HOW DO I WIN AS CARTHAGE!!!

[the one and only]

Please generals help me. I am not pro at this game, have like 86 hours. But man... I have now started my second campaign as carthage and yet failed. The ♥♥♥♥♥♥ romans keep declaring war at me from start. I have very bad economi like in russia. Bruh my soldiers are weakier than romans too. I am so sad and broken. I don't know what to do anymore. Maybe I will go and install fortnite and play that. But I want to give another shot.
So plz if u have any tips that i should think about. Just comment.
Thanks everyone. Let's make Carthage great again!!!!

[Weekend Kid]

Hello
My favourite faction is carthage, i can give you some advices. Add me and i can gove u some suggestions. Regards

[AAB_EAGLE]

build navy

[totalwar360]

abandon your allies and conq them step by step

[Stevcorp]

Do exactly what Carthage did in real life: send an army over before Rome was ready for them and mess the place up.

My strategy was to seize a city, deliberately let it rebel and then abandon it so the rebel stack takes over. By the time I left, half of Italy was rebel stacks. If Rome wanted those towns back, it had to take out the rebels first. Far as I was concerned, the rebels may as well have been my puppet army.

By the time Rome took the towns back, I had taken all of North Africa. Meaning I was now in a position to come back to Italy and take those towns again - this time for real.

Alternatively, build a large navy. If your navy can sink theirs while they're carrying an army, you've set them back at least a dozen turns. But that's a defensive strategy - each navy you make is one less army you can afford to expand your borders.

[Salty Nobody]

I used elephant generals and Carthaginian Hoplites to secure my corner of Africa and most of Iberia. I gave up that settlement in Syracuse and held Carthage itself and that other walled island city. Rome eventually got bored of not knowing how to launch naval invasions and made peace. Syracuse kept mucking around also not knowing how to launch naval invasions until I got around to sending my armies at them. I had just enough of a navy to sink a stack of transports, and a second one to mess up any remnant Iberian armies trying to cause trouble at sea.

Libyan hoplites suck, ditch them for better units as soon as possible. Carthagenian Hoplites will still (barely) hold up even late game if they have to.

[the one and only]

Originally posted by Stevcorp:

Do exactly what Carthage did in real life: send an army over before Rome was ready for them and mess the place up.

My strategy was to seize a city, deliberately let it rebel and then abandon it so the rebel stack takes over. By the time I left, half of Italy was rebel stacks. If Rome wanted those towns back, it had to take out the rebels first. Far as I was concerned, the rebels may as well have been my puppet army.

By the time Rome took the towns back, I had taken all of North Africa. Meaning I was now in a position to come back to Italy and take those towns again - this time for real.

Alternatively, build a large navy. If your navy can sink theirs while they're carrying an army, you've set them back at least a dozen turns. But that's a defensive strategy - each navy you make is one less army you can afford to expand your borders.

Thanks man. A lot of good tips. I will surely try your way cuz it seems more big brain move. Thanks again :D

[the one and only]

Originally posted by The Fifth Archon:

I used elephant generals and Carthaginian Hoplites to secure my corner of Africa and most of Iberia. I gave up that settlement in Syracuse and held Carthage itself and that other walled island city. Rome eventually got bored of not knowing how to launch naval invasions and made peace. Syracuse kept mucking around also not knowing how to launch naval invasions until I got around to sending my armies at them. I had just enough of a navy to sink a stack of transports, and a second one to mess up any remnant Iberian armies trying to cause trouble at sea.

Libyan hoplites suck, ditch them for better units as soon as possible. Carthagenian Hoplites will still (barely) hold up even late game if they have to.

aha ok man. i will think about that. thanks for great suggestions and tips about army!
You are a good general!!

[Korean Godzilla]

If you would like to co op campaign I can help.
plus I can help you build your empire right to have food and good Eco

[swibtn]

As someone already mentioned , though in passing , I would ditch Libya . The Africa Province is a rich province ---- but not when you only control the one county . And the tribute Libya sends you in no way makes up for it.

Carthage is in roughly the same boat as Sparta ; It is hard to play either faction as the good guys. ( At least in the early game. )

For either faction to make forward progress , a betrayal is required. :(

In the case of Sparta ; It must stab a consistently - friendly Athens in the back to get the necessary outlet to the sea and decent trade. :(

In the case of Carthage ; Again , Libya is a terrible liability . Libya is your best and always faithful buddy. But you really need the land and revenue of your buddy for yourself. . :(

If stabbing Libya in the back really bothers you , well , Africa is a four county province .

So you could maybe take three of the four counties and leave Libya with the last one . :)

That is certainly better than Sparta. Typically the Spartan betrayal of Athens must be total. Athens has just the one county.

Likewise , Crete is friendly too . But it has only one county too , and you need ALL of Hellas.

The Epireans and the Macedonians are jerks. But , again , the most cost - effective thing for Sparta to do is to wipe them from the map.

Sparta pretty much has to play the really bad guy in the beginning of the game.

Carthage at least has a little more wiggle room in that regard.

Also , your clients Libya and the guy on your left ( I forget that factions name ) either tend to get their butts kicked anyway , which sees hostile powers parked on your doorstep anyway , or they take off --- and when they get big and successful they then turn hostile. And , once again , you have a hostile power parked on your very doorstep.

Either way , again , your client states in North Africa are a handicap and a liability.

Notice too the very name of your faction ; Carthage . --- Named after the city of the same name.

In playing Carthage it always seemed to me that in the beginning , at least , your other holdings , like Sicily , are expendable. The county / City of Carthage , and its province of Africa , IS your VITAL real estate.

And , again , three - fourths of your most vital real estate belongs to the Keystone Cops - Libyans. You need a Carthage for the Carthaginians , not for the Libyans.

[Big K]

As you alluded to in the OP, Rome has the best heavy infantry in the game. Even late game Carthage infantry will likely be outmatched by Rome's, and can't be expected to win one-on-one engagements.

Their purpose should be to simply hold the line long enough for flanking movements by other units (cavalry, skirmishers, light troops) and hit them in the rear. Or the use of heavy elephants to blast holes in the lines for troops to exploit.

[Lastspartan]

personaly i find them really OP bc eles. ur hops will hold the line long enough for you to flank with 2 eles and some cav. and cause mass route. only issue is the best units come from elite class. so one way around that is to recruit elite troops then disband them in ur main city. by turn 30 should have around 4-5k with 60+ as turn. use small towns to replenish ur armys. not ur main citys.

i like carthage but dislike how much land they own in the start. i personally like to raise taxes to all my lands but africa. i dont tax africa. by turn 15-20 alot of ur land should revolt. once they revolt and takes the town/city you can diplo a peace treaty/trade deal almost instantly. by turn 30 should of lost most of ur land. then i reset the tax rate to normal start my game. very fun faction. strong early on. imo stronger late game with eles and fast cav kills off enemy range quickly while kiting enemy cav and killing with javs. infantry wont win 1v1 vs roman inf. but with eles. rome stands no chance.

[IGX]

Ignore your allies, march on Rome. Total War doesn't feed you the game with a silver spoon so don't think after 100 hours or so you can master every single aspect of it.

[NekRon99]

Park a cheap navy outside a roman port and they will board transports and engage you. Rinse and repeat and release the prisoners for major profit. Do the same in Iberia and let the ransoms they pay fund your growth until you have a decent land force.

[NekRon99]

But first destroy Syracuse as soon as possible with army fleet combo after softening them up with spy antics.

[NekRon99]

Sorry lastly assign roman targets for your allies to fight in diplomacy. Its nice when the Etruscan league take out roman cities for you. Nova Carthago while reduced to just a rogue army (no cities left) helped me defend against the Arevaci.