Start with 0 city-states but Barbarian Clans Mode

[Lenox]

Has anyone tried this or know what the resulting map would feel like?

Assuming I start with the same number of Civs (12 for Huge map), would this result in more early-game barbarians due to more free space?

While I'm interested in doing this for fun, I'm also interested in reducing end-game load times from having too many city-states. And I don't mind if there's a reduction in early-game friendly city-states, even though I do love my Protectorate Wars.

For example, I started my current game with the default settings for a Huge map, which is 12 Civs and 18 city-states. At turn 275, with about 60% of the map uncovered, I have 26 city-states met. So I'm guessing the full map has about 40 city-states, and that's excluding the ones that AI civs were able to capture. I'd like to pare that down a bit without just arbitrarily reducing the 18 to 9 or something and then risk having the map be lopsided.

I just returned after an 18 month absence, so maybe I'm forgetting how some things work. I'd like to try this myself, maybe one of you already knows the answer and can save me from finding out too late into my next game.

[Cryten]

Empty because 0 city states means they are forbidden from spawning, so the barb camps cannot turn into new ones. You have to have at least 1 city state available.

[Lenox]

Originally posted by Cryten:

Empty because 0 city states means they are forbidden from spawning, so the barb camps cannot turn into new ones. You have to have at least 1 city state available.

That's real helpful. Thanks.

[Evrach]

Can't imagine how long are your games with this settings O_O

[Lenox]

Originally posted by Evrach:

Can't imagine how long are your games with this settings O_O

https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Speed_(Civ6)
Standard (normal speed - 500 turns)

My last game was on standard. It ended a little past turn 450. And took about a week of real life time.

My current game is also on standard. I'm at around turn 300.

I used to play on Epic, but I'm trying some new things to ease myself back into Civ.

How about you?

[Maya-Neko]

The game shouldn't play that much different, since they're more like bonus rather than a necessity (except for Pericles, which obviously can't use its leader bonus without being suzerein of some states)

And barbarians can spawn on any tile, which doesn't have vision on it by either a civ or city state. However, their spawn rate isn't that big, but when they spawn, they're more likely to spawn in annoying spaces, since in most games with normal city state numbers, they start to spawn mostly on islands and in snow areas, thus you can easily expect them to com from specific directions in most games, while they might've more space to spawn more to the middle of a continent, when there's plenty of free space.

And obviously AI civs tend to spam settlers, so expect them to have more cities, which you need to destroy in case, that you want to achieve a domination victory

[Vahe]

I always play with no city states and Clans mode on. I prefer the islands map because its a good mix of "continents" and a fair amount of smaller islands to colonize, and more importantly: I dont use the last DLC that adds disasters and the world congress (I hate the game mechanics introduced in that DLC, and I have hated the world congress ever since it was introduced in earlier iterations of the game - I wish there was an option to filter it out of the game).

Im not sure on this: By not using the last DLC, I believe I can start my games with MORE AI civs in the standard size map: with a max of up to 12 AI opponents (I believe - never counted them). When I set the game up like this in a "standard" world size (not huge) with the difficulty ramped up a bit (either immortal or one level easier), I get a good challenge that feels more realistic than having a bunch of mindless peaceful city-states on the map just taking up space. A note about my preferred gameplay: I play with no victory conditions. If I can survive until my civ reaches future techs, I chalk it up as a win. lol.

So to answer your question: Im sure you know barbarians will pop up all throughout the eras, but in my experience (not using the last DLC), using a standard map with no city states and AI civs colonizing everywhere, barbarians effectively stop pestering me unless I leave a large chunk of land unclaimed. Ive never had them pop up on small chunks of unclaimed hexes unless it was an island. At the end of the game for me, average surviving AI civs have about 10-12 cities each, and I usually end up with a few more. The turns progress very rapidly for me in this config. No waiting at all. Never played like this on a huge map though. I suspect the barbarians will conquer the world in that scenario... And anarchy shall rule... lol. Cheers.

[Evrach]

Originally posted by Lenox:

Originally posted by Evrach:

Can't imagine how long are your games with this settings O_O

https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Speed_(Civ6)
Standard (normal speed - 500 turns)

My last game was on standard. It ended a little past turn 450. And took about a week of real life time.

My current game is also on standard. I'm at around turn 300.

I used to play on Epic, but I'm trying some new things to ease myself back into Civ.

How about you?

Online speed only. Most of the games are 80 to 130 turns long, so ~3 to 6 hours long for the longest ones.

[Lenox]

Originally posted by Evrach:

Originally posted by Lenox:

https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Speed_(Civ6)
Standard (normal speed - 500 turns)

My last game was on standard. It ended a little past turn 450. And took about a week of real life time.

My current game is also on standard. I'm at around turn 300.

I used to play on Epic, but I'm trying some new things to ease myself back into Civ.

How about you?

Online speed only. Most of the games are 80 to 130 turns long, so ~3 to 6 hours long for the longest ones.

Makes sense. Haven’t played Online speed in a while.

[Lenox]

Originally posted by Cryten:

Empty because 0 city states means they are forbidden from spawning, so the barb camps cannot turn into new ones. You have to have at least 1 city state available.

Thanks again for this. Now that I've completed my game starting with 1 city-state with Barbarian Clans enabled, it was somewhat what I was looking for. My standard game's default city-state size was 18, and I ended up with 13 in that game. And it felt good. Barb presence all game but not too many. For my next game, I might do 9 + Barb Clans. 13 was a bit lower than what I wanted.