Man the Barbarian code is laaaammmeee...

[FatSean]

Just started a game with a kick-ass first city location. I never got past that first city. Wave after wave of barbarians came. First warriors, them archers, then axe men. All I could do was build warrior after warrior to defend my city. I could make no improvements as the attrition rate was so high I couldn't stop building warriors.

I'm turning these little urethra-lickers off.

 

[*Nosferatu*]

I don't know, I usually have axemen when they send warriors, macemen when they send axeman, and then I never see them again except on terra.

 

[wmtrexler]

What difficulty setting were you at? Try a lower difficulty setting.

In CivIV the Barbs are a force to be reckoned with. They can create their own cities. They promote their military units and improve their city squares. Think of them as another Civ.

 

[Glinka]

The lower the difficulty setting, the later barbarians show up, and the fewer spawn. At higher settings, they appear sooner, and have an unnerving habit of popping out of nowhere to create cities. It's those cities that are almost certainly creating those frequent barbarian "waves" you note.

Your best solution is to try an easier setting, or to prepare for barbarians. Try to get two cities going before they arrive, and give that second city a barracks to make it a military unit creator. (Let the first build other things, notably strong, early wonders.) Fortify units whenever possible, since this gradually adds over time to their defensive strength, and put them on top of developed resources. Have military units travel with workers. Grab Bronze Working as soon as possible, and develop any copper resources within your zones of control. Be sure to research hunting, so that even without copper (or, later, iron) you can still build archers. They're far better than warriors.

 

[FatSean]

I've been playing on Noble for a week or so. Usually the barbarians are a pain but after you beat off 2 - 4 units, you get a breather to build up an attack force to take out their city.

I guess I just got a bad roll of the dice. Just pissed that I lost a drool-worthy start position.

I wonder if the AI adds more barbarians if you happen to settle in a resource-rich area...

 

[SlipperyJim]

Turn off the Barbarians, then? Maybe I'm just stating the obvious here....

 

[Crdnl Richelieu]

On a similar note, I've seen screenshots from people's games where they've been able to talk to barbarians the same way you would talk to any other leader. And their leader is none other than Sid Meier himself...

So how have they managed to do this then? Can you enter into negotations with barbarians?

 

[al_thor]

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!!

 

[Dicky_Mint]

I've found a simple solution to the barbarian problem - they only appear in areas outside your curtural borders that you can't currently see.

In order to keep their numbers down, only keep one unit defending your city. Move the others a couple of squares out from your curtural borders.

This will dramatically cut down the number of barbarians that are spawned, as you can see more land. It will also give you extra warning if large numbers are approaching, so you can reinforce if necessary.

Then fortify them in a strong position (e.g. in a forest or on a hill), to maximise their defensive bonuses. Any barbarians appearing from that direction will make a bee-line for them, before heading for your city and pillaging everything in sight. Unless you are very unlucky, they will all die at the hands of these sentries - especially once they've had a promotion or two.

On a fairly small island, you can often completely erradicate them with just a few well-placed warriors.

If you can't get rid of them, then always try and meet them outside your borders - just make sure you're unit is on a hill or in a forest and let them attack you.

Hope this helps.

 

[Adam7Eight]

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 will agree with that, but I do have to admit there is a point where it can get a little out-of-hand.

 

[FatSean]

They're doing it again. Started a new game. This time I have two cities one with 19 hammers the other with 12, each building warriors, archer, spearmen and axemen. Full time. I can't make time to build a ****ing settler as the barbarians come like 6-8 at a time and destroy all my ****.

This is totally ****ing gay.

 

[al_thor]

Agreed. Especially if you turn on Raging Barbs. Yikes! Talk about 'fun'! To be honest, I can't handle them (raging) on anything above Prince level.

But until you can handle normal barbs on the level you play, don't even think that you can handle another civ declaring war on you - that's the real test.

Get your techs (Archery and Bronze).
Archery is only an option if you can get to Bronze quickly, and even then it's not advisable to neglect it (fortified Archer in a city WILL defeat an attacking barbarian Axeman).
Get your units out on your borders.
Fortify them.
Attack when you have advantage, defend at your advantage.
Send your promoted units to the border of the civ that you plan to war with.
Keep building new units.
When your stack becomes big enough, now you can declare on that pesky Creative neighbor that's been crowding you or at least you are prepared for the inevitable declaration of war by that crazy Monty or other AI.

I think that this (expansion) phase is the FUNNEST part of the game, as it's like Always War (with barbs), filled with defensive strategy and interesting decisions as to tech advance/build orders. Want that wonder? Should you risk chopping border forest with un-protected worker? Oh, but you had better get those roads made to aid your defense! And don't forget to mine that juicy grassland hill for the production you'll need for military and buildings. And while you're at it, hook up that luxury or that stone/marble or that critical bronze/iron/horse. But be sure to defend it, as the barbs will beeline for it and pillage it in a hearbeat! Much to juggle. It's a blast.

 

[Goodenuf]

You dont happen to have 'Raging Barbarians' turned on, do you? I never seem to have that kind of flood of barbs that early (usually on Prince). I certainly get quite a few, but nothing like that.

You got slavery yet? Start rushing the counter units and go after the barb cities. The citizens will soon get over the whipping.

 

[Barmer]

They're doing it again....

I know it can be frustrating when the automated bad guys keep pounding on you like a bully. Hopefully we can learn from frustration. The ideas triggered from this thread you started should help a lot. I had also discovered that the stream of barbarians were coming from a city just outside of my cultural borders. You need to go find that city and stop the barbarian generation there. You might also find a nice city to settle without making a settler. In my current game, one of my main production centers were initally two barbarian cities that I found and took over.

If you're having this much trouble with the barbarians, your frustration will go way up when the AI Civs come after you later. You might want to play at an easier level until you learn to deal with those nasty invaders. What level are you playing at now?

BD - learning from the barbarians

 

[al_thor]

FatSean:
Wow. Do you have Raging Barbs turned on? I have never seen waves like that unless I have that turned on.
Sure, I might see 2 barb Archer and 2 Axe at the same time, and maybe a stray Warrior, but that's pushing it on Monarch, with normal barbs.

I think another setting that affects barb activity is map type, with Hilly/Mountainous giving more barbs than normal.

Still, get your units fortified - they get added bonus with each turn that they are stationary, as high as an extra 25% defensive bonus. I've had one axeman defeat 2 attacking barb axe easily (same turn/stack attack). He was fortified on a Forest Hill. Gave him the Melee promotion, now he's +75% against the barb axeman and +25% fortify bonus and +75% for ForestHill defense. Can't be beat.

 

[Wodan]

I've NEVER seen as many Barbs as people say, either.

'course, I build 1-2 Scouts (gasp!) and a couple of Warriors. I don't post ANY garrison, I send 'em all out into the Fog. (Why do you need a garrison if you have a complete shell around your empire?) I don't build a Barracks. (Why do you need a Barracks? The Barbs will give you the XP the Barracks would anyway.)

I think what might be happening is that people are building Workers and Settlers FIRST. I build a Worker, but not before my city is size 2. I don't build a Settler until I have that shell of units completely around my empire (and am usually size 3 or 4 by then). So, what might be happening is that people's capitol is still size 1 or 2, and turns and turns and turns are passing while they're churning out a Settler, of all things. They have tons of FOW around because they only have one single slow Warrior wandering around exploring.

Of course there are going to be tons of Barbs.

Wodan

ps I usually play on Monarch

 

[al_thor]

Yes - the advice about finding that barb city is very good. Get a unit or 2 out there. Chances are, there is a nice forrested hill right next to the barb city. Put your units on it and dig in. Now the barbs will attack them instead of streaming into your borders. The units get promoted and get stronger. Get the Medic promotion on one of your units if you can. Gradually add to them until you are ready to take the city. I usually wait until I see a free worker is in the city.

 

[al_thor]

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.

But yes, by all means, get a worker, but don't go diving for that expensive settler right away - you HAVE TO build your military FIRST. Get 2 or 3 Archers out there - one to gaurd your worker and resources, one to gaurd the city, and the other to get into position for your second city.

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.

 

[tezster]

They're doing it again. Started a new game. This time I have two cities one with 19 hammers the other with 12, each building warriors, archer, spearmen and axemen. Full time. I can't make time to build a ****ing settler as the barbarians come like 6-8 at a time and destroy all my ****.

This is totally ****ing gay.

As others have suggested - reducing the amount of fog of war surrounding your cultural borders goes a loong way towards reducing random barbs popping out of nowhere.

In the current game I'm playing, all the AI's on my continent happen to be south of me, and I used my first 2 cities to create a bottleneck so that no one else could get passed me, meaning I could colonize a large portion of the continent at my liesure.

Of course this also meant that I had the most fog of war to deal with compared to the AI's, and I'm the one who's cosntantly getting pounded on with barb attacks.

It took me some time and effort, but after beating back the few initial attacks with archers (I was just cranking them out non-stop), I was able to station about 4 archers with defensive promotions at key squares outside my borders, which significantly reduced the barb problem.

Hopefully, this little diversion hasn't slowed me down too much compared to the AI civs.

 

[Thyrwyn]

I have been playing on prince level for since just before Chirstmas and I have to agree with al thor: I always play with raging barbs now and my game has improved tremendously.

The key for me are Chariots and Axemen. If I don't have Horses, I get Bronze Working damn quick. I rarely even self-research Archery anymore.

You have to play with an Always War mentality. If I don't start with Mysticism, I skip the religious techs until I have my Weapon Techs and my needed Worker techs out of the way.