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Only 2 months remain until Civ3 PTW is released. With the release several new civs will be released, each with their own unique advantages and disadvantages. I think we have enough information to begin planning civ specific strategies for at least one civilization, the Celts.
First, lets review the facts.
Information thus far indicates that The Celts are a Religious and Militaristic civilization. This means that they begin the game with Ceremonial Burial and The Wheel or Warrior Code. Their UU is The Gallic Swordsman and is most likely available with the discovery of Iron Working. The stats of this unit are 4.2.2 (attack.defensive.movement) which appears to make this unit the most powerful offensive ancient era UU. This unit will have the Mobility and retreating ability of "fast" units and the Offensive power of Immortals, Knights, Elephants, Samurai, Raiders, or Medieval Infantry and will most likely cost the same or slightly more then the number of shields required to make a "Vanilla" swordsman or a Roman or Persian UU. This means that the Celts will have a unit almost as good as knights and elephants (and only a bit worse then Samurai and Raiders) many many turns before Chivalry is discovered. Looking at the cost of the "Vanilla" swordsman we see that it is 30 shields. If the Gallic swordsman has the same production cost then it is possible to produce 2.1 Gallic swordsmen for every Knight or Knight equivalent your opponent produces.
Applying the facts to form a strategy
Ancient Era
The Celts are a militaristic civ, in the early game the best possible application of this trait is to first claim as much territory as you can with settlers then to produce the reduced cost barracks in as many productive cities as possible. These barrack will allow you to begin producing Veteran Gallic Swordsmen. The Mobility, High Attack power, and decent defense of the Gallic Swordsman means that you are more then a match then any generic ancient era unit. Some of the Unique units might seem problematic but only a few of them should cause genuine concern. Hoplites and Legionaries should be your main concern followed by Mounted Warriors and Jaguar Warriors (though these should only be problematic in the very early game). The other early UUs should not concern you that much simply because your high attack and mobility values will allow you to pick off these units should they attempt to oppose you.
Hoplites and Legionaries, when fortified, are a near equal to the offensive power of Gallic Warriors. If there is a city wall or if the city is above size 6 these units will be more then a match for the Gallic Warriors. Against these two Civs your best bet is to concentrate your forces against their smaller/poorly defended cities. By doing this you force your opponent to one of two things. You opponent can either leave his defensive units in his core cities and make sure you cannot take them or he can deploy his forces in an attempt to stop your invasion and save his outer cities. Either approach will suit you perfectly. If he sacrifices his outer cities to defend his core he will be doing nothing but helping you and hurting himself in the long run, as each of these cities will help you more and more as the game progresses. (Indeed this is why you are producing Gallic Swordsmen in the first place). If he deploys his army in the open he will also be making your job somewhat easier in that you can use your mobility to force him to engage you in ground that favors you. By moving your forces and using positioning to threaten the right cities you can force him to engage you in grassland or plains. By doing so you can make victory more likely because the Legionaries and Hoplites will have a defense value of 3.1 while you will have an attack of 4 along side your 50% retreat ability. Against the Greeks you have to take extra care in concentrating your forces and using hit and fade tactics all because the Greeks can produce 2 hoplites for every Gallic Swordsman you can produce. Hoplites and Swordsmen could be quite painful if the swordsmen survive to counter your Gallic Swordsmen. For these reasons I recommend that you completely avoid attacking the Greeks and the Romans if they have secured a supply of iron. Actually I would recommend avoiding the Greeks entirely because there are usually easier pickings to be found from other civs, this is unless they simply have to be pruned before any other Civ.
Mounted Warriors are interesting opponents in that they have both a high level of mobility and a high attack value. However unlike your Gallic Swordsmen they have a mere defense of 1. This gives you a HUGE advantage when attacking and less then a point on the defensive. There is no point in risking losses by being sloppy with your attack. Jocky for positioning with their MW force until you can get the initial attack. If you cannot force them to move into a disadvantageous position then try to approach their cities from hilly or mountainous terrain, as this will minimize your defensive disadvantage. If this is not an option then I would recommend using a spearman stack to act as a forward decoy/meat shield if you wish to be cautious and save units at the cost of time. By keeping your Gallic Swordsmen one square behind your spearmen you can insure that the MW will either be forced to attack your spearmen or wait until you are within striking distance of his cities. If he chooses the first options and attacks your stack of spearmen then his army is yours. Though you might lose some spearmen to his initial strike, the remaining MWs will be weakened and will be on the defensive, which is not their strong point, own them and their ponies too. After Destroying their MW force the cities should fall as if you were facing any other civilization. If they hold back the MW force then you have no choice but to go forward with your stack of spearmen and Gallic Swords men. You should win eventually simply because of your intrinsic attack and defensive values. If you think your opponent might chose this option then your best bet would be to attack as soon as possible and forget the spearman stack. Such a battle will be a battle of attrition and every city you take is one less MW you have to face every few turns. In addition attacking quickly will give your opponent less time to mass their UU. Just remember that if the Irq. have a road network up they will be able to concentrate and receive their reinforcements faster then you will be able to. Thus it is of the utmost importance that your first Gallic Swordsman wave cripples or destroyers your opponent else you will be forced into a long war of attrition and you will incur significant opportunity costs, gaining much less territory and resources then you could have gained if you won quickly. Use your men wisely against the Irq. MW and try to win as quickly as possible as their mobility and high attack value gives them a good opportunity to not only turn back your attack but counterattack and take away cities from you if your attack wave fails.
The Aztecs and their Jaguar Warriors can be quite a problem for the Celts, but only very early in the game. Masses of Jaguar Warriors could cost you cities early, however once you discover bronze working (which should be a priority considering how valuable your UU is) the cost of taking a city away from you will be significantly more for the Aztecs. Given enough time you will be able to match the Aztecs in number of units because of the upkeep costs of maintaining a standing army. In addition your units will be superior to those of the Aztecs on both the offensive and defensive. Attrition favors you simply because you will be able to stack your units while you attack, thus taking away the Aztecs chief advantage of being able to concentrate their cheap units on a few units until they are dead. By doing this you will be able to take out their units and then heal after you take or raze a city. The best part is that if you ever find yourself in a situation where it looks like you might lose a significant part of your force you can simply retreat to a well defend city and heal because your are just as fast as the jaguar warriors. However, this is only possible if you can avoid being crippled in the very early game by a hard Aztec jaguar warrior rush. The best advice I can give you to try to get masonry and bronze working ASAP to make invading your territory an expensive proposition for the Aztecs by using spearmen and city walls. Hopefully this will deter them into attacking other civs while you can strengthen your position and get your UU. However if they attack another civ and make significant gains you might be forced to attack prematurely simply to force them into a 2 front war so you can prevent them from become too strong and thus impossible to beat. All in all the Aztecs will be an extremely difficult early game opponent to beat, especially since they have the exact same civ traits you have. The entire course of the Aztecs vs. Celt conflict will be decided in the very early portions of the game.
The final worrisome UU in the ancient era is the Persian Immortal. If you play your cards right this units should be nothing more then a minor nuisance, just like every other swordsman unit out there. If the Persians are on the offensive you can easily crush them, simply due to your higher mobility and access to roads. Whenever they move into attack range your can simply attack giving you the 4-2 attack advantage in the match up. There is no way for the Persians to use their 4 attack point in an offensive against you. They can however be quite effectively used with roads on the defensive. To counter this possibility you should pillage Persian roads that link their cities together, assuming you will not be left in a vulnerable position. Another possibility is to make them disperse their forces by attacking at multiple positions at once. You then use your mobility to pillage the connections and attacking the cities where you can concentrate your forces faster then your Persian opponent could.
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages will bring 3 new generic units into the fray making the Celtic UU more difficult to use on the offensive. These units are the Knight, Pikemen, and Medieval Infantry. These units if used effectivly in combination will allow any player to counter your force of Gallic swordsmen. However you do have an opportunity to stop this and limit them to ancient era units and possibly long bowmen. You should have a large force of Gallic Swordsmen at the end of the ancient era after you’ve pruned and/or eliminated a civilization or two. You can use this force to completely cut off a civilizations source of Iron. By doing this you can add one more civilization's land to your burgeoning empire. On a side note a force of just Medieval Infantry can be treated the same way you would treat Persian Immortals. A force of force of Pikemen and Medieval Infantry can be treated with just a little bit more respect then a Greek Hoplite/Swordsmen combo, maybe a little less because of the increased shield cost of Pikemen and MI. A force of all three should be treated with the utmost respect. I would avoid using MI in such a situation simply cause this would reduce your overall mobility. A force of Knights and Gallic swordsmen would have the offensive and defensive capabilities of the units mentioned thus far, but would also maintain the advantages of mobility that were already pointed out. Musketmen render the Gallic Swordsmen obsolete on the offensive, but your remaining swordsmen can still be used to counterattack cavalry, so oddly enough Gallic Swordsmen are still somewhat useful well into the Industrial Era.
Bringing it all together
Looking at the combat traits of the Celtic UU and their Civilization traits we can conclude that the best possible strategy for the Celts is one REX followed by Military conquest of the neighboring civs in the Ancient and possibly the Medieval eras followed by a program of building cheap temples to secure your city radiuses and to prevent your cites from being culturally absorbed. After this I would recommend that you try to build city improvements so that you do not fall to far behind, compared to the other civs, in terms of culture, technology, and income. If you are able to fully utilize your gains from the use of your UU in ancient and medieval times then you should become an unstoppable power as the game progresses, especially if you managed to build some ancient or medieval wonders with Leaders.
First, lets review the facts.
Information thus far indicates that The Celts are a Religious and Militaristic civilization. This means that they begin the game with Ceremonial Burial and The Wheel or Warrior Code. Their UU is The Gallic Swordsman and is most likely available with the discovery of Iron Working. The stats of this unit are 4.2.2 (attack.defensive.movement) which appears to make this unit the most powerful offensive ancient era UU. This unit will have the Mobility and retreating ability of "fast" units and the Offensive power of Immortals, Knights, Elephants, Samurai, Raiders, or Medieval Infantry and will most likely cost the same or slightly more then the number of shields required to make a "Vanilla" swordsman or a Roman or Persian UU. This means that the Celts will have a unit almost as good as knights and elephants (and only a bit worse then Samurai and Raiders) many many turns before Chivalry is discovered. Looking at the cost of the "Vanilla" swordsman we see that it is 30 shields. If the Gallic swordsman has the same production cost then it is possible to produce 2.1 Gallic swordsmen for every Knight or Knight equivalent your opponent produces.
Applying the facts to form a strategy
Ancient Era
The Celts are a militaristic civ, in the early game the best possible application of this trait is to first claim as much territory as you can with settlers then to produce the reduced cost barracks in as many productive cities as possible. These barrack will allow you to begin producing Veteran Gallic Swordsmen. The Mobility, High Attack power, and decent defense of the Gallic Swordsman means that you are more then a match then any generic ancient era unit. Some of the Unique units might seem problematic but only a few of them should cause genuine concern. Hoplites and Legionaries should be your main concern followed by Mounted Warriors and Jaguar Warriors (though these should only be problematic in the very early game). The other early UUs should not concern you that much simply because your high attack and mobility values will allow you to pick off these units should they attempt to oppose you.
Hoplites and Legionaries, when fortified, are a near equal to the offensive power of Gallic Warriors. If there is a city wall or if the city is above size 6 these units will be more then a match for the Gallic Warriors. Against these two Civs your best bet is to concentrate your forces against their smaller/poorly defended cities. By doing this you force your opponent to one of two things. You opponent can either leave his defensive units in his core cities and make sure you cannot take them or he can deploy his forces in an attempt to stop your invasion and save his outer cities. Either approach will suit you perfectly. If he sacrifices his outer cities to defend his core he will be doing nothing but helping you and hurting himself in the long run, as each of these cities will help you more and more as the game progresses. (Indeed this is why you are producing Gallic Swordsmen in the first place). If he deploys his army in the open he will also be making your job somewhat easier in that you can use your mobility to force him to engage you in ground that favors you. By moving your forces and using positioning to threaten the right cities you can force him to engage you in grassland or plains. By doing so you can make victory more likely because the Legionaries and Hoplites will have a defense value of 3.1 while you will have an attack of 4 along side your 50% retreat ability. Against the Greeks you have to take extra care in concentrating your forces and using hit and fade tactics all because the Greeks can produce 2 hoplites for every Gallic Swordsman you can produce. Hoplites and Swordsmen could be quite painful if the swordsmen survive to counter your Gallic Swordsmen. For these reasons I recommend that you completely avoid attacking the Greeks and the Romans if they have secured a supply of iron. Actually I would recommend avoiding the Greeks entirely because there are usually easier pickings to be found from other civs, this is unless they simply have to be pruned before any other Civ.
Mounted Warriors are interesting opponents in that they have both a high level of mobility and a high attack value. However unlike your Gallic Swordsmen they have a mere defense of 1. This gives you a HUGE advantage when attacking and less then a point on the defensive. There is no point in risking losses by being sloppy with your attack. Jocky for positioning with their MW force until you can get the initial attack. If you cannot force them to move into a disadvantageous position then try to approach their cities from hilly or mountainous terrain, as this will minimize your defensive disadvantage. If this is not an option then I would recommend using a spearman stack to act as a forward decoy/meat shield if you wish to be cautious and save units at the cost of time. By keeping your Gallic Swordsmen one square behind your spearmen you can insure that the MW will either be forced to attack your spearmen or wait until you are within striking distance of his cities. If he chooses the first options and attacks your stack of spearmen then his army is yours. Though you might lose some spearmen to his initial strike, the remaining MWs will be weakened and will be on the defensive, which is not their strong point, own them and their ponies too. After Destroying their MW force the cities should fall as if you were facing any other civilization. If they hold back the MW force then you have no choice but to go forward with your stack of spearmen and Gallic Swords men. You should win eventually simply because of your intrinsic attack and defensive values. If you think your opponent might chose this option then your best bet would be to attack as soon as possible and forget the spearman stack. Such a battle will be a battle of attrition and every city you take is one less MW you have to face every few turns. In addition attacking quickly will give your opponent less time to mass their UU. Just remember that if the Irq. have a road network up they will be able to concentrate and receive their reinforcements faster then you will be able to. Thus it is of the utmost importance that your first Gallic Swordsman wave cripples or destroyers your opponent else you will be forced into a long war of attrition and you will incur significant opportunity costs, gaining much less territory and resources then you could have gained if you won quickly. Use your men wisely against the Irq. MW and try to win as quickly as possible as their mobility and high attack value gives them a good opportunity to not only turn back your attack but counterattack and take away cities from you if your attack wave fails.
The Aztecs and their Jaguar Warriors can be quite a problem for the Celts, but only very early in the game. Masses of Jaguar Warriors could cost you cities early, however once you discover bronze working (which should be a priority considering how valuable your UU is) the cost of taking a city away from you will be significantly more for the Aztecs. Given enough time you will be able to match the Aztecs in number of units because of the upkeep costs of maintaining a standing army. In addition your units will be superior to those of the Aztecs on both the offensive and defensive. Attrition favors you simply because you will be able to stack your units while you attack, thus taking away the Aztecs chief advantage of being able to concentrate their cheap units on a few units until they are dead. By doing this you will be able to take out their units and then heal after you take or raze a city. The best part is that if you ever find yourself in a situation where it looks like you might lose a significant part of your force you can simply retreat to a well defend city and heal because your are just as fast as the jaguar warriors. However, this is only possible if you can avoid being crippled in the very early game by a hard Aztec jaguar warrior rush. The best advice I can give you to try to get masonry and bronze working ASAP to make invading your territory an expensive proposition for the Aztecs by using spearmen and city walls. Hopefully this will deter them into attacking other civs while you can strengthen your position and get your UU. However if they attack another civ and make significant gains you might be forced to attack prematurely simply to force them into a 2 front war so you can prevent them from become too strong and thus impossible to beat. All in all the Aztecs will be an extremely difficult early game opponent to beat, especially since they have the exact same civ traits you have. The entire course of the Aztecs vs. Celt conflict will be decided in the very early portions of the game.
The final worrisome UU in the ancient era is the Persian Immortal. If you play your cards right this units should be nothing more then a minor nuisance, just like every other swordsman unit out there. If the Persians are on the offensive you can easily crush them, simply due to your higher mobility and access to roads. Whenever they move into attack range your can simply attack giving you the 4-2 attack advantage in the match up. There is no way for the Persians to use their 4 attack point in an offensive against you. They can however be quite effectively used with roads on the defensive. To counter this possibility you should pillage Persian roads that link their cities together, assuming you will not be left in a vulnerable position. Another possibility is to make them disperse their forces by attacking at multiple positions at once. You then use your mobility to pillage the connections and attacking the cities where you can concentrate your forces faster then your Persian opponent could.
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages will bring 3 new generic units into the fray making the Celtic UU more difficult to use on the offensive. These units are the Knight, Pikemen, and Medieval Infantry. These units if used effectivly in combination will allow any player to counter your force of Gallic swordsmen. However you do have an opportunity to stop this and limit them to ancient era units and possibly long bowmen. You should have a large force of Gallic Swordsmen at the end of the ancient era after you’ve pruned and/or eliminated a civilization or two. You can use this force to completely cut off a civilizations source of Iron. By doing this you can add one more civilization's land to your burgeoning empire. On a side note a force of just Medieval Infantry can be treated the same way you would treat Persian Immortals. A force of force of Pikemen and Medieval Infantry can be treated with just a little bit more respect then a Greek Hoplite/Swordsmen combo, maybe a little less because of the increased shield cost of Pikemen and MI. A force of all three should be treated with the utmost respect. I would avoid using MI in such a situation simply cause this would reduce your overall mobility. A force of Knights and Gallic swordsmen would have the offensive and defensive capabilities of the units mentioned thus far, but would also maintain the advantages of mobility that were already pointed out. Musketmen render the Gallic Swordsmen obsolete on the offensive, but your remaining swordsmen can still be used to counterattack cavalry, so oddly enough Gallic Swordsmen are still somewhat useful well into the Industrial Era.
Bringing it all together
Looking at the combat traits of the Celtic UU and their Civilization traits we can conclude that the best possible strategy for the Celts is one REX followed by Military conquest of the neighboring civs in the Ancient and possibly the Medieval eras followed by a program of building cheap temples to secure your city radiuses and to prevent your cites from being culturally absorbed. After this I would recommend that you try to build city improvements so that you do not fall to far behind, compared to the other civs, in terms of culture, technology, and income. If you are able to fully utilize your gains from the use of your UU in ancient and medieval times then you should become an unstoppable power as the game progresses, especially if you managed to build some ancient or medieval wonders with Leaders.
Attached Files
). Take a look at the reference section of the manual for the ADM stats of the various units. Particularly in the industrial and modern age, the ADM stats are wrong on a big number of units. Even in the fist couple of chapters of the manual, in describing each unique civ, I remember that the Chinese Rider was listed as the Chinese UU with ADM of 2.2.2, replacing the Horsemen.
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