What causes a barbarian horde?

[mahname]

Hey all. I bought Civ 4 about a week ago. I'm pretty experienced with Alpha Centauri and earlier Civ games. I've played and won 3 games on low difficulties. I started a fourth game on one of the lower difficulties (warlord I think it was). I got as far as about 700 BC, built Stonehenge, and have 5 cities. My capital is size 4. I have roads connecting all but 1 of my cities, and a couple farms. Biggest world size, inland sea.

The only problem is there are what appear to be unlimited barbarian hordes ravaging my civilization. There are so many that no saved game I have can go back far enough to stop the onslaught of losing all my cities. I.e., even if I do nothing but build archers for 400 years, I still have no chance in repelling them. There are strings of archers and axemen 5 deep coming from as far away as I can see.

It seems very clear to me I'm being punished by the game for doing something (expanding too early? Building a wonder very early? Developing too much land?) Is that correct, or is this normal and I should be researching nothing but military and building city walls as the first improvement as I start playing higher difficulties?

At any rate, I have zero chance of saving this game, I need to start a new one!

 

[awldune]

Barbarians spawn on land tiles that are outside cultural borders and more than 2 tiles away from any unit.

What this means is, the bigger your map and the fewer civs there are, the more barbs there will be at the start.

To reduce barbs, try playing a smaller map or adding additional AI civs.

You can also place warriors or archers 4 tiles apart out in the wilderness to prevent barbs from spawning, but this will be difficult on "huge" maps.

There are actually fewer barbs on higher difficulties because the AIs expand their empires more quickly (less empty space for barbs)

 

[mahname]

Oh that explains a lot! Biggest map size, and I assume barbarians have a homing mechanism to find civilization? So they're coming from the far corners of the earth to wreck me. Hah.

I just found a save of the game shortly after it started and I went straight for archery and ctiy walls. I've still lost 3 of the cities I tried founding, but now all of my survivors are grizzled old war veterans. A lot of +city defense units!

I also found 4 barbarian cities. Not sure if those are just churning out nothing but axemen... I keep editing this to up the number I find.

 

[Ghpstage]

The game speed you play is another major factor, slower speeds (epic, marathon) will lead to higher spawn rates.
If you want specific help with barbs in a given game feel free to upoad the save for people to take a look at, it tends to be much easier to learn how to deal with things that the game throws at you that way.

 

[mahname]

Slowest game speed as well. It seems I managed to make the perfect barbarian storm with these settings.

I managed to get out of the very early game on my second start after I made all those archers. It's funny though, the barbarian "empire" is one of the strongest players on the map. At least four cities, presumably more. I just can't get past the front lines to see what else they have. And way more military being thrown at me than any of the regular AI players. I just secured some iron so hopefully I'll be able to finally push through the 30 or so archers they have.

Anywho, questioned answered!

 

[Tall German Joe]

if you're still having troubles with barbs with a smaller world size, you could also try one of the leaders with a strong early game unique unit. the incas, mayans, mali, and babylonians all have early unique units that require no resources (copper or iron) and are thus particularly good against barbs. the sumerians' and zulus' unique units are also very strong, but require that you have a copper resource hooked up, while the egyptians' and persians' units require horses.

other than that, but yeah, other than that you'd have to post a save if you want us to analyze what problems you're specifically having.

 

[Skipity]

The barbarian horde is triggered when you are having an above average game that you would otherwise win on a difficulty 1 higher than you normally play on when you accidentally left on random events.

It was written into the code via a dark pact between Sid and Satan.

 

[Tephros]

Another option if you have one of the expansions (can't recall if it's beyond the sword or warlords) is to build the Great Wall, which will keep land-based barbarian units from entering your borders on the landmass that the Great Wall is built on. Just be careful not to get too complacent, as a low power rating may make you a tempting target for other Civs.

 

[Manco Capac]

The barbarian horde is triggered when you are having an above average game that you would otherwise win on a difficulty 1 higher than you normally play on when you accidentally left on random events.

It was written into the code via a dark pact between Sid and Satan.

No...

 

[UnforcedError]

You didn't say whether you play one of the expansions (Warlords or BtS) as Tephros mentioned. Now, if your neighbor happens to build the Great Wall you will see a huge barbarian invasion on the larger maps and lower difficulties simply because your neighbor would not soak up all the barbs it's normally supposed to.
Random events are also another possibility. Although in that case you would have got a message before having to defend against an invading archer / axemen / HA / whatnot hoard.

 

[Kallikrates]

I'd go with standard settings (map size and speed) and no raging barbs first to get acquainted with the game. For those settings the barbs should not pose a serious threat even on prince and monarch

 

[capnvonbaron]

large maps on Marathon speed will sometimes produce enough barbs to make it seem like they are on the "raging" setting. Its even worse if you are landlocked and/or have yourself a lot of uninhabited jungle/tundra/desert around your borders. It's not hard to counter if you build appropriate military (metal units or chariots) but if you plan on a peaceful REX and don't build enough units, you will get beat on hard. Slavery is MANDATORY.

Spawnbust the areas you can with warriors/archers on hills, keep a few extra units posted on the borders of the wildlands. Thats about as much as you can do.

 

[Lennier]

And chariots alone are usually not enough--if you only have chariots & warriors, the barbs start to show up with spears.

 

[MarigoldRan]

Do NOT spawn-bust on Marathon/Huge. It's counter-productive.

1. There's many AIs around you, and less open land. In which case spawnbusting is unnecessary.
2. There are lots of open land in your area, in which case spawnbusting won't help (they'll just trigger the barbs to spawn further away and migrate to your cities).

Connect all your cities with roads. If it's an ancient start, get BW and a Copper city hooked ASAP. Unless of course you're the Egyptians or the Persians, in which case get war chariots/immortals. Civs that start with mining have an advantage here.

 

[capnvonbaron]

And chariots alone are usually not enough--if you only have chariots & warriors, the barbs start to show up with spears.

Yeah they do have a penchant for that, don't they. Also, you'll never see an earlier barb axe than that one time where you delay archery and fail to get metal/horses hooked up

I did however have to laugh at the one game I was playing as Darius and had just finished sacking Rome with immortals, when the barb axeman (Huns, I think?) uprising occurred outside one of the nearby cities. Lulziest uprising evar

 

[Kallikrates]

What determines the "tech progression" of barbs? I guess that some players must have the techs for barb axes, spears, later swordsmen etc. to appear.
But there must be some delay, because on monarch/emperor when the AIs all start with archery, the barbs will first show up as warriors and even after barb archers appear there will always be some warriors still. And I have never seen barb chariots... fortunately!

Later barb cities apparently do not progress further than longbows, at least that is what I usually encountered on isolated continents or islands in the Renaissance era.

 

[UnforcedError]

^^On Monarch / Emperor the barbs start off with Archery as well, so the warriors are pure coincidence. They will have archers too right after they start spawning. Barb cities will also start with archer defenders instead of warriors.

 

[Kallikrates]

Interesting, I was pretty sure that warriors started spamming first. What about axes and spears? On my settings land is usually used up fairly quickly so spamming barbs dissappear soon, but I have hardly ever seen spears, except for the "Goths" (or Vandals or whatever the 4-6 spearman event barbs are called). Almost always axes (which is usually good, because one uses chariots as barb defense)

 

[UnforcedError]

Interesting, I was pretty sure that warriors started spamming first. What about axes and spears? On my settings land is usually used up fairly quickly so spamming barbs dissappear soon, but I have hardly ever seen spears, except for the "Goths" (or Vandals or whatever the 4-6 spearman event barbs are called). Almost always axes (which is usually good, because one uses chariots as barb defense)

Axes and spears spawn later (barbs never start with Mining and BW not even on Deity -- but can get there pretty fast on the higher levels). They would also be built in barb cities with access to metal but they are usually slow to improve their land. As you stated earlier barb tech progression is actually dependent on the tech progression of the players. The majority of them needs to have BW for them to appear.
What do you use if you don't have horses?

 

[Kallikrates]

As I said, I hardly have had a barb problem on standard sized maps/normal speed (Emperor) in the last few games. In one current game I am Mansa, semi-isolated on an island and in the late BCs the 4-spearman event happened close to a recently found city that was still somewhat isolated and had not popped borders. But I had one fortified skirmisher (and maybe a warrior in the city and could whip an axeman in time, so these barbs did not do any harm.
If I do not have horses, I use axes. But in my experience on fractal maps I have horses in 8 or 9 out of 10 games rather close. Maybe not for the first barb archers, but usually pretty soon. Copper is missed more often. I am not sure if I remember a game without either