Review of The Grat Battles of Alexandr

IS ALEXANDER THE GREAT AS BEFORE OR HAVE WAR GAMES PASSED HIM AWAY?

 Most of the war games that have been part of the series for more than twenty years have tended to get more and more difficult in an effort to offer more opportunities and challenges to dedicated fans. Sometimes such games become almost unrecognizable compared to the original games of the series. So I was more than slightly thrilled when I heard about the new gift edition of Alexander the Great's Battles.

 You see, I smile when I remember the excited Mark Herman and Richard Berg presenting a prototype of the very first version of Alexander, the game that launched the great History's Great Battles series, more than a decade ago at a convention. Me and my wargamer friends Berg and Hermann were "treated" to a drawing of the battle with "Alexander"; Can you imagine a game designer doing that these days? And although I never found out who won that game, I consoled myself with a new box set of The Great Battles of Alexander. At the time, Alexander had its flaws, including more concise rules than were really necessary, but the game was a revelation—it simply changed the way most players viewed ancient warfare, emphasizing the quality of troops rather than their quantity.

 So, when I picked up the new version of Deluxe Alexander, I had to wonder: After the changes made to the game system in recent games like Devil's Horsemen, could there be a re-release of the original game in the Great Battles series? Was I, like many wargamers raised on hexes and counters, just nostalgic?

MY SUMMER IN CAPPADOCIA

 Certainly, the new Alexander components are worthy of the name Deluxe. Double-sided battle maps are printed on thick paper and aesthetically look much better compared to previous versions. While the terrain is still generally sparse—after all, ancient armies preferred flat plains for maneuvering their troops—a few trees, bushes, and the occasional flowing river liven up the surroundings, a nice contrast to the desert terrain of some of the other Great Battles, especially Devil '.

 The counters prepared by Roger McGowan for various armies are of the usual excellent GMT standard and do a great job of putting a lot of information into a small space in an easily readable form - very important during the night battles that decided the fate of Persia. If you've never played any of the previous versions of Alexander, the first thing you'll notice are the huge counters representing the Greek and Macedonian phalanxes, which take up two hexes instead of one on the battle map. While Alexander isn't the first game to use double-sized counters (Murfreesboro was another R. Berg game made in the late 1970s), it's still an elegant way to correctly simulate these units without many additional rules.

WHY STAY IN THRACIA?

 The battles themselves give you the opportunity to follow Alexander the Great and conquer the entire "known world" from Greece and Egypt to Persia, ending the campaign in India. Some of the battles, such as Chaeronea, where the young Alexander fought side by side with his father Philip, are mainly useful for understanding the stages of Alexander's rise to fame or for learning the game system. Overall, however, the scenarios offer surprisingly asymmetric challenges, pitting the combined arms and unit cohesion of the Macedonians against larger armies (Persia), different military systems (Greek hoplites), and military equipment both old (chariots) and new (elephants). Thus, Alexander Deluxe offers a journey through military history, as you can easily see in-game how the Macedonian 'art of war' evolved and adapted over time.

 However, Alexander Deluxe has changed enough battle maps and unit rankings from previous versions to give cabinet historians something to argue about. It seems to me that in general the Persian and Indian armies now have a slightly better chance in some of the updated scenarios, especially in Issa and Samarkand, than they did in the original Alexander version. This is partly because the new rules have removed many loopholes related to movement, grouping, elephant attacks, etc.

COLLISION OF COPIES

 However, at its core, Alexander Deluxe is a fairly simple game. Basically, each player in turn activates the commander. The commander gives orders to fire, moves units and sends them into close combat with the enemy. The fun part is that when troops enter battle, they must pass a troop quality check, and each troop type is compared to its opponent in the aptly named Clash of Cops table. Then the squads converge in melee.

 Casualties are as much actual troop deaths as receiving 'cohesion hits', the unit's cohesion decreases - and ultimately these troops retreat or flee the battlefield. The rest of the game involves trying to rally routed / retreating troops, chasing cavalry, removing cohesion hits, personal combat of commanders, elephant attacks, etc.

 However, the most interesting gameplay mechanic, which remains largely unchanged from the original Alexander game, is the idea of continuing your turn with momentum, or even "intercepting" your opponent's turn, allowing one of your commanders to activate troops instead of your opponent. If you take the risk and try to intercept and fail, your commander will be practically useless for the entire turn and may even suffer a "crisis of confidence" that will force his troops to withdraw from the battle.

 So, to put it mildly, the interception and momentum system makes for a wild game as it puts you and your opponent into a tense situation that few other turn-based games can match; you can never be completely sure when your next move will come. Best of all, especially in a head-to-head game, there are ample opportunities to bluff and talk while the fate of the momentum roll is decided.

 The original Alexander volume will always hold a special place in the Great Battles of History. But any fan will want to pick up the new Alexander Deluxe—new maps breathe new life into old favorite battles, and changes to scenarios and unit rankings make the game more tactically challenging. While all the Great Battles games are moderately difficult, Alexander Deluxe is more accessible than most games in the series, and the momentum system makes the game very replayable; it's also one of the few war games in recent memory that's fun to play solo.

 If you're at all interested in the time period, or if you've ever just wanted to see if you could match the exploits of Alexander the Great, then this game is for you. And if you want more fun with less complexity, I've found that Alexander Deluxe pairs well with the simple Great Battles of History rules, which are also available in GMT. Overall, this is a great example of how to update a classic while still keeping the essence of what made The Great Battles of Alexander such a successful game years ago. My guess is that Berg and Hermann would be just as excited to see this version shown off as the original, although I still can't say who would win if they went head-to-head…