hannibal: rome vs carthage [Updated August 2000]

HRC   
   10, 14, 18, 22
     13      
     

   Valley

James Pei, TX

2000 Champion

2nd: Charles Hickok, PA

3rd: Mark Giddings, NY

4th: Jim Heenehan, PA

5th: Robert Vollman, ALB

6th: Stuart Tucker, MD
Event History
1991    None      -
1992    None      -
1993    None      -
1994    None      -
1995    None      -
1996    Thomas Drueding      58
1997    James Doughan      52
1998    Karsten Engelmann      52
1999    Jung Yueh     46
2000    James Pei     41
AREA Ratings
 1    Jung Yueh      5586
 2    James Pei      5386
 3    Paul Gaberson      5386
 4    Charles Krueger      5386
 5    Anders Egneus      5386
 6    Craig Melton      5300
 7    John Rinko      5300
 8    Daniel Metzger II      5286
 9    George Seary      5286
10    Michael Welker      5266

Over the Alps for 15 restful years in Italy ...

With the absence of last year's champion Jung Yeuh, the Hannibal championship was open to all comers. 41 entrants vied for the first place plaque, as well as the "best Roman" and "best Carthaginian" awards. In the end, last year's runner-up, James Pei, took the title. James also took the best Roman award, while the best Carthaginian award went to this year's fourth place finisher, Jim Heenehan. Is this an omen for next year?

Jim, in addition to showing what a great player he is, demonstrated great sportsmanship. Jim elected, after a GM ruling against his opponent gave him the game, to allow the "fates" to decide who should advance undefeated. Jim rolled a die and gave his defeated opponent a 50-50 chance to advance. Which he did. True sportsmanship. It is nice to game with someone who
understands that a plaque won without honor is no prize. Every tournament has its controversies, and this one was no different. More experienced players wanted to use the unpublished second edition rules. However, since over half of the population of players had not even seen the second edition, we played with the first edition rules. It is unclear at this time which edition we will use next year.

The 56 games yielded the following statistics:

Carthaginian players won 32 games (57%) while Romans won 24 (43%). The bidding was as follows:
Rome +3: 3 games
Rome +2: 18 games
Rome +1: 10 games
Rome +0: 7 games
Carthage +0: 8 games
Carthage +1: 6 games
Carthage +2: 4 games

Visit www.science.gmu.edu/~kengelma/carthage_dir/carthage_index.html to see additional stats from the tournament as they become available.

A final note. Never give up in Hannibal. Your GM, in his third game, found himself in dire straights. As we entered the last turn of the game, it looked bad for the sons of Carthage. Scipio A. had crushed all opposition in North Africa, and he sat upon Carthage with an army of almost 20 CUs. Syracuse had joined the Carthaginian cause, and Hannibal was running amok in
the south of Italy. Spain was secure, but still the Romans had one siege point on the fabled city. As turn nine began, the Romans had a 9-8 province lead, and things looked bleak for the Carthaginians. Your GM realized he had little chance. Fortunately, he had been dealt the Messenger Intercept card, which he used to go first and take one Roman card. Scipio continued the siege, rolling a "6" to place a second siege point on the City. The Carthaginians had no sortie cards to reduce the siege, and with seven Roman card plays left ,the sack of Carthage was almost certain. Rather than sail Hannibal back to fight Scipio, the Carthaginians gambled all and played the Truce card. With no event, the Romans could not break the truce! That
still left the Carthaginians one province short. Fortunately, when the Romans had only one card play left, and the Carthaginians three, Phillip finally decided to join the fray on the side of the Carthaginians; the event both broke the truce and removed the last Roman card. Hannibal was then able to walk over Apulia, and convert the province to the Carthaginian
cause. Starving inside their city, the leaders of the Carthaginian Senate learned that Roman had surrendered from sheer exhaustion. Carthage had won the war, and was now free!

The moral is that in Hannibal, you can never be sure what will happen, and you should NEVER surrender! See you all next year for more cliff-hangers.

 GM      Karsten Engelmann  [1st Year]   7824 New London Dr, Springfield, VA 22153
    karstenengelmann@hotmail.com   NA

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