Carthage

[Empirate]

Actually, Greek city states DID arrange for fights to be on flat terrain. Usually, the time and place of a battle was arranged beforehand through emissaries. Lucky you don't have to follow honorable "rules of engagement" like this in R:TW!

[Ludens]

Much of Greece is also broken terrain though. Did the Greeks mainly arrange fights on flat terrain, or actually fight on the rough terrain, using it to their advantage? I know they did so at Thermopylae, but what about when fighting other city-states?

I always wondered about that too, but the Greeks seemed to have restricted their mainly to flat terrain. Whether this was by arrangement or out of necessity I am not sure (in some cases it was by arrangement, but was it in all?). Anyway, since the Greeks were farmers I suppose the bits worth fighting for were flat anyway.

[KhaderKhan]

Just curious but I wonder whether Parthian tactics (e.g. 'Hit & Run' using mostly cavalry troops) might work for the Carthaginians? I mentioned this because in many ways they are similiar.

(Though Carthage's infantry at least is durable unlike Parthia's)

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Hit and run is always a valid approach with cavalry. Just remember that you do not have HA -- so LS, RS, etc. really do have to "hit" the opponent. Numidian Cav hirelings are great at hit-and-run; high speed and endurance, though no great range.

[GeneralHankerchief]

The one weakness of normal HAs is that they can usually be hit by normal archers. Now think of the Numidian Cavalry- the range is quite reduced. They'd be torn apart by any faction with archers, and I'd hate to see them against the Egyptian ranged units.

Carthage's strength is its troop variety. Construct armies based on the makeup of the enemy.

[cunobelinus]

I like using a mix of phalanxs (sacred band) ,Then some spanish mecenries and then some numdian and sacred band cavalry then some baleraic slingers and cretan archers when im in the greek area.

[Empirate]

The composition of Carthaginian armies can luckily be adapted to what your enemy has, as has been mentioned. I have been very successful using cavalry backed up by elephants against the Romans, Gauls and Iberians, always heavily employing Numidian Mercenary Cavalry to disrupt formations. Against the Greeks and Macedonians I field armies that match their makeup: Sacred Band Infantry, supported by Poeni Infantry. These can hold against Phalanx armies while cavalry rolls up the flanks and back, and they will not take excessive casualties against archers. Against Egypt (I'm looking forward to that war!) I will be relying much more on Armored War Elephants, with cavalry mainly in a support role. The Britons look very powerful, and I will avoid getting into a war with them if I can (too many fronts!), but if necessary, they will be getting a share of Phalanx units, combined with Elephants to take out their chariots.
The versatility of Carthaginian cavalry units (plus Numidian Javcav, of course), the option of recruiting Phalanx units, and on top of these your pachyderm joker, mean you can fight almost any kind of army the various R:TW factions can field. Slingers and Skirmishers have no place in my armies (not powerful enough against anything with armor or shields), and Iberian Infantry and Libyan Spearmen simply die too fast to be of any use. But even without these, you can have a strong infantry backbone if you want it, as long as you remember to get yourself some of the right mercenaries.
Of course, having access to the almighty elephant is key to Carthaginian survivability: I feel like nothing can really stand in my path whenever I lead elephants into battle. Without these, Carthaginian options would be much poorer. Elephants rule against any kind of enemy! Even if they have (fire-arrow-equipped...) archers, careful maneuvering of your main battle tanks means the enemy can't shoot them, but in trying, will forget to employ his archers against your other troops. Besides, Carthaginian cavalry can usually clear the field of archers before you engage with eles.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

The trouble with Carthage is surviving against the remorseless Romans long enough to build a steady cash flow and get developed cities to the level where you can get reasonable infantry.

You are at war almost immediately, you have the Scips in your face on Sicily and Thapsus, Bruti coming after Syracuse or Thapsus if the Scips are checked and Julii grabbing Caralis and posing a long-term threat to Spain.

Numidians and Spaniards may work for you readily, but their nations usually decide that you are going down so they jump in to get a slice of the pie. Gaul may jump in too, though that is less certain. Result: nobody to trade with and a poor cash-flow.

Without good cash flow, you end up trying to do too much with Iberians and Round Shields and one very busy dozen of elephants. Mercs might get you the anvil you need and some good shooters, but they're costly and you have money troubles quickly.

It is a tough balancing act. You have to fight romans without losing lots of troops -- but atritting an enemy in all encounters is the roman forte. <y advice, build stone walls quickly and put good slingers on them. Good sally work can reverse the attrition scale and buy you time.

If you can juggle things long enough, and manage not to lose both Caralis and Lillybaum, squeezing out a couple of acquisitions -- LepMag, Syracuse or Messana if you can, CarthNov if available -- you might turn the money corner and start getting real barracks and stables. THEN the advantage turns. Elephants are useful but not all-conquering, but if you put them into a mix of cavalry, spears, flankers, and shooters they add a devastating punch to the combined arms team.

Like the Selkies, the key is juggling things long enough to turn the corner.

[pianonator]

Haha - OK, I retract my previous comment on the phalanx's power over the maniple. The trick with phalanxes is to creat a formation that can't be flanked. That is - use the mighty elephants with Cav support on the flanks like anybody would, and deploy a long line of Poenis/Sacred Band with some reserves behind.

2 ways to deploy a good phalanx line if you have Poenis and a limited amount of Sacred- both theretical - haven't tried them much yet.

1) Put the Sacred Band in the center - this seems rather obvious.
2) Variate on the Hannibals' Crescent idea. Guard a weaker Poeni (Or even Libyan) center with sacred band on either side. The center will be pushed back, and then you can swallow them. Only do this if there is no danger of being flanked by enemy cav, or more enemy infantry, because this could/probably will break up your formation.

Had another mop-up battle with the Romans again. Same big army of 8 or so Poenis, with a SBCav, 2 RSCav, and 2 LSCav. And 2 units of Armoured Elephants. Same deal - charge downhill with a long line of phalanxes (because I don't really have any range and their archers were irking me). Took out the cav with LS and Elephants (Wow, Roman Cav really sucks when used by AI), and then just bowled them over with 2 charges laterally through the enemy line with Elephants and Long Shields. Unfortunately, my elephants ran amok after the work was done. I'm going to have to reevaluate my strategy. Probably, I should wait to charge w/ elephants until the entire line is engaged. That's OK - I have a reinforcing army of 4 AElephants from Carthage sailing for Brutii Greece. Mwahahaha.

[pianonator]

Can anybody tell me why my Onagers don't fire at anything when I'm under seige? They don't shoot at seige towers, battering rams, people - anything. The computer says they're in range, and that they are firing (there's a little bow-and-arrow icon on them) but they aren't actually shooting. Help?

[GeneralHankerchief]

There are a couple of explanations for this.

First off, what kind of walls are you behind? If it's Large Stone or Epic Stone, onagers don't have the height to clear the walls, which is probably why they're not firing.

If this isn't the case, it's probably a bug.

[pianonator]

They are Epic Stone Walls, but I'm pretty sure I've pulled off Seige tower destruction before with epic walls. They're heavy Onagers - should that make a difference?

[Empirate]

Right now, Onagers are posing a totally different problem for me: The Greeks have some. And they're not afraid to use them.
I was in several battles now in which my god-like, unbeatable, weapons of mass destruction, yes, I'm talking about elephants, were totally freaked out by Greek Onagers. Whenever the AI controls artillery, it seems to be a thousand percent more effective than when I'm using it. In three battles, the very first Onager shot ignited some Elephants and sent the remainder on a stampede! Granted, Elephants are big, hard-to-miss targets. But usually firepots are so inaccurate I only manage to hit anything one out of ten times using level-three-Onagers. But not so for the Greeks! They're deadly accurate. I lost more Elephants to Greek Onagers than in all of the campaign up to this point. I'm training more War Elephants in Cirta nonstop, as well as Armored Elephants in Carthage and Thapsus. But still, it hurts to see your 2700-denarii-investment go up in flames, the remainder rampaging through your Sacred Band cavalry (which doesn't come exactly cheap either!). Still, I found out that when you order your elephant riders to kill their mounts, you can expect more than half of the beasts to regenerate after the battle.
I've now taken to destroying enemy artillery first and foremost, no matter the cost. Against the slow-moving, inflexibly Greek Phalanges, this is not much of a problem. I just send two or three cavalry units around the flanks to slaughter the operating crews, and for the rest of the battle the Onagers just stand there. Even better, the AI tries to respond to this surgical strike and prevent it, throwing it's Phalanx formation into disarray. The only cavalry the Greeks usually have is their crap javelin cavalry (with defense ratings almost in the negatives) and generals, which I am happy to see attacking my three fresh units of sacred band cavalry. Usually, my slaughter of Onager crews is only put off by twenty seconds and a dead general. After this, my elephants can reign supreme on the battlefield!

[Severous]

Using cavalry to attack artillery in the enemy rear is a favourite tactic of mine also. Then kill any enemy mobile forces that intercept....or lead them on a merry chase to where you can kill them...into a spear unit for instance.

Ive played two sucession games now..when the game passes from player to player. Both were Carthage. In both occasions I took over mature games with advanced units and big cities.

Its the Carthage cavalry that made the impression on me. This was from last nights battle at 1:2 odds against Numidian forces. Cavalry in action taking out more skirmishers and missile troops. (keeping away from spear units)





In neither campaign did I use elephants as decisive force in battle...but did exploit their ability to knock down wooden walls. Dont need to stop to build seige equipment.

The two carthage campaigns that involved several players:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47904

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=63206

[Grand Duke Vytautas]

So Mighty Carthage , I just love this faction (1 of my fav in RTW). I thought you may find useful my Carthage guide (my experience playing this awesome faction) http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50146

Note: it was intended for Darth Mod futhermost, so units and other stuff are different, but still you may find it informative

Cheers and enjoy!

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Against opposition onagers, deploy relatively far back in your deployment box.

If you are defending, this will inevitably seperate the onagers from the faster troops and you can take them in detail.

If you are attacking, you can still -- often -- draw out forces from the opposition's formation and hammer them (mostly using the cavalry HK approach you describe, but with few or none of your other forces in range.

[gardibolt]

Sending a disposable unit (Iberian Infantry, which are otherwise utterly useless are good for this) ahead of your main forces will often cause the bulk of the opposition to break ranks and attack them.

In the meantime, swoop cavalry around the surging foes (stay far away since Carthaginian cav are unruly and will attack if they're anywhere near a foe) and destroy the artillery. Then hit the back of the foe for even more comedy. Time it right and some of your Iberians might even survive.

[pianonator]

I used to, when defending, move all my units back considerably to make the enemy march a long way before attacking. Now, however, with my phalanx-core army, I think keeping a defending army close to the attackers is better, at least with H to VH AI. Reason being: The longer they have to march, the more room they have to work around my formation. Of course, the less time they have to react, the less time I have...hmmm...I shall test this theory.

I have also lost elephants to the strangely accurate flaming Onagers of Doom. In Onager Battles, I do the same as has been recommended - send the cav to the Onagers quickly, and keep the mumaks moving around. If I'm lucky, my movement of cavalry will disrupt the enemy ranks enough to set up for a lateral elephant run, a full infantry advance, or both.

Question - are Libyan Spearmen good for anything???

[Avicenna]

Gardibolt: is that exploitation of the AI that I'm hearing?

Pianonator: Libyan Spearmen could be used as an anvil, or perhaps as a battering ram or sapper unit. They can also absorb the enemy firepower.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Back when I was a moron and didn't know how to use phalangites correctly I used LS as my main body of infantry. All I asked was for them to hold for 2 seconds while my Sacred Band cavalry obliterated the flanks.

If you are proficient with phalangites (as I am now), think of LS as an Iberian Infantry unit that can actually hurt the enemy a little bit while dying. You can also set them up in the center if you plan to do a Cannae-like operation, since they won't rout instantly.

[Guyus Germanicus]

Have been reading with interest this string of posts from you all, about Carthage. I happen to like taking Carthage myself. I'm in the middle of a normal/normal game (still learning the ropes). I found that it's best to knock out the Scipii early. I took Capua, put the city to the sword, destroyed all the destroyable buildings, and then walked away. The Brutii eventually picked over the carcass. But what I wanted to mention in this post was - I did a little "offline" experimenting with the custom battles option. I tried some one-on-one combat - one Hastatii vs. one Iberian infantry unit just to see what I was facing as Carthage in the early going. Hastatii will consistently ravage Iberian infantry. I did find that Iberian infantry are able to hold their own if they have upgraded weaponry (bronze sword) and two experience chevrons. That was the first time the Iberians won in a one-on-one encounter. Peonii and the higher Carthaginian phalanx units completely outclass Hastatii. In a one-on-one heads-up smash mouth, they suffered one casualty at most in any encounter eventually routing the Hastatii. I've thought about trying some of the other units in a one-on-one just to see what happens - legionary cohorts, Praetorian cohorts, etc. I know that you don't really need to go through this kind of exercise as the attack/defense/charge/armour points are all listed when you click on the units in play. But it was interesting for me to see what actually happened in a medium level combat under controlled circumstances. I tried round shield cav vs. equites in a one-on-one, the round shield bested the equites in a heads-up. In campaign combat, of course, things aren't one-on-one simple like in this controlled environment. Field tactics are everything.
In order to get the best infantry and phalanx units from Carthage, however, you have to get your cities built up and the proper training facilities going. I've five regions and Spain yet to conquer in my current game, and I think the game is going to end before I get to that advanced military tech. All this to say, the custom battle option is a fun way to experiment to see how individual units measure up in combat simply based on their individual merits when all other things are equal. You can stage battles in city streets, open plains, in various combinations, experience, etc. It has been a very helpful tool for me from time to time, especially to improve my confidence level in controlling units in the combat phase of the game. The game does have some peculiar little quirks, especially when there are obstacles that your army has to move around before it can engage the enemy. I've been messed up more than once by the way the game "moves" your army around an obstacle, eventually getting my guys all screwed up just as the enemy is closing on me.
But I do love Carthage, especially the voice characterizations: "Mighty General!" "To hear is to obey." I love it!!

[pianonator]

Thanks folks. As the Romans, my main tactic for dealing with chariots was using Auxilia (Mostly because I fought the British on the frontier, and could only really train Auxilia and Roman Cav up there.) I was thinking of using Libyans against Egyptian chariots, but since I have phalanxes, they are like 500% better against chariots.

Guyus: In future campaigns, consider the benifits of keeping Capua as a bullet sponge for Rome. It's so much better to fight the Romans with Capua at stake then to fight them with Lilybaem or Carthage at stake.

Elephant Bug:
You all probably already know this, but there is a wonderful bug I found in v1.5 (and probably others):

Sometimes, when you take casualties with an elephant unit (and probably Chariots too - wouldn't know), the computer seems to be a little confused as to how many elephants died. Example:

I fought the Brutii at 2/1 odds, so I had to use elephants. I lost all but 4, so there were 12 people left in my unit. It was during the AI turn, and the Brutii attacked me twice consecutively. In between battles, I saved. After botching the second battle, I loaded. Instead of having 4 elephants with 3 men on each, I now had 12 elephants with 1 driver each. I suppose that is reasonable: I suppose all of elephants were only marginally hurt, and the men on them died in the fall, or something. Weird.

Guyus: That's a great idea you have with multiplayer. Maybe I'm just dumb for not trying it sooner. I have some matchups to try.

[Guyus Germanicus]

Pianonator,
I have some minor regrets walking away from Capua, and probably won't do it in the future; but instead, go after the Brutii before tangling directly with Roma. It's just that early seizure of Capua left me between Rome's army with its triarii and principes, and the Brutii, who in short campaigns don't seem to venture beyond southern Italy and so have huge stacks walking around their home Italian turf. All I had was Iberian infantry and a superiority in cavalry to face the challenge. I needed more time to develop my military tech. At least, that's what my insecurities told me. :) Capua would have been a good money maker had I had time to develop it better. As it is, I'm tangling with the Spanish now, and they should go down soon. I have all the Roman ports blockaded but Patavium. And I'm still a ways away from developing the real powerful military units. Onagers are on their way to the Spanish front and I have two elephant units on the board. I've been campaigning in Spain with mostly mercenaries supplemented by round shield and a few Iberian infantry.
I tried a one-on-one custom game with sacred band Carthaginian cavalry versus Roman Legionary cavalry last night. And to my surprise, (should I have been?) the Sacred band kicked butt. I'm beginning to like Carthage more and more. :) I even tried a couple different tactics in the one-on-one with the legioanries. Sacred band are tough cavalry. The legionaries couldn't win.
I want to try fighting with elephants and test their archery feature which Mr. Centurion mentioned in a battle I fought early in the game but I didn't use it.
I, too, have done a pre-save prior to battles (just in case I botch them.) Glad to hear I'm not the only one who "hates" to lose the battles. :)
best wishes, Pianonator.
Guyus

[Empirate]

As pertaining to the Capua situation: The Senate's army usually will not come after you, if you don't venture north of Capua itself. The Brutii and eventually the Julii will, though, so you got that part right. Still, cavalry superiority is really all it takes against early roman armies! Hastati and Principes stand absolutely no chance against Roundshields if used rightly. I once destroyed a full stack Julii army using an already depleted basic elephant unit, one general and five Roundshields. Just use speed and maneuverability to your advantage, hit one regiment at a time, and hit it hard and from two or three sides, most Hastati cohorts will rout instantly. Withdraw, rinse and repeat. Keep an eye out for the higher fatigue levels, coz your cav will have to run around a lot. If your cav becomes fatigued, run them to the other side of the battlefield and rest them on some hilltop. Some Romans will usually come after them, sometimes all. Wait till they are close and your cav is rested, then charge them. The added fatigue from chasing your cav around should be giving the enemy high morale penalties, causing him to rout even easier when charged by cavalry.
I never feared any Roman army apart from the Senate's: They had lots of Triarii, I had to be careful where and when to charge. My first two units of War Elephants took care of that, though! The Brutii can and should be destroyed quickly after taking Capua.

[Guyus Germanicus]

Thanks for the encouraging word, Empirate. I've actually played one game before where I went immediately after the Brutii after taking Messana. Instead of going directly to Capua, I landed an army at Croton, zapped Croton and Tarentum. Then went after Capua. I never finished that game though as I got distracted by something else (can't remember what it was) and started a new Julii game.
Speaking of roving cavalry and it's effectiveness. I played a quick battle game just for grins last night. A strange match-up. I was given the Macedonians and AI had a huge German army. The setting was in the desert. (Ah, the wonders of randomness.) I played the game twice. The Germans had some heavy cavalry but loads of heavy infantry. We were evenly matched in spearmen. And, I had three onagers. The game was set on medium level, and while I out numbered the Germans in total numbers, their army outclassed mine as I had lots of peasants. First time, I got routed. Second time, it looked as if it was going to be a repeat of the first. With the large number of units on both sides, I had trouble controlling the battle and it degenerated quickly as it did the first time, into chaos. But all this to say, two of my heavy cavalry units survived the rout. The Germans had three heavy infantry units left, three speaman units, one archer unit, and two bedraggled heavy cavalry remnants. I had two units of heavy cav, about forty men. I WON the battle. I wiped the bedraggled German cav first, then exhausted the infantry units one by one on merry chases, (they chasing me) turned on them, and wiped them out. I couldn't believe I won the battle at the end. So there's definitely something to your counsel about resting cavalry and using them judiciously to hit a predominately infantry army.
Finished my Carthage game last night taking the last Spanish city Asturica (sp). Interesting Carthaginian closing victory video, with the Carth general sitting on a luxurious bed, sword in hand, contemplating his victory. I found Seamus's early remarks in this thread to be true. I never did get very far in my military tech development in the game. And I did have some cash flow problems. My army in Spain was merc heavy. The Roman factions never compromised with me - no cease fires, no surrender. After I took Capua and eliminated the Scipii, I kept all the Roman ports blockaded for the whole game. They NEVER asked for a peace. I guess the AI got their character right as it has to do with Carthage. I think the game ended right around 250 BC, or thereabouts, which is roughly 40 turns, normal/normal. A surviving Numidian army in Siwa. Cyrene was still in rebel hands at the end with my army closing on them.

[pianonator]

Sum-up of the Capua affair: As Carthage, you never choose whether to fight. You only have a marginal amount of control where to fight. Sometimes, you don't even control who you fight. Everybody hates you. Allies last about 10-20 turns if they border you, and then they turn on you. The only reason I've managed to stay allied with the Greeks for 100 turns is because after they backstabbed me and forced me to take Syracuse, I haven't seen them since. Right now, I'm fighting the Gauls, the Eyptians, and the Brutii. The list is short only because the Brutii are the only Romans left, and the Gauls became a superpower in central Europe, so I never met the Britons or the Germanics yet. The best defense is blitzkrieg.

Yeah, be wise. In my H/H Carthage game (current game, 15 provinces to go), I kept Capua. Then I took Tarentum and Croton, and then pushed north, killed Julii, and then took Rome. Biggest mistake: I decided not to pursue the Brutii into Greece. Oh, wow, that was a big mistake. I destroyed SPQR and Julii at around the time of the Marius reforms. Then, the Brutii ignored me and I ignored them as they proceeded to own from the Balkans to Turkey. Their military is off the charts (about twice as big as mine), and they started attacking Tarentum again about 10 turns ago. I pulled a couple elephant victories against massive Brutish armies, and then built up armies of phalanxes, Long Shields, Onagers, and Elephants and blitzed Apollos from Tarentum.

This is a repeat of my Capua doctrine: The Romans will fight them, so fight them on their land, not yours. I would much rather have the Roman armies atrit Apollos than risk an invasion of Carthaginian Italy.

Problem of my own, now:
I took Sidon (incidently, near or on Tyre, where the fathers of Carthage came from) from the Egyptians, and their military is beginning to crumble. Damascus is in my sights, which is a very good thing: finally, after a long campaign, I will be able to train elephants and put them right into the war, instead of marching/sailing them from Carthage or Thapsus. Unfortunately, Damascus is still a large city, with about 4000 more population until it becomes Huge, and I can build Armoured Elephants there. If I take it, I will have to enslave or exterminate the populace to avoid a riot. One idea is to wait until it becomes Huge, and then take it. Another idea is to take it, and disband massive amounts of troops there, leave, then take it again once it becomes huge. The last idea is just to take it, but with an army so huge that it won't revolt. Advice?

Sorry about this huge post again, fellows.

[gardibolt]

I would suggest enslaving Damascus, so you don't lose as many taxpayers and population base. Exterminating is too much loss. Wait a couple turns for order to stabilize, then tear down the temples and build ones that you can improve. Build all the order buildings you can manage---execution squares and secret police are always handy. Once that's accomplished, you might even consider a farm upgrade or two to build the pop faster---but you need those order buildings in place to be able to deal with the squalor that results.

Or you could just occupy it, expect rioting and hope it doesn't actually revolt; if it does, then retake it and enslave it. I wouldn't wait for it to get huge on its own---Egypt will be mauling you long before then. You can always create troops of peasants in Sidon and march them to Damascus and disband to artificially boost the population once you've established order.

[Guyus Germanicus]

P -
I have to agree with your sentiments about fighting Rome on their turf rather than Sicily. I don't feel I can offer you any advice on your current campaign. I haven't played at hard/hard yet, and I've noticed that there are definite differences in the way the AI handles things between the different levels. In my own recent game, I allied myself to Greece AFTER the Scips took Syracuse. I never encountered the Greeks for the rest of the game, so the alliance stood to the end. I'm sure if my little kingdom had become proximate to them, things would have been different. I was able to stay allied to Gaul for quite some time until I had the Numidians pretty much polished off. (The Numidians aren't a tough opponent, they're just spread out all over the place.) Then just as I was about to go after Spain, Gaul cancelled its alliance with me. It was strange, because Spain was their enemy too, along with the Julii, who were also surging late in the game.
I wish I could see how some of you more experienced players handle the governance of remote cities. Damascus would have to be a huge challenge for Carthage to manage given the distance penalty. That the Brutii could build up huge armies given the territory they control in your game, isn't too surprising to me. The cities with the wonders bestow huge benefits in public order, trade and other things - Corinth, Sardis, Rhodes, etc. The wonders can take a huge amount of stress off your tax and governance situation. You can make more money from your cities, hike up the taxes, reap greater trade benefits, thereby financing bigger and better armies.
Armored elephants are high upkeep. You could use a few cities with ancient wonders yourself. Alexandria perhaps would be a good stop before Damascus, if you haven't already taken it. :)
Post as huge as you want. I love reading about other people's experiences in the game.
Good hunting,
Guyus

[Empirate]

GG-
Definitely good advice, I can only second taking all the wonders you can. There are two must haves on your list: Corinth for the Statue of Zeus (plus 10% public order through happiness in ALL cities) and Rhodes for the Colossus (plus 30% sea trade income). These are the ones that matter; the other ones are just for show, mainly. Relieving the Brutii of Corinth and Rhodes should be done first and foremost. These provinces are easily held, too: Rhodes is an island and Corinth blocks the Peloponnesian Isthmus. Greece is actually wonderful terrain for fighting a defensive war of attrition. Usually the enemy can come to you only from one or two directions, and you can lock up all the parts you control by placing one powerful field army just right.
Considering the Damascus problem: Definitely take it now and occupy. The size it is at now shouldn't be posing too many unhappiness problems a huge garrison can't counter. Garrisons get less and less effective the bigger a city gets, so it's just as well Damascus isn't huge yet. You can and should insta-grow it using the patented peasant method: Build large armies of peasants elsewhere, disband in Damascus. Lower culture penalties as far as possible by destroying everything you don't need, especially the temple. Keep the governor's building, as you're about to upgrade that soon anyway. And think about moving your capital! Those distance penalties to happiness can really wear you out.

[pianonator]

Corinth, Sardis, Rhodes, you say? Thanks - I'll be sure to take those first. I found out (in accordance with everything people told me) that once Thebes, Memphis, Alexandria, and Jerusalem are taken, Egypt can't produce anything. Add Petra and Antioch, and their production went from the highest of all civs to absolutely nothing in 3 turns. Maybe the same will hold true for the Brutii.

Damascus problem almost solved - instead of taking Damascus immediately for my elephant needs, I looked north at Antioch - a large city with Elephants nearby. A former Seleucid stronghold, I think. Damascus' population is actually falling 1%, so the waiting won't help. I'm just going to take it and see what's up, maybe move some unhappy peasants from Memphis, Thebes, and Alexandria. Thanks, Empirate. The only place I've ever done that before was Corsica in the early game - trying to build a stone wall against the Julii. And Siwa against the Egyptians later. I'll work on it.

In the meantime, atriting the Brutii is becoming annoying. I think instead of holding at Apollos and atriting them there, I'll create new targets in the Epic Stone Wall cities like Athens, Corinth, Sardis, Thermon, etc. The trouble with the Brutii is I can never seem to get enough soldiers in one place, because 1 turn later they have 4500 men where I have 1000. My navy is growing, though, and I'll soon remedy that.

I only have 14 more provinces to get - not enough to finish Egypt and the Brutii. I think I'll just try to ruin the Brutii the way I ruined Egypt, and destroy Egypt. Another idea is to just quickly take as many Gaulish settlements as I can. They're really easy, but they suck armies away from where I need them.