The Story of Celtic Baseball - OOTP Meets Civilization IV

[sbrylski]

Overview Map, 155 BCE

I've edited the map in the previous post (and re-posted it here due to the page change) with some geographical names. I just went with pagan Celtic/Roman gods as inspiration.

The inland sea is now Loch Nodens, after a Celtic deity associated with the sea. (Partially analogous to Neptune and Poseidon.)

The moutains near Vandal are now named the Alisanos Mountains, after a Celtic god of rock/mountains.

The main river through Celtia is called the River Isca, meaning water as previously mentioned, and the ancient name for the modern-day River Usk in Wales.

Lastly, the large eastern sea is named the Sulevia Sea. Sulevia, plural Suleviae, is a triple-goddess' name that translates to "those who govern well." I figured with the three nations sharing the sea being on quite good terms, it could conceivably be believed that the Suleviae reigned from this central location. (We'll ignore the fact that largely what brings Celtia, Rome, and Spain together is faith in Buddhism, but we'll say the name originated prior to the spread of Buddhism, which actually originated in southern Spain and not on the sea in question.)

I may yet name the central highlands/mountains, but for now we'll just call them either the Central/Celtic Highlands and/or the Celtic Mountains.

[sbrylski]

After the victory over the Greeks, Camulodunon began construction on a tribute in celebration and appeasement to the pagan gods still were still worshiped there. In 65 BCE, it was fully completed - on the coastline now stood an array of Moai Statues. These large sculptures stood tall and proud, and instilled confidence in the city's superstitious and still small fishing industry that is resulting in a coastal boom in production.

If you notice from the pictures below, our statues are actually very similar to the ones erected in Sparta, across the sea, a few centuries earlier. The mythological beliefs by the pagan people around this inland sea are similar, but the architects did purposely mimic the design of the Greek statues. In fact, they made each one a foot taller, just to gloat a bit in their victory.

Moai Statues of Sparta and Camulodunon

Another development from the post-war time period was the settlement of another city. We finally decided to start taking advantage of the jungle and its resources. Our economy was in need of a boost, and the gems in the jungle highlands were just waiting to be mined. Our newest city was named Verlamion, or "city above the marsh." Our workers in the area had already prepped the near hills for a gem mine, and completed the mine shortly after settlement in 80 BCE.

Verlamion, 50 BCE

Verlamion is pronounced ver-LAY-me-uhn, by the way.

Next update will be from the other side of year 1!

[MorseMoose]

I've been playing Civ non-stop since you posted this thread .

[sbrylski]

Yeah, my schedule just got rather hectic. It'll be slow going for the next two and a half weeks, then I open back up. That's probably the best projection for when I can finally start with baseball.

(Project due Friday; Halloween parties Thursday, Friday, Saturday; Three mid-terms the second week of November, and a fourth the following week. College.)

[jaxmagicman]

Ah man, we are at the end. I'm bummed.

[sbrylski]

Originally Posted by jaxmagicman

Ah man, we are at the end. I'm bummed.

Don't worry, I'm sunk into this enough. And I'll still be posting the next two and a half weeks, just not every day or anything.

[MorseMoose]

I just played on Deity. Got a total of 15 minutes in and was defeated .

[rocknfire7]

I hate to interupt, but if you have any volcanoes that need named can you name one " The Mountain of Rock and Fire" in whatever language you like?

[sbrylski]

Originally Posted by rocknfire7

I hate to interupt, but if you have any volcanoes that need named can you name one " The Mountain of Rock and Fire" in whatever language you like?

In the event we have a volcano in our territory (I won't know if any mountains have magma chambers until they erupt and destroy some of my countryside), I will do my best to translate that.

Oh, and good luck in the PBRL AL expansion draft. You'll need it.

[BMW]

Originally Posted by sbrylski

In the event we have a volcano in our territory (I won't know if any mountains have magma chambers until they erupt and destroy some of my countryside), I will do my best to translate that.

Oh, and good luck in the PBRL AL expansion draft. You'll need it.

Can you actually name stuff in-game? There was a great old strategy game called "Conquest of the New World" that let you do that. I didn't think that Civ 4 did.

[sbrylski]

Originally Posted by BMW

Can you actually name stuff in-game? There was a great old strategy game called "Conquest of the New World" that let you do that. I didn't think that Civ 4 did.

Not really. I think I can name units. I know I can put little markers in the map with text to name certain things if I wanted. But I'm just going to use these geographical names in the writeups, so I can say "Loch Nodens" instead of "that lake that borders Camunlodunon" every time.

[sbrylski]

We are now past the birth of Christ, and have entered the common era. We began hearing whispers about the Christianity movement, apparently from southern Spain. We'll have to see if their people end up shaken from the Buddhist faith in the coming centuries.

In 115 CE, our nation's population official hit the one million mark. Bibracte remains our largest city, with 469,000 residents, and Durnovaria is also quite large with 337,000 residents. That's over 80% of our population living on the southeastern coast. And with so many people, we are ready to expand once more.

There is still room for an additional major settlement in the jungle at the mouth of the River Isca, and the sugars in the area would be valuable to harvest. However, our workforce is occupied, so instead we head to the sea to stake a claim on one of the southern island. A ship sent on an exploration mission to the area reported back that the Spanish were quickly colonizing the archipelago, and we wanted to get in on the areas resources. The nearest sizable island to Durnovaria held a forest rich in silk, which should be a valuable trading commodity, or a nice luxury for our upper class. The settling party landed in 130 CE a built our newest city, Calleva.

Calleva, Situated South of Durnovaria and West of Seville, 130 CE

In 205 BCE, both Celtia and Greece saw revolution. Greece's was one of spiritual change, for they adopted Confucianism as their official state religion. The movement has yet to spread to Sparta, however.

The Celtic revolution was one of politics and power. Hereditary rule was officially established, and the people can look forward to much great continuity of power - for better or worse. The religious upper class also spread their influence, organizing their hierarchy to increase their grip and power over the locals and run more efficiently. In cities celebrating Buddhism, they have actually witnessed and increase in city production with things running more smoothly through the central religious authority.

[sbrylski]

The next 300 years were, in general, a time of growth. We made great intellectual strides in mathematics, and established a structured and official currency system. By 340 CE, we had also developed an official code of laws in order to, as Hammurabi would put it, "bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, so that the strong should not harm the weak." In reality, however, our system of law led to a more class-divided, caste society. Nearly all of the upper class now simply pursued lives as great merchant tradesmen, well funded research scientists, religious officers, or simply lives of leisure. This was most prevalent in Durnovaria, which was home to a large portion of the upper class - most of whom still resided along the east coast.

Durnovaria reached a population of 469,000 in 565 BCE, and in that year completed the grandest library center in the known world, named simply as the Great Library. More scientists than ever could study there at the city, with its largest collection of information in the world. Its construction resulted in an intellectual boom. You can see the Great Library in the image of the city below - it is the westernmost building with the grand red roof.

Durnovaria Completes Great Library in 565 CE

Throughout the rest of the world during this time period, there was a bit of religious change. Confucianism, founded in the Ethiopian city of Gondar, spread quite rapidly through the three nations to my northwest. China, who's people had been halfheartedly Jewish for much of history, embraced the new religious system and officially adopted it in 235 CE. But the Greeks beat them to the punch, finally opting to control the formerly pagan religious attitudes of their people, and officially endorsed it in 205 CE. So the world now had three major religions:

Confucianism: *Ethiopia, China, Greece
Hinduism: *Egypt, India
Buddhism: *Spain, Rome, Celtia
*Founder

Judaism and Christianity, at least at this point in history, are the other two religions practiced. Judasim, as mentioned, is mainly celebrated lightly in the far northwest, in China, despite being founded in an Egyptian city. Christianity is much closer to home - actually being practiced on the Celtic mainland. Founded in a Spanish city in the islands south of Durnovaria (near Calleva), it spread north along the shore to Calleva, Durnovaria, and Bibracte. The mainland cities countered this movement by constructing Buddhist temples and monasteries, but Calleva's people have embraced the faith as their primary religion. Camulodunon and Vandal still cling to their pagan rituals, even despite a Spanish sponsored attempt to spread the Buddhist faith. Their missionaries failed miserably, but word of their passion must have struck a chord in Eblana, where devotion to Buddhism has sprung up.

[sbrylski]

In 595 CE, we finally achieved the full settlement of our mainland with the founding of Isca. Named for the river and region, it will eventually be known for its large sugar crop. Our workers are flocking to the region to build the vast and necessary plantations. In the short term, it will rely on fishing the ocean for food. Also, note the very recent completion of the fort (Gaelic: "Dun") in the Alisanos Mountains on the Celtia-Greece border. Between Dun Alisanos and the Dun-City of Vandal, we should be able to fend off any future Greek attacks - they still don't like us very much.

Isca, South of Eblana and Southeast of Vandal, circa 6th Century CE


Workers Flock to Construct Sugar Plantations

[sbrylski]

In 610 CE, citizens of Eblana began mysteriously becoming inflicted with a unknown fatal disease. City officials quickly determined the cause of the epidemic - their water supply had been poisoned! Our engineers did what they could to cleanse the watershed, but sanitation procedures of the time were incredibly rudimentary, and the disease spread amongst the population. At the time of the breakout, Elbana was home to 232,000 Celts. If we flash forward 75 years, the city's population had dwindled to just 48,000 - nearly 200,000 and their descendants were denied their right to life.

Eblana Poisoned! Greeks Across the Loch to Blame?

Who could committed such an atrocity? Well, during that same year of 610 CE, Greece instituted a security tax aimed at strengthening their military and fortifications. While we'll never know for sure, our safe bet is on a Greek agent. The fighting may not be over, but I cannot attack again on simply a hunch. The Greek army is quite impressive at the moment as well, our government will begin placing a higher emphasis on our military defenses.

While Eblana spent the century suffering, the rest of the nation saw a glorious, culturally-driven golden age. Celtia saw culture spread through the increase in musical appreciation and religious fidelity, and increases in production and commerce a result of this greater unity of its people. This movement can largely be attributed to the writings and inspiration of Yunus Emre, born in Durnovaria in 625 CE:

For Yunus Emre, poetry was a way to express true sentiments and ideas, his poems were realistic and instructional. His interest was not art for art's sake, yet he addressed his audience, which involved every member of society from ordinary, illiterate individuals to highly educated people, with a high level of poetic excellence. He never composed poems for a specific group or for his own reputation.

His poetry gives no weight to the separations of religion, sect, race, color or status. He never discriminates among human beings, his embracing attitude welcomes all humanity without any sense of differences; he does not separate, he reconciles and unites people in his humanism. His poetry describes Sufism with a detailed simplicity which allows it to spread across and penetrate all areas of society.

Yunus Emre: Love & Peace

During this 150 year golden age, our national system of libraries was more or less completed, extending centers of knowledge and writings to virtually all corners of our nation - from Ratae, Bibracte, Durnovaria, and the island of Calleva in the east, to Vandal, Eblana, and Verlamion in the west. National research collaboration quickened our pace of scientific development. In 730 CE, one of the great thinkers of the era, the female Hypatia, founded our first major university, Hypatia Academy, in Durnovaria. Its establishment officially cemented the city's status as the intellectual captial of not only our nation, but the entire known world.

[sbrylski]

The common era's ninth century was pretty quiet at home. In 805 CE, our still hereditary ruled government and large private institutions were organized into expansive bureaucracies - upkeep costs soared of course, but the increased facilitation of commercial and manufacturing activities led to an increase in both, especially in Bibracte. Durnovaria has been prominent due to its tendency for innovation and progressive thought, but make no mistake, Bibracte is still the center and capital of Celtia. Our most populous city at 1,051,000 residents as of 835 CE, it leads our nation in commercial activities, production activities, and cultural development.

Overview of East Celtia, 835 CE

There were a few international developments during the ninth century, most importantly the conversion of our Buddhist friends in Rome to a state endorsement of Hinduism. Their two southernmost cities, Rome and Cumae, both remain solely Buddhist, however every one of their other settlements all contain followers of the Hindu faith. With the populations of some of those northern cities growing larger than Rome, the official conversion was done to please the masses. Roman power was shifting north and off the coast of the Sulevia Sea, closer to their new religious allies in Egypt and India. Relations between the Celtic and Roman governments grew much colder nearly overnight.

Relations on the other side of the country weren't going well either. In 870 CE, a prominent pagan Celtic noble from Vandal married into a Greek family in Athens, and converted to Confucianism. Our citizens were quite displeased, and the uproar demonstrated to the Greeks how little we thought of their culture and religion, only increasing the tension.

Everything was not going well in Greece however, for Athens saw a major slave revolt in 890 CE. The city had to spend a handful of years sorting out the mess and returning their economy to normal. Thankfully, slavery only exists in small patches in Celtia, and none of it is state endorsed. Across the sea in Spain, Isabella recently adopted a vast, state-operated slavery system however. Maybe one day everyone will be able to live free...

[sbrylski]

The tenth century CE saw the largest concentration of religious expansion in history.

In 900 CE, the Apostolic Palace was built in Egypt, uniting all the world's followers of Hinduism under a central power. Luckily, Hinduism has remained out of our borders, so I may remain completely independent of any decree's passed out from the leaders of the Hindu faith. On the other hand, all the Hindu nations are rather hostile towards me, including increased tensions between us and the converted Romans. I am not thrilled with the three countries (the third being India) unifying under their faith.

Another of the three major world religions, Confucianism, experienced profound expansion through an enormous missionary effort by leaders from the Chinese city of Chengdu. Their religion spread quickly in all directions due to their efforts. In Celtia, it spread along the southern coast. From west to east, a number of residents in Vandal, Isca, Durnovaria, and the island of Calleva all adopted the teachings.

Confucianism had competition in Vandal, however. Many residents finally shed their pagan beliefs instead for a unique religious message, the advent of Taoism. This new religion grew out of the expansion of philosophical thought, headquartered in Durnovaria, of course, with a man named Alhazen as its most revered pioneer in the field. New ideas traveled along the trade routes, and in Vandal they coalesced into the new religion. Taoism traveled quickly along the north coast of Celtia, spreading to Eblana and Camulodunon by 940 CE. With its introduction to the latter city, pagan beliefs have all but vanished from our country. Four religions were now spread amongst the nation, though Buddhism was still the most prevalent and remained endorsed by the government. (Christianity is the fourth, followed only in Bibracte.)

During this period, a glorious National Epic was completed by a team of scholars at the Great Library in Durnovaria. This epic was a heroic and poetic literary work, celebrating the history and exploits of our nation's history to date. In its over 60,000 couplets, it covered the span between the founding of Bibracte in 4000 BCE to the recent events of taming the the southern jungle and expansion to the island of Calleva.

Notable constructions of the tenth century include two grand castles built in Vandal and Ratae to bookend our nation, providing increased defense and boosting trade. Our western border is now as fortified as it can get, and Ratae is more than capable to withstand many years of attacks if they should come. With increasing tensions between us and the Hindu nations to our northeast, the fortifications in Ratae might be put to good use in the near future.

Ratae With Walls and Castle, 950 CE


Vandal and Our Heavily Fortified Western Border, 950 CE

[sbrylski]

In 1090 CE, Vandal constructed the Dai Miao under the direction of a great prophet, Mencius. The Dai Miao, or "Temple of the God of Mount Tai" as the nearest local mountain has been named, is a large temple complex covering an area of about a million square feet. One of the buildings is the Palace of Heavenly Blessings, which contains a mural titled, "The God of Mount Tai Making a Journey" that is 10 feet in height by about 200 feet long. This central complex has become the center for the Taoist faith, helping to spread and strengthen its influence, as well as spark economic gain for the church and the city.

However, its construction was greatly overshadowed by a major event in the east - we were going back to war!

In the past century, we had caught two spies near Ratae attempting to disrupt our civilization. We were all to aware of the ramifications of a successful and anonymous sneak attack on a city, as we had witnessed in Eblana nearly 500 years ago. This time, the Romans were the suspicious party. They were also recently making arrogant demands of us, demanding gold or the trade of a natural resource. (Though I have to admit, I was guilty of the same crooked diplomacy.) But I would not lay down. Our spies entered their borders and began infiltrating their spy network and collecting intelligence - hopefully to prevent any future covert "disruptions" in our bordered. And by 1100 CE, we (a bit more blatantly) had troops in place outside Rome and declared war!

[Tyke]

Betterer and betterer!

[sbrylski]

The Celtic-Roman War


Siege on Rome
1110 CE - 1130 CE

Our intelligence regarding the distribution of the Roman army had most of the Roman troops located to the north of Ratae, many in Ravenna and Neapolis. This was mainly bad news, as the distance between those two cities is not great. Our generals decided on a plan to hopefully split the attention of the Roman army, rather than take on its full force. We poured all non-committed troops on the mainland into Ratae, behind the castle and city walls, and braced for a siege. However, that only amounted half of of our total army - our other division was committed to the attack force, loaded onto galley's and headed towards Rome! With much of the Roman army in the north, we were going to hit their southern capital from the sea, before they could react and refortify the city.

Celtic Ships Headed to Rome

In 1110 CE, our galley breached the Roman shore, and nearly 70,000 troops disembarked and climbed the highest hill outside Rome with no resistance. From there, we began our assault. For the first nearly 10 years, our large force of trebuchets stood atop the hill, bombarding the fortifications of Rome - not that they had much. By 1120 CE, their walls and first defense were effectively destroyed, and we were set to enter the city.

Bombardment of Rome

While the thin, southern Roman army could do little but hide behind the city's fortifications, there was one part of their military force that was free to cause havoc - their navy. Some of our ships had begun returning to Celtic shores, to collect the next wave of troops, but some remained outside Rome. Two Roman fleets approached from the southeast and engaged us in the harbor. We had some success, sinking some Roman galleys and around 2,800 seamen, but our adversaries did better - our invading troops atop the hill could only watch as their transport's back to Celtia were destroyed. It was now into Rome or death.

Battle in the Roman Harbor

So on into the city they marched, against the 52,000 Roman praetorians, macemen, long- and crossbowmen. The first wave was led by continued bombardment from the trebuchets, softening the Roman center. And the artillery did their job well - the Roman defenses were a mess. Our first wave of macemen suffered defeat, but the next three waves suffered minimal casualties, while pulverizing the 30,000 melee-trained defenses. By 1030 CE, only small, random platoons of archery units were spread throughout the city. Our final takeover was complete with the systematic destruction of these last organized resisters.

Fighting on the Streets of Rome

After we took the city, aside from the obvious civil unrest, we faced some minor retaliation from the countryside. Namely, we had to dispatch troops to the hill to the northeast of Rome, where a small group of Roman catapults still pestered the outskirts of town. We also faced a tussle with a faction of praetorians in the forest east of the city, but they were quickly quieted. We had successful military control over the Roman capital.

Unrest After Takeover of Rome

Total Casualties
Rome - 68,400 (65,000 Army, 3,400 Navy)
Celtia - 44,875 (40,875 Army, 4,000 Navy)