The Big COINflip Board wargames on modern irregular

The Big COINflip Board wargames on modern irregular warfare Brian Train Universite de Montreal May 5, 2016

ANALOG AND DIGITAL • Black-Boxing Syndrome • Three levels of display of game ideology: • Representation: of characters and events in the game • Manipulation: what a player can and cannot do • Motivation: how a player wins, and is rewarded or punished in the game • Alteration: the meta-rules for changing the above (whoops, that’s four) • Mystique of coding vs. the sensual banality of cardboard • “If you can play them, you can design them. ” (Dunnigan)

War since 1945

Scarcity of games on modern irregular warfare The “indecency of recency” Critical/subversive of media portrayal of conflicts Critical/ subversive of “normal” play of wargames

Game as journalism

Game as criticism

The GMT COIN System

Lines of attack “Conventional” wargame “Irregular” wargame binary, zero-sum opposition multiple though frictional points of view/ factions ordered situations chaotic and nonlinear game states rigid treatments of time, space and force flexible, malleable scales, non-representational units symmetry of information, methods and objectives asymmetry of these

Victory conditions in A Distant Plain Faction Opposed incentive Independent incentive Taliban Raise opposition to the government Build insurgent infrastructure Coalition Raise support for the government Minimal presence in Afghanistan Government Consolidate military control Strengthen patronage network Warlords Keep military control divided Amass wealth

Merci beaucoup! Des questions? • brian. train@gmail. com (me) • https: //brtrain. wordpress. com/game-links-and-resources/ (script, slides, more) • http: //www. gmtgames. com (GMT Games)

Ludography arranged by family 4 -Box Strategic battlegroup Chit-pull, combat matrix “Other”, one-off systems Algeria Andartes EOKA Kandahar Shining Path Arriba Espana! Battle for China More Battle for China Autumn Mist Balkan Gamble Summer Lightning Winter Thunder COIN Between The Wars Based on other system A Distant Plain Colonial Twilight Thunder Out of China Finnish Civil War Freikorps Konarmiya War Plan Crimson Balkan Gambit (Victory in Normandy) BCT Command Kandahar (JM Staff Card) Greek Civil War (JM Netwar) Korean War Battles (F&M) Next War in Lebanon (JM Staff Card) The Scheldt Campaign (JM Staff Card) 1848 Army of Shadows Battle of Seattle Binh Dinh '69 Caudillo Chile '73 Civil Power District Commander series Green Beret Guerrilla Checkers Kandahar I Land of the Free The Little War Operation Whirlwind Palace Coup Paranoid Delusions Power Play Pusan Perimeter Red Guard Somalia Tupamaro Uprising Ukrainian Crisis Virtualia

Designs in “ 4 -box family”