Each player has taken the role of one of Alexander’s generals as they attempt to seize control of the empire following the death of the Conqueror. The campaign rules are very simple, with seasonal turns on a 75-province map of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East. Played mainly by email, all movement, sieges and battles are resolved using the map game systems, although there is the option to fight a few of the larger, more significant encounters at club meetings when both the protagonists wish to meet face to face - something that has not yet happened.

The campaign is intended to be an entertaining diversion rather than something that takes over your life or interferes too much with normal gaming. Some players submit far more detailed orders than others, with occasional supplementary articles published in the turn updates that often demonstrate considerable knowledge and appreciation of the period – the report on the desecration of the Oracle at Delphi deserves a much wider audience and I hope that the anonymous author will not mind its reproduction here.

So far, we have had remarkably few attempts at assassination or corruption but the players have had to cope with rebellious Greek colonists, a unilateral declaration of independence from the King of Syria, Cilician pirates and the Roman Republic subjugating the Tarentine state in southern Italy about 150 years early.

Antipater, the elderly, draconian Regent appointed to safeguard the empire and safeguard the Alexandrian Royal Family in Pella, has been one of the most active participants.