Carthage Tip: Make a Honey Pot

**Red Harvest** · 09-30-2004, 17:14

I've had good luck as the Carthaginians so far, thought I would share early strategy.

1. First thing I did on turn 2 or 3 was march an army into the Scipii's Messana territory and take it (think I had elephants so I could ram down the gates on the first turn, no siege.) Use some naval reinforcement. Then I held off the following assaults. The Brutii and Scipii attacked it primarily.

2. Put diplomats/spies in your cities in Sicily to keep that Greek diplomat from bribing everyone.

3. If you are playing "very hard," the Greek's will attack from Syracuse despite a trade agreement. They will be nearly all hoplites in a big stack. Cav army will deal with them (flank them individually.) Take Syracuse after that army is crushed. After doing this I got the diplomat to agree to a ceasefire by giving him 2,000 denari as compensation for Syracuse (he wanted Syracuse back as condition of ceasefire.)

4. The Honey Pot: Sardinia. After repulsing various Roman attempts at retaking Messana, they gave up. They went after Sardinia next as I expected. I would sneak out the back of the city and then kill off the armies (don't want to do sallies if you can avoid them.) I reinforced navally with cav when I could. The general rapidly hit 7 stars--can't remember if he was already there as a family member at the start or if he was one or two stars and I moved him their to gain experience. Scipii and Julii hit it with very small forces the first few times making for easy cav victories. Before long I had a good size cav army with plenty of experience. I've probably defended it about 30 times now... This keeps the Romans busy and out of Sicily while I conquer elsewhere. Keep an eye on the ships, sometimes a huge army will be in a lone boat (Scipii do this.) You might be able to dart in and sink it before it lands.

5. Get Cordoba on a war footing quickly. Buy mercs, because the Spanish and Gauls are coming.

**Praylak** · 10-01-2004, 13:36

Good pointers here.

**Lemur** · 10-01-2004, 14:55

Frankly, I found the Romans so aggressive that I took the fight to them. Sent an army of cav, two elephant units and a bunch of the pasty-faced teenagers we Carthiginians call "infantry" and took out everything south of Rome. Destroyed buildings, exterminated populations, you know, generally had a good time. Even managed to eliminate the Scipii.

Now I'll probably float that army back to Sicily and leave the Romans to rue the day they messed with Hasdrubal.

Do we ever get decent infantry? Is the Sacred Band worth the bronze its shields are made of? This is the one thing that's bumming me as a Carthiginian warmonger. Oh, and I guess we never get proper archers.

**Praylak** · 10-01-2004, 15:26

Originally Posted by Lemurmania

Do we ever get decent infantry? Is the Sacred Band worth the bronze its shields are made of? This is the one thing that's bumming me as a Carthiginian warmonger. Oh, and I guess we never get proper archers.

You don't like the Poeni infantry? Or perhaps you are referring to a traditional infantry like sword/shield? True the Iberians are no legionary, but they are swift and can get a flank or rear on a slower heavy infantry. But no way I would use them to form a battle line either. I don't see making too many Sacred Bands as you note the expense.

As for archers, the stat file shows carthagian archers in it. Maybe you have to build an archery range in a specific region to get them? I'm going to find out soon enough as my campagin is progressing.

**Lemur** · 10-01-2004, 15:45

Originally Posted by Praylak

You don't like the Poeni infantry? Or perhaps you are referring to a traditional infantry like sword/shield? ... As for archers, the stat file shows carthagian archers in it. Maybe you have to build an archery range in a specific region to get them?

I haven't build the Poeni yet, still fairly early in my campaign. I went for a really early pre-emptive strike against the Roman weapons of mass destruction, firgured I'd cripple 'em early. Funny side-effect -- the Julii are now allied with the Gauls.

I guess I would love to have at least one kind of heavy sword/axemen, but I'll live without. I have some sort of irrational prejudice against spears. On the battle map, I just want to go offense all the time, so it's my own problem. Loving the elephants -- very dangerous to everyone, including me, but mostly to the other guy.

As for archers, okay, I'll build up more ranges and hope for the best. Slingers are okay, but they don't really do the job the way I like it done.

Thanks!

**Red Harvest** · 10-01-2004, 16:29

You don't get any infantry worth even building for a very long time. With Carthage I use light cavalry almost exclusively. Now that I've eliminated Numidia and Spain, I'm starting to gear up to invade Roman lands. I still can't build much in the way of infantry yet. I should be able to build Sacred Band Infantry in a few turns.

**Emperor Mithdrates** · 02-29-2008, 18:29

Thats stupid. (No offense).
I wait in the my sicilian territory; building up a huge army, until the scipii attack the greeks. When the greeks are driven away, Thats when i decare war on the Scipii. That way (when i wipe scipii out) I control the whole of sicily; and i dont have to make war on greece. I become their allies instead and then destroy Brutii leaving only SPQR and Julii left.
Genius!