Help needed with New Carthage campaign.

After finishing my first ever campaign with Casse I decided to play a campaign with Carthage, though I would need some help before I do start.

The army composition in Spain and Africa, what should I use.
The conquest way... Should I try to go for Spain, Italy and the islands next to it, or Egypt or a bit of all, or take africa first?
One of the most important things are the house rules one should use.. Like merceniries and how to fight.

The more help you can give me the better :-)

Thanks
Eti

Imitate Lusotan and Celts in Iberia.

Imitate Greeks in Italy and well.. Greece. Or you could use Iberians in greece for the lulz

For army composition, I went with 3 stacks:

1. My African army had all african troops: libyan spearmen, liby-phoenician infantry & heavy cavalry, african pikemen, two gldgmtk, and some sacred bands. Recruited cretan archer mercenaries from Sicily for ranged attack.

2. My Iberian army had a similar composition, but using iberian Lanceari for heavy cavalry instead, and dropping a couple libyan spearmen units for Loracati Scutari instead. Used Balearic slingers for ranged attack.

3. My army in Sicily was made up of a huge hoplite force from Syracuse, some light infantry from Messana, and liby-phoenician cavalry from Lilibeo. Recruited cretan archer mercenaries in Sicily for ranged attack.

I started out by conquering North Africa, there are several settlements along the cost with mines. This gives you a huge early income boost once you get them all running. After that I was going to go for Iberia, but I was attacked by Ptolemy and opted to conquer Egypt instead. Iberia is probably a better option, though, as it is a smaller area to cover, Lusotannen are much weaker than Ptolemaioi, and Iberia has lots of mines to boost your income whereas Egypt only has one in Meroe. You'll want to capture Rhegion at some point, preferably early, as it is a very rich city and blocks the only approach into Sicily.

Of course...you can do whatever you want!

The best thing about the Carthies is that you can recruit excellent local troops in each of the main locations you will operate in. Africa, Iberia, Sciliy/Italy and Gaul. I would suggest that you use mostly these local troops as it makes the campaign more interesting and actually they are usually very suited for the area you are in. For example the numidians (archers, skirmishers and cavalary) are all excellent in Africa as they are fast have good stamina and have bonuses fighting in the desert. Personally I wouldnt take many heavy infantry or cavalry into the sand.

In Iberia you want to compete with the lusotannans and have some serious javelin equipped infantry to back up your wannabe hoplites. Due to the terrain and the units at your disposal Iberia is a great place for tactical ambushes and a more flexible fighting style. Iberia is probably the easiest and most lucrative place to conquer after Africa. But IMO Africa must come first.

In Italy you need to go for a Greek approach, and actually the local Greek troops combine well with the Carthaginians themselves. So in this theatre you are likely to have a very solid infantry line of hoplites and phalanxes with some fast javelin armed flankers, decent cavalry and elephants. Yes, make those Romans feel the pain. Elephants are to be kept safe at the back until the lines are engaged and then use them to sneak round the back and cause a chain rout. Theya re the ultimate shock troop.

And yeah, use the mercenaries. You will have a lot of money very quickly as your cities are HUGE early on. So it wont hurt you financially.

Lastly, by the time you go after Iberia, Carthage must have a strong navy. I know its expensive and can be a pain to manage, but you are essentially a martime empire.

Only house rule I would say is essential to stop the campaign becoming very easy is to not use elites at all except one or two units in your principle army. Mercenaries can be of any quality however. Other house rules that I personally used are 1. never put taxes at more than "high". 2. disband mercenary units after they have completed the task they have been hired for (ie the immediate campaign goal has been reached). 3. avoid combat with the ptolemies, its unhistorical, upsets the balance of power in the east, and most importantly - is very boring unless you enjoy phalanx spam. If you can manage to keep decent relations with them you can probably buy that middle east provinceyou need for the victory conditions.

The beauty about Carthage is that all you really need is those Libian infantry. Anything else is a bonus. Add some flankers and you're rready to go.

As for theatre of operations , West africa and Iberia should be top priority as they are the most lucrative due to little resistance/high money.

While it is of course more convenient to use african troops in Africa and iberian troops in Iberia, if you prefer historical accuracy, you may consider doing it a different way. The Carthaginians used to deploy iberian troops as garrisons in Africa and vice versa. The reason for this is, they thought it less likely for the garrison to join a possible uprising if the soldiers are not native to the region. As said, this applies to garrisons, an offensive army would of course use anyone available.

Thanks for the replies brothers, yes I am interesting to be as much as possible historically acurate ey after all I play EB for that.

Etienne

Personally I'd pacify Africa and Iberia first by the time you're "finished" with that you'll be rich enough to gain naval supermacy at least in the western mediterranean. this eases the conquest of Italy, as you can fight on roman soil without having to cross the alps with 37 elephants. by then you'll probably have naval supermacy over the whole mediterranean and can endulge in ampjibic operations in greece, Egypt or the levant whereas I think you'd need a "reason" to attack them as "it's in the victory conditions" will not convince your council^^
use local troops to your advantage and supplement them with african imports depending on what's there and what's needed. as a naval superpower this is fairly easy as troops travel quick and fairly safe on water. typical examples are Elephants, numidian cavalry, Hispanic AP troops LybianSpearmen and Balearic slingers.

Mercenaries were a big thing for the Carthaginians. Generally they preferred to have their citizens as productive civilian taxpayers rather than soldiers, because they thought it best to have lots of money in the treasury rather than a hugely expensive standing professional army.

I follow that idea when playing them, I recruit as few units as possible to make sure my towns grow as fast as possible, more population means more tax income! I hire every mercenary unit available to flesh out my armies, sending FMs to regions not under my control sometimes to do so, especially Gaul. Hire the mercs before the AI does.

Every Carthaginian army should have a small Carthaginian core though, best used as a carefully husbanded reserve to strike the final decisive blow in battle, while the mercenaries are used as fodder to go up front and soak up the casualties.

A true Carthaginian general fights to the last drop of African, Iberian, Gallic or Italian blood!