Seven Cities of Gold - a Barbarian Adventure

[Autumn Leaf]

OK, so the challenge here is to conquer the world and/or to build a spaceship as Barbarians. Well, we know Barbarians can't build spaceships, but for this exercise I will ... assist them a little by changing city production ... when it comes to that. But first, there are three continents full of enemies that must first be bent to my will. Three? Yes. The Americas are empty. No doubt they will soon be crowded by the successor states of the civilisations I conquer.

My inital enemies are:

1. Russians.
2. Zulus.
3. Germans.
4. Egyptians.
5. Chinese.
6. English (gonna need some Sea Barbarians ships to take these down).
7. Indians.

Since Barbarian Settlers like to pillage, I have cheated a little by setting up my core city sites in advance. Seven sites, in fact, for Seven barbarian Cities of Red Gold that will conquer the world! My 7 Red Settlers are in place. The curtain is about to rise ... if you want to make some popcorn, now would be a good time.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

We're off!

Attila X's intrepid Red Settlers perform their task flawlessly, founding seven cities, imaginatively named C.1 to C7. Who would have thought Barbarians could count?

I provide each city with a Barracks and a Granary, the only improvements they will get. I also contribute 30,000 coins to the Treasury, for reasons that will quickly become obvious.

I set taxes to 100%. It's wasted effort. Turns out Barbarians don't pay taxes, and the only thing keeping my Treasury afloat is the 30k seed money!

3880 BC: Seven cities spawn seven Legions. My first goal is Peking. To war! The Chinese are taken unawares and die without putting up a fight.

JCivEd doesn't work with Barbarians. Fortunately my own tool does. The Americans pop up in ... Canada's Yukon Territories!

 

[Autumn Leaf]

3840 BC: My Veteran Legions are marching southwest towards India, but Barbarian Pony Express brings news: German civilization destroyed by Russians! The French pop up in Brazil.

3800 BC: My three best cities build new Legions. After this I'll stop reporting mobilization unless it's something unusual. As my cities grow, they will soon each be producing a Legion every turn. That's what big Barbarian cities do. Not wanting to flog a dead horse here, but really, that's all they do.

3780 BC: Contact with India. Delhi is defended. I expect to take a lot of casualties here.

3760 BC: My first Legion to arrive attacks the pathetic Militia defending Delhi ... and dies. Delhi is India's only city and Civ won't let an AI die to Barbarians if it can avoid it. I will be surprised if I can capture Delhi early. Knowing what I know from my past Barbarian game, I would move on to the west and come back to Delhi when Ganghi drops a colony and the city loses its last-AI-city immunity. By then I may also have a Barb Leader available to use on his colony. But you all need to see this and understand how sneaky and cheating Civ's developers were, so let the pain commence!

3740 BC: Two more Legions lose to Delhi's invincible Militia!

3700 BC: Despite my losses, 19 Legions are converging on Delhi and its puny Militia. Four Legions attack and die this year. Seven losses so far. But I've just noticed that Delhi's city square has no shield under it. So I'm going to stop attacking and instead besiege the city until it has to disband its defender.

3520 BC: Egyptian civilization destroyed by Zulus! The Aztecs migrate to Africa, too close to the Zulus. I doubt they will last.

3500 BC: 35 Legions, 7 in production, 9 lost. The encirclement of Delhi is complete, but its Militia survives? Oh wait. Despotism. No support required! That Militia ain't going away. Time to move on? Or shall I squander Legions in a demonstration of futility.

3460 BC: Westward Ho. I'll leave Delhi besieged.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

3320 BC: The Aral Sea. Better enjoy it while it's still here. My Legions scrub off the desert grime in the salty waters.

3300 BC: I have 56 Legions. Seven defend my cities. 13 are fortified around Delhi. 36 march west.

Here's a peculiarity of playing Barbarians: NO GOODIE HUTS! The game uses the Barbarian visibility flag to mark a hut as used up. By definition, if I am close enough to see a hut ... it's no longer there!

3280 BC: Aztec civilization destroyed by Zulus! As expected, they were too close to the Zulus to survive for long.

The Caspian Sea. I remember losing hundreds of Legions in my previous Barbarian game, in futile attacks on a single Militia defending Samarkand. There's no Samarkand here in this game.

3240 BC: My first Legion reaches the eastern wall of Moscow, population 3. There's a Militia on a forest south of the city.

Further south, in Mesopotamia, my Legions bump a Russian Legion and a Cavalry. The Cavalry is stacked on something else I can't see. I'll be losing some legions there, methinks.

3220 BC: The hidden stacked Russian unit was a Chariot. That's not good. I lost one Legion, but it could have been worse: the Russians mostly attacked Zulu units to their west.

The Legion outside Moscow attacks the city ... and kills a Phalanx! Looks like Russia has more than one city. No invincible units here. Not that it's going to be cheap.

3200 BC: I kill the Militia south of Moscow. My Moscow Legion attacks again but dies against a Militia defending the city. Further south, a Legion exploring the Syrian border bumps into the Russian Chariot and immediately starts mumbling his final prayers. He won't be there next year.

3180 BC: The Russian Chariot kills my Legion and heads south-east into Arabia. A Legion that arrived outside Moscow's northern walls last year beats off a Cavalry counter-attack from the city.

But now two Legions form a nutcracker north and south of Moscow. The northern Legion kills the pesky Militia defender. Moscow is left undefended! The southern Legion swoops in, loot sack swinging jauntily.

Barbarians capture Moscow! 9 gold plundered. I have 64 Legions and have lost 13 but have killed 2 Russian Militia, 1 Russian Phalanx, 1 Russian Legion and 2 Russian Cavalry. It's a good kill ratio for Barbarians. Russia is down to one city, probably Berlin. I won't be able to storm that because it's Russia's last city and thus invincible against Barbarians, and I won't have any Barb Leaders to subvert it for 500 years yet. Sigh.

Enough for tonight. Work tomorrow, alas.

 

[GoldBerg]

Will you post a savegame from the beginnings (~3840 BC) ?

 

[Autumn Leaf]

OK, so I decided to play on till 3000 BC.

3160 BC: A Legion entering Sinai bumps a Zulu Chariot defending the Nile.

3140 BC: Dead Legion. The Chariot withdraws into Africa. My main army presses west into Europe. Africa is a sideshow, for now, but I suspect that the Zulus will soon be my most formidable remaining opponent. I turn some eastern echelons south to protect my flank from Zulu nuisances. I move my Palestinian unit back a square to make some fighting room until other units come up.

3120 BC: Russian Militia in Bulgaria. I avoid a fight and move west.

3100 BC: As expected, the Zulu Chariot reappears from the fog and occupies Sinai. My Legion is waiting for it in Jordan, and strikes first! The Zulu threat is neutralised.

3080 BC: An advanced Legion reaches the walls of ... Leningrad? Not Berlin? Oh well. Down south, I clear the field by killing the Russian Militia that was now fortifying itself in Ukraine.

Two Legions advance into Egypt, bumping a Zulu Cavalry.

3060 BC: The Zulu Cavalry kills one Legion but dies against the second.

Leningrad gets a reprieve: wanting to wait to attack until my other units have moved, I accidently hit S instead of W. Sigh.

3040 BC: A Militia counter-attack out of Leningrad fails. Figuring the Russians have nothing left to attack with, I decide not to attack this turn but bring more units up to the walls. (Figurative walls - I haven't encountered a city with actual City Walls in this campaign. I dread that moment.)

3020 BC: SEVEN HEROS. Seven Veteran Legions attacked a non-Veteran Phalanx defending Leningrad, and lost. Martyrs all! The only result is that the Russian Phalanx is now a Veteran. Remember, Veteran legions attack on a 4.5 and non-Veteran, albeit fortified, pahalanxes defend on a 3. There's no terrain or wall bonus here. What are the odds that a 3 defense will defeat 7 consecutive attacks of 4.5? I'll tell you! It's worse than a spearman defeating a tank!

I believe Leningrad is Russia's last city. The game will cheat outrageously to prevent it from being captured or destroyed by Barbarians. So I will just besiege the city to keep it weak, and spend no more units on futile assaults. In a few hundred years, with luck, I will have a Barb Leader available and since Leningrad is not a capital, I will be able to subvert the city.

3000 BC: Progress on encircling Leningrad.

Cities: 7. Population: 1.29 million. 29,328 Gold (down from 30,000 at the start).

Two enemy cities sacked: Peking, Moscow. Two enemy cities besieged: Delhi, Leningrad.

I think only the Zulus have any strength left. America and France are probably building up in the Americas, but that's beyond my reach. I have no boats.

I have 71 Legions. I've suffered 22 losses for 4 Russian Militia, 1 Russian Phalanx, 1 Russian Legion, 2 Russian and one Zulu Cavalry, and one Zulu Chariot. I checked Arabia and I guess that the Russian
Chariot I encountered must have been supported from Moscow, for there's no sign of it now.

Of my 22 losses, 16 came from wasted attacks on cities protected by the game. So now when you see me pussy-footing around feeble enemy cities, you'll understand that it's not that I'm averse to the inevitable losses, I just won't waste my Legions on attacks that the game won't let me win.

Good night!

Saves attached from 3960 BC (CIVIL2) and 3000 BC (CIVIL0).

 

[Autumn Leaf]

Interlude: The Delhi Barber

!!!!! GETCHA POPCORN HERE !!!!!
!!!!! 71 TANKS VERSUS 1 SPEARMAN !!!!!
!!!!! IN A BATTLE TO THE DEATH !!!!!

I wanted to show you all what happens when a Barbarian attacks an AI's last city, because I know some of you still won't believe me. So I took my 3000 BC save from last night and ran a quick transformation on it. I took my 71 Barbarian Legions and stacked them outside Delhi, then converted them all to Veteran Armor. Tanks with attack 18 versus a fortified Militia, defense about 2. That puny spear-waving Militia defending Delhi is toast, right?

The 4 north and 4 west stacks each have 8 Tanks each in them. The east stack has 7. CHARGE!

And here's the final score. Spearman: 71, Tanks: 0!

Smile for the camera, guys ... perfect! Hold that thought!



Never before in the annals of Civ1 has this meme been so amply demonstrated.


Edited to add: found a relevant post that I saw a long time ago.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-combat-mechanics-explained.492843/#post-12345248

Step 2: If the attacking unit is a Barbarian unit and the defending unit is player-controlled, multiply the attack strength by the Difficulty Modifier, then divide it by 4.

Step 3: If the attacking unit is a Barbarian unit and the defensing unit is AI-controlled, divide the attack strength by 2.

Step 4: If the attacking unit is a Barbarian unit and the defending unit is inside a city and the defending civilization does not control any other cities, set the attack strength to zero.

Step 5: If the attacking unit is a Barbarian unit and the defending unit is inside a city with a Palace, divide the attack strength by 2.

 

[Mize]

Well, your tests basically demonstrate that the 'last city' rule affects the AI too when it comes to barbarian attacks. It is widely known that human players benefit from it - in OCC or in early game, by defending against barbs with a settler or militia.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

2980 BC: Apart from those earmarked to besiege Leningrad, I turn my Legions towards Africa. Up till now I have moved every unit individually, but I have so many Legions now and the enemy is so far away that to save time and effort, I start using "Go To" to guide them to collection points along the routes to Africa.

2880 BC: One advanced Legion in Africa, the survivor of the Cavalry attack mentioned earlier, explores Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia unmolested; but the next legion to enter Egypt encounters and destroys a Zulu Chariot on the Nile near the former site of Memphis.

2860 BC: Five Legions enter Egypt. The main body from Europe is close behind!

2800 BC: CONTACT! My wandering explorer finds 2-population Bapedi on the coast near Kilimanjaro.

2780 BC: Inter-turn a Zulu Chariot appeared out of the fog next to my Legion at Bapedi, but presumably it had exhausted its movement getting there because it didn't attack. My Legion now kills it.

The European contingent is fanning out across Africa, mostly aimed south since that will be where Zimbabwe is located, but some head west too. I have enough units available to explore multiple directions simultaneously, converging when they find a target.

2760 BC: I decide my unit outside Bapedi is better used for scouting and so I move it away from the city without attacking. Bapedi is in a poor location for major growth, surrounded by mountains and sea. Unless I find a better candidate, I will leave Bapedi till I have destroyed or captured every other Zulu city so I can finish the Zulus off by subverting Bapedi. I'll besiege it, of course, to avoid it creating trouble behind the front lines.

2720 BC: A Sail appears in the Bering Strait, carrying a Legion and a Barb Leader! YESSSSS! Finally! I will send it to Europe to capture Leningrad. But Northeast or Northwest Passage? The distances look about the same. I think Northwest is a trifle shorter. Northwest it is. I now have 96 units - I'm gonna start encountering trouble soon since the max any civ can have is 128 units (0-127). I didn't have so much trouble so early in my last game since I burned up so many armies attacking Samarkand!

2700 BC: A Legion discovers Zulu Tenochtitlan on the coast near Gabon. Other Legions are now headed there.

2680 BC: A band of Land Barbarians appears near Kashmir: two cavalry and another Barb Leader. I need to be careful with those Cavalry around Irrigation, as Barb Cavalry will always pillage! But the Leader is my key to destroying the Indians. I think I'll send the Cavalry to Europe and once the Sail arrives at leningrad I will use it to send the Cavalry across the Atlantic to explore America. I don't need Cavalry for the Zulu war.

I will send the Leader south and fortify him with a defender on a mountaintop, then direct reinforcements to India and open the Delhi sieger to allow the Indians access to their south (but to nowhere else). They will hopefully be desperate to expand and so will build a Settler unit. As soon as that Settler builds a city somewhere, Delhi is finished, and the Indan civ will follow it when I use the Leader to subvert the orphaned colony city!

 

[Autumn Leaf]

2640 BC: My wandering Legion finds 3-populaton Ulundi on the coast near Mozambique.

2620 BC: A Zulu Chariot attacks outside of Bapedi and kills a Legion that had just arrived to start the siege. Still, there's 103 more Legions where that came from. Alas, before I can stop them two more Legions auto-move within range of the Chariot and are now stranded there and will probably be lost. Curses!

I figure I have enough units on hand now, so I attack Tenochtitlan. My first attack fails, the second kills a Militia. A third Legion swoops in and 1-population Tenochtitlan becomes Barbarian City #8. I rename it just so: "C.8".

2600 BC: Woah! A Chariot attacks out of Ulundi but loses to my lucky wandering legion (which is now fortifying itself outside the city). Then the Chariot on a mountain outside Bapedi attacks a Legion on a nearby hilltop and also loses. All in all, an excellent start to the year.

My Europe-bound Sail reaches Baffin Bay and turns south.

2560 BC: A Sail with a Legion and a Barb Leader appears mid-Atlantic opposite Mauritania. I decide to bring the Leader to Africa so I can use it on Bapedi or whatever city is left once I take Zimbabwe.

All new reinforcements are now aimed at India. I think I have enough units in or bound for Africa to finish off the Zulus, especially once Tenochtitlan gets into action. That city has no improvements but as it is also stuck in perpetual Disorder, I now intervene to remove the Disorder flag and provide it with a Barracks and a Granary. Someday I will play a pure Barbarians game without intervening to improve their cities in any way, but that is not this game. I want to see if Barbarians can make a spaceship, which they can't unless I intervene to change city production, so non-intervention was off the table for this game anyway. To build spaceship parts I need strong cities, so I am intervening just enough to give them those.

2540 BC: A Legion discovers 2-population Hlobane in Zambia. Sail #1 rounds the southern point of Greenland and turns east. Sail #2 reaches the coast and heads for C.8.

2520 BC: Land Barbarians near the site is Xi'an. I have been ignoring that area and also South East Asia in the hope that an AI would respawn there. Not sure what to do with these two Cavalry. I don't want them near my irreplaceable irrigation. If I get another Pacific Sail I might use it to ferry them to Alaska. I'll fortify them near the site of Peking. Meanwhile, I have another Barb Leader! I think I will bring him to Africa to buy a Zulu city.

2500 BC: 8 Cities, 2.1m population, 28,972 gold.

I have 120 units: 110 Legions, 4 Cavalry, 2 Sail, and 4 Diplomats. I have only 8 free units slots. I have lost 24 Legions. The Zulus are not putting up as much of a struggle as expected. I am not storming their cities (yet), just besieging them by occupying any square a city might get shields from. I want to capture these cities, not destroy them.

Sail #1 reaches Britain and lands its (expendable) Legion north of London. The Leader stays aboard - London is a capital, and it's also the sole English city. Until they discover Mapmaking and drop a colony somewhere, the English are invulnerable. On impulse, I bribe a Phalanx. Could be handy to have a unit with a decent defence!

I'm now very concerned about having too many units. I need to keep units slots open so I can get more Leaders, but I made my cities too productive and now I can't easily stop them making units. I have moved workers from horses to squares with fewer shields, and made some entertainers. But I don't want to take too many workers off the land because I need those cities to keep growing! Once I subvert Leningrad, the besiegers there will be excess to requirements and can be progressively disbanded or ferried over to North America. As I decommission Legions I will try to reduce the shield production of their home cities to prevent more units being built.

Enough for today. I'll think about my next 500-year plan overnight.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

2480 BC: A Chariot attacks out of Hlobane and kills two Legions on its first attack then dies its second strike. I counter-attack on my turn and lose two Legions against a defending Militia before a third Legion succeeds, leaving the town undefended. Unfortunately I have nothing left to take the town.

Sail #2 doesn't quite make port but unloads its Leader into C.8. I rename C.8 to "A.1" (A for Africa).

2460 BC: Hlobane's population rebounds to 2 but the city is still undefended. A Legion does the needful and A.2 becomes part of the Barbarian Empire.

Sail #1 lands its Leader 3 squares from Leningrad. Sail #2 keeps a Legion on board and heads west to land explorers in South America.

2440 BC: A Legion advances and 4-population Zimbabwe appears out of the fog. Finally! It will be a few turns before I can get enough units down there to storm the city, but the writing is on the wall for the Zulus.

Sail #1 takes two Cavalry and my Phalanx on board and heads for North America.

2420 BC: A Barb Leader arrives at Leningrad and for 168 Gold, the city declares independence and becomes E.1. I plunder 58 Gold, so it really cost me just 110 Gold to finally destroy the Russians. As a bonus, I gain two more Phalanxes and a city that is building Chariots! I decide to leave its production unchanged. Chariots will be useful.

I fix the Disorder flag on A.2.

Looks like Australia now belongs to the Romans.

2400 BC: I fix the Disorder flag on E.1. One of the most annoying bugs in Civ1 is the city that remains perpetually in disorder for turn after turn after you capture it even though nobody in it is unhappy.

A Sail appears in the mid-Atlantic with a Leader and a Legion. I decide to send it off to the Pacific to ferry my Cavarly over from China to Alaska. It will drop its current passengers in Patagonia on the way.

On impulse I aim my African Leader at Ulundi and take out the defenders of Bapedi and Ulundi. I storm Bapedi (now A.3). Ulundi will be left until Zimbabwe is captured and I'm sure here are no other Zulu cities hidden behind Zimbabwe.

2380 BC: Three Legions ashore in Brazil. The fog withdraws to reveal Paris. Sail #2 heads back across to pick up more Legions.

2360 BC: Ulundi now demonstrates that it built itself a Chariot to replace the Militia I killed. I lose three Legions. The Chariot survives to attack again next round. This could get bloody.

My legions close in around Paris. Sail #3 lands a Leader and a Legion in Tierra del Fuego.

2340 BC: Ulundi's Chariot claims a fourth Legion but dies attempting a fifth.

"Rioting in C.5! Citizens demand TEMPLE!" WTF? I ignore it and complete my blockade of Zimbabwe.

Sail #1 unloads in North America and starts back for another load. After moving everything, I realise that despite losses, I have 127 units so I disband the garrisons of C.1 through C.7, being the most expendable units with movement left.

2260 BC: After nearly a century of general manouevres worldwide, my Leader in South America reaches Lyons. However, the tiny town has no defenders and is sitting on a no-shield square. It's not worth spending a precious leader for this. I leave it to the Legion and move the Leader on, looking for something worth subverting.

2240 BC: A Sail appears off Greenland. I send it southwest. It costs me over a dozen Legions, but I destroy the two Militia defending Zimbawe and the city is mine!

My Leader swoops on Ulundi and for 110 Gold it too is mine. Plundered Gold offsets 17 coins of it, and I discover that like Leningrad, Ulundi is building a Chariot. Excellent!

Somewhere in the world, a Babylonian Settler opens his eyes for the first time ...

2220 BC: E.1 builds a Chariot. I celebrate by disbanding a bunch of Legions in southern Africa.

2200 BC: my leader finds a French Settler in South America but I have no movement left to bribe it with. Maybe next turn. My Legion reaches Lyons, which alas, is now defended.

2180 BC: for 560 gold, I buy a shiny new Settler from the French. In other news, my Legion loses a battle with Lyons' Phalanx.

2160 BC: Two Cavalry board a Sail bound for Alaska. Legions are accumulating in Kamchakta ready for their turn to cross the Strait.

The Chariot from E.1, on its way to Africa, finds Babylon. It is undefended and I could destroy the Babylonians here and now, but I decide to let the city grow. It is at the crossroads of my empire, where a couple of nice cities would come in handy.

2140 BC: A French Cavalry threatens a Legion outside Paris. The Legion gives it a lesson in the difference between threat and action.

A Cavalry finds 4-population Washington. I will leave it be: my Cavalry would die and is anyway much more valuable as a scout, due to its movement.

2100 BC: A Cavalry finds New York near the Great Lakes.

2080 BC: A Sail appears below the White Cliffs. I land the passengers at Calais and send the Sail to Spain to pick up some Legions.

A Leader finds Orleans

2080 BC: A Leader arrives at New York and in quick succession I acquire both a Settler and the city N.1.

2060 BC: Orleans is mine, and it is building a Settler! A pearl beyond price; but not, as it happens, beyond 474 Gold. Unless they have something left in the fog, The French are down to Paris and Lyons. A leader bypasses Paris, on his way to case Lyons.

A Cavalry finds Boston.

2040 BC: Land Barbarians in Tunisia.

2000 BC: Land Barbarians in Nigeria. I suddenly realise that the four most recent Cavalry are sucking valuable shields from E.1 and A.1, so I summarily disband them.

15 Cities, Population 3.56m, 25,471 Gold.

"4" Settlers (actually only 2), 6 Phalanx, 90 Legion. 4 Cavalry, 4 Chariot, 5 Sail, 5 Diplomat. Total "118" (Actually 116) units.

I expect to be done with the Americans and the French during the next 500 years. The remaining AI civs will survive until they drop colonies and then they will die. We're getting close to spaceship-building time!

Save files for 2000 BC attached.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

1960 BC: Babylon reached 2 population without building a defender. My Chariot had been lurking nearby just hoping for this! Looking at the city's production to figure out why, I see that they had been building a Barracks instead of something actually useful like, you know, a defensive unit. Their loss. Babylon becomes M.1.

In Canada, I trap a Settler between two units and decide to wait till I can bribe it before I capture Washington. No sacrifice, I'm still well short of having enough warm bodies on hand to be sure of taking the city.

1940 BC: Land Barbarians in Burma. A Cavalry finds Phildelphia.

1920 BC: Max units. Drat. A Sail appears off Oregon.

A Cavalry from North America finds 1-population Tours in Colombia. I attack, but lose. Oh well.

1900 BC: Max units again. But now it's time to take Paris. That should fix my military numbers for a while.

My first attack tells me it's definitely not going to be cheap: Paris is a capital and is defended by at least one Phalanx. In the end it costs me a dozen Legions to remove the Phalanx and another 6 to kill the Militia behind it. I am too weak to to take the now-undefended city this turn.

1880 BC: Paris is still undefended and my Legion walks in. The city is building a Phalanx. Well, that could be useful. I keep the production.

France is done for. I have a Leader lurking outside Lyons and one closing in on Tours. In an instant, Lyons is mine - and it's building a Settler! Excellent. I have so many uses for Settlers in the years ahead.

1840 BC: Something attacks my Cavalry out of Philadelphia (I wasn't watching and just saw the flash), but loses. Meanwhile my grip has closed around Washington.

S.1 builds a Settler. In Canada, I bribe one to the Dark Side.

It's time to finish Washington, if I can. I have 17 units ready to attack and only a few more to come. There's certainly a Phalanx in there, but I'm getting impatient.

It costs 13 Legions and a Cavalry to kill the Phalanx. It seems every capital I attack costs more than the last. But then the Militia only takes a couple of Legions with it. Washington falls! The new N.2 was building a Phalanx. Well, alright then. I'll keep that.

1820 BC: Tours is mine. France is gone. Time to send my Sails to Australia.

1800 BC: Land Barbarians on Hudson Bay. I disband the Cavalry, supported from N.1, but keep the Leader.

1780 BC: Last move I absent-mindedly moved a Chariot onto the irrigation near C.3 I now move the Chariot off the the pillaged square and back onto unimproved land. Grrr. That was an expensive lapse.

1760 BC: A Legion attacks out of Philadelphia and kills my Cavalry. That won't save them. I will have a Leader there next turn!

A Sail appears in the Inidan Ocean. I send it east. I also unload a Leader just two squares from Boston.

1740 BC: My Barbarian empire reaches 4,000,000 citizens.

Philadelphia's Legion claims one of my Legions, but then my Leader arrives there. After seeing his golden ... tongue ... Philadelphia repents its aggression and becomes N.3. A moment later, Boston becomes N.4 and the Americans join the French in extinction. As a bonus, Boston is building a Settler.

My 18 Barbarian cities share the world with just three civilizations: the Romans in Australia (my Indian Ocean Sail has just found Rome on the west coast), the English on their island, and the Indians. Who have just spawned a Settler.

It's time to close the show on the subcontinent. Tomorrow.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

BARBARIAN SPACESHIP

Barbarian cities can only choose to build Barbarian units. If they are building something else when you (playing the Barbarians) capture them or if you build the city from a Settler, you can only either leave their production unaltered or change their production to a Barbarian unit. You can't choose anything else. Up until now I have lived with this limitation in this game.

BUT. We want to see if Barbarians can build a spaceship. There is only one way to test that. I intervene and tweak the production of cities C.1 to C.7.

We pick up our story in 1720 where we left off. But overnight, C.5 has changed production to the Apollo Program and the other C cities are all building Caravans. Once the Apollo Program is built, they will change production again to build spaceship parts. And then we will see what we will see.

1700 BC: C.5 is halfway through Apollo, because I am impatient. The cities build their Caravans and send them towards C.5. It will take a few turns for them to get there, especialy because, HO HO HO - oh no! Barbarian Caravans pillage!

Off Western Australia, my exploring Sail finds Caesarea. Looks like all I need to do is land enough Legions to capture Rome, then my Leaders will take care of Caesarea and any other Roman cities that there may be. I'll build my invasion force up on an island nearby so that when the time comes I can ferry my invasion force across quickly.

1680 BC: Land Barbarians in Norway. I keep the Leader.

1660 BC: A Cavalry attacks from Delhi and kills one Legion, but dies while attacking a second. I land a Leader to explore Australia. I land a Legion on Christmas Island.

1640 BC: Five Caravans reach C.5. One has further to go and is busy pillaging.

1620 BC: C.5 BUILDS APOLLO PROGRAM.

More arrivals on Christmas Island including another Leader.

I tweak my cities. Three are now building Modules, two Components, and two Structurals. As it's so early, I need to build a spaceship with a 20-year travel time. Because I'm impatient, I keep priming the cities with shields to ensure they build their spaceship parts next turn.

1600 BC: C.1 BUILDS SS MODULE (Solar Panel). And so it goes for the other 6 cities. Foolishly, I don't take a screenshot. Now I can't select my Spaceship off the World menu because the Barbarians don't get to do that!

1580 BC: C.5 BUILDS PALACE. Barbarian capital moved to C.5. Might need to have a capital to launch a spaceship.

I've overdone my spaceship. It's ready to launch with two engines and 10,000 Colonists, but the flight time is just 16 years. Drat! I need to build more Structurals, to slow it down to a 20-year flight time.

1520 BC: A Cavalry in Australia kills my exploring Leader. Grr.

1500 BC: My spaceship is ready. Flight time 20.0 years! I need to launch it after building the last Structural and before leaving the spaceship screen, but that's not a problem. So ... LAUNCHED ...

1480 BC ... AND NOTHING. No Barbarian colony on Alpha Centauri. Not even a message that the ship failed. If I build a Structural in order to force the game to open the spaceship window, the part is added to my spaceship - which is no longer Launched and certainly is not LANDED! either.

For Barbarians, it seems, the only winning move is to conquer the world, because Sith Meiers will not let them escape it.

So be it. This world shall burn!

Edited to add: looking at the SVE, byte 37235 has a value of 1 and byte 37236 also has a value of 1. So assuming bits 0 to 7 represent civs, it knows that Civ 0 has a spaceship. It just doesn't care.

 

[Blake00]

This was extremely entertaining! Thank you for posting this mate! Good to see a fellow Aussie on here too. I've been talking in this thread about how I played a fun barbarian game as a kid with CivDos and have been wanting to try again with CivWin.

You've confirmed my theory that barb cities will build whatever they were building before you took them meaning I could build a bunch of cities 1 building buildings to sell, 1 building phalanxes and 1 building settlers. Then sacrifice them to the barbs and start the fun haha.

Problem is my attempts to get started aren't going well in CivWin. Every time a barb cavalry (i got out of a nearby hut) enters a city I sacrifice it destroys it completely instead of capturing no matter how big it is grrr. Guessing I need to wait for a pirate legion to show up which could take forever!

Is your civdos world editor that allows you to modify barbs available for download?

 

[Autumn Leaf]

I never got my editor to the point where I wanted to let it loose. It is written in QBasic so that I can use it in any DOS environment that can run Civ1, but that means it has QBasic's memory limitations. I tried to add a proper map editor to it, but the 4K buffer required to store the unpacked map ran me out of memory. I started to rewrite it to dump the data to a flat file instead but then got diverted by Civ4 and the amazing Rhye's and Fall mods and modmods for that, and I stopped playing Civ1 and Civ2. I deleted a lot of my old save files to make room for Civ4 saves, but it turns out I still have saves for this one.

The last save is 1040 BC. Nothing much happened after 1480 BC. I settled some new cities of my own (figuring to fill up the world) and closed accounts on the Indians and Romans

1420 BC: Indians found Bombay.

1300 BC: I storm Delhi (M.2) and subvert Bombay (M.3).

1280 BC: Mongols found Karakorum on the site of Moscow (I hacked my Civ Exe to swap Karakorum and Samarkand so that the Mongols have a more appropriate name for their capital).

1180 BC: I storm Rome (D.1)

1160 BC: I subvert Carthage (D.2)

The Barbarian world empire in 1160 BC:

Nothing much happened after this. By 1040 I was just disbanding excess units while waiting for the English or the Mongols to drop a second city somewhere, after which their time would be up. I stopped playing when I did because I'd stupidly ferried two Settlers from North America across the Bering Strait and dropped them on farmland near C.7. I suddenly realised I'd have to disband them to avoid auto-pillaging the improvements.

ETA: Found the text I was writing for the next post:

Spoiler Chronicle :

1480 BC: So, it has come to this. The only way I can win is to conquer the world. Unless launching my spaceship means that the game is already over. It would be irony indeed if even conquering the world is not going to be enough to let me cdelebrate my victory!

1440 BC: The Indian Settler keeps trying to break through my lines to the north instead of building a city in the south. I decide to withdraw my cordon and let the indians have their head, so that I can serve it back to them later.

1400 BC: The Indians reward my withdrawal by building a Cavalry. Which attacks a Legion fortified on a montaintop and promptly dies. I get busy moving my armies, but then, when I look at India later, I see - Bombay. Bless you, Apollo Project!

I unfortify a bunch of Legions and start them on their way to Delhi.

1320 BC: I begin the attack on Delhi. It ... does not go well. Delhi is defended by two Phalanxes and a Militia. I start the attack with 30 units on hand. I kill the first Phalanx after a dozen attempts, but then nothing for a long time. The second Pahalanx only goes down when all I have left is a Chariot. But the Chariot wins ... twice. Delhi is defenseless - and once again I have nothing capable of occupying the city. Which, anyway, has just a single population left.

1300 BC: Delhi grows but builds no unit. A Legion walks in and finds that the new M.2 is building a Phalanx. Well, That's OK by me.

A Leader runs at Bombay, which promptly joins the empire as M.3. India is no more.

I realise Christmas Island is too far from Rome and begin moving my army to Sumatra.

1200 BC: My army debarks outside Rome! A Sail trying to land a contingent south of the city finds the Roman Cavalry there and lands them north instead.

1180 BC: The Cavalry attacks a Legion inland and dies. Whew. Even if it had won, that stack had only two units in it: North of the city are massive stacks that I don't want to lose.

A Chariot kills Rome's sole Militia on the 13th attack, and the city becomes D.1. A Leader is poised to finish the Romans next turn. I begin demobilising my armies.

1160 BC: Caesarea becomes D.2 and except for the English on their impregnable island, the world is mine!

1140 BC: Since I cannot fly to Alpha centauri, the English Question now fills my mind. Also the question of what to do with cities still building massive numbers of Legions.

And then it occurs to me. The indians were an initial civ. The Mongols haven't been destroyed yet. I check my Intelligence Advisor. Sure enough, Pink, *Grey*. And now Apollo shows me where you are, dear Genghis: you built Karakorum on right on Moscows's old site. Problem is, because I forgot about you, you've you've had time to build a defensive unit. And you have the last-city immunity to Barbarians. And Moscow's site does not lend itself to sieges: every square around it has shields, so a siege that will stop unit building will stop everything.

1080 BC: A Chariot headed for Karakorum unexpectedly bumps a Mongol Militia. Fortunately it wins the fight.

 

[Autumn Leaf]

Technology research. As you can see, as a Barbarian I have neither Technologies nor research progress.

I am keeping an eye on the English. The Civ1 AIs don't research specific technologies; instead they accumulate tech points until they have enough, and then pick something. I'm hoping that when they have enough research points, the English will pick Mapmaking. That will let them build Triremes, which will let them send out a Settler to build a city somewhere, and thus seal their doom. There's no tech trading in Civ1 and without Mapmaking they can't get off their island. I could hack the game file to give them Mapmaking, but that's a self-drawn line in the sand.

Meantime I'm bringing the leftover Sails from the Australian expedition to Europe. I'll fill them with Legions and Phalanxes and stash them out of reach of a Trireme coming from England (just in case they attack a stack with their Trireme and "get lucky"), waiting for the right moment to invade. To be precise I'll build a port city in [Scandinavia].

 

[Blake00]

Great to see all this extra stuff. Thanks for posting!!

In my recent completed Earth CivWin game the English never built a boat despite having map making. It just filled the whole UK with crappy units. I got so annoyed I dropped some tanks there and cleaned up, then dropped a settler and built railroads, irrigation and mines. London got much bigger but it STILL filled the UK with crap units and never built a boat. If I ever play another Earth Civ1 game I think I'll connect France to England in a map editor.

Yeah I gave up on my CivWin HD Barbarian game and switched over to dos. I've used the latest JCivED to setup a game with 4 Barb cities = 1 making settlers, 1 repeatedly building libraries for sale, 1 making phalanxes, and 1 making Chariots (I don't have your patience for 20 legions dying on a no longer invincible but super tough cap city haha). JCivED let me set everything I wanted (even the barb cities) however the moment I switch human player over to Barbs JCivED refuses to load the save file ever again, however fortunately I've discovered that CK's Civ Editor 1.5 allows you to edit barbarian city production. Sadly the one thing it can't do with a city is change its riot flag so I can't do what you did to fix it. So i'm thinking I'll just size 1 buy settler kill the city and build a new one with the same name in its place hahaha!

 

[Autumn Leaf]

From memory the Disorder bit is bit 0 of the 6th (0-based, ie really the 7th) byte of the City data. 1 = Disorder, 0 = OK

In the screenshot below, the City data starts at byte 5384 (H1508) and I am editing the 6th byte of City 0 (N.1). If I change this value to 9 instead of 8, N.1 will be thrown into Disorder.

NOOOOO!

 

[Blake00]

From memory the Disorder bit is bit 0 of the 6th byte of the City data. 1 = Disorder, 0 = OK

Unfortunately the only hex editing I do is completely hand held so I don't know where the city data is in there. It's all jibberish to me so changing the human controlled player is the only successful hex edit I've ever done on a civ game haha.

Just worked out an alternative trick to killing civs that might interest you. I just killed a civ without a needing diplomat by attacking both of his cities at the same time with 2 separate forces. I didn't move in until both were empty. 1st civ destroyed! Woot!

PS Oh and I've been using a build settler, work the land, then disband strategy to avoid the pillaging when they try to leave the square issue. Slow going but its better than nothing haha!

 

[Autumn Leaf]

Good thinking. Yup, that would work. I never thought of killing off the defenders in both cities before invading - the Leader strategy works so well for me. Of course, you still need two cities to work with. The wretched English went for Iron Working instead of Mapmaking in my game, so I'm still waiting for them to build city #2 ...