Carthage

[Greacia_Roma]

My fav tactic with carthage is simple. First of all if you'll agree carthage is a hard faction to play as yes? NO. Carthage is like rome the only difference is your in africa leave every single province outsid of africa to the dogs give them as gifts or whaterver. Destroy every building and disband all troops outside africa. After get rid of all ties with europe and concentrate on africa and asia minor. Then pick one good general and conquer all of africa(yes including egypt) after conquer all of asia minor then set your sights for europe. May i just add, i see carthagian armys much like alexander the greats armies the main force should be poeni infintry or sacred band use iberian infintry to guard the flanks and use cvalry to attack and win the battle. Elephants for carthage count as cavalry.

[Rotc_Railey15]

I started a new one again. Im doing pretty well and after 10 turns conquered Sicily!

Its real simple. Make friends instead of enemies. I allied with the Greek cities, Spain, Gaul, and Numidia. The Scipii attacked Syracuse while they left Messina vulnerable. I captured messina. Then built up an army and attacked Syracuse while they were away trying to capture Lilybauem! They lost at lilybaeum and I captured Syracuse killing their faction heir! Sicily is mine.

The Greeks, Spanish, and Numidians are still my allies. I broke alliance with Gaul cause Spain went to war with them. Ive also noticed that the Gauls are losing very quickly in the game and Spain doesent have a large army. SO once i build up forces in Spain, ill attack the spanish while they are losing troops trying to defeat Gaul!

[Rotc_Railey15]

Ok ill admit Carthage is hard. The Roman navy is a harrassment, I was stupid and went to war w/Spain too soon. I failed to capture Carthago Nova and now have the Spanish navy and army to worry about.

[Billah]

I have played all the Roman factions, and the Seleucids. Have not played the others yet.

Right now, I am playing a Carthaginian campaign on Medium/Medium.

I use diplomats primarily to trade maps so that I have an idea of where everything in the world is.

I started the game by taking Lepcis Magna, Syracuse, and Messana in the first couple of turns. I then built up a good sized navy and started sinking Roman ships with armies on them. The Julii continued to attack me at Caralis, and I beat many of their armies, but they eventually took it from me. I kept a good navy or two around Sicily for protection and spent a lot of time sinking Roman ships (many with armies onboard). No Roman Armies have landed on Sicily during the whole game.

Around this time, I started building up an army in Corduba, and I bought as many Spanish and Barbarian mercenaries as possible. I particularly like the Spanish mercenaries. I bought up all mercenary units of Hoplites and Cretan Archers that I saw, but I never use skirmisher troops at all.

After taking Lepcis Magna, I sent a diplomat over to Cyrene, and then bribed it.

During the game, I have not had alliances with anyone.

After the Julii lost a lot of armies and managed to take Caralis, they moved on Palma and landed a big army. They then took Palma, which was undefended because I had moved the troops that were there into Spain.

In Spain, I battled the Spaniards until I had exterminated them, and it was all very back and forth with me losing Corduba and Scallabis a couple of time. I eventually took all Spaniard provinces and wiped them out, and then I took Numantia from the Gauls. After taking Numantia from the Gauls, I left their faction alone to use them as a buffer between me and the Julii, and I defended the passes of the Pyrenees. I had to ship a full stack army of Long Shield Cavalry and Libyan Spearman from Carthage to Spain to help take out the Spaniards. I was going to use the army against Rome, but I changed my mind when the Navy was somewhere past Sicily.

While I was battling the Spaniards, I also moved on the Numidians and took all their provinces, and wiped them out as well, so I owned all of Western Africa from Cyrene to Tingi.

After I was done with the Numidians and the Spaniards, I sent out two full stack armies with Generals over to the Eastern Mediterranean, and with these two armies I managed to take: Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Halicarnassus, Sardis, Pergamum, Sparta, Corinth, Athens, and Thermon. And I wiped out the Greeks.

I then retook Caralis, where the Scipii had their last city, and I wiped them out too.

While this was going on, the Egyptians took Cyrene and Lepcis Magna. The Julii still hold Palma.

I am now at war with many factions, but I am only mobilizing armies against the Macedonians and the Seleucids, who I am warring at the same time. They both use similar armies. From these factions, I have taken Larissa, Thessalonica, Tarsus, and Antioch. Both will soon bite the dust. The Brutii are constantly besieging Thermon, but I am just killing them in droves.

I have all of Greece producing armies of Longshield Cavalry and Poeni Infantry, and I have Carthage producing Sacred Band Infantry and War Elephants. In Antioch I am training Poeni Infantry and Elephants. I am about to do major offensives against the Macedonians and the Seleucids and I should be able to finish them off quickly.

I have a full stack army of Sacred Band Infantry, War Elephants, and Poeni Infantry headed by navy for the Nile Delta right now (which my spies say is undefended), so I should be able to blitz Alexandria, Memphis, and Thebes quite quickly.

Soon after I finish with the Nile Delta, Ill start moving south on the Egyptian provinces of Sidon, and Jerusalem with my armies in the old Seleucid areas of Tarsus, Antioch, and Asia Minor. The Egyptians will be done quickly.

After I am done with all this, I'll invade Italy with a couple of picked armies. Right now, I have by far the best Navies, and I sink anything that I see. I also have very good Generals, and Assassins all over the map.

And I have hardly used Elephant units at all during the game, but I am now massproducing War Elephants out of Carthage, and Ill soon be making War Elephants in Antioch as well. I think that the year I am at in the game is 210 or so.

Right now most of my armies are made up of Poeni infantry and Long Shield Cavalry. I kept use of Iberian Infantry to a minimum because they are so weak, and used the Libyan infantry much more than they. I have made good use of Mercenary Hoplites, Spanish Mercenaries, and Cretan Archers. Against the Numidians, I used Mercenary Missle Cavalry to very good effect.

The faction that has given me the most trouble during battles is definitely the Macedonians. They have strong infantry, and they use a lot of Cavalry. I try to engage them from far off with archers and artillery, while I hold my infantry back, then I send my Cavalry running in behind their infantry line, and try to kill off all of their skirmishers and cavalry. I then engage with my infantry, and charge their spearman from behind when they are going against my infantry. It works very well. I used the same tactics against the Seleucids and Greeks too.

I have not had to battle the Egyptians very much, and I am a bit weary of going against them in battle because of the way their armies are built, but I should be able to jump them pretty well because they left their richest cities undefended, and Ill have them pumping out Sacred Band infantry in no time.

I'm enjoying the Carthaginians more than any other faction, even though it is just Medium/Medium. I have played the Roman factions and Seleucids on VH/VH, but they have much better armies than Carthage.

[Hannibalbarc]

I've finished about 5 campaigns as Carthage and the best way to a great start is
to move your army on Sicily to the Scipii city and take it the second turn, it really isn't that hard, especially if you hire the mercenaries, after you take the city the Scipii are screwed, finish off the Greeks on Sicily and from there go into Italy.
Early on your army should consist of mostly rs cavalry, Carthage can mass produce rs cavalry right from the start, and in my opinion your main unit early on is rs cavalry not iberian infantry, massed rs are very effective against the romans and their much cheaper than your infantry.

[Quintus.JC]

Yes cavalry is the key, but for me elephant is the saviour for Carthage and the Seleucids early on. without them i wouldn't of stood a chance.

[Emperor Mithdrates]

No way.
To hell with Corduba. Im too far away to care. I normally abandon the city and ship all Southern, Spanish, Carthaginian troops to the city on Sicily. There i gather my forces before attacking Syracuse so the scipii cant get it. Then I quickly Ally myself against the greeks that i've just attacked and from my new heavily fortified city I begin rebuilding my army before attacking messana. fro there you can build a big enough navy to launch a mainland invasion on the Italian peninsular.
then the demon scipii are destroyed.
LONG LIVE CARTHAGE!

[Quintus.JC]

My early strategy was to abandon both Corduba and Caralis (If nessasary). Take all troop and Family Member + Mercenaries from Palma and Corduba to Tingi and Cirta, conquer all of western Africa with that army. This will bring you revenue and security from the backstabbing Numidians. If you're lucky then there is an outside chance Spain and Gaul will leave Corduba alone long enough for it to defend itself. Caralis will certainly be taken by the Romans, no way I'm defending that. Sicilian house cleaning: step 1, take Hanno and his troops, recruit all mercenary you can, and head for Messina, crush all opposition. Use your navy (If you have it, I always do) to sink all Scipii reinforcement heading for Sicily. Then look to Syracuse. Take it, if held by Greek, siege and wait, or better. Sometimes the Brutii come and take Syracuse leave them to fight, straight after Brutii had taken it begin the siege, give them no time for retraining. Sink all reinforcement. After that (I had Sicilia + all of Western Africa), Carthage was concentrating on non-stopping troop producing project. I waited till I got an army of mainly Pony (Poeni) infantry backupped by Libyan Spearman. Plus longshield cavalry + Elephants. Brutii was the first to go.( they still had towns in the Balkans, I didn’t bother to attack them, they were keeping the Greeks, my ally who had become increasingly power, in check.) Than Capua, Rome. The Julii gave me an ultimatum but were powerless to stop me. Everything went smooth after that. The treasury were always under 50 K to prevent corruption, you just can’t trust a bunch of Merchants.

[gardibolt]

I never abandon anything. I lost Caralis to the Julii repeatedly, until I got my navy into total domination (which sank a bunch of Julii full stacks on their way to invade), but never allowed it to fall without a fight. Ever. Carthaginian Pride, y'know?

[RexCroatorum]

I abandon Caralis with hole army and transfer them to Sicily, then I create 3 iberian infantery, 2 horsemans, and 1 elephant. When I conquer Sicily I fight back Caralis and protect it only with 2 navy. I do not bother myself with africa I follow hanibbal way, I try to conquer Iberrian penninsula. And also continiu on attacking Sciipiai and Brutii sacking their towns.
p.s. Leave Scipiaii to conquer Sirakusa and you would remain ally with greeks and trade agreemants with them.

[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!

[dallasallenz]

Take Sicily. I took Syracuse first as once that is lost the Greeks do not try to recapture it. The Romans try to recapture Messana so I try to take Syracuse first.
2) Hold Corduba and ally with Gaul.

[Kez]

Very interesting faction and fun to play, don't know if anyway even plays Vanilla RTW anymore. Started out and immediately sent reinforcements to Carilias because I know when I played as Juli that was the first Carthage city I went for. Sure enough Juli showed up ( forgot to mention my reinforcements was a peasent unit

[Kez]

Very interesting faction and fun to play, don't know if anyway even plays Vanilla RTW anymore. Sent out diplomats everywhere, made alliances with Gaul, Briton, Numidia, Greece, (Forgot Spain ) immediately sent reinforcements to Carilias because I know when I played as Juli that was the first Carthage city I went for. Sure enough Juli showed up ( forgot to mention my reinforcements was a peasant unit) and for some reason they would touch the peasant unit. I guess they were waiting for me to attack or something?

Anyway ignored them, attacked the Scippians in Sicily while they were busy with the Greeks. They didn't like that to much I bet. But my elephants fixed that argument routed the lot of them. (Greek diplomats watching mind you) Bribed the Greek Diplomat didn't want him to bribe my town watch garrison. Money was looking good, sent spy screen into Italy, seems like the Scipi are building an invasion force. Decide to send my Faction leader and a under General to southern Italy and begin taking Bruty and scipy cities. (Full Stack scipi force just watches )


I march pass the full stack of scipi leaving the southern Italy cities garrisioned with town watch, sack capua, Scipi faction destroyed, large stack changes to rebel faction. ( Still find that odd they didn't attack, bug? I was really shitting bricks fearing an butt attack)

Meanwhile, back on Carlias, build up enough forces to destroy the large Juli stack with some Elles of course. Around this time start getting spy reports about numidia and Spain, so I become a bit weary...could they be preparing for an attack?

Sure enough large Stack appears at Corduba, luckily I had brought some Spanish Mercs! Tough battle however, heroic victory, Spain runs. I start building up a force back at Carthage to deal with Spain because I know they'll be back. While that is happen I launch a counter invasion on Cathago Nova. ( Take that bastards!)

Numidia figures I have my hands tied and attack Carthage! I rout there pathetic excuse for an army with just one General. ( They came with a Captain led army of Javelins pah!) General recieves a heroic victory and some perks.

My forces in Italy sack Rome after an epic battle (Bruti watch from Apollonia haha...though they are building an invasion force it seems )

As I'm mopping up the Iberian penisula Gaul figures its there turn to backstab, so a General a few horseman and my faithful elles make short work of them and I'm in the process of invading all of Gaul, Briton and Germania with One large stack and half stack both 6 and 8 star general led.

I took over all the Italian penisula and the Juli remain with some former gallic town, to the west. They've been mostly quiet.


Sent a large stack over with my Faction heir to Greece to deal with the Bruti, and they fell rather quickly cowering in their cities. Greece back stabbed me at Lecpis manga, So they are next on my list and it should be easy because my spies tell me Pontus is causing them great peril in the Asia minor.

Thrace attack Apollonia, so actually they'll go first.....got 33 regions captured. Should I go towards Egypt.....or stick with Gaul, Germania and Greece, brition to reach my 50 region goal?

[wooly_mammoth]

Ok, just go into my first ever vanilla M/M Carthage campaign.

WOOOOOW is the situation dire. Lots of angry angry romans at the gates and nothing but dirt farmers and sleazy merchants to stand against them. Time for heroic generalship . I moved Hanno against the Scipii from the first turn, camped him in some woods right next to Sicilia Romani. A turn later the bloody road engineers showed up and cut the forest down for the empire's infrastructure.

Anyway, I got lucky that most of the roman force decided to gank the greeks, so I went up against Cornelius Scipio, his son, a unit of hastati, bowmen and velites. Actually a hard fight, I took more casualties than I would have desired since I only had really light troops at my disposal (nothing to stand against a general's charge or deal with hastati) but I did manage to win with minimal cavalry loses and took Messana. A HUMONGOUS Brutii army appeared out of taffing nowhere on a fleet, and I had to engage it in a hair-rising battle with my own biremes. The battle carried out over about four turns, but ultimately I managed to sink the bastards. If those guys had set foot on Sicily it would have been gg no re, no question about that.

In the meantime I saved greek bottoms once when Syracuse was besieged, worked on building my basic infrastructure (roads, farms, traders, temples, the like) and mandatory stables wherever they were absent. Luckily, Spain and Numidia have been peaceful. I lost Caralis to a small Julii force, but there was really no way for me to back it up and peasants alone couldn't win, even with a full surround on the enemy. After that, since those greek bastards didn't want to hear of an alliance with me, the Scipii took Syracuse, I took Syracuse from the Scipii and decided to strike first and occupied Cirta from the Numidians. Then the greeks decided they want an alliance. I think Macedonia is giving them a lot of hot love. I'm building herds of round shields for the moment, the purpose being to conquer the whole of Africa, Spain and get a foothold in Italy (I may reclaim Caralis as well) by using swarms of cavalry and minimal infantry to man rams. Hanno is a really accomplished old guy by this point.

But that's all in a future installment, since I'm about to depart on a real-life journey.

[cunobelinus]

carthage i didnt find that hard to play i brought all my troops out of every were but carthage,lilybaeum and palma .and i left corduba alone 2 but i took sicilia by storm and forced the romans back then i built up three armys and set a full scale attack on rome and wiped every one out other than brutti in apollinia .if u attack scippi s.p.q.r and julli,brutti at teh same time they cant help each other therefore u can take them .if u do it before they get to am they are weeker and u can take them easyer .

[Shadar]

I tried one thing, and it actually worked quite well. Quickly sacrifice Cordoba by giving it to anyone as a gift and pull all your troops out to the east, and only keep a poor force in Caralis (at best). Cordoba is basically on their own, and you can't afford to get any reinforcements by navy. I would instead grab Kydonia (that is a REALLY great place for income). Then take Sicily fast (your troops should do a lot better against the Romans if you're on the open plain, since you've got brilliant cavalry, and those elephants really stuff the Romans up).

Consolidate for a few turns - just to quickly build up an army and transport them all to sicily. As soon as the Scipii attack you (its a lot easier to replace losses when you're on home soil), quickly push up through the Italian peninsula and take both the Brutii homelands and the Scipii homelands. (just make sure the Brutii army is actually IN greece first... you don't want too many major battles). And remember to sink any roman ships you find! Take most the peninsula, making sure you blockade the few northern passes with forts.

Remember to liberally use the elephants in every battle, rampaging elephants are the ultimate bane against both the Romans and the Greeks, since they're very infantry based civilisations, and a quick infantry charge or a cavalry charge following the elephants spells death for any infantry. (just don't bother sending elephants against some troops. namely Spartan Hoplites and other elite troops. they'll get massacred).

[Craterus]

i dont have much experience with campaigns with the carthaginians but taking out the romans before the marius reforms is quite important

[katank]

Shadar, I consider it defeatist attitude to let go of Cordoba.

Personally, I use enslaving trick to pump population into Cordoba. Once it grows to large town level, you can produce diplomats to counter Spanish diplomats which are the bane of your existence as that's the only way you lose Cordoba.

You can also bribe the Spanish troops to join you as you share nearly identical rosters. You can rapidly grab all of the Spanish penisula while you mainly focus on the east. Mining in Spain is very profitable.

[Ulfang]

Shadar, I consider it defeatist attitude to let go of Cordoba.

Personally, I use enslaving trick to pump population into Cordoba. Once it grows to large town level, you can produce diplomats to counter Spanish diplomats which are the bane of your existence as that's the only way you lose Cordoba.

You can also bribe the Spanish troops to join you as you share nearly identical rosters. You can rapidly grab all of the Spanish penisula while you mainly focus on the east. Mining in Spain is very profitable.

I agree and if you want to do a "Hannibal" you need a base in Spain. Thats how i'm playing my game now. My Main army has just arrived on the borders of the Alps :)

Gonna try VH/VH next. The game is still to easy really the Romans should do a lot better. In my game both Julii and Scipii were pacifists so now Rome looks pretty much doomed! If you don't play a Roman Faction its should be extremely difficult to beat them!

[pianonator]

I'm about 1/2 way through my second game in RTW. I was a light veteran of Medieval, but I made a fairly complete switch to Rome. After playing a Medium Difficulty campaign as the Scipii, I decided to check out the Carthaginians. Please note - I am on Hard/Hard, not VH/VH like all you ninjas. Don't judge me. Please tell me if these strategies won't work on VH.

Combat Strategies (agains Hard AI):
Against Romans in the early game, I lured them into their infantry into brief combat with my Iberians, then flanked them with cav. (That's for defence). In attack, I tried the old stupid idea - charge with Iberians. I know, it doesn't work. That's not the point. I follow with a charge by Round Shields, let by elephants. The Iberians break after about 10% casualties, and the Romans break up their formation enough for the Round Shields to do some minimal damage. If I'm lucky, the elephant charge will break the central unit, and the Round Shields will stick around long enough to finish breaking the moral and cause the line to turn and run. Then, the Round Shields can mop them up. Of course, I only used this on them once, because I only really attacked the Romans once in the early game - since then I defended.

Late game:
Poeni Infantry and Merc Hoplites can form a battle line, Slingers (preferably Merc Slingers) in front, Armoured Elephants and Long Shields in flanks. Lure Romans into engaging Poenis. (Take it as a given that they'll try to flank you with cav, and break them with a quick elephant punch.) By this time, the Romans will have no usable cav, and your infantry line will be pushed moderately back, while your elephants are forward. Cross the line horizontally and go through the entire Roman Line, and follow with Long Shields. When one flanking Elephant group has finished crossing, do the same with your other flank. Now that the entire Roman force is fleeing, use your Cav.

Barbarians:
Give them something to charge at. A Line of Poenis will do. Pepper them with slingers, and bring them into a charge. Engage their infantry, then mow them down with Cav and Elephants. Chase away. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Seige Defense:
Iberians are the best thing ever if you have any form of stone wall. People usually climb walls with Swordsmen, so Poenis and Libyans are no good. (Poenis have swords, but they don't seem to do jack). Iberians don't have much staying power, but they're cheap. Also, if you overlap units, they won't take too many casualties per unit, so you can easily retrain them in between seiges. Slingers on the walls, of course. Don't ask me how to defend against Sappers - I haven't had to. I'd probably stack up some Poenis and back them up with flanking Cav or Skirmishers. Guard gates with Phalanxes, too.

Elephant Use:
I'm a little less conservative with my Elephants than some. I like short battles. However, I do have some restraint:
1) Never send an Elephant unit without somebody following it.
2) Never let an Elephant unit stop charging.
3) Never attack light infantry with Elephants
4) When possible, take a column Horizontally and scatter the enemy like so many ninepins.
5) Never recieve a Cav charge. Never recieve any charge. In classical warfare, nobody charged elephants. In RTW AI, they do. When it looks like anybody - light inf, cav, heavy inf, missile, anybody - is charging you, charge back, and follow through.
6) The best use for Elephants is against columns of Heavy Inf or Heavy Cav. Light units are trouble. Heavy units can be bowled over.
7) Don't be afraid to use them.

Campaign:
Early Game:

I read some of these forums, so I decided to boot the Scipii out of Sicily and ally with the Greeks. The Scipii pounded the Greeks, and I pounded their weakened army and took Messana. The Greeks were left too weak to double cross me as yet. I found my Eastern front (against the Romans) to be a little crowded, with the Julii coming at me in Corsica and the Scipii angering me in Sicily, so I took the fight to them and pulled an elephant-blitz on Capua.
NOTE: The best thing about Elephants in the early game is their ability to do a one-turn seige, so your enemy cannot respond. I knocked down the gate and destroyed them. I quickly built a Stone Wall in Capua, and easily defended it against jealous Brutii. However, at about this time, the Numidians attacked me. Fortunately, a Numidian attack is easily bounced off with stone walls, because Iberians can eventually overwhelm Desert Ninjas (Numidian infantry - don't they look like Desert Ninjas?) In the open, even camel riders can be quickly dealt with through a swift Long Shield charge.

The Julii, meanwhile, constantly send army after army to Corsica. For this, I built a second unit of Elephants and sailed them to the isle. To defend Corsica, I used the Elephants' strength against compressed units. If the Romans breached my wooden wall, I let them fight Iberians or Libyans and push them back a little bit. If I'm doing well, Light Cav can push them out. If not, a flank with Elephants can quickly force them out of a breach. It's tough, I needed to ferry lots of units from Carthage to Corsica, and dispand lots of Peasants there until I could build a Stone Wall.

Since I was causing the Julii so much trouble in Corsica, they were unable to focus on the Gauls. The Gauls became a superpower, and took over Spain before Spain even noticed me. So Corduba was safe, while I frantically built it up. By keeping my islands, I developed a steady income through trade, especially with my Roman province. After a while, I built up enough strength to push the Brutii out of Italy. The Julii then ignored Corsica and focused on my Roman provinces.

Mid Game: By this time, the Spaniards had been owned by the Gauls, and I had beaten one of the last of the Numidians standing armies. I was also becoming rather rich - the Greeks at Syracuse double crossed me finally, so I took Syracuse. I didn't hear any more from them - they were probably distracted by the Brutii, who had been recently kicked out of Italy and forced to solidify their control of Greece. I bribed the Gauls to stay away until Corbuda was ready with a large stone wall. After that, most Gauls ran away after a few ladder charges had been repulsed and their rams had been burnt.
I assaulted Tingi from Corbuda, and the other Numidians from Carthage. Once I solidified West Africa, I moved East, bribing Rebel settlements and taking Numidian ones until I met the Egyptian border after taking Siwa. Numidia out.

The Julii in North Italy were starting to irk me, so I swept through them with Armoured Elephants I imported from a fabulously rich Carthage. (I wasn't always rich - in the early game, I survived with luck and ninja tactics :) ) I surrounded Rome with Carthaginian provinces, and destroyed most of SPQR's standing armies using my Anti-Rome tactic with the Armoured Elephants. Then, I seiged Rome with a numerically superior force of Poenis, Long Shields, and Armoured Elephants. They starved. Julii was dead, now only Brutii remains.

My mastery of Italy gave me more money, which I spent on improvements, garrisons, conquering Spain from Gaul, and bribing Egypt to stay away. I have handy tactics to beat Rome and Gaul and Greece and Numidia, but the Egyptians stump me. The chariots and the Axemen are two anomalies. I can't use Iberians to stop Axemen - I can't use any infantry. I can only use Cav or missile. Since I don't have archers, I don't have much of a way to deal with Chariots, either. As the Romans, I took the British chariots with Auxila and flaming archers, but I never got enough Libyan Spearmen there, and you can't ignite a slingstone. The best thing I could do was recruit some Libyan Skirmishers and hope to pick them off. Basically, I couldn't really defeat Egypt in the field with my frontier units, so I used my wealth to bribe armies to stay away while Siwa grew big enough to take care of itself. Siwa is critical, otherwise my weak African states are forfeit. (I took for granted their isolation - command of Mediterranian islands presented a buffer, so they mostly sent armies to a far-away front and built economic buildings. - except Carthage, which built Poenis, Sacred Band Cav, and Armoured Elephants)

Late Game:
After conquering NorthWest and Central Africa, Spain, Italy, Sicily, and other keeping my islands, here I am. I snuck an army of Long shields and Skirmishes into a siege around Thebes, and bribed all armies within striking distance. The aggressive Egyptians left a small garrison. I sapped the walls, then charged in with Long Shields, eliminating Wall resistance of Chariots and Axemen with brute force. Then, I worked my way into the town. Now, I have Thebes, with its Epic Stone Walls, so I can probably finally stop worring about Siwa.

I'm open to suggestions on dealing with Egypt. Here's my new idea - haven't tried it out yet:

6-7 units of Long Shield Cav + 2 Generals, 6 Units Skirmishers, and the rest of Spearmen and slingers. Axemen tend to run when they've taken a Cav Charge or a lot of missiles, and Skirmishers are the best defense against Chariots. If they stick together, a massive charge of Long Shields can rout most units if used properly.

I've conquered Rome and 28 provinces, so momentum is on my side. If I gave the impression that the game was a cakewalk - don't believe it. There is a period in most stategy games of "solidifying borders" - a period usually consisting of the first 20 or 30 turns in which you establish a base before building up assault forces. During this period, one fights battles that are tough, close, and frequent. Not so for Carthage. It is 167 BC, and nearly every year has seen some sort of attack. My borders are secure enough now to build big armies, but the frontier is never solid. The best way to secure a frontier is to consistantly push it back, until the foe is gone.

Feel free to tell me what you think - especially if you can tell me whether these strategies will work in VH/VH.

[Goalie]

that was pretty good first post pianonator. It looks pretty in depth, i dont feel like reading your post/essay but it looked like you had it down pretty well. Most of your strategies will work well in VH. Although it will get pretty tough in VH if you dont knock Rome down a few notches early on.

[Ludens]

It seems you are doing pretty well, pianonator. Egypt's main strengths are the Pharao's archers, chariots but above all huge quantities of decent to good quality troops. Do not get into a war of attrition with them, as they can win that relativily easily. You have to take their ecomic and population bases quickly. I like to do a naval invasion near Alexandria, but it is most important to take Memphis as you need the pyramids to keep the population in check. Don't be afraid of the exterminate button either: you will have plenty of trouble to keep their population in check anyway. On the battlefield, I suggest an cavalry-heavy army backed up with elephants and good long-range skirmishers. A flank cavalry attack led by elephants will usually be sufficient to scatter their cavalry, chariots or no. Then you can envelop the center together with some well-protected heavy infantry (Poeni for preference, but Libyans will do as well). Beware of Pharao's archers though, as they are not only deadly at long range but also do decently in a melee as well.

Also, do not use flaming arrows chariots other than scythed ones. Flaming arrows create a big morale penalty, but are less deadly than normal ones. They are useful against units that can run amok (elephants and scythed chariots) or are wavering, but other chariot types won't run amok and tend to heavy good morale so normal arrows are to be prefered.

Welcome to the Org, BTW .

[limitedwhole]

Take Egypts money and they can do nothing but have revolts or disband troops. Take Sidon, Jerusaleum, and Salamis and their population centers become unbearable burdens. They might even have to start disbanding troops and stop recruiting which will lead to the inevitable. When I hit Salamis, Sidon, and Jerusaleum over the course of turns, they had just begun an economic downturn. When it was over they had zero, yes zero, production. They might have gotten bigger though in your game.

[pianonator]

Thanks folks! I feel welcomed.

I've started building heavy inf again in Egypt - they do work better than I thought they would. I guess I was scared away from using them after an unfortunate battle in which they got owned, but Chariots do have trouble with Poenis.

The main purpose of this post is to make note of a cheap shot (which you probably already know about) which is very possible, at least in H mode or lower.
I pulled the cheap shot on Memphis.

I sieged it with 4 separate armies, so it only sallied against 1 army per turn (Which I retreated with), so it remained under seige until I felt it weak enough to fall. (I didn't want to just let it fall of starvation - that felt a little wrong - a little too much like taking advantage of a game bug) I exterminated that populace after an annoyingly long battle - at this point, I still hadn't started building Peoni infantry again, so my confrontations with Axemen consisted of surrounding them with several units of long shields and charging. But yeah - Memphis is nice, with its Pyramids. I didn't know about that affect.

I pulled an Onager-blitz on Alexandria, so I now have control of the big 3 Egyptian cities. I still avoid land superiority battles by continuing to bribe Egyptians, expecially family members.

[minisam]

Hi all i am new to this site but have been playing rtw for about 1 year now and have found a good strat to get a very good start to the carthage campaign.

i started by handing over Sicily to the scipii and let greece and scipii fight that out with themselves while they struggled to gain power there i focused my interest in west Africa and set out to destroy anyone that stood in my way, all the while recruiting mercs to do the dirty work, in that time i got trade rights with all of rome and Egypt and an alliance with spain. this help as they valued this along with trade rights and didnt attack me there. i had very little resistance from and numada. once i had taken most of their citys and controlled all of west africa i set out to build up my fleets and troops, once i had 3 fully strong armys i marched one onto sicily and 2 into spain taking all provences in spain i did the same rested for about 4 turns and again went after gaul then the brits and germany finaly going in italy and walking all over the senate. once i did that i had enough money to bribe and rebels and rebel towns and a fair few armys.

i did this on the VH/M setting my next task is to try the same strat as the gaul.

Regards

[Ozzman1O1]

the first key to carthage is sicily,wich i conqure in about 6 turns,and if your a beginner and dont want to have spain at war,the numidians in the south is always a good idea.but ive never had trouble with a spanish navy?