Command Magazine Alexandros - Play Test (1) The Battle of Granicus and the Campaign System

The hand of Alexander reaches across the game board and Persians tremble - they thought the Anthenians and Spartans were trouble, he is about to rewrite the history books. Alexander lands with the Macedonian Army in Ionia and immediately faces the Greek General Memnon who in charge of the Persian Army at Granicus (although in history Memnon was forced to fight Granicus by his Persian Overlords - his suggested strategy was that of "scorched earth" and retirement into the depths of the Persian Empire, but he was overruled by the Satraps had too much [possessions and income] to lose). So Alexandros has a "special turn one" tactical game (see below, Granicus was fought with a a tactical system almost a pre-cursor to Phil Sabin's Lost Battles - though without the nuanced detail):

Alexander does far better than history as the troublesome Memnon is captured early on causing an "Army Rout" (see below, Memnon's fate can be left to the readers imagination - I don't think it would have been a pleasant one though, a Greek fighting for the Persians, historically I think he was wounded but annoyingly for Alexander lived to fight another day, many a day in fact and was a constant thorn in Alexander's side):

Memnon is replaced with a "zero value" Persian  leader ... and the army scatters into two adjacent provinces [actually I got this wrong as you need a leader to move troops so they would have all gone to one province]. The Macedonians invest Sardis and the Satrap throws open the gates as opposed to resist the siege [advanced riule]. The conquest of Persia has started (see below, Alexander presses on to cut the Gordian knot Halicarnassus falls to Parmerio):

The Persian army retreats and Alexander leads his Macedonians all the way round to Lydia, killing the remaining Persians and having his revelation at Ammon he is the "King of all Men" (see below, no Persians in sight .. they are all gathering around Darius in Babylon):

Darius is waiting in Babylon - be not fooled by the absence of a stack of troops as they are "off to the side" (see below, rather than build up defences Daruis elects to spend all his reinforcement points on the Royal Persian Army):

The turn track shows that Alexander has gotten off to a speedy start. His "coastal strategy" has picked up areas adjacent to the sea hexes but that means there are a lot of interior Persia held provinces which feed Darius with reinforcements for his army. Alexander by this time has fought two large battles - the initial Granicus [as historical] and [a smaller than the historical Issus encounter] one in Lydia (see below, we are less than a quarter of the way through the whole campaign):

The Macedonian has to leave a chain of garrisons [of at least one step] to conquer the area in the name of Alexander (see below, each garrison is one less step in the Alexandrian Army):

Again the newly conquered Egyptian lands must also be garrisoned. This time Alexander uses local (Persian) levies from his reinforcement points to rule in his name. Many a Macedonian grumbles at this but they understand and prefer to have extra Macedonian troops to face Darius in battle (see below, if a counter is one step and has different colours on reversed sides it can be used by either player - first come first served [blue for Macedonian and sand/yellow for Persia]):

The two armies move adjacent to each other. The Persians decide to take the initiative and attack - this means combat resolution on the tactical battle display (see below, note a white counter is a "depleted province" marker which means large armies would role for attrition id they stay in it):

Next: This is set up for The Battle Of Gaugamela (or Arbela) to be played