This is the first in a series of InsideGMT articles for the new Enemy of My Enemy expansion for the first COIN multipack, The British Way. Joe and I are extremely pleased with the positive reception of the first printing of The British Way which sold out from GMT last November. After seeing a ton of reviews, after action reports, and game award nominations for The British Way, we wanted to offer even more content for those enjoying the game or those looking forward to the reprint. The Enemy of My Enemy expansion offers three new ways of expanding the base game’s content: a new Arab Revolt (1936-1939) game using the Palestine map, a new Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) game using the Malaya map, and new rules and components for an advanced variant for each of the conflicts depicted in the base game: Palestine (1945-1947), Malaya (1948-1960), Kenya (1952-1956), and Cyprus (1955-1959). We’ll cover each of the parts of the expansion in a separate InsideGMT article. Today’s article is focused on the new Arab Revolt game.

The British Way: Arab Revolt addresses a major issue with the base game’s depiction of Palestine. In the original British Way: Palestine, which covers the 1945-1947 struggle between Jewish terrorist groups and British counterinsurgency forces, the Palestinian Arab community is not directly referenced in the game. As the introduction to the rulebook notes, the game “does not directly model the wider political struggles between the British, Jewish Agency, and Arab political groups, or the civil war that began in November 1947”. By focusing on a narrow period of time and British counterinsurgency tactics against the major armed opposition of that time, armed Jewish groups, the game could not adequately depict the Palestinian Arab community’s less confrontational stance against British rule during that period. However, that raises the question, why was the larger Arab community not more focused on resisting British rule between 1945-1947?

The answer is that members of the Palestinian Arab community launched a massive revolt against British rule between 1936-1939 that ended with equally massive British repression and major concessions, including a new limitation on Jewish immigration introduced by the 1939 White Paper. That same limitation motivated the Jewish armed groups to violently resist British rule during the 1945-1947 period. In other words, one cannot understand the Palestinian Arab community’s exhaustion in the 1940s without exploring the Arab Revolt (1936-1939), nor why Jewish groups such as Haganah cooperated with the British during that revolt but then opposed them in 1945. Therefore, rather than simply tossing in a few token events into the base game, I knew from the start I wanted to design an entire game on the preceding conflict to help provide more nuanced context to the “absence” of Palestinians from the narrowly focused 1945-1947 Palestine game.

Decentralized Resistance?

The Arab Revolt began in 1936 with a general strike in urban areas, intended to put pressure on the British colonial administration to protect Palestinian society from the tensions caused by the increasing Jewish immigration into Palestine. Although the unrest was temporarily halted by the Peel Commission, in the fall of 1937, armed resistance began in rural areas. Although nominally led by the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), which had been forced to move to French mandatory Syria, the rural resistance remained largely focused around local leaders. Several attempts were made to centralize the insurgency but the conflict was characterized by a widespread, decentralized rural insurgency. Such an insurgency offers a stark contrast with the small, centralized, and urban terrorist group of Irgun from the original Palestine (1945-1947) game.

To capture the variable decentralization of the resistance, I designed a number of new mechanics including a Unity Track that replaces the old Haganah Track, and a new way for the Rebels faction to interact with the Initiative Track. Any decentralized insurgency struggles with planning coordinated strikes but also possesses the advantage of having its diffuse members conduct operations based on local initiative. To model these aspects, the Rebels faction is not constrained by the usual limitations of the Initiative Track spaces of Limited Operation (1 space) and Operation (up to 3 spaces). Instead, at the start of their turn they draw two Operation Chits that can range from 1 to 3 Ops (see picture below). They select one chit to play regardless of whether they select Limited Operation, the Event, or Operation and Special Activity spaces of the Initiative Track. If selecting either the Limited Operation or Operation space, they instead conduct Operations up to the value of their selected chit. This means a Rebel Limited Operation may select up to 3 spaces and still retain the first eligible position. However, Operation Chits also come with a cost. Pushing your decentralized rebels harder will lead to desertions and defections. Regardless of the space Rebels select on the Initiative Track, the British may remove an Active Guerrilla when a 2 Ops Chit is played or replace an Active Guerrilla with an Irregular for a 3 Ops Chit.

This mechanic interacts with the Unity Track, which represents the level of unity among the decentralized rebels that make up the Rebels Faction. Rebels may use the Coordinate Special Activity to increase the value of their selected Operations Chit by 1 and also roll a die to increase Unity based on the number of Rebel Leaders on the map (Rebel Base pieces). At the highest level of Unity, the Rebels no longer pay any costs to use their higher value 2 and 3 Chits. However, a good British player will make that hard to achieve. The British lower Unity by removing Rebel Leaders (Rebel Base pieces) with Assault and may also use the Divide Special Activity to replace Guerrillas with new Irregular pieces (representing Palestinian Peace Bands and Jewish irregulars such as the Special Night Squads that sided with the British) or roll against the number of Irregulars on the map to lower Unity toward Decentralized. Once at Decentralized, the Rebels only draw one Operations Chit each turn, limiting their choices, and any further decreases in Unity increase British Political Will as they make deals with local commanders to defect from the rebellion!

As the name of the expansion suggests, many of the Jewish irregulars that assisted British forces in ending the Arab Revolt went on to resist Britain as members of Haganah or Irgun. The narrow scope of the base game’s depiction of the 1945-1947 conflict between British forces and Jewish armed groups is a result of the previous suppression of the Palestinian Arab community. With the Palestinian Arab community suppressed, Britain and Irgun saw each other as the major threat. Only after the British announced their withdrawal from Palestine in late 1947 did the Jewish armed groups turn back towards challenging the Palestinian Arab community in full force. As with the “Fall of Diem” transition sequence in my expansion for Fire in the Lake, the The British Way: Arab Revolt includes a small “End of Revolt” transition sequence allowing players to connect the two Palestine games. For instance, the more the Rebels mobilize Palestinian Arabs by spreading Opposition, the greater the backlash from Jewish extremist groups (Irgun and Lehi), and the more the British recruit Irregulars in the Arab Revolt game, the stronger these extremist groups will be at the start of the Palestine game.

British Repression

In addition to sowing discord among the rebellion, the British also used widespread repression to crush the Arab Revolt, particularly after the Munich Conference in 1938 allowed additional reinforcements. Given the Arab Revolt was a widespread popular rural rebellion, the scope of British repression far exceeded that used against Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi between 1945-1947. In addition to curfews, the British relied on a wide variety of collective punishments to deal with various forms of resistance. However, British forces faced their own disunity problems with frequent disagreements between the military and civilian leaders on the acceptable type and level of collective punishments. To reflect these divisions, the British possess Punishment Chits: Fines, Demolish, and Detention, each representing a major form of collective punishments used during the conflict. When the British use their Punish Special Activity they draw two Punishment Chits and may select one to conduct in up to two spaces with British Troops. Fines Chits help the British player remove Sabotage markers from Railway spaces and represent the British taxing communities for the damage caused to nearby railways, to coerce communities into pressuring rebels to cease sabotage while also recuperating some of the repair costs. Demolish Chits remove Opposition from selected spaces and represent the use of home demolitions to punish communities perceived to be aiding the rebels. Punitive demolitions could become extensive with sometimes entire villages and neighborhoods destroyed. Finally, Detention Chits remove Guerrillas to the Prison box and represent the mass detention of Palestinian Arabs to deprive the insurgency of supporters or potential recruits. Possibly as much as 37% of the total Palestinian Arab population was detained formally or informally at some point during the conflict.

However, the Punishment Chits come with their own cost. British repressive measures could  also mobilize affected civilians into supporting the insurgency. The Demolish and Detention Chits each come with a “Mobilization Cost” that occurs after the main chit effect in each selected space. Demolish Chits place a Guerrilla into each selected space after Opposition is removed, to depict that some of the dispossessed joined the insurgency. Similarly, the Detention Chit removes Guerrillas to Prison but places Opposition in the selected space to depict the relatives of those indiscriminately arrested shifting towards greater resentment of British rule. The Mobilization Costs associated with chits illustrate how repression creates the conditions for further repression, leading British players to cycle the Punish Special Activity even if a situation calls for their other Special Activity options of Divide or Air Recon. The British Capability Events depict specific aspects of the pressure and usually enhance or restrict the effectiveness of their Punishment Chits.

External Factors

With much of the resistance leadership in Syria, and with growing tensions in Europe in the 1930s, external factors had the potential to play a major role in the Arab Revolt. To reflect these factors in the game, the Lebanon and Syria spaces, marked as “Out of Play” in the base game, start in play for the Rebels Faction. The Transjordan and Egypt “Out of Play” spaces may enter play through an Event. These spaces allow the Rebels a sanctuary for building their forces before raiding into Palestine. The Rebels may also receive foreign support during the Propaganda Rounds or Events in these spaces. Although historically only receiving limited external assistance, there existed the potential for greater assistance from Axis Powers such as Italy, and foreign fighters from other Arab countries. British diplomacy and efforts to seal the northern border with French Syria and Lebanon historically prevented these efforts from fully developing but represent a counterfactual players can explore. In addition, tensions in Europe represented a major constraint on the British government’s ability to bring additional troops into Palestine. To accurately reflect this uncertainty, one of the three Propaganda Cards represents the Munich Conference, releasing additional British forces from Europe to Palestine. Whether this card comes early or late in a game can alter whether a British player relies more on using local irregulars to divide the resistance or on heavy handed collective punishments using British troops. However, Hitler may disrupt a British player’s approach by redirecting troops back to Europe with the mandatory “Tensions in Europe” Event.

There are many more new mechanics to The British Way: Arab Revolt I could highlight but I’ll end with some reading suggestions. A new popular history book of the revolt, Kessler’s Palestine 1936, provides a good basic overview of the events covered in the game. For those looking for a more detailed treatment of the revolt or Britain’s response, I’d consult Matthew Hughes’ Britain’s Pacification of Palestine: The British Army, the Colonial State, and the Arab Revolt, 1936-1939 (2019) or Matthew Kelly’s The Crime of Nationalism: Britain, Palestine, and Nation-Building on the Fringe of Empire (2017). Both utilize Arab and British primary sources to offer more complete depictions of the events. In the next article, I’ll provide an overview of the other new game in the expansion, The British Way: Japanese Occupation.

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Next Article: Enemy of My Enemy: Japanese Occupation