used for) is in Kaesong, but that city is far from being taken. Now the Gogoureo show muskets in their cities, with no aparent saltpeter around (hidden under Changyon). So it is decided to built the FP now, and put it in Qitaigyon right next to Kaesong, little did we know that an FP city could flip, it didn't we were lucky

During this period we were always behind in tech, the Japanese were very advanced, and although they traded scraps keeping pace was difficult. The Han didn't help much and Baekje offered suprings amounts of cash for luxuries they were turned down as reputation is key in this game. There is no way there would be a big Japanese invasion the goal of a diplomatic victory is clearly set. Still the scraps were enough to allow good advancement and the Japanese never seemed to tire of our constant diplomatic visits. The FP started to kick in, combined with a nice set of shiny new Universities and the Korean scientists started to catch up, and as they did so the scraps became bigger

In 610AD it was time to finally irradicate the Gogoureo's, and war was formed. This war proved to be as difficult as the war of 290AD, with the newly dangerous Kensai Warrior joining the battle and taking it to the Gogoureo Muskets. The Korea Knights now discovered their retreat ability and there was a light at the end of the war tunnel.

Now in 700AD Democracy was discovered, do we wait until the war is over or turn to Anarchy now. Anarchy is chosen and the battle continues. Now the war turns bad as with no fresh troops coming through mistakes were made and a Gogoureo counter led to the loss of Ulsan. Together with the culture flip of Sariwon things started to look very bad.

Eventually a Democracy was formed but the story ends as we hit a certain spoiler rule, how the war continued, did the Korean live to tell another tale of heroics will have to wait for another day and another spoiler thread.

I'm afraid that I didn't build any Hwacha during this period, with Democracy I traded for many other techs including Metalurgy and MT so I had Cavalry before Hwacha so no dicussion here.

The Japanese tribes did not fight much, I liked that as I wanted them to keep the tech pace up so that I could trade for it. The goal here is absolute perfect reputation to keep trades cheap and keep in touch in time for TOE. You may ask about wonders, to be frank I didn't build any. It makes me smile to think before I played GOTM that I used to give up if I didn't get both Pyramids and GL, but now on Emporer level, Predator and no wonders, still able to keep in touch

Finally lets talk about Suicide Junks, here were my best two. Little did I know about the shape of the Japanese Island. This was taken after I did meet everyone else, the junks obviously didn't make it.

Originally posted by smackster
... It makes me smile to think before I played GOTM that I used to give up if I didn't get both Pyramids and GL, but now on Emporer level, Predator and no wonders, still able to keep in touch

Click to expand...

Methinks, you may have had an epiphany.

When you accurately perceive the fluidity of things, you can also begin to perceive the constancy behind them: the creative, transformative, boundless, immutable Tao of the GOTM.

370 BC ? 570 AD Korean Middle Ages.
Not too much to say here. I finished off the pink and had a decent size empire. Last time I went for a diplomatic win (in the OLD tournament) I didn?t have a single war. I new I needed more land and pink had some decent land. Things went very smoothly since then, peacefully researched for quite a while. Built Copernicus Observatory in 310 AD in Seoul. Towards the end of the age, the han dynasty started placing too many riders near my southern border. Trying to avoid war, I signed a rop with them by giving them a tech (forgot what it was). I then took all 7 of my knights and my last 3 bushi and placed them right next to their border town. I also trained a few more musktmen for my 2 border towns in question. I escaped War for the time being, which was real good since my interior cites had little or no defense. Entered the Industrial Age in 570 AD. Newton?s is getting close to being built in Seoul, getting ready for an Industrial Golden age.

Man, after reading everyone's Ancient and MA experiences, I feel like I really got robbed in the Great Leader department. I didn't get one my entiure game and I had many opportunities.

The year is 380AD. I am in posession of The Collossus and the Great Library. I have all but conqured the pinks, leaving them a single city on barbarian island that is constantly sieged by the natives. Meanwhile, the Hans have been rampaging through olive territory who are down to just two cities, each on opposite sides of the continent and seperated from the Han advances by my own territory.

Dozens of Han swordsmen are trying each turn to pass through my borders, but I demand htey withdraw each turn. I negotiated my own peace with the Hans when I entered the MA and turned to Republic in 250AD. We also have a current trade agreement for luxories and they are Polite, so they accept my demands, so all that stands between the Hans and the olives is my decent standing with the Han Horde.

I have a number of Kensai, but I'm still building up my infrastructure after the war with the pinks.

The display of might by the Hans with their mobilization of so many swordsmen is daunting. I have 19 turns remaining on our luxory trade. I've been sending out suicide junks to no avail. Currently I'm planning to build up my army to attack the Hans since it seems to be down to just the two of us and they have control of slightly more land area on our continent than I do.

And then this happend:



First Contact with the outside world as The Takeda, builders of the Great Lighthouse, find me before my neighbors (good thing I conquered the east coast).

I instantly trade around contacts and world maps and much cash, much int he form of gpt (not bothering with tech) and the Great Library provides me with a cascade of techs the next turn (woohoo!). Here's the map that is revealed to me:



This grants me a significant technological advantage over the Hans, but I'm concerned over my ability to keep up in tech once the GL is nullified (likely very soon). So instead of rebuilding my military, I concentrate on infrastructure. Surprisingly, the Han make peace with olives soon after.

But, now that I've seen the world map and I observe the Han managing to catch up in tech in no time flat, my concern grows. My territory seems just a little too small to gain dominance over the rest of the world. So, lacking patience, I attack the Han, breaking our trade agreement (a decision that would haunt me for the remainder of the game as I was unable to gain techs for gpt afterwards).

By 560AD, my troops are in position to begin my offensive on the Hans. I quickly grab four cities before negotiating peace as the Hans obtain the dreaded Rider and I realize any further war will result in a stalemate at best or possibly severe losses. So I regretfully halt my offensive at 630AD, just short of the precious silks and furs that the Han posess.

This would remain my territory for the majority of the remaining game. From now I concentrated on research and technology and trading and improving my damaged reputation. I also built the Sistine Chapel during this short war with the Han. I'm satisfied now that I have secured the dominance on my continent and I am just gaining an advantage in the world tech race...