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[EuchreJack]

Higher difficulties would probably hurt the artistry of the write up.  Nice read, as always.

[Orange Wizard]

ptuu

[Iituem]

1600 BCE - 950BCE: The High Kingdom of the Britons



Throughout the 16th century BCE the Ambiani in particular worked to refine the art of warfare, as per Victory's teachings.  The first example of a true military barracks, dedicated to the full-time training of professional warriors, is believed to have been built in Ambianum, based on the writings of Cunobelinus centuries later.  It is during this period that we see a spiritual exploration by the Britons hitherto unembarked upon.  Written records of meditation exercises in praise and contemplation of Victory have been found dating back to the same period as the military professionalism of the Ambiani.



1470 BCE sees the ascendance of Addedomarus, High King of the Britons and direct ruler of the Dumnonii.  Addedomarus' reign sees great advances for the Britons in his establishment of the first library in Britain, a repository for the many scrolls accrued by Addedomarus and his court of scholars.  It also sees the first large scale use of chariots in war by the Dumnonii.  These take advantage of the High King's Highway, a paved granite road constructed at Addedomarus' instruction between Trinovantum and Cantiacum, to better enable patrol of the kingdom's trade routes.

Under Addedomarus' reign, Trinovantum grew to a metropolis (for the time) of 150,000 people.  A permanent body of scholars was established in his court, creating something akin to a true institution of learning.

[With the Library in Trinovantum, we have been able to set one pop aside as a Scientist specialist, adding +6 beakers per turn.  Very nice.  This is actually a bonus of +7.5 beakers because the Library adds +25% beaker production anyway.  Ordinarily,scientists produce 3 beakers but we are running Representation which adds +3 beakers to every specialist's production.]



By the end of Adedomarus' reign, his elite core of scholars had become authorities on spiritual as well as temporal matters, giving rise to the first incidence of a true priesthood amongst the Britons - a class who held themselves to be closer to and more authoritative on deities and matters of spirituality.



The profileration of chariots also helped to turn the tide of many of the conflicts with the Brigantes, Silures and occasional Picts from the Scots peaks and deserts.  The Dumnonii continued to rise once again in the sphere of ancient politics.



The 14th century BCE saw an increase in Pictish aggression against Trinovantum and the High Kingdom of the Britons.  The younger generation of the Belgae played a large part in fighting the assault, with the traditionalists holding the city itself against Pictish spearmen who successfully tracked through the woods of the Thames valley to strike at the city without facing the outer defenders.  The extended King's Highway permitted fast movement of Belgae and Ambiani to defend the clan lands.

From the 14th to the 12th century BCE, the Britons enjoyed a period of quiet development possibly chiefly due to excesses of cheap Iceni labour.  Fresh fields were ploughed, roads paved, mines dug at the hand of the Iceni and at the behest of their various masters.  The low death rate from war and conflict, combined with the usefulness of the Iceni in general, resulted in a tribe as large as all the other clans put together but with no political say in the court of the High King.




From 1160-1140 BCE came the rule of the High King Tasciovanus of the Cantiaci, who by legend had the gift of prophecy.  Whether Tasciovanus was truly oracular is up for historians to debate, but he and his councillors certainly ushered in two brilliant decades of thought.  From Taciovanus' scholarly work on language and writing we see a clear evolution from the pictographic style of British writing to a true alphabet - an evolution that happened entirely within Tasciovanus' lifetime!  We also see repeated clear victories against the Silures and Picts throughout Tasciovanus' reign, so the belief that the High King had knowledge of the future is entirely understandable for the time.

Spoiler: Technologies (click to show/hide)

Tasciovanus attracted scholars not just from amongst the Britons but also those of distant Sumer.  Discourse was encouraged between the differing scholars and we still find bronze and ox-horn scroll cases with Tasciovanus' seal in Sumerian burial troves to this day.  We can trace the techniques of pottery and spear-hunting, all but unknown to the early Britons, taught by Sumerian artisans in this period.  Similarly, the art of spiritual meditation, of building boats and of the written word came to Sumer, as evidenced by the sudden introduction of scrolls as a medium of knowledge.  In the latter years of his reign, Tasciovanus similarly brought Ethiopian scholars to his court, seeing the development of meditation techniques in Ethiopia and at long last the introduction of the bow and arrow to the Britons.

It is generally considered by scholars that the reign of Tasciovanus represents the birth of the British Classical Era.

[All three of these techs are very limited, ancient technologies.  It saves us about twenty turns of research to trade them, which I will absolutely take.]



In 1010BCE, the High King Mandubracius III of the Belgae married the princess of the Caledonii in Scotland, finally bringing one of the Pictish clans into the High Kingdom of the Britons.  The tiny town of Caledonium was named as the seat of the petty kind of the Caledonii (Mandubracius' second son by the marriage).  Whilst poor in numbers, the alliance with the Britons stood to make the Caledonii great in time - but many of the Pictish clans, including some sister clans of the Caledonii, objected violently.  Clan wars in the region would persist for many centuries to follow.



By around 1000BCE Mandubracius III had run into frequent problems maintaining law and order in his kingdom, partially due to the discontent of his new Scottish alliance and partially because of the long-standing resentment of the Iceni.  Things came to a head in 990BCE when an Iceni uprising in Trinovantum killed hundreds of people, including Mandubracius' Caledonii wife.  In his grief and rage (one can only assume) Mandubracius set about a program of imprisonment, trial and execution of Iceni and criminals (with little distinction sometimes being made between the two) according to an elaborate and draconian set of laws.  Later kings would loosen and refine the code of law that Mandubracius set up, but it did represent the first effort by a British king to lay out a law that applied to everyone.  More or less equally, too.



It was during Mandubracius' great purge that his chief councillor, Confucius of the Cantiaci, came to prominence.  An extremely capable bureaucrat, Confucius not only kept the kingdoms running but saved thousands of lives by standing against his king's wishes - within the strict limits of the law.  Confucius was known to be a deeply religious man, venerating Victory and the application of her teachings throughout life and government.  His students collected the various sayings and teachings he pronounced during his life, binding them together into the Confucius Codex, a bible for both virtuous living and good governmental practice.  Many of Confucius' students did not enjoy the same laxity Mandubracius permitted his favourite councillor and were banished for unorthodoxy to Cantiacum, where Confucius' kinsmen provided shelter from the High King's wrath.

Finally, in 960BCE, Mandubracius died of what we believe to be a stroke.  Yet after thirty years of civil strife the political landscape of the Britons had been changed forever.  The Iceni, long pressed into an underclass by the wealthier and the better armed, became explicitly defined as a servant class, a clan fit for labour.  The other clans similarly found themselves pigeonholed by the new Confucian government into being trained as just warriors, just scholars, just merchants.  As might be expected, the Confucian ministers placed themselves on top of the government, second only to the High King.

[We have adopted the Caste System, which will do for now.  In the caste system we can produce as many Scientists, Merchants and Artists as we like, anywhere in the realm.  Of course, under this system it does suck to be the Iceni.  Or anyone but the masters, really.  As a bonus we finally have a religion, Confucianism, which I have adopted as the state religion.  We now get happiness and culture where the religion is present and we can build temples and monasteries accordingly.]

One piece of advice if you do want to go onto harder difficulties: Your 2nd and 3rd cities are way too far away from the capital.

It probably won't hurt too much on Noble, but above that distance-related maintenance costs really mount up and will kill your economy.

Nice writeup though.

They are very far away, but I was beelining for axes (Ambianum is the only copper site that would be contested with the Ethiopians) and for the Pyramids (needed the stone from West Anglia).  We really needed the Pyramids, not just for the happiness/beaker bonuses but ultimately so that we can rush-build with gold using Universal Suffrage.  England (except under Churchill) is a money machine and really benefits from being able to rush-build with gold.

[Sheb]

Is there a downside to the caste system?

[Iituem]

Is there a downside to the caste system?

It has higher upkeep than, say, slavery or tribalism, but as with many civics the downside is the opportunity cost.  I don't want to run slavery with my low happiness and low population, so I'm not particularly sacrificing whip-based rush building, but whilst running caste system I can't run Serfdom (+50% worker speed), or Emancipation (double cottage growth, screws over every non-Empancipation civ with unhappiness).  I won't get empancipation for centuries, but there's a good chance I'll swap out to Serfdom once I get feudalism.

A classic combination for a small, tall empire is Representation (+3 happ in six cities, +3 beakers per specialist), Caste System (unlimited specialists), Mecantilism (free specialist per city, no external trade).  We will probably follow this pattern to a greater or lesser extent until we're large enough to favour other civics.

Right now we are running Representation, Barbarism, Caste System, Decentralism and Paganism.  The High Kingdom of the Britons is organised along strict division of labour based on ethnicity; has no such thing as economic regulation (or money, as it's still a barter system); worships Victory along Confucian lines but in a very individualist, unstructured manner; has a legal system based on the strong enforcing rules on the weak; and is an oligarchy of petty kings beneath an elected high king.

[Harry Baldman]

Now this is the kind of Civilization LP I can get behind. Reminds me of the abandoned one that's on the LP Archive, although this one's in documentary format rather than an assemblage of sources. Hope this one lasts, alternate history's great.

[Moron]

This is making me want to play Civ IV again - and maybe even try to play a Terra map "properly", eg by colonising the New World rather than just rushing to conquer everyone before it is discovered, which generally seems like the easier way to win. (Though maybe not on huge maps where there are so many more civs to conquer...)

[Iituem]

950 BCE - 170 BCE: Trade and Exploration in Indo-Africa



The 10th and 9th centuries BCE saw a time of quiet prosperity for the Britons.  Despite growing tensions with the Jewish Sumerians and with the Ethiopians and their continued expansion near the Welsh border, the strict labour divisions meant that food was plentiful and wealth abundant for those atop the system.  The Silures grew bolder during this time, successfully razing several farmsteads near Ambianum before being stopped, but were largely still rebuffed by the Ambiani and Atrebates. 

The Britons also began incorporating the worship of Victory, as defined by Confucius and his students, to accept various other classic British deities.  This saw the development of a pantheon into the British mythology.



The military advisor to High King Imanuentis II was a Confucian of clan Dumnonii, Galilis (in later texts corrupted to Galileo or Galilei) took his position in 860BCE, nominally in a position as co-ordinator of the king's messengers.  The Dumnonii were restricted to chiefly military roles by law and custom, and it has been the wonder of many historians what Galilis might have achieved had he the freedom to conduct his studies without the restriction of his caste.  A chest belonging to Galilis was discovered in 1836 containing written studies of mathematics, physics, a rudimentary understanding of heredity and several designs for aqueducts, architectural designs and poetry, all comparable to the works of the early 1400s.  All of Galilis' work was hidden, however, forbidden by the customs of his time.

Instead, Galilis set about revolutionising the logistics and organisation of the government.  He set up a school for future bureaucrats in Confucianist study and is credited with the invention of the exam - no member of his administration was permitted to hold office without first passing a written examination to prove his worth.  The need to pass said exams created much demand for education, ultimately leading to a formalised academy of learning and in the fullness of time a place of relatively free thought in a very un-free time.

[We could have grabbed ourselves a 25-turn advantage by having our Great Scientist research Mathematics.  This would have garnered us a boon of about 1300 beakers of research.  However, over the next 500 turns or so of play, the Academy will grant us perhaps 5000 beakers' worth of research.  I do love early game turn advantage, but the net gain over time is too useful.]



During the 8th century BCE we see a reaction against the incorporation of other deities into the larger British mythos, along with a growing movement amongst the Confucianists towards venerating Victory and Victory alone.  During this period many lesser deities are relegated to positions as saints and hero figures rather than true gods.  This religious movement resulted in a great deal of internal strife between 780-740BCE, with the growing radicalisation and reactionary movements between the monotheists and the polytheists.  A lot of records of the time are missing, presumably destroyed by the monotheist purges, but we know that ultimately the monotheists won - Confucianism emerged an organised, heirarchical religion administered by state-appointed mandarins.

In spite of the destruction associated with its birth, the new organised Confucian state permitted great organisation of labour, chiefly focused on revitalising the infrastructure of the High Kingdom; granaries based off Sumerian designs in particular became quickly prevalent throughout the realm, produced by organised gangs of Iceni masons.

[We have adopted Organised Religion, which I specifically made a beeline for once we had a faith.  Organised Religion permits us to raise Confucian missionaries without monasteries, but more importantly it grants a +25% bonus to building construction in Confucian settlements.]



The 7th century sees a line of Atrebates High Kings, each concerned more with quiet development of their realms than extravagant expenditures.  It also sees the development of the first Briton fleet, a series of galleys led by the Mandubracius, captained by a Dumnonii chief.  The course of their travels is well recorded in burial walls of the time, and it is alongside this fleet that we see the first artefacts from Indian traders.

Whilst by their nature records of the more clandestine efforts of the Atrebates are unknown, evidence exists to suggest the existence of a splinter clan, the Ordovici, whose purpose was to insert themselves quietly into Ethiopian society for the purpose of gathering information.  Maps of the inner roads and settlements of the Ethiopians exist in sealed scrolls recovered from the time that by all rights the Atrebates should not have had.  Further, evidence from Ethiopian sources places the disappearance of the Ordovici from Aksum alonside the legendary robbery of the Ethiopian royal treasury at the time.

[We have a spy!  Unfortunately I cannot possibly afford the espionage point cost to actually steal tech from the Ethiopians as I hoped to, but treasury theft is also fun.  Took the opportunity to map out their territory, though.]



The ongoing trade with and exploration of the Indian continent created great demand for shipping, but the cliffs around the Gap of West Anglia were known for their treacherous nature.  Thus it was that Eppillus, the petty king of the Cantiaci, set about the construction of a great beacon, the Lighthouse of Cantiacum.  The structure stood some 300ft tall, with a base of solid granite reaching down to the sea bed of the tiny isle on which it was constructed.  Fires were burnt day and night atop the tower, guiding ships safely to the harbour of Cantiacum. 



Further exploration of India brought contact with the Carthaginians, a state that had thoroughly embraced the principles of Judiasm and rather distrusted the Confucian way of the Britons visiting them.  Whilst relations between Carthage and the Britons were frosty at best, there is ample evidence from 550BCE onwards that a thriving trade went on between them, particularly in pork (which the Britons lacked) and wheat (which they had in plenty).

Spoiler: Technologies (click to show/hide)

For seven short years from 506 BCE to 499 BCE, the High Kingdom of the Britons were graced with one of the finest minds of the Classical Era, the Sumerian engineer Akkad al-Ur.  Akkad served in the court of High King Caractacus of the Belgae and, being exempt from the caste system of the Britons, was able to spread the Sumerian techniques of ironmongering to the students of the Galilein Academy in Trinovantum and, in the process of improving on the techniques of fine metalwork, made great strides in the fields of mathematics and engineering.  He cultivated a school of scholars around him, including Indian scribes who spread the knowledge of how to run an effective monarchy to the Britons.  When Akkad eventually returned to Sumer, he brought with him the monotheistic ideals of the Confucians and a great understanding of the codes of law that made the caste system of the Britons possible.  Such knowledge swiftly spread in turn to India.

As a footnote, it is worth noting that during Caractacus' reign the Dumnonii established their own town, Dumnonium, whilst in eastern Scotland the Votadini establish Votadinum to exploit the freely available iron in the region.



In 410BCE, war broke out on the Indian continent between Carthage and its Indian neighbours, sparked by the utter destruction of the Indian town of Pataliputra.  Trinovanti scholars staying in India at the time reported on the brutality displayed by the Carthaginians and their texts serve as a profound insight into the culture of Carthage at the time.  A force composed primarily of axemen and spearmen, with archers serving as a rearguard, engaged in several protracted engagements.  By 387BCE, Delhi had fallen and the Indian kingdom had been sundered, with the two petty kingdoms of Bombay and Vijayanagara struggling to survive on their own.



In 360BCE we find the very first coins, minted in imported Carthaginian gold due to the paucity of precious metals in Britain.  They are stamped with the face of Imanuentis IV, High King at the time, and are representative of a much broader expansion of trade and commerce - signalled by the development of true instruments of currency.  This permitted the exchange of goods without the need to have something directly required by the barterer, and in addition to the long history of seaborne trade established by Eppillus' Lighthouse many settlements of the Britons had steady trades with up to four other major settlements at a time.

[Currency plus Lighthouse plus mostly coastal cities = stupid amounts of commerce from trade routes.  Most cities are getting a nice +4 commerce internal bonus (typically equating to +2 gold, +2 science), with the exception of Ambianum (inland) and Trinovantum, which trades with four Sumerian cities for a total +12 bonus.]



By 330BCE we find examples of Malinese ironwork appearing in Cantiaci troves, typically brought back by Dumnonii explorers during their adventures through Indo-Africa.  Of note are the lack of defined religious artefacts appearing amongst the trade goods found, as whilst the Malinese at this time were certainly spiritualists they lacked a defined religion such as Judaism, Hinduism or Confucianism.  By comparison, the Britons continued to embrace and lift up Confucianism as an ideal of worshipping Victory.  In 323BCE the first true temple to Victory was raised in the Confucian style, large enough to house a thousand worshippers at high prayer.  The temple burnt down two hundred years later and was rebuilt again and again over the next thousand years until an inventive architect modified the design to make it less prone to catching fire.



By 280BCE we find evidence of the growing organisation of the Picts of upper Scotland in the foundations of Bactrian, a town famed in written accounts of the time for its high quality of archers.  With an organised base for attacks on Caledonium and other British settlements, the Bactrians presented a greater threat than their more tribalist predecessors ever had.

At the same time, the Manubracius and its exploration fleet had reached the home of the Angles, a minor tribe of archers on a distant coast - but one with a greater part yet to play in the scope of British history.



In the records of the captain of the Mandubracius, in 202BC, we find mention of the first meeting of the Britons and the Zulus.  The ship attempted to put to port at the coastal village of Nongoma but was forcefully if non-violently denied docking.  From his reports we learn that whilst the Zulus had never met Britons before they had heard of them - from their most hated foes, the Malinese.  The captain further reported that the Zulus had mastered the art of using horses in warfare, not merely as draught animals to pull chariots, but riding freely upon their backs with saddles.  This presented the Zulus with a degree of speed and maneuverability unheard of amongst the Britons.



As a footnote, it is worth noting that the historian Cunobelinus records that in 198BCE Prince Zara of Ethiopia enrolled in the Academy at Trinovantum, studying the classics of Confucianism at length - particularly the use of a formalised alphabet in writing, which heavily influenced the Ethiopian written word.  Prince Zara was also known as the Silvered Prince at the time, partially for his skill with words but mostly because of the large gifts he bestowed upon his friends and admirers - and the bequeath of valuables to the Academy, equivalent in value to some 170 pounds of silver.  Prince Zara's interest in silversmithy also led to significant advances in metalworking amongst the Britons, especially in the arena of metal casting.  Prince Zara is attributed by Cunobelinus to having invented the wax-loss method of bronze casting, although it was likely one of Zara's contemporaries.  Cunobelinus, whilst in many ways useful as a historian, was also prone to changing details if he felt it made a better story or enhanced an existing hero.




The Academy of Trinvantum was by 173BCE a reknowned hub for education and academia throughout Britain and Indo-Africa, especially for foreign students who were not restricted by the British caste system.  It was in fact an African engineer of mixed Malinese and Carthaginian descent, Charles Augustin de Colomb, who pioneered the development of precise metallurgy and the science of storing, translating and manipulating forms of energy through the medium of machinery.  Following on from the standards of metalworking put in place by Prince Zara and his contemporaries, Charles Augustin allowed the Britons to catch up with centuries of technological progress in a few short years.  Unfortunately for the march of progress, Charles Augustin died aged a mere 32 from what we now believe to be anaphylatic shock but what at the time was thought to be a deliberate poisoning by the Carthaginians, jealous of Charles Augustin's work.

Nevertheless, it is Charles Augustin's work that gave the Britons the windmill, the waterwheel and the crossbow, and with these inventions we see the transition of the Britons from the Classical to the British Medieval Era.


The extent of the Briton-influenced world in 170BCE.  Indo-Africa is fairly well-known, whilst the Zulu homeland is still being explored.

[Sheb]

Great read, as always.

[Haspen]

Oh dear, Shaka as a neighbour.

Here's hoping you don't end like a certain Reich

[Iituem]

Great read, as always.

Thank you!  Compliments keep me going, so it's always nice to get acclaim.

Oh dear, Shaka as a neighbour.

Here's hoping you don't end like a certain Reich

Shaka is across the sea, fortunately, so until they develop Optics they have to make the 20 turn round trip along the coastline to invade us.  By that time, I hope to have a decent fleet up and running.  Of course, they also have Horseback Riding so that's a bastard, but that's something I can do with either 9 turns of research or the Ordovici.  Said spy clan (ninjas?) are on their way to Carthage at the moment, though.  I want to map out Hannibal's terrain a bit more.

[LordBrassroast]

PTW. I like the history textbook style 

[Iituem]

Decision time, folks!  The Indians have requested our aid against the Carthaginians.  Carthage hates us, the Indians love us (despite our difference in religion) and eventually we will probably have to kill Carthage anyway.

On the other hand, siding with India might annoy Sumer (Gilgamesh is Asoka's enemy, but they are not at war) and we are not prepared for a war.  Carthage, despite its historical counterpart, is largely inland and doesn't have any ports on the eastern coast, from which they could attack us, but we also have 1 galley to our name (2 in a couple of turns).  We would need to produce soldiers and whilst we have a distinct tech advantage (Machinery = Crossbows) war will divert production away from our peacetime infrastructure and use up valuable turn advantage.

On the third hand, the Carthaginians hold Delhi, which is the holy city to two major religions and a well-developed port.  Taking it would screw over our allies, but this is really about us versus Carthage.

What do you say?  Shall we join the war?

[LordBrassroast]

 
That is my answer.

[Sheb]

There is an India left? I think you should go for it if you're confident you're not going to get backstabbed by the Ethiopian.