We have worked with V.P.J. Arponen over the past several years with his fantastic entry into the COIN Series covering the Finnish Civil War called All Bridges Burning: Red Revolt and White Guard in Finland, 1917-18. We posted an interview for that game as well as about a dozen Event Card spoilers from that same title. More recently, his new design called Order & Opportunity: Making of the Post-Cold War World Order was announced by GMT Games and we are again honored to work with him to bring an inside look at the game to the faithful readers of the blog with a series of Event Card Spoilers. 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 the game is still in development, card details may still change prior to publication.
If you are interested in Order & Opportunity: Making of the Post-Cold War World Order, you can pre-order a copy for $55.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1027-order-opportunity.aspx
#WE5 – Osama Bin Laden
Historical Background
In the previous installment to this series of Event Card Spoilers, we’ve looked at cards from the decks belonging to the player sides in the game. Let us now turn to a different set of cards, the so-called World Events. I’ll explain more about the mechanics of these events in the section below.
The figure of Osama Bin Laden is arguably one of the most notorious figures of the still young post-Cold War period. Born in Saudi Arabia to a wealthy business family, Bin Laden appears to have become estranged from the clan as he radicalized and began to recruit for and develop Islamist terror networks. Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network were behind a number of terror attacks, including the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Becoming the target number one of US-led war on terror efforts, Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid on his compound in Pakistan in 2011.
Game Effects and Uses
In Order & Opportunity, the World Event Cards enter play at random during the setup and midway through the game during a reset. Bin Laden is one of 21 World Events and as such may or may not enter play during any given game.
World Events are half-size cards that are placed onto the map attached to a particular map space. Looking at the card graphic above, the Bin Laden Card is to be placed in a random space in Asia or the Middle East. Alongside the card, also two levels of Rogue State influence will be indicated on the space’s Influence Track, representing the backers and protectors of Bin Laden in the region.
World Events represent crises, challenges, and threats to the players in the game. For example, should the Bin Laden Card go unresolved until the next reset phase, known as the Globalization Phase in the game, certain adverse effects will be triggered. In Bin Laden’s case, the card will increase the Terror Threat level in and deduct one victory point from both Democracies (US and EU) as printed against the red background on the card.
On the other hand, if the world event can be resolved by a player, they receive rewards as shown against the green background on the card. The reward will depend on the type of influence used to resolve the World Event. For example, if the Bin Laden threat is addressed militarily (see the cube icon; cubes represent military influence), the player to do so gains two victory points. If Bin Laden is resolved politically (see the octagonal icon; octagons represent political influence), then the reward is one victory point plus the player may award a so-called Agenda Point (AP) to which ever player may have helped them to resolve the World Event. Two agenda points can be “cashed in” for one victory point.
(Attentive readers who’ve read InsideGMT articles on the game or watched playthrough videos will note that the manner the Agenda Points work has changed slightly over the course of the development work.)
To resolve a World Event, players need at least two levels of the type of influence in the space as indicated in the resolve conditions on the card. In addition, no other player, nor the Rogue State Influence, may block the player from resolving the World Event. Blocking happens if the blocker’s influence equals or exceeds the resolving player’s influence in the space. However, the blocker may choose to lift the block to allow the resolving player to resolve the World Event — this is an opportunity for the resolving player to negotiate the conditions for lifting the block where the ability of the resolving player to reward the blocker with an Agenda Point might come in handy. In this manner, Order & Opportunity seeks to enable opposition as well as semi-cooperation between players in the game and so give rise to a metagame level of negotiation.
In the playtest scenario shown above, the Bin Laden card has been placed in the Levant. The US Military Influence in the space (the green cube) equals the Rogue State Influence there (both at “2”), which means, for the time being the Rogue State blocks the US from resolving the World Event.
Thanks to Vez for his work on designing this very interesting looking Card Driven Game but also for his willingness to prepare and allow us to host this series of Event Card Spoilers. This is the fifth entry in the series and there will be more in the near future.
If you missed the previous entries in the series, you can catch up on the posts to date by following the below links:
#12 War on Terror/Operation Enduring Freedom
#43 Belt & Road Initiative/Dependencies Created
#15 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act
You can also check out the interview with VPJ Arponen on the design on the blog at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/08/21/interview-with-v-p-j-arponen-designer-of-order-opportunity-from-gmt-games/
If you are interested in Order & Opportunity: Making of the Post-Cold War World Order, you can pre-order a copy for $55.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1027-order-opportunity.aspx
-Grant
The Players' Aid 