Hegemony: My Favorite Mechanism

Jamey discusses his favorite mechanism in the societal simulation game, Hegemony.
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[@jeffmackey2740]

This has to be the best game to come out in recent memory for our money. The ability for the working class to put on labour demonstrations and strikes are pretty neat mechanisms as well. Hope you got a chance to use them in your game. One of those wonderful games that gets better with every play.

[@jameystegmaier]

I was the working class, but I wasn't ready to demonstrate or strike--I mostly just focused on voting (but then the state defaulted on their loan and everything got scrambled!).

[@anthonytsai2346]

I’ve only played one two player game and can’t wait to get this back to the table. I love how the politics impacted the game as well and liked how the voting system balanced winning and losing where the winning sides cubes are removed completely and the losing side gets their cubes put back in. I totally agree with the simplicity of your turn, discard a card to do a basic action or play the card for its effect. This game had be thinking about it long after I played and I am very interested in getting a full 4 player game of this played.

[@jameystegmaier]

I'm glad you mentioned something I forgot to say: That only the losing side of the vote gets their cubes put back in the bag.

[@porqpine53]

So excited to get this to the table. I’ve mentally prepared some friends who I believe will be patient enough to make a run thru

[@francopdx]

I played Hegemony last month for the first time. It felt like a huge game, but at the same time, I agree that the turns felt relatively quick, so it didn't feel like a long game even though it took a long time.

[@allenthiele1804]

I've played it four times now (although two of those were protracted games), and I lead the teach with the voting system being the main way to mess with each other. It's a slick system that cannot be ignored, and the ability to call for an immediate vote is both tempting and risky (as someone else can just call for a vote to set things back, though that does take an action). I look forward to playing it many more times.

[@josephpilkus1127]

Jamey, I've played Hegemony six times and absolutely love the interplay among the Classes and the State. While I'll enjoy any game of Hegemony, I prefer it at a full fair player count. It is one of only a handful of games that I think about what transpired during play long after we've left the table.

[@jameystegmaier]

That's great, Joe! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[@Pryde551]

Hegemony is great! Love the Blue Falcon reference on your shirt! I had to lookup the group to see if was somehow connected with the military, and sure enough it is!

[@jameystegmaier]

Indeed, the founder of Blue Falcon, Corey, is a veteran who now seeks to connect with other veterans and the broader community through tabletop games. He's great.

[@johncolpoys7104]

Hegemony is quickly becoming one of my favorite games! What I also like about the voting mechanism is the influence bidding by each player to try and sway the initial random draw from the voting bag. This part reminds me of the influence bidding used in A Game of Thrones: The Board Game. Another part of Hegemony I like is the Automa, with each of the three classes having its own decision deck. By playing solo in various combinations with these Automas, I've learned a lot about the strategy for each class when I play them later on.

[@jameystegmaier]

I really like influence as extra votes (blind bid, but not random).

[@LeeKenshin7]

We played a 4-player game several weeks ago. Hegemony falls under my list of "great games I'm ok with only playing once." I actually did really well in the game as the working class because the agendas were usually in my favor. Towards mid to late game, the other players tried to gang up on me but it was too little, too late and so they resigned to fighting for 2nd place. I agree with Jamie's (the Secret Cabal) review of it. It's a masterpiece of design and would only get better with repeated plays with the same players. But it's too long and the payout in fun doesn't match the feeling of work when playing the game. It's the same feeling I get when playing TI4. There are just other games, that may not be as epic, that still give me a sense of joy and satisfaction at less than 4 hours of gameplay. I'd rather play 2 of those over 1 of Hegemony.

[@jameystegmaier]

I'm probably in that same boat, Lee, though I will say this: I only played a 3-round game of Hegemony, and it felt like a complete game despite the truncated length.

[@anthonytsai2346]

I think the game used to be 6 rounds! they reduced it to 5 during the campaign. And 5 stil feels a bit long

[@christopherschafer4096]

This is probably my favorite game of all time now. 4 players is the best way to play for sure but my daughter and I play two-player games one after another in which she plays the state and working class while I take the middle class and the capitalists. As far as the voting system goes, the influence mechanic is my favorite part. It makes the state a risky ally because you're never sure how much they want to spend to support you. I also find it's an interesting juxtaposition for the capitalists and middle class to decide if they want to build purple businesses that don't produce a sellable good and still require workers' wages to be paid. But if you do, it becomes very easy to bully your way through elections, especially if no one else is matching your influence.

[@TheGameBoyGeeks]

I got a chance to play this at Origins with The Secret Cabal guys. I was amazing at the audaciousness of the design and How everything thematically made sense but it all flowed through the different classes. I loved the theme and I love economic games. Although I played the middle class and In the end it felt like 4 hours of getting resources and Turning them in for points. So I’d like to try another class.

[@jordangerber5344]

Kings Dilemma is another game that changes based on how each player votes, but it is more of a campaign type game. Hegemony sounds really interesting.

[@jameystegmaier]

Absolutely! I love the voting system in The King's Dilemma.

[@byronfoodjikla]

My only gripe with the game is that it promises for you to lead your class to victory all the while already assuming a singular hegemonic ideology of capitalism. In other words, you may only vary between modes of capitalist political economy, but never beyond it. Other than that it is truly remarkable how streamlined and balanced the game feels, let alone its entertainment value!

[@MadMark118]

TI4 for voting having long term consequences. I was very interested in Hedgemony, but I couldn't see it getting played much; most of my group would not have loved it.