Loading Screen Tips

List of loading screen tips:

* Advanced units often require you to construct upgrade buildings in a city before you can train them. When changing a unit's home, the new city must also have the buildings to support it.

* If your food stockpiles are low in the winter, you can ration your supplies by adjusting the consumption rates in your cities by going to the *trade tab*.

* Attributes are the bonuses and abilities granted to a unit or building by changing stances, constructing upgrade buildings, promoting officers, or assigning generals.

* The game can be configured to auto-pause after key events. Many events will trigger a notification bubble at the top of the screen. You can also change the behaviour of the notifications in the options menu.

* A blockade describes the strategic activity of blocking supplies from reaching an enemy army or building. Without food, enemies will be unable to fight or defend their cities.

* Your defeated units will live to fight another day! When a unit is defeated, it will return to its home city and begin recruiting new soldiers to fill its ranks. This way, defeated units are able to retain their experience and their officers.

* The Caduceus, the winged staff encircled by two snakes, is recognized in modern times as a symbol of medicine. In the ancient world it was known as the Rod of Hermes and represented trade and commerce which is why you'll find it on supply lines in Hegemony.

* There are many ways to move the camera. To pan around the map use the 'WASD' keys, the middle mouse button, click the minimap or move the mouse to edge of the screen.

* Cities rebel when their morale is below 100. To improve morale you can add units to the garrison, create hostages, or increase the food provided to the city using the *trade tab*.

* The buttons in the Command Panel in the bottom-right corner of the screen are mapped to the Numeric Pad.

* When more than one command is available for a target, holding down the right-mouse button will open a menu wheel of available commands.

* Gold is paid to your units as an ongoing expense. If you no longer have enough gold to pay them, their morale will drop and they will eventually disband or rebel.

* You can change the difficulty at any time in the options screen. Changing the difficulty will not affect enemy forces that are already on the move but it will increase or decrease the rate and size of future attacks.

* Empty farms and other resource buildings can be captured and occupied immediately by workers or slaves, but you'll need combat units to capture enemy buildings that already have workers in them.

* Forced march allows units to travel quickly through safe territory. This ability can be unlocked by promoting officers or attaching generals with the Forced March attribute.

* As long as there is food to feed them, the presence of a garrison will reduce the damage inflicted on a city during a siege and allow it to fire back on the enemy. Garrisons will also increase morale in captured cities.

* A general's attributes only apply to the unit he is merged with or to the camp/city he is assigned to. Only one general may be in charge of a unit or building at a time.

* To monitor a large area of your kingdom, zoom out to the strategic map using the mouse wheel or 'R' and 'F' keys. All commands available on the tactical map can also be issued using the miniatures on the strategy map.

* In the summer, many marshes become dry enough for units to navigate without the Marsh Movement attribute.

* Small groups of slaves can be merged together into gangs of up to 20 men. To merge slaves, select one unit and right-click on another.

* The game can be paused at anytime using the spacebar or clicking the button at the top of the screen. All orders can be given while paused and units will execute them when the game is unpaused.

* Pursuit is the act of chasing down enemy units that have routed in combat in order to maximize casualties or capture slaves. If a routed unit escapes, its members will rejoin their home city's recruit pool allowing the enemy to recover faster.

* To deter raiders, garrison combat units near valuable targets such as farms, mines or unwalled cities.

* If a friendly faction controls a building that you need, instead of going to war over it you can choose to buy if off them using the requisition button in the command panel.

* Troops within a territory will automatically draw food from all buildings within the territory. If they leave the territory they will automatically try to fill their packs to provide them with supplies in the field.

* During the winter, all open water is considered too rough to sail and will damage and sink ships that are out of port for too long.

* If your units are cut off from food, you can resupply directly from a food producing resource building such as a farm by holding down the right-mouse button and picking Scavenge from the context wheel.

* Scavenging food will damage the resource building in proportion to how much food is taken. If the building becomes too damaged it will no longer be able to support the scavengers.

* To starve an open water port, you'll need to cut off the food supply that it receives by ship. Either block their trade routes with warships or wait until winter when stormy weather puts a stop to open sea travel.

* Stances determine how a unit will behave in combat. Battlelines will try to hold formation, while skirmishers will swarm the enemy. Units in ranged stances will try to avoid direct combat.

* The stockpiling level is set in the *trade tab* when a friendly city or camp is selected. Lines that have been blockaded by enemy units can not transfer food. A city will fall quickly to a siege if it runs out of food.

* If a unit without the required attributes becomes stuck in the marshes when they are impassable, they can still leave the area but suffer a debuff to their speed and morale.

* Food is critical. Combat units, garrisons, and hostages all require food in order to function. Without it their morale will drop leading to routing, surrender or rebellions.

* The food a unit carries is only meant to feed them during travel or through a quick encounter. For protracted engagements you should construct a camp and set up supply lines to support your units.

* Maritime supply lines can transfer resources much more efficiently over long distances than overland supply lines.

* Combat units gain experience that can be used to promote officers to improve the unit's stats and unlock new abilities.

* Constructing upgrade buildings in cities or camps is much faster if the wood is already stockpiled locally. Use the stockpile control in the trade tab to move wood before construction begins.