Right or Wrong? Judge me!

[Andromeda]

I'm curious as to why the Horsie apparently played no role whatever in this little drama.
His strong point was mobility, which the Archer and Warriors lacked. Could he not have got himself into a position where he could inflict some pre-emptive damage on the Archer ?

[johnmcd]

I'm with the buy your freedom guy. I would have thought the least of your worries would be your treasury's depletion. You could have probably built a temple or something in the time your city was tied up in superflous warrior production. Even so do you not gain an additional 50% defence bonus for being in a city? If so why not just stack up your dudes in the town and capitalise on that bonus? (clearly the hill is a winning tactic though).

[Sten Sture]

I like Xin's idea depending on the exact terrain available.

johnmcd - You don't get +50% for being in the city, though you do if you are fortified. If one of the warriors is killed in the size one city... population declines to zero - which is bad.

I think the barbs will only ask for ransom if the city is undefended and you have more than 50 gold. Anyone experience differently? I thought they did it everytime in that situation...

[Makeo]

I use the leaving the city undefended with more than $50 only as the very last resort because sometimes the barbs do just walk in. This is very frustrating.

[arii]

I agree that fortifying a warrior on the hill is the 1st line of defense.
I think I would have attack with the horse or rushbuilt a horse after the 1st warior was killed. If the city was on defensive terrain (forest river)I would have taken the chance after the horse attack with a fortified warior.

[finbar]

The barb archer's in the hills all the way to the city, isn't he? Presumably it's Raging Hordes, and with the defence bonus of the hills, that just about makes him unassailable. I suspect CR followed the right course.

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finbar
Mono Rules!
#33984591

[Hasdrubal]

Here's the rundown of buying your way out of a barbarian invasion.
The following two conditions must be met for a barbarian to offer you a "We shall mercilessly sack the city of Blah unless you pay us BlahBlah amount of gold!"
-The city must be empty
-You must have enough gold in your coffer
The barb will allways demand half of your treasury, with a minimum charge of 50 for a size one or two city, 75 for size 3, 100 for size 4, etc. (So, with a size one city and a treasury of 52, the price is 50; treasury of 87: still 50; treasury 126: 63 gold; treasury of 47: you're dead meat). There's no maximum charge that a barb will settle for. The barbarians will ALWAYS offer you this deal. I've done some extensive research, and checked for: levels of difficulty, capitol or other city, level of barb activity, date, various tech levels (including none and all tech in your position), Wonders in city, type of barb at city gate. If anybody can falsify these findings, please let us know!

BTW, if a barb is heading towards your city and knows where it is going, I don't think that you can lure him away with a horseman. Furthermore, fortifying your unit gives a 50% increase in defense. A warriors defense factor is one: 1+50%= still only 1. No point in fortifying a warrior.
Edit: 1+50%=1 because 1.5 gets rounded down.
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Ceterum censeo Romanem esse delendam.
[This message has been edited by Hasdrubal (edited June 01, 2000).]

[Sten Sture]

Andromeda may be on to something here... what about getting the horseman between the Archer and the city and trying to lure him away - always staying just far enough away that he can't get you?

[Xin Yu]

I think maybe, just maybe, he should move the horse to a square next to the archer before the first warrior got killed.

If the archer attacked the warrior, then the horse could attack the archer; if the archer attacked the horse, then the warrior had an extra turn to finish fortification.

[Venger]

Hasdrubal is entirely correct. Better to move the warrior out of the city, rush build improvements enough to empty your treasury to about 75 or so, and let the barb offer you a deal.

I can only imagine how much money you lost building 3 units like that.

Venger

[Carolus Rex]

Hasdrubal,

That strat doesn't always work. Don't ask me when it fails, but I've lost cities when using it. Also, the money limits you post above don't always apply. I once had about 70 gold and they left me with 6. Maybe it's version dependent?

There has been a lot of threads on this strat, I could only find some of them.

http://apolyton.net/forums/Archives/...-3-000241.html

http://apolyton.net/forums/Archives/...-3-000399.html

I read a recent one in the MP forum, but couldn't find it.

Gotta go now, will look more thoroughly later.

Carolus

[RichardX]

You shoudn't have built any warriors at all, but you should have quit and started a new game!

[Aurelius]

One problem I have with C-Rex's strategy is the facilitation of the barbarians vet status. If you let a warrior fight the archer outside the city, you might be making a vet of the Archer. My early year experience in barbarian archers versus fortified warriors in a city is that the warrior often defends--or rarely loses. But then I remember some thread awhile back that discussed the fighting advantage of attacking from a hill down into plains as is the case with C-Rex's city location ....still don't know the answer to that old question ("attacking from defense enhanced terrains.")

One question leads to another: If I fortify on a turn, does it go into affect immediately or after the the following turn with the appearance of a little tan fortress? (V2.42 doesn't get the immediate graphic like MPgold)

As far as the Bribe situation, I know I've had cities taken without barbarians demanding tribute....just happened the other day. I've always been curious about this question, but know it is not failsafe.

So I would have taken a chance and let the fortified warrior take on the unvetified archer....

later.

[geofelt]

Your tactics worked, so the plan was not bad. However, it might not have worked, or you could have expended more treasury to save the city. A warrior can not expect to defend the city, and extinction of the city is worse than having the barbs capture it. It would have cost you less to bribe the city back later when the time was opportune. I would favor exiting the city and spending down to 50-100 gold. If the barbs did not offer a ransom and took the city, then it is still saved for a later dip.

Also, if you pay the tribute, make certain the city is defended properly soon, because that same barb will be back again.

[Sten Sture]

geofelt - I think the demanding barb disappears, but the other members of his raiding party stick around to get you in a couple of turns.