Due to the another forced lock-down, I am focusing currently more on my games with solitaire mode, reaching to long not-played titles. One of them is ACIS – a really interesting, abstract and brutal take on ancient history. I had already played 5 scenarios in that game and the time has come to continue.

My ACIS campaigns:
Learning Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea (ACIS)
ACIS – “Greeks & Persians” scenario
ACIS – “Alexander the Great” scenario

About the Game

Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea allows you to create or conquer the great civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean. It is abstract take on the epoch – you build great Wonders to glorify a peaceful, thriving, commercial empire – or sack cities and conquer new lands as you spread your domain across the waters and around the shores of the Inner Sea. It allows you to lead one of 10 civilizations in one to six player games – from pre-defined scenarios to a full sandbox games

Set-up

In my solitaire game-plays of ACIS I am focusing on pre-defined scenarios, which are thematic, high-level historically accurate and fun to play. Today the time has come do play Alexander the Great set-up but from his adversary perspective Darius III.

As always, I will propose picture-rich session report, clearly depicting set-up and main events & developments of the game. Enjoy!

Scenario introduction
Full scenario set-up – it is played on half of the map. I am leading Persians – Land ones and Sea ones – against Greeks & Macedonians. The ultimate goal – survive and win on points or by pillaging Greece and forcing Alexander to come back home (click to enlarge)
Beginning of the scenario – Alexander the Great armies are already in Asia Minor, ready to burn and pillage my gold-rich cities (btw, very interesting rule about gold in cities!)

Turn 1

We begin Turn 1 immediately from the cards phase – one of the most brutal elements of the ACIS!

Both sides exchange tons of nasty events, like some refugees in Macedonia – that will be easily repelled by AI.
Situation just before Competition phase – you can see tons of allies (white disks) on Macedonian side.
Nor surprisingly, in the end two golds are pillage, 8 VPs goes to Bot.
But Persians are playing long game – the Mesopotamia Empire gives me four units already for next round.
High-level look at the map – end of Turn 1, Macedonians 16 VPs, Persians 9 VPs.
For all interested, close -up on exact situation in the Western Medditerean.

Turn 2

Turn two started with Greeks landing in Phoenicia plus using Crop Failure to weaken the defenses. That was not bidding well for my chance to keep them away although I tried with Sea Persians.
Situation before competition. Thanks to the event from Turn 1 I had a bridgehead on the Greek mainland. Instead of defending my holdings in Asia I decided to attack!
Close-up on my forces in mainland Greece – my advantage is only temporary. The competition cards of Alexander are superb to the extent…
…that he is able to deal with the home front danger AND burn down a Phocian city! Situation after Turn 2 above – Macedonians 27 VPs, Persians 19 VPs.

Turn 3

That was turn of miracles and… well planned tactics! The Superstition Strikes card was really crucial for me – no Macedonians reinforcements in that competition!
Let us be more nasty and weaken the defenses by another disk…
Of course, that will not be taken lightly by AI – Heresy in Egypt obliterates 4 cities to mere camps…
Atlantis be my assistance! Those 4 talents gained by that event will prove to be invaluable during coming battles.
And so it goes two large, full-scale engagements on mainland Greece. Both sides threw everything they had – Allies, competition cards, Talents, etc. In the end Persians prevailed – barely – twice.
When you loot the Greek Gold there is 50% chance Alexander will have to come back home. If you manage to do it twice probability jumps to already 75% – and so it happened, proper card was drawn and Persians won!
Final look at the situation in Greece.
And how the things looked like around Asia Minor.

Summary

What a crazy game! A lot of things happened, the AI was pretty challenging, razing and burning my cities. Still, a well-prepared attack on the Greek mainland and lucky card-draw caused Alexander to stop his conquest and return home to pacify the situation. The game was won by my, the Asia minor was anyhow lost to Greeks. Really funny game!