The Sacking of Carthage.

[Mojotronica]

Or, What a Difference Twenty Years Makes.

Rome, Monarch, Kal-El's 140 x 140 Earth Map w/ Resources. Republic.

Map available here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39670

There comes a time in every young Roman's life when he or she MUST sack Carthage. It has to be done. Carthage must die.

On Kal-Els' map, this in partly because of the conflict inherent to the locations of the Roman and Carthaginian starting cities. Carthage and Rome compete for mastery of Southern Italy (Sicily) and the island(s) of Corsica-Sardinia.

I had several reasons to declare war on Carthage -- first, I wanted to found the city of Sicilia in Carthaginian territory. Second, Carthage had recently conquered a Scandinavian city named Hareld in the Northern British Isles -- slightly SE of where I had been intending to found Scotia.

And third because of the aforementioned location of Carthage - it would steal resources from and threaten cultural conversion of two of my cities until it was sacked.

I was very careful to start the war only after our Rite of Passage agreement had expired and was cancelled. I had no units in Carthaginian territory. I declared war, then signed Military Alliances with my other bordering nations the Scandinavians, the Greeks and the Babylonians to discourage them from attacking me.

With war declared I sent a Settler and defensive force from Rome to the location where I wanted to found Sicilia, and "built" it. I rushed a Temple there (letting the city build for one turn to maximize efficiency) to prevent it from flipping into Carthaginian hands. My continental force of Knights and Legions were mobilized from the border cities of Teutonia, Slovenia, Carpaethia and Thracia to Sicilia in preparation for the sea invasion, leaving behind a minimal defensive force.

I quickly liberated, then sacked Carthage's conquered Scandinavian city of Hareld, using the Knights from the British Isle's cities of Britannia and Celtica. I founded Scotia on an Iron deposit that also gave it access to the sea and to a Horse resource in central Britain. I had captured one Scandinavian and one Carthaginian Worker in the sacking. I "joined" the Scandinavian w/ Scotia, boosting it's population and providing it with the benefits of the rich Scandinavian cultural heritage inherent to the region.

The Carthaginian worker was sent to Sicilia, to join that fledgling city. After all, the region had been under the influence of Carthaginian civilization for centuries -- it was only natural it would include some Carthaginians.

I assembled three Galleons that had been serving in the Mediterranean Sea and English Channel in Sicilia, as well as eight Legion and eight Knights. Carthage had only sent an occasional Caravel into the Med -- their tech level was several steps shy of deploying a Frigate or Privateer, so I did not worry about a naval engagement.

The invasion of Carthage was ready.

More to come... check back soon!

 

[Mojotronica]

The Galleons moved 12 units to the beach one space just west of Carthage. This required only one movement. One Galleon returned to Sicilia, picked up the last four units and deposited them on the beach. The army was not in the best location to survive an all-out assault. It was surrounded by hills. However the Carthaginians were relatively weak militarily. Their counterstrike merely damaged one of my defending Legions.

The following turn the army moved to the hilltop behind Carthage, which I called Hannibal's Lookout. ("Hannibal? Lookout!) From this vantage point I had maximized their offensive power. I would need it. The city was defended by an unknown number of Musket Men and Numidian Mercenaries. It was the capital (obviously) and the best defended of Carthaginian cities. I had not yet developed the technology needed to deploy Battlefield Medicine. My units could not heal themselves on enemy ground.

My hope was that I could overcome it's defenses with this first batch of units. If not, I would regroup and make a subsequent assault. I was fairly confident sixteen could do the job.

I was wrong.

The first assault saw the loss of several of Carthage's Musket Men, and the injury of a couple of others. His Numidian Mercenaries were his strongest defenders after the initial strike. However my units were badly damaged. I had lost eight of them, and those that were left were all badly wounded. I deployed my Galleons to pick up the remainder. Fortunately there was no major counterstrike against my weakened army.

Analyzing the situation I realized that I could have unloaded my units directly on the hill from whence I wanted to launch my attacks, saving time and a potentially costly counter-strike while moving from low-land to high-land. Not to mention the potential for Carthage to prevent my attack by installing a defender there.

However this meant that I could not deploy more than twelve per turn -- three galleons worth.

Also I could have upgraded my non-Elite Swordsman units to Medieval Infantry, making them better at attacking. I might have won the city in the first assault if I had been smarter about the deployment, and could have put immediate pressure with a follow-up assault instead of having to start from scratch.

I was committed to using Knights instead of upgrading to Cavalry because I was also trying to get a jump on the Industrial Age. I was pushing for Theory of Gravity instead of Military Tradition. Until I had it, I did not want to take the time to research a non-essential tech. None of my rivals had yet developed MT, so I couldn't trade for it either.

Certainly it would have helped.

My second attack was a force of twelve. The four Legion who had survived and eight Knights, four of whom were survivors of the previous strike. I landed them directly on Hannibal's' Lookout. The battle went much the same as the previous one, too many defenders, just a little too strong for me. All of my Legions except for one were destroyed. Half my Knights were destoyed. The only bright spot was that a Hero emerged, Tragan. The victorious Knight was renamed Tragan's Knight.

Again my forces retreated for the safety of Silcilia. Tragan was sent to Bohemia to assist in our promising JS Bach's Cathedral project. The rest of my armies rested in Sicilia. I managed to scrape together four more Knights for yet another assault. Seriously though I was getting discouraged.

The world was changing though, and the winds of war were shifting in my favor. The alliance I had forged before making my assault had remained intact. The Babylonians and Greeks were hammering away at the Carthaginians overland, having journeyed through Egypt to make their attack. Carthage stood, but unbeknownst to me it had been dispatching defenders to protect against the overland raiders.

I had begun building Musket Men as soon as I had the Gunpowder technology. By replacing my active defensive Knights with passive defensive Musket Men, I was able to spare more and more Knights for the siege.

Finally I was able to trade Magnetism to the Chinese for their knowledge of Military Tradition. I had amassed a small fortune of about 2000 gold over the past twenty turns. This enabled me to upgrade almost all of my Knights to Cavalry. I retained only three who has become Elite, although in retrospect it didn't matter.

My final, small assault on Carthage was a group of 1 Legion, 3 Elite Knights and 5 Cavalry. I had serious doubts the small force could do the job, but I was determined. The Carthagian's final attack on my little force destroyed my last Legionnaire, who I had been hoping to maintain as a museum piece.

The Knights were unnecessary to the assault. In fact two Cavalry were all it took to finish Carthage once and for all. The option to govern or sack popped into view.

Of course I sacked it. Even though doing so cost the world the Great Lighthouse.

I loaded the hordes of Carthaginian refugees into my waiting Galleons, even before I moved my own units back to Sicilia. They would make fine citizens of the Roman Empire. I "joined" them into several of my smaller cities, helping those cities to quickly grow.

A few of the units in my invasion force had to endure one last attack by the Carthaginians. No permanent losses. Carthage's capital moved down the coast, closer to their South American colonies. Although they did not appreciate it, my destruction of their capital actually put them into a better strategic position. Egypt clearly ruled Africa. The shift to South America gave Carthage a continent (almost) of their own.

When my all my Military Alliances expired, I made peace with Carthage, although it was uneasy. They never forgave me for the humiliation.

Eventually I founded a new city in North Africa, near the site of the ancient former seat of Carthaginian civilization. I named it Mauritania. From that city I could eventually, in the age of Airports, launch an all-out assault on Egypt... But that's a story for another day.

 

[Ancient Grudge]

hmmmm a change for mojotornica eh? ncie story carry oen please keep up with the thread on off topic they are very good!

 

[Mojotronica]

Second half posted.