KR777

Interestingly, it's specifically the relative simplicity, the elegance of design, the seamlessness - what you call superficiality - that I like about Hegemony 3. No doubts there could be more complexity in this game (a few mods try to create more dimensions e.g. for diplomacy, trade or governance) - however I find it's a relaxing and kind of streamlined alternative to the bloatedness of e.g. Paradox Grand Strategy games or the clunkiness of Total War games. The real strenght of Hegemony 3 probably is to be found in the campaign mode, be it the official Pyrrhus campaign of the Eagle King DLC or the modded campaigns of the Iberia mod - much more immersive than e.g. Paradox' games' "mission tree" design. If it's not your thing and I:R either, then maybe Field of Glory: Empires will do?

I'd highly recommend Hegemony III: Clash of the AncientsE for a setting during the early republic 500 BC

I'm really amazed how you can talk about these issues of state, empire, internal colonization etc. in strategy games without reference to Hegemony III: Clash of the Ancients...!? While not as complex as Paradox games, this game models empires with all of the following: (1) conquered native factions need to be assimilated before cities yield any significant taxes and recruits (2) native factions however give access to special troops like e.g. the greek hoplites, the etruscan archers or gallic horsemen (3) cities of native factions have low morale and can easily rebel, thus they need to be garrissoned with combat units, hostages need to be taken or buildings built (e.g. a colloseum etc.) to improve morale (4) cities of native factions that have been conquered tick up towards assimilation (and the tick speed again can be increased by buildings e.g. a forum etc.) - but in the end the player needs to actively "grant citizenship" (5) assimilation can be sped up by researching a colonization skill which lets the player recruit colonist units which can be settled in those native cities to give an instant boost to assimilation

"[...] what would a game about the peloponnesian war look like... they are fighting over influence with a bunch of city states around them ..and that influence manifests in a whole bunch of different ways...its not just that like the map gets coloured in a certain position and now that city is entirely under the control of the anthenian government in Athens. It's more that that city slightly realigns itself to be more inclined towards with what influence Athens can provide over it. And trying to figure out a way to do that and make that fun is the best thing what historical strategy games can work on next for me, especially like a grand strategy game. Because I'm just tired of having these incredibly destinct borders that give you total control over everything in it and zero control over everything out of it. That's just not how history worked " If you guys at TMA had not constantly shot the Hegemony series down, then maybe we would have such historical grand strategy game today.... Go play Hegemony III: Clash of the Ancients with it's city states and skirmishes among them - there are no distinct borders, just spheres of influence. Raiding is so much of an option in this game. Foreign cities need to be colonized (assimilated) to make them productive. Think what the devs could have done if they had had the chance (i.e. success with their previous games + financing) to marry the Hegemony 3 engine and mechanics to their earlier game Hegemony Gold: Wars of Ancient Greece with its campaigns about the Peloponnesian war?! It would have been amazing and it would have been exactly the kind of game you're complaining here now that it doesn't exist.

Hey, I kind of like how Hegemony III does it: you can level your unit up when they have gained enough experience, but the customizations aren't just for better combat, but also for economics. E.g. a unit can become a hunter, which will lessen it's ressource consumption. The main feature is this: if youget to the 5th upgrade, then you can create a general and detach him from your unit. So you have just created a new general unit out of your unit upgrades. You can then freely move the general across the map, attach him to another unit (or make him a governor in one of your cites).