The February 2021 Civilization 6 game update added a free game mode called the Barbarian Clans game mode. Barbarians are a big part of the game, especially early on before meeting any other big civilizations. This addition allowed players to strategize how they approached Barbarian Outposts and to think ahead.
This guide will dive deep into the Civilization 6 Barbarian Clans game mode and explain everything there is to know about it. Here, players will be able to learn all the different interactions they can have with a Barbarian Outpost and what their consequences may be.
How Barbarian Clans Work
It is particularly difficult to deal with Barbarian Outposts in the early game when the Barbarian Clans mode has been activated. However, they do provide unique gameplay features that can make a Civilization 6 game much more interesting and lively.
With the Barbarian Clans game mode on, camps will not be automatically cleared when a unit walks into its tile like they would usually. Players have three choices when they decide to take on a Barbarian Outpost in the Barbarian Clans game mode.
- Disperse: Camps can be dispersed, and this will destroy them entirely just like outside this game mode. This rewards the unit with ten XP, getting them closer to a promotion.
- Raid: The player can get a unit to raid a Barbarian Outpost, granting the civilization some Gold. Camps can only be raided every ten turns, and doing so spawns a Barbarian enemy that causes the player's unit that raided it to be ejected from the Outpost's tile. This will incentivize the Barbarians to maintain their violent ways and decrease their progress toward City-State conversion.
- Ignore: If the player ignores the other two options, they can interact with the Barbarian Outpost in other ways, without losing progress towards its City-State conversion.
Dispersing is the only way to get rid of a Barbarian Outpost entirely. While it remains active before it becomes a City-State, there are other possible interactions that can happen between the player and the Barbarians.
To use these interactions, the player must click on the Barbarian Clan's City-State conversion bar above their Outpost tile.
- Bribe: When a civilization is in trouble, they can pay Barbarians to get them to stop invading their territory and being so hostile. Various civilizations can bribe them at once. The Gold needed to do this will increase as the player settles more cities.
- Hire: It's possible to buy military units from Barbarians with Gold if gamers hire them. These units are actually much cheaper than they would normally be when purchased at a City Center, and it's even possible to hire unique land units this way. Once a unit is purchased, a cooldown will initiate, and the player must then wait a few turns before purchasing another unit.
- Incite: Players can incentivize Barbarian Clans to attack any other civilization's cities or a City-State as long as they've got enough Gold to pay the necessary fee. The only requirement is that both the player and the Barbarian Outpost must have met the target. This is a great option when the player is at war with another leader or City-State.
- Ransom: When a Builder or a Settler aren't being escorted, they are extremely vulnerable as they are unable to defend themselves. If a Barbarian unit comes into their tile, it will capture them and the Civ will lose it. Gamers can take military units to attempt to chase them, but sometimes this proves unsuccessful, and they might lose track of them. When this happens, the player can pay the Barbarian Clan that kidnapped their unit and get it back.
How To Decide What To Do With Barbarian Outposts
Barbarian encampments can turn into City-States, but this depends on the interactions that other Civs have with them. They can be incentivized to stop their violent ways and eventually turn into City-States, or they can be encouraged to remain aggressive and lose progress toward this transformation. Bribing and hiring will count towards City-State conversion while inciting the Barbarians, raiding them and paying their ransoms will do the opposite.
Deciding whether it's best to disperse a Barbarian Outpost, keep it up as an encampment, or let it become a City-State, is entirely up to the player, but there are certain benefits that may arise in each of these situations.
A player that wants to settle near where a Barbarian Outpost spawns should take care of it before it becomes a City-State. It is much easier to disperse an outpost than to have to go to war with a City-State and conquer it - especially if it gets walls as defensive reinforcement. However, that doesn't mean it's not possible to keep it as an encampment for a while before the player is ready to get out a Settler and put down a city.
Gamers might want to keep hiring units or using Barbarians in their favor to take care of enemy leaders nearby. For example, each time a player hires a Barbarian unit and adds it to their Civ, it'll increase the Outpost's progress toward becoming a City-State. Once this actually happens, the player will no longer be able to continue hiring units. So, in order to keep the City-State progress bar steady and balanced, the player should get a military unit to occasionally raid the Barbarian Outpost.
When a Barbarian Outpost is far enough from the areas that the player will want to get for themselves, it's not really hurting another, and they will only be able to benefit from it once it becomes a City-State. In Civilization 6, City-States are smaller communities that can be used as powerful tools to help the player win a game, especially when going for a Diplomacy Victory.
If the player has met a Barbarian Outpost before it becomes a City-State, they will automatically be acquainted with them once the conversion happens, and they settle a City-State. Being Suzerain of a City-State increases the amount of Diplomacy Points the player gains per turn, gives them access to the visibility of the City-State's units, allows the production of unique units or improvements, and many times grants unique bonus yields.
On top of this, when at war or going for a Domination win, the City-State will declare war on the player's sworn enemies and the player can also temporarily levy their military for a certain amount of Gold. This can be particularly advantageous if the player is Suzerain of a City-State near an enemy player, or even if an enemy is out to get them, and they have nearby troops that will help defend their cities.
Overall, having control of various City-States across a map can give gamers a great advantage over their enemy.
Barbarian Clan Types
There are all sorts of different Barbarian Clans with this game mode - seven, in total. The type of clan of a Barbarian Outpost will be a direct result of its spawning area and the tiles that surround it. Each clan type will produce different military units for the player to encounter and for the player to hire if they wish to do so.
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Clan Type |
Preferred Spawning Environment |
Preferred Military Units |
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Chariot Clan |
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Flatland Clan |
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Hills Clan |
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Jungle Clan |
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Rover Clan |
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Seafaring Clan |
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Woodland Clan |
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As the player sends out their Scouts into the world to get to know the areas surrounding their cities, they will surely come across most of the Barbarian Clan types. The type of map that gamers decide they want to play on when setting up their Civilization 6 match will also influence the clans that they will come across most often. For example, when playing on a map with a Sea Level set to High, it is likely that the player will often cross paths with Seafaring Clans. They may have different names, but they function just the same.
Civilization 6 is available for iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.