As you know, I love the COIN Series and anything associated with it. In the March 2021 Monthly Update from GMT Games, a new series was announced as well as the first game in that series. This new game is not a COIN Series game but it shares some of the same elements. In Fall 2020, there was a game design contest held called Consim Game Jam where designers had to repurpose a COIN Series game and it’s components and make a new playable game in about 48 hours! The game that won the competition was called Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398. The game is an asymmetric 1-3 player game depicting the epic, century-long rise and fall of medieval kingdoms in India over two dynastic periods. Since winning the contest, the team has continued to roll up their sleeves and continue the hard work of focusing the design and developing the final playable product to be published by GMT Games. That game is nearing its publication and should be on our tables by the end of the year/first of 2024.
The Irregular Conflicts Series, of which Vijayanagara is the first volume, attempts to bring some of the mechanics of the COIN Series to bear on conflicts that are just outside the counterinsurgency-based model of COIN. If you want to better understand this new series, you can read the excellent InsideGMT Blog post by Jason Carr at the following link: http://www.insidegmt.com/2021/03/what-is-the-irregular-conflicts-series/
We have agreed to provide a home for this series of quick articles on the History Behind the Cards involved in the game as they game continues to move through development and playtesting. We are lucky to be able to bring these articles to you and we hosted an initial series of 6 posts and we have bene informed that we will be given 3 more. This project is being led by Joe Dewhurst as developer and the design team includes Saverio Spagnolie, Mathieu Johnson, Cory Graham and Aman Matthews.
*Note: The cards and their event text, as well as any pictures used showing any of the various components, are nearing completion but the design and event effects and text might still change prior to final development and publication.
History Behind the Cards #7: Musunuri Nayakas
Many smaller kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent were weighed down by the oppressive demands of the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th and early 14th centuries. Regular tributary payments were expected. When the various rulers of the Deccan Plateau failed to send their gold, horses, and elephants to Delhi, a general might be dispatched to provide a firm reminder. Often it was enough to arrive with tens of thousands of troops to set the payments in motion again. On some occasions, however, the Sultan tired of awaiting tribute, and set his army to dismantle a kingdom. This was the end met by the Kakatiya Empire in the three-walled city of Warangal.
In the following decades, powerful families would rise to lead again. Independent houses of Telugu warriors like the Musunuri Nayakas rose up and established themselves as minor but substantial regional powers. The Tughlaqs of Delhi struggled to maintain control over Warangal (which they had renamed Sultanpur), and by 1335 several local leaders had taken control and sought to legitimize their rule. These “warrior kings”, the Rajas of Telangana, supported other revolts in nearby areas. A stone inscription from 1330 mentions Prolaya Nayaka, an otherwise obscure chieftain, who claimed to be the rightful successor to Pratapa Rudra, the last ruler of the Kakatiya Empire, despite having no previous connection to the Kakatiya state.
The card “Musunuri Nayakas” presents the players with two Events, either (or neither) of which may be chosen by the factions in the game in place of standard actions (Commands and Decrees). The shaded Event tends to be favorable to the Delhi Sultanate – here the Sultanate may benefit from their access to siege technology from Central Asia, which easily overwhelmed the Deccan Kingdoms until the middle of the 14th century. Two cavalry tokens may be gained, a Qasbah constructed, 4 Troops recruited, and a free Attack in a Province adjacent to Warangal may be performed. Of course, the Delhi Sultanate player could offer not to take this Event for a few Resources from the Vijayanagara Empire player, which would be deviously historical.
The unshaded Event tends to benefit one or both of the rebelling factions in the game. The Bahmani Kingdom or Vijayanagara players might choose another aspect of this Event Card, leaning on the rise of the Nayaka warrior kings in the wake of the Kakatiya Empire’s demise. Cavalry tokens are again on offer, as is a liberation of the region near Warangal with the removal of Delhi Sultanate pieces (their Troops, powerful Governors, and even Qasbahs). Both the shaded and unshaded Events are very powerful, so they do not allow the selecting faction to ‘stay Eligible’ on the following card. Two thirds of the Event Cards do, however, allow the selecting faction to stay Eligible, reducing the downtime for the players at the table.
Even though the Kakatiya Empire met a devastating end, alliances could shift quickly, and some of the new Rajas of Telangana would soon find themselves seeking Delhi’s assistance. Only a few decades later, another new entity in the Deccan had become of even greater concern for these Rajas: the Bahmani Kingdom. In the next History Behind the Cards entry, we will discover how one such attempt at persuasion backfired, and resulted in the passage of the Turquoise Throne.
Card Art: Photograph by Kandukuru Nagarjun.
You can catch up on the posts in this series to date by following the below links:
Card #2 – Uprising in Daulatabad
Card #3 – Kakatiya Empire Extinguished
Card #4 – The Hare and the Hounds
I want to thank Saverio for the opportunity we had a few weeks ago to play the game while visiting Noble Knight Games in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Saverio made the 10 minute trek over from Madison to teach us the game and then played with us for 2 hours. We had a blast and you can check out a few videos on the experience on the YouTube channel.
We posted an interview with the design team and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2021/11/16/interview-with-saverio-spagnolie-mathieu-johnson-cory-graham-and-aman-matthews-designers-of-vijayanagara-the-deccan-empires-of-medieval-india-1290-1398-from-gmt-games/
If you are interested in Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398, you can pre-order a copy for the special P500 price of $54.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-918-vijayanagara-the-deccan-empires-of-medieval-india-1290-1398.aspx
-Grant
The Players' Aid 