There is no doubt that Fire in the Lake is my favorite COIN Series game! It is always a great experience sitting at that table for 4-5 hours and playing through the whole of the Vietnam War. To me, the inter-factional dynamics and loose alliances really makes for a tense and interesting experience as you see people work together for a few turns and then turn on each other near the end when victory is in sight. I also have enjoyed the expansion to Fire in the Lake called Fall of Saigon that just came out this past year. With that being said, Stephen Rangazas, who had helped with the research on Fall of Saigon and is now finalizing the design for The British Way, the first COIN Series Multi-Pack, is now designing a prequel of sorts for Fire in the Lake called Sovereign of Discord, which was added to the P500 last year.

Once the game was announced, we reached out to the design and development team to see if we could do a series of Event Card Spoilers and Stephen Rangazas and Joe Dewhurst agreed to provide those. We will be hosting a series of 6 of these Event Card Spoiler posts over the next several months and appreciate the effort that both Joe as developer and Stephen as designer have put into these short write ups intended to share the history of the card as well as their game play effects.

*Please keep in mind that the artwork and layout of these cards is not yet finalized and is only for playtest purposes at this point. Also, as this game is still in development, card details may still change prior to publication.

#P22 Exterminate Traitors

Beginning in the late 1950’s, communist cadres that would later form the NLF insurgency launched the ‘exterminate the traitors’ terror campaign, focused on killing or kidnapping RVN officials in rural areas to undermine local governance and enable space for the insurgency to organize. Although initially framed as a defensive move against Diem’s repressive policies, between the late 1950’s and early 1960’s thousands of RVN officials were killed, hampering the state’s ability to effectively respond to the growing insurgency. However, the killing of a popular official could also anger the local populace, making them more likely to denounce the fledgling cadres to any ARVN forces.

The unshaded effect of this Event allows ARVN or US to reverse VC Terror Operations, by shifting two spaces with Terror markers back towards Active Support, or even to take advantage of Terror markers placed by Law 10/59 to further consolidate their position. The shaded effect allows the VC player to unleash a wave of violent Terror Operations across three Provinces, also removing one Police cube from each affected Province and creating a vacuum of Control in the countryside that they can exploit!

If you missed the previous entry in the series, you can catch up on the posts to date by following the below links:

#P17 Law 10/59

We also recently posted an interview with the designer Stephen Rangazas on the blog and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/03/20/interview-with-stephen-rangazas-designer-of-sovereign-of-discord-a-fire-in-the-lake-expansion-from-gmt-games/

Finally, if you are interested in Sovereign of Discord: A Fire in the Lake Expansion, you can pre-order a copy from the P500 game page on the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-966-sovereign-of-discord-a-fire-in-the-lake-expansion.aspx

-Grant

Note: Sovereign of Discord is compatible with the First and Second Edition of Fire in the Lake, as well as the Second Edition Upgrade Kit. The Solitaire System included in Sovereign of Discord is for Sovereign of Discord only, and cannot be used to play the scenarios included in Fire in the Lake.

A copy of Fire in the Lake will be necessary to play the Sovereign of Discord expansion.