Slitherine

I believe the successful conquest of Iberia is a foregone conclusion.

For once, the Carthaginians clearly have the upper hand in what is, perhaps, the most one-sided battle in the tournament. The Iberians are a very good tribal army, but they are a tribal army nonetheless, and the terrain is not difficult enough to offset their tremendous disadvantage against the Carthaginian Heavy Infantry and Elephants.

Iberians have an advantage in Skirmishers (up to 25:11), but leveraging that into a victory will be very difficult even for an expert player. The Carthaginians have up to 3 Elephants and up to 7 Mercenary Hoplites/African Spearmen, which cannot really be countered by anything the Iberians can bring to the table. The only Heavy Infantry fighting for Spain are up to 5 Warbands, who are a gamble as always, but a gamble the Iberian player will need to take. The Carthaginians can also have up to 2 Warbands, but I would advise to leave them at home. Carthaginians are also superior in Cavalry, which is useless and mentioned here only for completeness´sake. Both sides are very strong in Medium Infantry, up to 16 Carhaginians versus 18 Spanish Scutarii. But even here, the Spanish are at a subtle disadvantage, because their Scutarii, while good, are too expensive to outnumber the Carthaginians in units, because the latter can undercut them with cheap Phoenicians.

The best hope of the Iberians will be to load up on Warbands, Scutarii and Skirmishers and CHAAARGE!, in the hope that they will get lucky somewhere. The Carthaginians can play a conservative game, relying on their Heavies to prevail in the end. The worst mistake either player could make is to overspend on Cavalry, not only because of the terrain, but also because the Carthaginians will almost certainly bring 3 Elephants and the Spanish have nothing that is particularly vulnerable to a Cavalry charge and their Skirmishers will punish opposing Cavalry, particularly if they can draw it into fighting at the edge of or in the woods. *

*I managed to do that in my game, that´s why the big grin.

The African Spears and Merc Hoplites are actually pretty poor value for what you get. 42 point hoplites are a better deal since heavy infantry view the free turn provided by Drilled Foot as a luxury. Heavy Infantry like that should be in a big line with not much maneuvering going on. Yes, the Off Spear advantage in melee vs. swords is a problem, but one that you can hopefully reduce by using your massive skirmish advantage to inflict casualties before the lines collide. You will want to bring - some - cavalry because otherwise the Punic cavalry won't have to worry about flank attacks and auto-cohesion drops. Carthage can bring elephants, but they're not a great option vs. an infantry and skirmish heavy army since infantry can flank elephants and skirmishers can cohesion drop them from range. For 60 points, that's not great value since the Iberians lack numerous and/or expensive cavalry.

The Elephants can just cream Scutarii head on though, as they are MF and suffer more negative cohesion against Shock in the Open, and of course Swordsmen is at 0 melee POA against Elephants. Agreed that Merc Hoplites/Africans aren't great value, and if they do Disrupt on Impact they lose the 50POA advantage. The current best value HF in the game is Veteran Muslim Spearmen, who are Unmaneuverable, making them 6pts cheaper than Veteran Hoplites, which usually are just shoved in the center of a battle line anyway.

Yes, in the center of the line, the elephants will stomp the medium foot pretty handily. But then that means they're not on the flanks. And since elephants pursue quite recklessly, if you have infantry reserves, you can theoretically catch them with some flank attacks.

I grumble about Merc Hoplites pretty regularly. I think they should have better morale instead of the maneuverable trait. Those Veteran Muslim Spears are amazing when you can bring them in quantity.

Mercenary hoplites aren't so bad unless they form the bulk of your infantry line. Just use citizen hoplites for the bulk of your line and used the mercenaries as reserves and cavalry support where their maneuverability actually comes in handy. In terms of overpriced units there are far, far worse ones out there. You could be paying 70+ points for light spear/swords or heavy weapons *shudders*. On that note I really hope heavy weapons get reworked in FOG Medieval so huscarls/dismounted knights don't become even more of a joke unit than they are now.

I'd agree with that. They're one of those units that's better in small amounts combined with other units. I do think Thureophoroi are better in that role since they're cheaper and can handle rough terrain, and since the heavy infantry cohesion bonus of the Mercs is more useful in the main line where you want a lot of holding power.

Definitely really hope that Heavy Weapons get reworked more.