Diplos as city walls

[ramses II.]

I sometimes use diplos as city walls. When barbs appear, i bribe two or three of them, they kill the others. I often catch the barb leader, so it's a good deal: More units and a little cash ...
I sometimes can bribe the barb ship ...

[shade]

Congrats...

all usefull info but I think most ppl around here know about these things.We even have a GL where a lot of our knowledge is bundled.

Shade

PS:welcome.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

As Shade suggests, look at the Great Library Index thread. (I hope the links still work...) There are many useful strategies there. Bribing barbarians can be very profitable. A horseman will cost you 41 gold - run down the leader for 150g. Even if you had to bribe two units, you still get a good return plus new bad guys.

It's good to bribe barbarians (or AI units) closer to foreign cities, as they are then unsupported (NON) units. If you also get the ship, you have a free ride home, as well.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I also find that, early in the game, it sometimes helps to let the barbs take the city they're after and then bribe it back. In general, I don't lose improvements (because I rarely build them early on), I get stronger units than I can build myself (military techs are a low priority for me), and I don't even lose a diplo (because the barbarian king turns into a diplo).

[Calvin Vu]

I used to get mad when one of my cities got taken by the barbs but then I learned to put a diplo near that city and buy all the NON units from that city at very cheap price. If that unit is closer to the barb city than one of my cities then it is still a NON unit, BTW. I end up having my whole kingdom defended by NON units which is pretty neat after going to democracy because I save scores of shield support per turn.