Well, I took a big challenge and tried a campaign as Numidia without reading anyone's strategy on it. I got beaten by the AI for the first time ever! Numidia has an incredibly crappy starting position which makes you a prime target for both Carthage and Egypt. You start with only 3000 denarii, no ports, no ships, not even barracks capable of building basic infantry, just skirmishers, and numidian cavalry, oh and peasants.

I could have accepted the cheese of becoming Egypt's protectorate, but I'm way too proud for that. Things seemed to be going okay until Carthage showed up with a full flag army at my capital, and simultaneously sieged 2 other cities with forces stronger than mine. It was all pretty ugly. Although I beat back one of the besieging armies, my capital was lost, and it would have been only a matter of a few turns before I was completely crushed. I learned a great deal from this thrashing and so decided to adjust my campaign strategy and try again.

The second attempt has gone very much better. I ended the play last night by taking Carthage and gleefully exterminating the inhabitants. I think this may give me enough of a foothold to actually survive long term. The early game is very tough because you have very little cash, and you have no units that can stand and fight. You have javelin men, numidian cavalry, and if you play your cards right, some archers in the early going. These resources make for an interesting struggle.

I boldly sieged Carthage with a general (no stars), 4 numidian cavalry, 3 desert infantry, 2 numidian slingers, 2 numidian javelinmen, and 4 numidian archers. The Carthaginians attacked me with a single unit from the rear (don't know where they came from) but the garrison sallied out and there was a huge field battle. They had 1 general (4 stars), 5 roundshield cavalry, 6 Libyan spearmen (yikes!), 6 iberian infantry, and a mangled unit of merc numidian cavalry.

I turned my whole army so it was facing more toward the city so my flank wouldn't be wide open, and sent one unit of numidian cav off my left flank to keep the single unit of roundshields from hitting my rear. The other 3 numi cavs were sent as a mob to throw javelins at the roundshields on the enemy left. Since they had no missile units, my cav really did damage to theirs, and drew them off and ultimately destroyed the roundshields with about 30% casualties to my cavalry. The enemy general stayed behind his infantry line and they all advanced on my 3 desert infantry and 2 javelinmen. When they got fairly close, the Libyan spears charged my desert infantry, and the general charged too. I had every missile unit fire on the center Libyan unit, and set my 3 desert infantry to take the general. My infantry was shattered and routed with extreme losses, but the charge was blunted and the hail of missiles routed the Libyan and killed the general as he withdrew from mauling my infantry.

I targeted all archers on another Libyan and slingers on iberian infantry with help from my skirmishers. My line was gone, and a Libyan unit was charging my general, so I pulled him off to the flank and linked him with my other cav, who were just finishing off the last roundshields. I kept wheeling that whole cavalry blob into the flanks and rear of the spearmen who couldn't catch my skirmishing archers and slingers, and gradually got control over the battle. Once the spearmen were dealt with, the remaining iberians were easy prey. I won the battle in heroic fashion, albeit with huge infantry losses and half my skirmishers. But now, Carthage is MINE!!

Carthage already had 12K population, so they had stables where I can now build Long Shields, and Numidian Camel Riders. I can't wait to try them out tonight!! Playing Numidia is so much fun because you have to be creative and think hard to make your kingdom thrive.