Subject:   	[preachers-wargame] Alexander the Great
From:   	"doomtownexpress" <abimilech@ca.rr.com>
Date:   	Thu, December 14, 2006 12:30 pm
To:   	preachers-wargame@yahoogroups.com

I had a chance to play GMT's "Alexander the Great" in their new 
series of games subtitled "The Conquerors"...  Let me give you some 
flavor of the game here.

Alexander is a huge monster.  He is almost unbeatable in battle.  One 
goal of the Persian player is to cause his armies to grow tired of 
battle.  Each time there is a battle with more than 10 army Strength 
Points, Alexander has to roll on a war weariness chart and has a good 
chance of increasing war weariness. After the War weariness reaches a 
certain point (I think it is 20 or 25) then the player must roll the 
dice to see if the Macedonian forces rebel.

The Macedonian player has the daunting task of accomplish multiple 
tasks in order to win.  In his way is the Persian player who keeps 
trying to prevent him from reaching those goals.  If the Persian can 
prevent the Macedonian from reaching those goals then he can win.  
However, Alexander can steamroll all over the Persians, even with a 
smaller army.

The flow of the game is based around drawing chits.  There are three 
different colored chits in the game.  One is the color of the 
Macedonian, one the Persian, and one is a green administrative phase. 
A player may get "initiative" two turns in a row by the random draw 
of the chit.  If his chit is drawn a third time in a row, the other 
player gets an automatic interupt first.  An administrative chit 
allows a phase for repair and reorganzing.  During this time, 
disaster chits (which affect movement) are removed and attempts to 
refill the treasuries to pay for the war are made.  A player can call 
for an admin phases instead of taking his initiative phase.

Also affecting the ebb and tide of the game are the Z cards, named 
for the false god Zarathrusta (spelling?).  These cards have events 
that can affect movement, attack a leader (attempt assasination on 
Alexander) or affect battle.  A player may only play one or discard 
one Z card per turn.  The game is not card-driven.. a player could 
entirely ignore the cards and still play the game, but the cards do 
tend to slow the Macedonian player down a bit.

The map and counters are beautiful. But this is not a short game.  
I've played twice and I cannot see this game coming in under four 
hours.  It took more than five hours both times I played and my 
opponent was quite familiar with the system.  Still, both games were 
fun and I won one of them as the Persian and lost one of them as the 
Persian.  Attacking fairly regularly and wearing Alexander down is 
part of the secret to a Persian win.

David "the preacher" Wilson