Raging barbs and great wall

[jackdog]

I just had a thought, amazing I know...

I have never played on raging barbs, the game is hard enough as it is, though just mover up to Monarch and am about to win my first game, luck i'm sure.

My most common opening gambit is the very early great wall build, great spy infiltrated, steal techs to get ahead version of events. It just occured to me that on Raging barbs the great wall is much more powerful if you can build it first as while all the AI's are running around fighting for survival you are quietly building, or in my case making troops for early war.

Having never played raging barbs is it actually the case i would be so busy defending myself that the build is no where near as easy or is it that great wall is a bit overpowered on raging barbs as the builder gets so much of an advantage. From experiance if you beeline which I do you can chop it out almost before barb warriors start to appear. Do they appear earlier on raging or just more of them.

last question honest, on raging barbs are lots more barb cities settled or are they too busy with the blood lust

 

[PibbZ]

I just had my first experience with the great wall in my first emperor game. Reason i built it was that i had spare forests around my main production city, which was also my border city, and i expected to be fighting a lot of defensive wars, so why not.

Barbs were patroling my borders, literally, but they could not enter, which was awesome. Playing with raging barbs will ofc make the wall even more powerful, and are almost a free kickstart compared to the other civs which will struggle a lot more survivng. Some civs are born to be destroyed by these barbs aswell.

I played with raging barbs on prince and monarch, and they always destroyed a civ or two pretty early, so i moved up one level (so the AI starts with 2 archers) and hoped they would survive a little longer.

This probably didnt answer a single question of yours, but its my experience atleast

 

[Refar]

Raging Barbs + Great Wall = Lots of Free XP without any danger.

I think on Raging it's just more of them, not earlier. Not sure about if the barbs make more cities - i think it's the same.

You should have no problem having the Wall up in time. Sometimes i even wait to dump it in my second city - to separate the GPP pools. However with the second city you will probably have to fight of a couple of barbs before tha wall is done.

 

[Supr49er]

The GW with raging barbs on a pangea map is so powerful it feels like an exploit. The barbs hammer your rivals, keeping them busy building units while you grab the tech lead and never look back

 

[mike p]

I'm pretty sure that on Raging Barbs you don't get the window of time where the barbs appear but don't attack. As soon as they spawn, they enter your territory and start pillaging and sacking. They may not appear any earlier, but they do attack earlier, it seems.

 

[Way_Traveler]

The Malinese are perfect for this. They start with the wheel and mining, so they're just one tech away from masonry, and you'll instantly be able to hook up stone if you're fortunate enough to be near it. The skirmishers also chew up the early barbs; 3-4 should easily be able to handle a city while you build the wall.

 

[DragonHawk]

I have not played Raging Barbs, but I do play huge maps where there are a lot of unexplored space (even with 18 civs). Having GW would seriously hamper the developments of the civs around you. They would be too busy building units to counter the barb attacks, they would forgo city improvements and research.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I've played Raging Barbs on the 18 civ Earth map. Its a great equaliser. The civs that normally run away with the game because they have space to expand (China, India and especially Russia) find that space a liability. Gives the overcrowded Europeans more chance.

 

[CHEESE!]

Yeah but RB is verrry annoying if you lose the GW.

 

[AfterShafter]

It's not all that hard to rush even on raging barbs - I've never had a notable problem. Though, I build one or two warriors first, just to be safe. Raging barbs + great wall is kind of like one of those picking Cyrus of Persia on Deity Duel maps... You're giving yourself (assuming you get the wall) a tremendous advantage over a relatively unsuspecting CPU. Basically, you're hugely stacking the odds in your favour - fun, but takes a lot of the competitiveness out of your win...

 

[Lightwave]

...
My most common opening gambit is the very early great wall build, great spy infiltrated, steal techs to get ahead version of events. It just occured to me that on Raging barbs the great wall is much more powerful if you can build it first as while all the AI's are running around fighting for survival you are quietly building, or in my case making troops for early war.

Having never played raging barbs is it actually the case i would be so busy defending myself that the build is no where near as easy or is it that great wall is a bit overpowered on raging barbs as the builder gets so much of an advantage. From experiance if you beeline which I do you can chop it out almost before barb warriors start to appear. Do they appear earlier on raging or just more of them.

last question honest, on raging barbs are lots more barb cities settled or are they too busy with the blood lust

I build the Great Wall on a regular basis. I used Raging Barbs in vanilla always as well, so I feel like I "earned my keep."

It is fun, and you don't have to build as many defensive units. You also can utilize workers without worrying about them getting killed. It speeds up improvements effectively. It also saves a lot of time re-improving pillaged tiles for those that you could not kill the barbarians.

One slight disadvantage that I have experienced, which is not immediately evident, is when you get ready to do your first early conquest. For a long time, I would just smile as I watched the barbs wander around my borders to harass my neighbors. But later you may find yourself staring down highly promoted (for the early game) and entrenched units, and part of the reason is all the barbs that you diverted their way. That's not to say they come out without some cuts and bruises, but except a few tougher battles. It is for this reason that I started taking some warriors outside my borders to intercept and kill barbs. It gives me a couple Woodsman III warriors for later on and prevents the AI's from getting quite as many experience, 10XP units.

I also have grown to like the early Great Spy to steal techs as you say. You can steal quite a few of them with just one Great Spy. On the contrary though, and someone can argue with me here, but I realized that it does not get you "ahead" as much as you might think because the AI is aggressively trading techs anyways. You are just taking yourself out of the trade loop and stealing them.