Classical starts and raging barbs. OH MY!

[Thoth]

Wow. I tried a few classical starts last night with raging barbs on. Ugly, ugly, ugly. The first "barb storm" had a couple of archers/warriors in it. Backed up by axes and barb horse archers.

I'd had just enough time to get a couple of archers and a settler built (you start with a worker on classical and later starts) when the first storm broke. Archers, even on hills, are no match for horse archers and axemen.

I've had my capital sacked in 3 out of 4 starts with these settings so far (and the 4th was more luck than anything else).

Has anyone else given these settings a try?

[Dis]

not going to try that after your post.

I can't remember what the classical start is. But I had enough trouble with barbs on the earth map. it's a huge map, and those barbs come after you fast.

[Thoth]

With a classical start, you begin with a settler, a worker an archer and a scout. You also get all of the ancient era techs. You can see the basic resources (copper and horses) right from the start, but so far I've had very limited luck keeping them hooked up.

It's actually good fun even if it's given me 3 "Dan Quale" ratings.

[Blake]

Hmmm archers should easily handle axes if you found cities on hills, that extra +50% really helps bump the archers strength up to "usually lives". But I can see the horsies pillaging will be a problem.

What difficulty you playing on? I think I'll try it on Monarch on Great Plains for a bit of fun.

[Thoth]

Archers can handle the axes without too much problem. They have difficulties when there are a couple of horse archers right behind the axes though. Founding cities on hills doesn't seem to be optional, your first 2-3 cities absolutely have to be on hills.


On the bright side, the AI has just as many problems. In my last game both Tokugawa and Ghandi lost their capitals to barbs. (made me feel a bit better about loosing mine in the previous three games).

I'm playing on Monarch, large, continents map. Game speed is customized to about half way between Normal and Epic (125% building, unit, culture and GP costs, 150% tech costs and the same number of turns as an Epic game)

I've also bumped up the costs for post-Classical techs, ranging from +10% for Medieval techs to +25% for Industrial/Modern techs.

[marvinkosh]

I seem to always have problems stopping the axemen in their tracks; even when I make sure to research Bronze Working and get the Copper hooked up, I never seem to have my own Axemen ready in time. For the moment, I'm playing without the barbies turned on, and it does make a huge difference to the game.

[SCarton]

Originally posted by marvinkosh
For the moment, I'm playing without the barbies turned on, and it does make a huge difference to the game.

Positive difference or pointlessly easier? Barbarians are annoying to me, but I'm not sure I want them gone altogether.

[Rogerdude]

In my last game they "provided" me with a town in a very good location, as it was poorly defended (2 archers). I took it with a couple of axemen, thus sparring me the trouble of building another settler.
So the barbs can come in handy in some situations.

[MoonWolf]

Yeah, barbarian cities are often well placed and they are a nicer bonus than some gold you got in civ3 for destroying an annoying camp. Sometimes they are too well as they are often on a hill top and thus difficult to attack