Numidian Campaign

[ZuluKingOfTheDwarfPeople]

Ok I am playing as Numidia and I have everything except Egypt, northern Libya, and Carthage and the land around it. I have an alliance with Egypt and Iberia and am still at war with Carthage, but we are both in no position to attack eachother and they will not agree to a cease-fire. I am making a larger fleet to bring the war to the sea; in the end I will either conquer them or get a cease-fire. My question is, what do I do after finishing off Carthage? Should I betray Egypt, conquer them and head east, betray the Iberians and work my way up north, or build naval fleets and contain Rome before they get the Marius reforms? The Superpower in my game is Macedonia currently; they have won every war so far... (playing RTR)

[Goatbuster3000]

I'd hold true to your Egyptian alliance, they will prove a nice buffer from the Seleucids. I'd honestly attack Rome while it is still small, but avoid open conflict with Macedon. In my last Roman campaign, the Macedonians swept through Greece, then up through Illyria, and currently share a border with me. They too never lost to an enemy.

[Cato the Younger]

I would try to destroy the Carthaginian faction and hold there. With most of Africa (exlcluding Egypt), you will be able to turn a pretty profit. Build up a sizable navy and control the waters around your territory.

Are you wealthy? Do you have the manpower to fight another war after Carthage is gone? If not, definitely stop after Carthage; if you do, however, I'd either invade Spain and stop at the Pyrenees or work up your military so that it's suitable to fight whomever comes against you later on.

I've found that Rome generally doesn't mess with you on the African continent if you can get Carthage out of the picture.

[Turk]

Attack south spain like i did
there you will get much money

but be careful
egypt is the betrayer NO.1 in RTW

they will attack you
and then you will have enough money to attack them

[NobleNick]

...playing as Numidia and I have everything except Egypt, northern Libya, and Carthage and the land around it. I have an alliance with Egypt and Iberia and am still at war with Carthage, but we are both in no position to attack eachother and they will not agree to a cease-fire. I am making a larger fleet to bring the war to the sea; in the end I will either conquer them or get a cease-fire. My question is, what do I do after finishing off Carthage? Should I betray Egypt, conquer them and head east, betray the Iberians and work my way up north, or build naval fleets and contain Rome before they get the Marius reforms? The Superpower in my game is Macedonia currently; they have won every war so far... (playing RTR)

I play vanilla RTW 1.5 on VH/VH setting. I do not know how much the campaign AI behavior and map changes in RTR, nor what difficulty you are playing ; so adapt my advice to your situation...

TERMINATE Carthage before gaining a new enemy. Do not get a ceasefire, unless it is for a short time AND you need the rest AND you can use it as an opportunity to extort tribute from Carthage while you rest (before you finish it off). You definitely want to get the city of Carthage ASAP, as it is a cash cow. As someone has already said, you will likely be attacked by Egypt. You do not want to be fighting a three front war when that happens.

Use spies, diplomats and your info screen to see how things are faring for Macedonia and Rome.

After Carthage is neutralized: If Macedonia and Rome are squared off and holding each other in check, don't spoil it by attacking either of them. Use the time to gain more cities and to develop them economically.

Personally, I would go for the Iberian penninsula, unless Egypt is locked in a death struggle with someone. Go as far north as you can before things boil over with Egypt, Rome or Macedonia.

**IF** Egypt is fighting hard in the north, you can go for their rich cities down south (Alexandria, Memphis and Thebes on the vanilla map). But do NOT attack until you can attack very hard and fast, and you have enough naval power to blockade their ports; because you will have a big, BIG brawl on your hands once you attack. If you can take all three of these southern cities before Egypt can react, and blockade their remaining ports, you should take a bit of wind out of their counter-attack. Egypt is great in the field; but usually stinks at siege warfare; so get lots of archers (does Numidia get archers?) and a few sturdy H.I. on top of the stone walls, and H.I. or Phalanx at the gates, and watch Egypt waste itself away trying to assault.

If Rome or Carthage looks like they are prevailing in a lopsided way, attack the winner. If the winning side holds any rich Greek cities, that is definitely where I'd start.

I hope that gave you a good data point.

[Draugdur]

TERMINATE Carthage before gaining a new enemy. Do not get a ceasefire, unless it is for a short time AND you need the rest AND you can use it as an opportunity to extort tribute from Carthage while you rest (before you finish it off). You definitely want to get the city of Carthage ASAP, as it is a cash cow.

Words of a master There's no point in letting Carthage survive, unless you extort tribute; but even then, it better be big 'cause all those cities are damn rich, especially once you establish maritime trading.
Once you're done with Carthage in Africa, you should continue pursuing them to Sicily and Spain; start with Spain: you'll probably get attacked by Iberians/Romans, and it's easier to dispose of Iberians in a blitzkrieg, war with Rome'll probably last longer, even if they don't seem strong at this point. Attack Sicily first only if Rome is really weak enough to take it in 5-6 turns. At this point, you should also start building ships, so you can gain naval supremacy when you engage...someone else (this is important!).
So, now you should have entire western Africa with Lepcis Magna as your easternmost province, carthaginian teritories in Sicily and entire Spain (oh, and islands in western Mediterranean). Well,at this point you'll be probably be attacked by either Egypt or Rome (or both). Rome should be your next target; try to hold the line on Sicily while invading from the sea at weak spots.
And Egyptians...well, they're rich and tough, but you have one big advantage:distance! If you hold at L.Magna, most of your unit-training sities will be just a turn or two away, and Egyptians need at least 4-5 turns to cross Lybia, so you can easily retrain your troops even if you lose a battle. Also, you may repeteadly attack their armies crossing Lybia with, say, quarter stack army of numidian cavalry (and archers/slingers, if these armies have few cavalry units of their own), killing them with missiles and withdrawing before engaging in meele...only to attack them next turn They are NOT to be let, under any circumstances, to invade (modern) Tunisia from the sea - this is why you need naval supremacy.

And if you want tu actually conquer Egypt - it's not neccessary, mind you; once you have Spain and Italy (and city of Rome) under your control, you'll probably be at the 50 provinces point, and that's what you want - but if you really want to take Egyot out, you should conquer islands in eastern Mediterranean (Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus) and use them as bases for an attack rather then crossing lybian desert. That's what I've done, and it worked very well

And in the end...Macedonia. Well, you'll probably clash with them in northern Italy - you might want to leave Lombardy to them, and fortify yourself on river crossings on Po. In the same time, you can attack them (surprise,surprise ) from the sea - it would most certainly be a very successful enterprise, considering the length of the coast they control (entire Dalmatia, albanian and greek coast), and there's no way they can defend all of it. So you just find a poorly defended, yet rich and well developed city, besiege it in one turn, assault it in the next, exterminate it's population, wipe it's infrastructure to the ground, and withdraw to the ships before he can react. And repeat this


Oh, and one more thing - do NOT attack Macedonia and Egypt unless they attack you first. The Greek, on the other hand, you can attack at any time if you have stronger navy then them (if they're still there, of course.

[myrm1d0n]

i'll bet right after u defeat carthage..egypt will stab u in the back..like Turk said- egypt Is the no.1 in betraying in the game...so .it would do u good to boaster ur defence around ur settlements around them coz they wil come..and they will do so in force..ive found the thessalian cavalry recruitable in the area just left of the egyptian peninsula to be quite effective.bedouin archers too!!correct me if im wrong but greece should have this wonder just notrh of the area which would be worth considering!1

[ZuluKingOfTheDwarfPeople]

After my break from warfare, I realized how quickly Carthage can recover, so I am getting rid of them immediatly. Two of my new fleets destroyed Carthage's and Carthage is down to the city itself and two cities around it. Things are shaky in my cities so I am rellying on Libyan mercenaries, who are just as good as Numidian javelinmen. An alarming note, I noticed that Egypt is sending diplomats to Leptis Magna (which I own)! I do not really have a standing army, Numidia historically never had. Basically, my military is composed of javelinmen and mounted javelin men in city garrisons. So, I am going to rain hell on Carthage in the next few turns. Once they lost mainland territory, I am diverting everything to my eastern provinces. You are right, Egypt is treacherous

Does anyone know how I can get Numidian legionnaires? I can make all military units except them for some reason...

[4toedfeet]

You have to wait for the romans to get reforms I think

[NobleNick]

...Macedonia. Well, ... you just find a poorly defended, yet rich and well developed city, besiege it in one turn, assault it in the next, exterminate it's population, wipe it's infrastructure to the ground, and withdraw to the ships before he can react. And repeat this...

Scorched earth policy. Very effective, when combined with a strong naval blockade, for weakening an opponent. Works well against Egypt, too. (In some cases, it seems to be the only thing which works aainst Egypt.) Egypt relies heavily on temples combined with the pyramid wonder to keep their cities mostly empty of garisons and use all their resources to field quality frontline battle troops. Raze their temples (ah, raze EVERYTHING while you are at it) and take the pyramid. One or two strong stacks with naval mobility can really mess with their economy.

[Macan]

Making many allies and protectorates makes your enemy open to negotiation. I'm playing with the Greeks and have 4 allies and 5 protectors and no enemies their territory turned rebellious and in 3 turns 4 factions destroyed.Just build a strong navy and block their ports.And send cheap units to build forts in their territory.Then send diplomats to get a surrender. If you get a surrender then you have a new ally and trade route with no problem of managing new settlement's and spending your money in the settlement's.Your protector will have the expense.And you a big profit .I'm having up to 70.000 denari profit and about 65% of that is in trade.

[Macan]

When a settlement is vell expanded and has allot of populace they will just keep growing and make expenses. Simple solution empty the City and let them Rebel the take the city again by force and exterminate them.And make allot of assassins to sabotage another factions temple,market or sanitory building they might rebel so you can take the settlement without declaring war

[Macan]

Let the Roman factions expand only defend your self if necessary the train a massive army of your best troops,archers and artillery also take 3 spies 2 assassins and a diplomat and go to Rome and block their port destroy their armies but don't attack the city just stand close to it send the spies in, sabotage the temple market and sanitary building and force a surrender.Then make the other factions your ally. Result lot of profits and a strong alliance.