I've voiced this idea before, and didn't get any comment at the time, but it's certainly something I will consider doing myself.

The idea is to play on a huge map with whatever level you're used to playing with, and pick as few civs as the game will allow. The idea to this game is "survival", as you do this to see whether any civs can survive a barb blitz that is very likely to occur. If this isn't enough of a challenge I would assume somebody could try this with raging barbs, but I'm too chicken to do that even with 18 civs.

What do you think? Will you ever try this sort of thing and tell us the results? I'm pretty sure I will try it within my next 1-2 games.

I've not tried that because my computer can't handle huge maps, but it should be pretty similar to what happens when playing one of the "all-grass" scenarios. If you haven't played an all-grass scenario, try it. Everyone loves grassland tiles, but too much of a good thing...

I've voiced this idea before, and didn't get any comment at the time, but it's certainly something I will consider doing myself.

The idea is to play on a huge map with whatever level you're used to playing with, and pick as few civs as the game will allow. The idea to this game is "survival", as you do this to see whether any civs can survive a barb blitz that is very likely to occur. If this isn't enough of a challenge I would assume somebody could try this with raging barbs, but I'm too chicken to do that even with 18 civs.

What do you think? Will you ever try this sort of thing and tell us the results? I'm pretty sure I will try it within my next 1-2 games.


I tried a huge map with 18 civs on monarch. 5 of the AI civs got wiped.
The best way to survive the raging barbs is to not expand until the barbs quieten down and found cities and to fortify units in your city till this happens.
Pump out the archers or the superb skirmisher - brilliant for defending those gold mines.
Even when looking to expand I once lost a settler that was defended by 4 archers!
Barbarian chariots are a supreme pain in the ass, the axemen are even worse but you should have city walls and promoted units before they appear.

I tried a huge map with 18 civs on monarch. 5 of the AI civs got wiped.
The best way to survive the raging barbs is to not expand until the barbs quieten down and found cities and to fortify units in your city till this happens.
Pump out the archers or the superb skirmisher - brilliant for defending those gold mines.
Even when looking to expand I once lost a settler that was defended by 4 archers!
Barbarian chariots are a supreme pain in the ass, the axemen are even worse but you should have city walls and promoted units before they appear.

That's a pretty interesting story, but it falls short. 18 civs on huge, and I've been playing that way in the recent 3-4 games, can be difficult to a degree, but nothing like with the fewest civs you can have. I'm talking just regular barb activity, though 18 civs with raging would be interesting. Obviously if the game let's you play all by your lonesome that wouldn't be any good. I suppose if it let you pick as little as only one other civ, and then it spaced the two of you accordingly, putting him on the other side of the board, you would in effect be playing the barbs all by yourself for a VERY long time, but nonetheless it would be interesting with a small amount of civs to see if the barbs could decimate the all or most of the civs.

So far in my 18 civ huge games with standard barbs I have't seen any wiped out by barbs, which isn't too unusual when you consider that I've played the same game with as few as 8 civs and that did not occur. I'm thinking 2-4 civs with a huge map will spell disaster, a disaster probably far worse than 18 civs on raging. The problem with any game on raging is that I think the AI doesn't adjust it's strategy and so some of them might be overcome, though as I've said I haven't seen it. Then again, maybe that's because I'm playing on noble. What level was your 18 civ raging being played on?

I wouldnt play with 1 other civ. What if the barbarians wipe them out? Domination victory?

I wouldnt play with 1 other civ. What if the barbarians wipe them out? Domination victory?

Would you win a conquest victory since you are the only one left?

I wonder if barbs could win? lol

I wouldnt play with 1 other civ. What if the barbarians wipe them out? Domination victory?

Yes, there must be an optimum amount of civs where you have enough to where you're not the only one left, but what would that be? I would hate to play a game like that and it not give you the option to continue on, because even though you would be the winner, the idea to this particular type of game is to survive the barbs, and who knows, if all the other civs are wiped out then other than leaving a garrison at any of their cities, they may be sending streams even from as far away as your old rivals, and therefore it would be YOU AGAINST THE WORLD.

Yes, I know that sounds a bit like the option where all the civs and the barbs are against you, but that's just a trifle too rough for me. I want the somewhat wimpier barb civs, but I also want to give them some amount of distraction with other civs, plus it always fascinating to see if those other civs would adjust. If those other civs fall then it is you against a barb world.

I'm definitely going to try this idea pretty soon. It;s just too good to leave alone.