moves, and how many leaders activate, are determined by single die rolls. Each unit is rated for combat and morale, and each combat point gets you 1d6 to fire in combat, where a 6 inflicts a step loss. Fire is simultaneous, no defender advantage.
      Special rules cover things like facing (for only the large double sized units of legions and phalanx infantry), missile fire, retreat before combat, and morale. Defenders must pass a morale check or lose a step, and so the attacker may have a slight advantage this way. Morale may also affect combat probabilities, but only in extreme cases of high morale units attacking low morale units. Leaders can affect combat, and they die rather easily in this game (11 or 12 on two dice).
      Scenarios 1 and 5 are unbalanced, but 2 through four (Great Plains, Cirta and Zama) are fairly balanced, although only after Rome is handicapped a few victory points in the scenario rules. Points are awarded for step losses and leader losses. Units that leave the map only count for one-half points. In a significant departure from many ancients games, HANNIBAL AT BAY is played to the last man standing, or exiting. There are no "rout levels" or thresholds where the game magically ends. You fight back and forth until one side quits, exits the map or is completely annihilated.
      HANNIBAL AT BAY has many strengths as a game. It is easy and fast to play right out of the box. The counters are really nice, and the map is mounted. The scenarios do a good job of conveying both sides' relative strengths and weaknesses, without many rules or fuss. Each turn goes by quickly, the length of the game will depend upon how well you roll and how aggressive both sides are.
      It also has a few weaknesses or points of minor annoyance. The map is drab. The areas are divided into squares mostly (as opposed to hexes or brickwork squares), but instead of straight lines the artist used randomly wiggley lines, which I assume was for aesthetic purposes. I think straight lines would be less distracting, and I doubt anyone is going to appreciate the particular way the lines wiggle in any case. The two larger battles can drag out a long time, as both sides square off waiting the perfect activation roll and such. There are only 4 scenarios of any significance, the first scenario is for learning purposes only. There are never enough scenarios in any game, but 4 is too little for such a fun game I think.
      Overall, which game is for you depends upon who you are. If you are a hardcore gamer, then GBoH and SGBoH are must have items, although if you don't already have most of these modules, you will have trouble finding them since they are mostly out of print. If, however, ancients isn't your main interest, or it is, but you don't have time to set up large battles with intricate combat resolutions, then HANNIBAL AT BAY is a fine game. I recommend it to anyone looking for an easy to play game, that still offers good player tension, tough decision making, and a good historically accurate overview of the problems of managing an ancient army.

      Peter McCord (Graduate Student, American History, UC Riverside) has been playing wargames for 20 years. Some of his favorite games are STORM OVER ARNHEM, BARBAROSSA: ARMY GROUP SOUTH, TUNISIA, A RAGING STORM, and PROUD MONSTER.

MEUTERER
review by Mike Bialecki

      Unofficially dubbed the sequel to VERRATER, MEUTERER is a clever card game designed by Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle and published by Adlung Spiele. Indeed, MEUTERER shares with VERRATER the same designer, publisher, and similar artwork and mechanics. However, MEUTERER is not simply an old game with a new face. It has a feel of its own and offers unique decisions over which to agonize. So it will be a matter of taste as to whether this new game is better than its predecessor.
      In MEUTERER, players become the crew of a merchant ship, sailing the high seas in search of profit among dark and mysterious ports such as Shivercave and Cold Crag. However, dissension riddles the trading vessel; mutineers seem to appear from the woodwork to take control of the ship from the captain and steer it to another port. A wise and careful captain must pay his boatswain well for loyalty and protection, for the mutineer looks always to corrupt the impressionable ship's boy to aid him in mutiny. Only two people are immune to the authority of the captain and conspiracy of the mutineer. The merchant cares not where the ship sails, only that he may sell his wares for the highest possible price. And the loading clerk selects nothing but the very best from each port; he picks from the cream of the crop. Unlike many German-style games, MEUTERER does a fairly good job in sticking to its theme, through both game play and artwork.
      66 quality coated standard-sized cards and a tiny rulebook make up the components of this compact game. And to keep it compact, Adlung Spiele made the wonderful decision to abandon the annoying over-sized box that many

publishers feel forced to use for "shelf-visibility". Owners of such card games as MYSTERY RUMMY will undoubtedly know what I mean. Instead, MEUTERER is packaged in a box big enough only for the deck of cards and card shaped rulebook; it is truly a game that can be tossed in a pocket and carried anywhere one may go. The artwork on the cards is a style identical to VERRATER. It has enough detail and color to be more than simple pictographs, yet it is simple enough to convey in a glance what each card is supposed to represent. The text on the cards is limited to one word, which is unnecessary in most cases because the artwork conveys their meanings just as well. This point is particularly important since MEUTERER, like VERRATER, is entirely in German and will probably never see an English printing. The only significant drawback to the lack of English is there are 4 illustrated game summary cards (1 for each player) and 2 illustrated outline cards that appear as though they would be helpful for new players. However, after a game or two, even German speakers would abandon these aids. To learn the game, I used Ronald Hoekstra's translation provided on Casasola Merkle's web page. I found these rules to be clear and aided by helpful examples.
      MEUTERER is not so much a sequel to VERRATER, but an extension of the concepts and mechanics used in VERRATER. Another recent example of this type of relationship is between TIKAL and JAVA, two games from the multi award winning team of Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling. Aside from the designer, publisher and artwork, MEUTERER is similar to VERRATER in many ways. In both games, a "game board" is constructed by randomly laying 12 land cards in a circle; in VERRATER, these are lands to be fought over by opposing factions, while in MEUTERER they represent islands to which the ship may sail and commodities may be offered. Furthermore, both games last 8 rounds consisting of about 10 phases per round. In each round, players choose to become 1 of 6 characters, each possessing a unique ability. Finally, the last obvious similarity between MEUTERER and VERRATER is the method by which the major sources of victory points are awarded. In VERRATER, the number of victory points earned after conquering a land are determined by the number of players involved in the conquest, the more players involved, the less each player receives. In MEUTERER, players take turns offering commodities (wine, wheat, rubies, salt, and cloth) to the island from which the ship just sailed and the island at which the ship rests. Although any commodity may be played, most islands "accept" only one specific commodity. The number of victory points earned is determined by how many people tie for the most commodities offered at each island; like VERRATER, the more players involved in the tie, the less number of victory points each player will earn.
      Although MEUTERER and VERRATER share many features, the differences between the two are striking enough to give each game its own flavor and ambiance. One of the most apparent distinctions, which I detected within the first few minutes of playing MEUTERER, was that it lacked the constant tension I often feel in VERRATER. In MEUTERER, a conflict occurs when a player chooses to become the mutineer. After players have offered commodities and revealed the characters they chose, the mutineer and the captain must fight for control of the ship if a player chose the mutineer. The mutineer may only receive help from the ship's boy, if that character was chosen, and the captain may only receive help from the boatswain, providing a player chose it. The players who chose the loading clerk and merchant may not contribute conflict cards to either side of the fight. Therefore, such a conflict is often fought between only 2 of 4 players. Furthermore, the results of the conflict determine where the ship will sail at the end of the turn. If the Captain wins, the ship will sail the number of islands clockwise equal to the number of cards remaining in her hand; if the mutineer wins, the ship sails the number of islands equal to the number of cards left in her hand. Since the ship sails at the end of the turn, long after commodities have been played, the results of a mutineer/captain conflict will never affect what islands commodities may be offered during the current round. Therefore, players are often not involved in conflict and don't have enough at stake in the results of the conflict to create heightened tensions. In contrast, if a player in VERRATER chooses the traitor, all players are affected; they all have something at stake in such a decision. I find this to be an exciting aspect of VERRATER that I miss in MEUTERER.
      An aspect I enjoy about MEUTERER is there are more ways to score significant points throughout the course of a game than there are in VERRATER, which allows for more avenues to victory or at least more tactical options per turn. Captains can score up to 5 points per turn depending on to what island they sail and players may earn up to 6 points per active island by offering the most commodities. In addition, there are a smaller number of victory points to be earned per turn depending on which character a player chose. The ship's boy earns 2 victory points if the mutineer wins control of the ship from the captain. The mate earns between 0 and 3 points promised to him at the beginning of the round by the captain as long as the captain remains in control of the ship. The merchant allows a player involved in a tie for the most offered commodities to receive victory points as if he were the sole contributor, while the other players involved in the tie score points normally. Finally, although the loading clerk gets no points directly, his ability

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