Hello, this is my first post on the forums. I think i am in the right spot, if i am not i am sorry and redirect me in the right direction.

I have been playing Hegemony for about a month now, I dont have the gold, actually just learned about it logging in to the forums. But here are my questions. Is there any way i can ask for peace on the countries that border me, ITs just very hard to deal with 10 kingdoms or so always invading me. So is there a way to do any of that? Also that brings me to my next question, how do you guys defend your borders? I try to put around 3 units, usually just spearmen at the borders. However these are pretty useless against a rather big army. I try to build walls and defend but i just cant seem to do that as well as i want.

I barely have enough troops to defend all of my borders that i have no army to go and attack with. My attack army is basically 3 spearmen, Philip and his companions, and maybe a mercenary hoplite. 42/54 are all defending my border. I try to expand but i am also have a problem with my food. Anytime i go to attack, my food instantly drops and my troops run. I try to bring sheep in, but once i take them they dont seem to respawn. Is there something i need to do to make them respawn? Is there another way to get food to my front lines. I have read almost all of the manual thats in-game and im still lost at this. I played my first game and just walked around with a big army, ended up losing half of my kingdom because i couldnt defend nor attack. My second game is going somewhat better, but like i said i have no army to attack with really.

Also how do i get more companion cavalry? All i can make is search/spotting cavalry. Which doesnt really go that well with a general. So my extra generals are on foot, which i feel doesnt really use their abilities well. Which brings to my next questions. I see my generals have "Points to spend" however i see no where to do this. Is this even possible? I checked the manual and i dont see anything talking about this.

I think thats all for now, thank you in advance. I hope this is in the right spot. I really love the game, and will probably get gold here shortly.

OK. So if your playing the original hegemony then there is no diplomacy option. Defending your borders is tricky, but i recommend since you seem fairly new to the game test which parts of your borders are being invaded often and allocate troops accordingly, that way you can concentrate on certain areas of your empire and run the other borders which aren't getting attacked that often on a skeleton garrison. And sheep re spawn only in winter, however Ive noticed in some sheep pen areas they don't re spawn every winter if at all. This happens to me especially in the trident area east of Pella. And with the companions, im pretty sure Alexander gets a unit but ive never gotten that far into a campaign yet.

Hi there. I have a few tips that may or may not help you. This is how I play the game, but i'm sure there are others, possibly better, ways.

First of all, you have to plan out in which direction you want to expand, before attacking anyone. At the beginning, you're encouraged to attack west, which is what I always do, but after that it's up to you. Try attacking only one faction at a time. What you want to do, is to expand in a way, so that as few cities as possible are exposed to enemy attacks, which leaves you free to tear down the walls of your safe core cities, and use their soldiers for your attacking army.

I'd advise you to not take Olooson, unless you're ready to keep attacking, since taking Olooson seems to trigger attacks from a number of enemy cities.

Another thing to consider is which cities are macedonian, and which are foreign. You want as many Macedonian cities early on, as you cant get, because they can recruit phalangites, which are the best soldiers in the game (that I'm aware of), except for a few unique units. Looking at the objective log can give you an idea of which cities are Macedonian, and the city description, when you hover your mouse over a city, will usually tell you if it's Macedonian.

Basically, I only use phalangites in my offensive army (along with the companion cavalry and the hypaspists), and I almost never recruit anything but phalangites in the Macedonian cities. In foreign cities, I will usually recruit one spearman unit to keep the peace, but only if the city is safe enough to tear down it's walls. If a city is continually coming under attack, I usually recruit as many good units in that city as I can (preferably hoplites), and if I can, I recruit extra units in surrounding, less exposed cities, and move them into the exposed city. Sometimes you'll have to upgrade a supply route to handle the large garrison, though.

Concerning food, I've had my own trouble with that, but usually, you just have to have a good supply network, with plenty of links, and maybe an upgraded road here and there. It can be a good idea to stockpile food, in advance of a campaign, by ordering one or more cities close to the front to stockpile 75% or even 100%. Also, your units can forage for food, if you tell them to camp, which can be handy in a pinch. Otherwise, you can have slaves or labourers transport food from one city to another. Sheep are nice, but as you said, they don't seem to respawn. I'm not sure why.

You can't recruit more companion cavalry, it's a unique unit, but it will grow as you complete more objectives. If you do the Paeonian campaign, though (to the north), you can get some barbarian cavalry, which is decent as fast-response force.

Your generals never level up, but your troops do, although only native Macedonian troops (which is another reason why phalangites rule). Just select the unit and press k to spend the points.

i'll add a little something too...

spearmen are only good for garrisoning inside a city. do not use them for fighting outside.
also, as the previous poster stated, the tribal cities to the north have proper cavalry units, i always use them.

as for defending borders, as ive previously stated some cities are easier to defend than others. cities that have natural barriers on 3 sides of them where only one enemy unit at once can hammer on the walls are great, cities that are at your end of long valleys so the enemy is always out of food when they arrive are also great. these easily defended cities can normaly repel enemies themselves with just some spearmen inside. expand your borders from the beginning but stop at the more easily defended cities. tear down the walls of cities that are safely inside your borders (not forgetting that many coastal cities are never safe) and disband their garrisons, allowing you to create more good combat troops.
i mostly allow threat to dictate where i expand - they say the best form of defense is attack. the points on your borders that are still struggling are the points where you might want to expand, hunting down the source of the trouble, but then stopping if u reach another easily defended city.
as for spending points, when a unit has points to spend it has a gold star on its icon. select the unit and then click on the gold star at the top of the screen and allocate the points. do this for each unit individually.

as for the manual in-game, there is another manual u can download that has more detailed info especially on game-play. u can find it in the "media-kit" area thats linked at the bottom of every page, but heres a direct link for now. i suggest right-click and "save target as..."
Game Manual

finaly, some of the other posters referred to upgrading supply lines, this is only a feature of Gold not original PoM.

Hope this helps and welcome to the forum :)

finaly, some of the other posters referred to upgrading supply lines, this is only a feature of Gold not original PoM.


Yeah, I hadn't noticed that the OP wasn't playing the gold version, although to be honest, I'm still a bit fuzzy about which features are gold and which aren't. :)

Thanks guys, that helps alot. Is it possible to show you my overview map at all to get some help on what my next move is? And im kinda glad someone cleared up the upgrading trade routes cause i was really confused as to not seeing anything about that. Also i am getting attacked from the same general direction. If i go attack the cities to that side, will that hault the attacks since i took the cities or will they just keep attacking but from a different direction. Another question is, if i just keep executing armies will that make some fights easier or will they just recruit more units. I guess i am asking if i execute can i win a war of attrition or does that not matter really?

executing does nothing at all as far as i'm aware. i used to execute them too thinking the same as u. but the unit u execute is already reforming in their home city. youre just wasting your time. as i say i made that same mistake. best is to capture them and then use them in mines or to transport food. failing that just let them escape. i'm not sure why executing is even included unless for historical accuracy, or just for "fun" ;)

to answer your other question: yes if the attacks all come from one direction go and kick their butts. if u capture their cities it will seriously affect their ability to attack u, and ultimately u will eradicate that entire faction. or u could attack in that direction until u reach some naturaly easy to defend city, and then choose another direction to attack in.

Obviously executing them has more of a utility in Gold, but in PoM it does seem to just be a way to get rid of guys and stop them clogging up the map.

Ok well here is the links to the maps. i hope it helps.

This is all i control now, I keep getting invaded from the north of Pelagonia, the west of Lyncus and Eordaea. So if i take move on those positions will i be doing ok? Or should i stay east and move up and down the coast. I know south is the Athenians which have an army that always beats me, so i would have to pool my resources together or something to do that.
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee344/helepolis989/HegemonyPhilipofMacedon2011-02-2514-20-33-99.jpg

Here is a little bit of an overview of the map. I am trying to show the armies and mines, but its not that great. If you guys see anything that is wrong, or you think could be better please tell me. I will start capturing troops i guess for more mines, however im not sure what having such a great amount of gold income to expenses. Unless i get something with it, so far the only thing i can see that helps is making troops happy but as long as that is +1 gold they will be happy.
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee344/helepolis989/HegemonyPhilipofMacedon2011-02-2514-21-27-54.jpg

First of all, I would tear down the walls of Edessa. I'd keep the walls in Emathia for now, since Athens likes to attack with triremes in that area. If you attack east, you can get some more Macedonian cities, but I'd probably do the Paeonian campaign first (north east of pelagonia), to get rid of the raids from that area, and to get some tribal cavalry.

Before that, though, I'd do the Archon of the Thessalian League objective, though, since I see that you've taken Olooson. If you don't take those cities to the south and south west, they'll keep attacking. Then hire 3-4 mercenary hoplites and put them in Krannon. That should be enough to beat any army from the south, which leaves you free to attack north or east.

Edit: you should always get as much gold as you can, since that enables you to hire more troops, and triremes later on.

What exactly does demolishing walls do?

What exactly does demolishing walls do?

Walls cost money to upkeep, Each wall defense cost i think 10 gold, so it's well worth destroying walls if the city is easily defended.

Actually, in the original PoM, each city with a wall uses up two population points of the type of city. So for Emathia or Aegeae, it would take up 2 Macedonian pop points. For non-Macedonian cities, it'll take up two non-Macedonian pop points.

Personally, I always managed just fine with no walls on Emathia. Athenian triremes never were a threat, since I kept a phalangite brigade and the Hypaspists in Pella, and as soon as the triremes appeared on the map I'd send them over to the landing zone. Never had any Athenian units slip past and get to the farms.

For the north, I would leave a garrison of 1 spearmen brigade in Pelagonia with walls, and leave 1 phalangite brigade around Heraklea Lyncestis to respond to the Illyrian raiders that show up (quite frequently for me). Go over and take the two cities (whose names I cannot remember) on the coast south of Aegeae, in Pieria. Demolish the smaller one and keep the walls around the larger city, which is the slightly more southern one. Expand to the west and take the small village there, then to the south with the city in the mountain side. IIRC, the description of the city says it's the southernmost city of Macedons. Go a little further south of that and find the fort that blocks the pass, and stop there for a while.

Move to the east of Pella and consolidate your position there. In PoM, Amphaxis is a good breadbasket area, so take the cities around there and garrison the fort to the north to keep the Odyssians out.

Edit: you should always get as much gold as you can, since that enables you to hire more troops, and triremes later on.

and catapults

Ok that's what I was hoping for was more population points. I was working to just get a few trieremes and block invasions but I guess I need to do a mission. Also is gold worth the ten dollars? And how do I get gold to work when I ordered the original off steam? I hope I'm not asking to many questions

Gold has two new (shorter) campaigns which cover the Peloponnesian War, and a sandbox mode where you can play as any faction. You can make peace with factions (and alliances) in Gold as well. I'd say it was worth the $10... If you register your serial from the Steam version on this website here: http://www.longbowgames.com/downloads/, then you should qualify for the discount.

I have added my cd-key to steam, but how would i install it? Does it install over steam, does it just give me the entire game separately or something? And im pretty sure this is an easy question and i think i know the answer. But there is no MP right?

You would download the game directly from this site.

and it gives u a completely seperate game. so u would still have, and still be able to play, PoM.