Roleplaying with carthage

[anubis88]

I've just installed BI with eb, because i wanted to see some naval invasions. Now i'm gonna start a campaign with the faction i started when i got rtw, and when i got EB, Carthage.

I played carthage a lot before in EB, but i decided after a few months pause, to start again with them...

As i'm a history-roleplay fanatic, i would like to ask you how to most accuratly roleplay a game with carthage... it's also much to easy if you just blitz anything

What i did before:
- Always helped the romans to conquer south italy and start conquering sicily (Even gave them sardinia and corsica for free around 230 BC)
- Never attacked the roman mainland in any other way that carthage actually did.
- Left the inland African provinces alone, never conquered them, in time perhaps only the coastal ones
_ left the ptolys alone, and just defended against them
- tryed to have most of my army in spain, and have long wars with the tribes there, but not conquer to much of the peninsula...

So i'm wondering are there any other things i should try? With the goverment, my generals etc...

If anyone has any advice, please share them


thanx

[A Very Super Market]

Sacrifice some babies.

In all seriousness, you've got it most of it down, and I don't know a thing about Carthage

[soup_alex]

I would say that roleplaying Carthage in the Rome engine would be difficult to do, as the AI hardly makes as much use of its navy as it should.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about RP with Carthage, as (even before considering software limitations) you're going to have to depart from the historically-truthful at some point, unless you deliberately sabotage your game.
Um, not to mention that accurate, comprehensive sources on Carthage are scant, which may scupper your attempts at authenticity. Don't let that stop you, though; it sounds like a good idea, albeit perhaps one difficult to implement given the conditions.

tl;dr
As you say, restrict your own control of Iberia and pay Rome substantial tributes in money and land if you "lose the war". Dispose of your navy, and "help" the AI with Rome's. You should maybe attempt to control more of free Africa, if the anti-Barcids are strong (not being much of a buff, I don't know if this would be accurate so I'm speaking generally). Try recreating the Mercenaries War by disbanding most of your armies (especially regional troops, and Libyans) all over the empire and spawning massive stacks of similar troops (for the Eleutheroi?) with exp bonuses near key cities.

[Cyclops]

My limited knowledge of Carthage suggests to me these RP guidelines:

1. Establish a trade empire, not a land empire. Look for hot trade sites eg Emporion and Massillia, and acquire them to build a cats-cradle of trade lanes, not a defensible contiguous blob'o'land. Keep a huge treasury in reserve to show how greedy you are (it'll help with point 3 too).

2. Rule from the centre. FM's like to spend time in the metropolis and major centres, and shuttle around on expensive boats to show off. This should soak up some of the bags of cash that make Carthage a bit of a breeze to play.

3. Mercenaries are your friends. Keep a small elite domestic force at the capital, it can be "loaned" out to adventurous types. Pad the hard core with assorted local mercs when needed, lots of them, and disband when the campaign is done.

4. If you still have too much money establish an elephant patrol on the Ptollie border (liberally supported by elites): keep the incestuous yellow tide in Cyrenaica and have fun doing it. Not even remotely historical but it'll keep the other elements in a bit of balance.

5. Never ever take Rome, until every other VC province is taken. The red devils should be a constant thorn and threat until the moment of victory is reached. I feel Rome always took Carthage more seriiously than Carthage took Rome: aside from Hannibal the Carthies always tried to negotiate and deal with the treacherous Latins like humans and not as a pestilence to be eradicated, to their cost.

I try to vary my campaign by RPing minor allies, thats a local recruited general from a type IV gov, with a local stack (eg a Verrix with celts, or an Italic general with Samnites, brutii etc) carrying on a little local campaign against a neighbouring city or reb stack, or perhaps fending off a major power neighbour until the Punic cavalry arrives by boat. You might do this with Syracuse or Massillia, in fact massillia is one of my favourite "Minors" in the game and I look forward to their mini state expansion into Segesta or the islands (of course my major power has to lend them a boat for that).