Hannibal of Carthage: Numidian Cavarly for All

A Short guide to playing Carthage and using the extremely strong Fin/Cha traits together for best results. Hannibal brings two modes of play to the table and understanding how to play him as much as how to play the traits are equally as valuable.

Introduction:

Welcome to my very first guide on Steam for how to play Civ 4. By no means am I a leading expert, but I have put many games and hours into playing this leader. I hope that some of my thoughts will help you to do better in your games!

This guide will cover Carthage's specific units; Unique Unit Numidian Cavalry and Unique Building Cothon. It will also cover traits Financial and Charismatic, along with some ideas of how to use them effectively for your goals.

Why Carthage and What do they bring to the game?

Hannibal/Carthage as a whole bring the unique combo of Fin/Cha to the game.

The Financial trait is very strong in that brings "+1 commerce on plots with at least 2 commerce." While +1 does not sound very strong, early game it allows you to gain 3 commerce per coastal tile, 3 per inland lake. If you research pottery and use a cottage near a river, that plot will gain +3 as well instantly. The coastal advantage is noticed HEAVILY if you have started on the coast with access to an aquatic resource. You will be able to gain a tech lead at medium to lower difficulties very fast. Finding a resource such as gold/silver will just blow your finances up even faster towards the high end. It is not unusual if you find gold in a city to have nearly 25 beakers/turn within 30-40 turns.

Charismatic has the obvious properties of +1 Happiness / City automatically. What it also does is reduce XP per level by 25%, and Momuments/Broadcast Towers +1 Happiness on top of it. Early game, grabbing a monument that does +1Happiness| +1 Culture is VERY powerful. You can easily grab your fat cross in 10 turns after building a monument. Also, you will now have a +2 happiness bonus that NO one else has unless they are Cha like you! Why is +2 Happiness so good? +2 Happiness lets your cities go 2 population higher than others, bringing in more FIN gold, more hammers. This means more units, and more science for your empire. +2 Happiness means you can whip your people more often, and before you really feel the effects.

The more "Hidden" Bonus of Cha comes from being in a war. The first 3 levels of promotions are at 2/4/8 for a CHA civ. If you have a Barracks, you are given 1 bonus, with the next immediately winning a fight with a real unit (Not always Barbs, they have an EXP cap). IF you use a Great General in a city, you are getting 5XP per unit. Add in Vassalage and Theocracy and that's another 4. Getting 9 XP per city, means EVERY unit will come out with 3 promotions. Drydocks, and Airports extend this onto their respective units as well. 3 promotion bombers late game are -dangerous- to say the least. Whether you keep these civcs or rush Pentagon is UP TO YOU.

As stated, FIN/CHA gives Hannibal the ability to go to war, pay for the war, whip units onto the field extremely well. He is extremely dangerous if you let him build up his cottages. Playing against a Human Carthage, you would do well to pillage his cottages to keep him from gaining money if you can not take his cities. Playing as Hannibal, protect your front line with your cheap units and do not let them get into your fiscal core!

Carthagian Uniques:

Carthage has 2 uniques like everyone else in the game. He has one unit and one structure for his two.

Numidian Cavalry:

The Numid Cavvy is extremely powerful early game. It has 5str unlike the 6 in the horse Archer, but carries a 50% bonus vs Catapults AND Melee units. It is almost immune to first strikes but does not receive defensive bonuses. As like other mounted units, it does flanking damage to catapults and has a natural withdraw %20. On top of the 20%, it gains an additional 10% from automatically gaining the Flanking I ability!

Numids are good for 2 reasons. 1: If you promote them with for both flanking, they have a 50% chance to escape or kill every fight. This makes them POWERFUL for hit and run, or just to soften up a stack of guys. With a 50% melee bonus, an attacking Numid with no promotions has a base attack of 7.5 str. Giving them Combat 1, and eventually Formation for Anti-Cavvy abilities, can grant them well over 8str. 8 Str what a maceman has! These units can take down maces fairly well EVEN IF YOU GET BEHIND.

Counter to that, these units will have a bit of a hard-time taking a city with longbows in it, as longbows do get city defense bonus by default on top of city defender.

Best use: I really like to use cavvy in my stack to finish off random stacks since they do get the 2 moves. They also work great at breaking units like Axemen that are promoted up a bit. Since Axemen do NOT get their 50% Melee bonus vs Numids, you can make quick work of them by taking Shock on a few yourself, complimented with flanking; Of course!

Worst Use: Scouting ahead and suiciding. These units are not ones I throw out unless I am pretty sure that I can get a kill. They steamroll very hard early to mid game. Even if you never fight, with a stable you should be able to get out at least double flanking and combat 1. Promoting them to Knights will keep you competitive even if you get behind a little.


Cothon:

The Cothon does everything a normal harbor does. It gives you bonus health for sea resources, gives you 50% trade income, but it also gives you +1 Trade Routes.

Trading Routes can be extremely profitable, mid-game giving you around +4-6g per route if you are at peace for a long period of time. Adding in that you can be getting 4g per coastal city, with maybe 4-5 coastal cities means an additional 16-20g per turn into science. This is yet again another FIN specific building that does wonders for your gold problems, letting you bank to support your next war! I find myself usually running 70% science during expansion periods if I can help if, meaning you bank 30% of that for yourself in the treasury. Adding in markets, grocers, and banks means you get even more off that free trade route gold.

Some quick math:
I took that from a current MP game I have playing. This would be roughly the extra amount of money you could make PER coastal city with a Cothon. That's a bit of coin, eh?

City Building; Wonder Building

Alright, so we understand the units and the buildings along with our traits. The last little bits are pretty simple. How to build our cities, and what to build in them as wonders if we can build them!

• Understand the Fat Cross

You need to eventually zoom out and use the tactical mode. Draw lines using the ingame line feature to denote what is the max workable range of each city. Remember, you can only work out to 2 tiles.

• Rivers and Resources

I ALWAYS try to build on a river when I can. The reason for this is the Levee. If you want +1 hammer per river tile, then you should too! The only time I'd suggest not building on a river tile is when one of two situations occur.

1.) The space is a filler spot between cities you have drawn out. It contains resources or chains your empire to a spot that has resources. Overall, this city will most likely produce gold or some hammers but not be vital to the empire's welfare.

2.) The spot has resources that you need or want to deny. Sometimes grabbing something is worth not being on a river or plains hills because you gain from it in the long run.

• Flood Plains, Precious Metals + Gems , High Commerce Resources

Flood plains as explained above are extremely strong for a FIN civ. Early game, you'll want most of your FPs to be farms, because having more people to whip is better. Eventually as you expand, you'll want to see these farms be converted to cottages. At 3g a pop, this will help you manage your growth. I highly suggest if you have multiple FPs to set 1 or 2 at cottages and the rest as farms, esp if you have hills nearby you can work for more hammers. Remember: While you are FIN, you are also working to not be killed by your neighbor. Having an army pays off, even if it is a defensive force. Have 1-2 cities that can churn out hammers AND money.

• Plan your attacks with your promotions

When you build your guys, don't feel like you HAVE to promote them on the spot. Remember, promotions give healing. You want at least one of your units to be Medic II, Numids or Chariots work especially well for this role at times. Putting a general on a healing unit is very very powerful. Medic 3 + Withdraw on your Numid and then Leadership skill. Have him finish off fights to gain experience and just keep him upgraded. (When you get knights, leave him as a Numid, so he doesn't try to defend and get killed.) Consider getting Combat I and Shock, or Combat I and other promotions that will help you have a well balanced mixed stack for offense!

• Defense! Or really, tactical Offense...

Numids do not get defensive stats so leaving them in a city is just asking them to die. Consider building a fort outside your fat cross and leaving it for the computer to seige. If you put some longbows or Archers in it, they should try to occupy it if its between your borders with them. The idea is that forts act like cities in defensive and offensive skills. So your city raider Trebs will get their skills to work on a fort, letting you smash into them with your City Raider Swords and offensive Numids. Let them take the fort, but not too easily!

WONDERS:

Some wonders are just good, others are garbage. These are the ones I am pretty sure you SHOULD have for a strong FIN empire.

Stonehenge:
Priority: Low
Value: It gives free monuments for your cities (+1 Happiness +1 Culture) This mostly goes in line with being CHA. Consider if it you have stone and a forest or two to chop, but no more.

The Colossus:
Priority: High (If Coastal Capital)
Value: +1 Commerce on Water Tiles means your coastal squares make 4 now. Your ocean squares go from 1 to 2, and then Fin makes 3. Extremely powerful for tech leading early and mid game. Consider building if you can get Metal Casting in a reasonable time. Forges are pretty strong, but you'll probably have to chop for this wonder too.

The Great Lighthouse:
Priority: Medium (If Capital Coastal)
Value: +2 trade routes in all coastal cities, will go right along with your Cothon nicely. I'd rather get the Colossus if I had to double down here, but if you happen to get Artemis, then this is even better of a wonder to get. Again, only useful really if you have to build coastal cities, which you do want to get.

The Temple of Artemis:
Priority: Medium
Value: +100% yield for trade routes is great if you have trade routes. Its also better if you have international trade-routes. If I can snag it, I'll grab it, but I'm saving my Engineer for Colossus.

The Great Library:
Priority: High
Value: +2 Free Scientists means you can tech better, and get more scientists. Getting an academy in your gold city means tons more research.

That's pretty much any wonder I'd really care to grab. Some are more situational, others are cool if you can get them like the Cristo Redentor.

For corporations, I'd focus on whatever you want, but I personally love Sid's Sushi.

Ending Thoughts

Again, this isn't a full guide on how to play Carthage. Mostly because the situation changes from game to game, but I can go over a tech list if there is a demand for it.

I'd simply recommend looking at what you have starting in your capital as to what to research first. You start with fishing and mining, two of the best starting techs in my opinion for commerce. If you have some fish, clams, or crabs in your city build a workboat first switching your person to hammers. Get the boat out, then switch your person to work the aquatic resource. You'll be making plenty of gold and food back that you really haven't lost much ground and can make it up.

If you have something like cows or pigs, working towards Animal Husbandry is a possibility if you have multiple of them, otherwise I'd really just suggest focusing your first tech research on Bronze Working and immediately taking Slavery. I really cannot stress how powerful slavery is as a civic, take it and whip when you hit 6 for a settler, losing 3 people.

After you get Bronze, you can pretty much pick what you want to help out, but I'd get Mysticism and The Wheel soon after. Mostly because you want to get Monuments in your new cities; Or Stonehenge. Worker should be first if you aren't building a workboat, unless you need a new warrior to scout, but if you have gold or silver, definitely worker first with the wheel soon after bronze.

Don't try to be overly-milartistic, you aren't built for that, but don't try to be a builder Civ either. You can't out-culture Culture Civs. They start with a +2 per city bonus and will just wreck you. Just focus on your long term goals and pick techs that help you get there. If you don't have horse, rush Iron working and hope to the Gods you have some, otherwise Axemen/Archer armies are the only thing you can field and that puts you at a serious disadvantage for a real conflict. Taking a single city and burning it so you can build a better one with the resource is always an option if you can get away with it. Remember: As long as they don't have Cats, you can always have enough archers and Axemen to deal with them.

Be Happy and be rich, leverage your wealth against them and your happiness to your builders. Whip Libraries, granaries, and whatever else you deem vital as often as you need. Just be careful not to whip too low, because its hard to recover economically if you whip people off your 5g flood plains.

Lastly, have fun and be prepared to lose. It takes a while to learn the quirks of each leader and his potential, esp with each jump in difficulty. Civ 4 is vastly different from 3 and 5, so be prepared for that as well!

Thank you for reading and I'll try to take comments as reasonably as possible. I respect other opinions and again by no means am I an expert. Just throwing my 2cents into a guide because honestly the people at Civ Fanatics have a HUGE vast wealth of knowledge. Definitely go over there and read up!

[Jean Dupleix]

I am a bit surprised that I dont see the Pyramids among the wonders listed.
They give you early access to Representation which gives you +3 happiness for your 6 largest cities AND +3 research for each of your specialists AND it is never obsoleted.
You really want the Pyramids to get the most out of the Great Library.
Combining the Pyramids with Representation and the Sixtine Chapel you should be able to beat Cultural civs and leave them behind technologically at the same time.

However, that only makes sense if you value your population so you can have specialists. I would not consider sacrificing population unless in extreme circumstances.

[Mr Jiggles]

Also Nukoo

[Mr Jiggles]

great guide!!

[Nukoolamukmuk]

Oh goody, a real genuine guide on Steam with good info and no cheats or achievement rubbish.
This guide should be showcased to Steam users as how to make a proper guide.
I awarded a wholesome award.

[Northstar1989]

I don't play Humankind because I'm not a huge fan of the flashiest, newest thing (at significant added cost) over getting the most value out of something tried and true. I still play Civ4, though mostly mods like Fall From Heaven 2, and in the past (and maybe again) Caveman 2 Cosmos. I'm also playing through some of the old Warlords scenarios I never tried before, right now Rise of Rome.

Civ6 is a pretty great game, by contrast, and I got the base game on sale for a really great price. It fixes a lot of what was horribly broken in Civ5, and I feel gets back to what made the series great some. Still, I prefer Civ4 to it, and the DLC are WAYYYYYY too expensive for Civ6. I'll probably buy them when the DLC cost $4 or less: which knowing the money-grubbing studios these days, might not be for 15 or 20 years!

[Northstar1989]

The GPP are much more cost-effectively provided by running additional Farms, happiness buildings (for Carthage, Monuments are most cost-effective), and Markets (to support a Merchant specialist) than by picking up the Temple. It's definitely a Low Priority wonder, not a Medium.

By contrast, you undersell the value of Stonehedge: which will save you a lot of hammers if you are building a large empire- like you should be to take maximum advantage of Hannibal's FIN trait. The most efficient way to increase your hammer production for FIN is to spam more Settlers, while turning your core cities to Gold production to support the increased Maintenance costs.

[Freenhult|Heavy Cruiser Takao]

Either way, thanks for reading and good luck in your games!

[Freenhult|Heavy Cruiser Takao]

Typically the best leader trait in the game is Financial because of how science and money are connected via the slider. If you want more money, make more money and do things to make more gains on the map. You really should not be losing if you are making 100g more then your opponents because you can literally afford to the things they can't. Push science to get the civics you want unlocked and then sit back and enjoy your easy game.

With respect, I wrote this in 2013; 8 years ago and have barely updated it. It's legacy advice and while I could update it with more from community patches and other fun things, I'd simply say go play Humankind or Civ 6.

[Freenhult|Heavy Cruiser Takao]

I'm actually amazed that people are still reading this in 2021.

To your point about the Temple, I ranked it as a Medium pickup. You don't go out of your way to get it, but you get it if you can and you don't have anything else going on. The free merchants will always be helpful for the duration of the game and the GPP can't be argued with especially if you are pushing your science as hard as you should be, you want things like Sushi Co. under lock.

Realistically I feel that between not dying to an early game push and getting to the point where you're starting to look at colonizing another continent/area of the map you can objectively play the game out however you need too. At best, I'm recommending some wonders that I feel are goals to look into if you're able to snag them. Also, I really do disagree about doubling down on Finance.

[Northstar1989]

Doubling down on your strengths is only a good idea if you get synergies or exponential effects. If you are simply increasing a science rate of 100 beakers/turn by 10 more, it is a LOT less useful than if you are going from 20 to 30 beakers/turn, for instance.

Civs need to round out their weaknesses, not build on their strengths, many times. For instance, Carthage isn't especially notable for early-game warring ability, other civs have better traits and UU's for that. Yet, it's better than many of the really weak civs at early war. So it's often better to just raise a larger army, to deter a neighbor good at early war, or conquer a weak one, than to snatch the Temple of Artemis (which is one of the worst wonders in the game).