I Have started romani campaign was it good move that i broke alliance with Carthage ?

[romanip]

Im playing h/vh so far i have recaptured whole of italy and i took little islands near the coast eg carali im just thinking was it a good move to start war with carthage ?

[d'Arthez]

Hard to say if it is a good move. A lot depends on the campaign map, and whether or not you will be able to establish naval superiority. Karali, Alalia and to a lesser extent Lilibeo are hardly the heart of the Carthaginian empire, and if they can ship over stacks from their homeland, you will have a challenge on your hand.

If you are playing on VH battle difficulty, expect to face a very difficult war with Carthage, since all their units will get +7 attack, +7 Defense and a couple of other bonuses. Their levies will be giving your principes and triarii more than enough difficulties.

Enjoy!

[Nachtmeister]

Hi Romanip,

I think it is a personal thing - if you like being at war with them, it was a good thing, if you want them to stay a big empire at peace with you it is not so good, but basically it is what happened in history and those islands give you some nice trade income.

Try this: see to it that you have no shared land borders with them (you probably don't at this point anyway) and send them a diplomat, propose peace and trade rights. If at some point they accept it without demanding back the islands, you get the lucrative trade with their ports back but with more of the money going into your own coffers because of the islands now under your control.

On the long term, consider taking all of Sicily (which has a land passage to Italy in the game) before you start serious war with Gaul beyond the Alps to avoid a two-front-war situation. Especially because at some point Epirus is going to make it's way up the eastern Adriatic coast and touch borders with you... You always want to keep land borders to other factions as short as possible so you don't use up too many strategic resources in defense. Unless you want to keep them long and fight desperate, hard defensive wars of course.

[romanip]

thank you for all your opinions and Nachtmeister im already recruiting a full stack to invade Sicily and i will try sending a diplomat to Carthage :)

[The Stranger]

imo if you want to play the romans optimally the first thing you do after booting the epirotes from italy is totally destroying Carthage asap.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Depends whether you want an historically based Roman campaign or not. If you do, then start the Punic War around 264 by attacking Messana.

If you don't, then do whatever you like. You might decide that you prefer conquering Gallic barbarians than civilised Carthage. Had Rome been busy fighting the Boii and Ligurians in 264 BCE, as is the case in EB, then the Senate might well have decided not to get involved in Sicily at that time.

It's a valid strategy to attack the Eleutheroi to the north, and expand into Cisalpine Gaul, southern Gaul, and eastern Iberia instead of Sicily - the route being Bononia, Segesta, Massilia, Tolosa, Emporion, and Arse. Thus denying the Gauls and Lusotanns much of their expansion room before they get too powerful - you could even turn the barbarian factions into weakened protectorates or destroy them before fighting Carthage at a later date.

If you want to get the money to afford a strong navy before fighting Carthage, this is one way to do it.