From: MAnchors@AOL.COM Subject: Hannibal Dear Hannibalites, I received the following rules clarifications from Simonovitch at TAHGC: A Truce card in force is NOT voided by the play of a Campaign card or a Force March card. Apparently, Campaign cards and Force March cards can never serve as EC. They are really only OC. CU inside a besieged city who participate in a battle in conjunction with friendly CU outside may only retreat back inside the city. Units outside may only retreat away from the city. Note that a city is not considered "besieged" until it has a siege marker on it. The mere presence of enemy CU in the city hex does not make it "besieged" for the purpose of this retreat rule. Single CU may NOT use naval movement without a General, notwithstanding the -1 modifier for movement of single CU mentioned on the Naval Movement Table. CU may never move without a General. (They may retreat without a General.) I mailed an article to The General on the play of Battle Cards in Hannibal. Look for it in The General when it shows up. In the meantime, see what happens in your play as the Romans when you use Probe cards in battles with Hannibal, reducing his flexibility and your vulnerability. Also, it seems to me a first-turn invasion at or near Carthage is feasible, if the Romans have a Campaign card. In two plays the Romans can get 13 or 16 CUs to the city giving them a BC advantage. They should convert the PC next to Carthage for a safe retreat. Hannibal might get to Rome, if he ignores the threat to Carthage, but he has to use 4 OC cards to get there, and one card must be used to transport Hasdrubal to Carthage. Hannibal thus has 1 chance at Rome with the Siege Train/ Traitor or 2 chances without it. Rome is safe on turn 1 even with no Roman CU in Italy! Carthage on the other hand is severely vulnerable. The Carthaginians get lots of BC for their African allies, but they have few CUs on the ground. A bad roll on the (battle) Attrition Table really hurts and a retreat is catastophic. If Hannibal sails to Carthage to help out, he has to embark from New Carthage or play EC to ensure safe passage. Either way, if the Master goes to Africa, the Carthaginians suffer a fatal loss of pace. If the Master does show up in Africa, the Romans can simply sail away to Spain or Italy (laughing no doubt). This manner of playing offers the Romans at least as much chance of winning as any other, and it decides the issue in less time, so the players could go on to play a really serious game like We The People. If anyone tries this Roman first-turn-Africa strategy at Avaloncon (what's Latin for kamikaze?), please let me know how it turns out. I can't play Hann ibal at Avaloncon as the event conflicts with my GM duties. Michael Anchors, MAnchors@aol.com From: "" Subject: Re: Hannibal In a message dated 29/06/96 14:40:40, you write: >Dear Hannibalites, Thank Mars thre's more than one, I wuz wondering... >I received the following rules clarifications from Simonovitch at TAHGC: > >A Truce card in force is NOT voided by the play of a Campaign card or a >ForceMarch card. Apparently, Campaign cards and Force March cards can >never serve as EC. They are really only OC. woops >Single CU may NOT use naval movement without a General, notwithstanding the >-1 modifier for movement of single CU mentioned on the Naval Movement Table. > CU may never move without a General. (They may retreat without a General.) OK clarified officially. How many cards is Elephant Fright? >I mailed an article to The General on the play of Battle Cards in Hannibal. >Look for it in The General when it shows up. In the meantime, see what >happens in your play as the Romans when you use Probe cards in battles with >Hannibal, reducing his flexibility and your vulnerability. He takes fewer losses when you win? a popular option, anyway. >Also, it seems to me a first-turn invasion at or near Carthage is feasible, >if the Romans have a Campaign card. In two plays the Romans can get 13 or >16 CUs to the city giving them a BC advantage. They should convert the PC >next to Carthage for a safe retreat. what happens to the first "play"?? Hanno attacks with 13, then Hasdrubal lands with extra Cus? glug glug Converting and holding Numidia has the possibility of success. no retreats for sea moves, nor fron Hadrumetium, but the capital is rather easily reinforced from New Carthage. >Hannibal might get to Rome, if he ignores the threat to Carthage, >but he has to use 4 OC cards to get there, and one card must be >used to transport Hasdrubal to Carthage. The current idea seems to be leaving Mago in Saguntum with one man as crossing the Alps with 9 CUs is more cost-effective. >Hannibal thus has 1 chance at Rome with the Siege Train/ Traitor or 2 >chances without it. Rome is safe on turn 1 even with no Roman CU in >Italy! Carthage on the other hand is severely vulnerable. The >Carthaginians get lots of BC for their African allies, but they have >few CUs on the ground. A bad roll on the (battle) Attrition Table >really hurts and a retreat is catastophic. In the unikely eventuality they lose, when they are risking far fewer CUs anyway. If they win, OTOH.. >If Hannibal sails to Carthage to help out, he has to embark from New >Carthage or play EC to ensure safe passage. Either way, if the Master >goes to Africa, the Carthaginians suffer a fatal loss of pace. If the >Master does show up in Africa, the Romans can simply sail away to Spain >or Italy (laughing no doubt). This manner of playing offers the Romans >at least as much chance of winning as any other, and it decides the >issue in less time, so the players could go on to play a really serious >game like We The People. Actually over many games i don't remember Hannibal In Africa... maybe once, stopping Africanus on turn 9. There is a great deal more scope for clever play in HANNIBAL, especially with the Carthaginians. Not so sure about the Romans, because Hannibal himself only needs a small amount of luck to become unstoppable - and a nerveless hand to move him to the right places!. So the game does not appear unbalanced to me. >If anyone tries this Roman first-turn-Africa strategy at Avaloncon (what's >Latin for kamikaze?), please let me know how it turns out. I can't play >Hannibal at Avaloncon as the event conflicts with my GM duties. It has been tried successfully but the Romans need to be lucky more than once, and they will lose lots of men in Winter Attrition. They need to win all battles [obviously] and hope their opponents get no sea move cards on at least one turn. Plus good siege rolls.