Just a tip, but if you ever happen to find barbarians in your territory (away from where the AI will find them), you can easily up the promotions of your units.

After killing one of the two barbarian units in a village, another will spawn in 2-3 turns. The number of flags will indicate how many are present. So, just park your unit outside the village and wait until 2 are present again. Attack and repeat.

With this method I created a warrior army with 6 promotions using two barbarian villages in the demo. I would imagine when playing as the Germans that this would be a HUGE benefit.

Happy hunting.

Thats a pretty nice trick, I'll have to test it when I get the game TOMORROW!

Wow, slaughtering native like cattle for the good of military prowess... huh... >:[

@Mao:

Careful not to fall from that high horse. :cry:

So you don't attack the barbarians?

I am sure the peaceful indigenous people of the barbarian villages would never harm a settler or caravan passing by either.

Besides CivRev is brutal, as genocide is the key to an early game lead by getting as many of those pesky barbarian villages as possible. At least I am preserving their culture for a while. :D

@Mao:

Careful not to fall from that high horse. :cry:

So you don't attack the barbarians?

I am sure the peaceful indigenous people of the barbarian villages would never harm a settler or caravan passing by either.

Besides CivRev is brutal, as genocide is the key to an early game lead by getting as many of those pesky barbarian villages as possible. At least I am preserving their culture for a while. :D

I like the tactic even though i've never really payed attention to the flags that much. So pretty much the flags indiciate how many units are in that village? If so, that's definitely a good find. But most players might not use it to the advantage, because when the full game comes out tommorow. Most players would want to try and take them as quickly as possible, just as you've stated before due to getting their econ goals as fast as possible.

But if you can afford to leave one and protect it then you can send certain units over their that won't overrun it and just have them sit their and level up.

This should work well with the elite automatic upgrades that the Germans get allowing you to make both a very experienced, and a very large army. Look forward to trying this out when I get the game

I personally don't like this tactic. I'd rather get the gold or whatever else it gives up. That can lead to some quite significant early advantage. It may give you a ship, helping you get to some wonders 1st, or the gold added up gives you a settler on 100 gold. It may give you horsemen, meaning you can explore much faster etc. I think that is all much more important than some upgraded units.

I personally don't like this tactic. I'd rather get the gold or whatever else it gives up. That can lead to some quite significant early advantage. It may give you a ship, helping you get to some wonders 1st, or the gold added up gives you a settler on 100 gold. It may give you horsemen, meaning you can explore much faster etc. I think that is all much more important than some upgraded units.

Agreed, although it could in theory be nice for the Germans, in most games it'll be a waste of time, you could be exploring and getting more benefit from the conquered barbs.

I knew about this strat but the problem is that you lose a lot of precious turns waiting for more barbarians instead of move faster and get as much bonus as possible, ex: forest, other villages, etc.... it works very good if you planning to rush someone, otherwise just get the gold.

My sentiments exactly. What's more valuable in the early stages? An upgraded warrior unit, or horsemen, a ship, a spy, a caravan or gold? I definitely know what I'd rather have, and besides, you get upgraded warriors pretty damn quick anyway, just taking 2 barb villages with the same warriors does it. Take 3 villages for 2 upgrades.

This really is an unnescessary tactic.