Carthage Campaign normal difficulty advice required

[Total Roach]

Hi all, I'd like to give the Carthage campaign a go but I am struggling to get to grips with it so far, if anyone can offer me some good starting advice for the first 50 turns or so that would be much appreciated. Playing on normal difficulty.

Cheers

[Tyso3]

Are you playing vanilla or modded?

99/100 Rome is not really a thread for you on vanilla as they rarely expand. Syracuse will be your biggest thread for a while.


Best advice really is to turn mainland africa into an economic powerhouse and militarize Sicily. Do not forget spain either, spain hangs in the balance as your culture is incompatible with your neighbors.


Personally i always use DEI, which is obviously harder than vanila, but the tactics i used above work well, even better if you maintain a state of non aggression with rome, But syracuse WILL push out and if left unchecked could for you out of africa.

[Loxod]

i'm actually playing a campaign with them on hard,

i did everything to have trade agreements with greeks (Knossos, athens etc...) just build a navy with just the amiral to discover commercials partners,

i defend my iberian settlement against iberians tribes but i let the public order fall so my settlements go to punics rebels,
then when i want to get it back i haven't to declare wars,

i focus on magna graecia first move my carthage army to sicilia and my navy, recruit some men an mercenaries and turn 3 i siege syracuse and let starve them (navy + ground),

now i'm turn 25 i have a good income with trade agreements and i'm still at war with rome only,
i didn't follow lybia and carthago nova in their war but i'm still good friend and have trade agreements

(sorry for my poor english)

[Loxod]

EDIT : Don't be friends with Epirus ! it will mess up your reputations with others greeks !

[wiesel]

The beginning decision, choosing which family, is a huge one for Carthage as you will play them ENTIRELY differently. The typical & obvious choice, the Barcid, gives you a sizeable movement bonus and this is really important in Africa as the provinces are very spread out, and of course, the new patch faction change gives the Romans a movement bonus (although there's is on land only) as well. Barcid's also get a Mercenary morale bonus which allows you more confidence in the cheaper morale-lacking choices of mercs......& since Carthage will pretty much field huge mercenary armies this is a big plus. The Hannonid get THE LARGEST diplomatic bonus in the game & with EVERY FACTION. This is a truly fascinating choice if you want to explore the Machiavellian side of things in ancient times. The Magonid probably get the least'est' of the Carthaginian family advantages in receiving naval recruitment experience of +3. The problem is that ship experience doesn't help you shoot faster, row faster, withstand ram attacks better or withstand naval artillery shots any better. However if you feel like playing your navy as modern day marines, single handedly taking on enemy port fortifications with superbly buffed up naval melee units, this can be a really great choice. It also doesn't hurt that the Carthaginian victory conditions are based on Port control.

[eXistenZ]

You can make peace with the turdetani on turn 1 if you're not Barcid. Also, abandon Sicily. The income is really low and the public order is a mess to sort out. Have a fleet guarding Carthage and sardinia. Eventually turn on libya and nova carthago, cause you want those regions. Turn the province of africa in a trading/agriculture hub, and conquer the rest of africa. then go into spain.

If you dont do anything to provoke rome or syracuse, they wont come after you. Iol has timber, so it gives you awesome fleets.