How alliances generate decisive combat superiority, overcome entrenched defenders, and disrupt enemy battle lines.
Because every lone unit in Hegemony possesses the exact same combat strength of one, solo attacks can never dislodge an alert defender or push through an opposing standoff. To break stalemates, capture enemy territory, and establish impregnable defensive perimeters, powers must coordinate Support orders. In Hegemony, tactical success is fundamentally collective: units combine their strength to achieve numerical superiority.
A unit ordered to support lends its combat strength of one to another unit’s action. When a unit receives support, its effective attack or defensive strength increases by one for each supporting unit. A move supported by two friendly or allied units strikes with a total strength of three (1 base + 2 support), easily overpowering a lone defender with a strength of one.
A unit can only support an action in a province that it could legally enter itself during a regular movement phase. For instance, an Army in the Ruhr (RUH) can support an attack into Burgundy (BUR) or Belgium (BEL) because Ruhr directly borders both provinces. However, an Army in Ruhr can never support an action in the English Channel (ENG), because armies cannot enter sea zones without a convoy.
When supporting an attack, the supporting unit targets both the moving unit and its destination province. For example, if Germany wishes to expel a French army garrisoned in Burgundy (BUR), it can order:
In this resolution, the German Army from Munich attacks Burgundy with a combined strength of two. The lone French Army in Burgundy, holding with an intrinsic strength of one, is overwhelmed by the 2-against-1 advantage. The German army successfully captures Burgundy, and the French army is dislodged, forcing it to retreat or disband during the subsequent retreat phase.
Support can also be deployed defensively to reinforce a stationary unit. If France anticipates an assault on Burgundy, an adjacent French unit in Marseilles (MAR) can order:
Now Burgundy defends with a strength of two. If Germany attacks with only the supported army from Munich (strength 2), the clash ends in a 2-against-2 standoff. The defense holds firm, neither side advances, and Burgundy remains in French hands.
Important Rule: A unit ordered to move can never receive support to hold. If a unit attempts to move out of its province, any order attempting to support it to "hold" is void.
Support requires deep tactical focus. If a supporting unit is itself attacked from any direction, its attention is diverted to self-defense, and its support is instantly cut. Once cut, the support order contributes zero strength to its intended target.
Crucially, an attack cuts support even if that attack bounces or is heavily outnumbered. A lone, doomed probe by a single unit is sufficient to nullify an otherwise massive support order.
Consider the classic scenario illustrated above: Germany orders A MUN → BUR supported by A RUH S A MUN → BUR. If an allied French or British unit in Belgium orders A BEL → RUH, the attack strikes Ruhr directly. Ruhr's support is severed immediately. Munich’s attack into Burgundy drops from strength two back to strength one, bouncing harmlessly against the holding French army in Burgundy.
The Hegemony engine strictly enforces two vital exceptions regarding cut support:
Coordinating multi-power support can feel daunting on paper, but Hegemony simplifies the entire workflow. When you select a unit and choose "Support", the app highlights every province within legal reach and displays all active friendly and foreign units that can receive assistance. You can also test intricate support networks and flanking cuts risk-free in the Analysis Sandbox before finalizing your phase orders.