A game without Barbarians

[Larsenex]

Greetings. I am playing a new game without Barbarians. I had read that AI expansion was hindered by Barbarians and folks have had better late games by disabling Barbarians.

I am still in my game in the classical era and game feels. ... tame.

Its kinda nice sailing around places without 3 damn quads blocking my path.

 

[tsf4]

I play civ5 without barbs always, but civ6 I feel they do impact the AI’s aggression on higher difficulties.

 

[whyidie]

I have only played King without barbarians. And haven't tried it at all after the pax (whichever one gave tons of start space) patch. Pre pax it felt necessary on lower levels to prevent AI getting overwhelmed. Since I knew war was inevitable I would focus on troop production and just earmark a couple for barbarian duty.

Now with so much space to settle I don't think I really need a military if not for fighting barbarians and in general the AI seems to handle barbarians better. With barbs off in this latest patch, can definitely see how things might be too tame, at least on the lower levels.

 

[Pietato]

Did you get a classical golden age?

 

[Socrates99]

Did you get a classical golden age?

That was my thought too. Without barbs it seems like you'd need to do some lucky exploring to pull it off.

 

[nzcamel]

Its kinda nice sailing around places without 3 damn quads blocking my path.

Ironically the latest patch has swapped out most barb quads for galleys.

 

[Datian]

Since latest patch, galleys appear as scouts for coastal camps, on the very first turns, which make coastal settling a coin toss : either you can develop a bit, or you have a galley preventing from building fishing boats and trade routes as soon as turn 1.
So I might consider it, even if it's interesting to play hide and seek with barbs in the ancient era.

 

[nzcamel]

The quads could likewise pillage your improvements, and weren't that far away from turn 1. Over all it has made the early sea exploration game less fraught with danger.

 

[Pietato]

Clan-mode makes sea exploration very dangerous. I got ambushed by 3 Jungs, some battleships and a destroyer.