I can`t handle the barbarians

[Battery]

I`m pretty new to the game (played some civ3 before)...

I`m now playing on noble as I pretty much walked over the AI at warlord. My problem is that I don`t know how to survive the barbarians. After a few turns I got my first city groving fast, another one that I just started and I`ve got a few military units ready. Now theres a huge number of barbarians coming my way. Something like 10 - 20 of those early units pillage my civilization. And they just keep coming. I mean, theres ALOT of those guys.

What should I do to counter them?
Thanks

 

[Dragonlor]

If 10-20 are coming at you at once, turn off Raging Barbarians. Otherwise, just make sure you have a couple of defensive units stationed where the barbarians are coming from.

 

[Rhymes]

10-20 seems a lot... I never have more then 4-5... you probably have the raging barbarians option turned on...

 

[Doppelgänger50]

You weren't playing on Custom Continents, by any chance, were you?

 

[local]

yep this barbs seem too random to me..
once they 4-5, some other time, when i was playing on emperor..
there was excatly 9 (NINE!) barbs units.. 4 archers and 5 warriors on MY territory in the time when I had 2 cities + settler.. That pretty much costet me the game cuz i needed to build too many archers and that stiffled me a lot..U need to protect all the worked tiles + cities and everything..

 

[rrhal]

Station an axe man out in a hill/jungle tile at the edge of your civ. The 75% defence bonus will generally assure survival. Once you build a new axe man send him out there to get experience and recall your veteran for city guarding duty. Always build at least a spare Archer to send with the settler - preferably an axeman and a settler. Once you have you outer sentries posted your workers can work tile unmolested. After a while you will notice a marked drop off in barbarians.

 

[ATI_flailer]

I was having similar problems with the barbarians playing noble on a large "balanced" map with 10 AI civs and one other human civ, NOT raging barbarians.

Just about the time I'd establish my second city and my first city was at POP 3 or 4, the barbarians would start to appear like cockroaches from all sides, sometimes as many as 7 or 8 new ones in a turn. The other human playing did not have the same problem, possibly he was being shielded by the AI civs around him.

We had to scrap several games until I managed to find a way to get on a war footing early and crank out military units using worker-chop and provide perimeter protection for my cities, workers and improvements. By the time the barbarians mellowed out I'd at least have some highly promoted early units but It did seem a bit uneven.

Is it possible that the barbs have some kind of radar that directs them towards civs with the most improvements? As I stated, my co-player didn't have near as many attacking him.

 

[Ryoken]

In my experience, barbarians tend to favor a particular city/region to attack me. I last played with a starting location that was in the middle of a lot of land, so I expanded in a circular fashion. My first city was directly west of my capital and I expanded counter-clockwise around from there. By the time I was roughly half-way around my capital, I was really only getting an occasional barbarian attacking my new cities. My capital, however, was getting hammered by a constant invasion from the "exposed" or "undeveloped" side. No enemy civs for a good distance either. For some reason they just favored that side.

So I placed a few defensive units in the hills and forests on that side, particularly along one side of a river, and just let the barbarians flail against that line.

Now I was playing with Raging Barbarians and using my custom mod. But I didnt alter any barbarian behaviors in my mod. But I did want to note that.

Check the link in my signature for my mod.

 

[KAuss]

Yeah I had a huge thread about barbarians and their behaviors...

What people suggest about border garrison works...

The AI will almost never attack you during the expansion session cause theres still free land, so leave a single archer in your city and send everyone else on look out beyond your border...

The more you light up, the more chance the barbs will be drawn to them instead of your cities...

25% from fortification works wonders when mixed with some jungle or hills...

 

[Grand Fromage]

I ended up just turning off barbarians in all games except Terra ones. Otherwise I'd get to a point where my entire empire was based around pumping out units to defend against the unending horde of barbarians. Five or six new ones every turn, all constantly pounding on me.

And that was normal barbarians. I can't comprehend what a raging barbarians game must be like--I imagine every single unoccupied square would have to have a barb on it.

 

[thordk]

the easiest way to avoid barbarians is to expand.

played my first noble game today and yeah i noticed the enraged hordes too. lost a city to those damn conans

i just popped out some units to defend my cities and "enlighted" the world till i set up enough cities to cover all squares. et voila no more barbarian problems

though on huge maps this could take quite a while...

 

[Gufnork]

It's very, very, very random how many barbarians that show up. Sometimes they trickle in a few at a time and there's no problem at all. When eight barbarians beeline for your capitol there's nothing to do. You're screwed and you might as well restart. One thing to note is that more civs on a smaller map means less barbarians.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

be nice to know what level everyone's playing on. or am I just stupid? Scouts appear useless. how's everyone handling barb cities with 4+ archers. Anyone got it pegged as to when a barb city will appear?

 

[Jedoc]

In actual fact, there's little about the barbarians that is truly "random." A player who is surrounded by other civs will have very little trouble. If you are being swarmed by barbs on your western flank, that means that there is a vast unexplored wilderness off to the west, and that's the direction you should be expanding into. If there are few or no barbs coming from the east, then that is where the AI lives, soaking up barb attacks and choking off their spawning grounds.

Here's how barbs work on Noble.

First, barbarians won't show up at all for the first thirty-five turns. Before that, all you'll see is animals. After turn thirty-five, barbarians will begin to spawn at a rate of one per sixty unowned tiles. That's a bit less than an 8x8 square, so it's easy to see why you get swarmed on games where you start on the fringes of civilization. After turn 40, the barbs gain a 6% chance to found a city for every 130 unowned tiles.

Incidentally, barbarian galleys spawn at a rate of one per 2000 unowned water tiles.

If you really want a feel for what barbarians are capable of, start a custom game with no AI civilizations. Turn off the conquest and domination victory conditions, and turn on Raging Barbarians. It makes for an interesting game, at the very least. There are no other civs to push back the fog of war for you. There's no trade, no diplomacy, and none of your units will ever pass level 3 until you start constructing the proper wonders. Unless you have a good chokepoint handy, worker improvements are practically out of the question. The barbarians tend to keep up with you technologically, and they can and will beat you to critical wonders. Try and wipe them out before the clock runs down. It won't be easy, especially on a Terra map. Give it a shot if you're bored with constant space ship races.

 

[Tunguska]

Sounds like a good challenge!
Did you already try this??

 

[Jedoc]

Several times. I haven't managed it yet. 2050 comes around way too fast. Particularly when every settler needs to be escorted by 2 or 3 archers.

 

[anton_z1]

It is my 3 game on emperor. (I alway play without space race. Have always won).

You should take another traits. Organized is a complete waste of a trait (River = Organized !!!!). Agressive is also not too useful. Combat 1 gives you a very slight advantage. Without financial, youa re probably doomed (except if you have a very very good starting location, which i doubt since locations are pretty well balanced.)

This strat implies you have plenty of wood near your base (At least 5). Note that you can shop forest outside your cultural borders !!!.

Get Bronze working as fast as possible. Use you first worker to chop another one or two. The use both of them to shop you a barrack. Then start shopping warriors (1 - 2), give then woodsmen promotion and put them . Once they kill another warrior, gives them woodsmen 2 promotion. A warrior with woodsmen 2 promotion in a forest can kill an archer without problem. Put one on a forest hill outside you base and he will keep you from invaders. If youare lucky egnouh to get copper, chop one axemen. 1 Axemen with woodsmen 2 promotion will protect you against ANY BARBARIANS. I play on emperor and 2 axemen are sufficient to protect me against anything.

Do not get archers in the beginning. Hunting +Archery = Bronze working.
They are useless, since they do not protect your improvements. A barb will pillage to HELL until he gets close to your city, and you will not like that.

Forget religion in your case.

so here the summary:
1) what you need.
1) 1 city + 1 river (much, much harder without a river close to your city) + 1-2 health ressource ( if you dont have you are finished) + 7+ forests (within 3 square radius around your city).
Turn 0) Start building barracks. and start researching mining. Build barracks until you start researching bronze working. Then start a worker.
Turn 23) By the time you get bronze you should get a worker.
Turn 30) Start Hunting. Use your worker to chop another worker. ( 2 trees). Note, swich back and forth between barrack and worker, so the worker only get builded when the tree is cut. This will enable your city to grow.
Turn 34)Start Archery.If you have time (no barbs close), chop another one (2 trees), if not get 2 warrior.
Turn 37) Now the trick. You barrack is almost complete.(there is something like 10 production left). Use your 3 workers to shop their trees at the same time. Since you get double production for building barracks you should get 60 Hammers instead of 30. Thus you get 45 + 45 + 45 = 135 Producton. !!!! (Remove 10) and you get a settler + an archer ready.(3 trees).
Turn 38-42) Move your settler + archer to build a city close to a copper mine. Upgrade your archer to hill bonus and put it on a hill outside your base.(If you have it inside your borders you are lucky, since you can put your settler anywhere). During this time build a road to this mine. Start producing barrack in the second city. Put on max production.
Turn 42-45).Chop Another worker.
Turn 48). Now you have 4 workers, a bronze mine and an almost finished barrack. Shop 4 trees.
Turn 50-51). You have a finished barrack + 45+45+45+45 = 180 production = 2 Axemen + settler.

From now on you have 2 Axemen with woddmen 1 promotion. Station them in the woods around your cities, and ve ready to see how they waste all the barbs to HELL. In fact with woodsmen 2 promotions they will never die.