Midday, Late summer, Navua, 946 BC.
Fluffy white clouds drifted over the rolling green hills around Navua, the capitol of Celtonia. The sun was high and shining brightly. Crops swayed gently in the breeze all across the rolling farmlands. Herds of wild animals roamed through the wilderness lands beyond. Across the world, the people of this nation were fighting and dying in the struggle for world peace. Away from this pleasant scene, many were living through a virtual hell on earth. Down below the hills, in the centre of the city, stood the capitol building, a huge monument to celtic confidence, built in the pre-industrial celtic style. Here, in the heart of a land which had not seen battle for over a thousand years, the celtic leaders were meeting to discuss the current state of a world war
In the council halls, discussions had raged on for weeks. Many were increasingly worried by the militarism and involvement of so many forces overseas. But increasingly hardline communist ideology was becoming more and more prevalent amongst the higher ranking members of the councils, together with a view that taking and holding land was the only way to keep peace indeed, that it was the destiny of the celts to rule as a benevolent empire over the majority of the world, maybe over the whole world
Despite protests from many councillors, the communist government went ahead with plans for the training and arming of more and more troops, and for the preparation of forces for indefinite operations across the world. The losses of ground recently suffered against France were to be retaken, and further advances against the Dutch were to be made as soon as possible. The celtic leadership had an image for a future world, and whether it was in the best interest of peace in the world or not, there were still several powerful nations who stood in the way of this the current world war was far from over, and many more brave and loyal celtic warriors were destined to die in foreign lands.
Dusk, sometime in early autumn, Tenochtitlan, 946 BC.
Outside the smoking ruins of Tenochtitlan, the reburial of celtic dead began. Few of the bodies could be identified. The French had flung the corpses of the original celtic garrison into crude pits, and now the army druids were conducting proper burial rights for them and for the recent French fallen also.
After the halting of the grandiose French offensive some months ago, the celts had managed to mount their own large counter-offensive here, on order of the high command, with two cavalry armies and artillery support. The French had brought up some riflemen to defend this city, the northern limit of their recent gains, but they could not spare enough infantry to hold back the concentrated celtic attack. This city had now changed hands for the third time in this current war alone, and it was reduced to little more than a ruin. A couple of thousand civilian refugees remained camped in the local area, determined to return to live in the city, which had once been home to tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. But a more pressing concern was that the bulk of the French cavalry forces had survived and slipped away south
On the outskirts of the city, some soldiers kept watch.
Stay sharp, men. The French havent given up on this ruin of a city yet.
Surprised, one soldier turned to face the captain
Sir, I heard most of the French cavalry had been destroyed, they have nothing left...
Look at that horizon, soldier. From here to the south of this continent, thousands of miles away, is still all French territory. You forget that? Think the French arent still signing up in droves to fight for their saint? Theyve got plenty more to throw at us, soldier, believe it. The battle for this city isnt over yet...
The captain seemed a little melodramatic to the other soldiers. Well, he knew, its only natural to want to believe that we had won something, after the chaos and slaughter of the last French attack. But a week ago the captain had met with some soldiers who had been behind the lines, the only survivors of the previous celtic garrison of this city.
(Orgetorix and fellow survivors are greeted by friendly forces after stumbling into a celtic army camp)
It had been thought that none escaped the recent French attack. The tale of the survivors was told throughout the nation, to inspire the people and the army to keep fighting for victory. But the high command took little attention when the survivors spoke of the massive French forces they saw gathering behind the lines. These were exaggerated reports from valiant, but exhausted and confused men. High command was set on retaking the lost ground no matter what.
The survivors had come stumbling out of the jungle in a bad shape all right, the captain remembered. They looked like they had been fighting guerrilla-style for months on end, living rough and always moving, enough to wear down anybodys faculties. But the one who did most of the talking Orgetorix was his name, somebody likely to make a great leader one day, theyll probably promote him once he recovers he seemed quite clear and deliberate when he spoke about the enemy forces, prepared and ready to hit at the celtic armies as soon as they make a move and expose themselves again. Well, nothing to do now but wait
Home continent, 946bc
On the home continent, the celts had ploughed through the southern Byzantine lands and reached the western ocean. There was some fierce fighting, but the main celtic objectives were reached fairly quickly, Byzantine inaction allowing a wedge to be driven between them and the Hittites.
But the Byzantines later managed to delay the planned celtic strike at the Dutch lands by dragging the main celtic cavalry armies into skirmishes around Varna, as the celts had no reinforcements of smaller units to cover this area. Terrain in this area was difficult to navigate, vast untouched swathes of jungle broken by forks and bends of the mighty river Amazon, which flowed from here across two thrids of the continent, reaching the eastern ocean at the city Lisbon in incan lands.
The Byzantine fleet also proved surprisingly strong. The celts had thought their navy was largely destroyed in the last war. As the year 945bc dawned, the byzantines had more than enough naval strength to conduct a surprise troop landing on western celtic shores, deep behind the lines, threatening the cities there with a small force of cavalry. Indeed, the city of Tiwanaku had been stripped of all infantry garrisons and was completely vulnerable to attack, and the celtic capitol was now also in reach for the Byzantine invaders. This invasion force was eventually intercepted and defeated, but only by the combined efforts of several celtic divisions and by pulling troops away from the lines defences were getting seriously stretched, much of the line consisted of obsolete riflemen divisons, which had not been given updated weapons. There was a serious lack of funds in the communist celtic treasury, especially since the leadership wasnt prepared to withdraw funds from military research projects.
Where is the fleet? asked the council elders of cities all along the west coast. An ironclad and several obsolete frigates eventually arrived on the scene, but this was only enough to harass the Byzantines. Now the celts had hardly any ships guarding their own western shores, as they were mostly gathered around French and Dutch coasts. The celtic naval command had spread forces thinly all around enemy coasts, for coastal bombardments and to harass any enemy ships found. The theory was that the faster ironclads would be able to group together when concentrated enemy fleets were found, but this was not always possible, especially as the majority of ships had eventually been sent far away to French waters.
To reassure the councillors, the celtic naval command gave them a tour of the secret navy design and research bases of celtonia. Two new types of ship were concieved one was essentially a fast ironclad or frigate destroyer as some liked to call it, with greatly improved propulsion. Another design was called the cruiser. Although comparatively slower, it would be a miraculous piece of heavy metal engineering so heavily armed and armoured that, on paper at least, it would make the sailing frigates of other nations so far beyond obsolete as to be completely useless in battle. Improved, speedy troop transport ships were also being designed. But these plans were not yet ready, and it would be several years before full construction of these types of ships could begin. Celtic technology was nonetheless outpacing the rest of the world, with increasing advancements in industrial engineering.
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