Numidia

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Whoooeeeeee...this faction makes Spain look easy! I'm ready for try #5 on very hard/very hard. I might have to drop down a level...or two.

You start with very little in the way of money and it gets worse for the first 10 turns or so. Egypt will march in an army right away and take Siwa even if you have an alliance (I abandoned it the turn before they arrived to avoid war.) I can't field enough of an army to beat those Egyptian chariots, so this is the first time I've ever intentionally pulled out and let my city turn rebel to avoid a war.

There are brigand armies everywhere making if difficult to transfer units, and they can beat you if you are not careful. I had a decent game going last time...until the Spanish landed in Tingi. I'm getting picked on by the weak Spanish who are at war with Rome, WOW! I had taken Cyrene with my Siwa evacuee army. And I took Nepte. I couldn't get to Lepcis Magna before Carthage (in spite of bribing away their first force.) I think this next time I'll march on Lepcis Magna first, then worry about the other two.

Off to try again...

Good insights Red Harvest.

This is my sixth time on hard/hard. As it stands now, I have fought off the Egyptians at Siwa (though I hesitate to take the offensive), made a (more or less) permanent alliance with Carthage with trading rights and military access both ways and Spain just folded one turn ago. I control all of N. Africa except the Carthaginian and Egyptian starting provinces. But I am STILL thinking of quitting because I am 1500 dn. or so in the hole and I don't know how to get back in the black without risking outright rebellion...

Starting Strats:

1) I always empty out my Dimmidi garrison to take the (3 turn trip) to Nepte and take it.
2) I send my Cirta garrison (except my King but with my spy and those guys milling about the city) to take Lepcis Magna although that is, I think, a five turn trip.
3) I send my diplomat to negotiate the above agreements with Carthage.
4) I have tried abandoning Siwa (to eventually use that fleeing Siwa garrison to conquer Cyrene) but that REALLY gets me in a ton of debt and, moreover, the rebels attack you (peasant army but still annoying) as you attempt to beat a retreat. Instead, I have had better luck just fighting the Egyptians when they decide (inevitable as the tide) to finally invade. You will fight them no matter what I have discovered, even if you abandon Siwa -- they eventually just find their way to Cyrene and you are STILL not well prepared because money is, as you mentioned, SCARCE. You can eventually take Cyrene with your Lepcis Magna garrison in any case and this way you at least avoid debt (for a few years).

Battle Strats:

I too, had a problem with the Egyptians but then I decided to take the manual at its word and test my Numidian Horsemen against his chariots. In short, although it involves plenty of micromanaging (classic horse archer tactics of shoot-n-run) it IS possible to occupy and tire out the chariots with your jav horse while the rest of your army takes on his spearmen and archers -- if you get lucky you might even be able to fold up the latter from behind with one horse unit while the second one plays tag with his chariots. If I can do this, I am convinced it is a worthwhile tactic, since I am a horrible general under normal circumstances. Eventually, those tired chariots become a lot more manageable...
The second time the Egyptians invaded me they brought no chariots, but came with all light horse (with spearmen of course), which surprisingly posed more of a problem. I had collected a few archers and once again I sallied forth with my Numidian Cav to harass his siege parties. His cavalry did not move thoughout all this. The rest of my guys (Numidian Jav/Foot and Archers) were behind the wall in concentric rings radiating out from the town center - the positioning was clumsy because of the many buildings. Still, it came down to my general (situated near center which I don't usually do) making some heroic charges on the Egyptian penetrating light cav to finally win that one.

Despite all these victories, I really think the Numidians are extremely difficult to play because of a number of key factors:

1) Distances, Distances, Distances: Although I always plan to, it is impossible for me to build a real navy -- locked as I am in land combat almost from the beginning. But even if I could, it would be solely for harassing an enemy since it still, even by water, takes a long time to transport troops along the enormous east-west axis of the African continent.
a) Obviously, that problem is compounded when one discusses transport over land. In fact, I would recommend not even bothering - once you take Nepta, Lepcis Magna, and/or Cyrene just try dismantling those garrisons because they will just eat up your funds while doing nothing. It literally takes years to transport people across the African deserts. The focal points are Siwa and, eventually when Spain enters the dance, Tingi and/or Cirta. Keep garrisons there and forget the rest.

2) Egyptians: Even if you manage to win a few battles against them like I did you constantly have to maintain a strong posture against them for years. This obviously eats into your pathetically meager treasury.

3) When Spain enters the fray you have to fight a two-front war without the ability to transport troops quickly from one front to the other because of point #1.

4) You are poor and any attempt to build up your cities might lose you the war.

5) In the first few turns Carthage gets involved in a war with the Julli, Scipii, and the Senate. The Carthaginians, alas, fold like a house of cards in what seems like five seconds. Which then leaves you with having to deal with a strong Roman faction in N. Africa in addition to the problems mentioned above.

I, too, am going back to it now. I would be very interested to see what other expert players (I am far from being an expert) have to say on Numidia and whether anyone has solved these problems. I have not yet abandoned all hope but I'm close...

Nice strategy! That is really an all out rush. I tried something a bit more subtle, but it didn't work.

Try #5 (very hard/very hard) went very well until Egypt and Scipii sent full stacks at Cyrene and Lepcis Magna. I could not get any mercs or build enough to win. I had some nice victories with the light Numidian forces, really schooled the Romans, but fighting two powers at once well away from my troop building regions did not work. You can only win so many when outnumbered 3 to 1. Too bad, because I was consistently making 2800 denarii per turn for the last 4 turns or so and was about to hit critical mass. Unfortunately, the merc supply disappeared when I finally got some money, and the invasions started.

I started by taking Lepcis Magna first using the Siwa army and leaving some foot javs for garrison in Siwa. I had to dump the other slow moving unit of foot javs along the way to beat my ally Carthage to Lepcis, despite building roads for the trip.

I of course allied with Carthage and got trade with Egypt. Egypt was slow to advance on Siwa because a brigand army was on the road, but eventually they bribed my garrison which was what I hoped they would do. I did no upgrades to Siwa other than the road.

My first move was a lot of trade center and port upgrades (2 turn builds) and that piece of road from Siwa. I marched a 2nd army from Dimmidi toward Lepcis as a relief force. And I used some Cirta troops to take Nepte.

When the Lepcis Magna relief arrived, I sent the Lepcis garrison to take Cyrene, and they arrived just two tiles ahead of the Egyptians. Nick of time. I bought enough mercs that Egypt lost the attack and gave a ceasefire. Unfortunately no more mercs arrived, and I couldn't build cav.

During the meantime I built up everything economic and got robust trade. I built a boat in Tingi and sent an emissary to the Gauls and Spanish. The Spanish were happy to ally with me--this seemed to slow their landing in Tingi.

For several moves early on I was running slightly negative, until I took Lepcis Magna and then Nepte. By Cyrene I was cruising. But I probably should have been building more cav in Cirta sooner, and moving them to support Lepcis. I knew Scipii would land eventually since Carthage doesn't put up a fight. The Numidian cav does a number on the roman infantry units...until the archers arrive. I made good use of the slingers I was allocated.

I did sell map info once to the Seleucids to gain some needed cash early on.

I might have to figure out how to kill or bribe the Egyptians. Maybe I should make a stand in Siwa.

O.K. Red Harvest I think I've turned the corner!

Of course, I might be mistaken - I have been foolishly optimistic before - but I just have a good feeling on this one.

*All the following applies to hard/hard Numidia:

It is now around 239 B.C. I have taken Thebes from the Egyptians (yay!) - I have never enjoyed obliterating an entire city before as much as I did this one. This happened around 15-20 years ago but they are still very much alive, even if in a largely defensive posture. I am now preparing (after 20 years) to finally start moving north into their Wonder provinces.

Cyrene I never took - it now belongs to the Macedonians but they have never bothered me and we have a trade agreement.

I not only fought off four large (3 with over 1k troops and one with about 700) successive Roman (Scipii) invasions of N. Africa - I even managed to restore Carthage to the Carthaginians and, due to their losses, the Romans lost Thapsus to a rebellion. That effectively means that they are not going to hit Lepcis Magna, as I've noticed the AI starts always in Carthage and works its way southeast. They are still landing tiny armies that are basically target practice for my javelin horse.

I took Carthago Nova from Spain although I have had my hands full keeping it - not from Spain but from...Gaul whom the Spaniards are allied with. Still, I am reasonably confident I can hold it.

Why all this success (for now)? I think it is all in the way the Numidian player approaches the battle strategy.

1) The Egyptians - They are still the toughest opponent I have faced. I am going to surprise some by saying that it is not really their chariots I fear. Don't mistake me, they are strong, but I think on the whole rare (because of their price probably). Furthermore, a group of foot javelins does quite a number on them if positioned exactly right. If they are chariot archers, I prefer my jav cav (in Cant. Circle) - or even better, Camel Archers (CC again) - as a counter.
No, the real problem with the Egyptians is their access to those Pharaoh's Bowmen. These guys are driving me up the wall - I don't know what to do. In a straight up melee they beat up on my Desert Spearmen (after peppering them with a thousand arrows on top of it) they can still whoop them hand-to-hand without the arrows though. I have hit them from behind in wedge with Long Shields and they still manage to turn around and shred what is supposed to be their classic counter. Even my General's Guard gets owned in melee with them, sheesh. They even massacred (hand-to-hand!) some understrength merc Hoplites in phalanx a while ago! Really, they are an enormous problem for a Numidian player. I am planning to use my generic legionaries next...testudo maybe?
Their infantry is easily crushed (see below).

2) The Romans - In short...meat. I know they are super strong, so no disrespect implied, but for the wily Numidian player they are a joke. Why? They are almost all infantry. Against them, forget everything except your Numidian Cavalry (a.k.a. JavCav). Literally, it is possible to defeat them with an all JavCav army - although I have not tried that yet, my anti-Roman army IS currently 90% javcav. This is what you should do:

a) Divide the javcav units up into manageable groups (I like three units to a group but you can go higher if impatient with too much micro).
b) Once the battle starts put them in Cant. Circle mode.
c) Send one group against each of his flanks and attack whatever spot in his line opens up with the rest.
d) Sit back and watch the Romans get absolutely decimated!
e) Once a group's morale breaks press that alt button with your closest javcav unit and obliterate it.
f) If it does not break (rare, but you do run out of javs eventually) let them chase one of your units and bring in another javcav (alt button) from behind. You will have extra available because, by this time, a lot of his units will have broken. Be sure to sandwich them in with the unit they had been chasing after your first one hits them from behind. They will be so tired from running after your cav they will break almost immediately.

It is sort of sad really watching all those expensive Hastatii, Princinpes, and Triarii get obliterated by your unarmored and rather cheap javcav. Still, the Numidians need some love, no? In the above scenario, your infantry just gets in the way because they are absolutely no match for the Romans - they are simply fodder for a very frustrated Roman infantry. I am, however, dreading the Marian reforms. It's all fun and games with early Roman infantry but will it work against hardened professionals? Stay tuned.

3) Gaul and Spain - Generally infantry so...see above. Just don't chase them into a forest! They turned around and absolutely pounded my javcav once when I got overconfident. Still, that is an old-fashioned and straightforward TW rule so I just mention it for people new to the game. Also, if sallying forth with your javcav (applies to all of the above examples) be sure to be well clear of the walls before you start harassing his infantry. Walls hamper the proper execution of a Cant. Circle and also hem in your javcav forcing them to fight melee (not good).

That's all for now. I will post again if I win or if it all blows up in my face (more likely).

Very interesting things there:

I played Numidia on vh/vh a while ago and it was a really funny game..

I did focus almost entirly on the economy in the first ten years, getting trade agreements with Spain, Gaul and Carthago. I also Eliminated military units to reduce the costs by 1000 denarii.

Economy:

Tingis is a relatively great trading city, as the Spanish, the Carthies and the Gaul trade with you there via Sea. Roads and Harbours were n.1 priority, Markets number 2. Farmupgrades are handy to. With paved roads the distances are drastically reduced and your cav stacks can move very quickly. Trade with Carthago is vital in the first years, although a quick rush might work too. Even if the Spanish attack, chances are high that crushing victorys help to restore tradeagreements. I did this three or so times in the first years, as it means some 1000 denarii more..

Military

During the first years I entirely used Numidan Cavalry. Incredible good unit against the Spanish, Gaul, Carthies and Romans, somewhat less against the Egyptians. Later Camelriders and Longshield cavalry bolstered the ranks. I never bothered with infantry, only with merc. hoplites and Leg. for cityfighting.

Boulis tactics work very well indeed, you will be able to kill Roman armies 10 times as large..

Camelriders are an absolute must to turn the Cav matchup in your favor as DC is a killer on VH. Against this supersized standard and this :furious3: Pharaoh's Archers only concentrated multiply cavalry charges with LSC work fine..

Strategy

Ally first with everybody, fear the Egyptians and hold some money ready to bribe them. With superior tactics and bribing I was able to take all the Nile regions by 240 BC.

Carthago is weak and after 10-15 years it is time to kill them of; You will be able to get on good terms soon, as the Romans will be your common enemy.

Sicily is your best oversea expansion area, as the Romans are anyway your enemys and it is right next to your new capital Carthago...


More to come later

Cheers
OA

I have not played Numidia yet, but I couldn't help noticing people say it's hard for Numidia to build up a navy. In quite a few campaign I've played I've seen the AI numidia player have navies all over the place... I've seen times when they manage to rush Carthage out of their original lands too...

Success! (Summer 143 B.C.) It's a blue-gray (bathroom tile-blue perhaps?) world...

I think everyone here has made some fine additions to this developing resource for the aspiring Numidian player. Having just finished my h/h campaign I only have a few more things to add.

Numidia was my first full campaign - for some reason playing with the Romans didn't seem appealing, although I have nothing against them historically speaking...perhaps it was the whole "play to unlock" routine. Anyway, I tried to guess which the most challenging faction would be and I came upon Numidia through the process of elimination, sandwiched as it is between Carthage and Egypt, the latter being the richest and most favorably positioned faction at the outset in my opinion. Furthermore, as a Numidian player you never really get any heavy troops and you start off with one of your provinces (Siwa) separated from the other three. I have touched upon some of the other weaknesses above (namely the vast distances between your settlements), as have Red Harvest and Oleander, so I won't belabor the point. Suffice to say, I was not surprised to see that a clear majority of players think Numidia is the hardest faction to play in a recent org poll...

But I am not so sure that is correct. Since it was my first campaign (all 50 provinces of course), I lack any point of comparison but the game did start to roll fast once Egypt was out of the picture. Certainly the beginning is the biggest challenge for Numidia - once N. Africa is largely consolidated and Egypt has been checked (if not defeated) the path to victory begins to clear up considerably. The biggest reason for this is the unparalleled excellence of Numidian Cavalry against any and all infantry. The only thing it has to fear are cavalry archers, foot archers, and light cavalry - in that order usually. I include chariots that fit the applicable categories above as extra-strength cavalry essentially. I will make some preliminary comments on general campaign strategy then switch over to various battle tactics I have not already covered in detail above.

Strategy

1) You must make a lasting alliance with Carthage, preferably on the first turn. Putting my trust in Tamur's truly excellent diplomacy guide, I did not only settle for an alliance but also gave, as well as received, military access. That is really the only way to get a LASTING alliance. In my game, this Carthaginian alliance lasted nearly a hundred years until the Carthies, having nowhere else to expand to because the Romans had boxed them in, attacked me...all after I did them the favor of restoring Carthage to them, moreover. I guess the Roman writers were right about Punic treachery...

2) I never did abandon Siwa to the Egyptians. I collected all the mercs I could, rushed to build walls and a practice range, recruited like crazy, and waited for the inevitable Egyptian army. You MUST fight Egypt.

3) You must tax your people till they are (literally) blue in the face. Raise taxes to the highest possible point, right before it spills over into outright revolt. Personally, I never build farms since all too soon you will have more population headaches than you would ever want. I concentrate on trade and culture aside from the obvious military development.

4) In my opinion, you must essentially pretend that Siwa is separate from the rest of your provinces even if you do achieve the relatively simple task of uniting all your initial provinces through the capture of Lepcis Magna in the first few turns. Quick transportation of troops is nearly impossible across Africa so you must have a two-front mentality.

5) You must be prepared for a tough fight with Egypt. I never went after him but waited for him to come to me. Only after I was certain he had wasted himself against my Siwa fortress in numerous attacks did I dare take the offensive. In the beginning, I went for archers to add to my ubiquitous javcav but you might want to go for desert spearmen instead - they both come in handy. You will only be able to choose one before the Egyptians are in your face, so choose with care. My philosophy is always reinforce your strengths and ignore your weaknesses (unless the opponent is stronger in things you are strong in - e.g. other HA's - in that case you MUST exploit HIS weakness), otherwise, go with your strength vs. his strength - the Egyptians have better bowmen so picking archers seems therefore stupid in this regard, but at the time I wanted to emphasize defense over offense.

6) Against Cav or Cav/Archer factions (Egypt is like a hybrid Archer/Cav) try to avoid taking the offensive unless you are a tactical genius. I am not. When I was besieged I almost never sallied - the AI will attack don't worry. If you attack, you will have to drive him off completely and that is harder than simply losing a handful of troops to starvation until he finally decides to attack you himself.

7) I fought a pure Cav/CavArcher civ once - the Parthians. Again, unless you are Napoleon incarnate, AVOID the Parthians, Scythians, etc. AT ALL COSTS. They will absolutely cream you on Hard - I don't even want to imagine VH. Bribe them, kiss them, hug them. As a last resort (my solution) lure them into a siege. I barely managed to pull that one out. Thankfully, you will only have to worry about the Parthians only after you beat the Egyptians and, by that time, the Numidian juggernaut is on the roll and they will be weak after years of warfare with the Egyptians (who can apparently fight everyone at the same time) and the Seleucids. Yes, Camels help, but not as much as you might think. They are still essentially light cav and the Parthians can really bring in some heavy armored cav to mop the floor with your Camels.

8) Likewise, do not storm a city unless you have a crushing superiority in numbers. Your (mostly) mounted troops are made for fancy maneuvers on the open field, not for bloody hand-to-hand street battles with big Roman farmboys or iron-skinned Egyptian axemen. I just waited it out - trust me, you have plenty of time.

9) I bribed like crazy. If you don't want to, don't do it, but you will be fighting constantly, believe me. Also beware wandering diplomats. I lost a settlement without a governor to bribery once and it cost me. Eventually, I just had an "interceptor" diplomat outside EACH ONE of my settlements and I would bribe any living thing that came within a certain radius - even wildlife. You will still have plenty of battles to fight don't worry. This is because a) you will not always have the money to bribe and b) some armies cannot be bribed easily.

10) As you're fighting for your life in Siwa you MUST build up a garrison in Cirta because those Scipii go through Carthage like a hot knife through butter and before you know it you're muttering to yourself in Latin as they rip Lipcis Magna apart. They always land first in Carthage and then work their way southeast. If you send an army to Carthage (remember our alliance?) you will get AI help - although you won't need it, it's nice.

11) It is highly probable that Spain will attack you. I simply preempted them at some point (Carthago Nova) when I felt strong. Their mostly infantry armies are no match for Numidian javcav. You just have to get across the Med with a fleet - harder than it seems since the AI seems to LOVE building massive navies.

*NOTE to Slaists: Once you have built up some momentum (that is, turned the tables on Egypt and fought off the first few Scipii invasions) I have no doubt you could build up a powerful navy. In my campaign, I had one very powerful fleet for transport and that's it, but I don't see why you can't build many such fleets eventually. But the problem is that the AI makes so many fleets you could literally walk across the water and not get your feet wet. My invasion of Sicily was incredibly stopped because the AI had surrounded the ENTIRE southern two-thirds of the island with fleets! A naval arms race seems like a waste of time to me in this regard. As for Numidia dominating on the water when controlled by the AI, since this is my first full campaign I don't know what "standard" AI Numidian performance is, but I played half a "short" campaign with the Brutii and the Numidians were the FIRST to get trounced. Other threads that I have read confirm that Egypt usually crushes them easily. But again, all this is completely anecdotal. Personally, I never conquered an island (not even Sicily) and never really had a naval presence (aside from that one very lonely fleet I used for emergency transport) and still rolled over the AI in the late game rather easily.

Tactics

1) A few comments here since I don't want to cover the same ground I did with my other posts. I love the Cant Circle for my javcav. Why? Without hard evidence (numbers) I can only say that I believe it does protect you slightly better from missile fire and it tends to demoralize infantry better than standard formation - although it kills less people outright. Demoralization is better than raw damage for Numidia - you must fence with the big boys because you run out of ammo fast and even half a legionary cohort can wipe the floor with your javcav if they have run out of javs too early. But NEVER use it against cavalry - only against infantry. Cavalry is too fast and they will initiate melee in the blink of an eye. *NOTE: Remember that your javcav will still stay away from enemy infantry (while leading them on a merry goose-chase) even if they have run out of ammo. Things are so easy in fact against infantry that I think I used the pause button twice in my whole campaign - and I am a very mediocre general! They can do the same to heavy cav (no Cant Circle remember) but here you have to keep an eye on them because they can get cornered. Fear the light cav.

2) Further experiments show that javcav units divided into groups of two are even better than those divided into groups of three for purposes of precision. I hated horse archers in MTW by the way because of all the micromanaging. Now I think they are nearly unstoppable (at least when facing infantry) and there is hardly ANY micromanaging because the skirmish works very well. Battles against infantry-heavy Romans are real yawners - it does get tricky when he brings cavalry and archers though. I noticed the Scipii and Senate send the closest thing to a mixed force (still infantry-heavy though) in second place are the Julii, followed by the almost all-infantry Brutii. Silver-shield pikemen or, indeed, any kind of Hellenic phalanx, are an absolute joke for Numidian cavalry. You will literally run circles around them with very little effort. In fact, that is why I think Numidia is actually easier than most people think. I am convinced I will not have it so easy with an infantry-reliant faction in the mid- to late-game on h/h or vh/vh because of the charge bonuses at those levels.

3) I COMPLETELY second Oleander's excellent comments on Long Shield Cav and Camels. LSC are the best we have against archers of any sort. It does take some micromanaging skill to maneuver them though. Camels are the only real Numidian counter to enemy cavalry and they are not so great - but they are still necessary, so make plenty in N. Africa for use in Europe later on. You really don't need infantry. In the very beginning, Desert Spearmen might help you when besieged. Foot jav might be useful in a siege as well (especially on a wall) but Numidian Legionaries are redundant. On Hard or VH they fold against other types of heavy infantry so their only conceivable use would be as meatshields...and in response to one of my own posts above, they actually can't get into testudo formation. Some archers might be necessary but I rarely bothered with them unless I was facing a very balanced force (rare). Merc elephants are, of course, great but extremely rare - look for them every 20 or so years (guesstimate). Merc phalanx are limited by the same factors that your native legionaries are limited by, although they are spearmen not swordsmen remember.

Well my brain has turned to mush. I would like to thank Red Harvest and Oleander for some truly helpful insights that got me thinking as well.

Signing off from the hot sands of the Sahara...

Boulis

Numidia indeed looks miserable. I just started a VH/VH campaign, but I used a different approach - I stabbed Carthage right from the beginning from my capital , with whatever I could afford.

To my surprise Carthage was very weakly defended and I took it easily. Now it is about 5 yrs into the game, and I already gained 5 regions: 2 Carthage city in N. Africa, the Carthage town in Sicily, plus 2 Egyptian cities, with a bank account of 27k or so. It went so well partly because the Egptians made a major mistake of taking me as a protectorate so I had a huge cash boost of 12k and bribed all their captains away.

I would be happy to report more details later. But if you'd like to play Numidia, I highly recommend to take Carthage right from the beginning. Oh, just occupy it is fine. It is a great city with no cultural penalty. ~:)

Hi: I am back. Here I will report what opened my VH/VH Nymidia conquest. I will go into some details so it will be quite a long story.

***

I have read all the great stories above of how troublesome Numidia is, and I snese that it could be very fun. Well, as one of the "crazy expansionists" in the TW community, I gotta try something bold.

So, I pulled away everything in the starting capital, led by the old faction leader himself, plus a unit of mercenary Sumarian(?) horce lancer to attack Carthage city (their capital).

My faction leader's army has 2 horse lancers, 2 skirmishers, 1 slinger (which has a quite short range), plus himself.

The siege of Carthage started on turn 3. The Carthage starting army was not around Carthage at all, probably on their way to a nearby rebel town, so there were only the faction leader + one unit of horce lancer defending. The skirmisher climbed up the stone wall through 2 ladders to capture the gateway; the rest was easy.

I simply occupied Carthage city because I desperately needed a more central capital, and more citizen means stable tax income and recruit source (I play on "large-80" unit size, btw). Later on I built a 2nd level stable to mass produce camels here.

One or two turns later, the 4th family member, aka. the 3rd son of the faction leader matured in Carthage with the "untouched by fear" personality. I transferred all military retinue from his old dad to him, and sent him out to occupy the southern Carthage city (forgot name, sorry). There were 300+ garrisons but without a wall. I could easily divide and kill the roaming units and finally took the city square.

There are certainly quite a few brigand/rebel armies in N. Africa. With a lot of micromanagement to lure away individual units and rout them one by one, I could cut the casaulty down to single digit. It was a great learning experience.

Soon the faction heir arrived in Carthage all the way from the west. (I was planning to abandon that town to Spain, but now I have some money, so I trained a diplomat here, ready to bribe away the invaders as long as I can.) The faction heir also fought off some rebel groups on his way to become a 6-star commander, so I made him the chief of invading Sicily.

Carthagians have a formidable elephant army on Sicily, but somehow they are not around the town by the time I landed. Later on, my diplomat happened to bump into them in the woods close to the border with Scipii... oh well. Better check whom your major enemy is.

I took over the rather defenseless Carthage town on Sicily. I made a huge mistake of charging all of my cavalry to the city square without infantry support. I thought I had them very closeby because I have ordered them to come very long ago. I guess pathfinding is not so great especially in the rather irregular Carthagian towns. I ended up losing 3/4 of my cavalry before the rest charged in. Please don't make the same mistake as I did.

Fortunately, the final batch of reinforcement arrived all the way from the dessert on the next turn, so I will continue my Sicily campaign immediately. I have allied to the Greeks. In order to please them, I offered a free military access. I am looking forward to shake hands with the Carthagians soon, as I wish to push towards Rome next. It will be fun to see the Scipii ambushed by the elephant army, too. ~:cool:

***

Yeah, crazy expansionist! Only effective against the rigid AI though.

For all of the above Carthagian part, I didn't really use extra cash. I finished everything with whatever I had at the beginning. I believe you can also reproduce my result as long as you are willing to learn some novel battlefield technique.

The following part I am not sure you can reproduce it. Maybe I was extra-lucky.

***

With the mind of losing everything for Carthage city, I sent out my starting army in Siwa (the town close to Egypt) to, yeah, Egypt, aiming to reck a havoc, or at least to burn down a town or two before this army finally vanish. This way I can also get some fast bloody money. I picked the closest town of Thebe (I might spell city names wrong, sorry).

The AI built a wall around Thebe just before I was close enough to attack, so I had to siege it. There were one unit of bowman, one unit of iron-skin infantry and one unit of peasants. Only the bowmen were out defending the wall. As soon as I knocked a hole on the wall, I rushed my general and cavalry lancers in to massacre the bowmen. Feels good! Then I threw some lances at the poor iron skin phalanx and the peasants at the town center, killing the majority of them, followed by the final skirmisher mop up. (I have no other choice) This town was exterminated easily. I am sure you can reproduce it, too.

With the bloody loot I could hire archers in Thebe, thinking I want to kill as many Egyptians before death. I sent out my diplomat to sell my map for 3k. I found a captain up north, just outside Memphis. In my experience, captains are easier to negociate. To my surprise, the captain countered with the following request:

- I give them map info.
- They give me 7000+
- I become their protectorate

I was really curious about actually being a protecorate, so I was going to agree. Well, just for fun I asked for 12,000 isntead of 7000+, and that captain agreed only to be bribed immediately and returned home. lol.

On the diplomatic panel I actually "ally" with Egypt, with trade rights and mutual military access. I could reproduce this request while loading the previous save file. Everytime he asks me for becoming a protectorate.

With this huge mercy from Pharaoh, I built ports in every town, and start to think seriously to actually continue my eastern expansion. I bribed every Egyptian captain coming this way, and killed yet another group of rebel with my first Numidian cross-sword on the ground. I was intending to clear a way for my reinforcement from Siwa, a lone unit of skirmisher. Ironically, that miserable unit of reinforcement were slaughtered by the retreating brigand heavy cavalry.

Anyways, with military access I marched my army north. There are two Egyptian towns: the one with the pyramid (Memphis) and the one with the great light house (Alexendria?). There was a strong Egyptian force outside Memphis led by a 5-star family member, so I spent one more turn to march further, sieging the light house city Alexendria.

I purposely sat my units on a bridge (probably the only city that can be sieged from a bridge) in case the 5-star army wants to attack me. Indeed they came. This was the most exciting RTW bridge battle I have played, so I will describe it from the beginning.

***

The Egyptians had a total of 3 generals: their King and 2 others in their speedy chariots. They also had one unit of bowman, one phalanx type infantry, a peasant horde, and some skirmishers for a total of 7 or 8. I had my general (heavy cavalry), 2 cavalry lancers, 3 skirmishers, 1 mecenary skirmishers (I hesitated before hiring them because none of their stats were over 3 (?)... the worst I have ever seen. They also come cheap for 350.), plus 2 units of archers.

In terms of number I had 496 men, with a slight advantage, but on the blue-red bar it was about 3(me): 5(them). I knew this would be a hard bridge battle, especially I get nothing to seal the end of the bridge. All I had were missle units except the general himself. I had no chance to hold the line.

Then I recalled my horde-fighting experience in good old STW. I used to face the horde in a bridge province, so a few units will come across the bridge, but get routed by the 3-way surrounding army. While my army actually stayed away from the bridge, I don't suffer from enemy archer's arrows, perhaps just a few of my own in the back.

I made a " C " type opening on my end of the bridge, keeping some distance from the river, and my archers could touch units on the bridge. I only get about 2 volleys before the engagement, though.

The AI sent their poor peasant as arrow absorber, then rush all of their chariots through the bridge.

When they were half way across the bridge, I rushed "EVERYTHING" except the archers who kept firing. Who cares about friendly fire - I just want to rout them before all of my men are under the blade wheels!

It was a huge clash and the flaming arrows were flying crazily across the little area (yeah, I wanted to maximize the morale penalty). My right flank cavalry lancers routed in 3 seconds becuase there were only 3 of them left! However, my poor-melee skirmishers successfully intercepted the chariots with their wall of flesh, and soon I saw the enemy king's wagon crashed, throwing him to the ground - DEAD! WooHoo!

For all Egyptians that have cross the bridge this immediately cause a huge rout, but the enemy archers were still pouring on my general and I could see its number reduce every second. More enemy units were rushing through the bridge. ~:eek:

I had no time to massacre the already routing units - I had to stop the infantry from outnumbering us in the five seconds. So I ordered everybody, again except the archers to CHARGE on the bridge, while the archers to aim at their archers trying to thin their number down. Now as I recall all of this, I think I'd better shooting the enemies on the bridge because I wanted them to rout.

I was lucky that the mob charge combined with fleeing chariots successfully routed the rather fresh Egyptian infantry on the bridge. Once across the bridge, I ordered all cavalry (with a total of 16 horses) to charge into the annoying bowmen, and my infantry chasing the routers. They couldn't catch up, right, but at least I could keep them from turning back. Finally the brave cavalry killed every single bowmen.

Alexendria was mine! Unfortunately there wasn't a cross-sword on the bridge.

***

So this is what happened in the first 5 years. I am not really a good military commander - so I am sure you can get similar or better results.
~:)

Maltz,

Wow, excellent strategy and great story! I think it proves that offense is better than defense - even if you're playing as poor little Numidia. I read your posts over once quickly and will read them again - certainly I think you present players with maybe the best starting strategy I have seen. A few questions though:

1) Did you capture Nepte and/or Lepcis Magna?
2) Did you march your diplomat all the way to Siwa from Numidia? I assume you did because you said you sent him north to Memphis after capturing Thebes so just wondering if that diplomat was your starting diplomat or one you created in Thebes or Siwa...?

I think that since you dealt with Numidia's biggest problem (Egypt) so quickly it should all be rather easy from here. Just be careful to watch your back (Carthage - your capital). The Romans like to land there with huge amphibious forces on a pretty regular basis. I doubt the Scipii are going to be much of a threat since you're hitting Sicily but the Julii might try landing forces there eventually. Spain might come in to Tingis a little sooner too if the Gauls or Julii have not crushed them. Still, I think you should have no major problems - well done!

Hello Boulis,

Thanks for your encouragement. I wish to also thank the above pioneers who also offered valuable experiences.

> 1) Did you capture Nepte and/or Lepcis Magna?

Nope. I haven't touched any rebel town yet, and I probably won't until the Romans are exterminated. I have sent everything I had to Sicily and Egypt. Now all of my starting towns are guarded by friendly peasants.

2) Did you march your diplomat all the way to Siwa from Numidia?

I trained one in Siwa in the first turn. God bless Numidia that it can train a diplomat in Siwa. ~;) The starting diplomat is in the capital, so I brought him with the clan leader. He didn't even manage to sell a map to the Carthagians, or bribe anybody until I sent him to Sicily. He brought me the alliance with the Greeks.

***

> (Carthage) The Romans like to land there with huge amphibious forces on a pretty regular basis.

I am sorry I forgot to mention this part in the story. They already came twice in my first 5 years! Well, as soon as I saw a red ship on the shore, I quened up my diplomat #3 so he promptly bribed off the Julii and later Scipii captains. I also gained trade right with them.

> Spain might come in to Tingis a little sooner too if the Gauls or Julii have not crushed them.

Indeed I saw that brown ship, too! I quened up my diplomat #4 for that, but that was just a scout ship. I am very willing to give up those cities though.

***

Yeah against AI it is better to expand very fast. They out-grow you anyways, so "the beginning" is actually the best time to kill them. ~D

OK I just played 5 more years of the Numidia campaign (edited post) Just a few more points:

1. The Romans had more landings on Carthage, but after a few failures, they stopped coming. ~D Good AI probably learned this wouldn't work.

2. I left the Scipii & Greeks on Sicily so the Greeks (my current ally) won't attack my holding.

I was partly right/wrong. The Greeks suddenly declared war on me, while there was no diplomat coming or military action whatsoever. I could never do that to AI controled factions... Mostly I could only go from ally to neutral.

Yet the Greeks and Scipii were rather inactive on Sicily, so I didn't waste my main force there. Not until a few years ago I get some extra cash and gathered my 3rd army... They are now sieging Syracuse.

3. Without the elephant to take down the wooden gate immediately, it is very risky to land Italy with all the Roman fleet patroling the shore. I'd rather deal with them early than late.

Well, after all the trouble, I took Rome!

Game Screenshot Numidia 261BC (click to view)

My infantry truly sucked. Two of them (dessert spearman + samnite mercenary) lost a duel with 1 velite on the wall of Rome, right in front of my cheering clan leader. I lost about 50% of my 1st army in that battle. :dizzy2:

4. Egypt gone! The final showdown in Jerusalum was great. The AI had a lot of phalanx and dessert cavalry, while I had skirmishers, some archers and jav cavalry, and some low-class infantry. I shot most of their phalanx dead, then rush everybody in. After sandwiching 2 times, I decided to chase the wind-speed routers. They also issued a total charge out. The street was crowded with horses. I barely survived - their faction leader died first.

Playing as Numidia is very intense. There are often big battles but always quite memorable... ~:) Highly recommended faction to try. ~D

just to add my 2 cents of what hasn't been said before:

I played a game on vh/m with huge unit sizes, and one problem I had were those slow growing Numidian desert towns. I took Nepte, Kyrene and Leptis Magna ASAP, and, like everybody, had my share of trouble with Egyptian invasions.

One thing I did, which I haven't seen mentioned so far, I didn't build any units in the western provinces because I had no money and no citizens to spare, really. Instead, I started bribing all those rebel armies that appear in the large North African provinces. They were mostly peasants and javelineers, with an occasional Numidian cavalry unit. These are all units the Numidians can build, so they don't just disband, you can actually hire cheap troops that way.
Doesn't work in Siwa though, those brigands are Egyptian.

I don't know if any other faction can recruit the rebel armies in their starting provinces like that, but for Numidia, it's a major boost in the earliest turns.

Not sure if Numidia are the hardest faction at VH/VH (IMO Thrace are harder due to their having to beat off the Macedonians) but they are certainly the most frustrating....

Those immense distances between cities really do raise the question of why CA didn't rotate the map a few degrees, so as to cut off the Sahara and allow Scotland and southern Scandinavia to be included.

Giving them Siwa is also fairly absurd as it is just an incitement to the Egyptians to attack (next time I might try selling it to them).

However the real killer is the broken economy - even having dispatched all my troops to take Cyrene, Nepte and Leptis on move 1 I was thousands of denarii in debt within a few moves and only got reliably back into credit when I managed to take Corduba (which the Spaniards had developed to such a degree that it contributed more income than the rest of my empire put together).

It also did not help that having formed an alliance with the Scipii the idiot AI sent their armies wandering around a nearly defenceless Thapsus and Carthage but never attacked them - but did attack and take Cirta and then prosecuted a war against me quite oblivious to their also being at war with Carthage.

(same thing happened when I played as Parthia and both the Seleucids and Egyptians ignored the supposed state of war between them to attack only me).

While my Numidian cav can beat pre-Marian Romans, as they have to advance within pilum range they don't have as big an advantage as HA's and take a lot more casualties.

The one thing that would even matters up would be elephants but bizarrely the Numidians don't seem to have them (the fact that Syphax, Jugurtha, Bocchus and Juba employed large numbers of them historically doesn't seem to have registered with CA).

It would have made much more sense to have given the Numidians elephants at level 2 instead of the long shield cavalry (for whom there is no historical evidence) - although of course with a crap economy they wouldn't be able to afford them anyway....

All in all playing as the Numidians seems to give you all the tedium of the later game in terms of having to hold together a far flung empire and fighting wars on multiple fronts right from move 1, without any of the later game advantages of having developed cities and a decent choice of units - so it doesn't even work as a challenge.

i thought Numidia was very hard to play but its not
u can make 35000 den. in 5 turns if u know this trick (of course not cheating)
if u want, ill show u

Maltz i saw u r a VERY good player,u really do some crazy rushs.Very good strategy.
Im a more "boring" kindaa player.
I'v just started it's been 4 years,built roads,temple and a military building.captured nepte and lepcis magna,holding siwa and planing to conquer the egyptyans.tell u more as i play.

Numidia's weak points are:
1) Very weak economy;
2) Long distances between towns;
3) Less than impressive units (the Numidian javeline cavalry, for instance, has inferior stats compared to the mercenary version);
4) 2 Powerful neighbors: Egypt and the Romans (OK, Romans are not neighbors in the begining, but show up soon enough to become a major threat);
5) Useless potential allies: Carthage folds easily, Egypt is in the backstabbing business and the Seleucid Empire gets rather quicly its hands full of Pontus and Parthia to be of much assistance against the Pharaoh.

Now it's time to hear also the good news.
At the tactical level:

1) The javeline cavalry is good enough to deal with the Romans infantry-centric armies. On some ocasions the Numidian player might face some Roman cavalry. If so, have 2 or 3 javcavs ganging on every Roman mounted unit;

2) The javcavs are good against the Egyptian, Seleucid, Briton or Pontic charriots. Again, have 2 -3 of your units against one of theirs. Don't engage in a bow-against-javeline duel with archer charriots because bows have better range. Charge them instead - they will turn and run away, allowing your guys to hit them in the rear. Of course, their archers can and will shoot backwards but you were going to lose some men in the duel anyway. And you'll lose more when making contact with the charriots. Against non-archer charriots, use your javelins first, then try to outflank them and hit them in the rear. With some luck the charriot would chase one of your units, leaving the to other to come behind for the killer blow. One point worth mentioning is charriots tire more quicly than the horesmen.

Costwise, 3 javcavs are more expensive to produce than a charriot (unless you produce them in a city with a skilled governor, with a good retinue). But normaly we won't waste a whole unit of Numidian cavalry in order to dispose of a charriot. Therefore investing in javcavs turns out to be money well spent. Also they have one of the lowest upkeep costs (cheaper than pedestrian javelinemen - I think this is an unrealistic feature, but this is how the game is, at least in Version 1.0).

3) Archers need only a practice range for production. This means they are accessible early on. Archers are effective against the charriots (but place them behind a screen of foot javelinmen, for protection agains charriot charges). If possible, put most of the archers (and Balearic slingers) on your left flank. They will shoot in the right flank of the attackers, which is not protected by the shield. The level of realism of the game allows you to take advantage of this. Archers decimate the slow moving phalanx-type troops fielded by the Egyptians, Seleucids or Pontus. By the time you land in Europe the other phalanx types - Greeks, Macedonians, Thracians or Germans are probably long gone or on their last legs. And usually Carthaginians don't get to have poeni infantry or sacred band by the time you engage them. Plain vanilla archers are outranged by the elite version the Egyptians can field. But this means only that we need to dispose of the Egyptians ASAP (more about that on the Strategy section).

4) Even though the foot javelinmen stats are also unimpressive, they are light on their feet and can go out of the harm's way after doing a lot of damage. They are best used in long lines and several ranks. Egyptian axemen love to charge those lines, ending up surrounded by javelinmen from all sides. Phalanx types are hopeless against them, which is also quite acurate from the historic point of view (see Xenophon's Anabassis for a contemporary account on hoplites versus peltasts fights or Alexander the Great's preference for surprise attacks with light infantry/peltasts ). Even Roman hastati, principes or legion types might suffer at the hands of a well led javeline force. However an archers + Numidian cavalry combination works better against the Romans. Javelinemen make a nice decoy (more about this crucial feature later) and they do stop charriots (have them _charge_ charriots instead of attacking with javelins, otherwise they'll run for cover). Javelinemen are also great against elephants, though you won't really have a lot of elephants to fight if everything goes well at strategic level. This time don't have them charge the elephants. Have 4 units attack the elephants with javelins and this is usually enough to make the beasts run amok. I didn't have the chance to test if this tactic also works against war elephants or armoured ones because the Carthaginians and the Seleucids were wiped out before being able to field these types of units.

5) Balearic slingers are available for recruiting in the area (more can be found by takning a short trip over the sea to the South of Spain). While normal slingers are rather crappy (they have less killing power than the javelins, compensated somehow by a long range and a lot of ammo), the Balearic (and, in the East, the Rhodian) slingers are the equivalent of machine guns. Place them on the left flank of your battle formation, like the archers, for maximum killing effect. Just make sure you don't place any friendly troops in their line of fire. Since they are skirmishers, they will normally withdraw if charged. Since we don't want slingers to go behind our own troops, it's better to place them on the extreme left of the infantry line with no supporting troops behind and with javcavs or camel archers (mercenaris, not a Numidian unit) to their left, for added protection.

6) An all-light army works perfectly against Carthagininans, Romans, Egyptians, Seleucids, Spaniards or Gauls. The ideea is to have a lot of javcav (6 to 8 per stack) plus an _asymetric_ infantry line. On the left flank have slingers and archers and on the right flank put mainly javelinemen (plus mercenary peltasts if available) as decoy. A basic formation would be

SJJJJJJ
JcJcJc AAAJJJ JcJcJc
G
where S=slingers, J=javelinemen, Jc=javeline cavalry, A= archers, G=general

What happens is the computer seems to look at our right flank as the weaker one because it allows its infantry to come closer to our troops before being hit by their missiles. As a result most of the time it will send the shock troops against the double javeline line which represents our right. But by doing so it exposes them to the enfilade fire of the slingers and archers, with the result being those troops break and rout quite soon after reaching our ranks. We need to order the slingers to make a few steps forward and wheel right for maximum effect (doing this also to avoids them shooting through our ranks when the enemy reaches our lines). So far this formation led most of the time to heroic victories against Romans, Egyptians, Gauls, Spaniards (be careful with their round shield cavalry, though) and Seleucids.

6) The above-mentiond formation doesn't work at all against Parthians. The key to dealing with the Parthians or Pontus is to hit them as soon as possible, before they develop their really heavy cavalry. This means dealing with them imediately after we took Egypt and the Seleucid Empire out of the picture. Some long-range missile troops (Cretan archers or Rhodian slingers) are a nice addition to our troops, if we can get them. Otherwise we need an all-cavalry army with enough camels in it. The javcav's role is to chase the Partian horse, engage them and fix them till the Numidian camels arrive. Expect heavy loses for the javcav in the process. Arab cavalry (mercenaries) are also good because of their stamina and speed, also because of their better melee stats. Longshield cavalry is not really good for this job because it's not quick enough to catch the horse archers or Pontic light cavalry and doesn't have the cavalry-killing power of the camels.

7) Desert infantry and Numidian legionaires are decent for use during sieges but that's about all they can be really useful for. They are also cost a lot to keep, which for Numidia it's really an issue in the begining.

Bottom line: even though the Numidian units are not spectacular, a general can usually get results with them. However, playing Numidia has a lot more to do with strategy than with tactics.

Strategy

The soil of the initial territory of Numidia is poor so farms are not really worth the money. It also doesn't start with mines and has only 3 provinces bordering the sea (for maritime trade). The best investments for making money are therefore ports, roads, markets, temples of Milqart and...ships & diplomats.

Use the ships to send diplomats to Europe and have them sell maps (every turn) and alliances. Selling maps and alliances to the Romans and Egyptians early on gets us a lot of money. Money that _must_ be invested in troops.

The Numidians start with 3 distinct theaters of operations: West, North and East. The key to quicly improve the economy is to get all the cities that have ports in those theaters of operations.

In the West, they need to take over the Corduba then the Spanish Carthago Nova and, maybe, Scalabis (in Lusitania/Portugal). This means we need to tech up Tingi (stables and practice range), then ferry an army and a diplomat across the Mediteranean. The diplomat should make money dealing with the Gauls and Spaniards.

In the North, the first and only target for a long time should be Carthage. We need to beat the Scipii (or, sometimes, Julii) to it, then built a strong army there, for fighting the Roman empire. The money for doing that should come from the Romans themselves. Therefore it's important to have at least 2 diplomats in the Italian penninsula: one moving between Rome and Arretium, selling maps every turn, and the other next to Tarentum. Since the Scipii will be already in Africa, in Thapsus, that's where we should place the 3rd diplomat in charge with Roman relations. If possible, another diplomat should be sent way up North, to do business with the Germans and the Britons. Anyway, Corduba in the West and Chartage in the North have to be taken first, before we can start the offensive in the East.

The best expansion is to the East. Forget the small town of Nepte in the south, or Lepcis Magna and Cyrene. Nepte is too poor. Lepcis Magna and Cyrene are too far away to be defended by a mobile field army and they are not rich enough to tech up and build strong garrisons for themselves. The strategic objectives in the East are the Egyptian cities of Thebes, Memphis and Alexandria. And quickly after conquering them we need to sack Jerusalem and Sidon. We should be able to send 3 diplomats to the east: to Egypt, to the Seleucids and to Pontus, to make some money for us (the maps can be initially sold for 1000 to 6000 dinarii).

First step in conquering Egypt is to tech up Siwa, then create a mobile field army (that is, a non-garrisoned army) which would intercept the invading Egyptian forces marching towards the city. After defeating the Egyptians, propose a ceasfire. A lot of times they respond by offering a lot of money in exchange for protectorate. Use the money to build an even larger army and use it to defeat the mobile Egyptian armies which most likely are sitting idle and dispersed around Siwa. Sometimes we can get lucky and find out their armies moved further East against the Seleucids and the Parthians. Anyway, even without the ceasfire & protectorate episode we should be able to build an army big enough to take at least Thebes (wooden walls), which brings us a gold mine and a lot of money from sacking it (=exterminate population).

Keep in mind that we need to work simultaneously on all theaters of operations, in order to be able to have the money needed to defeat Egypt.

We might need to delay the Egyptian armies sent to liberate Thebes by blocking the bridges over the Nile with forts (at 500 denarii per fort, this doesn't come cheap, hence the need for money from diplomatic activities and from the sacking of Corduba and Carthage). Either fort can hold for 4 turns, which means the time needed for producing 8 more troops for us (4 in Siwa, 4 in Thebes). Then we need to garrison Thebes as lightly as possible (keep in mind that as long as Egyptians controll the Great Pyramid, Thebes would be rebelious) and maneouvre with the field army in order to intercept and destroy the Egyptian armies one by one. This would leave Memphis and Alexandria almost undefended. On one occasion things went so well that I was able to take first Alexandria and Memphis (in the same turn, after anihilating 2 Egyptian field armies), then Thebes. Sometimes the Egyptians try to send an army from Jerusalem, but it takes too long till they arrive and by that time we can rebuild our troops and even add some more. If we see this army in the Nile area, we should crush it. This will make the sieges of Jerusalem and Sidon much easier.

During all this time hopefully we've managed to secure alliances with the Romans and the Seleucids. After taking the first 3 Egyptian cities we should be able to have an army big enough in Carthage to smash the Romans in Africa, if they start to behave funny. Ideally they'll still be busy fighting the Carthaginians around Lepcis Magna and low on money because of our repeated map trading. Anyway, as soon as we take Jerusalem and Sidon we should take care of the Seleucid armies by bribing them into oblivion. Then we should cancel the aliance and take Antiohia, Damascus and Palmyra. The new money should go into building a strong fleet in Carthage, because it's high time to deal with the Romans (that is, if they haven't started the hostilities first).

This new stage on the northern front should end with the conquering of Sicilly. In the same time on the Eastern front we should make peace with the Seleucids and finish off the Egyptians if they're still alive (sometimes they still hang on Cyprus/Slamis, Petra and Bostra). Then we might have the Parthian menace to deal with. The Parthians are not strong yet but they have the potential to out-tech the Numidians if left alone. A preemptive strike might be needed. The target should be their best developed provinces. Armenians might have taken care of the rest of the Parthians by the time we get to Susa. Armenians can field a very dangerous heavy cavalry but they're too far away from our money-making provinces and their heavy cavalry can be countered by a combination of desert infantry + camels while parthian horse archers are far more deadly. So I recommend we leave the Armenians alone (or better, ally with them as we might have soon to say hello to Pontus).

Once Sicilly is conquered the rest of the moves are the same as the ones recommended for the Carthaginian player: take the Brutii cities of Croton and Tarentum, then Capua, then Rome, then kick the Julii out of Italy.

Dromikaites, that is a very well written guide. However, after 1.2, selling maps no longer works and is simply useless microing. Having a thin line of desert infantry greatly increases the longevity of your jav line.

One last thing is that going after Thebes right away is the best and you only have a nubian and a bowmen to deal with. Hide behind buildings to let bowmen waste ammo and then kill em. Extermination gives much needed cash and enslaving will give you much needed population to grow. Gift it away and repeatedly enslave to make it manageable and pump out an archer from there every turn.

i haven't played as numidia yet, and i'm not an excellent commmander but i think following these guides i could do all right ~:) ~;) ~:cool: ~D

I discovered the following trick while palying Numidia on M/M, v 1.0.

Step 1: The Numidian diplomat meets a faction for the first time and offers to sell them the map at the outrageus price of 10k
Step 2: Most of the time they counter with something linke 4-5k for 2 to 4 turns.
Step 3: The Numidian diplomat offers to sell the map for whatever the sum was, but for 12 turns. Guess what - they accept 90% of the time!

Well, you get a "Transgression!" message most of the time, right after they accept, but this doesn't seem to have any impact in the future

i've heard about diplomat tricks like those.. very clever ~;) ~D

Map info thing is a real exploit. 1.2 largely fixed that.

However, they still failed to fix the tribute bug. The thing is, if the AI is willing to tribute you X denarii for 1 turn, they are willing to tribute you that much for however many turns you like. I've never had problems getting 150 turns out of them.

In 1.2, I still managed to sell trade rights and swap map info to thrace as dacia right off the bat for 900 denarii per turn for 150 turns. In Brutii game, I sold the Gauls an alliance, trade rights, map info package for 1150 denarii a turn for 150 but they were getting their butts kicked by the Julii and needed me to ceasefire badly.

Still, hemorrhaging around 1k to a human player per turn for many turns cripples the AI.

The real triarii were not exactly used like in this game. Their main task was to intervene when the situation was really bad and then, most of the time to protect the withdrawal. The lack of javelines was due to their mainly defensive role. However there were instances when the triarii had to be employed in an offensive role. In any case, if the triarii were fighting, the situation was dire. Therefore "fighting to the triarii" came to mean a very desperate situation.

As you can find on this board dedicated to Numidia, almost everybody, including myself, recommend an army of javelin cavalry and foot missile troops (archers, javeline skirmishers and slingers). However due to some circumstances one of my generals was fighting the Gauls in Spain, south of the city of Numantia, with an army made out of 3 barbarian mercs (B), 3 desert infantry (D), 2 javeline skirmishers (J), 2 balearic slingers (S) and 9 archers (A) (the 20th unit being the 8 star general (G)).

The Gauls brought their 6 stars faction leader with 3 family members, 8 warbands and 6 swordsmen. They were attacking while the Numidians were on defence. The difficulty setting was M because I want the troops to behave like in reality, with no cavalry frontal charges against properly deployed phananxes , etc.

The terrain was mostly flatland with some trees towards the back of my starting position. I thought initially that trees might offer some protection against the Gaulish heavy cavalry, but I then realised that I was badly outnumbered also in terms of heavy infantry. On the other hand I was affraid that trees would only hinder the fire of the archers and slingers. Firepower being my only strenght I decided to deploy outside the sparse tree area.

The main problem was that there were simply not enough troops to protect the archers _and_ prevent an outflanking move with the cavalry or swordsmen (or both). Therefore I've decided to prevent outflanking by having two very deadly missile mobile flanks who would execute a pincer movement (outflank the outflankers) and to lure, if possible, the Gaulish heavy cavalry (king & family members) to charge straight into the spears of the barbarian mercenaries and desert infantry.

The Numidian starting formation was:

G-S-S-J-B-B-B-D-D-D-J-A-A-A
---------A-A-A-A-A-A--------

The second row of 6 archers would either move all of them in front of the barbarian mercs and desert infantry as a bait for cavalry, or some would move on either flank, depending on how the Gauls decide to go.

The Gauls started with 2 lines, their right flank and center being the 8 warbands and left flank comprised of 4 swordesmen. 2 swordsmen and the 4 cavalry were held in reserve. As expected, since they were attacking, they started to move towards my lines.

The archers from the second line moved forward. The 3 archers on the right flank ran forward and to the right and then turned at angle of 45 degrees, in order to shoot in the back whoever was engaging my barbs and desert inf or was trying to outflank them. On the other hand, they were to lure away either cavalry or swordsmen and give my center a better chance to defeat their center. Of course, the hope was the 6 archers in the center would do as much damage as possible to the advancing enemy and force the cavalry to chase them directly into the spears of my infantry. The javeline units on both flanks were to repeat the flanking maneuvre when the enemy would be closer.

In the same time the 2 slingers and the general did a similar move on the left flank. The general was on the Balearic side because their fire was more devastating than the archers'. This meant that whatever unit the general would charge into would be in worse shape on the left flank than on the right flank. Since the general was my only cavalry, I needed him to be able to rout as many units as possible without losing too many of his bodyguards (they where 14 men in total). And remember that a charge from our left flank hits either the back of the enemy (best situation) or their right flank, unprotected by shields.

Note: "in the same time" means I used the "Pause" button to issue orders. I use "Pause" frequently. It's like lending a brain to the comander of each unit.

Things went sort of as expected but not quite so. That is, the Gaulish king and a family member went straight for the archers and impaled themselves into the spears of the barbarians. As it is recommended elswhere in the guides, for best results a spears unit (not phalanx, though) should countercharge the charging cavalry. But the 2 other family members went one for the archers on the right flank and one for the slingers on the left flank, respectively. Also, the warband closest to my general went chasing him, a swordsmen unit from the reserve went after the slingers too and a swordsmen unit from the first line ran to support the family member chasing my archers.

This wasn't looking good at all because:
1. The slingers and archers were running away before having the time to do enough damage.
2. The 6 archers from the center were now behind my infantry line, ready to unleash a lot of friendly fire as the 7 warbands and 3 swordsmen + 1 in reserve were about to engage my 3 barbarians and 3 desert infantry.
3. My general had to outmaneuvre the warband chasing him, which kept him away from where he was really needed.

The emergency measures taken were:
1. Disable fire at will for the 6 archers and send them 3 to the left and 3 to the right, to replace the slingers and their colleagues who were running with screaming Gauls behind them.
2. Send the javeline units to lure some of the attackers away from the center.

For some reason the swordsmen running after the slingers decided abandon the chase and tried to hit my barbarian mercenaries from behind. Bad idea: one unit of archers was ordered to shoot at them while the balearic slingers were machinegunning them in the back. Panic followed and the decimated swordsmen unit ran away. I don't know how it happened, but the other balearics managed to defeat in hand-to-hand combat the family member's bodyguards and sent them fleeing. I think it was because horsemen really suck in the woods. Anyway, both units of balearic slingers, with 'fire at will' disabled, were rushed back to their initial positions.

On the right flank, the other swordsmen tried the same trick but were caught in the crossfire, between the archers unit they were chasing and the archers who realised the cavalry was chasing their colleagues and not them.

Meanwhile things were really going bad for the Numidian center. None of the Gauls took the javeliners bait, instead they ganged on the poor barbarians and desert infantry. The situation was now "to the triarii", but with no triarii to throw in. So the javeliners were sent to hit the flanks of the Gauls in hand-to-hand combat, the 3 archers (from the 2nd line) on the left flank went round and hit the Gauls in the back and so did the 3 archers (from the 2nd line) on the right flank. Also, on the right flank, the archers who were the first to stopp running were sent charging the Gaulish swordsmen in the back while the others were sent to shoot at the family member who had caught the 3rd unit of archers (from the initial right flank). The idea of sending this unit of archers to shoot at the family member was to keep those heavy cavalrymen busy elswhere, away from the main battle.

Remember the general was avoiding contact with the warband chasing him? Well, as heroic as the attack of the archers and javelineers was, they were making little progress against the tougher Gauls. So it was the time for a desperate cavalry charge. The 2 units of balearic slingers were pointed at the warband chasing the general, while he was running to the relief of the Numidian left flank.

The cavalry charge proved to be too much for the Gaulish warbands fighting the barbarian mercs, javelineers and archers. What had remained of the archers and javelineers were sent chasing the running Gauls while the barbarian mercenaries were odered to turn and hit the swordsmen who were shredding to pieces the right flank. And the general's bodyguards disengaged, regrouped and charged again. The swordsmen morale collapsed and they started running for their lives.

The last family member (the one fighting the archers) panicked and ran away. The same happened with the warband crippled by the fire of 2 balearic slinger units (no surprise here). Heroic victory!

The key learning points here are:
1. It pays to stick to the spirit of the plan even if it can't be executed to the letter. The slingers and archers on flanks didn't do as much damage with their missiles as expected but they drove away enough enemy units. This way they prevented the Numidian center to be overwhelmed.
2. Weak hand-to-hand combat units like archers or skirmishers can and should be used to protect the flanks of the stronger units or for last-chance counterattacks. If it's too dangerous for our own troops to have the missile units fire into the flanks or back of the enemy, then we should have them charge into the flank or back of that foe.

Excellent arcticle, Dromikraites. Thanx a lot!!! :book:

Not having had the wisdom of this thread, I took what I thought was the only viable approach. It seemed to me that you simply HAD to take Carthage and Thapsus as quickly as possible. All armies and generals were devoted to this at first, except those in Siwa who took Cyrene and then Lepcis Magna and Nepte. Not only are they good provinces, but you need to remove the thread of the Carthaginians.

Siwa is not defensible if the Egyptians decide to gobble it up, so I left it to its own devices and of course they did. I put a fortress on the road at the narrow point east of Lepcis Magna to provide early warning and hopefully slow the Egyptians down as they came west.

I was just about settled and ready to send a proper army east, when of course the Scipii arrived in force. :furious3: Beat them off and sent a defensive army east while I built a navy. The defensive army preserved Cyrene, to my surprise, but was eventually trashed by an Egyptian force of two generals and six heavy chariots. My home defence army met up with this force and destroyed it, while the navy gained control of the central mediterranean.

More good provinces were now essential, to support a simultaneous war against both Rome and Egypt. Sicily is closest and the Roman ships are at the bottom of the sea (including one with a full stack army) and so the invasion proved to be little trouble, not least because Syracuse was rebel. Meanwhile a wandering Scipii diplomat bribed Cyrene away.

To help control the sea I then took the western Med islands and made peace with the Carthaginians, hoping that their one remaining province in Spain would act as a buffer against the Spanish. (It did.) An army remained to defend Sicily but all other efforts were devoted to building units to send against Egypt. Siwa was retaken without trouble but the Pharoahs had four full stackers defending the Nile provinces. My two full stackers defeated them more by manoeuvre than by battle: strategy at its purest and best. At that point I left off: I've played a couple of campaigns already and from this position (strongest faction by some margin, borders secure, strike armies straining the leash, 30k in the bank) final victory is inevitable.

Money was a little tight most of the time but was never really a big deal. In the middle game I was short of generals, as you always are, but towards the end there was a glut.

The big distances make this a much slower campaign than other factions - to get to the point described took till about 220BC, by which time I'd normally expect to have at least twice as many provinces.

Foot javelinmen were disbanded at the first realistic opportunity. (Takes a while since they are pretty much all you have at the start, except generals.)Slingers lasted a little longer but once I had archers available I didn't bother with them. Javelin cavalry do the job but take heavy casualties in doing it: I dispensed with them once the better cavalry was available. Ideal army composition by the end was 1 general, 3 cavalry and 3 camel cavalry, 6 archers, 4 spearmen in the first line and 3 legionaries (although I never really got to use them) in the second line. I found that very satisfactory for dealing with Egyptians. Never used any mercs.

Dealing with Roman armies is easy, as mentioned in one of the posts above. Pepper them with whatever missiles you have and then put whatever cavalry you have into their rear/flank. Carthage I dealt with by having armies consisting mainly of generals, and being smart about which Carthaginian army I fought.

Egypt is much harder. The problem is that their infantry is good, their archers are good and their heavy cavalry is devastating. Their weakness is that they use too many javelin and spearmen units, which have zero combat power. Consequently you are never fighting as big an army as it looks.

1) As always when dealing with a powerful enemy, break up their formation. Shower them with arrows (stick one or two archer units way out front if necessary); make cavalry feints: get them coming at you in disorder.

2) The heavy chariots often charge into your frontal archers which, if you get it right, have retreated behing the spearmen just as the cavalry hit. Order adjacent infantry to attack them in the flank. Alternatively the chariots head out in a wide flanking attack. In this case lure them in by having a cavalry unit turn its back on them. They will charge, at which point the bait turns round and counterattacks. The bait will take casualties, but they fix the enemy so that two or three other cavalry units can charge into the flanks and rear of the chariots, defeating them instantly. Timing is everything, but not that hard to achieve.

3) Isolated missile chariot units lose quickly against your massed battery of archers. Or see 2) above.

4) Since your units are static and theirs are moving, your archers are firing and theirs (and their javelinmen) are not. When they stop to fire, charge your infantry at them: if necessary stop the infantry before they engage, you're not trying to fight them, just keep them moving. Keep some kind of formation to prevent flank attacks.

5) Move your cavalry around and behind the enemy army. His previous disarray will now turn into a complete shambles. (For example his useless spearmen will be running all over the battlefield trying to catch your cavalry.) Keep your archers firing and manouevre infantry and cavalry to pick off loose units around the edges. If you're lucky your archers will have a huge solid mass to aim at. Since their (chariot) general is already dead or fleeing and you have units behind them, they will rout quickly. I trust I can leave the mopping up to you.

6) Obviously its never as clear cut as that. The important things are to break up their formation; suck in and destroy their general; keep them moving under your hail of arrows; win the cavalry battle on the flanks; attack their flanks and rear with your victorious cavalry.


Overall, very enjoyable. I'd recommend this faction to anybody who has played a campaign or two already and is looking for fresh challenge. Certainly one of the harder campaigns.

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Originally Posted by katank

One last thing is that going after Thebes right away is the best and you only have a nubian and a bowmen to deal with. Hide behind buildings to let bowmen waste ammo and then kill em. Extermination gives much needed cash and enslaving will give you much needed population to grow. Gift it away and repeatedly enslave to make it manageable and pump out an archer from there every turn.

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I think Katank's tip is great! I tried it and I can confirm it is the best early move for the Numidians against Egypt. It leaves the Egyptians with only 2 cities to recruit from in that part of the world. They have a strong army near Sidon, led by a guy called Kya or something like that. But it takes time to bring that army to the Nile valey. And they might not afford to do it, if they are at war with the Seleucid empire. If the attack on Thebes is well coordinated with troop production in Siwa and if the Numidian player has enough money to recruit some mercs, then Memphis and Alexandria can be taken before the arrival of Kya's army.

Correction, Kiya is at Memphis in 1.2. He'll just hit you straightaway.

In other news. The Numidia is my Brutii campaign is highly eccentric... It's swarming the Mediterranean with navies, and there's even one in the Bay of Biscay! And every Numidian city is sparsely defended, and they have field armies all over the place waiting to be bribed! What the hell is going on? O_O I thought Numidian behaviour in the game was supposed to be fortified, 13-units-in-the-city-and-no-other-armies-in-the-field?

Man, oh man.

Maybe sacking Siwa and then letting it rebell was a bad idea. Even though my Siwa force got Cyrene instead, the Egyptians quickly conquered Siwa! Damn them...

I wonder how I will be able to defeat Egypt later in the games... Just how would I counter those Pharoah's Bowmen? Don't they fight as well as infantry, and shoot as far and hard as Cretan archers? I doubt my Camel Lancers/Long Shield Cavalry can go against those monstrosities, any advice?

The best advice I can give you is to pull back your forces much further. Scrap Siwa, don't care for Cyrene: Retreat behind the safe Carthaginian shield (i.e. Lepcis Magna, they'll take it sooner or later...let them do so).

Don't stop until your troops have reached Thapsus/Carthage, then combine them with your assembled forces and take those cities asap. If you succeed, you'll likely have quick access to your better units and your strategic position for the inevitable fight against the Romans will be far better.

Leave Lepcis Magna to the Carthagians (?), they won't be much of a threat there but in most cases their presence will prevent the Eggy from going after you....in my experience, the Eggies expand westwards only when they border a human player. They've never done so in ...say, 10 or 12 semi- and full campaigns when I wasn't Numidia or Carthage. Pretty ridiculous.
As Carthage you can not only ward them off, but defeat them, whereas with Numidia you'll have a much harder time (as you may have seen yourself). Especially since the third-turn sneak attack on Thebes doesn't work any more due to an Egyptian army lurking in the area.

Numidia is easy to play against Egypt I dont know why you are having such a hard time with it. Just started my first Numidia game and have taken alexandria and Memphis from Egpyt by the late 240s to 250s BC. And I have killed off mutliple family members of them when they assaulted Alexandria to get it back. Egypt is basicly dead

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Originally Posted by Seth

Numidia is easy to play against Egypt I dont know why you are having such a hard time with it. Just started my first Numidia game and have taken alexandria and Memphis from Egpyt by the late 240s to 250s BC. And I have killed off mutliple family members of them when they assaulted Alexandria to get it back. Egypt is basicly dead

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Congratulations! How did you manage? In my experience, there isn't enough time to build up Siwa properly before the Eggies attack. They won't be beaten by javelinmen alone, and your limited financial means (soflty spoken :dizzy2: ) are not sufficient to hire mercs on a large scale.

Egypt's principal cities are very close and they easily outproduce you. Accordingly you soon get swamped by endless hordes of bowmen/phalanx/desert cav, not to mention their %$§*#-chariots.

Retreating to Western Africa most often contains the Eggies in their corner and lets them go after the Seleucids as usual; simultaneously, the conquest of Carthage will strengthen your strategic position considerably.

i will tell you all what i did and i'm not worried about the dam bowmen i defeated 2 armies with over 1200 men total when only having 600. And I spread Egypt out a bit so they are thin and I have taken out there two highest tech cities Memphis and Alexandria. They only have Jersualum and sidon and thebes for possible tech locations. Thebes i hit earlier and enslaved/destroyed all buildings so that is down along with blocking ports Egypt economy isn't what it use to be

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Originally Posted by Seth

i will tell you all what i did and i'm not worried about the dam bowmen i defeated 2 armies with over 1200 men total when only having 600. And I spread Egypt out a bit so they are thin and I have taken out there two highest tech cities Memphis and Alexandria. They only have Jersualum and sidon and thebes for possible tech locations. Thebes i hit earlier and enslaved/destroyed all buildings so that is down along with blocking ports Egypt economy isn't what it use to be

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Given earlier comments this seems suprising. Congrats.

1. What is the composition of your primary army?

2. What tactical approach do you take during a field battle?

3. What difficulty settings are being used? (strat/battle)

SF

My army i used to assault Alexandria consisted of 2 Family Generals 3 Cretan Archers 3 Archers 3 Mercenary Hoplities and the rest your infan... formation

Flank| |Center| |Flank
Hoplities|infan|Hoplities|infan|Hoplities
Archers in Back

Have both family members in either right or left flank offset to counter the Egpytians where they threaten your flank if it Cavalry or Chariots they should be able to handle it.
When trying to take Alexandria only seige the city and build a ram wait for the them to bring extra troops to attack you while your under seige. They will use most of the time use their reforments to attack you so you wont be having to deal with the walls and taking the city. Then just move your forces to fight them dont wait for the extra troops to arrive. Use your cavalry to chase the routing units. Then turn everything else facing the extra troops that are on their way. Once your family members have cleaned up the routing troops send them back to the either flank. After the battle the garrison in Alexandria should be reduced in numbers procceed to ram the wall or gate you pick and clean up the house

After taking Alexandria procceed to retrain your units you are going to need it. And build The long cavalry you will need four units of them reduced the number of the infan.
I will explain how i got those mercs. later ~:cheers:

Can tell where you got those mercs, merc hoplites from Carthaginian Africa, Cretan Archers are self-explanatory, right?

Impressive. I found your Hoplite-infantry formation mildly reminiscent of Crecy... assuming the infantry was javelinmen. Maybe Numidia isn't so boring after all. But really, how'd you beat their stacks with your qualitatively inferior (let no one doubt it) troops while outnumbered? What kind of losses did you sustain?

Tried Numidia after success with Carthage, Pontus, Britannia and Brutii. Oh dear. Everything was going well (though like some others I lost Siwi to the Egyptians). Then the hammer blow - Carthage bribed Thrasus which I had captured and the bulk of my army deserted with this city). After this North Africa became a tale of disaster with Carthage being overwelmingly powerful and very aggressive. I was left with Caralis and Palma. After a dubious and futile attack on the Iberian peninsular the Romans decided that they had to get me and Caralis fell to two huge Scipii armies.

Numidia's flag flies supreme in Palma!!! Yea I'm making money and only have the Romans as enemies now. What chance the great come back?

Dodge

Build up forces on that island. If anyone comes, you'll have an army (and hopefully a navy) to get rid of them. Then, when you're confident, pick a target and sail your stacks of armies over to it. I'd pick Iberia and, with enough armies, you can take the whole peninsular and have yourself a new empire.

Of all the campigns Ive played this one was sure the hardest, if you can survive the first 20 turns or so it can get much easier. First get to love Num cav they are the best your army can field and once you learn how to use them, they can kill just about anything if you use the swarm tactic. Also take Carthenage asap as its a nice city to make an army and prepare yourself for the inevitable clash with rome, in which I made the mistake of allying with at the start only to have stacks and stacks sent over later from Italy. Also abandon that city near egypt and you can usually avoid war with them for a long time. The longer you leave the romans the harder they will be to beat... and as for the barbarians there just experience givers to your army's if you use jav cav right. Only egypt is a challenge to face with all those archers but i didnt get much chance to fight them as I took over West europe.

Hope this helps.

From Palma to victory - with 49 years to go!! Far too many hairy late night sessions. I ended up expanding by quickly taking Sicily off Scipii - it was very poorly defended. Then took Croton / Tarantum and then consolidated there while quickly mopping up the Iberian peninsular. Then came a long war or attrition in both Italy and South France with all the various Roman factions and a strong Spain to deal with. Finally once Italy was conquered the income stream was secure and France, Balkans, Germany, Britan and North Africa fell. My best general won the 50th city - Viscus Gothi.

Some questions.
1. Near then end I had a message warning me the Seleucids were about to win the campaign unless I reacted fast. Took a couple of their cities by diverting standing armies preparing to go to North Africa and obviously this took care of things. Since I owned Rome - what prompted the message?
2. Later I had a battle with the said Seleucids and saw why they were so powerful. They attacked me with 20 or so elephants (some huge) backed up by phalanxes and heavy cavalry. Despite being on a hill with a well experienced and balanced army (leagonaires, cavalry onagers etc) I was wiped out and caused only few losses. How do you deal with massed elephant attacks?

I don't visit this site often. Hardly used jav cavalry - relied on dashing round shield cavalry and legionnaires. Probably this is why I took so long !

Didnt get much chance to face elephants in my campaign but based on your army setup I would say either archers using fire arrows or put the legionaries that are about to be charged by the elephants on loose formation, defensive and fire at will. Part of what makes elephants so deadly is because they mo down tightly packed units. Doing this helps to reduce casualties abit and makes then hold longer. Then swarm the elephants to make them panic from numbers. What i did again them was just take 8 units of num cav and shoot them down a few, then adding fire arrows almost certain to make them go berserk.

I played this way with numidia.

First of all, get trading rights and perhaps alliance too with carthago. They won't attack you in a while (or didn't attack me atleast). Then go and conquer those rebel cities at south as quicky as possible.

Now the egyptians are rushing against siwa. I managed to keep them out for pretty long. Longer the better. It's vital to keep them out since carthagians and scipii will be rushing at you with fury. Now, attack carthago but remember to have much military force since carthago might have some nasty units like elephants. Conquer carthago (city) first since it's very big city in the beginning and allows recruiting good units. Arm the city to the teeth and attack to the souht and drive the carthagians away.

Now, there will be the number 2 pain in the ass, scipii, bothering you. Just keep you ass in the carthago and defend it. Build up your forces and when you can afford to send units away, send them to alexandria. Don't yet bother sending your troops to cicilia since the kickass navy or rome will crush you. Instead, try to sneak out in alexandria with some boats (quicker).

If you manage to destroy egypt, your life should be much easier. Spanish shouldn't be bothering you. Try to ally / trade with them if possible. Don't bother allying with romans since they will attack you.

That's how I managed to do it.

This gotta be the hardest faction in RTW. If it aint, then I can`t imagine how that faction must be like to play. :dizzy2:

Anyway;

I started defensive. I took Nepte after a few turns to get some extra cash.
Then I sat back and waited for enemies. I intended to keep every city, since I`m pretty sure my campaign will be even harder if I loose/give up a city.
In order to delay the Egyptians to arrive at Siwa, I didn`t build any roads, and recruited a couple of units. It took several turns before they attacked, but then it was pretty much a cakewalk to finish them of thanks to generals bodyguards and desert infantry.
The most important unit to recruit, should without doubt be desert infantry. They have the same attack stats as hastati/princeps(sp), but a bit less defense. The lack of defense doesn`t really matter; the deserts hold the enemy at bay while you hit them in the rear with generals/numidian cavalry/skirmishers.

Back to the campaign map, my biggest trouble come from the Carthaginians and the Scipii, but so far I`ve managed to keep them away.

I`ll probably add some more as campaign progresses.

I've played all factions on vh/vh and this is by far the most challenging.

In the end, I found that the only way I could succeed was to conquer Egypt early on from Siwa via Thebes. All my western cities were used purely to earn money and I really only defended those western cities against carthage and scipii long enough for me to establish a viable base in Egypt. So by the time I had lost those western regions, I had captured the 3 Nile cities. Then it was just a case of building those up and conquering the rest of the Egyptian cities.

Once I had conquered all Egyptian cities, my economy was strong enough to take on the rest of the map. I then attacked both west and north/east.

I may try other strategies soon to see if I can capture just Thebes and Memphis, then move my emphasis to defending my western cities and maybe conquer Carthagian cities. I think Thebes and Memphis might be sufficient to have a viable economy.

I too started a vh/vh numidia campaign.

You are quickly attacked by Carthage, who believe that Cirta is the answer to all of their problems-to-be with Rome. Egypt, of course, prefers Siwa to Antioch in any game where you are Numidia, and so you can expect a fight there. Your economy is weak, but not unusually so.

Assuming that I was about to lose Cirta and Siwa, I abandoned my cities, cut down the total number of troops (bare minimum garrisons in Tingi, Dimidi, Cirta, and Siwa) and began a trek to Cyrene by foot and by boat.

Took Cyrene (losing Cirta and Siwa about that time) and then fleeted all but one family member, along with a couple of units, to Kydonia. With low garrisons, roads, trade centers, and ports, the other cities were generating some cash. I used the wad of cash to land on crete, hire a merc army and take it. I then took Halicarnassus by bribery (my fleet was exterminated at this point by Egypt).

From there I went for developing an Agean empire (lucrative as we all know) and am advancing solidly.

"Up stakes and find a new home" is not too bad a strategy for Numidia.

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Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh

I too started a vh/vh numidia campaign.

You are quickly attacked by Carthage, who believe that Cirta is the answer to all of their problems-to-be with Rome. Egypt, of course, prefers Siwa to Antioch in any game where you are Numidia, and so you can expect a fight there. Your economy is weak, but not unusually so.

Assuming that I was about to lose Cirta and Siwa, I abandoned my cities, cut down the total number of troops (bare minimum garrisons in Tingi, Dimidi, Cirta, and Siwa) and began a trek to Cyrene by foot and by boat.

Took Cyrene (losing Cirta and Siwa about that time) and then fleeted all but one family member, along with a couple of units, to Kydonia. With low garrisons, roads, trade centers, and ports, the other cities were generating some cash. I used the wad of cash to land on crete, hire a merc army and take it. I then took Halicarnassus by bribery (my fleet was exterminated at this point by Egypt).

From there I went for developing an Agean empire (lucrative as we all know) and am advancing solidly.

"Up stakes and find a new home" is not too bad a strategy for Numidia.

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That's the sort of strategy I'd go for. Pack up and leave the worthless lands of Africa, find an out of the way place to build up and then pick a nearby target and forge an empire.

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Originally Posted by Craterus

That's the sort of strategy I'd go for. Pack up and leave the worthless lands of Africa, find an out of the way place to build up and then pick a nearby target and forge an empire.

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That`s the coward strategy...I keep my honour intact by fighting for my womenfolk and buildings. :charge:

It`s more of a challenge as well.

My Numidian strategy was to hold onto Siwa for as long as possible, before retreating to Cyrene, whilst focusing the main force (mostly Light cavalry) on protecting the African coastline from the Scipii threat, allying with a weak and somewhat lacklustre Carthaginian faction also (I also had a boat leave from near the South of Spain to Cyrene to evacuate my remaining soldiers - one turn before the Egyptians arrived to take it!) The Egyptians are typically too strong to resist for a long period of time, but it depends partly on how they fare up against the Seleucids. If ever the Egyptians want you to become their protectorate - always say yes, and ask for loads of money at the same time. They'll break their alliance almost immediately and you'll have loads of extra money for nothing. If you can hold Siwa, and force back the Egyptian hordes, I suppose it's onwards towards their main cities to the East where great riches await you.

I found it a priority to keep the Romans out of Africa. Every opportunity I got, I thought alongside the Carthies against the Scipii, and eventually stole Carthage after they lost it to a small Roman force. With Carthage captured, the money starts to come in, and it's into Spain to oust the silly natives out of their huts. Masses of light Cavalry and the occasional archer and infantry unit (or merc slingers) utterly destroy the Spanish. Once you have a few settlements in Spain and have your African provences built up a bit, you hopefully have breathing space for a while. In my campaign I used mostly light cavalry as nothing can catch them in the opening years, with the occasional archer and desert infantry unit for garrison or siege duties. Money is Numidians greatest challenge at first, which is why denari for denari, light cavalry are the most cost effective solution to the enemy hordes you'll face early on.

I stopped my campaign after about 25 years as I started to feel too secure and the lack of diversity in the unit roster started to grate a little. It was brilliant up to then though. Actually having to plan in advance strategic withdrawals and counterattacks is something I've never had to do with other factions in the vanilla RTW game.

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Originally Posted by professorspatula

I found it a priority to keep the Romans out of Africa. Every opportunity I got, I thought alongside the Carthies against the Scipii, and eventually stole Carthage after they lost it to a small Roman force. With Carthage captured, the money starts to come in, and it's into Spain to oust the silly natives out of their huts. Masses of light Cavalry and the occasional archer and infantry unit (or merc slingers) utterly destroy the Spanish. Once you have a few settlements in Spain and have your African provences built up a bit, you hopefully have breathing space for a while. In my campaign I used mostly light cavalry as nothing can catch them in the opening years, with the occasional archer and desert infantry unit for garrison or siege duties. Money is Numidians greatest challenge at first, which is why denari for denari, light cavalry are the most cost effective solution to the enemy hordes you'll face early on.

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I'd have gladly done that if the AI Cartha had let me -- its clearly in your interest to keep Carthage in the front lines whilst you tidy up elsewhere.

I found the Eggies (anachronistic advantages or not) were fairly beatable if I just defended Cyrene. I ended up bleeding them badly there (first time with a fight in the square, then sallying from the newly built stone walls). It's a great place to train up generals at Egypt's expense. I suppose you were using Siwa the same way? How hard is it to get Siwa up to stone wall size (where the defense is better off)?

I found that beefing up Siwa was useless because Egypt will send stacks against you. Overall, you will have less battles if you attack and capture Thebes.

http://sg.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ng_...nm=23dfscd.jpg

http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/users/44487...geISEBqrQ_uXed

I am a player who like challenges and tried many different approaches with many factions. I started my first campaign on VH/VH and had not tried anything less than that difficulty since.

Numidia ? I tell u. Its VERY EASY.
Even on ver 1.3 or 1.5 VH/VH
If you are attack minded, you can rush your original Siwa army to Thebes. There is a 50% chance that u can exterminate Thebes in 3 turns bcoz it has NO WALLS and poorly defended. But SOMETIMES, it has rebels or small egyptian army blocking the route.
Else, start building a Numidian port in the Capital and ferry a Diplomat across to Spain/Gaul border to negotiate trade and sell maps to get $$$. Concentrate your military build in Siwa, Peasants for garrisons, Archers for Defence (later attack thebes) , Infantry for Attack. Attack Thebes with at least 3 Archers and 3 Infantry and a few Calvary units and the rest of the Egyptian cities are chicken feet. I have tried many approaches, I can take Thebes, Memphis, Alexandria by BC 265.
Personally, I will throw everything I got at Thebes from Siwa once Egypt bought trade rights, map information from me. Its like using thier own money to fight themselves.

Summary :
All out military build in Siwa. Egypt is a FAT LAND with FAT CITIES to plunder.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh

I'd have gladly done that if the AI Cartha had let me -- its clearly in your interest to keep Carthage in the front lines whilst you tidy up elsewhere.

I found the Eggies (anachronistic advantages or not) were fairly beatable if I just defended Cyrene. I ended up bleeding them badly there (first time with a fight in the square, then sallying from the newly built stone walls). It's a great place to train up generals at Egypt's expense. I suppose you were using Siwa the same way? How hard is it to get Siwa up to stone wall size (where the defense is better off)?

---

I haven`t got Siwa up to stonewall size yet, but Siwa is the easiest city to defend. Worst off am I against the Carthaginians and Spanish.
I didn`t build any roads in Siwa before I was at war with Egypt in order to delay them. When they finally started arriving, they weren`t much of a challenge; provided that you stay at the city centre, of course.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndyNgFL

http://sg.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ng_...nm=23dfscd.jpg

http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/users/44487...geISEBqrQ_uXed

I am a player who like challenges and tried many different approaches with many factions. I started my first campaign on VH/VH and had not tried anything less than that difficulty since.

Numidia ? I tell u. Its VERY EASY.
Even on ver 1.3 or 1.5 VH/VH
If you are attack minded, you can rush your original Siwa army to Thebes. There is a 50% chance that u can exterminate Thebes in 3 turns bcoz it has NO WALLS and poorly defended. But SOMETIMES, it has rebels or small egyptian army blocking the route.
Else, start building a Numidian port in the Capital and ferry a Diplomat across to Spain/Gaul border to negotiate trade and sell maps to get $$$. Concentrate your military build in Siwa, Peasants for garrisons, Archers for Defence (later attack thebes) , Infantry for Attack. Attack Thebes with at least 3 Archers and 3 Infantry and a few Calvary units and the rest of the Egyptian cities are chicken feet. I have tried many approaches, I can take Thebes, Memphis, Alexandria by BC 265.
Personally, I will throw everything I got at Thebes from Siwa once Egypt bought trade rights, map information from me. Its like using thier own money to fight themselves.

Summary :
All out military build in Siwa. Egypt is a FAT LAND with FAT CITIES to plunder.

---

Yeah, rushing and blitzing probably makes it easy, but if you take a relaxed approached, I`m sure you`ll have some problems too..

Hey ~:)

i started playing as the numidias (m/m) and it seems to be going ok.

Istarted by building roads in every sttlement i could.
I sent every one in my dimmidi garrison except the slingers to take nepte., its has been 12 yrs or so, and no one has attacked me yet. all my cities except nepte have the govenors villa or what ever it is, the second stage. all see side cities have ports, and my army is decent.egypt have left its 3 main cities relativly ungaurded, focusing on the northen front. i plan on taking lepcis magna and cyrene. then building more or less an army in siwa and taking thebes, memphis and alexandria. and maybe go north into spain.

any way, i'll leave another post in a couple years or so(of game time).

later_RM3:2thumbsup: :2thumbsup:

WARRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! :charge:

WOW!

wierd game. I allianced with carthage, map information both ways, military access both ways, and trade rights. siwa was taking by egypt, and i lost 3 generals. i built paved roads in cirta, tarsus or whatever its called, and dimmidi. as soon as they were built, carthage attacked me. a small army attacked dimmidi, and a huge army attacked cirta, two elephants, many long shield and alot iberian, all with level one armour , weapons and xp. before they attacked me, they were wandering around the province. so i sent everyone in thrsus thing by boat to carthage. it landed and i discovered it had good units garrisoned inside, including sacred band infantry.i hired 4 libyans, 2 num-cav, and a merc hoplite and attacked. i got the city, which was hooked up to the max, enslaved it, thereby getting cirta to level 4 and thrsus to lvl 3 or 4. im allianced with the scipii, and things are going well, i havent reached 4k yet, but my financial needs have been quenched with the addition of carthage to my empire.:2thumbsup:

i plan to take thapsus, leaving lepcis magna as a buffer between egypt and me until my army is good enough to compete with them. until then, ill try going north to the iberian peninsula.

post more later

later_RM3:2thumbsup: :2thumbsup:

hey

things have been going ok. only conquered thapsus since last post, but i make over 2k per turn, so i dont really have any financial problems.ive amassed a full stack army by carthage's port, and am wondering where to strike. iberian peninsula? or Egypt. any thoughts on this matter would be most appreciated. thank you in advance.

later:2thumbsup:

Hey, bad news.

i sailed my full stack army to alexandria landed and assaulted.:laugh4: it had just rebelled so the garrison was low. they attacked me. over 1k of my troops with one of my best generals vs. an army that attacked attacked me and the garrison as reinforcements, totalling about 400. with a general the same as mine. i lost about 800 men and only killing about 300 or so. im going to offer a ceasefire to egypt:surrender:, and maybe form an alliance against a common enemy with some of the factions at war with egypt.:laugh4:

EGYPT WILL FALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA:2thumbsup:

This is quite an interesting campaign.

241BC:
Greece, Thrace and Dacia are too strong for the Brutii, so now they've decided to attack Gaul and Germania instead :dizzy2:
The Greeks managed to drive the Scipii and Carthaginians off Sicily. When I then attacked Sicily, they had 3 full stacks (mainly phalanxes) there, quite effective against my army which consists mainly of light cav :sweatdrop:
https://img127.imageshack.us/img127/6277/rtwmap2ey7.jpg




229BC:
Conquered most of Italy.
The Greeks completely wiped out Pontus & Seleucia, and are giving me a very hard time now.
They have a huge ammount of full stacks, and most of those consist for about 90% of Hoplites & Armoured Hoplites.
My infantry seems to be unable to even scratch their armour.
I keep surrounding a single hoplite unit with 6 or 7 of my own infantry units, just to see the usual chain rout occur - single hoplite units keep killing hundreds of my men, usually losing less than 10 of their own.
The Brutii & Julii have finally started to attack the barbarians - Thrace still is way too strong for the Brutii to take on.
https://img246.imageshack.us/img246/7413/229bcsz3.jpg




190 BC:
I used to own most of the Middle-East (Sidon, Jerusalem, Damascus, Seleucia, Susa, and everything to the south of that line), but the Greek hoplites & armoured hoplites are just way too strong for the Numidians
When the Greeks managed to break through the line Alexandria-Memphis-Thebes about 10 years ago, I was forced to retreat out of Egypt, Libya and Tripolitana, leaving only some weak units behind to delay the Greeks a bit.
Since then the Greeks have captured Thapsus several times, but I've always been able to retake it.

Conquered all of Sicily & Italy, but taking the rest of the European mainland is proving to be pretty difficult.
The Brutii keep bribing my settlements, and I don't have enough money to bribe them, because of Numidia's weak economy.
I keep taking settlements, just to see the Julii/Brutii retake them several turns later, because the Numidian infantry garrisons can't stand up to the Romans.
The biggest problem probably is that if I destroy the Brutii, there'll be no buffer zone between me and the Greeks, and there's no way I can survive a war with the Greeks on 2 fronts (Africa & Europe).

What surprises me most though, is that it's 190 BC and Thrace is still alive
https://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2928/numidiary0.jpg




161BC:
Thrace actually managed to survive until about 15 turns ago.
Before the Greeks broke their alliance with them, they even owned more provinces than the Brutii! (nearly 20)

There's no way I can win this campaign. Still need 11 more regions to achieve the victory conditions, and with the Greeks attacking on 2 fronts, that's just impossible.
Taking out Brittania and the Julii won't be difficult, but the Brutii are another matter.
Whenever I capture one of their settlements, the Greeks immediately besiege it, and take it 2 or 3 turns later.
https://img159.imageshack.us/img159/...ia161bcdv1.jpg

hey, greece and you are quite the superpowers.
just wanted to ask a few questions:

1. what difficulty lvl you playing on (camp/batt)?
2.What mod are you using because i saw in the factions lists scroll in one of the screenshots the icons are different than vanilla rome tw?

later, aND GOOD LUCK AGAINST GREECE.
RM3:2thumbsup:

1- hard/medium
2- Not using any mods. I tried SPQR several months ago, and after uninstalling it and reinstalling vanilla RTW, SPQR's faction icons apparently stayed behind.

hey, roy, thought of another question which if you answer will help my new campaign alot.

when you attacked egypt, did you, say send your siwa army at thebes or something? just wondering which egypt city you took first, with what. thank you in advance

I first captured Carthage & Thapsus, and then I took the best units out of that army, combined them with the best units from the starting army in Siwa, and used that 'new' army to attack Egypt.

I think I captured Memphis first, but it might also have been Alexandria, I'm not sure.

ok, cool, thanks.:2thumbsup:

hello, continuing my campaign that i posted here earlier. brutii has become quite the superpower at this early stage. scippi invaded the most southern parth of the greek peninsula. i own all of west north africa, and lilybaeum. letting carthage hold lepcis magna as a buffer between us and egypt.

ill show you a screenie of the brutii holdings in europe thingy thing. but ook at the map, i need advice on where to attack next.

https://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1681/0001ug9.th.jpg[IMG]

You should definitely take on the Spanish. With a little preparation, they can be gone in five, six turns. Their armies stand no chance against your light cav and spearmen if you use them wisely. The Tingi-Corduba trade alone can be worth five grand a turn with proper upgrading! The Gauls are another faction whose military isn't suited to fighting yours. This should keep you occupied and win you a huge power base while not crossing any Romans or Egyptians.

ok, thank you

Numidia is not a very popular faction to play with.
What makes it difficult is the long distances and the poor cities you start with.
I like to blitz in the begining and turtle once I've established a good-sized empire.
Strategy
Your major enemy at first is Carthage. They will attack you no matter what, so be prepared and strike first. Conquer their two main cities and be ready for the Scippii to arrive. Once Carthage city is conquered just build it up and defend the city from the Romans. They will send stack after stack until they are exhausted and have no more money to fund armies. Meanwhile build a decent navy and start sinking whatever remaining small armies they send. Also do recruit a full stack army to invade Sicily.
The second main front will be Egypt. Make sure you leave the first turn with all your army but a peasant unit to guard the city. Egypt will not attack right away so there is time to conquer Cyrenica and come back to defend Siwa from the Egyptians. Make sure you set the building patern to Military for Siwa. The rest of the cities I left on Financial.
I should also talk about the building I built. Speed is essential, so the first thing I built was roads and paved roads. Money is the second thing you need and you will find out that they are short for the Numidians. Build the trade temple in every coastal province and the growth temple in the two landlocked provinces - Nepte and D..... I would suggest Carthage for your main troop producing center and Siwa as a secondary one.
I have some rules when I play to make the game more interesting for me.
1. No attacking army can be led by a captain.
2. Only cities with governors can recruit troops.
These rules make the obvious need for generals. When you conquer that much land really quick, you will have option to adopt generals into your family.
The more generals I had the more armies I raised and then spread into more directions.
By the time you beat off the Egyptian 2-3 stacks, you will have a son at Siwa, who should be at least 3-4 stars from the start, because his dad should have won 2-3 Heroic Victories and should be a very skillful general.
I send the dad straight to Memphis and the son with a decent army to Cyprus and then to Antioch, which by that time should be Egyptian. That will create a pincer move with 2 armies coming from the south and and the north. That should take care of the Egyptians.
Carthage is easy, the only challange is the elephant unit army which in my game came to relieve a siege I had laid on Thapsus. I beat them by isolating each unit and leaving the slow moving elephants for last, by which time they were tired of chasing me up and down the map.
Send one army to Sicily, one to Corsica and then to the Julii city directly north from it and attack Rome from the north while the Sicilian general should be moving into Bruttii territory and moving northwards to Rome. Second pinzer.
The last pinzer will be in Spain. One general attacks the Carthagian city in Spain. Second army attacks Palma and then Narbo ... Then they meet.
Units
Numidians have good Jinnete type unit and I also love the dessert camels. I have 5-8 units of cavalry in my armies. The rest are desssert infantry and archers.
For later the further away you conquer from Carthage, which I made my capital, start building temples of Baal for loyalty.
Good luck and have fun. Let me know how you did. :2thumbsup:

P.S. It is very important that you don't loose your family members the first 10-15 years. That will allow you to have plenty of generals later on. Use the younger, less skillful ones for local administrators. I devide conquered land into geographical provinces with 3-4 provinces assigned on one general with 4 Numidian Javelinmen for quick task force to mop up rebelions and bandits. That way they gain experience and the locals are in check. It helps me manage the empire better.

Ive been having fun as numidia lately, quite challenging (H/H)

In my game carthage attacked straight away with a big army, i just managed to get a victory and from there on it was all good.

Once you have all of carthages cities nere you its quite straight foward, after a bit of hastle with egypt i decided to take sicily which fell like a sack of sh*t in a few turns.

Most of my army consists of desert infantry archers and a mix of camels nudmidian cav and long shields.

I've just got the armenian legionaires so i don't know what their like, but the desert infantry have proven themselves. I deploy a first like 5 units wide and 4 ranks deep, placing them on guard mode. They can hold vs alot i've found, then on the gaps which are naturally there behind them i place more desert inf on fight at will (guard mode off) then surge them through the gaps when the enemy are engaged. Of course they would work better in the desert (the scipii landed there with one army, after that they never came back). I might try it with legionaires in the second row aswell.

Your DI has better morale in the fight than do your legionaries. The Legionaries have much better armor and pila. So I'd recommend putting your DI all in the front rank and using the legionaries for gap attacks and lobbing javelins over the line.

Have you fought the post-marian romans?

What did you use as heavy cavalry, as Numidia lacks this?

I found you didn't need a super heavy cavalry really, combining camels with long shields has worked well.

Long Shields have got an all right charge, so can do that role ok and camels are good for anti cavalry.

The only trouble i've had in battle is the egyptian chariots, but i just help my infantry firm and let it charge in, putting the 1st and 2nd rank units close together, so the chariots go straight through and get bogged down, also managed to sandwich one between two units of camels.

Not sure if the camels give the demoralizing effect to chariots though.

type east scythed chariot
(...)
mount_effect elephant -8, camel -4

On the paper, chariots seem to suffer penalties from fighting camels, yet on the battlefield, routing scythed chariots still can rip the camels pursuing them...

I have played many of the notorious factions on the H/VH level and have found the most recent ones to be a walk in the park. My next campaign is definately going to Numidia. As a person seeking a challenge, am I wrong in choosing this faction? Hardly. Forging an empire by planting the starting seeds in the desert wasteland will be no easy task.
Economically, they are poor.
Geographically, they are poor.
Militarily, they are poor.
Diplomatically, they are poor.
:wall:
Did I miss anything? Please alert me to any other facts of how much the Numidians suck. I will be ever so eager to hear, and anticipate my goliath of a task.:sombrero:

So.. you don't like numidia then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrdun

So.. you don't like numidia then.

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Precisely! They suck in every catagory, hands down. Which is why I'm going to play them. I thirst for a challenge.

I see a small flaw in your reasoning but i'll keep it shut lol

https://img523.imageshack.us/img523/...diaiconkd0.pngThe Numidian Empirehttps://img523.imageshack.us/img523/...diaiconkd0.png
So my campaign has thus begun with the dreaded Numidians on Hard/Very Hard. :rifle:
On my first try, I tried a blitz strategy, straight to Carthage. I made it there fast alright, but my army was far to puny to face the armies of Carthage (yes, they brought the ellies over from Sicily). I did manage to capture Carthage, but I just felt like I needed a better start on the hardest campaign...The Julii also landed at Carthage. How bizarre.~:handball:

Take two:
This time I took my time. Brought my faction heir all the way over from Tingi, to help assault Carthage, and all the while I built Jav Cav in Cirta. I also immediately disbanded all Numidian Javelinmen, except in Cirta, and created peasants in all settlements to act as a cheap garrison. Another pivotal thing I did was abandon Siwa. Not only that, I cranked up taxes and forced a civil revolt. You may think, "that was a stupid thing to do, you're dirt broke, and need every denarius you can find." But no my brother, I did this to preserve the diplomatic stance between me and egypt. If I went to war with them, they would surely pursue me until they knocked upon Carthage's gates. Where would I be down the road, fighting Egypt and Rome? I wouldn't exist. Therefore the Egyptians ended up taking Siwa, but from the hands of the rebels, and so far has not found the will to pursue further west. They have yet to take Cyrene. I have no doubt that tactic has been a great help to my success thus far.

I initially began the seige of Carthage with two units of Jav Cav and built some ladders. Burrhus sallied forth three times on his turn, but each time I would elude him with my speed until the time ran out. Finally he gave up, and let the siege continue. :laugh4: It was a cheapshot, but it was the only one I could afford. Next turn I took Carthage with my main force. Turn after that I obliterated the army from Sicily with ellies in it. I don't really have to say, but I took thapsus.
:wry:
The capture of Sicily was simply beautiful. I took my main force from Carthage onto a ship, and landed at Messana, where I attacked some velites outside the city, and thus forced the garrison to reinforce. (You know what's coming.) I mopped the floor with the velites, and turned around in time to face the reinforcements, which was the faction leader no less. Pestered him a little with Javalins, and then slammed him in the flank. No one survived.
(The moment you've been waiting for!)
I emerged back to the campaign screen to find Messana like a virgin with out her clothes. Needless to say I had my way with her right then and there, and took Messana with out a fight. (But wait, there's more!) Next turn I split up my main force and simulaneously besieged Lilybeum and Syracuse, from the still unprepared Scipii. In the blink of an eye, Sicily was mine.
:charge:
No rest for the weary, though!
Even before the scipii's bodies lay cold, I set my sights on Croton and Tarentum. By this time I had two armies: One that was primarily Jav Cav (to fight battles in the field and be deployed quickly), and the other that was primarily Desert Infantry (to do the hard core sieges). I then landed my Jav Cav army on the toe of Italy, hired some mercs, and took an unprepared Croton the next turn. I took Tarentum in a similar fashion. Then I discovered that the Brutii had infected Apollonia and Salona. They only prolong the enevitable. I then confidently besieged Capua only to have the might of SPQR bear down upon me. I'm good on the battlefield, but there are only a certain number of tricks that desert infantry can play on three-chevron Triarii, if you know what I mean. I then withdrew from the siege.
But luckily SPQR was a threat I had been thinking about extensively, and thus decided to use my campaign map advantages this time.

Carthage is the fastest growing city RTW, topping off around 40,000 pop. I knew that I could quickly build a catapult range, and thus build onagers, which gives me the distinct advantage of taking a city the first turn of seige. Now, while the massive army of SPQR was off guarding Capua, I dropped off a force of desert infantry, general, and two onagers on the Latium shores. A fateful army indeed. And whilst the Roman army was elsewhere, I attacked and sacked Rome when it had only one general in it! Completely unchallenging, I know! I may be a coward, but I'm a coward that possesses Rome! But it gets better. Now the huge army that SPQR had, has turned rebel, which seriously diminishes the strength of the army. In fact, the Principes and Triarii were completely REMOVED!! Gone! VAmoose! And better yet, now that army that once protected Capua, is charring up the countryside and acting like a prison that is keeping the Scipii on lock-down! Suck on that, Romans! You just got outsmarted by desert nomads!
Needless to say, I found the capture of Rome to be particularly helpful.
~:cheers:
Simultaneously, while I took Rome, I had a secondary army take Appollonia and Salona from the Brutii, and to my dismay found that they possessed Segestica and Aquincum. Arrggg! They are like cockroaches, they simply won't die! At least they are hardly a threat now.

Just when I thought I thought I could rest on my laurels, the Macedons made war with me. I put up a simple fort in the Epirian countryside, which seemed to piss off the Macedons royally. Now I have single army strung out, protecting Tarentum and Appollonia from the Scipii, Julii (they brought down an army for whatever reason), Brutii, and Macedon. This is a challenge as you can see, but I am making great headway elsewhere.

The Carthaginians seemed weak so I rummaged together an army and took Caralis and Palma, thus removing Carthage from the game. Since I didn't want that army loafing around on their newly conquered island paradise, I sent them to go take Carthago Nova from Spain. After a decisive bridge battle I am now securely on the Iberian peninsula. I am now proceding to Corduba and receiving reinforcements from Tingi, and I have an alliance with the Gauls, so maybe we can coordinate together (probably not).:tongue3: Oh well, its the thought that counts.

Now that my Rome conquering army has gotten some R&R, I decided to attack Arretium and Ariminum. But they both had large stacks of infantry, so I was hesitant to attack. Luckily I was saved by stupid computer AI.:thumbsup: He litterally marches out with nothing but infantry and a captain to take on the horde of Jav Cav. Needless to say I picked each one apart and gave no quarter. I then confidently besieged and sacked the two heart cities of the Julii, when they had only a shadow of their former garrison. I also nixed their faction leader in one of the sieges. I then fought a victorious yet significant field battle against the Julii with my Jav Cav horde, and thus secured my right to Arim and Arret. I also capture Segesta, no big deal though.

This post's conclusion:
I feel very confident on all fronts except the eastern against the Macedons, but it's only a matter of time before I build up the army needed to destroy them. I sent spies down to Egypt to find them wandering around in the desert. Since we aren't at war, they don't have the will to pursue me. My next plans are to expand all fronts: Capture the rest of Iberia from Spain; Take Cisalpine Gaul from the Romans; make a spearpoint into the heart of Macedon; and finally crack that nut called Capua. There is a full stack of Scipii in it and the massive husk of the SPQR army standing nearby. *gulp* However, I am looking forward to this troop called 'Numidian Legionarries'.:2thumbsup: They are built with an Army Barracks, and should be a vast improvement from the lowly desert infantry I'm used to. I'll soon be posting a pic of what I've done so far, to get you a better feel of the campaign.

Until then, wish me the blessings of Baal. And by all means, please leave posts to tell me what you think.:bow:


And what you've been waiting for...
https://img341.imageshack.us/img341/...dia1nk8.th.png

Now you can see that massive SPQR Rebel Army. lol.

Agressive. I play exactly the opposite on rtw so numidia are not my thing. Although Numidia always seem to attack the Julii, why would they playing a no expanision unless threatened campaign they always provide you with a way out of Italy pass.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tom0

Agressive.

---

This is the only way to play Numidia! You must attack, gain as much land as possible, and as fast as possible. If you haven't noticed, Numidia's Military Unit Tree stops growing after you reach a minor city, for most part. You must attack while you still have a level playing field.
:charge:
Because of my agressive efforts, I only had to fight Roman armies that had Principes at best. Imagine where I would be if the Marian reforms occured. I'd be toast, desert nomad style.

But now I'm fighting the macedon around 247 BC, and the level playing field is turning away from me. They have developed phalanx pikemen, while I'm still stuck flanking with the same old Numidia. Imagine my plight, if I had waited until they developed royal pikemen.

My point: My stategy is aggressive because it's the only strategy that is plausible with the Numidians.

https://img523.imageshack.us/img523/...diaiconkd0.pngThe Numidian Empirehttps://img523.imageshack.us/img523/...diaiconkd0.png
Part II
I've finally had some time to myself, allowing me to continue my glorious campaign of the Numidians. My campaign has turned itself into three distinct fronts, which I'll refer to as my story progresses: Iberia, Italy, and Greece. But there's no doubt that more fronts will soon emerge.

Italy: There was no longer the option of procrastination. Capua had to be taken! No matter the cost. Immediately after securing Ariminum and Arretium I took my faction leader and his horde of Jav Cav to reckon with the Scipii's full garrison and the rebel SPQR army. I knew I couldn't take them on in the city, so I had to create a way of fighting them outside the city. Luckily cities only hold 20 units, which forced the Scipii to put their overflowing garrison outside the city. It was with them, that my field battle would be able to take place.

The battle started with my horde of Jav Cav against the small force outside the city. I swiftly blotted out the initial force and wheeled my army around to face the main army consisting of Principes and Generals' heavy bodyguard. My strategy was the classic pincer movement. I shot forth two groups of Jav Cav on either flanks and pelted the Romans in the flank, while the bulk of Jav Cav kept them facing forward. Hitler used this same tactic with his Panzer divisions in WWII. I kept this tactic up by constantly disorienting the AI, and yet causing massive damage with only javelins. Once I ran out of javelins I waited for an exposed flank and slammed into them, causing maximum damage. I overwhelmed the heavy cavalry with just shear numbers, despite my inferior stats. When the dust settled, I had lost a third of my men, while only one Scipii general made it back to Capua alive with a few scraggly units.:whip:

Returning to the campaign map, I besieged it that turn, and took it in the next turn with out a real fight. That same turn I dealt with the spurned SPQR army with tactics very similar to the battle with the Scipii. With the Numidians, the winning tactic is to skirmish with javelins until you're out. Then flank like crazy.

The turn after that, I returned right back to where I was; to take on the Julii, who were looking too eager to take back the poorly defended Ariminum. In a matter of three turns I had accomplished the major task of taking Capua.:2thumbsup:

Greece: With things going well elsewhere, I decided it was time to reckon with the pugnacious Macedons. But this was to be no easy task. The Macedons have around five stacks roving through the countryside (as far as I could see). To break the Macedons I would need a second army that would travel up from the bottom of Greece from Sparta, while another traveled down through Larissa. Luckily, such an army existed.:shifty:

Taken from the bosom of Carthage herself, I had forged an army that that incorporated onagers and a few never-before-seen superunits called the Numidian Legionaries. (Insert dramatic music here)
https://img523.imageshack.us/img523/...onairesop1.png
Maybe not a legionnaire in the truest Roman sense, but it is still a unit that strikes pride into a Numidian, and fear into your enemy. This picture here shows their high discipline and battlefield preparation.:wry:

Iberia: I was feeling pretty confident in Iberia with the easy capture of Carthago Nova, and thus didn't allocate many troops to the region. That was a presumption I would pay the price for.:sweatdrop:

I then waltz on over to Spanish controlled Corduba and took the city with out too much fuss. There was a medium sized garrison, but nothing I couldn't handle. The filthy barbarians didn't deserve it anyways! I was then making plans to take Scallabis when I saw two full stacks of Spaniards on the horizon. One heading for Corduba, the other to Carthago Nova. I then cut off the army approaching the ill defended Carthago Nova with series of forts. With the other, I had to fight. I quickly brought some troops from Tingi and hired mercs to make a mixed army of Infantry and Jav Cav, but even still the odds were against me. We battled in the foot hills near Corduba. I did manage to sneak by with an average victory, but the battle crippled me. With the second army dissolving my chain of forts, things were turning dark very fast for me in Iberia.:no:

Italy: For once I can say that Italy is no longer a huge problem. I soon took Mediolanium and Patavium from the castrated Julii, and headed towards Iuvavum to finally snuff out the Julii as a faction. One tip I must concede is that the Jav Cav are very useful in sieges. As long as it is a wooden wall, the Jav Cav can throw over javelins and cut the defensive forces by a quarter at least. I soon took Iuvavum and made plans to take Aquincum, that I might finally end the Brutii as a faction. Looks likes it's the Romans that are finally getting the thumbs down! :rtwno:

Greece: [Note to the reader: It's turning points in the campaign like this when the term "blitz" realizes its full meaning.]
With my Jav Cav from Appollonia, I attacked the first of many Macedonian armies. Led by a captain, they made a fatal mistake. In attempt to obtain higher ground, the totally broke formation and ran. With my speedy Jav Cav's I bulldozed over the Greek Cav that made it there, and then unloaded volleys of Javelins into the disorganized pikemen. I think I lost only 20 men, most to friendly fire ~:doh:. With one stunning victory to my name, I blitzed a vulnernable Larissa and set my sites on Thermon.

Between me and Thermon lay a stack of phalanx pikemen and other hefty Macedonian troops. Using the terrain to my advantage I used a series of pincer movements to disorganize the AI while getting maximum damage with javelins. But the time had to come when I had to fight hand to hand. Again, looking for only the perfect opportunities I flanked the pikemen and overwhelmed his cavalry. However, don't think that I wasn't losing men myself. It seems that no matter how perfectly you flank the phalanx pikemen, you'll always lose cav on the initial charge! Despite this inherent setback, I managed to emerge from the battle with victory in my clutches.:chucks:

An unprepared Thermon was then taken by me, having been besieged on the previous turn. The next turn I retrained my mauled Jav Cav and to my dismay found that Larissa was underseige.:sweatdrop: Nevertheless, I advanced to Athens and attacked a half stack outside the city. The garrison was forced to reinforce. I took both armies out with my pincer/flanking tactics but was unable to prevent some of the garrison returning to Athens. I would have to wait for the next turn to take Athens. But then...
:horn:
Hark! Then from the south, a naval invasion!
Having landed on the Laconian shores, the Onager/Legionnaire/Merc army besieged the Macedonian held Sparta and sacked it that same turn. The Macedons suddenly became a candle burning at both ends!!! :candle:

Then in an act of desperation, the Macedons break off the seige of Larissa and attack the army besieging Athens. But once more I strike down the Macedons, and take Athens as my prize.:wry:

Right when I see the victory of Greece glimmering up ahead, the AI throws me a curve ball. Ah yes, RTW never gets old. The Egyptians blockade Athens! The nerve of them!!
https://img254.imageshack.us/img254/...vsegyptmq0.png
I vow this day, that when I am finished with these hell bound Macedons, I will make the Egyptians regret this day for all of eternity.:whip:
Shortly there after, I brushed aside the ignorant little Egyptian fleet with my armada (as you can see).

It was at this point that I realized that I needed to take a break from the campaign a post the happenings so far. Here is a picture to you give you a broad sense of things. The soon to fall Corinth, the lack of progress in Iberia, and the last province that the Brutii still cling to.

Please post any comments of what you think.:bow:
https://img501.imageshack.us/img501/...dia2mo5.th.jpg

And don't worry, I will soon post Part III.

Looking good.

Thanks.
However, I wonder how good things are gonna be looking when I face the might of Egypt. Jav Cav vs. Chariots is not a type of battle I'm looking forward to.