lukaszthegreat: since when long game is 2h+ ?
Didn't play Perimeter yet (I do have it) but Haegomonia's mission are quite short. some take 3 hours... but that's max and i tend to play carefully taking my sweet time.
most mission can be finished in half an hour to 1.5.

civilunit: well they are both real time strategy games and they have different aspects to their gameplay.

if your more of the 'build units, kill bad guys' type then perimeter is closer to the command and conquer form of RTS.

Haegemonia is like a cross between galactic civilization and homeworld. except that there is less diplomacy options and no political field of influence though each planet has a moral meter that goes up and down depending on how you manage to the planet and how badly its being messed up by enemy attacks.

Haegemonia is a nice package with both a single player mode and multiplayer mode challenges that you can customize to your comfort level. in my opinion I like this game more. the music and graphics area really nice even for a game this old and I feel it still has the best explosion graphics out there.

Perimeter is a game I would like to get more into but it gets really bogged down with micro management. your base takes a good amount of planning and the whole thing revolves around careful timing of your shield, while your doing that you have to build units which combine to form other units which combine to form other units. its allot to do in the middle of a fire fight when all you want is something to blow up the other guys zerg.

Which I guess is the difference between the two games, Perimeter is about planning and defending zerg attacks and heagemonia is more about strategy, economy and picking out the most effective research tree's to beat the enemy.

Only draw back is that the number of units you get to use is rather limited, however i think this works in the games favor because you tend to be a bit more mindful of your fleet and it makes a battleship a little bit more important when you can only deploy like 7 at a time.

Then again, I'm probably biased because i love space RTS games.

You may also want to look into O.R.B. which is a bit better executed then Haegemonia with a slicker interface.

BoxOfSnoo: Good reply, except in the time since I wrote that post I of course ended up buying both. :) I enjoy both games, for different reasons... and I have yet to finish either.

Sadly, I kinda got onto Sins of a Solar Empire which kinda ruined Haegemonia for me...

O.R.B. is worth a look though, I'll check it out.

civilunit: Well of course if you want the ultimate 4x game you'll have to hop on steam or some other gaming site and pick up Sword of the Stars developed by Kerberos. turn based management combined with real time combat its evolved into the biggest most expansive 4x game. its not exactly RTS. in fact its more of a Turn based strategy with real-time tactics.

Just don't get the sequel...that game is a grade A turd. looks great though.