Introducing the Hannibal Battle Set’s Second Wargame, Scipio!

Picture the scene – you’ve just received your brand-new copy of the Hannibal battle set, and you can’t wait to get building and painting the veritable horde of Romans and Carthaginians included therein, so you can get your first games of Hail Caesar Epic Battles in. As you start to remove the first of many, many, many sprues of glorious plastic goodness, something else catches your eye in the box – a slim booklet, simply entitled ‘SCIPIO’, and a pair of paper battle-mats. Now what on earth could they be?

Well, Scipio is our brand new battlegame, allowing you to use your new miniatures to recreate the battles of the Second Punic War in another way. “What’s a battlegame?”, I hear you ask – simply put, it’s a hybrid of wargame and board game, designed to get you having a great time with your new miniatures as quickly and easily as possible! It doesn’t require painting, and only a minimum of assembly, and is designed to be played on the included battle-mats, meaning you don’t even need a full-size gaming table right away! In short, it’s a nice, simple, quick-to-play introduction to the epic battles of the Second Punic War!

Written by John Lambshead and Rick Priestley, you’re in good hands with Scipio, whether you’re a veteran of countless ancient battles, or brand new to the hobby. Scipio is designed specifically for quick, fun games that also introduce and explain some of the key concepts of warfare in the era, particularly the tactics and deployment of the iconic Roman manipular system and their triplex acies three-line formation. This produces battles which feel like the enormous, often complex engagements of the Punic Wars, but without endless pages of explanation required – the perfect introduction for anyone new to the period, and a satisfying tactical challenge for those already well-versed in the warfare of the era. Winning is a theoretically simple business – get your units into your opponent’s back line, and/or rout and destroy fifteen of their thirty stands!

Based on a simple gridded system of boxes (which you’ll see on the battle-mat), and an incredibly simple stat block for units (literally only Attack and Defence values!), with each base of figures used as a distinct unit, there are no endless reams of stats, abilities, or ranges to remember. The entire game rules take up only eight sides of A4, and that includes plenty of diagrams and images, as well as rules for playing the game as a campaign, and some optional special rules that you might like to include in your games. You know, just little things, like elephants, and making Gallic warriors extra scary on the charge!

Crucially, all you need to do to play a game of Scipio is clip out thirty stands (that’s thirty individual bases) each of Romans and Carthaginians, glue them to their bases, and unfold the battle-mat! The sprues are coloured grey and tan specifically to be easy to tell apart without painting, and while the miniatures look absolutely stunning once they’re painted, we know you’ll want to get playing as soon as possible – so we’ve given you the best of both worlds! Grab your clippers, plastic glue, and a handful of six-sided dice – it’s time to follow in the footsteps of the great generals of the Punic Wars!

Hannibal Battle Set

Of course thirty stands per side is just a small portion of what you’ll find in the new Hail Caesar Epic Battles battle set. Within there are over 3,100 model soldiers, plus War Elephants (!), with which to refight the epic campaigns of Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus. It’s a truly impressive array of miniatures when laid out on the tabletop. See for yourself:

With its two vast armies, the full-colour Hail Caesar Epic Battles rulebook, and the Scipio battle game, the Hannibal Battle Set is the perfect way to dive into wargaming the Punic Wars!

Hannibal Battle Set Pre-Order Bonus – Poor Perished Pachyderm

Alas, mighty as they were, war elephants were not invincible. You’ll receive this exclusive Poor Perished Pachyderm model only when you pre-order the Hannibal battle set, or multiples in bundles which contain the Hannibal battle set. Use them to dress a battlefield or as casualty markers for your Carthaginian elephant corps.