Slitherine

I am playing my first game as Rome, I'm 82 turns in(229 BC), and Carthage has done nothing yet. Is this normal? I know it's not historical. I'm playing on average difficulty, don't know what effect this has. I have watched one Rome playthrough, and Carthage was similarly ineffective. I hope these are aberrations. I'm assuming I'm not the only one to play this game hoping for a Punic War rematch.

It happens sometimes. I find that if Carthage is present in Sicily by the time I get there, then I usually end up in conflict. However, sometimes they're absent from Sicily - in which case they usually stay out of my area unless I take the fight to North Africa. They sure can be active in Numidia & Western Med though.

I think its one of those factions that varies a lot between games, and seems better at the higher difficulty levels. Would agree that it doesn't particularly look to challenge Rome in most games but then if I am playing Rome and its out of my sphere I'll often leave it alone too - perhaps take the Africa province for the Elephants.

More recently I've seen Syracuse do fairly well and often get control of Sicily, if so, as Rome, I'll take an alliance with them and go and persecute some Greeks instead

Carthage success varies a lot indeed, although I would say they will really be a threat to Rome one third of the time, no more. This has to do with the intrinsic difficulty of managing an Empire stretching over two continents. The initial war with Syracusae does not help either, unless a stroke of luck, in this case Sicilia becomes Carthage proper rapidly.