Solo: the Automas
Playing Hegemony alone or with missing players using the three Automas from Crisis & Control: Simple and Advanced Mode, how an Automa takes its turn, votes and spends Influence, and each Automa's own rules.
Short tag: [C&C]. The base game has no solo mode; the Crisis & Control expansion adds three Automas — Working, Middle and Capitalist Class (there is no State Automa). Any mix of humans and Automas works: solo against one or more Automas, or a missing player replaced. Start with a single Automa. Each Automa has 30 AI cards, Instruction cards, 6 Action priority cards, 7 Policy priority cards and 8 priority row markers (pictures in Cards & Components).
Setup
Set up as for the classes in play (setup). Leave an Automa’s Action cards in the box; shuffle its AI cards face down by its board. In a two-class game keep the unused Voting cubes by the bag, by colour, so you can see who has more cubes in the bag.
Simple Mode
Uses the AI cards and the Instruction cards without “CHECK” in their title.
At the start of its turn the Automa does any automatic Free Actions, then reveals an AI card. The card shows 4 actions left to right, a bonus tied to the first one, 2 Policies, a Special Action at the bottom, its number and (sometimes) an Influence symbol in the corner.
- It tries the first action; the class’s Action Criteria card says when an action is possible (count the bonus when checking).
- If it cannot, it tries the second, then the third, the fourth, then the Special Action; if even that fails it Applies Political Pressure (3 cubes into the bag).
- For Propose Bill it uses the 2 Policies printed on the card, in printed order.
Advanced Mode
Uses all Instruction cards plus the priority cards. Lay out the 8 row markers in a column; Action priority cards go to the left, Policy priority cards to the right. Closer to the markers and higher up = more important. The rows are endless upwards.
| Automa | Second row (left, Action) | Bottom row (left, Action) | Policy cards on the right | Set aside |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Working | Propose Bill, Buy Goods & Services, Assign Workers | Demonstration, Strike, Special Action | 2nd row: 1, 5 · bottom: 2, 4, 6 | 3, 7 |
| Capitalist | Propose Bill, Sell to Foreign Market, Build Company | Sell Company, Lobby, Special Action | 2nd row: 3 · bottom: 2, 4, 6, 7 | 1, 5 |
| Middle | Assign Workers, Build Company, Buy Goods & Services | Propose Bill, Sell to Foreign Market, Special Action | bottom: 1, 3, 5, 7 | 2, 4, 6 |
(Cards are listed left to right; the right-most Action card in a row is the one next to the marker.)
A turn: reveal an AI card; each of its 4 symbols is a check with its own Instruction card. Do all 4 checks left to right (the bonus counts for the first): each true condition moves the named priority card up that many rows. A card entering a row goes to the far end of it (left for Action cards, right for Policy cards). Then collapse empty rows downwards. The Automa takes the action whose card is highest, nearest the marker; if impossible, the next one; if that fails too, Apply Political Pressure. The card of the action taken then drops 2 rows. A Special Action card at the top means the AI card’s Special Action.
Bills: it proposes on the highest Policy card. That card is set aside for the round (after an Immediate Vote it returns to the bottom row, or the second row, depending on how far the Policy is from its Desired Policy). Each Preparation Phase set-aside cards come back the same way.
Rules for all Automas
- Decisions. Where there is a choice, the matching Instruction card lists preferences: go down the bullets narrowing the options until one is left. With only one option, skip the card.
- Free Actions are automatic (see below), as many as needed in a turn.
- Immediate Votes. After proposing a Bill, with Influence: in 2-player games only if it would have more Influence than the opponent after paying the 1, and at least as many cubes in the bag. With 3–4 players it guesses each class’s vote from the Desired Policies card and calls the vote only if its side then has more Influence and at least one other class is with it.
- Voting. It votes for any Bill that moves a Policy toward its Desired Policy, against the rest.
- Spending Influence. After the cubes are drawn, three Instruction cards (winning; losing alone; losing with others) say whether it spends nothing, all, just enough, or Draw X — draw X AI cards and spend 1 per Influence symbol in their corner. Humans announce first, then the Automa draws. Several Automas on one side pool their Influence.
- Final round: no Bills for Immigration; Foreign Trade only with an Immediate Vote; in the Elections Phase put the discards under the AI pile; in the last election every Automa spends all.
- Anything not covered: use your judgment, or draw 1 AI card and say yes if it has the Influence symbol.
| Automa | Desired Policies |
|---|---|
| Working | 1A 2A 3A 4A 5A 6C 7B |
| Middle | 1B 2B 3B 4B 5B 6B 7A |
| Capitalist | 1C 2C 3C 4C 5C 6A 7C |
Working Class Automa
- Use Healthcare / Education / Luxury at the end of its turn whenever it holds its Population’s worth (order Luxury, Education, Health), as often as it can.
- Swap Workers before Assign Workers (or when checking Workers); Receive Benefits and Pay Off Loan at the start of its turn.
- It buys Food during Cover Needs from the cheapest source (ties: Foreign Market, State, Capitalist, Middle); buys its Population’s worth of a resource (or what it lacks); keeps employed Workers where they are unless a move keeps Trade Unions and pays at least as well.
- No Strike tokens left: set the Strike card aside until next round. A Demonstration sets its card aside; if it bites, the Capitalist Class loses first, then Middle, then State.
Capitalist Class Automa
When an effect grants additional Production, select its operational Company using the Additional Production Criteria card.
- Build Company: automatically assigns available unemployed Workers to it.
- Adjust Prices at the start of its turn to the middle position — highest for Food and Luxury in 6A, Health in 4C, Education in 5C.
- Wages stay at the minimum. Strike on its Company: at the start of Production draw 1 AI card (2 if the Company has Machinery or is its only one in that industry); an Influence symbol raises the Wage to L3. Next round it drops back.
- Never gives bonuses. Buys Storage automatically when it would overflow (Food and Luxury go to the Free Trade Zone first). Pays off a Loan when its Capital has 100.
- Replaces its whole Market each round; Business Deals: the dearer one, everything in the Free Trade Zone; exports as much as it can, Free Trade Zone first.
Middle Class Automa
- Build Company: unless instructed otherwise, considers only unemployed Middle Class Workers; it never moves Workers from another Company to build it. If the new Company has a Working Class Worker slot, it automatically assigns an available unemployed Working Class Worker.
- Uses Healthcare / Education / Luxury, adjusts prices like the Capitalist Automa, swaps Workers, receives benefits and pays off Loans automatically.
- Strike on its Company: Wages to L3 on its next turn, back to the minimum next round.
- Keeps a Market Company of an industry it does not own yet; buys Food from the cheapest source (usually itself; ties: State, Foreign Market, Capitalist); buys from itself first.
Automas with the other expansions
- Bills outside its turn: Simple — next AI card’s first possible Policy; Advanced — highest Policy card. If a Bill marker is removed, the Policy card returns as in the Preparation Phase.
- Hidden Agendas: all its Agendas lie face up; turn each down when achieved; at the end it scores the best one.
- Crisis Response: it removes unskilled Workers first; on New Government Bond Program draw 1 AI card — an Influence symbol means it lends the most it can.
- Alternative Events: it keeps them in rounds 1–4 and takes 1
in round 5. - Historical Events: Free Action triggers happen at the end of its turn; a Basic Action trigger it can use replaces a Special Action (unless the card’s top row shows the Special Action symbol).