"No Barbarians" option

[Kwami]

Another possibility for seeing barbs in a "no barbs" game that I noticed. When I got GS a week ago, I started fooling around with the worldbuilder. I've noticed that in addition to the civs and city-states spawning, many maps also spawn a free city. It's units, I believe, have the barb label. Along the same lines, cities that loyalty-flip are temporarily free cities, and their units may be labeled as barbarians.

I've never seen a free city just spawn from nowhere. I've only seen free cities when a city loses loyalty. And, those cities spawn free city units, not barbarians.

 

[Linklite]

I've never seen a free city just spawn from nowhere. I've only seen free cities when a city loses loyalty. And, those cities spawn free city units, not barbarians.

They count as barbs, though. I had a load of trade routes with Canada, and even though I'd selected No Barbs, I kept getting messages saying that barbs had plundered my trade routes to Canadian cities, so I sent some spec ops to find out what was happening.

Turns out the Cree kept sending spies and tormenting unrest, creating partisans, who were plundering my traders. I ended up parking an aircraft carrier off the Canadian coast and running sorties every 10-15 turns to clear out the most recent batch of partisans for them.

 

[pokiehl]

They count as barbs, though. I had a load of trade routes with Canada, and even though I'd selected No Barbs, I kept getting messages saying that barbs had plundered my trade routes to Canadian cities, so I sent some spec ops to find out what was happening.

Turns out the Cree kept sending spies and tormenting unrest, creating partisans, who were plundering my traders. I ended up parking an aircraft carrier off the Canadian coast and running sorties every 10-15 turns to clear out the most recent batch of partisans for them.

You're talking about two different things.

Kwami is referring to Free Cities and their units. They don't count as barbarians at all.

You're referring to the spy operation Foment Unrest which produces "partisans" which as previously discussed in this thread are part of the barbarian faction.

 

[Linklite]

You're talking about two different things.

Kwami is referring to Free Cities and their units. They don't count as barbarians at all.

You're referring to the spy operation Foment Unrest which produces "partisans" which as previously discussed in this thread are part of the barbarian faction.

You're right, I'm tired, that's my only excuse.

 

[Ferocitus]

Another annoying bug regarding "No Barbarians" is in most of the games I play (I play with No Barbarians), I will invariably have a Civ tell me off saying "How can you let those Barbarians run amok" in my lands. Uhhhh....Barbarians are turned off. There are no Barbarians in sight. It's turn 50 so there are no rebels. What are you talking about??? And that reprimand comes with a diplomacy hit as well!

I always regarded that message as meaning a civ they are at war with, or unhappy with. They just refer to them as barbarians.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Neighborhoods+spies=riots, this is so true even in actual world.

 

[aenima]

i always keep an apostle with barbarian promotion, like this it's free units when they use this spy mission

 

[Abaxial]

i always keep an apostle with barbarian promotion, like this it's free units when they use this spy mission

I never thought of that. Nice.

Another annoying bug regarding "No Barbarians" is in most of the games I play (I play with No Barbarians), I will invariably have a Civ tell me off saying "How can you let those Barbarians run amok" in my lands. Uhhhh....Barbarians are turned off. There are no Barbarians in sight. It's turn 50 so there are no rebels. What are you talking about??? And that reprimand comes with a diplomacy hit as well!

That's a more general problem with leaders popping up with remarks that bear no relation to the actual situation.

 

[tedhebert]

i always keep an apostle with barbarian promotion, like this it's free units when they use this spy mission

Man... how could I never have thought of this ? ;-)

Of course, I almost never get any partisans in any of my games, so... probably wouldn't be very useful. But I love the idea !

 

[hans510]

I almost never build Neighborhoods but when I take a city with one I almost always plop a spy in it as soon as possible. The Apostle idea is great too.

 

[Disgustipated]

Speaking of No barbs, it definitely helps the AI perform better imho. I noticed that a few years ago, but that is still the case even with GS and Frontier Pass. I usually don't do it since it feels like cheating, and it does spice up the early game.

 

[Dimplz]

I always regarded that message as meaning a civ they are at war with, or unhappy with. They just refer to them as barbarians.

It's not that. I use the "Forever Peace" mod so declaring war is disabled in my games.

 

[Ferocitus]

It's not that. I use the "Forever Peace" mod so declaring war is disabled in my games.

That doesn't mean that civs unhappy with your neighbouring civs don't send the message.

 

[Deadly Dog]

Speaking of No barbs, it definitely helps the AI perform better imho. I noticed that a few years ago, but that is still the case even with GS and Frontier Pass. I usually don't do it since it feels like cheating, and it does spice up the early game.

Terra map seems like a good choice if you want barbs to challenge the player but not slow the AI. Play on deity and the AI will soak up all the free space and the barbs will spawn nearby!

Helps if you play epic/marathon

 

[Dimplz]

That doesn't mean that civs unhappy with your neighbouring civs don't send the message.

Certainly, but I think me getting a diplomatic hit for "letting barbarians run amok in my lands" when the Civ is referring to other Civs they are merely unhappy with as opposed to actual barbarian units is quite a stretch.

What most likely is happening, as someone pointed out earlier, is that the game is checking if I have cleared any barbarian camps and/or killed any barbarians. I haven't so whichever leader that action important to, I get a diplomatic hit with them when they call me out on it, regardless of the state of barbarians in my game (which are turned off).

 

[Banazir864]

I’m surprised the “No barbarians” option doesn’t disable the barbarian-based agendas, but, then, they never did put much thought into the gameplay effects of the agendas in this game (I still shudder to think that the purely random and unaccommodatable flirtatious and curmudgeon agendas would probably still be in the game despite their horrible gameplay if it weren’t for their flavor).

 

[Bibor]

I build em for the eureka,I get partisans every now and then but it’s a good reason to have Boudicca around who by that time is no good as a general.

Since I play on continents, I usually send Boudicca (if I get her) with my scouts. There are bound to be some barb ships or units out there that need a new home <3 because the civ AI (unlike, interestingly, City state AI) is truly terrible at clearing camps.

 

[Abaxial]

Since I play on continents, I usually send Boudicca (if I get her) with my scouts. There are bound to be some barb ships or units out there that need a new home <3 because the civ AI (unlike, interestingly, City state AI) is truly terrible at clearing camps.

It's interesting, that last bit. Often I find I can safely leave a barb camp alone in the early game because there is a nearby CS that is bound to deal with it.