Seriously need help.

[Sisiutil]

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.

Copper isn't always conveniently located. As Dagoril said, without copper, try for Iron or, alternatively, Animal Husbandry for horses and Chariots. You'll usually need double the number of Chariots as you would Axemen, but they're cheaper. And Egypt's War Chariots are an awesome UU--only the Praetorian is a better early UU in my opinion.

 

[Older than Dirt]

As mentioned earlier, instead of placing all your units in cities place them outside on defensive terrain and dig them in. Connect everyone with roads. Barbarians just about invariably come along certain routes so try and note these and set defenders along them at choke points. Try and settle so that the fog of war is removed all the way to a coast or other civ so that the barbarians are coming in only one direction asap. The best learning tool is to play a few time on raging barbarians up to about 500 A.D.; Once you learn to think like a barbarian they are not so difficult to handle and become excellent training to get your troops ready for your first war.

 

[dh_epic]

Yep, it's my advice that you build fewer settlers and get axemen going sooner. Make copper a priority.

It sounds to me like you're playing a huge map size on a low difficulty. That can sometimes make it longer before the land between civs is covered, which means that barbarians will appear more frequently. I recommend learning to play on a smaller map first.

 

[Pantastic]

I recommend learning to play on a smaller map first.

Or do a custom game and add more civs to fill in the space.

 

[ronnybiggs]

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.

The AI will attack Barbs though. Take advantage by noticing when an AI is laying siege to a barb city, and try to take it at the last minute, after the AI has weakened it enough.

But Tempest, that is a weird situation. My question for you is, how well are you exploring the area around you?

I've been playing at Prince and Monarch level, all I can say is Barbs only become a problem if you're not taking the time to light up the area around you. Barbarians may spawn anywhere there's fog, but moving explorers around will still keep barbarian cities from spawning. Those become a real nuisance if you allow that to happen.

 

[Sisiutil]

I've been playing at Prince and Monarch level, all I can say is Barbs only become a problem if you're not taking the time to light up the area around you. Barbarians may spawn anywhere there's fog, but moving explorers around will still keep barbarian cities from spawning. Those become a real nuisance if you allow that to happen.

I find barbs tend to become slightly less of a problem with a barb city. Some of them remain there to guard it, and if you park a Woodsman Axe or Archer on a forested hill next door, they'll most likely never leave its environs.

I guess everyone just wants to settle down and have somewhere to hang their hat, even if it has horns on it.