Any general tips? I started out a real game and the AI kept sending barbarians my way
Build scouts early and let them automate to uncover the map. When you find a barbarian camp, kill it.
Unless you're absolutely sure there are no barbarians around, don't send settlers too far without an escort.
Barbarians can't destroy your capital, but they CAN destroy any other remote cities. So at the very least make sure you have a slinger fortified in your other cities until you reach the point when you can start building city walls (which give your cities their own ranged attack).