Field Commander: Alexander Review (DVG)
A while back I reported on Field Commander: Rommel which was first in the Field Commander Series from Dan Verssen Games. I had a very favorable opinion of the game with the exception of the difficulty (it is still a damn hard game) and the clunky nature of moving the enemies around the map. And even though Rommel and Alexander were separated by over 2,000 years the Field Commander System holds up very well and Field Commander: Alexander is, in my opinion, an improvement upon the system.
Alexander differs in many was from Rommel particularly in scale. Time frames are longer, distances are greater and the number of men a counter represents has increased and for me Alexander has a greater strategic feel than its predecessor. But as I don’t want to dwell too long on comparing the two titles I’ll just sum it up and say that Alexander improves on what was already a great system.
The Field Commander Series are solitaire games that have the goal of distilling some of the great strategic minds of history into a playable format and in that regard Alexander is a success. I’ll admit that going into the game I knew very little of Alexander the Great and coming out of the game I now know enough to make me dangerous as in I have some interesting trivia knowledge but could find myself wrong a lot of the time if discussing his life. But the point of the game isn’t a deep analysis of the tactics that he used in particular battles, but his overall strategy on how to conquer and subjugate a region.
There are many decision points for you as the player which is great because often I find that solitaire games sometimes get a feeling of playing themselves as numerous charts are referenced and dice rolled. After a region is conquered you have to decide if you’ll govern the area which creates a steady income and has some positive effects later in the game or you can raze the land for a large and immediate cash bonus. You get to pick and grow your pool of personal and trusted advisers and who to pick and when will have long term effects during the campaign. How large of an army to muster and march around the land will often be dependent on the health of your treasury. Many aspects work and balance together creating a wonderful narrative as you work through the campaign.
The campaign game is where Alexander really shines though. The game includes four scenarios to play as a linked campaign which starts off early in Alexander’s career as he conquered the land around Greece and then moved south and east through the Middle East towards India. How well you do in the campaign will determine for how many years Alexander’s name will be remembered and his exploits told. Though each scenario is based on the same game system, as Alexander matures and grows in experience, as his pool of advisers expands and as various tactical “Insights” are gathered the scenarios feel and take shape differently. There are also a few special rules for some of the scenarios that help expand and grow the variety within the game.
What I find most impressive though is just how playable the game is. Alexander with the larger scale means the enemy isn’t moving on the map and due to that the administrative work for the enemy is very minimal. That means most of the time playing is making decisions for what you plan on doing with your forces. Which is very refreshing compared to other solitaire games that I’ve played where it feels more time is devoted to figuring out what the game’s AI will do during a turn than you actually take for your turn.
The only thing that I would complain about is now that I’ve worked through the few campaign a number of times I tend to find myself falling into similar patterns. I like to start with X Adviser, I like certain types of troops over others, I like to spend my money in certain ways, because I’ve found some patterns that work better than others for me and my play style. The game does do a good job with mixing thing up and presenting you with different challenges each time, but there is only so much that can be put in before the ease of play becomes cluttered and clunky. With solitaire games I’ll take ease of play over historical accuracy or a cumbersome game AI any day of the week. And even though I find myself falling into patterns I’ve found asking “What If?” sometimes forces me out of those patterns which allows the game to present different challenges for me to overcome.
As it stands this is a game that I feel will be staying around for a long time. The full campaign of four scenarios takes me about four hours to play and I am a slow gamer who likes to get up, walk around and contemplate decisions. If someone other than me were to focus from start to finish I could see it possible to play the entire campaign in around three hours. That means the campaign is perfect for a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon or a week night where you have no plans. Additionally if you only find yourself with an hour to an hour and a half then a single scenario is perfectly playable in that time.
Production is very nice though there are a few things that my anal retentive nature cringes at, but they aren’t even worthy of note. The only thing that I can see on the production end that did fall a little short of my expectations are the mounted map boards. They just don’t lay flat as they have warped a bit, but it isn’t a big deal to me personally and I’d take the mounted map boards over the paper maps in Rommel every time.
In closing Field Commander: Alexander is one of just a handful of solitaire games that I’d recommend to people because there are so many things that are going right in the game. The common pitfalls I’ve experienced solitaire gaming are burdensome game AI, repetitive, long, minimal decision points as well as a few others. Alexander has none of those traits, it is just as the system intends: To make the lives of histories great leaders playable in an accessible game format.
‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT
Over the years, I’ve been getting into the world of solitaire gaming. We’ve all been there at some point where you find yourself with an hour or two to fill, an itching for a game but no one is around or available to game with. With my game group my schedule is the most flexible of the bunch so I find myself with those conditions fairly often. In the past I’ve talked about games like Silverton and more recently BlackBeard (which I did forget to mention it allows for solitaire play albeit with “Dummy” Players which I’m personally not a fan of). Both of which are fine games in their own right and do provide a satisfactory solitaire game experience but lately I’ve been looking for games with more of a historical flare.
The components to the game I’m a little mixed on. With one hand the artwork is excellent, the counters are easy to read and everything from the artistic side is exceptional. The other hand questions the materials used in publishing. Everything is satisfactory, but just feels cheep. Everything has a very glossy texture and the best way I can describe it is it feels fake because of slightly different production methods and materials compared to the industry standard. Other than that though, that is the only thing that I’ve found which I’m logging a complaint on…The game play is really what matters after all!
