Hegemony of Faith

• Designer: Yen
• Publisher: Gamefly Studio
• Players: 4-8
• Age: 12+
• Time: 40-60 minutes
• Copy provided by publisher / Taiwan Boardgame Design

Hegemony of Faith is a card and party game for 4-8 players, every player’s main purpose in the game is to find a way to collect the most believer cards and become the only winner.  Each player takes on the role of a sect leader, with unique skills and abilities – each player is dealt two skill cards at the start of the game and gets to choose which one they want for the game; and the identity of the card remains secret until the time when you need to use it..

Players start the game with 3 Follower cards and 6 Action cards.  On a turn, players draw up their Hand limit of 6 Action cards, then take 2 actions (must be different):  Play a strategy action card, play a mental attack action card, play a physical attack card, or discard any number of action cards from their hand.   All of the cards have unique actions – read the card and do what they say.  When there is a fight, players pit their Believers against each other.  There are five different types, and each type can defeat two other types (as well as being able to score a bonus against one of those two in a Faith war).  It’s essentially an Rock/Paper/Scissors/Lizard/Spock system.

The biggest game feature in Hegemony of Faith is that the players never have to worry about death or being eliminated from the game. This game has a surrender and temporary cooperation mechanism. When a player does not have any believer cards at the end of his turn, he will find another player to surrender and swear allegiance to (Of course not true allegiance).  Now that player is a Follower in a sect, and cooperates against the other players.  The Follower can even be forced by the Leader to play their cards in defense of the sect. However, the Follower players can still secretly recruit their forces in order to seek a comeback.

In addition to the surrendering mechanism, Hegemony of Faith also has a betrayal mechanism. After becoming a Follower, players can use specific skills or action cards to betray and take away the believer cards of their Leader.  In addition, of course, there are also special cards, that allow players to prevent betrayal.  The entire game is a battle for superiority with shifting alliances and the constant threat from all sides.

In the game, players will experience what it feels like a sect Leader. You have to consider how to use the cards to get the most benefit. You also may become another’s Follower and then start a conspiracy to betray that player. No matter what you do, you have to find a way to become the most powerful sect Leader to win the game.

The game can end immediately if one player makes everyone else into their Follower – as there is only one Sect – the Leader of that sect wins. Otherwise, when the Follower deck is completely drawn.  At that time, the game is scored.  It’s a bit complicated, and maybe would benefit from a spreadsheet – but I’ll try to break it down here – just go from top to bottom until you figure out who wins – in general, the leader comes from the sect with the most Believer cards summed between its Leader and Followers:

•         If a sect only has a single person in it, and that person has more Believers than any other sect, that player wins alone
•         If one sect has the most Believers, then the player in that sect with the most Believers is the winner.
•         If one sect has the most Believers, but there is a tie for the most individual Believers, then there is a playoff round, and whoever has the most Believers after that wins

I’ll admit that I don’t have that many games in my collection that give this sort of game experience – high player count, shifting alliances, no player elimination, yet also do not fall into the dreaded social deduction genre.  (Heck, other than Challengers, I’m not sure I really have anything else at the moment).  Hegemony of Faith offers players the chance to fight against and with each other for control of the Believers.  There are targeted attacks, attacks that affect everyone, and strategy cards that can give you an immediate advantage.  And, don’t forget about your personal Skill card – all of them are strong unique abilities, and if you craft your game strategy around them, they can be used to devastating effect when you finally reveal what you can do with it.

Hegemony of Faith does remove one of my main objections to many games of this sort – and that is player elimination.  I really like the way that the game allows players to stay involved in the game even when they lose their Believers.   Depending on your situation, you can become a Follower and get absorbed into another Sect.  Sure, while you’re a Follower, you’ll be forced to do things at the bidding of your Leader, but you can also work on getting enough Believers of your own to take control of the Sect.  Or, you could choose to become a Wanderer and pick off Believers from players – and if you are able to get 3 Believers on your own, you can re-establish a Sect and start anew. 

In addition to not being eliminated from the game, the flow of the game keeps everyone involved in the play as many of the attack cards affect all players; and if you’re a Follower, you’ll often have to do the bidding of your Leader… (and conversely, if you’re the Leader, you’ll always be considering how to best use your own cards and the Believers of your Followers).  The game plays 4 to 8 players, and honestly, given all the interaction and fighting between the sects, it will likely play best at the upper end of the player count

For those looking for an interactive, high player count game with a lot of battling and clever card play – this would be a great one to seek out at Spiel this year.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor