[TW Guide] RTW: Numidians

[Garbarsardar]

Author: WILHELM_II
Original Thread: Not Available

RTW: Numidians

Numidians

Overview

- Numidia's military is better than you might think, they might not have such a wide unit choice, but what they have, it's good. The Numidian Cavalry, it's a LOT stronger than most people think. Surrounding any unit (Even Urban Cohort) with 2-3 Numidian Cavalry, peppering them, and charging them kills. Then we have Desert Infantry. A very good allround unit, nothing wrong with it. Use it as much as you can. Numidian Legions... well, that speaks for itself of course. Numidian Camel Riders... oof, my favorite. They scare all horses, they just ride down anything they come acroos, and it's fun to see how stupid the camels walk

- Numidia's campaign situation on the other hand, it's starting position, is not that good as you might expect, but, conquer only one single town, and all your problems will be fixed (this comes later) At the beginning, Numidia's overall territory is divided into two parts : Cirta, Dimmidi and Tingi, near two Carthaginian towns, and on the other side Siwa, near the Egyptians. Both strong adversarries, so, you need to be offensive. Money is not so much of a problem, unless you don't manage your towns very well, and only focus on military. Some more of this later.

- Numidia's economy begins quite strong (Except one town) then drops a bit, gets into a depression (every game this happens, and there is nothing you can do about it) bit, after you conquer one single town, your income will rise. But it will fall again unless you conquer another, and another, and so on. So with Numidia, your economy is only stable if you have a constant expansion. Preferably to the east, as barbarian towns often don't give so much trade. I would conquer Spain though. But leave out the rest. You should build roads and ports early on, as you need a lot of trade stimulation, to help settle your economy.


Conquering

Who would have thought, that Numidia might conquer... sheesh. But, back to the point. Numidia's conquering is a quest for a stable economy. And of course, to win the game, but primarily it's an economy quest. Your very first town to conquer should be Carthage. Why? Becouse, with it's sea and land thrade, it connects Siwa, you your main chunk of land. Until now, Siwa always had a negative revenue, even with Very High Tax right. After you conquer Carthage, they give you about 700 on Easy, 500 on Normal, 300 on Hard and 150 on Very Hard. So, from something that was a trouble early on, you make big profits. Right... but as you look, after a bouple of turns, your towns start to get a negative revenue. Argh!

So, keep conquering, but, if you want to build up more before starting to conquer, there is a little option :

You conquer only Carthage, Thapsus and Leptis Magna. In that order. You do not conquer the little town under Dimmidi (OMG, the first time ever I can't remember a town name ) Just keep those going with Siwa, keep all towns connected, in some sort of way. And build shrines to Tanit, rather than Milqart. Baal shrines are not that important, as Numidia can build peasants just as well as other factions You can keep this up for about 50 turns, then, somehow, the economy goed bad, maybe becouse of too much population.

But, if you begin to conquer. You have all of Africa, except Egypt. Leave them as they are, they sohuldn't worry you. You have to own the following provinces when you start to conquer : Siwa, Cirta, Tingi, Dimmidi, Carthage, Lepcis Magna, Thapsus, Cyrene, and the Sahara town. The first thing you should just... conquer, is Palma. Why? Becouse this is going to be your major Trade Centre (And planes didn't exist at that time, so don't worry about terrorists), it is going to be your connection with Europe. Make trade agreements with Gaul, Spain and Julli, the SPQR, the Scipii, the Brutii and possible the Greeks. When you have Palma, start building up forces quickly, and make sure that no town has negative revenue. The first thing you should take is Carthaginian Syracuse (if the Scipii haven't conquered it yet, if they have, you've run out of luck, and should start with Egypt). The first thing to attack is Memphis when you go to Egypt, as you'll need the loyalty very hard. Next is Alexandria, with it's lighthouse, always useful. And then conquer Thebes. Don't go too far east, just conquer away the following cities to get some trade booming : Petra, Sidon, Jerusalem, Antioch, Tarsus, Halicarnassus, Salamis and Rhodes. Develop trade, and boom the trade as much as you can. When you have about 5000 revenue on Easy, 4000 revenue on Normal, 2500 revenue on Hard, or 1000 revenue on Very Hard, you can conquer Parthia and (possible) leftovers from the Seleucids. Now, it's time to cool down. You will have all the middle east, and Turkey (including the two Armenian towns) And you should have a bordeer with Scythia. Cool down, as you have a tradeboom going, and this one is going to last. Now, where should you go.. conquer Spain, and onto the barbarian areas, or go for Greece? I'd say, go for Greece, and take Sicily at the same time. The Romans should pose no problem at all for Numidia. Desert Infantry is a good all-round unit, and the Numdian Legionaries will do their job, even before the Romans possibly already can build Legionaries of their own. Cavalry should be no problem, as your Desert Camels should wipe them out without any trouble.

When you have Greece and Sicily, conquer away Italy, and get going to finish the campaign. For me, 50 provinces while holding Rome isn't finishing the campaign. For me, possessing the whole world and Rome is a victory, and a good one. Make this your goal rather than the 50 provinces.. but then again, it's your choice...


Your Buildings

Oh goody, Ho Hum (© Spork Corporation, All rights reserved. Spork Guide subsection fifteen, line eight hundred and ninety-two.) In my opinion, Numidia has possible the easiest townbuilding of all. Just get to a 6000 Size city, and you have all cavalry. You get their main unit with one experience there too! Get to 12000 and you have all Numidian units. Easy, quick, fine, good. Conquer Carthage, build just two buildings, and you can make all Numidian units. Easy, quick, fine, good. You can conquer away, all at the beginning, before the Romans can even make Principes.

But, now to buildorders. With Numidia, especially at the beginning, I always build Roads primarily. Why? Numdian lands are HUGE, you need to be able to transport troops quickly to anything dangerous. And, becouse Numidia's main source of income (at the start) is land trade. So, what comes after roads? A Shrine to Tanit, which boosts trade. After that, build a marker, or trader or anything in that matter, as long as you see some apples in the Building's picture.

Numidia's main way to fight, is ranged. Nearly all factions require building a Barracks sort of building, as the first of all military buildings. I'd rather build an Archery. Why? Numidian archers are just good units. They might be simple archers, but there is something that makes them good... wait, I KNOW WHY. THE FEATHERS

The next thing should be stables, as Numidian Cavalry is such a good allround unit, oof. Then comes barracks. So, Numidia has some sort of reversed military build order. You may want to choose stables first rather than Archery ranges, when you are beginning to conquer Europe, but by that time, you will have good allround armies, so it won't really matter whether you build the one of the other first.


Oh noes, the Scipii

Yes the Scipii (Scee-Pee-Ee, not Sci-Pi-I, that isn't Roman, that's Chinese), they always bug you. When they're alive, when they're dead, and... something inbetween. If you don't get an alliance quick, they will keep invading you till about 5670 AD. So, what to do against the Scipii... here are a few basic tips, for those having trouble with these weird little Chinese Romans...

1. Bribe them. Get Lilybaeum before they do, try to make an alliance with the Greeks if they've not been driven out yet, and bribe all possible Scipii. Try to bribe Messana, if you have enough Denarii for it. Make Syracuse a buffer against the Scipii.

2. If you're too late, you can do the following : Put an army on Syracuse (not the town, the whole island) And pick off small Scipii forces. This makes your troops experienced. Now, just wait for the Scipii to bring a large army, and slaughter them. More experience. If your troops are getting short, get Lilybaeum, but don't conquer any further, as you need to really conquer Europe, at the same time you attack the Greek penisula.

3. Get an Alliance. Offer money for it, offer maps for it, anything, except giving a town away. Get a bit cushy with them, if not, they will stab you in the back, and you will get a message, with that FANTASTIC SCREAM (I can't stop listening to that sound when I get the message ) With the following title : Betrayed. Offer each 5 years or so, to do a map exchange, that will usually help getting a bit more close with eachother...


Fighting Battles

Numidian fighting can be a bit complicated, but also, a bit simple. The goal is, to weaken enemies by heavy ranged fire, and then let your main units finishing it. Not quite so many factions have the ability to do this, only three are the real masters concerning this : Scythia, Armenia and Numidia. Why is numidia among them, while they don't have any Horse Archers. Well... ALL of their first line units, are ranged units. Numidian Javelinmen, Numidian Cavalry and Archers. Use this. Pepper enemies, and just let your Numidian Cavalry charge. In later stages of the game, use the Legionaries as Javelinmen, rather than Infantry. Let them pepper enemies together with your ranged units, and make sure they waste every spear, arrow, boulder, and er... that's it. Then charge with everything. Don't worry about cavalry, becouse Numidian Cavalry can handle all early-stage cavalry, and by the time you get to face better, and stronger and heavier cavalry, your Camel Riders and Desert Infantry should do the job.

A basic starting Numidian army looks like this :

7 Numidian Cavalry.
7 Numidian Javelinmen
6 Archers

Basically, a good army, weak against cavalry. So target cavalry when firing rather than infantry.

A mid-game Numidian ARmy looks like this :

4 Numidian Cavalry
4 Numidian Javelinmen
10 Desert Infantry
2 Archers

Now, you can also counter cavalry easily. And you have a basic infantry force


That's the basic type of warfare with Numidia. Now comes late stage-fighting. Through the game you didn't really need to make your own formations and battle setups... But sometimes, Numidia needs to take a more human formation, rather than an AI formation. Usually I just say in my guides : find out yourself. Why? Becouse you need some own experience, intuition. IT will help you later on in the game, not just with Numidia, I mean the game generally. It helps stimulate you to think better during battles, and it will help you make formations of your own. No formation is best, how good a formation is, is again, determined by YOU.But, with Numidia, I make an exception. As the following battle tactic needs some explaination, beoucse I've decided to give you an alternative, as most of you find Numidia difficult to fight with.

L = Legionaries
NC = Numidian Cavalry
DI = Desert Infantry
A = Archers
CR = Camel Riders
NJ = Numidian Javelinmen
LSC = Long Shield Cavalry


_____DI___DI___L___L___L___L___L___DI___DI_____
LSC__CR__CR____NC__NJ__NC________CR___CR__LSC
___________________A__A_______________________

Basically : Use your Legionaries as a main force, Desert Infantry For flanking. Archers, Javelinmen, Numidian Cavalry and Legionaries will pepper. Desert Infantry charges the flanks, alongside the Legionaries, smashing into the main force. Long Shields go way behind the enemy lines, and smash in from behind. Camel Riders slaughter the enemy Cavalry. Hammer and Anvil (Whoops, Ripoff from Alexander the great)