Unusual barbarians

[thistorontoguy]

Hiya,
So he last few months I've seen two totally weird things in Civ III. The second one actually made sense on one level - it was a barbarian privateer! He just sort of sailed himself through a large collection of ships that were engaged in a sizable naval battle - including mine - naturally being happy to see him I left him alone but no one else attacked him or vice versa.

But the first one I saw blew my mind - a barbarian worker! Again, I left him alone as I was so thrilled by his presence - it was liking seeing a rare mammal in the wilds or something.

Has anyone else hear seen these or other variants? Can you explain them?
C

[vmxa1]

I have not seen them, but have heard reports of both.

[Mad Bomber]

All privateers are the same as barbarians due to hidden nationality, they are not spawned as barbarians though. Check a nation near where you spotted the privateer and I'll bet at least one has Navigation

The barbarian worker would have to be part of a mod that allows Barbs to own cities.

[Quintillus]

I haven't actually seen a worker belonging to the barbarians in a standard game, and don't know how one would come into existance. But I have seen a Barbarian Worker in a standard game - that is, a worker whose nationality is Barbarian. Those can come into being when a unit that has the enslave ability, such as the Javelin Thrower, defeats a barbarian in combat and converts them into a Worker. That's the only type of Barbarian Worker I've ever seen in a standard game. This situation does seem quite unusual. I'd be interested in seeing either a screenshot or a save game file if you happen to have one from the time this rare specimen was encountered.

Indeed, I can't think of how the barbarians would acquire a worker with standard rules. They can't build them, and when they capture workers or settlers they are destroyed. Even if you gave the barbarians Javelin Throwers and they enslaved units into workers, my guess is they'd disband them due to uselessness, similar to how the AI disbands workers it captures when it has no cities on that landmass (which would always be the case for A Barbarian Chiefdom), or when its cities are so far away that a safe return of the workers is hopeless.

Mad Bomber is probably right about the privateer - the barbarians can't actually build them with standard rules, but regular privateers will appear to be barbarian. It's a bit unusual that no one attacked it - usually privateers are targeted pretty quickly - but I can see it happening. That it didn't attack anyone isn't quite as surprising - the AI probably had a certain, far-off target already in mind that had nothing to do with your ships or the other ships it was sailing between.

[Aabraxan]

I'm going to hazard a guess here: Maybe somebody's privateer captured a barb galley?

[Antony]

I don't really know how barbarian ideologies actually generate their models so maybe the price doesn't issue at all. The Shooting Barbarians choice seems just to create each convert at 10% opportunity whatever is best. He mainly does category changes what also every new barbarian device contains.