Colonial Twilight: VASSAL module now available!

image: Rodger MacGowan

Joel Toppen has finished his VASSAL module for Colonial Twilight!

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Colonial_Twilight:_The_French-Algerian_War,_1954-62

Be sure to read the brief instructions at the page on how to do non-obvious but necessary things.

Thanks so much for your work Joel!

Colonial Twilight: corrected tutorial

As must inevitably happen, several errors crept into the Tutorial section of the playbook. Version-control slipups that break the continuity of the narrative of the campaign.

Here is a corrected file (with corrected illustrations as well).

COLONIAL TWILIGHT Tutorial 050817

Update on Colonial Twilight card printing error

GMT has just posted the July 19 update:

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/GMT-Update–July-19–2017–Fixing-a-Problem–Production-Update–General-News.html?soid=1103480314715&aid=xMZDbdK_Hus

Here is the relevant section from the update:

Colonial Twilight Card Issue

The good news about Colonial Twilight is that we’re getting a ton of feedback on social media and BGG about how much fun you guys are having playing this newest COIN series game. That’s gratifying, and speaks to the skill and care with which designer Brian Train and developer Jordan Kehrer crafter this game. We hope this first 2-player COIN game will give rise to many other such designs.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that there was a card error at the printer on the Colonial Twilight Project that we didn’t catch before we were sending out the P500 orders. The specific problem affects cards # 52-55. What happened is that Card #52 (Cabinet Shuffle) was not printed at all, and card #56 (Hardened Attitudes) was printed twice. So we’re missing card #52, and current card #s 52-55 are “off” by one number. Thankfully, this issue doesn’t keep you from playing and enjoying the game, but it’s something that we are fixing right away.

What we’re doing to address the issue: 

First off, we have not shipped any distributor copies of the game (only P500s) and won’t ship any until we have the corrected cards and can update the copies of the game we have in our warehouse.
We are reprinting cards #52-55 and will ship them at no cost to all who ordered the game using the P500 program. We don’t have an exact timeline yet, but have ordered both expedited service at the printer and expedited shipping, so we think we should have them ready to ship out by mid-August.

In the meantime, so that you’ll have the correct information to play with, we’ve added a pdf of all corrected and renumbered cards #52-55 to the Colonial Twilight page on our website.

For quick fixes, either:
If you sleeve your cards, just print out the new versions from the pdf and put them in sleeves until the replacement cards arrive.
If you don’t sleeve your cards, take the redundant #55 “Hardened Attitudes” and write “#52 Cabinet Shuffle” on it, and when it comes up in play read the text out of the Playbook or from the pdf version of the card.
We’re very sorry for any inconvenience this error has caused. We’ll have your updated cards to you as quickly as possible.

So, perhaps mid-August.
Thank you for your patience, everyone.

Here is the URL for the corrected cards:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/gmtwebsiteassets/colonialtwilight/CT_corrected_cards-1.pdf

Interview on Travis Hill’s Low Player Count podcast

Travis Hill interviewed me recently for his podcast “Low Player Count”: we talked mostly about Colonial Twilight, but a number of other semi-rants crept in there too….

http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/d/6/6/d66213cf0db9b71d/Travis_Gets_Heavy_-_Brian_Train_Interview.mp3?c_id=15861033&expiration=1500241198&hwt=518aafe9e446255dff4f17cfa120b629

 

“Breaking the fourth wall”

Jeremy Antley, a very clever man (see his blog Peasant Muse, he also writes for Play the Past) recently Tweeted (if that’s the word I want) his reaction to receiving his copy of Colonial Twilight. I hope the text is readable. The “Sartre” card text reads:

15

Jean-Paul Sartre

Writes a play, donates royalties: +2 FLN Resources.

Signs manifesto: -1 Commitment.

Either way, he and Albert Camus are not friends anymore.

The card is on the surface “another of Brian’s little jokes”, and on the surface perhaps it is. The historical context is duly supplied in the Playbook:

This card reflects the actions of French intellectuals and cultural figures in opposing the war, particularly the use of torture by French forces. The “Manifesto of the 121”, a declaration published in September 1960 is an example of this and helped to mobilize public opinion and action against the war. Sartre was very vocal in support of the FLN and was the target of at least one assassination attempt by the OAS. Meanwhile, the writer Albert Camus, born in Algeria, defended the French government’s actions and supported the idea of co-existence and peaceful negotiation. He was ostracised by left-wing intellectuals for this.

But Jeremy does make a point about games and their self-absorbed nature as they try to recreate history through mechanical means. Designers occasionally break this “fourth wall” through humourous asides in the rules or their notes, but it is not often done.

If I knew more about what I was doing I could probably talk more coherently about this, but I’ll leave it here as an example of a time where a player tickled me back. Enjoy the game Jeremy!

 

Colonial Twilight – Event Deck printing error

I’ve been very busy lately so haven’t been posting. I’m sure many Constant Readers already know some of the reasons why, but I still have to announce –

It appears there has been a printing error in the Event Deck, that occurred at the factory.

Card #52 should be “Cabinet Shuffle” but it is “Population Control”.
Card #53 should be “Population Control” but is “Operation 744”.
Card #54 should be “Operation 744” but it is “Development”.
Card #55 should be “Development” but it is “Hardened Attitudes”.
Card #56 should be “Hardened Attitudes” and so it is.

So it appears #52, “Cabinet Shuffle” was not printed at all, and there are two copies of “Hardened Attitudes”, and in between the numbers have slipped by one.

I have heard from GMT and they will put up a PDF of the missing card #52, “Cabinet Shuffle” up on the website ASAP. Here’s a JPEG version for you, meanwhile. The factory will print cards 52 to 55 again, and expedite the new cards to GMT for addition to the non-P500 boxes.

They are halfway through shipping out the 1,500 or so P500 orders, they need to finish that and as soon as the new cards come in, they’ll have a special mailing of the corrected cards to the P500 customers. The copies for distributors or other individuals will wait until they get the replacement cards, and they will fix it at the warehouse.

Meanwhile, before the PDF of Cabinet Shuffle is posted to the website (or if you don’t sleeve your cards), here’s a simple fix:

Take the redundant #55 “Hardened Attitudes” and write “#52 Cabinet Shuffle” on it, and when it comes up in play read the text out of the Playbook. Or put a sticker on the card and write the following text on it (it’s a simple, low-power card, with only one text box):

#52

Cabinet Shuffle

Ministers change chairs:

Executor of Event shifts France Track marker 1 box left or right.

Sorry guys, but these things happen.

Colonial Twilight playbook, final version.

 

Okay, about the last, last thing to do for Colonial Twilight, is to post the Playbook for the design.

24 pages of tutorial, mucho documentation and examples on the ‘bot, Designer’s Notes galore, text and background for every Event Card, selected bibliography (including a list of fiction and films you might like for atmosphere), and a pronunciation guide for place names (thanks to big guy and polymath Barry Setser for that!).

Okay. That’s really about all there is. I think I have now written more words about the game, than there are in the game. Every major component has been revealed, or described in great detail.

It remains now only for you to get your copy, and play it. Enjoy.

ColTwi-PLAYBOOK-2