reviewed by Moritz Eggert<\/i><\/p>\n
Alexander the Great has a varied history as a game theme. First there was
\n“Battles of Alexander the Great” which had reportedly one of the most garish
\ngame boards of all time (described as looking like a pile of puke by one reviewer), then
\nthere was a series of board\/computer games (“The Great Battles of Alexander”)
\nthat successfully captured the feel and strategy of ancient warfare, then Colin Farrell
\ncame along in a stinker of a film that again prompted Phalanx to produce this fine
\nboardgame (that is obviously not based on the film licence). The fear of encountering
\nanything resembling the film might be one of the reasons why geeks may overlook this
\ngame, which would be a shame, because the design is – while not being a groundbreaking
\nendeavour – certainly solid enough to reward a closer look.<\/p>\n
The map reminds one of an area wargame, which is very far from what the game actually
\nis. Only a small part of the map is used at a time, and a lot of map space is
\n“dead” space – it’s never used at all because as players we follow
\nAlexander’s route of conquest and there were some lands he never actually went to,
\neven though many think that the guy was simply everywhere (while being haunted by the
\nimage by Angelina Jolie as his mum).<\/p>\n
The players represent unknown lesser generals (or underlings) of Alexander, who lead
\nhis armies to some temple and city building on the side, while competing to be the
\nbiggest honcho doing this. The game is played in a succession of “areas”, a
\ncouple of board spaces connected by various movement arrows. Each of these areas is
\nplayed a maximum of three rounds, but impatient generals can shorten this by prematurely
\nmoving their armies to the respective last space of each area.<\/p>\n
![\"board\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen2\/alextg_b1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
At the beginning of each area players secretly place their 15 “resource”
\ncubes on the 4 spaces of their “planning” board, hidden from the prying eyes of
\nthe other generals. One can place cubes on the “turn order” space, the
\n“army” space, the “temple” space or the “city” space. After
\nall players have done their planning, the most decisive phase in the game, they reveal
\ntheir choices. Whoever invested most in “turn order” can now move his turn
\norder pawn to any space (usually coming last is most desirable), the others following in
\norder of the amount bid. Then the armies placed on the “army” space are brought
\nin the play (this is the only time that armies enter the game in an area). Each army has
\nthree movement points and can move independently, but the crossing of movement arrows
\noften demands the expenditure of extra resource cubes that have to be taken from the
\ncubes placed on “temples” or “cities”. After you have moved your
\narmies you can “threaten” to build temples or cities in each space (if the
\nspace itself allows it) – if you have at least one army cube there – by placing a tilted
\ntemple or city meeple.<\/p>\n
![\"board\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen2\/alextg_b2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
After all players have gone through these phases each space is checked in numerical
\norder. If one player has the majority in army cubes there, s\/he gets two points for a
\nstart. Then the generals decide among themselves who will build the city. The player who
\ninvested most cubes in the “city” space will build the city (on rock and roll,
\npresumably), paying as much as the player with the second most cubes plus one or at least
\ntwo cubes if no player competes. A city immediately brings 5 VP as well. The other
\nplayers grudgingly destroy their half built city, probably pouting a lot. Temples work
\nsimilarly, but they only give 3 VP, while building them costs one less then cities. With
\nthis building and competing a round is finished and players can now use the still unspent
\ncubes to distribute them again on their temple and city spaces respectively. No new
\narmies appear in the next rounds though, one has to live with what one brought into the
\narea at the beginning, which of course favours the player who went for majority VP’s
\nand brought a lot of his fighting buddies into the area. Also players who spent a lot for
\ntheir temples and cities now look on sheepishly as their opponents still have many cubes
\nto act while they are empty handed.<\/p>\n
When the last area is played through, players count majorities in each formerly played
\narea (who has the most cities or the most temples in each area gets 5 VP) and their total
\nof built temples and cities (most temples=15 VP, most cities=10 VP). As one can guess the
\nfinal scoring can change positions wildly – it is not uncommon to see one player moving
\nfrom last place to first place here. Also it is a little strange that majorities of
\ntemples and cities per area are not counted immediately but only at the end of the game,
\nas these majorities never change until the end of the game, once the hordes of Alexander
\nhave left the lands not a stone is moved there anymore.<\/p>\n