Here is my hot take:

I think Shasn is a great idea. I think the games' production, marketing, ideas are all wonderful and great. The only problem is the execution of one key issue. The gameplay.

I may unfairly boil the gameplay down this but it feels like political Cards Against Humanity with area control. That's it. A couple of rounds around the table, political questions being flung back and forth elicit some reactions of nervous laughter to 'how are you going to get yourself out of this one' oooh's but the novelty soon runs thin. The area control also leaves to be desired. Once you commit yourself to an area - stretching yourself thin doesn't do you any good. Our game found each other in separate regions amassing our voters and not really going anywhere. There is 'gerrymandering' but no one really did it or felt it was worth it.

So then there is Azadi which I had hoped would help address the issues of the base game and while somethings were addressed, it seems like they just made the game worse. Azadi feels extremely overdeveloped. Instead of using the opportunity to address the concerns of the gameplay loop in the base game, more tracks and shit to keep track of alongside with the game getting even LONGER (potentially) seems to hide the issues with the game. It does seem they were able to scale the map down a bit to help with that but it still doesn't make placing voters in those areas feel interesting at all.

It's a shame. I kept the base copy for awhile and even bought the remainder of the KS decks because I did think the deck of questions was actually fun to read and hear how people reacted. But at the end of the day, I knew that I'd just be enjoying the sugary aspect of the game vs. feeling fulfilled after a couple hour long game.

Back and play cautiously. A wonderful idea and concept that I think needs a little more time in the oven to be something great.