Hannibal's Moutain Adventures - AAR

[Chocolino]

Turn 16: The Battle for Rome is over. The three remaining Roman units were killed or routed. Hannibal celebrates but admits secretly to himself that the win was a lucky one. In the later turns we lost control of the game. The AI played very strong - and this was just on "normal". My congratulations to the developers for the excellent game.

This concludes the AAR. Thanks to all for your good suggestions and comments.

[anarchyintheuk]

Thanks for the aar. It was a big reason for me buying the game.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Drakkon]

What an excellent AAR, Probably the best I have seen for this game.
 
Also, I am jealous.. Most of my games end with a favorable peace treaty for Carthage, but I have never been able to take Rome!

[Treefrog]

As others have said, this is both an excellent AAR but also a good learning tool for newbies. It points out several problem areas/phenomena players face in their own games.

1. Fleets need harbors in the sea area to retire to in the event of storms.
2. The AI plays in a very, very fluid manner with both initial and follow up attacks; I've never seen an AI do this consistently so well.
3. Hannibal needs reinforcements, either by sea or from Spain. One of these routes should be secured.
4. Players need generals in regions with available recruits in order to obtain reinforcements.
5. Rome has some amazing cards which seriously impact a turn, if not the game.
6. Assaulting city militias typically results in immediate success with only light casualties.
7. No "do overs" and sequencing during the campaign phase is very important.
8. "lightweight" Carthaganian cards such as removing one Latin unit can have a cumulative and important effect.

But perhaps the salient lesson to be learned from this AAR, and I say this with respect for Chocolino, is that Hannibal may slip into wandering around Italy not directly accomplishing much.

With the Carthaginian army concentrated with Hannibal, the end game was very interesting. Rome was surging in Spain, at sea, in CA Gaul and being successful in re-occupying some of the Italian cities. Arguably this dispersion of Roman forces was eroding Carthaginian supremacy and setting up a successful war of attrition with so many recruiting areas being compromised in favor of Rome.

To his credit, when given lemons Chocolino made lemonade. He recognized that Roman operations in regions away from Rome coupled with card play reducing Roman/Latin units meant the Rome garrison was weak and he capitalized on it with an all out attack on Rome itself. Fortune favors the bold.

Chocolino, very good job! Some of my own half-baked thoughts came together in watching you play.