Today we discuss which is the best African faction on Rome Total War (Carthage, Numidia and Egypt) Second channel: / @lugoreviews2805 Discord: / discord
@@Danymok How do you win a Numidian campaign without leaving the desert then? I've bit the bullet and done it once on VH/VH. Had to fight the Romans and Pontus (which had taken out the Seleucids). Wasn't pretty at all.
Carthage by far. I loved going Carthage a decade back. Their early game units though gave me all sorts of ptsd honestly. But once you get sacred band and sacredband cav with elephants, they can stand against any proper army. Early game really can be a chore with a lack of missile range power. I honestly never played egypt in vanilla rome due to the weird anachronistic roster.
@@YlL-ji2sl Yea they are. But I remember them being recruitable only at stables lvl 2. So I usually prioritised barracks to get that peoni infantry unit. But that was the vanilla game. I find RTR was kinder to the Carthage roster transition from starting to mid game.
Dude not that many ppl actually play Rome 2 anymore, it was more popular than Rome 1 when it was at its peak but Rome 1s player base is growing whilst Rome 2s is shrinking
These are the reasons why i like and dislike the 3 of them: Numidia: Cammel Riders, ARCHERS!!, and the spearmen arent that bad Bad things of Numidia: Almost no Infantry units, Its so close to the other 2 so you will be at war very soon Carthage: Elephants (of course), Sacred Band cavalry and infantry Bad things: Infantry is mostly weak, No archers, And the default riots that happen every game xd (Cough Corduba Cough)* Egypt: Good Spearmen that rivals the Greek units, Chariots and Heavy Archers/Spearmen units Bad things: None xdxd
@@khadajhin5130 bronze age is fun. What is bad about egypt is that the charriots are so overpowered on AutoResolve. It makes more sense to autoresolve everything and keep having decisive victories.
Thanks for doing these just as my hard drive AND graphics card died and all I've been playing is Rome: Total War :) Ever consider ranking the different settlements in RTW? I'm sure Carthage, Ptavium, Syracuse and Alexandria would be in the top 10 since they all have wheat - which gives you crazy potential for profit and growth.
Sacred Band are much better practically than Spartans: they cost about 60% as much and I'm not sure if you can recruit one per turn? If so, they are way better. They are essentially an upgraded version of Armored Hoplites except it takes a lot more city levels to get. Unlike Spartans, you won't shriek at seeing them pelted by missiles (which is another reason why I think Armored > Spartan for practicality).
Not at all. SB are great, but they are worse by AH because they take 2 turns to recruit and worse than Spartans for anything but getting fired at. Still the best unit that Carthage gets tho, so not really an argument. Also they are recruited at the temple, so that is another drawback.
What are you talking about? SH can be recruited only in 2 cities (namely Sparta and Syracuse) and take 2 turns to recruit (just like SB). Vulnerability to fire is a fatal flaw for such hard-to-get unit. Of course SB is not the most practical unit in the game but still they far more usable than Spartans (and I didn't even mentioned ridiculously high recruitment/upkeep cost for SH). AH is the the most efficient unit among these three by far.
@Lugotorix, will there be any new campaign soon? Found your chanel 2-3 months ago and I have finished wathcing your Greek, Rebel and Scythia campaign. I am old Rome Total War fan and while watching you i learned few things thing I didn't know about the game. Just keep it up :)
all fake legionaries in rome 1 except the selucid ones have same stats as principles. the thing is that when those factions get there the romans usually have marian reform already or close to that. that's why I like the selucids; if i try to stop the romans from growing too fast in the early game, it is possible that I will have approximately same unit strength as the romans.
Well based on numidia's position it is a migration to sicily or into egypt. Early rush is good for your army, cheap cost effective stuff. Taking carthage early helps the most.
There are two mods who can help: 1) the better of the two: RTW Units addon. Even though the author said otherwise the mod gets Updates till this day and produces good units like scutarii and libyan infantry for carthage both swordsman for example. 2) additional Unit Mod for rome total war. Carthage gets punic archers same lvl as Pharao bowman
The most clear cut list so far. Egypt >>>>> Carthage >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Numidia. Numidia is the worst faction in the campaign because of its plethora of missing buildings, especially missing Level 2 docks hurts a lot in a game where most income relies on sea trade. With its horrid starting economy it also can't wait for others to develop before capturing their docks. The army is surprisingly good early on. I know you hate skirmish cavalry but Numidian Cavalry is one of the best early game units, and Desert Infantry can wipe the floor with pretty much anything Carthage or Egypt can throw at you. Later on, though, they have barely any units that can hold the line and unlike Scythia or Parthia they don't have the mobility to run an army that doesn't rely on a front line. Numidian Cavalry lose a lot of their punch at this point and all they can really do is defend the desert where their combat bonus makes the Numidian army semi-serviceable. I like evacuating/selling Siwa early on to avoid a two-front war but even then it's the most challenging campaign in the game. Carthage has a bad starting position and has to fight the Romans starting on turn 3 at the latest, and their early army sucks. In fact, their army isn't anything special until you get to Sacred Band and there isn't much income to be had in North Africa unless you go crazy and decide to fight Egypt at the same time. Iberia is easy to secure but doesn't bring in any money either, so you rush the Romans and hope for the best. Elephants are way overrated because of the fact that you need the elephants resource on a region to even be able to train them. Egypt has an insane staring economy, public order bonus, access to high level temples and docks, great starting position basically poised to dominate the Eastern Mediterranean both economically and politically, a fairly secure western border, amazing army both early on (Desert Cavalry, Chariot Archers and Nile Spearmen) and late game (Pharaoh's Bowmen and Chariot Archers)... I can't think of any disadvantages except the lackluster late infantry, with Pharaoh's Guards being too vulnerable to missiles for my taste due to their lack of shields.
Never really got into using either faction. Numidia just isn't very good. Carthage has ok units, but aren't really the best at anything. They also end up fighting on too many fronts against solid enemies. Carthage is one of those campaigns I like the idea of it, but the army just isn't good enough, especially given the lack of any archers at all. Better than factions like Thrace or Numidia, but not enough to make up for their starting position.
@@Vektordeformacio I know what they have, but they are still quite unimpressive as a whole compared to pretty much any other faction. They have mediocre archers that just don't hold up very well compared to other factions that use archers heavily. Their legionaries are just ok, certainly don't hit elite heavy infantry level, and javelin cav is generally just a poor man's horse archer that I really only use if I'm playing as a faction that doesn't have a better option for missile cav. If I'm going to be relying on second rate legionaries, missile cavalry and ok spearmen, I'll just play as Armenia and get long range missiles and cataphracts to go with it. Numidia isn't diverse enough to compare to the top rosters, nor are they super elite but overly specialized like some of the more mid-tier rosters. They just have a somewhat varied selection of ok units.
@@thehulkster9434 They are an early game short campaing civ. for that, they are awesome and enjoyable. yeah sure you can take the whole world, but for that you have tu rush rome and egypt at the same time. it is doable as numidia, since your units come reallty early, cheap and with good stats. they have the best starting roster ( up to tier 2) paired with the Germans. You can beat egypt chariots with your spearmen, their spearmen with javcav and everything with your tier2 archers. against rome you really must take sicily in like turn 20 as whole and land in italy. otherwise it is a slogfest. If you play it like that, you do not need super elite units. you will just get the stuff you must by your money, no pileing, as every settlement can make something useful. For slogging match you need the backup army of legionaries that are made in 2 turns.but you will most likely only make them in places like Nile region, Carthage and Rome itself. Later on Antioch and that`s about it. By the looks of it Numidia is a discount, faster Armenia. Same playstyle, but no elite units bc you do not need them. It is maybe just my playstyle that I wish to spend every turn taking a city or doing a major battle, and then settle logistics of moving armies. For that, the Germans, Armenia and Numidia are the best, and the likes of Selecuids and Romans are the worst.
Playing with Carthage showed me how much i relied on archers. Im struggling against Parthia and their long spears. Usually i just kill them from a distance. Egypt and their bowmen give me trouble also since i need to get in close to attack. Any counters on either?
Good old hammer and anvil. Use Sacred Band Infantry to hold the line and Sacred Band Cavalry to rush down archers and than do hammer attacks against whatever is fighting your infantry. You can mix in elephants if you want, your economy should allow you to easily afford them. If you do mix in elephants I recommend using them as your hammer and your cavalry as an anti archer/cavalry force instead.
Honestly Egypt should be a hybrid faction between Hellenic Greeks and Native Egyptians. Also, the map should be larger in the south to include Horn of Africa and Arabia. This can mean that there is room for a new faction which is the Kingdom of Kush and it is located in what is called Nubia and serves as an additional rival to Egypt. Also creative assembly should have created a bronze age and early iron age era campaign. It would be interesting to explore the pre-hellenic era that was dominated by the Hitties, Egypt, Babylonians, Assyrians, Elamites, Urartu, Phoenicians, Medes, Lydia, Kush and the Cimmerians
I’d love to play Egypt if they included some Seleucid or just Greek units, I love to play as the Greeks and I love the idea of all the successor factions fighting eachother for Alexander’s kingdom. But it’s hard to maintain an Egyptian campaign when there are no actual Greeks in their ranks.
For me, Carthage is one of the hardest factions in the game on VH/VH. Your Iberian infantry and Libyan infantry don’t handle hastati well and you get Brutii launching stacks against Carthage whilst Scipii hit Lilybaum, Julii hit Sardinia and Spanish hit Corduba. Nubia throws a few armies at Carthage too. I’ve found the only way I could win on VH/VH was to send my elephants on sneak attacks to take the 2 Brutii settlements and then pincer attack my way up Italy both South West and South East. What is your game plan playing as Carthage?
I just leave Corduba, and move units from there to defend Sardinia. In the begining I take Sicily, and focus on destroying Scipi. In the same time I'm building a lot of ships to have dominance on sea and don't allow Brutii and Juli to transfer army to africa.
@@Mrbumbumtras Hmm. This is what I struggle with. I can never have enough resources to both build the ships needed to dominate on sea AND take Sicily/destroy the Scipii. I've tried it this way multiple times on VH/VH and each time the Brutii land too many stacks to try and take Thapsus dragging my forces south and letting the Scipii rebuild.
@@SMBainbridge trick is to take all that you can and atack Thapsus in 1st or 2nd turn ( don't build up and w8). And very fast after that go for Capua to destroy them. Be agressive.
@@SMBainbridge Cos you gonna be dealing with all the Roman factions regardless, it's way easier if you kill them early. On battlefield, even on vh, just use pure round shield Cav, zerg rush one of their side wing, route a couple of hastati, and get a chain route. Easy, on vh you just get slightly more casualties. Take the scipii city on Sicily, that way you only need one boat to transfer your army to southern tip of Italy, since the journey is short. Dealing with Rome, is difficult in a straight on fight, because of their elite units, and their so many general units, get a couple of healthy elephant units you should do fine, or try to maneuver your stack onto a bridge close to Rome, and fight a bridge defense. Keep all your generals together as the core of your army, until all the Romans are done for.
I agree that Carthage is probably the hardest on VH/VH My most successful strategy has been to attack Romans on Sicily and defend africa while rushing Sacred Band. Once you can get a few units of sacred band its gg. Ships are a waste of time imo and the mentioned strategy with rushing Italy would probably be the best, but i don't like it because it seems cheesy.
I think it would be cool to create a video in the future comparing best factions from each category (best hellenic faction, best eastern facfion, best roman, barbarian etc) in the same way as you do these videos (battle units, campaign) so we can see which faction is best in all RTW according to you :)
I'm not sure I agree with you that Egypt's roster is superior to Carthage's. The Sacred Band Infantry is out there with the Armored Hoplite as the best spear infantry in the game, better than the Pharaoh's Guard Egypt has. They do lack in the archery and chariot departments but have significantly better cavalry in the Sacred Band and of course elephants. Carthage's army isn't as versatile, true, but it's incredibly good at what it does, and is in fact very similar to the Hellenic, Alexander style, of warfare with the classic hammer and anvil. The Hellenic factions(other than the Greek cities) use the longer Sarissas instead of the shorter spears which means Carthage is weaker in the head to head matchup but actually stronger against non phalanx units(most notably the Romans) where the spearmen's superior stats compared to the pikemen truly get to shine. In terms of starting positions I actually prefer Carthage's to Egypt's for 1 simple reason: they're closer to Rome. Carthage's start is pretty powerful and their first enemy is always going to be the Scipii, which means you're fighting the Romans right off the bat when they're at their weakest. While Carthage's early roster is nothing to write home about, neither is Rome's to be perfectly honest and once you get your Libyan Spearmen or whatever they're called and even the most basic of cavalry than you can begin to use hammer and anvil tactics to easily wipe the floor with the Romans. Carthage area is rich, not as rich as Egypt but still rich, and Carthage has easier access to trading partners right off the bat which means that they should be able to make more money than the Egyptians pretty early on. Than you get into Italy very quickly and well, Italy is an extremely rich region too, much richer than the Middle East(barring Anatolia) which is where Egypt will initially expand into, which means that very early on in the campaign Carthage will most certainly be the richest faction in the game and took care of the biggest enemy on the map: the Romans, already. From there the campaign is pretty much won as you can get your Sacred Band infantry and cavalry online and spam armies chalk full of them with some Elephant support perhaps and no army will be able to stand in your way. Not in terms of quality nor the quantity you'll be able to throw at whoever you choose.
7:35 aren't the spartans the only phalanx unit that's superior to the sacred band? personally i'd prefer the sacred band to the spartans since the carthaginians actually have respectable cavalry including elephants. for my siege defense i prefer using phalanxes at the entry points in the town center, and stage elephants behind the phalanxes. the elephants will demoralize the attackers while shooting them with their archers. plus it seems to me that foot archers can inadvertently shoot your phalanx soldiers when firing from behind them, but the elephants don't, i'm assuming that's because the elephant archers are on a high platform shooting back from atop the elephant rather than at ground level trying to shoot over or through the phalanx.
Few ideas for you: -Watch your army upkeep. If you recruit too many units their upkeep will drain your coffers. -Ports -Farming -In RTW you have the Wonders. Those can help a lot, Colossus of Rhodes for example.
It's a singleplayer game; everybody can play in the way that gives them the most enjoyment. Playing a faction like Numidia is certainly more challenging than playing the Romans or Egypt; some people like the challenge, others just want to see Urban Cohort slaughter everything. I'm a fan of both. :P
A playthrough idea that sounds like real suffering would be Numida, VH/VH, no boats allowed. Awful start position, and even after sorting out your early economy and stuff you have nowhere to go except attacking Egypt, one of the strongest factions, and will probably be constantly harrassed on the African coast by Rome. Also enjoy having to fight Rome super late into the game, since you'll be marching through Scythia to even get around to Rome.
I figure it would be like his Scythia campaign, except with more cursing. :D Idk. , giving up Siwa to another faction might save some time, but without boats it would be absolutely horrible to beat Rome. (not to mention not possible, because there's always some Scipii in Sicily) It could maybe work as a migration campaign, rushing Egypt with everything Numidia has at the start With boats, it would be perfectly possible to rush Rome early on as a start of a successful Numidia campaign. But that's too easy, i'm also more curious how Lugotorix would play Numidia without boats, against a post-Marian Rome.
@@gabork5055 well, eliminating all the Romans isn't a requirement to win the campaign, it's just something Lugotorix likes to do. But you could still kill the Scipii if both their faction leader and heir are on the mainland and you can lure them together, iirc killing both in the same battle will wipe out a faction.
@@ieattables Maybe if you let them take a settlement, they go to the mainland and leave the older family members behind, idk.. Sooner or later they should die out then. Or buying those settlements while they still have their forces/settlements/diplomats somewhere else. Or asking to become a protectorate/ally. I know it's not a requirement, but eliminating the romans is something you would want to do in a long campaign.
what happened with financial ranking is carthage starts with the most money (7000) while seleucid starts with 3000 and egypt, gaul and greece all start with 5000 but because you set ai to hard they all made more money over the end turn than you despite you not spending any, putting you at 5th place turn 2, but 1st place turn 1
Cartage comes after you in the first 10 turns and will wipe you out if you try to stay in the desert. You have to wipe them out asap and take their place in fighting the Romans imo. Also starting Numidian horsemen, the javelin ones will beat everything.
Numidia is actually a friend of Rome up until the civil war, and attacking them is litterally impossible without getting your ass outlawed, so that's a plus.
Surprised some people actually care what the senate thinks of factions. The turn after you attack them they go "oh yeah they're totally evil now even though they were allies a turn ago"
Egypt is the MVP of Rome 1 .Literally if you don't play near the east and you don't prioritize Egypt they will eat everything like a horde from the steps . Usually what happens is pontus forms an alliance with them and takes all of Anatolia and after they poop the Selucids and parthians they kill pontus as well .
Well, Numidia is trash by every margin. There is one thing that can make them somewhat good at the early stage, and it's archers. They get archers much sooner than their neighbours, allowing them to build those from basic archer range. The long shield cav is the only half-decent cav they get. It's not terrible, certainly better than equites, but comes later and you have to survive till then. In fairness, their units are not the problem. Their economy and location is. Their starting provinces are a disaster in itself, they have aggressive neighbours that will come for them and as such Numidia has to expand fast. Which is a problem, because most of their starting units are trash. The crippling thing is a 1 level of port. It's a catastrophy. Not only you are stuck with birems for the rest of the game, but your income will always be the lowest. As we know, trade brings the most cash, and the better port is, the more cash you get. So not only Numidia will have less than mediocre units, but also a bad eco. Oh, and lack of 5 level temple to keep order in check is also a blow. Carthage has the same problems as Numidia at the start. Most of their units are bad. Infantry is actually so bad that I recomend to not build barracks at all. Only at the highest level you will get a decent inf unit but you can get a better unit from Baal temple. They are one of few nations that lack archers entirely, so that is a massive con. Their cav is decent and at the end you can get sacred cavalry, one of the best in the game. I don't rate elephants that much, since they are not very reliable, but they are useful at the very start to rush down enemy cities. Just overwhelm them with cav, it will be your most reliable unit. Their eco is great, with three tiers of ports, paved roads, high tier plantations and good means to uphold public order in cities. Their starting lands are good, but there are lots of enemies around. Try to take them out as fast as possible. Egypt is extremely versatile faction. They have great land, great eco and weak neighbours. Who can become strong fast if not dealt with, so hurry up with that. Egypt is a faction that swims in money. You land is so rich and populous that you'll probably be the first one to get to size 5. I cannot say that their units are that great though. Yes, you have some good options later in the game, but at the start you will rely a lot on chariots. Egypt's main flaw is a lack of good convetional cav. Plus in the long term they might have troubles at sea since their ports are capped at 2 tier. But they do have the widest and best choice of temples which help either with city growth, trade or PO. Out of all three I'd put Egypt above Carthage, with Numidia at the bottom. Carthage may be better in the long run and more versatile, once it reaches later period of the game, but Egypt has the ability to snowball so quick that its shortcomings in later stage won't matter.
tier one ports are not intentional. in the file factions are always mentioned by culture, except that one, it is spelled carthage, not carthagian. you can fix it and they become a far better faction.
Carthage has a great potential to be formidable in the right hands. While early game might be a bit harder than most other factions, you get a great starting position to rush Rome early on, one of the best phalanx units in the game, the best elephants that absolutely crush enemy phalanx formations while flanking and just infantry in general, allows your army to attack immediately without siege equipment while also being an useful missile support unit when placed behind your phalanx. Once you reinforce Carthago Nova in the first few turns and make your first moves in establishing your economy, you're good to go to take Sicily and start invading Rome. Now that you mentioned Carthage, it got me thinking about that my next campaign should be a Carthaginian campaign. This faction is so good.
yeah, slingers BEHIND phalanx. good job barraging your own troops. they cannot shoot above if not physically above them. they need terrain to throw over. Also the better phalanx unit is 2 tiers after carthage start turn pop. Good luck mate
@@Vektordeformacio Don't know where you get the part about slingers, i meant the war elephants are good support units behind phalanx, besides that you can always capture the two Greek islands and hire Cretans for the best archers. I never use slingers, unless i absolutely can't hire anything else and need some skirmishers in my stacks. (though they have more ammo and have some uses on the walls while defending, they are generally sort of meh) Imo. Carthage is meant to be played by taking all the rich island (Rhodes)and coastal settlements to make up for your weaknesses and wreak havoc with elephants and phalanx units. Take out Rome, capture Rhodes and Crete, then take out Egypt.
@@gabork5055 Ah, I get you. Intresting method. I am sorry I was just thinking of the ingame custom battle roster. Anyway, civs with helleinc mercenaries ( merc hoplites, cretans and bastarne) are capble of doing things
@@Vektordeformacio No problem and sure, the Greeks are also in a really good position, where they can hire Cretans, recruit Spartan hoplites, take benefit of sea trade from the Colossus of Rhodes and have rich settlements to begin with. The Seleucids also benefit from the elephants, though not as much as Carthage iirc..
Egypt is weaker than: Rome(ofc) Greeks(Spartans op + crit archers), Macedonian (they can take crit archers too), Seleucids, Germans and every south faction(cuz catafracts)
