Empire Turn 2: 340-330 BCE. A Summary

We have now played the entire second turn of Empire to a conclusion. The sequence of events has been as follows:

1: Alexander of Macedon succeeds to his father's throne and attacks Illyria. He loses, being badly wounded for the second time. We rule that he loses one of his Great Captain moves while recovering, and another power gets to go.
2: The Tyrant of Syracuse destroys a Carthaginian expeditionary force. Anybody got any ideas for an appropriate name for the victor?
3: Persia attacks Egypt for the second time, and is again repulsed in a bloody draw.
4: Rome unites all of central Italy under its control.
5: The Macedonians turn eastwards after the disappointments under Philip in Greece and Illyria under Alexander. They occupy Thrace after some initial resistance.
6: Alexander crosses the Hellespont. After a very close run battle, the Persians are forced to cede control.
7: Alexander tries to extend his sway over Syria and the Levant, but is defeated and badly wounded, yet again. We rule that Alexander will still count as a Great Captain for the purposes of the boardgame, but loses his battlefield ability due to ongoing physical incapacity.

We then rolled for possible rebellion at the beginning of Turn 3, and Syria has revolted from Persian control after beating the Macedonians. The first power to go this turn is Persia, and they have attacked Syria themselves in an attempt to win it back. We will play this game in a couple of weeks' time.

We have rationalised the most recent events as follows: Alexander has been thrown back in disarray by the Persian commander tasked with halting his advance after the loss of Asia Minor, a distant cousin of the Great King. After his battlefield success, this cousin has had enough of being forced to do the Great King's dirty work while he just sits safe in Persepolis, so he has revolted and declared himself to be the true King of Kings. Maybe defeating and wounding Alexander has gone to his head. In any case, we need a name for this guy too: Cyrus the Youngest, maybe? All of which means that the next game will be a Persian civil war. We will tweak the lists somewhat so that there are fewer colonist cavalry in the two armies. The Great King's general should be able to buy more in the way of the better troop types, and the pretender will have access to more Greek mercenaries because of his geographical position.