Xuenay said:
That sounds like a pain (and unbalancing, too). Is it possible to disable it via the SDK?
Yes, and now I am convinced they have not targeted just one of my CITIES, but just my civ. This is because they are sending stacks every so often (I am on turn 1200 now) alternatively against my three cities - fortunately, not at the same time. This may have something to do with the limits of barbs on the map as Chalid mentioned. It is manageable as I can just shift my forces to protect that particular city, wipe out the intruders, and then re-deploy them back to be ready for the small incursions.
Here are a couple of more strange things I have encountered recently:
1. Barbarian catapaults and chariots. Never saw them before. The catapaults occasionally wander out, but mostly stay in the barb cities as defenders. The chariots are a nuisance like the worg riders, but I have only seen them singly, not in stacks.
2. I came upon a barb city...defended by a BEAR. First time I ever saw that. I thought they were mostly in the wild or captured, but now I have seen one as a defender.
3. I saw a barb worker stranded on a water tile/inland lake. Couldn't move and I couldn't capture him. Just sorta hanging out there.
4. Attacked and razed a barb city. Came back no more than 10 turns later and surprise - a new barb city (pop. 5) had sprung up complete with roads, pastures, farms and even a couple of towns! Also, 4 barb defenders. Not a worker to be seen anywhere. Why can't I build cities like this in this amount of time?
5. Finally, back to the unbalanced issue:
I finally made contact with the Luchiurp. I was shocked to see they had 16 cities - how could you have that many on raging barbs and not the BAR trait? Plenty of improvements too. Luchiurp score was 1,500, Lanun next at around 700 and me with 650.
But, here was the kicker. I found a barb city with a pop of 13 right next to a Luchiurp city. The barb city had an incredible 17 defenders (7 catapaults!). Also, 4-5 barbs protecting resources. The Luchiurp had a whopping two low-level defenders.
Now, why oh why, would the AI keep those barbs in the city and not send them after that lonesome Lurchiurp city? Instead, I get the stacks showing up at my border.
I'm not sure this is a bug, but it is definitely a balance issue when the AI seems to prefer sending the barbs at you while ignoring easier pickins' nearby.
I am still enjoying the game even though I am losing because I have developed a strong second army made up of the Baron and his werewolve followers. My maintenance costs are out of sight, but I am funding this army by having them run rampant (or, you could say RAGING) on the barbs, destroying their cities (except for that one with 17 defenders!) and pillaging their improvements. After this gets tiring, I suppose it will be time to have payback on the Lurchiurp for cheating.
