Civil Power: interview with The Players Aid
September 28, 2020 5 Comments
Yes!
Over at The Players Aid, an interview about the provenance and mechanics of Civil Power.
In this interview I was glad to have the chance to point out some of the obvious bits:
- that while the technology might change, riots are still much like ancient/medieval battles;
- even though it is a battle, it is still a confrontation with citizens in a relatively civilized overall situation and you cannot shoot your way to victory (except in the 1944 Warsaw scenario of course); and
- using the idea of an Engagement Level to acknowledge that there are two mobs at every riot: the civilian and the non-civilian, and that while they have different structures they feed off each other’s energy.
We’re getting into the final stretch of Getting It Ready For You, laying out rules and player aids.
Fight the Power!
(or be the Power, or both… there’s no solitaire AI or anything like that)
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dear Brian, great super interview, i yet saved in my signbooks, i will surely buy also this new your creature; the asymmetric conflict is a issue that (as hobby) study and write about for an italian defense+security issues magazine, from 3 yrs i read and analyze the fenomeno de las Pandillas MS-13 and BARRIO-18 in El Salvador.
best regards, stay safe
ciao,
Marco Leofrigio
btw Catania/Roma
Thanks Marco!
I thought of putting in an “Anno di Piombo” era scenario but couldn’t find information on a likely candidate.
Maybe a FIAT-worker-led street fight in Torino, 1969?
At some point I have to stop adding scenarios, the game is meant for people to invent their own!
Having been hit square in the face with a half brick in a riot back in the day, (thankfully with a face shield down!) and also beaten and chased rioters , I can really appreciate the game Brian …
I would also suggest noise is a main factor, you can’t hear anything as the leader , voice comms and orders are crap, and the speed at which crowds, especially ‘well trained ones’, can congregate and disperse means that trying to do anything clever is actually pretty tough for the riot control force.
Add to that, probably, some hidden snipers trying to get a shot in while you are dodging stuff and this is a tough operation for real
Thanks DR! I think you might enjoy the video link at the end of the interview where some police demonstrate riot tactics against children on an open day.
Good point about noise and command control… this was always meant to be a simple game so I did not put in command rules; similarly, suppressed units always recover instead of rolling and rolling and rolling.
Small mercies.
Police units are allowed to combine fire combat strengths only if they are stacked with or adjacent to each other: map squares are 20 m and I thought you could get a fire command heard over that distance at least.
Perhaps a simple optional rule that Police units that enter an area to conduct shock combat must have started the Phase stacked with or adjacent to each other?
This will not always be an issue, not in narrow streets 1 space wide, but there are wider plaza-like areas that would be more of a challenge to coordinate a charge.
Yes, there are hidden snipers (hidden until they fire).
Oh noise: there is an optional rule about units doing Morale Checks under a hovering helicopter get a disadvantage!
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