we're using maven for a really big project (more than 15 modules) and we tried hard not to fight the tool but
1) maven solves the 90% of common problems, but if you're struggling the other 10% it is always a mess to fiddle with
2) life-cycle management is a mess. Even if you choose a correct phase for your stuff to happen, sometimes it doesn't work. And you don't know the f***ing why
3) we fight hard but eventually we gave up: we use ant from maven. Sometimes we use even ant to call maven. Now don't even try to think we sucks: if only you could see the complexities of certain steps in our build process... it is just that maven gets in your ways more often than not for building complex projects.
4) the local repository management is a burden. Artifactory is not good. And other similar products.
All in all: I would suggest Ant (maybe with Ivy if you want dependencies management, but I never tried that)
Bye
Stefano
