Strategies against highly upgraded Roman republic infantry?

[Genius of the Restoration]

So I'm playing a Mundus Magnus Carthage campaign on VH/VH and I've defeated the Romans in the south of Italy but come up to Rome. They have 7exp hastati, principes, triarii and velites with g/g.
I'm an impatient bugger and want to take Rome, any ideas on how to best counter them? I'm thinking lots of missile units to negate the experience bonus, but it would still be really tough and they'd rout all my little libyan spearmen and iberian inf if I engaged them. Maybe run cav around them forever while they get shot at?

[Jennii]

use your missile units to rout their own missile units then turn them on the enemy cavalry if you can, use your own cavalry to keep the enemy away from them and when your archers have to pull back finish off their cavalry with your own. If they have any archers left harrass them with your cavalry.

Use your spearmen/infantry to hold the enemy battle line still then send your elephants in from one side of the enemy flank and have them run all the way through it to the other side breaking up the enemy formation as they go, this also caused the enemy roman to fall to the ground leaving them vulnerable, if they don't rout then send your elephants back again and do it again.

If your elephants run amok then send your archers behind the enemy and fire into their back with flaming arrows or if they are slingers or something then just use whatever they can

When the enemy units start to routhave your cavalry chase them off while your free infantry roll up the enemy battle line

That's the kind of strategy I would use

Oh, and if you can hire mercenary hoplties or heavy infantry then do so, they will help hold the romans still

[Julius Barca the Great]

thinking lots of missile units to negate the experience bonus

Good idea. The only problem would be the Romans massive Armor and shield bonuses, rendering all but the best missle units obsolete. For example, use Cretans and Balaeric Slingers, and maybe some updraged skirmishers.
Good luck.

[HanatielHawk]

What i'd do is try to chase archers away from the battlefield with a cavalery batalion, so archers of the romans would do almost no damage.
Your own missile troops would do a very little damage, but just enough to weaken the troops. Attacking roman flanks is useless because thei'll alway's stay in line where-ever attacked.
Use the sacred band to form a strong defenceline but not to long because romans are tough and if you have only 2 lines of sacred bands you'll be slain into a Carthagestew.
So 4 lines is enough.
Phalanx like this /----\ so your flanks are protected. The - must be on the top of the /\ ofcourse.
Cavalery behind the phalanxes and a few behind the flank-protectors (/ and \) facing the same way as the flank-protectors. General behind the phalanx and when your archers are threathened by the roman infantry, seek shelter behind your phalanxwall and disable skirmish, when being attacked enable the skirmish again when your defence is weakened.
When defending use the elephants when your spears are attacked. They demoralise the attacking army. Make sure you attack from the back.

I'm not quite sure this formation works with Romans, but it helped me from times to times.

[Dust be in Thy Mouth, Infidel!]

A good bribe never goes amiss.

[daxypoo]

A good bribe never goes amiss.

lol this is true but at this point in game would probably cost 40k denarii + especially w/ generals

carthage wth bring your cav w/ an ele in tow...
you can use your cav to chase rome missiles and draw awkward ai into chasing you as you bring up inf grab the roman inf

try to kill commander to scare the romey's then charge cav and ele into roman inf
and enjoy the fun

doesnt this always work no matter what rtw you play?

[Genius of the Restoration]

you can use your cav to chase rome missiles and draw awkward ai into chasing you as you bring up inf grab the roman inf

The problem is that 7xp g/g velites destory both round and long shields.
I think masses missiles is the only way to go. Elephants wouldn't last long against the 21 pila attack of the principes and hastati let alone the velites.

I actually solved the problem by being sneaky and taking Rome while distracting the main army outside the walls using javcav which resulted in them losing half the stack because I won the battle by time limit. I'm still curious how to go about actually beating it in a fight though. How about massed Onagers?

[Genius of the Restoration]

Thanks for your contributions. The real problem was that it was early in the game and I didn't have any decent units to counter them with. I had a couple of long shield cav but mostly round shield. One unit of velites routed two units of round shields that charged it from different directions when it was isolated. In the end charging an army full of cav en masse while an ai controlled infantry army distracted them was the only way I could do it. I just tried a custom battle on vh and a unit of hastati with their upgrades could defeat a sacred band head on.

@Doge Vitale
I don't actually use bribes, is the cost of the bribe in proportion to the total cost of the units in the army?

[mikoli]

Just try to trick SPQR army to march away little from Rome,then build a fort to prevent SPQR army to help when you besiege Rome!And in the end attack Rome with your army while they are besieging your fort!This is cowardly tactic but it helps!

[HanatielHawk]

Or just be agressive and attack with at least 5 full flag armies
Now thats cowardly

[Imperator Romani]

Or just be agressive and attack with at least 5 full flag armies
Now thats cowardly

Haha believe it or not, I've autoresolved one of those(didn't want to fight that big of a battle because it would lag) and I lost...the enemy lost about 100 men, I lost around 4000

BS

[HanatielHawk]

Haha believe it or not, I've autoresolved one of those(didn't want to fight that big of a battle because it would lag) and I lost...the enemy lost about 100 men, I lost around 4000

BS

I had that with russia, only won when i used 5 full flags against Hungary, but what troops did you had then? And what did the enemy have?
Mostly they have characters and quite strong hastati and principes.