Barbarian Leaders?

[Rodgers]

In the Road or Irrigation thread Kev made a reference to Barbs having "leaders" and "escorts" - is this right or just his own shorthand?

I have noticed amongst Barb hordes when first unleashed that there will be, say, 5 horsemen units and one legion - in that case would the legion unit be the leader? what happens if you take out the "leader" but not the others? do they just wander aimlessly or something?

 

[ferenginar]

The barbarian leader is a seperate unit, have a look at the end of your units.gif file and you should see 8 units that are the same picture. These are barbarian leaders, don't ask me why there are eight different pictures though.

The Barbarian leader is a non-combat unit and arrives later in the game when you get the barbarians spawning from a barb generator square. If you capture a barbarian leader you will get 50, 100, or 150 gold as a ransom depending on whether you are playing at Roving Bands, Restless Tribes, Raging Hordes. You don't get any points on Villages only, in fact I don't think you get barb leaders on villages only, though i'm not certain as I have never played on that setting.

Hope this explains it.

ferenginar

 

[duke o' york]

You don't get barb leaders when you play with villages only because they only turn up either on ships or when you get a barbarian uprising on unoccupied or unimproved land tiles.
(Occupied tiles being those inside the city radii, and improved being those with roads, irrigation, etc on)
On the higher barbarian levels you will often gain gangs of about 50 barbarians occuring as part of an uprising but you only get one leader for each group. You have to be quick to catch the barb leaders to get the cash because the will disappear after a couple of turns. This does not affect the chances of a barb uprising in that area, although quite a few people think so initially.

 

[Rodgers]

I've only ever played on villages only - barbs annoy me - so I've never seen a leader - how do i capture him? Same as if I tried to kill him? Will a more powerful unit automatically capture him instead of killing him?

 

[duke o' york]

You "capture" the leader and can get a ransom from him merely by beating the living bejaysus out of him. It is similar to expelling an enemy diplomat, but you just attack him. It works with units that are down to 1/3 of a movement point and an attack of 1 so is always worth doing. He will get two moves so you'll need a faster unit to attack him. Starlifter will tell you how to set up barb traps when he turns up.
It is also nice to be aware that barbarian archers have a defence value of 1 instead of the "normal" value of 2. This can make the barbs less threatening than you would think so it is always worth going for one with a horseman.

 

[floppa21]

Hey, just don't bribe them like I used to do... Quick cash is probably a better deal there.