In the third article in this series, I covered the first of the Central American civil wars featured in The Guerrilla Generation, El Salvador. In this article, I move on to the other Central American conflict and the last game in the pack, The Guerrilla Generation: Nicaragua. As with the game on El Salvador, the United States played a major role in the Nicaraguan civil war, serving as the external backer of the Contra insurgency against the Sandinista government. The Reagan Administration hoped to use the Contra insurgency as a means of pressuring the Sadninista regime into reforms, or at a minimum ceasing their alleged aid to the Salvadoran FMLN insurgency discussed in the last article. Nicaragua offers veteran COIN players the largest divergence from existing COIN mechanics, with a unique insurgent faction that almost entirely relies on external support and foreign sanctuaries to operate. Nicaragua also features alongside El Salvador in the “Resisting Reagan” Campaign scenario, which will be covered in my next InsideGMT article.

I specifically chose the Contra war in Nicaragua over the earlier Sandinista insurgency that toppled the Somoza regime in 1979 because I wanted to maximize the variation in the types of insurgencies featured in the multipack. The Contra war provides an opportunity for COIN players to explore an insurgency that heavily relied on external support, largely launching raids from external sanctuaries in Honduras and Costa Rica. Keeping Contra Commandos within Nicaragua will often prove difficult, particularly when faced with US Aid cut-offs. The Contra player aims to inflict as much damage as possible to the economy of Nicaragua through Sabotage and tying down Sandinista Troops. Contra Commandos frequently launched attacks on civilian targets associated with the government or economic development, such as transportation infrastructure, schools, or agricultural cooperatives. The nature of the Contra insurgency also shaped the Sandinista counterinsurgency response, which largely focused on mobility and firepower to counter raids by marauding Contras. Given the Contras’ more limited reliance on the local population, Sandinista counterinsurgency generally used less civilian victimization than other Governments in the multipack or broader COIN series. I hope these dynamics together give a very different feel than any other insurgency yet included in a COIN multipack or main series volume.

In the first two InsideGMT articles on The Guerrilla Generation I covered the conflicts in South America, featuring an urban insurgency (Uruguay) and one of the most violent insurgencies in the region’s history (Peru). In this InsideGMT article we move on to the first of the two conflicts set in Central America. The Central American civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua during the 1980s also combine in the “Resisting Reagan” Campaign scenario, which will be featured in the fifth InsideGMT article in this series. Unlike the two previously covered games, which include only minor references to United States involvement, the US played a major role in the two remaining conflicts. This article, on The Guerrilla Generation: El Salvador, covers the most complex multipack game yet designed. With a larger number of pieces, Pivotal Events, and new special decks, the game introduces several mechanical changes to cover the complexity of this conflict. Given the use of mechanics such as Pivotal Events in several previous COIN volumes, El Salvador serves as a good stepping stone to more complex multiplayer COIN games, such as Fire in the Lake, Liberty or Death, or Pendragon.

The Guerrilla Generation: El Salvador covers the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN)’s insurgency against the government of El Salvador. The FMLN is attributed with possessing the strongest military capabilities of any insurgent group in Latin American history, including the use of special forces, spectacular raids on military bases, and two major offensives analogous to the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. The FMLN player will often be able to match the military capabilities of their Government opponent, unlike many of the other insurgents in this multipack. However, unlike Castro’s far militarily weaker July 26th Movement featured in Cuba Libre, the FMLN did not succeed in overthrowing the government of El Salvador and had to settle for a negotiated settlement in 1992. Unlike the Batista Government in Cuba Libre, which faces drastic US aid cuts leaving them barely able to operate by the end of the game, the Government player in El Salvador will receive vast amounts of US assistance, particularly if they pursue reforms, enabling them to often beat back the best efforts of the FMLN insurgency.

In the first InsideGMT article on The Guerrilla Generation, I covered the famous urban guerrillas known as the Tupamaros in the Uruguay game. In this article, I’ll cover the other game set in South America, The Guerrilla Generation: Peru. The Peru game depicts the Shining Path insurgency from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. As with Malaya in The British Way, Peru represents a less radical departure from the standard COIN model and provides a good starting point for COIN players transitioning to or from existing modern conflict volumes such as Andean Abyss, Cuba Libre, or A Distant Plain. Thematically, The Guerrilla Generation: Peru has a lot in common with the Colombian civil war depicted by the first COIN volume Andean Abyss. Both South American conflicts involved a leftist insurgency that outlasted the end of the Cold War, partially by becoming involved in the drug trade. However, as will be explained below, the Shining Path insurgency’s violence featured in Peru makes the FARC insurgency in Colombia look restrained by comparison.

The Guerrilla Generation: Peru allows players to learn about one of the most violent insurgencies in Latin American history, the Shining Path. The Shining Path insurgency operated as a highly centralized group that organized around a cult of personality of its leader Abimael Guzmán. The movement glorified the use of violence and carried out extensive civilian victimization. Unlike most conflicts in Latin America, the Truth and Reconciliation report conducted in Peru after the conflict found that the Shining Path committed more violence against civilians than government forces, responsible for 54% of the 69,820 reported deaths or disappearances. To accurately depict the conflict, the Peru game builds the group’s extensive use of violence into their Faction, but also makes sure to model the major drawbacks of such violence. Facing the brutal Shining Path insurgency is another Government faction that must balance their response to the insurgency with the restrictions of a democratic government. As in the Uruguay game, featured in the last InsideGMT article, the use of too much repression could lead to a military coup against the democratic government.

This is the first in a series of InsideGMT articles on the games in the second COIN Multipack by GMT Games, The Guerrilla Generation. First, I should mention that I’m very happy with the reception of the first COIN Multipack, The British Way, in terms of reception and sales. Thanks to all your support the game’s first printing ran out of stock in only six months! Stay tuned for further updates on The British Way. It’s exciting to see many players and reviewers enjoying this new approach to the COIN series, getting to explore many different conflicts in one game box. The Guerrilla Generation offers four more conflicts for players to explore, with each involving slightly more complexity and depth than the ones found in The British Way. In the rest of this article I’ll outline the first chronological game in the pack, Uruguay (1968-1972).