I agree -- strategy should be specific to one's particular position. In my case, I saw that had I killed the population, I would have earned ~3,600 dinarii. Enslaving and selling brought in ~1,300 immediately, but the additional ~2,200 people increased my income ~500 a turn. The long-term benefits are that both my Italian cities crossed the 6k population mark many turns before they otherwise would have, thus giving me a tremendous head-start.

The fact that next turn after my conquest and abandonment the Senate gave me the port blockade of Carthage as a mission and I got to re-conquer Lilybaeum was just a gravy

Here are a few things I learned from continuing to play this campaign (and having tremendous fun doing it, btw):

1) When you seige, don't use ladders if there is an enemy unit on the wall. The Greeks did that against me and lost 120 men (armoured hoplites, I believe) climbing on two ladders. My losses ... whopping 5 men (hastatis)!

2) War dogs are great units to flank with, as well as to pursue rioters. Just keep them away from heavy cavalry and make sure they don't get Winded -- if they do, they will become uncontrollable and will start attacking all enemy units around them.

3) Don't fight the Greeks with Town Watch, unless you have the numerical superiority. Sure, if you can flank their Hoplites with 3 of your town watch spearmen, then you are safe. Anything less and the hoplites will tear them apart.

4) When you attack a large city with stone walls, don't hang around the gate too long! Ask the Greeks who charged Corinth. My understrength unit of Hoplites of 34 men, parked right after the gate stopped the Greeks at the gate and held them enough time for the towers to do extensive damage (and the oil too ) It was pretty sad. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end.

5) When you take Corinth, be prepared to go to war against all of Greece. Forget about 'supremacy in the sea' -- at least with me, the Greeks mopped my 14-ship navy pretty quickly with stacks of 20-ship navies. It was a payback for their losses on land