Don't worry. There's a reason we've had to remain silent lately, but it's good news. Stay tuned.

Unfortunately, I don't have any official news right now other than to say that development is still going well. I did post a brief update on where things are last week if you haven't read it yet (http://www.longbowgames.com/forums/topic/?id=2980).

As soon as we have any more concrete information on the timeline we'll let you guys know. In the meantime, if you've got any questions about the game feel free to post them and I'll try to answer them as best I can.

Thanks again for your patience. We're really happy with the way things are coming together and we're doing our best to make sure it's worth the wait.

No more info on the reason you have had to remain silent?

It's nothing really serious. We're just working on making a bigger launch for Rome and this requires coordinating with 3rd parties which complicates scheduling and what we can announce publicly. Plus, we obviously don't have the best track record for hitting deadlines so we're trying not to give out any more specifics until we really know for sure :)

How many types of roman and celtic\german units shall we see in HR? Will roman legionnaires be most powerful among them, or not? Can you explain in detail about it?

We've taken a slightly different approach to unit types in Rome than a lot of other strategy games. Rather than having dozens of somewhat artificially differentiated unit types, we've got roughly half a dozen unit classes per faction (spearmen, javelineers, slingers, cavalry, etc) and then a wide range of upgrade options via the new officer system that lets you specialize them to be anything from a small, fast scouting unit to a large, disciplined battleline.

As far as the legions are concerned, man-to-man they are probably the toughest and most flexible unit in the game. However, one of the interesting things about Caesar's campaigns is that he was almost always greatly outnumbered and far from reinforcements so you'll need to be careful not to waste your legions. Furthermore, as in the original games, supplies and combined arms are critical to combat in Rome, so if you find yourself with a lone legion deep in enemy territory, it wouldn't be hard for a small, fast moving enemy to evade your legion, cut it's supply lines and force it to rout.

That stuff about cutting your supply lines sounds really good, but given the AI in Hegemony Gold I find it hard to believe that it would happen. Is this something that we can realistically expect the AI to do?

AI is a never-ending task and I'll admit that I couldn't implement all of the tactics in Gold that I would have liked to. Thankfully, Rome largely builds on top of the AI in Gold so I've had a chance to expand the tactics the AI will use against you. Additionally, while most of the streamlining we've done to the supply system has been to help the player, some of the changes like eliminating worker caravans and expanding supply ranges also makes it easier for the AI to use those systems.

Yes, you've got it right. I don't know if I've gone into detail on this in the past, but as part of refining the features and trying to focus more on the strategically interesting decisions, workers and slaves in Rome can't carry supplies like they did in Gold.

In their place you can now build supply camps out in the field and connect those back using supply lines that will automatically move the food out to your troops (using the wagons) during a battle or siege, and you can also put your units into a "heavy march" stance that will allow them to carry a lot more food at the expense of some of their combat skills.

It's our hope that this should reduce some of the micromanagement of building, moving and disbanding lot's of workers and fit historically with the importance of the Roman camps.