Total War: ROME REMASTERED A Carthaginian Campaign Guide

Introduction

Carthage is among the most entertaining factions to play due to its peculiarly infuriating unit roster. Handicapped by poor missile units, pathetic early infantry, and inaccessible heavy units, Carthage must overcome its deficient early unit roster in order to blossom into a tolerably well-rounded end game faction. Nevertheless, even in the endgame Carthage lacks the versatility of factions such as the Seleucids, Germania, and Rome.

I begin with an analysis of the Carthaginian unit roster because the limitations of the available units guide the opening moves. I then proceed to an explanation of how to employ Carthage's forces to best effect both tactically and strategically.

Note: All analysis presented here is based on experience playing on very hard campaign/very hard battles with manage all settlements turned on. I generally play on 160/108 unit size.

Infantry

Town Militia: I am sure that the town militia must be good for something, but I have not yet learned what it might be.

Iberian Infantry: At first these guys might not seem too bad, but then you realize that at the same barracks level Romans are recruiting hastati with double the defense and a very strong pilum attack. Iberian infantry tend to take ~30 casualties and turn tail upon receiving a volley of pila, which makes it very difficult to hold a line with them.

Libyan Spearmen: The real kicker is that at the third tier barracks, Carthage still does not have an infantry unit which can reliably hold a front line. Libyan spearmen will often find themselves worsted by such intimidating opponents as warbands, not to mention the ubiquitous and deadly hastati. Libyan spearmen are , however, capable of holding off cavalry so long as the cavalry charge headfirst into them and your general is behind them to rally them, particularly during siege battles.

Poeni Infantry: At fourth tier Carthage finally gets a solid phalanx unit, although it is worth noting that Poeni infantry are worse than Greece's Armoured Hoplites which are available a tier earlier. The biggest problem with Poeni infantry is the difficulty of replacing any casualties they suffer. Barbarian factions cannot build a barracks sufficient to retrain them, and even in civilized territory army barracks can be few and far between.

Sacred Band: In terms of combat strength the sacred band is exceeded by very few units. Once again, however, casualties will be difficult to replace because the sacred band requires an Awesome Temple of Baal for recruitment. These temples, however, do not exist outside of your lands, and constructing one from scratch in conquered territory takes 10 turns.

Missile Troops

Skirmishers: Well they're skirmishers. At best their javelins can do tolerable damage to the rear of an enemy unit. Unfortunately, their spread out formation makes them difficult to control, and their limited ammunition puts a sharp cap on their potential.

Slingers: Carthage would be a much much better faction if only it had archers instead of slingers. While slingers can do tolerable damage from stone walls, in the field their absurdly short range and flat arc of fire prevents them from accomplishing much. If ever there were a unit suitable for garrison duty and nothing else, this is it.

Cavalry

Round Shield Cavalry: As disappointing a cavalry unit as ever there was. Round shield cavalry can add weight to a charge or deliver a flanking attack, but without enough power to really make them worth it. Furthermore, they are severely outmatched by pretty much every other basic cavalry unit in the game. Do not expect them to fight toe to toe against such intimidating opponents as equites or barbarian cavalry. Still, if they're the only cavalry locally available, they can at least run down routing enemies.

Long Shield Cavalry: The best medium cavalry in the game, Long shields are the kings of the battlefield in North Africa, Spain, and Italy. They are fast, they hit hard, and their morale enables them to remain in combat substantially longer then their round shielded predecessors. Competently handled, Long shields can decimate any non-spear infantry encountered in the early game, running rough-shod over hastati, principes, warbands, swordsman, naked fanatics, iberian infantry, and scutarii. With a bit of skill, they can also fight effectively against bull warriors, desert infantry, and chosen swordsmen. Furthermore, their speed makes them devastating to ranged units, and they outmatch all basic cavalry units.

General Bodyguard Cavalry: Heavier and more durable than long shields, general bodyguards work excellently in conjunction with long shields. Their 2 hitpoints and higher morale makes them a good option for charging into the front of an enemy unit while long shields assail the sides and rear. Accept that you will lose some generals, but unless the royal family is on the verge of extinction, do not hesitate to employ these men on the front line because they are by far the best unit available to Carthage before fourth tier barracks come on line. Just remember to blow the rally horn as you charge so that your general falls behind the rest of the unit immediately prior to the moment of contact.

Sacred Band Cavalry: Not a bad unit, Sacred Band Cavalry nevertheless come into play too late to be much of a game changer. The requirement of a huge city and corresponding cavalry recruitment building makes them very difficult to obtain and even harder to retrain while in the field.

Elephants

They're big, they're bad, they're the pugnacious pachyderms you've all been waiting for!

Nevertheless, I leave them to the end of the unit analysis because their overall impact tends to be quite low. As Carthage, you start with one unit of elephants in western Sicily. This unit opens up a number of possibilities, but I often go the next 35 years of the campaign before recruiting any more elephants. As with so many of Carthage's units, the main downside of elephants is the difficulty of making good any losses while on campaign. It is worth noting that Hannibal's elephants were all dead before the battle of Cannae, only 2 years after his legendary march across the alps.

Elephants: Certainly these boys have potential, but they are very easy to spook and have an unfortunate tendency to run amok at the drop of a hat. The most important feature of these guys is their ability to break through palisades and wooden walls.

War Elephants: Probably the best missile unit available to Carthage, war elephants also have the ability to terrorize masses of heavy infantry. They are best employed against units already engaged to the front so that they can rampage through a dense mass of stationary enemies.

Armoured Elephants: A more durable version of the war elephant, armoured elephants should in general be used the same way as war elephants.

Unit Composition In The Early To Mid Game

As you may have noticed, Carthage has a serious lack of useful units before fourth tier, with the notable exception of long shield cavalry. As such, it is perhaps not surprising that I recommend recruiting nothing but long shield cavalry and a few libyan spearmen for offensive operations. (Iberian infantry, slingers, and occasionally skirmishers are acceptable garrison troops for maintaining public order.) Unfortunately, at the start of the game Carthage does not have any settlements with the necessary infrastructure to recruit long shield cavalry, although Carthage itself is sufficiently large. Thus, I recommend rushing a cavalry barracks in Carthage and then pumping out nonstop long shield cavalry until Carthage is too far from the front lines to make resupply reasonable. Fortunately, as a result of recruiting very few units, you should have abundant funds available for mercenary recruitment and infrastructure development. Buy mercenaries whenever you get the chance. Very high priority should be given to recruiting mercenary hoplites and Balearic slingers, while Numidian cavalry and Samnite infantry should be slightly lower priority. Peltasts can also prove useful, and to a lesser extent Libyan Javelinmen. Regardless, mercenary infantry should still take a backseat to long shield cavalry and general bodyguards and should mainly be employed for city fighting. Do not neglect naval recruitment. A couple of fleets of 4-6 biremes are very useful for protecting your ports and ferrying waves of reinforcements to the front in Italy.

Employing Massed Cavalry

Long shield cavalry are a solid unit in most any situation, but en masse they become much more powerful due to the number of angles they can strike from and the momentum they can generate. Against basic cavalry units and ranged infantry, feel free to just launch a frontal assault. Against line infantry, however, things are a bit more difficult. The basic idea when employing massed long shield is to mass your forces on one side of the enemy formation and then to roll up the line. Generally, you want to split your long shields into three groups, sending one group behind the enemy line, one to the flank, and leaving the third group in front. Then you can simultaneously fall on the extreme flank of the enemy line with one unit from each division. A few seconds after starting that charge, you can send more units to charge the next enemy unit in line, and so on and so forth. As each enemy unit breaks, it makes the next unit that much more likely to break, starting a chain rout which can easily engulf the entire enemy army. Once an enemy unit has been routed, pull your units back to flanking positions and keep charging whatever portion of the enemy army is closest to you. Killing the general beforehand makes this approach much easier, and since the general will often ride out in front of his army, this tends to be easier than you might expect. Remember that the general deploys at the front left of his unit and plan your charge angle accordingly. If you are fighting inferior numbers of enemy soldiers, feel free to fully envelop the enemy army before ordering the charge. If you are fielding infantry, then you can either leave them as a diversion to prevent the enemy line from turning to face your flanking move, or you can engage the enemy frontally, sending all of your cavalry to the sides and rear. Due to the low morale of most early infantry, however, you may want to hold your general behind your infantry to rally them.

Opening Moves: Gotta Go Fast

Both strategically and tactically, momentum is Carthage's best friend. Carthage is almost certain to find itself at war with Rome, the Greek Cities, Spain, and Numidia within the first 10-15 turns. Without a rapid campaign to knock one or more of these enemies out of the war quickly, Carthage can find itself seriously on the back foot and forced to defend for 40-50 turns until it reaches a critical mass of units. As such, I counsel massing all available resources in Sicily (don't forget your mercenaries!) and attacking Messina on turn 2. Here the elephants prove themselves invaluable, allowing you to assault the walls immediately. With Messina captured, you can invade Italy proper on the next turn, attacking and capturing Croton on turn 4 and Tarentum on turn 5-6. With luck, you can wipe out the Brutii before the end of 268. With the Brutii dealt with, you can turn north towards Capua to finish off the Scipii. (Here my luck ran out as my general fell in the streets of Capua and some quick bribery returned all of Southern Italy to Roman control. A rapid counteroffensive utilizing my first long shield cavalry and more general bodyguards reversed perfidious Roman gains, however, and allowed me to resume the initiative.) With Capua conquered, you can take a moment to recollect your forces before attacking Rome itself. I recommend building another cavalry barracks in Capua to allow you to replace your losses.

By this point, Greece, Spain, and Numidia have probably declared war and the Julia have likely begun attacking Sardinia and the Balearic islands. I recommend holding North Africa with minimal forces while sending reinforcements to repulse the Julii. Soon enough, you will be able to take the war to the Julii in Italy itself, which should bring a halt to their amphibious operations. Once the Julii are firmly on the defensive, you can redirect forces to North Africa to go on the offensive against Numidia. Spain will take Corduba and may attack Palma. Abandoning Corduba is fine because you probably do not have the units to fight a major campaign in Spain, but I would do my best to defend Palma. The combination of long shield cavalry and Balearic slingers is lethal to most Spanish units. By this point, Carthage should have an army barracks or an awesome temple of Baal and you should gradually start building up masses of phalanx infantry to take Syracuse before moving on to bolster the forces in North Italy. I prefer the army barracks route due to the shorter recruitment time.

To Be Opened In The Event Of Disaster

If your opening campaign has failed, worry not. Well maybe you should worry, but you need not panic. You are going to need to buckle down and defend defend defend. Massed long shield cavalry will still be your best friend, but instead of committing them to a major offensive campaign in Italy, you will be running them around between Sicily, North Africa, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands pushing back assault after assault. Naval superiority is a must under these circumstances to make sure that your men can get where they need to go. It will also allow you to push back enemy fleets, but due to the difficulty of outright sinking a fleet, pursuing enemy ships should probably not be your top priority. During this defensive campaign, preserve as many units as you can. If you can get a unit of long shields back to Carthage with one man, do it. You will not be able to take the offensive until you can field a defensive army or two and an offensive force, which requires a lot of time to recruit when you only have one city with a cavalry stable. Fortunately, retraining does not delay recruitment. Once you can take the offensive, it is your choice where to go, but I would tentatively still recommend an invasion of Southern Italy because it is much preferable to deal with the Romans pre Marian reforms.

The Late Game

Once Carthage can field large quantities of phalanx infantry, the late game has arrived and the world is your oyster. Phalanxes with strong cavalry support are very strong against barbarian infantry, and so you should have little difficulty leading your phalanx and long shields through Spain and into Gaul. If you so choose you can even attack Britain or cross the Rhine into Germany. As with most civilized factions, Carthage will be able to replace the barbarian buildings with better versions, eventually eliminating the culture penalty to public order in former barbarian lands. Alternatively, you can invade Greece. Attacking Greece will enable you to secure some wonders, and if you invade early enough, you should also be able to prevent the Greeks from getting to huge cities, again allowing the possibility of eventually nulling the culture penalty. Also keep an eye on Egypt. Destroying Numidia will bring you into contact with Egypt, which will probably invade Libya at some point. Fighting against Greece and Egypt is a bit difficult due to your lack of competent ranged units, so try to pick up and retain as many mercenary slingers and archers as you can. They are worth their weight in gold, particularly against the unshielded Egyptian units.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2972401649

A Carthaginian Campaign Guide