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.