Noob here, need Korea counter measure.

[hisagishi]

So, like the title says, I am pretty well versed on the game (I have somewhere between I want to say 80 hours and 100 hours) but I am not very good.

To make it even worse my partner has taken to playing Korea and just completely out pacing me in techs. (for instance last game he had 800 science per turn and my and the rest of the AIs had about 200-300 per turn) I generally play on King difficulty, I haven't tried anything higher and king doesn't seem to easy to me.

I generally love playing Assyria, their UA is quite nice when you are behind the AI on techs. And their UU reminds me of a dalek

I also enjoy playing as greece for a culture victory (haven't gotten it yet but still fun)

Babylon I have heard is good but I don't like them. I'm not sure why but they just seem a bit cheesy.

Also do mods like InfoAddict work in LAN multiplayer?

 

[Acken]

Poland Maya and babylon are good options.

But if there is a difference of 500 beakers, it's not due to civ differences.

 

[Doktor Vic Tim]

Poland, Babylon, The Maya and Korea are amongst the Top 4 civs. Here's what I suggest you do.

1. Point at him and laugh for playing an easy civ. (Doesn't hold power if you also play as the Top 4)

2. If possible, send trade routes to him to leech science from him.

3. Place spies in his cities (Can get tricky since you don't want your spy to get killed. Choose wisely amongst his cities).

4. Get Scholars in Residence enacted.

5. Make sure your cities grow and that you put Science Specialists in your cities (University slots, Public School slots etc) while still maintaining your growth.

Well, I guess that's that. Other might have better suggestions.

 

[hisagishi]

Hmmm, poland seems interesting. How good are they generally? There UA seems useful but I wouldn't think its enough to put it up there with korea/babylon. I'll try it out.

Also do AIs get any penalty from negative gold/unhappiness at all? I was playing a diplomatic game and my neighbor was being quite rude so I quickly made 10 or so settlers (Each took 1-2 turns so it was cheap) then gave them to him, he quickly used them to settle cities and got negative 800 gold. But none of his units were disbanding and no barbs spawning anywhere in his borders.

 

[Ryika]

It sounds like you really don't know what you're doing, a difference between 800 science and 300 science doesn't have much to do with the Civ he's playing. So your best bet would probably be to go to the strategy section of the forum and read up some guides to become more efficient.

 

[jlim201]

Make sure youre not unhappy, your cities are growing at a decent pace (stagnated/over 50 turns is not OK), and focus on science unless youre at war.

 

[phillipwyllie]

A Korean AI always fails because the AI always focuses on tech and neglects military. If you spawn near your playing partner take the advantage early on by bee-lining civil Service then Machinery(before Education), this is after you build the National College. 4 cross-bows and 2 pike-men does the trick against the AI, although might need more against a human player. But if he/she is focusing on science then you should have no problems. If you build the Pyramids and unlock the 'Citizenship' policy your workers will be able to insta-repair pillaged tiles. If you pillage an improvement your unit gets +25 health.

If war is not your thing then you need to grow your cities and build the science buildings. Your first 2 items should be scouts as the nation that meets everyone first gets the biggest discounts on techs(if the met civs have already researched those techs).

 

[Doktor Vic Tim]

If war is not your thing then you need to grow your cities and build the science buildings. Your first 2 items should be scouts as the nation that meets everyone first gets the biggest discounts on techs(if the met civs have already researched those techs).

Huh, I did not know that. How exactly does it work?

 

[Acken]

Huh, I did not know that. How exactly does it work?

You get a discount on techs already researched by a Civ that you know. And the more AI your know that have the tech the bigger the discount.

 

[GoStu]

You get a discount on techs already researched by a Civ that you know. And the more AI your know that have the tech the bigger the discount.

I have never heard of this mechanic, nor seen anyone else talk about it. Do you have evidence to support your claim? It goes against any observation I've made.

EDIT: to the OP. The other posters in the thread have made good points about growing your civ faster. This is true, but ultimately you won't out-science Korea. I'd suggest working on your development, but go with a strong military Civ if you specifically want to beat him. You'll need someone who can win an uphill tech battle. I have two suggestions:

1) Mongolia. Keshiks are devastating, and there's no good answer to them in their era or even a couple techs higher. You can be behind in tech and still murder the hell out of things with a pack of Keshiks & Khan support.

2) England. Very strong UU's on land and sea, and both of them are units that don't go obsolete very quickly. It takes a long time to upgrade Crossbows into Gatling guns, so you'll have a long period of dominance with your Longbows. The Ship of the Line is similar; Frigates are the go-to unit for naval warfare for ages, and you'll have the strongest. Finally, the English UA gives you an extra spy for tech-stealing, or whatever other purpose. (The +2 naval speed is neat, but it's not what I recommend the Civ for).

 

[Acken]

I have never heard of this mechanic, nor seen anyone else talk about it. Do you have evidence to support your claim? It goes against any observation I've made.

Test it yourself. Start a game in Deity, look at tech cost of initial techs (should be 40). Meet a civ, look at new tech cost (should be 39).

 

[NukeAJS]

Korea is on my "kill ASAP" list, provided they are near me.

Korea starts running away in tech when they reach currency and really take off when they reach education. If you let them get to the renaissance and they adopt rationalism ... it's basically over. So, the trick is to not let them reach education.

Even if you can't kill Korea (Hwa'cha are great defensive units), you should be able to pillage most of their tiles. Food is needed to run specialists, so no farms = no specialists. In addition, no happiness means fewer citizens which means fewer specialists as well.

Also, Korea can be fairly easy to isolate if you know what you're doing. Turtle ships can't enter ocean, so they will meet others players fairly late. If you've stunted their growth through war or a war of attrition, Korea's only hope of meeting other civs will be for the other civs to find them. As mentioned earlier in this thread, contact with others civs can give a tech boost if they've already researched it. So, a war of attrition and isolating Korea will keep them back in tech to the point where you'll have a hwa'cha and pikemen versus cannons and riflemen situation.

So, basically -- kill, pillage, isolate. It's not a Korea specific strategy, but the isolate part is more effective against Korea than any other civ.

--

If they aren't near you, do your best to tech up. While Korea is undoubtedly the best civ at making beakers, four Korean cities versus ten cities that are equally as well (or slightly less) developed will still make a lot more science overall. Some of my best science victories were with civs that are completely non-scientific. For example, my best science victory was with Attila the Hun because I was able to take three capitals (and a couple other really nice cities) before turn 150. These cities became enormously huge and by the time I had met everybody in the game, I was already in the industrial era because I was pumping so much science (over 1000). By the time I launched my spaceship, I was making about 2500, although I think it was more.

 

[phillipwyllie]

I have never heard of this mechanic, nor seen anyone else talk about it. Do you have evidence to support your claim? It goes against any observation I've made.....

The exact numbers are in the science overflow exploit thread but yes I've observed this. Right click any tech you are about to research and see the base cost. Each city you own (or is it owned) increases this cost by 5%. If you've met everyone and they have researched that particular tech you'll see the cost can be lower than the base amount.

 

[Furtherado]

I guess its trickier since its a human opponent, but you need to build a military and force him to focus on that rather than science. I guess any civ with a strong military focus should do the trick, like the zulus, assyrians or china.

 

[hisagishi]

Quick question, didn't want to start a new thread. Can two people on multiplayer pick the same civ?

Thanks for all the help everyone.

 

[Janskey]

Quick question, didn't want to start a new thread. Can two people on multiplayer pick the same civ?

Thanks for all the help everyone.

Yes they can.