Chance Cards

Adding Friction

So where to begin?  There is a sample scenario in the back of A World Aflame for the Battle of Jarama, February 1937.

Jarama, February 1937:  The forces of General Franco had been unsuccessfully trying to storm the city of Madrid during November of 1936.  As a change of tactic he sought to launch attacks on several fronts to surround the city and seek to cut communication to the Republican base at Valencia.  In order to do so it was necessary to attack across the Jarama river to the South East.  The Spanish Foreign Legion and Moroccan Regulars were to dislodge the defenders of The Republican Army of the Centre which included units of the British Battalion.

A World Aflame is a game of friction and rightly so.   Reports of the war are resplendent with tales of antiquated weapons, incorrect ammunition and miscommunication.  Tank warfare was still in its infant stage and they were often under-powered, under-gunned and under-armored to the point of heavy machine guns being able to penetrate through.  Supply and communication issues are a key part of the rule set.

To increase friction each turn of the game a chance card is drawn.  Half of the cards have "No Effect" but the other half detail communication errors, weapon breakdowns and the wavering effects of morale.  A game of twelve turns requires the construction of six "No Effect" cards and six, more interesting, effect cards.

Luckily I had already constructed a couple of chance cards....

Ok, I had 35.

As you can see I got a bit carried away.  All the backs of the cards are decorated by images from the Spanish Civil War propaganda posters.  This does mean that technically that you could guess which card is coming next.  I supposed this is true if you are the kind of person who enjoys memorizing which card is linked to which effect prior to a game.  If you are then I'm not interested in playing with you.  In addition, all the cards have a couple of repeat "No Effect" cards so even if you are the saddo who added all the card effects to memory there is only a 50% chance of it being correct.  If it comes to aesthetics and playability then aesthetics wins.

For Jarmara I had to construct 11 new chance cards.  That didn't offer much of a problem.  A spare ten minutes with the work printer between calls soon sorted that.  Then I sloped off home to laminate them.  Job done!

¡No pasarán!