Several months back, when preparing for the Spring semester course on wargaming, I wrote a blog post about the plans to use Stephen Rangazas’ The British Way in the classroom. The game has now made its debut at the university, and it is interesting to look back and see what worked and how.
Whenever introducing a new game in class, some issues must be considered to ensure that it can work in that specific environment. What gaming concepts will the students be already familiar with? How much time will the game take and how many games could be run and facilitated in parallel? Have they covered the topic of the game in their other classes? As The British Way was released in 2023, it was the first time to be used, and all these questions had to be answered.
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.
All four games in The British Way COIN multipack are only two-player and relatively short, so we hope that finding a partner to play with won’t be too difficult. However, we understand that many COIN players enjoy playing solo, and indeed this is probably how Stephen and I have spent the most time playing the other games in the series (both during testing and purely for personal enjoyment). Furthermore, and unlike previous COIN series games, The British Way does not come with a dedicated solitaire system, and so we have decided to provide some additional guidance for multi-handed solo play.
Playing a game ‘multi-handed solo’ simply means controlling all sides to the best of your ability, which can be somewhat tricky for a CDG with hidden hands (although even here the CDG Solo System provides a solution), but is very easy in COIN series games with no hidden information. The COIN series sequence of play also provides you with a limited set of options each turn, especially in The British Way where you have only two Factions and one Event card to consider, which makes these games especially well-suited to multi-handed solo play. You can just flip over the new Event each turn, check which Faction is first eligible, and then evaluate the current board state to determine what move they should take.
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).
The Soviet Union was just as surprised as everyone else when the Cuban revolution succeeded, and their initial attitude towards Castro was cautious, as it was not yet clear where his sympathies lay. The Cuban communist party (the PSP, or Popular Socialist Party) had even supported Fulgencio Batista during his first presidency from 1940 to 1944, and were regarded with suspicion among the Cuban revolutionaries, who came from a diverse range of political backgrounds. However, after the US embargo was established in October 1960 the Soviet Union stepped in to purchase Cuban sugar and provide other economic aid, and this relationship rapidly escalated after the Bay of Pigs invasion, eventually leading to the deployment of nuclear weapons and the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. Similar to the United States faction, the Soviet Union faction represents especially those within the Soviet government and military who are in favour of using Cuba as a tool to increase their regional influence and extract concessions from the United States. In this article I will outline some key features of the Soviet Union faction and their new menu of Operations and Special Activities.
At the beginning of 1959 United States companies owned about 40 percent of the Cuban sugar lands—almost all the cattle ranches—90 percent of the mines and mineral concessions—80 percent of the utilities—practically all the oil industry—and supplied two-thirds of Cuba’s imports.
I was 15 and in the middle of junior high when the titular People Power EDSA revolution took place. As such, the events surrounding People Power stand out as a watershed historical moment during my youth. Interestingly enough, much of the same factions are still involved in Philippine politics, 37 years hence, and the son of then President Ferdinand Marcos, Bongbong, is once again head of state; and is mainly opposed by leftists and factions associating themselves with Cory and Benigno Aquino. Old wounds and issues were once again headlined during the elections and the different sides clashed in social media, and sometimes in real life.
Thus the introduction of the game People Power comes at a precarious time. Many reference the events and personalities of that titular era, and political lines are drawn (You can check my full review of People Powerhere). I found it interesting to let different types of Filipinos try out the game. From casual gamers, to GMT fans; from people who lived thru the events to millennials who know little about Imelda Marcos; to people with different political leanings and those who are apolitical themselves. Below are excepts from my game sessions with these Filipinos and their reactions and comments on People Power the game.
The new Cuban government that came to power in 1959 was initially very popular, replacing the Batista dictatorship with an apparently moderate liberal regime, and with ambitious plans to stamp out political corruption, to enact land, labor, and education reforms, and to normalize relationships with important trade partners like the United States. However, as Castro and his allies began to strengthen their grip on power and expand the scope of their economic reforms, resistance began to grow, including not only wealthy landowners but also revolutionary veterans concerned by the political direction of the new regime. The Resistance faction in Resisting Revolution represents a loose coalition of urban political opposition, clandestine rural cells, and a guerrilla insurgency in the central Escambray Mountains, united by their commitment to overthrowing Castro but without much popular support or organized structure. In this article I will outline some key features of the Resistance faction and their new menu of Operations and Special Activities.
