My primary aim with this guide was to go over each card available to the classes, rank and explain their rankings as well as general ideas for playing each class.
My ratings are as follows:
A: Card is always better played for its effect than used for a basic action
B: Card is usually better played for its effect than used for a basic action
C: Card is usually worse played for its effect than used for a basic action
D: Card is almost always worse played for its effect than used for a basic action
F: Card is always worse played for its effect than used for a basic action
Without further ado, let's start with the working class. The cards are listed in no particular order:
Need for change (A): If you want to propose a bill, it effectively let's you double your action for free. You can still call immediate votes on your bills, so overall a decent card.
Boost domestic tourism (D): Hard to play due to the 1A/1B requirement. During later rounds other players might not even have enough luxuries to be purchased. Additionally, it is better for workers to increase their prosperity using services than luxuries, except for the last round when they're just trying to make the most points from their money.
Radical reforms(B): Overall not a bad card, as it can be used to go from C->A in any policy you want to change, but it gets a "B" instead of "A" due to the fact that you can't call an immediate vote.
Cooperative farm(A+): Probably the workers best card. It seems basic, just 2 food you can produce for yourself, but you can do that with 3 unskilled workers, and workers often struggle getting enough skilled workers to fill jobs. I've seen a lot of players get stuck with a large pool of unskilled and unemployed workers. On the other hand these 3 people working on the farm count towards your agricultural trade union, so you need just 1 more person employed somewhere to be able to make the trade union. The best part is that this can never be taken away from you, CC or MC can't sell it and make your workers unemployed. Food is a big problem for workers otherwise, so let's talk about that. You can buy food from 3 sources, MC, CC, and the foreign market. If foreign trade is in 6A, then foreign food is $20, and CC/MC will price theirs for 15. You need one food for every 3 people at the end of the round, so you can effectively think of these 3 people as producing $30 per round. If 6B is in effect foreign food is $15, so you'll often see MC/CC set their price for $12. In case of 6C and 6B I recommend purchasing from the foreign market, as with that you're putting money in the state's pocket instead of MC/CC, and a delta of $3 per food is not big enough to justify buying from then even at 6B. In case of 6A buy from CC over MC. On one hand CC will pay taxes on that towards the state, which you want to prop up. On the other, MC competes for the same services as you, so you want to limit their funds. Workers should be interested in propping up the state as IMF hurts your wages 4B+5C also resets any progress you made with those policies.
Proletarians of the world unite(A): Better than the simple add 3 voting cubes to the bag. Solid card overall.
Signing bonus(B): A decent card, especially because you can assign 4 workers instead of the 3 with the basic action. 4 over 3 is a big jump, as it means you can either staff 2*2 people companies, or a large 3 person company and 1 MC company. Additionally you can forfeit the extra money and assign someone to a trade union. It's not and "A" tier because if 2A is in effect, it cannot be played.
Labor market deregulation(B): Better than playing the basic 3 assign action, especially at later rounds if CC has sold companies, or if state went bankrupt and a lot of your people became unemployed. It's not and "A" tier because if 2A is in effect, it cannot be played.
Affordable housing(B): It's a pretty cheap card for a lot of points, if you can definitely use it with CC. It's not an "A" tier because it can clog up your hand as it's most optimally played on the last turn, so drawing it too early can have you holding it for a long time.
Specialization(B-): You assign the same number of people as with a basic action, but before that you get a skilled worker. It can be decent to get a trade union, or send your people to work in a big 3 people company, but you add another person to your population without scoring. Usually you'd want to only increase your population with health as much as possible. The card is further constrained by the requirement of 7B/7C, which aren't ideal for workers, but I'll talk about that later.
Highlight social issues(C): Workers have a hard time getting purple cubes, only their trade unions produce them, so buying 3 for half price isn't necessarily bad, but that money can often be better spent on goods/services.
Migration(C): With workers, if you have too much population, that's everybody's problem as you can call for a demonstration. Getting $10 for sending away 2 unskilled is not a worthwhile action, and I would not recommend sending away skilled workers as they help the rest of your unskilled get jobs. It can be useful in the last two rounds if you're already demonstrating, but your opponents are already receiving max penalties with the companies they had built.
Supplemental income program (A): Free money before buying goods+services, so a good card. Only drawback is the 2B/2C requirement.
Public opinion polling(A): Better than a plain bill proposal, especially as workers struggle with purple cubes. Even if it seems you won't win the vote (5 blues pulled on 2A) I'd recommend calling the vote anyway, as that will remove 5 opposing cubes from the voting bag.
Workplace accident(D): I've never seen this card give workers more than $16 or at most $24. That's pocket change for an action, and I don't think it's worth it, maybe if you can put an opposing player into taking an unwanted loan.
Interest groups(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Fake news(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Unemployed benefits(A+): Amazing card. Free money, then buy goods+services. You almost always have unemployed. At the very start of the game, this is the best card to play round 1 action 1. It has a requirement of 4A/4B, but even after IMF you have 4B, so this card can almost always be played.
Public sector overtime(B+): Since you can only buy from the state using this card, it is worth doing as long as after the shift the state will have enough resources for you to increase prosperity.
General strike(B-): Very powerful card, better than playing a basic strike even if you only have 1 trade union. Strikes are a double edged sword as your employers might not pay, so only call the strike if you can financially survive if they refuse to raise wages. If CC has placed cogs on any companies it's best to strike at those jobs as he'll be more inclined to raise wages there and not miss out on the extra productivity. It's not an A card because you don't always wanna call a strike.
Student movement/Healthcare movement/Worker's movement (A): Decent cards as these are policies you care about, let you propose that specific law and add additional voting cubes. You can also call an immediate vote.
Immigration reform(A): I separated this out from the earlier three because it is not necessarily evident what the worker's stance should be. I've seen people push for 7C or 7A, but here's my logic. 7C is high risk, high reward. Your population grows very fast, but since you can demonstrate, this is a problem for everyone else as well. MC can't demonstrate, so they'll oppose 7C, but CC will support it initially as they need worker as well. If you can keep 7C throughout the whole game that'll mean an additional population growth of 4turn*4worker/turn=16 workers. You start out with 10 workers, so if you use healthcare just 4 times you reached 30 people. You should be pushing to reach this as fast as possible as to not accure further population size as anything above 30 people equals 10 population. The problem with this to work is that 7C has to be in effect every round from 1 to 4. If the state goes bankrupt immigration resets to 1 and you can't do anything, also MC will likely try to reduce it. An additional thing to consider is that for example if you have 17 workers at the end of the round they'll earn money, but next round those same funds have to buy goods and services for 21 people, four of them who haven't contributed yet. You're always effectively trying to sustain a larger population with the funds produced by a smaller one. With 7A you'll have MC's support, and if CC builds automated companies anyway you won't run into a situation where the company slots are filled so you can't dish out penalty points with demonstration, but you have many unemployed. You also have a smaller growth rate, so the gap between produced wealth and wealth needed for the additional population acquired between turns is smaller. Overall I do not recommend 7C, but rather 7A.
Healthcare benefits/State Scholarship(B+): Overall good cards, but you can only buy from the state, so if there are fewer resources than your population, than you can't raise prosperity. In that case I think it's better to buy full price from multiple sources and raise prosperity as the free action.
Middle Class cards:
Higher education program/Health Crisis(C+): Overall you're better off buying your own services whenever you can than selling them, but these cards can be pretty nice if you need a quick infusion of cash that you can't otherwise get.
Employment subsidy(B-): Good card if you plan to an extra shift, but most often you won't want to do an extra shift. The 1A/1B requirement also lowers the card's utility.
Supplemental income program(A-): Always better than buying goods/services with a basic action. It gets the "-" because of the requirement of 2B/2C.
Unemployment initiative program(C): Honestly, it is a card that you rarely get at the right time to use. There are never enough unemployed workers to fully utilize the card, or once there are, then most of your companies are staffed.
Interest groups(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Fake news(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Migration(A): Very important for the MC. You can't demonstrate like WC, so your unemployed workers are just dead weight. You also acquire skilled workers easier, so sending them away is fine for $20. Reducing your pop also helps you increase prosperity with fewer resources.
Labor market deregulation(B): Better than playing the basic 3 assign action, especially at later rounds if CC has sold companies, or if state went bankrupt and a lot of your people became unemployed. It's not and "A" tier because if 2A is in effect, it cannot be played.
Foreign market insight(D): You rarely want to sell to the market. The only use of this card is that if for example you have 8 food and the current export card is 7+2 on food to fish for one that is 5+3, same goes for other products. As MC exporting is a desperate cash grab action, your resources serve you much better if used to buff prosperity.
Investment opportunities(A): Decent card, better than the basic build company function. Searching through the deck can also help a lot. I quite like either searching for the fast food restaurant or the PR agency.
Growing business(A++): Probably the most important card for MC. It's your only way to build storage and there's only 2 of these cards in the deck. Either build storage for both services, or one service + food. Drawing or not drawing this one can really make or break your game.
Specialization(B+): It is a good early card when you still have open worker slots on your companies. Especially good if a skilled worker is needed and you built a company that would've required it, or if that worker was taken away by WC. You also sabotage WC by giving them another person, pumping their population higher.
Land of opportunity(C): You usually see your market before deciding what skilled worker you want to get for said round. By playing this you also increase your own population. Not a bad card, per se, but you can achieve what it does without the card itself. (Pick color of your choice, during immigration, then build company during the round)
Export subsidy(C-): Similarly bad to foreign market insight. As MC you don't want to be exporting. If you do, then you're desperate for cash. This gives more, so that's good, but the requirement makes it difficult to play (1A/1B)
Personal consumption(A-): better than basic buy goods+services, but sometimes difficult to combo. If workers buy resources action 1, state might not have double your population needs. Buying from all sources often means paying for overpriced CC products.
Voice of middle class workers(A): better than basic add cubes action.
New theme park(B): Increases your prosperity for the same price as if buying luxuries from the foreign market at 6C. Especially powerful if you have a free action that increases prosperity lined up to combo with it.
Small business grant(A+): Very good card. You're using it to substitute an action you'd take anyway, and state pays the cost. Only drawback is the need for 1A/1B.
Import subsidy(C+): This card effectively let's you buy luxuries without paying the tarrifs, if that's something you're planning to do anyway. Never buy food as you'll get to do that for free during cover needs anyway.
Public opinion polling: Same mindset as workers. Call the vote for free even if you lose it to eliminate opponent cubes.
Highlight social issues(C): Not worth wasting an action to buy cubes for half-price, MC has companies that produce plenty.
Immigration reform(A): Decent card, keeping 7A is important for MC. If your population runs away all you have is migration to get rid of unwanted people. You don't have demonstration like workers, so keeping your population under control as long as possible is key. Promise workers help with 5B or 2A if they need convincing.
Public sector overtime(B+): Since you can only buy from the state using this card, it is worth doing as long as after the shift the state will have enough resources for you to increase prosperity.
Healthcare benefits/State Scholarship(B+): Overall good cards, but you can only buy from the state, so if there are fewer resources than your population, than you can't raise prosperity. In that case I think it's better to buy full price from multiple sources and raise prosperity as the free action.
Capitalist class cards:
Buy private island(B): Good card for good score. If you have no capital, it takes the money from revenue, so try to play it when you only have revenue if you get the chance.
Global Branding/Global food crisis(A+): Better than basic export action with better prices.
Radical reforms(B): Overall not a bad card, as it can be used to go from C->A in any policy you want to change, but it gets a "B" instead of "A" due to the fact that you can't call an immediate vote.
Taxed enoug already(A): This is a bill you'd wanna propose anyway, the extra cubes are nice.
Foreign recruitment(B): Good card early game, especially if workers play coop farm and MC build companies for themselves. You get workers and push their population higher, sabotaging them. You pay $10 regardless of how many workers you assign, so build a big 3 slot empty company, then play this.
Industrialization(B): Very good card, but sadly it only gets a B as you can only build green or blue companies, and need 1A/1B in effect for it.
Trade protectionism lobby(A): Better than just add 3 cubes to the bag if that's what you'd otherwise play. With 6A in effect it can be a very big influx of cubes into the bag.
Unemployment initiative program(C): Honestly, it is a card that you rarely get at the right time to use. There are never enough unemployed workers to fully utilize the card, or once there are, then most of your companies are staffed.
Business expansion(A+): One of the best early game cards. You don't only get to effectively double your action, but also fill your market back up, drawing through your deck faster to reach companies you want.
Offshore companies(A-): Another amazing card to dodge taxes if you didn't manage to lower them. Just make sure after you moved half your revenue away, you still have enough left to pay wages and taxes. No point moving the money to capital if you just end up spending it. "-" because it's not good in early hands
Business grants(D-): I can honestly not see when I'd use this card instead of exporting. Even with 8 companies built it only yields $40. Also hindered by the requirement of 1A/1B
Competitive wages(C-): Would not be a bad card, but quite often hard to use. Building an empty company and then using this to lure workers over for max wages costs 2 actions. Also if 2A is in effect you can't play it.
Exit strategy(B+): Overall you don't want to be selling companies, not even by the end of the game, as all produced goods count towards score. It is not a bad card if you wanna shake up your portfolio. Additionally I love to hang onto one of these cards, so I have an answer if state plays privatization.
Technological progress(B+): Very good card, but not an A because it only pays off if played in the first 2-3 turns. Also if wages are low consider paying bonuses to workers on cog factories to prevent them going to another job or striking.
Interest groups(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Fake news(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Extra shift(B): Decent card as it can help you do more trades if you're exporting. Sometimes I also like to do it on a purple cube producing company before calling an immediate vote on taxes.
Push political agenda(D+): It is the same as "Need for change" for the workers, except you have to pay $25. This way you could either propose 1 law for free, or 2 for $25, so the card effectively lets you double up the propose bill action for $25. Personally I find that is too expensive, hence the rating.
Foreign market insight(A): You want to sell to the market. The best use of this card is that if for example you have 8 food and the current export card is 7+2 on food to fish for one that is 5+3, same goes for other products. As CC exporting is your main method of making cash and you'd be doing this action anyway.
Tap into new markets (A): Better than a plain proposal because you get extra cubes. The question is which way should you vote. 6C gives you 2 trade deals, but workers can buy food for $10. 6A gives no deals, but foreign market food costs $20 for workers. After round 1 or 2 the trade deals are irrelevant, so you should go for 6A, corner the market and have workers buy food from you for $15.
Public opinion polling: Same mindset as workers/mc. Call the vote for free even if you lose it to eliminate opponent cubes.
Investment opportunities(A): Very good card, better than the basic build company action. If you search through the deck definitely buy the automated luxuries or food factories.
Foreign partners(B): Good early game card, but as I stated previously, turn 3 and onwards the deals matter little. The card can't be played with 6A in effect. Additionally, it only lets you sell food and luxes to the foreign market, not every resource like a basic action.
Endorse political campaign(A): This card let's you put in 6 cubes for $15. The basic action would let you add 3 cubes for 3. I think this price is fair and try to play the card when I can.
Bid rigging/higher education/health crisis:(A) These are all cards that sell overpriced stuff to the state. You make decent money on it, and push the state towards bankruptcy. If taxes are high due to public services, and wages are high as well, you will want to make state IMF. It is best to play these cards as the last action of the round so state has no time to react and only has a single action to try and gather money.
State cards:
Pressing matters(A): Better than plainly proposing a bill, saves you a purple cube.
Radical reforms(B): Overall not a bad card, as it can be used to go from C->A in any policy you want to change, but it gets a "B" instead of "A" due to the fact that you can't call an immediate vote.
Healthcare/Literacy program (A): Shield giving cards are very good, the sooner you can play them the better. You can also buy services from other players to provide these, not just public ones.
Allowances and subsidies(A): $20 for a shield token. Good value.
Public sector overtime(D): I rarely use it. You are often selling the serives at a loss, or breaking even, so producing more isn't worth it. Only use in my opinion is if you have events that need purple cubes, but workers just got assigned this turn and you have no purples in state reserve, then use this to produce purples.
Immediate response(A): very powerful card, especially try to use this on events that give shields.
A matter of high priority(B): Effectively let's you do another event in a round. Just make sure you have the necessary resources so that you can't end up with two events you can't do.
Shift focus(A): Very good card to get out of doing an event that you can't. What can be terrible especially is neighbours at war and developing countries need aid, as they can only be spent for from public services.
Agenda setting/ foreign financial assistance(B-): They are not bad cards, but only really worth playing if at least 3 agendas match up. Under that it's more worth it to do extra tax for money or campaign for cubes.
Nationalization (F): Never seen it played with any use. Terrible card.
Construction boom/Growth in tourism(A): Free cash and influence. Very nice.
Employment support scheme(B): This is a bit worse than the previous two. While it looks the same, it is the state who has to provide the money to the other two, not everyone getting $15.
Step for representation(B): Decent card, much better than meet with MPs to balance legitimacy tracks for scoring
Foreign students/Medical tourism(C): You're better off selling your services to WC/MC as you gain score that way, while exporting only nets around $5-8 per unit. Also you need 1A/1B for this card, so that further hampers playing it.
Business Grants(C-): You're effectively trading $15 for 1 CC legitimacy with this card, but you get no bumps for partial levels, like paying $25 still only gets you 1 legitimacy. 1A/1B is needed to play it.
Unemployment initiative program(D): It is not worth using an action to assign workers to just a single non-operational company.
Emergency State(B): Decent card that you can change a law immediately, but the problem with it is usually the things you want to change will be the ones already proposed, so you can't really use it on policies that you actually care about (like taxes that CC likely proposed ages ago to lower)
Quantitative easing(A): A card that is almost as good as extra tax on it's own, and if you have a loan than it is better. No requirements.
Supplemental income program(C): Same problem as with business grants. You're trading $10 for 1 legitimacy, but you don't get any for partial fulfillment ($10 and $19 are both worth 1 legitimacy) Also requirement of 2B/2C.
Foreign investment program(D): You get $40 for 2 personal. To produce 4 purples with state it costs $30 with medium wages, so we can assume a value of $7.5 per cube, so 2 cubes are worth $15. The only problem is these are state cubes, and you need to give personal, which is anothe action.
Let's assume you had 12 purple cubes produced, those would've cost you $90. Then you'd need to spend 4 actions campaigning to turn them into personal cubes, then another 6 actions using foreign investment program to get 6*$40=$240. In total you spent 10 actions to gain 240-90=$150, making each action yield about $15. This is a terrible return rate when compared to geopolitical support or Quantitative easing. Personal voting cubes are also very valuable to swing votes or use for other events etc. I only recommend this if it is the only way to avoid bankruptcy.
Privatization(A+): This is a great card as you get money from CC and a shield token with them. I recommend you play this as you last action, or maxing out the wages on the company before selling it and comitting the workers so CC can't even sell it. As you make most of your score selling services, I'd definitely recommend selling the broadcasting corporation.
Policies:
My last word of advice is discussing the policies for each class. I'll work my way backwards.
7/Immigration: As previosly discussed, WC and MC want low immigration. For CC it might be tempting to get high immigration and many workers, but by later rounds you'll have problems with the number of unemployed, especially as workers start protesting. This also arises an interesting question, should you prefer to employ middle class or working class workers. One would think middle class workers are better, as they cannot strike, and after the first one or two rounds they don't leave your workplaces as they have nowhere to go. Worekrs can demonstrate if there's too many of them left without a job, but if you have most of your company slots filled and employing MC workers in them, their protest can't hurt you too much. On the other hand, employing too many MC workers will lead to MC supporting higher wages actively instead of being passive about the question. Effectively by turning MC into your workers, you make them vote with the workers... therefore I think as CC it is best to keep a good mixture of WC/MC workers, and try to dilute the working class between multiple industries to slow them down in getting trade unions. As for the state, you also want low immigration. Every action that demands providing goods/services in relation to a class' population gets more expensive. Also a demonstration can hurt you a lot as you have the hardest time opening up new workplaces.
6/Trade: As previously discussed, CC would love to have it be at 6A and sell food for $15, because the foreign market food+tariffs cost $20 that way. WC/MC are better off with cheap food, so they'd prefer 6C. As for state, 6A might sound good because of the tariffs, but no one will ever buy from you at those prices, and geopolitical support also is worth just $15. No tariffs are also kind of terrible, but with 6B, workers might just buy from the foreign market for $15 instead of from CC for $12.
4+5/Health+Edu: CC obviously prefers to keep these in "C" as that reduces taxes the most. Workers want to push for "A" as they prefer free/cheap goods. MC is best of keeping them in "B" as taxes affect them too, but pushing things all the way to "A" will just mean the workers will suck up as much as they can as action 1, meaning MC will pay higher taxes for free healthcare, but never see any of it (the realism hits hard, huh?). The state has in interesting position, as with "C" they gain more cash, but score is more important. State will want at least "B" on both in the early game. This means score for state whenever a sale is made, as well as more taxes. Late game state actually wants to push for "A". With "B" state gets 1VP for every transaction, whether they sell 3 health or 9, same score, but if the policy is in "A" then they gain much more legitimacy with the WC/MC for bigger volume sales (or rather giving away for free).
3/Taxes. CC wants to pay as little as possible and pushes to C. He doesn't really care about bankruptcy as if it happens he'll try pushing taxes down again next turn. MC's stance depends on what the tax modifier is and how many companies he has. I'd say MC is safe to support "B" taxes, but last round should definitely support going down to "C". "B" Taxes are a good compromise for MC if he wants state to avoid bankruptcy. Workers should aim for "A" in taxes not because they themselves should pay more, but to make the two other classes pay more and help state stay afloat and keep it providing cheap services, and not reset progress in other laws like wages and immigration with a bankruptcy.
2/Wages. CC wants minimum wages, obviously. WC can want max wages, but it should be kept in mind that this locks you out of many good cards like signing bonus and labor market deregulation. MC's stance depends entirely on their own sector and how many places they work, but MC will usually earn more at higher wages than what they pay to WC working in their companies. As MC I think supporting high wages if you have many workers is beneficial.
1/Fiscal policy. CC should only vote this towards 1B if they think they can make state go broke, or if they want to play industrialization for something expensive. Another reason can be to try and resolve a demonstration by the workers by creating state jobs. MC and WC should try opening up more jobs if they have many unemployed, or if the baseline state sector of 6 health/edu per turn is no longer enough to cover their needs, but in this case they have to make sure that more state jobs are sustainable. State should be interested in opening up more jobs if they have the money to support wages and construction costs and can get more score from more goods instead of going bankrupt and losing score.
It can sometimes be worht to vote to downsize state, as the sale of state companies can yield funds that help avoid looming bankruptcy. Some workers might be out of a job, but the rest of them will keep their max wages next turn and their free healthcare if state doesn't go broke.
I hope this "little" guide helps you all gauge the cards and their effects better, as well as what policies are worth voting on for each class, and when.
My ratings are as follows:
A: Card is always better played for its effect than used for a basic action
B: Card is usually better played for its effect than used for a basic action
C: Card is usually worse played for its effect than used for a basic action
D: Card is almost always worse played for its effect than used for a basic action
F: Card is always worse played for its effect than used for a basic action
Without further ado, let's start with the working class. The cards are listed in no particular order:
Need for change (A): If you want to propose a bill, it effectively let's you double your action for free. You can still call immediate votes on your bills, so overall a decent card.
Boost domestic tourism (D): Hard to play due to the 1A/1B requirement. During later rounds other players might not even have enough luxuries to be purchased. Additionally, it is better for workers to increase their prosperity using services than luxuries, except for the last round when they're just trying to make the most points from their money.
Radical reforms(B): Overall not a bad card, as it can be used to go from C->A in any policy you want to change, but it gets a "B" instead of "A" due to the fact that you can't call an immediate vote.
Cooperative farm(A+): Probably the workers best card. It seems basic, just 2 food you can produce for yourself, but you can do that with 3 unskilled workers, and workers often struggle getting enough skilled workers to fill jobs. I've seen a lot of players get stuck with a large pool of unskilled and unemployed workers. On the other hand these 3 people working on the farm count towards your agricultural trade union, so you need just 1 more person employed somewhere to be able to make the trade union. The best part is that this can never be taken away from you, CC or MC can't sell it and make your workers unemployed. Food is a big problem for workers otherwise, so let's talk about that. You can buy food from 3 sources, MC, CC, and the foreign market. If foreign trade is in 6A, then foreign food is $20, and CC/MC will price theirs for 15. You need one food for every 3 people at the end of the round, so you can effectively think of these 3 people as producing $30 per round. If 6B is in effect foreign food is $15, so you'll often see MC/CC set their price for $12. In case of 6C and 6B I recommend purchasing from the foreign market, as with that you're putting money in the state's pocket instead of MC/CC, and a delta of $3 per food is not big enough to justify buying from then even at 6B. In case of 6A buy from CC over MC. On one hand CC will pay taxes on that towards the state, which you want to prop up. On the other, MC competes for the same services as you, so you want to limit their funds. Workers should be interested in propping up the state as IMF hurts your wages 4B+5C also resets any progress you made with those policies.
Proletarians of the world unite(A): Better than the simple add 3 voting cubes to the bag. Solid card overall.
Signing bonus(B): A decent card, especially because you can assign 4 workers instead of the 3 with the basic action. 4 over 3 is a big jump, as it means you can either staff 2*2 people companies, or a large 3 person company and 1 MC company. Additionally you can forfeit the extra money and assign someone to a trade union. It's not and "A" tier because if 2A is in effect, it cannot be played.
Labor market deregulation(B): Better than playing the basic 3 assign action, especially at later rounds if CC has sold companies, or if state went bankrupt and a lot of your people became unemployed. It's not and "A" tier because if 2A is in effect, it cannot be played.
Affordable housing(B): It's a pretty cheap card for a lot of points, if you can definitely use it with CC. It's not an "A" tier because it can clog up your hand as it's most optimally played on the last turn, so drawing it too early can have you holding it for a long time.
Specialization(B-): You assign the same number of people as with a basic action, but before that you get a skilled worker. It can be decent to get a trade union, or send your people to work in a big 3 people company, but you add another person to your population without scoring. Usually you'd want to only increase your population with health as much as possible. The card is further constrained by the requirement of 7B/7C, which aren't ideal for workers, but I'll talk about that later.
Highlight social issues(C): Workers have a hard time getting purple cubes, only their trade unions produce them, so buying 3 for half price isn't necessarily bad, but that money can often be better spent on goods/services.
Migration(C): With workers, if you have too much population, that's everybody's problem as you can call for a demonstration. Getting $10 for sending away 2 unskilled is not a worthwhile action, and I would not recommend sending away skilled workers as they help the rest of your unskilled get jobs. It can be useful in the last two rounds if you're already demonstrating, but your opponents are already receiving max penalties with the companies they had built.
Supplemental income program (A): Free money before buying goods+services, so a good card. Only drawback is the 2B/2C requirement.
Public opinion polling(A): Better than a plain bill proposal, especially as workers struggle with purple cubes. Even if it seems you won't win the vote (5 blues pulled on 2A) I'd recommend calling the vote anyway, as that will remove 5 opposing cubes from the voting bag.
Workplace accident(D): I've never seen this card give workers more than $16 or at most $24. That's pocket change for an action, and I don't think it's worth it, maybe if you can put an opposing player into taking an unwanted loan.
Interest groups(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Fake news(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Unemployed benefits(A+): Amazing card. Free money, then buy goods+services. You almost always have unemployed. At the very start of the game, this is the best card to play round 1 action 1. It has a requirement of 4A/4B, but even after IMF you have 4B, so this card can almost always be played.
Public sector overtime(B+): Since you can only buy from the state using this card, it is worth doing as long as after the shift the state will have enough resources for you to increase prosperity.
General strike(B-): Very powerful card, better than playing a basic strike even if you only have 1 trade union. Strikes are a double edged sword as your employers might not pay, so only call the strike if you can financially survive if they refuse to raise wages. If CC has placed cogs on any companies it's best to strike at those jobs as he'll be more inclined to raise wages there and not miss out on the extra productivity. It's not an A card because you don't always wanna call a strike.
Student movement/Healthcare movement/Worker's movement (A): Decent cards as these are policies you care about, let you propose that specific law and add additional voting cubes. You can also call an immediate vote.
Immigration reform(A): I separated this out from the earlier three because it is not necessarily evident what the worker's stance should be. I've seen people push for 7C or 7A, but here's my logic. 7C is high risk, high reward. Your population grows very fast, but since you can demonstrate, this is a problem for everyone else as well. MC can't demonstrate, so they'll oppose 7C, but CC will support it initially as they need worker as well. If you can keep 7C throughout the whole game that'll mean an additional population growth of 4turn*4worker/turn=16 workers. You start out with 10 workers, so if you use healthcare just 4 times you reached 30 people. You should be pushing to reach this as fast as possible as to not accure further population size as anything above 30 people equals 10 population. The problem with this to work is that 7C has to be in effect every round from 1 to 4. If the state goes bankrupt immigration resets to 1 and you can't do anything, also MC will likely try to reduce it. An additional thing to consider is that for example if you have 17 workers at the end of the round they'll earn money, but next round those same funds have to buy goods and services for 21 people, four of them who haven't contributed yet. You're always effectively trying to sustain a larger population with the funds produced by a smaller one. With 7A you'll have MC's support, and if CC builds automated companies anyway you won't run into a situation where the company slots are filled so you can't dish out penalty points with demonstration, but you have many unemployed. You also have a smaller growth rate, so the gap between produced wealth and wealth needed for the additional population acquired between turns is smaller. Overall I do not recommend 7C, but rather 7A.
Healthcare benefits/State Scholarship(B+): Overall good cards, but you can only buy from the state, so if there are fewer resources than your population, than you can't raise prosperity. In that case I think it's better to buy full price from multiple sources and raise prosperity as the free action.
Middle Class cards:
Higher education program/Health Crisis(C+): Overall you're better off buying your own services whenever you can than selling them, but these cards can be pretty nice if you need a quick infusion of cash that you can't otherwise get.
Employment subsidy(B-): Good card if you plan to an extra shift, but most often you won't want to do an extra shift. The 1A/1B requirement also lowers the card's utility.
Supplemental income program(A-): Always better than buying goods/services with a basic action. It gets the "-" because of the requirement of 2B/2C.
Unemployment initiative program(C): Honestly, it is a card that you rarely get at the right time to use. There are never enough unemployed workers to fully utilize the card, or once there are, then most of your companies are staffed.
Interest groups(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Fake news(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Migration(A): Very important for the MC. You can't demonstrate like WC, so your unemployed workers are just dead weight. You also acquire skilled workers easier, so sending them away is fine for $20. Reducing your pop also helps you increase prosperity with fewer resources.
Labor market deregulation(B): Better than playing the basic 3 assign action, especially at later rounds if CC has sold companies, or if state went bankrupt and a lot of your people became unemployed. It's not and "A" tier because if 2A is in effect, it cannot be played.
Foreign market insight(D): You rarely want to sell to the market. The only use of this card is that if for example you have 8 food and the current export card is 7+2 on food to fish for one that is 5+3, same goes for other products. As MC exporting is a desperate cash grab action, your resources serve you much better if used to buff prosperity.
Investment opportunities(A): Decent card, better than the basic build company function. Searching through the deck can also help a lot. I quite like either searching for the fast food restaurant or the PR agency.
Growing business(A++): Probably the most important card for MC. It's your only way to build storage and there's only 2 of these cards in the deck. Either build storage for both services, or one service + food. Drawing or not drawing this one can really make or break your game.
Specialization(B+): It is a good early card when you still have open worker slots on your companies. Especially good if a skilled worker is needed and you built a company that would've required it, or if that worker was taken away by WC. You also sabotage WC by giving them another person, pumping their population higher.
Land of opportunity(C): You usually see your market before deciding what skilled worker you want to get for said round. By playing this you also increase your own population. Not a bad card, per se, but you can achieve what it does without the card itself. (Pick color of your choice, during immigration, then build company during the round)
Export subsidy(C-): Similarly bad to foreign market insight. As MC you don't want to be exporting. If you do, then you're desperate for cash. This gives more, so that's good, but the requirement makes it difficult to play (1A/1B)
Personal consumption(A-): better than basic buy goods+services, but sometimes difficult to combo. If workers buy resources action 1, state might not have double your population needs. Buying from all sources often means paying for overpriced CC products.
Voice of middle class workers(A): better than basic add cubes action.
New theme park(B): Increases your prosperity for the same price as if buying luxuries from the foreign market at 6C. Especially powerful if you have a free action that increases prosperity lined up to combo with it.
Small business grant(A+): Very good card. You're using it to substitute an action you'd take anyway, and state pays the cost. Only drawback is the need for 1A/1B.
Import subsidy(C+): This card effectively let's you buy luxuries without paying the tarrifs, if that's something you're planning to do anyway. Never buy food as you'll get to do that for free during cover needs anyway.
Public opinion polling: Same mindset as workers. Call the vote for free even if you lose it to eliminate opponent cubes.
Highlight social issues(C): Not worth wasting an action to buy cubes for half-price, MC has companies that produce plenty.
Immigration reform(A): Decent card, keeping 7A is important for MC. If your population runs away all you have is migration to get rid of unwanted people. You don't have demonstration like workers, so keeping your population under control as long as possible is key. Promise workers help with 5B or 2A if they need convincing.
Public sector overtime(B+): Since you can only buy from the state using this card, it is worth doing as long as after the shift the state will have enough resources for you to increase prosperity.
Healthcare benefits/State Scholarship(B+): Overall good cards, but you can only buy from the state, so if there are fewer resources than your population, than you can't raise prosperity. In that case I think it's better to buy full price from multiple sources and raise prosperity as the free action.
Capitalist class cards:
Buy private island(B): Good card for good score. If you have no capital, it takes the money from revenue, so try to play it when you only have revenue if you get the chance.
Global Branding/Global food crisis(A+): Better than basic export action with better prices.
Radical reforms(B): Overall not a bad card, as it can be used to go from C->A in any policy you want to change, but it gets a "B" instead of "A" due to the fact that you can't call an immediate vote.
Taxed enoug already(A): This is a bill you'd wanna propose anyway, the extra cubes are nice.
Foreign recruitment(B): Good card early game, especially if workers play coop farm and MC build companies for themselves. You get workers and push their population higher, sabotaging them. You pay $10 regardless of how many workers you assign, so build a big 3 slot empty company, then play this.
Industrialization(B): Very good card, but sadly it only gets a B as you can only build green or blue companies, and need 1A/1B in effect for it.
Trade protectionism lobby(A): Better than just add 3 cubes to the bag if that's what you'd otherwise play. With 6A in effect it can be a very big influx of cubes into the bag.
Unemployment initiative program(C): Honestly, it is a card that you rarely get at the right time to use. There are never enough unemployed workers to fully utilize the card, or once there are, then most of your companies are staffed.
Business expansion(A+): One of the best early game cards. You don't only get to effectively double your action, but also fill your market back up, drawing through your deck faster to reach companies you want.
Offshore companies(A-): Another amazing card to dodge taxes if you didn't manage to lower them. Just make sure after you moved half your revenue away, you still have enough left to pay wages and taxes. No point moving the money to capital if you just end up spending it. "-" because it's not good in early hands
Business grants(D-): I can honestly not see when I'd use this card instead of exporting. Even with 8 companies built it only yields $40. Also hindered by the requirement of 1A/1B
Competitive wages(C-): Would not be a bad card, but quite often hard to use. Building an empty company and then using this to lure workers over for max wages costs 2 actions. Also if 2A is in effect you can't play it.
Exit strategy(B+): Overall you don't want to be selling companies, not even by the end of the game, as all produced goods count towards score. It is not a bad card if you wanna shake up your portfolio. Additionally I love to hang onto one of these cards, so I have an answer if state plays privatization.
Technological progress(B+): Very good card, but not an A because it only pays off if played in the first 2-3 turns. Also if wages are low consider paying bonuses to workers on cog factories to prevent them going to another job or striking.
Interest groups(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Fake news(F): Manipulates the voting bag, there are always better actions.
Extra shift(B): Decent card as it can help you do more trades if you're exporting. Sometimes I also like to do it on a purple cube producing company before calling an immediate vote on taxes.
Push political agenda(D+): It is the same as "Need for change" for the workers, except you have to pay $25. This way you could either propose 1 law for free, or 2 for $25, so the card effectively lets you double up the propose bill action for $25. Personally I find that is too expensive, hence the rating.
Foreign market insight(A): You want to sell to the market. The best use of this card is that if for example you have 8 food and the current export card is 7+2 on food to fish for one that is 5+3, same goes for other products. As CC exporting is your main method of making cash and you'd be doing this action anyway.
Tap into new markets (A): Better than a plain proposal because you get extra cubes. The question is which way should you vote. 6C gives you 2 trade deals, but workers can buy food for $10. 6A gives no deals, but foreign market food costs $20 for workers. After round 1 or 2 the trade deals are irrelevant, so you should go for 6A, corner the market and have workers buy food from you for $15.
Public opinion polling: Same mindset as workers/mc. Call the vote for free even if you lose it to eliminate opponent cubes.
Investment opportunities(A): Very good card, better than the basic build company action. If you search through the deck definitely buy the automated luxuries or food factories.
Foreign partners(B): Good early game card, but as I stated previously, turn 3 and onwards the deals matter little. The card can't be played with 6A in effect. Additionally, it only lets you sell food and luxes to the foreign market, not every resource like a basic action.
Endorse political campaign(A): This card let's you put in 6 cubes for $15. The basic action would let you add 3 cubes for 3. I think this price is fair and try to play the card when I can.
Bid rigging/higher education/health crisis:(A) These are all cards that sell overpriced stuff to the state. You make decent money on it, and push the state towards bankruptcy. If taxes are high due to public services, and wages are high as well, you will want to make state IMF. It is best to play these cards as the last action of the round so state has no time to react and only has a single action to try and gather money.
State cards:
Pressing matters(A): Better than plainly proposing a bill, saves you a purple cube.
Radical reforms(B): Overall not a bad card, as it can be used to go from C->A in any policy you want to change, but it gets a "B" instead of "A" due to the fact that you can't call an immediate vote.
Healthcare/Literacy program (A): Shield giving cards are very good, the sooner you can play them the better. You can also buy services from other players to provide these, not just public ones.
Allowances and subsidies(A): $20 for a shield token. Good value.
Public sector overtime(D): I rarely use it. You are often selling the serives at a loss, or breaking even, so producing more isn't worth it. Only use in my opinion is if you have events that need purple cubes, but workers just got assigned this turn and you have no purples in state reserve, then use this to produce purples.
Immediate response(A): very powerful card, especially try to use this on events that give shields.
A matter of high priority(B): Effectively let's you do another event in a round. Just make sure you have the necessary resources so that you can't end up with two events you can't do.
Shift focus(A): Very good card to get out of doing an event that you can't. What can be terrible especially is neighbours at war and developing countries need aid, as they can only be spent for from public services.
Agenda setting/ foreign financial assistance(B-): They are not bad cards, but only really worth playing if at least 3 agendas match up. Under that it's more worth it to do extra tax for money or campaign for cubes.
Nationalization (F): Never seen it played with any use. Terrible card.
Construction boom/Growth in tourism(A): Free cash and influence. Very nice.
Employment support scheme(B): This is a bit worse than the previous two. While it looks the same, it is the state who has to provide the money to the other two, not everyone getting $15.
Step for representation(B): Decent card, much better than meet with MPs to balance legitimacy tracks for scoring
Foreign students/Medical tourism(C): You're better off selling your services to WC/MC as you gain score that way, while exporting only nets around $5-8 per unit. Also you need 1A/1B for this card, so that further hampers playing it.
Business Grants(C-): You're effectively trading $15 for 1 CC legitimacy with this card, but you get no bumps for partial levels, like paying $25 still only gets you 1 legitimacy. 1A/1B is needed to play it.
Unemployment initiative program(D): It is not worth using an action to assign workers to just a single non-operational company.
Emergency State(B): Decent card that you can change a law immediately, but the problem with it is usually the things you want to change will be the ones already proposed, so you can't really use it on policies that you actually care about (like taxes that CC likely proposed ages ago to lower)
Quantitative easing(A): A card that is almost as good as extra tax on it's own, and if you have a loan than it is better. No requirements.
Supplemental income program(C): Same problem as with business grants. You're trading $10 for 1 legitimacy, but you don't get any for partial fulfillment ($10 and $19 are both worth 1 legitimacy) Also requirement of 2B/2C.
Foreign investment program(D): You get $40 for 2 personal. To produce 4 purples with state it costs $30 with medium wages, so we can assume a value of $7.5 per cube, so 2 cubes are worth $15. The only problem is these are state cubes, and you need to give personal, which is anothe action.
Let's assume you had 12 purple cubes produced, those would've cost you $90. Then you'd need to spend 4 actions campaigning to turn them into personal cubes, then another 6 actions using foreign investment program to get 6*$40=$240. In total you spent 10 actions to gain 240-90=$150, making each action yield about $15. This is a terrible return rate when compared to geopolitical support or Quantitative easing. Personal voting cubes are also very valuable to swing votes or use for other events etc. I only recommend this if it is the only way to avoid bankruptcy.
Privatization(A+): This is a great card as you get money from CC and a shield token with them. I recommend you play this as you last action, or maxing out the wages on the company before selling it and comitting the workers so CC can't even sell it. As you make most of your score selling services, I'd definitely recommend selling the broadcasting corporation.
Policies:
My last word of advice is discussing the policies for each class. I'll work my way backwards.
7/Immigration: As previosly discussed, WC and MC want low immigration. For CC it might be tempting to get high immigration and many workers, but by later rounds you'll have problems with the number of unemployed, especially as workers start protesting. This also arises an interesting question, should you prefer to employ middle class or working class workers. One would think middle class workers are better, as they cannot strike, and after the first one or two rounds they don't leave your workplaces as they have nowhere to go. Worekrs can demonstrate if there's too many of them left without a job, but if you have most of your company slots filled and employing MC workers in them, their protest can't hurt you too much. On the other hand, employing too many MC workers will lead to MC supporting higher wages actively instead of being passive about the question. Effectively by turning MC into your workers, you make them vote with the workers... therefore I think as CC it is best to keep a good mixture of WC/MC workers, and try to dilute the working class between multiple industries to slow them down in getting trade unions. As for the state, you also want low immigration. Every action that demands providing goods/services in relation to a class' population gets more expensive. Also a demonstration can hurt you a lot as you have the hardest time opening up new workplaces.
6/Trade: As previously discussed, CC would love to have it be at 6A and sell food for $15, because the foreign market food+tariffs cost $20 that way. WC/MC are better off with cheap food, so they'd prefer 6C. As for state, 6A might sound good because of the tariffs, but no one will ever buy from you at those prices, and geopolitical support also is worth just $15. No tariffs are also kind of terrible, but with 6B, workers might just buy from the foreign market for $15 instead of from CC for $12.
4+5/Health+Edu: CC obviously prefers to keep these in "C" as that reduces taxes the most. Workers want to push for "A" as they prefer free/cheap goods. MC is best of keeping them in "B" as taxes affect them too, but pushing things all the way to "A" will just mean the workers will suck up as much as they can as action 1, meaning MC will pay higher taxes for free healthcare, but never see any of it (the realism hits hard, huh?). The state has in interesting position, as with "C" they gain more cash, but score is more important. State will want at least "B" on both in the early game. This means score for state whenever a sale is made, as well as more taxes. Late game state actually wants to push for "A". With "B" state gets 1VP for every transaction, whether they sell 3 health or 9, same score, but if the policy is in "A" then they gain much more legitimacy with the WC/MC for bigger volume sales (or rather giving away for free).
3/Taxes. CC wants to pay as little as possible and pushes to C. He doesn't really care about bankruptcy as if it happens he'll try pushing taxes down again next turn. MC's stance depends on what the tax modifier is and how many companies he has. I'd say MC is safe to support "B" taxes, but last round should definitely support going down to "C". "B" Taxes are a good compromise for MC if he wants state to avoid bankruptcy. Workers should aim for "A" in taxes not because they themselves should pay more, but to make the two other classes pay more and help state stay afloat and keep it providing cheap services, and not reset progress in other laws like wages and immigration with a bankruptcy.
2/Wages. CC wants minimum wages, obviously. WC can want max wages, but it should be kept in mind that this locks you out of many good cards like signing bonus and labor market deregulation. MC's stance depends entirely on their own sector and how many places they work, but MC will usually earn more at higher wages than what they pay to WC working in their companies. As MC I think supporting high wages if you have many workers is beneficial.
1/Fiscal policy. CC should only vote this towards 1B if they think they can make state go broke, or if they want to play industrialization for something expensive. Another reason can be to try and resolve a demonstration by the workers by creating state jobs. MC and WC should try opening up more jobs if they have many unemployed, or if the baseline state sector of 6 health/edu per turn is no longer enough to cover their needs, but in this case they have to make sure that more state jobs are sustainable. State should be interested in opening up more jobs if they have the money to support wages and construction costs and can get more score from more goods instead of going bankrupt and losing score.
It can sometimes be worht to vote to downsize state, as the sale of state companies can yield funds that help avoid looming bankruptcy. Some workers might be out of a job, but the rest of them will keep their max wages next turn and their free healthcare if state doesn't go broke.
I hope this "little" guide helps you all gauge the cards and their effects better, as well as what policies are worth voting on for each class, and when.
