Slated to start shipping in September, the publication of All Bridges Burning is almost upon us! In the previous InsideGMT article on All Bridges Burning we set upon playing a few turns of a solitaire game. This article continues from where we left off that time.

Reds Pass

The new upcoming card is #9 Declaration of Finnish Independence. The current card is #19 Political Struggle.

The upcoming card has the Reds Pass symbol (a red squared “P”). The Reds will therefore Pass to pick up the upcoming event. We move their cylinder in the pass box ―to position A. As a reminder to ourselves, we may use the “NP to Play” to mark the upcoming card.

Note that in All Bridges Burning the non-players do no spend nor earn any resources, hence we do not have to keep adjusting the non-player resource cylinders as we play. Therefore, we also ignore the resource normally generated by the Reds pass here. (For the record, since accumulated resources are one victory condition for the Moderates, the non-player Moderates do keep track of resources they accumulate through actions and event play ―as well as of resources they lose, for example, should an enemy terror command remove the Moderates’ personality from the map. Still, the non-player Moderates do not pay for conducting actions.)

Moderates Event

The second and last eligible faction on this card is the Moderates. The current event has printed instructions for the Moderates as signaled by the blue circled “i” printed on the card. From the solitaire play aid sheet we read the associated instructions:

It looks like the Moderates will play the event and they will go with the shaded option. Let’s place their eligibility cylinder in the event box in the bottom left of the eligibility track. There are three cubes in the political display. We roll 1d6. It is 2 ―success!

There are, both, red and white political cubes available (in the Reds and Senate available boxes, respectively), so the Moderates will place a random cube. Using our favorite method of random selection, we determine a random outcome: say, a red cube gets placed in the political display.

This concludes the Moderates play, and with that, also the round. Once again we adjust eligibility, and the event cards. The new upcoming card is #21 Worker’s Halls.

Reds Event

You will recall that the Reds passed on the previous card to pick up the now current event. The instructions for the event say:

That is, the Reds will seek to shift one highest population space that is not yet at active opposition. With the population value of two, Helsinki is the highest population space currently without active opposition. We place a passive opposition marker in its slot in Helsinki.

This improves the Reds victory score as recorded on the edge track. We adjust the Oppose + Admins marker from 6 to 8. The Reds’ turn is done.

Senate Rally

Senate first checks the upcoming event for any instructions that may cause it to pass now. There are no such instructions. As the second eligible faction, Senate will take a limited command. For this purpose, let’s draw a non-player Senate card. Remember to reconstitute the non-player decks before each time you are due to draw from them. This time again, the card drawn is #54 Rally.

As detailed above, the first priority to Rally where there are Senate cells already only triggers upon a die roll. This time we roll a 3 (again!), so no action on this point.

The second priority targets a zero population space. During the previous Senate action, Mikkeli became Senate controlled, so we target a different zero population space this time. Random selection picks Oulun lääni in the far north. We place a single Senate cell there. Remember to also adjust the Cells on Map counter on the edge track ―it tracks to the total number of Reds and Senate cells, combined, on the map. If that number comes to equal or exceed “27”, the Phase II of the game is automatically triggered.

This concludes the Senate turn.

Moderates Politics + Publish

As the last eligible faction to play this round, and with no interesting upcoming event in sight, the Moderates will attempt a full command with a special activity. We therefore draw a non-player card and it is: #64 Politics.

The green condition at the top of the Politics cards is met: Polarization is 5 or less (it’s 5) and there are 3+ Moderates on the map.

Normally, to conduct the Politics commands for the non-player Moderates, we simple roll a die to select the color of the cube to be placed. This time, however, all three red political cubes are already in play, while two white cubes are available, so only a white cube may be placed. Place one of the white cubes in the Senate available box in the political display.

This concludes the command part of the Moderates action.

The first special activity to be attempted is Publish. The aims is for the Moderates to earn four or more resources. Per the base game rules, in the current circumstances on the board, the Moderates indeed are able to Publish such as to earn as much as  total of six resources.

On the edge track, we move the Moderates resources cylinder from 7 to 13. Then we activate two Moderates cells in Turku ―their publishing activities have brought them out from underground. This concludes the Moderates turn.

We adjust eligibility, then the event cards. The new upcoming event is #20 The Leg of Tokoi’s Chair. Card #21 Worker’s Halls becomes the current event card.

Senate Rally

The Senate is first eligible. The new upcoming event has the Senate “i” symbol on it, indicating there are event instructions printed for this event card on the solitaire play aid sheet provided. This, however, does not merit a pass now (only a “P” symbol does), so the Senate will press on with a limited command on the current card.

The card drawn is once again #54 Rally.

The procedure is by now familiar to us. Once again we roll 1d6 when checking the first priority, and once again it is a 3 (we had this a few times already; I’m not making this up!), so no action is taken on the first priority.

Next, as above, still no Senate control can be generated in a space with one or more population either ―all those spaces contain more enemy pieces than a single Senate Rally is able to overcome to establish control there. Therefore, there is no action on the second Senate Rally priority either.

As a result, once again, the Senate end up Rallying in a zero population space. The last zero population space without Senate control is Kuopion lääni, so it becomes the Rally target. Place one Senate cell there and mark the space as Senate controlled. (This is cleverer play from the Senate bot than you might think, but I am not going to reveal the strategic reason why.)

This concludes the Senate bot’s turn.

Reds Terror + Prepare

The Senate limited command has blocked the Reds from taking the current event which the non-player Reds would gladly have taken. The upcoming card contains no pass symbol for the Reds, so a command it is. The Reds are last eligible on the current card. Therefore, they will attempt a full command with a special activity. The non-player card we draw is #49 Activism.

The green condition has us roll a die, the result of which is then compared to the number of active Reds cells on the map. There are three active Reds on the map, and we roll a 2. This means, the Reds will not conduct Activism this time. Let’s draw again.

The card that gets drawn next is #51 Terror. The green condition up at the top is fulfilled: there are active Reds in spaces with enemies. The preliminary information tells us Terror will be conducted in up to two spaces. This being a full command with a special activity, we know the Reds will be making full use of those two spaces as well.

Glancing at the map we realize that there indeed are just two spaces in which Reds Terror is possible in the first place ―for Terror requires the presence of active friendly cells. We may, therefore, take a short cut, not consult the priorities at all, and just conduct Terror in the only two selectable spaces, Turku and Helsinki.

In both spaces, a Moderates cell is removed ―the Senate cell in Helsinki is protected from Terror by the Prepared marker. Thematically, think of this cell as prepared for war, possibly undergoing training in a secret location or otherwise laying low, sheltering from the chaos on the streets.

We place one red Terror marker each, in Turku and Helsinki, respectively. Polarization goes up, from 5 to 7 which we mark on the Polarization track. This concludes the command part of the Reds action.

(For the record, had we consulted the Reds Terror priorities to pick the Terror spaces, the third priority would have picked Turku as a location with the Personality marker and a Network disc. Helsinki would have been chosen by the fourth priority as the only remaining random target space.)

Next up, the Reds are to conduct a special activity. The first special activity paired with Terror is Foreign Relations. However, with Russian Vassalage at 3 (and not at 2), the green condition for Foreign Relations is not met, so we skip right on to Prepare.

The first Prepare priority concerns Phase II of the game, and we’re not that far in the game yet, so we ignore this priority for the time being. The second priority is to place a Prepare marker in a town closest to Helsinki. Helsinki already has a Reds Prepared marker, so we default to a random selection between Turku, Tampere, and Viipuri, of which Turku is selected. Let’s place the last available Prepared marker from the available box to Turku showing its red side.

This concludes the Reds turn and the round of play. Once again, we adjust the eligibility order and events. We will continue the example of play in the next installment.

---

Previous Article: All Bridges Burning: Solitaire System Part 1