By Doubtme

OOC Info:
My second game of CTP, on a huge size world, difficulty Prince, 4 Civs, as the Scottish. I may detail the latter part of this history - once it has actually occurred!

Founded by the great William Wallace, 4000 years before the birth of the Messiah, Allan Donald, the Scottish Empire would one day rule far more than the Earth. The clans grew and spread quickly, till they encompassed the far Eastern portion of the long, L shaped continent, rotated 90 degrees to the right.


Old Will died in 3950 BC, long before the above spread began. But it was his dynasty and his tenets that have carried on throughout the millienia.

But first, something about me. My name is Juan de Vera, and I am of Cuban descent, born in 3044 AD, at the local private hospital, in Delachio, La Esmeralda. To cover the entire history of the Clans from their beginning till now would take far to long, instead I will deal with the time period from 1000 BC to 1500 AD. It was during this time that the Clans faced their greatest challenge, fighting my ancestors the Cubans. This was the crucible, in which the future character of the nation was changed, time and time again, before finally emerging tempered and strengthened. But like reactions of a chemical nature, the slightest difference in the substances involved can result in something much different - a powder or a gas, a solid or a liquid. A solute or a solvent.

First contact was made with the Unified Cuban Republic, to give the full name (why is it that the most undemocratic nations have the most democratic sounding names?), shortly after William Wallace was venerated as a god. Initial contact was brief and resulted in the destruction of the Scottish Warriors. The year at this time was approximately 1500 BC. No further meetings - hostile or friendly - occured for some 500 years. At this stage the Scottish empire had slowed in it's expansion rate and begun to look inwards, settling fewer, larger towns instead of many small villages.

William XXXVI was a skilled military tactician - in fact, this trait carried on in his descendants for some years to come, sadly his economic skills did not. He established, at the bend in the L, a blockade. This blockade was not perfect, and in fact units did slip through from time to time, but it sucessfully restricted the UCR to a small portion of the continent, and, more importantly, prevented them fom finding the main body of the Scottish nation. Within 200km of the border defined by the three outposts he built, the town of Falkirk was founded. Falkirk was from the beginning an industrial town, and although it was later eclipsed by wholesale terraforming of other towns, for two millenia it had the tallest and most numerous smoke stacks. Falkirk was the recruiting ground and supplier for the three armies manning the frontier.

It was here, on this short stretch of land, that the fate of the Clans was to be decided. If the Cubans broke through and took Falkirk then all was lost, for the next most defendable border was over 4 times as long, and the superior Cuban armies would almost certainly have overrun any border set up.

The war went in phases. An attack by Cuban forces would lead to a period of recuperation and rebuilding by both sides. The first few forays were unsuccessful, with severe casualties being caused by the just invented Scottish cannons. However, 100 years after the birth of Allan Donald, disaster struck. In a series of lucky battles, significant Cuban forces decimated the forces holding two of the three forts. A fateful decision was made. Those two forts were not to be reinforced immediately by the undamaged army. Instead, Falkirk went into high production to replace the units lost. Sadly, the Cubans struck before either fort was even partway replenished, annihilating the beleagured defenders and occupying the two positions. Reinforcements were called up from the rear, leaving the home cities almost undefended, and the treasury reserves were exhausted in retaking the two positions. Cuban forces at this stage were also starting to exhibit technological advantages, as the Clans' money was siphoned off research and into production.

Eventually, both forts were retaken at huge cost, and the armies began to be upgraded with more modern musketeers. This was the turning point of the war. Fewer forays came, and the Clans were able to recover their poise. A counterstrike was prepared and the army - 4 divisions each of Cavalry and Cannons - embarked on the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Fleets, in addition an espionage and reconnaisance unit accompanied them. The units disembarked just north of La Esmeralda, and after a short bombardment by the naval forces, entered the city undamaged. The weakness of defence gave hope to the forces and a second army, this time with 4 divisions Musketeers rather than Cavalry, was put into production. Meanwhile the first of the Battleships came on line, giving new hope to the navy, previously stuck with the old fashioned sailing ships.

For a time the winds blew well, and another two cities fell. Several detachments of spies had now landed and were reconning the Cuban nation. All was looking good until a spy made a fateful discovery in Nuevitas - a War Walker. It made sense that the largest cities would get these units first, but the other cities could not be far behind. William XXXIX made his decision. The worship of his ancestor was not adequate. In his Decree of War, all civilian rights were subsumed to the state. Civil works were halted as civilians were mass conscripted. A simple submachine gun was perfected, and the new units were equipped with these. The first 9 divisions of "fascisti" entered combat in 600 AD, and were immediately effective. Using the Cubans own rail networks, they rapidly overran several cities, taking and holding the front line and leaving the rear cities undefended. Unfortunately the War Walkers were decimating the battleships engaged in bombarding the coastal cities - 8 in all were lost before their futile mission was called off. The fate of this war now lay in the hands of the armies of conscripts. They made rapid progress, taking out even the larger Cuban forces with relative ease, and the three armies defending the old border were added to the combat. It was at this stage though that disaster struck a second time. It shouldn't have happened, had the government been more democratic William XXXXI would have been deposed. Stolen technology was being put to use (although the blueprints for the War Walkers were not found, and in fact were only re-invented some 600 years after the conclusion of hostilities.), and the armies were overrunning on all frontiers. But they had grown huge and inefficient. The battle was being won but at enormous cost. Fully 87% of the nations resources were being used to support the army, and not enough gold was available to pay the workers. A tidal wave of revolt began. The Clan armies advanced, and behind them followed a tidal wave of rioting. Emergency orders and police actions were tried. They all had no effect. In desperation, William XXXXI ordered the working day shortened to make up for the lower wages. It had the desired effect, people returned to work, or to being conscripted, but production capability was slashed. Success would now be based almost soley on the units in the field. If they failed, all was lost, for there would be very few reinforcements. Fortune stayed with the Wallace line, and the remaining units carried the day. The vast majority of Cuban forces had been flung against the Falkirk Line, and now only a few remained to defend - 1 or 2 divisions per city at most. Against the massed hordes of fascisti, the War Walkers potent weaponry was ineffective. The final Cuban city, hiding in the far recesses of the continent, fell in 1480 AD. This was some 60 odd years after the one before, and it was discovered only with the use of stolen blueprints for the Cuban fighter. After two and a half thousand years of continuous warfare, William XXXXVI ordered the army to stand down to peacetime status. The units at the front returned home to take up defensive positions in the Scottish cities, and the thousand-or-more year old units currently defending were disbanded, their standards put away. The rest of the continent was explored, no trace of a large civilization was found, and so the Clans were safe. William XXXXVI now turned his view to the economic problems, small at first, over the two millenia of neglect they had snowballed to an enormous size. At the age of 65 he made his final, most momentous decision. He opened the door to corporations, giving to them the business of providing the basic necessities in return for cash. The economy was revitalized, the nation saved, but the Wallace dynasty never again had the same level of power it had d before the Cuban Crisis.

Extract from "The Rise and Rise of the Scottish Empire"
Juan de Vera, 3080 AD