One of you (Thank you!) has pointed me to Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, a game for connoisseurs of this sort of thing (available on Amazon, too). You can replay Hannibal’s strategy … and tactics, apparently. Cannae could go to the Romans, Zama to Carthage. (And we today might all have Carthaginian, instead of Roman, government buildings.)
Aside from all that, just savor the rather different visual interpretation of the general, vis-a-vis the one Riverhead expressed on the jacket cover of my book. 😉 Now that’s what I call a Carthaginian!
And for the history geeks: You notice the Hannibal above has both of his eyes. And the Alps are behind him. When he came out of the Alps, he did indeed have them both. He lost one of them to conjunctivitis seven months later, while wading through a fetid Etruscan (= Tuscan) swamp.
Hannibal and Me: life lessons from history 
At the risk of being branded a hopeless geek I have to confess I love those games. We used to play Stalingrad all the time and another favorite was Caesar which was the Battle of Alesia in which the Romans nailed Vercingetorix–the Romans never did win when we played.
Geekiness is encourage here on The HB. But somehow I was never properly introduced to those games. How could a board game not disappoint when you can instead imagine the actual Vercingetorix? (And of course, I had, as we all do, the ultimate authority on Vercingetorix and Alesia).
*Are* those the alps behind him? The prominent peak looks more like Nanda Devi with a hint of Ama Dablam. Maybe it’s a Bob Ross-like interpretation.
Nanda Devi is a cheap rip-off of the Matterhorn, typical for those Asians. Everybody knows that.
Do not such games glorify war, which, after all, is a murderous and criminal activity of, arguably, the worst kind?
I was once told that history is the story of wars. They are such momentous events, after all.
Do not such games, like Greek arts and games, instead “sublimate” that murderous activity?
As I said, I never got hooked on them, but not for this reason. To me, the backdrop (ie, the game theme) is primal, but then the game is pure neocortex, pure strategic/tactical scenario building.
@Andreas – I noted, with interest, this extract from your piece on sublime Greek violence:
Good Eris, according to Hesiod, “……drives even the unskilled man to work: and if someone who lacks property sees someone else who is rich, he likewise hurries off to sow and plant… Even potters harbor grudges against potters, carpenters against carpenters, beggars envy beggars and minstrels envy minstrels…….”
Eris’s words through the stylus of Hesiod would look good on car bumper-stickers of political conservatives everywhere.
I agree with Andreas that the enjoyment of the game derives from the challenges of strategic and tactical decision making. It’s the same as chess I guess expect with a less abstract context.
Can’t wait for their new game: Osama: D.C. vs Pakistan
Wow! That is a powerful portrait of the great general. Perhaps Valley Games could spare the artist so that he could paint a similarly stern portrait of your visage for “Hannibal and Me”. Hannibal could be on the front and you could be on the back and life’s great battle (falling elephants, Moloch, and all) could stretch around the spine behind both of you.
A bold artistic vision, Hieronymo. Wouldst that I had the power to tell Riverhead how to do jackets. 😉
As someone who who like George Costantza wishes he were a history buff–actually I am a retired professor of history–I am eagerly awaiting my purchasing and reading of your new book. Good on you.
Thank you, Bruce!! I am thrilled.