Seeing red...

[Leowind]

...as in barbarians.

I don't think I had one single turn in the BC's when there wasn't a Barbarian prowling around my empire. Spent several turns very early on playing cat and mouse with my settlers and Barbie Chariots. Lost three cities thus far, all of which were defended. Won them all back, but the loss in population and production makes me sad/mad. Have lost several settlers and a few units along the way, too. I did manage to capture a couple leaders, but mostly did not have the defensive units available to let them attack me then go after the leader. Now that I've expanded a bit, they seem to have settled into the normal annoyance, but they forced me to play very defensively for quite awhile, and really slowed my expansion and especially exploration. Anyone else have the same experience? I haven't checked the spoiler thread 'cause I'm only into the early ADs with a lot of game left to play, so sorry if this has already been raised there.

 

[ferenginar]

Not much red, but plenty of green, which I find more worrying.

early AD

ferenginar

 

[el_kalkylus]

Not much barbarians here either. They took 2 or 3 cities, which I quickly bought back. I had more trouble killing the Carthagians. They just wouldn't die.

 

[ferenginar]

OK I spoke too soon, now they are popping up everywhere, they have taken out a couple of settlers, I don't dare send anybody out scouting, and i just had to pay 1700 gold for them not to take a recently founded city. What a fool I am, next month I'm keeping my gob shut.

ferenginar

 

[Smash]

hehehe......I just lost a city to 3 trireme crusaders.They landed way behind "the front" and razed a size 3 city.I though my vet pikes would have a chance...but all three were slaughtered.A rushed diplomat put things back in order with the help of a knight(had to take out the stacked leader unfortunately).

I think I'll add the Wall to be safe.

 

[Leowind]

ferrenginar, by seeing green I assume you mean you're not finding anybody. That can be a good thing or a bad thing.

el_kalkylus I found the Carths very early and immediately took them out. I popped a Chariot from the first hut and found the Carths soon after. I waited until Carthage was size 2 before attacking, but still razed the city rather than taking it. Still, they were gone quite early Of course, I lost that Chariot some time later to the Barbs I've had no problems at all with Barbs now, just early on in the game.

 

[ferenginar]

I meant zulus and lots of them, we made peace and they have left me alone for ages whilst I was having trouble with the barbs, but they just declared war, so I think I'm in for a hard time for a while.

 

[denyd]

I've had alot of barbs so far, lost one just built city and had it disappear when I took it back with a chariot. I met Carth in about the fourth turn (got lucky and found a chariot in the first hut) and took them out. A little while later the Celts went bye-bye (found an undefended city and then took out the capital with 2 chariots vs warriors). I didn't meet the Spanish (yellow) until nearly AD. Haven't met the Zulus (green), yet!!

A special thanks to Smash for playing Diety strageties. Using his advice I've managed to get the HG and GW, I have cranked out so many new cities, I've run out of Viking city names and am on the default list. Science is lagging. but as soon as MP is done (about 5 more turns), I'll check in on the AI and see how far ahead (or behind they are).

 

[Leowind]

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK May give away locations of the other Civs
















I'm almost done with the Celts myself. I didn't meet them early enough to take them out as easily as the Carthaginians. I've met the Zulus and very recently the Spanish. I've been searching for the Zulu cities in the area where I met their unit, but have not found where they are hiding. I'm not sure how they got where I saw them, cause I've explored extensively past that point in several directions (interesting land mass, heh?) Am currently trying to track down the Spanish as well.

 

[noughmaster]

I've played until 500BC. There have been a lot of barbs wandering around, but only 1 horseman from an early hut.
I've also killed the Carthaginians, met the Zulus and the Spanish, but not the Celts. I wonder why not? I'll find out soon enough.
Does anyone know if the game will spawn more barbs around the map if you don't get them from huts, or is spawning purely random?
Speaking of huts, I have got a couple of advanced tribes. Anybody else got one of these?

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

I haven't seen many barbs this game. I have found a barb ship sitting off the coast, but since it is a land locked lake, and there are no cities within the required range, it's just sitting there.

I have actually only gotten one advanced tribes from huts. I have gotten lots of units, a couple bucks, and some techs. I think maybe one or two barbs.

I'll talk about the rest of my game in the spoiler thread.

 

[Leowind]

IIRC I got one advanced tribe early, then was bogged down fighting barbs and Celts, so didn't do much exploring. Lately been doing much more exploring, and have gotten a couple size 4 tribes. Sometimes it pays to wait to pop huts. Also just recently finally found the Spanish, and popped a hut near them that unleashed an actual horde of barbarians. Didn't count them all up, but remember seeing at least a couple legions and several knights. My dip is dead for sure (but might look into bribing a couple units if I think I can save them). Too bad they're right next to the Spanish and miles away from any of my cities, he he.

 

[Lucky]

So this is a Deity GOTM. I just started it today and played right through till 1AD.
I am having some problems with barbs but overall they are just a nuisance. I´ve explored the map as quickly as I could and popped as many huts as I found. I encountered most of the barbs out of huts in the beginning when there are just 2 units per hut. Later I met the seaborne barbs but most of the time they landed somewhere far away from my cities.
At this level I´ve got much more problems with BLACK, that is the ULTRA-unhappy population. I´ve gone more or less directly to Monotheism but even with Mike´s Chapel, a temple and 2 defenders it´s hard to control a city size 6 or more. But the game is still developing pretty nicely, though not as perfect as the previous GOTM. Well we´ll see.

I know that some of this belongs into the spoiler thread but I don´t want to enter that one yet, before finishing my game. At least it´s partly on topic.
My advice with raging barbs would be to explore the map asap and watch your coasts closely! With each undiscovered tile less the probability of barbs appearing decreases.

 

[Bachus]

Well, I think the idea of raging horses is having problems with barbs .

I didn't have problems with land barbarians, as I had exploring units. As for the sea...

I already lost one city and saved other two with much luck. But I had to set science to 0 for a few turns, rush diplo, bribe legion, bribe legion, attack another legion... and all this quite a few times and the luck is that I had time to do it - until now, when they landed next to my city with only one defender. I'll have to bribe it back, but as I said, 80% taxes

Enough with this crying-let's play!!

 

[Smash]

They hit again with another 3 crusader trireme.Wish my triremes could carry more than 2 units.I'm supposed to be the Vikings.
This has turned into a pretty good thing actually.I can bribe non crusaders for as long as I want.I'm in Republic so those nons come in handy

 

[el_kalkylus]

Why don't you just bribe the city back for 26 gold or so, and get 4 crusaders for free. Buying crusaders each is really expensive. But I gather money is the least of your problems.

 

[Smash]

well normally I would but those crusaders I bribe there are all nons.That means they don't cause any military related unhappiness by being "in the feild" under a Republic.Since that city was captured by barb crusaders,it will continue to spit them out until the city is sacked.
And yes money is not a big problem.Every 4th or 5th turn I jack taxes for the "Crusader Fund"
If and when crusaders are not effective,thats when I buy it back.

 

[Smash]

I finally bribed Birka back only to have it destroyed by more barbs.Westness,which is just in that picture above,was also destroyed by the red menace.Both cities have been rebuilt but,for how long?......
I have added the wall for the "defense against barbs" bonus cuz it was getting a little hairy.Barbs everywhere.I am currently avoiding Leadership so they don't change from crusaders and knights into dragoons.My muskets are slowly but surely taking them out as they move towards cites.
I have had several boatloads of barbs just sitting there.Keeping me from settling.Now with a musket and the Great Wall,I can march over settle right next to them.With some trailing knights I am picking a good number of leaders as they unload and try to sack a new city.

 

[Chofritz]

Something is wrong over here. It's 400 ad and still I haven't seen a single barbarian. Well it doesn't matter because I won't be able to finish the game anyway. I won't have access to a computer from tomorrow until the 2nd january,