Tag Archives: COIN Series

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Resisting Revolution: The Government

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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. 

Camilo Cienfuegos and Fidel Castro arrive in Havana
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A Fading Star #1: The Somali Civil War

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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. 

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Sovereign of Discord Bonus Events: Women’s Role in the Vietnam War

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For my final article on the new Sovereign of Discord expansion, I will focus on one of the themes of the Bonus Events that are included for the base game. The expansion includes 40 new Events to be used with the original Fire in the Lake scenarios and the two additional base game scenarios that are provided (“Long 1964” and “Turning Point”). I chose the Bonus Events to reflect some new scholarship on the war since the release of Fire in the Lake in 2014 and to further emphasize a few themes: women’s role in the war, civilian victimization, the effect of the war on South Vietnamese society, North Vietnamese strategies, and the 1964 escalation debate. In this article, we will focus on just one of these themes: women’s role in the war.

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All Bridges Burning: A 2-Player Variant

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At the time of writing this, All Bridges Burning, COIN Series Volume X, is the latest released COIN Series game.The game tells the story of the Finnish Civil War of 1918 including the lead up to the war during the previous year.

In this article, we will introduce you to a new variant to All Bridges Burning for two players. The 2-player variant is released as free download with this article. All the rules and procedures needed to play are contained in this PDF file.

I want to thank Adrian Rubiero for testing and preparing the variant with me.

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Sovereign of Discord: External Support

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Last article, I covered the struggle in South Vietnam between the Ngo Dinh Diem regime and the Viet Cong (VC) insurgency. Both sides in the war received external assistance and advice from sponsors seeking to direct the conflict and exert control over their clients. Over the course of the Kennedy administration (1961-1963), US assistance in South Vietnam dramatically increased until there were 16,000 advisors in country by the end of 1963. Likewise, beginning in 1959, North Vietnam gradually increased its military assistance and advisors to support the insurgency. The North eventually sent thousands of trained “regroupees,” southerners who regrouped to the North in 1954 as part of the Geneva Accords, to add additional strength to the insurgency. In this article, I’ll focus on how Sovereign of Discord models American and North Vietnamese external assistance.

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Sovereign of Discord: The Strategic Hamlet Program

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In my last InsideGMT article, I gave some background on the Ngo Dinh Diem regime and covered some of the threats to the regime besides the Viet Cong (VC) insurgency. In this article I shift focus to the war in the countryside between the ARVN and VC players. In the early 1960s, the Strategic Hamlet program was the major counterinsurgency strategy of the Diem regime. The main goal of the program was to separate the rural population from the Viet Cong while increasing the state’s control of the countryside. Sovereign of Discord introduces new wooden strategic hamlet pieces and additional mechanics to Fire in the Lake to model this strategy.

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Sovereign of Discord: Sink or Swim with Ngo Dinh Diem

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The Sovereign of Discord expansion for Fire in the Lake allows players to explore an earlier period of the Vietnam War rarely covered in wargaming, the closing years of Ngo Dinh Diem regime (1961-1963). Although there are a few tactical games and scenarios on the battle of Ap Bac in 1963, I struggled to find a single game at the strategic level that covers the years prior to major intervention by the United States and North Vietnam in 1964-1965. Sovereign of Discord allows wargamers to add this crucial period of the war to their collections. This article is the first in a series of InsideGMT articles highlighting different aspects of the new content in Sovereign of Discord. Today we will focus on Ngo Dinh Diem and the unique strengths and weaknesses of his regime.

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Falling Sky: Playing The Reconquest of Gaul (53 BC) Scenario

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Do I enjoy Falling Sky? Very much indeed! What is the reason? First and foremost the theme, with Ancient Rome, Caesar, Gauls as main actors in this story. I love that part of human history and you do not have to convince me to play the game connected with that epoch. Then, we have a very fitting – for COIN system – situation, with all-mighty Rome, pretty powerful Arverni and Belgae and nimble Aedui. The interactions and connections between factions can become very complex and intriguing, making each game a completely different experience.

So whenever the occasion occurs – like recently – to organize another Play By Email game with my online friends, I am immediately open to join such initiative!

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The British Way: Cyprus

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In this article, we will conclude our coverage of the games in The British Way by overviewing the British emergency in Cyprus from 1955 to 1959. Cyprus is probably the easiest game in the pack to learn for those new to the COIN series, but will offer a drastically different experience for COIN veterans due to the new counter-terrorism systems already briefly outlined in our article on The British Way: Palestine. In Cyprus, the British faced a small but flexible clandestine terrorist organization known as EOKA (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston, or the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters), led by Georgios Grivas. In sharp contrast to the previous campaign covered in Kenya, the British in Cyprus were under intense international scrutiny due to efforts by the Greek government to keep the issue raised at the United Nations and the work of local activists who raised complaints about British repression to the newly formed European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

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The British Way: Kenya

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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.