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 #8: The Turquoise Throne
In the previous History Behind the Cards entry, we saw the Nayaka “warrior kings” rising up in the wake of the fallen Kakatiya Empire of Warangal. Among these new leaders of the Deccan Plateau, a new Raja of Telangana emerged, Musunuri Kapaya Nayaka. The Delhi Sultanate had long since returned north, and Warangal had been reclaimed. But another new power in the Deccan was of some concern. The Bahmani Kingdom, with its trade network stretching from Central Asia to Bengal, and easy access to cavalry and military technology, could not be underestimated. And a changing landscape called for a delicate shifting of alliances.
Sherwani (Bahmanis of the Deccan) writes that Musunuri Kapaya Nayaka approached Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq in Delhi, and implored him to invade the Bahmani Kingdom. The Telanganas offered to aid in this invasion, and indicated that the Vijayanagara Empire would do so as well. The Raja’s maneuvering backfired. The message, captured by Bahmani spies in 1362, resulted in the immediate Bahmani invasion of Andhra.
As the Bahmani general Safdar Khan Sistani and his army approached Warangal, the Raja of Telangana claimed that he had been compelled to attack the Bahmanis, and sought the mercy of the Bahmani Sultan Muhammad Shah I. A treaty of peace was established, but not before the Telanganas made gifts of an important fortress in Golconda, three hundred elephants, two hundred horses, and an ornate turquoise throne which would serve as the seat of eighteen Bahmani kings. Atop the throne a canopy was fixed, crowned with a ruby presented by the Raja of Vijayanagara.
The card “The Turquoise Throne” 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 explores the possibility that the overture had not been intercepted and that the alliance had been established. Either the Delhi Sultanate or the Vijayanagara Empire can add their Units and surprise the Bahmani Kingdom with an attack, which catches them off guard and unable to defend themselves. The unshaded Event instead sees the more historical Bahmani crossing of the Krishna River. It enhances the Bahmani Influence (moon symbol) in the Deccan, while diminishing that of the Vijayanagara Empire (sun symbol), which would eventually count the Rajas of Telangana as part of an extended network of close allies under the same yellow flag in the Deccan.
The Deccan Influence Track in the game monitors the appraisal of the Bahmani Kingdom and Vijayanagara Empire by potential allies like the Nayaka warrior kings, and also gives each faction different capabilities. If the Bahmani Influence is high they will also have greater access to cavalry through a healthier trade network, as well as a more potent ability to Conspire with the Governors of Delhi. If Vijayangara’s Influence is high, they will have an improved ability to Compel new allies into service, who can more effectively remove other factions’ units in the Deccan, and who can share their cavalry with the new and growing capital Empire in Karnataka.
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 find several 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 