Review: "Age of Hannibal 2.0" by LittleWarsTV

What does Ol' One-eye know that we don't know??

BLUF

Age of Hannibal 2.0 is the perfect Ancients game for moderately competitive historical and campaign scenarios. It uses relatively simple "streamlined" game mechanics similar to those in highly engineered tournament games like DBx and Triumph!. Play is well balanced between tactics and generalship vs. "the die being cast" as J. Caesar might say.

Overall, it favours thoughtful player decisions, but the occasional bold move aided by hot dice may turn the tide, keeping the game in doubt until the end. 

It is also an inexpensive ruleset. 

It is not a tournament game ruleset.

Want to put hordes of figures on the table for a club night and get home before midnight?  Want to spend an hour or three playing multiple games with a friend, perhaps resolving a small campaign in one day?  Age of Hannibal 2.0 is for you!

***********************************************************************************

As many are aware, Age of Hannibal is derived from the ChipCO games engine that powers "Fantasy Rules!", "Days of Knights" and others. A nice, detailed review has been done here, by "Nick the Lemming" [https://nickthelemming.wordpress.com/2018/12/10/review-age-of-hannibal]. I don't feel the need to re-explain all the basics but want to chime in on the mechanics and give a play example.

As this is the second edition for Little War TV, many wrinkles have been ironed out. Most of the questions we had came from unit movement rules, and are as follows:

1.    Deployment p.8. Says you roll off to decide who Deploys First and has First Player Turn. Is it high roll MUST, or high roller CHOOSES? We decided high roller decides – prefer the choice over random.

2.    Moves, p.10. It's unclear to us if a Group may oblique, Side-step, Retrograde, or if it is only individual Units. We decided groups may. While historically unlikely to sidestep an entire battleline, it is only 1" so more like dressing ranks than a tactical maneuver. Also, one has to take into account player error in a way that historical generals didn’t.

3.    Making Contact p.11. In the first picture example, is the "square up" movement paid as part of the move, or is it an additional free move to align corner-corner, edge-edge? We decided it's a free move - easier to measure to closest contact point, then you align for free.

4.    Support p.12. It *seems* likely you only get support from units that are fully aligned in front corner / side edge contact to either flank and all facing the same direction. But it could be just inside edge contact and not the corner. Which is it? We decided corner to corner based upon the explanation under "Roman Drill" p.23, which seems to indicate that. Also, as the game mechanics are designed for 40mm square bases, it fits the flow of game mechanics in an obvious way.

5.    Disengagement, p.12. When Skirmishers or Cavalry perform the Disengage move, in what direction do they end facing: the direction of movement [away from enemy] or do they remain facing the enemy unit they disengaged from [i.e. backwards movement]. We decided free 180 turn, then full move, ending facing away unless the unit is "Free Facing" which includes light troops but not battle cavalry.

6.    Things Come Undone p.15. The rule says you must put 1 DMZ on 25 or 50% of your units as your Morale Clock runs out. The Example says you can load up to three on a unit and eliminate it. Which is it? I like the rule, not the example which seems "gamey" to me. We decided you have to spread them out.

Positives

1)    The perfect heir to original DBA: relatively simple, fast playing, tactical.

2)    Solves the issue of convoluted DBA movement by the simple expedient of slower manoeuvres [e.g. pay 1/2 for turns]; no ZOC, no "Barkering". 

3)    Always need to roll high! No swapping it around for different mechanics...

4)    The Demoralization mechanic gives you an idea where problems are developing, while the d8 roll-off means that even a troubled unit "could" roll off its Demoralization. 

In that sense, I feel like this give an even more nuanced feel for the general's view of the battlefield - while DBA give you "advancing, retreating, fleeing, or holding fast", AoH gives you all those and "looking rough on the edges...may need to go to the rescue" which is a command-level observation in the record of many historical battles.

Negatives

1)    QRS is missing lots of important data, like...modifiers! I made my own. I actually have two, one based upon the Rules as Written and one with my [small] changes to the rules.

2)    Don't like that Leaders can't move in the Rally Phase to Attach to a Unit and help Rally it; it is dumb luck if your leader is attached to a unit that needs help rallying.

3)    Don't like that Units destroyed by skirmishers don't count against the Morale Clock [hey, what about those elite Spartans defeated by Skirmishers at Sphacteria? Too bad they weren’t playing AoH!].  I agree that dead Skirmish units should NOT count against the Morale Clock.

4)    Don’t like that a couple of the movement mechanics use 1”, while most of the movement is oriented around Base Widths / Base Depths [with square bases, these are the same]. Strongly recommend making all 1” movements 1BW for smoother play.

5)    Markers...you must have them. What you choose will affect table appearance and must not fall off easily or get lost. Some people don't like markers.

6)    You need to track Demoralizations acquired during the player turn; we hand each other coloured beads [so if I'm red, and you inflict a DMZ on my unit, I give you a red bead].  This is not a big deal, and it is sort of fun.

7)    There are army lists provided for a number of armies in the target period, basically hoplites to legions. But if you want to game outside of this, you will need to create your own forces, and experiment with the various Traits to suit your historical understanding of the period.  I am fine with this. Some are not and just want it to play "straight out of the box".

8)    Not much support from authors, including the Little Wars TV Facebook page which is pretty quiet. However, there is an Age of Hannibal Facebook page which is pretty active to get questions answered [I visit it periodically]. LWTV also has this on the main website: https://www.littlewarstv.com/aoh-support.html

How to Win

The key tactic is to stay together, use terrain to advantage, and pick one area where you want to flank or break through the opposing battle line - then exploit it! Defensively, keep in mind the oft-overlooked “Commander Influence” rule on p.10 to re-organize a battle line.

The combat system has few tie results. One side will usually start to gain an edge in the main battle line in 2-3 turns; you will not spend time bogged down in undecisive fights.  How each side manages their problems verses successes in the main battle line largely affects the final result of the battle. As that is how the battles read in the history books, I'm good with the combat mechanics and looking forward to a lot more Age of Hannibal 2.0!

********************************************************************************************

So, how does the game play?  As in, what are you doing during the turn?

Below, two battle lines of legionaries line up, destroying the peace of a Roman villa.  I will assume that there are 2-3 other similar fights just off camera.   That means that these battle lines do not have unlimited Orders to use each turn.  However, as this is an important battle line for each side, we'll assume they can get 2-3 Orders during their Player Turn, just enough to do a bit of clean up and essential tactical maneuvers.

Eight legionaries on each side - four legions, blue, white, and two red.  The blue is notoriously unlucky... just the way it is.

Turn 1, Red advances 4", to within 4" of the Blue side.

For their part, the Blue side decides to accept the challenge and enter melee all down the line - this is assuming that Blue needs to force a melee here due to events elsewhere on the battlefield. Blue advances 4" into Contact.

Important to note is that - except in the case of a tie - one Unit in a melee is always going to get a Demoralization [DMZ]. Units can be 1DMZ and 2DMZ and then are removed at 3DMZ.  They are also -1 to Combat and Rally Value for each DMZ. 

So with the difference of one and identical units / situation, Blue takes a DMZ.

By the end of the Blue Player Combat Phase, Blue lost 4 roll-offs, Red lost 3 and there was one tie [so no DMZ for either side]. DMZ marked with green pipe cleaners.

Red Player Turn 2. Red Rally attempts result in 2 of 3 successes, needing a 5+ on a d8 [Legions are 4+ to Rally, and the roll is -1 for the 1DMZ].

Red has no maneuvering as they are locked in melee.  Red chooses to start from the left, and the second roll is a 7 v. 2 - Blue Unit is doubled and removed!  These periodic moments of drama happen when there's a large spread between the dice.

At the other end of the line, Red inflicts a 2DMZ and the white Legion Unit has to Retreat one Base Width [BW].  It also cannot move towards the enemy and is -2 in Combat and Rally due to the 2DMZ. Note that this makes the adjacent white legion Unit a bit more vulnerable.

As Blue begins his player turn, he has 5 total DMZ and a destroyed unit. The 2DMZ and space where the Unit was destroyed leaves his battleline vulnerable in both spots for exploitation by Red. He really MUST roll well for Rallying!

In the event, he only rallies one off.

However, in Blue Combat Phase, he doubles a Red legion, destroying it!

Overall, by the end of his Combat Phae, he has inflicted 2DMZs on the Red center, but is iffy on both wings.  But Red will now have a chance to rally at the start of his turn.

Red Turn 3, he manages to Rally off one 2DMZ in the center. This still leaves the center of little use as two of the three cannot charge into combat at 2DMZ.

Red uses one Order to advance into the hole on his left....

...and one to advance against the 2DMZ Unit on his right.

Plan works, he manages to destroy both the units!

On Blue Player Turn 3, his best chance is to advance his center - he *really* needs to rally the white legion Unit in the middle, so the entire Group can advance into Contact against the Red center, which has 2 Units 2DMZ.

He fails to do so, and must use 3 Orders to get his center units into Contact with the 2DMZ Units: White Legion advances straight. Blue Legion advances 45 degrees oblique, while the white legion with the DMZ obliques to the left and takes up space but doesn't contact his opposite number.

Now for Combat!

Blue starts from the right, and doubles his first opponant, 7-2 for 10-5 total. Red is Dead!

he then beats the total of the first 2DMZ red unit, destroying it with the 3DMZ.

Unfortunately, he ties on the last 2DMZ unit.  Still, he has caught up to Red.

Red Player Turn 4, he turns around one unit and just makes it into contact with a 1DMZ white legion Unit.

...and a Blue legion Unit.

In the center, he surrounds a white legion unit, but ties!

End of Red 4, the battle line is mixed up, and it is 3-3 for destroyed Units.

Play continues in this fashion, with each player starting their turn Rallying, then making decisions to get the best melee Contacts possible with 2-3 Orders available. Units that are 1DMZ are vulnerable to a forced Retreat at 2DMZ - if flanked, they are destroyed. 2DMZ units are destroyed if they lose at all.

By Blue Player Turn 5, Blue has lost 5 Units, Red 4 Units, but Red is also scattered a bit more.

Blue Player Turn 5, he uses 3 Orders to reverse direction and pounce on the lone Red legion Unit at right, and engage one at left, protecting flanks best he can. The two Contacted Red Legion Units turn to face them.

Unfortunately, Blue loses both combats!

The action stays center as Red pulls in his flank units, and tries to get advantageous positioning against Blue's final units. Sometimes losing or drawing just means that you will be likely destroyed next turn. Last Blue legion Unit gets killed... happens ev-ery-time.....!

Final positions - the battle lines reversed!  Red wins that last two Combats, no kidding, 8-1 each!  Clearly, the gods were with Red today.

Final tally - Red 8, Blue 6, in 9 turns.

So, now that you have seen how a battle line of even forces plays out, and the decisions each side needs to make and the luck they both need, what does a battle look like?  AoH is advertised as a "big battle game" that plays in 2-3 hours.

My buddy will host the battle of Ibera 216 BC [CLICK] between Rome [bottom] and Carthage [top], Scipio and Hasdrubel commanding. He wanted to try out the scenario, so we did a run-thru to finalize some of the rule issues. 

The battlefield didn't have any significant terrain, so we just thru down a couple of small rough hills and boggy patches.  We know they were there, if not worthy of mention! On the Roman right, the Carthaginian cavalry is engaging skirmishers on a rough hill and a battle line of Spanish. So far, the Romans are holding them off!

Roman triarii reserve is not yet committed, awaiting to see what the cavalry will do.

On the left, the Romans are making their main effort, trying to defeat the Carthaginian cavalry with an equal number of cavalry supported by several skirmishers and some Italian ally spearmen. Carthaginian Spanish race to the rescue in column, while other Spanish push through a hill.

In the centers, Carthaginian Spanish to left, and their main fighting power stacked to right, veteran Carthaginian spearmen, both well protected by Skirmishers.

The Romans face them with Ally spearmen to left, and Roman legions to bottom right, screened by Velites in a rough patch.

Over time, I slowly ground down the Carthaginian cavalry thanks to my supporting infantry, both Skirmishers and Spearmen.

Mopping up scattered Carthaginian cavalry...

In the center, the Ally spear and Legions managed to hold and overall weaken the Carthaginian center, grinding down the Spanish [classed as Warband].

On the right, the Cathaginians gave up the attempt to outflank me, and committed their cavalry to fight me where I stood. I managed to hold then weaken the cavalry attack, altho it was closely followed by some good infantry and an Elephant!

Outflanked Cavalry above, javelin contest below favors the Romans in the rough.

Finally, as the best Carthaginians were about to be committed, a series of bad rolls in the combats resulted in much of the Carthaginian Spanish disappearing. Relatively intact Romans advanced.

On the right, the Carthaginian spearmen were held by my Spanish with some support from the skirmishers in the rough.

With the Romans holding off the Carthaginian mounted attack on the right, and decisively winning on the left and center, the Carthaginians conceded.

In essence, a big game of AoH would have 6 players for us. Three commands a side, Left, Right and Center. The Romans used about 200 points of Skirmishers to hold at bay about 500 points of excellent cavalry, and then even defeated a piecemeal attack.  

The left Roman plan worked - they managed to defeat the Carthaginian cavalry, that had advanced a bit farther than they should have against superior numbers. 

In the center, the forces were about the same, but the Romans out-rolled the Carthaginians.

Overall, I'd say that the key tactic is to stay together, use terrain if at all possible, and pick one area where you want to win a crushing victory and then exploit it against the rest of the enemy army.

The game took a while as we each played three commands, and we stopped periodically to discuss some rules and tactical options. But with 6 people who know the rules reasonably well, I'd say it would've taken 2-3 hours max.  

The combat system usually provides a side winning or at least gaining an edge in a battle line in 2-3 turns, so you will not waste time bogged down in undecisive fights.  How you manage them in relation to the rest of the battle is how you will win this game.

As that is how the battles read in the history books, I'm good with how it played out, and looking forward to a lot more Age of Hannibal 2.0!

We got a few answers on the rule questions from players, but nothing from LWTV.  We made our decisions and now are changing the game from inches to Base Widths for movement and shooting - works much cleaner - and also changing skirmishers to get a more historical feel.  But that will be for next time.