Barbarians Killing Me

[the_brainiac91]

I'm pretty new to this game and not very good either. I've been playing games on Noble and I'm always getting worked over by the barbarian. Usually around 700-400 BC I'll suddenly get a hoard of like 4+ barbarians, warriors, archers, whatever, and I can't stop them. I'm not much of a military guy and usually only have a couple warriors and an archer or two. I tried playing on smaller maps but that doesn't seem to help. If I attack them I usually lose most of my units and if I do nothing they just pillage. I usually can't build up an army that fast either. Should I just turn them off?

 

[DMOC]

Have axemen ready to defend (or perhaps chariots or archers but I like axemen).

This means research Bronze Working and hook up copper (if near you). If you have no copper, go for horses or iron instead. Lastly, consider whipping your troops for faster productin (using the civic slavery).

By 700-400 BC you should have much more than just 4-5 military units.

 

[BARBEERIAN]

Also, use some units to keep areas around your borders 'lit up'. All the black/greyed out areas (even ones you've previously explored but aren't currently being 'lit') can produce barbarians. Sending just a few units to go stand on some hills just past your borders can work wonders. Barbarians will spawn further from your cities, and you'll see them a few turns sooner as they approach. Then you can send a spare unit or two to beef up areas that need it before the situation is critical.

 

[The Sleepy Vike]

Building the Great Wall always helps too.

 

[Nevordan]

The "fog-buster" method of building archers with the guerilla I promotion (+25% hill defense? I forget) and putting them on hills outside your city's borders works like a charm. When a unit is on a hill, they can see much further out than when standing on flat land, so they will see barbarians approaching sooner. Plus, barbarians usually go for these archers before trying to enter your city borders, and almost always die. Just fortify them there for an extra +25% defense. This I got from Sisiutil's beginner's guide. Good stuff.

 

[Flamer123]

I think that while fog-busters/great wall tactics that people suggest would work perfectly, However, relying on them will only cause u problems later on. you're leaning too much on building buildings instead of producing armies, and that's what u'll have to change if u want to improve in difficulty levels. On the same note, turning barbarians off will only make u adopt wrong gameplay tactics.

on emperor/immortal levels, barbarians will break your culture borders and start going for ur cities by 2000 BC, and on deity as early as 2500 BC. moreover, since animals are so abundent, u'll have to start sendnig settlers with a warrior to accompany them.

One tip though - a warrior has +25% city defence, and fortifying for 5 turns will give u an additional +25%. so a warrior will have a strength of 3=2*150%, same as the archer - so even on deity, if u have 2 fortified warriors in a city, barbarians can't touch u cause they never attack in an orginized 4 attacker group (all in the same time), rather 1 barbarian in each turn.

by 700 BC I usually have 4-8 axeman/swordsman/chariots in addition to the 1 or 2 warriors i have defending my cities.

 

[slobberinbear]

While flamer is correct about barbarian attack patterns, the idea is to defeat the barbs before they get to your city so they don't pillage your improvements and kill your workers.

If you want to learn how to deal with barbs, play on a large/huge map but reduce the number of civs, and play with Raging Barbarians. What you will find:

* create a "back area" in which your workers can work unmolested
* post archer pickets/fogbusters on hills
* back up the archers with offensive units. Axemen or Chariots are great for this. I prefer chariots due to their speed.
* clear the forest tiles adjacent to your cities so that barbs don't get defensive bonuses
* research military technologies and hook up copper, horses, and iron

 

[zienth]

I agree with the bear. I improved by barb defense skills the most by playing a custom game on a huge pangea map with just one other opponent and raging barbarians. Most of the game was spent defending against the barbs, and the bullet points slobberingbear gives were exactly what I found I had to do.

When playing a normal game, one rule of thumb is that when you first see a barb warrior, take a good look at your defenses and make sure you have at least two units in any city that is exposed to fog, and a few extra units (axes or chariots) in a barb-killer stack to go after any barbs that you see. There is always a time period when barb warriors are out and about but won't enter your cultural borders, so you have a little time to get a defense put together. But other than building the Great Wall, the only real defense against barbs is to have an adequate military. And you'll need decent defenses against the AI anyway, so you might as well build them for the barbs.

Zienth

 

[manu-fan]

Have axemen ready to defend (or perhaps chariots or archers but I like axemen).

This means research Bronze Working and hook up copper (if near you). If you have no copper, go for horses or iron instead. Lastly, consider whipping your troops for faster productin (using the civic slavery).

By 700-400 BC you should have much more than just 4-5 military units.

Personally, I like Chariots. They are more maneuverable and I like them earning experience to be ready to become my MASH units.

Cheers.

 

[Elrohir]

Build a lot of Axemen. Barring that, build a lot of Chariots. Barring that, build lots of Archers. And if you can only build Warriors....well, build a lot of them, and that might work, but you're screwed once the Barb Axemen start showing up.