Hegemony Gold

Gusington · April 25, 2012, 09:49:56 AM

I am finally getting around to playing this...will probably be able to start this weekend.

How much time does it take to learn? Are the tutorials decent?

I know logistics are a large component of the game...does it take a lot to become a competent logistician?

How is the AI?

Also, how fleshed out are the different factions in sandbox mode? Are there just different skins slapped on to each or do they really feel and operate differently?

Finally, is it fun? I know a lot of you enjoy this game. Since I know NOTHING about ancient Greece, I am wondering how much it will teach me while still being fun.

I'm also going to read Kagan's The Peloponnesian War to compliment it.

Thanks all! Psyched to play this and get in some time before Hegemony: Rome comes out!

LongBlade · April 25, 2012, 11:40:51 AM

I really liked the game, though I don't think I played the Gold version, just the original.

The AI wasn't particularly robust but the game is challenging enough to be enjoyable. I think you'll like it.

mitra76 · April 25, 2012, 12:30:57 PM

Yes is a very good game, easy to learn but with many features

Nefaro · April 25, 2012, 01:56:55 PM

I enjoyed the game.

I had two issues with it:

1) AI 'nations' are either paid off to not attack you, are briefly neutral to you (if adjacent), and tend to just all-out attack you. Even the Gold edition diplomacy really isn't diplomacy - it's just bribery and the bribe recipient regularly asks for more money until you can't afford it and then attack. This would be okay, for what it is, but the AI just tends to go nuts declaring war on you if you're next to them. So it plays more like dog-piling on the player. They don't look to attack each other unless perhaps there's trouble getting a supply line long enough to zerg the player. I hope there's a bit more sophistication to the AI in the next one as this really curbs the replay value & makes it feel more like tower defense (which I don't much like) than a light grand strategy game.

2) Restrictive open areas & large units didn't mix too well. While you can make army formations with the different units, there generally wasn't enough space to spread out in neat lines & attack each other ancients-style. The size of the units, on the map, didn't allow for it and I felt they needed to be reduced in size a good bit along with some extra zoom available, getting things a tad closer towards scale. This is being addressed, in some way, in their upcoming Roman sequel from what I've read.

Any other niggles I had were pretty much solved with the Gold edition. The two above are just the points I'd like to see adjusted in the sequel.

Gusington · April 25, 2012, 02:03:45 PM

Thanks Nefaro. Bribery/diplomacy does sound disappointing. I'm hoping the rest of the game makes up for it.

mikeck · April 25, 2012, 07:16:07 PM

I didn't care for it. The tactical combat was bland and I spent most of my time playing "whack-a-mole with enemy units raiding my supply lines. I wanted to like it but ended up just going back to Rome total war for my ancients fix.

Gusington · April 25, 2012, 07:37:59 PM

^Hmm our tastes usually run pretty similar. Well I'm jonesing to learn about the era, I have to play it now.

Any of you guys play a minor faction?

Bison · April 25, 2012, 08:23:48 PM

It's not a bad lite ancients game. A good way to waste a few hours, but it's not going to become your primary wargame.

Gusington · April 25, 2012, 08:36:07 PM

^Which factions have you played?

Nefaro · April 26, 2012, 01:51:28 AM

My last game was in the Sandbox Campaign as Thebes. Started off well until I realized that the diplomacy/AI situation was basically "everyone attack the player if you spot him". That's not the kind of difficulty I enjoy, but it was still fun for awhile up until the pile-on began in earnest. Being neighbors with AI makes them hate you more & more. While the original campaign kept this to a steady limit, the open sandbox campaign really highlights this problem.