Barbarian Huts

[player1 fanatic]

I did some research (by using debugger) and have concluded that how much often barbarians will pop out of huts instead getting reward depends solely of difficulty level.

At Chieftain, it was a very low chance of getting them, at regent around 40% and at Monarch around 50% (just simple estimations from few tries not exact numbers).

From Emperor and above, it just doesn't pay off.
Exempt very high chances to get barbarians, combat bonuses against them are so low, that there is more them good chance that you'll lose a unit.
Of course, this makes Expansionistic trait more useful at these levels since you won't get barbarians.

Also, one interesting thing to note is that if you build city right near barbarian hut, it will not pop out barbarians ever.
Exemption to this case, is expanding city radius (to level 2 or higher), when barbarians are possibile as always.

So, I guess that my strategy would be to enter the villages at monarch and lower levels, and avoid them at higher levels, at least unitl I get chance to build city right near them.


P.S.
I don't rememer barbarian chances being so high before Conquests, at least on Emperor level.

 

[Lennon]

I also noticed how frustrating the huts were on Emperor. They'd never give you techs or gold and you could be quite certain that your veteran Warrior would get his @ss kicked by those conscript Magyars or whatever...

 

[Halcyon]

While an expansionist civ may not get any barbarians, at the high difficulties they won't get anything useful either, since those are linked to difficulty too. The balance of that seems to make expansionist most useful around monarch/emperor, and not too handy at deity unless you'd really rather have 25gp than, say, the agricultural trait.

Addendum: That's not to say it's not useful at warlord, since it'll give you more techs etc at that level than at empy. You just don't need it as much, because it's warlord.

 

[dgfred]

I also noticed how frustrating the huts were on Emperor. They'd never give you techs or gold and you could be quite certain that your veteran Warrior would get his @ss kicked by those conscript Magyars or whatever...

. This is an absolute fact.

 

[player1 fanatic]

By the way my playing experience tells me that at Demigod Exp civs do get good stuff (played Inca in one Hotseat game).

 

[player1 fanatic]

Just tested Deity.
You can get techs and Settelers with Exp.

 

[dmanakho]

If you are not expansionist civilization it still makes sense to enter a hut even on hard levels in certain situations. For example:

1. Your neighbor is an expansionist civilization and you'd rather waste hut that give your neighbor a chance to learn new tech or get free settler.
2. Barbarian hut is located much closer to AI city than to your own... Enter the hut and leave AI to deal with those barbarians.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

IIRC the boni against barbs should be the way to influence the GH outcome.
So DG=Emperor (and I keep preaching EXP is a great trait for those two, and only those two levels since ages).

However, not only the level, but the EXP trait as well influence the result of GHs (not only regarding Barbs).
In DyP/R&R, all Civs can build Scouts from the start, so you can pop GH with those with no risk as long as you have no military units. And I'm 99% sure you NEVER get Techs or Settlers with a non-EXP Civ above DG. Or, maybe, I just was completely unlucky for hundreds of times...

 

[MikeH]

While an expansionist civ may not get any barbarians, at the high difficulties they won't get anything useful either, since those are linked to difficulty too. The balance of that seems to make expansionist most useful around monarch/emperor, and not too handy at deity unless you'd really rather have 25gp than, say, the agricultural trait.

I think the main advantage of expansionist civs, is that you can contact more civs faster, which gives you an advantage in the early tech trading. Seafaring gives a similar advantage on non-pangea maps.

 

[Halcyon]

Quite so, and in that respect it's still valuable, and there's always the off chance of getting a settler or tech. I'd just rather have a nice reliable agricultural or industrious trait on a pangaea at that level, and seafaring's better than expansionist for making contact on continents or archpelago.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I think the main advantage of expansionist civs, is that you can contact more civs faster, which gives you an advantage in the early tech trading. Seafaring gives a similar advantage on non-pangea maps.

Even more so in conquests with the delay of communication and map selling.

 

[Oystein]

I have also tested goody huts. If you are interested in my result, check out:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=93244