Your choice of faction: a "rational" explanation

[Landwalker]

Right now, I'm enjoying a campaign as Carthage. Here's why:

1a) After games as Macedon, Epeiros, Pontos, Hayasdan, and Baktria, I'm freaking sick of dealing with phalangites. They're too clumsy to move around the battlefield in anything approaching an acceptable time frame. I've decided to trade them in for more mobile and utilitarian units.

1b) Carthage's Libyan Spearmen are probably the best Tier 2 unit in the game that I've encountered so far. They're of the same caliber as Camillan Principes and are available earlier than Thureophoroi. They're mobile, they're capable. By the same token, while mobile spearmen are probably the critical issue, Carthage also has access to some very nice mobile swordsmen heavy infantry (Elite African Infantry, Iberian Assault Infantry), as well as the Iberian non-assault troops, which are nothing to sneeze at.

2) Carthaginian units really don't get worse later in the game. Elite African Infantry are very appealing swordsmen (with armor-piercing swords) who come in good quantities and with very nice stats. They're as good as or better than Marian Legionaries (Cohors Reformata) in every attribute except morale and number. Sacred Band infantry are spectacular mobile spears. Elephants are good times. Iberian Assault Infantry is a blast. Iberian Heavy Cavalry, period.

3) Good map position. Don't have troublesome neighbors, don't face immediate debt. The African Eleutheroi aren't impossible, but they're aggressive, and you have to be on your toes to keep from losing a settlement or two in the early game. And once you consolidate your holdings, your neighbors aren't pushovers--especially if the Romani have been doing their job--nor are they immensly frustrating (I was so exasperated at the notion of facing a Ptolemaic army with ten units of Kleruchoi Phalangitai that I just quit my Macedonian campaign--not because it was unbeatable, but because it was just an annoying prospect to have to deal with).

4) If you desperately need phalangites, Elite African Pikemen are a very nice option.

5) Unlike Rome, you don't have to conquer nearly the whole map to win the game. There's enough there to keep you occupied, but you don't have to rush out willy-nilly in every direction.

6) Carthaginian Generals / Sacred Band Cavalry just look cool.

Cheers.