Why is it that...

[Ericino]

Every game I play, on more than Huge maps, barbarians kill so many civs?
I know this happened in the 'real world' but since this game doesn't allow the spawning of new civs, I think killing a civ is a pretty big deal.

My current game is another good example: I started with 18 civs,4 of which shared my (yes I already consider it MINE ) continent.

I built the GW and Oracle, then the messages started to come in:

The (whatever) Civilisation has been destroyed!!! , times 9

Now before the 400th turn, Pacal, Willem van Oranje (oh no!), Saladin, Justinian, Asoka, Darius, Ragnar, Huayna Capac and Mansa Musa are dead!

I barely managed to sign Open Borders with Justinian, Darius and Ragnar before the barbs killed them. Trading techs is something we never got around to doing :\

Is the rival AI simply unaware of the Barb threat? Or are they just too weak to counter them?

I noticed that somehow Montezuma always survives (good UU!), as does Kublai Khan. Is that only because of their aggressiveness?

 

[phungus420]

Turn up the difficulty level. On the lower difficulty levels the AI gets no bonus against barbarians, and since the AI sucks at combat strategy, it gets is ass kicked easily by barbs.

 

[Charonicus]

I'd also imagine that a hgue map means more fog, which means more chance of barbs spawning and thus more barbs. Surprised Ragnar died though. He usually goes unit mad.

 

[Ericino]

I'd also imagine that a hgue map means more fog, which means more chance of barbs spawning and thus more barbs. Surprised Ragnar died though. He usually goes unit mad.

Yeah, those must have been some bad-ass barbs! Isn't there a way to see those battles? I think that would make for a nice feature, since I enjoy watching replays and see how things came to be as they are.

 

[GravityWave]

This used to happen to me a lot (like every other game) until they fixed the "a Dangerous Number of Barbarians" event - need to patch?

I've still had a couple of occasions were this event has occurred and the barbarian stack of doom has proceeded to wipe out a few civs after taking out the initial target city - usually this is because the civ that originally got the event was the only one with access to the strategic resources needed to produce a countering unit.

 

[Kesshi]

Ericino,

I think GravityWave is right. I'd bet that the happenstance involved a horde of Axemen barbarians that moved from city to city not even stopping to defend the city, just moving forward killing anything that stood in their way.

 

[Charonicus]

Yeah, those must have been some bad-ass barbs! Isn't there a way to see those battles? I think that would make for a nice feature, since I enjoy watching replays and see how things came to be as they are.

I too love the replays. After every game I will sit there and slowly tick through the replay, seeing what the AI was up to. I was a bit disappointed after my first game when I realised that I couldn't actually watch the entire game back to see what the AI built and how it strategised but in retrospect, I'd probably spend all my time watching those back and never get round to playing. >_< It would at least be nice to be able to watch the BCs I think. A lot of the interesting stuff happens there... in the fog... woooo (spooky noises).

 

[Turquoiside]

Odd you have this problem. I play with barbarians (Not Raging) and on Huge every game. I almost never have a civ wiped out. This is on Prince. So, it seems the aforementioned situation is in play and and an event caused the mass extiction. It my be the number of civs though.

 

[Ericino]

Hi everyone, thanks for your reactions.
I've reviewed the replay of the game in question but I haven't been able to find a 'massive barbarian uprising' event. It should show up there, right?

I checked the version I am using, it is 3.17

I'm guessing it was a matter of (bad) luck combined with the map size generating more fog. I increased iGridWidth to 60 and iGridHeigth to 40 so it's quite a lot larger than normal Huge maps.

Cheers!

 

[nNemethon]

One huge pangea map I played ages ago on Prince I had a split civ between East and West coast with IIRC, Saladin wedged tightly inbetween where the land mass really bottlenecked. Axemen Barbs were emerging more frequently and eventually, Saladin's centre city fell to them. With 1 civ torn out from the south and a huge fog down there, they funneled through the gap left by Sal's now dead city by the truckload. As I had the GW, they avoided my borders and went straight to the northern civs in a line to make Hitlers' Great Parade look like a school line-up.
I eventually parked several longbowmen on the only hill in the one-tile wide gap and they refused to advance, ending up swarming around the south like an angry ant nest. I have yet to see numbers like that again as I now generally play Medium maps but if I let them through, there would probably be not have been much left there to conquer lol.

 

[quiddity]

i'm sorry OP, but i think that playing with barbs and rushing or just building GW is kinda sad .. i mean its taking a huge advantage versus the AI who always lack of "inteligence" to deal with barbs, the ai kinda never block landmass, never drop units on the hills just to uncover the fog of war, always try to attack first although the best way to deal with barbs is to let them crush themselves on ur unit fortified on a forest hill etc ..

moreover, building GW with raging barbs is really a PLAGUE for all ur closest neighboors cause all the barbs units who would have come to u will now rush those poor innocent neighboor

i always play with barbs on huge map and kinda never build GW , and 1 or 2 civs ( 18 starting.. ) crushed is the most i've seen this far.

 

[Ericino]

i'm sorry OP, but i think that playing with barbs and rushing or just building GW is kinda sad .. i mean its taking a huge advantage versus the AI who always lack of "inteligence" to deal with barbs, the ai kinda never block landmass, never drop units on the hills just to uncover the fog of war, always try to attack first although the best way to deal with barbs is to let them crush themselves on ur unit fortified on a forest hill etc ..

moreover, building GW with raging barbs is really a PLAGUE for all ur closest neighboors cause all the barbs units who would have come to u will now rush those poor innocent neighboor

i always play with barbs on huge map and kinda never build GW , and 1 or 2 civs ( 18 starting.. ) crushed is the most i've seen this far.

I suppose it is a bit unfair, though it is something permitted by the rules of the game.

I read somewhere that someone made the GW into a National Wonder, maybe that would even the odds? Or maybe each city can build a sort of GW after building a 'normal' wall, only protecting that city's cultural borders? I think that would make a really cool looking map.
It would also eliminate the unrealistic event in which a newly built city is immediately protected from barbs.
Too bad I have no idea how to make it so

Under the current rules, if I don't build the GW, someone else will, which will give them the same advantage as it gave me. So for now, I'll keep building it, but I guess I should move up from Prince.

 

[Ravellion]

Ericino, the Great Wall is not balanced for map sizes you are playing. Note that maps that large are also not shipped with the game.

As a challenge, don't build the great wall, and play with a start that puts you slap bang in the middle of the land. Then you will know why so many AI can't handle the barbs.

 

[Turquoiside]

i'm sorry OP, but i think that playing with barbs and rushing or just building GW is kinda sad .. i mean its taking a huge advantage versus the AI who always lack of "inteligence" to deal with barbs, the ai kinda never block landmass, never drop units on the hills just to uncover the fog of war, always try to attack first although the best way to deal with barbs is to let them crush themselves on ur unit fortified on a forest hill etc ..

moreover, building GW with raging barbs is really a PLAGUE for all ur closest neighboors cause all the barbs units who would have come to u will now rush those poor innocent neighboor

i always play with barbs on huge map and kinda never build GW , and 1 or 2 civs ( 18 starting.. ) crushed is the most i've seen this far.

It isn't really sad if it is normal barbarians, but if you check raging then I agree. . Also if you play on lower levels, you aren't playing to dominate. Then again, on higher levels, the A.I. won't be hurt by barbarians.

 

[quiddity]

on every level the AI is getting hurt by barbs ( especially ragin' ), all depends on the landmass.
If you play on emperor on Islands map with a high level of sea it would be harmless, but with the same difficulty level on terra / highland / tectonics / pangea ( all the map type with a large landmass ) the barbs will always get you and the AI some troubles.

the important factors are the numbers of AI, the map size and the % of land vs water.