STARTING OUT

You start out with two cities, Pella, the capital, and Sparta. You have three armies; Alexander's personal army, in Macedonia; and the army of Parmenion in Asia Minor. You also have a small army run by a captain in the Greek region. Your first goal should be to conquer the two local barbarians; the Illyrians and the Thracians. The Thracians are easier to beat, but the Illyrians will get stronger as time goes on and might even conquer Pella, which would be bad. I recommend besieging the one and only Illyrian city, Epidamnus, before besieging the one and only Thracian city, Byzantium. The local barbarians should be destroyed within a few turns.

Meanwhile, Parmenion is in quite the sticky situation. A Persian named Memnon of Rhodes has quite a large army near Parmenion. You should instruct Parmenion to build a fort for extra protection. On the second or third turn, Memnon should attack. Auto-managing will work just fine, but manual combat will probably minimize losses. Note: Auto-managing the battle between Parmenion and Memnon without a fort will probably kill Parmenion, who is a very valuable character. If you defeat Memnon, he should die. Now is your chance! Besiege Halicarnassus to the south,which will give you a wonder (the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus).

Sparta will be very rebellious at the time, and you will generate a negative income from it. A good technique to end riots is to withdraw all troops from the city and wait till they revolt. When they revolt, reconquer the city and exterminate the populace. You will get a lot of denarii and the city might actually like you now. You may or may not generate a positive income, but if you don't, the income should only be slighly below zero.


By the way, do not improve cities or build buildings unless they are rebellious or you want to train better troops in that city. The main focus of this expansion is combat and conquest, not city building.

EARLY GAME

Now, Byzantium, Epidamnus, Pella, Sparta, and Halicarnassus should be yours. Continue to use Parmenion's army to conquer the rest of Asia Minor, including cities like Issus and Sinope.


It is about time that I mention the Persian fleet. It is massive, and will easily decimate your own starting fleet. To weaken the fleet, conquer Persian cities with ports.

Back in Greece, you have a new problem; the Scythians. These nomads will attempt to take Pella and Byzantium from you, so be careful. Send Alexander north to conquer the Scythian village of Tanais.This will halt their attacks. Unfortunately, the Scythians have another city,Azara, in the Middle East in a location only acessable from the other village via naval travel. Once the Scythians are conqured, Alexander himself can now march into the heartlands of Persia.

MIDDLE GAME

In Asia Minor, send Parmenion's army (but not Parmenion) south to conquer Egypt and Arabia. Send Parmenion himself and a small army east to rendezvous with Alexander at Babylon, conquering Persian cities along the way.


Babylon is the capital of Persia but is somewhat underdefended. There are a few Persian armies lurking around Babylon and the surronding Persian cities ,such as the massive army of Darius Codenamus, Persian emperor. Darius, his army, and Babylon should all easily fall to Macedonian swords.


Before exiting the Middle East, ensure that all enemy cities in the Middle East are yours.

LATE GAME

A string of weak Persian cities is all that stands in your way upon entering Asia. However,venture too far into Asia (which is required) and a new and deadly threat awaits you; the Dahae.


The Dahae have massive armies of horse archers and barbarian infantry. Defeating them will be challenging; their cities (Kucha and Nisa) are scattered about, and they are the devoted allies of Persia(the Dahae will probably betray Persia late in the game). They do have two weaknesses:
One: Being barbarian, they do not have a high population. Once their armies are gone, they will never return.
Two: Lack of good generals.
A massive army and the good leadership of Alexander and/or Parmenion should be enough to defeat the Dahae.



Now only a small section of Asia is left to conquer! India is impossible to reach; do not waste time trying to get there. Instead, conquer the weak enemy cities near India.



Victory should now be yours! Congratulations!

MISCELLANEOUS

Victory Conditions
Have 30 settlements.
Have these specific regions: Macedon, Lydia, Cappadocia, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Babylonia, Media, Dahae, and Bactria.
Alexander must survive.
Completed within 100 turns.

Mercenaries
You will have to rely on mercenaries. Reinforcements will take too long to train. There is a wide variety of mercs available.

Wonders
Correct me if I am wrong, but there are only three wonders; Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Great Pyramids, and Hanging Gardens.

Navy
You start out with a single (weak) navy. The Persians have several powerful fleets. Conquer Persian cities with ports to weaken the Persian fleets.

Playable Factions
Without editing the game files, the Macedonians are the only playable campaign faction.
NOTE: I edited the game files for the original Rome Total War and Alexander. For Rome Total War, I highly recommend editing the files, because all of the unplayable factions are very fun to play as. However, in Alexander, it really sucks to be an unplayable faction. For one, if Alexander dies, even if you are not Macedonian, you lose the game. Also, if you are the Persians, almost all cities are rebellious and generate negative income. Persia also has weak troops. You go deeply in debt within a few turns. Finally, you still only have a hundred turns to play the game. I still would recommend editing Alexander's files just for the novelty of having all factions playable. You can look up how to edit the files on YouTube, or find the guide to unlocking factions. The guide will be found in Rome Total War's community hub.

Multiplayer
Yes, there is multiplayer, with the following factions: Macedonians, Persians, Indians, and Dahae.

Faction Overview
Macedonians: Mostly consists of phalanx spearmen with limited cavalry and an adquate amount of mislle troops. In multiplayer. Playable in campaign.
Illyrians: A mix of barbarian infantry with superb missle troops. Not in multiplayer. Unplayable in campaign.
Thracians: A mix of powerful barbarian infantry. Not in multiplayer. Unplayable in campaign.
Persians: Good mix of all unit types; weak infantry and weak elephants(Indian elephants are usually superior to Persian ones). In multiplayer. Unplayable in campaign.
Scythians: Horse archers. Horse archers. Horse archers. Horse archers. Horse archers... do you see my point? Not in multiplayer. Unplayable in campaign.
Dahae: Horse archers, but with a small amount of melee cavalry and infantry. In multiplayer. Unplayable in campaign.
Indians: Only faction in RTW Alexander that is exclusive to multiplayer. A good mix of units, including powerful(but expensive) elephants and female warriors. Multiplayer only.

Unit Design and Units in General
Many units got a stylish new look and some new units have been added as well. Some new units are hypaspists, phalangites, and argrainians. Hoplites have a stylish new look.

Background
A new, purple-colored main menu background with archers vs. wolf people... who will win? (Hint: the archers win).

Religion
Religion has been removed, but you can still build temples.

That is all. Thank you for reading and I hope this helps!