The Koreans are a defensive civilization with strong naval and archer capabilities.
Strengths[]
The Koreans have a 50% wood discount on their archers and infantry units. This makes their archers very potent throughout the game, especially as they also receive the archer armor technologies for free and have every upgrade available. Their melee infantry units are also solid, lacking only Blast Furnace, with their Halberdiers benefiting from the discount. Their navy also has a 20% wood discount, and they also receive full upgrades on their Galleons and Fast Fire Ships.
Their ability to gather stone faster than other civilizations allows them to build up their defense quickly. Their towers upgrade automatically, and with the Eupseong unique technology, their standard towers gain +2 range, allowing them to attack units from further away and to take the enemy down before they get too close, including generic Bombard Cannons. Their unique technology Shinkichon increases the range of Mangonels, and their team bonus reduces their minimum range to 1.
The War Wagon, the Korean unique unit, is a powerful and heavily armored but relatively slow cavalry archer. They are effective support units and can last a long time in battle due to their durability. A similar story applies to their Turtle Ships.
Weaknesses[]
Korean cavalry are weak, missing the Paladin and Camel Rider in addition to the Bloodlines, Blast Furnace, and Plate Barding Armor technologies. A similar story applies for their Cavalry Archers. The Koreans lack the Demolition Ship line, which means they have a hard time retaking water if they fall behind. The Koreans also lack Heresy, which when combined with their previously mentioned poor Hussars, means they have a tough time when facing conversions. The Korean economy is one of the worst in the game, with no economic bonus, so they are forced to go aggressive or use their powerful units to pull ahead.
Strategy[]
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Koreans have one of the best navies in the game, combined with one of the best defenses in the game. They have a good offensive game as well with their discounted archers.
In early game, Koreans will want to make an archer rush. The wood discount makes amassing their archers much easier and faster early on. They receive the archer armor technologies for free, which means they can face off against enemy archers fairly well. As they receive full upgrades, the archer line is great for the Koreans during any stage of the game. The War Wagon is another great unit for the Koreans thanks to its high bulk and decent range and attack. The Koreans also great Siege Onagers as well. The Halberdier will be the main unit used by the Koreans as a buffer for their ranged units, as they have a significant discount.
With their poor economy, the Koreans are best when they can build themselves up, such as closed maps. They also will have to be put on the defensive, but luckily their discounted Halberdiers and Skirmishers, along with their tower bonuses, mean they can function on the defensive as well.
On the sea, the wood discount means they have a massive boost to production throughout the game. While they do not get Demolition Ships, their discount more than makes up for it. They also have the Turtle Ship, which can be useful when more power is needed.
Strategy changes in The Forgotten[]
Koreans' new unique tech Panokseon improves the movement speed of Turtle Ships that without it, they are slow. Both Korean unique units' costs are reduced (Turtle Ships now cost 180 wood and 180 gold, while War Wagons now cost 110 wood, 60 gold) and the creation time of War Wagon is also reduced, allowing more of these units to be produced quickly. Their team bonus was changed, now Mangonels and Onagers have a reduced minimum range instead of a longer range. Koreans also received a building speed bonus for their fortifications (25% faster), improving their defense capabilities, as this building speed bonus plus Treadmill Crane allows their villagers to build these buildings at a +45% speed.
Strategy changes in The African Kingdoms[]
The Panokseon technology cost is now reduced to 300 food, 300 wood, making this technology more affordable. Also, their Turtle Ships now don't require a Castle to be created at the Dock. The new general technology Arrowslits further improves the attack of the powerful Korean towers.
Strategy changes in the Definitive Edition[]
Koreans lose their ability to build fortifications faster, and Watch Towers' HP is reduced to 700 in the Feudal Age (in the Castle Age, they still have 1,200 HP). Despite this, their Tower rush is still a viable tactic, just a bit harder to make it and succeed. This ability was replaced with a new bonus (Military units, except Siege weapons, cost -15% wood). This new bonus enables them to make an archer rush, as they are now cheaper (their archers can also better support a Tower rush), a Cavalry Archer rush in the Castle Age, better defense with the Halberdier and Skirmisher line (of course, this also makes them better in "trash wars"), enables them to spam more War Wagons for the same wood, and, probably the most important, their entire navy is cheaper (including the Turtle Ship), so they can save also much more wood in naval encounters. It is important to note that this wood discount was increased to 20% in update 39284, further improving the viability of their mentioned options while both the War Wagon and Turtle Ship got their wood costs adjusted to balance them.
In update 42848, the Koreans have a new civilization bonus where all their archer armor upgrades are free. In exchange, their civilization bonus of additional range for their towers was moved to a new unique Castle Age technology, Eupseong, which replaces Panokseon. This allows the Koreans to perform a Feudal Age archer rush due to the strong synergy with their wood discount for military units and allows a somewhat viable (if not optimal) cavalry archer rush in the Castle Age. In addition, their Turtle Ships get a small permanent movement speed boost to offset the Castle Age unique technology change.
Strategy changes in Lords of the West[]
In update 44725, they now have access to the Elite Cannon Galleon. Their options for Water maps are better, especially in mirror matchups, where Korean Keeps can outrange Cannon Galleons.
Strategy changes in Dynasties of India[]
In update 61321, the base wood cost of the War Wagon was raised from 115 to 125. After the civilization bonus, it now cost 100 wood, which makes it harder to mass War Wagons in the Castle Age. Since the Koreans have free Archer armor upgrades, the unit could already win vs. most other units.
Strategy changes in Return of Rome[]
In update 87863, the wood discount bonus was further adjusted where their archer and infantry cost -50% wood while leaving the wood discount on their warships unchanged, which makes their foot archers, Skirmishers, and Spearman-line units the biggest beneficiary of the change. This gives the Koreans an edge in trash wars scenarios comparable to the Byzantines (since the Koreans lack Blast Furnace and Bloodlines for their Halberdiers and Hussars), while making it easier to go for an archer rush. Likewise, their War Wagon's wood cost was adjusted to reflect the adjusted wood discount bonus. Turtle Ships are also affected by Siege Engineers, giving them an additional range to go toe-on-toe with enemy Galleons.
Alliances[]
As a defensive civilization, Koreans make great support, with their stone mining bonus, their free tower upgrades and bonuses, so they can stand at the front line, defending the team by turtling themselves and the team. Their powerful units and discounted archers mean they can also play an active role. With a plethora of ranged options, the Koreans work best with a teammate with great ranged options. The Korean team bonus helps out any ally that makes siege.
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Saracens: The Saracens' Counterweights Siege Onagers appreciate the reduced minimum range, and the Saracens give the Koreans' archer extra building damage.
Slavs: The Slavs have cheaper Siege Onagers which benefit from the Korean bonus, and the Slavs great infantry and Boyars work great with the Koreans ranged support.
Teutons: The Teutons appreciate the Korean bonus with their Siege Onagers, and the Koreans appreciate the conversion resistance. Additionally, the Teutons have great melee options in their Teutonic Knights and infantry/cavalry with extra melee armor, and the Koreans specialize in great ranged options with their archers and War Wagons.- Vikings: Not only do both civilizations have great naval units, but their navies cover the other's weakness (as the Vikings lack Fire Ships and the Koreans lack Demolition
Ships), and their land militaries also have good synergy.
Compared advantages and disadvantages[]
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Advantages vs other civilizations[]
- The War Wagon, being a bulky ranged unit with high pierce armor, counters most Archer types, Scorpions, and Cavalry Archers. Its high hit points allow it to function as a mobile, attacking wall. Civilizations who rely on Archers and/or Scorpions will struggle against them.
- The Turtle Ship, being a tanky vessel with a high melee attack, is great as a powerful naval unit that can win fights through its power.
- As they have boosted Onagers with reduced minimum range, and their range amplified by Shinkichon, they have a huge advantage against civilizations that rely on massed units.
- Defensively, they have an advantage against civilizations that rely on raiding, thanks to their strong towers. Additionally, the extra range on their towers allows them to outrange Bombard Cannons, making them hard to take out if the attacker lacks Siege Ram.
- As they can perform an Archer Rush, they have an advantage in open maps against civilizations who struggle in the early game.
- As they have cheaper Halberdiers and Skirmishers, they can effectively counter civilizations that may rely on cavalry, archers, or Cavalry Archers. This also puts them at an advantage in the "trash wars", especially against civilizations with poor trash line or that lack a proper "trash buster" unit.
Disadvantages vs other civilizations[]
- The War Wagon's high cost makes it a difficult unit to amass.
- Despite being a good replacement for demolition ships, Turtle ships are slow, have poor conversion defense and are expensive, so civilizations with good galleons or ranged ships can hit-and-run them; and they are at risk against monks in shore combats especially against civilizations that have good monks.
Situational advantages[]
- As their villagers have an extensive Line of Sight Koreans have a very distinct advantage on Nomad maps as they can find a better spot to create their first town center, while having an edge in scouting on this particular map.
- On the Budapest map, as every player has a double startup (2 Town Centers, double Villagers, and 2 scouts), they also get an advantage, as again, their Villagers get more Line of Sight, enabling them to have a better initial spot on their resources, while also considering making a Villager an extra scout (as they will have 6 Villagers on this map).
- On amphibious maps (especially in the maps included in the Rise of the Rajas expansion), their tanky Turtle Ship can deal severe damage to land units and buildings.
- On closed maps like Black Forest, Koreans have an advantage thanks to their magnificent long-range Towers and the fact they gather stone faster and create walls and towers faster, so they can make their way to Imperial Age and boom. Also, as they have good Onagers, they can exploit them on these maps to sneak out and take their opponent by surprise.
- On Fortress, as players start with pre-deployed walls and towers their tower bonuses also give them a defensive edge.
- There are some maps with high amounts of stone, such as Socotra, and Golden Pit, if a Korean player manages to reach these large stone deposits, they will get a huge advantage as they will deplete them fast neglecting other players to take that stone.
- As they have a wood discount on military units (except siege weapons), they can get a substantial advantage on maps or in situations where wood starts to become scarce.
