Barbarians

[Tuvok694]

My biggest hope for the upcoming DLCs: I hope they finally do something about the totally annoying barbarians. Mett the first quadrireme in turn 3 and the first men-at-arms about turn 30, even without Babylon in the game. Please give us the option to set barbarians to "moderate" behavior instead of ridiculously aggressive and overpowered as they are now.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

first men-at-arms about turn 30, even without Babylon in the game.

Early men at arms can happen with Gaul in the game too.

 

[Tuvok694]

Early men at arms can happen with Gaul in the game too.

Last time this happened to me, there was neither Babylon nor Gaul. And even if Gaul is in the game: Turn 30, really? I don't even play on deity (mostly emperor, sometimes immortal) and the barbs prevent me from having a chance of winning in about 9 out of 10 games. As far as I remember in Civ 5 you could choose between "normal" and "raging" barbarians. In Civ6 barbs are always raging. And if you turn them off, the AI will destroy you even earlier.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Last time this happened to me, there was neither Babylon nor Gaul. And even if Gaul is in the game: Turn 30, really? I don't even play on deity (mostly emperor, sometimes immortal) and the barbs prevent me from having a chance of winning in about 9 out of 10 games. As far as I remember in Civ 5 you could choose between "normal" and "raging" barbarians. In Civ6 barbs are always raging. And if you turn them off, the AI will destroy you even earlier.

Yes it can happen on turn 30 with Gaul in the game, because as soon as they plop 3 mines down, they have the full tech for Men at Arms (Apprenticeship).
You should get the mod "April AI Science changes reverted", which should help a bunch on counteracting the AI getting very high early science.

Either way, make sure you don't let the barb scouts spot you and you should be golden, even on Deity.
And for those that you do spot early, clear them out if you can.
It's one less worry, some easy era score, and possibly a gold and tech boost opportunity as well.
I often play together with a mate of mine who is on the emperor/immortal level as well, and he struggles just as bad with barbs because he doesn't take them serious enough until it's getting too late.
As soon as a camp is spotted near you, you keep a warrior or slinger between it and your city to scare off any scouts.
The first warrior is not for scouting, unless you want to take a rather big risk.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

So take that warrior and do a lap around your city, expanding the radius of vision around your capital until you get a sufficient vision buffer.

Inevitably the warrior is South of your city when the Barb Scout appears to the North, spots your city and runs away to activate the camp. Nothing you can do.

I would like to see Civ 7 return to the Civ 4 model - no barbs for the first few turns then barb animals appear (which can't enter your city radius) then 20/30 turns later the animals get replaced by units. Still a challenge but gives you a bit of a breather right out of the gate.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Inevitably the warrior is South of your city when the Barb Scout appears to the North, spots your city and runs away to activate the camp. Nothing you can do.

I would like to see Civ 7 return to the Civ 4 model - no barbs for the first few turns then barb animals appear (which can't enter your city radius) then 20/30 turns later the animals get replaced by units. Still a challenge but gives you a bit of a breather right out of the gate.

Does happen and is very annoying, but let's be honest here, it is usually no disaster because there are always a few different choices you can make on your average map spawn after the fact:

Warrior blocks the invasion from a fortitifed position (ideally within own borders or in a narrow mountain/river chokepoint), barbs kill themselves on the warrior and you continue to do whatever you need to do behind it. Slot the barb card and upgrade to Battlecry while fortified, and that warrior is more or less invincible.
Or, you ignore them completely as they kill themselves on the capital (which works best when you have an opener that doesnt include early builder improvements or fast districts, like building a settler immediately at pop 2).
And if you do need to clear them, 2x warrior or warrior+slinger is usually enough to shake them off if you need to push them back and clear the camp.

Personally I wouldn't mind if they delayed the spawning of camps by until T7-8 or so (allows building a unit, and then some), but imo barbs only become a problem if people don't react appropriately to them.

 

[Bibor]

Barbarians are fine until they start spawning archers, and then Immortals, Toa and other ridiculous units. I'm currently in a game where they spawn all three unit types and I really need to connect that Iron lol.