Strategies against Barbarian Attacks

[rah]

I've seen that a couple of times, but I've also seen them take/destroy the city.

[Cobra]

Before playing MP with 2.42 I often recognized that barbs stood for centuries in front of an empty city, but attacked the same round a defender was built inside the city. Was this a bug in an early version or did someone make the same experience?

[SlowThinker]

Zenon,
W. Keenan's barb. paper version 1.2 (in GL) works now.

[rah]

Kewl, that would explain some things.

[SlowThinker]

Yes, it is valid only if you have at least two cities.

If you have only 1 city (with or without a Palace) the city defender is invulnerable.

[rah]

Interesting. The theory was in a scc that the capital defender would never lose. Or is your above example only valid after the second city is built?

[SlowThinker]

the defense bonus in cities

I have tested the defense bonus against barbs in cities:
The firepower of the defender in capital (=a city with a Palace) is multiplied by 6.
If the civ has 7 or less cities then the firepower of the defender in a normal (non-capital) city is multiplied by 2.5 .
(It means that fortified warrior on a river in normal city is about equal to an attacking barb archer)

It might be about hitpoints in place of firepower, but I think it is firepower.
This is valid only if you have at least 2 cities.

And it looks that AI defenders have even better bonus.

Edit: added '7 or less cities'

[Straybow]

Ummm, OK.

[rah]

I thought the same thing.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I thought the discovery of Mobile Warfare only banished barb pirates from the seas, rather than banishing barbs altogether?

[Straybow]

Lies! It's all lies!

I forgot: looking at the first half of my log, barbs appeared after the 1828 turn East of Bizen, also far from any other civ.

[Straybow]

Here's another

In our "Nothin' Fancy" Succession Game barbs appeared during my round after my 1840 turn. They were well within Iberian territory, nearest civ over 12 tiles away.

I bribed 2 partisans, killed the other and ransomed the king. Here you see one of the partisans, and the highlighted tile with the spy who did the job. If you load the save file you'll see the second partisan in Ise.

[Straybow]

Barbs can appear after Mobile Warfare. I had built Jinjan on a small continent near the Japanese, who did not have Mobile Warfare. Barbs appeared about 6 tiles away after my 1985 turn. (I paradropped into Sapporo the next turn.)

Apparently Mob only stops barbs in your territory, and in this case the spawn point was close enough to the Japs that their tech level controlled.

[SlowThinker]

See also this:
partisan barbarians won't attack your partisans

[SlowThinker]

Once I revealed the map in cheat mode and I observed the game for about first 50 turns.
Pirates arised in years 16, 24, 32, 40... So only every 8th turn. And just one vessel with pirates (is this valid also for a late game?).
I noticed only 1 group of barb rebels (Edit: I mean ground barbs) and this was not in an oedo year.

A barb boat always dissapear right the next turn after the disembark. It won't attack your ship although it is on an adjacent tile.
I have a suspicion that the boat won't attack also before the disembark if it touches a dry land.

I suppose regular barb units cannot act as marines - i.e. a city on a one-tile island needn't to be defended. True?
(I remember a situation where a barb boat came besides such an island and started to 'sleep' there).