NC XXIV: Wang Kon

[SlipperyJim]

For normal speed it works ok, but for any speed besides normal it gives wierd results: speed multipliers apply but the turns are the same.... in epic the game starts showing "100 turns to the end" in 1800ishs and ends in 1910... in marathon is even worse.

Aw, shoot. And I'm planning to go for a Space Race victory, too. I hope I can get there before 1910 AD. I've invested too much time to start over....

 

[Sian]

schewup i know ... only second (or was it 3'rd) time i'm setting up ... fixed for the next map which i'll upload tonight or tomorrow

 

[SlipperyJim]

Chapter Three -- Noble/Epic through 1525 AD:

Spoiler :

As of 1030 AD, China has been destroyed. Good riddance to the treacherous, nasty Qin! I have a continent to myself, so it's time to turtle up for space!

(I won a Conquest Victory in the last game, so I'll do something different here. Anyway, my insanely-fast tech rate seems to argue for a Space Race victory....)

Landed Music first in 1070 AD. Put the Great Artist to sleep in Seoul. I'll either found Civ Jewelers with him, or I'll use him for a late-game Golden Age.

Kyoto built the Apostolic Palace in 1100 AD. Again, I'm not going for a Religious Victory here, but I do want to deny the wonder to the AIs.

Korean scientists discovered Compass in 1130 AD. All of my coastal cities started on Harbors to improve the benefits from capturing the Great Lighthouse. Optics in 1160 AD, and I upgraded all of my Triremes to Caravels. Two Caravels immediately started sailing in opposite directions to attempt circumnavigation. They finished a few hundred years later, so all my ships would move more quickly.

Koren scientists discovered Paper in 1210 AD and started to work on education. Let's unlock the Seowon and really see my tech rate take off! Meanwhile, Seoul started on the University of Sankore. Hey, more beakers are always good, right?

Wonsan started the Sistine Chapel in 1255 AD. I didn't really have any purpose to this Wonder, so I'll have to confess to Wonder Addiction....

A Korean Caravel found Asoka in 1260 AD. Now I know where all of those Great Generals keep spawning! Genghis has been smacking around the Indians something fierce.

Scored Sankore in 1295 AD:

Education had finished, so Seoul immediately started working on a Seowon. Meanwhile, espionage shows that none of the other civs are even close to Liberalism, so I'll hold the slingshot until I can get more beakers from it. Can I grab Railroad with Liberalism? How about Fusion? Probably not Fusion, but let's see what I can get!

P'yongyang built the Heroic Epic in 1320 AD. Coastal city, nice complement of mined Hills ... yeah, it's a good military center.

Kyoto whipped Angkor Wat:

... and Wonsan whipped Sistine:

... both in 1335 AD. Bad year to be a Korean slave, but a good year for Wonder addicts.

Now that Seoul has finished its Seowon, let's look inside the Bureaucademy:

That's a lot of beakers, and it'll keep going up from there.

Asoka asked me to join a war against Genghis in 1335 AD. I ignored him, and it was a good thing too, because the poor sap capitulated to Mongolia only one turn later! Poor Indians....

Other Korean cities started to sprout Seowons like the proverbial weeds. I really wanted to unlock Oxford for Seoul.

Genghis demanded 300 gold in 1380 AD. Korea paid off the silly thug. With an economy this strong, I can easily spare a few hundred gold pieces as the price of peace.

Finally, Seoul was able to start Oxford in 1405 AD. More science overkill, yay!

Beijing built Versailles in 1425 AD:

Maintenance costs dropped a bit, but less than I expected.

Korean researchers discovered Astronomy in 1440 AD. P'yongyang started non-stop Galleon production. My scouting Caravels had spotted a tasty-looking island with a pair of Barbarian cities on it, and the Korean Expeditionary Force needed a way to get there.

Seoul finished Oxford in 1450 AD, so let's take another peek inside the Bureaucademy:

Wow, that's a lot of beakers. Bureaucracy + Financial + lots of Cottages + lots of Science buildings = serious production.

Add an Observatory in 1495 AD, and now let's look at Seoul:

Yeah, I like it.

Back in 1485 AD, I grabbed the free Great Merchant from Economics. Still holding the Liberalism slingshot for more beakers....

Cyrus begged for Music in 1500 AD. Sure, whatever, take it. I'm researching Steel, dude....

The Galleons landed off the coast of Hun in 1515 AD, and the Korean Expeditionary Force defended itself from the ill-mannered natives:

While attacking in Barbarian territory at Hun, Heavy Footman (2.88/8) defeats Barbarian Axeman
While attacking in Barbarian territory at Hun, Heavy Footman (3.68/8) defeats Barbarian Axeman
Captured Hun (Barbarian)

Another island will soon be safe for Korean colonists!

In 1525 AD, Korean metallurgists developed Steel. Surviving Hwachas were all upgraded to Cannon. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science started to look into Steam Power. At this point, I'm thinking I could easily sling Liberalism into Railroad.

Here's the demographic situation in 1525 AD:

My GNP is four times that of my closest competitor?

And the composite graph screen, showing that last 50 turns:

This game is officially a blowout. I'm thinking that I should take the advice from NCXXIII and move up to Prince level.

 

[Bisque]

latecomer here... If I specify Epic speed when I launch, it still puts me in standard (500 turns on the counter)... am I missing something ? BTS fully patched playing latest bug mod.

update - does the same thing with no mod loaded and no matter what speed I choose I get standard.

 

[Bleys]

latecomer here... If I specify Epic speed when I launch, it still puts me in standard (500 turns on the counter)... am I missing something ?

No, the problem is in the World Builder file. You can fix it by opening up the World Builder file in Notepad, and editing the lines that specify the speed (change both values, SPEED and MAXTURNS, to NONE, they are in the first block of code).

 

[SlipperyJim]

Bah, I'm taking a pass on the rest of this game. I play on Epic speed, so my game will end at 1910 AD, and I don't think I'll be able to get to Space by then.

It was fun, though. I'm pretty sure that I would have had a win without the bug, so I'm happy. Wang Kon can really tech like a beast if you set him up properly!

Time to move up to Prince!

 

[mwdowns]

I started a game and played on Epic pace (I usually play normal) but it seems like it was not taking an epic time. After only a few hours of play I was into the early hundreds AD. Is that because of the bug in the savefile?

I realize I haven't posted a AAR even though I am playing it. Sorry, I just get so caught up in the game that I forget to stop and take screenies. It's a fun setup, though. I'm liking Wang and his UUs, though I'm still struggling with warmongering.

Spoiler :

Did most folks block off the Chinese with their first few settlers? I went with my first settler on the hill on the coast next to the 3 sugars. And then I went with my second settler north east of the first settler. It's caddy-corner to the coast. After a monument in each city and the culture growth, the Chinese were stuck with whatever land they have down in the south.

After a while I had about 5 cities and then went to war with Toku and took Osaka from him. Right now I'm having a hard time deciding which city to attack next. Go for Kyoto or another? Do civs fight harder for their capitals back if they are taken? Or do they not care?

 

[GGS]

500 AD Checkpoint 2.

Spoiler :

Things went pretty much according to plan which suggests that the plan was flawed. Pyongyang was founded 2N, 1W of the gold; Wonsan filled-in on the hill 1NW of the first eastern sugar.

Hinduism spread to the Korean lands in 900 BC and Judaism in 650 BC. Suryavarman II showed-up in 825 BC followed by Cyrus in 50 BC and they are both sweet on their fellow Hindu Qin Shi Huang. The Koreans are behind five and six techs with Code of Laws four turns away. The Korean army is slightly larger than the Chinese army but it's swords and hwachas vs. longbowmen and horses from an unknown source.

In short, there is no appreciable improvement in the Korean position through this entire era and that was neither the intended nor hoped for result.

 

[Bisque]

Noble/Epic Domination win 1855. my first NC !

fixed the save file and got a true epic game speed, I needn't have worried about the 1910 time limit. I guess I need to move up to Prince ?

Spoiler :

started out like many other games here, I settled 1E, then placed first 2 cities along southern coast reaching out to get the gold. I was a bit slow I guess. Qin Shi slipped a settler along the coast before my gold city's border popped and got a 3rd city claiming the iron. This made an early rush with axes a big gamble and i waited for machinery/CS and took him with cats/maces.

without pause I swept the remaining continent of the Japanese who lacked iron, yet had a single swordsman among the archers. huh. anyway... Founded Confu with CS and captured Chinese wonders helped generate a great prophet, which I used to build Kong Miao which helped with gold early. No so much later on, with my neighbors gone and the rest of the world a Buddhism love fest.


End of Japan, and my continent to myself.




raced directly to rifling... and realized i could get to assembly line quickly... therefore didnt hit anyone else until I had Infantry. Attacked Khmer first..which thanks to the Buddhism love fest resulted in Asoka and Genghis declaring on me.

Khmer capitulated after only one city fell.. so I quickly redirected the whole invasion south to Asoka, Took 4 cites along the coast forcing another capitulation, then walked north and took 2 from Genghis and forced my 3rd vassal.

didnt take very long to go after Cyrus, and I hit the domination land limit just before taking his last city.


Endgame Position

 

[dalamb]

Your post should have been in spoiler tags.

 

[Bisque]

darn it, sorry. fixed.

 

[GGS]

1210 AD debriefing.

The good, the bad and the uncertain.

Spoiler :

War was on the horizion so post CoL the tech path was monarchy, MC, machinery, CS, engineering. With the three other known civs as happy Hindus, Korea joined the crowd in 500 AD. 680 was a year. Genghis Khan revealed himself; Korea switched to HR and caste; the Chinese, by naval manoeuvre, established Hangzhou on the hill south of the potential Korean pig town creating a permanent problem.

So, in 700 Korea declared war on China and Suryavaman II declared war on Korea but Hindu harmony at least kept Cyrus and Genghis Khan from joining in. Shanghai (3W of the gem fields) fell in 760 and the surviving force took Nanjing (the fish/clam/gems town) in 820. The attack was out of momentum and men but peace could not be had until 1040. During this period the techno-peasant, score-leading Asoka appeared.

At 1210 AD the Koreans are still stuck with the three Chinese cities on the continent and inadequate troops to take the two on hills. On the brightside we've built the corn/wine/marble city in the centre and the multi resource town in the far NW and the tech deficiency has been shaved to four. Paper is three from in the bag and as the economy rapidly expands I'm thinking Liberalism is on the way to cannons which seem the only solution to the Chinese conundrum.

 

[GGS]

1690 AD debriefing.

Things are finally looking-up.

Spoiler :

The Korean policy during this period could be reduced to three words - cannons, cannons, cannons. Wang Kon's financial trait and later the UB were scientifically supportive. In 1400 the Liberalism race won gunpowder. In terms of blind luck Kyoto produced a pair of against-all-odds Great Engineers for the UofS in Kyoto and the Moai Statues in Nanjing (the fish/clam/gems/copper city in the SE). In 1535 Suryavarman II (the great mind reader) inked defensive pacts with the Chinese and the Mongols. In 1550 Korea scored a brilliant 3 for 1 trade deal with India which included a world map.

The Chinese War? Warfare is the only thing that really works for me in the move from Noble to Prince. Just enough force in the right place at the right time. Tense? Yes. But from 1615-1690 three cities down and Qin Shi Huang is an off-continent vassal.

The future? As the only power with steel and a grand start at a modern navy I'd rate the victory conditions in this order: conquest, (in my first prince win - NC Hatshepsut - I was surprised by just how willing the other powers were to cave early) domination, diplomacy, space race.

 

[GGS]

1894 AD final debriefing.
Prince/Normal. Diplomatic Victory. So, I was going for conquest but a win is a win and it's only my second at Prince.

Spoiler :

The era started with yet another avoidable error. Suryavaraman II was able to grab one of the two vassal Chinese cities on his island before I thought to reinforce it. The Korean tech path was pure military. The Seowans were useful and I remembered to build levees.

In 1804 Suryavaraman II signed a defensive pact with Cyrus and in 1810 cut the same deal with Genghis Khan. As the only non-Hindu power India looked like a logical target but with exploration and espionage being a real weakness (he was large and sure not to get involved -great intel,eh?) and with none of the pact-trio having a modern navy in 1852 it became a war of one against three and it went very well.

Suryavarman II capitulated in 1862 after the loss of his second city, the elimination of sea food resources and the naval bombardment of his capital. In 1868 Cyrus capitulated after the loss of a minor city and his capital even though he had some more modern militiary assets than Team Korea. In 1876 Genghis Khan came to heel after Cyrus (the most useful vassal I've ever seen) took one city and the Koreans eliminated the Mongol field army. The Indian War began in 1884; Bombay fell in 1888 and Delhi was about to go down when the AP victory was won by a mere 12 votes.

Lessons recalled. The financial trait is the easiest to play. An early successful rush is a massive bonus.
Lessons learned. Aiming at a conquest victory may open the maximum number of victory conditions. There is no need, as is my wont, to wait for tanks, in fact, none of my infantry guys even fired a bullet.

 

[Isikien]

Spoiler :

Played the bugged save till endgame on noble, epic speed. Got a cheesy time win, but not before building the UN and the Manhattan project.

What can i honestly say about this one? Was just a lolcoptor game. Settled on the sugar in the beginning and Seoul became a monsterous production city. Axerushed toku and destroyed him before turning on Quin and taking the rest of the island.

And then, after getting a monsterous tech lead, popped Astronomy with liberalism, built a . .. .. .. . load of galleons and stack attacked Survy, who capitulated to me. Genghis became my vassal later and the world was more or less pleased with me. I lacked the land to grab a domination win but I could've if I chose to give cyrus a good scare and get him vassalised. Shame i didn't have the time. Asoka would've been the only problem and even he really didnt have much to compete against me with.

Question: this game was sadistically easy. I hadn't wonderspammed like this in a game since i played on settler difficulty. Truth be told, I think Genghis put a spoke in the wheel of Cyrus and Asoka who probably got held back cause of the NON STOP WARS THAT WERE HAPPENING, and toku and Quin lolocaust was just a no brainer thing to do at the time (toku is a mong anyways, there's no way I'm keeping a paranoid hick introvert alive if he was right next door to me). Was this game rigged severely in the korean's favour or what?