Highlander Tales - A "You Decide" story of the Scottish people

Writing Style - Standard 3rd person narative

William Wallace MacAlpine took the throne of a very troubled Scotland in 1510 AD. The populous was traumatized by the actions of the displaced Peoples’ Progressive Party and their short lived coup. The Republic had been dissolved and he had total control of Scotland; more control than even the Ard Ri’s of the past had held. He was also incapable of governing this immense, advanced and highly industrialized nation as its king. Although he was charismatic and unbelievably popular, no one man could effectively govern the disparate factions, clans and peoples that comprised modern day Scotland. Fortunately for Scotland, William knew this, acknowledged it and (most importantly) dealt with it.

The Republic had stood for a thousand years because it was an efficient and strong system. It had eventually failed because it allowed a small body of men to act without responsibility and against the wishes of the majority of Scots. Although a monarchy could not function in this day and age Scotland had always had a king. The royal family was an integral part of Scotland’s culture and must be preserved. William and his councilors took the best elements of the constitution of the Republic and redesigned them to create the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Scotland. What was once the High Council became the judicial branch. Seats were no longer restricted to the peerage. One judge would be elected by common support in each judicial district. The Low Council became the legislative branch. This was also filled by common support but was based on population of each district. The prime executive of Scotland would be elected by a plurality of the public. Scotland would now have a President. The King’s powers were reduced to only two items (officially at least). The presiding monarch of Scotland would retain the ability to veto in the legislature and serve on council in the judiciary.

The first elections went spectacularly well and Samuel L. Kendter became the first President of Scotland. Kendter had run on a platform of renewed infrastructure development and faith initiatives. The policies and laws passed during his term sparked a new focus for Scottish development. Dal Raida was already fully industrialized but there were huge territories on Alba that had been decimated by the Great War. Scottish settlements cropped up across the Welsh and Kent Protectorates and massive amounts of aid were sent to these burgeoning communities. Scotland began leading the way to peace through their example of growth and strength.

Kendter was followed by David Switch, one of the heroes of the Great War. Switch was a strong supporter of the Presbyterian Church and government policies during his term of office helped to spread the influence of the church across the new communities of Alba. The Church and Scottish life in general became so attractive that scores of Manx, Pictish and even Kentian areas fell under Scottish domination. Scottish pressures forced peace between Man and the Picts and Irish though no amount of political or economic pressure or incentives could force peace between the Celtic nations and Kent.

After Switch there were several fair to excellent presidents who essentially just continued and built upon the plans and policies of Kendter and Switch. By 1600 Scotland found itself in control of most of eastern Alba including enough resources to make Scotland truly self sufficient. Amazingly, these great gains had come solely through peace initiatives and the increasingly popular Scottish culture. Immigration to the new Scottish developments was astounding and quite overtaxing to them. Huge amounts of developmental aid were sent from Dal Raida and the Scottish presence on Alba continued to grow.

In 1610, Kenneth MacAlpine VII took the throne. With the full assistance of President Alfred Skilord he pushed through plans and construction of a centralized peace organization for all countries. On September 11, 1610, Nas MacCorbin III was elected as the head of the new United Nations. His first acts were to force peace between Kent, Pictland and Ireland. The world was at peace for the first time in centuries. The Scottish cultural dominance ensured that it would stay that way.

Editor’s Notes
Scottish culture was just a hair under 90,000 and was more than 5 times that of Manx (the next highest). I built cities all over Alba, anywhere I could fit them, in the tightest build pattern available. I shut off research and invested 1,000 to 1,500 gold each turn into cultural buildings. Whenever the AI taking a city left a space clear for a new city I popped one down. Cultural borders expanded like mad and we eventually had control of every resource and luxury we needed. I also built up the military so we were at least on par with Manx. I kept the AI poor through resource and luxury sales. Between them not having any money, Scotland’s immense culture and our fully modern defensive army, nobody dreamed of messing with Scotland again. Gifts to Ireland turned them back to polite. We won the UN vote 3 to 2 against the Manx (Kent voted for Man but both Ireland and Pictland went Scot).

Take a look at the mini map in this picture compared to the last one. This was all done by building cities and rushing temples, cathedrals, libraries and coliseums (in that order).

I had a lot of fun playing and writing this story and will definitely do it again if the Council is up for another term in office ;)
 

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Could you do it on a Brittish map with correct starting locations then?

With the MultiTool you can combine a map with your rules and make it a scenario.


If there is no British map out there I could make one...

I havn't made a map yet but I think I can handle it.

So what do everybody say?
 
Originally posted by Grey Fox
Could you do it on a Brittish map with correct starting locations then?

With the MultiTool you can combine a map with your rules and make it a scenario.


If there is no British map out there I could make one...

I havn't made a map yet but I think I can handle it.

So what do everybody say?

I say... count me in! This was great fun.

If you think you can make a good map, have at it. I know I can't.
 
I always play on large maps. They are big enough for plenty of elbow room, but not so large as to bring my machine to it's knees in later turns.

My vote is for a large map.
 
Grey Fox, if you can make a map I will be eternally grateful. I've started and stopped at least a dozen when it became aparent that my total lack of artistic skills translated to a complete lack of ability in making maps.

Please do a standard one first though. It's the best size to package with the mod plus it's the largest that runs well on this ancient PC of mine. It will need the English Channel with the French coast so Brittany and Normandy can be placed too.

One last thing - make sure to use version 11 of Brit Isles when you make it so all of the resources will be correct.

This is awesome. Thanks!
 
Long live the King and Queen of Cheese (both of them)!:king:
 
Looks cool already!

For the seascape, make it difficult to get from Ireland to Brittain. Passage was generally possible only in the north where the 2 islands are closest.

Need to make the Isle of Man a bit larger. It's going to need to be large enough to support at least a few cities as it's the start position for the Manx civ.

Use lots of forests, especially in Ireland. One of the reasons the Scots migrated from Hibernia to Caledonia was the dense old growth forests that prohibited their growth. You could use jungle occasionally to simulate the incredible barrier those ancient woods were.
 
Isle of Man, can't be larger as it's that large towards the other islands in reality.

Give the manx a smaller and cheaper boat then the Gallay to start the Game with, and make em build ships often.

Their starting position will cripple them, yes but that's just realistic... isn't it?

Should I make Ireland a little farther away from the Main Island?
 
Good idea for Man. I can give them a coracle to start with.

For Ireland, I don't know if it's necessary to move it farther away. It looks like there's enough room to put a channel of ocean 3 wide through most of the Irish Sea. Above Man you can leave it mostly coast/sea as that was were the inter-island traffic happened.
 
Here is a Beta version of the Map.

It has no resources what so ever and I'll just wanted some feedback from you Shaitan...

Start a game and save as "multi"-something, then load that save and you can see the whole map.

Her it is:
 
Originally posted by Grey Fox
Here is a Beta version of the Map.

It has no resources what so ever and I'll just wanted some feedback from you Shaitan...

Start a game and save as "multi"-something, then load that save and you can see the whole map.

Her it is:
Fantastic! That is amazing work. I love it.

Some feedback:

We'll need more mountains. At least an occasional one poking up in the hilly areas should be enough. The problem is resources that only appear on mountains. Using literally real topography, the Picts (or Scots, depending on what era it's set up for) will have sole access to several critical resources. We'll need to wander away from realism just a bit to fit in the game mechanics.

The Isle of Man is going to need over generous resources to have any chance at all.

France needs to be reduced. With so much of the French mainland in play, Normandy (or Brittany, depending on the era again) can simply expand east and build an imensely powerful empire without dealing with the Isles at all. Cut France off around the X:88 column. That will leave more room for expansion than they really had but should be workable.

What's the next step? Starting positions?
 
Did anyone else ever try the You decide Idea again?

I have 2 stories to write and then i might just borrow it (If you don't object Shaitan) by mking a you decide story on Apolyton...

Good times here, good times.....
 
Shant take long, I just have a coupla projects in front of her (My present Crusaders Legacy and the upcoming Souther Ressurection, which won't be too long)

It will have to wait on my Wild West Modpack to become magically finished though.
 
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