Here's the final summary that should sum up my Carthage campaign so far. I will post more as I finish the campaign.

Italy:

I was hesitant to try the Blitz as Carthage because I wanted somewhat of a challenge and I am still playing on M/M anyway. My first attempt definitely made me think twice. I landed all the forces i could muster from Sicily and Sardinia and landed them next to Capua in order to finish the Scipii. Unfortunately, my army ran smack into a nearly full stack of Romans presumably on their way to Sicily.

The Romans consisted of about 8 units of Hastati, a couple principes and triarii, 3 equites and 3 generals. I had 3 RS cav, about 6 units of Iberian and Libyan inf, remaining elephants from Sicily and a general. What a slaughter. None of my units actually fought for more than 5 seconds before routing. Well, i reloaded and did not attack for a while until I had a better army.

In the meantime, my navy began to assert itself and a few Roman armies went down with the ship. The Brutii also committed themselves to the Greek frontier. When I landed on Italy the second time, Capua was nearly undefended as were Croton and Tarentum. The senate armies hung out around Rome and I was able to destroy the Scipii and cripple the Brutii very easily. From there i waited to consolidate my holdings planning on leaving the senate and the Julii alone in order to make sure the late-game had a few epic battles.

Unfortunately, by taking Corinth I turned the Greeks against me and started a very expensive war. In order to finance that war, I turned North against the Julii. At this point, I was conducting a campaign in Greece, Italy, and Iberia simultaneously and was kept very busy indeed.

I hit the Julii on two fronts by marching up the East coast to Arinium and landing a small force from Spain (including my new faction leader) to take lightly defended Segesta. Both cities fell easily although the force that took Arinium fought a number of large stacks on the way. A large enough cavalry force simply decimates anything except triarii. A few Iberians with cavalry support take care of them.

This is where things became very interesting. When i laid siege to Arretium, the senate army finally left Rome and moved on Capua. I immediately left Arretium and moved on Rome and the massive Senate Stack moved to meet my Faction Leader's army. I tried being clever (read cheap) by sending my small Capua garrison in behind to take Rome while their main army moved North. I attacked a small stack standing next to Rome and brought the Rome garrison out. I destroyed the garrison to a man with my small group of RS cav. Unfortunately, Rome did not fall and next turn was garrisoned by a single unit of war dogs!

Next up: The battle for Rome