Noble level is impossible

[Astax]

Correct me if I am wrong. But isn't it animals that spawn in undiscovered areas? I thought barbs spawn in areas not under anyone's influence, be they black or explored.

 

[pigswill]

Animals are like early barbarians, they start appearing once any city (inc AI) reaches pop2. They chew up explorers but don't cross culture boundaries.

Barbarians proper crop up once someone has built a second city iirc. The main difference is that they will cross culture boundaries.

As far as I know spawning dynamics are the same for animals and barbs; the more 'fog of war' i.e. shaded or unexplored territory the more likely they are to appear.

In response to OP every level is difficult the first few times you play them. You get the same posts about noble to prince, prince to monarch, monarch to emperor etc. Having said that twelve barb archers is really good going at any difficulty level.

 

[AncientPlayer]

Raging barbs are the only way I play also (Prince usually). I modded the settings in fact to let the barbs generate more cities and more advanced units. To balance that I modded a change that allows me (and the AI) to get up to 25XP via barbs instead of the game's 10XP. I love the fact that on even a standard map (with default number of civs) there will be unexplored territory with barb cities in it. The AI seems a little reluctant to go after the barb cities but I'm sure not.

The only real downside to this is that the AI ends up a bit smaller but with a bunch of archers with 3-4 promotions--catapults become an even earlier necessity if I have to take on one of them.

 

[cabert]

Animals are like early barbarians, they start appearing once any city (inc AI) reaches pop2. They chew up explorers but don't cross culture boundaries.

Barbarians proper crop up once someone has built a second city iirc. The main difference is that they will cross culture boundaries.

there is also a timeline issue = the early barbarians won't corss culture boundaries.
The date (more a number of turns, I believe = earlier date at marathon than normal) at which the barbs come for your improvements is level dependent.
I don't know the specifics, but some testing could be done easily with WB.

 

[Sarek]

Post the starting save. Sounds interesting!

 

[nondual]

Note that the Great Wall's barbarian-b-gone effect will extend with your cultural borders as they expand, after the Wall is built. It's just the graphical representation of the Wall that doesn't change.

Um....where do you turn off barbarians?

I'm on a Mac and I know the option was in CivIII but I simply can't find it in CivIV.

 

[Sarek]

Barbarians (none or raging) are an option AS you pick your map size, type and numbers of AI, etc. at the beginning. There's a row of check boxes to the right of all that stuff (then victory conditions further right of that) if making a custom game.

Oh, and once on, the save cannot be changed mid-game of course.
Hope that helps?

 

[nondual]

Barbarians (none or raging) are an option AS you pick your map size, type and numbers of AI, etc. at the beginning. There's a row of check boxes to the right of all that stuff (then victory conditions further right of that) if making a custom game.

Oh, and once on, the save cannot be changed mid-game of course.
Hope that helps?

I didn't realize I needed to make a custom game. That fixed everything.

 

[Sarek]

You don't have to make a custom game. I stand corrected, but I believe "normal" barb levels are in the "play now" choice? But certainly to turn them off or make them "rage" requires the custom game.
Good luck at Noble...See you at Prince soon enough!

 

[nondual]

You don't have to make a custom game. I stand corrected, but I believe "normal" barb levels are in the "play now" choice? But certainly to turn them off or make them "rage" requires the custom game.
Good luck at Noble...See you at Prince soon enough!

Heck, I'm still at Warlord.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

there is also a timeline issue = the early barbarians won't corss culture boundaries.
The date (more a number of turns, I believe = earlier date at marathon than normal) at which the barbs come for your improvements is level dependent.
I don't know the specifics, but some testing could be done easily with WB.

My understanding is there are several periods of increasing intensity. In order you get:

1. A short period when no barbs are around
2. A period when only animals spawn (animals can't enter cultural borders)
3. A period when barbs spawn but can't enter your borders.
4. The rest of the game, when barbs do everything.
(After some time, say 0AD-ish, I've noticed the spawn rate seems to decrease quite a bit, even if there is still a lot of land that is undeveloped, and so presumably completely in the FOW for all civs. Not sure if there's something in that or if that's just my perception being off).

Obviously, the higher the level you play at, the shorter periods 1,2 and 3 become and the more frequently barbs spawn (or build cities). OTOH at higher levels the AI expands to fill whatever FOW you haven't filled more quickly, so the barb threat tends to disappear far earlier.

I think (though may be wrong) that setting raging barbs doesn't particularly impact how many barbs spawn, but it does eliminate period 3 (not sure if it elminates 1 too?): As soon as barbs spawn, they can enter your borders. It also means they are more likely to beeline straight to attack your cities, instead of spending time wandering around aimlessly and pillaging (I think in some ways that makes things easier not harder: I'd rather have a barb sacrificing himself against my CGII archer than pillaging my city into uselessness)

 

[cabert]

My understanding is there are several periods of increasing intensity. In order you get:

1. A short period when no barbs are around
2. A period when only animals spawn (animals can't enter cultural borders)
3. A period when barbs spawn but can't enter your borders.
4. The rest of the game, when barbs do everything.
(After some time, say 0AD-ish, I've noticed the spawn rate seems to decrease quite a bit, even if there is still a lot of land that is undeveloped, and so presumably completely in the FOW for all civs. Not sure if there's something in that or if that's just my perception being off).

Obviously, the higher the level you play at, the shorter periods 1,2 and 3 become and the more frequently barbs spawn (or build cities). OTOH at higher levels the AI expands to fill whatever FOW you haven't filled more quickly, so the barb threat tends to disappear far earlier.

I think (though may be wrong) that setting raging barbs doesn't particularly impact how many barbs spawn, but it does eliminate period 3 (not sure if it elminates 1 too?): As soon as barbs spawn, they can enter your borders. It also means they are more likely to beeline straight to attack your cities, instead of spending time wandering around aimlessly and pillaging (I think in some ways that makes things easier not harder: I'd rather have a barb sacrificing himself against my CGII archer than pillaging my city into uselessness)

I'm not sure about the raging barbs effect. IMHO it does change the number of barbs running around.
I played the iron man challenge (unlikely settings were Immortal level, raging barbs, always war) and found a really unreasonnable number of barbs around my cities very soon.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

with raging barbs on, animals are there from the start. barbs arrive reallly soon, I think they arrive when normally animals start appearing. Barbs also increase in numbers. just play for 2000 years, with raging barbs on and of, and than open WB. you'll be surprised how many barbs there are on the map, and the difference between them. They also seem to spawn from a speciffic place more often with raging on.

 

[Bruno Pecci]

Noble is possible! easy! =]

 

[OscarWildebeest]

I've won two victories on Noble, after getting bogged down in several games that weren't going anywhere. It's beatable - and it'll soon seem easy - but you've just got to keep playing and practising (and reading the articles and threads on this board!).

 

[Mad Professor]

You can learn a lot about the appearance of babrbarians by playing a practice or test game and checking the world buider map every turn early on and see when they spawn. The world builder will let you see every tile so you'll see when archers suddenly appear, or axemen, or animals or whatever. These things are set quite specifically by the game code so if you know where to go (I don't) you can go look at the code. Otherwise do what I suggest here, and you'll learn a lot about their bahaviour!

 

[Mad Professor]

with raging barbs on, animals are there from the start. barbs arrive reallly soon, I think they arrive when normally animals start appearing. Barbs also increase in numbers. just play for 2000 years, with raging barbs on and of, and than open WB. you'll be surprised how many barbs there are on the map, and the difference between them. They also seem to spawn from a speciffic place more often with raging on.

Even at raging barbarians there is a short period at the beginning where there are no animals. It's only about six turns I think, but nevertheless this period exists even on raging barbs. The other kinds of barbs arrive MUCH sooner on raging barbaians - I can't remember the turn number... It varies randomly within a period set in the code.

 

[StarWorms]

If you're getting attacked by barbarians then you need to build an army. Wonders are all nice and sparkly but when there's an army marching towards your gates, they're not going to stop them.

Spend more time getting various types of soldiers - barbarians will come in with warriors, archers, axemen. Protect your cities.