David R. Moody  - Dec 18, 2008 12:50 pm (#21690 Total: 21692)  
Almost 20 years of pitiless combat! No rest, no sleep like other men. 
And yet the spring wind blows, Subotai. Have you ever felt such a wind? 
. . . For us, there is no spring. Just the wind that smells fresh before 
the storm. 	 

Brrrrrrrrr! Woke up to frost and frozen windshields again this morning. 

Great game of Hannibal's War last night at Endgame, in our last session
of the year. Jason brought treats to make it more festive. We had
originally planned to play a Wings of War dogfight first then try out
Hannibal's War, but we were all intrigued enough by the latter that we
decided to jump right in. 

Briefly, HW is the latest from S&T, simulating the Second Punic War. 18
turns, with each turn one year (there's a short scenario covering the
first eight years of the war). With two players, one player is Wome, the
other is Carthage; a third player can take Gaul, while a fourth can take
Macedon. Thus the game is rather nicely scaleable to time and players
available. 

The game is fairly straightforward--each turn there is a Random Events
phase (called the Olympia phase, I think), then you get money and
campaign chits, negotiate, raise troops, and then take turns taking
actions with a stack of units. Each nation has unique units--Roman
legions, Macedonian and Carthaginian phalanxes, Gaullic barbarians,
fleets, etc. In an interesting twist, many units (the legions, fleets,
and phalanxes) are Recruit level when first built, and not as effective.
Certain events will raise them to Veteran level (flip the counter). 

The real driving force of the game is money (measured in talents). You
need money to activate without taking attrition, to bid for initiative,
to get more campaign chits (of which more anon), to build/replace units,
and to maintain them. Each turn, the cities you control (i.e.,
physically occupy--there are no borders in the game) give you a
specified value of talents. Thus we learned not to spend all our
talents, but keep some from turn to turn. It is a LONG game, so plan
accordingly. 

Much flavor is added through the Campaign chits. Each player starts with
a certain amount, and can get more in an Agora phase where the players
take turns bidding on them (it isn't exactly specified in the rules HOW
to do this, but I think we figured it out), plus you earn them through
winning battles and certain other game events. They can also be traded
to other players for certain considerations. These chits can give
mercenary leaders, double your combat force, allow you to lay siege,
assist in Treachery, give you allies among the various city states (of
which the most important is Syracusa), let you move twice in one
activation, etc. There's even an Archimedes chit, which gives the player
who controls Syracusa a bonus in defense. 

Each Operations Phase, you can activate one force in one square to move,
have combat, pillage, and/or perform treachery. Interestingly, all four
player powers (if controlled) are considered belligerent, so even if,
say, Carthage and Gaul are friends, their units may not occupy the same
square without combat. You can attempt Treachery, for which you need a
leader and Treachery chits, to try to get opposing forces to join you
(and then only certain ones, like auxiliaries). Pillaging can give you
loot, and denies taxation to the enemy, but renders a square useless for
foraging purposes. If you have a Force March chit, you can go twice in a
row, or can move during another player's activation (the game calls it
Ambush). 

The Operations phases end when all four players Pass once in a row, or
when no units are left on the board. Then you pay to maintain your units
(each square has a Forage value, unless it has been pillaged--you have
to pay talents to support units that can't forage) and check for sudden
death victory (each player has sudden death victory conditions). 

Once we figured all that out, the game started to move along right
smartly, even though we only got through the first turn. I played
Macedon, Jason took Wome, Joe (because he had his Hannibal Tour T-shirt)
Carthage, and John Gaul. Joe paid off the Gauls to not bug him; I gave
John a cool merc leader chit to get him to leave ME alone, and Jason and
I came to an understanding in return for Roman cash. 

Interesting game. Joe's main Carthaginian army, under Hannibal, marched
up the Riviera, stomping a Roman army at Messila (modern Marseille),
while the Gauls ravaged southern France then sailed out into the Med,
raiding things. I equipped an expeditionary force, with designs on using
Treachery to get Syracusa to join me (I had two nice Treachery chits)
but an event caused them to side with Rome. Not wanting to stab my ally
yet (and the game strongly penalizes you for reneging on an agreement--I
wish all multiplayer diplomatic games did that) I instead sailed to take
Lecis Magna. 

An aside: the game has a strong pro-Roman bias--most of the place names
are in Latin, and the icon on all the Garrison counters is clearly a
ROMAN fort. Just what have the Romans ever done for us anyway? 

Anyway. My force landed at lightly held Lecis Magna, but I totally tubed
the combat roll (combat, BTW, is reminiscent of the system in Forgotten
Napoleonic Campaigns) and the city held out long enough for Joe to rush
reinforcements up. Stupid me forgot I had a Force March chit, or I could
have tried again. Oh well--back to Macedon, where I passed the rest of
the first turn, wanting to save my money to build up a larger force. 

Meanwhile, Hannibal seemed content to winter at Massila, while Joe
busied himself responding to me, and to Jason's raids. The Gauls crossed
the Alps and took Placentia, while Jason, strenghtened by troops from
Latium (he played a chit to get allies), built up his last field army at
Rome. 

The smart play for him would have been to sit tight, and build up next
turn. But he decided to march on Massila! Which he did, fighting
Hannibal at the city (and forcing Joe to burn the Siege Train chit he
was saving for Rome). Alas, Jason went down to glorious defeat, and
while he was gone, the Gauls took Rome and sacked it! 

We ended the game at that point, having the mechanics down, and all of
us wanting to get home early. We were all rather impressed, and will
definitely give it a go again--perhaps as the first game of the new
year. 

David R. Moody - Dec 18, 2008 12:51 pm (#25835 Total: 25837)
BookmarkEmail to Friend Almost 20 years of pitiless combat! No rest, no
sleep like other men. And yet the spring wind blows, Subotai. Have you
ever felt such a wind? . . . For us, there is no spring. Just the wind
that smells fresh before the storm. Great game of Hannibal's War last
night at Endgame, in our last session of the year. Jason brought treats
to make it more festive. We had originally planned to play a Wings of
War dogfight first then try out Hannibal's War, but we were all
intrigued enough by the latter that we decided to jump right in. 

Briefly, HW is the latest from S&T, simulating the Second Punic War. 18
turns, with each turn one year (there's a short scenario covering the
first eight years of the war). With two players, one player is Wome, the
other is Carthage; a third player can take Gaul, while a fourth can take
Macedon. Thus the game is rather nicely scaleable to time and players
available. 

The game is fairly straightforward--each turn there is a Random Events
phase (called the Olympia phase, I think), then you get money and
campaign chits, negotiate, raise troops, and then take turns taking
actions with a stack of units. Each nation has unique units--Roman
legions, Macedonian and Carthaginian phalanxes, Gaullic barbarians,
fleets, etc. In an interesting twist, many units (the legions, fleets,
and phalanxes) are Recruit level when first built, and not as effective.
Certain events will raise them to Veteran level (flip the counter). 

The real driving force of the game is money (measured in talents). You
need money to activate without taking attrition, to bid for initiative,
to get more campaign chits (of which more anon), to build/replace units,
and to maintain them. Each turn, the cities you control (i.e.,
physically occupy--there are no borders in the game) give you a
specified value of talents. Thus we learned not to spend all our
talents, but keep some from turn to turn. It is a LONG game, so plan
accordingly. 

Much flavor is added through the Campaign chits. Each player starts with
a certain amount, and can get more in an Agora phase where the players
take turns bidding on them (it isn't exactly specified in the rules HOW
to do this, but I think we figured it out), plus you earn them through
winning battles and certain other game events. They can also be traded
to other players for certain considerations. These chits can give
mercenary leaders, double your combat strength in a battle, allow you to
lay siege to a city (negating the retreat immunity of units in cities),
assist in Treachery, give you allies among the various city states (of
which the most important is Syracusa), let you move twice in one
activation, etc. There's even an Archimedes chit, which gives the player
who controls Syracusa a bonus in defense. 

Each Operations Phase, you can activate one force in one square to move,
have combat, pillage, and/or perform treachery. Interestingly, all four
player powers (if controlled) are considered belligerent, so even if,
say, Carthage and Gaul are friends, their units may not occupy the same
square without combat. You can attempt Treachery, for which you need a
leader and Treachery chits, to try to get opposing forces to join you
(and then only certain ones, like auxiliaries). Pillaging can give you
loot, and denies taxation to the enemy, but renders a square useless for
foraging purposes. If you have a Force March chit, you can go twice in a
row, or can move during another player's activation (the game calls it
Ambush). 

The Operations phases end when all four players Pass once in a row, or
when no units are left on the board. Then you pay to maintain your units
(each square has a Forage value, unless it has been pillaged--you have
to pay talents to support units that can't forage) and check for sudden
death victory (each player has sudden death victory conditions). If no
one wins, start a new turn. 

Once we figured all that out, the game started to move along right
smartly, even though we only got through the first turn. I played
Macedon, Jason took Wome, Joe (because he had his Hannibal Tour T-shirt)
Carthage, and John Gaul. Joe paid off the Gauls to not bug him; I gave
John a cool merc leader chit to get him to leave ME alone, and Jason and
I came to an understanding in return for Roman cash. 

Interesting game. Joe's main Carthaginian army, under Hannibal, marched
up the Riviera, stomping a Roman army at Messila (modern Marseille),
while the Gauls ravaged southern France then sailed out into the Med,
raiding things. I equipped an expeditionary force, with designs on using
Treachery to get Syracusa to join me (I had two nice Treachery chits)
but an event caused them to side with Rome. Not wanting to stab my ally
yet (and the game strongly penalizes you for reneging on an agreement--I
wish all multiplayer diplomatic games did that) I instead sailed to take
Lecis Magna. 

An aside: the game has a strong pro-Roman bias--most of the place names
are in Latin, and the icon on all the Garrison counters is clearly a
ROMAN fort. Just what have the Romans ever done for us anyway? 

Anyway. My force landed at lightly held Lecis Magna, but I totally tubed
the combat roll (combat, BTW, is reminiscent of the system in Forgotten
Napoleonic Campaigns) and the city held out long enough for Joe to rush
reinforcements up. Stupid me forgot I had a Force March chit, or I could
have tried again. Oh well--back to Macedon, where I passed the rest of
the first turn, wanting to save my money to build up a larger force. 

Meanwhile, Hannibal seemed content to winter at Massila, while Joe
busied himself responding to me, and to Jason's raids. The Gauls crossed
the Alps and took Placentia, while Jason, strenghtened by troops from
Latium (he played a chit to get allies), built up his last field army at
Rome. 

The smart play for him would have been to sit tight, and build up next
turn. But he decided to march on Massila! Which he did, fighting
Hannibal at the city (and forcing Joe to burn the Siege Train chit he
was saving for Rome). Alas, Jason went down to glorious defeat, and
while he was gone, the Gauls took Rome and sacked it! 

We ended the game at that point, having the mechanics down, and all of
us wanting to get home early. We were all rather impressed, and will
definitely give it a go again--perhaps as the first game of the new
year.