Getting rid of early barbarian horses

[ronehjr]

They are the worst. I want barbs in the game, and plenty of them. I just don't want to be so outmatched so early. It is not fun at all. I have not found a mod to address this. Is there one?

 

[Alucard648]

No! I want to have those pests learn to use nukes!

 

[Lord Lakely]

Yes. A thousand times YES. At least add a timer until they can spawn.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

The barb horses are not nearly as powerful as actual horseman units. They can definitely be annoying but I've never had a major problem.

 

[Archon_Wing]

I agree. They can show up before you can build anything and you can't kill the scout. This also messes with the AI badly too.

 

[Gorbles]

Now that barbarians have an impact, I've noticed a rise in people complaining barbarians are hard to beat. Beforehand, people complained that Barbs were an irrelevant distraction. You do realise if Barbarians get nerfed as an immediate response to player ability (or confidence in strategy), the pendulum will just swing the other way again?

 

[Archon_Wing]

Now that barbarians have an impact, I've noticed a rise in people complaining barbarians are hard to beat. Beforehand, people complained that Barbs were an irrelevant distraction. You do realise if Barbarians get nerfed as an immediate response to player ability (or confidence in strategy), the pendulum will just swing the other way again?

That's only true if changes are made with a sledgehammer. Also, not everyone was complaining about barbs being "too easy" either. Civ 5's barbs for example were a bit on the easy side, but it doesn't mean we can't have some kind of middle ground. And Civ 6's incarnations without the horses comes pretty close.

The problem with horses isn't that they're impossible to deal with; I can fight off any combination of barbs going builder first on any difficulty, but they introduce a high level of noise.

 

[Siptah]

The problem with horses isn't that they're impossible to deal with; I can fight off any combination of barbs going builder first on any difficulty, but they introduce a high level of noise.

Sound like Firaxis did it right.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Sound like Firaxis did it right.

Well, not for everyone though as evidenced by this thread and similar ones.

In previous games, there was a "raging barbarians" option, so perhaps this could be relegated to that?

 

[Alucard648]

Well, not for everyone though as evidenced by this thread and similar ones.

In previous games, there was a "raging barbarians" option, so perhaps this could be relegated to that?

I wish that under Raging Barbarians option on, barbarians can actually take out well prepared civ, just with hordes of advanced units. Knights in Ancient era! Tanks in Renaissance! Nukes in Modern!

 

[Siptah]

I wish that under Raging Barbarians option on, barbarians can actually take out well prepared civ, just with hordes of advanced units. Knights in Ancient era! Tanks in Renaissance! Nukes in Modern!

I think raging barbarians could be slightly lower spawn rate than the Poland scenario.

 

[Depravo]

Couldn't early spawning horse barbs be given chariots instead?

 

[Siptah]

Couldn't early spawning horse barbs be given chariots instead?

Would that really help? I think barbarian horsemen are already weaker than normal horsemen in the beginning - isn‘t that true and more?

 

[Rosty K]

They're warriors with more movement, iirc. Though sometimes it's hard to notice that moment when they turn into a real thing.

 

[PYITE]

They are the worst. I want barbs in the game, and plenty of them. I just don't want to be so outmatched so early. It is not fun at all. I have not found a mod to address this. Is there one?

Yes. A thousand times YES. At least add a timer until they can spawn.

The YnAMP mod now has a setting in advanced options that allows you to pick the first turn that the barb camps can spawn a scout.

 

[DeutschDachs]

I don't know that the people saying they're perfectly easy to deal with have ever had 6 horse units show up at their capital before turn 10. Not much fun!

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

I don't know that the people saying they're perfectly easy to deal with have ever had 6 horse units show up at their capital before turn 10. Not much fun!

It's 4000BC, the world is a harsh and uncivilised place!

I like that it's possible to lose a game to the barbs and I like that the AI is sometimes overwhelmed as well.

But generally I have never had a major problem.

 

[Archon_Wing]

I don't know that the people saying they're perfectly easy to deal with have ever had 6 horse units show up at their capital before turn 10. Not much fun!

They're not easy, but it usually possible. You just need your warrior to have returned home and a slinger being made in city. It's not fun though, and sometimes you have multiple camps doing this camp that severely skew gameplay.

I don't like it is as a result; it's much like popping relics from huts, and an AI that's sufficiently distracted by these things will be an easy kill and that feels unrewarding too. The game already has a military bias without them, this shifts it overwhelmingly so.

For those of us trying to get better and test the efficiency of a build it is annoying. As a example, I did the same exact same build on the same start, but the later playthrough was slowed down by a dozen or more turns because of the horses spawning there. Getting that kind of inconsistent feedback from a player trying to learn, is not conductive to a "strategy" game. And regardless of the change in fortune, it didn't affect decision making at all because there's no point in doing anything differently.

 

[DeutschDachs]

They're not easy, but it usually possible. You just need your warrior to have returned home and a slinger being made in city. It's not fun though, and sometimes you have multiple camps doing this camp that severely skew gameplay.

I don't like it is as a result; it's much like popping relics from huts, and an AI that's sufficiently distracted by these things will be an easy kill and that feels unrewarding too. The game already has a military bias without them, this shifts it overwhelmingly so.

For those of us trying to get better and test the efficiency of a build it is annoying. As a example, I did the same exact same build on the same start, but the later playthrough was slowed down by a dozen or more turns because of the horses spawning there. Getting that kind of inconsistent feedback from a player trying to learn, is not conductive to a "strategy" game. And regardless of the change in fortune, it didn't affect decision making at all because there's no point in doing anything differently.

Yeah in that case I had 3 scout from nearby encampments find my capital on turns 2 and 3 and the horse spam began. Getting the 6 horses down is possible so long as they stay next to the city to protect your slinger, but then being able to leave to go clear those camps takes upwards of 30 turns to produce additional units to help as the camps continue to spawn. Certainly a challenging start to a game.

 

[dunkleosteus]

Barbarian horses are completely unrealistic for their time period. Would be at least 600 BC before any nomadic culture would have warhorses suitable and trained for riding.