Barb Tricks

[Ming]

Yeah Fiji, you can bribe a barbarian king, and he becomes a diplomat! Could be useful if you don't need the money, and you have something to do that needs a diplo

[catullus]

poppawoppa:
Best bargain I've heard about since the purchase of Manhattan island.

C.

[Steve Clark]

Can someone explain to me the deal with bribing barbs? In my current at Emperor, every barb I've bribed gets supported from the nearby city. I had thought in other games, they become NONE. Is it a factor of proximity, level or what?

[poppawoppa]

Steve Clark
I don't know the exact distance limitations, but generally, if the unit you bribe, or find in a hut, is closer to a rival AI civ than it is to your own city, then the unit is a NONE unit. Means no shield support from any of your cities, and if a settler, no food support either. As happened in my tale told in the earlier post, my dip had been able to bribe a couple of dragoons around the Barbarian city, who then were NONE units, then as the dip bribed the entire city, those units were supported from the bribed city, and did cost shield support. Fortunately, there were several Barb Kings, who turned into diplomats which don't require support, of course. Along with the dragoons and legion inside or near the city (total of 5) the city only had to spend 2 shields support for the 5 troops, because I was in Monaracy, and the first 3 are free.

[Ming]

That's a good answer...
But, I just wanted to add that ANY settler you get from a hut will ALWAYS be a non unit.

Yeah, those "wandering nomads" are great. But I've never gotten one when playing on a small map, only large maps (I can't recall ever playing on a medium map).

[Smash]

hmmmm...I have gotten supported settlers from huts.Its rare as all wandering nomads are.I was a little annoyed but got over it quickly

[toofergo]

In my last game, I think I may have beat poppawoppa's bargain buy. I bought Berlin for just over 300 gold. While it only included 3 foot units (next turn riflemen) and 1 dip (next turn spy), it came complete with a NON settler (next turn engineer) and these funny looking pointy mountains that gave me a granary in every city.

[Campo]

I don't have much experience with Barb cities. I've seen a couple in enemy territory but never had much to do with them.

I'm intrigued with the suggestion of letting Barbs take over one of my small cities, and use it as a subsequent source of NONE units.

The price is right -- Barb units are cheap to bribe. Or are they more expensive tp bribe if they're near their own city? Do Barb cities build settlers/engineers?

What are the drawbacks? Would a Barb city ever pose a significant threat, other than to passing caravans?

[poppawoppa]

When I have bribed Barbarian troops, the usual price is 92 gold, or 102 gold, or some other reasonably small amount. The time I bribed the City of Veii, I had to "bribe" my diplomat through a couple of Barb defenders, who were just a few squares from the Barb city. Those troops just cost the "usual" 92 or 102 gold. Nothing higher than when I have had a chance to get a Barb troop by bribery real near one of my major cities. So, no, I don't think the price of bribery goes up for Barb troops if you are closer to that Barb city.
Recently, late in a Democracy game, I took a transport (no unhappiness while away from the city) and a few spys (no upkeep and no unhappiness) and went Barb hunting. Found several wandering around on a long peninsula of land attached at one far end to the main continent where the civilizations were built, and was able to bribe several NONE Dragoons for my Army. When they were later upgraded by Leo's to Cavalry, I had about 8-10 NONE Cavalry with which to man some of my fortress outposts in the hills outside MY territory.

[Steve Clark]

poppawoppa: That's a very good strategy. I like the idea of the transport because many times when I bribed NONE barbs, they take too long to get anywhere to be useful.

[BlackJack]

When you bribe those far away barb stragglers, head 'em for the nearest ai and wait for them to instantly transport the units back to your nearest city. I think this also improves your tribute success rate.

And a little variation on a suggestion I saw a long time ago:

When you're out exploring kind of early and spot that attractive distant landmass that's closer to the ai than you, hustle back with a settler, a diplomat, a defender, and a mobil unit. Build a fortress on good terrain for the units and diplomat and road one square. Head for one of the good city locations, build the city and wait for the barbarians. They'll show soon enough and take the city. And you'll have a steady supply of "Non" units until you can return with more settlers to prepare other city sites - the barbs'll keep the ai out 'til you're ready. Then incite revolt in the barb city, found the others on prepared sites, get some love, and you've got some nice distant cities well defended with non units.

[Mark_Everson]

Sometimes at least in MP the barbs don't offer to be bought off instead of sacking an empty city. They just take an ungarrisoned city without even asking, even when you have lots of gold. (I had removed the garrison so that the city wouldn't be killed since it was very small.) A few quick tests lead me to believe that if you are ahead on the powergraph they don't ask. At least that's my guess. That certainly wasn't the case in 2.42 as far as I can recall.

Does anyone know more about it than my guess?

[Taian]

Once you hit AD, the barbs don't bother to ask before sacking the city. The only exception is if you have like 4 or 5k gold in your treasury. They will then demand enough of it to drop you all the way down to 50. If you're still in BC though, I believe the barbs always ask first.

[Campo]

I'm nearing the end of a game that produced fantastic barb units. Early on I discovered that the Russians had 3 cities about 30 squares south of me. I headed that way with a settler, defender, and diplomat with the intention of building a city on a choke point and perhaps bribing one of their cities.

As I got close Barbarians captured Moscow. At first I thought I'd bribe it, getting a cheap city in enemy territory. But when I got near I realized what a goldmine it could be. I sent my settler back because I didn't want to have the closest city. I put my defender on a mountain between the Barb city and the other Russian cities, so the Russians couldn't take it back. I placed my diplomat a few squares away from the Barb city and started bribing units -- getting a regular supply of NONs.

I've used it the whole game -- must have gotten 30 NON units. I got Leo's, so they kept getting upgraded. The only drawback is that, except for two elephants, they were all defensive units. Still, all my cities and choke points are defended by NON units, and the only supported units are my attackers.

It was a steady cash drain, but well worth the cost. Now if I can just figure out how to reproduce it in future games...

[Mark_Everson]

Thanks Taian, that could well be it. It certainly wasn't really early in the game, and it may have been just barely AD. I felt really stupid because I reduced my treasury buying stuff I didn't really need to reduce the barb extortion amt, and then they never asked .