non militaristic civs and barracks

[Artifex]

Emperor Level. When your a non-militaristic civ and doing an early archer rush or going to war somewhat early. Do you build barracks or even bother?

If you have an opponent or two fairly close..you have maybe 3 or 4 cities. Do you build barracks?

What about a late ancient age war? Swordmen..how many barracks should you have?

[DaveMcW]

A non-militaristic barracks pays off in terms of hitpoints-per-shield after you spend 160 shields on military (including the cost of the barracks). A babylonian bowman rush, for example, would not use a barracks.

The warrior -> swordman upgrade is interesting since you are limited by gold as well as shields. Using the exchange rate 1 shield = 2 gold, a non-militaristic barracks pays off after 4 warriors.