Too many barbarians?

[DrStalker]

Am I the only person who finds barbarians too much of a problem on higher difficulties? (Monarch up)

I always seem to end up stuck inside my first city with a constant stream of barbarians throwing themselves on my walls as I slowly try to build enough of a force up to get a settler to a second city location. Building improvements is impossible; on any gven turn there will be 4 to 8 enemy units within my borders. The AI also gets hit hard, with it being common to see their civilizations fall early in the game despite their huge anti-barbarian bonuses.

My current fix has been to edit CIV4HandicapInfo.xml to put barbarians back to regular civ4 BTS levels, since playing with no barbarians makes for a rather dull early game. I'm curious how other people find this problem; do you just live with it, or play on a lower difficulty where things are more manageable?

[edit] Just found http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=274825 , where this is already being discussed

 

[Ankhman]

I personally play the higher level of difficulty so that there are more barbarians. I would prefer to see more barbarians on the less difficult levels as the upper levels are difficult enough with no barbarians.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Unlike in BtS, Bronze Working in FfH = a straight buff to your units in addition to the newly unlocked ones.

Troops with bronze weapons can swat barbarians like flies. That's how I handle them. I play on immortal/deity, so if it works there it should work on monarch.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Barbarians are a bit erratic. If you are next to the Clan, or Charadon, expect to get hit hard around turn 100. If you are close on all sides with people, it is less of an issue. Just remember to get a little bit of an army, and hopefully strength 4 units, for the turn 100 barb push, and you'll pull through it okay. Roads are also important, so you can kill warriors that would otherwise pillage your cottages.

 

[Grand Seeker]

I love barbarians. Its a cheap way of getting nice XP

 

[Sarisin]

I find the barbarians to be a bit of a problem early in the game. However, if you are able to withstand that initial push when they seem to pick only on you, the barbarian problem is solved for two reasons:

1. Map expansion. The way the AI civs expand quickly pushes the barbs off the map so they have no place to spawn.

2. Barbarian Empires. I see this especially on huge land maps. The barbs now capture EVERY city (except for those with a pop. of 1). Add to these captured cities, barb cities from Barbarian Lands (if you use that option) and spawning (the AI can spawn barb cities at an incredible rate), and in a game with specs like those above you can easily find 25 or more barb cities on the map (assuming #1 above doesn't happen). I find the AI is better at defending barb cities than the defense of normal AI civ cities. You almost always find two or more defenders in a barb city, while normal cities may have one or even none. It is not uncommon to find barb cities with beaucoup defenders (the one with Acheron residing in it is a good example, but there are often others). All of these homesteading barbs takes away from any that might otherwise be raging about the map.

One other thing I have noticed in some of my games is that often there is a ton of Bears in the wide open spaces on the map. They, of course, won't enter your lands to attack, and their number reduces the number of actual barbs available to rampage.

So, IMO, if you can make it part the early-game barb waves, you should be fine.

 

[Gravage]

I've played my last couple games with Raging Barbarians and Barbarian World on Prince I think, and in my opinion it's a lot more fun like this. You need to earn your right of the land you posses, and you need to sneak your settler, generally guarded by 3 fighters, to a new place, and then you need a guarded worker to connect em. All the while under siege by barbs.
Oh, and they were also 2 less civ's than the map's default (so standard maps with 4 civs I think), increasing the amount of barbs even more.

The only thing that reaally annoys me, is the pillaging.. D:

 

[goofydink]

I have ben playing ever since Civ 1 and I find the number of barbarians a bit unjust on the higher levels. Plus the little buggers can heal and move at the same time. I try to scout out locations where they have access to bronze or iron. For example: By the time I have built say 12 axemen they have already attacked with 30 units.... I use a lot of colourful medaphores playing civ.

 

[reverend oats]

Plus the little buggers can heal and move at the same time.

No, they can't. What you're probably seeing is the unit getting healed by promotion after a victory.

 

[beorn]

I love barbarians. Its a cheap way of getting nice XP

Actually, that's my biggest problem with barbarians. The thicker they are, the bigger my advantage over the AI civs, who are frequently crippled or wiped out by them, while I can usually arrange to acquire some very high level troops with relatively sweat.

Of course, I do not play any higher level than Monarch, so that may make the difference.

 

[Ringtailed]

Of course, I do not play any higher level than Monarch, so that may make the difference.

It probably is the difference. At Monarch the AI gets +20% vs barbarians. At emperor it's +30%, immortal +40%, and deity +50%. I don't think I've ever seen an AI die to barbs on either of the higher two levels unless they settle next to Barbatos (or raze the Pyre early).

An easy way to fix this issue without increasing your difficulty level is to open up the Civ4HandicapInfo file in Assets/XML/Gameinfo, scroll down to HANDICAP_MONARCH, and set the iAIBarbarianBonus to a higher number. Note that negative is higher as it represents the modifier applied to the barb unit's strength.