Tips & Strategy

How to teach Hegemony, a first game, advice for each of the four classes and each player count, and what the published teach and strategy videos say — with links.

Advice, not rules: where a video and the rulebook differ, the rulebook wins.

How to teach it

• Teach the round first — five phases, five cards each — then give every player their own class page and Player Aid to read while you explain the shared rules. How to Play Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory (RTFM) and the Peaky Boardgamer full teach both go: board, round, then class by class, then policies and elections.
• Expect 30–45 minutes of teaching and 3–4 hours for a first 4-player game (BoardGameCo review); that review suggests playing only 2–4 rounds the first time.
• The Middle Class mixes the other two classes’ rules: whoever plays it should hear the Working and Capitalist rules first, and complete beginners should avoid it (Top 5 Beginner Hegemony Strategies, RTFM).

Your first game

• The rulebook suggests 2 players (Working vs Capitalist) to learn the engine.
• Talk to each other: almost nothing changes without votes, so deals and shared Bills matter more than in most euro games (Top 5 Beginner Hegemony Strategies).
• Propose your Bills early in the round: once a Policy carries someone’s Bill, nobody else can propose on it that round (Hegemony Strategies For Each Class, The Lakeside Gamer).

Working Class

• Get Trade Unions going early: 2 points every round plus Influence. Education is the key, because you need skilled Workers to lead them (Hegemony Strategies For Each Class).
• Push Policies toward A — free Health and Education, high minimum Wage — and 6C so imported Food stays cheap (Hegemony Policy Table and Election Strategy, The Lakeside Gamer).
• Strikes and Demonstrations are real pressure on wages and jobs; use them.
• Money only scores 1 point per 10 (at most 15) at the end: spend it on Prosperity.

Middle Class

• Aim to be self-sufficient: buy your own production for free and keep companies fully operational for the free Prosperity step (Hegemony Strategies For Each Class).
• Keep Immigration at A: a small Population makes every Prosperity step cheaper (Top 5 Beginner Hegemony Strategies).
• Vote with whichever side suits you this round: you want section B at the end, but you are both employer and employee.

Capitalist Class

• Spend the first two rounds building companies and changing Policies; the points come later (Top 5 Beginner Hegemony Strategies). Budget for mandatory Wages before spending on new Companies.
• First priorities: Taxation to C (the Tax Multiplier falls to 1), then Labor Market to C (Hegemony Strategies For Each Class).
• Exports can use all 8 transactions on the card each action — plan production around them.
• In round 5 taxes are paid before the elections: spend your last actions making money, not Bills (same video).

State

• Avoid debt: an IMF intervention resets the Politics table and halves your Legitimacy (Top 5 Beginner Hegemony Strategies).
• Answer both Events every round and keep the three Legitimacy tracks level — you score only the two lowest.
• Health and Education in B give steady income and a point per sale.

Player counts

• 2 players: Working vs Capitalist; the State runs itself. Good for learning.
• 3 players: the Middle Class joins and becomes the swing vote.
• 4 players: the full game with Events and Legitimacy; the review above calls it the intended experience.
• Solo or missing classes: the Crisis & Control Automas.

Videos versus the rulebook

• The rulebook (v1.2) has the Working Class add cubes equal to half its Population, rounded up — check older videos against it.
• The Lakeside Gamer’s Hegemony Policy Table and Election Strategy (UPDATE) corrects tax-multiplier and election mistakes in his earlier video; use the update.

Host game

Start with the four class goals and one complete round, then ask each player which policies affect their next income or expense. On turns 1–3, distinguish discretionary purchases from mandatory payments: borrowing cannot fund a Company just because its owner wants one. When taxes are paid, point to the State Treasury, not the general supply.

Rehearse a mandatory payment

Use Mike’s Capitalist Class situation: 25 in Revenue and 40 in Capital are available, but he owes 75 in Wages. Because the compulsory bill exceeds his combined cash, he takes a Loan and adds 50 to Capital so he can pay it. Contrast this with buying an optional Company: he cannot take a Loan just to make that purchase affordable.

While the Loan remains, Preparation costs 5 interest. Repaying it during play is a Pay Off Loan Free Action costing 50. Keep interest, repayment and final penalties separate when explaining the cost of debt. Production.

Sources

• YouTube: How to Play Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory and Top 5 Beginner Hegemony Strategies, by RTFM; Hegemony : Lead your class to victory - How to play - Full teach + Visuals - Peaky Boardgamer, by Peaky Boardgamer; Hegemony Strategies For Each Class, Hegemony Policy Table and Election Strategy for Capitalist, Middle Class, and Working Class (UPDATE) and Hegemony Board Game: Middle Class Player Setup, General Rules, and How To Play A Round, by The Lakeside Gamer; Hegemony: Lead Your Class To Victory Review - A Strongly Asymmetric Economic Game, by BoardGameCo.
• BGG: community and designer answers are linked by thread in the FAQ; the publisher’s rulebooks are on hegemonicproject.com.