People Power: Insurgency in the Philippines, 1981-1986

A couple of years ago, I didn’t have much idea of what a COIN game was. Indeed, had the phrase been mentioned to me, my thoughts would have turned towards Ben Shephard and ‘Tipping Point’… Fortunately, I am more well informed these days and am aware of GMT’s extensive Counter Insurgency games catalogue, of which People Power: Insurgency in the Philippines, 1981-1986 is volume XI. A little research revealed that it is meant to be a good starting point for players new to the COIN system. Well, that player is me, so let’s see what a game about insurgency and revolution in the early 1980s Philippines is like.

I’ve Got The Power

People Power sees the 3 players taking on the roles of the 3 main political factions of the time: The Marcos-led government, the reformist opposition and the Communist New People’s Army (NPA). Each faction has their own goals and victory conditions and all have the ability to promote their cause and thwart the opposition.

Each round an event card is drawn that dictates the turn order. Factions performing operations in multiple regions, or enacting the powerful event cards, will find themselves ineligible for the following round. Timing is crucial – playing first is a big advantage and being ineligible at a time when an important event comes out can set you back.

This continues until the election events come out, triggering a check to see if any player has met their victory conditions. If they have, or are the closest to it when the 1986 election hits, they are the winner.

Power To The People

This is meant to be a good entry point in the series for players new to COIN and I agree with this. I’ve no reference to how it compares with other volumes in the series, but I felt GMT did an excellent job with getting me learning and playing the game quickly and smoothly.

For starters, the game directs you away from the rulebook and to the playbook instead, to help you get started. It includes a full tutorial game, taking you through what to do with each faction step by step.

The large, clear player aids detail the actions available to each faction and there are enough so all players get their own aid with the details for all 3 factions. After going through the playbook, I found this player aid was enough that I could play the game comfortably, without having to reference the main rulebook regularly.

People power even goes so far as to detail for each action why you should do it and which other faction it is likely to hurt. The Government looking too strong? Here are the actions to peg them back. NPA approaching their win condition? Here’s how to stop those militants in their tracks. I’m so impressed with how much thought has gone into the rules and aids and they absolutely helped me, a complete COIN newbie, get up to speed.

The Balance Of Power

All this wouldn’t matter a jot, if People Power wasn’t actually fun. Fortunately, it is.

The differing actions available to each faction feed into the theme of the game wonderfully. The government player begins in a powerful position and seeks to consolidate that by rounding up protestors and exposing the NPA guerrillas. The NPA seek to sow terror, or spark strike action amongst the workforces. The reformers seek to protest against the government and gather support for the opposition.

Because the government begins in a strong position, it is in the interest of the reformer and NPA players to harm the government, rather than working against one another in the early game. This is something players need to be aware of, else the government could potentially run away with it, given their strong starting position. People Power shines when players at the table have an understanding of the threats posed by each faction and this creates an enthralling 3-way struggle for power.

The event cards may be a sticking point for some players. They are randomly selected each game, so the situation could arise where more events are in the deck that favour one faction above the others. I also understand that in some other games in the COIN range, players can see two visible event cards; the current event and the one for the next round. This is not the case here, as only one card is visible at any time and thus you can’t plan for the next turn’s event when making choices for your current turn.

This is not a concern for me, as it is only part of what to consider on your turn. Often, the events are ignored altogether if they don’t appear at a time that is situationally advantageous to the faction that has the option to enact one.

The Power Of 3

People Power does play at less than 3 players, but the non-player factions are included and run by a card-and-chart bot instead. In a 2 player game, there will be one bot, in a solo game, there will be 2.

I think the game being designed around 3 factions, rather than 4, helps players who are looking to play this solo. Research tells me that other COIN games, which have 4 factions, require the solo player to run the other 3 as bots. Personally, I don’t fancy that prospect and running 2 bot factions in People Power feels like my limit.

The automated player factions are very well designed and provide a good challenge. They do take effort to run and there are flow charts to support the decision making in terms of which spaces on the map to target. It’s taken me a few games to get used to operating them, but the payoff is a solo experience comparable to the multiplayer game. What you do is identical to playing against 2 human players and you can use any of the 3 factions in the solo mode. A nice touch, as I dislike it when a solo mode restricts your choices in comparison with the multiplayer version of the game.

People Power is probably weakest at 2 players. I’m not a fan of player counts that need a combination of real and ai players. I prefer playing solo vs ai or just playing against others. That said, it works and I would play it at 2, but I wouldn’t purchase it, if that was going to be the primary player count.

A Powerful Impression

I believe I’m very much the audience for People Power. I’ve started to develop an interest in trying more historically themed games and I’ve never played a COIN game until now. I also enjoy solo games too, so I’m getting a lot of enjoyable plays out of People Power.

There will be people who are not interested in the theme at all. I’m surprised if any of them clicked on this review and have got this far, but still; this game will not be for some people, no matter what.

That said, if you are remotely interested in trying a COIN game, you won’t go wrong with starting with this one. I recommend this very highly… with one small, but significant caveat.

At 3 players, People Power flows nicely and is accessible to people with experience in the board gaming hobby, but who may not be experienced in this genre.

The solo mode however, whilst excellent, does take some perseverance to get used to. I play a lot of games solo and this was one of the more challenging to operate, due to the number of charts that need checking. It works, is incredibly well designed and the rules are clear, but it takes a bit of time and patience to get the bot’s turns right. If you are considering People Power as a mostly solo game, you need to be prepared for this and I would not recommend it for anyone’s first foray into the world of solo gaming.

People Power is a tremendously interactive game that throws up events and situations that reflect the period it represents. As well as being a fabulous game to play, it has certainly increased my understanding of events in the Philippines at this time, something I knew nothing about prior to purchasing this game. The historical details in the manual helped with this and thus playing People Power carries a sense of historical occasion that transcends the limitations imposed by the mechanisms of the game. This is a fantastic achievement and something any historically themed board game should be lauded for.