Why Don't Barbs Kill AI Units?

It is starting to get ridiculous. The Barbs hardly ever kill an AI military unit.

Case in point--this screenshot.

I intentionally kept my archer on the hill and watched for FIFTY turns (this nonsense began 20 turns earlier). Archer shoots the Indian spearmen, and the spearman heals 10. Archer shoots, spearmen heals 10. Rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat.

Never mind that the spearmen doesn't even attack the archer. Why not? It would totally destroy the the archer unit. And if it was my spearmen, I would not keep healing like that. I'd be dead in a few turns.

I'm willing to bet that this would have continued for another fifty turns (if not longer).

I just don't get it. And I don't get why five or six barbs will go after my one warrior, but will totally ignore the three AI scouts standing right next to them. Or 20 turns into the game I get swarmed by barbs, but the AI doesn't.

I ended up quitting the game, as it was the fourth attempted game in a row where I had no horses for my camel archers (I am Arabia). Before that four attempted games with no iron playing as England. And six attempted games as Mongolia with no horses.

I just don't get it--Barbs don't kill AI military units, I can't get the resources for my civ's unique unit, etc. What good is the UU if I don't get the resources?

And I'm only playing on King.

Any thoughts? And apologizes for ranting. But I just don't get it.

They kill AI units (unless they change this in the expansions). Don't you ever see workers that belong to other Civs or City-States captured by barbarians?

The AI players get a much higher bonus vs. barbarians than your units do at higher difficulties. This is why scouts and other units belonging to the AI will just hunker down when under archer fire and not get whittled down to 0 hp, seemingly indefinitely until more barbarians or AI backup comes (as for why they don't back off or rush the archer, no clue). This is also why a barbarian would rather attack your warrior than their scout, because they've got better odds after combat modifiers.

Capturing workers or prophets/missionaries is a lot different than military units. And did you notice that captured workers are not DEAD?

CELTICEMPIRE said:

They kill AI units (unless they change this in the expansions). Don't you ever see workers that belong to other Civs or City-States captured by barbarians?

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Yeah I can't say much about them actually attacking AI military units but in terms of AI missionaries/settlers/workers they always capture them

they have something like a 50% combat bonus against barbs.

and yes they do kill ai units and steal their workers. some people argue that
raging barbarians" makes the game easier because the player can adapt but the ai doesn't and so loses more workers and units fighting the barbs.

^^I have seen instances where a unit is killed (though it takes a very long time, it seems).

And that 50 percent combat bonus sounds like a lot.

I've played raging barbs a few turns, but only when playing as the Aztecs.

Thanks for your input, gang.

The example you showed is likely a result of the spearman attacking the tile you can't see with the barb encampment and not the archer. When its health gets low, it heals up, and waits until it is fully healed before attacking again. With the archer attacking it, it never gets to be fully healed, and so it just sits there. The barb units in encampments do not attack unless the unit near them is low on health, which is not happening at this point.

They most definitely kill the AI, they just didn't in this case.

^^^Well, then apparently that spearmen unit will sit there for the rest of the game, unless I interfere

And it was definitely the archers firing on the spearmen.

docbud said:

I just don't get it. And I don't get why five or six barbs will go after my one warrior, but will totally ignore the three AI scouts standing right next to them. Or 20 turns into the game I get swarmed by barbs, but the AI doesn't.

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Oh, the AI will have these problems, too. They just have additional units to defend themselves, so the first wave doesn't do that much, usually. But once they lose their bonus warriors and if it's not a military oriented AI, they will get some real problems. Have seen Raging Barbs completely plundering all the tiles of an AIs capital more than once, especially when it's exposed on grasslands. (<- I enjoy playing the Skirmish-Mapscript, so that happens a lot ^^)

If you want to see that happening: Use the ingame editor mod and reveal the whole map for a game or two. It's actually quite interesting to watch what happens. ^^

^^^Thanks. Unfortunately I have the Apple Store mac version, so I can't use mods.

Redying said:

The AI players get a much higher bonus vs. barbarians than your units do at higher difficulties.

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In addition to this, note that even on low difficulty levels note that the AI's bonus against barbs remains higher than the humans, it just has a smaller difference)

^^What?

reddishrecue said:

^^What?

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If the human plays on Settler, then the AI still has a bigger bonus against the barbs than the human.

On the lowest difficulty levels, both the AI and human get larger than standard bonuses against the barb, with the AI's being slightly larger.

Settler:

Chieftain:

Warlord:

At this point, the AIBarb bonus stops decreasing but the human's continues to drop.

Prince:

(skiping King & Emperor)

Immortal:

The human bonus goes away entirely at Deity.

^^Thanks for explaining. Very informative.

Barbarians tend to avoid fights that they can't win. If I have a warrior in full health next to a single barbarian warrior, the barbarian warrior usually ignores me.

Barbarians killing AI military unit is therefore very unlikely to happen, but I'm pretty sure AI's scouts aren't that safe.

AI is still pretty dumb, is all. That spearman will stay put til he's full strength, Barb will attack every turn but do less damage as the spearman's experience is increased and he gets veteran bonuses.
Eventually the spearman would heal faster than the damage sustained, and then he'd attack the Barb, but hey, you could be on Alpha Centauri by then, matey!