Total War: ROME II - Hannibal at the Gates Campaign Pack DLC

CA released two awesome trailers for Hannibal at the Gates. One from the Carthaginian perspective, where after the humiliation suffered during the First Punic War with the loss of their holdings in Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, Hannibal is made to swear an oath to his father Hamilcar Barca, to always be an enemy of Rome, which ends with him declaring war by holding a knife to the throat of a feisty roman diplomat who comes to the Carthaginian court to remind them to know their place and keep the peace, and the second trailer, showing the Roman side when the war is well underway, where after the carthaginian capture of Seguntum in eastern Iberia, they discuss from which direction Hannibal might invade. Unlike Wrath of Sparta which gave us a real zoomed in map of greece and western anatolia that made every little island in the Aegean finally visible and introduced us to a campaign of island hopping somewhat dampened by the mundane prospect of hoplite vs. hoplite warfare, the camaign map in Hannibal at the Gates is only a roughly 50% bigger version of the western mediterraenean, at the exclusion of everything else in the north and the east (therefore no illyrian pirates who raided eastern italy or even Macedon, which was an ally of Carthage). So it feels like a smaller Grand Campaign mode, rather than like an in-depth campaign of its own, but on the pro side, the clash of rosters is a lot more flavorful, with the phoenician/hellenistic Cathaginian style of war meeting the manipular Roman legions and the Celtiberian and north african tribes in their way. But if you have already played as Rome or as Carthage in the Grand Campaign, there is no reason to buy HATG as this is just a repeat of the action you saw on the western end of the campaign map, only this time with roughly double the amount of minor factions added and the number of regions to conquer tripled. However, CA has done a better job at setting up the inevitable Rome vs. Carthage superpower confrontation in this campaign pack than in the GC, where it is not only avoidable, but where Carthage only has Libya as a client state, and its holdings in Iberia removed and given to another client state and minor faction called Carthago Nova. This means that in the GC, Carthage often finds itself battered by north african factions like the Masaeysli and Gaetuli, and is usually driven out of north Africa into balearic exile if the Libyans revolt. In HATG however, there is a more complex (and to be fair, complicated) web of military alliances, defensive alliances and more client states that Carthage already starts the campaign with, as well as direct ownership of the holdings along the eastern Iberian coastline, and likewise with Rome having its own web of supporting minor factions on the Italian peninsula, a clash between Rome and Carthage, each supported by its set of clients, becomes the primary focus of this theatre. If you buy this campaign pack, you also get to play as the Lusitani, Arevaci and Syracuse not just here but also on the Grand Campaign map, giving you the chance to stick it to these superpowers or even go on to conquer the world in the GC. Overall though, I do not recommend this DLC because where Wrath of Sparta expanded the Greek theatre from a struggle over a handful of regions to a huge archipelagic game of risk accompanied by a new tech tree and seasonal festivals where it’s league vs. league, while none of the 4 primary cities can be taken without massive diplomatic penalties to the player, the HATG experience can be repeated in the GC and you really don’t miss out on much if you don’t get this, unless you insist on the ability to play as a celtiberian faction – only then does this DLC add meat to that particular bone.

Recommended on sale since there is not alot of new features implemented besides the diplomacy tech tree and a few units but I'm a sucker when it comes to anything BC related. Playing as Hannibal and recreating some of his most memorable moments was a rush and doom stacking Elephants will never not be fun. "God has given to man no sharper spur to victory than contempt of death"