Seriously need help.

[Tempest2000]

I'm ready to take the CD, manual and everything and throw it out the window.

I can't get past the barbarians.

Playing at chieftan level is no problem.. but when I go to Warlord, which shouldn't be that much harder, I get mangled by the barbarians.

Every single time.

Everything starts fine, I get up to 4 cities, then they come.. it doesn't matter how much warriors and archers I build, the barbarians are constantly pouring in. They come in in such a rate that I can't build new units myself to counter them and after a while I give up and end the game because it's not fun.

I don't stand a chance.. I've tried having warriors to look around but I can't find any barbarian cities... they just come from nowhere and all directions.

Please tell me what to do, I've played all versions of civ before this and never had anything like this happen.

I know I suck, I'm not good at this.. but this is ridicilous. Not even being able to counter the barbarians....

This is what happens every single game I start at warlord level... I've tried using different civs but it's the same no matter what. I know I'm doing something wrong but I haven't got a clue...

 

[Esox]

Hang in there. My idea is that maybe you are trying to get too many settlers out early, rather than defending the cities you have with enough units. Try building a new city only when you are certain you can defend what you have. No need to make it a sprint.

 

[Palantir30]

1) Dont build 4 cities without having built two military units per each along the way at a minimum

2) Culturally expand your borders a bit and put strategically placed* units out a bit from your cities to push back the fog (dark squares) so that a) there are fewer places for barbs to spawn and b) you get more warning on the direction they're coming from.

3) make sure you're not playing on Raging Barbs- that takes a while to get used to.

4) rarely attack the barbs, if you're having difficulty. Hold strategic locations (forested hills, preferably with a river on the far side) and make the barbarians attack you while you enjoy defense bonuses for hills, trees and rivers. Grab defensive promotions like hill defense, forest defense, etc. Dont defend your cities from barbs, as then you're giving away your tiles to be pillaged. Defend the border, not the city if you can.

5) learn what units counter others. Dont use warriors to defend against Aemen, put archers on hills, etc etc.

6) stick with it!

 

[Tempest2000]

Last time I tried I put up to 4 defenders in a city, then built a new one... and so on. Had a few roaming around just to spot the barbarians as early as possible.

Didn't help... they come in 5-6 at a time and mangle my units at once. I really don't know what to do. And as I fight as hard as I can to fend myself form the barbarians, the other civs build cities and surround me so I'm without a chance anyway.

And at chieftain level I win easily, to easily really.

I wouldn't even DREAM about trying at the hardest level when it's like this at this level.

 

[Dagoril]

Fighting Barbs with Axemen works pretty consistently well (until much later in the game, when they can become grenadiers and stuff hehe).

Use surplus warrior and archers to "fog bust", which will keep the barbs from spawning at all within the visible regions.

Escort your settlers with an Axeman, so the new cities are already defended.

(There is also a No Barbarian option if you create a Custom Game, if you want to try Warlord difficulty without the hassle of barbs. Personally though I'd leave barbs turned on.)

 

[Helmling]

Last time I tried I put up to 4 defenders in a city, then built a new one... and so on. Had a few roaming around just to spot the barbarians as early as possible.

Didn't help... they come in 5-6 at a time and mangle my units at once. I really don't know what to do. And as I fight as hard as I can to fend myself form the barbarians, the other civs build cities and surround me so I'm without a chance anyway.

And at chieftain level I win easily, to easily really.

I wouldn't even DREAM about trying at the hardest level when it's like this at this level.

What are your other world settings? Are you playing with very few AI players on a large map or something? If you did set up the map with a lot of empty space, then the barbs are going to fill in the gaps. If you're not on "raging" barbarians, I can't imagine why else they'd be streaming at you like that on Warlord.

 

[AndreasS]

How are you fighting the barbs? You arnt attacking them over rivers, or when they are on mountains etc? The best way to fight barbs is to wait for them to attack you, when you are in a good defending position yourself.....

Another smart thing to do is to place units on hills arround your boarders to fight barbarians outside your empire, and making them less likely to pop up everywhere.....

 

[Sisiutil]

Research Bronze Working early on, find copper, settle near it, mine it and build a road to it. Build barracks and Axemen. Give them Combat I and, as soon as they earn level 3, Shock promotions.

Try to have two Axes per city. Build roads to your key resources. Leave one Axe to defend the city while the other rushes out to whomp barbs once they're in open terrain.

Keep producing Axes. Send some extra ones out and fortify them on hills just outside your borders that overlook unsettled areas. The barbs will spawn further from your cities, and they'll be drawn to the fortified Axes like flies to honey. There they will die, and your fog-busting Axes will earn XPs and promotions.

Once you have the required techs and resources, replace your fog/barb-busting Axes with Guerilla Archers (for the uninhabited areas with hilly terrain) and flanking/sentry-promoted Chariots (for uninhabited areas with flat terrain). You could do this from the get-go, but Archery is a low-priority tech for me and Horses are a low-priority resource.

Another thing: DON'T move your fog-busters around. Barbs can spawn in any tile that isn't "fully lit", i.e., visible to your civ thanks to either borders or military units, and that is not part of another civ's territory. Moving fog-busters also decreases their fortification bonus (+25% after 5 turns). By moving them, you defeat their purpose.

Once you get used to handling barbs, you'll start seeking them out. They provide easy promotions for your units, up to level 4 (10 XPs). Once you have a few Axes at that level, replace them with Archers and/or Chariots and send them off to whomp another civ.

 

[Esox]

^ Excellent post.
To the OP, you will also come to look forward to the free cities you will take from the Barbs. Wait until they reach population 2 if you plan to keep the city. Otherwise they get razed automatically.

 

[NYCFalcon]

For as long as I've played Civ, it seems to me that the barbs don't attack the AI cities if you have cities in the same continent as the AI.

BTW, I rarely keep 2 units in the city early in the game. I try to always get the best defending units and place them along the perimeter.

Don't go to war early in the game unless your cities are well defended.

 

[Naokaukodem]

Barbs will end up soon to be axemen. So... the only decent way to fight them is to have axemen yourself or horse archers... and don't put those barbs on raging!

 

[wurm657]

Lot's of good advice and tactics here!
Best I can offer is: Stick with it! Each loss is a lesson.
My 1st couple of Warlord games, I was having the same trouble you are. Eventually; I learned to solve the Barbarian problem, and flip it to the ability to exploit them as Esox mentioned above. Some of the Greatest cities in a couple of my games were Barbarian cities rich in resources I was able to capture.
You'll find your game, don't worry

 

[Sisiutil]

I realized how much I've come to rely on the barbs for promotions recently when, just for fun, I played a game on Settler to see how fast I could get the spaceship built.

I had a couple of Warriors wandering around, and when I saw barb Warriors, mine would stroll into the best defensive tile next door. Well, the barbs on Settler are WIMPS. They kept running away!

"C'mon, chicken liver! Take your best shot!"

"Uh, sorry, we, uh, left a roast boar on the spit... Ooooh! I can smell it burning! Gotta go!"

 

[Tempest2000]

About raging barbarians. So far I haven't played custom games so I don't know if the barbs are set to raging or not, there aren't any choise for that if I just go with "play now".

I've played on huge because I like the possibilities it gives. Maybe that's the wrong approach, maybe i should go back to normal maps and get it right there first before I move on to larger worlds.

 

[AriochIV]

That's probably the issue; the more open space, the more barbarians. Even on a normal-sized map, if you happen to end up on a large landmass by yourself, the barbarian activity can be pretty feasome. I think this is part design, to prevent a huge advantage due to placement. Try a smaller map or more civs to fill in the space.

Unfortunately you can't turn the barbarians "down" like you could in Civ 3, but if it gets that bad, you can turn them off altogether in a Custom Game with the "No Barbarians" option.

 

[Tarkhan]

I like the barbs on raging if I get stuck on my own, makes the push to Optics far less boring. But that's mostly because I like early wars.

 

[Hawkeye2007]

I've played on huge because I like the possibilities it gives. Maybe that's the wrong approach, maybe i should go back to normal maps and get it right there first before I move on to larger worlds.

The barbs are always going to be nasty if you have large unsettled areas. You should try playing the terra map (i think that's what it's called). Then you won't have too many problems with barbs until you settle the other landmasses, and that's easy if you just send two or three strong guard units with the settler.

 

[Tempest2000]

Tried a new game today and it didn't go well, there were no copper around at all so I was stuck with archers to fight the barbarian axemen. I did as suggested, placed a few guards around my border but it didn't help...

Just unlucky this time I guess.

 

[Dagoril]

If there's no copper around conveniently, beeline to Iron Working asap. If there's no copper, there is almost always iron around your core cities instead. Iron will allow you to build axemen also (as well as the swordsman).

 

[Pantastic]

Last time I tried I put up to 4 defenders in a city, then built a new one... and so on. Had a few roaming around just to spot the barbarians as early as possible.

Don't put 4 units in your cities, and don't have units roaming. Take those garrisons and put them outside of your borders, so that what they can see only overlaps by maybe 1-2 spaces with what you cities see, and leave them there. Ideally put them on defensive spot (hills are great because you can also see further. Barbs only spawn in spaces that no player can see, so if you have 'fog busters' out viewing a lot of land there will be fewer.

Also, you said this map is huge, which type is it? If it's great plains or lakes, barb problems will be magnified because there's more land than on maps with ocean.