Carthage

[Praetor Rick]

I play carthage on Vh/Vh and it is not that hard

Agreed. Carthage is rough if you don't know how to set priorities, or if you botch the Sicily campaign. After that, depending on your personal set of talents, the campaign is really pretty simple. You can go after Spain, Italy, or north Africa all fairly easily once you've secured Sicily. I prefer going after Italy because the Romans can be a major pain in the neck if you leave them alone, but others manage better apparently.

Once you've destroyed all four Roman factions, the game is over - you win. Not even Egypt can stand up to the steamroller that is Carthage once it controls Italy.

[RLucid]

The julii still havent attacked caralis.
They haven't attacked because i am so intent on making gaul the superpower, the julii have actually lost a settlement. it also solves my spanish problem. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer"

That actually sounds like strategy! So how have you been able to keep Gaul powerful, avoid fighting them, but keep the Julii occupied with them?

Seems like every poster has a different view of "inevitable" events, there must be some subtle ways to influence them, even if part is down to chance.

[Centurion1]

The key is bribery. Not in the usual sense but in the idea of paying off the faction with gold. It also strengthens the faction. Some people would consider this a low and weak move. But hey i can backstab them once i have consolidated my power(North Africa), because honestly i am not intrested in italy right now. Also the ai has a tendency to avoid even lightly defended forts and the spanish mountais make controlling gaps quite easy.

[RLucid]

That Alliance with Gaul would make so much more sense, if you were involved in Italy, especially if they're keeping the Julii busy.

[Centurion1]

I suppose but right now i'm trying to foster a defensive game for more explosive power. I am also trying to help the selkies destroy the egyptians because i dread destroying them. The gauls are merely a delaying action to prevent the gauls and romans from expanding. All i really want is all of the north african holdings and spain. However the brutii just managed to land a full stack on the shores of sicily and i barely beat them with two full stacks, (one was all cavalry!!! only round-shield though) but i lost three generals which i must attribute to my laziness in the battle. point, click, and wait for more reinforcements for the men who died so now i am suffering for more men in that region and the numidians backstabbed in carthage. ahhhh now ill have to be more expansionistic!!!!
Any tips

Rlucid i agree but i really hate conquering italy, (honestly it's sort of boring) because except for rome its almost all empty. Oh well time to go through the alps with my hannibal character.

[Centurion1]

oh i almost forgot i have to get military access from gauls before i can enter roman italy, so there you go rlucid and the gauls are quite adamant on the topic, NOOOOOO is their only reply (condensed version)

[RLucid]

That's RTW, you will only get long term peace from a faction that you war with, if you basically destroy their base of production, or destroy them entirely, or they get serious grief from another faction.

Gaul ought to have an interest, in expanding against the Julii, so the ideal would be to put the Julii in the sandwich, and benefit from Italian production potential.

Good luck with the "Peace", it's something I've not figured out, and it's weird how conquest of huge tracts of land, can get boring, so trying to stick to limited objectives might be fun.

[Darkvicer98]

I find peace really annoying. The barbarian factions are more likely to break it and backstab you,the eastern factions wait a long while before attacking and the hellanic are nearly the same. Why don't you sail your army to Italy? The Gauls are never going to sign that military access because thats when you can march full stack armies into their land. You know your intentions are somewhere else but they don't know that.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Just like Darkvicer98 said .. why don't you just sail your army to Italy??
If you had conquered the sicily then with couple of turns you can also conquer the southern Italy from the Brutii and destroy the Scipii by taking Capua ... offcourse if you have elephants with you who can open the gates ...
you can do this and destroy the spanish before 260 if you are quick enough ..

[Centurion1]

I agree it would make my game easier if i just conquered italy, but i sort of want a unique game, (me not destroying romans) and my staunchest allies who have given me military access and a city (cyrene), the macedonians, who have miraculously conquered parts of southern italy and anatolia. Alexander reincarnated! it is honestly awe-inspiring. They are twice as powerful as the selkies (who destroyed egypt thanks to yours truly) . I plan on destroying the spanisg in spain, the numisians in a pincer from spain and carthage and then linking up with the macedonians in the east by destroying the selkies. I cant wait to see how silvershields fare against my sacred bands.

[Centurion1]

Oh i almost forgot, darkvicer i have already conquuered sicily in the first three turns, that is how the scippi have been destroyed, and the macedonians have destroyed the brutii (thats pretty unusual). All the real threats left are the gauls, selkies, and armenians. and whether or not ill have to break my favorite alliance ever with the macedonians to conquer rome (victory conditions). Do you think it is a good idea to incite the armenians to war with the selkies no matter the cost or whether i should handle it, (they are all-powerful with like 6 huge cities and fully upgraded units, that is the selkies) i figure 10k will be enough to make the armenians help me with the selkies. Any arguments with these strategies????

[RLucid]

Yep, you seem to have forgotten the Julii who still have a stake in Italy.

Whilst if you keep pressure on them and do not permit them pop. 6,000 cities, preventing them training their over-powered Archer units, I could see them not being significant. But if you leave them in Italy and the Macs don't take them out, then they're going to become a handful and as others (particularly PraetorRick) have explained they'll eventually overcome the barbs, and become dangerous later in the game.

As for those for find peace annoying... I think the idea is to have war where you want it, and have peaceful fronts. The typical game conditions you get about 20+ lands, with war on all fronts and 3 major campaigns, plus house-cleaning of rebels isn't very realistic is it?

[Centurion1]

I agree rlucid, but everything has been taken care of. The macs have taken the rest of italy, gave me ROME (i love the macedonians) for ONLY 1000 denarii!!!!!!!!! (and they love me back), and i have taken all of n. africa, spain, every island in the game and the nile delta. I plan on taking jerusalem, the macedonians can have sidon and i will leave the rest to armenia and macedon. Now i turn my massive 10 full stack armies (those not on frontiers or rebel-hunters) on the dirty gauls who have conquered all of northern europe and britian (this is wierd because the ai is usually reluctant to make amphibious landings, but nonetheless the julii, germans, and brits are dead and the gauls are soon to join them. I will soon post screenshots of my cartho empire. This game has had many weird twists with the ai but has been incredibly enjoyable.

[Centurion1]

i almost forgot which civ should i tackle next? you can see me there post about them when i decide
SUGGESTIONS WELCOME

[o_loompah_the_delayer]

Seleucids. Possibly the hardest to play.

[Ozzman1O1]

My campaign is so fragile,every city is huge,i gave up all my men in liberia and brought them over 2 conquer rome,im having trouble against germany and greece,wich can give you problems if no one ever tries 2 conquer them.My whole campaign is based on trade and economy,and the gauls have killed my 2 highest rank generals over some village in the west coast.ill admit it,im stuck.

[WarMachine187]

Like someone else said,the navy is key tp victory.DO NOT LET THE ROMANS BUILD UP THEIR!Owning the seas means they cant reach you.shit down there economy by blockading all roman ports and sabotage there infranstructure with assasins.In this way.you have an unbreakable sheild in your navy and can focus on more important tasks.First and foremost,uniting sicily.Second,pushing for better and more formibable troop types.Third,Destroying and taking control of all numidian territories except siwa.After doin that you can now look toward taking control of italy and this can be done from two ways.the first would be to push through espanya and head through the alps like that bad boy barca.Or you could sail there.The combination of Sacred ban or poeni phalenxes along with formidable and quick infantry like iberians or libyans will form a 1 2 punch that the roman infantry shouldnt be able to handle.i normally start at the city under tarentum.then i move on tarentum and sweep across italy.the funnest thing is when you have to face the humongous spqr army.

[Havoc123]

I have been playing RTW since Feb 2006 but I am new to the Guild. I never really continued any of the Roman campaigns after I got past the intial hard stages. Same goes for the other factions.

My question is "Is it really necessary to attack Italy early or are other options better?"

In my latest Carthage campaign on hard campaign/medium battle difficulty, I really held on to Corduba and Caralis and Sicily. Corduba was tough with all the Spanish hordes constantly pestering me outside of the city. Caralis was tough till I got some Iberians and round shields outside the city in ambush. Sicily was easier than expected with my navies blockading Capua. I also took over Ludis Magna and attacked the Numidians early with troops made from Carthage and Thapus.

About 40 turns later, I have Sicily under control (being lazy there and not attacking Rome yet), all of West Africa is mine (one less front), Spain is finally mine with Spanish gone and Gauls angry (Pyrennes make good defense), and complete naval superiority in the western Meditterrean Sea. Greece is my ally but down to Rhodes only. I am considering funneling money to them to prevent Pontius/Brutii/Egyptians from gaining complete dominance in Turkey.

Sadly, I have always been more of a infantry guy. Greeks are my favorite faction (a. hoplites rule). When my first faction leader and heir both got to 64, I sent them on a "suicide mission" to Greece to disrupt Brutii and save Greeks. To my surprise, Greeks were gone from all of their homeland cities and Brutii had dominated. I landed near Thermon which had 2 hastatii only and took it over. I was supposed to get out and conquer Kydonia but the weakness of Roman power in the region convinced me to stay. That is when I discovered the power of Carthagian horses. (my previous experiences had been Equites and Greek cav.) I went on to conquer Athens and Corinth. Another army landed with 5 Iberians and 12 peasants and took over Sparta. My generals and their guys (4 Iberians, 2 hoplite, 2 long shield) destroyed about 3 full stacks worth of Romans and killed 4 generals.

I think that was a pretty good result for a suicide/farewall mission.

So is there any benefit in attacking Greece instead of Italy for Carthage campaigns? I would think that Greece gives lots of money with little public order problems. Plus, easy to defend.

[WarMachine187]

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So is there any benefit in attacking Greece instead of Italy for Carthage campaigns? I would think that Greece gives lots of money with little public order problems. Plus, easy to defend.

Well?It depends on which route you wanna take to attack rome.If you attack and takeover italia youd have to attack greece in order to stop a brutti reinsurgance.The cool about going strait for italy is that by the time the brutti have complete control of greece and asia minor,egypt is on the rise and it makes for an amazing showdown between you and them.i really honed my style of play from showdowns like that and its extremely fun.Either way works,but if the romans are being a thorn in your side then its best to aim for their throat and end them.

[glyphz]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I have been playing RTW since Feb 2006 but I am new to the Guild. I never really continued any of the Roman campaigns after I got past the intial hard stages. Same goes for the other factions.

My question is "Is it really necessary to attack Italy early or are other options better?"

In my latest Carthage campaign on hard campaign/medium battle difficulty, I really held on to Corduba and Caralis and Sicily. Corduba was tough with all the Spanish hordes constantly pestering me outside of the city. Caralis was tough till I got some Iberians and round shields outside the city in ambush. Sicily was easier than expected with my navies blockading Capua. I also took over Ludis Magna and attacked the Numidians early with troops made from Carthage and Thapus.

About 40 turns later, I have Sicily under control (being lazy there and not attacking Rome yet), all of West Africa is mine (one less front), Spain is finally mine with Spanish gone and Gauls angry (Pyrennes make good defense), and complete naval superiority in the western Meditterrean Sea. Greece is my ally but down to Rhodes only. I am considering funneling money to them to prevent Pontius/Brutii/Egyptians from gaining complete dominance in Turkey.

Sadly, I have always been more of a infantry guy. Greeks are my favorite faction (a. hoplites rule). When my first faction leader and heir both got to 64, I sent them on a "suicide mission" to Greece to disrupt Brutii and save Greeks. To my surprise, Greeks were gone from all of their homeland cities and Brutii had dominated. I landed near Thermon which had 2 hastatii only and took it over. I was supposed to get out and conquer Kydonia but the weakness of Roman power in the region convinced me to stay. That is when I discovered the power of Carthagian horses. (my previous experiences had been Equites and Greek cav.) I went on to conquer Athens and Corinth. Another army landed with 5 Iberians and 12 peasants and took over Sparta. My generals and their guys (4 Iberians, 2 hoplite, 2 long shield) destroyed about 3 full stacks worth of Romans and killed 4 generals.

I think that was a pretty good result for a suicide/farewall mission.

So is there any benefit in attacking Greece instead of Italy for Carthage campaigns? I would think that Greece gives lots of money with little public order problems. Plus, easy to defend.

There's nothing wrong with skipping the Romans and aiming for the very profitable Greek settlements ...as long as you can handle it.
The reason it is highly recommended to tackle the Romans early, or at least pre-Marian, is because they attack you... constantly. Be it in Lilybaeum (scips), caralis (julii,scips), or thapsus/carthage (brutii, scips). Until you get rid of them, there will always be that 'monkey' (trio of them + big boss, mind you) on your back, alongside being pestered by the opportunistic Numidians, Gauls and Spanish (in your other starter settlements, except palma), AND the looming horde of eggies, if you ever border them. Going to Greece seems to only add another border to defend and more enemies to deal with (GCS, Macedon & Thrace) (you might achieve the most enemies in the 'early game' award)
You start stretched thin, with your early infantry line merely fodder for Romans to trample, upon. That's why people recommend mustering most of what you have early on and aim straight right at their lands. "Bring war and carnage at their doorstep, not yours." Better if they aren't fully mobilized yet, 'cause they will. Have your cavalry be the turning point of the battle, and the eles as your siege engines.
Anyway, it seems that you were able to pull it off nicely without giving an inch. Personally, i dont think i could do it, hehe. The Aegean is indeed rich, but the monkeys are still at your back, as long as you can deal with whatever those chimps can throw at you, you'll be fine
Cheers!

[Havoc123]

thanks for the tips, glyphz. However I have blockaded the Julii and Brutii with my navy. Scipii held on to Capua for a while but then revolted and were taken over by Brutii. I have taken over all Agean cities except for Salona and Apollona, but close to it. Spain and West Africa are united and one of my armies is destroying stack after stack of Egyptians, at Siwa.

Julii is blocked off by land near Massila with armies at important bridges and Gauls are too busy dealing with British invasions.

I thought the same way as you did about destroying Romans early but I have reconsidered this option. If you are able to hold on to territories as Carthage in the beginning stage and develop your economic and military infrastructure and conquer Sicily, you are good to go. Navies are very important here. If you can afford it, keep Romans blockaded in Italy with all land routes blocked. It is good practice for generals and will deplete the money and population of Italy. After Italy is gone, the game tends to get boring.

The reason why I invaded Greece was because I wanted to use my 67 year old general in battle before he died. It was just my dumb luck that Greece was so underdefended that I was able to establish a strong foothold and spread from there.

[Polemists]

Carthage Infantry.....Oh boy...where to begin...


So I am playing Carthage, after reading these forums I realize I took the hard road. I captured Sicily early on kicking out greeks and romans and constantly reinforced that little island off coast of Italy. Meaning all my troops have been getting slaughtered by Romans.

Now early on I lost lots of men, mostly do to the fact that I assumed Roman Town Militia = Carthagian Town Militia....not so...apparently. Or maybe just not so against Hastarii

So now i'm in the game to where I have a decent economy because I started with a eco focus, and now I have some decent infantry options, sadly I just now focused on building archery ranges so it will take some time before i have slingers, or decent calvary as originally I focused on infantry.

I managed to defeat a large Brutti army through sheer attrition (attack again and again) but they guy won a few times and now has like 10 command stars and 40 bodyguards. He just left sicily but he's coming back, I know it.

All i have on Sicily are

Militia-Useless

Iberian Infantry-Fast and useless

Libyian Spearmen-Useful..but not as useful as hastarri

Sacred Band- Very very very slow, but good in battle.


Round shield calvary-Decent for light calvary

Skirmishers-Decent

Can I keep sicliy and drive out this guy, or is it just a slug fest till I get elephants?

The brutti general comes with lots of warhounds and hastaari and no calavary. He has 40 bodyguards and 10 command so my calavary can't beat him in calavary v calvary match.

Thoughts? Ideas?

[Headhunter242]

Try luring him into a wall of spears. Lybians or better SB in a tight formation, round shield cav for flanking. Forget about slingers, I find them near useless. Stick to skirmishers, instead. Maybe you have to sacrifice some of them to get the general to your spearwall. Once he's engaged with your phalanx, swarm him with round shields. Usually this means game over for him. As for the rest of his army: Hastati are vulnerable to cav. Try taking them off one by one. Hounds get slaughtered by lybian spears in phalanx mode so let them come. Maybe you get cocky and try swarming them with cav before they can release the hounds. Watch out not being swamped, though. Taking advantage of the fact, that you have cav superiority (apart from the brutii general) is the key to winning this fight, imo.

[John_Longarrow]

I'd suggest going for round shield cav. If you have a group of three together that charges a hastarii, you will generally see the hastarii rout as soon as you hit them. Several groups of cav can eat away at a Roman army surprisingly fast.

Once the infantry is torn up, go in against the General with phalanx troops. If you can box him in with three or four, you should be able to kill him with few (if any) losses.

I've played a few games as Carthage. Until I figured out to go the Cav route with them I was loosing badly. Once I figured out how to use horde tactics with their cav, I've been walking over everything else.

For a very fun fight, try Armenia. Great units but a very hard starting position.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Carthage Infantry.....Oh boy...where to begin...


So I am playing Carthage, after reading these forums I realize I took the hard road. I captured Sicily early on kicking out greeks and romans and constantly reinforced that little island off coast of Italy. Meaning all my troops have been getting slaughtered by Romans.

Now early on I lost lots of men, mostly do to the fact that I assumed Roman Town Militia = Carthagian Town Militia....not so...apparently. Or maybe just not so against Hastarii

So now i'm in the game to where I have a decent economy because I started with a eco focus, and now I have some decent infantry options, sadly I just now focused on building archery ranges so it will take some time before i have slingers, or decent calvary as originally I focused on infantry.

I managed to defeat a large Brutti army through sheer attrition (attack again and again) but they guy won a few times and now has like 10 command stars and 40 bodyguards. He just left sicily but he's coming back, I know it.

All i have on Sicily are

Militia-Useless

Iberian Infantry-Fast and useless

Libyian Spearmen-Useful..but not as useful as hastarri

Sacred Band- Very very very slow, but good in battle.


Round shield calvary-Decent for light calvary

Skirmishers-Decent

Can I keep sicliy and drive out this guy, or is it just a slug fest till I get elephants?

The brutti general comes with lots of warhounds and hastaari and no calavary. He has 40 bodyguards and 10 command so my calavary can't beat him in calavary v calvary match.

Thoughts? Ideas?

You have enough to defend with.

Some tips:


Use Libyans and SB as your line. If you need to move, you need to take the SB out of phalanx, run them where you need them, then re-phalanx. Just remember they need 10 seconds or so to reform the spear wall, so don' cut it too close.

Skirmishers make suprisingly good archers against the Romans. Set them up just behind your line. At first, you can fire at will, but then when the scrum starts you'll have to manually pick targets to minimize fratricide.

Iberian infantry are okay for quick flank turn attacks -- uses their speed -- but they die quickly so don't count on them as your key flank attack. They're also useful for absorbing wardogs, though again you need to expect lots of dead iberians.

Luring their commander onto your spears is a good play. Best bait ever designed is slingers. Why general cavarly units lose all sense and charge them I've never really been sure....

Your round shields are fine for flanking cavalry attacks or overwhelming a hastati that got separated. Key is to swarm with 3-5 round shield units superimposed on the same area. They seem to hit with authority then, but to die too quickly if employed singly.

Still gonna have a lot of attrition though. No way to fight the romans without casualties with early game troops.

[Negator_UK]

Early on with Carthage ignor all Carthaginian infantry and build Round Shield Cavalry. Pick up a few merc footsloggers and just pile all you cavalry on one part of the enemy line. Kill, sweep up and do the same again to the others parts pice by piece.

You can clobber most opponents this way, but Triarii are best hit by about 4 units from 4 sides !!

Push to Long shield and eventually elephants. The first infantry you should build seriously will be peasants for garrison and Poeni infantry later on.

[Youngie]

Seleucids. Possibly the hardest to play.

I would say it would have to be the numidians, they dont stand a chance, has anyone actually seen them do reasonably well, if so under what circumstances.

[Emperor of Graal]

Numidians They are the hardest because their units suck!

[Quintus.JC]

Worst Faction IMO - Thrace

[Emperor of Graal]

Thrace is Ok....
The AI just sucks as them