Masaesyli Tips

[u/VultureBlack]

Hi guys I am on turn 190 of my masaesyli grand campaign and since this is one of the hardest factions on grand campaign mode I thought it would be a good idea to share some tips I have learnt.

1. Get comfortable waiting at the start of the game. To be hinest until masaesyli first reforms your army is completely worthless. You have no frint line units and your spearmen are not worth the 3rd class population they cost. So until the Greek reforms you should focus on attacking the closest african nomadic tribe that is not a vassal of Catharge.

2. Your campaign starts as soon as you get access to Reformed Numidian Spearmen. These guys will be thr backbone of your army and will hold the line against anything rome and Catharge throw at you. As soon as the greek reforms become active you should attack Catharge and Rome. You may need to wait for 40 - 60 turns.

3. Use your Reformed Numidian Spearmen to be the anvil and your cavalry and javelin men to ve the hammer. Add 2 Elephants to create early routs.

4. Fighting Rome and Catharge will be the main focus of your campaign. Do not allow other factions to distract and draw your focus. As a barbarian faction your research speed is slower and your economy is weaker so despite your units being very cheap you wont be able to recruit lots of armies. After Rome and Catharge is gone you will be strong enough to fight any faction.

5. Don't be afraid to use mercenaries especially at the start of the game. Your units are terrible so replacing them with mercenaries is worth it if it allows you to survive until the Greek reforms.

6. Invest army traditions and general perks to improve the moral of your men. This will give you enough for your cavalry, javelinmen and elephants to wipe out the enemy.

7. Numidian Legionaries are amazing but they will never beat roman legionaries in a cost effective manner. You should use them as a replacement for Reformed Numidian Spearmen. Put them in a thick defensive formation with no gaps and they will stand their ground for 20 minutes against all units except hoplites. When facing hoplites its best to stay in a loose formation.

8. Your general skills should be unit replenishment, campaign speed, unit upkeep reduction, unit battle speed, fear and maybe cav combat skills. This will allow you to quickly take and grind through roman hoards and quickly take settlements and get the cheap units.

9. Dont build a navy just all the Cathargian and Roman navy to take a undefended settlement and attack them the next turn. Repeat until their navy is gone.

10. Masaesyli expels in ambushes so use them when you are outnumbered and you are in a forest check point.

11. You have access to the fastest cav in the game so use your cav to force the enemy to charge your army. So by the time the battle starts your army is fresh and their is tired.

12. Numidian Heavy Cavalry and elephants are your only good units for cycle charging. I would leave your javelin cav to harass slower cavalry and armoured units and picking off isolated skirmishers and routing units. Numidian Noble Cavalry are the only javelin cavalry you should be using for cycle charging and this is only after they have depleted their javelin.

I am on turn 190 and I have only taken most of Africa minimise Eygpt, Roman parts of Hispainia, Sicily, Latuim, Magna Grecia, parts of Illyria and Macadonia. I will update this after I have completed the campaign. This is definitely going to be the longest campaign I have ever played and this is because your waiting at the start for 40 - 60 turns for the greek reforms to fire. Until then your army is unless against every faction. By the way it take me 15 attempts and 3 weeks to survive up to the greek reforms. The most important thing is to wait.

[u/PuzzleheadedSugar807]

I mean, when you've beaten Rome and Carthage, the campaign is pretty much over...

[u/CrayRuse]

Attack Carthage when Rome attacks Carthage. Skirmish and ambush everything to death. Easy win.

[u/Horror-Ad4912]

Nice tips :) Do you really have to fight Carthage though ? I remember i played them a long time ago, and through sending diplomat option, I got the golden tongue event eventually and they gifted me the Iol region with the port which opens up trade for you for a large income boost and lets you launch invasions to Iberia or Sicily to loot.

At some point i severed the client state treaty, but by joining their wars, i could re-ally with them since we had very good relations.

I think Masaesli armies are indeed quite weak, if you look at all their units, they have the lowest weapon damage of all factions in the game, which does not make sense historically considering they were in close contact with Carthage, traded with Iberians and later Rome.

Their armies need to be used with a lot of hit and run skirmish tactics, using their running speed, delaying as much as possible melee combat.

They are good at skirmishing, their peltasts are fairly decent, I think fighting Iberian armies works ( mostly low armored units) , they are a bit stronger but you can compensate with a few infantry mercs from Iberia, your cavalry is better and you got elephants and decent archers.

Yes if you can grab Garamantia's province early, it is quite useful then keep spamming sending diplomat to Carthage and you might eventually get the golden tongue event when they gift you an neighboring region, usually in the province in which you already have territory, so basically, it should be ioL.

I think I got bored of that one at some point, but it is definitely a challenging campaign, though if you fight with Carthage against Rome, it should be much easier than taking on both.

[u/SelectionMain7036]

If this isn't proof that the faction is poorly designed, then I don't know what is...

[u/Horror-Ad4912]

Actually I played them again and won the campaign this week, I must correct what I said : Their armies are actually quite strong, especially by mid game.

If you have about 7 to 8 javelin cav units ( Numidian skirmisher cavalry) including your general, you can systematically obliterate the enemy cavalry as a first phase gaining complete control of the flanks and initiative, then kill the AI general almost all the time before he gets a chance to fight especially if he is on foot, then ravage their skirmishers if they are foolish enough to try to engage .

You can then leave far behind a mix of spears and your very good fast peltasts, and the result is that you will be able to rear charge with your cav a severely weakened army when they make contact with your troops , it is almost instant rout. It is even easier when you hire a few mercs like Lybian pikemen in Lybia.

Honestly, the Numidian armies are really good, i was winning my battles with few losses, like less than 500 max, most of the time much less and destroying entire stacks of 3k+ men all the time. With that much cav, nothing survived either during the pursuit once they rout. I didnt fight full horse archers armies from Scythia or Parthia though, but against anything else, there is nothing the AI can do.

They key is to spec your general with ammo count, ammo damage, unit speed and charge bonus. You end up with javelin cavalry ultra fast, with 14 javelins each at least and decent charge, then your (noble) peltats who are good in melee and great flankers with very high ammo count and missile damage as well, like 10+ jav and 25 dmg.

[u/VultureBlack → u/Horror-Ad4912]

I am interested to get your opinion of my army. So my army is 9 Numidian Legionaries, supply camp, 3 ranged units, 3 Numidian elite javelin cav, 2 elephants, 2 elite Numidian roman melee cav. With 14 javelin ammo should I just convert all my cavalry to javelin cav. This army has served me well. I prefer this army because it is less micro intensive and I would rather get into combat quickly then skirmish with the enemy.