Numidian Campaign: those pesky Egyptians!!

[DukeofSerbia]

I sent my Didmidi's garrison to took Carthage on start (easily) and I abandoned Siwa and Siwa's garrison took Thebes and later Memphis and Alexandria because Egypt on start have no troops in those three cities. And from east (I can't remember city name) go on Corduba and later on Spaniyards. That I do in my first turn. I allied with Scipii nad Seleucid in start.

[katank]

In the numidian game, don't give up Siwa as lost. It's a valuable base. Leave just 1 jav on the first turn and queue a peasant. march entire army to Thebes. I got there before they had a wall and assaulted right away.

Hide your numidian cav behind buildings and the bowmen will pump arrows into the buildings. Mouse over to see when they run out of ammo.

Then, get close and try to use yoru javs, then finish the spearmen and bowmen at the town center.

You get an archer factory out of Thebes right away. Park your army on a bridge and rack up a few heroic victories. Then, take the poorly defended Memphis and then sack Alexandria to push them out of the Nile delta.

[Old Celt]

I appreciate that you can take out Egypt on turn 4, but would rather fight them at their full strength as I am now with the best units Numidia can produce. It is true that Numidia has limited selection, but they have units good enough that, with experience, can defeat anyone.

The camel riders are great. They send the elite horse cavalry running away crying like little girls. Numidian jav cavalry are probably the best skirmishing unit in the game. Numidian legionaries are competent, if not as terrific as the Roman version. You have onagers.

It takes time to build a strong military. You must adapt tactics to hit and run style, punctuated by crushing the enemy with camels and longshields when they make the fatal mistake of overpursuing you. It is the opposite of Roman warfare: in Numidia, cavalry and missiles are much more valuable than infantry. Units are valuable: you cannot afford to treat any of them as fodder for a long time into the campaign. You WILL lose generals in combat, and unlike Roman campaigns, you WILL lose battles when fighting the best units your enemies can field. For me, that's the kind of challenge I always wanted.

[weejonnie]

I've just started playing Numidia (M/M) - used the garrison at Siwa to take Thebes as I could see the Egyptian stack heading my way (left a group of peasants there). When I took Thebes Egypt offered me a protectorate - I said - give me 5K and I'll agree. Egypt didn't take Siwa and two turns later I occupied Memphis - and the Egyptian army turned round from Siwa to meet oblivian. Siwa never did fall.

On the Eastern Front, I actually took Thaspus as the large Carthaginian Army headed along the coast. Then, when it was well away took Carthage. Carthage sued for peace and I said fine (+ trade rights). Corduba is now Spanish (allies) so Carthage must be down to a couple of towns. Hope the army (which retreated out of Africa, I hope) can hold off the Scipii.

Economically I am building temples to boost farming output since in most places this far exceeds trade (at least in the early game, not sure about later.)

With Egypt kicked out of the Nile delta (Alexandria is mine) and Carthage kicked out of Africa, am now considering my options. Suspect it will involve Sidon, Damascus and Jerusalem at one end - an alliance with the Selucids if possible and may also involve a trip over to Sicily to see if I can stop the Scipii. There is always the Brutii which are usually very weak as they plough troops into Greece.

The only comment regarding troops is that Numidan cavalry do better against Phalanxes than round-shield, so may recruit Numidians for the Eastern Theatre and ROund-Shield for the centre/ West. (They also do a good job on Elephants, but I wont meet any more for quite a few turns.)

Funniest battle was relieving Alexandria on the Bridge - I had a good stack from Memphis (no archers) and the AI controlled a good stack from Alexandria (with archers). I basically used my missile troops one at a time on the bridge to attack the phalanx on the right (SOP to avoid shields) but when the AI troops arrived they simply charged accross the bridge and got slaughtered. That was a lucky one.

My main concern for the future is the NUmidian Navy - a toy boat in a bathtub has more fire power.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Economically I am building temples to boost farming output since in most places this far exceeds trade (at least in the early game, not sure about later.)

Later, sea trade will exceed all other forms of income combined.

Bold plan to take on the Big Gold Machine

My main concern for the future is the NUmidian Navy - a toy boat in a bathtub has more fire power.

[CountMRVHS]

I'm a bit hesitant to build farm upgrades, depending on the location. If it's already a high-growth region, forget about it. If it's a small, 2% pop growth on Medium taxes... maybe. I'm more inclined to build farm upgrades if I'm playing a faction with lots of infrastructure options. But say I'm playing a barbarian faction and just took over some Greek town... probably not.

I can't remember exactly what Numidia can build for public order stuff, but I don't think it's a ton, and so I'd tend to go for trade rather than farms - especially in the fast-growing Nile provinces.

I'm curious to see who is going to take over in the East now that you've neutered Egypt - probably Pontus?

[weejonnie]

Later, sea trade will exceed all other forms of income combined.

Bold plan to take on the Big Gold Machine

The problem with Numidia is that they can only build ports - no shipwrights or dockyards, so you only get one export. I agree that for the cities which will have big trade using that temple is a good idea - but at the moment income from agriculture far exceeds trade income - and I need income!

With regards to selection - basically if the total population growth is 8% or less (before squalor) (target 24K people) I develop agriculture (inc temples). If there is well-known rebellion then I'll build public order.

Popped over to Sicily - took Lillybaun, defeated the Scipii army there and the other two cities have no garrison worth mentioning. One is sieged and will fall next turn, when I'll move the army over to the last one (Syracuse). I have one large Egyptian army near Alexandria, but once that one is defeated I think Sidon is on my list. (Lillybaun still had a Carthaginian governor villa so cultural penalty is minimal)

It is 256BC (I think) so plenty of time before Marius raises his ugly head.

[ReluctantSamurai]

The problem with Numidia is that they can only build ports - no shipwrights or dockyards, so you only get one export.

Not sure if you're playing a modded version, but in vanilla RTW, Numidia gets dockyards which means 3 trade routes and the ability to build quinqueremes

Numidian temple choices are Milqart (a +4 trade temple max), Baal (+20 Law/+20 Happiness), and Tanit (+4 farming max).