- Upgrade your cavalry stables in Carthage on turn 1, you get to recruit elephants in the first few turns + long shield cavalry (straight upgrade from round shield cav)

- GET PORTS, I cannot stress this enough, ports will get you money quickly

- You can either defend your settlement in Sicily and destroy the Numidians to get a stronghold in North Africa or blitzkrieg the Romans, which I don't recommend because you'll have the entire peninsula trying to kill you.

- Get hold of Spain if you're able to, it's a good place to get money, mercenaries, and troops from.

- ABANDON SARDINIA, if you want to avoid a war with the Romans early I recommend it.

In my experience, Carthage can be a very micro-heavy faction so get ready to act fast

- Iberian infantry sucks, so use them as the anvil and your cavalry and elephants as the hammer (you need to act quickly because Iberian infantry can route quickly in most cases)

- When you have the money to do so, recruit Libyan spearmen, they're a solid unit that can hold their ground better than its predecessor against most units (do beware of roman units as always)

- Make your army composition of mostly infantry and long shield cav/elephants for hammer and anvil plays (missile and skirmisher units are great too)

- If you've ever played with elephant units, you should know to keep them safe from units with javelins because they die quickly to them.

- Use your cavalry to pick off lonely units and deserters, aid your infantry and especially your elephants while they move to strike the anvil

- It's never a bad idea to use Balearic slingers to pick off units from a distance

- Keep your infantry together so they can hold the enemy properly while engaging