How can I best extort Korea?

[cromagnon]

Regent, PTW 1.04 game, huge map, 6 surviving civs in the Modern era. I'm China (military, industrious)

Korea is 1.5 techs ahead of me, and sneak-attacked me. Their army is about 1/4 the size of mine, but primarily MI and bombers, not much tanks. I'm the only one approaching MA, but I really want the two techs he has, and I don't want to shell out a gazillion gold to one of my 'friends.'

What is the best approach to quickly (since a. I can research those two techs in about 20 turns total, and b. I'm in democracy) get those techs from them. Btw, I don't have enough to steal them, and I don't want to risk all my money.

So here's the main question:
Is it better to take his outer cities, one at a time and work my way in, or strike at the heart of the beast? I've considered taking some core cities and razing them to show I mean business. I don't care what the other civs think of my reputation, as I'm going for spaceship win (I've built UN, no elections yet)

I've already taken over his remote settlements, but the main part of his land (which is very far from my palace) is intact. And I have enlisted as many allies as possible, but they are useless.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[DaDoo]

send stacks of your army into his land. Raze a core city and then park them right outside of his capital. Try to extort the techs then. If he says no, raze another core city and go back to the capital and try again.

 

[cromagnon]

That's what I thought. Thanks DaDoo. I wasn't sure how well the AI recognizes someone not to mess with. After all, how else do you explain those morons who declare war on you 2 turns after you make stop tromping over them because they keep sending troops through your territory.

 

[cromagnon]

Just to update in case anyone was interested:

I razed one major Korean city, and a couple of small ones, but he still wouldn't give in. I took the chance and stole satellites from them, waged war for a while longer (despite democracy), and then made peace (and got all their gold), and then traded (received superconductor for miniaturization, as I already built Internet).

It didn't go quite as I had hoped (I was following Cheiftess' espoused tactic), as I couldn't sustain the war AND keep up with the Frogs who started adding components to their spaceship. But now I'm in the lead, happy to let the other Civs wage their wars in Communism.