Barbarians!

[sgtcasey]

What is the deal with them? I get a few cities built and then get absolutely mobbed by barbarians. They attack from all sides and my games usually end up as me just trying to rebuild what they've destroyed while trying to expand. I almost always end up far behind other civ's.

Any tips?

Dave

 

[jeffreyac]

at risk of sounding silly, um.... turn down the barbarians on the options menu? It's customizable - even to the point of getting rid of them, if I remember right...

 

[sgtcasey]

I've looked all through the options and didn't see anything related to barbarians. Do you mean during the game setup?

[Edit] Just started up a new game and didn't see any options for barbarians there either.

Dave

 

[Sephlock]

Aside from the blindingly obvious (Build the Great Wall, check to see if you left "Raging barbarians" on, turn barbarians off, BUILD MORE UNITS, etc), there are a few things you can do here:

1: Make sure your cultural borders extend over a vast swath of terrain- Barbarians won't spawn within your cultural borders, nor will they spawn within any tile that you have line of sight to.

2: Try to connect all your cities with roads and have several high mobility units (Horse Archers, Chariots, etc) on stand-by in or near your cities which are closest to unoccupied areas.

3: Scatter units around areas that belong to neither you nor the computer, so that you constantly have line of sight in all the areas where barbarians could spawn. This gets less and less practical on bigger maps, but at the very least it can provide you with advance warning of approaching enemies.

-edit-

Go to custom game instead of start a new game.

 

[sgtcasey]

Ah, Custom Game is what I was probably looking for.

Your other ideas are good, but it seems like I don't even get a chance to get more than 2-3 cities built before the onslaught begins. My roads are destroyed, tile improvement destroyed, and it's basically me trying to keep up with simply keeping control of my cities.

I suppose I could skip building other stuff for a bit at the beginning of the game and simply concentrate on military units, but then I'm behind the AI civ's and it's a pain to catch up.

Eh, I'm still learning.

Dave

 

[jeffreyac]

yeah, my mistake - I meant in the custom game screen... forgot there wasn't an option to change them in the 'start game' menu, and I normally go to the custom one - anyway, good luck!

 

[Armorydave]

Raging barbarians are a huge benefit once you learn how to control them. Not only will they provide you with several 10 exp units but they also tend to supress the development of most of the tech happy societies (Mansa being the big exception because he starts with Skirmishers). I consider raging barbarians to be a must setting for higher level games.

 

[SlipperyJim]

Armorydave is dead right. Also, Raging Barbs are good practice for learning how to handle AI aggression. If you can keep the Raging Barbs in check, then you'll be prepared for Monty or Shaka when they try to rush you.

 

[Lightwave]

For me it is a compulsion to use raging barbarians. There was one time that I started on a medium/small continent by myself, and they did as the original poster said. It was all I could do to just keep repaired and reinforcements in place. Early on I was posting warrior and archer sentries in hills and forests to reveal the terrain disperse the fog and provide far points of combat rather than in my city borders, but I just could not hold out, and it was very difficult to expand under the circumstances. It was like a slow bleed death. At first, it was fun since, after all, that is what raging barbs do, but after a long time, it finally became apparent that they were just too numerous all by myself.

 

[Willem]

I suppose I could skip building other stuff for a bit at the beginning of the game and simply concentrate on military units, but then I'm behind the AI civ's and it's a pain to catch up.

No, because the AI has to deal with the Barbs as well. And while they're building units in order to protect themselves you're becoming weaker in comparison, leaving you wide open to an invasion from a more aggresive civ.

I find the Barbs have actually been toned down in BtS myself. I don't need to have nearly as many units in order to protect myself as I used to. And I've had a number of games where they've hardly appeared at all.

 

[SwordofStriker]

I have never regretted moving to the Raging Barbarians option in my games. Honestly, I won't even play a game without them now. If you stick with it long enough to learn how to best use those raging barbs to your advantage, then you'll see how handy they can be.

As was already mentioned, they are practically free XP for a prepared player. Also, the barbs will slow other civ's expansion which is good for me as I don't like to expand immediately.

I read somewhere on here that the barbs tend to start appearing when the average number of cities for all the civs became 2. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it might be something to think about as it seems at least in the ballpark as far as estimations go.

 

[Electryon]

In a recent game I got a random event of Mongol Barbarian hordes spawning just outside my borders. The proplem was they spawned Horse Archers when I had just barely got archers! I got wiped out, started new game.

 

[zienth]

Ok, open the custom game screen and select Pangea map, huge, and just one AI civ. And turn on "Raging Barbarians". Play that until you can survive. Now go play a normal game with normal barbs and you'll have no problem at all. Well, it might seem a bit dull, and you'll be constantly looking around expecting to see a black flag, but the few barbs that do show up will no longer seem like a problem.

The above actually is a fun game, it is mainly you against the barbs for quite a while and you can learn how to deal with them. Also look around in the forums, there have been a few threads recently about dealing with barbs. A good one is http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=242626, slobberingbear made an excellent reply with several things to do.

Zienth

 

[Woodreaux]

I love the Barbarians. In my current game, around 2000BC I get message indicating Attila the Hun was on a rampage. Half a dozen turns later, the Horde zerged Sumeria with Horse Archers and wiped out their whole civ. Mindful of the threat posed, I sent an expedition of axemen and spearmen to check it out. Gilligan had already built up 3 nice cities along a couple of rivers and Uruk was Hindu holy city. It was a lot easier to seize it from Barbs than it would have been from a Civ. Thank you, Attila.

 

[tomaalimosh]

A also play raging barbarians. It's a lot more fun. More often than not I regret having the option checked during the game, but it's ok.

The most extreme experience I had, was with Huayna Capac, and I did a wonder rush , which left me without Archery, with BW but without copper, and with only the initial Quechua in my city, when the barbarians started raging. Now that was intense!! I managed to rush City walls after the first 2 attacks, and got the second defensive unit (after that first Quechua) - an archer - after ... smthn like 25 turns... during which that unit got the "300" medal from me

That's how I like to play with Raging Barbs. On the edge.

I like the way it works now in BTS, because they occasionally show up with spearmen, which they didn't before, and that made chariots and horse archers an universal counter. now... you need a more combined security force.

The nice thing is that the barbs are like training grounds for your army. It's ;like having a + 10 xp bonus on all units . Out of the box.