Barb Farming

[BaronVonHungste]

Hey all,

I've read a few threads which touch on this topic but still had questions about how to best utilize it. My goal is to get as many None-supported units as possible, have them garrison in my cities under Monarchy so I can build more attacking units and not trip up the 3-free units limit. Either that or have the None-supported units provide border patrol duties under Democracy without pissing off the masses.

I usually just play on Chieftain, Raging Hordes, 7 civs, large continental map with a good friend of mine as we go comp-stomping for fun.

From what I gather, I would:

-Build a city far away from my other cities
-Build a barracks in "barb farm" city to produce Vet units
-Build a warrior in "barb farm" city to protect the city from other non-barb civs
-Bring a few diplomats and warriors (Supported by other cities) to bribe "barb farm" city units
-Wait for barbs to come and conquer "barb farm" city

Questions:
-Does it matter if you build a city with a settler for "barb farm" city or can you do the same with a city inherited from an Advanced Tribe?

-How long does it take for barbarians to come to that city?

-Does leaving it undefended increase the chances for barbs to show up?

-Will building a city near an area where the barbs keep showing up increase the chances?

-If other civs make a bee-line for the "barb farm" city, can't I also bribe opposing civ units and have them be None-supported as well?

-Would building a road from my core cities to "barb farm" city be okay? I want to be able to bring back my None-supported units faster.

While waiting for the barbs, I thought a good use of this city would be to either:

-Keep building infrastructure (buildings) and selling them off for gold.
-Building Caravans and helping my other cities build Wonders. (Building roads would help the slow Caravans).
-Building a couple of Settlers to help develop land around my other core cities. I would re-home them to one of the core cities once the barbs show up so as not to lose them.
-Building military units or diplomats and re-homing them at the core cities so core cities can concentrate on building other stuff.

What do you think?

[BaronVonHungste]

One other option I just thought of while waiting for the barbs to show up is to actually use the Settlers from "Barb Farm" city to build other cities as well (not too close to "Barb Farm" city of course.

or

build other "Barb Farm" cities too. Man, my mind is racing with the possibilities.

[Ali Ardavan]

A barb farm city is useful if it comes from an advaned tribe in strategically unimportant areas. But sending a settler far away to build one is counter productive as settlers are too valuable a resource to spend many turns simply walking away.

[Prof. Garfield]

-Does it matter if you build a city with a settler for "barb farm" city or can you do the same with a city inherited from an Advanced Tribe?

You can even use a city that the barbs captured from the AI (although it might not have a barracks). The Barb Farm works because bribing units closer to an AI city than to your own makes the unit unsupported. Barbarian units are cheap because there is no money in the barb treasury.

-If other civs make a bee-line for the "barb farm" city, can't I also bribe opposing civ units and have them be None-supported as well?

If you mean after the city was captured by the barbs, then yes. If you still own the city that you are attempting to farm barbs from, then no (those units will be supported by the barb farm city).

I don't think a barb farm is something that people usually plan to have. If an out of the way city gets captured, it might be worth leaving as a farm, but building a city with the hope that barbs will show up to capture it is not really worth your time and effort. In my opinion, it is a technique you should know about in case an opportunity arises, but it isn't really something to work into a larger strategy.

Keep in mind that a barracks will not matter if Leonardo's Workshop will be upgrading the bribed units anyway.

[BaronVonHungste]

Originally Posted by Prof. Garfield

You can even use a city that the barbs captured from the AI (although it might not have a barracks). The Barb Farm works because bribing units closer to an AI city than to your own makes the unit unsupported. Barbarian units are cheap because there is no money in the barb treasury.

Come to think of it, if I see that barbs are coming to attack an AI civ city, I can go in and kill their city defenders first making it easier for the barbs to take it over.

Originally Posted by Prof. Garfield

If you mean after the city was captured by the barbs, then yes. If you still own the city that you are attempting to farm barbs from, then no (those units will be supported by the barb farm city).

Yeah, I meant the former.

Originally Posted by Prof. Garfield

I don't think a barb farm is something that people usually plan to have. If an out of the way city gets captured, it might be worth leaving as a farm, but building a city with the hope that barbs will show up to capture it is not really worth your time and effort. In my opinion, it is a technique you should know about in case an opportunity arises, but it isn't really something to work into a larger strategy.

Originally Posted by Ali Ardavan

A barb farm city is useful if it comes from an advaned tribe in strategically unimportant areas. But sending a settler far away to build one is counter productive as settlers are too valuable a resource to spend many turns simply walking away.

Yeah, this sounds reasonable. I figured this strategy would not be competitvely efficient, but I just wanted to try it out and see if it could be made to work successfully.

Originally Posted by Prof. Garfield

Keep in mind that a barracks will not matter if Leonardo's Workshop will be upgrading the bribed units anyway.

This is a really good point.

[Blue Bacon 3]

If you convert their units are they without support cost?

[BaronVonHungste]

Originally Posted by Blue Bacon

If you convert their units are they without support cost?

If by convert, you mean bribe, they will be NONE-supported if the closest city to where the bribe is happening is not one of your cities.