Numidia

[Xipe Totec]

Many thanks Chuckle for a fascinating account of your Numidia campaign which was packed with humour and many useful insights and observations. Definitely one of the best RTW posts I can remember reading on this or any other forum.

It's always good to see the underdog come out on top cause it gives us all hope to keep on battling when it seems impossible. Anyone who has played Numidia knows what a challenge it is on so many levels. The big surprise for me was how effective the JavCav could be against the Romans, despite the unimpressive melee stats. I was pretty surprised you thought them ideal to throw at the Egyptians though because I have had stacks of horse archers horribly shredded by Egyptian chariots when playing as Armenia and Parthia. I am also often underwhelmed by the casualties JavCav inflict on Infantry. They can be trouble if the enemy have a decent general and so cannot be intimidated into routing, especially if they have plenty of spearmen or phalanxes and archers and occupy a high position. Even the dreaded Greek militia cavalry are quite effective though after praying to Artemis or Abnoba. My all-time favourite JavCav has to be Pontic Heavies though because they are also good melee heavy cavalry when the javs run out (don't even think about saying you preferred Spanish Jinetes, they weren't that good really).

Like you I ran screaming from the Egyptians at the start in Siwa, prefering to focus on the Carthies, Scipii in Sicily and then Spain and the Gauls. I got to Samarobriva eventually and conquered most of Italy but the damn Brutii had already taken over all of Greece and are producing endless stacks of many chevroned gladiators etc. The Egyptians are heading closer to Lepcis Magna with muchos stackos. The major problemo as Numidia is how long it takes to produce the fine Legionaries with the two turn production thing and how few places are upgraded enough to do it, whilst the blasted Romans can build legions anywhere they like double-quick.

It's not what you've got though it's what you do with it that counts and as with any weak faction the key to victory is conquering territory by daring, coup de main and taking calculated risks on defence. The human player rarely misses an opportunity to exploit a weakness and is usually paranoid enough to predict every backstab and threat in time to counter it.

What I'd like to know is has anyone found Camels to be particularly effective and should they ever venture outside the desert. I built a load to guard Carthage and Thapsus but they havent really got into any fighting yet so I'm still wondering which smells worst, them or the enemy.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

@Darkvicer98
Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. I find the forums to be most entertaining when you can relate with someone else and their experiences with RTW. And about screenshots: I press the "Print Screen" button on my keyboard. This takes a snapshot of yourscreen, and saves it on your clipboard. Then go Paint and paste from the edit dropdown menu, and there's your screenie. But make sure to save it as a JPEG, which takes less memory, which then makes them much easier to upload etc.

@Timoleon The Brave
Thank you for holding my account of the Numidian Empire in such high esteem, and your eloquent response to it. I wish the Org was filled with more people like you, that show appreciation to the sentiments that your fellow Org-members feel passionate about.

In your post you talked as if you've played the Numidians before. If so, let me give you the biggest hint that I found necessary in using the Numidians. Become a master of using JavCav. With out that critical skill I possess, I would have been unable to win. But please, upload some of your screenshots of your campaign with the Numidians, to give me (and anyone else for that matter) a better sense of your campaign.

[Xipe Totec]

Unfortunately I have not been able to work out how to get screenshots to work for me. Print Screen during RTW just gives me a nice copy of my desktop to paste from the clipboard. If anyone can suggest another method I'd be grateful as I can't find any posts on the subject at the moment ...

I have returned to my campaign after reading of Good Ship Chuckle's great victory, following a break of about 5 months playing other campaigns. Currently in 222bc. After finishing the Gauls in Alesia which netted me my third temple to Epona (+2 experience), I have focussed on my mission to wipe out the Julii in North Italy. The Britons are busy fighting the Brutii in central Germania, and the Egyptian stacks are wandering about in the deserts of Tripolitania but haven't attacked me yet.

After many epic battles with the Julii and Brutii in Cisalpine Gaul and Venetia I have finally secured the area and have the remnants of the Julii starving in Arretium and Ariminum. Capua fell after the Senate attacked my army besieging the Scipii and lost due to lots of rapid cavalry action on the flanks. Thus the threat of the invincible Senate is no more, so consolidation of Italy is well underway. When I have all Italy I can plan to invade Greece where the Scipii remain in Sparta and Corinth, with the Brutii in the remaining Greek and former Macedo territories.

My armies are now based on 2 chevron legionaries or triple chev desert inf with some archers behind and strong cavalry on both flanks made of bodyguards and longshields. The archers do some damage but in most battles against the Romans I find that they are quite keen to attack my lines pretty quickly, so it's the cavalry who do most of the killing from the flanks and take most of the casualties too. So far I have been impressed with the performance of the legionaries against Roman Infantry, although they suffer badly when charged by big Roman General bodyguard units. I have some Numidian cavalry but they are definitely playing a minor role in this campaign. In my first Numidian campaign I used full stacks of them which were good against infantry heavy armies but were splattered by Roman armies with many generals and equites.

The Camels are still waiting in Carthage for the Egyptians to start. I realised that even though they may still scare Roman horses in Italy and be fairly effective cavalry, they can't be retrained in Italy after those messy Pyrrhic battles unlike my horse units. I hope they can scare Egyptian chariots and desert cav too, although Pharoahs Guards may be a tough nut to crack.

Numidia continues to challenge you when other campaigns run out of steam cause they get too easy. Perhaps a brilliant early blitzkrieg strategy neutralizing the Romans is fun for a while but ultimately it removes the main point of the game: taking on the Hydra like Roman families with their endless regenerating heavy cav, heavy infantry and ability to spread like vermin on their other fronts whilst you seem to be killing more of them than even Hannibal did. Authentic I believe though (apart from the cavalry) because the success of the Roman Republic militarily was largely due to its immense pool of available manpower which allowed rapid recovery from catastrophic defeats. Some brilliant generals were very influential also (Scipio, Marius, Lucullus, Caesar) but most were incompetent politicians polishing their own egos and getting their men killed.

[Darkvicer98]

Looks like your campaign's going well,Timoleon the Brave. I wish i could start a campaign with Numidia but my graphics are weird(see the entrance hall and look for 'RTW Graphics Help!!!' by me). So i guess i'm getting nowhere with Numidia at the moment .

[Ibn-Khaldun]

@Timoleon the Brave

Try Fraps ..
It is sort of freeware .. pics are saved in .bmp format and you can make 30 sec movies with it .. if you register then there are more options available

[Good Ship Chuckle]

Excellent Timoleon the Brave.

You definately have a different style than me. But I like it. You seem more infantry based with Numildian Infantry and Desert infantry with heavy cav to do the heavy duty flanking. I'm the opposite. Cheap low tier cavalry that I use relentlessly against the opponent. Your way I'm sure will ultimately give you victory.

Oh, and good luck with Egypt! I might have made it look easy in my account, but more than once they gave me a run for my money.

Bona Fortuna!

[Xipe Totec]

Thanks Ibn-Khaldun for the tip. FRAPS is very easy to use and produces excellent results.

Chuckles: I think my failure to find a single Abnoba Sacred Grove or Circle despite conquering the whole of Iberia and Gaul pursuaded me to rely less on Numidian Cavalry. Plus it is one of their strengths to be able to produce basic archers very quickly anywhere, so I needed a spear line to protect my archers.

I have killed off the Julii and the Senate and now control all Italy (219bc).

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that many of my Roman aquisitions in Italy can now build Quinquiremes! Curious as Numidia can only build biremes using our own buildable ports.