Hegemony is a socio-economic euro-style game, and effectively, each player has a different class of citizens they are attempting to lead to victory. And by victory, we obviously mean, collect the most points. One of the most interesting things about Hegemony is the dynamic between these four completely different classes and their goals; there's a lot of symbiosis in this game, and it's really clever and as clever as that may be, it’s by far and away not even the best part of this game.
The capitalist class wants to build companies and make a profit from those companies. The working class wants to get all their people into jobs and improve their lives with health care and university and things like that. The middle class is kind of balancing between the two: they want to get people into jobs, but they also want to own little boutique shops and make their own little businesses because they’re like little mini-capitalists. And then balancing all that is the government, whose job is basically just to try and help whoever's in last place, because they get points for giving bonuses to people, plus they want to keep everyone in check: just like herding a particularly voracious shower of cats. In a nutshell, that is the basic system of the game.
There are also markets to consider. Firstly there is the internal market, because some players will produce different goods and services to buy and/or sell. There's food, education, health care, and luxury items. The prices of these are all set by the players that produce them, which are also in competition with each other to sell to the Middle and Working class who need healthcare to increase their population, or luxury items and education to increase their prosperity.
Then there are the international markets (which can be tweaked by the player’s actions). These provide another means to sell goods and services, but also for goods and services to be bought. So although all prices and markets can be tweaked and adjusted, they are always all in conflict and competition. It’s fascinating.
Mechanically; Hegemony is a pretty straightforward game. Each round is simply made up of playing just one card per turn followed by an optional bonus action. Yet, stringing those five cards (that make up your entire round) into some sort of semblance of strategy, is pretty tough. Fair warning dear reader, it can also be a pretty long game, and I’m not entirely sure how or where that time gets eaten up, as this game certainly doesn’t feel long when you’re playing it. However, one of the great things about this game is that you can explain every rule using very real-world terms. Although everything has been abstracted; everything makes sense.
As soon as you start thinking about the impact of going on strike, or what the benefits are from increasing the fiscal policy, it just makes sense. So although it may seem like a lot is going on and there is a lot to remember with these quite large individual player aides (which are brilliant, FYI) it all makes for a very grounding experience.
For me though, what makes Hegemony such a fantastic game, is the fact that I've come away from each playthrough with a story. Although I don't remember turn to turn the specifics, we told a story around the table. There has been a narrative to each game that I think I'm probably going to remember for a very, very long time. And that is very rare.
The other thing that helps set Hegemony apart is the theme. Although on the face of it a game about the divisions and goals of the class system may not sound like the most riveting of subjects, the deeply ingrained theme in each and every facet of the game mechanics makes the overall experience of playing this game all the richer.
Even if this type of game isn’t really in your board game wheel house it is one you should absolutely try. There really aren’t many games like it.
Hegemony was awarded the Polyhedron Collider Best Game of the Year 2023. You can hear us wax lyrical about it in episode 140.
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