(how not to) Play as Carthage

[Southern Hunter]

My first game I took Carthage for a run. I am on Turn 82 and currently own most of North Africa west of Egypt, Sicily, Sardinia, etc. but have two BIG problems.

1. I have 3358 Decadence, about 4 times more than any other nation in the game. I think this has arisen mainly just by taking over all those fairly poor and worthless regions in the inland of Africa. I also have the highest HCV in the game, but, despite having almost all my citizens working on culture, and tons of culture buildings, I cannot keep out of the bottom third of the table. This seems to be (probably) unrecoverable.

2. I got rid of my slave markets (not wanting slaves) but you get them anyway through conquest, leading to a huge problem in my capital Tunes. I could fix this quicky I hope by building a lot more Slave markets (well, at least 4 and maybe 10).

I have trouble convincing myself that leaving marauding barbarians in the inland was the wiser move, but that decadence rating says it was.

Apart from getting trounced, it was a lot of fun to play. I think I will try again somewhere else.

[thierry2015]

yes useless to take all Africa

A small but strong nation is enough!

I think you have to think carefully
that province to acquire

--- Why ?
resources? (regions in numidia or spain)
strategic positions? (regions in sicily)

[sage3]

I think one of the gaps in the game is lack of ability to get rid of regions. Often time I capture simply because I'm chasing an army, but I don't really want the region.

I think some options are needed to:
* Diplomatically gift a region.
* Create a client state out of captured regions.
* Free a region to go back to a self-administered / neutral state.
* "Occupy" but not capture a region.

[devoncop]

I think one of the gaps in the game is lack of ability to get rid of regions. Often time I capture simply because I'm chasing an army, but I don't really want the region.

I think some options are needed to:
* Diplomatically gift a region.
* Create a client state out of captured regions.
* Free a region to go back to a self-administered / neutral state.
* "Occupy" but not capture a region.

One option is to occupy the enemy region.....pillage it......then withdraw to a nice defensive position in a region you want to keep.

Enemy retake it.

Problem solved.

Then choose another juicy non raided region and repeat.

Eventually either you destroy the enemy field army or wear them out and they accept peace through war exhaustion.

Depends on the circumstances of course but you can make a lot of money pillaging in regions you don't want.

[thierry2015]

yes that's what I did in Spain and it works

but it would be good for example for Carthage to be able to offer a too remote region in exchange for a bonus relationship

better than just waiting for the other nation to take it

(but we should lose the Legacy in return because we lose prestige by giving up a province, so the player should always have to weigh the pros and cons)

what do you think of :

x building level 1 = +1 relationship / -1 legacy
x building level 2 = +2 relationship / -2 legacy
x building level 3 = +3 relationship / -3 legacy

x slaves non-ethnic of the receiving nation = +1 relationship / -1 legacy
x Slaves ethnicity of the receiving nation = +2 relationship / -2 legacy
x citizens non-ethnic of the receiving nation = +3 relationship / -3 legacy
x citizen ethnicity of the receiving nation = +4 relationship / -4 legacy

[goodwoodrw]

I have played Carthage through to the end and won. It is important to remember this game is a a marathon, not a sprint. As suggested above choose the right regions to invade. The islands in the Med are important, use them for staging platforms to invade Spain, Spain is more important than Nubia and other African regions (better resources). Decadence is always a problem, try and avoid buildings that produce it. Another important reason for grabbing Sicily and Corsica is the specialist units from those 2 islands. Corsican and Sicilian Slingers, great skirmishers. One of the things that frustrate me in this game is the battles ( this is not a whinge I just do battles badly ). Frontages are important in battle, some frontages can be as low as 5, even the largest of skilled and experienced armies can struggle. In Spain, Germania and just north of the Italian boot are regions that are hilly, you need to consider the make up of your armies brute strength alone will not succeed. I found Carthage fun to play, but consider your strategy. Resources = money, money buys units, buys replacements. Some of the better units, their cost increase considerably, the more units you buy the more they cost. I finished my Carthage scenario with a lot more money than my nearest opponent. About 315,000 as opposed to 45,000. Sorry just my rambling thoughts.

[devoncop]

I have played Carthage through to the end and won. It is important to remember this game is a a marathon, not a sprint. As suggested above choose the right regions to invade. The islands in the Med are important, use them for staging platforms to invade Spain, Spain is more important than Nubia and other African regions (better resources). Decadence is always a problem, try and avoid buildings that produce it. Another important reason for grabbing Sicily and Corsica is the specialist units from those 2 islands. Corsican and Sicilian Slingers, great skirmishers. One of the things that frustrate me in this game is the battles ( this is not a whinge I just do battles badly ). Frontages are important in battle, some frontages can be as low as 5, even the largest of skilled and experienced armies can struggle. In Spain, Germania and just north of the Italian boot are regions that are hilly, you need to consider the make up of your armies brute strength alone will not succeed. I found Carthage fun to play, but consider your strategy. Resources = money, money buys units, buys replacements. Some of the better units, their cost increase considerably, the more units you buy the more they cost. I finished my Carthage scenario with a lot more money than my nearest opponent. About 315,000 as opposed to 45,000. Sorry just my rambling thoughts.

Very interesting thoughts and observations there and I agree totally.

[goodwoodrw]

Southern Hunter here is a screen shot of around the same period you have reached, my CDR is 1.23.

Carth t78.jpg (327.17 KiB) Viewed 2747 times

[PDiFolco]

I think one of the gaps in the game is lack of ability to get rid of regions. Often time I capture simply because I'm chasing an army, but I don't really want the region.

I think some options are needed to:
* Diplomatically gift a region.
* Create a client state out of captured regions.
* Free a region to go back to a self-administered / neutral state.
* "Occupy" but not capture a region.

+1, exactly what I'm thinking too

[Southern Hunter]

All this talk of "pillaging"...what does it mean?

Do you take a region, scrap the buildings (do you get money for this?) and then leave it open to be taken back?

[Gilmer]

Ha. I'm an expert on how not to play any faction.

[loki100]

All this talk of "pillaging"...what does it mean?

Do you take a region, scrap the buildings (do you get money for this?) and then leave it open to be taken back?

if you have an army in a low loyalty region, you can pillage it - this works as a raid so yes you get money. Scrapping buildings is really a way to sabotage the region. so pillage (lowers loyalty even more), disband something useful, pull out and it will almost always revolt from you.

of course if it doesn't revolt then you have a problem