Hannibal & Hamilcar - Golden Geek Edition

Product detailed description

Hannibal & Hamilcar is a card-driven political game for 2 players set during the Second Punic War, the epic struggle between ancient Rome and Carthage. That conflict has in many ways defined our modern reality. It took Rome over 100 years to win the competition with Carthage and three long wars were fought in the process. Our game takes considerably less time. Some scenarios are playable in under 30 minutes.

Hannibal has been designed by one of the most acclaimed designers in the world, Mark Simonitch. This 20th Anniversary Edition of the game includes new scenarios and variants. Phalanx has streamlined certain game mechanics, while producing exactly the same game results as the golden classic. The game original rules and components were updated by Mark Simonitch and Jaro Andruszkiewicz. Hannibal has won numerous awards, including the Golden Geek Best 2-Player Board Game Award and the Golden Geek Best Wargame Award, and is ranked 14th on the BoardGameGeek.com's Wargame Rankings. Hannibal is actually more of an asymmetrical political game than a wargame. It presents a conflict between two superpowers of Antiquity from a classical Clausewitzian perspective, according to which a power only reverts to military operations when there is no other way to achieve the goal: political dominance.


The long-awaited Hamilcar companion game is also included in the Anniversary Edition. Hamilcar, which is set during the First Punic War, is a stand-alone game using similar mechanics. It introduces a naval system and exciting naval battles. Both players compete for control of the Mediterranean Sea, in a conflict which will be described as the first war between an elephant and a whale - the struggle of a land-based empire versus the world’s naval power. Rome's goal was to break through the island chain of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia – Carthage's defensive line to contain Rome on the Italian peninsula.