Friday 15 March 2024

The Search for Planet X


The Game

The Search for Planet X is a deduction game which uses a mobile phone app to handle the mystery you are trying to solve. Scientists have discovered a mysterious Planet X in the solar system. It cannot be detected directly using conventional equipment, but based on the movement of celestial bodies, we know it is out there somewhere. In this game you are the scientists. You do your respective observations and detections, and you compete to be first to accurately locate Planet X. You also publish scientific journals. When someone finds Planet X, the game ends. You add up your points, and the highest scorer wins. 


The game is for 1 to 4 players. These are the game components of the purple player. The square tiles are theory tokens, i.e. scientific papers, you can publish. If you think a certain sector of the sky has a particular type of celestial body, you can announce your theory. If you turn out to be right, you score points. If you are the first to publish, you score more. 


The game has two modes, and this above is the easy mode. The sky is divided into 12 sectors. In hard mode you have 16 sectors. At the start of a game every player gets a different set of information. In the night sky there are many types of celestial bodies - gas clouds, asteroids, comets and dwarf planets. They all have different characteristics. A section of sky has at most one object. A gas cloud is always next to an empty sector. A comet can only be found in specific sectors, e.g. sector 2, 3, 5, 7 and 11. An asteroid is always next to at least one other asteroid. You know how many of each of these objects there are in the sky. You need to piece together all this information, and also gather more data, to work out where Planet X is. 

This is one set of information that one player gets at the start of a game. 

The player pieces are observartories


There is no fixed player order. This game works like Tokaido and Thebes. It is always the player furthest behind a track who takes the next turn. Here, the track is a circular one around the game board. When you perform an action, it costs a certain amount of time, and you move your pawn that many steps along the track. At the centre of the board there is a disk which covers half of the sector numbers. This is called the earth board. Sectors with their numbers covered by the earth board are temporarily not observable by the players. At any time, only half the sky is accessible. The earth board rotates in response to player actions. It has a little arrow which will always point at the last player on the action track. Whenever that player moves, and there is no other player in the same segment, the earth board rotates, changing which sectors become available to everyone. This is nifty and thematic. 


The Search for Planet X is a deduction game. It is a puzzle solving exercise. You get a note sheet to help you record information you collect. Most actions in the game are related to gathering data. You can sweep a section of sky to see how many of a particular object type there are. You can target one specific sector to see what object it has. This of course is very powerful, so you can do this at most twice. Also this focused observation won't help you find Planet X, because it is not detectable. That sector will just appear to be empty. You need to know where the other objects are in order to calculate where Planet X is. 

You can research a particular object type. In game terms, this is looking at specific clues set up at the start of the game. The last thing you can do is to attempt to locate Planet X. You need to know not only its location. You must also know the objects in the two adjacent sectors. If you get this right, the game ends and everyone scores points. 


When the earth board rotation reaches certain positions (the easiest way to think of this is in certain months of the year) everyone gets a chance to publish theories. You attempt to guess which section has what object. You do so by placing one of your tiles facedown. You won't know yet whether you are correct. You have to wait for a future theory publication round before you know the results. The truth is handled by the app. You will use it frequently. 

In addition to piecing together the data you collect, you also have to watch what your opponents are doing. From their actions you can make guesses about what they might know, and also how close they are to finding Planet X. Whoever solves the position of Planet X has a good chance of winning, because the point value for doing that is high. Not a guarantee, but quite likely. 

The Play

I played the solo game and have not experienced a proper multiplayer game. My guess is playing with other humans will be more fun. In the solo game you still compete with a bot, so it's like playing a 2-player game. The bot's actions are managed by the mobile app. 

You start the game with some information already, and this is the basis from which you investigate further. The game is a process of elimination. You want to work out what object is in which segment, until eventually you find the only possible location of Planet X. Your opponents' action will give you some clues. The earth board restricts your actions and is something you have to plan around. If you miss an opportunity, you'll need to wait for the next cycle. This fits the setting very well. 

When you are ready to take a guess on Planet X, this is where you do it in the app. 


When you publish a theory, you place a square token in the outermost position. Every time there is an opportunity to publish theories, the tokens are moved one step inwards. When they reach the innermost position, they are revealed, and you use the app to check the correctness of the theories. When the game ends, all theories are revealed and scored, even if they have not reached the innermost positions. 

The rulebook has suggestions for now to take notes, but you can do it your own way. 


The Thoughts

The Search for Planet X is a clean design. There aren't many components. The rules are almost minimalistic. Most of the tedious stuff is handled by the app. I appreciate that. Some may feel that a boardgame should stay pure and not involve electronic devices. In this case, I like that the advantages of an app is utilised well to create a fresh experience for players. This is certainly not using an app for the sake of having it. 

This is fully a deduction game. There is not a lot of player interaction. You don't know a lot about what your opponents know. However you do feel that you are in a race to find Planet X. This is a game of logic and reasoning. If you like solving puzzles this will probably be your thing. I like that many elements of the game match the astronomy theme well. If you are into this kind of theme, this will be fun. 

Friday 8 March 2024

Super-Skill Pinball 4-cade


The Game

Super-Skill Pinball is a roll-and-write game about pinball machines. It is essentially a solo game, just that up to four players can play at the same time, and you compare scores to see who wins. Pinball machines are a relic now. People who have experienced the pinball machine era should be doing regular medical check-ups now. 

The game is pretty simple. Every turn you roll two dice, and you move the ball around the board to score points. The longer the ball stays on the board, the more points you will score. Eventually you'll lose the ball as it falls to the bottom. That's when a round ends. You get to play three rounds, and after that you compare to see who has the most points. 


You set up your player boards like this. The horizontal piece above is mostly decoration. Only the segment on the left is for scorekeeping. The vertical piece is your actual game board. That's where the ball moves about. 


You play using dry erase markers. During play you will cross out boxes and also erase your crosses. There are dice icons on the board. When you use a die value to move the ball to a particular dice icon, you cross out the icon. You've used that icon and it cannot use it again, unless there is a way to erase the the mark. Gradually you'll run out of dice icons to cross out. Then the ball won't be able to go anywhere except down to the bottom, i.e. you will end the round. 


The board is divided into four sections from top to bottom. The ball enters at the top section. Normally each time you move the ball, it must go to a lower section. It's called gravity. The ball can only go upwards or stay in the same section if specific components allow it. 


At the bottom section there are two levers, red and yellow. If you manage to catch the ball with one of these levers, on the next turn you can flick the ball upwards to a higher section. Just like in real life. 


The various components in the pinball machine have different behaviours and provide different benefits. This yellow duckies component is a set of three. If you manage to hit all three, they reset (i.e. you can send the pinball here again) and also you get to activate one special power. For example you can get an additional ball, or you can use the red and yellow levers interchangeably. Star icons scattered around the board mean victory points. In this game you will be scoring points all the time. It's a little tedious. 


That silver sphere is the ball. It's actually just half a sphere, so it stays still and doesn't roll about. At the top left you can see the numbers 1 to 6. This is a feature called the skill shot. When you hit all three of the Ferris wheel cars near the top, you gain a skill shot. You may circle one of the numbers. From then on, if there is a specific number you want to roll but fail to do so, you may choose to set a die to a circled skill shot number. This gives you some control and predictability. Once you use the skill shot, you erase the circle. If you hit all three Ferris wheel cars again, you can claim a new skill shot. You can save multiple skill shots of different numbers if you complete the Ferris wheel set multiple times. 

Resets are helpful. Whenever you reset a group of components, you are reopening opportunities for your ball. You'll be able to last longer and score more points. 


The game has a nudge feature, just like in real pinball machines. This basically allows you to cheat. If you really want a specific number, you can change a die to that number by performing a nudge. Doing a nudge comes with some risk. If you nudge hard, i.e. you change the number by a lot, you may lose the ball next turn. If the difference between the dice rolled is smaller than how much you nudged on a previous turn, you lose the ball. In the whole game you may only nudge three times. 


This set of three components allow the ball to bounce between them instead of rolling down to the next section, provided you roll the numbers needed. If you manage to cross off all twelve dice icons, they reset. Notice in this photo I have two balls in play. 

The game comes with four different pinball machines, with different themes and art styles. There are some common features in all the machines, but each of them has some unique elements too. The circus themed machine is the simplest one. The others are more advanced. 

The Play

Super-Skill Pinball is a risk management game. You will gradually run out of spaces to cross out and eventually you'll lose the ball. You try to prolong the play as much as possible. You plan ahead a little, strategising where you will move the ball depending on what numbers you roll. You try to make use of the resets as much as possible. A turn is simple. The game mechanism matches the theme well. 

You do some long term planning, e.g. saving up the skill shots, and making conscious effort to complete sets. You roll dice a lot, so there is certainly some luck. Your job is to manage that luck as best you can. 

When special powers are activated, I circle them


At this point if the ball is to fall to be bottom section and I roll a 1 or 5, I can still catch it with the right (yellow) lever. If I roll neither, I will lose the ball. 

These are the other three pinball machines which come with the game: 

A hacker / cyberpunk machine

A disco themed machine. It used to be called "disco". Now it's called "clubbing".

Fantasy / dragon-slaying theme

The Thoughts

Super-Skill Pinball has a unique setting, and it is designed to capture many elements of pinball machines. That part is certainly done well. It is a theme first game. It is mostly a solo game. There are some tactics to explore. Give it a go if you find it interesting. I'm not specifically a fan of pinball machines, so for me the theme is novel but not compelling. I'm not a big fan of solo games either. I'm content to have tried it out to understand how it works. 

Monday 4 March 2024

Heat: Pedal to the Metal


The Game

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is the major release from Days of Wonder in 2022. It is a game about car racing. I have never been a particular fan of racing games. But this is Days of Wonder. That means quality products. The initial reviews have been positive. So I have been curious to give it a go. I arranged a time to try it on BoardGameArena.com.


I asked Allen and Han to play with me. Although we had only the three of us, we were able to fill the game to 6 contestants by adding three bot players. I think this works best. The basic structure of the game is straightforward. Every round, everyone simultaneously selects cards to play. Then in order from leading position to last, everyone plays the selected cards to move their car. The first to cross the finish line wins. If two or more cars cross the line within the same round, the car which overshoots by the biggest distance is considered the winner. To understand the nuances of the game, you have to understand the card play.  


Every player has their own deck of cards. The decks are the same for everyone, unless you play with the advanced rules. With the advanced rules, three cards will be swapped out, and you'll get three cards which are unique to you. Every round after you have played cards to move your car, you may choose to discard some cards before you draw cards to replenish your hand. You always replenish to 7 cards. 

On your turn you may play 1 to 4 cards. That corresponds to the gear you use. Your car is manual (of course), and you have only 4 gears. Normally you shift gears one step at a time. You can choose to shift by two steps, but doing so costs you a heat card. 

Heat cards are the most important mechanism in Heat (hah!). It's a little abstracted, but generally heat cards represent you doing risky stuff with your car and pushing it to its limit, for the sake of being just that little bit faster than your opponents. In the game, it is sometimes a resource, and sometimes a handicap. As a resource, you can spend it to do things you normally can't. E.g. turning a corner faster than the safe speed limit, forcing you car to go some additional steps, and shifting gear by two steps. When heat cards are in the engine area on your player board, they are resources you can spend. When you spend them, you move them to your discard pile. You will later need to reshuffle your discard pile to form a new draw deck, and you will eventually draw heat cards into your hand. When they are in your hand, they are a problem. 

Heat cards in your hand clog it up. You can't do anything with them. They reduce your options. They may even make you unable to drive at a higher gear. To get rid of heat cards in your hand, you have to perform the cooling action. The basic way to do this is to drive at a low gear. When you do cooling, you get to move heat cards from your hand to your engine area on your player board. When moved to the engine area, the heat cards become your resource again, allowing you to do fancy things. 

Now you have seen the life cycle of heat cards. In this game you are constantly managing this life cycle. 


This is the player board. That row at the top lists the actions you perform in a round. It looks like a lot, but only a few are mandatory steps. Others need to be checked and performed only when applicable. The three rectangular areas are your draw deck, your engine area and your discard pile. On the right you have your gear box. 


Car racing is won and lost at the corners. Heat captures this very well. There is a safe speed for every corner on the track. When you pass that corner, your speed (i.e. the number of steps you move that round) needs to be less than the speed limit. If you go beyond that, you need to pay a number of heat cards equal to the difference between the speed limit and your speed. You probably need to lower your gear at the corners, because gear = number of cards you play. The struggle is always between low and high gear. You do want to be in high gear as much as possible, so that you play more cards and move further. Ideally along the straight stretches you draw lots of high cards and you play many of them, and at the corners you draw the low cards, and you can still maintain a high gear and play these low cards. But life is not perfect, and the fun is in dealing with what life gives you. You have to decide how low a gear you want to switch to when you make those corners. Remember the other advantage of low gears - you get to do cooling, sending heat cards from your hand to your engine area. 

One card type is stress cards. They represent the stress you are under as a driver. They are movement cards, but when you play them, you don't know their movement values yet. Only when you need to resolve movement you'll draw cards from your deck, until you get a basic card (between 1 to 4). Stress cards create uncertainty and risk. It's dangerous to use them at corners, because you may end up going too fast and you may lose control of your car. Spinning out of control is bad news. You will have lost all your heat cards, and your car is reset to the space just before the corner. Your gear is reset to 1. This is not just about wasting one turn. This is putting you at a huge disadvantage. In Heat, every turn counts. 

This is a game about hand management. The racetrack looks straightforward. However planning how to make one corner after another is not as simple as it looks. You have to decide when best to use your heat cards. You have to deal with good and bad draws. Heat cards and stress cards normally cannot be discarded. You need to decide when to do cooling, and when to use those stress cards. You have to handle them sooner or later, else your hand will be clogged up, and that diminishes your options. 

Everyone picks their cards at the same time, so there is some double guessing. One mechanism in the game is slipstreaming. If your car stops next to or right behind another, you can choose to slipstream and move two extra steps. Trailing players can make use of this to overtake opponents. If you are good at guessing where your opponents will move to, you can reap the benefits. 


There are four racetracks in the base game. This above is Italy. The other three are USA, France and UK. You get two game boards, both double-sided. 


When using the advanced rules, three of the cards in your deck will be swapped out. You get to play with unique cards. Players will have different abilities. The two white cards above are examples. The first one has a speed of 1, and it allows you to discard up to three stress cards. The second one lets you choose between using it as a 1 or as a 5. 

The Play

I played on BoardGameArena.com, so most of the admin stuff was handled by the computer. When reading the rules, I just skimmed and didn't try to remember all the details. It seemed pretty straightforward, so we learned while we played. Unfortunately for Allen, while still working out the implications of our actions, he found himself losing control of his car at an early corner. He wasted all his heat cards, and his car was reset at the position just before the corner. We learned the hard way how bad spinning out can be. And this is absolutely thrilling. It means we have to be constantly on our toes. One mistake can mean never being able to catch up. We have to be in top form all the time. This is exactly what car racing should be like. 

You have to take risks all the time. Safe drivers do not win races. Heat cards are the resource which allow you to take risks. Some risks are calculable and you know you'll spend heat cards to break limits. Some risks are not exactly calculable, e.g. when you play stress cards. You are always thinking about when to take risks and how big they should be. You are always on the edge. You want to squeeze every bit of performance out of your car. Things as innocent as whether to discard cards at the end of a round and which ones to discard are not always simple. If your cards are poor and you decide to discard them, you might end up getting worse cards. 

The green player board


The bot players follow specific rules. Since we played on BoardGameArena.com, we didn't bother to understand how the bots worked. We just let the computer handle them. These above are the components for bot players. 

The Thoughts

I really enjoyed Heat. The names of the designers, Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pedersen were not familiar, but when I looked them up, I found they are veteran designers and have quite many published games, including one I have played before - Flamme Rouge, a bicycle racing game. Heat certainly piqued my interest in their other games.  

Heat is a family strategy game. A little more complex than standard family fare like Ticket to Ride, but it will still work for families. Gamers will enjoy this too. Despite the simplicity, there are interesting and agonising decisions. There are fun tactics. It is simple enough that you can choose to play it in a casual manner. Yet there is some depth to it and you can do a bit of strategising. You can do your card counting and probability calculation if you want to. Whichever way you play, I suggest play with 6 cars, using bots if you are short on humans. It's a lot of fun. 

Friday 23 February 2024

Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory


The Game

Hegemony is a game about class struggle. It is a heavy Eurogame for 2 to 4 players. If two are playing, one will be the capitalist class, and the other the working class. With three players, the third one will be the middle class. With four, the last player plays the state. The four factions have different ways of scoring and different actions they can perform. This is an asymmetrical game. 


This is the game board. It is mostly for laying out companies (owned by the capitalist class and the middle class) and the government departments (owned by the state). These companies and departments are where workers of the middle class and the working class find employment. 


This is the working class player board. The player boards of the four factions differ. The working class player board keeps track of the number of working class workers and also the prosperity level. Increasing prosperity is an important way for the working class to gain points. You have to spend money on education, healthcare or luxury goods in order to improve your standard of living, i.e. prosperity. To make money, you send your workers to work. You make money. You will need to spend money on food. That's the basic necessity. If you don't have enough money to buy food, you must borrow. 

There are some things which only the working class can do, e.g. going on strikes and staging demonstrations. You do these to pressure the other classes to give you what you want. 


The core engine of the game is cards. Every faction gets its own deck. Every round you will have 7 cards, and you get to play 5 of them. You either use the card for its power, or you ignore the power and perform a basic action instead. Normally the card powers are better than the basic actions, but they may not be useful in all situations. You'll still often use the basic actions. 


This is the middle class player board. The middle class has features of both the capitalist class and the working class. They have workers who need to find employment, but they can only be entrepreneurs and create startups. The middle class, like the working class, also wants to increase the prosperity level of its workers. At the same time, like the capitalist class, it can produce goods and services to be sold for profit. 


This is the capitalist class player board. It doesn't have workers, only companies. It's primary objective is - profit! It can mass produce and export. It can adjust worker wages. It decides which kinds of companies to start, and to close down. 

One big part of the game is taxes. Yes, taxes. Companies and individuals pay different types of taxes. Taxes are income for the state faction. Feels too real? 

Money on the left, and working class workers on the right (in overalls)


These cards are companies. The colours of the cards represent different industries, e.g. green is agriculture (produces food), red is healthcare (produces healthcare services). The pawns on the cards are the workers employed by the companies. A company operates only when it is staffed. No staff, no production. The little transparent cubes mark the wage levels. Companies must pay their employees. 

The employees in the red healthcare company lying down means something. They are still under contract. The company may not adjust wages, terminate employment or close down. The employees may not resign or go on strike either. A contract only lasts until the next pay day. 


This is the politics table. It shows 7 government policies, each with 3 different settings. In general, the settings are good for the capitalist class at one extreme, and good for the working class at the other. So you want to manipulate the policies to your advantage. You propose a change, and whether it takes effect depends on an election process. There is some luck in the election, but there are ways you can improve your odds.  The black markers indicate the current policy. The markers in player colours indicate a proposed new policy. 

Policies affect many parts of the game, e.g. minimum wage, the cost of healthcare and education provided by the government, the number of immigrants and the number of government departments. At game end, you score points based on how well the policies fit your agenda. This can be a lucrative source of points. Here the middle class has some advantage. The capitalist class and the working class will be pulling the policies in opposite directions. The policies may just end up in the middle ground, which benefits the middle class. 


Every round, the international market changes and there will be demand for goods and services. The capitalist class and middle class can sell their products and services overseas to make money. On the import side, only food and luxuries can be imported, and usually they tend to be more expensive than what's available locally. 

The game is played over 5 rounds. With 5 card plays per player per round, that means you only get to play 25 cards for the whole game. It's not really a lot. You do have many different actions to choose from. The factions work differently. When I read the rulebook it was like reading an economics textbook. The concepts in the game are about politics and economics, so they sound academic. I must admit getting through the rulebook was challenging. When we planned to play the game, we decided up front who was going to play which faction. We read the rules relevant to our factions in detail, and only skimmed the rules of the other factions to get a general idea. 

The Play

I did a 3-player game with Han and Allen. I was working class, Han middle class and Allen capitalist class. We almost got a fourth player, but he couldn't make it so we didn't have anyone playing the state. That should be interesting, because the state plays very differently from the other three factions. 

The working class and the capitalist class are natural rivals, and tend to want to go in opposite directions. However there are times they need to rely on one another. When the capitalist class starts companies, they do want workers from the working class, so that the companies can operate. The working class does want the capitalist class to start companies and create jobs for its workers. No job means no income, and no income means no money to buy food, healthcare, education and luxuries. The middle class is in an awkward situation, partly like the capitalist class and partly like the working class. However it can also deftly game the middle ground and try to leverage both the other factions. 

As the working class, I focused my energy on two things. I bought healthcare and education to improve my prosperity, and I formed as many trade unions as I could. 


Only the working class can form trade unions. It's a good thing because trade unions give you points and influence. Influence help win elections and turn policies in your favour. To be able to form a trade union in a particular industry, you need to have at least four workers in that industry. There are five different industries in the game. I kept watching out for opportunities to have at least four workers in an industry, and once that was achieved, I trained a worker to be trade union leader as soon as possible. 

One thing I was pleasantly surprised about was the game was easier to play than I expected. It was my first game and I still relied on the reference sheets heavily. We made some mistakes too. However the game flow was smooth, and the actions logical. I like how the actions are easily understood because they align well with the theme. The rules reflect society and how a country is run. It all makes good sense, so the game is immersive. 

These middle class workers wear ties and coats. 


At this point all the unemployed workers were middle class workers. They must be picky about jobs because all the working class workers were happily working. Among these unemployed workers, only one had specific skills - the orange guy, who had skills relevant to the education (orange) industry. Some jobs require workers with specific skills. Grey workers have no specific industry skills. 


Working class workers wear overalls. Male and female are presented differently. The ladies use lipstick. 


We had an unusual situation of the middle class starting more companies than the capitalist class. At this point the middle class (top left part of the photo) had 6 companies, while the capitalist class (top centre) had 5 companies. 

We had a major crisis at the end of round 2. Our government went bankrupt, and we had IMF (International Monetary Fund) intervention. Oh yes, this game has IMF. This sounds rather daunting, like I am describing a university level finance subject assignment. When the IMF intervenes, it forces the state to set all 7 policies in a specific way. This affects all the player factions in different ways. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. This was a major shakeup. Since we didn't have a state player, none of us properly took care of state matters. We should have been more mindful about the state treasury and how an IMF intervention would affect us. 

In the early game I drew a card which allowed me to add as many voting cubes into the voting bag as the size of my population. Voting cubes help increase the chances of winning at elections. I kept the card for a long time and only used it near game end, when my population had maxed out. I was able to put all my voting cubes into the bag. However, Allen as the capitalist class also managed to do the same. In the end, I didn't manage to get much advantage over him. 

In our game, healthcare and education was often cheap or free. This was good for me (working class) and Han (middle class). We bought healthcare and education to increase prosperity. Allen (capitalist class) struggled with taxes. He had to pay a lot in taxes. He also had to pay workers. It's not easy being boss okay. Han more often than not sided with me when it came to election time. We tended to want the same policies. Playing the middle class is challenging because you have split personality disorder. You have the needs, abilities and struggles of both capitalist and working classes. It's a little neither here nor there. 

We were not yet very familiar with the game, so we mostly focused inwards on how to score points for ourselves. We had not yet explored much how to sabotage and hinder our opponents. I didn't go on strike or stage demonstrations. Well, my workers were employed most of the time in decent paying jobs, so I didn't have a strong excuse anyway. Han (middle class) and I (working class) did have to compete. He had workers too so we sometimes needed to compete for job openings. Once he closed one of his companies, causing my workers to lose jobs. Because of that, I had fewer than four workers in that particular industry, which forced me to disband my trade union. That also meant my trade union leader lost her job too.  

The capitalist class and the middle class can adjust the prices of their products and services. They want to make money. Setting prices high when there is demand is very much a good tactic. As the working class I want products and services. If healthcare and education provided by the state is insufficient, I will need to buy from the capitalist class or the middle class. The factions in the game have reliance on one another while being competitors. 


When the capitalist class starts a fully automated company like this, it's bad news for the working class, because such companies don't offer jobs. Blue companies produce luxury goods, and the luxury goods icon is a smartphone. 


Near game end, unemployment got out of hand. Many of these unemployed workers had industry specific skills (i.e. non grey). At this point as the working class I could have staged demonstrations, but I was too busy doing other stuff. 


At the end of the fifth and final round, there were three policies which had to go through the election process. Normally to adjust a policy, you can only propose to move it one step. Allen (capitalist, blue) could propose a 2-step change because of a card power. The proposal still needed to go through the election, so it was not a guaranteed change. But if the bill was passed, this would be a big change. 

The Thoughts

The setting in Hegemony is certainly something fresh. I have not seen any other game about class struggle. I must admit reading the rulebook was challenging. Not that it was poorly written. Just that there was a lot to digest. The four factions have different actions and scoring criteria. The topic is a serious one and a complicated one. When I actually played the game, I was surprised to find it was easier to internalise that I had expected. The main reason is your actions in the game reflect real life. They are logical. They all make sense. It was easy for me to get immersed in the game. This is the real world. Not some fantasy world or some historical scenario. It is relatable. Of course I want a higher salary. Of course I want to send my kids to the best universities. Of course I want to buy the latest iPhone (or I should say the latest glitzy boardgame). All of this is very real. Now we do sometimes play games for the escapism. Hegemony reminds us of our real lives, but it allows us to take them with a bit of humour. We can relax and have fun with them, because it's just a game. 

Turning macroeconomics and politics into a game is no easy feat. Hegemony achieved this. The more important question is: is the game fun to play? I enjoy how immersive it is, and how the many different perspectives of the different factions fit together into a coherent whole. The factions worry about their own ways of scoring points. In some aspects you can't directly interfere with your opponents. The working class can't stop the capitalist class from setting high prices and exporting goods and services. However there is still plenty of player interaction. I have not yet tried the 4-player game, but my gut feel is that will be most interesting. Hegemony is a complex and challenging game about modern society. It is an engaging game experience.