Defeating Egypt, need info...

[DthaV]

I'm playing as Carthrage and I need to defeat egypt, there a royal pain in the ass. Does anybody have any stratagies for troops that I could use to defeat them?


What troops from Carthrage work well in defeating them on the battlefeild?

[Afkazar]

Umm Out phalanx them? I really dont know what your having a problem with.
Specific examples of what their giving you trouble with would help.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi DthaV,
With Carthage, against Egypt, the best option is to, as Afkazar has said, use better phalanxes than they do! You have one of the best phalanx units in the game at your disposal against them - The Sacred Band of the superior God Bal! You can gain access to them by constructing a Large Temple of Bal in a Large City (although you need to work your way up the tech-tree first). When you field them though, remember their constraints - avoid allowing the enemy to get behind them.

Also as the Carthaginians you have an exceptional cavalry unit - the Sacred Band Cavalry, at your disposal too. These can be gained from the large stables and are excellent protection and guard forces for your flanks and good attackers for the enemies' in most battles.

As a final note, for the purposes of chasing down routing foes, you should bring along some Lighter Cavalry forces such as Short Shield Cavalry. If you chase down your enemies post-battle then it results in fewer men to fight later.

Good luck with destroying Egypt, hope this helps, don't hesitate to contact me if you need any more assistance, cheers!

[guineawolf]

before you reach sacred band,i would suggest you to use longshield cavalry(good morale,140 denarii upkeep) to against egyptian chariots,and elephants to against their infantry.

you need to use 3 to 4 unit of elephants at once to charge into egyptian infantry line or they will break and run(coz elephant only 24 men compare to war elephants 72 men).and dun stop,keep charging until egyptian break and run...or your elephants will be overwhelm by egyptian phalanxe and axemen,
mix up with the back charge of long shield cavalry will be fine....mostly it is the chariots that most annoying,fix the egyptian phalanxe with your infantry,then charge it's back with long shield cavalry .....

you will need most cavalry base army with some infantry just to deal with egyptian phalanxe(fix them)
Choice of infantry will be libyan spearmen the best,coz it's high defence will sufficiently fit the purpose: to hold your enemy while long shield and elephants do the jobs,until you get poeni infantry and sacred band.Use guard mode when your libyan spearmen fix egyptian phalanxes,so they won't charge into spear wall and get killed,then they will hold long enough as you wish...(but libyan spearmen will be need some care of your general coz it have same status as roman auxilia but it only have 4 morale compare to auxilia 6 morale,without your general,egyptian chariot will rout them easily...)

enjoy your hunting!

told me if it works....

[Fate]

I've had a hell of a time trying to defeat Egypt as Armenia.
Around the area of Antioch i had my ten star faction heir (and that without takng into account, command against egyptians, supreme cavalry commander, attacker etc), i had a 3/4's stack hold off six, yes SIX egyptian full stacks, in one turn, then they beat me.
The obvious option for beating their chariots is missile cavalry (in my case, Horse archers) and in your case DthaV try using Numidian cavalry.

Those javelins do some lovely damge :)

[Stuperman]

Phalanxes and Archers. But as Carthage you don;t have archers, which makes your life much harder. Hire some Cretian Archers, use Flame arrow to 'run amok' the chariots, or the superios range of Cretians to take out the Chariots, and Sacred Band or Pioeni (sp) citizen infintry as phalanx. some Spanish mercs for flanking manouvers wouldn't be a bad Idea either, they are almost as good as Principes.

I'm not sure about cav vs Chariots, but HA's would probably be a good Idea too.

[Severous]

A well balanced and large Egyptian army is tough. The AI play Egypt better than most other factions. It will often have the moeny to build many such armies.

Last time I fought the Egyptians was as Germany. The Egyptians had over 200 years of game play captured all the east and were advancing on Europe.

My battlefield tactics would be the same as against all factions. Take out their cavalry, archers and skirmishers. Leave heavy infantry to the end then surround and destroy them with missiles. One problem though with Egypt. Chariots.

The Egyptian chariots will not run amok like those of some other factions. If you send weak or single cavalry units up against them they will die. Chariots murder cavalry.

I try to lure the heavy chariots into my phalanx troops. The archer chariots dont respond to such lure tactics except perhaps if the bait if light cavalry.

[runningart]

I'm currently playing as Juli, around 203BC, 32 provinces and I've got myself into a 3 front war with Britainia, Thrace, and Egypt. Thrace has been decimated by Bruti so they're not much of a worry. Britainia is a little pesky now with the chosen swordsmen. The plebs want me to take Rome, but I'm holding out until I get a few more provinces. I'm using my best against Egypt and less than best against the other two. I'm a bit strung out and Egypt has the edge in numbers. I've taken Alexandria, Memphis, and Thebes. All of which were recently stricken with the plague and Egypt took most of the troops and citizens out of the cities leaving them for me...:) Egypt has most of their troops around Sawa.

Egyptian armies who are heavy in phalanx are easily beaten with a frontal infantry and calvary charge to the back. Phalanx is so darn slow. Chariots make things a bit interesting. Find their general and kill him..:) Calvary is your best friend if you can circle around to the back without getting outmaneuvered by the enemy calvary. Another good tip is to use archers and other missle troops on phalanx as they are slow and sitting ducks. Onagers should work well too...again phalanx is slow. Of course there is again those pesky chariots. Win with numbers. Look for openings. I don't like fighting full stacks of anything...unless they have lots of peasants in there.

[Wessex Rob]

My last RTW campaign involved a major and very long war with Egypt. In the end I went for a risky agressive strategy. I built up major naval forces and cleared the seas of all the Egyptians I could find, then, ignoring their armies in North Africa (which were threatening to attack towards Carthage - through my territory) I landed 3 armies in Egypt itself. I found that they had left their cities grossly under-defended in trying to field large attacking armies. Hacking my way into all their major cities in 3 turns, I split their empire down the middle (at Sinai). This forced them to come and try to re-take their own cities, they sacrificed so many chariots at my walls that I could have opened a chain of stores selling wheels. The cream of their armies destroyed themselves at the walls, but they couldn't dislodge the Legions.

They found themselves with no significant armies left, their remaining ports blockaded by superior fleets, and no money to raise new armies or fleets, a state of terminal decline from which there was no recovery.

[Whacker]

Do NOT fight them in the field, always fight them in siege battles. Best if they have wooden walls. Bring archers to soften them up (esp. phalanx units), bust a few holes in the walls, and then spam heavy infantry. Massed heavy infantry in the tight city streets will mulch chariots alive, but you will take losses. Chariots utterly stink in city battles so that negates their mobility and will generally cause them to always present your troops with their soft fleshy unguarded rear for them to poke with swords.

[Fwapper]

My last RTW campaign involved a major and very long war with Egypt. In the end I went for a risky agressive strategy. I built up major naval forces and cleared the seas of all the Egyptians I could find, then, ignoring their armies in North Africa (which were threatening to attack towards Carthage - through my territory) I landed 3 armies in Egypt itself. I found that they had left their cities grossly under-defended in trying to field large attacking armies. Hacking my way into all their major cities in 3 turns, I split their empire down the middle (at Sinai). This forced them to come and try to re-take their own cities, they sacrificed so many chariots at my walls that I could have opened a chain of stores selling wheels. The cream of their armies destroyed themselves at the walls, but they couldn't dislodge the Legions.

They found themselves with no significant armies left, their remaining ports blockaded by superior fleets, and no money to raise new armies or fleets, a state of terminal decline from which there was no recovery.

It is so satisfying when that happens... when you've been chased round for ages by a massive marauding army of elite, bloodthirsty enemies, and they go and destroy their entire army at your walls... aaah... good times... :)

[Wessex Rob]

It is so satisfying when that happens... when you've been chased round for ages by a massive marauding army of elite, bloodthirsty enemies, and they go and destroy their entire army at your walls... aaah... good times... :)

Oh yes! I've found it to be a very successful tactic against any force that may cause problems on an open field. Bypass them by sea, take a few of their key homeland cities (massacre the inhabitants if in a bad mood!) and wait. I love watching my lowly archers destroying waves of elite H Cav and the odd General's bodyguard. I think the key is speed, there's no time (usually) for a lenghty siege, take their city as soon as you can and fight on your own terms.

[Fwapper]

Best of all is when you have a nice set of heavy phalanxes to meet them on their way through the gates :D

[Wessex Rob]

I have to say I've never really got on playing with phalanxes ..I'm pretty good at getting rid of them though. If you are trying the "Inchon" strategy of deep maritime assault, be careful how far from home support you go - I have had a couple of armies caught in the open, before reaching the relative safety of their target city, and destroyed....pesky chariots.

[guineawolf]

A well balanced and large Egyptian army is tough. The AI play Egypt better than most other factions. It will often have the moeny to build many such armies.

Last time I fought the Egyptians was as Germany. The Egyptians had over 200 years of game play captured all the east and were advancing on Europe.

My battlefield tactics would be the same as against all factions. Take out their cavalry, archers and skirmishers. Leave heavy infantry to the end then surround and destroy them with missiles. One problem though with Egypt. Chariots.

The Egyptian chariots will not run amok like those of some other factions. If you send weak or single cavalry units up against them they will die. Chariots murder cavalry.

I try to lure the heavy chariots into my phalanx troops. The archer chariots dont respond to such lure tactics except perhaps if the bait if light cavalry.

but i can kill those chariots easily with my light cavalry,i recently find out,using the loose formation and 2 cavalry to 1 chariots at once is the best solutions and lowest casualty.If you got cavalry auxilia or militia cavalry will be good,coz they start as loose formations.......remember,using loose formations will help your cavalry a lot to prevent them get cut down by wheel blade of chariots at the same time.....

[GM1940]

but i can kill those chariots easily with my light cavalry,i recently find out,using the loose formation and 2 cavalry to 1 chariots at once is the best solutions and lowest casualty.If you got cavalry auxilia or militia cavalry will be good,coz they start as loose formations.......remember,using loose formations will help your cavalry a lot to prevent them get cut down by wheel blade of chariots at the same time.....

The "Inchon" notion is especially effective against the Egyptians given Alexandria's value, and its proximity to Memphis (and even Thebes) as compared with going across the Libyan deserts or Sinai and maybe having 1 or 2 extra needlessly expensive field battles.

Someone mentioned facing waves and waves of stacks; probably best to prioritize Egypt if you don't want them churning out seas of stacks. And it's yet another excellent argument for taking Alexandria by sea; and, depending on your definition of cheap, stationing a force on the bridge next to it to slice, dice and puree the counterattacks.

[Rotc_Railey15]

Hmm...Never fought Egypt when I played as Carthage, although I raised hell against the Romans. But with my experiance playing with Greek and Selucians, use phalanx. Best strategy, fewer casualties, (unless they get behind you...) and more kills. Sends em running everytime! And also use your Superior cavalry against their weaker, unarmored cavalry. (Not the chariots. Although elephants can be effective against chariots...)

[RickFGS]

Egypt? Get a Full pack off: 7 Liby Spears, 6 Long Shield Cav (Roud Shield is crap), 2 Balearic Slingers, 3 Libyan Skirmishers, one onager or elephant and one General with good atributes. Sail them on a fleet of 4 biremes to avoid utter sunking if facing an enemy superior fleet, disembark on the right side of the delta nile, a little far from Alexandria, wher emust troops are concentrated, go down the road (this while being at peace with them), Lay Siege to Menphis and take it on that turn you declared war.

After taking Memphis you have Pyramids and can now conquer the rest of their empire without suffreing riots, and dont forget kill Menphis entire population, just the gold alone will be worth the trip, after that just upgrade troops, retrain and repair city walls defenses, kill all those egyptian full packs sieging the town, and if you dont hell you´ve just bought a lot of time to send your second deadly expeditionary force.

Egypt is to be dealt with speed, its too far away from your main core and you have a lot of deadly enemys near to go around....

As usuall its all about going straight to the heart of things he he he.