Yeah I'd find a game like that really exciting. If you know full well you're going to win a game, where's the fun?
However, there's also that element of frustration that everyone feels when your only metal resource keeps getting disconnected the turn you finish it because of barbarians heh.
I remember having to do the same though in my dreaded Highlands game. Even into the late Industrial, barbarians posed a threat to wandering units from sheer numbers alone (The ENTIRE northeast quadrant of the map belonged solely to the barbarian state) while the three remaining civilizations of note butted heads - the Turks, the Americans, and myself - with America slowly deteriorating from Turkish forces throwing themselves at border cities and internal destabilization from overexpanding and mischief caused by spies. Revolutions caused the empire to fall apart, and what wasn't taken by the Turks were split into new civilizations.
So it was in essence just me and the Turks. Which was already a tough ride - I fortified a defensive ridge near some recently claimed cities and dug in with a few generals, gatling guns, and lots and lots of siege-and-air support. While prolonged war like that might not appeal to some, trying to hold this larger nation back like that was certainly more entertaining
in the long run than having a game where it was 'slightly difficult' up until the Post-Medieval and then a matter of mopping up afterwards. We entered the Modern Era before they finally began to peter out and started suffering from revolutions (Which he promptly crushed each time, but with his forces busy with those....
)
That ridge wasn't just a few tiles either. It was several dozen tiles long, with fortresses every several spaces for the Biplanes to cover a wider range, with a large group of soldiers placed wherever they could find defensive covering. It wasn't just a skirmish, it was
war
I never did get to finish that game, and I never did have an experience like that since. With the recent additions to the Barbarian side of things lately, I sincerely hope I can stumble across a game like that again - since it was one of the most interesting and unique games of AND I had ever played, largely because of the Barbarian Influence.
Then again, I've always liked the barbarians heh, most of my BTS games I'd always play with Raging Barbarians on and while it certainly was frustrating at times, it made for a much more 'lively' game