How do yall like Carthage?

[steve]

I was wondering everyones thoughts on playing as Carthage. I have done a few battles and have allready been slaughter by the scipii, anyone else have this problem? and does carthage get better later on in the game?

[AntiochusIII]

How do you got beaten by the Scipii in Sicily? You have a superior army there, you know. Try fighting some more - your cavalry is superior, especially the elephants there - but your infantry can't take the Romans head-on. Remember that. Buy some mercs in Sicily if you need better infantry.

Yes, they do get better as you develop. However, you need to fill the gaps of your army with mercenaries. Carthage lacks light-skirmishing cavalry, archers and slingers, and good early infantry. Fill those gaps.

You can find more ideas in the Guide forum.

Playing as Carthage is fun, don't give up!

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

They are a great faction to play with, stick with them and it is important to be a agressive and use your cavalry becasue they are your advantage.

My first real campiagn has reached 192bc and i have all of italy, sicily, north africa and one more province in iberia to go and the senate, scipi, numidia have all fell to my mighty carthage.

Oh kick the greeks out of sicilly as quickly as possible and never try to hold corsica!

[RollingWave]

Carthage is definately in the best position to win on the 3 way brawl in sciliy, starting with a huge ass army and in the farthest position... the Sciplies and Greeks kill off each other half the time...

Main idea to play as carthage is focus on killin the Romans first... ur infantry line will not be able to fight the Romans head on until u get the later phalanx units, but ur calvary is much better than pre marius Equities.. and elephant + a all out rush will win most fights (just make sure u stay away from flaming pigs and don't take too many hits from fire arrow and javlins)

Of course there is the other sneaky trick... load up ur main army on sciliy and sail for the Brutiies ASAP, their army will we away on the Balkans and u'll take 2 cities on the Italian asap :P.. then move again Capua .. now the Sicipies will lose their home town and stand no chance on Sciliy.. with 3 cities on the italian u should be able to withstand most counterattacks.

Usually, try to stay peaceful with the Numidians/Spaniards/Gauls for a while until ur situations against the Romans are in stable condition.

The only real complant i have with Carthage is that they have no foot archer:/ common even normal archer like the greeks would be good.

[The_Emperor]

The best tactic as Carthage is to charge in and batter your oppnent with an Elephant charge while your superior cavalry hits that same unit from the flank when they are disorderd... (with infantry charging in as well)

You need to think shock tactics with Carthage. Create a disruption, exploit it.

The other big advantage is the use of Elephants as battering rams allowing you to sack a town right away without having to build siege gear.

Be agressive, be bold, be like Hannibal and you will succeed as Carthage.

[Ghostmonkey]

I tried out Carthage for a bit. I was winning, but the crappy infantry troops really put a dent in my strategy (I'm an infantry kind of guy). You're in a very precarious position early on, but it should get better once you are able to reinforce your positions.

[Maedhros]

I like infantry too. The real strength of Carthage is in the horse. Playing a Carthage campaign I go entire battles without ever employing the footsoldiers. I win on cavalry alone.

The infantry mostly just block and on occasion will dash out to flank some spear who foolishly tries to harm some of my cavalry.

Overall they are great. Elephants are kinda high maintenance on the battlefield. Every time one individual elephant goes down I cringe when i think what that's gonna cost to replace.

[QwertyMIDX]

The Iberian infantry are pretty good, they're cheap, versitile, and quick. You just have to support them well, and once they get some experience they can go toe-to-toe with the heaviest infantry in the game.

[Red Harvest]

The Iberian infantry are only really useful if you mod their stats a bit, they are just too weak to do anything otherwise. I gave them 3 shield for the caetra, and 4 armour. Their animation in game is wearing nearly as much armour and helmet as hastati...and certianly more than the barbarians wearing only pants. Yet the Iberians get 2 armour, various barbarians wearing only pants get a 3, and hastati get a 5. The small shields should be worth about a 3 in combat. I am OK with their offensive stats, although at the time the Iberians actually had better swords than the Romans.

After Iberians you only get Libyan spearmen. While they are not a bad unit, they are weak on offense. It is not until you get Poeni that you have a real first line infantry unit. With Carthage, focus on building stables and cav heavy armies, your infantry is not going to win you battles early on. The round shield cav don't have great stats, but they have good mobility. The longshield cav are pretty good. Learn to hammer end units with 2 or 3 cav units at time so that they melt away. This will rapidly develop into a chain rout if you maintain pressure.

Buy Balearic slingers whenever available, and use merc hoplites to provide some backbone while you are waiting for Poeni to become available.

[Magraev]

Carthage are quite difficult to use.

I've had some succes emulating the historically succesfull setup - infantry in the centre (that WILL lose ground and eventually rout) and cav/elephant on the flank(s).

Encircle and crush.

The Iberian infantry is absolute crap, so don't rely on them for anything.

[Maedhros]

Iberian work well on the flanks or enmasse. Libyan or Poeni in the center, and Iberian on the flank, i often make them two companies deep on the flank.

This works well for encircling, Iberians are very quick and mobile. Also very cheap compared to other infantry. They can give your armies bulk for little coin, and if you have enough you can overwhelm or better, encircle your foe.

They do have a use. Don't make them your center, but Iberians are useful.

[Yun Dog]

Loving my Carthage campaign at the moment;

Took out greece on sicily in the first moves, took a couple of seiges from the Scipii and then took them on in the field.

Got attacked in Coroba by Gaul who had the audacity to offer for me to become their protectorate.

They had already taken out most of spain except for one province of the spanish who had ever been my friends and allies,

so once my eye was drawn from sicily and the few desert outposts of the numidian were under my control, I pushed the gaul off the iberian peninsula

about now the scipii reappeared and despite my blockading of their fleet, they managed to lands armies on Corsica, which depsite the family efforts of my cousin Yunabulis the brave, the city fell and he lost his life.

and after several debarcle landings on the beaches, I have half a mind to let them keep the place - it is cursed by gods long may they live there and rot

I took the long march east across libya to take the last outpost of the numidian

Egypt offered for me to become their protectorate - I laughed HA HA HA

Most of their HUGE armies were far to the north, in 3 surgical strikes I took the ancient cities of Thebes, Memphis and Alexandria. Their elite pharaohs guards and bowmen took a terrible toll. And now the Paraoh was really angry .

But Thebes had the Ausome temple of Baal and so I was able to produce sacred band and Poeni line infantry

Those three cities now sit like stones against the turbulent ocean that is the massive armies of the Pharaoh, wave after wave - seige after terrible seige, it would break the heart of a man to see the bodies piled ten deep on the parapets

At night I dream of the children - they are crying