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Main Catalogue | BOARD GAMES & CARD GAMES | Rio Grande Games | Alexandros

Alexandros

Price: £22.99

RRP = £26.99, our price = £22.99

Boardgame, 2-4 players, ages 12+ Alexander moves with his army back and forth across Asia Minor, conquering the land as he passes. To bring peace to these newly conquered lands and to reward his generals, he gives them control of the new lands. The generals establish administration over the lands and levy taxes on the people living there. Naturally, each general tries to acquire the most productive lands for himself. With more productive lands, the general can levy higher taxes, show his worth to Alexander, and win the game! ++++++++++++++++++++ Counter Magazine review ++++++++++++++++++++ 2-4 players, 45 minutes designed by Leo Colovini reviewed by Alan How When you have access to a large number of games, some good, some bad, but inthe main playable, what happens when a new tranche of games appear? Essen andNuremberg stimulate the flow of games, but almost every week thereare new games to buy and try. As a result competition for table time isfurious and new games often get a smaller number of showings than theydeserve. Alexandros might be one of those games. It starts off brightly, as designerColovini has established a sure fire reputation - Carolus Magnus, Clans,Magna Grecia and Cartagena immediately come to mind. All of these sharean abstract feel and a mainly thin veneer of theme. I don\'t mind that,so long as I enjoy the game. Alexandros fits straight into this genre withoutany trouble at all. The board shows a map of the near East split into triangles and Alexanderbegins his march on the tip of Turkey. Players move Alexander across theboard and create a wall linking his old and current locations. Players canselect two of the following options: capture empty enclosed areas(provinces); invest in resources (exposed cards or from the deck); captureopponent\'s areas; move a governor; or tax (score victory points foreveryone). The rules are written awkwardly, so moving Alexander is not as intuitive asit should be, but once everyone understands what is happening the game flowsfairly smoothly. Alexander moves to the nearest triangle matching one of thetwo face-up coloured cards. When there is a choice and there often is, a playercan select a triangle that is useful to him or one that spoils the situationfor the next player. Half of the triangles on the board are coloured in oneof 5 colours, and the deck of cards matches these colours. In order tocapture a province you need to hand in cards that match these triangles. Yourfive governors (pieces) can be used to substitute for any you fall short in,but provinces with more than one governor are being suppressed and will notearn victory points when a player chooses to tax. A minimum of one governoris required to rule the province. The value of the province is the number ofbackground-coloured triangles enclosed in the province. One of the pleasing design aspects is that Alexander can be moved to cutthrough a large province. This is usually good for all players except the onewho has a large province, but is a far cheaper way to spoil a province thancapturing as the capture from another player involves handing the losingplayer a bunch of cards, which can be used later to threaten the conqueror.Another aspect I liked was that you can build up an enormous hand of cards.The downside is large in that you may not score many points when taxationtakes place, but the upside is that a large province may be captured withthese cards and it becomes very difficult for other players to retake thisprovince. It also creates a feeling of power as you ponder when to strike.You then hope to score heavily in the remaining turns before the 100 pointsbarrier is broken signalling the conclusion of the game. So will Alexandros get its fair share of game play? I think that there is achance. While the game only supports a maximum of 4 players (and I often have5 players so limiting its chances), the turns are quick and there is not muchdown time, so the game has a certain pace to it. The options are nearlyalways pointed out by other players and these are not too hard to choosefrom. Sometimes the options are boring so the best thing to do is to get yourturn over quickly. The longer term plans in the game suggest that you have todecide when to make your move, or steadily score points to build anunassailable lead. I have seen both work and fail. All of which tends tosuggest that there is a reasonable amount going on in this game and its tabletime will be close to what it deserves. Alexandros plays well with two, but better with four. It is abstract, butfairly fast and a good opener or mid session game to play to warm up your brain.

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Main Catalogue | BOARD GAMES & CARD GAMES | Rio Grande Games | Alexandros

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