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More experienced players wanted to use the unpublished second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.
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