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Theodotus -> This game is most excellent (10/22/2010 5:14:26 PM)
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I'm a wargamer from way back. (I still have all my old issues of Strategy & Tactics from the 1970s.) Ever since SPI's original "Punic Wars" (published long ago in S&T) I've been a student of Roman history in general and the Punic Wars in particular. And I've been waiting for a game like this one for a long, long time.
This game is most excellent. It does a great job of requiring the player to balance the various strategic considerations that historically afflicted Hannibal. And the mechanics of the game system are superb at recreating the feel of the era, such that when I play I'm reminded of what I've read of the Second Punic War in the original sources -- generals refusing battle and retreating into camp, or sometimes being swept from the field by Hannibal's genius, as well as Rome's seemingly inexhaustible supply of manpower and ability to field multiple armies at the same time, confronting Hannibal with irreconcilable dilemas. And I love the battle system: not so complex as to be daunting, but complex enough to give me the feeling that I'm watching an actual battle from the period transpire, with routs and rallying and the heavy infantry holding the line while the Gauls run away when hard-pressed.
I think this game system would work well for any scenario from the ancient period, be it Alexander or the Successor Wars or Greeks versus Persians or Rome versus its erstwhile allies in the War of the Socii. Hopefully there will be many more games to come in the future using this system and covering such eras.
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