Campaigning

A military strategy is a set of generalized strategic principles with the goal of overcomig an enemy. The execution of that strategy is a campaign. A military campaign can be defined as a planned group of coordinated operations designed to achieve a specific strategic goal. As such, campaign can describe a small discrete operation or a grouping of smaller campaigns that makes up one larger campaign. In practical game terms, managing a campaign includes


 * picking a target enemy, city, or area;
 * conducting reconnaissance;
 * mastering logistics, e.g. organizing adequate stockpiles of food; and
 * engaging the enemy with a large enough force to defeat their field armies, destroy their food supply, and successfully siege any targeted cities.

Note: Scripted historical campaigns are organized as a series of objectives.

Surprise
Strike the enemy at a time, at a place, or in a manner for which he is unprepared.

Timing
It is generally not advisable to strike during winter, since resources will quickly be stretched. Also consolidating gains first is an important consideration in the planning of any campaign.

Scouting
Scouting is the act of putting eyes on the ground to lift the fog of war and view an area of interest or probe for enemy activity. Good reconnaissance is an essential component of any successful campaign. View Range is the most important skill to add to a force conducting active reconnaissance. In addition, a small mobile force can remain relatively self sufficient if it has good logistics and can resupply on the move by raiding enemy oxcarts, farms, vineyards, fisheries or cattle famrs. Cities, forts, watchtowers, and other buildings provide passive reconnaissance within their view distance.

Staging
The term ‘staging’ refers to the planned build-up of units in an area before striking out on a campaign. An ideal staging scenario is to garrison units in a city or building, or camp near a shrine that gives a bonus to logistics. This will reduce food consumption to the lowest possible levels while waiting for reinforcements. Note: In the game, staging is not an order or command, but simply the description of a recommended strategic activity

Blockade Access
Blockade refers to blocking enemy access by placing your combat units across their path, leaving no easy way for enemies to get around or flank your units. Enemy units will have to make a frontal attack or withdraw. In restricted areas such as mountain passes it is easy to fill the pathway with troops, utilizing the blocking terrain to protect your flanks.

Stockpiling
Although the supply system in Hegemony is largely automatic, you may also specify a stockpile level. Stockpiling serves two primary purposes: allowing defenders to last longer during a siege, and to support mobilized units that are staging near the stockpile. Stockpiling is controlled in the food panel, which can be found near the information panel when a fort or city is selected. The top figure shows how many tonnes of food the building currently has versus the maximum it can store, and the second figure shows the stockpile level. The building will not share food with connected cities or forts until this stockpile is met.

The stockpile is set as a percentage of the total food the city or fort can hold. This percentage can be increased or decreased with the arrow buttons at the bottom of the panel. Since a garrison is only effective when fed, a city will fall quickly to a siege if it runs out of food. Keeping your troops fed is vital to your success in Hegemony! If the capacity of your supply lines is insufficient, consider transferring food manually by sending food via supply lines. To do so, select the city you want to send from, then right-click on the city or camp you want to send to. This will open a command wheel where you can order to send food. The efficiency of this action will depend on the distance, a certain amount of food will be lost.

The relative importance of stockpiling depends on how large an invasion force is involved. Prearranged food requirements can be reduced if the invading army is of limited size or an area rich in farmland is invaded during the fall harvest when food production is at its highest. Baggage Trains can be used to move a large amount of additional food to support an army on the march.

Camping
Units that are camped will automatically replenish their food reserves if the camp is connected to your supply lines and hold food. Note: When stopping in enemy territory, camp your larger units to resupply food and send out small light infantry units as pickets to raid enemy resources and give warning of enemy attacks.

Blockade Supply
The term blockade was often used to describe the strategic activity of blocking supplies from reaching an enemy, whether it was a port, a fort, a city, a region, or an entire country.

Scorched Earth
Scorched earth is the act of destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy. As a defensive strategy, scorched earth involves destroying your own buildings and burning your own farmland to delay the enemy while they extinguish fires and repair damaged buildings. This can be useful if an enemy invasion is expected to be of such a magnitude that it will force you to retreat from an area. As an offensive strategy, scorched earth is used to destroy enemy buildings and damage enemy farm production when you are conducting raids or when you want to entice an otherwise reluctant enemy into attacking you. The best time to use scorched earth as an offensive tactic is during the fall harvest, when farm yields are at their highest.

Battleline
A battleline is a linear formation of heavy infantry with brigades arranged in close order to maximize the effectiveness of melee combat. Spearmen, hoplites and phalangites are most effective when fighting as a battleline. Having missile troops as backup will greatly improve the effectiveness of a battleline. Avoid being flanked or having gaps open in the ranks. (Gaps allow what amounts to internal flanking.) Flanks can be protected by impassible terrain or by utilizing combined arms tactics. Additional replacement forces are important when conducting siege assaults. Note: Although spearmen and phalangites are light infantry with respect to their armour, they function as heavy infantry and fight in battleline formations.

Combat
Combat occurs whenever one unit attacks a city, a building, or another unit. Walled cities and forts are besieged, while unwalled cities are simply captured. Enemy units may be attacked with ranged or melee combat. With the exception of cavalry, units become locked in combat if too many of their members come under attack. When locked in combat units cannot be issued new orders. When an undefended target or surrendered unit is attacked it takes a variable amount of time (dependent on the target type and number of units attacking) to capture the target.

After a battle, morale begins to recover immediately, but to regenerate hit points a unit must be in the supply range of a friendly city or building that is connected back to its home city. The unit’s home city must also have sufficient recruits for hitpoints to be regenerated. It’s a good idea to rest and replenish your units between battles.

Combined Arms Tactics
Combined arms tactics can be defined as having different troop types fighting together in a coordinated manner to achieve a better result than they would achieve if they fought without proper coordination. One extension of this definition can state that the goal of a well executed combined arms attack is to weaken, envelop, and decisively crush the enemy army, while taking minimal losses. The efficient use of combined arms tactics can also be effective in defensive situations by helping to minimize losses while enabling a well ordered retreat.

When applying combined arms tactics to ancient warfare, heavy infantry form close order battlelines to engage the enemy in melee combat, while light infantry skirmish the enemy battleline with missile fire to lower morale and add disruption. Cavalry protect the flanks, threaten to surround the enemy and pursue after victory. In addition, catapults can be added to support river crossings and counter enemy siege defences. Effective combined arms is all about coordinating the various troop types available for each battle. Although taking a combined arms approach is not required for gameplay, you will find advantages when you mix up your forces to exploit the various strengths of each unit type.