Carthage

[Filippo the Great]

Well im about 15 years into my campaign with Carthage. Basically on the first couple of turns i took Syracuse from the Greek's. The Scipii decided they wanted it so the moved their whole army out of Messana and i took it. After that i basically crushed their army on Sicily. The problem is after i did that they've had it in for me. They keep seaging Carsilla(excuse my spelling. city on Sardinnia). It seems that their infantry is so much stronger then mine, i keep losing these battles that i should be winning.They took Casilla a couple of times but i got it back. Does anyone have any tips on how i can handle their infantry? Thanks in advance.

[Hannibal Barca]

well your infantry will be pants for a while. However carthage always have cavalry. It is a joke how cheap the upkeep is to. You could field an entire army of cavalry at half the cost of your standard infantry one and have you ever seen what happens when an almost entirely infatry based army (i.e. romans) faces an entire army of cavalry. One all out charge and thats it. So basically loads of cavalry. I kind of consider it cheating to build that much cav so i dont do it but it will work.

I would also suggest using ships. Make sure you drown any army before it sets foot on your land. And use carthage to the max. Its most advanced so you will get the best troops from there. Transport them often. Just wait until you get the sacred band, they wont know what hit them.

[NobleNick]

well your infantry will be pants for a while. However carthage always have cavalry.... I kind of consider it cheating to build that much cav so i dont do it but it will work.

I would also suggest using ships. Make sure you drown any army before it sets foot on your land. And use carthage to the max. Its most advanced so you will get the best troops from there. Transport them often. Just wait until you get the sacred band, they wont know what hit them.

Agreed with Hannibal. He started us out on a succession campaign as Carthage on Hard battle setting, and he kicked Roman tush big time.

Carthage infantry is not that good. Even the Sacred Band infantry, far and away the best Carthaginian infantry unit, is not quite as good as the Roman Legionary Cohort. (BUT that is not to say that SB infantry is bad: It is quite sturdy.)

Carthage cavalry is where it's at: Like Hannibal said, very good cavalry is very affordable. all of the Roman factions were gone by the time I inherited the Carthage succession campaign; but I used upgraded Sacred Band CAVALRY almost exclusively, to hand the Gauls their own heads on a platter. IIRC the SB cav is technically light cav; but their stats are not light cav stats. Used correctly, a 1/2 stack (or, with great care, even a 1/4 stack) will eat through FULL stack standard mix Gaul armies, multiple times, with only light cav losses. (Take a look at this thread to see how.) Retrain often. After a while, your cav will have silver and gold chevrons and will be unstoppable.

I did the same thing against Romans with Legionary cavalry, playing as Scipii in the civil war. And its even working in my current Gaul campaign against the Romans, Dacians, and Germans; and (until several turns ago) I only had generals and light cav. So I have every reason to believe using upgraded SB Cavalry would work for you against Rome. Meet them in the field; let them attack you; let them run themselves ragged chasing you for about half of the battle; then start ripping their exhausted forces apart with your fresh cavalry. Like Hannibal said, it works so well it's like cheating.

And the elephants: Armored Elephants were made to chew up non-spear heavy infantry. Four units or so of Legionary Cohort can bring down an Armored Elephant unit, if the Cohort are driven by a human player; but the A.I. is not quite as good at it... Just remember to use your SB cav to take out the Roman archers and Onagers before they can flame your Armored Elephants. Then let the ellies crush everything else that doesn't carry a long pointy thing.

On ships: Carthage is quite capable of shutting down the entire Mediterranean, and every body of water, for that matter. And your foes will scream in military and (mostly) economic agony if you do.

[Sitarus Originalus PM-30+]

yup, i agree with Hannibal Barca.
also you can wait until you get better infantry. cartage has one of the very best infantry in my opinion and not many units can defeat their later pfalanxes. but if you are looking for a fast victory against romans, then do what Hannibal Barca said.

[Gaius Baltar]

Slingers are silly deadly too. Recruit or hire some as mercs. Then, slip them around the rear of the Roman infantry and let them volley into the ranks. Use armies with 1/3 composition cav (round or long shield), and also work some of those around the rear. Once the slingers are at work, charge them home.

[LoudHoward]

Take a unit of elephants out wide to the flank of their main infantry line, then attack the enemy unit on the far side of the line and watch them all fly It's funny if nothing else.

I've never gone very well in a campaign with Carthage, I always end up fighting about 4 factions at once, it's fun but frustrating.

[Trajan]

Moved to the Total War Battle Planning sub-forum.

[The strategist]

In order to do well as Carthage you really need to take advantage of the more advanced units and low maintence costs. Compensate for the low infantry quality early in the game by raising huge armies, even using multiple armies in a battle, but with a general in charge of each so that the advantage of superior numbers can be realized. Take sicily as early as possible. Recruit the majotiy of your infantry from cities besides Carthage focus on building up the population there as quicly as possible, the grain resource there makes this very easy. Once you have a large city (not long if you build structures in right order and tax at low) get the army barracks and large city stables ASAP. Use War Elephants heavily in your armies, elephants are one of the biggest advantages Carthage gets, as they can raise them the soonest of any nation. If you use the heaviest infantry such as Sacred Bands and Elephants effectively you should be able to compete with Rome. Carthage, howevere, will never be able to really raise better armies than Rome, and will always have to raise larger, but lower quality armies (in comparison to Rome, NOT in comparison to its units as a whole) in order to win.

The elephants are the best resource at your disposal.

By the way, if you are looking for the nation with the best potential armies in the game this is the Secleucid Empire. It can raise the most powerful unit in the game (Armoured War Elephants with gold quality arms and armour) and nobody else can (Carthage only gets silver quality equipment), it can raise cataphracts (potentially one of the most useful units in the game if used effectively, and a small number capable of defeating an entire army for example 5 units can kill a whole army if used at maximum effectiveness) at higher quality even than Partharia thanks to equipment, the Secleucids get the best long pike pikeman in the game (silver shield pikes), militia hoplites (best town quality infantry in game), and almost exact copies of Roman legionaries from their huge cities (sliver shield legionaries) only difference is no "good morale" otherwise identical. Furthermore the Secleucids are a faction not plagued by nearly as much long-term corruption problems in their family members as Rome and have the innovative quality of the greek culture, often leading to long term high-qaulity leadership for the faction (the roman culture of family members tends to decay as the game goes on whereas the greek family members tend to get better, the exception being Jupiter worshippers among the Romans, their moral decay happens, but at such a slow rate that it is only really noticeable if the game drags on a very long time, into the first century B.C.)

[Filippo the Great]

k thanks for the help guys.

[Rommen]

I am a long way into my campaign as the Scipi (excuse spelling, the blue romans) and i got carthage a long time ago, and i have be using it to train my soilders on the way to spain, my best troops come from scily. but i love having carthage it is in deed a handy city

[mouthofsauron]

Your problem seems to be letting the suckers land on Sicily or Corsica/Sardinia in the first place. Your (large) navy should be sinking them before they get that far. Build watchtowers at each corner of both sets of islands and you 0wn the Western Mediterranean. Works for the Greeks too, if they conquer Sicily

A fleet action can be extremely costly to the losing side if carrying an army. The army alone is probably worth about 10-15k, the boats another 2-3,000 and its probably taken 4-5 years to build. One fleet action can screw up all that hard work. If I can, I wait for enemies to load armies on boats so I can sink the lot in one hit. I never cross water with an army unless I know the fleet its travelling in will either unload the army in one turn or is bigger than any enemy fleet it may meet.

[Erwin Rommel]

i have to agree w/ cavalry and use some numidian expensive but powerful even in close combat! iberain are so cheap use it to your
advantage 1tactic is overwhelm w/ superior numbers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lsteve]

Carthage was my second faction I played with. I conquered the whole map just before 200 BC (was the goal).
I used mostly regular cavalry and Iberian infantry (yes those units), sometimes I used some Phoeni spearman. So even with your iberian infantry and cavalry you can defeat the romans. Just use enough and use them wisely. Settings where at M/M.

[swkcl23]

Del

[Necromancer]

When starting out with Carthage, you don't have too much. Iberian Infantry, they're cost effective and work well in numbers, but they fall like flies when facing heavy infantry like Principes. A good method that I've always used when I was Carthage was to hire a lot of mercenaries.

Good Mercenary List for Carthage:
Balaeric Slingers (As slingers go, they're only equalled by the Rhodian Slingers)
Spanish Infantry (Good for facing off against Hastati and Princepes)
Numidian Cavalry (Will easily tear apart Equites)
Barbarian Mercenaries (High quality and cost effective warriors, and they can be bought in bulk too!!!)
Barbarian Cavalry (Can be used with Numidian Cavalry to guard them while they shower the enemy with javelins)
Mercenary War Elephants (If you're lucky, you can find one of these occassionally in one of your provences that has elephants as a resource)
Cretan Archers (If you sign a temporary trade agreement with Greece, send a general to Crete and purchase any Cretan Archers there, along with any other guys such as Mercenary Hoplites, Cilician Pirates etc.)

I know, mercenaries are expensive but how else are you going to get superior troops at the beginning of the game? Especially when the prospect of facing Rome comes to mind.

Hannibal Barca's right when it comes down to cavalry, Carthaginian Cavalry gets a lot of bang for only a little buck and will easily conquer anything that Rome can send against you before the Marian Reforms.

[Kraut]

Most has been said by the others in this thread, so I will restrict myself to only emphasizing some points:

1) It was mentioned to take Sicily first. And this is absolutely necessary! Beat out those Greeks from Syracuse (in the ling run, they will always betray you!) and conquer Messana. The Scipii are your sworn enemy, they never will coexist with you on this tiny island. Sicily is the absolutely basic step!

2) Naval supremacy was mentioned. IMHO, this is a major factor and key to victory against the Romans. After taking Sicily (and Sardinia), bottle up those freakin´ toga-wearing infidels on the Italian Peninsula. Then, you can send in the Marines! Build large armies, ship them to the point where you want to attack, at the time you want to attack, against the (numerical inferior of course) enemy you want to attack. Do not hesitate to use hit-and-run tactics on the strategic map, too, if Rome brings in heavy reinforcements! Hammer one army down, get back to the ships before more Roman armies arrive, and let them sit on the beach cursing and waving while your Carthaginian heroes slurp some fine quality ice cream on board their luxury Quinqueremes and tell amazing heroical stories of slaughtering tons of Romans at home to make those young ladies horny. Don´t forget to come back and pepper the rest of the latin Armies one after another, though!

3) Was Iberia mentioned? Never mind. Do not forget to take this lands from the barbarians to make it a formidable Carthaginian Hinterland (do you have ANY proper word for this in English? My dictionary says "no") to draw money, troops and other support from here for your big show in Italy.

4) During battles, try using some of your weak (and cheap!) infantry units as a decoy for the Roman infantry. Those blue Legionairies will be freakin´ hot to get there and beat the cr*p out of your whimpy white-tunic-covered weasels. However, some well planned cavalry charge from the back and the flanks will spoil their peppering party, won´t it?

[Outlawstar15a2]

Also try leading the Romans to war with other factions. If a Roman Navy is approaching your shores and you can mingle next to it in such a way as to drag, say a, Gallic Navy into the combat. The AI won't pull out and win or lose theres another Navy whos at war with the Romans. Also Use the terrain to your advantage. Cavalry is your best friend and will be till you amass enough force to take Italy. Also try to bottleneck Romans who come at you and split your armies up and try to flank from the front and back, its daring and risky, but the Roman's infantry will cost them more if they lose it all then it would you, your primary objective is a war of finances and attrition. Use your potentially superior Navy to blockade ports and also to land spies and assassins, knock out any destroyable finanial structures like markets, and pull your agents back to safety. Make the Romans beg YOU for peace!!

[Feliks]

You can't beat them straight out, so never attack if you can help it, always defend. That way you can wait for the AI to come to you and you can have a few good ambushes waiting for them.

[Shqiponja_Hayabusa]

The carthage campaign is my favourite one cuz you really have to act like carthage did,you have to make use of mercenary units only :happy0144
Send your general to recruit mercenaries,slingers in the balearic islands where they get 2exp points
spanish troops in spain,they re great hastati-like troops and with the fuse identical units method you can make them grow in experience and make them sth like triari stats.
Dont recruit numidians unless you recruit many of them in one army and you intend to make them grow with the fuse method though they cant be decesive in a battle or count much the max I ve killed with numidians when I menaged to have many units of numidians with 3 silver chevrons was 50 men per unit.
The mercenary hoplites are really important(u must recruit one unit close to the sparta city to get it with 3 exp points immeaditely)
The long shield cav is medium cav,the round shield one you really must avoid to use.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Definitely agree with what all these guys have been saying. I've just finished a Carthage campaign on VH/VH and I did a little looksie and the you need the 4th level of Carthaginian infantry to defeat statistically the puny Hastatii of the romans. My campaign consisted of pulling out of Corduba to take that Northern Africa city below it. Then taking Syracuse from the Greeks, followed by Messana from the Scipii. Now I had the same issue you did. My solution was navy and quick strike. I built two armies(one in Carthage, one on Sicily), and sent the African one to take the rest of Africa up to Siwa(buffer against Egypt). Two of my cities in Sicily built my army half-infantry/half-cavalry and my third produced a huge navy which I'd constantly patrol and sink Roman ships while waiting for the army. This gets you experience and kills them off, simply go refit the navy after a few battles and keep them coming. Then I let them come to me. My army was done so I placed the navy in the tiny gap between Sicily and Italy, and what do ya know, they ran into it with their navy transporting their big army. BOOM! Then I sent my big army to Italy(by this time I had most of Africa so money was pretty good, and was starting two new more advanced armies) to take Capua(I think that's the name). Bye bye Scipii. All of this happened fast enough that, being the loyal Romans the Brutii are, instead of expanding to Greece they tried to attack me in Sicily and Capua. I holed up in Capua and held them off for a few turns until my second army was built(mostly cavalry, 4 infantry). Meanwhile I decimated their navy as well. Then I waited for them to siege Capua again and attacked the bottom Brutii city. That same turn I continued my General and my cavalry up to the next city(they had the MP for it) and laid siege, but I left one cavalry unit behind for what I hoped to be a cheap trick. As expected the Brutii lifted the siege and attacked my army there. I was able to defeat all the reinforcements from the city and fight a close defeat overall against the main army. Then on my next turn I took the 1 unit of cavalry and went around the enemy army and into the city, bye bye Brutii. From that point on there really wasn't much trouble, just make sure not to garrison too small in Italy, because the Julii are still about and while SPQR doesn't attack they do tend to try and bribe your cities to death, and they're rich. Hope that helps some.