Hello and welcome to Keltoi Total War, a minimod for Rome Total War focused on improving the representation of the Celtic factions, including historical accuracy and gameplay, while remaining true to the feel of the original game.

EDIT: Please see this thread for details of the latest release!

The biggest change is the addition of the Cisalpine Gauls faction!



Here is their starting position. As you can see they began life as the Brutii Romans... but with a few tweaks, lots of Gaul-cloning, and lots of research into Cisalpine Gaulish and Lepontic names and towns, they are entirely brand new. They serve the important strategic purpose of holding up Roman expansion without immediately entailing war with the whole of Gaul, which in this mod would be far too powerful a force. Their unit roster is almost the same as the Gauls, except that they don't have foresters, and they do have heavy chariots.

The Romans have been united, and their family tree has been redesigned to roughly reflect third-century power politics. The Claudii and the Fabii were dominating forces in Roman foreign policy in the third century: the Claudii favoured southward expansion, and the Fabii northward, and this is reflected in where their family members are situated. There is also a Cornelius (Scipio...?) or two hiding around there somewhere. The slight restructuring of the Italian provinces serves in part to rebalance Roman activity towards barbarian Europe (plus Carthage) instead of Greece, which historically only got involved because Macedon allied with Carthage, and there was almost no annexation until the mid-second century. The main thing is for gameplay however - I don't want the Cisalpines getting steamrolled too fast.

Please note the Cisalpine Gallic faction symbol here is just for indicative purposes and is not included in the modpack (it's borrowed off the Arverni from Europa Barbarorum, which you can re-add yourself if you so desire using this guide).



This mod started out focused on Britain, which as you can see has been entirely reworked. The coastline is based on some great work by Philadelphos from Mundus Magnus/Rome Total History, but the settlement locations are mainly aimed to reflect major Middle Iron Age British sites. You can also see the British player starts out in control of only one province, intended to represent the divided nature of the tribes.

The Britons, like the Gauls, have also received an entirely new selection of names, derived from historiography, coins and inscriptions. In the original game, many of the British and Gallic names, such as Cynfawr and Aneirin, were actually medieval Welsh names, which are not appropriate for the period. Some other factions have also received a few changes to their available names as well.

Their unit roster is not much changed, except for the addition of a light/missile cavalry unit and naked fanatics, slightly buffed slingers, basic archers, and the loss of their woad units (mainly because I don't like them). British units should technically have blue (painted) skin, not tattoos etc - some people might find that odd however...


More campaign screenshots:

Gaul

North Sea/Baltic

Iberia

North Africa and improved Iberian infantry


You will also notice from the campaign map that there have been a few alterations to the map elsewhere: the biggest changes are probably the three unconquerable wasteland regions (the Libyan Desert, the Arabian Desert, and nomadic Sarmatia), and the tighter arrangement of the North African provinces. I have also tried to rearrange the province distributions to favour the Seleucids (which has partially worked), to make it more historical and to try and offer a bit of a change to the barbarian who ever makes it over there.

There are also three new barbarian buildings: Sacrificial Grove, a barbarian execution square which allows recruitment of druids; Crop Rotation, tier 3 farms (with extra happiness bonuses); and Tin Emporium, a (mainly decorative) special building for the tin resource with some historical tidbits. Chariots (for the Britons and Cisalpines) are now recruitable from stables once a smithy is present, rather than a smithy on its own; and the Celtiberians can recruit Balearic slingers from an Archery Range, but only in Iberian provinces.

List of altered faction pantheons
Britons: Bretannos (law), Nodens (battle/forge), Sulis (healing), Lugus (trade)
Celtiberians: Candamius (law), Semnocosus (war), Lugus (trade)
Cisalpine Gauls: Belenos (law), Gobannos (forge), Lugus (trade)
Gauls: Esus (law), Teutatis (battleforge), Maponos (hunting), Lugus (trade)
Rome: Jupiter (law), Minerva (war), Vesta (healing), Neptune (naval)

Settlements of Britain
- Settlement: Caturendis
- Province: Belerion
"Catu-rendis" means "battle-hilltop", and is an imagined Ancient British name for St Catherine's Hill hillfort near Winchester, Hampshire. The name of the fort is not attested. I choose this settlement because it offers a good candidate for the main centre of the Hampshire tribe before the Belgae conquered it - the later Belgic capital (Winchester) was right next to it. When it grows into a city, it could be renamed Venta. The regional port is at Hengistbury Head, probably Britain's most important port for most of the later Iron Age. Belerion is Britain's oldest recorded place-name and was the name for Cornwall, which is also included in this province in order to keep the number of provinces in Britain roughly in balance with its population proportionate to Gaul.
- Settlement: Branodunon
- Province: Cantion
"Brano-dunon" means "raven-settlement", and is an attested Brittonic place-name. Here it represents the hillfort of Ravensburgh, Hertfordshire, not too far from later Verulamium, to which it could be renamed when it becomes a city. Cantion is synonymous with Kent, but here refers to a larger SE region as well. The regional port is at Dover.
- Settlement: Mona
- Province: Combrogia
The island of Mona (modern Welsh Ynys Môn, Brittonic Enisti Mona) was the heart of Iron Age Wales, if not of the druids of all of Britain. Even in the Middle Ages it was still the final refuge and stronghold of the kings of Gwynedd. The settlement can be reached by armies overland but there are no roads. "Combrogia" would be the old form of "Cymru", the Welsh name for Wales, if it had existed at the time; it may well only date from much later. The regional port is at Maridunon (Carmarthen), which was an important port.
- Settlement: Vindobriga
- Province: Voclia
"Voclia" means "north"; in medieval Wales, this region was remembered longingly as the Hen Ogledd, the "Old North". Vindobriga represents the hillfort of Roulston Scar; again the name is imaginative, it means "white mount", referred to in a nearby place-name. The port is at Petuaria, the probable centre of the Parisii tribe of the Arras culture. What is present on the map of Caledonia has been included in this province.

The mod is available for download here.

It is designed to use with the mod-switch command line, which you can learn how to use here.

[This message has been edited by Edorix (edited 01-14-2018 @ 12:47 PM).]