Carthage.. too strong a faction in RS1.6?

[TTRouble]

Decided to take a quick look at a couple of the other factions while waiting for RS2, esp Catharge and the Greeks. I've started a campaign with Carthage H/VH and am really shocked how far I've managed to progress in the last 2-3 days :

* Conquered all of Sicily, North Africa west of Carthage and nearly all of Spain.. one settlement left and then Hannibal will be popping over into Gaul . I've got a wee toe hold in Italy having captured Croton from the rebels .

* Economy - its booming from East to West. Average 10,000-15,000 dinari profit on each turn. I'm building up the core cities and then plan to expand the others slowly.

* Units - Selection of units are excellent.. even at the start and once you add in some Syracuse Hoplites to the mix its even better. The archers are a good but not on the same page as the Syrian Archers that the Seleucid's can recruit. I'm using the same type of units and formations that I've used for the Seleucid's and it seems to work even better with the Carthaginians.

So having played the Selecuid's (VH/VH) and really having to struggle to develop the main cities (most still dont have wooden walls!), having to hire lots of mercenaries at the start to just keep hold of the settlements that were not abandoned and constantly fighting off the various other factions simultaneously, I'm beginning to think : Is Carthage too strong a faction esp at the start ? What unit types are they going to be able to recruit in RS2 ...will Thorakitai and Thureophoroi be available ? Will Carthage be as strong in RS 2 and if so it's going to be interesting to see whether they can conquer Rome in super quick time?

Cheers

TTRouble..

PS... Still going to start RS2 as the Selecuid's first!

[rory o'kane]

The Seleukid campaign is supposed to be ridiculously tough at the start - because that WAS a tough time for the Seleukids. The best thing I understand for the Seleukids to do is withdraw from lots of the eastern cities which are hard to keep order over, and concentrate on your core cities in mesopotamia and Syria, and build up from there. As I understand it, it's relatively beneficial to fight the Armenians first, as they're apparently quite wealthy for such a small kingdom.
I think you've simply gone from comparing the Carthaginians (who have a relatively good start to the campaign), to the Seleukids (which is so much harder and requires real skill to prevent your core cities falling to the enemy early on... it's just not a fair comparison!

[TTRouble]

Thanks for the reply .. so its simply down to the Carthage being a better starting position than the Selecuid's ?

In my Selecuid campaign I've recovered all of the settlements (east and west) I gave up at the start and have taken taken 50% of the Armenia's lands (all of Asia Minor) and finally, have given those Parthian's a thumping by leaving them with one city but thats taken a long time to get too . So, I was shocked how much easier playing Carthage has been - from buildings to recruiting some really useful units from the start and then seeing how well the same tactics/units work against non Pike/Phalanx based armies. Did Carthage ever use horse archers at any time ?

Any chance of a mini preview of the Carthaginian units before the RS2 release or are we just so close to the release that there's no time ?

Cheers

TTRouble



PS

I think I might have come across a bug while fighting the rebels in Spain, one entire rebel faction was basically all Greek ! Army consisted of militia hoplites, Hoplites, peltasts, light greek infantry, medium greek Cavalry mixed with a couple of units of Celtic spearmen !

[General Brittanicus]

Carthage is no stronger than any other faction, in my experience unless they are controlled by me, they will almost certianly be destroyed in the first few turns.

[rory o'kane]

Thanks for the reply .. so its simply down to the Carthage being a better starting position than the Selecuid's ?

In my Selecuid campaign I've recovered all of the settlements (east and west) I gave up at the start and have taken taken 50% of the Armenia's lands (all of Asia Minor) and finally, have given those Parthian's a thumping by leaving them with one city but thats taken a long time to get too . So, I was shocked how much easier playing Carthage has been - from buildings to recruiting some really useful units from the start and then seeing how well the same tactics/units work against non Pike/Phalanx based armies. Did Carthage ever use horse archers at any time ?

Any chance of a mini preview of the Carthaginian units before the RS2 release or are we just so close to the release that there's no time ?

Cheers

TTRouble



PS

I think I might have come across a bug while fighting the rebels in Spain, one entire rebel faction was basically all Greek ! Army consisted of militia hoplites, Hoplites, peltasts, light greek infantry, medium greek Cavalry mixed with a couple of units of Celtic spearmen !

Interesting. I remember about 2 years ago working on RS and having spanish caetrati popping up in Egypt. that was weird. maybe a slight AOR error.

[DoogansQuest]

I would rather it's accurate of the time frame than balanced for game purposes.

[tryadelion]

greeks on numantia? i would challenge to a duel to anyone that says that is it hystorical.

[♔DARTH LEGO♔]

but i thought its a re imagining of time; kind of half fantasy half reality....

i prefer it like that IMHO

...i think thats why they call it a "game".....

[Athena,]

SRSLY WHATs with the super factions?

WTH

1 or 2 lost battles should seal a factions fate, they should never have more then 4 or so stacks

[Tilorius Coilean Hibernus]

SRSLY WHATs with the super factions?

WTH

1 or 2 lost battles should seal a factions fate, they should never have more then 4 or so stacks

Do not spam. You already made a thread, you don't need to post about it in other threads, especially when it's offtopic. Also, stop with the caps. If your keyboard is actually broken, get a new one.

Thanks for the reply .. so its simply down to the Carthage being a better starting position than the Selecuid's ?

At the time the game is set the Seleucids were in decline, and Carthage was rising (until the second Punic War at least, but that's 539 AUC, 66 years after the start of the game). So, yes.

I think I might have come across a bug while fighting the rebels in Spain, one entire rebel faction was basically all Greek ! Army consisted of militia hoplites, Hoplites, peltasts, light greek infantry, medium greek Cavalry mixed with a couple of units of Celtic spearmen !

Free People in Numantia? They're supposed to be greek. Otherwise, not sure.

Please use the edit button instead of double posting. Thanks. /apple

[Athena,]

Do not spam. You already made a thread, you don't need to post about it in other threads, especially when it's offtopic. Also, stop with the caps. If your keyboard is actually broken, get a new one.



At the time the game is set the Seleucids were in decline, and Carthage was rising (until the second Punic War at least, but that's 539 AUC, 66 years after the start of the game). So, yes.




Free People in Numantia? They're supposed to be greek. Otherwise, not sure.

Please use the edit button instead of double posting. Thanks. /apple

I Literally ROFL'd at the Irony of this post,

telling someone not to spam while double posting LMAO TOO FUNNY!!!!


Yeah Carthage is to strong

[Binshuy]

SRSLY WHATs with the super factions?

WTH

1 or 2 lost battles should seal a factions fate, they should never have more then 4 or so stacks

it depends as Caesar in gaul ive been dealing quite of a whooping from the Gauls its almost a battle of attrition as romans are in need of desperate reinforcements and the gauls keep springing up at every corner every step i take im forced to regroup my men loosing that step again =__=

[Irishguy]

Isn't there a greek city state close to Tarraco starting with an E? eph... eh... ex... naah I don't know...
Carhtage is one of the stupidest AI's I've ever seen, they have money in abundance and super good troops but still, Syracuse kicks them of Sicily and Spain kick them out of Spain (xD). really dumbest faction ever seen. Close are the germans though....

[tryadelion]

ahh. you're saying one of my prefered sunday spring travels! Emporiae. it was a colony, one of the biggest of the iberian coast. it got 3 cities. one roman, another greek and another iberian. the three lived very peacefuly. here is where Scipio disembarked!


but no, the damn city of numantia should have ilerget/iberian troops. resisted a lot of days of siege from the romans!

[Akritoi]

Don't agree mate.

I started a new campaign after I got fed up of fighting stack after stack of Germans and was able to take Corsica, Sardinia and the whole of Sicily and Malta all within twenty years of each other. From what my spies can gather, North Africa is ripe for the plucking with only Spain being secure for them.

[OctavianIV]

Back on track people - Carthage has been kicked out of Sicily just about every campaign I've played in RS 1.5 and 1.6. Has anyone not played as Rome and seen a Carthage/Rome stand-off? This happened only once in RS1.5 when I was playing as the Greeks. Sicily was crushed early and Rome thrashed Gaul, so they had a big do in Iberia. Interesting to watch - the Romans won eventually.

[Athena,]

I feel for you, bro.

[TTRouble]

May be I'm having an unusal campaign as the Carthaginian's ... having nearly taken Spain the Gauls have invaded in force 5 full stacks against my 3 and so far I've managed to keep on top of things although I'll need to recruit a few heavy swordmen and heavy cavalry units to stop my Thureophoroi from getting seriously mauled. I like the Thureophori a lot as a unit but I'm a bit surprised how well they can hold their own against other light infantry and even heavy infantry. I can't see that being accurate but may be I'm wrong ?

The Roman's on the other hand in the campaign are getting a serious pasting by Pyrrhus/Eprius - theyre down to just 4 settlements and have lost Rome and are asking for an alliance.

Economy wise, growth has slowed down (5-6000 dinari) per turn but it still churning more $$$ than in my Selecuid campaign.

Cheers

TTrouble

[simplemind07]

CARTHAGE CRUSH ALL WHO OPPOSE HER!!!!!!!!!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

When Im playing

[DoogansQuest]

While not every piece of the map and game can be historically accurate (as there's simply code that can't be cracked), having relative faction strength would make far more sense.

Yes, it's a game. But it's only a game in that you can play it, digitally, and have control over the end-result. You win or lose. Real life just simply goes on.

Carthage should be strong, given the time frame represented by the game.

As far as the AI, goes, I've never seen Carthage conquer a single territory. Seriously. Not one single battle won by them in the dozens of campaigns I've played. They always get kicked off of the island by Syracuse, and then pushed out of Iberia by the Iberians. Then they just hang out on their African coast until I get around to conquering them.

That bothers me more than the ease with which one can dominate while using them. They were powerful at the time, and that's reflected when they are in the player's hands. When the AI has them, they do absolutely nothing in my campaigns.