In a lot of ways, the Congress Faction represents the heart of the game. Gandhi himself was a major player in the movement and many of the founding principles of the game developed out of building a system around nonviolent resistance. Playing Congress will feel unlike any other COIN faction you’ve played before, for their aim is to persuade, not destroy, their opponents.

The Raj Faction in Gandhi will feel familiar for those who have played any of the 20^th century COIN games. Like many Government Factions, its forces are represented by two types of cubes; it has a limited budget to spend on its Operations; and it seeks Control over the populace as one of its victory goals. But like the Coalition in A Distant Plain or the U.S. in Fire in the Lake, the Raj also has forces that Operate for free as its seeks to build Support for the colonial government.

One of the innovations which Gandhi brings to the COIN series is a subtle change in the mechanics of Control. In previous games, Control has been determined by whichever Faction had more pieces in the space than any other – a plurality is insufficient, a strict majority is required for Control. While some games have riffed on this concept (most notably Liberty or Death, which requires an English piece to establish Control), most COIN titles stay true to the basic model of Control established in Andean Abyss.

The article below is the second in a series of articles about Gandhi: The Decolonization of British India, 1917-1947. The first article in this series can be found here. Enjoy! -Rachel

Gandhi on the Salt March, 1930.

Many people around the world live in countries that have been directly affected by nonviolent struggles. Nonviolence has a long and successful track record of creating political change around the world; recent studies have shown it to be twice as effective at achieving its goals than violent resistance. In the 20th century, nonviolent campaigns have successfully resisted oppressive regimes in India, China, Brazil, the Philippines, Guatemala, Nigeria, South Africa, Iran, Denmark, Ukraine, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Romania, the United States, and many other nations.