Iberia

[Roman Warlord]

Started my first Iberian campain (VH/VH) and was a little disapointed at how easy it was to start off.

I managed to take the 2 rebel provinces and kick Carthage out of Spain with very minimal losses using pretty much my starting units. True I haven't had to fight the Indi Guals yet but they only have small forces in the area anyway.

I feel that it should be a struggle for the Iberians to evict Carthage from Spain, after all they are meant to be a rich and powerful empire, compared to a emerging tribal confeduration. My suggestion would be to add a few top tier units to Cartho Nova and the other teritory (forgot name) when the human plays as Iberia.

I would push for a few high tier units rather than half a stack. Its possible to build low end half/full stacks (skimishers and spearmen) in a couple of turns as Iberia as it has good finances.

You could then have good fun trying to use weak but numerous forces to take down what I see as an experianced-ocupational force.

[Scutarii]

Sounds like a good idea. I haven't played Iberia in a while, but Carthage should definitely be a challenge. But seeing as the AI is usually preoccupied with the Romans at this point, thats a little hard. Adding some better units to their Iberian garrisons could help, as well as the player could allow them some more chance to build up (attack Northward first, which will make them a challenge later on).

[Double X]

AI never does well with Carthage in my experience. Get's beaten by Rome in Sicily and Iberia in Spain, and then struggles to beat the rebels within North Africa. I think a lot of their spearmen and peltasts should be upgraded a little.

[Webba]

Possible because Carthage's roster is interesting but difficult for the AI to use well. In the Punic mod for XC that I made I streamlined their recruitment of auxiliary units and they seem to do better with it than they did before. They're only going to beat Rome if you're playing them, of course, but I've seen them stalemate or destroy Iberia as many times as they've lost in recent games.

The PMP project also has plans to liven up their roster a bit which should help the ai out a bit. Of coures it's worth remembering that historically they lost rather badly and their culture was all but obliterated.

[aznflea]

they lost badly? i thought they only lost after a close battle with scipio who won becuase of the numidian cavalry arriving. hannibal did kind of ravage rome didnt they? was this the 2nd or 3rd punic wars? sorry my history isnt my strong point

rome should defeinitely beat carthage in a AI vs AI battle. but i never see rome invading carthage. they always go in the direction im located in. i was pontus and they seemed to only secure italy and then expand rapidly east, forgetting about the pelops and racing into asia minor. it might be a coincidence but it also happaned in my scythian campaign that i abandoned.

[Webba]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, historically they put up a great fight against Rome, causing them all sorts of grief. There were many close fought battles in the Punic wars and also many victories for the Carthaginians. IIRC Hannibal roamed around Italy for upwards of 10 years. They still lost all 3 wars though and every time they lost the terms of peace were pretty nasty for them. After the 3rd war Carthage was destroyed and the Romans annexed all of their remaining territory. So yeah, they did lose pretty badly in the end.

[Roman Warlord]

Have played a bit further and now encoutering resistance in the middle of Africa, probably killed a total of around 6 stacks of fairly low quality troops, but it is still early game.

So even though its a challenge now its a bit late for carthage down half thier provinces.

Suggests to me that Carthage is powerful enough fraction but needs some help to hold thier original provinces in Spain to stop what was a fairly easy blitz.

Also randomly its 20 turns in and Rome only now looks like taking a thier first city Taratum(sp) off the indi Greeks. So Carthage hasn't even had to worry about Rome.

@Scutarii, Northwards would be a bad option for Iberia to go as the Indi Guals anb Guals are fairly balanced in fighting each other but you would have to fight both of them for quite poor teritories then Carthage would hit you from behind.

[aznflea]

yes i would go for carthage too if i was iberian. the barbarians to the north are totally crazy and not worth fighting for.

webba: unfortunately they did lose all three punic wars...or maybe fortunately? only the second punic wars really interests me tho, hannibals refusal to march on rome when he had her in his hands was really upsetting. it would be nice to know how things would have turned out then

[Scutarii]

@Roman Warlord: I was more talking about a bit of house rules, so to speak, to let Carthage develop their armies in Iberia better. The AI can't handle having a front in Africa, plus having to ship troops to the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, as well as having Sicily and Iberia.

[Roman Warlord]

True I could use house rules but what im suggesting here would mean that you don't need to.

Also having played a bit more have all but reached carthage but have seen several setbacks by powerful carthage forces, it would be very hard for me to lose now though due to a bigger recuiting area. If they could hold onto thier spanish claims then I think this would be a very exciting campain.

The AI can't handle having a front in Africa, plus having to ship troops to the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, as well as having Sicily and Iberia

Ive noticed a thing about the AI (at least running in basic rtw) that if you are at war with a fraction the AI won't/very rarley attack it. So Carthage is safe from that front.

See this image from a defense campain by Sub Rosa, who played the synthians. Dacia and Armenia were at war with her for the whole game but they were never attacked by another fraction despite being very weak.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...hiadef1144.jpg

Also Carthage has been making good use of boats to bring forces off thier island cities to help mainland africa, and briefly spain.

[DimeBagHo]

It would be easy enough to tweak the campaign start for Iberia by adding some good troops for Carthage. Do you think it would also help if Iberia and Carthage started out at war? That way Carthage might focus it's forces in Iberia before the player attacks.

I could add some tougher troops to the rebel regions as well.

[aznflea]

yes that would be good bcause carthage is driven out of iberia too easily

[Roman Warlord]

Thinking about it, if they started out at war then carthage may not expand properly in North Africa.

They started making aggressive moves towards me early on, with a stack marching into my teritory, though it did retreat when I stacked the village it was heading for. I then declared war shortly after.