It's a medium-complexity 4-player wargame about Columbia in the late 90s and early 2000s. I'm usually pretty suspicious of Americans designing wargames about "counterinsurgency" but this one actually seems pretty thematic and fun. The designer also included a ton of referenced design notes for what historical events things in the game refer to and why the game is set up the way it is, so I think it provides a pretty good excuse to talk about a topic I don't know anything about. It also looks really nice on the table
The 4 players each control one of the four factions, the Columbian government, FARC, AUC, or the Cartels. The Government faction plays totally differently from the other three ("Insurgent") factions, and each insurgent faction has some unique stuff it can do. All the victory conditions are different for each player- the government wins by building popular support, the FARC by building popular opposition to the government and building up its base areas, the AUC by having more bases than the FARC, and the Cartels by having a ton of resources and base areas (coca plantations). The rules aren't too complicated but there's a ton of shit going on and a lot of different ways the players can affect one another, and a lot of scope for negotiation and so on (eg the government and AUC both oppose FARC, but if FARC is getting beat down and the AUC is starting to gain control of the countryside, the gov't may cut a deal with FARC to let them take care of the AUC while the gov't eradicates Cartel coca plantations, etc).
So this thread is to check to see if anyones interested in playing this. I know BF is down so if we get two more people we can get a game going and see what its like. Or if more people want to play, I can just gamemaster/coach or we can do teams or sth, I dunno.
Anyway if that sounds good to you, you can check out the rules here:
The rules aren't too complicated (10 pages, no tables or charts or anything) and I didn't have any trouble with them in the learning game I set up playing all 4 factions, but I think you do have to be pretty familiar with the options you have available as your faction to play well, so anyone wanting to play will probably have to read at least a couple of those pages
Theres also a huge playbook with a tutorial, strategy notes, design notes, etc (some of which may be of general interest even if you dont want to play the game itself)
Theres also a VASSAL module available which I'll use to keep track of whats going on. We can just pass the VASSAL file around to speed things up if ppl want
If theres any interest in this at all I'll post more about how the game works this weekend, in the meantime look at this friggin board
stegosaurus posted:in 100%
ok, cool. heres some stuff if you want to start thinking about which faction you want or just want to outright call a faction
ROLE SUMMARIES
Government
Situation. Colombia is at the edge of abyss. Illegal armed groups—flush with drug money—are multiplying in the countryside. Terror, sabotage, assassination, and kidnapping
have reached alarming rates, and little of the rural population supports the national Government. Only a full-out, whole-of-Government counterinsurgency (COIN) campaign can restore law and order to your nation.
Goal. Expand the Government’s legitimacy throughout the country.The more population that supports you, the greater your chance to win.
Tools. You can train forces to outnumber and assault the enemy with fearsome firepower. But guerrillas must first be flushed out from underground by sweeping cities or rural departments where they hide. Your troops are highly mobile by ground or air lift but must return to bases or city garrisons. Police—once established in a department—can stay. Police and troops together can conduct civic action to build your popular support. But COIN requires
resources—be sure to control the country’s cities, pipelines, and other lines of communications and cultivate foreign aid to ensure your war chest remains full.
Deals. It’s tempting to single-mindedly hammer the FARC and let the cartels and AUC do their thing, since FARC’s political interests directly oppose yours. But the smaller insurgents can quietly gain momentum and win. Imagine a temporary truce in which you leave
FARC free to fight off the dread paramilitaries, while your eradication of the Cartels’ fields helps FARC politically and fills your aid coffers.
Tip. COIN is a gradual campaign—plan your territorial control and civic action several operations ahead.
FARC
Situation. Colombia’s popular revolution is ready to transition to the mobile phase. The Government has abandoned the countryside. Your revolutionary movement—the FARC—is drawing resources from Colombia’s drug economy. It’s time to move: rally your People’s Army and march on the strongholds of reaction!
Goal. Build opposition to the Government to prepare its collapse. The more of the country’s population you can swing from support to opposition while sustaining your logistics, the better chance you’ll win.
Tools. That probably will mean infiltrating cities with your guerrillas to agitate the bourgeoisie into uprising. Wherever you control the population by outnumbering all enemy forces with your fighters and logistical bases, you can agitate. Even where you can’t control
territory, you can terrorize the populace into resenting Government fecklessness. To operate, you’ll need resources: extort controlled areas or kidnap and ransom resources away from wealthy drug lords or Government collaborators. If the Government or the reactionary paramilitaries come after you, ambush them first!
Deals. You share the countryside with the cartels and can protect drug Bases by making the areas dangerous for troops or police. You share with your Insurgent enemies an interest in a weak Government—their terror can erode Government support and aid; you in turn can limit the growth of your logistical bases to placate the AUC. Even the Government may help you—giving you a pause to trim the AUC or Cartels when too strong or doing so itself.
Tip. Strike the country’s lines of communications—they are the arteries of Government resources and maneuver.
AUC
Situation. Colombia’s Government has proven incapable of controlling the leftist scourge of the FARC. You will step into the security vacuum and use the terrorists’ own tactics against them. Funded by landowners who have suffered an epidemic of FARC kidnapping, you will rally the autodefensa militias under the AUC banner and cleanse the land of leftist infrastructure— or at least provide a counterweight.
Goal. Eliminate FARC logistical bases while building your own. The more disparity in AUC’s favor, the closer you are to winning.
Tools. Your guerrillas are every bit as effective as the FARC’s, though often less numerous, and can ambush to guarantee a successful attack. Your terror operations enable you to eliminate even protected FARC logistical bases through assassination, neutralize local opposition to the Government to allow you rally forces, and even trim back popular support of and foreign aid for the Government when it’s getting too strong. You can rally your forces in relatively safe Government areas and extort there for resources, then march a guerrilla army into a FARC stronghold to attack or infiltrate individual units to terrorize.
Deals. You can help the Government by going where it can’t: Your informants enable you to attack underground guerrillas, your terror instantly dampens FARC-based popular opposition, and you can take on FARC within demilitarized zones. But don’t dismiss handshakes with other Insurgents. FARC rallying directly affects your victory—offer truce. And your assassinations can easily target the Cartels’ business—extract drug shipments for “protection”.
Tip. You’re a remora on the Government shark. Swim along, but be ready for the day it shakes you off and bites.
Cartels
Situation. You have taken over Colombia’s illegal narcotics industry. The bad news is that the Government is gearing up its “war on drugs”, and the more it eradicates your drug production bases, the more gringo aid it gets. The good news is that the country is at the height of a civil war, and there are plenty of other illegal groups around to keep the Government busy and off your back.
Goal. Make money. And grow your productive base to make sure that you can keep making money. The more resources and bases you accumulate, the more likely you are to win.
Tools. You are a commercial insurgency and can attack and terrorize your enemies like the rest. But your gunmen are less numerous and can’t protect everything you own. Your strength is that you are the fastest growing enterprise in the country: cultivate and process until you’re rich. Then bribe to neutralize whatever enemy guerrillas, police, or bases stand in your way. Process drugs and use profits from the shipments to grease your operational skids and grow even faster.
Deals. You got the drugs and the money, so you can get the deals. Resources are transferable, and—sooner or later—you should have garnered more than you need. Use them to buy friends. Or offer to process shipments for other Insurgents—or even for a staged Government drug bust! Or agree to bribe away whatever threatens your enemy—anything to keep the heat off your coca fields.
Tip. The potent Medellín gang just got shot up, so you are starting weak. Try to get a lot of bases and shipments ready to earn resources—but not so many as to draw unwanted attention!
Edited by shennong ()
MadMedico posted:Why are the paramilitaries, government, and cartels separate factions?
yeah its a good question, the most obvious answer is because the dude set out to make a 4 player asymmetric warfare game, chose columbia because it had different nominal actors and wasn't covered by any other games, and that's pretty much it. he does sort of address this in the design notes though:
Fantasy of the Right—or Left?
English language studies of the Colombian conflict read so differently from one another that they seem to be describing multiple countries. Is Colombia a thriving democracy, with a popular government that has brought economic prosperity and relative peace to its people in the face of vicious terrorist and criminal threats? Or is Colombia a harsh dictatorship by an economic elite, dressed up as democracy but in fact using state-sponsored terror to keep its ever more impoverished masses under heel, and the FARC simply the people’s defense? You can find either thesis in North American scholarship.
ANDEAN ABYSS does not attempt to settle these questions. I took care to draw from writers (necessarily, for me, in English) who view Colombia’s conflict from a range of political perspectives (see Selected Sources). No one view seems able to tell the full story, and I hope that players of a variety of persuasions will find something relevant in the game’s design. The game does take some positions. For example, it does not fully buy the Left’s thesis of the AUC as an “extension” of the Government in that both defend elite interests against the rest of the people (see Murillo somewhat and Hristov especially). Yes, the Colombian Government and AUC shared a core interest in suppressing the FARC, and ANDEAN ABYSS accounts for this shared interest in the factions’ victory conditions. Indeed, Government and AUC players often will collaborate.
But the Government under Uribe developed and executed a plan to extend its writ throughout the country—a true and, by the far-Left model, unnecessary departure—including against AUC. Casualties caused the AUC, extraditions of its leaders, and its imperfect but not false demobilization show a real parting of Government and AUC ways. And Colombia’s vigorous electoral politicking and, under Uribe, undeniable and widespread popular enthusiasm for President, government, and army seemed to gainsay the Leftist model of Colombia as an exploitative oligarchy defended from its people by force of terror. So ANDEAN ABYSS has the Government seeking popular support to win, rather than the exploitation of the country’s poor by the violence-backed rich, as the far Left might have it.
As for the nature of the FARC, the game does not depict the group as mere “narco-terrorists” who have left people’s revolution behind and continue mainly for personal drug profit (as some on the Right argue). An insurgency may at once benefit from the drug trade and provide much needed services to rural under-privileged. ANDEAN ABYSS models the latter aspect with the FARC Agitation mechanic and the effects of events such as Crop Substitution, Unión Sindical Obrera, and others.
The persistence in hard times of the FARC’s leaders and fighters demonstrates ideological commitment—dedication to something larger than self. Purely commercialist insurgent leaders at some point wish to live the high life. In contrast, Reyes, Mono Jojoy, Cano, and the rest carried on in the face of the hardships of lethal Government pursuit—and despite opportunities for reconciliation. In the game, FARC victory depends directly on popular opposition and the strength of the movement’s political and logistical base—the preconditions for an eventual revolution and overthrow of the existing order.
Finally, ANDEAN ABYSS represents the US-sponsored “War on Drugs” as neither clear failure nor clear success. Eradication in the game may be a mixed bag politically, but, used judiciously, it is a necessary and potent means for the Government to keep the Cartels in check. Historically, aerial coca eradication has had its place in curbing supply, as have the successes of the kingpin strategy of the Colombian Police and US DEA. Economics being what they are, Colombian coca production continues. But the country has escaped the level of terror and political challenge of the big cartels that now traumatize Mexico and Central America so brutally. Colombians today can take pride in a low murder rate, growing economy, and better governance.
obviously that's not exactly penetrating analysis and i'm not really interested in defending it beyond noting that it's unusual for a wargame designer to even consider viewpoints outside of the security establishment at all. that said i'm all for critiquing the premises of the game if you have anyting to say about it
Edited by shennong ()
NoFreeWill posted:i'm make games... waht cool historical political situation should I make a game about?
if you want to do afghanistan 1989, right after soviets left, i GMed one recently
mexican or algerian revolution would be cool
babyfinland posted:algerian revolution would be cool
this is supposed to be good and apparently inspired the columbia game
FARC: ?
AUC: ?
Cartels: stegosaurus
unassigned: EmanuelaOrlandi
the game is driven by Event cards. you have a stack of event cards interspersed with four Propaganda cards. the Propaganda cards cause the Propaganda phase to happen, which is when income happens, drugs gets shipped, the govt and FARC can spend resources on changing support in areas, and guerilla units that were exposed from doing operations go back into hiding, etc. it's also when victory is assessed, so if anyone is meeting their victory conditions when a propaganda card comes up, the game is over. otherwise the game runs to the last propaganda card and then we score it.
each "turn" consists of an event card being played and the next card being turned face up (you can see one card into the future):
In this case, the Darien card is the active card and Drogas La Rebaja is the next one. The row of icons at the top of the card shows the activation/eligibility order for that card. So the Cartels get first crack at Darien, then AUC, FARC, etc. Most cards have two different "interpretations" or historical paths, if you want to implement the event on the card you can pick one or the other. Usually the shaded background is worse for the gov't and unshaded is better, but any eligible faction can implement any of the events.
For any given card, only two factions can act, and what the first faction to act does determines what the second one can do. A faction can also chose to pass, gaining resources (3 for gov't, 1 for insurgents) for that turn rather than acting. You can see this on the "sequence of play" area:
The pass area is below the eligibility area, the action tracks are to the right. The first player who decides to act can decide to:
1: Perform an operation (Op only) which restricts the second player to a limited operation (LimOp, operation restricted to one area)
2: Perform an Op & a special activity, which allows the second player to chose between a LimOp and executing the event
3: Execute the event text on the card, allowing the second player to perform an Op & a special activity
However, if you act on a card, you're ineligible for the next card! You can only play on every second card. Once you act, your faction token goes in the "Ineligible" box for the next card.
Ok so, in this case, both of these cards are pretty important for the Cartels, so they have to decide whether they want to pass on the Darien card and wait for Drogas La Rebaja card, or do an operation, or whatever. Lets say the Cartels are short on cash and want to wait for the resources available on the Drogas event and pass, gaining 1 resource in the process.
The AUC is next up. The AUC wins by placing more bases than the FARC has, so the bases event on Darien is pretty helpful. So they play the event text, becoming the first faction to act. Because they played the event, the 2nd eligible faction, FARC, can do an operation and special activity, or pass.
FARC decides to perform a Terror action to swing support in its favour in a couple of provinces. It also performs a Kidnapping special activity to get some extra cash. Now the sequence area looks like this:
Ok, so that's it for Darien, next card is drawn
and here's what the sequence area looks like
So now the Cartels can execute the event text on Drogas, and the Gov't has to choose whether they want to execute an operation or pass and wait for the next card (which is pretty important for them). Either way, FARC and AUC can't act on this card, but they'll be eligible again for the 7th special forces card.
That's basically how the game is driven forward
p.s. whatt is your paypal? tell me or i will IFAP you
babyfinland posted:in as govt please. no lawbreakers allowed
heres ur aids
stegosaurus posted:I'll be the cartels
EmanuelaOrlandi posted:but ya I wanna be FARC
First thing is support. Most cities and departments have a population number associated with it, representing millions of people in that city/dept. If there's no number (eg Amazonas), there's not enough population for it to count toward support. There are 5 levels of support for the government, Active Support, Passive Support, Neutral, Passive Opposition, and Active Opposition
So Bogota is a population 8 city which starts with Active Support for the gov't and Meta East a population 1 grassland department with Active Opposition for the gov't. The way support is calculated is pretty simple, Passive levels are 1xpopulation and Active levels are 2x population. So Bogota is worth 16 support for the gov't, while Meta East is worth 2 opposition for FARC. Support/opposition is important for gov't/FARC because their win conditions refer to those numbers (support>60 is gov't win, opposition + # of bases >25 is FARC win). Note that rural departments are worth way less so eventually FARC needs to get into populous cities to build opposition and win.
Support is also logistically important, FARC can't Rally (place new pieces) anywhere there is support for the gov't, the AUC can't Rally where there's opposition, and spaces with Support will spot moving guerillas for the gov't, flipping them from their Underground side to their Activated side (get into this in below)
The insurgents can all modify support using the Terror action. AUC and the Cartels move support one level toward Neutral for every Terror action. They also place a Terror counter in the city/depatment which makes it harder for the gov't and FARC to propagandise there later. FARC's terror action can also build opposition. The gov't modifies support by conducting Civic Actions as part of either the Propaganda phase, or as part of a Train action. Basically it can pay 3 resources to remove Terror markers (these must be removed before modifying support), and then 3 resources to shift the support one level toward Active (it can do this multiple times). FARC has a similar mechanic to Agitate during the Propaganda phase.
Resources are required by everyone to do any operation. For the most part Insurgent operations cost 1 resource per space they're taking place in, Gov't cost 3. Gov't income is determined by Lines of Communication being intact, so Insurgents can affect gov't income (mostly FARC will be interested in this) by moving pieces onto LoCs and conducting Terror operations to sabotage the LoCs. Patrol operation lets the gov't protect LoCs. The gov't also recieves income from Aid, which is determined by events, but can also be increased by Eradicating Cartel bases (special activity). The only twist there is that when Samper is El Presidente (at the start of the game), Colombia receives no aid until Pastrana is elected.
FARC gets income by building bases (1xbases during Propaganda), as well as by Kidnapping (special activity) Cartel leaders or Gov't officials. AUC gets income solely through bases (1xbases), and so relies on gov't largesse and extorting the other factions. The Cartels get big money from bases (3x bases), and can also Process cocaine Shipments, each of which are worth 6 resources during Propaganda, or can be used to buy a free Limited Operation. Those Shipments can also be transferred to other Insurgent players or stolen by them during Attacks. The gov't gets the 6 resources for getting the shipments as a drug bust as well.
Last thing is pieces. If you look at the pic above you can see that the gov't has light blue and dark blue cubes. Light blue are police, dark blue are troops. I don't want to get into the differences too much, there are some detailed notes in the playbook for BF, but basically troops are highly mobile but have to go back to cities during the Propaganda phase, while police are difficult to build up and move around but stay put as a lasting presence. The gov't needs both troops AND police in a space to conduct a Civic Action and build support.
The little red cylinder is a FARC guerilla piece. Every Insurgent faction has guerillas which can be face down (as in the picture) denoting that they are "underground" and can't be attacked by the government (the government turns them face up with the Sweep operation). Underground guerillas can still attack one another. Underground guerillas are activated by performing operations or by moving into spaces where there's Support, police, and more than 3 total pieces. Or by Sweeps. Then they're flipped up to the "active" side which has a star on top for FARC and AUC and a coca leaf for the Cartels. Vulnerable Active guerillas can be flipped back face down during the Propaganda phase or with a Rally action.
Finally there are bases (flat discs). Bases are in the win condition for all the insurgent factions, so building up bases is important for all of them. They're also important for getting pieces on the board since Rally can add more guerillas if you've got a base in the place you're rallying. You build a base by Rallying as well, swapping two guerillas (or 3 troops, for the gov't) for a disc. The cities are all de facto gov't bases, but can also contain insurgent bases. The gov't can also build countryside bases which is useful for training police and getting troops to stay in the country.
Ok none of that is going to make any sense at all until we start playing so lets just go ahead and start and it'll become more clear
game opens with a tough decision for FARC, as both Alfonso Cano and Raul Reyes are potentially getting killed over the next two cards. FARC is the first eligible player to go on the first card (Alfonso Cano), and so can choose what it wants to do. Probably it is a good idea to either execute the shaded text on Alfonso Cano or pass and wait for the shaded text on Raul Reyes. FARC could also ignore the cards and conduct operations. If it conducts operations without special activities, it can deny the event to anyone else (first track in the sequence box). The gov't is 2nd eligible on both cards and is likely to, if possible, execute the unshaded text on either one, or pay the AUC or cartels to do it. The shaded text on the Alfonso Cano card will make it much easier for FARC to Agitate (spend resources to buy Opposition) when the first Propaganda card comes up, as it will not need any military control of the area to do so (just a presence). The shaded text on the Raul Reyes is an immediate shot in the arm which will give the FARC a headstart.
EO, its up to you, let me know if you have questions about anything or if you want to do an operation I can walk you through that.
also heres the vassal file if you guys want to frig around with it, dont look ahead in the card deck
http://filedump.org/files/Zv6I1348336497.html
Alfonso Cano
Communist Bogotá University student Guillermo León Sáenz Vargas joined the FARC in the 1980s and eventually became its master revolutionary ideologue, “Alfonso Cano”. A 2011 military strike in Cauca Department killed him.
Raul Reyes
A 2008 Colombian military raid into Ecuador killed then second highest FARC commander Luís Édgar Devia Silva (“Raúl Reyes”) and recovered evidence of planned Venezuelan and possibly Ecuadoran support to the FARC.