At the time of writing this, All Bridges Burning, COIN Series Volume X, is the latest released COIN Series game.The game tells the story of the Finnish Civil War of 1918 including the lead up to the war during the previous year.

In this article, we will introduce you to a new variant to All Bridges Burning for two players. The 2-player variant is released as free download with this article. All the rules and procedures needed to play are contained in this PDF file.

I want to thank Adrian Rubiero for testing and preparing the variant with me.

The Historical and Design Background to the Variant

The idea of a 2-player variant for All Bridges Burning started as a design challenge: would it be possible to convert the 3-player frame into something playable with just two? A number of games approach the 2-player variant question by creating an additional faction that both players may control. The advantage is, no separate subsystem ― and the inevitable extra rules overhead that this generates ― is required to run the third faction.

In All Bridges Burning, it seemed obvious that the Moderates faction could play that role in the 2-player variant. Historically, too, it makes sense to see the Moderates as these middlemen who, in their specific non-violent ways, slowed down the warring factions.

While the Finnish Civil War was fought between the Reds and the White Senate army, All Bridges Burning makes the argument that the historical outcome of the Finnish Civil War could not be understood simply as the Whites defeating the Reds. Rather, a third position was needed to make sense of the nuances of the historical political outcomes.

Politically, many if not most of the socio-political demands that had moved the Reds working class base to revolt in the first place, came to be addressed in the post-war months and years. There were grievances about political representation in a governance system that still was in many ways feudal. And there were grievances about work conditions in a rapidly industrializing country.

Also, following the German defeat in World War One, the monarchist plan popular among the victorious Whites to institute a German prince as a new head of state in post-war Finland had to be abandoned.

These historical “flukes” suddenly opened up the path for a genuine societal settlement and compromise to be formulated that would serve as the basis for the Finnish state in decades to come.

As portrayed in the game, the historical role of the Moderates in the Finnish Civil War was one of, well, moderation. The individuals and groups that made up the Moderates engaged in various behind-the-scenes activities to facilitate truce talks between the warring parties. They negotiated and prepared, and simply just kept alive, the idea of a political solution to the crisis. They exposed and leaked information of brutalities to foreign press and that way impacted the fervor at which the Civil War was fought. Most importantly, the Moderates explicitly recognized the societal causes of the civil war. They recognized that the country would have no stable future unless those causes could be addressed by way of a political settlement.

How Does The Variant Work?

The key idea behind the 2-player variant is that, while the two players control the Reds and Senate factions, respectively, the third Moderates faction is controlled by both players, but in alternate turns.

The 2-player variant is quite intentionally built such that the Reds and the Senate players are in the position to utilize the Moderates to their own ends. Accordingly, the Moderates do not seriously compete for a win. Given the nature of the Moderates actions, mostly the Moderates are used by the players to slow down each other and to conduct the good work of keeping the idea of a political settlement viable in the end game.

At the same time, there is a small rule used in the 2-player variant only that means that the aims of the Moderates cannot be ignored entirely. More specifically, the rule impacts negatively upon the Reds and Senate victory score if the Moderates cause in terms of building political networks and resolving political reform issues is not sufficiently advanced in the course of the game.

Say It Again, How Are You Supposed to Play the Moderates?

Let’s consider an example of how to play the Moderates turn in this 2-player variant.

The sequence of play is the same as in the regular 3-player game. When it is the Moderates turn to play, the Reds or the Senate player simply plays the Moderates as if it was their own faction. The Senate player starts with the first Moderates turn, and thereafter the players alternate taking the Moderates turn.

When taking the Moderates turn, the player selects from the available action options as in the base game. That is, the player first selects whether the Moderates play a limited command, the event, or a full command (with or without a special activity). Within that decision as applicable, the player also decides which command the Moderates are to play, where and to what extent.

The Moderates commands are very nearly the same as in the base game, so not much new rules overhead is created.

However, some details of some of the actions were changed, mostly in order to stop the players from “gaming” the system too much. For example, the Moderates Rally command may not place their cells in the zero population spaces ―in playtesting without this rule, the players tended to dump the Moderates cells in those spaces and forget them there. Also, the Moderates may play a full command (with or without a special activity) only if they are the last eligible faction to play on that card.

The 2-player variant play aid sheet provides a new Moderates action menu very similar to that in the base game containing the changes made to some of the Moderates actions.

Before their first game, the players might study the 2-player variant rules to familiarize themselves with the changes to the Moderates procedures. A turn or three into the game, the players will have encountered most of the more impactful changes to the Moderates actions.

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