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Bruce Wigdor's Rome defeated Steve Worrel's Carthage on time in the middle of Turn 9.
Bruce leads series 1-0
A good game; one in which Steve held the initiative for nearly the entire game. I was constantly reacting to the things he'd do.
Hannibal crossed without incident on Turn 1. On turn 2, Fabius was able to defeat Hannibal in Ariminum to set up a roadblock. The roadblock lasted until I think Turn 5 when Hannibal defeated Marcellus and 15 CUs with a Double Envelopment! Fortunately for me, I avoided the dreaded "ALL" result.
Hannibal would only get two spaces into Samium before Scipio Africanus arrived, kicked him back into Gallia Cisalpinia, and re-established the roadblock. Still though, Hannibal's force was still at 11, and containing Hannibal wasn't quite as important as going into Gallia Cisalpinia, defeating him and taking the province back.
The entire game, I was looking for opportunities to do something in Spain or Africa so that I wouldn't have to take back Gallia Cisalpinia, but every time I had the cards to do it Steve would have better cards that either crippled my hand, or created threats elsewhere. I was constantly chasing down naval invasions, revolts, and flipped spaces.
Finally, one of those threats stuck: Hasdrubal defeated Nero on Sardinia, and Corsica/Sardinia went over to Carthage. With a "I have come into Italy" card played on that turn to convert Bruttium, Rome was in its darkest hour. The province count at the end of Turn 8 was 11-7.
Things really turned around at the start of Turn 9, though. Mago invaded Bruttium by sea with a large force to try and hold it, but Marcellus sailed in from Sicilia to defeat Mago twice and reclaim Bruttium.
I had a diplomacy card in my hand that I hoped would be sufficient to reclaim Corsica. I still needed Gallia Cisalpinia though, and to do it, I was going to have to defeat Hannibal. Scipio marched in, and in a crazy battle defeated Hannibal in Verona. Hannibal had a bad Battle Hand and tried to withdraw every chance he got, but he failed every time. Actually, not failed--he actually succeeded EVERY time. But Scipio A cancelled the withdraw EVERY time. I think it was about 8 withdraw attempts--maybe I'll go back and check the save file to see. Casualties were relatively light, but then a reduced strength Hannibal was defeated again.
Hannibal was in Boii with just 2 CUs left when Steve's time ran out, with 5 card plays left. The end would have been interesting. I would have been able to convert and hold Gallia Cisalpinia, but the question is, would my diplomacy card have been able to take back Corsica/Sardinia? The answer is maybe--Steve held the Messenger Intercepted card. If it pulled my Diplomacy card, I would have lost. Also factoring into this is that I held the Philip of Macedon card, so I might have been able to force him to discard Messenger Intercepted.
A very tough and hard fought game.
Bruce
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Bruce leads series 1-0
A good game; one in which Steve held the initiative for nearly the entire game. I was constantly reacting to the things he'd do.
Hannibal crossed without incident on Turn 1. On turn 2, Fabius was able to defeat Hannibal in Ariminum to set up a roadblock. The roadblock lasted until I think Turn 5 when Hannibal defeated Marcellus and 15 CUs with a Double Envelopment! Fortunately for me, I avoided the dreaded "ALL" result.
Hannibal would only get two spaces into Samium before Scipio Africanus arrived, kicked him back into Gallia Cisalpinia, and re-established the roadblock. Still though, Hannibal's force was still at 11, and containing Hannibal wasn't quite as important as going into Gallia Cisalpinia, defeating him and taking the province back.
The entire game, I was looking for opportunities to do something in Spain or Africa so that I wouldn't have to take back Gallia Cisalpinia, but every time I had the cards to do it Steve would have better cards that either crippled my hand, or created threats elsewhere. I was constantly chasing down naval invasions, revolts, and flipped spaces.
Finally, one of those threats stuck: Hasdrubal defeated Nero on Sardinia, and Corsica/Sardinia went over to Carthage. With a "I have come into Italy" card played on that turn to convert Bruttium, Rome was in its darkest hour. The province count at the end of Turn 8 was 11-7.
Things really turned around at the start of Turn 9, though. Mago invaded Bruttium by sea with a large force to try and hold it, but Marcellus sailed in from Sicilia to defeat Mago twice and reclaim Bruttium.
I had a diplomacy card in my hand that I hoped would be sufficient to reclaim Corsica. I still needed Gallia Cisalpinia though, and to do it, I was going to have to defeat Hannibal. Scipio marched in, and in a crazy battle defeated Hannibal in Verona. Hannibal had a bad Battle Hand and tried to withdraw every chance he got, but he failed every time. Actually, not failed--he actually succeeded EVERY time. But Scipio A cancelled the withdraw EVERY time. I think it was about 8 withdraw attempts--maybe I'll go back and check the save file to see. Casualties were relatively light, but then a reduced strength Hannibal was defeated again.
Hannibal was in Boii with just 2 CUs left when Steve's time ran out, with 5 card plays left. The end would have been interesting. I would have been able to convert and hold Gallia Cisalpinia, but the question is, would my diplomacy card have been able to take back Corsica/Sardinia? The answer is maybe--Steve held the Messenger Intercepted card. If it pulled my Diplomacy card, I would have lost. Also factoring into this is that I held the Philip of Macedon card, so I might have been able to force him to discard Messenger Intercepted.
A very tough and hard fought game.
Bruce
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