We return with the third installment of our running non-players only playthrough of All Bridges Burning. The previous two installments can be found here and here.

Here is the current state of the board:

Moderates Rally

The Moderates are the first eligible faction, therefore conducting a limited command only. There are no relevant pass or other symbols on either of the two showing event cards, so we proceed to drawing a non-player card. The card drawn is #60 Rally.

The green condition is met as there are Moderates cells and network discs available, so we proceed with a limited command Rally.

The first priority is to place a network in a space with three or more existing Moderates. There is no such space on the map.

The second priority places cells, first, where a network or personality is not protected by a sufficient number of Moderates cells. This priority picks out Turku where Moderates promptly Rally a single cell.

This concludes the Moderates action.

Senate Pass

The second ―and last― eligible faction on this card is the Senate. The present event card contains event instructions, but the Moderates’ play of a limited command blocks the event play option for the Senate.

The next event, however, is a capability event, and for these, there is a special die-roll based procedure to go through. Simply, we take the number of capability markers the Senate has already acquired ―in the present situation this is two (these were acquired in the course of the example of play contained in the Playbook for All Bridges Burning). That number is then multiplied by two, for a result of four. Finally, we roll 1d6. If the outcome is greater than four, the Senate will pass now to pick up the upcoming capability.

The roll is a “6”, therefore, the Senate pass. We use the “NP to Play” counter to mark the upcoming event card as a reminder that Senate is going to playing that event.

This ends the current round of play, and once again we adjust eligibility as well as the event cards per the base game rules.

Senate Event

Having just passed, Senate now picks up the current capability event: #10 Weapons and Jaeger from Germany? The newly revealed next event is, #1 February Revolution in Russia.

The event play also causes the level of German Vassalage to increase by one, so we adjust the corresponding counter on the edge track accordingly, from three to four. Finally, we put a Senate Jaeger counter in the Capabilities box on the map. The counter will enter play in Phase II of the game.

Reds Terror

As the second eligible faction and no interesting event in sight, the Reds are looking to conduct a limited command. We draw a non-player Reds card: it is #51 Terror.

The green condition at the top is met ―there are active Reds with the enemy― so we proceed with command.

The first priority is to increase Reds controlled population. This is not possible at this time. The Senate cell in Helsinki is protected from Terror by the white Prepared marker, so the cell may not be removed.

The second priority targets active Senate cells; again not possible.

The third priority is to Terror where there is a Moderates network or personality. This picks out Turku as the location of the Reds limited command Terror action.

Note that with Polarization high at seven, the Terror command is more effective at removing enemies. Instead of just one enemy, now two enemies may be removed per Terror space. In Turku, this removes both of the Moderates cells there, and with the last cell, also the personality. As a result of the personality marker being removed, the Moderates lose three resources ―down from “7” to “4”― which moves them as many levels away from meeting their resource-related victory condition.

Finally, a second red Terror marker is placed in Turku and Polarization increased by another level, to eight. Turku remains uncontrolled due to the Moderates network still preventing Reds control there.

This concludes the Reds turn.

Moderates Rally + Personality

The Moderates are up next, and as the last eligible faction they are looking to conduct a full command with a special activity. The upcoming event has a Moderates “i” symbol for event instructions, but no “P” symbol that would cause a pass now. The current event was already played by the Senate above. We thus draw a non-player Moderates card: it is #61 Negotiate.

While the top level green condition is met (Polarization is way high), there are no underground Moderates cells with active enemy pieces on the map. This means, per the base game rules, the Moderates will be unable to conduct Negotiations. Let’s thus draw again.

The next non-player Moderates card we draw is #60 Rally. For this card, the green condition is met, so we may proceed with the command.

In the present circumstances it is worth it to pay closer attention to the preliminaries printed on the card after the command name. They state that the Moderates will Rally in two spaces plus one space for each level of Polarization at six or more. Polarization is at eight, so the Moderates will Rally in five spaces. Let’s grab five pawns to mark Rally spaces we go.

The first priority is to place a network, but no space has a sufficient number of Moderates cells.

The second priority is to place cells, first where there is a network or personality. This picks out the Terror-torn town of Turku. We place a pawn and a Moderates cell there.

The next cell placement priority checks whether the Moderates are present in at least two towns. They are not, so we select a second town as a Rally target to rectify the situation. Random selection picks out Vaasa. Again we place a pawn and a Moderates cell there. This Rally cancels out Senate control in Vaasa.

The next priority is to Rally in one space with one or more population. There is more than one candidate, so we resort to the tie breakers to solve ties. Randomization is built into the order in which the tie breakers are resolved, so we roll 1d6. It is a “2”, which means the tie breaker (b) is to be resolved before (a). The tie breaker (b) says to Rally in an uncontrolled space without existing Moderates presence. This picks out a single space, Helsinki, where we place one green pawn and a Moderates cell.

The third priority again splits into a number of sub-level priorities. The first one of those only applies in Phase II when News markers are on the board, so we ignore it this time.

The next priority targets one space with existing Moderates. This picks out Karelia. We place a fourth pawn and a single Moderates cell there. One more Rally space to go…

The next priority seeks to flip existing Moderates from their exposed to the underground side. There is no exposed Moderates cell on the board now, so we ignore this priority.

Finally, we reach the fourth and the last priority, which simply targets a random Rally space. The game ships with a random spaces chart which I now use to select a random space. Mikkelin lääni comes out as the winner. We place the last available Moderates cell and a fifth pawn there. Senate control in Mikkeli is removed. This concludes the command part of the Moderates action.

For a special activity, we look further down the card and find only one listed special activity: Personality. (This is also the only special activity that the base game rules allow to be combined with Rally.)

The first Personality priority only applies in Phase II of the game, so we skip it.

The second priority seeks to place the Personality counter in a town with two or more Moderates. There is no such town, so the Moderates will not conduct a special activity at all. With no other special activity available to be conducted with Rally, we conclude the Moderates action here.

Lastly, per the base game rules, let’s adjust eligibility and the event cards to wrap up this round of play.

* * *

This concludes the third and the last installment in out extended example of play. We hope the examples offered here helps you to ease into playing All Bridges Burning solitaire!

---

Previous Articles:

All Bridges Burning: Solitaire System Part 1

All Bridges Burning: Solitaire System Part 2