New Games Dec 2023 (part 1)
In December 2023 I played six games I’d never played before, here are my impressions of the first three.
Hegemony
Taking on the role of the Workers, Middle Class, Capitalists, or State you try to lead your class to victory by pursuing your individual agenda and objectives. The Capitalists are all about wealth generation, specifically their own. The Middle Class balances social cohesion and personal gain, while the Workers look for social justice and satisfaction. The State is trying to keep everyone happy, pushing their own political agenda and trying to balance the national books. You’ll add companies and workers to the board, trade for goods and services, and propose legislation changes that favor your faction, using a handful of cards each round to complete basic actions or for their own special actions.
Review
The game does a great job of creating the sense of running a nation without getting bogged down in the details. Each faction pulls at different corners of the collective bedcovers, trying to get more for themselves, but very much all in the same bed. Each of your actions impacts the other player’s options and vice versa. Your objectives and abilities drive you to behave like your faction in a way that brilliantly connects the theme to the mechanics.
This is a complex game with deep interconnectivity and options for strategy, and every turn is weighted with potential impact. Without obviously being so, there is a sense it is a zero-sum game where gains for one faction are weighted to take from the others.
One negative for me is that different factions have very different in-game and end-game scoring potential, so understanding where you are as the game progresses is very difficult. A faction that appeared to be very poorly positioned throughout the game can suddenly double or even triple its points to win at the end.
Overall a game I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both of my games of and would definitely welcome more games of in the future.
Score: 8/10
Somewhat oddly, the precursor to this game, Dune Imperium, is one I own but still haven’t managed to get to the table. From what I can see, this looks like an upgrade incorporating changes to improve playability as well as adding new options.
In the game, you take on the role of one of the great figures from the novel Dune, each with unique special abilities. These abilities add a meaningful advantage if you can lean into them properly.
Each round you have a small hand of cards and just a few agents. You use the agents to visit various locations by expending cards taking advantage of the abilities of that space, and if it is a faction space, increasing your status with them. When your agents are all expended you get to use your remaining cards to purchase new cards to your deck, before finally resolving a conflict on Arrakis.
You’ll attempt to gain influence and even alliances with the various factions, raise money, harvest spice, place spies and agents, recruit soldiers, ride sandworms into battle, complete contracts on the side, and join the high council. In short, everything you can do in the game reflects the grand scope and political intrigue seen in the book.
Review
The game does an excellent job of capturing and staying true to the feel of Dune. I love the importance and power of gaining status with the various factions, and the gameplay is incredibly tight, leaving you always wanting a chance to do a little more.
The iconography is excellent, and the board is well laid out with plenty of space to place tokens and clear text. I wish the spaces with influence requirements were a little more obvious, as I constantly found myself trying to take actions I wasn’t able to.
The worms seem a little overpowered in game terms, doubling the reward for winning a conflict, but this is so in theme that I struggle to see it as an issue. The deckbuilding part of the game seems far less important than I expected, though still worth taking advantage of and the character powers vary wildly.
I’ve played three times and can’t wait for my next visit to Dune and another chance to lead an uprising that sees me take control of the planet of spice...
Score: 9/10
As I hadn’t played the original before, these comments cover both the base game and the original.
The basic game sees you collect an animal and a habitat tile from a market each round, where they are arranged in pairs, adding them to a tableau. You score for these in two ways; creating areas of specific habitats, and using the animals to fulfill a series of animal-scoring tiles revealed at the start of the game.
The Landmarks expansion adds a bunch of additional end-game scoring and you’ll compete with other players to pick up the ones you want
Review
The game is quick to learn and you can get on with playing very swiftly. The moves along with a great flow as turns move quickly with even the more complex turns built up to over several turns. The artwork is clean and simple and the icons are easy to identify.
I suspect the base game has a very relaxed feel reminiscent of Carcassonne, collecting and placing hexes and animals, with little long-term strategy.
The expansion added a layer of additional complexity which will appeal to players who prefer deeper games, but felt like it pushed against the core appeal of the game.
