In the previous InsideGMT article, we shared how 18 India mitigates the randomness of the initial distribution of certificates in Francis Tresham’s 1829 Mainline. In this issue, we will discuss another mechanic tweak that further decreases the randomness found in 1829 Mainline while maintaining its unique fun.
We continue our chronological coverage of the individual games in The British Way by moving on to the British counterinsurgency campaign in Kenya from 1952-1960, although the game only covers the most intensive years from 1952-1956. While the British were beginning to gain the initiative in Malaya, they responded to rising violence and unrest in Kenya’s Central Province by declaring a state of emergency and carrying out Operation Jock Scott, a mass arrest of moderate nationalists (including Jomo Kenyatta, who would later become the first president of Kenya after independence). However, Jock Scott failed to hit the main perpetrators of the rising violence, a collection of militant nationalists, who would form an insurgency against British rule commonly known as the Mau Mau.
The map for Cross Bronx Expressway shows eight out of twelve community board districts in the southern section of the Bronx. A few communities in the city of New York, in the state of New York, in the country of the United States, on this planet we call Earth. The game zooms into this small corner of urban life, in an effort to simulate the historic changes that happened in cities across the globe during the second half of the 20th century. Examining the effects of these changes on the South Bronx reveals many of the issues that arose during this period.
In the previous InsideGMT article, we mentioned that some of Tresham’s mechanics for 1829 Mainline contained randomness that we did not enjoy. In this article, let’s discuss those mechanics and what we did to preserve their flavor, while also managing to mitigate the random elements.
As we have made our way along the 18 India journey, we’ve heard from players how this mechanic, or that mechanic, is “like 18Africa”. The fact of the matter is that these mechanics are really “like 1829 Mainline”. Our theory is that since 1829 Mainline is not as widely available many players simply haven’t experienced 1829 Mainline and are, therefore, unaware of its influence on 18Africa.
With GMT Games now printing 18 India, we hope that more players can discover 1829 Mainline’s mechanics, or at least our implementation of them, and find enjoyment in the experience.
In our last InsideGMT article we covered the British counterinsurgency campaign in Palestine between 1945-1947. Just as the British were withdrawing from Palestine, labor unrest was rising in the British colony of Malaya. In July 1948, the British declared a state of emergency against the rising unrest and violence being organized by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP). The British Way: Malaya covers this conflict, one of the most famous counterinsurgency victories of the 20th century. The British campaign between 1948-1960 is still used as a model for Western counterinsurgency theory, and other counterinsurgency campaigns during the Cold War tried to emulate the British success in defeating the MCP. This article will highlight some of the major mechanics and themes covered in The British Way: Malaya.
The Bell of Treason: 1938 Munich Crisis in Czechoslovakia is the next installment in GMT Games’ informal ‘Final Crisis’ series. It is a successor to Mark Herman’s Fort Sumter, which depicts the secession crisis that culminated in the U.S. Civil War, and Fred Serval’s Red Flag Over Paris, which depicts the crisis following the formation of the Paris Commune to its defeat in the Bloody Week of May 1871. As such, The Bell of Treason shares many mechanics with both these games but adapts them to specifically portray different aspects of the Munich Crisis in 1938. During this crisis, British appeasement policy clashed with Czechoslovak readiness to fight Nazi Germany, while the Soviet Union encouraged Czechoslovakia but was seemingly unwilling to provide any concrete military or political support. One of the central game systems is an abstract map showing four dimensions in which the crisis developed. Each ‘Crisis Dimension’ consists of three spaces where arguments and ideals for and against appeasement clashed, with one of them being a ‘Pivotal’ space that has some additional leverage over the other two spaces. This basic system was already present in Fort Sumter, but Red Flag over Paris introduced the novel idea of adjacency between spaces, including some spaces connected by arrows representing unidirectional adjacency. The Bell of Treason reuses this latter system to model some key aspects of the Munich Crisis. Let’s take a look at each of the Dimensions in its historical context.
Introduction by Congress of Vienna Assistant Designer & Editor – Fred Schachter: The third turn of this After-Action-Report (AAR) chronicled game was exciting and interesting with France continuing to meet its comeuppance, and not repeating its brilliant turn one Diplomacy Phase performance (winning seven Issues! Remarkable!) since the Allies are now coordinating against “The Corsican Ogre”. For that remarkable feat, see: Congress of Vienna Standard Game After-Action-Report: “The Clash of Armies” Scenario (Turn 1 of 4 – Aug. 1813) – Inside GMT blog
For background regarding this forthcoming GMT P-500 game, for these articles presume some knowledge of Congress of Vienna’s game system, see: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna.
Our players are having a blast playing Frank’s latest CoV scenario creation. So, let’s conclude the game action of this Congress of Vienna “Clash of Armies” Standard Game contest as the massive struggle for Europe (and the War of 1812 in North America) continues… but first…
18 India‘s lineage is derived from Francis Tresham’s 1829 Mainline. The venerable Mr. Tresham created some novel mechanics for that game: all colors of track tiles being available without waiting for different phases, a draft of shares to be held in a player’s hand, “managed” companies (those operating without a director’s certificate in play), locations with variable revenue values, trading in trains, only having one opportunity to sell shares in a stock round, building yellow track very quickly, and having a discard stack of shares.
Having provided a general overview of the whole multi-pack in our first InsideGMT article, the rest of this series will focus on providing an overview of each of the individual games, starting with the earliest conflict in the pack. The British Way: Palestine depicts the struggle between Jewish insurgent groups and British forces in Mandatory Palestine between August 1945 and September 1947. This period reflects the height of the Jewish insurgency, and the game ends prior to the breakout of the civil war between Jewish and Arab armed groups following the British decision to leave Palestine. This article will highlight some of the major mechanics and themes covered in The British Way: Palestine.
My bad! Before I begin to describe the gory details of how the cards work in this game, something I forgot to mention in my last riveting update was the Last Stand option that player’s units can exercise in combat. So, among the thousands of in-person interviews we conducted in order to bring you this highly realistic simulation, we kept coming across the same stories about the amazing last-ditch stands that many groups of Plum Island’s finest pulled off during the three day siege. Incredible tales of struggles against impossible odds and seizing victory from the jaws of defeat. Sure, we quietly guffawed at these ludicrous claims and discounted them. They had to be just the wild rantings of some seriously damaged individuals who were putting a brave, but highly imaginative, face on humans getting their butts kicked by vicious lumps of deteriorating flesh. Yet there seemed to be the smallest (sub-atomic, to be honest) kernel of truth to these stories, so we had to include the possibility of these acts being pulled off in the game as well. Therefore, whenever a unit suffers its final Hit and would thus normally be eliminated, it will attempt a Last Stand. The owning player draws a Fate Number and if that number is less than or equal to the unit’s Bravery Rating, the unit will survive! Instead of being horribly devoured, it will instead retreat (actually, flee while screaming incoherently) to an adjacent area – just like a phoenix rising from the ashes! Better to run away and live to fight another day, as they say. So, there you have it – we’ve actually tilted the game-balance scales in favor of the players with this one, as unjustifiable as it is. But hey, at least no one can call me a devilish, heartless game designer now … well, not until you see what’s coming up in the next sections. Sorry …
