It’s an interesting game indeed. I probably followed the wrong strategy, but I couldn’t reach the victory condition on Easy after a half-hour session.
Viewing post in Barbarians (DOS) jam comments
It probably takes a few games to get the strategies down. I can't say how many, as I was learning as I was writing it (the original version 15 years ago). But you might also have just been unlucky. If your cities are far away from the barbarian invasion and there's a bunch of mountains or forests in the way, they'll have chance to build up their numbers before you get there.