Fog busting tips

[yanner39]

Hi all,

I was recently in a Noble game where the barbs were simply unbelievable, even without the "Barbarian uprising" special event. I had explored a large portion of my continent with a nice number of warriors but I brought a few back to my cities because of barbs.

I really never paid attention to fog busting because barbs were only a minor annoyance. But in this game, they came out in full force and essentially disrupted the building of my empire. MY tech rate was slow as a result since I spent most of my time hidding my workers until I produced Axemen. Then I stared producing Chariots to counter the Barb Axemen.

Any tips? Should I tech Archery earlier and place Archers on the map? Would simply warriors do after I am done exploring? I recently saw a walkthrough where they talk about barbs not spawing within 5 squares around the fogbuster? Placing the fogbuster on hills is better I guess?

I don't mind barbs for the XP points, but this was getting ridiculous.

 

[Leventis]

No barbs can spawn 2 sqaures away from any unit (even AI civs), an even if these squares have fog. It's often tough to spawnbust if you have a really big back yard, but you can manage with stategiacally placed warriors until axemen arrive.

 

[McThomas]

use warriors to spawn/fog bust... they are cheap on hammer and once you have channeled the barbs spawn in to an area (to direction which you're gonna expand you han capture the citys they make with a City Raider II x 2 swordsmen

thats what i do... (i tend to use scouts when the warrior goes obsolite...

 

[troytheface]

had those games meself. normal barb settings and yet barb o mania
the great wall gets built and they come a knock'n.

hunting /archery/ scouts

the enemy will attack a scout in range.

suicidal scouts do three things

fog bust, lure, and buy time


the evidence is clear, this is the superior

 

[slobberinbear]

If you don't have the great wall and have a large barb-spawning area (too big to cover entirely), the strategy is to post picket defenders on hills, preferably forested hills, outside your cities' BFCs. Archers are great for this, especially with the guerilla promotion.

You the chop the forests around the picket area for hammers and to create "kill zones." Build a few chariots (axes work too, but chariots are easier with the 2 move). The barbs will either die attacking your fortified archers or be fodder for your chariots when they move in the open.

This strategy also boosts your power rating and keeps the AI off your back for awhile.

 

[yanner39]

^^One thing I did notice is that sometimes I try and do some level of fogbusting by doing what you are suggesting placing a warrior or Axemen, fortified near my BFC, but the Barb will simply walk past and not attack my unit.

 

[Decius]

I like to post warriors or, when I can, archers on hills and bottlenecks outside my cultural boundaries. Yes, the barbs waltz past them because they care only to plunder my precious, precious mines and farms. So I prefer speedy chariots to hunt down the barbs I see.

When I'm really forced onto the defensive I have posted archers on mines while keeping warriors in cities. That works well for me, but makes me a bit nervous about city defense.

Just about the only time I use the Sentry promotion is on a chariot or two in games like yours. These are superb fogbusters.

 

[CornPlanter]

Any tips? Should I tech Archery earlier and place Archers on the map? Would simply warriors do after I am done exploring? I recently saw a walkthrough where they talk about barbs not spawing within 5 squares around the fogbuster? Placing the fogbuster on hills is better I guess?

Barbs dont spawn 4 tiles from any unit including AIs units afaik. In theory you can just place warriors in such a way that every tile of the continent would be no more than 4 tiles from a unit. In practice its not always easy to do. If you have early horses or metals in bfc you can live without archery, otherwise you are better off with archers. Rule of thumb