My Favorite Wargame Cards – A Look at Individual Cards from My Favorite Games – Card #52: Advanced Sensing from 2040: An American Insurgency from Compass Games

With this My Favorite Wargame Cards Series, I hope to take a look at a specific card from the various wargames that I have played and share how it is used in the game. I am not a strategist and frankly I am not that good at games but I do understand how things should work and be used in games. With that being said, here is the next entry in this series.

Card #52: Advanced Sensing from 2040: An American Insurgency from Compass Games

2040: An American Insurgency is a card driven game that attempts to simulate a near future US civil war in the 21^st century. In this 2-player game that plays in less than 3 hours, the blue team is the Federals representing agents of the government in Washington. The red team are the Rebels including militia groups trying to seize control of states, highways, and cities. The conflict spreads across the entire continental US, from Miami to Seattle and from Los Angeles to New York.

This game is not perfect and it has some issues and the graphics are not that great frankly. As I played the game, I actually felt like it was a pretty decent game, with some very interesting mechanics covering an interesting topic. I know it isn’t perfect and in some ways the designer was so careful not to offend anyone in the game that he really didn’t get to say anything about the situation and its causes, and the game somewhat suffers from that. But it was interesting and I believe that we are about the only ones who played the game.

In this post, I want to focus on the Advanced Sensing card which is a Federal aligned event. One of the concepts that is important for the Insurgent faction in these COIN Series adjacent games is that of being underground, undercover, inactive or any other such word that means that the insurgent units are hidden from the Government troops. Being hidden means that they must first be discovered before being able to attack and remove them from the board. In 2040, this is referred to as Active versus Inactive. The Active side of Rebel units is the side which has the star in the bottom left side of the counter.

Advanced Sensing is a very powerful event as it requires that any Rebel units entering via movement or being placed into a Blue space are placed as Active. A Blue space is defined by its level of Control Factor or CF. CF is an abstraction of several factors including local support, Federal presence and control or even infrastructure or assets that allow for greater access to information. A space with a dark blue marker is in Order. This is a peaceful space that is obeying the laws of the government and siding with the current regime. As an Order space, the Control Factor is 0. A space with a light blue marker is in a state of Anger. People in this space are frustrated with the government but are not resisting its laws or in open rebellion. Anger spaces have a Control Factor of 1. A space with a light red marker is in Defiance. This space’s population resists the government in many ways, without openly rebelling. Defiance spaces have a Control Factor of 2. A dark red marker indicates a Revolt space. The people here are in open, armed rebellion against the government. The Control Factor of a Revolt space is 3. Order and Anger are considered Blue paces while Defiance and Revolt are considered Red spaces for purposes of this event.

The other really powerful part of the Advanced Sensing card is that is has Momentum and as such will be in play for the remainder of the game, unless countered by another event. As the Federal player, this event is one of the top events that you should be waiting for an when you have it should be played. It is obviously more powerful the earlier it is played. Taking away one of the Rebels main powers, that of being able to remain hidden without being able to be removed from the board, is key to their goal of affecting the Control Factor of spaces and doing several of their more powerful actions such as Fundraise, Recruit and Unrest. This Momentum advantage is huge for this card and really makes it extremely important for the Federal player.

Advanced sensing technologies use sophisticated materials, algorithms, and designs used to collect and process data for applications in defense, healthcare, industrial control, and environmental monitoring. Key advancements include AI-enhanced imaging, wearable and implantable sensors, smart sensors that convert real-world data to digital information, and specialized sensors for specific tasks like structural integrity monitoring and water pollution detection.

There are many types of Advanced Sensing Technologies, and many more that are being developed.

Photonics: Uses light for high-speed, sensitive measurements, found in applications like LiDAR for autonomous vehicles and high-speed data communications.

Magnetic and Acoustic Sensors: Measures magnetic fields and vibrations in systems like active magnetic bearings. Acoustic sensors detect sound or vibration, used for surveillance, structural monitoring, and intrusion detection.

Wearable and Implantable Sensors: Advanced sensors are integrated into devices worn on the body or implanted to provide continuous patient monitoring, facilitate remote care, and offer personalized treatment strategies.

Remote Sensing: Uses platforms such as satellites, aircraft, and ground-based systems to collect data from a distance for applications like environmental monitoring, defense, and mapping.

Smart Sensors: These devices combine multiple elements to convert real-world measurements into digital data for further processing. They are crucial for industrial control, manufacturing, and smart grids.

Seismic and Vibration Sensors: These detect underground and above-ground movements for applications including earthquake monitoring, perimeter surveillance, structural integrity monitoring, and oil and gas exploration.

All of these technologies make the proposition of finding something, including hidden insurgents, that much more possible. I like to think of this as what was done to Daryl Bates in the fantastic movie Red Dawn. After being captured by the invading Soviet/Cuban coalition, Daryl was forced to swallow a tracking device before being released. When the Wolverines were later ambushed by Soviet soldiers, they used radio triangulation equipment to trace the source of the signal to Daryl. After the ambush was foiled and a radio device was found, he confessed to the group, and a furious Robert shot and killed him.

Here is a link to our unboxing video showing the components: