Barbarians.....

[Jimdigriz]

Im playing on Noble and Monarch level - the barbarians in early game are just getting ridiculous on every game I play....it gets so bad that all my cities are doing is making archers and axemen trying to fend them off...

What does everyone else do? I realise there seems to be some kind of 'trigger' for the barbarians (I think 3/4 cities seems to do it) but dealing with constant attacks from all directions by the barbarians is stopping me actually building anything or expanding. Or maybe its just bad luck?

Please help!

 

[futurehermit]

you must have fog-buster units. send out warriors to hills surrounding your cities so you get line of site surrounding your cities. this will mean that when the barbs spawn, they spawn far enough away from your cities that you can see them coming. when you have enough advance warning, you can determine how to deal with them. you can whip another warrior, and send it to support the first for example. two warrior on a hill, one fortified, can deal with any barb threat prior to axemen. and by the time barb axemen show up you should have your own axemen, or at least chariots if no metal available. heck, even an archer fortified in a forest or on a hill will have a decent chance against a barb axeman.

 

[Jimdigriz]

Yeah I do have units away from the cities for this purpose...maybe just bad luck in the last two games. Every game I play there is a concerted Barbarian attack about the same time but as I said, the last two games have been ridiculous! Just seems to be no end to them...

Anyone know what the penalty on your final score is for switching barbarians off? It wasnt much on civ 2 and civ 3 but I cant tell on civ 4...

 

[Andrei_V]

Connect to Horses early and build Chariots, then forget about fogbusting completely. Entirely. Forever. It's a lot better to let them build cities for you, than spend $$/turn on extra units outside of your cultural borders.

 

[§L¥ Gµ¥]

the earlier you get those fog buster units out the better. Nothing hampers expansion like those endless waves of barb archers in the early game, so minimizing where they can show up should be a high priority. Also, if you're in somewhat of a race to settle in a killer city spot, those fog busting units can be the difference between an unprotected size 1 city in a great spot or a somewhat protected one.

The thing I hate most about the barbs in civ 4 is their spawning un tundra and ice tiles. I don't want to settle there unless it has a key resource I need, but to keep those uncivilized marauding wildmen off my back I still have to commit troops to those latitudes.

 

[Ronin228]

If they get too annoying, just delete them in world builder.

 

[Sisiutil]

Connect to Horses early and build Chariots, then forget about fogbusting completely. Entirely. Forever. It's a lot better to let them build cities for you, than spend $$/turn on extra units outside of your cultural borders.

The only problem with this tactic is that the barbs, like the AI civs, will often put their cities in a sub-optimal location. In my experience I'd say one barb city out of every six you encounter will actually be in a good enough spot to keep instead of raze.

 

[Andrei_V]

The only problem with this tactic is that the barbs, like the AI civs, will often put their cities in a sub-optimal location. In my experience I'd say one barb city out of every six you encounter will actually be in a good enough spot to keep instead of raze.

What's a big problem? Raze the city.

Or, even better, leave it alone. You'll probably get a constant stream of Warriors/Archers/Axes from that city, but it will be significantly weaker than a random stream out of FoW. You can use it for some free promotions to your new units, though this is a little bit too boring.