we were proud of the fact we had all these obscure languages for the villagers. We had to choose between like 20 different extant Mayan languages for the Mayans, but at least the Aztecs all spoke Nahuatl.
@@SandyofCthulhu not sure, on the wikia of age of empires it just says that not all phrases make sense of the aztec people to speak during the time of the game
@@dontspikemydrink9382 we had a modern Nahuatl guy so who knows what changes happened since 1500 in the language. Probably lots of Spanish loan words at a minimum.
@@joshuagabrielcatindig7607 I don't know that guy, i speak in general. Luckly there are a lot of youtubers like spirit that are willing to make quality content, even talking about normal things like videogames.
The Classical Celts, particularly in modern day France and Germany, practiced a type of agriculture know as slash and burn, whereby they would farm all the timber possible from an area and then set the stumps on fire. Aparte from serving to swiftly clear vast swathes of forests, the ash from the fires would fertilize the soil for a while. Once the soil was used up, they'd relocate elsewhere (but they were not nomadic!). That's where the lumberjack bonus comes from. Also, bear in mind that originally AOE2 was thought of as a direct continuation to 1, so at launch it made sense to have many post-Roman cultures. Later expansions ventured onto the later Middle Ages for that reason; while Goths inhabited both Spain and Italy for a while, they were quite far from the folks we'd come to know as Spanish or Italians. Edit: concerning the siege bonus, I would argue it's based on the famous siege of Alesia, whereby the Celts had to besiege a Roman army under Caesar, which had surrounded itself while besieging the city.
Man, I'm glad you went through the trouble of covering the different meanings of 'Celt' and the confusion around it. It gets a bit whackier though, as even the term "Britons" is normally used to describe the original Celtic peoples of Britain, but in-game they are a separate civ from the Celts based mostly on the English and Welsh, with the Welsh also being one of the Celtic nations. BTW Julius Caesar's account of the British Celts dying their bodies blue has been doubted, since later Roman sources don't make mention of it at all. Julius Caesar also claimed that the British Celts did not grow crops, wore animal skins, and some other clearly false claims that probably were construed for propagandistic reasons. Probably the woad raider isn't accurate for any time period at all, and meant as a nod to Braveheart (which was a relatively recent movie at the time) rather than to the Roman-era Celts. With the civ being basically just the Gaels as even the Welsh seem to have been lumped into the Britons instead.
I don't think the term Britons was commonly used to refer to pre-anglosaxon inhabitants of the British isles by the medieval period? It is strange that the game uses the term Britons to refer to the Kingdom of England (consisting of England, Wales, Cornwall and bits of France)
@@Septimus_ii In modern academic usage "Britons" usually refers to the Brittonic branch of the Insular Celtic languages/cultures that contains the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons (Brittany), the other branch being Goidelic that contains Scottish and Irish. But you're right, that's modern academic usage and not how those names would have been used in the medieval period itself, but the same could be said of the game's usage of Celts as that isn't how anyone really referred to the Scottish or Irish at that point. The game in general has really inconsistent civilization names. Some are modern (Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Spanish etc), whereas others are medieval (Teutons, Franks, Saracens etc, being medieval terms for the Germans, French and Arabs respectively)
Yo spirit, about lumberjacks at around 8:30 This may be a reference to Ireland. It's mostly bog now, but before Celtic settlers came it was mostly covered in forests, then when there came settlements the new Irish Celts basically cut down most of the forests on the island. I've lived for 8 years in Ireland and this is a particularly talked about topic in History class when I went to school there.
Quick google search for gallowglass and find out that it is Norse-Gaelic unit. Norse is like Vikings in my opinion, and there are many units in Aoe2 for this civilization. Viking unique units: Berserker, Throwing axeman, Huskarls, and Jarls.
Imagine if the Woad Raider was available in the Dark Age, as a slightly buffed Militia, and able to train in the Barracks (like Eagle Scouts). But they disappear in the Feudal Age, and there’s a different unique light infantry from the Castle (akin to what SotL suggests). Would have been cool!
Good stuff, Sprite. Being the tutorial campaign, its missions are among the most nostalgic for me. I enjoyed the drone footage of presumably Scotland. I've always liked the shirtless lads, despite how jarring they looked next to my pikemen and paladins. Funny thing: the campaign is all about the Scots, and if there's one piece of dress folk anywhere associate with them it's the kilt. Yet, despite basing the Celts on Scottish history more than anything, according to your research, their unique unit is more evocative of a Gaul than of a Scotsman. 2:54 Instantly reminded of King of Dragon Pass. I don't think it's ever specified in the game, but I always got a solid Celtic vibe to it. It features the colourfully dressed, trimmed and adorned Celts of historical paintings and drawings. Or at least, I think they're Celtic -- the game is set in a fictional place of fantasy. Something that stood out and stuck with me was the resource management you conduct for your clan, comprising sheep, pigs, cattle and treasure, in ascending order of value. You occasionally slaughter sheep, you save pigs for festivities and bad harvests and you rarely slaughter cattle. Amusing to hear it referenced here with historical basis. It's a nice delve into a low fantasy depiction of what I reckon is Celtic culture and mythology. The game's a mix of genres, mainly management and with role-playing through events with choices. The goal is to develop your clan, unite with other clans to form a tribe and eventually become king or queen. Check it out on GOG.
A few thoughts: 'Plaid' (in this case pronounced as 'Played') historically refers to either a blanket ('Day Plaid') or a long garment that uses a lot of fabric ('Great Plaid', or 'Great Kilt'), which was worn by shepherds, who would use them as bedding to sleep when they were out on jouneys with their herds. The game was originally going to be from the fall of the roman empire to the medieval era, so the woad raider makes a bit of sense, although they would still be anachronistic unless they were just an early game unit. As stated in the video, many of the Celt's historical sieges were recapturing Scottish castles, and so 'Furor Celtica' may be intended as them indignantly recapturing what they consider theirs, with the additional hp possibly being because they would better know where to place siege weapons to attack their own castles without being at as much risk (a damage increase would also make sense, but they already have that in their increased attack speed), but that's probably just me reading too much into it. I always like these civ vs history videos, by the way. I hope you make more.
I think one or more video later, people will start to fight each other. It is like "no, our nation have the best cavalries in the history, our army beat your retard herd, you fucking idiot..." something.
AOEII, Braveheart and Gladiator are the three reasons I became a history teacher. I told one of my professors at college that one time and he said "That's not even the first time I've heard that exact statement." This vid is so right up my alley it's scary.
That is Devin castle from modern Slovakia at 4:15-4:30! Was there in 2019 on my vacation castles trip. At first I was kind of surprised to see the Danube and the Moravian castle while talking about the Celts in Scotland, but then I remembered that this place is older than it looks now, and it is ok for ancient Celts. Thanks for the kind of Easter egg!
It would've been really nice if the devs of Definitive Edition changed the model of units according to their region/culture, for example, keeping the european civs with the current swordman line, but giving regional equivalents to african, asian, american and eastern-european civs. It's really strange seeing a late medieval swordman in full plate fighting alongside jaguar warriors.
That'd be too confusing for the competitive players, though I think they could get away with doing that to the monks, don't know why they didn't, the material are all there.
@@T2266 that's why I suggested different visuals for groups of civs, with 6 different looks for the swordman line, for example, that wouldnt be too hard to identify during battle and would reasonably accurate. Also silhoutte plays a big role in identifying units, so they could keep a somewhat similar silhoutte for those units. I think it would work.
From a historical and visual perspective, this would have been amazing. But from a gameplay perspective, very complicated. You already need to know all the units on sight, and all the unique units. So adding in several variations off all the basic units, you might not be able to see what you're facing at a glance.
@@AntonioZL i agree. reminds me of star wars galactic battlegrounds where the base units look very different but you know what they are because what else would it be
In keeping with the original Age of Kings idea of "Celts = basically Scottish", I think Schiltrons could've been an interesting alternative unique unit. They'd function as "Kamayuks before they were cool": A Pikeman with 1 range that, when massed-up and tightly-grouped, obliterates other melee units (particularly cavalry), while itself losing to basically any ranged unit -- a nice reflection of how Schiltrons were historically. However, to preserve the Celts' identity as raiders, Gallowglasses definitely would've been the better choice as a unique unit over the more generic and misidentified Woad Raiders.
Two UU's per civ has been already gone through with the Flaming Camels so id fully support Gallowglass being Kamayukks with extra speed but less pierce armor and Champion's damage but only a small anti-cav bonus.
glad to know that you do your homework properly and double check with experts on the topic! a truly enjoyable series, Spirit. i suggest you look into civilizations that are outside of the European area. Why do the Burmese have a bonus attack on their infantry, what is the historic background for that?
I think Cavalry Archers represent something closer to in-game Genitours for West European and other civs for whom Asiatic looking Cavalry Archers don't take sense. The Celtic skirmisher class cavalry that fought as well as served as auxillaries for the Romans were known to execute something like 'Parthian Tactics' but with javelins instead of bow & arrows.
Excellent. As a fan of yours and an aoe2 player for 20+ years and Scot for 30+, who lives in view of Stirling Castle and the Old Bridge, I can say you did a good job. I always feel the siege strength is a nod to Scots' notable contribution to technological advancements throughout the ages (TV, Phones, Tarmac and Penicillin for starters), as well as to the actual siege strength they had with the cannons, like Mons Meg, which is in Edinburgh Castle. It was the original bombard cannon really and they should have this instead of Paladin in my view! There has always been an inherent thirst for knowledge - something sharpened by a mix of the enlightenment, long winters and subsequent time indoors fused in some part with the protestant work ethic (education for all with John Knox etc.) Also, their relative naval strength might be a nod to the islands, as you mention, but also the fact that they later built most of the British Empire's ships. My own grandpa was a foreman and then manager in one of the biggest Clyde shipbuilders, Fairfields. Interestingly, when my Gran died (on one of the islands) I found a letter of my Grandpa's she had stored away during WWII giving him safe passage on a secret mission to the Far East during his service with the Merchant Navy. A lot of Scots were/are comfortable at Sea. Anyway - good job from a proud Scot. Alba gu brath
Fantastic analysis there - from a Scot 😁 I've always thought the sheep stealing aspect of the civ might be a reference to Rob Roy MacGregor - a famous Jacobite cattle thief and outlaw.
I'm enjoying this series. It's informative as to who you're playing in the game and teaches a bit about the histories of various peoples and nations, which I think the game was supposed to partly do.
Like if you're from Scotland and ken AOE! :D My wife and I are from celtic decent and live in Caithness in the highlands of Scotland. I'm really glad you've included many points of celtic history and how it compares to the Celts tech tree. We see signs of ancient stonework everywhere. You're points are totally spot on. 👍
11:15 nice, calm, presumably celtic music in the background, Menwhile in the video: destruction by hundreds of stones being fired by a big bunch of SO's, a crumbling italian castle, purple pikes and vills being awfuly slaughtered
The celts living in Scotland were so known for their woad body painting the romans called them Picti, or 'painted ones', which shares a root with the word picture today
You just have to appreciate the time and effort spirit puts into his research in order to bring us all 11minutes of viewing joy. And not just wikipedia, no no, spirit reaches out to experts. cudos my man!
I always thought the Woad Raider belonged more in an Asterix and Obelisk cartoon than in a medieval Scottish army and now you confirmed it. The paladin was weird too but certainly fits the famous Gallic cavalry of the Roman period. It's funny how much of the Celts could easily fit better into AoE1 rather than AoE2 ^^
I think you missed out on the use of the hobelar and having hussars. I think that would be a nice reference as well. Something else I would have like to have seen being discussed is the monk tech tree. The irish converted all of north western europe, yet their monks are below average. Anyways nice vid.
Why would cutting trees be a reference to druidism? Something like the inca bonus where tree resources are consumed slowed would fit better if that's the intent
Robert Bruce, the King who actually won the War of Independence was FANTASTIC at sieges. He was exceptional at picking off English castles with small numbers of men.
This was great. Please do a blacksmith deep dive. Particularly interested in armor upgrades and especially around timing and effect on early-mid game strategy (e.g. +2 knights)
I would love to see a video on a fishing boom on maps with near water and fish. Very interested in the build order and math behind it especially in your style!
concerning the sheep bonus and, as Spirit mentioned, the celts adopded money late. Modern english word "fee" is derived from a old english word feoh wich meant livestock. As they used animals as a "currency", money and livestock was the same. The modern German word "Vieh" (pronounced like fee) btw. means also Livestock.
Could the wood cutting bonus have something to do maybe with the fact that Scotland and Ireland have nearly no forests remaining due to human activity and climate? This is probably not a good reason, but it might rank somewhere near on the probability scale to the patterns on lumberjacks' shirts (though this explanation is of course more enjoyable). Anyway, great work Spirit!
@@krankarvolund7771 I agree, kind of. But it is a lot worse in Scotland/Ireland than say in France or Germany. Anyway, it was just me speculating wildly ;)
Dear Mr. Law, I found it very interesting of your history vs aoe2 serie. I'm looking foward to other video as well and can help in some certain knowlegde about eastern and southeast asian civs, specifically Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese. Please respond if you have any interest in it.
Dear Mr. Law, I found it very interesting of your hisotry vs aoe2 serie. I'm looking foward to other video as well and can help in some certain knowlegde about eastern and southeast asian civs, specifically Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese. Please respond if you have any interest in it.
It would be so cool if we got a proper celts campaign as the next expansion. I know we have the tutorial campaign but to add more depth and challenge to the scenario will be an awesome experience to add to AoE2. I’m surprised AoE2 is still going strong to this day as it’s without a doubt an absolute classic of a game.
Another fun video concept would be to adapt civs that are not yet in the game and see how they could be played in AoE. Theories about their uniques units, techs and specific upgrades and wonder. Switzerland, Tibet, etc...
3:11 It's funny you bring this up because AoE4 is supposed to be very different playstyle according to developers. I wonder if that's when they'll implement this "Raider" civs
Hey Spirit do a video about strongest unique unit. Make a round robin tournament of units, one vs one where every civ's unique unit fight every other and make a comparision table of sorts.
Scots were actually pretty famed for their archers. The French maintained a regiment known as the Scots Guard, Scottish mercenary archers. The "English" longbow was actually a Welsh (so "Celt" in AoE2 terms) invention too, which the English adopted, first as mercenaries and eventually as part of their standing army. Oh and William Wallace is depicted with a claymore sword, which is like if a movie about Napoleon would feature him shooting a modern assault rifle.
Excellent video. I cannot speak for Scotland, but for Ireland the lumberjacks working 15% faster is very apt, as Ireland is one of the most deforested countries in Europe and has been since before the middle ages. Any last parcels of native deciduous forest were chopped to build the English navy... but the bulk of the deforestation was by Celtic axes if not by the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Ireland. Thank you, incidentally, for allowing it to be known that nobody in Ireland calls the Irish language "Gaelic" as Americans and others so often do. Now in Scotland however there is a similar language which I believe can be correctly called "Scots Gaelic". I love the words in AOE, I can understand more than half of them as they are the same in modern Irish.
In terms of the lumber bonus, Ireland in the medieval period was heavily forested- it was a major exporter of oak to England for centuries. In fact, a lot of the royal navy was built of Irish oak! Maybe this is why they gave the Celts a lumber bonus?
I’m glad you mentioned about tartans being specific to clans as being a dubious claim, because it is absolute bogus. When one of the English Georges (can’t remember which) made a PR trip to Scotland he sent a decree that all Scots should wear their family tartan, which of course didn’t actually exist. As a result all the Scots who paid any heed to an English (German) king went to their local tailor and just picked a colour scheme that they liked and decided that was their ancestral tartan. Two families both named Cambell living in the same area can have completely different tartans despite both being from the same ancient clan. What you mentioned about colours being more about what was regionally available is more accurate, although yellow was quite unpopular in the middle-ages. I’m a Turnbull myself so our colours would have been whatever helped us camouflage ourselves well enough to rustle someone else’s sheep without being noticed. The sheep stealing bonus isn’t just based on the Irish, my ancestors added a fair amount of historical support as well.
I can't believe you didn't use the battering ram scene in Braveheart for this video about Celt's superior siege in AoE! The Celt's sheep stealing bonus works well to counter-balance the Britons faster sheep harvesting bonus, as Medieval England was highly based upon sheep farming. It's worth noting that the English longbow actually came from the Welsh, who are of course Celtic people! I also guess that the Sea King's in the Hebrides were an inspiration for Game of Thrones too.
I am Swiss and I am Celt as well. I would have give the Celts the last armor for cavalry but not the paladin because Scots and Irish had a good light cavalry.
I think same thing should applies for britons because as far as I know, they also have good light cavalries. Goths also have cavalry nation in the history but in the game they totally neglected.
I recently read on the wiki that sappers lets villagers chop trees in a single chop. I'm wondering how much that impacts wood gathering rate (it won't be much).
we were proud of the fact we had all these obscure languages for the villagers. We had to choose between like 20 different extant Mayan languages for the Mayans, but at least the Aztecs all spoke Nahuatl.
Except the Aztecs speak the wrong language still
@@dontspikemydrink9382 we totally hired a Nahuatl guy. Did he prank us?
@@SandyofCthulhu not sure, on the wikia of age of empires it just says that not all phrases make sense of the aztec people to speak during the time of the game
@@dontspikemydrink9382 we had a modern Nahuatl guy so who knows what changes happened since 1500 in the language. Probably lots of Spanish loan words at a minimum.
@@SandyofCthulhu Yeah. I m glad the game turned out this way. Question though, why is everything so disapproportional in size
The Celts: based entirely on the primary historical document, Braveheart
XD
@Robert Rowe Pretty sure this comment is a joke! XD
North irland is part of Celts
@@曾志海-c4z 嘿嘿，我之前去过一个爱尔兰酒馆听Celtic Music，人家告诉我Irish is Celtic hhhhhh
"Historians from England will say I am a liar ..." Yes, yes they will.
The history memes are top tier
“We call these pants”
-Vercingetorix
“Thanks, I hate them”
-Julius Caesar
*Siegius theme intensifies*
What do you mean Alesia?! I don't even know where Alesia is! No one know where Alesia is!
@@DieJG heh, I get that reference lol.
Romans see pants: *Absolutely Barbaric*
Celts see no pants: *Absolutely Barbaric*
@@wu1ming9shi I didnt, could you explain?
Regular youtubers: i looked in wikipedia
Spirit consulting an expert: that's cute
Ghast also does that for his Fire Emblem Support Science series... consulting experts that is.
@@joshuagabrielcatindig7607 I don't know that guy, i speak in general. Luckly there are a lot of youtubers like spirit that are willing to make quality content, even talking about normal things like videogames.
@@fedemedina3129 Mmm. Just like the tagline for Mercedes-Benz: The best, or nothing.
@@joshuagabrielcatindig7607 you are damn right.
Fede Medina that’s how you learn, from real professionals, not just referring to Google university like most people do today.
The Classical Celts, particularly in modern day France and Germany, practiced a type of agriculture know as slash and burn, whereby they would farm all the timber possible from an area and then set the stumps on fire. Aparte from serving to swiftly clear vast swathes of forests, the ash from the fires would fertilize the soil for a while. Once the soil was used up, they'd relocate elsewhere (but they were not nomadic!). That's where the lumberjack bonus comes from.
Also, bear in mind that originally AOE2 was thought of as a direct continuation to 1, so at launch it made sense to have many post-Roman cultures. Later expansions ventured onto the later Middle Ages for that reason; while Goths inhabited both Spain and Italy for a while, they were quite far from the folks we'd come to know as Spanish or Italians.
Edit: concerning the siege bonus, I would argue it's based on the famous siege of Alesia, whereby the Celts had to besiege a Roman army under Caesar, which had surrounded itself while besieging the city.
Sure, but the celts can’t get the woad raiders until after the feudal age, which started in about 1000CE
Thanks, king
@@rainbowevil as Spirit pointed out, it's partly because they were thought of as a raider civilization.
Tree hp fact of the day: Granarys have over 14000 atack in the scenario editor and are classified as ships.
Edit: Do a video about tree hp.
I recall he did one time. something about villager attack and cutting speed
Man, I'm glad you went through the trouble of covering the different meanings of 'Celt' and the confusion around it.
It gets a bit whackier though, as even the term "Britons" is normally used to describe the original Celtic peoples of Britain, but in-game they are a separate civ from the Celts based mostly on the English and Welsh, with the Welsh also being one of the Celtic nations.
BTW Julius Caesar's account of the British Celts dying their bodies blue has been doubted, since later Roman sources don't make mention of it at all.
Julius Caesar also claimed that the British Celts did not grow crops, wore animal skins, and some other clearly false claims that probably were construed for propagandistic reasons.
Probably the woad raider isn't accurate for any time period at all, and meant as a nod to Braveheart (which was a relatively recent movie at the time) rather than to the Roman-era Celts.
With the civ being basically just the Gaels as even the Welsh seem to have been lumped into the Britons instead.
the in-game Britons are basically the English with a stolen name.
I don't think the term Britons was commonly used to refer to pre-anglosaxon inhabitants of the British isles by the medieval period? It is strange that the game uses the term Britons to refer to the Kingdom of England (consisting of England, Wales, Cornwall and bits of France)
It wasn't the Celts that dyed themselves, it was the more ancient Picts.
@@Septimus_ii I believe "Britons" was more commonly uesd to referre to the people of Brittany but I could be wrong.
@@Septimus_ii In modern academic usage "Britons" usually refers to the Brittonic branch of the Insular Celtic languages/cultures that contains the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons (Brittany), the other branch being Goidelic that contains Scottish and Irish.
But you're right, that's modern academic usage and not how those names would have been used in the medieval period itself, but the same could be said of the game's usage of Celts as that isn't how anyone really referred to the Scottish or Irish at that point.
The game in general has really inconsistent civilization names. Some are modern (Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Spanish etc), whereas others are medieval (Teutons, Franks, Saracens etc, being medieval terms for the Germans, French and Arabs respectively)
Me: sees title
Also me: FALKIRK FLASHBACKS INTENSIFY.
THE ENGLISH CASTLE IN FALKIRK IS NO MORE! THE ENGLISH PRETENSIONS IN SCOTLAND ARE SURELY AT AN END. THE FORCES OF WALLECE ARE TRIUMPHANT.
For an anachronistic and historically inaccurate battle, it was one of my favorite campaigns in AoE II.
9:57 the reason why my teacher in school was always confused why i knew so much about history, but got so wrong some times 11
Man this channel is so good, such a variety of content, there’s something for everyone, keep up the good work spirit!
Yo spirit, about lumberjacks at around 8:30
This may be a reference to Ireland. It's mostly bog now, but before Celtic settlers came it was mostly covered in forests, then when there came settlements the new Irish Celts basically cut down most of the forests on the island. I've lived for 8 years in Ireland and this is a particularly talked about topic in History class when I went to school there.
why do I get the feeling someone's going to make a mod that replaces the woad raider with a gallowglass now
They should
Or the long bow as It was a Welsh invention
gallowglasses = champions
@@wiseSYW oh.
Quick google search for gallowglass and find out that it is Norse-Gaelic unit. Norse is like Vikings in my opinion, and there are many units in Aoe2 for this civilization. Viking unique units: Berserker, Throwing axeman, Huskarls, and Jarls.
Imagine if the Woad Raider was available in the Dark Age, as a slightly buffed Militia, and able to train in the Barracks (like Eagle Scouts). But they disappear in the Feudal Age, and there’s a different unique light infantry from the Castle (akin to what SotL suggests). Would have been cool!
So you mean the units actually disappear when you reach castle age?
@@T2266 they can just upgrade into new units.
Is it historically accurate that Celts eat TC?
What?
@@satyakisil9711 it's a pro gamer meme, there is a pro gamer who said that when asked about why he loves picking Celt.
@@T2266 but what is TC?
@@satyakisil9711 Town Center.
@@T2266 okay.
Good stuff, Sprite. Being the tutorial campaign, its missions are among the most nostalgic for me. I enjoyed the drone footage of presumably Scotland. I've always liked the shirtless lads, despite how jarring they looked next to my pikemen and paladins. Funny thing: the campaign is all about the Scots, and if there's one piece of dress folk anywhere associate with them it's the kilt. Yet, despite basing the Celts on Scottish history more than anything, according to your research, their unique unit is more evocative of a Gaul than of a Scotsman.
2:54 Instantly reminded of King of Dragon Pass. I don't think it's ever specified in the game, but I always got a solid Celtic vibe to it. It features the colourfully dressed, trimmed and adorned Celts of historical paintings and drawings. Or at least, I think they're Celtic -- the game is set in a fictional place of fantasy.
Something that stood out and stuck with me was the resource management you conduct for your clan, comprising sheep, pigs, cattle and treasure, in ascending order of value.
You occasionally slaughter sheep, you save pigs for festivities and bad harvests and you rarely slaughter cattle. Amusing to hear it referenced here with historical basis.
It's a nice delve into a low fantasy depiction of what I reckon is Celtic culture and mythology. The game's a mix of genres, mainly management and with role-playing through events with choices. The goal is to develop your clan, unite with other clans to form a tribe and eventually become king or queen. Check it out on GOG.
A few thoughts:
'Plaid' (in this case pronounced as 'Played') historically refers to either a blanket ('Day Plaid') or a long garment that uses a lot of fabric ('Great Plaid', or 'Great Kilt'), which was worn by shepherds, who would use them as bedding to sleep when they were out on jouneys with their herds.
The game was originally going to be from the fall of the roman empire to the medieval era, so the woad raider makes a bit of sense, although they would still be anachronistic unless they were just an early game unit.
As stated in the video, many of the Celt's historical sieges were recapturing Scottish castles, and so 'Furor Celtica' may be intended as them indignantly recapturing what they consider theirs, with the additional hp possibly being because they would better know where to place siege weapons to attack their own castles without being at as much risk (a damage increase would also make sense, but they already have that in their increased attack speed), but that's probably just me reading too much into it.
I always like these civ vs history videos, by the way. I hope you make more.
I think one or more video later, people will start to fight each other. It is like "no, our nation have the best cavalries in the history, our army beat your retard herd, you fucking idiot..." something.
@@Asterix958 I can see that happening for the Chinese and Japanese videos! XD
Ah, another installment of my favorite series. Thanks Spirit!
AOEII, Braveheart and Gladiator are the three reasons I became a history teacher. I told one of my professors at college that one time and he said "That's not even the first time I've heard that exact statement." This vid is so right up my alley it's scary.
Fun fact: all those green hills and plains in scotland used to be forests, but the people destroyed it all for timber long ago
All those Halberdiers and Siege Rams don't come cheap.
Celts' lumberjacks do have 15% bonus.
This is true of all of the British isles.
that's not fun :(
That is Devin castle from modern Slovakia at 4:15-4:30! Was there in 2019 on my vacation castles trip. At first I was kind of surprised to see the Danube and the Moravian castle while talking about the Celts in Scotland, but then I remembered that this place is older than it looks now, and it is ok for ancient Celts. Thanks for the kind of Easter egg!
Ja som si to všimol tiež. A ja bývam 3km od Devína. Počkať, ĎALŠÍ SLOVAN?
It would've been really nice if the devs of Definitive Edition changed the model of units according to their region/culture, for example, keeping the european civs with the current swordman line, but giving regional equivalents to african, asian, american and eastern-european civs. It's really strange seeing a late medieval swordman in full plate fighting alongside jaguar warriors.
That'd be too confusing for the competitive players, though I think they could get away with doing that to the monks, don't know why they didn't, the material are all there.
@@T2266 that's why I suggested different visuals for groups of civs, with 6 different looks for the swordman line, for example, that wouldnt be too hard to identify during battle and would reasonably accurate. Also silhoutte plays a big role in identifying units, so they could keep a somewhat similar silhoutte for those units. I think it would work.
@@T2266 the monk is a good case, it's easy to identify one: they walk very slowly and carry a staff. You see a unit like that, you know it's a monk.
From a historical and visual perspective, this would have been amazing. But from a gameplay perspective, very complicated. You already need to know all the units on sight, and all the unique units. So adding in several variations off all the basic units, you might not be able to see what you're facing at a glance.
@@AntonioZL i agree. reminds me of star wars galactic battlegrounds where the base units look very different but you know what they are because what else would it be
Yo Spirit your content is some of the best on the internet, no joke. Keep it up my man.
In keeping with the original Age of Kings idea of "Celts = basically Scottish", I think Schiltrons could've been an interesting alternative unique unit. They'd function as "Kamayuks before they were cool": A Pikeman with 1 range that, when massed-up and tightly-grouped, obliterates other melee units (particularly cavalry), while itself losing to basically any ranged unit -- a nice reflection of how Schiltrons were historically.
However, to preserve the Celts' identity as raiders, Gallowglasses definitely would've been the better choice as a unique unit over the more generic and misidentified Woad Raiders.
Two UU's per civ has been already gone through with the Flaming Camels so id fully support Gallowglass being Kamayukks with extra speed but less pierce armor and Champion's damage but only a small anti-cav bonus.
Meanwhile the Britons are screaming, "Why the eff don't we get paladins?"
@@georgeprchal3924 because paladins was french - they was personal knights of Charlemagne
10:06 This liste of in-game sentences is what I needed to brighten my day; though I didn't know such a need.
Thank you so much SoT !
Link of the page?
@@elkinkongang9029 ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Celts
One has to scroll down to find the "in-game dialogue langage".
Love these historical videos man! Keep up the great work!
👁️👅👁️
Glad to see my hometown in your video, 4:15 - 4:30 the Devin castle in Bratislava :)
Wow! I noticed that too! Was there in 2019. Great place, Beautiful Danube!
glad to know that you do your homework properly and double check with experts on the topic! a truly enjoyable series, Spirit. i suggest you look into civilizations that are outside of the European area. Why do the Burmese have a bonus attack on their infantry, what is the historic background for that?
I'm sure he will get to them! There are a lot of civs to do! Haha
The AOE wiki claims it's a reference to certain Burmese martial arts like Aka and Bando.
1:02 "They make take our lives, but they'll never take our PAAANTS!" - William Wallace
amazing quality of the script SOTL! That was so very well written, thanks for awesome video
great video.
i would love an video about the different in-game dialog languages from the different civilisations.
Ahhh I searched for this not 4 weeks ago!! Excellent and timely sir Spirit of The Blackwater
I think Cavalry Archers represent something closer to in-game Genitours for West European and other civs for whom Asiatic looking Cavalry Archers don't take sense. The Celtic skirmisher class cavalry that fought as well as served as auxillaries for the Romans were known to execute something like 'Parthian Tactics' but with javelins instead of bow & arrows.
Absolutely love the depth and breadth of content here. Keep it up!
Excellent. As a fan of yours and an aoe2 player for 20+ years and Scot for 30+, who lives in view of Stirling Castle and the Old Bridge, I can say you did a good job.
I always feel the siege strength is a nod to Scots' notable contribution to technological advancements throughout the ages (TV, Phones, Tarmac and Penicillin for starters), as well as to the actual siege strength they had with the cannons, like Mons Meg, which is in Edinburgh Castle. It was the original bombard cannon really and they should have this instead of Paladin in my view!
There has always been an inherent thirst for knowledge - something sharpened by a mix of the enlightenment, long winters and subsequent time indoors fused in some part with the protestant work ethic (education for all with John Knox etc.)
Also, their relative naval strength might be a nod to the islands, as you mention, but also the fact that they later built most of the British Empire's ships. My own grandpa was a foreman and then manager in one of the biggest Clyde shipbuilders, Fairfields. Interestingly, when my Gran died (on one of the islands) I found a letter of my Grandpa's she had stored away during WWII giving him safe passage on a secret mission to the Far East during his service with the Merchant Navy. A lot of Scots were/are comfortable at Sea.
Anyway - good job from a proud Scot.
Alba gu brath
How good is this series, keep it up Spirit of La Hire
Spirit Of the Law is like Family to me now, its like im listening to his research and Im enjoying it! ♥
Lots of Love.
Please, please more of this type of video. Extremely informative and entertaining
You're such a gentle guy Spirit, I like that about you. Keep up the good work.
nice to hear your voice, it makes me relax and want to drink tea and just watch and listen to whatever you say :)
All questions has been answered about aoe2 celts.
Really great video. Guessing the developers approach. Thats spirit of the law.
Fantastic analysis there - from a Scot 😁
I've always thought the sheep stealing aspect of the civ might be a reference to Rob Roy MacGregor - a famous Jacobite cattle thief and outlaw.
I'm enjoying this series. It's informative as to who you're playing in the game and teaches a bit about the histories of various peoples and nations, which I think the game was supposed to partly do.
Like if you're from Scotland and ken AOE! :D
My wife and I are from celtic decent and live in Caithness in the highlands of Scotland. I'm really glad you've included many points of celtic history and how it compares to the Celts tech tree. We see signs of ancient stonework everywhere. You're points are totally spot on. 👍
You should do a video on the new civ icons and their meaning/relation to the actual civ they come from.
11:15 nice, calm, presumably celtic music in the background,
Menwhile in the video: destruction by hundreds of stones being fired by a big bunch of SO's, a crumbling italian castle, purple pikes and vills being awfuly slaughtered
Thank you sotl your soothing voice helps make my day
This video is really well made; Thank you!
Love seeing these VS History videos!
I love these videos! Such a great idea and so informative!
Gallowglass is what i would have made for the celts UU which would be similar to the raider or a Kern which would have been a fast skirmisher
I love your updated video introduction. :)
The celts living in Scotland were so known for their woad body painting the romans called them Picti, or 'painted ones', which shares a root with the word picture today
You just have to appreciate the time and effort spirit puts into his research in order to bring us all 11minutes of viewing joy. And not just wikipedia, no no, spirit reaches out to experts. cudos my man!
I always thought the Woad Raider belonged more in an Asterix and Obelisk cartoon than in a medieval Scottish army and now you confirmed it.
The paladin was weird too but certainly fits the famous Gallic cavalry of the Roman period. It's funny how much of the Celts could easily fit better into AoE1 rather than AoE2 ^^
I think you missed out on the use of the hobelar and having hussars. I think that would be a nice reference as well. Something else I would have like to have seen being discussed is the monk tech tree. The irish converted all of north western europe, yet their monks are below average. Anyways nice vid.
I always thought the faster lumberjacks was a nod to the druidic roots prior to christianization.
I thought maybe cuz they deforested the British isles so fast
Why would cutting trees be a reference to druidism? Something like the inca bonus where tree resources are consumed slowed would fit better if that's the intent
Ireland use to be heavily forested before many of the trees where cleared for wood
@@RainintheBrain Yeah, but that's true of most Europe. The growth of population is accompagnied by a deforesting in all Europe ^^
@@krankarvolund7771 The deforestation process was so massive it's noticable on a geologic scale.
i showed this to my grandfather (a Scottish inmigrant living in Chile) and he was so happy that people are taking time to understand this.
Robert Bruce, the King who actually won the War of Independence was FANTASTIC at sieges. He was exceptional at picking off English castles with small numbers of men.
I love these historic comparison videos!!! 💐
Keep making these!
This was great. Please do a blacksmith deep dive. Particularly interested in armor upgrades and especially around timing and effect on early-mid game strategy (e.g. +2 knights)
On the Stone work they did, the CD version originally had them with the stone bonus, but they changed it in either Conquerors, or HD.
Wow seriously? I don't remember that
I would love to see a video on a fishing boom on maps with near water and fish. Very interested in the build order and math behind it especially in your style!
I love your channel
This is your best serie imo
concerning the sheep bonus and, as Spirit mentioned, the celts adopded money late. Modern english word "fee" is derived from a old english word feoh wich meant livestock. As they used animals as a "currency", money and livestock was the same. The modern German word "Vieh" (pronounced like fee) btw. means also Livestock.
7:00 thats a very strange position to hold a crossbow in..
unless its made of that kind of wood.
Could the wood cutting bonus have something to do maybe with the fact that Scotland and Ireland have nearly no forests remaining due to human activity and climate? This is probably not a good reason, but it might rank somewhere near on the probability scale to the patterns on lumberjacks' shirts (though this explanation is of course more enjoyable). Anyway, great work Spirit!
Yeah, but that's a thing pretty much everywhere in Europe ^^
Except in low-density areas ;)
@@krankarvolund7771 I agree, kind of. But it is a lot worse in Scotland/Ireland than say in France or Germany. Anyway, it was just me speculating wildly ;)
The British empire exported timber from Ireland and Scotland to build their navy
I love them history videos! good work
Siege warfare was at the forefront of Gaelic warfare in Ireland in the 1500s so explains the siege bonus
Dear Mr. Law, I found it very interesting of your history vs aoe2 serie. I'm looking foward to other video as well and can help in some certain knowlegde about eastern and southeast asian civs, specifically Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese. Please respond if you have any interest in it.
Last time I was this early, Boudicca was still queen.
This name rings me a bell
fellow Civ player?^^
@@Jonathanizer Just your average Roman history enthusiast.
@@samukis272 Oh ok, i know her from "Sid Meiers Civilization", i thought i might not be the only one who likes AoE and Civ.
@@Jonathanizer well, as for aoe, you certainly are not alone with loving it. Also I'm pretty sure Boudicca is an Ai character in aoe2 as well
I like the intro a lot
Co se sakra sereš sem
Perdiendo el tiempo igual que bo aweonao
Really nice one m8!
Dear Mr. Law, I found it very interesting of your hisotry vs aoe2 serie. I'm looking foward to other video as well and can help in some certain knowlegde about eastern and southeast asian civs, specifically Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese. Please respond if you have any interest in it.
It would be so cool if we got a proper celts campaign as the next expansion. I know we have the tutorial campaign but to add more depth and challenge to the scenario will be an awesome experience to add to AoE2. I’m surprised AoE2 is still going strong to this day as it’s without a doubt an absolute classic of a game.
seriously, the combination of AOE2 and RTW2 footage is an apple to the eyes!
Another fun video concept would be to adapt civs that are not yet in the game and see how they could be played in AoE. Theories about their uniques units, techs and specific upgrades and wonder. Switzerland, Tibet, etc...
3:11 It's funny you bring this up because AoE4 is supposed to be very different playstyle according to developers. I wonder if that's when they'll implement this "Raider" civs
Another great one!
Blue Coffee made Celt Cav Archers to snipe MbL's king. So yeah, just passing.
Hey Spirit do a video about strongest unique unit. Make a round robin tournament of units, one vs one where every civ's unique unit fight every other and make a comparision table of sorts.
Scots were actually pretty famed for their archers. The French maintained a regiment known as the Scots Guard, Scottish mercenary archers. The "English" longbow was actually a Welsh (so "Celt" in AoE2 terms) invention too, which the English adopted, first as mercenaries and eventually as part of their standing army.
Oh and William Wallace is depicted with a claymore sword, which is like if a movie about Napoleon would feature him shooting a modern assault rifle.
So, there would be a chance to change the *Woad Rider* model for that of a *Gallowglass?*
Excellent video. I cannot speak for Scotland, but for Ireland the lumberjacks working 15% faster is very apt, as Ireland is one of the most deforested countries in Europe and has been since before the middle ages. Any last parcels of native deciduous forest were chopped to build the English navy... but the bulk of the deforestation was by Celtic axes if not by the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Ireland.
Thank you, incidentally, for allowing it to be known that nobody in Ireland calls the Irish language "Gaelic" as Americans and others so often do. Now in Scotland however there is a similar language which I believe can be correctly called "Scots Gaelic". I love the words in AOE, I can understand more than half of them as they are the same in modern Irish.
I fucking love this god damn videos. Keep them coming.
In terms of the lumber bonus, Ireland in the medieval period was heavily forested- it was a major exporter of oak to England for centuries. In fact, a lot of the royal navy was built of Irish oak!
Maybe this is why they gave the Celts a lumber bonus?
Hey SOTL, love your vids, could you please make a video comparing Cav Archers from DE and from AoC?
Thank you for all your consistent content!
I’m glad you mentioned about tartans being specific to clans as being a dubious claim, because it is absolute bogus. When one of the English Georges (can’t remember which) made a PR trip to Scotland he sent a decree that all Scots should wear their family tartan, which of course didn’t actually exist. As a result all the Scots who paid any heed to an English (German) king went to their local tailor and just picked a colour scheme that they liked and decided that was their ancestral tartan. Two families both named Cambell living in the same area can have completely different tartans despite both being from the same ancient clan. What you mentioned about colours being more about what was regionally available is more accurate, although yellow was quite unpopular in the middle-ages. I’m a Turnbull myself so our colours would have been whatever helped us camouflage ourselves well enough to rustle someone else’s sheep without being noticed. The sheep stealing bonus isn’t just based on the Irish, my ancestors added a fair amount of historical support as well.
As always... excellent work SOTL :)...also...What's the music at the end? How can I search that type of music? :D
I really hope you do a video on all the Civs eventually.
I can't believe you didn't use the battering ram scene in Braveheart for this video about Celt's superior siege in AoE! The Celt's sheep stealing bonus works well to counter-balance the Britons faster sheep harvesting bonus, as Medieval England was highly based upon sheep farming. It's worth noting that the English longbow actually came from the Welsh, who are of course Celtic people! I also guess that the Sea King's in the Hebrides were an inspiration for Game of Thrones too.
Celtic music is very amazing for an introvert like me.... takes me into alternate universe!
I am Swiss and I am Celt as well. I would have give the Celts the last armor for cavalry but not the paladin because Scots and Irish had a good light cavalry.
I think same thing should applies for britons because as far as I know, they also have good light cavalries. Goths also have cavalry nation in the history but in the game they totally neglected.
@@Asterix958 Britons had also a very good heavy cavalry. The most failed nations in the game are the Persians for me.
your description of the idea of raid nations sounds a LOT like something of the Age4 team :O
All this time I thought Celt's unique unit is "Wood raider" instead of Woad raider.
He has an axe specifically to cut wood
Dear Spirit, the castle you show at 4.17 is the Devín Castle near Bratislava. Not in Ireland or Scotland
I recently read on the wiki that sappers lets villagers chop trees in a single chop. I'm wondering how much that impacts wood gathering rate (it won't be much).
Somewhere long time ago a seer wrote:
When the Celts built their castles and Siegeshops
"Celts Eat TC u can ok"
Thanks for the Total War Rome 2 clips. I like it.