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First Impression
From the moment you pick up the Red Dust Rebellion box you know you are looking at a quality product. The artwork on the box is gorgeous and gives a foretaste of what is inside. GMT games are renowned for the quality of their components and this game is no exception.
COIN games in general
The COIN game series is widening its scope and winning new playing audiences. COIN in the context of GMT games is short for Counter Insurgency. GMT COIN games are typically four-player although some more recent productions are for three players (e.g. ‘All Bridges Burning’) or even two (e.g. ‘The British Way). The player count is fixed but each game includes a mechanism for substituting ‘missing’ players with sophisticated ‘bots’ capable of playing to a decent standard (see ‘COIN Bots’ below).
The games are framed around the struggle between an established force, such as a government or occupying military power, underpinned by a supportive but independent faction (perhaps with a financial rather than political interest), and one or more insurgent factions seeking to undermine or remove the incumbent power and replace it.
Great efforts have been made to deliver a gaming experience which is not just a reenactment of famous battles but instead takes a much wider perspective of the historical topic. This is reinforced by event cards which illustrate political as well as military occurrences supplemented by additional background reading.
A significant feature of COIN games is that each player has their own set of winning objectives which, whilst conflicting with all other players, will necessarily require them to cooperate with some to varying degrees. This asymmetrical feature is less pronounced with the lower playercount games but is front and centre in all four player iterations of the format and Red Dust Rebellion is a perfect example.
‘Asymmetrical’ games are becoming increasingly common and popular. Similar to the earlier surge in ‘cooperative’ games, such as Pandemic by Z-Man games, asymmetric gaming is a format that is increasingly recognised as a rewarding and challenging way to enjoy strategic gaming, enabling players to achieve a very different gaming experience from each faction played within the same product. An increasing number of designers therefore are now adopting asymmetric features.
Without the cooperative element it is easy to see how players may end up playing in silos, chiselling away at their objectives whilst their opponents do the same. Instead, this brilliant element of the design creates a limited interdependency which therefore requires negotiation in order to establish trust and joint-working and a degree of intrigue as each player decides when and how to break ranks and make a dash for the finish line. Scoring is openly displayed and facilitates alliances against one faction that might be getting too far ahead until the threat is sufficiently reduced or removed.
Additionally, COIN games feature a small number of ‘review and reset rounds’ where conditions need to be met to gain resources to fund the next phase of activity. The precise timing of these is unknown but fairly predictable, requiring players to step back from trying to secure victory in order to spend a short time setting up the conditions for funding and other one-off opportunities. This adds a further aspect to the game which is broadly strategic but intensely tactical as it draws near.
Finally but, in some respects, most importantly of all, these are card-driven games. The cards influence the precise order of play and the scope of available actions in a given turn, together with a brilliant ‘Event’ function which can bring powerful one-off opportunities or capabilities.
Red Dust Rebellion
The theme of Red Dust Rebellion is a future colonisation of Mars which, with a weak government and commercial exploitation, gives rise to insurgent forces and civil rebellion. The backstory is brilliantly constructed leaving the player with no difficulty in becoming absorbed in the political wranglings and conflicts of life on Mars. Additional features (such as Dust Storms) add a uniquely ‘Martian’ element to the playing environment.
The main playing pieces are wooden and easy to identify and use. There are lots of supporting tokens which are of cardboard with a shiny finish, most of which can easily be identified and employed without much difficulty.
The board is large (22in by 35in) and requires additional player space around its perimeter. The design is high quality and, along with all other components, leaves you feeling that you have purchased the ‘deluxe’ version of the game.
The cards are of high quality with amazing artwork and are a pleasure to handle and use. The narrative on each card gives a feel that Mars is a reality with unique features and some all too familiar issues and stresses.
COIN games vary in setup time and this one takes a little longer than the average, however the set up instructions are clear so it compares favourably with heavyweight games by other publishers some of which require substantial time just to get all the pieces of cardboard in the right places. This is a long game and probably not best suited to gaming clubs where people arrive late and want to dive into something quickly, but will be well received by serious gamers who want to plan ahead for an evening of strategy and fun. Teaching it requires a good understanding of the rules and some experience of playing through the turns in order to be able to effectively communicate the essential strategies and methodologies that make the game work so brilliantly.
A particular strength of GMT games is the inclusion of a comprehensive playbook alongside the rule book and the one provided for Red Dust Rebellion is of a high standard. It provides a detailed work through of the first ‘third’ of the game from set up to the first ‘Dust Storm’. This means a new player with no experience can act out a playthrough without first having to read the rules. GMT work to the philosophy that the rule book is for reference only, to provide clarity on specific aspects of the rules rather than being the only means by which to learn the game. The example of play is an effective way of learning how the game functions and is surely far superior to having to watch play-through videos some of which run into hours.
Less well-liked features
The rule book is comprehensive and generally clear but requires an investment in time to get a working knowledge of the game and is less helpful in some places. One example is the ‘Recon’ command used by the Corporations faction which enables them to move units on the board. Only by reading an almost incidental remark in a totally different part of the rulebook does it become clear that pieces on a space called ‘Phobos’ (where units arrive from Earth) is within the scope of this command. Knowing this is pretty important and yet there is no reference to Phobos in the command description or the worked example.
Disappointingly, whilst most COIN games use markers to clearly identify which force is in control of a particular space (for some players part of their win condition), Red Dust Rebellion provides these markers but is ambivalent about their use with no specified holding box on the board to place them. No explanation is given for adopting this approach which feels like a bit of a ‘fudge’. In view of the significance of space-control it would surely be better to either provide the holding boxes or use a different method to indicate it.
Another shortcoming is that this same faction has the ability to quietly go about their work and accumulate wealth without causing too much harm to anybody else, leading to them potentially being overlooked until they have become so powerful that it is almost too late to prevent them from winning the game. These features are most likely to trip up less experienced players who have followed the GMT guidance of learning the game from the playbook. More experienced players will have probably come across these flaws.
Apart from a few annoyances like these, the rule book is of a really good standard. Time is taken to explain the context and operation of each faction’s abilities and the supporting examples are comprehensive and colourfully illustrated.
Finally there is a definite risk of ‘paralysis analysis’ in this game and those teaching others should encourage play by intuition as much as by calculation. This is because on each player's turn they are often faced with the choice of either executing an event or carrying out an action and in some cases the action may be somewhat limited in effect, furthermore they will have the option to pass and employ the upcoming card which is visible to all players. In some cases the events are so powerful or the move ability so strong that there is not really a decision to make but, more often the choice is less clear and ‘analysis paralysis’ can come into play. This is particularly true of new players who have not yet seen how a game plays out over time, and so have some difficulty in assessing the best choice. Such players need to be allowed sufficient time to consider their options, and this can be frustrating for some.
COIN Bots
The game is designed for four players and that will undoubtedly produce the best gaming experience, however GMT have gone to great lengths to design substitute ‘Bots’that make a genuine endeavour to win without resorting to playing to a completely different set of rules (commonly seen in other games). In early games these Bots consisted of flow charts and spreadsheets and could become somewhat tedious. More recent editions use a cardbased system streamlining the implementation to avoid too much time being spent playing the ‘Bots’turn. Still, playing with three Bots in a four-player game is still pretty hard work and can leave you having forgotten what you were planning for your own turn.
Of course it is entirely possible to play for more than one side as a solo gamer but this involves compromises since it does not really allow room for secret planning. Nevertheless there are few elements that are hidden from public gaze so it is entirely feasible to adopt this approach if it makes the game more enjoyable than having too much ‘Bot work’ to do!
Summing up
If you are new to COIN games this is probably not the best place to start. In order to be able to fully grasp the intricacies of this game it is better to have a firm grounding in how COIN games generally operate. But, personally, I cannot get enough of these games and already have my eye on yet-to-be-published editions. I am generally a solo gamer because finding opponents other than online is pretty difficult where I live. If your lifestyle is such that you have limited time for gameplay or few potential opponents you can nevertheless fully enjoy the game by employing one or more Bots and then just playing the other factions yourself. Of course this may require some compromises but the physical game is of such good quality that playing online is simply no substitute for the tactile experience of setting up and using the real thing!