Do barbarians attack the AI civs ?

[lz14]

I always get swamped by Barbarians. Barbarain horse archers are a real pain. Just wondering if the AI gets the same treatments ? Somehow I doubt it.

 

[King Flevance]

They do, I have had the AI killed off by barbarians in early game many times. The trick is to keep sentries in the land to make sure you have no fog of war close to you cities. This will end up pushing the barbarians away from you territory and they will tend to attack other nations more as a result.

 

[Thalassicus]

The AI's get something like a +40% combat bonus vs barbarians though.

 

[automator]

Wow, I've never seen Barb horse archers. Archers, axes, swords, longbows ... but never any horses, except maybe a rare chariot.

Yes, do not underestimate the power of sentries. Ever since I've started placing two sentries per city just on the edge of my culture boundaries, in woods or a wooded hill, I've done well. Before that, barbs meant a huge disadvantage. Does dual duty of reducing places for barbs to appear (they can only generate or found cities in the fog of war), but they tend to attack the unit nearest them, and so will suicide against a fortified archer on a wooded hill.

 

[5cats]

I too have seen entire Civs wiped out by Barbs, 4-5 cities (I found much later) with names like Osaka and Tokyo, lol!
And oh boy! Barb horse archers are such a pain! Especially when you have no copper or iron...

 

[tombeef]

put on raging barbarians, and both you and the AI are in for a treat.

The best thing to do is sentries, and I also like to have a couple military units constantly exploring, taking out any barbarians they run into.

And yes, barbarian horse archers suck.

 

[joasoze]

I have given up on a few games due to being beaten down by barbarians (monarch). Then I turn on worldbuilder to check before I start a new game (and often get beaten again). From this very limited testing I believe that barbarians prefere to beat on me more than the AI. There seem to be more barbarians around me than anyone else. But its not excactly scientific testing

 

[MrCynical]

Given the barbarians have less of a penalty against you than the AI, then all other things being equal then they will go for you as they have a better chance of winning. They do still go for the AI some of the time though (especially if they are significantly closer to them than you), and I have often seen AI cities destroyed by them in the earlier stages. On a couple of occasions in raging marathon games I have seen AI's destroyed by barbarians.

 

[balthamael]

On Raging barbs often 1 or 2 civs will be totaly wiped out early on. Its cool taht if you manage to get some fog busters up and expand then barbs , even raging become not a problem. But the Ai NEVER seems to place sentries....

 

[salty]

I think if you look at the xml files, at higher difficulties, barbarians only have x% chance of attacking the AI, while they will attack the player 100% of the time. It's flip-flopped for lower difficulties, and I think there was also an attack/defense bonus in their too.

 

[Stagh]

For me, it is clear that barbarians favor attacking my empire. A couple of days ago, one of my explorers even spotted a barbarian unit that went a long way between two other empires, just to attack mine.

The space between the two empires was only two cells wide and about ten long. The barbarian unit went straight between the two empires, ignoring them, and eventually attacked mine.

Difficulty level was "prince".

 

[The 777 Hoax]

Is it possible for Barbs to win the game? Like, wipe out everyone and get a Conquest victory?

 

[JerichoHill]

Any stories of barbs favoring the human is hogwash.

The AI is attacked by the barbs at just the same rate. Barbs choose who to fight based on relative strengths and position and location.

You can do this experiment yourself by placing spies to observe barb activity in other AI's empires.

Barbs, I believe, cannot win the game. On Terra, with Raging Barbs, the best they do is a little past industrial age, and they wont normally build ships, and their attack ai isnt good enough that they could destroy the other continent

 

[Mewtarthio]

Besides, if they destroyed all but one of the Civilizations in play, the last guy would win through Conquest.

 

[salty]

Any stories of barbs favoring the human is hogwash.

hmm, I looked at the handicaps file and apparently what I said only applies to animals (iAnimalAttackProb, settler 0% chance of attack, to 100% on diety).

 

[Junichiro]

I've seen barb horse archers but they have come quite late and by then I usually have already something higher to meet them...those first axemans are always the scariest ones.
Also I have seen barbs wandering on border of my and another civ and going to that another civ, ha! (they were not as advanced in military as I was...or maybe they just saw the unit closer to attack there).

I have seen AI to set sentries (which is nice if the sentry you too) though I think they generally favor wandering in wilderness to clear fog of war...

 

[morchuflex]

I just love Raging barbs.

It spices up the early game. Plus it allows me to get some level 4 units, very helpful to build the Heroic Epic when it can still make a difference.
If you're careful enough to place sentries on high-bonus tiles (wooden hills are ideal) and to connect horses, copper or iron early enough, so as to be ready when barb axemen start to pop up, even raging barbs don't pose much of a threat.
And yes, they can be deadly to AI civs.
I have never seen barb horse archers, probably because I tend to grab land very quickly and to leave no area in the fog of war.

 

[The 777 Hoax]

Besides, if they destroyed all but one of the Civilizations in play, the last guy would win through Conquest.

Ah, true, I didn't think of that.

 

[Older than Dirt]

Barbarians can have, I have found, size 20 cities, grenadiers, riflemen, courthouses, forges, and roads all over the place in the terra map. They also come at you like fire ants even if you do not attack them. They have no fear of gunships or tanks and consider them just so much extra fiber. Captured barbarian cities in the terra map even yearn to rejoin the motherland.