Hegemony is my favorite strategy game because the developers filled it to the brim with their love and care, which is 100 times more important than what I term "technical graphics" - number of polygons and texture detail. The game truly captures the feeling of ancient warfare by altering accepted gameplay; For example, building town walls makes occupied cities more likely to rebell and thus requires larger garrissons (why shouldn't they feel more secure and independant behind walls?). They have also shifted the scope of the warfare, from the genre's standard province by province conquest, we now have a methodical, strategic border creep, city by city.

This game gave me some amazing moments. The most recent from when I first started the Spartan campaign. I felt resonably confident and thus cranked up the difficulty all the way. It started off well, I controlled a single island-city on the Ionian coast, which is perfect for figuring out your surroundings. Yet, I had sufficent numbers of spartan recruits and a large subsidy from home to be comfident. Then I made my biggest mistake, by building more ships and an extra brigade. I was dangerously overstretched and thoughtlessly attacked the closest city on the Athenian-held coast with my hoplites. Unexpectedly, the city was reinforced, my spartans lost and I deep in desperation. I felt just like the Athenians after Sicily.

My army was rebuilding, yet my manpower was used up by either replacing ships killed when I was't looking or still under construction from my earlier expansion. So, I used my single remaining ship to transport a starting spearman brigade to the south (spearmen are this game´s equivalent of WW2 France). There lay a tiny island city basicly undefended and even my spearman brigade could capture it. It had neither farms nor mines. It didn't matter, I only wanted it's manpower. I thus used it as a naval base, freeing up my spartans for infantry. That is beacause captured cities can only produce mercenaries, which means expensive, second-rate troops. They can still produce ships at the same price and quality - wood is wood and ships are ships.

My main base was still short on manpower and for the remainder of the year, I had to cower behind my walls as the Athenians burnt my fields. I knew I would take my revenge upon them, yet all I could do was send my spearmen to do the same to them. I knew I would later take that city, fisting my hands. I soon did.

Hegemony is my favorite strategy game because the developers filled it to the brim with their love and care, which is 100 times more important than what I term "technical graphics" - number of polygons and texture detail. The game truly captures the feeling of ancient warfare by altering accepted gameplay; For example, building town walls makes occupied cities more likely to rebell and thus requires larger garrissons (why shouldn't they feel more secure and independant behind walls?). They have also shifted the scope of the warfare, from the genre's standard province by province conquest, we now have a methodical, strategic border creep, city by city. This game gave me some amazing moments. The most recent from when I first started the Spartan campaign. I felt resonably confident and thus cranked up the difficulty all the way. It started off well, I controlled a single island-city on the Ionian coast, which is perfect for figuring out your surroundings. Yet, I had sufficent numbers of spartan recruits and a large subsidy from home to be comfident. Then I made my biggest mistake, by building more ships and an extra brigade. I was dangerously overstretched and thoughtlessly attacked the closest city on the Athenian-held coast with my hoplites. Unexpectedly, the city was reinforced, my spartans lost and I deep in desperation. I felt just like the Athenians after Sicily. My army was rebuilding, yet my manpower was used up by either replacing ships killed when I was't looking or still under construction from my earlier expansion. So, I used my single remaining ship to transport a starting spearman brigade to the south (spearmen are this game´s equivalent of WW2 France). There lay a tiny island city basicly undefended and even my spearman brigade could capture it. It had neither farms nor mines. It didn't matter, I only wanted it's manpower. I thus used it as a naval base, freeing up my spartans for infantry. That is beacause captured cities can only produce mercenaries, which means expensive, second-rate troops. They can still produce ships at the same price and quality - wood is wood and ships are ships. My main base was still short on manpower and for the remainder of the year, I had to cower behind my walls as the Athenians burnt my fields. I knew I would take my revenge upon them, yet all I could do was send my spearmen to do the same to them. I knew I would later take that city, fisting my hands. I soon did.