Better Barbarians

Well, I saved before letting them come at me, so it wouldn't have made a difference if they did take it I was hoping for something a little more exciting after seeing my poor city get its rear end handed to it by a bunch of barbarians!

"Underwhelming", indeed. Barbarians in Civ have traditionally been at least something of a threat. In Civ V, they're more like a mosquito just buzzing in your ear--and not one of those malaria-carrying mosquitoes, either. With cities that can defend themselves (so a new city without a defending unit is no longer an immediate capture to anyone who wants to waltz in), barbarians would have to be more organized and have more concentration before we could be made to care about them. My "Great Chieftain" idea would be one cool way to make that happen. I don't agree with those that want to make them their own kind of City-State, but at the very least I'd like to see them be able to A) organize an efficient attack (or as efficient an attack as the AI ever organizes anyway), and B) actually capture and hold a city if they're successful.

The main problem in the later game is, as the manual so succinctly puts it, "Once the entire world is civilized, the barbarians will be gone."

My idea is a bit of a hybrid of other ones: if there is no room for camps, have barbs appear randomly inside city states. Give them a "head-start" for a few turns where they disregard the CS they came from, and CS disregards them, giving the barb a chance to branch out and find friends before wreaking havoc. If it pops up in your field of view (which is a sure thing if you're allied with the CS it came from), pop a small notification icon on the right side of the screen.

Loaf Warden said:

"Underwhelming", indeed. Barbarians in Civ have traditionally been at least something of a threat. In Civ V, they're more like a mosquito just buzzing in your ear--and not one of those malaria-carrying mosquitoes, either.

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That is one way to put it. Although, Civ V feels more like barbarians are buzzing mosquitoes while in bed covered with a malaria net.

I got the barbarian city ransom achievement today. It took a considerable amount of work to get them to do it. Sadly, though, I found out that it was really hard to stop them from stealing my gold once they started because my city was still at zero health each time they raided.

Anyway, it's quite interesting. I wish they were more aggressive about it, though.

I never knew that barbarians take money instead of capturing a city.
1. That is a great idea, barbarians rarely remained culturally relevant, and usually just plundered the landscape (think of the Vandals or Tartars).
2. It is hilariously dumb that I never encountered this in all my time playing Civ V. Barbarians are too wwweeeaaaakkkk.

To expand on the idea of a great chieftain, it would be cool if they created an almost new, "quasi" city-state that was unit and chieftain based, instead of city based. It would have a leader that would come to the edge of your civ and demand tribute before moving on. You could declare war on them jointly with other civs in the area when their tributes become too demanding, you can ally with them, etc. Obviously, by nature, they would be untrustworthy barbarians, even more shady than the normal AI so be wary in dealing with them. Who knows, maybe if they capture a city the could become their own full-fledged city state, representing new political leadership over the same cultural region (like Mongols over China), resetting all favor.

Louis XXIV said:

I got the barbarian city ransom achievement today. It took a considerable amount of work to get them to do it. Sadly, though, I found out that it was really hard to stop them from stealing my gold once they started because my city was still at zero health each time they raided.

Anyway, it's quite interesting. I wish they were more aggressive about it, though.

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Congrats!

Still hoping I'd get that one some day.

It is only 5% as patience taxing as trying to lose as Korea on the scenario...

MatThePhat said:

2. It is hilariously dumb that I never encountered this in all my time playing Civ V. Barbarians are too wwweeeaaaakkkk.

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I still need to get this achievement, but they never live long enough to actually do anything. I guess ignoring them is the only way.