Carthage victory conditions

[PureEvil[PIE]]

Hello, the barbarian pie is here. I have taken Italy and almost all of Spain. HOWEVER! There is a city (I don't know the name of it) way to the east, along the coast which I have to take for my victory conditions. I just wondering what the best way to head there is, from what I can see there are three possible options:
1) Send my army via fleets/navy across the ocean - I am very nervous about doing this.
2) Conquer my way through Egypt (Which is a major pain anyway and are currently tied with me for overall score, they have taken a LOT of territory).
3) I am neutral with Koinen-Hellen and I figured I could land some armies in western Greece, move them though the KH territory to the East coast and then ferry them the short distance to the opposite coast where I need to take the city.

Not sure which of these strategies to use.

[d'Arthez]

A lot will depend on your diplomatic status with the Ptollies though. I assume you are at war with them, since you need to hold Kyrene as well. In the unlikely event you are at peace, the obvious route would be building a decent fleet, send a couple of full stacks and an army of spies over, infiltrate, siege and win. You could argue that IF your fleet is stronger than whomever attacks you on the seas, you are allowed to use auto_win cheats. Since you have no way of doing the battle yourself, and then Campaign Difficulty becomes the determining factor for the outcomes of naval battles. Not much of a problem if you play an M/M campaign, but a big problem if you play a VH/M campaign.

If you are at war:
Sidon should not be too far away from your Kyrene anyway. I'd say conquer the coast of Egypt, and send an army down from Alexandreia to take Memphis. That rules out the option of the Ptollies recruiting elite spam, and Alexandreia is very easy to defend, if you bring along some slingers and archers. From Alexandreia it is a small step to Sidon.

The walking to Sidon scenario is bound to get you in a conflict way off target.

[Lysimachos]

I say: War on Egypt! Consider it the last test wether your empire is truely worthy of achieving victory.

[team_kramnik]

As you sound ready for the next campaign: Buy or bribe the city. A very Carthaginian solution.
Sidenote: That province is the Carthaginians ancient homeland.

[Sapper]

As team_kramnik has mentioned the province of Phoinike, with the city of Sidon in it, is where the Phoenicians that established trading posts all across the Med, including Carthage, originated. There were a number of Phoenician city states along the levant coast with Tyre (not on the EB map) being one of the most important and it is that city that the first settlers of Carthage probably came from.

[Ca Putt]

I'm with team kramnik here, if you only want to acchieve Victory just bribe the city or send over a Mercenary general and recruit Tons of mercs. Both is quite expensive and will cause a lot of trouble for your in the levant but when you end the campaign after that It's nothing you'll have to deal with(a common Idea of most politicians^^). That's atleast what Carthage would do. If you want to play it the Roman way use Greece as a platform for your expansion, tho I'd be carefull if the Fleet-range is sufficient, better test it first and check your FM for bad movement traits ;) (once had a guy stuck on a boat on the wrong side of arabia with -10% movemen .... left :/ )

If however you want to continue your campaign I'd advise you to simply do it the persian way and conquer the Ptolemies from Kyrene to Sidon. Ideally in a naval operation as the coastal cities + memphis are the most wothwhile ones anyway.

[PureEvil[PIE]]

Thanks for all the great help guys :). And I was thinking about doing it the "Roman way" as you put it, by using Greece as a platform. HOWEVER, I'm inclined to go with Lysimachos, Egypt has well, pis*** me off enough for the entire campaign that I'm willing to conquer my way through it just to get my revenge. Shouldn't be a problem with Rome and Spain under my command (netting roughly 100k a turn).

[Ca Putt]

With that purse I'd honestly just build a huge fleet and smash all coastal cities with African elite infantry + mercs :D

[Damnas]

Two FMs with their armies. One goes through greece. The other through Egypt. First one to Sidon wins the governorship of the original homeland.

[PureEvil[PIE]]

Haha Damnas, I'll try to do that, sounds quite fun :D. And Ca Putt, I've been trying to have a balanced army, but I am starting to swiftly prefer the Elite Africans to the Sacred bands.

[Brennus]

I am in the same situation as you, I have just to take Kyrene and Phonecia. I am training an army of Numidians and Africans to march overland to Kyrene whilst I have a force of Libyans and Spaniards sitting in a powerful fleet off the coast of Syria ready to attack when the Africans do.

[PureEvil[PIE]]

Awesome Brennus. I'm doing much the same (just different army compositions) and I'll let you know how it works out :>. Pie is on the march :charge:

[Brennus]

;2053419974']Awesome Brennus. I'm doing much the same (just different army compositions) and I'll let you know how it works out :>. Pie is on the march :charge:

I think I will focus on my Seleucid and Aedui games first but as soon as my interest in Carthage peaks again (which usually depends on when the next documentary about them is on TV) I will keep you informed!

[seleucid empire]

hows ur seleucid campaign going brennus?, i currently own everthing except britain, spain, the carthage territories in north africa, and i am now fighting my way through central Europe controlled by Rome with 4 stacks of mixed qualities and when i removed the fow i saw 16 Roman stacks awaiting me :(

[PureEvil[PIE]]

Well, with my Carthage campaign things went a bit odd towards the end o.O. My army travelling through Egypt never really got to Sidon, I managed to take Alexandreia but then then Egypt kept sending stacks towards him and I ran out of mercs in that area, my general ended up dying to 3 Egypt stacks in a row. However, whilst all this was happeneing, my navy carrying my second elite army had been forced to land on the island close to Sidon - Due to the fleet carrying the army taking a lot of damage and I didn't want to risk my army being sunk - so my second generals forces were marooned, they were forced to take the city on that island and then create some more ships to land at Sidon. Fortunately, when that army landed my first army travelling by land had drawn most of Egypts armies around Alexandreia where the general and the remainder of his forces were finished. This allowed my secondary army to pretty much walk into Sidon and take it easily and moving on to Damascus (or some city along those lines) without being given much of a challenge. So Gary beat Paul in the take over of Sidon (I had named the two generals after two friends I knew who were brothers, made it seem more epic, two brothers trying to take control of a city before the other, Paul was quite amused when I told him how Gary had waited for Paul to do most of the dirty work only to come in at the end and take the spoils :L), so yea, that was quite a fun ending to my Carthage campaign :>.