Once upon a time, I created a guide to playing tall Korea and beating Ming: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-guide-to-beating-ming-as-tall-korea.1107515/
Since then, a lot has happened when it comes to playing tall Korea in EU4. As of the latest update (1.33.), the Confucian religion is now incredibly powerful for tall play in particular, and Leviathan (yes, that one) belatedly delivered on the tall toys that were one of its selling points. Since I figured it'd be worth it to revisit the concept of tall Korea, I decided to embark on a bit of a journey to see how far I could push that playstyle. Here are the results:
Basically, I managed to squeeze the starting development of Ming and the Mamluks combined into the twenty provinces of Korea and achieve Economic Hegemon. As should be evident from the tag switch, I didn't simply sit around and develop, but went out of my way to maximize the -Development Cost bonuses, as well as the Confucian bonuses for my economy, as well as a few coal provinces to help me push for Economic Hegemon in the late game (though after giving them away, the Ottomans overtook me. In the mid-game, my tall Korea could easily beat just about everyone, but by the late-game, I was starting to fall behind, as should be evident from the losing Great Power status by the end there. Overall, it was fun, if a little exhausting, and I figured I'd want to share my experiences with you all. Happy to answer questions and the like, too.
As a few closing remarks, I want to emphasize the sheer power of Inward Perfection for tall play with the Clergy owning 80+ % of crownland (not like you care about the tax and absolutism malus if you're playing tall anyway). This combined with the -10% Development Cost you get from Confucian in general means the religion has the potential to give you -40% Development Cost. That's two Economic Ideas. I also feel like Korea does get a little cramped, given that it's only twenty provinces. A tall Confucian Japan has a lot more potential, as does a tall Ming, even if that is sure to get boring quickly. Essentially, I was able to develop anything I wanted to around 30-40 development without paying more than the minimum of 4 points per development. Expand Infrastructure is also a very powerful toy for tall play now, costing only 50 Adm power and giving the province a whole lot of stacking bonuses at 15/30/45/60/75/100 development.
Since then, a lot has happened when it comes to playing tall Korea in EU4. As of the latest update (1.33.), the Confucian religion is now incredibly powerful for tall play in particular, and Leviathan (yes, that one) belatedly delivered on the tall toys that were one of its selling points. Since I figured it'd be worth it to revisit the concept of tall Korea, I decided to embark on a bit of a journey to see how far I could push that playstyle. Here are the results:
Basically, I managed to squeeze the starting development of Ming and the Mamluks combined into the twenty provinces of Korea and achieve Economic Hegemon. As should be evident from the tag switch, I didn't simply sit around and develop, but went out of my way to maximize the -Development Cost bonuses, as well as the Confucian bonuses for my economy, as well as a few coal provinces to help me push for Economic Hegemon in the late game (though after giving them away, the Ottomans overtook me. In the mid-game, my tall Korea could easily beat just about everyone, but by the late-game, I was starting to fall behind, as should be evident from the losing Great Power status by the end there. Overall, it was fun, if a little exhausting, and I figured I'd want to share my experiences with you all. Happy to answer questions and the like, too.
As a few closing remarks, I want to emphasize the sheer power of Inward Perfection for tall play with the Clergy owning 80+ % of crownland (not like you care about the tax and absolutism malus if you're playing tall anyway). This combined with the -10% Development Cost you get from Confucian in general means the religion has the potential to give you -40% Development Cost. That's two Economic Ideas. I also feel like Korea does get a little cramped, given that it's only twenty provinces. A tall Confucian Japan has a lot more potential, as does a tall Ming, even if that is sure to get boring quickly. Essentially, I was able to develop anything I wanted to around 30-40 development without paying more than the minimum of 4 points per development. Expand Infrastructure is also a very powerful toy for tall play now, costing only 50 Adm power and giving the province a whole lot of stacking bonuses at 15/30/45/60/75/100 development.
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