Highly Mobile Battering Rams

I'm playing a new carthage campaign. Previously with them I relied solely on the elite liby-phonaecian axemen and the sacred band cavalry to grind all opponents to dust. I conquered Sicily early, and dove right into war with Rome.

This time, I am staying allied with Rome. Instead of going for Sicily first I am intent on conquering Spain and wiping out Lusotana. I sent a young general, 4 units of balaeric slingers, 2 units of Sacred Band Cavalry, 10 units of axemen, and 2 units of Forest Elephants into Spain early.

Now, normally I don't train elephants with Carthage. I usually don't train them with any faction unless I can get armored elephants. But having these elephants along has turned that army into an unstoppable juggernaut. Almost every town in Spain is defended only by wooden walls, which means my elephants can batter down the gates and walls quite easily, and once the slingers have cleared out a space, they do it without any casualties. This leaves me able to conquer cities almost as fast as my army can move, no waiting around for battering rams or anything. I'm limited only by movement and how quickly I can subdue the populace. Aside from battering down walls for me, the elephants just stand behind my axemen and cause fear in the enemy, resulting in even easier routs.

Basically I can't beleive I never brought along at least 1 unit of elephants when I could, as a highly mobile battering ram that inspires fear and can fight back in a pinch and I thought I'd share how awesome they have made my campaign so far



P.S.- I've been just occupying most conquered settlements, because I am afraid of getting so undesirable trait on what is shaping up to be a spectacular young general leading this army by Exterminating the populace. This makes getting public order under control a problem though, even when I leave behind a trail of client rulers. I know often when I am a "barbarian" faction I exterminate populaces willy-nilly, leaving a trail of destructiion and death, and usually receive no negative effects from it.

Are certain factional leaders able to exterminate populaces without negative effects? If so, which ones? Any way to predict what kind of effect this may have on your General based on what faction he is?

Thanks!

If your general is selfish then he is less likely to get bad traits from extermination. Selfless generals are more likely to get bad traits from extermination. There is no faction basis on this.

Foot

Actually there are also some negative traits that can be attained by exterminating "your own" people, which means mostly in homeland settlements. I don't think this is the case for all factions.

I never really liked the "Restless Sleeper" trait, especially since now you aren't exterminating populations, you're just enslaving them if you choose the 'most lucrative' option.

It seems to me that there are many people now adays who would be troubled by doing such things, but the majority of them aren't generals. And back *then*, well, enslaving or even killing an entire population wasn't exactly an uncommon practice in many cases. It just seems like a bit of an excessive trait, since afterall Caesar had no trouble enslaving entire Gallic clans, and Mithridates was known for castrating every Roman male in Asia Minor. Scipio decided not only to massacre and enslave Carthage, but also completely raze the city.

That sort of thing just happened back then, and I don't think it was ever that big a deal for commanders, certainly not like its reflected in the traits.

That the general gets one less hitpoint and one less point in management? Where is the big deal you're talking about?

Well, considering the fact that it is auwfully hard to get some good managment/influence/command points, every loss is a pain. Especally if you play as Makedonia and get those damn ''Hypermethyskos'' traits all the time...

Maion

So if you want to commit genocide, do it with someone with less of a conscience.

Foot

lol exactly, not everysingle commander was heartless or racist, or believed his enemies deserved a horrible death... remember alexander was pissed when he found Darius on the side of the road stripped and murdered by his own generals. even though darius was his enemy he still had compassion for him knowing he was another human being.

Saladin allowed every soldier and their family inside Jerusalem safe passage to boats during the siege to prevent a massacre (which happend when crusaders captured Jerusalem, and slaughtered each and every Muslim inside the walls) but then you get people like Caesar who slaughter all the women and children who left the city walls during the final battle against the Gauls.

Like foot said, use a selfish man to commit genocide. You can still use a selfless man to command armies, but make sure he makes the right choices, or he will have to live with them.

by the way are there any further traits one would gain from committing genocide than just "restless sleeper" ?

Traits gained by enslaving (S) and exterminating (X):
Despoiler (S)
Genocide (X)
Bloodthirsty (X)
EnslavedAllies (S,X)
Wealthy (S,X)
RestlessSleeper (X)
WellSupplied (S,X)
UnhappyLenient (S,X)
Brutal (S,X)
HappyBrutal (S,X)
Various traits concerning which peoples the general has enslaved (S)
Various Avenger traits (S,X)

Ancillaries:
Body slave (S)
Exotic slave (S)
Slave trader (S)

Some of them don't match perfectly with the renaming of the options for the settlement's fate, no. We haven't changed these when we changed the text. I don't think this will be changed for EB1.

Is it realistic/historical to use elephants to knock down wooded gates with their heads? I've done this as the Eperiotes, and I was also considering a Saka game with all cavalry armies anf elephants as rams so you can really blitz those wooden-walled cities.

Yes it is. In India spikes were even planted in gate doors to prevent it.

thanks, wondering about that kinda bothered me.