Can exploring your land be bad? (Barbarian question)

[madscientist]

Thanks for the feedback Bleys. I have enough with the 4 family members fighting over 2 computers (I am glad thay do not like using the old one so I can play CIV!) so I see it as opening Pandora's box over here. But I know what it is when the inevitable questionspop up.

 

[Bleys]

Its actually a good service for families, since you are allowed to have 2 computers logged in on one account at the same time. My girlfriend and I can both play whichever games we wish on our own machines, without having to pay an extra 10 a month. She likes the Sam and Max, point and click Adventure game types and I am a turn-based strategy guy. We both love the card/table games, and I even managed to use it to teach her to play stuff like cribbage, gin, etc.

The AI doesn't have that much problems with barbs. I'm not sure about monarch but on immortal they start of with 2 scouts, 3 archers and a worker. They prioritize building some extra archers as well. So early barbs is less of a problem for them.

Ah, that explains why I haven't seen nearly as many AI cities captured by barbs as I used too. Barbs are idiots when it comes to attacking fortified archers, makes sense though,

 

[Scaphism]

Gametap is a great value if you're looking for a game service.

As for barbs, it's been a while since I've played Vanilla and I never played on Emperor. I went from Noble to Prince and sometimes Monarch, for what it's worth.

It's been so long I've forgotten - did Vanilla get a patch to give Chariots a bonus when attacking Axes? When I have barb problem I found chariots were often my best recourse. They can pick up sentry for more fog busting and they are they can respond in time to protect an area far away, if necessary, which means in general I have to build as many of them.

Besides that, getting major problems by 900 BC is a pain but I would definitely aim to have a third city out by then. In the case you mentioned, I would probably have a smaller army and have them fogbusting close to home only. So what if the barbarians spawn in the distance?

Guard your borders, make sure your cities are protected. In the early BCs you don't have too many tile improvements to guard, and make sure you have roads for the ones you do need to guard (like copper and horses). I have trouble seeing a situation where you'd need more then 3 defenders per city early on - 1 to garrison for happiness/security and 2 for border patrol.