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Review Tacticular Cancer reviews Hannibal: Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War

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Tags: Forced March Games; Hannibal: Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War; Matrix Games

Oscar donned his sandals to walk all over Italy and give us his review of Hannibal: Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War.

Perhaps the most stand-out feature of this game is its AI. Hannibal: Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War features AI quite unlike anything I’ve seen in a turn-based strategy game. I’m not strictly talking about difficulty here, though the AI is astute and generally capable in exploiting player weaknesses. Each general possesses a different behaviour based upon that commander’s historic personality. For instance the aggressive Marcellus will instinctively try and take Hannibal head on in the field while the cautious Fabius, who earned the nickname ‘Delayer’ due to his initially unpopular strategy of avoiding direct battle with Hannibal, will be extremely reluctant to attack unless he possesses overwhelming force. Winning great victories with Hannibal also increases the AI’s caution over time who start the game reckless and overconfident but tend to become more cautious and cunning as the game progresses. This system grants generals a lot more personality than other games in the genre, where choices of officers usually only result in different statistical bonuses and zero change to behaviour, priorities and actual strategy. One learns to be wary of worthy foes such as Scipio Africanus while it is difficult to resist rubbing your hands together in delight when the incompetent Sempronius blindly leads a large force to its almost certain demise against you.​

A decent AI that actually displays character? Can't say I've seen anything like that in pretty much any recent strategy game. Go check out our indepth review to see if there's more the game succeeds at.
 

ValeVelKal

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Aug 24, 2011
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I share most of what Oscar said, a very good price, though the price tag is super-hi, and a real shame there is no MP / play Rome option. It could have been balanced easily by making the Senat fairly stupid at chosing the Consuls / allowing the raise of legions.

What is a bit frustrating at high level of difficulty is that the Romans avoid combats in "open fields" a lot (except the couple first time with the bad generals - who quickly die) so you have all those nice "tactics" cards in the hand that you cannot use.
 

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That 'delaying' tactic is basically what the Romans did for real. Was hugely unpopular with both the populace and senate at first untill they noticed it actually worked. And got their asses kicked squarely when they did engage. Meanwhile the Romans just kept raising troops untill they could get the upper hand. Kind of what they do in the game. Key is being very aggressive while also marshalling your resources and not getting too attached to holding certain places.

Game is a blast. Great design but also difficult as hell due to how the mechanics work. Even easy is a bitch. Do hope the guy who basically is Forced March Games finds it in himself to one day finish that new project he's been working on.
 

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