Barb Tricks

[vik]

After you discover guerilla warfare, the Partisan unit becomes available. If you get a city taken over after this point (by barbs, AI, or whomever), you will see a message like "Citizens of XXX city take to the hills!" or something. And then the city you just lost is literally surrounded by these NONE partisan units before you begin your next turn. The units are now yours, but the city is no longer yours. You can probably take the city back at your leisure, but the bonus is you get around a dozen NONE partisan units under your control.

If you've never had a city taken away from you late in the game (after you've discovered guerrilla warfare), you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Give it a try.

[Bird]

Vik: I don't understand. Are you saying that if the barbs take the city and you bribe it back, the units will be NON units? Or are you saying something else? Could you (or anyone who understands it) please clarify.

[wonderdog4]

Vik.

That's brilliant. I've deliberately built in the path of barbs before for various reasons, but never just to create NONE partisans.

Now I know what to do when I see one of those subcontinents smothered in barbarian cavalry and fanatics.

Keep sending engineers up there, keep building cities and keep generating NONE partisans. Since I play most of the game (and all of the modern era as a Democracy) these NONE troops will come in very handy during the end game.

I can't wait to try this out. It may be a dead end, but it will break the monotony of thumping on the AI.

Thanks.

[Miner]

don Don

I most certainly do.
[This message has been edited by Miner (edited January 09, 2000).]

MWHC, that's what I call a trusty ally!

Xin's idea is almost enough to make me build horseys and cats. I may try that in OCC.

Of course, finding a barb city from a fallen civ early in the game is priceless.

That reminds me, does anyone else transport settlers to islands near neighbors, build a city, then disband a cheap unit and rush-buy a (NONE) settler? It's even better after explosives, actually converting supported settlers into NONE engrs!

[My Wife Hates CIV]

In MP you have another option. Give all your gold to another player and let the barb demand what you have left. Rah did this in a MP game. He gave me like 600 (or something) gold to hold for one turn. I almost blew the wad on my cities! hehehe but no, I gave it back.

[vik]

Here is a barb trick that I really enjoy using.

So, here come the barbs. I go out to meet them with a Settler, and build a city before he can be attacked. The barbs walk in, and if you have whatever technology that allows you to have partisans, VIOLA, you instantly get about 8-12 partisans. They are all "NONE" units, even if this new city you founded is close to other cities.

For you democratic players, you know how important "NONE" units are, and partisans are pretty decent units. They have a defense factor of four, move 3 squares regardless of terrain, and ignore enemy zones of control -- a bunch of free "NONE" partisans are great for setting up that blockade of ground units between your territory and the AI's.

[Xin Yu]

Here's a trick to capture barb leader. Build fortresses around your cities. Have a couple of good defense units, a horse and a catapult in each of the cities.

[crowatbitemedotcom]

That is a good idea. I've only started to build forts in the OCC, so I'm not really aware of all the uses. I hate it when I only get one ransom for two barb leaders. The main thing I've noticed about forts is that the AI builds way too many and it's easy to take advantage of them.

[War4ever]

Xin YU.... that strategy is great especially if two barb leaders are on the same fort as you can kill them seperately and collect both bounties as opposed to killing them together and only collecting one ransom.
I must admit i never do this though as i rarely build forts

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Casualties are part of war.... It's ok to die by the humdreds if your foe will perish by the thousands

[War4ever]

another version is to build a fort on a moutnain by the ai or human civ and let barbs come a strolling and bribe them that way as well.....especially if you leave a black area on the map so that the computer thinks the area is not infested with cities.... barbs like darkness or a lack of cities

[Theben]

Originally posted by crowatbitemedotcom on 12-29-1999 11:58 AM
Are you sure about the barbs not taking your second city? I know that if you only have one city, you are safe as long you have a unit inside, but I thought that if you had more than one, you could lose.

You're safe with the one city, but as soon as you have a second city you may lose. I've noticed that sometimes the capital may hold out against barbs with a warrior, but sometimes it doesn't. The 2nd city never gets a bonus. Either way you can't count on it once the 2nd city is there.

But if you make Writing a priority you won't have any problems with barbs. Just keep the diplomat(s) near the edge of your empire, and when the barbs show up, buy the military and kill the leader. This is where Raging Hordes becomes an asset: you get more money from leaders for higher barb levels (150 at raging). You can often get a new army and make a profit at the same time.

Another trick is to go trolling for barbs. Take one military unit and 2 dips exploring. Use the military unit to take any huts while keeping the dips adjacent to the hut; if barbs pop out the max will be six. Use the dips to buy barbs and use the new friendly barbs to attack any remaining former comrades. With Leo's you can round up a huge "non" army of cavalry later in the game.

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Theben
Co-Moderator of the Civ3 Forums

[crowatbitemedotcom]

Geofelt -

Are you sure about the barbs not taking your second city? I know that if you only have one city, you are safe as long you have a unit inside, but I thought that if you had more than one, you could lose.
[This message has been edited by crowatbitemedotcom (edited December 29, 1999).]

[Aurelius]

Hey Genghis,

Here's a good barbarian trick:

You see them coming and don't want the city sacked by the crusaders or big horseys or the dragoons, so line the coast near the city with units...usually only takes two or three around the city. But the ship will sit off the coast for the entire game! Experiment a bit with it. Sometimes I'll do this trick and build up city walls and then let the barbarians beat their little heads on the new masonry. Other times I'll just build an iron clad and kick their butts.

I don't let the barbarians sack a city. As geofelt mentioned, they can be very destructive. But there are instances where it is better to let them do as you say, take the town and then bribe the whole lot. But when you have stock markets and universities and factories and a lot of money, that barbarian extortion is huge and maybe even worth it. Of course, by this time of the game, one should have a few garrisoned troops.

Another barbarian trick, find a remote barbarian city and drop a spy off and get an indefinate number of 63 gold piece 'none' musketeers. If you have Leo's, they'll upgrade to our favorite, rifleman. I love nones as I have a democracy usually.

In truth, I think raging barbarians are an asset. Of course, I have a diplomat or two within reach of every city.

Aurelius.

[geofelt]

Early in the game, before you have dips, you may see barbs aproaching a city you can't defend. If you have lots of gold, they may demand much of it. I use the gold to spend on other cities until I have about 50 left. then, when they ask for tribute, I can save the city for only 50 gold or so.
If I see chariots approaching a size 1 city defended by a warrior, I move the warrior out of the city. The barbs can take the city, and it stays intact. Ready to bribe back later. Its cheaper than letting the city be destroyed.
If barbs approach your palace early in the game, don't panic. A warrior will hold out if you have only one or two cities.