Carthage Campaign Strategy.

[Alexanderos]

Hello everyone i am thinking on starting a carthaginian campaign , after unlocking them.

PRO's : Sacred Band is just awesome.
ARMOURED ELEPHANTS - Need i say more?
Nice Economy
Decent Navy
Nice Flag

CON's : No archers , altough i installed poeni archers for them , it was too unrealistic.
Pretty lame infantry , libyan spearmen can hold to hastati and principes , but when the roman reforms , come , you're fu*ked.
Spread out starting position.

I was thinking to attack the scipii in messana , take the city , that making them bankrupt. Afterwards , i'll build a fleet to sink the ships they and the julii have for invasions , and then starting to conquer territiores in Africa and Iberia. When i'm powerful enough , i'll take all of sicily and southern italy , then i will attack egypt and conquer everything around there + asia minor , that giving me at least 40 regions. And when i have 49 regions , i'll take ROME and yaaay !

[War lord]

You're probably better off destroying the Romans quickly. Gaul, Spain and Numidia aren't that much of a threat, three weak nations with units far worse then yours. If you leave any romans for too long they'll cover half the map and you'll be fighting stacks of Urbans before long.

[Pounders]

Id recommend sending one elephant unit into iberia to join the current forces. Barbarians have such poor morale that elephants will cripple nearly any field army

[Alexanderos]

War lord , if i manage to get messana and go into the actual itally , spqr and everyone sends their army to me. The sprq legion is just too hard to defeat , thei units have far too much experience. So , if i act too quickly i will fall. ''Quick decisions are unsafe decisions''

[tudor93]

it was too unrealistic.

was too unrealistic.

too unrealistic.

unrealistic.

you can uninstall vanilla then

[NobleNick]

If I recall correctly, I played Carthage as H/H. Had good success by:

1.) Going through the Iberian penninsula first thing. Took a few Numidian settlements, but left a buffer between me and Egypt.

2.) After getting Iberia under control and a little cash rolling in (still early game), Assaulted the Scipii's islands.

3.) After Scipii, took out Julii from the west (Iberian penn.) and south (former Scipii isles). SQPR was next, then Gauls, Brutii, Greece (for the money), and Turkish Penn. Then it was on to Egypt (Three pronged attack: from Turkish penn.; from Africa; and far eastern Med. from sea).

I used all of the following a lot:

1.) Infantry stacks augmented with Armored Elephants; The Ellies are a real game changer, if you take the precautions necessary to ensure they do not run amok. They all but nullify the Roman Heavy Infantry advantage.

2.) "all-cav half-stack" tactics (no elephants). These are great for slowing down and eliminating full conventional enemy stacks, with relatively little investment on your part. With a general, they are great against Egypt, which is notorious for leaving it's happy underbelly delightfully unprotected. The cav stack moves fast between cities, and simply sieges, sacks, and moves on; leaving each city in its wake to rebel and be a headache for Egypt.

3.) "All-cav half stacks" which include a General AND Armored Elephants. These are great for taking territiory and/or practicing scorched earth tactics against lower tier opponents; since the stack can move at cav speed on the campaign map, and the elephants can cave in the city gates.

[Punic Hoplite]

This is how I usually fought as Carthage in Vanilla. I would send my spy that is in Sicily between Messana and Syracuse, and then send Hanno with his army to an area one turn away from Messana. When the Scipii attack Syracuse, I attack Messana. There is generally only their Faction Leader there, so I can easily take it with the sheer number of forces at my disposal. I then build up, waiting for the Scipii to take Syracuse, and then I attack Syracuse. Now I own all of Sicily. Now I generally either shift focus towards retaking Caralis, which the Julii have taken, or get some forces to Iberia to build up my strength there.

I then wait until I have a good number of Libyan Spearmen awaiting deployment for my Italian campaign, as well as a good number of good cavalry. Italy must be taken, though given that the Greeks are a pain in the rear to face with the shoddy infantry we have, I tend to invade from the Julii north, giving the Brutii time to do their work against the Greek Cities.

[HERO_331]

Good advice given thus far. As others have said, you definitely want to keep the Romans in check. Be sure to build up a strong navy, and be careful of Caralis, as the Julii will often land armies there.