What barbarian level do you play at?

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[Bartleby]

I play with no barbs (or sedentary if I'm trying for an expansionist fast-research game).
Raging barbs can be awkward, especially on higher levels when you don't have much (or even any) advantage over them.
I settle as much as I can regardless of barbs.
You can't get a leader from them
Attack with archers, that way it's 2 attack vs 1 defence

[MAS]

Originally Posted by stantonlei

What barbarian level do you play at?

Raging

do you think it makes the game harder?

Depends, barbs do have their advantages. But at higher levels they help the AI more than you.

do u settle the spots at all costs to avoid them from spawning?

I just settle every spot I can, I settle them for the land area, resources, and the simple fact that more cities are always better. Barbs play no part in this formula.

can u generate a leader from them?

No, but you can use them to train elites, that you can then use to get leaders the next war vs an AI.

To attack a barb site, among veteran warriors, archers, and spearmen,

Whatever is my best attack unit, and whatever unit I happen to have available for it.

Exception: Maya. I use barbs to farm slaves, I'll use the UU, even if I have better units

[Mirc]

Sedentary. I hate barbs.

[gmaharriet]

Originally Posted by stantonlei

What barbarian level do you play at?

Roaming

do you think it makes the game harder?

It makes some things about it harder, but other things easier. The gold from dispersing villages can help finance research. Promotions for the troops are nice.

do u settle the spots at all costs to avoid them from spawning?

No, if I have unsettled land and a couple of archers to spare, I actually encourage them to spawn...for the 25 gold on dispersal.

to attack a barb site, among veteran warriors, archers, and spearmen, what do u prefer?

Depends on game difficulty level, since barbs get tougher as the game level increases. I'll attack with a warrior at Regent and below, archers at Monarch, swords at Emperor, and I don't play at levels above that.

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[Aabraxan]

Originally Posted by stantonlei

What barbarian level do you play at?

Restless (I think that's the name for the setting above roaming).

Originally Posted by stantonlei

do you think it makes the game harder?

Yes and no. Barbs can be a pain, but the extra gold is nice.

Originally Posted by stantonlei

can u generate a leader from them?

As stated: No, but you can train troops on them.

Originally Posted by stantonlei

I need to elaborate my sayings...

when I say,
"do u settle the spots at all costs to avoid them from spawning?"

I mean whether u will sacrifice your city founding order to avoid a certain barb site from respawning. (u dont really want to build there YET)

Absolutely not. First priority is grabbing the best land. Ridding my land of barbs is somewhere further down the priority list.

Originally Posted by stantonlei

"to attack a barb site, among veteran warriors, archers, and spearmen,
what do u prefer?"

of course it is best to use archers. my question is asking whether u will gamble with a veteran warrior to take care of that barb warrior on hill, so that your better archers can do sth else. or whether u will send a spearman/warrior to slow them down waiting for your archer to complete.

It depends on where the hill is, where my workers are, what else I'm involved in, etc. I usually build archers and horses pretty early, so I rarely have cause to send warriors.

[dgfred]

Originally Posted by Mirc

Sedentary. I hate barbs.

Me too , but I put them on Roaming. I'm almost certain that the game
cheats with Barbs especially on higher levels. They don't really go after the AIs, they pop up at the VERY worst times for your civ, and if you happen to have enough troops nearby- about 16 Barb Horses appear and destroy your most careful planning.

[MAS]

Originally Posted by dgfred

cheats with Barbs especially on higher levels. They don't really go after the AIs,

most of the time you find you can trade for AI workers, it is because there is a barb near his capital and the worker is waiting inside the city core until it is safe again...

they pop up at the VERY worst times for your civ,

Think about it: if the Civ3 program was intelligent enough to understand what would be the worst time for you to get attacked, then the AI wouldn't be know for its horrible stupidity, now would it?

and if you happen to have enough troops nearby- about 16 Barb Horses appear

Barb horses appear when the 2th civ in the world acquires the horseback riding tech, same for barb galleys and the map making tech.

Barb uprising appear when the 2th civ in the world reaches the next age.

Depending on barb settings, they sometimes also slowly build up stacks before they go after a unit.

and destroy your most careful planning.

Proving your planning wasn't well enough.

[dgfred]

I'm saying they don't specifically go after the AI civs like they do your own.

Intelligence with barbs is NOT the reason the AI is called stupid most often-
it is it's fighting/building ability.

I know about when they appear, it is just that they appear at the worst possible location and do not 'go after' the AI like they would a human's civ.
How many times have you seen barbs pillage the AI? If they cannot attack
one of your units, they WILL pillage your roads. There is a difference.

That's just it, no planning is good enough to prepare for 32 barb horses at
the weak point of your empire. No empire is perfect at that time period.

'Depending on the barb setting' - well of course. And by the way, I am quite
effecient in dealing with barbs, I was just noting some of my humble observations.

[HyCrest]

No barbs. They remind me of my mother-in-law in both shape and temperament.

[Ansar]

See Bartleby's post.

[Quintillus]

Another for Roaming. Above that and they can get quite annoying, below that and there's often not enough combat early on.

[Son_Of_Dido]

I'll cast another vote for "Raging but only when I'm using The Maya".

Yeah, come down that axis and fight me, barbies. I just fortified a couple Javelin Throwers in this forest. Have fun building The Highway To Copan, chumps!

[Othniel]

That's very interesting that Javelin Throwers can enslave barbs. Makes sense, but never thought about it. I'll have try that out next time I play as the Mayans.

Maintenance free workers are incredibly valuable and can be in short supply at the beginning of the game...

[AutomatedTeller]

On the lower levels, raging barbarians are often a bigger threat than the AI.

On higher levels, the reason it seems that you are getting hit by barbs more than the AI is because you are expanding slower, so they show up around you more. It's not cheating - it's just the way things go. Also, on higher levels, the barbs are more effective against you than they are against the AI.

[civverguy]

I usually play at no barbs or the default level.

[Fanny Brice]

Originally Posted by stantonlei

I need to elaborate my sayings...

when I say,
"do u settle the spots at all costs to avoid them from spawning?"

I mean whether u will sacrifice your city founding order to avoid a certain barb site from respawning. (u dont really want to build there YET)


"to attack a barb site, among veteran warriors, archers, and spearmen,
what do u prefer?"

of course it is best to use archers. my question is asking whether u will gamble with a veteran warrior to take care of that barb warrior on hill, so that your better archers can do sth else. or whether u will send a spearman/warrior to slow them down waiting for your archer to complete.

First -- you don't need to settle in order to avoid them from spawning. They spawn in "unseen" area (or gray areas)... areas you either haven't explored, don't have a unit nearby, or 2+ hexes outside your boundries. You can have a unit on a hill on sentry duty to avoid barbarians spawning nearby.

Second Q -- yes, I would risk a vet warrior to attack a camp on a hill. You will most likely win.

I vary the setting for barbs. Sometimes none if I want all techs to be researched. Sometimes you can get unlucky and get no techs from the camps and the AI can get lucky and get a lot. The game I'm playing now I have set to "raging" (or the highest level).

If I have a warrior on a long distance explore mission, I will only attack camps on grasslands -- not hills -- to avoid losing him. If the camp is near an AI civ, I will sometimes leave it there in hopes that a barbarian rising will occur and send 20 horsemen to attack the AI civ. I've seen it happen.

I will also leave gray areas nearby and check them every couple of turns in hopes the a barb camp has spawned. I attack it in order to get the 25 gold. Like a gold mine!

[Aramazd]

Originally Posted by stantonlei

What barbarian level do you play at?

Depends, I don't really have a set level

do you think it makes the game harder?

Not really, it can sometimes though.

do u settle the spots at all costs to avoid them from spawning?

No

can u generate a leader from them?

Nope


I prefer archers to attack barb camps