The article below is the second in a series of articles about Gandhi: The Decolonization of British India, 1917-1947. The first article in this series can be found here. Enjoy! -Rachel

COIN has had a variety of different Faction types over the 8 published volumes, and Gandhi introduces a new twist on the Insurgent Factions that have been highlighted since the very first COIN Volume, Andean Abyss. Gandhi represents the Nonviolent struggle for Indian Independence through the presence of two Nonviolent (NV) Factions. One of the main questions posed to the Gandhi development team is “How are the NV Factions different than traditional Insurgent COIN Factions?” There are a few major differences that make playing NV Factions an entirely different experience from other COIN Factions.

NV Resources

Probably the very first thing that COIN veterans will notice about NV Factions in Gandhi is that they do not track or use Resources! Unlike other COIN volumes where Factions have their own or shared Resources, NV Factions represent grassroots political movements that were largely self-sustaining. Because participation (and therefore available Resources) waxed and waned over the 30+ year struggle for Independence, and because NV movements historically were able to gather so many more participants than violent ones, tracking Resources is a poor model for how Gandhi’s campaigns of nonviolence worked. So, without Resources, how do NV Factions select spaces?

The Indian National Congress (INC) player is limited to selecting spaces up to Restraint, a measure of the tolerance of the British Raj towards the Independence movement. In addition, the INC player may select spaces that have Protest Markers in them – more on that in a bit. It is worth noting that, as Restraint drops, more Protest Markers become available to place on the map. That means the British Raj is in the same bind they were in historically: if they allow free expression and assembly, the INC will have wide ranging capabilities but if they crack down on the INC, then people will start to Protest! Of course this is a double-bind: If the INC allows Restraint to remain high, and constrain the British Raj’s Operations by making them expensive, the options available to the INC player will be very limited.

The Muslim League (ML) player is limited to selecting spaces up to Unity, a measure of common cause between Hindus and Muslims in India. Historically, Muslim leaders cooperated with the INC at times, eventually breaking away to attempt to form an independent country of their own, which eventually became Pakistan. In addition to spaces up to Unity, the ML player may always select spaces with an ML base. These bases represent areas of strong support for an independent Muslim country, and may always be selected by the ML, even as Unity drops.

So what can NV Factions do in these spaces?

NV Faction Operations

Both NV Factions share Operations common to COIN insurgents: an Operation to add forces, and an Operation which moves forces. Players will notice some new Operations that NV Factions use: Civil Disobedience and Non-Cooperation. The names of these Operations come from two distinct movements led by Gandhi during the Indian Independence Movement.

The principle of Civil Disobedience is the willingness to disobey laws that are judged to be unjust, in an attempt to draw attention to injustices and render enforcement of these laws impossible. One of the most famous instances of Civil Disobedience is the Salt March, where Gandhi and other leaders of the Indian Independence Movement marched 240 miles to the sea to make their own salt in violation of a British Salt Tax. In Gandhi, Civil Disobedience is used by the NV Factions to place Protest Markers in spaces on the map.

Spaces with Protest Markers (Protest Spaces) have several game functions:

• British Raj pieces may not leave Protest Spaces until the Protest is removed, representing the disruption to local infrastructure causes by the refusal of Indians to cooperate with the British. This severely limits the Raj’s mobility.
• Protest Spaces can be targeted by the Non-Cooperation Operation, which shifts that space towards Opposition.
• Protest Spaces targeted by Revolutionaries Attack Operation will generate Unrest (the Revolutionaries Victory Condition) as violent insurgents co-opt the nonviolent Protest to advance their own agenda.
• NV Activists are always Active in Protest spaces, and Inactive elsewhere. When Inactive, they may not be targeted by Raj Operations.
• Finally, Protest Spaces are used as part of determining where the INC can perform Operations.

Once the INC and ML have placed Protest Markers, they can use the Non-Cooperation Operation to shift that space towards Opposition. Non-Cooperation is the refusal to participate with the social, political, and economic systems that allowed the Raj to maintain its rule over 350 million Indians. As a direct challenge to Raj authority, Non-Cooperation automatically lowers Restraint. As mentioned before, as Restraint drops, the number of spaces without Protest that Congress can select for Operations drops. This is one way the ML can attempt to limit the INC. However, the other main effect of Restraint is to determine how many Resources the Raj must spend for each space selected for Operations. That means that generating Opposition makes Operations cheaper for the Raj!

NV Pieces

The NV Activist Pieces are different from Insurgent Guerrillas from other COIN Volumes in two ways. First, they are cylinders, not octagons! This is a visual language choice to reflect the different philosophy in their Operations compared to Insurgent Factions like the Revolutionaries. Secondly, while the NV Activists do have Active and Inactive sides, much like Guerrillas are either Active or Underground, the way that these are flipped to Active is entirely different. When an Activist is Inactive, it cannot be targeted by Raj Operations.

NV Activists are not flipped to Active by specific Operations, rather an Activist in a Protest Space is always Active, as are Activists on Railways. There is no Operation that can flip these Activists to inactive unless the Protest is removed, or they are moved into a non-Protest, non-Railway space.

That’s not it, but… Spoilers!

There’s a lot of subtlety in the NV Factions in Gandhi for players to explore. We hope this gets you excited for the game, and excited to explore nonviolence through the mechanisms and events in Gandhi.

Previous Article in this Series: The Gandhi Chronicles: Issue #1 — The Myths of Nonviolence

Next Article in this Series: The Gandhi Chronicles Issue #3: Raj Control

Author: Jason Carr