Carthage

[Hannibal_Barkar]

Want a challenging game ? Play Carthage ! (I am playing on VH/M)

Why is Carthage so much fun ?
I finished the julii Campaign on VH/M and to be honest it got pretty boring in the end, since the gauls and brits were just cannonfodder for my trusty legionnaires. I don't like playing on Hard or Very hard diff on the battle level, because of the unfair advantages the AI gets. On the other hand, - the roman infantry seems pretty much dominating as it is on medium difficulty.(btw human controlled Velites own Elephants). So what to do ? Play Carthage ! The Carthaginian forces find themselves facing enemies that has superior infantry. You will have your hands full defending vs the Roman with only light cav and skirmishers. Every denarii , every soldier is gonna count. Oth


Carthaginian Battle Tactics:
Played the Battle of Trebia ? Well, listen to what the narrator says. Hannibal learned early in his military life how powerful the roman infantry could be. So he built an army relying on cavalry to deal with the roman military. And so must you.

If you stand toe to toe with Roman infantry you die. Period. As learned in Trebia you only need inf as means to stall or bait the enemy, so your cavalry can flank, attack - and crush those pesky Legionnaires.
Rely on your Generals cav and your light cav early in the game. Vs Numidians you may also use iberian inf but light cav is much more effective. Even gaul infantry will turn your early and mid level infantry to a bloody pulp faster then you can hit "pause".

The lybian skirmishers you can get as mercs in North Africa are great. They have awesome endurance and I get the impression they got double as ammo as other skirmishers. Use them as bait for enemy units. Once the enemy starts leaving the line to attack the skirmishers you kill it with your light infantry. Once you got the enemy in movement and scattered he is yours. Note: This ain't easy without pause. I can do it most of the times. But when I am outnumbered 2:1 I must use pause a bit, especially to avoid being shot at by my own skirmishers. Its possible to beat superior roman armies who come in superior numbers with Cav and skirmishers.


Numidian light cav. Very nice, very fast skirmishing cav. I use them also as scouts to see the setup of the opposing army before I decide where to try to flank. They can do the same job as lybian skirmishers, but vs infantry heavy armies I find the lybians more effective, since enemy inf is easier to bait with inf. The legionnaires will not run after fast moving cav for long.


Hoplites ? you can get them around Carthage as mercs. Useful in streetfighting. In open battle they are more of a burden for your fast moving army. Stick with iberian inf to bind enemy inf momentarily.


Elephants. Oh boy, they surely are the ancient equivalent to AT-ST Walker. Fun, Fun to maul over some blue clad legionnaires and send them flying. Great killing potential but really expensive. Well, I don't know where other people get so filthy rich, but you wont be able to build many elephants early in the game on VH. You start with one elephant unit and I suggest moving it to the African coast. Build another one when you have the cash and move it to Spain. Show the gauls some african wildlife. They gonna love you for it. Elephants are your one big joker. Be careful with em, the loss of an elephant must be avoided until you can afford more. Use them as morale breaker and instant door opener when sieges. Yes, Elephants can knock open gates and raze wooden walls. Elephants can save your neck when all other options fail. So be conservative on 'em.

Generals: Maybe it was because of my playing style, maybe its built in the game. I got some very decent generals early in the game. Maybe its just in the Carthaginian genes. By the way, your leader will die after the first two turns or so. Be prepared for it.

Navy: Forget it. You are facing the three roman navies, the spaniards, and even the gauls send ships to harass your coast. Just try to keep Gibraltar open. Tingis and Cordoba got a great little trade relationship going between em. The AI must be spending enormous sums on building all these gigantic fleets. Also I find naval battles extremely frustrating cause you have no influence of the outcome whatsoever. Oh, on another sidenote... During the Julii campaign the AI was never smart enough to block my harbours. My Carthaginian Harbours sure do get blocked. Only you don't see the little graphic animation with the ropes. Land trade seems good enough though


My strategic approach was different again.

1.In memoriam of the first punic war I let Carsalis and Sicily be overrun by the Romans. My only achievement there was a trade agreement with the diplomat in Syracuse.
2. That gave me some turns of freedom and resources to settle affairs in my a african backyard. I negotiated an Alliance and military access with the numidians. I used that to get two armies in position. The unsuspecting Numidians lost Cirta and Tingis before they got the chance to break the alliance themselves. Hah ! Tingis ios a great money maker. Key is here to be fast. Attack with inferior forces. Rely on your generals cav. The conquered settlements in North africa don't give you a culture penalty, so they are easy to control. Nevertheless I decided to let the population walk the plank and not just the chaingang. Good for cash, but maybe a mistake in the longer run since it slows your early development down. While you do this... consider shipping a diplomat to Leptis Minor along with a city guard. You can bribe the leptis Minor Garrison cheaply but you need to garrison it immediately. Great trade city. After that go for the african center. You don't want the numidians to backstab you, while you have your hands full with gauls in spain. Lybia will take a bit. Its a long hike through the desert. But same goes for the revenge thirsty numidians. So instead concentrate on building a defense vs the romans.

3. Thapsus Coast. Let History repeat itself. In 255 Bc Consul Regelus invaded the coast with estimated 16.000 men and 500 cav. He pressed hard and was quite successful. The Carthagenians were even trying to negotiate a peace , but Regelus asked for too much,- total roman supremity. In a big effort Carthage mustered all the resources it had and hired many merc and a spartan general defeated Regelus.

You will need mercs now. You cannot pump units fast enough to deal with the romans. They will land in front of Thapsus. don't let them siege your town , since that will interrupt trade. Trade is your lifeline. don't allow it to be interrupted. I built a watchtower on the coast.And every time an army unloads its met by my defending army. That way you can take advantage by the fact that the AI sends the roman armies piecemeal. If you allow the Scipions to built a big stack while attacking Thapsus you probably lost the campaign. I have my elephant unit here. Should a battle become desperate I rely on it to loosen up some enemy furball, so my cav can maneuver again. Never ever use auto battle with elephants in your army, you will certainly loose some elephants.

4. Once you got things under control at home you should like Hamilkar´, Hannibals father, decide to expand into spain. Now don't fool yourself. Forget alliances there. I tried and always failed. Maybe its possible to make one with spain , but I doubt it. Bribery becomes your best friend. Why ? Spaniards and you share the same line of inf and light cav. so if you bribe , you get to keep those units ! Same goes for many rebels in Spain. A great way to make money is to sell map info to enemies. I sold map info to the scipions for up to 5 k. Thats great if you are in dire need of cash. Feels a bit like cheating though. I am clueless what the AI makes of this info.
Carefull about leaving your settlements in spain without generals. The spanish bastards bribed two of my settlements in one turn. Nearly cost me the campaign. Gauls just keep coming. Not as hard as romans but they come in even greater numbers. You should have enough trade income by now to slowly push them out of Gaul and get ready for the big haul.... over the alps into Rome.


Good luck ! Melkart be with you.


PS.: Did you know that Melkart was the Carthaginian name for Heracles ? Like Hannibal he traveled from spain over the alps to settle a score in Italy.

[Phier]

Carthaginian Blitzkrieg, VH/VH Ok we all know the best thing about not playing a Roman faction is we don’t have to hear that horrible horrible crackling voice say ‘vicccctorreee!’

On the other hand the Carthaginian saying ‘decisive’ is very nice, and even more amusing is when you lose very badly and he says something akin to ‘ughhhck!’.

Ok so who wants to win as Carthage on VH/VH? Sure we all do, and if you follow my easy steps, you too will be master of Mediterranean in no time.

Now if you tried Carthage on VH and failed, you know its due to money more then any other factor. You get attacked all sides, and you just can’t afford to field the armies and build up your cities. The Scipii want you, and the Numedians will go for you right off the bat, unlike in hard games when you can get an easy alliance. You have no nearby trade partners, no control of the sea, horrible starting infantry, and elephants can only do so much.

This can all be solved and solved decisively before your faction leader dies. (Ok my last game he made it to 81, but still he may well live to see victory over Rome, or at least the parts that matter).

Ok take a ship and take your faction heir out of Carthage, on the way out buy a numedian merc cav. Get to Liybeaum and pick up your faction leaders army that’s east of liybeaeum, being sure to pick up the mercs in the area as well. At the same time start building a cav stable in Carthage, you will need it asap.

Take the army, now ship borne to just outside the coast of the Scipii town Capua. Now this is the key bit. WAIT until the Romans are at war with the Greeks at Syracuse. This is your signal to go (you can have your spy look for the siege at Syracuse). Now take your army and hit Capua (if you have the cash pick up some more mercs). Do NOT siege it but attack using your elephants to take down the gate, and a few walls. This is going to be your crucial fight. You MUST not take excessive casualties. Use your elephants but protect them. If you lose them its over and you might as well start wondering what life as a Roman slave will be like. Now after you have taken Capua, sack it, and LEAVE. Its worth a good deal of cash you badly need and it will rebel with a large stack of rebels which will be more then the Scipii can take it back from. Now March in the Brutii cities of Tarentum and Croton, one after the other, use your elephants to get past the wooden walls, sack them both for the cash you still badly need, but you can safely occupy them both. Buy Mercs if any are available because Iberian infantry are like toy soldiers. Ok in about 4 turns, you have taken the Scipii and Brutii almost out of the game, and gained about 15k in cash as well as 2 good cities. You are not out of the woods yet.

After you have sacked Capua you need to reinforce Liybeaum from Carthage. Just ferry troops over, and as SOON as the cav stables at Carthage has been completed get at least one unit of elephants over to liybeaum, again you will need them. If they put you under siege before you get elephants, be sure to land them inside the ‘battle’ radius so they will be reinforcements as you sally forth to meet the Scipii. Odds are Scipii will be attacking you with about ½ to 1/3rd a stack, and a couple of stars. If you are lucky the Scipii will take Syracuse as well, which you and your elephant lead Liybeaum army will take first, and you will then take the last Scipii city of Messana

Ok so now the Scipii are gone, and the Brutii are semi-impotent stuck in Greece. The Senate will not attack you. The Julii WILL attack you and in fact they allied at about this point with the Gauls who also attacked Corduba in Spain. The Brutii will land troops about once every 5 turns at Croton, but those are easily crushed.

Now for Corduba, you want to save this city, it’s a nice foothold on Europe and it’s a good money maker. You are to far away for Elephants, odds are Numedia is at war with you by now, so this one you want to buy as many mercs as you can. My Corduba army is about 3/4ths Mercs, and the Spanish mercs are like a poor mans Hasti, pillia included. You will have some big Gaul armies to take care of, BUT while you will have a good general, they will be captain lead and will route easy. They will have no missle troops for a long while so be sure to use yours to your advantage.

Caralis will be a loss to the Julii, let them have it.

Other things you should be doing are building ports/markets for trade, getting a diplomat to the Spanish BEFORE they attack you to get trade rights if not an alliance. If a Spanish army comes near Corduba, bribe it before it can attack you as you NEED them for trade. The same goes for the Greeks at Syracuse, you will want a diplomat in the area early on and once the Romans have attacked them they will take trade rights and an alliance. Sometimes their diplomat will approach you first and you can save the funds.

Its still not ‘easy’ at this point but you really bought yourself some breathing room. The Julii will focus on you with large stacks from the north, but you should have time to reinforce your starting army via Carthage-Messana-Croton. You will not control the seas so think of ships as one use taxies, if they live longer so be it.

I tested this several times and it always worked to a good degree. Money will still not be plentiful, but you will have enough to build up cities and maintain a few different armies. Surprisingly in my current one my allies the Spanish have taking out two Numedian towns. This is mildly annoying as I wanted those towns, but a nice touch. Once you take the remaining Numidean towns, it gets pretty easy.

[hotingzilla]

Continuing my previous post...

Once you seized Siwa from the Numidians, the Egyptians will fire armies at you once every 2 turns. They bring generals (Chariots) and huge stacks of Desert Axemen and Bowmen. Militarily, you are no match for them, but you should have a 4 star or above general (gained while campaigning North Africa) who will turn odds in your favor.

Chariots will cause you a lot of problems - they run through your cavalry like a hot knife through butter - do NOT charge any type of cavalry especially your General's unit at them. Instead, you should Numidian cavalry and hopefully harass the chariots. Use junk units such as peasants to divert fire from your precious units. You should also use Sacred Band to form phalanx and lure the chariots into charging them.

Once, missile chariots' ammo is soaked up, use Iberian mercs to lure them closer to your main line. They will charge against them however they end up crestfallen when they plunge into your spearman.

Slingers will be preferred to bring along against the Egyptians though they aren't of much use besides as being bait and diversion when facing bowmen.

Keep sending reinforcements from Carthage, and when you are ready, plunge into the Egyptian heart - Memphis. If you do things right, you should take their most advanced settlement and will put them far behind.

[afrit]

Read all the above posts. Agree with most points.

I am playing hard/hard on short campaign and it is a lot of fun. Main lessons:

-you WILL be fighting a lot of factions simultaneously. At one point I fought battles with Scipii, Brutii , Julii , Numidia ,Spain and Gaul (yes, Gaul!) in a single turn! Except for the Romans, all the other factions initiated hostilites first.

-Tactical skill on the battlefield is paramount. This is not a faction where you can sit back, build up and then attack. Needless to say, you have to play out all battles personally and pull out all the tricks to keep your losses to a minimum: use missiles to take out roman infantry or enemy units in the city square, attack only when you have overwhelming force (you don't want to win a tough fight, you want to crush them in an easy fight), take your time to maneuver into position on the battlefield. You cannot afford to rush an attack and then count on production to replace your losses.

-Best carthaginian weapons you have are Round Shield Cavalry and the initial army in Sicily, which has elephants in it. Slingers are good at taking out units in city squares with minimal losses on your side. Numidian mercenaries are easy to get and useful against, who else, the Numidians!. As others mentioned, Carthaginian infantry is no match for the Romans or Greeks.

-You need a strong navy. Your holdings are on 3 islands (baleares, Sardinia, Sicily) and 2 continents (Spain and Africa), all separated by lots of water. The link is your navy. Build lots of ships and keep them together, while picking off enemy ships one by one. You can effectively defend sicily and africa from Roman attacks by sinking their ships before they land (of course, sometimes they will slip by. Then you cut off their retreat!).

-Carthage has 3 power bases: sicily, Africa, Spain. You should strive to expand 2 of them at least. In my campaign, I chose Sicily and Spain and kept Africa/Numidia till later.

Sicily. Since the Scipii are your sworn enemies, it pays to attack them quickly before they build up. I managed to blitz the Scipii out in the second turn by using the elephants to smash down the city gate. Without Sicily, theScipii are down to a single province, and they will be slowed down a good bit. If you have naval supremacy, blockade them in their capital Capua and sink all their ships, so they cannot attack you in Sicily.
If you are good tactically in fighting phalanxes, take out the Greeks too. They are too weak to reinforce/retake Syracuse and it is a well developed city. I did this in about turn 4 or 5.

North Africa. The Numidians will attack you sooner or later. Players on very hard reported they got attacked immediately. In my hard campaign, they attacked in about turn 20 (260BC ) after they ran out of places to conquer in the Sahara and Gaetulia. In any case, the good news is their units are weak. Buy Numidian mercs to counter their own cav.

Spain. You should make an early decision whether to hold on to Corduba or to abandon it. Cordoba is a rich province, and if you beat off Spain, it is pretty safe from other enemies. On the other hand, war with Spain will cost money that you need to fight other, closer, enemies.

Spain starts with 4 provinces against your single one on the peninsula. Therefore, you need to even it out by capturing one of their settlements early, before they start making their better units. Cartago Nova is the logical choice because it is closest and is on the Mediterranean, so it can link up with your other provinces. Once you take it, it becomes 3 (poor) spanish provinces versus 2 of your own on the peninsula. Much better odds!.


Other settlements:
-Lepcis magna in Lybia. It is rebel held, without a wall and defended by a couple of town militias. Easy to capture, so grab it before the Numidians get there.
-Caralis on Sardinia. The Julii will attack (usually about turn 4 or 5). I think it is best to abandon it. You just won't have enough forces to defend it and still fight in Sicily, Spain and Numidia.
-Palma on Baleares. Try to develop its population quickly: lower taxes, build Tanit shrine, etc. The aim is to tech up to port and produce ships. It is also a good source for mercenary slingers.
- Finally, a couple of warnings:
Etna will erupt sometime around 260BC. Any army you have in the close vicinity will suffer huge losses (about 40%) . So keep your main force on the Island somewhere else around that time.

The Spanish units are identical to yours, so they can bribed back and forth. I lost a 500 veteran army to bribery . It took me many turns to first, defeat it, and then replace it. Needless to say, I returned the favor later on by buying an attacking Spanish stack.

Hope the above helps.

[Bhruic]

I'm going to disagree with some of the proceeding.

1) "The Numidians will attack you". Not necessarily. The Numidians are likely to get attacked by Egypt and/or Spain. Go to war with whichever it is, and ally with the Numidians. The Numidians were my good allies for my entire campaign. 50 provinces (including Rome) later, I won. Bet they were happy I never attacked them. :)

2) "You need a strong navy". Not really. Your navy will almost never (I can't remember a single instance) get attacked when it is in one of your "harbours". Most of your harbours are a single turn away from the destination(s) you'll have. Especially early on, you really don't need a powerful navy. The computer players tend to overfocus on navies, so there's no point in trying to compete with them. If you lose a ship or two, no problem, build another one. But huge fleets aren't going to be a big advantage.

3) "Abandon Caralis". Caralis can be defended with a fairly weak force. Just constantly sally against attackers and you won't have much problems. I won't say that abandoning is a horrible idea. The Julii won't attack you much after they take it, so it would be one less enemy to fight. On the other hand, holding on to it means the Julii will waste most of their resources trying to capture it. This makes them quite weak, and easy to conquer once you hit Italy. I chose to defend it, and had no problems doing so (I had to reinforce it from Carthage, as the base force was too poor to hold out).

4) "You should strive to expand 2 of them". That can work, but I find it more effective to focus on the Romans. They are going to be the toughest of the opponents you fight (unless you run into the Egyptians). By focusing on Sicily, you can weaken 2 of the factions (Scipii and Brutii will attack you). By holding Caralis, the Julii will attack you. Because you are defending, and sallying from a city, you should be able to inflict extreme casualties with few losses in return. Jump across the straight, and you should be able to take the Brutii and Scipii cities easily. Take Rome, and move north and you should have the Julii cities as well. With the powerful Roman lands all under your control, you will have the resources to focus where you will at that point, north into Gaul, Africa, or Spain.

Bh

[TinCow]

I am currently playing a VH/VH campaign and I want to emphasis a minor point someone mentioned above. Wait to attack the Scipii in Sicily until AFTER the Romans are at war with the Greeks. I attacked on my second turn before this happened and I have since played the entire remainder of the campaign as the only enemy the Roman factions has ever had. I managed to hold onto everything but Sardinia, but it was touch and go sometimes. With all 3 Roman factions' armies only concerned with you and the Senate's fleet harassing you as well, this puts a major drain on your resources for other areas. I have still triumphed and am now preparing to invade Italy proper with Sacred Band and Armored War Elephants, but I think I made the situation much more difficult for myself than I needed to.

One final thing, it took me two restarts to survive the initial challenges of the Carthage campaign. On my first two tries, Cordoba was bribed by the Spanish and there was nothing I could do about it. The third time I was preparing to evacuate my army, but the diplomat got there first. Over several turns he failed to bribe my general, each time increasing his anti-bribe traits until his price eventually ended up at 500% of normal and they gave up. That was all luck, but as long as that army doesn't get bribed it should be able to hold on without problems. Without any outside support Cordoba (and a little good generalship) is able to hold off both the Gauls and the Spanish. Turn the city into a military base, pumping out those round shield cavalry. Also be sure to regularly check the province for Baeleric Slingers which sometimes pop up as mercenaries. Once Cordoba is upgraded to Stone Walls, those slingers will keep it from ever falling. Once the city is secure, behing making sorties against enemy armies. I was able to adopt two captains this way which gave me three generals in the region without ever needing to import any troops. Eventually my Spanish forces took the entire Iberian peninsula and are now pushing into southern Gaul. They are totally self-reliant and have never received any help from Africa or Sicily with the exception of a few young generals imported after the peninsula was secured to manage some cities.

Don't give up on Spain!

[Red Harvest]

I'm going to disagree with some of the proceeding.

1) "The Numidians will attack you". Not necessarily. The Numidians are likely to get attacked by Egypt and/or Spain. Go to war with whichever it is, and ally with the Numidians. The Numidians were my good allies for my entire campaign. 50 provinces (including Rome) later, I won. Bet they were happy I never attacked them. :)
Bh

On VH/VH the Numidians always attack me eventually. Of course, I don't surrender Cordoba, so Spain doesn't attack Numidia. If I have to maintain garrisons large enough to keep them from attacking, then I might as well march in and take the provinces instead of wasting money on oversized garrison.

[TinCow]

I had a good 20 turns or so before Numidia attacked me (VH/VH). Even then, they had one large stack that started the war by beseiging one of my cities. After this army, I only saw one further large stack in my conquest of the Numidian provinces. All in all, their biggest impact on my was the loss of trade income which I experienced when I went to war with them. Militarily they were never much of a threat.

[Bhruic]

On VH/VH the Numidians always attack me eventually. Of course, I don't surrender Cordoba, so Spain doesn't attack Numidia. If I have to maintain garrisons large enough to keep them from attacking, then I might as well march in and take the provinces instead of wasting money on oversized garrison.

I play on VH/VH. I keep Cordoba. I don't really maintain much of a garrison, because I don't care if they attack, I can just sally and cut them all down with almost no losses.

Spain did go to war with Numidian, despite me being in Cordoba.

I'm not saying that Numidian will never attack Carthage. I'm just saying that if you can work the factions, you can set it up so that they are unlikely to. If you prefer, go ahead and attack them, it'll get you all of west Africa, leaving you with a lot fewer borders. But I find it better to take out the Roman factions first.

Bh

[Spartan198]

Want a challenging game ? Play Carthage ! (I am playing on VH/M)

Why is Carthage so much fun ?
I finished the julii Campaign on VH/M and to be honest it got pretty boring in the end, since the gauls and brits were just cannonfodder for my trusty legionnaires. I don't like playing on Hard or Very hard diff on the battle level, because of the unfair advantages the AI gets. On the other hand, - the roman infantry seems pretty much dominating as it is on medium difficulty.(btw human controlled Velites own Elephants). So what to do ? Play Carthage ! The Carthaginian forces find themselves facing enemies that has superior infantry. You will have your hands full defending vs the Roman with only light cav and skirmishers. Every denarii , every soldier is gonna count. Oth


Carthaginian Battle Tactics:
Played the Battle of Trebia ? Well, listen to what the narrator says. Hannibal learned early in his military life how powerful the roman infantry could be. So he built an army relying on cavalry to deal with the roman military. And so must you.

If you stand toe to toe with Roman infantry you die. Period. As learned in Trebia you only need inf as means to stall or bait the enemy, so your cavalry can flank, attack - and crush those pesky Legionnaires.
Rely on your Generals cav and your light cav early in the game. Vs Numidians you may also use iberian inf but light cav is much more effective. Even gaul infantry will turn your early and mid level infantry to a bloody pulp faster then you can hit "pause".

The lybian skirmishers you can get as mercs in North Africa are great. They have awesome endurance and I get the impression they got double as ammo as other skirmishers. Use them as bait for enemy units. Once the enemy starts leaving the line to attack the skirmishers you kill it with your light infantry. Once you got the enemy in movement and scattered he is yours. Note: This ain't easy without pause. I can do it most of the times. But when I am outnumbered 2:1 I must use pause a bit, especially to avoid being shot at by my own skirmishers. Its possible to beat superior roman armies who come in superior numbers with Cav and skirmishers.


Numidian light cav. Very nice, very fast skirmishing cav. I use them also as scouts to see the setup of the opposing army before I decide where to try to flank. They can do the same job as lybian skirmishers, but vs infantry heavy armies I find the lybians more effective, since enemy inf is easier to bait with inf. The legionnaires will not run after fast moving cav for long.


Hoplites ? you can get them around Carthage as mercs. Useful in streetfighting. In open battle they are more of a burden for your fast moving army. Stick with iberian inf to bind enemy inf momentarily.


Elephants. Oh boy, they surely are the ancient equivalent to AT-ST Walker. Fun, Fun to maul over some blue clad legionnaires and send them flying. Great killing potential but really expensive. Well, I don't know where other people get so filthy rich, but you wont be able to build many elephants early in the game on VH. You start with one elephant unit and I suggest moving it to the African coast. Build another one when you have the cash and move it to Spain. Show the gauls some african wildlife. They gonna love you for it. Elephants are your one big joker. Be careful with em, the loss of an elephant must be avoided until you can afford more. Use them as morale breaker and instant door opener when sieges. Yes, Elephants can knock open gates and raze wooden walls. Elephants can save your neck when all other options fail. So be conservative on 'em.

Generals: Maybe it was because of my playing style, maybe its built in the game. I got some very decent generals early in the game. Maybe its just in the Carthaginian genes. By the way, your leader will die after the first two turns or so. Be prepared for it.

Navy: Forget it. You are facing the three roman navies, the spaniards, and even the gauls send ships to harass your coast. Just try to keep Gibraltar open. Tingis and Cordoba got a great little trade relationship going between em. The AI must be spending enormous sums on building all these gigantic fleets. Also I find naval battles extremely frustrating cause you have no influence of the outcome whatsoever. Oh, on another sidenote... During the Julii campaign the AI was never smart enough to block my harbours. My Carthaginian Harbours sure do get blocked. Only you don't see the little graphic animation with the ropes. Land trade seems good enough though


My strategic approach was different again.

1.In memoriam of the first punic war I let Carsalis and Sicily be overrun by the Romans. My only achievement there was a trade agreement with the diplomat in Syracuse.
2. That gave me some turns of freedom and resources to settle affairs in my a african backyard. I negotiated an Alliance and military access with the numidians. I used that to get two armies in position. The unsuspecting Numidians lost Cirta and Tingis before they got the chance to break the alliance themselves. Hah ! Tingis ios a great money maker. Key is here to be fast. Attack with inferior forces. Rely on your generals cav. The conquered settlements in North africa don't give you a culture penalty, so they are easy to control. Nevertheless I decided to let the population walk the plank and not just the chaingang. Good for cash, but maybe a mistake in the longer run since it slows your early development down. While you do this... consider shipping a diplomat to Leptis Minor along with a city guard. You can bribe the leptis Minor Garrison cheaply but you need to garrison it immediately. Great trade city. After that go for the african center. You don't want the numidians to backstab you, while you have your hands full with gauls in spain. Lybia will take a bit. Its a long hike through the desert. But same goes for the revenge thirsty numidians. So instead concentrate on building a defense vs the romans.

3. Thapsus Coast. Let History repeat itself. In 255 Bc Consul Regelus invaded the coast with estimated 16.000 men and 500 cav. He pressed hard and was quite successful. The Carthagenians were even trying to negotiate a peace , but Regelus asked for too much,- total roman supremity. In a big effort Carthage mustered all the resources it had and hired many merc and a spartan general defeated Regelus.

You will need mercs now. You cannot pump units fast enough to deal with the romans. They will land in front of Thapsus. don't let them siege your town , since that will interrupt trade. Trade is your lifeline. don't allow it to be interrupted. I built a watchtower on the coast.And every time an army unloads its met by my defending army. That way you can take advantage by the fact that the AI sends the roman armies piecemeal. If you allow the Scipions to built a big stack while attacking Thapsus you probably lost the campaign. I have my elephant unit here. Should a battle become desperate I rely on it to loosen up some enemy furball, so my cav can maneuver again. Never ever use auto battle with elephants in your army, you will certainly loose some elephants.

4. Once you got things under control at home you should like Hamilkar´, Hannibals father, decide to expand into spain. Now don't fool yourself. Forget alliances there. I tried and always failed. Maybe its possible to make one with spain , but I doubt it. Bribery becomes your best friend. Why ? Spaniards and you share the same line of inf and light cav. so if you bribe , you get to keep those units ! Same goes for many rebels in Spain. A great way to make money is to sell map info to enemies. I sold map info to the scipions for up to 5 k. Thats great if you are in dire need of cash. Feels a bit like cheating though. I am clueless what the AI makes of this info.
Carefull about leaving your settlements in spain without generals. The spanish bastards bribed two of my settlements in one turn. Nearly cost me the campaign. Gauls just keep coming. Not as hard as romans but they come in even greater numbers. You should have enough trade income by now to slowly push them out of Gaul and get ready for the big haul.... over the alps into Rome.


Good luck ! Melkart be with you.


PS.: Did you know that Melkart was the Carthaginian name for Heracles ? Like Hannibal he traveled from spain over the alps to settle a score in Italy.

Could you outline some tips on successfully negotiating military access? Gaining alliances aren't much trouble,but everytime I ask for military access, the faction in question always breaks said alliance and immidiately attacks me.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

With rare exceptions, military access is granted or protectorate status is accepted, only when you no longer could use it.

Military access means ... let's be honest here ... "I want to position 4 armies next to your key cities and then attack them all at once crippling your faction" -- or at least that's how the computer evaluates your request. It will grant that request easily, once you are so much more powerful that it would be pointless to refuse.

The AI accepts protectorate status only after being beaten down so badly that their final couple of cities would fall to a 3-card stack of peasants -- so you'll usually just send in the peasants and not bother with a satrapy.

If you really want military access prior to it being pointless, the fastest way is to ask for protectorate status from that faction. You have a much better chance of getting a YES if you are willing to pay to be the "bottom" of the totem pole.

Mostly, I don't bother. I assume all neighbors will be at war with me -- I usually let them start it -- and plan accordingly. Alliances are easy only if you can't help each other, then they'll do so readily.

[GamblerTuba]

Here's a quick rundown of my current campaign with Carthage. This is my third campaign overall and first non-Roman attempt. I am playing on M/M vanilla with latest patch.

Mediterranean:

Luckily the Romans in Messana went after Syracuse. I snuck in behind them to tack the relatively undefended city with my elephants. The Roman army then attacked and took Syracuse and I was able to establish an alliance with Greece which lasted for quite a while and probably helped out in the naval frontier with the Brutii. Part of the Greek army must have been out of the city because when I moved on the Romans in Syracuse, there was a Greek army sitting next to the city but not besieging. My spy had managed to open the gates on Syracuse so I immediately attacked to bring the Greek army in to help as well.
This was one of the more interesting battles I fought in the entire campaign. The Roman army was substantial still and after leaving a garrison in Messana, my faction leader had a fairly small force left to him. The majority of the Roman force deployed to the south to repel the Greek army and I was able to quickly break through and reached the undefended city square. Unfortunately, the Greek army routed without doing any noticeable damage and I was forced into a bloody melee in the town square as the nearly undamaged Roman units returned. My faction leader died a glorious death but my slingers and eventually my elephants turned the tide and exterminated the Romans. I eventually bribed away the Greek remnants and managed to prevent any serious Roman attempt to retake Sicily using my navy.
Caralis faced only 2 Roman armies before my navy asserted itself. The second attempt was a full stack Julii army that besieged my very meager garrison before my ragtag relief force pulled off an heroic victory at 2:1 odds. In future, I may take my family member off of Palma almost immediately in order to help keep the peace in Spain.

Iberia:

This strategy may not work on harder difficulties but my aim was to cripple the Spanish ASAP by taking Carthago Nova. With those two cities, I hoped to out-produce the Spanish. It was a close call, shuttling my lone family member back and forth from Corduba and Carthago Nova but i managed to hold on until reinforcements from Africa allowed me to turn North and claim the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish mercs and Iberian infantry make a pretty potent combination and round shield cavalry are amazing if used in sufficient numbers.
The Gauls and Spanish allied immediately which made the situation that much hairier. I think the governor from Palma would help tremendously in keeping the peace and leading a separate army. Things were touch and go until my African army was able to send along a few more cavalry units and a unit of vanilla elephants. I used my pachys almost exclusively as psychological warfare and as siege engines. I was then able to steamroll using only local troops (and mercs) to take over all of Spain and kick the Gauls off the peninsula. The real advantage to round-shields is the ability to retrain them almost anywhere.

Africa:

After taking control of Sicily, I put together a small force of round-shields, one unit of elephants, and a few mercs and marched west across Northern Africa. My scrappy little family member managed with little difficulty to take Cinta and Tingi. The wonderful thing about Numidia is of course no culture penalty. Which means the army just keeps on marching. After taking Tingi, i shipped about half the army into Iberia and sent the scraps to take Dimmidi and Nente. So far, i have faced very few problems with public order or brigands in these areas. I left Numidia alone in Lepcis Magna in order to increase the buffer between myself and Egypt. So far so good and Numidia has sent only feeble armies at Thapsus so far.

Next up, Rome and provinces East.

[GamblerTuba]

Not sure how many people still read these boards but I am having a blast playing RTW and its fun to share my experiences. Playing on default unit size BTW.

Greece:

I actually took the bottom half of Italy first but I will describe the Greek Campaign first. After taking Capua, Croton, and Tarentum; I decided to leave Italy alone for a while. I wanted a bit of a challenge and was hoping to get a ceasefire and ensure some epic battles later on. The Brutii lost most of their macedonian holdings after getting kicked out of Italy. By the time I landed in Greece they held only Corinth which was my major target anyway to try and keep my provinces (especially in Iberia) in line. I attacked with a half-stack army ferried over from Italy. This army contained some sacred band infantry, 5 round shields, 2 long shields and the remaining 10 elephants from Sicily. I hired a few archers in Greece and laid siege to Corinth.

I knew that Greece could betray the alliance once i had taken Corinth so i stayed patient and starved out the substantial Brutii garrison. The turn Corinth fell, Greece declared war and laid siege with full stack army of hoplites and armored hoplites. At this point I sent a small force from Italy to take Thermon planning to sack it and run when the Greeks counter-attacked just to take some heat off Corinth. The Greeks never counter-attacked so I just stayed put.

I crushed 3 separate full stack Greek armies by sallying from Corinth before reinforcements finally arrived from Africa. This was my first tailor-made army as all others were kind of cobbled together. Full stack with about 5 SB Inf, 2 Bal Slingers, 2 Iberian Inf, 1 Newly Minted General, 6 RS cav, 2 LS cav, and 2 War Elephants.

The ensuing battle was by far the biggest I have seen yet in RTW. The Greeks maneuvered two full stacks down by the coast to pen me in while a third full stack kept Corinth under siege. My African army attacked and faced two full Greek armies with a balanced force of hoplites (mostly armored but a few militia) and jav cavs.

I set up as far forward as possible because I knew that I had to rout one army before the other joined in. Luckily the first army was cavalry deficient and led by a captain. (I had killed 4 Greek family members during the sieges of Corinth) I marched my infantry forward until the slingers were in range. Left my war elephants on the flanks and ran my cavalry all over the place. A few Greek units actually made it to my infantry line but the SB held just fine until cavalry units managed to break through. I routed the Greeks from the outside in and by "burning the candle at both ends" so to speak had the entire line running before the other Greek army could join in.

The other army had dropped phalanx and run to join in so their infantry was seriously tired and never managed to reach my line. I had reformed my line on a small ridge and the Bal Slingers were still spitting stones to no end. But I nearly cost myself the victory by sending my (now exhausted) round shields after the Greek Cavalry. Not sure exactly how it all happened but pretty soon I saw the remnants of my RS routing back towards my line and the Greek cavalry managed to panic BOTH units of war elephants with their javelins.

Well, I bit the bullet and the elephants got the pointy end of a stake. My slingers took down a tremendous number of their cavalry and LS sent the rest packing. I used the Iberians in place of cavalry and with all the morale penalties, the second Greek Army never put up much of a fight. My remaining cavalry managed to chase down nearly all the routers. Greeks lost nearly 2500 men to my 200. After that, Sparta and Athens fell easily and I currently hold Larissa as well and I am moving on Thessalonica.

Whew, took longer than I thought. Roman theatre will have to wait. Hopefully someone out there still enjoys playing and discussing this game. I am considering trying an AAR for my next campaign. Probably as the Seleucid's.

[GamblerTuba]

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

[GamblerTuba]

I really hope someone reads/enjoys this. It is fun to write though.

The climactic battle with the senate occurred when I sent a 3/4 stack of cav and a few barbarian mercs led by my faction leader and a small stack of cav led by a useless family member under AI control against the full senate stack. Units were pre-marian but lots of triarii. The senate stack was standing next to Rome but did not have enough movement points to make it into the city. My armies also did not have enough movement points to attack their army. Instead i placed my armies adjacent to theirs and used a single unit of LS cav from Capua to initiate the battle. I did NOT want the senate army to reach Rome, I did not relish street to street fighting with all those triarii and principes. Complicated set-up but led to a very entertaining battle. The set-up looked like this on campaign map:

FL FM
RA Ro
LS

FL faction leader and 3/4 stack (human controlled)
FM family member and small stack (AI controlled)
Ro city of Rome
RA Senate Army (full stack of pre-marian units)
LS single unit of long shield cavalry used to initiate combat

Battle map looked very odd because my single LS cavalry is the only one i was able to deploy. I sent that LS after the single unit of wardogs that sallied from Rome destroyed all the handlers that was about all they accomplished. The Romans deployed near the northern edge of the map which means my faction leaders army entered the map nearly on top of the roman lines. Absolute Chaos ensues. My faction leader’s army was all spread out and outnumbered with no room to maneuver and half of my cavalry came out in the woods.

Many of my RS units were routed before doing much damage. I was actually saved by my barbarian mercs and bal slingers. The 3 units barb mercs were able to stretch out enough to delay flanking and held up the roman lines while the slingers did some damage. My faction leader moved off a ways into a clearing and gathered together the remnants of my cavalry.

I began to use my depleted cav units to rout the left flank of the Roman army and the battle was just starting turn when my AI controlled units finally started to find their way to the battle field. My faction leader’s bodyguards killed 3 different Roman generals and the rout was on.

Unfortunately, one roman general made it out of the confusion along with enough stragglers to field 2 partial units of velites and about 20 principes. The next turn I assaulted Rome as my spy managed to open the gates. The senate had added a unit of triarii to the defense. Rome is a royal pain to assault even with a full army against a skeleton defense. I overwhelmed the triarii at the open gates with my remaining barb mercs and a unit of Iberian inf. The velites on the wall proved to be a formidable opponent. They routed the first couple units I sent up after them but finally fell. By then I only had single unit of Iberians and a couple units of bal slingers and the rest cavalry. I had to run the length of the wall taking each tower in turn. Many of the towers provide support fire and I nearly ran out of infantry before I could clear a path for my cavalry to run all the way to the opposite side of Rome to reach the ONLY entrance to the town square and kill the 8 men in the general’s bodyguard. Lost nearly 300 men to kill about 140 Romans. Most of the losses were barb infantry but still…

Next up: My favorite TW battle of all time… so far.