Hannibal is one of the few games that focus on the second Punic War-- you control the formidable Carthagian army --on elephant backs-- with the ultimate goal to conquer Rome.
The game is realistic in a sense that travels and sieges can, and do, take forever.
Overall, an interesting game that raises the ever-controversial issue of realism vs. fun in wargames, with fun unfortunately left on the wayside as the tedium of watching your armies move kicks in again.
Review By HOTUD
English 
German 
Comments and reviews
Decent game back in 1993, the only one around where yo could play as Hannibal.
The Amiga version was pretty rubbish though. It looked like it played through a filter with the reduced colors and it was extremely slow. PC version is much better, especially the sound FX.
Not for me. Maybe a good learning tool, as stated by RED2777, but no action, no fighting, no way.
I purchased this game back in 1995 for £10 and played it for countless hours. It was incredible. On the plus side, it covered a fascinating conflict, involved engaging and involving strategic planning, and played with a mostly intuitive interface once you got the hang of it. As someone who loves ancient warfare, and particularly the Punic Wars, having the chance to play as Hannibal to conquer Rome and the Mediterranean was brilliant. It was a great learning tool too - by the time I was done with the game, I could name nearly every city across the Roman Mediterranean (some of the cities in the game weren't actually founded until after the events of the game, but still). I played it so much that I eventually managed to take over nearly the entire playing map, including the Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and Macedonian territories.
On the downside, the AI is nearly non-existent - it follows a preset pattern determined at the beginning of the game, rather than responding to your movements. There are also some fairly silly issues like the fact that you can starve Rome into submission with a tiny army, as long as you keep on blockading it rather than trying to storm it. The battles are also rather lackluster and lack strategy - yes, you get to pick what formation you use, but the computer just picks one at random to use, so it is rather a case of rock-paper-scissors, and the biggest army generally triumphs anyway.
A real blast from the past, but not sure it would stand up to modern scrutiny.
O my God, I LOVED this game! SO addictive. Definitely has its flaws, especially compared to modern strategy games, but even compared to contemporaries. There are NO battle scenes. You pick your strategy, commence the battle, and a countdown shows you how many soldiers are dying on each side! Mind you, I enjoy this type of game, but most of the time I'll usually hit the "auto resolve" (or whatever) button and skip the actual battle management anyway. But I'd sure like the option, or at least watch SOMETHING of what's happening! That though is the greatest weakness, I think. Some of the control board controls are not particularly intuitive, and you may have to mess around a bit figuring out what does what. Otherwise, quite challenging and engaging.
It is not an "excellent game". Heck, it is not even a proper game, more like interactive mediterranean map. The AI just stops doing anything after a couple of turns.
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.