Barbarians rule?

[Blaupanzer]

So how's this working out, Priest? Does anyone survive? Have you determined the appropriate tweaks? The people want to know! Tell us!

[The Priest]

My conclusion is:

Lots of fun, though not a serious long-term game.

In terms of setting it up, there is an option which avoids altering files, which I know will appeal to many. The only reason for altering files was teh make the great wall obselete. The other way of doing this is to start normally, go into world builder, create a city put the wall in it, then delete it.

The game is great fun, particularly if you are used to civ and want a change. The barbarians just do keep on coming. For once they are a serious enemy and just getting your civilisation started properly is a real challenge. Strategic resources are rare too, which is a bit of a pain for those with early resource dependent UU, but forces versatility. How do you defend against those axemen with no horses, copper or iron? You will probably managed to get one of those three, but can you protect the mines against the barbarians. There is a lot of luck there - a strategic resource in your first BFC and you are made. But hey its a game.

In my experience though the game does peter out. If you can get a civ properly established, the barbarians start not to be able to threaten you in the same way. I think that there must be game settings somewhere about when waves of barbarians come, and they don't in the mid-game. You are then left with a game with just a very small number of civs. This is interesting in its own way, but not really what civ is about.

I am sure there would be alterations to make the later game work - more and stronger barbs in the middle ages onwards. But that is beyond me.

But, after all that, ifyou are experienced at civ - give it ago. You will never look down on those barbs again, and finding yourself in 1000 BC sheltering in your capital as the barbs pillage everything around you is a great experience - and i even found i was fuelling my economy at one point by pillaging barbarians cottages!

[wodan11]

Some suggestions:

edit CIV4EraInfos
-- turn off "NoBarbUnits" on Era Renaissance and onward
-- turn off "NoBarbCities" on Era Modern

edit CIV4HandicapInfo.xml
-- for whatever handicap you're using, change BarbarianCityCreationTurnsElapsed and BarbarianCityCreationProb to be lower and much higher, such as 15 and 40%

edit GlobalDefines
-- change Barbarian_handicap to be "HANDICAP_SETTLER"
-- change Barbarian_free_tech_percent to be higher, like 20
-- change city_barbarian_defense_modifier to be 100