Tips for Carthage please fellas

[Denbo]

Hi Guys,

I will be starting my first Carthage game soon and I am not looking for a wrong or right answer I just wondered what you guys have done when playing Carthage?

I know that I am going to pull out of Sicily right from the start and basically dismantle my entire military in africa except for a few garrison troops. My plan is to invest heavily in my two Spanish cities so I can have to good military towns there so I can quickly conquer Spain and wipe out the Lusotann.

I am planning to use Spain as my cash cow to fund what else I do economically in Africa and elsewhere.

Your thoughts? Should I do this early and then build up for the envitable fight with the Egyptians and Romans?

Cheers

Denbo

[Obelics]

Iberia has a lot of Mines... and a lot of strong Armour Piercing units... but for your fun id say to not expand there too early, leave lusotannan to expand and do not attack Rome too early too, let them to expand too.

Id say at first, try to develope your norhtern african provinces, and make it your base, and then you will start for iberia.

In my campaign, i waited a lot of time before to start to spread in Iberia, and it was very fun. Same for Italia. Take your time to conquer Afrika at first.

[overweightninja]

Sound advice from Obelics but I think the main appeal of a Kart campaign is the options you get. You can make a solid army from basically all their major areas (Africa, Sicily, Iberia, Gaul) and have the economy to do so. I'm running a Kart campaign atm and I did the opposite, concentrating on Africa and Sicily first.
Mate if you wan't to go to Iberia, why not, you'll still have a lot of fun kicking the Romani about with your Scutarii
Cheers

[Meothar]

Africa is a good start because the cities there are easily conquered and do not need protection afterwards. I like this region because you don't have to defeat 3-unit-enemy-armies that raid your territory every year. I think thats the main advantage, no annoying micromanagement against minor enemy armies, so your focus can be Iberia or Italy afterwards.

[Denbo]

Thanks for the advice to so far guys, I like the idea of starting slow and taking my time and developing my economy. I think I will see Carthage as an African power and keep Iberia as my colony to start with. Use my two Iberian towns as launching platforms for the middle game.

Keep your opinions coming its great to see how the community have different ideas.

[Eduorius]

I usually let Rome take Southern Italy and Sicily from me. After that, I start to build my power in Iberia and in North Africa, and then I prepare my invasion for North Italy in 216 BC.

[Jaywalker-Jack]

Dude, don't disband your African forces. There's a lot of nearby rebel cities defended only by skirmisher armies. Easy pickings. And there's no need to pull out of Sicily. Even if you don't want to conquer it, you won't have to worry about defending it for quite some time - those Eleutheroi cities provide a high wall over which the Romani will have to climb.
You can disband most of your fleet and light cavalry if you're low on cash.

[quackingduck]

on my carth campaign i just sat back for awhile, disbanded most of my army, built up my economy, and built up barrackes in carthanage. then i had some fun times taking on army after army of romans with my one army of sacred band/calvary and balric slingers.

[Disciple of Tacitus]

I can't remember if you start the Carthage campaign w/ Lepki. Anyone? I do know that (usually right before mid-game) a Yellow Death exploratory force shows up and the Desert Wars begin. I would cede Lepki to the Rebels and keep the Ptolmies at bay.

Starting slow and building up your economy makes for a more enjoyable campaign, as the other factions present more of a challenge.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Take Africa first. Do not take Kyrene, as the sand war is inevitable and Kyrene is not well defendable for you. Defend against the eventual Ptollie stack on the fords south of Lepki. After securing Africa, go for Sucum Murgi and Baikor, or go for them first, keep the Lusos patiently with some 100Mnai/turn, because those two have very large mines, like Mauretania. Then advance along the coast, Arsé, Emporion, Tolosa and then Massilia. They are the best bets for your necessary lvl5 local MICs. And then you can take on the Romans from both south and north.

[General Appo]

Just as many have said, the great thing about a Kart campaign is that you can do it anyway you want. Me, I like to do things the wierd way. First turn, gather all your forces in Africa and Sicily except garrisons and put them on a ship. Then set sail for Phoinike and the city of Sidon! Motherland here we come! You´ll probably lose the city the turn after you take it to the Ptolies, but hey, who cares?
Anyway, you can do anything you like, as long as you watch out for the Ptolies. You don´t want any big prolonged Sand Wars, those things can go on forever. They´re absolutely epic, thousands of men stuck in dry deserts for decades fighting battles they now don´t count for nothing. Somebody ought to make a slow 3 and a half hour long movie about it.
The Sand Wars, a story of sand, blood, sweat a whole lot of tears. But mostly just sand and sweat.

[Morte66]

Play with BI.exe to make naval stuff happen. It's more fun for Carthage this way.

Destroy the Romans, or they'll come after Sardinia/Corsica/Sicily.

Kick the Eperirotes out of Italy so you won't have a border with them. Consolidate Italy/Sicily but ttop at Arretium/Arminium to keep an Eleutheroi buffer.

Then take Massilia, your best MIC in NW Europe, install a strong garrison, and start building it up for later.

Then conquer North Africa and Eastern Spain.

The Ptolies are probably making trouble by now, fight defensively at the rivers below Lepki.

Eastern Spain will give you the MICs to take the rest of Spain, and to carve up Gaul joining forces out of Massila. Or you can go at the Ptolies (naval transport is your friend here).

[anubis88]

I usually let Rome take Southern Italy and Sicily from me. After that, I start to build my power in Iberia and in North Africa, and then I prepare my invasion for North Italy in 216 BC.

Same here. I even help them kick the Epirotes out any way i can.
I believe that the historical approach is the most fun one. Consolidate your provinces in africa, try to hold the entire coast, make sure the ptolys don't backstab you, and then concentrate on Iberia. Iberia is really awesome, there are a few very interesting battles to be fought, and some really badass units. Then, once you and Rome become strong, you must start a huge war with them. Once in my campaign the war was really epic, there were battlefields in Sicily, Sardinia, And north Italy. Awesome

[Theodotos I]

Take Africa first. Do not take Kyrene, as the sand war is inevitable and Kyrene is not well defendable for you. Defend against the eventual Ptollie stack on the fords south of Lepki. After securing Africa, go for Sucum Murgi and Baikor, or go for them first, keep the Lusos patiently with some 100Mnai/turn, because those two have very large mines, like Mauretania. Then advance along the coast, Arsé, Emporion, Tolosa and then Massilia. They are the best bets for your necessary lvl5 local MICs. And then you can take on the Romans from both south and north.

Yeah, Kyrene's a big mistake. But in my Carthaginian campaign, I held out in Kyrene for almost a hundred years, so I'd say it's defendable. I held Sicily, took out the Romans early, then went after Lusotannan, then took the necessary provinces in Africa and launched two huge stacks on a mission to reclaim Sidon. That last was the most fun in the game. Of course, I'm playing on M/M, so maybe that makes a difference. Good luck.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Nothing much to add really, except that the Africa first strategy makes the most sense. You don't want to have your army in Africa still dealing with Elutheroi when the Ptolemies come knocking on your door. Much easier to get the Rebels out of the way first, then man the bottleneck with a strong force and hopefully deter the Ptolies from attacking.

Let the Romans wear themselves out attacking Syracuse! That is one of the toughest Elutheroi strongholds in the game, the Romans will probably lose a lot of men trying to take it.

The war with Rome will be long and costly. Your economy needs to be very prosperous to be able to afford it.

[marodeur]

To maximize fun, you should never start a war. Wait for rome and the lusotannn to attack you.

[Ibrahim]

and sacrafice 17 bay children to ba'al

anyways, if you want fun, send the romani 10000 mnai, then anger them immediatly-then they will have a legion ready for you.

to gall them further, send them 20000 mnai in the middle of the war-then annilate an army of theirs (it works with me)-they'll be incensed.