Hegemony III: Clash of the Ancients is a 3D RTS game about Rome’s birth as the ancient empire of the West. It’s on Kickstarter, and it has under five days to go.
You can watch the trailer above, which shows more of the game and goes into a bit more detail on the series’ history. The developers seem genuinely fascinated by the the game’s setting, which is always great to see: for the fans, by the fans. “Hegemony III is big maps and grand strategy, real history and battlefield tactics, supply lines and raiders”, write Longbow Games in their Kickstarter pitch.
Apparently their latest engine, the one being used for Hegemony III, is based on a year’s updates to Hegemony Rome, and improves both the AI and graphical rendering of the game.
According to the developers, these are the improvements players will get over previous games in the Hegemony series:
- All new map of the Italian mainland at 4x the scale of our previous games.
- Play as any of 25+ factions including the Celts, Etruscans, Romans, Latins, Samnites, Italics and Greeks.
- 20+ all new high-detailed units including Greek hoplites, Etruscan Axemen, pre-Marian Roman legions, Celtic longswordsmen and more.
- New gameplay mechanics to grow your cities and improve your faction over the centuries.
- Historic sandbox objectives allow you to sack Rome as the Celts or relive the Samnite wars.
- Map Editor included! For the first time in the series you get all the tools to make your own maps, campaigns and more.
Longbow Games also held a livestream of the game, and you can watch all 50-plus minutes of it above. Of note in the video is that the player travels across all of what is now Italy seamlessly.
The kickstarter seems to be struggling, as it’s only received a little under CAD$7,500 since starting, and it needs CAD$30,000. If you’re interested, you’ll have to pay up and spread the word, fast.
Seeing as the two previous titles in the series have already been self-published, it seems possible that the game will get made even if the kickstarter doesn’t succeed. Either way, we’ll be keeping track of this one.
You can find Hegemony III: Clash of the Ancients on Kickstarter over here.
