Barbarians are hostile unaffiliated units in Civilization 6 that attack anything they see throughout games. They attack units and settlements and ruin city tiles and districts just for the fun of it. Maps are full of outposts (camps) that spawn barbarians in increasing numbers if you don’t eliminate them. So, you can’t afford to ignore the barbarian threat during the early game period in Civ 6 when they’re especially prevalent. Here are some tips for dealing with the Civilization 6 barbarians during games.
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Select the Discipline Policy Card
Discipline is a military policy card you start with almost from the outset (unlocked with Code of Laws) that’s invaluable for fighting barbarian hordes. That card gives your units a +5 combat strength bonus when fighting barbarians. So, make sure you have that policy selected throughout the early game period until you’ve effectively eliminated all barbarian encampments near your civilization’s settlements.
The Discipline policy
Select an Oligarchy Government
You can further increase your military units’ combat strength against the Civilization 6 barbarians by unlocking and selecting the Oligarchy government during the early game. This tier 1 government gives all your melee land units a +4 combat strength bonus. Thus, your units will have a combined +9 combat strength bonus for fighting barbarians when your civilization has an Oligarchy government with Discipline policy selected. That’s a big, combined combat bonus that will enable you to overcome the barbarians’ numerical superiority with fewer military units during your early-game clashes with them.
Remember, you don’t have to stick with any selected government. You can always change your government to another preferred choice after eliminating barbarian camps. However, Oligarchy is the best tier 1 government choice for waging war against the Civilization 6 barbarians.
The Oligarchy government
Protect Settlers From Barbarians
Settlers are very important to expanding your civilization during the early game. Nothing is more annoying than barbarians capturing your settlers when you’re moving them to establish a new settlement. So, send a military unit to escort a settler when moving into unexplored map territory during the early game where barbarians could lurk. It’s especially important to do that when moving settlers over longer distances. Doing so will keep your settlers safe from barbarians.
Kill Barbarian Scouts When You See Them
Scouts are seemingly harmless units that are also the ears and eyes of barbarian camps. They’ll wake up and alert their camps when they spot one of your civilization’s settlements. Barbarian outposts then spawn units more rapidly and send them to attack your spotted settlements their scouts spotted. So, kill all red barbarian scouts as soon as you see them to prevent them from alerting outposts.
Build Ancient Walls in Settlements
Ancient walls are extremely useful for killing Civilization 6 barbarians when they assault your settlements. You can utilize a wall’s ranged attack to inflict damage and kill off all barbarian units that advance toward a settlement. Such ranged attacks will usually at least push barbarians into retreat, minimizing the damage they can do to your settlement’s tiles. The walls will be enough to defend your settlements from barbarians, enabling you to utilize more units for attacking camps.
A ranged attack against barbarian ships
I also recommend building walls in coastal cities that are vulnerable to barbarian naval attacks You can then utilize your wall’s ranged attack for sinking their ships without any naval units of your own. This will save you from recruiting to fight barbarians at sea.
Utilize Terrain to Your Advantage
You’ve got to fight smarter when in combat with a larger number of Civilization 6 barbarians. To do so, place your units on terrain tiles that offer defence modifier combat bonuses when they’re near barbarians. Hills, woods, and rainforest tiles all have +3 defence modifiers you should use to your advantage. Fortify units on those terrain tiles to replenish health when necessary and try to attack barbarians from them.
Fight Barbarians With Unique Units
Civilization 6 barbarians don’t have unique units. However, all civilizations have unique units superior to the standard ones they replace. The Roman Legion, Aztec Eagle Warrior, and Sumerian War-Cart are formidable early game unique units with which you can make light work of barbarians when playing with their civilizations. For example, a Legion has a 40-melee attack that can be increased to 49 against barbarians with the Discipline policy card and Oligarchy government bonus. Such a boosted Legion is far too strong for barbarian Slingers, Warriors, Spearman, and even Horseman units.
Select the Barbarian Clans Game Mode
Barbarians Clans is a Civilization 6 game mode that gives you entirely new options for dealing with barbarians when selected. Selecting that mode when starting a game adds a new dimension to dealing with Civilization 6 barbarians. Clicking on a barbarian outpost bar in that game mode enables you to select diplomatic options for bribing, hiring units, and inciting attacks on other civilizations.
Barbarian diplomacy options
The bribe option will persuade a barbarian outpost not to attack for a certain number of turns after paying it some gold. This also adds points towards a camp’s city-state conversion. Barbarian camps turn into city-states that won’t attack when their conversion bars fill up. So, it’s not so important to annihilate barbarian outposts when you can deal with them more peacefully. Selecting to bribe will buy you more time to recruit units to defend against a barbarian encampment and speed up its city-state conversion.
You can also select new Raid, Disperse Clan, and Ignore options when you attack and occupy barbarian outposts. The Disperse Clan option destroys a camp as usual. However, selecting the Raid option will loot some gold from an outpost. One barbarian unit then automatically reappears on the outpost for you to deal with. This option enables you to recoup gold you paid from bribing camps or profit from occupying them, turning barbarian encampments into handy cash cows.
The Disperse Clan option
The Civilization 6 barbarians are a nuisance that can seriously hinder game progress if not handled effectively. The tips above will help you eliminate barbarian camps near your civilization more efficiently during the early game, preventing them from trampling over your cities. However, seldom can you ever kill off barbarians entirely since they usually have camps all over maps.
