Yihaa... I have made Carthage powerful!

[Kraxis]

I'm impressed with myself here. I have done something I thought was impossible (in a simple mod).

Not only has Carthage halted the advance of the Scipii in Sicily, they have even gone over to the offensive and taken Syracuse and beaten the Scipii in several battles. Now I 'fear' Messene will be besiged soon. I guess I have to come to the aid of my brothers in arms, for who can forget the devastating loss of a full quater of one's troops? Who can forget that the Carthies made me fail in the Senate mission to take Caralis?
But I truly fear I might not be able to do it... I'm actually hard pressed by the Gauls and have only taken Patavium from them while suffering dreaful losses in battle.

I haven't been this hard pressed since my first few Seleucid campaigns, but this is the Julii campaign, an easy one. Wow...

[Craterus]

Lol, I'm hoping for Carthage to be boosted in the XP.. not to mention other underpowered factions (you know the one's that go out early thanks to the annoying Romans.. or Egyptians..)

[Barbarossa82]

What changes have you made to Carthage to make them more powerful, Kraxis? Or is it a trade secret? ~;)

[drone]

Yes, do tell. Or was this just a tease? ~;)

[Kraxis]

This is just getting better and better all the time.
The Scipii put their act together and had a major showdown with the Carthies just outside Messena, and won. So a few turns they went about and beat up smaller armies. Now they are laying siege to Lilybaeum, but lo and behold, Carthage has just landed massive reinfocements in Syracuse, so I expect another reverse of fates. And to make it even better Carthage landed what appeared to be a large army in Latium!!! Yes that is right, just outside ROME! The Senate must have crapped their pants there, I dropped my jaw. We were counting 254BC, the game had just started more or less.
And being as wily as they are the Carthies at once sought me out to gain peace (I'm the only one with easy access to Rome as the Brutii are heavily engaged against Macedon). Seeing as I couldn't fight them on the sea and my armies were needed elsewhere I accepted and got some trade going. I had hoped the Carthies would linger a bit in Latium, but sadly the Senate exploded in fear and sent every single unit they had to face them, so they retreated back to their ships (I didn't see the showdown so it could be the Carthies were beaten, but the numbers spoke for a retreat). How I had hoped for Carthage to actually lay siege to Rome or at least beat her armies just once, doing things I had never seen before (unless it was me).

It has been a very long process so actually I'm not certain what made Carthage stronger. But I have changed the personality to 'sailor Ceasar', gave them a slightly stronger army (a few unimportant units here and there), a significantly stronger fleet (including a few triremes), gave them Lepcis Magna (in the hopes that it would stall Numidia enough to keep them off Carthage in the vital early years, seems to have worked as there has been peace so far). There are also a number of other changes such as I have made Hastati rather weaker (they are now 7 and 12 but hardy and better in woods) while Iberian Infantry are rather stronger (8 and 11 and 6 in morale). They are a great matchup in early battles, and I felt their fury in my attempt at grabbing Caralis. They kept at it, not letting me rest in that battle eventhough I routed them again and again. Eventually my Hastati were worn down.
I have also strengthened the defenses of Lilybaeum (can now replace some units) and Syracuse (better army). So perhaps because the Scipii had a hard time getting Syracuse did Carthage manage to buff up its army in Lily and of course in Sardinia.

Btw I have faced several Gaul chieftains with more than 3 stars now. It seems that with a better infrastructure and better armies to start with the AI will take advantage of its leaders.

[drone]

Nice. Changing to "Caesar" and buffing the Iberians probably meshed well together. Did "sailor" help with diplomatic relations with the non-Romans, so they weren't jumped from all direction at the start?

[Kraxis]

sailor is only a build-director, not a behavioural guide. But yes, it seems they have managed to keep thing well apart. Until now that is.

They reinforced their army in Latium with another army with a few elephants and so on. But this was at the expense of Sicily where the Scipii now had time to consolidate their position and quickly took Lilybaeum followed by Syracuse (the army there could have helped Lily but was overwhelmed by Scipii reinforcements). As this happened the Spanish jumped at the chance and took Corduba.

Btw Dacia is on a rampage, beating up on the Scythians, Thracians (those three have a nice threeway war) and Macedonians all at once, and winning. I think they have expanded to 9 provinces now and it is only 250BC.

The Iberian Infantry certainly is more prolific in the Carthie army, and that is a good thing with their new strength. Just too bad the overall Carthie AI is not very aggressive or else Sicily could be retaken.

[tibilicus]

Im doing good in my Carthage campaign 2 cities on rome and the whole of sicily. Dont no wever to start in spain yet or not.

[slackker]

they landed an army outside rome??!!
oh my..history has been made, in RTW!
in my spqr game, scipi got beaten and got chased out of sciliy but they launched a counter offensive and took it back! save for one last city which the carthiginians are fighting to keep. it does look tense!

[tibilicus]

I love turning history around. Rome sacked Carthage in real life and enslaved the population. Im going to do that to Rome........... Oh how the worm has turned my Roman freinds, How the worm has turned.

[The Stranger]

i have also made carthage stronger. (i have a unified rome) i added much new units. they have a impressive tech tree, when i controlled Italy/sicily/greece/gaul Carthage controlled west-north africa/spain and the all the isles in the mid sea (on the west side and exept sicily)

[Viking]

Wouldnt it be cool if it was 50:50 who won beetween Scipii/Carthage, Julii/Gaul and Brutii/greeks?

Perhaps not historically right, but it would have been fun to see the AI Carthage way up in Germania.

[tibilicus]

Theres only one big threat to Carthage after rome. Egypt. Luckily there armys are big but not good for much if im correct some one please enlighten me? Once thes are gone though its proper plain saling. Rome combined with carthage plus the nile delte = Extream wealth very extream wealth.

[Kraxis]

Update:

Carthage is now finally crumbling. Numidia has declared war and that can only mean that they believe they can take on Carthage, and that fits as in the faction listing Carthage has run out of money and its production is very low, almost nothing. The military is still rather strong but if replacements won't arrive it will soon get depleted.
On the positive side they managed to repel a quite weak attack on Caralis by the Scipii, but then they got beaten by rebels, so the army in Sardinia is almost non-existant.
My spy trekking in Spain noticed a Cathie army taking a vacation near Osca, they didn't seem to have a specific role or plan, and after a few turns they were finally ambushed north of Numantia (still in the hands of Gaul), and annihilated. History repeated itself here. ~:)
Their navy is still very strong as the Scipii have declined to take it on, and I'm making certain not to get involved. Even Ostia is getting blockaded by Gauls now and then. Where are the usual tough Senate fleets?

[tibilicus]

I think you should try and help carthage out? Wich faction are you playing as? I tried to save my Greek allys when i was Carthage but they faded. Now im trying to protect the Macedonians. I dont know why i look after my allys so well.

[The Stranger]

bah in MTW i was italy and i always protected Byzantine vs the Turks. but after the bitches gained the upperhand and managed to even restore parts of their empire (that was down to only constantinople and rhodes) they turned against me, so after that i never trust a faction that msuch that i'll protect them.

in my campaign nobody (exept me, and egypt) could deal with carthage.

[Craterus]

Wouldnt it be cool if it was 50:50 who won beetween Scipii/Carthage, Julii/Gaul and Brutii/greeks?

I completely agree, in all my campaigns now, I'm waitting for the "Faction Destroyed." message fro Macedon, Greek Cities, Seleucid Empire and Carthage." Gaul can take Julii until the mid-late game when Julii finally manage to overpower them but I'd like to have a "different", unpredictable campaign everytime rather than the overpowered Romans always comping up tops..

~D :duel:

[tibilicus]

I was hping for HUGE barbarian hordes from Gaul. All i get is pathetic 2 unit armys. Carthage aswell, are they not suposed to slitly challenge the Romans? Not role over and let there tummys get tickled. But as for Greece and Macedon i never expected much. ~D

[Craterus]

If Greece and Macedon teamed up properly (I've seen them do it once before but they ended up turning on each other) they would be able to beat the Brutii.