Some questions on Westernizing as China (in version 3.04, no mods)

[blue emu]

Playing the latest Steam version, patch 3.04, A House Divided and Heart of Darkness, no mods.

What is the best and fastest way to Westernize as China?

Should I start conquering uncivs right away, or wait a decode or two until I have some military reforms passed for the bonus conquest Civ points? Naturally, I'll avoid going over the Badboy limit.

Which uncivs should i start with? I was thinking that I should pick off both Panjab and Korea before one of the Great Powers gets around to sphereing them. Panjab has the added bonus that it contains three releasable countries, so i can eliminate 15 Badboy thus speeding up the whole process. Then Korea? Then Afghanistan? Then Persia?

Which order should I choose reforms? The four military ones, to gain bonus Civ points on conquests? Then the +Education one?

Any advice?

 

[blue emu]

Another, more specific question.

How do I raise consciousness as China? It's about 1860, and I'd like to get the Boxer Rebellion out of the way before I civilize. I'm told that I need to raise my average consciousness above 3 and keep it there for a while. It's about 1.2 right now.

 

[Kovax]

Literacy will increase Consciousness, although the Clerics needed to raise Literacy will depress Consciousness in the short term. There's no reasonable "fast" way that I can think of.

 

[arosenberger14]

I'd go a +military for early conquest (Punjab and Korea are good), and then +education reform for literacy. In general, focus on getting clergy to 2% and then 4% in your major population centers to boost literacy and tech points. Try and nom other uncivs to further boost yourself.

Not sure if there's any good ways to get high consciousness to trigger the boxers if you're trying to westernize early, maybe stay at high infamy? High war exhaustion may also help too.

 

[maxirage]

Start a phony war with someone like Russia and let them occupy you, so you can break to reactionary rebels. This will release your substrates and allow you to reconquer them later on for free (you have cores on them). Reactionary rebels don't do anything until you pass reforms, and you don't gain research from conquest until your first military reform, so you have a bunch of free time to do this.