the celtic peacekeepers!

/edit Ive included a lot of pictures here, which might take a very long time to load

This is my first full game on conquests, Ive decided not to play for an all-out victory. Instead i will try to be honourable, no breaking of treaties, and no razing of enemy cities.

Also, I will not strive to conquer enemy land completely. I will respect other cultures and their territory. So in war, i will take cities from the enemy only to achieve peace terms, and then i will hand back any gains to their rightful owners. However, I may keep some cities to act as military bases, or to limit the strength of an aggressive power.

Also I will try not to let any other civ go extinct. If possible, i will fight a war to reclaim the land of any civ that is being wiped out, and hand their cities back to them

The nature-worshiping celts will never cut down trees. I will even plant new forests in areas without very many of them (flat endless grassland just looks ugly to me). Any pollution will be kept to a minimum and must be dealt with fast so as not to offend the godess.

However, overiding all this will be the need to survive at all costs, by any means, if it comes to that.

Ive modded the game for extra ship movement and extra hit points on all experience levels, to counter act the extreemness of the random combat and make it more averaged out. Ill be playing with most of the new conquest civs. Also, a.i to a.i trading is reduced, to make world trade more intresting. Culture is kept on capture of a city. Otherwise the game is as normal.

So ill try to be a 'good guy' and help the weak nations survive, while trying to grow strong myself.....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The start of the celtic story:

in 5000bc the high druids decided that the celts have to become more civilized, and expand and build a powerful nation to ensure that nature is respected and to ensure world peace.

Soon a settling expedition headed out into the unkown, accompanied by brave warriors, to share our peace and joy with the world. But disaster struck, as they ran into a barbarian horde. Their escorts were killed and our people were captured, or worse.

This is a major blow to our people. There were few families in Artefold that did not loose a loved one or a relative. It took years to recover. But the new generation shared one creed - All barbarian warriors must die! And so the celtic military tradition was founded - Warriors with selfless devotion to the people and the land, with no fear of pain or death. The barbarians were pushed back, and slowly, new cities are founded.



As the high druids had prophesised, our people soon made contact with another great ribe, the incas. Incan cities soon surround much of our land (Just our luck, that our only neighbours are the most powerful civ at this time as it later turned out).

Peace couldnt last. The inca did not share our love of nature. They did not respect the trees, and they hunted animals and enslaved them for pure greed. Nor did the incas respect our sacred territory, which nature and fate had granted to us.

War broke out with the inca. The Celts asserted their sacred right to all land near the great sacred river, that flowed across the known world. Spurred on by the growing hostilities, our metalworking techniques greatly improved, and Celtic warriors soon carried swords of the finest quality. The new celtic swordsmen organsied into small bands capable of moving very quickly, and proved very effective at covering long distances between our cities and stopping any inca attacks. The odds turned in our favourm as unkown to us the incas are also fighting others at this time.



This was the Celtic golden age. Our culture and our people flourished, many new towns were founded, and the incan enemy were held at bay (for now) loosing two of their cities to the brave celtic warriors. One fell into ruin, the other maintained an incan population, but we decided to keep it in our posession, as the incas were aggresive and dangerous. Many temples, marketplaces, libraries, granaries and harbours were built across the land.

We began expanding into the frozen northern lands, but we were to find many opponents - vast barbarian hordes, portuegese, vikings and incas all now tried to claim this land. First, we found a portuguese settlement being built there. This was seen as outrageous expansionism by them, with no respect to our sacred rights to this land. We attacked and conquered their city, unfortunately leaving it a smouldering ruin.

Later, we recieved the news that the portuguese homeland had been completely overrun by the incas and the portugeuse civilization had been utterly destroyed. We could have welcomed them to the north lands and helped them live in peace, but instead we helped exterminate them. This is a great loss to the world, and from now it was decided that we will have more respect for other nations (except the evil incas!).

Later, the strange vikings from some other continent settle in the very northern tip of the frozen north. We still considered these lands part of our nations sacred territory, but this time we let the foreginers settle in the harsh land. We respect the intrepid, adventurous nature of the vikings and they are welcome so long as they know we will tolerate no military aggression from them.

Meanwhile our own intrepid explorers are quietly circumnavigating our continent. We have established contact with many other great tribes. The Dutch, Mayan, Byzantine, and hittite nations share our continent with the incas and ourselves, and the new arrivals, the vikings. We established a colony on and unclaimed island off the hittite coast, to help our diplomats and traders reach these nations.



Our sailors suspected more land must lie over the seas, behind the 'big waters'. Indeed we knew the vikings came from somewhere out there, not on our continent. If they could make it across the vast oceans, so can we, and we looked for anything that might be a possible crossing point.




We found it off the coast of the byzantine province of smyrna, the westernmost tip of the known land. The "smyrna crossing" became the gateway for several celtic explorers to a whole new continent. There were many new tribes to be found there. The most powerful were the americans, the iroquai, and the french. We traded technology and ideas from our home continent for luxuries, or offered them as gifts to help these less advanced people improve their quality of life.

It was soon found that the world consisted of two main land masses, and three much smaller islands. The coastlines of the whole world were more or less explored, a great feat for the celtic adventurers.

Now this first age of the celts, the golden age, was about to end. The old enemy, the inca, was about to wage war upon us with renewed strength...

Heh. Interesting. I await more.

I like the game concept, too.

I like your screenshot editing, good work. I will be reading this.

me too, how did you edit/take those screens?

thanks for the replies,

i just took screenshots using print screen key, and pasted them into my paint program, where i edited them a bit and moved stuff around

At the end of the "first age", the celts were secure in the north of the home continent. Iron and horses were plentiful, and the land produced dyes and silks to trade with other lands. The land entrusted to the celts had become too large for the druids to rule directly, and a new 'monarchy' system arose were a 'king' was elected to rule over a union of city-states in cooperation with the high druids.

The celts also benefited at this time from one of the only communication routes with the other continent, which would be kept secret for many years. The vikings had also traveled around the world, but the celts had many new ideas to share.

At this time, the home continent was the most advanced. The amercians were the most advanced on their continent, frequently only 1 technology behind the celts, while others there such as the french and aztecs were 6 or more behind. The celts offered key technology such as writing and medicine for free, and traded other technologies for small profits. The celts hoped to establish good relations with the overseas people, but frequently met with hostility, such is the nature of the world.

Back home, the infrastructure of most of the celtic cities was now quite well developed, and production of military units increased. By this time, our celtic swordsmen had a long and glorious history but now they are becoming obsolete. The medieval age has dawned on us, and more organised troops with better armour and weapons begin to appear.




(Pink is not a very menacing colour for an evil superpower, but i assure you, they are evil!)

It was known that peace with the inca could not last. Although the celts had earlier taken land from the inca, it was known they had absorbed the portuguese lands and were on the verge of conquering all of the maya homeland too. No-one can remember exactly how the war started, some say it was because the incas sought to bring settlers into the north and they repeatedly violated our territrorial boundaries. Others say the celts refused to pay tribute, or even started the war themselves to help prevent the mayans in the far south of the continent from being overrun by the inca too.

Nonehteless, the war began, beginning a new age of conflict and strife. The celts were a fairly strong nation, but the inca stood at the height of their power, and were almost twice as large in land and population.

At first, though, hopes were high, as the the incas were not so militarily advanced as the celts, who were likely the first nation in the world to introduce the 'medieval swordsmen' tactic. It was felt that this would give an advantage in open battle. Also, the mayans appeared to be tough fighters, holding onto their remaining cities and drawing much of the inca warriors to the south.

So an army of the best troops and war machinery that the celts could muster was sent southwards. The incan capitol was suprisingly close to our borders and was the obvious target. A quick attack by celtic and medieval swordsmen smashed through the defences of machu pichu, opening the way to cuzco itself. With the captiol captured, surely the incas would be forced to make peace on our terms.



All effort was put into breaching the defences of this city, but the brave celtic warriors turned out to be too overconfident and too few. The celts could not make any more progress against the mighty defences of cuzco, and after a disasterous assault we were forced to retreat. Much celtic blood had been spilt at the gates of the inca's great captiol, and the vow was made to return someday, and honour these fallen with a great victory!

The celtic armies retreat to rebuild and reorganise, and for many long years we continue to fight off scattered incan attacks. New tactics were introduced, such as the use of armoured pikemen to defend our advancing troops, and the great marvels of medieval engineering, the great 'trebuchet' war machines, used more extensively by the celts than any other nation. Armoured knights also began to appear on the battlefield, but the celts favoured mass attacks by foot soldiers.

A war council of the king, and all the druids and province governors was called. Despite the technological advances, It was decided that the celts could not bring down such a great enemy by themselves at this time. Reluctantly, it was decided to seek another ally against the incas. Years ago the celts had contacted the nearby byzantine empire. The celts were full of admiration for their culture and now asked them to help defeat the evil expantionist incas, in retrun for gold and luxuries.

The war council also issued a directive that the celtic warriors should now try to encircle cuzco, rather than going directly against it, capturing the less heavily defended cities all around it.

While the byzantines fought back from inital losses to the inca, the celtic encirclement plan met with great success. Together with the byzantines and the mayans, the celts began to break the warlike and aggresive inca empire. The scale of the fighting increased to a level never seen before as all the forces the celts could muster moved on in two main thursts. Great battles were fought, tactics improved and great warrior leaders emerged to lead our ever increasing armies.



The northern incan empire, heartland of their people and their culture, was now toally overrun by the celts, but cuzco remained under siege for a number of years. The incas tried to launch counter attacks, but their efforts were becommnig pityful. Three celtic armies of medieval infantry, supported by artillery, knights, pikemen, and many auxillary units, gathered for the final assault of cuzco, to avenge those brave warriors who fought and died there years ago. This time, the 'invincible' city fell with few losses to the celts, and with it, the dream of a mighty incan empire. To the south, the byzantines made their own gains, reaching the eastern ocean and the other side of the continent.



The incas and the celts had fought long and hard, and peace was being negotiated even as the fires still burned in cuzco. A Peace treaty was soon declared. A great victory for the celtic people and their allies! the feasting and celebration lasted almost a year.

The incas were left with a small number of cities in the south, while the celts have a greater power than ever before. However, the celts had desired only victory and peace, not conquest. Initially, the celtic leadership had no desire to hold onto all of this land, but it was not known who to give it to. The byzantines? they had enough territory already. Although they had become bitter enemies, the celts still respected incan culture. Perhaps one day, when the incas loose their bitterness and their desire for war, the celts would be able to hand back the incan heartland to its rightful owners. For now, most of the territory was occupied, with a few southern cities being handed back to the inca control.

Across the world, no major events happened during this time, apart from the american annexation of the viking colony on their coast. However, the germans were begining their attack on the innocent aztec kingdom...



Back home, the celts and the byzantines were now the two strongest nations, sharing good relations and in a position to decide the future of our contient. The celts had finally gained enough strength to help protect other nations across the home continent and ensure a balance of power, and the future looked bright.

But good relations with byzantium were not to last, and the collapse of incan power was destined to bring not peace, but choas instead. The celts had rongly assumed that the other nations would cease hostilites with the inca, but they had their own plans for the total annexation of all incan land.

EXTREMELY good writing!
It's very fun to read, you should be proud.

Great job! This is one of the best Civ aar's I've ever seen, especially the detailed screenshots. Lovin' it!

Absolutely excellent posting! Great story accompanied by cool diagrams. You even named everything! It rocks as hard as Sulla's stories do.

This may just push me over the edge to write my own story complete with pictures. It seems like a lot of work, but if I can make one like this, it'll be worth it.

BTW, I don't mean to interrupt this thread, but anybody know of any other authors who write as well as Sulla and include cool pictures?

Very good. Keep going.
This is the exact sort of thing I like to read here.

You're also making me want to download that graphic mod for the borders. Can you direct me to where you got it?

Incas are gonna die. also how did you make the lines and blobs of color transparent?

Thanks very much for the compliments and for the interest in this too.

Im suprised anyone finds this actually interesting! (im sure its just cos i added pretty pictures ) Ill add more as soon as i can.

I have a program called 'micrografix picture publisher' that came with my scanner. Its basically a image editor, but lets you do some cool things. To get the transparency, i set an area as a 'mask' using one of the tools and then used a colour fill tool. The program lets you set the transparencey of the fill, from 0 to 100 %. Im sure theres a similar way to do this with paintshop or photoshop.

The border graphic was an experiment done by me, i forgot i was still using it. Its far from perfect, sometimes you cant even see it. I was trying to do a 'the settlers' style border (if anyone has played those games), or one that was more wriggly, than the perfectly square default one. Ill try to attach the file...

thanks for the info

Cuzco, once captiol of the greatest empire on the face of the world, had fallen to a new power. But the celts still respected the incas, and did not wish to see the end of inca power completely. The celts marvelled as they wandered through the maginificent buildings and great stepped pyramids of the newly conquered incan cities. The celts knew they had won the war, and didnt want to inflict any more damage on the incas or on their own people. Warriors returned home, arms and armour were secured in fortresses and people went back to building up and improving the newly expanded nation.

However, the byzantines saw only a 'barbarian' tribe brought to weakness. In an insult to the celts, the byzantines launched a lightning assault on the territory that the celts had earlier taken, but had given back to the inca after peace was declared. The incas had little time to rebuild defences, and the cities were soon under imperial control. Byzantium was expanding its position on the east coast. Relations between the two greatest powers on the continent began to deteriorate. The mayans and now the dutch also began attacking the remainder of the incan empire, reducing it to no more than a minor nation. But while Byzantium remained hostile, there was little the Celts could do without leaving themselves open to attack. It was hoped that the incas would be able to defend their last few cities without outside assistance.

In the celtic royal palace, king brennus XVII (there having been many brennus's in the line of kings) began having strange dreams, death, fire, smoke and destruction, galloping horses, and strange metal tubes that belched smoke, flame and thunder. The druids had only one interpretation "A new age of war is coming to us. War will come in the south, war with many foreign peoples. But not yet..."



The years were prosperous, the celtic nation became one of the leading scientific nations. A new colony was founded, on the end of an island chain off the eastern coast of the continent. The economy improved, and great new cathederals and universities rose from the celtic cities.

Brennus XVII could not enjoy the peace, but nor did he wish to disturb the optmistic mood by making war preparations.

Some years later, distrubing news came. The byzantines had declared war on the viking norsemen. The vikings were our friends, and we could not allow the byzantines to capture the viking lands in the north of our continent. But war was avoided for a while longer, while it was uncertain how this conflict would progress.

Then came the most distrubing news of all. Imperial byzantine forces had crossed the boundary mountains and were already inside celtic territory. Apparently, they intended to march the long route through our entire nation to reach the viking lands, stealing goods and harassing the population as they went. Such a personal and political insult to the celtic people could not be tolerated. It was time to take a stand, or became a puppet and slave of the Byzantine Empire. A final demand for byzantine withdrawl from all Celtic lands was issued. Brennus and the high druids already knew what the reply would be, and the call to arms was carried throughout the land.



The celts took the initiative, ambushing the byzantine forces in the incan plains were there was little defensive ground. It was not in the celtic warrior tradition to allow onself to be overwhelmed by an opponent, the reputation and awe of the byzantine empire counted for little on celtic soil.

The Byzantines were suprised by the ferocitiy of the celtic attack, which left almost all of their inital invasion force dead or captured. Further moves by the byzantines also failed. In the border mountains, now garrisoned by celitc pikemen, the byzantines waged a flawed and expensive war of attrition, repeatedly attacking defended mountain passes with heavy cavalry.

Meanwhile the celts concentrated in the east, capturing all the land the byzantines had gained form the inca. However it was not an easy task. New weapons appeared on both sides, the dreaded gunpowder weapons. Byzanitne musketeers often caused great damage to attacking celtic swordsmen. One celtic army was so badly mauled in the fighting that there was not enough men or leaders to rebuild it. But by aggresiveness, organisation and weight of numbers, the fighting here ended in victory for the celts.

The celts now found themselves coming into contact with mayan military forces, whgo were attemtping to capture a nearby incan city. Without provocation, the mayan terrorist group known as the "Knights Templar" launched a "crusade" to "push back the northern pagans". In reality, it seems they just wanted all the incan lands to themselves. The celts now had two enemies in the current war.

However, the mayan crusaders, whilst brave and tough fighters, were too few to have any impact on the large celtic force that was now in the area. Most of the crusaders fought to the death against overwhelming odds and were killed. Scattered mayan attacks continued, but these were no more than raiding parties.



The Byzantines, seeing the failure of their own offensives, were now compelled to seek peace. Yet again, the celts had fought against the most powerful empire on the continent and won.

Meanwhile the incas still struggled to hold onto their last few cities, but this time the Celts decied that incan territory would only be returned if either the incan/mayan/byzantine fighting ended or if the incas were faced with total destruction. In the meantime, celtic culture began to become establsihed in the captured incan lands as a side effect of the occupation. The Celtic leadership also started to like the idea of port cities on the coast of the "sea of portugal", providing better access to the eastern ocean.


(can you tell i was bored one day?)

The celtic nation reached a new high point, which would not be reached again for centures. More trouble was brewing however, and the celts and the whole home continent would soon be shaken by the rampage of a mighty horde of cavalry.

Best. Story. Ever

I love all the pretty pictures and our playing styles are almost identical!
I love the detail in that last map, you even put your colonies and pointed to them on the minimap instead of using a whole new pic to show them. Just Wow! I can't wait for the next installment!

Is that last pic from the movie Atilla?

This is GREAT!!!! I love the story and the pictures diffinatly bring the story greater apeal, hoping this story continues...

THIS IS AWESOME! I have a mac, therefore I am prohibited from playing my 2 favorite civs, which happen to be the celts and the inca. Please continue, I love the story.

hurry up with the next part i can't wait for it! THe background is so plausible and personalised I love it.

Thanks very much for the replies!

I did an image search on google to try and find some pics for the story. I dunno it that pic was from atillia or not, it does look very mongolian.

Next part ill add today, hopefully,