Crossroads of the World Collection - Carthage

[Noble Zarkon]

From humble colony to economic hegemony, Carthage rose from the shores of North Africa to dominate the Mediterranean Sea. Its sleek ships ferried goods and riches all over the known world, while at home, the city of Carthage was famed for its master craftsmen and deep agricultural knowledge. Competition with first Greece, then Rome, honed renowned generals and a powerful navy. But war was Carthage’s undoing, and the city was destroyed in 146 BCE.

Unique Ability​

Phoenician Heritage: Can only have one City. Towns cannot use Convert to City. When you create a Merchant or Colonist Unit, gain a copy of that Unit.

Attributes​

• Militaristic
• Economic

Civic Trees​

Shipsheds

• Tier 1: Increased Movement for Naval Units. Unlocks the Cothon Unique Building and Byrsa Wonder.
• Tier 2: Increased Range for Naval Units. Unlocks the 'Quinquereme' Tradition.
• Tradition - Quinquereme: Increased Gold towards purchasing Naval Units. Decreased Gold maintenance for Naval Units.

Wisdom of Tanit

• Tier 1: Increased Sea Trade Route Range. Increased Gold in the Capital for every Trade Route from the Capital. Unlocks the Dockyard Unique Building.
• Tier 2: Increased Resource Cap in the Capital. Unlocks the 'Gaulos' Tradition.
• Tradition - Gaulos: Increased Gold towards purchasing Buildings on Coast or Navigable Rivers.

Sicilian Wars

• Tier 1: Increased Settlement Cap. Unlocks the 'Suffetes' Tradition.
• Tradition - Suffetes: Increased Gold from Mining Towns. Increased Food from Fishing or Farming Towns.
• Tier 2: Increased Movement and Sight for the Numidian Cavalry Unique Cavalry Unit.

Unique Infrastructure​

Punic Port: Unique Quarter. Increased Resource Capacity in this Settlement. Can be built in Towns.

Cothon: Unique Building. Production Base. Production adjacency with Coast and Navigable Rivers. Must be built on a Coast tile.

Dockyard: Unique Building. Gold Base. Food adjacency with Resources and Districts. Must be built on a Coast tile.

Unique Civilian Unit​

Colonist: Replaces Settler. Increased Embarked Movement. Increased Population if settled adjacent to a Resource.

Unique Military Unit​

Numidian Cavalry: Unique Cavalry Unit. Can only be purchased and are more expensive than other Cavalry Units. Increased Combat Strength for each Unique City Resource assigned to your Capital.

Associated Wonder​

Byrsa: Gold Base. Trade Routes from this Settlement cannot be plundered. All tiles in this City that are adjacent to Coast and eligible for Walls receive a Wall. Must be placed adjacent to a Coast tile.

Starting Biases​

• Coast

 

[The_J]

Moderator Action: Attention, I copied the OP from the main DLC thread, to have one focused on Carthage.

 

[SeelingCat]

Copying from the combined thread:

Carthage Uniques

Phoenician Heritage	Ability		Carthage was founded by settlers from Phoenicia, particularly the city-state of Tyre.
Shipsheds	Civic		"A covered slipway used for the storage of ships." A general reference to Carthage's maritime nature.
Wisdom of Tanit	Civic		A reference to the goddess Tanit, the goddess of "wisdom, civilization, and crafts." Said to be the spouse of Baal Hammon, the chief god of Carthage.
Sicilian Wars	Civic		Also known as the Greco-Punic Wars; a series of military conflicts between Carthage and the Greek city-states of Sicily, led by Syracuse, between 580 and 265 BCE.
Quinquereme	Tradition	From Latin quīnquerēmis, "five-oared"	A heavy galley used in the classical Mediterranean, serving as the mainstay of the Carthaginian fleet.
Gaulos	Tradition	Greek, from Punic 𐤂‬𐤅‬𐤋	The island of Gozo, today part of Malta. During Carthaginian rule, had a temple to Astarte.
Suffetes	Tradition	From Punic/Phoenician 𐤔𐤐𐤈, šūfeṭ/šūpeṭ/šōfēṭ "judge"	Title held by the heads of the Carthaginian government after its transition from monarchy in 480 BCE. Like the Roman consuls, 2 suffetes were in charge of judicial and executive power and were elected.
Punic Port	District		The city of Carthage had two ports, one for military uses and the other for commercial purposes. They were joined by a canal which was also adjacent to an esplanade used to store goods.
Cothon	Building	From Greek κώθων "drinking vessel", from "a Phoenician term meaning something like 'excavated'"	An artificial harbor characteristic of Punic and Phoenician maritime cities.
Dockyard	Building		A place where ships are built. A reference to Carthage's maritime military and economic history.
Colonist	Civilian		A reference to Phoenician and Punic colonies. Carthage - itself a former colony - possessed colonies as far away as Spain, Morocco, and Italy.
Numidian Cavalry	Military		Light cavalry sourced from the Numidian people of North Africa. They were known for their expert horsemanship and agility and were used to harass less mobile enemies.

 

[Horatio Thorne]

I’m playing them now. It seems odd to have an emphasis on naval units when they will vanish at the end of the age and there are no naval commanders to lead them, but I guess it’s fine.

 

[AriochIV]

I played through Antiquity with Carthage, and it appears that it does not unlock any civilizations on its own.

 

[Menocchio]

Played them on Fractal with Augustus and they're instantly my favourite rendition of Carthage/Phoenicia in the franchise so far. Their wonder is as underwhelming as I'd expected (in my case, it didn't even spawn any walls...) but every other part of their kit feels great. Their doubled settlers gives them an explosive start, and they make you really crack into learning how settlement connections and trade route range works, even if it's still barely informed by the UI. Their most underrated bonus might be the added range on naval units: Carthaginian quadriremes can attack units and districts inland like only Exploration and Modern ships normally can, which makes them much more impactful than for other civs. They also synergise superbly with the Abbasids owing to the Abbasid's orientation toward having lots of towns and a smaller number of cities to cram full of specialists.

 

[Siptah]

I played through Antiquity with Carthage, and it appears that it does not unlock any civilizations on its own.

They unlock Spain.

 

[Melkus]

Had fun with them - settling the capital one tile off the coast on a navigable river (with Hatshepsut's bias) was helpful to fit some buildings / wonders in.

There's a bug with their Quinquireme policy - the gold bonus for naval units applies to ALL units - enjoy it while it lasts, folks
Makes the double merchants / colonists a bit strong.

M

Thread '1.1.0 Apparently all units are naval units for Carthage -Edit: Fixed in 1.1.1'

Mar 4, 2025

As soon as I slotted this in:

I got these prices for Warriors/Slingers (instead of the usual 120 Gold)



[Edit: The game file just says:
<Modifier id="QUINQUEREME_MOD_PURCHASE_RATE_UNITS" collection="COLLECTION_OWNER" effect="EFFECT_ADJUST_PLAYER_OR_CITY_UNIT_PURCHASE_EFFICIENCY">
<Argument name="Percent">25</Argument>
</Modifier>

No mention of "naval", so probably no coinicidence that it works for all units. ]

Here's the fix btw (checked it in a new game, it works, but obviously put it in a mod if you want to keep it):

Sid Meier's Civilization...

• Melkus
• Replies: 2
• Forum: Civ7 - Bug Reports

• 

 

[AriochIV]

They unlock Spain.

Well, they did a good job of hiding that.

 

[Melkus]

Another helpful bug for Carthage players described here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/1j3hnfj/carthage_is_pretty_neat

Their cavalry bonus can get a lot higher than the description says. And it would have been strong anyway.

And for both of these bugs, it's pretty hard to not exploit them...

 

[Horatio Thorne]

If I buy a colonist I get two of them, but if I build one I only get one. Is this intended or a bug?

 

[stealth_nsk]

If I buy a colonist I get two of them, but if I build one I only get one. Is this intended or a bug?

Probably bug, I got 2 from building (although sometimes towns created don't get extra population).

 

[Siptah]

I really love Carthage. It's a different take on antiquity than the other civs, but as far off as 5's Venice(thanks to towns). Some different strategies and approaches required that work really well and feel fresh. I even managed to get all 4 legacy paths with Augustus (who is really well suited for Carthage). Carthage also feels very thematic - you settle and trade all around the coast and fill your towns with nice harbors that also give a nice boost for the next age (along with Augustus' cultural buildings).

I hope we see more civs in the future that have some malus that can be overcome through civics, buildings or units!

 

[Zaarin]

Taking notes on all the things I want to fix. I do love that my idea of a unique Settler who embarks faster made it in, though.

@SeelingCat Where did you find Punic 𐤂‬𐤅‬𐤋? I know Greek γαυλός is pretty universally accepted to be from Phoenician; I've just never found a direct Phoenician or Punic form of the word. Also, regarding Tanit, it's no longer generally believed she was a Berber deity; references to her and Baal Hammon have since been found in the Levant, though both were probably minor gods there.

I played through Antiquity with Carthage, and it appears that it does not unlock any civilizations on its own.

They unlock Spain.

I would have been concerned if they didn't unlock Spain. It could be bugged, though; in my last game I discovered Confucius is supposed to unlock Qing but does not do so (I planned to play Maurya > Chola > Qing, but Qing was not unlocked, even though it said it should be).

 

[Navelgazer]

Yeah, the one game I've played Carthage with so far, they felt both interesting and comfortable to play, a tricky combination to thread the needle on. More than that, though, they felt wildly powerful. I was even playing peacefully the entire time, and the biggest thing holding me back was that my neighbors weren't expanding fast enough for me to send all the trade routes I wanted. I played through with Amina (so my income was healthy, to say the least) but I'll be trying them again with Augustus and Isabella at some point. I can easily see them becoming one of my go-to Antiquity civs (along with Greece and Khmer, and probably eclipsing poor Aksum.) I aced the Economic (obviously) and Cultural legacy tracks, and just missed Science (due to discovering too late that Sicilian Wars mastery gives you an extra source of relic slots - If I'd caught that earlier I would have handled my techs a little differently and gotten it pretty easily.) And as we see with Numidian Cavalry, going for military would be a breeze for anyone who wants to go that way.

I didn't end up taking either Golden Age, since both were going to be useless to me, but I did get the "Heal the Sick" legacy bonus or whatever that's called that you get from the antiquity plague crisis, that lets you get Piety for free, and that one's always a fun one to have available to you.

 

[queenpea]

Taking notes on all the things I want to fix. I do love that my idea of a unique Settler who embarks faster made it in, though.

@SeelingCat Where did you find Punic 𐤂‬𐤅‬𐤋? I know Greek γαυλός is pretty universally accepted to be from Phoenician; I've just never found a direct Phoenician or Punic form of the word. Also, regarding Tanit, it's no longer generally believed she was a Berber deity; references to her and Baal Hammon have since been found in the Levant, though both were probably minor gods there.

I would have been concerned if they didn't unlock Spain. It could be bugged, though; in my last game I discovered Confucius is supposed to unlock Qing but does not do so (I planned to play Maurya > Chola > Qing, but Qing was not unlocked, even though it said it should be).

Wise @Zaarin, what do you think of the architectural style of Carthage so far? For some reason I thought they would have their own tile set. Any sources you can point me towards? I know very little about Carthage!

 

[4Xtra]

Very mixed feelings on Carthage (And not because the game wasn't letting me play with the DLC for 3+ hours). On one hand, I like the one city focus. It's fun to stack wonders on your capital and let me say that I love the punic port. I've had something like 10+ resources on my capital by the mid-point of antiquity. On the other side of the spectrum, I'm not a fan of how the game handles resources with this culture. Since something like silk can't be assigned to my towns, I'm left with a ton of extra resources accumulating on the side. There are certain ways to circumvent this, but it feels anti-synergistic in a way. If I'm getting a BOGO deal on colonists, my resources are going to be stacking up very quickly. I'm crossing my fingers for a Byrsa buff, because as it stands, it just isn't worth the production for its lackluster bonuses. The wonder doesn't mesh well with Carthage outside of the trader protection, and it's almost always a skip for me no matter what culture I play with now.

The weakest part of the civ for me has been the early game on higher difficulties. As my production is concentrated in the capital, I'm usually lagging behind other civs until I start stacking my resources. Maybe they could reintroduce the move capital decision which Phoenicia had in Civ 6? It could make for an interesting predicament where you decide what city you want to develop next. Just a thought. I've been having the most fun with Xerxes so far, but I'm trying out Augustus next. Oh, and it wouldn't be Civ 7 without some forward settling along the way.

 

[SeelingCat]

Taking notes on all the things I want to fix. I do love that my idea of a unique Settler who embarks faster made it in, though.

@SeelingCat Where did you find Punic 𐤂‬𐤅‬𐤋? I know Greek γαυλός is pretty universally accepted to be from Phoenician; I've just never found a direct Phoenician or Punic form of the word. Also, regarding Tanit, it's no longer generally believed she was a Berber deity; references to her and Baal Hammon have since been found in the Levant, though both were probably minor gods there.

𐤂‬𐤅‬𐤋 was just from Gozo's Wiki page; it cites Huss from 1985 for it, which might be out of date.

Good to know about Tanit! Looks like wiki could use some updating then!

 

[Zaarin]

Wise @Zaarin, what do you think of the architectural style of Carthage so far? For some reason I thought they would have their own tile set. Any sources you can point me towards? I know very little about Carthage!

I haven't played yet so I only have the screenshots to go on. One thing that stands out to me is that the Phoenicians/Carthaginians didn't tile their roofs except on Sicily (where there was a strong Greek influence). I think the Egyptian tile set would have worked better; Phoenician art and architecture was highly Egyptianizing with a Canaanite and Assyrian twist. I'm not aware of any general studies on Phoenician/Punic architecture, but Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean is a decent albeit somewhat repetitive overview of Phoenician influence across the Mediterranean. For something less scholarly, there's a Belgian comic called Alix: Le spectre de Carthage that is remarkably accurate and well-researched in its depiction. I think someone even posted some images from it in an earlier thread. Something I'm not sure it shows, but Greek reports suggest there were 4-6 story buildings in Carthage, much larger than those in Greece and Rome; they've been termed the world's first apartment buildings.

𐤂‬𐤅‬𐤋 was just from Gozo's Wiki page; it cites Huss from 1985 for it, which might be out of date.

Interesting! Will have to investigate that.

Good to know about Tanit! Looks like wiki could use some updating then!

It was a relatively recent find; I'll have to see if I can find the reference in the Oxford Handbook after work. It's led to some speculation that Carthage was founded as a politico-religious experiment since it focused on new gods, focused on the tophet/molk-sacrifice (not found in the Levant so far or in the Levantine-oriented period of Cadiz), and had an oligarchic government rather than kings.

 

[Vrenir]

I’m on a pretty low difficulty, but I enjoyed a pretty great game with Isabella and Carthage. I got a few Camel resources, which let me put a ton of city resources in my capital, and I was able to expand massively across an archipelago map, which set me up well for the Exploration Age and Spain.