Grimkrieg

While combat may not be as developed as some titles and it lacks the production values of more expensive games Hegemony Gold is definitely a fun game. What makes it stand out in my mind are the little touches, things that I learned as played deeper and deeper into the game. The Hegemony system sets goals for you to accomplish in each campaign, and rewards you for attaining them. These help keep up the pace in the mid-game by giving you ideas on what to conquer next. The goals also give you an idea of how Phillip's campaigns progressed and add a little flavor. The logistics system is excellent. In most strategy titles I find logistics annoying at the start, but completely irrelevant in the end-game. In Hegemony supply matters, and the larger your empire the more important it becomes. It makes for a very interesting mid and end-game. This not only goes for food, but manpower to replace losses in your units as well. Using these against your opponents also makes for interesting strategies off the battle-field. The unit types are very subtle. Early on it seemed to me that the game had very few unit types, but as I progressed into the game I learned to recognize the difference between the hoplites, peltasts, and cavalry from different factions. This was a rewarding discovery, both for game-play, and because it reminded me of some old stories about the times. Your "native faction" units gain experience which you can use to increase morale, logistics, speed, and siege. The handful of unique units can also get size upgrades as Hegemony rewards. Generals can be assigned to units to increased these stats. Again the effects are subtle, a fully leveled elite unit led by a general can be very powerful, but it won't win the game for you by itself. Mercenaries give you access to unit types your native faction does not have. They are expensive but draw on pool of manpower you don't otherwise use, making them very desirable but situational. The UI is decent. I really love the scrolling aspect on the maps; close up it is a nice RTS view, scroll out it becomes a military campaign map with chess-like pieces, scroll out further it becomes a political map. A powerful tool that become very useful later on. In all this is one of the few strategy games that subtly gets harder and more interesting as the game progresses. It does not have the same sort of steamroller effect where you reach a certain concentration of force and find yourself invincible. You have to work to take and hold every city until very late in the game, waging war on many fronts surrounded by enemies on all sides. I'd recommend this for fans of longer games, people who can appreciate a title that has a lot to offer in the middle and endgame. Not really the best title for people looking for a quick fix.