Ever Seen a Campaign Game like this?

[Aetius the Last Roman]

As a Roman player, Carthage never has a chance to step into Italy,
As a Carthaginian, the Romans never land in Africa.
It simple, the player on either side is never bad enough to lose everything to the AI.
History however, is quite different.

[Magraev]

If the player doesn't interfere (maybe playing as the Parthians or such) Carthage will lose every single time. The jump from sicily to africa takes 2-3 years not 100.

The same is true for Syracuse, which historically held on for a long time, but in the game is always conquered within a decade.

It's true that the player can affect the outcome, but that's besides the point. Maybe the correct balance is just too hard to achieve.

[Bob the Insane]

Bizarrly enough my RTW RTR 5.3 game as Rome was very much like this... I reached 234BC for the RTR 5.4 patch came out and I started again.

After spending the first 20 years kicking the greeks out of Italy and consolidating I initiated a war against Carthage... I took Corsica and Sardinia first and they invaded Sicily and suffered a huge defeat. We then re-invaded Sicily and started a protracted land and sea battle that raged another 20 years before we took the last settlements on Sicily and crippled the Carthagian navy...

We are allied with the Iberians and have provided them plenty of cash for their war with Carthage. My world map in 234BC looks very much like the 219BC map on that site... And I have presently put off any further conflict with Carthage in order to fight the Gauls who just happen to be allied to Carthage...

One big difference is the fact that Carthage has overrun and defeated Numidia...

[Mikeus Caesar]

Actually, one good way of stopping AI carthage being defeated is to play as Greece in the vanilla RTW. Defend sicily till the last man, and do whatever you can to stop the Romans taking sicily. If you do, then it will stop Carthage being invaded, and give them to consolidate their forces and stuff. They are now the dominant force in North Africa, and if it wasn't for the remains of the Egyptians being in the way in the middle east, they'd probably be fighting with the mighty Armenian Empire, who control the entire east of the map.

[Oaty]

Theres a mod out there that covers the punic wars. It is still in planning or released now. It does contain a map just like the one in the link. Just do a searcj in the modding section and you should run across it

[hoom]

Punic:TW by Gaius Julius (beginner of RTR).

Using a bigger map than the base RTW but focussed on a smaller area = heaps more detail.

I'm thoroughly looking forward to it

[Magraev]

I've installed the SPQR-mod and in this there are 5 cities on Sicily, and the romans are clearly the weakest faction at the start. After about 20 years Syracuse has just come under siege by the romans, and Carthage has 3 cities on Sicily.

This seems more accurate to me and thus more enjoyable. RTR should be even more realistic though, but I haven't tried it.

[Musashi]

Heh, Rome isn't invading Carthage on my current game. I'm playing as Greece and I allied with Carthage right at the start, and built up heavily in Syracuse... The Scipii went after the Carthaginian city instead of mine, but I lifted the siege every time... Ended up placing a fort in the center of Sicily and manning it heavily, so that the Scipii couldn't siege Syracuse without being pinned against the walls by a relief army and couldn't siege the fort without the same happening... They tried to siege Syracuse once and the Carthaginians actually came to lift the siege O.o

I eventually drove the Scipii out of Sicily, and Carthage is at war with Egypt, Numidia, and Spain, so they seem to be content to maintain our alliance. Lifting sieges from ally towns seems to inspire loyalty lol.

Either that or they're afraid of the two full stacks of troops I have on Sicily ;)

[BadBreath]

Lifting sieges from ally towns seems to inspire loyalty lol.

I'm sure thats not it, because in my macedonian campaign I had an alliance with the greeks. I helped them out against the Brutii in one siege. However they turned around and betrayed me some 10 turns later or so.

BB

[Musashi]

I'm sure thats not it, because in my macedonian campaign I had an alliance with the greeks. I helped them out against the Brutii in one siege. However they turned around and betrayed me some 10 turns later or so.

BB

Well, I lifted the siege of Lilybaeum 3 or 4 times in short succession (In large part in order to weaken the Scipii for my eventual assault. I always planned to honor my alliance with Carthage, and Rome makes a much more logical target considering the geographical location of most of my holdings). I eliminated Macedon within 10 turns or so, built up for a while bribing rebel cities and such and holding my ground, made several alliances and waited for the right moment to hit Rome, and during that time I had the chance to lift sieges for the Carthaginians several times. Then I finally laid siege to the Scipii city on Sicily while his main force was out sieging Lilybaeum again, and I brought two Ballistae with me so I could assault immediately. His main army pulled back immediately, but had to lay siege to Messana now, and I hit them from behind with the force I'd been keeping in the fort just south of Aetna. Poor bastards never knew what hit them.

Naturally I threw a multi-pronged assault at the Brutii settlements northwest of Greece at the same time. Now I have Rome between a rock and a hard place, and Carthage is busy with other things.

It was really cool to see an AI ally actually lift a siege on one of my cities though :)