Problem with barbarians

Well, im a veteran of previous civ games, so started off on Noble as soon as I bought the game.

What is up with freaking barbarians??? When i play with no barbarians no problem, but as soon as I get that option i get screwed royally with every second turn me getting pillaged and suicide attacked?

How do I discourage them from attacking?

 

You can't reason with the barbarians, but what you can do is set up units like archers or axemen (with copper) and fortify them on a hill. That way they're busting fog and your line of sight increases decreasing the frequency that barbarians appear.

 

A few strategically placed (in hills/forests/jungles) archers early will mop them up like a hoover on steroids. Promoted axemen will take out the later barbs assuming you havn't expanded into FOW areas. Expanding at a resonable places will result in less barbs, but assuming you have correctly placed units, it shouldn't really matter and you'll get lots of xp for the kamikazi.

 

They'll spawn anywhere where there's "Fog of War." To keep them from coming after your cities, explore as much as you can of the map as quickly as you can. When you get the proper technology and materials, position a half-dozen or so archers or axemen on hills outside of your cultural borders. This will push back the area that barbarians can appear in as well as providing an early-warning system for your civ. The barbarians also provide xp for your stationed troops.

If you're on a larger map, playing at a slower turn rate, or using the Terra Map, you'll also get some barbarian cities. They're fairly easy to take with a five or six member stack of swordsmen. Wait until they're level 2 or so before you attack them and you've got a brand-new addition to your civ.

Tom

 

tnx was just annoying, to build military units early on when i dont need them,

cause i like to play expansionist/cultural style that early in the game.

Just another question but I think I know the answer to that, cultural borders are the same as city borders? Meaning if I build anything within that white "stain" get used by the city?

 

Not really. The city radius is limited to fat cross as in previous Civs. However, in the beginning, wnen the cultural border is only 1 tile, the city radius is limited to that 1 tile. As the city expands its cultural borders due to produced culture, cultural border also expands. On first expansion, it matches the fat cross, later it gets even bigger.

However, if there is a resource within your cultural border, even outside of the fat cross, you may get acceess to it, just build the improvement and connect it with a road. Your city won't be able to "work" on that tile, but at least you'll have access to the resource.

 

The "stain" (which changes color depending on your civ) is your cultural border. It is the region that your civ controls. Any resource within that border is available to your civilization; though it will only be available to the nearest city unless connected by a trade route (road, rail, river or coast). Your city border is the good ol' "fat X" you'll remember from previous Civ games. This area is what is available to each specific city for your citizens to work, though, as always, if cities share a Fat X, they'll be sharing those tiles.

Anyway, if you're having a problem with the barbs, just follow everyone's instructions and post sentries outside your city. If you've got forested hills on which you can place an archer/axe/both, you're set. Barbs will toss themselves at that hill, dying each time.

 

Well, yes and no. As far as producing food, hammers or commerce, your city can only use the 20 tiles (21 including the city tile itself) immediately surrounding the city (represented by the x below):

...ooo...
..ooooo..
..ooxoo..
..ooooo..
...ooo...

Any special resources within the borders (white stain as you say) can provide strategic, happiness or health value to your entire civ as long as soon as they have the proper improvement (farm, plantation, mine, etc.) and are connected by road, river or sea route.

edit: automator beat me to it

 

One warning I can add, Cypher88: if there's a resource close at hand, barbs will bypass defenders, especially if they're in a good defensive spot. I play on Lake and Oasis maps a lot, and the way trees block LoS make it easy to have little avenues really close to even your core cities-- and if you spend too much time worrying about barbs, you just might get attacked by a neighbor, since all your troops will be guarding terrain away from the action (polar caps are a good example, or deep in the middle of a massive jungle that you're not ready to settle yet.)
Keep a "reaction force" near your core cities early on, to protect against the barbs as well as the AI.
Question: has anyone tried barbarian farming in Civ4 yet? I think if you left one direction especially unwatched, you might be able to channel them into your troops, but haven't mastered the game enough yet to give it a shot. The AI will eventually come and take away a city, should you leave one out there, but in theory you should be able to get all those troops coming out of the barracks that extra promotion before you send them off to wars of conquest. Anyone tried this yet?

 

Great help , tnx again, lets see what we can do here.

On the side note hell this game is better than 3rd instalment. That piece of crap just sucked ...various body parts. much more like 2nd with some improvements and few minor annoyances that dont take away much.

 

Once the barbs found cities, they stop coming. At least, not in such great quantities. You may wait forever before your units get promoted.

 

I've barb farmed quite a bit on Noble. It, of course, doesn't mean you have to deal with fewer barbs, but if you're on defensible terrain, you've got a training ground and know where they're coming from. In addition, you are almost guaranteed a captured city, two on huge maps if you can beat the AI to them.

Tom

 

Consider them good training. Not only do your units gain a few promotions, but it forces you to think about your military so you don't end up getting blindsided by some other civ. If your military is weak they will attack, especially the Agressive civs, so having an effective anti-barbarian force will buy you some time. And they're usually not a problem to control. As mentioned, stick some Archers in the Hills around your borders and the Barbs will attack them 90% of the time and never reach your territory. Just make sure to place them in the path that the barbs are coming in from.

 

To follow up on the note about resources -

I typically place an axeman or archer on any special resources that are inside or near my cultural borders. If it is a spot that's not highly defensible, I'll spot two there. The barbs seem to come running for those spots and after a couple promotions, I'll rotate the garrisoned troops there. Of course, I try to promote some of my early troops to medic, and they stay that way for the entire game. I had a medic warrior in 1954AD in one game, stacked in my SOD, hehe.

 

If you have enough units outside your borders, you shouldn't have to guard your resources. The Barbs will generally suicide themselves against them. If there's the odd barb that does get through, one of your city garrison can take care of them, provided you have roads built within your cities.

 

I always play with raging barbs on, and they are just cheap xp to me. It forces you to build up at least a little military, so that you don't appear totally anemic to your neighbors, it gives you cheap xp, and forces you to 'control' an area...

...but that's just the way I like to play.

 

In areas where I don't have resources near my borders, that's precisely what I do. When I place units outside my borders, usually on a hill or in a forest, the barbs will go around my units in an attempt to get to the resource. I just find it easier to place the units where I know they'll go in those instances.

If I place the units far enough out, I can stop them from doing this, but I try not to have my units so far away that they cannot return to base quickly and pumping out too many troops early can be a drain on the economy. If I'm doing that, I'm going to war, in which case I have ample firepower to deal with the odd pair of barbs now and again.

 

You're better off placing them further out, since it breaks up the fog of war which creates the barbs in the first place. They should be at least 3 squares away from your border, 4 if it's just flatland. This will light up everything in between and 1-2 tiles out. This will also give you a good advance warning. If I see a Hill 10+ tiles out that will light up a bunch of flatland, I'll put one there as well. An Archer on a Hill shouldn't have to return to base, most of the time it will survive an attack. I've seen Swordsman go down against an Archer on a wooded Hill, and that was without any Guerilla promotions. Occasionaly the barbs get lucky, but not often.