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Review of The Great Battles Of Alexander: Macedonian Art of War - Expanded Deluxe Edition
Blurb from the publisher: 'Introducing the updated, expanded, full-color enhanced version of the best-selling, multi-award winning game system that started the classic Great Battles of History Series, the Great Battles of Alexander includes new updated game counters, new revised mapsheets, new game packaging and the battles and scenarios covering the major battles from the original First Edition game and the Juggernaut Module, plus five additional battles - that’s ten great battles all in all. This is virtually the complete military history of Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Art of War in one game package.'
What you get: Your USD 99 or equivalent will buy you The Great Battles Of Alexander: Macedonian Art of War - Expanded Deluxe Edition (henceforth GBoA), a one to four-player game of ancient warfare of medium/high complexity that lasts around 20 minutes per game turn. The game was published for the first time in 1995, under somehow different rules and format. Its latest printing in 2014 (the Deluxe Fifth Edition) saw the integration in the same box of the Diadochoi (2nd edition) and Phalanx (2nd edition) expansions which were initially sold separately, as well as the tightening of some of the Fourth Edition Rules. This explains the ‘Expanded Deluxe Edition’ moniker on the box. The nineteen battles the game currently includes are Erigon Valley (358 BC), Crocus Fields (352 BC), Chaeronea (338 BC), Lyginus (335 BC), Pelium (355 BC), Granicus (334 BC), Issus (333 BC), Gaugamela (331 BC), Crossing the Jaxartes (329 BC), Samarkand (329/328 BC), Arigaeum (327 BC) and Hydaspes (326 BC) from the scenario book, Sellasia (221 BC) and Mantinea (207 BC) from the Phalanx module, Paraetacene (317 BC), Gabiene (316 BC), Gaza (312 BC) and Ipsus (301 BC) from the Diadochoi module and Raphia (217 BC) from the eponymous module.
The present review is based on playtesting the present (fifth) edition, even though I have logged in quite the hours with the 2003 Deluxe Fourth Edition plus its then separate expansions (Diadochoi 2nd ed. and Phalanx 2nd ed.).
In addition to the 44-page rulebook which can be also downloaded from the company's website free of charge, the game contains the following: a scenario book, 3 back printed map sheets, 3 counter sheets with 840 counters total, 4 Player Aid cards, one Turn Record Card (Rout Point Tracking Card), one ten-sided die, and a bundle of plastic storage cards. It also contains the booklet and 280-counter sheet of Diadochoi, the booklet, 130 counter sheet and map sheet of Phalanx, the booklet and 140 counter sheet of Raphia, as well as the Tyrant module update sheet. It is reminded that Tyrant, a module not contained in this boxed set, relates to twelve battles of Carthage vs Syracuse.
Gameplay: The Great Battles of Alexander is what some would call an old-school wargame that follows historical sources closely and borders on simulationism. In contrast to the block-based Command and Colors: Ancients and the miniatures-based Hail Caesar: Conquest of Gaul, GBoA is counter-based. Its scale is 150-200 infantry men or 100 cavalry per unit size, with each turn cover (loosely) twenty minutes of real time, while each hexagon stands for just over 60 meters. There are three types of counters: units, leaders, and information markers. Units can be square or rectangular, depending on their size. Each has an identifier for a number of capabilities, namely their Size, Troop Quality, and Movement. Some units also have Missile Indicators depending on the type of missiles they throw (javelins, arrows, stones or bolts). Each unit has two identical sides; the second is used to indicate that the unit has moved. There are all sorts of units that one would expect to find in ancient warfare, like Hoplites, Heavy Infantry, Phalanxes, Hypaspists, Skirmishers, Javelinists, Archers, Lancers and so on and so forth. Leaders use different ratings relating to their ability to command.
The objective of the game is to make the opponent’s army withdraw at the end of a turn. There are five phases in the sequence of play. In the Leader Activation Phase the lowest Initiative Leader is activated. The Orders Phase has a Movement/Missile Segment where a unit performs one function per Individual Order given by the Leader. Leaders that have Line Command can order an entire Line of units to Move and Fire Missiles. It is in this segment that opposing units can opt for Orderly Withdrawals, Reaction Facing and/or Reaction Fire. The Shock Combat Segment on the other hand covers shock combat. There is the designation, the charge, the Leader Combat Resolution, the Clash of Spears, Shock Combat Resolution, potential Breakthroughs as well as Collapses and Routes. In Momentum Phase the player that just played uses the Leader that was just activated to gain another Orders Phase, something that the opposing player can counteract with Momentum Trump. Otherwise play continues with the next Leader with the lowest Initiative. The Rout and Reload phase is an administrative phase that sees the rallied markers removed, Rout Movement being forced on routed units, Missile units getting more missiles (reloading) and all moved Units and finished Leaders getting back to their front sides. The last phase is the Withdrawal phase. Each player totals the Rout points of all eliminated combat units and leaders to see if his army has reached its Withdrawal Level. If neither army withdraws, another game turn begins.
A Leader will have ratings on his Command Range, whether he is an Elite Commander (usurping the standard Initiative-based Orders phase), Initiative, Line Commander capabilities, Contingent Commander Capabilities, Strategy Ratings (if subordinate Leaders can issue line commands on their own), Personal Combat, Charisma (adjusting Shock combat) and a Movement Allowance. The core of the game are the Leaders’ Individual Orders and Line Commands. The first can be given to units that have a clear line of sight to the Leader through unobstructed terrain (no enemy units, no terrain that cannot be crossed by the Leader), and in a distance up to the Leader’s Command Range. The Leader can issue as many orders as his Initiative. The second can be given to overall ‘lines’, as dictated by the game scenario. There are quite the rules and exceptions depending on the actual unit; for example infantry and elephants follow slightly different rules than the cavalry and chariot units when in a line. Distinctions also exist about whether an Overall Commander (the guy that commands the whole army) or a Subordinate Commander can give the orders and how.
Orders allow a unit to move (and fire, if a missile unit), missile fire without movement, remove Cohesion Hits from a unit, attempt to Rally a friendly routed unit, or activate a Macedonian Contingent commander (if you play the Macedonians). Line Commands on the other hand allow the whole (or part) of the line to move (and potentially fire), or missile fire without moving.
Excessive movement and combat accumulate Cohesion Hits on units which are applied, some times automatically and some times after a die roll, against the unit’s Troop Quality rating. Cohesion Hits do not reduce the strength or fighting capabilities of a unit; they only show how close the unit is to deteriorating (being routed). Routed units either get eliminated, start moving the fastest possible towards their retreat edge, or Rampage (elephants only).
It’d be pointless for me to explain the full 44-page game here. What one can expect however are all sorts of things like Momentum, the Macedonians trumping that momentum, terrain considerations, rules for moving two-hex units, drifting, column movement, zones of control, stacking, facing, harassment, shock combat, special units (like War Elephants, Chariots and Cataphracted Cavalry) etc.
The strong points: It doesn’t matter whether one begun from C&C: Ancients, from Julius Caesar or from another light game of ancient battles. It has all been a preparation for this. Abstraction and game-related thinking is practically over. You cannot eliminate everything, you only try to break your opponent. Units behave as expected, without undue advantages or rule glitches. Your whole army will fight, not only a fraction of it (a common problem in C&C: Ancients). There are no turns as you know them, there are leaders playing in a particular order. Keeping the line is a matter of life and death; idem for protecting your flanks, it should be your mantra. Leaders should be well protected and near the units you want them to control. Attacking first and thinking it out later patently does not work. Positioning and terrain matter, yet many battles are rather sparse on cover due to having been historically fought in plains. In contrast to games made famous by Columbia Games, there is no fog of war whatsoever. Within the internal reasoning of GBoA, this makes sense. You lead an army from the point that the battlefield has been chosen and the lines of the combatants are set. Your opponent, standing one to two kilometres away from you, is as visible as he can be.
In short, this is the game for the patient enthusiast; for the guy that will read the rulebook slowly, that will familiarize himself with the units, and who will run solo mock ups to try things out. That last part is of particular importance; the game is high on solitaire suitability and I do recommend you try things out on your own in order to better grasp the rules and context.
Those like me that have enjoyed previous iterations of the game are simultaneously in an advantageous and disadvantageous position. The first, because the vast majority of the rules have been retained and you don’t have new concepts to learn. The second, because sometimes it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and you might find yourself defaulting on the previous, inferior, iteration of the rules. The Fifth Edition is clearly an improvement. The rulebook is 50% longer, not because it became more byzantine, but because many things have been clarified and numerous examples of play have been inserted. It is also partially coloured, making it easier to distinguish chapters and sub-chapters in the heat of the battle. Designer notes are interspersed throughout the text, giving an insight on what the practical considerations of the rule was or why it was felt that the rule was needed. An example of an obvious improvement is that Light Infantry, Archers and Light Cavalry have been stripped from their ability of performing Shock combat. Not only it is historically accurate, it appears to have solved some weird game situations were many of us had experienced in its previous iteration (me included), without however giving it further thought. I can’t state enough that units have particular strengths and weaknesses, in the same way units in a RTS computer game like Starcraft do. Use them in the wrong way and you will invariably see them burn.
We are all aware of GMT Games’ business model, where games receive the print runs the company believes it can safely move without getting into financial trouble, and get reprinted according to demand. This has served GMT well, and so did its customers, for many wargaming companies kicked the bucket by not behaving prudently. There was always this exception whatsoever: expansions for its games were really hard to find. Once they were out one would have to purchase fast, otherwise he run the danger of waiting for years before seeing the expansions reprinted again. This has happened to me in the past not only in GBoA but in a few other cases as well. The current edition of GBoA solves this problem for ever. It includes both the Diadochoi (2nd ed.) and Phalanx (2nd ed.) expansions, which were not the easiest to find. As a boon to old buyers, these two expansions can also be purchased separately for those who owned the Fourth Edition and did not see a need to upgrade. A classy move, to say the least.
Seeing how you have 19 battles at your disposal, replayability goes through the roof. Everybody has favourite battles depending on the setup and time he has at his disposal. It also answers the question about the game being pricey or not. Abstractly speaking, USD 99 is a lot of money. The amount of fun that you can potentially take out of it however beats any other entertainment medium.
The game is not exactly easy, once however you know it and you have someone who is interested in this sort of involved gaming, it is really not hard to teach. Concepts make sense and the rules are clear (clearer than any other time in any case). Unit exceptions are kind of time-consuming, yet you don't need everything from the first game. If you start from the easier scenarios that involve small forces and practically no terrain, you will have nothing to worry about.
The components of GBoA are of a very high quality. Some might lament the lack of a mounted board, it is however not expressedly needed. The high-quality box is very sturdy, while the resealable bags will come in handy in order to properly distinguish and distribute the tokens that you need for each game. Needless to say, including resealable bags in the contents shows class and respect for the customer. I wish this was standard practice for all publishers.
If one wishes to look beyond the military beginnings of the Hellinistic period, GBoA is part of the Great Battles of History (GBoH), a series that includes some fifteen games covering all sorts of ancient warfare, from Europe to Asia. Titles include Chariots of Fire, SPQR, Caesar, Conquest of Gaul, Cataphract, War Galley, Devil’s Horsemen, Samurai etc. Unfortunately, not all of them are always in print. Owing one does not mean that the rules apply as written to any other game. Those on the other hand that find GBoA too complicated, can give it a go with the Simple GBoH package. This uses the same components as the present product, while simplifying and abstracting the rules.
The weak points: GBoA is not a game for everybody, and I am not taking only about the grognards who dig engrossing wargames but don’t care about battles of the ancient era. There is this smirk when you reach the part of the rulebook that reads ‘GBoA, while not an overly difficult game to learn or understand, uses a tactical system which rewards those who know what their men can do and how to exploit the capabilities of even the worst of them’. Talk about understatement! Indeed, learning GBoA is not four years in law school, yet the amount of rules is high for the vast majority of contemporary gamers; especially now that gaming is mainstream and rules are expected to be simpler. You need to devote time to this, plain and simple. It is under no circumstances plug and play, let’s-set-up-and-see-what-happens. You will have to find opponents as dedicated as you are, who are willing to download and read the rulebook multiple times to the point of assimilation, before tentatively running your first easy battles. You won’t be able to just barge into whichever battle you want, mind you. There are patently easier battles that the game recommends for your first few plays. You are bound to make mistakes, to forget rules, and even to interpret them wrong at times. Even like this however, the dedication and time investment is worth it. It all depends on whether the experience interests you and whether you can afford to take the first steps.
Your initial games will tilt heavy towards the Macedonian side. Do not give up! The game is not outright broken, in its effort to simulate what went on however it might not be 100% balanced. There are many ways to rectify this (if you feel it needs rectifying), and the scenario book suggests a few of them. It also clearly shows that the Macedonians are more easy to understand and play than their opponents, having had a huge technological superiority in real life after all. Their opponents are a lot more nuanced; you will need particular tactics in order to create feints, break the Macedonian lines and ultimately lead your side to victory. GBoA is a game as much as it is a simulation; each side can win because of its strengths and by exploiting its opponent’s weaknesses, not because units are identical on a one-on-one basis. It’s highly asymmetrical, and in some cases it might slightly pick favourites, in order not to lose the simulationist view on history. Deal with this as you like; I enjoy it strongly.
Aesthetically speaking, and even though you will have no problem playing, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that GBoA is state of the art. It might be the token design, or the sheer existence of the tokens themselves which bring forth the old-school feel and make the game feel fiddly at times. Your mileage may vary.
Big table: check. Dedicated table (in case you cannot finish in one evening): potential check. Wargames tend to need space, irrespective of the material they are using.
Conclusion: The Great Battles of Alexander is a great game irrespective of edition. The Expanded Deluxe Edition however is its finest iteration when it comes to completeness, rules and material. For real, engaging battles in the ancient era with the legitimacy that the extra complexity provides, this is a must.
For more info on The Great Battles Of Alexander: Macedonian Art of War - Expanded Deluxe Edition and GMT Games take a look at http://www.gmtgames.com.
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