Rhye's and Fall of Civilization - Carthaginian strategy
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Carthage (UHV)
by Squirrelloid, edited by Pacifist for BTS
You have 3 relatively easy goals as Carthage, but two of them have to be accomplished by 350AD, which can be pretty tight because you'll probably have to take or raze Babylon.
Opening Moves
Found on the spot with the settler (your second one is in a galley). Defend with an archer and send the other two archers moving by land across Africa towards Egypt. Load the 3 Numidian cavalry into the galleys, and head east. Have one work boat work the fish, and send the other east behind your galleys (it'll probably make contact with Egypt for you).
When you run into Egypt, you can generally trade some techs, and afterwards sign open borders - do so. Try to trade with Greece for techs, but they probably won't. You can OB to check out Athens, but generally its poorly defended - they defend the marble instead...
Anyway, declare on Greece when your galleys can get next to Athenai in 1 turn - in two games i played they defended only with a warrior, something your Numidians will eat even when attacking from the galley. It helps if you can land on their iron while some of their phalanxes are outside the city, so that they can't build any more phalanxes and their troops cannot get back into the city. Sink their galley if they built one. If you're lucky, you'll also pick up their two workers. Heal that cavalry, hire a mercenary (it'll appear in athens next turn). Next turn load the mercenary (your Numidian is probably still healing), and send both galleys towards Urshalim/Sur.
Check out the situation - if Babylon controls Sur, its going to be annoying - especially if they have many archers there. Take Urshalim first (this may require ferrying more mercenaries from athenai), and then build up for Sur, probably as part of a Babylon campaign. In this case, your settler can be taken back to the dye next to Egypt and founded as Barca (west of the Dye).
If Sur is independent, land your units north of it (including the settler) - what you have should be sufficient to take it next turn. It'll auto-raze, allowing you to found on the forested hill instead (I think its Gebil? I renamed it Antioch). (Babylon culture will prevent you from claiming those two dye immediately, but you're in position to do so now. Founding next to the dye near Egypt first is a mistake because if you don't found this city now, you're going to be tight on time to do so later since you'll have to capture or raze Babylon first). Hire more mercenaries, go get the healing cavalry, and push south to take Urshalim. I rename it Tyre to stay true to my Phoenician roots.
A note on mercenaries: don't feel bad about sacrificing them early in an offensive to weaken the opposing units so your units can destroy them. A dead mercenary no longer needs to be paid.
At this point you have 4/5 mediterranean cities, almost have 2 dye (except for Babylon's culture), and have access to a site for a 5th city with a dye next to it - Barca. Athens should build a settler as soon as it hits size 4, whip it when able, and galley it across. Alternatively, if Egypt built Thebes on the coast, declare war on them and their warriors should crumble. Egypt is essential for wonder and troop building in your Babylonian war.
Remember those two archers in N Africa? One should be stopped where Barca is going to be. The other should continue East and help garrison one of your two cities there.
Now all you need to do is push Babylon so you can claim those two dye next to your city.
And what are your cities doing?
Your UP to get cheap mercenaries means your cities should be focusing on things other than unit production. In particular, they need Cothons ASAP for the +1 Trade Route. After the Cothon, i generally set my capitol to the Great Lighthouse.
Similarly, your first tech should be currency, followed by mathematics (for catapults - you'll need them later). After that you should either research essential military technologies (like iron working if you can't get it in trade), or tech towards optics for caravels. Calendar is nice, but you don't need it for your UHV (secure just means in your city radius).
The Siege of Babylon
You actually have almost enough units in the middle east to take Babylon, what you need are some catapults. When Athens has a Cothon/Library and has built a settler for Barca, its time to start massing catapults and ferrying them over to the ME. 3-4 of them should be enough. If you feel you're short on units, hire some mercenaries just before you declare war. They'll have 4-5 bowmen and maybe some warriors - you should walk over them pretty easily. At that point, you can either finish them off or make peace.
It will help a great deal if Persia is already at war with Babylon, because the latter will disintegrate into an independent city with enough military losses. You still need to either have your troops or Cyrus's take Babili to eliminate its culture so that Tyre can encompass the dye.
Where to go from here?
You now have 3 dye and 5 mediterranean cities, so your first 2 goals are done. You might also have a pile of cash from conquests. At this point i tend to turtle and tech like mad for Optics. I generally grab the Great Library, and try for other wonders that could be useful. (The Colossus is also a great grab). Athenai should try to build the Moai Statues which will be a great springboard for future wonder production.
Build the Suez Canal when Jerusalem's culture envelops it. Send a trireme or galley across all the way to China and the Pacific islands, and you'll be more than half way done by the time you get caravels.
If you go for the Great Wall, you want it in Africa. Your "Asian" (Middle Eastern) cities are well buffered by Babylon (if you made peace) and Persia from most potential barbarians, and you have a decent army for any camels coming out of the desert - make some spearmen if you need them and you'll be fine. Athenai will get attacked occasionally from the north, but mostly those barbarians will go after Rome. There is a good choke, and you might consider founding Byzantion to dual choke into Turkey and towards Athenai from the northern barbarians.
Once you get Optics, upgrade your starting Trireme if you still have it, and send it south around SAm. If you were lucky, Egypt built a city that let you shortcut into the red sea from the Med and you've got a map out to NZ already. (In BTS, build the Suez Canal when Jerusalem's culture envelops it, and your ships can get through.) If not, build some more caravels.
At this point, you can either sit back and wait to circumnavigate, or you can go builder or conquest. Expanding into Anatolia or northern Greece is possible, as Turkey shouldn't spawn before you circumnavigate. You can alternately push through Persia and into India if you want to go warmonger, or take out Egypt. Whatever you're doing, you're just killing time while you tech optics and sail your ships.
Things to watch out for
At some point Rome will probably declare on you. They won't do much however. They may try to snipe your fishing boats. Optics is very useful since your caravels will make short work of their triremes; keep some around Athenai so that they don't choke off your wonder building city. If you see an opportunity to sink a galley with your trireme, take it. You can often get them to make peace with you immediately afterwards. Fighting Rome (unless you set out to do so early) in earnest is a bad idea, as the praetorian is too much for your cavalry to handle. Its also totally unnecessary to defeat Rome to meet your UHV - they have no dye and the Mediterranean is a big place.
Barbarians in North Africa will be horrendous while you're out circumnavigating the globe if you teched fast enough. This means you can seriously not care about them pillaging your improvements because you're just waiting on that galley. Stock axes and spears in your cities and wait. Taking the fight out of the cities is dangerous, and you'll probably want war elephants to do so - India might trade you Ivory, or you can found in Morocco to grab the elephants there.
Ethiopia is a good vassal, not just for the elephants, but also for the cushioning of the impi. They can never expand quick enough to attack you, and if you built the Great Wall, they'll usually be nearing death most of the time due to barbarians redirected towards them.
When Arabia spawns in 600 AD (remember to build nothing but wealth or research from 500AD onwards), you have two choices. Either gift them Jerusalem or Tyre, or if Persia is still alive, give Arabia Tyre and Persia Jerusalem. They'll sometimes fight each other (when Persia won't give up its city) and you'll be sitting back watching the action without suffering losses or have to build extra military. OR, if you're aching for a fight you can't win (because of their camel archers), hold on to your cities and hopefully you would have gotten Engineering for pikemen.
If you played a good game you should win by 750 AD or so, with a score in the 13000's.
Emperor strategy (definitely not Pacifistic)
The Monarch guide is fairly accurate but some differences need to be made:
1. Need to collapse Egypt early on because they tend to build Per-Wadjet right next to your dye, and unlike Greece which tends to turtle with their few phalanxes, Egypt gets chariots and axemen early. If they've founded Judaism so much the better. Just pray that their copper isn't online yet, if so sit an archer on it. Make sure Per-Wadjet has 2 pop before you capture it because otherwise you'll have to build your own to encompass the dye
2. With your second settler send him west so you can get some horses, sheep and wine on your own. Later when the barbs become fierce make sure your city there (Rusaldir?) has enough culture to envelop the elephant and research construction for war elephants.
3. Your next target should be Greece and just hope you catch them with a measly warrior and archer. Athens builds Great Lighthouse and Colossus for your finances. If you haven't captured the Jewish holy city in Egypt go for Jerusalem next before Hammurabi gets it.
4. Hammy is very militaristic in Emperor. Do not trade anything with him. Get Sur first, and while you're researching math you can declare peace but keep building troops in Egypt and Athens and ferry them across to Jerusalem. Sometimes collapsing Babylon isn't enough because Hattusas is also captured by them and becomes independent when Hammy collapses; make sure you have enough troops to capture or raze Hattusas to encompass the 3rd dye.
5. A special word on dealing with Arabia. If you don't want to have a superpower on your hands and you decided to keep the mideast yourself, play a dirty trick on Arabia thus:
a. Evacuate troops the turn before you see Arabia
b. even before Arabia founds Mekkah, give them Jerusalem (becomes their capital) and Sur (which will found Islam). If there are barb camel archers around let them capture their capital and all their initial troops and settlers will disappear! You can then recapture these cities with your cavalry after the flip to Arabia and destroy them forever.
c. if there are no barbs around, give Jerusalem and Sur to Persia, maybe they'll declare war on Arabia during the flip. You can then declare war on Arabia to recapture the empty cities and have an ally too.
6. By now your stability will be a problem. So research code of laws before compass/machinery/optics and build some courthouses.
7. To maximize your score you might consider capturing Rome after they collapse from the waves of barbarians. (They tend not to come to Athens if you have a strong garrison of spearmen and elephants there). Suitable vassals are Ethiopia (especially if they convert to Judaism) and maybe Netherlands.
8. Persia is a pain in the ass, they want Babylon and your Levant cities. Keep strong garrisons there to discourage them. (I had a protracted war with them which ended in him ceding a small city to me)
2nd highest score in 900 AD i-1000 AD if you kept all your cities (20000's)
The revenge of Hannibal
If you're lucky enough to start with your galleys north of Carthage's starting point, you can actually send your preloaded settler to Rome's future spot and found Rome on the 2nd move. Your workers will appear on the third move. All the spawning Roman units will go to Austria and found Emona Julia, a terrible spot for a capital since it has no marble, and with the new BTS version Greece will routinely build a city, sometimes in Yugoslavia, which means that Caesar and Pericles will be fighting for the only copper source to make troops once you capture Athens. Build a monument in Roma ASAP so that you encompass as much territory as possible, and whenever religion spreads to it, build monasteries and temples. Melpum (Mediolanum) does NOT flip to Caesar if Rome is founded by you, and since you're at peace with Brennus, he'll have cities spawning all over Gaul and send all his axemen and warriors to harass Emona Julia. (Don't worry about the stone next to Melpum, if you capture Niwt-Rst you'll have stone). Let Caesar expand north and east, he'll be a good buffer to all those barbarians (build the great wall in Carthage ASAP). By the time Germany spawns, Caesar will lose 1-2 cities (if he hasn't already lost all those cities to barbarians already) and collapse soon thereafter.
BTS UHV 1.186
By The_K
I was surprised at how easy Carthage was on monarch. The biggest problem I had during the game was stability and near the end some cities went independent, but that is no big concern. The only thing I wanted to add was: 1. You NEED to make a plantation. It is not enough to have dye within your borders. 2. Related to 1, go for calendar first and be quick in destroying Babylon so you can take the dye.
