Help with a science victory!

[troc]

Hello everybody,

I really need help obtaining a science victory while playing LAN multiplayer. I have tried multiple times playing as Korea and going tall, but nonetheless fail. Could you please give some general tips/advice/strategy on how to achieve a science victory? Example: Opening strategy, policies to take, techs and wonders to prioretize etc. In general, how to really boost your research.

Many thanks...I really want to beat my fellow friends

P.S: When should the NC be built?

 

[Gucumatz]

2-3 Academies at your Cap, and then save the rest of your Great Scientists until near the end to bulb the techs.

Build the Porcelain Tower for free GS and GS points. Use the liberty Finisher to build the Porc Tower or if no longer available for an early academy. Protect and expand to 5-7 cities if on small and try to get Education as quick as possible and build Universities (while maintaining a Defensive force).

Those are general tips that work with every civ doesnt matter Korea or not.

 

[Tabarnak]

You have 2 major choices.

You can go tall, but following an important rule in making your capital really huge with Hanging Gardens and maybe a civ favorising tall empires like the Aztecs.

Or you can go with 4-5 cities before NC. It's slower in research in the beginning, but you gain a lot of beakers from gs and raw later in the ren/ind eras.

Have you set a no war rule or something? If not, wide empires can destroy tall empires most of the time with right units. Just kick your friend's butt then go science after.

 

[Agent Cooper]

Research Agreements are very powerful when pursuing a scientific victory (+ the Porcelain Tower & opening the Rationalism tree) but I don't know whether they are doable/reliable in your multiplayer games.

The NC should go online as soon as possible, depending on strategy. If you are going to war very early rushing someone, you can postpone it and produce units instead but otherwise, it should be built asap. I ususally hard-build as few settlers as possible in the early game because your capitol doesn't grow when building them + the hammer costs. I'd rather use gold from the first luxuries I sell and buy 1-2 settlers instead when needed, if rapid expansion is favored. The free settler you can get from a SP is usually enough for me to start with. Use it for a good spot with luxuries/food/iron/...

But remember that you can't build the NC unless you have a library in all of you own/annexed cities. That's another reason to build the NC before settling a bunch of cities.

 

[troc]

Should I open with tradition or freedom? (My main goal is to have around 4-5 tall cities that are full of specialists in order to maximize Korea's bonus) Also, should I try at all costs to build the GL? Finally, should I use my GS for academies or to bulb techs? If I should use them to bulb, when and which technologies must I try to bulb?

Tabarnak: Even though I have a defensive force at all times in order to defend from barbs and AIs, the reason why I don't attack any of the human players is because we like to play following a pact that serves sort of like the UN, preventing wars amongst human players, promotion trade amongst us and having a no nuking humans policy...etc

 

[Agent Cooper]

After the latest patch, I usually open with completing the Liberty tree for the free GP (GE) asap - perhaps with 1-2 SP points to open Tradition and Honor.

That free GE will come just in time for the very powerful GE/Hagia Sofia -> GE/Porcelain Tower gambit, meaning you will essentially get 2 great wonders for free plus the GS from building the Porcelain Tower as a bonus. For a scientific victory, this is imo an essential gambit to play and plan for - very powerful.

The GL is great if you can 'time' your research so that the free tech can grant you Theology, Civil Service or similar techs. If you can 'only' get Philo or similar from it, it's imo a bit of a waste. The NC is the one that really counts. You can go for it, but if you only got time/hammers to build 1-2 early wonders, I'd might pass on it. Imo a wonder like The Hanging Gardens is much more powerful and should be prioritized before the GL if you have to choose.

Save your GSs for bulbing techs in the industrial/modern eras or otherwise key techs at key moments in you game. Perhaps settle the first one for an academy (especially with Babylon), but otherwise you get the most from them by far, by bulbing very beaker-expensive late techs.

 

[troc]

thank you, agent cooper

 

[troc]

Do any of you have any specific strategies for Korea?

 

[Tabarnak]

Ok i understand now. Well just go for rationalism and, if possible, the PT. Sign RAs. A lot fo them. it's your primary weapon to tech very fast. With some right settings, you can launch a spaceship before 1700 AD if you can trade with enough AIs around.

I like to initially expand and focus on selling luxs and some horses to AIs before building the NC.

 

[Agent Cooper]

Yeah, RAs are key for an early scientific victory. Very experienced players can do without them if for nothing else, just to demonstrate their deeper understanding of the game mechanics and abilities to achieve victory under harsh conditions. But otherwise, go for RAs. There are threads explaining how best to use them and how the beakers they grant are calculated, so I won't go any further with this here.

I haven't got the Korea DLC, but I would approach playing them in a similar fashion to Babylon, perhaps with more empashis on the Freedom tree, using specialists and generating GSs. Rationalism and Freedom are the key SP trees after the Renaissance era is opened. Don't waste points into Piety and Order at any time since they are cancelling out the trees you want to use.

If you want to expand your empire with warmongering at some stages (a scientific victory strategy doesn't automatically warrent a 100% peaceful approach to winning, just the opposite some would say), a couple of points into Honor won't hurt if you can afford it, but its not essential. Score-wise, an otherwise impressive early scientific win with a tall empire is nothing compared to a later win with a wide, expansive empire - population is everything.

You might get into happiness trouble like everybody else if your few cities grow fast. In that case the Notre Dame and the Forbidden Palace are worth chasing and you can ally with city states granting luxuries (happiness points) you don't have in addition to the culture/food/units.

You haven't mentioned specifically why you can't win in your games or when/why it goes wrong. Perhaps offering some info could help us giving better advice, specifically for your games..?