In the hazy dawn of a warm autumn day in 331 BCE, two vast armies faced each other across the plain of Gaugamela in what is now northern Iraq. On one side stood the greatest military force the ancient world had ever seen, the Persian army of Darius III, numbering over 100,000 warriors drawn from the farthest reaches of an empire that stretched from Egypt to India. Facing this seemingly invincible host was a force less than half its size, led by a 25-year-old commander whose tactical genius would forever change the course of history: Alexander the Great.
Alexander inherited not just a kingdom but a vision, to unite the warring Greek city-states and lead them against their ancient Persian enemies. What followed was one of the most remarkable military campaigns in human history. Between 336 and 323 BCE, Alexander's forces marched over 11,000 miles, fought and won battles against seemingly impossible odds, and created an empire that spanned three continents. His conquests reshaped the ancient world, spreading Hellenic culture throughout the Middle East and as far as the borders of India, forever altering the course of civilization.
Alexander's success stemmed not just from personal charisma and courage, though he possessed both in abundance, but from military innovations that transformed ancient warfare. The Macedonian phalanx, a dense formation of infantrymen wielding 18-foot sarissas (long spears), provided a nearly impenetrable wall of lethal points. Meanwhile, his heavy cavalry, the elite Companion Cavalry, delivered devastating charges at critical moments, personally led by Alexander himself. This balanced combination of mobility and strength, coupled with Alexander's tactical flexibility, created a military machine that none could stand against.
The Persian Empire, though vast and wealthy, relied on different tactical advantages. Their forces included expert archers capable of unleashing storms of arrows from long range, chariots designed to break enemy formations, and even camel-mounted warriors that could unsettle cavalry horses unaccustomed to their scent. Despite these innovations, they ultimately proved no match for Alexander's genius and the disciplined Macedonian forces.
Now, more than two millennia later, the epic clashes between these ancient powers can be recreated on your tabletop through the remarkable miniatures produced by WoFun Games. Founded in 2017 in Transylvania, Romania, WoFun has revolutionized historical wargaming with their innovative approach to miniature design and production. Unlike traditional miniatures that require painstaking assembly and painting, often delaying actual gameplay for weeks or months, WoFun's plexiglass figurines arrive pre-printed in vivid, historically accurate detail, ready for immediate use.
"War-gaming on a tabletop battlefield with miniature figurines is an attractive and absorbing hobby," notes Andy Callan, creator of the Wars of Alexander the Great ruleset. "But until now, it has always presented a newcomer with the daunting prospect of spending weeks, if not months, in painting the armies before they are ready for action. WoFun miniatures offer a revolutionary solution to this problem."
Available in both 18mm and 28mm scales, these detailed miniatures faithfully reproduce the distinctive appearance of both Macedonian and Persian forces. From the disciplined phalanx formations with their bristling sarissas to the colorfully attired Persian Immortals and mounted archers, every aspect of these ancient armies has been meticulously researched and rendered. Optional MDF bases, pre-printed with realistic terrain textures, further enhance the visual impact of these armies on the battlefield.
Alexander's Rise to Power: From Prince to World Conqueror
Born in 356 BCE in the ancient Macedonian capital of Pella, Alexander was destined for greatness from his earliest days. As the son of King Philip II, a brilliant military innovator who transformed Macedonia from a backwater kingdom into the dominant power in Greece, Alexander inherited not just royal blood but also his father's martial genius.
The young prince's military education began even earlier. At just 16, Alexander was entrusted with commanding the left wing of the Macedonian army at the decisive Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE, where his father's forces crushed the combined armies of Athens and Thebes.
This victory demonstrated the superiority of the Macedonian military system that Philip had developed, innovations clearly represented in WoFun's carefully designed miniature sets. The distinctive Macedonian phalanx with its 18-foot sarissas, which Alexander would later use to such devastating effect against the Persians, forms the core of the WoFun Macedonian army packs, with multiple units of both armored and unarmored phalangites available in both 18mm and 28mm scales.
On the tabletop battlefield, this strategic lesson translates directly to game mechanics. WoFun's rules for the Wars of Alexander, designed by Andy Callan, incorporate morale systems where dramatic victories can cause enemy units to lose heart and retreat, just as the Greek cities lost their will to resist after the destruction of Thebes. A player commanding Macedonian forces can recreate Alexander's psychological warfare by concentrating forces against isolated enemy units, achieving decisive victories that undermine the enemy's will to fight.
With Greece secured, Alexander turned his attention eastward to the Persian Empire, the great enemy that his father had been preparing to confront before his assassination. The Persian campaign would require extensive preparation and a total commitment of Macedonia's resources. Alexander reorganized the army, incorporating Greek allies (represented by Greek mercenary units) and innovating new tactical combinations. He personally selected his commanders, many of whom had served his father, ensuring a blend of experience and loyalty that would prove crucial in the coming campaigns.
The Macedonian Military Machine: Engineering Victory from Battlefield to Tabletop
Alexander inherited from his father not just a kingdom but a revolutionary military system that transformed ancient warfare. The traditional Greek hoplite phalanx had been effective for centuries, but Philip II had reimagined it, creating a more flexible and lethal formation that would become the backbone of Alexander's conquests. This Macedonian phalanx forms the core of any WoFun Macedonian army, represented in their tabletop miniatures with exquisite historical accuracy.
The standard infantry unit in Alexander's army was the phalangite, armed with the formidable sarissa, a pike reaching an astonishing 18 feet in length. Unlike previous spear formations, the Macedonian phalanx arranged these weapons in a staggered formation, with the sarissas of the first five ranks extending beyond the front line. This created a bristling hedge of spearpoints that few enemies could approach. On the tabletop, this advantage is represented by the "Strike first" rule, where sarissa-armed units roll their combat dice and the enemy takes casualties before being able to strike back, a decisive advantage in the crucial first round of combat.
WoFun's 18mm and 28mm Macedonian collections include multiple units of both armored and unarmored phalangites, allowing players to recreate the varying levels of equipment among Alexander's infantry forces. In the game, these units operate in tight 3x2 base blocks with all bases touching, reflecting the historical formation that made the phalanx so formidable. This formation provides not only protection but also combat advantages, every base in the second row counts in combat if it's behind a fighting base in the front row, effectively doubling the unit's striking power.
Complementing the phalanx was the hypaspist corps, elite heavy infantry capable of both holding the line alongside the phalangites and operating in more broken terrain where the phalanx might struggle. These versatile troops served as the perfect bridge between the dense phalanx and Alexander's light infantry forces. In WoFun's "Wars of Alexander" rules, hypaspists are classified as heavy infantry and can operate either in a block or a line formation, giving players tactical flexibility not available to standard phalangites.
While the infantry formed the anvil of Alexander's tactical system, it was his cavalry, particularly the legendary Companion Cavalry, that served as the hammer. These heavy horsemen, nobles drawn from Macedonia's aristocratic families, were armed with xyston spears and formed the elite striking force of the army. Alexander himself commanded this formation in battle, personally leading charges at critical moments. The miniature sets include beautifully detailed Companion Cavalry units, complete with their distinctive long spears and armor.
In tabletop battles using WoFun's rules, Companion Cavalry receives the highest point value of any unit (4 points per base), reflecting their elite status. Their ability to "charge" allows them to move up to 10 base widths to contact the enemy, with re-rolls of low dice results representing their devastating impact. Like their historical counterparts, these cavalry units can deliver game-changing blows when timed correctly.
What made Alexander's army truly revolutionary wasn't just these individual components but how they worked together. The phalanx would pin enemy forces in place, while light infantry and missile troops harassed the flanks. Then, at the critical moment, Alexander would lead the Companion Cavalry in a decisive charge, often aimed at the enemy commander. This combined-arms approach created a military system greater than the sum of its parts. On the tabletop, the Macedonian player can recreate these tactics, using the superior discipline of Macedonian units (which can move through each other without difficulty) to maneuver more effectively than their opponents.
The flexibility and training of the Macedonian force is also represented in the game's "Discipline" phase. After combat, Macedonian troops can use "their superb training to re-form their ranks and close up any gaps made in their lines by losses," giving them a significant advantage in sustained combat. This rule elegantly captures the historical discipline that set Alexander's forces apart from their contemporaries.
WoFun's starter packs for both 18mm and 28mm scales provide all the elements needed to field a balanced Macedonian force, with phalangites, hypaspists, light infantry, Companions, light-medium cavalry, and command elements included. For players seeking to recreate Alexander's larger battles, the Antiquity Full Pack expands these options with additional unit types and variations, allowing for historically accurate army composition across his decade-long campaign.
The Persian Empire Faces Alexander: Ancient Might Meets Tactical Innovation
When Alexander crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor in 334 BCE, he challenged not just any adversary but the greatest superpower of the ancient world. The Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great two centuries earlier, stretched from the shores of the Aegean to the Indus Valley, encompassing diverse peoples, cultures, and military traditions. At its height, it governed nearly 40% of the world's population across 5.5 million square kilometers of territory.
By the time of Darius III's reign, however, the empire had begun to show signs of strain. Court intrigues, succession disputes, and the growing independence of frontier satraps had weakened central authority. Nevertheless, Persia remained formidable, with resources that dwarfed anything Alexander could muster. The empire's greatest strength lay in its diversity, drawing soldiers from dozens of subject nations, each bringing distinct fighting styles and equipment to create a military tapestry unmatched in variety and scale.
The core of Persian military power resided in two elite forces: the 10,000 "Immortals" (so named because their numbers were always maintained at full strength) and the royal cavalry drawn from Persian nobility. Persian army sets accurately reflect this historical makeup, offering miniatures of both the famous Immortals with their distinctive scale armor and wicker shields, as well as the splendidly equipped Persian heavy cavalry. In the game, Persian Immortals are classified as medium infantry but receive a higher save value (4-6) than typical medium infantry, representing their superior training and equipment.
Persian Immortals Blue Regiment
What truly distinguished Persian armies, however, was their reliance on missile troops, particularly archers. While Greek armies favored close combat with spear and shield, Persian military doctrine emphasized archery as the primary means of weakening enemy formations before closing to melee. The empire's composite bows, more powerful than their Greek counterparts, could deliver lethal volleys from beyond the reach of enemy weapons.
This tactical advantage is explicitly incorporated into WoFun's game mechanics, where Persian close-order archers hit on rolls of 5½ or 6 (re-rolling 5s, saving if the second roll is 4/5/6), making them more accurate than other missile troops. Additionally, these archers possess the unique ability to "shoot over the heads of friendly infantry at a target at least 3 BW in front of the friendly unit", a game mechanic that directly reflects historical Persian tactics of placing archer units behind their infantry screens.
Persian forces also included specialized units like the feared Scythian and Saka horse archers. These mounted warriors from the empire's northern frontiers practiced a hit-and-run style of warfare that was particularly effective against slow-moving infantry. In the WoFun rules, these units receive special "circle of death" formation rules that allow them to shoot in both the shooting phase AND the movement phase of a turn, rolling twice as many dice as standard archers. They also benefit from the "Parthian shot" rule, allowing them to shoot while evading enemy cavalry, an elegant mechanical representation of their historical tactics.
Another distinctive element of Persian armies was their use of scythed chariots, designed to break enemy formations through terror as much as through direct damage. Though ultimately ineffective against Alexander's disciplined troops, these war machines represented the Persian tradition of overwhelming enemies through specialized weapons and psychological warfare. WoFun represents these dramatic units in both their 18mm and 28mm Persian miniatures, with special rules that make them devastating in a successful first attack but vulnerable if they fail to break through enemy lines.
For the tabletop general commanding Persian forces against a Macedonian opponent, the game mechanics encourage historically accurate strategies. Persian strengths lie in their superior numbers (the Persian starter pack includes 41 bases compared to the Macedonian 37), missile superiority, and cavalry mobility. A successful Persian player will use skirmishers to harass the Macedonian phalanx while maneuvering cavalry to threaten its flanks and rear.
The Persians also benefit from the "first shoot" advantage, when both players roll to determine who shoots first in a turn, "Persians shoot first if it is a tie." This small but significant edge represents the empire's emphasis on archery as their primary military doctrine. However, Persian forces also have historical disadvantages represented in-game: they struggle with maneuver (taking 2BW off movement when wheeling) and coordination (requiring dice rolls when attempting to move through friendly units), reflecting the challenges of commanding a diverse, multi-ethnic force.
Persian units extends beyond the starter packs to include specialized units like Persian Arab Camelry (which unsettles enemy horses), Babylonian cavalry, and various regional infantry types. This allows players to recreate not just Darius III's forces at famous battles like Issus and Gaugamela but also the diverse armies Alexander encountered during his march through the empire's eastern provinces.
Key Battles and Conquests: Alexander's Path to Glory
The first major clash came at the Granicus River (334 BCE), where Persian satraps assembled a force to halt the invasion before it gained momentum. Despite advice from his generals to delay the attack, Alexander ordered an immediate assault across the river. The battle demonstrated a pattern that would become familiar throughout his campaigns, the Macedonian phalanx engaging the enemy frontally while Alexander personally led a decisive cavalry charge that shattered Persian resistance.
For players, the Battle of Granicus provides an excellent introductory scenario, featuring a river crossing (treated as an "obstacle" under the rules) and the challenge of coordinating infantry and cavalry attacks. The game's mechanics for crossing obstacles are particularly relevant here:
"Unless the difficulty of crossing a battlefield obstacle is agreed beforehand and known to both players, the first time a unit tries to cross it roll a dice: 4/5/6: Easy to cross. The unit gets to the other side but this always ends its move."
This elegantly captures the tactical challenge Alexander faced at Granicus, where the crossing itself became a critical moment of vulnerability.
After securing Asia Minor, Alexander marched south along the Mediterranean coast, meeting Darius III himself at Issus (333 BCE). Here, the Persian Great King assembled a force that vastly outnumbered the Macedonians, but the narrow coastal plain negated this advantage by preventing the Persians from fully deploying their superior numbers. Alexander again employed his signature tactic, fixing the Persian center with his phalanx while leading the Companion Cavalry in a decisive charge aimed directly at Darius. The Persian king fled, abandoning his army, family, and royal treasury to the Macedonians.
On the tabletop, the Battle of Issus demonstrates the importance of terrain constraints and the value of cavalry mobility. WoFun's rules for bad going (Woods and marshes) come into play: "Heavy and Medium Infantry in bad going move only 2BW and always get disordered. Cavalry cannot move at all in bad going." By choosing a battlefield with restricted flanks, the Macedonian player can negate Persian numerical superiority just as Alexander did historically.
Macedonian Light-Medium Cavalry
After the victory at Issus, Alexander chose not to pursue Darius immediately but instead secured the Eastern Mediterranean coastline and Egypt, ensuring his supply lines and preventing Persian naval forces from threatening his rear. The Siege of Tyre (332 BCE) demonstrated his determination and engineering prowess, when the island city refused to surrender, Alexander built a causeway across the sea to reach it, a seven-month project that culminated in the city's capture and destruction.
The climactic confrontation with Persia came at Gaugamela (331 BCE), where Darius assembled a massive army on open plains carefully prepared for chariot charges. Despite being outnumbered perhaps 5-to-1, Alexander employed a slanted battle line, refusing his left wing while personally leading a cavalry charge through a gap in the Persian line directly toward Darius. Once again, the Persian king fled, and his army disintegrated.
Gaugamela battle offers the ultimate challenge in recreating Alexander's most famous victory. The game's special rules for Persian scythed chariots are particularly relevant here:
"Scythed Chariots operate alone as single units. They must roll dice for orders. They move and fight like Heavy Cavalry. If they fail to destroy their opponents in the first round of a fight they are destroyed themselves."
This perfectly captures their all-or-nothing tactical role at Gaugamela, where Alexander's troops opened corridors in their formation, allowing the chariots to pass harmlessly through before closing ranks.
After Gaugamela, Alexander captured the Persian capitals of Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, claiming their vast treasures. He continued eastward, pursuing Darius until the Persian king was murdered by his own noble, Bessus. Alexander's campaign then pushed into Central Asia and eventually to India, where he faced King Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes (326 BCE). This engagement presented a new challenge, war elephants, but Alexander adapted his tactics, using javelin-armed troops to target the elephants' handlers while maintaining his basic approach of infantry center and cavalry strike force.
WoFun's 18mm and 28mm Antiquity Full Packs include units representing forces from across Alexander's campaign, allowing players to recreate not just the Persian Wars but also his later encounters with Indian armies. The modular nature of the rules accommodates the introduction of new unit types like elephants, with appropriate mechanics for their battlefield impact.
Commanding Ancient Armies: The Wars of Alexander Ruleset
The beating heart of any historical wargame lies in its rules, the framework that transforms static miniatures into dynamic representations of ancient warfare. WoFun's "Wars of Alexander the Great" ruleset, crafted by Andy Callan, strikes a remarkable balance between historical accuracy and playability, allowing players to experience the tactical challenges faced by commanders from this pivotal era of military history.
The game's structure elegantly distills ancient warfare into five essential phases that comprise each turn: Shoot, Move, Fight, Discipline, and Victory. This sequence captures the fundamental rhythm of ancient battles, where missile exchanges preceded maneuver, which led to close combat, followed by the crucial test of morale that often decided engagements regardless of casualties. All measurements in the game are expressed in "base widths" (BW), making the rules adaptable to different scales of miniatures, a 28mm WoFun base is 4cm wide, while an 18mm base measures 3cm.
The shooting phase recreates the opening exchanges of ancient battles, where archers, slingers, and javelin-throwers attempted to weaken enemy formations before close combat. The rules reflect the limited effectiveness of ancient missile weapons against armored troops, with heavy infantry saving on rolls of 3-6 while skirmishers are much more vulnerable (saving only on 5-6). This historically accurate distinction encourages players to employ light troops as they were used historically, to harass, delay, and disrupt rather than to inflict decisive casualties.
Movement captures the different mobility levels of various troop types, from the relatively slow heavy infantry (4BW) to the highly mobile light cavalry (10BW). Crucially, the rules incorporate Alexander's revolutionary combined-arms approach by allowing all Macedonian units to move through each other without difficulty, a significant advantage over Persian forces, which must roll dice to execute such complex maneuvers. This simple mechanic elegantly represents the superior training and coordination of Alexander's army.
The fighting phase forms the heart of the game, recreating the brutal push and shove of ancient combat through an elegant dice-based system. Units roll one die per base involved in combat, with better-trained and equipped troops hitting on more results (Heavy Cavalry, Heavy Infantry and Phalangites hit on 4-6, while missile-armed troops hit only on 6). The rules particularly shine in their representation of the Macedonian phalanx's advantage, troops armed with sarissas get a "Strike first" bonus in the first round of combat, rolling their dice and causing casualties before the enemy can respond. This single rule encapsulates the devastating effect of the bristling hedge of pike points that confronted Alexander's opponents.
Perhaps most impressive is the game's discipline phase, which captures the psychological dimension of ancient warfare. Units that have lost half their bases cannot attack, representing their diminished offensive capability, while those that have lost more than half must retreat. When units rout, they can trigger panic tests in nearby friendly units, potentially causing a cascading collapse similar to what occurred historically when Darius fled at Issus and Gaugamela. This mechanic ensures that, as in real ancient battles, morale often proves more decisive than casualties.
The role of generals receives special attention, reflecting the personal leadership style of Alexander and his contemporaries. A general can join units to inspire them, allowing re-rolls of poor combat results or failed panic tests, but at considerable risk, as the general himself may be killed if his unit takes casualties. This creates precisely the kind of risk-reward calculation that faced ancient commanders who needed to balance personal inspiration against the catastrophic consequences of their death or capture.
The advanced rules expand the system to encompass the broader ancient world, adding terrain effects, command challenges, and special rules for specific national armies. Greek hoplites, Theban columns, Scythian horse archers, and Persian chariots each receive distinctive mechanics that capture their historical fighting methods. A simple points system allows players to create balanced forces for pickup games, with unit costs reflecting their historical effectiveness.
A Tale of Two Collections: Antiquity-PD vs. Antiquity-WoF
The ancient world comes alive through WoFun's two distinct miniature collections, Antiquity-PD and Antiquity-WoF, each offering a unique artistic approach to classical warfare. These complementary collections provide players with stylistic choices that accommodate different aesthetic and gaming requirements.
18mm Antiquity Full Pack - WoF
The collections also differ significantly in their scope and scale. The Antiquity-PD Full Packs are substantially larger, containing 1,786 figurines across 25 Plexiglass sprues in the 18mm scale (and 49 sprues in 28mm). This comprehensive collection includes specialized units like Persian Arab Camelry, Thessalian Cavalry, Silver Shields Hypaspists, and numerous regional infantry variants. Tabletop generals seeking to recreate specific historical battles with exact unit compositions will find the breadth of options in the PD collection invaluable.
The more focused Antiquity-WoF Full Packs contain 342 figurines with a streamlined unit selection covering the essential troop types, Macedonian Hoplites, Greek Mercenary Hoplites, Macedonian Archers, various cavalry units, and core Persian forces. This concentrated approach makes the WoF collection particularly suitable for newcomers to ancient wargaming or those seeking to quickly assemble balanced opposing forces without the complexity of numerous specialized units.
Wars of Alexander the Great Starter Pack 28 mm
Another notable difference appears in base organization. The PD collection follows traditional wargaming conventions, with "An Infantry Base holding 2 groups of figurines, in 2 ranks (one behind the other)" and "A Cavalry Base holding 2 groups of figurines, in 2 ranks." The WoF collection adopts a slightly different approach, with "An Infantry Base holding 6 figurines, in 2 ranks" and "A Cavalry Base holding 3 figurines, in 3 ranks," creating a distinct visual presentation on the battlefield.
For the discerning wargamer, these collections offer complementary rather than competing options. Many enthusiasts mix units from both lines, using the characterful WoF figures for their generals and elite units while deploying the historically precise PD figures for rank-and-file troops. Others maintain separate armies from each collection, allowing both artistic visions to stand on their own merits. Whichever approach players choose, both collections deliver on WoFun's core promise, historically inspired armies ready for immediate tabletop action without the traditional barriers of assembly and painting.