In the ancient ages a stupid despot who was obsessed by making the Carthaginian culture dominate the world ruled the Carthaginians. Six good cities were founded and several wonders were built. Then a lot of small colonial towns were founded to build Carthaginian temples and libraries everywhere
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First war on Egypt
Soon there were no more free lands to build more colonial town in. Then Carthage declared war on the Egyptians. They attacked simultaneously two Egyptian cities, each with 3 veteran longbowmen guarded with Spartan Hoplites. The first longbowman to attack in the south was killed without even hurting the defending Egyptian regular spearsman. The second and the last barely won, but the city was at least captured. In the north it went even worse. Two longbowmen were killed by the defending Egyptian regular spearsmen and the Egyptians were taking just minimally casualties. What are those spears made of?
The attack was halted until reinforcement arrived.
Then finally the city was captured and the Carthaginians could move on to the next Island, the one just west of the Egyptian mainland. Suddenly the Egyptians had invented Pikemen, but the Carthaginians quickly captured their iron source. Those pikemen seemed to be incompetent as well, they was actually less successful than the legendary old Egyptian spearsmen. Then the Carthaginians was clearly winning the war, but the Egyptian fools denied accepting several reasonable peace proposals so the war dragged on. During this war the Carthaginian colonial town in eastern Egypt, Rusicade, flipped to the Egyptians and Carthage lost a beloved luxury.
In 380 AD the Carthaginian people finally got fed up with the war and overran the despot. A peace treaty with Egypt was signed and in 440 AD the republic of Carthage was established.
Second war on Egypt
The new government continued the old culture plan from the despotic time. Suddently temples and libraries was rushed everywhere until they ran out of money. Then it was time for a new war on Egypt. This war was quite successful in the beginning. Rusicade flipped back to the Carthaginians. Can't they make up their minds?
A second Musketeer is rushed there to stop the Egyptian counterattack. Hamilcar won a great victory in these battles and celebrated it by building a forbidden palace in Rusicade. Then the Egyptians invented musketmen. The war was ended shortly afterwards with modest gains to the Carthaginians.
Third war on Egypt
The peace treaty wasn't really satisfying to anyone, and a new war was inevitable. After a short while of peace the Egyptians declared war on the Carthaginians. In 1405 AD the Egyptians captured Rusicade and destroyed Hamilcar's forbidden palace!
The trusted Carthaginian longbowmen was once again mobilized. With a little help from a couple of knights they did conquer the rest of the western Egyptian island, but not without heavy losses. After this campaign the Carthaginian offensive army was reduced to one single knight. Obviously further conquest was not achievable, so a new peace treaty was signed, but Carthago was already preparing for another war on Egypt. Lots of musketeers, cannons and some cavalry were build and shipped towards Egypt.
The war on Greece
Shortly after the third war on Egypt someone sold the technology of the steam engine to Carthago, but it was somewhat useless, as there was no coal inside the Carthaginian territory. To correct this, an invasion of Greece was ordered by the Carthaginian senate.
The task force at the Egyptian border was shipped down there together with a settler. A new city was founded by a Greek coal mine and lots of stuff were rushed there to secure the coal source. The armed forces seiged Sparta for an eternity, but couldn't capture it before several waves of reinforcements had arrived. Then the cannons could upgrade to artillery. 16 artillery were really effective! Athenes fell in a few turns and then the Greeks begged for peace.
Betrayed!
In 1764 AD Persia sneak attacks the Carthaginian mainland. Carthgo bribes Romans to teach the Persians a lesson, but didn't get much help from them. On the other hand, Persia dragged almost the entire world in to their war against Carthago.
Due to the complete incompetence of the Carthaginian generals, the important city of Malaca at the Carthaginian main land was left undefended so a Persian cavalry could just walk in and capture it:suicide:. The same happened to a couple of useless cities in the east.
Soon Rome breaks their alliance with Carthago and signs a peace treaty with Persia. In 1776 they actually sign a military alliance with Persia against Carthago! What a betrayal!
The wars drag on with various alliances fighting each other until the early 1900's. In 1904 the Carthaginian starting archipelago is finally totally controlled by its right owners. Then the Carthaginians manages to get peace with their last enemies. Peace, finally peace!
The wars had been severe to the Carthaginians. They had become seriously backwards. For 150 years they got almost now scientific advances. They were still fighting with artillery and infantry while the Persians was about to start building their space ship!
Catching up in the tech race would be their only priority from now on...
to all player who have had the endurance and patience to achieve that. 
