I was lucky enough to be provided an advance copy of the new C3i Magazine Nr 31 last week, which features a game by the name of The Battle of Wakefield from the Men of Iron Series. The magazine is chock full of other articles and aides for various wargames including Arquebus, Labyrinth, Clash of Giants, Liberty or Death, Unconditional Surrender, Hitler’s Reich and Operation Dauntless to name a few. Also, there is an article on a new upcoming 3-player COIN Game called All Bridges Burning that looks really interesting. As usual, cover to cover goodness.
-Grant
The Players' Aid 
Grant, the “4 into 2” COIN system player aid by me was the same one as you’ve seen on my blog.
I gave a copy of this to Mark Simonitch at the Consimworld Expo this year, and he recommended it to Rodger McGowan’s attention, so there it is in the magazine.
There has been debate by some COIN system purists on BGG that the method of partly randomizing faction orders, as well as not using the “look one card ahead” mechanic, changes the nature of the game and makes it less satisfactory because among other things it takes away the second-level screwage that can emerge when players have full control and knowledge over what faction activates when.
I’m not going to argue that it does not change the game; it’s a simplification for players to use when they can’t get a 3rd and 4th and don’t want to use the bots to fill the empty seats.
The unpredictability can add to the tension and excitement, but not everyone likes that loss of control either.
I’d say that if you want to enjoy the 4-player COIN games in their purest form, then get 4 humans together for a play; anything else is inevitably different, but needs must when the devil drives….
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Hi Grant, I’m not sure if my article made it but I know that Rodger was able to put in Errata for South Pacific (and I think there should also be errata for Plan Orange, if not, it will likely be in C3i #32).
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Your article is in the magazine and looks really interesting.
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