Bloody Barbarians!

[Patricko]

Am I being a wimp to say that 4 barbarian archers arriving on my borders on turn 35 is damned unfair? What were the game designers thinking? Nothing I can do or could have done to avoid losing.

Ok, rant over... time to start a new game

 

[Ghpstage]

Looks like the Vedic Aryans random event. Its well known that this is incredibly broken.
Events suck anyway

 

[Archon_Wing]

It's this one event which makes me turn it off.

I did survive it once when I was messing around on settler, and they gave you free barb wins.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

"Vedic Aryans will cause grief and WTH moment to new player" needs to be added to that expression about certainties , death and taxes

 

[MilesBeyond]

In four years or so of playing with events on, I've never once seen the Vedic Aryans. Nor the Bermuda Triangle.

Must have some great luck, I guess.

I do agree, though, that they're game breaking. Seriously a pain.

 

[capnvonbaron]

Aren't they forbade to enter borders until like turn 50 anyways?

Also confused as to why you're building another worker instead of growing another pop (while building a warrior for defense). When you research BW, chop out worker#2 with worker #1

EDIT: Lastly, that seems like a good start... unless its a HOF game or whatever, just open worldbuilder and delete the little buggers before they can do any harm.

 

[civac]

Normal barbs can't cross cultural borders until about half of the civs have a second city. Not sure if this holds for event barbs. It might not.

 

[Infantry#14]

In four years or so of playing with events on, I've never once seen the Vedic Aryans. Nor the Bermuda Triangle.

Must have some great luck, I guess.

I just got the Bermuda Triangle last night. I lost my destroyer... I wished they had a black box on it and tell me what happened.

I once have the event barbarian horse archers showed up. It was nice b/c I already built the GW. Not so nice to my neighbor Gandhi.

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

Turn off huts and events, play on normal game speed. Become a better player. BUT if you are going to rage about how they are the luckiest sacks of jerks in the world who will win with 15-5% odds, then I will rage with you! RNG defeats me to barbs more often than the AI ever will.

 

[Patricko]

This is second time I've had this in past few weeks. Never had it before then. I think it's more likely on higher levels - I used to play at Warlord and have recently moved up to Monarch.

They can definitely cross borders this early as I know to my cost!

I was especially annoyed as this was just a random game I'd started and had got a nice start.

@capnvonbaron
My usual build order is worker-worker-settler-military - unless there is some reason to vary e.g. coastal food resources. I will normally get 1-2 food resources developed and then chop the second worker and the settler. This seems to get the fastest start and there is enough time to do it before non-animal barbs start appearing (usually!)

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

You should build worker warrior until size 3 then settler. Otherwise you are killing your economy and growth.

 

[Patricko]

You should build worker warrior until size 3 then settler. Otherwise you are killing your economy and growth.

Growing the capital in early turns adds very little production. Each extra population working an unimproved tile adds only 1 production (2 on resource tiles). Whereas a working chopping gives about 7 production per turn.

This articles explains it better and more comprehensively than I can.
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/earlygrowth.php

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

You have to be playing at a low level. Because if you weren't you would understand why the Warrior is needed. The article is very old and out dated. If you are playing on low levels on Marathon then sure you can get away with it. But as Phil/TMIT stated in episode 138 of The PolyCast it is only an ok idea if you have a river connecting spots or coastal connections in your borders. Otherwise you will be really stunting your economic growth with maintenance. You are much better off growing to size 4 whipping a worker and using it to chop out a setter. Then you should have 2-3 warriors to look for OPTIMAL city placements, and to fob bust out barbs.

 

[Ghpstage]

That article is based on a time when chops gave 30 each, this was changed ages ago (think it was a vanilla patch) to just 20 per chop. It was also not known how effective warriors were at dealing with barbs

Growing the capital in early turns adds very little production. Each extra population working an unimproved tile adds only 1 production (2 on resource tiles). Whereas a working chopping gives about 7 production per turn.

The whole point of the worker first is to improve the tiles you are growing onto.

 

[username804]

If the dude is really just starting out and learning how to play, you can always turn off barbarians and random events and/or World Builder in some extra help.

It's not cheating, and it's not disgraceful to say "OMFG! Vedic Aryans! "

Even Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations"

Now, it is disgraceful to World Builder in a bunch of tanks or SEALS or the like and make your city size 200 with all the wonders and techs in 4000BC.

But a couple of warriors is just taking a mulligan. Even Tiger Woods takes mulligans

 

[capnvonbaron]

@ Patricko -- no, worker-worker-settler is a terrible idea under normal circumstances (unless you're on warlord or settler difficulty ). It depends slightly on your starting techs, but look at it like this...

Worker first is absolutely a good idea. Send him out to improve a food tile and build a warrior while he does it. Yes, the warrior will come along slowly, but the pop will hit 2 and now your worker should be improving another tile, hopefully another food or a mine. !! Keep in mind, food also adds to settler/worker production !! Two citizens working two improved tiles > one citizen working an improved tile, BY FAR. Send the first couple of warriors out scouting for good city sites and to meet your neighbors, but keep one close to use as an escort/garrison for city#2.

As the second warrior is built, you hopefully have BW, so you can chop or whip a second worker once your pop hits 3. Now, build another warrior for garrison, and start a settler when your pop = as many improved tiles as your workers have made. Those second, third, and fourth citizens essentially become free hammers when you whip them.

 

[Archon_Wing]

In any case, the other stupid thing about this event is that even if it doesn't get you, if your neighbor dies, this will give someone a massive benefit, and probably a free capital.

 

[Patricko]

Hi guys, thanks for very interesting comments on starting build orders. Looks like my ideas are a bit out of date. Does anyone know of any good articles/guides for starting strategies at Monarch/Emporer?

Sorry if this is all getting a bit off the original topic.

BTW just tried my first OCC (Prince level) yesterday and got totally mashed. I was pleased to have made it though the ancient/medieval eras as I had no iron/copper. Had a good GP production line going and was first to Rifling and working towards Assembly Line. I had about 15 rifles with some catapults in my city but got crushed by a cuirassier/trebuchet attack.

 

[AJ11]

Well, since it is going a bit OT, did anyone else got the image of that pirate captain in the Asterix comics shaking his fist and yelling "Bar-barians!!!" when they saw the thread name?

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

Hi guys, thanks for very interesting comments on starting build orders. Looks like my ideas are a bit out of date. Does anyone know of any good articles/guides for starting strategies at Monarch/Emporer?

Sorry if this is all getting a bit off the original topic.

BTW just tried my first OCC (Prince level) yesterday and got totally mashed. I was pleased to have made it though the ancient/medieval eras as I had no iron/copper. Had a good GP production line going and was first to Rifling and working towards Assembly Line. I had about 15 rifles with some catapults in my city but got crushed by a cuirassier/trebuchet attack.

Expand to as many cities as you have room for. Build the Oracle, and take Machinery with it. Be the first to Engineering. Conquer world with Trebs + Xbows. Win.