Interesting News About Barbs

[anton_z1]

I have realized that Barbs attack the most powerful civs you know.
This basically means that if you know one other civ and you are way ahead on score compared to it, barbs will KILL you. It doesnt matter if other civs are bigger or not !!!!. This is a bit strange since i had supposed before that they attack the most powerful one, but it is not true. Only the most powerful the player knows.

I think this make sence why barbs are so annoying in easy levels, while they become good on harder ones. On emperor an up, RAGING barbs are you friends .(However make sure to know other civs !!!)

 

[KAuss]

I still have barbs walk right past other civs and right into mine when I have look out scouting their actions...

Sucks hard...

Border garrison is the only way to deal with these bums... Then turning off barbs makes expanding way too easy...

 

[rjjb]

I avoid barbs by positioning units around my reachable territory; sit them on hills so they get a better view of their surroundings (less units needed) and the defensive bonus so you don't lose as many when you're setting up the network.

When the network is complete, you can expand at leisure without worrying about barbs.

Jeremy.

 

[anton_z1]

I still have barbs walk right past other civs and right into mine when I have look out scouting their actions...

Sucks hard...

Border garrison is the only way to deal with these bums... Then turning off barbs makes expanding way too easy...

Is your score higher then of other AI. If yes dont be surprised.

 

[Rirse]

Is your score higher then of other AI. If yes dont be surprised.

That would explain why in my last game I kept seeing the barbarians attack Spain often. I was behind them in the score, and they kept getting the most of the barbarian attacks in the game.

 

[MarcAntiny]

I avoid barbs by positioning units around my reachable territory; sit them on hills so they get a better view of their surroundings (less units needed) and the defensive bonus so you don't lose as many when you're setting up the network.

When the network is complete, you can expand at leisure without worrying about barbs.

Jeremy.

I do this all the time... scout my territory and then leave units as lookouts... haven't you ever noticed barbs come out of the fog of war... well, if there isn't a fog, they don't exist... I used the same strat for my first cities... leaving my originals undefended until I can settle my land and seal off the AI.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Today, the barbarians built a city just outside my borders. I was most pleased.

 

[Wlauzon]

I do this all the time... scout my territory and then leave units as lookouts... haven't you ever noticed barbs come out of the fog of war... well, if there isn't a fog, they don't exist...

That is so obvious that I feel stupid now for never having done it.

 

[Rirse]

I had good luck taking a city from a barbarian. I was playing China, and they had a city up near the corner of my land, so I send some axemen up there (they were build to attack any barbarians who entered the land) and had them defend, as I knew they would lose against the archers without support. Well they kept sending units after the axemen, who won their fights. (even so the number in the city remained the same). After a while I got lucky and noticed that the second archer in the city vanished (never did see where he went) and was replaced by a second worker (they had a worker in there since I visited them).

Anyway, I decided what the hey and had my weakest level axemen attack, figuring he would die. But to my surprise, he won the fight and I got the city and the two workers. Good for me, since the city had about five beavers surrounding it.

 

[KAuss]

Is your score higher then of other AI. If yes dont be surprised.

Usually is since I practice starts a lot...

However, it's so stupid how they aim for the score... Score is about the LAST thing that helps anyone win a game... 99.9999% of the time, the spaceship would be built before 2050 anyways...

Barbs become more tame once you find some coasts...

 

[Gufnork]

Ah, this must be why I haven't had much problems with barbs. At higher difficulties I'm always behind in score in the very beginning.

 

[Mmmm Butter]

This doesn't seem to hold true in my current game. I'm playing my first game at Monarch, on a tiny map with 2 other Civs - Ceasar and Isabella. Ceasar declared war on me pretty much right from the start, for some odd reason, as the relations were only a -1 for the close borders. Anyhow, I started the war machine and managed to capture/raze all of Ceasar's cities but 3... (Vengeance!) But in the process Isabella grabbed a pretty big lead on the both of us, so I'm in second by a pretty good margin. Yet, I've got barbarian swordsmen and axemen pillaging my cities constantly. I guess it's because they're closer to my territory and they'd pretty much have to go through my territory to get to Isabella. But that doesn't even appear to be their aim - they're making beelines for my capital, which is the city furthest from her territory. I learn a lot here though, I'll be sending someone out to get a view of those tiles.

 

[Mmmm Butter]

(sorry, doubled it)

 

[KAuss]

Yeap, as luck would have it, I finally played a game where I was lacking some goodie huts and fell behind rather quickly...

Barbs came after me even with 3 civs sitting on top...

 

[anton_z1]

This doesn't seem to hold true in my current game. I'm playing my first game at Monarch, on a tiny map with 2 other Civs - Ceasar and Isabella. Ceasar declared war on me pretty much right from the start, for some odd reason, as the relations were only a -1 for the close borders. Anyhow, I started the war machine and managed to capture/raze all of Ceasar's cities but 3... (Vengeance!) But in the process Isabella grabbed a pretty big lead on the both of us, so I'm in second by a pretty good margin. Yet, I've got barbarian swordsmen and axemen pillaging my cities constantly. I guess it's because they're closer to my territory and they'd pretty much have to go through my territory to get to Isabella. But that doesn't even appear to be their aim - they're making beelines for my capital, which is the city furthest from her territory. I learn a lot here though, I'll be sending someone out to get a view of those tiles.

na. this probably has to do with the defense of your cities. if you have no defense, Barbs LOVE you. For fun, build a city without protection in th early game and you will see 10-20 of them coming. Guaranteed.

 

[scienide09]

Position also plays a role. I ended up with a more northern starting point than my neighbours. The barbs have to pass through my lands to get to my competition, so they always end up attacking me. Or pillaging.

For the whole game I've ranked about third or fourth. I think my position is partly to blame for what's keeping me behind -- having to fight them off. The nasty fellows started a city up just outside the reach of my scout, and so now I've got my cities creating units so that I can take the barbs out. Or capture their city. I hope. At one point they were coming fast enough that my units didn't have enough time to heal between each assault.

 

[KAuss]

Nope, from my tests, the barbs seriously choose the human player before the AI...

Like I've said, I've stacked 40 plus MA in a city I owned and spawned another civ's cities bordering mine... They walk right past them and head for my city...

I spawned barbs all over the map and they all collected up and headed straight for my single city...

They did destroy a few cities, but more than 90% of the troops I scattered about the map ended up dying to my MA garrison... All this while two cities were still left at 3 spaces away from my capital...

Barbs have a script to mess with human players and they do it well... Border garrision is the way to go as most suggested...

 

[Mmmm Butter]

na. this probably has to do with the defense of your cities. if you have no defense, Barbs LOVE you. For fun, build a city without protection in th early game and you will see 10-20 of them coming. Guaranteed.

That would definitely fit with my capital, it was pretty lightly defended because it was out of Caear's reach. Although I think I did just that, no protection early in the game, I stuck to my usual making 3 warriors from the start, and letting the first 2 explore. I probably just got lucky.

Border garrision is the way to go as most suggested...

Definitely, after reading more of these boards I sent an axeman out to light up the tiles they were spawning from, and put a couple of archers on hills at my borders -- which the barbs can't help but try to attack -- and the result is no pillaging and some experienced archers!

 

[GamerXR72]

Best way I found to deal with barbs is have large cultural borders. The other thing I do is forrtify a unit on a hill, preferably with jungle or wherever is good defense, just inside my borders; the barbs should head right to it because its the first thing they see.

 

[Astax]

Border garrison is a good idea. But it doesnt have to be right on the boaqrder. I played raging barbs on Monarch, and they were a piece of cake! Easiest way to stop them are the special defensive upgrades. I put woodsman warrior (Upgraded to axeman later) in a forest on one side. A Hill upgrade archer on another side ontop of a hill (Forests the best). They worked wonders. If you want to get most otu of em thou do 2 units, one with Medic. I Started the hilla rchers actually to defend agianst ai civ raidign my mines which would have been terrible. But they ended up doing double duty. Moving 2 spaces on the hills they could watch all my mines and help out inside the city if needed.