Are Barbarian Galley Overpowered?

[Kickz]

I only just started Civ6 and playing on Prince difficulty.

I'm unable to defeat barbarian galleys with my Quadrireme.

Every time I build 2 Quadrireme and encounter 2 Barb Galleys, they attack my first ship together. My first ship is near dead without enough XP to upgrade/heal.

Next turn I can't counter attack the Galley with my damaged ship as I would die as well.

2nd Ship I attack 1 Galley and its still alive, turn 3 booth galleys kill my 2nd ship leaving my 1st ship near death to run away or die too.

I have gone through this same result 3 times now and the only option I see is to build 5 or more ships to take out 2 of the Gallyes.

Surely this can't be right?

[Copernicus]

In Civ VI, warships have been loosely classified into "melee" and "ranged" types. As with land units, ranged types have the ability to attack without suffering a counterattack, but are inferior at close-range warfare.

So as with land warfare, it is best to screen units weak at melee (such as quadriremes) with ones strong at melee (like galleys).

[Kickz]

Originally posted by Copernicus:

In Civ VI, warships have been loosely classified into "melee" and "ranged" types. As with land units, ranged types have the ability to attack without suffering a counterattack, but are inferior at close-range warfare.

So as with land warfare, it is best to screen units weak at melee (such as quadriremes) with ones strong at melee (like galleys).

Ah, I never noticed that the Quadrireme were weaker in melee. I thought they were the stronger units in general.

That makes now perfect sense why I was getting my butt kicked over and over by the Barb Galleys.

Thank you :)

[colostmy4]

Usually when attacking with ships, I wait until my ships health bar turns yellow or red and then I run away to my territory and heal. One disadvantage barbarian units have is that they don't heal.

[noisyturtle]

I don't really get the Barbarian power scaling. I'll produce a Warrior with an upgrade, and still lose to some random Barb Warrior group with less health. Do they scale with the Age, or an average of everyone's power on the map? Because they are not even with regular units.

[jmerry82]

Barbarian units cannot promote and do not heal from skipping their turn. Other than that, they fight exactly as the units they look like. They can get fortification bonuses, and they can get terrain defense bonuses. Pay attention to those numbers in the unit description panel; if you're attacking into a barbarian warrior that's fortified on a hill for +9 defense, your warrior isn't going to do great unless you have some bonuses like the "Discipline" policy card (+5) or the "Battlecry" promotion (+7). And in that example, you're still taking more damage than the barbarian if you only have one of those bonuses and the barbarian isn't heavily injured.

Back on the thread's original topic, the advantage of quadriremes in naval combat is that they don't take damage when attacking. Their ranged attack simply does damage to the enemy with no immediate retaliation. But when they do get counterattacked - well, galleys have strength 30 and quadriremes have defense strength 20. A couple counterattacks like that, and you've probably lost the ship. Best to retreat your quadriremes to home waters to heal after they take a hit.
The other advantage, of course, is that a quadrireme can attack land units. Naval melee units can only attack things they can reach (units on the water, cities), but naval ranged units can attack anything inside their weapon range.

[kholtby]

Originally posted by jmerry82:

Barbarian units cannot promote and do not heal from skipping their turn. Other than that, they fight exactly as the units they look like.

You missed that they are produced completely differently and the AI can pop three camps in your immediate vicinity even within the first few turns. And that if any civ starts with seafaring tech, can spawn galleys and possibly even quadremes right off the bat and all this even at the lowest difficulty settings.

[Copernicus]

Originally posted by kholtby:

Originally posted by jmerry82:

Barbarian units cannot promote and do not heal from skipping their turn. Other than that, they fight exactly as the units they look like.

You missed that they are produced completely differently and the AI can pop three camps in your immediate vicinity even within the first few turns. And that if any civ starts with seafaring tech, can spawn galleys and possibly even quadremes right off the bat and all this even at the lowest difficulty settings.

True! It is convenient that the game offers you so many riches so early; lots of barbarians to level up your early units, and lots of camps to pillage for cash. :)

You've gotta get used to how the barbarians fight. They only rush a city if one of their scouts notices the city and reports back; they tend to attack anything in front of them, and focus on the weakest unit first; and as mentioned their units can't upgrade and can't heal.

So, fight wars of attrition against them. Hit and run. Use terrain to your advantage. Hide in your capital if needed. Retreat your units towards city-states or other players to draw them into the fight! Lots of ways to beat barbarians...