Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory

How Hegemony works

Hegemony lasts exactly five rounds.

Each class has its own deck, Basic Actions, Free Actions, economy and scoring logic, but all roles operate inside the same national system.

Workers need jobs and wages. Companies need workers and customers. The State collects taxes and supplies public services. Elections can change the rules governing all of them.

The winner is the player with the most VP after round five and class-specific endgame scoring.

Which classes are used at each player count?

Public Companies still function in games where no human controls the State. Likewise, the election system preserves neutral Middle Class voting cubes in the special two-player setup.

The publisher suggests two players as a useful learning format, but BGG community voting favors the full four-player simulation.

The five phases of every round

1. Preparation Phase — skipped in round one; refresh role-specific systems and prepare the next round.
2. Action Phase — every player takes five turns.
3. Production Phase — companies pay wages and produce; households cover needs; the State checks IMF pressure; taxes are paid.
4. Elections Phase — resolve Bills proposed during the Action Phase.
5. Scoring Phase — each role scores according to its own economic/political condition.

How the Action Phase works

Players normally begin with a hand of seven Action cards.

On each of their five turns in the round, a player chooses one card and either:

• plays the printed effect, if its requirement is satisfied; or
• discards it for a Basic Action belonging to their class.

A player may also perform one eligible Free Action before or after the Main Action.

After five turns, two cards remain in hand and carry into the next round.

The four asymmetric roles

Working Class

The Working Class controls most workers and tracks Population and Prosperity. It needs employment, wages, Food and access to services. It can establish Trade Unions, strike companies and demonstrate when unemployment becomes severe.

Capitalist Class

The Capitalist Class builds companies, chooses wages, sets selling prices, produces goods/services, invests in machinery, trades with the foreign market and tries to accumulate Capital after expenses and taxes.

Middle Class

The Middle Class is deliberately hybrid. It controls workers who can earn wages in outside companies while also operating its own smaller companies. It must balance household prosperity with business profitability.

State

The State appears as a player at four. It manages public companies/services, tax revenue, debt, events and benefits while trying to maintain legitimacy with all three social classes rather than pleasing only one.

How the Working Class plays

The Working Class wants its population employed, paid and able to satisfy basic and higher needs.

Key systems include:

• Assign Workers to private/public companies.
• Trade Unions, which require sufficient employment in an industry and score VP each round.
• Strikes, which pressure eligible employers toward higher wages or stop production.
• Demonstrations, which punish the wider system when unemployment is sufficiently severe.
• Prosperity, increased through consumption of Health, Education and Luxury.

At the end of the game, the Working Class also benefits from Policies 1–5 being in its preferred section A.

How Prosperity works

Prosperity represents improved living standards for the Working and Middle Classes.

For the Working Class, spending enough Health, Education or Luxury to cover the population can move Prosperity and can also produce related effects such as skilled workers.

The Middle Class also tracks Prosperity but combines it with business performance. During Scoring, it can gain a free Prosperity increase when its Prosperity value is lower than its number of fully operational companies.

This creates two versions of the same concept: household consumption for workers and consumption-plus-enterprise success for the Middle Class.

How the Capitalist Class plays

The Capitalist Class builds and operates private companies.

Typical decisions include:

• Which companies to build.
• Which workers to employ.
• What wages to offer within Labor Market law.
• What prices to charge.
• Whether to install Machinery.
• Whether to sell domestically or to the Foreign Market.
• When to lobby or apply political pressure.

The class separates new Revenue from accumulated Capital. After wages and taxes, remaining Revenue is moved into Capital during Scoring and produces VP through the Wealth table.

How Capital and Wealth score

At the Capitalist Scoring Phase:

1. Move remaining Revenue into Capital.
2. Score VP based on total Capital using the Wealth table.
3. If the permanent Wealth marker reaches a new higher band, gain an additional bonus for the new spaces reached.

The Wealth marker does not move backward if Capital falls in a later round.

At game end, the Capitalist also scores according to how many Policies 1–5 sit in preferred section C, while unpaid Loans create penalties.

How the Middle Class plays

The Middle Class combines both labor and ownership.

Its workers can be employed by Capitalist or Public Companies, while the class can also build its own companies and employ workers.

It therefore pays both types of economic cost:

• Income Tax connected to workers earning from outside companies.
• Employment Tax connected to businesses it operates.

Its preferred endgame political position is the mixed section B across Policies 1–5.

How the State plays

The State is not a neutral referee. It is a competing role with its own VP system.

The State manages:

• Public Health, Education and Influence production.
• State Treasury and Loans.
• Class Benefits.
• Events and crises.
• Political Agenda cards.
• Three separate Legitimacy tracks — one for each class.

The key design pressure is balance. Helping only one class does not maximize State scoring.

How State Legitimacy scores

At the State’s Scoring Phase, first apply penalties from unresolved Events.

Then look at the Working, Middle and Capitalist Legitimacy tracks. The State gains VP equal to the sum of its two lowest Legitimacy values.

After scoring, all three tracks fall to roughly half their current values before permanent Legitimacy bonuses are reapplied.

The State also scores its current Political Agenda according to how many target Policies match the national Policy table.

How the Production Phase works

Production reverses normal player order:

State → Capitalist Class → Middle Class → Working Class.

The phase proceeds through four steps:

1. Produce Goods & Services — operational companies pay wages and generate output.
2. Cover Needs — Working and Middle Classes acquire required Food and other desired services/goods.
3. Check IMF — State debt is compared with Fiscal Policy.
4. Pay Taxes — taxes flow into the State Treasury.

Every player completes one step before anybody moves to the next.

How wages work

When an operational company produces, its owner pays the Wage printed/set for that company to the class controlling its workers.

The listed wage is for the company’s full workforce rather than a separate payment per worker.

The Labor Market Policy limits how low wages may be set.

This creates direct economic conflict: owners want manageable labor costs; worker classes want better income and may have access to strikes or political tools that raise wage pressure.

Why Food is different from other consumption

The Working and Middle Classes must cover Food needs during Production.

Food can come from player-controlled companies or the Foreign Market. If a class cannot afford the necessary Food, Loans may become unavoidable.

Health, Education and Luxury are more closely tied to Prosperity and strategic development rather than the same mandatory baseline survival check.

How taxes work

Taxes always go to the State Treasury, even when no player is controlling the State.

The exact formula differs by role:

• Working Class — Income Tax influenced by Labor Market and Taxation policies.
• Middle Class — pays Income Tax for outside employment plus Employment Tax for its own operational companies.
• Capitalist Class — pays Employment Tax plus Corporate Tax based on Revenue and Taxation policy.

Because policy changes the formulas, an election can immediately reshape next round’s economy.

How IMF intervention works

The State can take Loans, but the current Fiscal Policy determines how much debt can be tolerated.

During the Production Phase, if State Loans exceed the permitted threshold and the State cannot repay enough debt, IMF intervention occurs.

The intervention forces austerity-style policy consequences rather than merely subtracting victory points.

This makes State borrowing systemic: debt can eventually change the rules affecting every class.

The seven national Policies

Policies move between A, B and C positions. The design associates those positions with different socioeconomic directions rather than treating one column as universally “better.”

How to propose a Bill

Classes can use a Basic Action to propose changing an eligible Policy.

The Bill marker records the proposal and the issue waits for the Elections Phase unless a special effect resolves it earlier.

Only a limited number of Bills can be active because each class has a small set of Bill markers.

Proposing a law that has no realistic path through the voting bag can therefore waste political tempo.

How elections work

Voting is partly predictable and partly uncertain.

Before Elections, classes add Voting cubes to a cloth bag according to their current economic/population strength.

For each proposed Bill:

1. Players declare whether they support or oppose it.
2. Five cubes are drawn from the bag.
3. Players may secretly spend Influence; each spent Influence adds one vote to their declared side.
4. If In Favor ties or beats Against, the Bill passes.

The proposer receives 3 VP for a passed Bill. Other supporting players who actually contributed at least one vote gain 1 VP.

Where Voting cubes come from

The classes’ voting strength reflects different kinds of economic power:

• Working Class adds cubes based on Population.
• Capitalist Class adds cubes based on operational Companies.
• Middle Class uses whichever is higher: Population or operational-company basis.

Players can also use Apply Political Pressure to add additional cubes to the bag before important elections.

Because the bag is hidden but the total cube pool is finite, experienced players can estimate probabilities without knowing the exact draw.

How Working Class strikes work

The Working Class can place Strike tokens on eligible companies employing its workers.

A strike pressures the company toward the highest Wage level. If the wage problem is not resolved, the company can fail to produce and the workers may receive no wage from that company in the Production Phase.

This makes striking intentionally risky. It can force concessions but can also reduce the very income the Working Class needs.

How the Foreign Market changes the economy

The Foreign Market provides an outside source/buyer for goods and services.

Foreign Trade Policy can impose tariffs that are paid to the State.

The Capitalist Class also has access to Business Deals and a Free Trade Zone system that changes how goods can be imported, stored and exported.

This prevents the domestic economy from becoming completely dependent on another human player agreeing to transact.

How endgame scoring differs by class

The asymmetry means the same national policy board can be worth very different points to different players at game end.

Can Hegemony be played solo?

Yes, but official solo requires the Crisis & Control expansion.

Crisis & Control includes three Automas for the Working, Middle and Capitalist Classes.

The publisher says Automas can replace missing players in any combination. This allows:

• Solo play against automated classes.
• Two human players simulating a larger game.
• A human State player against three class Automas.

The Automa system uses AI, policy-priority, instruction and action-priority cards rather than a simple fixed script.

What does Crisis & Control add?

Crisis & Control is the main current expansion.

It adds:

• 3 class Automas for solo/missing-player simulation.
• Crisis Response content.
• Alternative Events.
• Hidden Agendas for class-specific strategic incentives.
• 20 new Action cards.

It is not standalone and requires the Hegemony base game.

The publisher currently lists it at €24.90.

What is Historical Events?

Historical Events is a smaller optional expansion.

It contains 50 unique cards modeling economic and political effects associated with major modern historical events such as revolutions, wars, economic reforms and financial crises.

It is primarily a variability/educational module rather than a new player role or solo system.

The current publisher price is €9.90.

What is Shadows of Authority?

Shadows of Authority is a newly announced Hegemony expansion.

The publisher says it introduces:

• A new Authoritarianism vs Liberty ideological axis.
• New Policies connected to that axis.
• Environmental concerns and Pollution.
• Additional pressure around surveillance, censorship, ecological problems and political stability.

As of October 10, 2026, it should be treated as an announced/upcoming expansion rather than established current retail content.

How much does Hegemony cost?

Hegemonic Project’s current direct store lists:

• Base game: €74.90, currently in stock at the time checked.
• Crisis & Control: €24.90.
• Historical Events: €9.90.
• Base + expansions bundle: €104.90.

Prices, promotions and stock can change, so treat these as checked-date publisher prices rather than permanent MSRP.

Hegemony vs John Company: Second Edition

Hegemony vs Pax Pamir: Second Edition

Pax Pamir: Second Edition is also political, but its politics are positional and coalition-driven rather than a formal economy simulation.

Pax Pamir focuses on loyalty, influence, market cards and periodic Dominance Checks. Hegemony focuses on wages, companies, consumption, taxes, public services and lawmaking.

Choose Pax Pamir for a tighter opportunistic conflict game; choose Hegemony for a heavier national-system simulation.

Eight strategy principles for new players

• Learn your class’s scoring system before optimizing the economy. Making the nation richer is not automatically the same as making your class win.
• Read the next Production Phase before taking your fifth action. Wages, needs and taxes can turn an apparently healthy cash position into a Loan.
• Track policy consequences numerically. A Bill can alter minimum wages, taxes or tariffs immediately after it passes.
• Do not spend Influence casually. Elections combine uncertain bag votes with guaranteed Influence votes.
• Use the Foreign Market as leverage. If another class sets unattractive domestic prices, outside trade may change the bargaining position.
• As Working Class, strike when the employer actually has something to lose. A strike that shuts down a weak company may hurt your wage income more than the owner.
• As State, balance Legitimacy. Your score uses the two lowest tracks, so over-serving one class has diminishing scoring value.
• At four players, negotiate across systems. A wage concession now may be worth support on a Taxation or Welfare Bill later.

Eight things to know before buying

• This is very heavy. BGG complexity is around 4.26/5.
• Four players is the fullest version. Lower counts deliberately remove roles.
• The classes are genuinely asymmetric. Teaching the game means teaching several different player systems.
• The economy is interconnected. Poor play by one role can materially change everyone else’s opportunities.
• Political content is mechanical, not a quiz about real-world ideology.
• Official solo is not in the base box. You need Crisis & Control.
• Historical Events is optional. It does not replace the standard Event system.
• Shadows of Authority is upcoming. Do not buy the base game assuming it is already included or currently shipped.

Hegemony FAQ

How many players?

The base game supports 2–4 players.

How long does it take?

The publisher lists 90–180 minutes.

Who designed Hegemony?

Varnavas Timotheou and Vangelis Bagiartakis.

How many rounds?

Five.

What are the round phases?

Preparation, Action, Production, Elections and Scoring.

Which classes are used at two players?

Working Class and Capitalist Class.

Which class is added at three players?

Middle Class.

When is the State a player?

In the normal four-player base game.

What happens if an election is tied?

If In Favor has at least as many votes as Against, the Bill passes.

Can Hegemony be played solo?

Yes, using the Automa system from the Crisis & Control expansion.

What does Crisis & Control add?

Three class Automas, three major replayability modules and 20 new Action cards.

What is Historical Events?

A 50-card mini-expansion introducing political and economic events based on modern history.

What is Shadows of Authority?

An announced future expansion adding an Authoritarianism–Liberty axis and environmental/pollution systems.

How much is the base game?

The publisher currently lists it at €74.90 and in stock as of October 10, 2026.

Sources and scope

• Hegemonic Project Games: official base-game overview, 2–4 players, 90–180 minutes and current rulebook v1.2
• Current rulebook reference: five rounds, Action/Production/Election systems, four classes, taxation and endgame rules
• Hegemonic Project Games: Crisis & Control, Automas, new modules and Action cards
• Hegemonic Project Games: Historical Events 50-card mini-expansion
• Hegemonic Project Games: announced Shadows of Authority expansion
• Hegemonic Project Games store: current €74.90 base-game price and stock status
• Hegemonic Project Games shop: current expansion and bundle prices
• BoardGameGeek: current rank, ratings, player count, complexity and play time

Checked October 10, 2026. Hegemony models competing socioeconomic incentives in a fictional nation and its publisher states that the design incorporates political/economic theory without prescribing an ideology. This guide describes game mechanisms rather than advocating a political position. Current store prices and stock can change. Strategy and buying guidance are original editorial analysis; no firsthand review or playtest is claimed. Editorial policy and corrections.