Gandhi includes a brand new Solitaire system, called Arjuna, that replaces the flowcharts that have become a staple of the COIN Series. Players who play COIN Solitaire have asked many questions about how the system works – and don’t fear! – COIN Series Developer Jason Carr is here to walk through the design, ergonomics, and play of Arjuna. This installment shows Arjuna in action in the late campaign.

We are officially past the halfway mark of our campaign, and could see a Campaign card at any moment. The Muslim League passed during the last round because the next Event card, Simla Conference Divides India is a critical Event for the Muslim League (as noted by the arrow under their Faction icon). So, the Muslim League takes the shaded Event.

To resolve the Event, the Muslim League needs to determine where to place their bases and – oh no! – there are no eligible spaces on the map! The Event text specifies that the Muslim League may add ‘up to 2 Bases to any Provinces with no Raj Control’, but every Province on the map has Raj Control (note that States and Cities are not Provinces). That means that the Event is not Effective for the Muslim League, and they instead execute an Operation and Special Activity.

It’s worth noting here that this is a compromise that we made for usability – it’s impossible to know for sure whether the upcoming critical Event would be Effective when other Factions remain to act on a given card. Instead, we optimize for possibility with Arjuna: the Revolutionaries could have acted in a way as to deny Control and create a space for these Muslim League Bases, but they did not. The Muslim League acted to put themselves into a position to take advantage of this if it happened. Either way, having an Operation and Special Activity will only help the Muslim League.

The Muslim League selects Arjuna card P; the first check on this card sets up the Muslim League to place Protest in order to deny Control. Only one space meets the criteria on the card: Sind. Still, that’s enough to follow the green arrow to the Negotiate Special Activity. Negotiate is used by the Muslim League to place Muslim States and to remove Unrest – unfortunately it also requires that a space not be Controlled by the Raj (this whole “Control” thing is really working out for me).

Instead, the Muslim League will Infiltrate and replace an Adversary piece with a Muslim League Activist. The Muslim League selects Punjab, and replaces a Sepoy with an Activist. This sets up their Operation nicely – Civil Disobedience – because now placing a Protest marker will deny Raj Control. The Muslim League executes Civil Disobedience, selecting Punjab and East Bengal to receive Protest markers, then following the checkmark instruction and moving an Activist onto the Railway coming out of Karachi (Arjuna selects highest Econ Railways, then Railways next to a randomly determined City).

[Ed. note: I made a mistake here; there are only 2 ML Activists in Punjab after the infiltration so no ML Activist should have been moved onto the Railway. The checkmark instruction clearly says “From a space with 3+ ML” but I didn’t follow instructions.]

With the Muslim League out of the way, Congress can act; the next Event is not Critical for the Congress (and the Raj will act first in any case), and the current Event is not effective for them (they have no Bases to place). So Congress takes the Limited Operation offered to them, selecting Arjuna card H. Card H also checks if there are spaces where there are more Activists than cubes, and again Sind qualifies, but there are no Protest markers Available, so we flip the card to the HH side. Since Congress has 1 Available Activist, and 2 in Jail, Congress needs to roll less than a 3 to Rally; otherwise Congress will perfom a (limited) Non-Cooperation. Congress rolls a 1, and Rallies in a single 2-Pop Protest space with Raj Control and the fewest cubes – East Bengal, West Bengal, and Bombay Presidency all qualify – randomly choosing West Bengal. Placing a Congress Activist removes Raj Control. Congress moves an Activist from Out of Play to Available.

That’s the end for this card, next week we will play Independence Day Defiantly Declared.

---

Previous Article in this Series: The Arjuna Chronicles #8:The Salt March

Next Article in this Series: The Arjuna Chronicles #10: Independence Day Defiantly Declared