From: Roberto Chiavini 

Six against Rome (3W)

I would like to express a different feeling on this game, as I waited to
play it for several years and when I finally got the occasion the result
was not the one expected. Let say that the game is dull in several
scenarios and it too slow in development during the combat phase (the
heart of the system) both you choose the strategic combat table or the
tactical module (that makes the game even longer than usual). 

This is unfortunate as the designer John Suclife try to achieve
something short of a wargaming masterpiece, giving the players the
opportunity to re-enact several war fought by Rome in Italy during her
centuries long existence. So, there are scenarios for the Samnite Wars,
the Pyrrhic War, the Hannibal War and the liberation war of Justinian
against the Goths, plus an added what if of Alexander against the Romans
and a short introductory scenario for the war of the Romans against
Brennus (the famous "Vae Victis" affair), the latter to explain the
tactical combat module. The map, backprinted, depicts the Italian
peninsula with a point to point system, with circles representing the
various cities present in Italy plus the various tribal centers for the
enemies of Rome. The circles are connected through three different kinds
of route, with different movement costs. 

Units are infantries of two types plus cavalry and have up to 4 steps.
They are rated for morale and combat strength. Movement is made only
through the use of leaders that have a strategical rating and a tactical
one. 

Turns are seasonal with three seasonal turns each year plus the winter
one that has rules for attrition, recruitment and other amministrative
phases. 

Movement is straightforward with leaders having 10 movement points to
use to reach their objectives, picking and leaving units as they
advance. There is a rule for interception that may be very interesting
in the bigger scenarios. 

Combat may be resolved on a tactical map if there are at least 30 combat
steps present in battle for the attacker and at least 10 for the
defender. Otherwise, you use a combat result table with several
modifiers. Both players roll on this table and the hits resulting are
morale check for the units involved, with each failure equalling a step
loss. 

Victory conditions depends on the scenario played 

The game simply fails to deliver any real feeling of ancient warfare and
if the tactical module is definitely too slow and boring, even the
concept of the strategic CRT is not fully appreciated and there are too
many die roll to achieve a victory. Another aspect of the combat
procedure that is boring is the use of a table to achieve tactical
advantage, often resulting in no combat at all with leaders of equal or
near to equal ability. 

Anyway, I am probably too harsh on this game because I had so great
expectations for this title: if you search for an easy game, with
several different scenarios on ancient warfare you may certainly choose
titles worse than this one and it could be worth a few replays (even
solitaire, adapting the rules for strategy chits). 

All in all I rate this game 5 ½ in a 1-10 scale.