Wow the Celts sure are terrible. Their unique building is the dun, which replaces walls and gives all units produced in that city the Guerilla 1 upgrade. I guess it could be worse, like the German special factory which does literally nothing, but at least the Germans get a decent unique unit (the Panzer!). The Celts get a unique swordsman unit who’s only advantage over regular swordsmen is…a free Guerilla 1 upgrade.
Seriously? Why in the world does the Celtic unique unit get an upgrade that’s already automatically provided by the Celtic unique building? And it’s a terrible benefit to begin with. I have never actually given a unit the Guerilla promotion. What a ripoff!
Oh well, at least the leader traits are sweet. Charismatic and Aggressive. Now we’re talking! Free combat 1 promotions, and faster experience promotions make it much easier to get a promotion advantage over your enemies. In a city with two military instructors, West Point, and Heroic Epic, I’m cranking out an infantry every 1.5 turns with Combat FIVE (!) promotions. The world is watching in helpless horror as I come closer to researching the tech for tanks, which will come ready with City Raider 3 and bonus collateral damage.
This makes it almost worth all the time I wasted in the earlier stages of the game. I’m just surprised that a civ who’s bonuses are all at the beginning of the game (walls and swordmen) is actually much weaker pre-modern era, and much stronger later.
Spiritual means they get an early religion, cheap Temples and no delay changing Government.
Their other leader characteristic gives an upgrade to defending troops and cheap Walls and Castles.
Their special building is a Library upgrade - fine.
But the real star is their unit - Camel Archers. They need no resources, have a decent attack and move fast.
I like most of the Arab bonuses, but I’m not the kind of guy to sit behind a bunch of walls and win scientifically/philosophically/culturally. Some kind of warmongering trait is a must for me, because making war is where the fun is!
