Barbarians

[Foxhawk]

So I'm new to civ from SMAC, wondering about the indiginous enemies (barbarians). The two games I've played (Direct IP; me, a friend, 5 cpu, terra, huge, we're allied) have followed the same pattern. I start off, do very well. All of the sudden Barbarians start appearing en masse in my territory but not in his. Second game there've been say 12 or 13 in my territory (pretty much a constant stream) to 2 (a minor nuisance) in his. Is this just bad luck on my part? There've been an absurd amount coming into my territory and it requires the complete dedication of my cities to counter barbarians constantly appearing at my borders. Often times I lose improvements because I simply can't run from one edge of my border to the other (out of my city in order to protect important improvements) quickly enough. The main question, however, is simply if it's just bad luck that I've seen a ton and he's only seen a few. He hasn't been in any special terrain positions that would keep barbs away.

[vmxa1]

Can't say for sure as I have not tried Huge yet. I would expect with more land that you will have less of the AI helping keep barbs or lions or what ever in check.

I know you can set no barbs or raging in a custom, not sure about the others.

[evizaer]

In a game that i played, i didn't put any cities in one part of the continent i was on. There was a constant stream of barbarians there until i populated the area with cities. Perhaps it generates barbs when there is fog of war near you and no enemy civs nearby?

[Proteus_MST]

In Civ 3 Barbarians AFAIK could only spawn outside your cultural borders.

I have no doubt that it is still so in Civ 4.

So, if the whole continent/island is within your cultural borders (or the cultural borders of other players),
theres should be danger of Barbs appearing.

[asleepathewheel]

you need to place warriors sporadically to get rid of the fog of war. Once you do that, they won't appear.

[DeepO]

every tile covered by FoW can generate barbs. And I think (but I'm not sure) that if there are only a couple of 'black' tiles left, these will generate more barbs than when there are many black tiles left.

Also, barb cities can grow to dangerous proportions. And they generate all kind of units later on, including rifles and infs. It's fairly common to find barb cities in the industrial age, locked in on a good defensive position. They are hard to eridicate, and provide for a constant nuisance. In fact, one of my favourite ways of getting a foot hold on a foreign continent is to capture a barb city first, and wait for a couple of turns before reinforcements arrive. That way, you can attack AI civs by sea and by land simultanously.

DeepO

[TheArsenal]

I played on a Huge map and your experience is similar to mine. Lots of Barbs. Smarter Barbs. More destructive Barbs.

My guess: because Settlers cost more, and early ICS is not nearly as possible, there were fewer cities and units which meant a lot more Fog of War and “shaded” areas on the map far longer than my similar games with Civ III. Until other empires expanded to my border, which was fairly far along in the game, I had to dig in units near my borders just to keep the Barbs out. The ones that got in roamed about the place and pillaged valuable improvements.

I'm liking it. Keeps me on my toes.

[DeepO]

Barbs are simply put a lot improved from Civ3. They will e.g. build workers, and improve the terrain around their settlements. I haven't seen barb settlers yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are in as well.

DeepO

[vmxa1]

I have seen barb towns, not sure if they were built, but it look that way. I did not see any town there before hand.

I foolishly help the Romans capture it. Not by attacking, but by defending.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by vmxa1
I have seen barb towns, not sure if they were built, but it look that way. I did not see any town there before hand.

I foolishly help the Romans capture it. Not by attacking, but by defending.

vmxa, there most certainly are barb towns, they spawn just like barb units do. I was wondering if those barb towns got so advanced that they actually start to spread settlers on their own... they do build walls and libraries and stuff like that.

DeepO

[Jaybe]

This whole concept of how barbs represent mini-civs you are locked into war with is GREAT!

[Makahlua]

Dunno about settlers, but they -do- build wonders

http://apolyton.com/forums/showthrea...hreadid=141054

[DeepO]

I hadn't seen that before, but I'm not surprised... like I said, barbs are something else in CIV

I'm waiting for the first screenshot to pop up, where a barb has discovered a religion first, and build a shrine in the holy city

DeepO

[TheArsenal]

Originally posted by Jaybe
This whole concept of how barbs represent mini-civs you are locked into war with is GREAT!

Locked into war is right.

I’m playing on a map from the Custom screen, Noble Difficulty, which, once fully revealed, should have several continents on the Huge Map setting. The continent I am on is pressed up against the northernmost top of the map and is occupied by only three Civs, myself and two very small one or two city civs crippled by war. At least one full third of the top half of the continent is tundra and ice, basically uninhabitable.

So all of this means Barbs are spawning up there like mad, at least once every other turn. It is still early, but my two northern most cities have been locked into permanent battle and Barb clearing through the entirety of the BC era. One of my Western cities was destroyed by Barbs while defending with a Warrior. Tough going since I only had four at that point to begin with.

All in all, very cool.