Solo vs. the Barbarians

Chandrasekhar

Chandrasekhar

Determined
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
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Location
Seattle, WA
Hey, everybody. I was just struck by an idea the other day by an idea for an interesting way to play Civ IV. Here's how it would be set up:

No rival Civs,
Raging Barbarians set,
High Difficulty (no particular one necessary),
Likely Pangea, Continents, or Archipelago,
Only Domination victories allowed,

Essentially, this would be an attempt to conquer a world covered in barbarians. As there would be no rival Civs, diplomacy and trading wouldn't be options. Raging barbarians should insure that the world becomes well covered. A high difficulty would probably be necessary to make it a challenge as barbarians do tend to lag behind in tech. The more broken up the landmass is, the more time barbarians would have to grow powerful before you met them. And, finally, domination would probably be the most suitable victory to challenge.

Have you heard of games set up like this before? I was going to try it, but I figured I would see what the opinion here was first. Any relevant information would be helpful.
 
No helpful info here...but I'm going to try it as well. I once do the same thing in civ3, but the barbarians are pretty braindead, so I want to play with barbarians that found cities and research tech.
 
that would take away all the joy from the game i think, whats the point?? anyway i dont think u could start a game without at least one other civ
 
I'm pretty sure that as long as you turn off conquest as a victory condition, you can still start it up (I'm finishing up a Prince game at the moment, so I haven't tried it yet). And don't assume that it will be easy! I've heard horror stories of barbs that completed the Manhattan Project on their own- and used it with deadly brutality.
 
Yes, you can do this! I started a game like that myself, but quitted it early, since no interaction with any civilizations made it a bit boring. But try it by all means and report your experiences of it!
 
I was thinking this. Do you think the barbs can actually win the game? Via most likely the Space Race, or the one where you kill everyone (i forget the name)
 
Barbarians can't win the game, but they can eliminate you, making it so nobody can win it.

The game will be much harder on Pangea. It can be hard to even survive on such a map with all the barbarians coming at you. Try marathon speed as well, for more barbarian spawn, and you may find it's impossible to win the game with any victory condition! Even diplomatic would be hard (even though you're the only one allowed to vote) because you probably won't make it that far into the game still alive!
 
Worst case, the barbs overrun your cities evey turn. You would survive as they don't destroy the city, but you would not be able to grow or build. you would eventually win a histographic victory with one or two very charred very empty cities

In Civ I they could take over the city and pump out more barbs. I once played a game where they seized control over an entire continent.
 
Would be nice to have the INVINCIBLE unit there! :lol:

Chuck Norris against the raging Barbs ---- nice Bseries movie

Really .... weird Idea ...... But i'd be willing to try it. Would be a hell tough having barbs on your ass all game long!
 
Funny. I actually tried this last night. I set raging barbs, aggressive AI (not sure this did anything), no other civs (turn conquest off), deity difficulty, large map, pangea.

I was Mansa for the Skirmishers. The beginning was mindless. Finish skirmisher, begin skirmisher. The barbs would arrive about 5 per turn. Eventually, I had one garrison III skirmisher, and another garrioson II. None of the others below ever saw combat.

I built a barracks and a worker. New skirmishers were promoted to hills defense, as my city was on a hill, but I also had some pigs on a hill one tile south. When I had two hills skirmishers and a worker, I sent them south with a couple of other unpromoted skirmishers.

I didn't yet have animal husbandry (as the early game needed me to get to archery as fast as possible) but I wanted to get my worker defenders some XP).

Unfortunately though, I had too many units. All I could build were units. My science dropped too quickly. By about 2000 BC, science was zero. I had no worker techs other than mining and couldn't build anything that wouldn't make my finances worse.

I threw in the towel despite having won about 200 battles or so and never losing once.
 
Barbarians train units rather slowly, and they also tech up slowly. I think if you chop rush some axeman and later train some archers, you should be fine on defense for a long time. Try to secure a corner, then slowly progress... :)

Even if given a huge land to work on, the barbarians won't city spawn them all. For example, the new continent in Terra map usually contains 5-6 barb city at most on Standard, or fewer on smaller map. So they aren't really as formidable as a regular AI opponent.
 
I just tried on a Panagea map. I was playing as the Incans and ended up out-teched and without copper or iron. Suffice to say, i quit pretty soon :lol:
 
read this thread this am and was intrigued as im no fan of the ai civs, and am kind of a buildaholic anyway, so i tried it on pangea with raging barbs, wow, couldn't even move units 1 square away from city without being destroyed unless you piled in stacks of 5 or more, tech went to 0 units on strike had to quit maybe i should have tried lower than emperor :blush:
 
Raisin Bran said:
Chuck Norris against the raging Barbs ---- nice Bseries movie
Click to expand...

Didn't they already do that? Bah, shame on them if they didn't.

In any case, I'll be staring my first game of this type here momentarily. It'll be small for the benefit of my computer, but I'll run a bigger one when I get the chance. Continents map, low sea level, Deity difficulty, Domination only. Might as well turn on aggressive AI as well as raging barbs (doubt it will help, but might as well do it anyway). I'll post here as I go along.

In a side note, does anyone know if the AI ever gets Astronomy, builds galleons, fills them with troops, and attacks an enemy on another continent? It would be helpful to know.
 
Forgot to mention that mine was an OCC with only Space victory enabled. "Escape from Barb Island".

I think if you chop rush some axeman
Click to expand...

And how are you going to secure copper or iron with 17 barbs in your fat cross at any given moment?

I would have been able to hook up the pigs right next to me--because I escorted every worker with 4+ units. Any resource more than 1 tile away, though, requires a guard stack on every road. (unless connected by river, then you only need to guard the resource.)

If you set the game up at deity, like I did, the barbs come early and often. Maybe a lower difficulty could make this doable. Maybe a lower difficulty could make this fun.

I got bored too quickly with 200+ battles in about 60 turns. I don't plan on playing this setup again.
 
Stone Age update

Ugh, this isn't good. Even running on quick gamespeed, I can't get anywhere with this. Even when I get a half-decent start, the barbs rush me five or six at a time. I get the feeling that once I get a foothold, I might be able to fight back. Off to try again.
 
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