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Let's play Cuba Libre! - Goons vs Goons vs AI (Most of this OP shamelessly stolen from Tekopo with permission) The year is 1956, and the people of Cuba have risen in revolt! The forces of the 26th July Movement, led by the Castro brothers, strike out from the remote Sierra Mestra mountains while students under the Directorio Revolutionario begin a campaign of terror in campuses and cities across the country. Opposing them are the Government forces of military dictator Fulgencio Batista, supported by the money and casinos of the American mob Syndicate...for now. Cuba Libre! Is a boardgame in the Counterinsurgency (COIN) series, which pits multiple factions with differing abilities and victory conditions against each other. Each turn revolves around an event card with up to 2 of 4 factions able to act per card, either to use the historical event on the card or perform some kind of operation on the board. Seeded throughout the deck of cards are Propaganda cards - at a Propaganda card victory conditions are checked and the board resets in various ways, which means that winning is a question of timing, since if you get too far ahead too soon before a propaganda card another faction could knock you back! Full rules are here for anyone who wants to have a peek, they are pretty dry if you are not used to this type of game though so be warned. The objective is twofold: 1. Survive until the end of the game (4 Propaganda cards) without either of the AI factions winning 2. If the players survive, have a higher margin of victory than the other goon team. The first decision will be to decide which pair of factions people want to play. And, so time for some proper introductions: The Goon hivemind thirsts for the blood of its fellows, not the blood of robots! This game will be a traditional all on all team game. Factions  The government represents both Batista as well as the army and police force. The aim of the government is to keep control of the three main cities in Cuba as well as improve popular support within the cities and countryside. This, however, is not easy as the Government has to deal with a deteriorating alliance with the US: if they show that they aren't doing well enough to keep the people happy, it is likely the US will cut both aid as well as training of the government COIN troops (by making their operations cost from 2 to 4 depending on the state of the alliance). The main weapons of the government are the Training of new troops, the Garrisoning of troops in cities and economic centers, the use of Sweeps to send troops to find insurgents and the Assault of insurgents found in the aforementioned sweeps. The government can also make use of Transport aircraft to amass troops quickly, or Air-strikes to remove troublesome insurgents, or even perform Reprisals against anyone which has decided to side with Castro.  The 26JUL faction are marxist/left-wing insurgents under the leadership of Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. Their aim is to create bases of operations and create popular opposition to the government. Although low on resources, 26JUL can quickly Rally guerrillas to their cause due to the popularity of the movement, guerrillas which can then be Marched to other areas to spread the revolutionary spirit. The 26JUL can then Attack either the government or other insurgents or create Terror in order to lower support for the government. This faction can also Infiltrate government forces and turn them to their side, Ambush any unwary enemies or Kidnap government officials or syndicate bosses as an unreliable way to generate extra resources.  The DR are an alternative revolutionary insurgent which aims to make sure that they control the revolution rather than Castro and thus create a liberal democracy rather than communist state within Cuba: to do this, their aim is to control Cuba (they don't care about support or opposition) as well as setup their own bases. They have similar method to the 26JUL, with Rally, March, Attack and Terror all part of their arsenal. However, their special actions include Subverting the population to remove support/opposition and also gain funds, Ambushing their enemies or even performing powerful Assassinations which allow them to destroy bases or close casinos directly.  The Syndicate represents mob and mafia influence within the country, an influence which many times worked hand in hand with the government. The Syndicate cares little about the insurgency itself: all they care about is to keep as many casinos as open as possible as well as make as much money from Cuba as humanly possible. They can expand their Casino empire by Rallying and Marching, as well as Constructing, which allows them to build new casinos or open previously closed ones. They can also perform Terror but they cannot attack other factions directly since their mobs don't have the firepower to take on either government troops or insurgent guerrillas. They can, however, Profit in order to get extra stacks of cash, they can use Police Muscle in order to protect their own casinos or even Bribe enemy guerrillas, troops, police or bases. How Does This Game Work? Board  The board is divided into different regions in which the pieces are placed. Each area can either be a province or a city (with cities represented as the three circles of Havana, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba). Each region has a number which shows the approximate population of the city/province in millions, a space to mark who controls the region and if the population is in support/opposition to the government. Control of a region is gained by having more pieces than all other factions within a space and is important when determining what you can do to affect the area. Support/Opposition are part of the victory conditions for the government/26 July Movement factions. Provinces can either be plains (no special effect), mountains (more difficult for the government to remove pieces during an assault) or jungles (more difficult for the government to activate units during a sweep). There are three other spaces into which pieces can move to which are the three circles showing a type of industry: these are known as economic centers and they provide much needed resources to the government player: it is, however, possible to sabotage them and thus wage economic war on the government. There's no stacking limit for any of the spaces except for bases, with no more than two bases from whichever faction allowed on a single space (the only exception to this is casinos, more on this later). Adjacency rules are present for all spaces, including ECs and Cities. Pieces  The game uses different shaped pieces in order to represent insurgents and conventional troops. The three insurgent factions have hexagon-shaped cylinders which represent guerrilla cells/groups/mobs. Guerrillas can either be active (with their symbol face up) or underground (with their symbol facing down). When guerrillas are active, they tend to be more vulnerable to being attacked by the government since they have either advertised their position or have been previously found by government forces. This can happen either because the guerrilla has performed a certain action, or because the piece has moved under certain conditions, or because the guerrilla has been found following a sweep by the government. The conventional forces of the government are either dark blue cubes (troops) or light blue (police). Troops have higher mobility, can move on sweeps, can be transported and help in assaults. Police can only help in sweeps if they are already present, are harder to move to the provinces but allow the government to develop a more permanent presence in a region along with allowing the government to perform civic actions (along with the help of the troops) which help to create popular support.  Bases make it easier to recruit forces in provinces/cities as well as act as a victory condition for many of the factions. They are usually created by replacing a number of pieces/guerrillas during a rally action. Cities have a de-facto government base that cannot be destroyed. The syndicate (the green faction) does not have bases but has casinos, which can either be open (symbol face up) or closed (symbol face down). Casinos are an important part of the Syndicate winning condition. Bases are usually immune from being targeted unless specifically noted in card or when all the insurgents/cubes of a certain faction have been removed from an area. Cards  Rather than each player having their own hand like in Twilight Struggle, cards in Cuba Libre are played one by one from the deck! Players will be able to see the currently active card and the next card. Each card has an event, many of which are twin-events and thus can be played either for one event or the other. The other important part of information on a card is the initiative track, which shows which factions get to play first on the card and in which order. Some events are considered 'Capabilities', powerful special rules which last until the end of the game. Others are termed 'Momentum' and only last until the next propaganda card. Propaganda cards are some of the most important in the game: victory conditions are only checked when a propaganda card is played. Propaganda cards also allow factions to gain resources, perform civic actions/agitation and force the government to redeploy their troops to either cities or spaces which contain government bases, as well as move police between spaces in which they have control. Once the fourth (and last) propaganda card is played, the game ends and the winner (if there wasn't one already) is determined by the closest margin to victory. Playing Cards When a faction has initiative and is the first to play on a particular card, they have a number of choices: - Do operations in as many areas as they want and perform a special action. - Do operations in as many areas as they want but without a special action. - Run the event. - Pass Operations cost resources equal to the number of areas selected (or 2-4 per area for the government). Special actions are restricted by the type of operation chosen. If the faction passes they instead get 1 resource (or 3 for the government) and make the next faction become the first eligible. If a faction played on a card, the 2nd eligible faction has the following choices: - If the first eligible played operations + special action, they can perform an operation OR play the card for an event. - If the first eligible played operation without special action, they can perform an operation in a single area with no special action. - If the first eligible played the card for the event, they can perform operations in as many areas as they want AND perform special actions. Once a faction has played on a card. they become ineligible to play on the next card. This is why it is always important to note what card is next in line. The type of operations available to each faction will be annotated in the next post below. Important: Whenever a non-player take the option of a LimOp as their turn, they instead get a full Operation & Special Action! This is to balance the fact that they usually cannot make as good decisions as a human player. Player Factions: When one of the 2 player factions are eligible to take an action (either they are eligible to act on a card or have been given options as part of a card) the players on that team will need to vote on the course of action they want to take. Votes should say the exact moves you want to do like so: ##Sweep Camaguey, move in 2 troops from Las Villas, Sweep Havana. Air Strike M26 in Camaguey. The option with the most votes will get carried out. I will not set a strict time limit at first, but we’ll see how long it takes for decisions to get made and I might impose some later if needed to get the game moving. The COIN series of games share a system of AI opponents, since GMT know you are a lonely goon and will be completely incapable of finding another human to play this game with you. The AI come in form of flowcharts which instruct the AI factions to make certain moves depending on the conditions on the board. In addition the AI may or may not take events I’m not going to post the AI flowcharts here, but if you want to try and track them down to anticipate the AI’s move I won’t stop you. However I will be adding some random chance into the AI’s moves to add a little bit of spice to proceedings and make things unpredictable. And anyway, the ultimate enemy are goons on the other team, after all. MikeCrotch fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Nov 28, 2016 |
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Nov 26, 2016 14:56
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Faction Information: Government: Victory Condition: More than 18 Support and all Cities at Active Support Resources: Non-sabotaged ECs + Aid Link to Government Operations Summary Sheet ERRATA: Sweep operations cost 2/3/4 PER SPACE not total! 26th of July Movement: Victory Condition: Opposition + Number of Bases is higher than 15 Resources: Number of Bases Link to 26th of July Movement Operations Summary Sheet Directorio Revolucionario: Victory Condition: DR controlled population + Number of Bases is higher than 9 Resources: Number of spaces where it has pieces. Link to Directorio Revolucionario Operations Summary Sheet Syndicate: Victory Condition: More than 7 Casinos open AND more than 30 Resources Resources: Population of each City and EC where the Syndicate Guerrillas outnumber police + twice the number of Open Casinos. Link to Syndicate Operations Summary Sheet Propaganda Phase: Victory?: Check if any faction has met their victory condition as above. Resources: Automatically Sabotage each EC where 26 July Guerrillas plus DR Guerrillas exceeds number of Govt Cubes. Then give resources as above. Skim: For each space with open Casinos, the Syndicate transfers 2 resources to faction that controls space. Cash: Any cash left on the board is cashed in for 6 resources OR used to open a base (or open a new casino/open a closed casino for syndicate). Support: If total support less or equal to 18, degrade US Alliance down one box. Civic Actions: Spaces with Govt Control, Troops and Police can spend 4 resources per step to increase support (remove terror markers for a cost first). Agitation: Spaces with 26 July Control can spend 1 resource per step to increase opposition (remove terror markers for a cost first). Expat Backing: DR free Rallies in a space with neither Active Support/Opposition and that no one apart from DR controls. Redeploy: Troops in ECs or bases must move to a Govt controlled province with base or cities. May then move any other Troops to spaces outlined above or Police to any space/EC with Govt Control. Readjust Control. Reset: Discard Momentum Card, get rid of any terror/sabotage left on the board, all Guerrillas go underground and all Casinos Open. Player Information: Factions will be governed by committees of players, all of whom have a vote on what action that faction will take when their turn comes around. Signups will still be accepted once the game is underway as new revolutionaries join the fold or are driven into the arms of the government and mob by insurgent terror tactics!  Government : Tekopo, Vivian Darkbloom, Ropes4u, sniper4625 Syndicate : TheMcD, frankenfreak, Kavak 26th July Movement : CaptainRightful, Lord Frisk, WhiskeyWhiskers Directorio Revolutionario : HannibalBarca, TheOneAndOnlyT, Gutter Owl, CrazycryodudeMikeCrotch fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Dec 22, 2016 |
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Nov 26, 2016 14:57
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Time for the first decision - which pair of factions should be the goon-led factions? The US-backed Government and the Mafia Syndicate?OR The student Directorio Revolutionario and Che, Raul and Fidel’s 26th July Movement? Vote now! You can also put your team preference out of the two possible options as well to speed things up for later.
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Nov 26, 2016 15:00
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Oh man, I remember this. Good times were had in Tekopo's LP of this. Voting for the Syndicate (and the Government too, I guess), for no particular reason at all.
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Nov 26, 2016 15:37
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US-backed Government and the Mafia Syndicate, cause reasons.
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Nov 26, 2016 15:51
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Managed to play this recently. Solid game. Also voting: MikeCrotch posted:The student
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Nov 26, 2016 15:52
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Gonna vote for government/syndicate on this one.
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Nov 26, 2016 15:55
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Oooh, I love board game LP's. Voting Government / Syndicate because duh. Quick rules question: quote:Control of a region is gained by having more pieces than all other factions within a space and is important when determining what you can do to affect the area.
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Nov 26, 2016 16:21
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MagusofStars posted:Oooh, I love board game LP's. Voting Government / Syndicate because duh. You need to have more than everyone else put together. So if there are 2 Syndicate pieces, 2 DR pieces and 2 M26 pieces in a region, the government would need 7 pieces or more to have control. If any one faction does not have control, the space is uncontrolled. Note that bases and open casinos also count as pieces for the purposes of control. Guerillas count whether they are hidden or underground. MikeCrotch fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Nov 26, 2016 |
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Nov 26, 2016 16:26
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Wow. Nice timing on dropping this.
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Nov 26, 2016 16:43
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bunnyofdoom posted:Wow. Nice timing on dropping this. I actually had everything to go last night before I posted this today, would you believe. Looks like so far more people want to take the opportunity to try and poo poo on Fidel than emulate him, though.
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Nov 26, 2016 16:46
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I'll cast the dissenting vote and say we should play Directorio/M26 gently caress playing the hard game. let's gently caress up this island and start putting sugar in our butts.
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Nov 26, 2016 16:57
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MikeCrotch posted:You need to have more than everyone else put together. So if there are 2 Syndicate pieces, 2 DR pieces and 2 M26 pieces in a region, the government would need 7 pieces or more to have control. If any one faction does not have control, the space is uncontrolled. OPEN casinos count toward the piece count, therefore toward control. closed casinos are just empty buildings full of unflushed poo poo.
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Nov 26, 2016 16:59
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MikeCrotch posted:The student Power to the people!
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Nov 26, 2016 17:01
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MikeCrotch posted:The student
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Nov 26, 2016 18:11
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We currently even at 4 votes each for Government/Syndicate and DR/M26! I will leave voting open until tomorrow morning GMT to give people a chance, then we can get going.
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Nov 26, 2016 18:50
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MikeCrotch posted:The student Never heard of this game before, looks good.
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Nov 26, 2016 19:06
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Another vote forMikeCrotch posted:The student Also: I've never heard of this but I'm a huge Twilight Struggle fan. Looking forward to it!
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Nov 26, 2016 19:26
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I cast my vote for the insurgent factions! With this much interest, why not ditch the AI and let goons play against each other?
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Nov 26, 2016 21:39
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CaptainRightful posted:I cast my vote for the insurgent factions! With this much interest, why not ditch the AI and let goons play against each other? We've already had a 4-way goon LP before, so I wanted to do something a bit different. Plus I wanted to see if goons are physically capable of cooperating for long enough to not get beaten by the AI before backstabbing each other.
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Nov 26, 2016 21:52
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MikeCrotch posted:We've already had a 4-way goon LP before, so I wanted to do something a bit different. Plus I wanted to see if goons are physically capable of cooperating for long enough to not get beaten by the AI before backstabbing each other. Speaking of that 4-way LP, does somebody still have a link to that? I wanted to read it for a refresher, but that must have been before I started using bookmarks.
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Nov 26, 2016 21:53
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TheMcD posted:Speaking of that 4-way LP, does somebody still have a link to that? I wanted to read it for a refresher, but that must have been before I started using bookmarks. Here (requires archives)
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Nov 26, 2016 22:03
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MikeCrotch posted:Here (requires archives) Huh, here I was thinking that that LP had a proper ending, but it basically just petered out with the Syndicate having essentially won.
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Nov 26, 2016 22:29
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TheMcD posted:Huh, here I was thinking that that LP had a proper ending, but it basically just petered out with the Syndicate having essentially won. 
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Nov 26, 2016 22:31
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Tekopo posted:It did have a proper ending. Syndicate won. I remember writing the post. Radium stole my posts Good, then my memory isn't as shot as it seems at times.
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Nov 26, 2016 22:39
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I vote for the ALL FOUR FACTIONS. But failing that, government/syndicate. Let's see if goons can make even Batista look competent by comparison.
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Nov 27, 2016 00:10
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Gutter Owl posted:I vote for the ALL FOUR FACTIONS. 
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Nov 27, 2016 00:42
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MikeCrotch posted:The student Let's do this!
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Nov 27, 2016 02:29
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I'm also down for all four factions, but if not that then I vote Government/Syndicate. I missed out on the last LP so I'm definitely going to join this one.
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Nov 27, 2016 04:36
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MikeCrotch posted:The student viva la revolución comrades
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Nov 27, 2016 07:12
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Directorio / M26 . I think seeing a weird pairing like M26 / Syndicate would be good too, or do the bots not support that? Haven't played with them yet.
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Nov 27, 2016 08:55
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Gutter Owl posted:I vote for the ALL FOUR FACTIONS. I also vote for this.
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Nov 27, 2016 10:13
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I think its clear that people want to let chaos reign and go for all four factions here - I'll start taking sign ups for specific factions now, but if anyone wants to vote for playing vs the ai pipe up and we'll see which has more support.
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Nov 27, 2016 10:56
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AI please! It's nice to see them in action, and it will make the game much easier to follow and I think more likely to reach its conclusion.
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Nov 27, 2016 11:04
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While waiting for signups here is the map at the start of the game for those who haven't seen it before: The state of the four factions is as follows: Government: Start with 15 resources. Have 16 out of 19 Support required to win, Camaguey city and Santiago de Cuba are not at Active Support. There are insurgents in both Havana and SdC. The troops in Las Villas will have to return to a base or city if they are still in Las Villas by the next Propaganda and a base has not been built there. Aid is also currently at 15, which is part of the Government's funding each Propaganda phase (the other part being at most 8 from the ECs, as long as the DR/M26 don't control or sabotage any of them).The US are currently firm allies of the Batista regime, meaning all activities cost 2 resources per space and air strikes are allowed. 26th July: Start with 10 resources and a base in Sierra Maestra. Have 7 out of a required 16 for Total Opposition and Bases, so they have quite a way to go to get to victory. In addition to the base in Sierra Maestra they have lone underground guerillas in La Habana and Santiago de Cuba, which are likely to be priorities for the government to remove due to the trouble they can cause if left unmolested. Directorio Revolutionario: Start with 5 resources and 3 guerillas on the map a.k.a not very much. No bases either, and only 1(!) out of a required 10 of Total Control and Bases, thanks to the lone guerilla controlling Camaguey province. The DR will probably be doing a lot of early rallying to get pieces onto the board before they can start really causing trouble. Syndicate: The mob starts the game with three open casinos in Pinar Del Rio, La Habana and Havana, and 15 resources. That's it. They need to get that number of open casinos to 8 to win, and then have at least 30 resources on top of that. The Syndicate will likely want to get some guerillas on the board, in order to prevent their opponents from taking control of spaces with their casinos and skimming away that sweet, sweet cash.
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Nov 27, 2016 14:37
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MikeCrotch posted:I think its clear that people want to let chaos reign and go for all four factions here - I'll start taking sign ups for specific factions now, but if anyone wants to vote for playing vs the ai pipe up and we'll see which has more support. History will absolve me! Sign me up for M26, whether against people or AI.
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Nov 27, 2016 18:33
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Are we doing one-person-per-faction, like Tek's Cuba Libre/Falling Sky LPs? Or are we doing multiple-people-per-faction, like Athaboros's Liberty or Death game, or TheOneAndOnlyT's Twilight Struggle LP? Either way, give me whatever faction is left over/needs players the most.
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Nov 27, 2016 20:22
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Let's make us some money. Hope you don't have a problem with that. 
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Nov 27, 2016 20:45
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Gutter Owl posted:Are we doing one-person-per-faction, like Tek's Cuba Libre/Falling Sky LPs? Or are we doing multiple-people-per-faction, like Athaboros's Liberty or Death game, or TheOneAndOnlyT's Twilight Struggle LP? Multiple people per faction like that LoD game. I will put you down for Government or DR as soon as another player chooses one or the other of those, then I will get the ball rolling on this thing.
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Nov 27, 2016 20:50
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M26 for me, my good chap.
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Nov 27, 2016 22:39
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