Barbarian Diplomats

[Qin Shihuangdi]

Ok, here's the situation: MPGE, King, Large Map, Seven Civs, Raging Hoards. circa 200 BC (wasn't paying too close attention to the year, but it was near the turn of the millenium.

I am alone on a medium-sized continent. I have gone through rapid expansion to settle the continent except one small area. I move my settler toward the black uncharted area and I see a one-square finger jutting out into the sea. On this square is a barbarian diplomat. Actually, this is *extremely* weird...it wasn't the normal diplomat icon. It was that one-eyed green sea monster/alien icon and I actually had to click on it to see that it was called a barbarian diplomat.

Unfortunately, I moved my settler to engage him to see what would happen and he disappeared (into a ship I couldn't see or just poof?). I don't use autosave since I consider it cheating (the only reason for autosave IMO is because you are unhappy with a game outcome) so I have no way to get him back I don't think.

Now, in four years of playing this game, I have never seen a barbarian diplomat. Has anyone else come across one and if so, does it have diplomatic capabilities (industrial sabotage, if anything, seeing as barbarians don't have gold or techs)? Can barbarians produce them in cities they have taken over?

I must confess that I have altered my game slightly, making some of my own unit icons to replace the lame ones (though not the diplo icon). I also changed names of some of the Civs and leaders in the Rules.txt, and added city names in that text file. Other than that though, I changed nothing else. Might something I did altering these have caused a bug that made the barbarian diplomat? I know a few weeks ago someone had discovered a Barbarian Leader unit after taking a barbarian-held city...maybe this bug is related?

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One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not skillful. Subduing the other's military without battle is skillful.

Sunzi, The Art of War

[William Keenan]

Every Barbarian leader is a diplomat Qin.

[finbar]

Watch a barb leader enter a barb city. Buy the city. You'll find the barb leader has transmogrified into a diplomat.

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[Qin Shihuangdi]

Thanks. You know, I had never clicked on the barbarian leader's square before to see that he was actually called a barbarian "diplomat." Funny the things you can still find out about the game four years later. The funky icon is most definitely due to my messing with the units file then. Thanks for the answer!

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One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not skillful. Subduing the other's military without battle is skillful.

Sunzi, The Art of War

[Blaupanzer]

You can bribe barbarian leaders into diplomats for you, if you need to (cost 61 gold). This can be useful if you are racing after something you wish to bribe and he gets in your way. Of course, it's hard to give up that $150 ransom early in the game. But later, a second diplo in the right place may be worth a lot more than that ransom. ("Second" because you need a diplo to do the bribing.)