Carthage

[Garvanko]

How it maintains public order in big cities with only 10% garrison and no governors in many cases is a serious BUG, which I absolutely hate.

Its also a completely unnecessary cheat.

[gardibolt]

Well, the Brutii are on the ropes and the Gaul have largely been defanged, so it's time to turn my Carthaginian eyes to the last megapower left on the board besides me: Egypt. From early pages of this guide forum I know that my usual cavalry-spam army isn't going to work with the chariots, so I'm guessing I'll have to go poeni/sacred band with an assortment of slingers as my primary force. Anyone have experience fighting Egypt with the unter-infantry of Carthage?

[Watchman]

EvenEastern Inf, who are the layer of dirt under the floor of the basement of the run-down hovel crappy infantry resides in (peasants are then the earthworms under *them*), seem to slaughter chariots in surprisingly short order as soon as the buggers stop moving (and dense masses of "set" spearmen are fairly good at stopping them). Those largely nominal melee defense stats hurt.

Eggy chariots themselves aren't all that problematic, partly because the AI is still an idiot. It's Eggy chariots accompanied by Pharaonics and Desert Inf that get problematic... The AI tends to be clever enough not to send its chariots directly into the pointy ends of phalanxes (at least without some goading - Disposable Javelineers, I think someone's calling you...) though, so so long as you keep in clever formation you probably won't have chariots totally messing up your lines right before the Pharaoh's Guards and Axemen charge in.

In my experience the biggest headache of the chariots is the way they prevent you from properly disposing of those nasty Pharaoh Bowmen with you cavalry and then totally rolling up the Eggy main line after it gets stuck on your infantry. And you really don't want those fancy-dud archers contributing to the phalanx clash, I know that much. I don't actually know how Carthaginian and Eggy phalanx inf measure against each other (probably about even), but the odds sure won't be even if your Sacred Bands have been turned into pincushions before the push.

Carthage gets elephants, though. And Armoured ones too. Chariots don't seem to deal with those big things too well, although I've gotten the impression the eles count as "cavalry" for the chariots as far as wounding goes - in other words, the pachyderms lose wounds pretty rapidly when there's chariots running around them. Still, elephant hordes on the flanks ought to be something the Eggies don't have any good counter for...

[GrandInquisitor]

lybian spearmen and poeni infantry are more than enough against egypt. two lybians on the flanks are good to hold chariots, and a poeni can quickly be used to reinforce as a phalanx thereafter. elephants are a no-no in my experience against chariots; but if they are taken care of, they can handily 'roll-up' egyptian lines with carthaginian cavalry. the key to taking out their bowmen is to try and get all of their chariots engaged first, then swing around and take them out with cavalry--the AI usually doesn't react quickly if at all to save the bowmen

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Assuming a mixed force of Late-era Eggies:

For Example:

1 Pharoah Guard, 3 Pharoah Bow, 1 Regular Bow, 2 Nile Spear, 5 Des Axe, 4 Chariot Archer, 2 Des Cav, 1 Heavy Chariot.


Chariot Archers....

Choice #1:

Send a skirmisher after each Charcher personally -- they'll lose, but the Charcher is busy and out of the fight.

Choice #2:

As #1, but use generic slingers (cheap) or balearics (spendy).

The Eggies like to go wide with Charchers, so your units will be a ways off. Sometimes the Des cav then attacks the skirmishers, so I often follow up with a little lt/md cav to hammer them back.


Battle Line with Chariots...

They will not charge your spears with their heavies, and usually not your sacrificial jav unit either, but will go directly for your light infantry/sword infantry to demolish them (just like you'll use your hefalumps on their axes). Can't really stop it, so be ready to counter attack with infantry during the moment the chariots stop. They fall apart quick if hit while still.


Taking out their archers...

Option #1:

Have a lot of cavalry, then assign one to each des cav, one to each line flank, and use the rest to loop around and kill bowmen.

Option #2:

Use hefalumps to punch a hole through axemen, use follow up cav to kill the axemen, then use a md/hvy cav unit or three to exploit the breach and hunt bowmen. Two hefalumps are often needed, since you'll see a lot of fire arrows....


Approaching their line...

Eggy stacks often have ridiculous firepower -- 4 bow units put at as many needles as 6 of yours -- so do not get fancy at medium ranges. Whatever tactics you employ should rely on going from slow to full out speed the moment you are just out of bow range. Giving them the time for an extra volley or two is simply ruinous.


"Cheaping" their leader...

If they do not have Pharoah Bows, and you have Cretans, you can often take shameful advantage of the fact that chariot generals DIE LIKE FLIES when facing archers. Something about the generals chariot sending out an EM pulse that pulls arrows to it first.....

[gardibolt]

Thanks, those look like excellent tips. i'll try them out this weekend.

Edit: Didn't get a lot of playing time in, but I did have my first run-in with the Egyptians. They only had a small scouting force near Lepcis Magna, but I made pretty short work of them using Poeni, slingers, cav and elephants. I sent a ship over to Crete to pick up some archers so the invasion of the Nile should begin in earnest in a couple turns. Building watchtowers along the coast for an early warning system should they be tempted to try again.

Brutii are now down to their capital, which is under siege, and Byzantium, which is woefully understaffed with a piece of an hastati unit, some velites and most of an equite unit. They should be gone in 3 turns if not sooner. After all the grief Gaul gave me in Iberia, their homeland defense is rather pathetic. Gaul's massive stacks just melt before a force of six round shield cavalry--they seem to have forgotten how to build Foresters (maybe I took their only cities that could), so they're in a world of hurt. But the Britons are a major power having mostly wiped out the Germans, so I may be getting more practice fighting chariots before long. Only 11 more territories to go, but I'd like to put a dent in the Egyptians. Who knows, I may keep on playing just to see how I do against the Pharaoh. I must be expanding rapidly--I keep getting Men of the Hour (and some nice ones too--just got one with FIVE Command Stars).

[gardibolt]

As it turned out, the Brutii had a couple more cities north of Thrace tucked away (I play with FOW on) so they're still not quite dead, but very much on the ropes. Murdered the faction heir and besieged the next to last city (I think--though I saw them sending a stack into Dacia so there may be another one soon).

Over in Gaul, I lost a nice army (and a herd of elephants) when I tried to attack a small stack of Gauls. My first mistake was that they were in the woods, and Carthage loses a lot of its cavalry advantage that way. The second was disregarding the fact that the stack was mostly Chosen Swordsmen, who basically ground my army into mincemeat (the elephants running amok didn't help any). So I'm going to call Gaul good and not attack up there any more, and just defend when I need to, concentrating on the Eggies for my last few battles.

After fighting a few smaller stacks and taking an underguarded city (phalanxes taking a city that is guarded only by chariots=high hilarity), I fought my first pitched battle against one of the pharaohs out on the sands. I was outnumbered by about a hundred troops, with chariots aplenty and two units of pharaoh's bowmen. They got the high ground and things looked bad, but my trusty onager got lucky and disrupted their line. I sent four cav+elephants into the bowmen and they quickly routed, starting a chain rout. My right wing of cav went after the chariots and knocked them out pretty quickly too, so I ended up elimination about 800 Eggies (didn't kill the pharaoh though) to about 150 losses. Not bad for a first try. But I expect there will be more stacks to come. Let them do so; this army is really just a feint to draw the stacks away from Alexandria: my real army is coming there via quinquiremes, but anything that kills the Egyptian troops is OK with me. I think I have 8 more territories to go, so with 2 or 3 Brutii cities, I only need to take the Egyptian heartland, harass their holdings in Anatolia for a lark, and I'm at 50. I don't think I'm going to bother trying to take the whole map again, and once the Nile Valley is gone the rest of Egypt shouldn't be too difficult.

[perun]

I am playing my second campaign as Carthage on H/M and it seems to me that the Carthagenians have no other choice but to attack Italy. I didn't even wait for Scipii to attack me first - as soon as Syracuse fell I stormed Messana and before the Romans knew what hit them was besieging Syracuse. After loosing Sicily the Scipii and the Julii kept trying to land on Sardinia. As I lost Cordoba to Gaul/Iberian aliance and Egypt is simply to powerful for me to even think of having a border with them (I keep 2 Macedonian provinces as a buffer zone) the only viable road for expansion is Italy.

So, the question is - is it common for Carthage to expand in other directions or it has to go "punic-warish"?
And, is it possible to have an alliance (or at least an enduring ceasefire) with the Romans, so that I can concentrate the armies on other fronts?

My diplomacy is lousy, though - my only ally in the present game are the Greeks. The most I could get from the others were the trade rights and a ceasefire with Gauls AFTER Cordoba was taken by them. Is this normal?

[GrandInquisitor]

secure sicily, storm spain, and produce a huge navy to hold the line against rome. if you can effectively cover the coast of sardinia, you will never lose the island because their invasions shouldn't even set foot on it. taking out numidia west of you isn't difficult, nor a bad idea (a general and roundshields do well here). that's how i've gone early on. later, after i've developed A LOT more, i go on the offensive against italy. in my experience, securing those borders and weathering the storm for a stronger homeland is paramount to trying to rush rome--i've never had much luck against their production

[perun]

secure sicily, storm spain, and produce a huge navy to hold the line against rome. if you can effectively cover the coast of sardinia, you will never lose the island because their invasions shouldn't even set foot on it. taking out numidia west of you isn't difficult, nor a bad idea (a general and roundshields do well here).

Thanks GrandInquisitor. I secured Sicily and Sardinia but instead of Spain I stormed Italy. Strong navy is a must, methinks - to guard the ports and sink enemy desant - otherwise Carthage gets burnt. The Scipii and the Julii lost a lot of soldiers trying to capture Sardinia so the Scipii just were not able to defend their only province when I landed on the "Boot". So the Rome is Roman no more

I wondered if anyone has tested Carthagenian infantry agains Roman pre- and postmarian infantry. How does it compare? I rely heavily on my cavalry to win battles against Romans and the only battle where my light cavalry got beaten by Roman general bodyguards became a bloodbath. I won it but there were around 20 foot soldiers left alive on a field with sth like 1500 corpses

[GrandInquisitor]

not a problem.

when it comes to iberian infantry, two are a match for one hastati, beyond that you should have lybian spearmen and poeni to hold principes--at that point, it's alexandrian tactics (hammer and anvil).

[Avicenna]

Watchmen: Elephants, and camels as well are their own special breed, but chariots do frighten them (most things do, such as dogs, burning pigs and burning arrows).

[Goalie]

When I play with Carthage I don't use elephants that much. They are too messy and can kill your own troops. I will use them only if I am in a dire situation. They do make good archers though. I like the old phalanx with Peoni and Sacred Bands. Libyan spearmen are a nice touch. Not to mention sacred band calvary who are a great at flanking the enemy while they are engaged in the phalanx. In Campaign the Cathigians arent as good right away because they are spread all across the Southwest. After you take over most Africa it gets fun. Right when you get elephants and the Romans havent gotten Marius is the best. The Carthigians are a solid faction and one of the few that can hang with Rome in the later stages of the game.

[Braden]

All this talk of an increased difficulty level with Carthage in 1.5, sent me back for a play-test last night – 20 year stint.

I have to say I was disappointed. Was playing on Hard/Medium as I’m testing the difficulty level for a PBeM and experienced little difficulty, and nothing on the scale others have reported here.

I started off very passive and sent out diplomats for trade agreements etc. I got agreements with the Greeks and Scipii on Sicily. The Scipii attacked the Greeks so I allied with the Scipii, I maintained a 2-third stack on the island as I was expecting a large Romano backlash. The Brutii landed a full army right next to Lilybaeum but my army was parked (and had been for a good while) in the forest region to the West of the mountain in the region – I got the Brutii in an ambush! One dead Brutii army and family member. Elephants can be useful – for crashing through a long marching formation! He, he…

In Sardinia the Brutii also landed but, again, I had a small army there waiting in the woods next to the town – Ambush time AGAIN! Although Carthage was outnumbered its amazing what can be done with an ambush and Carthage round shield cavalry. Another Brutii army gone and another Brutii family member dead.

I’ve never had an ambush against the AI in any other game I’ve played in Rome or BI but TWO within the first 20 years? Nice.

I had no problems from Scipii. They took Syracuse and didn’t bother me at all.

I made alliances with Numidia, Spain, Gaul (had to break with Gaul when Spain attacked them). These have held. I’ve not had any problems with Spain or Numidia yet.

I took Lepcis Magna from the rebels. I thought I’d missed out as a Numidian army walked past it but my diplomat was present – perhaps they thought I was bribing them (which I was – without success though). I even shipped a small army and faction member over to Crete and took that without issue.

Current state is that I’m quite secure with the regions I have, although I’m still building up a proper army of Carthage and am making use of Merc units in the main. My economy is quite poor still (2k turn over), but I hope to address this by contacting Egypt and the Seleucids in the next few turns. Once the economy is looking much better the plan is to exchange Lepcis Magna to the Numidians in exchange for Military access.

I have also taken Syracuse from the Scipii – felt sorry for that but due to the unwanted attentions of the Brutii, I was “at war” with the Scipii even though they’d never raised a finger against me. Fact was, Syracuse was looking large and tempting, I wanted money, it had it.

Within the last 6 turns I’ve been producing Lybian spearmen in Carthage itself so I’m working with only Iberians, City Guard and Round shield cavalry previously plus some merc units.

[Avicenna]

Well, on VH it's almost impossible to not be at war with any of your neighbours, apart from perhaps the Greek Cities.

[Braden]

Great - VH it is then. I'm shocked that just a transition from H to VH would make such a large difference.....never mind.

[phred]

All this talk of an increased difficulty level with Carthage in 1.5, sent me back for a play-test last night – 20 year stint.

I have to say I was disappointed. Was playing on Hard/Medium as I’m testing the difficulty level for a PBeM and experienced little difficulty, and nothing on the scale others have reported here.

When I last played Carthage (M/M), I attacked Scipii on turn 2. Shortly thereafter, I was at war with everyone except Greece (i.e. Numidia, Spain, Gaul & all the Romans).
Maybe when the AIs see that I'm at war with 4 factions (all the Roman factions), they think I'm weak, stretched thin and ripe for a hostile takeover.

[gardibolt]

When I last played Carthage (M/M), I attacked Scipii on turn 2. Shortly thereafter, I was at war with everyone except Greece (i.e. Numidia, Spain, Gaul & all the Romans).
Maybe when the AIs see that I'm at war with 4 factions (all the Roman factions), they think I'm weak, stretched thin and ripe for a hostile takeover.

That was pretty much my experience in M/M, except I was at war with Greece too. The worst part was the constant stack after stack from Gaul.

[phred]

That was pretty much my experience in M/M, except I was at war with Greece too. The worst part was the constant stack after stack from Gaul.

In my game the Brutii took Syracuse, so I didn't share any borders with Greece. I think that was the only reason I wasn't at war with them.
The Gauls did the same with me. I annihilated stack after stack, and still they kept on coming.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the Org and a semi-veteran to RTW so I figure I'd introduce myself by sharing my experiences with my favorite faction.

I started out by doing a slight modification to the traditional Carthaginian blitz by heading straight for Capua after I took Messana. However, there were some drawbacks to this method seeing as I was being attacked from the south as well the north. Luckily it took a couple of turns for the Brutii to dislodge from Greece to attack me, which allowed me to Punic-ize Capua, take (rebel) Syracuse, and bring in reinforcements from Carthage, including another unit of elephants.

After repulsing what was to be a long series of Roman attacks (including at this time my navy turning away what was surely a Julii strike force headed for Caralis) I sent my general Burrhus, who had replaced the dead Hanno, to kill the Senate army. Long story short, the extra elephant unit made the difference and Rome was mine.

Cue an almost Egyptian-like procession of Roman armies trying to reclaim their city. Now I know what Hannibal felt like. Luckily for me, they didn't have that many cities and since they had lost two trading partners, there wasn't full stack after full stack. Burrhus the Conqueror went on the offensive again, taking out Julii Italy. I began to create a new army in Sicily and Capua. Meanwhile, in Iberia I was basically holed up in Corduba, fighting tooth and nail to keep my city from the Spaniards.

My new Sicilian/Capuan army proceeded to strike the two Brutii territories in Southern Italia. I had a nice little empire at this point and decided to send a brand spankin' new general, Himilcar, to take the rest of West Africa. Meanwhile, Burrhus the Mighty's army was resting in Masilla, having conquered the Julii. Three Roman factions down. And I was finally able to make an offensive in Iberia, claiming Carthago Nova for its rightful owner.

Several years pass. At this point I realized a frightening revelation: Egypt was knocking on my door. I had to stop them before they got too powerful. Because I pursued an aggressive military build policy, it was rather easy for me to build up an army to head east to stop the Egyptian advance. I retook Lepcis Magna, and went for Alexandria. Meanwhile, my diplomat made contact with the Seleucids (down to only Damascus) and we aligned. Our bargain was simple: I would provide them with money, they would provide warriors on the eastern front.

A couple years pass. Let's review the situation for each army.

Iberian army: Making progress. Took down Osca/Scallabis and heading for Asturica.
Burrhus's old army: The man is dead, but I supplied it with another general. Mopping up barbarian rebel cities in Southern France.
Brutii-killing army: Mission just about accomplished. Only Salona left.
Anti-Egyptian army: In Alexandria. I didn't exterminate, so we're having some public order problems.
Himilcar's army: Killed the Numidians in a massive battle near Cirta. Is now taking that rebel city far into the Sahara.

Meanwhile I was preparing an uber-army to help relieve the Seleucids in the east, seeing as how my diplomat was getting old and can't bribe too many more Egyptian armies before the desert claims him.

I will post the second half of this campaign later, sorry if this post went so long!

[Ludens]

Interesting campaign, GeneralHankerchief. Welcome to the Org .

[GeneralHankerchief]

Thanks for the welcome, Ludens, appreciate it.

Anyway, where were we? So my uber-army is ready for shipment to Damascus, after picking up its Sacred Band infantry from Lilybaeum. However, I wasn't sure if I would make it in time since the Seleucids had a pitifully small garrison and the Eggies seemed more intent on destroying them than retaking Alexandria (they seemed to leave me alone after I onagered their heir in the one attempt to recapture it ). My diplomat would be of no use either, being dead and all. I sent another one from Alexandria, but he would arrive at about the same time as the army.

My fleet arrived at about the same time me and my Gallic allies destroyed the last remnants of Spain. At this time, I had Himilcar (fresh from taking the Saharan territory) go on a long march through the desert (no roads) to sneak up and take Siwa. It would occupy him for years. Finally, the last of the Roman factions, the Brutii, were destroyed. It was kind of a sentimental moment. Until I did my standard execution of the last city.

Anyway, back to the relief army. I took Sidon, Antioch, and Tarsus, giving them all to the Seleucids. It would be enough to keep the Eggies occupied. I sailed the victorious army to the Nile, where they would assist the garrison still stuck in Alexandria.

Around this time, my lone Iberian general from the start, Theophanes the Mighty, became the fifth faction leader. I decided to give the man some well-deserved reinforcements, in order to fight back the rapidly-expanding Britons, who had whittled down my Gallic allies to one city (gee, sound familiar?).

Instead of making a time-consuming uber-army for Britannia, I created three smaller armies (about a 1/2 stack each) consisting of the remnants of Theophanes' army, Burrhus' famous old army, and reinforcements from Carthage. They were extremely effective, sweeping through France in record time.

The Nile was now mine, but I knew eventually I was going to have to retake Alexandria. I didn't know where to go for my final provinces until my Macedonian allies betrayed me and besieged Appolonia. Problem solved.

The campaign ended with some pretty awesome battles, which is rare in endgames. That cavalry the Macedonians spam gave me headaches. However, many of my armies converged on the Balkans, including the army that wasn't in Alexandria, Himilcar's army emerging from the Sahara victorious (the Eggies didn't see it coming at all), one of the three armies in barbarian territory, a new army from Italy, and an uber-army from Carthage with my new FL commanding. The 50th province taken was the Macedonian capital, Thessalonica. All my armies swarmed on the traitors, making them defending a ridiculous amount of wall as well as severly lowering my framerate. Needless to say, superior numbers and forces prevailed, and I had my 50.

Lessons learned:
Don't walk through a roadless Sahara. You might have the benefit of surprise but it takes WAY too much time.
While taking Capua instead of Tarentum/Croton first is different, it's a headache.
Elephants make excellent barbarian wall breakers. And barbarian killers.
The never-ending tide of Egyptian armies are a lot easier to deal with when they're fighting on multiple fronts and you've bribed a significant amount of them away.
When taking Alexandria, EXECUTE. I don't care how small the population is, it will get bigger fast.
A full stack of low-level Macedonian cavalry is tougher to deal with than the pre-Marian Senate army.

Again, sorry for another long post. I am thinking of trying this excellent faction again with a no-blitz rule after I finish up my Parthian campaign.

[x-dANGEr]

Very exciting campaign. You acutally keept me anxious that I checked it the first today, well done on your post, too ;)

And, welcome to the ORG!

[The Spartan (Returns)]

create two town millitia or 3 in Sardina. create four millitia in Corduba so you can crush Spain.wait for the Scipii to take Sracuse then take Messena with the army hiding in the forest. now you may think Carthage stinks cause of early weak inf. but if you use elephants and light cavalry you can be unstoppable. just use Iberian inf. to hold the line, while light cav and elehants flank. or you can use them to attack the general. back to campaign. dont take Africa from Numidia now. now in spain take over the Spanish province. in Sicily take Syracuse. in Cathage keep trying to upgrade the barrcacks and an Awsome Temp. of Baal. lets you build Sacred band. take over Croton, in Spain, take over the Spainish capital. the brutii are away in Greece so dont wory. take over Capua (capital of Scipii) it should have a large garrison so be careful. dont be suprised if the Senate come and help. once you take Capua. March on Rome. In Spain take over the rest of the Spanish provinces (on the coast) and maybe take the Gallic province in the middle. in italy try to fight the Senate out of Rome. if you have to assault rome, be careful. dont be suprised if the Julii come and help. you take over Rome.take the rest of Italy. Some Roman provinces will be in Gaul. if egypt is knocking on your door; before they come attack the capital of Numidia. if egypt atacks you (at africa) do your best to stop them. your faction should be qiute advanced now so it shouldnt be so hard fightin egypt. once they attack counter attack them. if you destroy Egypt, the world is your playground!

[Seamus Fermanagh]

General Hanky:

When having a go at Egypt, Memphis (with it's culture-penalty removal pyramids) is the real key.

All & Sundry:

The fun part about Carthage is not having elephants -- the fun part is having elephants and having no "natural" opponents (Rome, Spain, Gaul, Numidia) ho normally field phalanx units.

Warhounds in particular -- or at least so I am told -- make a splendid sight when being tusked off into a river somewhere...

[GeneralHankerchief]

Actually Seamus, I did take Memphis eventually. I'd say it put off the rebellion for about 10-15 turns. But the squalor and distance to capital eventually overcame me.

And I know that this wasn't addressed to me, but I will have to try the elephant/wardog thing next time. I usually send my cavalry after the doggies' handlers. It's funny to see 34 handlerless dogs heading right for your Libyan Spearman with the status "dead" when you mouse over them.

And I'm glad you enjoyed it, x-danger.

[gardibolt]

I'm in the endgame of my long-running Carthage campaign, and it's still quite fun since I've been determined that my last opponent will be Egypt. I actually am besieging a rebel city that once was the last city of Gaul until I was attacked by the French and I killed the faction leader, but I'm going to drop the siege so I don't take it; I only have 2 cities to go and I want them to be Siwa and Thebes. I sent an army east from Lepcis Magna and took Cyrene without a problem, which brought four stacks of Eggies to attack me. I quickly sent a second army by boat and killed all but one of them, which fled back to Siwa.

In the meantime, I sent another boat to Alexandria with two family members. I had a full stack but there were a bunch of good mercs to hire, so I split off one of them to start his own little stack while the full stack besieged Alexandria. I noted Memphis was ill-defended, so the little stack went there to besiege it. The Pharaoh sallied from Memphis and was quickly obliterated, making the pyramids mine all mine. Alexandria followed suit, but unfortunately developed the plague.

My Cyrene army next intends to head down to Siwa, and after I've rebuilt Alexandria and Memphis, they'll head for Thebes For the Win. I'm getting some better at fighting the Eggies, but I still lose 1 out of 3. The Nile spearmen are a real problem, though the Nubians fold pretty fast. The main problem is keeping the rest of the Empire happy while I wrap up the game.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Hello gardibolt, it sounds like you've got an interesting endgame on your hands. I purposely took out Egypt semi-early to avoid the situation you're in now. However, your way would have saved me lots of headaches in Alexandria (although you seem to have headaches of your own, don't you love owning that city? ).

My main strategy for dealing with the Eggie armies was to show them the money, however my trusty diplomats did miss a few of them so I did get the chance to develop a sound strategy against them.

First of all, I would advise leaving your elephants home. In one battle I had a combination of flaming onagers/flaming arrows have my elephants go nuts and plow through a good amount of my army before I finally gave the order to suicide.

While I usually lean cavalry-heavy with Carthage (and a lot of other factions) I'd instead opt for a balanced force when fighting the Ptolemies. My slingers were particularly effective against their chariots, while hammer-and-anvil tactics allowed me to take out their infantry, which left my cavalry free to destroy those annoying foot archers.

Good luck and may the Nile soon be covered in white.

[Goalie]

I helped myself out a little bit in a campaign with Carthage. I edited the slingers and made them into Sacred Band Archers. I kicked butt. I currentely have control of Spain, some of Gaul, and am pushing into Eygpt. I havent bothered Rome since I took contol of Sicily, I want to save them for the end so I have a good challenge in the end.

[gardibolt]

Well, I finally finished my Carthage campaign. I was never able to bribe any Egyptians, no matter how small the stack and no matter how much money I had, so it was fight to the death every single time.

My troop composition that seemed to work best in Egypt was: 2 Sacred Band phalanx, 4 slings (or Cretans), 4 Libyan mercs, 5-7 Long Shield cav (or Bedouin archers, if those were available), 2 Armored eles and 1-3 generals. Sacred band up front to protect the missiles, the cav split into two groups on each side, the eles way back unless there happened to be no archers. Move the sacred band and missiles forward and swoop the cav around the flanks as the missiles started to fire, ready to pull back should the chariots head for the missile troops. Head for the bowmen, kill them, then send the elephants in to raise mayhem along with the cav. It took a while to get it working properly, but by the end of the campaign a single stack of these guys was able to take out three stacks of Eggies in a battle. The main problem was with the unruly cavalry that had a tendency to wander into the Nile spearmen's waiting pointy sticks.

A very fun, if difficult, campaign. But I do think my next one will be with a faction that uses archers.