Wait. What??? Barbarians founded Judaism?

[Abrecan]

I was playing a game, and I traded world maps, and saw that the Judaism Holy City was a barbarian


, I figured they took it from someone. Yet..



Thracian was founded as a barbarian city, and never captured...



Anyone else get this before? Seriously, WTF moment here.

[Tattila the Hun]

Zionist conspiracy?

[lordrune]

Maybe the Barbarian State actually have its own 'research' where it allocates itself techs at specific years? And perhaps a fluke of this particular game meant that no civ discovered Monotheism before this point (meaning that it would go to a barbarian city).

I've never seen anything like this happen myself.

[KMadeleine]

that's bizarre! do you have a save file so that a curious expert could look into it? i'm curious but i'm not an expert, so that's not an offer.

[snoopy369]

Thracian is definitely a Barbarian (or more accurately Minor Civ) city, so it couldn't have been founded by anyone else (though it could've been captured, it doesn't look like it was). No idea why the barbs founded Judaism, though.

[Abrecan]

I looked into the world builder into the Barbarian Civ category, sure enough, they DO tech, which means... maybe its our fault for getting religions so quickly? I found it funny how in the game neither the AI's nor I bothered with monotheism. used a great prophet to get theology and get that out of the way.

Either way, it was quite funny to see barbarian cities with a religion. When we got to the New World(It was a terra map) the AI were acting like a full blown civ.. cept without being civs, fun taking out actually defended barbarian cities.

I'll try to get a save, but I don't tend to save often and all the autosaves from that game are gone.

Yeah, I've been playing more Terra maps, they havent founded a religion again, but if we procrastinate long enough, there's a full blown barbarian civ on the other continent(s), which is actually worth taking over.

[jkp1187]

Yes! I love it!

Perhaps the barbarians popped a hut and received monotheism as a result...?

[Kuciwalker]

Barbs can't pop huts.

It is theoretically possible, as snoopy noted, that an AI captured the city, founded Judaism, and then lost it again.

[Abrecan]

It didn't happen though, look at the third screeny I posted, between the time Thracian was never captured, it was founded, next time it was mentioned, it had founded judaism.

Since they do tech, it could be possible that they went for it early? Why I do not know, but I do know they were pissed at me, got the great wall up early, shortly after lots of barb stacks spawned outside my capital, they circled like hawks for a while then went to town on the japs.

[Kuciwalker]

They also used to build wonders. This was discovered (and fixed) when I posted a screenshot of a barb city that had built the Great Wall.

[Slade Wilson]

What the hell? They fixed that? Barbs building wonders was awesome

[jkp1187]

Originally posted by Slade Wilson
What the hell? They fixed that? Barbs building wonders was awesome

I agree. I was disappointed when they "fixed" that, too.

[Blake]

Barbs can tech, but most the time they don't, because their upkeeps are so high and they have no palace. This means they usually run a negative economy - which they get a free pass on (ie going negative doesn't cause units to get disbanded).
Most of the barb techs comes from freebies (sort of like a mini-internet), but they CAN research.

Barbs wont usually research pacifist techs, because like, they're at war, so they pursue war techs. So it requires a real fluke for them to both pursue a religion and get it first...

[Solver]

What's more worrying in this situation is the behaviour of other AI players. What the heck were they researching if Barbs got to Monotheism first?

[snoopy369]

Could it be how early it was? Barbs wouldn't have that many units that early on, and although I'd expect Monotheism by then, maybe not, it's not THAT late for it.