Brian Train’s District Commander is a series of operational games on counterinsurgency situations. The players alternate activation of groups of units (stacks) to perform discrete operations (missions) through the expenditure of Task Points (TP). Some missions are Tactical Missions – straightforward military tasks such as performing patrols, ambushing or attacking enemy forces, or moving from one place to another – and these may be performed multiple times by a stack during a turn. Other missions emphasize the “non-tactical” end of the campaign, establishing friendly influence, control, and infrastructure in an area, reducing the enemy’s claim to the same, and recruiting or training troops. These missions take more time to perform and so unlike the tactical missions may be the only mission performed by the stack during the turn.

This first volume is District Commander Maracas. It takes as its subject counterinsurgency operations in a megacity – the urban battlefield of the future, and the cutting edge of modern doctrine. The sudden departure from power of Jesus Shaves, charismatic leader of Virtualia, has created a power vacuum in the streets of Maracas, capital city with a population of over 3 million people. The Virtualian Liberation Movement is exploiting this situation by organizing areas of the city against established authority, sabotaging civic services, and staging attacks on symbolic objective points. The local security force commander must contend with not only the urban guerrillas of the VLM but also private neighborhood armies and criminal gangs running amuck.

We also did an interview with the designer Brian Train and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2019/07/22/interview-with-brian-train-designer-of-district-commander-maracas-from-hollandspiele/

-Grant