Carthage

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Carthage is always a tough one in siege assaults. The same things that make them so fun in field battles, cavalry, cavalry, elephants and, oh, cavalry, give them fits when trying to get through a breach or gate. I almost always end up waiting for towers too, just so that I can get more of my infantry onto the walls faster. Most of my infantry is crap, but if I can hit them from both wall directions at once....

I used to, once resources built, set up a siege assault army. I recruited many mercs for that army, leaving only the onagers, some peonis, and some long shields from integral forces. Loved spanish, saminite, numidians, barbarians, and thracians for the rest of the assault team.

[Vitellus]

Aye, with Carthage, in sieges, I tended to rely on mercs. Many weren't as valuable as my main army troops in any case, so I often used them as storm troopers to take walls and breaches. Interesting campaign so far, I look forward to seein' the rest of it (my Carthage campaign stopped after I took Spain and Italy. Mebbe I finish it someday...).

[GamblerTuba]

My favorite battle in TW:

Arretium has nearly fallen twice now. One siege was broken at the last moment by the Senate. The second siege was broken by a full stack Julii army from Patavium. I decided to break the siege because the battle would have taken place in a forest and my cavalry would have gotten shredded. When I moved my army to siege Arretium again from a different direction, I was surprised to find the Julii had actually set up an ambush. My faction leaders army was taken completely by surprise by a full stack of Roman units (still pre-marian)

The Julii began the battle with 1500men and not a single Roman survived. I began the battle with 960men and lost 79men. Beginning as an ambush I cannot even begin to explain the mass confusion that ensued but my faction leader and a few units of RS were at the head of the army and 3 units of RS were at the tail. Eventually they met in the middle and the Roman army was simply torn to pieces. Both groups of cavalry simply carried out what I like to call the Pac-Man maneuver. The Roman army never formed a solid battle line as they scattered to engage. Using three cavalry I was able to encircle and rout each unit in turn before disengaging and moving on to the next. There was not enough time to get many kills but my Iberian inf kept the Romans on the run until my cav had the chance to come back and finish the job.

There was a single unit of Triarii that I avoided like the plague until my single unit of SB inf made it across the field and engaged them. Of course their general made a bee-line for my faction leader. My faction leader (who had 45-man bodyguard, 2 silver chevrons and 9+ command stars) made short work of the enemy cavalry and ended with over 250 kills in the battle. It was very, very fun.

Now Arretium should (finally) fall as I have the men to hold the bridge to the North while besieging the city.

My Iberian army has grown to two full stacks and has begun a push into gaulish territory, leaving many half-clothed and completely dead barbarians in their wake. I have taken Narbo Martius and Massilia. Unfortunately this opens up a border with the Britons so there is the possibility of war breaking out there. Other than the wide area to cover, the biggest problem with fighting through Europe is the abundant forests. It is very difficult to command any army in the woods but especially hard for the cav dependant factions.

I have taken Kydonia, Rhodes and Thessalonica. I now have an army on its way from Greece to take Salona from the Julii. The assault on Thessalonica was another bloody affair where my losses were greater than the enemy. I did find some comic relief near the end. As I finally approached the city square with a unit of SB Inf in phalanx mode, the enemy general charged, lost half his number and routed… about 10 steps to the city square where his men regained their morale and promptly charged again. This happened three times before the unit was completely destroyed. Looked like a bunch of indecisive lemmings. Too funny.

I aim to cripple but not destroy Gaul and hopefully avoid war with the Britons for now. Waging war in Europe is messy with very few strategic boundaries to defend. My next major opponent will be either Pontus or Egypt. Thankfully money is no longer a real concern. Rhodes and Corinth have to be two of the most desirable cities on the map. Corinth basically counts as a 1-step increase in taxes everywhere and Rhodes can make a massive increase in available cash if your empire is large enough.

[rvg]

I have to say a few words about the Sacred Band infantry...

These guys are nothing short of awesome. They are armored like turtles, they are almost completely immune to missiles (including pila), and, provided that their flanks are guarded, they will advance across the battlefield in one indestructible wall of desolation, mowing down any unit unfortunate enough to stand in their way.
They are great vs Romans (pre- or post-marian) and Egyptians. Conveniently enough, those are usually the only factions able to reach the superpower status, and Sacred Band is able to smash them. Carthaginian cavalry is of course still important (specifically, the Longshields), but its role is mostly to protect the SB flanks and finish off routers and waverers, while SB does most of the heavy lifting.
Sacred Band Cavalry on the other hand, is rather underwhelming: top level stables and 2-turn production cycle for something that is only marginally better than Longshields. Nah, might as well make an Armoured Phant to put the fear of Baal into the hearts of Romans.

[GamblerTuba]

The sacred band infantry are certainly wonderful. Phalanxes are at a bit of disadvantage for Carthage because of the lack of archers. Can always buys some mercs but then you have an army where both missile units and your main infantry line cannot be retrained in newly conquered territory. Luckily the SB do not take many casualties at all so it is seldom a problem. One or two units as spares is plenty.

I am not sold on the long shield cavalry though. The improvement from RS to LS does not seem to be very pronounced. Only 2 more attack? The defense is nice but my cavalry should never rely on defense stats. The enemy had better rout within a few seconds of the cavalry hitting anyway. Right now, (and my opinion may change as i go later in the campaign) I like RS for the grunt work because i can retrain them almost anywhere and LS do not seem to be too big of an upgrade. Just beginning to produce sacred band cavalry but their stats seem to imply a pretty big jump. SB cavalry have basically the same stats as your generals but should die more quickly. I plan on making a few units and treating them somewhat like elephants. Use them where necessary but try to minimize casualties because retraining will be a pain.

[Patroclus]

I love reading your battle reviews, GamblerTuba. I hope you keep posting them! :)

[GamblerTuba]

Thanks for the encouragement Patroclus. Glad to know at least someone is reading all this.

Well, it's official. I am an idiot. I fought the last major battle against the remaining Julii forces outside of Patavium. The battle was a victory but not very satisfying because of one major brain-cramp.

I had landed a new army from Carthage right outside of Patavium and laid siege. The next turn, I was attacked by two different Julii armies as well as the Patavium Garrison. My army consisted of 4 LS cav, 2 RS cav, a general, 2 armoured ellies, 4 SB inf, 2 Iberian inf, 2 rhodian slingers, 2 cretan archers, and 2 barb infantry.

The Romans brought a total of 2,200 men split into two major armies conisting of lots of principes, velites, equites and a few praetorian cohorts. The battle was initiated by a very small group of hastati and velites.

At the beginning of the battle, i formed my infantry into a battle line anchored by the elephants and went out hunting with my cavalry. The smaller third army started in the center of the map with the 2 large armies moving in as reinforcements. I annihilated the small army and nibbled the edges of the two main armies with cavalry before falling back to my infantry line.

As the Romans approached i set the slingers in front and archers behind the line and set both archers to fire arrows. With still nearly 2,000 men against my line, i knew that "psychological warfare" was my best bet. Unfortunately using fire arrows led to my eventual doom.... DOOM. (or at least major annoyance)

The archers and slingers did their thing and the enemy advanced in pretty good order. The Romans actually did a pretty good job of sending their cavalry and few infantry units to delay my cavalry on the flanks. Eventually my cavalry would have won out and begun to break the Romans apart but this is where Carthage really gets to have fun. Hey "Rome's Finest", say hello to Snuffleupagus! I sent my Ellies lengthwise through the Roman lines. They waved at each other when they passed in the middle, reached the ends and turned around for another pass. By then nearly every Roman unit was routing and I was laughing maniacally

Those of you that are smarter than a bag of hammers (unlike me) can probably guess why things suddenly turned horribly, horrifically wrong. Here's my internal monologue at the time.

"Wow, praetorian cohorts sure like pretty flying through the air. These armoured elephants aren't even taking any casualties. Oh wait, there goes one. Hmmm... the icon says they are taking missile damage... I thought all the velites were running like rabbits. Why do my elephants look unhappy. OMG my archers are still firing fire arrows!!!"

Both units of elphants ran amok halfway through their second pass. Luckily my cavalry was busy chasing routers as the Romans were already in full flight. I immediately withdrew all of my non-mounted units and got the cavalry out of the way. I still lost nearly an entire unit of slingers and about 70 SB infantry to my own elephants. Still a pretty crushing victory. The Romans lost 1900 men to my 200. Just very annoying that more than half of my casualties were self-inflicted.

Next turn Patavium fell as my spy opened the gate and the remaining Roman forces both inside and outside the city were slaughtered. The Julii are reduced to just Solona now. I took Lemonum from the Gauls but now wish i had not. What a dirt-worthless armpit of a city that place is. I did not even have the heart to enslave the 86 (86!!!) citizens.

Strange thing is that Germania came calling and asked me, Carthage, for an alliance. I couldn't believe it. I haven't had a friend in this game since Greece stabbed me in the back at Corinth so after going all vaclempt, i accepted the alliance which forced me into ceasefire with the Gauls. This was before I was able to take Mediolanum but oh well, I was planning on leaving some Gauls between me and Briton anyway. I am now on a spending spree trying desperately to keep my treasury below 50K. Turning a 25K profit each turn now. Once i have a few more invincible armies of Doom, i will march on either Pontus or Egypt.