Noble level is impossible

[Alcyoneus]

I'm playing Noble level on Marathon. Holy barbarian attack!

After I build my first city, I get SWARMED with barbarians. This last game I counted twelve barbarian archers.

Sorry, but I just don't think that's possible to survive.

Is the AI messed up?

 

[Tee Kay]

Did you have the "raging barbarians" box checked. For god's sake turn it off.

Even if you don't have the box checked barbs on noble can still be a real pain. Key here is to build your military early as defence against barbs. Axemen and chariots are ideal. Also put archers on hills. Not only does this attract the attention of the barbs away from your improvements and cities, but it also acts as fog busters (barbs spawn anywhere there's fog). And your archer is 99.99% guaranteed to survive thanks to the hill defence bonus.

If you have warlords then you could build the Great Wall. It prevents barbs from entering your cultural territory plus you get 50% great general appearance in your borders and 1 great engineer point.

 

[trundle]

Barbs are generally a pain on marathon. Fog busting is your friend.

 

[mice]

Some maps are harder for barbs , like lakes , because there isnt any water. All the map is dark barb spawning area so they spawn.

Play continents and get some military built pronto. Good one is the chariot.
So hook up horse or copper soon. If you can't , research archery to get archers out. Put them on forested hills in a place that dispels the dark- fog busting.

 

[Elras]

One man's Barbarian Horde is another man's XP farm.

Build more archers/axeman yourself and go out to pick up
some easy promotions. The Great Wall wasn't built for nothing.

Cheers
Elras.

 

[gettingfat]

12 barbarian archers simultaneously appear after only the first city is built and this happens at noble difficulty?? IHHO even playing raging barbarians this sounds highly improbable to me.

 

[cabert]

^^maybe he settled the first city in 2000 BC?

 

[potatokiosk]

You shouldn't be getting barbarians at 4000 BC. That's absurd.

 

[aronnax]

Noble is hard?

 

[classical_hero]

That is what I was thinking.

 

[cabert]

Noble is hard?

not really
It's possible to stuff the settings to make it a bit difficult
(like huge great plains map, raging barbs on, agressive AI, only 4 AIs on the map) but certainly not impossible.

 

[Shawnosaurus]

I always play with raging barbarians turned on and if you know there is going to be an impending surge of them you can easily work with it. 2 archers can defend a city from any amount of barbarians. The victory chance for a barbarian attacking a city archer is so very low that in no time you have your archers at 10xp and 2 city defense promotions. Make sure you are getting your food from the ocean and build the great wall asap. Be certain that your city borders are joined and hopefully expanded at least once (30 culture to fat cross size) so you can work safely inside the wall. The only tile improvement you bother defending is stone. Then once you have the great wall you hit the tile improvements full steam ahead while all those 17 AI Civs keep taking the barbie abuse. It is rare for all of the AI civs to live through the barbarian phase Better still, shortly after you build the wall the barbies will make their own cities. I guess if they have nothing to pillage they settle down. So your next few cities are settler free as you go conquer barbie cities. Free cities, good early xp and voila you're in 1st place

.

 

[Leifmk]

Make sure you are getting your food from the ocean and build the great wall asap. Be certain that your city borders are joined and hopefully expanded at least once (30 culture to fat cross size) so you can work safely inside the wall.
.

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.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

You aren't playing Russia on the largest earth map available by any chance?

 

[Großstadt]

barbarians aren't such a bother on archipelago maps, if i remember rightly.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

Judging by the number of posts you've made, I'm guessing you may still be new to Civ4. If so, step down the difficulty level until you're comfortable before tackling Noble. Noble is the level where you're on an even playing field with the AI, so you'll need to know what to do. Also, try Normal playing times.

 

[Clovis]

I played one game on Settler. It was so easy I went straight to Noble. That was a bit of a challenge, but I didn't find the barbs too hard to manage, and won a space race victory. Of course I was on a small map, the proximity of other civs probably reduced the amount of barbarians I got.

 

[KMadCandy]

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.

on the continent where you built the Great Wall. you guessed it, one of my poor workers on a big island sacrificed his life teaching me that it was continental only, oopsies.

if you are really new i'd think about not playing marathon right away. epic is my favorite right now but i learned at normal and for me that was the best way to learn; as always styles vary and do what's best for you.

 

[weasel77066]

Oh goodness I love raging barbs..... I only play with that setting. When theyre not hackin me up, theyre hackin up one of the AIs.

 

[King Flevance]

Oh goodness I love raging barbs..... I only play with that setting. When theyre not hackin me up, theyre hackin up one of the AIs.

I always got 'em on too. The best thing to do against them is fog bust as much area as you can. If you see them coming mostly from one area, double up on the fog busters there possibly. (2 units per sentry) It is rare I come across needing to do this but sometimes you get spereated prety far from the majority of the other civs and a barb nation forms between you and your oppenents. I have had 3-5 barb cities seperating me from the rest of the civilized world before.

As to the OP it is really an issue of getting used to the barbs themselves rather than the difficulty of noble. As you move up, they come even faster. I play on Prince-Monarch and they start showing up at 2500-3000 BC then. You want to use as much of that "grace period" as you can setting up your fog busters in key positions. Keep at it and you will get it.

I have always played Civ with raging barbs so when 4 came out I refused to turn them down or off. Needless to say I have had my fair share of 20 barbs in my borders terring up everything in site for 100 years. I know all about the waves of hordes that trap you inside your cities without the use of fog busters. But I am weird and was loving every minute of it. I hated the barbs on 3 as they werent a threat.