Hannibal´s Dream: A Beta AAR

[Vandelay]

The Palace of the Barcids in Carthago Nova, 594th year after the founding of Carthage

Hasdrubal the Fair was beautiful even in death. The knife of the assassin had been able to steal his life, but not his beauty. The young lion, the son of Hamilcar, now sat upon the throne after the army of his father and the citizen´s assembly both had acclaimed him as the successor. Hannibal now controlled the Carthaginian provinces of Iberia so recently enlarged by his father and brother-in-law.

Hannibal had not forgotten the sacred vow he had sworn in the Temple of Baal Hammon in Gadir: To ever be an enemy of Rome. For now though he would keep the peace simply because the time for war had not yet come. His hold on Iberia was not stable yet and in the senate of Carthage the Elders of the City plotted in their pentarchies and syssitia. No man nailed to a cross could ever conquer Rome.

First he would need to go to the great harbour of Gadir to officer sacrifice to Melqart, whom the Greek named Tyrian Herakles, and from there to Carthage herself to set the affairs of the state in order. With him to Carthage would go his youngest brother Mago who represent the House of Barcas in the Senate. Hasdrubal, the second son, would command in Iberia.

It is said by some that Hannibal offered sacrifice for three days and three nights in the Temple of Melqart and for three days and two nights he fasted and held vigil, but the third night he fell asleep and dreamt. In his dream the God came to him and asked Hannibal to follow in the footsteps of the God. The path took the God and Hannibal both from Gates of Melqart, through Iberia, into Gaul and to the Alps. Hannibal had been warned by the God to not look back, but at the great white summit of the mountains he could not still his curiosity and looked to the west. In his path he saw great serpent wreaking devastation, devouring whole cities and peoples.

- "You were commanded not to look back." The voice of the God spoke with little passion, merely stating a fact, and yet His reprimand made Hannibalk turn, kneel and beg forgiveness.

The Lord of Tyre put his hands upon Hannibal´s head and spoke: "You are forgiven. Hear my blessing: The Son of Barcas shall storm the gates of Rome and dine upon the Capitol."

Head bowed in Hannibal didn´t see the cruel smile that played upon the lips of the God.

Writer´s notes:
The game begins in 533 AVC (Ab Urbe Condita) or 220 BC.
Difficulty is set to normal. 27 feb patch.
Aims are a Carthaginian Iberia, Barcid dominance of Carthage and the return of Carthage´s island dominions of Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily.
Apart from the prologue and epilogue the AAR will be in "history book-style" with inserted comments, in brackets, explaining some game mechanics to the reader.

 

[Vandelay]

Hannibal arrived in the metropolis riding on a wave of popular support for the Son of Barcas. With charm, wit and veiled allussions to the great armies loyal to him he dominated the Carthaginian political scene [Writer´s comment: Hannibal is elected High General of Carthage which is a Military Republic, granting a general +10% discipline bonus]. Speaking before the Assembly Hannibal infused in his country a spirit of civic duty to the Republic, promised the reformation of Carthaginian navy and gathered around him men from many nations skilled in the arts of war [ I select the National Ideas Civic Duty, Naval Ethos and Professional Soldiers granting me bonii to defense, naval morale and heavy infantry discipline].

Mago Barca was elected senator in charge of the pentarchy of the navy and put in charge of returning the Carthaginian navy to it´s former glory [ Mago is made Naval Gerousia (tech advisor). Ship squadrons are built and will slowly continue to be built in Carthage].

In Carthage Hannibal received news of war in the East. Seleukid fought Seleukid and all across Anatolia and the Caucasus the successors of the great Alexander fought, but this concerned him little. Of greater concern were the news that Rome had declared war on Epirus, but the real piece of worrying news were that the Massiliots had declared war in the Cantabri and their Roman allies had joined them! Hannibal fumed, but for now kept the peace and concerned himself with the pentarchies of trade and with these senators arranged for riches of Iberia to be exhanged with those from Libya [Trade routes are set up]. Epirus would not last more than a year before Rome announced the dissolution of this state and it´s new status as a Roman province.

Sending reinforcements to his brother in Iberia Hannibal then took command of an army of Iberian infantry, Numidian cavalry, Cretan archers, Balearic slingers and contingent of elephants and went south and east to lay waste to the lands of the Garamantes and Nassamones. After capturing great amounts of booty and slaves and planted colonies in the provinces of Phazania and Nassamones thus gaining access to great herds of horse [Trade goods=Horses] and fields of lotus and silphion [Trade goods=Spices].

During this campaign Hannibal became so friendly with the Numidian prince Masinissa that the princw was given both citizenship and Hannibal´s sister´s hand in marriage. When Hannibal´s brother Hasdrubal received these news he was not only angered by the news of a barbarian becoming a citizen, but that Masinissa and not he was covered in glory from the battlefield [Hannibal becomes friend of Masinissa and rival of Hasdrubal]. The rivalry between the brothers Barcas was a chink in Carthage´s shield.

When news arrived from Iberia that the Cantabri had been annexed by the Romans Hannibal left the affairs of Carthage in the hands of Hasdrubal [Hasdrubal becomes general of the Army of Carthage] and Masinissa [Masinissa elected High General] and sped to Iberia to take command there [Hannibal becomes general of the Army of Iberia] and contain Roman influence.

 

[Vandelay]

War in Iberia and the destruction of the Mauri June 536 - May 542 AVC
Ever a believer in the offense Hannibal ordered his namesake Hannibal of the House of Milkiram to lead his Army of Bab Melqart from Tingis to the borders of Lusitania. Some considered Hannibal Milkiram a general of equal stature [martial skill=9] to Hannibal Barcas [martial skill=8] and as soon as Hannibal had brought up his main army for an attack on the Vaccaei his namesake had crossed the Bab Melqart and positioned his army.

Claiming to protect the Vaccaei from the Romans [DoW without CB, -2 stab hit] Hannibal marched his army towards the Vaccaei capital of Pallantia. The Vaccaei defenses melted before him and soon the capital was invested and besieged. Scouting the Lusitanii defenses Hannibal Milkiram found them inadequate and ordered his army towards the Lusitanii capital Olissipo. Not only did the scion of House Milkiram force the filed army of Chief Punicid away from Olissipo, but his initial attack on the town seized the lower town and only the fortified akropolis remained in Lusitanian hands.

Even so Hannibal Barcas was the first to capture his prize and he then quickly marched west to Lusitania to capture their one remaining province - Hannibal Milkiram had captured Olissipo as the Barcid army traversed the lands of the Vettones. Their last province captured the Lusitanias were forced to cede one of their provinces and pay a heavy monthly indemnity. Indeed, the indemnity was so steep that Hannibal knew that the Lusitanii would not be able to meet and Carthage would so gain a pretext to annex the poor nation permanently. Outright annexation became the fate of the Vaccaei and Hannibal Milkiram brought his army north to garrison the annexed province and guard against the Romans in Cantabria.

At the news of victory Masinissa and Hasdrubal in Carthage offered the great thanksgivings to Baal Hammon and the Lady Tanit. Nor did they forget the lesser gods: Eshmoun and Resheph, Melqart and Astarte, Demeter and Kore all received sacrifices and the mood of the people lightened [Sacrifice for stab +1].

A great council was also held in Carthage where governors from Cynetes in the west to Corniclanum in the east attended and the Senate and Assembly were in agreement that the Carthage was on the right course [Event gives +1 stab].

Hannibal himself also went north all the way to the outskirts of Emporion recuting Iberian scutari and Balearic slingers in their thousands along the way. A new army was raised and sent south towards the barbarian kingdom of Mauretania. General Bomilcar was entrusted to destroy the Maurii and bring the Phoenician cities of Lixus and Volubilis firmly into the Carthaginian fold [Barbarians of Mauretania defeated and a colony established].

As anticipated the Lusitanii soon failed to pay their indemnities and Hannibal Milkiram marched into Olissipo once again and quickly annexed the last native Iberian state. After this he returnde to Pallantia because he had received word from Hannibal that the long anticipated war against Rome would begin in spring. Rome had declared war against Syracuse and Hannibal saw an opportunity to strike.

In June 603 years after Queen Elissa founded the New City preparations were complete and the Romans received an envoy from the Carthaginian senate demanding the return of Corsica and Sardinia and the evacuation of Roman forces from Iberia. The Roman answer was to throw the ambassador in irons [Romans capture diplomat] and so began what the Carthaginians call the Second Roman War.

 

[Vandelay]

Hannibal´s Dream May 542 - January 545
Year one
The plans for the war had been long in the making. Indeed, they were what Hannibal and his brothers had grown up on. Hamilcar Barcas had laid his plans as had Hasdrubal the Fair and the Young Lions Hannibal, Hasdrubal and Mago had been included in the plans and this was the result:
The main army would strike north from Iberia and force Massilia out of the war and then continue into Italy across tha Alps. A small fleet, some 50 quinqueremes would accompany this army.

The second part of the plan was to concentrate the Carthaginian navy to a main battle fleet of 200 quinqueremes and seek out and decisevely destroy the Roman fleet.

With naval dominance established the third part of the plan was to invade and conquer Sardinian, Corsica and Sicily.

It was imperative that this plan was executed with the utmost speed as a long war would favour the Romans with their larger manpower. The Carthaginian generals were confident of being able to force the Romans to return Carthage´s former provinces.

According to the plan, Hannibal descended on Emprion with an army of about 30 000 men. The strategy was to quickly force the Massiliots out of thw war and evict them from Iberia proper and then to strike into northern Italy and the fledgling Roman colonies there. The defenders of Emporion, a respectable army of some 8000 men, avoided combat as best they could and would have to be dealt with by Carthaginian second-line troops under General Bomilcar. This general however was currently busy with suppressing a major Mauretanian revolt - the declaration of war had upset the Carthaginian peace party and some subjects smelled an opportunity for revolt [stab -2 means significant risk of revolt in non-state culture and non-state religion provinces of which there are many].

The Iberian flotilla of Carthage under Admiral Metallo of House Abbar fought a battle against a slightly smaller Massiliot fleet at the mouths of the Ebro. Metallo was victorius and captured 10 Massiliote quinqueremes and sunk another dozen.

A smaller army, 8 000 men, under Hannibal Milkiram would attack and capture Roman Cantabria and then join Hannibal for the crossing of the Alps. As usual this general would execute his orders efficiently and speedily.

In Carthage the battle fleet sailed under Admiral Philosir of House Abbar [Martial skill=8] and his forward scouting vessels, swift triremes, reported that the Romans and Massilians were involved with heavy fighting witha 25 000 strong Syracusan army and that Roman and Syracusan naval detachments were hunting each other in the Sicilian seas. Receiving these news Hasdrubal Barca [Martial skill=6] ordered the fleet to embark his 13 000 man army and ferry them across to Sardinia. Hasdrubal landed at Karalis and destroyed a small contingent of Latin colonists and then proceeded to invest and besige the cities of the island.

By the autumn Hannibal had already captured Emporion and moved north towards Massilia. At the Rhone he learned that the Massiliotes had subjugated the Celtic Vocontii and had fortified the main crossings of the Rhone. He would have to settle down to another siege before he could proceed. In Sardinia Hasrubal was slowly gaining ground and in Iberia the Romans were on the verge of defeat. The Emporians however had rallied and were busy retaking their home city as Bomilcar was still fighting the Mauretanians.

Busy with chasing off smaller flotillas of Roman quinqueremes Admiral Philosir blundered into a larger Roman fleet, 80 quinqueremes, at the Aegates Island. With numerical superiority on his side Philosir performed the classical diekplous thus avoiding a battle decided by boarding. His rams sunk 30 quinqueremes and he also managed to capture enough ships to not only recoup his losses but add another 10 quinqueremes his fleet. The Roman fleet fled south towards Akragas but Philosir caught them before the shores of the Sicilian city and destroyed them utterly. The fleet of Carthage had restored its honour!

 

[Vandelay]

Year two
In the spring of 543 Hannibal Milkiram had seized Cantabria and sped towards Emporion which now had been lost to the Massiliots! Defeating the Massiliots in a number of smaller battles he received letters from Hannibal reporting Roman and Massilot armies gathering and asking him to speed north. Reacquiring Emporion would be left to General Bomilcar who had finally defeated the Mauretanian rebels in their Tingis holdout.

In Sardinia Hasdrubal had captured the last norther Sardinian city of Olbia and assembling a fleet of small craft crossed over to Corsica where he massacred the Latin colonists and laid siege to Alalia.

It took Hannibal Milkiram the whole summer and winter to close in on Vocontii as he had to contend not only with the remains of the Emporion army, but hostile Celtic tribes who attempted to bar his way. And so Hannibal had to fight off first the main Massiliot army in the summer and then a Roman army that attempted to force the crossings of the Rhone in the autumn.

Both times Hannibal was victorious but by now losses to the enemy and attrition had dwindled his army to half it´s initial strength of 33 000. To make matters worse the Massiliotes had not yet been forced out of their Vocontii strongholds.

In late summer Admiral Philosir´s scouts reported the Romans embarking an army in Akragas. Deducing an attempt to invade Malta he set sail towards this smallest of Carthaginian island posessions. Intercepting the Romans as they were landing their army on the shores of Malta he sunk 50 of their quinquerems and drowned Roman legionnaires by the thousands. After this the Roman fleet would cease offenisve operations and turned to guerred de course and coastal defence.

Before the lull of winter set in completely legates from Iberia reported the capture of the Roman commander of Iberian forces, a Publius Cornelius Scipio. As jouyous a piece of news as this was the Mauretanians and Celt-Iberians were less impressed and rebelled yet again. The Roman commanders son, who carried the same name as his father, refused to ransom him and reportedly claimed that he was not a Punic merchant and would free his father by force of arms!!!

 

[Vandelay]

Year three
By spring the Roman defenders of Alalia despaired of reinforcement when the main Carthaginian fleet of 220 galleys appeared before the harbour and they opened the city´s gates to Hasdrubal. With Carthaginian scouts and scouting vessels reporting that Etruria was but weakly defended Hasdrubal embarked his army and descended with fire and sword on Elba and the Etrurian shores. A thousand Roman legionnaires were killed or captured.

Philosir swept south capturing trading ships and raiding coastal settlements all the way to the mouth of the Tiber where the Romans sailed forth from Ostia under Admiral Metellus only to once again be outmanouvered, rammed and hemmed into the shore and destroyed.

Hasrubal saw the opportunity and encouraged by his cavalry commander Maharbal he marched south towards Rome, destroyed the pitiful Roman field army and invested the Roman capital. Admiral Philosorid detached his lighter ships, swift triakonters with 30 rowers, that sailed up the Tiber and cut off the Roman capital from all supplies entering by the river port.

His brother occupied in the south Hannibal was left to deal with the main Roman army in the north and defeeated them in the third Battle of the Rhone. Having seized Vocontii at last he entered into fruitless negotiations for peace with the Massiliots. When diplomacy gained him nothing he consolidated his now rested army with that of Hannibal Milkiram and in autumn pushed towards the Alpine passes towards Liguria.

Barring his way was a Roman army of equal numbers, but superior in heavy infantry. In the snowy Alpine pass Hannibal could not take advantage of his superior cavalry and flank the two Roman legions of heavy infantry and he had to resort to a frontal assault. Iberian scutati and Numidian elephants fought their way through the hastatis and principes inflicting and receiving heavy losses. As the Roman saying went: It came down to the Triarii. Tired from fighting Hannibal´s infantry and elephants could not force this last line of Roman levelled spears and showers of arrows from Roman auxilliary archers.

The Carthaginian trumpets sounded the retreat and turning back towards the Rhone Hannibal saw the trail of destruction in his path. It was as if a great serpent had wreaked devastation, devouring whole cities and peoples. "Do not look back", the God had admonished him in this very place and now for the first time he had tasted defeat.

When Hannibal´s retreating army had regrouped at the Rhone and once again were preparing to force the passes the army was reached by ambassadors from Massilia and Rome and a couriers from Carthage. The ambassadors carried caducei wreathed in olive branches and the courier a letter from Hannibal´s brother Hasdrubal: In the first day of the new year Hasrubal, a son of Barcas, had captured the Capitol and dined upon the Holy Geese.

In Hasdrubal´s negotiations the Romans had ceded Cantabria, Sardinia and Corsica. The Massiliots were forced to cede Emporion. Carthage was once again the first power of the Medieterranean and the rich and populous provinces of Iberia were hers.

 

[Vandelay]

Carthage, 606th year after the founding of Carthage
The two friends Sofokles, merchant of Emporion, and Sosylus, sophist of Sparta, walked the busy monumental stairs from the commercial harbour to the Byrsa and the Temple of Asklepios situated there. Carthage was once again the mistress of the Mediterranean and the stairs were lined with garlanded statues of Gods and Heroes.

- "What news from Emporion and Iberia, Sofokles?"
- "Unrest and rebellion. Young men plotting for revenge and renewed war."
- "But what about my former student Hannibal? has he not returned from Gaul?"
- "Not only returned to New Carthage, but it is said that his troops have sworn themselves to him personally and call him King!"
- "Hasdrubal will not like that. If Hannibal calls himself King so will he. Even as Conqueror of Rome he still lives in his elder brother´s shadow."

Suddenly there was shouting and commotion. Looking ahead Sosylus saw two processions of syssitia crashing into each other as they entered the stairs from opposing side-streets. One carried likenesses of Baal Hammon and the Lady Tanit enthroned on a boat of reeds and the other procession carried an effigy of Melqart standing on a burning pyre, the flames fashioned from red and orange cloth. Shouts were rising as the young men of the syssitia pushed and jostled:

- "Hannibal King! Hannibal King!" shouted the men carrying Melqart.

- "Hasdrubal for the Republic! Hasdrubal Conqueror of Rome!" cried the followers of Baal Hammon and the Lady Tanit.

Quickly, the two friends ducked into a shop to avoid the inevitable riot. Inside the shop there was a smell of feline predator and indeed there were a small number of cages containing leopards.

- "Welcome my Greek friends!" the shopkeeper greeted them in his broken Koine. "I´m Poenulus, the finest purveyor of leopards, nuts and spoons in all Carthage! What can I do for you today?".

Business as usual in Elissa´s city.

 

[kristoff]

What a joy to read an AAR by someone who knows history and keeps a simple, clear style of writing. Great!

 

[Van Diemen]

Nice, I wonder what Carthage will do next.

 

[Murmurandus]

Very nice! And you managed to capture Publius Cornelius Scipio!

 

[pit]

civil war

 

[HolisticGod]

Vandelay,

A couple questions, if the NDA permits you to answer:

1. Are characters assignable to both armies and navies? If so, do they have stats or traits applying separately to land and naval combat?

2. I assume the bit about grappling rather than ramming was for effect, but is it possible to capture and use enemy ships?

3. Did you, in fact, have to capture Vocontii before crossing the Rhone? If so, I'm mightily pleased.

 

[richtern]

Civil War

 

[Swamp Rat]

Excellent AAR! Superbly written and of course this should satisfy the many Carthage fans in here. A few screens of the political map however would not be out of the way. Especially the situation in Iberia and around the Alps and Massilia can seem a bit confusing, especially as the war progresses.

 

[unmerged(7509)]

You made it all seem very easy. You managed to utterly defeat a rather disappointing Rome in just three years It looks like a very exciting civil war indeed. I just hope it will be harder for you than defeating Rome was.

 

[kristoff]

You made it all seem very easy. You managed to utterly defeat a rather disappointing Rome in just three years It looks like a very exciting civil war indeed. I just hope it will be harder for you than defeating Rome was.

Not so utterly I'd say. He's far from removing Roman threat. All in all it wasn't so bad Roman performace (as for AI). It was the fleet that was decisive. Without it Carthaginians would not be able to land in undefended Rome. Remember that in the north Romans managed to repeal Hannibal and - if they would not lost Rome and had to ask for peace - they could pursue him and eventually regain some lost provinces.

Anyway, the best AAR so far IMHO.

 

[unmerged(15623)]

Great, great AAR. I wonder if Scippy junior harbors a grudge against you now.

HoG, he's ship numbers went up and I never saw him build any since war started, so he must have captured some. There is a note on it on the naval victory pop-up too.

Btw Vandelay, are the galleys actually "meant" to represent 10 ships, or did you just multiply to figures for more "historical" navy sizes?

 

[unmerged(7509)]

Not so utterly I'd say. He's far from removing Roman threat. All in all it wasn't so bad Roman performace (as for AI). It was the fleet that was decisive. Without it Carthaginians would not be able to land in undefended Rome. Remember that in the north Romans managed to repeal Hannibal and - if they would not lost Rome and had to ask for peace - they could pursue him and eventually regain some lost provinces.

Anyway, the best AAR so far IMHO.

I agree about the quality of this AAR.

I'm however not so sure the Romans would have been able to pursue him at all. They only managed a small victory and that might very well have been due to the terrain. Judging from the numbers left in Hannibal's army he would have been able to hold the Romans off in the north.

To me it looks like Vandelay managed to put so much presure on the Romans in the north that they had to move almost their entire army up there leaving Roma wide open. They seemed to be outnumbered both at sea and on land.

 

[unmerged(7509)]

Btw Vandelay, are the galleys actually "meant" to represent 10 ships, or did you just multiply to figures for more "historical" navy sizes?

Judging by the screenshots he just used the navy sizes for flavour.

 

[Cyrus_The_Great]

Awesome! Carthage looks like it will be great fun to play.