Hegemonic

Hegemonic did not remain quite as high in my affections as I expected when I first bought it. It is still one of those substantial games that can put six people around a table and generate proper tension from start to finish.

You need a long-term plan, then you need to alter it as the position shifts beneath you. The strategy matters, but the game will not let you settle into a line of play and carry it out in peace.

Players squeeze each other, answer each other's moves, and retaliation can become a perfectly legitimate tactic. That is also where analysis paralysis arrives: if you start investigating every possibility only when your turn comes round, the table will catch fire. The rulebook needs serious reading and examples; otherwise, misunderstandings are waiting with their teeth out.

A five-hour game with a fair bit of grumbling hardly sounds like an easy recommendation, yet I came away positive: the pressure was real and the win came down to a card. This is not one for a tired evening after work, with calls, emails, children and cats pulling at your sleeve. Give it time, clear heads, and players willing to be squeezed; Hegemonic knows how to hurt you properly.