Each faction always has one of two possible leaders that are always available in a set (historical) sequence. But when a faction switches between leaders is determined by the Events deck, and since not all cards from that deck are present in the same game it’s possible these events aren’t triggered and a faction never switches their leader.
Al-Shabaab (from its full name Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, or ‘Mujahideen Youth Movement’) is a very singular case among the movements that have made the headlines since the rise of violent transnational Islamism. From 2007 to 2014, the organization could sway and control a majority of Southern Somalia, including numerous urban centers, despite the presence of conventional forces protecting the transitional federal government in the capital. Still relevant to this day, Al-Shabaab is an important reminder that terrorist and insurgent organizations can endure terrible military hardships and continue fighting until the root social and political problems that seeded their rise are addressed.
The medieval era: a clash of swords and armor, archers winning the day against charging knights, the dust and roar of melee, lords’ banners snapping crisply in the breeze, high castle parapets withstanding mighty sieges. These are the familiar images that likely come to mind and captivate the imagination when played out on the table in the brilliant Levy & Campaign series.
My name is Justin Fassino and I am currently designing the next series entry entitled SELJUK: Byzantium Besieged 1068-1071, a game about the maneuvering between the Seljuk Turks and Eastern Roman Empire leading up to the pivotal Battle of Manzikert in August 1071. These military matters would ultimately be the first tremors of a multi-century tectonic shift that would see permanent settlement of Anatolia by central Asian steppe tribes, the First Crusade, the creation of the Ottoman Empire, and the end of Rome as a political identity.
Continuing on from the previous blog post, The Events Deck, Part #1, this is Part #2.
Here are some further examples of Event cards.
This Event card has three effects:
For anyone who’s ever played Down in Flames, their first question is probably, “what aircraft do we get in Imperial Eagles?”You’ll be getting a mix of old and new, with even the “repeats” brought up to Wild Blue Yonder standards. As befits a game featuring Imperial Japanese aviation in World War II, this first article for Inside GMT will describe the planes the Japanese bring to the fight.
The next generation of rules, mapboard, player aid cards, and counters for Illusions of Glory are open for playtesting. Links to a Vassal playtest module and next generation rules (labeled “Summer 2022”) are located on the Illusions of Glory webpage. Please send your critiques to me at Ohiogrognard on BoardGameGeek.
The rules have been clarified with respect to: (1) allocation of unit losses, (2) out of supply effects, (3) building trenches, and (4) retreats after combat,
Corps identification numbers on Large Counter Units have been changed from Roman to Arabic numerals to facilitate recognition and mapboard placement:
There are 12 rounds in each game of Rebellion: Britannia – unless an automatic loss condition for Rome is triggered (she has 2+ Forts and 6+ Settlements burnt at the same time, or has all 4 Legions destroyed) in which case the game ends immediately.
At the beginning of each round the top card of the Events deck is revealed. Each card has two or three effects, and each of these effects modulate play in a variety of possible ways, either for the turn, or for the remainder of the game:
The Somali Civil War is an ongoing, now three-decades-long outburst of violence that has displaced millions and killed thousands. The international public knows about this conflict primarily through news headlines generated by the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” incident and its eponymous 2001 Hollywood movie depiction. However, the global media otherwise paid little attention to the state of affairs following the 1995 UN withdrawal from a still war-torn Somalia. A Fading Star explores the real climax of the conflict from 2007 to 2014, which foreshadowed many aspects of modern counterinsurgencies, including the rise of the Islamic State, the importance of regional state and non-state actors, and the increasing use of social media as a recruitment tool. This series of articles will provide an overview of the game and its four factions, beginning here with the background context that led to the birth of the infamous Al-Shabaab jihadist group in South-Central Somalia.
There’s another systemic layer to the game we haven’t really discussed in the blogs before now, at least not in any detail, which is a source of potential Victory Points (VPs).
This element concerns indigenous British culture. It’s a later addition to the design and something we are still exploring in development. Early playtesting exposed the possibility that we weren’t giving the British factions enough interesting opportunities to earn early VPs. We also had a concern that we weren’t representing enough of indigenous British culture within the design – there was some reference to the destruction of it through the rise in British Tension as a result of Roman buildings and roads – ‘Romanizing’ the British landscape and scarring and irretrievably altering it – but no real reference to its growth or sustenance. These were omissions we sought to address through a new system. This system would incentivize a more pliant approach to Rome and discourage military resistance. British factions would now have a reason to focus on non-military actions, and to therefore highlight other strands of their cultural identity within the framework of the game. It would theoretically be possible to win without ever fighting, but through careful management of cards to secure hegemonies in trade, agricultural production, the generation of crafts, the protection and development of ceremonial sites and customs. But this system would need to have a light design footprint – meaning it would be easy to learn and to integrate into the existing game.
In this article in our series previewing Downfall, we continue our typical game to show a range of orders and activities that might occur, such as strategic warfare, event triggers, intra-Axis conflict, weather and partisan warfare.
At the end of Preview 3, the Western Faction’s Initiative Marker occupied the lowest-numbered space on the Initiative Track so they will conduct the next Action Round.
