Triumph in a World Order Run by Emperor Penguins

February 6, 2024

• Hegemonic Project Games debuted in 2023 with Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory, an asymmetric game in which 2-4 players each represent different socio-economic groups. Designers Vangelis Bagiartakis and Varnavas Timotheou have something similarly ambitious due out in 2024: World Order, which works as follows:

The year is 2010, and the world is drastically changing. While the once-unrivaled influence of the United States is beginning to wane, other major powers are eagerly stepping onto the stage, ready to claim their piece of the geopolitical pie. In the East, Beijing is rising to become a global powerhouse. Simultaneously, Moscow is entangled in an intricate chess game with Washington, ready to counter its every move. And amidst these tumultuous waters, the European Union is trying to carve out its identity and role in the international stage.

The world is undergoing a drastic shift, while power is being redistributed on a global scale — but who will take the lead in this rapidly changing world order?

The board game World Order simulates modern international relations, with players taking control of one of the four dominant global powers of the 2010s: the United States of America, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and the European Union. Utilize your diplomatic power, economic strength, and military might to expand your influence across the globe. Form regional alliances, entice other nations through clever economic dependencies, or become the military juggernaut no one dares to mess with.

World Order blends academic theories with thrilling gameplay, creating a never-before-seen experience of international relations! Join the fight and show the other powers that a new era is dawning!

• In 2015, PHALANX submitted a BGG listing for a design from Raymond de Maria and Waldek Gumienny under the name “Consuls of Rome”.

Then the listing sat for years, with the only activity being questions from users as to whether the game was still being released.

Finally, at SPIEL Essen 23, PHALANX debuted the re-named Triumph, and here’s the setting for this 2-5 player game that’s being crowdfunded ahead of a scheduled release in the first half of 2025:

Lead Rome to greatness and become its first Emperor!

In Triumph, you want to turn the Roman Republic from a small city into a vast empire as the leader of a great noble family. Vie for dominance on every front of the Republic’s life, and outmaneuver your rivals as you compete for power and prestige. Vanquish all external enemies and secure new provinces for the glory of Rome. Will you rise to the challenge and lead your family to ultimate triumph?

With a deck of cards representing your family’s most illustrious figures, you’ll bid to secure the offices of consuls, praetors, and censors. Those will, in turn, provide you with clients, gold, and legions to govern provinces, lead successful military campaigns, and control key sites within Rome itself – all to gain enough prestige to proclaim yourself the first Emperor of Rome!

• Speaking of emperors, Left Justified Studio is crowdfunding Jewels for the Emperor Penguin, a design by newcomer Shane F. F. Carr due out in August 2023.

Here’s the quick pitch:

The Emperor Penguin looooves jewelry! In Jewels for the Emperor Penguin, each player takes charge of a five-member penguin guild that must scale the icy walls of the Valley of the Emperor Penguin, gathering gems — emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds — and making advantageous exchanges to acquire the specific gem-recipes needed to claim objective cards that represent the fantastic jewelry the Emperor Penguin covets.

The publisher describes the design as “a light/family-weight resource management, set collection, and race game that descends from a family tree that might include titles like Splendor and Dominion, but with spatial (i.e., map-based) gameplay.”

Also, penguins.