DanQuayle
Prince
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2015
- Messages
- 550
1. Many Greek and some Roman governors/leaders paid, essentially, "tribute" to pirates to keep them from raiding their coasts. I believe this was also pretty common in the Far East with the Chinese, Filippine and Japanese pirates and coastal communities. Barbarian Insurance was a real and not uncommon thing.
When barbarians were paid tribute, did they still plunder the trade routes and attack the army of their tributary while keeping away from raiding their coasts? Because this is currently how a bribed barbarian tribe acts in the new game mode...
Is my suggestion of making them completely neutral toward you (as long as you pay the tribute/bribe) going too far in the opposite direction?
I could see a barbarian tribe plunder a trade route from a civilization they are collecting "protection money" from and then denying having any evolvement in the accident...
The Roman Army recruited so many German individuals and groups as Auxilia in the Imperial Army that they ended up both improving their enemies (German veterans going home and teaching Roman tactics and weaponry to the 'wild' Germans) and forming many of their own Elite Units of the late Imperial Army exclusively from Germans (many of the Scholarii units).
One of my next proposal is directly linked to this idea.
3. The hiring of "Barbarians" to help fight other 'Barbarians" lasted a long time, from Classical Era (examples above) to Industrial Era - look at the history of Native American scouts, recon units, and auxiliaries used by the US military against hostile Native Americans, or the 17th century Russian practice of using Cossacks to expand into Siberia, exterminating numerous native cultures as they went. Given that the Cossacks were essentially pastoral Non-City-Builders themselves, this was a clear case of using 'Hired' Barbarians against other Barbarians from the same type of camp. The fact that 'Roman Germans' fought 'Wild Germans' for several Imperial Roman centuries shows that it was not at all hard to get 'Barbarians' to fight their erstwhile Neighbors.
Thank you for clarifying this issue by providing many examples.
1. Change the name to Tribes and Clans and include the Goodie Huts' possibilities in the 'Barbarian' mechanics. That is, each Camp/Settlement, in addition to the'Barbarian' possibilities presented now, could also be Tentatively Friendly and gift you with something Positive: some tribesmen that immediately decide to emigrate as a Builder or Scout, a map of the nearby territory or locations of all the other Non-Discovered Camps nearby, a Tech or even a Civic you don't have yet, some Gold, etc. Along with this, one of the 'Barbarian Bribe' possibilities would be just to pay them X amount per turn to Stay Friendly, resulting in cheaper costs to hire them snd possible future (random?) 'Goodies' from them.
Many of these things where already in CivII !
(if I remember correctly)
ie finding a barbarian in a hut, revealing more of the map, getting free units or techs, etc.
You can argue that now getting free eurekas or inspirations is now the modern replacement of getting free techs, but I miss the map reveal and the occasional "jump scare" of finding a barbarian.