The Celts

[Lullaby]

I'd rate the Iros over the Celts for early warmongering. The UU only has 75% shield cost and the same offensive power.

At higher levels, you might want an early medevial UU because the AI's large number of free units to start with makes early warmongering much harder.

Unfortunately, there is no AGR civ with such a UU.

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Originally Posted by Lullaby

Unfortunately, there is no AGR civ with such a UU.

Dutch?

[madviking]

SMs get out modded with Muskets, shortly.

[Tomoyo]

The Dutch can't build muskets.

[Ginger_Ale]

Yes, they can, incase they don't have iron.

But if they do have iron, they build Swiss Mercenaries. That's the way upgrades work, I think. (SMs upgrade to Musketeers (they don't build them), then to Rifles, so if you can build a SM, you can't build a Musket. Upgrades are weird.)

[Lord Parkin]

Personally I think that SM's are actually an extremely useful UU. Their 'period' lasts from Feudalism to Nationalism, which is a whole era. Plus, a 30-shield equivalent Musketman is pretty decent I would have thought.

[Lullaby]

Originally Posted by Doc Tsiolkovski

Dutch?

Not the typical warmongering UU. I thought of an offensive UU as aequivalent to the Gallic Swordsman or the Mounted Warrior. Something you can easily trigger your GA with. The Swiss Merc has the problem that you have to make the enemy attack him.

[Lord Parkin]

That's not too difficult really, though...

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Originally Posted by Ginger_Ale

Yes, they can, incase they don't have iron.

But if they do have iron, they build Swiss Mercenaries. That's the way upgrades work, I think. (SMs upgrade to Musketeers (they don't build them), then to Rifles, so if you can build a SM, you can't build a Musket. Upgrades are weird.)

Technically, Muskets upgrade to SMs, not the other way around.
IMHO a pretty ingenious concept - you don't want to ever build a Musket if you have Iron; but, you are also not stuck with Spears without.

Of course, your description of the effects in the game are correct.

[Ginger_Ale]

Originally Posted by Doc Tsiolkovski

Technically, Muskets upgrade to SMs, not the other way around.
IMHO a pretty ingenious concept - you don't want to ever build a Musket if you have Iron; but, you are also not stuck with Spears without.

Of course, your description of the effects in the game are correct.

However the upgrading system is a pain for mods and added units, isn't it?

[Lord Parkin]

IIRC you can only select ONE unit to upgrade to, correct? What'd be cool is if you had the option of upgrading a unit to two (or more!) different units (as long as you had the right techs). Maybe we'll get that with civ4... hope so!

[madra]

i always play the celts. i'm still see-sawing between which of my two possible strategies is the best tho'. each has its up and down side:

1). go all out to research iron working and find some iron and build a city on it as early as possible. and then churn out those gallic swordsman. IMHO the best unit until the industrial age. they'll kick the crap out of most things and can even defeat the odd cavalry unit on occasion . if you've reached the mediaeval era and are researching feudalism, build as many gallic swordsmen as possible beforehand, as feudalism replaces the gallic swordsman with the mediaeval infantry which is a downgrade in my book. i'd rather have gallic swordsmen than mediaeval infantry any day.

going for broke with gallic swordsman production in this way, you can usually wipe out most of your immediate neighbours before the industrial age and, if the map is with you, often control a whole continent or large island. this gives you time to start building up your infrastructure, without fear of [land-based] attack. however, i usually find that by this stage the celts have fallen so far behind in tech terms that they will eventually get pasted by more distant and more advanced opponents across the sea, once those start building better navigation and ships and are thus able to land more advanced units on my territory and bombard my cities.

which leads me onto my alternate strategy for the celts:

2). go all out from the start to get the great library first. this means eschewing bronze and iron working in favour of researching alphabet, writing and literature. if you meet another civ in the meantime buy bronze and iron working off them so you can get some gallic swordsmen belatedly churned out - otherwise you're going to have to build warriors by the dozen to try and hold off the inevitable invasions until you've discovered the great library.

if you go all out for the great library from the start in this way, you'll discover literature a long time before everyone else. at this point your more backward [but usually better armed] neighbours will start threatening you to hand over writing or literature [depending on where they're up to]. you can either offer them something else [if you're well into researching literature, you can often swap writing for iron-working], or try and hold them off while you get enough of a head-start with building the great library, so they cannae catch you.

it's a delicate balancing act - a lot of the time the other civs will declare war on you one after the other, in attempt to destroy you before you get the great library. you need to give yourself enough of a headstart that when you do eventually have to sue for peace [offering each of them literature usuallly works!] your work already done on the great library will still let you complete it before any of them does [they'll all start building the great library, as soon as they get literature from you].

if you manage to complete the great library first, you gain knowledge of every tech known by two of your rivals, from that point on, up until education is discovered - which isnae usually til near the industrial age. so in this way, you can stay abreast of the latest tech while making up for lost time by building up the strength of your armies.

this second strategy stops the celts getting left behind tech-wise as the game progresses; after gallic swordsmen, the next milestone unit for me is the cavalry - but it does leave them very vulnerable in the early stages of the game.

[Slowburn]

I also wanted to say that just as a mediocre player in C3C that the Celts have given me the most success in playing. For some reason, I can easily turn their traits into a very good game against the AI. Although haven't finished a game yet, I think I will finally be able to win a game with them soon at Reagent level, along with the tips on game playing I have found here on this site.

[Headbanger]

Originally Posted by Sparta

A very minor point:
I believe the agricultural trait actually gives every city a bonus food in the center square - it is just that the despotism penalty is waived for this bonus in cities founded on a river (net result being that while in despotism, only the river cities get those food boni). So once you get out of despotism, it doesn't really matter anymore, but in the early stages of the game those river cities are priceless.

It actually says in the civilopedia that it makes every irrigated square produce one more food than it should, so an irrigated grassland under monarchy produces 4 food, and under despotism it produces 3.

[spoiler2010]

Brennus' Team Ireland has been one of the elite teams in the Spoiler Civ III League since their debut in Season #2. Despite a losing effort in a brash attempt at winning the Regent in their rookie year, the Celts racked up 3016 points to win the singles championship. The Celtic Swordsman (next to the Vikings' Berserkers and the Persians' Immortals) is one of the most devastating special units in the game, continuing to contribute to the Celts' formidable reputation.

Known as the Ruthless Opportunist, Brennus manipulated the league rules to his advantage in the following seasons. He racked up 4009 points in a loss to the Persians in his Warlord title match in Season #3, which served to enhance the prestige of the team championship of Basque Force (along with his partner Spain). In Season #4, he picked up 3190 points on the Histograph to edge out England for the eighth (and last) playoff spot. He was able to roll over his series into Season #5 and came away with the Warlord, scoring a Celt team record 4213 points.

For newbies, the AI Celts may be one of your softest targets. Along with the Romans, Carthage and the Zulus, AI Celts seem to develop slowly and have a retarded counteroffensive strategy that makes them a team to eliminate early in the game. Picking them as your team to play, you'll have lots of fun watching those WWE-Sheamus lookalikes shearing their way through all standing in your way. Enjoy!