Interesting Barbarian Game

[Puzzlemaker]

So, I decided to try something new. Started a pangea map, largest size, and lowest sea level. And its a duel, so its me versus another AI (Monty).

The catch is, raging barbarians are on. Its impossible to even come remotely close to fog busting the whole continent.

So, I started, la dee daa, a few more animals then usual, but whatever. Made a second city, and then after awhile I finally saw my first barbarian. He attacked my city, fun.

Then, a few more showed up. Then a few more. Then a few more. Then all my improvements where pillaged, and I was hiding in my cities with a couple of archers as they closed in. Around 5 barbarians in my territory on average. I lost my other city from the sheer numbers, and then eventually lost my capitol. Interesting. The times I have tried so far, I haven't had copper in my starting city, making it a lot harder.

Another time I tried I rushed archery and masonry, got archers and walls up, then spammed archers without worrying about expanding. It was interesting, to say the least.

Anyway, thought I would share this. Are there any good starting strategies for dealing with massive amounts of barbarians eating you?

 

[gallego]

You really need axemen or chariots to defend against raging barbarians if you can't fogbust and the other civs don't fill the space quickly. Otherwise beeline to iron working and hope that you get lucky there. In the meantime, some medic promoted units might help in your cities. It's very hard for barbarians to beat two or three defending archers in one fight, but while you are healing you are vulnerable.

 

[LlamaCat]

there are a couple strategies for dealing with this kind of game, and once you get it down it kind of loses its appeal because you sort of 'figure it out'

the first is to simply build the Great Wall. the other is to understand how to defend with archers and move then in and out of the city to attract barbarbian attacks and quickly gain promotions, including a medic unit. once you do that, just a few archers will defend against waves and waves of barbarian warriors and archers, until you hook up resources and create better units.

 

[Puzzlemaker]

there are a couple strategies for dealing with this kind of game, and once you get it down it kind of loses its appeal because you sort of 'figure it out'

the first is to simply build the Great Wall. the other is to understand how to defend with archers and move then in and out of the city to attract barbarbian attacks and quickly gain promotions, including a medic unit. once you do that, just a few archers will defend against waves and waves of barbarian warriors and archers, until you hook up resources and create better units.

Trying not to build a great wall. Also, I had a few archers who where capable of defending against wave after wave of barbarian warriors. But the barbarians were teching or something, because they came with swordsmen soon (I was still winning) but I couldn't leave my cities without dying. I guess I screwed up somewhere. I was halfway to hooking up the iron, when a stack of swordsmen killed the archer I had guarding the worker (The archer was on a hill, had guerrilla 1 due to the celtic UB, drill 3 and combat 1).

 

[Gliese 581]

With these settings building the GW = win
Barbarians have a radar that tells them were non-GW civilizations are located and after a while of roaming around they start to home in on these civs like they are pilgrims and it is Mecca (well I guess it could be).
Let me use another analogy, like they were heat-seeking missiles and the "undefended" civs are heat.. yeah..
The civ with GW can meanwhilst expand calmly and does not have to produce more than garrison troops since the opponent will be so busy fighting barbarians that he wont have a chance to attack.

 

[vicawoo]

Play marathon. Makes it more interesting.

 

[troytheface]

Bowmen or Skirmishers would also make for barbarian killers without having to worry about hooking up metal or building the Great Wall. Triple promoted Bowmen should be able to kill axe and sword. course barbarian horse would hurt.

 

[Puzzlemaker]

Well, I managed to get the hang of barbarians, then I had an interesting idea. A bit of a challenge, actually.

Pangea, Huge, Marathon, Noble, Two people, you and monty. Plus a huge amout of barbarians. The catch? Monty starts with the Great Wall. All the barbarians in the map head straight towards you, and Monty is (relatively) free to do whatever he pleases.

Thus far I managed to survive the barbarians, and I am now taking barbarian cities and expanding. My economy sucks, because I wasn't able to build any improvements without a soldier standing on top of it, but its getting better.

 

[LlamaCat]

sounds like a fun challenge, I used to set up things like this myself all the time except not this Great Wall angle. there is of course a very easy solution to this particular setup, however: fog-busting. just build enough basic military units to station in a wide area around your early cities to keep barbs from spawning. place them on hills for better visibility range. deal with whatever else comes your way.

yes it costs hammers and unit maintenance, but with only 1 other AI and on Noble level it's a cinch.