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Alexander

Platform(s): Arcade, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PC, PSOne, PSP, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360
Genre: Strategy

About Judy

As WP's managing editor, I edit review and preview articles, attempt to keep up with the frantic pace of Rainier's news posts, and keep our reviewers on deadline, which is akin to herding cats. When I have a moment to myself and don't have my nose in a book, I like to play action/RPG, adventure and platforming games.

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'Alexander' - Demo Available NOW

by Judy on Nov. 3, 2004 @ 6:00 a.m. PST

Get the Alexander demo off WP (274mb)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

SUPPORTED OS: Windows® 98/2000/ME/NT/XP (XP recommended)
PROCESSOR: AMD Athlon, Pentium® 1.5 GHz (2 GHz recommended)
RAM: 512 MB
VIDEO CARD: 64 MB DirectX® 8.1-compliant video card (128 MB recommended) (see supported list*)
SOUND CARD: DirectX 8.1-compliant sound card
DIRECTX VERSION: DirectX 8.1 or higher
CD-ROM: 12x CD-ROM
HARD DRIVE SPACE: 2 GB free
PERIPHERALS SUPPORTED: Windows-compatible mouse and keyboard
MULTIPLAYER: Internet connection
*SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS AT TIME OF RELEASE
NVIDIA® GeForce™ 3/4/FX/6 families (excluding Ge-Force 4 MX)
ATI® Radeon™ 8500/9000/X families Matrox Parhelia™
Laptop versions of these cards not fully supported. For an up-to-date list of supported chipsets, please visit the FAQ for this game on our support website at: http://support.ubi. com, or consult the readme .le on the game disc.
NOTICE: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may con.ict with some disc and virtual drives.

Playing the solo missions

Mission 1 : Taming Macedonia

Background: Philip, king of Macedonia, father of Alexander, is controlling Pella but some rebellions could prevent his complete control of his kingdom. Many more enemies lie beyond the scope of Macedonia, but the enemies within have to be the first to be managed.

Mission type: conquest, build village

Objectives: destroy enemy groups in two rebellous macedonian towns

Special: tutorial mission, the player cannot build all of the macedonian units or buildings

Walkthrough: After the first dialog, your goal is to protect the peasants that plead for help, and kill the enemy troops burning their village [1].

* At any time, the current objectives are displayed in the upper left part of the screen. Move your mouse over the objective to have details about it. An objective also has a location, which is displayed on the minimap, in the bottom right part of the screen. The location objective is also displayed on the map itself. * You also have hints displayed under the objectives. When clicking on an hint, it is suppressed from the list. But you can find it again at any time, in the help menu, that you can call with F8. There you will find the dialogs played in the mission, the objectives, and the hints.

Select your two groups of units, move them close enough together, and place them in front of the peasants. Alternatively, send them to attack the enemy troops.

* To select units, left-click on the unit or group of units. You can also lect-click and drag a selection box, to select all units in the area. To add units to the selection, press shift, and select these other units. * To give orders to units, select them, and right click on the objective. Click on the destination to move them there, for instance. Click on an enemy to attack him.

Your next objective is to escort the peasants to the new settlement location, north. There is a trap in the valley just north of the village [2]. Attack the enemy with your troops, and when the danger is suppressed, move the peasants and your troops to the place.

* When there is danger, you should take care of protecting peasants , especially in this mission, as you don't have reinforcements. So you should take care of the ambush with your troops first, and then move the peasants through. * You can use your hero , Alexander, when fighting enemies. He will provide a boost to the troops fighting along with him. However, doing this, you also put him in danger. If he gets killed, you lose the mission. So use him wisely, and never leave him unprotected.

There you will build a new village [3]. Start by making a new town center. When it is done, select it and click on the peasant icon : new peasants will now be recruited. Create a mill, a barrack, a storehouse near the forest, and a gold mine. You also have to create a diplomatic center.

* To create a building, select one or many peasants, and left-click on the icon of the building you want created. Then left-click on the place of the map where you want the building done. Peasants will move there and create it. * To create units from a building, select it by left-clicking, and left-click on the icon of the unit you want created. The unit will be recruited indefinitely, until there is no more resources. You can stop a unit being recruited by right-clicking on the icon.

Peasants should be used to gather resources.

* To gather new resources, select peasants, and right-click on the resources on the map. Right-click on the forest nearby to gather wood (the cursor reflects an axe when you move over the forest, and peasants are selected). Do the same for stones, and food, by clicking on stonepiles, and in the fields around the mill. You can also create a gold mine, inside the forest. The building is created as usual, and peasants will automatically go inside to mine gold. * You know how many peasants are used to gather each resource, in the top bar . There you see how much of each resource you have, and, in brackets, the number of peasants assigned to this resource.

Now start recruiting soldiers. Select the barracks and create a selection of slingmen, warriors with club, warriors with plutei (large shield). In the diplomatic center, you can create archers and cavalry. Using these troops to protect your village, you can now attack the towns to the north east and north west [4] and [5]. Concentrate on one town at a time.

* To create warriors is done the same way as for peasants. You can click on several unit types, and they will be recruited each one after another. They will appear in front of their building and wait there. * To create a formation, click on the formation icon, opening icons to choose the size of the formation. Depending on how many of this type of warrior is around, you can create a small or a large formation. Warriors fighting in groups are more effective, and gain experience. * To attack the towns, build a force strong enough, with 50 or more basic warriors, and as many archers. After dispatching the groups patrolling the town, use the archers to destroy the barracks and stables in each town. You can recognize these buildings by clicking on them and checking their name. The barracks is the same as the one you built yourself. Select archers, and right-click on the targets to have them burn it down.

Mission 2: Construction of Alexandria

Background: Alexander comes into Egypt and does not disappoint the local population. Everywhere he shows respect for local traditions and makes a sacrifice to the Egyptian gods. Alexander decides to stay in these territories and base city - Alexandria . Afterwards this city became the original capital of Hellenism in Egypt .

Mission type: conquest, with city building

Objectives: capture enemy fortress and destroy enemy settlement

Walkthrough: The goal here is to build Alexandria [1], and reduce any opposition. You have an allied city south of you [2], but its attacks will be partly helpful only. They will distract attackers at best.

Here, small bandit camps will be annoying you, and they should be your primary target.

Start building your city, creating a town hall, and the basic resources buildings : a mill, a storehouse near the rock piles, and near the forest. Recruit new peasants from the town hall. Send peasants gather each type of resource.

Build two barracks and the blacksmith, and create slingmen. Be wary of any group of enemy archers infiltrating your camp and wreacking havoc. Create small squads of slingmen, and place them on the roads used by the bandits coming from the west, and the southwest. That should keep them off.

Now, create gold and iron mines : you have deposits just south of you. Protect them correctly, or they will be destroyed by bandits attacks.

When you have gold flowing, create a diplomatic center. You can now create a first force of attack, with pikemen (sarisofor), archers, peltast, and swordsmen (hypospis). Make formations out of them.

When you can devote enough soldiers for that, lead two or three squads northwest [3], and then southwest [4], to find and destroy the enemy camps. Use the archers to burn down the tents, and avoid that bandits are coming back. After that your western frontier will be secure, and you can turn against the persian settlement, and the fortress.

Build a larger force, adding cavalry to the mix : create them from the diplomatic center, or create stables. You can also create balistas from the arsenal, as siege weapons.

Move east now, to the fortress. Use the archers or the balistas to take down the towers, and the main entry. Force the entrance and destroy the buildings there.

Now do the same with the base east of there, sending regular reinforcements to replace the fallen.

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