Carthage

[mrdun]

Wow, away from guides for a few days and boom a flurry of posts, nice work GamblerTuba!!!!

[GamblerTuba]

Winding down my campaign but having some fun still.

Briton is effectively neutered. They still hold a few settlements on the continent and their islands but they are sandwiched between Carthage and my Germanian allies. Briton lost the majority of their remaining forces around Samarobriva. I almost felt sorry for them at the latest battle. A force of green warbands was trying to relieve the siege and got plastered by my elite force in the area. Final tally: Briton loses 1245men, Carthage loses 6.

Armoured elephants are truly terrifying weapons when used properly. Just make sure to follow the advice of all the other folks on this board
1. Avoid missiles! Javellins and fire arrows will make elephants crazy faster than you would guess.
2. Keep them moving. Elephants should either be standing out of battle as missile support or running THROUGH enemy formations.
3. Do NOT let them fight when tired.
4. Support with cavalry. To take advantage of the disruption that elephants cause, you want cavalry to follow right behind.
5. Elephants work best on the flanks. (obviously) Be careful that you elephants do not disrupt your own formations as they move around. Elephants will almost always end the battle if they can run length-wise through an already engaged infantry line.

My only complaint on the barbarian front is the ineffectiveness of sacred band infantry. These guys rock but so far the barbarians seem completely unwilling to fight them! Lately the Britons will split their army and try to attack my elephants on the flank instead of my infantry line. I may scale back to just 3 units of SB infantry per army, just enough to keep my archers secure. Kind of fun to have some Cretan archers kicking butt up in Normandy.

The real fun for the rest of this campaign is going to be against Egypt. I have held Pergamum for years having taken it from the Brutii. Pontus has so far left me alone and I have just recently seen Egyptian armies laying siege to Pontic Ancyra. Like a good neighbor I sent out a force to relieve the siege and started the long awaited war with Egypt. Pontus has allied with me and we have beaten the Egyptians back but with no decisive battles so far. The Eggies keep running like frightened rabbits from our combined armies. I now have every Egyptian port blockaded and landed a killer army at Alexandria. I skipped Alexandria to lay siege to Memphis (gotta love those pyramids). I am looking forward to a few climactic battles against top of the line Eqyptian troops and then this campaign will be over.

Next up will probably be a Seluecid campaign or perhaps the transition to BI.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Armoured elephants are truly terrifying weapons when used properly. Just make sure to follow the advice of all the other folks on this board
1. Avoid missiles! Javellins and fire arrows will make elephants crazy faster than you would guess.
2. Keep them moving. Elephants should either be standing out of battle as missile support or running THROUGH enemy formations.
3. Do NOT let them fight when tired.
4. Support with cavalry. To take advantage of the disruption that elephants cause, you want cavalry to follow right behind.
5. Elephants work best on the flanks. (obviously) Be careful that you elephants do not disrupt your own formations as they move around. Elephants will almost always end the battle if they can run length-wise through an already engaged infantry line.

An excellent precis.

My only complaint on the barbarian front is the ineffectiveness of sacred band infantry. These guys rock but so far the barbarians seem completely unwilling to fight them! Lately the Britons will split their army and try to attack my elephants on the flank instead of my infantry line. I may scale back to just 3 units of SB infantry per army, just enough to keep my archers secure. Kind of fun to have some Cretan archers kicking butt up in Normandy.

Try reversing normal doctrine. Put the spears as the flank unit and your sworders in the middle; elephants behind the spears.

If they go for the flank they face the pikes.

If the go for the middle, your swords will hold long enough for the hefalumps to swing out and run laterally which, as you noted above, usually spells game over.

Don't completely remove the Brits from the continent unless you seek war with Germany.

[Ozzman1O1]

Do you ALWAYS have your sacred band in phalanxe formation?If you do,most barbarian infantry are going to evade you.You put the band's spears up,and once the britons have came in contact,you have a large amount of briton carcasses.......And the elepants are the kind of cavalry you use to monuver around the enemy's side and slaughter the infantry in the front lines...(just keep them hidden)but if you have two armys sandwitching a massev briton army then you have squashed barbarian in between an elephant sandwich...(AKA,just charge at the warband from both sides)...reapeat that,and britannia is yours!But germania...you know what.just go into spain instead.