Lack of Fighting in North Africa, Sicily, and Illyria

[geala]

The Carthaginians are seemingly not very aggressive and I like them therefore. I never attack Carthargo myself. Nevertheless, when I (Epeiros) was attacked by the villainous Romans at Segestica and decided to conquer Italy from the south, the Carthaginians attacked me in Sicily when I took Syrakous from the Eleutheroi. As usual in all my campaigns before the Carthaginians were allied to the Romans all the time.

It was a very hard struggle against the Romans, but some turns after I took Lilibeo the Carthaginians suddenly declared a ceasefire. Lucky me. It was one of the few moments in TW when declaring a ceasefire was not favourable for the AI. Now a full stack Carthaginian army mostly of elite troops is sitting in one of the forts they conquered in the middle of Sicily since 30+ turns and is doing nothing. Very strange. And Carthaginian ships sail all around the world and are a hindrance in my struggle with AS but they don't attack anything.

[pezhetairoi]

I am having a run for my money in Hispania against three Qarthadastim fullstacks, one of which had 4 liby-phoenician earlies and 4 iberian assault infantry in addition to the usual iberians and libyans. They are nasty if you give them time to grow. There are about 5-6 fullstacks running around in Africa proper now, too.

[Reno Melitensis]

In my Romani campaign the Qarthadastim are very busy. During our first war over sicily, they managed to take Syracuse before me. Even after i conquered Syracuse they remained active, sending ships with troops from North Africa. So I decided to invade North Africa an what a struggle it was, in the end I plundered two city and retreated back to Siciliy. During all this mess, they managed to take Arse, and even send a full stack made mainly of levies, by sea to Emporium, but failed to take the city. So in the end I thing that for a great EB game you need a bit of luck.
Cheers.

[Ice]

In my Romani campaign the Qarthadastim are very busy. During our first war over sicily, they managed to take Syracuse before me. Even after i conquered Syracuse they remained active, sending ships with troops from North Africa. So I decided to invade North Africa an what a struggle it was, in the end I plundered two city and retreated back to Siciliy. During all this mess, they managed to take Arse, and even send a full stack made mainly of levies, by sea to Emporium, but failed to take the city. So in the end I thing that for a great EB game you need a bit of luck.
Cheers.

Naval Landings? Are you using BI or regular RTW?

[Ellsid]

Playing as Roma M/M vs Carthage and (they) Carthaginians are fighting hard to keep Spain. I finally sacked the city of Carthage itself (240) after a very bloody death match on the plains. Now I have two one stack armies holding off the counter attacks at the kasserine pass and Medjerda river.

[AntiochusIII]

In my experience Carthage keeps a ridiculously low level of garrison in and around their capital. Kind of sad, really, since that's the place where they should've been at their strongest. Leave them alone for a while though and hope that they grow in Spain and I often find them quite a challenge around those parts at least...unless they got crushed by the local Lusotannans over there.

Is it possible to script in a full stack of garrisons near the city when the player invades and, say, besiege Carthage? To simulates something like when the Carthaginians responded to Scipio's invasion by raising their city militia in the 2nd Punic War...

IMO they deserve it in particular because they never really garrison their heartland like they should, making them a pushover for the player. One could say "use House Rules" but even if I wait years into the game the Karthadastim still refused to properly garrison the region of modern Tunisia.

Reno Melitensis: Is that BI you're using? I never see the A.I. launch naval invasions in RTW 1.5, ever. Sounds nice though, especially for an A.I. Carthage.

p.s. I think Rome isn't so easy though after a while if I don't zerg-rush the world, since the Sweboz often dominate Central Europe and comes at me in force and if a Greek faction "unify Greece" they'll get filthy rich, a.k.a. massive stacks going up upon a Roman Illyria (Epeiros, Antigonids/Makedonia (IMO this one not often enough -- they seem so weak in the latest patch whereas historically they would've dominated the region had it not been for Roman intervention...poor Philip), and the Koinon Hellenon). If you go further east then hopefully the Silver Death or not so hopefully the Yellow Fever will be waiting and fighting for every inch of land you want from them.

But Rome Total War is essentially one of those strategy games where after a while you start to dominate the game and beats up the A.I. easy after the first few years of hair-raising challenge, though the progress is slowed in the much harder and more exciting E.B.

[mlp071]

I wouldn't say Carthage always leaves North Africa empty. I think depends form campaign to campaign.

I one of my campaigns they had most of the cities in Africa fortified with 3 stacks of elites in and around Kart-Hadast, 1 next to Lepkis, 1/2 stack in Ippone.And that was with money script.

In same game they had stack in Sardinia , Bocchoris, 2 in spain, and 1/2 in Corsica.

In another campaign , however they had in all of North Africa total of 1 stack and 1-3 units/per town as garrisons.

It's true that more often AI leaves inner towns with lower garrisons, then stronger ones. It goes for all factions.

+++ In either of campaigns i was not bordering them.