Barbarian raids at turn 20? Help!

[Proboscis Monkey]

I am playing on what I assume is the default normal difficulty (prince). I have started two campaigns and at about turn 20 or maybe even a little earlier I am hit by like 6 barbarian units all at once. This early in the game it is impossible to have a force capaalbe of defending against this attack. Is this normal because that is completely ridiculous and there is no way to defend it unless you spend the first 20 turns just making warriors.

[leandrombraz]

Don't let the barbarian scout see your city. If he see your city (enter a tile adjacent to your border), he will go back to the barbarian camp and a raid will spawn to attack you. If you see a barbarian scout, kill it. If the scout have a red exclamation point over it, it's because he already saw your city and is running back to the barbarian camp, you REALLY need to kill it then or prepare for an attack.

Ranged units are better to defend from this attacks, btw. It's good to have a warrior to tank but you want some ranged behind it.

[gallag70]

There seems to be a fairly large amount of variability related to how many barbarians you encounter early in the game. Sometimes its pretty peaceful, and at others they seem to be coming from everywhere.
When I get one of those games with very high barbarian activity, I make it a point to grab the policy card for extra combat strength against barbarians. You just about have to have it to survive, plus in that situation it does give you the opportunity to build up extra experience points for your combat units early in the game.

[Geffalrus]

It's almost always best to use the +5 vs. barbarians policy card early game. Only switch out once you're ready to build up a big army quickly with Agoge or have a big army and want to cut costs with Conscription. That +5 doubles the defense of your Slingers allowing them to not insta-die.

The barbarian thing is pretty luck based. Either they have camps nearby, or they don't. If the camp is near a Horse.......kill it ASAP. You don't want horse barbarians coming after you. If you can find the camp quick, a slinger and warrior can take out the defending Spearman pretty easily. Of course, that leaves your city unguarded so......

Good luck, and do your best.

[hopsblues]

Build slingers

[zxcvbob]

Barbarians with iron are just as bad or maybe worse that horse barbs. But I have only encountered that a little later in the game. That encampment was harder to capture (I wanted the iron) than a walled city.

[Carog the Fat]

use your intial warrior to scout around your city dont send it off in one diretion there is frequently a camp 5-8 hexes from your capital try to find it and attack with your warrior. Attack once heal up then attack twice you should level up, level up to heal then finish the camp it takes about 7-8 turns.

Also create a Scout first as your Scout can fend of thier Scout and help locate the nearby camp. then send him off to find goody huts

With more area revealed you can see when a new barb camp arrives and quickly go and destroy it.

[Red]

Kill all the scouts.

[ltmyers3]

I have found the strategy of putting out a scout, 2-3 slingers (who you then upgrade to archers) and 1-2 warriors (swordsmen) are enough to beat back any barbarian rush. Keep in mind that the first unit a barb group sees and damages they will chase after to their own peril. So when they get you, pull them into the rest of your forces and beat them down. Also, I've noticed that when you don't have any other civs in close proximity the game tends to balance that advantage with more aggressive barb camps. Good luck!

[eel]

ive seen diety ai get overrun before if they get an unlucky spawn. Luck of the draw really if you see lots of barb camps nearby early or lots of barb scouts running around you have to build up military asap!

[psycho.kid]

use them to your advantage...evry camp gives u money. so builidng units to kill them and getting the other stuff trough money balances it out

[zxcvbob]

In my current game: I was being overrun with horse barbs while I was at war with my neighbor. Not sure what turn it was but it was still the ancient era. I pretty much ignored them because I didn't have many improved tiles anyway, and it was more important to kill Hojo. I built walls in all my cities, a warrior garrisoned in the city that was really getting pummeled (he increases the city defense by 10), and 2 spearmen roaming around defending as best they could. All the rest of my units (archers and chariots) were in Japan.

Eventually I captured all the Japanese cities and killed all the barbarians and cleared their camps, it just took a while. I think the important thing was not wasting early production on builders until the barbs are under control (if there's nothing to pillage, the barbs can't heal) and building ancient walls in border cities. Between the war and the barbarians, I only lost one unit --
a scout who sacrificed himself to clear a troublesome encampment. *takes off hat*

Japan was getting harassed by barbarians too; they might have actually helped me, it just didn't seem like it at the time.

[psycho.kid]

exactly what i meant...dont waste ure production for builders...safe it, build units, kill the barbarian camps and get ure workers through gold :D

[Philip j fry]

you need to get scouts and troops to clear them before they become an issue you let them have a camp near a city to long and you get hit with a zerg of them.