Bruce Glassco
United States
Charlottesville
Virginia
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I haven't played this yet with more than two players, and perhaps the problem goes away with three or four. Here's what happened when I tried this with my friend the other night. Alexandros got well into the middle of the board before any kingdoms got formed, and once they were formed, they were big ones. I took the largest -- I think its income was 15. The next turn, my opponent immeiately took it from me (we both had handfuls of cards by now). I took another, slightly smaller kingdom, and he took that one from me as well. It cost him two extra cards each time to take the kingdoms from me, but he could handle that; if necessary, he used extra guards to make up for the cards he didn't have, then removed them and taxed the provinces later.
The problem for two players as I see it is that whoever takes a province first is likely to be at a disadvantage. The other player can take it away at almost the same cost of cards, except now they've both spent around the same number of cards, but the second player has the province. Thus, the best strategy would seem to be to NEVER be the first one to capture a province -- but the game will crash to a halt then, with both players hoarding ridiculous hands full of cards so they can retake whatever their opponent takes.
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John Farrell
Australia
Aspley
Queensland
Averagely Inadequate
Buster Keaton from 'Go West'
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I haven't noticed that happen, but we don't really play like that. My guess would be that the second player probably doesn't have quite the right cards and has to place a few guards to hold it. While second player is removing them the first player can try to dismantle the territory. BTW do you know that when you take over someone's province they get half the cards you used? That would substantially strengthen first player in your example - they would have quite a few more cards than second player.
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Anthony Daw
United States
Sandy
Utah
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John,
The half cards to the opponent only applies to the 3 and 4 player game. In the 2 player game, you are plum out of luck.
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John Farrell
Australia
Aspley
Queensland
Averagely Inadequate
Buster Keaton from 'Go West'
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Holy dooley! That might explain why we've forgotten that rule so many times!
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Gordon Adams
United Kingdom
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Ooooops ! Any game that infers by it's title Alexander the Great, I have to buy it and I bought this today. Now I find out that it is not a good 2player game
I usually buy games that have 2 plus players and I thought that this was up my alley....it sure looked tactical in a superficial way , not a wargame by any stretch of the imagination ( wargames , I love them) but it had an interesting description.
Oh well, that will not stop me from trying to find a variant 
Edit:typo
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John Farrell
Australia
Aspley
Queensland
Averagely Inadequate
Buster Keaton from 'Go West'
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Play it first and then decide whether it's a good 2 player game.
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I apologize for necromancy, but it needs a reply: the answer is very simple in my opinion. Observe what the other player is doing. If it seems that he/she is building up a deck for a big takeover, take small provinces and tax, tax, tax. If he/she manages to take over something big - divide, divide, divide.
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