Man the Barbarian code is laaaammmeee...

[Wodan]

Well, SCOUTS are not going to be very good defense against barbs. Sure, they help to break the FOW, but barbs will still come in, destroying your weak-tit scouts on the way, and getting promoted themselves. Seen it, done it, been there.

That's why you have other units as well.

Building a scout to fight Barbs is silly. You build a scout, maybe 2, to explore, to pop huts, and to merely hold a position in your ring of units around your empire.

When the scout spots a barb, why a Warrior or Axe is only 5 tiles away, at most.

Wodan

 

[Wodan]

Barracks is optional. If you are Aggressive, then it's cheap and well worth it. Now your units already have one promotion and will get several more from the barbs, making you all that much stronger.

If you build a Barracks, especially if you're non-Aggressive, that's 2 or 3 Warriors you don't have out there pushing back the FOW.

Once Barb Axes show up, that's when you build the Barracks.

Wodan

ps unless of course you're doing a "rush" against an AI, in which case you're building so many units that Barbs aren't even on the radar.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

The barbs are lame? Or do you really mean that they are a difficult and challenging aspect of the game that requires some thought and effort to successfully deal with and overcome?

And there is an option to turn them off if you prefer not to have the accomplishment of defeating them.

 

[Danielos]

A question concerning barbarians:

Do barbarian cheat when they build units in cities or do they have to build them in the same way a player does? They seem to produce so many units, I suspect they are cheating...

 

[beestar]

I've got to agree with the "ring of pickets" idea. Post your guards at the fringes of your empire to get an early warning of barbarian incurisons. (Though make sure they can rush back in case you get attacked by another civ).

The great thing about barbarians is that they're stupid. 9 times out of 10, they'll attack your closest unit. Even if it's a fortified unit. Even if you have superior defensive terrain. Even if it's a bad matchup for them (e.g. their archer attacking your city defense archer).

One thing I like to do when scouting: if I see an approaching barbarian and I don't want to avoid them, I move to good defensive terrain (across a river, atop a hill, inside a forest). Even if it's two identical units, the defensive terrain will tilt the odds in my favour. Then I wait for them to attack me, which they invariably do.

 

[White Elk]

I've been playing huge mapped monarch marathons and the barb rate(non-raging) is always high. Often they strike turn after turn after turn. Sometimes in goups as large as eight. Even the animals are extreme enough to gang up and kill my initial warrior scouts. I do scout and I do post guards to lessen the fog. But often I must retreat them to the city because their numbers are so high and they would outflank me. It's strange that some people playing the same settings are not reporting such extreme occurances.

These pics were taken within a couple turns of each other...

 

[Rad Chris]

I dont get these posts about how evil Barbs are. Ive NEVER seen more than 4-5 barbs come at me at once, and that was with 2 Barb cities just beside me.

I mean if your playing on a lower difficulty setting then you have like 40 turns grace to build up an army. Take the opportunity to build defence rather than on buildings.

 

[Mahatmajon]

I've been playing huge mapped monarch marathons and the barb rate(non-raging) is always high. Often they strike turn after turn after turn. Sometimes in goups as large as eight. Even the animals are extreme enough to gang up and kill my initial warrior scouts. I do scout and I do post guards to lessen the fog. But often I must retreat them to the city because their numbers are so high and they would outflank me. It's strange that some people playing the same settings are not reporting such extreme occurances.

These pics were taken within a couple turns of each other...

In your post there are forest/hill spaces 1S/2W of the city and 2N/1W. I'd have an Archer fortified there ASAP. It will be a Hills II archer in no time at all and able to beat off any attacks. Even a normal archer can win 2 battles in the same turn against an Archer & Warrior more often then not.

Are these huge maps that people are having problems on? I don't play those much but I bet that the large fog areas do create some hordes. It's still fun, though. My Hall of Fame as I think 6 entries now -- 3 wins and 3 utterly destroyed by barbarians. I like taking chances early

 

[shadow2k]

Never had any real issues with barbs, and I've won every level but Deity on standard settings.

I normally prioritize Bronze Working, which gives me access to Axeman while they have no better than archers/warriors. I completely skip hunting/archery if I have bronze, and can get it hooked up in a reasonable amount of time. I get workers out early (1st build many times) so I can grow and expand quickly. I get three cities down asap, which allows me more cities for production, and less space for the barbs to come from. I stick warriors on hills around the outskirts to break the FOW.

I don't know what else to tell you guys. Barbs aren't supposed to be anything but a nuisance on standard settings. If you play large maps, or some other option that leaves a lot of open land, you'll have more issues than normal. I usually play standard continents on Emperor.

 

[Artanis]

I can never understand why people say that Scouts are useless.

So they get stomped by Barbarians, so what? You send them out to scout the map, and once Barbarians start showing up, you pull them back as fog-busters in spots where they won't get attacked. They're just as cheap as a Warrior, so you're going to be spending that many Hammers -if not more - watching a specific area anyways without it ever being attacked, so why not get some better exploration out of those back-line fog-busters before relegating them to their inevitable combat-free sentry duty?

 

[shadow2k]

I can never understand why people say that Scouts are useless.

So they get stomped by Barbarians, so what? You send them out to scout the map, and once Barbarians start showing up, you pull them back as fog-busters in spots where they won't get attacked. They're just as cheap as a Warrior, so you're going to be spending that many Hammers -if not more - watching a specific area anyways without it ever being attacked, so why not get some better exploration out of those back-line fog-busters before relegating them to their inevitable combat-free sentry duty?

I want my first three cities down asap. I use my first unit to scout immediate area and find a second city site, whether it's a scout or a warrior. I'm building workers or settlers, with on occasional warrior as city garrison for the new cities, or forest chop protectors when chopping long range.

I do everything I can to get my first three cities up and running, and tiles improved, and a decent military right after this, above all else. Scouting comes later, when barbs are prevalent. Huts are all gone, and even if they are around, they aren't worth much at higher levels. So scouts are...completely useless to me.

 

[vbraun]

Why does it seem that this never happens to me?!?

 

[Renata]

A question concerning barbarians:

Do barbarian cheat when they build units in cities or do they have to build them in the same way a player does? They seem to produce so many units, I suspect they are cheating...

From having done the fortify-and-wait strategy a few times against barb cities (park a unit on a hill nearby and let them suicide), I can say they don't seem to build overly fast. But barbs also spawn randomly outside of cities, I believe; that may be why there seems to be too many.

 

[Renata]

Oh, and marathon! Yeah, there is a documented difference in barb prevalence due to game speed, with marathon being the worst.

 

[Zurai]

My beef with all the "suggestions" people make about barbs is that it forces you into one single play style. You HAVE to research military techs ASAP and you HAVE to pump out 5+ military units per city ASAP. That completely destroys the first third of the game for any other kind of playstyle.

 

[shadow2k]

My beef with all the "suggestions" people make about barbs is that it forces you into one single play style. You HAVE to research military techs ASAP and you HAVE to pump out 5+ military units per city ASAP. That completely destroys the first third of the game for any other kind of playstyle.

I never have 5 units per city for barbs...complete overkill. One axeman, maybe a warrior as well. Pretty common to have 2 units per city for most any playstyle after the very early expansion.

Bronze Working is as much a worker tech as it is a military tech. I get it for chopping trees, and to see bronze, a necessary resource in my opinion.

You may not like other civs declaring war on you either, because it forces you to change your playstyle. But it's part of the game. You have the option of always peace, so you can build peacefully and never have to worry about it I guess, just like you have the option to turn off barbs.

 

[Adam7Eight]

Somewhat relevant to the thread, I popped this goody hut a while back. I lost a couple of warriors but I was thankful it was a ways from my capitol. I would have been screwed otherwise.

 

[shadow2k]

I've seen that pic somewhere before

What level is that on anyway? I've NEVER popped even a single barb from a hut, and I've played on Deity.

 

[Adam7Eight]

I've seen that pic somewhere before

What level is that on anyway? I've NEVER popped even a single barb from a hut, and I've played on Deity.

I posted it in the funny screenshots thread a while back. It was on noble. At the time I was using a modded difficulty which increased the chances for popping stronger barbs. I got lucky this one time. Since then I've seen two at most popped from a goody hut.

 

[Grachi]

No! Do NOT turn off barbs!!! They HELP you. They improve your play (teach you to build military that you're going to NEED against the AI, especially if Monty is your neighbor) and you also learn to STRATEGIZE - what techs to get (Archery, Bronze), what units to build, how to best USE those units (defend/attack/garrison) and how to DIVERSIFY your promotions (Cover/Strength/First Strike/City Defense/Melee/etc).

Think of the barbs as a training warm-up for war with the AI. Not only will you be prepared, but your units will have tons of critical promotions.

I won't even get into the fact that the barbs are GIVING you FREE cities!! And those cities are ALWAYS in great locations! And usually come complete with a free worker.

Never turn off the 'helpful' barbs!!

I'll agree with this in the fact that I had a game where my largest city, population of 30(!) was from taking over a barbarian city thousands of years earlier. It was my largest and most propserous city and I'm surprised I didn't turn it into the capital .

Barbs are also nice experience for your troops for upgrades and such