In the early hours of January 1st, 1959, Cuban president Fulgencio Batista fled into exile, ending nearly a decade of dictatorial rule in Cuba. The 26th of July Movement immediately began to seize control, and a week later Fidel Castro arrived triumphantly in Havana, having completed a victorious march along the whole length of the island. In Resisting Revolution, the new Government faction begins in a strong but fragile position, seeking to consolidate their popular support and rebuild the war-ravaged Cuban economy. In this article I will outline some key features of the Government faction and their new menu of Operations and Special Activities. 

The Government and Resistance factions in Resisting Revolution are the closest to traditional COIN series factions, although they diverge from that tradition in several crucial respects. Perhaps most notably, their high relative difference in strength and numbers is such that there is no concept of ‘Control’ used in the game – it is assumed that the Government is effectively in control of all map spaces, as aside from the armed rebellion in the Escambray Mountains the resistance to Castro was composed primarily of small clandestine cells. This numerical advantage is also apparent in the new ‘Militia’ pieces (light blue cubes) used by the Government, which are free to Train in Provinces and can therefore be quickly mustered at the first sign of trouble.

However, Militia units are generally less effective at Assaulting, and can only be moved with Sweep if they are accompanied by a Government Leader (as happened during the large mobilization in response to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion). The Government can also Train more effective Troops, but these are expensive, and their numbers will be limited until Soviet military aid begins to arrive on the island. Government Leader counters can be used to enhance both Troops and Militia, but they are vulnerable to Attack and Ambush by Resistance Guerrillas or Assassination by CIA-funded exile Cells. 

The charismatic leadership provided by the Fidel Castro counter is appropriately central to the Government strategy, allowing one free shift towards Active Support when the Government performs Reforms in his space. This will help the Government pursue one half of their victory condition, raising Total Support, while for the other half they must use the Collectivize Special Activity to bolster their Economy. Both victory conditions are also influenced by the Regional Alignment of other American states, which is harder to directly control but can prove crucial to victory. Regional Alignment is shifted up or down by some Events, and can also be affected by the posture of the US and the Soviet Union towards Cuban affairs (which I will describe in more detail in a future article).

The Government’s two other Special Activities provide them with additional tools for fighting the Resistance and maintaining control of Cuban affairs. Transport works almost the same as it does in Cuba Libre, allowing them to rapidly redeploy Troops and Government Leaders, while Repress is a more effective Reprisal, allowing them to shift towards Neutral and remove (rather than relocate) Guerrillas from two spaces with Troops. While the new Cuban Government was popular, it was also not above resorting to repressive measures to defend the revolution, quickly forming an extensive intelligence agency (the DI, or Dirección de Inteligencia) and using military cordons in the countryside to isolate rebel forces. In the next article in this series I will introduce the Resistance faction against whom this repression is deployed.

Author: Joe Dewhurst