Carthage vs Rome

[HeadSouth]

First, I've been playing around with different mods recently since vanilla's gotten really boring, and this is the only one that has grabbed my interest enough to play it, so thanks for making my new favorite mod!

So here's the thing, I'm playing the most recent version of XGM as Carthage on hard/hard. I've been doing pretty well in that I've conquered the African coast and all of Iberia (although I'm extremely poor despite the wealth of Spain, damn unit upkeep), and now I'm fighting Rome. Now, I fought huge Iberian armies (often much bigger than mine) and won with very little casualties, but I cannot seem to have any decisive victory against the Romans. They seem extremely overpowered.

For example, I had almost 500 men fighting a single Hastati division, charging downhill, with significant cavalry in the mix, firing at them with archers, and they simply WOULD NOT route. In that same battle, I had two full stacks of troops (mine and an AI reinforcement) surrounding the Roman body on three sides and they wouldn't route either, and took barely any casualties at all for that matter. Now I'm not the most spectacular general, but when I go from taking almost no losses to not being able to win a single battle, it makes me think there's some kind of reason. Is Rome overpowered in the game or am I just imagining things?

Other than that, awesome mod. Best I've played out of them all.

[Lupus]

Two threads that deal with your question.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...romans%2Bpower
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...romans%2Bpower

Now my thread asking the opposite:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=274426

First two, same as yours, is where AI controlled Romans. It would seem, higher than M, the AI gets
bonuses, scary ones too.
Maybe our tactics needs polishing....

[Sextus Molestus]

I've run into the same problem (Romans being extremely powerful in comparison to others) playing even as the Greeks. My quick solution: armourers and large/awesome temples to whatever smith god your faction has. It seems that as soon as I upgrade my units they have a much easier time cutting through enemies...which I suppose is logical. Whatever, my advice: build armourers and the like if you haven't already.

[HeadSouth]

I've run into the same problem (Romans being extremely powerful in comparison to others) playing even as the Greeks. My quick solution: armourers and large/awesome temples to whatever smith god your faction has. It seems that as soon as I upgrade my units they have a much easier time cutting through enemies...which I suppose is logical. Whatever, my advice: build armourers and the like if you haven't already.

Seems sound, but I have pretty much NO money. I get maybe 3k each turn if I'm lucky, and that doesn't go very far especially if you need reinforcements.

[Zarax]

A few ellies will make your life really easy.
If you can't afford that, numidian spam does the job fine with some micromanagement.

[Scutarii]

Roman troops are tough. My strategy? Pull out of Sicily, post a small 1/4-1/2 stack on Corsica, and go conquer Africa, then Iberia. Then you've got access to Sacred Band Cav and bigger ele's, and you got lots of money to throw at Rome. If you want to play cheap, build a half stack of Numidians with a half stack of heavy infantry to back them up. Numidians on they're own should be able to take out over half the enemy army, then just pin and mob....

You shouldn't have money problems if you have Africa united, and some holdings in Iberia. If you do, go conquer more of Iberia.

[Unknown Soldier]

Darn and I though Iberian Slingers were gonna be the solution

[Zarax]

They are quite effective as well, just keep them away from enemy cavalry.

[Scutarii]

I find Balearics take far too many casualties to be too effective for more than a couple of battles, I stick to Numidians for my missiles as they can also mob enemy units pretty effectively.