Volko and Andrew Ruhnke, the designers of Falling Sky our newest COIN Series game to hit the P500 list, are preparing an article for you guys that gives you a look inside the design. 
In what is a first for InsideGMT, they’ve asked me to involve you guys in the process of article creation.
Volko and Andrew want to tailor their article to give you the information you’re most interested in. To facilitate that, we are requesting that you guys give us your questions, input, and comments in advance.
So here’s your chance to help shape the Falling Sky article. Please leave us a comment with your questions, suggestions, and curiosities about the game.
Thanks much for helping Volko and Andrew craft a Falling Sky article that will give you the information that most interests you!
Author: Gene Billingsley
Sorry, I can’t help myself – I have one to start off. I love the Special Actions in this series. They capture the unique abilities of the various factions so well. “Airstrikes” in Fire in the Lake is just about my favorite (although the downside is pretty steep). Given that the Romans probably won’t get that one (rats!), can you give us a sense of how you’re thinking about Roman Special Abilities for this game?
Thanks for setting this up, Gene, and thanks to those who have already posted questions!
Andrew and I intend to address all the questions in some detail in our article. In the meantime, though, I’ll provide some quick answers below, as best I can …
As for your question, Gene, Roman “Special Abilities” are Build, Seize, and Besiege. They represent among them Roman fort construction, what we would today call “public works”, foraging, punitive dispersal and enslavement of tribes, and, of course, siegecraft.
Volko
How are Roman politics included ? Can the Caesar player lose the Game by losing the support of the senate ?
Oh yes! Roman politics, including the Senate, play a big role in the situation of the Roman Faction in Gaul. Not only event cards, but also a Senate track give the Roman player a lot to worry about over his shoulder, beyond all the Gallic Warbands before him….
Hi Volko,
If Caesar loses Senate’s support, does it mean he loses the game & having to go beyond Rubicon ?
Will Vercingetorix have a ‘Gallic tribes support’ Track ?
Thanks for your answer Volko & congrats to you for the brilliant game system.
Thanks Olivier!
The Senate is one variable that will affect Roman reinforcements in Gaul, but generally is not going so far as to recall Caesar to force the Civil War. I say “generally” because there is an event card that can bring this about — though it does not necessarily mean that Caesar loses!
Vercingetorix’s Arverni, like all Factions, track tribal support via Tribal Ally and Citadel pieces. There are also events for internal Arverni and Aedui politics.
Volko
I’m not too familiar with the other games in the series, but I’m curious to know if/how battles of the time will be modeled compared to the other games, given that armed conflict is a different beast in ancient times as compared to say Afghanistan.
Hi Stacey! Very differently, the biggest change to Ops (here, “Commands”). The modern topic games have guerrilla Attacks (not too deadly) and counterinsurgent Assaults (only doable once guerrillas are pinpointed.
In Gallic War, instead a Battle Command gives the uncertainties and decisive impact of pitched battles their due, and include not only the effect of hidden Warbands but also fortifications, legions, counterattack, and more.
Given that communications were really slow, and that even Romans essentially gave one man control of the forces he had and sort of left it to him. And that the tribes had little strategic thoughts, also goals of tribes were very local, how does this overcome being a game where players have totally unrealistic coordination ang strategic oversight. Also how is roman politics handled ceased goal is power in Rome Gaul is just a way to achieve this.
Hi Michael. We may have some different views about the ability of a Caesar or a Vercingetorix to pursue a strategy spanning Gaul. That said, unlike the modern volumes, we have prices to mark the whereabouts of the major Leaders, and only they can execute Special Abilities.
The Roman Faction does represent the Republic, not just Caesar, with the idea that he was able to pursue power via campaigning in Gaul because the Republic beyond him had ambitions there in any case, and that he ultimately had to succeed there for Rome in order to gain personal power — that is, either way, the Romans must subdue Gaul to win the game.
What were the hardest parts about applying the system 2000 years before the oldest game yet in the series?
That’s a great question Adam, we will have to think about what was the hardest. There are many many changes, naturally — this volume is the most distinct from the rest, as you might expect.
Off the cuff, the hardest might have been taking popular (as opposed to tribal) sympathies out of it and still giving the mechanics the feeling of spreadin revolt not just clashing armies.
Thanks! Excited about the upcoming article. Any ETA on the Rulebook/Playbook?
Rulebook and all other materials to test the 4-player game will go to the playtesters end of the month. Playbook is months from being written.
It would be great to hear about some (or many) of the more interesting events that you’ve chosen.
We are still writing them! 60 done, 12 to go, with many great ideas provided by Gallic enthusiast Marc Gouyon-Rety.
Hard to pick out just a couple to mention. Andrew’s favorite character from the wars is Commius, the Atrebaten who seemed always to land on his feet after every change in fortune and change in allegiance. Because he remains a major figure throughout, compared to the many chieftains who come and go in the Commentaries, and fights on both sides, we have made him a Capability Event (meaning lasting effect) that can be either pro-Roman or pro-Belgae, depending on how played.
It would be great if it has crack troops and some elites troops that can only comes from certain areas.
Transportation restrictions would be interesting
Hi! Naturally, the Legions are crack troops that behave differently in striking power, resiliency, how they enter play, and the effect of their loss on victory in the war. The crack Legio X is a Roman Capability. Gallic and Germanic Warbands are differentiated more by Event cards, including the Capabilities sort or one-time events. Ambiorix and Caesar affect Battles and thus work like crack elites in a way…
I’d like to know how you two decided which 3 Gallic and Germanic factions you decided to model and how you came to select their regular and special actions for their COIN series treatment.
Hi Barry!! The scope within the Gallic wars (53BC on), the factions, and the victory conditions were laid out by Andrew. I did the first cut at Commands and Special Abilities, with the two of us reworking that. The Gallic Factions are the 2 big anti-Roman confederations of the day, plus the leader of the mostly pro-Romans. The Germans are only intermittently active, so better as a non-player.
* How do you determine when the 5th faction activates? With “only” 72 cards in the deck it can’t use the standard faction-symbol-on-card order (with 5 factions that’d take 5*4*3*2*1 = 120 cards), so you must’ve come up with something else…
* What wooden pieces do I need for a playtest kit? And when will public playtesting begin? 😀
Ha! Yes we did. 4-Faction initiative, as before. The 5th faction Germans get activated by events, during a Winter phase, and — here’s the kicker — via a Belgic Faction Special Ability.
We’ll begin playtest under Mike Bertucelli about month end. In addition to the usual types of bits, you’ll need a few tall cylinders for leaders and CC:A infantry blocks for forts and citadels.
Hello Volko. They left lots of playtesting? I had given my availability but I have not received anything.
Thank you,
GC
Greetings Gian Carlo! Thanks, don’t worry, not even begun official playtest yet — end of August. Ciao!
Speaking as someone who has playtested, so far they have done a pretty good job adapting COIN into an era where armies and battles are the norm. You mass armies, march and fight with them. Legions do feel different than other troops. Plus there is no concept of Support/Opposition here whittles aid the period feel.
That said, it still feels like it needs more period feel. Hopefully once plaiting starts that can be imbued.
A number of questions: a) the big one: how is Caesar’s conquest of Gaul (in many ways a personal war fought without proper authorisation that he desperately tried to justify in his commentarii) a counterinsurgency? b) how will you handle sieges and supply? c) how did you come up with 4 factions when Caesar writes in his excursus about the Gauls that there were 2 factions in Gaul?
Hi Ronald!
a) It wasn’t — until after his conquest was a fact, and Gallic revolt becomes a challenge to Roman authority. Our game covers only that latter phase of revolt, 53-50bc.
b) Forts and Citadels provide benefits in battle and are hard to take down. Roman siegecraft and certain vents help. Supply is covered with forage and scorched earth actions and the like, but at this strategic level without (much) tracing of supply lines.
c) Caesar says that there are two factions, and also that there are factions within each tribe and down to each household! In the game, the Arverni and Belgae players are generally anti-Roman, but not necessarily fighting for one another. The Aedui are generally pro-Roman, but fighting for themselves. With the Romans, we get four.
Hi,
I’d like to know if/how are managed pitched battles and sieges.
Thanks and go on, the COIN games rocks!
Giuseppe
Thank you Giuseppe!
GW replaces the Attack and Assault ops of the modern volumes with a far different Battle Command that provides for pitched battles.
Hi Ruhnkes – In addition to what others have mentioned, I’d like to hear more about what the asymmetrical winning conditions look like in Gallic War. I’d also like to know if there is as much flexibility with two player 2 vs. 2 faction scenario play, like previous COIN efforts and how well that works.
What makes the design specifically (not theme/setting) feel unique to you as designers out of the entire series to date?
Hi Tom! All victory includes the loyalties of the tribes of Gaul, much like Bases in the other games play a role in various insurgent conditions. But each faction combines that with other factors in different ways, to give Vercingetorix his particular anti-Roman zeal and the Aedui an incentive to try to leverage the Romans to fight for them, for example.
We have already tried 2-player with good results: Arverni-Belgae vs Roman-Aedui.
We’ve had to alter a lot to take on a very different period, so theme is the heart of it. But also, rather than hanging on more doodads, we are trying to get back to the cleaner play and smaller size of the earlier volumes.
One of the great things about A Distant Plain (the only COIN game I own so far) is that all four factions feel very different, in both goals and capabilities, as well as how they interact with each other. How are you distinguishing the three non-Roman factions in Gallic War? Hopefully it’s not going to feel like the different barbarian factions are essentially interchangeable.
Hi Dustin. If it does, we failed! The 3 Gauls are as variegated in objectives, abilities, ob, event mix, and position as the insurgent factions are in the other volumes.
Now that you have covered 2,000+ years, what other counterinsurgencies from other time periods leap out at you as candidate COIN topics?
Ah! Well, AmRev, of course. But there are many others in work by various designers, including more pre-modern.
I recently purchased both A Distant Plain and Fire in the Lake, and am enjoying the subtle changes in gameplay from the norm (things like the Islamabad Track/The Trail, Irregulars/Rangers/Insurgent troops, etc.) Can you give us a rundown on how the factions will relate to others in the COIN series?
Hello! The Romans have similarities to the Counterinsurgents, such as using cubes to represent potent troops (legions), and the Gauls and Germans some similarities to insurgents, with warbands somewhat like guerrillas. One of the Gallic Factions, the Aedui, are a sort of partner of the Romans, as say the ARVN and US are partners in Fire in the Lake.
But beyond the basic COIN System engine, the factions and the operations are rather different!
What frack…I like is Asterix make an appeariace (sp) fr
Why the huge change in time period?
Were there any particular challenges in adapting the mechanics of a series that has only dealt with 20th century conflicts to the wars of this time?
Hello Ivor! Thanks for the questions. Many challenges indeed — most of our article will be discussing that!
We chose this topic foremost because we were fascinated by it at the moment and thought it fit the core system well, secondarily to show how far afield the COIN Series system can go, and thereby bust open the gates and encourage other designers to adapt it to any period they whimsy.
Volko
Now when COIN makes a visit 2 000 years back, do you any thoughts on doing the opposite, an epic scifi war 2 000 year in the future?
Ah, there I’ll stay mum for now!
Hi Volko.
Whilst the gallic war was mainly a land war, there has been some naval action, mainly:
– Britannia landing
– Naval battle with the Veneti
Are these featured in the game?
Hail, Hervé from from the Remi!
The game covers 53BC on, so the Britannia and Veneti campaigns are past. However, both Britannia and Veneti appear in the game …
Hi Volko,
Many thanks to take your time to answer to our questions.
COIN means CounterInsurgency, GW proves that this game system can cover bigger than guerillas-sized conflicts.
I saw on InsideGMT that a COIN game project on American Revolution.
Can we dream on French & Indian war (with Bristish, French, Indians & continentals), Hundred years war (with French king, English, Armagnacs & Burgundians)…
COIN means also multiple opponents game system, can we imagine 5 or 6 opponents (like Syria-Iraqi civil war with ISIL, FSA, ASSAD, NATO, KURDS & IRAQ GOV. ) ?
Do you think 4 opponents is the limit to Solitaire playability ?
Many thanks
Olivier
Hello Olivier of the Leuci!
French&Indian has been proposed … Pontiac’s Rebellion perhaps? And 6 could done (though solitaire might be tough) … Joe Miranda did 6 unique faction victory conditions in Battle for Baghdad. So anything can be dreamed … But someone has to do it!
Will the COIN mechanics be advanced in anyway, not just for the game, but possibly backwards compatible with other coin games? For instance, I found that when the game suddenly ends due to propaganda in cuba libre, the game end is unfulfilling, a whimper rather than a bang. A final major op for all players might really make for an exciting endgame!
Hi Geoff! We are trying to advance things, including what I hope will be some streamlining of systems. But I don’t think Gallic War will help you with the end-with-whimper issue. CL that goes the instance provides a final Prop round in which points tend to shift quite a bit via Civic Action and the like — functions not present in Gallic War, in which we try to get things done faster.
I was looking at the Sample Gameplay: Caesar Returns to Belgica sneak peek and noticed there was a Rally marker on Sugambri Tribal space. Is that conducive to replacing the white or black tokens to mark an Operation or Special Activity? Or is it part of an organic rule for the Germanic AI on the map as a reminder to ease play?
Ken
Hey Ken! That’s just a reminder of a ” home region” Rally advantage. Black and white pawns will work the same.
It appears that Vercingetorix and Caesar (or the replacements) make an appearance. What do the leaders do in this version of COIN?
They do! Their main effect is to enable Special Abilities within a radius of 1 Region.
Hi gentlemen,
I am a huge fan of FiTL and am really looking forward to this game. I have a couple of quick questions.
1: Are the large red blocks Roman Leaders, multiple legions or perhaps elite Roman troops (Legio X, etc)?
2: How are the Victory checks initiated? Roman Senate events as Coup Rounds comes to mind but I am wondering how this is triggered and done.
Thanks, the game looks great!