Part 1: I control everything, do I?
This
is an article I had to write for months (actually a couple of years) but that
for one reason or another it has been sent on the backburner countless times.
There was always a compelling reason that was preventing me from doing it. Of
course the reasons were indeed compelling, often it was the physical separation
between me and my copy of Andean Abyss!
I had it from 2012, thanks to Volko’s kindness, but until last September my box
was in Italy while I was in London. Being Andean
Abyss an huge box packed with (heavy) goodness taking it to my forward
deployed position in London was out of question (thank you British Airways and
your weight policy… well I have also a back to keep working too), and for one
reason or another I was always prolonging my happy times in London. Finally my
doctorate ended and not only I was stuck again in my marshy, unpleasant,
unfriendly little village (negative side), but I had gaming space, gaming time
(positive side). The positive element of
being stuck in a marshy, unfriendly, awful, unpleasant little village when your
friends are abroad is that you do not have a social life; the negative is that
you are so depressed your research work is slowed to a crawl. I am still commuting so I can have a social
life (well the idea that to hang out with a friend you have to take a jet liner
is certainly a tad extreme…) but I have now plenty of game time so I had time
not only to test drive Andean Abyss,
but also to bypass my greatest hurdle, the fact I do not like the wooden cubes…
Well
stop self commiseration and back to the game. Andean Abyss is something of a
rarity a solo to four player counterinsurgency (COIN) game that took the gaming
field by storm. Its subject topic is Colombia. Wait… Colombia? With all that
hot and warm stuff off the presses why Colombia? Well if you are interested in
Counterinsurgency Colombia is a perfect subject. It was one of the longest
insurgency campaigns waged by an terrorist movement (the FARC, Fuerza Armada
Revolucionaria de Colombia, Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces) that switched
back and forth between high and low ebbs and that, for a while the FARC seemed
poised to win. If you want to have a better look to the topic before committing
yourself to the game (game that has a nice historical overview included) I
cannot do better than point you here:
It
is called From El Billar to Operations Fenix and Jacque. This is a full length
research paper produced by the Combined Arms Research Laboratory at Fort
Leavenworth on the topic. It is long but well worth read. Doing a short, almost one liner, summary
Colombia was an unlucky country with a communist insurgency in it, a powerful
organized criminal cartel… The Cartel with capital C that was willing to resort
to paramilitary/insurgency option to protect its Coca crops and export, a
series of paramilitary ‘Self Defence’
organizations, and, finally, a government that lacked both the will and
money to quash the bad guys until later on. It was a mess, but a mess from
where the government emerged victorious in the end. The Colombian government used both
traditional and untraditional COIN methods to prevail. It is a perfect test bed
for a game engine that wants to simulate this kind of nebulous activity.
What
I am setting to do now is a quite long discussion of Andean Abyss as a game,
how it relates to real COIN in general, a description of my successful attempt
to create proper counters for the game and general discussion. It will be a
three part article. First I will concentrate on the game, then on how the game
is relevant (or not) for the study of COIN operations, and lastly on my work on
the counters.
Now
the usual part, what you get from the box? Well, apart from a really sturdy large
box (so large and heavy that when it showed up at my house, my mother picked it
up thinking it was the usual game box and got a nasty surprise) you find a lot
of things. The first thing is a quite pleasant hard mounted map of Colombia. People
who know me also know I am not really fond of mounted maps. They warp, they are
heavier (a consideration when you commute), they add to the cost for no real
return value. Well I got this for free so I will not complain about it being
mounted. What I like it is the ambiance it provides.
It
is an area map, with specific locations for cities and important line of
communications printed on it. The colours are dark, and give me the idea of the
jungle and mountain. I know mountains are often sunny, but the dark colours put
me in the mood of the poor chaps who
have to climb them. I do not want to be gloom and doom, I am sure Colombia
could be a nice place, and the Colombian PhD student I meet some years ago was
a very nice and solar person (and end up being robbed and threatened with a
knife on an Italian train… go figure), but for me it sets the tone. The map
also gives you the whole geographical setting at a glance: mountain spine in
the centre, coastal plains and Amazon basin on the two sides. As much the
COINistas (more on them later) tell you that COIN is supposed to be waged among
an human geography the terrain still there. You cannot skip the real terrain,
it influences every human activity anyway. The fact that you do not only have
the provinces (areas) but also cities and line of communication tells you that
Volko is aware of this fact. The map board also contains a lot of track and
information areas. This is good you do not need a lot of separate charts, it is
very nice to be able to have everything in a single game ‘piece’.
Moving
away from the map we have the ‘counters’ and the cards. I will describe the
latter first. I like them they look well made (but I sleeved them anyway) and pleasant
to look. They have always an inspiring colour picture in it that is related to
the actual role of the card (it can sounds stupid, but it help you when you are
playing to get the meaning of the card at glance) and the test is easy to read.
There are also symbols indicating who can use the card and the order of play in
the turn (more on that later). The
counters… well I told you up front. I dislike the wooden cubes. I am ok with
the markers (they are nice and gives you the feeling of Colombia) but I hate
the cubes. Said that they are simple coloured cubes (troops), disks (bases),solid
octagons (guerrillas and bad doers) and cylinders (various functions). Some of
them had an engraved symbol on one side so you can show open and hidden
guerrillas. Part of my deal with Volko was designing some counters to replace
the block and I will show you my results here.
 |
| This time you can see my crappy photo skills too! |
The
Game also includes a rulebooks and a playbook. There are nicely printed with
colour images. The text is not only easy to read (no no early style ultra dense
AH typeset here) and, even more importantly, clear to understand. The fact that
the playbook includes an extensive example of play is not hurting either. Kudos
to Volko and his developer, Joel Toppen, here. The most difficult part is the
solo player section. It is a bit difficult to understand at first because it is
heavily procedural, but once you play a couple of turns it become quite easy to
grasp. As one of my bosses, Major General Andrew Sharpe, British Army OBE, once
said everything will become clear when you start playing.
The
last part of the package are the charts. They are detailed and provide you a
lot of stuff, including flowcharts to play the evil factions when you are
playing solo.
I
cannot complain on the package. Except for the ugly cubes everything screams
play me, at least to me. Once I designed, printed, glued, and cut the
replacement counters I really had no excuse to not take a free ticket for a
journey into Colombia. And here is the place where a long journey begins.
I
had quickly summarized what you get in terms of hard components, but these are
just components, the real meat of the game is the engine. Yet, before dwelling
in it, I need to address a question. Why
Volko decided to provide me with a free copy of the game for this review? Well, I do not want to boast my credentials
(ok I tend to do this at times) but I think I am the perfect reviewer for
Andean Abyss. Also understanding my background will probably help you to
understand this review. I know that if
you have ever seen me in the real world I do not look to bright (can I add I am
a quite caricatured character?), but certain people told me I am quite good in
my field. As much it could appear incredible (yes Victoria this is in reference
to your comment that I do not look the part) I am an academic (well I still
have to get used to it, I still picture myself as a research student). More to the point I am a military historian
who also works for the Military. I recently got my PhD awarded from King’s
College London, from the department of War Studies. I have worked for the British
Army (DCDC, Doctrine Concept and Development Centre, and HQ 20th
Armoured Brigade) providing historical and wargaming expertise. I am involved
in professional and educational war
gaming (I did that for UK MoD DSTL, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory,
and I was professor Philip Sabin main Teaching Assistant at King’s College for several
years). I contributed articles to professional Think Tanks like the Phoenix
Think Tank head by Commodore Michael Clapp, Royal Navy and where I had the
honour to work with people like Major General Julian Thompson CBE OBE. Due to my day time occupation I had the
opportunity to discuss with serving and retired officers with combat experience
(including Iraq and Afghanistan). On top of that my thesis (that I hope will be
available in published form soon) discusses the doctrinal, cultural, and
operational differences between the US Army and the US Marine Corps during the
Vietnam War. The reason why Volko gave me a free game was that he thought my
background was spot on for a review (or because he took pity on me… you
decide!).
Well
after my personal rambling, let move back to the game. I hate to classify games, mainly because
often games falls in spurious categories and classifications seems to be different
for every few individuals at time (is
Vomit Struggle a wargame for example? Is wargame an English word?). In Andean
Abyss there are cards and cards are indeed playing an important role, but I
would hesitate to call it a card driven game. Well, no classification so let me
explain how a turn is played. The first
activity the players do is turning the first card of the deck and then show the
next one. The first card turn will set the tone for the turn. It shows the
order of play and a two events (usually one event and its opposite). Then there is an action phase played in the
order shown on the card. One of the unusual mechanics of the game is that,
while there are four factions (and possible up to four players) only two
factions are usually active in a given turn. If you perform activity in turn X
you will have to pass in turn Y. What
kind of activity you execute is up to you if you are the first eligible player
(you do not have conducted operations in the previous turn and you are the
first player listed on the current card) but are based on the first player
actions if you are the second player.
Usually, the bigger is the operation launched by the first player, the
bigger is the possible answer from the second player. Operations varies from ones affecting a
single map zone, to complex action sweeping Colombia… generally speaking you
can recruits new forces, strengthen your available ones, move, or engage the
enemy. You can also execute the event described in the version you like… Combat is interesting. It is completely
predictable for the government. The number of force you engage will produce a
pre-determined result. Usually one enemy ‘cube’ will be removed per friendly
cube. Terrain changes these ratios; two cubes are required to remove one cube
in mountain, in cities only government police can engage. On the other hand the
insurgents require a roll of dice to see if they will remove up to two
government cube, the die having to be equal or less to the number of active
guerrilla. Beside these forms of open
military combat you have terror, patrols (to uncover covert guerrillas), civic
action, and, being Colombia, you can destroy or produce coca crops. Special capabilities for the various faction
include the ability of government forces to use airmobile movement, the fact
that guerrillas (be they FARC, Drug Cartels, or Right Wing militias) can be
covert (underground) or active. If you feel the need you can set up rackets
(FARC and militias) to gain resources (asking money for protection…) or even
assassinate (removing a single enemy ‘cube) if you are the Militias. The
Militias can also steal coca shipments. Another important consideration is that
your operations cost resources, bigger the operation is, the more resources it
requires. Victory is very simple and
straight forward (at least until you try to achieve it): you need to increase
the number of Colombians who support your cause. The higher this support is the
close you are to replaced the other three factions as the new leader of Colombia. Of course this noble ideal requires you to
master a lot of little nifty details, and to make sure your opponent support is
not climbing too!
I
have kept the description of the mechanic as short as possible. Both the rules
and the playbook are in online so you can read them for free (even playing the
vassal module if you are so inclined).
Yet there are twists that need to be addressed, mainly because is these
twists that add personality to the game. There are three different presidents in
Colombia that get elected in due time (mainly as the government player is drawn
into a prolonged struggle). Each
president has his own traits. Samper does not work well with the Americans and
you receive less aid (look at his picture on the map and you will get the
feeling why). Pastrana tries to
reconcile the country (the guy do not look determined) and will allow the FARC
to place a free zone, essentially giving them a slice of the country to run and
where the government forces cannot enter. Finally you get Uribe who looks
thought and determined (and competent) and remove the FARC zones. The three
president represent a kind of narrative, bungling at first appeasing in the
middle, if the FARC does not win by that time you have an hardening of the
government stance.
Furthermore
the four sides are not symmetrical. They have their own capabilities. The
government has better mobility and, as discussed earlier, better combat capabilities.
The FARC can do a lot of nasty things and usually has an easier tactical time
in upsetting other people, but it is not so effective in fighting in the open. The Cartel needs to literally cultivate its
riches and ship them overseas to generate cash. The AUC is an interesting bag
with limited combat capability and money, but thriving where troubles are. These capabilities are represented as specific
special activities unique to the faction.
Certainly the game spends a great effort in trying to differentiate the
players.
Finally
in a world where finding other players seems to be difficult (especially if you
live in a village in an uncivilized country and your friends are to be found in
other countries…) the game included a full solo system. It can be used to
replace missing players or, to run FARC, Cartels, and AUC while you play the
poor guys in the government. The solitaire system is not a push over. It is
logical and follows a reasonable approach to building what I will term ‘non
governance’ (collapsing the presence of the current government ot the point it
is not exerting any legitimacy). In my first solo plays I got soundly trashed
by the system, mainly because it is tailored to build support for the insurgency
and I got into panic-short-term-reaction mode with lack of resources (both in
the map and in the card pile, a lot of important government capabilities had
been removed in the initial random card selection). One thing I appreciate is
that I did reasonable things, but still even if I was getting some progress
here, I was more or less leaving the FARC rampaging unchecked too much. The oil
spots strategy works only if you have resources to put into it. Focusing in
clearing few areas at time is important, but you cannot simply forget the rest
of your country.
In
summary I cannot say I do not like Andean Abyss, as a game. I like the chaotic
and depressing feel it has and the fact that even solo it gives you a big headache.
The game is challenging but well
designed. But that is just half of the deal, and we will move forward shortly in Part 2...
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