"Hegemony - Philip of Macedon" Game

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Though I haven't played it in a while, I'd like to comment that Longbow games seems to have excellent support for a small team of developers. They're beta testing their patches (which has actually made me hesitant to try it, I'd rather wait for the full patch) and if you post a problem on their forum they'll try their best to fix it. They've made repeated offers to people having problems to take the player's savegames and try and assess and even fix the problem from there.

That kind of support, coupled with the game's potential, makes it a pretty good buy at $15 USD. Obviously check out the demo first.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

And everyone's favorite Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an interview with the president of Longbow games (I assume he's also essentially lead dev for Hegemony). Not much new information if you've played the demo/full game, but probably a better picture of the game than my scatter-shot impressions.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Triple post time:

Longbow released the 1.1.0 patch (not the beta) and the game's seems to have a lot less whack-a-mole. Basically they made it easier :P - the AI is more respectful of your garrisons (but still raids to get back territory you took from them to keep you on your toes). I'm having a lot more fun despite having to deal with a memory-related crash that keeps popping up. I'm also being much smarter about who I attack, minimizing the number of fronts I have with the Athenians while completely subjugating annoying factions like the Illyrians and Thracians, who won't let you be if you've taken some of their cities but haven't crippled them. I think with this patch (and hopefully with a fix for my memory problem) I could recommend this game at the $30 price. Anything less than that is a definite buy, though.

Changelog:

* We now have multiple difficulty levels, for those who would like more of a challenge, or if you'd like Hegemony to be a little less stressful.
* The enemy is now less aggressive in 'normal' difficulty. If you liked the difficulty level in version 1.0, set the difficulty to 'expert'.
* A number of problems with objectives have been fixed, including Bardylis disbanding his men, and not being able to complete kill quests.
* Hegemony now supports Unicode file paths, so it works on non-English versions of Windows.
* Issuing orders is now more responsive. This came at a cost: you are now required to double-click faster. This setting is configurable in the 'Gameplay' settings.
* Non-combat units now have a silver base, making it easier to differentiate them from combat units, especially when they're in cities.
* The asset list is now twice as wide, and units in the field report the region they're in. Garrisoned units have a (g) next to their station.
* If you have a wide monitor, you'll be able to open more than two dialogues.

[al Roumi]

I got the full game last Friday (as I mentioned above), I have enjoyed it more than just "more of the same" from the Demo.

I'm not sure which version of the game I'm playing, but it is quite challenging. At worst it feels like MTW2 on Very Hard where all the AI factions are out to get you.

Maybe I'm missing a large chunk of knowledge of Hellenic history but there doesn't seem to be much reason behind the AI raids other than "we are neighbours and don't get on". E.g. why is it that since the beginning of the game the Athenians have annualy landed a raiding fleet south of my capital?

Well, there is no diplomacy in the game but that should not deter from the main game-mechanic of the player managing resources to conquer lands -which is challenging and fun. I've not played a game where you have to consider logisitics so much (food!), but this is a refreshing burst of "realism" which affects how you go about conquering your enemies, e.g. sending scout parties to capture enemy farms and sheep while your main hoplite force moves (slower) into position. Without food and alone, your troops don't last long -and neither do enemy beseigers, so it's often wise to wait out a siege until the enmy morale wavers (unless they properly supply their troops).

[Longjohn4]

I'm loving this game, haven't been so adicted to a game for ages. The research and historical detail in this game are absolutely top class, and the map is beautiful. I'm a big fan of greek history, and it's great to see all small towns and mountain passes brought to life. This game has clearly had a lot of loving. There are great historical touches such as flocks of sheep you can capture, and the biographies of all the companions (generals).

The combat system isn't super realistic in that you have an infinite supply of troops, but the sense of progression is good. It took about a year to conquer the Chalkidike, and another for Thessaly. (1 yr = 1 hour game time = about 6 hours realtime as you have to pause a lot). It's also great to see supply depicted in the game so well, without it becoming at all dry or tedious.

It shows another way to do a realistic ancient historical computer game, and is well worth the rather modest price.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Hey Longjohn, I think I've seen you on the Longbow forums. :P I can't wait for further patches for Hegemony (got an annoyingly persistant crash up in the far eastern Danube area) and for future games from Longbow based on this engine and some of the gameplay concepts. The combat is quite abstracted (or contrived, if you're in a bad mood :P) but I don't think it's really much more abstract than TW games, really. The tactical fights are obviously much more simpler but there is a lot greater strategic depth to it.

I've really only been playing games recently to hold me over until I get more patches for this. I've fallen for it pretty bad. :P

[al Roumi]

I was able to apply the impulse patch which fixed the zerg AI shortly after my last post. It is a massive improvement in terms of preventing the whack-a-mole game play. Best of all, if you still want that kind of head ache, you can get it by playing on Hard, rather than Normal.

The fixed AI has not stopped AI raiding compeltely, and I'm glad it hasn't. More powerful or embittered enemies (Athenians, Illyrians, Phocians...) still raid your territory but I found the Bylazoran tribes (can't remember their name) much quieter. I think the enemy factios only attack if they have the numbers to do it -I certainly don't see so many single unit raids (if any).

Anyway, the change really unlocked me strategically and freed up troops which had otherwise been tied down on garrison/defensive duty to be more offensive. My personal strategy has been to try to keep a rolling frontier of consistent dimensions, creating a hard/fortified border with an un-fortified/ungarrissoned centre. This allows me to reallocate the forces from an "internal" city to the frontier. Sounds pretty simple really but force concentration is what it's all (and has always) been about.

Unfortunately this same dynamic which we've seen on TW games, where it can be fairly simple to pacify internal regions and focus troops on the borders, means that the game gets easier the larger you grow your empire (assuming you grow it appropriately, e.g. creating as much of an internal "safe" space as possible). As the game gets easier, the challenge decreases and so does the reward and enjoyment (unless you like winning easy fights).

The challenges faced in the mid/late game are when confronting rivals of similar size -factions who have also expanded or control similar concentrations of resources. I think/hope Longbow have written in enough of these large enemies to make my continued experience as fun as the beginning has been.

Or I could just start a new game on hard and go back to spitting teeth