Ready to take on the role of either the working class, middle class, capitalists or the state, each with asymmetric goals, deck of cards and actions. In this economic politic game which is probably best described as a worker placement, card driven negotiation game, although negotiation is probably player dependent and you may not find yourself negotiating at all!
If I was to sit and describe how each class works, or even how the game works, I think I’d be here all day, but in a sentence?
Over five rounds, you’ll take 5 turns per round and on your turn you take an action either driven by the cards or base action, and at the end of the game the player with the most points wins!
Now that is a very brief summary, and probably not even a fair summary because of all the intertwined systems and how each class works.
For example the capitalists are all about making it big, and making as much money as possible, they’ll be running companies in the aim of profits to sell goods. But, you’ll find yourself reliant on those pesky other players (the middle and working class) to work in your companies, and what do workers need? Paying! So you’ll need to be trying to maximise profits, whilst trying to keep your costs low, luckily automation is a thing, so you can do without some of those workers! You’ll be able to sell food, technology, health and education either to other players (assuming they choose to buy from you) or the export market, which is probably where you’ll find the best trade deals.
The middle class sit somewhere in between working class and capitalists, owning some form of production, but also having workers that need jobs and feeding. Their own companies are probably where you may find cheaper production if you fill it with your own workers, but you’ll want to earn income from working in capitalist and state companies.
The working class, are just trying to well survive? And get enough food to feed their workers, and through growing their population they’ll be seeking to form PESKY trade unions to harm the other players production. The working class is the class, I have played the least, over 8 games, I’ve played the working class once!
And lastly that leaves the state, who I guess are those trying to keep the world in balance (?), through earning legitmacy with each of the other faction through offering things like state benefits and handouts, after all, a capitalist will never likely turn down the offer of free money? The vast amount of the state’s points come from trying to promote different political agenda’s and navigating the political land scape, which means trying to please everyone, but that’s impossible right?
Yes somehow, I’ve found the middle class and working class to feel almost relatable, whilst the capitalists and state can almost feel alien like, there’s a sense of, the burden that the working class and middle class create for the capitalist and state players. Whilst as the middle and working class, you feel a sense of need overcome the top dogs!
The appeal of Hegemony is largely in how each faction plays and interacts with each other, there’s the internal market for example, at first you’ll unlikely want to enable the capitalist through purchasing their goods. But what’s that the cost of importing goods has suddenly gone up due to a political agenda change, therefore, those goods have become the ‘cheapest’ around. How do polictical agenda’s change? Either at the end of each round, you’ll resolve those policies that players have indiciated that they’d like a vote on. Or someone may call an immediate vote, meaning those changes come into effect straight away, reshaping the political landscape and annoyingly impacting your purse strings! These policies can change, the tax rates, the cost of state health care and education, immigration, foreign trade and the size of the state (in terms of how many buildings they must own).
Despite this, Hegemony has a surprisingly simple rule set – okay simple is potentially the wrong word. This is a heavy game, but its not the rules that create that sense of overwhelming complexity, its that balance and flow between other players and the game mechanisms. The fundamental rules of Hegemony are on your turn, play a card and either take the cards action or a main action and you may then take a bonus action. That’s it, each faction does of course have different cards and different actions, aims and objectives, but they feel self explanatory. And that’s probably why each faction comes with a rather brilliant player aid and rule aid, plus I’d highly recommend a quick glance through the strategy guides on Boardgamegeek as they offer a great introduction to what you’ll be wanting to try and achieve as each class.
Hegemony feels like class warfare, but not as there’s no direct conflict in a typical wargame, its instead how you conflict over the games different mechanisms such as the political agendas, or the struggle for wages vs wanting to minimise wages. And its brilliant, its so engaging that time largely feels irrelevant, I’ve sat and played multiple games of Hegemony and come away after 4 or 5 hours not noticing the time, as you want to be engaged and see what your opponents are doing and react accordingly.
However, Hegemony despite its brilliance is not without its flaws or maybe minor downfalls is the better way to describe them, take lower player counts for example. There is just something missing, and I think its that interaction and flow between all the factions which is fundamettal to the best, but also worst Hegemony experience. See, I’ve played Hegemony 8 times, and maybe that isn’t enough to offer a full review, or maybe it is. But every game hasn’t been smooth sailing there feels like there’s been such a scale between my games being “Amazing” to “I wish this would finish already”, and maybe its not the games fault, but it creates that space where games can take far too long. My shortest game has been just over 3 hours, but my longest has been over 6, and I didn’t feel like it was worth the time investment at 6 hours. You could argue that its a player issue, caused by other players, but for me it reminds me of Terraforming Mars, where some games took 90 minutes and others went on for 5-6 hours, and I’d never want to play Terraforming mars when it takes 6 hours. And Hegemony also falls into that space.
And that is probably another downfall or pitfall, the game feels dependent on those players around the table. If individuals try to play it as a worker placement without that almost role playing aspect of the classes, the game experience lacks. And maybe that isn’t the game’s fault, but if you take the game as a formed canvas and you’re playing on that, there’s sometimes going to be experiences which aren’t as enjoyable. Therefore, Hegemony feels like it will play best with a dedicated group that sit down and play through again and again.
My other complaint, would be the terrible organiser, I’ve binned it, and have currently got everything bagged up. I’m currently considering a third party organiser, because the one provided is just pretty pointless.
However, I can’t but be impressed by Hegemony, that canvas of rules and asymetric classes brings out this need to actively as a player group balance the world to ensure that nobody gets too far ahead, and in part that’s maybe reflective of society, of all its moving parts. But that feeling has been masterly crafted into a board game. Yes Hegemony is a long game, but its worth that investment, wrapped up in stunning artwork.
Overall, you know I rate games on a scale of:
Buy or play
Wait for sale or play if you like game XYZ
Avoid
Hegemony, is for me a game that almost everyone needs to try at least once – although I think the game can be so punishing that when the game clicks, it’ll probably be too late for you to pivot or recover. So I’ve found the perfect way to introduce players, is to play one entire demo round, yes it adds to the game length, but it means that everyone has 5 actions to hopefully get to grips with the rules, begin to understand their faction before you then go again. This does mean, Hegemony is probably not playable at game night, due to game length, but its a perfect convention game.
I don’t think Hegemony, will be for everyone though, if you aren’t a fan of heavier style games or games that take several hours to play. Hegemony is never going to appeal to you and probably won’t change your mind on that. Although I would say its a game that deserves your time and rewards you for you time.
Do you want to buy Hegemony? You can here: https://hegemonicproject.com/her14
