How do yall like Carthage?

**steve** · 02-26-2005, 21:56

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** · 02-26-2005, 22:05

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** · 02-26-2005, 22:08

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** · 02-28-2005, 08:54

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** · 02-28-2005, 10:49

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** · 02-28-2005, 21:44

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** · 03-02-2005, 07:36

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.