ideas for carthage campaign?

[trench]

Playing vanillla.

I am about to be in a big disaster me thinks. Money is always tight, have had
tough time building financial buildings when I am always in need of troops.
If its any indication of the fighting going on, i have plenty of gold chevron units.

Will any of these factions ever give me a break?

I am currently at war with - and initiated no wars -
Julii
Numidia
Gaul - the sheer number of troops is killing me in a war of atttrition. The Julii have not been able to advanced outside Italy , so the Gaul nation is huge and its units are vastly improving.
Spain
Macedonia
Brutii

I have eliminated
Scipii
SPQR
and about to nuke the Julii


I am worried about those darn Egyptians
Coming around to Carthage and West Afrika - Then I'll really be in trouble.
I need to capture Greece for the money, but dont need another enemy
right now.

I control most Italy and half of Spain and half of West Afrika.
You know I am whining and I'll figure it out. Needed to vent.

[Slimshoom]

Fortify Africa as best you can, then focus all of your troops on the Gallic wars and hopefully you will eventually break their armies and then the lands of northern Europe will be open to conquer. By then you should be rich and powerful enough to duke it out with the Ptolemies.

[trench]

Mind saying what is a good unit from Carthage to counter the eventual onslaught of Chariots?

[Slimshoom]

Mind saying what is a good unit from Carthage to counter the eventual onslaught of Chariots?

Lots of phalanxes, lots of bowmen, and oh yea, elephants will do the trick very, very quickly.

[guyyug]

disband any troops u dont need and try and fight gual on ur battle location, and if u think u r goin 2 lose withdraw to fight again another day

[Lord Agelmar]

Your lybian, peoni or sacred band if they are dumb enough to run into your units....which with the AI is sometimes the case. An expensive unit would be Armored elephants. Little old pharoh came my way with an entire army of chariots and attacked an army with 3 things of eles...needless to say pharoh died and the new one asked for peace the next turn.

[gardibolt]

Whatever your easternmost African province is (probably Lepcis Magna?), don't upgrade the roads. That will slow down the Eggies substantially since their chariots will get stuck in the sand on their way to you. Welcome them with a city with stone walls and a full contingent of slingers and spearmen to make them reconsider their plans. They're not so hot at siege warfare, so like hordes in BI you may be best able to defeat them defensively.

The key to playing Carthage is control of the seas. If you don't have the Mediterranean completely under your iron fist, you want to be building stacks of 3-4 ships, one of them a quinquireme, and destroy everything afloat. Retrain every couple battles or so. This will help your economy and also prevent the Egyptians from launching a sea invasion. I try to have zero fog of war on the ocean. Blockade the ports of everyone you're at war with. It's kind of a hassle, but it pays big dividends.

You seem to be doing fine killing the Romans (make sure you put spies in all your Italian cities so they don't bribe them), so your main worry is really the massive stacks that Gaul sends at you. To deal with them, cavalry spam is your best friend. If they don't have forester warbands yet, send some elephants up too---the Gauls cannot deal with elephants very well. Then take a group of 6-8 cavalry (even round shield) and just munch your way through their full stacks. The chain routing doesn't take very long at all. A couple slingers, protected by phalanxes, also helps. The Gauls seem to be susceptible to assassination--anyway, I've had good luck with that--so you may be able to trim down their oversize families that way. Once you have control of the seas, land half a stack of men between Narbo and Marsila, which will distract them from coming after you; even if they get killed, that gives you some breathing room in Iberia. The Spanish are an annoyance in the rear and I'd kill them just to get a front where you're not fighting.

Do you own Crete? Even if you don't, send a family member by boat there and to Greece to accumulate any Cretan Archers you can find, and then guard them very, very carefully. If you're really concerned about the Yellow Peril, I'd put them in your eastern stronghold to be used against the Egyptians, but you may want to split them up.

[Drunken]

Id go with what Slimshoom said. Put big garrisons in the cities closest to the Egyptians, and some troops as back up.

The focus on one enemy at a time, preferably one that you know how to fight. For example if you know your troops cant beat the Gauls (not saying they cant) then dont fight them. Pick on the weakest of your enemies, atleast then you will have more people to recruit.

[Slimshoom]

one of the deadliest things to do when you are playing as Carthage is to get yourself in a multiple front war with Rome, Egypt, and Gaul, so your best course of action would be to fortify Africa and take out Gaul, which I said before.

[trench]

one of the deadliest things to do when you are playing as Carthage is to get yourself in a multiple front war with Rome, Egypt, and Gaul, so your best course of action would be to fortify Africa and take out Gaul, which I said before.

Perfect - You are describing my probelm exactly. Multi-front war minus Egypt so far.
Mind you , I didnt start any of them. My only Allies are the Greek.

I finshed off the Julii last night and will likely be in control all of Spain by end of tonight.
I plan also to take Tingii in future and control all North West Afrika coast.

Built Large Stone Walls in city just south of Carthage and stocked with slingers.
Did not build roads in that province.

The navy is in control of the Med from Spain to Greece - Plenty of "3 gold chevron"
ships to show the battle scars.

I can try to take out Gauls as things progress I jsut dont want Germania and Britain start fighting with me.

I played as Julii once and found I kinda hate the Gaul region as it seems there are always a multitude of rebels and the region seems poor on producing revenue.

GARDIBOLT -
I put spies in the Italian Cities.
I will try to get a General to Crete and get archers for my defensive position in Afrika.
I am just in short supply of Generals right now. How many units of Archers do you think I can get?

[gardibolt]

Built Large Stone Walls in city just south of Carthage and stocked with slingers.
Did not build roads in that province.

The navy is in control of the Med from Spain to Greece - Plenty of "3 gold chevron"
ships to show the battle scars.

I can try to take out Gauls as things progress I jsut dont want Germania and Britain start fighting with me.

I played as Julii once and found I kinda hate the Gaul region as it seems there are always a multitude of rebels and the region seems poor on producing revenue.

GARDIBOLT -
I put spies in the Italian Cities.
I will try to get a General to Crete and get archers for my defensive position in Afrika.
I am just in short supply of Generals right now. How many units of Archers do you think I can get?

Good, sounds like you're in good shape then. I'd agree, you can probably pick up 5-8 Cretans if you stop in the various Greek provinces (remember to visit all the tiny ones) and Crete, though the AI can also hire them so there is some variance in their availability.

In Gaul, avoid getting a border with Briton and Germania as long as possible. The AI tends not to declare war on you if it doesn't border you, probably due to Military Access issues. Keep Gaul as a buffer as long as possible. If you already have a border, then put a fort in any bottlenecks (mountain passes, on roads through forests) to discourage invaders. But sooner or later one or even both of them will declare war on you so you need to be prepared for it. If Gaul is at war with one of them, send a diplomat and see if you can't get an alliance. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, after all.

[trench]

I am kinda screwed getting alliance with Germans since Gauls have done so.
But I do have alliance now with Britains.

Didnt finish off Spain its a long way to that last city!
Didnt finish Numidians in Tingii - they have a full stack there and my forces are weak in that region.

I did take additional Gaul town and devoured a couple of full stacks of theirs.
Right now I have a large forces coming at them from Italy and from Spain -
that should make life tough on them!

My biggest worry now is controlling Squalor in my Major cities that I posted
in another thread. Hmmm... maybe i should have put here!

Merged double post. - Trajan

Thanks for ideas - now I have put the Gaul on the defensive and removed the Romans and Spain. My cities are under squalor control. Hence, I am on solid ground fear no nation. Thats good and bad. Thanks for great help.

[guyyug]

Thanks for ideas - now I have put the Gaul on the defensive and removed the Romans and Spain. My cities are under squalor control. Hence, I am on solid ground fear no nation. Thats good and bad. Thanks for great help.

fear no nation, gd 4 u but watch out for cav archers when u get to the east, btw an alliance with britian wont last, the moment u border with them they attack u, ive lost count of how many times they have done this against me

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

The Gauls are pretty stupid when facing phalanxes. They rely more on numbers than unit quality and they probably have several warbands in their armies. Thus all you have to do is to engage them with your phalanxes, break them with elephants in the rear causing the warbands to rout. When a warband routs, generally all the other warbands and then all the gallic army usually routs in no time allowing your light cavalry to destroy everything that remained. Works perfectly.

[Sitarus Originalus PM-30+]

The Gauls are pretty stupid when facing phalanxes. They rely more on numbers than unit quality and they probably have several warbands in their armies. Thus all you have to do is to engage them with your phalanxes, break them with elephants in the rear causing thw warbands rout. When a warband routs, generally all the other warbands and then all the gallic army usually routs in no time allowing your light cavalry to destroy everything that remained. Works perfectly.

I agree with you ... some barbarians are not good when fighting with phalanxes, but in general - AI is not a good strategiest anyway.

PS: what does my reputation mark mean (the thing under my name)? where did i get it and why? i must say i am honored anyway, but i dont understand how could i deserve such an honor... :sweatingb :original:

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

I agree with you ... some barbarians are not good when fighting with phalanxes, but in general - AI is not a good strategiest anyway.

PS: what does my reputation mark mean (the thing under my name)? where did i get it and why? i must say i am honored anyway, but i dont understand how could i deserve such an honor... :sweatingb :original:

This is a bit off-topic, but there is already a thread in the feedback forum. There you can know everything about the new "reputation" thing.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=44406

[Somethindarker]

if i were you i'd be defensive with the gauls and the egyptions! take out julii and numidia asap and then concentrate all manpower to finish off the gauls and the macedonian i think that the macedonian will leave you alone since in my carthage campaign they would just blockade my ports every one in a while.

[Sitarus Originalus PM-30+]

This is a bit off-topic, but there is already a thread in the feedback forum. There you can know everything about the new "reputation" thing.

thanks ... i didnt know that. You were most helpfull =)

As for the cartage: Cartage is one of the most powerfull and richest faction in the game. They shouldn't have much problems with other factions. Like the other guys said, use phalanxes and elefants to crush the anemy. Not many units can succesfully fight against them and with good strategy you should soon be king of the World =)

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

I played as Julii once and found I kinda hate the Gaul region as it seems there are always a multitude of rebels and the region seems poor on producing revenue.

The Julii should try to get Caralis and Spain as soon as possible to make enough money for the Civil War; anyway, the gaul are irritating because if you don't take their lands they will be sending several full stacks of warbands and besieging your towns. Playing as Germania, I've seen them retreat from the battle, besiege my cities, retreat again and avoiding battle. They are just too much irritating and their lands are poor and full of brigands. With the Carthaginians, you should at least try to make them your protectorate (that will be difficult, especially with these irritating barbarians ). Or you can exterminate and destroy all the gallic cities you conquered then abandoning them. So you will have a rebel buffer state between you, Britannia and Germania and will avoid war. The lands far to the north are not worth conquering, as they are vast thus allowing several brigands to spawn, and they produce almost no money. Try to conquer Greece and the lands around the Mediterranean. Just don't go further north or south if you don't have any strategical reasons to fight there.

I am just in short supply of Generals right now. How many units of Archers do you think I can get?

You can get many cretan archers on the area around Crete, southern greece and the coastal provinces of Turkey (just don't go too far into Eastern Lands). Assuming that you went to all these areas, you will get about 5 or 8 cretan archers later in the game. That seems enough to defend important positions and still have one or two of them in your armies.

[gardibolt]

Now, time to assault the Egyptians!