Yes, I know horse and others will say I'm a wimp. Fine. I'm just having fun.

1. superheadstart. set to Deity +4 (don't even try it, it's called on my machine) (see "super Deity" thread for how to do this) and Barbarian Wrath. at beginning of game open cheat menu, and give yourself all techs. that's it. no more cheating allowed. save it as scenario if that cheat button at the bottom of the build menu is too tempting.

Surprising as it may seem. This is still difficult. I went Fundy before building first city, and churned out fanatics (only twice as expensive as warriors) and flooded the map. When I came upon a viking city, I lost about 5 fanatics to a defending rifleman (WHERE IN HE** DID THEY GET THAT!), and the real problem began when Barbarians arose. I don't know if it's the barb setting, or the difficulty level, or a combination, but when barbs arise, it is a HORDE!!.
on a side note about half the huts I opened revealed barbs, only about 6 or so, but not so bad. when there's an uprising, there's a WHOLE LOT. they spread from a central point, and keep coming from that point for dozens of turns as the ones next to it move away. I counted about 80 Barbs from a single uprising covering the map. might have been closer to a hundred. I forget how many I killed.
And they're mean suckers , too. the two uprisings I've seen in BC years were either Cannons and Fanatics, or Cavalry and Partisans.
The AI must have an advantage against these guys, because I saw a phalanx hold against about 4 cannon on the same turn. you don't have that advantage.

Thank You!

I like the idea of barbarian wrath - they might actually end up with several cities, making them a true factor in the game. Does it work with other settings being normal?

Up to my knowledge, it does. But remember that because of the AI vs Barbarains cheat, most of the red cities will come from your empire ... Fun to play, though !