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Board game: Somalia Intervention

Nathangun

FGM Major General
FGM MEMBER
I've read the game rules and the concept is quite interesting.

This game simulates the recent (in 1999 when game was first published) United Nations intervention in Somalia.
Conflict takes place between the United Nations (UN) player and the Bandit player, as each side tries to achieve differing political and military objectives.
The time scale is about one month per turn (hence three per season, and twelve year) while the troops scale is also somewhat abstract (battalion to brigade size for the UN/US and gang size for the 'Bandits'.

GENERAL SEQUENCE OF PLAY
a) Random Events Phase -- The UN player rolls 2d6 and determines what Random Event occurs that turn.
b) Logistics Phase -- The UN player receives 2d6 (3d6 if US Intervention is in effect) SPs and adds them to his Off-map SP Pool.
c) Operations Phase -- Players conduct missions with their units.
d) Political Phase -- Both players examine the map and add or deduct Victory Points (VP) for various events and conditions (see Victory Table, 7.0, (see Victory Table, 7.0, 9.0).
e) Seasonal Interphase -- This is done every third turn (marked on the Record Track).
First, all Government Militia units check for desertion.
Then, all Terror markers are removed from the map and the Bandit player may conduct Terrorism anew in selected areas.
Finally, the UN player must ‘rotate’ a certain proportion of his forces and may request US intervention (8.7) while the Bandit player receives replacements (8.6) at this time too.
This concludes one turn of the game. This cycle repeats until one player resigns in frustration (historical result), all Bandit units are eliminated, or the end of game is reached (number turns the game will last depends on how well the UN player is doing).

General Overview.

Certain areas of the map are hit with famine. The UN player sends SP's (Supply Points) via a Supply Convoy to the famine area, if the convoy moves through an area under Bandit control the Bandit player may wish to ambush the convoy.
The UN player may use military units to escort Supply Convoys. If the ambush is successful, the Bandit player captures a SP point from the UN player and these can be used to buy new units or saved as VP's (Victory Points). The Bandit player scores VP's just by conducting the ambush.
Once the supply convoy reaches the famine area, it stays in place until the famine is over.
UN player may build Bases using engineers in any area of the map, these bases add extra defensive bonuses to that area.

The UN player scores VP's by eliminating Bandit units.

At the start of the Operational Phase the Bandit player decides who will be the next player (Bandit/UN) to conduct the next mission. Until all units have conducted a mission or have been declared on defensive the Operational Phase is over.

Missions.

UN
As mentioned earlier, Conoy missions. These are missions that send Humanitarian aid to areas of the country.

Flush missions, these missions are conducted by UN units to hunt down Bandit units in an area of the map.

Development missions. Only the UN player's Engineer, Military Police and civic affairs units can conduct Development Operations, these improve infrastructure within an area, if successful the UN player gains a VP.

Escort missions. As mentioned earlier, UN units are attached to Supply Convoys for their protection.

Bandit Missions.

Raids, Bandits may raid UN Bases, Convoys or military units, if the raid is successful, the Bandit player gains a SP. A bandit unit may move to an adjacent area to conduct a raid.

Ambushes, the Bandit player may declare an ambush when an UN/Militia military unit moves through/into an area the Bandit player has one or more units.

Terrorism Operations, Once every three turns the Bandit player conduct Terrorism operations in an area to extract SP's from the civilian population.

Other rules

Negotiations. The Bandit player may declare he wishes to conduct Peace Negotiations. If the UN player may refuse but will lose one VP. The bandit player my propose a peace negotiation every turn.
How this works is both sides rolls a D6, and whoever has the higher VP's in total adds a +1 to his die roll.
Whoever wins this round, moves the Negotiation tracker one square towards his side of the negotiations panel.
Left side for bandits and right side for UN, the tracker starts in the middle.
The 'score' for that round is added to the winning sides VP's.

The UN player may not conduct Flush operations during negotiations.

Either player may break off negotiations, the Bandit player does not pay a penalty for this but the UN player loses 1D6 of VP's if they wish to break off negotiations.

US intervention.
The UN player may request US support after turn six, in short this will provide the UN a boost in military units and SP', however the US intervention only lasts twelve turns.

Movement.
Any unit can move anywhere in the map at no cost. UN military units can move and conduct a missions in the same turn. Bandit units can move but may not conduct a mission in the same turn.

Helicopters
Helicopters may move and 'pick up' a friendly unit anywhere on the map and move them to another area of the map in the same turn. Bandits may 'ambush' the UN unit when it lands.

Some random events.
Depending on the result of a dice roll, some random events occur. Some these can be:
Bandits get a surplus of RPG's, banit units get a bonus attack points for the turn.
Bandits get a surplus for SAM's, no helicopter missions for the UN side for one turn.
UN Secretary General Visits: this can one of two effects.
1) he gets pelted with rocks from unhappy locals, lose 2 VP.
2) he makes a great speech, gain 2 VP.
Big Rock Concert, Bob Geldof gets the credit and the UN player gets 1 SP.
Atrocity! This can 2 effects:
1) Some bandit prisoners were shot 'trying to escape' lose 2 VP.
2) Pieces of UN soldiers found for sale in a bazaar, gain 2 VP.

Victory conditions.

Compare the total of the UN players VP's minus the total Bandit players VP's and consult the following table.

0 or less. Bungled operation Bandit Victory.
1 to 20, Band-aid solution. You'll be back and so will the 'Technicians'. Stalemate.
21+ Good job, the Four Horsemen are stayed in Somalia for the next few years. Medals all round. UN victory.

http://www.bluepantherllc.com/Schutze_Games.htm
 
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