Raging barbs do what exactly?

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Addled Platypus
thay hardly attack the AI

Well OF COURSE they don't. Why should they, when you are a much easier target?

You have a 10% combat advantage against barb units at Noble difficulty, but the AI has a whoppin' 25% advantage at all levels. Except at Monarch, where yours has gone down to zero and the AI advantage goes up to 40 for some strange reason (it goes back down to 25 at higher levels).

Look at the CIV4HandicapInfo.xml in the GamInfo folder. It's really unjust and (as I have stated elsewhere a few times) I have reduced ALL the combat advantages vs. animals & barbs to zero. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY I say!

[joncnunn]

That is similar to changes I made in my own handicap, but mine is a milder version in that regard.

By default the AI with regards to Barbs & Animals plays on Chieftain at all levels; I promoted them to Noble on all levels.

I also promote the AI with Inflation from Warlord to Noble and bump their WW Weariness from easier than Chieftain to full 100%.

Finally I give them full unit supply and unit upgrade cost.

[Blaupanzer]

Originally posted by Addled Platypus
thay hardly attack the AI

Barbs attack everyone. At least half a dozen people have noted recently that barbs had wiped out one or two civs in their game. The barbs do that by attacking those civs. If you have a unit exploring inside the borders of AI civs during the time when barbs are most active, you can actually witness them falling on your rival's cities.

[Targonis]

One thing about Raging Barbarians is that they will build cities sooner(due to the increased numbers), and those cities will develop a trade network and all the things that make it harder to attack a city, such as walls and such. If you end up with a small island continent that has barbarians on it but no other civs, it will be a bit harder to take it over by the time you can get to it.

If you turn this feature on, you can expect some civilizations to be wiped out by barbarians before you even get a chance to trade with them as well(depending on difficulty level). I have gone from having 5 other civs on my continent down to having 2 other civs on the continent as a result of this. Great Wall makes this option a bit easier to deal with in the early to mid game just because you don't need to take over your neighbors.

[Blaupanzer]

Actually, they won't build cities sooner due to raging barbs but they will build more of them. The when is built into the level, but the odds of one in any group of tiles go up once the turn has passed. The sooner they get in place, the more likely they are to build the improvements mentioned by Targonis.

Turning on raging barbarians and then building the Great Wall in SP is a bit of an exploit. The AI coding provides no method for the AIs to know the storm is coming. So essentially, you set an ambush for all, then steal the only tool to deal with it. You should not be surprised if this gives you a big leg up on your rivals, but it does reduce the challenge. Just my thoughts.

[joncnunn]

I was a bit surpized on my current game with mere normal barbs when the poor Protugese AI had it's capital captured by Barbs. I had previously built the Great Wall so it looks like all the barbs went after them.

This was after they had built a few other cities so they weren't outright eliminated from the game. But they were so far behind the voluntary made themselves a vassal of the other AI on this landmass. After I built some Caravels, it turned out to be my far the most sparsely populated landmass.

As to what happened to that city: The barbs used it to build a lot more barb units against the Protugese; evenually the barbs took a second Protugese city but the Proguese were able to recapture it a few turns later. Finally the AI master (Rossevelt) sent a relief force to take over Lisbon but he kept it for himself.

[Blaupanzer]

I my current game my nearest neighbor, the French under DeGaulle, built a city in the open next to horses as his first city post Paris. While I built troops, then sent out settlers with the troops to build my first three cities, the French kept losing that city which the barbs razed each time. After he did this for the third time, I sent over some troops to break the wave. In the name of "protecting" the French, I sent troops to the capitol too, right thru the closed border. Aren't I an nice guy? Now there is no more France -- almost as good as if the barbs finished him off. Cost me an axeman and two swordsman, way cheaper than two settlers.

[Theben]

Ragnar lost his poor capital and was eliminated from the game early on by barbs. I finally found his ex-capital some 4000 years later in an island chain and it was size 18 with 4 tile radius culture You'd think it would have become it's own empire by then.

[Blaupanzer]

Barb cities never convert to traditional empires no matter how big the cities become or how many there are. If you play an "Old World" start, the other continents will have several good-sized barb cities, but no new empires.

[Solomwi]

Originally posted by joncnunn
I was a bit surpized on my current game with mere normal barbs when the poor Protugese AI had it's capital captured by Barbs. I had previously built the Great Wall so it looks like all the barbs went after them.

This was after they had built a few other cities so they weren't outright eliminated from the game. But they were so far behind the voluntary made themselves a vassal of the other AI on this landmass. After I built some Caravels, it turned out to be my far the most sparsely populated landmass.

As to what happened to that city: The barbs used it to build a lot more barb units against the Protugese; evenually the barbs took a second Protugese city but the Proguese were able to recapture it a few turns later. Finally the AI master (Rossevelt) sent a relief force to take over Lisbon but he kept it for himself.

I had a somewhat similar situation in my current game. I share a landmass with Sumeria (now part of my burgeoning Japanese empire), Russia (directly south of my Suerian conquests) and Holy Rome (on the southern extreme of the continent, with me on the northern). Barbs took St. Petersburg, just 3 tiles NE of Moscow. Instead of the barbs using it as a base against Russia, though, I got a stack down there and took it, for the same purpose. I love those golden opportunities to (a) take a nice city and (b) have a local base of operations, all without any of the drawbacks of declaring war.

[Blaupanzer]

Solomwi, or of building a settler and support crew and showing up amidst another civ. Take your opportunities where you find them.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
Barb cities never convert to traditional empires no matter how big the cities become or how many there are. If you play an "Old World" start, the other continents will have several good-sized barb cities, but no new empires.

Unless playing particular mods (Hephmod or Revolutions mod, for example). Even YOUR civ could have a revolution/civil war.

Problem with Hephmod: it is much more a simulation (stronger links to REALITY) than a "game". Expect curve balls