333 BC · Issus, Cilicia
Alexander defeated a far larger army by driving straight at Darius III, whose flight from the field decided the battle.
A year after the Granicus, Darius III took the field himself with the imperial army. He moved behind Alexander's line of march and cut his communications, which meant the Macedonians had to turn around and fight facing home.
The ground he chose worked against him. The coastal plain at Issus was too narrow for the Persian army to use its numbers, and it was crossed by a river with steep banks.
Darius put his Greek mercenaries and heavy infantry along the river and massed cavalry on his right, by the sea, where the ground allowed it. That wing pushed the Macedonian left hard, and for a time the battle was in the balance.
Alexander went the other way. He led the Companions at an angle into the weaker Persian left, broke through, and turned inward towards the royal chariot. Darius fled the field while his infantry was still fighting, and the army came apart behind him.
Issus gave Alexander Syria and the road south, and it captured Darius's family and camp. More than that, it established the pattern he would repeat at Gaugamela: ignore the army, find the king.
The scenario is about a decisive threat aimed at one point rather than a general advance. Persia has more of everything and less room to use it.
The sides, the commanders and the shape of the decision are historical. The cards, the costs and the turn structure are the game's own language.