Empire: Turn Eight (280-270 BC)

Carthaginians are menacing Rome's ITALIA stronghold

With Carthage almost at the gates of Rome, this is a good time to explain some of the rules regarding ITALIA.

As has already been seen, Rome must first consolidate its rule in ITALIA, and when this is done it receives a second counter there.

If ITALIA is successfully attacked, instead of removing a counter, every other Roman-controlled province revolts.

If however, as in this game, Rome has no other provinces, then a counter is removed and Rome must consolidate again, requiring a campaign roll of 5 or better (3 if the campaign is led by Scipio the Younger).

Italia can only be attacked if it has two counters, so it can never fall to outside control, but clearly forcing the Romans to reconsolidate would set back their expansion plans.

Anyway, back to turn eight, and the revolt phase sees the province of Persia become independent (remember, this is not the Persian/Parthian homeland - that is Parthia).

The Macedonians campaign first and invade the newly revolted province. They roll a 3, which is just enough as there is a +1 modifier for peoples who no longer have a great captain but had one no more than five moves ago.

The Persians are up next, rolling a 5, narrowly failing to revolt in their Parthia homeland.

The Carthaginians have an interesting choice to make. They can attack ITALIA, hoping, as explained above, to slow Roman expansion. That would require a 6 as there would be -1 modifiers for attacking a controlled province and for attacking outside the original Carthaginian empire. Alternatively they could attack Gallia, which would also require a 6 as it is outside the original Carthaginian empire and has a -1 modifier for attack on the first 10 turns. So the chance of success in either campaign is 5-1 against. Slowing Rome is important, but conquering Gallia would gain an extra victory point, assuming it is still held when the points are first calculated in two turns' time. In the end I could not decide between the two options, and rolled a die with a 50:50 chance for the two campaigns. The choice fell on ITALIA, but that proved academic as the campaign roll was a 1.

The Romans make Carthage pay for its failure by conquering Magna Graecia with an emphatic roll of 6.

The Carthaginians have been thrown out of the Italian mainland, but still control Sicilia