Wake me up when they fix the barbarians

[Sherlock]

I'm 15 turns in, there are 8 barbarians on my screen at the same time, both my two units have been killed.

Time to rage quit.

What. The. Frak.

 

[SirWill90]

I'm 15 turns in, there are 8 barbarians on my screen at the same time, both my two units have been killed.

Time to rage quit.

What. The. Frak.

Yeah, something is wrong with the barbarians. I hate to turn them off but they often seem way too powerful (i.e. numerous) way too early. I hope they can refine the early barbarian spawning to be a little less raging soon.

 

[CaptainUnknown]

The barbarians aren't broken in accordance to the game design. They want the barbarians to be a challenge to the early game and structure your opening build. No longer can we do builds like in civ 5, (early scout/monument/perhaps shrine). The best course of action is to utilize slingers and if you see a barbarian scout then you will want a few more.

You could turn them off but then of course you miss out on some eurakas.

Perhaps find a mod to adjust the spawn rate? In any case, they are not broken, they were designed to be a pain if ignored.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

Problem if you turn them off, the AI can expand like wildfire.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Barbarians are fine in my games. But you should always prioritize building a slinger and a warrior first and keep your initial warrior close to your capital.

 

[MIS]

No shame in dropping down a level if you can't handle them.

 

[peurojoque]

In my current game the barbs attacked France and actually razed Rouen, which, I think, was even walled by the time. They had plenty of swordsmen, archers and a few catapults (!!!). Cathy was trying desperately to expand on my landmass and gifted me a couple of settlers. So, no, please leave the barbs as they are

I start all my games with a Scout (Immortal and Deity) and find it very helpful in dealing with barbarians, because it can slow down their scouts before slingers arrive.

 

[CaptainUnknown]

In my current game the barbs attacked France and actually razed Rouen, which, I think, was even walled by the time. They had were plenty of swordsmen, archers and a few catapults (!!!). Cathy was trying to desperately to expand on my landmass and gifted me a couple of settlers. So, no, please leave the barbs as they are

I start all my games with a Scout (Immortal and Deity) and find it very helpful in dealing with barbarians, because it can slow down their scouts before slingers arrive.

Was France in a war? War weariness and low amenties (-5 amenties) can cause rebels to spawn which look like barbarians. Could be a combination of that that and regular barbarians. I only say this because I don't think the regular barbarian encampments spawn catapults

 

[peurojoque]

Was France in a war? War weariness and low amenties (-5 amenties) can cause rebels to spawn which look like barbarians. Could be a combination of that that and regular barbarians. I only say this because I don't think the regular barbarian encampments spawn catapults

They were in a war with me, but not for long enough to suffer from amenities. I only killed a couple of units and there was, indeed, a camp right next to the city. But I agree with you, it's the first time I see barbarian catapults. Maybe it was a combination of rebels and units from the camp.

 

[Stevanovic]

The barbarians aren't broken in accordance to the game design. They want the barbarians to be a challenge to the early game and structure your opening build.

In my most recent game on king difficulty barbarians were spawning almost continuously into the 1500's. When I eventually gave up and quit that game, camps were spawning in plain site as infantry and anti tank units. I tried using fog busters but they made no difference camps continued to spawn often within site of my city's.
In my current game I have barbarians turned off, feels strange but at leasts I'm having fun again

 

[Pietato]

I always played Raging Barbarians Deity in the previous Civ games, so I love them. That said, there are still 3 major issues with them:

- They can swarm you far too early. I had Horsemen swarm my capital on turn 3. That basically ends the game for you right there, because you will never catch up to the AI.
- The AI is rubbish at fighting the barbs, and loses tons of workers, settlers, districts and improvements. The AI needs to be much better at handling them.
- Barbs scale to the most advanced civ. This means your boats will get smashed by early Caravels, and you will face Anti-tank troops, etc.

The third point can be worked around, but the first two need to be fixed.

 

[Pietato]

No shame in dropping down a level if you can't handle them.

Posts like this are unhelpful and completely miss the point.

 

[SlySlySly]

Use your warrior and explore surrounding land, but do not stray far. Build a scout. Send your warrior home once it's built, and manually explore with scout. Then build a slinger. The trick with barbarians is don't let their scouts get home. Once they do you start getting invaders.

Among other tips, be careful with how you expand and where you build improvements. Station units around your borders and protect builders, scouts for some reason are really daring with builders. Clear encampments, trust me, it may seem out of the way, but it is worth it. Once you do that, that encampment is gone, so one less. Barbarians can be handled rather easily if you know what your doing. So start defensively, then go offensively, then settle. That way no more camps will spawn. Massive wildernesses are the death of many civilizations. (especially on my autoplay games, france always seems to be alone with large swaths of wilderness. Poor Catherine can't do anything. Ai isn't very good again't the barbs, which gives players an advantage at early game. View scouts as hindering your less competent enemies, not you.

 

[liv]

I think if an early barb scouts finds you do not build scouts build slingers

 

[SlySlySly]

I think if an early barb scouts finds you do not build scouts build slingers

Agreed, protection is more useful. I actually find that you should only explore them map when you are in a safe position.

 

[gimper42]

Stop ignoring barbarian scouts and/or huts that you can see. Scout better, earlier. Always make a slinger as your first build if you are uncertain about your surroundings. Don't push your starting warrior too far away until you have that slinger built -or- until you know that you do not have a barbarian hut nearby.

Also, the YnAMP has as add-on that will reduce the number of huts in the game and keep them from spawning next to cities.

 

[Stevanovic]

Clear encampments, trust me, it may seem out of the way, but it is worth it. Once you do that, that encampment is gone, so one less. Barbarians can be handled rather easily if you know what your doing. So start defensively, then go offensively, then settle. That way no more camps will spawn.

What happened in the game I abandoned was that new encampments spawned within a few turns of clearing an encampment. Pretty much from the start right through to the 1500s when I quit that game. It felt like I was spending most of my time moving troops around the map clearing encampments. It just became really tedious endlessly clearing encampments. What was particularly annoying was that fog busters made no difference or camps would spawn within view of my city boundaries. It wasn't like my previous experience where barbarians only spawned under cover of the fog of war. I would hear that sound file announcing a new encampment and often the new encampment would be in plain site.

This wasn't the first game I've played since the last patch, the other games I played post patch the barbarians were manageable.

 

[gimper42]

That seems weird and probably broken if barbarians are spawning on visible areas of the map. I've seen them spawn very near my cities, just one hex into the fog, many times. But never in a visible area that I can ever recall. Maybe there is some kind of mod interaction going on that you're not aware of? I cannot think of what it might be, though.

 

[magha77]

They seemed to do this on purpose, to add another layer of unpredictability. Beach clearly stated that they wanted every game to be different and thoughtful decisions to be made very turn as opposed to the standard (scout, scout, monument/shrine, settler of Civ 5). The only downside is that now I explore with two warriors together and ditch the scouts. One solution would be to give scouts an added combat bonus against barbarians.

 

[Siptah]

Yes, there is almost no reason to build an early scout in most games. I always open with warrior, warrior, slinger. I can remember only one game where the barbarians really overwhelmed me and I quit.
I think the barbarians are a nice challenge, but their spawn rate should increase with difficulty instead of being the same all the time.
And scouts need a buff! Give the scout a 50% chance to evade an attack and move to an adjacent tile. Or give them a ranged attack with a large bonus against barbarians.