Finished Writing on T55, I'll tech Horseback Riding next. At this point I'm not sure whether to go for Horse Archers or Elepult. Both paths require Horseback Riding. My general plan at the moment is to research Horseback Riding then build up a gold supply while generating a Great Scientist to bulb Mathematics.
Settled Cologne on T59 between horse and cow.
I used a warrior to scout out Brennus' land. It's important to know which of his cities are on flatland, what kind of troops he has, where his metal is, etc. In this scenario, I've learned that Brennus' capital is a prime target, being poorly defended and not on a hill. His land is very good by the way. Lots of food and plenty of riverside tiles to cottage.
Horseback Riding finished on Turn 66. At this point I've pretty much decided to do the horse archer rush. I still need to research Archery before I can build Horse Archers. So I went for Archery, finishing it on T69. Buildup of Horse Archers soon followed.
Alphabet is my next tech. I want to trade for Sailing, Iron Working, the religious line, etc. It also leads to Currency.
Gifted Joao a clam to start building up relations.
With Alphabet finished on T79 I continue on to Currency. There aren't any good tech trades available yet. Would be different on Immortal.
Finally, at T82 I'm ready to attack.
I'm going in with 9 horse archers in total. They all have 3xp and some have 5 thanks to the stable I built in Berlin. His capital will be my first target. It has very high cultural defense, so I want to capture it before he gets too many troops in there. Note that attacking Camulodunum, his newest city, would be a mistake because it would auto-raze upon being captured. Any city that has never grown past size 1 will do this.
I also made this trade:
This will give me trade routes with the other leaders. I will need to explore the coastline first, however.
Finally, on Turn 84, the time has come to strike at his capital. The axe and spear were there when I declared last turn. He reinforced his city with a chariot, basically the worst unit he could reinforce with.
There's not much strategy for what follows. I take my shock horse archers and pray for good combat rolls.
The result:
I lost just 1 horse archer. Got lucky. Still, I don't think I would have lost more than 3 or 4 here, even with poor rolls.
Here we see the power of horse archers. 1 turn after I declared I have already taken his capital. I have acquired a very good city and also got around 100 gold from the capture. Now I can immediately start teching Currency.
Of course, this victory did take its toll on my homeland. The citizenry has been whipped heavily and now many people are refusing to work. Don't worry, we can fix that.
Being an Industrious leader, De Gaulle built the Oracle and picked Monarchy for his free tech. And so I have obtained some more happiness.
There wasn't much resistance after that. Tolosa was defended by a single archer and also had a worker for me to steal.
I lost that fight, by the way, so I feel slightly better about my good luck previously.
Vienne had a well-promoted archer and a spearman defending it. With 5 horse archers I was reasonably confident that I could take the city.
My good luck continued. I lost only 1 horse archer. But still, I am confident that I had enough units to take it even if I was less lucky.
During this time I converted to Buddhism. It will help stabilize my new cities which are starting to come online. The religion has spread to Hamburg and hopefully will soon spread to the rest of my empire.
8 horse archers faced off against the 2 archers and axeman defending Gergovia...and I didn't lose anyone this time. But again, and I know I'm repeating myself here, I would have taken the city either way. Honestly, I probably built too many units here. This just proves that Monarch AI is very easy to defeat in warfare early on.
At this point, he has only 1 city left. I still can't take it because it hasn't grown past size 1 yet.
But on T91, it finally grows to size 2. It's time to end this. Not even worth taking a screenshot. There's only 1 archer there. I take it without any losses...Hooray! Brennus is de..wait what? He's still alive?
So yes, it turns out he had one more city out in the jungle. I didn't see it. It's a complete piece of garbage though, definitely not worth keeping.
Got Currency on T92, not sure what to tech next. I suppose I'll go for Mathematics.
I decided to trade to De Gaulle Horseback Riding for Iron Working, Mysticism, and 30 gold. I want Iron Working to clear out the jungle. The gold is nice too.
At long last, the Celtic civilization is destroyed on turn 94. Lost 1 horse archer in the final battle.
I now have 9 good cities and plenty of green grassland to cottage. Though I chopped away most of my forest in my homeland, I've gained vast tracks of new woodland to deforest later on. My economy has suffered somewhat but I'm getting it back on track now. Cottages are being built and whip anger is cooling off. There's more land to settle in the west as well. My first priority will be the gold. I'm also getting a great scientist in two turns. He will most likely bulb Philosophy. Long term I will likely tech to Cuirassiers to take over my continent. Munich and Bibracte are excellent Great Person farms and can supply Great Scientists for bulbing and Great Merchants to upgrade my veteran horse archers.