Hello everybody, new player here! I recently discovered Longbow Games and, after watching some gameplay videos and reading about the Hegemony franchise, I must say these games look quite impressive! I've decided to try the Hegemony Gold demo, but I have a couple of questions before I start playing:

-What differences are there between the demo and the full game? If you start a game/campaign, can you keep all your progress when you upgrade to the full game?
-Are there any tutorials for newbies like me? Any recommended settings?

Thanks in advance.

-What differences are there between the demo and the full game? If you start a game/campaign, can you keep all your progress when you upgrade to the full game?
Well, I haven't played the demo since I purchased the pre-Gold version of Hegemony, but as far as I know there are no gameplay differences between the demo and full version. You are limited to only a few zones of the total map and to pretty much only the tutorial objectives, but it's enough to get a good flavor for how the main campaign plays. I don't know for sure if there are save games in the demo, though I think there are. I got to the demo cutoff and immediately bought the game to keep fighting Bardylis and his Illyrian jerk-face army, so you should be able to keep all your progress. :P

Are there any tutorials for newbies like me? Any recommended settings?
Unless you are completely new to RTSes I would keep the default difficulty. In general, listen to the tutorial, keep your armies well-fed, and don't overextend yourself. You may be able to push deep into enemy territory, but it is difficult to hold cities unless you are prepared to defend and garrison them.

Use non-macedonian troops as garrisons, and use your macedonian troops for combat. There are a few later exceptions to these, but the important thing to remember is your macedonian troops gain experience from combat and level up, getting better. Non-macedonian troops start at maximum level and don't get XP.

That should be enough to get started!

Thank you for the help and good advice. I'm already battling those pesky Illyrians and Athenians. ;)

I can confirm it is posible to save games in the demo.

Hegemony Gold is a really deep game for an RTS, and one of my favorites. Managing combined arms--infantry, cavalry, and artillery (and naval support)--is key to winning a battle. Managing logistics--food, replacements, and gold--is key to winning a campaign.

Your Macedonian phalanxes are the best infantry in the game, and (unlike mercenaries) can be upgraded with experience. But you can't win with just the Macs--there aren't enough of them. And if you build too many phalanxes from 1 city, and they lose a battle, it will take forever to replace losses. Spread out your phalanxes over all Mac ethnic cities (as home cities) to diversify your replacement manpower.

When you're moving an army, especially a large one, you must stockpile enough food. Have slaves/workers bring food or, even better, herds of sheep to keep the army fed. This is especially important as you move north into the hilly forests, where distances are long and farms are few. If your army is hungry, they'll bolt and rout at the first sign of trouble. Time your campaigns--try to hit the enemy when they're short of food, or take their farms to starve them. If you take a starving city and can't feed it, they'll revolt and throw you out.

Use allies/mercenaries to round out your force, especially for certain troop types. Except for the Companions, Mac cavalry is too small to be of much use. Thessalian cavalry is good. The northern barbarians field good (and large) cavalry units.

I normally only used phalangites and the Companions except for these pesky Odrysians with their peltast stacks of doom (at least for your phalangites). Companions and the Hypaspists are very good siege units due to their excellent missile armor and they are also able to kill some brigades that hid inside the city when they finally decide to sally out. Catapults are much better against cities and their garrisons than in open field battles. (they don't even seem to inflict enough damage to kill three hoplites with one volley of three missiles...)

Macedonian cavalry is really only good for scouting, catching routing enemies and in a 1v1 battle against a peltast brigade (and perhaps a second one if you're charging them). They already flee after two losses anyway. Any bigger cavalry units are still light cavalry, but can engage in a battle with Odrysian peltasts or against three or four normal peltast brigades. The Companions are the only true heavy cavalry in the game and can - at full size - even engage in heavy infantry battles, in a 1v2 against other cavalry or a 1v3 against Odrysian peltasts (if your initial charge inflicts full damage).

The only mercenaries I found worth hiring were Cretan archers and Thessalian and tribal cavalry. Perhaps one or two Theban or Spartan hoplites, but they're simply too slow even though nearly as good as the hypaspists both in battle and during sieges...

Use non-macedonian troops as garrisons, and use your macedonian troops for combat. There are a few later exceptions to these, but the important thing to remember is your macedonian troops gain experience from combat and level up, getting better. Non-macedonian troops start at maximum level and don't get XP.

Just thought I'd ponder on this! I've just redownloaded Hegemony Gold as I want to get in on Rome but never made the most of the original. I think I got to a point in the Phillip campaign where it made my head hurt just to keep track of where I was being attacked heheh. Now I'm back in and doing better, determined to finish it - before I buy Rome! Anyways, with respect to garrisons I have been using Macedonian Spearmen to garrison foreign cities to stop them from rebelling. Basically they're much cheaper to maintain than foreign units, as far as I'm aware, and since they'll never be fighting you won't have to resupply them from your home cities. Surely this is better than paying twice as much for mercenary spearmen? :)

More generally, I use the Tribal Cavalry to fend off peltast/cavalry raids. I have one unit stationed somewhere where it can easily reach several typical raiding spots. Foreign units are good to give your forces a bit more flexibility, like others said Macedonian cavalry is pants (your Companions are good but they can't be fighting three campaigns at once :P) and the Peltasts are small in size although still useful!

I always had a lot of money but never enough Macedonian recruits to replace phalanx losses, which is why I typically use mercenary spearmen instead of Macedonian ones. Also in cities far from Macedonian, it's easier to just create a few merc brigades instead of waiting for Macedonian troops to reach the newly conquered city.

Tribal Cavalry is great (Thessalian Cav is not bad either, I usually use them to guard against peltasts on borders with Greeks).

Mostly I use whatever mercs are closest to the front lines, just to save time. Once or twice I've run out of money and then had to work on consolidating and reorganizing the garrisons, but that's not too inconvenient.

Actually, you're probably right :)

It's too much of a hassle for me now, although when I get a quiet spell I might put effort into it. Illyria is so vast that it's a pain in the arse to move units around, but for the areas the tutorial contains and nearby, chalcidice etc I think it's reasonable :)