Part 1: Introduction

I noticed in looking at these forums, that there is not really a gameplay guide out there for you. Especially when playing the Phillip Scenario, I mean you start out so small, but in the end you can become one massive empire, but the key question everyone must have is where to expand first? Where should I start? Which direction? Well hopefully, this basic guide can help answer those questions.
Keep in mind, there’s probably 101 possible ways to start and expand, but I find usually going in certain directions first always helps cut the constant stream of invasions that some people have talked about (including myself) in the scenario. This guide is based on the lastest Alpha 5 build of Hegemony: Gold, and while some of strategies may change by official release, I think the basic gist of where to expand should remain the same.

Also, I will be breaking this up into parts for easier reading for everyone, and it will be posted over the course of several days, for now, only the first 3 parts will be posted tonight.

Well, hope you guys enjoy what I'm about to talk about, and helps new comers as well in understanding this awesome game.

Part 2: The Beginnings

First things first, the nice tutorial stuff, the first hour or so is pretty self explanatory, so I really won’t talk about that much. This guide will start after you’ve defeated Bardylis when all the regions in the game open up to you, as before that point, it’s pretty obvious on where you should be expanding. If you would like some quick tips on that, then just make sure you grab all areas on your side of Lower Macadonia by Pella, which means the little city directly North of Pella, Edomene (And also the farm West of it) and Also Elimea and Eordaea before confronting Bardylis.

Some other minor beginner tips, the beauty of this game is there’s no time limit, you can expand at your own leisure. In other words, don’t worry about the fact that you need to conquer all of Greece in 4 hours, there’s nothing like that. Take your time, survey the situation, continue to let your population regenerate after major campaigns. As what will happen, if you blitz, blitz, expand, expand, and all of sudden you can find yourself totally stretched thin, and most importantly may not have enough population to replenish your battered recruits.

Throughout the course of the game, you’ll receive Migrants as a reward for a lot of objectives; it’s highly advisable that you use the beginning ones you get towards your capital of Pella, as that city can sustain the most population of any native Macedonian city you’ll have for awhile. Second most important, is Edessa, so focus all your migrants on Pella first, then Edessa, and after you can spread them out where you see fit as you expand. (3rd should probably Heraklea Lyncestis, but that’s up to you)
Notice the trends of the AI, the AI will usually attack from the same direction most of the time for example, the Illryians will always try to invade Upper Macedonia either by going down Wolf's Pass (aka "the High Corridor") from Lake Lychindos or from Penestae down the corridor that leads to your most northern Upper Macedonia city of Pelagoni. So here’s where patience comes in when expanding, after taking a series of objectives, slow down, survey the situation, see what new borders you have now, and see how they invade, so you can set proper defenses before you go on your next campaign and don’t get caught unguarded.

In terms of your campaigning units and generals, I always have Phillip at the lead of the Companion Calvary, along with usually a start of just 2-3 Phalangite units, and accompanied by the Hypaspists who make awesome siege units with their high resistance to arrows. As for the Generals, I always keep the best generals with me, because I feel I need the best to accomplish what I need to do. As you expand, you get lesser generals and even some better ones, those you can keep back as an extra juice to your units to who you attach them too for defensive purposes. My campaigning units naturally grow as I continue to expand, (I think towards the middle, I use like 5-6 Phalangite units, 2 siege units (The Hypaspists and The Amphictyons which you get after you get Larissa), 1 Companion Calv, and usually 1 allied or mercenary cavalry (either Tribal or Thessalian, I avoid using scout cavalry for campaigns), and 3 units of catapults as my main campaigning force

Part 3: The Options

Ok, so now you’ve defeated Bardylis, and victory is yours and you have been declared King of the Macedons, but there’s still a ton of work to do before your initial native kingdom is secure. So first’s things first, mop up the Illyrians in Upper Macedonia, and grab the cities of Heraklea Lyncestis and Pelagonia. At the same time while you’re doing this, you should have at least 1 Phalangite Unit, and 2 Scout Cav, stationed in Emathia to prevent any incursions from the southern side of Lower Macedonia which is basically still in the control of Athens and 1 or 2 Phalangite unit stationd near elimea to protect incursions from Olooson. (You will most likely have to bring units from Lower Macedon to assist the units in Elimea, if Thessaly sends a large invasion force towards you.) In doing this, you can pretty much counter any invasion that Methone or Olosoon will send at you, and even better with Methone if it’s by ship, since you can meet them where they’ll land, and greet them with the point of your spear. After you’ve reclaimed the city states of Heraklea Lyncestis and Pelagonia, keep at least 1 Phalangite or two if possible in Upper Macedonia, along with 2-3 scout Calvary (You should have enough money for that with the extra income you’ll get after being declared king) to counter an Illyrian invasions from the West and tribal raids from the East.
Now, doing all that, you should have the following cities: Aegae, Emathia, Edessa, Almopia, Pella, Edomene, Elimea, Eordaea, Heraklea Lyncestis, and Pelagonia under your belt. So its decision time and you basically have 5 options at the present:

1) Head into Thessaly to help out the League after conquering Olooson (As no matter what you do, that should always be your first target after securing Upper Macedonia, to get Catapults) and drive back the Tyrants of Pherae and Phocians

2) Head West, towards the Illyrian cities of Pelion, Diabolis, and finally Lake Lycindos to block the “high corridor” and thereby stop the majority of Illryian invasions into Upper Macedonia. (You’ll have to deal with them coming down from Penestae, but considering that this time they will only be coming from one area, it helps limit that invasion to a great extent.

3) Head East, and secure the Eastern Border of Pella with all your units there by reclaiming the cities owned by the Chalcidian League and Western Odrysian Kingdom, and eventually that will make your way towards the prized mines of Mt.Pangeus

4) Head North-West, and deal with the tribal faction of the Paeonian’s, to quell your backside into Lower Macedonia and the Eastern side of Upper Macadeonia.

5) Head South-East, and kick Athens out of Lower Macedonia around the Thermaic Gulf region, to at least quell the extend of the raids into Lower Macedonia.

Part 4: The Decision and Preparations

So as you can see, you have tons of options here and ideally you want to do all of them, but for a beginner it can be rather daunting on which direction to go, so the order it’s done is very important.. Option #1 (Thessaly) or #2 (Illyrians) is rather difficult to pull off first if you don’t secure the Lower Macedonia areas as you’ll find yourself spread out way to thin, and constantly get annoyed by the amount of invasions and defenses you’ll have to do. Option #3 (Western Odrysian Kingdom and Chalcidian League), sounds very intriguing to do, because it starts opening up the passage way towards Amphipolis, and the wealth of Mt. Pangeus, but again if you don’t secure your other borders first (Athens in the South-West of Lower Macedonia, and the Paeonians to the North-West) you’ll get annoyed by the amount raids/invasions they will try to pull off towards your kingdom. So that basically leaves us with 2 options to do first and that’s either Option #4 (Paeonian’s Tribe) or Option #5 (Athens). Either one you pick is a good starting choice because you will secure one border that would lower the frequency of invasions from that side. However, option #4, of completely securing the Eastern approaches into Upper Macadeonia and the South-West approach into Lower Macedonia by taking on the Paeonian Tribe, is way more alluring then kicking Athens out for now. Most importantly because of the wealth of mines Stobi and Stropsko have (About 8 total), which can help out tremendously in stocking up more units for defense and even campaigning. So the ideal choice to me is option #4 first, then Option #5, then a mix of Option #1 and #3, (which I’ll explain later), then Option #2, and finally back to Option #1 again.

However, before I undertake Option #4, I do a couple of things first. Keep at least 2 Phalangite units and 2 scout Calvary at Home, to protect against Athens incursions. Then park a Phalangite unit and scout cavalry in Edomene (North of Pella on your side of the river) to counter any raids from Amphaxis or Sintike. Have at least 1-2 Phalangite and 3-4 Scout Calvary in Upper Macedonia and most importantly, have about 1-2 Phalangite units and a few scout calvary near Olooson (ideally parked in Elimea) to protect against Thesslian or Tyrants of Pherae incursions (who control Larissa). As per alpha 5, diplomacy pricing has been changed dramatically that it’s actually very useful, and you should have no hostility, and more intimidation then the Thessalian League itself, that you should be able to get a truce very cheaply. This way, all you would have to deal with are the Tyrants instead, which is not so bad. The beginning can be a rough, as you will find yourself spread a bit thin, and sometimes the units from Upper Macedonia or even your home lands may need to help each other out, since you may not be able to afford all that from the beginning. The units are close by so that this is possible. Always remember, if you feel like there’s too many units, immediately park that unit inside the city (You should always build walls in almost all your cities btw, especially your native ones), and let them siege it out; till you gather enough troops to counter that invasion. It may also help to get Tymphia (West of Elimea) which is another native Macedonia city to secure the western borders of the cities of Elimea and Eordae. Keep in mind; if you do that, then you’ll have to deal with the Epirus units that come down from the Pindus Mountains or some minor Illyrian incursions from Pelion (however, I usually never notice them send more than just Peltast units most of the time from that city) Epirus will most of the time bring just Peltast units towards you, so as long you have 3-4 Scout Cav stationed in Tymphia, you can deal with any raids they throw at you from that direction. Eventually, as you start Option #4, you should have enough money to get a truce with Epirus, so that you won’t have to worry about those raids for quite some time. Also, while I do suggest the truces, don’t ally with anyone yet, especially the Thessalian League, as what would happen (as least as of Alpha 5 which that can be subject to change), is all their territories will become yours, and then you’ll open a whole another can of worms on where the Tyrants and even the Phocians, and perhaps even the Acarnanian League which is the faction South-West of Metropolis can now being to attack you from different directions which is something you do not want to deal with this early in the scenario. Now, it’s time to begin option #4 and our very first campaign.

Part 5: The Paeonian Campaign

It helps, when going on a campaign, to look at the objectives for it, they usually go in good order, and should be your major focus as your campaigning in a particular region. Now march your campaign units (see the first couple of paragraphs up on how that should look) East of Pelagonia, and you’ll eventually hit the first town of either Stobi or Bylazora, depending on which direction you went. Ideally, you want to get Stobi first, because that’s the main hub that can raid down into Lower Macedonia. So get that first, and then after you’re done with that, start building those mines to get some early income. (If you don’t have enough slaves, train workers, you’re still making a profit from those mines even with workers inside) Continue to move north from Stobi, and take Bylazora, then head West from there, and take Bargala, and finally after you’re done there, head North and cap it off with Stropsko. I noticed, in alpha 5, that after you conquered Bylazora, you should have enough money to get them to make a truce, and even an alliance with you (thus all the Paeonian territories will become yours), granted, this can change, but if that feature is still there come release (and based on Rob lasts post, it will it seems), so be careful if you do that. As what also happens is not only will the cities mentioned before come under your control, but so will Agrianes as well, and that city is right smack in the middle of aggressive tribes of the Balkan Mountains and Danube Tribe, and it may not be something you want to do at the moment. Alright, so you successfully campaigned into the Paeonian territories and secured your eastern approach in upper Macedonia and south-west approach into Lower Macedonia which help tremendously for further campaign. Naturally, here’s where patience must come, since you now expanded quite far, you’ll notice West of Stropsko, there’s a hugh patch of land, and at the end of that land, a mighty tribal city state of Illyria called Dardania. That city state will send full out brigades and not just small raid parties towards Stropsko. So it’s mighty important that you have at least 2 Phalangite units there and 2 tribal archers, and if possible 1 tribal cavalry too if you can afford it. You’re also going to want to place a Phalangite unit and an archer unit, and perhaps even tribal cavalry again in Bargala, to stop any invasions from the Western Odrysian Kingdom that they will launch from Maidoi or Denthalethai. So again, its calm and collectiveness that needs to be portrayed here, stick your campaign units around that region, and see how they attack, then put your defenses there after the first couple of attacks.

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Reserved for the final Part, Part 10.

In part 4 I first wiped out the Paeonian’s then attacked the Illyrians till they were wiped out.Also I kept endomene without any units so the West Odrysians kept attacking Bargala,which is easy to defend. Then I captured Thessaly and Phocians.Now advance to Chalcidian League capturing the athenian empire upto Apollonia Nestus then advance to Agrianians and the western reaches of balkans and mystery of balkan mountains. but the most important part is to capture lots of slaves and then set them to mines so that the money does not run out. Also keep expense about 200 lower than the income so incase attacked on any route the troops are not demoralized

As for migrants I started sending them to cities with low population and created phalangite and when the whole region is conquered I kept only one Peltast and scout cavalry rest of the units I disbanded for the cities deep inside with no possibility of being attacked

In part 4 I first wiped out the Paeonian’s then attacked the Illyrians till they were wiped out.Also I kept endomene without any units so the West Odrysians kept attacking Bargala,which is easy to defend. Then I captured Thessaly and Phocians.Now advance to Chalcidian League capturing the athenian empire upto Apollonia Nestus then advance to Agrianians and the western reaches of balkans and mystery of balkan mountains. but the most important part is to capture lots of slaves and then set them to mines so that the money does not run out. Also keep expense about 200 lower than the income so incase attacked on any route the troops are not demoralized

Very interesting, as I have stated there are 101 possible ways you could go, but that's beauty of this game naturally with the many directions you can go.

Though I am curious on how you did Illyrians, Balkan Tribes, and then Thessaly and the Phocians first before securing the borders around you, as the Athenian attacks can be just annoying especially very near your home provinces, and since the Illyrians and Balkan Tribes are really spread out in their cities, a campaign to them takes much, much longer then the others. Personally, I really don't like going on a long campaign like that in the beginning, if I gotta constantly re-focus my efforts back to my home provinces. Also in terms of going after Thessaly and Phocians right after, I hope you were able to declare a truce with Thebes or something because if you didn't, after you take care of the Phocians, the Thebians will probably come after you non-stop for a while, so I find it difficult to that first before securing the area around my home.

BTW, are you using the latest Alpha 5 Gold version in your game? or was this something you did in the original Phillip scenario?

Quick question (if not completely on topic) - how do you manage replenishing casualties vs recruiting new units? The last campaign I played (around alpha 4's release) I was always running out of manpower for my core units (mostly phalangites) and had to come up with some pretty desperate defenses when those depleted units were recruiting.

Like what do you do when a unit is far from home and at half strength with few recruits at the home town? Re-assign it to a closer home with more dudes in the manpower pool or sideline it and wait?

Like what do you do when a unit is far from home and at half strength with few recruits at the home town? Re-assign it to a closer home with more dudes in the manpower pool or sideline it and wait?

I would assign the unit closer to a city that has the pop, so it can regenerate faster, and if all your cities are out, then just be patient and wait it out, but there should always be some city that has some population available, so just make sure you link your supply lines right for this. I will say, as you empire expands, population regen is not a problem anymore, as you continue to get back more of your native Macedonian cities. Which, again brings me back to one of the first things I said, the Migrants you get as you complete objectives, focus that on your best cities to fill them up because the higher the pop, the quicker the cities regen will go. So max out Pella as quick as possible, and you field a good amount of brigades from them alone for awhile. As you continue to expand and more migrants become available, and Pella and Edessa are maxed out, then you can dabble around the surrounding city-states.

So indeed, it can be a bit tedious constantly switching homes and such for the better replenishment, but do not worry about that to much since it will go away as your empire becomes much, much larger.

Like what do you do when a unit is far from home and at half strength with few recruits at the home town? Re-assign it to a closer home with more dudes in the manpower pool or sideline it and wait?

I would assign the unit closer to a city that has the pop, so it can regenerate faster, and if all your cities are out, then just be patient and wait it out, but there should always be some city that has some population available, so just make sure you link your supply lines right for this. I will say, as you empire expands, population regen is not a problem anymore, as you continue to get back more of your native Macedonian cities. Which, again brings me back to one of the first things I said, the Migrants you get as you complete objectives, focus that on your best cities to fill them up because the higher the pop, the quicker the cities regen will go. So max out Pella as quick as possible, and you field a good amount of brigades from them alone for awhile. As you continue to expand and more migrants become available, and Pella and Edessa are maxed out, then you can dabble around the surrounding city-states.

So indeed, it can be a bit tedious constantly switching homes and such for the better replenishment, but do not worry about that to much since it will go away as your empire becomes much, much larger.
Don't forget about the new spear-won cities, as they come very handy for recruiting native Macedonian units: Amphipolis, Crenides and most of all Philippopolis are not only big cities but close the the action.

I have to say that game never ceases to amaze me when I think I've seen it all. Civilization 5 was boring after 3 hours, this tiny game has caught my time for weeks. Only yesterday I discovered the true beauty of sea lanes (Philip scenario). You don't have to connect every city as a chain by land. You can connect big ports to each other and inland cities to the nearest port. I guess as Athens this is what you would do normally. This way you can have more land nodes to connect mines to. And of course the food travels faster on ships. Simple but brilliant

I finished the game in the old version 1.7 something

To conquer the thessalian objective have tribal cavalry from Olooson and Bylazora but leave one tribal cavalry unit at Stobi/Bylazora/Bargala and Stropsko to defend any attacks.
First send three units towards Tricca and so all the opposing forces will move towards Tricca to defend it in the meanwhile capture Pharcadon with Companion Cavalry/Catapults and Spearmen Brigades.
Then connect Pharcadon to Olooson and generate more tribal cavalry units and send two units towards
Metropolis and the rest to Tricca via the hill routes anc capture Tricca and then take Metropolis.
Now advance from Aegea to capture Dion and then Pydna/Methone/Heracleum, Then take Krannon and Larissa.

Well I played the game for one hour for about three months and enjoyed it to the fullest

BTW everyone, Part 5 of my Beginners Guide is up, so enjoy! :)

As to some of the comments:

I have to say that game never ceases to amaze me when I think I've seen it all. Civilization 5 was boring after 3 hours, this tiny game has caught my time for weeks. Only yesterday I discovered the true beauty of sea lanes (Philip scenario). You don't have to connect every city as a chain by land. You can connect big ports to each other and inland cities to the nearest port. I guess as Athens this is what you would do normally. This way you can have more land nodes to connect mines to. And of course the food travels faster on ships. Simple but brilliant

Hehe, I agree, I always seem to learn new things as well even after so many weeks of playing. Sea Lanes are awesome, but be careful if you solely depend on them for connection to some cities (Also on farther cities, manually plot the point, and be careful not to put the lane on a ocean, or else the lane is virtually useless), since during the Winter, those lanes are no good, thus if your campaigning in an area that is only connected to your home cities by Sea, and it happens to be winter, your units won't get replenished at all, so you still sort of wanna have land connections if possible. What I find, is connecting the mines to Forts I'm not using, is the balance I make to be able to make room for those land connections.

I finished the game in the old version 1.7 something.... To conquer the thessalian objective have tribal cavalry from Olooson and Bylazora but leave one tribal cavalry unit at Stobi/Bylazora/Bargala and Stropsko to defend any attacks.
First send three units towards Tricca and so all the opposing forces will move towards Tricca to defend it in the meanwhile capture Pharcadon with Companion Cavalry/Catapults and Spearmen Brigades.....

I sort of had a feeling you were using the original game when suggesting this, which is totally cool and fine, but maybe you should try out the Gold version because there some new features now that completely change the dynamic of the original campaign. Plus, in terms of the Gold version, not sure if its wise to leave to just Tribal Calvary as your defense of the new Paeonian territories you just conquered. Because, at least in Gold, the Illyrians will come at you hot and heavy. Just a few a days ago, I defended Stropsko against 4 full brigades of Illyrian Hopolites and 3 full companies of Peltast units, so don't care how elite the Tribal Calvary are, they won't be able to handle that, lol.

I think in the past, the AI was under the same restriction as you, in terms that it can only recruit so many units based on the population cap, thus some areas felt lighter in raids, then others, which in turn makes what's suggested above a very viable option. But now, in Gold, Population depletes and regens from the cities itself, thus larger armies are capable of forming on both sides. I mean just yesterday, after going into Thebes, I stirred up the hornets nest of Attica region and Athens, I saw easily, in cities near Athens over 200 units, and in another over 150 units, and they all started to come out, so oh my did I have some intense battles the other day around there.

So in the end, I really just think a lot of what I'm experiencing in Gold, was just not possible come the original release, but again this all just my personal opinion, as there's really no wrong way to set about to conquer Greece, as long as it's conquered, hehe