Very Hard for Carthage

[Roshak]

I successfully won the Celtibarian campaign on VH/VH with a year to spare. The game was challenging in a good way and felt daunting at times but that's what you get when the enemy has +4 to everything and chunk of cash.

Been trying to do the same for Carthage but so far I haven't been able to win the first battle nor survive the next turn when the enemy army siege my capital. Its fine on Medium, unsure on Hard setting, for even if you lost the first battle you can still prevail.

Still testing it out trying different things but I'm wondering if Carthage campaign is the type of game where if the enemy get bonuses due to difficulty settings it becomes close to impossible to succeed for them.

Obviously its going to be incredibly hard with enemy getting the bonuses but my concern is this will force you play at a lower difficulty for Carthage when you can win with the other side in the higher difficulty.

Will post more when I test several other strategies to see if that works. Has anyone else come across this yet?

[HouseOfHam]

If you lose the first battle and your army retreats back to Gadir, use your other general there to recruit all the available mercenaries so you have a fighting chance when you get besieged.

[Brusilov]

I've only started the first battle once on H and I was beaten. The AI just didn't want to break for some reason. I was using the familiar pin the left of the line to the farm trick. I presume at higher levels they simply have higher morale.

The light peltast unit fled soon after by one of my veteran spear men units. It was downhill from there.

Still, I guess it's supposed to be a challenge. I will try it again at some stage. I've been beta testing TIC too long (even if it was for a relatively short period).

I always found the second battle to be harder with the overwhelming superiority in numbers of the Turdetani cavalry (at least they don't have elephants).

[Roshak]

Played it again on H/H

Results were better I think if I chose my cavalry charges better it would be a close victory.

Second battle sent out my general from the other city, hired mercenaries and defeated enemy army that laid siege to me. Looks pretty clear for the rest of the game.

Will try Very Hard again tomorrow. I think if you make the enemy general your target in the first battle it might be good enough for a close victory or perhaps enough to weaken the enemy so you can attack them again.

[mcantu]

The stats were balanced to have battles on Medium.

All increasing the difficulty does is give the AI undeserved bonuses to attack and morale (+4 on H/+7 on VH)

[MasterOfThessus]

you can always retreat from the first battle and get some more troops

[Roshak]

you can always retreat from the first battle and get some more troops

You actually have the best chance of defeating the enemy army the first time with the farm and forests.

[HouseOfHam]

Retreating will only make things harder because 1. it's easier to fight a defensive battle than having to sally out, 2. you won't get free reinforcements if you retreat, 3. Turdetani king won't sally out to meet you, so you'd miss your chance to fight another good battle and get a 2nd set of reinforcements.