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[ENG] Civilizations #05: Celts · Start the game already!

• 0:14
  Last November, my wife and I spent a week travelling through
• 0:18
  Scotland. We explored picturesque
• 0:21
  Edinburgh and took trips into the rugged Highlands.
• 0:25
  We tried different kinds of single malt whiskies, and at
• 0:29
  times we felt as if we had been transported into the Harry
• 0:35
  Potter universe. Through all of this, we realized
• 0:38
  that the Scots are simply incredibly nice people.
• 0:42
  And I have to admit, quite honestly, that I did have my own
• 0:47
  preconceptions about the Scots. Surely the descendants of the
• 0:52
  Celts would be cold and tough. And battered by endless rain.
• 0:56
  But the exact? Opposite was the case as a
• 0:59
  nation that has fought for a free Scotland against numerous
• 1:03
  invaders over the centuries. They seemed despite the bad.
• 1:07
  Weather to possess a kind of cheerful spirit that I've rarely
• 1:11
  encountered elsewhere in Europe. Many of the Scots I spoke with
• 1:16
  have a strong sense of national pride, one that is directed
• 1:19
  inward rather than against others.
• 1:22
  Much of this pride stems from independence movements against
• 1:26
  the English. But.
• 1:27
  Quite a few. People also pointed to their
• 1:29
  Celtic origins. These are especially evident in
• 1:33
  their language, Gaelic. Several people told me that the
• 1:37
  language was spoken less and less for a long time.
• 1:41
  But the Gaelic? Language has experienced a kind
• 1:44
  of revival in the recent decades.
• 1:47
  One of our bus drivers, for example, told us that his
• 1:50
  children speak Gaelic much better than he does.
• 1:53
  Thanks to school. The farther N we travelled, the
• 1:57
  more prominent Gaelic became. On road signs, for instance, the
• 2:01
  Gaelic names were eventually added alongside the English
• 2:04
  ones, and in some places it even seemed as if English had been
• 2:09
  added to the Gaelic rather than the other way around.
• 2:12
  In any case, this short vacation sparked my interest in Scottish
• 2:16
  history. Since the Scots don't exist as a
• 2:19
  civilization in the game, we're talking about the Celts today
• 2:22
  instead. And it turns out that I didn't
• 2:26
  just have preconceptions about modern Scots, but also about the
• 2:30
  historical Celts. I always thought the Celts
• 2:33
  originated from the British Isles, but that's completely
• 2:36
  wrong. They originally came from a
• 2:39
  region stretching from northeastern France through
• 2:42
  Germany to the Czech Republic. The oldest archaeological finds
• 2:47
  associated with the Celts were discovered in Austria and date
• 2:50
  back to around 700. BC, however, it's believed.
• 2:55
  That Celtic culture began developing much earlier, as far
• 2:59
  back as the second Millennium. BC.
• 3:02
  Although the migrations of the Celts can't be traced precisely,
• 3:06
  they eventually spread across large parts of France and
• 3:09
  northern Spain and advanced eastwards as far as the Balkans,
• 3:14
  the Black Sea and Anatolia, which is modern day Turkey.
• 3:18
  The Celts didn't even call themselves Celts.
• 3:20
  They were named by the Greeks who encountered Celtic tribes in
• 3:25
  the 6th century BC and referred to them as Keltoi or sometimes
• 3:30
  Gallati. The Romans in turn used the
• 3:33
  terms Galli or Celtae. Galli.
• 3:37
  Well that sounds like Gauls, like the Gauls from Asterix and
• 3:41
  Obelix. And indeed they were Celts,
• 3:44
  which I didn't know. I have read those comic books
• 3:48
  for my whole life and I had no idea they were actually Celts.
• 3:53
  So it's no surprise that there are so many different names for
• 3:56
  the Celts because. There were many.
• 3:59
  Distinct Celtic tribes such as the Insubres in northern Italy,
• 4:04
  the Boy in Central Europe, or the Helvetti in what is now
• 4:08
  Switzerland. What is often grouped under a
• 4:12
  single name was actually a collection of hundreds of
• 4:14
  linguistically and culturally related tribes that existed for
• 4:18
  roughly 2000 years. Of all their many languages,
• 4:22
  most have died out by today. Only Welsh, Irish, Scottish
• 4:28
  Gaelic, Cornish and Breton have survived, largely due to
• 4:33
  Caesar's Gallic Wars, in which the Romans defeated and
• 4:36
  displaced the Celts in several military campaigns.
• 4:40
  Since the Celts in the game speak Gaelic, we can be certain
• 4:43
  that they represent the ancestors of today's Irish and
• 4:47
  Scots, not the Celts lounging around sunny France in short
• 4:51
  trousers. But rather the Celts in the.
• 4:53
  Harsh, cold and rainy north of the modern British Isles, often
• 4:58
  referred to by historians as the Insular Celts.
• 5:02
  It's not just the language that points to this, but also the
• 5:06
  names of the AI opponents chosen at the start of the game.
• 5:09
  Most of them are former kings from Ireland and Scotland,
• 5:13
  particularly from the 5th to the 7th centuries.
• 5:16
  Also, the Celtic Wonder is what's called the Rock of
• 5:20
  Kashel, also known as Saint Patrick's Rock, which was built
• 5:24
  in the 12th century in southern Ireland, which?
• 5:27
  Is kind of an obvious clue to whom the Celts represent now we
• 5:31
  know the historical inspiration behind the Celts in the game,
• 5:34
  and so it's time we. Turn our attention to their
• 5:38
  civilization bonuses, unique technologies, and unique unit in
• 5:44
  game. The Celts are generally
• 5:45
  characterized by a tech tree that distributes all of their
• 5:48
  bonuses and strengths across off meta units while slightly
• 5:52
  neglecting everything that is usually strong like cavalry and
• 5:56
  ranged units. Especially in the early Imperial
• 5:59
  age, they tend to run out of options and often don't yet have
• 6:03
  the economy to fully exploit their above average infantry and
• 6:07
  siege units. Accordingly, when playing the
• 6:10
  Celts it is common either to go all in in the Castle age to
• 6:15
  secure an advantage that compensates for the tech tree,
• 6:18
  or even to enter the game outright.
• 6:20
  On the other hand, the Celts are very strong if they can safely
• 6:24
  reach a post Imperial scenario. Even though the Celts never
• 6:28
  belong to the very strongest civilizations.
• 6:32
  I find them very interestingly designed and a bit confusingly
• 6:38
  designed to be honest, but we'll come to that later on.
• 6:41
  So over the past few days I've tried out the Celts a bit and
• 6:45
  thought that given everything I know about them, it should be
• 6:48
  fairly clear what I need to do. Yet, despite my good intentions,
• 6:53
  I repeatedly realized that it's actually not that.
• 6:56
  Easy. To execute a pre planned game
• 6:59
  plan with the Celts. What causes me the most trouble
• 7:02
  is. Actually, the Celtic wood bonus.
• 7:06
  Celtic villagers work 15% faster as lumberjacks, which means they
• 7:10
  gather wood significantly faster than other civilizations.
• 7:13
  That's obviously great and an easy to understand bonus.
• 7:17
  After all, you hardly have to worry about wood anymore.
• 7:20
  But the art of Age of Empires 2 isn't about collecting as many
• 7:24
  resources as possible. And stockpiling them in the
• 7:27
  bank. It's about gathering.
• 7:29
  Exactly the right amount of resources and spending them on
• 7:32
  everything you need at the right time.
• 7:35
  Anyone like me who for years started with two lumber camps
• 7:39
  with five lumberjacks each, and then with a meta shifter a few
• 7:43
  years ago switched to 1 lumber camp with 8 to 9 lumberjacks and
• 7:47
  correspondingly faster up times has been playing this style?
• 7:51
  For a good three or four years. Now the wood bonus throws me out
• 7:55
  of this ingrained rhythm, so I either gather unnecessary large
• 8:00
  amounts of wood and then panic converted into farms.
• 8:03
  Or. I end up with too little wood
• 8:06
  because I keep pulling villagers off wood until at some point I'm
• 8:10
  advancing to castle age with only six lumberjacks left.
• 8:14
  For me, it's a bit like playing the Britons with their sheep
• 8:17
  bonus. Out of habit, I still send six
• 8:20
  villagers to collect food from sheep.
• 8:22
  Even though 5 would be enough. Of course that's a problem on my
• 8:27
  end, but it also shows how quickly the Celts Great Wood
• 8:30
  bonus can go to. Waste if you don't adapt your
• 8:34
  bills to it at least a little. If you're looking for a quick
• 8:38
  answer on how many villages you should send to wood as the
• 8:41
  Celts, I'd say 7. In truth though, it depends both
• 8:46
  on the opening you choose and to some extent on the wood line
• 8:49
  itself. If the wood line is awkward and
• 8:52
  villages become inefficient more quickly, adding an eighth
• 8:56
  villager might just make sense if you're planning a minute arms
• 9:00
  opening with an Archer follow up.
• 9:02
  I also prefer adding an eighth villager for a scout opening. 7
• 9:06
  villages and wood were basically always enough for me.
• 9:10
  In practice it became even more variable times I'd pull a
• 9:14
  villager off wood or add 1 depending on how the actual wood
• 9:17
  income was shaping up. In short, the bonus makes the
• 9:20
  cal's early game quite interesting and presents a small
• 9:23
  challenge in mastering it. But once you have figured it out
• 9:28
  you are rewarded with what is probably the best early game eco
• 9:32
  bonus in the game. Any access woods can be
• 9:36
  converted into farms to accelerate your economy early
• 9:39
  on. For this reason, it's easy to
• 9:41
  open with a drush or minute arms into arches and still reach
• 9:45
  castle age with a competitive time.
• 9:48
  If you prefer a more defensive style, you can put a palisade
• 9:51
  walls without hurting your farm economy.
• 9:55
  Although given the Cal's strengths I would always want to
• 9:59
  play them aggressively in the opening and only really wall up
• 10:02
  if the game is heading into the late game.
• 10:05
  The wood bonus also makes the fast castles very comfortable,
• 10:08
  whether on closed maps and money ones or in team games.
• 10:12
  Why the cals have this bonus in the game is honestly unclear to
• 10:17
  me. Historical inspiration is
• 10:19
  certainly not the reason, since the insular cals neither had an
• 10:23
  economy focused on wood nor a particularly high demand for it.
• 10:27
  Quite the opposite, they mastered relatively advanced
• 10:31
  methods of stone and metalworking simply in order to
• 10:34
  withstand the harsh weather conditions on the islands.
• 10:37
  However, there is clear evidence of a significant decline in
• 10:42
  forest coverage in ancient Scotland over the centuries but.
• 10:46
  Historians still disagree about the exact causes to this day.
• 10:51
  On the one hand, climatic changes are cited and on the
• 10:55
  other hand the Romans who engage in large scale deforestation.
• 10:59
  If anything, this bonus would have to be granted to the Romans
• 11:03
  since they did indeed carry out its extensive logging on the
• 11:07
  island, albeit further South. The total strength of the Roman
• 11:12
  Garrison. Scotland during the occupation
• 11:14
  under the Flavian dynasty in the 1st century.
• 11:17
  AD is estimated around 25,000 soldiers who required between
• 11:22
  16,000 and 19,000 tons of grain per year.
• 11:27
  Added to that was the considerable material demand for
• 11:30
  the construction of fortifications, which in the 1st
• 11:33
  century is estimated at 1,000,000 cubic feet of timber.
• 11:37
  At one archaeological site, 10 tons of buried nails were
• 11:42
  discovered. 10 tons of buried nails.
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  That's. Making up for a Garrison of 6.
• 11:48
  Thousand men stationed in there, who alone consumed probably
• 11:52
  around 30 kilometres worth of timber for walls, equivalent to
• 11:57
  the forest area, about 100 hectares.
• 12:00
  That said, these are ultimately speculations, and the Roman
• 12:04
  impact on the island's forests is very much debated among
• 12:07
  historians. My view.
• 12:10
  The bonus can only. Really be explained by the
• 12:13
  designers wanting to give the cats an early eco bonus that
• 12:16
  allows them to play aggressively while also fitting their
• 12:20
  identity as a civilization with strong siege units.
• 12:24
  In my research on the Celts I came across a detailed article
• 12:27
  about Age of Empires 2 and an issue of Computer Gaming World
• 12:31
  from July 1998. This is the issue 160. 8 Reading
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  it was a delight because the developers tease a number of
• 12:41
  features that never made it into the game, such as a samurai who
• 12:47
  could both shoot a bow and fight with a sword.
• 12:50
  Sounds kind of like a rather to me, but I'll do you one better.
• 12:54
  Paladins who are. Strong as hell, were supposed to
• 12:58
  be almost immune to conversions. Just imagine that.
• 13:03
  I could easily do an entire podcast on this early vision of
• 13:07
  Age of Empires 2. But that's not the topic in this
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  podcast. The Celts, together with the
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  Mongols and Vikings, they were originally meant to become
• 13:16
  so-called raiding civilizations that wouldn't be able to build a
• 13:21
  wander. Or.
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  Even walk through the ages. Instead, they would be able to
• 13:27
  move their town centers, an idea that was partially picked up
• 13:31
  again with the Mongols and Age of Empires 4.
• 13:35
  According to the developer's statements in that article, the
• 13:38
  cats were actually supposed to be bad at resource gathering,
• 13:41
  which is quite the opposite of their wood bonus today, because
• 13:45
  they were meant to obtain their resources by plundering their
• 13:49
  enemies. As we know, the game mechanic
• 13:51
  never made it into the game, and I therefore suspect that the
• 13:55
  cats were given the wood bonus as a replacement.
• 13:59
  We have something similar to that today with the Vikings and
• 14:03
  their Berserks, who gain gold by, for example, defeating
• 14:08
  villages or raiding trade cards. But that's the Vikings, not the
• 14:12
  Celts, so. Yeah, I don't know.
• 14:15
  Maybe my theory is correct about this being a replacement for
• 14:19
  their raiding identity. Maybe this is just a random fill
• 14:25
  in? Or.
• 14:26
  It is to give them a new identity as a siege civilization
• 14:30
  and bone. A wood bonus is always helpful
• 14:33
  in that regard. But while this all is of course
• 14:37
  only my own speculation, we can assume with a relatively high
• 14:41
  certainty that the idea of. Rating style attacks survived in
• 14:45
  the next two civilization bonuses.
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  The first of these is a very important one.
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  Celtic infantry units have increased movement.
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  Speed 5% in the Dark Age, 10% in the Feudal Age, 15 in the Castle
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  Age, and 20% in the Imperial Age.
• 15:02
  That's an additional 5% per age starting right from the First
• 15:06
  Age. This faster infantry is useful
• 15:09
  in two main ways. On the one hand, I'd argue it
• 15:14
  enables aggressive openings early in the game.
• 15:17
  On the other, it helps support, for example, a siege push
• 15:21
  alongside the Revived and Men at Arms opening.
• 15:24
  The drush is therefore definitely a viable opening for
• 15:27
  the Celts. The main reason infantry has
• 15:30
  always drawn the short straw compared to cavalry and ranged
• 15:34
  units is that it is too slow and cannot reliably deliver its high
• 15:38
  mealy damage. Cavalry can just simply ride
• 15:42
  away from infantry units and ranged units can kite them.
• 15:46
  Without the infantry being able to do much about it.
• 15:49
  Recent balance changes have made infantry somewhat faster, and
• 15:53
  they are much more viable today, although still usually the third
• 15:58
  choice. The Celts, however, have always
• 16:01
  been a bit different in this regard.
• 16:03
  Not only could they hold their own better against other unit
• 16:06
  types, they were also better at raiding with infantry.
• 16:11
  The great strength about the Celts, aside from their siege
• 16:14
  weapons, is their infantry. After all, despite the fact that
• 16:18
  they can also create paladins. This bonus with the faster
• 16:23
  moving infantry applies to both the militia line and the
• 16:27
  Spearman line. For the militia line, this bonus
• 16:30
  means reaching the opponent faster, killing villagers more
• 16:35
  effectively by being able to chase them down, and closing the
• 16:38
  gap to ranged units more easily, making micro much harder for the
• 16:43
  opponent. For Spearman, it means they are
• 16:46
  far more effective at countering the unit type they are designed
• 16:49
  to counter, which is cavalry. There are few things more
• 16:53
  frustrating in the game than having a hole in your wall,
• 16:56
  three enemy scouts running into your base, and playing against a
• 17:00
  Micronerd 3000 whose life's goal seems to be babysitting those
• 17:05
  three scouts to their last. Breath, my 5 Spearman won't be
• 17:10
  able to catch those scouts unless they are Celts because
• 17:13
  the 10% speed bonus in fuel age makes a huge difference.
• 17:18
  Since the release of the original game, the Celts used to
• 17:21
  have a flat 15% infantry speed. Bonus starting in the Dark Age
• 17:25
  with a Definitive edition. This bonus was changed so that
• 17:29
  they only received the Speed boast starting in the Feudal
• 17:33
  Age. Only since April 2025 has the
• 17:36
  bonus been reworked again and distributed gradually across all
• 17:40
  ages. The reason this bonus was
• 17:43
  changed after the release of the Definitive Edition was so Li
• 17:47
  Huang, the Vietnamese player whom I like to describe as an
• 17:50
  extreme E sports player. Who perfected a strategy with
• 17:54
  the Celts? Something I'll get to later when
• 17:57
  talking about strategies. An important detail related to
• 18:01
  this bonus is that the Celts are one of the only 5 civilizations
• 18:05
  in the game. They cannot research Squires to
• 18:08
  make their infantry even faster. The other 4 civilizations are
• 18:11
  the Khmer, Gujaras, Portuguese and Majars if you're not
• 18:16
  playing. Against one of those 4
• 18:17
  civilizations, this effectively means that the Celts have a 5%
• 18:22
  speed bonus in the Dark Age. They save the cost of Squires in
• 18:26
  the Feudal Age since that upgrade normally grants 10%
• 18:29
  speed. Gain another 5% speed in the
• 18:32
  Castle Age and are 10% faster than standard infantry with
• 18:37
  Squires in the Imperial Age. Even so, I would argue that this
• 18:41
  is a very strong infantry bonus and gives them one of the most
• 18:44
  effective men at arms rushers in the game.
• 18:47
  Initially I mentioned 2 bonuses that fit the theme of rating and
• 18:51
  I still owe you the second. 1. This one is clearly overshadowed
• 18:56
  by all the others because admittedly, it plays no real
• 19:00
  role in competitive play. Cows can still herd animals with
• 19:04
  their units, animals that are controlled by their opponents
• 19:07
  and are within the opponent's line of sight.
• 19:10
  Do you probably understand this? I need to briefly explain the
• 19:14
  game mechanic behind it. Normally, certain animals spawn
• 19:18
  as neutral on the map and can be discovered once they enter a
• 19:21
  player's line of sight. The most well known example for
• 19:24
  this is scouting your extra sheep at the start of the game.
• 19:29
  In addition to sheep, this includes goats, geese, llamas,
• 19:33
  pigs, turkeys, water Buffalo, and cows.
• 19:37
  Normally, opposing players can only take control of these
• 19:41
  animals once they leave the line of sight of the player who
• 19:44
  previously controlled. Them.
• 19:46
  For the cows, however, this restriction is lifted.
• 19:48
  They can steal these animals from their opponents even while
• 19:51
  the animals are still in the opponent's vision.
• 19:54
  This bonus has lost a lot of its value since town centers became
• 19:58
  more accurate again and a few months ago.
• 20:01
  Before that, if you chose one of several correct angles, you can
• 20:06
  actually run under enemy town centers to.
• 20:08
  Kill the opponent's sheep, or in the case of the cows.
• 20:11
  Simply steal them. Because of the risk of losing
• 20:14
  your scout or taking damage with it, this was usually not done,
• 20:19
  which is why I said earlier that this bonus is largely irrelevant
• 20:23
  for actual. Gameplay.
• 20:25
  In rare cases, however, the Celts could profit from it by
• 20:28
  laming their opponents the map. Ghost Lake, for example,
• 20:32
  contains many extra sheep, which is why Britons are often played
• 20:37
  there. The Celts could be chosen as an
• 20:39
  aggressive counter to contest those sheep against the Britons.
• 20:44
  Even if this bonus isn't particularly interesting from a
• 20:47
  gameplay perspective, it's historical background is quite
• 20:51
  noteworthy. Sheep and other livestock did
• 20:54
  play an important role for the ancient insular Celts when it
• 20:58
  came to wealth, especially in the north where little
• 21:01
  agriculture was possible. Roman sources report Celtic
• 21:06
  tribes that live primarily on meat, fish and dairy products
• 21:10
  and produce their clothing from sheep's wool.
• 21:13
  Most important of all, however, were cattle and cows.
• 21:17
  A man's wealth was measured by the size of his herd, and it
• 21:21
  seems like the cats were the ones who introduced the now
• 21:24
  extinct Celtic Shorthorn breed to Britain.
• 21:27
  The cows of the Celts provided milk and the bulls were
• 21:30
  slaughtered for meat. It is also documented that
• 21:34
  Celtic tribes did in fact fight among themselves and would even
• 21:39
  form alliances with the Romans to do so.
• 21:42
  While I couldn't find any sources that explicitly state
• 21:45
  these conflicts were fought over livestock, there are reports
• 21:49
  that they involve the conquest of land, and that of course
• 21:53
  includes the animals living on the land itself.
• 21:56
  There is however, Irish literature from the 11th to the
• 22:00
  14th century that explicitly revolves around so-called cattle
• 22:04
  raids. Raids conducted by Irish clans
• 22:07
  to steal cattle from one another.
• 22:10
  Ultimately, this bonus likely derives from the Irish branch of
• 22:14
  the Insular Celts. It is one of those bonuses that
• 22:18
  has less relevance for actual gameplay and functions more as a
• 22:22
  nod to the civilization's identity, similar to the Hun's
• 22:26
  unique technology atheism. Be that as it may, the fact that
• 22:30
  the Celts and medieval Scots are grouped together in the game and
• 22:34
  at times even questionably blended into one another,
• 22:39
  becomes particularly apparent in the final civilization.
• 22:42
  Bonus. Siege weapons fire 25% faster.
• 22:47
  While the Celts caused problems for the Romans less through
• 22:51
  siege warfare and more through raids, the situation looks
• 22:55
  somewhat different when it comes to the Scots.
• 22:58
  When I visited Edinburgh Castle, I was able to see Mons Meg in
• 23:03
  all its glory, looming over the city.
• 23:07
  The Montsmag is one of the largest siege cannons in the
• 23:11
  world, over 4 meters long and capable of fire projectiles
• 23:15
  weighing up to the 175 kilograms.
• 23:19
  It was built in 1449 by the Duke of Burgundy and presented to the
• 23:23
  Scottish King James the Second in 1457 as a sign of support.
• 23:28
  Since then, the Montsmag has been regarded as a symbol of
• 23:31
  Scotland. According to some sources,
• 23:34
  whenever Scotland lost its sovereignty, this cannon was
• 23:38
  symbolically taken to England. Beyond that, however, I could
• 23:42
  not find any sources suggesting that the Scots or the Irish
• 23:47
  possessed particularly outstanding siege weaponry, let
• 23:50
  alone the Celts. Of course, even in the time of
• 23:53
  William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, Scottish armies consisted
• 23:57
  primarily of infantry, while Ireland and Wales were known for
• 24:01
  their skilled Archers. It is somewhat ironic that the
• 24:05
  Celts in the game do not have access to bombard cannons, even
• 24:09
  though the one siege weapon I can most strongly associate with
• 24:13
  the medieval descendants happens to be a world famous bombard
• 24:18
  cannon. So I put on my detective heart
• 24:21
  and combed through the in game history section in search of
• 24:25
  clues regarding for the inspiration for this bonus.
• 24:29
  But the Celtic. Entry makes no mention of siege
• 24:31
  weapons whatsoever. Unfortunately, the Age of
• 24:34
  Empires 2 design document from 1998 does not describe the
• 24:39
  civilizations in much detail either, beyond telling us that
• 24:44
  the cats were intended to be a raiding civilization.
• 24:47
  What is visible in that document, however, is that
• 24:50
  raiding civilizations were not meant to progress.
• 24:53
  Through the four ages in the same way as others did.
• 24:57
  However, we know that the bonus that grants siege weapons at 25%
• 25:00
  faster firing rate was already present in at the release of the
• 25:03
  original Age of Kings and has remained unchanged ever since.
• 25:08
  My theory, therefore, is that as a civilization that wasn't meant
• 25:12
  to go through the ages, this bonus was intended to either to
• 25:16
  help the Celts defeat more technologically advanced
• 25:19
  opponents in the latest stages of the game, or simply to
• 25:22
  emphasize that the Celts, by design, are meant to play
• 25:26
  aggressively and expansively, rather than defensively and
• 25:30
  statically. In the end, it remains a bit of
• 25:33
  a mystery. What's cannot be denied,
• 25:35
  however, is that thanks to this 25% increase in tax speed alone,
• 25:39
  the Celts are still considered one of the strongest
• 25:42
  civilizations in the game when it comes to using siege weapons.
• 25:46
  Combined with their team bonus Siege Workshops working 2020%
• 25:51
  faster, the image of a siege rush becomes even clearer.
• 25:55
  And indeed, when we watch strong players using the Celts, we can
• 25:59
  observe how keen they are to exploit exactly this strength.
• 26:04
  As a result, they often launch a siege push right at the
• 26:07
  beginning of the Castle Age, usually with manganels and Rams,
• 26:11
  sometimes also with Scorpions if the opponent is relying on
• 26:15
  infantry. The 25% faster firing rate is
• 26:18
  most noticeable when using Mangano's.
• 26:21
  This often leads to so-called Mango Wars.
• 26:24
  Mangano versus Mangano fights characterized by attack round
• 26:28
  shots where both players try to anticipate where the enemy
• 26:31
  Mangano will move next. After firing a shot, the mangano
• 26:35
  is immediately repositioned to dodge incoming projectiles.
• 26:39
  It's a highly skill based micro challenge that requires intense
• 26:44
  focus and can sometimes decide the entire game if it's
• 26:47
  snowballs. Every time I find myself in that
• 26:51
  situation I can literally feel the excitement rising as I start
• 26:56
  neglecting my economy. With every mangal shot.
• 26:59
  I start to hold my breath, trying to time the exact moment
• 27:04
  my mangal can fire again. Trying not to waste a single
• 27:08
  second. And let me tell you, those are 6
• 27:11
  long seconds that feel more like 20 when the pressure is on.
• 27:16
  I'm not someone who normally overdoes micro, but when it
• 27:20
  comes to fire ships and Manganelles, I get serious and
• 27:24
  try to squeeze out every bit of performance I can.
• 27:27
  While that often works out well for me with fire ships, it tends
• 27:31
  to go much worse with manganelles.
• 27:33
  I'm really not that skilled with these units unless I'm playing
• 27:37
  the Celts, and I'm always in awe when I watch MBL play with
• 27:43
  Manganel. He is just simply the best
• 27:46
  Manganel player that the game offers.
• 27:49
  And playing with the Celts and doing some Manganel's pushes
• 27:52
  with the Celts kind of gives me the feeling that I am as good as
• 27:56
  MBL because I have an unfair advantage of not only firing
• 28:01
  faster but also receiving reinforcements more quickly
• 28:04
  thanks to the team bonus. The Manganel fight as the cows
• 28:08
  feels like riding a bicycle with an E bike.
• 28:12
  On the other hand, fighting Calphic Manganiels feels kind of
• 28:15
  like me in the morning when I have to ride my bike uphill to
• 28:20
  work while those bastards with their stupid E bikes just zip
• 28:25
  past me with all. The ES in the world, so
• 28:28
  sometimes they even. Laugh at me those stupid well.
• 28:31
  Anyway. You simply have to play
• 28:34
  significantly better than the Celts to win a Mangano War
• 28:38
  against them, giving them almost an unfair advantage.
• 28:43
  However, this bonus is not only strong for fast Castle Age
• 28:47
  pushes, but also for tearing down enemy castles with a Ram
• 28:50
  push. During the Castle Age, Rams have
• 28:53
  become more viable than ever as a means of destroying castles
• 28:57
  than Castle Age, and with the Celts it simply happens much
• 29:00
  faster. That is particularly powerful
• 29:03
  because a ram push often comes as a surprise.
• 29:07
  You don't signal to your opponent that you are
• 29:09
  stockpiling Rams and instead try to distract them elsewhere on
• 29:14
  the map, only to then suddenly go for the castle.
• 29:17
  The opponent usually reacts by throwing pretty much everything
• 29:20
  they have in the area at the Rams, as long as it doesn't
• 29:23
  derange damage. This creates a situation of
• 29:26
  extreme urgency for from actually both players.
• 29:30
  Which is why it is invaluable for the Celts that their
• 29:33
  otherwise slow Rams are able to deal damage much more quickly.
• 29:38
  That's not all. The bonus also retains its value
• 29:41
  in the late game, especially in team games and enclosed maps.
• 29:45
  Where? Siege weapons are often decisive
• 29:47
  for controlling large parts of the enemy army or even wiping it
• 29:51
  out with well timed shots. In these scenarios, I always put
• 29:55
  Celtic and Mongol siege weapons in the same.
• 29:58
  Category. Both are incredibly fun to play,
• 30:02
  the only problem is that outside of team games, it's often
• 30:06
  difficult to even reach that stage of the game.
• 30:09
  There is, however, a way to make Celtic siege weapons even
• 30:12
  stronger in the late game. Of course, I'm talking about the
• 30:16
  unique technology Fugo Keitika, which translates to surprise
• 30:21
  Celtic Fury. This is researched in the
• 30:24
  Imperial Age, and it increases the hit points of siege weapons
• 30:28
  by a whooping 40%. Siege onages become
• 30:33
  significantly harder to snipe with with this technology, and
• 30:38
  siege Rams turn into small tanks that are almost unstoppable.
• 30:43
  Researching for Celtica cost 750 food and. 4. 50 gold.
• 30:49
  But especially in team games, gold is usually not an issue.
• 30:52
  And if you are fully boomed, which you will definitely be
• 30:55
  when you're interested in this technology, the food will be
• 30:58
  there as well. And as I said, this technology
• 31:01
  is only being researched once you are.
• 31:03
  Fully boomed and you can afford siege onages in larger groups in
• 31:08
  the first place. In late game team games it's no
• 31:12
  longer so much about raw resource management but more
• 31:16
  about population efficiency. And Celtic siege weapons,
• 31:20
  especially siege onagers, are probably right at the top in
• 31:24
  that regard. With all bonuses combined, they
• 31:27
  not only survive longer, but also fire faster.
• 31:31
  I honestly don't know whether this technology truly comes into
• 31:34
  play in One V1 matches. That said, there are arguments
• 31:38
  in favour of researching for Keltica even in One V ones.
• 31:42
  Since resources are finite in One V ones, it does make sense
• 31:47
  to improve the survivability of valuable units like siege
• 31:50
  weapons. Still, it will always remain a
• 31:53
  situational. Unique technology that requires
• 31:56
  reaching the Imperial. Age.
• 31:59
  Since a. Few.
• 31:59
  Months ago. More precisely, since August
• 32:02
  2025, this bonus also applies to trebuchets, which significantly
• 32:07
  increases their value, especially because the Cals do
• 32:10
  not have access to bomber cannons.
• 32:13
  This gives them better odds and trap wars and allows trebuchets
• 32:17
  to be protected more efficiently with helps against, for example,
• 32:21
  hussars who tried to snipe them, as the extra hit points give the
• 32:25
  halves more time to deal with the cavalry.
• 32:28
  And since I like to stay. Right on the pulse of the metal.
• 32:32
  I should also mention that siege towers of course benefit from
• 32:35
  this bonus as well. The currently popular and
• 32:38
  slightly annoying siege tower strategy strategy, where
• 32:43
  infantry units are loaded into the tower and then casually
• 32:46
  driven through the enemy base. Or.
• 32:48
  Just straight past range units with little resistance becomes
• 32:52
  noticeably more effective with Furor Keltika, simply because
• 32:56
  the tower is harder to take down.
• 32:58
  Let's see how long this will still be viable, because, well,
• 33:02
  it hasn't happened to me yet. Nobody has done that to me.
• 33:05
  But I've seen this a couple of times in King of the Desert 6,
• 33:08
  which is currently running, and I'm already frustrated just by
• 33:12
  watching it. Naturally, I also asked myself
• 33:15
  how this bonus actually came to be.
• 33:18
  We already know that the Celts themselves didn't have much to
• 33:21
  do with siege weapons. And if anything, it was the
• 33:24
  medieval Irish, Welsh and Scots who later made use of them at
• 33:28
  all. This bonus, however, is called
• 33:31
  furor Celtica in Latin in the game, which clearly implies a
• 33:35
  Roman perspective on the ancient Celts with whom the Romans were
• 33:39
  indeed in conflict. So here's what I found out.
• 33:43
  The the term furor celtica seems to be an allusion to fujo
• 33:49
  trautonicus, a Latin expression referring to the ferocity of the
• 33:54
  Germanic tribes. Its first recorded mention can
• 33:58
  be found in De Bello Sevilli by the Roman poet Lucan in the 1st
• 34:02
  century. AD Some sources note that the
• 34:05
  Romans occasionally used the term Tutens not only for
• 34:09
  Germanic tribes, but also for certain Celtic groups.
• 34:13
  What is well documented in various Roman sources, however,
• 34:17
  is that the Celts were considered brave and terrifying
• 34:20
  opponents. Who charged fearlessly into
• 34:22
  battle against the Romans? For the ancient Celts, battle
• 34:26
  was, in a sense, an opportunity to prove one's worth before the
• 34:30
  tribe and the gods. While military tactics in
• 34:34
  ancient Europe evolved over the centuries, the psychological
• 34:37
  approach of the Celtic warriors to warfare remains largely
• 34:40
  unchanged. This mentality was reinforced by
• 34:44
  the deliberate use of noise through combat.
• 34:47
  Battle cries, songs, chants, taunts, insults, and even
• 34:52
  specialized instruments such as the carnics were used in.
• 34:57
  Battle the Carnics was a type of war horn made to be an
• 35:02
  instrument whose primary purpose was to frighten the enemy with
• 35:06
  what contemporary sources describe as harsh sounds and the
• 35:11
  din of war. Apart from psychologically
• 35:14
  unsettling the enemy, this acoustic instrument
• 35:18
  significantly increased the courage and battle further of
• 35:22
  the Celtic warriors themselves. The historical section of Age of
• 35:26
  Empires 2 paints an almost fanatical picture of the Celts,
• 35:30
  portraying them as charging ecstatically into battle and
• 35:34
  supposedly panicking once that ecstatic state wore off.
• 35:38
  I couldn't find any sources to support this claim of the
• 35:42
  history book of the game, and I'm fairly certain the Romans
• 35:46
  would have mentioned it if. That were the case.
• 35:49
  Still, the image of rage fueled Celts suddenly becoming confused
• 35:53
  and fleeing in panic from one second to the next does make me
• 35:57
  smile a little. Before things get too absurd
• 35:59
  though, we should also mention the Castle Age unique
• 36:02
  technology. Stronghold is the name of this
• 36:05
  technology, and it strengthens castles and towers by increasing
• 36:09
  the firing rate by 33%, excluding bombat towers of
• 36:14
  course. In addition, castles gain the
• 36:17
  ability to heal allied infantry units within an area of 18 * 18
• 36:22
  tiles around the castle, restoring 30HP per minute.
• 36:27
  While the description claims this healing aura has a radius
• 36:30
  of seven tiles, in reality the effect is square shaped and not
• 36:34
  round shaped and calculated from the edges of the castle rather
• 36:38
  than from its center, unlike for example the arrows fired by a
• 36:43
  castle which are calculated from its center.
• 36:46
  This is quite easy to observe because if you enable the range
• 36:50
  indicator in the settings you will see the square shaped range
• 36:54
  indicator for this healing. Aura.
• 36:57
  At first glance, this sounds like a defensive bonus, but on
• 37:00
  closer inspection things look a bit different.
• 37:03
  After all, how often do you actually park infantry under a
• 37:07
  castle? I think there's only one
• 37:09
  scenario, and that's when you're protecting your traps under your
• 37:12
  castle with helps. Unlike Knights, infants infantry
• 37:17
  units are not units you usually micro.
• 37:19
  Out of combat to heal and then sent back into combat.
• 37:23
  Infantry kind of say goodbye to their families and are generally
• 37:26
  sent into battle without a return ticket because of that.
• 37:30
  I'd argue that the healing aura is actually more useful on on
• 37:34
  the offensive. Imagine a forward castle used to
• 37:37
  breakthrough the opponent's walls.
• 37:40
  The next step is usually to attack what's underneath the
• 37:43
  castle, like the second layer of a wall.
• 37:46
  Or some buildings or the troops that are trying to attack your
• 37:50
  castle, and I mean your Celts. You're probably fighting with
• 37:54
  infantry under your own castle and now in enemy territory.
• 37:58
  You are gaining your HP back while you are.
• 38:01
  Fighting. I think that's kind of a very
• 38:04
  realistic scenario to fight in, and this is where I believe this
• 38:09
  healing aura might actually shine.
• 38:11
  You can probably tell that I'm kind of stretching right here
• 38:15
  just to make this. Healing bonus more viable.
• 38:20
  And it might just be me. I may simply not have figured
• 38:24
  out how to use it properly. But personally, I've never
• 38:28
  researched this technology because of the healing, but
• 38:31
  rather always because I wanted to strengthen my castles.
• 38:35
  After all, firing 33% faster means a significantly higher
• 38:39
  damage output, and castles deal a lot of damage whether used
• 38:43
  offensively or defensively. In the few instances where I've
• 38:47
  researched this technology, it was I think it was always just
• 38:51
  for defensive purposes for my defensive castles, protecting my
• 38:55
  eco to better fend off enemy rates.
• 38:58
  Fortunately this technology is fairly cheap, costing only 250
• 39:03
  food and 200 gold, so it can be researched quite spontaneously,
• 39:08
  and there's an argument to be made to just research it anytime
• 39:12
  you have a castle and are not producing anything from it.
• 39:17
  The Stronghold technology once again primarily references the
• 39:20
  medieval Irish and Scots who build castles at places like
• 39:24
  Edinburgh, Sterling or Casual. Casual Got.
• 39:29
  The Irish are going to hate me anyway.
• 39:31
  Fortifications that were extremely difficult to capture
• 39:34
  due to the surrounding terrain and caused the English no small
• 39:38
  amount of trouble. The cows themselves, of course,
• 39:42
  did not have castles. Castles.
• 39:44
  Are a medieval invention. And by that point, the Celts
• 39:47
  were no longer Celts in the historical sense.
• 39:51
  I actually visited Edinburgh Castle myself and I can tell you
• 39:55
  you. Immediately understand why it
• 39:57
  was so hard to take. It sits atop a Rocky Hill
• 40:01
  overlooking the entire surrounding area.
• 40:04
  Enemies could be spotted several several kilometers away and the
• 40:09
  steep cliffs. Around the fortress are
• 40:11
  impassable, leaving attackers with only a single axis route
• 40:15
  that Celtic castles fire 33% faster with this unique
• 40:19
  technologies therefore likely the developer's way of
• 40:22
  accounting for the exceptional defensive capabilities of these
• 40:26
  mediaeval strongholds. We have now discussed all
• 40:30
  civilization bonuses and all unique technologies.
• 40:33
  The only thing missing is the Celts unique unit, the Vote
• 40:36
  Raider. I deliberately saved this for
• 40:40
  the end of this section in the podcast because I historically
• 40:45
  this topic is the hardest to unpack in the game.
• 40:48
  However, it is fairly easy to explain.
• 40:50
  The Bold Raider is, alongside Conditiri and Eagle Warriors,
• 40:55
  one of the fastest infantry units of the game.
• 40:58
  They are created in only 10 seconds, twice as fast as
• 41:02
  regular infantry, and cost 70 food and 20 gold, which makes
• 41:06
  them kind of easy to spam. They have more hit points than
• 41:10
  the standard infantry and in their standard version deal one
• 41:14
  point of damage less than A2 handed swordsman, while in their
• 41:18
  elite version they. Deal one point of damage more
• 41:21
  than a champion. As their name suggests, these
• 41:25
  stats make them particularly well suited for raiding the
• 41:28
  enemy economy on their own. World Raiders will never have
• 41:32
  the same impact as the unique units of other civilizations,
• 41:35
  such as a mangadi or conquistador.
• 41:38
  Or. Laters or cataphracts or cachex
• 41:42
  and name whatever you want, but world Raiders are good against
• 41:47
  infantry units, trash units, camels, and thanks to their
• 41:51
  speed and high damage output also against siege weapons.
• 41:56
  Ranged units and cavalry, however, generally counter world
• 41:59
  Raiders. Quite well.
• 42:00
  The Elite upgrade is fairly expensive, costing 1000 food and
• 42:04
  800 gold, and increases hit points from 70 to 85 and attack
• 42:09
  from 11 to 15. I'm quite unsure whether and
• 42:13
  when exactly the elite upgrade is actually worth it though.
• 42:16
  I think that if the opponent is going for champions and you
• 42:20
  yourself are relying on world Raiders, it is kind of clear.
• 42:24
  That the upgrade pays off. Otherwise it is certainly always
• 42:28
  a matter of weighing options and depends on depends heavily on
• 42:32
  the situation. Personally I have never used Rd.
• 42:35
  Raiders as a replacement for champions though, but rather as
• 42:38
  a raiding unit produced from forward castles.
• 42:42
  And that's that. I am anything but a hero when it
• 42:45
  comes to infantry based play. But let me put it this way,
• 42:49
  among all the phosphoryl rushes we have seen so far.
• 42:53
  I don't think there's a single one involving Celtic boat
• 42:56
  Raiders, so maybe that already tells us enough.
• 43:01
  So that's it for the game mechanic part of the unit.
• 43:06
  It's historical inspiration. There is really no other way to
• 43:09
  put it is unfortunately well Mel Gibson's film Braveheart,
• 43:14
  because otherwise this strange mixture of ancient Celts and
• 43:18
  medieval Irish and Scots is almost impossible to explain.
• 43:22
  The film Braveheart, and this is something that I had to find out
• 43:26
  about 50 times while I was in Scotland because they were not
• 43:30
  strange to telling tourists about this.
• 43:34
  This film is practically unrivalled when it comes to
• 43:38
  historical inaccuracies. The historian Carossa took a
• 43:43
  closer look at the film and pointed out numerous
• 43:46
  misrepresentations, which which I won't go into detail here.
• 43:50
  But I have linked her analysis of the 1st 2 minutes of the film
• 43:56
  in the show notes, so you can read up on that if you want.
• 43:58
  And I actually encourage you to do so because it's quite
• 44:01
  interesting. But this is not a podcast about
• 44:04
  the film, so we'll not talk about that too much.
• 44:07
  But there is one point from her devastating analysis.
• 44:10
  However, I simply can't withhold.
• 44:13
  From you. Because I had to laugh when I
• 44:15
  read what she had to say about the costumes that the actors
• 44:20
  were wearing. So this is what she said.
• 44:22
  Get this. This is like a film about
• 44:24
  colonial America showing the colonial men wearing 20th
• 44:29
  century business suits but with a jacket sworn back to front
• 44:32
  instead of the right way around. It's just brilliant.
• 44:36
  It's just. And the whole thing reads like
• 44:39
  this. Yeah.
• 44:40
  So get a hold of that. Click the link in the show notes
• 44:44
  and find out how bad Braveheart actually is.
• 44:47
  Even though I remember watching Braveheart as a kid and actually
• 44:51
  quite enjoying it, it is genuinely fascinating to see
• 44:55
  just how much the film gets wrong.
• 44:58
  And two aspects of what they've gotten wrong are of particular
• 45:02
  relevance for us as Age of Empires Two players.
• 45:05
  The first concerns the characterization of William
• 45:08
  Wallace as Braveheart, which the game adopts directly from the
• 45:12
  film in its historical section. Even though it makes no sense at
• 45:16
  all because William Wallace was never called Braveheart and if
• 45:20
  anything they got the wrong person.
• 45:22
  It was never William Wallace and if anything this title was given
• 45:26
  after the his death to Robert the Bruce.
• 45:30
  Robert the Bruce, also known as Robert the First, was King of
• 45:33
  Scotland from thirteen O 6 to 1329 and the leader of the
• 45:38
  Scottish uprising against the English during the Wars of
• 45:41
  Independence. In the end, I've heard several
• 45:44
  versions of the same story explaining how he came to be
• 45:48
  associated with the name Braveheart.
• 45:50
  Robert the Bruce head asked his well friend, I guess Sir James
• 45:55
  Douglas, to take his heart on a crusade after his death because
• 45:59
  he himself was too I'll to answer the Pope's call.
• 46:03
  After his death. His heart was therefore removed
• 46:06
  from his body, and James Douglas carried it with him in a metal
• 46:10
  necklace. They did not get very far,
• 46:13
  however, because in Spain they became involved in a holy war
• 46:17
  against Granada, in which Douglas and his troops were
• 46:20
  defeated. The bones of James Douglas and
• 46:23
  the heart of Robert the Bruce were brought back to Scotland
• 46:26
  and buried there. So the name Braveheart derives
• 46:30
  from his posthumous journey and thus had absolutely nothing to
• 46:35
  do with William Wallace. Where the accounts differ is in
• 46:39
  the reason why Robert the Bruce wanted this in the 1st place.
• 46:42
  Some sources say that Robert the Bruce, being a devout Christian,
• 46:46
  asked the Pope to lift his excommunication from the Church
• 46:50
  in order to cleanse his family's name.
• 46:53
  And that the Pope. Agreed only on the condition
• 46:55
  that he joined a crusade. Other sources claim that Robert
• 47:00
  the Bruce had already been readmitted to the church during
• 47:03
  his lifetime, and that his motivation was simply that since
• 47:07
  he could no long no longer go himself, he at least wanted his
• 47:11
  heart to have been to Jerusalem once, whatever the case may.
• 47:14
  Be we now know that about 700 years ago as Scott travelled
• 47:20
  around with a King's heart hanging from his neck.
• 47:23
  What we can also take away from this is that the developers
• 47:27
  historical research at the time quite clearly included watching
• 47:30
  Hollywood films. This is how the Road Raider
• 47:34
  ended up as a Kelt unique unit. Observedly enough, the manual
• 47:38
  that came with the original Age of Kings game even describes
• 47:43
  William Wallace as a Road Raider.
• 47:45
  And I'm pretty. Sure, that's only because
• 47:48
  William was looked like a road Raider in the movie.
• 47:52
  Wode is the English term for Dyer's wode, a plant from which
• 47:56
  the blue dye indigo could be extracted.
• 47:59
  Painting the body and face with this die, as both the in game
• 48:03
  unit and the warriors and Bravehearts do, was in fact only
• 48:07
  a practice of the Picts nearly 1000 years before William
• 48:11
  Wallace, and something that was never practiced again afterward.
• 48:15
  What's more, as far as I understand it, the Picts were
• 48:18
  not even a Celtic tribe, but were instead in conflict with
• 48:21
  both the Celts and the Romans. In the mid 9th century, Kenneth
• 48:26
  Mcalpin, King of the Scots from the House of Lorne, himself a
• 48:30
  Celt, formed an alliance with the Vikings and decisively
• 48:34
  defeated the Picts. In the year 843 he proclaimed
• 48:39
  himself King of the Scots and Picts, after which the Picts
• 48:43
  were absorbed into the Scottish Kingdom and the two cultures
• 48:46
  appeared to have merged. Not only then was William
• 48:51
  Wallace not a Road Raider, but the Road Raider should actually
• 48:54
  be a unique unit specific to the Picts, who do not belong to the
• 48:58
  Celts or in fact an Age of Empires 2 at all, but rather an
• 49:02
  Age of Empires 1. Today.
• 49:04
  Of course, with the Romans and the Chronicle Steel Seas, this
• 49:08
  might only give you a little. Shrug of your shoulders, but.
• 49:11
  In 1999, at the release of the Age of Kings, it must have
• 49:16
  seemed very strange indeed. The German translation, by the
• 49:20
  way, is Freischeler, and that is frankly even worse.
• 49:25
  Freischer refers to a voluntary band of fighters that only
• 49:29
  emerged in the 19th century, likely derived from the Frei
• 49:33
  Corps, in which volunteer units fought against Napoleon a
• 49:36
  century earlier. I have no.
• 49:39
  Idea. What went wrong in the
• 49:41
  translation with this unit? But it only made it worse.
• 49:45
  Most other languages as far as I have seen stick to the Wode
• 49:49
  theme and describe them as warriors of Wode and other kinds
• 49:54
  of name giving, but it's always the same.
• 49:57
  It's just wrong. It's it's this unit never
• 50:00
  existed. Everything about it is wrong.
• 50:02
  So much for the Celts unique unit if.
• 50:04
  I'm honest, the Celts in the game are really just a mishmash
• 50:07
  of ancient Celts, medieval Scots and Irish, and hefty dose of
• 50:12
  Braveheart fantasy. That's not necessarily what I
• 50:15
  expected after my vacation from Scotland when I started to look
• 50:19
  up Scottish history and compare it to the game.
• 50:22
  So now we'll simply take the Celts for what they.
• 50:25
  Are in the game and take a look at how they generally perform on
• 50:29
  the battlefield, which army compositions they favor, and
• 50:32
  which strategies and openings make sense when playing them.
• 50:51
  Thanks to that tech tree, the Celts are very limited in their
• 50:53
  army compositions. They either have to build their
• 50:56
  composition with average standard units or go all in and
• 51:00
  try to win the game outright. Alternatively, they can rely on
• 51:04
  their strong late game, but that is map specific and kind of
• 51:08
  risky. As I said, infantry basically
• 51:10
  always works from the fuel age onward.
• 51:13
  Archers and cavalry are also possible, but these two unit
• 51:17
  types scale rather poorly in the late game.
• 51:21
  They have neither Thumb Ring nor Bracer and cannot upgrade to
• 51:25
  Obelisk, so Archers are basically not an option for
• 51:29
  their cavalry. They can at least research Hazar
• 51:32
  and even Paladins, but. They lack bloodlines as well as
• 51:35
  the Feynman armour upgrade for their cavalry, making their
• 51:39
  cavalry somewhat fragile in the late game and not particularly
• 51:43
  efficient for raiding. Which is kind of what you want
• 51:46
  to do with them as the Celts. Whether investing in Paladins is
• 51:50
  really worth it is, in my opinion, quite questionable in
• 51:55
  the. Imperial age.
• 51:56
  Their tendency clearly shifts strongly towards infantry and
• 52:00
  siege weapons, which is where their strengths lie.
• 52:04
  Their monks are rather weak, as they lack important monastery
• 52:07
  upgrades. In the Castle Age, they are
• 52:09
  missing Redemption and Atonement, so they cannot
• 52:12
  convert enemy siege units or buildings, nor enemy monks.
• 52:18
  In the Imperial Age they lack block printing which would
• 52:22
  increase their range, as well as Theocracy which would allow them
• 52:25
  to convert more effectively with monk groups and Enlightenment
• 52:30
  which would recharge their faith faster when water.
• 52:33
  The Celts are as an island nation rather below average.
• 52:37
  They are only missing the first fireship upgrade in the elite
• 52:41
  cannon ship upgrade, and that will remain the case even after
• 52:44
  the naval rework. But once the update arrives,
• 52:48
  Celtic fireships will actually become weaker in the sense that
• 52:51
  in the university they will be unable to research siphons in
• 52:56
  the Castle Age or in centuries in the Imperial Age.
• 53:00
  Both of which are upgrades for fire ships, one for more damage
• 53:04
  and the other in the Imperial Age for explosions upon sinking.
• 53:08
  All other new technologies should remain available to the
• 53:11
  Celts. However, since they also lack
• 53:14
  the Bracer upgrade, their galleys in the Imperial Age are
• 53:17
  not very strong either. In short, water play will likely
• 53:21
  look even worse than before after the naval rework.
• 53:25
  That's the general assessment of the tech tree for now.
• 53:29
  Now I'd like to get a bit more specific so.
• 53:32
  Up until the. Castle Age The Celts can
• 53:34
  definitely play the classic army composition of arches and
• 53:38
  Spearman for example as a follow up to a drush or minute arms
• 53:43
  opening. Thanks to their economy bonus,
• 53:45
  they can either reach Archer power spikes slightly faster or
• 53:48
  simply field a larger army. The upgrades for the Spearman
• 53:52
  will later be needed for infantry anyway, so they might
• 53:56
  be worthwhile, while those for Archers are mostly only relevant
• 54:01
  for skirmishes in the late game. It's therefore worth taking
• 54:04
  botkin arrow and the crossbow upgrade if you have a
• 54:07
  significant army count and then kind of reducing further
• 54:12
  investment into crossbow men unless the game is already going
• 54:15
  to be finished in the castle. Age, Spearman and siege weapon
• 54:19
  scale significantly better than Archers, the cats can research
• 54:23
  halberdiers with full upgrades, and thanks to the civilization
• 54:27
  bonus they also move faster. The ultimate late game
• 54:30
  composition of the Celts, consisting of Halps and Siege
• 54:33
  Onagers is honestly almost unbeatable once it is achieved,
• 54:38
  provided the Celts have the economy to sustain continuous
• 54:41
  help and siege Onager production.
• 54:44
  Siege onagers are already strong enough in small groups, capable
• 54:48
  of wiping out entire enemy armies with if you are able to
• 54:53
  time your shots well. However, this requires 2 skills.
• 54:57
  First, being able to use attack grounds properly, meaning
• 55:00
  manually aiming your onager shots, and two, ensuring that
• 55:04
  your own helps are not hit while simultaneously protecting the
• 55:09
  onagers. This is the primary role of the
• 55:12
  halps, because otherwise siege onagers, due to their slow
• 55:15
  reload times, are counted by fast units like the cavalry,
• 55:20
  even the faster firing Catholic onagers.
• 55:23
  Instead of onagers, you can also pair halps with siege Rams.
• 55:27
  This classic army composition is particularly effective against
• 55:30
  cavalry civilizations. The key is to gather multiple
• 55:34
  Rams for a major attack and force the opponent into fights
• 55:37
  they would rather avoid through the ramps destructive potential.
• 55:41
  Once the attack rolls out, the opponent is forced to decide
• 55:45
  whether they would rather lose economy and their buildings or
• 55:50
  their military when fighting against this army.
• 55:53
  Of course, the Celts. Wouldn't be a true infantry
• 55:55
  civilization if they couldn't also pack a punch with pure
• 55:59
  infantry. A very strong combination is
• 56:01
  their unique unit, the World Raider together with helps.
• 56:05
  This composition fulfills a similar role to the feared eagle
• 56:09
  help composition of some of the Mesoamerican civilizations, and
• 56:13
  by this I mean the Aztecs, Maya, and Incas.
• 56:17
  And I emphasize this because next.
• 56:19
  April in 2026 three new American civilizations will be added, and
• 56:24
  I have no idea about what they will be capable of, nor whether
• 56:28
  they will be included in the already somewhat questionable
• 56:31
  classification as Mesosys. Regardless, the army composition
• 56:36
  of Rd. Raiders and helps comes with a
• 56:38
  slightly bigger issue regarding ranged units, which can be
• 56:43
  compensated for on one hand by the speed of the road Raiders
• 56:47
  and on the other hand by the wide selection of siege weapons
• 56:50
  available to the Celts. Rams can draw fire and unges
• 56:54
  will crush ranged units before they even know what hit them, so
• 56:58
  only a few siege weapons should be sufficient enough to support
• 57:01
  the army composition of. Helps and votes.
• 57:05
  Looking at the strategies and openings.
• 57:07
  The Celts can invest in any army composition up to the end of
• 57:11
  Castle Age, but from the Imperial Age onward neither
• 57:14
  ranged units nor cavalry scales. Well, for this reason players
• 57:20
  are forced either to attempt near all insurance during the
• 57:23
  Castle Age, or to extend the game strategically into the late
• 57:26
  game, focusing on strong siege weapons, provided that the map
• 57:31
  even allows it. With the current Arabia
• 57:34
  generations, that shouldn't be a problem, but I still hope Arabia
• 57:38
  will become a more open map again and then things would look
• 57:42
  completely different. Speaking of open maps, this is
• 57:46
  where the Celts can turn their extra wood in faster moving
• 57:49
  inventory into an aggressive opening.
• 57:51
  They can either perform a drush, sending militia to the opponent
• 57:54
  in the Dark Age, or play the more common men at arms rush,
• 57:58
  meaning militia are only created after advancing to the Feudal
• 58:01
  age. Time so that they reach the
• 58:04
  enemy just as the minute arms upgrade is researched.
• 58:07
  Against cavalry civilizations, it often makes more sense to
• 58:11
  open with minute arms rather than a drush.
• 58:13
  In the feudal age. You also send a Spearman along
• 58:16
  to counter enemy scouts, although minute Arms also
• 58:18
  perform quite decently against scouts themselves.
• 58:22
  The follow up, whether from a drush or a minute arms opening,
• 58:25
  is almost always Archers. From there there are two main
• 58:28
  options to continue the game. Either attempt to win before the
• 58:32
  Imperial age with a mass of crossbowmen, or wall up behind
• 58:35
  your first few units to gain an economic lead and go on the
• 58:40
  defensive side of the game. Or.
• 58:42
  Advance faster to the castle age for a siege push.
• 58:45
  If taking this approach, the cats exploit their wood bonus,
• 58:48
  defend with siege weapons, plays as many farms as possible, and
• 58:52
  secure as many relics as possible behind the map control
• 58:55
  gained early on. If siege weapons don't perform
• 58:58
  well, they can also defend with skirmishes, but then walls
• 59:01
  become even more important. On semi semi open maps like for
• 59:06
  example hideout, the cows can leverage their strong economy
• 59:10
  and late game options to transition from a drush into a
• 59:13
  fast castle. Afterwards either a single push
• 59:16
  or a boom can follow a fast castle in the world.
• 59:19
  Raiders is relatively relatively uncommon, however, because the
• 59:23
  unit alone is too easily counted by ranged units.
• 59:27
  Personally, I don't think a fast castle is particularly
• 59:30
  worthwhile with the Celts unless you fully commit to it.
• 59:34
  And I mean really fully commit. And this brings us to the
• 59:38
  strategy you've been waiting for this whole podcast.
• 59:42
  The Huang Rush, Ah yes, the Hong Rush developed, executed and
• 59:48
  perfected over thousands of games by the Vietnamese player
• 59:51
  Huang over time. The strategy has also evolved.
• 59:56
  Initially it involved building more militia in the Dark Age
• 59:59
  than one would expect from a typical rush, often 10 or more.
• 1:00:03
  The next step was to advance to the Castle Age as quickly as
• 1:00:06
  possible. The market helped with this, of
• 1:00:08
  course, and during that age the economy itself played a, let's
• 1:00:12
  just say, secondary role so as he could focus entirely on his
• 1:00:17
  monk. Siege push up front.
• 1:00:20
  Another important element of the strategy is to make sure that
• 1:00:23
  you send a villager A sneakville forward at the start of the
• 1:00:28
  castle age in order to build your siege workshop and your
• 1:00:33
  monastery and maybe even a stable.
• 1:00:36
  But especially your siege workshop needs to be in the face
• 1:00:39
  of your enemy, like almost touching his base, sometimes
• 1:00:42
  even inside the base if you are able to give them maximum amount
• 1:00:47
  of pressures. Huang does not want his siege to
• 1:00:51
  move a lot. He just wants to.
• 1:00:52
  Be it's to be. Inside the enemy base and cause
• 1:00:56
  havoc, and that is usually not a problem for Huang because he's
• 1:00:59
  so aggressive with his drash that there is just no way that
• 1:01:03
  the enemy can full wall himself. These days.
• 1:01:06
  Of course, the dark age looks a bit different and has given way
• 1:01:10
  to a more classic drosh FC or even a short fuel age with
• 1:01:14
  strong market usage to achieve a fast castle.
• 1:01:18
  What remains is the use of the market instead of relying purely
• 1:01:21
  on economy and the relentless application of monks and siege
• 1:01:25
  weapons in the castle age. Nowadays, Rams and scorpions
• 1:01:28
  have also become popular in this kind of rush and regardless of
• 1:01:32
  which unit you will play from the siege workshop, there is a
• 1:01:37
  clear topic with this and that is Kelt ETC.
• 1:01:41
  Famous words by Huang, who has explained why this strategy is
• 1:01:46
  so strong. The most important factor,
• 1:01:48
  however, is commitment. 95% of attention is focused on the push
• 1:01:54
  itself on your military. Villages are only built when
• 1:01:57
  necessary. And all effort must go into
• 1:02:01
  protecting the siege weapons. Wang rush is so strong that some
• 1:02:06
  of the pro players who regularly faced it felt almost terrorized.
• 1:02:10
  It is widely accepted that the change to the Celtic bonus where
• 1:02:14
  a militia moved faster was implemented in in August 2020
• 1:02:18
  because of Huang, because of Huang himself, because of his
• 1:02:21
  rush, so that the militia would only move faster starting in the
• 1:02:24
  feudal. Age Previously for around 20
• 1:02:28
  years, Militia had already been 15% faster in the Dark Age,
• 1:02:32
  which which is how his rush came to be.
• 1:02:35
  Today, the bonus is back to starting in the dark.
• 1:02:39
  Age, but it is now staggered, beginning at 5%.
• 1:02:42
  This is one of the few. Examples in the game's balancing
• 1:02:46
  history where a single player directly caused the civilization
• 1:02:51
  adjustment. Huang is therefore in a sense an
• 1:02:55
  inspiration for players like you, Pudding, who in turn
• 1:02:58
  inspired Red Fosferu, both of whom developed a very similar
• 1:03:02
  strategies. Incidentally, Red Fosferu was
• 1:03:05
  interviewed on our show in November 2024, which is a
• 1:03:09
  worthwhile episode to listen to, so if you haven't done so
• 1:03:12
  already, make sure to go back in the feed and have a listen.
• 1:03:16
  So back to the horn rush. As mentioned, the most important
• 1:03:20
  thing is to keep the siege weapons alive.
• 1:03:23
  For this reason you build all units that are strong in the
• 1:03:26
  castle age even without upgrades.
• 1:03:28
  For example Knights they don't need any upgrades to be strong
• 1:03:32
  and Spearman because they deal high bonus damage against
• 1:03:36
  lightcap for example. Or scouts and monks because they
• 1:03:40
  can convert everything. Without needing any upgrades as
• 1:03:43
  well. Ideally you reach the Castle age
• 1:03:46
  well ahead of the opponent with the siege workshop and even
• 1:03:50
  better, the first honager, or I mean Manganel of course, already
• 1:03:54
  in position while the opponent is just arriving in the Castle
• 1:03:57
  Age. And my friends, the slaughter
• 1:04:00
  begins. I would even go so far as to say
• 1:04:04
  that building villages is almost a mistake when going for this
• 1:04:07
  strategy. To conclude on Celtic
• 1:04:11
  strategies, it should be noted that there are a few
• 1:04:13
  civilizations that are almost defenseless in the late game
• 1:04:16
  against Celtic combinations of infantry and siege weapons.
• 1:04:21
  With practically no way to counter them, these are often
• 1:04:25
  Archer civilizations which already struggle in the Castle
• 1:04:28
  Age against the Celts, defending with siege weapons if you happen
• 1:04:32
  to be in a match. Up like that it might make sense
• 1:04:34
  to rely on the Celts strong late Game Match up and let the
• 1:04:38
  opponent come to you taking fewer risks and start defending
• 1:04:42
  yourself. Think in particular of the Maya
• 1:04:45
  for example, who lack siege onages and redemption and are
• 1:04:49
  kind of defenseless against your siege weapons.
• 1:04:52
  In that case, the opposite of the Huang rush applies.
• 1:04:55
  Focus on defence. Get to your late game, get your
• 1:04:58
  power units, and then destroy. Let's briefly talk about team
• 1:05:03
  games as well. And those the calts don't look
• 1:05:05
  very strong if you're not playing on closed maps.
• 1:05:08
  Despite lacking upgrades like the Arbalist or a thumb ring and
• 1:05:12
  bracer, and despite having access to Paladins, you
• 1:05:15
  generally play calts on open maps more on the flank position
• 1:05:20
  than in the pocket. If you have the choice, because
• 1:05:23
  they can better use their wood bonus in an Archer build and
• 1:05:26
  it's easier to push with siege weapons from the flank.
• 1:05:30
  On close maps it's a completely different story when Cubs get
• 1:05:33
  into their dream composition with halves and sea challenges.
• 1:05:36
  So what you want is you want them to boom as undisturbed as
• 1:05:39
  possible, so put them in the pocket position.
• 1:05:43
  They could theoretically also play cavalry from a pocket
• 1:05:46
  position since they have hussars and paladins, but they lack
• 1:05:50
  bloodlines and they find an armor upgrade, so that's not
• 1:05:52
  really worth it. In team games, cavalry often has
• 1:05:55
  the role of protecting ranged units.
• 1:05:58
  And acting as cannon fodder for that purpose.
• 1:06:01
  The Celts are missing the most important upgrades so they are
• 1:06:04
  probably not really worth it on water maps.
• 1:06:08
  Celts should definitely take on the landing role since they are
• 1:06:11
  poorly positioned on water. Why not try a horn rush on
• 1:06:15
  islands? You don't need much economy for
• 1:06:17
  that, and if you get attacked at home it's probably just because
• 1:06:20
  your teammates failed. I'd suggest just making the best
• 1:06:23
  out of a disadvantaged civilization when playing on
• 1:06:26
  water maps. The Celts clearly benefit from
• 1:06:29
  maps that allow them to exploit their strengths with infantry
• 1:06:33
  and siege weapons without being punished for this unusual unit
• 1:06:36
  composition, which only becomes available in the Castle Age in
• 1:06:40
  the 1st place. Closed maps with natural choke
• 1:06:43
  points for fighting are awesome, like for example Black Forest
• 1:06:46
  Michi or Amazon Tunnel. On open maps, Celts have no
• 1:06:50
  special strengths except their wood bonus.
• 1:06:53
  Here the strategy is to keep the opponent under constant pressure
• 1:06:57
  to prevent their restricted late game tech tree from being
• 1:07:00
  becoming relevant. In hybrid maps, Cubs can make
• 1:07:03
  good use of their wood bonus to invest in warships and water
• 1:07:06
  control. It helps that they have access
• 1:07:09
  to hazards and paladins even if they don't have strong upgrades
• 1:07:12
  with them. But mobility is often key on
• 1:07:15
  these kind of maps, so this should always be kept in mind
• 1:07:19
  for Nomad. Maps The Cubs are, well, almost
• 1:07:23
  a hidden gem. Thanks to their strong wood
• 1:07:25
  economy, they have a smooth early game, and the bonus to
• 1:07:28
  steal enemy sheep with with Insight comes into play more
• 1:07:32
  frequently and usefully than in other maps.
• 1:07:35
  Probably. So after your quite smooth
• 1:07:39
  opening on Nomad. Thanks to their bonuses, the
• 1:07:43
  game often progresses directly into the age where the Celts
• 1:07:46
  shine with their unique unit and siege.
• 1:07:48
  Weapons because usually people play fast castles.
• 1:07:52
  Both castle drops and siege pushes on TCS are common on
• 1:07:56
  Nomad, and the Celts excel in both.
• 1:07:59
  Sure, the Celts aren't among the very best civilizations on
• 1:08:02
  Nomad, but I'd argue they are definitely far from.
• 1:08:05
  Bad. And how do the Celts fare in?
• 1:08:09
  E Sports. After all, they are one of the
• 1:08:12
  OG civilizations from Age of Kings and thus have over 25
• 1:08:17
  years of E Sports history behind them.
• 1:08:20
  However, the Celts have never really had a significant impact
• 1:08:23
  on E sports, and that is almost entirely because they are so
• 1:08:27
  infantry focused, and only recently has it become feasible
• 1:08:31
  to make meaningful use of infantry.
• 1:08:33
  And I mean the cows always had a hard time because just consider
• 1:08:37
  which of the civilizations had been amongst the 21st
• 1:08:42
  civilizations with the Age of Conquerors up to the year 2013.
• 1:08:48
  They they just had no chance against most of these
• 1:08:51
  civilizations. It didn't get much better after
• 1:08:54
  that either. Infantry civilizations have
• 1:08:57
  always struggled in the game and the Celts even more so because
• 1:09:01
  they have no alternative in the late game.
• 1:09:04
  On top of that, before the definitive edition of Age of
• 1:09:06
  Empires 2, you could hardly rely on how maps, especially Arabia,
• 1:09:11
  would turn out to. Be.
• 1:09:13
  The sometimes adventurous map generation made playing Celts
• 1:09:17
  almost like playing with fire, since a defensive strategy on a
• 1:09:21
  poor map could easily lead to to an immediate defeat.
• 1:09:26
  However, there is one particular set in E sport history that will
• 1:09:30
  stay with me forever, The final of Hidden Cup 4 between Hera and
• 1:09:35
  Jordan. Hera played the hybrid map cup
• 1:09:39
  with Celts against Jordan's Japanese, and as expected from
• 1:09:43
  the Japanese on a hybrid map like that, Jordan managed to put
• 1:09:47
  Hera under an immense amount of pressure.
• 1:09:50
  But then Hera played his surprise card.
• 1:09:55
  He executed a fantastic tech switch into Kelt Paladins,
• 1:10:01
  visibly surprising Jordan, who could not do nothing about it
• 1:10:05
  despite having Japanese helps. Theoretically the perfect
• 1:10:08
  counter. So how did Hera pull off this
• 1:10:12
  stunt? He built a lot of stables behind
• 1:10:14
  his castles so Jordan couldn't scout them and waited until he
• 1:10:19
  had not only researched paladins the technology, but also had
• 1:10:23
  enough of them to field a strike against Jordan all at once.
• 1:10:28
  Since Jordan had no idea about the paladin switch, he couldn't
• 1:10:32
  take him to. Helps in time.
• 1:10:34
  Jordan, much like the casters and US observers, did not expect
• 1:10:39
  Celt Paladins and was in for a big surprise when they went into
• 1:10:45
  his base and destroyed his economy, raiding him to death
• 1:10:48
  and ultimately leading to his defeat.
• 1:10:52
  Otherwise, even among infantry civilizations, the Celts tend to
• 1:10:56
  be more of a second choice and hybrid maps, in particular the
• 1:11:00
  Japanese Goths, Malaise and Wu are preferred because they are
• 1:11:05
  all much stronger regarding to their tech trees and games can
• 1:11:09
  hardly ever be won with a first rush.
• 1:11:12
  Fast castles are also too risky to be played and the strong
• 1:11:15
  siege weapons are not enough to justify them as a civilization
• 1:11:18
  pick in E sports, the Celts are therefore more of a niche pick.
• 1:11:23
  So if not E sports, what about the campaigns instead?
• 1:11:30
  We are without a leader. The dead King of Scotland has
• 1:11:34
  nowhere War creeps in from the South.
• 1:11:37
  What? Edward Long Shanks, the
• 1:11:39
  abaricious King of England, has returned from successful
• 1:11:41
  campaigns in Wales and France. As Long Shanks turns his
• 1:11:46
  attention to Scotland, the shadow of fear settles across.
• 1:11:50
  Well, perhaps the Celtic campaign is the most played
• 1:11:53
  campaign in the game. As expected, it revolves around
• 1:11:57
  William Wallace and has always served as the tutorial campaign
• 1:12:02
  of the game, through which generations of players have
• 1:12:05
  learnt how to play Age of Empires.
• 1:12:09
  It consists of seven missions that gradually familiarize
• 1:12:13
  players with the controls of the game, For example, how to select
• 1:12:16
  units, how to drag your camera, how to attack, how to construct
• 1:12:21
  buildings, how to research technologies and train your new
• 1:12:25
  units. On the PS-5 and Xbox console
• 1:12:28
  versions, the first four missions were combined into a
• 1:12:31
  single mission called Preparing for Battle to explain controller
• 1:12:35
  based controls and console features such as automatic
• 1:12:38
  economic management. Hotkeys play no role in the
• 1:12:42
  tutorial whatsoever. The campaign tells the story of
• 1:12:46
  how William Wallace tried to unite the Scottish clans to
• 1:12:49
  resist. King Edward Longshanks.
• 1:12:52
  The first historical reference occurs in mission five with the
• 1:12:55
  Battle of Sterling known in history as the Battle of
• 1:12:59
  Sterling Bridge on September 11th in 1297.
• 1:13:03
  It is no coincidence that the bridge does not appear in the
• 1:13:06
  mission name as the developers were once again clearly inspired
• 1:13:10
  by the film Braveheart where the bridge was also absent, even
• 1:13:14
  though it was the crucial part of how the battles outcome came
• 1:13:19
  to be. The Scottish and English armies
• 1:13:22
  did meet at the bridge over a river and because the Scots held
• 1:13:26
  it they were able to stop the English advancements.
• 1:13:30
  In the definitive edition the mission was revised and the
• 1:13:33
  bridge was added to the mission, not to the title, but in game on
• 1:13:38
  the map you must first cross a small river bridge before
• 1:13:41
  attacking the English. A small correction that I, as a
• 1:13:45
  fan of the game, greatly appreciate.
• 1:13:48
  In the sixth mission, players must collect relics and are
• 1:13:51
  introduced to trade. Additionally, the game's tribute
• 1:13:54
  system is explained. The final mission covers the
• 1:13:57
  Battle of Falkirk in July 22nd, 12190. 8.
• 1:14:02
  You can either defeat the English by destroying the castle
• 1:14:05
  or build a wonder to win the game.
• 1:14:08
  The battle is meant to push back the English and secure
• 1:14:11
  Scotland's freedom. It's also a way of showcasing
• 1:14:14
  what kind of win condition the game involves.
• 1:14:17
  And of course, in this campaign this is your victory over the
• 1:14:21
  English is naturally achieved, even though historically the
• 1:14:25
  Scots had no chance whatsoever and were defeated heavily at the
• 1:14:30
  Battle of Falkirk. After this battle, William.
• 1:14:33
  Wallace even relinquished his title as Guardian of Scotland.
• 1:14:37
  Not so in this campaign. In this campaign William Wallace
• 1:14:40
  will be victorious. The historically accurate
• 1:14:44
  outcome can however still be experienced if we play the
• 1:14:47
  British campaign where, as Edward Longshanks in the final
• 1:14:52
  mission Hammer of the Scots, we emerge victorious over William
• 1:14:56
  Wallace. Today I feel like the tutorial
• 1:15:00
  almost feels antiquated and frankly inadequate in what it
• 1:15:05
  should do, meaning in introducing the player to the
• 1:15:09
  game. The tutorial has instead been
• 1:15:11
  much better and more nuanced in the form of the challenges in
• 1:15:15
  the Art of War menu. As a result, the William Wallace
• 1:15:19
  campaign is more of a relic from the past, and it's most
• 1:15:23
  interesting aspect is that as a witness to the time when the
• 1:15:28
  game was released, it represents the origin story of Age of
• 1:15:32
  Empires 2. The campaign's intro text still
• 1:15:36
  retains a bit of the magic that the game had on me as a child.
• 1:15:41
  Just have a listen to this. This is what it reads.
• 1:15:44
  And imagine reading this as the very first thing you do when the
• 1:15:49
  very first time you start up the game and want to get a go at it.
• 1:15:54
  Age of Empires 2 is about empire building, combat, and conquest.
• 1:15:59
  You start from humble beginnings, a small village in
• 1:16:02
  the dark ages. You explore to expand your
• 1:16:05
  borders, conduct trade to boost your economy, and research
• 1:16:10
  technologies to grow your civilization into a mighty
• 1:16:14
  empire. But there are difficulties too.
• 1:16:17
  Cunning enemies and rivals that oppose you, powerful castles to
• 1:16:21
  destroy, tyrants to bring down. And.
• 1:16:25
  If you are skillful and a little lucky, you just might build a
• 1:16:29
  wonder of the world and create an empire that will stand the
• 1:16:34
  test of time. Yeah, those were the days when I
• 1:16:38
  didn't reach the feudal age by minute 9 and instead getting
• 1:16:42
  through. The ages was actually.
• 1:16:43
  Kind of a milestone in something that felt like an hour long
• 1:16:48
  campaign against the AI. And you know, back then the game
• 1:16:53
  felt more like a building simulation game, more like a
• 1:16:57
  real time strategy game to a beginner, just like I was when I
• 1:17:02
  was a child. However, replaying the William
• 1:17:05
  Wallace campaign today painfully reminded me that those days are
• 1:17:09
  long gone. Instead, I found myself
• 1:17:12
  desperately hammering the plus key on my keyboard, only to
• 1:17:16
  painfully realize that this campaign is the only one in the
• 1:17:19
  game where you cannot increase the game speed.
• 1:17:22
  I even felt like the game has caught me doing something that
• 1:17:25
  was forbidden, A sensation I hadn't experienced in a long
• 1:17:28
  time. Perhaps the last time was when I
• 1:17:32
  secretly played Age of Vampires 2, even though it was past my
• 1:17:36
  bat time. So in the end, the William
• 1:17:38
  Wallace campaign did manage to evoke some nostalgia in me.
• 1:17:42
  For those who want to experience even more of Scottish history
• 1:17:46
  throughout the game, I recommend the Custom Command campaign
• 1:17:50
  about Robert the Bruce. Robert the Bruce is who became
• 1:17:55
  the Scottish King and also one who resisted the English in a
• 1:17:59
  manner that is up to this day very important in Scottish
• 1:18:04
  history. In the first mission of this
• 1:18:06
  custom campaign, you resist the British invasion led by Edward
• 1:18:10
  Longshanks, but since the British forces are too strong,
• 1:18:13
  Robert the Bruce allies with him and betrays William Wallace.
• 1:18:18
  In the second mission, you have to earn the acceptance of the
• 1:18:21
  Scottish nobility in order to be crowned King of Scotland.
• 1:18:25
  Naturally, they will only accept you after you have proven
• 1:18:28
  yourself to them. And how do you do that?
• 1:18:30
  Well, fighting of course. In the third mission, you defend
• 1:18:34
  against the English and are forced to flee either to Ireland
• 1:18:38
  or the Scottish islands. There you rebuild and defeat the
• 1:18:42
  English invaders. I had a lot of fun using Rd.
• 1:18:45
  Raiders in this mission, I can tell you that much.
• 1:18:48
  In mission 4 you fight Scottish noble houses to consolidate your
• 1:18:52
  power and capture the city of Aberdeen in the north.
• 1:18:56
  This mission by the way, is the best ones to practice your
• 1:19:00
  Celtic post Imperial strategies with lots of siege weapons.
• 1:19:04
  In the next mission you finally get to defeat the English and to
• 1:19:08
  my personal delight, in the last mission called Braveheart, you
• 1:19:12
  travel to Spain to fulfill Robert the Bruce's final wish
• 1:19:16
  even after his death. I find that this campaign tells
• 1:19:20
  the much more exciting story of Robert the Bruce very well.
• 1:19:24
  Since there is no voice acting, there is a lot of reading to do
• 1:19:27
  even during the mission, so I had to pause a couple of times
• 1:19:30
  to just catch up with all the text.
• 1:19:33
  But still I enjoyed it a lot and although some battles can take a
• 1:19:38
  while until. All your enemies have been truly
• 1:19:42
  defeated. I found the campaign campaign
• 1:19:45
  quite engaging. Moreover, and this deserves a
• 1:19:48
  praise, the maps are very lovingly designed, whether it's
• 1:19:52
  the water maps, the Scottish landscapes or southern Spain.
• 1:19:57
  And now it's done. This is my podcast about the
• 1:20:01
  Celts in Age of Empires 2. Or the Scots.
• 1:20:04
  Or the Irish. Or the pigs.
• 1:20:07
  Somehow none of these entirely, but rather a mix of everything.
• 1:20:11
  The Celts are probably, aside from Huang, no one's favorite
• 1:20:15
  civilization. They are likely not the best
• 1:20:18
  civilization on any map or in any scenario, and judging by
• 1:20:22
  their design, I would argue that the developers didn't do a
• 1:20:26
  particularly good job giving them a historical identity.
• 1:20:31
  Maybe because the Celts weren't their favorite civilization
• 1:20:34
  either from a gameplay. Perspective.
• 1:20:36
  However, the Celts have. One of the most clearly defined
• 1:20:40
  identities in the game. They are very clearly a
• 1:20:43
  civilization focused on infantry and siege units and excel at
• 1:20:46
  both these unit types. It's just a shame that their
• 1:20:50
  siege units have no historical inspiration at all.
• 1:20:53
  Honesty, I don't mind that the Celts were mainly played by
• 1:20:56
  Huang and otherwise only appeared in 4V4 Black Forest
• 1:21:00
  games. Sure, would be nicer if the
• 1:21:02
  Celts had a bit more going for themselves, but with 50
• 1:21:05
  civilizations in the game I think it's OK that they are more
• 1:21:09
  of a, well, niche choice. The same seems to be true for
• 1:21:14
  the campaign though, as the William Wallace campaign is more
• 1:21:17
  of a footnote and the Edward Longshanks campaign tells the
• 1:21:20
  better story. Thinking back to my childhood
• 1:21:23
  with Age of Vampires, I don't have any recollection of playing
• 1:21:27
  as the Celts, not even on our land parties when we played a
• 1:21:31
  bunch of different civilizations, and I even
• 1:21:34
  remember having the rule that we were not allowed to pick a sieve
• 1:21:39
  another player has already picked in A8 player.
• 1:21:43
  Free. For all game.
• 1:21:45
  So nobody likes to play as the Celts because nobody knew much
• 1:21:48
  about the Celts civilizations. And you know, the try hards
• 1:21:52
  amongst my friends played as the Goths, the unbeatable infantry
• 1:21:56
  civilizations or the Tutens with their feared almost invincible
• 1:22:00
  Teutonic Knights. So did we ever play the Celts?
• 1:22:03
  I don't think so. And if the William Wallace
• 1:22:06
  campaign had been better, maybe that would have been different.
• 1:22:10
  Overall, the Celts are a very hard civilization to play.
• 1:22:14
  Their strengths are situational and require a lot of skill so
• 1:22:19
  they are far from beginner friendly.
• 1:22:21
  But then again, is it really worth mastering this
• 1:22:24
  civilization when there are so many other civilizations that
• 1:22:27
  are just stronger and overall? And that's fine with me again,
• 1:22:32
  but I would wish that the Celts at least get more recognition in
• 1:22:36
  a single player civilization and receive a better campaign.
• 1:22:40
  I doubt that will ever happen, but hey, the Scots are a
• 1:22:44
  civilization that have always dreamed of their freedom and in
• 1:22:49
  the end they achieved it, so why not the William Wallace campaign
• 1:22:54
  as well? I would like to thank you for
• 1:22:57
  sticking around with me until the end of this very long
• 1:23:00
  podcast. And if you haven't already,
• 1:23:02
  check out the other episodes of the podcast.
• 1:23:05
  There's plenty of them to listen to if you want to share your
• 1:23:08
  thoughts about this podcast or your experiences and opinions
• 1:23:12
  about the Celts. Send me a message.
• 1:23:13
  At ageofcast@gmail.com, that's ageofcast@gmail.com or just
• 1:23:20
  leave a comment on Spotify. You can also join the podcast
• 1:23:23
  Discord and in order to get there, just take a look at the
• 1:23:28
  show notes. You will find the invitation
• 1:23:30
  link down below. We'll meet again in one of the
• 1:23:33
  next episodes. I hope And yeah, I wish you
• 1:23:36
  wonderful holidays and a good time with your loved ones, your
• 1:23:40
  families or however you choose to spend these days.