Numidians

[Dell19]

Playing on hard/hard (RTR so only two starting provinces) for the first time I thought that the Numidians would be tough to play as but their units are actually pretty solid. The initial economic situation is disastrous but once I had taken Dhimmidi and Icosium I was making a profit and once the Carthagians declared war I managed to take all their northern coastal cities.

Javelin units are surprisingly powerful considering how cheap they are and have formed the majority of my armies because of this. Desert spearmen and occasional rubbish phalanx units form the backbone of the army with my armies gradually gaining more cavalry.

The only real problem is that the Numidians do not have any heavy cavalry so I feel in the future I will hire more mercenary cavalry as a Carthagian general managed to nearly kill my general after dispersing some light cavalry before I realised and rescued my general.

 

[jeriko one]

I never played Numidians but they were tough when I played as Carthage.
They start with two strategic advantages.

1. They are on the edge of the map.

2. Carthage has to deal with Romans and Greeks.

Looking forward to hearing your campaign progress.

 

[Dell19]

I'm not sure I will actually turn it into an AAR but I'll probably make a few more posts. It'll be interesting to fight the Romans as I think their infantry would be much more effective against my javelin men and quite possibly disastrous against the Sarmatians.

I seem to remember losing as Bactria against an Armenian army because their army consisted almost entirely of archers and horse archers so my infantry couldn't get close and they could charge at my archers. To test it out I reloaded the battle and let the AI fight it and it won. I think the AI severely undervalues ranged weapons and hopefully this could be improved in MTW2.

 

[Comraddict]

If you have taken most of Carthage, Romans will not be able to get a hold in Affrica easily.

 

[Dell19]

Do people generally attack Egypt from Carthage/Numidia? I can't really see the point as the armies would have to travel a long way.

Carried on playing the game today and captured the other 3 Carthagian coastal cities plus the remaining rebel port in the west. I've left two Carthagian cities to the south as I want their last stand to be in those cities assuming that they have a family member there.

Quite a few cities are beginning to become productive and I can now build heavy cavalry in Carthage rather than hiring mercenary cavalry which I used to conquer the last mainland Carthage cities. My navy now exists and I seem to have defeated the entire Carthagian navy and invaded their possessions in Iberia with 2500 men. Carthago Nova has been captured whilst Arse and Gabes are both under siege. I signed a trade agreement with the Iberians but I guess I will end up at war with them at some point.

The war in Iberia has sort of marked a turning point in the game as my Numidian armies are now much more traditional. I've built a number of basic phalanx units and now have heavy cavalry supporting the army so it looks like any other army I would build with other phalanx nations. I have 30k in the bank so I am no longer worried about what troop types to build and this is also why I built such a large invasion force before crossing.

 

[Dell19]

I've been playing my Numidia game today and one thing I've noticed is that it is a bad idea to under estimate Carthagian cavalry. I lost quite heavily just South of Arse as my cavalry at the flanks lost against the Carthagian cavalry so they couldn't support the weak phalanxs which eventually collapsed. A second offensive did succeed though as my archers managed to get into better positions whilst my infantry managed to trap groups of enemy infantry.

Its odd that a year later I faced an Iberian army (they betrayed me) that had 1300 troops to my 1100 and yet I only lost 200 troops whilst they had 11 troops left. I think it helped that my cavalry wiped out all their cavalry and general early on whilst pelting them with archers until we finally engaged. In some ways the Numidians are actually more suited to attack rather than defence since you can harrass the enemy with archers without worrying about their infantry charging.

Navy wise I now have three fleets that keep on destroying the Carthagian navy and has led to me capturing Sardinia and Palma whilst I took the last Carthagian cities in Africa as they had dared to besiege my capital. Interestingly the remnents of their armies marched East as if they were going to march all the way around until they reached Iberia.

The second battle of Arse:

For the future it looks like I will be campaigning in Iberia which should be relatively easy if the first battle was anything to go by. Their infantry doesn't have the same edge over mine as the Carthagian infantry has and they seem to build less cavalry. I am still planning on leaving Rome alone so that they can conquer Sicily and become a serious opponent although I am starting to worry how my armies will cope against theirs. I think I will need to chose my battles carefully when the time comes.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

I generally don't play as Numidia, they have excellent skirmishers (better than the Illyrians I think), but skirmishing isn't my thing, I like annihilating my enemies with heavy infantry, and slaughtering the skirmishers with me cavalry (set in loose formation mind you). The only ranged units I have are archers and slingers, unless I'm in desperate need of troops, then I'll hire some of them (Numidian type skirmishers) to bolster my troops count.

Unless, however, skirmishers are decent in melee combat, those I hire quite regularly.

 

[Hitti-Litti]

I´ve noticed that in RTR skirmishers seem to be more useful, at least against hoplites and cavalry. Slingers are great, cheap but to me they feel effective

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

I´ve noticed that in RTR skirmishers seem to be more useful, at least against hoplites and cavalry. Slingers are great, cheap but to me they feel effective

Oh they have their worth, don't get me wrong (lately I've used them in taking a city, they man the ladders and such to harass enemies from the walls, and the last moron unit that stays in the town square and won't leave).

I still basically use for city assaults and adding to my troop count, not much else. But if they are desparately needed in battle I'll send them in.

Though I haven't really noticed that javelin throwing skirmishers are better against hoplites, perhaps from the flanks or sides, but that's rare in my case as I usually only keep my phalanxes 5 deep to lessen the likelihood of flanking. But as everyone knows, taken head on they are very tough to beat (w/o any flanking whatsoever).

 

[starlifter]

Slingers are great, cheap but to me

Cheap to build, but expensive to maintain. However, Mercenary slingers, in early game, can decimate phalanx, particularly from flanks or rear.

 

[Hitti-Litti]

Slinger mercs are great. Put phalanx vs phalanx, bully them with slingers and crush with cavalry and voilá, a perfect hoplite mash is ready. Coz slingers are so cheap to recruit, it is not that bad if you lock some evil infantry or even cavalry and bring your best shot against locked enemy. I just loooove it.

 

[salty mud]

Never really played as the Numidians, there economic situation is too bad. Javelins aren't my thing, and there spearman are :thumbdown

 

[Dell19]

Never really played as the Numidians, there economic situation is too bad. Javelins aren't my thing, and there spearman are :thumbdown

Which makes them a challenge and forces the player to adopt different strategies.

The best point though is that they lack a solid backbone to their armies so they can actually lose.

 

[starlifter]

I agree, Numidians are harder to play than the soft civs like Roman, Greek, even Gaul/Germans & most eastern.

Numidians are one civ that I have not been able to win a long campaign in less than 10 years. Actually, I've never finished a Numidian campaign... it would have been victorious, but it was just sooo slow & long .

 

[salty mud]

I agree, Numidians are harder to play than the soft civs like Roman, Greek, even Gaul/Germans & most eastern.

Numidians are one civ that I have not been able to win a long campaign in less than 10 years. Actually, I've never finished a Numidian campaign... it would have been victorious, but it was just sooo slow & long .

You love to boast about your under ten-ten-turns-finished lark don't you?

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Slinger mercs are great. Put phalanx vs phalanx, bully them with slingers and crush with cavalry and voilá, a perfect hoplite mash is ready. Coz slingers are so cheap to recruit, it is not that bad if you lock some evil infantry or even cavalry and bring your best shot against locked enemy. I just loooove it.

Well yes when you're numerically squashed. But it's an extremely rare occurance when I go into battle with just one unit, the smallest I'll go into battle with is 3 units. When I start a battle that is.

On a perfect day I will go into such a battle with 1 phalanx to hold the center line, some form of light cavalry (barbarian, any African based, etc), and maybe a unit of some ranged unit (archers or slingers, MAYBE javelineers of one form or another). I MAY replace them with maybe an Iberian Mercenary. They're one of my favorite light infantry, even if they are rather useless and weak.

The circled units are two I like to use. That cavalry circled is my favorite light cavalry. Mainly because I use this almost exclusively to chase down fleeing family members with. And they catch them very quickly.

 

[Dong2Long]

Numidians are fodder for Germanic domination. Numidians are merely a garbage civilization, and make excellent target practice for Barbarian Cavalry spear points and Chosen Archer arrows. Who would really want to play them, except for self-torture? Tell the truth, when you can choose from the creme like of Egypt, Rome, Macedon, and even (oh my)... the Gauls.

They can be played, they are just not nearly as much *fun*.

I've never finished a Numidian campaign... it would have been victorious, but it was just sooo slow & long

I have not finished a numidian campaign either, nor do I wish to.

You love to boast about your under ten-ten-turns-finished lark don't you?

What are you driveling about. Play the Germans, not a lark, and be a winner. The Germans can win in less than 20 years, and so maybe they can do it in ten, but I say you will not finish either quick or strong as Numidia.

On a perfect day I will go into such a battle with 1 phalanx to hold the center line, some form of light cavalry (barbarian, any African based, etc), and maybe a unit of some ranged unit (archers or slingers, MAYBE javelineers of one form or another).

Now this Tank Guy is a real man, probably one of God's own Generals... he knows battle strategy, and has a commensurate icon! That's a good approach for Numidians, prolly the best that can (or should) be done for them. Use German units and proper tactics like that, and you can and should push the Roman filth from the cesspool of Rome in under 10 years from game start. No snivelling about fast conquest, either. If you wait, it gets tougher.

 

[Dell19]

Playing as Numidia is a real man's game.

Picking Rome is like picking Manchester United to play against Grantham. Where is the fun if you already know the result?

 

[Dong2Long]

Playing as Numidia is a real man's game.

Numida is a hard civ to win without dragging the long pre-ordained outcome of human victory on and on. You can and do win in the end. You know what is coming... human triumph over the AI yet again. Using your line of thought, where is the fun in that? You know the outcome before you start! You're going to rape and kill and destoy and butcher and enslave and exterminate your way across the map until you win, and usually only a weak general (or a newbie) is going to lose, once the basics of the game can be comprehended and employed properly.

Power. Strength. Intelligence. Measured by how you perfom. And one metric of that is how fast you can win.

Oh, almost forgot. Faster is better.

 

[starlifter]

Numidians are fodder for Germanic domination. Numidians are merely a garbage civilization, and make excellent target practice for Barbarian Cavalry spear points and Chosen Archer arrows. Who would really want to play them, except for self-torture?

Playing the Numidians is tough, especially if you want to expand fast. DIplomacy is really tough with these guys; even Carthaginians seems predisposed against them in terms of cooperation. So Delll19 is basically right, especially if one is to figure a strategy of [fast] domination by them, as well as to them. Also, Germania is a good faction early, but its strengths are not in desert warfare (the matchups are not as favorable, esp. the negative combat bonuses for desert terrain, and heat fatigue).