Egypt.....anything I should know???

[fester]

I'm about to take on egypt as carthage for the very first time any supprises I should know about ??? I've heard people slag them off alot.

[magnum]

Beware their archers and cavalry. Try to avoid fighting their armies in the field. (Don't make Hannibals mistake, its the cities that count!) Use ships if needed to make amphibious landings near their cities and strike them quick. Thats the short but sweet of it.

[fester]

Beware their archers and cavalry. Try to avoid fighting their armies in the field. (Don't make Hannibals mistake, its the cities that count!) Use ships if needed to make amphibious landings near their cities and strike them quick. Thats the short but sweet of it.

cheers mate excelent advice

[Rodion Romanovich]

Use your elephants to kill their chariots and pin their desert cavalry and slow down their momentum, then charge in (perfect timing needed) with your normal cavalry and you can kill them. After that, all you need is use your footmen for pinning and you cavalry for killing.

If you can, hire some cretan mercenaries or get yourself some artillery before facing the egyptians. With cretans and artillery all you need to do is pick some high ground and their mostly unarmored units are as good as dead (try killing fast units like desert cavalry and desert axemen with your missiles if possible).

Egypt is a pain in the ass - probably very much so for carthage considering their lack of strong missile troops and heavy non-phalanx infantry. I avoided fighting Egypt altogether in my carthage campaign by using one numidian province as a buffer zone - and instead I went north and killed some barbarians. Anyway, whatever you do, carthage is one of the most fun campaigns to play. Good luck!

[Count Belisarius]

Good advice from the tactical end. The Egyptians aren't tough to beat on the field, but they are extremely rich, and they are friggin' NUMEROUS! Like locusts, numerous. So, from a strategic standpoint, just make sure you bring sufficient troops to do the job. I'd recommend at least 2 full stacks, maybe more, because you are going to be a looooong way from your source of reinforcements. No matter how good you are, attrition from their missile- and cavalry-heavy armies will whittle you down eventually. Go for a quick assault on one of their cities to gain a foothold, and expand from there. DEATH to the Egyptians!

[Mikeus Caesar]

their mostly unarmored units are as good as dead

Aren't you forgetting, they have magical transparent aluminium armour?

[katank]

The Desert Axemen had 11 armor before but now it's only 5. Overall, I would say missile dueling the Egyptians is a lost cause. They have more archers (1.5 normal size bowmen) and more power to their archers (pharoah's bowmen who are the best archers statwise next to the foresters).

I suggest lots of cav such as longshields to deal with them. Some supporting infantry would be nice but often not very useful against the mobile Egyptians. Bring just enough to pin their phalanxes for your cav to smash from the rear. Elephants are nice but not too cost effective as the Eggy have nice phalanxes and the flaming arrows will rout the eles quite fast.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Or, if you want to solve the problem of oversized missile units for the eggy's, just mod the unit size yourself.

[Titus Livius]

Every time I've had to butt heads with the Ptolemiads, my watchword was missile troops.

I know that's two words.

As I've stated in many posts, Cretan Archers will do you proud every time. I play only civilized factions, so my advice in this regard is two full-stack armies, 4-6 missile troops in each (peltasts do very well against chariots also, and you'll find Egypt has those in no short supply), 6 cavalry (especially light horse), and the rest infantry. Keep in mind that you will need heavy ground-pounders for those damned Axemen and Spearmen.

Good luck, and I hope you make them suffer.

[Titus Livius]

DEATH to the Egyptians!

Couldn't have said it better.

[Kraxis]

Strategic considerations:
Egypt is rich, we all know that, and it has been mentioned before. That means big armies and it can sustain those armies because of the fertility of Egypt Proper. So obviously that is where you strike first. Alexandria being the best as it will remove the port (but don't forget that the other two cities will most likely be connected with Bostra and Petra, so expect reinforcements from the south). Connected to this you should go for a total blockade of the Egyptian ports, expect a nasty war at sea, but one that you should be able to win (Egypt tends to let a sizeable part of her navy sail around in the Red Sea ). This will go a long way towards hamstringing her economically.
Egypt likes war, just like the Romans she is almost always at war with somebody. Take notice of how and where she is fighting. War with the Seleucids? That means her armies are close at home, mostly, but also that she can't afford to pull them out. War with Pontus, the opposite is often true, but in that case she has beaten the Seleucids, meaning better production.
Egypt likes open spaces for her chariots, cavalry and archers. Deny her battles in the desert where your army with it's heavy armour will get ruined. So rather than engage that army lingering around Alexandria, rush past it for the Nile Valley. There it is easier to deal with them as you now have trees and fertile ground to fight on (less bonusses for the Egyptians and less negative bonusses for you).
If you dare, detach a few cavalry from your main army and have them screen the main army, so that should a battle be needed you have them arrive as reinforcements. Also they can act as scouts if the Egyptians are away from home.

Tactical considerations:
An army of cavalry and a core of phalanxes will go a long way towards victory, but always be aware that it might be a pyrrhic victory, as those archers and chariots can leave nasty scars on your units. A single unit of elephants (big, small, whatever) can do a world of a difference in leading the charge as it will soak up a lot of the archery and it will absolutely destroy the chariots (gun for the commander), have the cavalry charge in right behind them. Should lead to devastation of the archers.
Should Egypt use Nubians, Nile or Guards, then avoid them. Cavalry can easily run from them. Use your own phalanxes to deal with them (and help with cavalry when needed). But always leave at least one unit of infantry ready to deal with chariots coming to the aid of the infantry.
Loading up on long range archery is good, but don't try to outgun the Egyptians with even 3-4 Cretans, the Egyptians will simply be able to weather the losses on the march and take your expensive Cretans apart when they stop. Those Bowmen are evil in that department. Worst of all is that they take losses the chariot archers should have suffered. Use them as help in the initial phase prior to your attack. Weaken key units with them.
Don't have your phalanxes in Phalanx until the very last moment, you will need the speed to redeploy against chariots or surviving cavalry.
If you must bring other infantry be sure to bring Iberian Infantry rather than Libyans, less armour and equipped with swords. They should follow your cavalry into the midst of the enemy formation. If you can pin the enemy chariots (but that can be very dangerous). But try to just let them chase Bowmen or their better brothers.
If they bring many phalanxes, let them come to you, but let your cavalry deal with the archers they do have in their army. Often the chariots will expend themselves prior to the phalanxes arriving, allowing you to defeat them in detail. But when they are close do not be afraid of taking the initiative.

In any battle expect a twirling melee with units routing all over the place, such is battling the Egyptians. Initiative is often the most important consideration against the Egyptians as they almost never sit still and can get caught in transit, and the simple fact that they almost always outnumber you in ranged combat.

[Strongsword]

Quick Observation on Egypt: Egyptian bowmen are not the pushovers in melee as archers are of other factions.

If you send a cavalry unit to take out a formation of 120 bowman and then turn your attention somewhere else, you will return to find that the bowmen haven't succumbed so easily.

[pezhetairoi]

What is needed for Egypt to build Pharaoh's Bowmen? Everyone makes it seem as if every army has 7-8 units of them with arrows nocked. But they don't seem very scary to me--everytime I invade Egypt and bribe away every single army of their I see that it's mostly Nubians, the like. Pushovers compared to my phalanx units (I have invaded as Germania, Macedon and Greece, but only fought as Greece). And are the Egyptian chariots any scare at all? They may have 13 attack but they have only 1 armour, HP notwithstanding--Sidon had 2 units of them and all it took was one hoplite unit and they were dropping like flies all over the place.

[vastator]

As Carthage you should have a strong fleet, so use it to cripple the Egyptian economy. Blockade all their ports to reduce their income, and take Salamis if you can. It makes a great base for mounting hit, pillage and run attacks on their coastal cities. By the time I moved in on Egypt in my last campaign Alexandria, Jerusalem and Petra had rebelled and poor old Pharoah couldn't afford to recruit any more troops! I captured the entire Nile region in 2 turns then made peace, as the Egyptians had become a protectorate of my allies in Pontus. I think the best part for me was seeing the former governor of Siwa (who had heroically resisted 20 years of Egyptian attacks) capture Alexandria and Thebes.

[Beefy]

they are stupidly over rated, under priced and over powered, They will have full stack armies, so whipe them out quickly.

[Titus Livius]

Quick Observation on Egypt: Egyptian bowmen are not the pushovers in melee as archers are of other factions.

If you send a cavalry unit to take out a formation of 120 bowman and then turn your attention somewhere else, you will return to find that the bowmen haven't succumbed so easily.

It's been my observation that most skirmishers are seriously overpowered in RTW.

Once I charged a bunch of Rhodian Slingers with a General's Heavy Cavalry unit. Not only did my HEAVY CAVALRY fail to punch through the skirmishers, the slingers routed them.

If you must send cavalry against the Egyptian Bowmen, it's best to send at least two units, and assault your target from multiple sides.