Barbarian (Civ5)

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Barbarians are loosely-organized bands of "wild" people that form automatically throughout the game, based in encampments in land that isn't owned by any civilization or a city-state.

Tech Progression

Unlike in previous games, barbarians will advance in technologies beyond the Medieval Era, being capable of spawning units equal to that of what the most advanced civilization can produce at the time. This is especially true if Raging Barbarians is turned on, with hostile barbarians being produced with new technologies almost the turn the first civilization finishes researching it. It may be theorized that these aren't old-fashioned barbarians anymore, but rather bandits...or in the later eras, "freedom fighters," terrorists, or drug cartels.

Behavior and Activities

Barbarians in Civilization V are unlike the ones in Civilization IV, in the sense that they do not make cities like civilizations can - their "cities" are their encampments, which produce only military units. The rate of encampment spawning depends on the difficulty level, becoming greater on higher difficulties.

Barbarians are always hostile to all civilizations and city-states, and will spawn fighting units in each encampment until it is destroyed. Barbarian encampments typically spawn a unit at a time, at which the unit will sometimes start roaming the lands, or otherwise stay right in the encampment. Unlike civilization units, barbarian units do not use up a strategic resource.

Possible barbarian units include the ones unavailable to any playable civilizations, such as the brute (which has the same strength as a warrior) and the hand-axe. Encampments built on a coast also have the ability to spawn galleys and other naval units.

The barbarians' main activity is harassing cities. They will move in and try to pillage improvements, attacking the most important ones first (those accessing a luxury resource, for example). If injured, they heal if they pillage an improvement. With enough units nearby barbarians will begin to attack cities; if brought to zero health, a city will be pillaged and may lose gold, population and buildings.

They also go after civilians and try to capture them (move in the same tile they occupy). Captured civilians are then moved to the nearest encampment, where they are held captive until someone clears the encampment. The civilian unit is then freed and whoever cleared the encampment gets to choose whether to take it for themselves, or return it to its original owner (which will net a nice boost in diplomatic relations with an AI leader).

Finally, in Brave New World, barbarians will also pillage the trade routes they can reach. This will go on throughout the game.

Barbarian units roam the countryside (and the seas), all the time, attacking at will. However, they won't attack stronger units, or ones that are currently in a strong position (e.g. on a hill or fortified). When there are multiple targets, they usually attack the weakest unit, taking into account their health. There will be one barbarian unit at each encampment at all times, guarding it in a fortified stance. Depending on the difficulty setting, though, this unit may go out a short way to make an opportunistic attack or capture an unwary civilian unit.

Earning Experience When Fighting Barbarians

Units earn experience normally when fighting barbarians, but they can't earn more than two promotions through that experience. This means that fighting barbarians can be a good source of experience for units early in the game, but later on, when they've earned many promotions, or when new units are constructed with two promotions, barbarians become more of an annoyance than an opportunity.

Strategy

It is very important to defend against barbarians during the early game - they, rather than other civilizations, will usually be the main danger in this period. Always try to keep a military unit in every city, keep it alert for roving barbarians, and move it to protect workers and improvements when they are spotted. When moving Settlers, it is safest to move them together with a military unit. Get ranged units as soon as possible to start clearing encampments safely.

Usually, units enjoy a combat bonus against barbarian units. This bonus, however, diminishes as the difficulty level increases. This bonus can be increased by adopting the Honor Social Policy, which gives units an additional bonus against barbarians, and also rewards Culture culture based on the strength of the barbarian unit killed.

If playing as Germany, there is a chance to get barbarian units to join you if they are defeated while defending an encampment, which helps your early military. Also, certain other special abilities allow civilizations to "convert" barbarians to their side. In the base game, the Ottomans have a 50% chance to recruit a barbarian naval unit (and earn gold) by moving a ship next to it. While city-states react to this as if the barbarian unit was destroyed, no culture will be earned even if the Honor Social Policy is active.

After trade routes are established, be on the lookout for barbarians near the route. In the beginning of the game a lot of land remains unexplored and dark, which is the ideal situation for spawning barbarian encampments. Their units can pillage a route before before anyone is aware of the threat - they can even turn a land trade unit into a mounted barbarian unit. So, dedicate a couple of units to patrol the route between the source and target city of the trade route.

City-states will occasionally post seek-and-destroy quests against barbarian encampments in the early game. Try to complete them, because they give a large Influence influence boost if completed, and are an easy way to make friends (and even allies) with them. To do this, try to form a task force of one melee and one ranged unit. Move them to the more distant city-states; destroy those encampments closer to home territory with the units guarding the cities. Barbarian encampments are often pretty close to civilized territory, so when one is discovered, friendly units may be in a good position to attack it. Wait until a city-state marks it with a quest, or destroying the encampment will not yield any influence. If other civilizations have military units nearby, they may swoop in and seize the encampment after it has been weakened by a turn or two of attacks. If this happens, the gold reward and influence boost will go to them. Try to avoid this by blocking them as much as possible, or if necessary, wait until they leave the area.