This month’s P500 announcement of a new Fire in the Lake bot system has prompted much excitement from Fire in the Lake fans, and several questions which I will answer in this article. This article is a Q&A format, but keep reading to the bottom to get a sneak peek at the new Trưng Solitaire system (the u is pronounced like the ‘oo’ in ‘food’).

Is this the same as the bot system in the expansion, Fire in the Lake: Fall of Saigon?

No. Originally we had hoped that the bot in Fall of Saigon would be able to be used with Fire in the Lake, as the expansion is a super-set of the base game. Unfortunately, this has proven impractical; Fall of Saigon adds too many new features and will require more cards and different space selection tables entirely. So, there will be two seperate bots for Fire in the Lake and Fall of Saigon.

Why did you create a new bot for Fire in the Lake?

When Volko and Mark started working on Fall of Saigon, Volko asked Bruce to do an Arjuna style bot for Fall of Saigon. We knew that we would have to have a bot that worked for Fire in the Lake in order to make a bot that would work for Fall of Saigon, and Trưng is the outcome of that work. Plus, you all asked for it: on BoardGameGeek, Twitter, and Facebook, there was a consistent request to take the card-based Arjuna bot from Gandhi and make a version for Fire in the Lake. Request granted.

Will the new bot work with the First Edition of Fire in the Lake?

Yes. We recommend using the freely available second edition ruleset, especially the new Air Strike and Commitment phase rules, however the bot is flexible enough to handle either ruleset. The 8 cards that were updated in the second edition of Fire in the Lake can be resolved using the same tables as the second edition events. The changes to the US Pivotal Event (“Linebacker II”) have no effect on the bot. The updated cards and rules are freely available to print from the GMT Fire in the Lake website.

Sooo… About that sneak peek you promised?

Don’t rush me, we’ll get there!

Didn’t you just update the bots in the Update Pack?

Yes, and the new Trưng system is optional in the purest sense of the word. You do not need to update to the Trưng bots to play the Fall of Saigon Solitaire game – the existing flowchart bots will work fine for the pre-Paris portion of a Fall of Saigon game (see next question). When the Fire in the Lake bot update was being developed, the development of Arjuna and the card-based system had not even started, so there was no way to foresee that we would have another bot system so soon (more on this process next week).

How will the two bots integrate in a game of Fall of Saigon?

In a game of Fall of Saigon, you first play one or more Campaigns of the base Fire in the Lake game, depending on the scenario. During the final Fire in the Lake Coup! round, the Paris Peace Accords are held; prior to these accords, you will use the Fire in the Lake Trưng cards and tables. After the Paris Accords, you will switch the cards and tables from Fire in the Lake for the cards and tables from Fall of Saigon and continue play.

OK, seriously, I am about to stop reading! Where is the sneak peek?

Here’s some of the latest cards from Trưng and a peek at one of the space selection tables. Everything here is a late prototype and subject to change.

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