Koreans have a great starting economy, as well as solid defensive capabilities. Their most potent nation power is that they receive free citizens when constructing new cities. This allows them to instantly fill up Farms or Mines that are constructed at that City, or simply get many buildings constructed around the new city very quickly.

Start with a Temple and receive Temple upgrades for free


Why is it important?

Korean players receive temple upgrades for free, including taxation technologies. This means your temples will automatically provide the maximum bonus to your cities' hitpoints and border push. Note that this bonus still only occurs at cities that have a temple. Taxation techs, however, don't require a temple at each city and simply generate wealth income based on the percentage of the world territory you control. Korean taxation takes effect much earlier than other nations would even think about researching the technology (not because it isn't available to research, but because it's so costly that early in the game and yields fairly minor benefits). It usually provides a small, but helpful early wealth income. Taxation techs also increase the income generated by rare resources and the wealth generated by fishing.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Build temples at cities you think will be attacked: Any nation should follow this advice, but it's particularly helpful for Koreans since they receive the upgrades for free. Also build temples at cities that you want to get more border push from.
  
  
• Expand territory and harvest rare resources: Taxation provides only minor increases to wealth and rare resource income. This means you shouldn't go all out trying to increase your territory just to generate extra taxation wealth, nor should you specifically get rare resources to utilize the extra income. Instead, you should factor this nation power in as an 'extra bonus' for doing those things a little sooner than usual, when you find yourself torn between two places to spend your resources.

Start with an extra citizen, receive 3 more when you build your next City, and 5 more for each City after that.

Why is it important?

Extra citizens help the Koreans fill up their early gather buildings much faster than other nations can (except perhaps the Chinese). This allows the Koreans to reach early commerce limits quickly, and often hastens their progress towards a Classical or Medieval Age attack.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Use the extra citizens to fill up gather buildings: Most of the time you won't find yourself building new cities exclusively to get new citizens, but since your 3rd city will generate 5 free citizens it's often a good idea to place that city near a mountain and fill up a mine. Using the new citizens to create any new buildings (market, university, temple, farms, etc) you'll want at the city is also a good idea, since these construction jobs will be finished very quickly when all of them are constructed at once. Remember that it's faster to construct 5 buildings with 1 citizen each than to use all 5 citizens on one building at a time.

Repair is 50% faster. Your Citizens can build and repair buildings that are under fire without penalty

Why is it important?

The Koreans would probably take a backseat to the Chinese were it not for their great defensive bonuses. This bonus allows Korean cities or forts to hold out extended lengths of time while being repaired, and hastens the repair of damaged buildings (cities that the Korean player is assimilating are quick to repair with this bonus). Normally when a building is under attack and citizens are at work repairing that building, the building is repaired at a much slower rate and the citizens will also take damage if the ranged unit attacking the building is also in range of the citizen. The Koreans aren't affected by these restrictions and are able to repair at full speed (50% faster, even) without their citizens potentially taking damage.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Repair cities or forts that are under siege: This nation power is great for holding out until reinforcements can be trained - or simply aid in delaying the enemy's advance long enough so that other cities can be saved.
  
  
• Repair captured cities: With just a few Korean citizens, you can restore a captured city's hitpoints rapidly, making it very difficult for your opponent to reclaim the city. When your army is in tatters after a difficult siege, every little bit counts.

Receive the Militia, Minutemen, and Partisan upgrades for free


Why is it important?

These upgrades are great for defense, and occasionally useful on offense as well.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Offensive militia: Offensive militia are tricky to use and there are only a few situations where you'll want to sacrifice useful citizens in a mediocre attack role. One such situation is if you've just created a new Korean city near the front line. This will gain you 5 citizens, which can be used as militia to raid the enemy base if he has undefended citizens working at a nearby city. However, it's strongly advised that you don't enter enemy territory with militia if your opponent has attrition researched - militia take huge attrition damage!
  
  
• Remember to use militia on defense: When your army's size is nearly equal with the invading army, every last man is necessary to defend your homeland - so don't forget to convert your nearby citizens into militia! This is particularly helpful early in the game, as militia do excellent against pre-medieval military units (except Heavy Cavalry).

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