My stratagy was to take Messana first turn but wait a while before taking on the Carthaginians. You could crush them quite easily but there will be a Scipii counter attack.

Build up. Right after it comes, crush them, put a good sized army on a boat and send them over to the SOUTH side of Capua. If you are on the north, there is a chance that the Senate army will come and give you much more of a fight than you were hoping for. Take Capua and the Scipii will be gone.

You could try to keep the city and take out Rome after you built up your army but I prefer to let the city rebel and go back and unite Sicily. Once the island is yours, you can build up and take North Africa where the Scipii usualy go. This makes for an easy way to beat the egys by attacking them from Africa and from all of the north of them from Turkey. It is much easier fighting them on multiple fronts rather than having them send army after army to try and drive you out. But I am getting off of the subject.

On second thought, I think that I will stay off of the subject just a little while longer. When you are fighting phalanxes, they are usualy in the standard line. I find it best to concentrate your attack on the middle units. Have all of your ranged units hitting one unit in the very middle. Have your cav come around back and hit that unit in the rear. This should cause a chain rout. If it doesn't have your cav run back and charge the unit next to the unit you just crippled. Repeat if need be.