Overview
A short Summary of “how to get started” with your Carthage Campaign. Everyting tested/experienced on Legendary difficulty.
Introduction
I played the first 20-30 turns several times on diverse difficulties before I actually started my legendary campaign. All though all of those games developed very differently in the global perspective, some aspects on the “local” southern part of the map happened almost (I would like to call that the Epirus-Effect… They are the only faction to be exstinct in all my campaigns by Turn 20 tops 😉 ) in every game.
The Starting Situation
Carthage has 4 initial provinces: Carthago (Capital of Province Africa), Lilybaeum (Settlement in Magna Greacia), Karalis (Capital of Corsica et Sardinia) and Qart Hadasht (Capital of Cartaginensis). Additionally you have two Client States: Nova Carthago to the west and Lybia to the east of Carthago and you are at war in Hispania with the Turdetani. Your provinces are shown in white, Client States in green and opponents in red. You can click the map to go to the interactive map-planer.
You have two armies, one in Qart Hadasht and one in Carthago and a fleet between Sicily and Sardinia.
So in Turn 0 your start looks not that bad at all but (at least in difficulties Hard and higher) you will be confronted with a multi-front war very soon: Even though you are NOT at war with Rome, this conflict is inevitably. Rome always declared war on me within the first ~10 turns. But they are not your only problem because also the Gaetuli to the southwest and the Garamantia to the southeast are always tempted to declare war on you or on your client states very soon. Syracuse is not as likely to declare war as the other three, but it happens too – especially if you are playing as the Barcid Dynasty. The diplomatic penalty is harsh and at least I got declared by all mentioned factions even earlier. If we look again onto the map, we see a much more grim strategic situation:
The Stratetic Situation
So in the worst case scenario you may be at war with all of them before Turn 10. In my legendary campaign only Syracuse didn’t declare war on me that early. Post turn 10ish it is impossible to foretell what will happen in a game, so be watchful – especially because your client-states tend to drag you into wars – Even if YOU have a non-aggression treaty with another faction, the AI still will attack client states of yours. A major “casus belli” is a shared border between your client state and them. To give an example: The Masaesyli down in Mauretania are normally on friendly terms with you – but since they just can expand through Nova Carthago, they will do it sooner or later.
As a consequence you will be (most likely) fighting a war on multiple fronts until turn ~30 and desperately try to consolidate your power.
To fight on all fronts aggressively, you would need at least 3 big armies (one in Hispania and western Africa, one to the South and one to fight Romans in the center) – you have neither the funds nor the time to build them up. So you must prioritize one front and fight (or not at all) defensively on the others.
Recommended Approach
I tried several approaches (one was even to break my alliance with Lybia) but what worked best for me was to first pacify the west (so the Turdetani and the Gaetuli) and afterwards the South (Garamantia). With 4 more settlements as economic background a conflict with Rome was winnable. Also the Berber-tribes tend to stack-spam much more than Rome, because they build their armies mostly of very cheap units. If you give them time to build up, they are literally everywhere at the same time and very difficult to fight off with your limited armies.
My approach is nonetheless dangerous because you can’t really fight of any LANDED on your islands or in Carthage with ease. So you must use your Navy to fight of any Roman Legions, which is totally doable. More importantly: As long as the Etruscan League is alive, Rome seems to concentrate on them. If (what is the more common thing than the other way round) Rome dominate them, they will confine the Etruscans sooner or later to Corsica and will try to invade the island. Try to destroy as many embarked Legions going there and you will buy yourself precious time before the Roman D-Day is happening on your coasts.
Sadly I didn’t take a screenshot after the “Afro-Hispanian”-War. So I must use the interactive map again:
Things to consider in Turn 1:
You are able to expand three out of your 4 starting provinces:
In Lilybaeum you are confronted with a huge Civil Unrese caused by cultural differences penalties. I always build a Consecrated Ground there which is later upgraded into the “Baal Hammon” Line to stop and rewind the cultural conversion.
In Qart Hadasht you will have dire need of military and therefore I recommend a Muster Field.
In Carthage it is more to personal flavor. I started with an Agora, because I designated Africa as an economical province and made Italia later to my military center.
Any not spent denarii go into new recruits to “Pride of Mago”-Army in Cartaginensis.
You should try to open Trade Routes – at least with Lybia it should work.
As my first technologies I went for Judges (“Ceremonial Rites” in the Philosophy Tree). All of your first war targets are NOT of Punic Culture and you can’t keep your armies at the west or south end of the forever to suppress unhappiness. Also you can convert Magna Greacia with two big benefits: You don’t have happiness problems in Lilybaeum but the Romans do in Cosenza and Brundisium.
Things to do/look for in the following turns
- The “Pride of Mago” Army should be further built up. Should the Turdetani go for Gadira (second settlement in Baetica, belongs to Nova Carthago), take their capital Kartuba. If they don’t go for Gadira – try to lure them into an open battle or catch them outside. If you are lucky, you can get the whole province of Baetica this way. Either way they are your first target.
- Should the Garamantian guys declare war on you, you should build a few units in Carthage, they sometimes “sneak attack” it.
- If you can afford it, bolster your navy with a ship or two – your interception force on the sea will be needed!
- Around Turn 3 one of your armies will probably get a disease – be sure to move it out of your settlements.
- In Turn 5 you should be able to recruit your first Judge – send him to Lilybaeum.
Army Composition
I never really played Total War Games in Multiplayer – so most likely my armies are bad there. But within the Campaign they work just fine (for me):
Carthago doesn’t have “core” unit-type like Rome with her Legionaries or Macedonia with the (Pike)Hoplites. It is a little more “mixed.” Sadly the early units (the Lybian Hoplites) are really bad against their first enemies: Iberian Swordsman. So the Lybian Infantry (trainable with the Muster Fields) are of essence in the early armies.
The second part of the solution: Mercenaries. With the 40% upkeep reduction you can field them (almost) as regular units. Just to give you an example: I conquered Magna Graecia with an army of 3 units of “native” Javelinmen and Mercenary Hoplites and Cavalry.
Later on I used two slightly diverse army templates:
Sword Template:
My most used template. The Lybian Swordsman are a solid choice throughout the Campaign. The hold the line perfectly and combined with a elephant charge into the enemies back, they are awesome.
- 1 General (Elephant)
- 2 Carthagian Cavalry
- 2 Shock Units (Elephants or Noble Cavalry) – I’m normally an Elephant guy. But they do dispand far to regularly due to attrition and the autoresolve calculations. So if there is no possibility to replenish them easily I went for the Noble Cavalry.
- 2 Siege Weapons – I haven’t found my clear favourite yet… But most of the time one Ballista and one Scorpion. I didn’t managed to research Heavy Onagers…
- 2 Hoplite Units t(Late) Carthagian Hoplites or later on the Sacred Band for countering the greedy cavalry
- 3 Lybian Peltasts (or Merc Skrimishers, if good bowmen were around)
- 8 Lybian Infantry – front battleline
Pike Template
A more tactical approach but sadly worse in Autoresolve (but better in the huge self played defence battles of the civil war)
- 1 General (Elephant)
- 2 Carthagian Cavalry
- 1 Shock Unit
- 1-2 Siege Weapons
- 4 Lybian Infantry
- 3 Lybian Peltasts
- 8-9 African Pikemen – like the Sparta/Macedonia Army but not as strong – without the elephants 😉