I have to go early military to deal with barbs?

[Athenaeum]

The past week or so, almost every game I have been playing the barbs have been out of control. It's been indistinguishable from raging barbs. So much so that I have been going early military just to deal with them.

Was there a recent patch or something that increased barb activity? Part of the reason I ask this is simply out of the frustration I've had over the past week. But it is also still a legitimate question. I feel that the barbarians are having way too much of an impact to my game for something that is designed to be a minor side-quest type thing.

 

[Galgus]

In my opinion Aliens should be much more of a factor, but mostly they are an expansion speedbump.

Sometimes you spawn next to a nest or two and see action, sometimes they are far away.

 

[AriochIV]

Unless you happen to be in the middle of an alien-infested wildland, the aliens can practically be ignored.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

The less you fight the aliens, the less you need to fight them. Sometimes you have to accept a few lost explorers and gunboat casualties and just keep chugging along.

 

[Gorbles]

Virtues are less required to deal with Aliens than Social Policies are for Barbarians. Tradition is pretty useful in that regard in CiV, while the Might tree is only really worth it to carry out an aggressive Alien extermination (for the Energy / Science bonuses to clearing nests). The other Virtue trees are also, generally, superior.

If you're having trouble with Aliens, prioritise Affinity levels. I sometimes have severe problems with them depending on world state; certainly I find them far less passive than a lot of other players on here.

 

[Ryika]

It's more like having Alien Nests around "unlocks" some (in my opinion relatively weak) Might-Centered Strategies than actually having to use them. With the exceptions of Siege Worms neutral Aliens will not attack Civilians within your borders (unless it's the only movement option available for them), so they're save 99% of the time and unless you want/have to expand directly into an alien-infested woodlands (which should be lowest priority for expanding anyway with all these forests and the Miasma) you should be able to body-block aliens with normal units.

It's worth noting that Apollo-Difficulty has increased Barbarian Spawn rates. So in case you've recently started playing on that difficulty, well, there you go. Also, if you use the Aggressive Aliens Option in the Advanced Options Aliens will act more like Barbarians do in Civ 5 and from time to time attack you "for no reason".

 

[Acken]

Virtues are less required to deal with Aliens than Social Policies are for Barbarians. Tradition is pretty useful in that regard in CiV.

Not really no. Neither game have to pick special options to fight barbs/aliens.

 

[Gorbles]

Nor did I say they had to. Was simply comparing worth.

 

[Galgus]

The less you fight the aliens, the less you need to fight them. Sometimes you have to accept a few lost explorers and gunboat casualties and just keep chugging along.

They take a lot of poking to anger, and all they really do when angered are attacks of convenience.

 

[Acken]

Nor did I say they had to. Was simply comparing worth.

And both are the same. It's not required... at all.

Make units.

 

[Gorbles]

Didn't say it was required. Was simply comparing worth.

Actually recommended going down an Affinity tech route (for military investment). Making units doesn't matter when basic units can be attrition'd down. You know the benefits of early Affinity levels better than me, I don't need to bloody explain it.

 

[Athenaeum]

I meant to put this in Civ 5 section.

 

[Browd]

Moderator Action: Moved to Civ 5 - General Discussions.

 

[reddishrecue]

I guess un BE leaders often complained about you killing off native alien species while in civ 5 nobody really complains. Cruelty to barbs/ aliens is new.

 

[joncnunn]

The past week or so, almost every game I have been playing the barbs have been out of control. It's been indistinguishable from raging barbs. So much so that I have been going early military just to deal with them.

Was there a recent patch or something that increased barb activity? Part of the reason I ask this is simply out of the frustration I've had over the past week. But it is also still a legitimate question. I feel that the barbarians are having way too much of an impact to my game for something that is designed to be a minor side-quest type thing.

I meant to put this in Civ 5 section.

In Civ V context, the setting doesn't change number of barb camps nor the rate at which totally new barb camps form.
What it does instead is greatly increase the rate at which all barb camps spawn new units.

There's been no patches to Civ V for months.

There are though some map settings that will cause an increase in number of camps (and therefore indirectly an increase in barb units):

1. Holding map size fixed, increasing number of land tiles vs ocean tiles.
2. Decreasing number of major civs (and to a lesser extent decreasing number of city states)

 

[Newbstep]

I find that fighting barbs early on is quite important, make sure to keep your units alive and gain those valuable promotions. First I never do the auto heal unless absolutely necessary. The promotions don't go away and if you keep the same units alive and fighting they will be that much more valuable in later ages.

 

[dasaard200]

In civV, cruelty to barbs is letting them live .

 

[HughFran]

If you want my advice, you should be very happy that there are so many Barbs early on. As long as you have 2-3 units to deal with them, they are very handy because it means you can adpot honor early on (even if you don't plan to fill it) and use the barbs as culture meat to get tradition/liberty asap. I always enable 'raging barbarians' because they can boost your culture so quickly. Just don't let your workers go wandering!!

 

[reddishrecue]

In civV, cruelty to barbs is letting them live .

In civ V it is but in BE it isnt always like that.

 

[Bimblecrumbs]

Firstly, once you are able to deal with them effectively, barbs are useful for xping units, camp gold, CS quests, limiting AI expansion and the odd free worker. Barbs are beneficial, appreciate them

The most important thing to do is to explore tiles in the fog of war near your cities regularly, so as to find barb camps. In a normal situation, assume that there will be 2+ barb camps near your capital early on. More if there's lots of free space. If you're really struggling, adopt the Honour opener and you'll make a little bit of the culture back while auto revealing barb camps and increasing your damage vs them.

For every barb camp that you find, check what the nearest city is. Barbs will generally head towards the closest city, so you can get a good idea of whether or not they'll come in your direction. Let's say there's a camp 10 tiles from your cap and 20 tiles from the next nearest city. Your cap will be invaded by the majority of the barbs that spawn, so a unit is needed to defend. Sure you'll get the odd wandering barb, but most will move in to attack upon seeing player/CS borders.

If you're sharing a peninsula with a barb camp or 2, prepare for trouble. However if a barb camp spawns 4 tiles from a CS, you can assume that most spawns will attack the CS; instead worry about completing a barb camp quest for the CS if possible.

Coastal barb camps will spawn comparatively less land units and are less of a threat unless you have sea trade routes, as barbs can't pillage sea tiles (only other civs).