How to beat back barbs on Balanced?

[cal_01]

So, I'm starting to notice that barbarians are more aggressive on Balanced maps than any other map I've seen. (At least, on Monarch/Balanced they seem to be.)

Anyhow, I'm having trouble at this point. Monarch tends to prefer aggressive expansion to keep pace/outpace the AI, but that leaves you weak militarily. How can I both defend and expand at the same time?

[Urban Ranger]

I don't know if this works for you, I haven't tried it at that level/map.

What I usually do when I find a barbarian city is to put a couple of defenders right next to it, on some nice defensive tile. This way the city will attack your defender(s) whenever it has surplus units.

It also stops expanding. My experience is it rushes units by killing off population points just to be knocked off by your securely fortified units.

This way I get some units with lots of experience and virtually stops that city from ever bothering me again. Then when I can dispose it at my leisure.

[xxFlukexx]

Expand very fast early on with chop rushing and keep as much territory revealed as you can. Barbs can come from any square that has fog of war on it, keeping some units on hills and revealing everything you can will significantly reduce the random barbs.

I do what Urban Ranger does too and also hook up copper/bronze asap and put an axeman on your resource squares that are on the edge of your borders.

[Saurus]

Re: How to beat back barbs on Balanced?

Originally posted by cal_01
So, I'm starting to notice that barbarians are more aggressive on Balanced maps than any other map I've seen. (At least, on Monarch/Balanced they seem to be.)

Anyhow, I'm having trouble at this point. Monarch tends to prefer aggressive expansion to keep pace/outpace the AI, but that leaves you weak militarily. How can I both defend and expand at the same time?

I think the answer to you question is: You can´t!
That's what makes Monarch so difficult during early game. You have to compromise.
Either you have to expand very quickly knowing your cities are at great risk, or then you have to produce military like a madman witch in turn slows expansion.

Every general rule as of how to maximize production during early game should be used to the maximum efficency of course but all this (eg. chopping trees etc) can be done at any game level so does not fundamentaly change the more difficult setting you are in now.

Most of the time, during the first phase of the game, I'll say you need at least two units in every city and at least an Archer (a warrior is not enough!) to escort your setlers.
When moving through jungles, woods and hills, one escorting Archer should be enough do deflect any threat.

[Saurus]

And just wanted to clarify.
Having 2 units defending each city, does not nessessarily mean they have to stand parked inside the city.
As someone pointed out already, theese units are useful as blockages for barbarians from pillaging the improvements. Parking theese units on hills, jungles etc with defense bonuses, often causes the barbarians to kill themselfs against them whitout causing harm.

[Blake]

I've found that especially with raging barbs, it's never possible to rely on only 1 archer per city. 2 archers for "safe" cities, and 3 archers for threatened cities. Axemen are a bit better.

While barbs are still in the Archers/Warriors phase (pre axes) I sometimes go for garrisoning cities with 3 warriors, this is usually enough to fight off the early waves but is at best a stopgap measure, I usually regret going with less than 3 warriors (or an Archer and a warrior).

Also medic can be incredibly powerful. If you have roving Woodsman axes and are agressive I think it makes sense to make their final promotion medic. Barbs can easily whittle down and kill a strong unit, especially in unfriendly territory. Medic helps a lot.

Also medic+march can be good for roving defenders. While woodsman units can move around faster, they also have to sit around healing, March units can keep moving. The medics are also generally more useful come time to invade another civ.

[inca911]

I frequently station my warriors out in the wilderness and prevent the fog from existing. This has been the best way to avoid barbs, or at least to eliminate barbs from one "front" of your empire so you can fortify the other front. Having relatively undefended towns isn't that big of an issue in the early game provided you have a decent line of defensive against the likely threat axis.

[cal_01]

Hmm. Maybe I'll slow down my settler output a bit by producing more warriors. Hm.

The only real map that I actually got a good fog of war coverage was on a Continents map. I managed to take out the Chinese and had the entire landmass all by mysefl! Otherwise, there's too many fronts to cover and barbarians seem to be drawn to my cultural borders like magnets.

Speaking of which, I think barb generation is greatly affected by the number of strategic resources out there (especially barb city placement), but I haven't tested it out yet. More on that later!

[Urban Ranger]

I reckon you can also use a mobile attack defense as well. Make a few fast moving stacks, have them roam around the map, and attack any barbarian units you see. If you time your movement just right, you should be able to attack every time. This gives you more experience.