                              DESIGNER'S NOTES

           The Unification of Scotland, a Scenario for Warlords ][

                    Created by: Will Michael, CIS 72623,630


BACKGROUND:
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        Numerous cairns, brochs, standing stones, and burial chambers
dot what is now modern Scotland.  These are reminders of the earliest 
inhabitants, who came from Ireland and continental Europe before 3000 B.C.  
In 82 A.D. the Roman armies of Agricola pushed into the central lowlands 
and southern highlands.  The Romans abandoned hope of conquering the 
barbarians they called the "Picts", and retired behind Hadrian's Wall.  In 
the year 409 A.D., Rome was sacked by the Goths and from then onwards, the 
Roman presence was removed from Britain.  The period from about 400 A.D. to 
1000 A.D. saw five peoples vying for control.  Each leader wanted to be 
proclaimed Ard-righ, or High King.


THE PLAYERS:
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PICTS:      
        Pictland occupied the land north of the river Forth, and was 
divided into six sub-kingdoms: Fortriu Fib, Circinn, Athflota, Druimalban, 
Fidach and Cait.  Little is known of the Picts.  Their language and culture 
is lost.  Only remnants of hill-forts, symbol-stones and buried hoards offer 
clues to their civilization.  Their abilities in battle can be attested to 
by the fact that they were never conquered.  Through a mingling of blood
by marriage, the Pictish throne was inherited by a Dalriadic Scot king and 
the two nations were joined thereafter.  

SCOTS:
        It is said that the word "Scot" is a corruption of the Irish word 
for raider.  The Scots crossed the Inner Hebrides in the sixth century from 
what is now County Antrim in Ireland to Argyll in western Scotland.  There 
they founded the Kingdom of Dalriada, which they named after their homeland 
in Ireland.  As mentioned above, the Scots king Kenneth MacAlpin became the 
undisputed king of both Dalriada and of the Picts through line of 
succession.  He was declared Ard-righ Albainn or High King of Alban, the 
land of the Picts ans Scots.

BRITONS:
        By the sixth century the abandoned Romano-British people formed the 
Kingdom of Strathclyde stretching from Wales in the south to the Clyde 
River in the north.  Their hill-towns and palisaded manors were defended 
by heavy cavalry and stout kings, one of whom may have been the legendary 
Arthur.

ANGLES:
        The Angles and Saxons began raiding Britain as soon as the Romans 
left.  The Kingdom of Northumbria was formed when the Angles pushed 
northwards from York to the Firth of Forth and forcibly combined two  
originally separate states, Bernicia and Deira.  Northumbria signifies
those that live north of the Humber River.

VIKINGS:
        Viking attacks on the coasts of Britain started in the eighth
century.  These Danes and Norwegians occupied Shetland and Orkney as well 
as part of the Scottish mainland.  They seized the western isles, 
established many settlements in Ireland and founded a kingdom on the Isle 
of Man.  From these bases they continued to harrass the mainland.


REFERENCE WORKS:
----------------

Bede. A History of the English Church and People. Harmondsworth, England: 
Penguin Books, 1976 (1955).

Blair, Peter Hunter. Roman Britain and Early England 55 B.C. - A.D. 871.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1966 (1963).

Laing, Lloyd and Laing, Jenny, The Picts and the Scots. London: Alan Sutton 
Publishing Ltd., 1994 (1993).

Prebble, John. The Lion of the North. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin
Books, 1973 (1971).

Ritchie, Anna. Picts. Edinburgh: HMSO, 1993 (1989).

Stanford, Quentin H. ed. Canadian Oxford World Atlas. Toronto: Oxford
University Press, 1992 (1957).


ETCETERA:
---------

        The Picts have facinated me for a long time.  They occupied most 
of what is now modern Scotland for many thousands of years, only to lose 
their identity in the turmoil of the dark ages.  Even Scotland itself is 
named after foreign invaders.  The situation in ninth century northern 
Britain was very fluid and, therefore, makes an interesting five way 
competition.  The dark ages are particularly suitable for the Warlords 
system with heroic deeds and the mixture of early Christian (Celtic and 
Roman) and pagan beliefs. 

        I have tried to balance the game by playtesting with computer
players.  This proves to be difficult as the computer player behaves
differently on the hidden map, open map and quick start games.  The road
network in the south was built by the Romans.  The one road in the north
was added for the sole purpose of making the Pictish computer player
explore and deploy to the east.  Many of the cities have modern names, but
I have used the original where possible.  Every city produces as least
Light Infantry as this would have been the most common troop type.  You
will have to make do with the "wee folk" in the beginning of the game until
you can recruit better units.

        As always, I would appreciate any comments good or bad. 


Will Michael
May 1995.

