Leveraging Vassalage VIII - Boudica, Mother of Tokugawa

[Artichoker]

to 1720 AD (new commentary added):

Spoiler :

As Boudica was out hunting for the day, she sang the last lines of "Dreams of My Son" with mixed feelings of excitement and longing...her son was real, as she knew deep down, but she could never gain proof of his existence, or detailed information of his whereabouts.

So she turned to the shaman for guidance. The shaman said, "To gain true knowledge of your son, you must focus the fruits of your land toward knowledge. Earthly grains feed the flesh, but the mind is sustained by pure will. Therefore, the harvesting of mind, not grain, is the real path to nourishment."

Boudica replied, "The Shaman is wise...mind, not grain, is the true nourishment that my people need. Our oat farmers will now become book farmers!"

The Shaman said, "You can call me Sensei...this name is in the language of the land where your son is. I know where your son is, but I cannot convey that knowledge directly to you. You must earn that knowledge yourself..."

"Yes, Sensei," answered Boudica, as she bowed her head down, as if awakened from her sudden optimism by a dose of reality.

Thus Boudica's divinely inspired plan was put into motion. The Celtic people, for an entire season, focused on harvesting mind instead of grain...

As it was though, by my own fault, Boudica's lack of the Philosophical trait (unlike Suleiman) led to a late realization of the need to execute this plan. In fact, the triggering of a Golden Age at this point of the game is not bad in itself, but the circumstances that revealed themselves shortly afterward showed that this decision was made too late.

Specifically, I had hoped to gain more from Pacifism by extending the length of the pre-Golden Age period by delaying the appearance of the Great Person that would trigger the Golden Age...so I ran only 3 specialists in that city. In hindsight, I should have run 4 specialists, so that the Golden Age could come earlier.

After Chemistry was gained in trade, by using Printing Press as trade fodder, there were no remaining bulb opportunities of any significance. I was forced to settle the new Great Scientists that I got in the Golden Age.

This was not a pure mistake, though. In ordinary situations, Chemistry would have better trade value, thus justifying the need to spend Great Scientists to bulb it. This was rather a stroke of bad luck caused by the lightning fast tech rate of Suryavarman and Roosevelt. In other words, the glass can be viewed as half-empty, in that a useful bulb opportunity was not available. Or half-full, in that the opportunity to trade for Chemistry was available.

A later-than-optimal Golden Age led to a later-than-optimal change of civics. The period of Vassalage ended, and a new palace was built in Gergovia, the nearby city to the south, in conjunction with a switch to Bureaucracy. Even with the bad timing though, Vassalage gave us plenty of high-powered weapons that could be activated through the upgrade from Catapults to Cannons.

A change from Pacifism to Free Religion was also made, in an effort to remove the resentment by AI leaders caused by religion clash. I consider the effect of this civics change an interesting phenomenon. In other variations using Vassalage, I tried a Vassalage + Paganism combination to eliminate the effect of negative diplomatic factors from religion clash. This time, I'm using Free Religion to do the same thing, but the timing of Vassalage comes at the prior phase of civics, not the current one. Even with the shifted timing, however, the units produced during Vassalage are actually used in the later period.

A trade for gold and tech was like fuel to feed the fire that was about to emerge...

We were ready to go to war, at last. The gold we had saved up was finally used to upgrade our 5 XP Catapults to Cannons. Clearly, we had more than we needed, but our gold was plentiful as well...so there was no regret in spending the extra amount.

Musketmen, Macemen, and Pikemen made up the majority of the supporting cast. Unfortunately, there was no Heroic Epic to help us with producing them, but the required numbers were only moderate, thanks to the high-powered offense we had in the Cannons.

The preview screen shown in the earlier post (showing attack odds of 3 different cannons) highlighted the opening battle of the war. I continued that attack for several turns, while drawing more of Sitting Bull's units there to be slaughtered, while my own units waited for reinforcements.

This, however, was the first major objective of the war.

Southward my units then marched, to capture Sitting Bull's capital.

And then eastward...although Sitting Bull soon gained Gunpowder for Musketmen and Cuirassiers, his numbers were already decimated by the earlier battles, and the new tech didn't matter.

Finally, he got Rifling...but unfortunately for him, this city had only one Rifleman among the masses of Medieval units defending it.

Regrouping forces to take the cities to the west that we bypassed earlier...

One turn before the final battle of the war, Suryavarman declared war on Pericles. It was time to wrap up my own war, but not until taking Mesa Verde.

As it turned out, the hill underneath this city made it the toughest battle of the war, even after many of my Cannons were promoted to CR3. The reward was worth the fight, as there was a Taoist shrine in that city.

I accepted Sitting Bull's capitulation offer, both for the purpose of gaining peace, and also gaining the power boost from his military units.

At this time, I prepared for war with Pericles by working toward Assembly Line. After about half a century, I was able to strike Pericles, while he was still at war with Suryavarman, but not without being backstabbed by Catherine...

Watching over the shores of Celtia, Boudica winced in anger as hordes of Russian Cossacks outnumbered the strong, but few Infantry guarding Carib.

"I am not the vengeful one, Catherine," Boudica uttered, as she breathed the salty air, made bitter with the taste of gunpowder. "One day, your own treacherousness will be your undoing!"

"Send in the home guard!" Boudica said to her captain.

The stab turned out to be a small scratch, thanks to the valiant effort of the single Infantry unit garrisoned there. Catherine's forces were quickly mopped up by our home guard of Infantry, whose movement was aided by railroads.

On the Greek war front, another coastal battle was taking place.

After it was over, our forces marched eastward to seek a bigger piece of land, and glory.

 

[Loki Strikes]

Pictures good looking forward to a report, hopefully Pericles was able to be steamrolled, he doesn't build many units, looks like this game went to a late game throw down, looking forward to reading it.

 

[Artichoker]

Pictures good looking forward to a report, hopefully Pericles was able to be steamrolled, he doesn't build many units, looks like this game went to a late game throw down, looking forward to reading it.

Not quite ready to give a full report yet, but I'll confirm that indeed this game is very close...

Spoiler :

One picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[Artichoker]

The report is now ready (see post #21):

to 1720 AD

 

[Artichoker]

to 1919 AD:

Spoiler :

After the capture of Mycenae, peace was signed with Pericles. There was a big risk of Pericles capitulating to Suryavarman, and Pericles was willing to offer us a good sum of gold for peace. Suryavarman could have been bribed to make peace with Pericles, but this would have required giving him Biology. Maybe that was the better decision...but since I was almost ready to build Nukes, it didn't matter in the end, even if the combined Greek and Khmer forces united against Celtia.

It could be argued, though, that bribing Suryavarman into peace would have allowed me to vassalize Pericles, and thus speed up the war against Suryavarman, thanks to the improved movement and power boost from having Pericles as a vassal.

On the next turn, Pericles indeed capitulated to Suryavarman. I used the period of peace to build Manhattan Project and prepare for the long grind that lay ahead. I would see to it that the day we invaded Greek and Khmer lands, Boudica's forces would be fully prepared.

But there was no time for that opportunity...

Suryavarman had already raised a massive force of more than 26 Tanks, which captured Mycenae on the very first turn of the war. Additionally, scouting reports from our Airships showed that he had a contingent of at least 15 Bombers and a comparable number of Fighters. It was clear that in starting this war, he meant business.

Pericles also had some tanks as well, which had to be dealt with before we could take his cities.

Among Pericles, Roosevelt, and Suryavarman, only Roosevelt had the tech to build Nukes. But I observed that he traded away his Uranium, and he had low production--so the risk of an ICBM attack from him was low.

I could have been extra careful and nuked all their Uranium sources, but since funds were tight and Nukes were limited, I needed to save them for the task of weakening Suryavarman's ground forces.

Slowly, but surely, our ground forces made their way to the heart of the Khmer Empire.

After this city capture, it was quickly seen, at least in one aspect, why Suryavarman had such a huge economic advantage.

Dozens of turns then followed. After capturing the last city in the core of Suryavarman's lands, I then split my stack into 3 parts to mop up the half dozen or so stray cities that remained. Up to this point, our war effort was handicapped by slow movement, of both our main stack and our reinforcement stacks. We had no Airports, so every effort to bring reinforcements required careful planning.

The long stretch of time gave Hammurabi the time build up his own army. Because he could now research Laser (to unlock SDI), I decided it was time to weaken him before he got out of control. Besides, Suryavarman was almost defeated, and we could use Tactical Nukes to save hammers for the rest of the war.

Our long-range ICBMs were saved for the more distant rival AIs, such as Hammurabi.

After annihilating this stack, the Babylonian troop count was reduced from 6.3 million soldiers to 4.2 million soldiers.

Two turns later, a peace treaty was signed with Hammurabi, effectively taking him out of the game.

After almost a century of non-stop war, Suryavarman was finally willing to capitulate. It was an extremely long wait, but the reward was well worth it.

The new city gained from Suryavarman was on an island all by itself. I sent a lone SAM Infantry there to garrison it.

Catherine was the last rival AI to be dealt with. Actually, during the war with Suryavarman, some time before launching Nukes on Hammurabi's lands, I did the same on Catherine's lands, signing peace on the next turn. Since she was on good pace for a cultural victory, I launched 3 Nukes on her 3rd culture city, greatly weakening her chances of a cultural victory. But this invasion was done to put a nail in the coffin, while also giving us chances for a diplomatic victory.

On the next turn, our ships moved to the next coastal city to capture that one as well.

After capturing 2 Russian cities and destroying most of Catherine's military, she was ready to capitulate.

The combined votes of Catherine, Suryavaran, Sitting Bull, and Boudica herself were enough to earn a diplomatic UN victory.


Boudica, now freed from the burdens of constant war, could now sing her song in peace. That night, she had a dream that her son Tokugawa was now a grown man, able to hold a sword on his own. She longed for the day that she could see him once again...

 

[kossin]

Nice game! Very nice use of nukes too. Looking forward to the next installment

 

[Artichoker]

As it was though, by my own fault, Boudica's lack of the Philosophical trait (unlike Suleiman) led to a late realization of the need to execute this plan. In fact, the triggering of a Golden Age at this point of the game is not bad in itself, but the circumstances that revealed themselves shortly afterward showed that this decision was made too late.

Specifically, I had hoped to gain more from Pacifism by extending the length of the pre-Golden Age period by delaying the appearance of the Great Person that would trigger the Golden Age...so I ran only 3 specialists in that city. In hindsight, I should have run 4 specialists, so that the Golden Age could come earlier.

After Chemistry was gained in trade, by using Printing Press as trade fodder, there were no remaining bulb opportunities of any significance. I was forced to settle the new Great Scientists that I got in the Golden Age.

After re-thinking the strategy, I just realized that focusing on Great Merchants rather than Great Scientists would have fit the late Golden Age strategy much better. Instead of having the useless option of bulbing Scientific Method, I could have gained the option to run a trade mission, and then used the money to fund my upgrades from Catapults to Cannons.

In comparing the use of Pacifism with a Philosophical leader to a non-Philosophical leader, I'd say that both have pros and cons. Philosophical works great with Pacifism because it gives you a better chance of grabbing Steel from Liberalism. Non-Philosophical, on the other hand, allows for a bigger proportional gain in GPP when running Pacifism.

In theory, non-Philosophical should have better synergy with Pacifism, but in this game I didn't play it quite right. My post-game analysis concludes that focusing on Great Merchants would have given me better results. Another adjustment I could have made would be to start the Golden Age earlier, but perhaps not as early as with the Philosophical leader.

So by focusing on Great Merchants instead of Great Scientists, I still could have used a late Golden Age strategy, and by starting the Golden Age earlier I could have maintained the option of using Great Scientists for bulbing.

Nice game! Very nice use of nukes too. Looking forward to the next installment

Glad you liked it...and I hope the nuke wars don't get tiring to watch!

Practically speaking, focusing on nukes is a great way to compensate for AI bonuses in research and production.

 

[Artichoker]

Let us now begin the second half of the set.



The game settings are Deity/Normal/Fractal, with Tropical climate (instead of Temperate).


the start:

Spoiler :

a few comments:

Spoiler :

An optimistic map with lots of opportunity for economic development. Marble nearby provides for good chances of gaining a large group of wonders, if you're willing to shoot for them. And a nice chunk of land is relatively secure for peaceful settling. But, on the other hand, Boudica's lack of strong economic traits begs for maps like these.

In this game, Boudica will finally be able to find her son Tokugawa...but remember, she still does not know the identity of her son, so it will be a surprise, one way or another!

The enhanced fighting strength gained by Vassalage, combined with Boudica's military-heavy traits, should give Celtia's forces the edge they need, should they ever have to face the mighty empire of Japan...

I have played up to the renaissance, and I will be posting the first section of my game shortly.

 

[lymond]

@Artichoker - Do you have something explaining our strategy using Vassalage? What is the synergy with Pacifism other than lowering costs? Is the rule of your series to run Vassalage constantly once you get Fuedalism? Basically what's the overall goal and mechanics of this series? Sorry if I missed this somewhere.

 

[Artichoker]

@Artichoker - Do you have something explaining our strategy using Vassalage? What is the synergy with Pacifism other than lowering costs? Is the rule of your series to run Vassalage constantly once you get Fuedalism? Basically what's the overall goal and mechanics of this series? Sorry if I missed this somewhere.

A lot of questions in one post...I will try to answer them!

First of all, there is another thread on this forum that goes more into the strategic aspects, called The Vassalage Metastrategy. By the way, it's still a work in progress, since there are a lot of new ideas being incorporated into the strategy and its variants.


Regarding the synergy with Pacifism, in a nutshell it is being able to have strong tech and military at the same time. However, there is a special kind of synergy that is shown with the last few games played on Deity level--specifically, it is the upgrading of medieval siege units, Catapults and Trebuchets, to Cannons in preparation for a Renaissance war. The reason this is powerful is that each Catapult or Trebuchet upgraded to a Cannon gives you the same +2 XP bonus as a Cannon produced from scratch, but with a much lower hammer cost than a Cannon. This allows you to prebuild lots of Catapults and Trebuchets during the medieval era, in preparation for upgrades to Cannons, and still have hammer remaining for other things like buildings.


But the overall Leveraging Vassalage series covers the use of Vassalage in general, not just the Vassaage+Pacifism combo, which is one of many variants of using Vassalage. The rule is to use Vassalage at some point in the game...not necessarily once Feudalism is gained, and not necessarily for the rest of the game.

In fact, I don't recommend using Vassalage past the Renaissance era, unless you're using an Organized leader. Using an Organized leader is a special case that makes Vassalage more competitive with cheaper civics like Nationhood and Free Speech. Although no games in the series feature an Organized leader, I plan to use one in a future game in the series.

 

[lymond]

Thanks. Please point me to that metastrateg thread. I generally don't use Vassalage much since I prefer to get into Bureau as soon as possible, although I do switch on occasion in war especially if spiritual or a golden age. A spiritual leader would be great to try for frequent switches. Ha... Monty would probably be fun. Charismatic like Boudi is cool too - I've been trying her a lot recently on my own for fun.

Yeah...I get that Cats/Trebs/Cannon strategy. That's cool - I've done something similar with other units too especially when I need to rush units and have the gold. Such as building archers and upgrading to LBs.

 

[Artichoker]

Thanks. Please point me to that metastrateg thread. I generally don't use Vassalage much since I prefer to get into Bureau as soon as possible, although I do switch on occasion in war especially if spiritual or a golden age. A spiritual leader would be great to try for frequent switches. Ha... Monty would probably be fun. Charismatic like Boudi is cool too - I've been trying her a lot recently on my own for fun.

Here is the thread...

The Vassalage Metastrategy

Even though it's about a year old already, there's still work going on there...

Yeah...I get that Cats/Trebs/Cannon strategy. That's cool - I've done something similar with other units too especially when I need to rush units and have the gold. Such as building archers and upgrading to LBs.

If you've ever seen those tiny sponge-like toys that are shaped like dinosaurs, the strategy works sort of like that. Building a Catapult is like buying a dinosaur sponge from the store that you can put into water. After you put it into the water, it grows a lot bigger. Gaining the +2 XP bonus on a Catapult is like giving teeth to the dinosaur. The cost of adding teeth is very small, because the dry sponge is very small. But once the dinosaur sponge gets big, the teeth become big as well, and your investment in giving the dinosaur extra teeth has an increased reward due to the enlarging of the dinosaur in water.

The result is that by building a 50-hammer unit and upgrading it to a 100-hammer unit, the rate at which you gain the +2 XP bonus on units is effectively doubled (instead of having only 1 unit/100 hammers at +2 XP, you have 2 units/100 hammers at +2 XP).

 

[lymond]

Actually, what would be even better is a stack of CRIII Drill Dinosaurs with the Sponge promotion giving a 75% withdrawal chance. Now that would be something!

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

The result is that by building a 50-hammer unit and upgrading it to a 100-hammer unit, the rate at which you gain the +2 XP bonus on units is effectively doubled (instead of having only 1 unit/100 hammers at +2 XP, you have 2 units/100 hammers at +2 XP).

I don't know, getting a GM is not a gimme. Is it really more practical than waiting to build Trebs?

 

[Artichoker]

I don't know, getting a GM is not a gimme. Is it really more practical than waiting to build Trebs?

In my experience, it's rarely ever worth it to wait for Trebuchets, even if you decide not to upgrade to Cannons.

In the case of a Medieval war, Catapults are a great help for bombarding defenses because they gain more, on a per-hammer basis, from the Accuracy promotion than Trebuchets. I recommend using 60% Catapults and 40% Trebuchets when fighting a Medieval war.

Now in the case of a Renaissance war with Cannons, Catapults are usually far better than Trebuchets because of their value in speeding up production. Cannons cost a hefty 100 hammers on Normal speed. There is a flat surcharge of 20 gold per unit when upgrading, and this is added to a 3 gold per hammer cost (the same as rush buying with Universal Suffrage). Therefore, the surcharge is proportionally less with Catapults than Trebuchets, when upgrading to Cannons.

This is not to say that you shouldn't build Trebuchets when preparing for a Renaissance war. I build Trebuchets for 2 reasons in this case: 1) if I already have enough Catapults, more is overkill 2) in case of an emergency, when I need to start the war before I get Steel, Trebuchets will be more useful.

 

[Ichabod]

Waiting for the next update...

I really like your way of playing Civ IV. It's very different from the usual strategies that I see being used in the forum and it shows that this game can be played in a lot of different ways, even in the higher (and highest) difficulties.

 

[Artichoker]

Waiting for the next update...

I really like your way of playing Civ IV. It's very different from the usual strategies that I see being used in the forum and it shows that this game can be played in a lot of different ways, even in the higher (and highest) difficulties.

Thank you for your feedback. It's rewarding to know that other people on the forum gain something by reading this series.



Other things have been pulling me away from the game for the past week...it's hard to say when I'll get back into full gear with the game. But here are some tidbits that I can share for now...

Spoiler :

 

[Artichoker]

I now bring you the report for the first round of the second game of the set...


to 1200 AD:

Spoiler :

The presence of Marble in Celtic lands encouraged Boudica to seek the Oracle, as the shiny rock reminded her of her own desire to find her son, and she hoped that the Oracle would lead her to him. Her shamans were intent on discovering the secret of Priesthood, but they fell short of their goal.

Instead, the Oracle spoke to Boudica in a dream, "I have gone to a far away land, my daughter...you must seek wisdom elsewhere." So Boudica's soothsayers and sages gathered together and decided to build a Great Library, made completely out of Marble.

When the Great Library was finally built, Boudica had a meeting with all her shamans, soothsayers, and sages. She told them, "We will use this Great Library to gain all manner of knowledge, all for the glory of Celtia!" Deep down in her heart, however, Boudica knew that the real reason for building the Great Library was to find the whereabouts, status, and identity of her one and only son.


One day, a courier came to Boudica with a message, saying, "Your Highness, I have good news for you! Celtia is the first civilization to discover Liberalism!"

Boudica asked, "What in the shamrock is Liberalism?" The courier answered, "It's like this...just take a torch from the wall and lift it up!" So Boudica went to the wall and grabbed a torch, and lifted it. The courier continued, "Now concentrate very hard, and do not move your hand." Boudica did as told, and made the most perfect pose of the torchbearer. With a face as still as stone, she looked ahead in deep thought, all the time lifting the torch in her hand.

Finally awakening from her trance, Boudica uttered these words, "Freedom is the law of the land. Now and henceforth, Celtia shall have a Constitution to define the role of every citizen in the land, and guide their paths." Thus was the secret of Constitution imparted to the Celtic civilization.

"Congratulations!" said the courier. "You have discovered the Zen of Constitution!"

After hearing about Boudica's revelation, the Portuguese foreign minister came into the room...

He said, "the secret of Printing Press will serve your people well...I assure you, your Highness! But there are other secrets I can tell you as well. Let me draw in the sand..."

The Portuguese minister drew a circle on the sandy ground. He said, "Here is Celtia..." as he drew the outline of a modest-sized land to the south. "Here is Portugal..." as he drew the outline of a huge area of land to the north. "And here is Japan..." this time, he drew the outline of a much smaller area of land, but closer to Celtia. "There are more secrets I can tell you than printing presses and maps," said the Portuguese minister as he put on his overcoat to leave.

The minister's cryptic remark puzzled Boudica, and she could not restrain herself to ask him, "What secrets?"

"What secret are you longing to gain knowledge of?" the minister replied. "Think about it..." As the minister left the room, Boudica could not help but wonder whether the minister knew the answer to the very riddle she had been trying to solve for so long, but she lacked the wherewithal to pursue that possibility.

All she could do for now was to do the thing she was best at doing...leading an army. And so she prepared her forces, and saw to it that they grew in both size and skill. Whatever enemy forces lay ahead, they were bound to be strong, and Boudica ordered the production of many Catapults to weaken the defenses of those enemy forces, should she ever have to go to war...

to be continued...

 

[Artichoker]

(continued from last post)

Spoiler :

Not too long afterward, Boudica conducted an empire-wide contest in her own honor. The contest centered around science and business. Four of Celtia's largest cities were the main participants, and from each of those 4 cities would be chosen a Great Person to be a flagbearer for Celtia's economy. Since the librarians at the Great Library were a huge favorite for winning, Boudica enacted a quota to strictly limit their participation.

A winner was decided every few years, and for two times in a row a scientist was chosen the winner. Boudica ordered those two scientists to work together to find the most groundbreaking scientific discovery possible. After years of cooperative effort, they finally discovered the secret of Chemistry.

Celtia was open to sharing this new knowledge to its allies in the rest of the world. With the Incas, Celtia exchanged this new knowlegde for the secret of Replacable Parts. Portugal's offer, on the other hand, was not new knowledge but rather a sizable sum of money...

As Portugal's foreign minister came into the main hall with this offer, Boudica's eyes began to grow brighter. By instinct, Boudica knew that this was something she could not pass up. However, this was not obvious to the minister, as Boudica was master of disguising her real intentions.

"To sweeten the deal, Your Highness, I would just remind you that one item left uncovered in our previous meeting is still available for negotiation..." said the minister.

"And what might that item be?" asked Boudica, pretenting not to remember the minister's reference to the secret that had always been out of her reach.

The minister answered with a riddle..."What is small but causes others to become large? What is young but causes others to become old? What is tearful but causes others to become joyful?"

Boudica pondered over this riddle for several minutes. Finally, she realized the answer to the riddle..."A son."

As Boudica answered correctly, a smile started to grow on the minister's face, as bright as the shiny gold coin he took from his pocket and flipped in the air, as to remind Boudica of the main transaction he was offering to conduct that day. "You are one step closer to becoming a rich queen today, Your Highness!"

As the deal was being finalized, Boudica ordered a great dinner to be held in the honor of the Portuguese minister. The minister sat right next to Boudica, and she did not allow any man or woman to intrude on the privacy of their conversation. As they sat over the dinner table, she opened the conversation that had been delayed until then.

"What secret does the minister of Portugal bring today regarding my son?" asked Boudica directly.

The minister replied, "Your Highness, Portuguese intelligence is unrivalled in the entire world. Many years ago, one of our agents knew about a famous school of Kenjutsu, the Japanese art of swordfighting. One morning, the master of the school found a young boy in a cradle in front of their doorstep. The blanket which wrapped around the infant had the royal insignia of Your Highness's very own bloodline. The master took in the boy and trained him in the art of Kenjutsu. After he graduated from training, he entered the ranks of the Japanese army and became more and more powerful."

"Your son was born of Celtic blood, but his training in the Japanese arts made his very nature draw closer and closer to the heart of Japan. Eventually, he mastered the Zen of Kenjutsu and learned the art of drawing blood. Every enemy he conquered in battle relinquised their blood to become part of his own," continued the minister. "Finally, the blood he drew from his numerous enemies, all defeated in battle, made him more and more Japanese, until he finally became...a true-blooded Japanese."

Surprised with awe, even Boudica could not hide her expression of dismay, upon hearing this revelation. A pure-blooded Celtic prince, ultimately to become one of foreign blood by virtue of his own training and labor...this was the most blasphemous thing that ever crossed Boudica's mind. But he was still her son, Boudica thought to herself. Even if the words spoken by the minister were true, Boudica could not bring herself to believe them.

"I must learn the truth myself...surely, Portuguese intelligence must know the name of my son?" Boudica asked in wonder, still shaken by the tale told by the minister of Portugal.

The minister replied, "Your son is none other than...Tokugawa, Shogun of the Japanese empire. Your Highness, I strongly urge you to learn the truth for yourself...you must confront your own son in war, and defeat him in single combat! Portugal has already begun to invade Japan. I urge Celtia to do the same, for Your Highness's sake, and for the sake of her Celtic-blooded son!

Challenged with this offer, Boudica made no hesitation to accept. A son, however loved by his mother, must be disciplined after all, and the more blasphemous the wrongdoing, the stronger the punishment that should be dealt.

Therefore, Boudica strengthened her efforts of military mobilization, by using the newly gained gold to upgrade her outdated Catapults to the new weapon of the era--Cannons.

...to be continued.

 

[Hereditary Rule]

Great game and writeup!