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Wow! Seems like everyone has a story of battling the mighty barbarian invasions.
Soren and his gang did a good job representing the challenges all great empires faced of barbarians on the borders. The need for early standing armies to combat said barbarians, the race to develop new technology to defeat same and the impetus to push away at the vast unknown all make Civ IV a better game than its predecessors. Even the immense benefits of flood plains (great food generation) and rivers (commerce, trade routes and health) more accurately reflect their importance to early Terran civilizations - Egypt and Mesopotamia spring to mind! A city's ability to grow quickly IOT research and build units is more important now than ever before, even though one can actually stay friends with rival civs for 3 or 4 millennia!
Over time, the barbarian problem is mitigated by the strength of the great armies a burgeoning civ can generate, along with the advances in weaponry. However, as seen by the other posts, the first couple of thousand years require a balance of building (get that tech tree planted!) and warmongering vs. barbarians to survive and eventually thrive.
I started a new game yesterday: Huge/Noble/12 random civs (the dastardly Japanese showed up yet again and are already making trouble!) I definitely leaned more towards caution. Only one settler out of 12 ever moved without an escort - it was travelling through mine then a friendly civ's territory to get to a great location already controlled by a Forest specialist Warrior waiting for his new axe upgrade to arrive. Forest warriors, although weaker than other available units, rapidly patrolled the hills just outside the visibility of my borders, while more advanced units (axemen, archers and even spearmen) garrisoned the outer cities. A few hunting armies of axemen were positioned at strategic locations (2 to 3 turns from key cities) to take down barb warriors who may have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque. The inner cities had light garrisons, generally units that had seen their battles vs. the hordes and earned their rest (ie the 10 XP maximum had been reached!)
I was able to withstand several raids from the east (warriors==>archers==>axemen) before my first naval unit (galley) transported the elite 1st Quebec Axes to the forested hills outside Olmec. With the first attack, the unit gained anti-archer capabillities. Although two more Archer units remained, the Axes need R&R for 6 turns to replenish their ranks. Three turns later, an Egyptian chariot showed up to kindly remove the second archer (It seems they did indeed have some kind of advantage - I don't think they were even injured - I have a hard time figuring out the health bars...). The Quebecers, although understrength, used their unique archer knowledge to storm the last archer unit and Olmec was mine!
Thus was my anger assuaged! I had faced my fears and conquered them! Almost prophetically, 7 turns after capture and 1 turn after becoming a truly Canadian city, Olmec witnessed the birth of Christianity, demonstrating that bringing civility to barbarians was the right thing to do! I must carry on, spreading my message of peace and religions (Confucianism, Judaism and Christianity) to the great unwashed. The mighty Quebec Axes, however, will not be participating in the campaign to bring civilization to the unclean barbarians. They will be returning home. They will redeploy to the Japanese Frontier and go into reserve status until needed (ie when I can get them past the 10 XP max!)
Happily, I'll be home in 2 or 3 hours to continue the bloody Campaign of Peace!
Soren and his gang did a good job representing the challenges all great empires faced of barbarians on the borders. The need for early standing armies to combat said barbarians, the race to develop new technology to defeat same and the impetus to push away at the vast unknown all make Civ IV a better game than its predecessors. Even the immense benefits of flood plains (great food generation) and rivers (commerce, trade routes and health) more accurately reflect their importance to early Terran civilizations - Egypt and Mesopotamia spring to mind! A city's ability to grow quickly IOT research and build units is more important now than ever before, even though one can actually stay friends with rival civs for 3 or 4 millennia!
Over time, the barbarian problem is mitigated by the strength of the great armies a burgeoning civ can generate, along with the advances in weaponry. However, as seen by the other posts, the first couple of thousand years require a balance of building (get that tech tree planted!) and warmongering vs. barbarians to survive and eventually thrive.
I started a new game yesterday: Huge/Noble/12 random civs (the dastardly Japanese showed up yet again and are already making trouble!) I definitely leaned more towards caution. Only one settler out of 12 ever moved without an escort - it was travelling through mine then a friendly civ's territory to get to a great location already controlled by a Forest specialist Warrior waiting for his new axe upgrade to arrive. Forest warriors, although weaker than other available units, rapidly patrolled the hills just outside the visibility of my borders, while more advanced units (axemen, archers and even spearmen) garrisoned the outer cities. A few hunting armies of axemen were positioned at strategic locations (2 to 3 turns from key cities) to take down barb warriors who may have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque. The inner cities had light garrisons, generally units that had seen their battles vs. the hordes and earned their rest (ie the 10 XP maximum had been reached!)
I was able to withstand several raids from the east (warriors==>archers==>axemen) before my first naval unit (galley) transported the elite 1st Quebec Axes to the forested hills outside Olmec. With the first attack, the unit gained anti-archer capabillities. Although two more Archer units remained, the Axes need R&R for 6 turns to replenish their ranks. Three turns later, an Egyptian chariot showed up to kindly remove the second archer (It seems they did indeed have some kind of advantage - I don't think they were even injured - I have a hard time figuring out the health bars...). The Quebecers, although understrength, used their unique archer knowledge to storm the last archer unit and Olmec was mine!
Thus was my anger assuaged! I had faced my fears and conquered them! Almost prophetically, 7 turns after capture and 1 turn after becoming a truly Canadian city, Olmec witnessed the birth of Christianity, demonstrating that bringing civility to barbarians was the right thing to do! I must carry on, spreading my message of peace and religions (Confucianism, Judaism and Christianity) to the great unwashed. The mighty Quebec Axes, however, will not be participating in the campaign to bring civilization to the unclean barbarians. They will be returning home. They will redeploy to the Japanese Frontier and go into reserve status until needed (ie when I can get them past the 10 XP max!)
Happily, I'll be home in 2 or 3 hours to continue the bloody Campaign of Peace!
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