Carthage

[Spartan198]

Want a challenging game ? Play Carthage ! (I am playing on VH/M)

Why is Carthage so much fun ?
I finished the julii Campaign on VH/M and to be honest it got pretty boring in the end, since the gauls and brits were just cannonfodder for my trusty legionnaires. I don't like playing on Hard or Very hard diff on the battle level, because of the unfair advantages the AI gets. On the other hand, - the roman infantry seems pretty much dominating as it is on medium difficulty.(btw human controlled Velites own Elephants). So what to do ? Play Carthage ! The Carthaginian forces find themselves facing enemies that has superior infantry. You will have your hands full defending vs the Roman with only light cav and skirmishers. Every denarii , every soldier is gonna count. Oth


Carthaginian Battle Tactics:
Played the Battle of Trebia ? Well, listen to what the narrator says. Hannibal learned early in his military life how powerful the roman infantry could be. So he built an army relying on cavalry to deal with the roman military. And so must you.

If you stand toe to toe with Roman infantry you die. Period. As learned in Trebia you only need inf as means to stall or bait the enemy, so your cavalry can flank, attack - and crush those pesky Legionnaires.
Rely on your Generals cav and your light cav early in the game. Vs Numidians you may also use iberian inf but light cav is much more effective. Even gaul infantry will turn your early and mid level infantry to a bloody pulp faster then you can hit "pause".

The lybian skirmishers you can get as mercs in North Africa are great. They have awesome endurance and I get the impression they got double as ammo as other skirmishers. Use them as bait for enemy units. Once the enemy starts leaving the line to attack the skirmishers you kill it with your light infantry. Once you got the enemy in movement and scattered he is yours. Note: This ain't easy without pause. I can do it most of the times. But when I am outnumbered 2:1 I must use pause a bit, especially to avoid being shot at by my own skirmishers. Its possible to beat superior roman armies who come in superior numbers with Cav and skirmishers.


Numidian light cav. Very nice, very fast skirmishing cav. I use them also as scouts to see the setup of the opposing army before I decide where to try to flank. They can do the same job as lybian skirmishers, but vs infantry heavy armies I find the lybians more effective, since enemy inf is easier to bait with inf. The legionnaires will not run after fast moving cav for long.


Hoplites ? you can get them around Carthage as mercs. Useful in streetfighting. In open battle they are more of a burden for your fast moving army. Stick with iberian inf to bind enemy inf momentarily.


Elephants. Oh boy, they surely are the ancient equivalent to AT-ST Walker. Fun, Fun to maul over some blue clad legionnaires and send them flying. Great killing potential but really expensive. Well, I don't know where other people get so filthy rich, but you wont be able to build many elephants early in the game on VH. You start with one elephant unit and I suggest moving it to the African coast. Build another one when you have the cash and move it to Spain. Show the gauls some african wildlife. They gonna love you for it. Elephants are your one big joker. Be careful with em, the loss of an elephant must be avoided until you can afford more. Use them as morale breaker and instant door opener when sieges. Yes, Elephants can knock open gates and raze wooden walls. Elephants can save your neck when all other options fail. So be conservative on 'em.

Generals: Maybe it was because of my playing style, maybe its built in the game. I got some very decent generals early in the game. Maybe its just in the Carthaginian genes. By the way, your leader will die after the first two turns or so. Be prepared for it.

Navy: Forget it. You are facing the three roman navies, the spaniards, and even the gauls send ships to harass your coast. Just try to keep Gibraltar open. Tingis and Cordoba got a great little trade relationship going between em. The AI must be spending enormous sums on building all these gigantic fleets. Also I find naval battles extremely frustrating cause you have no influence of the outcome whatsoever. Oh, on another sidenote... During the Julii campaign the AI was never smart enough to block my harbours. My Carthaginian Harbours sure do get blocked. Only you don't see the little graphic animation with the ropes. Land trade seems good enough though


My strategic approach was different again.

1.In memoriam of the first punic war I let Carsalis and Sicily be overrun by the Romans. My only achievement there was a trade agreement with the diplomat in Syracuse.
2. That gave me some turns of freedom and resources to settle affairs in my a african backyard. I negotiated an Alliance and military access with the numidians. I used that to get two armies in position. The unsuspecting Numidians lost Cirta and Tingis before they got the chance to break the alliance themselves. Hah ! Tingis ios a great money maker. Key is here to be fast. Attack with inferior forces. Rely on your generals cav. The conquered settlements in North africa don't give you a culture penalty, so they are easy to control. Nevertheless I decided to let the population walk the plank and not just the chaingang. Good for cash, but maybe a mistake in the longer run since it slows your early development down. While you do this... consider shipping a diplomat to Leptis Minor along with a city guard. You can bribe the leptis Minor Garrison cheaply but you need to garrison it immediately. Great trade city. After that go for the african center. You don't want the numidians to backstab you, while you have your hands full with gauls in spain. Lybia will take a bit. Its a long hike through the desert. But same goes for the revenge thirsty numidians. So instead concentrate on building a defense vs the romans.

3. Thapsus Coast. Let History repeat itself. In 255 Bc Consul Regelus invaded the coast with estimated 16.000 men and 500 cav. He pressed hard and was quite successful. The Carthagenians were even trying to negotiate a peace , but Regelus asked for too much,- total roman supremity. In a big effort Carthage mustered all the resources it had and hired many merc and a spartan general defeated Regelus.

You will need mercs now. You cannot pump units fast enough to deal with the romans. They will land in front of Thapsus. don't let them siege your town , since that will interrupt trade. Trade is your lifeline. don't allow it to be interrupted. I built a watchtower on the coast.And every time an army unloads its met by my defending army. That way you can take advantage by the fact that the AI sends the roman armies piecemeal. If you allow the Scipions to built a big stack while attacking Thapsus you probably lost the campaign. I have my elephant unit here. Should a battle become desperate I rely on it to loosen up some enemy furball, so my cav can maneuver again. Never ever use auto battle with elephants in your army, you will certainly loose some elephants.

4. Once you got things under control at home you should like Hamilkar´, Hannibals father, decide to expand into spain. Now don't fool yourself. Forget alliances there. I tried and always failed. Maybe its possible to make one with spain , but I doubt it. Bribery becomes your best friend. Why ? Spaniards and you share the same line of inf and light cav. so if you bribe , you get to keep those units ! Same goes for many rebels in Spain. A great way to make money is to sell map info to enemies. I sold map info to the scipions for up to 5 k. Thats great if you are in dire need of cash. Feels a bit like cheating though. I am clueless what the AI makes of this info.
Carefull about leaving your settlements in spain without generals. The spanish bastards bribed two of my settlements in one turn. Nearly cost me the campaign. Gauls just keep coming. Not as hard as romans but they come in even greater numbers. You should have enough trade income by now to slowly push them out of Gaul and get ready for the big haul.... over the alps into Rome.


Good luck ! Melkart be with you.


PS.: Did you know that Melkart was the Carthaginian name for Heracles ? Like Hannibal he traveled from spain over the alps to settle a score in Italy.

Could you outline some tips on successfully negotiating military access? Gaining alliances aren't much trouble,but everytime I ask for military access, the faction in question always breaks said alliance and immidiately attacks me.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

With rare exceptions, military access is granted or protectorate status is accepted, only when you no longer could use it.

Military access means ... let's be honest here ... "I want to position 4 armies next to your key cities and then attack them all at once crippling your faction" -- or at least that's how the computer evaluates your request. It will grant that request easily, once you are so much more powerful that it would be pointless to refuse.

The AI accepts protectorate status only after being beaten down so badly that their final couple of cities would fall to a 3-card stack of peasants -- so you'll usually just send in the peasants and not bother with a satrapy.

If you really want military access prior to it being pointless, the fastest way is to ask for protectorate status from that faction. You have a much better chance of getting a YES if you are willing to pay to be the "bottom" of the totem pole.

Mostly, I don't bother. I assume all neighbors will be at war with me -- I usually let them start it -- and plan accordingly. Alliances are easy only if you can't help each other, then they'll do so readily.

[GamblerTuba]

Here's a quick rundown of my current campaign with Carthage. This is my third campaign overall and first non-Roman attempt. I am playing on M/M vanilla with latest patch.

Mediterranean:

Luckily the Romans in Messana went after Syracuse. I snuck in behind them to tack the relatively undefended city with my elephants. The Roman army then attacked and took Syracuse and I was able to establish an alliance with Greece which lasted for quite a while and probably helped out in the naval frontier with the Brutii. Part of the Greek army must have been out of the city because when I moved on the Romans in Syracuse, there was a Greek army sitting next to the city but not besieging. My spy had managed to open the gates on Syracuse so I immediately attacked to bring the Greek army in to help as well.
This was one of the more interesting battles I fought in the entire campaign. The Roman army was substantial still and after leaving a garrison in Messana, my faction leader had a fairly small force left to him. The majority of the Roman force deployed to the south to repel the Greek army and I was able to quickly break through and reached the undefended city square. Unfortunately, the Greek army routed without doing any noticeable damage and I was forced into a bloody melee in the town square as the nearly undamaged Roman units returned. My faction leader died a glorious death but my slingers and eventually my elephants turned the tide and exterminated the Romans. I eventually bribed away the Greek remnants and managed to prevent any serious Roman attempt to retake Sicily using my navy.
Caralis faced only 2 Roman armies before my navy asserted itself. The second attempt was a full stack Julii army that besieged my very meager garrison before my ragtag relief force pulled off an heroic victory at 2:1 odds. In future, I may take my family member off of Palma almost immediately in order to help keep the peace in Spain.

Iberia:

This strategy may not work on harder difficulties but my aim was to cripple the Spanish ASAP by taking Carthago Nova. With those two cities, I hoped to out-produce the Spanish. It was a close call, shuttling my lone family member back and forth from Corduba and Carthago Nova but i managed to hold on until reinforcements from Africa allowed me to turn North and claim the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish mercs and Iberian infantry make a pretty potent combination and round shield cavalry are amazing if used in sufficient numbers.
The Gauls and Spanish allied immediately which made the situation that much hairier. I think the governor from Palma would help tremendously in keeping the peace and leading a separate army. Things were touch and go until my African army was able to send along a few more cavalry units and a unit of vanilla elephants. I used my pachys almost exclusively as psychological warfare and as siege engines. I was then able to steamroll using only local troops (and mercs) to take over all of Spain and kick the Gauls off the peninsula. The real advantage to round-shields is the ability to retrain them almost anywhere.

Africa:

After taking control of Sicily, I put together a small force of round-shields, one unit of elephants, and a few mercs and marched west across Northern Africa. My scrappy little family member managed with little difficulty to take Cinta and Tingi. The wonderful thing about Numidia is of course no culture penalty. Which means the army just keeps on marching. After taking Tingi, i shipped about half the army into Iberia and sent the scraps to take Dimmidi and Nente. So far, i have faced very few problems with public order or brigands in these areas. I left Numidia alone in Lepcis Magna in order to increase the buffer between myself and Egypt. So far so good and Numidia has sent only feeble armies at Thapsus so far.

Next up, Rome and provinces East.

[GamblerTuba]

Not sure how many people still read these boards but I am having a blast playing RTW and its fun to share my experiences. Playing on default unit size BTW.

Greece:

I actually took the bottom half of Italy first but I will describe the Greek Campaign first. After taking Capua, Croton, and Tarentum; I decided to leave Italy alone for a while. I wanted a bit of a challenge and was hoping to get a ceasefire and ensure some epic battles later on. The Brutii lost most of their macedonian holdings after getting kicked out of Italy. By the time I landed in Greece they held only Corinth which was my major target anyway to try and keep my provinces (especially in Iberia) in line. I attacked with a half-stack army ferried over from Italy. This army contained some sacred band infantry, 5 round shields, 2 long shields and the remaining 10 elephants from Sicily. I hired a few archers in Greece and laid siege to Corinth.

I knew that Greece could betray the alliance once i had taken Corinth so i stayed patient and starved out the substantial Brutii garrison. The turn Corinth fell, Greece declared war and laid siege with full stack army of hoplites and armored hoplites. At this point I sent a small force from Italy to take Thermon planning to sack it and run when the Greeks counter-attacked just to take some heat off Corinth. The Greeks never counter-attacked so I just stayed put.

I crushed 3 separate full stack Greek armies by sallying from Corinth before reinforcements finally arrived from Africa. This was my first tailor-made army as all others were kind of cobbled together. Full stack with about 5 SB Inf, 2 Bal Slingers, 2 Iberian Inf, 1 Newly Minted General, 6 RS cav, 2 LS cav, and 2 War Elephants.

The ensuing battle was by far the biggest I have seen yet in RTW. The Greeks maneuvered two full stacks down by the coast to pen me in while a third full stack kept Corinth under siege. My African army attacked and faced two full Greek armies with a balanced force of hoplites (mostly armored but a few militia) and jav cavs.

I set up as far forward as possible because I knew that I had to rout one army before the other joined in. Luckily the first army was cavalry deficient and led by a captain. (I had killed 4 Greek family members during the sieges of Corinth) I marched my infantry forward until the slingers were in range. Left my war elephants on the flanks and ran my cavalry all over the place. A few Greek units actually made it to my infantry line but the SB held just fine until cavalry units managed to break through. I routed the Greeks from the outside in and by "burning the candle at both ends" so to speak had the entire line running before the other Greek army could join in.

The other army had dropped phalanx and run to join in so their infantry was seriously tired and never managed to reach my line. I had reformed my line on a small ridge and the Bal Slingers were still spitting stones to no end. But I nearly cost myself the victory by sending my (now exhausted) round shields after the Greek Cavalry. Not sure exactly how it all happened but pretty soon I saw the remnants of my RS routing back towards my line and the Greek cavalry managed to panic BOTH units of war elephants with their javelins.

Well, I bit the bullet and the elephants got the pointy end of a stake. My slingers took down a tremendous number of their cavalry and LS sent the rest packing. I used the Iberians in place of cavalry and with all the morale penalties, the second Greek Army never put up much of a fight. My remaining cavalry managed to chase down nearly all the routers. Greeks lost nearly 2500 men to my 200. After that, Sparta and Athens fell easily and I currently hold Larissa as well and I am moving on Thessalonica.

Whew, took longer than I thought. Roman theatre will have to wait. Hopefully someone out there still enjoys playing and discussing this game. I am considering trying an AAR for my next campaign. Probably as the Seleucid's.

[GamblerTuba]

Here's the final summary that should sum up my Carthage campaign so far. I will post more as I finish the campaign.

Italy:

I was hesitant to try the Blitz as Carthage because I wanted somewhat of a challenge and I am still playing on M/M anyway. My first attempt definitely made me think twice. I landed all the forces i could muster from Sicily and Sardinia and landed them next to Capua in order to finish the Scipii. Unfortunately, my army ran smack into a nearly full stack of Romans presumably on their way to Sicily.

The Romans consisted of about 8 units of Hastati, a couple principes and triarii, 3 equites and 3 generals. I had 3 RS cav, about 6 units of Iberian and Libyan inf, remaining elephants from Sicily and a general. What a slaughter. None of my units actually fought for more than 5 seconds before routing. Well, i reloaded and did not attack for a while until I had a better army.

In the meantime, my navy began to assert itself and a few Roman armies went down with the ship. The Brutii also committed themselves to the Greek frontier. When I landed on Italy the second time, Capua was nearly undefended as were Croton and Tarentum. The senate armies hung out around Rome and I was able to destroy the Scipii and cripple the Brutii very easily. From there i waited to consolidate my holdings planning on leaving the senate and the Julii alone in order to make sure the late-game had a few epic battles.

Unfortunately, by taking Corinth I turned the Greeks against me and started a very expensive war. In order to finance that war, I turned North against the Julii. At this point, I was conducting a campaign in Greece, Italy, and Iberia simultaneously and was kept very busy indeed.

I hit the Julii on two fronts by marching up the East coast to Arinium and landing a small force from Spain (including my new faction leader) to take lightly defended Segesta. Both cities fell easily although the force that took Arinium fought a number of large stacks on the way. A large enough cavalry force simply decimates anything except triarii. A few Iberians with cavalry support take care of them.

This is where things became very interesting. When i laid siege to Arretium, the senate army finally left Rome and moved on Capua. I immediately left Arretium and moved on Rome and the massive Senate Stack moved to meet my Faction Leader's army. I tried being clever (read cheap) by sending my small Capua garrison in behind to take Rome while their main army moved North. I attacked a small stack standing next to Rome and brought the Rome garrison out. I destroyed the garrison to a man with my small group of RS cav. Unfortunately, Rome did not fall and next turn was garrisoned by a single unit of war dogs!

Next up: The battle for Rome

[GamblerTuba]

I really hope someone reads/enjoys this. It is fun to write though.

The climactic battle with the senate occurred when I sent a 3/4 stack of cav and a few barbarian mercs led by my faction leader and a small stack of cav led by a useless family member under AI control against the full senate stack. Units were pre-marian but lots of triarii. The senate stack was standing next to Rome but did not have enough movement points to make it into the city. My armies also did not have enough movement points to attack their army. Instead i placed my armies adjacent to theirs and used a single unit of LS cav from Capua to initiate the battle. I did NOT want the senate army to reach Rome, I did not relish street to street fighting with all those triarii and principes. Complicated set-up but led to a very entertaining battle. The set-up looked like this on campaign map:

FL FM
RA Ro
LS

FL faction leader and 3/4 stack (human controlled)
FM family member and small stack (AI controlled)
Ro city of Rome
RA Senate Army (full stack of pre-marian units)
LS single unit of long shield cavalry used to initiate combat

Battle map looked very odd because my single LS cavalry is the only one i was able to deploy. I sent that LS after the single unit of wardogs that sallied from Rome destroyed all the handlers that was about all they accomplished. The Romans deployed near the northern edge of the map which means my faction leaders army entered the map nearly on top of the roman lines. Absolute Chaos ensues. My faction leader’s army was all spread out and outnumbered with no room to maneuver and half of my cavalry came out in the woods.

Many of my RS units were routed before doing much damage. I was actually saved by my barbarian mercs and bal slingers. The 3 units barb mercs were able to stretch out enough to delay flanking and held up the roman lines while the slingers did some damage. My faction leader moved off a ways into a clearing and gathered together the remnants of my cavalry.

I began to use my depleted cav units to rout the left flank of the Roman army and the battle was just starting turn when my AI controlled units finally started to find their way to the battle field. My faction leader’s bodyguards killed 3 different Roman generals and the rout was on.

Unfortunately, one roman general made it out of the confusion along with enough stragglers to field 2 partial units of velites and about 20 principes. The next turn I assaulted Rome as my spy managed to open the gates. The senate had added a unit of triarii to the defense. Rome is a royal pain to assault even with a full army against a skeleton defense. I overwhelmed the triarii at the open gates with my remaining barb mercs and a unit of Iberian inf. The velites on the wall proved to be a formidable opponent. They routed the first couple units I sent up after them but finally fell. By then I only had single unit of Iberians and a couple units of bal slingers and the rest cavalry. I had to run the length of the wall taking each tower in turn. Many of the towers provide support fire and I nearly ran out of infantry before I could clear a path for my cavalry to run all the way to the opposite side of Rome to reach the ONLY entrance to the town square and kill the 8 men in the general’s bodyguard. Lost nearly 300 men to kill about 140 Romans. Most of the losses were barb infantry but still…

Next up: My favorite TW battle of all time… so far.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Carthage is always a tough one in siege assaults. The same things that make them so fun in field battles, cavalry, cavalry, elephants and, oh, cavalry, give them fits when trying to get through a breach or gate. I almost always end up waiting for towers too, just so that I can get more of my infantry onto the walls faster. Most of my infantry is crap, but if I can hit them from both wall directions at once....

I used to, once resources built, set up a siege assault army. I recruited many mercs for that army, leaving only the onagers, some peonis, and some long shields from integral forces. Loved spanish, saminite, numidians, barbarians, and thracians for the rest of the assault team.

[Vitellus]

Aye, with Carthage, in sieges, I tended to rely on mercs. Many weren't as valuable as my main army troops in any case, so I often used them as storm troopers to take walls and breaches. Interesting campaign so far, I look forward to seein' the rest of it (my Carthage campaign stopped after I took Spain and Italy. Mebbe I finish it someday...).

[GamblerTuba]

My favorite battle in TW:

Arretium has nearly fallen twice now. One siege was broken at the last moment by the Senate. The second siege was broken by a full stack Julii army from Patavium. I decided to break the siege because the battle would have taken place in a forest and my cavalry would have gotten shredded. When I moved my army to siege Arretium again from a different direction, I was surprised to find the Julii had actually set up an ambush. My faction leaders army was taken completely by surprise by a full stack of Roman units (still pre-marian)

The Julii began the battle with 1500men and not a single Roman survived. I began the battle with 960men and lost 79men. Beginning as an ambush I cannot even begin to explain the mass confusion that ensued but my faction leader and a few units of RS were at the head of the army and 3 units of RS were at the tail. Eventually they met in the middle and the Roman army was simply torn to pieces. Both groups of cavalry simply carried out what I like to call the Pac-Man maneuver. The Roman army never formed a solid battle line as they scattered to engage. Using three cavalry I was able to encircle and rout each unit in turn before disengaging and moving on to the next. There was not enough time to get many kills but my Iberian inf kept the Romans on the run until my cav had the chance to come back and finish the job.

There was a single unit of Triarii that I avoided like the plague until my single unit of SB inf made it across the field and engaged them. Of course their general made a bee-line for my faction leader. My faction leader (who had 45-man bodyguard, 2 silver chevrons and 9+ command stars) made short work of the enemy cavalry and ended with over 250 kills in the battle. It was very, very fun.

Now Arretium should (finally) fall as I have the men to hold the bridge to the North while besieging the city.

My Iberian army has grown to two full stacks and has begun a push into gaulish territory, leaving many half-clothed and completely dead barbarians in their wake. I have taken Narbo Martius and Massilia. Unfortunately this opens up a border with the Britons so there is the possibility of war breaking out there. Other than the wide area to cover, the biggest problem with fighting through Europe is the abundant forests. It is very difficult to command any army in the woods but especially hard for the cav dependant factions.

I have taken Kydonia, Rhodes and Thessalonica. I now have an army on its way from Greece to take Salona from the Julii. The assault on Thessalonica was another bloody affair where my losses were greater than the enemy. I did find some comic relief near the end. As I finally approached the city square with a unit of SB Inf in phalanx mode, the enemy general charged, lost half his number and routed… about 10 steps to the city square where his men regained their morale and promptly charged again. This happened three times before the unit was completely destroyed. Looked like a bunch of indecisive lemmings. Too funny.

I aim to cripple but not destroy Gaul and hopefully avoid war with the Britons for now. Waging war in Europe is messy with very few strategic boundaries to defend. My next major opponent will be either Pontus or Egypt. Thankfully money is no longer a real concern. Rhodes and Corinth have to be two of the most desirable cities on the map. Corinth basically counts as a 1-step increase in taxes everywhere and Rhodes can make a massive increase in available cash if your empire is large enough.

[rvg]

I have to say a few words about the Sacred Band infantry...

These guys are nothing short of awesome. They are armored like turtles, they are almost completely immune to missiles (including pila), and, provided that their flanks are guarded, they will advance across the battlefield in one indestructible wall of desolation, mowing down any unit unfortunate enough to stand in their way.
They are great vs Romans (pre- or post-marian) and Egyptians. Conveniently enough, those are usually the only factions able to reach the superpower status, and Sacred Band is able to smash them. Carthaginian cavalry is of course still important (specifically, the Longshields), but its role is mostly to protect the SB flanks and finish off routers and waverers, while SB does most of the heavy lifting.
Sacred Band Cavalry on the other hand, is rather underwhelming: top level stables and 2-turn production cycle for something that is only marginally better than Longshields. Nah, might as well make an Armoured Phant to put the fear of Baal into the hearts of Romans.

[GamblerTuba]

The sacred band infantry are certainly wonderful. Phalanxes are at a bit of disadvantage for Carthage because of the lack of archers. Can always buys some mercs but then you have an army where both missile units and your main infantry line cannot be retrained in newly conquered territory. Luckily the SB do not take many casualties at all so it is seldom a problem. One or two units as spares is plenty.

I am not sold on the long shield cavalry though. The improvement from RS to LS does not seem to be very pronounced. Only 2 more attack? The defense is nice but my cavalry should never rely on defense stats. The enemy had better rout within a few seconds of the cavalry hitting anyway. Right now, (and my opinion may change as i go later in the campaign) I like RS for the grunt work because i can retrain them almost anywhere and LS do not seem to be too big of an upgrade. Just beginning to produce sacred band cavalry but their stats seem to imply a pretty big jump. SB cavalry have basically the same stats as your generals but should die more quickly. I plan on making a few units and treating them somewhat like elephants. Use them where necessary but try to minimize casualties because retraining will be a pain.

[Patroclus]

I love reading your battle reviews, GamblerTuba. I hope you keep posting them! :)

[GamblerTuba]

Thanks for the encouragement Patroclus. Glad to know at least someone is reading all this.

Well, it's official. I am an idiot. I fought the last major battle against the remaining Julii forces outside of Patavium. The battle was a victory but not very satisfying because of one major brain-cramp.

I had landed a new army from Carthage right outside of Patavium and laid siege. The next turn, I was attacked by two different Julii armies as well as the Patavium Garrison. My army consisted of 4 LS cav, 2 RS cav, a general, 2 armoured ellies, 4 SB inf, 2 Iberian inf, 2 rhodian slingers, 2 cretan archers, and 2 barb infantry.

The Romans brought a total of 2,200 men split into two major armies conisting of lots of principes, velites, equites and a few praetorian cohorts. The battle was initiated by a very small group of hastati and velites.

At the beginning of the battle, i formed my infantry into a battle line anchored by the elephants and went out hunting with my cavalry. The smaller third army started in the center of the map with the 2 large armies moving in as reinforcements. I annihilated the small army and nibbled the edges of the two main armies with cavalry before falling back to my infantry line.

As the Romans approached i set the slingers in front and archers behind the line and set both archers to fire arrows. With still nearly 2,000 men against my line, i knew that "psychological warfare" was my best bet. Unfortunately using fire arrows led to my eventual doom.... DOOM. (or at least major annoyance)

The archers and slingers did their thing and the enemy advanced in pretty good order. The Romans actually did a pretty good job of sending their cavalry and few infantry units to delay my cavalry on the flanks. Eventually my cavalry would have won out and begun to break the Romans apart but this is where Carthage really gets to have fun. Hey "Rome's Finest", say hello to Snuffleupagus! I sent my Ellies lengthwise through the Roman lines. They waved at each other when they passed in the middle, reached the ends and turned around for another pass. By then nearly every Roman unit was routing and I was laughing maniacally

Those of you that are smarter than a bag of hammers (unlike me) can probably guess why things suddenly turned horribly, horrifically wrong. Here's my internal monologue at the time.

"Wow, praetorian cohorts sure like pretty flying through the air. These armoured elephants aren't even taking any casualties. Oh wait, there goes one. Hmmm... the icon says they are taking missile damage... I thought all the velites were running like rabbits. Why do my elephants look unhappy. OMG my archers are still firing fire arrows!!!"

Both units of elphants ran amok halfway through their second pass. Luckily my cavalry was busy chasing routers as the Romans were already in full flight. I immediately withdrew all of my non-mounted units and got the cavalry out of the way. I still lost nearly an entire unit of slingers and about 70 SB infantry to my own elephants. Still a pretty crushing victory. The Romans lost 1900 men to my 200. Just very annoying that more than half of my casualties were self-inflicted.

Next turn Patavium fell as my spy opened the gate and the remaining Roman forces both inside and outside the city were slaughtered. The Julii are reduced to just Solona now. I took Lemonum from the Gauls but now wish i had not. What a dirt-worthless armpit of a city that place is. I did not even have the heart to enslave the 86 (86!!!) citizens.

Strange thing is that Germania came calling and asked me, Carthage, for an alliance. I couldn't believe it. I haven't had a friend in this game since Greece stabbed me in the back at Corinth so after going all vaclempt, i accepted the alliance which forced me into ceasefire with the Gauls. This was before I was able to take Mediolanum but oh well, I was planning on leaving some Gauls between me and Briton anyway. I am now on a spending spree trying desperately to keep my treasury below 50K. Turning a 25K profit each turn now. Once i have a few more invincible armies of Doom, i will march on either Pontus or Egypt.

[Patroclus]

Ah, archers in 'fire at will' mode have been many a cause of minor disasters for me in the past. :D I shouldn't worry about it.

86 citizens? Wow. Some serious enslavement/extermination must have been going on beforehand with that one.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Chance-taker Bass-Brass man:

What version are you playing? The Vanilla 1.5 iteration is actually pretty good at NOT shooting your own troops on fire at will, though it is possible for it to still happen depending on some positioning.

[GamblerTuba]

Still playing vanilla 1.5 and I agree the archers are usually pretty careful about avoiding friendly fire casualties. Sometimes they are too timid for my tastes. Unfortunately my elephants were getting a bit strung out and they just make such large targets. Only one elephant was actually killed before one unit ran amok and that caused the other unit to go nuts too. Roman "line" was complete confusion by that point too, thanks to the elephants, so archers would have a hard time finding a completely safe target. I will probably retrain those elephants and give them one more shot. Elephants are kind of like hand grenades. Really effective weapons but you had better know what you are doing.

I absolutely love fire arrows. They don't kill quite as many enemies but with Carthage, most of my kills come after a unit has routed anyway. I don't think i will ever dump the RS cav from my army. Their speed is just too much. I have run down at least a half dozen routing generals with a fresh unit of RS.

Not much going on in the campaign at the moment. Will be out of town for a while too so next update may have to wait.

[GamblerTuba]

As i said, not much happening on the campaign recently as i have been out of town and/or sick. Julii disappeared unexpectedly and i am not sure exactly how. Last i knew, the Julii still help Solona and Segestica. I took Segestica and then marched my army down to Solona and it was rebel? I completely missed the faction destroyed message so I guess the last Julii family member died in Segestica.

Also have completed the destruction of the Greeks. Greece had recently gone to war with Pontus and I was worried that the Greeks would be quickly destroyed seeing as they had been reduced to a single city in Asia Minor. I hurried a new army from Africa over and laid siege to the nearly empty city. Well, i need not have hurried. That same turn, my army was hit by a full stack Greek army with lots of armored hoplites and plenty of cavalry. Unfortunately the battlefield was fairly woodsy with small clearings which limited the effectiveness of my cavalry. I was unable to completely destroy the city garrison and some of the attacking cavalry escaped but the battle was quite successful.

The next turn, i stormed the city. Was a cakewalk because the only defenders left were cavalry. Iberians to take the towers and gates. SB infantry and Cretan archers to mop up all the cavalry. That finished the Greeks but there was still a full stack army (now rebel) in my new territory. Not sure if this is a change due to new patch but the army is still intact but rebel, led by a 5-star former Greek general. The army immediately parked on a bridge and may be a bear to finally destroy. 60K gold was not enough to bribe them away.

However, 60K gold was just enough to get a ceasefire with Numidia and now Carthage finds itself at war with NO ONE! Very strange but so far i am allied with Dacia and Germania and currently at war with no one. I am buying up as many mercs as i can and spending wherever i can but cannot keep my treasury down. Oh well, if i start some wars my trade will probably decrease quite a bit.

Gaul is acting like a buffer between myself and Briton so far. Dacia is busy fighting Thrace so until one side wins out there, I am probably going to be left alone. Pontus would have to walk through the burly rebel army to get to me. Numidia is keeping Egypt away so I could probably maintain peace for quite some time, except that makes life pretty boring.

I think with all this extra cash, i will make up a few "super armies" and land them at Alexandria and take my last 10 provinces from the heart of Egypt.

[GamblerTuba]

Pontus and Egypt are pretty busy fighting each other. As are Dacia and Thrace. Contacted my Dacian allies for a map update and they responded by asking me to attack Briton. I was getting pretty bored with peace anyway so i agreed and attacked Gaul while I was at it.

I quickly took Lugdunum from the British and Besieged Mediolanium which still belonged to the Gauls. Most of the Gaulish forces were actually in a fort near the bridge to the west so I was able to fight an open field battle when the forces moved back to relieve the siege. This was a custom built army with 4 SB infantry, 2 Poeni, 2 Iber inf, one cretan archer, 2 armored elephants, faction leader, and the rest LS cav. Battle against just over 1200 Gauls all told but only 800 in the initial force with the city garrison trailing behind.

The battle was very satisfying but not my favorite. Too easy. The map was mostly wooded but i set my infantry in the center of a clearing with elephants at each flank and hid my cavalry in the woods to either side. It was a slaughter. My LS did take some substantial casualties. Even when routing the chosen swordsmen can do some damage. It was pretty fun to see all those cavalry busting out of the woods while my elephants began carving up the lines. Only a few Gauls managed to sneak back off the field but they routed and left the city to me.

In the meantime a full stack army of Britons besieged the newly conquered Lugdunum. I had attacked the city the previous turn and actual won a heroic victory in taking it which was very surprising considering how costly the victory was. My army was the same merc dependant army that had overrun the Iberian peninsula with a few barb mercs thrown in. There is no clean way to destroy chosen swordsmen with spanish mercs and RS cavalry in a city but they got the job done. Anyway, my reduced force would have been carved up trying to sally against the scary stack. I tried it but the Brits had heavy chariots gaurding their flanks and my remaining four RS would not last long. So I sent a small cavalry force the long way round to hit the besiegers from behind and bring the city garrison in as reinforcements.... seemed like a good idea.

***Favorite Battle Begins***
I initiated the attack with a force of 324 (3LS, 2RS, and 1 Barb Cav) against a Briton army of 1600+ with my Lugdunum garrison as reinforcements. I was still an underdog but with the extra cavalry, I was not worried. Well the battle starts and instead of seeing my garrison moving in I get a message that reads "Reinforcements Delayed?" Hmmm... I pull my cavalry back hoping to buy some time... no luck. I begin to run my cavalry to another corner when I finally realized that my reinforcements are simply not gonna make it at all. I was considering withdrawing when i noticed that the Britons are losing some cohesiveness while trying to track my cavalry. The nearest units to me are the handful of vanilla warbands with no chariots nearby. So I crash in and start wiping out a unit here and a unit there. The British general dives in with his chariots and routs the barb cavs but I manage to surround him with a couple units and killed the general and routed off the rest of the chariots. I had a pretty good chain rout going but the chosen swordsmen were starting to chew up my cav units. At this point, all my units are less than half strength and all but three units are routing. The swordsmen are moving in as well so I pull my cavalry back. 2 routing units regain their courage and i manage to sneak them back to my line as well so I have 5 units of cavalry (3LS, 2RS) all at around 25 men against what is left of the British army. I line my cavalry up and let them rest for a bit and then... the British start withdrawing! I had bloodied them much more than I had thought and without their general they are leaving. I only managed to take out 3 more units before they left the field. But the final tally induced maniacal laughter from me. I started with 324men, Briton started with 1613. I ended the battle with 135men, Briton finished with 563. Needless to say, it was a heroic victory. Made even sweeter by the fact that I used my diplomat to bribe away the remaining leaderless remnant. So Briton lost a full stack of 1600men to an expeditionary force of just over 300... Beautiful.
***Favorite Battle Ends***

The Gauls are sending there remaining forces after Lemonum but I have managed to get some reinforcements there thanks to all my watchtowers. I also have my fingers crossed that my plague infected spy survives the trip from Sicily to Egypt. Approaching the 50 settlement limit but that battle described above was well worth playing this campaign through so far.

[mrdun]

Wow, away from guides for a few days and boom a flurry of posts, nice work GamblerTuba!!!!

[GamblerTuba]

Winding down my campaign but having some fun still.

Briton is effectively neutered. They still hold a few settlements on the continent and their islands but they are sandwiched between Carthage and my Germanian allies. Briton lost the majority of their remaining forces around Samarobriva. I almost felt sorry for them at the latest battle. A force of green warbands was trying to relieve the siege and got plastered by my elite force in the area. Final tally: Briton loses 1245men, Carthage loses 6.

Armoured elephants are truly terrifying weapons when used properly. Just make sure to follow the advice of all the other folks on this board
1. Avoid missiles! Javellins and fire arrows will make elephants crazy faster than you would guess.
2. Keep them moving. Elephants should either be standing out of battle as missile support or running THROUGH enemy formations.
3. Do NOT let them fight when tired.
4. Support with cavalry. To take advantage of the disruption that elephants cause, you want cavalry to follow right behind.
5. Elephants work best on the flanks. (obviously) Be careful that you elephants do not disrupt your own formations as they move around. Elephants will almost always end the battle if they can run length-wise through an already engaged infantry line.

My only complaint on the barbarian front is the ineffectiveness of sacred band infantry. These guys rock but so far the barbarians seem completely unwilling to fight them! Lately the Britons will split their army and try to attack my elephants on the flank instead of my infantry line. I may scale back to just 3 units of SB infantry per army, just enough to keep my archers secure. Kind of fun to have some Cretan archers kicking butt up in Normandy.

The real fun for the rest of this campaign is going to be against Egypt. I have held Pergamum for years having taken it from the Brutii. Pontus has so far left me alone and I have just recently seen Egyptian armies laying siege to Pontic Ancyra. Like a good neighbor I sent out a force to relieve the siege and started the long awaited war with Egypt. Pontus has allied with me and we have beaten the Egyptians back but with no decisive battles so far. The Eggies keep running like frightened rabbits from our combined armies. I now have every Egyptian port blockaded and landed a killer army at Alexandria. I skipped Alexandria to lay siege to Memphis (gotta love those pyramids). I am looking forward to a few climactic battles against top of the line Eqyptian troops and then this campaign will be over.

Next up will probably be a Seluecid campaign or perhaps the transition to BI.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Armoured elephants are truly terrifying weapons when used properly. Just make sure to follow the advice of all the other folks on this board
1. Avoid missiles! Javellins and fire arrows will make elephants crazy faster than you would guess.
2. Keep them moving. Elephants should either be standing out of battle as missile support or running THROUGH enemy formations.
3. Do NOT let them fight when tired.
4. Support with cavalry. To take advantage of the disruption that elephants cause, you want cavalry to follow right behind.
5. Elephants work best on the flanks. (obviously) Be careful that you elephants do not disrupt your own formations as they move around. Elephants will almost always end the battle if they can run length-wise through an already engaged infantry line.

An excellent precis.

My only complaint on the barbarian front is the ineffectiveness of sacred band infantry. These guys rock but so far the barbarians seem completely unwilling to fight them! Lately the Britons will split their army and try to attack my elephants on the flank instead of my infantry line. I may scale back to just 3 units of SB infantry per army, just enough to keep my archers secure. Kind of fun to have some Cretan archers kicking butt up in Normandy.

Try reversing normal doctrine. Put the spears as the flank unit and your sworders in the middle; elephants behind the spears.

If they go for the flank they face the pikes.

If the go for the middle, your swords will hold long enough for the hefalumps to swing out and run laterally which, as you noted above, usually spells game over.

Don't completely remove the Brits from the continent unless you seek war with Germany.

[Ozzman1O1]

Do you ALWAYS have your sacred band in phalanxe formation?If you do,most barbarian infantry are going to evade you.You put the band's spears up,and once the britons have came in contact,you have a large amount of briton carcasses.......And the elepants are the kind of cavalry you use to monuver around the enemy's side and slaughter the infantry in the front lines...(just keep them hidden)but if you have two armys sandwitching a massev briton army then you have squashed barbarian in between an elephant sandwich...(AKA,just charge at the warband from both sides)...reapeat that,and britannia is yours!But germania...you know what.just go into spain instead.

[Quintus.JC]

Carthage might be hard to play as but can be very rewarding. The are able to recruit the elephants and their cavalry and infantry is also impressive. However, they do suffer from very poor early game infantry, meaning they must rely on cavalry to win early battles. here is somethings i done during my campaign early on to ensure later success:
1. prepare to abandon corduba to spain if attacked.
2. give caralis to the Greeks as a gift.
3. train a strong navy.
4. conquer all of Sicily
4. destroy Numidia.

Now lets looks at their potenial enemies:
House of Scipii.
basic plot is simple, the scipii will attack Greece first, doesn't matter. using your faction leader with his force and attack messina on turn2 (recuit mecenary hoplite). the scipii force besieging Sycrecuse will turn around and attack you. defeat them in battle and messina is yours. the scipii won't take this nicely and will bombard you with forces from Capua. The solution is simple. train up a strong navy. and destroy their force will at sea. mainland Italy is separte from Sicily. the scipii will need to use their navy to make landings. don't let them! sink their ships and their force on board will sink with them. keeping on doing this and the scipii will not be a worry any more. you'll conquer Sycrecuse later and rule all of Sicily.

Numidia
These guys will come and ask for treat first and sneak up on you later. Carthage will never be safe with Numidia ready to backstab any minute. the solution is simple. destroy them, and as quick as possible. you'll have 1 family member in Palma and Corduba. move them out and recruit regional mecenaries. belaric slingers and Spanish Mercenary will best any infantry you can train right now. move them out and attack Cirta. (remember to ask map information first. Numidia is a awfully big comparing it's land mass). after that take Tingi and Dimidi acordingly. Take Nepte as well if it's held by the Numdians. After that they'll only have Siwa left and that is separated by Lipcus Magna. don't bother with them any more. you rule all of Western Africa without any worry of being backstabed. all of you African cities is safe, for now.

Spain
The chances are they'll try to take Corduba, but if you're lucky, like me. The Spanish will offer alliance and actually keep it. this is idea sitiuation. If they do decide to attack Corduba then just let it go. you'll get them back later.

Julii
Sooner or later the Julii will attack Caralis, if hadn't given it to the greeks already then just let the Julii take it without a fight, they'll be content after that and apart from their navy. you won't even notice they're there.

Brutii
Brutii might ocasionally block the port of Syrecuse. just make sure they don't land any troops in your region. most of the time the Brutii won't take aggresion against you until you take aggression on them.

After 40 years you'll be ready to take on Rome. The city of Carthage is growing fast and will be your troop production centre. Thapsus and Lilybauem will also reached large city at least. your core infantry should be made of Poeni Infantry with Sacred Band Infantry as elites. use Sacred band Cavalry as shock cavalry. Longshield cavalry haven't lost all it's use and will make it to your cavalry selection because of it cheaper cost compare to Sacred band. Use Elephant as weapon of mass destruction. early on these guys will your key to victory. i tend not to use them too much later during the game. in my case i ignored missile troops although. since Punic missile troop sucks anyways. it is important to wipe out all Roman factions before the Marian reformation, although it is more fun fight Legionaires. In my campaign i took Sicily first then conquered all out Western Africa. i didn't take Lipcus Magma because I wanted it to act as a buffer between Carthage and the remaining Numidian city. Corduba was untouched and Spain and Gaul fought over Celtiberia. Caralis was taken over by the Julii. 237BC i was ready. my army rolled into Italy. Rome was the first one to go then followed by everyone else. Brutii still had lands in the Balkans. I didn't care. I should all their navy and they had attack by land. my next step was the Iberian Penisular. the spanish had chased the Gauls out. luckily by that time Corduba already reached Large city and could look after itself. Spain attack Corduba, they were beaten back. a counter attack followed. the Spanish wars last for 15 years before the factions being totally destroyed. Gaul was a consistant pest on the northern borders but i had no intention of going into northern Europe. way too poor. next i journeyed across Africa and destroyed Numidia. then i was draged into a war with Egypt. this was the most fun part of the game. Egypt destroyed the Seleucid already and was the dominated faction of the east, till i came along. the long Egyptian-Punic wars lasted for more than 5 decades before Egypted was totally crippled, not destroyed. after fighting Pontus and taking Anatolia i was done and completed my grand campaign.

[mrdun]

Nice first post QJC

[RickFGS]

Early on get as many balearic slingers as you can in your armies, the enemies won´t have a great deal of archers and if you fight everysingle battle with these babies you´ll just win from a distance everytime. Use an army to autoresolve battles vs barbarian with lots of balearics on it, they will promote very fast and with a couple retrains they will be even usefull on the later game part.

To compensate the lack of archers (i wonder what were the gamedesigners thinking here, i guess the romans don´t die very well to arrows later on...but the pre-marian reforms don´t use as much armor or testudo....) just use Onagers with balearic, or get an medium sized army on a boat and conquer Crete, hire Cretan Mercenary Archers and you´re all set.

[Billah]

I have played all the Roman factions, and the Seleucids. Have not played the others yet.

Right now, I am playing a Carthaginian campaign on Medium/Medium.

I use diplomats primarily to trade maps so that I have an idea of where everything in the world is.

I started the game by taking Lepcis Magna, Syracuse, and Messana in the first couple of turns. I then built up a good sized navy and started sinking Roman ships with armies on them. The Julii continued to attack me at Caralis, and I beat many of their armies, but they eventually took it from me. I kept a good navy or two around Sicily for protection and spent a lot of time sinking Roman ships (many with armies onboard). No Roman Armies have landed on Sicily during the whole game.

Around this time, I started building up an army in Corduba, and I bought as many Spanish and Barbarian mercenaries as possible. I particularly like the Spanish mercenaries. I bought up all mercenary units of Hoplites and Cretan Archers that I saw, but I never use skirmisher troops at all.

After taking Lepcis Magna, I sent a diplomat over to Cyrene, and then bribed it.

During the game, I have not had alliances with anyone.

After the Julii lost a lot of armies and managed to take Caralis, they moved on Palma and landed a big army. They then took Palma, which was undefended because I had moved the troops that were there into Spain.

In Spain, I battled the Spaniards until I had exterminated them, and it was all very back and forth with me losing Corduba and Scallabis a couple of time. I eventually took all Spaniard provinces and wiped them out, and then I took Numantia from the Gauls. After taking Numantia from the Gauls, I left their faction alone to use them as a buffer between me and the Julii, and I defended the passes of the Pyrenees. I had to ship a full stack army of Long Shield Cavalry and Libyan Spearman from Carthage to Spain to help take out the Spaniards. I was going to use the army against Rome, but I changed my mind when the Navy was somewhere past Sicily.

While I was battling the Spaniards, I also moved on the Numidians and took all their provinces, and wiped them out as well, so I owned all of Western Africa from Cyrene to Tingi.

After I was done with the Numidians and the Spaniards, I sent out two full stack armies with Generals over to the Eastern Mediterranean, and with these two armies I managed to take: Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Halicarnassus, Sardis, Pergamum, Sparta, Corinth, Athens, and Thermon. And I wiped out the Greeks.

I then retook Caralis, where the Scipii had their last city, and I wiped them out too.

While this was going on, the Egyptians took Cyrene and Lepcis Magna. The Julii still hold Palma.

I am now at war with many factions, but I am only mobilizing armies against the Macedonians and the Seleucids, who I am warring at the same time. They both use similar armies. From these factions, I have taken Larissa, Thessalonica, Tarsus, and Antioch. Both will soon bite the dust. The Brutii are constantly besieging Thermon, but I am just killing them in droves.

I have all of Greece producing armies of Longshield Cavalry and Poeni Infantry, and I have Carthage producing Sacred Band Infantry and War Elephants. In Antioch I am training Poeni Infantry and Elephants. I am about to do major offensives against the Macedonians and the Seleucids and I should be able to finish them off quickly.

I have a full stack army of Sacred Band Infantry, War Elephants, and Poeni Infantry headed by navy for the Nile Delta right now (which my spies say is undefended), so I should be able to blitz Alexandria, Memphis, and Thebes quite quickly.

Soon after I finish with the Nile Delta, Ill start moving south on the Egyptian provinces of Sidon, and Jerusalem with my armies in the old Seleucid areas of Tarsus, Antioch, and Asia Minor. The Egyptians will be done quickly.

After I am done with all this, I'll invade Italy with a couple of picked armies. Right now, I have by far the best Navies, and I sink anything that I see. I also have very good Generals, and Assassins all over the map.

And I have hardly used Elephant units at all during the game, but I am now massproducing War Elephants out of Carthage, and Ill soon be making War Elephants in Antioch as well. I think that the year I am at in the game is 210 or so.

Right now most of my armies are made up of Poeni infantry and Long Shield Cavalry. I kept use of Iberian Infantry to a minimum because they are so weak, and used the Libyan infantry much more than they. I have made good use of Mercenary Hoplites, Spanish Mercenaries, and Cretan Archers. Against the Numidians, I used Mercenary Missle Cavalry to very good effect.

The faction that has given me the most trouble during battles is definitely the Macedonians. They have strong infantry, and they use a lot of Cavalry. I try to engage them from far off with archers and artillery, while I hold my infantry back, then I send my Cavalry running in behind their infantry line, and try to kill off all of their skirmishers and cavalry. I then engage with my infantry, and charge their spearman from behind when they are going against my infantry. It works very well. I used the same tactics against the Seleucids and Greeks too.

I have not had to battle the Egyptians very much, and I am a bit weary of going against them in battle because of the way their armies are built, but I should be able to jump them pretty well because they left their richest cities undefended, and Ill have them pumping out Sacred Band infantry in no time.

I'm enjoying the Carthaginians more than any other faction, even though it is just Medium/Medium. I have played the Roman factions and Seleucids on VH/VH, but they have much better armies than Carthage.

[Hannibalbarc]

I've finished about 5 campaigns as Carthage and the best way to a great start is
to move your army on Sicily to the Scipii city and take it the second turn, it really isn't that hard, especially if you hire the mercenaries, after you take the city the Scipii are screwed, finish off the Greeks on Sicily and from there go into Italy.
Early on your army should consist of mostly rs cavalry, Carthage can mass produce rs cavalry right from the start, and in my opinion your main unit early on is rs cavalry not iberian infantry, massed rs are very effective against the romans and their much cheaper than your infantry.

[Quintus.JC]

Yes cavalry is the key, but for me elephant is the saviour for Carthage and the Seleucids early on. without them i wouldn't of stood a chance.

[Emperor Mithdrates]

You dont have to abandon ANY cities to begin with. I managed to hold every Carthaginian city until about 70 Years into the game when I lost Cordoba, but lets face it. Thats such an isolated province its pointless to fight for. During this 70 years aswell as holding all cities I conquered Sicily and the house of Brutii. the trick is to capture the Greek/Sicilian city of Syracuse. from this heavily fortified city, you can hold out against the Scipii until reinforcements from Carthage.

[Emperor Mithdrates]

No way.
To hell with Corduba. Im too far away to care. I normally abandon the city and ship all Southern, Spanish, Carthaginian troops to the city on Sicily. There i gather my forces before attacking Syracuse so the scipii cant get it. Then I quickly Ally myself against the greeks that i've just attacked and from my new heavily fortified city I begin rebuilding my army before attacking messana. fro there you can build a big enough navy to launch a mainland invasion on the Italian peninsular.
then the demon scipii are destroyed.
LONG LIVE CARTHAGE!