Barb Busting in Higher Levels

[MPorciusCatoCivver]

I know there's probably a guide floating around, but I need some tips on barb busting.

At the higher levels the barbs are just too damn strong. And if I manage to get them beyond "Roaming barbs", they can get a pain in the behind.

Case in point is that mass barb uprisings happen with a lot of frequency. And my warriors, starting on Emperor, seem unable to do much against them except get their ass kicked many and many times. I've had one instance in an experimental game where I had all my warriors getting busted up to turn 30 by goodie hut and wilderness barbs. Every single time. They couldn't bust a damn single barb.

So what sort of raiding parties and what sort of unit makeup do you use against barbs at the higher levels. I'm curious to know.

 

[tjs282]

The best way I've found to deal with the Era-change Barb-rushes is to try to ensure that none of them happen near me!

Barb-huts can only appear in tiles which are beyond visual range of any borders or units, so to keep them as far away from me as possible, I aim to push my borders out as far and as fast as I can, Settling all the fertile area (including Jungle/Marsh) so that there aren't any spots left nearby for Barb-huts to spawn in the first place. Or for the less fertile areas (Tundra, Desert, Mountains), either leaving those for the AI to Settle, or using "border-guards", e.g. Warriors or Spears, preferably fortified on Hills/Mountains to give them a 2-tile visibility range.

And also, let the AI waste their free starting units, and their production bonuses, on Barb-hunting, while I concentrate on expansion and consolidation.

 

[justanick]

The best way I've found to deal with the Era-change Barb-rushes is to try to ensure that none of them happen near me!

Indeed. The second best way is to simply let them take a worthless border town. This can eliminate a stack of 30 barbs at relatively low cost to your empire. But maybe not to your ego.

It should be noted that a mass barb uprising happens whenever the second tribe enters a new era. This is similar to how the great library works. By the time of the industrial age an uprising hardly matters, therefore it only matters once.

Barb-huts can only appear in tiles which are beyond visual range of any borders or units,

Workers, settlers and outpost donnot suppress the spawning of new barb camps. Warriors do.

And also, let the AI waste their free starting units, and their production bonuses, on Barb-hunting, while I concentrate on expansion and consolidation.

That is the gist of it. Barbs are little more than a nuisance. The best way to deal with them is not to deal with them.

Since AI plays only on regent, it gets a bonus of 200% fighting barbarians, so it does not really lose anything, instead it gains money busting barb camps. This is one mechanism that helps AI leave the ancient age strong and early.

Simply settling all freely available land is the best approach for the human player.

 

[Lanzelot]

The second best way is to simply let them take a worthless border town.

This is called the "party town approach", you can probably find something about this in the War Academy. Plop down a settler near the problematic barb camp after the uprising (if you still manage to do that...), make sure you spend your gold reserves on useful stuff (or even just gift it to the AI, to improve relations, you are going to lose it anyway...) and then the stack of 24 barbs will just steal zero gold 24 times or empty the already empty production bin of that town 24 times... (As there isn't any population > 1 yet, that the barbs could kill, or any city improvements, they could destroy, stealing gold and emptying the prod bin is the only damage the barbs can do in that town...)

 

[WeirdoJoker]

This is called the "party town approach", you can probably find something about this in the War Academy. Plop down a settler near the problematic barb camp after the uprising (if you still manage to do that...), make sure you spend your gold reserves on useful stuff (or even just gift it to the AI, to improve relations, you are going to lose it anyway...) and then the stack of 24 barbs will just steal zero gold 24 times or empty the already empty production bin of that town 24 times... (As there isn't any population > 1 yet, that the barbs could kill, or any city improvements, they could destroy, stealing gold and emptying the prod bin is the only damage the barbs can do in that town...)

Does this mean the barbs would "take" the town & then just disappear?

 

[MPorciusCatoCivver]

Does this mean the barbs would "take" the town & then just disappear?

Yes, they simply take 4 gold then disappear.

I actually think the "party town" approach is effective. So what, empty the queue, grab 4 gold per unit. That's very effective in dealing with the barb uprising. After early middle age barbs are no longer a concern.

 

[tjs282]

Yes, they simply take 4 gold then disappear.

The amount of gold you lose on each successful barb-raid isn't fixed, it's a small percentage (5%? 10%?) of what you currently have in your treasury. So if the barb-uprisings start when you have zero gold, and you 'offer' them a completely unimproved, undefended Pop1 town as a target, you'll actually lose nothing.

 

[justanick]

The amount of gold you lose on each successful barb-raid isn't fixed, it's a small percentage (5%? 10%?) of what you currently have in your treasury. So if the barb-uprisings start when you have zero gold, and you 'offer' them a completely unimproved, undefended Pop1 town as a target, you'll actually lose nothing.

Yes. If you have n towns, then you lose 1/n of your treasury.

Barbaren (Civ3) – CivWiki

wiki.civforum.de

 

[LaSalle]

At high difficulty levels avoid popping goody huts unless you are expansionist. It is very likely that the only thing you will get are barbs. See this article in the war academy https://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/game-mechanics/probabilities-of-goody-huts-c3c/
Expansionist civs do not get barbs from goody huts. For non expansionist civs, the only way to safely pop a goody hut is place a settler right next to it and build a city. You will not get barbs if a city is within 1 tile of the hut.

 

[LaSalle]

Another approach is build some “hunting patrols” of a spearman and archer combo asap. Seek out and destroy barb camps before they can spawn more barbs. Be sure to use the terrain to your advantage. The military advisor will let you know if there are barb camps near any of your cities. Check the F3 screen frequently. This is a good way to get some elite units and you get 25 gold every time you break up a camp. Later in the game, if you are able to keep some empty land adjacent to your territory you can move all your units out wait a few turns and go in and easily destroy the newly formed barb camp with a couple knights for 25 gold. Repeat again and again. This is called barb farming.

 

[justanick]

For non expansionist civs, the only way to safely pop a goody hut is place a settler right next to it and build a city.

That is not the only way, but sometimes the only reasonably one.

If you open them with an explorer or the spanish UU you will also get no barbs. And if you have no military yourself you can also not get barbs. But arguably those are niche cases, even more niche is the case of having no city.

More practically speaking higher difficulty settings means AI has more starting units to clear all goody huts and barb camps. That will give AI quite some techs and some gold, which makes AI in the initial phases of the game even stronger. AI tends to build up an advantage till the early middle age. After that the human player can slowly close the gap.

 

[timerover51]

Are you just talking about the standard game Barbarian units of Warrior and Horseman? For my mods, I use the Gallic Swordsman with +3 hitpoints to make him a Regular rather than Conscript and the Cossack for the Advanced Barbarian with +3 hitpoints as well. I have changed the Combat Experience settings a bit. Theov in his mod has separate Barbarian units that also are nasty.