Carthage

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Usually with Carthage, I find it easy enough to fight on both the Iberian and Syracuse fronts. You HAVE to make the awsome temple of Baal though for your Sacred Band, or else you're pretty much screwed in my opinion. Sacred Band backed up by some Poeni Infantry, Libyan Spearman, Sacred Band cavalry and elephants make for quite the army.

[McDoogle]

I have found nothing stands up agasint 500 cavalry. I have destroyed an entire roman force of 2000 men, cavalry, archers and heavey infantry in less then 30 seconds with a well aimed cavalry charge of 600 round shield.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I have found nothing stands up agasint 500 cavalry. I have destroyed an entire roman force of 2000 men, cavalry, archers and heavey infantry in less then 30 seconds with a well aimed cavalry charge of 600 round shield.

You thus sum up my single biggest disappointment with the game.

[_Aetius_]

You thus sum up my single biggest disappointment with the game.

But one example of what makes Rome Total war such a car crash of a game.

Also keeping in with the Carthage theme, is the AI's habit of all for absolutely no reason whatsoever hating Carthage to the point where they all declare war on you at the same time.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Well, why I find it appallingly a-historical.....

The cavalry wave and resulting flying infantry are fun to watch.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Starting a new Carthage campaign on H/M.

I don't want to blitz, but I don't want the Romans trying to invade three of my cities every turn. So what I'm going to do is try to really muck up the Scipii on Sicily, abandon it, and then conquer Africa. That way there can be a major Punic War to end the game.

I'll keep everyone posted with updates.

[Pontifex Rex]

Also keeping in with the Carthage theme, is the AI's habit of all for absolutely no reason whatsoever hating Carthage to the point where they all declare war on you at the same time.

Now coreect me if I'm wrong, but do not all Roman factions declare war when one faction goes to war with a non-Roman faction controlled by human players. I seem to recall that it does not matter if you are Cartaginian, Britons, Egyptians,whoever,... if you attack a Roman faction, the other will declare war on you.

It only makes sense,...and makes no difference, the AI is hopelessly outclassed by human players.

[_Aetius_]

Now coreect me if I'm wrong, but do not all Roman factions declare war when one faction goes to war with a non-Roman faction controlled by human players. I seem to recall that it does not matter if you are Cartaginian, Britons, Egyptians,whoever,... if you attack a Roman faction, the other will declare war on you.

It only makes sense,...and makes no difference, the AI is hopelessly outclassed by human players.

Well I didnt actually refer to the Romans in that quote specifically, I was referring to the Spanish, Gauls, Egyptians, Greek AND Romans all suddenly declaring war upon Carthage for often no reason at the same time.

I recall being in perfect harmony with the Spanish, Gauls and Egyptians only for the next turn all 3 to attack me, followed by my allies the Greeks the turn after and the Romans soon after that. No provocation or reason for this sudden hostility.

Even with RTW's shoddy AI and lack of understanding of diplomacy this number of factions suddenly turning against you is something I have only really experienced with Carthage, perhaps its location on the map contributes to it, being bordered by so many aggressive nations.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

ok ive been playing Carthage for a while and I'm going to put my tips in:

1. start building Baal temples in every settlement you capture/have sacred band will help you out later
2. after hiring mercs on sicily take your faction leaders army and attack either Messana/Syracuse. honestly i take Messana as it is poorly defended.
3. build up an army in Carthage and take Numidian provinces in Africa. this will get you more areas to recruit elephants.
4. recruit more troops in your newly captured Messana and take Syracuse. Dont worry about war with Greece they probably give you a ceasfire after.
5. (this is an option) build an army in Corduba and take Spanish provinces.
6. with sicily under your control i would make armies in your sicily provinces and launch invasions on Capua, Tarentum, Croton. this will A.) defeat Scipii and Brutii if they didnt gain any other provinces or B.) severely cripple both factions
7. retrain and recruit for the big battle against the SPQR. if your african provinces have elephants then ship them over. do this also if you have sacred band.
8. march onto Rome defeat/bribe the big army guarding. the city should be ill defended with the army out of the way.
9. when Rome is yours take some time to retrain and hold your ground the Julii are going to probably be on your elephant riding rear.
10. the armies in Croton and Tarentum should A.) take Apollonia if Brutii have it and can also give you a Greek "beachead" or B.) take the Julii provinces to the north.
11. at the same time i would take some armies to egypt and asia to gain new provinces and money.
12. if you hold your ground in Italy then you should eventually have your 50 from the provinces in Asia

Well have fun

[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.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I'd add only a couple of things for you Piano-man:

Build Milquart temples in a goodly proportion of cities. Yes, you'll want the child-eating Baal for the key troop centers, but pumping up the economy is important.

Once you are far enough East to be thinking about a strike on Siwa, you should consider a recruiting expedition to Rhodes/Kydonia/Halicarnassus. These are lucrative provinces and can either be snapped up if the situation warrants or raided and razed if defending them is untenable, and either way you'll use the opportunity to recruit Cretans -- the only real weak component of a Cartha force is its lack of longer ranged missiles. Picking up 5-6 units of Cretans can give your two primary strike armies a little more punch.

[pianonator]

Yeah, my Quest for More Money has already had me building lots of Milquart temples, but thanks!
I'll also be sure to stop in at Crete, too.

Problem:
I know this is a little off topic, but I didn't know where to stick it. I just downloaded and installed patch 1.3 (I don't have BI), and I can't load up any of my old Carthage games. Is that normal, or is there anything I can do? Should I just reinstall RTW and finish Carthage with my old save files?

[Avicenna]

Bettkicker: if you didn't read it how did you know that it was the same strategy as yours?

Anyone done a more historical expansion? Take Italy, Spain and Gaul, then go take Asia Minor, where the original Phoenican founders of Carthage were from.

Welcome, pianonator! You should uninstall 1.3. If this isn't possible, don't just reinstall, as you'll lose the .sav files. Copy your save files and put them somewhere safe if you choose to reinstall.

limitedwhole: Shouldn't Alexandria be a major target to take out Egypt's economy? Their overall money earnt per city is deceptive, as the large cities seem to lose masses of cash. If you take the large cities, you'll find that the remaining cities will lose masses of cash instead. It's just that the money the city has to dish out for the military is proporitonal to its size, which grows faster than its economy, hence the reason for the large cities appearing to lose lots of money. A quick check of the actual money earnings and spendings will show you this.

[pianonator]

1.3 issue update:

Like a resourceful fellow, I went to Activision for help in my 1.3 problem. They told me to talk to Sega, so I went to their support site. They pointed me to their 1.5 patch, which I didn't even know about. Apparently, after RTW Gold Edition, any new updates are Sega's department, and they don't feel like telling TotalWar.com about them...

Nice fixes in 1.5 that I noticed immediately:

-1.2 and below save files work
-Egypt's Axemen finally have realistic armour!*

Bugs/gripes

-I don't know if it's like this if you start a 1.5 game, but now my Carthaginian Faction Updates look like Roman ones - with Roman pictures of guys in togas giving each other scrolls. I miss my turbans already.
-Ugh - now people are like 4x harder to bribe - so now that I can finally beat an Axeman army, I can't bribe them. I guess it balances out.
-I am now getting advice on breathing from Victoria and Marcus. Make them stop!

*I wondered how the heck shirtless guys with hatchets were surviving concerted charges of medium to heavy cav - they were doing better than some Hoplites I've seen! Now they are like normal shirtless infantry. *yay*

[pianonator]

Sorry - this isn't just postspamming.


Anyone done a more historical expansion? Take Italy, Spain and Gaul, then go take Asia Minor, where the original Phoenican founders of Carthage were from. - Tiberius

Historical expansion?
From what I understand, RTW starts you off at the territorial height of the Carthaginian Empire, ignoring Punic War II. They never really held any more than what they have. But yeah, I'll be sure to take Tyre as soon as I get there.

But yeah, if you're talking Hannibal-style, I skipped that by winning in Sicily. It's a lot easy to boat the elephants into Capua and take out the Scipians than fighting all the way through Iberia and Gaul to get to Northern Italy by crossing the Alps with them.

But maybe I'll try the Hannibal approach on my next Carthage Run on VH/VH.
As aformentioned, my approach was Sicily, Central Italy, Numidia, Southern Italy, North Africa, Iberia, Egypt, Gaul.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Piano- First, a belated welcome to the Org! I must agree with Seamus on the fact that Crete is a very good place to pick up long-range units. You go from stinky Slingers to the (possibly) deadliest archers in the game and the effect is amazing.

Also, if you're interested, there is a current Play-by-Email Carthage campaign in the Throne Room right now that is trying to duplicate the Carthaginian achievements of expanding into Spain/Gaul before they hit Rome. I'm also going the semi-historical route myself in the campaign that I am putting off in favor of Macedon. I'm sure it'll be much more interesting than just destroying Rome before they can do anything.

[limitedwhole]

While Alexandria is bigger and makes more money, these three smaller cities are easier to take and you can take them faster and with less troops. The Egyptians are forced to march armies up to meet you and you can defeat them one by one. What really hurts them is that these are the cities that trade resources with Alexandria. They are easier to keep out of revolt meaning you can move on to the next one right away without say landing 3 full legions. I didn't look at the numbers by the cities, I looked at the chart of production. they completely bottomed out once I took ther trade. Where else are they going to trade? They are left with tax revenue and Alexandria/Memphis trade which isn't spectacular. They will be forced to field armies full of weak units you can mow down. I cut down 3000 Egyptians with 1000 men because they were being forced to stuff their armies with the weakest units. Also they will have good governors at these lucrative trade centers and they are much easier to kill than the faction leader at Alexandria, because they have less guard. This is with the brutii though, I could make Jerusaleum, Sidon, and Salamis profitable with me considering a trdaing alliance with the Seleucids. If you just want to exterminate them, by all means hit there population centers and wack away.

[gardibolt]

I use a two-pronged attack on Egypt to good effect. Send a full stack headed by a general east from via land, while sending a full stack (or more) via well-guarded boats with 2 generals by boat from Carthage to Alexandria. Try to time it so they hit Egypt about the same time. This prevents the pharaoh from reinforcing properly against your attacks. Attack and besiege Alexandria after you split off one general. Have that secondv general hire all the mercs in the area (there will usually be a ton thanks to Egypt's ridiculous growth rates). Use that new merc army to besiege Memphis. Attack as soon as you can, and exterminate both cities (watch out for plague, though---these are filthy cities). That nets you the pyramids and then it's just a matter of time before the Ptolemies collapse of their own weight.

[Empirate]

Currently playing my second game with Carthage (VH/M), and I must say, it gave me some of my most memorable battles.
One occurred when I was out with only a mediocre general (tower building duty) and ran into an ambush of gauls: Three warbands, one skirmisher warband and one band of elite swordsmen. Timeout, taking stock: the whole battlefield without trees, and basically composed of a long, gentle slope. While I play 1.5 now, and understand cavalry is supposed to be weaker than it was, I still wanted to give those chalkheads some bang for their buck. So I deployed at the top of the slope. Luckily, the enemy captain was with the skirmishers, so I charged them first and finished them off. After that it was basically running around the battlefield, tiring out the enemy and charging once in a while, only to withdraw as quickly. End result: close to five hundred enemy dead or fled, while my general still had eight bodyguards able to fight. Simply unbeatable by infantry, that general's cav, if you know what you're doing.
Another one: Defending Sardinia - again - against a Julii army that had just landed. I had a four-star general, eight standard elephants (that's eight animals, not eight regiments of them!) and five units of roundshields. The enemy had a six-star heir, his younger brother, five hastati, two velites, one equites, one archers, six principes, two triarii. I attacked anyway. I wanted to perform a surgical strike, so to say: My plan was to destroy the roman cavalry and possibly skirmishers and archers, while holding my force together and withdrawing once my troops were tiring and losses were adding up. I hoped to be able to win against the reduced enemy force later, after restocking my horsemen in Caralis. Well, what can I say: I ended up destroying the whole roman army, 1500 strong, with my 280-man-force! Heroic victory, of course. The AI actually tried to keep it's forces together (except for the usual suicide charge of the enemy general, who was eaten alive by my eles). But my roundshields were fast enough to charge a flank, kill half a regiment and get out again before the enemy could turn around to fight, and the early death of their general combined with my elephants spreading uneasiness was giving them a hard time morale-wise. Often, two or three units of roundshields impacting from the front or the side would break a regiment so it would rout instantly. I lost half my stout-hearted riders, and, due to some mismanagement at one point, all eight elephants. Damn fire arrows! Still, they did a lot of damage rampaging through three units of hastati before finally dying!
My main army, which has taken Rome and most of northern Italy all on it's own, consists of the general (started out a one-star with no traits, is now a seven-star attacker with Conqueror, Bloodlust and Reckless traits), four war elephants, three Numidian JavCav, six longshields and six roundshields. These guys just rock: You can easily retrain round- and longshields in most conquered settlements, and neither elephants nor Numidians usually take any damage. I am fighting the Gauls now, and with them, I don't even use tactics. I just form up the eles in front, longshields and general behind them, and roundshields behind these. The Numidians fan out and disrupt some enemy formations, killing only few of them, but tiring them and drawing them apart. My Elephants march up in good order, shooting lightly armored barbarians left and right, then stomp, stomp, stomp into the heart of the enemy formation. My general and longshields rush into the gap and give the enemy army it's killing thrust. The enemy wings usually crumble and rout in a matter of moments after the center is shattered. The roundshields then spread out, chasing routers on the wings, while Elephants and longshields complete the carnage in the center. You might think my army would face the danger of becoming surrounded this way; but nothing can stand in front of an elephant charge followed up by cavalry. Nothing the Gauls have, that is... I'm planning on fighting some Greeks next, so I'll have to use some tactics again. But against barbarians, especially Gauls and Spanish, this works like a charm. I just fought a battle in which I killed 2315 enemy (a three quarter stack reinforced by a full stack army), and I didn't lose a single man!!! The elephant regiments alone killed 200 Gauls each. Warbands...

[_Maximus_]

That might Carthage! "Hanibal ante portas"

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

Now im playing Carthage again and im thinking: is Poeni Inf. good to have to hold the line? ive never spent alot of time with them.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Peonis are about your average hoplite/phalanx formation. Nothing to write home about, however, they can hold the line just as well as any phalanx if used properly.

However, once you get the Awesome Temples of Baal, replace them with Sacred Band, who do the job much better.

[pianonator]

Well, that patch has done some strange things to my strategies -
It's now almost impossible to bribe anybody. Fortunately, Desert Axemen are now possible to beat. Anyway, after remaining quiet for 100 turns, the Brutii landed from Greece into Southern Italy, which I foisted from them a while ago.

They, of course, are post Marius now, and have a military ranking off the charts (I'm second, but by half). Was it a mistake to let them live once I had mastery of Italy?

Anyway, I don't usually like attacking an enemy army in the field, but they were laying seige to loosely defended cities. I was putting together an army to march north against the gauls, and raising a few assassins to take out any General which came my way, so I just diverted them south.

My army consisted of 10 or 11 (I kid you not) Poeni Infantry, 2 Slingers, 2 Long Shields, 2 Round Shields, and Sacred Band Cavalry. The Romans had no cav, since I assassinated their generals. Do the Brutii normally show up on the field w/o cav? Anyway, they had a load of huge Legionary Cohorts and stuff.

I deployed a straight line of all of my Poeni Phalanxes and just charged. Wow - Never charged with phalanxes before. 2 poeni units on my right flank eventually routed, but I pushed the Brutii back with a charge of Sacred Band Cav. Best thing about Phalanxes - if they're confident, they can hold keep a unit busy for a long time (one of the biggest quandries is how the Maniple EVER replaced the phalanx.) So they held the ENTIRE brutii infantry line (I was slightly outnumbered, and all I had to do was do a simple flank with a double cav line - Charge headed by 2 Long Shields and backed up 2 Round Shileds - I routed the entire 1300 man Brutii line. This has increased my confidence slightly, because the Brutii suddenly attacking has just about ruined me financially.

[Avicenna]

Ah, but you forget that in the "real world", the armies are not controlled by the rubbish AI which will actually attempt to fight a phalanx head-on. If people still did that now, phalanxes would still be in use.

[Ludens]

Ah, but you forget that in the "real world", the armies are not controlled by the rubbish AI which will actually attempt to fight a phalanx head-on. If people still did that now, phalanxes would still be in use.

True. Added to this the phalanx is very vulnerable in broken terrain, as the Romans found out when fighting the Gauls and Samnites in central Italy. That is why they replaced the fairly clumsy phalanx with the more flexible maniple system.

[Avicenna]

Much of Greece is also broken terrain though. Did the Greeks mainly arrange fights on flat terrain, or actually fight on the rough terrain, using it to their advantage? I know they did so at Thermopylae, but what about when fighting other city-states?