Although I’ve listed this as a Capsule review, I have played just the one game, a two-player game, for which there are special setup rules (since certain ideologies make better opponents than others).

What you see

It also says average playing time should be 1-2 hours. Maybe we’d be quicker once we got some practice in, or maybe it’s quicker for more players, but we took nearly 4.

What you get Inside the box is a very neat and tidy inner structure to hold a large assortment of cards and maps.

You get 5 Ideology cards at 7.5” x 3.5 “, one for each –ism, giving the player a gameplay phase summary, a one-line description of his -ism, and three game rules which define it in the game. Each starts with one Advancement the others have to buy during play, one rules-breaking advantage, and one restriction. For instance, Fascism starts with: Military Focus: Begin with the Tactics Advancement Lightning Strike: The first Military Conflict in a turn you initiate is harder to resist than normal Intolerance: It costs an extra Cultural Influence card to extend Fascist Cultural Influence.

Next is the world map. Divided into areas, mostly countries, like Canada, China, Australia, but also some areas combining smaller countries, like Central Africa, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia. Colour codes denote the Resources provided by control of the area, red for 3 (initial starting areas of the -isms only), orange for 2 or green for 1. Most of these are fine, but in Europe and the Mid East Regions get too small to put the control counters on! On the sheet is also a diagram to record current relationships between -isms, Peace, Neutrality or War (a worryingly pentagramic diagram), and the turn order chart. This map is good quality paper folded to fit the box, and will not lie flat with the little counters that have to be laid on it! It’s not really necessary, we found, although it does help keep everyone informed on who controls what.

Then there’s a Ziploc bag with a few small sheets of counters. Counters for Region control, for improved Region Resources, for -ism relationships. Little teeny counters.

Then there’s the 16-page instruction booklet.

Then there’s the Region cards, 40-odd, 3.5” square, one for each region on the world map. These have one side marked for each of Military, Economic and Cultural Influence, where the players’ Influence cards will be placed.

Then, finally, there are the Influence and Advancement cards. Actually different in function, I lump these together as they share size and format. They’re small, only 1.5” x 2.5”, and there are a LOT of them! Cultural, Economic and Military Influence cards for each of the 5 -isms, plus 7 different Development types (fortunately not split by -ism). The box conveniently and tidily holds these for storage, but in play they need sorted and distributed.

These are all, with the possible exception of the world map, high-quality well printed sharply cut components giving a very professional look to the game, especially the way the box keeps it all tidy.

What you do

Setup. Each player draws an Ideology card. For two-player games, one card is drawn, and the opposition is chosen from a list in the rules. The starting Region card is located and placed next to it on the playing board, then three each of Military, Economic and Cultural Influence cards are placed, one trio on each of the three appropriately marked sides of the Region card. These can be overlapped so as to show the owner of each without sticking out too far from the Region card (that’s why the Influence cards are so small, I guess). You thus totally dominate your starting region.

Turn Order Resource Phase: Randomly draw as many Influence cards as you need to have a total equal to your Resource points globally. 3 initially, more as you control other areas.

Trading Phase: You can discard as many Influence cards as you have Regions controlled, and draw replacements. So you’re not stuck with three Military cards just when you really need an Economic one. Well, assuming you don’t draw more of the same.

Development Phase: Developments like Industry, Tactics, Propaganda and Innovation can be bought by trading in Influence cards, or, for more powerful Developments, other lesser Developments. Developments do stuff like allow you to use Influence cards on non-adjacent Regions without paying extra cards, or being harder to attack with specific forms of Conflict. Eventually you can buy the ultimate Development: Weapons Of Mass Destruction. About the most expensive way around to dominate the world, but one for which there is no defence, and it’s one-use too. In this phase, players also get to add Influence cards to their controlled Regions. See the Assessment Phase for why.

Foreign Phase: A new Region card is randomly drawn. In turn order (highest current Resource points first), one Influence card at a time each until everyone passes, players get to place influence cards on any uncontrolled regions, or remove their Influence from Regions controlled by other players, subject to the normal limit (each area of Influence can have only as many cards as the Region provides Resource points). Non-adjacent Regions cost more to Influence, unless you have a relevant Development.

Conflict Phase: Here’s the nasty bit. In turn order, one action each until everyone passes, players get to try and oust other –isms’ influence over uncontrolled Regions, or Regions they control but not completely, by spending Influence cards, and hoping they are willing and able to send in more of the type (Cultural, Economic or Military, remember) than the defender is willing to play in defence. When the attacker sends in an unopposed Influence card (or one more than the defender is willing or able to use up), it replaces a defending card of the same type. Cultural Conflict can be imposed over any opponent, while Economic Conflict cannot be imposed on Friendly -isms (only Neutral or Warring ones), and Military Conflict can only be imposed on Warring -isms. WMDs are used here, naturally, and adjacency matters here too.

Diplomacy Phase: Here’s where you decide on your status with other -isms. NOW you declare Peace, Neutrality or War. Which gives everyone most of the next turn to prepare for conflict…

Assessment Phase: Notice all the mention of ‘controlled’ Regions? Here’s where it’s determined. If a Region has as many Influence cards as it can take (as many in each of the three areas as it’s Resource points), the -ism with the most Influence cards controls it. Draws remain uncontrolled. When you control a Region, you get Resource points from it, and can double the number of Influence cards on it in each of the three areas – which then increases the Resources it provides, as Regions can be improved to provide as many Resource points as the weakest area of Influence. The only use of the World Map is to place a little counter of the appropriate -ism on every Region controlled by a player.

Turn Order Phase: Count up the Resource points your controlled Regions provide. If you’ve got 12, CONGRATULATIONS! You won! If not, highest total goes first next turn. For draws, there’s a default order for all -isms (which is used on the first turn too).

What's the verdict?

There’s a lot of subtlety in the game. The Strategy Tips list on the rules includes a little gem we missed for an hour or so, removing your Influence cards from Regions controlled by opponents can reduce the Resources they produce, and can even render them uncontrolled (since a Region with less than it’s maximum Influence becomes uncontrolled). The realisation of this added an hour on to our game, and welcome time it was too. Conflicts can be pretty limited. We played Capitalism vs. Islamic Fundamentalism, never reached a state of warfare, and ended with a dead equal draw. Do you use Influence cards to buy Developments, develop controlled areas, or attack your enemy? It’s a good resource-management game, with lots of variables.

It’s in no way a beer and pretzels game, too fiddly, too many components. It takes up too much space too. But it plays well, the rules work (once you read them all carefully) and it feels like it gives a good, simple, abstract representation of world conflict, with a few glaring abstractions. For a start, the random drawing of new Regions means that someone, maybe everyone, is going to be left with no neighbours to influence. A lot of things would change, I’m sure, with more players. There’d be more conflict as more –isms vied to control the available Regions, more Development as more Influence cards were played all round to fill up available Region capacity, leaving spare capacity, and more Diplomacy as alliances are forged and betrayed. I do fancy a 4-player game with Capitalism (the US), Imperialism (the UK), Fascism (Germany) and Communism (Russia) in play, and see how WW2 develops…

Outro

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