Andy Daglish has sent the following Hannibal play comments based on an email post by Richard Irving (whose comments are in Italics) followed by those of our own Captain of Men. I do not usually bother with such "gamey" stuff preferring the historical analysis, but then rules are made to be broken. CHV. The only problem is the game seems to be unbalanced in that if bad luck hits Hannibal in one of many instances he can quickly be in trouble. After a lot of play, I feel the one problem in the game is connected to getting bad cards on the first turn, and generally over the first few turns. In this situation it pays to do nothing, especially for Rome as strength built up during quiet turns will help Africanus when he arrives. I haven't yet seen four 10-point armies under four good Roman leaders but it could happen... If Hannibal loses all of his units in battle (including naval combat) Carthage loses. Even if the losses do not occur in combat, if Hannibal is left with a weak force, he will be soon be eliminated. Any of the following things can happen to Hannibal (through no fault of his own) which can hurt his chances: A bad roll on attrition over the Alps. So defend against Roman naval expeditions, whilst waiting for Native Guides, or good naval combat events, or best of all a Campaign sea move during a Truce to a Carthaginian CU in Italy [which will give the Senate pause for thought]. The problem Carthage faces is getting Hannibal into combat. Moving Hannibal out of Spain can entice Rome to land a force there, so doing this whilst retaining a Force March can catch the Roman force off-guard. A bad attrition roll on a combat. (Even if he wins the combat) The answer here is not to fight, Hannibal can withdraw on a 1-4 and this should be used all the time, even after a successful Intercept or to prevent a long battle. If your opponent plays Elephant Fright and all the other bad cards then you can make a withdrawal roll before any cards are played, then re-initiate combat - this time with those bad cards in the discard pile. A sunk naval expedition. (Rome is immune to this problem.) Wait for Philip, Syracuse and Naval Victory. Use Mago, and maybe follow up with Hannibal on his own at -1. Never sail with less then -4 modifier. With Mago shuttling reinforcements to and from between Carthage and New Carthage, a "sunk" result can be better than "return", as he reappears next turn at his destination. Maybe the Roman player should be able to designate a "sunk" result as a "return". When Hannibal does go to Italy, its nice to retain a return ticket in the shape of a 3 card. A surprising loss in combat (which can be REALLY costly) If Hannibal has lots of Double Envelopments/Reserves, play them out. If you feel a quick big win is unlikely, withdraw. Since Carthage has less flexible recruitment (only 1 CU per turn may be placed in the front lines in Italy compared to up to 5 for the Romans) If Carthage loses a few units, they will find it difficult to recover compared to the Romans. "Rome hesitated between strategies of action and caution" They should have chosen caution for the reason given above. The Carthaginians can defend Spain and Africa whilst waiting for revolts in Sicily and Sardinia, and especially Syracuse. Moves require preparation, "going for it" can get you into trouble. All of this forces Hannibal to be less aggressive than he was at that time. (He did stay in Italy for 17 YEARS continually fighting battles. Hannibal in this game cannot do that.) He did a lot of campaigning in Campania which is hard in the game as it contains just two Walled cities! He can stick around for a while, if he fights with a Battle card advantage and keeps an adjacent friendly location. Solution I think the solution is to make Hannibal stronger in one or more of the following ways: Allow Hannibal to use the Probe as a substitute for any card. That means no Probe as Frontal Assault, a card which has more significance here than in WTP. Maybe the thinking was there are enough already, with Reserves included, and one more Frontal is too easy? Not a big change. Allow Hannibal to use the Probe as DE/FL/FR any number of times in a battle rather than just once. Too powerful, and would cause Probes to be played out by opponents - and if they did not, Hannibal might realise they had no Probes? An odd situation is when you know you can win on a Probe but you carry on trying to get a win without that -2 modifier. Maybe negate the -2 mod for Hannibal winning on a Probe? Allow Hannibal to play DE, but not force automatic change in initiative. (A normal counterattack roll would be used.) Interesting, but extremely powerful for a Hannibal with lots of DEs. He has a great advantage given this card distribution anyway. And if you still lost with Hannibal you would feel awfully sad. Change the naval combat table to something like this: 1 = Successful landing 2 = return to original port 3 = return to port w/ attrition ** this is the change ** 4+ = fleet sunk -- All units lost No changes to the current modifiers. This would limit the game to Hannibal crossing the Alps, and few if any reinforcements from Africa. Lets say a leader moving by sea such that he qualifies for the -1 mod for moving with one or fewer CUs counts a "Sunk" as a "Return". Maybe change a "2 = Return" to "2 = Return OR landing with Attrition roll" at the Carthaginian player's choice. Points we miss: Intercepting army starts the battle as Defender - but with the extra card for Interception. Interception onto enemy PC and no friendly CU is modified by +1. After-battle movement:- into Walled City allowed only after roll on Retreat table, it appears. You must always choose a proconsul, its amazing how often Longus is voted "proconsul for life". (CHV: Ars Longus, vita brevis) Movement effects should all occur before combat I think, and an intercepted army that returns to the previously occupied space is not considered to have entered the space. This means that Overrun takes place if battle is accepted after successful Interception, but not if battle is refused. This is a tricky point, and suggests that Pass Attrition should be rolled for as the moving army enters a Pass [that means. leaves its current location], rather than "immediately after crossing the Pass" as it says in the rules. This would make it clear that an Intercepted army that refuses battle rolls once only for Pass Attrition, which seems to me the most sensible interpretation. But AH usually takes the opposite view! More Hannibal Hannibal: The Player's Version Hannibal's War Hannibal: The Revisionism Starts Here Other Hannibal Hannibal review Back to Perfidious Albion #93 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1996 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com