I had tried out many times before this campaign, testing different strategies like forgetting about Spain and going directly to Italy and so on. The most consistent seemed to be protecting Africa just with the navy, whilst conquering Spain with sweat, blood and tears. Then, building some more economical backbone with the addition of the African provinces (after my allies had been defeated).

Once some serious money was in store, the invasion of Sicily seemed feasible. With 2 armies and a full navy it seemed enough to eat up Italy from the South to the North. And yeah, many times I would even reach to Cosentia thinking that it was a piece of cake, just to find out with dismay the quantity of armies that the Samnites, Etruscans and Romans would send once you were in Italy.

I even remember watching my favourite Rome II youtuber, a guy really talented both in battles and campaings, just giving up this campaign at that point.

So, I asked to myself, especially after noticing that there are some diplomatic technologies branches in the Carthaginian research tree that the campaign is meant to be played in an smoother diplomatic way. I asked for help in this topic as you can see:

https://steamproxy.net/app/214950/discussions/0/3825298731241612687/?tscn=1693661404

All the credit to JMTAotP, who helpt me a lot with his answers. Besides, if you want, you can simply read his answers, which are very well explained and simplified.

Some of you, as it happened to me before, maybe still don´t know well how the diplomatic mechanics work. It is quite simple actually once you get a grasp of it.

AI gives bonuses or penalties to every friendly or hostile action towards themselves directly or towards those that they are already friendly or hostile for that faction. This includes sending money as gifts, positive diplomatic missions, release prisoners, signed treaties, enslave prisoners...

To explain it more clearly I´ll put on an example:

- Faction 1 (Carthage), faction 2 (Rome), faction 3 (Samnites), faction 4 (Lybia).

(Samnites are the target of our diplomatic flirting in this case).

Context: Samnites like Rome, but they dislike Lybia.

Aside from sending money, diplomatic missions to the Samnites, the two other things that we can do as Carthage is being nice with Rome (within our war possibilities) and being mean with Lybia in order to make the Samnites like us.

So, until the Samnites haven´t swiped sides in the war, you do not do any hostile action against Rome. This means that you can defend if they attack you, but if you attack Rome during your turn, this will give you a diplomatic penalty with the Samnites. The only exception is to sink the unwary Roman transports who are coming to Africa and you can´t afford to meet them at land. That said, always release prisoners.

It is the other way around for Lybia. Samnites are scripted (at least it is what I have seen in my campaigns) to attack Lybia early on, so you should get ready to break treaties with Lybia early on, and conquer them. That would not only please the Samnites, but also is a nice way to improve your economical backbone, and prevent any other power to set foot on Africa. You don´t lose much, since they are a worthless client anyways, they don´t even want to trade.

Nevertheless, it is not very likely that they´ll stay idle during the whole process. By the time you´d have reached that technology it is kinda mid-game, and by that moment you´ve definetely ran into a transport fleet of theirs or something. As it was aforementioned, they tend to attack Lybia, so remain vigilant of that.

The point is that, early on you haven´t discovered neither the Samnites nor the Etruscans, and you should not make any move in their direction to meet them too early (sending a spy, a fleet or whatever), since they´d probably declare war on you right after that if your relationships are still negative, and the whole process would be pointless.

So, in order to make a good impression from the get-go, you should not make any move to discover them until you have researched the technologies that provide you diplomatic bonuses with Italics (same it is applied for Celts, but imo Italics are way more important in this campaign). That alongside haven´t been too mean with Rome should be enough to prevent an outright war declaration and start working properly in the good direction. To sum up, our first diplomatic step to make the Italics join us is simply avoid Rome and them as much as possible.

Assuming you followed the principles of the first step, at the moment that you discover one of these factions (or more probably, that they discover you), your relationships should not be so bad to provoke an outright war declaration.

Check out to whom they dislike, and to whom they like. I don´t remember it too clearly since I played that campaign like 8 months ago, but I am sure that in my campaign it was pretty easy, since they were coming towards Lybia to conquer it, and I was already involved in that process.

So, now we can work directly with them. Unfortunately, our economy is still probably not prosperous enough to afford sending diplomatic missions every turn or send them money as gifts, but every little money remnant that you possess at the end of the turn, even if they are just 100 denarii, is good as a gift. Our idea is to build a steady relationship, to make them like us more than they like Rome. This process could take maaaany turns, so don´t feel disheartened if they don´t want to sign treaties and so on. As long as they don´t declare war on you, it is good.

In regards to perform better early game, I wrote a guide that should help you if you struggle with it, and you don´t make use of very helpful mechanics such as Embezzlement:

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2918204447

Needless to say that you ought to carry on with the "avoidance" policy towards Rome. Btw, you could do this with Syracuse as soon as possible too, since they are an annoyance otherwise, and if you are hostile with them, neither the Samnites nor the Etruscans would like it.

You have been following up the previous steps. By this moment, you start noticing how when you click on either the Etruscans, Samnites or whatever factions you are trying to join your side, how the green colour is fading on Rome whilst it is becoming greener on Carthage.

Once you have signed a single treaty with them, whatever hostile action that Rome does to you will give them a diplomatic penalty with them. It gets more powerful the more positive your relationships are with them. It is like a snowball effect. You just keep working on that, bear in mind that even if their relationships turn to negative numbers, as long as they have a treaty (as it is being a client state or simply a non-agression pact), your hostile actions on Rome would still get penalised.


(Rare footage of Carthaginian generals analysing the situation at this point)

Check out in the diplomacy tab whether they would break their treaties with Rome. When they´d be willing to do so, don´t do it until you can send armies and fleets there to support them directly. They´d end up being eaten by Rome, since once they cut ties with Rome, the cumulative actions throughout the campaign would make them declare war on Rome, and they are not strong enough, although they´d definetely buy you some time.

Ideally, you should have conquered Sicily and be at least mid-way towards Samnio before asking them to do so (or if you choose other route like the Northern, whatever you calculate enough to aid them on time). In my experience, it is unlikely that they would break the treaty by themselves, so need to rush even if you see that they hate Rome.

In my campaign, in which I managed to get away with it at the first try following these principles, I miscalculated the Samnites strength, since I thought they´d perform much better, so I provoked them to attack Rome much earlier than that in order to give Rome some work. Besides, in my campaign I kinda rushed the process, and pulled the trigger once I felt strong enough to attack Sicily, and I didn´t wait to make the Etruscans join me too, since they were still too friendly with Rome, but I am sure they´d have joined me too if I had waited long enough (they did it indeed in my HATG Syracuse campaign and it was glorious).

Here is a capture of the moment they turned against Rome. As I said, it was definetely too early to help them properly (turn 12), but this proves it is feasible.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3030179465

This is how my campaign looked at the end:

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3259872551

In turn 1 you have money for free making peace with Emporion and Massalia, as you do signing a trade agreement with Mauri. You can also check with Oretanii, but I don´t think they´d give you money. Gaetuli´d accept a non-agression pact, which also buys some time.

What I usually do is to destroy fast the Cessetani, which you can do with Hannibal´s army alongside the navy with some provincial levies from Ilercarvones and cheap mercenaries. I play using a mod that provides all diplomatic options, so I Sack and them Loot in order to obtain more money to gain momentum.

After that, you should start building a fleet in Carthage to protect it from enemy transports. Remain vigilant of Lybia´s coast too, since they could try to set foot on Africa by that place.

Alongside that, it would be nice to start recruiting an army pointing to the conquest of Lybia or Massily if they are too hostile. In Hispania it is basically about who declares war on you, which it is usually your own clients (Turdetani and Ilercarvones) alongside the Arevacii. What you should not do is "ping-ponging" your armies, going from one place to other in a reactive way; until a war or a pre-war is not over, you do not send your armies without a clear target. For instance, if you have just conquered Cessetani, it is a good idea to stay there rather than send the army south expecting a Turdetani attack, since you could get caught in the middle without being able to respond properly to any of the war situations.

In the south, you have both Tingis and Qart-Hadast that can be defended easily, so I would sweep North Eastern Hispania before (not Emporion tho, unless you really think you can assault the walled settlement) sending that army south. Carthage´s greatest advantage is to recruit mercenaries fast and cheaper alongside provincial levies, so I´d act quite agressive before the Ilercarvones and others can muster up their armies. It is very likely that the Ilercarvones declare war upon you, but if not, you can try to bait them setting your army on ravage stance on their territory if you do not want their defensive allies to the north to join the war (alongside the hit on reputation) if you declare war on them. That´s up to you. That said, for me Hispania is not a priority, although you should keep as much territory as possible, provided it does not compromise your progress in Africa. As long as you hold your ground on Qart-Hadast, you can easily counter-attack once you have become stronger elsewhere.

The African provinces are quite wealthy to waste them sharing them with allies and clients, and we really need a strong economic backbone. That alongside the fact that African factions are much weaker than Iberians always makes them a far more sensible war target for me. Pick them one by one, firstly the hostile ones (bar Lybia, that should be a priority) and then your former allies. It was surpringsly easy for me. Considering that your African allies make a good job distracting your enemies you can go directly to their settlements. I conquered whole Africa with 2 armies made up of Lybian hoplites and javelinmen alongside some mercenary cavalry and slingers.

As I said with Hispania, don´t ping-pong your armies, don´t leave potential threats at your back; once you conquer Lybia, you go on directly against Garamantia in order to complete Tripolitania. You can afford losing Iol during this time.

Btw, remain vigilant of the food, since it is possible to lose Gadir and the hit on the food production could lead to shortage. A food port in a settlement which can definetely defend is mandatory.