Alexander: Total War

[frogbeastegg]

A thread for the Alexander expansion. All Alexander related tips and strategies belong here.

[ezrider]

I ordered the Eras set just yesterday as a good example of impulse buying. €50 from play- can't wait to get it tho because then I can play alexander and post my strats.! I wonder if its possible to actually apply HIS tactics to the game? 'twould be only fitting.

[Diadochoi]

Fired it up yesterday... this is my first time playing a side that relies heavily on phalanx units, the lack of mobility is going to be tough to get used to. Alexander's also thin on the archery side (at least initially). So far I've been taking more casualties than I'd like because the Persians can bomb away without fear of reprisal while my phalanx groups advance.

[Kambyses]

Hello everyone;
I have big problem installing "Alexander".It need patch 1.5/1.6 ,So I did the following deeds :

1.Installed both ROME:TOTAL WAR and RTW:Barbarian Invasion.The version of my RTW is 1.3 and RTW:BI is 1.4 at the end of this step.

2.As mentioned in Support section of www.totalwar.com ,I installed patch 1.6.

3.When I tried to install patch 1.6 ,It sends a Massage and says "This patch will only upgrade version 1.3 to version 1.5. You can download patch 1.3 from www.totalwar.com."

What can I do? How can I install "Alexander"???

Here is the link of Total war support:

http://www.totalwar.com/index.html?p...tml&nav=/en/8/

I will appreciate for any HELP

Thank you
-Kambiz

[econ21]

I wonder if its possible to actually apply HIS tactics to the game?

Yes, it is almost required to apply his tactics. A solid wall of phalanxes can engage at the front - they can steamroller any infantry and most cavalry except the 2HP generals. The Companions, especially Alexander himself, should smash in from the flanks. Everything else is either ineffective - the hypaspists are horribly vulnerable - or just icing on the cake.

[phred]

- the hypaspists are horribly vulnerable -

I second that.
I've seen them rout everyone in the street during a seige (including immortals), but by the time I brought phalangists up behind them they were reduced to nothing and routing, and the phalangists had to finish the seige.

[Bombasticus Maximus]

Can someone post a link or pm me the link to the alexander intro movie.

[rotorgun]

Hi all,

Just a dumb question but, is Alexander Total War only available as a download from totalwar.com?

Appreciate it.

[phred]

Alexander is available as a download or as part of the Total War Eras collection.

[rotorgun]

Alexander is available as a download or as part of the Total War Eras collection.

Thank you phred. I'll get to the Total War site and order it soon.

[rotorgun]

Well I went and ordered Total War Alexander, and have played a few turns of my first campaign. So far, a little strange after playing RTW. I also played the Battle of Cheronea, which I have yet to win. I just don't quite know how Alexander and his Companions can expect to win in hopeless frontal charges against the rather ahistorical huge numbers of Sacred Band Thebans. Correct me if I'm wrong. but wern't they only about three hundred in number? The three units in the game represent about more like 1500-2000 in relative terms. In actuallity, they were really just a small contingent of the Theban army. Alexander's contribution to the battle was his breaktrhough in the center in a gap that developed between the Athenians and the Thebans, brought on by Phillips adept ploy of feigned retreat with his right wing. This is difficult to achieve in the game because of the huge morale penalty suffered by the Macedonians if Alexander doesn't immediately attack the Sacred Band. The army just begins to come apart! Here is a simple representation of the battle. As you can see, the Sacred Band was virtually ignored until after the defeat of the main body.



As far as the campaign is going, I have used Alexander's army to conquer Illyria to secure my northwestern frontier, and am now engaged in a small war with the Trhacians with Parmenio. I found it wise to pull out of Asia Minor until the Thracians are pacified. I haven't got much money left, and so I must conquer to afford any upgrades. So far, it has been challenging. It will be a race to attain the thirty provinces in 100 turns.

[ezrider]

*I was wondering if Frogbeastegg could move this post for me.

I ordered Eras collection from play and I'm now wondering if the versions of the games will be the newest versions, bug free and patched.
Also, what the difference is between having a Gold edition of MTW/RTW and having the 2 games and their addons as separate items?

It was the impulse thing I've done in ages. Due this week

[ShinKamiizumi]

RTW no BI with the 1.3 and 1.5 patch installed and play it daily. Today I purchased and downloaded the Alexander expansion but after unpacking the installation archive I get an error message: "No prior installation of rome total war was found. Setup will now terminate."

RTW is located at C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War on my hard drive. Any ideas as to what could be the problem?

I had relocated some files after a hard disc recovery and so I'm guessing my registry wasn't correct so I made a fresh install from RTW to 1.3, 1.3 to 1.5 and then the Alexander Expansion and it solved the problem.

[Ludens]

I ordered Eras collection from play and I'm now wondering if the versions of the games will be the newest versions, bug free and patched.

Yes, they should be, but there is problem with M:TW Gold that gives compatibility issues in MP: basically the game says it is M:TW 2.0 (M:TW + VI unpatched) while it should be (and appears to be) M:TW 2.01.

Also, what the difference is between having a Gold edition of MTW/RTW and having the 2 games and their addons as separate items?

None whatsoever, except for above caveat.

[rotorgun]

I've been playing for about 30 turns so far on Med/Med since it is the first campaign. The game is definately taught due to the amount of territory one has to cover in order to keep pace with the historical Alexander. So far, I have fought about 65 battles, many of them small scale with the barbarians and rebels of Illyria, Thrace, and Scythia with my rear area forces. Most of the set piece battles and sieges have been with Alexander's main army or with Parmenio and the follow on forces. That's sort of how I've divided the Persia expedition; having a force to guard Alexander's back has proved to be a valuable aid, as the Persians tend to send large armies to try and cut off his supply lines. I just finished sending off a huge full card army attempting to relieve Issus with Parmenion's force, but lost him in the process. I'm contemplating reloading my save game after that one, and had to do so earlier when I lost Alexander in a minor battle when he charged some Immortals head on. It is game over if he dies, so I had to cheat a little.

As far as territories gained, I have cleared all of the Balkans up to the Black Sea, captured all of Anatolia, the coastal cities of Palestine, Thebes in Eygypt, and am besieging Memphis. Even though this seems like alot in 30 turns, it is not. I've already had three messages from the advisor reminding me that I'm behind schedule. Another problem I have is that in order to keep the pace, one must conquer in order to fund the constant supply of mercenaries that Alexander must have to keep his drive going. As in history, you need to finance your army by conquest just as Alexander did. So far I have only allowed two cities to survive without plundering them completely, altough I did enslave the populations for resisting the son of Ammon.

At sea, the Persian navy is slowly becoming only a nuisance. At first they are a worry because they can strike hard at your few ships, but once you have begun to capture their ports they no longer have facilities in which to repair. The AI helps out a bit with an ocasional storm at sea. I was actually able to go on the tactical offensive a little and take out one of his smaller squadrons that got within striking distance of my Sparta based ships (2 Triremes and 1 Bireme). The Persian navy is gradually becoming a mere shadow of itself.

Well, that's about it for now. I've got to get back to work as I am at the jobsite writing this. Take care all, and may Zeus be with you!

[rotorgun]

Here's another update on the campaign, for anyone interested. It's now about turn 53, and I've still a long way to go towards the 30 required provinces. I have 18 under my control streching from Babylon west to Greece, including Scythia. I guess you might say that after 40+ turns that 18 provinces is good, but I am still behind schedule. So far the sieges have been over fairly quickly.

That is one feature I like about using the Alexander character, as he seems to get a sort of siege bonus in how fast the Macedonian army can build siege equipment. The other faction members, except for Parmenion I think, don't seem to be able to build them as rapidly. It does help, because Alexander cannot afford to dally too long by starving out the garrisons. This makes for some very taught and bloody sieges, as one might expect when a large garrison is present. I was a little disappointed with the siege of Babylon, as Darius was the only unit present, and he was easily killed by hordes of Hoplites and Cavalry in the city square. I didn't even use the main army, but a detachment from my northern flank under the command of a junior faction leader.

Alexander's main force has now caught up with them, after securing Egypt and Petra, and now stands poised for the expedition to head east. Ecbatana is his next goal, then I will move on to Bactria, where a huge force is gathered. I have made use of about three spies ahead of my advance to give warning of approaching forces. I also make great use of mercenaries as I move from province to province. It is the only way to supply Alexander's fast moving army.

I have been forced to make liberal use of extermination in order to raise money, and feel that it is a bit ahistorical, as Alexander, while not afraid to use such methods, often would prefer surrender or a more diplomatic approach to sieze the cities. I often wish that there were diplomats in the game to simulate this. I also feel that there should be some ballistas or onagers included, as we know that the Macedonian army, trained so well by Phillip, did use them in history.

The one thing that is modelled well in the game is the decreased importance of the vaunted Persian fleet, once all their Mediterranian ports are all captured. The mostly Bireme force is soon wittled down by storms, clashes with rebel fleets, and combat with the small, but increasingly effective, Macedonian fleet. All this is as it happened in history. I would like to see the siege of Tyre represented better in the game. That required Alexander to make use of the mercenary Phonecian fleet to neutralize the Persian advantage, while building a mole from the mainland to the island city. In the end, it was a lucky seaborne raid by the Hypastpists and Phalangites, supported by shipborne siege artillery, that took a section of the wall and enabled the capture of the city. I guess this was a playability decision for the CA team during the design of TWA. All in all, however, it has been a fun game.

[Guyus Germanicus]

Roto -
It sounds from your description that Alexander has a bit of a different feel, campaign-wise, from RTW. Though the combat portion of the game has similarities. No onagers, no ballistas, no diplomats? Argh. They're part of the fun, not just part of the history! In fact, I wish RTW had developed better dialogue in the diplomacy, and more diplomatic options. I would love to see Pompey put in an appearance in RTW too. I suppose I should consider downloading RTR if I want that kind of realism, eh? But I'm wishing I could hire mercenary Spartan hoplites too, in RTW. Pipe dream without a mod. :)

Alexander was a huge builder and a huge influence on culture. Are these things a part of the game? Do you get to manage cities? Is there a limited number of "family/faction" members, and can you replace them? Or are the number of generals fixed? Just curious.

If I get the game, I will have to order the eras package; assuming it is a package with real CDs. I only have 56k modem, and I don't want to sit for hours on end waiting to download @ 31200K speeds. I know, I know, I'm a dinosaur.

Enjoyed reading your posts. Tell us more when you can.

Guyus

[rotorgun]

Roto -
It sounds from your description that Alexander has a bit of a different feel, campaign-wise, from RTW. Though the combat portion of the game has similarities. No onagers, no ballistas, no diplomats? Argh. They're part of the fun, not just part of the history! In fact, I wish RTW had developed better dialogue in the diplomacy, and more diplomatic options. I would love to see Pompey put in an appearance in RTW too. I suppose I should consider downloading RTR if I want that kind of realism, eh? But I'm wishing I could hire mercenary Spartan hoplites too, in RTW. Pipe dream without a mod. :

Yes, it would have been nice to have a more expanded diplomacy feature, such as negotiating the detaails of a diplomatic agreement, ie. what trade goods are to be exchanged, what type of military support can be expected, or even mariage agreements to seal an alliance as in MTW, etc. All in all, CA did a pretty good job of keeping the game playable, don't you agree?

Alexander was a huge builder and a huge influence on culture. Are these things a part of the game? Do you get to manage cities? Is there a limited number of "family/faction" members, and can you replace them? Or are the number of generals fixed? Just curious.

These are interesting questions. As a matter of fact, city management is quite possible along similar lines to RTW, with the exception of rather more Hellenic temples and troop types. I haven't checked for a technology tree yet, but the problem for the Macedonians is lack of money at first, as I mentioned in my posts. This has to be made up by conquest, just as the historical campaign was financed. As for faction/family members goes, you start off with Alexander, Parmenion, and two others. As the game progresses, one is flooded with a host of characters to adopt about every 3 or 4 turns or so. There are also a number of offspring produced by the married family members. I haven't lacked for generals, but I still have quite a few cities without governors. It calls for some creative management to keep the cities from rebelling. I also recommend building sewers and public baths when populations begin to rise, as plauge breaks out quickly if you don't in the larger settlements.

If I get the game, I will have to order the eras package; assuming it is a package with real CDs. I only have 56k modem, and I don't want to sit for hours on end waiting to download @ 31200K speeds. I know, I know, I'm a dinosaur.

Undserstandable.

Enjoyed reading your posts. Tell us more when you can.
Guyus

Your very welcome. I'll be a bit busy for the next few days, but I'll try to get back the game soon. Thanks for the complement.

PS: I do wish that one could play the campaign as the Persians. It would be fun to try and defeat the greatest (arguably) military commander of all time!

Nike!

[Guyus Germanicus]

Thanks, Roto. You answered several questions I had about the game. I wasn't sure that you couldn't play Persia, but you answered that one too.

Yes, I do think RTW is excellent. I've been obsessed with it since I bought my Gold Edition copy in April. It just appeals to me on so many levels. I marval that anyone could have thought up the game, let alone designed it, and with the features it has. I've only had two bad encounters in the game. One was when I was playing the Brutii faction. I was well into a long campaign and I had one army besieging Nicomedia. A Pontic faction member attacked my army with just his personal general's bodyguard and I had to fight him and the sallying garrison from inside the city. I beat both armies and as soon as I left the battle screen to return to campaign mode, the game locked up. I tried a "do-over" and it happened a second time. The second problem happened in the same kind of setting. I was early into a game with the Seleucids. I attacked the garrison in Sidon, besieging it. During the "interim" turn, two small Egyptian stacks attacked my besieging army, so I had to fight off three stacks in the battle. I won the battle and as soon as I started to return to the campaign map, I was thrown out of the game. Those are the only two bad game experiences [knock on wood] that I've had. Except for some minor glitches I've noticed - like the game quotes referring to Publius Syrus as Publilius Syrus - I don't have any particular complaints. It's hard to develop software this complex without any glitches showing up. I'm a computer programmer, so I should know.

On sewers and public works, when I was first learning the ropes in RTW, I discounted the value of public works in my building itinerary. But public order issues are of prime importance in my campaigns now. One city that has constantly been a thorn in my side regardless of which faction I take [mind you, I haven't tried Spain or Gaul yet] is Corduba. Public works has to be a constant priority there, and I usually am required to post some general there who has a few laurel leaves on his influence bar just to keep the mob happy. I hate the idea of having to withdraw from a city, reconquer and then exterminate to regain public order. To me that's not strictly historical behavior.

""I should not please to be king, if I must therefore be pleased to be cruel."
-- Publius Syrus :)

Just looking at some of the advertisments for Alexander, the Persians seem to have some varied and very interesting units. Sorry you can't take them as a faction. Reading some other posts on the new game I got the impression that Alexander's army definitely has some vulnerabilities.

Post more when you can.





I noticed from your id that you're from Tennessee. Is the Guild predominately UK'ers? Are we US players a minority? Again, just curious.

[SkyElf]

RTW no BI with the 1.3 and 1.5 patch installed and play it daily. Today I purchased and downloaded the Alexander expansion but after unpacking the installation archive I get an error message: "No prior installation of rome total war was found. Setup will now terminate."

RTW is located at C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War on my hard drive. Any ideas as to what could be the problem?

I had relocated some files after a hard disc recovery and so I'm guessing my registry wasn't correct so I made a fresh install from RTW to 1.3, 1.3 to 1.5 and then the Alexander Expansion and it solved the problem.

The game Uninstall did not work for me either!

You need Barbarian Invasion and the !.6 update to install. I started fresh install did a major registry removal then game with a MOD to start fresh, then Rome Total War update 1.2(don't need to install other patches (1.3 and 1.5) Barbarian Invasion and the !.6 update for that game. There is a total direction posted some were I have it some were if you need URL!

[SkyElf]

I just installed the game finally yesterday! Had surgery to right hand today so it's a little hard left handed. They indicated the game was mod able took a look at save game file and it looks Greek to me! My one thought so far was that Alexander is a little cash strapped, and you don't have the capability to build any horse espcial Companions or phalangists/pezetaeri at Pella. King Philip had conquered gold and silver mines in area West of Macadonia at Amphipolis and Philippi which is not shown in game! He used this mines to build and pay for Macedonian Regular Army, plus Cretan Archers, Slingers, only the Agrianian Javelmen Units are build able at Sparta! Were is the Macedonian seige train which carried main parts in baggage train. Alexander is know for his great use of seige warfare in History! Now the missile troops were not in such large numbers as the Persians, but Alexander did have some at the start of Campaign. I was wondering if any Moders have bought and checked out if game is mod able yet? I would like to see more cash at start or the capability to build main units at Pella, Companions, Phalanx, etc. The one Greek city Sparta is a major cash drain to your economy. Note Sparta never did join the Hellenic League at all. The rest of Greece supplied money troops, ships which he later disbanded because it could not contest the seas with Persian naval units. After he took all the coastal cities and captured Persian treasury after 1st main battle with Darius money problem got better. Alexander did not go around in slaving every city population to keep war going finacialy! The Greeks in Asia Minor to the most part supported Alexander to the most part. I could go on but I'm tried. Alexander the Great History Nut by the way!

[Guyus Germanicus]

Thanks for the background material in your post, SkyElf, on Alexander. I've read Arrian and Plutarch, but little else. (history major in college) I should probably get a more current bio. Would love a suggestion if you have a recommendation.

In RTW you can mod your starting cash "in game" by hitting the ESC key, I believe, and typing in the appropriate instruction. (I've forgotten what it is, but I've used it once, just for grins.) Thought maybe Alexander would have an "in game" mod capability since it's the same company, and it's tied to the RTW code "umbilical."

[Byzantine Emperor]

My Alexander has stopped working! When I click the shortcut it goes to a blue screen crash!

[SkyElf]

My Alexander has stopped working! When I click the shortcut it goes to a blue screen crash!

I have not seen this problem yet althought I have not been playing with my new install to long yet! But you might need to follow Wartrain instructions (Thanks Wartrain for the Instructions) to fix your problem here is the URL I talked about in a earlier post!

http://rtw.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/f...&f=3,3340,,all

It worked for me and I have backed up Rome Total War to a 1.2 install for when I'm ready to reloading others Mods that I played!

[SkyElf]

Another thought came to me is you need to install Windows Media Player the file name is version 10 at least I believe I installed the new beta 11 version: "wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu"

Here is the url: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/B...n&categoryid=4

Or you have a Video Card Issue I remmber checking out Preference File

STRATEGY_RESOLUTION:1024x768
STRATEGY_MAX_RESOLUTION:1280x960
STRATEGY_32_BIT:FALSE
BATTLE_RESOLUTION:1024x768
BATTLE_MAX_RESOLUTION:1280x960

My the Gods of War Smile Upon You!
SkyElf

[rotorgun]

Thanks, Roto. You answered several questions I had about the game. I wasn't sure that you couldn't play Persia, but you answered that one too.

You're welcome.

A Pontic faction member attacked my army with just his personal general's bodyguard and I had to fight him and the sallying garrison from inside the city. I beat both armies and as soon as I left the battle screen to return to campaign mode, the game locked up. I tried a "do-over" and it happened a second time. The second problem happened in the same kind of setting. I was early into a game with the Seleucids. I attacked the garrison in Sidon, besieging it. During the "interim" turn, two small Egyptian stacks attacked my besieging army, so I had to fight off three stacks in the battle. I won the battle and as soon as I started to return to the campaign map, I was thrown out of the game. Those are the only two bad game experiences [knock on wood] that I've had. Except for some minor glitches I've noticed - like the game quotes referring to Publius Syrus as Publilius Syrus - I don't have any particular complaints. It's hard to develop software this complex without any glitches showing up. I'm a computer programmer, so I should know.

This happened to me a few times, so I looked at my video options, and realized that I was asking a little too much of my video card. What edition of Windows are you running? I had great troubles with the game crashing when I was using Windows ME. It just doesn't have the Cache to run more than about 512 of RAM effectively. When I finally made the switch to XP I no longer had that problem. I just had to adjust my video options for optimum performance for my Radeon 128 Meg card.

I hate the idea of having to withdraw from a city, reconquer and then exterminate to regain public order. To me that's not strictly historical behavior.

I agree, but this is only a game, and therefore not a strict historical interpretation. These types of events did happen in history however, as a study of the period will reveal. The seige of Jerusalem comes to mind, and man did the Romans make that city pay! Alexander too, was known to be very unforgiving to those cities that resisted his demands for surrender. Thebes, Tyre, Gaza, are just a few settlements that experienced his wrath.

""I should not please to be king, if I must therefore be pleased to be cruel."
-- Publius Syrus :)

So those were his actual words? How tyrannical! It sounds like Marie Antionette with her "Let them eat cake" remark.

Just looking at some of the advertisments for Alexander, the Persians seem to have some varied and very interesting units. Sorry you can't take them as a faction. Reading some other posts on the new game I got the impression that Alexander's army definitely has some vulnerabilities.

Yes indeed, and an astute player could very well defeat them with the right use of those units' capabilities. As always, a hoplite army is very vulnerable to flanking, skirmishing, and attacks on the line's cohesion. The difficulty would be neutralizing the Macedonian cavalry. While they are very strong, they are not invincible. I have had some very close calls when engaging superior numbers of Persian cavalry supported by their spearmen. One they are defeated, and they must be quickly so, than the Phalanx is too slow to react to the fastmoving Persians.

I noticed from your id that you're from Tennessee. Is the Guild predominately UK'ers? Are we US players a minority? Again, just curious.

I not sure if they predominate, but CA is a UK based company, and so there are many who hail from there. It is truly an international organization, as one can see by perusing the posts. I would maybe direct this question to one of our gracious moderators, who are ever helpful in answering our many posers.
That they do this of their own free time is much appreciated by all.

Well, I hope that we may continue our conversation soon. I have enjoyed your questions. You remind me of my good freind Seamus Fermanagh, who always manages to spark my limited intelect.

Until another time.

[Guyus Germanicus]

What edition of Windows are you running? I had great troubles with the game crashing when I was using Windows ME. It just doesn't have the Cache to run more than about 512 of RAM effectively. When I finally made the switch to XP I no longer had that problem. I just had to adjust my video options for optimum performance for my Radeon 128 Meg card.

Concerning my occasional computer problem, so far I have discounted it as being a problem with my PC. But I could be wrong. I purchased my Dell w/Windows/XP Media Center just a couple months before I bought RTW. I have 1G of Ram, and I kicked up my virtual storage memory to 2G. Never can tell, though. I may need to tweak something.

It might be fun one of these days to have members of the Guild hold some kind of "live" get-together or seminar. Probably a pipe dream. Maybe even dangerous. Some of us would have to travel a great distance. But I would love to watch some of these serious veterans play the game and learn from their techniques.

I can't imagine trying to help manage a website and hold down a day job at the same time, let alone still have time to play RTW. So I'm impressed that our moderators show so much dedication to the Guild.

I want to purchase Alexander when it comes out in the Eras package. I don't mind having an extra copy of RTW in cd form, since I expect I will wear out my current CD from "sword arm" overuse.

Your friend Seamus is one whose posts I pay particular attention to.

I like the UK flavor of the Guild and its membership. But I have enjoyed some recent posts from folks in Spain and Portugal. Some young guy, STW, from Spain posted a screen print of his Egyptian occupation of Greece and the money amounts he was producing in the Greek cities were just awesome. A 6000+ amount from Athens!! I don't think I would have believed it if I hadn't seen his screen shot. I have topped 4000+ just once out of Athens but nothing close to what this guy was getting.

See you around.
Best wishes,
Guyus

[BlueRobin]

A guide to the Historical Battles in Rome: Alexander.

Note: all notes from memory, probably got the enemies wrong for each battle and certainly can't remember unit names.

Enjoy :)

Battle of Cheronea

Take charge of Alexander and his cavalry. You are up against the Greek's right wing and their pink yet tough brigade of Sacred Band.
First of all, yet they have point sticks and yes you are going to have to charge your cavalry into them. Yes it is going to be messy!

I did try exploiting the gaps that open up in their advance but this doesn't quite work for me, especially when charging in wedges to further break the line.

Charge your front row of cav at the opposing infantry. Leave Alex where he is for now. Back the front row up with the back row, pref in the flank and rear if you can find the right gap. The centre row of Greek infantry will veer to one side to support your charge. This is the gap you shoudl get Alex through and support from their enemy's rear. Charge and disengage Alex (as highlighted above). I did this a bit with my other cav but tended to give Alex priority.

I ended up with four cav units of about 5-10 men a piece, with Alex down by about 40%.

You now need to support Phillip. I went after the Missile units harrassing the lines but disengaged. Go after the enemy general! Then whilst getting rid of those pesky missiles once oand for all, keep an eye on what Phillip is doing and support his support. Those Greek hoplites will have the upper hand over your Macedonian forces if you don't sort them out. Don't risk head-to-heads, always flank but never so in a tight, messy spot where their rear is not clear or supporting hoplites can come in. Better still hoplites on the move are easier to charge in the side and rear.

Granicus

A river battle. Yuck! The opposing Persians have arguably better and more useful units; heavy cav (Bactrians), missile cav, phalanx and missile infantry. You have heavy phalanx, lighter spears, one light cav, one heavy cav, Alex, one creeeetian archer and two javelins. The Persians won't cross the river so you will have to.

Okay head-to-head you will lose! Not onyl are you down on superior forces, the enemy when nearing their bank will step out and kill you all. The crossing defaults to column formation you see so things are excerbated.

How did I do it? Firstly I counted on the fact that some of their units would follow me back across the river if I attempted a crossing. I used my most armoured Cav unit in a loose formation at each crossing point and upon crossing just the point of the enemy's bank, the opposing front line cav came to meet me. A speedy 180 to my troops and yes the unit followed all the way up the hill to my phalanx. I ah-thankyou and goodnight (silly exploit). They lost some heavy Bactrian cav, which would seriously otherwise hinder your advance over the other river bank.

I then attempted to get my heavy phalanx infantry across the river. This failed. However this did have a good indirect advantage - the enemy repositioned their infantry fruther back up the bank and in a standard line formation. I was able to get Alex around their right flank (your left crossing point) because thier infantry is slow. Went after the remaining cavalary (mostly missile units), the generalissimo and you have have the odd heavy cav remaining. Get your heavy cav across; here I think I went over on the other flank. Have both of these units (Alex and your heavycav) support each other and you should then have a bunch of of phalanx units left over.

Alex is like a magnet for some of these pikey (hehe) phalanx so just walk about and have them follow you. Their flanks are exposed, their general dead or gone, they are tired and demoralised. You can take them on if you wish.

Run past them in the opposite direction to which they are heading, turn around and cut across into their rear. As above, never do so in a tight-messy spot where their rear is not properly defined or supporting enemy phalanx can assist. Routing is further speeded up if you use your backup cavalry.

Note: your lighter cavalry unit can be bought into assist. Whilst harrying the enemy, get your remaining infantry who will not be unmolested by your actions.

From here, you be able to rout the pikeys one by one. Job done.

Halicarnassus

This is a standard siege battle against stone walls. You have one siege tower with a ladder ready each side. Some enemy units will be on the walls. On your left and centre mainly archers, with very long-range and surprisingly accurate hot arrows (mardians?). Worse than Cretians imho. On your right guarding the gatehouse a couple of sickle-armed units, then a gap than an archer unit at the further most right. They enemy have further infantry in the town itself (more anon).

You will notice that the towers on the wall are less frequent. However their archers more than make up for their absence. Your left most ladder if engaging the left wall will get totally shot up; its a useless cause trying. However this may take some of the archer firepower away from the siege tower, which I engaged to the left of the gatehouse. The right ladder should be largely unmolested. Your should prioritise heavy units here to take on their infantry. However get the odd heavy up the siege to reinforce then flank.

NOTE!!! The enemy will sally their cavalry. This caight me out so you may have to advance your infantry in a line toward the walls to fight them off. our only cav unit is Alex but he should be used judiciously to help. The enemy general also sallies so get Alex after him!

I got a reduced infantry force down by about 50% at the end of claiming the walls, however the enemy really only had about 5-6 phalanx units left and two of those horrible archer units. Using caution and skill in the face of numerically better forces it was close but I overcame. You can advance either side of the government building to the settlement's centre square.

Issus (not yet won my this Robin)

Another river battle. However here it seems you may be able to cross at any point along your battle line. You are outnumbered, outgunned and your retreat cornered. However Darius the King of Perisa is leading the enemy this time due to your successes and Alex doesn't want to pass up this opportunity to get Darius.

The Issus Question then. How to win may be gleaned by listening to Brian's battlefield introduction and from history, be that the battle itself or from Time Commanders when killing a certain someone seemed like a good plan...

If you look at the battle on wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...s_%28333_BC%29) you will see that that Alex went after Darius himself, who fled the field and left the Persians in full rout. Killing the head of the Persian empire may just be enough for the superior enemy forces to go yellow.

Let me know eh?

[BlueRobin]

Could I be cheeky and ask that all the above non-strategy discussion be moved off this strategy guide thread please?

Sorry

[BlueRobin]

Battle of Issus

Thanks to faisal with whom I had an offboard chat via PM. Time to goad Darius.

Another river battle. However here it seems you may be able to cross at any point along your battle line. You are outnumbered, outgunned and your retreat cornered. However Darius the King of Perisa is leading the enemy this time due to your successes and Alex doesn't want to pass up this opportunity to get Darius.

First things first. There are three peltasts units on your side of the river and to your right. Send Alex and the adjoining cav oafter them, then come back.

This time you cannot feint retreat back across the water or thos earchers will mow you down. The key is getting to Darius. A risk strategy but one that works and is close to the history books. Get Alex over the crossing at the right most side. Wheel right and head up the hill to the woods. You will prbably have some archer follow you. Take them out.

This seems to set off a script action where as actually happened Darious sends his right flank across the water. Lots of horrible Bactrian heavy cav. You may wish to redeploy some phalanx toward the left flank or you will be flanked. Bring over any spare cav to help out.

With the above ensuing, Alex can chase down soem more enemy light infantry. About now with the Bactrians in flight, Darius commits everything to a river crossing. Fortunately his phalanx are in slight disarray so you will scrape through by the skin of your teeth here. (Note even if your (phalangist) phalanx is decimated, the long pikeys they have make excellent poke-him-in-the-side weapons). I got my archers to rain fire down on Darius mid-stream. Didn't seem to have much effect (but worth having a go). Mid-stream, get Alex to the centre on the emeny bank then go after Darius. Darius then hot-tailed it by doing 180 back to where he came from and commenced skirmishing. Eventually Darius got himself in the corner of the map and I killed him. Okay so he escaped in real-life :)

You now need to deal with the rest of the infantry who will be tired and demorialised. As abive, careful application of your dimished forces will rue the day.

Next, the Battle of Gaugamela.