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The idea behind barbarians is to quickly generate a raiding force while the enemy builds up tasty cities, then sweep in with powerful mounted archerers killing everything in sight.
Opening moves:
A. Start the game near an ocean and river tile that is within range of seafood.
[Do this to gain #1 the health benefits of the fresh river water and harbors you can build later, but #2 more importantly for the commerce early on. Tiles along rivers provide 1 extra gold, and seafood tiles when harvested are a loaf + of food and a few gold.]
B. First build is scout
[You begin with a scout, but they are fragile and only useful in the early stages of the game before human barbarians appear. You will need to see all around you to locate juicy targets and to spot horses later. A bear has a good chance of killing your scout unless you are on a forested hill across a river. When you move around enter a flat square then duck back into a forest or hill for the defense from fast moving wolves, and wandering beasts. You will get the first promotion quickly, use it to buy combat 1 (starting scout has no agressive traits) after combat 1 or if it was the scout you built yourself (free combat 1) buy MEDIC then run him back to your starting city]
C. First research is fishing
[We want to hook up that huge food and tech bonus as quickly as we can]
D. Second build starts as work boat
[If fishing has not been researched by the time you finish the scout, put barracks on build queue to idle for a few turns then lay work boat on top of it]
E. Second research is pottery
[When your city gets to 2 population, lay a worker on top of the fishing boat. We want the worker timed to pop out within a few turns of getting pottery. At 2 population on marathon mode it typically takes 24 turns to make a worker. Do not worry if this slows the fishing boat down alot, that boat is going to grow your city fast and you need improved tiles to work with first.]
F. Third build is worker
[See above]
G. Third research is archery
[During this time, build 3 cottages along the river. Since you placed your city next to the ocean and a river you will have at least 3 watered tiles if the river is 2 in length or more. We place these here to gain the river commerce bonus, to min max along with our eventual towns income.]
H. Fourth build is letting the barracks finish
[We want this barracks in place before we build any military units.]
I. Fourth research is animal husbandry
[By now we should have our 3 cottages up, start laying down roads connecting these fragile improvements to the city. Also lay down roads 1 or 2 tiles inland parallel to the coast, and one road directly inland from the city as troop movement roads. The one worker we built initially is sufficient, we will enslave the enemy workers soon...]
J. Fifth build is a queue of 4 archerers
[Keep your scout medic in your city so he can rush out to heal when needed. Place one archerer near the end of each road you just made. Best spot is outside your culture border in a hill or forest tile.]
K. Fifth research is horseback riding
[This is the final tech you need to build the most powerful ancient/classic horsemen in the game. With 6 strength, 2 move ignoring turrain features, and the ability to give them withdraw 2 making them immune to first strike... They can tear apart defending archerers, and thats all you will come up against during your first war of conquest really.]
L. Sixth build is a constant stream of keshiks
[As the early horse archerers wait for their comrades to be built, send them out to nearby barbarians to practice on the wandering warriors and archerers they like to spit out.]
M. Sixth research is bronze working
[This is used to chop all the trees in your well defended cultural border churning out a large wave of keshiks. You will also end up growing your population beyond your ability to keep them happy. Use slavery to create even more keshiks. Then lay down cottages along the rest of the river tiles.]
After this, I suggest heading for alphabet to trade for or demand techs you skipped. Depending on your play style, you can either wipe out the enemy civs or terribly cripple them and demand tributes the rest of the game. Shifting focus from the now weak civ to the strongest one. If you let any civs live in peace they will outbuild/tech you and pikemen will laugh at your horsemen.
Trying to attach the game i just started, this is at 1500 BC and im about to start making my first keshik.
Opening moves:
A. Start the game near an ocean and river tile that is within range of seafood.
[Do this to gain #1 the health benefits of the fresh river water and harbors you can build later, but #2 more importantly for the commerce early on. Tiles along rivers provide 1 extra gold, and seafood tiles when harvested are a loaf + of food and a few gold.]
B. First build is scout
[You begin with a scout, but they are fragile and only useful in the early stages of the game before human barbarians appear. You will need to see all around you to locate juicy targets and to spot horses later. A bear has a good chance of killing your scout unless you are on a forested hill across a river. When you move around enter a flat square then duck back into a forest or hill for the defense from fast moving wolves, and wandering beasts. You will get the first promotion quickly, use it to buy combat 1 (starting scout has no agressive traits) after combat 1 or if it was the scout you built yourself (free combat 1) buy MEDIC then run him back to your starting city]
C. First research is fishing
[We want to hook up that huge food and tech bonus as quickly as we can]
D. Second build starts as work boat
[If fishing has not been researched by the time you finish the scout, put barracks on build queue to idle for a few turns then lay work boat on top of it]
E. Second research is pottery
[When your city gets to 2 population, lay a worker on top of the fishing boat. We want the worker timed to pop out within a few turns of getting pottery. At 2 population on marathon mode it typically takes 24 turns to make a worker. Do not worry if this slows the fishing boat down alot, that boat is going to grow your city fast and you need improved tiles to work with first.]
F. Third build is worker
[See above]
G. Third research is archery
[During this time, build 3 cottages along the river. Since you placed your city next to the ocean and a river you will have at least 3 watered tiles if the river is 2 in length or more. We place these here to gain the river commerce bonus, to min max along with our eventual towns income.]
H. Fourth build is letting the barracks finish
[We want this barracks in place before we build any military units.]
I. Fourth research is animal husbandry
[By now we should have our 3 cottages up, start laying down roads connecting these fragile improvements to the city. Also lay down roads 1 or 2 tiles inland parallel to the coast, and one road directly inland from the city as troop movement roads. The one worker we built initially is sufficient, we will enslave the enemy workers soon...]
J. Fifth build is a queue of 4 archerers
[Keep your scout medic in your city so he can rush out to heal when needed. Place one archerer near the end of each road you just made. Best spot is outside your culture border in a hill or forest tile.]
K. Fifth research is horseback riding
[This is the final tech you need to build the most powerful ancient/classic horsemen in the game. With 6 strength, 2 move ignoring turrain features, and the ability to give them withdraw 2 making them immune to first strike... They can tear apart defending archerers, and thats all you will come up against during your first war of conquest really.]
L. Sixth build is a constant stream of keshiks
[As the early horse archerers wait for their comrades to be built, send them out to nearby barbarians to practice on the wandering warriors and archerers they like to spit out.]
M. Sixth research is bronze working
[This is used to chop all the trees in your well defended cultural border churning out a large wave of keshiks. You will also end up growing your population beyond your ability to keep them happy. Use slavery to create even more keshiks. Then lay down cottages along the rest of the river tiles.]
After this, I suggest heading for alphabet to trade for or demand techs you skipped. Depending on your play style, you can either wipe out the enemy civs or terribly cripple them and demand tributes the rest of the game. Shifting focus from the now weak civ to the strongest one. If you let any civs live in peace they will outbuild/tech you and pikemen will laugh at your horsemen.
Trying to attach the game i just started, this is at 1500 BC and im about to start making my first keshik.
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