raids and pillaing with the carthaginian empire

[whookidd]

I have been play Roma Surrectum for a longtime and I enjoy this mod. I even had to go buy a Rome total war again because I lost my disc to it just so I can play this mod again. Well I had to redownload and start from scratch. I am playing on VH/VH and my economy sucks badly.

I am thinking of raiding roman empire to get enough wealth to rebuild my empire. I am on the verge of conquering Iberia but I dont have the funds to resupply my army after every battle and I have constant rioting in my cities because I dont have the funds to build anything there at once.

I have currently on 2 armies in Iberia I am at war with Iberia and I took this eastern cities from them after destroying 4 several armies. But I can advance any further because if they destroy one of my armies I have to retreat my other army back to carthago nova to protect my 4 cities from invading iberians. I hate fighting Iberians they ambushed one of my armies and I was heavily outnumbered and I was pretty much doomed but I manage to escape and win the battle.


I was thinking pillaging egypt but that would be a long and unsuccessful war that I dont need. But if I attack rome they will attack my coastal cities in pointers. I pillage before and there is a lot of money into it. any idea?

[Coldcall]

Whoa!! Watch out for those Romans! Dont be too keen to start prodding that wasps nest :-)

But seriously, sure go ahead and raid the mighty Roman empire. Actually i've enver played a non Roman RS campaign but from what I have hears the ai dosnt play Rome very well so you may have an easy time pillaging the Romans.

[Nellup]

I know this probably doesn't help you now, but the best thing to do at the start of a Carthaginian campaign is to abandon your Iberian holdings (which are rebellious and poor) and to instead focus on Sicily and then Italy, which are much more economically sound places to conquer.

But as to your current situation - I would say raid the Romans for all they are worth - if you are playing with the RTW.exe then they won't respond very effectively from a naval standpoint.

[El Crumb]

Here's my stratagy for your Iberian holdings:

Don't give them up, Iberia is rich land, with lots of silver mines and Iron available in Toletum for arms/armour upgardes.

If you're having public happiness problems, build more happiness inducing buildings and siphon off excess population by building stacks of militia and shipping them off to your smaller towns like Tingi and Icosium. this reduces unhappiness in your cities and boosts slow growing or low popoulations elsewhere. I leave off building "growth" buildings as long as possible and keep my taxes at high. This should keep your Iberian populations under control and bring you in lots of income. Hope this helps.

[Coldcall]

Here's my stratagy for your Iberian holdings:

Don't give them up, Iberia is rich land, with lots of silver mines and Iron available in Toletum for arms/armour upgardes.

If you're having public happiness problems, build more happiness inducing buildings and siphon off excess population by building stacks of militia and shipping them off to your smaller towns like Tingi and Icosium. this reduces unhappiness in your cities and boosts slow growing or low popoulations elsewhere. I leave off building "growth" buildings as long as possible and keep my taxes at high. This should keep your Iberian populations under control and bring you in lots of income. Hope this helps.

Thats a good strategy in general. I dont bother with any of the pop growth shirnes/temples or growth initiatives. In fact i recommend destroying any growth iniatives which might have been previously built by the ai in any cities you conquer. Always good idea to check the buildings once youve conqered a new city.

[Sandrus Castus]

Instead of dooming yourself by declaring war on Rome, you could search a small nation with rich lands and lousy or no allies. Some raids there or destroying them can give you some money too.

[martyr]

go for enemies capitals and their treasury

[NaptownKnight]

Yeah, keep an eye out for that treasury building. If you loot it though there is going to be a pop order penalty. What I would suggest, if you are set on raiding the Romans, is follow in the foot steps of Brennus. Do a lightning quick strike on Rome it self, exterminate the population, and destroy all buildings, and then leave. You will be far richer, and able to finance an end to your Iberian campaign, or build pop order structures where needed. The trick will be fighting Rome after the fact...

[whookidd]

Thanks for all of ur replies. I did start raiding Rome and we are now at war. Most of roman armies are up north holding down the gauls and Germans. So they were easy pickings but now they built a fleet and blocking my ports but it was worth it because I gained a huge amount of money from the raids. I will invade the east coast of italy when I get home. Just like I thought one of my armies were destroyed in Iberia but it was a 3rd army and it wasnt complete yet. Those Neito Guards are beast!! They tore through my scuarti and cavalry. But lucky I took over the city our else my losses would have account for nothing. I gained enough money to finance my contructions and troop movements. I will now build a fleet and flex my muscle in the Med. Once Iberia is mine I will march into west gaul and eventually Rome from the north and south.

[Oli]

i take it you're not really planning on holiding the settlements, just sacking them and destroying the buildings right?.If so i would also suggest raiding Islands owned by the free people, stuff like crete and maybe corsica if it is still free. Also raid the greek cities if they are weak.

[Octavius-Augustus]

Act like Hannibal - with cunning and speed. Even if you only raid, don't be afraid of the Romans - finish the war against the Iberians and then invade Italy! Don't give them time to rebuild if you crush their armies - crush them fast and effective! Use your units' strengths and watch out for their weaknesses - use the Caetrati infantry to mellow the legionaries, then absorb the initial hit. After that use your best troops to flank the enemy and your superior cavalry - to hit their rear. Use every advantage you can - Italy has ample hills, low mountains and woods. Ambush the Romans, use forts, constantly reinforce your troops... And to fund all this, use the Carthaginians merchant abilities... If you capture Sicily before Italy it will be even better. Just don't let Rome become a superpower. Hope this helps.

[whookidd]

Oli,

Yes I am sacking and destroying everything in Italy. Well I was planning on taking over the island of crete and the city of cyrene to open up and huge trade lane all the way to carthage u think that will work?

I just destroyed 2 iberian armies and there 2 top generals it is only a matter of time before all of Iberia will belong to me.

Octavius-Augustus,

Yes that sounds like a great idea, u are right I wont let them get to powerful last time I allowed that too happen I was fighting them for years and years slowing taking settlements finally after 50 something turns I was finally over the alps. When I fought them in germany and gual I used my imperial army(elite) to raid Italy while there main armies were fighting my main armies. After awhile all they had let was hastai and city militas and I tore them apart and I finally conquered rome. This time is alot more different then Before VH/VH takes away a huge advantage I had in H/VH which is economy. But my raids saved the guals and what left of the germans. Eventually they will bring a army down and I will have to fight them hope I win. Thanks.

[Oli]

Oli,

Yes I am sacking and destroying everything in Italy. Well I was planning on taking over the island of crete and the city of cyrene to open up and huge trade lane all the way to carthage u think that will work?

yes, just be careful with public order and it is a long distance from your capital.

Octavius, thats almost exactly what i did, except i raided a fair few more than just carthage and thapsus (they were the first 2 on my list though)

[Octavius-Augustus]

I'm happy to know you succeeded in defeating the Romans, but that means I will have to take revenge upon Carhago in my own campaign. Anyway, I've never tried Very Hard/Very Hard, but I know that at least for the economic part the VH diff should be actually beneficial for the player, as well as the AI, which Hard does not do. I'm currently playing Hard campaign/Medium battles, as I do not like the concept of any kind of bonus to either side. I play historically and don't spam armies, so Medium brings me the challenge I expect.
Just to add : as Rome, I haven't made such raids, excluding the ones against Carhage and Thapsus, I executed them in an year with a single legion, I relocated the cities, destroyed every building I could (shame you can't burn their fields and raze their walls!) and then left Africa. It was a big blow for Carthage, which didn't take back the settlements for at least 4 turns! Left ungarissoned and on VH tax rate, with no buildings, the cities were still Roman for so long!

[martyr]

I'm happy to know you succeeded in defeating the Romans, but that means I will have to take revenge upon Carhago in my own campaign. Anyway, I've never tried Very Hard/Very Hard, but I know that at least for the economic part the VH diff should be actually beneficial for the player, as well as the AI, which Hard does not do. I'm currently playing Hard campaign/Medium battles, as I do not like the concept of any kind of bonus to either side. I play historically and don't spam armies, so Medium brings me the challenge I expect.
Just to add : as Rome, I haven't made such raids, excluding the ones against Carhage and Thapsus, I executed them in an year with a single legion, I relocated the cities, destroyed every building I could (shame you can't burn their fields and raze their walls!) and then left Africa. It was a big blow for Carthage, which didn't take back the settlements for at least 4 turns! Left ungarissoned and on VH tax rate, with no buildings, the cities were still Roman for so long!

ha thats pretty good. i intended to leave carthage but i wanted a foothold in africa.

it seems to have really messed them up

[whookidd]

Octavius-Augustus,

HAHAHA u will take revenge on carthage for what I have done. I heard people talk about the economic bonus for playing VH/VH but I havent seen it I barely making money and I have 3 armies and all of them are field with 3 libyan skirmishers 4 or 5 late libyan pikemen, 2 bela cavalry, 2 numidian cavalry, my general 2 spearman and the rest caretai and I still dont have enough to build things. The army I have in Italy consist of alot of Caretai and 4 celtiberian spearmen and 2 bela cavalry and 3 skimishers. I notice when I played on H/VH I made alot of money each turn, when I wen to VH/VH it was a sharp decline. I love battles on Very hard because there is a chance I can lost a battle and I love that feeling because it keeps me more focus. Once i know that the AI cant beat me the game becomes pointless. The most recent battle I had 3,502 versus over 4,000 enemy soldiers only a few were militia. I was fighting another iberian army and their general was a 6 star. The AI had alot of great fighters, I lost over 2,400 mean to the AI 3500.most of the mean that survived was the Late pikeman.