The British Way: Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire

[W]e had if I can use a cant phrase to “win the hearts and minds of the people.” But how could we as strangers win the hearts and minds of the Kikuyu in opposition to their brothers and cousins who were in the forests? It was a vain hope, all the same in the end we did wear them down and wearing down is the proper word.  – Sir Richard Turnbull, Chief Secretary in Kenya

The British Way: Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire is the first of several COIN multipacks, containing four separate games exploring a series of thematically related insurgencies. Between 1945 and 1960, the British fought four major “emergencies,” as they referred to their counterinsurgency campaigns, each trying to manage their retreat from empire. The four games in this pack focus on exploring British counterinsurgent responses to a variety of different opponents, including communist insurgents in Malaya, militant nationalists in Kenya, and smaller and more clandestine terrorist organizations in Palestine and Cyprus. The games adjust the core COIN mechanics to provide a compelling new way of handling two-player conflicts, while also streamlining several mechanics to quicken gameplay. The British Way offers an approachable introduction to the COIN series for new players, while presenting experienced players with four mechanically distinct games to explore and compare.

Highlights:

• Four full games in one box: Explore four different conflicts set during the twilight of the British Empire in the 1940s and 1950s. Each game uses a unique ruleset building on the same general mechanical structure, ensuring that they are easy to pick up while still offering a distinctive experience.
• A new adaptation of the classic COIN system: Improved two-player sequence of play and a versatile Political Will track for determining victory. 
• Unique mechanisms reflecting the British approach to each conflict: New Villages in Malaya, the ‘Pipeline’ in Kenya, Curfews in Cyprus, and Mass Detention in Palestine.
• Small board footprint with quick-but-deep gameplay: Each game plays in under 90 minutes and takes place on a single 17x22” board.
• An “End of Empire” Campaign: A campaign scenario allowing players to play the four games in a linked series with a cumulative scoring system, random ‘external’ events relating to British decolonization, and new mechanics to integrate each game into the campaign.

Game components:

• Two double-sided 17x22” mounted game boards
• 4 Game Event Decks and 1 Campaign Event Deck
• 54 Wooden Pieces
• 8 Pawns
• One full-color counter sheet
• Eleven double-sided player aids
• Two 6-sided dice
• 4 Combined Rule/Background Booklets
• 1 Combined Playbook/Campaign Guide