OCC: defending against barbarians

[Jack be Slow]

Here's a tip that most of you already know about: so long as you have a single city, any barbarian assaults upon that city will always fail. And when you add another city to your civ, you lose this benefit for the rest of the game, right?

If that's true, would you also lose the same benefit if you came upon an "advanced civilization" via a goody hut? What kind of impact do all of you think this would have on the One-City Challenge -- if it's agreed that games should not be reloaded but instead continued with rush-built settlers?

[Dino the Dinosore]

Is this true for all levels, including deity?

[Jack be Slow]

Dino: I've been playing the OCC on deity level several times now, and I'll often put off building defensive units until after I build HG and Colossus. In many of the instances when a barbarian shows up, I put my NON settler into my city, and even his cavalry won't lay a scratch on me.

[Sieve Too]

Wow! I didn't know about this! Looks like I'll stop worrying about defending with just Warriors early in the game. Come to think of it, I think I've seen this before. I have had my wall-less, 1 Warrior OCC city withstand not one but two attacks from barb Archers. Didn't make sense.

Unfortunately, while your city may survive, barbs will still tear up your roads, irrigation and mines. With only a single Settler, it sure takes a long time to repair.

[Peter Hennesy]

Cant say Ive ever noticed this, Ill have to try it. Usually though send out some non units to occupy a mountain or tow and the barbs always seem to go for them

[Francis]

Yes, this is a standard feature at deity and I suppose lower levels--your first city cannot be taken by barbarians. Any units in the city, even settlers or caravans, what have you, cannot be killed, will not even take damage. I believe that they can walk into an undefended city, though, so don't make that mistake. And of course barbs can kill units outside the city.

I didn't realize the effect expired with a second city, though I never really thought about it. I wonder if the effect returns if you get an advanced tribe city and starve it away.

[Carolus Rex]

Always work on deity.

Not sure about the advanced tribe case, but my guess is that the cities aren't "barbproof" anymore.

Carolus

[Bird]

Found out the hard way in an MP game over the weekend that you can build additional cities, lose them to barbs (or, presumably, another civ) and still retain the effects described here. I'm not sure whether it is restricted to your first city or always comes into play when you have just one city, even if it's not your irst one. Also, I wonder if barbs can ever do damage to your first city, even if you have other cities. I can't recall ever noticing one way or the other.

[rah]

Bumping this thread because it is relevant to a discussion happening in another thread.

RAH
I know this doesn't constitute proof, and I will continue to search for the other thread.
I just would like a real answer since I base strategy on this fact every now and then.

[War4ever]

your capital can take losses.... if you have more than one city but in all likely hood after testing this theory out , you will develop vet units in the early attacks making later ones appear to be weak as well..... however i did lose one warrior in 5 similations of this as he failed to earn vet status while having five other cities..... only a legi0n killed my warrior.... it repelled horse , chariot and archer.... and i was surprised when he didn't achieve vet status after all those attacks even though my other units did

[Scouse Gits]

How do you build a Wonder in OCC without defenders - surely they are vital for martial law?
But yes despite things looking more than a little grim at times I have never lost an OCC city to barbarians.

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Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor

[Carolus Rex]

At one point in my first successful OCC I only had a horse defending my city. When barbs attacked (dragoons I think), the horsie's strength bar didn't move at all...

It works, all right!

Carolus

[KhanMan]

If I understand this right, wouldn't it actually make a OCC-game easier if you set the barb level to the highest possible? That way, other civs would constantly have to defend themselves, while you could sit on your little island...

-KhanMan
"Xairo en tous kakous!"

Well, setting the game to "Raging Hordes" gives 150 gold for a barb leader instead of the normal 100... But (there's always a but) barbs are quite capable of pillaging those mines and irrigation that took so long to build... So, just depending on that lone warrior is not the smartest way to go