DocT01b - Middle Ages Modified: William Wallace

(This post solely contains the modified .biq and info about the tweaks)

Changes:

* Celts as fully playable Civ
* Traits: AGR and REL
* UU: Gaelic Swordsman (guess you have no clue what animation is used ) : 4/2/1 ATAR, needs Iron, available with Medieval Combat, replaces the MDI
* Dalriada starts with the usual Temple/ Marketplace/ Barracks
* Armagh starts with a Monastery instead of the Temple
* Starting treasure is 100gp
* Though it is incredibly unlikely, the Domesday Book and Robin Hood WoW can now trigger a GA for AGR Civs also.

That's it - no Knights, no Harbor, no free flavor Tech, no 3rd King.

How to install:

You need all 3 files - the .biq itself (goes into the ...conquests/conquests folder), and 2 .txt files, CelticCivilopedia.txt and CelticPediaIcon.txt .
Backup your original 'pedia and Icon files in the ....Conquests/Middle Ages/txt folder (just in case).
Rename the 2 files - delete the "Celtic", and move them into that folder.
Note you don't need to revert the files to play the unmodded (or Castilian ) Conquest, they only contain the additional Gaelic Swordsman.

The biq

'Pedia

Icon

I'm here and the rest of the Celtic Warrior team can feel free to check in. We'll wait for Doc to tell us the scenario file is ready.

Once again, the lineup should be:
1. Gobi Bear
2. Warpstorm
3. Merepatra
4. Chieftess
5. BobT

Checking in!

Consider me checked in.

Originally posted by warpstorm
Consider me checked in.

Click to expand...

shiva.breakawaygames.com. Get back to work, Warp!

Im in

Originally posted by Chieftess

Get back to work, Warp!

Click to expand...

It was my lunch break

Here is our at start position. If you want to load it up, go ahead and download the new files from Doc (according to his instructions) and then open up this save:

Celts at start save

Here are the big questions, Celtic teammates:

1) Do we attack the Norwegians in Dublin? We only have an Archer and a Swordsman in Ireland, but they only have a Spearman or two in defense. The Norwegians probably don't see our cities in Scotland for the moment ... though they are settled in the Orkneys just to the north. They will find us eventually and we'll have to fight off some Berserks. However it would give us the Emerald Isle to ourselves...

2) If not, do we try and culturally convert them off the island? Cultural conversion ARE on; I checked.

3) Do we give settler builds a priority? The red dots are some ideas on tiles we could settle that would expand our meager lands a bit.

4) Research priorities? I was assuming we would just get the 2 required techs in Vikings! so we could move to our UU as soon as possible. Sound good? If so, do we wait until the UU is available before making war? I don't think this is necessarily a good plan. If I recall, the first tech often takes the full 40 turns in this one. I don't think we'll be any faster with our meager starting empire.

What about overall strategies? Grab a few relics and sail to Jerusalem? If so, from the English and who else?

Time to debate ... this is the fun part!

I think we can culture flip Dublin, since it's pretty far away from Norway. I haven't played as the Celts yet in this one, but we can settle in a few spots, build workers to improve the land, then take out England. That should be our first target. Of course, I'd also like to see 1 city east of Brittany to have some sort of foothold on the continent.

Don't forget ... you haven't played as the Celts yet in this one because the released version of this didn't allow it. It is only thanks to Doc's mods that the Celts and Castile are now playable in these two variants.

That's the fun part of this: can we win even as one of the wimpy (usually non-playable) powers?

Dublin is a certain flip for us. Advancing cities around Dublin culturally will make that almost a no brainer. If we settle in the recognized tile next to Dublin, the flip should also be that much easier.

Building and researching towards our UU is also top priority IMHO, and England will be the first target to consider for war. Realize of course, they will not be nearly as weak as Dublin, and we will have to make sure we are ready defensively if war is started to early.

I like the idea of culture flipping Dublin and not getting the wrath of the Vikings early. Maybe we can convince them to ally with us against the rest of Europe. (Or we could just take it early and apologize and hope they forgive us.)

I like the idea of expanding our holdings with settlers early. The dot beside Brittany looks like a winner and the one North of Stratheclyde.

One thing we will need to do is get some harbors built so that our meager iron supply can be used by all of our towns. (We are going to need those

I think England should be our first military priority.

Originally posted by Gobi Bear
Don't forget ... you haven't played as the Celts yet in this one because the released version of this didn't allow it. It is only thanks to Doc's mods that the Celts and Castile are now playable in these two variants.

That's the fun part of this: can we win even as one of the wimpy (usually non-playable) powers?

Click to expand...

But I do know how to make them playable. (and I did that before once... just didn't play them fully)

Can't build Harbors right away in Middle Ages ... they've been moved further up the tech tree. This may be a key issue for us. The Celtic nation is too fragmented (five sections!) right now. Definitely a pain.

I'm hoping to have time to play the first turns tonight. I'll go for the culture flip against the Norwegians then and make some additional settlements the top priority.

843 AD: Time for a quick lesson in Scottish history of the time from a BBC web site:

Beginnings of Scotland
Picts and Scots united, 843

"Kenneth MacAlpin united the Picts and the Scots. Chronicles tell of the long wars between these two peoples. However, modern archaeological evidence suggests that the Picts and Scots slowly fused through trade and intermarriage amongst the nobility.

They also had a common enemy in the Norse. The Viking threat had already forced the Scots to shift from the harried western coasts to inland centres such as Dunkeld and Abernethy. The Picts were also weakened by plague and famine.

In the new united kingdom of Alba, Scottish customs and language predominated. Within a few generations the Picts had been absorbed and had vanished into history."


At Start, 843 AD: Move workers out to hook up Iron in Wales and start roads. Move a few Warriors out to lift fog as well; let's see if our Scots can't finish exploring Pictland!

Switch builds to 2 Temples (near Dublin), 1 Curragh, 3 Settlers, and the rest as Spears. Horseback Riding is going to take 40 turns, so I cut back on science to 20% so we can accumulate some cash (+3 per turn for now).

846 AD: Explore north from Dalraida and east from Brittany. No useful trades from English, Norwegian or Danes available. Norwegian Berserk scouting to the rest from Dublin; I may gold rush a settler there to grab western Ireland before the Norwegians. Glad we didn’t attack that Berserk???

849 AD: Meet the Franks. Like everyone else, they just have gold to trade. And we have more!

852 AD: Ack! A Norwegian berserk scouting around in Northern Ireland. These Norwegians are a dangerous folk. Especially with our capital with Malcolm and one Swordsman (only) just 3 tiles away! Find a unsettled strip in the middle of England. Probably NOT worth trying to slip new settlements in there. Scotland and Ireland are the priorities.

855 AD: Cultural boundaries grow thanks to that nice monastery in Ireland. I think we can lock the Norwegians out.

858 AD: We reach the narrow isthmus SW of the Norwegian settlements in the Orkneys; with one more troop up here we could box them in.

861 AD: Iron hooked up in Wales. We can make Swordsmen now.

864 AD: Spend 48 Gold to rush a settler in Armagh so we can claim western Ireland. He will arrive next time when the city population goes to 3. We can gold rush a settler in France next.

867 AD: Dyfed: Curragh->Temple. Cornwall: Spear->Spear. Armagh: Settler->Warrior. Irish settler and Archer escort move out from Armagh. 2 Gold short of being able to rush a Warrior to defend there. Might do that next turn.

870 AD: Changed my mind. We’ll send a Warrior over in our Curragh. Back to rushing Settler in Brittany; this time we are 1 short on Gold to do that! Dalraida: Settler->Spearman.


Screen at end of these turns:


The save

Mere had a death in the family.

She still wants to play, let's just move her to the end.

The lineup:
1. Gobi Bear
2. Warpstorm <-- up NEXT
3. Chieftess <-- in the on deck circle
4. BobT
5. Merepatra

Recommendations:
1. Rush a Settler in Brittany and move him east, perhaps to claim Normandy if it is still open.

2. Take the Settler about to appear in Dalriada and settle as far north in Scotland as possible. We want all of Scotland/Pictland for ourselves!

3. Finish settling on or near the sheep in Western Ireland.

4. Use the one Curragh we have to redistribute forces. Do we need more of these little dinghies???

Something you need to consider:

Swordsman do not upgrade to your UU, I deliberatedly didn't allow it, since I thought cheap (unlike Knights/ Ansars) mass upgrades of Swordsman with the 4th Tech would be unbalanced. Anyway, I don't think you'll have that many Swords until then.
And (not my design ) Warriors upgrade to Crusaders, not Swords/ MDI.

In short: Skip any strategies involving mass upgrades.

Strategy comment:

IMHO, about your only chance to stay in the game is a limited early war with England. If you don't do that, you may be able to take them out later, but that will be much harder, and bring you nowhere near the magical 30 000. (BTW, another reason to start with Norse Tradition instead of HBR is simply the VP count).

Get a Temple in Strathclyde ASAP.
Get that 3 places settled (Ireland, N of Dalriada, Normandy). Get a few Swords (you only can build them in 1, later 2 towns), and many paper-cutouts. Get a road to Bamburgh. Declare and take that sole city. Defend everywhere else - the English won't have enough Swords to kill every Warrior you throw at them, and even Alfred can attack only twice per turn - and make peace ASAP.

I wouldn't wait longer then ~ Turn 30, or England will stop the inital expansion phase and build up troops. If you pass on that opportunity, you won't have Iron in your core, unless your Arch enemy is kind enough to build a road for you, and once you declare on them, that road would be cut anyway.

Ahh, I see. Because you set up our UU to require Iron. You're right. We need the Iron south of Bamburgh in the Pennines ... it isn't visible yet on the map above.

Otherwise we'd have to wait for Harbors to get Iron to Scotland. And Harbors don't come until Seamanship in the final Era (though we could pick them up first in that era).

Doc's tips are important. Warpstorm and Chieftess will have to move on that plan.

Iron will need to be secured ASAP based on the above info. I should have looked more carefully at the civilopedia