Well, I wasn't put off by the minimalist graphics, I didn't mind the card game idea, or the obscure political plotline. I usually like complicated strategy games...

The problem with this one is after 30 minutes of 'strategically' improving the 6 resource categories, blocking enemy attacks, placing spies to capture hexes, then losing them 2 turns later, suddenly the enemy plays a gain 4 Victory Points card! WTF! He only needs 8VP to win the game... so, I just started discarding cards until I got my VP cards (or the 'search your deck' for a VP card) instead. 10 minutes later I won. Why? That makes everything else in the game pointless...

I'd suggest getting rid of the Victory Points and dramatically increase the power of all the other cards so you can actually advance across the map. It takes massive work to conquer even one hex and then you lose it in 2 turns anyways. There are also ridiculously powerful cards in the game like the ones that bring in an ally (gain 30 more hexes!) or 'disable supply to ALL adjacent hexes' combined with 'conquer ALL disabled hexes' -I used that one TWICE to conquer 20 hexes in one move... Seems a little unbalanced, not to mention illogical. Strategy games should not be random luck.

I still liked the game but it really needs balancing out to be fun.