World Order
- Greg White
- 11 hours ago
- 3 min read
Designed by Varnavas Timotheou and Vangelis Bagiartakis, World Order (Hegemonic Project Games) is an area control and deck building game that sees 1-4 players take on the role of one of the four main global powers and, through a careful balance of diplomacy, economics and military strength, vie for dominance.
Set in pre-Brexit 2010, players take on the role of China, the European Union, USA or the Russian Federation. Each of the global powers offers an asymmetric player board, different scoring abilities and a unique set of starting cards. The main board is a map of the world broken up into seven areas (Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, South Asia and East Asia/Pacific). Each area has a number of spaces to add influence cubes: having the majority of cubes in these spots is how you score most points throughout the game.
Games take place over six rounds, with each round consisting of three phases. The Preparation phase sees players draw six cards from their personal deck. Players produce their primary resources (energy, materials and food), tracked on their player board. Then each player chooses their focus for the coming round, and this is where some of the asymmetry comes into play. Players have a choice of three focuses - Domestic, Diplomatic and Military - each offering a list of instructions on what can be produced, how many of your country cards can be refreshed and an ongoing ability for the coming round.
The main meat of the round is the Action phase where each player will play a card from their hand and resolve its effects, play a card face down to trigger one of their two special single-use Strategic Asset cards or pass to gain 10 money. The cards offer a range of different actions to further your world domination. You can Improve Relations (take a country card from the available display, paying with Diplomacy and/or by exhausting other countries you already own), Engage (add influence cubes to an area you have a country card for by again paying Diplomacy or exhausting cards to a value for that area), Trade (import and export goods limited by the country cards you own), Invest (spend power to gain ongoing income), Move (deploy or redeploy tanks around the world), Build a Base (expand your Military influence), Get a Growth Card (cards that give you points and an ongoing ability), or Produce (produce goods and build more tanks).
The final phase is the Aftermath. Players gain money from their foreign investments and each area resolves the threat by comparing military presence to defence. Having superior threat results in scoring additional points. In rounds 3 and 6 you also score each area for who has the most influence with points for 1st-3rd place.
Each faction having different scoring objectives makes for a fascinating dynamic. For example, Russia is very Military biased and scores additional points each scoring round for areas with the most tanks. That means that even tho' China is more interested in investing in foreign countries they may still want to keep Russia in check... There is a real balancing act of pursuing your own end goals whilst not letting your opponents run away with their objectives.
Tho' World Order is less complex than Hegemonics' excellent Hegemony there is still quite a steep learning curve and your first games will most likely take a lot longer than advertised on the box. As the pace picks up with familiarity of the rules it also slows down again as you increasingly appreciate the importance of every single card you play... The more you play the greater the strategies you will develop. It’s not just about getting the countries and cards you want but also denying your opponents key strategic countries.
Playing at less than the full player count adds in the missing global powers with auto influence cards, which simulate the missing players by adding influence cubes and tanks to different areas. They work well but we’d recommend playing at a full complement of four players for the best experience. Just make sure you have enough time: creating World Order takes a while... Our plays at Board's Eye View have mostly run to three hours but with players always fully engrossed throughout.
You can click here to pre-order the second wave print run of World Order.
(Review by Greg White)
