
Key to this whole war, in essence, was this one great battle. The story of Hannibal, as it is told to us, largely brushes over Hannibal’s campaigns in Iberia and those of Hamilcar and Hasdrubal before him and I have often said that, if the life of Hannibal were ten chapters of a book, it is as if the very first chapter was always missing. I have studied Hannibal for years but always came back to this, his first battle on the Tagus in 220BC. These are the things which get a historian going the hunt for the past and seeing something which nobody else has seen before. “Hannibal has always fascinated me,” said Phillips, “and I love mysteries. The battle of the Tagus by Dionisio Cueto, the only modern depiction of the battle (public domain) The Great Battle of Tagus

And it isn’t just any Hannibal battlefield which he has uncovered either, but the site of Hannibal’s first ever battle: the battle of the Tagus. Yet, this is what Ricky D Phillips, an Edinburgh-based military historian, has just done. Whilst archaeological discoveries will, of course, turn up from time to time to help us understand more of Hannibal and of Carthage, it is rare indeed, and perhaps the rarest of all things for an historian to discover a whole Hannibal battlefield.

It expands the game with two new starting scenarios to pick for your mercenary company - the Oathtakers and the Anatomists - that shape your campaign from beginning to end. The free 'Of Flesh and Faith' DLC is a love letter to the fans of Battle Brothers after a journey of almost six years together.
