Numidia

[Good Ship Chuckle]

Thank you, woad&fangs. You're too generous.

Suddenly all the hard work that I put into those previous posts seems worth it.


Anyother comments?

[Darkvicer98]

I like your Story of the Numidian Empire. I see you've got your RTW on speed graphics(The Numidian Empire Part 2 has a pic of numidian legionaries with pointed feet and hands),which is what i've got mine on. How do you take a pic of your game whilst in gameplay?

[Xipe Totec]

Many thanks Chuckle for a fascinating account of your Numidia campaign which was packed with humour and many useful insights and observations. Definitely one of the best RTW posts I can remember reading on this or any other forum.

It's always good to see the underdog come out on top cause it gives us all hope to keep on battling when it seems impossible. Anyone who has played Numidia knows what a challenge it is on so many levels. The big surprise for me was how effective the JavCav could be against the Romans, despite the unimpressive melee stats. I was pretty surprised you thought them ideal to throw at the Egyptians though because I have had stacks of horse archers horribly shredded by Egyptian chariots when playing as Armenia and Parthia. I am also often underwhelmed by the casualties JavCav inflict on Infantry. They can be trouble if the enemy have a decent general and so cannot be intimidated into routing, especially if they have plenty of spearmen or phalanxes and archers and occupy a high position. Even the dreaded Greek militia cavalry are quite effective though after praying to Artemis or Abnoba. My all-time favourite JavCav has to be Pontic Heavies though because they are also good melee heavy cavalry when the javs run out (don't even think about saying you preferred Spanish Jinetes, they weren't that good really).

Like you I ran screaming from the Egyptians at the start in Siwa, prefering to focus on the Carthies, Scipii in Sicily and then Spain and the Gauls. I got to Samarobriva eventually and conquered most of Italy but the damn Brutii had already taken over all of Greece and are producing endless stacks of many chevroned gladiators etc. The Egyptians are heading closer to Lepcis Magna with muchos stackos. The major problemo as Numidia is how long it takes to produce the fine Legionaries with the two turn production thing and how few places are upgraded enough to do it, whilst the blasted Romans can build legions anywhere they like double-quick.

It's not what you've got though it's what you do with it that counts and as with any weak faction the key to victory is conquering territory by daring, coup de main and taking calculated risks on defence. The human player rarely misses an opportunity to exploit a weakness and is usually paranoid enough to predict every backstab and threat in time to counter it.

What I'd like to know is has anyone found Camels to be particularly effective and should they ever venture outside the desert. I built a load to guard Carthage and Thapsus but they havent really got into any fighting yet so I'm still wondering which smells worst, them or the enemy.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

@Darkvicer98
Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. I find the forums to be most entertaining when you can relate with someone else and their experiences with RTW. And about screenshots: I press the "Print Screen" button on my keyboard. This takes a snapshot of yourscreen, and saves it on your clipboard. Then go Paint and paste from the edit dropdown menu, and there's your screenie. But make sure to save it as a JPEG, which takes less memory, which then makes them much easier to upload etc.

@Timoleon The Brave
Thank you for holding my account of the Numidian Empire in such high esteem, and your eloquent response to it. I wish the Org was filled with more people like you, that show appreciation to the sentiments that your fellow Org-members feel passionate about.

In your post you talked as if you've played the Numidians before. If so, let me give you the biggest hint that I found necessary in using the Numidians. Become a master of using JavCav. With out that critical skill I possess, I would have been unable to win. But please, upload some of your screenshots of your campaign with the Numidians, to give me (and anyone else for that matter) a better sense of your campaign.

[Xipe Totec]

Unfortunately I have not been able to work out how to get screenshots to work for me. Print Screen during RTW just gives me a nice copy of my desktop to paste from the clipboard. If anyone can suggest another method I'd be grateful as I can't find any posts on the subject at the moment ...

I have returned to my campaign after reading of Good Ship Chuckle's great victory, following a break of about 5 months playing other campaigns. Currently in 222bc. After finishing the Gauls in Alesia which netted me my third temple to Epona (+2 experience), I have focussed on my mission to wipe out the Julii in North Italy. The Britons are busy fighting the Brutii in central Germania, and the Egyptian stacks are wandering about in the deserts of Tripolitania but haven't attacked me yet.

After many epic battles with the Julii and Brutii in Cisalpine Gaul and Venetia I have finally secured the area and have the remnants of the Julii starving in Arretium and Ariminum. Capua fell after the Senate attacked my army besieging the Scipii and lost due to lots of rapid cavalry action on the flanks. Thus the threat of the invincible Senate is no more, so consolidation of Italy is well underway. When I have all Italy I can plan to invade Greece where the Scipii remain in Sparta and Corinth, with the Brutii in the remaining Greek and former Macedo territories.

My armies are now based on 2 chevron legionaries or triple chev desert inf with some archers behind and strong cavalry on both flanks made of bodyguards and longshields. The archers do some damage but in most battles against the Romans I find that they are quite keen to attack my lines pretty quickly, so it's the cavalry who do most of the killing from the flanks and take most of the casualties too. So far I have been impressed with the performance of the legionaries against Roman Infantry, although they suffer badly when charged by big Roman General bodyguard units. I have some Numidian cavalry but they are definitely playing a minor role in this campaign. In my first Numidian campaign I used full stacks of them which were good against infantry heavy armies but were splattered by Roman armies with many generals and equites.

The Camels are still waiting in Carthage for the Egyptians to start. I realised that even though they may still scare Roman horses in Italy and be fairly effective cavalry, they can't be retrained in Italy after those messy Pyrrhic battles unlike my horse units. I hope they can scare Egyptian chariots and desert cav too, although Pharoahs Guards may be a tough nut to crack.

Numidia continues to challenge you when other campaigns run out of steam cause they get too easy. Perhaps a brilliant early blitzkrieg strategy neutralizing the Romans is fun for a while but ultimately it removes the main point of the game: taking on the Hydra like Roman families with their endless regenerating heavy cav, heavy infantry and ability to spread like vermin on their other fronts whilst you seem to be killing more of them than even Hannibal did. Authentic I believe though (apart from the cavalry) because the success of the Roman Republic militarily was largely due to its immense pool of available manpower which allowed rapid recovery from catastrophic defeats. Some brilliant generals were very influential also (Scipio, Marius, Lucullus, Caesar) but most were incompetent politicians polishing their own egos and getting their men killed.

[Darkvicer98]

Looks like your campaign's going well,Timoleon the Brave. I wish i could start a campaign with Numidia but my graphics are weird(see the entrance hall and look for 'RTW Graphics Help!!!' by me). So i guess i'm getting nowhere with Numidia at the moment .

[Ibn-Khaldun]

@Timoleon the Brave

Try Fraps ..
It is sort of freeware .. pics are saved in .bmp format and you can make 30 sec movies with it .. if you register then there are more options available

[Good Ship Chuckle]

Excellent Timoleon the Brave.

You definately have a different style than me. But I like it. You seem more infantry based with Numildian Infantry and Desert infantry with heavy cav to do the heavy duty flanking. I'm the opposite. Cheap low tier cavalry that I use relentlessly against the opponent. Your way I'm sure will ultimately give you victory.

Oh, and good luck with Egypt! I might have made it look easy in my account, but more than once they gave me a run for my money.

Bona Fortuna!

[Xipe Totec]

Thanks Ibn-Khaldun for the tip. FRAPS is very easy to use and produces excellent results.

Chuckles: I think my failure to find a single Abnoba Sacred Grove or Circle despite conquering the whole of Iberia and Gaul pursuaded me to rely less on Numidian Cavalry. Plus it is one of their strengths to be able to produce basic archers very quickly anywhere, so I needed a spear line to protect my archers.

I have killed off the Julii and the Senate and now control all Italy (219bc).

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that many of my Roman aquisitions in Italy can now build Quinquiremes! Curious as Numidia can only build biremes using our own buildable ports.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

Yes, it is very curious indeed that the Numidians can produce warships all the way up to quadriremes, and yet they can only construct the basic port . The creative assembly does work in mysterious ways.

I see that you must be heading in a more northerly direction than I did. I'm wondering...How may cities do you have at this point? And how far do you plan on going North or East? You should also post some pics, now that you have the capabilities. Pictures can speak many more words than you can in a single post.

[Xipe Totec]

OK Good Ship Chuckle thanks for the interest. My campaign map is currently as follows, having 32 provinces:

The conquest of Italy completed with the capture of Ariminum:


The Brutii go for Trier:


The conquerors of Rome gain a sudden insight into sophisticated ship building:


My lovely new Roman palace overlooking the Circus Maximus:


The Ziggurat like Awesome Temple of Baal in Corduba:


The Execution Square in woody Alesia opposite the Sacred Grove to Epona during a snow flurry:



As to where to go next? I've just thrown everything at Italy except a camel & desert Inf army guarding Carthage. The Egyptians have headed off home so I may leave them alone if they do likewise and focus on Greece next. I'm slowly building an army at Alesia in case the Brutii threaten it but have no desire to conquer Britannia or Germania unless the Romans take them over. I'm allied to Germania at present which is why I have not attacked Lugdunum.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

Looks excellent!
I already have some hints for you right off the bat.
1) You must deal with Brittania. Either make an alliance with them to help fend off the Brutii, or attack them and take as many of their provinces as you can so that it will be that many fewer provinces that the Brutii will have. Doing nothing will only allow the Brutii to consolidate their power, and better fight you in the long term. Give the Romans an inch and they'll take a mile.

2)About taking Greece: If the Brutii are strong, descend through Illyria with your forces. If you take your troops south to take Greece from the tip up, it will leave you vulernable in northern Italy. Now if the Brutii are weak, you should land a naval invasion at Laconia and then work you way up so that you can 1. finish off the meek Scipii and 2. have your back to the sea (which is always a good thing).

3) But most importantly you should take Greece no matter what, because that's where all the money is at.

4) And take your lazy camel army out of Carthage and make them do what they're paid to do! Take them to help in the invasion of Greece. The Egyptians aren't interested in traveling across vast tracts of desert to kill some harmless desert Nomads. But just in case, have your spies swarm the Lybian countryside and make sure that the Egyptians don't try anything smart. And if they do, you will have plenty of time to prepare becuase of your spies forewarning. (PS don't build roads at Lepcis Magna. Doing so will only make the Egyptians journey that much faster if they do decide to attack.)

5) I lolled at the thought of barbarians having to look at their kinsmen being beheaded as they pray to Epona.

That's it. Good luck!

[Xipe Totec]

I allied with Britannia so I could focus on the last 2 Roman factions. After I stormed Iuvavum and Segestica the Brutii pulled out of Britannia territory and headed for me in Noricum.

I sent all my veterans from Italia straight to the heel to board ships for the Pelopponese and Laconia. Mission: destroy the Scipii before they spread eastwards any further.

Attack on Corinth (Timoleon's home town!). A special delegation of Numidian Legionaries delivers a grammatically perfect message in Latin:





The camels meanwhile had a long sea voyage from Carthage to Crete, where the Scipii had their last outpost. They converged on the Romans en masse from two ends of the same street scaring the pants off the hastati and velites, and prompting the general to charge in himself -



"You smell that? ... Camel dung son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of camel dung in the morning. Smells like... Victory!"





The Scipii Family Robinson took Rhodes the turn before my camels took Kydonia and so survived, marooned on an island. After marching their armies back to near Siwa, Egypt blockaded Sparta with one bireme ( ?). The camels are getting restless now.

Germania broke our long alliance to stay allied to Egypt, so my army from Alesia is on the way to Lugdunum now to punish their treachery. Dacia also decided to attack Segstica with one general, breaking my brief alliance with Britannia.

Chopping blocks are being prepared...

[Darkvicer98]

Looking good Timoleon the Brave. Keep sending us updates of your campaign. Another thing you should do is prepare for Egypt and defend Lepcis Magna. Don't invade Egypt's homeland yet because of rebellions and plagues but try to stop them expanding their empire.

[Darkvicer98]

Yesterday i fixed my graphics problem and so i've started my Numidian Campaign which has gone really well. I've conquered Carthage,Thapsus and Lepcis Magna using 217 Numidian Cavalry and Generals. I've killed over 1000 carthaginians(unit size on normal)and 5 generals plus i've defended Lepcis Magna from Scipii who had Hastati,Velites and archers with 3 units of Numidian Javlinmen,2 units of Numidian Cavalry and a General(all from Siwa).

Next i hope to split up Carthage by taking the islands inbetween Corduba and Sicily then invade Sicily. I haven't got any screenshots yet but i hope to.

[Xipe Totec]

Attacking the Carthaginians early is definitely the right way to go. I tried to be nice to them once as Numidia and ally against the Romans and Spanish. Carthage attacked me with everything they had and I had to give up the campaign after losing Cirta and Tingi before I got off the ground.

At this stage I would advise doing all you can to break the Scipii and avoid all out war with the nightmare that is Egypt. I have always started a Numidia campaign dreaming of an early foray into the Nile, but have never been able to produce anything to deal with Egypt at that early stage. When I have tried to hold Siwa at all costs I have found that Egypt just keeps throwing bigger and better stacks at it until you are overwhelmed, regardless of their obvious threats on other fronts. In all my campaigns as Egyptian neighbours they seem to forget everyone else around and throw everything at you.

As you cannot avoid a war with all of the Roman factions from an early stage, and once started it can only be ended with their destruction or yours, I would recommend doing all you can to avoid war with Egypt as well. Take them out later when you have plenty of camels and Balearic slingers who simply crucify chariots in a very gratifying way and very quickly.

The Scipii above all you must hate with a passion. They must learn that Numidians do not take kindly to dissembling tricksters who set fire to their camels during the hours of darkness!

[Darkvicer98]

Yes well put Timoleon the Brave. I now own Sicily,all of Northern Africa and 1 island nearest to Rome. I'm preparing to attack Capua and Rome whilst avoiding Brutii and Julii. The Scipii won't give up on Sicily and keep sending fleet after fleet against my Numidian Cavalry and Desert Infantry. However because they're so close to Rome i need to bring big armies to deal with their huge army stationed outside Rome. With that i can secure victory in Italy.

The reason i don't want to attack Brutii or Julii is because they own quite a few settlements and Brutii has the sea inbetween Italy and West Greece for trade which generates quite a few denarii to build huge armies.

[fatherrex]

my strategy on numidia
i m sorry i would not tell you how to fight in micromanagement.
But i would like to share the marco strategy on how to against other powers.

it is not doubt the numdia is diffcult i shard to play with its weak infantry and cavalry .
so, if we can not win in quality , then we should consider to win on amount.

thats means a more powerful and efficiency back up should be our target.
which allow a massive army forces and lost can be recover .

so,how we achieve that?
it is easy, lots of city and population.Which provides massive army and money.

what problems we may face to achieve that?
1.Africa is to large and long distance between few cities.
2.you may face attack from Spain, carthage ,egypt,and romans.

what are my suggest to you?

1.destroy the weakest first. Cathage
2.decrease your potential enemies. dismiss the garrison of the cities shared with spain and egypt .
3.move your capital to cathage.

These three steps can help you avoid unnecessary war and save much money of garrison, so you can face less enemies and focus few.
Don't forget destroy these cities you give up, destroy the buildings and slave citizens .

when you follow the 3 steps, your mission is much simple now, to conquer the sicily.
when you achieve, invade the italy , conquer it, thats difficult but possible, don't forget your enemy
is romans only, and you have enough cities and money to do that. it is hard but it can be done.
Always keeps your armed forces advantage on amount.

i assume you have conquer the whole italy include the two cities of Guals in ittaly.
Block all the road to prevent the invade of any barbarians form north italy.
move your capital to Rome or Capua , give up the Africa expect cathage and thapes.

and now you may consider to invade Greece.
the development will finally bring you the numidia legion infantry and war elephant.

i m talking the veryhard/veryhard, and always does.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

Quite contrary to his grammar and spelling, he gives very good advice.

Everything he says there is correct, but he leaves a few things out--Such as defense. The offensive strategy of going for the gullet of Rome is good, but how will he fend off the Spainards or Egypt while his forces are busy in Italy?

[dAbY()]

Numidians

Overview

- Numidia's military is better than you might think, they might not have such a wide unit choice, but what they have, it's good. The Numidian Cavalry, it's a LOT stronger than most people think. Surrounding any unit (Even Urban Cohort) with 2-3 Numidian Cavalry, peppering them, and charging them kills. Then we have Desert Infantry. A very good allround unit, nothing wrong with it. Use it as much as you can. Numidian Legions... well, that speaks for itself of course. Numidian Camel Riders... oof, my favorite. They scare all horses, they just ride down anything they come acroos, and it's fun to see how stupid the camels walk

- Numidia's campaign situation on the other hand, it's starting position, is not that good as you might expect, but, conquer only one single town, and all your problems will be fixed (this comes later) At the beginning, Numidia's overall territory is divided into two parts : Cirta, Dimmidi and Tingi, near two Carthaginian towns, and on the other side Siwa, near the Egyptians. Both strong adversarries, so, you need to be offensive. Money is not so much of a problem, unless you don't manage your towns very well, and only focus on military. Some more of this later.

- Numidia's economy begins quite strong (Except one town) then drops a bit, gets into a depression (every game this happens, and there is nothing you can do about it) bit, after you conquer one single town, your income will rise. But it will fall again unless you conquer another, and another, and so on. So with Numidia, your economy is only stable if you have a constant expansion. Preferably to the east, as barbarian towns often don't give so much trade. I would conquer Spain though. But leave out the rest. You should build roads and ports early on, as you need a lot of trade stimulation, to help settle your economy.


Conquering

Who would have thought, that Numidia might conquer... sheesh. But, back to the point. Numidia's conquering is a quest for a stable economy. And of course, to win the game, but primarily it's an economy quest. Your very first town to conquer should be Carthage. Why? Becouse, with it's sea and land thrade, it connects Siwa, you your main chunk of land. Until now, Siwa always had a negative revenue, even with Very High Tax right. After you conquer Carthage, they give you about 700 on Easy, 500 on Normal, 300 on Hard and 150 on Very Hard. So, from something that was a trouble early on, you make big profits. Right... but as you look, after a bouple of turns, your towns start to get a negative revenue. Argh!

So, keep conquering, but, if you want to build up more before starting to conquer, there is a little option :

You conquer only Carthage, Thapsus and Leptis Magna. In that order. You do not conquer the little town under Dimmidi (OMG, the first time ever I can't remember a town name ) Just keep those going with Siwa, keep all towns connected, in some sort of way. And build shrines to Tanit, rather than Milqart. Baal shrines are not that important, as Numidia can build peasants just as well as other factions You can keep this up for about 50 turns, then, somehow, the economy goed bad, maybe becouse of too much population.

But, if you begin to conquer. You have all of Africa, except Egypt. Leave them as they are, they sohuldn't worry you. You have to own the following provinces when you start to conquer : Siwa, Cirta, Tingi, Dimmidi, Carthage, Lepcis Magna, Thapsus, Cyrene, and the Sahara town. The first thing you should just... conquer, is Palma. Why? Becouse this is going to be your major Trade Centre (And planes didn't exist at that time, so don't worry about terrorists), it is going to be your connection with Europe. Make trade agreements with Gaul, Spain and Julli, the SPQR, the Scipii, the Brutii and possible the Greeks. When you have Palma, start building up forces quickly, and make sure that no town has negative revenue. The first thing you should take is Carthaginian Syracuse (if the Scipii haven't conquered it yet, if they have, you've run out of luck, and should start with Egypt). The first thing to attack is Memphis when you go to Egypt, as you'll need the loyalty very hard. Next is Alexandria, with it's lighthouse, always useful. And then conquer Thebes. Don't go too far east, just conquer away the following cities to get some trade booming : Petra, Sidon, Jerusalem, Antioch, Tarsus, Halicarnassus, Salamis and Rhodes. Develop trade, and boom the trade as much as you can. When you have about 5000 revenue on Easy, 4000 revenue on Normal, 2500 revenue on Hard, or 1000 revenue on Very Hard, you can conquer Parthia and (possible) leftovers from the Seleucids. Now, it's time to cool down. You will have all the middle east, and Turkey (including the two Armenian towns) And you should have a bordeer with Scythia. Cool down, as you have a tradeboom going, and this one is going to last. Now, where should you go.. conquer Spain, and onto the barbarian areas, or go for Greece? I'd say, go for Greece, and take Sicily at the same time. The Romans should pose no problem at all for Numidia. Desert Infantry is a good all-round unit, and the Numdian Legionaries will do their job, even before the Romans possibly already can build Legionaries of their own. Cavalry should be no problem, as your Desert Camels should wipe them out without any trouble.

When you have Greece and Sicily, conquer away Italy, and get going to finish the campaign. For me, 50 provinces while holding Rome isn't finishing the campaign. For me, possessing the whole world and Rome is a victory, and a good one. Make this your goal rather than the 50 provinces.. but then again, it's your choice...


Your Buildings

Oh goody, Ho Hum (© Spork Corporation, All rights reserved. Spork Guide subsection fifteen, line eight hundred and ninety-two.) In my opinion, Numidia has possible the easiest townbuilding of all. Just get to a 6000 Size city, and you have all cavalry. You get their main unit with one experience there too! Get to 12000 and you have all Numidian units. Easy, quick, fine, good. Conquer Carthage, build just two buildings, and you can make all Numidian units. Easy, quick, fine, good. You can conquer away, all at the beginning, before the Romans can even make Principes.

But, now to buildorders. With Numidia, especially at the beginning, I always build Roads primarily. Why? Numdian lands are HUGE, you need to be able to transport troops quickly to anything dangerous. And, becouse Numidia's main source of income (at the start) is land trade. So, what comes after roads? A Shrine to Tanit, which boosts trade. After that, build a marker, or trader or anything in that matter, as long as you see some apples in the Building's picture.

Numidia's main way to fight, is ranged. Nearly all factions require building a Barracks sort of building, as the first of all military buildings. I'd rather build an Archery. Why? Numidian archers are just good units. They might be simple archers, but there is something that makes them good... wait, I KNOW WHY. THE FEATHERS

The next thing should be stables, as Numidian Cavalry is such a good allround unit, oof. Then comes barracks. So, Numidia has some sort of reversed military build order. You may want to choose stables first rather than Archery ranges, when you are beginning to conquer Europe, but by that time, you will have good allround armies, so it won't really matter whether you build the one of the other first.


Oh noes, the Scipii

Yes the Scipii (Scee-Pee-Ee, not Sci-Pi-I, that isn't Roman, that's Chinese), they always bug you. When they're alive, when they're dead, and... something inbetween. If you don't get an alliance quick, they will keep invading you till about 5670 AD. So, what to do against the Scipii... here are a few basic tips, for those having trouble with these weird little Chinese Romans...

1. Bribe them. Get Lilybaeum before they do, try to make an alliance with the Greeks if they've not been driven out yet, and bribe all possible Scipii. Try to bribe Messana, if you have enough Denarii for it. Make Syracuse a buffer against the Scipii.

2. If you're too late, you can do the following : Put an army on Syracuse (not the town, the whole island) And pick off small Scipii forces. This makes your troops experienced. Now, just wait for the Scipii to bring a large army, and slaughter them. More experience. If your troops are getting short, get Lilybaeum, but don't conquer any further, as you need to really conquer Europe, at the same time you attack the Greek penisula.

3. Get an Alliance. Offer money for it, offer maps for it, anything, except giving a town away. Get a bit cushy with them, if not, they will stab you in the back, and you will get a message, with that FANTASTIC SCREAM (I can't stop listening to that sound when I get the message ) With the following title : Betrayed. Offer each 5 years or so, to do a map exchange, that will usually help getting a bit more close with eachother...


Fighting Battles

Numidian fighting can be a bit complicated, but also, a bit simple. The goal is, to weaken enemies by heavy ranged fire, and then let your main units finishing it. Not quite so many factions have the ability to do this, only three are the real masters concerning this : Scythia, Armenia and Numidia. Why is numidia among them, while they don't have any Horse Archers. Well... ALL of their first line units, are ranged units. Numidian Javelinmen, Numidian Cavalry and Archers. Use this. Pepper enemies, and just let your Numidian Cavalry charge. In later stages of the game, use the Legionaries as Javelinmen, rather than Infantry. Let them pepper enemies together with your ranged units, and make sure they waste every spear, arrow, boulder, and er... that's it. Then charge with everything. Don't worry about cavalry, becouse Numidian Cavalry can handle all early-stage cavalry, and by the time you get to face better, and stronger and heavier cavalry, your Camel Riders and Desert Infantry should do the job.

A basic starting Numidian army looks like this :

7 Numidian Cavalry.
7 Numidian Javelinmen
6 Archers

Basically, a good army, weak against cavalry. So target cavalry when firing rather than infantry.

A mid-game Numidian ARmy looks like this :

4 Numidian Cavalry
4 Numidian Javelinmen
10 Desert Infantry
2 Archers

Now, you can also counter cavalry easily. And you have a basic infantry force


That's the basic type of warfare with Numidia. Now comes late stage-fighting. Through the game you didn't really need to make your own formations and battle setups... But sometimes, Numidia needs to take a more human formation, rather than an AI formation. Usually I just say in my guides : find out yourself. Why? Becouse you need some own experience, intuition. IT will help you later on in the game, not just with Numidia, I mean the game generally. It helps stimulate you to think better during battles, and it will help you make formations of your own. No formation is best, how good a formation is, is again, determined by YOU.But, with Numidia, I make an exception. As the following battle tactic needs some explaination, beoucse I've decided to give you an alternative, as most of you find Numidia difficult to fight with.

L = Legionaries
NC = Numidian Cavalry
DI = Desert Infantry
A = Archers
CR = Camel Riders
NJ = Numidian Javelinmen
LSC = Long Shield Cavalry


_____DI___DI___L___L___L___L___L___DI___DI_____
LSC__CR__CR____NC__NJ__NC________CR___CR__LSC
___________________A__A_______________________

Basically : Use your Legionaries as a main force, Desert Infantry For flanking. Archers, Javelinmen, Numidian Cavalry and Legionaries will pepper. Desert Infantry charges the flanks, alongside the Legionaries, smashing into the main force. Long Shields go way behind the enemy lines, and smash in from behind. Camel Riders slaughter the enemy Cavalry. Hammer and Anvil (Whoops, Ripoff from Alexander the great)

[Rome shall Burn]

So here's the deal, this is my first post on here and Im less than a month into playing RTW. I started playing with other factions but it was way too easy, especially with Rome even though I started out playing h/h from the beginning. So in looking for a challenge I heard that the consensus choice for the worst faction in the game is Numidia so I unlocked them and am about to begin my third try playing as them on vh/vh. Btw Im wondering how anyone posts anything about how good they are playing when they are playing anything less than vh/vh, I mean come on I just started playing and very new to the game and I find that pathetic.

Anyhow, my first two campaigns have went largely the same. My general early strategy in the games so far has been to make a permanent ally out of Carthage, to unite my lands, to hunker down and bulk up economically and then to go north across the sea to attack Spain and then go from there.

Although I am well aware of how weak Carthage is early on (a pushover for any Roman faction) I like the idea of using Carthage as a buffer against Rome and Egypt early on. See the way I reason, Numidia cannot afford much of anything in military early on and conqueoring Carthage too early would just give me large cities that I could not protect from the oncoming inevitable Roman invasions. Also Hannibal is my favorite historical figure and therefore I like keeping Carthage in the game since they make things more interesting in the mid to late game when they really hit their stride. So on the first couple of turns I make an alliance with Carthage, trade rights, map info, the whole deal and give them Siwa to seal the deal. In doing so I give the province to my ally and avoid at least for a time the full stacks of Egypt that would take Siwa anyways.

So uniting the small empire is not difficult and once I have done it I use my meager turn to turn income exclusively on economic buildings/temples and for a few merc javcav units. I like to take Lepcis Magna and the small rebel town due west to Magna in the beginning game as well. By allying with Carthage and avoiding Egypt I usually start off with a game where I am at peace and am able to build up for a few turns.

I like to establish early trade relations with as many factions as I can of course but life has sucked both games as my diplomat has been bribed away.

In the early game I find Numidia so pathetic that even rebel bands that have a few cavalry units can be quite annoying. One really great thing about my early Numidian attempts is that I seem to get many many Generals very quickly which is great because the Generals bodyguards are my only decent units beside numidian cavalry. Using javcav armies with a family member or so is amazing early on. I get good experience added to my Generals and their armies against rebels and take a couple rebel towns in the process, not bad.

However, in both my games I have found Numidia's terrible economic position to be so bad that my military is severally limited. I have achieved massive victories and have totally crushed giant enemy armies. However, there are many issues I have ran into.

1. Carthage will not stay allied with me, those fools. When they do stay with me Rome is kept out of Africa entirely and they are able to hold onto their portion of Sicily. However, when they attack me it keeps me from advancing anywhere else, allows Rome to come at me and screws things up in General. I love mowing down Carthaginian infantry and routing their elephants but eventually they bring huge cavalry strong armies that crush my easily routable jav cav.

2. Rome is beat easily enough early on but when they start coming with full stacks including equites and multiple family members, things begin to suck. Keeping Numidian jav cav away from the enemy when you have many units to micro is tedious and they rout as soon as they are caught.

3. Random attacks from either Spain or Gaul, another nuisance that takes troops away from any early objectives and the time it takes to get troops across the desert is ridiculous.

4. Siege warfare is impossible against full stack enemies. I rout the enemy in the fields but when I get holed up in a city I have nothing to counter the enemy advances. It also sucks because I cant take enemies largest cities early on. Desert infantry are solid but their upkeep and slow movement across the map allows them to be made only in my cities I know will be getting sieged or where I need extra defence. Over and over I lay siege to a city with my cav armies and wait it out not wanting to lose countless units attacking cities with large stone walls and legit troops inside. So I wait and when the enemy sally forth I cripple them but enemy relief forces always seem to hit my sieging armies right before I can take the city which causes me to get caught between good garrison and full stack relief forces. And btw I usually only have small armies never more than 10 units so I can keep my unkeep costs down, no clue how you all are posting stuff about full stacks early on, except that the difficulty level probably accounts for that.

5. Fielding a legitimate navy is expensive and in general very difficult. I like trying to build up a navy but Carthage's navy rapes mine early on and what Carthage doesnt take out is usually beaten by Pirates and Spain. Ideally I would like to stay allied with Carthage long enough to get a city or two in Spain, preferably on the coast, and then my real ambition is to take Kydonia and then Rhodes to help my economy greatly. However, everytime I leave with any sort of force I get attacked. Spain, Rome, Gaul, and Carthage very early and if I dont give up Siwa I have Egypt to deal with as well. Also I have often been attacked by waves of Julii and Scipii on successive turns.

Building up with the economy is difficult but it is also really difficult to hold good cities once you have taken them.

Some response to what Ive said would be helpful, Im relying on some good feedback here. I really dont want to abandon the Carthage strategy since someone posted a successful Carthage/Numidian alliance that lasted over a hundred years on a vh/vh campaign. So anyways thats kinda the state I find myself in but Im about ready to give it another go on try three...havnt technically lost yet, just keep trying to start over to get a better result and not lose any of my cities.