The Best of the Best

[GeneralTacticus]

And the word "barbarian" was coined in the written records of the civilizations which survived these uprisings, right?

It was the Roman word for foreigner.

[Soren Johnson]

Originally posted by De Gaulle
I have never posted before in this forum, although I have been a regular reader, but I could not resist the temptation of trying to answer Soren's challenge... ;-)

I was just playing a game as the Chinese and 25 horsemen showed up at my doorstep soon after I had switched to Republic.
My personal guess is that government changes are the trigger for the barbarian uprisings.
Philosophically it would make sense (at least in my own little world... ;-) ) since barbarians would be (have been in history) drawn to attack higher forms of civilization. And the word "barbarian" was coined in the written records of the civilizations which survived these uprisings, right?

Additionally, I think it would coincide nicely with the timeline of Theseus and the observation that these uprisings seemed to occur concurrently for other civs as well (exchange of techs/simultaneous government switches).
My 0.02 euro... ;-)

Soren: I LOVE YOUR GAME, please don't be affected by the Coracles of the world.

well, this is probably the closest theory yet posted... it's does not involve governments though. That would be an indirect link...

[De Gaulle]

Merci Soren...
"it does not involve governments though. That would be an indirect link..."
If governments are an indirect link, could the trigger be resource-based then?
By that I mean an uprising would occur if:
a) a barbarian encampment still exists nearby
b) your GNP has reached a set value, making your civ an attractive target for plundering.
The indirect link with government switch would be that in most cases your GNP will increase markedly upon switching governments and therefore reach the triggering value...

Going in the right direction or totally off?

[notyoueither]

Anybody ever had 3 or 4 stacks pop up at once? That's not nice. Man! Not nice.

Anyways...

Global Historical Terms

does not involve governments though. That would be an indirect link

Advances, except Trip said that...

Percentage of map settled ain't it either...

What's left that's global?

Total population?

Total forces in the field? Yup, that's my next bet. Can't have barbs running willy nilly before the civs can at least put up a semblance of defence.

Except mine of course... I usually just evacuate the target town, spend as much gold as possible prior to it (or them) being hit, and then reoccupy the town(s) after the barbs go away. They almost always seem to catch me in the REX stage.

[Catt]

Originally posted by Soren Johnson Firaxis


well, this is probably the closest theory yet posted... it's does not involve governments though. That would be an indirect link...

At least X number of civs in anarchy (undergoing government switches) -- those crafty barbarians wait for the "civilized" to go into disorder before striking?

[X would either be a set value or a variable dependent on number of civs playing].

Catt

[De Gaulle]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Total forces in the field? Yup, that's my next bet. Can't have barbs running willy nilly before the civs can at least put up a semblance of defence.

Except mine of course... I usually just evacuate the target town, spend as much gold as possible prior to it (or them) being hit, and then reoccupy the town(s) after the barbs go away. They almost always seem to catch me in the REX stage.

Interesting idea.
Off topic: I use a similar strategy when threatened by huge stacks of barbarian horsemen. But somehow it feels a bit like an exploit... The first time I used it to save money and redeploy my troops to a town that I could at least hope to save. But Poof! They pillaged 5 gold and then all disappeared. Very surprising... For the interest of the game I think I would have actually "liked" to see them target the remaining cities until they all died fighting...
Every other time they would wipe me out of course...

[notyoueither]

They will also destroy any improvements, production in the works and carry off the citizens to slavery. Hey, better than costing me the garrison in a forlorn hope. Sometimes.

[De Gaulle]

They destroy improvements? I hadn't noticed this; Probably because I didn't have any in these outlying towns...
You are right about saving the garrison, especially since they don't raze the town. A little strategy like this one is probably one of the multiple places where the human player has an advantage over the AI. Just by tweaking the system in a way that was probably not expected, we get to save the cost of the settler, of the garrison and of the plundering of our treasury while the AI pays for it cash.

However, in my current game I pretty much had to ship my entire treasury to Elisabeth for a few techs... Everything considered, this barbarian uprising might come back to haunt me again in a few turns...

[Solver]

Hmm, Soren, is you say that government theory is "the closest" one, it must really be somehow related with you being a tasty target. Certain level achieved, like Republic, x GNP and y population, or Monarchy, y GNP and x population... nah really confused.

I'm eager to see the right answer because I've seen the uprisings so rarely, must be a reason behind it...

[DeepO]

What about a percentage of the world population in disorder? That can happen when switching govs, but is an indirect link...

DeepO

[Solver]

I've just had an uprising! And, no clue why... I didn't do anything special, and my culture was 222 points then... not culture related.

[Jaybe]

Barbarian Plundering

Have you noticed how, individually, barbarians plunder little gold when they enter your now-defenseless town? It is only when they enter it in hordes that they are a signficant financial threat, as each unit plunders a few gold (times 10 or 20?).

[DeepO]

I noticed it diminishes over time, first barbarians run away with 90+ gold, while it diminishes steadily till 10 gold or so. No difference between uprisings and individual, though (at least not in my games)

DeepO

[Panag]

Originally posted by DeepO
I noticed it diminishes over time, first barbarians run away with 90+ gold, while it diminishes steadily till 10 gold or so. No difference between uprisings and individual, though (at least not in my games)

DeepO

hi ,

it depends also on the amount of gold you have , ...

have a nice day

[jshelr]

Rehashing alexman's comment, the AI doesn't seem to build MA much at all and keeps calvary around to 2050. Spent about 20 minutes watching Japan send seemingly hundreds of calvary to their death against a stack of MA yesterday. Japan had had synthetic fibers forever, but no MA, just MI.