Covering the period of 500-300BCE, Alexander forms a bridge between Warbirth[warbirth.shoutwiki.com] and Kings & Conquerors[kingsandconquerors.fandom.com].

As its name suggests, this mod covers the civilizations that appear in the Alexander CtW for the vanilla version of Rise of Nations.

INTRODUCTION
In the world of 500BCE, it is Persia, not Greece, that is the world's greatest superpower - but that could well change in just a few generations.

The Achaemenid Persian empire is a vast, sprawling hegemon, rivalled in wealth only by the sophisticated and powerful Indian kingdom of Magadha to the east, whilst it is culturally eclipsed by the Egyptians. However if the Persians are not careful, the upstart Greeks will eventually dominate the entire world with their ships, their hoplites and their ideas. Still the Greeks must speak of Persia very much the same way the rest of the world speaks of the Middle East or China in our day - with equal parts envy, cultural aversion and grudging respect for the great economic power that Persia possesses.

THE FACTIONS

(1) Middle Eastern nations
The Persian Achaemenids are by far the most powerful, as a military powerhouse with a vast and sprawling number of units that they can summon so long as they have the Wealth to do so. Even though their main infantry units (those summoned from a Barracks) aren't exactly the best ones, the Persians can still count on decent cavalry and a crack force of elite troops and mercenaries to do their bidding. Equally, while the Egyptians may be able to built two wonders per city, the Persians however have access to a vast slew of Wonders - including Greek ones - so a crafty Persian player with resource to spare can easily push an Egyptian player out in a Wonder race.

At the other end of the scale are the Punic and Sabaean nations. These however aren't the strongest, and unlike Persia, do not have immediate access to their best units - these must be obtained by way of "teching up", especially moreso for the Poeni, who may have an early advantage in naval warfare, but early on have a very weak army with little to no modern cavalry to speak of. The Sabaioi, owing to their access to camels, can often stand a fighting chance against most cavalry nations, but they still do not have access to good infantry units, thus confining them to short- to medium-sized land maps.

(2) Greek and Mediterranean nations
They may begin weak, but with upgrades, reforms and teching up they will sooner or later become the strongest factions. This is especially moreso for 4 distinct nation - Epeiros, Macedon, Athenai and Thebai.

One problem with the Greeks is that their recruitment choices are heavily politicised - elite units often require Oligarchy, whilst light infantry and mercenaries (again, mostly light infantry such as Akontistai) require Populism. Corinth may be able to access Epilektoi Hoplitai very early on - but to obtain the Hippeis and the Logades, it will still need to research Oligarchy. With Larissa, however, the fragmented nature of the polity doesn't even allow any political research at all.

As a result, Greek nations often have issues on how to balance cultural policy (better economy versus cheaper infantry) whilst facing different enemies. The only factions that do not run into this issue are usually Macedon and Sparta, because Macedon's best units can be obtained independently of political research, while Sparta's are instantly available from the get-go. The only downside of Sparta's roster, however, is that it is very dependent on that unit the Greeks love best - heavy infantry - and it is one for which there are many, many counters.

(3) Indian nations
Cheap infantry units, as well as powerful chariots and elephants form the core of the Indian nations, which incidentally also enjoy a high level of cultural sophistication, if not the highest. An army of Indian war elephants, escorted by Longbowmen - the signature unit of the Indians - can be a terrible enemy to fight against. Lack of true heavy horse cavalry, however, is a telling factor as is the very limited size of the Indian roster - a smart and creative player can come up with different ways to see off an Indian threat, whilst the Indians themselves have very few counters for use against other nations - only the half-Indian, half-barbarian nation of Gandhara has a light cavalry tradition of any value, although Magadha is well developed, and concentrates mainly on giving its units more toys and more stuff to play with, be it the Sreni heavy infantry, or their penchant for heavy rams which make them the rivals of Alexander's Macedon.

(4) Thraco-Balkan nations
Infantry armed with various weapons alien to the more mainstream Greek style of fighting. Generally speaking, these units have an attack bonus against units of the same kind but in the later stages of the game, their abilities begin to diverge - Illyrians develop anti-Greek, anti-Celtic bonuses, while Getai will become more heavily armoured and more powerful.

(5) African nations
African nations rely heavily on cheap and weak infantry, and are best used for human wave assaults. Don't underestimate them, however - the Egyptian roster has some cheap and good units, and is also a major naval power, while the Aethiopes have some strong light archer units as does the vanilla Nubian civ of RoN which they are based on.

(6) Barbarians
As with Kings & Conquerors, Boioi as Celts sacrifice armour for attack speed and cost, with few exceptions such as the Gallic Teceitos. Most Boioi infantry are not known for having armour, but who cares when you can strike faster than the enemy, and hurl javelins more quickly than anyone else? the Boioi are thus a militaristic faction whose main task is simple - outfight the enemy and take his cities, one by one, until victory or death.

On the other side of the world, you have the Skythoi, the Tokharoi and the Sarmatoi - these are your generic "northern horse barbarian" factions, who sport the best cavalry but nothing else. Still, they are not to be sniffed at - they have some of the finest light cavalry, making them almost second to none in a world where most warfighting still takes place on foot or in a chariot's cab. These factions, however, have severe demographic penalties, thus making their expansion fairly difficult - with the exception of the Tokharoi, fast raids to gain food and booty would well be the only way forward for them.