Welcome to the Great Game

In Hegemony: Alternate Histories, you lead a nation from the trenches of World War I through the singularity of tomorrow. Every decision echoes through time: Will Communist America develop the Apache helicopter? Can Autocratic Britain maintain its empire? What happens when nuclear weapons make direct war impossible?

Unlike Magic: The Gathering's life total, your deck IS your lifeblood. Every reshuffle costs you five cards burned forever, but advances humanity's shared timeline into deadlier eras. Your hand isn't precious cards to protect, it's ammunition to spend. Those outdated biplanes from 1918? By 1960, they're just fuel for your nuclear program.

Core Concepts (How We're Different)

Your Deck = Your Life: You lose when you can't draw to 7 cards. No life points.

Time Marches Forward: Each reshuffle advances the global era (Chemical→Mechanical→Atomic→Digital→Singularity). Whoever reshuffles most sets the current era for everyone.

Cards Are Currency: Most costs require discarding cards from hand (✋ = discard 1 card) or milling cards from you deck . Your 7-card hand refreshes completely each turn.

Governance and Nations, Not Colors: Choose Capitalism, Communism, or Autocracy. You can switch mid-game—if you're willing to pay the price. You also select a nation, which cannot be changed during the game.

Roll Into Combat: Every card has a 1-100 value printed on bottom. Combat adds unit power + revealed top card's value, then that card goes to deck bottom. mobility determines who can flee or intercept.

Game Setup

Choose Your Nation (permanent): USA, Russia, Germany, etc.

Build a 40-Card Deck following your nation/governance restrictions

Pre-Select Your Starting Hand: Choose 7 cards as your opening hand (speeds up first turn)

"Roll" to go first

Both Players Begin in Chemical Era (WWI)

Turn Structure

1. UNTAP PHASE - Untap all your cards

2. EVENTS PHASE - Play event cards from hand

3. COMBAT PHASE - Attack with units (see Combat Rules)

4. BUILD PHASE - Play units/infrastructure, play events

5. DECOMMISSION PHASE - Optionally Destroy your untapped units/resources, discard any unwanted cards

6. DRAW PHASE - Shuffle deck and draw to hand limit, typically 7 cards

Combat Quick Reference

Attacker declares target (unit, infrastructure, or player)

Equal/higher mobility can flee (tap to escape)

Higher mobility can intercept (become new target)

Both units roll: Power + top deck value = total

Higher total wins, tie kills both

Victory Conditions

You Lose When:

• You can't draw to 7 cards
• You trigger Nuclear retaliation
• A specific card ends the game.

The Timeline of War

Keywords

• Air: May target naval units.
• Espionage: Can only target or be targeted by other espionage cards. Cannot trigger Nuclear.
• Naval: Can only target naval units or players. May not be targeted by non-naval non-air units.
• Nuclear: If an opponent attacks you or any unit with the Nuclear keyword and this unit survives, that opponent loses the game and is removed from play. If you successfully attack the opponent with this card, they must burn three cards.
• Precision Strike: No Effect (Other cards may have effects that allow this card to target espionage units)
• Rapid Deployment: May be deployed during the events phase, and participate in combat on the same turn.
• Reorder X: When this unit successfully attacks a player, instead of milling cards, draw X cards from their deck and place them back in any order.
• Submarine: Fleeing does not cause submarines to tap.
• Tokenize-✋: Place a card face down from your hand. It becomes a Unit or Resource as described. (You may look at face down cards, but your opponent may not)
• Tokenize-⚙️: Place a card face down from the top of your deck. It becomes a Unit or Resource as described. (You may look at face down cards, but your opponent may not)

Unit Types

• Unit: A permanent that can attack, flee, or intercept. Has Power and Mobility values.
• Infrastructure: A permanent that cannot attack. May have units stationed on it.
• Resource: A permanent that generates tokens or provides ongoing effects.
• Academic: A 0/0 espionage unit created by Universities. Can be spent for various effects.
• Compute Token: A resource token created by Data Centers. Can be spent for digital/singularity effects.

Combat Keywords

• Power: Base combat strength (0-400+ range). Add roll value during combat.
• Mobility: Determines flee/intercept ability (0-10 range). Higher mobility can intercept lower.
• Station: A unit stationed on infrastructure can always intercept attacks on that infrastructure, regardless of mobility.
• Flee: Units with equal or greater mobility than attacker may tap to avoid combat.
• Intercept: Units with higher mobility than attacker may tap to become new target.