RNG is probably not being kind to you. I routinely find I have to hold back on Carthage as Rome if I want to have some big wars with them. Otherwise it's a simple matter of steamrolling them off of Sicily and smashing what little forces they muster in return, then besieging Carthage itself.

If you're having issues with them expanding and dominating the Western Med. Congratulations. You're one of the few who get to encounter an existential crisis for Rome.

it's not so easy for me, as soon as i conquer sicily they attack me with 4/5 full stack fleets and 4/5 full stack armies at the same time, i can keep at most 1/2 fleets and 3/4 armies, so i can't reach Carthage or sardinia and Corsica. i can't expand my Empire in other directions because they always attack me in the first 10/15 years of the game!

If you are new player it might get tough, especially if you grab Sicily before you are ready but sometimes that also can't be avoided.

In general issue with base game was that Punic War did not exist and Carthage would not even really fight with Rome, while being destroyed by other factions.

We changed stuff a lot in DeI so you have full scale of Punic Wars but people probably dont grasp the sheer scale of these wars, for example Second Punic War on its own had casualties that were not seen in Europe until 30 Years War in 17th century.

Now I did prepare a submod for new players that simply makes its easier to start your campaign going and it just adds difficulty as you grow. It can be also turned on/off at any point without issues but ideally used from game start.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2461514066&tscn=1648867600

Any chance of a complete opposite of that submod where it makes a second Punic war more challenging? I’ve heard rumours of a certain someone spawning in but I’ve never seen it…

Carthage never seems to get aggressive in Spain in my games. They’re always pushed out by the Iberians before 250 BC in my games and it kinda sucks to always be pulling my punches with the Punics.

in my games they didn't pushed out by iberians, they always arrives in France

I have just beaten Carthage down to one city in Spain, it took nearly 200 turns. As Rome, I gathered defensive allies and liberated factions to help me. Rhodes conquered most of the Carthage province for me and then lost it to a different faction. Then I took it.

The punic wars were pretty much ancient ww2


Be very cautious, don't over-expand, instead make clients for a buffer, for example, I made Sicily clients, I couldn't hold it, so I let the AI do it. The AI in DEI is the smartest total war AI I have every experienced. Keep trying, I had to restart my Rome campaign like 3 times before it started to make sense lol.

im having the same problem, im trying to hold syracuse but carthage keeps landing 3 or 4 stacks and retaking it, i cant afford to leave 3 stacks there as im getting attacked by epirus, nori and raeti aswell, this DEI really is hard

Originally posted by nessienewshine:

im having the same problem, im trying to hold syracuse but carthage keeps landing 3 or 4 stacks and retaking it, i cant afford to leave 3 stacks there as im getting attacked by epirus, nori and raeti aswell, this DEI really is hard

Take care of Epirus if you can, also I pay off the Barbs to the north.

My usual strategy with Rome (full description):

Kill of Epeiros as quickly can be of course, then etruscans to get Latium province. Go to great effort from the get go to get the northern tribes on your side, venice, genua, massallia, insubres if you can. You may want to quickly kill of Genua and liberate their settlement to get top-happy ally there. That way your northern front should be entirely secure. And I would actually also advice the same for all the greek factions (except Antigonidai, master (but to become enemy) of Athens). Also dalmatia and/or dacia and/or ardiae, as they dont tend to like eachother.

Now focus on fortifying and making Magna Gracia a food and supply production, especially in Cosentia, so that you can gather your armies their for defense and eventual attack (just tell the Carthaginians to dont worry about it, it's just "training operations"). Depending on how good and fast you get your economy running it may be either you or Carthage that declares war first. You probably need at least two strong stacks to take Sicily and to hold it a third one (which can be less strong to save on upkeep). Now a little trick is to keep and army in Syracuse and two armies in ONE of the other settlements, leaving one of them undefended. Carthage will see it and send their armies to take it. Immediatly after you retake it with you two strong armies. Loot it for gold, slaves, xp, loyalty. You can repeat this many times and you get good loot everytime, especially if using an army that has a spy attached with the upgrade card for increase income from looting (tiers are 20%, 40%, 60% so quite significant).

Eventually you'll amassed enough slaves to boost your economy and saved up enough gold to make more armies and also fleets. Your time to attack will be right after you have defeated their invading army as now for some turns they are lacking that army (or armies) that you just destroyed. Since Carthage city is so close to Sicily's Akragas settlement you should be able to move armies from the dock to attack their harbour in one turn. You can land in the back entrance of the city which doesnt have a gate (but you wont have any ladders and there is only one opening, so bringing extra missile units to massively soften them up is a good bet (the roman slingers are super cheap and great for this purpose)

Originally posted by 👑Philip II Of Makedon👑:

Originally posted by nessienewshine:

im having the same problem, im trying to hold syracuse but carthage keeps landing 3 or 4 stacks and retaking it, i cant afford to leave 3 stacks there as im getting attacked by epirus, nori and raeti aswell, this DEI really is hard

Take care of Epirus if you can, also I pay off the Barbs to the north.

thanks ill try and focus on them first

Im watching the map get steamrolled by rome (as egypt) Carthage was the first to fall.

Originally posted by Slaughter2Prevail:

Im watching the map get steamrolled by rome (as egypt) Carthage was the first to fall.

AI ROME is OP like carthage... Player Rome is not the same lol

Carthage is tough, no matter how much I prepare. They just throw stack after stack after stack at me. I run out of manpower after about 12 heavy battles against multiple full stacks.

Originally posted by Malistair:

Carthage is tough, no matter how much I prepare. They just throw stack after stack after stack at me. I run out of manpower after about 12 heavy battles against multiple full stacks.

The key is having overwhelmingly strong and numerous armies so that you will have very very few losses; or if you do have losses make sure it is from the population pool that you have tons of (cheap "barbaroi" units for example, you probably need to get rid of a lot of that pop class anyway). You can read my wall of text a few comments above a way how to deal with Carthage and achieve this. This strategy is not the only one there is, but I use this one and enjoy it a lot and it works.