Let's Talk About Gaul

[Havendish]

Stone Circles could be Gaulish Unique Improvement.
I like the Oppidium idea, however, most tribes built defensive city-forts, to me not Unique enough to distinguish Gaul from other tribes. But hey, the above post proves that they'd work just great in the game.

However, for their Unique Unit, besides the Swordsman who seems to have fallen out of favor and the Gaulish Chariot-which would be a ok, but not great...

...I've read about Gaulish heavy cavalry. Wore helmets and Gaulish-invented chain mail. Carried several throwing-spears (javelins) as well as thrusting spears, swords and shields. This would be a cool unit with a range 1 Ranged Ability before it switches to hand-to-hand combat (like the Persian Immortals)

Other than that: Vercingetorix and Druids, abilities like Boris mentioned in his post above, more Gaulish city/village names (instead of Latinized ones), intro them in and let us play!-bet you a lot of players would find them fantastic tribe to play as.

 

[fredrikslicer]

Postumus should reperesent Gaul

 

[Zaarin]

Stone Circles could be Gaulish Unique Improvement.

Stonehenge, Tara, Newgrange, the menhir in northern France, etc. weren't created by the Celts, though. The so-called Megalith Builders built them millennia earlier.

 

[Havendish]

Stonehenge, Tara, Newgrange, the menhir in northern France, etc. weren't created by the Celts, though. The so-called Megalith Builders built them millennia earlier.

Yes, however, we can't have a Civ in the game called "Megalithic" or "Neolithic", Gauls/Celts came later but we identify those structures with them to a point.

 

[Zaarin]

Yes, however, we can't have a Civ in the game called "Megalithic" or "Neolithic", Gauls/Celts came later but we identify those structures with them to a point.

Eh, they probably used them, or regarded them with superstition (which, for that matter, their Christian successors did, too), but it would be weird to give them the ability to build them, as if they were somehow characteristic of Gaul, anymore than America built the Mississippian mounds. Maybe they could randomly appear from goody huts or just appear as map features...

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Eh, they probably used them, or regarded them with superstition (which, for that matter, their Christian successors did, too), but it would be weird to give them the ability to build them, as if they were somehow characteristic of Gaul, anymore than America built the Mississippian mounds. Maybe they could randomly appear from goody huts or just appear as map features...

A good point here, that there are quite a few man-made objects that a pre-date the Start of the game in 4000 BCE and do not 'disappear' like the 'Tribal Villages' or Goody Huts: As you mentioned, Tara, Newgrange, Menhirs in France - also Gobekla Tepe and other 'monumental' sites around the world - which, if the recent Lidar revelations are an indication, may include some we haven't found yet!

These could represent an entire new class of terrain features called, for lack of a better term right now, Man-Made Natural Wonders or perhaps Pre-Antiquity Sites. They could certainly offer Tourism bonuses late in the game, and Religion, Culture, and other Bonuses from near the start of the game. In fact, finding a circle of Standing Stones could give a Eureka for Astrology or for some Religion/Culural Civics, at the very least...

 

[The Kingmaker]

Thumbs up for prehistoric sites as new map features!

 

[PhoenicianGold]

Thumbs up for prehistoric sites as new map features!

They'd be like the old natural wonders, but not, because architectural wonders aren't natural. They'd be like goody huts, but gooder.

Third: Druids are fine. Tree-hugging New Age hippie druids are not.

Nope, nope. You are now the wrongest person in the world and I need this as much as I need an Islamic female pirate queen. Jenny McCarthy leads the Hippy in Sid Meier's Civilization VI!

 

[The Kingmaker]

They'd be like the old natural wonders, but not because architectural wonders aren't natural. They'd be like goody huts, but gooder.

Yeah, somewhat. Sort of a cross between a natural wonder and a goody hut. I imagine there'd be a tourism bonus for owning them too.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Yeah, somewhat. Sort of a cross between a natural wonder and a goody hut. I imagine there'd be a tourism bonus for owning them too.

I can't think of any that provide Production or Gold directly, off the top of my head, but Religious and Cultural points from the tile and later Tourism would be common. Some of them (standing stones, stone circles) might even provide a Eureka for, say Astrology or Celestial Navigation or Masonry...

 

[The Kingmaker]

I can't think of any that provide Production or Gold directly, off the top of my head, but Religious and Cultural points from the tile and later Tourism would be common. Some of them (standing stones, stone circles) might even provide a Eureka for, say Astrology or Celestial Navigation or Masonry...

Precisely. A good summary.

Really, the world just needs more "things" in it for the player to discover overall.

Add ruins/lost cities to the list.

 

[Zaarin]

I can't think of any that provide Production or Gold directly, off the top of my head, but Religious and Cultural points from the tile and later Tourism would be common. Some of them (standing stones, stone circles) might even provide a Eureka for, say Astrology or Celestial Navigation or Masonry...

I'd be okay with allowing them to be harvested for production after researching Masonry. That was the fate of many an ancient wonder and ruin, even many of the lesser pyramids in Egypt (or the white façades of the Pyramids of Giza for that matter).

 

[AnonymousSpeed]

I made a design for Gaul here. It was pretty alright, but personally, I'd like to see some more druid/forest themed aspects.
A Civilization Ability that benefits moving through forests would be good, I think.
A non-Oppidum unique improvement might be the Nemeton. As a brief initial concept, it would unlock with Mysticism and provide +1 faith, with additional faith for adjacent Nemetons and Holy Sites. Additional faith and culture as you go through the tech tree, and Great Musician points somewhere in there.

No idea for a leader though, to be honest. Vercy seems popular though.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I'd be okay with allowing them to be harvested for production after researching Masonry. That was the fate of many an ancient wonder and ruin, even many of the lesser pyramids in Egypt (or the white façades of the Pyramids of Giza for that matter).

Excellent! And, in a related note, Pillaging of some of the Unique Improvements (like, Kurgans, Ziggurats, Shpinxes) should also give Non-Standard results: Production from Sphinxes and Ziggurats (stone from the cores, marble and brick facings) and Gold from Kurgans (Grave Goods).

Also, any Non-Natural (Pre-Game Human?) Wonder on the map, Pillaged or Intact, would also provide a potential Antiquities Site: witness the on-going and recurring archeological investigations at virtually all of them in the last century and a half...

And back to the original topic, for at least a moment, part of the Immersion Effect for any Gallic civilization, it would seem to me, would be terrain that evokes Gaul: full of ancient forests and hills with ancient sites and Mysteries. A land full of surprises and wonder. Some you could add in-game, like Oppidae on distant hill-tops or Druidic Schools and asymmetrical temples in the Holy Sites, and some would already be dotting the landscape...

 

[The Kingmaker]

Really liking the ideas being expressed re: prehistoric remnants.

We may eventually need to create a new thread for that subject.

I think there should be two categories: prehistoric wonders and more generic prehistoric remnants.

The remnants could be things like stone circles, petroglyphs, hill forts, lost cities, etc.

The wonders could be more specific:

Çatalhöyük
Uffington White Horse
Lascaux Cave Paintings
Nazca Lines
Moai Statues (if not a Polynesian UI)
The Ring of Brodgar or Avebury
Newgrange

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Really liking the ideas being expressed re: prehistoric remnants.

We may eventually need to create a new thread for that subject.

I think there should be two categories: prehistoric wonders and more generic prehistoric remnants.

The remnants could be things like stone circles, petroglyphs, hill forts, lost cities, etc.

The wonders could be more specific:

Çatalhöyük
Uffington White Horse
Lascaux Cave Paintings
Nazca Lines
Moai Statues (if not a Polynesian UI)
The Ring of Brodgar or Avebury
Newgrange

This is definitely a good place for a Thread for people to name/list Pre-Game Human Sites, Wonders, or Artifacts on the Landscape.

I like the term Prehistoric Artifacts defining Prehistoric, of course, as Pre-Start-of-Game), because that covers not only remnants of Neolithic Cultures, but also 'natural' sites, like a Woolly Mammoth carcass in a glacier or a field of prehistoric animal bones - distinctive and remarkable, but not quite Wonderous...

 

[Morningcalm]

How likely do you guys think it is that Gaul will be in the next expansion?

 

[The Kingmaker]

How likely do you guys think it is that Gaul will be in the next expansion?

No idea. If they follow tradition and give us just one more XP, then not very likely. If they act a bit more smartly and milk the cash cow for all its worth with more DLC and 1-2 more XPs, then maybe.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

No idea. If they follow tradition and give us just one more XP, then not very likely. If they act a bit more smartly and milk the cash cow for all its worth with more DLC and 1-2 more XPs, then maybe.

Without any real evidence, I'm assuming one more Expansion as for Civ V, and X number of DLCs. Somewhere they mentioned 40 Civilizations, which leaves room for another 8-Civ Expansion and 1 - 2 more DLCs, in addition to what they might do with 'Additional Leaders' DLCs.

 

[The Kingmaker]

Based on the context, when Ed Beach mentioned 40 civilizations, to me it sounded like he was talking abstractly about Civ5.