Imperator Knoedel
Simperator Knoedel
You don't know what contested means, do you.
You don't know what contested means, do you.
So it seems like we have two competing proposals for the new Celtic civ.
The first would be to have them spawn at Halstatt/Vienna around 800 BC. Despite being the earliest start, this would involve the most aggressive expansion since the Celts would be acting in both western and eastern Europe. To prepare for second and third UHVs, the Celts would need to settling Gaul and northern Italy. To prepare for their first UHV, the Celts would need to be a genuine military competitor to at least Rome, possibly Greece as well (we might alter the UHV 1 to read: "control a city in both the Greek and Roman core in 200 BC"). They would need to be weak enough to fall beneath the Roman onslaught after 200 BC, though, and be driven bck to the Insular Celtic lands of Brittany, Ireland, and Scotland.
The second proposal would be to have the Celts spawn as La Tene, probably between 600 and 500 BC. Their capital could perhaps be Geneva (stone hill north of the Alps?) to reflect the La Tene site, or one of the cities in Gaul to reflect their later centers of power. Being a later start (and spawning further west), these Celts would not start at war with Greece or need to deal with the eastern expansion and migration. They'd still need to worry about controlling a city in the Roman core, and settling Gaul to prepare for a move to the British Isles.
I should also mention, that I think it'd be a good idea to double check the map of Ireland (and to a lesser extent Scotland), to ensure it will suffice for the core territory of a Celtic civilization. Ireland is currently so lacking that it's honestly rare to see a human playing as England who even bothers conquering Dublin, and just leaves it for the Vikings or as a permanent independent city right beside their core. I'd like to think we can make the city a bit more worthwhile than that. I'd like to have Ireland be able to support at least two cities, most likely Cork and either Dublin or Belfast.
Third UHV could be elegantly: Build Christian monasteries on four different landmasses by 600AD.
Also there should be additional sea food in Ireland that can be used only from Belfast.
Ireland doesn't fare terribly when it comes to Food, but I should mention it's just not very productive. It also certainly cannot support more than one city effectively.
I personally favor the first one simply because I'm in favor of having extra turns as a cushion against mistakes. I'm fully behind your design outline for the Celts (UU, UP, UHV, etc.) otherwise.
Yeah, life should be hard for you once you're reduced to Ireland.Ireland doesn't need to be rich; it wasn't.
Why not just have the Celts spawn with Vindobana ("Windobana"/"Vedunia") as a capital, if we're starting them there?
Finally, does anyone have suggestions for how to customize the Celtic Unique Unit? At the moment I'm inclined to go with "March" (can heal while moving), both because it'd give the Celts a unique flavor in the Classical Era and because giving them a special advantage for mobility just seems to 'mesh' with the real history of the Celtic tribes.
Yeah, life should be hard for you once you're reduced to Ireland.
That works too. I just think there should be more cities, particularly Celtic cities, built by the time the Romans go on their conquests. The Romans are well known as conquerors and administrators, not settlers. All of the major cities in Western Europe were first settled by the Celts or by the Carthaginians (in the case of southern Iberia).
Woodsman II to further incentivize protecting Forests and to prevent them from being OP city defenders for Human Rome as would be the case if they had the Guerrilla line.
I agree that life should be hard for the Irish (...Wow. I just said that, didn't I?). But it shouldn't be impossible -- even keeping the same number of tiles, there should be enough food to provide a core population to keep the Celts from collapsing due to expansion.