Version 2 -- I've added the great comments by Whitedragon. I apologize if I have misstated Whitedragon's points.
We had a recent thread asking if anyone plays the Warlords scenarios.
I've enjoyed the Alexander Scenario. I've played it six times now, twice on Monarch and 4 times on Emperor. I think Whitedragon has won on very high levels.
Disclaimer: I'm not a great player. I'm a monarch player breaking into Emperor in the regular game. These are the ideas that worked for me, although I'm sure there are things I am missing.
Who should play this scenario and how hard is it?
Alexander is a solitaire scenario. Although perhaps we view all games against the AI as 'solitaire', Alexander is different. If we play a 'normal' Civ IV game, we all start with roughly equivalent positions perhaps with some level-related handicap. Alexander, though, is a 'real' solitaire game, in which all of the actions and choices are dictated by the player.
I recommend the scenario to first time players of warlords or even Civ IV. Many of the complex mechanics of 'normal' civ are easier here. For instance, building for the present vs. future isn't an issue, there is pretty much only the present. Diplomacy is practically non-existent. Building choices are pretty easy.
Much of the skill is in logistics and building a combined arms attack force. Its good at teaching how to take out cities and what kind of army to build. The game is good for teaching how high experience point units fare; you get a lot of 'my swordsman has three upgrades and attacks the archer in the city with two upgrades on the hill.' Playing this scenario helps players evaluate their military abilities. Negotiating the tech tree is also important.
For a challenge, I recommend playing on at least one, probably two levels above your normal skill point. Obviously, the first time will be harder.
Overall: This is a scenario that snowballs. You can crush the opposition easily, or you can fall behind and get into trouble. The reason for snowball outcomes is that you need a lot of troops, need to take a lot of cities, and don't have a strong economy. You start with 2 palaces (Athens and Pella) and some cities have gold, but your army is large. Therefore, you need to finance yourself by the plunder from taking cities.
Financing from plunder is the central aspect of the snowballing; if your army stalls, it won't get plunder, and you will have to produce gold in cities to finance the existing army, which keeps you from getting more troops. However, if you take cities, they give gold to keep the army going, and provide another city to build more troops ......
Moreover, your cities will suffer from war weariness, which enhances snowballing. If you stall, compounding your other problems will be a rising war weariness. There are very few techniques for battling it, you pretty much have to slavery build. So, snowballing is enhanced.
Strategy
The main theme is: Go East! Remember this rule and you will win. If you have to go another direction, hold there on defense, and let your reinforcements take the city. Keep that main army going east!
On the first turn, you start with Alexander and a bunch of troops. I like to join Alex with a swordsman – you will be attacking a lot of cities, the swordsman is probably the best all-around city attacker. As you get other warlords, put them in the other types, hypaspists and phalanxes and then companion cavalry.
The first few turns can be hard, the Persians do have troops in Anatolia and can be tough if they get to Sardis since you don’t have catapults. The Persians can go into Greece. The key is to take Sardis as soon as possible. Don’t wait for catapults, take it. Then, the Persians will fight you in the open and you can slaughter them with your superior experience.
Halicarnassus is to the south – bypass it, go East. However, this is a key city because of the Mausoleum. The Mausoleum will allow you to get two culture/specialist. Therefore, once Halicarnassus is taken, you can get to 10 culture (usually desired) simply by using a specialist, which you will usually want anyway. But, as I said, that’s for reinforcements.
I got into trouble my first game form overconfidence. I messed up the next key decision. When you exit Anatolia (Turkey) you run into the Middle East, with the three cities of Sidon, Tyre and Damascus. But taking Tyre will put you in contact with Egypt.
Flush with success, I originally split my army, sent half to Egypt and half East. And I got hurt. Egypt has more ‘free’ troops than Persian shows, and has some real tough elephants. When I went after Gaza, my army got killed.
My second game, I was ready. First trick: CUT THE ROAD TO EGYPT when you take Damascus. This is real important – Egypt has no ivory or metals. Cut the road and they are a lot weaker.
My suggestion is to sit on the defense in Tyre and allow the Egyptians to come to you, with the main army heading East toward Mesopotamia and Iran. The best defenders are mostly Phalanxes, have about 4 or 5 of them (depending on level). They are great against the elephants. Again, have reinforcements add to the army in Tyre. Note that it will cost less also having the army in your territory.
In my second game, the Egyptians did throw themselves against me and lost. But the key here is to be patient. Once the ‘free’ army is gone, Egypt isn’t so big like Persia, your reinforcements can take it. Memphis is a great prize (because of the Pyramids), but again, be patient. Reinforcements can get to Tyre a lot faster than they get to Persepolis, you don’t get extra points for taking Egypt fast.
You cut the road, didn’t you? Now, once the main Egyptian army is defeated, they can build only catapults and archers. So have lots of companion cavalry and city raiding swordsman (along with the ever-needed catapults) and Egypt will fall.
To be honest, once you have defeated the free Egyptian army, assuming the main army hasn’t stalled, you have won the game. Your main army should be close to Babylon. By now, you want to have the Army Servants tech (see tech below). Then, Persia is broken. Winning is now largely a matter of taking out the other Persian cities. When you get to India, you have the same issue as Egypt, although you don’t start at war. The Indians are pretty tough, but they aren’t that big. Set-up and smash them. The second Indian faction comes last. However, at this point your army is full of 15+ experience units and victory is easy.
Tech
For this scenario, the key to winning is understanding the tech tree. There are two ‘holy grail’ techs at the end of the tree. The most important is Army Servants. This tech allows you to move an extra ‘gasp’ 4 on the road. The hardest part of the game is getting those walking troops from Greece to the middle of Persia. This tech practically doubles your speed. After that, you get cultural assimilation, which allows you use enemy roads. These are the two techs that lead to victory, since the game is largely a logistical issue of getting your troops throughout Persia in time.
However, I don’t recommend ‘bee lining’ for them, since there are a lot of great cheap techs that you need first. Earlier in the game, with closer distances, take the cheaper techs.
My Tech order is:
Military Sergeants – This allows Medic 1. I take this first since you will have losses at Sardis, and you need the army to move. Get a medic!
Battlefield Siege – a must. This allows you to get catapults. Once you get this tech, build lots of them. You can’t the cities without them.
Barbarian assimilation – This is an amazing tech. It allows a barbarian barracks. A barbarian barracks is cheap and it gives a FREE city raider promotion for every unit built in the city! WOW! You will build this in every city except your archer cities (Athens).
Concealment – this allows cover. The Persians have lots of archers defending cities, you want this.
Wedge assault – This allows shock. Need I say more?
Now comes the hard part. You can get Barbarian Assimilation 2 and three, allowing greater city attack upgrades. I do like them. Military Surgeons II is also good, allowing greater healing ability.
Then, you should build toward the two game breakers, Army Servants and Cultural Assimilation. I start with Constant Drilling 1 and II. One allows Spartan barracks, which isn’t great. Spartan Barracks allow a free woodsman, which isn’t that useful.
Next is Horse breeding, a great tech! This allows the Macedonian barracks, which gives experience points towards archers (like stables in the main game). After horse breeding II, you get Army Sergeants and then Cultural Assimilation. Your army should roll!
Fill in the other Techs next.
Whitedragon's Tech Order -- Barbarian Assimilation 1, Battlefield Siege, Military Sergeants, then Barbarian Assimilation 2 and 3. then he goes for Horse Breeding, and on to Army Servants and Cultural assimilation.
If you compare Whitedragon's with mine, it looks like we have pretty much the same idea but different order. White likes to get the best for attacking the cities right away. Try them!
Building
It’s important to specialize cities, but for troop types. Every city should get a regular barracks. Every city besides your city building archers and eventually companion cavalry should build a barbarian barracks for free city raider.
I probably build about 1/3 catapults, maybe less as the game goes on. Of the remaining troops, its good to spread out among hypaspists, swordsman, and phalanxes, along with companion cavalry which are great against troops in the open. Podromoi can be very nice – they come with visibility, so include one in every major stack. I leave an archer in every city I take. Since Athens starts with an Athenian Barracks (free archer upgrades), I usually build archers in Athens, and in one other city I take.
Whitedragon recommends 30% or more phalanxes, since they are real good and Persia builds a lot of immortals.
So, you have Athens and maybe one other Archer city, with Athenian barracks. You have a Macedonian barracks in some cities and build companion cavalry. All other cities have barbarian barracks. ALL cities get a regular barracks.
As I said, use a specialist in every captured city once Halicarnassus is taken, until you get 10 culture points and expand.
Slavery and unhappiness – you get very few luxuries in this game, and you will suffer war weariness. I often slavery build the expensive buildings. Markets can be especially important, since you run at mostly gold.
Whitedragon recommends whipping troops up early and using slavary on the cities with excess, but you do get some good production cities later.
Great Men
Specialists are really good in this game. Why? Your cottages don’t have a lot of time to develop. Unfortunately, you have precious little grassland until very late in the game, so your bonus resource cities (like Athens) become your specialist camps.
You can’t build wonders (there is a bug with the Great Library), all other wonders start on the board. Academies can be nice, especially in Athens. However, since money is so tight, I usually will get a lot of merchants. Settle great merchants. I especially like to settle great merchants at Pella, which otherwise has a food problem sticking it at 4 population. 2 great merchants with the +2 food bonus will help this city grow. Other cities face real happiness problems.
Whitedragon recommends using the great men for golden ages.
Other – Barbarians become a problem in the mid game. So you will have to defend you rear areas with a few extra troops.
Alexander's level
One of the mechanics of the scenario is that Alexander 'progresses'. The Alexander progression is on the civic screen (on the far right, replacing religious civics). The trigger is the experience point total of the unit that the Alexander warlord leader merges with. The more advanced the levels that Alexander attains, the more war weariness is reduced and the lower maintenance costs are. These benefits can be strong deterrents to the snowballing that can occur if the games goes against you.
Whitedragon and Mewtarthio have worked out the number of experience points you need to get Alexander to advance:
Alexander the Victorious: Level 6, 26 xp's
Alexander the Brave: Level 9, 65 xp's
Alexander the Amazing: Level 13, 145 XP's
Alexander the Great: Level 15, 197 XP's
It is clear that most people win the game without getting Alexander beyond level 2. Perhaps if you expect a long game (play on a very, very high level) it pays to take the increased experience point promotion for Alexander, and play for the long-run.
If Alexander dies, he comes back in 6 months but loses his extra experience points.
You can get Alexander to Victorious with your first general. My feeling is that if you are playing on a reasonably low level, you shouldn't join new Warlords to Alexander. Rather, use them to create more killer troops and try to win fast. Since I can usually win in about 100 turns on Monarch or Emperor, this is the tactic I use.
On harder levels, the game will go longer, and the corruption and war weariness are more acute. You will also have more combats and more great generals, so it may be very useful to get Alexander's level up. The hardest part is to decide how often to attack. You clearly want Alexander to hit the badly wounded guy and use attacks above 98% -- you don't want to burn a bunch of great generals and then lose him to bad luck.
Other Bugs
You can’t build the Great Library. I probably would in Athens if I could, and turn Athens into the science city. But you can’t.
You can’t work the incense near Persepolis.
I hope some of you find this useful.
Best wishes,
Breunor
We had a recent thread asking if anyone plays the Warlords scenarios.
I've enjoyed the Alexander Scenario. I've played it six times now, twice on Monarch and 4 times on Emperor. I think Whitedragon has won on very high levels.
Disclaimer: I'm not a great player. I'm a monarch player breaking into Emperor in the regular game. These are the ideas that worked for me, although I'm sure there are things I am missing.
Who should play this scenario and how hard is it?
Alexander is a solitaire scenario. Although perhaps we view all games against the AI as 'solitaire', Alexander is different. If we play a 'normal' Civ IV game, we all start with roughly equivalent positions perhaps with some level-related handicap. Alexander, though, is a 'real' solitaire game, in which all of the actions and choices are dictated by the player.
I recommend the scenario to first time players of warlords or even Civ IV. Many of the complex mechanics of 'normal' civ are easier here. For instance, building for the present vs. future isn't an issue, there is pretty much only the present. Diplomacy is practically non-existent. Building choices are pretty easy.
Much of the skill is in logistics and building a combined arms attack force. Its good at teaching how to take out cities and what kind of army to build. The game is good for teaching how high experience point units fare; you get a lot of 'my swordsman has three upgrades and attacks the archer in the city with two upgrades on the hill.' Playing this scenario helps players evaluate their military abilities. Negotiating the tech tree is also important.
For a challenge, I recommend playing on at least one, probably two levels above your normal skill point. Obviously, the first time will be harder.
Overall: This is a scenario that snowballs. You can crush the opposition easily, or you can fall behind and get into trouble. The reason for snowball outcomes is that you need a lot of troops, need to take a lot of cities, and don't have a strong economy. You start with 2 palaces (Athens and Pella) and some cities have gold, but your army is large. Therefore, you need to finance yourself by the plunder from taking cities.
Financing from plunder is the central aspect of the snowballing; if your army stalls, it won't get plunder, and you will have to produce gold in cities to finance the existing army, which keeps you from getting more troops. However, if you take cities, they give gold to keep the army going, and provide another city to build more troops ......
Moreover, your cities will suffer from war weariness, which enhances snowballing. If you stall, compounding your other problems will be a rising war weariness. There are very few techniques for battling it, you pretty much have to slavery build. So, snowballing is enhanced.
Strategy
The main theme is: Go East! Remember this rule and you will win. If you have to go another direction, hold there on defense, and let your reinforcements take the city. Keep that main army going east!
On the first turn, you start with Alexander and a bunch of troops. I like to join Alex with a swordsman – you will be attacking a lot of cities, the swordsman is probably the best all-around city attacker. As you get other warlords, put them in the other types, hypaspists and phalanxes and then companion cavalry.
The first few turns can be hard, the Persians do have troops in Anatolia and can be tough if they get to Sardis since you don’t have catapults. The Persians can go into Greece. The key is to take Sardis as soon as possible. Don’t wait for catapults, take it. Then, the Persians will fight you in the open and you can slaughter them with your superior experience.
Halicarnassus is to the south – bypass it, go East. However, this is a key city because of the Mausoleum. The Mausoleum will allow you to get two culture/specialist. Therefore, once Halicarnassus is taken, you can get to 10 culture (usually desired) simply by using a specialist, which you will usually want anyway. But, as I said, that’s for reinforcements.
I got into trouble my first game form overconfidence. I messed up the next key decision. When you exit Anatolia (Turkey) you run into the Middle East, with the three cities of Sidon, Tyre and Damascus. But taking Tyre will put you in contact with Egypt.
Flush with success, I originally split my army, sent half to Egypt and half East. And I got hurt. Egypt has more ‘free’ troops than Persian shows, and has some real tough elephants. When I went after Gaza, my army got killed.
My second game, I was ready. First trick: CUT THE ROAD TO EGYPT when you take Damascus. This is real important – Egypt has no ivory or metals. Cut the road and they are a lot weaker.
My suggestion is to sit on the defense in Tyre and allow the Egyptians to come to you, with the main army heading East toward Mesopotamia and Iran. The best defenders are mostly Phalanxes, have about 4 or 5 of them (depending on level). They are great against the elephants. Again, have reinforcements add to the army in Tyre. Note that it will cost less also having the army in your territory.
In my second game, the Egyptians did throw themselves against me and lost. But the key here is to be patient. Once the ‘free’ army is gone, Egypt isn’t so big like Persia, your reinforcements can take it. Memphis is a great prize (because of the Pyramids), but again, be patient. Reinforcements can get to Tyre a lot faster than they get to Persepolis, you don’t get extra points for taking Egypt fast.
You cut the road, didn’t you? Now, once the main Egyptian army is defeated, they can build only catapults and archers. So have lots of companion cavalry and city raiding swordsman (along with the ever-needed catapults) and Egypt will fall.
To be honest, once you have defeated the free Egyptian army, assuming the main army hasn’t stalled, you have won the game. Your main army should be close to Babylon. By now, you want to have the Army Servants tech (see tech below). Then, Persia is broken. Winning is now largely a matter of taking out the other Persian cities. When you get to India, you have the same issue as Egypt, although you don’t start at war. The Indians are pretty tough, but they aren’t that big. Set-up and smash them. The second Indian faction comes last. However, at this point your army is full of 15+ experience units and victory is easy.
Tech
For this scenario, the key to winning is understanding the tech tree. There are two ‘holy grail’ techs at the end of the tree. The most important is Army Servants. This tech allows you to move an extra ‘gasp’ 4 on the road. The hardest part of the game is getting those walking troops from Greece to the middle of Persia. This tech practically doubles your speed. After that, you get cultural assimilation, which allows you use enemy roads. These are the two techs that lead to victory, since the game is largely a logistical issue of getting your troops throughout Persia in time.
However, I don’t recommend ‘bee lining’ for them, since there are a lot of great cheap techs that you need first. Earlier in the game, with closer distances, take the cheaper techs.
My Tech order is:
Military Sergeants – This allows Medic 1. I take this first since you will have losses at Sardis, and you need the army to move. Get a medic!
Battlefield Siege – a must. This allows you to get catapults. Once you get this tech, build lots of them. You can’t the cities without them.
Barbarian assimilation – This is an amazing tech. It allows a barbarian barracks. A barbarian barracks is cheap and it gives a FREE city raider promotion for every unit built in the city! WOW! You will build this in every city except your archer cities (Athens).
Concealment – this allows cover. The Persians have lots of archers defending cities, you want this.
Wedge assault – This allows shock. Need I say more?
Now comes the hard part. You can get Barbarian Assimilation 2 and three, allowing greater city attack upgrades. I do like them. Military Surgeons II is also good, allowing greater healing ability.
Then, you should build toward the two game breakers, Army Servants and Cultural Assimilation. I start with Constant Drilling 1 and II. One allows Spartan barracks, which isn’t great. Spartan Barracks allow a free woodsman, which isn’t that useful.
Next is Horse breeding, a great tech! This allows the Macedonian barracks, which gives experience points towards archers (like stables in the main game). After horse breeding II, you get Army Sergeants and then Cultural Assimilation. Your army should roll!
Fill in the other Techs next.
Whitedragon's Tech Order -- Barbarian Assimilation 1, Battlefield Siege, Military Sergeants, then Barbarian Assimilation 2 and 3. then he goes for Horse Breeding, and on to Army Servants and Cultural assimilation.
If you compare Whitedragon's with mine, it looks like we have pretty much the same idea but different order. White likes to get the best for attacking the cities right away. Try them!
Building
It’s important to specialize cities, but for troop types. Every city should get a regular barracks. Every city besides your city building archers and eventually companion cavalry should build a barbarian barracks for free city raider.
I probably build about 1/3 catapults, maybe less as the game goes on. Of the remaining troops, its good to spread out among hypaspists, swordsman, and phalanxes, along with companion cavalry which are great against troops in the open. Podromoi can be very nice – they come with visibility, so include one in every major stack. I leave an archer in every city I take. Since Athens starts with an Athenian Barracks (free archer upgrades), I usually build archers in Athens, and in one other city I take.
Whitedragon recommends 30% or more phalanxes, since they are real good and Persia builds a lot of immortals.
So, you have Athens and maybe one other Archer city, with Athenian barracks. You have a Macedonian barracks in some cities and build companion cavalry. All other cities have barbarian barracks. ALL cities get a regular barracks.
As I said, use a specialist in every captured city once Halicarnassus is taken, until you get 10 culture points and expand.
Slavery and unhappiness – you get very few luxuries in this game, and you will suffer war weariness. I often slavery build the expensive buildings. Markets can be especially important, since you run at mostly gold.
Whitedragon recommends whipping troops up early and using slavary on the cities with excess, but you do get some good production cities later.
Great Men
Specialists are really good in this game. Why? Your cottages don’t have a lot of time to develop. Unfortunately, you have precious little grassland until very late in the game, so your bonus resource cities (like Athens) become your specialist camps.
You can’t build wonders (there is a bug with the Great Library), all other wonders start on the board. Academies can be nice, especially in Athens. However, since money is so tight, I usually will get a lot of merchants. Settle great merchants. I especially like to settle great merchants at Pella, which otherwise has a food problem sticking it at 4 population. 2 great merchants with the +2 food bonus will help this city grow. Other cities face real happiness problems.
Whitedragon recommends using the great men for golden ages.
Other – Barbarians become a problem in the mid game. So you will have to defend you rear areas with a few extra troops.
Alexander's level
One of the mechanics of the scenario is that Alexander 'progresses'. The Alexander progression is on the civic screen (on the far right, replacing religious civics). The trigger is the experience point total of the unit that the Alexander warlord leader merges with. The more advanced the levels that Alexander attains, the more war weariness is reduced and the lower maintenance costs are. These benefits can be strong deterrents to the snowballing that can occur if the games goes against you.
Whitedragon and Mewtarthio have worked out the number of experience points you need to get Alexander to advance:
Alexander the Victorious: Level 6, 26 xp's
Alexander the Brave: Level 9, 65 xp's
Alexander the Amazing: Level 13, 145 XP's
Alexander the Great: Level 15, 197 XP's
It is clear that most people win the game without getting Alexander beyond level 2. Perhaps if you expect a long game (play on a very, very high level) it pays to take the increased experience point promotion for Alexander, and play for the long-run.
If Alexander dies, he comes back in 6 months but loses his extra experience points.
You can get Alexander to Victorious with your first general. My feeling is that if you are playing on a reasonably low level, you shouldn't join new Warlords to Alexander. Rather, use them to create more killer troops and try to win fast. Since I can usually win in about 100 turns on Monarch or Emperor, this is the tactic I use.
On harder levels, the game will go longer, and the corruption and war weariness are more acute. You will also have more combats and more great generals, so it may be very useful to get Alexander's level up. The hardest part is to decide how often to attack. You clearly want Alexander to hit the badly wounded guy and use attacks above 98% -- you don't want to burn a bunch of great generals and then lose him to bad luck.
Other Bugs
You can’t build the Great Library. I probably would in Athens if I could, and turn Athens into the science city. But you can’t.
You can’t work the incense near Persepolis.
I hope some of you find this useful.
Best wishes,
Breunor
Breunor, I salute you for being able to beat it comfortably on Emperor. I played this on Prince again recently and Darius just swamps me with wave after wave of troops even when I am taking city after city. 
