Introduction by Hannibal’s Revenge: A Card Conquest System Game Co-Designer,  Fred Schachter: To begin, readers have hopefully, by now, checked out the tantalizing glimpse of this game’s graphics created by the talent-extremis Mark Mahaffey.  His fine initial work, with assistance of Co-Developer Jason Carr, of Hannibal Revenge game components can be viewed via this link or above: January 18, 2024 Update from GMT: New P500s, Art Samples, Production Update, a Free Download, and More!! (mailchi.mp).

What a difference these are from the Mark McLaughlin hand-drafted Hannibal’s Revenge play test version shared by this article.

But now, onto the main event!

Robert Baynosa and I met, virtually that is, through his being an enthusiastic fan of the first game of the Card Conquest System, Hitler’s Reich.  Robert so enjoyed playing Hitler’s Reich that he was inspired to create a solitaire version variant for it which was shared through an InsideGMT article: Playing Hitler’s Reich Solo: A Suggested Variant | Inside GMT blog .

 When Robert learned of Designer Mark McLaughlin and I working on the next game of the series, Hannibal’s Revenge GMT Games – Hannibal’s Revenge, he enthusiastically volunteered to help play-test it.  To that end, I emailed him the necessary files to print-out and build his own physical copy of the game which is referenced and shown within this article.  As the photos show, Robert created an attractive and functional copy of Hannibal’s Revenge… well done!

To provide readers an idea of how Hannibal’s Revenge plays, by describing but a portion of an overall 90 minute game between himself and his gaming buddy EC Baltazar, here’s Robert’s illustrated report.  If unfamiliar with the Card Conquest System, it may be helpful reviewing GMT’s Hitler’s Reich site’s contents , – GMT Games – Hitler’s Reich; as it contains the latest rules and a host of related material.  With that, Robert, take it away! 

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After building a play test copy of the game and learning its rules (rules not all that dissimilar to Hitler’s Reich, but with some significant differences) I got to play Hannibal’s Revenge with my buddy JC Baltazar using that playtest copy. Below are excerpts of the game we played featuring its mechanics. I will be describing most of the action from JC’s perspective, which is the Carthaginian side.  It’s fun to play the role of the legendary Hannibal, one of history’s greatest military leaders and JC, as you’ll read, was up to the task!

Hannibal’s Revenge is the second game in the Card Conquest System. Just like the first game, Hitler’s Reich, it is a strategic level wargame that uses dice, Conflict Cards and Event Cards to affect the game’s combat and actions… which, unlike Hitler’s Reich, include moving armies upon its map and besieging walled cities.   It is unique in that, aside from fighting conflicts on the game board, players also fight for the use of Event Cards – which may then be employed to enhance game board conflict and effects upon armies and their leaders.

Hannibal’s Revenge is set during the Punic Wars, specifically the Second Punic War, between Rome and Carthage. It features leaders, new movement rules for armies, and a streamlined gameplay into the mix. Below is an image of the gameboard, the arena, upon which JC and I, in the role of the Roman Republic, contended.

Iberian Incursion

It is the First Sexenium* of 219BC, which is a Hannibal’s Revenge time period, and the game is a few turns in. JC, controlling the Carthaginian side, has Hannibal, with his mighty army, in Iberia (present day Spain)’s Novo Carthago city land area. In his proximity are spaces with Independent Tribes, so he sets out to commence the ‘conversion’ those locals to Carthaginian control with Celtiberia. He initiates a move action, and from his hand of six cards plays a 4-Value Conflict Card, which indicates the number of move attempts Hannibal gets for this turn’s first Action.  However, Hannibal’s Leader Card has a bonus movement effect – he gets a “Master of Maneuver” +6 movement attempts in a move action.  An “attempt” is synonymous with a “movement point”.

*A Sexenium consists of as many turns, with their Actions, that it takes both sides to precipitate reshuffling of their respective Conflict Card decks. When that occurs, a series of “End of Sexenium” steps take place. These will be described by Mark and Fred through future InsideGMT article(s).  A complete Hannibal’s Revenge game has three Sexenium reshuffles to it unless there’s a Sudden Death Victory (e.g. one side controls both the Rome and Carthage walled cities).

In the game, just as it was during the age of Ancient Rome, travel, particularly for an army on the march, was precarious and not guaranteed. So, Hannibal places a yellow (Carthaginian) marker on the Hand Size Track to indicate how many attempts/movement points he has (10… 4 for the Conflict Card plus Hannibal’s bonus of 6). JC rolls a die for Hannibal’s first movement attempt, and compares the result, a die roll of 3, to the Move Attempt Table on the board.

He rolls 3, 2, 2 on his first 3 attempts, which are all failures. The grumbling JC has consumed 3 of his 10 movement attempts and has not been able to move yet! His fourth attempt, however, is a die roll of 5, a success! Hannibal with his army, represented by a “wooden bit”, moves into Celtiberia which initiates a conflict. A conflict automatically occurs when a player’s leader piece moves into an unfriendly area and it is a free action not costing an additional movement point.

JC wants to win this conflict and secretly chooses a 9 value Carthaginian Allies Conflict Card from his card hand which was replenished back to six. He also plays from his Array (available Event Cards before him on the table) his African Spearmen Event Card, which he won in a prior Action. He rolls 3 dice, while the Independent Tribes side, which I administer, rolls 5 dice but the Tribe can’t have any Roman Conflict or Event Card come to their assistance.  They’re on their own!

Hannibal rolls a 5, 5, 1 and the Tribes rolls a 4,4,2,4,5. However, the Carthaginian side played the African Spearmen Card which changes one die to 5 for a total roll of 15 plus his Conflict Card value of 9 which brings his total strength to 24. This wins out against the 19 of the Independent Tribe’s dice.

Hannibal’s success earns him a second Action for the turn, a Bonus Action, which is used to capture the area outside Saguntum and move on to crush the Ibubeda Tribal Area before returning to the Saguntum land area.  The turn ends with Wooden Carthaginian control markers placed in Celtiberia, Saguntum, and Ibubeda.  

The Siege of Saguntum

It is a new turn. Hannibal has gained almost complete control of the southern Iberian Peninsula, only the Roman allied walled city of Saguntum stands in his path and Rome, during its previous turn, sends a Consular Army under its general, Gaius Flaminius, to counter the threat.  He’s one of an array of possible Roman Army leaders obtained during a turn’s “Consular Election” Phase (at the end of a Sexenium).  To view his abilities, as well as for a general overview of game components, see: Meet the Leaders & Gameboard of Hannibal’s Revenge | Inside GMT blog

Rome’s control of the seas makes it easy for Gaius Flaminius and his Army to last turn sail from Rome into Saguntum city where he awaits the upcoming Carthaginian response.

It is once again JC’s turn. He has conquered the area of Saguntum and only the walled city stands in his way with Flaminius inside, preparing for a siege defense. As his first action, JC initiates a Siege Action. As a Siege Action, he can only play Event Cards that specifically state they can be used for Siege, of which he has none. JC, however, plays the highest value Conflict Card in his hand, a Carthaginian Allied 12, which affords him two dice rerolls (if needed).

JC lays this conflict card, number side face down. The Roman side lays its own Conflict Card from a hand of eight cards, a lamentable Latin Allies 10 (!!), and fortunately for JC, they also do not have a Siege Event Card. JC rolls a 3,3,6, and I, as the Roman side, roll a 4,2,4. We reveal our Conflict Cards and the attacker gets to apply effects first. JC’s 12 value Conflict Card allows for 2 rerolls and he rerolls his two 3’s into a 5 and 6 respectively (lucky guy!) for a total of 29 (5,6,6 +12 card value).

The Romans reveal their Latin Allied 10 value Conflict Card, which has no reroll effect, and would lose any tied final result. But the city walls automatically convert one die into a 4 for a total of 22 (4,4,4+10 card value).

JC wins a Major Victory, which is defined as a total Conflict Resolution difference of 6 to 10. This allows him to place 2 besieged cubes on the city. He then rolls a die and if the value is equal to or less than the number of cubes, the city immediately capitulates. He rolls a 1!

Hannibal captures Saguntum with his first siege resolution attempt! The Roman Hand Size is reduced by one to seven (with my needing to randomly discard a Conflict Card from my hand) and Flaminius is Wounded. The Roman player (me) discards Flaminius’ card and draws a new leader from the top of the Consular Pool deck: Tiberius Longus. I then move Flaminius’ Roman Army cylinder back to Rome. This now represents the new leader, Tiberius Longus. Since this was JC’s first action, a Siege Action which was successful, he is now eligible for a Bonus Action.

With that Bonus Action Hannibal conquers the Tribal Area of Gallia Transalpina.  JC remembers that each time a Carthaginian Conflict Card is expended, it is replaced to keep his hand full.  The same applies to the Roman Conflict Card hand.

With control of 3 of the map’s 5 Barbarian Area (Celtiberia, Ibubeda, and now Gallia Transalpina), a small Carthaginian Control marker is placed on the “Tribal Bonus” space beneath the Hand Size Track to indicate JC has earned its award of an additional card to his hand size which, like Rome, is now seven.         

The Roman turn is spent seeking to acquire Event cards.  I sought winning an Event Card allowing me to increase my Conflict Card Hand Size back to eight… e.g. shared Event Card #56: New Trade Route.

Hannibal Crosses the Alps!

For the next and third Carthaginian turn of the game’s first Sexenium, JC now wants to enter the Italian peninsula and decides to do so by crossing the Alps to avoid battling a Roman Army I moved into Massilia.

Hannibal starts his turn with a Move Action. He plays a 3 value Conflict Card to add to his intrinsic bonus of +6, for 9 movement attempts. The Alps is not an area itself, you either cross it or fail to do so. To cross it a player rolls for a result on the Alps Table:

Hannibal attempts his first Alps crossing, he rolls a 3, his passage is blocked, and one movement attempt is consumed. His second roll is also a 3, another failed attempt. He rolls again, a 1 – Disaster! But wait, Hannibal possesses the “Favor of Baal Trait” which allows a reroll for a Disaster result. JC then rolls a 5 which is an Ambush. We both roll 1 die, and JC rolls higher, which indicates he has fought off the ambush and successfully broke through the Barbarian-blocked route to cross the Alps. Had he failed, the result would have been another “Pass Blocked”.

JC chooses to enter the Italian Peninsula from the Alps into Gallia Cisalpina, which immediately initiates a conflict. In Hannibal’s Revenge, a conflict between a moving Army and an enemy land area it enters without a defending Army within it occurs.  JC easily wins the conflict and can continue his conquests through Italian soil.

Ah, but where to go next?  Will I be able to impede Hannibal and successfully defend Rome itself as well as the Italian Peninsula’s now vulnerable cities?  Well, only the future can tell.

The Punic War in 90 Minutes

JC and I thoroughly enjoyed our playing Hannibal’s Revenge. I know of no other game that encompasses the Second Punic War in such a concise, fun, and exciting manner.

Besides maneuvering our armies upon the map, we also liked fighting over the Event Cards. To us, these represent the diplomatic, political, logistical, morale, military advantage and personal conflicts which were as important as the map’s land and naval battles. JC, who is not a wargamer (he and I mostly play Eurogames), particularly liked the Card Conquest system.  He had never played a game where you battle over cards that can be used to enhance your on-map battles and control. I like the flavorful Event Cards since they are really evocative of the Second Punic War’s historicity.

I asked JC if the game’s copious dice rolling bothered him. He said: not really, since there are game mechanics and systems within Hannibal’s Revenge that let you mitigate dice rolling’s impact to a great extent. I thought that was an interesting comment coming from someone who is essentially a Eurogamer.

The game is also easy to teach to an experienced gamer and doesn’t take long to setup. The playtest rulebook needs some polish -which I’m sure it will get before publication, but the ruleset is improved over Hitler’s Reich. Gone are the chrome of Historical Operations and Big Push Special Actions, which tended to confuse new players. Furthermore, despite the addition of Leaders and their armies which move upon the map, there are also much fewer special rules, making the game much easier to grok and play.

Hannibal is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures in history. Those familiar with his story will also know his is probably one of the most tragic of the ancient world. Many scholarly questions and legends surround the exploits of Hannibal. The game is aptly titled. Can you reverse the course of history or will Roman resolve prove too strong to break? I can’t wait to play the final published version of Hannibal’s Revenge!

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Concluding Remarks by Hannibal’s Revenge: A Card Conquest System Game Co-Designer Fred Schachter: Hopefully, the preceding provides some general sense of how the game’s alternating player Actions frame a turn and how much fun Robert and JC had in playing the game… which, after all, is what our beloved hobby is all about!  Future InsideGMT articles will provide more detail regarding the game’s quick playing mechanisms. 

As with many Mark McLaughlin designs, Hannibal’s Revenge is a game of “luck with the cards and luck with the dice”, something players should be aware of and be prepared to deal with… as did our two erstwhile players as well as their counterparts of antiquity, who had to confront whatever the fates threw their way and do their utmost to overcome those obstacles to victory.

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