- Publisher : Explor8
- Designers : Dimitri Perrier, Matthieu Verdier
- Artist(s) : Miguel Coimbra
- Players : 2–4
- Playing time : 60–120 Min
- Weight BGG : 3.71
What's this?
Federation is an interactive Eurogame featuring an innovative double-sided worker placement mechanism.
Federation takes place over 5 rounds. Each round is divided into 2 main stages. The first stage consists of game turns where each player places an Ambassador token and sends a spaceship on a special mission. Once all players have completed their turn, the executive phase begins, where players receive their income, finance Major Projects and enact laws.
At the end of the 5th round, the game ends. The player with the highest number of prestige points wins the game and joins the Federation. In the event of a tie, the victory is shared.
Your individual board is made up of 5 federated actions, 1 espionage action, certain senatorial actions and certain special Senate actions granting prestige points.
How do you play?
The game takes place over 5 rounds. On your turn, you place an Ambassador token on a Senate space in the center of the main board to perform a main action. Your Ambassador token has two sides: voting or financing.
The financing side allows you to unlock missions on your player board and finance major Senate projects to score victory points at the end of the game. The Vote side of the Ambassador token allows you to win majorities in the different floors of the Senate, but also to pass laws which earn victory points at the end of the round.
And there, already all the salt of the game begins to have its effect: should we place our pawn on the financing side to unlock missions on our board, even if this could finance undesirable projects, or should we choose the Vote for side? win majorities and pass laws at the end of the round.
Each space in the Senate represents a main action, often symbolized by the 5 planets around the Senate. They allow us to recruit characters with skills, gain resources, tokens modifying our Ambassador tokens, trade and score victory points. In any case, the more you play on a planet, the more you influence it.
Influence allows us to unlock medals to place on our individual board, but the more influence we have, the more victory points we score if the major projects of these planets are financed. So, you understand the interest in placing your Ambassador token on the financing side to push through certain major projects.
Is it good?
Federation is an excellent expert Eurogame that I loved from my first game. The ambassador pawn mechanic is great and requires careful thought to develop our strategy.
There is strong interaction with other players for the Senate squares, but also for the financing of major projects. Very high replayability is felt thanks to the changes in the tiles during setup and the different possible strategies.
The only small criticism concerns the somewhat superficial theme of the 5 federated planets, but in any case, I recommend Federation with my eyes closed.
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Review Federation
Positives
- The Cornelian choice and the mechanics of the ambassador pawns
- The different strategies
- An accessible, fluid but deep game
- Plays very well with 2, 3 or 4
- The interaction with the other players in the senate
Negatives
- A fairly tacked-on theme for the federated planets
Breakdown
- Components and illustrations 8.0
- Mechanics 9.0
- Theme 7.5
- Replayability 9.5
- Handling 9.5
- Interaction 9.5
- Originality 9.0
