Aspec: "I have decided that I am the one who declares the war" Aspec: *has not decided that he's the one declaring wars

"he-ge-Mo-Ny" not "he-ge-No-My" I felt like I was having a stroke.

The last time I was this early, ASpec had a different favorite origin.

Nobody: Aspec: *Hedge Enemy*

Opened up Federations day one, played Hegemon start on Admiral difficulty. Got overthrown by 2215, couldn't keep up with AI naval cap buff and I didn't really understand the new mechanics. Restart: played Common ground, spawned trapped behind my federation partners so I had only two systems to colonise Fanatic purifiers it is.

Aspec: Let's call it a Hegemony Me: I've played enough Mass Effect to know where this is going.

Last time I was this early, frontier stations were still a thing...

"early wars have never been so easy" "am i joke to you?" - scions

I always thought one of the cool things about Hegemon is that it reliably let you get one _without_ being authoritarian. After all, how better to roleplay the Soviet Union than with a Hegemony and shared burdens?

This sounds like just Vasselization with extra steps.

Oh ASpec, you love Hegemonies and you don't even know the best part? Man, prepare to have your mind blown: Vassals and Tributaries still count as members. For vassals, as hegemony members, this means they still give a chunk of their naval cap to the federation fleet, can still build ships for the fleet, and still gain the +5/10/15% job output bonuses. As vassals, this means you can integrate them if you want their territory, and in conjunction with Feudal Society, this lets you basically outsource expansion to them (incidentally, the description for Feudal Society is bugged, as confirmed by devs; it still works the same way it did before). Or, without Feudal Society, lets you 'hardlock' a member at their current size and prevents further expansion. You can also create vassals (who automatically count as members) to populate your hegemony with members who match your ethics exactly instead of conflicting, and who also assign their own envoys to the hegemony to boost its cohesion and counteract other, more conflicting members. And if you do have the civic to let vassals expand, but they're expanding too much and you're worried they'll get stronger than you? Just integrate them and split them into two smaller vassals, who now have your same ethics and assign their personal envoys separately to the hegemony. For tributaries, as hegemony members, this means tributaries still give a chunk of their naval cap to the federation fleet, can still build ships for the fleet, still gain the +5/10/15% job output bonuses, and most importantly, *are required to participate in your wars*. Plus, they continue to pay you energy and minerals as is normal for a tributary, except this is further boosted by the hegemony member perk (job output bonuses). Practically speaking, subjugating other empires as tributaries is all-around better than the Join or Die CB, except only in that Join or Die can be used against empires you aren't superior to. In contrast, normal, non-subject hegemony members only add to the federation fleet, and can't be integrated or pay you tribute. And on that note, you don't actually need any independent members in your hegemony, at least not beyond the initial formation. As soon as you've created the thing and have at least two members (excluding yourself), you can kick one out, subjugate it in whichever manner you prefer, then kick the other out and subjugate them too. From then on, you can have a hegemony composed of nothing but tributaries and vassals, since they still count as "members" for the purposes of the federation continuing to exist. And, no, kicking a member from your federation doesn't incur a truce, so you can demand tribute or vassal status immediately, then take it by force when they naturally refuse. Also, releasing a subject to make them independent doesn't remove them from the hegemony, they just stop being a vassal/tributary but are still stuck in the hegemony itself. And... I think that's it. Like, man, hegemonies are already great but fooling around with subjects makes them even better.

Vassal 1: We pledge our loyalty to the Founders! From now until death! Main empire: Then receive this gift from the Founders, may it keep you strong. Now get out there and conquer the Alpha Quadrant! Vassal 2: Obedience brings victory. And victory is life!

"The Hegemony will decide your fate" Aspec: "I am the Hegemony!"

"My favorite origin start, the HEGEMON" Now say Hegemony. "Hejiminy" LOL

Envoys assigned to the fed do not increase your diplo weight. They increase the cohesion change per month by 1 each. The best way to crush in diplo weight is to have happy pops. Pops are worth 1 base line, pops with no happiness (robots, hives, nerve stapled) only get that single point. Pops also give up to 2 diplo weight based on happiness. 100% gets 2 points, the baseline 50% gets 1 and so on. Happy pops contribute so much that Rogue Servitors are ironically one of the best for diplo weight because they have more total pops and half of them are max happiness. Authoritarian is hurting you in diplo weight because all your workers are taking a happiness hit due to stratified. Clever way to nerf stratified/slaves eh?

*Hegemony member gets more diplomatic weight than you* "It's treason then"

3:56 "Human Friendship Sphere"... "Commonwealth of Man"... /spits tea in keyboard laughing

The Hegemony always want my AI cores. Tri-Tachyon is a much better friend.

I wish we could at least name the other empires under the hegemony for role-playing purposes

Hegemon, gotta catch em It's you and me I know it's my destiny Hegemon Ooh you're my object In a galaxy i will subjeeect~

So this is how democracy dies.

I am playing shoulder of giants right now so kind of excited that it is his favorite origin. Also that is how I pronounce hegemony, so must be right I guess.

Last time I was this early, there were 3 ftl types to start with, and the ai uprising was a crisis

Don't start as a Lithoid Hegemony. Tried it myself, and it spawned me with two Megacorps both with higher Diplo Power than me, and I wasn't even in charge.

Only problem with this, is if you get a bad start area and there is no growing room for all 3 of you.

Aspec: Diplomatic corps is so great! Paradox: Did somebody say nerve?

Hegemony empire to rest of the galaxy: “We’ll bang, OK?”

What can be better then Hegemony origin? Well, if u start with ringworld origin, and met alien hegemony and join it...

I do like to tune in to hear more about ASpec's Wife saga.

Another amazing video I’m loving all of these videos about the origins

This is completely random and has nothing to do with the video, but am I the only one who misses being able to build defense platforms/stations anywhere in a system with construction ships? I feel like that was way cooler than just upgrading one central starbase and building a shit ton of small defense platforms around it.

I love you aspec, love all that you do! Thanks for getting me into stellaris after i was introduced via the yogscast you helped me understand the game more since paradox loves making thier games toughish to Get into lol

I want to be the very best, like no one ever was. To federate is my real test, to rule them is my goal. Hegemon, gotta catch em allllll

This is the space Makedon start. Now to find a fallen empire to conquer with space Alexander.

I now have this mental image of this great Hegemon watching trashy intergalactic reality TV. Remember folks, constant vigilance. You start dropping your guard to watch reality TV that's when uppity plucky underdogs start thinking they can take down your whole system.

The thing I love about the hegemonic start is it's play style feels fundamentally unique from the other starts. A lot of the starts, like life seed, mechanist, and tree of life, just feel like small modifiers that don't significantly change play style.

Could not finish watching "Hedge-E-Money" not "Hedge-Enemy" I was going crazy.

Idea for a video for you to do. How to properly set the load order of mods in the game in the current version. I seriously like your vids. Keep up the great work!

you got such a great spawn in relation to your allies. I've actually never played a game with the origin because I always have trouble getting my allies trapped in my borders and usually just form a hegemony diplomatically

Hey ASpec, one of your videos where you mentioned criminal syndicates got me thinking.... Criminal Syndicate + Hegemony. Just give that a little bit of thinking, I am trying it out now but the idea of forcing people to join that can't easily get rid of your branch offices just sounds great.

Tributaries are automatically forced into the Hegemony, if subjects are allowed to enter xD All must contribute... for the greater good

I would love to be able to customize the races of your hegemony/union start, paradox should really add that

I love my Warsaw Pact simulator.

Just wondering if you are planning on making a video about "on the shoulders of giants?" I'd be really excited to see what you love about them

Thank you for showcasing this origin, I was waiting for it!

Tip: you dont need to claim, as long as you take the planets and make enemy reach high war exhaustion you can en on status quo and get all the occupied system as new vassal

13:57 (left side) Bojagg Messianic Union aka the Chorizo Empire

on the shoulders of giants is the best worst origin, one of the weakest mechanically, but sooooo fun.

I don't play a lot but this was the one origin I wanted to play. Haven't finished the savegame yet but so far it was a lot of fun, can recommend

Man why you bring that mass effect reference now i have flashbacks and need to play it agaain

Peter Wiggin would be thrilled.

Hey there! Loving your videos ! Im new to stellaris and I didn't see if you've done one with a gestalt conciousness yet. I've been playing as crazy robot assimilators on the ring work start but seem to always get absolutely wrecked! What videos can I watch to improve my start? I seem to get a lot of territory quickly but I never seem to keep my fleet strong enough to not get wrecked by the other empires

I'm too OCD to have "holes" in my empire.

I see your a fan of spiffing too :p

Starting as either Hegemon or the regular Federation, and just attacking your allies asap, is pretty powerful. You end up with 3 very developed capital planets.

Haha that mass effect throwback that was hilarious when it happened in the game

I tried Hegemon but one of my subjects got one of those events where you get a spooky cruiser. They got it in like the third year of the game or something and proceeded to take over the federation.

In my opinion, Stellaris is the or one of the best games ever made

Hegemon - gotta catch'em all!

Just tested this, i can say for sure that this origin is really OP.

Hegemon! Gotta catchem' all!!

When playing with fewer hyperspace lanes, there's a risk when starting with Hegemony or Common Ground that the only systems connected to your homeworld will be owned by your two allies. Needless to say, that's very very bad.

Hegemon Origin in a nutshell: I /AM/ The Senate!

Should do a spiritualist Hegemon next time. Call them Hedge Mages :P

"I love..." Democracy? "this particular origin" so close yet so far.

how does Nihilistic Acquisition work with the Hegemony Join or Die mechanic?

Is there anyway we can get an updated “Top Mods” by ASpec?

"I'm commander Shepard and this is my favorite store on the citadel!"

This is a very good origin for economic play because you can buy things with your hedge-money :)

Anyone know if you set the war goal as Establish Hegemony and you have claims, do you still get the systems?

Hegemonic Origin: the shortcut to galactic SUPERPOWER status. I'm for it!

Off the bat, out of the gate, from the get go.

ok i know that this video is over 18 months old now but as i am new (ish) to stellaris (currently on my 6th playthrough) i was wondering why not an egalitarian hegemony as the benefits as far as i can see would outweigh picking Authoritarian (which apart from anything else is part roleplay and some benefit) where as Egal has the large benefit of +25% Faction influence gain +5% Specialist output, so am going to try Fan militerist / Egal and then try the Fan egal / militerist and have a looksee. (this of course is based on game mechanics not RP flavour).

Using Status Que in a hegemony war splits the attacked empire instead (by creating a new empire from the occupied systems), which is weird, but also gives interesting opportunities. Like splitting huge empires into small empires, which are not powerful enough on their own to rebel, but strong enough to be a threat further on. I really like this concept of divide and conquer and in a way is way better than the vassal system.

President specifically doesn't get the resource from pops bonus, sadly.

I've tried 4 starts with Hegemon now, but there is just NO way that I can block in the other members - quite the opposite, they manage to block me in every time. Am I just unlucky and getting the worst systems or is there some trick I'm missing?

Love how Aspec referred federation members as dominion members lol.

Just a quick question if I may. I play a robotic race. The senate stuff is okay at first but slowly turns against robotic races I feel. I left the senate with what I felt no penalty at all. If anything I felt it was better. Any feedback?

What will happen if you start new game with guaranteed habitable planets option disabled? Can you even do that with Hegemony and Common Ground origins?

Is his relationship with his wife supposed to be a joke or is he crying out for help?

Hegemon with the federation fleet bug are becoming the most powerful run in the game!

Nice reference

If you are lucky you get a megacorp ally. Or be a megacorp for instant free markets.

Nothing describes "I am the senate" more than this video. Palpatine must be very proud of you.

A certain teadrinker was ahead of you 🙃

Is there a video that goes over the different federation types ? if not can u make 1

You could always make someone a tributary and have the "subsidiaries can be members" and then gain from that bonus 15% resources

Hello . Are you using a graphic mod?? Your gane looks beautiful and would like to know if is because a mod

Now all that's left is a criminal underworld boss origin and I can be the mafia in space!

You know what's hilarious? I started as an Egalitarian, and spawned smooshed between a bunch of Authoritarians. And when I got my fleet power up to deal with the Devouring Swarm that also spawned right next to me...They all asked to be my fuckin' vassals.

Hegemony is terrifyingly good at rushing wars at the very start of the game

can u already make a full gameplay or something?

Make your own Voltaire space nightmare, now in Stellaris, even in early game

You should try out that tree of life origin and go absolute research addict. It's insane how before I even have more than 28 ships, I had put every regular empire under my boot as "pathetic" with my 3k research before 2250 (this is without megastructures, all vanilla too!) I don't know if that's been a thing or the tree of life helped push that insanity, but pushing only for tech for few decades is not only easy but damn well the best thing ever! I had a 14k 40 ship fleet before anyone even had their first 5k, insanely OP!

I wish there was an option for empires to start with member empires with the same species as the hegemon empire. That's the only additional thing I want from it.

*IT WILL MAKE SENSE LATER ON!*

I got trapped by a hegemony and and a extra along with FE AND DEVOURING SWARM, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIGHT MY WAY OUT FOR THE FIRST 80 YEARS.

2:10 That's where you're wrong, Adulto Union of Soviet Space Republics reporting in

Is it worth to make idealogical war before hegemony war? I saw that you had some problems with cohesion even with 3 envoys assigned. Actually, can fed level go down?