Andau - 2000 years of history

[kwakelaar]

New update 16th of July -------------
We will follow the small European Nation of Andau form 60 BC until the year 2000.
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Hello everyone here at SC4D.
Let me just tell you a few things about myself. I am a Norwegian, and have been living in the Netherlands for the last 16 years. I am trained as an architect and a chef, currently working as a restaurant manager in a small catering company. This September I will be turning 40, but like anyone at that age still thinking I am not a day older than 30-ish something.
Simcity is combining a few of my interests like architecture, city planning and development and history. It is a game that seems to have almost limitless possibilities, and we all adapt the game to our own ideas.

This will be the start of a project that I have been wanting to do for quite some time. It will be a Mayors Diary of a small European country. We will be following this country from around 50 BC to present day, which means a little more than 2000 years of development. It is quite a daunting task, but one that I will be enjoying and I hope some of you as well.
The area that we will be looking at is roughly 90x90 km made out of something like a 100 Simcity regions. Lets just say that the project has been growing over the years, that is at least in my mind, now it is just getting this idea translated into Simcity.

Here is a map of Western Europe with the country marked in red.

It borders on Holland in the west, Germany in the north and east and Belgium in the south. But this situation and these borders are for now something in the very distant future.
When we start out just before the Romans enter this part of Western Europe, this area with its mixed population of Celtic and Germanic tribes has no clear political entities.
None of the aforementioned countries exist and there are no clear boundaries except for the geographical ones like rivers and mountains.

Gjermund/Kwakelaar

[Scarton]

Can't wait for the pics! This looks promising.

[Fabian93]

I already love this MD! 
That's a great idea, I love pictures from the past and that you will show us your country from 50B.C. till today.
I can't wait for it.

Fabian

[Glowbal]

Looks promising.
Are you going to start this CJ from the year 0, and work on till 2000? Or did I get that wrong?

Anyway, I hope to see some pictures very soon!  

Cheers!

[Albus of Garaway]

This looks fascinating!

Considering the amount of work you've already put into Andau, this promises to be a classic MD. I can't wait to watch the development!

-Jason

[WC_EEND]

You've made me curious, can't wait to see what happens next

[Nardo69]

So that's why I haven't seen you much lateley!  

Quite a good start to make every one curious!

Take care my friend!

Bernhard 

[CabraBuitre]

Sweet, I look forward to it!

[djvandrake]

Definitely looking forward to this.  Very interesting. 

[Tomas Neto]

Great job, nice start my friend!!!

[metarvo]

I can't wait to see more of this MD, but what I've seen already looks good, so that's a good sign.   

[kwakelaar]

Replies:

Thanks everyone for your comments and for dropping by just lurking. I will have to start with apologizing for the long break. My work got very busy, and I just did not have the time to continue. Hopefully I will be a little more organized with more regular updates for the future.

Citycapitalizer, well wait no more, the first picture is here.

Fabian, thanks a lot. I really hope you will not be disappointed.

Glowbal, you got that right, I am even starting at 60 BC and will finish eventually in the year 2000. I have chosen 60 BC because that is the beginning of recorded history for this part of the world

Jason that is going a bit fast, time is of course always a problem with these kind of things. I will try to keep the updates going a little bit more at a steady pace this time.

WC_EEND, thanks for stopping by here, and I hope I can keep you interested.

Bernhard, thanks, and I will enjoy having you visit in my MD for a change.

CabraBuitre, hello and it has been a long time since Istrina. I hope I will see you visit hier more and that you will find something interesting in this MD.

djvandrake, thanks a lot for stopping by.

Tomas Neto, hope you like what is coming up.

metarvo, thanks and I hope I will see more of your comments here.

Update 2
Beginning a new MD after the game has been around for such a long time, and so many excellent people have made their contribution to it, is quite scary. I am not at all an expert at anything related to Simcity. I have done a few things with gmax, the lot editor and Ilive reader, but have always had the guidance and help of people who understand these things a lot better than I do. The BSC has been invaluable in this, and as so many times before I would like to mention Barby with her endless patience with my efforts in anything related with modding. She has quite a few bat's dedicated to her name and this is not without reason.

Almost everything for this MD will be custom made, Maxis did not make a city simulator that would develop a city with any kind of historical accuracy,.....unfortunately.
So far I have been able to make a lot of the buildings that I will be using for let's say the first 1000 years of development, but still there are so many things that needs to be done.
If any of you reading this have an interest in European history and like the idea, please let me know. Maybe it is possible to work together to speed up the process, to share content or even to work on developing this MD or parallel MD's.

Now let's get back to the content of this MD.
The time is now 60 BC, in three years time Julius Caesar will come to this area with his Roman armies, but for the moment we have several loosely defined tribes all a mix of Celtic and Germanic people. There are no real towns to talk about, with the small exception of Hira and Boster. Both of these villages are former cult sites and towns of the Celt's who used to be the dominant group in these lands. Slowly though other tribes have come to settle here, in the beginning there was certainly conflict, but by this date that happened already several hundred years ago.
The Celt's actually had a higher level of organization and the towns were larger in those days, now the two sites remaining have less than 500 inhabitants.

First lets have a look at the map again, this time we are zooming in on the actual area that will feature in this MD. The main part is between the major Rivers the Rhine and the Meuse. There is also an area north of the Rhine along the Ems and the lower reaches of the river the Lippe. And before there are any comments of the accuracy of this map. This is fictional, this area does not look quite like this in real life.
In the south there are three rivers the Es, the Leine and the Selter. They are all running roughly from south to north starting somewhere in the Ardennes.
There are no real mountains within this map, the hilly ranges also running south to north are all the start of the Ardennes and the Eiffel heights reaching something like 700 meters further south in Belgium and Germany. The St Juris which is the heighest point within this area is just below 500 meters. To the north the hills get lower and north of the Rhine there are no hills higher than 200 meters. The Rhine which for most of its course through Germany is running from the south to the north is turning here to the west, entering the large river delta in present day Netherlands. This delta is made up of not only the Rhine but also the Meuse and the Scheldt.



Hira is the main village of the Andicans. Its roots go back to the Celtic period when it was the centre for a larger area controlled by the people living here. There is a trade route crossing the Rhine just north of Hira, going to Boster further north in the Ems valley.

For this update I will only show you an overview of the small village of Hira which is overlooked by a hill fortress. The town used to be on the hill in the Celtic period, but these days there is only a shrine dedicated to the Goddess Hira with roots back in history and there are some warehouse buildings. The fortress is only ever used when the village is under threat. Then everyone will be seeking refuge within its walls together with all their live-stock and other belongings they manage to drag with them up the hill.



In the next update we will take a closer look at both the village and the fortress. There are still some small things I need to make in the BAT before it is all ready.

[adroman]

Looking vvveeerrryyy nice there, kwakelaar...

The history you are supplimenting with is fascinating, the Maps are also a great edition!

Keep it up 

Havva good one,
Adrian

[Tomas Neto]

Wowww my friend!!! Awesome update, really great work!!! 

[DebussyMan]

Great start for a widely anticipated MD. Can hardly wait to see how this progresses 

[WC_EEND]

can't wait for a more close up shot

[Bobbi]

It looks beautiful and I can't wait more pictures.

[Fabian93]

WOW - you only posted 1 picture, but I am already amazed
This is definitively going to be a fantastic MD.
Can not wait to see more of it !

I already thought that this MD has been abandoned by you, but I'm happy to see it back again .

Fabian

[Battlecat]

Nice start here!  Love the map, and that first town looks amazing!  Looking forward to seeing what you've got coming here!

[graesloek]

Nice work! I'm excited to see the next updates!